Good morning, and welcome to this Atlas Copco press conference and analyst meeting. I understand that for some of you, it has been quite a busy morning, and I can assure you that it will continue here with the news that we have released today. My name is Hans Stråberg, and I'm the Chairman of the Atlas Copco Group. To the right of myself, I have Ronnie Leten, President and CEO of Atlas Copco, and to the further right of me, we have Mats Rahmström, the incoming President and CEO of Atlas Copco. We have two big news from Atlas Copco today. The first one is that Ronnie has asked to resign after the AGM 2017. The board has appointed Mats Rahmström as the person to replace him. I'll come back to that.
The second one is the proposal from the board to split Atlas Copco into two parts. As somebody said here before the meeting, we're so happy with the Atlas Copco we have, so it's going to be great to have two Atlas Copcos in the future. I will start with the appointment of Mats. Mats is today President of the business area Industrial Technique, and he has been a member of the management team since 2008. We are very happy that we have found a strong internal Atlas Copco person again for the CEO post. Atlas Copco is well known for being able to grow good leaders, and here is another example. Mats has a proven track record, and he has great leadership, and he has transformed the Industrial Technique business area organically and through acquisitions in the past.
I can assure you, after 28 years, he knows Atlas Copco's ins and outs to a high degree. Mats, would you like to say a few words?
Sure. Thank you, Hans. I wasn't sure what you wanted to know a little bit, so I wrote down some notes. As Hans said, I've been running the business area on Industrial Technique over the last eight years. Like many others in our group, I've been many years, actually 28, so I guess you know that I like it here. I've been able, over these years, to travel the world, live and work in different positions. I truly enjoy the industrial environment, everything from the manufacturing to the R&D process. It's really engaging for me, meeting with people as well. Normally when we end our discussion, it's normally how can we do things in an even better way.
Now I have a few months, with some advice from my colleagues here, I've decided that I will take the opportunity to travel a little bit, to meet with the different business areas and the divisions, and also come out to customers, distributors, and really learn a little bit more. Even though that I met most of the industrial customers over the years, with the power tools portfolio, most of those customers are also customers of compressors and many also for vacuum. I was thinking that maybe I should highlight that Ronnie runs the company until April 26th. He's been a great help to me throughout my career, especially over the last eight years now we've been working together. Also very supportive to my team, and it's great to have him next to me over the coming few months. Thank you.
Thank you, Mats. Mats will take on the job from April 27th then. That is the day after the first quarterly report for Atlas Copco has been published and after the annual general meeting in 2017. It's too early to say thank you to Ronnie. I'm sure he will run the last part with his sprinter style here as he has done-
Yes, Hans
I'm sure you will.
Yeah.
We're happy for that in the board. He will still be in the lead here. I want you to know how happy the board is with the fantastic development that has occurred and the extraordinary value creation that has taken place during Ronnie's leadership throughout all these years. The group is stronger today than it's ever been. It has an enhanced customer focus. Ronnie and his team has built a service business in each of the business areas. Atlas Copco has also expanded into the, for us, new field of vacuum. We're very happy with what Ronnie has achieved, and although I'm not going to thank you today, I'll do that anyway. First, thank you for your extraordinary achievement. With that, I'd like to go into the second big news for today, and that is the proposal to split Atlas Copco Group into two listed companies.
One that is Atlas Copco, and that's the industrial part, and then a NewCo. We don't have a name yet. It will take us some time to develop that. When I say NewCo, don't misunderstand me that that's the new name. That's the working name, really. I want to summarize this, what it is all about, in a short presentation here. Then after that, we'll continue with the questions and answers session. I think you have received this proposal to split Atlas Copco into two listed companies in 2018. As you can see here, we're foreseeing one industrial part and one that is mining and civil engineering. The rationale for this is really that we see that there are very few synergies between the businesses.
The customer base is different between the businesses, we see also that there are opportunities to develop and create even more value from having dedicated and focused management. We have seen over the years that the businesses have different demand patterns and also different volatility in the businesses. We have now grown the company in such a way that it makes sense to have these two businesses stand on their own. As you can see here, this is an illustration that the two businesses have very limited overlap of customers. With a pro forma calculation or pro forma financials with 12 months backwards, we see that from September 31st, we see that revenues would be for Atlas Copco about SEK 74 billion and for the mining and civil engineering about SEK 28 billion. You see the profitability, they are 20% and 16% there respectively.
The number of employees is 33,000 and 12,000, respectively. It's the order of magnitude we want to show with this presentation. Then an overview of this proposal for how to distribute this. We will have the Atlas Copco AB that will keep its name and be the industrial part. We will split the company during this year, we'll divide the company, then the proposal is to distribute the mining and civil engineering part to the shareholders in 2018. Both will be listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. They will be headquartered here in Nacka, both of the companies. Mats here will stay as President and CEO of the Atlas Copco Group until there is a split, then Mats will be responsible for the full company. I want to underline that. We will then appoint a new President and CEO for the NewCo company in time.
We also foresee and propose that the share classes will be kept in A and B shares. An important piece here with such a strong brand name is what's going to happen to that. There are actually two brands that are overlapping. Of course, the Atlas Copco brand and Chicago Pneumatic. Atlas Copco AB will stay as owners of the brands, but will be licensing the two brands to the new entity. Of course, we would find a suitable name for the company. Looking at the timetable, January 16th is soon history. I'm not going to go through that. We're announcing here, then at the AGM 2017 in April, we will make a short update that there are no decisions that will be taken there. It's for information only.
During this year, we will create a legal entity for the NewCo company and find a name. April 24th, 2018, there we will put this to the shareholders of Atlas Copco for them to decide about the split or not. In Q2 2018, there will be a new company listed on the stock exchange. It takes some time, but it's a lot of work that needs to be done. The great thing is that the operations are not overlapping. They are focused, there are very little synergies between the two entities, while there is
Of course, a lot of administrative work, legal work, and so on that needs to take place. With that short summary of this here, I would like to start the questions and answers session. Before we do that, I would like to remind you that we are in a silent period now. We have the fourth quarter that we will release on January 27th, no questions related to the results, please. We can't answer that as you understand. Hans Ola, would you please help me with the questions?
Over, I guess.
No, not too much. That's okay. Yeah.
Hello, my name is Hans Ola Meyer, I'm the CFO of the group. Even though this is not a financial press conference as we normally have every quarter, I'll try to moderate the Q&A session, at least for us all. What we will do is we will start with two questions if there are here in the hall. Then we will alternate with the telephone conference as we normally do. First of all, could you, the operator please, could you repeat the procedure for posing questions on the telephone call?
Absolutely. If you would like to register for an audio question during the conference, please press zero one on your telephone keypads.
Thank you. Very good. We start here in the audience here in Nacka. Please go ahead. Please state your name. Then pose the question. Thank you.
My name is Dan Lucas. I represent Dagens Nyheter. I have two questions. One for Mr. Leten. Why are you quitting? The other, will there be any consequence for the employees? Will there be any shedding of jobs?
Okay. I can maybe take both. Yeah. Why am I quitting? Of course, I have been doing this job for 8 years. I was always and proud to allow to do that. I think I had fantastic years since 1985, because that's the time I worked for Atlas Copco, fantastic years, and this is my company, so I had really fun to do that. You have to see, and I've said it in 2 interviews before, if you run leading a company like we do as CEOs 8 years and beyond that, I think you have to question, okay, does the organization needs a new leader? That one.
That was for me an area, and second, I think also I felt that, and that was also a mission given to me by the board from day 1, "Ronnie, you have to see that we have options to replace you because something can happen with me." Okay, the company cannot rely on 1 person. I think I also felt that I have created options for the board to do that. If you wait too long, of course these people are also looking for other options. Either I had to commit to my chairman to do another 3, 4 years, or I had to do that, and I think this also gave me time now to bike again. You would see me 10 kilos lighter within 1 year.
You run a decent-
On the other part, this is definitely, that is very important for everybody to understand and of course we need to explain and all that what we try to do. Like Hans said, we're creating two strong companies because that is something, because the two companies are very strong. If you just calculated the market cap, they will be the 20 largest companies on the stock exchange. This is not small money that we're talking here. Second, this is a growth project. That means that all the people we have today are in the same structure. Hans already had mentioned it, operationally, of course, we work already in our business areas. We work dedicated. We are a product-driven, customer-focused organization. Of course, legally, financially, legally, it's organic grown.
They've been organically growing over the 143 years, it is a bit more complex, that is the reason also why we need the time. I don't see any reason for this, that we will need to reduce resources.
Thank you. We have a second question here in the audience.
Yes, hello. This is Daniel Schmidt from SEB, just looking at the historical M&A agenda and track record over the past at least five years has been very tilted towards the industrial part of the business. That's where you've allocated your money into basically, while the other part has been quite restricted. Would it be fair to say that the split up of the company is liberating the agenda for also the mining and construction part of the business when it comes to M&A?
Yeah. It's right what you say because we have with the different acquisitions we have been doing in the Industrial Technique and also in the whole vacuum part, because that has been building and also a lot of focus has been gone on that part. Of course, when you get dedicated organizations, you will see there will be different opportunities coming. I fully agree that will come. Of course, these companies of these sectors have different return requirements or return levels, which then I think when it's dedicated, will be much clearer to do that. I think that's an option. Just to say that I've never stopped any of the mining opportunity, if they were coming, of course. Because you also see in which cycle we have been.
We were sometimes too high that everybody say it's crazy. Now everybody was a bit scared. Moments are maybe coming.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take the first two questions from the telephone line, please.
Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Ben Maslen at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yeah. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Firstly, just on the costs of doing this, splitting into two companies. Do you have any sense at this early stage on what that will mean in terms of charges or central costs, any tax implications, positive or negative? That's the first question. Thank you.
Of course, Ben, there are costs. Cooking costs money. When we were really assessing this split, we looked on that, I think given the size of the company, I think these are definitely defendable costs on that part. Of course, there are certain tax implications which we have, which I consider in these costs, they're not from this magnitude that you need to be scared or whatever.
Thank you. Then, on the slide in terms of the strategic rationale, it says that the separation will facilitate fair valuation on the stock market. I just wonder what you meant by that. Do you think parts of the valuation are being mispriced or not reflected in the Atlas Copco share, or have been at different points over the last few years? The market's too focused on mining in the context of the group? Just what do you mean by that comment? Thank you.
Well, I would say that these two entities have different demand patterns, different cyclicality. Thank you very much, Juan. Difficult word. If somebody wants to buy a mining equipment asset, then they get the big compressor part with it. I think in this case, we free up that so that if you want to own an industrial part, then of course that will give one valuation, and the other one will be then valued after its circumstances. I want to underline that here we have two world-leading companies that we will create. We'll see. We have not speculated in what the valuation will be.
Got it. Thank you very much.
Next question, please, from the telephone line.
Yeah. Our next question comes from the line of Andreas Willi from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yeah, good morning, everybody. Thanks for the time. My first question was similar to Ben's on the cost. Maybe you could talk about what the current level of shared costs between the two future companies is in terms of infrastructure and so on. What do you expect the running costs, not the separation cost, but the running costs, to be higher in the future combined than what they are today, so we can take that into account. The second question, does this plan change or impact your ability or desire or focus of M&A over the next 18 months or not? Thank you.
Maybe on the cost, I can take it. I think, of course, there are certain costs, which of course were then asked in the transaction cost that we have. When it comes to running costs, we have been simulating on that one. I think it's not so significant. That is something what we have to do in the next coming 12 months, as also the Chairman said, that we need to create the company. This also gives us the possibility to even focus the company even more and make it more speedy even on the overhead, which is a CEO and a CFO, now I'm looking to myself, to get that. We are a very lean headquarters, as you know. We don't see any significant change in that part.
On M&A, I think what is important now, because we have plans in the different business area to do that. We have a strong balance sheet, and we will also make sure when we do the split, if it is approved by the annual meeting and the shareholders in 2018, to make sure that the two companies have the gunpowder to go after different possibilities, either organically or by acquisition. There is definitely potential to do that. Will it happen? There must be two to dance a tango. In the Board when we discussed this, we came to the conclusion there is definitely a need for more.
Is it right to understand that M&A was not the main driver or focus of this decision in terms of preparing something larger on the mining side?
No. No. Don't go into speculation that next month we will spend here again, and we will have a big acquisition on that one. That was never been the driver. That never be the driver.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. We return. Let's see. Yes, there is a question here in Nacka.
Martin Lindgren, Direkt. The message to split the company comes at the same time as Ronnie decides to leave. Have you, Ronnie, been opposing this company split?
Thank you for giving Martin this opportunity. I heard it already that some people were thinking No. This definitely not. I have been actually working on this with my full heart, dedication, and see what are the pitfalls, what are the opportunities, because I've been leading this company 8 years and even before and see the opportunity, also the complexity. What made me at a certain moment to say, "This is an opportunity if we do it smart," that part. One has nothing to do with it. I think it's an opportunity also to do it because now we really will see that we have two CEOs with a profile which are really compatible with the future demand, because this is a future project, but it has nothing to do with me. You see, I can still shake hands with my Chairman. Nothing. I will not-
That's not something I know. On the contrary.
A follow-up. Will you be the Chairman of NewCo as well, Hans?
That is for the shareholders to appoint me in that case.
I think it's a good question because for the next coming 18 months.
Yes
you will be, of course.
I will be a Chairman of the company until, if I get reelected 2017, then I will be Chairman of the combined entity. Then after 2018, then of course there will be two companies, let's not speculate on that.
Thanks.
We have possibly one more question. If not, I don't see any more hands, we go to the telephone conference, please. More questions?
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Markus Almerud from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yeah. Hello, good morning. Just curious, if you could say anything about when this process was initiated, what was the catalyst behind it starting, and also who was the initiator behind it? If you could say anything about it. Why is it not put to the vote already now in 2017? Thank you.
Well, first, it can't be put to the vote in 2017 because to be able to get the approval from the AGM, and all the implications of it, regulatory, et cetera, you need to have done the split.
Okay.
We have discussed this off and on for some time. It really this last fall, we more and more started to dwell into what it would mean. I don't think it's a new discussion topic within Atlas. We always, and also before us, always thought about, are we the right owners for something? What should the group look like? Strategically, what directions should we take? This is something that has grown upon us, and we came to the conclusion that it's the right move to make.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question, please. Other line.
Our next question comes from the line of Lars Brorson from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi. Thanks very much. Good morning, gentlemen. First of all, thank you to you, Ronnie, for the last eight years, and congrats to Mats. A couple of things from my side. Just first of all on the CEO selection process. For the industrial business, can you talk a little about the internal versus external process? Was it always a foregone conclusion that Mats would take over? Should we anticipate further changes at the BA or divisional level on the back of this? Just for NewCo, you obviously announced a new head of mining just before Christmas. You still say, of course, a new CEO is still to be appointed for NewCo. Why are you not in a position today to announce a NewCo CEO?
I don't foresee any more changes in BA. Of course, Mats needs to find a replacement for him as business area head of Industrial Technique. Of course, we don't have answers to everything, and I don't think we should jump to any conclusions. We have a fine head of the mining business area. Now we're creating a new entity which will include mining and the construction tools business. Its related services. Of course, we need to review the situation and search for a CEO without limiting our scope here going forward. That's about what I have to say at this time. It's not finished yet.
Thanks. Secondly, if I can ask on Dynapac, maybe that's more of a question to Hans-Ola from the announcement last week. Can you give any or shed any light on where we are in the sale process there? I just wonder whether you can help us a little bit with where Dynapac is today from a financial performance standpoint, say, relative to the time of acquisition. That'll be helpful.
I will take it. I will step in from Hans-Ola. First, when it comes to the performance and all that, I think you need to wait a couple weeks, as the chairman also said, of course we are in a closed period. I think within two weeks from now, we will make our quarter four and also all the details and the reporting because there's a bit of, as you have seen in the communication last week, that we do the reporting a little bit different without road construction. Then you will see all the data, and we try to be as transparent as we can on that one. That I promise you. When it comes to the process, we are pursuing all the different options.
I'm not going to say that nothing is going on, because that, and you know because you have met me several times when you asked that and I said, "Okay, I'm looking for options, whatever it is, but it needs to be better as what we have today." That is what I am now, together with the team, I'm doing. Let's hope that within a couple of weeks or days or months that we can come out with something very concrete. When it comes to the figures, I promise you will get more detail. Hans-Ola is not hating me, but I think it's a lot of work for his whole team to get the figures all reinstated also for 2015, just for comparison reasons.
Understood. Thanks, Ronnie.
We have a further follow-up question here in Nacka, and then we go back.
Yes. Martin Lindgren again. Hans Ola, will you stay with the vacuum and compressor business, or will you proceed to the new one? Will NewCo have its headquarters in Stockholm?
As I think the-
Yes, the headquarters
headquarters was on the slide. It will stay here, similar to Atlas Copco. Yes, I will stay with Atlas Copco.
You have a job.
Yeah.
I realized this morning that I still had a job, yes.
Another question here in Nacka.
Hi. Daniel Schmidt again from SEB. You're doing this exercise with Dynapac, and it's been talked about for some time, so it's not a complete surprise. You're now splitting Atlas into two. Do you see any further need to prune either portfolio? I guess especially maybe the mining construction portfolio going into this new structure?
Of course, it's for the new we never know, because portfolio management, I think companies should always do, huh? You know our vision is to be first in mind, first in choice. What does it mean is to be market leader in the different segments where we are operating. But if we exclude Dynapac in most of our portfolios, what we have, okay, you can always look for very small niche one. I think we are very close to number one or number two, and these businesses contribute to the bottom line. Because you don't make this type of profitability if you have too many leaks in that area. At least when you ask me, there is nothing on my agenda, but maybe on the future, you never know.
Thank you.
We can take more questions from the telephone line, and then we come back to Nacka.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andreas Koski from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thank you. Good morning. Firstly, on the time plan. I understand it's not possible to let the shareholders decide if this separation should take place already this year. Would it not be possible to create the legal NewCo faster and distribute it to shareholders earlier than almost 18 months from now through an extra AGM?
I think some of us have experience of doing these splits, I can assure you that it is a lot of work behind the scenes, regulatory, tax, legal structure, et cetera. One thing I can assure you is that we have no intention of holding back. This is to the best of our knowledge, and also Hans-Ola and the team and Håkan, our head of legal, have gone through this, and it matches very much with what other companies are experiencing.
This is time you need to do it, basically?
Yes.
Okay.
We would love to do it faster, but we just can't.
You should know, Andreas, we do this in 93 countries.
Yeah.
Several, many different entities like I mentioned. We should not underestimate the legal and financial work on that.
Ronnie or Hans-Ola, if I might just add on to that, the timeline is, of course, also connected to how efficiently you can do this separation and split from an economic point of view, from a financial point of view. We have the full intention to do this in the absolute best way, if I call it like that, and hence we don't want to rush. This is an extra element of why we think this is a good timeline, actually.
Okay, thanks. Secondly, Hans-Ola, do you know if Investor is committed to remain a long-term shareholder of the NewCo when it's been distributed?
I happen to know that, yes. They intend to stay an owner as they are today, and they have declared that the new company is also going to be together with the Atlas Copco part, continue to be a core investment for Atlas Copco.
Okay. For Investor.
For Investor.
Yeah. I understood that.
They clearly stated that.
Yeah. Lastly, maybe I missed it, Ronnie, do you have any plans for what you're going to do when you have left Atlas Copco? Are you looking for, or have you already signed for a new operational position, or will you be?
Of course, for sure, I will stay active. That's for sure. I promised myself and also at home that I will first finish this because this is more than a full-time job. With my other assignment when it comes to chairman of Electrolux, then we would see what I will do, but I would stay definitely active. I will not be a professional biker, so they don't need to worry. Froome doesn't need to worry this year. Maybe next year, who knows?
Not the professional board member either.
I think, of course, you see in this area, that is what I have to make up my mind, what I really want to do, I've not done that because I want to get first this done, because this, like I said, this is a full-time job. If you want to be a good CEO, now I'm looking to Mats, this is a 24/7 job. If you do two things on the side or you get diluted on focus, you don't get out what it could get out. That is, I promise, I promise also Hans, until, was it the 26th? 26th or 27th.
Yes. Almost.
May day. As here was the 1st of May, I will keep working on that then, and then we will see. There is nothing rushed, whatever, that I need to do that.
Okay. Thank you very much.
With that, we go back to Nacka and then back to the telephone line. Yes?
It's Peter Adlers, the Svenska Dagbladet. My question is to the Chairman. Would you have wanted the present CEO to stay on the job for a longer period?
Yes. Ronnie has done such a formidable job together with his team that I hate to see him go. The great thing is that we have now Mats. I also, as I was in the same position in 2010, I can't deny that I also have some sympathy for Ronnie stepping down. I respect his decision, and he has pegged the future for the company in a very good way.
All right, a follow-up to Ronnie. Was this decision, was it sparked by the decision to divide the company?
No. I think what is important, I think already from day one when you take on the CEO job, I'm sure also Hans and Mats will talk about that you need to think about next. I think that is really professional management. That was also what I said to Hans, okay, when the right moment is coming, we would see. Then of course, you always talk about that, okay, should we do or should we not do it? Is someone ready? Is the board ready? All that part. Are we ready with projects? Is it all go? I made a commitment to my chairman and said, I will not do anything what jeopardizes Atlas Copco, because this is my company.
This was a perfect timing then for you?
Yeah. I think for me privately, yes. I'm still healthy, fresh, so okay, happy. I'm not
I think it's for Atlas Copco, I think we're showing over and over again that the old saying that the only tradition worth preserving is change. We're moving forward here, and I think that's the strength of this company.
Thank you.
What was Kennedy saying? President Kennedy said, "You should change the roof when the sun is shining.
Very good way of putting it. We have some more questions, I think, on the telephone line. Yes, a handful at least. Please, we continue.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Guillermo Peigneux-Lojo from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Good morning. It's Guillermo Peigneux-Lojo from UBS. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yes.
Okay, thank you. First of all, thanks, Ronnie, and congratulations, Mats. I wanted to ask maybe a couple of questions first regarding capital intensity. Is there a different way of looking at capital intensity between these two businesses or these two new companies going forward? One will be a little bit more vertically integrated than the other, and therefore, an asset-light business will be more in favor of the industrial Atlas Copco businesses and less so for mining. I have a follow-up later. Thank you.
I think when you look to the balance sheet as such, I think both, if we take new businesses or two businesses, are of course also driven by the same asset-light concept as we all have been. More or less, it's the same. You can say that mining maybe carries a little bit more inventory, but on the other hand, they're a little bit lighter on a couple other parts. There's not really significantly a big difference. I think, of course, where the difference is on the cyclicality. Where we need to give focus on, and that's what we already have been doing for the last 20, 30, or maybe longer years, is on the agility of that part, because we all know what mining can do. I think what we have done in both businesses is to strengthen resilience.
If you see what we have been doing also on the mining side, maybe we don't talk so much about that on the service and the service capabilities, which makes the resilience. You see also during a tough period, which we got on the mining side, the profitability. There are many companies who would like to have this profitability even on the top of their business. That is the difference. It's more on the cyclicality and the customer portfolio, which is different.
Guillermo, you can add to it that from your, you will not see too many surprises, I'm absolutely sure, because you have the return on capital employed already in the annual report of the MR business area. That's the big part of the NewCo, of course. Just to add to it.
You can easily already reconcile it now.
Yeah. I agree. Obviously, I have to ask then after listening to your answer, whether expectations on growth regarding these two verticals are different and part of the decision is just basically that. One of the Atlas Copco stays probably higher growth potential, and one can think that maybe long term, the board and the executive teams sees lower growth potential in mining, long term.
I would like to meet you within five years, huh? We'll see. We will see. I don't think we should always look to the environment. There is also the drive internally, what is capable of doing it. There is a certain reason why we, as Atlas Copco, have now been able to create this type of value, like also, the Chairman said, I think, to change, to drive the change, there is always a better way. I think that has been driven us as a company and also has driven the value creation. I'm not so sure that I'm in your camp, that it will be a big difference.
Last question. Are you staying in Sweden or moving out to lower tax regions, maybe? Thank you.
No, I will move to a higher tax region. As you know, I think I'm a Belgian, and also when I moved to Sweden, I kept my place in Belgium. Of course, I will be always connected to this country, and so that is for sure. We will, because during maybe mid of the year or whatever, move back to Belgium.
Thank you very much. I wish you the best of luck. Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm sure you heard about the Hotel California. Good. Another question. We have a few more minutes to go, so we can take more questions from the telephone line.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Peder Frölén from Handelsbanken Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thank you, and thank you for taking my question. I guess most questions have been answered, I reckon the rationale between sort of a pure play into mining and civil versus industrial. I want to tie on to the former question here on the growth potential. If stability has been the most important for the mining and the civil or construction part the last period, do you think it will be important to also stress the growth function of a specific or isolated stock? It's not good to be too volatile from a stock market perspective.
Should I take that?
Yeah.
No, I think, of course, Peder, because now we really are focused on mining, but you also see if you read the document, there's also civil engineering. They're also in the mining business. There are less cyclical entities or niches in that one, in that segment, and that is, I think, what we have been exploring also. You still show we have not gone left, right and center, because we could have done that five, six years ago. We could have gone left. We have not. We said, "No, we are disciplined." We really go in the right niche where we can defend the agility or the cyclicality and develop the resilience. It's not because the mining companies are cyclical that they don't invest even during the tough period. That is the sectors which we need to develop.
Yes.
If you look to the asset today, you see it's a golden cross.
Mm-hmm. Do you think there are more interesting niches within Civil to take down the mining exposure as such? The follow-up, I need to ask you, I hope there will be plenty of opportunities to thank you for your time at Atlas, but I want to take the opportunity to ask you what has been the proudest moment as a CEO over the last eight years, maybe also share with us what you would like to have done differently?
I think my proudest moment is that I'm allowed to lead this organization. Now he gets fluffy. There's this guy, this tough guy gets. I think it's really when you are able to lead and see these opportunities coming up, because you can talk about strategy forever, you can hire consultants for that, they make you the nicest PowerPoint. To execute that I think we should not forget, I think it's the whole execution that is so important. You and I, James, we talked about Husqvarna in 2005 and 2006, I think it's a similar issue that this is a well-run business that better stand on its own, because then there could be even more focus. It has by no means been mishandled within Atlas Copco.
On the contrary, it has grown, as you have seen, tremendously over these 100 years. We just see that to be more focused, to have a separate board and separate
Leadership would benefit the company when it comes to taking the steps from now on. These, I'd like to once again underline that these two entities are and will be market-leading entities, market-leading companies. This is not about spinning off an entity that we don't believe in. On the contrary, these are great businesses, we believe they can stand on their own going forward.
Great. Thanks very much. Thanks, Hans.
You're welcome.
One final question before we have to stop, unfortunately. Take one more question.
Thank you. Our final question comes from the line of Timlan Manek Frykman from Kempen Capital Management. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thank you. Good morning. I understand that this is still early days and that you can't give specifics on exactly what kind of leverage metrics the NewCo will have. Nonetheless, are you confident that you'll be able to maintain your current credit ratings when this transaction takes place, in the sense that you are losing some, let's say, significant business diversification and size? Would you structure the deal in such a way, in terms of putting leverage in the NewCo, that the current A stable rating and outlook that you have at S&P and Fitch will be maintained? Thank you.
Well, if I take that right away, I think your question is understandable, but should be addressed to S&P and the rating agencies. I think it would be presumptuous of us to have a clear answer to that right now. Please let us come back to that, and we'll certainly give full answers to whatever questions you have when the time is right. That's the only thing we can say right now. I'm sorry.
Thank you.
Well, with that, I would like to thank you for your interest, and thank you for having tuned in to these announcements and this discussion. Ola, I think I hand it over to you, and I would like to thank Ronnie and welcome Mats again. Thank you, Hans-Ola. Great team, as somebody says over the Atlantic. Great team. Good?