Bravida Holding AB (publ) (STO:BRAV)
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Earnings Call: Q3 2018

Nov 6, 2018

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Okay, thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Bravida's Q3 report. Today, and as usual, it is myself, Mattias Johansson, and CFO, Nils-Johan Andersson, who will take you through this presentation. On the next slide, or slide 3, I want to start explaining our explanation to the market and our risk profile. As you all know, we have a low risk in our business model. First, we are acting in diversified end markets in four different countries, in more than 155 locations, and in different customer segments. Second, we have a low customer concentration, meaning that we have more than 50,000 customers, and our top five customers represent around 15% of our sales. Third, we have a small average contract size, and close to 50% of our sales is service.

Down to the right, you can see that 72% of our sales, of our contracts and sales for services is less than SEK 10 million, and more than half of this is contract or services below SEK 1 million. On the next slide, I will take you through the highlights of the quarter. I think those are quite many, so I will close to read the bullets from the slide. The net sales grew 30%, and we had organic growth at 6%, and M&A contributed with 4%. We had growth in all countries, and service sales growth at 11%, and installation growth were at 15%. The order momentum, the order backlog is at good level and at SEK 10.7 billion, and we have had a good continued momentum with order intake above SEK 4 billion.

Especially good order intake in Denmark and Finland, where we had 65% up in Denmark and 85% up in Finland. As you know, we have also been awarded an installation contract in Stockholm Bypass project, or as we say in Swedish, Förbifart Stockholm, at an order value at SEK 2.7 billion. This is not included in the order backlog yet. We normally not put orders in the backlog until we have signed the contract, and these contracts are planned to be signed in the beginning of the Q1 in 2019. The EBITDA is up 20% to SEK 267 million, and margin is improved to 6% from 5.7%. EBITDA margin is improved in Denmark and Finland. It is unchanged in Sweden, and slightly lower in Norway.

Norway, it has a lower margin due to high production and low margin project in Oras. Regarding the cash flow, we can see a seasonally weak cash flow depending on the holiday period, but it is improved compared to the last year. The cash flow from operating activities is -SEK 132 million, and this is better than last year, where we had -SEK 144 million. We had reached a cash conversion of 93%. Working capital is -SEK 583 million, and we have a net debt at around SEK 2 billion or 1.7x adjusted EBITDA on LTM basis. The acquisitions continue in a good way. We have completed 2 more in Q3, adding SEK 86 million in sales. four more acquisitions in Q4, adding more than SEK 400 million.

Year to date, we have completed 12 acquisitions so far, adding in total SEK 800 million. The integration of Oras is going according to plan. On slide 5, you can see the market trends. The market, as we see it, is good in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and stable in Finland. In Sweden, we can see the main growth drivers from public investments in buildings and infrastructure, and we have a industry confidence indicator still at good levels. In Norway, overall service and installation activity is good, and the market drivers are public investment and energy efficiency projects.

Common for both Sweden and Norway is that we can see declining production of residentials, but as we have said earlier, and we can see that in the order books as well, that we see a higher demand for renovation of residentials, and that demand has increased. In Denmark, the market is supported by public investments and residential constructions, and also healthcare and education buildings are driving the volumes. Construction confidence indicator are at normal level. In Finland, we can see stable market, the construction market is improving, and the sales increase is for the construction companies, that are, in many cases, our customers. We can see stable service and installation market, and the confidence indicator is at the stable level.

On the next slide, you can see that the sales in the quarter is up 13% and 11% year-to-date. The growth trend is positive. The sales is SEK 4.4 billion in the quarter, 6% organic and 4% from M&A. The EBITDA is up 20% in Q3 to SEK 267 million, and margin is improved to 6%. As I said earlier, the margin is improved in Denmark and Finland, unchanged in Sweden, and a good level, but somewhat lower in Norway. Earnings per share is up 23% in the quarter. As I see it, and as we normally say in Bravida, we are proud but not satisfied.

We think that we can continue this way of delivering results in the future as well. Regarding ordering take on slide 7, it's flat in the quarter, and it's up 5% year-to-date. We have a declining order backlog in the quarter, and this is explained by a declining order backlog in Oras, which is the acquisition we did last year in Norway. We are producing on products with quite low profitability, and this is part of and in line with our plan. We have also completed two large projects with high production in Sweden within sprinkler and power. Last year in Q3, we had a couple of large orders registered in Sweden.

All in all, we think that we have order backlog at a high and good level, and we think this will support healthy growth in the future as well. On the next slide, we're going to talk a bit about the Stockholm Bypass project. Again, this is not included in the order backlog yet. We have been awarded two contracts from the Swedish Transport Administration, or Trafikverket in Swedish. The total order value is at SEK 2.7 billion. This is electrical and lighting order value, one project at SEK 1.6 million, and water, wastewater, and fire extinguishing systems at order value at SEK 1.1 billion.

The last one of the two has been appealed on technical grounds, and Bravida's offer is not disputed, and we think that we this will go our way. You can never be sure, but it's unlikely, as I see it, that we not are going to win this project in the end. The signing of the contracts will probably happen in the beginning of Q1 in 2019. Regarding the project, there is a couple of years of planning, designing, and documentation, and the production will start at 2021 to 2023 in, yeah, mainly this period. After that, there will be a maintenance and testing period until 2025, and the project as such will be finalized in 2026.

We also have a service and maintenance for two years, including in this project, and we're really looking forward to deliver this project as we see it as a core business. We have done these type of projects before, and we are very confident that we can deliver the quality to have the margin in this type of project. On the next slide, and that's slide nine, you can see the graph showing the order backlog compared to the sales for service and installation. The red line shows that we have continued to have a strong development in our service sales. As I mentioned earlier, service sales growth was 11% in the quarter, the blue line shows the that the order backlog is on high level.

I'm confident on this level, and even on lower level as well, for the coming quarters, why the order backlog is well above the sales for the installation, which is the green line. Also remember that we do not register our coming service jobs in this order backlog. It's just including installation projects. On slide 10, you can follow the acquisitions we have done so far in 2018. We've done acquisitions in all countries, in all markets. A couple of quarters ago, I said that I thought that we can be more active in this perspective in Sweden, and we have certainly been that the last quarters. We have done one in Finland in the quarter, four in Sweden, two in Denmark, and one in Norway. Those adds SEK 386 million in the quarter.

In October and November, we have done four more acquisitions, adding SEK 420 million to the top line. We see a continued strong pipeline to attractive multiples. We think that we can continue to do M&As that will strengthen our top line, of course, as well as the competence and our offer to the customers. We have also established a reinforced acquisition group. We have strengthened that with a couple of persons to enable to increase our activity in M&A because we think that's a good way to develop Bravida as a company. We also think that not depending on the market, even if in a market with good demand or slightly weaker demand, we can continue to do M&As and create a lot of shareholder value.

All in all, we have done 12 acquisitions so far, adding around 800 million SEK in sales. Now over to Johan and the financials.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Yes, thank you, Mattias, let's look a little bit deeper into the figures, starting with the sales. As Mattias said, we had a top line growth of 13%. The organic growth was 6%, and this is actually slightly above our financial target of 5.... acquisition contribute with 4, and the currency impact this quarter was 3%. This coming from the weaker Swedish krona, adding up to the top to say it's for SEK 4,437 million. I would just like to give some comments about the earning per share. Again, we increased it with a higher rate than the EBITDA. In this quarter, we were up with 23%, this is explained by improved financial net, but also now lower tax expenses.

all in all, overall, a good performance. Let's look into next slide and start with Sweden. In Sweden, we saw a stable development in the quarter. Sales were up with 5%. This is mainly coming from organic growth. EBITDA was stable on a high level, 6.7%. If we look at the order intake, it was down with 11%. You will see that the order intake per country varies from quarter to another, and in Sweden, went down with 11%. Please remember, if you look back to the Q3 report last year, you saw that we reported four large orders. There was a wind farm, there was a large school, there was a country center in Kronan, and also multifunctional building.

We still believe that the order backlog is a good level, and that will support the growth the coming quarters. Let's continue with Norway. We continue to see a good development in Norway. Sales were up with 13% this quarter. It's a combination of good organic growth and also currency impact. Margin, you see, it was more or less flat. It was down with 10 bips, but it's dilution coming from high production in Oras. This is from production of the old backlog that we acquired in May 2017, and as we said earlier, there is a lower margin in this order backlog. If we adjust for the Oras, so to say, old Bravida Norway delivered EBITDA margin of 7.1 in the quarter.

Still, we see a good development in the old Bravida. Just a more comment on the order backlog. In Norway, it was up with 7% year-on-year. If you look at the Oras order backlog, it's when we acquired the company in May, order backlog was something around SEK 850 million-SEK 900 million. In the end of September, we were down to SEK 350 million, and we expect that this unprofitable project from the acquisition will be completed in Q1, next year in 2019. Then you will see from that point, you will see limited dilution coming from this order backlog. Next slide in Denmark. You continue to see a strong development in Denmark.

Sales were up with 13%. This is a strong organic growth, but also positive currency impact and small impact on M&A. We took a big step in the right direction. If you look at the EBITDA margin, up from 3.5 to 5.6. Please remember that we had some challenges in the last year in Q3 with one or two projects. Anyhow, it's good to see that Denmark are increasing the margin with up to 5.6. If you look at the order intake and order backlog, the order intake this quarter is up with 65%. We have a large hospital order in this quarter, that's explained this high figure.

Order backlog year-over-year is up with 12%. If you look at the overall situation in Denmark, I think I've said it both after Q1 and Q2, we have a good position in Denmark, and most likely, Denmark will be the best market from a macro perspective, the coming quarters, because we have seen many drivers now with improving the demand. We go to Finland. In Finland, we reported good growth and stable EBITDA margin. Sales is up with 50%, and this is mainly driven by the acquisition of Adison Oy, but also from currency. EBITDA improving from low levels. We are going from EBITDA from SEK 3 million up to SEK 5 million, and EBITDA margin is more or less flat.

If you look into the order intake and order backlog, we order intake was up with 85%, the order backlog is up with 40%. There is a good growth in both the order intake and order backlog. We get the next slide and give an update on the cash flow and the net debt. You know that the cash flow is seasonality weak in the Q3 , affected by low production in the holiday period. Normally, we have the weakest cash position in mid-September, from mid-September until more or less February, we have a strong cash generation. We expect that we will see the similar trend this year. We have had a good cash generation in October, it's supporting this trend. Net debt.

came down to SEK 1.7 compared to SEK 2.3 a year ago. If you look at the operating cash flow towards the bottom of the page, you see that we have SEK 802 compared with SEK 895. This is including the tax payment. If we add back the tax payment, that's not really operational, we have a cash generation for close to SEK 1.1 billion the last twelve months, compared with SEK 900 million the twelve months before. We continue to generate strong cash flow, and actually, as we used to say, that cash is the true result. I just give a next slide, an update on the financial target. There is no changes. Sales, we are committed to improve the sales with 10%.

It's a combination of organic growth and M&A. We will take the EBITDA margin over 7%. We took one small step this quarter. Cash conversion is, we're saying the target is it should be over 100. We have now 93, and the target is also to pay out at least 60% of the net profit. If you look into the balance sheet, we should be around 2.5 net debt to EBITDA. I hand over to Mattias to summarize.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Thank you, everyone. The summary for the Q3 is that we have a sale increase at 13%, organic growth at 6%, and acquisition contributed with 4%, and we had a safe service growth at 11%. The installation order backlog is at a good level, above SEK 10 billion or SEK 10.7 billion, SEK 46 million, SEK 10,746 million, to be exactly. This is an order backlog that we are very happy with, and it gives us comfort for the future as well. EBITDA margin is improved to 6%. The M&A execution is on track with healthy pipelines. 12 acquisition is completed in 2018, and add SEK 800 million to the top line.

Net debt is 1.7 times EBITDA, and we have an LTM operating cash flow improved compared to last year. The cash conversion is improved to 93% in the quarter, and we can see stable, good market conditions to continue, and we have seen improvements in Finland and Denmark. Very many beliefs that prove the strong performance in the quarter. By that, thank you very much, and now we can open up for some questions, if you have any. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question for the speakers, please press zero followed by the one on your telephone keypad. It's zero, followed by the one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from Stefan Andersson from SEB. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Stefan Andersson
Analyst, SEB

Thank you. First, a question on the organic growth. It's picking up rather dramatically from the first half, from around 3%-4% to 6%. Could you maybe explain where that comes from? Is it comps, or is there a certain region that is picking up, or is it a certain project?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Yes, good morning, Stefan. I think it's not a specific project. It's not really a specific country. We see, we normally do not give comments about the organic growth per country, but in this case, we see organic growth in more or less all countries. It's not. Of course, we in Denmark, we have the strongest organic growth, but also good organic growth in Norway and Sweden. It's over in all countries.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Yeah, I also think that as we have mentioned before, as well as the order backlog, it can vary between Q1 to another. We know that we have a order backlog on high levels that will support the organic growth. I, yeah, I think this is just a proof of that we have a good demand in the market and order backlog that will support the growth as well in all countries, as Johan said.

Stefan Andersson
Analyst, SEB

The reason I'm asking is, as you can understand, if this is a, you know, a positive trend and that it's ongoing, I'm trying to understand if this is a level you can stay on. Is that what you're saying, that this is a level that you could stay on for a little while?

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

That's always hard to estimate in the future, but of course, again, we had an order backlog that is high. I think many branches, when we discuss tenders that we are submitting, some branches or very often it's branches that are searching for new projects after the summer. Of course, we try to price those in a very positive way for Bravida. I think 6% organic growth is quite high level, but I think we have said that we are going to grow this business with 5% organic, and I think we will be around that figure for at least a while longer.

Stefan Andersson
Analyst, SEB

Yep. On that topic as well, when it comes to Oras and Norway, if I don't misrecall here, you've said that we should expect a little bit of a drop as some of the underperforming contracts in Oras are being completed, and you're not really replacing them with similar volumes. We're not really seeing any of that in this quarter, rather the reverse. Could you, I mean, has something changed that makes you more positive on Norway offsetting that comment, or is that coming with a delay?

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

No, no, I think it's, as we said earlier, that we are when we bought Oras in May last year, the sales was around SEK 1.2 billion, and we have said that the sales most likely will come down to below SEK 1 billion, something between SEK 900 million and SEK 1 billion. We, of course, are building up a new order backlog in Oras, but when we're looking for the old one that have a lower margin and slightly higher risk, that we compared to what we normally are accepting. We have had high production in the Q3, in the Oras old backlog.

It's, yeah, we have some dilution, but it's of course, we hope we can build a new stock, order backlog, but we are really. It's important for us to produce on the old one. We get rid of the old projects.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

I think what we are doing is that we have put up a tender team that are supporting the Oras organization, and all tenders we are submitting for from Oras today is on different, yeah, much higher price levels that we have had before. That will mean that we will lower the sales, and they are more cautious about the order backlog. We are winning new projects on those new levels, so we still think that Oras is a very good acquisition, and we are in line with the plan. Some, I think we are in 12 different places with Oras, and in some places we are much better than expected, and of course, we have the opposite in some places as well.

Overall, it's still very good acquisition we have done in regarding Oras.

Stefan Andersson
Analyst, SEB

Thank you. My final question, the contract that is appealed in bypass Stockhol , I mean, you're expecting it to be thrown out, that it's not going to be approved as an appeal. If it is approved, what kind of, what's your experience? What kind of timeline would we have then? Actually with, yeah.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Yeah, this is, of course, very much speculation, but it's. I think the timeline for the customer in this case is very critical, and the terms they have appealed on is, as I see, not likely that they will be very successful with, because that will have mean, yeah, that will have very big effects on the way how customers can buy turnkey projects in the future in the whole industry. I would be very surprised if they will be successful with this. Yeah, I really don't know yet, but, yeah, I don't think it's likely that that will happen.

Stefan Andersson
Analyst, SEB

Okay.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Again, not in the order backlog, so, let's see what happens.

Stefan Andersson
Analyst, SEB

Yes.

Operator

Okay, thank you. The next question comes from Predrag Savinovic from Nordea. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

Thank you very much. I have a few follow-up questions here on the Stockholm Bypass project. You said, part of it is subject to appeal. If there would be a longer time process here, could you, for example, include the first 1.6 at a first stage and then the later stage, the remaining 1.1?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

It's two different contracts, they are not connected to each other in that perspective. The last one, the first one, SEK 1.6 billion, that's something that we are discussing how the forms in the contract, and that's quite, it's quite straightforward, depending on the type of customers and, yeah, type of contract.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

All right. Can you talk a bit on how this can change your risk profile? From what I know, this is the biggest project you have ever taken on. Should we be worried about anything here?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

No, I think you should always have respect for all different types of projects. This is something we have done before. I think we have, in some way or another, been active in all the tunnels that have been made in modern time in Stockholm. We have very positive, what to say? Yeah, we have been very successful in these type of projects. We have a very good team that has performed the tender. We're also building up a new team that will produce these projects for us. They are very experienced in this.

We are hiring some consultants that have been in the industry for very many years as well, and we also have the opportunity to hire new personnel that can contribute to strengthen Bravida for many, many years in the future as well, depending on if we have these type of projects. Of course, you should handle all these types of projects with respect, but we think we have priced this in a way that are covering all the risks that we know can show up, and we are confident that we can deliver on this one.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

On the margin that should be expected here, should we expect, like an average Swedish margin for this project also?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

It's very early in the project. Let's see when we have signed the contract and how we decide to communicate this. I think we have priced it in a good way. We have covered the risks in the project. Let us come back to that. I think production will start in a couple of years from now.

I think I pass on that.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

All right. Moving on to Norway, I see that the order intake has come down a bit. Can you elaborate more on this? Why and how can you turn around, since it doesn't appear that is any bigger projects in the comparing periods, but rather small and midsize, as you write in the presentation here?

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Yeah, we think we had an order for a wastewater treatment plant in Q3 last year for, if I remember, it was something between SEK 85 million and SEK 90 million. There was a big one also in Q3 in Norway. As I said earlier, we continue to see a good demand in Norway, and the order backlog is up year-over-year, even if we have high production of the old Oras backlog. We are quite fine with the level. If you look and compare the order backlog to the, in Norway compared to the sales, it's still on high levels. We are. It's nothing new really in Norway. It's, things have...

It's nothing have changed, it's the slightly more positive on the residential side, it's overall a good situation in Norway.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

You mentioned that the backlog for Oras will be fully chewed off in Q1 2019. Does that mean that there will be no more dilution from this, the profitability here?

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Yeah.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

All right. Finally, for me, momentum in Denmark seems is really strong, and we are seeing this in the figures here as well. Do you still think that the relative growth here will be the strongest in Denmark, in spite of all the figures we're seeing?

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

I think the 30% is an extremely high figure. We are, I think we talked about the large hospitals in the beginning of this year, where we were in an early stage, and we were a little bit more cautious on the margin. Now we are halfway through the project, and we could be a little bit safer on the margins, but also, of course, they come to an end. As we said earlier, we see that the order backlog is up, and we have good activity, good demand, both from public and private sector. We have talked about the data centers earlier, and also now the residential demand is coming back.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

Mm.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Overall, there is a good demand in Denmark.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

Right.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

30% is a high figure.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

Just one more. You say that it's coming back in from the, on the residential side in Denmark. You just mentioned slightly more positive on the resi side for Norway as well. What about Sweden here? Have you seen any changes here now in the past, say, I don't know, past quarter or so, since you have alluded to slower growth here previously?

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Yeah, I think the trend is the same. We are reading the same data that you are reading, and we try to look after the same signs that we see there. Of course, the Stockholm area, and Oslo area, of course, have a lower demand from residential, and that's not the price. I don't know, given to those markets, you know, it's still 1% of the sales that is connected in to the residential Oslo. What we have said earlier is that we expect the renovation on the residential to go up, and that's something we can see in the order books now. Let's see what trend will really show us in the future.

No change regarding the resi market, and that's not a very interesting or big market from Bravida's perspective.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

Okay.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

There will be no shouts out, that's what it is.

Predrag Savinovic
Equity Research Analyst, Nordea

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's all for me.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Robin Nyberg from Carnegie. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Robin Nyberg
Equity Sales, Carnegie

Hello, it's Robin Nyberg. Couple of questions from me. How do you see the overall backlog quality at the moment? How confident are you that you can deliver this recently announced large project with good margins? As a follow-up on that, related to this Stockholm Bypass project, is that installation project a fixed price contract, or can you increase prices if salary inflation is, for example, faster?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Yeah, this is a long. First of all, the quality of the order backlog is the same as earlier. We try to be cautious in the way how we count on the profit, as well as how we choose our customers and the projects we are competing around or about. The quality is unchanged. Regarding the service for Stockholm, the big, large project in Stockholm, we again, we are confident that we can deliver in this project, and it's a long contract that we think we have good contract terms, and we have some index clause as well.

the, it's important for us to have these clause, of course, depending on that, this production will take part in three to four to five years from now. yeah, we think.

Overall, it's a very good project, of course.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Just to add to Mattias, if we've looked at the duration in the order backlog, is more or less on the same as we have seen earlier, that we expect that 70%-75% of the order backlog should be produced to come in 12 months. It's nothing have really changed on the duration. It's the same figures as we have seen now for a certain period.

Robin Nyberg
Equity Sales, Carnegie

Okay, thank you. One final question. Could you comment how you expect the sales mix to develop in the next 12 months? I mean, sales between service versus project sales.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Thank you for that question. That's quite hard to give you a certain figure on that one. We have today 47% of say, AC service, and we are focusing a lot on the service side. We are put a lot of effort in the organization to develop this side of the business. If the mix will change or not, I think that's also depending on how the installation will develop. We want to have a good mix between service and installation, and we want to be close to 50% when it comes to the service. On the other hand, we don't want to lower the growth in installation if we can take that part of the market as well.

The most important thing for me is that we continue to grow the service as well as the installation, as long as we can do that in a profitable way. So far, we, as you've seen in this quarter, we grew the service with at 11%. I think if we can continue to do that, I, of course, very happy. Regarding your question, I think the mix we're having today is something we want to continue to have. If that's something, some higher or some lower figure in percentage, that will the future show. We try to grow the service business more every day, of course. I think this is a side of the market where we actually can gain market shares as well.

Robin Nyberg
Equity Sales, Carnegie

All right. That's all from me. Thank you.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. As another reminder, to register for a question, it's zero, followed by the one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Lucas Ferhani from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Lucas Ferhani
Associate of Equity Research, Deutsche Bank

Hello, good morning. As a follow-up to the question just asked, how do you see the sales mix evolving between new build, and especially in each countries? Can you talk about the exposure of new build? Is there any country where you have larger exposure?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Do you mean regarding residentials or?

Lucas Ferhani
Associate of Equity Research, Deutsche Bank

Yeah, residential new build.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

No, we don't have those figures for each country, but what we know is that the renovation of residentials grow, is, yeah, is growing, and that goes up. The new build is quite stable on low levels because I think we have said earlier that we have around 17% in total, connected to residentials, all in all, and 10% units of those 17 has been new build, and this is very stable. But what we can see is that the renovation side goes up. In our case, in Bravida, it's very often on the countryside, we are building residentials. Only 1% is connected to Stockholm and Oslo.

I think, those type of residentials, they are not building on speculation because they are building those because there is demand in a small city in Norway or Sweden or Denmark. This is not connected to the same issue as you probably is asking for.

Lucas Ferhani
Associate of Equity Research, Deutsche Bank

Okay, thanks. Also follow up on the margins in Norway. Given you still expect to have some of the projects inherited from Oras, does that mean that the margin should also see some dilution Q4 and Q1 next year before getting to more of a run rate?

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Yeah, yeah. As I said earlier, that if you look for the underlying margin in Bravida, old Bravida, excluding Oras, we were on 7.1%, then we report 5.6%. There is a dilution coming from Oras. That's what we also expect in Q4 and to some extent, also in Q1.

Lucas Ferhani
Associate of Equity Research, Deutsche Bank

Q2, we should no longer see that and go more to an run rate of what is now, in, except, if another acquisition comes in, I mean?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

normally, this was a turnaround case. If you look for more or less all the other one, it's not really turnaround. It's many of the acquisition have a really good, healthy margin. It's, if looking for Oras, we expect that will be dilution in Q4 and Q1. The plan, what if you look into the product today, it looks like we are, we will be in the final production phase in Q1.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Yeah, I said that I think we have a positive margin development in the Oras today, it's definitely going in the right way. If you compare to the old Norway, of course, we will have dilution. It takes a couple of years or more than a couple of years before we are at the same level as the old Bravida Norway were. You need to remember that this was the best division in the whole group. If you compare last year, including Oras, of course, we have another margin to compare to, of course.

Lucas Ferhani
Associate of Equity Research, Deutsche Bank

Okay, thanks. My last question would be on the currency. The Swedish krona has been down this year. Can you talk a bit more about the impact on your overall business and especially on the cost base? In particular, the growth margin has been slightly down versus historically being stable around 15%. Can you tell us a bit more about why we see that margin going slightly down?

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

If we start with the question around the currency. As we said, if you look on the currency impact on the top line, we talked about the 3%. Of course, there is a small positive impact on the EBITDA as well. You see that the gross margin have come down, and I think we see that we're now growing in. There is some exchange because Oras have a different model how to reporting costs. You also see a different situation in Finland. Overall, if you look for the larger market like Sweden and Norway, excluding Oras, they're more or less on the same level as earlier.

Lucas Ferhani
Associate of Equity Research, Deutsche Bank

Okay, thanks. That's all for me.

Operator

Thank you. There appear to be no further questions. I'll return the conference back to you.

Mattias Johansson
CEO and Group President, Bravida

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you all for listening, and, yeah, see you soon. We probably will meet some of you in the coming days as well. Have a nice day. Thank you very much from us. Thanks.

Nils-Johan Andersson
CFO, Bravida

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you very much for attending. You may now disconnect your line.

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