Good morning, welcome to the Systemair interim report for Q3. My name is Charlie, I'll be coordinating the call today. If you'd like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, you can do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I'll now hand over to your host, Anders Ulff, CFO, to begin. Anders, please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for calling in this morning. We will present the Q3 results, and the presentation is available under our investor relation page. You click for the quarterly report, and there you'll find the presentation for today's call. I will start with handing over then to Roland, who will present what I believe is a fairly positive report this time. Go ahead, Roland.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Roland Kasper. I will present the quarter two report 2022-2023. Jumping right into the report that you also could download. In page number one, just an overview of Systemair. Today, I hope you already know Systemair, founded in 1974, headquartered in Skinnskatteberg in Sweden. Our last annual fiscal year was turnover of around EUR 960 million, we're listed on the OMX Nordic Stock Exchange market since October 2007. Systemair maintains its own sales companies in today in 52 countries, we have 29 factories in 21 countries per quarter three. We have 6,900 employees and selling into 135 countries all around the world.
By that, jumping into the report as such, as you have already heard from Anders, we think it's a fairly good report. Our net sales in quarter three amounted to SEK 3,043 million, that is compared to the same quarter the year before, a growth of 33.6%, thereof organic 22.2%. Those of you who have downloaded the presentation, you see on the right side the graph of the development since the beginning of the pandemic, which of course shows a rather good coming back to normalized but even good growth figures. Going to the next slide number four, the analysis of the growth. The organic growth is mainly attributable to the Nordic region, Western Europe, American, Middle East, and Asia, or simply said, all the regions despite the Eastern Europe regions.
We have an impact by acquisitions, which is mainly the acquisition of SagiCofim in Italy, which contributed with 5.1%. We have some impact by currency, which mainly is the strength of Euro versus US dollar and the Canadian dollar with an impact of 6.3%, which brings us in total to 33.6% growth in the quarter. Next slide number four, looking at into the operating profit for the quarter. As reported, the gross margin increased to 34.2%, compared to 33.3% the year before. This is mainly as a result of the good capacity utilization we're seeing on the pricing power.
You have an impact of the hyperinflation calculation in Turkey that has affected our gross margin negatively by 0.6 percentage points or SEK 17.2 million. The operating result has been positively then thereby affected by adjustments after the hyperinflation calculation in Turkey in a total of SEK 3.7 million. The sales and admin expenses for the quarter increased by 17.9% compared to the organic growth of 22.2% for comparable units. At the end, the operating profit amounted to SEK 277.5 million compared to SEK 131 million the year before. The operating margin thereby amounts to 9.1% compared to 5.8% the year before. Switching to next slide, which is slide number six, the profit after tax.
Our net financial items for the third quarter amounted to negative SEK 69.1 million. The currency effect on the long-term receivables, loans, and bank balances amounted to a net of SEK 37.5 million. The interest expenses for the quarter amounted to SEK 21.6, giving us a net financial yield of SEK 170 million compared to SEK 95 million the year before the same quarter. The next slide number seven, going into the cash flow analysis for quarter three. The cash flow from the operating activities improved to SEK 274.6 million compared to SEK 142.3 the year before same quarter. Sorry. The decreased inventories and the trade receivable improvement have led to the change and a positive impact on the working capital.
The change in the working capital thereby amounts to, in the quarter to SEK 4.1 million compared to negatively SEK 150 million the year before. Net investment, excluding the acquisitions, amounted to SEK 33.8 milion, and mainly attributable to capacity investments in Czech Republic, in Sweden, Denmark, and in the U.S. Thereby, the amounting three cash flow in the quarter, SEK 244.9 million compared to negatively SEK 17.6 million the year before. Our net investments increased from SEK 1.8 billion to SEK 2.6 billion in the third quarter 2022, 2023. Going to the next slide, slide number eight, and going into the markets and our business.
As you can see from this pie chart on that slide, the development is somewhat a little bit different, starting on Eastern Europe, where the total breakdown gives us a decrease from 15% to 12%, and this is of course mainly due to Russia. North America stayed with 11% of our total turnover. Other markets, as you know here, is some African, but also then Turkey, Middle East, and Asia, increased from 12% to 13%. Western Europe, a strong increase from 42% to 45%, and the Nordic region, a slight decrease in 19%. Looking into the different regions and looking at the breakdown. Starting with Nordics on slide number nine.
Sales in the Nordic region increased by 18.4% during the third quarter, adjusted here for effects of foreign exchange and acquisitions, it's 13.9% organic growth. Yet all the markets and applications in the region show good growth during the quarter. Going to Western Europe, somewhat different picture. Sales development on Western European market continued very strong in the quarter with an increase of 54.9% compared to corresponding period last year. Here, adjusted for foreign exchange effects and acquisitions, sales increased by 32% organic. I'm happy to say that all the major markets within the region showed good growth during the quarter, here, especially Germany, France, Italy, and U.K. The drivers here, School and Residential projects in particular, showed strong increase in the quarter.
Also to mention, as we are in Western Europe, next slide number 11. At Systemair, we completed the divested investment of the commercial Air Conditioning business to Panasonic. This happened last week, in Tuesday, 28th of February. The divest operations include Systemair S.r.l and Techair in Italy, Systemair AC SAS in France, as well as the sales operation of the air conditioning part in Systemair GmbH in Germany. This operation consolidated a turnover for the rolling 12-month, for EUR 69 million and employed round about 400 full-time employees. The financial profit effect of the related investment will be reported in the year-end report that we will publish the 8th of June, 2023. Thereby going back to the markets, and next slide, Eastern Europe and CIS.
Sales in Eastern Europe and the CIS decreased by 1.1% during the quarter. Here, adjusted for foreign exchange effects and acquisitions, sales decreased by 10.4%. Reason for the negative growth is mainly and only the discontinued sales in Russia. Growth excluding Russia amounted to 18.3% positively. All other major markets in this region show good growth, here especially to mention Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia. Next slide. North America. Sales in North America increased by 29.7% in the quarter, and here, adjusted for foreign exchange effects and acquisitions, 15.5%.
Both the American and the Canadian market showed good growth during the quarter. Here the main drivers for us is Residential and School projects, where the component situation, of course, easing also helps us quite a lot to catch up for the backlogs here. Next slide, slide number 14. Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Sales in this region increased by 38.4% compared with the same period last year. Here, adjusted for currency effect and acquisitions, sales increased by 50.5%. India, Turkey, and Australia show very good growth during this period. To mention that the restrictions in Asia due to the pandemic are now mostly gone, what you see here is, of course, the effect that the markets show absolutely more activity than the year before. Thereby going to next slide.
Also to mention, as we have very good impact by the development in Asia, also here to mention the landmark project for Systemair India. Systemair India landed a prestigious order for the Indira Gandhi International Airport here with the new development on these terminal one. Here Systemair India will supply air handling units, all the ADP products, fan and volume control dampers, to a total amount of in the order of EUR 3.2 million, and all the deliveries will be completed before the 13th of April, 2023. A really nice project for our colleagues in India. Also to mention here that Systemair commits to setting science-based targets.
We have completed our filing here, by that, Systemair is taking another step to mitigate climate change and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, both from our own operations and throughout the whole value chain with our products and services. This is something that we really look forward to and that will really help us. Going to the next one, sustainability reporting as a part of our sustainability work. As also mentioned in the report, we are following through our quarter reporting that we started in quarter two. We see continued decrease of work-related injuries due to the focus preventive work. As you can see in the graph on the right side, it's absolutely going down quite clear quarter-to-quarter. We really like the development. Also, female leaders have increased.
Here is an increase, not a decrease, to now 24.2%. The emission intensity from the Scope 1 and 2 in our operations has continued to decrease. All the KPIs for us and the sustainability work are really going the right direction. At the end, I also wanted to mention the outcome or a short report about the Capital Markets Day that we had in January this year, where we also presented the selected growth opportunities, where we see that we are focusing our work in going ahead. We provided a lot of information regarding financial targets, for growth, pockets, profitability, financial strength, and dividends. The selected growth areas that were presented and discussed throughout our Capital Markets Day are shown here on the right side.
It's for us, Residential ventilation, it's public buildings, for example, also our Schools with our Product Solutions, Healthcare, Data Center, and the Service part can replace Retrofit and Update on installed product basis. We think with that focus and with that, with these five main focus areas, we can guarantee the mid and long-term positive development of the group. With that, ladies and gentlemen, I want to stop my presentation on our quarter three reports. Thank you for listening to me and opening up for any questions related to our quarter three report. Thank you.
Thank you. Of course, if you'd like to ask a question via the telephone lines, you can do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you choose to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. As a reminder, that's star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. Our first question comes from Carl Ragnerstam of Nordea. Carl, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning. It's Carl from Nordea. A couple of questions. Firstly, you mentioned that the Resi side was particularly strong in Western Europe during the quarter. I mean, is it driven by energy efficiency related renovations or upgrades, or would you say that it's sort of a catch-up effect in conjunction with completion of new production projects and should sort of not be extrapolated the coming quarters here with us as the Resi starts are on the weaker side?
Good morning, Carl. No, for us, I would say that the School and Residential projects more related to the awareness of people of indoor air quality. I think it's the indoor air quality that is pushed not by only, as, from us as a company, but also from the industry, certification bodies and local industrial organizations throughout Europe. I think it's one of the main drivers of looking to not only new build, but also to upgrade and the Residential renovations. This is a big point where people are investing in still.
You can finally see the effects from the post-COVID debate we've been talking about for a couple of quarters here. Is that correct or?
We see that being the strong drivers, yes. What we see is the Indoor Air Quality discussion is driving a lot. The Green Deal discussion is driving. What we don't see that much of yet is actually the fundings that are coming in. We see that the occupational level with the consultants in the planning phase is really high. They have high workload, which is a good indicator for the future business.
Okay. Very good. You also guided for having firm orders during the quarter. Is it possible to sort of quantify the organic order development, both including, excluding prices? And also whether you had that positive book-to-bill now during Q3.
Related to the organic growth and how much of it will be the inflation driven, they would say that from the 22.2% on the organic growth, inflation and price increase in driven year will be around about 14%-15%. Looking at the book- to- bill or our backlog, it's also reported in connection with our Capital Markets Day. It has been really strong still in November, December, little bit less strong, but still around 30% in January. I would not say that one month should be a guidance for a trend, but you know that the next quarter is a good start for coming into the high season. We're waiting a little bit on that.
Of course, we see that a lot of the contractors in maybe North Europe still have a really good occupancy level for throughout all 2023. It's good times in the market for us.
Okay. Sounds, sounds, obviously quite promising here. Also on, I mean, could you update us on the production for Menerga? Is it going according to plan? Also could we see some potential effects or from the efficiency improvements already in the quarter on the gross margin, or is it too early to be seen?
In relate to Menerga, we are working according to the plan. We of course have to follow strict also communication and movement plan. What already is said is, of course, that we have moved over, trying two units, and we're working on the next steps. I will be able to disclose more about that later. When it comes to improvement and impact on that on the gross margin moving ahead, it's a little bit early to say. The impact will come step by step throughout 2023, but the guidance will come later on. It's a little bit early in that call.
Okay. Very good. The final question from my side is a bit on pricing. You, if I remember correctly, you've announced price increases on 1st of January this year. What is the initial feedback from your customer on those? I mean, are you able to implement them, or have we sort of reached the max level for what the market or end market could stomach in this environment? Of course, I acknowledge that it might differ between product categories, but in general.
In general, I would say that there is still a high acceptance level. We have to be really open. We have no problems in any country, in any market, and in no application with the price increase that we have been doing 1st of January. You're right in that. Looking ahead, though, last year, we made four price increases throughout the group. Looking ahead, I would say the expectations are that we will not do four price increases throughout the year. The expectation from the market will be that, of course, they understand that the pressure from energy costs, from the transportation, et cetera, et cetera, is still over normal, which also needs to be reflected in the pricing. Maybe not that it gives you the open way to make four adjustments.
maybe one or two more this year, but maybe not four. Let's wait and see. I think it's, we have come to a level where it's more an open discussion, about the different factors going into the price increases.
Okay, very clear. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Carl.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Douglas Lindahl of DNB Markets. Douglas, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hello, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions, and thanks for the interesting answers from the previous questions. Coming back on pricing, I just wanted to check if you are sort of incorporating similar price changes in your different geographies, or is there any large deviations that we should know of that's potentially driving in this quarter? That's my first question.
If I do understand your question right, Douglas, the question is if we have a different set of price adjustments for different regions. Is that right?
Yeah. Basically, you said you did 14%-15% of price growth here in this quarter.
Yeah.
Would that be a fair number throughout your different geographies, maybe focusing on the Nordics and Western Europe?
Okay. Yeah, I get it. No, of course, the price adjustment is, we are not making an adjustment that is, how to say, one figure across all the different geographies and product. It is rather specific looking into material part of product, of offerings, how much is labor, et cetera, et cetera. A big part of the pricing, of course, also is, for us, the transportation and basic setup. Different geographies, different products, different, how to say, size and component, content gives a different set of pricing. It's a rather, how to say, intricate process, and the way we, we can handle that. I think that is also part of why the customers are accepting it, because they understand that we actually are not taking, let's say for example, 10% everywhere, the same. It's really to reflect a true rate.
And transportation, I guess that's a pretty big part of pricing discussions. Is it, and it could be sort of going forward or?
Yeah. It is still logistic costs, absolutely. It's driven by, of course, the costs for trucks and logistics on the end from us internally, but also externally to customers. That's a big part of it, yes.
Okay. I guess the question on the back was already asked, but I guess I'll try asking the different way. Are you seeing backlogs at all-time high levels now or?
Still in many areas, especially North America, but also in some of our European facilities, yes, we still have really high backlogs. I think I had another question earlier today in the morning, how we value our high order backlogs. In some areas, I would actually be quite happy to come down from the very high order backlogs that are giving us occupancy level in factories for, in some of them, 10, 12 months ahead, because that would give us the possibility to also serve on short-term orders that we are not able to take on today. That would be nice. We still have high backlogs, yes.
The backlogs are also then due to the component shortage problems t hat we have had. Those also, as we mentioned in the report, are starting to ease up a bit, so we have been able to take it down. I guess little bit also that is fueling then the growth for the quarter also.
Okay. Okay, good. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Hjalmar Jernström of Erik Penser Bank. Hjalmar, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. First one is on the School or Residential that you mentioned was particularly strong in Europe. I was wondering, could you give us some flavor on particular countries or particular sub-markets within Europe where this is particularly visible and maybe how you see the future, because you mentioned the fundings of these kind of projects. How do you see the future rolling out in terms of funding for this as a driver?
Residential, I think I already answered a little bit earlier that Residential we see driving quite well in, throughout Mid-Europe. When it comes to the School project, it is mainly driven by Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia. They have special funding from government when it comes to upgrading existing schools, and we're talking about really about ventilation in the classrooms. That is a clear thing, I would say, or an initiative after the pandemic. I mean, open up the windows is not possible, especially given the weather conditions we have currently, for example, here in Sweden. It's more about creating indoor with ventilation and upgrading existing. That is something that is really ongoing in Mid-Europe, which is a nice development, of course.
We have a special unit that is developed in Europe for this kind of aftermarket upgrade, and that is running really, really well.
All right. Thank you. Secondly, so on investments, you mentioned room for investments as, of course, you presented the plans on your Capital Markets Day. Could you give us some flavor on maybe the short-term developments of the level of investments if we, if we look forward a bit?
Yeah. It's a bit early to say actually, about, we're just going into that season then for budget. We plan also the coming year then. We see with this kind of growth that we have right now, that we are outgrowing some of our production units. We need to make investments in order to get additional production capacity in some places also. We are looking into that right now, and we are planning on that. I think we can come back here, yeah, on the Q4 report with maybe just about the plan for investments then.
The ongoing, just to add on that, the ongoing ones is, where we have high capacity needs. It's machinery ongoing just now in U.S., it is ongoing in Czech and in Slovenia, where we really need to build up capacity that we're lacking.
Yeah, the machinery.
Yes.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Anna Widström of Handelsbanken. Anna, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Roland. Good morning, Anders. I hope you two are well.
Good morning.
My first question is to get some additional comment on the supply chain situations. Basically your expectations ahead, what's the current situation, and how we should interpret your comments on an easing situation? I mean, could you see an additional underlying profitability from these levels, or is the situation extremely easy now, so you can have sort of all the positive effects already?
On the pricing side, it's already elaborated a little bit. Some of our component prices and also fee price as well, of course, they are adjusting. They went down a little bit at the beginning of the year, then they turned up again a little bit. The biggest part of the price variations that we are looking out for when it comes to price adjustments are today actually driven by electricity, driven by transportation and logistics, and of course, also the inflation when it comes to our workers and the compensation. How that will move on from here is I would say a little bit softer. It's also referred to one of the earlier requests that we got.
I would not say that we'll have a full adjustment this year. I hope not. We are of course, in the process now and reviewing it constantly.
Is everybody-
Okay.
Should we comment on that as well?
Yes.
The supply chain problems, they are a little bit, let us call them dynamic. It started with the motors, clearly, and the periphery related to that, and controls. Today, most of the problems when it comes to our main markets like Europe, we're talking about power connectors, that we share that component with, for example, automotive, and that is a little bit tricky. It's stabilizing. It's getting better. Not good, but better. Most problems for us in operations are still related to North America for not only power connectors, but also motors. We see an ease on the problems. It's better than last year, not good, but better.
The forecast from our main suppliers in that area, see that by end of the year, we are reaching a new normal, that would make our life, of course, and the operations much better and more stable, when it comes to deliveries to our customers and working with the backlog.
If we go into the cash flow effect from the working capital, could you maybe talk a bit on your expectations for the year? Also if we should expect a difference in seasonality or something other as you divest the AC business?
Yeah, of course. Talking about the divestment of the AC business and how it affects the net-net worth capital, we see that it's going to improve because the main market here is Southern Europe, and of course, with along the credit times and also that would be a positive effect, especially on the trade receivables side then. Also as mentioned then during the Capital Markets Day, we are running a project right now in order to reduce the inventory levels really, and especially on the component side with the supply chain problems easing up, then that would make it possible for us to reduce that. We already see that, as you saw here in the Q3 report, the first effects of that.
Also, this has affected also the level of finished goods done and delayed deliveries due to some component shortages really, and that we don't have that all the components in place in order to make the shipment really. It affects on different levels really. Yeah. We hope to see that trend to continue to be positive, really. I don't wanna throw out any numbers here really, but I think we can see a fairly good improvement potential here in the next six months.
Okay, perfect. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you, Anna.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to submit a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. That's star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Henrik Alveskog of Redeye. Henrik, your line is open. Please proceed.
Okay, thanks. Hello. Well, just a quick one. On the price increases that we've been talking about, the last one in January, could you give us just a rough ballpark number on the size of those?
Good morning, Henrik. As I said before in one of the other questions, it's of course what we do is a quite selective pricing. We have some of the products that are up 3%-4%, others up 10%-15%. We even have some where we have lowered the prices as they were impacted quite heavily when we had to buy some of the electronic parts on the spot market. It's a really wide variety of adjustments. But of course, the total sum in January was still somewhere between 5% and 7%, depending on the region.
All right. Excellent. Thanks. Well, your last acquisition here in Italy, SagiCofim, could you give us just a brief update on how they have performed so far? Are they growing in line with the group, or, w ell, just a general idea of how they're doing.
Yeah. Absolutely. A really good question there. SagiCofim, as said in Filtration and in Air Distribution Products. On Air Distribution Products, they had the low season, which is the winter part in Italy. On the Filtration side, they're running on full capacity. Actually it is a new machine line ordered to increase capacity as they're running on 100% and a little bit over. We're increasing also here the shift going in Italy to bring up their volumes. It's more that we are preparing for the future growth here. That's where we are with SagiCofim.
Okay, thanks. Sorry to bother you, I need to ask you about Russia. They still had some sales here of around SEK 50 million, I guess, if I translate your numbers in the quarter. As you mentioned also in the report, working capital of SEK 114 million. I guess the inventory will quite soon be depleted. Just what are your options in Russia going forward?
Yeah. You're right.
Too sensitive a matter, or could you give us an idea what's going on?
No, no. We are quite open with this. I mean, we have an operation there, and we have, I believe it's around 160 colleagues that still working there.
158.
Yeah. It is an operation and what they have done in order really to survive a bit here, even though we don't supply them internally, they are sourcing products from China, India and so on that they are trading, you know, on the Russian market in order to survive more or less. That is what is happening. The options we are looking into then is some kind of a divestment of the company. Unfortunately this is quite a moving target as it is right now with new sanctions then being added all the time, and the latest were here on the 24th of February then on the. Yeah.
We are looking into different options here, and we will hope that we can communicate something here in the coming months. As I said, then everything is moving a bit here also. The decision is taken that we will, we in Systemair will exit Russia.
Maybe to be clear, it's a de-investment for us. It is just very, very bureaucratic in the with the Russian organizations and with the Minister of Trade in Russia, as we are in Sweden, an unfriendly country as a main owner. We are a little bit catched up in these bureaucratic circumstances which are not easy to handle from Sweden.
Sure. Great. Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. As a final reminder, if you wish to submit a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. At this stage, we currently have no further questions, and therefore this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines.