Welcome to the Ferronordic Q1 presentation for 2023. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing star five on their telephone keypad. I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Lars Corneliusson, and CFO, Erik Danemar. Please begin your meeting.
Yes. Good morning, everybody. This is Lars Corneliusson here. Welcome to this presentation of Ferronordic first quarter of 2023. If we go to slide number two, we believe that we have reached a milestone in Germany, with posting a positive operating result in the quarter for the first time since we started operations in 2020.
Overall group, we had a 39% revenue growth and strong performance in both CIS and in Germany. We had an improvement in the operating result to SEK -14 and operating margin to -2.2%. We continue to explore, obviously, new growth opportunities for us. In Germany, revenue increased 30% to SEK 548 million.
We had strong growth in aftermarket sales. We had good growth in truck sales as well, but it's very pleasant to see that our aftermarket sales is growing very nicely. Again, we had an operating result of SEK 5 million with a margin then of 0.8%.
In CIS, the revenue actually more than doubled to 138%, also mainly driven by new and used equipment sales. We had an operating profit of SEK 7 million and an operating margin of 8.7%. Overall, 39% revenue growth, 42% operating profit growth, -2.2% operating profit, and an EPS increase of 122%.
If we then move to slide number three, again, we as you might remember, after a long, time-consuming and burdensome process, we sold our operations in Russia in the end of Q4 2022. That meant that we, during the quarter, actually could focus on Germany and Kazakhstan fully and obviously on our new direct growth opportunities that we foresee.
We want to use most of the money we received for selling Russia to expand into new markets. Again, we had a positive operating profit in Germany, and we see that as a result of our strategy to grow our network. When we took over in January 2020, we took over nine workshops from Volvo then, loss-making workshops. We have increased that.
We have invested and expanded our network to now we have 21 workshops in our territory. We have invested a lot in the organization in creating better processes and most of all creating a performance culture within the company.
Obviously this has also then led to an increase in our market share for new truck sales and aftermarket business in our sales area. In February, we started operations in the new workshop in Peine. We see now that we're starting to see the results of the investments and the changes we've made.
Obviously this is a first step on being positive, but it's been a very important step for us and of course we want to continue to move these numbers up, and we see a potential for doing so. We continue to work with our partners and customers to promote electric trucks and offer sustainable transport solutions. As I said, in Kazakhstan, we had new and used machine sales, which doubled compared to the same period last year.
We continue to work on reorganizing our network in Kazakhstan to further increase customer focus. We're also exploring the potential for contracting services projects in Kazakhstan. Quickly on the numbers. Again, group revenue up 39% to SEK 631 million. Operating profits from -SEK 25 to -SEK 14 million.
We have a strong balance sheet. We have a 59% equity to total assets, and we have a net cash position of EUR 681 million, sorry, or two times EBITDA. Obviously, we feel that we have opportunities to grow and expand to other territories, and we're actively looking for opportunities to do so. A bit more on the Germany highlights on slide number five.
The German market actually increased by 19%. Supply improved slightly and that led to an increase. Rigids declined by 11% while tractors grew by 24%. To be honest, I think rigids is also increased. It should probably be increased there by 11%. Sorry about that.
Clearly there are concerns about the economy, how it's going to look like going forward. Despite this, the market remains firm. The Ifo Business Climate Index continues to higher in the quarter. In our area, the increase was less.
It was 10%, and the area then represented 17% of the total market. Our new truck sales increased by 8% to 144. In percentage of sales, equipment sales increased by 31%, and aftermarket sales increased by 33%. Combination of organic growth of 16% and acquisitions of 17%.
Again, investments and the work we're doing to improve our processes and customer focus throughout our network is continuing to give good results in terms of growth. That then led to a gross margin which increased to 12.3%. On slide six, we talk a little about the CIS operational highlights, where we see that the Kazakh market is supported by Kazakhstan's growing role as a regional hub.
Strong commodity prices and big infrastructure projects that are being implemented or being planned to be implemented. Strangely enough, in Q1, the market actually declined by 35%, which however was mainly driven by wheel loaders, smaller wheel loaders, which is a segment where Chinese are dominating.
In the market for heavier equipment, where we are mainly involved, like excavators, for instance, that market increased and we actually increased our sales by 92% to 23 units. We're still talking fairly small numbers here, but in percentage it was almost a doubling.
Our used equipment sales grew by 140% in units. Overall equipment sales increased by 173%, and aftermarket sales increased by 51%. We also see good growth in the aftermarket, which is of course very, very good to see. Gross margin then increased to 20.4% from 18.6%. A good growth numbers in Kazakhstan as well.
A bit on the business development, as I said, we launched operations in our new workshops in Peine. We had a very nice opening ceremony with partners and customers at our newly built greenfield service and sales hub in Hanover. Obviously we continue to work to promote electric trucks and develop sustainable transport solutions, and we set up parts warehouse and service organization for Sandvik.
In Kazakhstan, we reorganized our workshops into three regions with clear customer responsibility and clear result responsibility. Also here we are starting up and working hard to get the Sandvik business growing. We have a workshop in Astana now with focus on road construction, and as I said, we're exploring contracting services opportunities in Kazakhstan.
For the group, as I mentioned now many times, we have a strong balance sheet. We feel that we can actively look for new markets and business opportunities, and we are doing so. On slide nine, we have a map of the German network expansion.
As I said, we started by taking over nine workshops from Volvo, and now there are 21 throughout our network, with the latest addition in Peine, which opened in February 2023. On slide nine, we can see a map of the Kazakh network where we now have seven outlets covering the country.
I think so far this is a strategically important outlets and I think for the time being this looks good. We are looking at growing obviously, but mainly growing then where our customers are on sites and in mines, for instance, and so on and so forth. With that, I hand over to Erik for slide 10.
Thank you, Lars. I, as usual, start with a bit of macroeconomic overview. Economic context we operated in the quarter. Starting with our biggest market now, Germany. After a 1.8% GDP growth in the previous year, in 2022, we had a more modest growth in the first quarter, almost flat, 0.20% growth.
Obviously, an important indicator of the transport industry and the area where we operate. Looking for, again, modest growth, through this year, 0.1%, and stronger growth, again in 2024. Inflation rate remains high in Germany. We had 7.9% in 2022, and we saw 7.2% still in April.
High energy prices, metrics in January were up almost a quarter, 24.4%. As you're all aware, ECB has responded accordingly, raised rates. That does affect economic conditions in our industry as well, of course. Cost of capital and funding has gone up. If we look at Kazakhstan, stronger growth at 3.3% in the previous year. Looking at this year, consensus forecasts are around 4.3% and even closer to 5% in 2025. A resource economy to a large extent, so exposed to fluctuations in commodity prices, that's where what's expected.
Also strong infrastructure investments in Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan taking on some roles of becoming a regional hub supporting the overall growth there. Inflation rate high at 20%, 17% in April, and the central bank rate at just below 17%, 16.75% there.
High levels of local funding, interest rates in Kazakh tenges that is. If we go forward one slide and look at our income statement on slide 11, you will hopefully recognize this slide. What we show here, your first three columns from the left has the comparative period Q1 2022, and then the next three columns show this period that we're reporting for now, Q1 2023.
Encouraging, I would say that we can see improvement on every metric here. Lars mentioned the market and the growth in units that we have. Low base in Kazakhstan, but growing very quickly. Doubling growth in Germany. We had, as you may recall, very strong growth in fourth quarter, still up here 8% versus the same period last year, but not at that same pace.
It is still a movement that is partly supply driven. We've had supply constraints through the two previous years. We see some relief to those constraints, and that drives the overall market versus our growth to some extent there. Revenue up strongly in both markets, almost 40% overall. Gross profit also higher.
We have a higher share of aftermarket given that we've had healthy growth in both our segments and that's a big factor to driving the higher gross profit margin, as you can see. For the group in Q1 2023, 13.4% versus 11.7% last year, and also in the respective segments, higher margins there.
Operating profit up in both markets and again, very satisfying to see that we are now in positive territory in Germany. As we mentioned in our report, there are macroeconomic uncertainties, but we do expect to hold on to this and post a positive operating result in 2023 as a whole.
Looking to some of the bullets on the right, Germany is now 87% of revenue. Revenue mix, similar to what we've posted before, 70% equipment and trucks, about 25% of aftermarket and then 4% other. In that other, mind you, mostly rental in Germany.
That aftermarket number is higher than it was in the same period last year, driven by growth in both operating segments, and that again has an impact on the gross margin given that margins in aftermarket are higher. You can see that again, up. Looking at SG&A as a percent of revenue, 15.7%, 4.1 of that is group costs. Germany we're at 11.8, CIS at 9.9.
We want to be below 10%. We have been, obviously with the changes in group structure, we've gone above. Again, long term, we want to make sure that we keep that cost profile below 10% on SG&A. Operating margin increased, minus 2.2%, and yeah, minus SEK 14 operating profit for the group as a whole.
Worth noting, looking at the net income, which was positive, that there is a big FX gain effect there. That is driven by the EUR assets we have, and mainly now the cash position, which we keep mainly in EUR to some extent in USD and a smaller share in SEK.
That had a positive currency effect in the quarter. If we move one slide forward to number 11. It is a slide that we've included from our quarterly report. The point of including that here is just to show how we show our operating performance in our respective reporting segments.
You will see here for Q1 23 and the comparative period for each segment, and also for the unallocated group costs, as we call them. That's why we include this slide here, important to show notably for Germany, if you would look at our Q1 report last year, you would see minus 10. In this year, you will see it as minus three, and that's because we don't allocate the group costs now.
We put them separately so it's clear what is for the benefit of the group as a whole. That you compare like for like also the five positive that we had this year against the then seven negative that we had last year. Group costs are what is weighing on the overall results. We did disclose them also in Q4.
There are resources that we have reorganized in the group to keep our capacity for the group as a whole and our potential to manage new markets and new products to some extent. As we've stated explicitly, that is one of our strategic objectives with the proceeds that we got from our sales from our sale of the Russian business to invest that in new market opportunities.
For that, we will need the organizational resources that we built up when we were a larger group. There were some transitional costs in Q1 as well, but we haven't separated them because again, we do have higher costs. Most of these are labor. There are some IT systems as well. Again, this is to support a bigger geographical fit and also resources for product expansion.
Lars mentioned we are looking at contracting services opportunities, and we are investing in the future in terms of electric and sustainable transport as well. If we move on further to slide number 13. What we can see here is just showing the trend of performance in Germany.
Since Q2 last year, we had a positive trend. Again, we will see what the overall economy does in Germany, but we are optimistic on having found and captured a bigger share of the aftermarket and also of new truck sales as we endeavored when we went into Germany. Happy about the results we're achieving and that we're having a better balance in our earnings and income statement there.
If we look at the similar slide, the next one, please, for Kazakhstan. Next slide, please. You will see a similar trend, but from a positive level with also a higher and more healthy margin level there in Kazakhstan. Again, a low base, but we see good potential for Kazakhstan to grow even further.
If we move on to the next slide, please, looking briefly at the balance sheet. What you will see here if we start on PPE level, remind listeners or viewers here that on the balance sheet, we had the Russian assets when you look at the comparative period for last year.
That's obviously the big explanatory factor in terms of PPE decline versus Q1 2022. If we look more recent developments versus Q4, we do have growth in net working capital in both our operating segments in Kazakhstan from -3% to 17%, building up some of the inventories that we think we need for the opportunities that we believe we can capture in Kazakhstan.
Similarly in Germany also, higher working capital there, partly driven by the extra work that is done on trucks in terms of superstructures. That affects the net debt or rather net cash position that we have as a group, again, as Lars mentioned, SEK 681 million.
Still a very strong balance sheet and partly due to the translation effect on the balance sheet, a stronger actually equity to assets ratio than we had at the end of the year at 59%. With that, I believe I pass the word back to Lars. Or actually, sorry, one more slide on me. One more slide, please, if we move forward.
We kept this NAV slide again, to show that we have a lower net cash position, but much of that has gone into inventory and partly PPE as well, lesser extent trade and receivables. Assets that we believe we will monetize in the future, of course, and that is to capitalize on future opportunities, and that our NAV indeed is actually stronger. With that then, I pass over to Lars. Thank you.
Thank you. We're now on slide 16 and a bit on the outlook. In Germany, we've continued to see strong demand for both service and trucks despite the concerns that are out there about the weaker economy. All the supply has slightly improved.
It continues to limit market growth. Obviously, our sales area is in the absolute heart of Europe's transport business and benefits from commercial activity across the industries. We also see a growing interest in electric trucks, and we're investing into that. Because to develop this market is clearly a strategic priority for us. Our operations in Kazakhstan, they continue to develop and we actively seek opportunities there to grow our product and business portfolio.
As I said, as Kazakhstan is growing its role as a regional hub, it contributes to the demand for construction equipment, and so does infrastructure products and projects, and clearly, strong commodity prices, obviously. In a longer perspective, we believe that the underlying conditions and business opportunities both in the German and Kazakh markets are strong. Meanwhile, we are also continuing to analyze new opportunities outside our current markets. By that, I will hand over for questions and answers, please.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Victor Hansen from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Hi, Lars and Erik. A couple of questions from my side. First one here. You had a large working capital build up in the quarter. It's now at 23% of sales. Do you expect to release some of this working capital in the short term, or is it more likely that this ratio declines over time by you growing your sales?
Maybe I'll start at least. I think, I mean, some of it is part of growth that we're seeing, where we were growing strongly in both our markets, and that leads to us tying up more working capital, both on the receivable side from the sales that we've done, but also in terms of inventory to capture future opportunities.
I think there are some transitory effects, hard to read how transitory they are. Some of them are related, in Germany, if we over a certain period have more additional work-ons on the trucks that we sell in terms, for example, of superstructures, then that would typically also lead to higher working capital. That's not a bad thing for us.
That comes with some additional margins, and so a good thing, but it costs us in terms of funding costs, of course, especially in a higher interest environment. That's something that we, of course, factor in. Again, Victor, seeing that from quarter to quarter can be hard, I think, in terms of visibility and nothing that we offer guidance on.
I think the work that we're doing on electric, the subsidy process is very important. As we've said before, there is a lot of potential in that, with the German government covering some 80% of the difference in pricing between conventional diesel and electric. It's not fully transparent or well-oiled, so it takes some time to process this.
This also leads to some holding of inventory longer than we might have chosen optimally. That is probably effect that would work through time, Victor. I wouldn't expect that to maybe disappear quarter on quarter, but over time, that mechanism should kick in and work more efficiently, I would assume.
Yeah, that's great. Good answer. Next question. Erik, you mentioned that you wanted an SG&A below 10% of sales in the long term. I'm wondering here, are you working to reduce perhaps mainly admin costs in the business areas or, and at a group level, or will your main focus be to grow into current cost levels, so to say?
Thank you, Victor. Important question. I think, I mean, on the one hand, as a rule, we always work to optimize costs, to make sure that, you know, every cost has a return on it, that it's optimized. I think it's fair to say also that again, the way we state our strategy of wanting to use the resources again, or the proceeds we got from the sale of Russia to open up new markets, that the main aim and the reason why we have these overheads now, which are quite frankly, big for the current operations we have, is that we want to take on new markets and products to some extent.
We have ambitions to expand geographically that will demand an organization more similar to you know, what we had when we had Russia as well. Even if the size is not the size of Russia necessarily, but we will see what opportunities come up. In addition to that, CS, contracting services, we see potential mainly in Kazakhstan at the moment.
Again, I mentioned electric. That's also an area that we see, so to say, separate potential for expanding that as a business area. Long answer to your question, but the answer is that we probably see significantly more reason to expand revenue, and that way bring down the percentage than to optimize costs given the ambitions of growth that we have.
Yeah. Yep, understood. Finally here, you touched upon it also, and you wrote in the report that you are exploring contracting services in Kazakhstan, and I was hoping that you could share any more details here. Perhaps would you say that you are close to getting a deal maybe already this year? Who knows? Can you say anything?
I don't think we can give any details on that. We're working on it. As you know from our previous experience in Russia, it's not a quick fix. It takes time and efforts to make these projects happening. We're working with the resources, part of the resources that Erik was talking about to make that happen. That's probably what we can say.
Yeah.
Yeah, fair enough. Thank you for your answers.
The next question comes from Adrian Gilani from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Hi, it's Adrian here at ABG. I just wanted to follow up a bit on the group costs that you discussed a bit. We've had two quarters now where you sort of separate these group costs from the operating segments. They varied a lot between Q4, I believe you had SEK 14 million, and now in Q1 it was SEK 26 million. Can you give us some sort of guidance on the run rate going forward just for the group level costs alone?
First, I think if you go back to Q4, you're probably low there. Because there it's shown on the segments as well, so you need to add those up, Adrian. You will get to somewhere around 18, I think there. There is an increase. As I said, I mean, on the one hand, we've looked at the group resources in the whole of us for the group, what we had in Russia, and now have moved to other parts of the group, Kazakhstan or Stockholm or Germany, on the one hand, and then also looked at what we need for the future. Thirdly, I would say, Adrian, as well, I mentioned there's probably some transitional costs driven by the very substantial transformation that we've gone through. I probably wouldn't overstate that.
I think maybe in Q1, again, some costs that are more transitional, but I think Q1 is probably more indicative of the overhead organization that we have for looking going forward. Again, it is as discussed in the previous question, something on the one that we're working to optimize of course, but on the other hand, built for the capacity that we think we need for the opportunity that we're pursuing.
Okay. Given that answer, is it possible for you to reach the 10% of sales SG&A target or ambition with just the German and the Kazakh business? Because that would imply lowering OpEx in the segments. It feels like you need to do a larger acquisition to reach that, right?
Adrian, I would say, I mean, you know, we're cautious on giving guidance. While, you know, we're hoping to see very strong revenue growth in both those segments, I think from what I said previously, it is implied that getting down to below 10% it involves expanding our business to new markets and new products.
Okay. That's clear. One final question from my end. Regarding the expansion of the workshop network in Germany, this is something you've talked about for a long time, obviously. How, how close or far away are we to what you would consider to be a good coverage? Can you give us a rough figure on how many workshops you would need to be satisfied?
I don't think we should give numbers, but we have done the bulk of the investments have been done and there might be more coming, but not in the sizes that we have seen so far. I mean, we have a fairly good coverage now. There are some white spots that might need to be covered, but not in the pace that we've done before.
Okay, perfect. In that case, that was all for me, so thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you very much. I have some questions coming online. One question, I won't give the name given that the person hasn't volunteered that. Relating to the working capital in Germany. I think we have addressed that one. Another question, with regards to the expansion in Germany, it touches on Adrian's last question. Question goes, you've now reached profitability in Germany, do you need to invest in new workshops, M&A initiatives?
I think here we don't give any precise guidance, but I think it's fair to say that we have now reached a network that we're happy with, and probably the, at least initially, expansion phase is done, and it's more a question of optimizing and maybe plugging some of the holes in the network that we have.
That's probably what we could say on that. There is a question on our stock trading at discount to NAV, and if we considered buying back shares. I mean, this is something for the board to take a position on. There are always, I think, discussions on how we deploy or allocate capital most effectively.
We have a policy on how we distribute or share profits with shareholders. There we have relied mainly on dividends to allow shareholders to make their own decisions on how to use that capital and also to preserve liquidity in the. I think that's probably what we had online here.
This now concludes the call. This call is being recorded.
It seems our connection was interrupted there. We apologize for that. But I do hope you heard our answers, and you can always turn to us directly as well if there are follow-up questions. I understand from the host of the conference that there are no more questions at this point. Me and Lars thank you very much for your attention and interest in Ferronordic. Thank you very much.
Thank you.