Good morning, everybody. I'm actually in the archipelago of Sweden. The sun is shining and it's 25 degrees in there. The first picture you see now is just a mention. It's Finn Lamex, one of the companies in Beijer Tech, which manufactures windows, the front window for buses. That's one of the businesses that are performing very well. We're actually, at this moment, expanding the factory because the demand is higher than our capacity. Now you can see it's myself and Peter Forslund, CFO, who will run this presentation.
Good morning, everybody.
If you look at this quarter, I think we are rather satisfied with it. We have managed to improve the profitability at some points. If we go to the two business areas, we actually only have two business areas at this moment. Lesjöfors has a mixed demand. What we can see is the Nordic market is weak, where we have all types of customers in all industries. That is a weaker market compared to one year ago. The same goes for the United States also, where the market is much weaker. I guess it's depending on the industrial situation we have at this moment in the United States. On the other hand, for us, Asia is performing better and Europe is growing. The mix ends up in a positive development for the group.
As we mentioned earlier, we have one acquisition done a few years ago, Alcomex, that we are struggling with. We have improved profitability, but still we have an ongoing program to make that up to our standard. We have announced earlier the cost that we'll take for that in the second and third quarter. We also have reduced staff people in Lesjöfors to have a more decentralized organization, where the local entities are taking higher responsibility and also are allowed to do that. That is a trend we have started now. I think there will come some further steps down the line. Beijer Tech, which is a smaller business area we have, with a very normal serial acquirer, has overall a stable demand. We have, of course, variations between different companies. If we look at the Nordic, and they're only working in the Nordic area.
Norway is the strongest demand, weakest in Finland. We have Sweden and Denmark in between. We had organic growth in the quarter. Especially also, we had a very nice growth from the Swemas acquisition we did in Q1, which has performed actually better than expectations. In the quarter we announced earlier, actually the first of April, we acquired a company in India. We own 51% of the shareholders. The former owner owns 49%. We have a program with them to buy him out in some years. We made small acquisitions in Beijer Tech in Roykon in Denmark. If we looked at on the group level, the order bookings increased by 10% and revenue by 7%, where organically it was 3% for the revenue. For the bookings, it was 5%. In the circumstances we have in the world today, that's very good figures.
Our adjusted operating profit EBITDA increased to SEK 305 million. That's an operating margin of 15.1% on a group level. As you can see, 65% of the turnover comes from Lesjöfors and 35% from Beijer Tech. The trends are at this moment pointing a little bit upwards. If we look specifically at Lesjöfors Q2, order bookings increased by 6%, where everything was actually organic. Net revenue increased by 4%. As you know, we have different types of businesses here. We have something called Chassis springs, which is to the aftermarket for cars. That was around the same level as last year. The winter was rather mild, which means that if it's a tough winter, then we have more sales of Chassis springs, and if it's a soft winter, we have less sales. Industry increased by 5%. As I mentioned earlier, that was mainly Europe and Asia.
We increased the adjusted EBITDA to SEK 234 million. Beijer Tech organically was 2%. When you look at bookings, we have very different companies in there. Some of them are more machine or product oriented, and orders come in one quarter, maybe not in the next quarter, and so forth. It varies, but still on the positive side. We think that the outlook mentioned from the Business Area Manager, he was very satisfied how it looks for the coming quarter. The operating profit increased to SEK 83 million compared to SEK 73 million the year before. As you can see, we have three different business areas here with different types of companies. The growth you see, especially in industrial products, comes from the acquisition of Swemas.
I should mention here that actually four of the companies with manufacturing in Beijer Tech just now are increasing their production capacity by making investments because their demand is higher than they can meet. That's also very positive for the future. If we look at the financials, we had a change that is at 7.3% operating profit + 13.3%. The EBITDA margin is now 15.1%, and we are aiming to increase this by more focus on profitability and organic growth. I hope we can see this as a trend for the future. The EBITDA margin was 14%, also up from 13.2%. Cash flow about the same level as last year. Will you mention anything about the cash flow, Peter, where it comes from?
No, I think it's fine. I think it's in line with what we expected.
Equity ratio is 44%. That's on the safe side. We have net debt to EBITDA is 2.1x of course. The reason is now compared to last year, is the acquisitions we've done, but also the dividend that we do every year. Earnings per share drop, but that's depending on the reserves we have made for future costs in the Alcomex case and the Turkish business. Acquisitions in the period was what I said earlier, India. We acquired the first really step into India. We think that's a future market. To be cautious, we have an arrangement where the former owner still keeps 49%. We can, in a few years now, learn how the business works before we go into more than 51% ownership. I think that's wise because there is quite a different culture in the Indian market.
Long term, I think it's a very interesting area to be in because we see that more and more production are moving now from China to India. That's just the beginning of the future, I expect. In May, Beijer Tech made an acquisition, Roykon A/S , as a minor company that also adds to the Beijer Tech business. This is just to show you the acquisitions we've done over the years. I must say, a number of them are very nice companies with exports around the world. Some are working more in the Nordic region. I think this by keeping the companies very self-sufficient, running their own business, that's the way to have success when you are an owner of a company. The conclusion is Lesjöfors organic growth, mixed demand over the world. We have improved profitability. I expect that we continue. Beijer Tech, stable demand. We have made two acquisitions.
Even though our focus is on margin and organic growth, we will do acquisitions in the coming future as well. By this short presentation, I'll 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.
Yes. Hello, Johnny and Peter. A couple of questions here from my side. On these SEK 120 million of extraordinary items you're taking in the quarter, you obviously mentioned that SEK 70 million is an inventory write-down and the remaining SEK 50 million is related to the closing of a factory and staff layoffs. If you just circle in a bit more on this SEK 50 million, could you say anything here on which unit in Lesjöfors European operations this relates to? Also, perhaps if you could give any split in terms of how much of these staff layoffs are related to Lesjöfors HQ versus how much are related to subsidiaries in Lesjöfors. Thank you.
When we talk about factory, it's one factory within Alcomex. We have a number of factories that are closed down. That is announced also to the personnel. When we talk about how much it is on the headquarter, I have to ask you, Peter, do you have those figures?
Yeah. The majority is, of course, in operations when it comes to the people headcount. There are, I would say, around between 10% and 20% that is in HQ level or, so to say, on more of a white-collar level, mainly production.
We are closing a factory within Alcomex, but also we are reducing the factory in Turkey with a lot of people. That's the number of people we're talking, I think, about 70 people or something in total.
Very clear. In the report, you mentioned that Alcomex had a slightly better quarter. Could we just clarify here if this refers to an improvement year over year or Q over Q? Also, if this comment refers to order intake or sales or if it's primarily related to profitability?
I think, Peter, should you answer that question?
In the first quarter, we guided that, so to say, the profitability in Alcomex was negative in the first quarter. In the second quarter, we moved to a low single-digit positive profit in Alcomex for the first half year. We are not higher than that.
Okay. Very clear. In Lesjöfors Nordic operations here, you mentioned a bit of a weaker start to the quarter, but that then picked up throughout the quarter. Is it possible to quantify that in any way, like how much organic growth in either sales or orders you saw here in June or in the beginning of July, perhaps on a year-over-year basis versus what we saw here in April and May?
If you look in the figures, you can find out. I think it's also, we have a very diversified customer base. It's also in new, we have some new areas we're going into Heavy Springs, like for trains. Those projects come as a few big orders. I think it's hard to see what the message we got from the management is that it's a weaker market generally in the Nordic from all customers, more or less.
Perfect. Just finally, from my side, on this fire there in autumn in the force impacting you here in H1, you mentioned in the report that you have decided to shut this factory down permanently now and relocate that production to other factories. Do you foresee any additional cost savings related to this that could then be seen, I guess, on top of these $35 million in annual cost savings that you already communicated? Or is that already, I guess, bundled into that figure if you get me?
No, it's not bundled in, but I mean, we talk maybe $1 million or $2 million, something like that. It will probably show up in, let's say, end of next year or something because we have ordered new machines now, but it's a long delivery time. Before it's really, we are trying to solve the problems through the manufacturing we have and also actually buying some external products to supply to our customers. Of course, there will be some synergies when we have one factory less.
Understood. That was all my questions. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Johan Dahl from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just wondering, Johnny, you talked about these decentralization initiatives. I was just thinking, you know, can you in any way sort of see the opportunities there in terms of cost savings? I was wondering, is that something that sort of impacted already here in Q2 positively in Lesjöfors? Or was the sort of the earnings improvement in Lesjöfors, was it more related just to the swing in Alcomex in the second quarter?
I think it's mainly, it's a minor cost savings in the quarter. It's the swing in Lesjöfors, but also actually Asia doing well and general Europe doing well. It's a combination of all that. The cost reductions effect in Q2 is very small. That will come later on.
Would you say, Johnny, that being into, obviously, we've been in the board for some time, but I was just thinking, do you think you have identified sort of more cost savings potential and productivity improvement potential as opposed to a quarter ago? Or is it fairly much the same plans that you're executing on as we look at it now?
Of course, I've learned more, I think. The real driving thing in this is when you give the MDs clear goals. You have now, you own your business. You're supposed to run it. You're supposed to improve it. That is something that takes quite a while before they change their mindset from what they've been used to during the last years. The feedback we received so far, we haven't heard that much of feedback, but that has been positive.
Got you.
Sorry.
Just a final question. Do you have any sort of updated view of the inventory cycle in Chassis springs? Where would you say sort of in that, I mean, it's been volatile in the past depending on your customers' inventories, etc. Where would you say we are right now in the Chassis spring sort of cycle?
Can you comment on that, Peter?
No, I think we should continue to see it to be volatile. Of course, we are in the end of high season, and that we generally have had more inventory buildup during Q4, for example. It should follow fairly well the patterns from earlier. There is very little change in the underlying business as such.
Looking from an LTM perspective, it's fairly neutral, you'd argue, on the Chassis. It's not sort of below average or above average.
No, I would say it's fairly neutral. That's right.
Okay, thanks.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial the Pound key, five on your telephone keypad. There are no more phone questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.
Johnny, we have a question in the chat from Karl Lunden Rehn . Karl asks, can you talk a bit more about the acquisition strategy going forward?
Yeah, it's, you know, I'm supposed to stay here some few months more before Oscar comes. The idea is Beijer Tech should continue as before, but we are, for the future, going to use all the contacts we have around the world now through Lesjöfors and try to use them to find local businesses in other areas like components. We have not really activated that yet because now the focus in Lesjöfors is to improve the margin and go for organic growth. The idea is to grow other areas around the world with other components and not only springs. That, as I understand, is what Oscar also is going to push for in the future. We have a fantastic network around the world now through the companies owned by Lesjöfors.
Using those MDs and their contacts around where they are located should be a very good way to improve or actually to grow our market outside in other types of components.
Great. There are no more questions in the activity feed.
Okay. I thank you for the attention from everyone. We will meet again in the next quarter, Q3. That will be my last webcast in Beijer Alma because for the Q4, Oscar will be in position. Thank you very much and have a nice day and summer. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.