Welcome to the Nederman Holding 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 Sven Kristensson and CFO Matthew Cusick. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good morning, and welcome to this presentation of Nederman Group Q1 2023. We can start with concluding that we had a strong beginning of the year. We had good sales growth, and we also have good orders received, and it was in excess of sales and order backlog heading into quarter two remains strong as it was when we headed into this first quarter. Our effort to increase operational efficiency has continued, and we now see some result, and we have strengthened profitability and cash flow. I'm happy to announce it's actually the best first quarter in the history of Nederman when it comes to sales and profit. There are still some challenges around the world.
We could have had even better margins, but there is an inflationary pressure, and it's clear that we still have supply challenges, even if it's significant better than it was a year ago. There is, of course, the geopolitical uncertainty, but the order backlog is solid moving into Q2, but the outlook for second half of the year is more uncertain. We are not saying that it's going to be worse, but we are saying that we are more wary and uncertain than in most days. We have taken the decision to restructure the Chinese operation, and we have booked a non-recurring cost of SEK 20 million. What are we going to do? We are co-locating manufacturing and warehouse units that has been scattered. We are consolidating most of the business into our Suzhou area.
We are reviewing the supply chain and also our sales resources. We will reduce fixed cost and hopefully we create a platform that will be able to focus on profitable business and a platform for long-term growth as well.
I then go through the key financials for the first quarter of the year, incoming orders exceeded, SEK 1.5 billion for the first time in Nederman's history. There was a clear currency boost in there. Currency neutral growth was 6%. That was largely from acquisitions, also a little bit of currency and we got assistance there. Organic growth, -3%. Like I say, still, that's versus a very strong first quarter of 2022 and the best quarter in terms of order intake we have ever had. Sales growth. We've seen sales tipping. It was slightly below the level of sales in the fourth quarter of last year.
SEK 1.482 billion is still a 28% currency neutral increase versus the same period last year, which we are very happy about, of course. Currency helped us there as well. We had both organic and acquisition growth in the sales there. The rolling four quarters on sales, which is of some interest, we're now over the SEK 5.5 billion mark for the first time. Of course, with strong sales should come strong profitability. Adjusted EBITDA, that was SEK 173 million for the first quarter of the year, which is a margin of 11.7% versus SEK 116 million and 10.6% in Q1 last year. Profit after tax, SEK 127 million. Earnings per share, SEK 2.22 earner versus SEK 2.01.
Remember that, of course, is after taking a SEK 20 million restructuring expense in China, as Sven explained. Rolling four quarters, Adjusted EBITDA now over the SEK 600 million mark as well, which we are pleased with. Cash flow from operations, I've got a relatively nice job today in most of the figures are heading in the right direction. Cash flow from operations was very strong, particularly in the terms of a first quarter of the year, which can typically be a little bit weaker, as you can see on the left chart on slide seven. The first quarter of the year is typically the weakest when it comes to cash flow.
That's usually due to large down payments on projects being made in the fourth quarter of the year, work then commencing on those projects, eating into the cash advances. Given the strong order intake that we had in the first quarter this year, not least in Process Technology, where we've received further down payments, we've been able to maintain a good cash flow from operations. Inventory levels have stopped increasing. They're still on perhaps historically slightly higher levels, but we shouldn't look at history. We're more interested in our ability to deliver at the moment. When it comes to net debt, obviously with a good cash flow from operations, there's a reduction in net debt. It's approximately SEK 300 million higher than it was at this point last year.
Of course, we have bought RoboVent, MBE, and the Ezi-Duct business, which is now Nordfab Australia, in the period since March 2022. Assuming that the dividend is approved by the AGM later today, there will be obviously a slight increase in debt just after the end of April, of course. If we talk about operational performance now and the divisions, and Sven, let's start with Extraction & Filtration Technology.
Extraction & Filtration Technology, the largest division, focusing on welding, wood, general dust, composite manufacturing, et cetera. When it comes to orders and sale, we had a strong and solid base business that. We have also seen a significant increase in the aftermarket. It's been a focus area for some time. We continue to develop that further, especially with our digital tools. We have seen some hesitancy among customers placing large orders because that large project, the greenfields, et cetera. They are still coming. There are sort of longer lead times and internal discussion, it seems, from the customer side. We have a good backlog heading into the year. That gave us the strong sales this Q1.
The profit margins was slightly dampened by more solutions in the sales mix, and also a larger portion of RoboVent large orders that was executed. We booked four major orders, and three of them came from RoboVent in the U.S., it's like in RoboVent's case, always large welding application. We had a flue gas separation in Belgium as well. We have continued to book orders in call it growth industries. For us, food, green energy, defense, where we have a growing interest for our product and their continuous development. Otherwise, the key activities during the quarter is the rollout of Nederman SAVE that we have now introduced in EMEA. It's a digital solution with software and hardware to reduce energy usage in our filtration systems.
One installation reduced our energy use by over 60%. That is also something that, if you start very slow, even in good systems, we can reduce it with in excess of 20%. There will be an upcoming launch in Americas as well. We also launched Nederman ProQuote. We have been talking over the last few years on different digital tools, our digitalization journey, where we talk about the offer. SAVE is an example of that. We talk about our tools to be more efficient internally and also externally. We now launched the new tool, ProQuote. It's a digital tool for product configuration and generating system optimization and quotes for that.
It's like we mentioned, and we'll mention the Q3, where we, one and a half year ago, won the Digital Tool Innovation Award at the AWFS Fair. If we talk about other things in the region, we had very varied development. We had strong sales in EMEA with some Benelux, sort of good contribution. Again, order intake was slightly negative because there was a lack of major orders. In Americas, despite Mexico and Brazil, strong growth, while organic growth in Canada and U.S. was a bit more ups and downs. RoboVent contributed with strong orders and sales figures. APAC, the situation remains challenging with sort of the aftermath of all these massive lockdowns. We can see that the financial stability among a number of Chinese companies, including our customers, are not so great.
Moving on to Process Technology. They had a very strong development during the quarter. They had good sales in all segments. They had this fantastic backlog going into this year, and they have executed on that one. What was even more interesting, we have also had very strong orders received in the Q1. We have a strong backlog also going into Q2. What happened was that the textile segment had a slowdown, but that for the division was offset by very strong performance in others. It's a very profitable quarter, and it is on our target for the PT division. Textile fiber, we can say that sales increased sharply, and that was driven by the high backlog we developed during last year.
The orders received, as mentioned, went slowly backwards, but we still have a strong situation. There is a dampening of the demand for new textile equipment. There's a low capacity utilization in spinning wheels, we've seen that. On the other hand, we have focused on developing the adjacent nonwoven segment, here we have gone from very, very low orders a few years ago to developing a market position, especially with our presence in Asia. We are now seeing that that part of the division is growing. Going into foundry and smelters, there's an increasing demand for aluminum recycling solutions, here we have strong offers. We do have a strong presence in EMEA, we are also working to grow the Americans. We've seen some results.
We have seen growth in the smelter segment for EV component, industrial application, aerospace sector, and we've booked one big order. We are not allowed to disclose the name of a customer, but it's a known electrical vehicle manufacturer. China operations remain a major challenge, especially in some parts of it, so we are fulfilling the restructuring program to improve the situation. Customized solution, which is strong performance with several large orders booked. We have also with successful, very successful project execution contributed to improved profitability. If we look at the key activities, patent application has been submitted for a new high-performance fan and air conditioning system for low energy consumption and giving much better performance than conventional solutions. This is mainly for the Luwa and the Textile segment.
As mentioned, we are taking care of the restructuring program together with the EFT division.
The financials for Process Technology, as Sven mentioned, it looks, they've had their most profitable quarter in their history, actually. SEK 512 million in sales is extremely strong, and 39% organic currency neutral growth versus the first quarter of last year. Of course, some of this was expected. What is quite pleasing is that the order intake was actually even higher, and therefore, they are entering the second quarter of the year with a backlog as high, very slightly higher than it was at the start of the year. That's seen on the chart on the top right there. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 8.3% is SEK 42 million, extremely strong there. Monitoring & Control Technology, Sven.
Yep. Monitor and Control development in the quarter, we saw an increase in demand during the first quarter, we had a good order intake. We also had higher sales volumes we managed to deliver. There has been challenges with component supply. That has been easing up a little bit during the quarter, it still remains, and it's still volatile, and it's still high prices. We came back to better profitability again, the backlog is very strong for us going into Q2. EMEA good growth in both order intake and sales. We've seen higher activity both for Gasmet and NEO Monitors and our increased activities in the U.K., where we have invested in new sales organization and added sales organization. The acquired MBE in Switzerland contributed to the growth.
It's a small acquisition, but it gives us the capability of reaching the customer base and controlling our sales in Switzerland directly. In Asia Pacific, orders and sales increased, and there was definitely high activity, both Gasmet and NEO. We had several larger orders secured for Gasmet, and we also introduced the Gasmet into the Philippines here. There are growth challenges in China, even though some of it have returned. There are pressures, as we have mentioned before, from government that they should buy, especially for government-controlled or officially controlled customers, that they should first hand go for Chinese solutions. We saw some orders coming back because there is no one that can supply the quality well as we do. We'll see. Again, volatile market. Americas, NEO Monitors, Gasmet, Auburn FilterSense all had a positive Q1.
We saw significant increase in sales compared to last year. We also see that the Gasmet portable units has seen a new activity, and there's an increased interest in our products. It has to do with industrial hygiene, stack testing, environmental research, where our unique portable, and it actually is portable compared to what some competitors call is what we call draggable, but intentionally. Auburn FilterSense increased their sales, and it was normal core product. Other key activities in the quarter is the launch of GT6000 Mobilis. It's a new portable, user-friendly emission analyzer, and it simplifies the mobile emission measurement. We've seen very positive reactions, and already now have booked orders for that new product.
We also, on 18th of March, launched the Gasmet Insight, which is using the platform for IoT, and that will be developed during the year. We can see that from installing this in new installation, we can do a lot of the service or different overhauls. We can do that from a distance and remote, which is a new interesting world.
When it comes to financials and Monitoring & Control Technology, order intake was extremely strong in the quarter, SEK 190 million is at 26% currency neutral growth, 22% organically, so a little bit coming from MBE as well there. Sales, SEK 170 million, was significantly higher than what we must conceive was a rather weak Q1 last year. We remember we had challenges in our own production with COVID outbreaks and not least problems with sourcing of critical components in production. Obviously a sales increase was expected. SEK 171 million is quite satisfying, particularly backed up by the order intake that we see there. Adjusted EBITDA moving up towards the 20% mark. Again, not quite there. 19.3%, SEK 33 million in EBITDA in quarter one.
On to Duct & Filter Technology.
Duct & Filter Technology for the first quarter. The development in the quarter was good. Sales and orders received was higher, both compared to Q1 last year and also compared to last quarter. Nordfab Australia made a clear contribution to growth now. We have, if you remember, we acquired a company, we have now restructured it, and we have a real vehicle to grow the Duct & Filter and duct business in Australia. The higher volumes also improved production efficiency and gave increased profitability. If you look at the Nordfab side of it, we continued to grow order. We improved the manufacturing performance in U.S. The new warehouse building in Thomasville is now complete.
It's not just a warehouse, but it gives us the ability to restructure the flow, and it will facilitate the Nordfab Now concept that will start during the year, where you can handle next day deliveries. There is of course challenges during this Q2, where we are moving into a new factory. We are installing new equipment, manufacturing equipment. They have a lot of challenges in Q2. It's all for the good. We see very positive for the future. There will be also a new warehouse management system installed during this Q2. That will facilitate the warehouse automatization that we are planning for later on. The MEA indeed declined a little bit. We had fewer large order. Again, we had a strong development in U.K. That is positive.
The base business is growing, very satisfactory. There was a weaker start in our Thai operation. Reduced export sales was a challenge for the period. Nordfab Australia, double orders received versus Q4 2022, and the Australian profitability impacted negative by bottlenecks. New ERP system implemented Q1 should improve operational control, and that has been an important part of making Ezi-Duct, well, the real company, an efficient company. The market is there, and we know what to do. In Menardi, stable trend in both orders and sales. We established a new rep office in California, and we have already seen a growing order intake from that region. Aftersales operations in Europe continue its stable performance. Key activities, a continued rollout of the QFE Fit Clip design and order system in Europe.
We have QFE marketing campaigns production in the U.S., and the new design of Nordfab Quick-Fit Clip was launched in MEA, which gives better quality and shorter delivery times. We are celebrating 50, respectively 110th anniversary, and there are some celebrations going on. We are renewing and updating older manufacturing equipment, and we have already seen that that has reduced downtime, increased efficiency, and therefore also profitability.
Exactly. Profitability is up to 19.6% EBITDA margin in quarter one for Duct & Filter Technology. Sales, 9.5% currency neutral growth of SEK 212 million. Incoming orders also currency neutral growth 6.4%. Slightly negative organically at -3.4%, but overall currency neutral growth anyway. Nearly 10% growth in sales and SEK 42 million in Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter for Duct & Filter Technology. We then just move on to the outlook, Sven, before we open up for questions.
The outlook, orders received in the first quarter were strong, even if organic growth declined somewhat. The order backlog heading into Q2 is strong, that bodes well for the coming quarter. We can see a continuous inflationary pressure, it has an impact on margins. We are doing our best to counter that during the time here. Supply chain situation has definitely improved. Freight rate has gone down. It's easier to get the supply, et cetera, but it's not fully resolved, and it's a bit volatile. There is a more uncertain outlook for the second half of the year. We are not saying that it will be worse or better. We are saying we don't know because there are so many uncertainties in the market at the moment.
Although various factors may temporarily contribute to demand dampened outlook in our industry, Nederman's long-term potential continues to strengthen in a world which insight into the damaging poor air dust to people is increasing. Nederman, with its leading industrial air filtration offering, has a key role to play and good possibility for growth.
Very quickly, on the financial calendar, the next time you get to hear us or speak to us in this forum is on the 14th of July when we will release the Q2 report for 2023. Q3 report goes out on the 23rd of October, our Q4 full year report for 2023 will be released on the 15th of February next year. With that, I think we can now open up for any questions that listeners may have.
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 Anna Widström from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Hello, Sven. Hello, Matthew. Hope you're both are well.
Good morning.
My first question is if you have any additional comments on the volume development organically on group level or by segment?
I can answer that one. Not more to say on that. Process Technology is the one that's, they have a negative or currency neutral growth, if you purely look at the quarter-on-quarter figures, but you should not read too much into that. They've had a very strong quarter there. There is three out of four divisions with negative or having said that, with three out of four divisions with negative organic growth, Extraction & Filtration Technology and Duct & Filter Technology are the ones that are slightly earlier in the business cycle. This is why we're a little bit hesitant looking into the second half of the year. The indicator coming from those two divisions isn't fantastic.
When it comes to Monitoring & Control Technology, they've got quite a lot of regulatory and compliance driven business, so they are slightly less volatile and vulnerable to swings in the economic cycle. We are still a little bit cautious heading into the second half of the year. We're reasonably confident going into this quarter, too, now, given the backlog that we had in and the order intake and hence the backlog that we've got going into the quarter.
Okay, thank you. If we maybe could discuss the sort of motivation behind the reconstruction program, sort of what is your current view on China and your operations in the region?
Current view on China. Sven, do you want to give that?
No, it. I In China, what we're doing is China is and has been is that what we are doing is both for efficiency and we do not want to have small offices and so on. What we will do and are doing is that we are coordinating Process Technology and EFT warehousing and assembly activities to one factory, and that is in Suzhou. We have the sales and we will move into more closer to Shanghai because it's easier to recruit people. It could take a half an hour about all the systems, because if you have the working permit in Suzhou, you're not allowed to work in Shanghai.
If you are having it in Shanghai, you will never move to Suzhou because then you will lose it. We are setting up a joint office for MCT, the sales of EFT, sales of PT in closer into the Shanghai jurisdiction and Hongqiao probably. Where we are not including in this restructuring is Luwa, who is having their own manufacturing site. It is to do, be more efficient, more attractive employer, and more focused activities on the high-end area where we see that we have a position. Was it the sort of the answer you are looking for, Anna?
Yes, very great detail. Thank you, Sven. Just a follow-up on that. The reconstruction cost, is this something that we could potentially see more of in the upcoming quarters, or did you try to, like, take it all in one go this quarter?
This is our expectation for the full cost for the move. Unless we identify significant new activities that we need to carry out, we should not see further costs, being charged to the income statement for this.
The short answer, no, we're not planning for more. We will make the move, make the efficiency gains, and that's it.
Okay, that's very clear. Thank you. Going into the Process Technology, I mean, this business area is currently in the midst of delivering on a lot of big projects. What do you expect to happen to costs and earnings as this segment might be slowing down a bit and we're starting to see a normalization?
The short-term outlook for this division is very good. They, they're cautious in the management team there, but they are reasonably comfortable. Even those guys are reasonably comfortable about the second quarter of the year. There is a risk later on that, that it could go down. If we talk about, we, and we always do with Process Technology, the Return on Capital Employed now is extremely good in that division. They have these down payments, very good cash positive projects. The fact that they had SEK 524 million in order intake in quarter one has meant that. How do we phrase this?
We, Sven and I were discussing this, the anxiety we had about quarter two is now moved one quarter at least down the road.
At least there. It feels like it's reasonably positive. The result for that division, that shows what they can do with this level of. They've grown the service business, which is one of the reasons behind the factors behind the increased profitability. It's not just that they're delivering on projects. That means that they are probably in a slightly less vulnerable position than they were when we went into this COVID period. They've grown service very well over the last two or three years.
I would say that there is a number of things. There's been a focus over the last few years. Remember, we have acquired, and there has been a focus a little bit on volume historically. We have defined focused areas where we have a competitive edge, or at least we can develop one. We have integrated our, call it the digital solutions, both when it's the tools, but especially the offer here, where we have been able to show that we are future-proof. We have signed a number of Clean Air as a Service application where we guarantee the functionality of the system for the coming 10 years, as long as they are using the full pack of measurement, et cetera, and follow-up and service. There is a part that is growing aftermarket significantly.
That has been in the strategy for the last three years. It has to focus in segment and activities where we have a competitive edge and walk away from non-profitable fill the factory orders and have a discipline, and that is resulting in better results.
Thank you. That's very clear. I think I maybe should get back in line and see if anyone-.