Welcome to Lagercrantz Group Q1 report 2024/25. During the question and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now we'll hand the conference over to CEO, Jörgen Wijk, and CFO, Peter Thysell. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and, yeah, and good morning, everyone. Jörgen Wijk speaking here, CEO of Lagercrantz, and together with me here today, this morning, we have our CFO as well, Peter Thysell. We will guide you through the interim report. We just a few weeks back released our annual report and everything, so I think you're fairly up-to-date with what we have. So we will keep this session a little bit shorter than normal. It's only our first quarter here. But as we think it's a solid, good quarter and a good start to the year. We have put together the presentations as we normally do, with just a brief introduction to all of those that are new to the group.
But along the way, we will discuss then in the second phase, the numbers and the Q1, and where we are with everything. And then we will round off with also some discussions, a little bit more future-looking and, and what, what we're about to do in the group, and also the more recent acquisitions we just closed here. We actually closed one last night, as you, as you may have seen this morning. So, we have had concluded some 2 acquisitions here during this, here very recently. So with that, I will start off with the first, the slide of the introduction. I mean, Lagercrantz is the tech group and a, and a serial acquirer without an exit horizon, where we are building the group through both organically and through M&A.
We currently have 75 to 80 companies, depending on how we define them, between 75 to 80 companies within the group. We have organized ourselves into the five divisions that you can see here with the Electrify, Control, TechSec, Niche Products, and International divisions. We are working in a B2B space, building a tech group, where all our companies are offering some value-creating technologies in expansive niches, either with our own proprietary products or through products from leading suppliers. Revenues of the total group are around, exceeding SEK 8 billion at the moment; SEK 8.3 billion is the current number. We are growing some 15% per year or so, and we are currently 2,800 employees within the group.
We are true believers and are working very much with our decentralized organization, with our decentralized model, where each company are working under their own brand name, independently, working and driving their businesses with their local management. We are owners and working through the boards with the different companies throughout the group. As true believers in a lot of independence, a lot of freedom, but also accountability in our decentralized model within the group. You can see over to the right where we have our companies. It's in Northern Europe, most of them.
And we are gradually growing more into the Central Europe with the, with the UK or, yeah, this northern, northern central, and you can see Germany and the Benelux and also Poland. While we're also growing continuously with acquiring more companies in the Nordics. All the way over to the right, you can see where we also have some footholds. We are growing our businesses outside the Nordics and in Northern Europe, also with some additional volumes coming in, for instance, the US, but also in China and in India, are some important sort of export markets for some of our companies.
M&A and acquisitions is a very central part of our business model as we acquire some 8-12 companies per year, growing the business through, as I said, organically and through acquisitions. We have been on the stock exchange since 2001, where we were formerly a part of the Bergman & Beving Group before that, but have been on our own feet since 2001, gradually growing the group over many years now. To jump into the numbers then, our Q1 figures, I think we posted another solid quarter according to many of the expectations and also according to the consensus, as I understand it. And it was a where we have seen the trends really continue.
We have, over the last year or so, due to the downturn in the economy, seen some slowdown in the markets. But we feel that it's bottoming out in some aspects, and from as we see interest rates and inflation rates coming down. But currently, we have some slower organic growth, and we have been compensating that with some more through M&A instead. Posting some two major acquisitions for us in the early here in February and March, and now adding a couple of more here in July.
So we are compensating to a large extent the slower organic growth with some more M&A, as we normally do in time periods where we see some slower organic growth and the downturn in the market. We have some companies that are related to the construction sector, and especially those and have had some slower market at the moment. We see that within the Control division, within the TecSec division, especially; we've seen that for a while. But I'll come back to that later on. But another solid quarter, and as you can see here from the bubbles, we are aiming higher every year.
We have the ambition to grow some 15% per year, and here we surpassed it, Lagercrantz towards SEK 1 billion goal here last summer, and now here the fall, we put up the Lagercrantz towards the SEK 2 billion. And you see that, where sort of the trend is heading, and we have said that we will reach that within five years. And we think that we are approaching that in a good way here also with this recent developments. With that, I'll hand over to you, Peter. Yeah, sorry, I should cover this one as well. We also commented a little bit on the business conditions. We feel that the market situation remains stable for most of the businesses.
This is really a headline we've had for a couple of quarters now, but we see it's bottoming out in some areas. Demand was strongest in the Electrify and Niche Products divisions. Electrify actually posted a very strong quarter, given that they also had some project volumes last year. So Electrify did it really well this quarter. And some of the Niche Products division product companies did that as well. They posted a very strong Q4 within the Niche Products, so that was a lot to live up to, but still a very good continuous path for the Niche Products division.
While it's been slightly weaker within the Control and TechSec divisions, within the Control division, we have a couple of companies that are more related to the construction sector and also to some aluminum production in Europe, which has been a bit down for a while. And within the TechSec division, we have the CW Lundberg and the Arcon businesses that are more construction related and late cyclical to some extent, and those have also been struggling a little bit through the quarter here. But otherwise, it's holding up very well for us. Within the demand continued to be good, especially within International division, especially with the customers related to the marine sector.
We have 2-3 companies there that are related to that, and that has been a driving force for them or for that division here during the quarter and previously as well. And that looks to continue as we're looking forward. And all in all, I think the order intake for comparable units, which is a measurement we're using, the order intake for the comparable units were in line with invoiced sales during the quarter. And that was slightly better than in the previous quarter. So I think we see some trends that it's actually improving to some extent, or at least stabilizing and some type of improvement we see along the way.
We hope that or see that, that, as inflation rates and interest rates are coming down, that we see more projects coming in, more requests coming in, and it looks promising for the fall and winter. So, a little bit further. We have also, as we see here down to the down here, we could see also that the share of proprietary products, which is a key KPI for us, has continued to improve over the years, and it's currently at 76%. And we also see that we are gradually becoming more international, and we have actually split this up, compared to previous reports.
Now you can see the share of the U.K. and the share of Germany and some other markets which have been important to us in the last few years. We can see that those markets are actually picking up over the years as we are acquiring more companies within the U.K., especially in the U.K. A couple of comments around that. Looking at the hard numbers, I will hand over to you, Peter, then.
Thank you, Jörgen. Before going through these numbers, I want to remind everyone that Lagercrantz had a relatively tough comparables from a very strong Q1 report last year. Anyhow, our net revenues increased by 10% to SEK 2,253 million. Some 12% growth came from acquisitions, and the organic growth was -3%. This is to a high degree explained by a project that we had in Q1 last year of some SEK 45 million that was not covered in this quarter this year. So about two percentage units out of the three is explained by this.
Our EBITDA increased by 8%, and the EBITDA margin was at a good level of 17.1%, compared to a record high 17.5% last year. The cash flow from operations were at a good level of SEK 235 million, and profit after financial items increased by some 9%. This is, by the way, a record for a single quarter, so a relatively good level. The return on equity is 26%, and the equity ratio is 36%. Our profit over working capital was at 74%, compared to 72% last year. As Jörgen mentioned earlier, we completed 2 acquisitions after the Q1 report.
It should have stated more clearly in this slide that it was after the quarter. So in July, we completed two acquisitions, the Principal Doorsets and the CP Cases. I believe Jörgen will come back and present these cases a little bit later on. And these add some SEK 280 million in annual net sales, and this means that in the last twelve months, we have acquired some SEK 1,175 million in annual net sales, and this is some 15% compared to the net sales in the previous year. So a relatively high rate of acquisitions. And the earnings per share increased to 4,032 or up from the previous financial year.
As you know, the board has proposed an increased dividend to SEK 1.90 per share. If we look into the division, I want to emphasize that we have moved two entities from the Niche Products division to Control from the first of April. And all these numbers that you can see on this slide are pro forma numbers. So, they are changed with respect to this move. The overall conclusion is that here, the net revenue growth and EBITDA growth in all divisions have improved from the previous years. And, for the EBITDA margin, we can see improvement in three out of five divisions.
Special notice is that the TechSec division, where we have most of our construction-related businesses, are holding up pretty good and has actually improved the EBITDA margin in Q1 compared to Q1 last year. We can see that Niche Products has a little bit lower EBITDA margin this quarter, but please notice that they had a exceptionally high EBITDA margin in Q4. So some of that is probably explained by this. And we also notice that the International division continues to improve and they achieved average group level on a rolling 12-month basis, which is, we're very happy about. So Jörgen, back to you.
Yeah, and some comments on the, how the businesses are, are run and, and, running and, and, what, what to be said about sort of the some, some, some things around the different divisions. And in the Electrify division, then posted a very strong quarter, we think. The revenues were up 17%. But we also had the strong, as we already talked about, the project deliveries of last year, which has amounted to SEK 145 million in Cue Dee. And, Electrify actually, managed to compensate for that during the quarter here with improvements in other areas, so i- when we talk about profit.
So the Elpress and Tykoflex especially had a strong quarter, continued to do so with a positive development, with deliveries to the power grid and fiber optic network builders in the Nordic countries. So that whole thing with electrification is happening along the way, and it looks promising also from the increased demand from the wind power industry as well. What was important here was also the acquisition of the Nordic Road Safety, which we concluded here in, was it February or March? Can't remember, February or March, this year. Yeah, last fiscal year, but still, and that has come in very well for us, with some adding some volumes here.
They have a strong summer season in that company and has promised to be so also this year, with a strong start to their presence here with us in the group. So the Nordic Road Safety has been good for us. So strong, strong from Electrify, a little bit more of a stable quarter for the Control division. I think what we have done here is we have restructured the Control division. It's been lagging behind a little bit for the last couple of years, so we are actually putting some new focuses within the Control division along the way.
I think they posted a strong, stable quarter here, with especially the Load Indicator and Nikodan, which was the company we moved here, started out very well, and also the EU, Norway, and Exidor reported a positive development during the quarter. But we also, within the Control division, have a couple of more important units with more related to the construction sector, with especially the lighting control and the companies that we have within the Vanpee, both in Denmark and Norway, was impacted by the weaker construction sector. Also the Precimeter, which is a really strong and important part of the Control division, also continues to see challenges in its main markets in Central Europe, as I already mentioned earlier on.
I think the control will benefit now also from the CP Cases acquisition they made yesterday. So, I think we are building control to a new level here going forward, and but with a little bit of a new focus and changing it a little bit around where we'd like to be with the control division going forward. Within the TechSec division, also struggled a little bit, with some companies, especially the CW Lundberg and the Arcon businesses that were impacted by the weaker construction market.
But we also saw other markets with the traditional, more of TechSec type companies, the security companies within Aras, Idesco, Fireco in the UK, and also the group's largest business, PCP, which we acquired some 2 years ago, has been doing it very well for us, both throughout their period, really, with us, but also here during the quarter, continue to do it very well in many of their markets around in Europe. Also, the new newcomers within the TechSec division, the Diesel Voima in Finland, got off to a good start in the group and contributed positively to the result. It's a strong company related to the Arcon business, similar to the Arcon business that we acquired here in December, I think it was.
That is coming in very well for us in Finland, with some good volumes coming there. A few comments also on the Niche Products division concluded another strong quarter, even though they didn't live up to their very, very strong Q4, but still doing it very well. The EBITDA increased by 8% to SEK 100 million, and we could see many of their sort of different, cluster, clusters doing it very well, especially the Asept, with, with their, suspension pumps, especially in the U.S., had a strong quarter, but also Wapro in the U.S. and PSD, more, Sweden-related and Nordic-related, and SIB also did it very well here during the quarter.
We also saw some interest rate-sensitive businesses that struggled a little bit more, which was the Truxor with Matic and Waterproof Diving. A few things still to work with there. It is also important to comment on the Prido acquisition we made in February, I think it was, which is a leading manufacturer of high quality industrial folding doors, which is also a major bigger investment for us, has got off to a good start within Lagercrantz and contributed very well during the quarter here. Last but not least, we have the international division.
A few comments there is that they delivered a strong quarter, and grew quite nicely, as they have been doing for a while now, and especially the marine businesses within Libra in Norway, the ISIC in Denmark, and Tebul in Finland contributed very well. But also other companies, the Schmitztechnik in Germany and E-Tech, did it very well for us. A general, very positive sort of outcome for the international division here. And we also see other companies, the acquired companies, the Glova Rail and the Supply Plus, and the DP Seals in the UK, delivered improved earnings, as part of the Lagercrantz along the way here.
Supply Plus has been with us for a year now, but came in last Q1 last year, but has had a good first year with us, as Fireco has had also within the TechSec division. So that was comments on the different business segments. As we move along then, I think we feel very happy with the first quarter. We feel that it's been a solid quarter and along the trends and the outlook that we have, that we've seen. We see a slower market, but it has leveled out and it's balancing and bottoming out, we feel, in many important segments where we are operating.
Along the way, we are optimistic or cautiously optimistic for the future and for the fall. We usually have an order book of some 3 to 4 months or so within the group, and therefore, the sort of outlook for the fall is something that we are not fully aware of or see, but according what we see in the different markets and the requests, it's looking fairly promising for the fall. We will continue to grow, to grow the group with the annual profits of some... With ambition to grow the profits by 15% per year, reaching SEK 2 billion with it, within the 5 years that we set out then. The return on equity then should be at least 25%.
Those are for the financial goals that we're working with, and we will continue working with those along the way. And continue the building the five divisions. I think that the Electrify division, as pointed out already earlier, are growing with the electrification of the society. The Control division, we're changing the scope a little bit along the way, changing a few things there. Looking a little bit broader, finding new companies and also putting in the Nikodan and the MH Modules type businesses into the Control division, and also with some additional acquisitions coming. I think the Control division will grow quite nicely as well along the way.
The TechSec has been doing it very well for us in the last few years, growing significantly, both organically, but also through acquisitions, with some major acquisitions, the PCP and a few others, is really adding to the TechSec division. It used to be one of the smaller divisions we have within the group, but it's currently then, at least revenue-wise, the biggest one. And the Niche Products is the most, is the one we've been growing since 2012, with acquisitions coming on stream, along the way. And it looks continuously very promising with the Niche Products, and that has actually been the most sort of margin-wise, the most profitable businesses that we have within the group.
International, as for those of you that have been with us for quite some years, you see that international has been lagging behind and looking further back, but has picked up quite nicely here in the last year, a couple of years, and doing it very nicely with adding acquisitions, with more proprietary products and building the marine cluster, building more in the UK and other markets, and has picked up very nice for us. So the International division is also looking very promising along the way. So we are continuing with the recipe or the business idea that we have. Building the positions in sustainable segments with underlying structural growth is what we're aiming for with all our divisions along the way, and we will continue do so in the future.
Last but not least, I'd like to go into the acquisitions and look and present the newcomers to the group. We have posted some 8 acquisitions here during the last 12 months, adding up some SEK 1,175 million in terms of annual business volume, which is around 15% or so ourselves. So well above the 10%, which is we set as a target along the way. We have the plan to acquire some 8 to 12 companies per year, and currently we are at the 8th now for the last 12 months then. We're keeping the pace where we should be.
You can see over to the right, where we have listed all the companies that we have acquired recently, and since 2006, then it's been some 80 acquisitions that we made. So I think we're well aware of what we're doing, and we are well aware of what we're after, what we're aiming for, and have a very sort of developed process and team around building through acquisitions. And you can see here the 8 acquisitions, especially the ones here in 2024. I'd like to go over them a little bit, because the first two, the Prido and the Nordic Road Safety, are a little bit bigger than the more recent one, the Principal Doorsets and the CP Cases. I'd like to introduce to you guys.
So we will move on here and start with the Principal Doorsets then. Again, we have put, since a couple of years back, we put feet on the ground in the U.K., so we are actually out looking more for companies in the U.K. space, and have now then here in just a couple of weeks, concluded another two deals within the U.K. We are, of course, looking throughout the Nordics, so it's more of a happening that is all in the U.K. at the moment, but we are also looking at in the markets where we are, the Northern Europe markets. The Principal Doorsets then is a good company developing and growing, working with innovative and bespoke fire doors in the U.K.
We acquired a fire door company some years back with the Door and Joinery Solutions, which were also part of the group. This is a similar company, but addressing some other segments. So they are aware of each other, but it's not really competitors to one another. They're more working as colleagues in the market. Sales are about GBP 9 million and with good profitability, and the company is located in Barnstaple, in the southwest Devon of the UK. Fire doors are a crucial part of the passive fire protection within the building.
This is an area which is picking up in the UK and been much more important to in the construction sector within the UK, and has had seen some good growth over the years. Here we have another company that we could add to the group. You can see some good numbers as normal down to the right there. We have definitely the ambition to keep the EBITDA margin well above 15% in all our companies, and here is another good, solid company that is coming in to the group with some good numbers and good profitability. This company will be part of the TechSec division from here, from July in 2024.
Acquisitions we made last week, and here then yesterday, we released another information around the CP Cases. The CP Cases is another UK company manufacturing high-performance protective cases and racks used for mission-critical equipment for commercial and military applications. You can foresee the different type of protective cases that is needed for electronics or different type of vital equipment that you might use for that you need to travel with, or that you need to enclose in a good way, keeping it in vehicles or carrying it around, or bringing it to the front, or whatever it might be. And those type of cases, this CP Cases company has been very good at manufacturing and providing to customers all over the world, really.
And they also have a subsidiary in the U.S., so they're also located in on the East Coast of the U.S. They have a manufacturing plant also on the East Coast of the U.S. Some sales of GBP 12 million with good profitability, as you can see down to the right there as well. Another good, solid company. And here we also are having the former owners continued on as managing the company and also with some stake in it. So a minority shareholding of some 13% there, as you can see, keeping that. And this is also was released yesterday, so another good company adding to, in this case, the Control division from July 2024.
And just a small reminder then, I mean, Prido that we released earlier on, I think it's important for you guys to realize that this is, I think this is a really good company that we acquired here in Sweden, here in February. And you can see down to the right that that is actually significant for us in terms of profits, and it's been coming in very nicely within the group, providing these type of doors. They have been working with a one shift sort of setup for a while, and producing for a year or so, delivering very, very good numbers on the lower level, but they're also then looking into increasing their production capacity a little bit for the fall here.
So that's also a sign that we see some improvements in some of the markets where we are. And here are. The last one I'd like to remind you as well of is the Nordic Road Safety, which is a supplier of permanent road safety and noise barrier systems, especially in Sweden, but also in Norway and in Finland. A company located outside Sundsvall, in north of Sweden. With some, with some also as a significant adding to the sales, and here adding to the Electrify division from March 2024. They have a strong summer period, which we've seen already, and strong summer and fall.
Our Q1 and Q2 will probably benefit from the Nordic Road Safety sort of development here, as well as we move forward within the Electrify division. So to round off, before we do the Q&A, just the overall chart of our financial overview, where we posted, as we said, another solid quarter. Net sales now approaching SEK 8.5 billion, and we see the EBITDA at almost SEK 1.5 billion, and we're aiming then for the EBT to go to SEK 2 billion, as we said earlier, and we are currently at SEK 1,141 million, with some EBITDA growth, EBT growth here in the last year or so.
A little bit below the 15%, but still at the very near that, at the 13%, and the return of equity well above the 25 or above the 25, at 26. And earnings per share and EPS growth is also at a good level here. And as we see then more M&A coming in and also hopefully some improvement in the markets, we will continue our journey going forward. I think that was all from me and us, so I think we'll round off there. Peter, would you like to add something before we go into M&A, Q&A?
No, I think we're ready for-
Q&A
... all the questions.
Mm-hmm.
So if you would like to ask a question, please press pound key five on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from Max Bäck from SEB. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Max Bäck from SEB. Well done on another stable quarter, and nice to see the acquisition pace remaining high.
Yeah.
Just two, three questions from my side. So starting with the Electrify segment, the EBITA margin was down some two percentage points year-over-year. How much of that was explained by the lack of project deliveries from, or for Qvintus, would you say? If it's possible to quantify.
I think it was most, if not all of it, actually. I think that we see a good sort of margin development in our existing businesses, but the add on of some SEK 45 million, with just some contribution margin, will actually be a very good sort of project to have had last year. So that's actually most of it, if not all.
Yeah, understood. And, and for the coming, say, two quarters here, did you have any similar project deliveries during the comparable quarters last year that we should be aware of?
I think we commented on a little bit on Q4, and I think we also had something but related to, more to the, Elkapsling business. So these projects come and go a little bit-
Yeah
... and I think the reason for us commenting now is it was a significant sort of project last year that we would like to enlighten everyone that that actually was something that was beneficial to us for last year. And as you saw from last year, the Electrify posted a very strong quarter last year compared to the year before. So it's actually-
Mm-hmm
... it was, it was, a very tough comparable for us to meet this year within the Electrify.
Yeah, understood. And then finally, I mean, when reading-
Sorry, Max, I can maybe add to that, you can assume some around 50% margin or so for the QD.
Okay. Okay.
The SEK 45 million. So, of course, that explains a lot about the drop in EBITDA.
Mm-hmm. Mm.
This was, of course, to a high degree compensated by other entities. But that's why we think that, except from the QD project-related business, it was a rather strong quarter for-
Mm.
the Electrify division.
Perfect, understood. And then the final question. I mean, when reading the CEO comment here in this report compared to previous quarters, Jörgen, you do sound a bit more optimistic. Is it that you are actually right now seeing a gradual improvement in the market, or is it that we are getting closer to an improvement, would you say?
Yeah, I think what we've said earlier on, also after Q4, I think we saw that the markets were down a bit, that we saw that the construction sector was really struggling here during the past winter and the past spring. And I think we said already then that we expect it to be improved a little bit along the way, that we saw that the fall is probably be looking better, and due to that, we see that interest rates are coming down, and inflation rates are coming down, things are stabilizing, and then that we see the willingness to invest is coming back.
I think what we were actually saying now is that we see that that is actually also happening, that we see the trend is actually there. So we are closer to it, is probably the answer to what you're asking.
Okay.
It is hard for us to know what's gonna happen during the fall because we don't have that long order books. But based on the number of requests, the number of projects, the things that we see in the market, the sort of how things are turning out, I think it's according to what we expected, really, is more what we're saying.
Perfect.
So, so.
Yeah. That, that was all for me. Thank you very much for taking the questions, and-
Yeah
... have a nice summer.
Yeah, you too. Thank you.
The next question is from Karl Bokvist, from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. My first one is on the with Nikodan and the material handling decision that you made here. Just a bit curious why you felt that you know they fit better within control? And the follow-up is that when we look at the restated figures it seems like Nikodan had a strong fiscal year 2022, 2023, but then a notably lower in terms of margins at least 2023, 2024. So just what happened during last year?
Yeah, I think both Nikodan and MH Modules, which the companies you're referring to, are building different type of conveyor systems for different type of customers, production lines, and that type of thing. It's more of a system integration type business. It and it is has some projects going up and down. But over the years, both, especially Nikodan, MH Modules is a fairly new company to us, right? We acquired that in December of last year. But those type of businesses are related also to control and steering things, and we think it fits better into the Control division, and is also an area we would like to build over the years.
By putting it as a more of a key area and a focus area within the control, it made a lot of sense to us, and that's why we moved them. Commenting a little bit on the numbers there, I think that Nikodan has been doing it very well. I think the year before last, the one you're referring to, that was exceptionally strong due to they have some positive effects from the COVID pandemic, with some customers adding some more volumes in that part of the time period.
So, I think last year was actually a more of a normal year, and hopefully now they've gotten off to a good start to this year as well, and will add to the Control division.
Understood. And then, perhaps a question more towards Peter, but were there any particular effects in the divisional numbers outside of, you know, the reshuffling of the companies and the QD that you helpfully pointed out? I noticed a positive earnout revaluation on the group level, but anything else on the divisions worth highlighting?
Not any significant things. And regarding the revaluation of contingent considerations, we added, for your convenience, the same quarter last year in the table, so you can compare how that has changed.
Understood. My final one was just on companies with exposure to environmental trends. I mean, you say Wapro still performs really well, and if I understand it correctly, it's mainly flood protection. But are there other areas within your business where you feel that, you know, the... Let's call it a structural trend, but where you have companies that benefit from the world being more volatile or more harsh?
Yeah, I think we have that in different parts of the business. The whole green transition and also the electrification, and as you're referring to the environmental sort of transition or environmental focus, is beneficial to some of our companies. A couple of other examples is the Geonor in Norway, for instance, measuring temperature and rainfall, is another company. The radon measurement business within the Control is another one, which is also sort of... Yeah, working in the environmental trend. So I think we have, yeah, 5 to 10 different businesses that have some sort of some type of positive effect from those type of trends. The Wapro is another one.
We have the SIB, and especially the Sajakorpi business in Finland, which is making the road sweeping business, and that's also changing quite a lot due to environmental aspects of the brushes and how they're working. So they're in the forefront of that development. So I think we have 5-10 different businesses that are actually benefiting from that type of trend, mega trend.
Understood. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, press, press pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question from Niklas Sävås from Redeye, please go ahead.
Hi, Jörgen and Peter. It's really encouraging to see the strong acquisition activity in the U.K. again here after the close of the quarter, and especially interesting, I think, is to see what you're building within fire safety with another acquisition of Principal Doorsets, complementing Door and Joinery and Fireco. And Jörgen, I know that you dislike the word synergies, but please talk about what type of benefits you see with building a cluster of similar companies.
I mean, yeah, as you're touching up on there, I mean, we run our company sort of in a decentralized, autonomous fashion. So that's the basis for things, right? But I think by people feeling and our managers feeling that they are in related businesses, they recognize the customer here and there from one another, and they can maybe transfer a phone number for some important customer in between each other or so, so that they can sort of benefit from each other being part of the same group and sort of talk the same language. Of course, that's good for us. And we encourage that.
We had our MD conference here just a month ago or so when we went to Finland, all of us, and especially the whole UK team really teamed up quite a lot. We watched the football together and yeah, looked at that and had a lot of fun together. Of course, that is encouraging a lot of collaboration between the companies in one way or the other.
It might be that they're talking about lean manufacturing in one end, they're talking about ERP systems in another end, they're talking about customers and providing different type of customer projects together or sort of giving information around what's going on in a specific part of the market, to some extent, at least. So it is actually a lot of collaboration. But the companies are run separately, and we don't integrate them in terms of production or in terms of other sort of more operational things that we would like to keep separate so that everyone, if they want to collaborate, they can do that, but it's not that is we request it or force it up on them. So that's how we like to run things.
But I think the whole fire cluster or the fire protection cluster that we're building in the UK and also outside the UK, we have companies in other markets that are also in fire protection. And that, of course, is good for us, that we are in a good growing sector, with many of our companies.
Good, good to hear. And, follow up on that is, when you find these type of companies, is that... I mean, as you build this cluster, I guess these, the managers of these companies have a strong network and know the other peers and so on. How much do you benefit from that, both in terms of sourcing, but also in terms of maybe, I mean, management capabilities and so on? I mean, ensuring that you have a team of managers that understands the market is, of course, good for you.
Yeah. Yes, yeah, definitely so. And we are, I mean, we are sharing ideas or asking for ideas around another company that is good and other peers in the specific markets, and adding it to our M&A sort of process, with some good ideas coming in there, and encourage it also with actually a bonus scheme for tipping off or when we see a very good company that are actually ending up as a new company to the group. So it's actually very beneficial for us, and we also see that the quality improves when we are working together and collaborating, and that's good.
Nevertheless, we would like the companies to feel fully accountable and free to choose the path for their company. So we don't, again, we don't force synergies or are not that occupied. We're looking for cost synergies in between the companies. That is up for each of them to find out, and we drive hard on the targets and the goals that we set for each company, but we don't force synergies up on them, especially not cost synergies.
Great. My last question is more broadly on the acquisition market. I think, I mean, you have had a really strong pace in terms of acquisitions during the last 12 months or so, and I think at least some of your peers have lagged behind a bit. Have you seen, like, a sort of a high competition for targets, or have the supply been lower than normal, so to speak? What would you—what do you see out there?
I think from an outside perspective, you might think it changes quite a lot over time. We don't really think it does. I think it's very stable. I think what we have seen has been very good for us, is setting up the divisional structure. So we're actually working quite a lot. We are more people working with finding acquisitions. It used to be more like a little bit more around sort of us in the top management team to look for acquisitions and be very occupied with that.
Now we have it more on a divisional level, and that means that we have really set up a structure where we have five times, maybe it's too much of a simplification to talk like this, but still, it's improved with finding more good quality targets when we're working more on the divisional level. I also feel that the feet on the ground that we put in the U.K. has also added to this. So we actually have. I think we have a good pipeline and a lot to look at also going forward. And we also have the balance sheet to do so.
So it's actually the M&A will be very important for us going forward as well.
Great. That's all for me. Enjoy the summer holiday.
Mm-hmm. Thank you very much. You too.
The next question from Gustav Berneblad, from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes, it's Gustav from Nordea. Just to start off, I mean, in terms of the Control Division, I think you said here during the presentation that you have implemented some initiatives. I guess this is sort of besides the companies you shifted. So, maybe just what exactly are these initiatives? And is there anything or is there support for the margin from this going forward, or?
Yeah, I think moving the companies is part of the new bit of the new recipe, that we are broadening the scope. We talk about sort of areas we would like to be in and as a sort of scoping where we would like to be with the divisions, and that has been broadened a little bit within the Control division. So that's actually happening along the way as well. So I think we will see, and we also then... When we're looking at our companies, we're also looking at very much company by company. We have companies that are more struggling with growth issues, and as we see the...
But we're also having companies that are struggling more with getting sort of things to work and seem struggling with the construction sector and so forth. So it's actually a recipe company by company. But I think the new thing is really that we are setting a new sort of scope for the Control division, a little bit broader scope for the Control division, and along those lines, also move the two companies there. I think the CP Cases acquisitions we made, you could debate whether that is a control, sort of a clear fit for the Control division, but that's also to be seen as a bit, little bit of the broadening of the scope within the Control division. So it's some of those things is what we've done.
Oh, okay. Got it. Got it. And then, also you commented on more, I guess, broadly across the group, but more requests coming in. Are there any specific, if we boil it down, any specific read we can do there, or?
It's always within our group a lot of different things happening and a lot of different businesses, right? So it's hard to talk about sort of a general trend. But we feel that the willingness to invest and the attitude for growing businesses has come back to some extent, and that we see also in the... But we don't really measure the number of requests on a group level, but it's a tendency, it's the mood of our MDs that I think is along the way has been stabilizing and picked up a little bit.
Yeah, okay, perfect. Thanks. And then just the final one here, on the higher tax. I mean, can you just explain this a little bit and how we should think forward?
That's for you, Peter, right?
Yeah. Yes. First of all, I think we had a very low tax in the previous year. That was the extraordinary thing. And if your question is regarding the little bit higher tax rate in this quarter, so it's usually in this quarter, in some of our companies, a correction after the annual accounts. So we normally have a little bit higher tax rate in the first quarter, and this will correct itself in the coming quarters.
Okay, that's perfect. Thank you very much. That's all for me.
There are no more questions from the teleconference at this time, so hand the word back to you, Jörgen and Peter.
Well, thank you, everyone, for listening in, and, I think, thank you for, yeah, spending the time with us. We will now have a couple of weeks off for a good holiday. I hope you do as well, and we'll meet soon again in August. And thank you for today, and, have a good summer.