Welcome to the Getinge Q1 Report 2025. During the Q&A session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing #KEY5 on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO Mattias Perjos and CFO Agneta Palmér. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Welcome, everyone, to today's conference. Today, we'll focus on, first, a quick look into our performance in the Q1r, and then reflect a bit on the current market situation and our expectations for 2025. We can jump directly to page number two, please. Looking then at some of the key takeaways when it comes to the performance from the Q1r, we do look back at a solid quarter when it comes to top line. Our order intake grew by 7.1%, and it was 2.9% organic growth out of this. Our net sales increased by 10.7% in the quarter, where organic growth was 6.2%. The positive development was primarily attributed to acute care therapies and, from a geographic perspective, to the Americas.
When it comes to the adjusted gross and EBITDA margins, they improved by about one percentage point in the quarter, and this was mainly thanks to leverage from volume, acquisitions, healthy price increases, and a positive mix as well. Currency was a headwind and weighed on the EBITDA margin in the quarter. When you look at our financial leverage, it's now back on a similar level to last year, in spite of the increased net debt level after the acquisition of Pergonix, so that means our financial position remains solid. We can then move to page number three, please. I just wanted to touch briefly on some of the key activities and events during the Q1r of this year. Let's start with sustainability and quality. Securing compliant quality in our products and operations continues to be our highest priority.
I'm happy now to see that the KPIs supporting these efforts are trending positively. We can see, for example, that both findings per regulatory audit and field corrections in relation to net sales are continuing to go down year on year. We also see a positive downward trend for our CO2 footprint in scope one and two, thanks to the increased share of renewable electricity and gas. When it comes to the offering and our customers, if we start with Pergonix, they continue their healthy growth journey since the acquisition last year. The latest product launch, the KidneyVault, which is designed to protect the most in-demand organ during transportation, has been a success with positive user feedback.
Furthermore, we also have now EU MDR approval for the large majority of products, which is an important milestone in the expansion outside of the US, which is an initiative that we're kicking off this year. The intended phase-out of the product category cervical perfusion is following our plan. It impacts organic order intake and net sales negatively, but it's still expected to be accretive to margins already now in 2025. In life science, we launched our DPT Flex Alpha port, which is an important addition to our sterile transfer portfolio and an important part in serving our pharma customers in this important segment. We can then move over to page number four and our top line performance. Overall, as I said, good top line momentum, particularly strong top line performance in acute care therapies and in the Americas region.
Our order intake grew 7.1% in the quarter, where 2.9% was organic growth. Acute care therapies grew high single digit, coming mainly from ventilators in critical care and ECLS disposables within our cardiopulmonary product category. In spite of double-digit growth in sterile transfer, life science was significantly down when it comes to order intake, and this is mainly due to weak orders in the bioprocessing subsegment. Surgical workflows grew orders slightly thanks to continued strong performance in infection control. When it comes to sales, we grew 10.7% in the quarter, where 6.2% was organic growth. Acute care therapies delivered double-digit organic growth, coming from the same categories as orders, so ventilators and ECLS disposables again. Life science was down by about 2% in the quarter, in spite of growth in all product categories besides bioprocessing, where the market globally has been challenging for some time now.
Mitigating actions are ongoing to both reignite sales and also right-size costs, specifically when it comes to our bioprocessing structure. Cervical workflows were basically flat year on year. All in all, when zooming in, infection control consumables grew by almost 10%, while sales were soft in digital health solutions and in surgical workplaces. With that, we can move over to page number five, and I'll hand over to you, Agneta, briefly.
Thank you, Mattias. Once again, we see a positive impact from the leverage that we get on margins when sales volumes go up and restructuring efforts come into effect. Adjusted gross profit increased by about SEK 500,000,000 to SEK 4,337,000,000 in the quarter, primarily on the back of volume, acquisitions, continued price increases, and a favorable mix. Gross margin was up by 0.8 percentage points in total, thanks to positive contribution from Acute Care Therapies. On adjusted EBITDA margin, the positive effect from adjusted gross profit contributed by 0.3 percentage points, excluding currency effects, thanks to those factors that I just mentioned. I'm pleased to see that we continue with a good trend on OPEX, which had a 1.5 percentage point positive impact on the margin in the quarter when adjusting for currency, and this was mainly due to operating leverage.
FX had a negative impact on the margin in the quarter by minus 1.1 percentage point. All in all, this resulted in an adjusted EBITDA of SEK 1,003 million, improving our margin about one percentage point year on year to 12.1%. Let's then move to page six, please. Free cash flow decreased in the quarter to SEK 0.2 billion. Compared with last year, free cash flow was impacted by volume-driven inventory increases, lower operating liabilities, and some payments from last year's restructuring activities. There was also some unfavorable timing of accounts receivables compared to the prior year. At the end of Q1, net debt amounted to SEK 9.7 billion. If we adjust for pension liabilities, we are at SEK 7.3 billion. This brings us to a leverage of 1.4 times adjusted EBITDA, which is well below the 2.5 times which we have as an internal threshold.
If we adjust for pension liabilities, leverage is at 1.1 times adjusted EBITDA. This signals that we remain in a solid financial position, and we are actually at the same leverage as last year, even though we have made investments in strategic acquisitions since then. Cash amounted to approximately SEK 4.2 billion by the end of the quarter. All in all, we can conclude that the financial position continues to be strong. Let's then move, please, to page seven, and back to you, Mattias.
Okay, thanks, Agneta. When it comes to our strategy for profitable growth, there are some key enablers that we focus on, and part of this is about increasing the share from recurring revenue, accelerating the share of sales from high-margin products like ECLS and also Betabags in our sterile transfer product category. This all should be supported by solid and effective quality processes. These improvements should, of course, be achieved through responsible leverage and an attractive long-term return on invested capital. We clearly see that we're delivering according to our plan in this respect, as all those KPIs are trending in the right direction. You can see that sales from recurring revenue is now at 65%, and high-margin products make up about two-thirds of our sales currently.
When it comes to quality, the number of field actions in relation to sales has also decreased significantly, which is a good leading indicator for the hard work that's been going on for quite some time with this. We can move over to page eight, please. In addition to our quarterly performance, I wanted to spend some time talking about what's going on in the world right now and how we navigate this. There's certainly lots of dynamics in the market related to this geopolitical uncertainty that we're seeing now. Here are three examples of areas offering both some challenges and opportunities for us. When it comes to tariffs, the current situation with increased trade barriers and higher tariffs, we believe, is unfortunate.
We're a global company with a global footprint, which mitigates this naturally to some extent, and I'll touch that a little bit more on the coming slides. When it comes to budgets, there is a trend for more investment in defense and the civil sector, where we also hope to be able to contribute. Germany's EUR 500 billion plan is one concrete example of this. Furthermore, the ambition of the healthcare sector to become more productive is also well in line with the strength of our products and service portfolio. Specifically in the US, we have lately seen some pause in research funding impacting our life science sales to customers within this business area. On the other hand, we do note as well that several big pharma companies are preparing for US expansion, and that's something that we are well positioned to support them with.
When it comes to some of the structural changes at FDA that have been in the news, this has not yet resulted in any negative impact for us. We continue to have a constructive dialogue on a weekly basis. The way we address these dynamics is, for example, by continuing to have a close dialogue with our customers and the authorities that are stakeholders in our business. We, of course, also look into optimizing our supply chain further to ensure both availability of product but also cost-effectiveness throughout the whole supply chain. We will continue to make price adjustments if needed and where possible. This is ongoing work, something that we've been working on for many years here, and that needs to be accelerated a bit now. We will also be agile when it comes to allocation of volumes to secure profitability throughout our operations.
We can then move to page number nine, and I just wanted to share an overview of our global footprint. We are getting a geographically well-diversified production footprint. We have 25 production sites spread over nine countries. On the slide here, you can see an overview of our footprint down to product category. In the US and EU, we produce for all business areas, while the Chinese site in Suzhou supports acute care therapies and surgical workflows. Let's then move to page number 10, please. When it comes to our sales in the US, about 60% of everything that we sell in the US is also produced domestically. You can see on the slide here an overview per macro region. When translating this into sales, you get the 60% of sales in the US produced in the US that I just mentioned.
For EU and China, respectively, about 10% is produced in the US, and about 1% of sales in EU and US is coming from China. Still, a lot of uncertainty and changing dynamics related to the tariff situation, so we would not comment on any potential financial impact of this yet, but hopefully the view shared here should bring some clarity when it comes to our exposure. With that, let's move to page 11, please, and the outlook for the year. The outlook for 2025 is unchanged. We remain with our expectation for organic net sales growth to be in the range of 2 to 5% compared to last year's sales. This outlook then assumes sales contribution from the intended phased-out cervical perfusion business at about two-thirds of 2024 figures, which equates to roughly SEK 300 million.
In addition, we expect recent acquisitions to contribute with about 2% of the growth this year. We can then move to page 12, please. Just to summarize some of the key takeaways for the quarter, we've delivered a very strong performance when it comes to net sales and also with improved margins. Our leverage continues to go down, now at the same level as before the acquisition of Pergonix, and our financial position overall remains very solid. We stand by our outlook for 2025. We will be guided for organic net sale growth of 2 to 5%. When it comes to our priorities for 2025, they're also unchanged. It's about addressing the remaining challenges in Acute Care Therapies when it comes to our quality. It's about sustainable productivity improvement and cost consciousness when navigating the geopolitical uncertainty that's been with us for a while now.
It is about continuing to create value for our customers. With that summary, I open up for questions. Thank you.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Rickard Anderkrans from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my question. Two from my side, please. Quite outstanding performance in Americas for acute care therapies. It would be interesting to hear a bit more on the background there. What visibility do you have around potential stocking, both from a strong flu season but also potential pre-buying ahead of tariffs here? Given the historical supply chain volatility around, for example, ECMO consumables, is it not reasonable to assume some customer interest in sort of stocking up in a more uncertain environment? I'll start there. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks. I mean, the strong performance in the US for acute care therapies is largely attributable to ventilators and to ECLS. When it comes to ventilators, we don't think this has anything to do with stocking. This is merely the next step in this gravitation towards the remaining suppliers of ventilators that we've seen since the end of last year. That's really the main factor. That is something that we believe is going on according to expectations and to our plans, and we're in a good position to support that. I think our team has done an outstanding job when it comes to delivering ventilators, both end of last year but also during the Q1r of this year. When it comes to the ECLS consumables part, I think there is a flu effect in Q1.
Whether there's any stocking or kind of hoarding in this, we have no evidence of that at all. I can't rule it out, but we have nothing to support that.
All right, that's very clear. Second question on the margin in surgical workflows. With growth in Americas and higher sales contribution from recurring revenues in this segment, can you elaborate a little bit on the software margin development, even excluding FX? Anything we should keep in mind there, and any thoughts on how we should think about the underlying margin trend going forward in surgical workflows? It just stood out a little bit on the softer side compared to the sort of mixed development.
Yeah, thank you for that question. I can say the short answer is that if we adjust it for currency, it is very much in line with last year, and we are continuing to see good development in infection control consumables and good growth there. We have in this quarter some adverse product mix on the capital side that impacts this margin, but the major effect that you're seeing is from currency.
Okay, I'll stop there. Thank you for taking my questions.
The next question comes from Mattias Vadsten from SEB. Please go ahead.
Hello, good afternoon. I have two questions as well. Starting off on ECMO, looking like strong demand here, obviously, once again in this quarter. As I understand it, maybe Getinge is perhaps most critical to the sales development in terms of having stability in production. My question is, do you expect this to be the case also for coming quarters through 2025, or how should we look on the sales development in ECMO consumables going forward? That's the first one.
Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I mean, historically, we've been the bottleneck ourselves here, but we have added capacity, and I think the team has done a really good job now for several months with stable output and gradually working down the backlog situation that we've dealt with for a while. I think that we do expect that to continue. It is a more and more robust operation, and we certainly hope not to be the bottleneck going forward, that you'll see the real end-market demand reflected also in our order intake and sales.
Thank you for that. In terms of margin in the life science segment, obviously very strong Q4 and then weaker here in Q1, and it has been a volatile segment coming to margins. Do you think we will likely have to live with that given the difference in margin among product segments, or how should we look on the margin trajectory for life science? Is this around the bottom that we're at right now, or how do you see it? That's the second one.
Regarding margin on life science, to your point, there is a volume effect that is very strong on the margin. In Q4, when we had strong volumes, we do get very good leverage on that, and then somewhat the opposite now in the Q1r.
Thank you. Maybe squeezing one more, looking at the group EBITDA margin trajectory for the full year, I think on the last conference call, we talked about the slight margin uptick for 2025. How are you communicating around margins for the full year now in light of the uncertainties that you alluded to on Paris and FX and other drivers? That is the last one. Thank you.
I think the main point when it comes to margins is that we stand by the guidance that we gave at the Capital Markets Day when it comes to the 16 to 19% EBITDA margin span for 2028. When it comes to some of these short-term dynamics now, it's impossible to say it's too early. We need to understand that the message regarding Paris has changed on a weekly basis, and there is a time lag in how one can pass on price increases. We need to work with some of the cost and some of the supply chain flows in this as well. It's not possible to model that dynamics right now, so we can't answer anything in the short term.
Appreciate that. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Eric Cassel from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi. First, I want to ask about life science and especially bioprocessing. I mean, Danaher, they were just out with numbers and being quite upbeat about bioprocessing momentum in general. I think general comments have been quite positive from other peers as well. I wanted to ask to what extent you think this might be Getinge-specific issues, and if you could go into some more granularity on the life science issues and how, say, temporary they might be.
Yeah, it's hard to say how temporary they are. If you look at some of the weakness in life science now, it is related to the NIH funding cuts. If you look at almost the entire reduction compared to last year when it comes to ordering, they can be explained by products that have been put on hold. That is definitely a factor for us. How getting as specific that is, I don't know. It's difficult to get anything from our peer reports, I think, so far at least. That's something we'll have to continue to monitor. I think when it comes to comparison with some of our peers as well, historically, we've had a relatively large China and relatively large R&D exposure in our part of the portfolio, and there's some single customer dependencies that may be a bit more pronounced for us as well.
If I look at the broader customer base, we do have good momentum with quite a few of those customers as well. It is, I think, some getting a specific impact in the numbers for this quarter.
Okay, thank you. I realized ECMO consumables doing well this quarter, maybe stocking, maybe not, but is there any chance you can give comments on how the hardware sales of ECMO is doing in terms of market share in new system sales and sort of how it's holding up? I think that maybe gives us a good indication of the health within ECMO for you guys.
No, we can't dissect that anymore. We've singled out some of the numbers that deviate quite a bit now, and this time, it was a positive one when it comes to the ECLS consumables, but there's nothing else that stands out that we can kind of call out when it comes to hardware performance right now.
Okay, thank you. Just the last question. I know you said that you do not really want to comment on margins, but just on the pure FX impact compared to last year, where we stand at spot, can you give us any indication of what you think a potential clean FX impact would be?
You mean for the full year, or?
Yeah, for the full year.
Yeah, so I will say this. We will not speculate in currency movements. In general terms, we are favored by a stronger US dollars, but the main effect that we're seeing in Q1 is this revaluation effect. The fast movement downwards on the dollar.
All right, thank you.
The next question comes from Christopher Lilleberg from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Three questions. First, if you could just give an update on how the work is going for solving the quality issues. Then I wonder a little bit about the demand situation for surgical workflows. That seems to be more flattish here in the quarter. Finally, given the working capital build-up in the quarter, could you say anything about the outlook for working capital for the full year and how we should think about that? Thank you.
Yeah, when it comes to quality, I think it's one of the areas that's been doing well for another quarter now with steady progress on remediation work. I mentioned briefly in the call, a lot of the leading indicators now are pointing in the right direction when it comes to everything from medical device reporting to field actions is going well. We are pleased with the progress when it comes to quality. When it comes to the surgical workflows demand, nothing particular to call out. You know already that it's a somewhat lumpy business by nature, but nothing else. We haven't noticed any real big constraints when it comes to CapEx spending, for example. There's a little bit of wait and see in some areas, but that's probably more related to life science than to surgical workflows, I would say.
When it comes to the working capital build-up, like Agneta Palmér said earlier, it is a volume increase-related build-up of working capital. There are some timing effects in there as well, but we do not make any projections for the full year.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Sten Gustafson from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good day, everyone. A question on the tariffs. I understand you're not willing to give us any financial impact of it, but could you at least provide us with how much of the US sales manufactured in the US is actually sourced from the US? Is that 100%, or in the US production facilities, do you source from other countries? That would be helpful to understand.
Used in the US is also sourced in the US
There are no components from other regions. That's good.
There are some components. The absolute majority, I repeat, the majority of it is bought within the US
Okay. When do you think you will know how this will impact you, given what we know today? We obviously do not know if the tariffs will go away tomorrow or next year, but based on what we know today, I think some kind of guidance would be very helpful.
Yeah, but it's too early to say anything about this. As I said, there are still a lot of changes in how the tariffs are being decided. There is this 90-day, call it grace period, that we're in now with negotiations ongoing. There are still discussions about potential exemption for certain product categories and so on. It is futile to try to forecast now the impact of what this will be. It's just too early. Even if we wanted to, there's no way we could do this in a good way today.
Right now, today, you're not paying any tariffs?
Yeah, yes, we are. Since the beginning of April, there are tariffs in place for medical devices as well.
Okay. My final question is on mitigating factors here. Are you able to raise prices locally quickly, or is that sort of a long process?
It is. In our industry, we typically have rather long-term contracts. There are some mechanisms in some for adjusting prices and so on, but I think the most important thing is that there is a constructive dialogue with customers regarding this. That is something we are in the process of having right now, but it is way too early to discuss the outcome and the potential impact of this.
Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much. That's it from me.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Isaiah Noor from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the question. I had one on the free cash flow, which is the weakest it's been in this quarter in the last year. I know you mentioned some unfavorable movements in accounts receivables, but could you elaborate a bit more on the main contributing factors, which divisions this relates to, and would you expect this weakness to persist in the remainder of 2025? My second question is on the life science business. Could you elaborate on the drivers of this negative 25% decline in the US between kind of research funding, pharma, etc.? What are the main drivers of that decline? My third question is on tariffs. Which is more impactful to you, between European imports into the US or US imports into China, in terms of the magnitude of impact you think it might have on you?
Actually, for those products where you think could be exempted from these tariffs, which divisions do you think could be exempted? Thank you.
Okay, thank you so much. If you start with the cash flow and the accounts receivable movements, this is a timing effect. The answer is that we do not expect this to continue. It is related to the fact that we had a lot of deliveries very late in the quarter that are due for payments early in Q2.
When it comes to the life science part, it's almost the entire difference from last year order intake-wise is due to funding holds for some of our life science customers. These are NIH funding holds specifically. Roughly half of those have already been released now, beginning of April. To, again, speculate the impact going forward, this is impossible. The impact during Q1 and beginning of April is what I explained here. When it comes to tariffs, we cannot dissect that any more than what I showed slide-wise for you here. Unfortunately, it's very different tariff rates and different flows. When it comes to potential exceptions, I think the key priorities to discuss are certainly within acute care therapies if there are any exceptions.
Okay, very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from David Adlington from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Almost all my questions have been asked, but maybe just following up on the foreign exchange point. If spot rates currently hold as they are, could you quantify the impact on margins for this year, please?
Sorry, David, we've had a bit of a bad reception. Your question, I repeat, was it if currencies hold as they are now, how will we be impacted on the margin for the remainder of the year?
Correct.
Yes.
Correct, yeah.
Slightly negative, but not to the extent that it has been negative in Q1, because the major negative effect is related to the movement and the revaluation of the receivables that we get from those movements. If currencies hold from now, there will be a slight negative effect, but not from the revaluation effect then.
Perfect. That's helpful. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Right. Thank you very much, everyone, for joining. We have already done the summary here, so I appreciate you taking the time to listen in today, and thank you for a very productive Q&A as well. Have a good rest of the day. Thank you very much.