Bravida Holding AB (publ) (STO:BRAV)
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May 4, 2026, 5:29 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q1 2023

May 3, 2023

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Bravida's Q1 presentation for 2023. As always, it is Åsa Neving.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Good morning.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Myself who will take you through this presentation. Let's start. The agenda for today is the standard agenda. Our position in the Nordic market. A deep dive into the numbers for Q1. Then also we'll take you through the different countries, and then in the end, we will have a summary and possibility for you all to ask some questions. Bravida and our market position in the Nordic market. We are continuing on our growth journey, and we are actually close to SEK 28 billion company today. 13,000 employees is what it says on this slide. Actually, we are close to 13,500 today. 91% of our customers is recurring, and we have 85% of all our orders below SEK 50 million.

As you know, we want to be a partner throughout the whole life cycle of the property, from the design phase, installation, service, maintenance, et cetera, and want to be partner for all our customers for all our segments. 325 branches are serving our customers in a fantastic way every day. This is our history, and I think this is a fantastic slide that shows the stability of the business model that we have in Bravida in our industry, but also our skilled people, how they are performing in different market as well. You can see that we have 9% CAGR on the top line, and we have improved the profitability even more, 10% on average since 2015. In a period with quite difficult market situations.

We have had a pandemic, inflation, some issues in logistic chains, et cetera. Over this time, we also have been able to deliver a cash flow above or around 100% on average. It is varying a bit from one year to another depending on finalizing, how we're finalizing big projects and starting the same. Overall, a fantastic journey that we of course think that we, in some way want to continue and have a good chance to be able to deliver on that as well. We are the Nordic leader in sustainable technical solutions, as we said. Being a partner to all our customers from early phases of when they are planning a new building, help them build a house with the right type of installation, energy efficient systems.

If they are not energy efficient enough from the beginning, we can help them to increase the value of a property by maintaining, change some system, do adjustment, and also lowering the energy consumption, or maybe help them use another type of energy source as well. Every customers has access to our entire offering. We have the life cycle perspective for every building, and we are and want to stay as the leader, the industry leader in sustainability. For the moment, we are having a lot of employees who are doing a really great job by, in a proactive way, changing the way of working, and in a proactive way, help our customers to create value in their own business.

It's really amazing to see that we are transforming as a company and are more proactive today than we were before, and we hope that we can continue that journey, of course. Let's go into the numbers for the first quarter then. We start with the market and the market outlook. We see some increased demand for sustainable and energy efficient solutions. It hasn't really accelerated yet, but I think that the demand will increase going forward. It has started, but it hasn't ramped up yet. We still see an overall good demand for service and installation, and of course, we exclude the new build of residentials in that statement. Said that, even if we see a quite strong good demand in the market right now, of course, there is some uncertainties going ahead.

Increasing interest rates and inflation may lead to delays in investment decisions, et cetera, when we're going forward. Let's see what the market will look like, the coming quarters. For now, the demand is quite okay. It is varying a bit from different geographies, but that is the case all the time. That was the same situation last year as well when the demand were seen as really, really good. The highlights for the quarter then. 20% organic growth. We are growing in all countries. I think that is the highest organic growth number ever. Maybe you should see it like that as well. We are now entering into a new quarter. We had a growth, organic growth in Q3, if I remember correctly, 13%. No, Q, Q2. Q3 last year, yeah, with 13%.

Q4, 16%. Now we are even higher at 20%. I think it will be leveling out, maybe go down a bit, because having this high organic growth is extreme for our type of business and our type of industry as well. On top of that, as you know, we have had the strike in Norway, which is impacting us with approximately SEK 40 million in sales. 7% comes from acquisitions, and we see increased sales in both service and installation. This is the first quarter in quite a long time where we actually have higher growth in service and installation, which is a good thing of course. Order intake is up 4%. It's improving in Sweden and Finland.

EBITA margin at a stable level, 5%, slightly lower than last year, but having this stable margin in this market situation is fantastic, and at the same time, as we are investing a lot in our business and our IT platforms, which we come back to later on in this presentation. Earnings per share up 18%. 18% is the earnings per share up, which is also a fantastic number of course. Cash flow somewhat weaker at SEK 60 million, and the injuries is going up a bit, with 3%. Same service, 28% growth and the installation is growing with 27%. High growth on the both segments.

If we take the same numbers in another perspective, you can see that we are close to SEK 7.5 billion in sales in the quarter compared to SEK 5.8 billion last year in Q1. We had said that the service is growing a lot, 28%, organic growth at 20%. And we're also specifying on this slide what kind of investments we are doing, how big they are. SEK 34 million have we spent it on new systems and business development in growth segments, and that should be compared to SEK 17 million last year. Order intake up 4% and the backlog is down with 6%, but still on a very high level. We see that the order backlog goes down slightly more in Norway and Denmark.

If that depends on the market, it's too early to say, but you know that we are growing extremely fast in those countries. We are slightly more conservative when we try to bid on new projects. Let's see what the root cause is of that. We are not stressed. We still have a really high order backlog, which we have been stated for a number of quarters now, and I think that is what you're seeing in the organic growth today as well. The net sales bridge, it goes from SEK 5.8 billion. Organic is adding one and SEK 1.1 billion. We're growing with more than SEK 1 billion in a quarter organically.

The acquisitions is adding another SEK 400 million, and we have a small effect at 1% on the currency effect as well. If we look at the margin EBITA 5 compared to 5.1, and now we are specifying slightly more on what we are doing, what kind of investments we are doing. First, I should say that the margin is improved in Norway, unchanged in Sweden and Finland, and a bit lower in Denmark. EBITA is also affected by non-recurring costs for implementing new digital systems and digital solutions. That is something we need to realize the business plan that we are working with. That sums up to SEK 24 million compared to SEK 14 million last year.

The forecast for this year, 2023, is around somewhere between SEK 100 million and SEK 125 million. I think that is another way of show the strength of Bravida to be able to present high growth, stable margins at the same time as we are investing in our future to be able to continue to deliver top quality service, helping the customers with their taxonomy issues, helping they save energies, et cetera, in a more digital way. I think really interesting to see the outcome of these investments going ahead. We also have some effects on EBITA for development in new business, sustainability and modern IT platform according to our plan.

The new world also means that we need to invest some in some new roles, competency system, et cetera, to be able to report what the market and our customers request for us. Driving the business plan forward increases of course, as I just mentioned, the administrative expenses, but it will enable an improved margin long term, both margin as well as growth. The increased recurring costs is connected to the IT platform, as I said, but also digital development capabilities and new type of resources, increased sustainability focus, and also an improved and strengthened HR support. We have some to the right initial cost for investments in the new businesses.

In Technical Facility Management, building automation, energy management, we are investing in new systems, but also new people, new capabilities to be able to deliver new type of services to our 80,000 plus customers going ahead. We hope or expect that these will add positively to the margin in the end of this year.The order intake and backlog, we have said that the order intake is up 4%, the backlog is down 6%. Still have an order backlog that is really healthy and on a high level. You can see how the order intake develop. We have some seasonality as well in the order intake as well in the order backlog normally. You can see the green line that is continuing upwards, which is quite natural. Let's see. We have quite strong order backlogs in many places.

We are now soon entering in our quarterly reviews where we will Åsa and myself have a discussion on order backlogs on branch level to discuss what measures we need to do to continue to grow or to make sure that we defend the margin. Having all the acquired companies into the same platforms gives us the possibility to manage the company, to see the order backlog, to see the trending margins, et cetera, and that is probably the most important task for us the coming weeks. Still, an healthy and strong order backlog, both regarding margin as well as size. Sustainability. The injuries, LTIFR, is up 3%.

It's quite sensitive, KPI. That means that we have had a few more accidents with sick leave this year compared to last year. It is increasing slightly in Sweden and Denmark. Norway is well below the target. I'm happy to say that 15% of our vehicle fleet is electric power today. We said last time that we ordered, I think it was 73% of all ordered cars last year were electrical. Now we are using those cars when we need the new ones. There are some timing issues when the cars will be delivered as well. The work with our cars and our sustainability focus on our car fleet actually started already in 2019.

It's quite long cycle to change a KPI like this, and we were really early in starting discussing this, actually before it was possible to order electrical service cars, for example. Now we have a system in place which will give us a good development on this KPI going forward, and I think we are well ahead of the competition in this perspective, which is really good. You can also see that the change in CO2 emissions from vehicles related to sales is down 3.6% in the quarter. Last year, we lowered it with 13.6 or 8, I think. Good to see the great development on this side as well. When it comes to acquisitions, we have done five in Q1, another two in the beginning of Q2.

The 5 I mentioned in quarter is adding SEK 155 million in sales. Strong pipeline, attractive multiples, and we now see a trend shift as well in the market of the M&A market because it's, even if it's early in the new type of market, we already now see that there are more owners, et cetera, who's interesting to discuss and maybe sell the companies. Having a strong balance sheet to try to use that situation as a market leader in the Nordic market is, of course, really good. Now I hand over to Åsa, who will take you through the different countries.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Thank you, Mattias. As always, let's start with Sweden. As in all our countries, Sweden had a high growth in the first quarter. Growing with 21% leads to a top line of SEK 3.6 billion. The growth is coming both from installation and services, but mostly from services, which we are happy to notice. The organic growth is 16%. The growth from acquisition is 5%. Sweden has an unchanged EBITA margin of 5.5% and a strong order intake of +25%. The order intake is also coming from both services and installation. Order backlog is strong, SEK 9.1 billion, almost on the same level as last year -1%. Moving on to Norway.

Norway also has a strong sales, so the growth is 25%, leads to SEK 1.66 billion of sales, and the growth is coming from both installation and services. Here, Norway is growing more on installation. The organic growth is even higher than the total growth, so 27%, and the growth from acquisition is 2%. That leads us to a negative effect on the FX with -4%. EBITA is SEK 77 million compared to SEK 60 million last year's first quarter, and the EBITA margin improved to 4.8%. The order intake is NOK -20 less in local currency, so -7%, and the decrease in the order intake is coming from installation.

The high production that we've had during the quarter, together with the decrease in order intake then leads to an order backlog that is negative or minus 27% year-on-year, a little bit less in local currencies, minus 21%. We're actually, both Norway and Denmark has been growing really fast, so we are actually a bit pleased that the installation growth is coming down a bit. Denmark. Denmark has had the highest growth of all our countries, so the growing by 42% in the quarter, and that leads to top line of SEK 1.7 billion. The organic growth in Denmark is 20%, and from acquisition it's 13%, and then you can see that we have some positive effects from the currency as well here.

The growth is coming both from service and installation. It's a bit higher on installation. The EBITDA margin declined to 4% compared to 4.4%, leads to an EBITDA of SEK 68 million compared to SEK 52 million. The decline is explained by a bit lower project margins. As I said, and as we talked about before, both Denmark and Norway has been growing very fast on installation, then it's a bit of a challenge to keep up with the EBITDA margin. Order intake is -19%, and also here there's a decrease in installation. It's -23% in local currency.

This also same as Norway, high activity and a lower order intake leads to a decrease in the order backlog with -10%. Order backlog is still high on SEK 3 billion. We have Finland. Finland has also grown a lot, 36%, leading to a top line of EUR 554 million. Growth here is coming both from service and installation, but has been very high on service, which we are pleased to see. The organic growth was 21%, and the growth from acquisition was 6%. EBITDA margin or the EBITDA was EUR 20 million compared to EUR 15 million last year, and the EBITDA margin was unchanged. Finland had a strong order intake and growing both on services, but also on installation. We're happy to see that because Finland was.

has needed to fill up the order backlog a bit. Order intake +51% and in local currency +45%. This also leads to a strong order backlog that is on SEK 1.2 billion, and that is an increase of 58%. Finland is also the country where we have the least share of service, but in the first quarter, the service share was 31% compared to last year's first quarter, 27%. We're also pleased to see that. That was our countries. Let's look at our net debt and cash situation. I think we start with the middle there. If you look at the operating cash flow, you can see that it's a bit weaker this quarter than last year on SEK 60 compared to SEK 341.

This is due to a decrease in working capital, the working capital decreased with minus SEK 377 million. The main reason for this is the strong growth that we have had, so we are tying up capital in receivables. Also the net POC or the net WIP is not contributing, mainly because we have had previously, like a year ago or a little bit more, we had a lot of large projects coming in with really good payments plans and prepayments, and they are now, you know, phasing out, and we are not getting any new large projects that can actually compensate for that right now. It's a bit of a timing issue also. If you look at the left-hand...

This is also then leads to a lower cash conversion on 70% compared to 92% last year. If you look at the left-hand side, you can see the financial position. We have a cash balance of SEK 1.1 billion, and then we have loans of SEK 1.6 billion, and that is a term loan, long-term loan of SEK 500 million. We are drawing on the RCF SEK 200 million, and then we have commercial papers for SEK 921 million. Then we have the leasing according to IFRS 16, so mostly our cars, on SEK 1 billion.

That leads to a net debt of SEK 1.6 billion, and with a long-term, rolling twelve EBITDA on SEK 2.3 billion, we get a net debt LTM EBITDA ratio of 0.7. Yeah, on the right hand, you can see our loan structure. What's worth mentioning there is that we have the RCF of SEK 2.5 billion, that is sustainability-linked, that is maturing in October next year. We are now have started the work to set up a new RCF. I think that's it on that page. Let's look at our financial targets then. We have, as you know, we have an EBITDA margin of 7%, and the LTM is on 6.4%.

Cash conversion now a bit lower than, as I said, on 70%. The net debt to EBITDA ratio is on 0.7, a lot lower than our target. Sales growth very much higher on 24% LTM compared to 5%, or more than 5%, which is our target. We have paid out in a dividend 52% which is above our target assess more than 50%. By that Mattias, I will hand over to you again.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Thank you. Just a summary to repeat what we think is a good report. I think it's fantastic to be able to present another, yet another strong report, which we have been doing throughout the many, many years now. Today, the summary goes like this: increased sales, 28%. We are increasing the sales in all countries. Organic growth at 20%, highest number ever. We are growing in all countries. Acquisition is adding another 7%, we have a slightly lower but very stable EBITA margin at 5%.

The EBITDA margin is affected, which we have said a couple of times, by increased cost for develop the business according to plan and according to our strategy, which of course will lead to an even stronger and better company going ahead. Earnings per share, which is maybe the most important KPI, is up 18%. We have some increased injuries, which is not good. We are now addressing measures to be able to improve that again. By that, I think we can open up for some questions. Thank you so much for now, and let's see what you are thinking about and want to know more about. Please.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star key then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea. Please go ahead.

Carl Ragnerstam
Analyst, Nordea

Good morning. It's Carl here from Nordea. A few questions. Firstly, looking at the order intake in Norway and Denmark down 7% and 23% organically, I know it's maybe hard to split out, but could you perhaps give us some more flavor on sort of what is actually end market contracting and how much is sort of you deliberately taking less projects in order to sort of manage your currently seemingly a bit too high utilization rate in the countries?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Yeah, I think it's tough question to answer. Overall, we have, as we have said, we have had high growth in the countries you're mentioning and maybe too, or maybe we have had a too high growth, which have costed us on the margin side. I think that is the base point or the starting point. We have a quite okay order backlog situation, which gives us the opportunity to be a bit cautious and a bit peak on what we try to sell and try to get into the order back, log. Overall, we still hear an okay demand, and I think what the root cause is, if that is a lower demand or that we are more conservative, it's too early to say.

The signals we hear and get is more of that, we are growing too much and are a bit too busy. Do you want to add something or?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

I think, yeah. I think you're right. I think we are being more selective and not, also when the competition is a bit higher on the price side, we are not getting into projects that are too low price as we see it. It's, I think it's, yeah, difficult to say, but it's definitely that we are more selective.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Yeah. And more selective in combination may be that, what I'm afraid of, and I try to state it as often as I can, I think some players in the market underestimates the inflation, what impact the inflation will have on salaries, on the material. A normal situation in our industry is when and if the demand is going down, you can lower the price because you can speculate in buying material cheaper, it gets slightly cheaper labor, et cetera. The inflation environment we're having today, I think this is why we probably see some increased price competition because some or not all players understand the impact of the inflation going on right now. Maybe that is part of the situation as well.

Normally when they have filled their order backlogs, then we can get and win some new healthy projects instead. That is normally the way it will be handled.

Carl Ragnerstam
Analyst, Nordea

Okay. On the pricing situation, I mean, would you say that it has worsened now during the latter part of Q1 and during April as well? Do you see any difference in the pricing situation between the sizes of the projects? Meaning that maybe it's more smaller players that maybe are more worried about the backlog, maybe less professional in their tendering?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

What we hear when I speak to different persons in the industry and ask about if they can pay, for example, if the small players are still able to pay the invoices from some suppliers. I think the answers I get is that the really small players, they are moving into solar panels, car chargers, et cetera. They have handled... The one who is normally building residentials, they are doing something different instead. The one who is a bit stressed or struggling a bit is probably more the medium-sized players who have underestimated the wage inflation and their material price increases the last 18, 24 months. I think they are the one who is struggling.

Some has already faced some issues, some other maybe haven't understood the impact the inflation will have going ahead, and we think they are pricing it slightly lower. If it's increased, I think that would be to go too far to say that, but it at least at the same level that sometimes we are a bit higher because as we see it, they haven't the price, the cost they will have. Again, I will state that and underline that we have an order backlog that is good, and time will tell, and time will also give us opportunities to win new projects. That's for sure.

Carl Ragnerstam
Analyst, Nordea

Mm. Okay. Very clear. Also on the wage inflation, you were impacted by the strike in Norway for your fitters primarily, I understood. Have you assessed the impact on sales and EBIT in Q2? Could you also perhaps remind us a bit on your percentage of sales in Norway where which is typically partnering or cost plus, meaning that you could easily push forward the wage inflation?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

No, no, the wage inflation, if we start with the first one, the impact of the strike, was it SEK 40 million on the top line?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

It was SEK 40 million. It ended pretty fast.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Yeah, it's four days.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Lucky for us.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Around SEK 40 million, let's say between SEK 35 million and SEK 50 million. Norway is 21% of our top line. When it comes to, what was the question actually? Sorry, Karl.

Carl Ragnerstam
Analyst, Nordea

What percent of your sales in Norway that could be defined as partnering?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Oh, yeah.

Carl Ragnerstam
Analyst, Nordea

... or cost plus, meaning that the wage inflation is easy to push forward?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

No, no, you, I want to answer the question like this instead. The lion part of all contracts on the project side are having index clauses or partnering projects, cost plus, et cetera. We are well-protected in that perspective. We had a 5.2% increase on the salary in Norway, which is pretty much in line what we expected for Norway. That is also something if we knew and have added into most of the tenders that we have submitted the last 6-8 months. I think we might see some impact on the margin going ahead from what you are asking about, but not a major thing. I think there are other things that are.

Carl Ragnerstam
Analyst, Nordea

Okay. Sure

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

... more important, how we are executing, what type of materials we're buying, and how well we are managing the negotiations with customers, contracts, et cetera, and make sure that we are working with customers who can pay going ahead. I think that will be more important than the increased wages in Norway.

Carl Ragnerstam
Analyst, Nordea

Very clear. Thank you.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Thanks.

Operator

The next question comes from Karl Norén from SEB. Please go ahead.

Karl Norén
Equity Analyst, SEB

Yes, good morning. Maybe if we start off with a question on the order backlog in Sweden. I think it was quite strong, driven by a strong order intake. Is there any project standing out in the quarter or what was driving the strong order intake in the Swedish business?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

No, it's not that we can say that we have gotten a couple of large projects. It's, you know, normal, mid-size, small size projects coming in.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

A good mix.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Yeah. Good mix.

Karl Norén
Equity Analyst, SEB

Okay. Also a question on the regions. Again, are you seeing, like on Karl's question, on the cautiousness side or the uncertainty in the market, are you seeing any country where you see a higher market uncertainty than others, or is it relatively stable? As you said, the maybe the order intake is, or the order backlog is not really representable of the real demand, so to say. It would be interesting to hear your view on the different markets and if you see anything standing out there.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

No, not really. I think we maybe have some bigger fluctuations in Sweden maybe because of the residential market going down slightly more than in other countries. On the other hand, the industrial investments in Sweden are much higher than the other countries. But I think it's quite flat if you compare the countries.

Karl Norén
Equity Analyst, SEB

Okay. I guess the last one on, I mean, your initiatives to, you know, drive a more efficient organization with the investments in the IT platforms, et cetera, where they have been doing now for a year or so. Can you maybe give some kind of update on you said that you will see some positively impact on the margin in the end of 2023? Can you maybe quantify that and how, give us some kind of information on, about how we should think about that?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Yeah. I think, if we take the personnel we are investing in, it's mainly addressing our ambitions in Technical Facility Management, energy management, and building automation, which is capabilities we are building up now, hiring new people that are working and are selling some services, but they're not selling enough yet. We think that is a great space to be in, and we are investing and hiring because we know that that will be a profitable business going ahead within Bravida. If we take the Three big investments on the IT side. Of course, we're working with IT security and better IT platform in general, which is needed.

not maybe because we need it today, but if we are not investing in that, the platform, I think the cost will come in the coming years. be able to present the margins as we are doing at the same time as we are investing a lot, and I don't think anyone else in this sector is investing close to as much as we are doing. I think we are building some capabilities for the future now. It's about how we can deliver the service better, work more proactively with customers, but also make sure that we can visualize.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Visualize.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Visualize savings, et cetera, for customers so we can help them improve their energy efficiency and give us the opportunity to make more money. There are 3 different systems. We have a CRM system that of course addressing our proactive work with customers, making more, give us better opportunities to cross-sell. 80% of our customers only buying 1 discipline, for example. I think the 2 systems that are improving our delivery machine in Bravida is the purchasing system, a new system that gives us opportunity that we have launched now in Finland and in Norrland, which is 1 part of Sweden. Now in a couple of weeks, we're going with the rest of Sweden, and after summer, we are launching it in Norway, Denmark. It's working very well.

The system is implemented because it should be easier for us to make sure we are buying from the right suppliers in perspective of the sustainability perspective, but also make it easier for new suppliers, more international suppliers to which you are buying from already today to come into our one and only purchasing system so we can do efficient purchasing from new, more, better suppliers going ahead as well. Also in a couple of years, be able to provide sustainability data for the material we have installed us by in our customers' facilities, et cetera, both in the tender phase as well as in a selling phase and production phase to digitalize our reporting, our footprint of CO2 emissions for the material we have installed.

Do that in a digital way instead of using manuals or some kind of calculation is something we think will be a competitive edge for Bravida. We have a project management system that of course will improve our execution on projects and make sure that we improve the margin on the installation side, be more proactive, putting in, setting in action in projects early enough so we can lower the waste of money on our installation side. That system will be launched in the end of this year. I think the new capabilities on the growth segments, we have said we'll probably add positive in the end of 2023.

The procurement system will start to add positively, maybe not very much the first couple of years, but in the long perspective, it will add a lot of values for us. Then the project management system will start adding value in 2024, I would say. Did I miss anything also? Do you want to add something?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Yeah, maybe that the project management system, it will start adding value, but we will not take the old project into the system. It will be new projects that's starting up that goes into the system. It will take some time before we see, you know, strong contribution here. And also, as you say, the procurement system is first we replace it one to one with the old system, and then we're going into phase II now in end of next year or end of this year, sorry, and then starting phase II, where we are developing new functionalities and then we develop it from there. So it takes some time, but it will be very good when we have it in place.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Yeah. Just to elaborate a bit more, I think, when we decided to that we want to have a new project management system and a new purchasing system, we thought there would be some standard systems out in the market that we can use, that was not the case. That probably means that the investment has been slightly higher than we initially expected. On the other hand, that will give us an even better competitive edge because no one else has these systems. Having a procurement system that is unique and also having a project management system that will give our project leaders, our fitters, a better position to work more efficient, help our customers more proactive, see some risks earlier, will give us some competitive edges.

Also I think that will mean that we will be much more, even more attractive employer than we are today because we will have the greatest system in the industry, and that is quite good to know.

Karl Norén
Equity Analyst, SEB

Sounds like you have a lot going on. That's good. Yes, on that topic, I guess it sounds like you are investing quite a lot right now. We should see this turning on the margin side from a headwind to a tailwind or a headwind this year, but then maybe a tailwind in next year. Is that the right way to think about it?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

I think that could be reasonable, yes. Let's come back to that. I think that is, yeah, quite reasonable, yeah.

Karl Norén
Equity Analyst, SEB

Great. I just got up one more question here. It's regarding the cash flow. I mean, the cash conversion has been declining over the past years, I would say, and now it was a bit softer here in Q1 as well. I was wondering if there's anything structural that has changed, or should you come back to a cash conversion of closer to 100% again, do you think?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

That is our ambition. It has been a bit more difficult to get good prepayment plans now because now money costs, you have to pay for money. Interest rates are higher. That is absolutely our ambition, but it's very much of a timing issue also. If we get some larger projects in the portfolio, then we will have good prepayments or payments plan, and then we will, you know, then it will go up again. We are working on that. We have a very strong focus on cash flow.

Karl Norén
Equity Analyst, SEB

Yeah

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

... We really want the cash conversion to go up.

Karl Norén
Equity Analyst, SEB

Sounds really good. That's all for me. Have a good day.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Same. T hank you so much.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Yeah.

Operator

The next question comes from Karl-Johan Bonnevier from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

Yes. Good morning, Mattias, and also excellent growth report once again. Just want to come back to your demand comment. Sorry for elaborating on it. When I, when I read your statement, Mattias, in the quarter report, you indicate, okay, the construction, looking at the installation kind of demand going down for new construction in the residential sector now spreading into non-resi. I appreciate that these are general comments. What do you see in the change in your old order mix for the moment? Is that the kind of trends you see coming through, or is it lesser pronounced for you, or is this new kind of mix that you're suggesting may be better for you than the general market mix?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

I think overall, it's always better to have a strong demand in the market in all segments. I think that, but if we look at our business mix, we prefer to do anything else than residentials, for example, because the price model is too transparent. We don't have the very high margin in that segment. I think it's very difficult to say when people asks me about the market or when I sitting in my office or when I'm out walking and thinking about the market, it's very difficult for the moment. I hear some who's saying, "Yeah, but we have high inflation.

I start this project now because I don't think it will be cheaper." You have everyone who's saying, "It's too expensive, the interest rates are too high." Then you have some other who thinks, "It won't be cheaper, so I prefer to build now instead because I have the balance sheet to do it, and let's make the inflation eat up some of the cost." You have the whole spectra, and then you have residential market is going down at the same time as we have seen some companies in the industries reporting really strong numbers with high demand. I think it's all over the place.

I think it's impossible to actually guide you or ourselves. What we see for the moment, it's a quite high demand. We know that we have some structural drivers in the market about the electrification, energy consumption, energy efficiency. You have the solar panel installations, car chargers, infrastructures who's changing. There are a lot of positive things as well. It is really, I wouldn't say a mess, it's so many segments who are changing and transforming. It is really interesting to go to the work every day now, I would say.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

I can imagine. I can imagine. I guess when you do these kind of quarterly sum ups with your branches, do you get a feeling that the number of projects that they're accounting on has changed very much or anything like that, or the mix in those contracts for you?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

No. Slightly high demand for prices still. It's another question if they will be finalized and contracted. I think that is another question. The demand, again, it seems quite okay for the moment. There are some variations, yes, but it has always been. I think also about statistics and the answers you get, it also depends on what kind of questions you're asking. I think we ask that question slightly more often today. Of course we have some. We get some answers quite more frequent that the market is tough today than 6 months ago. On the other hand, we didn't ask that question, maybe not at all.

Being in many places, working to customers in many different type of end markets is, of course, the insurance portfolio as Åsa says. I'm sorry I can't answer your question better than that, but it's very, it's okay for a moment. Let's see what happens. It's still 90% of the market that we don't have today, so plenty of opportunities if we work close enough to our customers.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

I appreciate the extra color. Thank you very much for the color also on the system side and the IT investment. Yes, to make it clear, the SEK 24 million that you describe as a non-recurring cost in the quarter, is that when you get to breaking points, so to say, where you start to use a new system and then you write off what is remaining on the old system, or where does those SEK 24 million comes from?

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Yeah, I think SEK 24, in total it's SEK 34, and SEK 24 is non-recurring, and that is non-recurring. To some extent, maybe there will be some new cost licenses that we don't see today. This is as good as we can specify today. SEK 24 is non-recurring today, and the other SEK 10 is recurring.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

Okay. All of them are cash elements, so to say if I understand it right.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Yeah.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

It's cash out?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Yes.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

There's not a question of writing off all things in this number?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

No. No, no. It's cash out. It's cost taken on the P&L.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

Okay. That number correlates with the SEK 125 million that you specify for the outlook for this year?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Exactly. some of that

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

It's the non-recurring part of it I didn't really understand, so.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

No. It's the non-recurring part is what Mattias said, it's what we are. It's the investments that we do in the systems. For these, mainly these three systems and some other ones. We take them in the P&L. There is a small part where, that we actually accrue on the balance sheet. There will be some of this 120 will be accrued, but it's not the main part. The main part it's taking through the P&L. Is that clarifying it?

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

Not very clear.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Yeah.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Yeah. I think if I did some calculation this morning We are not adjusting, but I think that is equivalent to 0.3% units on the margin, the non-recurring investments we did in Q1.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

That's fine. That's fine. But non-recurring for me, that means more that you would have thinking you're just taking it over the cashflow rather than taking it over the P&L, but it's still a real cost. That's what I was asking.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

It's a real cost, yes. It's cashflow and.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

Perfect

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

P&L. Yeah.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

Just also to come back to the cash flow, have you seen any change yourself in payment patterns for clients or is the, the working capital build up just really related to the exceptional growth you have for the moment?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

I think it's No. We do, we hear that it is a bit more difficult. We haven't really seen it. It's more that we haven't gotten this any large projects in the portfolio for the last period. It's more that. I think it's a timing timing issue. The main reason this quarter is the high receivables that we have from the growth.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

It's the same impact that we see coming through in the contract balance net that is less negative than it used to be?

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Yes. Yes.

Karl-Johan Bonnevier
Analyst, DNB Markets

Excellent. Perfect. Thank you very much and all the best and good luck out there.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Operator

For any further question, please press star followed by 1. Madam, gentlemen, so far there are no more questions.

Mattias Johansson
President and CEO, Bravida

Okay. Thank you very much everyone, enjoy the day and just to make sure that you will tune in and listen next time. We have our next report in July, 14th of July. Let's see what kind of set of numbers we can present then. We have a lot of work to do before that. Thank you so much for listening and see you soon.

Åsa Neving
Group CFO, Bravida

Thank you. Goodbye. Have a good day.

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