Welcome to the Buyer Ref Q2 Presentation for 2025. Now I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Christopher Norbai, and CFO, Joel Davidson. Please go ahead.
Welcome, everyone. Christopher Norbai and Joel Davidson here. Thanks for calling in. We'll get right started I mean a short presentation of the second quarter, and then we'll go into some Q and A. So moving on to Slide three.
So summarizing Q2, a very good quarter. Of course, there's some uncertainties out there. But as we described before, a very good and stable underlying business model, we believe we can navigate well in this environment as well. And if you summarize on on the financials, it was a very strong q two for us. Q two is usually our biggest quarter of the year, so very important quarter.
And where the sales increase of 12% excluding currency, I'm sure we'll come back a little bit to currency. 2% organic, one less working day, which is working days is very correlated to our business as we do a lot of daily trading. So underlying, I would say, on the organic side, continue at the same pace as as last quarter. Very good on the acquisition side. Good growth in in the summertime here around in in Europe and also The US.
So plus 10% and a negative 6% for the currency. On EBITDA, increase of 15%, so continue to do very well on the profit growth excluding currency And also a record margin, and for us, it's a nice milestone to go over the 12% EBITDA in the quarter for the first time. So we continue to work a lot on our strategic initiative in the margin from private label to synergies and acquisition purchasing, while we're continuing to invest a lot in especially in The U. S. In different initiatives to drive growth long term.
So very pleased with the margin development in the quarter. Then also a very good cash flow for being one of our highest networking capital tying quarters, double of last year, and we expect a good cash flow area coming through in q three and q four as well. And then finally, an EPS growth of 10% excluding currency, so continue to have strong double digit EPS growth here in Q2 despite currency effect. So all in all, I would say strong quarters on all areas of the business. So moving on to the next slide, looking at the different segments.
I mean, it's fairly stable around there in the second quarter or at similar levels at Q1, both on the refrigeration side, on the HVAC side. And then on the OEM side, we continue to do very well on the green side. SM Frigo and Fenogy, whose our products for natural refrigerants grew double digits in the quarter. SM free Frigo, very good order. Backlog continued to be active, strong, especially in EMEA.
Got our first or continue to get orders in The US. We continue to build the organization in The US. So very interesting for the future. And then a little bit weaker in the APAC region, especially in the food retail, but still some nice opportunities also in Asia that we addressed on the OEM. So continue to be positive on the green OEMs, continue to grow double digits as going forward.
Moving on to the next slide, focusing in a little bit on EMEA. Very good quarter in EMEA, 17% growth, stable on the organic side. We continue to do well here on acquisitions, good growth in Eastern Europe and also seeing a good trend there in June and July across, I would say, all regions in EMEA. So very happy to see some higher activity levels on there. OEM, as we said, on the SEM Frigum Fennery continued to do well in the business.
Record margins in the quarter driven by good strategic initiatives on on the private label side, but also on on purchasing. So we continue. I mean, they may had a, I would say, a fantastic quarter here in Q2 and started well here in Q3 as well. So happy with our largest region here. Moving on to APAC.
APAC, of course, now is a little bit in in off season. So it's a smaller quarter on there, fairly stable across the board. Some nice wins on on natural refrigerants in South Korea, also working on some bigger projects around in Southeast Asia. It looks very promising. Slower market on the OEM side in in Australia, New Zealand, less investment from the food retail.
Good backlog, but a little bit slower to move forward. So generally, a stable quarter in APAC, that's having very good organic growth the last couple of quarters in high season. And the other thing we continue to work a lot within in the region is our margin. And you can see a nice continue margin development and moving for the year above those 10% that's been the target for a couple of years. So all in all, a stable quarter, but very good on the on the profit side.
And then moving on to, North America. A lot of things happening in North America. Maybe start off a little bit with a transition. As some of you know that we are transitioning into a new solution based on more lower GWP refrigerants, four fifty four b, on there. So in the quarter here, I think we're about 30 to 40% transition, and we expect to be a 100% transition by the end of q three.
So I would say things developing well in that transition for us. We had some issues with and I think the whole industry with missing refrigerant that has hold us back a little bit in in q two. And we also had some worse weather this year compared to last year. So we had a good momentum coming out of June and started in in July, so it'd be an interesting quarter for us. We continue to open branches.
We also launched our private label Sinclair in the market with very good response. It'll be very interesting to follow that here as we go through Q3. And also on m and a pipeline, we'll have a more back end back end heavy year here, but there's a good pipeline, and I would say it's actually increasing for for the future here. So, also be very interesting to see as we run through the year and next year on on the platform in The US. So things continue to develop stable, but with a lot of good opportunities going forward.
So also happy with the with the development in The US. So moving on to next slide. You can see here, we continue to grow, of course, turning negative here on especially the currency underlying with 12% up here in Q2, stable on the organic side. As I said, we missed the days. Would say it's similar level as Q1, but with some positive development in June and July.
So hopefully, that transition into a good second half of the year on the sales growth. Then moving on to margin, record margins, as we said, it's more a nice result on 2% organic growth and continue to expand the margin shows the strength the business model and also the the work we do as you don't get anything for free in this type of environment. So so I would say this is the what I'm mostly proud of in the quarter, the margin side and development there that shows that we're, of course, on right path in everything we do. So, summary the quarter, sales growth of 5% despite the 6% currency, organic growth around 2%, EBITDA growth 8% and still despite currency double digit EPS growth. So I would say strong Q2 and a good first half of the year with some uncertainty in the markets, but also some good trends here in June and July for us.
So we look forward to the second half of the year. And also Q3 is a big quarter for us starting here in July, so we'll continue to drive the business forward. So on that, I will hand over to Joel to get down into some of the details.
Not so much details, Dave, but lowering the p and l anyhow. So thank you, Christopher, and good morning, everyone. On the EBIT side, I mean, we already touched on the EBITA and and all the rest of it, but good growth, 8% compared to last year. If you come to our financial net, it continues to develop well both sequentially and against last year and came in 12,000,000 below last year. And and there is obviously a a nice tailwind for us on on lower base rates here being slightly more than 1% down compared to to last year in the quarter.
On the tax expense side, 264,000,000, representing a effective tax rate of 25% in the quarter, slightly up from last year. But all in all, resulting in net profit of 793,000,000, which is up 9% compared to last year. So moving on to our EPS growth. EPS in the quarter, as you have seen, 1.56 translate to 10% increase. I mean, all in all, of course, we are very happy with the quarter and development on the margin side and on the interest net and so on.
So very happy with the 10% growth here despite the currency headwinds. And and if you look at it year to date, we are at an EPS growth of 13%. Cash flow side, we continue to deliver a solid operational cash flow in q two, six hundred and thirty five million, despite the seasonal buildup of net working capital that we're having. I would say it's in line with our expectations. Cash flow in the quarter was almost 300,000,000 higher than last year, and it's the main difference here is lower net working capital tied up compared to last year, which is primarily driven by our continued efforts to optimize our inventories.
On the next slide here, you see our positive trend on operational cash flow. We are year to date, Our cash flow amounts to 1,100,000,000.0, which is up from 900,000,000 last year. And and as we said here before, I mean, we are coming in here q three and q four are are the bigger cash flow quarters for for as a group. On the leverage side, very stable development. Net debt to EBITDA, excluding lease and intentions, came in at 1.9, sequentially stable, and 0.2 x lower than a year ago on on higher EBITDA.
So all in all, we feel that we have a really strong balance sheet, especially now we're coming into to h two, which I just said is the major cash flow quarters for for us. So we're really looking looking strong here for for our future m and a pipeline and so on. So with that, I hand over back to Christopher for a summary.
Thanks, Joab. So a short summary of the quarter and then a little bit on the long term fundamentals that hasn't changed. But as we said, good double digit growth with two percent organic, good development in the acquisitions on here in our high season. So as we said in Q1, this is one of our most important quarters of the year, and I think it was a very execution out there. EBITDA grew 15% and record margins across the board, I would say, and very good development, both, I would say, in EMEA and The U.
S. And APAC on the margin side. Also on the cash flow, positive for being in second quarter, now eight quarters in a row with positive cash flow. And also expect a good trend here in the third and fourth quarter and then double digit EPS growth this quarter as well. So based on that long term, we continue to see a transition in The U.
S. To 12 product. We see good development of green OEM in EMEA, and we're also seeing in Asia now more and more initiatives. We're getting orders on the green solutions in The U. S, very early days.
We're going think to invest in that organization to build that up. And also a lot of things happening in The U. S, opening branches, launching private label and also on the acquisition pipeline. As I said, a little bit more back end heavy, but it looks I would say, it looks stronger now than it did a quarter ago. So also very happy with that.
So in general, we would summarize this as a strong quarter in uncertain times, but also with good trends we see wrapping up the quarter and starting in here in July. So with that, we'll finish our presentation and open up for Q
The next question comes from Gustaf Sverrein from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Firstly, can I ask on the comment on somewhat cautious customer activity in EMEA and the uptick throughout the quarter? What do think drove this? And how much stronger was quarter end versus start? That's the first one.
Sorry, what was the first sentence? The
Yes. Sorry, you were calling out in the report that you saw somewhat cautious customer activity in EMEA and an uptick throughout the the quarter. So just looking for reasons and also quarter end versus start.
Oh, okay. So no, it was more a timing in the quarter. I'm not so much I would on the cautious side, but we saw a stable development in the beginning of the quarter and then an acceleration in June, and and we're seeing that continuing in July. So it's it's pretty high activity. Part of it is, of course, seasonal.
You know, the further you move into June and July, the activity level picks up on there. But it's been on a on a level it's still early days. Right? We're a couple of weeks into July, but the June and July has been very promising to see if if the market are picking up, especially market like France, another market that's been less active on the residential side, and we see good active levels there. We see good in Spain, Italy, the whole Southern Europe, Central Europe also.
So in general, we haven't seen this type of activity levels in a couple of years across all regions in EMEA towards June and July. So it's development, but but still early days in in in the business.
Okay. Perfect. Secondly, what what kind of price contribution are we looking at for North America in the quarter? And any update on how you see that developing into second half?
Yes. So in EMEA and APAC, I would say pricing is flat. I know your question was The U. S, so I'll come back to that. In The U.
S, if you look at our mix development, I would say a couple of percent coming in, in pricing in Q2, and I expect that to go up a little bit in q three as we transition more and more into the the a 12 solutions as we expect to, by the end of q three, to be 100% transition into the a 12, and they carry somewhere between 7% to 10% higher price depending on solution and and etcetera. So that that will show itself also on on the pricing as we move into q three.
Perfect. And then just lastly, you mentioned the increased activity on the M and A discussions. Why are you calling this out now? Should we expect you guys to close some deals beforehand? Thank you.
Yes. The reason I'm calling out is, of course, it's a complex processes that you do. And of course, we know what's under LOI and we know those are going to close. It's just more a timing that continues to be at a at a good level that we expect to close, you know, during the year. So we still expect to have a good m and a year as last year.
This year, nothing has changed. But what we've seen, especially in The US over the last four to six weeks, is that quite a lot new activities coming up where we are in discussions on there. So that's why I'm calling it out because it's it's some interesting developments for us at least. And those will be more likely to come, you know, if we do something on the discussions where that's the end of the year in 2026. So that that's the reason I'm calling it up.
Alright. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question comes from Adelaide Shion from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions. A couple from me. Firstly, maybe just a confirmation on the commentary here around EMEA. Would it be fair to say that the acceleration in demand is related to the significant heat waves that we've seen across Europe?
No. I think it's too easy to to say. That that that's part of it. As we usually say, it's been a better development across the board on there, and part of it is, of course, weather, but we also see some activity levels, you know, we haven't seen some while on the on the side on refrigeration and exchange service maintenance and and other things. But in the end, it it's early days.
Don't wanna completely secure it as a big shift in the market, but there are some positive signals also not just related to the weather in the different product segments.
That's good to hear. Then secondly, on the record high EBITDA margin here in the quarter, could you specify I mean, you already have mentioned some, but a bit more specific on the the main drivers behind this performance. And then also going forward, I guess, how sustainable is this level of profitability? And the reason why I'm asking is because we have been seeing North America specifically being diluted by the recent acquisition, and that's tapering off now, unless you start to accelerate them towards the end of the year. So what's your view on that?
Yeah. I think our I mean, again, two tenths here and one there and and etcetera is, of course, not the revolution of the world, but I think we're calling out part of it to go across the 12% for the first time. But but I would say, course, it's sustainable. The things we do in our margin development is is driven mainly in improving the gross margin. If some purchasing synergies, private label, matter of initiatives.
And I think also said before that normally, underlying margin is always higher than reporting because we continue to make acquisitions. If I exclude acquisition side, this is a sustainable development of these volumes, and we see continued opportunities to improve the margin. We also do continue to do as in The US investment, open new branches, ecommerce, launching a private label. I mean, that's not free in the beginning. You have to do quite a lot of work.
So I think we always wanna balance the the margin in percentage with the growth initiatives that we're doing across across the world and the globe. And and in The US, you're right. We'll but we'll continue to open branches in The US. We have two, three more in the pipeline that to be sorted, and and we believe that's the right strategy. So I think we're running at a good margin, and and we believe it's sustainable.
And then also depending how we do acquisitions, that will always be, you know, something we will call out when and if or not when, but if it happens and and how dilutive it is and how long term it takes to to bring it back on.
Makes sense. And then maybe just lastly on the A2L transition. I appreciate the commentary around expectations that you will be 100% transitioned by But could you highlight what level of transition you experienced in Q2, especially in light of the fact that pricing only, maybe you could say, increased a couple of percentage points?
Yeah. I think we're somewhere around less than 40% in in q two. And remembering HVAC is around 40% of our sales, and and the rest is, you know, parts and supplies and other type of of product. So we're around 40% transition in q two, so a little bit less.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Karl Ragnarstam from Nordea.
It's Karl here from Nordea. A few questions. First, They were coming back a little bit to the retail regulation. You said the vast majority in Q3 will be four fifty four products. How do you do you still have the sell back agreement with your supplier on the R410 products?
Or do you think that the sort of replacement market should be enough for you if you don't sell out everything during the year? And also, you said that there has been a shortage of four fifty four lately, something has been quite widely written about in the press. But do you think that you managed to keep market shares? Or how have you managed your sourcing compared to peers and potential lost sales on the back of it?
Yes. So on the first one, it's not a concern. I mean, we'll we're fighting to keep some Fortinet equipment for replacement and spares and other things at the end of the year. So that will not be a problem at all. And a lot of areas are already sold out in there.
So that's still a highly attractive product to sell in the market on there. So not an issue. And that will be it's more by the end of the quarter how much for spares and replacements do we keep as you cannot, of course, get a wallet. So on the second part, the on the four fifty four b, I would say pretty much everybody is in the same situation on the I mean, there's some pockets, and it's easing up now. But, of course, the the the you know, if you if you're selling r 32 with Daikin or something, I mean, you you would have access to it.
So that's why we said we might have lost some sales short term, but we're not concerned of losing market share because it because our main competitors are all in the same, and that's why we call it out. And we see it easing up now on the $4.54 b on there. And we're in a good position on the charges on on the private label and seeing clair. So we do have good solution to balance it. And, hopefully, as we transition out of July, it's not an issue anymore, but it's it's pretty much the same for everyone on the four fifty four b. Was there one more question?
Okay. That's very clear. No, no, that was good for that part, please. Thank you. On maybe for Joel, but of course, you're seasonally building up working capital in the quarter, less so than last year.
I mean because you did prebuying, obviously, of our $410,000,000 You built up quite a bit of inventory into the transition. Is that totally flushed out? Or how much is flushed out of what you built up before year end 2024? And how much do you think will come out here in Q3 of that? Because you said you'll be fully transitioned.
Yeah. I mean, it's overall, it's not yet flushed out fully, of course. I mean, we do carry double inventory as long as we are still continuing to sell the the four ten a being still in q two more than half. So I don't have the exact numbers, but I would I would assume we are somewhere around halfway through the inventory the X-ray inventory that we have on stock in The US.
I think maybe just to add to that, if I have to do an assumption, mean, the the easy one, I think, is to to go by the end of the year. We should be back to normal levels. But I think the other point we're having a discussion in The US, it'd be very mean, it's nice that this transition are happening, don't get me wrong. But we can also focus a little bit more on aligning inventory in 2026 as we have a more normal year from a product point of view in that area on there.
And the final one, if I may, is on OEM. You mentioned sort of the setback in the non green part of OEM, the heat exchanger business. Did it come as a surprise to you? And what do you hear when you talk to your customers of and as well as suppliers? Are they expecting a worsening situation in the short term?
Or will it improve a little bit? Or what is the discussion when you talk to both suppliers and customers?
Yes. We think it will start to improve a little bit as we move forward.
Already from Q3 or? Yes. Okay. Was it a surprise for you? What what actually happened, do you think? Because No.
No.
We were actually for some time. Right?
It's it's a very project related business, and and was a very strong last year. We're talking about people on the call of the heat exchanger in our OEM business, non non green on there. That that's the project. It's it's mainly heat exchanger to wind turbines And and there are longer lead times on projects.
We see it starting to improve second half of the year. And in the meantime, as we discussed, the the green business of SEM Frigon Fenergi continues to grow double digits. So we expect that apart to start improving in the second half of the year compared to the first half.
Very clear. Thank you. Thank you.
Next question comes from Karl Degenberg from DNB Carnegie.
So two questions from my side. Firstly, the commentary regarding acquisitions or, let's say, ongoing discussions in The U. S, I just wanted to ask a little bit on sort of acquisition pricing and multiples and so forth because I guess we heard a little bit from other of your peers as well that M and A activity looks to be quite solid right now. And yes, question is, do you see competition on acquisition, if that has not been increasing? And follow-up is, of course, you see target multiples being high in our relative, let's say, six, twelve months ago.
Yeah. So on on on the projects that we're having under LOI, of course, I know what the multiple is, and that's not that that's at, you know, levels that we've seen before, and and a lot of this discussion are one on one as well. So all of them we have on LOI. Of course, the the discussions we're having now, that's not on the LOI. I don't have an answer yet, so we'll see how the the quarter and and the next couple of quarters develop on that.
I don't see, this big discussion on expansion of multiples. The discussion we have is a little bit much more related to where are we in the cycle, housing sales, volumes, these type of discussion because that's also the biggest value creation, I would say, on M and A, if you take The U. S, is that we believe that the activities in the market, not acquisition, but in the business will start picking up in the next year or two, which means the timing right now is pretty good on the acquisition side. So let's see how it pans out, but the answer right here and right now is not any significant margin sorry, multiple expansions, no.
Okay, okay. And then maybe following up on that one as well, I mean, just looking at sort of the latest acquisitions you've done in The US, you've had a couple of branches, which has been, let's say, in other states, at least relative where you came from on the heritage side. So just out of curiosity, the LOIs and the inbound that you're having right now, do you see them doing in in the presence where you are, let's say, relatively present already now, or or do you see you entering a new state totally with the ones that you're having in discussion right now?
They will be I mean, discussion that I can't go into because it's that's a different topic. But if the LOI and those that we we most likely now will close here in the next couple quarters. There are expansion of the areas we we have. So it it it's it's expanding our territories into new territories and states, but close to where our core business is. So now it's it's it's a new areas.
So, of course, every time we do these type of acquisition, our potential to then complement with new branches will continue to to increase. So and I and I would say we have a good track record and good toolbox to to do that. And then it's not the only thing we do. We're also expanding into refrigeration in our HVAC branches and and other things through there. That's usually why I say that there's a lot of things ongoing in The US and will be for the next five to ten years as well as we continue to build up the business model.
Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. And and maybe just finally, on the commentary, let's say, the rollout of Sinclair in The US, just wanted to hear also assortment wise and so on and where you come from on the linear side. Would you say that the full assortment is, is that fully compliant and so forth with you know, your US branches and so forth?
And how does that rollout, you know, work out in practice? Do you go full wide directly, or or is it with selective branches gradually, you know, filling it out over the period?
Yeah. So it's I'll try and summarize it in in a in a short minute here. What we've done in The US, the the product side is is different than Europe. So the launch we've done now is ducted 454B. So we're not doing, of course, all technology.
And we built up what we call a heritage imports. So we have central warehousing for this. And then we step by step roll it out to the branches, but it will not be at all branches short term. It's focusing in areas where we think also we need to be a little bit more competitive on the product side We also have customer interest. So it's it's a rolling buildup of of an expansion, and and and it will take time.
The next step is adding also ductless type of equipment. We'll do that for the season next year. So there's a lot of activities on there. I think the the reason I'm calling it out is more it's been a very positive response. I mean but it's early days as I usually say as well in this, but it's it's it it looks like we we have a good possibility, niche here to to build the business with this type of product as well as we've done in in in Europe.
Okay. Very well. That was everything from me. Enjoy the summer. Thank you.
Yeah. You too. Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
So thank you all for calling in. And I I think I usually say that let's hope for a really hot, nice summer out there everywhere. And I hope you hope you all have a nice break when it comes to you. And thanks for thanks from us, and appreciate the time. Thank you very much. Thank you.