Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Scanfil's Q3 2023 results call. My name is Pasi Hiedanpää. I'm the Director of Investor Relations and Communications at Scanfil. Today, with me, is the new CEO, Christophe Sut, for the first time, and our CFO, Kai Valo. A couple of practicalities: You can type in questions in the chat window, or you can actually raise your hand, and you will be given turn to ask verbally your questions. Questions will be addressed at the end of the presentation in a Q&A session. Thank you. Christophe Sut, please go ahead.
Thank you, Pasi. And thanks to all of you for joining us today and listening in. I am extremely proud and extremely pleased to represent Scanfil today, and to introduce you our third quarter. So I will suggest we get started. And starting, I wanted to share with you a few key events in Scanfil life during Q3. We have had quite a few happenings, but three I would like to highlight. We were all the management team during August in Suzhou, in China, with our top clients, presenting them our new implementation and development in the factory, where we have been driving automation and digitization.
And, we were very proud about it because it really makes of this factory one of the top factory that you can see, and we have got extremely positive feedback from our clients. So that was a very important moment. At the same time, we have carried on with the investment we announced earlier, and in Atlanta, we have now our first manufacturing facility and manufacturing capabilities for electronics. And that was also implemented during that quarter. So in different parts of the world, places of the world, a lot of things happened in Scanfil. Finally, there is one element I wanted to highlight. We also got an award from Carrier Global Corporation for our sustainability program.
And that's also something that was very pleasing because we have had, and I have had during my, my tour visiting clients during those first months, a lot of positive feedback on our sustainability program, and that's, that's something that is important to us. So all in all, quite a few happenings within the Scanfil world and a few very positive happenings. So, so very good. If we move forward and look now a little bit on our numbers, we had positive development when we look at our revenue, excluding spot market buy, where we landed at EUR 209 million with a growth of 9%, which is the real development and growth of the business.
When we reintegrate back, the purchase of spot market, then we are at 212, which gives an overall growth at 0.4%. All in all, it allowed us to land with a very positive development of our profit since we landed at EUR 15.2 million, which was growth of 32% versus last year, and then an operating margin at 7.2%, and finally, EPS of 0.17. What you can see on that slide is both a solid market performance and also a solid delivery performance with a good level of profitability in line with what we are promising the market. All in all, a solid quarter in terms of delivery.
If we move to the next slide. Here you can get a bit of a flavor on how Scanfil looks like at the end of this quarter. We are on a twelve-month basis, trending towards EUR 903 million revenue. We have 3,700 employees and a presence in three continents, in Asia, Americas, and obviously Europe, where we are very strong. So in terms of footprint, no major change, and we are obviously during this year continuing our growth journey. In terms of revenue, as I mentioned earlier, we had a total revenue of EUR 212 million, which was a strong delivery with a lower impact of purchase price if you com...
Of spot market price, if you compare to the third quarter last year, which was heavily impacted by spot market price. So it gave us a growth of the business of 9% when you look at the core of our activities and of our deliveries. And if you look at the impact on profitability, it resulted in a profitability of 7.2%, which is driven by a few factors. So obviously, the more we deliver from our core business and not just be transactional on buying components, it has a positive impact on our profit development. In the same time, you will see later, we have a rebalancing of our mix in terms of clients that is in a way helping us.
And also, we have been working with gain of productivity, where we have a very strong program when it comes to digitization and automation. So all those elements allowed us to for another quarter land above 7%... which was positive. Going to the next slide. On that slide, you can see the development of the different segment we have, and looking at the one that is now the most significant for us, Energy & Clean tech, grew significantly during the quarter, almost 40%. And that's driven by a very strong demand, and I will explain a little bit more later what this segment is built from, but we saw a very positive development.
We also had the positive development on Connectivity, where we have a couple of clients that are actually seeing a very strong development, but obviously that segment is a little bit smaller. Then Automation & Safety as well as Medtec were flattish during the quarter, but we still have a positive outlook on those two, and mainly on Medtech, where we have quite a few significant business opportunities that we have been working on during the quarter. So still confident on that one. And then finally, Advanced Consumer Applications was negative during the quarter. This is a mix of many different type of clients, so here you really get a mixed bag of some growing, some flat, some declining.
But what you can clearly see on that picture is, I would say two market segments where we have a growth path and a long-term good potential. Obviously, Energy & Clean tech being the driver there, being the one that has the strongest momentum and becoming very sizable. Moving to the next slide. On that slide you can see the same picture, but on a year-to-date basis. And as I was mentioning before, I mean, Energy & Clean tech is now 33% of our total revenue. It has had a growth versus last year of 40%, so we see a very strong momentum, and we see a long-term positive development driven by long-term trends on that one.
Another segment that is positive and developing in a good way is Medtec and Life Science, that on a year-to-date basis is still positive, 6.5%, and now weighing 17% of our revenue. And it's a segment where we have a mix of global leaders and very sizable companies and startups that are now taking off and building opportunities for the future. Then, if we look now a little bit more in detail on the Energy & Cleantech segment that I mentioned before, I think what is very interesting to see when you look at Scanfil is how broad is our portfolio on that segment. I mean, what we can see clearly is that there is an interest in the world for renewable energy, there is an interest in the world for recycling.
And to make that happen, it's many things that needs to happen, from producing the energy, transferring the energy, building tools and components that are allowing a lower energy consumption. And I think what is really good with the Scanfil portfolio is how we have built relationships with different players that allow us to have actually a quite a spread portfolio towards that specific segment. From recycling to energy storage, being also part of the renewable energy building, for example, drive for a windmill, et cetera. So we have a very broad portfolio, which help us to have this very significant growth, because you know the way things goes. Everything, when you have a transformation like the one we are living now, everything doesn't go in the same time, but overall, everything goes in a positive direction.
And when you have such a strong portfolio and such a diversified portfolio, you obviously even out and you benefit from it. So I think that's a very impressive portfolio that resulted in a very significant growth for Scanfil in that quarter and on a year-to-date basis also. If we move to the next slide, Pasi. I think that another positive impact of that development is also a rebalancing on our client portfolio. I mean, if we compare 2022 to 2023 Q3, you can see that now we have 13%-- Our biggest client is moved from 19% to 13% of our total revenue, and then the 10 biggest clients after that are now weighing 44% of our revenue.
which is a positive picture because we have a spread portfolio, but we have also a very solid player we work with, and people that are committed to Scanfil on a long-term basis, and where we have very long-term program with them, and we become as important to them, that they are important to us. So I think that picture and that rebalancing of the portfolio is something that is significant, and it's both rebalancing in terms of the type of industry, where we go further and further, faster and faster towards fast-growing industries, but also the number of clients that make the biggest chunk of our revenue, and the spread between them. Then, going back to our investment, we have presented that picture earlier in the year.
We continue with our investment in efficiency and capability. As I mentioned before, we have now up and running our new space for electronic manufacturing and system integration, which was positive. We have also started, as we announced during the Q2, the extension of our facilities in Sieradz in Poland. So, this project is now up and running, and, and, and, under the way. So, on the way. So, so that, that is positive. So, so we are just moving forward as, as we have communicated and, and as we are committed to also to, to support the growth of those new sectors and those new clients on the long term. Thanks, Pasi. I think that with that, I will hand over to Kai with the financials.
Thank you. And good morning also from my side. Here you can see, repeating a bit what Christophe was showing, the turnover development, last 3 years. What I want to also highlight is that it's nice to see the development now that the spot buy impact on the revenue is melting down and being very marginal in the Q3 of this year. So last year year to date, it was over EUR 60 million, EUR 66 million in total, and now we are EUR 50 million down. And revenue development overall has been good. A bit seasonality in Q3, could say, but then otherwise it's well developing.
If you go to next page, you can see the same operating profit, profit development. Again, want to maybe highlight the long-term, long-term development, that it's nice, nice, now that the company, after challenging times of the past couple of years, and we were handling those, we'd like to quite steady, 10 million quarterly, operating profit. Now, we have been, been on the level of about EUR 16 million in average in, in, in this year, which is... And, operating margin was then 7.2% or, and, and in average, 7%. You can go to next page, please. Here is the Q3 view with reporting or like a waterfall, report or with the comparison to previous, previous year.
And you can see on the right side is operating profit of this year, the quarter, and 7.2% and EUR 15.2 million. When in comparison to last year, it was EUR 11.5 million of operating profit and 5.4% of margin. Here is included the spot buys, almost EUR 20 million of last year and then EUR 3 million this year. But if you go to next page, here, those have been excluded, and then the view is a bit like a normal, more normal looking. Then you can see that when we start from the left, 2022 operating profit, then what are the steps to operating profit on the right side, EUR 15.2 million.
First of all, turnover has increased almost 10%, 9%, and overall, the production volume is higher by 10%, including some products on the transit at the end of the quarter. So we have 10% growth in the manufacturing volume, and at the same time, the cost has increased clearly less, and keeping in mind that the big share of our cost is variable or even material cost. So we have been doing that very good efficient way, the growth and being able to improve our profitability in between. Growth in the OP was over 30%, and here is the same view, including the spot buys.
Remembering the EUR 66 million last year spot buys and what is then EUR 50 million less in this year. The profitability growing from 32, 15 million, 16 million, up to EUR 48 million in this year, and operating margin same time from 5%-7%. If you go the next page, this is maybe better showing the view year to date than how significant organic growth we are talking about. It's about EUR 110 million organic growth in EUR, which is 20%. So this is really a big challenge for any company.
We are very proud of the way we have been able to handle the growth and, like, manage it, and that's shown in the profitability, EUR 15-16 million or so. And 50% growth in the profitability, if you compare them like euro figures. Next page, please. And here is the balance sheet. One of our big strength is the balance sheet, and it's getting stronger. Cash being EUR 14 million and could be less even that is not the target to keep cash in hands. However, then equity ratio, we are approaching now 50% equity ratio. And at the same time, then the indebtedness or gearing figure is getting down.
We are 33%, and it was over 10% higher a year ago. Inventories are slightly declining, not dramatically, but a bit. And the reason, of course, is that we are growing at the same time, year to date, 20% growth. So, the inventory turnover is significantly improving. And then working capital is a bit growing, like later can see from the cash flow as well, but that is coming from the accounts receivables, where we, of course, with the growth, are also growing. So that is like a normal development. Interest-bearing loans are declining. We have EUR 17 million less than we were a year ago.
And good to remember that this in the total figure of the interest bearing debt, we have, when I say, it includes EUR 20 million of leasing loans, which is kind of calculated from the factory rents, basically. Can step forward. And here is the cash flow. A strong positive cash flow. When you combine this net profit and adjustment, it's almost EBITDA, a little bit other adjustment related to financial items, but very close to that. And then when we change from the EBITDA, we change the working capital change EUR 20 million, like I said, that is mainly related to receivables, overall basically. And then we pay, of course, some interest, very reasonable level.
We have a very, very, very good, like a financing agreements, and the cost is reasonable accordingly. Tax is paid like a good taxpayer, and about 20% is our normal tax ratio. And then we have invested EUR 18 million our cash, so it leaves us still year to date EUR 16 million free cash flow, out of which we have paid the dividends EUR 13.5 million. So basically any cash going forward this year will fill the pockets and will be positive in our. Like, of course, there might be still some investment payments as well, but. And maybe it's now time for the last page.
Still wants to remind about also the good net profit development, 50% up, which is then, of course, connecting to earnings per share in same relation. And out of which, we target and been following the target pay dividends about one third to shareholders. And last but not least, is the return on equity %. And keeping in mind that equity has, equity ratio has increased significantly since last year, approaching 50%. We are still generating 21% return on the higher equity, which is very good level. And I think that the money has been in that... from that point of view, in good hands, making good return in Scanfil.
Thank you, and I hand over back to Christophe.
Thank you, guys. If we go to the key takeaways and outlook for the rest of the year, when we look at the quarter, we see that we have had a good profitability that has been driven by mainly operational efficiency. Operating margin for the first nine months is 7% and has been for the second month in a row above that at 7.2%. So, a positive, a solid delivery, I will say. We can see also that supply chain challenges have been fading away, which becomes positive for us and for the way we run our operation. So we are pleased with that, and it's a moment where we can focus on continue to build efficiency and continue to improve our factories.
We see also a very good opportunity long term, especially for the Energy & Cleantech and the Medtec & Life Science segment, where we have built a significant position, and it has also delivered within the quarter. And then finally, last but not least, I mean, we have had a cash flow from operations that has been clearly positive in the quarter. And you can also see that we are reducing our inventory level, and we are generating cash flow, which was a good development. So all in all, a quarter that was solid and positive.
When we look at our outlook, we gave guidance of revenue towards the end of the year between EUR 880 million and EUR 920 million, and the profit level that will be between EUR 60 million and EUR 66 million, which will be a record year for Scanfil. What we are keeping the focus on is obviously to continue to drive organic growth through the penetration of segment that we believe have a long-term future and a long-term positive outlook. I have spoken about one of them earlier today, which was Energy & Clean tech, but we value Med tec as well, on that sense. We are also working on efficiency of our factories for automation and digitization.
During the quarter, we had the launch of Suzhou. We are actually implementing similar program in those operation, and that's a focus area for the rest of the year. Then we have a very strong focus on maintaining our profitability within our long-term goal, and making sure that we deliver on a consistent basis on those targets. And then we'll continue to work on net working capital and inventory reduction that has shown a positive development, but we believe there is still improvement to be delivered going forward. So all in all, a positive outlook towards the end of the toward, well, the fourth quarter of the year, and a lot of activity that should make Scanfil stronger, and in this year that we were starting it.
With those words, I will hand over to you, Pasi, for Q&A.
Thank you. Thank you, Christophe, and thank you, Kai. We have a lot of questions actually via chat at the moment. Let's start from the first one. You adjusted your financial guidance somewhat down two weeks ago. Just a sec. Two weeks ago, after two upgrades. Is this related to change in demand outlook in one of or two of your biggest customers, or overall change in customer demand outlook? Today's report writes that Scanfil continues to rebalance its customer mix. Can you elaborate what that means? That's two separate questions. So is it the guidance change related to one or two biggest customers or overall? And then the other one was about the customer mix rebalancing, what does that mean?
I think that there is exactly two question. I mean, the first one on the change and what drove the change, I mean, we have a changing landscape and it impacts many things. The first things that I mentioned before is we are now getting back to a situation where PPV, and which is the one-time purchase, the purchase we do for extra components for clients, is becoming very small. Which is a good thing for us, because that's not something where we make money, but it's in one way, less revenue, but it's positive on the profit level. So that is one impact. Then the second impact we get is we have had readjustment from many of our clients, so it's not one or two biggest.
We have that a little bit all the time. I mean, we have clearly clients that are growing faster than they were expecting, some clients that are growing slower. That's why we make that change. But if you look at the change, in reality, it's a quite minor change. We had to adjust it because we are narrowing the windows, but the change is, in reality, pretty minor and still favoring a quite good development of our profit level, if you look at the adjustment of the profit.
Then, on the second question related to the customer mix, we have actually, as you saw on the slide that I presented earlier, a quite good rebalance within our top ten, eleven clients, where they are becoming more equal in size. And we believe it's very positive because it means that we have an exposure to different type of sub-segment. And one might go faster in growth, one might go a little bit lower, but it is a little bit more balanced. Then what is good is in this top clients, quite a big amount of them are clients that are acting in segments that are having a very positive long-term perspective.
I have been mentioning today and putting quite a bit of focus on Energy & Clean tech, and what we can see is this energy transition is going to happen. It's not going to happen in a year, it's going to happen on a much longer period, and that we are very positive about. And we can see that in the outlook of our, of those clients, and we can see that also in the development on their sales on that quarter. So I think that, yeah, the customer mix will continue to rebalance, and we believe that this sector will continue to grow faster than the other sectors. And I think that's the truth for our industry in general. It will happen for all the people in our industry that have those client.
Then the chance we have is we have quite many of them, and they are leader in their field, or they are big player in their field. So I think that's very positive.
Okay. Thank you, Christophe. Regarding the same matter, what are the main customer segments adjusting their inventories? So trying to get into which are the kind of affected the most regarding the destocking.
I think that on that one, I think that we can, we cannot point one customer segment. I will say, within customer segment, you get sub-segment, and you get different clients that run operation differently. So I will say we don't have a pattern that say, "Okay, there is one that totally, totally destocked." I think there is many that are adjusting in different direction. And I think it's an overall trend that maybe we can see at the end of this year, people trying to get back on cash flow, then some have stocked a bit more than others. So but, but there is not a trend per segment, it's more per client basis that, that this is happening.
... Okay. Visibility obviously is one of the key questions what the investors currently have. What is your visibility for customer orders in... Is it some 3-9 months forward? We used to have actually quite long visibility during the semiconductor prices. Thanks.
Mm-hmm. So, on the visibility element, I mean, we have a long-term contract with our biggest client. And then, they obviously purchase component based on the long-term forecast that can, in average, I would say, are on a six-month basis. And then they can make adjustment on that period, because they need to also match their demand. They might win big project that they are not foreseen. So, I would say that we have a quite good visibility on the coming six months. Then after that, I mean, it can obviously, the more you go, the less it gets, it gets fine-tuned. But for now, that's what we can say about the future, I would say.
Yeah. About actually, we have guided now the midpoint of EUR 900 million for this year's revenue, and there's a question regarding how do we see actually the net sales in growth in the next year? So are you able to keep net sales in a growth mode in next year?
I mean, as we reiterated, we have now guided between EUR 880 and EUR 920 for 2023, which we believe is a realistic target for the coming year—for the coming quarter. We also believe, and that's reiterated by everyone, that the average growth of our industry is between 5% and 7%. And that on the long-term cycle, we should be able to grow a bit faster because of the customer portfolio we have. Then next year is a bit early. As I said, if you mix the question of the visibility and the time we are in the year, it's still a little bit of time towards the end of next year.
I, I think that we will elaborate more on that one when we meet you again during February next year.
Okay. Thank you. Question regarding the growth, actually, still, if and we do not disclose our view for 2024 at this point, like you mentioned, but what is our view regarding the industry growth for 2024, approximately some kind of a guesstimate?
I think on that one, I think the answer is a bit the same. I think that for now, I think it's still a bit early to give an estimate on the overall industry. I mean, the overall industry includes a lot of segment where we are actually not part of, like automotive, like consumer goods, and where we actually have no strong opinion about and have no impact on them. So I would say the overall EMS industry is partly relevant to us, but it's not the key factors, and it's a bit early to give or anyone an opinion. But I would also say that for the overall industry, we are maybe not that dependent of the total. I mean, some of those segments we are not acting into.
Question regarding the growth view. When did you begin to see demand getting a bit softer, as you mentioned in the profit warning? Could you comment on month-on-month demand development after this moment? Of course, we do not actually comment anything, at the moment. How do we see it currently for the-
Yeah
for this month, for example, but
If you see, I mean, we adjusted the... The process is very straightforward. We adjusted our guidance as soon as we had aggregated data that let us think that the landing will be slightly different, and it was just a few weeks ago. So, I think the picture that we had at that time is the picture we have still today. So, there is no big news that have happened since. So, we are still on the same page.
Obviously, I now see that there are, there are some growth opportunities as well, despite these gloomy questions. What are the main products offering the best growth currently?
I think that on that one, and I'm not sure I understand the question there, but on that one, obviously, our manufacturing services are developing well. We have a very strong performance both from our PCBA manufacturing and our system integration. And we have, and is driven by a few customer segment that are the one I presented before and that are available within the energy sector. Then we cannot tell you which client is the one that is super successful with his IP and developing his sales very fast. I think that maybe we should not disclose.
But I think obviously, I mean, you can see the customer segments that are driving that growth, and it's basically both PCBA manufacturing and system integration that we are actually growing, at this point in time.
Yeah, actually, maybe I should have read the whole question already, because it was regarding how long the good demand will remain for heat pumps when the lower power prices, when the, I would assume, electricity prices has come down or, yeah, energy prices has come down.... So it was kind of a specified more or less into Energy & Clean tech segments. So what's-
Yeah.
Which are the main drivers in that segment?
Yeah, I think I can answer that. I mean, and I think obviously, you will be listening to the focus player of that field, and they will confirm. But what is clearly seen is that it's a long-term trend to move towards lower energy consumption and clean energy. So this transition is not a one-year transition, it's a long-term transition, and it will have a positive development over many years, and make it up and will take many years. I mean, you need to—we need to realize that we cannot change the whole world and all the heating system in one year in the world.
It's a very long-term transition that is on its way, and that is going to continue, and the impact of it will be a growth for the coming years. So, it's a very long-term transition. We are very positive to it.
That's why it's called transition. Is there any improvement seen in China in the short term?
I think for now, we have a solid performance from our operation in China. It's driven by two elements. One is the modernization we have had in our factory that I presented earlier, that guarantee us a very good tool on the Chinese market to deliver on time with good quality, at good price level. So it allow us to have a good performance. And then, because we have good collaboration with our global clients on the Chinese market, we continue to work on new projects. So we focus on growing our clients there and making sure that they're happy and that they give us more projects, which is the best way for us to move forward.
But a good performance and good project in the pipeline there.
About the strategy and speeding up the strategy, any update on how your M&A prospects pipeline might look like?
Thanks for the question. On the strategy, I mean, we have started to work with the management team and the board on updating our strategy. I will say at this point in time, I've also spent quite a lot of time to understanding Scanfil and meeting our clients, meeting our sites. And that will result on an update that we will be able to communicate Q1 next year, and that update will obviously include our position towards M&A and how we want to move forward with that element. So, we're actually looking forward to be able to get into more detail on that beginning of next year.
Yeah. From another analyst regarding the strategy, as well, going more into the teams, what are the key teams that you are looking, will be looking at in the strategy update?
I think that when it comes to maybe my view on that business and on EMS business, I think there is a couple of things. I think the efficiency is an important element. It is key. Our business is, in a way, not very complicated. We need to deliver on time, good quality, at the right price. So obviously, efficiency of our tools and our factories is something that we will always look at and see how we move forward and take steps to improve that. Then the second element is: how do we focus our commercial effort on market segment where we can generate growth and where we have a competitive edge?
Because there are needs that are complex enough that we can support them with those needs and show our added value. So that's really something that we are putting focus on. One side is our operational efficiency, the second side is how we can grow our revenue and have the right focus there.
Okay, thank you. Just a second. I will check if there are any more questions. To check if somebody has actually raised their hand. No hands raised, so yeah, we can start to close the meeting. Would you like to say a couple of words still, Christophe?
Yeah. Thank you. I want to thank you all for listening today and spending your time looking at Scanfil. We really appreciate. We believe that we had a solid quarter, and as I said, that the long-term perspective for Scanfil is positive, and that we are well positioned with the client portfolio we have today for the future. So thank you very much, and we wish you all a good day.
Okay. Thank you from my side as well. Thank you. Goodbye.