Good morning, everybody. I will start now talking about the general market demand as we have seen it during the first quarter of 2026. If we start in United States, where we have four companies working, we can see an improvement in the market compared to last quarter in 2025. The general market has improved, and that goes more or less all over our customers for the U.S. If you move to Europe, excluding the Nordic, the market has been very stable demand compared to last quarter. If we continue east to Asia, same story, stable market. Finally, if we go to the Nordic region, it's been an improved market, and that, depending on the large customers we have in the Nordic, has also improved their sales and the request for components from us.
In Beijer Components, finally, the aftermarket business has been rather stable. Little bit lower turnover, but basically about the same level as same period last year. If we move to Beijer Tech, we have niche companies, and some of them are doing extremely well. Generally, I should say that it's a mix in those companies. Some have received orders, maybe for the whole year, more or less. The development is very good. Overall, it has been a good quarter for our business. We have improved our margin according to what we promised, a 50% increase in EBITDA, and that's where we are, the first quarter at least. I think that we are on the right track for the future. What we've not have done is any acquisitions in the quarter.
We have progress going on in Beijer Tech, and we started up new resources at the end of this quarter for Beijer Components. Expect there will come acquisitions later on this year and hopefully also in Q2. With that, I think I'll hand over to Peter to talk about the financial performance.
Yeah. Thank you. A short comment on the Beijer Components side. If you look at the net revenue, we have an effect from the action plan that we had last year, meaning that we have a drop in the top line based on that we have ceased some of the non-profitable or less profitable deals, affecting top line in Beijer Components in the quarter with around SEK 50 million. Johnny has talked about the demand. I think it's good to point out the profitability that we are now at 19.4% on the EBITDA level. I will comment a little bit on where that comes from a little bit later. Moving over to the Beijer Tech side. Here we see a stable quarter with good demand coming from several companies.
If you look at the Industrial Products, it's a little bit cautious still on the industrial demand side, but both Fluid and Niche are performing on a high level. We have the backlog effect that we have talked about a little bit in the Beijer Tech, coming from that we've done investment in some of the companies within Niche Technologies, and they delivered very strongly. That effect is still there in Q1. It's smaller than in Q4, and it will decrease sequentially over the remainder of the year from that. Going in and commenting a little bit more on the financial performance. If you look at the order booking side, we have an increase in the order booking side.
We have talked about this a little bit in the calls that we have had previously, that in Beijer Tech, the order booking can vary a little bit from quarter to quarter. This quarter, we have an organic growth in order bookings in Beijer Tech with around 8%, and that is partly then because we have had one of these positive swings where one of the companies have got a large bulk order during the quarter driving up the organic growth within the order bookings. Underlying order booking is more according to the organic growth in net revenue rather than the one in order bookings. These effects we will continue to have from quarter to quarter a little bit here and there. Looking at the EPS or earnings per share, we see a very solid growth from 2.60 up to 3.40.
It's coming, of course, from the profitability going through, but it also comes from lower interest rates and better financing conditions as we renegotiated terms last year, and that was also a one-time item affecting comparability in Q1 2025. Let's move over to the financial results a little bit more in detail. If you look at the profitability in Beijer Components, you have a little bit of a positive mix effect coming from Chassis. If you look sequentially from Q4, we have a higher portion of the revenues in the Chassis area this time. We also see within Beijer Components that we have a profitability improvement compared to last year in all geographical areas, meaning that it's not sort of say directed only to one or two regions, but it's a broad-based increase in profitability. We have talked about the action plan measures.
Important to remember that we expect a similar effect in the second quarter compared to the second quarter last year. Alcomex has been a topic on these calls for a longer time. We say that Alcomex is developing according to plan after the actions taken in the action plan last year. Profitability has sequentially improved. On the Beijer Tech side, we have commented that specifically, but I think worth just mentioning is that the quarter is affected by lower transaction costs in Q1 this year compared to last year. As Johnny said, that we have not closed any acquisitions. Great. That was a little bit more on the in-depth financial side. Let's move over to a little bit on the cash flow and capital efficiency. On the cash flow in the first quarter, the seasonal pattern repeats as we have expected.
This is following the trend from the last couple of years, based on year rebates in the Chassis Springs, but also that we sort of say sales build up in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter. Looking at the capital efficiency, one of our two financial targets where we've set a target level of 50%. Here we are then showing an increase, based mainly then on a solid EBITDA growth. Going into a little bit on the financial position. We see that we have a financial strength to continue to invest and achieve the targets we've set. There is headroom for acquisitions when the time is right. The Net debt to EBITDA, we have a fairly stable ratio there. That was what I had in mind on the financial position. Johnny, I hand back to you if you want to say something more about acquisitions.
Yeah, we are, as I say, Beijer Tech, as you know, have been doing a number of acquisitions every year, and with same procedures last year. Now, we didn't have anything during this first quarter, but we have progress going on, and we have started up this model where we try to use Beijer Components organization to find acquisitions out firstly in Europe. That work started actually 1st of March. I expect that we will have some result of that during the year. It will take a time before you build up the relations with people around in Europe and also with our own people, so they start to look for acquisition targets. The work is going on, and as I said, I hope something will materialize during this year in that area.
We have the financial positions to do probably more than we can find of nice acquisitions.
Great. Johnny, summarize the quarter shortly.
Yeah. January and February was slow, but then it was really like a boom in March. That is what we can see more or less all over our markets. We have not seen any effects of the turmoil in the general environment so far. Nobody knows what's going to happen the coming quarters. We have to wait and see and adapt to situation. We have seen some kind of mentions that there will be some price increases, some materials, but we don't know yet. We will try to follow that and adapt to price increases from our suppliers and transfer that to our customers. By that, I think it's time for Q&A.
Yes. Let's go to 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. The next question comes from Max Bacco from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, Johnny and Peter. Well done in the quarter. Just three quite short questions from my side. First, the strength here in March, have you seen that it has spilled over or continued in April as well? If you could comment on that.
To be honest, we don't know really. It's too early to say.
Okay. I understand. Then I noted in the report, and I think you, Peter, highlighted as well, that net financials clearly down here year-over-year. In the report, you said it was explained by lower market interest rates and improved financing terms as well. Is there anything else in that number that explains the decrease, which is more perhaps of a non-recurring nature?
No. At some point, you could have, sort of say, a little bit of revaluation effects on cash sitting in different locations, affecting it SEK 1 million or SEK 2 million in each directions. There is no other, sort of say, one-time effect reading that number. No.
Okay. Perfect. The final one. You mentioned it here in the report and the presentation that some SEK 50 million has been lost within Beijer Components due to actively phasing out low- margin businesses and activities. Is it a similar impact on the order intake as well, SEK 50 million?
Both yes and no. In the quarter, that's the picture. If you look at the order intake in the second quarter, then, of course, a part of it has already come if you take the comparison figure. Roughly, yeah.
Okay.
You have a timing effect, of course, from the order to the delivery. The longer we get-
Yes
You lose a little bit of the similarity.
Yes. Understood. That was all from me, actually. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Anton Ingves from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Anton here from Nordea. Starting off here a bit, you mentioned the pickup in demand for heavy vehicles in the quarter within the industrial segment. Is there any other end markets here that stands out in either way?
No. I should say it's in the United States. The general market has improved.
Mm-hmm.
We noticed that in Q4, it seems like many customers were waiting to place orders depending on they were insecure about the political situation in the United States. Now in Q1, they actually have put the orders to us, and I think it's. I don't know, but my conclusion could be we have to continue with the industry regardless what happens politically. That's kind of trend. We cannot sit and wait what's the next words coming from U.S. around what's happening in the world. Industry has to continue.
Yep. Perfect. Very clear. Going a bit over here to Alcomex, which you mentioned here, but how close are you to a margin level where you are satisfied, in relative terms? Could you give some flavor of how much have you done and how much is still expected here going forward?
We are closing businesses still in that area, so we will see the full effect end of this year. It's positive now, it's going in the right direction, but we are not on a double-digit level yet.
If we look a bit longer term to perhaps, say, 20% margin level in Beijer Components, is that one of the key things here, or what's the other main drivers here to get up to 20%?
Well, it's the market. Of course, when we have removed non-profitable businesses as we have done, we are very close to that 20% already now. If the market continues and the actions we are doing, then I think we will be there at some time.
Perfect. Just one final, if I may here. The strong margin here in Beijer Tech, what's the main driver? Is it Niche Technologies, or is it just a broad improvement in all segments here year-over-year?
I would say it's a broad improvement. Yes, of course, the Niche are doing fine, is of course helping, in that sense. Also the lower transaction cost is also helping on the margin on that side. You have a little bit of mix. Of course, some of the bigger companies are performing well, that helps. Yes.
Okay. Perfect. That's all for me.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Carl Korsheden from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Johnny and Peter. Just a few follow-ups here from my side. If we look a bit into M&A, you talked a little bit about Beijer Components here, hopefully contributing with some deals later on throughout the year. Can you say anything about the M&A pipeline currently in Beijer Tech?
Yes, we have one. I expect that we will see some closing during second quarter
Yeah, that's very clear. How would you say the comparisons for Clifford Springs are here going into Q2?
Fairly normal.
I think so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lesjöfors had two good years in 2024 and 2025. I think that's good to bring with you that they had two good years. From that perspective, over the full time cycle, the comparisons are fairly tough, but there is nothing that stands out in the second quarter.
Yeah, that's clear. On Beijer Tech, you mentioned that you had received larger bulk orders there, partly driving that strong, I guess, organic order intake. Is it possible to specify, I guess, the duration of that order intake? Should we expect that to hit the P&L already in Q2, or are those longer-term projects?
It's longer term. It's more over a year. Some of the companies are fairly small. Sometimes they get the full yearly order at one point in time, more or less, when they open up books and so forth. You should look at, not for next quarter, but over time.
Yeah, that's clear. Yeah, that was all from my side. Thank you very much. I'll get back in line.
Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.
We are reading the questions right now, I see.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so we have a question on the organic growth in Beijer Tech, that it's evaluated for various reasons. This quarter, we post an organic growth of 6%, and from that, around 2% comes from capacity increases. We have a question on our best view on the inventory levels on the Justice brand side. Johnny, do you want to take that?
Well, the inventory levels, if we talk about our customer, we know that the Meca business, they have actually reduced their inventory for economic reasons. That affects us. That's a problem why it's very hard to make a forecast about sales every quarter. In spite of that, we had a pretty okay quarter in aftermarket. We have a question about Alcomex, solid performance. The margin, as I said, is not double-digit yet, but very close, too. It's hard to say about the future, but I expect a growth in the business also for the remaining part of the year. The material price increases, well, we will try to transfer them to the clients as fast as possible, but that will be adapted to each case, depending on what material prices are increasing or not.
It's very difficult to give a general view, but this is, of course, an important topic that we follow and execute on. Probably something that will come in the second quarter here. All right.
No further questions.
No further questions.
Thank you for listening to us, and see you in a quarter again in July. Have a good time until then.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.