Good afternoon, and welcome to Incap's Q3 Result webcast. My name is Pauliina Tennilä, and I have with me Incap's President and CEO, Otto Pukk, and CFO, Antti Pynnönen. Otto and Antti will go through the Q3 result presentation, and after that, there's time for questions and answers. Gentlemen, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Pauliina, and also hello from me to everybody listening. Of course, as always, thank you for the interest in Incap and looking forward to answer all your questions. But first, perhaps a little bit of introduction, and going through the main milestones when it comes to our quarterly release. Of course, as you all are aware of, we have been working very heavily on this destocking exercise with our biggest customer, and of course, the quarter has focused very much on that. It's the first quarter we start seeing some larger effect of that, even if we expect that the bigger effect of it, we will see on the fourth quarter.
Destocking have gone a little bit more slower than we initially expected, but we're getting there and, I mean, a steady pace, and we are working very closely with our customer to make that happen and help them out in that sense. Otherwise, I would say that the work with other customers have gone very well. So, it's a little bit two different worlds. We're working on the decrease in with our biggest customer, but on most of our other customer accounts, we have been able to grow if we look at during this year.
And that's something we are very much happy with, to see that our different work streams on that are working. Looking at the numbers, of course, Antti will go through that more in detail. So in the revenue, if you look at the first nine months, there is of course a decrease compared to the previous year. Profitability, we have been able, with our flexible model, to maintain on a quite healthy level in that sense. And I think here it shows the strength on how we are organized and how agile we actually are to meet this kind of challenges. Of course, that said, it has not been easy.
We have laid off a lot of our colleagues in India, and that has taken a big toll, of course, on the team. Team effort, I want to emphasize, like I do on all of these webinars, is we are fantastic people and it has been a tough time, especially in our Indian unit. But we have been able to do this in a very efficient and cost-efficient way. And that also shows in the numbers here for the quarter. Incap US have joined the family, and the project with integrating them have gone very well.
I think that it already feels like they have been part of Incap longer than they have, but we're working steadily with the integration. We see a lot of cross-selling opportunities with our existing customers from Europe and India having interest in the U.S. market and also vice versa. So I think here in the coming years, we will see quite good traction on that. Of course, things take time, but it is growing interest in that sense. I don't know, Antti, do you want to go through the numbers now, and then we can take it from there?
Yes, absolutely. So Otto, if you take this first slide. So focusing now only on the quarter three numbers, so the revenue recorded EUR 50 million. There's obviously a decrease of 29% since the year-to-date, and then mainly, of course, due to the destocking exercise. And on the revenue side, as we also commented, so the quarter four, next quarter will most likely be clearly the lowest of all. So in quarter three, we still had some decent volumes from the biggest customer, plus then, as we remember, we closed the U.S. acquisition in the July. So from the July onwards, we have consolidated the newly acquired business in the figures.
Operating profit was 11.4%, and on the profitability side, the decrease was 48%. Here we have the quarterly results. On the left side, we have the revenue development. As you can see, in 2022, there was really the figures were peaking, and there was the quarter four last year was the all-time high, and then now we are a little bit going down as the graph demonstrates here. Like I said, the profitability has been then the real, like the focus area of the management here, defending and then, obviously, we have had to take hard measures on reducing the workforce and adjusting to the production needs, and that's the result that we were still able to defend the double-digit profitability.
And about, for example, the items impact in the EBIT, there was some non-recurring items and some purchase price amortization. So on that side, that also played a role in the EBIT. So then, almost EUR 500,000 was the impact of the quarter three PPA elements, and then non-recurring items regarding acquisitions was just EUR 100,000. That just shows that we were able to integrate this, and we will continue the integration work with the U.S., but we're really, like, lean and an efficient manner, and that's the spirit in Incap. Key figures here, other than the ones already mentioned here, I would focus on warehouse level inventory is so important for Incap's business.
Materials represent typically 75%-80%, even some cases of our turnover. So now it's in September, we recorded EUR 83.6 million level of inventory, and that includes the warehouse from the newly acquired U.S. business, EUR 8.8 million. Without that, the number would have been 75 %. And if we compare it to the year-end 2022 number, 92 %, so there is a significant reduction in the warehouse levels. Obviously, helping with the material availability issues and so forth, that the turnover of the materials is getting a bit better. Then on the cash, we always want to highlight also the little bit, the cash position and the loan situation. So we have a net debt of EUR 4.5 million.
Currently, cash position is EUR 30.2 million, and then the loans combined is approximately EUR 35 million. Then about this personnel number in September 2023, overall, we are now 1,903. Indeed, there was unfortunately hard measures taken, and then a reduction of workforce was indeed required in order to keep the head up. Then that's a very significant number if we compare the whole Incap's personnel. So that is what the most of the time has gone to support the Indian team and really help them and take through the sail through these tough times. But then outlook, what we specified earlier was this one here.
So this, this has remained the same, so we just repeated that one. And then, indeed, the, the outlook for the full year revenue side is EUR 210 million-EUR 220 million, and then on the profitability side, EUR 24 million-EUR 28 million. And these figures include the, the newly acquired U.S. business. Yes, that's the main message from finance.
Yes, excellent. Thank you very much, Antti. So, Pauliina, we are ready for questions. I see that they are building up in the chat, so let's start going through.
Yes, let's start with the Q&A session. The first question is about the share of the largest customer in your business. How large is it, and how does the trend look like? Are other customers growing faster than the biggest customer?
Yeah, no, as now in the Q3 release, we don't have exactly the customer data in published in that sense. But yeah, if you look at that historically, our biggest customer have been over 60% of our business, and this customer have now clearly lower volumes than it have had in the past. So, for sure, other customers are growing currently quicker than the customer that is declining.
Okay, there's another question related to this, and it's looking forward: So do you plan for a ramp-up again in Q1 2024 for, for the customer's orders, or will the Q4 level be the new normal for some time?
It all is up to our customer sales and how that will progress. We believe that the Q4 will be, how to say, where we reach the bottom level, and that we will from that turn back to growth. But it all turns comes down to how quickly and how the sales is developing for our customer.
Okay, and question about the EMS market. What is the forecast of demand for EMS market in 2024? Do you see more activity from customers for the coming months, despite the current macro situation?
I think if you look at the in4ma, and Dieter Weiss analyzed, and then he expected the next year to have somewhere 6%-7% growth on the EMS market in Europe. And then I think that is a good average in that sense or shows where most of the companies will be. We have been, as we also wrote in the report, been able here to grow other customers in Incap here above that percentage during this year. And we are continuing to push on our sales and try to outgrow, how to say, the market average when it comes to other customers.
Of course, Incap as a whole, it's very much up to what our biggest customer, how their sales pick up. But we have been very successful so far this year, and so with increasing organically. And also we continue to look at M&A targets, and there's also opportunity with the current cash position, and so to perhaps do some acquisitions in that sense.
Okay, there's a question about the, which is a small detail, but anyhow, is Pennatronics included for the whole quarter or from July 5th?
Pennatronics has been consolidated whole quarter. Am I muted? Can you hear me now? I'm not muted on my computer.
Yes, I can hear you at least.
All right. So the answer is whole quarter.
Another question maybe to Antti. How is the high interest rate environment directly impacting Incap? Are Incap's loans fixed or variable rates?
Incap loans have a EURIBOR three-month element, and then, the, there's a rate margin from the bank, depending on Incap's level in the KPI called interest-bearing debt over EBITDA.
Okay. Then there's a question about M&A. Otto already touched upon this, but do you plan for more M&A?
We continue to look for acquisition targets and or have an active pipeline in that sense, and continue to pursue that in. Yeah, we have mentioned before that Germany and U.S., of course, are interesting market for us, and but we're also looking at in some other places, so yes.
Okay. There's a lot of interest about the largest customer, so maybe combining a little bit, and if there's anything you can say about the markets where the customer operates, in which countries and industries.
Yeah, if you look at that, they are quite diverse in that sense. They are working all over the world with where all their products are going. And there are many different industries, so in solar power and in recreational vehicles and have an array of applications where their products go to. So, they're quite diverse.
Okay, thank you. There's a question about the profitability of your business, and it seems that it's obvious that for you, the profitability has come from the Indian factory and mostly from the largest customer. How do you see the profitability going forward as the share of other factories rises compared to the Indian factory?
I think if you look, of course, during Q4, when we now are having the lowest volumes in that sense, then, of course, it will be challenging to maintain profitability on this level because we don't have full utilization. But I would say that it's rather a question of utilizing the resources we have than the pinpointing that one factor or another have more profitability. I think if you look in general, many companies are having a similar footprint as Incap has and are not main- or have not been able to maintain profitability on the same level. So there, I think the. How we run the business is talking for us.
But, of course, key is utilization, and Q4 will be very low volumes for us as we have also in the outlook shown. And there it will be tougher to defend the profitability on those high levels that we are used to in Incap.
Next question is about the inventory levels. How should we think of Incap's inventory going forward? Why is the inventory rising now, even though you know Q4 will materially slow down?
Yeah, I think Antti explained as well that, so we have the addition in inventory from our Pennatronics acquisition in the numbers. So, that question perhaps is not fully taking that into consideration.
How about, any plans for share repurchasing after the significant drop in stock price?
I think it's. Of course, share repurchasing is a good idea in that sense, in general, but we are still looking to on organic growth in most of our other accounts. We are actively looking and pursuing an acquisitions as well, and hopefully, this, I would say additional or I would say the cash position we have can be an asset in that moving forward. So, but, yeah, in principle, of course, it's not a bad idea, but we still want to turn it into growth again in that sense.
Okay. There are a couple of more questions only here, and they both relate still to this organic growth and details about it. So there's a question about the If you can inform about the organic growth in the quarter from other customers and included- not including Pennatronics, and if the 30% that you mentioned is this adjusted for Pennatronics?
In the 30% in the first nine months, then in those numbers, Pennatronics were included. But it's. If you look at pure organic growth from older accounts, I think there was over, yeah, in closer to just over 20%. And then you have included Pennatronics, you have the 30% number I was referring to in other growth in of other customers.
Okay, and then.
Was it so, Antti? So, were I correct, yes?
Yeah, that's the case.
Thank you.
All right. It looks like we have no more new questions online, unless somebody is there typing something, do it quickly. Otherwise, this was the, this was the last question.
But then, I would like to thank you as well, once again, for the interest. If you have more questions, then in Inderes forum, or you're welcome to still add them on there, and then we will, as usual, do a summary there and also on our webpage on the different questions we had here and are answering there. If no more questions, then thank you very much, guys, and see you next quarter.
Thank you.