Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today's presentation with Volati. With us presenting today, we have the CEO, Andreas Stenbäck, and CFO, Martin Aronsson, presenting today. We'll open up for a Q&A after the presentation. If you're calling in and would like to ask a question, please press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to mute yourself when you get the word. You can also use the form located to the right. With that said, please go ahead with your presentation.
Thank you. Thank you everyone for listening in today. Let's get into the presentation. We'll start with, let's see... here we are. Let's start with the presentation. Looking at these slides, sales increased by 6% in the quarter to SEK 2.3 billion. We do see a trend shift, a slight trend shift in the quarter with organic sales growth of -1%. The graph on the right, we've showed you the last couple of quarters. We did see a trend shift late last year with organic growth. However, we've had a slight setback with regards to that in this quarter. It's driven by a slowdown in the organic growth in Solix Group, but we do still show positive numbers, even though low in Solix Group. The main reason for the negative number is some of the platforms within the business area Industry.
I want to point out that we do see a totally other market environment now compared to a year ago. If you look at this slide, you know we have had -15% and -11% in Q1 and Q2 2024. It was a slight slowdown in the first quarter of this year, the second quarter of this year, but still, the market environment is significantly better and improved. EBITDA came in last year. Two of the business areas, Solix Group and Etiquette Group, they're showing strong growth, 20%, around 20% EBITDA growth, while the reason for us just meeting last year is the Industry. It's two platforms within the Industry that are lagging. It's Corroventa and it's simply tough comparables for them. They had a really good last year, while we still see a challenging market in Tulum Group.
They're also meeting somewhat tougher comparables compared to last year in the second quarter. 2024 was decently good for them. If we take a step back, I think the first half of the year of 2024 is still okay. We've had a sales increase of 10%. We do see an organic growth in the first half of the year, and EBITDA growth is 13%. So close to our financial target. I want to talk a bit about the structural measures that we've done and that we're now really seeing the effect of what we've done the last couple of years. We can see that in platforms such as Solix Group, S:t Eriks, and Volati Communication, where we have stronger margins even when we see low or negative organic growth.
For me, that's a proof of strength that we really also now see in the numbers that we've had good actions in the platforms. We've had some additional structural improvements in the quarter. We'd had, because of that, negative EU extraordinary costs of roughly 6 to 7 million SEK. What does this mean? This means that we see a good opportunity for further margin improvements, especially once we see the organic growth coming back. I think that will be accelerated. When we came into last year's more challenging market environment, we had a very, or had a low net debt to EBITDA. I think we were also even slightly below our financial target with regards to that. That has enabled us to continue making acquisitions, and that has, of course, then led to increased debt levels. In the last quarter, Solix Group did the acquisition of Haus Eggestrand.
If we look into the last 12 months, we've now acquired a little more than 750 million SEK of annual sales. That puts us in a net debt to EBITDA position of 3.0. That's within our target, and it's very much expected because of the cash flow profiles that we have over the year and the acquisition that we did in Q2. Also, during the second half of the year, that's where we have our strong cash flow. Historically, we've showed that every year. That provides a solid basis for continuing doing acquisitions. That's going to give us acquisition room also for the rest of the year. If we find the need to deleverage, we also have the possibility to do that.
Basically, what this means with the strong margins that we see and the structural measures that we've taken and the accelerated organic growth that we expect once the market returns, that means we will also gradually be able to reduce the net debt going forward and still maintain a very good acquisition pace. Looking a bit into the numbers, net sales up 6%, as I already said, EBITDA in line with last year. That does then include some EU costs linked to structural measures. Operating cash flow strong in the quarter, 27% up compared to the same quarter last year. Net debt at 3.0, as I already mentioned. Taking a step back and looking at the annualized numbers, we're now at 8.2 billion SEK in net sales and 700 million SEK of EBITDA.
As said, that implies a 10% net sales growth the first half of the year and a 13% EBITDA growth the first half of the year. Also, looking at the long-term profile, we're still ahead of our financial goals. That basically means that we've doubled the last five years. However, as everyone can see on this slide, the growth pace went down from 2021 going forward. That has created a growth gap, meaning that we do see that we will close that growth gap once the market returns. With that, I leave the word to Martin.
Thank you, Andreas. Let's look at our performance in relation to our three financial targets. Let's start with the EBITDA growth per ordinary share during the last 12 months, which is now at 6%, which is an improvement from the last quarter, quarter one. However, this is still below our financial target, but it's worth noting that our target is over business cycles. Our five-year average EBITDA growth per ordinary share is 15%. Moving over to our second financial target, our return on adjusted equity came in at roughly 17% versus our financial target of 20%. It's below our financial targets, but it's driven by a lower EBITDA growth. However, during the past five years, we have delivered on average 33% return on adjusted equity.
Our last financial target is our capital structure, where our net debt to EBITDA ratio came in at 3.0, which is within the range of our financial target ratio of between two and three times. We now also put half year one behind us, which is seasonally the lowest regarding cash flow for Volati. We now have quarter three and quarter four in front of us, where Volati normally generates a strong cash flow. This, as Andreas mentioned, gives us the potential to do further acquisitions and also a potential to deliverage if need be. Let's also talk a bit about our business areas. Let's start with the Solix Group. The Solix Group saw a total net sales growth of roughly 10%, which mainly came through acquisitions, but also through organic growth. EBITDA increased with 20% compared to last year.
The margin increased with roughly one percentage point in the quarter. This is really showcasing the great work that Solix Group has done with working with cost control and synergies and the coordination benefits. We also saw some market improvement in the quarter, however, at a slower pace compared to the previous quarter, showing that the improvement rarely is linear. We're confident that Solix Group is well positioned to capture the growth once the market returns. We completed the acquisition of Haus Eggestrand in the quarter. We also see significant potential to grow further through acquisitions in the business area Solix Group. Let's move over to Etiquette Group, who continues to deliver another strong quarter. Sales increased with 36% in the quarter, mainly through the effects of the acquisition of Clever, but also through the continued trend of strong organic growth.
EBITDA in nominal terms increased with 19%, which is mainly driven by organic improvement. That said, the margin declined in the quarter with two percentage points. This is as expected as the newly acquired Clever contributes with roughly 25% of the total Etiquette Group sales, but at a low margin. The integration of Clever is progressing well, and the work with extracting synergies and operational improvements has started. The ambition long term is to lift the margins to the same level as the rest of the Etiquette Group. Also, with Clever as a new home market platform to grow from in Central Europe, we see a significant potential to continue acquiring labeling companies in several geographies. Lastly, business area Industry concludes a tough quarter.
Revenue declined with 7% in the quarter, and the EBITDA margin declined with one percentage point, where the development is mainly explained by Tulum Group and Corroventa. As previous quarters, Tulum Group is still facing a historically weak market, but is meeting softer comparables in the second half of 2025. Our platform, Corroventa, did not see any significant effects from floodings in the quarter and was also facing strong comparables from last year's second quarter. St Eriks faces a similar market situation as previous quarters, with a weak demand in the construction segment, while the demand in the infrastructure segment is stable. Lastly, Communications performed well in the quarter, increasing the EBITDA compared to last year. This is despite the lower deliveries to the U.S. market. With that, I leave the word to you, Andreas.
OK. Then we'll get into acquisitions. This slide you've seen before. Since 2020, we're now down 27 acquisitions, adding SEK 4.2 billion of annual sales to Volati. In the last 12 months, we've done two add-on acquisitions to Solix Group and one add-on acquisition to Etiquette Group. Looking at how we've been pacing our acquisitions the last five years or four and a half years, one can see that we had a drop in 2023, but have since been fairly stable at roughly SEK 700 million of annual sales that we've added. Looking into the last acquisition that we did in Solix Group, to start with Haus Eggestrand that we added to Solix Group, it was an add-on acquisition we did in Q2. Sales of roughly SEK 45 million. It's complementing Solix Group's consumables trade and agriculture unit very well, and in particular, the consumables trade unit of businesses.
It does broaden the overall offering of the unit. It's also an example of an acquisition where we have large potential of synergies, not the least in the logistics flows and optimizing that. This is a very good example of a good add-on acquisition to Solix Group. Looking at the graph to the right, I think you recognize the sales and EBITDA margin from previous. We also added the number of acquisitions and the accumulated acquired sales that we've shown since 2020 in Solix Group. What this says to me is that we've been able to maintain the acquisition pace in Solix Group, despite that Solix Group has faced quite a tough market environment at least the last three years. Of course, this tougher market environment also creates good acquisition opportunities. We've been able then to take advantage of these. We've done roughly one to three acquisitions a year.
Over the course of this period, we've added SEK 1.8 billion of annual sales to Solix Group. I mentioned it previously, but looking at this and seeing how Solix Group have been able to protect and even improve their margins despite the tough market environment the last years and not the least the last quarter, and still being able to add acquisition once the market returns and we start seeing organic growth, it's going to be a real nice journey to follow. In order to make acquisitions, you need cash flow and you need a decent net debt to EBITDA ratio. Looking at this slide then, the operational cash flow increased with 27% in Q2, which was good, much in line with what we expected.
We have a cash conversion in the last 12 months of 85%, which is now, I would say, very much in line with where we want to be. Very much as expected. We had a debt increase in Q2. As said, firstly, the cash profile of Q2 is not as strong as the operational cash flow profile is not as strong as the second half of the year. We have the dividend outflow in Q2, which affects the overall cash position. Again, we expect a strong cash flow in the second half. That means that we will still get some acquisition room to take care of for the rest of the year. Summarizing this quarterly report, slightly negative organic sales trends sequentially. We need to remind ourselves that we are still significantly better off compared to a year ago. There is still an underlying positive trend or momentum.
Q2 EBITDA in line with last year, but particularly satisfied with the growth that we see in Solix Group and Etiquette Group, 20% roughly EBITDA growth in those two business areas. We do see the effects of the long-term structural measures in platforms such as Solix Group, S:t Eriks, and Volati Communication, where we have low or even negative organic growth. We're still strengthening the overall margins. We've been able to maintain the acquisition pace. The last 12 months has been roughly SEK 750 million that we've added. That's very much in line with the growth pace through acquisitions that we've had the last years. We have a strong foundation to continue doing acquisitions. Very much thank you to the cash flow profile of the second half of the year. We are really waiting for that accelerated organic growth, which we know will come once the market starts to recover.
This quarter has been somewhat delayed. Once we see that, it's going to be real fun for us. With that, I leave for any potential questions.
Thank you very much for that presentation. Yes, let's open up for a Q&A here. If you have a question and are calling in, please press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to mute yourself when you get the word. You can also use the form located to the right. We'll give the word first to Carl from Carnegie. Please go ahead. You have the word.
Hello there, Andreas and Martin. Thank you for taking my questions. If we start on Solix Group, you mentioned that demand took a step back after a quite strong uptick we saw in Q1. Could you elaborate a bit more if there were any variations across the quarter, i.e., if you would say that it was a similar demand profile throughout the quarter as a whole, or if it perhaps started or ended on a weaker or a better note? Thank you.
Thank you for the question to start with. Yes, we've seen a market slowdown in Q2 compared to Q1. I think when you turn to our other actors on the market, they've seen a similar profile. When it comes to interquarterly variations, there are no big variations. I think it's not worth mentioning anything with regards to that.
Thank you. On Tulum, you mentioned they are still facing a very tough market here and that there isn't really any sign of improvement anytime soon here. Could you speculate, perhaps, what you would need to see for that market to start improving? Is it still like a grain price issue or an aid issue, i.e., that the subsidies towards farmers are at a too low level currently? Is it something else that you would like to highlight here that you think is hampering you?
I think with regards to Tulum, it's somewhat of a perfect storm. We have subsidies, as you mentioned, that are not coming out in the individual markets at the pace as they should. We have grain prices, which are at the lower level or have come down in levels. We have a general market on security, much related, I would say, to what's going on with tolls and things like that. There is somewhat of a, and still, you know, now interest rates are coming down. There has been some insecurity at least in the beginning of the year with regards to that. There is somewhat of a perfect storm with regards to Tulum. What we've seen in the past is things shift fairly quickly in that market. If one of these or a couple of these factors change in dynamics, our customers gain confidence. There is an investment need.
What has happened over the last couple of years is that some of those investments have been pushed. Once we see a shift, it typically goes fairly quickly. However, where we are right now, I have to be honest and say that we don't really see that. We're waiting for it. We haven't seen that shift. We expect when it comes, what typically happens is then that shift comes fairly quickly. I think that's true for also some of the other business areas and platforms that we have. You asked about Solix before. We had a good, I would say, organic growth in Q1. Now it's slowed down a bit in Q2. It's a bit volatile right now, hard to predict. Once the growth starts coming back, we know there is a big growth gap to be closed, not only for Volati, it's also for the general markets.
Once that positive momentum comes, I think it could potentially go fairly quickly.
Yeah. Understood. If we could perhaps get a bit more into the Lantmännen project here, which you mentioned contributed positively to Tulum here in the quarter, could you perhaps just help us here with regards to how much of the project has been delivered to date and how the delivery trajectory looks throughout the remaining, I guess, duration of the project?
I think what we said or what I said in the CEO letter is that we're going to continue delivering on that a bit into 2026. We still have, what is it, like nine months to go or something like that. I think we've been going on for roughly nine months as well. The profile is typically that you have a peak in the middle, and then you have a start when it gradually picks up in terms of deliveries, and then it slows down towards the end. I think that's the information that I can give with regards to that.
Fair enough. Thank you. Just on the extraordinary items here, taking a new quarter related to restructurings, could you say something regarding which platform this refers to? Also, if you could provide any color there on what measures have been taken?
Unfortunately, we do not give that specific information what platform it is. I think the comment to that is that we continuously work with operational improvements and doing these more long-term structured measures. I think we've had extraordinary items related to this maybe every third quarter or so. Now we've had some in Q2. I actually expect us to get some in Q3 as well. This is more of, you know, it's continuous work improvement. In this particular case, it's a restructuring or reorganization of an operational unit.
Thank you. Fair enough. Just finally, from my side on Etiquette here, could you perhaps say anything on how the sort of underlying margin profile has developed here year over year? If we would adjust for the acquisition of Clever, would you say that it still is up year over year, excluding for Clever? Is it flat? How should we think of that?
I think we don't see any shift with regards to the margin profile of the underlying business. I think it's more or less in line with the Q1 or in line with what we've seen in the past. The shift in margin profile for the overall business area Etiquette Group is solely connected to the dilution from the acquisition.
Fair enough. Thank you. That was all my questions.
That concludes our Q&A session here. I'll let it over to you, Andreas, for some concluding remarks.
Thank you. I thought I'd take the opportunity this time to turn a bit inwards and thank all the colleagues of Volati. You're really doing a great job. You have put us in a really good position. We are structurally very well prepared. We've seen somewhat of a delay in the market recovery, at least related to what I expected or hoped for. Once that comes, we will really get the benefit or see the benefits of all the hard work that you've done. It's going to be a very fun journey once we get there. Thank you, everyone.