Welcome to Schouw & Co.'s Q3 reporting conference call. We had again this year, this quarter, a very strong and, and very satisfying quarter. In fact, it was the strongest quarter ever for Schouw & Co. All our key figures improved. Revenue at group level was up 15% to DKK 10.5 billion, most of it driven by the acquisitions of Enics into GPV and Ymer into HydraSpecma. Our EBITDA was up more than 34% to DKK 909 million. We saw a very good and strong development across the board in all our companies. We also delivered a very solid cash flow from operations of around DKK 1.5 billion. Here, we really saw the effect of strong push and focus on delivering cash flow and bringing down our net working capital.
In fact, our net working capital base declined as, because of this. Our return on invested capital also increased, and it's on an increasing trend now towards our target of 15%. From a general view until BioMar. BioMar had really a strong quarter. Revenue was around DKK 5.8 billion. Here we saw an effect from a declining raw material prices, meaning also that our turnover had that same level as last year, but our volume was up 5% in the quarter. EBITDA was up 17% to DKK 470 million. It was very good to see a very strong development in our salmon segment, and especially our Norwegian market delivered a very solid result and development.
Also, our facility in Ecuador delivered a very good profitability despite low market prices on shrimp. We also saw solid margin management across the board as a very strong driver for our impressive good EBITDA uplift. We have now focused on getting the new segments in BioMar up to speed. We want to grow and develop our newly formed tech division, and also we are looking very much into getting more volume into our Asia segment. Our joint venture companies in China and Turkey continues to deliver solid profitability. Also means that a strong Q3 means that we can upgrade our EBITDA guidance. Revenue now expected around DKK 17.8 billion-DKK 18.2 billion and EBITDA now at a spread between DKK 1.15 million and DKK 1.19 billion kroner.
From BioMar to GPV, GPV continues the very strong growth over the quarter. Turnover now at DKK 2.5 billion. Here we really saw the full effect from the acquisition of Enics, and now we are working on our new strategy, one new leader in Europe, and we have created a company that now takes a number two position in Europe. We saw demand from our very strong and solid European industrial customer base really continue in Q3. EBITDA far better than expected, and now at DKK 197 million. Here we saw a very solid cost management and very good efficiency. Also effect from a scale, now running 19 factories around the globe, and also mix effect from customer base.
Net working capital with GPV is still a very high, a high priority and focus area, and we have a strong reduction program in place. The component situation starts to easing off now, but we still, have a delivery, a difficult delivery situation on critical components. We have, new facilities and an extended capacity in place, and we are continuously evaluating the footprint of GPV to drive efficiency over, overall in the company. Guidance upgraded on back of a very strong and solid Q3. Revenue now expected to be DKK 10 billion-DKK 10.4 billion, and EBITDA uplifts, to DKK 690 million-DKK 730 million. We also see demand starts to soften a little bit, but still very good order intake from, as I mentioned earlier, from, large, customers throughout Europe.
From GPV to HydraSpecma, revenue up 16% to DKK 683 million. Also here, we saw a good uplift from acquisitions. The acquisitions of Ymer Cooling came in. We, however, then had a negative impact from development of the Swedish currency Swedish krona. We have a lot of activities in Sweden. EBITDA, however, was up 13% to DKK 18 million in the quarter. Here again, strong efficiency uplift had positive effect on EBITDA, and it was able to offset the integration costs from Ymer. HydraSpecma is really focusing on future and building future, put a lot of efforts in R&D, and our innovation has accelerated. We have a new factory ready in Poland and a lot of footprint decisions going on throughout the group.
The integration of Ymer into our newly formed renewable division has really went well. EBITDA, the guidance is now narrowed. We see a slowdown in wind, but it's offset by a good track in global OEM revenue, now expected to be between DKK 2.9 billion and DKK 3.1 billion. EBITDA expected to deliver, be delivered around DKK 350 million-DKK 335 million. Then, to BORG, BORG revenue was up 4% to DKK 476 million. Very positive to see that our reman business is really recovering. We had a very slow start on, on 2023. The trade business is lower as expected because we now see the impact of the missing Russian market. We left the Russian market late last year.
EBITDA is slightly up to DKK 45 million. Our legacy business or our reman business really delivers very solid profitability, and as expected, trade still not able to offset price increases and no Russia business in 2023. We are pushing hard for both growth and profitability in BORG. We have a very strong sales pipeline, and we have started up a new push in the market on our reman business. Also trying to capture a much bigger share of wallet from our large customers by a combined go-to-market strategy between a reman and trade. Guidance a bit more positive. EBITDA now in the level of DKK 140 million-DKK 160 million, based on a very strong demand from our reman business.
Then, moving on to Fibertex Personal Care, revenue was down 27%, mostly due to lower raw material. As soon as raw materials prices starts to fall, we will see it on the top line in Fibertex Personal Care, but we also had a less volume, mainly from our Malaysian set off. The volume in Malaysia continues to be at a low level compared to years back. EBITDA, better than expected, 28% up to DKK 81 million. Here we had really saw a positive effect from raw materials, and that was able to offset lower Asian volume. Our Danish operation, or European market, had very good volume, good margins.
We had also positive effect from a lower energy cost than expected, and a very positive also to see that, our print business, mainly our new facility in the U.S., really starts to deliver solid profitability. The Asian market continues to be under pressure. There's excess capacity, and it drives both price competition and volume. Also, because of much lower birth rates in China and less diaper consumption than expected. EBITDA guidance with better comfort, revenue expected slightly lower due to raw material prices declining, but the EBITDA now expected to be around DKK 240 million-DKK 260 million for the year. Finally, small thoughts on Fibertex. Nonwovens revenue up 3% to DKK 523 million.
Our European market is in very good development, and our U.S. wipes volume is still challenged. However, we see now upwards trends and a better position in U.S. than previously. EBITDA had strong development from DKK 20 million-DKK 49 million for the quarter. Especially here, Europe delivered well, and our facility in Brazil also really drives a strong profitability. Our U.S. wipes business still with negative impact, but as I said, improving and also improving profitability. We have still full focus on turning our U.S. wipes business around. We have two businesses in the U.S., one for wipes and one for needle punched and nonwovens, and this old facility is doing quite well. It's of course a key driver for profitability, and we see very strong wipes pipeline starts to kick in.
Guidance, slightly more positive. EBITDA now expected to be around DKK 150 million-DKK 170 million. We have a strong focus on pricing excellence and innovation in Fibertex Nonwovens trying to move much more from volume to value-based products. Concluding overall guidance upgrades, it's based on strong profitability and results from Q3. We see still a good momentum in most of our companies, and this momentum is expected to continue throughout the year. We have a very good cost control, see a lot of efficiency activities going on at all our factories. So now we see EBITDA guidance in the spread of DKK 2.62 billion-DKK 2.79 billion for 2023. And with that, I would open up for questions.
I think we have a question from Claus Almer . Claus Almer , question from you if you are maybe muted or... Next one, Kasper. We have Bak, please, then?
... Yes. Hi, Jens. A couple of questions from my side. The implied guidance for GPV suggests that Q4 EBITDA will be in the range DKK 125 million-DKK 165 million. That compares to what you reported in Q3 at almost DKK 200 million. This suggests that you're already seeing a dramatic decline in volumes in Q4 already. So is that the case, and how should we think about, you know, this implied guidance also when we think about 2024? Because annualizing this range would yield a significantly lower number than what you're reporting for 2023. So, any comment you can share on that, please?
Well, thank you for, thank you for the question, Ulrich. Q4, we have seen demand softening, but we have not yet seen it as dramatic as you are mentioning here. But we expect that December will be slow. And normally, we see, especially on the circumstances as we see now, where financing costs are high and so on, that a lot of customers really try to postpone orders and push it into next year. So, I will not say that you could take the Q4 guidance and then put it four times on and then say, "Okay, that's the guidance for 2024." That's not what we see so far.
We more see that we expect December to be slower because of destocking from a lot of our large customers. So that's the background for the guidance.
Okay. That's clear. Then perhaps on these order delays, can you share any values, how much of your order backlog has been postponed, and for how long have they, on average, been postponed, please?
Yeah, as I said, we have not really seen postponements kicking in at big scale. But of course, we have seen, as I said, demand softening a little bit, but we expect that some of the customers really start to push orders into 2024. Still have a very solid backlog, also reaching far into 2024. But as I say, low visibility, a little bit uncertainty, that's part of the guidance for Q4, but that's not what we see for 2024. Maybe we will see slow Q4 and a little slower Q1 also.
That's clear. Then a question to BioMar. You, you've said on previous occasions that the contracting environment has been improving over the quarters, particularly in Norway.
Yeah.
Can you perhaps share some color about when old contracts they roll over, what the impact will be, and when we will see that impact? Obviously, we saw a strong Q3, but,
Mm
... if we look at quarters, some quarters ahead, will we see a similar improvement year-over-year as we saw in Q3?
Yeah, I think there are some interesting points on the contract base, as you say, in Norway, that we also have to take into consideration that the Norwegian kroner is rather weak. So if we look at added in Norwegian kroner, in fact, we have had a even stronger Q3. So we have had a very good margin management, strong contract base in Norway, and I think we see now that we are in a very good position and utilizing our capacity very well. We also... The contract environment has changed a little bit, so it's not now only Q2 where you do the contracts, you more negotiate contracts over the year. So in general, we are not saying that Q2, then all contracts are renewed.
It's more on an annual basis, could be more or less saying every month we will renew a contract. So we see effect of it, and we will see that rolling also into 2024.
Okay. And another question on BioMar. Last week or two weeks ago, one of Mowi's fish feed factories experienced an explosion.
Mm.
Do you have any color on that? Are they operational currently, and are they now sourcing fish feed from you or your competitors?
To be honest, I don't have any color, flavor on that at all. I have not heard that they are in the market for sourcing bigger volumes, but if they were, could be problematic because we are supplying the customer base we have. We are not just giving up good old customers if Mowi had some problems, so could be a problem for them, but I haven't heard much about it, to be honest.
Okay, and then my final question on net working capital. We saw a significant decline in the net working capital as a % of revenue-
Yeah
... to 17% in Q3-
Mm
... versus 20% in Q2. So is this level sustainable, or is there even more potential to improve it going forward?
Yeah, we have set very ambitious targets for our Net Working Capital in general and pushed hard on it, and now we see also that we succeed with it. You could say 70% is a rather strong level or a low level, and I won't say that we can get much further down, but we continue to push hard on it. And then of course also Q3 is a high season for some of our companies, meaning also they are reducing inventories, but we will continue to push hard on Net Working Capital.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Next, Claus Almer. Claus Almer. Can you hear me? Yes, now we can, Claus. Loud and clear... and then we couldn't again.
Let's try again. Wait a moment.
Okay, then, Andre, while we are waiting, are you
Yes.
Are you available?
I'm here.
Yeah.
Can you hear me?
Yeah. Welcome.
That's great. Thank you. Just following up on the working capital, which Ulrich just asked about.
Mm.
Can you maybe give some flavor on how we should look at this in Q4, and maybe also give some more flavor on the working capital potential improvements in GPV? Should we see absolute improvements in working capital as realistic for GPV? That's the first one.
Yeah. Of course, GPV has been growing a lot, and that, of course, also ties up more working capital. But as I said, we continue to push hard on bringing down net working capital. So we will see that, but I cannot say exactly how much we will see. But we work hard on continue to reducing working capital, but also we take strategic decisions on inventories and working capital, sometimes also from a commercial point of view, meaning we need to be able to deliver or we could utilize our financial capabilities to tie up a customer and so on. But continue to push on, we will do that.
And for BioMar on working capital-
Yeah
... where do you see the key potential for continued improvement here?
I think, as they have, they have improved a lot. And also, there are differences on payment terms on different markets. You could say Norway, and you could see, as I say, Q3 has been very strong in Norway, where we have a total different payment terms or debtor situation than we have on other markets. So, more sales in Norway means also we are bringing down Net Working Capital. If we go more to other markets, then we will have longer payment terms and so on. So of course, salmon business in general brings down Net Working Capital.
That's clear, but just to be sure and to follow up, where is the continued improvement potential in BioMar for working capital?
I'm not saying there's a huge improvement potential. If you look at it now, you could always see... you could see that it's at a quite decent level. So I will not say that there's a huge improvement potential, but it's something we keep working on, and it's a clear priority and a clear focus or more focus area also for BioMar. But of course, as I said, the terms, debtors, again, of course, the inventory build and so on, there's a lot of small things we constantly work on.
Mm. Makes sense. Then just one last from my side, that's on Enics's integration, because you mentioned you already see good synergies here. Can you maybe quantify how much that is, and also what drives these early synergies already from Enics?
Yeah, it's a good efficiency in the factories, a little bit on the sourcing side, but we have had a lot of inventory, so the sourcing side has not really kicked in yet. But good efficiency, utilizing capacity a little bit also on general cost base. So the start has been promising, and we expect really to see the new or the combined company to deliver on the business case and the synergies. We are very confident on that.
Can you quantify how much the synergies have been?
Around 40 million or something in so far, and of course, there's also been costs. So all in all, we say it has been a positive effect in that size. The business case, as we mentioned it, where we said that we expect synergies around, so altogether around EUR 15million-EUR 16 million.
Cool
... in the coming years. Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Let's try Klaus again.
Klaus, we try you again. Something, some other question, Kasper?
Uh, Ulrich.
Ulrich, welcome-
Yes.
Again.
Yes, thank you for taking my follow-up questions.
Of course.
Just in terms of capital allocation, now you are announcing a share buyback program of DKK 75 million.
Yeah.
With the strong cash flow generation now, what are your priorities as we look ahead, if we look at, you know, organic growth investments, M&A, share buybacks? So just to hear your preferences as it stands now.
Yeah, as we expect to continue to drive and deliver solid cash flows also in 2024. Preference first to deleverage, looking at the financial costs, et cetera. So we are really looking at deleveraging. We are—I think we will see lower investments in 2024. Of course, also looking into, are there any attractive acquisitions that we could do? We also think that the climate for doing acquisitions will be a little bit better in the coming years, so we're also preparing ourselves for that.
Then, let's see if we could do something more on share buyback or dividends and so on, depending on how cash flow will develop, and also on what kind of interesting opportunities we will see out there.
... That, that's clear and, and very helpful, but can you perhaps quantify the 2024 CapEx level? You say it's gonna be below the current years, so, perhaps just some flavor.
Yeah, and very, very honest, Ola, we have not finalized the budget rounds yet, just seen a few of them, but the message is that we expect to see lower CapEx in general, but I cannot quantify it yet. We haven't had a final discussions on that.
Okay, but perhaps asked in a different manner. What is the maintenance CapEx level of your entire portfolio of companies?
A lot- Roughly. Plus, plus DKK 500 million .
Okay, that's clear. Then, you know, similar question as I had on, on GPV, the implied guidance for, for Q4 for both Fibertex companies looks-
Yeah
... quite weak compared to what they reported in Q3. So, is that a similar dynamic as you commented on GPV customers, you know, holding a bit back before year-end, or what?
Looking at Fibertex Personal Care, we could say also that it has a lot to do with the raw material effect, and we have seen the raw materials declining and increasing, and there we will have a negative effect. So it's expected that we cannot have the same positive raw material effect as we saw in Q3. So that's a different thing. Looking at nonwovens, we normally always have a rather weak December. We've had that the last five years. So that's something of course we are looking into and can we do something there, but prediction expected that December will be, as usual, rather weak.
Okay. And just for context, the impact from raw materials in Fibertex Personal Care during Q3, how much was the impact?
It was, 14 billion... 14 million. Yeah.
Okay. [audio distortion] . Thank you so much.
Yeah, welcome. Claus, we try you again.
Can you hear me now?
Yes.
What a miracle!
Good.
I wouldn't miss the opportunity to say congratulations with the cash flow, Jens.
Oh, thank you.
I know you've worked hard for a number of years to-
Yeah
Push down your Net Working Capital.
Thank you for that.
I know there's been several questions regarding this topic, and you don't guide on free cash flow, but maybe you give a little bit of a flavor on Q4. How much more potential short term do you see from a, you know, lower inventories? That would be my first question.
Yeah.
Sorry if you have already answered that one.
No, no, no, it's fine, and you're most welcome, of course. No, Claus, we expect a positive cash flow also in Q4, around DKK 400 million, DKK 400million-DKK 500 million positive cash flow in Q4. Let's see, and mainly also coming for reducing inventories a little bit, but that's what we are looking into now. But also, as I said, we see some customers also maybe postponing a little bit, but still positive cash flow. Yeah.
DKK 300million-DKK 400 million, is that free cash flow or cash flow from operations?
Cash flow from operations, yeah.
Oh, okay. That sounds good. Then talking about the whole, pricing environment and input costs-
Mm.
for sure in GPV, you know, you have been sourcing components at a time-
Yeah
When prices was likely much higher than they are today.
Yes. Yeah.
Is there any area where, you know, the deliveries is at a different price than your what you have sourced to, so we should expect a pressure on the margins?
No, but that's a good observation. And I think I mentioned also that we of course, there is price pressure in the market in general, and we are working very hard on offsetting that and keeping actual price levels as long as possible. But at GPV, there are also some obligations from customers to take the inventories at the price it was sourced at, because we buy inventory or components home after their order backlog and so on. So it's a different thing with the GPV. But of course, as you know, the customers will always try to push and find ways and so on, but there we have quite...
We are very strong on trying to push back and saying, "Okay, but you have an obligation," and so on, on that.
Okay, so we shouldn't, at this point at least, be concerned that, you know, they are strong in their push not to pay the price. So, they're still paying whatever you have been agreeing on in the past?
Yeah. So far, yes, they are. But of course, you know, discussions going on always and there is this push, but we have some good, good arguments on it, so.
Okay, and then this is my final question regarding BioMar and you know the joint ventures where you downgrade your expected profit. Should we be concerned about this going into next year, or is there some specific revaluation, I think you mentioned the report?
Yeah.
How should we think about this going forward?
Maybe take it, we have two fewer joint ventures, one in China. I think China is still on a very good track, volume up. I expect also to see a positive development in China next year. Then we have Turkey. Turkey has been very strong the last one and a half year, but we have really been a little more careful because of hyperinflation and the situation in Turkey and so on, and really taking care of debtors and so on. So Turkey might see lower volume in 2024, but that's a decision we will make and take. And then if you take the other associated, it's not joint ventures, but the salmon with Skretting Australia and Chile this year has been hit.
Two things: we had a joint venture where we had to close down and took a hit on that, as in Skretting Australia. And then there's been a lot of biomass regulations on prices and so on, and we expect prices to pick up next year. So looking more positive in 2024 on Skretting Australia.
So, would it be fair to assume you could do the DKK 100 million just next week, no, next year, rather than this year?
I haven't seen, but, but yeah, that could. That's fair. Yeah.
Okay, that was all from my side. Thank you so much.
You're welcome. Thank you very much, Claus. Any other questions come? Good. No more questions, so, we are closing down from here, but, thank you very much for questions and for everybody, listening in. So goodbye, and thank you very much.