Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Incap's Q2 Interim Report Webcast. My name is Pauliina Tennilä, and I will be moderating this webcast today. The agenda for today is that Incap's President and CEO, Otto Pukk, and CFO, Antti Pynnönen, will go through the second quarter and half-year results. After that, we will get a video update on Incap's U.S. operations. It will be presented by the Managing Director of Incap Electronics US, Dave Spehar. After Dave, it is time for questions and answers. You can post your questions in the chat function or during the presentation. You can also watch the recording of this webcast later on at Incap's website. So, Otto and Antti, please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Pauliina, and hello, and welcome from my side as well. It's always fun to see that there are so many people interested in what we're doing. Thank you for all the interest in Incap and the support that we have from you guys. Let's jump in a little bit to the first half of the year and the highlights that we have had. I would say it's going very much as planned. We already Q4 last year started talking about that we see quarter-on-quarter growth, and we have been able to keep that through this first two quarters. I'm very happy about that. Everything is going according to plan. Our revenue has picked up quite nicely compared to the end of 2023, and we have had a good development. Also, we keep on growing other customer accounts than our biggest one.
That has been a lot of talk about, of course, with the destocking exercise we did last year and partly this year as well. But we have good growth on other customers, of course, both in organic, but also through the acquisition we made in the US, and that is playing out very nicely currently for us. If we look at acquisitions, we keep on looking. As I mentioned, last quarter report as well, we have broadened our vision or our scope hunting grounds or what to call it. And we're also looking at the Asia-Pacific region currently. So let's see. I'm quite sure that over time, the work we're doing will pay off in one way or another. During the quarter, we have kept on investing in our facilities. We have new machineries in Slovakia.
We have upgraded also some of the lines in the UK and done also some real estate, I would say, mending work, roof changes, and so on in some of the units. As I've said before, for us, it's very important that we have the latest technology and that we are not only producing high-tech electronics, but also surround us with high-tech machinery to do that. Otherwise, I don't think that you can be taken seriously on the market if you're not keeping developing and investing in your operations. So this we have done in Incap also, and of course, we'll continue with the coming quarters as well as we have planned. Sustainability work, of course, is growing. The ESG topic is here to stay.
In April, we published our first combined annual and sustainability report, and we keep on developing that reporting in accordance with the CSRD regulations and try to be in the forefront of that. Still a lot to learn. It's a moving target. In that sense, I think everybody is learning, but for sure, I think ESG reporting is not just a mandatory step now, but it's an opportunity to improve our measurement and management of the activities that we are doing and truly aim for sustainable business and growth. And I want to thank our team here that is working very hard with this issue and keep on developing it. Talking about our team, of course, our results also have contributed to them. They are the ones pulling off this excellent journey that we have in Incap.
I can't emphasize enough how fantastic our people are in the different units. As always, I always tell investors and people that come and visit us, if you're near our units and have the possibility, then shout out, and perhaps we can facilitate a visit because seeing is believing. We have excellent people in all of Incap. I will probably talk more during the Q&A. I'll hand over to Mr. Pynnönen and the numbers. Antti, please bring it.
Yes. All right. Thank you, Otto, for a good introduction once again. Now here, we focus only on the second quarter. The revenue, what we recorded, was EUR 57.6 million. There was a year-on-year increase, 2.1% in this figure. Operating profit, EBIT, amounted to EUR 6.8 million, which is 11.7% versus 13.3% previous year. This was on the same level as the first quarter. Compared to the first quarter this year, the revenue increased by 12.2%, and there was an increase also in EBIT by 12.9%. The second quarter was impacted, obviously, positively by the US acquisition if we compare to the previous year, so year-on-year figures. So roughly EUR 9 million was the figure from the Pennatronics acquisition as we closed the transaction in quarter three in 2023. Here we have the financial key figures on the left-hand side, the revenue development.
This is, of course, positive that the trend is going upwards. So this is now the third quarter in a row where we see a nice growth. So back on growth track there. And then on the right-hand side, the profitability is solid, sniffing on 12%. And then, yeah, this is the key. So a solid quarter overall. On the key figure table here, we also report, as usual, the inventory levels, EUR 69.2 million if we compare this figure on the year-on-year numbers. So against the 73.5, there is, of course, the acquisition-related inventory, what was received through the acquisition in the US, so EUR 8.5 million. Now, EUR 8.7 million was the inventory in the US. So if we want to have comparable figures, we would be on EUR 60.5 million. So there's a clear reduction in the level of inventory. Then what we also report here is interest-bearing net debt.
As you can see, it is actually on a negative side, which means that our cash level exceeds our interest-bearing debt. So overall, like in the past quarters, also Incap's cash position is very, very strong. And then the personnel number is a bit increased since the year-end, so 2,270, and the split can be seen below, two-thirds located in India. What we can find out here is the biggest item. Other ones, yeah, the net profit was EUR 5.1 million. So that's the key figures here. Of course, then probably the final comment on the cash flow as we are growing. So then, of course, then that impacts on the level of receivables clearly. So the volumes past nine months, we have been able to grow the volume side.
Then there was also one special booking that we did in quarter two, and that was regarding the U.S. acquisition earnout. As we wrote, the earnout was paid at maximum level, and that was EUR 2.8 million. That is due to the fact that the company has exceeded their preset KPIs and targets and performed much better than anticipated. Thank you.
Thank you, Antti. Sorry, I jumped the slide a little bit quickly there in the end, but you have the numbers in your head. That's always excellent. Yeah, into the background of that, as you all saw last week, we increased the guidance a bit. The outlook that we are now looking at is that our revenue will be higher than last year and that our EBIT will be on the same level. Both EBIT and revenue we increased compared to the previous guidance where we said both will be on a lower level. That was positive news, of course. Now, I want to give over the word in that sense to our U.S. Managing Director. Due to the time difference, he is not with us because it would have been inhumane to ask him to wake up at this point of time.
But he's with us in spirit, and I'm very happy that it has now gone a year since we did the acquisition, and the integration work that we have done with the US team is fantastic and has gone really well. They are already an intricate part of Incap, and it's always a pleasure to visit them and see all that they have been doing since the last visit. Here a greeting from our US Managing Director, Dave Spehar.
Hi everyone. My name is Dave Spehar. I'm the Managing Director of Incap US, and I'm very happy to be here today on our one-year anniversary and proud to be part of the Incap family. I don't know how familiar you are with our unit, so let me introduce it a bit to you. What is Incap US and what this year as part of Incap Corporation has meant to us? About where are we in the U.S.? Well, we're located just south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a city with a rich heritage of manufacturing with over 3,000 advanced manufacturing firms employing over 95,000 people and a skilled workforce with over 6,500 engineering grads per year from the region's universities. Pittsburgh has a strategic market access. We are within 500 miles of 48% of U.S. businesses. We're within 500 miles of 45% of the U.S. and Canada populations.
We're also within 500 miles of 63% of the national industrial output for the US. We are a strategic manufacturing partner offering our customers a wide range of services focusing on PCBAs, box builds, testing and test development, supply chain solutions, and repairs and warranty service. All of this helps us deepen our relationship with our customers, enabling them to grow their business while we focus on their manufacturing. About our teams and services that we offer, today we have over 100 company members all committed to exceeding our customers' expectations. Our senior management team's average tenure is over 17 years. Our main industries that we serve are industrial, gas detection, advanced metering equipment, light medical, and nuclear.
We're a low volume, low mid volume, high mix electronics contract manufacturer with an emphasis on high complexity products, which simply put means that we manufacture smaller quantities of many different products. As a company, we've been around since 2001, starting with a 4,200 square meter facility and adding an additional 2,300 square meters in 2017 for a total of 6,500 square meters, similar in size to Incap Slovakia and slightly smaller than Incap Estonia. Our focus is electronics PCB assemblies and electromechanical box build products for OEMs or original equipment manufacturers. So what's waiting for us ahead? We continue to invest in our business and keep abreast of the industry's latest technology and provide our customers with a quality product at a competitive price. And of course, get it to them when they want it.
In order to do that, we are for a year now also working with Incap's other units regarding new business opportunities with their customers. We recently expanded our capabilities by adding a new adhesive and solder paste dispenser on one of our two SMT lines, enabling us to improve quality and reduce cycle time for some key products. We continue to review projects and invest in the latest generation of technology so we can offer our customers the benefits of a state-of-the-art facility. These upgrades will enable us to focus on speed and additional automation for improved efficiencies, as well as using less power in our quest to be a responsible steward of our environment. I'm happy to say that we've seen an increase in new sales opportunities over the past nine months. Some of these we believe are due to the acquisition and name recognition with Incap.
From a quality perspective, we currently have the ISO 9001 certification as well as the ISO 13485 medical certification, the ANSI/ESD S20.20 electrostatic discharge certification, and we have a fully compliant 10 CFR 50 Appendix B program needed for the nuclear industry. We are actively working to gain the ISO 14001 certification. We are highly committed to sustainability, and we are providing our service in a sustainable way and proudly follow the ESG targets set by the market as well as our group. This concerns our approach to sustainability in environmental, social, as well as governance aspects. For example, we have already implemented improvements in how we take care of our environmental footprint, as well as how we continue to work with local schools and colleges looking for talent and educating the next generation and hopefully encouraging them to consider the electronics industry.
We see a bright outlook for Incap US, are happy to be part of Incap, and look forward to investing and growing our business and contributing to the Incap family. Thank you and welcome to our factory.
All right. So shall we begin with the questions and answers then? First question on the line is about the largest customer's impact and the destocking exercise. How big an impact did it have on the Q2 revenue, and what will be the impact in Q3?
Yeah, I can answer on this as well. What we have seen now, of course, in the quarter two is that the volumes are starting to slowly pick up. I think also we mentioned actually in our report that we had, if we compare now versus the quarter two 2023, of course, then the figures were really, really high last year there, but compared to this year. But then again, if we compare to the Q4 and Q1 this year, so then the volumes with the biggest customer have turned to a growth track. And then also then what Otto mentioned about the market outlook and the outlook for Incap in the second half. So we expect the growth to continue. And then, of course, then we internally analyze all the outlook for the customers and obviously the biggest customer very closely.
And then those data points that we collected and the forecast is demonstrating that the second half would exceed the first half. Thus we gave the outlook and steering a change. If this answered the question?
Yes. Do we have Otto back online or is he still offline? Okay. Should we then still continue with the Q&A? Hopefully he will be able to join us soon. There's a question about the organic growth. What was the organic growth in Q2? And can you open up a little bit more about your organic growth?
Yeah, well, we had obviously what we wrote here, we had in quarter two EUR 9 million impact coming from the acquisition. Even if we would exclude this one, then if we compare, then of course, then the quarter two 2023, then there's a decrease in the volumes. But then again, if we take the impact of the biggest customer and the biggest or the acquisition related, so then it would be close to each other, those numbers. And then there would be a growth if we would exclude the biggest customer and then inorganic growth from the first half figure. So then that figure would be a bit on the growth side.
Yeah.
That's stable, but I hope everybody can see me and hear me now. Antti probably has answered even better than I could on the question. Yes, I'm back.
The last question was about organic growth and if you can open up a little bit about that. Antti went through the numbers already, but is there anything more to comment? Maybe sort of where is it coming from and sort of giving a little bit more flavor on the organic growth?
Yeah, no, on the organic side, we of course keep on working on developing other accounts and our, I would say, existing accounts as well as new customers. And I think this is very much in our DNA that we always strive to find new customers, but also to serve our existing ones so well that they are growing. And normally, I would say to grow existing customers normally is even easier than to find new ones. That in our industry takes time from the first sales contact until it becomes real business. And that normally takes quite time. So increasing and growing with your customers is perhaps the easier way to grow.
Is there any difference between the units when you think about the organic growth rates or?
No, I wouldn't say that there is a big difference. Of course, the units themselves are different. So if we look at U.K. and perhaps U.S. is more focused on small volumes and prototype manufacturing and quick service and so to their customers. And if you look in Estonia and Slovakia, that's more up to mid volume and, I would say, bigger volumes and even if the products are similar. And of course, India is our mass production sites and there is the volumes are bigger. So with that in mind, I would say that they are similar, but of course, the different businesses also are a little bit different. Growth, or if you have a new customer in the U.K., then of course the size of that is much smaller than, for example, if we get a new customer into India on volume.
It depends on how we look at it. In principle, yes, all of the units are growing organically as well and attracting new customers and growing their existing ones.
And then a question about India and the utilization rate there. What is the current utilization rate and do you have capacity there for other than the largest customer?
Yes, we still have capacity in our Indian factory. We have started using here already at the end of last year the new factory that we have. But of course, there is still room there that we have built and done that investment with the future in mind that we can keep on filling. And as I mentioned before, we always look that we have some kind of excess capacity that we can offer to our existing customers and also new ones. So there is still plenty. So if somebody wants to do business in India, then give me a call.
All right. Then there's a question about M&A and what is the M&A firepower you can use for a possible acquisition? And do you have an ROI percentage target for an acquisition?
Yeah, we look at a lot of different factors in that sense when we look at acquisitions. But it funnels down to perhaps basic simple principles in that sense. We are not looking at any turnaround cases. We believe that we want to acquire solid and, I would say, well-performing business so we can just attach them into our ecosystem with our decentralized model and keep on the business running. We look very much on the culture aspects of the business and in one sense that the units that we acquired, that they can run themselves in that sense, that they have people that can take responsibility and can manage the business. So they are not top run from, I don't know, some distant site, but that they are qualified people on site. But then also the culture of the company is very important.
Incap, we have a very strong corporate culture where we are pushing very much for innovation and for people to take responsibility there to take the decision and take ownership over the business. And we're looking for similar trademarks when we acquire. I think those are, if it's healthy business, those are more important than if you have a single KPI up or down a few percentages. I think the key are the human factors actually in making acquisitions as long as the business is healthy in principle.
Maybe a follow-up question on that. Are there any plans to tap into the fast developing market of the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia or the Emirates? Could you elaborate more on geographic expansion?
Yeah, even if we have said now when the U.S. has been on focus still or in that sense, I think we are well now established in the U.S. market, but the market is big and we could have more footprint in the U.S. than we have now opened up also for Asia-Pacific a little bit more. And we are well represented in India, but also there is more opportunity. I wouldn't rule out the Middle East either or North Africa or some other interesting places in that. It all comes down to what opportunities there are. And if it's a good case, then I don't see any hinder wherever the target is in that sense. So we are not ruling out, but we are not focusing either currently on it.
Our main focus area currently is still the Europe, U.S., and Asia Pacific where we are looking more actively on different targets.
There just came in one more question related to the M&A. You touched a little bit on this already, but how do you actually assess the company's culture and fit with Incap in an acquisition?
Yeah, no, for us it's of course key to visit the companies, meet the management of the companies, and meet the key persons that are. And so that is a huge part in the evaluation process. And normally I try to push for that or with Antti and the team and to do that in very early stages because there is no point of moving forward if we don't see that fit in that sense. So that is for us. But yeah, seeing, meeting in that sense, that is the key in evaluating culture and people.
All right. Then going back to the current customers, the renewable industry has been in trouble for some time. Is the end market revenue of your first customer growing?
Yeah, no, our biggest customer is on many different markets with their products. So I'm quite sure that their markets are growing and they might even be in that sense. Of course, there might be the odd exception, but in principle, the markets are growing and they have continued to grow their business, is our understanding as well, even through this destocking that we have been doing. And then they have had a positive development. Yes, that destocking exercise we did was due to that they overestimated their forecast. They thought it would go even better. But that said, they still have been on growth path.
Do you still plan to significantly increase your headcount in India in the rest of the year?
I wouldn't say significant. We have increased already the headcount as Antti mentioned in, and we are doing that as we have need. Now you must understand we are an EMS company. So increasing and decreasing headcount is we do on the daily basis depending on what volumes we have and how the order outlooks and so go. So there is nothing big in that. Of course, big layoffs is a different thing, but adjusting it with a few hundred people up and down is something we do all the time. But we haven't planned any significant increases. According to how the order book looks like and what the need is, we are always adjusting the manpower.
What explains your relative strength versus other EMS companies as your organic growth, excluding the largest customers, so much better?
I think it all comes down to our service offering and how we offer our services. I have emphasized on that many times that the decentralized organization that we are running gives us three big benefits. One thing is that every customer has a dedicated team and a team that feels ownership over that customer in the factories in that sense and take care of that. The perception of our customer service normally on our customer sites is very good. By giving people the possibility to take responsibility, then people who are growing, they are motivated not only by salaries, but also by what they are doing. In Incap, you have the possibility not just to work in a silo, but to work with the business and take ownership over it. That is very motivating for people.
So if you look at our teams in the different units, we have very motivated and dedicated people, very loyal to the company, working a long time because they like what they are doing and like that. And that, of course, also shows off in the service levels and so towards the customer. And the third thing, of course, not carrying very much overhead, that also shows on the bottom line. And I've said that before that our double-digit EBIT is not because we have higher prices or that we have different kinds of customers or whatnot. If you look at the sales margin and compare that to many of our peers, we are on the same level or not even as good as them. But we do things more efficiently and don't spend the money on administration and things that don't create value.
That's why also the result is higher than many other companies in the industry.
There are two questions about the guidance, the outlook for this year. You guide now for higher revenue. Can you quantify what revenue growth range higher implies?
Yeah, I can answer on this one. Higher means 0%-20%. And then yeah, that's the answer in short.
There's a question about the profitability. You mentioned that profitability will improve with higher volumes in the second half. Should we interpret this as an improving EBIT margin?
Yeah, no, of course, there are several factors here. So in principle, higher volumes mean that we can allocate our fixed costs and so on on more volume. And that means a larger EBIT percentage. But it also comes down to the product mix. So as always, I emphasize it's going up and down. But in principle, yes, we are expecting the bigger the volumes are, the better the EBIT number as well. But with the small metrics depending on the product mix. And so if that answers the question.
All right, let's take the last question. This probably has been discussed a little bit already, but there's a question on new customer acquisition, increasing sales to existing ones, and cross-selling opportunities. Can you open up a little bit more about those?
Yeah, no, the focus has been there, of course, always. But in the situation we ended up last year, then we have been focusing very much on new customer acquisitions and growing business with our existing customers or other existing customers than our bigger ones. So that has been there. But what we see is that with the US acquisition, then many of our customers see us as global. And that has contributed to good opportunities both for the US unit, but also for other units that are in. And that is what we are meaning cross-selling opportunities that customers that we have in, I would say, one factory that could be interested in some of the other Incap operations. So yeah, shortly put, that's the answer.
All right, thank you. There are no more questions online. Maybe you can wrap up the webcast.
Yes, but then I would like to, of course, thank everybody who has been listening. And sorry for the technical difficulties, but yeah, it always makes things more interesting. And I want to say once again, things are going as we have planned and predicted. And it's our great team who is pulling this off. And I'm quite positive looking forward to the future and the rest of this year and moving forward from that. So thank you very much, everybody. And yeah, that's it for me as well. And hopefully people also get a little bit of vacation and are not only listening to Incap, these kinds of webinars. And so enjoy time with your family as well.