Welcome to the Nederman Holding Q4 presentation for 2023. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Sven Kristensson and CFO Matthew Cusick. Please go ahead.
We will present some report and year-end, report, and there's some, sum it up with the new out in with a good result. We have a healthy growth, with high cash flow, profitability and industrial. Have set in our press, expanding industry, with such as battery manufacturing, design, et cetera. We have all this from, and we have investment in both in administration, but very much also in new factories and build out of our manufacturing capacity, improved our operational efficiency.
If we talk about as quarter, we have positive quarter with a solid to this year. That means that we are cautiously positive for the first half of, and that of course, by the, good order book we have in our divisions. Also, of course, pressure will be a report from U.S., there's always a risk of weaker economy with that, and that could impact our customer's investment decision, geopolitical uncertainty, et cetera, that we-
Hi, so sorry. This is the operator here, Matthew and Sven. Your mic is not very good, so I will move us to the sub-conference for a while, and we will check your mics, and then we will be back. So for everyone listening, just stay tuned, and we will be right back.
This call is being recorded.
Okay. We are very sorry for the technical mishaps here. We don't know how much you could hear. We take a very short summary of the first parts of the slide. So again, welcome to this presentation, and again, concluding that we had a new record year. We're very pleased with that, especially during the circumstances all interesting things happening in the macroeconomics, geopolitical scene, et cetera, et cetera.
But if we summarize it, we had healthy order growth, high sales, we had a strong cash flow, and we also managed to improve profitability. We did also advance our position in the global market for industrial air filtration. We have seen that we have a growing interest for our solutions, and we have also received some awards for our work on in new intelligent products, et cetera.
We have strengthened our presence in expanding industry that has shown good structural growth, and that means battery, it means healthcare, it means recycling of material, et cetera, where we have a strong base equipment and old clear knowledge and capabilities. We have also improved the range of our digital products, also our solutions, our services.
We have a very strong digital offering, both as a offering to our customers, but also as tools to make life easier in setting up, making offers, and things like ProQuote we are launching, where it simplifies things, QFV, et cetera, et cetera. All these abbreviations, I will not explain for you. We have also invested in our new facilities. We have improved our efficiency, and that also shows in profitability.
So again, a positive quarter with a solid order backlog moving into this year, in 2024. That means that we are cautiously optimistic, for the first half of the year, backed, among other things, with the strong order book. Of course, we have remaining risk, inflationary pressure, weaker economy, et cetera, et cetera, but you can all read about that. The geopolitical uncertainty, of course, again.
But having said that, we see that the interest for our solutions is strong. We see that the launch of new products, new solutions, helps us to improve our position in the market. So, that's a healthy position. When it comes to dividend, the board of directors, from the meeting yesterday, have a proposal that equals to a dividend of SEK 3.95 per share.
If I move on to slide 4 and start going through the financials now. Orders received currency neutrally by 4.8% in the quarter, which we see as a strong positive. That's 3.5% organic growth, and then 1.3% from acquisition growth. Orders total 1.467 billion SEK, which is clearly up from last year. As you can see, it's still below the run rate for the full year. The full year, we were over the 6 billion SEK mark. We did 6.005 billion SEK, which was a currency neutral growth of 6.8%.
What we can see on the chart in the center as well, that the orders on a rolling four basis are at an all-time high. Given that we've seen a slight reduction in orders in Q3 and Q4, you can perhaps expect that trend to flatten off somewhat. What we're quite pleased with on the order intake is, like I say, the currency neutral organic growth that we saw in the fourth quarter. There is a trend to some more organic growth for the group versus the full year figures. When it comes to sales, solid order backlog, as Sven has mentioned already, that's led to sales of very slightly over SEK 1.5 billion.
It was actually behind last year's levels when Process Technology were at their very high levels of that project execution. Nevertheless, sales for the year were clearly record for the Nederman Group , SEK 6.188 billion is currency neutral growth of 15%, and organic growth of 9% for the group. When it comes to profitability, as Sven mentioned, it's a record year basically everywhere. In quarter four, SEK 172 million in EBITDA is a margin of 11.4%. That's up from 10.6% for Q4 last year. Profit after tax, SEK 77 million, is slightly below last year, SEK 91 million Swedish krona last year. We will come back to the reasons behind that thing. It- not...
One impact, of course, is the increased financing cost, that is apparent. Earnings per share for quarter four, 2.2 SEK versus 259 in Q4 last year, in 2022, I should say. Year to date, EBITDA, a clear record, SEK 715 million in EBITDA for the group, versus 567 in 2022, is a clear increase in our margin to 11.6% versus 10.9%, in 2022. Profit after tax, SEK 341 million, equates to earnings per share of 9.71 SEK, clearly up from the 9.37 that we saw in 2022 as well.
One interesting thing to note in the charts is despite the fact that quarter four was a slight reduction in earnings per share, operating profitability is still higher in all four quarters of 2023 than it ever has been in any isolated quarter before 2023. We had a very strong cash flow in the fourth quarter as well. Good, we had good order intake. We've continued to work hard on our managing inventory and managing our, particularly our receivables balances, and we've been rather successful there. Extremely good in the fourth quarter, cash flow from operations of SEK 212 million. That's a record, a clear record for the Nederman Group.
For the year, SEK 576 million, we think is very strong as well. That cash flow has then led to a reduction in net debt. Like I mentioned previously, of course, the cost of financing the debt has increased significantly during 2023. And, it's important. We understand the importance of continuing to work with our cash flow going forwards. If we move on to the divisions, then, Sven, slide 9 is Extraction and Filtration Technology .
Yes, we start with Extraction and Filtration Technology for the Q4. Orders received were very strong in the quarter, where several major and medium-sized orders have come back. Some were postponed earlier in the year, but finally, they grabbed the pen and signed the orders. It was all types of sales that increased with double-digit growth in service. And aftermarket business is something we are working quite hard on in all divisions. Again, five major orders. Danish company, Aagaard, that we acquired in July, it's been now successfully integrated, and it has significantly strengthened our position in the woodworking segment.
We are definitely number one in the North America side of it, and we are now strengthening our position in Europe, and we definitely have the ambition to reach a number one position also here. EMEA recorded continued healthy activity and had actually double-digit growth in orders received.
Americas, it displayed unchanged development compared with Q4 in 2022, which was a strong one. APAC, development was weaker, with the exception of China, we saw a small growth in orders received and sales, although our big areas is EMEA and North America. Some key activities, Nederman SAVE was named the best dust collecting product by the US FDMC. That is a network of companies in the woodworking industry, focusing on the US market.
And it's another sign of that our digitalization offer with digital solution with energy saving capability, et cetera, is getting more and more attention. We have also earlier mentioned that we have invested in our manufacturing to achieve better productivity and profitability. RoboVent is during this spring now moving manufacturing and offices to a completely new plant. And again, going from 3 separate location in an old old setup, we will now have a complete new logistic and manufacturing set up at one site near just 20 minutes from the existing one. We see that of course as a challenge when in the few weeks it's done, but it's gonna further increase our capabilities efficiency and capacity.
We have also started to launch a digital selling tool, as I mentioned, ProQuote, that simplifies how to build a system. Again, we're now moving it to Asia. We have starting a small rollout in Europe and in U.S. before. We have also started an initiative to improve the technical performance of particular filter product by upgrading existing filters to a new standard. This was a drawback, and the estimated cost of SEK 70 million has been taken during this quarter.
If I talk briefly on the financials then for E&ST, like Sven mentioned, strong order intake growth in the quarter, SEK 650 million Swedish krona, up from SEK 591 million krona, is a currency neutral growth of 8.6%. Sales also up 6.2% to SEK 689 million krona. Adjusted EBITDA, SEK 83 million krona in quarter four versus SEK 92 million in quarter four, 2022. Of course, the SEK 17 million charge for this filter upgrade project impacts things not insignificantly. For the full year, the division is clearly over SEK 2.5 billion krona now in both sales and order intake. Adjusted EBITDA, SEK 340 million Swedish krona, gives 13.1% in the EBITDA margin. Moving on to slide 10, Sven, on Process Technology.
Yes, Process Technology, as you have seen, had a fantastic year with a very strong profitability and strong sales for the year. The quarter, we have increased orders received and that was mainly large orders in EMEA. APAC also saw a good bounce back in order growth. We have a robust sales with higher share of service. We continue to grow our aftermarket business significantly year on year in this division, all the others as well, but especially here. Strategic business decision, high level of manufacturing and delivery efficiency have also contributed to the record earnings in 2023. The three different areas we're working is one, textile and fiber, and the textile segment increased in sales but orders received fell once again.
The backlog is right now healthy and reasonably good. It's been mainly in China, where we have seen a decline. It's the worst backlog, the textile market, and they have had a dampening effect there. But we also see that our organization in India is growing well, taking more market share, balancing out a little bit in this sense. In the foundries and smelter, we have the sustainability trend, meaning recycling of metals like aluminum and steel, et cetera, and that has given us an increase in the demand for these solutions.
We have also now taking the technology from our German European activities to U.S. with very good result. It's a non-U.S. traditional way of handling the issues, but we are now gradually getting into that market and getting an acceptance for, as we see, a better solution.
Very glad to see that coming. When it comes to customized solution, the segment displayed good sales growth, driven by, among others, healthy activity in Asia. The key activities has been the implementation of restructuring program in China, and we expect that to increase the profitability for the coming years. There's a growing interest in the division's offering in digitalization, and that includes participation in various trade fairs in the different regions, and we've seen that again, our digital offer is accepted, and also a thing that the market likes, and also here, we can see how we from remote control, can lower the cost of handling its services, et cetera. We can also help with surveillance with them, which can save costs for our customer.
We have investment in the new paint line, and other, surrounding equipment in our plant in Germany, so we are continuing to upgrade our facilities in all divisions to meet the demand and also be more efficient in our supply. So we have also continuous, as mentioned before, a healthy growth in service and aftermarket, and that demonstrating the division's ability to adapt its offering to the market needs.
Briefly on financials for Process Technology, then in quarter four, order intake increased to SEK 468 million from 437 million, what it must be said was a rather low, in quarter four 2022. This is currency neutral and organic growth of 7.6%. Sales, clearly behind, as we mentioned before, the peak levels, as the backlog for the division has declined somewhat, and that leads to this lower sales level. What's pleasing is that the adjusted EBITDA, the margin has increased in absolute numbers, where the adjusted EBITDA was nearly 4 million Swedish krona higher at SEK 42 million. The EBITDA margin for the quarter, 9.7%, is in line with the full year.
What, what must be said is that there's a significant, an improved sales mix, with, with service business typically offering higher margin than the capital sales projects. Moving on to Slide 11, Duct and Filter Technologies, Sven.
Yes, Duct and Filter Technology, we had in the quarter orders received strengthened. It was due to a number of major orders, quite a few to battery manufacturing, et cetera. Sales were slightly lower, while profitability was positively impacted by improved manufacturing and inventory process, both in U.S. and in EMEA, but especially in the U.S. We have invested significantly in our U.S. operation, and that pays off now.
Nordfab Now division ducting business saw higher orders received compared to last year. We have significantly higher manufacturing efficiency, and that has strengthened our profitability. And the new warehouse management system at the plant in Thomasville, U.S., was commissioned and introduced, and that is another step on the Extraction and Filtration Technology project, where we have same day or next day delivery as a target during the year.
Again, something to add to our efficiency and attractiveness to our customers. In the Menardi, the division's filter solution, that operates under Menardi brand, and again, this is mainly U.S., we have a continued good orders received, and it was in line with the strong Q3, and remember, 50% higher than Q4 2022. We have found niche markets where we do certain applications, and we do that well.
We have successful sales activities and the high level of delivery reliability supported the strong increase in number of orders throughout last year. The key activities worth mentioning is that we are now launching the Nordfab QuickFit in Australia with some success, and we see that as an important move to improve the quality of our offering in Australia.
We have launched a new, in U.S., the Spark Trap, it's for suppression of sparks. It's a new version, and again, focusing on easy to do with, easy to deal with, easy to place in various industrial environment. We have, as mentioned, commissioned the new warehouse management system in Thomasville. It's another important step in internal efficiency, and we have also initiated the investment in BIMobject , and that will help us work with architects and other specification work in the division. And we have a new CEO in our Thai operation.
Briefly on financials here then, for Duct and Filter Technology, external orders received increased by 10% in the quarter to SEK 181 million versus Q4 2022. Sales somewhat lower, SEK 12 million lower than 2022 levels, is SEK 201 million for the quarter. As Sven mentioned, this production efficiency improvements has led to the fact, the EBITDA margin increasing to 17.5%, and that's very slightly higher. It's SEK 1 million higher in actual numbers for the quarter in adjusted EBITDA. For the full year, the division ended on 18.7% EBITDA margin, SEK 157 million in absolute numbers, which is a clear increase in profitability in both absolute numbers and percentages versus 2022. Monitoring and Control Technology, the fourth division, Sven.
Yes, monitoring and control, where we have our surveillance systems, our measurement technology, et cetera. The development during the quarter, orders received declined a little bit compared to Q4 2022, while NEO Monitors performed strongly among the brands. Sales were highest ever recorded for a single quarter, and we had a strengthened profitability.
In EMEA, orders received decreased compared with a very, very strong Q4. We had some one-offs in Q4 2022. Sales increased, and that's driven by rising activity for NEO Monitors, but above all, a strong trend for Gasmet, particularly in the U.K. and in Germany, and especially for our new launched product. That again shows that our activity in R&D, product development, and launching new efficient product is paying off.... In Asia, orders received also declined compared with a very, very strong Q4 in 2022.
Sales increased with significant contribution from Gasmet and NEO Monitors. In China, orders received have gradually improved during the year and continued to do so. Americas noted slightly lower orders received, but another strong quarter in terms of sales. The key activities for the division is continued investment in Insight Cloud and Insight Control digital solution, continued investment to increase production capacity for NEO Monitors, which led to a new production record in December. Working capital increased, mainly due to sustained higher inventory levels to ensure deliveries to customers following earlier problems in the supply chain. But it's also due to the high order backlog, especially in NEO Monitors.
Talking financials, Monitoring and Control Technology , then order intake declined to SEK 167.3 million. We mentioned the one particular order we took in Q4 of 2022 was SEK 30 million. You probably shouldn't read too much into a decline, an organic decline in orders for this division. There is a little bit of, always some issues with timing of when the orders come in. Sales for the division for the first time exceeded SEK 200 million, SEK 202 million versus SEK 176.8 million last in 2022 Q4, and we see what happens to profitability in that division when the sales volumes increase.
The adjusted EBITDA is SEK 48 million versus SEK 34 million in Q4 2022, and the EBITDA margin is very healthy, 23.8% for Q4 of 2023. For the full year 2023, we ended on SEK 153 million in EBITDA versus SEK 97 million in 2022, so a clear improvement there, with a good run down to EBITDA from the increased sales. Margin for the full year, 20.8%, clearly up from 2022. Just talk outlook, Sven, for a few minutes.
Yeah. Again, demand and orders received remain favorable, while our base business strong digital offering enable us to assert ourselves well in the current market. At the same time, of course, there's a risk that problems, including inflationary pressure, weak economic prospect, will impact customers' investment decision.
Moreover, growing geopolitical insecurity could eventually lead to increased protectionism, et cetera. But in terms of our solid order backlog and our ability to increase our share of sales in industry with good, with good structural growth, we take a cautiously positive view for the first half of the year. And we see that our offering has been well received, and we see that we have a very strong position in the market, both technically and from coverage in sales structure. So again, cautiously optimistic for the future.
Okay, the financial calendar, as we've announced, the interim report for Q1 will come out on the 25th of April. That's the day before the annual general meeting on the 26th of April. The Q2 report will be on the 12th of July, and Q3 will come out on the 22nd of October this year. With that, I think we can now open up for any questions that our listeners have.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Lina Blume, from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Hello, Sven and Matthew, and thank you for taking my questions.
Good morning, Lina.
Hi. Good morning. My first question is related to demand. So overall for the group, which geographical markets do you see going strongest, demand-wise at the moment? And could you maybe talk a bit on if you have any expectations of that going forward?
Well, yeah, again, it's always very, very difficult to say, but we have had, over the years, a strong development in North America, most especially the U.S. market. We have both invested and continue to invest in new companies and new resources, and we are continuing to evaluate that, and we see that there is a demand. We also can see the EPA, the authorities are actually pushing, contrary to what we think in Sweden or anywhere else here in Europe, there is a push for more active work when it comes to health effects of bad air. So we see a long-term positive development. They're also investing a lot, put it like this, insourcing to U.S.
And when they do, they build new facilities, and they invest in new, the latest technology, et cetera. So personally, I see a very strong, positive, momentum in U.S., despite any discussion of a slowdown in the economy and so on. Having said that, we also have a strong position in other areas. There is a market in Asia that is growing, especially for us, we need to be better in that geographic area. Any comments?
No, that's, I think that's good, Sven. This electric vehicle battery plant-
Yeah
... you just simply look at the U.S. map of the U.S. with how many plants are being built, that's a great example of why we're perhaps more positive about the U.S. than other parts of the world. But, like you say, internally, we've perhaps got more we can do in Asia.
Super. Talking about the U.S., is it possible to say that the demand is supported by initiatives such as the Inflation Reduction Act, and that the orders are increasing from sort of increased production of green technologies? Or are there mainly other sectors that drives the demand at the moment?
Yeah. I would say it's more the other, because IRA is very much focused on CO2 and so on. But again, if you are focusing, and again, the battery factory manufacturing that the these electric vehicle manufacturers are putting up, it's of course partly an effect of that. It's hard to say what the- I would say that that could support growth of an individual industry, but when it comes to traditional industry, it's more the legislation and the discussion about the health effect of bad air that supports and the general knowledge. And again, it's not only Europe that has an issue when it comes to finding good workforce, et cetera, and engineers working in manufacturing. It's all over the place.
And the demand and the knowledge and awareness that you need to have good working conditions is supporting us. And then we have an offer. When it comes to, we have some examples where someone has gone to low cost, cheap solution and coming back to us again, because, again, we are technologically leading.
We have future-proof solutions with, call it digitalization in a wider perspective, where we can have a lower total cost of ownership by reducing the energy use by smarter filters, if you can say a filter, it's not very smart, but we can utilize it in a more efficient way. So yes, I think that's where we are. I don't know if that's a good enough answer.
No, that's perfect. Thank you. And then, regarding that the RoboVent will move production and offices during the spring, I understand that this is positive regarding increased efficiency and capacity, but will the move in any way affect the production capacity during that time?
No, it will not, because we will have the-- it will probably be so that you can see a little hike in the working capital, but we should be able to do it. It's not a very advanced manufacturing in the sense that there is a lot of heavy manufacturing equipment, since most of that is outsourced, meaning stamping, cutting, plasma cutting, that is outsourced, so it's more assembly.
That means that it should be fairly straightforward, but if you have, it's always a challenge to move a new factory. But the personnel is very upbeat and views is very positive since we have started an investment journey and improving quality of working standards and also efficiency there. So it shouldn't be, but you can always... They will, the ones doing it will have lots of challenges. Hopefully, you will not see any result of those challenges.
Perfect. Thank you. And then regarding the Process Technology division, you mentioned in the report a potential slowdown in demand. Should we expect lower growth of order received for this division in the coming quarters, or how should we interpret this?
I wish I could say, and because we have a very strong pipeline, and again, there, we have very strong product, and we have some very, very big orders in the pipeline. Of course, if, and I say if, people are getting utterly nervous, they might postpone that, et cetera.
But we are, again, cautiously optimistic that we can continue to grow our market share, especially we have seen that, that we have seen that there is a slowdown in textile spinning, weaving, which is important for parts of the division. There has been an overcapacity in some areas and some other disturbances, but we see that in some regions we are moving forward, we are taking market share. Some of our competitors are under restructuring.
So again, even though we are on the high end when it comes to pricing, our total cost of ownership and the future-proof solution, our new technology, like the new fan setup that saves energy, has given us a position. So it's very difficult to say yes and no. The market is more uncertain. Our pipeline is still strong. The decisions for some of these big orders that we have in the pipeline is uncertain. It's out of our control when they do the investment. They will do it, but if it comes now or if it comes later, that's up to some others to decide.
Lina, what I could add on that is, what this probably means is you can expect a little bit more volatility-
Yeah
... if you look at isolated quarters on order intake for this division. You could suddenly have a very good quarter, or you could have what appears on the face of it to be a very weak one.
Perfect. That's clear. Thank you. And then just one last question from me. The Monitoring and Control Technology division reported negative growth in order received, which, of course, should be compared to the strong corresponding quarter in 2022. But how should we look at the development of this division going forward?
I don't think you should read too much into the decline in the quarter. 2022, yes, Q4 was very strong. This division does have a bit of a timing issue. Sometimes big orders come in one quarter, and sometimes they don't. And if you have a SEK 30 million order that isn't repeated in that exact quarter, 12 months later, that can distort things a little bit. But I don't think you should read into it that there's a large decline on the way for monitoring and control. We are quite confident on that.
I would summarize, we are confidently positive in the coming development.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. That was all for me. So thank you very much again for answering my questions.
Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you very much for taking the time listening to us. And once again, we apologize for the technical disturbances in the beginning of the meeting. But we have appreciated you listening. So thank you very much, all of you, and have a continuously good day.