Hello, and welcome to today's webcast presentation, where we have Balco Group presenting the Q3 report for 2023. With us presenting, we have the CEO, Camilla Ekdahl, and CFO, Michael Grindborn. If you have any questions, you can either use the form that is located to the right, or if you're calling in, please press star nine to raise your hand. And, with that said, please go ahead with your presentation.
Thank you. Thank you, and welcome to our presentation. First of all, to all new listeners, we take a short snapshot of Balco Group. Balco Group consists of balcony, facade, and installation companies. We have several brands, such as Balco, Balco Altaner, TBO-Haglinds, RK-Teknik, Stora Fasad, and Söderåsens Mur & Kakel. The head office is located in Växjö. Our core expertise is to replace old balconies with new, larger, glazed balconies. We are mainly working in the renovation segment, but also provide projects to new building sector. Our main customer group are tenant-owned associations. We are the market leader in Scandinavia, and a Balco glazed balcony can give up to 15%-30% energy savings. Going over to the quarter, we have had stable profitability despite lower sales.
The net sales in the quarter was SEK 253 million versus SEK 311 million previous year, same period. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved from 5.6% to 6%. If we look on the highlights for the quarter, it is that we have actually entered a new market, Ireland, where we have taken the first order, worth just over EUR 3 million . We have had good sales in U.K. before with our product, Levitate, for the new building segment, and we now enter the Irish market with the same product. We see good potential in this market ahead. We can see that there are about 350 building projects already now going on in Dublin, including balconies.
We have also continued our sustainability focus, and we have committed to develop short- and long-term targets for emission reduction, including net zero targets in line with the Science Based Targets initiative. We also know that there is and will be a great need to renovate not only balconies, but also the entire surface layer of apartment buildings, and there, the balcony is often the trigger for starting these transformation projects. Therefore, we have signed a cooperation agreement with a Norwegian company, which works with the green transformation projects, and we see big potential also here in the cooperation ahead. If we look back one year ago, the microeconomic expectation was that the Swedish policy rate should top in 2023 on 2.25%. Now, it is 4%, and it can be even higher.
This have given us a lower order intake in the quarter than expected, even though that there's still a big interest in our products. It's also a little bit a matter of timing because we actually received, as we have seen in our report, order of SEK 70 million here in the start of October. Our assessment is that there will have a continued delay in the order intake until the central banks clearly communicate that the interest rate increases are over. During this time, we continue to focus on cost to defend our profit margin, and we make adjustments to the organization, but we retain important competence so that the company is not damaged for the future, and we are prepared to take the projects in the future also.
Yeah, and having a look on the financial figures, start with the quarter figures for the total group. We had net sales, as Camilla mentioned, of SEK 253 million, down from SEK 311 million last year. Here we had acquired growth of 6%. We have also positive currency effects of 2%, so the organic growth was negative by 26%. The adjusted operating profit, EBITDA level, was SEK 15 million, compared to SEK 17 million last year, corresponding to an improved operating EBITDA margin of 6%, compared to 5.6% last year.
Order intake in the quarter was SEK 135 million, down from SEK 265 million, and our order backlog at the end of September was SEK 1,067,000,000 , down from just above SEK 1.4 billion last year. Earnings per share was SEK 0.26 , down from SEK 0.48 last year, and our operating cash flow amounted to SEK 20 million in the quarter, compared to SEK 104 million last year. And if we go over to the renovation segment, here we saw improved profitability. The net sales was down from SEK 284 million down to SEK 225 million, which corresponds to 89% of the total net sales in the quarter. Order intake was weak.
It was just SEK 82 million, down from SEK 256 last year. But the operating profit was better, SEK 16 million compared to SEK 15 million last year, and it corresponds to an improved adjusted operating margin of 7.1% compared to 5.3% last year. Order backlog, end of September was SEK 899 million, down from SEK 1.3 billion last year, and it's 84% of the total order backlog. Our new build segment net sales was stable, SEK 28 million compared to SEK 27 million last year. Order intake was quite good. It was SEK 53 million, up from SEK 9 million just last year, same quarter. Also operating profit was stable, SEK 1.5 million, the same as last year, with an operating margin of 5.1%.
The order backlog has, as a matter of fact, increased to SEK 168 million, and it corresponds to 16% of the total order backlog. Our financial position is still strong. We have an, at the end of the quarter, equity of SEK 758 million. It's SEK 30 million more than we had the same period last year, and also, our equity ratio has improved to 57% compared to 51% last year. Our net debt, including leasing, divided by EBITDA, was 1.5x, and if we exclude the effect of IFRS 16 leasing, it was 1.1x.
We also have prolonged our agreement with Danske Bank, another two years, so now it's valid until October 12th, 2026, and it's a sustainability link, the revolving credit facility of SEK 510 million, and we also have an overdraft facility of SEK 75 million. Having a look at our financial targets, we have a growth target that Balco should grow by 10% per year during a business cycle, and here, at the end of September, it was 3% growth. The profitability should be, we have a target that our earnings per share shall grow by 20% per year, also during business cycle, and here it was -10% end of September. For our capital structure, the goal is that our net debt to EBITDA shouldn't exceed 2.5x more than temporarily.
Here we are, as I mentioned, 1.5x, including leasing debt, and 1.1x, excluding leasing debt. We also have a dividend policy that Balco should distribute between 30%-50% of the profit after tax to shareholders, and the decided dividend for 2022 was SEK 1.5 , and it corresponds to 40% of the earnings after tax. Having a look at the sustainability, as Camilla mentioned, we have made an important step in the quarter and committed to the science-based target that we should develop long- and short-term targets for emission reduction, also including net zero target. This will be done together with a science-based targets group and should update the current targets we have today.
As a part of this, we have took one first step. We have a new car policy that we introduced now from October 1, allowing just electric cars. During a short period until end of 2025, we will have some specific hybrid cars that also would be allowed, but from 2026, it will be just electric cars. But we have... And this is, of course, to reduce the zero emissions from CO2. And some market update, Camilla?
Yes. Thank you, Michael. We know here that there is still a demand for our products, and we see that activity in inquiries and discussions about projects have actually increased during the third quarter. However, the decisions take longer time than before. There are longer decisions depending on the higher interest rate that we now have and also other cost increases that the tenant-owned associations have got. So therefore, there are longer discussions with the banks, there are longer discussions with the potential advisors. We have here in Balco, we have a unique sales model, where we can also support and help the associations in these kind of discussions. We have a financial expertise to help them to see which kind of increases on the monthly rate they need to take to cover their investments for the balconies.
We know that there is, as I said, and there will be a great need to renovate not only balconies but also the entire surface layer, and we will be part of this necessary change by being able to run turnkey projects to our customers. We said also here, as a market update, we have had a good development in U.K. market, and we have now entered the Irish market, which we judge to have good potential also for the future. Once more again, I will say here that the need for renovation will not go away.
Postponing the measures will not improve the balconies, and actually, there can be that if they postpone too long, it can actually also be a danger to both the residents as well as people moving around the balcony when parts of the concrete can fall down. In worst cases, they can need to close access to the balconies. We have had these kind of projects from historical point of view, where they have waited too long. Of course, they can be postponed for a period, but there is a need, and that need needs to be taken care of longer. If we look on our acquisition, acquisition are an important part of Balco growth strategy, and we is also in the future.
We are looking for European balcony companies or companies with activities that can complement Balco's green transformation product offering. We continue also to work with a decentralized business model, where the company retains its own brand, identity, and culture, but we are also looking on synergy effects, mainly in production, sourcing, and operation. So if we make some concluding remarks for the quarter, the net sales SEK 253 million, and an adjusted EBITA margin of 6%. We have entered a new market, Ireland, where we have won the first order, and we have signed a cooperation agreement with a Norwegian company, which works with green transformation projects in Norway. The outlook ahead, renovation, as we said, the need still remains.
About 90% of our turnover comes from renovation, but we can, of course, see that the lower order taken in the past year will affect the turnover and earnings in the coming year. But we continue to focus on cost to defend our profit margin and adjust the organization accordingly. We also have several ongoing acquisition discussions, and we receive various prospects on an ongoing basis, which we evaluate. We focus on profitable companies, and we are very selective in our discussions on acquisitions ahead. That's all from us. So, questions?
Thank you very much for that presentation. Like I said, now it's time for the Q&A section. If you're calling in and would like to ask a question, please press star nine to raise your hand, or you can use the form that's located to the right. We've got the first person calling in with a question. Please, go ahead with your question.
Good afternoon, this is Niklas Stein with SBI Stockholm. Can you hear me?
Yes. Good afternoon, Niklas.
Good afternoon. Thanks for the call and the presentation so far. If I may just start with a couple of questions. I was wondering, first of all, could you give us an update on the progress in your two savings program, one and two, that is, hopefully gonna impact your bottom line in this year and perhaps slightly in 2024 as well? How much of these savings have you actually achieved after nine months, 2023, please?
They have been fully achieved. So, we took one-time cost when for some people who left the company, but still have some. They have, of course, a negative impact still on our cash flow, but in our adjusted profit, it's all taken already.
On the big saving projects.
Yeah.
But then we have, as we said, we are continuously evaluating and making adjustments.
But the two big programs.
Programs, yes.
Fully implemented.
Okay. So, I guess to conclude, you think you are well on par with expectations with regards to taking out costs, and these savings have benefited your EBIT so far this year, according to your plans. Is that fair?
Yes, that's correct.
Okay, excellent. Now, turning focus to the cash flow, please. If we look at the first half of this year, you've had quite a significant working capital build-up, impacting the operating cash flow, negatively. And, also in this quarter, despite, you know, a rather, rather substantial sales decrease, et cetera, et cetera, the working capital is actually also affecting operating cash flow in a not, not too much, but still anyway, slightly negative way. Can you give us some sort of, c ould you elaborate a little bit on sort of why working capital has developed the way it has after nine months, so far after nine months in this year?
Perhaps also, if you could give some thoughts on what you expect in terms of working capital management in this current quarter of the year, please.
Yeah. If we have a look at the different parts, we can see that the inventory is stable, more or less no change. We have the ratio between accounts receivable, accounts payables is also stable. It's been increase of both of them. So all working capital increase, and what has negatively affected the cash flow is due to the what we call project net, what we have contract assets and contract liabilities. And here it depends when we can invoice the customer. We have when we enter a project agreement, the predefined payment plans and certain gates that we need to come to before we can send an invoice.
And, this is different in different projects, in different markets, and it can also be different within the market from different projects. These project phases you have to reach to be able to invoice the customer, these kind of gates. And, it's been so far this year that we haven't, we have had a period where we haven't reached all of these gates to be able to invoice as quickly as we normally do. And the one big negative impact we have seen is in UK, where we have had some projects, quite big, that have been stopped due to customer having financial problems. So we have had to stop the project. We don't have any problems, but they will not be finished, but we have had to stop them.
Delays.
B ecause the customer couldn't finalize it right now. But it's been a slower pace in this project, that is the biggest impact. But then it's always up and down in project business. You have to reach these gates. So far this year, it's been a negative impact, but it's much worse when we have, l ast year, we had a extremely good one, especially the second half of last year.
Yes. Yes, indeed. So, but would you say, except for, say, a particular project, you're on top of things in terms of working capital management? And perhaps we should be slightly more optimistic on sort of ending the year, as opposed to the first nine months in terms of working capital changes.
Yeah, if we see normally, normally, you should see our total average over perhaps two or three years. And there on average, we have 80% cash conversion, operating cash conversion. So, I don't see any problem that we will reach that in the long run, in the future as well.
Mm-hmm. Excellent, Michael. Thank you very much. Final question, if I may, and then maybe I can come back into the call. I was just wondering, you know, the reported order intake, to what extent does that actually at least partly reflect perhaps timing rather than canceled projects, for example? I mean, is there any reason to believe that you could be slightly more optimistic on, you know, actually booking some of the orders that you didn't book in Q3, in this quarter instead?
Yeah. As I said, we have actually received, and I written in the report, that we actually received a big project here in start of October of SEK 70 million, and that was a pure timing between the quarters, so to say. We have not received any cancellations, so that has not been any problem for us in quarter three. It's mainly delays, either that there was a timing between September, October, or that they have actually also some that they have postponed to the end of the year. And we can actually see that some will also be coming up in the start of next year. So it's more a timing problem, I would say.
Yeah, we haven't seen any.
Mm.
C ancellations either of current orders or future prospect. Obviously, it's just postponing and timing.
Yeah.
Thanks for clarifying that. That, that's all from me for now. Thank you very much to both of you.
I will take the next person calling in. Please go ahead with your question.
Thank you. This is Sofia from Carnegie. Can you hear me?
Hello. Yes.
Hello, Sofia.
Yeah.
Hi. Hi, Camilla. Hi, Michael. So, I have a couple of questions. So I will continue on the order intake. Could you give some more details on the trends during the quarter in terms of order intake? Did you see any, like, more significant drop later on, or any other deviation from your, from the typical seasonality during the quarter? Yeah, that's my first question.
No, we cannot say that we have seen anything sort of special in the quarter versus before. It's actually more, we have seen, more request for quotations coming in and more discussions ongoing than we did just before summer. So it has been actually quite, so to say, quite a lot of discussions starting up after summer period, but we have not received the order intake. And, as I say, it's a, t he discussions take much, much longer time. We need to involve more people, both from our side, in the operation side, and yeah, it's not only sales, it's a whole chain, where we actually can see that we are working with the project. We try to make the projects appropriate to what the customer can afford.
We are working a lot with that, and also at the same time, working a lot with their finance, and together with Michael, looking on the financial situations, for the customers. So it's more than that the discussions take longer time. That is what we can see if we go back, but that is used to, say, 1.5 year ago, then it take a longer time.
All right. Also, if you can give some logic of entering the Irish market and what your expectations are over there. And is it, do you reach any other type of end market segment in Ireland?
In Ireland, we are reaching the same kind of segment as we have in U.K., so it's a new building segment.
Okay.
So we are working in Ireland very similar to the setup we have in U.K. But there is.
Right. We have.
One big difference between Ireland and the U.K., which we can see is very good for Balco's perspective, and that is that the fire rules, the fire protection rules are, so to say, a little bit easier to handle in Ireland than in the U.K. Because in the U.K., it's very difficult to have a glazed balcony. That is easier in the Irish market. But in the start here, we continue with the same kind of product and with the same sort of processing the market as we do in the U.K., but we see a potential also for glazing there, which we don't see in the U.K.
All right. And then also my final question is about your financial targets. So when we see this quite significant order intake, it declines, a significant decline in order intake, if you compare to same period last year. Do you find it necessary to look at your financial targets in terms of safe growth ahead, or if you can comment on that?
Of course, we have had that discussion with our board. We have decided to keep the targets because, of course, the growth target will be tough to reach organically next year. But as we mentioned, we also look at acquisitions, and we see that we have still a balance sheet that can afford acquisitions. So we think that together with acquisitions, the growth target is absolutely possible to reach. And also, that's why we have the growth target on earnings per share, because if we acquire companies without taking up new shares, of course, the improvement, even if it's potent.
The percentage in profit is the same or lower than Balco's, then it should give a positive impact on the earnings per share. And we did this small change that we say that the goals are on a business cycle, and because every year it will be tough to reach them, but we think still over a business cycle, it should be possible to reach our financial targets.
All right. Okay, thank you for answering my question.
Thanks.
Okay, we'll take the next question here that we got in from the forum. You say that you're making adjustments to the organization. Can you elaborate on that? Are you going to reduce staff?
We have already announced staff reduction in some of our companies, so that is an ongoing discussions right now.
Okay, the next question here: Is it easy to find good companies to acquire outside the Nordics, for example, in the U.K. or in Ireland?
Yeah, Michael, should you, you as a M&A?
Yeah. We get different prospects in different markets, as a matter of fact, and we have looked at some companies in both U.K. and Ireland. So far, we haven't find anyone really interesting for us, but we get prospects from both in these areas. We get it in other markets, but we're not present. Then we get it in markets where we are present, and we evaluate them, and we have a couple of ongoing discussions that we think is really interesting.
Yeah.
But right now, we don't have any in the U.K. or Ireland, but we get prospects, and we are still interested to look, of course, if we find the right companies in these markets.
Given that the economic climate remains the same going into 2024, would you say that Balco Group is well-prepared to perform next year?
Yes, we are well-prepared to perform, but we still need to focus on, as we have said, we need to focus on the costs, and we need to focus on the order intake. These are the main issue, the main things we're working on, of course. We, of course, need the order intake, and we need the decisions to be taken, but we are also at the same time working with our costs to make sure that we remain our profit margins.
Okay, that was all of the questions that we had today. Thank you very much for presenting today and answering all of our questions, and a big thanks to everyone who followed along for today's Webcast presentation. Hope you have a great rest of the day, and until next time, thank you very much, and goodbye.
Thank you. Thank you.