Welcome to the Nederman Holding Q3 2024 report presentation. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to speakers, CEO Sven Kristensson and CFO Matthew Cusick. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We are here to present the Nederman Group Q3 in 2024. The headline, we have had high level of activity and good orders received, especially in three out of four divisions. If we look at some of the highlights, we have continued investments in a more challenging market. We have a continuous strong focus on operational efficiency and a high rate of innovation. The operational efficiency, we'll see we have now taken over the new manufacturing and logistic site in Helsingborg, and they are moving in, and it will take a few months more.
We have also taken first part of the Thomasville with Nordfab now in the Duct and Filter, and we are continuing to build a further warehousing and manufacturing for the heavy duty side of it. We had a very good inauguration ceremony in Chesterfield, U.S., close to Detroit for RoboVent, where we also now have the possibility to work in a more efficient way. We have also launched a number of new products and systems. What we see is that we are advancing our position in a slightly or in a weaker market. We had good orders. We had organic and currency neutral order intake growth in three out of four divisions, and we continued to get orders in for Nederman new target industries.
We consider as under the circumstances, having a solid profitability, and we had a strong cash flow, and again, we made a smaller acquisition of Duroair Technologies, and it gives us a complement with new solutions, combining traditional Nederman RoboVent solutions to new sectors, such as defense, aeronautics, et cetera.
If we go on to the key financials now and on to slide four, orders received, as Sven mentioned, three of our four divisions saw organic and currency neutral growth during quarter three. Orders for the quarter, SEK 1.437 billion, versus SEK 1.488 billion in quarter three last year. If you look at the charts, if you see the chart on slide four directly below that, you can see there's quite a large currency impact, negative during the quarter versus quarter three last year. The Swedish krona, among other things, appreciated approximately 5% versus the US dollar during quarter three this year. In the same quarter last year, it was actually sliding, so that makes quite a big impact.
Organic growth in three of four divisions, the other three didn't quite compensate for the drop in Process Technology, which we'll come back to. Orders received now on a rolling four quarter basis on around SEK 6 billion. For the year to date, order intake is now SEK 4.37 billion versus SEK 4.538 billion at this point last year. That's currency neutral, 2.9% down. Again, here it's the Process Technology division with the large projects, that is the main reason behind that. If you look at sales, a couple of lower sales in the quarter versus Q3 of last year, that must be said. We had fewer major orders at the start of the quarter. We received quite a few towards the end.
Those did not then materialize into sales in time to be booked in quarter three. And obviously, Process Technology, we know, have fewer large projects in their backlog right now. We'll come back to backlog for that division. Sales for the quarter, SEK 1.416 billion versus SEK 1.574 billion, very strong comparative figures last year. Currency neutral growth, -6.8%. Again, we see a currency impact of SEK -52 million in the quarter versus the same quarter last year. Year to date, sales SEK 4.28 billion versus SEK 4.687 billion by the end of September 2023. Currency neutral, that's 7.8% down. Once more, that is largely Process Technology division. We have some acquisition growth.
It's a relatively small percentage of our overall sales, approximately 1%, contribution from acquisitions this year. Profitability was solid and then our margins improved. Adjusted EBITDA, SEK 161 million versus SEK 175 million in the quarter last year. That gave us an EBITDA margin of 11.4% versus up from 11.1% in Q3 2023, profit after tax, SEK 70 million , which gives earnings per share of SEK 2.00 versus SEK 2.43 in Q3 last year. For the year to date, now we're on SEK 523 million in adjusted EBITDA versus SEK 543 million at the year after nine months of last year. That's a margin of 12.2%, so that's up 0.6% versus the 11.6% last year.
Profit after tax, SEK 258 million, gives an earnings per share of SEK 7.34 , which is slightly below the SEK 7.51 that we were at, at this point last year as well. Cash flow, Sven already mentioned a strong cash flow. This is very important for us that we continue with this. It enables the investments in these growth-enhancing activities that we have, the investments in the factories and the operations and the product development. Quarter three had cash flow from operations of SEK 181 million, which is up from SEK 137 in quarter three last year. Year to date, now SEK 351 million in cash flow from operations is slightly down from the SEK 364 million at, at this point last year. Net debt appears to have increased significantly.
It must be pointed out in this SEK 1.761 million that we now see in net debt, there's a significant increase in the IFRS 16 calculated debt. This is related to the new leases that we have entered into for both the Helsingborg premises and the one in Chesterfield, Detroit, U.S., for RoboVent. They impact the balance sheet significantly there. It's. If we look at net debt excluding IFRS 16, we're actually reduced clearly in the quarter. If we move on to the divisions and make a start with Extraction and Filtration Technologies, Sven.
Yeah. Extraction and Filtration technology, large customer base is, woodworking, metal industry, welding, et cetera, for those who do not remember. Some of the highlights is that we have the highest orders received for a single quarter, currency adjusted, second only to Q3 2023. We have had strong growth in major orders, solid base business, and increased number of mid-size orders. The quarter ended with an all-time high order backlog, supporting good sales in the coming quarters. Something worth mentioning, a lot of the orders came slightly later than we had expected. That means that we were not able to ship, not only because of storms, bushfires, and other excuses, but also because some of the orders came in later in the quarter than may be expected.
If you go a little bit for the division in the different regions, EMEA grew in orders received and in sales. There were a number of major orders secured through distributor channels. We had a better and a good level of mid-size order, with something that has been a bit lacking over a period of time here, where we've seen a hesitation of maybe smaller, customers or, with activities maybe postponing some of the investment. We had the strongest ever quarterly order intake in Americas. We had six major orders, three of them in the welding and one in the woodworking. And as mentioned, we had some deliveries that were delayed because of Helene, but again, we will deliver them this quarter.
That's not a major issue, but it explains a little bit that we should have had a better sales figure. APAC saw some recovery in orders received. We had growth in Southeast Asia, Australia, but we do see remaining challenges in India and especially in China. We see weak sales in those regions. Another look at some of the key activities, we, as mentioned earlier, acquired Duroair. It's a good company, but it has an active climate control air filtration, and it's focused on U.S. and Canada markets. It's a good complement to existing business, where we are having the technology for on-tool extraction and at-source.
Here, we have encapsulating climate control environment, and this fits very well for especially the aerospace and for some of the defense industries. It's being integrated in the sales organization, mainly of RoboVent, and they have now started to quote and see at least one a week. So let's see how we can further develop that business. We did launch a new ATEX mobile high vacuum series. It meets the latest standards on combustible dust environments. Again, we continued to launch with a steady pace, new latest technology, both for the hardware as well as we do with the digitalization.
We did participate in the largest, I think it's the world's largest international woodworking fair, and that is in, it was this year in Atlanta, and we had lots of success with our digital solution, our integrated particle measurement, integrating into our system, and we strengthen our position as the Clean Air Company also in the woodworking industry. We have taken access, and we've got access to the new production and logistics facility in Helsingborg, and they have started to move in, and modernize the facility. What we will have is a continuous move during the coming month, and it should be ready in February next year. We have RoboVent new plant. It was an operation that had divided in, like in Helsingborg, in several old facilities.
Now, we have a fully operational new site with better efficiency, for both logistics and manufacturing, for the future.
When it comes to financials for Extraction and Filtration Technology, orders received, as Sven mentioned, highest ever for a single quarter if you adjust for currency. Unfortunately, with the US dollar weakening against the Swedish krona, we were very slightly below Q3 of last year. SEK 674 million in orders received is reasonably pleasing, though SEK 676 million last year. Currency neutral growth 2.5%, organic growth 1.3%, and year to date, it's a rather similar picture. Currency neutral growth is now 2.4% for the division, SEK 1.962 billion in orders received so far. Sales also grew currency neutral, but slightly down versus last year. SEK 633 million was a tiny bit behind our expectations for the quarter.
These delays a quarter from the hurricane were a little bit or were very unexpected. SEK 653 million last year, comparative figures. The EBITDA margin, now 12.4%, gave us SEK 78 million in adjusted EBITDA versus SEK 83 million in quarter three last year. Year to date, now, 13.5% EBITDA margin is in line with where we were at this point last year. Given that sales are slightly higher than this point last year, the adjusted EBITDA now SEK 260 million versus SEK 256 at this point last year. With that, we move on to Process Technology.
Yes, Process Technology, here we are, in other applications, meaning recycling of metal waste, et cetera. It's also number one globally on high-end filtration and climate control for spinning industry and weaving industry, and some others. Here, we had a development with fewer major orders. There is a continuous slowdown in cyclical industries, and we have had a period of lower orders received, which has been expected as we've seen the development coming this way. We also had lower sales, but a clear increase in margins gave us a strong EBITA, and we continued to develop the aftermarket service business, and it gives us a stable and profitable development. We see that even though the volumes are short, we can make profit in this more cyclical division.
If we go to the textile and fiber, which is mainly sold on the brand Luwa, it's been a very challenging situation. We have a high market share, and we are impacted by a weaker demand and low capacity utilization in the global spinning mills. There's been, especially a very weak trend in China and Turkey. However, in the U.S., we have booked and secured two major orders, and we see a continuous tendency of insourcing to the U.S. market. When it comes to foundry and smelters, we had an increase versus the same quarter last year. We had three large order, including one to aluminum recycling. As mentioned before, we have a big focus, we have good, strong clean air solution for metal recycling, which is a growing trend.
If you looked at aluminum in Europe, we have about 85% recycled aluminum, U.S., less than 40%, China, less than 10%. I admit they're a few years old figures, but you get the rationale here that there is a possibility for further investment in these areas. There is a strong underlying sustainability trend, and that will continue the demand for these recycled products. If we go to customized solutions, both orders are received and sales are lower than last year. There's a reduced activity in European [audio distortion], German chemical industry, the fabulous prices of energy and those problems have made the chemical industry in Germany very hesitant to further invest there, which has had an impact on us as well.
The strategic and sustainability-oriented investment in, for example, mining and petrochems, are expected to increase demand in the long term or midterm here. We see possibilities here, but maybe it's not gonna happen in our strong position in Germany but in other geographies. Key activities, new sandblasting, paint line, et cetera, are now fully operational in our facility in Friesenheim, southern Germany, and we have, by that, increased capacity and reduced manufacturing costs. So we are continuing to invest to increase our positive development. The rollout continue of the division's new energy efficient fan for textile industry, which is again, an important aftermarket or upgrade possibility on existing business and customers. And as energy prices are soaring, we've seen a large interest in what can be small, but very innovative new products.
Financials to Process Technology. External orders received in the quarter, SEK 353 million versus SEK 419 million in Q3 last year, is a 13% reduction. Sales, SEK 403 million versus SEK 555 million, is a clear. It accounts for the entire decrease in net sales of the group in quarter three this year, 24% down for the division. Despite that, adjusted EBITDA, SEK 46 million versus SEK 51 million in Q3 last year, gives a margin for this quarter, just to finish, of 11.4%, which is extremely strong for this division, versus 9.1% last year, which was not bad at all, it must be said.
Year-to-date now, orders received SEK 1.19 billion versus SEK 1.45 billion last year, is 17.5% down. Sales, SEK 1.205 billion, is approximately SEK 500 million down from this point last year, 29% reduction in sales. Again, despite that, an increased margin, now up at 11% for the year-to-date, gives SEK 132 million in EBITDA versus SEK 167 million at this point last year. Duct and Filter Technologies, Sven.
Yes. So going over to Duct and Filter, where we under the name Nordfab and Menardi sells filters and ductwork and [audio distortion] suppression system. If we look at the development during the quarter, we've had a good level of orders, and we have secured orders also in new growth segment. We had growth both in U.S. and EMEA, and the good and very strong profitability continues. This has been positively impacted by the investment in production facilities and machinery. We have definitely improved. We are automating the processes, we have new equipment, and we are now currently also installing the AGVs for more automated handling and the Nordfab Now, which I mentioned later. So again, Nordfab had orders received, and sales in U.S. grew strongly.
We have new orders in battery manufacturing and other segments. Investments being made in increased manufacturing and additional warehousing capacity, also for heavy gauge ducting. This is large ductwork that goes into some of our internal use for this hot air application, recycling of metal, et cetera, and also in battery, it's, and all other. We have increased significantly our capacity. We are taking market share with our Nordfab Now concept, and we are adding also this second line of heavy duty with more modernized new equipment and also increasing the capacity here. Nordfab Now, with deliveries within 24 hours, have continued to drive order volumes in Thomasville.
We have, and here comes also the need for the AGVs, the modernization of the semi-automated or automated warehousing and distribution, because we are now unique in this, that we can supply most of standard product within 24 hours. Menardi's orders received remain on historically high levels. We have efficient deliveries and high manufacturing utilization, have good profitability. We've got one large order, very large order, high profit, but lower margin, but very good order anyway. Helene negatively impacted manufacturing because it was in South Carolina, where we have our main factory for Menardi. The key activities is a continuation of our digitalization journey. We have now introduced the BIM objects, and we are continuously rolling out that to customers and resellers, and it generates a large number of product downloads.
So a combination of our efficiency in manufacturing and distribution, combined with the digitalization, and simplification of the order process, and also for architects to utilize, our product, is giving us a strong position. Newest laser welding system for facility in Thailand is being installed during this quarter, and it will raise the product quality for the entire APAC region there. It further increase the distance to the local competition that cannot meet this quality level.
Orders received, as Sven mentioned, were developed well in quarter 7.4% currency neutral growth, leaves SEK 203 million in order intake for the quarter versus SEK 195 million in Q3 2023. Year to date, that we are now clearly positive, 2.7%, currency neutral growth, SEK 592 million versus SEK 582 million in the first nine months of 2023. Sales for the quarter, SEK 221 million, up 8.6% currency neutrally from Q3 last year, gave us a very strong EBITDA margin of 20.4% or SEK 45 million, but up from SEK 39 million, or 18.5% in Q3 last year. Year to date, now the division has, SEK 137 million in EBITDA.
That's up from SEK 121 million last year, and that is an EBITDA margin of 20.6% for the year to date versus 19% last year. On to Monitoring and Control Technology divisions, Sven.
Yes, we take Monitoring Control Technology, and during the quarter, we had strong orders received. We have a large order backlog, and that led to a slightly higher sales versus Q3 last year. NEO Monitors reported the strongest growth, followed by Gasmet. Sales declined slightly in Auburn FilterSense and against the, which we have to remember, very strong comparative quarter. Geographically wise, we have in EMEA in sales term the strongest region during Q3, substantial contribution from successful project deliveries from NEO Monitors and Gasmet. Orders received were largely in line with Q3 2023. APAC orders received declined slightly, and this reduction was linked to the weak performance of Chinese economy. We saw a decline in demand here during the summer.
However, NEO Monitors and Gasmet still booked several strategically important orders in the region, so it's not doom and gloom, but compared to the strong growth we have had in the region earlier, it was a slight decline. We also seen in APAC delays on certain deliveries, and that has been due to the request of the customers, and some of the sales is now pushed into Q4, and mainly because their facility were not ready to take on board the, the equipment we should ship. In Americas, orders received increased sharply in Americas, especially strong development for NEO Monitors. We had two major orders to the oil and gas industry, and following introducing Nederman as a the Clean Air company, the capability is backing the smaller company, NEO Monitors, and we are now allowed to work directly with the larger petrochemical [audio distortion] activities.
Key activities, continued investment to increase production capacity and efficiency for NEO Monitors. It's needed. We need to increase our capacity there, and we are continuing to work with that, and that's the work that will continue throughout the year here. Ongoing preparations in our OTC, Operational Technology Center, for launch of the next generation of Insight products. We have got a new certificate obtained for the newly launched GT6000 Mobilis. It's a very advanced new product which include market analysis, training for sales and partners, external webinars, and we've seen a strong interest in this new, very efficient measurement, mobile measurement product.
Financials for Monitoring and Control Technology, orders received up 10.1% versus Q3, currency neutral versus Q3 last year, SEK 208 million now. That clearly exceeded the sales of SEK 190 million. Like Sven mentioned, there were some delays on deliveries that, or postponements on deliveries that impacted negatively at the end of the quarter, but still 8.3% sales growth there. The EBITDA margin, down somewhat to 15.8%, gives us SEK 30 million in EBITDA versus SEK 37 million in Q3 last year. If we look year to date, now we can see that order intake is SEK 626 million. That's significantly more than the sales of SEK 583 million.
So we can see, anyone analyzing this can see that the backlog, the order backlog has increased in the division in the quarter, which bodes well for coming quarters. Adjusted EBITDA, SEK 97 million versus SEK 104.6 million for the first nine months of last year, means that the margin is now 16.6% versus 19.7% for the first nine months of 2023.
Coming into the outlook, we can say that demand is slightly slower, but our business in strong digital range mean we are asserting ourselves well in the current market. Even if the performance of our division is largely positive, there is a risk that, for example, current interest rate, weaker economic development will impact customers' investment, and we have already seen that. Whether that's going to continue or not, we will see. Of course, geopolitical uncertainty is another one, but with a large order backlog and our ability to increase our share of sales in industry with good structural growth, we take a cautiously positive view of development in the coming quarters. Even if the outlook in our industry could be temporarily dampened by various external factors, the long-term potential remains.
And in a world with growing insight into damage that poor air does to people, Nederman with our leading position in industrial air filtration has a key role to play and a good potential for continued growth. So it's also so that it gives opportunities. In a tougher market situation, we continue to strengthen our position in this current environment. And as our Englishman in front of me, we can say that Winston Churchill said, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." It also opens up for good moves and strengthening of our position.
So.
Some upcoming dates, the year-end report for 2024 will be released on the 13th of February next year. The interim report Q1 will be on the 25th of April. The Annual General Meeting then four days after, on the 29th of April. Q2 report will come out on the 15th of July, and the Q3 report on the 23rd of October next year. Some dates for your calendars there. And with that, I think we can open up for any questions that listeners may 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 Bloom, from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Hi, Sven and Matthew. Thank you for taking my questions.
Good morning, Lina.
Good morning.
Firstly, on group level, is it possible to give some color on which industries that are currently driving order intake? Is it still industries such as battery, renewable energy, and metal recycling that demonstrates higher growth versus the more traditional industries, or what can you say about that?
It's not as simple, but generally speaking, metal recycling has had a... As mentioned, not only aluminum, but others also, there is a lot of recycling and need of upgrade. We have aluminum, we have lead recycling, and et cetera, where there's still some activity. Where we've seen that it's a little bit weaker, or definitely weaker in some European, is the woodworking industry, due to the low activity in construction industry as well as consumer in furniture, et cetera. That has definitely been weaker. So everything that goes for recycling is doing better than the rest.
Perfect. Thank you. And then also there has been a lot of discussions regarding overproduction of battery manufacturing in China, affecting competition and driving price pressure across several other markets as well. How is this impacting the demand?
We can say, if we take China first of all, we've not been big at all in the Chinese battery market. But if we then talk about that potential impact around the rest of the world, we are still seeing growth there because of the reshoring in the U.S. Yes, maybe there's a slowdown coming, and some companies are delaying plans and things on batteries, but it's still a market that is there, and it must be remembered, every electric car also has a lead battery in there, and those lead batteries, for example, require recycling.
Yeah.
And filtration for production. So it is a positive market.
Yeah, but it's not a lot of those equipments are made anyway in China. We're not really, it's more on the U.S. market that we supply some of that. We have supplied to all. But it's not so significant. It is more important the recycling of metals.
Yes.
I, where you have, especially if you have highly toxic materials, like in lead batteries and so on, which, there has been over the last few years. If you remember all how they shipped it to Nigeria and other places, that's gradually stopping, and we are taking care of our own waste here. And it's also seen as an asset when you can recycle the metal, in this. So I would say there's been no impact on Nederman because we have not been active in that market.
Okay, super. Good to hear. And then you also mentioned that the Hurricane Helene negatively impacted sales. Could you possibly quantify the financial impact of this event, and do you expect it to have any ongoing effect into Q4?
Yeah. What we could say, [audio distortion] division, which probably had the biggest impact, that was a handful of million in revenue there. So, and they have rather good margins on there. So there's you're talking a couple of million in EBITDA that is basically postponed. With Menardi, I don't know so much. It's not such a large volume.
But they stopped the production a few days. But it's not the end of the world. It's just pushed into Q4, but there were shipments in the divisions in North America that could not be done. It also had some in MCT that couldn't be shipped due to or they didn't want it due to the risk of being caught into this. So the result is affected a bit more than a handful of millions.
Exactly. It's important to understand that's just delays. It's not money that will never come back. It will likely we'll get it all back in Q4 as well.
Okay, perfect. And then my next question is regarding the EBITDA development for the Monitoring and Control Technology segment, the decline in EBITDA compared to last year. What are the main drivers of this decline, and what can we expect going forward?
Very simple answer, lack of sales. Ship the backlog and you'll see the results in time.
Exactly. The organization, we're very pleased they're growing more than 10% or currency neutral in sales still. So that their focus is to grow that organization. And I don't want to say unfortunately, but if you look at, like I mentioned, year to date, I think they're SEK 45 million lower in sales than orders, and that's it's not a bad thing that the orders keep continuing to grow, but we need to get the sales to catch up. So some more efficiency in production and actually more capacity in production will clearly drive the margins up when it comes. This has very high contribution margins in this division, as we've mentioned before.
Super, that's clear. And then just one last question for me. Is it possible to comment anything about the market, competition wise, right now and how that has developed in the last couple of quarters?
Very good product.
Yeah, I think that's a fair comment. We've taken some orders from competitors. We're.
We are getting orders now from competitors that have filed for Chapter 11, and we try to emphasize financial stability as not only lowest price, but also quality financial stability for the supplier, which has been apparent for some who now stands without the supply due to chosen supplier had filed for Chapter 11. So currently, we believe that we, or we are quite certain it's beyond my belief, we are moving forward, and we have a stronger position with the latest technology when it comes to, as I mentioned, we continue with innovation, we continue our digitalization journey, we continue to make it easy, as under our slogan, easy to do business with, with digitalization tools. BIM object is obviously not internal, but it's something we are co-working with.
We have also our own [audio distortion] , et cetera, as we talked about, and even got some awards at different exhibitions and fairs. So we believe that we have a strong position. We are not keen to have a price war and fight with price. That is not how we try to continue with high quality, stability, et cetera.
Super! Thank you very much, and thank you for answering all my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Yeah, then we thank you for listening to us, and next time, same place, same channel, is the year-end report that we will release February thirteen next year. So thank you very much and have a continued good day.