Welcome to Sdiptech Q1 Report for 2025. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the Q&A 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 Bengt Lejdström and CFO Susanna Zethelius. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and welcome to this presentation of Sdiptech's Report from the First Quarter of 2025. Myself, Bengt Lejdström, and my colleague Susanna will guide you through the different performances of the group. As always, we will start with a short presentation of what Sdiptech is. As most of you know already, we are a technology group. We are business units that provide products and solutions for creating a more sustainable, efficient, and safe society. Very much of those solutions are built into infrastructure, so that is also why we call ourselves an infrastructure technology group. Since the beginning of this year, we have divided ourselves into four business areas, and we will get back to those in more detail. That is consisting currently then of the supply chain and transportation, the energy, electrification, water and bioeconomy, and safety and security.
What's common for all our business units within these business areas are some key drivers. We're looking to acquire companies within these areas that all have some underlying long-term growth drivers. Very much based on that, we have an aging infrastructure within at least Europe and many other parts of the world. We have an increasing consumption of infrastructure. We see increasing regulations around infrastructure. Not the least, we all strive for a more sustainable, efficient, and safe society. We think that we are well positioned for a good demand and stable growth over time. As you can see from the map to the right, that's where our companies are today and with our main offices. We also have subsidiaries, sub-subsidiaries in other geographies around the world.
Currently, 41 business units, and we have had since the listing of our B-share a 34% CAGR when it comes to our EBITDA profit. Apart from financial metrics and KPIs, we also have a goal of reducing our CO2 footprint from our internal operations, and that's measured as CO2 per turnover in millions that's with 24%. First since 2021, then during the first three years, and our ambition and target is to reduce by 50% until 2026. We are well on the track on that. Let's have a look at the first quarter then and some highlights. We think it was a quite decent report and outcome. We saw net sales increasing all in all with some 4%. However, organic, that was a minus of 4%.
To some extent, that's depending on that towards the end of the period, we saw that our customers became a little bit more cautious and perhaps waiting or postponing decisions for some investment decisions. All in all, it was not a huge impact for Q1. Let's come back to what we see for current quarter and onwards. When it came to our EBITDA, that was flat more or less compared to last year, including acquisitions, meaning that we had a negative organic growth. Some effects from that being still that we had some the organic sales were negative, but also that we saw some cost increases in staff cost and also that we had in some units very tough comparisons, not the least in the business area water and bioeconomy. We will come back to that as well.
Our margin then obviously decreased a bit, and we're of course not satisfied with that. We're already taking different actions to have more cost-efficient operations, so cost-cutting, more efficient operations in many different ways. We'll come back to that as well a little bit. The cash flow was stable and solid for the quarter, and it was in line with last year. We were happy to welcome three more companies into the group, sorry, two more companies into the Phase 3 in the U.K., which we presented already last quarter. Then a very small add-on acquisition to our Dutch company, CERTUS , namely a company called supplai in the Netherlands. Both of them very well positioned and contributing very well to the group already. Let's have a look on the sales all in all.
As I mentioned, we had an increase in total with 4%, but a decline organically. The macro and geopolitical situation gave some impacts towards the end of the quarter. When it comes to direct exposure to the U.S., it's very limited for us. It's roughly 4% of our sales is to customers based in the U.S. That hasn't had a big impact yet when it comes to trade tariffs, etc. We are having close dialogue with our units over there to see how we can mitigate that. For example, putting more production and manufacturing for some of our products locally in the U.S. to avoid as much as possible effects from tariffs. We do not have trade flows going from Asia into the U.S., except for very small units from, for example, Taiwan, but not from China directly. We are not hit by these very high tariffs anyhow.
When it comes to the EBITDA, as I mentioned, we're focusing then on different initiatives to increase profitability, to make sure that we adjust and adapt to the different situations. A main driver for increased costs has been staff cost, personnel cost, not the least in the U.K., where almost half of our turnover is coming from, where we have seen an increase both from a legal perspective in minimum wages coming along here from this quarter, but also from overall inflation on the salary levels, for example. We think at least we can adjust for that as well through increasing prices, not the least, but it takes some time for us to do that to bring these cost increases over to our customers, mainly because we have long-term agreements with customers stipulating how much our products and services cost.
As soon as we can, we of course adjust. We had a similar situation a couple of years ago when the inflation of the cost of goods increased. We said already then that there is a six- nine month lag between cost increase and price increase for us typically. We are working, of course, to shorten that time lag so we can adjust prices as soon as we can. Of course, in all new deals, we adjust for increased costs. When it comes to the CAGR on sales, since the listing of the B-share, it has been 24%. You see on the graph on the right the development, and you also see the organic growth on a last 12-month basis. Right now, for the last 12 months, Q1, it was 0% last year, ending with 3% organic growth.
Looking at the geographical split in more detail on the right-hand side, as I mentioned, we had almost half, 45% of our turnover is from customers in the U.K. Our business units in the U.K., of course, also have exports. The units in the U.K., they actually represent more or less half of all our turnover. As you see there, the U.S., 4%. Sweden is decreasing since we have not made really any major acquisitions in a very long time. It is down to below 17%. You see a split on some major geographies like Norway and Italy and then other Europe and rest of the world. All in all, that section is increasing bit by bit since we are acquiring product-based companies that have some exports. On the left-hand side, you see the split on the turnover by type of revenue.
We're slowly increasing the share of product-based sales since we have both more or less divested or closing down businesses within service and installation, but we still like service and installation as long as it's on our own products. We will always have some revenue streams for that, but it has decreased a little bit over the years. I think this distribution of the turnover is pretty stable over time. Looking on the adjusted EBITDA corresponding development, you see on the graph there how it has developed. It has been a 34% CAGR since 2017. It has slowed down a bit the last year, year and a half. Also here you see the organic last 12-month figures in these circles. Last year it was a - 2%, and now on the last 12-month basis it's a - 7%.
As I mentioned, we're of course not happy or satisfied with that and do our best to get that back on track. All in all, the EBITDA, as mentioned, was on a similar level as last year, the SEK 251 million in adjusted EBITDA. To counterbalance the organic decrease, we had our acquired companies since last year contributing in a positive and very good way. We'll come back to that a little bit. I will discuss the different business areas here in the coming slides, so wait to present that. When it comes to our business areas, as you may know, we have a new organization since the beginning of this year, the four business areas I mentioned. Here on this slide, you see the heads of the respective business area and also the distribution of sales and EBITDA.
As you can see, our biggest business area, both from profits and sales, is the supply chain and transportation. The second biggest is energy and electrification. We have water and bioeconomy, and safety and security is the smallest one, but with the highest margin, actually. We think it is about roughly the same number of business units within each business area. That is how we are organized, that the business area managers can have around seven, eight or so business units each to care for and take care of. It is important to have a good distribution of the responsibilities through the different business areas. If we then look at the performance on each of these and start with supply chain and transportation, we saw a slight decrease on the sales, but a smaller increase of EBITDA, meaning that the margin increased a bit.
We saw for a few companies, especially the ones with solutions for logistics, could be in logistics centers, warehouses, or container terminals, that their customers postponed orders and waiting of executing some of their orders now towards the end of the period, but the underlying demand is stable. Some of the units in this business area had a very good sales development in the quarter. All in all, very stable. As you can see on the graph, the EBITDA margin two years have been stable between the 17%-20%. Looking into the energy and electrification, here we saw increased sales and increased profits. Profits increased more than sales, so we had a strengthening of the margin. Here we also had an acquisition contributing to the development that we did in the quarter, Phase 3.
Many other units were performing very well, not the least the one within electrification and energy efficiency. For example, our EV charging business in the U.K., Rolec, performed very good, and some other units within the energy efficiency sector. However, we have one unit which is a little bit relying on the climate, providing services for construction of infrastructure during wintertime that kind of thaws up the ground and can be heating different areas. They saw a mild winter, making their demand a little bit less than usual, but still quite decent, but not as high as last year. There were some ups and downs, but also here you see a stable margin over time, and we think there are many good possibilities for the companies in this business area to develop well.
Coming to water and bioeconomy, here we saw the biggest drop in profitability. The sales were more or less on the same level thanks to acquisitions from last year then contributing. We saw that some units had a challenging quarter with tough comparable numbers from last year. We also here have some companies with quite a few employees and a big number of staff, and they were then hit by the increased staff costs in the U.K. As you may know, from 1st of April, the minimum wages increase also this year as it did last year, but this year it has had a greater impact on their overall staff costs. Those staff costs have increased already from the beginning of the year.
All in all, for the whole group, the staff cost increased with 5%, which more or less correlates to our negative profit growth in numbers. Of course, we do our best to compensate for that through increased prices and also do some other activities and measures. Perhaps it should be noted also that last year, Q1 in 2024, as you can see from the chart here on the right-hand side, the EBITDA margin was extremely high, 29%. That is not a normal figure. We are now back at more normal levels on the EBITDA margin for this business area. Last but not least, safety and security. Here we had an increase in sales and also an increase in EBITDA. We have acquired companies from Q4 last year contributing.
We see overall a continued focus on safety, which leads to good demand more or less across the business area. That EBITDA margin is a little bit lower than a year ago. It is more the mix of sales from these companies since we have made, as I said, acquisitions into this business area that makes also typically that EBITDA margin changes over time can go up or down depending on the EBITDA margin of the companies acquired. All in all, very stable development for this business area. With that said, I would like to hand over to my colleague Susanna to mention a few words about different KPIs, financial KPIs.
Yes. Thank you, Bengt. Starting to look a bit at the cash flow and cash conversion. In the quarter, we had a cash flow from operations landing at SEK 170 million.
In the quarter, the cash conversion was at 74%. If we look at the rolling 12 months, cash flow from operations was at SEK 822 million, so similar to previous quarter. We had a cash conversion of 83%. We are well within the range of 70-90% that we have as a sort of internal guideline. Any variance between the quarter is really relating to timing. Moving to the next slide and looking at some additional metrics. Firstly, we have the profit after tax. In the quarter, it was SEK 74 million, so somewhat lower than the SEK 110 million that we had the same quarter last year. We had a financial net of -SEK 91 million this quarter, which was quite a lot higher than the same quarter last year. It was -SEK 59 million then.
The primary impact for this increase was unrealized foreign exchange losses of -SEK 25 million in this quarter, and it was +SEK 3 million same quarter last year. So a variance of SEK -28 million. That relates to the balance sheet. In the quarter, both the GBP as well as the EUR have been decreasing with some 6%, so that has given the impact. We also have somewhat higher interest costs in the last year because of higher debt levels, even though interest rates have been coming down. Both these effects also, of course, impact the earnings per share. Moving to the debt leverage ratios, you can see those numbers here, but they are stable versus previous quarter. We are pretty much in line with previous quarter.
If you compare them with the same quarter last year, the variance is depending on acquisition pace and the payout of contingent considerations. Moving on to return on capital employed. This was in line with last quarter, but slightly down versus the same quarter last year, now at 12.5% versus 13.2% last year. Here it is primarily the acquisitions in Q4 and Q1 that have impacted, as we do not yet account for the full year profits for those acquisitions. If you look at return on capital employed for the underlying businesses, the average for those is 56%. Of course, there is a difference looking at businesses versus the group, but over time with new acquisitions, organic growth, and also higher cash flows, return on capital employed for the group will gradually increase. With that, I am handing back over to Bengt to talk about acquisitions.
Thank you, Susanna. Yeah, as mentioned, we did one acquisition, a bigger one during the [Foreign language]. We have a very solid pipeline, as always, I would say. We have some prioritized geographies. We have added, for the ones of you who have been listening to us for some time now, we have added Germany. That is partly because we now have access to underlying data for German companies. We can analyze that better. As you know, we have our in-house M&A team here in Stockholm. We do all the screening and sourcing of potential targets here centrally. Of course, sometimes [Foreign language] from our business units where they have ideas that could be good acquisitions, but then everything is processed centrally and analyzed. Now we're testing Germany a little bit more in practice and have already some discussions with German-based companies.
However, all in all, it's very important that we balance the pace of acquisitions against what's happening in the external factors and the uncertainties around us. Our guidance here on the volume to acquire, which has increased in the past from SEK 90 million to now a range of SEK 120-150 million. As you can see, it's not a hard target. We have been below that in 2023 and 2024. We are very cautious, of course, now as well to make sure that acquisitions we do have a good solid outlook even in the current circumstances. We are very careful in our due diligences. We make acquisitions when we feel comfortable that it's a high-quality company. We do it also when we take all the other factors into consideration. For the time being, a little bit careful pace of acquisitions, I could say.
Our financial position is good. We have a new credit arrangement in place. We have extended that with almost SEK 1 billion now. We have more or less SEK 2.2 billion in accessible funding. We have reduced the interest rates all in all in this credit agreement, which is, of course, good. We added also another one of the Swedish major banks into this facility. We have three credit providers in that facility. We are, of course, very happy with that. It is also a sign that our credit providers have great trust in us as a company. We also have our sustainability loan bond out there as well. Even though we presented the acquisition Phase 3 in the last quarter, could just mention it again. It has performed very good.
It has and had already before we acquired it relationships with one of our other companies in the U.K. providing solutions for temporary electricity and so on, IDE Systems. IDE Systems, which had a very great performance last year since they had the Olympic Games in Paris as a very big customer. No Olympic Games this year. Of course, they will have a lower volume both on sales and profit this year. Anyhow, a very good company. These two companies Phase 3 and IDE, cooperate in a lot of areas. I am really looking forward to Phase 3 going onwards. They have had a very good start.
We made, I do not have a slide on that, but we made, as I mentioned in the beginning, a small acquisition of a Dutch company called supplai, which have then AI-based solutions for optical recognition, which our Dutch company CERTUS is using for their products and solutions for handling container terminals and logistics centers, etc. The expertise we acquired, you could say, helped us in the development of enhancing and improving our solutions in that area. We are also welcoming the staff of supplai into our group. As a summary, some key takeaways. As you saw, we have a good cash flow ticking in. We made a lot of activities on that last year, and we are still careful to make sure that we continue to get good cash flow from the operations. We had good positive contributions from our acquisitions.
We saw a good development in many of our business units with strong underlying trends and drivers. As mentioned, some business units saw an effect from the uncertainties around the world and had a bit softer development, not the least towards the end of the quarter. Some of the business units had very strong comparable figures from last year. We have a full focus on profitability and efficiency and, of course, doing a lot of activities for growth as well going forward. It is difficult, of course, to foresee how the current situation in the overall global scene will affect us during this quarter.
I think no company can really say how that will affect them, but we try our best to mitigate and navigate through these uncertainties that exist based on our decentralized model of having a portfolio of very strong and well-performing companies. I should add also, since it was also mentioned in the report, that we evaluate, of course, all our companies all the time. Specifically, we also evaluate against criteria that we have for acquiring new companies. These criteria, you could say we changed that quite dramatically some five, six years ago in the summer of 2019. From that point in time and onwards, we have tougher criteria than before. We evaluate companies that currently do not meet those criteria.
Many of the companies acquired before that still meet these criteria, but we have some that perhaps don't and could perhaps have a better home somewhere else. It's not that these companies are not performing good. They perform good according in their respective business niche and what could be expected. Perhaps for us, it's better capital allocation to use that money to acquire other types of companies meeting our current criteria. There may be possible divestments ahead. An example of that was the divestment we did a year ago, a Swedish company called Frigotech that we sold to another Swedish group called the Nordic Climate Group, which was a very good home for that type of company. We could use those money to acquire other companies then aligned with our criteria.
With that said, I want to thank you for listening in, and we open up for questions.
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 Max Bacco from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I hope you can hear me. Hello, Bengt and Susanna. Thank you for taking the questions. Just perhaps starting with circling back on the outlook comment that you made, Bengt, and wrote in the report that in the end of the quarter you felt that some customers were holding off on planned projects. I think you alluded to CERTUS as one of the subsidiaries seeing this.
I guess that makes perfect sense given their exposure to customers, operating ports, and so on and so forth. I mean, how should we interpret this? Is it, I mean, some single units that saw this in the end of the quarter? Or is it more, I mean, general phenomena that you see that a bit more hesitant demand as of right now given the uncertainty?
It is more to some specific business units in addition to the one you mentioned, CERTUS , which is true that that is one affected. Another one, a Danish company called e-l-m providing services to warehouses with their attachments for trucks, that you forklift trucks that you use in warehouses and logistics centers, that they have the same kind of also now the same type of postponements or delays of orders. They are the ones mostly affected.
It could be one or two or three, perhaps other business units, but it's not in general for all our units. We have many units who are not affected as well. It is more in the current situation as we are today, at the end of April, it's quite difficult to see how that will continue. So far, it's only limited to a few of our business units.
Okay. Sounds good. The next question perhaps to you, Susanna. I mean, you highlighted that you knew some new loan agreements signed here in the quarter with more favorable terms to refinance the existing ones. Do you have any comment on the interest rates on the new ones compared to the old ones? Any comment on that?
I mean, we haven't mentioned exact rates, but we are coming down on interest rates.
We're also slightly reweighting, so taking up a large portion of the debt in pounds as we have many of our business units and quite a lot of the revenue in the U.K. I can, yeah, in general terms, I would say interest rates are coming down. We're shifting some higher portion of the debt to pounds in order to better match the revenues.
Okay. Understood. The final question, very detail-oriented, but I noted in the report in the acquisition section that you wrote that if all acquired units, which is Phase 3 connectors, had been consolidated from the beginning of the quarter, then sales would have increased with SEK 17 million and EBITDA with SEK 14 million, if I read it right. Is that correct? How does that make sense if I understand the question? It's like very high profitability.
Yeah, it makes sense. We actually did two very small acquisitions. I mentioned this supplai in the Netherlands, and also we made a very small Danish add-on to our Chem-Tec. The absolute major part is coming Phase 3, which have had a very good start, as I mentioned. It is correct numbers over there. Perhaps too soon then to draw the line for the rest of the quarters Phase 3, that they would keep up this pace for all the coming quarters. They had a very good start in the group, which is always positive.
Okay. Understood. That was all from. For the moment. I'll jump back in the queue. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Max.
The next question comes from Niklas Sävås from Rede ye. Please go ahead. Hello, Bengt and Susanna. Hi. Hi. I was curious [crosstalk].
You mentioned that you added Germany as a potential geography to make acquisitions in. How do you think about sort of having feet on the ground in Germany? Because I mean, I've heard from others that they think that sort of it's good to speak the native language in order to be an attractive buyer there. Could you please elaborate on that?
Yeah. We have the same view as well, that when you get into the more close discussions and dialogues with German sellers, it's very good if you can speak German yourself. Of course, we will do this in a similar way as we did when we entered into Italy. We had a partner then at that time who helped us with that part of the process. We will do the same then for German companies.
However, we can still call them from here in Stockholm, and we can approach them in different ways and set up meetings. When we are visiting them, we will most certainly have a German-speaking person together with us during those meetings. We are testing this. As I said, we have a few already then companies in our pipeline that we are in dialogue with. Let's see how that evolves. For sure, as in any geography, you need to know the culture and many other aspects of doing deals in that country.
Okay. Thanks. I was a bit curious also to ask a more general question about the U.K., where you have the largest exposure. I mean, there have been a few negatives impacting the business climate there. I mean, one is the higher tax rates that we saw implemented last year.
We have an increase in labor costs. How do you think about sort of the development for, I mean, the business climate in the U.K.? Has this changed for you in the recent years amidst this?
Yeah. As I said, the tax rate was actually two years ago now increased quite dramatically from 19% to 25%. That, of course, hit our net profits. As you mentioned also, there are different political decisions to increase staff costs in different ways. It is still a very good geography when it comes to our type of companies where the demand is solid and good because, not the least, it is old infrastructure in many places. For you who have been traveling around in the U.K., you understand that needs to do a lot of development and improvements.
There are also a lot of regulations around this, which is good, we think, because that sets barriers for competitors to enter the market. It also gives some certainty about what you're supposed to deliver to yourself. All in all, the U.K. is a very good geography for us and our type of companies. We will probably make more acquisitions in the future in the U.K. as well. The ones we have are performing good. Yeah.
Okay. Perfect. The last question is a bit more detail-oriented. That's, I mean, you mentioned IDE Systems and that it had great sales due to the Paris Olympics last year. I mean, could you help us in some way to quantify the impact that you saw there?
Was that in the sort of SEK 30 million-SEK 40 million range in Q2- Q3, or was it more or less than that?
You mean the additional, yeah [crosstalk], they had for them very high sales and profit last year, all in all. We don't expect them to live up to that this year. They still, their ordinary business is developing very well. You will, and that will come mainly, this reduction is mainly in Q2- Q3 this year because that's where the major part of this Olympic Games came around. Let's see how they can perform without an Olympic Game this year. Most certainly not at the same high numbers as last year. I don't want to quantify that more in detail because we don't know yet how it will develop during this year.
Understood. Okay. That's it from me. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Niklas.
No more phone questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions or closing comments.
Yes. We have received some written questions. I am reading them top down here and try to answer them. One question is whether we retain our guidance for 5%-10% organic revenue growth. Our target and goal is to have a 5%-10% organic profit growth. We are now - 8% this quarter, - 7% on the last 12 months basis. That is, of course, a tough target for this year. We will do our best, but I would not say that it is guidance for this year. We are, of course, aiming to eventually, when the year is done, when we are at the end of Q4, that we will be able to be in a positive range.
We will do our best to be at least in the lower part of this range. That is still to be seen, of course. We have a question about how long it will take to pass the increased staff costs in the U.K. and the customers. Yeah, it's typically a lag for us with some six months or even up eight, nine months from our very much contract-based business, not the least one business unit in the business area, water and bioeconomy, the biggest one in that business area who provides services to insurance companies to fix broken pipes, sewerage pipes, water pipes in the ground. They have very long contracts with the insurance companies to provide these services at fixed costs. It could be one - three year contracts.
It's very hard to see that we can change that industry to go to more flexible contracts. The insurance companies are, of course, big companies and so, but we have a strong position. We do our best then to manage that. It's at least a lag for them in order to change and update the price list towards their customers. All in all, I would say it's a six-month delay at least for those types of companies. We have also another question on our sales process of our remaining elevator business in Central Europe. It's going according to plan. We have issued an investment memorandum in some time. We're in the middle of the phase of collecting different bids and interests.
We have great interest from many potential buyers, especially in the region and in other parts of Europe, but also from others. We are optimistic to be able to close this. That hopefully can be reported in this coming quarter, the status of that. We are having a good response to our investment memorandum for this business that actually has three different types of businesses, but they could be acquired, all three of them, or separately from a potential buyer. There was a question about shutting down our, I would say, only real construction-related business we had in Sweden. Closed it down during last year. We do not have revenues from that company this year.
Of course, that was since that company that still exists in a way, since we have it, it merged into another Swedish business unit, but it does not do any new business or new projects. It is, of course, legally honoring and maintaining some of the agreements it had with historic customers, but that should not really cost anything. No material cost associated with that. Revenue last year, which was affected, was not super high because we already last year started to do that. It was some percentage points, at least, contribution to the revenue last year. That is a negative effect, you could say. On the other side, you know, later on during the year, we had some costs in that business unit, which will then be benefiting from in the other direction when it comes to the EBITDA.
Yeah, perhaps I've answered that second question that it's still a business unit existing legally, even though it has been merged up to another company. Let's see. It's a little bit hard to read that. Yeah, pure divestments we're adjusting for. There was a question here whether we adjust for M&As, new companies. Why not adjust for divestments? This is really not a divestment in a pure sense. It's a more closing, winding down type of situation. It depends a little bit on them quarter by quarter how much that really would affect the numbers. It's not a huge effect anyhow. I don't know if that was answered to this question, but it was at least an attempt. If no further questions, myself and Susanna would like to thank you for dialing in and listening in to our conference call.
Of course, happy to, if you have further questions, to answer them later on on email or so. I would like to wish you a pleasant day for the rest of the day and talk to you soon again. Thank you.
Thank you.