Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Valmet's Q3 2022 result publication and webcast. My name is Pekka Rouhiainen. I'm the head of investor relations at Valmet, and speakers today will be the President and Chief Executive Officer, Pasi Laine, as well as our new Chief Financial Officer, Katri Hokkanen. After the presentations, you will have the chance to ask questions over the phone lines. Now without further ado, Pasi, please go ahead.
Thank you, Pekka, and welcome Katri. Headline today is that orders received increased to EUR 1.2 billion and comparable EBITDA to EUR 136 million in the third quarter. First I'll go through the quarter in brief, then some words about segments and business lines. Katri will go through financial development and I'll summarize guidance and short-term market outlook. First, the third quarter in brief. Like I said, orders received increased to EUR 1.2 billion. Net sales increased to EUR 1.3 billion. Our backlog amounted to EUR 4.7 billion and comparable EBITDA increased to EUR 136 million, and margin was 10.5%. Gearing in the end of the period was 18%.
About 47% of the orders came or net sales came from process technologies, services contributed to 30%, and 23% came from automation segment. Roughly half and half. Geographically, Europe was 35%, North America 20%, the rest coming from South America, China, Asia Pacific. Nothing abnormal here. In the end of the period we employed about 17,500 people. Orders increased, like I said, up to about EUR 1.2 billion, and the trend is now such that first, if you have the LTM, last twelve months, the trend is close to EUR 5 billion. Here we have also the geographical split of the orders in this year and the split is quite traditional. Europe about 40%, North America 23%.
Asia Pacific has been active, 16%. China, quite active, 14%. South America this time not as active, corresponding to 7% of the order intake. Our stable business has been the topic for us. In the beginning of Valmet, our orders received in services was about EUR 1 billion. Services order intake has been growing organically and with some acquisition from EUR 1 billion- EUR 1.7 billion. Nice growth track record. First we bought Automation Systems, and then later on we merged with Neles, and now the order intake of automation segment in last six months is EUR 877 million. Meaning that the LTM for the stable business is about EUR 2.6 billion, and this includes only half-year Flow Control.
This is the big change that has taken place in Valmet from EUR 1 billion to now EUR 2.6 billion. If you calculate the Flow Control for the full year, it's of course some hundred millions more. Nice development. Our backlog in the end of the period was almost EUR 4.7 billion. This time we are not telling how much we estimate to be recognized as revenue in this quarter, but all in all, the backlog is almost EUR 4.7 billion. 60% is related to Process Technologies, 25% to Services, and 15% to Automation. Some words about the business lines and segments. First, Services. Orders received continued to grow nicely. Our orders received in first three quarters have been EUR 1,338 million.
Last year it was EUR 1.094 billion. Nice growth. Net sales has been growing also from EUR 947 million- EUR 1.101 billion, so nice growth on both ones. Our EBITDA percentage last year was 14.1% and this year 12.9%. We still of course have a lot of work to turn the EBITDA percentage to the level where it was last year. Katri will come back to the quarterly numbers later on, but cumulatively we are now 1.2% behind last year. Euro-wise, we are ahead. Last year we made EUR 133 million, and this year we have made EUR 142 million.
Nice growth in backlog, orders received, nice growth in net sales and profitability percent-wise could have been better. Automation segment. This includes now half a year Flow Control and Automation Systems of course for the whole year. Orders received in the segment has been EUR 758 million, net sales EUR 676 million, and our EBITDA from the segment has been EUR 112 million. Last year, profitability cumulatively EBITDA, and that included only automation system, was 15.4%, and now EBITDA percentage has been 16.6%. Of course, during the coming six months, we will have a full year here in automation segment numbers as well. This tells what the size of automation segment is and what is the profitability. Good development in automation segment.
Flow Control started well. Last year in Neles times, orders were about EUR 300 million, now EUR 387 million, so nice growth. Also net sales has been growing from EUR 308 million- EUR 360 million. We are happy with the merger. We are happy with the performance of Flow Control. Integration is going as planned, and the atmosphere in legacy environment and new environment is very good and supportive of the Flow Control business. We are happy with the progress and the attitude of the personnel and management in Flow Control. Automation Systems business, orders received increased to EUR 371 million in year-to-date numbers. Last year it was EUR 347 million. Net sales has been increasing also from EUR 252 million- EUR 317 million.
Nice growth in automation numbers as well. Process technologies, this is the segment including pulp and energy and paper. Orders received was about EUR 1.7 billion last year, EUR 2.2 billion. There is fluctuation in the order intake of this segment. Net sales last year was about EUR 1.5 billion, this year about EUR 1.7 billion, no, EUR 1.75 billion. I'll come back to the net sales development on business line numbers separately. Profitability last year was EUR 130 million and 8.5%, and this year, EUR 107 million and 6.1%. We have some challenges in selected pulp and energy projects, like we were saying, in the end of last quarter as well.
We have logistics cost overruns, we have inflation challenges, and of course we have some delays also in some of the projects due to the COVID. Some challenges and in some selected small projects in Pulp and Energy, we have also not performed as well as we should have been. That's where the delta comes from. Pulp and Energy and selected projects have been impacted. Of course we work on the topics to turn the trend to better direction. Pulp and Energy order intake has been about EUR 792 million, last year, EUR 922 million. There is lumpiness in the order intake. Net sales this year, EUR 798 million, and last year, EUR 720 million.
LTM revenue is about EUR 1.1 billion, and LTM order intake is about EUR 1 billion. Otherwise, good development, but then some challenges in some selected projects. Paper business line orders EUR 921 million, last year, almost EUR 1.3 billion. Like we were saying last year, last year was an exception. The business activity was exceptional last year. We are happy with the order intake of this year, so EUR 921 million is very good order intake level for the unit. Net sales has been improving as well, so last year, EUR 817 million, and this year, EUR 959 million. LTM net sales wise is almost EUR 1.3 billion, and LTM order intake is almost EUR 1.3 billion. We are very happy with the performance of paper.
Taking into account that paper's production unit, big one had some challenges due to lockdown in the second quarter in China, and that has, of course, impacted operations. We had also the fire in Rautpohja, which has impacted operations. Paper business line has been operating very well, taking into account all the challenges they have had. Good. That was quick summary of segments and business lines. Now I let Katri come first time here to the stage. Welcome, Katri.
Thank you, Pasi. My name is Katri Hokkanen. As Pasi said, first time here, I'm really happy about it. I will now go through the financial development regarding the third quarter. About the key figures. As you heard, the order intake for the second quarter was at EUR 1.2 billion level. Net sales was at the level of EUR 1.3 billion, and our comparable EBITDA was EUR 136 million. All of these numbers increased compared to last year. Our comparable EBITDA percentage was 10.5% for the quarter, and that was 0.9 percentage points lower than a year ago. When looking at the year-to-date numbers, order intake was at EUR 3.8 billion level. That is 4% ahead of last year.
Our backlog is at the level of EUR 4.7 billion being 11% higher than a year ago, and net sales is at the level of EUR 3.5 billion, and that is 29% ahead of last year. Our comparable EBITDA was EUR 337 million, and that was 20% higher than a year ago, but same story here than with the quarterly numbers. EBITDA percentage is 9.5%, and that is 0.8 percentage points lower than a year ago. We also have now new performance measure now in the chart called adjusted earnings per share. This we already had for the second quarter, and we have taken the amount coming from the business combinations out, and the adjusted EPS was EUR 1.56 year to date, and that is 11% higher than a year ago.
The traditional EPS was 1.25 EUR. A few words about segment key figures. As said, year to date, we are at 3.8%-4% ahead of last year. Services is at the level of EUR 1.3 billion, and that is 22% higher than a year ago. If we take FX impact out, services growth is roughly 16%, and our estimation is that roughly half of that is related to cost inflation and half is related to organic growth. Automation segment order intake was at the level of EUR 760 million. That has doubled compared to last year, and that is because we have now two quarters of Flow Control in our numbers.
Process technologies year to date, EUR 1.7 billion, and that is some 20% behind last year. That was the order intake. Moving to the net sales, starting from services. Services was at the level of EUR 1.1 billion. Automation is roughly on the EUR 680 million level, and process technology is close to EUR 1.8 billion. All of these have increased compared to last year. Few words about the comparable EBITDA for the quarter first. Services was at the level of 14.3%, and you all remember that the first quarter was low. It was 9.6%, and then the second quarter was 14.2%.
When we look at the full year numbers, services is now at the level of 12.9%, and that is 1.1 percentage points below last year. Automation segment, the EBITDA percentage for the quarter was 17.6%, and year to date, we are at 16.6%, and that is 1.2 percentage points higher than a year ago. On the process technology, the quarter was 5.8%. Year to date, we are at 6.1%, and that is 2.4 percentage points behind last year. Even if the net sales has increased and the EBITDA in EUR millions have increased, unfortunately our profitability in terms of EBITDA is below last year's numbers. Regarding gross profit and SG&A.
Our gross profit was at the level of EUR 1.1 billion when looking at the last twelve months, and the percentage has gone down from last year's 25%- 24%. Our SG&A has increased. Last year, we were at the level of EUR 600 million, and now when looking at the last twelve months, we are at EUR 774 million or 16%. Of course here the biggest reason is coming from Flow Control. Also on top of that, we are impacted by FX. We have more travel expenses and we also have more people in SG&A. Regarding the comparable margin development. The trends have been looking really nice over the years. Last year, our net sales was at the level of EUR 3.9 billion.
Now when looking at the last twelve months, we are at 4.7%. There has been growth in the net sales. When we look at the comparable EBITDA margin, last year from 10.9%, we are now down to 10.2%. Of course, this is going to the wrong direction. We have to continue to work really hard to get this back on track and to be aligned with our financial target, which is to be between 12%-14% in comparable EBITDA. Cash flow. For the quarter, the cash flow was EUR 115 million. When looking at the last twelve months, we are at the level of EUR 146 million, and that has decreased from last year.
The reason for that is coming from the Flow Control, and also we have increased our inventories. Net working capital at the end of Q3 was -EUR 265 million or 5% of the rolling twelve months orders. It's really important to understand that the whole profile of our net working capital has now changed after Flow Control became part of us. In the past, we have been saying that net working capital is roughly -11% of our rolling twelve months orders. Now we have estimated that together with Flow Control, the number is -7%. Our net debt came down from the second quarter, and now it was EUR 428 million, and our gearing was 18%. Our equity to asset ratio is 47%.
Capital employed, also this number has changed quite a lot from last year. When looking at the last twelve months, our capital employed is at the level of EUR 3.3 billion, and our comparable return on capital employed was at the level of 16%. Even if it has come down from previous years' levels, it's important to remember that this is aligned with our financial targets. There we say that the comparable growth should be at least 15%. A few words about the adjusted EPS still. As mentioned earlier, we have now this new metrics second time in our numbers. When looking at the last twelve months, the adjusted EPS was EUR 2.23, and that has increased compared to last year's EUR 2.09.
Those were the financials, so I will give the floor back to Pasi. Thank you.
Thank you, Katri. Now it's time for guidance and short-term market outlook. The guidance we keep as it has been. We estimate that including the merger with Neles, net sales in 2022 will increase in comparison with 2021, and comparable EBITDA 2022 will increase in comparison with 2021. No change in guidance. Short-term market outlook in services, like you have seen, order intake has been good, so we have all the reasons to keep the outlook as good. Like you remember, about half comes from market activity, half from the work utilization what we have. In automation, in flow controls, all the reasons to say that the market is good or the outlook is good. Systems outlook is good, like it has been previous as well.
In pulp, we keep the same as earlier, so good to satisfactory. We have units which have very heavy workload and good market activity, and then a couple business units, or one business unit where the market activity hasn't been that good or we haven't been successful enough in getting the orders. Good and satisfactory continues to be our market outlook for pulp. In energy, market has been good and, market activity continues to be good. Board and paper, the same. Like you have seen, order intake is at a good level, not as good as last year, but still, too, comparing to our capability to deliver, it's a good level. Tissue continues to be at the satisfactory level like it has been the whole year. That's the summary of guidance and short-term market outlook.
So...
All right. Thank you. Thank you, Pasi. Now we are ready to move on to the Q&A session. If Katri will also move here behind the table.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Antti Kansanen from SEB. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, guys. It's Antti from SEB. Couple of questions from me. Firstly, on Europe and the energy situation over there. What are you seeing through your service business regarding your clients taking potential downtime? Any impacts or any risks that you would like to flag? And also, what are you seeing through your suppliers? Any signs of them struggling or raising prices that you need to pay?
Yeah. That's, Antti, very good question. Like we all know, of course, the energy prices are now high especially in the middle of Europe. Some of our customers, the ones who are relying on gas, on the energy supply, they suffer with the costs. Some of them have taken downtime because of the costs. Some of course, the ones who are relying on biomass or waste to energy, they don't have the same price pressure, so actually they can continue to produce with the normal levels. We haven't seen any change in our service order intake yet because of that. No impact yet. What kind of impact it can have? It can have of course two-way impact.
If the production volume stays at low level then the demand from consumables starts to decline. From the other perspective, the demand for our customers has been quite good for some time, so it can be also that customers are using now the downtime to make some modifications to their production assets. We haven't seen yet what's the full impact. On suppliers, we of course are monitoring it very carefully. We haven't seen yet any impact on pricing, and then of course, like everybody else, we are also looking for supplies which would be coming from somewhere else than Middle East if possible.
All right. Fair enough. Second question to Katri, and also, welcome to this call from my behalf. If you look at your balance sheet, and it's obviously changed a little bit, after the Neles transaction, but your earnings generation should be more stable as well. How should we think about kind of sustainable net debt or leverage levels that you are comfortable with your balance sheet?
Yeah. If I start from the balance sheet, of course now after Neles became part of us, the balance sheet value has increased. The sum is EUR 6.55 billion. It has increased. We had debt now after the Neles merger, our gearing went from 22%-18%. Of course we are carefully looking at the situation. We have been discussing about the topic and I think it's really important to be alert and with the rising interest situation and those kind of things. Our treasury work organization is working hard on the topic or keeping it under control.
Yeah, sure. You don't have any kind of a net debt to EBITDA or a gearing percentage in mind that you wouldn't like to go over?
I think we are now on a very good level. I think that's fair to say. We don't have any limits, we haven't set any limit for that.
Like you want to know our gearing before the merger was sometimes -20 and sometimes almost +30, and we have been comfortable in changing the gearing between those numbers. Now of course one could think of that gearing numbers could be a little bit more aggressive, but we still think that it's good to have good balance sheet and good strong company because you never know what kind of disturbances there are in front of us in the future.
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Then kind of continuing with that theme, if we think about dividends and your payout rate, right, is there a new kind of adjusted EPS, something that we should look when we kind of assess the payout ratio or just the reported net profit?
We have had the policy to pay over 50% and like, you know, our track record has been to pay a little bit more. Of course, we can't give any guidance yet what kind of thoughts we have. Track record has been that we have been paying a little bit more than the policy is saying.
All right. Thank you.
The next question comes from Panu Laitinmäki from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you. It's Panu Laitinmäki from Danske Bank. I have two questions both on margins. Firstly, on the services business, it kind of went down again after Q2 where you went back to normal. Can you kind of explain what is going on there and kind of what do you see going forward? When can you mitigate the inflation? Secondly, on the process technologies, we saw a sequential improvement from Q2. Is this kind of the way to go for the coming quarters or how do you see this developing with the problem projects that you have mentioned? Thanks.
No. I think in services, first quarter, like Katri said, first quarter was not that good. Second quarter was a little bit better, but then I think we tried to communicate that actual was 1% below last year, and now we are 1.2% below the last year. Third quarter continued the trend where we were after the second quarter. Of course, like Katri said also, we are not happy with the profitability development. Our head of business line, Aki, is working very hard on the topic together with the area colleagues. We have had too much delay in pushing the increasing inflation to our sales prices and that has taken a little bit too long time, but I'm sure that Aki is working on the topic.
Of course, we can't give any estimates when we will see a positive change, but we work on the topic. On process technology. If you look the process technology segment, profitability numbers last year, you will see that there is some fluctuation. There is still and there will be always some fluctuation in the EBITDA percentage, so it's not that like a train that stays all the time the same level. We are below in the profitability and when we are below of last year's profitability due to the some selected projects in Pulp and Energy like we have been saying. There the same, you can't take one quarter and think that it's a trend so we have to look a little bit longer terms when analyzing the numbers.
Thanks. Can I ask on the process technology? Would you think that going into next year you would have kind of digested the impact from these projects, or is it something that will burden for a longer time?
We haven't given estimates for the segment, so then it's very difficult to answer your question. If I start from that level that our target is to make 12 points, and we are not at the 12 points, so then of course process technology, automation services segment all have to improve for us to reach the target.
All right. Thanks.
The next question comes from Sven Weier from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon. It's Sven from UBS. I have a few questions, if I may. The first one is on the pulp business, and I was wondering if you could go in a little bit more detail into the leadership changes you've made over the last coming months, and whether that also implies a general strategy change in pulp. I'm just wondering, especially with regards to your strategy on greenfield mills, given that, I mean, it looks quite likely that also in the future these projects will be quite sizable and whether you deem them in general a bit too risky. That's the first one. Thank you.
Sure. We have been developing the leadership team all the time and now, first of all, well, Bertel has been doing good work seven years in running pulp business, Pulp and Energy. It's a tough place to be in. We have at the same time been developing Sami, who has very good track record in automation. We saw the possibility that Bertel would focus on the topics where he's very strong, so customer contacts and customer caring of big customers. At the same time, have a smooth transition so that Sami will take over the business line leadership. The change has gone well. Bertel is doing very good work. Sami is doing good work.
I'm happy with the change. We are not. That has nothing to do with the strategy change. We keep the same strategy and now we have fresh blood in executing the strategy. Greenfield, I have been careful with the very big greenfield projects in South America. Like I have been saying earlier, that might be that now when Valmet is a strong company having so big, stable business, we have very good track record in executing the projects in South America. Might be that we are willing in coming years to take little bit more risk than what we have had earlier.
Okay. Thank you for that, Pasi. The second question is on the board side, please. I mean, obviously we saw now two quarters where the order intake was a bit weak. Of course, the comp is tough. The outlook is still good. I was just wondering, I mean, is the unchanged outlook good predominantly because you still have a very high load for the quarters and maybe years to come? Whereas, you know, the new order activity continues to be slow or how should we look at that situation?
I think first of all, the paper business line order intake has been now EUR 921 million. Then when we had order intake was EUR 1 billion, we said that it's very good level. The whole year last year, we were saying that this level of orders coming in was extraordinary. This EUR 1.6 billion was something which in a way is even too high comparing to our capacity. Now if you see that our net sales is at somewhere at EUR 1.3 billion level, so 1.6 billion means almost three months more backlog in a year. Of course, that kind of situation cannot continue. I see that the market activity and our order intake in the beginning of the year has been actually good.
The comparison period was extremely good, but EUR 921 million is good level for the paper business line.
Okay, good. Thank you, Pasi. Maybe one for Katri and also welcome from my side. It's just on the receivables, because we saw a bit of a sequential drop from over EUR 800 million to below EUR 700 million, which I think seasonally is a little bit unusual. Could you just walk us through what happened on the receivables? Thank you.
In my opinion, the receivable, it varies between the quarters and it varies between the months, so there was nothing extraordinary in that change.
It's been a normal receivable collection, no factoring or something like that?
I would say that we are doing good job with the receivable collection overall. That's how we are working all the time in all the businesses.
Okay. Sounds good. Thank you both.
Thank you, Sven.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Johan Eliasson from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Johan at Kepler Cheuvreux. Hi, Pasi. I had a question really to Katri actually on this comment about services order intake 16% currency adjusted roughly half on price. What was the price in the sales in the quarter so we can get a feeling for how the prices are catching up with the inflation and then how will it pan out in the coming quarter? Thank you.
Well, the trend of course I think it's very positive first of all that we have been able to increase the prices and of course that there has been the organic growth. Eventually you will see also that trend in the net sales as well. I would say that it goes both ways.
Yes, didn't you have any price hikes in the sales?
As said, we have of course increased the prices, so that comes then through also in the net sales when services is doing the invoicing and sending the goods. When we increase the prices and when we deliver then that is visible there as well. Both order intake and net sales there was a good increase.
At this 8% level for both?
We now commented only for the order intake, but you can calculate it from that.
Okay. Excellent. That's all I have. Thank you very much.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
I assume it was a robot and not a lady this time.
Yes, Pasi, that's the correct observation. We're now ready to conclude the event, and I'd like to remind everybody about our upcoming events. Of course, the financial statements, i.e., the Q4 will be released on the second of February. Before that, we will have a site visit to Flow Control site in Hakkila, Finland. Hopefully everybody who are interested are already registered to that event. If not, please remember to do it. Save the date also for the Capital Markets Day. That's gonna take place on the March 8th, 2023 here in Espoo, Finland. Yeah, I guess that's all from our side. Thank you Pasi and Katri and everybody for the questions and have a nice rest of the day.
Thank you.