Welcome to the Addtech Year-End Report 2023- 2024 Presentation. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Niklas Stenberg and CFO Malin Enarson. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and most welcome to the Addtech quarter and year-end result presentation. Starting with the highlights for the fourth quarter, which can be summarized as a solid end to another strong year for Addtech. The business situation remained stable at good levels in most of our key segments, with the solid order intake, even if it continues to be variations, and we kept our backlog volume on par with last year. I'm also proud to conclude that we passed a milestone of SEK 20 billion in yearly turnover, and also with record-high margins. So once again, a very good work from my team and our companies. More on that when we summarize the full year, but first to the quarter.
The fourth quarter was a challenging quarter in terms of sales growth, down 3% in total and 7% organic. We had extremely tough comps and also fewer working days due to Easter in March, and this has, of course, some negative effect on the outcome. But still, the total sales was on the weaker note due to specific challenges in some places. I will come back to this when commenting on the business areas. But that said, the underlying demand remained stable on the high level, as I said in the beginning, despite the somewhat softening markets sentiment, and of course, very satisfying to see that the general momentum in the customer activity, in general, remains.
We entered the new fiscal year now with a well-filled order book, and with a good quality. Also, this new year has started on a positive note. If you look on EBITDA development, overall, the positive margin trend continued in the quarter and was at the record high 15% margin. This is a mix of active work in our companies to add value and improve the product mix. Of course, keeping strict cost control and combined with good contributions from acquisitions. As stated in the report, and I will come back to this later, on as well, we had a customer claim within the business area, Energy, which resulted in a settlement this quarter, affecting the result negatively with a one-off of SEK 39 million.
Despite that, our EBITDA was in line with last year, and as I said, with the record high margin of 15%, and this is primarily thanks to strong contributions within Industrial Solutions and Process Technology. I would also like to highlight our important financial measurement, R/RK, reached a new record high level of 68%. Cash flow is down year on year, but still on very satisfactory level. Malin will come back with details within short. So moving on, some very brief comments on the market development within each of the business areas. Automation delivered a solid end to the fiscal year. Good sales trend for companies supplying to process and defense industry. A bit flattening trend with the mechanical industry and medical technology.
Here we have seen customer destocking effects quite clear, but I believe that we are now back to a more normalized level going into the new year. Electrification, as you've seen in the numbers, had a challenging quarter, several factors affecting the outcome. First of all, tough comps, mainly in the battery systems. Among other things, last year, we had large telecom orders in the battery systems. Also, destocking effects still here in the quarter, normalized supply chains and negative effects from a weaker construction market has also affected the battery systems. But there have also been some specific challenges in some of the other companies in the business areas.
So in general, the demand within the key segments for Electrification were stable, and also defense continues to be, have a strong development. Moving on to Energy. When looking at the figures here, of course, you have to take out the one-off effects from the customer claim settlement, which also had quite a lot of effect on top line, not only in the quarter, but also actually earlier in this year. But adjusting for this, the organic sales growth in the quarter would have been positive and also the profits. And overall, the business situation within Energy continues to be favorable. Demand for infrastructure products within electrical transmission and distribution continues to be strong on most of the geographical markets we are present here.
Market situation for companies supplying to mechanical industry here was stable, but we saw some positive signs from customer demand within wind power, so more on the demand side, still. Building installation weakened during the quarter, as we write in the report, also somewhat affecting infrastructure and non-residential, that are our core markets, here. Industrial Solutions, a bit lower sales volume, this quarter, primarily due to the special vehicle segment. It varies here between different end markets, where primarily the construction market was weaker, due to lower demand, earlier this year. Sales towards forest sawmilling industry remained at high levels, with a solid number of product deliveries with high profitability.
The market for new products are still a bit on hold due to the high interest rate and weak construction market, primarily. Strong contributions from acquisitions is also important to mention, that also explains the strong margin in the quarter. Last but not least, Process Technology delivers a solid fourth quarter. Of course, variations between the segments. Sales to Energy and process industry is keeping up well, especially towards oil and gas. Here, we also note a bit weaker demand towards forestry and also the special vehicle market. Medical and marine flattened out on a high level. So that was a brief summary of each business area. Now, Malin, over to you for some more comments on the results.
Thank you, Niklas, and exactly as you said, our profit margins continued to improve during the quarter. In general, thanks to increased value add in our value proposition, strategically improving our product mix, and not least, of course, good leverage from acquired companies. On top of that, we continue to keep a firm grip on the costs. Very pleasing to see that the cost efficiency continues to improve quarter by quarter. The solid increase in Q4 to a record high 15% is fueled by Industrial Solutions, as Niklas said, and the positive effect from good margin project deliveries. On the other hand, we had negative effects from one-off effects. However, the underlying trend is positive, with sequential improvements over the year. We expect rolling twelve levels to persist with gradual improvements.
Inventory levels has been a key topic throughout the year, so it's of course, very satisfying to see that the positive trend continues, both in absolute terms and as an improvement in relation to sales. Our long-term target, profitable working capital, remains on record high levels, 68%, continuing to generate solid cash flow. Operating cash flow is still at very good levels, but down in the quarter due to lower profit affected by higher costs for debt and less positive effects from working capital compared to the same quarter last year, solely related to accounts, receivables, and payables. Our financial position remains strong with sequential improvements, as expected. As you know, the key figures do vary over the year, but are at very reassuring levels, which gives us plenty of headroom to support our ambitions going forward. Over back to you, Niklas.
Thank you, Malin, and as we all know, this is also a full year for us, so some full year comments. As I said, we passed SEK 20 billion for the first time, and sales is up 7%. Quite much in line with what we had expected, I would say. And as I've been saying, customer activity has remained high, and EBITDA growth of 13% with improved profitability. So I would say, all in all, this year, again, a clear proof of the robustness of our business model and the diversification of our business, and strong positions in attractive segments. We acquired 10 companies, all well-run, high performers. I will come back to those, in a few minutes.
We can also proudly announce that we, in the beginning of May now, was approved by Science Based Targets initiative, so we have increased our focus even further to work with our climate footprint throughout the whole value chain. So I, I think I mentioned quite a lot on this picture already. The flat organic sales development can to a large extent be explained by the product mix with lower volume sales, very tough comps, of course, going into the year, and some challenges in, for instance, this customer claim in Energy, affecting also top line quite a lot. But all five business areas increased the profits, and as we've been saying now for a while, Industrial Solutions, Process Technology being the main contributors.
EPS growth was 9%, and at yesterday's board meeting, the board decided to propose a dividend of SEK 2.8 per share. I would just also like to take the opportunity to mention very briefly a summary of each of the business areas for the full year then. Automation, as you all know, this is much about OEM related business, mechanical process, med tech industries, being the primary customer segments. And Automation had quite a challenging start of the year, with especially the negative effects on demand from customer destocking, and that has pretty much followed Automation throughout the year. Even if it has improved sequentially, and the landed sales volume at same level as last year, and with improved margins.
Automation made one acquisition last year, the Danish company, BV Teknik, that designs and builds custom high-tech equipment for the Automation industry, primarily towards the med tech segment. Electrification has a broad offering to support our customers in the Electrification transition. With challenging comparisons this year, and especially the weak end, as we said, they landed fairly flattish, you could say. Importantly explained by low demand in some segments, combined with some internal structure changes within the battery business. I've been talking about that earlier quarters. But it's very important to underline our view of the potential in this business area, and with Electrification of equipment, our customers' positions, and also our battery solutions.
We have a very strong positive view of this area. Late April last year, we acquired the Swedish company, Electrum Automation, that has a strong position on the market, but also adds important software integration competence to our business area here. Moving on to Energy. As you know, the main driver is the investment in electrical transmission and distribution, and the demand among the grid owners in the markets we are present remained high throughout the year, also with a positive outlook. But the sales growth on the top line was hampered by both a strategic lowering of volume business, as well as negative effects related to this customer claim.
But this product mix is also shown in the very much increased margins in Energy. One acquisition made during the fiscal year, Tygesen, that have a good position in the transmission segment in Denmark. Industrial Solutions had, again, a very strong year, characterized by the well-filled order books, fueling the sales towards the sawmill industry. Also a wide range of acquisitions completed here, with good margins also. Two of these companies are complementing our subsea offering, an area we find interesting to be in, and one supplying the industry with solutions for industry painting. And lastly, also our first acquisition in Canada, that offers ergonomic solutions for special vehicles, especially to mining industry. Last but not least, Process Technology.
One core product range here is products to measure and decrease environmental impact in production, and also, marine segments. This generates strong business opportunity for our companies here. All in all, it's been a strong year with solid growth numbers. 3 new acquisitions here, acquired with strong profitability, that complement and strengthen the strategy in the business area. One in Germany, one in U.K., and one in Denmark. So if you summarize what I've just been saying, with acquisitions, 10 during the year, and we have started this year with another 3 after closing. One German company, Novomotec, a leading supplier of compact electric motors to OEM customers. One U.K. company, Cell Pack Solutions, that manufacture and market battery solutions under its own brand with good margins.
And last one, late April, we acquired a Norwegian company, GoDrive, supplying frequency converters. In total, these 13 acquisitions adds an annual turnover of approximately SEK 1.1 billion, and 265 new colleagues are welcomed into our family. We continue to focus on more value add companies, have an unchanged positive view of the M&A market. There are plenty of possibilities in our focus areas, primarily in the Northern Europe, and thanks to our strong balance sheet and the attractive pipeline, we expect to keep a high acquisition pace also going forward. Some statistics following now, a couple of slides. One is international expansion. As you saw, we have been, we have managed to keep a good mix between both geographies and strategic niches.
Our activities in selected markets outside Nordics are accelerating with an increasing deal inflow. During the fiscal year, about half of the acquired volume was outside of Nordic markets. This means that we now both organically through export and following our customers to new markets, and with acquisitions, we have, as per end of the year, 38% of our sales coming outside the Nordics, compared to approximately 15%, 5, 6 years ago. So it's clearly that we are increasing our international footprint. These two pie chart is showing the sales per geography, and to the right and to the left per customer segments. All in all, now we operate in some 20 countries and export to another 20 markets.
And if you look on the market development over the year, it's been, I would say, a mixed bag for our companies in the Nordics. Sweden had a good development, it was stable in Finland, weak in Denmark, and a strong development in Norway. And on the international markets, we've seen a stable demand in Benelux and a bit weaker in Netherlands, but positive development in UK. The pie chart to the left, the market segment spread. We have a good diversification among our segments, which is according to our long-term strategy, not to be too dependent on any singular segment. And since our sales during last year was very broad-based, proves that we have a solid growth drivers in the strategically shows and niches.
So not many major changes, if you look on this pie chart, year over year, and it continues to be our largest market segment. All in all, what this picture is showing that it gives us a resilience to our business that will also be a key going forward. Malin, maybe you want to mention something on this picture?
Yes, I can. I can. The combination of our strong position in attractive segments with solid underlying growth trends, many linked to the green shift, together with our highly diversified business and a very strong corporate culture, based on the decentralized responsibility and entrepreneurship, gives us the edge and agility to handle challenges and capture opportunities also going forward. The ultimate evidence of the strength of our business model and strategy is that we, over the last 20+ years , have managed to create an average annual EBITDA growth exceeding 21%. To grow our earnings with above 15% over a business cycle is one out of two very easy-to-understand financial targets that sets the requirements for the entire operations. With that background, it's of course very satisfying to show this graph. We have, over a long time, exceeded our target with lots of headroom.
Our solid and stable earnings growth over time, together with our low CapEx operations and attractive product mix, are the basis to maintain our return on capital employed at high levels, and create sustainable shareholder value over time.
Great. So the last picture before moving into Q&A. All in all, I'm very pleased with the development during the year, not least, on back of the very tough comps and the softening market sentiment we have felt during the year. Customer activity remained in the fourth quarter, and we continued to fill our order book, as I said, in the beginning. So we are entering the new financial year with a well-filled, high-quality order books. Cash flow generation, strong financial position gives us lots of firepower to support the ambitions. We have started the year in a good way when it comes to acquisitions, and expect, as I said, to continue, keep up the pace.
So as a final remark, regardless of what I would say is kind of a mixed market signals right now, if you look on more of a macro perspective, we have a positive view going into the new fiscal year and have an ambitious plan for continued growth. And I have, as always, confidence in the potential and robustness of our culture and the niches. So with that said, let's open up for questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. If you are listening to this presentation through the webcast, you can ask written questions by using the form on the webcast page. The next question comes from Zino Engdalen Ricciuti from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Hello, Niklas and Malin, and thanks for taking our questions.
Good morning.
I would like to start, good morning, with the outlook, which is favorable for the next coming quarters. Would you say that on an aggregated level, that you've become incrementally more positive during your quarter four?
You mean if I compare where we were in the end of December to the situation end of March, is it a positive development on the outlook than the opposite?
Yes, yes. If your expectations have, or your view has to become more positive, or if it's just a continuation?
... Yeah, I think if anything, I would say rather more slightly on the positive side.
Okay, very good. And jumping into Industrial Solutions, you've had project completions for a while now, which has increased margins together with acquisitions. But on the project completions, could you give some kind of indication when you expect these to taper off?
Expected to?
To taper off, or a lower degree of, of, the completions.
Yeah, okay. I mean, we've been talking about our order books here for a long time, and as we have said now for a couple of quarters or a number of quarters, and also stated in this report, it's still quite low activity on new projects filling into the order book. So we have, you know, some two, three quarters ahead with filled order books. So I guess that's answering your question.
Yes, very good. And lastly, on M&A, you emphasize the points now that the share of acquisition outside the Nordics has increased. How much is it explained that prices maybe might be more attractive outside the Nordics, or simply just a way of scaling your pace of acquisition?
I would say it's rather the latter. I mean, to some extent, maybe you can say that competition is slightly higher in the Nordics because there are, you know, a number of acquiring companies here. But with the kind of way how we work with acquisitions, with the relation-based and building up the pipelines bottom up, that doesn't really matter to us so much. So the price levels, I would say, all in all, is quite similar across the different geographies. It rather varies when you go into to different technical segments, looking from that perspective. But our growth and our continuation to fill in the pipeline outside Nordics is more our own ambitions to broaden the scope and to open up new geographical markets.
Very good. Thank you. That's all for me.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Carl Ragners tam from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Good morning. It's Carl from Nordea. A few questions here. I mean, you managed to lift the gross margin quite, quite nicely to an all-time high level, 33% almost. Could you help us with the dynamics of the gross margin uplift, a bit on pricing, project completions, I guess, is also helping. And would you say that the new established level is, is sort of sustainable?
Yeah. So good morning, Carl. I mean, I think what we see is that the margin improvements, the gross margins and also EBITDA, but if you focus on gross margin, it's very broad-based. We can see that a large number of our companies have been able to increase the gross margins. So it's rather that than, you know, some few things affecting, like project completion. So it's really a broad-based scenario. And I would say that is a mix of a focus on the better product mix. We've been talking the whole year about lowering some volume sales with lower margins. So that focus has been one.
A very active work with the strategic pricing in many of our companies, not only, you know, to handle the inflation situation, but also overall, working with more price strategic projects. So I would say that these margins, margin levels are sustainable.
Okay, that's good. Because when I look at the SG&A level, it is in absolute number up year-over-year. I guess the claim is in SG&A, if you adjust for that flat year-over-year. Are you considering lowering SG&A, given the sort of organic drop, even though it's partly by design? Or what is the plan? And also if you could give some flavor on the sort of organic development of the SG&A level in the quarter, because it's quite hard for us to sort of strip out various effects.
Yeah. Do you want to start answering that?
Yeah. I think that if we talk about the overhead costs, we have seen that they have been very tight all throughout the year, very low organic growth on costs. Then, of course, we have the one-off this quarter affecting the all-in-all overhead that you see in the report. But organically, I believe that we have a firm grip of the cost, and that will continue also going forward. But I'm not really sure that there are sort of things to see specifically, besides the one-off in the quarter, if you ask about the costs organically.
Okay, very good. And also when we touch, you touched upon the customer claim here and the settlement, the dispute. I mean, could you elaborate a bit on the background? Is this a recurring customer for you? Is this a Q1 effect as well, or is it finalized here, and also the sales effect in the quarter from this, if you can? Thanks.
Yeah, okay. Sure. Due to, you know, kind of strict NDA, settlement with the customer, we cannot go into, to, any details on, on that. But it is a recurring customer, and the customer relation continues. It has affected top line for Energy with a couple of percentage on the, on, the yearly turnover. So it has affected the top line for Energy increasingly over the year, but so especially in the Q4, but a little bit also during the rest of the year. But as I said, the customer relation continues, so it will gradually come back.
The Q1, you know, it's difficult to really say, you know, from a one-off cost perspective, it will not have an effect in Q1. This was a one-off in the fourth quarter.
Okay, that's very clear. And also in your guidance, you seem quite satisfied with the environment you're operating in. Is it mainly on margins, or is it organic growth as well, you're sort of guiding on into the next coming quarters? I mean, you had - 7 here. Obviously, you're phasing out low, less profitable projects. You also had the working day headwind. So what do you see now in April, and maybe also, perhaps in May here, in terms of the demand situation and also relate that to your sort of guidance?
Yeah, I mean, so our guidance is both on the demand side, our view as at this moment on the coming quarter, and also the margins. As Malin mentioned, we believe we can keep the rolling twelve margins also going forward, with. Also, as always, we have the plan to steadily increase margins as well. If you look on April and, you know, what we've seen so far, it seems stable. It has started in a good way.
So, you know, like overall, as I also mentioned, our view of the kind of macro signals you get, and also looking at the different market segments, is kind of varied view of where the market is really heading. What we always say is that we should be able to grow, you know, some percentages better than industry average, and that is our view and ambition also going forward.
Mm-hmm. And if you sort of strip out the phased out volumes or your intention to take less of the lower profitable margin contracts in Energy, and also look on your April and May development so far, would you say that you're turning into organic growth yet, or is it too soon? Or what needs to happen for you to return to organic growth, you'd say?
Sorry, I didn't really heard. First, you said that the volume low, the, the low volume-
You're phasing out less profitable volumes, right? That is hampering organic growth, especially in Energy.
Yeah.
So, I mean, when do you think that you'll turn into positive organic growth again? I mean, you're positive in your guidance, but that, does that mean that you're expecting to turn to organic growth anytime soon, or?
Yeah, are you talking about Energy in specific, or are you talking about-
Group level, but also I guess Energy is one driver.
Yeah. I mean, we don't really guide specifically on, you know, organic growth and, you know, when will it come back. But, you know, my best stance at this point is that, you know, during the year that we're going into now, we should be able to see some organic growth. But then again, it depends on the kind of general market development and interest rate development. And we can see that there are hesitations in investment, especially in CapEx-related investments. So, depending on how that develops, that will affect.
But, so I guess my message is, not saying specifically it will be in Q1 or in Q2, but during the year we get into, we expect to see organic growth.
Mm-hmm. Very clear. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. My first one is, has been touched upon briefly, I would say, but just given your outlook comment there about seeing favorable demand, considering the negative 7% organic growth this quarter, even though you might not be able to, you know, go into detail about the settlement effects and so on, but just to understand the comment you make about, you know, being positive in the future, considering the negative organic growth this quarter, and I understand the comparables will become gradually easier. But is there something else that you are seeing that you would be willing to share?
No, but I think as one general comment, I would like to see the Q4 figures a little bit isolated in the way, you know, we knew that it would be a tough quarter. I mean, we were facing 21% organic growth last year, so extremely tough comps. Also, the Easter effect has some effect, and then as I've been through now, a couple of things affecting, like this claim, and also some other issues in a couple of companies. So I would rather see, you know, this as an isolated thing. When we talk about outlook, we look on the book-to-bill in the quarter, we're looking on the demand we see right now, and also ongoing project discussions with a lot of our customers.
That is what is giving us a positive view going forward.
Understood. And then the comment you made there about the strategic decision to lower the volume business. Can you expand a little bit upon that? Because as you say, if we adjust for the settlement cost and so on, the Energy margins are very good.
Sorry, what was the link of the first part of your question, an Energy margin?
No, yeah, no, sorry. I mean, there was one comment you made about the strategic decision to lower the volume business. And then I guess that decision is because you feel that this will have a positive effect on profitability. And then my question is also on what, you know, drove the margin in Energy, because if we adjust for the settlement cost, that is also, as you said, have a good profitability level.
Yes. Yeah, I mean, this, you know, to avoid high volume, low margin business, that is really the core business for us. We always work on that. You know, we want to find the niches where we can get out good profitability. So, to lower the volume business is like a general approach we have. This year, it's been particularly focused in the Energy segment, and we've been talking about, I think it was after Q2, we talked about, especially in the transmission distribution market, there are so many huge projects, so you have to really pick what kind of project you want, you want to take.
And so if we look all in all, on the Energy margin, again, if you adjust for these one-offs, it is a really good margin we see in Energy, and that is primarily due to several factors relating to that product mix. Was that answering your question?
Yeah, it was, I mean, it was just helpful to understand. And then the final is on the end market demand. Last year, for example, medical technology grew very, very strongly, and it's not one of your biggest end market exposures, but just to help us understand, what do you see within medtech apart from, you know, tough comparables?
Yeah, I mean, I would say that, you know, some segments where we have seen, you know, like medical, it's been a mixed bag throughout the year. Some parts, some customers, some segments have been positive, but here we have also seen quite a lot of destocking effects. We've been talking about that for a couple of quarters. So I would not say that the medical segment has been particularly strong for us, the year that passed. It's more now that we are more in kind of a normalized level. So we've seen the destocking effect, especially in medical, electronics, and mechanical industry, I would say. And here, our main view is that we are more now back on the normalized level going into the coming year here.
Understood. That's, that's, that was, what I was after. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Johan Lundqvist Sundén from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Niklas and Malin. Thank you for taking my question.
Morning.
A few from my side as well. If we haven't talked that much about the cash flow, and I noted that the receivables was up year-over-year, despite that, you had negative development on the top line. Is it possible to give some comments on the why receivables up, especially in the light of the project business in Industrial Solutions having such a strong margins?
... Yes. Hello, Johan. I think that, I'm not quite sure how the projects you mean would fit together with the question about the receivables, but we can come to that. So first, about the receivables. It's very hard to say actually why the receivables has increased, even though sales were a bit lower than last year. But we believe that actually, the fact that we had some Easter and holidays in the end of the month actually can affect this. That's at least what we have heard from the companies, that that affect both receivables, actually, and payables. And then you-- it was the project in Industrial Solutions affecting the receivables?
Yeah, basically, as you have a more kind of solution exposure than a few years ago, the kind of project accounting becomes more important for your margins. And, that's, as far as I know, tied towards receivables or contract assets, more if that is how that is bundled within the receivables. And if that is-
Yeah
... driving the uptick in receivables year-over-year.
I'm not quite sure if that is actually an explanation for that, but absolutely, as you say, it can affect receivables, both when it comes to these payments in advance and also when it comes to the projects and where in the readiness they are, how much they have actually invoiced. So absolutely, it can affect, but it's not that we see a big part of that right now.
Mm-hmm. Perfect. And then, if we remain on the Industrial Solutions for another question, it's, it's on the order book going forward. And Niklas, you said that you have, at least on the sawmill side, say, 2-3 quarters left with the well-filled order book for the segment. Is it possible to comment on pricing in the order book? Is there any risk that there is some weaker pricing in the coming project than we have had over the last few quarters, given that the sentiment in the market has been weaker?
No, I would say in general, it's not a you know a big risk in that. It's still we foresee good margins in these in the order books.
Perfect. Just a final question on Process Industrial Solutions. Is it possible to quantify the kind of effect from the project completions here in Q4?
You mean on the margin?
Yeah. How much it may be boosted the margin in short term?
Yes. Well, actually, Johan, we will not comment specifically on that, but I mean, we have said that it is somewhat a boost, but actually, if you look at the year in total, the effect is absolutely not that high.
Mm. Perfect.
It's important not to steer the focus too much on that. I mean, going back to what we've been saying, it's really a broad-based margin improvements both organically, but also from good boost from acquisitions as well. And that's why we also say that going forward, we believe we have a resilient rolling twelve margin, so-
We can also see good margins, all broad-based in all business areas, so.
Exactly. Yes.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's clear. And then this final question on my side, it's on your outlook statement, the CEO letter, Niklas, where you said, or you're writing that you're more optimistic and preparing for growth going forward. Does that mean that you have a general order to all your companies to prepare for growth? Or how is that going to impact, say, SG&A levels going forward? Or what is the planning assumptions from your side?
Yeah, of course, that's always a balance. I mean, if you have a very positive stance, the risk is on inventory levels and SG&A, of course. I mean, the way how we work in Addtech is not like a top-down message to all of our companies. We work with our targets bottom up, and every single company have their, you know, single position and situation. So it's not that I'm going out with a general message saying that, "Now, guys, let's go for full steam ahead." It's really different situations in each of the companies. So I would rather say it like this: I mean, we have always shown that we are really good in keeping good cost control.
So we are kind of managing this step by step. And since, again, the market sentiment is, you know, a little bit difficult to estimate at the moment, we keep one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas, depending on the different situations.
... Mm-hmm. Excellent. And just one final question. Also back to the claim in the Energy segment. Is it, and I know that you said that you were on an NDA, so let's see if you can answer or not. But is it related to a project, or is the problem related to a problem with the product? Or what kind of reason is behind the claim?
Yeah. You're always free to ask questions, Johan. I'm sorry, but I cannot really go into details. But just to put it like this, in the kind of business that we are running, providing technical advanced solutions to different kind of customer segments, what has occurred is really part of a... You know, this can happen from time to time, so it's not like a huge, massive issue. Of course, it has been a quite difficult situation, but it's something that could occur in the kind of business we have.
As you said, one specific client, it's isolated there, right? Or is it a risk that we can have similar claims coming into other client relationships going forward?
It's difficult really to say anything about that. But, hopefully we have, or hopefully, we believe we have the situation under control. And, this quite big impact, I mean, it's very seldom we have this kind of impact for us. So, we don't see that to come in the future.
Perfect. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.
Yeah, okay. So we have got one written question: How should we see the organic development in EBITDA growth? So if you look on the full year, you can say, you know, overall, you can say it's been kind of a 50/50 split on organic and acquired growth here. So then I guess we close this call, and thank you all for listening in, and
Asking questions
... asking, as always, very relevant questions. So have a good day, and thank you so much.
Thank you.