Welcome to the Lifco Q1 presentation for 2023. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. 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 Per Waldemarson. Please go ahead.
Thank you, good morning everyone, and welcome to the Lifco Q1 presentation. We can start by directly going into page number one in our investor presentation, where we have the overall numbers for the group in the quarter. As you can see on this page, it's been a very good quarter, basically in all dimensions. We have a net sales growth of 19%, and it consists of organic growth of about 8%, acquisitions of about 10% helping positively, and then also positive effect from exchange rates of about 4.5%. We also have a negative impact on one divestment that was done in 2022, of about -3% in those numbers.
If we go further into the numbers, we also have even stronger growth in our EBITA profits, which basically means that our margins are improving up to 22.3% in the quarter, which basically has to do with a few factors. Obviously, our continuous improvements in our companies continues to go very well. We always strive for improving our margins and being more differentiated and strong in our niches. We also have implemented price increases during yeah, during the last I would say quarters, but also early in that, and that now has come into full effect. Also demonstrates our pricing power in many parts of our portfolio. What also is impacting our profit is that our dental business area had a more normal quarter.
If you remember last year, we had this first quarter where we had some issues with one part of the dental where there was some lockdowns in China that impacted that business negatively. In this quarter, it was more back to normal. Also obviously, as I mentioned, the price increases are now coming into play. That also is contributing both in net sales growth but also in the module expansion. If we go further down, we see that profit for tax is increasing 26%, which is then obviously lower than our EBITA growth. This has maybe to do with the increasing interest rates that comes as no surprise, and that's obviously going up rapidly also for Lifco.
We have, we always had certain debt and now those debt items have obviously more higher interest rates, and that is very much correlated with the overall market. If we talk a little bit further down about cash flow, we had a very strong growth in cash flow, which is of course satisfying, but we should mention here that last year, in first quarter, we had a very weak cash flow due to the build-up of inventories during that period about a year ago. This quarter was more like a normal cash flow for the first quarter, which is not the best cash flow quarter for Lifco. We normally build up more receivables and also some inventory in the first quarter seasonally.
We can go over to page two and look a little bit more into the different business areas. If we start with dental, as I already mentioned, it was a quarter more back to normal. We are growing sales and profits. The main impact here is of course the normalization of the prosthetics business. That's now been going more normal also in last quarter of last year, and then this first quarter of this year is also more normalized. That's satisfying to see that we are back to normal there. If we go further down to Demolition & Tools, there we had or we have had strong growth for quite some time, and that also continues in the first quarter.
It's a combination, once again, of organic growth and acquisitions, and that translates also into strong profit margin. I can already hear also mention that I normally get some questions about, you know, the order intake in this part of the business and basically the same pattern continues. We had extreme order intake in many of these business up until about a year ago. The order intake has been more in a normal, still solid level. That continues also in the first quarter.
That order intake is strong, but it's not on that peak level that it used to be in the period where there was very strong demand and also the value chain issues was also maybe leading to some pre-ordering here and there that we don't see now. The orders that come in now are, you know, very relevant and for deliveries that are on average a bit closer to the order intake time. Still at, you know, lower levels than for example one year ago in the order intake levels. When we talk about Systems Solutions, here we have. First of all, we should mention this is the area where we have the divestment last year, so that also impacts the sales growth numbers.
Underlying development is still very strong, with 10% growth in sales and 24% growth in profit. Continued strong development in margin, which is supported both by organic development and also acquisitions in this field. All in all, if you look at all these areas, we are developing margins in all areas which is very pleasing and also important part for Lifco. We can then go into page number four, the next slide. This is a slide that we already talked about last quarter. I just want to remind everyone that Lifco, this is now looking back for the last eight years. We only publish this data annually, but on this page, I just want to highlight that Lifco is extremely important in our organic development.
We have strong ambition in every company to develop profits every year organically. On average, we've done that with about 8% over the last eight years. We also, as you know, are very actively and trying to find very good companies to take into Lifco, and that has contributed on average with 12%, of our growth. The combination is extremely important. Obviously, the organic development has been more volatile because it's more related to, of course, market development that can go a little bit up and down. Then we can jump further to page number six. Just briefly look at our net debt and our balance sheet. Here you can see on the net debt situation; we are very stable in the ratio net debt to EBITDA.
We've been that quite some time, which basically means that the cash flow we generate is not being consumed on the same pace on average in terms of acquisitions. Where we sort of end this quarter, we end with an interest-bearing net debt to EBITDA of 1.2, which is well below our target of 2-3x . We've been below that for quite some time. It means once again that we have very solid financial position and also further room for acquisitions going forward. This is quite normal. Then we can go to page number seven. This is once again the more long-term graph looking at our development.
I just would like to once again highlight that, you know, we are continuously looking to improve our businesses, and we have done so. If you look from 2014 until now, our average EBITDA margin has gone from 14% up to now rolling 12 months of 22%, which is once again the combination of constant small improvements in our companies combined with on average, better quality companies coming into Lifco over this time period. Nothing new in this perspective either. We can move all the way down to page number 18. Just look a little bit about the dental numbers. I mentioned in previous slides that we had some problems in last year, especially with the prosthetics business.
As you can see on the right-hand side of the graph, we actually dropped EBITDA in dental due to this effect last year. Now with a strong first quarter, we are back to more normal levels, and the margins is also moving in the right direction. It's also worthwhile highlighting that the margins in 2021 were extraordinarily strong due to the still lower cost levels following the pandemic. The companies had lower activity in the beginning of that year, but now it's getting back more to normal, especially now in the last two quarters. If you go to page 20, we can look at the same type of data then for Demolition & Tools, a more long-term perspective.
Here we can see that we've had now for quite a long time, very strong development in terms of sales and also profit development. The margins are on a high level. It's as we have been, you know, noticing for many quarters. It can be a bit volatile between quarters, but the business area as a whole has a very strong margin and has been on a high level for quite some time. If we do the same thing on page 22, looking at our Systems Solutions area, here we are still, you know, improving our margins. If you look at the right-hand side, we are going up.
This is once again a combination of many small improvements of the existing companies combined with on average very high-quality companies coming into this business area, which leads to a record high margin also in this field now in the rolling 12 months numbers. We can go to page 31 just to round things off. Just mention briefly that we have actually been quite active in acquisitions in the first quarter. We have acquired a number of companies, and it's as always a combination of companies in our Demolition & Tools area, our dental area, and also some more, I would say, partly unrelated niche companies with Systems Solutions. This is the same pattern we've seen for quite some time.
It's a strong start of the year. Once again, as I've said many times before, when it comes to acquisitions, we are, you know, very careful to make sure we buy the right companies at reasonable valuations. It's something that comes and goes a little bit, but our ambition is very high and our focus on developing in this dimension is of course very high. The actual outcome can vary between quarters and months as you've seen historically. A strong start to the year, which is very good. That's basically all I wanted to say on this stage of the presentation. I open up for any questions.
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 Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Per. Good morning. My first one is just on the acquisitions that you have made so far this year. Based on the numbers that you provide, it's still just one quarter, but the implied profitability is very, very high in those companies. I'm just curious. I mean, yeah, we're used to you acquiring companies with, you know, +20% margins, but is there any or a few of the companies that really stand out there, or is just the aggregate of all of this business reflective of that margin? Yeah, we don't communicate the profitability of the companies coming into it. You have, of course, a data point that you can look at.
It's of course not an exact data point because you're looking at 1 quarter, but, you know, it's basically another quarter of very strong morning companies that we acquired. The exact amount we will see when we have the full year numbers. Don't, you know, we cannot exactly, you know, extrapolate, like, one quarter, but it's a very strong combination of business that we have acquired in this quarter.
Understood. Your comment there on a bit more norm-normalized, let's call it lead times. I appreciate the differences between the business units, but your kind of average or rough estimate now on, you know, how long it takes from order to delivery now compared to half a year ago or so?
Well, it's very different between different companies of Lifco. If you look at the ones, we still have a few companies with very long lead times, and they're still trying to ramp up. That's a relatively small proportion of it. For the most part, our companies are running at with, I would say right now, quite normal, if you can say normal nowadays, but if you look pre-pre-pandemic type of order books, in terms of delivery. Obviously, we have a quite big part of Lifco with very short order books. If you look at the whole dental division and the whole this area and also the number of distribution company, they always run very short order book.
Especially if you're in a distribution company or even some manufacturing companies that have, you know, sort of lower value product that normally are shipped within a week or so from order. It's of course very different. I mean, maybe you're referring more to the ones with long order book, especially in Demolition & Tools. There we still have a few companies with very long order books. They're still scrambling and trying to get components in and cannot really ramp up as fast as we can. The majority of that area now has more normalized order books, which also means that of the visibility is of course not huge. It's never huge in that sense.
Also with long order books, you have to be careful, because if, you know, we experienced 2008, 2009, and in such a situation then order books, maybe are not too relevant to look at in some situations. If we're in more normal market development, you know, we have now, you know, we are back to normalization around that.
Understood. My final one is just now you, if it's two quarters now at least where you kind of highlighted that dental is in a normalized market situation. In terms of the work you have made in when it comes to kind of regaining dentists and making sure that they acquire products, et cetera, what kind of efforts did you feel were really successful in making sure that you came back to a normal market condition in a fairly quick time?
Well, actually I think the biggest factor was actually time. You know, when you have this type of uncertainty, time is our friend. The longer we can show that we have stability in deliveries, the easier is to convince the customers. Obviously, we've been very close, and we're always very close to our customers in this business area. We are working with high level of service and very close contacts to our dentists in Germany in this business area. I think the main factor was the time, and it was of course difficult to say how long it would take. Now we have two good quarters, so it looks promising to say the least.
We think that unless there's something new things happening, well, it should be hopefully more normalized also going forward.
understood. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Hi, it's Carl here from Nordea. A couple of questions. Firstly, just to clarify here on the demand in Demolition during the quarter. I mean, could you firstly maybe give some more granular comment whether you have seen shift in demand, I mean, during the individual month and also by end markets where you feel that if it's tools and attachments that is better currently than other parts or, yeah, start there.
When it comes to within the month, actually there's no real pattern. I think the quarter as a whole had, you know, quite stable development, so there's no difference between March and January. I mean, it's very difficult to say because, you know, every month is, you know, a little bit unique, but we don't see any trend shift within the quarter. I think the trend shift that we've seen has been more happening about a year ago, when things were getting more normal. I mentioned that now a few quarters, I think. Sorry, the second question call was related to?
If you have seen any, I mean, a shift in demand if you try to split up the division a bit by more end market or by product area.
Well, there's one thing I could mention that maybe the Nordic or Swedish regions has been, is, you know, more weaker than others actually. It's interesting to reflect. We see that both in Demolition Tools and also in a few companies in the now called infrastructure area. These are actually companies within that area is more related to construction, but most of these companies are of course infrastructure related. We see that's actually one thing we have seen. Other than that, it's difficult to see clear patterns. We've seen pretty good development in the quarter in North America. That's more on the positive side. Other than that, I don't think there's anything that stands out especially.
Of course, the more, you know, the more you are related to a pure construction product, maybe a little bit weaker compared to something that's more infrastructure or stuff like this. That's, these are, you know, small differences. Overall, it's difficult to pinpoint anything more than that.
Also you explained a bit on orders, just so I understand there. I mean, you said that orders had a good development, right? Not as strong as during the peak levels. Should we interpret that as negative organic growth, meaning that you compare it to the peak levels? Should we interpret that as that you're still positive or organic order intake growth, but you mentioned that the peak levels might be in Q2 and Q3 2022? If you understand what I mean?
Basically what I'm saying is that the order intake that came in the period there in 2021 and early 2022, they were on so high levels that we were a little bit astonished. From that perspective, they are on a lower level now. You can also then compare it to what we ship out and what we get in, it's more close to normalization. A little bit you have to. We don't publish this data, we have to be careful how deep we go into this. Also, you know, order intake for all these type of companies, and Lifco is also different, a little bit difficult to value on a high level how you define an order and all these things.
I would say that the orders that came in, you know, a year ago or even more than that, they were on extremely high levels in certain parts of our business. Now we are overall on a quite good, stable level. Of course, predictabilities, as we said now for many quarters, it's quite short. You know, we don't know so much what will happen next two, three quarters in this area. That's the same situation around that.
Okay. You said that book-to-bill is one then or maybe in that range?
I mean, it is not a huge gap there. We're not, you know, we're not ramping up a lot in that specific area, so to say.
Okay. That's very clear. Also, I mean, obviously quite strong margin in dental again. Would you say that the year-over-year margin delta is solely driven by the prosthetics business recovery? Also, if you could give some comment, maybe on underlying market for manufacturing and distribution and whether you have seen a catch-up, sequential catch-up effect, from Q4 maybe as they have. I mean, when looking at market data, at least it looked like Q4 had lower utilization in dental clinics in Europe due to high sick leaves. Is that something you have seen a catch-up effect from or?
Well, the main comment I have here is related to the prosthetics business that's back to normal. That's, you know, in the numbers, that's the main effect. The other effects that you're referring to, they could have a smaller impact, but, you know, not close to the first effect that I'm trying to mention here. Say, these are very small changes, if anything, that you referred to.
Okay. The main year-over-year delta then is prosthetics in margin then?
Yeah. Like we commented last year also, the main negative deviation last year was also in that, in the prosthetics, now we have the reverse effect there.
Also on the M&A pace year to date, obviously quite strong. Would you say that it's an effect of the expanded M&A team getting up to speed, or is it a bit stochastic? Also, would you say that you worked through the near-term pipeline and that you need to rebuild, or is it still quite solid?
Well, first of all, our ramping up of activity is very gradually. You know, it's not. You know, we do small increases constantly to get better capacity looking at companies. That's not the main effect. It's actually more the stochastic part that, you know, sometimes, we get more, you know, more luck or more success depending how you look at it, and more, more. Basically, we find the right companies, right entrepreneurs, and then we agree on the price and everything is going all the way. In other quarters, you can have the reverse effect that we might have still a very big pipeline, but for various reasons, we don't go all the way.
You know, it could be partially driven by us not being 100 sure about the quality of the company or the price level or maybe the entrepreneur wants to wait a bit. There could be many reasons like this. As I've said many times before, this is something we work very hard. We constantly improve our capacity step by step, not dramatically, and then the outcome will always be a bit volatile. It should be volatile because it's not, you know, it's not a goal-seeking process. It's a process of finding, you know, the right acquisitions, and when they happen, they happen. As you've seen now for many years, we are.
The activity level is high enough to normally see some good results, not in every month and every quarter, but over time, it tends to be working, basically.
Okay. That's very clear. Thank you.
The story also on the last question.
Yeah.
Of course, if you close a lot of companies in a short period of time, that probably means that a lot of your hot leads have transferred into discussions. You know, our deal-making is always a combination of things that we've worked on for years, things that we worked for six months, and things that we maybe worked only for one or two months. It's always new things coming up and we always have, you know, things that we've been discussing for years that might or might not pop up. The pipeline is always a difficult thing to reverse it.
Of course, the more we've closed in one month, obviously has some impact on the short-term effect, so to say.
Okay. Very good. Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial star 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Anna Widström from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Hello, Per. Thank you for taking my question. I'm just wondering if you maybe could give us some details on the sort of cost side development. I mean, you do refer to continued price increases to some cost inflation, but maybe give us some details on what's happening on like raw materials and transport or just if you're experiencing a general cost inflation and if it's sequentially getting better or anything?
Yes. I think here we have to differentiate by different ports of Lifco. We have very different type of companies in that sense. Some companies obviously have a higher proportion of raw material impact into the business. Those companies have of course done a lot of price increases in the last two years. There you could start to see in some areas some sort of at least stabilization and even maybe potentially some potential benefits in that side. But it's... you have other areas where, you know, we are so differentiated product that the actual raw material is only a part of it. There's many steps in between and many much engineering done both by us and also by suppliers. There, I think the more general inflation is still coming into play in that sense.
I think still we experience price increase and inflation obviously overall. I think for the most part that's. You know, if you take the whole dental area, the raw material part in dental is obviously very small. There are now general inflation that will come into play there. If you take other parts, a company that makes maybe more, less, I would say, relative to other companies, less differentiated product that has more steel in it, of course, has more relation with the raw material. Overall in Lifco, our companies are highly differentiated, highly engineered products. There the raw material of course, has an impact, but also inflation has an impact in general right now.
Okay, thank you. That's my only question.
Thank you very much.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Okay. Thank you very much for listening and for the questions. I wish everyone a good day.