Welcome to the Beijer Alma Q3 2024 report presentation. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers. CEO, Henrik Perbeck, and CFO, Johan Dufvenmark, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our webcast, where we today present third quarter 2024 . I am Henrik Perbeck, and with me, I have our CFO, Johan Dufvenmark.
Good morning, everybody.
So today we'll present the overall performance and the recent developments of our group, Beijer Alma Group. In addition, we will also discuss our reporting segments, our two main subsidiaries. These are Lesjöfors, which is a full range supplier of standard and customized industrial springs and other wire and flat strip components. Lesjöfors is acting globally, with majority of sales in Europe and the U.S.A. And it is Beijer Tech, which acts mainly in the Nordics within specialized manufacturing, value-adding, industrial trading, and automation in profitable niches. And Beijer Tech is also a platform for acquisitions into new industrial niches. So let us move on.
Starting with some comments from my side, today, we will present what I think is a solid and a decent report in today's economy, where we can also report some organic growth in the quarter overall on the group level. What we see is the industrial economy continued to slow down after the summer. Demand was still varied within our very diversified customer base and in the different geographical regions. The big picture, geographically, is that Nordics was our strongest region, but also supported by growth in Asia and U.K. Germany stands out even more as the weakest market, also affecting, of course, the nearby Central Europe region. For our two companies, if we start with Lesjöfors, Lesjöfors had a mixed demand picture, and a flat development of order bookings organically.
The Chassis Springs business area slowed down this quarter, compared to the strong start of the year, and has sort of gone into low season now. Also compared to the strong comparables from last year, revenues were lower, particularly in the key markets like U.K. and Germany. On industry or industrial springs, Nordics was indeed the key driver of some growth, followed by Asia and U.K. In the U.S., a little bit mixed picture where some industrial segments were good, delivering growth, whereas deliveries to the medical projects were more volatile and lower. And as mentioned before, Germany and Central Europe were the weaker markets.
For Beijer Tech, acting mainly in the Nordics, demand was overall stable, but also varied. Fluid technology grew both organically and thanks to the ABS acquisition in Q2. The newly formed business area, Niche Technologies, stood up well by meeting to the very tough comparables from last year. In industrial products, we see a little bit different dynamics. The Norwegian market was the strongest, whereas in particular, Finland was weaker and also followed by Sweden and Denmark. Coming into acquisitions, in our last call, the two acquisitions announced were closed during the third quarter. Lesjöfors acquired Clifford Springs, and also Beijer Tech acquired Klemko, so these are two good companies that will support our profitable growth journey ahead.
We have also announced one new deal since the last call, and that is the Lesjöfors acquisition of Lacroix, which was further closed on the 1st of October, so after the end of this reported quarter. And I will come back to talk a little bit about Lacroix later in the presentation. Overall, we continue to feel that the activity level in the M&A market is decent, which is interesting for us and creates opportunities to find new attractive companies that could strengthen the group going forward. But at the same time, of course, with this economic uncertainty still including high interest rates leads us to conducting a balancing act between investing for growth and savings. Continue with an overview of the group's financial performance.
Looking at the performance, we can see that order bookings declined by 1%, whereas growth was organically 1%. Net revenues grew only slightly and about 1% organic growth. These are, of course, quite modest growth numbers, but at least shows some stability for our group as a whole. Adjusted operating profit was 212 million SEK with a margin of 12.6%, which is down 0.8 percentage points versus last year. I will now move on to the performance of the reporting segments, our subsidiaries, Lesjöfors and Beijer Tech. Starting with Lesjöfors. Lesjöfors, our spring manufacturer, is organized into two main business areas, these are industry with mainly customized products to a very diversified customer base globally.
As you can see here is the main part. Chassis Springs are standardized replacement springs sold to car part wholesalers, mainly in Europe. Order bookings for Lesjöfors decreased by 5%, but with a flat organic development. And because we have a currency headwind of 2% and also a negative impact from the net of divestments and acquisitions last year versus last year. The net revenue also decreased overall here by 3%, and organically up 1%. Starting with the industry, the largest business area, growth was minus 2%, but actually positive organic growth. And now, as mentioned, growth mainly from the Nordics, Asia, and UK, whereas Central Europe, and in particular Germany, was weaker.
Speaking of Central Europe, this also goes for Alcomex European operations. The US market, as mentioned, was a bit of a mix. Some industrial segments grew, in fact, where deliveries within medical were somewhat lower than high levels of last year. And, in addition, Alcomex launched door springs in the US over the last several months, and it had a positive impact on the growth in the quarter. However, with some one-off costs related to the launch and diluting the margin in this quarter, but it's a good start for that growth. For Chassis Springs, the strong demand from beginning of the year has slowed down, net revenues decreased by 8%, facing tough comps from last year.
In particular, some key markets, such as U.K. and Germany, slowed down and also driven by wholesale customers actively reducing stock levels for the low season. Adjusted operating profits decreased SEK 262 million with an EBIT operating margin, adjusted, of 14%. I also want to mention in terms of adjustments that in the quarter there is a significant adjustment on the operating profit. We have released the provision for the earn-out for John Evanson acquisition affecting the operating profit with SEK 187 million. This was done since the specific targets in the agreement are not expected to be met despite an overall satisfactory performance. Good. Moving over to Beijer Tech.
So Beijer Tech is, since the beginning of this year, operating in three business areas. Fluid Technology and Industrial Products are both acting within industrial trading and manufacturing. The third business area we call Niche Technologies, which includes companies with strong market positions in various industrial niches, such as building automation, waste management, specialized replacement parts, components, and machinery. And typically, these companies have other market drivers than general industrial demand. So order bookings for Beijer Tech increased in the quarter by 9%, of which 1% was organic. The net revenues grew by 10%, with 2% organic growth. Within the business area Industrial Products, demand was overall, I would say, a bit weaker, and revenues decreased. Still, the demand varied across the geographies.
Norway continued strongly, whereas in particular, Finland and also Sweden and Denmark had weaker demand. Fluid Technology stands out this quarter with a growth of 35%. Part of this is, of course, thanks to the acquisition of AVS in March, but also organic growth in Norway and Sweden. Niche Technologies had tough comparables this quarter with no acquisition effects anymore and managed to keep up with the performance of Q3 last year, which we're happy about. Overall, Beijer Tech's operating result increased to 58 million SEK with a good operating margin of over 11%. I will now hand over to Johan, our CFO, for some more comments on the financials.
Thank you, Henrik. Let's take a further look into the financials. As mentioned, net revenue is relatively unchanged compared to last year, up SEK 7 million. Acquisitions, together with the divestments, contributed with SEK 10 million. The divestment was the German company Stump, which was sold in December twenty twenty-three. The organic growth was SEK 24 million, corresponding to a little over 1%, and both Lesjöfors and Beijer Tech had a positive organic growth. The revenue was also affected by currency effects, minus SEK 27 million. Order bookings decreased with SEK 60 million - 1,650 million SEK. Acquisitions and divestments, together with organic growth, was slightly positive and combined almost 1% in growth. Beijer Tech's organic growth was 1%, and the growth from acquisitions, 9%, while Lesjöfors order bookings decreased, related mainly to the divestment last year.
Let's continue with a short look on the segments and how they contribute to the revenue and operating result. As we saw on the previous slide, net revenue increased with SEK 7 million - SEK 1,683 million. Lesjöfors revenue decreased with SEK 39 million, related to lower sales in the Industry business area, and as well, the divestment last year. While revenue in the Nordics, Asia, and U.K. was good, Beijer Tech's revenue increased both organically and from acquisitions, mostly driven by the acquisition. Adjusted operating profit was SEK 212 million in Q3 this year. In last year's operating profit, we'd had an item of other income related to energy subsidiaries in Sweden, so-called ... of SEK 7 million. In Beijer Tech, fluid technology was the main reason for the profit increase.
Within Lesjöfors Industry, operating result was, as mentioned, positively affected by markets in the Nordics and U.K., and the development in Hot Springs was affected by lower volumes, but also strong comparables. Now to some of the key financial ratios. Adjusted EBITDA was SEK 230 million, SEK 50 million lower compared to last year. The difference to adjusted EBIT being high depreciation, following a number of acquisitions. Operating profit was affected by the reversal of the provision for John Evans' Sons earn-out, amounting to SEK 187 million, and this is treated as an item affecting comparability. Cash flow from operating activities was SEK 212 million, lower than last year, and last year's interest and taxes paid was lower in the quarter, but the effect this year will even out during the rest of the year.
Release of working capital was a little bit lower than last year, but still, it follows a normal seasonal pattern. Net debt was as well in line with last year, and all that was also true for the financial net. This quarter, we introduced net debt/EBITDA as a financial KPI. Net debt is used without the IFRS 16 leasing, and is the same as in this picture. With a debt leverage of 1.8, we have a strong financial position to support our growth strategy. Thank you, and back to Henrik for some look on the acquisitions.
Thank you, Johan. Yes, before concluding, I would like to highlight the one acquisition we announced since last time. In late July, Lesjöfors signed an agreement to acquire Lacroix. The French industrial spring manufacturer with a high technology specialization. The company focuses primarily on small to medium-sized batches for a broad customer base. Customers are mainly in hydraulics and general industry, but also very interesting segments such as aerospace and medical. And for Lesjöfors, the acquisition provides a platform on a key European market, with further potential for cross-sales of the group's broad product portfolio.
The acquisition was completed after the end of the quarter, now on first of October, and I want to take this opportunity to a warm welcome to MD, Johan Detaille, and his team in Orléans, and now members of Lesjöfors and the Beijer Alma Group. Looking at these last new companies within our group, we can see that we continue our, our strategy to further grow by acquisitions. As, and as mentioned, that we also continue to see decent activity on the M&A market, where we have discussions with several good companies in our pipeline for the future. And please note on this slide, this is just an illustration of the overall impact from our acquisition strategy, showing the run rate revenue at the time of acquisition, a number of acquired companies.
Q4 this year, with a revenue of SEK 325 million. It's not a slide showing the reported revenues impact this year. Now just a short summary of our third quarter. Key message: some organic growth in a weakening economy, and for Lesjöfors, mixed demand with flat organic growth in order bookings. Growth in Nordics, Asia, U.K., and U.S. Industrial, and lower volumes, mainly in Germany and Central Europe. The Chassis Springs slowed down in the third quarter compared to the strong start of the year. And for Beijer Tech, growth was driven mainly by fluid technology, both organically and by acquisition. As I just recently spoke about, the one new acquisition, Lacroix spring company in France, going into Lesjöfors. So with that, we conclude on the presentation, and we open up for Q&A.
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. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Karol Noreus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi there, Henrik and Johan. Got into the call a little bit late, so didn't catch everything. But if we start off with a question on Lesjöfors, I'm just wondering a bit, if it's possible to say anything regarding the profit development. If you split up, let's say, the industrial segment versus the Chassis Springs, a little bit. I guess, the industrial segment had a better performance year over year in terms of profits than the Chassis. Is that correct?
Good morning, Karol. Yes, regarding the profit development or the margin or how you would like to see it in Lesjöfors, we have mentioned during our call today in our report, a couple of areas having an impact. And firstly, it is indeed, as you... It's the Chassis slowdown. Number one, we have also mentioned, Johan also mentioned, the more of a comparable effect with this the energy support last year. And also, as I mentioned, we had this, the actually, the positive launch of the door springs in the US, where for Alcomex, where we had some one-off costs there.
But then, of course, also, as we point out several times, regarding the European and, in particular, German economy is weaker. So those are some of the key impacts in what you could call a bridge between-
Yeah.
But Chassis, yes, definitely.
Yes, on the weak demand side here in Germany, Central Europe, I guess it's nothing specific for you really, but I'm just wondering if, like, the demand deteriorated, you would say, during the quarter, and do you see Q4, you know, being sequentially worse, let's say, than Q3? Or what are you seeing in terms of demand there?
I would say that we heard you know a lot of comments in the spring that you know towards the autumn things will improve. I think what I said is that we actually saw you know after the summer still a weak performance you know. I would not want to go out and speculate in when we can see an upturn again. But it's just a matter that you know we don't see any-
But you see it as quite stable now or during the quarter, I would say, or it was not like a-
Yeah
... significant drop in-
No
... the end of the quarter, so? No. That's good. And then just one question here on the Niche Technologies, which saw a little bit slower growth here. I mean, last year, would you say that... Or is the comparables getting easier, or how should we see the Niche Technologies development here year over year going forward, do you think?
Yes. Well, talking about the current quarter, as I said, we did have a very strong development last year in ... several of these niche companies, and we were actually quite happy that we could keep up with that. As I said, the drivers of demand in these companies are not the same as the general economy and the industrial economy in that sense. So, but I mean, overall, it's a group of companies that we have a very positive view on in terms of future growth. And it does not, as I said, match entirely with the economic development in the economy. You know, we're talking about really certain niches here. But long term, it's certainly we have acquired these companies for their long-term growth opportunities. But it can only-
Yeah.
You know, these are small companies. It can also go back-
Yeah
... back and forth a little bit during the quarter, and we're actually quite satisfied with this quarter, so.
Yeah, well, that's great, and I think that's all from me as of now. So have a good day.
Great.
Thanks.
You too.
Thank you.
See you later.