Hello, and welcome to Lifco's Q3 Report 2022. Throughout the call, all participants will be on listen only mode, and afterwards, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If you have any questions, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. Today, I am pleased to present CEO Per Waldemarson and CFO Therése Hoffman. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, good morning and welcome to the Lifco Q3 conference call of 2022. We can start directly by going into page number two in our investor presentation. On this slide, we present the data for the quarter and for the last 12-month period. We can conclude that the third quarter of 2022 was another very successful quarter for Lifco. The trend with the increasing sales continued, and also the margins came back to a stronger level for many of our companies. For the group as a whole, sales grew with about 21% in the quarter, of which 10% was related to organic growth.
Acquisitions contributed with about 7%, and then we also had some help from exchange rates that helped us with 6% positively. Also like to highlight that we had a small negative impact on the sales from a divestment that we made in the second quarter of the company Hekotek, which impacted sales negatively with a bit less of 3%. Going further down and looking at the profit levels, the strong growth in sales translated into a very strong development in EBITDA, where we had a growth of 28% in the quarter, and also the EBITDA margin increased to 22% compared to 20.7% in the similar quarter in 2021.
Here I could then comment that general inflation and then, of course, specific price increases from our supplier, suppliers have been a challenging situation for us, for quite some time, and not only for us, for many companies in the world. We have now, after a period of time, can we conclude that the vast majority of our companies are adjusting very well, to the increased cost levels and, basically being able to pass this through to price increases. Here I can already hear mention also that the Lifco portfolio companies are typically in very strong niche positions with a high value proposition to our customers. That helps us in this period of time because it means that our products are very valued by the customers, and we have a pricing power position.
The issue that we have experienced in the last, let's say, 12-month period has been more related to timing effects of increasing our prices rather than the actual ability to do that. I think now in this quarter, we can show that this works very well. Going further down on page number two, looking at the cash flow, and there we are still a bit lower than normal, I would say, and also lower than the Q3 in 2021.
This has to do with the same explanation that we had now for a few quarters, that the increase in inventory levels has been necessary for our companies to basically create some safety stock to compensate for the difficulties that we have experienced in the supply chain with unstable deliveries from our suppliers because of obvious supply chain constraints. You're all very aware of this situation. Many of our companies are now in a mood where they're trying to gradually reverse this effect step by step. This also takes some time because the supply chain issues have led to a situation where some of the goods that we receive now are have been ordered, you know, quite early in the year. It takes some time to reverse it.
Also here in the cash flow situation, it's worth reflecting on that we still have very strong demand and strong sales growth. It's not something that will dramatically change into to low inventories. But also here, despite the higher inventory levels and the increase of that through the last 12 months, we still managed to generate a very healthy cash flow. But of course, we want to improve on this dimension going forward. Just to round off, page number two, we can also mention that for the nine-month period, accumulated numbers in for 2022, sales has grown with 24%, of which 12% is organic growth. Then EBITDA has also grown with the same percentage number, 24% for the whole nine-month period. A very strong first nine months in 2022 for Lifco.
We can move over to page number three, where we highlight the different business areas. Going directly into the Dental area, we had a slightly weaker quarter here compared to the same period last year. The trend from the second quarter basically continues. Within Dental, we are still suffering a bit from the production issues that we had in China early in the year due to the COVID-19 restrictions. This actually took place in the first quarter, and the production issue itself has been solved for quite some time now. Basically, we still suffer from lower demand by dentists. Dentists basically seem to favor more locally produced dental procedures.
We think that time will be helping us here, and we're working very hard to get the customer comfort back, and that the delivery actually works, and they do work very well right now. That's something that is an ongoing work for our companies here, getting that trend reversed, basically. The reason we bring this up is that it's not a very big part of Lifco, but it's a highly profitable part of dental groups. When we have lower sales in the dental procedures business, it affects also profits and margins quite quickly. Going further to the next area, Demolition & Tools, we had continued strong market conditions now, and we had that for quite some time.
Also the third quarter 2022 was a very good quarter with sales growth of 33%, thanks to a combination of strong organic development and acquisitions. EBITDA grew 31%, and also very strong EBITDA margin of 26%. The reason why it's actually slightly lower than the previous year is more related to a mix effect that last year we sold a little bit more of the high margin or even more high margin products, compared to this year where we had high growth on the more just high margin products. That's basically a product mix effect. Going into the third area, Systems Solutions, also I would say an excellent quarter with sales growth of 33% driven by also there a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.
Profit grew even more by 47% leading to a very strong margin. Here it's a combination of very strong organic development in our companies, but also of course, acquisitions that are helping the margin development. Here we can also conclude that the ongoing work on managing the high-cost levels with price compensation to customers have resulted in very good results. We can move over to page number five and look a little bit about our net debt situation. Actually starting about the situation right now, Lifco ended the quarter with a net debt to EBITDA of 1.9x , which is slightly above the level for one year ago.
The interest bearing net debt to EBITDA is now at 1.3, which is also then slightly higher than the 1.1 we had one year ago. Here it's worth mentioning that Lifco has been very active in acquiring companies during the last 12-month period. We can look at the graph on the left-hand side to also look at that Lifco has kept the debt ratios fairly constant over quite a long time now since the IPO, while being able to grow our profits both organically and through acquisitions quite substantially during this period over the last seven, eight years. It is also worth highlighting that Lifco has paid a dividend every year.
With the current debt level situation, Lifco has a very strong financial capacity to continue to acquire companies if we find the right ones. I would like to remind everyone that we try to buy very good companies at very reasonable valuations. It's always more important for us to buy the right companies rather than maximizing acquisitions at any given point of time. This work is continuous and ongoing as usual within Lifco. On page number six , I'd just like to round the whole presentation off by looking at our very long-term history. Here we track the long-term development of our profits, and our target is obviously to every year improve our profits.
For the very most part, we have succeeded with this through a combination of organic development and then complemented that with acquisitions. We have been doing that once again while still paying a dividend every year, and we have never requested any money from our shareholders via capital infusions to Lifco. After nine months in 2022, we can then conclude that we are now on a record high level. It's also very pleasing to see that the margin now on the bottom of this slide is back on track, actually on par with 2021. Also as you can see from the last quarter, a very strong momentum. I think this is the last point I'd like to make, and instead I'd like to open up for any questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. Our first question comes from the line of Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Good morning. It's Carl here from Nordea. Just coming back here on the Dental margin. Is it fair to assume that the full year-over-year decline in the margin is sort of driven by the lower prosthetics volumes, or is it anything else we should sort of consider in the margin drop? Maybe it could be raw material headwinds, et cetera.
I think the majority of the effect is related to that. There are, and we, you know, if you drill really deep down, there are of course some companies with some longer, for example, public tenders that have some lag effects on price development, et cetera, that makes a more minor impact on this. The major explanation to the quarterly performance comes from the continued sort of lag from the business of the prosthetics. We're still working very hard to get the normal situation back.
Coming back to the prosthetics business, have you sort of started to win back some practitioners, or will it o bviously, you said it will take time? How will you do it? Is it one by one, and what's the response so far when you sort of try to convince them to come back?
No, I think it's one by one situation in itself that typically a dentist would have in any given situation, they would use us as an alternative, and they would have a local laboratory basically next door as they have the option. Here we've seen a little bit of shift there. It's not that, you know, many customers just stop buying, but on the margin, they shift a little bit more volumes to the local situation because of the uncertainty that they experienced after the first quarter. We are working very hard on this and we don't know exactly when it will be coming back to normal, but of course, expect that time will be our friend in this market situation.
Okay. Very good. Also on Systems Solutions, I think the margins there stood out quite a bit in a historical sense as well. You mentioned it's a combination a little bit of everything. Could you perhaps try to be more specific, if possible, what's M&A driven and what's organically driven in this, and also if it's any mix effects?
Well, I think the most important reflection on the Systems Solutions area is that most companies are doing really well, basically. They're doing really well both in sales and also really well in handling the margins in this period of time. That's the talking point. We are also helped, which I tried to highlight here in the presentation, that it also helped that, you know, as we have done now, not every year, but for most of the time, we actually have also helped that the companies that we acquired have been a little bit higher margin than the average. That also helps this.
It's really across the board strong performance in the Systems Solutions area. It's, you know, when we go through the list of companies, it's many companies that are doing very strong performance.
In Demolition & Tools, the market, at least looking at the quarter, is seemingly holding up quite well, right? I mean, looking at construction-related indicators, it looks like you and some of your competitors might face a tougher situation ahead. I mean, I wonder, have you seen any signs so far of a weakening market in sales orders or quotations? Could you also perhaps remind us how much of the segment that is related to sort of new production or of either commercial or residential?
Well, first of all, we have a lot of companies in this business area. If you want to generalize, I would say that we are mainly related to infrastructure and commercial construction, both, of course, renovations and new build on the commercial. Not, I would say, to a less degree to the residential side, if you take the whole business area. That's the starting point of the exposure.
When it comes to the indicators that you're trying to find out about, we can only say that same picture as we had in the you know three months ago in our last earnings call, where basically the ordering coming and the activity is still on a healthy, good level. It's not as crazy as it was maybe 12 months ago when orders were coming in month by month in a you know extraordinary way, and the order book was building up. I would say too quickly back then due to the situation. It's still running well, but of course, it's a little bit more. I would say normalized.
Also maybe a little bit more, I think at this point, it's a little more different also by different, you know, countries and sectors, but still on a solid level. That's all we can see right now.
It sounds like you have positive organic order intake in Demolition then, or is that correct?
Yeah, you know, we don't present order intake for various reasons. One is that it's something that will require a lot of in such a diverse group like Lifco, you know, what is an order and how do you value an order. We don't publish that, but we still feel that the third quarter was on a healthy level in the order intake.
Also you mentioned it varies between geographies. Is it possible to give any flavor on where you see sort of a weaker market or where you see perhaps a better market?
Yeah. It's more random than that, I would say. If we saw that very clearly, we would have written something about that in our report. It's more random, and it's a little bit more, you know, one month here, one month the other one. Overall, we have felt over this year that U.S. has been, you know, stronger to some extent. That's something that you may. That's not talking about a longer period, not specifically for the quarter here, but over the time period. Also, in Europe where we have, you know, a lot of business, it's still holding up, or it's on a solid level.
You also mentioned that that sort of a normalization of inventory levels may take some time. Is it possible to give any guidance on that, when we should expect you to sort of, when inventory levels should come down? Is it in Q4, or is it too early and rather next year?
I mean, the reason why it's difficult to give an indication on that is that still our companies are struggling with the supply chain, and still our companies, you know, many of our companies are having a very high demand situation. They have orders that should be delivered. They are working on this, but they have to maintain a balance between making sure they can deliver and also getting the inventories slightly down to a more normalized level. If that will happen in October or December or in February, it's difficult to say on the whole, on this. We are working on it. It's a theme that has been, you know, in place for quite some month, a few months now.
It's not happening as dramatically as maybe we would have hoped in terms of normal inventory reduction level. We have to maintain this in a balanced way, I think. Exactly what month will be the major effect of this, it's still not 100% clear because it's so many different companies, so many different situations. Some companies are actually still, you know, building up some safety stock for certain products where they have components where they have still have huge problems. It's not the, you know, one answer on this dimension. I think the key message that we are working on it, and we would like to see that gradually go down.
Okay, very good. Thank you.
Thank you. Just as a reminder, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thank you and good morning. My first question is just on what you mentioned there, Per with mix in Demolition & Tools. I was just wondering if it's possible for you to say if it's, you know, overall a slight negative mix effect, you know, from various reasons across the number of businesses or if it's a business mix within Demolition & Tools?
It's a business mix. We have certain companies that have, you know, even higher margin than the average. We have companies that have very good margins, but slightly lower than the average. The companies with slightly lower than the average margin grows even stronger in the quarter in terms of sales than you have that mix effect. It's a relatively small effect. You know, we cannot, you know, over, maybe make too much noise about that. That is the explanation if you compare the differences in last year, which was also a very strong quarter in Q3 as well.
Understood. Just a bit of a technical one in Systems Solutions. The divestment of Hekotek, should we assume that perhaps if Hekotek would have been part of Systems Solutions, it might have been a seasonally stronger, you know, Q3 and Q4 for them? I'm just thinking about, you know, the other margin effect from divesting that particular business.
Sorry. Can you repeat that question? I didn't really understand.
No. Sorry. Yeah, sorry. Let me just clarify or put it directly. You know, the divestment of Hekotek, do you think that has, you know, meaningfully also supported margins positively in systems?
It has supported margins, but meaningfully, I wouldn't maybe say that, but it has supported margins.
Oh.
It was lower than the average. Yes.
All right. Thank you. Understood. Most of all the questions have already been asked. If I may just perhaps dig a bit some more technical aspects. If I look at the year-to-date consideration you've paid for acquisitions, it seems like the consideration paid is a bit higher than perhaps last year compared to the earnings that have entered the group. I'm just a bit curious if you think there's any, you know, meaningful deviation to the multiples you paid so far, or if, you know, the Q4 for these businesses you acquired this year will be greater, so the multiple still will end up in kind of normal multiple ranges.
No, I don't think it's significantly different than previous years. I think maybe just to highlight that the outcome of the 2021 numbers were extremely good in terms of multiples paid because the extreme development from the first year's earnings in that year. We will see where we end up. We don't really have the full year earnings of the companies we acquired this year. In the notes that you're probably looking into, we only present so far up to nine months. You're looking one quarter on the earnings data there.
Mm-hmm.
It's not significantly different. You know, every deal is different, every company has different situations. It's of course different multiples for all companies we acquire. Then, of course, the mix can be a little bit different between years depending on what we buy. I think it's in general everything has been up until now fairly the same for the last five years in how we value companies and so forth.
All right. All right. Fully understood.
Mm-hmm.
My final question that just relates to outside of the prosthetics business in Dental, is it, you know, a stable performance there or anything that should be worth highlighting?
No, I mean, it's not. As you can imagine, it's not, you know, extraordinarily good performance because then you would have maybe been compensating this. It's quite business as usual across the board and nothing that we haven't, you know, decided to lift up specifically in this. Of course, you know, there's always some variation between quarters and between different companies. There's always, when you drill down to many small companies, there's always some effects here and there, but there's not something that is, you know, a clear thing.
The only thing that I did mention here in a previous question is that maybe there is some effect in companies in the Nordics, where we have some tenders that, you know, we struggle in getting the prices through as quick as we would like because of the contracts that we work on. This is not a extraordinary, you know, very big part of our business, but it's a in some companies in the Nordics, it has some impact, shorter. That's maybe the other thing that we could mention on a high level. Yeah.
All right. Understood. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions at this time, I will hand the word back to the speaker for any final comments. Please go ahead.
Well, thank you very much for listening in, and we will looking forward to make another call after the fourth quarter. Thank you.
This now concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your line.