Thank you, and very welcome all. We are very happy here in Bromma at NCAB headquarters to introduce our new CEO, Peter Kruk, and also of course, Anders Forsén, CFO. Please, Peter, would you start?
Thank you, Gunilla. I'm very happy to be joining today for my first time with NCAB and to present a good quarter together with Anders. If we move to a brief summary of the quarter for NCAB, I think in the quarter we have seen a recovery in Europe and also in the transportation industry, which was quite badly impacted in quarter two, we're now starting to come back to a normalized order book. In quarter one, we received excessive orders due to fears of delivery issues in Asia. This, of course, combined with the pandemic spreading to Europe and Americas, led to low order influx in Q2 and Q3. During Q3, we have seen orders grow month by month.
The integration of our acquisitions announced earlier this year in the Netherlands and the U.S. are progressing well, and they are driving growth in the quarter for us. We've also seen good growth and improving margins in the U.S., and our cost savings are continuing to contribute positively to our margins. Next page. Page four. In page four, overall, just to give an overview of who we are at NCAB. We have globally more than 450 specialists. We are serving customers in Europe, Americas, and Asia, and we have some 23 partner factories supplying us with products. Our mission is to supply PCBs for demanding customers, delivered on time with zero defects, produced sustainably at the lowest total cost. Our vision is to be the number one PCB producer wherever we are. If we move to page five, just to give further insight into our products and technologies.
What we do are we do the printed circuit boards, the PCBs, that our customers in turn mount electronic components on to create PCBAs. PCBAs are key modules in almost any product today. Moving to page six. In NCAB, we are servicing many different applications and industries, ranging from high-speed trains to heat cameras or mirror replacement displays in automotive. The fact that we are in many different industries makes us very resilient to fluctuations in individual markets. On page seven. The niche we are focusing on within NCAB is to serve demanding customers in what we describe as high-mix, low-volume segment. In this segment, we can see that the price of the component, such as the PCB, is low in relation to the final product cost, but where there are very high demands on quality and demands on delivery performance.
In this segment, NCAB provides high value to our customers. Talking about our history on page eight. Our journey has been one of continuous strong growth, both organic and through acquisitions. The company has its roots and started in Sweden and in Nordics, then expanding in Europe and China, in recent years been followed also expansion in the U.S. Throughout the years, we have since 2008 only seen one year with negative growth, which was 2009, and this was again followed by a year of record growth. I have now been with the company since a little more than one month. I had several reasons for sort of why I chose to join the company. I'm happy to say that the reasons which I saw from the outside have been confirmed when joining.
I can see that there is a very strong value-driven company culture and a decentralized, empowered organization. I think this has served the company very well in the turbulent times of 2020. It's also a company with lean structures and a very straightforward atmosphere and a strong focus on delivering value to customers. Thirdly, I think even though NCAB is in a leading position, we are still operating in a very fragmented market and there's extreme good opportunities for us to grow as a company. On page 10, looking on the effects of the corona pandemic in 2020. For NCAB Group, after a prolonged shutdown around the Chinese New Year, our factories in China came back in production end of February, and we've actually been able to handle customer deliveries well despite the situation.
We saw, as I mentioned earlier, a surge in orders in the first quarter, which was then followed by lower influx of orders in the second and third quarters. We're now seeing signs of recovery in Europe and the order book is coming back to a normalized situation. On terms of activities, we have bridged the restrictions in travel and activities to interact with our customers through other means. We have had quite a lot of success with webinars and others with good attendances from customers. We've also been able to secure deliveries working closely with our customers. Notably with our factory management organization who are on-site with our factories, securing deliveries and quality. We've also received some limited state support from a few European countries in the quarter three to total SEK 1 million. Overall, our cost reduction activities has been efficient and quite successful.
On page 11, we're summarizing the financial numbers for the quarter, which we're quite happy with. We have seen good growth of 22%, reaching 537 million SEK. When looking actually at sales translating US dollars, which is our predominant currency of sales, we can actually see that the sales is even better, growing by 34%. Our EBITA amounted to 50.1 million SEK, an improvement by 8%, and our margin EBITA is 9.3%, which is slightly down versus prior year as a result of some regional sales mix and margin impact of the new acquisitions. With that, I give the word to Anders to continue.
Thank you. Anders Forsén here. We are focused on the year-to-date numbers, January to September 2020, where we can see that we have had a growth of 18% both in SEK and in U.S. dollar. We had, of course, a positive effect from U.S. dollar in the spring and the negative impact from U.S. dollar the last couple of months. Anyway, we are showing a good growth. Excluding acquisitions, we are down 3% in revenue. We think we are rather proud of that due to the specific year of the coronavirus pandemic, et cetera. I think it has been doing well. Our profit has also increased. Year- to- date, we're up SEK 139 million, and that includes SEK 15 million of transaction costs with acquisitions. Excluding that, it should have been SEK 153 million, and the EBITA margin of 9.6%, which is much better than last year.
That's good. Next slide. As you know, we operate a bit different in different regions. We had a little bit weaker region in Nordic due to the lower order intake in the summer. Europe growing due to the acquisition of Flatfield in Netherlands. Otherwise, comparable units are a little bit below. North America also very positively impacted from the growth or the acquisition of Bare Board Group in Florida, and also from Altus that we did in November 2019. Our own business, so to say, in U.S. did a flat growth, which is rather good anyway. Margin-wise, as you know, we always have a strong margin in Nordic, a little bit weaker in Europe, and North America is rather good as well. The BBG acquisitions still have a lower EBITA margin than our old operation.
East, which is our operations in Russia and China, had a small decrease in revenue this quarter, mainly in the Chinese operation where we see some effects from the trade war between China and the U.S. Next slide. If you see that we continue to grow as we have done almost all years, as Peter said. Also mentioned the gross margin. It reported 30.4%, but that is due to lower gross margins in the acquired companies, especially in the one in the U.S. where they are much lower than we are, and we are of course working on to increase that step by step. Also, Flatfield had a lower gross margin. If we compare company by company comparable units, we were up 31.8%. Actually we have done a small improvement in the comparable units. Next page then.
As we said, for the quarter, growth is driven, of course, very much through two acquisitions. We presented 22% growth and 34% growth in U.S. dollar. Net sales comparables were about flat in U.S. dollar. I think that's also a good sign that we have sort of recovered a little bit from the coronavirus situation. Order intake still a bit lower, 15% increase and 24% in U.S. dollar. Still we do have some impact from the very strong order intake we had the first quarter, I would say that has leveled out now. Now we can see a more normal trend again. The normal trend is that we typically have orders one quarter and that will be delivered or invoiced the next quarter. Next page about the result in the EBITA.
We saw an increase in EBITA compared to last year, up to SEK 50.1 million. Slightly lower EBITA margin, but we had an extremely strong margin in 2019. Earnings per share is down a little bit due to some negative exchange rate effects in the finance net. As Peter said, we have got some state support, about SEK 1 million in the quarter, and that is mainly in France, Italy and Spain. Otherwise, of course, our operating cost is rather low due to limited travel activities, et cetera. Even if we don't grow, we show a healthy EBITA result margin. Some more info regarding the segments. Nordic, as you know, the main focus is not to grow very much. We try to have a good profitability. We saw revenue down 14% in the quarter.
I think this is effect of that the summer continued longer than normal in many Nordic countries. Normally we see an upturn in August, but that took place for us in end of September this year. In some way, I think the coronavirus has made that we have seen a slower start to the summer. The trend is, however, rather positive in order intake month-by-month, but we saw some drop in the beginning of the quarter. Anyway, our profit margin ends up 14%, 18.1% last year was very strong. Normally we are around 14%, 15%. I would say that we still have a stable EBITA margin. Order intake also was down in the quarter, but we saw a positive change the last two months, and we saw a month-by-month order going up again.
It is also a sign that the summer was a bit slower than normal, and then it start going back to normal business. Europe, on the next page. Revenue increased 32%, of course, due to the Flatfield acquisition. We also see, mainly on the order intake, that the Southern Europe is getting back on track better and better. We had a weak start of the quarter, but then we saw a very strong ending of the quarter. We have also seen that the transporting sector in U.K. mainly have gone back to normal levels. A lot happens on the activities and order intake from customers. We also are working with the integration of the Flatfield in Netherlands. So far, very positive customer reactions. We think this is a good step forward, and we see potential in the future, of course. North America, U.S.A.
We see an increase in revenue of 131%, driven, of course, by the acquisition of Bare Board Group, which we did in April. That has more than doubled our revenue in U.S. EBITDA margin is down a little bit compared to last month, but that is due to a little bit lower profitability in Bare Board Group. As I said before, we are working on the gross margin, everything to our potential to do something positive there. Also here, integration goes according to plan. It's of course a bit difficult. We can't travel, we can't meet, we do a lot of integration work over different webinars, et cetera. It takes a longer time, but it's working. As you know, we also got some new factories in Taiwan from this acquisition, which, especially for U.S., is very good. We're opening up those factories for more NCAB customers right now.
It's good to have something to challenge China with sometimes. Finally, segment East. 3% down, very close to last year. We have seen Russia has been going rather well. We have those sales. In China, some problems with the trade war, both from our local Chinese customers exporting to U.S. has gone down, and also that there's been some component shortage from Chinese EMS factories buying imported components from U.S.A. That has affected the business a little bit. We see a lot of customers redesigning the products right now, and hopefully that will take off again. Profit-wise, we are on a rather stable level, around 11%, 12%. We have, though, during this year, have much up and downs, very much connected to the fluctuations of the ruble versus U.S. dollar, which impacted the result for our Russian operation. Next page, a little bit to our KPIs.
Return on equity is down compared to last year. Of course, that is connected to the share issue we made in April. Otherwise, we have a positive cash position. We have a strong solvency. Net working capital is still on a low level. If we compare the SEK 167 million to our last 12 months revenue, it's 8.3%. We have been able also to reduce the working capital in the acquired company in Netherlands, which is also good for us. If we take together available cash, including what we can take on our bank overdraft, we have over SEK 640 million. We have a very strong balance sheet. Of course, we are looking into opportunities to use that balance sheet for further growth. Back to you, Peter.
Yeah. If we look then on page 22, our financial targets and the policy for the midterm. We have a growth target, organic growth target of 8%. We have a target of EBITA margin of 8% and a net debt less than two, and a dividend of 50%. If we look upon how we're performing today, we can see that growth-wise, 2020 is a challenge year, so we have no growth or we are below the growth target on organic growth. We are, however, performing better on the EBITA percentage. Again, these two are partly related. We are forced to be spending less money on growth activities right now, and that is, of course, right now giving us a higher EBITA percentage as well.
Net debt-wise, as Anders mentioned, we have a good balance sheet situation with zero debt, so we're well positioned to take advantage of any restructuring in the market. Our dividend policy, our board decided to cancel the dividend for this year in the annual assembly earlier this year. Looking at our strategy, we have a strategy based on four main pillars, where number one is increasing our market share in established markets. There's still a lot of opportunities for us to go after in North Europe, U.S.A., and East. We are working on deepening our collaborations with customers to enhance the value. We are looking to expand geographically. This may mean both new markets or as well regions within markets. Of course, to be active in consolidation of the market, and here our strong balance sheet is a good position for us to do this going forward.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Now we're open to take questions.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad now. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. That is zero one to register for a question. We have a question from Robert Redin from Carnegie. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, hi. Three questions if I may. First on that recovery in demand in Europe during Q3, I guess, of course, the order intake trend is likely to be mirrored in sales in Q4. Could you say something about the order intake trend in October? Did it continue with the same trends you saw in August, September, or has this COVID-19 development impacted that gradual recovery you saw during Q3? That would be my first question.
Yes, we can see the same trend continues. If that is a simple answer on the question, the trend continued from the last quarters in the summer and in October as well.
Okay, great. Maybe this is a detail, but I saw you had working capital release of SEK 22 million in the quarter. You said something there about the majority of that being related to the Flatfield acquisition. Was that the sort of first such result, call it, or do you expect any further working capital reduction there?
I think that there will be some. What we have seen is that we have better payment terms with many of the factories, which we've tried to implement step by step. Flatfield also had much more inventory in their business model than NCAB has as an average. Of course we will always have more inventory in that kind of business, but we are trying to work to reduce that amount. I guess there will be some positive effects going forward as well.
Okay. That's great because if it was a majority of that quarterly reduction in working capital, it's a decent size quarter of the EV paid for the acquisition, 10% or something.
Yes, definitely.
Okay, that's perfect. Leading over to M&A, you have a very strong balance sheet with this net cash position, now COVID-19 is at the back. Does that slow down M&A discussions or do you think it increases sellers' willingness to sell? What would you say with regards to the M&A pipeline and the potential growth through M&A going forward?
I think for sure during this year there's been some difficulty to continue M&A discussions. I think now the market has stabilized, and we have been continuing our discussions with potential companies. I think these things will continue and progress in the coming months. Overall, I think the market expectations are stabilizing and if maybe there was, say, hard to achieve any results during quarter two, maybe now the discussions can become more productive.
Okay, perfect. Sounds positive. All right, thanks. Those were my questions. Thank you.
There are no further audio questions registered, so I hand back to the speakers.
Okay, thank you very much. I'd just like to remind you that our fourth quarter is to be published on February 23 next year. Looking forward to hear from you all then. Thank you very much. Peter and Anders.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you for listening.
Thank you.