Welcome to the ROCO Q2 twenty twenty five Report Presentation. Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO, Fredrik Karlsson and CFO, Johan Blad. Please go ahead.
Welcome, and good morning. So we start by going into slide number two in our q two presentation. We look at two important metrics for compounders or serial acquirers that when we assess our business, their growth in EBITDA and change in leverage that we compare on a year to date basis versus the same period last year. We grew EBITDA 11% in the first six months of this years this year driven by acquisitions and organic growth, but with negative exchange rate differences. Leverage was unchanged at 2.3 times EBITDA.
In the twelve months period since the end of q two twenty twenty four, we have invested approximately 926,000,000 Swedish kronor in acquisitions, of which 600 towards the end of q two twenty twenty five. So the unchanged leverage is a is a due to strong cash flow generation and organic profit development in the group. If we move on to page number three, we have the highlights of our group's financial performance with the prior three years providing full year context. In the year to date period, we grew sales 6% with 3% organic growth in local currency. Exchange rate differences had a negative impact in the period with minus three percentage points.
EBITDA grew 11 as previously mentioned, driven by acquisitions and organic growth. But as previously said, note that the exchange rate differences were negative and impact both net sales and EBITDA. Our margins are seasonally stronger in the first half year, which you can see here at 22%, whereas full year 2024 at at 20. But we still see a margin improvement here in the beginning of the year versus the same period last year. That this is predominantly driven by margin improvements in all comparable or in most comparable companies, but we also see that our recent acquisitions have provided a bit of positive mix effects and being margin accretive.
As a reminder, we have approximately 7% of our net sales in The US, of which the majority are from goods that are manufactured outside of The US. 2% of that seven are net sales that stem from goods manufactured in China. We monitor the situation closely, and while the tariffs certainly pose an issue to specific companies, the risk for our group is not so significant. In the second quarter, we acquired and consolidated a company in The Netherlands, a company called Topa Bathroom Products. The company designs and sell bathroom products such as faucets, mixers, and bathroom furniture in the Benelux market under a brand called Brauer.
The company has more than 30 employees and approximately €20,000,000 of net sales. We believe that the market for acquisitions is a bit better and more active in 2025 than it has been in in the previous two years. If we then turn to page number four, we go through cash flow and some return rates. Our free cash flow declined 9% in the year to date period versus the same period last year, and cash conversion was 67%. We completed the IPO in March 2025, and transaction costs that relate to the listing impacted free cash flow negatively with 41,000,000 Swedish kronor in the six month period.
So if we adjust for that, then cash flow declined 2% versus the same period last year, and cash conversion was 73. I think this year, we have had a bit higher organic growth in local currency than the same period last year, and we can see that our companies tie a bit more working capital, than the same period last year. We monitor the development of inventory and trade receivables closely together with our, local management teams and always try to improve. Return on capital employed improved from 13.5% in the in h one last year to 14.1. Our return on capital employed remains relatively low compared to our peers as we are a younger company, but we see that it improves year over year, which is a good trend.
The acquisition that we completed in the six month period was also completed in the last month, and that timing effect has an adverse impact on return on capital employed. Return on capital employed, if we exclude intangibles arising from acquisitions, is 152%, which evidence our asset light group of companies. With that, I will hand back to Ida, who will moderate the q and a session if there are any questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key The next question comes from Dan Johansson from SEB. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. A couple of questions from my side. Maybe starting on the B2B segment, you had a quite nice margin uptick there, close to 1.5 percentage points. Is it anything particular driving that?
Or more positive consumer sentiment in general? Or is it specific companies or broad based? Anything you could say about that?
Thank you, Dan. Sorry. I didn't catch if it was the b to b or the b to c segment in particular, but I I'll I'll talk a little bit about both.
To c. Perfect. We can do both. Yeah.
Yeah. Great. So I think in b to b, most of the margin uptick actually comes from mix shift, but we do have, call it, margin improvement in the comparable companies as well. But but most of the uptick is actually from from MiX. In, it's actually the opposite.
So there we have a a strong margin improvement in comparable companies. MiX has a slightly positive effect there as well, but not so not so material. So it's it's more on more actually on on improvement on a comparable basis. I think my sort of general comment on this is that we always work with our local management teams on margin improvement initiatives and margin focus. And, yeah, I hope that that has started to take take a bit more hold. I think that's the general general comment.
Thank you. Thank you for that color. And maybe jumping into a little bit on M and A there. You've done your first acquisition during the quarter. I guess you were held back a little bit by the IPO process, but you say you have a better pipeline this year.
It sounds like you will be a little bit more active now during H2. Is that a correct observation? Although it's I guess we'll see. But anything you could say more on your M and A outlook here for the remaining months of the year?
I think it's it's always very difficult to provide some sort of outlook, and we don't give any real guidance on this. Acquisitions is binary. You need to, you know, strike strike a deal between two parties, and it's it's very difficult to know if it's if it's gonna transpire. But the only thing I can say is I think we we have a team that works very hard on sourcing and trying to execute opportunities that we see. In general, my feeling is that the number of qualitative opportunities that we have seen so far in this year is a bit better than it has been in previous years.
But we still need to we still need to to get them over the finish line. So so I I try to be positive and and optimistic on on this, of course, but but it's but there's it's difficult to give any clear guidance.
Yeah. Fully understood, but it sounds like there's at least a lot a lot to work with there. And maybe a little bit of working capital add a little bit build up during h one. Is it sort of a normal build up of something you need you will release in h two? Or yeah.
Anything anything to say there on on the working capital here during the first half of the year?
I think in general, our cash conversion is still at a relatively decent level if you think about it from a from a year to date perspective. Quarterly, it can move a little bit and and and swing, and we had a weaker q one than than q two. But year to date, I think it's it's still on a relatively good level at 73% if we adjust for this for for the IPO related costs. One thing that I think is important to bear in mind here is that we actually do have 3% organic growth in local currency, and we come from a period of time when the companies have released quite a lot of working capital. We work very closely on, you know, making sure that we don't tie too much in inventory or in trade receivables.
But it's but I'm I'm not expecting a significant deviation from from the current cash conversion level, either positive or negative, I would say.
Yeah. Thanks thanks for that, Migra. It's still a quite good cash conversion so far this year. And maybe a final one from my side, if I may. Just on the EBITDA margin level of the business you acquired, buys, you give some flavor there if it's in around in line with group average or does it deviate much from the other businesses, so to speak?
I think it's I mean, as you can see in the note on on acquisitions that we have, you said that they have very strong margins here in the beginning of the year. They do have accretive margins to the group, but but they also do a very, very good first half year here. I think that's important to mention.
Okay. Good. Thanks. I think that was all from my side. So I wish you a good summer here. Thank you so much.
Great. Thank you, Don. Have a nice summer. So I think there have been a few questions in the chat, I think. But most of them, I think we have covered from what I from what I can see.
I think there are some there's maybe one question on on organic growth, be it if it's mainly driven by margin or if it's driven or volume or price. I think, you know, we we have a very diversified group of businesses. It's difficult to comment too much on what is driving the organic growth in in such a diversified group. But in general, I just want to say we always work with our companies to make sure that we can and do raise prices of the products so that we can protect and improve our margins throughout. That's the one thing I wanted to to add on that point.
Then I think every all the other questions have been covered. So with that, I want to say thank you all for participating and listening. And, yeah, we I wish you a nice summer.