Welcome to the Instalco Q2 presentation for 2023. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing star five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO, Robin Boheman, and CFO, Christina Kassberg. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to this Q2 presentation from Instalco. My name is Robin Boheman. I'm the CEO of Instalco, and with me today, I have Christina Kassberg, my CFO. Just in brief, Instalco, a leading Nordic group within heating, plumbing, electrician, ventilation, industry, and technical consultant. We do project planning, installation, service, maintenance of systems installed at properties and facilities. As you can see on the map here, we're highly decentralized structured with roughly 130 subsidiaries specialized within their local companies. Main market is Sweden. We have roughly around 6,000 employees in the Nordics. These subsidiaries are run with their own CEOs in, as I said, a highly decentralized structure. Going into some key financials over the last 12 months, we have net sales of around SEK 13.5 billion.
We have an order backlog of almost SEK 9.2 billion. With the last 12 months, we also went past the SEK 1 billion mark when it comes to EBITDA, which is always a nice milestone to pass. We managed to have an EBITDA margin of 7.6%, correlating to best-in-class. Cash flow, a good cash flow from the operations with SEK 839 million. We have, over the last 12 months, acquired almost SEK 1.5 billion. Going through some highlights from the quarter, we had sales of SEK 3.8 billion and EBITDA of almost SEK 300 million, and EBITDA margin of 7.7%. We had a really strong sales growth with 23.5%, which organically corresponds to 5.5% organic growth.
We strengthen our profitability despite some impact of a one-off provision that we'll go into detail a little bit later in the conference as well. We had really strong cash flow, we have a solid order backlog, and we managed to do two strategic acquisitions during the quarter. All in all, a good Q2. With that, I will hand over to you, Christina, for some details in the numbers.
Thank you, Robin. On this slide, we can see the increase in the net sales with the comparison of Q2 present and prior year. Also, in Q2, we continue to generate robust growth. Net sales increased by 23.5% compared to last year and amounted to SEK 3.8 billion. Our organic growth rate was 5.5%. Both of our segments, Sweden and Rest of Nordics, contribute to this. Acquired growth amounted to 18.1%. There is a strong underlying demand for our services, and there is an increasing interest and increased demand for energy efficient and resource-saving product installation services. However, the market prospects are difficult to assess on a shorter term basis with regards to the prevailing macroeconomic situation. This slide shows the quarterly trend of EBITDA in both millions and margin.
Profitability improved compared to Q1, which is in line with the regular seasonal effects, where Q2 tends to be stronger. EBITDA increased to SEK 296 million, which corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 7.7%. However, there was a negative impact on EBITDA during the quarter of SEK 15 million, which is a provision for projects, where there is uncertainty about customer solvency in segment Sweden, Sweden. As a public information, post end of June, there was an information regarding a specific customer's situation, and for us to be cautious, we have taken this into accounts. When adjusting for this, EBITDA would have amounted to SEK 311 million, corresponding to a margin of 8.1%. Overall, a strong earnings development with continued good profitability.
Thanks to our active efforts to always improve profitability, we were able to maintain our margins despite the inflationary pressure in our industry. This slide shows the quarterly progression of the order backlog. We have a substantial order backlog, which grew further during the quarter. The composition and quality of the order backlog is very good as well, with variety in terms of the types of projects and contract forms, all of which provides balance and soundness in spreading the risks. There is a clear dampening effect on new production for residential property due to the interest rate situation, and this remained in the quarter. As previously mentioned, our exposure is relatively low, approximately 13%, and well compensated by other parts of the order backlog, which is reflected in the numbers.
Our order backlog grew by 13.1% to another record high level in absolute numbers, and totals SEK 9.2 billion, which corresponds roughly to still 70% of annual sales. Organically, the order backlog grew by 2.1%, and the order backlog from acquired companies contributed with growth of 10.7%. Over to a slide that summarizes segment Sweden in Q2, which performed relatively well, taking into consideration the inflation and high material prices that are impacting the industry's profitability. The market Instalco serves is generally good regarding new construction, renovation, and energy efficiency measures in commercial properties and facilities in the public sector. Swedish industry is making major investments in research and innovation, so that it can become fossil free. The range of installation projects has, in some region, decreased from a high level.
For a new production of housing, a slowdown is clearly noticeable, mainly with reference to uncertainty about the interest rate situation. Overall, net sales increased by 11.2% to SEK 2.7 billion. Organic growth amounted to 2.2%. Acquired growth amounted to 9%. Adjusted EBITDA, as mentioned, with SEK 50 million in buffer for credit losses in specific project and a specific customer, was SEK 239 million, and the margin was 8.8%. Now for a summary of Rest of Nordics, our other segment. The market in Norway remains stable, and the market in Finland is still somewhat tentative. Despite this, the Rest of Nordics delivered its strongest quarter so far, with improvements across the board.
In Q1, we commented that we saw the first positive signs coming from our Finnish operations, and we are pleased to see that this development continued also in Q2. Overall, net sales increased by approximately 70% to SEK 1.1 billion. The strong growth for the Rest of Nordics region was distributed evenly between Norway and Finland. Organic growth amounted to 18.1%. Acquired growth amounted to 52.3%, a result of our focus to grow in the Nordics. EBITDA amounted to SEK 75 million, and the margin was 6.7%. Overall, it was a strong earnings performance that improved compared to previous period, together with positive effects from new acquired companies. To look at our performance in relation to our financial targets, we continue to work dedicated to combine growth, high profitability, and a strong cash flow.
We continue to perform well beyond our growth target. Our EBITDA margin is best in class. When adjusting for the one-off buffer of SEK 15 million during the quarter, we would have been at 8.1%. When the buffer is accounted for, we are at 7.7%. Leverage is right on, with the net debt 2.5 times the EBITDA. We have had a high rate of acquisition, first six months, with eight strong new companies. We also have paid out the dividend approved by the AGM of SEK 172 million. As earlier said, we are having a good and healthy headroom to the stated bank accounts, covenants. Cash conversion landed at 81%. Margins in the industrial companies are better than in the traditional installation companies, but the contracts involved longer payment plans.
All in all, we remain secure with the rate of acquisition, our strong cash flow, and the balance sheet. By that, over to you, Robin.
Thank you very much. I will then go to some acquisitions. As you know, we are, have a high focus on acquisitions, and we continue to follow our strategic plan to continue acquisitions. As I mentioned in Q1, we had a very active Q1, with 6 acquisitions, 3 of them on the larger scale, when counting for our normal acquisition levels, as you can see in the, on the page here. We have taken the quarter also to, include them within the group, and as I mentioned in Q1, we will have a somewhat slower Q2, also due to the timing factor. We have managed to do 2 really good and strategic acquisitions, so far in our, or in Q2, as you can see here in the table.
I will talk you through a little bit extra one of them. As you can see here, concluding the first half of the year, we have managed to acquire approximately a little bit above SEK 1 billion in annual sales. Oh, here you go. The acquisition that I would like to go through a little bit is the acquisition of Elektro Västerbotten AB. We have, for quite some time, been looking for a traditional electrical company with the right quality and experience in the region of Umeå. For quite some time, we've been looking, and so we're very delighted that we have found the right candidate. Which we think will fit very well in, within the group.
Elektro Västerbotten is a highly profitable company with a dedicated and mature management team, which is a nice match to our existing companies and will fit very well in the Instalco model. It also brings us one step closer to being multidisciplinary within installation in Umeå, which is something we tend to always strive for. They offer both installation for both commercial and private customers, and they do both contract work and service. Large customers include Peab, Skanska, Selbergs Entreprenad. I think they will be very welcome to the team, and we're looking forward to continue working together with the management team.
Taking a few discussions on project, very pleased to announce a collaboration between two companies in Finland, Uudenmaan LVI-Talo, and Milvent. This is another e-example of showing that we also now in Finland can take multidisciplinary projects. In this case, we are seeing collaborations within piping, heating, cooling, and ventilation, and it's done for the construction company, Hartela. This is a office building, a very innovative office building in Helsinki called Ilmalan Aura. This is also a project where we will strive to become classified as a sustainable Instalco project. This is also a strength showing that we now start to see real results from the collaboration between companies working together in Finland.
This is an roughly around the SEK 60 million project and will be going on during 2023 and well into 2024 as well, approximately 17,000 sqm . Very nice to see that collaborations is really ongoing in Finland as well, and that we can see that we are taking projects together and also that we can classify this as a sustainable Instalco project. Going into the theme of this quarter, we have decided to take service as a theme. Since we've gotten quite some questions and discussions about this during the last two years, we decided to take this as a theme for the quarter.
This has been a strategic priority for us, especially in 2022 and 2023, where we have increased our service and maintenance and aftermarket. This is something we offer through service contract, one-off contracts, facility management agreements, through our subsidiaries. We have also started to sign multidisciplinary installations agreements, also showing the strength of the Instalco companies working together. This is a great way to deepen our relationship with our customers, as well as reaching new ones. When we offer service solutions on already installed solutions, we also see property maintained installation has a longer life cycle, which makes it more sustainable as well.
Very interesting trend that we see is also that where we have installed the projects, we can also deliver a much more better service since we have also installed the whole building. This is also taking responsibility for the full life cycle of the installation. We also see a trend that if we have the service agreement, we also are able to offer energy-efficient solutions, which contributes new projects as well with a higher hit rate. To, while service is not maybe necessarily our highest margin business, it provides a stable income for Instalco, and also, as I mentioned before, deepens our relationship with our customers.
For the full year 2020, service has grown to 23% of our annual sales and is a strategic focus for 2023. However, when we define service, there is no exact definition within how it is done in the market. We have kept the same focus all during this year. When you compare our numbers, you can see the growth that we have had. The way we report and our criteria is, in short, a summary, a small, ongoing assignment as part of a service agreement or an assignment sent to the company's service department. Some features here might be that turnover does not fall under the need for POC accounting or commissions on a running account without the budget.
This is the way we define it, then there might be some other definitions within the market. Looking back, all the way to full year 2018, service amounted for around 11% of our net revenue, since we have steadily increased this share over the last years, and this has continued also during the first half of 2023. And in Q1 2023, we had 26% service, and in the second quarter, we jumped all the way to 30%. We have previously talked about aiming for around 30% of sales, and I'm pleased to see that we now have reached it. It is, of course, somewhat fluctuating during the quarters, so this will still be a focus area for us.
On average, this is what we believe is a healthy level and what we aim for. How have we managed our service business, and how we manage this growth? It's been a continuous effort within the whole whole company all the way from management, all the way down to subsidiaries. This comes from both acquisitions. Early on, we acquired a lot of product-based companies. Now, we've also focused on the aftermarket, so we have shifted a little bit on M&A targets that we look at today compared to historical numbers. Also within the spirit of Instalco, we have shared best practice to companies that already have a lot of service to companies that are not so familiar with the service business.
For these companies already under the Instalco umbrella, we have supported them in establishing separate service departments that did not exist previously. That has allowed us and them to dedicate time and resources to develop their service business. Finally, we have also wanted to become even better at what we do, so we have actually also started to train our talents within Instalco through this best practice system. And that has been done by establishing a dedicated service management branch within the Instalco Academy. For those of you who don't know what Instalco Academy is, it's our own school, where we train our own talents. To sum up, the quarter, we have a strong development with continuous good profitability, despite a somewhat challenging market.
We see some positive signs from Insta, from Finland, which is very, very nice to see. We have an EBITDA margin of 7.7%. It would have been 8.1, but we have adjusted for a buffer. I think this is something that you need to consider is a way from us to really show transparency. Normally, this is handled within the subsidiaries, but since this came after reporting from the subsidiaries, we decided to do this, so to say, one-off buffer, on top of Instalco, just to be transparent with you. We have a solid order backlog. We remain at around 70%.
We see that our service business is growing on a healthy level, and we do it with best practice, and this is also a reason why you see some organic growth as well. We remain very committed to our M&A strategy and will continue to acquisitions. Thank you very much. I'm very proud to present this Q2 report, and I say thank you to all the 6,000 coworkers that we have in the Nordics. And with that, I will conclude this presentation and move over to Q&A. 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 Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Good morning. It's Carl here from Nordea. Firstly, I guess on the provision here you took, is it possible to give more flavor on it? I mean, is it related to one or, or, or quite a few projects to this customer? Do you see any chance of being able to sort of finalize the project at all, or, or what do you see? Also on that note, I mean, we've, we obviously, we read about the bankruptcies in the construction industry. Do you think it will lead to, to, to an gradually increasing amount of provisions over the coming quarters here, or how, how should we look at that sort of your, your diversification to, to, I guess, to, to quite a few customers?
Yeah, I think that, to try to take it one by one here, I think that you have to see this as normally, this is part of the business. Normally, this is handled by the subsidiaries. This is something that the subsidiaries handle from day to day. It is nothing new. These things happen. We are running 6,000 projects at the moment, and this is roughly, maybe around 20 projects that we're talking about. This is for a specific construction company, which I would say, is a quite well-known customer that's been around in the market since 1970, and well spread around the whole Sweden, I would say.
This bankruptcy that we're talking about came in after reporting from subsidiaries, meaning that the subsidiaries did not have time to make any specific so to say, reserves. We decided to, for transparency reasons, just show you guys what we have done. We could have, of course, also only reported 7.7% and not said anything about it, but instead, we decided to, to be very transparent here and, and show you what we had done. As I said, this is a day-to-day business, this is nothing, this just became an issue because it was off the reporting from subsidiaries. Normally, as I said, this is handled with the, within the subsidiaries. We haven't seen any increase lately on reserves from subsidiaries either.
We, of course, follow this very closely, and we have a very close relationship with our subsidiaries and follow their reserves monthly. For this specific customer, as I think I've mentioned in some earlier calls, we're happy that we are in the Nordics. We don't stop with projects here. We don't, so to say, leave unfinished projects as you might see in other countries. I typically think that we will continue for another builder, or for another customer, or for the end customer, perhaps, and finalize these projects. However, it's hard to say today how that will affect the result.
That is why also we have done this, reserve, to be very cautious, and to be very responsible, and also to be very open with what we have done. Was that answer to you?
Super clear, I think. Very good. Also looking at the organic growth, in the quarter, the rough 5-5.5%, is it possible to sort of give numbers on where new construction is in the quarter in terms of negative organic growth likely? I mean, is it too early to say that the full effect of the new construction resi is in the numbers already, or we will see an acceleration on the resi side, over the coming few quarters here in your organic growth?
I think that we're, we're very happy to show organic growth with 5.5% because, as a little bit, you, you, you kind of tend to, to, to move on, is that of course, market is not up 5.5%. Market is down overall, so we're very happy to be able to show organic growth. Whether the full effect of new constructions has affected us yet, I would say, in some parts, like we have discussed many times before, market is down very dramatically when it comes to new build of residentials. However, that is a quite small part of our turnover. I think in 2022, it contributed to 13%. I would say that 2023, it's even lower.
In some parts of the market, yes, in some parts, no. That's also why we have a very diversified portfolio. That is also why we moved in a few years within the installation business for the end customer industry, which is now a growing, growing segment for us. We've also moved into technical consultants, just to give the diverse diversification also within the construction industry.
Mm. Okay, very good. Also on your organic order backlog, it grew by 2%. As you said, the market is, is, is seemingly down currently. I mean, how, how do you make sure that, that you're not... or that you keep a good pricing discipline, given the quite shaky market environment here, and not take, sort of mispriced contracts? Do you have new thresholds for your subsidiaries or product leaders, or in any way to sort of monitor and, and, and try to avoid mispriced contracts, and also include the new wage inflation into the numbers, I guess?
Yeah, there's also there is a few measures that have been taken. One is, of course, having a close collaboration with your subsidiaries, with the management team within the subsidiaries. Making sure that our, also division managers and also area managers have all the information they need to have the discussion with subsidiaries. It's a close collaboration with finance, department, and the managers, and also the subsidiaries. Making sure that as you mentioned, we calculate the right way. We, we do tests, we try to make sure that everyone has the full information of what the purchasing prices are, and also make sure that, also, wage inflation is calculated within the, within the costs. However, of course, there's always a risk. As I said, we have 6,000 employees.
There is always a, a risk that someone does a miscalculation. However, I will quote one of my senior managers and say, "I'm a little bit happy that we are only at 70% order backlog, because at the moment I wouldn't want to have a too growing order backlog, because that would, might, might expect that we have taken some projects at a very low price." I think that, that we remain at this level is also a show of strength, that we are not the ones that are competing with price, that we keep it at this level, meaning that we are strict with price, we are focused as we've always been, we are definitely not the ones going for price.
Okay, very good. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you, Carl.
The next question comes from Karl Bokvist, from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
You, good morning. Just a quick follow-up there, if all related just to credit losses to get that out of the way. You mentioned a number of projects within this provision, but is it related to mainly one segment, such as residential, or is it more widespread?
First of all, it is not a credit loss. We haven't lost any money yet, to be very clear.
Yeah, sorry.
This is something to be thought about, that we are very transparent and that we are very cautious, and that's why we do the revision. We haven't lost any money yet, to be very clear. Secondly, it is mainly towards one customer, and that customer is a large construction company in Sweden that has 14, I think, 12 or 14 subsidiaries within Sweden, and they produce anything from schools to apartments. They're very, so to say, diversified themselves as well, depending on their subsidiary.
Understood. Rest of Nordics performed very well. You said that you were optimistic on performance in Finland. Is it any particular? Yeah, you mentioned some larger macro drivers, but is it any kind of particular area within the unit, such as now you get the increased density, or there are certain applications that are driving better profitability in this region?
I think mainly, what we see is that we're starting to see some effects. We're not out of the woods yet, we are starting to see some effects of the focus that we've had on Finland and also some changes in the management team, and also the focus on pricing and making sure we take the right projects. I think the team in Finland has done a very well, well, very good job in staying focused, not taking projects at a very low level, which you might be tempted to in a tougher market, but staying true to the model and staying so to say, cool and calm and waiting for the right projects to come.
We've gotten some, so to say, not so profitable, projects out of the way, where we had maybe fixed price, that got hit during the inflation, and price increases that we have seen, out of the way, and are taking new projects at new price levels. I think that is the main reasons.
Yeah, understood. With, with Rest of Nordics margins being up this particular quarter, for example, but still, yeah, they're, they have been trending up, is it mainly Finland that is driving this improvement, or have you seen also that performance in Norway is also improving?
I think the main reason is that, that Finland is doing better. We're also seeing, some, some, some better results in Norway as well, but they came in a little bit earlier, but were dragged down a little bit by Finland. Now we are seeing some, some better results, in the quarter from Finland. That's the main reason.
Understood. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you, Carl.
The next question comes from Carl Norén from SEB. Please go ahead.
Hello, good morning. A couple of questions. If we start off with the margin development here in Sweden, if we do some adjustments, I think it's rather flat year-over-year. I'm just wondering, are you seeing any signs of pricing pressure on new projects that you bid on in the market? I guess a lot of your sales in this quarter was based on your order backlog. What are you seeing right now in the projects you bid on, on pricing?
Yeah, I think, as I've mentioned before, in certain areas and in certain locations, and for certain specific type of projects, there is a lot of price pressure that you see. For instance, I will quote one of my senior managers again, in the southern parts of Sweden when they said, like, "Okay, for this specific projects, there are 11 installation companies that are bidding. It's no use of even doing a calculation. Let's do another project instead." I think once again, it's all about finding the right customer, finding the right type of projects. In specific areas and in specific type of projects, there are, I would say, an increased amount of competition, so that you need to kind of steer away from them.
Yeah, we see price pressure in specific areas, and segments. I think it is important to try to find the right customer, try to find the right solution for that specific customer, instead of going into sort of a price war.
Okay. Then one question on the, on the CapEx in the quarter. I think you had investment in non-current assets of SEK 26 million in the quarter versus SEK 1 million last year. Could you just, just specify what that, what that investment into?
That investment is mainly coming from our new industrial companies. They need some more CapEx to run the business, so I think that's the short explanation there.
Okay, that's clear. Just one last question on the technical consultant side, where I've seen some signs of maybe a weakening market, I guess, in some segments, in, in some reports, on the market there over the summer. Just wondering if you are seeing any weakness, in, in that segment?
... We, once again, it's a little bit local in that sense. We are seeing on some of our local subsidiaries, some weaker demand. Of course, as we said before, technical consultants are a little bit ahead of us. We have seen in some particular areas and for some segments, a somewhat slower market. However, it is hard to say at the moment, they are still in, so to say, a build-up phase. It's, it's a little bit hard for us to say what this, so to say, the costs of building this up compared to demand.
So far, we see that utilization rate is still on stable levels, and we are still growing the business a bit by taking on new technical consultant. This is once again, this is a long strategic decision that we took, so we will continue to do investments in this area, and continue to grow when we find the right type of talent. This is also organically generated mostly. We have done some small add-on acquisitions, but once again, it's mainly recruiting technical consultants, and we will continue to do so when the right talent comes along.
Okay, great. That's all for me.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Markus Almerud, from Erik Penser Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, Markus Almerud here. let me start by follow up on a question that was asked that was asked before on, on pricing. Would you say that new project that, projects that come in, are they now price cost neutral? That is, are, are things moving in, in not slow enough for you to be able to adjust pricing, so to speak, so that the margin is, is in line with history?
Ah, okay. I see what you mean. Yeah, I mean, we, we don't see the fluctuation of material prices that we maybe saw 1 year, 1.5 years ago. So in that, in that sense, it is lot slower, but we do see a continued price increases on, on some project products, sorry. But as I mentioned before, we are more, how to say? On top of it, and, and I think the whole industry is more, how to say? Faster moving than the whole industry was maybe 1 year and 1.5 years, 2 years ago, when this really hit the whole, whole business, so to say, and, and, and everybody.
Of course, inflation continues, and it is hard to keep up with increasing prices as fast. Once again, we are a little bit more cautious on taking projects, and once again, it is a strength that we look at small, medium-size projects. We don't take the large projects in fixed price, so we have a little bit built-in hedging here in, in that sense. However, it is, it is hard to, to, to be exact on top of it.
Okay. If I look at your pricing, your pricing on new projects that you take, and the cost of the, of the materials coming in is not yet really in balance?
No, there can still be some shifts. Yes, that's correct.
Okay, okay. My second question is on interest cost. If I look at the interest cost in the quarter, was up quite a lot from Q1, and I know that you're taking on more debt because of the because of the acquisitions you made, and then dividend that you made, for instance.
Mm.
Would you say that if interest rates doesn't move from now, is this a good proxy, the SEK 40 million in interest, to put into our models going forward? Or are you behind so that you will see interest costs go up, so the interest rates are not yet fully reflected?
I think the interest rates are fully reflected within the calculation. However, if we would do more acquisitions, we might need to take on more debt.
Mm.
In the case where we don't do a lot of acquisitions, then we generate so much cash flow that we're able to repay our loans in a sense. Just to give a quick example, with the 2 acquisitions that we did this quarter and the dividend payment that we did, we're still able to be at a 2.5 Net debt/EBITDA. That kind of shows you the strength that we have in our cash flow. If we lower the rate of M&A, we will not increase interest costs, if you understand what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, and then my, my next question is on the service margin. You said that it's not your highest margin business, but is it lower than average, or, I mean, can you give us some ballpark?
No, but I think the consensus within. The reason why I said that is that sometimes the consensus from the market is that after-market is so much more profitable. I think that is something that you take with you from like, I don't know, the automotive industry, where you sell the car, and then you make a lot of money on the after-market. And sometimes, I think that consensus might be a little bit wrong. This is when it comes to service, costs are also higher. It's higher cost to running a service business. You need more cars, you need more management time, you need more admin, you need more, a lot more administration compared to running a project, in a sense. To give an example.
A project manager can run 1 project and have maybe 10, 15 installers under 1 project manager. Running a service business, you might be able to have 5- 7 or 8 maybe installers, just to give an example. It's also harder for a service business when you have to go from place to place. It's also harder to get utilization rates at, at, so to say, full, full 100%. When you run projects and you can run them, so to say that, that, you finalize 1 project on Friday, and you start a new on Monday, you can have a 100% utilization. In that sense, it's, it's not always more profitable. However, maybe our rates are higher on service, but it's harder to get utilization rates and administrative costs are higher.
That's, that's what I mean with that.
Mm-hmm. A good assumption is to say that it's in line with the average, more or less, over time.
That's a, that's a good assumption.
Then finally, if I can ask about your comment about the supply of new projects, which is down from high levels. Could you talk a little about... I mean, I know that residentially is, is difficult, but, but when you talk about supply of new projects, what does it look like overall, if you look at the other, at the other verticals?
I think that overall, as I, as I mentioned, we see a constant flow of new projects coming in. That is also why we are reporting almost flat on, on, so to say, the order backlog, meaning that we roughly produce as much as we get new projects in. So in that sense, I would say that the flow is constant at the moment. There is, of course, some local shifts, and that's, that's what we have said many, many times, over and over, is that this business is local. You will have a few areas where, so to say, order backlogs are very high and the demand is extremely high, and you'll have some parts of the Nordics and some local areas where it is a little bit lower.
That's the areas where you need to work at and, and focus on. It's hard to give a general statement of, of whole, whole Nordics. However, on an overall scale, overall, we see that we produce as much as we take in, in that sense.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Markus.
The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi again. just wanted to have... ask 2, 2 follow-ups. The first one related to technical consulting. You, you touched upon it briefly here, but, was just curious if you could elaborate a bit further on, your kind of, well, continued investments in the organization and, whether or not you've seen any changes in the market for technical consulting services.
Yeah. We will, when it comes to technical consultants, as I said, we, we continue to grow the business. I think we have surpassed 350 technical consultants. We are on our way to 370, I think somewhere around there, that region. We are growing the business. However, as, as mentioned before, we see a slowdown in some of the segments on some local areas. This is a good timing also to, as we did half a year ago, also a good time to look over staffing and, and, what type of projects we take and where we focus, and et cetera.
However, long term, we see this as a tremendously good investment, and this is also a good opportunity, to take on good talent because there are some movements within the technical consultants areas, or market overall. This is also a good way to, to recruit and a good, so say, when, when market is a bit volatile, people look over their own situation and where they want to be, and why not be at the, at the moment, the, the brightest star in, in technical consultancy, so why not join them? I think this is a very good opportunity to continue to invest, and to continue to grow the business. This, once again, this contributes to 2% of our annual turnovers.
I mean, it's still a small part of the business.
Understood. My final one was just on, well, partly seasonality and within this, but on cash flow generation, the third quarter is seasonally a bit of a slower quarter in terms of cash inflow. I was just wondering, in case you feel or see in within your kind of working capital structure, that there are things coming that could still make, you know, mean that cash flow will be good for you in the third quarter.
Thank you. I can first comment on where we are in Q2. We, we are having a strong cash flow from operation activities, thanks to our strong earnings. In this quarter, we are tying up some more working capital due to strong growth and high sales. So, we are tying up in accounts receivable because of a good quarter. Yes, you are right, when it come to Q3, Q3, on the seasonal effect from the summer vacation period, we are a little-- we can be a little bit stronger when we look at it in general term, but we can come back to that in next quarter to go into the details where we are at that time point.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you, Carl.
There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions or closing comments.
Okay. I don't think we had any written questions this quarter. With that, I thank you all for listening. Thanks for all the questions. Once again, thanks to all the coworkers of Instalco for delivering a good, solid report for Q2. Let's get back to work. Have a nice day, everybody, and thanks for listening in. Take care. Bye-bye.