Welcome to Scandic Hotels Group Q2 2024 report. 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 pound key 5 on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and then good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Scandic's presentation. My name is Jens Mathiesen. I'm the CEO of Scandic, and with me, I have Pär Christiansen, who is our CFO, and together, we will walk you through the quarter. So please start on page two. We deliver a good second quarter. Market conditions stable across all our markets, and we also have good demand and increasing prices. Net sales improved, and we report a strong result with higher margins compared to the same quarter last year. I'm very pleased that our sharp focus on control is making an impact in this quarter, which you see. With the economy also stabilizing in most of our markets, we are observing an improvement in the sentiment among property owners.
We are maintaining a high pace to expand our pipeline, and we are also investing to create an even more competitive offering. During the quarter, we reopened a large and newly renovated hotel in Stockholm, and we also continued to optimize the portfolio with some exits. Go is expanding, and last week, we announced two new signings that I will come back to later on in this presentation. Another highlight is that we have now refinanced our loans. We have secured a long-term financing that reflects strategic agenda and strong financial position. And of course, Pär also will come back to that later on in this presentation. Lastly, the bookings for the third quarter looks promising, with demand in line with last year and positive price development.
So let's move into the, the quarter, and look a bit on that on page three. On this page, you can see the quarterly Adjusted EBITDA development since the first quarter of 2021. We report a strong result with an Adjusted EBITDA of SEK 841 million, compared to SEK 772 million in the second quarter last year. This led to an improved margin of 14.3%, up from 13.6% in the same quarter last year. The stronger result is mainly due to improved efficiency and cost control, and I'm very pleased, with how we managed, our operations and controlled, the overall working hours in the quarter. Also, in this area, Pär will come back on some more financial update later on. Please turn to page four.
Here you can see the market occupancy in the second quarter of both this year and last year in the Nordic countries. During the quarter, market development remained stable with overall good demand. Calendar effects due to Easter holidays falling in March this year, April last year, had a positive impact on the quarter. Scandic's occupancy rate improved from 63% in the second quarter last year to 64% in this quarter. Our occupancy rates for the quarter were slightly higher compared to market occupancy for Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, and in line with the market in Norway. Please turn to page 5. This is market data showing average room rates for Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark, indexed to the corresponding month back to 2019.
The market average room rate continued to develop positively, with a year-on-year growth of around 3.2%. Scandic's average, room rate, increased by 3.4%. We expect continued positive price development or a stabilized and, and predictable economy in, in the Nordics overall. Please turn to page, six. Here you can see the market's RevPAR development indexed to the corresponding month, also back to 2019. RevPAR developed positively compared with last year and are above 2019 levels on all markets. Our RevPAR increased by 5.2% compared with, the second quarter last year. So Scandic's year-on-year RevPAR growth was higher than the overall market growth in Denmark and in line with the market growth in Norway. In Sweden and Finland, we had a slightly lower RevPAR growth. Sweden experienced a mixed market situation this quarter.
Demand in Stockholm and Malmö was boosted by event calendar, featuring Taylor Swift and Eurovision. However, Gothenburg, where we have a strong position, is temporarily struggling due to a weak calendar overall on the event side. Additionally, Gothenburg have seen a notable increase in new capacity over the past few years. Finland had a weak start to the quarter due to strikes. Additionally, demand from international leisure travelers and corporates in Helsinki, where we hold a large market share, is impacted by the still ongoing geopolitical situation and the shutdown of airspace over Russia. That said, Finland picked up very good, especially in June, where we see a big increase. We always adapt and optimize our operations to match market, ensuring, you know, a healthy profitability.
The margin improvement you see in Finland this quarter is a good example of that. Please turn to page 7, where you can see the pipeline. The portfolio activity is very high right now, and we have increased investments in expanding and maintaining to grow and improve the overall portfolio. Some examples of activities in the quarter were the reopening of Scandic Södra Kajen with 323 rooms. The hotel had completely been renovated and also had a very good start. During the quarter, we also left three hotels with a total of 412 rooms to further optimize the portfolio. Preparations for the opening of our second Scandic Go are in full swing. The hotel, which is centrally located in Stockholm, will open in early October.
By the end of the quarter, we had 2,200 new rooms in the net pipeline, so, a good, development on that side as well. Please turn to page 8. Here you see, Scandic Go, and how we continue to expand. And I'm very happy to announce the two new signings that we did in the beginning of July. We have now signed, a new, Scandic Go in Gothenburg with 176 rooms and one in Umeå with... Both hotels are scheduled to open in 2026. In both cases, we, will convert office buildings into hotels, and the conversions actually allows us to expand Scandic Go, brand, rapidly, and, it's a perfect fit for-- also for this concept.
Both hotels will be situated in attractive central locations and are a great complement to our offering in each of these cities. The Scandic Go pipeline now totals close to 900 rooms, which represents almost 50% of our growth pipeline. With that, I would like to hand over to Par. Please turn to page 10.
Thank you, Jens, and good morning, everyone. All in all, this was a good and stable quarter. Net sales increased by 3% to SEK 5.9 billion, compared to SEK 5.7 billion in the same period last year. Calendar effects had a positive impact in this quarter. However, the public holidays in May also had a negative effect on demand for meetings and events. We deliver a strong and improved result. The adjusted EBITDA improved to SEK 804 million, compared to SEK 772 million last year, with a strengthened margin of 14.3% compared to 13.6% last year. This improvement is mainly a result of higher efficiency across our market and overall good cost control.
The market situation, with high demand in Stockholm and Malmö, due to a strong event calendar, while the market in Gothenburg had a rather tough quarter with few events. The underlying development in Sweden is solid, and despite the lower demand in Gothenburg, we deliver slightly higher result than last year. Norway is performing well. Tough demand for meeting and events were a bit softer than expected in the quarter. However, the overall market situation is stable, and the booking situation is good for the third quarter. Finland had a weak start to the quarter with demand in April, but picked up well in June due to an active market with more events and increased demand from corporates. Finland also faced a tough comparable quarter, as they had hosted the Hockey World Cup in May last year.
I want to say that the Finnish team have adapted to the market situation with optimizing our operations to improve and ensure a healthy profitability. The overall higher activity level and development pace within commercial and digitization is partly reflected in higher group cost compared to last year. Lastly, we want to remind you that we don't expect any one-offs going forward, and also remind you that we had positive effects of SEK 31 million in the third quarter last year. Please turn to page 11. The slide shows free cash flow for the quarter on a rolling 12-month basis. We report a free cash flow of SEK 463 million in the second quarter, and SEK -270 million for the first six months of the year.
Compared to the last year, we have increased the investment pace, mainly in expansion and maintenance, as well as in IT. For the first half year, investments in maintenance increased to SEK 368 million, compared to SEK 169 million last year. This was mainly related to ongoing renovations at hotels in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Gothenburg. As we have mentioned before, we expect maintenance CapEx to reach more normalized levels for the full year and be in the range of 3%-4% on net sales. Expansion CapEx increased to SEK 107 million, compared to only SEK 18 million last year. This was mainly related to the opening of Scandic Nuremberg in Germany. We also now have higher CapEx for IT, which relates to overall higher activity levels in digitization and commercial capabilities.
Working capital in the quarter was impacted by repayments of variable rent debts from last year, totaling SEK 210 million, and we do not expect any more rent debts to be paid in 2024. All in all, free cash flow on rolling twelve amounted to SEK 1.2 billion. We now have a strong financial position. We only have around 50% of the maintenance CapEx being committed. This provides us with good financial flexibility. Please turn to page 12. This is the net debt adjusted to EBITDA on a rolling twelve basis. Net debt amounted to SEK 1.7 billion at the end of the quarter. That included the convertible bond of SEK 962 million and SEK 675 million deferred VAT payments and social contributions in Sweden.
Including the convertible bond on our net debt adjusted to EBITDA, our ratio was 0.7 times. Excluding the convertible bond, the ratio was only zero point three times. Our financial position is strong, and in the beginning of July, we refinanced our loans, which create a high financial flexibility going forward. Please turn to page 13 for more details about the refinancing. We have successfully carried out the refinancing with a group of banks, effective from the first of July. It amounts to SEK 3.25 billion, which is with the possibility to expand an additional SEK 500 million. This facility is set for a 3-year term, with the potential to extend it for additional 2 years. We have now secured long-term sustainability-linked terms that align with our strategic agenda and reflect our strong financial position.
This financing provides us with the flexibility to manage the different outcomes of the convertible bond. Please turn to page 14. The bond matures in October 8th, and we want to provide a brief update. In 2021, we issued the bond with a total nominal amount of SEK 1.8 billion, and a conversion price of 43.36 SEK. Last year, we did a buyback amounting to SEK 590 million, and as of today, we have a pre-conversions from investor in the bond of SEK 532 million. This brings the total outstanding debt as of today to SEK 678 million. With that, I would like to hand back to Jens for some more final comments.
Thank you very much, Pär, and for some comments on the outlook especially. I would say—for the rest of the year, we expect a continued solid hotel market in the Nordics. Hotel demand for travel and leisure activities remains high, and they should be supported by a more stabilized economy in the Nordics overall. July started off positive from current bookings. We expect a good third quarter, with occupancy in line with the last year, and slightly higher average room rates. We are maintaining a steady pace in growing and improving our portfolio, and I'm pleased with the progress of expanding the Scandic Go brand. Just before the summer, we also completed the implementation of Oracle Hospitality Cloud of all our hotels.
This provides us with good and solid and robust platform to build upon for the future and will further improve our ways of working. We're also driving many exciting initiatives within commercial to further improve our loyalty program and booking channels, such as the web and app, and I look very much forward to speaking more about this once we are ready in the fall. All in all, we are concluding a good quarter with strong results. We are in the middle of a very busy season, and our focus remains very sharp on maintaining high efficiency while delivering exceptional good guest satisfaction. I would like also to thank everyone on this call to join us on this presentation, and let's now open up for the Q&A session. So back to you, operator.
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 André Juillard from Deutsche Bank Equity Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. A few questions from me, if I may. First one, about clientele. Did you see any significant evolution of the type of clientele you have at the moment? And especially, did you see a start or a beginning of return of the Asian clientele? Second question, could you give us some more color about the F&B component in your revenues? And do you see any significant evolution? Third question about development. You have a decent pipeline, more than 2,000 rooms. But do you see any opportunities for additional development, and especially some management contract results and leasing contracts?
Last question, could you give us some more color about the convertible bond, and what you think about the optionality that people could take or that you could push for? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, André. And first of all, we have seen you started to ask for the Asian market development. I think right now, Asian market, we see slight improvements, but still, I would say slow pickups, especially due to the fact that into the Nordics, it's still... You still need to go fast. You can't really go through Finland and Helsinki like they normally did from the Asian market. So yes, we see slight improvements, but it's on very, very low numbers. We see much larger improvements from U.S. market. U.S. has been very strong in the last couple of weeks, especially into Copenhagen, where we've seen a lot of Americans coming in.
So it seems that, especially Americans, are very happy with the Scandinavian market, right now. When it comes to your questions linked to the F&B area, it's very stable when it comes to meetings. So meetings is kind of flattening out and stable, stabilizing. Of course, small differences between each month of them, but you know, when we look into the autumn, it looks very stable as well with the booking pattern for that area. For restaurant and bar business, it is also stabilized. It is and stable. We see it right now, of course, a lot of guests. It's a leisure season, lots of kids and families.
But the average spend is also stable. So we don't see a drop, a huge drop in the spending in the restaurants. Overall, so I would say it's not big changes within that area. Slightly on the meetings, of course, something we expect. We're still on a lower level than pre-pandemic levels on meetings. It picked up well and has stabilized somewhat below on total numbers. We see some months, which is above, but overall, slightly below. We also anticipated that. That's why we also announced the Scandic Go brand with no meeting facilities, and over time, this will be handled, you can say, by us increasing rooms more than we increase the average meeting rooms.
When you look at the pipeline, we have additional opportunities. Yes, absolutely. We see a lot of activities right now, also to convert office buildings. We just announced two Go hotels, which is both office buildings that we convert. And discussions going on, I would say, both in the Nordics, but also in the German market, where we right now have several discussions on opportunities in the German market. It seems that our brand has really done well also outside the Nordics, and that means that more and more owners are reaching out for these discussions.
It is still more on the, on the lease than it is on management, but definitely, management and even franchise is something that we are discussing, whether we should do more, in the future. But right now, it's more... Good thing is also that some of the lease discussions in the non-Nordic market is not only fixed leases, like normally Germany, German, the German market is a more fixed lease market. But we have also several discussions, which is on variable rent, which is the same as we know from the Nordics, which is good. So I think that is mainly it. I hope I answered all the questions, André. Otherwise, there was a bit on the convertible.
Yeah, yeah, I can take that one. I guess, the main scenarios on, on the convertible bond with the current, share price is, I think that we will, see some probably more pre-conversions, and, and, and the rest will convert on, on, on the day it matures. I think, with the current share price, it will be quite expensive to do buybacks. So, I guess that's, that's at least my, my main theory at the moment.
Okay, thank you very much. Thank you.
The next question comes from Raymond Ke, from Nordea. Please go ahead.
... Good morning. I also have a couple questions. I think I'll take them one at a time. The first one, I was sort of surprised by the margins you had. They're quite high. Could you elaborate a bit more about what is behind this?
Yeah, mainly, mainly, Raymond, it's linked to us holding a very sharp focus on both cost and efficiency. Top line development, which is 3.1, and with the pressure from costs, both on salaries and lease and energy, et cetera, then it's very, very important for us to keep a very sharp focus on the efficiency. And we have really succeeded doing that in all our markets. So we all markets with very good control of the work hours, which is, of course, the major area for us when you have, like, nearly 20,000 team members working.
It is actually due to a lot of hard work from the organization, which is very good. But also because we are very on securing that we are a stronger company, like we have said, than before pandemic. So we want to be a better company when it comes to delivering on the efficiency. So it's mainly due to that.
Got it. And, is it then fair to say that you're operating at lower sort of cost base, and fair to assume or expect better margins for the remainder of the year also, given same level of sales as last year? Or how should we think about the, like, H2?
It's very important for us to be, because if we do not get, let's say, the same help as we did the last couple of years with, you know, very high growth rates on the top line, let's say the top line only growth with some 3% on price and limited on occupancy, then of course we need to be even stronger on the operational model and the efficiency. So yeah, we continue to keep also in the autumn. And then we also do a lot of investments, which I'm also proud that we actually, in this number, even have investments for the digitalization growth that we are doing.
Also on OPEX, it's not only CapEx, so we have talked about that before, and we continue to couple of quarters. And like Pierce said, be aware that last year we had a one-off, some one-off effects in Q3, which we don't have this year, so that you need to take into account. But overall, yeah, we will continue to focus on a high efficiency level.
Yeah, excellent. And, speaking of CapEx, could you there provide a sort of update on where do you see the maintenance CapEx and total investment CapEx for the full year land in relation to sales?
We have always said that we should be, you know, some around, we will be closer to the 4%. We have said between 3% and 4%, but it's also very important that now we have a very good cash flow. We have almost no debt, and so we can actually increase the investments in the portfolio, which we do, and which you also saw in the last quarter. So, I would say between 3% and 4% still, but maybe closer to 4%, but we steer this very closely linked to the cash we generate, and as we still have opportunities to increase or decrease a bit, if needed, be in the latter part of the year.
Got it. Finally, when you look at Q3, your biggest quarter, how does the event calendar this year compare to last year?
I think very, very good and important question, because Gothenburg is having a very low calendar this year for events. Last year it was maybe extraordinarily strong because they had, you know, six concerts, big concerts in Q3, and this year, no concerts. On the other hand, it seems that Stockholm is picking up better, like we had in the last quarter with Taylor Swift. We also have Bruce Springsteen and others in this quarter. So it seems that Stockholm is better than last year, and Gothenburg is still below. And I'm talking about these two because that's where we see the major changes. Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki is more in line with the normal years.
Okay, brilliant. Thank you so much. I'll get back in line.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Karl-Johan Bonnevier from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Jens and Pär. Pär, I'm going to pick your brain a little on the cash flow here, looking at the LTM trend particularly. And you alluded to that, say, the quarter was still impacted by delayed payments or timing difference from last year. If you quantify those kind of timing things that are now not coming back, well, how much would that be on an LTM basis? And what more might be there for the future, so to say, that we should have in our mind?
I mean, we had SEK 210 million here in Q2, and we had a similar amount in Q1. So, I don't have numbers in front of me of Q4, but I think we will, if you take out these type of numbers from the, you know, rent payments, I think we will be on a more normalized level. And then as Jens said, the maintenance CapEx will be around 3%-4%. And I guess the new capacity will take a little bit. If we sign something now, it will not, you know, hit this year, it will hit, you know, future years.
So, I think you probably will go back to a more around as a LTM trend, probably.
But when you look at it, there is no more legacy timing effects that should be hitting the cash flow from here on?
No, no.
Excellent. When we turn to the new financing agreement, does that give you now full flexibility to enact on share buybacks, go back to paying dividend and all these kind of things?
Yes. Yes, yeah. Yeah, we have no, you know, when the bond has matured, which have some, you know, some limitations connected to it and no restrictions, so it'll be more up to us to have to decide on what to do with, with the cash, you know, paying dividends or, or buybacks or, or more investments in CapEx. It will be fully our choice.
When we look at the financial target of two to three times net debt EBITDA, obviously, with the likely full conversion of the convertible, you will be substantially below that. Even if you go back to more normal kind of CapEx and these kind of things, I guess that will not consume any the amount of cash that will get you up to that gearing level. So how do you see the capital allocation after all these kind of things has happened?
I think we, like we have mentioned before, I think, Karl-Johan, that we will definitely come back with, let's say, the future targets on the financial targets after the convertible bond is being dealt with. So somewhere after that, we will give you updated numbers on our targets for the future. But you're definitely right, it is very unlikely that we will see debt levels of 2-3 times EBITDA.
But what is very good with this new financial position that we have, very low debt and a very good agreement with our lending banks, gives us a very, very high flexibility, which we didn't have in the old agreement in the same way, because it was done with some restrictions during the pandemic. So of course, this is a very long agreement. It is a 3-year agreement on another 2 years, and it has, let's say, not the same constraints or restrictions on it that we had on the old one. So even if we want to grow faster and invest more in more growth, we can also do that.
Buybacks, definitely, and dividends, everything is up to us, kind of, with this agreement, which is very good.
But, if I jump the ship a little, is there any reason that you should be managing in Scandic Hotels at a, say, net debt to EBITDA level of below one going forward?
I would say that let's come back to that, Karl-Johan Bonnevier, because I think, for a company like ours, you know, as long as we look at this also depending on the interest rates and, with interest rates coming down, then, yeah, definitely, we don't see a problem with having a net debt even above one EBITDA. But, you know, let's wait and see. Once we see now the interest rates start to come down and we handle the rest of the convertible bond, then we will come out with some targets for where we think this range should be in the future. But this is definitely not something that concerns us.
I think we have agreement and the bank agreement, and with all the strong development we do in the company and increasing EBITDAs and everything, you know, we are really delivering strong. Then it's up to us to decide where we think the money is being invested best. And that is, of course, to bring shareholder value. And we will work with three scenarios on this one, which is open, and discuss which one of these we should use or in which combination with dividend, buyback, and growth. But for sure, we are very focused on delivering shareholder return.
Sounds promising, even though I thought would have been a good timing to already have those kind of things maybe communicated at this stage. But, I'll be not being patient with you on that one, so.
No, but it is coming up so fast this time, so you will see, you know, when we have the next quarterly result in Q3, then we are done and dealt with all the convertible bonds. So then you can pick on us again.
Good. Good. And just coming back to the Go segment, obviously interesting to see when you now are getting property owners excited by converting office buildings, and that obviously should strengthen that pipeline going forward. Could you just elaborate how your pitch sounds to the office property owners to get them excited about going down the Go route and doing the investment to convert office buildings to hotels?
But I think it almost handles itself, because right now there is, there's a lot of property owners with a lot of office space that are available, and they need to find alternatives for this, and it's not always easy to convert into, you know, private housing and things like that. So they are looking, should they rent it out for a lower rent or should they look at alternatives? And hotels have a good future. It's also expected that this industry will grow year on year, like 3%, in average, in the Nordics, in the coming years. So this is definitely an opportunity. So right now it's both us picking on them and trying to-...
They understand the opportunities, but it's also themselves that are actually coming to us right now in all these markets that we are in with several opportunities. So I would say the list of discussions are much longer now than it has been ever, especially also on the go, which is good. So we find deals that are just because we have, you know, one or two opportunities, we are really signing the best deals that we find in the markets. So that's why you see also the last two signings are very, very good locations. And as long as we find good locations and right terms and conditions, then we are, of course, eager to expand the pipeline.
When you look at these properties that now are going to convert in Umeå and Gothenburg, do you know what kind of investment level the property owner will be required to do to convert these properties?
Yeah, we know that, but I think they should communicate on their side of that, because most of that lies on that, and we pay our rents in this. So we just know that our investments in these Go hotels are lower in average than it is compared to a Scandic, where you have a lot of kitchen and back offices and large public spaces and meeting rooms and spas and gyms, et cetera. In these ones, it's rooms and a ground floor with limited back offices. So it's the investment on our side are much lower per square meter than it is on an average Scandic.
Will be exciting to follow. All the best out there.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Jamie Rollo from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Morning, everyone. Three questions, please. First, have you seen any material benefit from the sort of heat in Southern Europe and the sort of switch in demand to Northern Europe? I know you've not got many resort hotels, and you're seeing Q3 occupancy flat, but any sort of signs of sort of demand displacement in the holiday segment? Secondly, I was quite intrigued by your comment that you think the shares are too expensive to buy back, I think you said. If you could elaborate a little bit on that, please. And then finally, quite a lot of talk about the strong profit and margin performance in the second quarter. But I think Easter's had quite a big impact.
And if we look at the first half overall, revenues were up about 1%, and EBITDA fell 7%. So the question is: If we look at the second half of the year, consensus is for something like a 4% increase in revenue year on year to SEK 22.4 billion, and broadly flat EBITDA to get to SEK 2.56 billion. How do you feel about the second half implied revenue growth and profit performance in consensus, please? Thank you.
Yeah, but first, your question about the leisure segment and the... Let's say, there's a lot of, at least in the Nordics right now, there's a lot of campaigning on coolcation and things like that, you know, really to show the rest of Europe that the Nordics are pretty cool. Both cool to visit, safe, but also because we don't have, you know, the high temperatures as you see in the Southern Europe. We have seen in the last couple of years, let's say, a growing trend from Southern Europe, from Spain, Italy, and France into Scandinavia. But remember that these markets are normally fairly small in total numbers. But yes, we have seen increases.
Now we have very limited numbers for this summer season because it's kind of the last few weeks of June and the first weeks now of July. This will be something we will be able to communicate much more in details for the summer. But it seems that we are very attractive for. And there's a growing interest into the Nordics from Southern Europe, but also from especially U.S., I would say. U.S. seems to have a lot of guests flying in. We have more direct routes and airlines flying to US. And because of that, also, you know, especially Copenhagen, Stockholm has seen seem to be very attractive for Americans.
We also saw in June a high increase into Finland and Helsinki from US which is very promising. Both Southern Europe, we expect much more also in the coming years also during wintertime. So that is positive. When we talk about share buyback, Per, you can maybe
Yeah.
Elaborate on that.
I assume you thought about when I talked about the convertible bond, and what I said was that it will be expensive to do the similar buyback we did with the convertible bond, because we have to pay both the premium on the convertible bond buybacks as well as help the short sellers that have their position, which means that the total cost for doing buybacks as we did in the past is very, very high. When we did that, the share price was much lower. But we have now, you know, since the AGM, a mandate to buy back shares of 10%. So, and that is a different question, when the bond has matured, to actually buy back shares from the market.
So, I think there, there's two answer to that question.
... That makes sense. Thank you.
Okay, and then the last was a bit on first half and second half, and I think, I mean, it's a very good question. I think what is obvious right now is that we see growth in the market. We see, you know, we are growing the top line, but of course it's not 5%-7% growth. It is a very stable occupancy and slightly growing rates. So I think also for we are cautious about these expectations.
I think summer has started off well, but it's very, very important for us to maintain our high focus on the efficiency and cost control, at least to secure that we deliver the cash flow that we want to deliver and which is expected in the market, and also both margins and so and results. So I think it's very difficult really to be more precise, but right now, the best thing we can do is to predict, you know, a very continuing stable level, which we see in the inflow in the booking pattern, and thereby also concentrate on operating the company with high efficiency, and that's what we're doing.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you very much, operator, and thank you all again for dialing in. As for me, I would say you can imagine that we are very satisfied with delivering such a strong result, which we did now in Q2, and also have a very good outlook for Q3. So all in all, a good and stable situation for us. I want to wish you all a fantastic summer, and look forward to speak to you all again at the latest in next quarter result, which is in October. So until then, have a great summer all.