Good morning, and welcome to the AAK Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing Star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Johan Westman. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Q3 earnings call. Together with me today, I have our CFO, Tomas Bergendahl, and we will give you some highlights and information about the third quarter for AAK. As you see in the agenda, we'll cover some information on Q3 key events, financial updates, and then concluding remarks. After that, as usual, we are happy to take any questions that you might have. With that, let's move into page three. I think it's clear to everyone, we are operating in a global setup, and we have, like many other companies, experienced a time of extreme uncertainty and volatility. Nevertheless, despite this, we, AAK, we continue to navigate well. We have delivered a strong result for the third quarter.
Our operating profit is up by 28%, supported by a favorable FX or currency effects, but still up 5% at local currency or fixed FX. Our volumes are down slightly, but at the same time, our margin, our operating profit per kilo is up by 34% or 10% at fixed currency rates. Volumes were impacted by our exit out of Russia, and also by our optimization or product portfolio management within bakery. We are focusing on really delivering a value creation on contract management and to continue to drive our operating profit per kilo, our margin, to improve that towards a higher margin level. Now let's move into some further comments on the volume development and also then on our business areas. On page four, just to give you some further insight through the volume development.
We can see here clearly that when we compare to last year, our exit out of Russia has a significant impact when you look at it like for like or quarter-over-quarter. It's a slight reduction in Food Ingredients, an improvement in Chocolate and Confectionery Fats, and a slight decrease in Technical Products & Feed, the business area, the third business area. Just a few comments on each one of them. Within Food Ingredients, we continue to optimize our bakery portfolio. That's really a classic product management, portfolio management play, where we have been successfully improving the margin over time, but with that, also reducing some volume over time. We've also seen a slight reduction within candle waxes, which had a positive boost a bit by COVID, where we saw in some markets more candles being bought during the COVID period.
There is still a good underlying trend, but a correction, call it, or more back to normal from COVID. Within Chocolate and Confectionery Fats, it's a strong momentum, and we have a strong position. I'll come back to that, later in the call. Within Technical Products and Feed, it's really a combination of a few things where we have actually used some volume internally. Instead of selling it, as biofuel, we have used it internally for generating power. In essence, shifting sales volume into internal use for better cost optimization and also a slightly lower feed production than normal. With that, we move on into the business areas or first, some key highlights. We have, during the quarter, invested in new technology.
As AAK, we continue to drive technology development also partly by investing or taking an M&A approach to improving our technology base. One example is our investment into Green-On, a so-called Power-to-X solution with the possibility to produce edible oils and fats out of CO₂, renewable energy, and water. We've also successfully renewed and expanded our financing or debt facility base, including a green bond for our investment in Aarhus, where we are building bio boilers to significantly reduce our CO₂ footprint and also optimize our cost for generating power for our plant. With that, now into the business areas, starting with Food Ingredients. We continue to deliver a strong margin expansion with operating profit growing 9% year-on-year at fixed FX. It's 28%, including favorable FX, but really a 9% improvement of the margin.
Volumes are down, but that's mainly due to the exit out of Russia and the continued focus on the product portfolio optimization that I mentioned earlier within bakery. All in all, profit is up by 23% reported or 4% at fixed FX. Apart from the continued improvement of margins within bakery, we can now also see a positive year-on-year improvement with our results in Special Nutrition, which is really positive to see. With that, we're moving into the next page seven, and Chocolate and Confectionery Fats. The very strong momentum in Chocolate and Confectionery Fats continued also in the third quarter. This in spite of us leaving Russia, which is a significant Chocolate and Confectionery Fats market. Volumes are up 1% reported, but if we compare it in a like-for-like manner, excluding Russia, our volumes are up 11% year-on-year.
Really a strong development within this sector. Our operating profit is up 38% reported or 1% at fixed FX. In that 1%, we have also Russia impacting negatively by 30%. All in all, a few things moving, but really the underlying performance is really strong and we report a strong result in a like for like manner excluding Russia. Continuing into page eight, Technical Products and Feed. Another solid quarter for this business area. Our operating profit per kilo is up and our operating profit is up. All in all, a good development. The volumes are down, but as I mentioned before, that is partly due to internal use of volume instead of selling it and partly a lower feed volume.
Really a continued strong momentum in increasing our margin, which is up by 54% when looking at it at operating profit per kilo, and that resulting in an operating profit being up by 36%. With that, I hand it over to our CFO, Tomas.
Thank you, Johan, and good morning, everyone, and continuing on slide nine. As you can see, the drop in raw material prices that we saw at the end of Q2 continued into Q3, with palm oil now below $1,000 per metric ton, down by almost 50% from the peak in early Q2. As mentioned previously, changes in raw material prices impact working capital and capital employed. As a note, a 10% change in raw material prices, all else equal, will affect the working capital by about SEK 700 million, plus or minus. Moving to slide ten. The quarter generated a slight negative operating cash flow of SEK 40 million. Working capital continues to be negatively impacted by higher raw material prices given the six months to nine months lag that we've mentioned before.
Interest cost has increased quarter-over-quarter, driven by increased working capital interest rates and increased borrowing in high interest rate countries. This was offset by a positive effect from the hyperinflation reporting related to Turkey, that we did in the quarter, both Q2 and Q3 as well. CapEx ended up at SEK 263 million, and now year to date, SEK 750 million, which is in line with the guidance that we provided before for the full year of a CapEx spend, just north of SEK 1 billion, which we now reiterate. Please also bear in mind the six to nine months lag between changes in raw material prices and its impact on working capital.
Given this timeline, we expect a continued negative impact on cash flow for the remainder of 2022. Moving on to slide 11. Return on capital employed is down by 0.2% from Q2, ending up at 14.8%. We expect this slight downward trend to continue into Q4, given the time lag between raw material price increases and its effect on working capital. Slide 12. As you can see, net debt over EBITDA reduced slightly from just above 2% to 1.96%, which is mainly driven by the improvement in profitability. Slide 13. We're pleased to announce that Carl Ahlgren has been appointed the new head of investor relations and corporate communications, effective 28th of October.
Carl Ahlgren replaces interim consultant Johan Holmqvist, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Johan for his dedicated service during the past six months. Carl Ahlgren has been with Novozymes for the past nine years, the last three years as investor relations officer stationed in New York. Slide 14. Last but not least, I would like to remind everyone of our upcoming Capital Markets Day in Stockholm on the 29th of November. The day will start at 12:30 P.M with presentations and end as scheduled no later than 5:00 P.M. It is a hybrid event for the first time in AAK history. Registration ends at November 22. With that, back to you, Johan.
Thank you, Tomas. Into page 15, just some final concluding remarks from myself. We still see, of course, challenges and uncertainties around us. We face that in quarter three, and we will continue to navigate. We have navigated well through COVID, through inflation, uncertainty, and of course, an ongoing war in Europe. AAK is well-positioned to manage risk and to manage opportunities that lay ahead of us. Although we do expect high inflationary pressure and a demanding macroeconomic climate to stay there, to continue, we still stay confident, and we see no reason to adjust our view on the favorable underlying trends that impacts our markets. With that, we do remain prudently optimistic when looking ahead, and we are committed to living our purpose of making better happen. With that, we are happy to take questions on the third quarter and the development of AAK, both myself and Tomas.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Alexander Jones of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks very much for taking my questions. Two, if I may. The first, just on chocolate volumes and the 11% underlying growth ex Russia there. That's a pretty robust number given the sort of trends we're seeing in the underlying market and maybe signs of consumers starting to trade down. Could you help us understand why that number is so resilient and what you're doing in AAK to outperform them so strongly, and how you expect to be able to continue that or not, if indeed a recession arises in the next couple of quarters? And then just a quick second question on bakery. You've articulated for a number of quarters now optimization strategy of reducing volumes but increasing margins. Could you help us understand the net effect of that on absolute profit? In particular, any quantification would be very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Alex. Starting with your question on the CCF volumes. I think it's worth mentioning what you mention is of course call it reactions or consequences of the macro economic climate, where you could see both from a consumer perspective down trading, but you could also look at it in a business-to-business context where our customer base could potentially do down trade and call it in order to optimize cost. If we look at that, it is still so that CCF have, in many types of situations in the world, historically been a market where customers, you know, see both a premiumization behavior, but you also see an indulgence and treating yourself behavior, where it becomes also a comfort food that is consumed in bad times and in good times, you could call it.
It has, you know, a way of navigating through different types of cycles, and I think we're seeing part of that here as an industry. With regards to AAK, we are well-positioned. We have a strong position in the CCF market, so we do have offerings to our customers, and we have a good service level. That, of course, helps in times like this. Also when looking at it from a down trading perspective, some of our solutions are really opportunities for our customers to reduce their cost versus other alternatives. That also plays in this. Sometimes you could also see that, yeah, it's a climate of inflationary pressure, but that for some of the solutions we sell is an opportunity because our customers could choose our solution versus another more costly solution compared to what they had before.
When you look at our portfolio, it does include opportunity for us to perform in different categories within the Chocolate and Confectionery Fats portfolio. I think that summarizes really the answer to your question. There is no guarantee for anything going forward, so I will not give a forecast, but our position is strong, and we have been able to navigate this climate very well. With regards to bakery, what it is, I will not comment a specific number. We don't do that, but I will give you a bit more context. We have launched three years ago a portfolio-based strategy where part of it was about optimization.
That optimization piece, which is predominantly for bakery, dairy, food service, we have really called out in the organization to go for pockets of opportunity for high-value play, meaning within the bakery industry, there's still need for high-value-added fat solutions, oils and fat solutions, where we try to focus on that. While there is also some areas of the bakery which is more of a high volume commodity type volumes, and we selectively, you know, reduce that and try to focus on the high-value-added piece. We've also announced earlier a restructuring program, leaving one plant or closing one plant in Europe, consolidating it into remaining two factories that can receive bakery volume.
That in itself was a decision to close one plant and with that reduce part of the volume base and keep part of the volume base in, but consolidating it to two plants instead of three. If you combine that all, that is what is now resulting into improved EBIT for bakery. Anything to add there, Tomas?
No, I think that's the focus that we've had for the last few quarters. In Q3, you also see the improvement in Special Nutrition driving, but if you look from Q1 to Q3 of this year, you see the steady and continuous improvement of our focus on portfolio management.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Heidi Vesterinen from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Good morning. You talked about destocking in natural ingredients. I wondered if you might have seen this in any other segments or, you know, if you might expect this looking forward into Q4. We've had certain ingredient companies talk about destocking behavior by customers. Second question, could you update us on your plans to reroute your Russian CCF volumes, please? Did this already benefit Q3 to any extent? Thanks.
Thank you, Heidi. Good morning. Well, specifically to Technical Products & Feed, that's the area where we have already existing opportunities and see further opportunities in helping customers replace fossil-based ingredient with plant-based ingredients. Specifically to candles, where we have been for a long time, we saw that very positively within the years of COVID, where markets where you typically didn't use that much candle, you started to see volumes picking up. That was a good positive. We still see a positive underlying trend in terms of replacing fossil-based ingredients in certain sectors with plant-based ingredients or natural ingredients, including candles. We continue the underlying, you know, optimistic view on that. But certainly a destocking when you look at the peak from COVID or destocking or not or reduced volume, consumer demand rather.
To your second part of that question, destocking in general, we can't say that we see a destocking trend in general. I think it's worth repeating that there is a bit of uncertainty and volatility around us. I have repeated that. So far, we have seen good underlying demand in most of our industries that we serve. You saw, you know, volumes being on the lower side compared to early quarters, but on the other hand, a successful continued work on driving our EBIT per kilo. We do run portfolio management and optimization plays within all the industries that we serve. Bakery is one of focus, but we're using the same approach in the other customer segments that we serve.
We have a focus on also improving margins across the board, where increased volume is not always the key focus over time. Of course, we need to load our plans and continue to have a good momentum also with regards to volumes. I couldn't say that we see a typical destocking pattern across the board.
All right. Last piece on Russian volume rerouting. I mean, to be a bit, you know, specific on this matter, our decision to leave Russia was a decision to stop selling and operating, you know, selling to Russia and operating in Russia. That's well-executed by our organization. With regards to volume, that obviously leaves the void, call it in our plans, the volumes we used to sell to Russia, we could now sell elsewhere. It's not, you know, a given that you do that immediately. It is still a work that has to be done in order to serve customers and to address opportunities. That has worked well. Yes, there is already in Q3, it's already visible that we see an increased demand in some markets, one being, you know, Ukraine, which is back, as I commented also in the CEO comments of the report.
Glad to see that our team there is doing well, that we've been able to resume operations. Also across Europe, you could see volumes being up. It's very difficult to give you an exact number how much that was as a rerouting impact. It's rather the consequence, I think, of the total events that leads to volumes being greater with some customers that might have gotten more volumes due to the total impact of this war. Clearly, we have been able to serve this demand. In that sense, that's a positive development, and we, you know, we're also positive on being able to continue that journey.
Thank you.
Anything to add there, Tomas?
No. As we also mentioned, the impact from exiting Russia on our EBIT and P&L is reiterated at about SEK 100 million in 2022. We are on track, if you will, in terms of reallocating volumes. We actually see a slight growth in Europe. If we exclude Russia, CCF-wise in Europe, we still continue to see growth even in Europe, if you will, right?
Yeah.
Which is a good sign.
The SEK 100 million that we, you know, guided on is really when you compare it like for like. Last year, we earned SEK 100 million more when including Russia versus what we are doing this year.
When it comes to the bakery volume in Russia that we've also exited, of course, we had production locally for the local market, and that production is now gone as we divested AAK Margaron. So that's not production volume that needs to be moved around, if you will.
Yeah. All right.
Next question is from the line of Karri Rinta from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. I have three questions. I'll take them one by one. First, about continuing on this downtrading theme. I guess the opportunity is quite well understood in the Chocolate and Confectionery Fats, but what about in Food Ingredients, your different categories? What kind of opportunities and/or risks you see from downtrading, consumer downtrading in the main categories there.
Yes, thank you. Obviously, the whole food ingredient space, it's quite a wide space. Many. I mean, that's one of the beauties with AAK. We are an ingredient house for plant-based oils and fats. We have a wide range of different solutions. Many of them are targeting functionality, applications, improving our customers' product. Some of them also offer a replacement. If you look at the plant-based food trend, of course, that is, you know, binary one to zero replacing animal-based solutions with pure plant-based solutions. Within the whole food ingredient space, if you look at the dairy space and bakery space and so forth, there are solutions that we have that offers a cost down versus, for example, animal fats.
We can also offer a cost down by replacing an existing ingredient that they have with a good ingredient, but to a lower cost. With our range of product, there are clearly opportunities in this downtrading space because it requires our customers to look at their formulations. We are a strong partner to our customers when it comes to reformulating for various reasons because of our expertise in oils and fats. There are risks in downtrading, of course. I mean, we also have, within our wide range of products, we have products which are more advanced and with a higher, you know, price and margin, and the opposite with some products that are lower priced and lower margin.
Of course, there is a risk as well, but there is also an opportunity on the back of our customers looking at potentially call it downtrading or reformulating to a better optimized cost position on their end. That goes-
Right. That was helpful. Maybe a clarifying question. Let's say that the customer shifts from animal fat to one of your solutions. It doesn't necessarily mean that it would have to be sort of a lower margin solution of yours. It can be a specialty or semi-specialty, so it can be a high margin product for you, even if it saves money for your customer.
Absolutely. You see similarities, of course, within chocolate and confectionery, as you know, where it's not animal-based, but instead of cocoa butter, you can use a solution from AAK that can be even better, but also a lower cost for our customer, while it is a, you know, higher margin product for AAK.
Perfect. Thank you. Energy prices. What kind of impact did you see in the third quarter from higher energy prices? Can you quickly sort of run through your position during the coming winter months, availability and price-wise for your different energy sources?
Absolutely. Tomas?
Yeah, energy prices has, of course, increased, quite a bit, in the quarter as everyone else has experienced as well. We have different sources for different plants, given the history of how they're built and so forth. What we try to do, as we do with our raw material input, we try to adjust the utility and energy as well. We have it hedged for the duration of our average contracts. We tend to look six to nine months ahead. The importance of that is that we actually know how much the utility bill will be when we price out our products, just like we do when we hedge our raw materials back to back.
We do spend a lot more time on it, of course, than we did in the past, and also spend more time updating, not just for raw material prices frequently, but now also for energy and of course, logistical costs, to make sure that we can transfer those cost increases to our customers. Predictability over the next 6 months -9 months is very important for us in order to be able to price our products, and that's how we view utility as we do with raw material, and so forth.
You don't have any concerns about natural gas availability at any of your plants?
There's always a concern, of course. Not all plants are dependent on natural gas. We do wood pellets, for example, in Karlshamn and so forth. There are different solutions, but we also have backup plans, if you will, depending on how the winter develops here, to make sure that we can run our plants continuously. Of course, it's something we focus on, and there's always a risk with these things, of course, especially in these times of conditions that we see right now.
Perfect. Finally, the cash flow comments that you made. Is there a reason for saying that your cash flow will improve in the first half instead of saying that it will improve from the first quarter?
What we say is there is about six to nine months of time lag, as you've noticed that we mentioned the last couple of quarters on the impact from changes in raw material prices into our working capital. This is not exact science. It depends on the type of raw material, depends on how long the contracts are. That's more or less the average. So what we saw the big drops at the end of Q2, and then adding six to nine months, you end up in the beginning of Q1 or in the beginning of Q2, and it might be some shifts in that logic. That's why we keep it to the first half of next year and not be more specific than that.
All right. Thank you. That's very helpful.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Oskar Lindström from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Two sets of questions from me. The first one is on Special Nutrition in China. What's the situation in this market and the outlook in light of market changes which you've spoken about in previous quarterly reports regarding sort of a domestic producers taking market share from international brands? You know, you talk about China pricing, et cetera. So that is my first question. My second question is around plant-based initiative. I mean, are you or have you launched any new products? You know, how is demand developing in this segment? And what is your estimate of sensitivity to cost inflation and potentially lower disposable income for consumers in the near future here because of inflation? So those two questions. Thank you.
Well, thank you, Oskar. First, let's move to China. I think the overall trend hasn't changed at all, meaning that you have strong big players domestically in China producing and selling for the Chinese market, as well as you have the international global players that also produce and sell to China, producing in Europe, for example, and shipping to China. China is still the dominating market for infant formula solutions, which is the biggest part of our Special Nutrition segment. That's a trend that hasn't changed a lot.
When you look at our profitability, on the other hand, as you know, we have had falling birth rates impacting a bit, and then you had steep raw material increases and stronger domestic competition, partly due to higher raw materials and a slightly different setup with competition versus AAK. That did not serve us earlier quarters this year and also last year. That impacted us negatively all in all, while we have still a very strong position in the market. Now, with contracts rolling, in Special Nutrition, as I mentioned before, we've also had a higher portion of the portfolio of contracts being more locked-in type of contracts one year or six months.
Now we've been able to roll contracts and adjust them to the new levels of cost for raw materials and utilities, et cetera. There is a bit of price cost management within our portfolio products that we offer, and with that, an updated and better position. There's not a big change in the market. There's not a drama at all. With raw material prices coming down, with us being able to update prices, do contract management in this market, we have seen a positive effect to the bottom line. Anything to add there, Tomas?
No. I think that's that explains the situation. We've also seen some global producers indicating that they see volume increases in Asia. That's a positive sign as well of the their ability to still compete, I would say.
There's also been, you know, let's not forget, even though China is the biggest one single market, there is also the development in Europe and the U.S., and that has also had a slightly positive impact to the total picture. All right. If we then move into plant-based, a great question, right? If we look at this, and it's slightly different between plant-based, call it dairy alternative versus the meat alternatives. On the plant-based meat side, I think it's. It goes without saying almost that obviously the penetration early on was driven by a lot of consumers really wanting to shift away from animal based food into plant-based food, something, you know, better for the environment and so forth.
We've already seen, you know, early movers into that, and that has been part of the, you know, increasing volumes, quarter by quarter, year on year, which is now, you know, plateauing a bit, which is very natural, right? The next step is really penetrating the dinner table, lunch table of families, consumers across the globe, where obviously taste, structure, and price, the cost of the product that you buy is very important. That is the next step for the industry. Your question is, are we coming up with new products and solutions? Are we part of this? Yes, we are. There are a lot of momentum ongoing with customers, with the partners in the industry where AAK and our solutions are really in there help improving, you know, products.
Now, these products still needs to move all the way to the shelf in retail or in restaurants on the service menu. That's an ongoing journey where we, as an industry, are really focusing on making these products tastier with better structure, and also, of course, to a better cost. To your comment then or question on inflation, does inflation impact this? Yes, it does. Because we see inflation going across the board with different food solutions, and of course, that also impacts plant-based solutions. I think it is a situation now where the high inflation and pressure, it doesn't help for the consumption of plant-based alternatives, which are typically still more expensive than the other alternatives.
That's something as an industry we are working on, and we, you know, over time, this will be improved. I am still, you know, bullish and very positive over time that we will shift away from animal-based food into more plant-based or other alternatives that are, you know, better for the environment or with a less negative impact. I think we will see much more of that. In the current, you know, short-term perspective, obviously inflation has an impact to us, and that will, you know, limit the growth for some time in the plant-based space, I think. Long-term, very positive. I think if you compare plant-based dairy to plant-based meat, dairy is a bit more mature as a market and seems to be.
Let's see how it develops, but it seems to be a little bit more resilient to inflationary trends than what we see in the meat market. When it comes to developing new products, as you probably know, we are opening up a new customer innovation center in Amsterdam in the beginning of next year, fully dedicated to plant-based products. We hope to see good results from that, of course, in interacting with our customers, developing new products and new solutions.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone. Next question is from Alex Sloane from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Morning, all. Two questions from me, please. The first one just on FX. Obviously a tailwind benefits the top line of around 12%, but at EBIT level, 23%. Was there anything in the quarter with regards to that transactional benefit that was one-off, or should we kind of consider that to be those tailwinds to be kind of sustainable going forward as long as FX is benefiting the top line? Just secondly, just on the cash flow and the working capital, the statement talks about some cash outflow from payables due to one-off adjustments in contractual terms. Is there anything that you can tell us to flesh that out a little bit more? That would be great. Thanks.
Yeah. Hi, Alex. Thank you. When we talk about FX, there are no one-offs driving that effect. That's purely an exchange rate versus the Swedish krona. As we've indicated before, I think that will continue as long as you see that rate where it is right now. It has had an increasing impact over the last couple of quarters as the Swedish krona has deteriorated versus primarily the dollar and the euro. When we talk about cash flow and working capital, could you please repeat the question?
Yes. It was just with regards to the movement in the working capital outflow. Your statement notes that there was an outflow in payables due to some one-off changes in contractual terms. Just was hoping to get a bit more color on what that was about. Thanks.
Thank you. Yes. Changes in payment terms to a few contracts was actually in Q2, if I remember correctly. That didn't impact Q3. That was something that happened earlier in the year. There were some changes or effects into payables in the quarter due to timing of raw material purchases over the end of the quarter. The changes to contractual terms, that was earlier in the year. That's not something that's impacted Q3.
Very helpful. Thanks.
Next question is from the line of Simen Holmen from DNB Markets . Please go ahead. Mr. Holmes, please unmute your telephone. There doesn't appear to be anyone there on the line, so this concludes our question and answer session, and I would like to turn the conference back over to Johan Westman for any closing remarks.
Thank you so much. I think this quarter is really highlighting the strength of AAK. We are operating now for, well, quarters and years with uncertainty, volatility, and we have an agile organization that is really, you know, on their toes in terms of managing with continuous plans as well as managing our contract portfolio based on the movements that we see in an inflationary, you know, climate. All in all, very proud of the team that we have in AAK to navigate well. Having said that, of course, repeating that there is still uncertainty and volatility. Nothing is given, but we will continue to push hard to navigate well. The sum of everything for the third quarter is a strong result supported by favorable FX.
At the same time, if you really look at it and stripping out the FX, it's still a strong improvement year-on-year as a whole. With that, thank you for taking the time to listen and for your great questions. Looking forward to speaking to you again for the next quarter. Thank you.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.