Welcome to the Instalco Q4 Presentation 2024. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to CEO Robin Boheman. Please go ahead.
Net sales of around SEK 13.7 billion and we ended the year with an order backlog of SEK 9 million which represent a book-to-bill of 66%. When adjusting for one-off costs taken in Q4, our EBITDA amounted to SEK 944 million corresponding to a margin of 3.69% compared to the 7.6% in 2023. This is a bit lower, but it also shows our strength and resilience in a very challenging market over the last year. Part of that resilience can be explained by a quick adaptation by our subsidiaries to Service which has covered some of the shortfalls on the Project side. So for the full year, Service represents 35% of our revenue compared to 30% in recent years and I'm also pleased to see that our cash flow from operations has held up a nd is down by less than our e arnings, showcasing the strong focus on improving working capital.
Let's go in and move into a few of the highlights from the quarter we've been facing. As I said before, a very challenging market. All through 2024 we have during the year taken measures in various subsidiaries and adapting operations with efficiency improvements and cost savings. We intensified those efforts in Q4 to strengthen our long term competitiveness. This includes both further layoffs as well as starting to merge and closing down eight loss making subsidiaries. This initiative will g radually take effect during t he coming year and result in a one-off cost in the fourth quarter.
In parallel with this work, we have also taken several major offensive steps in Instalco's development during the year and I must say the most significant one came in November 2024 when we took the first step into Germany by signing an agreement for a minority investment in Fabri Group. Fabri is a decentralized acquisition- driven installation group and we have a long- term plan of achieving majority ownership.
Further, our Technical Consultants at Intec continue to deliver margins above the group and last year we also added Automation and taking important steps there as well. We recently announced that Inmatiq, which is our Automation business, is the first in Sweden to enter into the highest level of partnership with Siemens Smart Infrastructure business area at the national level. This is a strategic step for us as well as confirming that our buildup of Inmatiq. It's showcasing good, strong long-term work. Energy efficiency and lower consumption of resources provided the foundation of our services that Instalco offers today. We have also noticed a growing interest from our investors but also from customers regarding measurement and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. This has been a priority during the year and we were also now prepared for the CSRD reporting. We announced our climate targets in December, which Christina will go through in more detail shortly.
So it sums up and will make our customer offer even more attractive, I would say. But now I would like to hand over to you, Christina, to take us through the financials development in more detail.
Thank you, Robin. Let's start off with looking at how our net sales and order backlog has developed. During Q4, net sales was down by 6.8% to SEK 3.6 billion, which is an organic development of - 7.4%. The organic growth was down in both segments, but more in Sweden. For the group, t his is a reflection of our prudent order taking over the last year given the price situation in the market. Our order backlog, however, grew by 6.7% in the quarter, all organically. The improvement is driven by segment Sweden, while Rest of Nordics was down somewhat. We have maintained our cautious approach to order taking, prioritizing the right projects at the right price for the right customers. There are more projects available in the market, which may be an indication that the market is showing signs of turning, but the importance to be prudent on calculations remains.
Our subsidiaries have continued to impress when it comes to shifting staff to Service when there is not enough attractive Project business to go for and Service remains an important stabilizing factor. For the full year, the Service business grew over 10% in absolute numbers. In the quarter, service made up at record high 41% of sales and as Robin mentioned earlier, it grew from 30%-35% of sales for the full year 2024.
Then, onto looking at our earnings, EBITA in both millions and margin, to meet the challenges posed by the market, we have taken action continuously throughout the year. Our efforts were intensified in December when we announced an action program including further layoffs, some project write-downs, and initiation of mergers and closure of eight loss-making subsidiaries. This resulted in one-off costs of SEK 65 million, which were charged to EBITA in the fourth quarter. EBIT was also affected by additional one-off costs, impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets of SEK 29 million due to closure of subsidiaries. So total one-offs impacting EBIT was SEK 94 million SEK.
The fourth quarter tends to be seasonally strong in the Installation business. In the quarter, the EBITA margin amounted to 5.4% compared to 8% last year. The lower margins is a result of one-off costs and the current market situation. Adjusted for the one-off costs, the EBITA margin amounted to 7.2%. This is a step up from Q3. The adjusted numbers this quarter represent a 0.8 percentage point margin drop year-over-year compared to a 1.4 percentage point margin drop in Q3.
To break it down into more detail, over to a slide that summarizes Sweden segment in Q4. Overall, net sales were down to SEK 2.5 billion while organic growth was down by 9%. The one-off costs relating to Sweden amounted to SEK 54 million. Adjusting for this, the EBITA margin amounted to 7.7% compared to 9.1% last year. Without adjustments, the margin came in at 5.5%. For the full year, Intec's Technical Consultants was the only business area that reported a stronger margin. The development in other business areas in Sweden varied quite a bit between regions. The order backlog grew organically by almost 10% to roughly SEK 7 billion. We have noticed the market is starting to move a bit. There are more projects to calculate on. Even so, we are still following our current strategy of choosing the right customer and the right assignment at the right price. We have not dropped that principle.
Now for a summary of the Rest of Nordics segment. Overall net sales were down to SEK 1.15 billion while organic growth was down by 3% in line with the year-over-year decline we saw in Q3. Acquisitions contributed with a growth of around 1%. The one-off costs relating to Rest of Nordics amounted to SEK 11 million. Adjusting for this, the EBITA margin amounted to 6.0% compared to 5.3% last year. Without adjustments, the margin came in at 5%.
Both Norway and Finland improved the full year margins compared to 2023. The order backlog decreased organically by 1.6% to SEK 2.18 billion. Here we see the backlog growing for Finland while Norway decreased slightly.
On to the cash generation in the quarter. In Q4, cash flow from operations amounted to SEK 471 million, an increase compared to last year. Despite the lower earnings, the positive development is mainly due to improved working capital related to accounts receivables. Adjustments for non-cash items was notably higher due to the dependent depreciation and amortization including parts of the one-off costs. This affected earnings but does not impact the cash flow.
Cash flow from investment activities is mainly impacted by normal CapEx investments. No acquisitions have been finalized in the quarter as the minority investment in Fabri is yet to close and the majority of the purchase price will be paid in newly issued Instalco shares. The cash flow from the period looks low due to a larger repayment of debt. The operational performance, it is reassuring to see that despite the challenging market, we are reporting stable cash conversion at 89%.
Finally, we'll look at our performance during the full year 2024 in relation to our financial targets.
For those of you who have listened in on all calls during the year, you are familiar with the challenging installation market that has signified 2024. We have intentionally been very selective when taking on projects to protect our margins as much as possible and we have remained cautious on acquisitions. This has led to an organic development of net sales of -6.6% for the full year, which is below the 10% target, the target which is set over a business cycle. Looking over the past five years we report a compounded annual growth rate of close to 14%. Our adjusted EBITA margin came in at 6.9%. We are not satisfied and we have increased our mitigation efforts in Q4 as previously touched upon, the measures will gradually take effect during the coming year. Cash conversion remained stable at 89% due to the high focus on working capital.
At year end our leverage came in somewhat above our target at 2.7x EBITDA. This is primarily attributable to the decrease in earnings. As this is a year- end report, the board proposes a dividend of SEK 0.68, maintaining the level of last year. This is above the 30% policy due to the strong cash flow and forward looking optimism.
Finally, we have a target on this slide. A new target on this slide. In December we announced our climate target which we will follow up on annually. Long term our goal is net zero in the entire value chain by 2045 and in the medium term our goal is to decrease the emission intensity of greenhouse gas emissions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 50% by 2030 with 2020 as the base year for comparison. We will publish more information of this and our progress of course in the annual report for 2024. By that, over to you Robin.
Thank you very much Christina. Going into the project highlight of the quarter. T his one from Finland, two Instalco subsidiaries, Kuopion LVI-Talo and Twinputki Oy were contracted on a joint assignment for installation at a major grocery store project in Kuopio, a city situated south central in Finland. The project involves two companies. It's a new construction of approximately 12,000 sq m and that is part of the end customer's expansion to open several new stores in rapid growth areas. Instalco subsidiaries have been contracted for the heating and plumbing, ventilation and sprinkler installations with the project value of approximately EUR 4 million.
In 2024, we have spent a lot of time. On preparing for what I call "The next big step for Instalco." This quarter's theme is a no- brainer given that we have explained and expanded outside of our three markets and gone into a new country. This is obviously the theme for the quarter. I will keep this deep dive relatively short as there is a full telco available on our website from the announcement in November 13, but I will comment and cover some small updates.
First of all, Fabri is a fast growing group founded in 2020 with a presence in several locations in the fragmented German market. The company is acquisition- driven with a decentralized model and has subsidiaries with specialist experience in areas such as electrical, heating and plumbing, ventilation and related disciplines. Germany is one of Europe's largest installation markets with a size of around five times the Nordic market where we are present at the moment.
We have long said that we believe in the decentralized Instalco model and that it can work outside of the Nordics. We think that remains true. We found out very early on in our research about Germany and the German market that it's important to local connections, so the key has been actually to find the right local partner and entrepreneur with Fabri. I'm happy to say that we've done so.
Short around deal structure. Deal structure is set in four stages. The first step includes a capital increase whereby Instalco gets a minority stake of 24% due to administration timeline and some German bureaucracy. It has not yet been finalized, but we expect to close during Q1 this year. Step two will be acquiring a further 27% of the shares in Fabri, which will result in a majority shareholder of Fabri, and we will also include Fabri in Instalco consolidated financial statements. Based on the current estimates that we have, this is expected to occur no earlier than the first quarter in 2026, l atest in the second quarter of 2027.
The fourth and final step during the period is an option and it is running to 2030 to 2033 and this is also the first time that management can sell their shares, which means that they have remained, t o say, a very loyal investor for over 10 years in Fabri. This step-by-step approach ensures a successful establishment in Germany where Instalco partners up with the founders and entrepreneurs to share the upside but also the risk. Fabri is based in Nuremberg. I showed this slide in November showcasing that the group employed 400 people and 12 subsidiaries across Germany with an annual turnover of approximately EUR 70 million.
As said before, Fabri is fast growing and acquisition-driven. Since November they have added two more companies to the group, which now consists of 14 subsidiaries, 500 people, and EUR 80 million in turnover. As I've said before in November, Fabri is the natural fit for us and our strategic vision. We operate on the same model to acquire and strengthen best-in-class installation companies. The company's culture is very similar. I'd even say that they are modeled o n the Instalco way and we see great opportunities for collaboration. We can provide the best practice and knowledge based and knowledge sharing from our 10 year history of M&A, strategy, and business development within the installation industry. Through Fabri we get a unique opportunity and a platform to continue the expansion and growth in Germany with local knowledge of the market and it's a value creating expansion with great risk minimization.
Finally, I'd like to return to Q4 and also take the opportunity to go through some key takeaways from the quarter but also the full year. To sum up, we are now closing the books on what was a very challenging year. Price pressure, weak demands due to high interest rates and macro factors, delayed project starts in large projects, customer bankruptcies and reduced change orders are a few of the obstacles we have met along the way. I'm proud of the quick adaptation of subsidiaries shown by the growth of the service business, both as share of net sales but also in absolute numbers. Our decentralized model has been key in this as well as the implementation and increased mitigation efforts that were taken during the year but also increased in Q4 and the measures will gradually take effect during 2025.
We now see that more projects are available in the market as Christina said, also showcasing by our growing order backlog which may be an indicator that the market is slowly showing some signs of turning. It is important to state that we are still selective on taking projects and you need to remember that the Installation business is late cyclical. But I now say that we are cautiously optimistic for a better future.
We are also positioned to capture the profitable growth when the market improves. We have invested in our offers both on the Technical Consulting side and that are reporting very strong numbers. Our Automation business is showing proof of concept and our investment into Fabri ensures further M&A runway for at least 10 years to come.
Also, our climate targets that are part of our work and our more sustainable offer will be another tool to strengthen the relationship with our customers. On the social side, our staff remains our most important asset and during the quarter we conducted an annual employee survey and I'm very happy to say that in the report we also improved our Employee Net Promoter Score to 31 from last year of already a very strong 30. This is quite a bit higher than the rest of the industry.
That we are active in, so we are very proud of that. To round off, I would also like to take the opportunity to thank customers and shareholders for their trust and most importantly our employees for their efforts and engagement during the year. I would like to thank you for joining this call and I now open up for your questions.
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 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Hello, Carl.
Good morning, it's Carl here from Nordea. Hi. A couple of questions. Firstly, just to clarify on the right answer in the quarter you took right, but not Northvolt and. Is it possible to quantify the latter on the Swedish margin in the quarter? Let's start there. Thanks.
Sorry, there was a break, there was a bit of a hack. Could you please repeat the question, Carl?
Yes, sure. Looking at the write downs you're talking a little bit about in the quarter here, just to clarify it. You d id not take Northvolt, but you took the Serneke bankruptcy, right, as a write-down. Also, what was the magnitude of the latter and as of now do you think that you'll take Northvolt in Q1 instead?
Okay, first of all, to clarify the 65. That we showcase in the report and that we also announced in December, that is due to closing down of these eight subsidiaries. When it comes to Serneke , the local companies have taken the reserves that they need and, so to say, write down, so what you want to call it, or reserves within the local subsidiary. That is already sort of included in t he numbers we report. We don't see any further risks of, so to say, need for write-downs when it comes to Serneke. That is, so to say, it's not adjusted for Serneke. These numbers are included with Serneke.
Was that all of your questions? Sorry,
I was a little bit about Northvolt as well.
Northvolt is not taken. Northvolt is still under C hapter 11. We still have the risk of Northvolt. We still have a dialogue with them. Our goal is obviously to get the SEK 60 million back. We do not have a plan to write that down as of yet. There is still a risk here. Absolutely.
Okay, perfect. Looking at the percentage of completion in the quarter in relation to LTM sales, it came down 10 basis points, which is good to see. It still looks a little bit elevated considering that you've done write-downs in the quarter. Is Northvolt one factor behind that still? A little bit elevated POC levels?
Are you comfortable with this level entering H1 or should we expect a continued slight stream of minor project write-downs here to adjust to the current market situation? How should we look at the POC here?
Our goal is always we go through the POC monthly. Local subsidiaries are bound to go through their POC monthly and have to take up, so to say, a risk scenario on their accounting and also on their projects and valuate on a monthly basis of what they think the end is going to look like. I don't see any other risk than the sort of say the normal risk with running projects that is always there when you're in the construction market and an installation market. I don't, I don't see any.
I know if you have any comments, Christina, but we do not see any b igger risk than the normal, so to s ay when it comes to the POC.
Yeah, I agree on that. Absolutely.
Okay, that is very clear. Looking at installation sales in the quarter, if I look at it, it contracted by 17% year-over-year. I know it's not your strategy to take on lower margin projects in order to keep key employees, but falling 17% of course compensated by Services, but it's an acceleration versus 7% in Q3. Do you need to take more actions, do you think entering Q1 to reflect the current installation demand or do you think that you could reallocate key employees to endure lower utilization? Also on that note, could you also just remind us a little bit if you saw any impacts from the cost savings you announced during Q4 already in Q4 and also what portion that will be materialized in Q1?
Yeah, a lot of questions in one call.
Yeah, sure. Sorry.
Okay. If we start with t he sort of demand going forward and key employee question.
We constantly, so to say, look over the staff in our local subsidiaries. We have a close relationship with our local subsidiaries. On a local level we will always evaluate, sort of say, the step going forward. Obviously, as I said before, staff is our key resource. We want to be very cautious on staff. Just three years ago there was a shortage of staff. That was the biggest question in the installation market. Now the table has turned, but we still think that we will get back to, sort of say, the same level as maybe three years ago when there was a shortage. You need to take this decision on a local level to be able to protect your, sort of say, key employees in the local subsidiaries. That is a constant evaluation that we do with our subsidiaries. We will have some subsidiaries growing. We will have some subsidiaries that will have to take additional measures also in 2025. It's hard to say on an overall level how this will look since business is local.
If I get correct, the second p art of the question was around our cost savings that was announced in December. Basically we closed down or merged eight of our subsidiaries, l oss- making subsidiaries. The effect will be gradually during the year. Let's say if you are a loss- making company or let's say, for example, SEK 6 million means that you basically lose SEK 500,000 every month. It would be gradually affected during the year. The last company that we will be able to merge will be all the way back in November. That has to do with that. Sort of say ending of projects. Fuel has already occurred. A few we will have to sort of say live with all the way up until November. We will gradually close that down. We also have to finalize the projects that we have agreed upon with our end customer. I think it's also important to, to sort of say, do it the right way.
That is very clear. The final one if I may is on the cash flows q uite nice to see them come through.
I mean given the considering the circumstances. Q1 and Q2 is typically less good while organic EBITDA is seemingly organically contracting. How do you look at the deleveraging or leveraging profile during 2025?
I think that like you said, Q1 and Q2 are, especially Q1 is typically n ot our strong quarter when it comes t o cash flow and Q2 the same. Since we have the dividend, we have some earn out payments due to that. Some subsidiaries or sellers, so to say in that sense have an earn out that reflects the full year of 2024 and those will be paid out roughly in the end of Q1 beginning Q2, most likely. We also have the possibility to buy some of our minorities back in typically in Q2. Cash flow wise in that sense, when it comes to leverage, I do not think you should expect us to delever much in Q1 or Q2. I think we will stay at roughly the same level.
Okay, that's very clear. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Marcus de Villius from DNB. Please go ahead.
Hello, Robin and Christina. Marcus here. If we could go to South Sweden. It's been a very tough and challenging market there. Both you describe it as very tough and Bravida same. Can you maybe talk about what improvements we need to see there? What is happening? How do you, how do you improve your business there? If we start with that question.
I think South Sweden is a bit sort of saying a perfect storm, so to say there are a lot of—t he last couple of years there have been a lot of new companies coming into the south of Sweden, what I like to call new kids on the block. There is also no real big projects in the south of Sweden as we've seen in previous years. So. There's overcapacity basically in South Sweden. What needs to happen is either there needs to come a lot of p rojects in the south of Sweden or t he supply needs to go down. We're seeing that some of our competitors are lowering t he sort of supply of installers in South Sweden. That is what I think needs to happen.
Okay. We spoke sadly about the free cash flow. If you go to the working capital profile, we saw some working capital release in the quarter. Is this something we should expect going forward? Can you maybe talk about your working capital profile going forward in the coming year?
We have started a program to reduce working capital. We have a tendency of being very good when it comes to invoicing at the end of the year. It is a bit of an industry standard. We tried to mitigate this and get that into the full year as well and constantly be as good as. We are in Q4. That's the plan. Whether we manage it, we'll see in 2025. We are launching an initiative for our subsidiaries to focus more on working capital. We hope that we will have some good effects during the years to come.
Okay, those were my questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Johan Lönnqvist Sundén from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Good morning and thank you for taking my questions.
If you start on the kind of order backlog and you've been clear throughout the presentation that you stick to your strategy to be careful not locking in products at too low price points. Is it possible to give a little bit more color on kind of pricing in the order backlog margin levels that should be expected to be realized during, say, coming nine months versus the previous nine months?
I mean we haven't seen like I've said many times before, it's very hard to comment on the profitability of an order backlog because my knowledge of the, of the industry and from the last 10 years what I've seen is that it's more important on how you p erform at the construction site compared to w hat you calculated on.
I think it's a bit too early to comment on when you take projects whether how they're going to finalize. That's why we're cautious on revealing so to say the percentage of t he order backlog's profitability. We see no tendency of that. We have lowered prices in that sense. T he reason for the increase in order b acklog, I would say that there are s ome, as Christina mentioned earlier in the c all, there are some more discussions with c ustomers, there are some more possibilities. These are mainly small projects.
We see a tendency in the market. That the real largest projects are not. Our key focus has always been on mid- sized projects. That suits us very well.
Very clear. Dan, back to the kind of write down situation and you made a little bit of a cleanup here in Q4. No indication that you're, when you go through the books that use our projects appears, do you think you have your kind of arms around the situation as of now?
Like I mentioned before, we go through. The order, the dog and also the POC. Percentage of completion on our ongoing projects on a monthly basis, there's always some risks but there is also some upsides. There's always a discussion every month in this. Like I said in Q3, what we're s eeing is that compared to maybe two, three years ago, there are not as much change orders in projects as before. That can explain some of the lower margin for the whole industry at the moment.
However, like I said, we go through. This on a monthly basis. There's always a risk when running projects. However, there's also upside when you run p rojects.
You feel at least happy with you being final finished with the kind of review of all the kind of subsidiaries that you have worked with throughout the year?
We are done.
No subsidiaries left that you.
We have 160 subsidiaries. I'm not going to say and guarantee that there is no. We have 6,000 projects in our order backlog to guarantee that there is no risk in those 6,000. It's impossible. However, we did a good walkthrough of our subsidiaries. We looked at eight of our loss making subsidiaries, decided to close them down and during that process we found SEK 65 million in costs related due to this close down. Also some of our projects write downs, although SEK 65 million. We did a good analysis back in Q4, but like I said running 6,000 projects it's hard to guarantee that.
There are no more risks in those. We did a good analysis back i n beginning of Q4.
Yeah, completely understand. Thanks for clarification. On the kind of restructuring initiatives that you announced, is it possible to give some color on how that has been received within the organization? You have a kind of legacy of working with a lot of this sense of responsibility. Now you're coming in from the headquarter and pointing fingers towards a couple of companies and a few are closed down. How has the organization reacted on that?
We have a very mature organization I would say and I would say it's, it's, it maybe sounds harsh but we have received positive, p ositive reactions from the subsidiaries. We have even received that t his is what's called "mature leadership." The theme has been going great during the year. Our improvement programs we have tried with these subsidiaries. I think the remaining subsidiaries that also say not affected out of these eight, they have been quite positive in a sense that they have seen the work we have put in to help these subsidiaries. Unfortunately, eight of these subsidiaries we were not able to help and not able to get back to where, so to say, our threshold is. How do you say after a while and after you've done all the work you can, you also somehow have to say enough is enough. I think that that's been a p ositive reaction in the group.
Perfect.
Just a final question from my side and it's on the building Automation and the Technical Consultancy businesses that you built up. Just the ballpark guidance of how many FTEs you are in the two segments. And. What kind of margin levels you're running at currently. I guess the building automation business deal is diluting margins and maybe the technical thoughts are boosting margins on a group level.
Yeah.
I would say roughly we are around 450 FTEs in the Technical Consultancy side and I would add around 60-70, maybe 70 now on the automation business. Like you said, automation business is in the startup phase where we are, so to say, incurring some costs due to not being fully utilized on staff. Whereas on the Technical Consultancy side, as Christina mentioned, they have improved. That's the business area that has improved. The most during 2024 and they are. On group level or even above actually in 2024. So very happy with that. To say, closing the books for 2024. This really showcased that our. Startup business works. And as I've said many times before, these technical consultants would prove that it's a very good investment. And now we will also show that the automation business will have the same journey. Might not be as many of these, but it will also be profitable company in the years to come.
The recruitment plans in the automation business still to ramp that up or are you more focusing on getting that up to break even or?
Yeah, the automation. We have hand-picked. These 70 FDs and we'll continue to hand pick good. Employees in the coming quarters and years to come. However, the business is somewhat smaller than the Technical Consulting business. So you cannot expect for the sake of a quick ramp up as you saw in the Technical Consulting business. However, we're still looking for good employees. If good employees come our way, we will absolutely try to recruit them as well.
No guidance on profitability levels ahead on the building Automation side?
No, not yet.
I just take in line. Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Good morning. It was actually a follow up to Johan's question here on Intec where you mentioned the margin improvement year-over-year and did I interpret correctly that for the full year of 2024 we could also draw the assumption that Intec's profitability was above Sweden?
That's correct, yes.
Okay. All right, thanks. And then just a question here on Rest of Nordics. I mean even when we take into a ccoun t he cost that you took this particular quarter, we still have a positive margin trend. You've said it before many times that it's not like the market has magically improved, but how much more can you do internally before the market needs to take over? So to say.
There are a few, h ow to say, a few basis points to be earned internally still, maybe we closed down some subsidiaries that were. Loss-making in Rest of Nordics. Out of these e ight, two were in Rest of Nordics. So there are still, so to say actions that can be taken. We still have companies that are not at what we in Instalco call sufficient levels. So there's still improvements to be done locally. Of course it would be a bit helpful if we could get a somewhat b etter market, obviously, but there are still i mprovements that could be made both in Sweden and in the Rest of the Nordics.
Understood, that was just my final one. It was really just on, we talked a little bit about seasonality and you talked about gearing, but in terms of working capital release, we tend to at least historically see another positive release in Q1. I was just curious to see, you know, if that was taken into consideration during the seasonality comments. My line was a bit poor.
I think that. Regarding the seasonality, it is somewhat harder to see the same effect. I must be honest and say that we have maybe not done the same analysis fully as you have done. However, what we see is typically when it comes to working capital is that in Q4 we're able to invoice quite s ufficien, s o to say, somewhat more invoicing. Most likely that will turn in hopefully. Most likely will turn into cash in Q1. So I think that is maybe what we can comment.
I don't know if you have anything else, Christina, to add?
I can maybe add that in Q4, of course, in the seasonality, a lot of the projects ends and becomes summed up, and then you can send your final invoice, and that gives a very positive effect in Q4 and will come into cash in Q1, and then on the other side, Q1 is when you shall start up again with the projects and you have some vacation effect, so we have seasonality as you understand and as Robin already has mentioned, but of course it's also hard work on working with the working cap.
All the activities around have been tough in a tough market.
Okay, understood. Thank you.
The next question comes from Karl Norén from SEB. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Just one question from my side on the restructuring cost here. I'm just wondering how much approximately is related to, let's say, project write-downs and how much is pure, let's say, restructuring cost or one-off costs.
We haven't actually disclosed the exact split. So it's a combination here of some w rite-downs like we mentioned earlier in the call that we've gone through the p rojects for both, obviously those eight subsidiaries that are closing down, where we also see that we have had to take some w rite-downs on their existing order backlog. That has also to do with that, h ow to you say, if you announce a close down of a company you can imagine the efficiency in that company might not go up so to say so that's also cautious where we say that we're taking down that order book for those eight subsidiaries.
Like I said, we will on most of these or on these eight subsidiaries try to continue and so to say finalize the work that we have in the order backlog for those eight. That's why one, sort of say one of the subsidiaries as I mentioned earlier, will not be closed until somewhere maybe November this year. So it's a combination. It's hard to give an exact number anything.
It's a combination of costs that occur and some write-downs in this entity and also in some of the other subsidiaries where we have gone through, like I said, monthly in the POC accounting and in the order backlog as well.
Okay, understood. And the less efficiency that you mentioned maybe in some of these companies, what happens naturally when you announce the winding down of a business? I guess do you think that will impact the coming quarters or do you think that most of that was, you. so we've turned the corner in Q4.
That's taken into account.
Okay, that's good. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.
Okay. Since there were no written questions coming. In this quarter, I would once again like to thank everyone for listening. And thanks for the questions. And like said before, we closed. The book on a somewhat tougher year, but we are somewhat more optimistic going. Into the future and will continue the. Hard work in our subsidiaries to get back to where Instalco belongs. So, thank you, everyone, for listening in and wish you a great day.