Welcome to our Q2 reporting conference call. We had a very satisfactory quarter. Activity continue at a very high level across all our companies. We also confirm a very positive outlook on 2023. Our revenue was up 22.3% to DKK 9.2 billion for the quarter. It was mainly driven by our acquired companies in GPV and HydraSpecma. Our EBITDA was also up 18% to DKK 660 million. Here we saw a positive effect from, also from our acquisitions, and also, in all our company, we had a very strong pricing discipline over the quarter. Our net working capital build is slowing down, and we expect to drive a strong cash flow in the second half. Net working capital has been a strong focus points for the companies over the last year.
Our finance costs, however, are increasing at a very high pace. We have a strong focus on debt, and net working capital continues to be top of mind. Our investment level is expected to leveling out, and we will expect to see our return on invested capital improving in the coming period. Looking at from the broader view and then looking into each of our companies, I will start out with BioMar, where we saw revenue up 3% to DKK 4.2 billion. We still see some impact from high raw material prices. Our general volume for the quarter was down 3%. Here, we mainly saw a climate effect and regulatory issues, especially in our large Chilean market.
Our EBITDA increased slightly to DKK 260 million, in spite of the downturn in volume. We had a very good balance between input costs and prices. We also saw a recovery in Chile, and our Baltic or Danish operation managed really to offset part of the Russian sale from last year. Our contract base in general is very good. It's in a good balance. Our joint venture companies, both in China and Turkey, continues to deliver very strong growth. EBITDA in these companies increased by more than 100%. EBITDA guidance for BioMar maintains our revenue is now expected to be between DKK 18 billion-DKK 18.5 billion, and EBITDA maintained, as I said, in the level of DKK 1.08 billion-DKK 1.15 billion.
Moving on to GPV, our largest Electronic Manufacturing Services company, where the very strong growth continues, turnover of around DKK 2.7 billion. Now we really see full effect from the acquisition of Enics, building one, a new leader, and having that as a strategy. Our largest customers, also in GPV, continue to grow. EBITDA was better than expected for the quarter, landed at DKK 189 million. We have full effect of strong capacity utilization, and also scale effect is kicking in at GPV now. Net working capital is still at a very high level, and it continues to be a key focus area for, for the company. Our inventory reduction program starts really now to materialize. We are also looking to build future and upgrading production facilities continues.
Our factories in Thailand and Sri Lanka, they are now well in operation, and we have a close look at footprint and proximity sites for the future. Guidance upgrade for GPV, we expect a stronger second half. Revenue is now expected to be in the range of DKK 9.9 billion-DKK 10.3 billion. EBITDA uplifts to DKK 650 million-DKK 700 million expected for the year now. We also have to say that we see demand starts to soften a little bit among small and mid-sized customers, but as I mentioned earlier, our Triple A or our large customers are really still pushing hard for orders. Moving on to HydraSpecma, where we see the good momentum continues. Our Ymer acquisition is now really kicking in.
Revenue was up 18% to DKK 769 million, and the order intake from our global OEM is still at a very attractive level. Our renewable division has, as expected, softening demands, but still looking positive on the years to come. EBITDA was up 10% to DKK 82 million, and that was really driven by high efficiency and particularly also sales and development in our global OEM division. HydraSpecma, they are also preparing for future growth. They are building a new R&D department for the renewable division. We are building a new state-of-the-art facility in Stargard, Poland, 16,000 meter square, 16,000 square meter factory, and we are working hard on integrating Ymer into our renewable division. The guidance for HydraSpecma maintains.
We see, as expected, a slowdown in the renewable or especially in the wind business, but that is more or less offset by the strong momentum in our global OEM. Revenue around DKK 2.9 billion-DKK 3.1 billion, and EBITDA at the level we had from Q1, DKK 310 million-DKK 340 million. Moving on to Borg Automotive, Borg realized a revenue of DKK 486 million in line with the Q2 2022. Our Reman business still a little sluggish, but it is recovering slowly. We had a little tough start in Q1, but now we see recovery in the Reman.
Our trade business is lower, mainly also due to the, the sales we had to Russia in the Q1 and a little bit in Q2 last year. It's closed down now. Therefore, EBITDA down from DKK 59 million to DKK 44 million. As I said, also effect from, from Russia, but mainly also low margins in our trade business due to high inventory at high prices, kicking back from 2022. Then also effect from lower capacity utilization in our Reman business. Borg also building future, they are working hard on fully integrating the trade business into Borg at large, to get a bigger share of wallet.
We are developing and integrating several new products in our pipeline, and we became approved supplier to the OE producer of trucks, new business segment we are entering into. However, we are downgrading our guidance. EBITDA is now reduced from before DKK 160 million-DKK 190 million, and now in the range of DKK 130 million-DKK 160 million. It's really because we don't think we can we can pick up on the slowdown we saw on trade. Our demand in Reman seems to be to be improving, but trade margins still under pressure. On to Fibertex Personal Care.
Revenue, as expected, down, 22% down due to a mix of lower raw material prices hitting our, our top line, of course, and then less volume. Our volume in Malaysia continues to be at a low level as expected. Our print business, however, improving and, and showing a good top line development. EBITDA, far better than expected, 37% up, and at a level of DKK 59 million for the quarter. Here, mainly a positive effect from raw material that's really offset the lower volume. Our energy costs also lower than expected or lower than what we forecasted in our budgets. Our Asian markets, it is still under pressure, and we think it will be under pressure for a longer period.
There is, as we explained earlier, also excess capacity, and that drives a tough price competition, and then also effect from lower birth rates in China, and thereby less diaper consumption in that market. However, upgrade or uplift on our EBITDA, revenue expected slightly lower due to raw material prices declining, but EBITDA now lifted from DKK 180 million-DKK 210 million, and then now up to a level of DKK 230 million-DKK 260 million, based on positive trend on raw materials and then a strong control on our cost base. Finally, moving on to Fibertex Nonwovens. Revenue flat at DKK 560 million. Volume, as expected, lower than first half 2022.
Our wipes and construction segments, they are soft, whereas our very important automotive segment in good development, where we see order intake and demand coming up. EBITDA at DKK 39 million, as expected, we still have very low profitability in our U.S. wipes business, particularly at our new factory in Greenville. Energy and raw material expected to decrease, and we saw that also in the, in, in the quarter. As I mentioned, North American business or particularly wipes remain the pain point number one in the Fibertex Nonwovens. Takes time to come back. There's a strong plan for turnover. We have a new management team in place. We have a lot of new products in pipeline. Our production capacity for advanced and sustainable products is starts to kick in.
We expect to deliver first products, late Q3, and then picking up in Q4 2023. There we see a really strong pipeline, and we have a solid turnaround plan in place for our U.S. business. Guidance, however, is maintained. EBITDA expected to be around DKK 140 million-DKK 170 million. As I mentioned also, we see cost pressure softening, and we have strong focus on pricing excellence and margin management in Fibertex Nonwovens. Rounding it off or ending up with the overview of our updated guidance estimates. Overall, still a positive outlook. Of course, some differences between segments and companies. We also have to mention here that our financial costs are expected to be significantly higher than guided in Q1.
We have seen negative development in interests, and impact of that was simply evaluated too low from our side. Top line now expected to be DKK 36.6 billion-DKK 38.3 billion, and EBITDA now with a small uplift in the level of DKK 2.48 billion-DKK 2.73 billion. With that remark, I will open up for questions. Claus Almer ?
Yes, I have a couple of questions, Jens.
Yeah.
First of all, if you check BioMar, after Q1, the comment was that you now, at that time, expected to end in the lower end of the range, and that comment has been removed.
Uh-
What has happened in Q2, or maybe what do you see rest of the year? That'll be the first question.
Yeah. We have had a good, as I mentioned, also a good balance in our contracts. As you know, we negotiate some of them in Q2, but it has been spread more over the year. Have a good contract, good volume base. We have seen recovery in Chile. Chile was because of biological and regulatory issues low. Seen a good recovery there. Expecting also our Ecuador, our shrimp business to become, come out a little bit more positive. Overall, it's an effect of a lot of things going in the right direction. Raw material contracts a little bit better.
Even we see, and expect a negative impact from the El Niño, then, we still believe that we have a, a good base both on cost and, and, and, and also on, on contract volume.
As you said, you know, you see some possible impact from raw material contracts. Does that mean raw material prices, or is it your contracts? Is that Q2? Is that second half?
No, as I just said, we have a, we expect out maybe, pronounced it a little bit, wrong, as we, we see there is an El Niño out there, and that could, come, create a, a price pressure on certain raw materials, especially on fish oil and fish meal. I think we are good covered, and also we have good plans for optimizing our recipes, and we know how to handle that, situation after many years of experience.
You mean, you said... I think you said price pressure, you mean higher prices due to El Nino on-
Yeah, exactly. Yes, on, on, on, on certain raw materials, especially fish meal and fish oil. Yeah.
On the raw material part, do you see, excluding El Niño, whatever going to happen, do you see a starting easing, or is it flattish, or do you still see a need to pass through cost inflation?
Now we see a starting easing, but, but again, as El Niño can change the picture because all by a certain other protein sources, could be affected and so on. We, we have seen a, a, a easing on, on raw materials in general, yes.
And-
Then you also know, customers knows also that, so, it's, it's a balance, and you need strong pricing discipline in, in, in the market.
That leads to the second question, your favorite topic.
Yes
... cash flow and net working capital.
Yeah.
You said a expected very strong with cash flow in the second half of the year.
Yeah.
Is that coming from profitability, or is coming from lower net working capital? Can you give some flavor maybe to the number?
Yeah, it's coming from multiple of things. Of course, as I said, we have had focus on that for a long time, you know that. Of course, profitability will drive cash flow. Builds down of bringing down inventories will also bring in cash flow. We are looking at our debtors, and so we are looking at, at whatever we can. I can also assure you that we already saw in July a stronger cash flow than expected. I think we are on a, on a, on a good move, but it is a lot of things affecting our cash flow.
It's not just one single thing, but of course, good profitability and then, a very strong focus in each company on, on, on the Net working capital elements.
Is there any different tools, focus on your Net working capital than we have heard for the last many quarters/years?
No, I think it's the same. I think also, if you recall, some years back, we also, when it was necessary, all by some really delivered strong cash flow and so on. Of course, it's always necessary, but, but there are handles you can pull, and, then, maybe also, you could say we, we have, we have by purpose and strategically built up inventories. I think I elaborated on that earlier, also said that we decided that we had the strengths to build inventories mainly in, in GPV and in, in, in, in the companies where components have been critical. We see that easing also, also now. We have a different approach also to how do we, how do we use our, our IT and our things to...
When we get order backlog in, there's a lot of things we are working on there.
Yes.
Very complicated, but it's necessary. Yeah.
That sounds very promising, yes. I look forward for Q3 and Q4 to track that.
Yes.
that's, that was, that was all for me. Thanks.
You're welcome. Thank you very much, Claus.
... Sindre Sørbye.
Sorry?
Sindre Sørbye.
Sindre Sørbye. You're welcome. Let me take another one a bit.
You can hear me now, right?
Yeah, sorry. Yes, we can.
Okay. Oh, okay. Sorry, Jens, I, I was muted.
That's it.
Hi, hi. Just a few questions on, on, first on GPV and then BioMar. GPV, you say in your overall statement that you expect improved activity.
Mm-hmm
... in the second half, whereas-
Yeah
... if you, if you're right, if you read what you write, in the GPV section, you said that, you say that you expect, declining activity versus-
Yeah
... in second half versus the first half. Is that related to the point you, you, you said about the small and medium-sized customers, ordering a little less now?
Yeah, I think, maybe just to, to be precise on it, I think I said, or my intention was to say that the reason for the guidance update is that we expect a better second half than we did when we gave the first guide. That's what we're saying. At the same time, we are saying we also see demand softening a bit. Maybe it's because, also small and mid-sized companies, maybe they're selling the same, but they are trying to build down and reduce their stocks. Just to be precise, is that, we expect better activity in second half than we did in Q1.
Yeah, your visibility in, in terms of, I mean, you're not announcing any backlog, but how would you say your visibility is in, in the GPV?
As a visibility, of course, we are, now we are in the, in the middle of August. Of course, our visibility is much better than it was three, four months ago. We have a strong backlog still, so we feel quite confident on our guidance and also that we can deliver on the backlog, looking always also at the book-to-bill figures and things like that. Quite, quite good visibility.
Okay, okay. In BioMar, maybe just a detail, but you're referring to a non-recurring item in Austral this quarter. Can you quantify that?
That I didn't get that, to be honest.
You are referring to a non-recurring item in Austral or?
Ah, sorry, yes.
associated in Chile.
Sorry. In Salmones Austral, yes. It's. Yeah, I can really it's, it's a joint venture, that Salmones Austral had a joint venture in Chile, and that the joint venture didn't develop as expected. In fact, it was very bad, and they decided to close down or take a full write-off on that. That's a one-off thing coming in.
Can you quantify that?
I don't think we have, we have disclosed the figure, but it's not significant. Let's just say it's between DKK 10 million and DKK 20 million effect in Salmones. Yeah, something like that.
Okay. Okay, and secondly, you're still guiding for volume growth in BioMar in the second half, despite.
Yeah
... the fact that, I think it's down 2%-3% if you look at first half year-over-year.
Yes. Yeah.
Would you expect growth both within salmon and non-salmon?
Yeah, we would. We expect, yeah, as I said, to grow in salmon, mainly also because Chile is coming back, and then, we are not expecting a big growth in, non-salmon, but we, we expect small growth in also there. Yeah.
Okay, and Chile, your comments there about regulatory uncertainties, more referring to the past and, it's not kind of, cautionary disclosure with regards to the future?
No, it's, it's more to the past. It was in Chile, where there was a lot of discussions on too much volume at sea in, in, in the cages and, and in the license, licenses and so on. It mainly hit some of our larger customers, and they had to reduce stock at sea, and, and, and, and that's handled now.
Yeah. Finally, in BioMar, I think there's been some attention on the shrimp prices in Ecuador, and I think you're also referring to short production cycles within shrimp. I think on the- previously on the Q&A session, you also said that the situation in Ecuador is improving. Can you, can you elaborate on that?
Yeah. We see, better shrimp prices in, in Ecuador, not, not very big increase and so on, but we see the situation leveling out, better, sales into China and U.S., but still, not, not big price increases, but a little better situation. Yeah.
Okay, Jens, that was all for me. Thank you.
Sure, thank you very much. I think it was, Ulrich. Mark?
Yes. Hello, Jens. Hey. Hi, Kasper.
Hi.
Also, a few questions from me. Firstly, on GPV, along the lines that Sindre just was asking, most of your peers have been very positive about the outlook reported in their Q2 reports. You guide for a sequential 10%-20% decline in the H2 EBITDA in GPV versus H1. In that context, can you just put some figures on this order backlog of yours? Has it been flat quarter-over-quarter? Has it increased? Has it decreased? Or, and has there been in any cancellations in your orders?
We have not seen any cancellations. We have seen some orders, but it is not significant. We have, of course, we have seen some orders being postponed a little bit, prolonged a little bit. That's what we have been seeing. We have also on our own efforts, as we really started to work with the backlog and look at the backlog, because how serious is the backlog? How much can we count on it? When you have a backlog, then you also start up all your procurement requirements, you build inventory, and so on.
We have also, on purpose, reduced backlog because we think that's there will be a softening and a slowing down in 2024, and we have to be very careful also not building too much inventory based on too long a backlog. We are maybe a little bit more prudent or a little bit more soft than others, but also we have to look into what kind of segments are we in. Some of the peers you are referring to, they are in more in defense. They are in the medical business and so on. We are much more in pure industry.
Okay. Can't say that was a clear answer, whether it was flat, increasing or decreasing. I guess it has been become even longer than if, if people are, customers are postponing orders.
Yeah. We still have a, a very solid backlog, and now we are saying that we, we feel... I, I think I said that before also when Sindre was on, that we feel quite confident on 2023 and the guidance we are giving. Of course, have a, and we have a good backlog for that and, and I expect to deliver within the guidance.
Okay. turning to, to BioMar, you, you mentioned this Chilean salmon market recovery.
Mm.
Can you, by any chance, you know, also quantify anything here? How much is BioMar up versus last year or versus Q1, just to get a feel of the magnitude of the weakness in the market and how fast we can expect it to pick up again, and with what magnitude?
I just have to understand, do you refer to the volume, as the feed volume or to salmon prices in the market? I think I said that, that volume, we were down on volume, and now we expect the volume to pick up in Chile. Then all, of course, also, as I said, we have had a good contract negotiations. We have a good base, and that's driving our that we expect better volume than in H1.
Okay, but is it your impression that your customers' biomass of salmon is higher in Q2?
It is-
this year or compared to last year, or is it still below?
No, it's not below. I think it's, it's at least at level. I think also I saw the, the, the latest outlook expecting a 3%-4% growth in Chile over, over the coming years. Of course, it was expected to be more, but then these regulatory issues came in and, and, and reduced volume. We are seeing Chile back on track and, and, and also with the increasing volumes.
Okay.
Then we have a, we have a, as I said, well, we have a very, not a very good, but we have a strong contract platform and with good volumes.
Okay. In terms of these contracts, you, you've previously stated that there's been an improving balance between supply and demand, particularly in, in Norway, and that this should lead to perhaps better contract rates for, for SCO or for BioMar. Is that something we already will see, in Q3, or did we already see some of it in Q2, or how should we look at that?
I think, when we are keeping our guidance at the level we have, then, I think we keep the guidance at the level as we have, and thereby you cannot expect to see big improvements because of the contract. We are in a situation now where a lot of customers, or several very large customers, they are asking for much longer contracts. I think I elaborated on that also early on, that, now we see because we expect tight capacity in the coming years in the market, then we see customers asking for 3, 4 years contracts. We are in the process of discussing internally: Do we like these long contracts? What's the risk on that?
We have not taken any really long contracts any longer, so you will not see effect on that now. As, as I have said earlier, also, I think, with the capacity constraints, hopefully, there will be a way to improve margins in Norway.
Okay. so, are you more comfortable with the contract base you have this year compared to last year at the same time in the year?
I, as we have always, when we have a volume contract, then, our customers tend to take the volume, then, it's more on, on the margins and the recipes, we can work on, and there we feel confident that we have a good way to optimize and, and, and work with each customer. We feel as confident as we can on, on, on the contracts, and, and, and also we have learned a lot over the years how to handle these large contracts. We feel good and confident on that.
Okay, and, and then my, my final question is on Fibertex's Personal Care. Obviously, there was some tailwind from, lower raw materials, lower energy costs, and, and FX. Can you perhaps also quantify that? I'm just trying to get at what the underlying EBITDA for Q2 was.
We are, in Q2 was, that was raw, raw material was not that big, it was around DKK 4 million-DKK 5 million on, raw materials. We also expected to have a much higher energy prices than we had. That's also why we, we, we can improve guidance, but around DKK 4 million-DKK 5 million, but we expect also tailwind from raw materials in the second half.
Okay. Thank you so much, Jens.
Super. Thank you very much for the questions, Ulrich. Andrea?
Yes, hello, everyone. I just have a few questions. First of all, just as a follow-up on, on your initial comments in both GPV and Fibertex's Personal Care around, basically, what indications do you already have now for 2024, and what comments can you give? Because I know you write something about it in, on Fibertex's Personal Care, but you also gave some initial, initial comments here on 2024 in GPV. I wonder if you could elaborate more?
Yeah
About both of these businesses.
Yeah, I think, what I said on the GPV was that some of the backlog is going into 2024. We have always. We have had a backlog that is quite with a quite long duration. I just said that some of the backlogs and the orders, they are postponed a little bit, maybe even into 2025. We don't really give a comment on outlook for 2024, but just saying that we expect also high activity level. We see smaller customers slowing up on demand, but as I also said, the big, very large customers still positive, still pushing for orders. We don't see any really signs on very, very soft market or recessions or things like that.
I said on Fibertex Personal Care that we expect Asia as, as a our Malaysian operation to be, to, to be hit by this situation for some time. It takes time to, to recover volume, not, not, not because of competition, but also because the market is slow. For 2024, we still expect a difficult market outlook in Asia for Fibertex's Personal Care, where, as I said, GPV still positive outlook, but also things softening a little bit, but that's normal.
Okay. just, just one follow-up on, on GPV. Are large customers also starting to postpone orders, that was placed in 2024?
We haven't seen that.
Okay. And on, on, Fibertex Personal Care, it sounds like we should already now start to expect a much worse year than 2023, for that business. Is that correctly assumed?
Not saying that, I'm just saying that we still see low volumes in in 2024. We have a volume base now in 2023. We expect to keep that volume base, but it is not as we expected. We expect it to grow. We have excess capacity in Asia, and we would like to use that excess capacity, of course. There could come a situation where price competition is so tough that we are saying it's not for us. We are, we are not taking these contracts. It's a balance.
We are always looking at profitability and things like that, and, and, and, and we also need to have the courage to say, "This is not a contract we are interested in because profitability is simply too low, risk too high.
Okay. Another question is in terms of Fibertex Nonwovens. I just noticed, at least as far as I understood it, the factory in U.S. has been postponed. What's the reason for that?
No, the factory in US has not been postponed. We have postponed, not postponed. We have a line decided for the Czech Republic, SL spunlacing line that we have not established yet because we are waiting the what is coming out of the new line in the US and the customers. We want to learn from that before we really start up in Czech. You could say maybe, I think, we call it SL 2, the spunlacing 2 line in Greenville, could maybe be 2 or 3 months later than originally expected. It's it's going to start up now we are into Q3 and really running hopefully full speed end Q4.
Okay. Just my last questions is in terms of your expectation around net financials, which is now updated. Can you just give a bit of flavor of what your underlying assumptions is for interest rates, et cetera? Just so we can better predict it this time.
Yeah. We are based it on interest rates being flat now, that that's the level we are now. Then also, that we expect to reduce our net interest-bearing debt by the strong push we have on Net working capital, bring in cash flow, and so on. Of course, there are-- We have also seen currency fluctuations that has hampered our financial costs, et cetera, but we expect a flat, flat, second half on that.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Super. Thank you for the questions. Other questions? Looking at Kasper. No further questions. No further questions. With that, thank you very much for listening. Thank you for asking questions, and, goodbye here from Schouw & Co. in Aarhus.