Good morning or good afternoon all. Welcome to the Fagerhult Group Q1 interim report. My name is Adam. I'll be your operator today. If you'd like to ask a question during the Q&A portion of today's call, you may do so by pressing star one on your telephone keypad if you've joined us via the phone or the instructions provided if you've joined us via the webcast. I will now hand the floor over to Michae Brüer to begin. Michael, please go ahead when you are ready.
Thank you, Adam. Hello everyone, and welcome to the presentation of Fagerhult Group's results for the first quarter of 2023. My name is Michael Brüer, responsible for strategy and communications here at Fagerhult Group. I will be the moderator here today. On the call today, we have our President and CEO, Bodil Sonesson, and our CFO, Michael Wood. The presentation will start with Bodil giving us a brief update of our results for the first quarter. Bodil will then continue to update us on the business and some examples from successful group collaboration projects. Michael will continue with more details about the performance of the group. Bodil will conclude with a brief recap. Afterwards we will open up for questions. We will first allow questions from the conference call. Then we will allow for questions from the webcast.
You can post questions in the chat window on your screen, I will read them up for you for Bodil and Michael. Before we start, let me also remind you that today's session is recorded and will be available on our website later today. With that, I hand over to you, Bodil. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you, Michael, and welcome everyone to this Q1 2023 webcast. We are very happy to share that the strong performance from 2022 continued into 2023, where for Q1, again, as a group, we delivered great results. Our Q1 performance was strong, with organic 14.3% sales growth, delivering a 41% increase in profitability and an operating margin of 11%. Order intake at close to SEK 2.2 billion was strong, especially for a first quarter, and the rolling twelve months remains at over SEK 8 billion, and we have a healthy order backlog. The development of the financial performance is in line with expectations and the strategic focus areas of sustainability, innovation, and people and culture now form a greater share of the focus, and we begin to see the benefits impacting the results.
Externally, some markets remain uncertain, but there are many opportunities to overcome these uncertainties. A strong trend in sales of sustainable solutions for the rapidly growing renovation opportunity, as well as the EU regulation that ban fluorescent lighting starting in September this year. This means that we, in the coming years, will have a high demand in the market for upgrading and replacing luminaires. Let's have a look at the detailed numbers for the quarter. We have a reduction in organic order intake in Q1 with -4.3% to SEK 2.179 billion. It's important to say that the Q1 2022 showed a strong 14% organic growth as a comparative number. At the first half year, 2022, the supply chain challenges were peaking, and therefore customers placed orders early to reserve components.
The growth in organic net sales was a strong 14.3%. In numbers, we achieved SEK 2 billion 224 million. In EBIT, we delivered SEK 244 million with an 11% EBIT margin. This is the highest Q1 operating margin for several years. The SEK 244 million represented a growth of 41% in operating profit compared to the first quarter last year. Earnings per share was SEK 0.90. As always, you know in our quarter reporting we want to give you a flavor of our focus areas.
This time we will get back to two different areas of focus, one being sustainable innovations, where I will present two of the new solutions from this quarter, one from Fagerhult Belysning and one from iGuzzini, both launched in the quarter. Secondly, I'd like to present some more projects in the market, they represent different applications area and show the width of our competence, and even more importantly, they show that more and more we cooperate between the different brands in the market to be able to offer lighting solutions for every customer need. This was one of the fundamental ideas behind the business area organization, more cooperation to create growth opportunities. As you know, we have a global presence with our twelve lighting brands. And two smart lighting brands.
We cover almost all professional lighting markets with sales into 10 different professional customer segments or application areas, as we call them, in everything from office, critical infrastructure, urban spaces, hospitality, culture, et cetera. A few words around new legislation in the EU that has happened in Q1. We know that in order to reach the Paris climate goal, we need to renovate our buildings extensively for many years to come. EU is now taking the next step from a legislation perspective. The EU's renovation and energy performance legislation, which aims to decarbonize the EU's building stock by 2050 passed in the European Parliament meeting on March 14th. The EU's goal is to at least double the annual energy renovation rate of buildings by 2030, starting with 15% with lowest energy rating being G.
The EU aims to standardize energy classification in Europe and to introduce modernization requirements for existing buildings. With the new energy grades, the EU wants to ban letting financing, et cetera, of properties with the lowest energy class in G by 2032 for non-residential buildings. We know that 15% of buildings' energy consumption is related to lighting. With the latest smart lighting technology, we can generate energy savings up to 90%. As we know, 75%-80% of current buildings in Europe and U.K. are energy inefficient, and those buildings will still be there in 2050. Currently, only about 1% of buildings undergo energy efficient renovation each year. That means that we need to retrofit between 3%-3.5% of existing buildings per year if the net zero target is to be met.
The new legislation would help a little bit with that, at least to double existing rates, a step in the right direction. Let's move to innovation and the 2 special new innovative solutions we want to present here today. A leading example of world-class sustainable innovation was launched in a quarter by the brand Fagerhult. It's called Kvisten. Kvisten, which translates to a small wooden branch in English, referring to, as you can see, a wooden house lumina. The reflectors are made from old recycled television sets, and the total consists of 77% recycled materials, which results in one of the most sustainable luminas on the market. In this development, Fagerhult has challenged themselves in every detail, method and material with the perception that they achieve more from a sustainable and lighting quality perspective.
For example, the end caps are attached to the lumina without using any screws or other attachments. This means less material, but also that it can easily be disassembled and recycled. A circular thinking from the beginning. The second innovation is the very elegant-looking B.Two. It's a pendant, a service mount lumina from iGuzzini, and it's developed for hospitality, retail and office application. It promotes well-being and efficiency, and at 155 lumens per watt ensures a very responsible use of energy. The system is suspended in an extremely delicate way. In addition to being installed quickly and individually, these luminas come in many different sizes and different heights, so number of variations becomes almost endless. It's like a game where you can use different colors, sizes and heights.
Two very nice innovation in the quarter that we wanted to share with you out of the launch products. Let me move on to the next one, which is projects with many of our brands involved. The first one, it's a building called Platinan in Gothenburg, and it's a new landmark building with offices, hotels and meeting places developed by the real estate company Vasakronan. With its unique architecture, Platinan is special in many ways, both in size and construction, and the focus on sustainability and light environment. As much as 99% of the building's lighting comes from the Fagerhult Group. That is thanks to our width within the group, where we were able to offer the customer the right light in the right place for pretty much every function in the building.
Each brand has contributed with what they do best. Fagerhult's been responsible for overall delivery of the general lighting. They has been doing the exterior environments, and LED Linear is doing power-enhancing light, both interior and exterior. iGuzzini has supplied the lighting for the restaurants, and ateljé Lyktan has done the interior design solutions for the office environment. You can see a very big width of different solutions from the group. If we look at the next example. We all know about the dramatic increase in energy cost, and this international retailer decided to change its lighting scheme and adopt a more ambient lighting feel. iGuzzini has been the main lighting partner for over 20 years. In this new concept, they could not meet all the presents.
All the specific needs for all the products as the retailer wanted to add a linear solution. They were considering other group brands in the portfolio, and they found a very good match in linear solutions from VEKO and developed a new lighting solution. The project was done in close collaboration with VEKO, and before final sign-off, the customer also went to the VEKO factory outside Amsterdam. Besides VEKO, iGuzzini also involved Whitecroft Lighting to the office and warehouse areas. As mentioned earlier, the lead upgrade is a big market opportunity for the group. For this retailer, there is an upgrade needed in many stores all over the world. iGuzzini is now working closely with VEKO and Whitecroft Lighting to develop a complete offer together.
The last project I want to mention today is a newly built primary school in Fjelltun, outside of Stavanger in Norway. It's an excellent example of how brands can collaborate and create a customized lighting solution. Classrooms are equipped with luminaires from Fagerhult. Offices and meeting rooms have pendant luminaires from ateljé Lyktan. Ceilings were equipped with luminaires from Fagerhult and Linea to provide decorative lighting of the ceiling. Organic Response was chosen as the smart lighting solution for the entire installation. All the luminaires have sensors that control lighting and other functions in the building. The solution was actually used beyond lighting, as the school had challenges with kids that did not close the water tap in the restrooms. The solution was to equip the restroom with magnetic water seals, which are controlled through data from the Organic Response sensor.
This means that the water only works when someone's presence is detected and light is on. The solution is minimizing the risk for vandalism and water damage. That was the last project, and with that, I hand over to Michael and a thorough financial update.
Good morning. Good morning, everybody. I'm Michael Wood, Fagerhult Group, CFO. As Bodil has already mentioned, the results for the first quarter were very good. The performance of the group's businesses has picked up exactly where they left off from the end of 2022. Some might even say even in a stronger position because it is the first quarter of the year. Overall sales growth was again significant at almost 19%, with an organic element in there of 14.3%. The SEK 2.224 billion was a high for a Q1. This continued quarter after quarter strong messaging indicates that the strategic agenda is being delivered on, and that hopefully all observers and commentators begin to understand our agenda. The confidence for the group continues to grow.
As stated last time, we see that market activity remains geographically mixed, with many countries delivering continued great results. Any uncertainties are overcome by the many opportunities. We see many opportunities on the market, especially arising from the renovation and retrofit activities, as well as the support we provide to our customers in reducing energy costs and helping them to reduce their carbon footprint. Our highest priority remains to serve our customers very well and at each and every individual touch point where we engage. Gross profit margins continue to develop well in most businesses, and overall, there is further work yielding further benefits here in the next few quarters. The operating profit of SEK 244 million delivers a strong 11% operating margin, and as Bodil has already mentioned, this is the highest operating margin since long before the COVID years.
Earnings per share at SEK 0.9 per share increased 32% compared with the SEK 0.68 from 2022. As said last time when we met, we can expect improved cash flow results and a positive SEK 206 million compares very well with a negative SEK 68 from last year. Let's take a look at the rolling sales development. The development in rolling twelve months sales continues on a strong trend. This has continued to develop well with the rolling twelve months net sales now at just over SEK 8.6 billion. Our ambitions, of course, remain to further develop this in the coming years, both organically and through M&A. Looking at the margins, what I referred to earlier, we're presenting the first quarter slide, can be seen more clearly here.
Subject to seasonal fluctuations, of course, the operating margin has increased steadily since the second half of 2020, and the 2023 Q1 margin is the highest shown for the comparative data on the slide. You should remember that the current scale and dynamics of the group is only since early 2019, since the significant iGuzzini entity joined the group, and the recent development of the operating margin that you can see clearly on the slide is across all businesses. For larger scale producers serving the industry, our unadjusted operating margins remain healthy compared to what we see on the market. Okay, let's have a little bit of a drop into each of the business areas, a little bit of a deeper dive. Firstly, just a quick comment and observation.
In this and the following three business area slides, we choose to show only the data since the start of the recovery from the COVID period. This is so you can focus on recent developments and don't get a little bit misled or confused by some of the ups and downs through the COVID, through the COVID times. We think it presents a clearer perspective of the work that we have been doing. Similar to last year, I repeat the obvious statement when looking at the margin development in Collection, and that is the increase in delivery with much improved consistency. For the first quarter, the business area has made a strong start with good growth and profitability.
Order intake has been a bit weaker, Bodil has already explained this as the comment regarding supply chain challenges, customers placing orders early was seen particularly in Collection. To counter this, the inquiry tendering and quotation activity, i.e., the medium to longer term activity, has been strong during the last two to three months. We will continue the journey to develop the operating margin for the whole business area. There are many ongoing projects in this regard. Bodil has taken you through a key project for the group, and that is the project of collaboration with multiple brands where we are seeing good success and project wins. This is a unique ability that exists within the Fagerhult Group due to its brand strategy. Let's go to Premium.
The Premium business area continues to deliver exceptional levels of profitability, and you can see clearly it is our strongest profit engine. The first quarter delivered very strong sales growth, almost 25%, and the operating margin of 14.9 for a first quarter is exceptional. We see further growth. We see further growth and improvement here coming from innovative product development. Kvisten was one example that you were shown earlier on, as well as a clear focus on three or four application areas. Also as a reminder, the business area funds the growing investments that we make in our technology solution with Organic Response. Moving to Professional. Generally, for business area Professional, we see improved stability and predictability.
Order intake growth, especially in the U.K., has been very strong at the start of the year, we see this turning into good sales growth during the next 2-3 quarters. Gross margins are making good progress and development in the right direction in both Australia and the U.K. Due to some immediate government legislation in Turkey affecting social costs and pension provision, the business area operating profit and margin for the quarter was below expectations. Without this element of the cost, the positive development that we saw last quarter would have continued in a similar trajectory. It is disappointing that such legislation catches us unawares, it comes to us quickly. We've dealt with it in the first quarter for 2023, so that should not capture us again. Infrastructure.
In business area Infrastructure, once again, we report strong growth in sales and profitability. The charts are all pointing in the right direction, this comes from all three businesses where the key message has been and remains focused. Order intake growth also continues to be strong, you can see in the current and previous reports the securing of some very important projects. Many have been in collaboration with other group brands, not just within Infrastructure, but from other business areas. Our focused approach for transport, distribution centers, harsh and secure environments provides much success, we look forward to continuing this journey. Cash flow. The operating cash flow for the quarter was positive, just over SEK 200 million, compared to negative SEK 68 million from last year.
Due to the natural effect of the sales growth has on accounts receivables, these remain high but under control, and we see no signs of increased losses. Disappointingly, however, inventory levels recorded a slight increase in the quarter, which contradicted our comments in the last webcast that we took, and also contradicted the trend that we saw from the summer of 2020 through to all the way through to the end of December last year. Our opinion stated in the last webcast regarding inventory re-reductions remain, and we will increase the focus here in the spring and summer. Net debt development. First of all, a reminder that EBITDA used in these charts is adjusted for acquisitions and/or disposals.
Including the impact of IFRS 16 accounting, we report a closing net debt of SEK 2.9 billion, just under, and a net debt/EBITDA ratio of 2.18. You can see the gray line there, a further reduction from the previous quarter. Here we expect further reductions in the next few months as the working capital will continue to fall whilst profitability remains, subject of course to the dividend payment that was approved yesterday evening at the AGM. We aimed last year for an earnings per share above SEK 3. We were aiming at that all the way through the year, and the delivery finally closed out for 2022 at 3.27.
For the first quarter, the earnings per share was 0.9 SEK per share, the rolling twelve months now approaches 3.50 SEK per share. We plan to develop this further during 2023. Finally, before handing back to Bodil for closing, before Q&A and closing, a short summary message from me. Quarterly levels of order intake at SEK 2.2 billion remain healthy. We continue to develop the growth and net margins. Internally, our unique position for collaboration grows, and externally, we respond very well with many great project wins in the rapidly growing renovation opportunity. I thank you for listening and hand back to Bodil.
Okay, let's have just a quick conclusion and recap slide. A conclusion for Q1 2023 is of course, positive. Our financial position is strong and we have been delivering in line with our expectations, both growth in net sales and strongly improved operational margin compared to last year. We're also well-positioned with regards to megatrends, we continue to see the legislation in Europe and in the U.K. focused to increase renovation with focus on energy efficiency. New legislation in E.U. from this quarter bans non-public buildings in energy class G from 2032. We continue to release innovative, sustainable lighting solution in our different brands that are very well positioned for this trend, and at the same time, focus on light quality and bringing nice designs.
These trends are also very well reflected in our order intake this quarter, where we have been winning a lot of renovation projects and see an increased demand for replacement of fluorescent lighting. For me, the three most important points that I would like to remember from this presentation are: a strong start to 2023, well-positioned for global macro trends, where the trend for renovation of buildings continue to grow, and the launch of the very nice innovative, sustainable lighting solutions well positioned for these market trends. I think with that, I will hand back. We will end the presentation and open up for questions. I will hand back to Michael.
Thank you. Thank you, Bodil. With that, we also ask Adam to open up for questions from those on the telephone line, the conference call.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you've joined us via the phone today, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypads now to ask a question. Final reminder, star 1 to ask a question today. We have a question from Mats Liss from Kepler Cheuvreux. Mats, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you. Congrats on a good quarter there. Couple of questions. First, looking at order intake for Infrastructure, it was quite good, I guess, and earnings as well. What should we expect going forward? Is this a new trend? Well, could you say something about that?
I think if you. Hi, Mats. Good morning. Thank you.
Hi.
I think if you look into the trend, you can look quite a long way back if you look into Infrastructure that we have seen a growing trend. I think that is very clear. You can always look into what is the exact percentages of that. I think if we look at the business area as such, it has strong indicators, both on order intake and net sales and our profitability. If I go back, I think it's since we started a new business area, they have been focusing on their different segments in the market where they are present. I think we see that paying off.
They also, if you take a little bit of a longer perspective, that still means that there is a lot of possibilities in other geographical markets and in other infrastructure-focused applications. I think if you take a little bit of a longer perspective, yes, we see this trend going to continue in this market. It's not a, it's not a one-off. I think it's been going on for quite some while already. We are positive with regards to infrastructure. Many opportunities.
Well, you mentioned the E.U. ban of fluorescent lighting and, how important is that ban? Is it something that will sort of, well, make the renovation trend booming here in the coming quarters?
I don't know if I would use the word booming but I think it will sort of, it will be much more of a longer perspective, because I think they're banning it. It's banned from a production standpoint, but that still means that there will be a lot of fluorescent lighting who's in distribution channels, et cetera. We saw that also when it happened the same in the, in the consumer market many years ago, in from 2008, and it took some time. Of course it will. All of these, the new E.U. legislation, the focus we need on renovation from the, from the climate perspective and the longer trend that we have no choice but we need to renovate.
Fluorescent, the ban on fluorescent is of course adding on to this, but I don't think it will be one big spike. I think you will see it consistently being part of our growth drivers for quite a long time to come. Say, having said that, I think if you look what has happened in the last few months, is that the installer market have discovered this now. We're doing a lot of trainings, for example, in explaining what's happening. Also to people to understand that if you would go in and only change the fluorescent lighting without looking at the complete luminaire solution, you would, for example, break the CE ceiling of it. There is also knowledge that we need to bring to the market. It, of course, is positive for us.
Did that answer your question?
Yeah. I guess it's trends. Looking at the order intake, it was sort of, well, as I expected anyway. Given the increased renovation part of the mix, there, should we expect more, well, in for out orders during the quarter now also that maybe, well, is not included yet. I guess the lead times are shorter. I guess I read that in the report.
Yes. The answer is yes. We see that.
A year ago, that wasn't possible with the supply chain solution, and therefore people asked. They were planning longer time ahead. We've seen the market going back to more normal parts that you see more in and outs. A little bit more short-term oriented possibilities on the delivery side than we had before. This is I think a bit different because it's also depending on our different businesses. We see that more in some business areas than in others, depending on the end customer markets we work with. The answer is yes.
Just a.
additional information, Mats. I don't know whether you just going back to one of your earlier questions on the fluorescent ban here in Europe. It's
Great. I guess, well, looking at the mix here of price and volume, I guess you have been able to adapt to cost increases. Have you done that to full extent or is still room to make adjustments? Do you need to make adjustment to handle cost increases?
Well, we have been doing adjustments during the first quarter. Certainly early on in the first quarter of 2023. Of course in project lighting, things take a little bit of time to materialize through the quotation order, invoicing cycle. I think I've mentioned in my delivery of the margin development, we can expect further development of this in the coming quarters as we move through 2023.
Great. Well, Michael, you mentioned the cash flow that you were a bit disappointed that you haven't been able to deliver on the indication made last time. You continue to see opportunities to reduce inventories. Is that right?
That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know whether there's a little bit of psychology, and I know you shouldn't talk about psychology when you're on an earnings call. You know, sometimes when you get into the new year, you return to work and you say, "Oh, let's buy some more product and put it on the shelves in our warehouses." We think that's what's gone on, which is not, which is disappointing to see. They did come down towards the end of the quarter. If I'm breaking the quarter down into months, then March was lower than January and February. That short-term blip happened. It's now beginning to come down in March, and we expect further reductions as we go through.
As Michael said, it's a focus area for us, and will continue to be for the full year.
Great. Just finally for the record, I guess looking at CapEx, you had some investing activities going on there. Is that the run rate to be expected during coming quarters as well?
Are there any larger ones to be expected?
Yeah, I think the investments will grow a little bit. We see there are investments being required for sustainability and carbon footprint reductions in many of our locations. There are some solar panels as an example for that. Painting solutions as further examples. As you've seen from Kvisten and BeTwo, we do completely encourage our businesses to continue a high level of investment in product development.
Oh, yeah. Great. Okay, great. Thanks a lot.
Thanks, Mats.
We have no further questions from the phone line. I'll hand back to the team for webcast questions.
Thank you, Adam. Here we have a question from the webcast. That during the second quarter, the group will refinance 2 billion SEK of the loan portfolio. This is approved by the board and lenders credit committees. Could you provide any intel on the terms on how they compare to the previous terms?
Okay, sure. Obviously, we can't tell you how much we're gonna be paying to borrow some money. That would be unfair. What we can say, we have good partnerships with our 2 main providers, based in Stockholm, good relationships there. We've gone for 2 straight five-year term loans. That we can say, 'cause that will become public information. 2 straight five-year term loans. What we see for the levels of those in terms of the level of interest rate, we discussed it yesterday at the board, and it is very comparable with what we see with larger organizations today, and more favorable to what we see with smaller organizations today. That probably is as much as I would like to say or can say.
Thank you. With that, there was very few questions from the webcast audience today. With that, I think we are done with questions for today. Maybe there are some last comments from you both before we end this webcast.
Yes, of course, Michael. I would like to reiterate, that it's positive to see a strong start of the year, whereas I think even more positively following on a strong Q4. A very stable and continued good financial development. I'd also like to highlight, we spoke a little about it in the questions as well, I think we see many the market for renovation and what opportunities that's bring to us. I think that is really, really nice to see. The fact that, we have been focusing so much, and continue to do it on sustainable innovations, which makes us very, very well-positioned for that. I think those are maybe the two main conclusions of today.
Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining today's conference call. We will publish our Q2 results then on July 20th. Our next webcast will follow at our Q3 report. That's on October 27th. A bit out in time. Thank you everyone for today, and have a nice day.