We've received some questions, welcome to the Q&A session. The first question is that we mention in the report the seasonally weaker, first quarter for some of the businesses such as Askalon and Conclean. Can you elaborate on the reason behind this? There are various reasons, of course, for the seasonability. For Askalon, the background is the customer composition with a relatively large portion of customers in power generation, such as nuclear power plants. These operations normally run on full or close to full capacity during the winter season, meaning the maintenance window is later during the season, starting in Q2 when the weather is warmer. For companies such as Conclean, and to some extent BPS, selling system for underground placement means that activity is lower during the winter season when the digging opportunities are worse.
We've also received a question about that our financial costs have increased compared to the corresponding period, of course, related to acquisition. Are there other effects as well? Our financial cost increased to SEK 11 million in Q1 compared to SEK 2 million last year. Out of this cost, approximately half is related to interest expenses. Other items include translation effects on external loans in Danish kroner and euro of approximately SEK 3 million , IFRS 16 effects of SEK 2 million . Our interest rate is based on the underlying IBOR rate with an interest margin markup on the same level as last year. We have got the question about acquisitions. So far this year you have presented four acquisition. You mentioned a normal acquisition pace of at least three to five acquisitions every year.
Does this mean that there is one more to go this year or can we expect the same number as last year, that is 11 acquisitions? Yes, that's correct. We have one left to five, the number of acquisitions we do during a quarter is dependent on a number of factors, ultimately, it's dependent on the pipeline and our M&A activity level. I feel confident with our M&A pipeline, and resource-wise, we are building up our own capacity. During the autumn, we will increase the M&A team with an in-house legal counsel, for instance. All in all, I see that we are in a good position to leverage on a good pipeline, strong financial position, and internal competencies, and to keep a good pace also for the remainder of the year.
One question is that I mentioned in the report the relatively weak demand from pulp and paper industry, whereas other sectors such as automotive and mining steel are increasing. Is this a typical situation given the economic cycle or are there other factors contributing? Well, if you look at the long-term development, the pulp and paper industry in Sweden has underperformed other industrial segments in terms of industrial production. These last couple of years have been even tougher. This has caused closing down of plants and more price pressure in the market. Despite this, Momentum Group has been able to keep a healthy volume and a margin. We see that the volume increase coming from other sectors. Thank you for listening to our Q&A session. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to contact us. Have a nice day.