Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Bravida's presentation of the Q1 report. As always. It's Åsa Neving and myself, and I, who will take you through this presentation. I think we have a really strong report to present to you today. The agenda is quite normal. We start with our position in the Nordics, going slightly deeper into the Q1 result. Åsa will take you through the performance in different countries, and then we will have a summary, and then you will get the opportunity to ask some questions in the end. Starting with our position in the Nordic market, I really want to repeat this again. There are some uncertainties in the market. Some investors, customers, et cetera, are a bit worried, but I think it's worth explaining and mention once more that we have a very low risk in our business model.
Because we have so many different type of customers in so many different places, different sizes of contracts, low customer concentration on the end customer side, small average contracts and really a diversified market overall. Today we are 12,000 employees in 300 branches plus. We are in close to 500 different addresses in the Nordics, meaning that we are in many different type of markets. Even if we have a market as you would consider as a strong demand in the market, we always have some places where the demand is slightly lower. When the market is slightly lower in the perspective of demand, we have places where the demand is really high, of course. The all-time numbers is SEK 22.5 billion in sales.
We have a real strong cash flow, and many of our customers is buying from us over and over again. We want to be a partner for our clients from the early design phase, building the installation or doing the installation in the new buildings, and then we want to do the service and renovation throughout the whole life cycle of the property. We want to do it, and we are doing it in a sustainable way. We want to be the leader on the sustainable offer in this industry, the coming years ahead. Doing everything within inside a building, all installation that you're using, you have probably all used our systems 10 times at least already today.
When your alarm clock is ringing, your phone has been charged during the night, that our system who's actually making that happen. Then you're using the toilet maybe, that is also our systems. Then you are transporting yourself in some way, and then you're using an access control system when you're entering the office, et cetera, et cetera. This is why I think why Bravida is a really nice place to work at, but also why I think it should be seen as a really good case for investment. Since 2014, we have had 9% CAGR on the net sales and actually 10%, slightly better on the margin side.
We have been able to grow the bottom line, the profit in Bravida on average with 10% the last seven years, and I think that is fantastic. Meanwhile, during this period of time, the market condition have changed a lot. We have had a pandemic, and now there are some other uncertainties, and we are very confident that we can handle that in a good way as well, depending on what will happen. As I will mention a couple of times during the day, right now, we see a strong demand for our services, and we have a strong order backlog, which gives us a really good position for the future. Something might happens in the society, so let's see what that will be. We have a really strong solid business model that means that we can handle that.
Continuing with how we are transforming our business, of course, we are here to help and support our customers with their sustainable journey as well. We help customers develop the full potential of their buildings through service and installation. We bring buildings to life, leading the way to sustainable and resilient society, and I think that is important to understand. Increasing energy prices is not good for the society, of course, but that means business for us. That is one example. More demand on sustainable KPIs for all our clients, customers means that we need to help them save energy, which is good for us and the demand in the market. Going a bit more into the quarterly report and what has happened in the first three months in Bravida. First, the market outlook.
As I said, still a good demand for both service and installation as we are standing here today. We see a growing demand for sustainable and energy-efficient solutions. Of course, we see a rise in raw material prices, but we have known that since last summer. We've been discussing that internally, and we have actually taking that into consideration in all the bids we have made for the last six to nine months. 50%, as you know, of our net sales is coming from service. You, to a very large extent, actually can exclude the material price risk on the service side because it's very often that we are charging the customer for the actual costs we're having on the material side. The risk on that side is quite limited.
On the installation side, where we have a really strong order backlog today, good position going forward, I argue that we have been discussing that internally for the last year, that we need to put in some higher material prices in our offers because we have known for a very long time that this will happen. So far, we can see that the increased prices we have in our offers is actually in line with the increases we have got from our suppliers. So far, so good. There is a risk for material shortage in the market. I think when I read and listened to the construction company's report, I think they struggle slightly more than we are doing in the installation business.
So far, we haven't seen any, or at least very small effects on this topic. So far, so good, and we are following this closely. Sending out a survey to all our main suppliers every second week to ask them about the situation. I think so far, we have this in control, and we don't see this as a very big thing, the coming weeks, months, at least. Of course, there are some uncertain times regarding interest rates and inflation, and that may lead to some different type of markets. Bravida and our business model have showed before that we can handle different types of markets, and we know what to do. I have been in this industry and this company since 1998.
I'm in my, actually, 25th year at the same time as we are celebrating 100-year in Bravida. We have been working in different types of markets before. We know what to do to be able to defend the bottom line and the margin going forward. Let's see what happens. There are some things we can actually adjust and do something about. There are some other things we can't. We are focusing on the things that we actually can do to make sure that we are continue to developing the business in Bravida as a company. The Q1 highlights is, of course, a top line growth of 11%. Both service and installation is growing.
We have had a high sick leave in the beginning of the quarter as everyone else, but that has leveled out, and we are close to back to the normal levels again. Organic growth at 4%, which is really strong because of the high sick leave in the beginning of the quarter. We see good order intake, plus 30%, and that is good in Norway, Denmark, and Finland. A record high order backlog, which is, of course, a good position to be in. We have an unchanged margin at 5.1%. In that margin, we have actually taken some cost for future investment that I will come back to, later in this presentation. Saying that means that we have actually improved the underlying margin in Q1.
Cash flow is strong, and cash conversion is going back to old levels again. The net sales, if we look at, the same, but in a bridge money-wise, organic growth contributes with SEK 229 million, M&A with SEK 243 million, and then we have some currency effect, SEK 100 million plus. Organic growth in all countries except for Finland. I think we have said before that, last year was an exceptional year in Finland due to the growth, organic growth, perspective because of some large projects. We expect Finland to go back a bit on this, KPI, but still a good position. I will tell you later that we still have a really strong margin, improvement in Finland.
EBITA 5.1%, as I said, and that is an improved margin in Norway and Finland, slightly lower in Denmark and flat in Sweden. The EBITA, as I said before, is affected by non-recurring costs for implementing of new digital solutions and systems that we think we need for really realize the business plan going forward. That is SEK 14 million in Q1. During the year, we have some digital initiatives, including initiatives for improving the service business that are estimated to SEK 80 million-SEK 100 million in 2022. That is investment that we think we need to be able to continue the journey as I described a couple of minutes ago.
Anyway, with those investments, we still have a very stable margin and a growth on the profit, which is of course really good and something I'm very happy for. If we look slightly more on this in more detail, we have increased recurring costs regarding that we're strengthening the IT platfo rm. We are having a digital development capabilities, but also an increased sustainability focus and improved HR support. We are a people company. We need to be able to present to the markets, to the clients that also improve our own business on the sustainable side. That means that we have to do some investments of new type of resources, new type of skill sets, et cetera.
That is something that we think will drive our development going ahead. We have initial cost for investments in new businesses that is not recurring. That is for the segment of Technical Facility Management and Building automation. We are investing in people, for example, and that type of growth of the organization does not contribute with any profits so far, but it expected to add positively to the margin in 2023. Order intake and backlog, record high order backlog, growing order backlog in all countries in the quarter except for Finland. It's up in total and with SEK 815 million. The order backlog is growing 20% year-on-year and, yeah, fantastic situation to be in.
We, as we see it, we think that we have put all the expected material increase prices, material price increases into the offers. Then the order intake is up 30% year-on-year as well. That is very much coming from the growing service business when we are open up the society again, we have more allocated hours from the service business. Still, we have a high sick leave that maybe impact the service business more than it actually impact the installation business. Sustainability is high on everyone's agenda as well as ours. We have a declining injury numbers with 22% on group level, which is of course a really strong development and something I'm really happy to present because our employees safety is of course our highest priority.
We can see declining lost time injury frequency in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, and Norway is already well below our target on 5.5. Regarding our own impact on the CO2 emissions, we see a slight increase with a low 1%, but remember that we have been growing 11%. In relative terms, we are actually improving that KPI. I think it will take some time before we see the impact of our all new ordered cars. 57% of all new cars ordered is electric, and we're talking about 100% electric, not hybrid cars. We haven't got them delivered yet, so it will take some time before we actually see that the CO2 emissions will go down. Acquisitions, we have done nine so far in 2022, adding SEK 600 million+.
We have three acquisitions after Q1 adding SEK 400 million, and they are in those SEK 600 million. We still see a strong pipeline. We still see that we can do the acquisition on attractive multiples, and we also see somewhat increased competition. I think my estimates going forward is that the strong pipeline will mean that we can continue to do M&A. We also think I think that probably the prices will probably go down a bit and maybe the pipeline can grow because first two years of pandemic and then followed by a little bit more shaky market will probably mean that more companies are willing to sell to a safe place to be in. I think Bravida is a very good home for companies who want to sell, so we together with the seller can continue to develop their local business. Åsa, please take us through the different countries.
Well, thank you, Mattias. Let's start with Sweden then. In Sweden, we've had a strong, stable quarter where we grow the sales with 5% to SEK 3 billion. With the growth was coming both from installation and service. The organic growth was 2%, and we managed to keep the EBITDA margin unchanged at 5.5%. Order intake, a bit less was minus 6%, but we have a very strong order backlog at +6% year-on-year. We are in a good position going forward. The order intake varies also within the country, you can say. In the northern part, we still have a strong order intake, where we also have had a strong production for some time now.
In other areas, it's a little bit lower. Strong order backlog, which gives us a good position going forward. Moving on to Norway. Norway had a very strong quarter. You can see they increased the top line with 29% to SEK 1.3 billion. The growth comes from both service and installation. The organic growth was 18%, and in local currency, it was 11%. Very high. I'm also pleased to see that the margin improved to 4.7%, and this is due to the fact that Norway had very high sick leave rates during the first period of this, the first part of the quarter, had higher sick leave rates in the company. Still, they managed to improve their margin.
Order intake also very strong, +18%. It is 11% also in local currency. This order intake comes from both service and installation, mostly smaller projects. I got one larger order in this quarter, for Skanska with an electric installation in Sandvika. As you can see, a very strong order backlog now with +63% year-on-year. Denmark also strong growth, strong top line growth, 12% to SEK 1.2 billion, also comes from service and installation. Organic growth is 6%.
The EBITDA margin decreased to 4.4%, and this is. There are some projects, departments that are not performing really the way we want them to, and they also have had pretty high sick leave rates, so that is the reason for that. We believe that this will improve going forward. The order intake is very high, 59%. This comes both from service and installation, so 50/50 or 60/40. Mostly smaller projects, but here also we got some a couple of larger ones between SEK 100 million-SEK 200 million, and a very strong order backlog on +35% year-on-year. Finland, which had also a sales growth, 6% to SEK 0.4 billion. Here the growth is mainly in service.
We had an organic growth of -16%, so a little bit slower, but we should then also note that the service growth is +15%, so it's installation that is slowing down. This is as Mattias said, last year we had a large project in Wärtsilä, which had a strong production during this quarter, and we haven't managed to compensate for that this quarter. EBITDA margin continued to improve to 3.7%, compared to last year's 2.6%, so they are continuing working with improving their business, which gives effect. Order intake +26%, and this is due to the strong service turnover during the quarter. Order backlog -1% year-on-year. That was our countries.
If you're looking at our financial position, as Mattias said, our operating cash flow is improving in the quarter. Very happy for that. This is mainly due to the working capital that is improving. The working capital is now back on a good low figure of minus 6.7%. This means then also that the cash conversion is improving. It was 83% last quarter, now it's 92%, so it's moving up. The net debt EBITDA ratio is on a very low level of 0.4. I'm also happy to tell you that we have added a sustainability link to our RCF, the RCF that we have with three banks, SEB, Danske Bank, and DNB.
We have added this link to our focus areas, that is, climate impact and health and safety. We have chosen two performance KPIs that are then defined into sustainable performance targets. One is a reduction in the LTIFR, and the other one is number of ordered electric vehicl es. Depending whether we reach these targets or not, we will get either a bit higher interest rate or a bit lower. This is a really good way and also gives us another incentive to work with our sustainability targets. At last, let's take a look at our financial targets. As you know, we have an EBITDA margin target more than 7%. LTM right now is 6.9%.
You should remember that last year we got a repayment of some insurance money from Afa, adding to the margin. Cash conversion, as I said, 92%. Sales growth, 11%. The net debt EBITDA ratio of 0.4, and dividend we haven't paid out this year yet. That's what it looks like right now at the end of Q1. Mattias.
Thank you. Thank you, Åsa. Let's summarize this presentation and the quarter. Organic growth 4%, despite the fact that we have had a very high sick leave in the beginning of the quarter. We are growing in both service and installation, meaning t hat both our two legs are developing in a very good way. Order intake up 13%. Really good, I would say. We also have a really strong order backlog increased to SEK 17,334 million. Improved margin in Norway and Finland, and at the same time as we can keep the margin with a good growth at 11%, we also have invested in the business with SEK 40 million, with no recurring costs. I think that means if you calculate that around 25 basis points.
Underlying business is improving. Really strong cash flow and nine acquisitions so far. I think we have closed six deals. We have signed a nother three, but nine acquisitions so far this year, adding SEK 631 million in annual sales. By that, I think we can open up for some questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question over the phone, please dial zero one on your telephone keypad. We have a first question from Mr. Andersson from SEB. Please go ahead. Mr. Andersson, your line is open. Please proceed for your questions.
Do you hear us? We can't hear you. Maybe we should take someone else and go back to Stefan Andersson later.
Oh, sorry.
Oh, yeah. There you are.
Yeah. No, I'm here. Sorry. I heard something. I heard Nordea and Anderström or something. I'm sorry. Didn't understand. Okay. A couple of questions. First, just on the financial net, it's a little bit volatile between the quarters. Saw that we've seen that historically as well. So just wondering, you know, what is impacting? Normally, you don't have a lot of debt, but something is in there, and it's been between SEK 9 million and SEK 19 million last year per quarter. Now we have SEK 7 million again. What kind of level should we expect maybe for a full year, and why is it so volatile? Is it currency c hanges that is impacting?
Yeah, you should expect it on the level that we have now. We did some changes in. There was some currency impact last year.
So-
So that-
You mean with the quarter level?
The quarters, yeah.
Around seven. Okay, perfect. Good. On the transaction side, the M&A side, I noticed that on the solar energy side, you decided to divest the company you acquired. It's a Solkraft EMK. A little bit curious on, you know, some evaluation on that. I mean, how did you get out of it? Was it at a breakeven, or did you lose money on it? Why did you decide it was not a successful acquisition? Have you changed your view on the solar energy side?
If we try to split this question up a bit, I think solar, the solar panel, solar energy side is very interesting, of course. I think we were too early into that market, meaning that this company was more focused on the consumer side. What we saw was that the competition was a bit, how should I say, immature, because the competition at that time didn't use the same type of resources. We thought it was a bit unfair because we paid the right type of salaries. We used safety equipment, which actually meant that we had too high cost to be able to deliver the services to the customers, meaning that we didn't get any profitability out of it.
I think our entering the market meant that the market developed a lot because we actually increased the focus on that market for unions, et cetera, which is good for the whole industry. We also see that there are too many companies who I understand do not understand the business model because they want to grow the business without any focus on profitability at all. We think the bottom line is most important. We saw for the moment that it was better for us to actually do an exit on that consumer side for now. That doesn't mean that we're not doing this type of installation to consumers, because meanwhile, the last two years, we have been developing our own existing business in the already existing branches.
We are delivering this service on a more local base now. The company we bought and then sold was more focusing on working throughout a bigger geography, which meant that we traveled a lot, and that meant too high cost, not an efficient service enough. We decided to divest it. Of course, we didn't do this as good as we. I'm not happy with our own performance in this. We were too early in the industry. The market weren't ready to pay what we needed to get a profitability. I think the competition is a bit unfair due to both the cost side, but also the focus on making money. Regarding the sales sum or the impact on the P&L, I don't think we need to go into those details. I think we actually lost the money we lost during the time of ownership, then it's pretty much okay for us, I would say.
Yeah, I don't see any impact on the P&L.
No
on it. That's why I'm asking.
Yeah.
It doesn't seem to be a big number. Okay. Then the last question on transactions. I mean, you have an extremely strong balance sheet. And this is a little bit of a dual question because I'm putting a little bit pressure, but I don't want you to go out and buy crappy companies. I just noticed you have a very strong balance sheet. You have some competitors out there who's buying that are half your size, buying twice as much in stock, for instance. I'm a little bit curious when you saying that you hope prices to come down, has price been an issue for you? And is that why you haven't bought more?
Given that the other guys are still competing with you know, isn't that a risk that prices actually won't come down, or do you don't see competition in the same way?
I think first I want to say that I have a really strong belief in our model, meaning that we want to integrate the company, companies we are buying, and I think we are not alone, but close to alone, on that strategy regarding the M&A sector. I think, let's see, we will see over time which one, what strategy is the best. I would say that the prices will come down is more a comment like we think that we can continue to do M&A and maybe improve it a bit. Remember also in the beginning of the pandemic, we didn't know where the market actually should take off.
We decided quite early that we should take down the M&A activity, mainly because our model is based on meeting people, discuss the future strategy together. When we couldn't meet people in person, the sellers in person, to be able to discuss how we together can develop the acquired entity the coming years, we actually said, "No, thank you," to many because we are not buying companies on Teams just because we want to add annual sales and hopefully a profit. We want to look at the culture and the match with the different cultures to be able to see can one plus one be more than two. Also we have strength in the M&A team, meaning that we can do more M&As in a very balanced and low risky way.
We won't go out and buy bad companies. We always buy companies that we think we can develop together with the seller. I think that is important. We want to create the stickiness to our organization so the sellers and the sellers' personnel think Bravida is a good home to be in, to make sure that we are not that reliant on dependent on one person, the seller. We want to buy companies that we can be quite sure that we have a really long journey ahead together. Balance sheet, yes. I have said before, we have a strong balance sheet, and I think we can use that even more on the M&A side to do really great acquisitions. We prefer to use the money, the balance sheet to develop the business.
Let's say every quarter that we actually pass means that we improve the balance sheet. I also think two years of pandemic and then a slight ly more different market means that we will have a possibility to do great acquisitions going ahead as well.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you very much. We have a next question from Karl-Johan Bonnevier from DNB Markets . Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Congratulations to continued solid development. Mattias, ju st to get a little more color, looking at the uncertainty you're talking about, say, seeing in the construction value chain, have you seen any reduction from, say, in your own backlog where clients are pushing projects into the future, anything like that at this stage?
They are very limited. I would say that when we ask our division heads, they say close to nothing. There are one or two examples that we have postponed projects, but we don't know the reasons. I think it's more projects that we haven't signed yet. I will not exaggerate that yet. I can't say zero, but close to.
Basically no change to how it normally looks if you put it like that?
Yeah. Yeah, that's another way to say it, actually, because postponed projects always happens depending on certain reasons. Yeah. Yeah.
Exactly. On these digital initiatives that you are highlighting at the SEK 80 million-SEK 100 million for this year, what would the year-on-year comparison been with? How big is the increase, basically, compared to what you spent in 2021?
Last year, we spent roughly SEK 40 million during the year of this.
Basically doubling.
Yeah
If you're looking at it.
Exactly. A little bit more.
Perfect
I think.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks for the congratulations.
Thank you. We have no other questions for the moment.
Thank you.
Sorry, please go ahead, sir.
No, no. Sorry.
As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question over the phone, please dial zero one on your telephone keypad. Thank you.
Meanwhile we are waiting, if someone else have any questions, maybe that's because we have a quite okay report, don't we?
I think so, too. That must be the reason.
Yeah, definitely. I think we have been able to see that we have had the financing connected to the sustainability as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a good thing, actually.
Yeah.
It'll help us improve even further.
Great. The operator, do we have any more questions?
We have no other questions.
Okay. I think we end this session. Thank you so much for listening. Hope you will get a great day and weekend. We are now going out to meet some more investors, and I'm really proud to see what all our employees have been able to perform another quarter. If you look back on the history, I think I don't know how many quarters we actually have improved the result, but they are many now, and I think that is proving how solid our business model is and what a great job everyone in Bravida is doing. Thank you very much for listening. Hope to see you soon.