AddLife AB

STO:ALIF B

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q3

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the AddLife Third Quarter Report. Christina and I will take you through a summary of the third quarter. And after the summary, we will have a Q&A session, as usual, when you have a chance to ask questions. And after the Q&A, we will also give you an opportunity to watch a brief video describing one of our companies within the Homecare business unit. This is Hepro based in Norway.

So with that, again, most welcome, everyone, and now we will start with an overview of the Q3 performance. So we're going to start with an overview of the quarter. And as many of you know, the third quarter, the summer months are somewhat slower because there are fewer surgical procedures planned and the activity in the hospital as well as research labs are lower. So because of this, we saw a slightly slower growth, but still managed to report a 3% organic and currency adjusted growth. So I think that's quite a strong number. And that has become increasingly clear as we start to see the numbers from our industry peers showing that this has been a relatively slow quarter in the market, but we are showing solid growth. So we're happy with that.

On the Labtech side, consumable sales are, as you well know, quite stable, and this is the case, of course, for Q3 as well. We saw a little bit of a weakness on the instrument sales side. But again, as we've talked about before, this is a temporary weakness. We think those deals will come through just a little bit later in later quarters. On the Medtech side, of course, fewer surgical procedures means somewhat lower sales, but still, we had a 3% growth there as well. And we are very pleased to note that the positive margin trend that we have been seeing now for a few quarters continues. So that's great. So all in all, a little bit of weaker profitability in Labtech, a little bit stronger in Medtech. So overall, we retain a stable EBITA margin between the quarters.

The profitability improvement initiatives that we have communicated about earlier and that we will go through in more detail later are progressing according to plan. So we're quite pleased with that. And that means, as you well know, some further cost reductions in the coming quarters. The cash flow, again, a very important focus area for us, remains stable at the solid level we established in Q3 of 2023. So that's a positive. And finally, in July, we had a press release about the acquisition of BonsaiLab, a very good company in Spain and Portugal in the area of cell and microbiology. We're super pleased with that acquisition. And we are pleased to note that the performance is strong, good market conditions and very healthy margins.

So with that, we move on, and I will ask Christina to take us through some of the more details of the financials. Welcome, Christina.

[Christina Rubenhag, executive]

Thank you, Fredrik. We saw organic growth also in this quarter, 3% in both Labtech and Medtech. Currency had a negative impact, minus 3%, while acquired growth added 1%. Our companies have made a diligent work with defending gross margins. This quarter was not an exception. So improved gross margins mainly came from product mix and price increases and it's mainly with new tenders where we managed to increase the prices.

OpEx increased with 2%. This increase includes both acquired OpEx, transaction costs as well as restructuring costs from Camanio. The total of the 3 of them is SEK 9 million. Other income and expenses can vary between the months and you often have swings depending on reversal of contingent consideration. This was the case last year. Also, we did capitalization of R&D in Camanio last year, which has not happened this year. So the adjusted EBITA grew at 2% and the EBITA margin was 9.8%, same as last year.

If we look at operating cash flow, it was stable in the quarter compared to last year and the accumulated operating cash flow has increased. Cash conversion has also improved compared to the last years. And this is really due to the focus on inventory reduction and working capital efficiency.

If we look at the different parameters within the cash flow, we can see that working capital was negative with SEK 73 million. This is mainly due to decrease in accounts payables. Also, inventory increased a little bit, of course, driven by sales growth, but also by the addition of new suppliers, new products and also instruments to be delivered in Q4. In the quarter, we did welcome BonsaiLab to the group, which had an impact on the cash flow.

So if we look at working capital in relation to sales, there is a tendency that the third quarter is slightly higher, impacted by vacation. Normally, our customers are a little bit slow in payments, while we actually schedule payments to the suppliers. Inventory towards sales has been stable on a lower level, 17% for the last quarters. And the focus on inventory reduction implemented last year remains with the ambition to improve even further.

Net debt was unchanged during the quarter. The acquisition of BonsaiLab with paid purchase price and the booking of the contingent consideration was a total of SEK 115 million. As most of you know, the majority of the loans are in euros. And this quarter, we had a small positive impact from FX. With pretty much unchanged net debt and EBITDA, the leverage remained at 3.6. And as previously communicated, debt is going to be reduced via self-generated cash flow.

The short-term facilities that was going to be due in Q1 2025 has been prolonged at unchanged terms until Q1 '26 with an extension option of another 12 months. The interest rate has gone down from 5.9% to 5.7% in the quarter, and it will continue to be reduced in the fourth quarter. We have 2 covenants. Interest coverage ratio should be above 4, it was 5.4 this quarter as well. And equity ratio above 25%, and that was 40%.

And with that, I hand over to Fredrik again.

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Well, thank you, Christina, for that thorough review of the numbers. Now we will dig into the business areas, starting with Labtech. So in Labtech, we had an organic growth of 3% and that's pretty healthy in this environment. And the consumable sales, as you well know, has a high degree of stability, and this was the case as well in the quarter. On the instrument side, though, we saw a little bit of weakness in demand, and this was in particular for the more advanced and expensive high-margin instruments. In this case, we saw that some of these delayed projects have actually been delayed, but it's important to note that they are delayed, not canceled. So we do expect them to come in later quarters.

Also, some of the new and advanced products that we're launching are -- have been taking a little bit longer than expected to reach the goals we have in terms of sales. So both of these factors have been holding back the margin a little bit. So we reported a margin of 8.9% in the quarter, lower than we like to see, but we're confident that, that will quickly recover. And also on a very positive note, we're really pleased that some very important and profitable tenders have been secured during the quarter in multiple countries. And we will start to deliver on those tenders already during Q4.

So moving forward to Medtech, again, a 3% organic growth, and that's a pretty good number given the fact that the elective surgeries are indeed down during summer and the summer months extend all the way into September, in particular, in Southern Europe. So the effect has been felt throughout the quarter. The EBITA margin did increase by 7%, strengthened to 10.7% compared to 10% in the corresponding quarter last year. And this is driven by performance improvement initiatives that are taking place in all companies, and of course, good sales of higher margin products.

The profitability improvement activities within AddVision are progressing according to plan. That company is now back in profitability, as you well know. And we have taken a number of planned steps during the quarter, primarily focused on driving the commercial activities with bigger energy. So really pleased with that. And then, of course, the Camanio closure was completed during the quarter as planned, and this removes around SEK 15 million per quarter in cost. So that will be a big and important effect already in Q4.

Our priorities and actions, they remain the same. And it is, as you well know, protect and improve profit; second, organic growth, cash flow and then acquisitions. And I think it's fair to say, we're making good progress in all these areas. Looking in particular at the profitability improvement then, the Camanio closure was indeed completed in Q3 in the month of September as planned. It's been quite important for us to take good care of all the users that have been using the system, very, very important, and I think that has gone really well. So well done to the team that has been engaging in this. This means also that all costs will indeed be gone in the fourth quarter, giving us a full year savings of around SEK 60 million and a cash flow effect of SEK 90 million. So this is a meaningful improvement that is now in place.

So moving forward, we are super happy about the acquisition of BonsaiLab. This is a leading Spanish distributor in the field of cell and molecular biology. And this is indeed a segment that we have chosen as a prioritized growth segment for the group. It's fast growing, it's a favorable market in many ways and the profitability is good. So during the quarter, we have been spending a lot of time with the BonsaiLab team. And we're very, very pleased to welcome them all to the AddLife family.

So to conclude, the group delivered a 3% organic growth. That's fairly stable and probably quite healthy given the market conditions. We did see some delays in capital investments and some delays as well in new product launches. But we do think that, that is a temporary thing. The deals are not lost. These projects will happen in the coming quarters. We're really pleased to note that the Medtech margins are continuing to strengthen. And if you take a look at the year-to-date numbers, we are now at 11.6% compared to 10.3% last year and that is clearly above the previous range of 8% to 10% that we have been seeing.

In parallel with that, the profitability improvement initiatives are progressing according to plan, both in terms of the division as well as Camanio, but also a number of other activities within the group. We are really happy that we are now back on the acquisition track with the acquisition of BonsaiLab. And we look forward with confidence to a seasonally stronger fourth quarter.

So with that, I'd like to thank you all for listening in, and we'll now be opening up for Q&A. But before we get into that, I would like to remind you all that there is a video after the Q&A that shows you one of our very interesting companies, Hepro, an important part of the Homecare business. So please stay on for that as well. So now let's open up for questions.

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

All right, everyone. So let's get going with the questions that you may have. So please raise your hand and we will then unmute you as we get going. So let's see who do we have here with ready for questions. Is it Ulrik first?

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

A few questions on my end and starting off with the new product launches that carry slower margins and a bit slower ramp up. If you can allude to this? And given that your focus on cell and molecular biology and with the BonsaiLab acquisition, these are, in general, more advanced products that you sort of mentioned as being slower uptake and carry margins. If you could provide us some more information on what's happening there?

In addition, sort of a follow-up on that would be, we have seen some positive comments from life science tool companies out of Q3, mainly not on the Q3 isolated numbers, but more on the order momentum heading into Q4. Is there something you can say about current trading beyond the fact that you are expecting the CapEx products that has been delayed to gradually ramp up in the coming quarters?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Ulrik, and great questions. So yes, you're correct, BonsaiLab products are advanced and on the high end and good margins. So when we make comments around a little bit of hesitancy in the demand, actually, we don't refer to BonsaiLab. They are doing really well with healthy growth and good margins and also a continuous development of the business, adding new suppliers and so on. So that's going really well.

So this is more of a general comment, because sometimes instrument sales in diagnostics, they are not necessarily super-high margin, but on the research side, they tend to be higher margin. So it's more on a range of products in the research field in general. And I think that is something we've seen throughout the year earlier as well and what we also see in some of our industry peers commenting on.

And so to the second question you had, are we seeing kind of an uptick there? How quickly will that be? Of course, always tricky to predict the future accurately. But I think it's fair to say that when you look at the development of the Labtech business, it's not unusual for us to have a little bit of a weakness in Q3. And of course, in the past years, it has been blurred by COVID. But if you go a little bit further back in time, that pattern is there. Q3 is fairly weak and then a recovery in Q4. And then we've seen that also last year when we saw, for example, the Eastern European markets kind of being weak and then a good growth and margin pick-up in Q4 given the volumes that tend to come as the budget years end for most of our customers.

So I hope -- is that an answer you would...

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

Yes, absolutely. And if we can move to Medtech, yes, 3% is steady growth, but it's a bit of a slowdown versus Q2. Have there been any short-term disruption in sort of your key markets such as the U.K. and the NHS on the back of the election? And are you still waiting for that to ramp up? And as well, there were strikes in the NHS and there was strike in Sweden throughout Q3. Have that affected you to some extent during the quarter?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Yes. Well, that's a great question. I mean, obviously, Sweden and U.K. are important market and they have been, perhaps you could say, a little bit unusually weak. And I think if we start with the U.K., these waiting lists have again kind of stabilized. They haven't been improving in the third quarter. The focus on elective surgery hasn't really been there. And then, of course, on top of that, we have had the strikes. I think in general, in the U.K. with the election, there is a huge expectation of significant investment and improvement in NHS with the new government, but that really hasn't materialized yet.

I think it's rather a little bit on the contrary probably where everyone is expecting new activities, new initiatives, change, but it's not clear exactly what it's going to be. So our estimate, it is probably a bit of a hesitation and a waiting mode until all these new initiatives will be announced. And we think we'll know more towards the end of October when the new budgets will come and so on. But I think it's a good situation. And I think for 2025, I think there will be -- we'll start to see some of the new initiatives showing in the numbers as well.

And as it relates to Sweden, again, also a fairly important market for us. It has been a bit slow. The activities in the operating rooms isn't really back to pre-COVID levels in some of the regions and the staffing shortage is there. There is the use of the consultants or extra personnel to handle the waiting list that is no longer used. So it's a bit slow in the Swedish market. And also Finland, even though that's not an enormous market for us, but there, a bit of challenges in the economy and reform in the healthcare regions is also somewhat impacting us.

And then, of course, the summer months are always a bit tricky to estimate. July, August tend to be slow. And then we do expect normally a bit of more of a pick-up in September. It seems like the summer slowness extended a little bit further into September more than we have seen in the past. And in particularly, that was true for the Southern European markets where we are actually nowadays fairly big. So yes, so it's a decent growth given the market circumstances. But I think we're, of course, accustomed to slightly higher than that and we do think it's going to improve again.

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

Okay, great. Last question on my end. Flat operational cash flow here in Q3. And I think majority is aware here that your net debt has been positively favored by FX. How confident are you in seeing sort of the reduction in net debt by end of the year and you being able to accelerate M&A again heading into '25?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

I think we're confident that net debt to EBITDA will indeed improve. Here, of course, with profit not growing very strongly in the quarter, we were pleased to see that the cash conversion is actually improving year-to-date. So that's great. So that's a positive sign. We think with all likelihood, we'll see a healthy Q4 and with that a strong cash flow as well. So we fully expect net debt to EBITDA to come down. But then, of course, we had -- we made the choice to acquire BonsaiLab, which we're very happy with. And as I already said earlier, they're performing really well. But of course, that also made it so that net debt was stable rather than decreasing.

And then I think we have Mattias, right?

[Mattias Häggblom, analyst]

Yes, Mattias from Handelsbanken. I had basically one only. So I was curious to hear how we should think about your appetite for M&A in light of your current gearing and also the covenants that Christina alluded to. I guess, the question is also asked in the light of your financial targets, which is a profit growth of EBITA of 15% per year over a period. And I guess, it's guided by history. It suggests that it should not only be driven by organic growth plus margin expansion, it should be helped by the addition of M&A as well. So in light of the gearing situation, when should we think about more material contribution from M&A? We can see that you're already doing smaller tuck-ins, but some general thoughts around the M&A contribution for the next maybe year to 3 years ahead and how that will evolve?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Yes. Well, I think we are quite active on the M&A, but we are also selective or picky, if you will. So -- and of course, we have to take the gearing into account. But I think that we are active. We have multiple discussions. We are building a healthy pipeline for the remainder of the year, but more importantly, for '25 and '26. So I think, of course, in 2024, it's not going to be a material contribution from acquisitions.

We hope to do a little bit more, but it depends on the negotiation and so on. But I think 2025, we expect the pace to pick-up, but maybe not to be at kind of at full pace, if you will, but 2026 should absolutely be that. But this is a long-term effort. So our activity is high. And now we're having lots of interesting discussions and -- but we are a bit picky, of course. And we're also -- we want to make sure that it's a good company we acquire and that the multiples we pay are healthy as well.

And now I think we have Gustav, right?

[Gustav Berneblad, analyst]

Yes. Sorry, I had some issues here during the call. But can you just comment a bit more on these important sort of profitable tenders you have received and give more flavor on that and what customers are these?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Yes, absolutely. So this is -- we actually -- of course, tender work is ongoing and so on. But there have been in the quarter a few very nice ones that we have been able to secure in multiple countries. And a few of them are kind of -- it's new business for us, a business we haven't had in the past where we kind of replace competition. So that's, of course, exciting and we will start to deliver on those here during Q4.

Others are where we -- where tenders are renewed and we get the confidence to continue for normally a 3 plus 2 year type of term. And then, of course, there are updated conditions in the new tenders that will allow us to increase prices as well. So we're pleased with that. So it's a combination of completely new business and then continued business, important business, but then with an updated conditions and improved margins. So we're pleased with that and we should start to deliver on those, as I mentioned, already in Q4.

[Gustav Berneblad, analyst]

Should we see these as sort of unusual or is this just the regular business, would you say? I mean, [ these are very ] high amount.

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Well, some of them are -- they're big, right? They're big and substantial and important and with updated terms. So that's really -- so it's important in that sense. Some of them are also big and new for us where we are able to have competitors -- we remove competitors from the field. So that's great. So I think they're both important and meaningful in that sense. Well, it's both -- it's not 2, it's more than that, but it's both of the situations are good.

[Gustav Berneblad, analyst]

Yes, perfect. And then just on your comments here on finishing strong in Eastern markets or Eastern Europe, just to make sure, is this -- is your comment based on orders you have already received or how should we interpret this? Is it based on just the regular seasonal pattern or is this actually something you're seeing?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Well, it's actually -- it's really 3 things. It's the pattern that's there. I think it's very driven in many of the Eastern European countries, very driven by the end of the budget year where certainly that behavior of making sure that all the investments are done before the end of the budget. That's one thing. Another thing is, certain projects that we are driving and there are certain milestones that we reach and then we can invoice. So we're confident in doing that. And then, of course, a number of deals we are preparing and that we have a high confidence around and that we have been buying the products so that we are ready to deliver. So we have them in inventory. So it's patterns, it's orders, it's invoicing milestones that gives us the confidence that Q4 should be good in Eastern Europe.

[Gustav Berneblad, analyst]

That's very helpful. And then just the last one here on AddVision. You are commenting and have been for a while now that you are enhancing the profitable products and phasing out the less profitable ones. But is it possible to get any sense of where you are in sort of run rate sales for this business now and also profitability, if...

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Well, yes, I don't want to get into the full detail of it, but I think at the time of acquisition, it was a EUR 70 million business, kind of a stable sales development. Now we've seen that actually from taking out a bunch of products that are less profitable, the revenues have come down. So that's clear. But I think we're quite -- as a company, we are emphasizing profits, not the top-line. So we're -- it's a conscious choice. And so with that, the margins have come up. Still the margins are not fantastic on a combined level, even though we see many parts of the business quite healthy. Some of it has been healthy all along, if you will, like the Polish business. Some of it is becoming healthy again, like our assembly and manufacturing business in Germany. But there are also some parts of the business that are still a bit of a drag on the overall profitability.

So profitability is there, but it's not at the level that we want it to be. So lots of work still to do to bump that up further. But that's the type of activity we've been driving in the quarter and made some changes that I think will put new energy into the commercial side of things. So I think we're on the right track there, even though it's certainly not a quick and easy fix. It's many pieces that need to align.

So yes, we have Karl, of course. Yes.

[Karl Norén, analyst]

So I have a couple of questions as well. Just if we start on the Labtech margin, I mean, it was quite weak and I note it's weaker than what you did in I think both 2018 and 2017, if I'm correct or '19 despite the size of the business is quite a bit larger. And I understand that there can be some like mix effects, but is there anything else impacting? Because I guess, like BonsaiLab should come with a positive contribution to the margin, I think you've said as well. I guess, underlying is even lower. I mean, is there any explanations outside of the late deliveries?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Yes. No, I think that's a great comment. You accurately state that there's -- historically, before the days of COVID, we saw that pattern. And now it's here again in some ways. I will say that BonsaiLab is contributing nicely. And so obviously, there are others that are not contributing so well right now. And that's mostly related to these advanced instrument sales. We see some products, there's a hesitation around actually pushing the button and going forward with the planned investment project.

And then there's also some new product launches that we're confident in longer term, but they have been a little bit slower in picking up, a little bit slower than we were hoping for. And there is also actually, when we look at our industry peers, we see that they are all commenting along the same lines, hesitation in investment decision, in particular, in academia where we see the pharma company demand remains strong. We have a little bit of exposure also to the Chinese market and we've seen others commenting on that and we see the same thing, slower sales in China than we have seen. So it's...

[Karl Norén, analyst]

Yes. That's another question I had because I know that other sales to rest of the world is down like 50% year-over-year in the quarter, which is quite dramatic. Is that maybe Biolin or something like that?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Well, I think we -- outside of Europe is, of course, the Chinese situation is it's clear. It shows in the numbers. So yes, Biolin is one of the companies that have exposure to China.

[Karl Norén, analyst]

Because that has been quite stable I think year-to-date, but it was down very much in Q3. Is there something specifically sticking out in Q3 or...

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Well, I think it's linked to those new product launches, yes. And yes, that's clear.

[Karl Norén, analyst]

Okay. And then also on Camanio, is the wind down completely completed now, so to say? So you will have no cost in Q4?

[Christina Rubenhag, executive]

No cost in Q4.

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Yes, all done. But I think it's a project which has -- once the decision was made, it has progressed quite well according to the plan with the complexity then of these users that we need to make sure are indeed taken care of in the best possible way. Some of the municipalities have acted quickly, some a bit slower, but now it's all done. And in September, it was shut down in every way. So everything in terms of staff, the software solutions, the lease agreements, everything is wound down and shut down. And we had a little bit of a restructuring cost as well in Q3. But in Q4, all done, no cost. So we can check that box and move forward. And of course, it has not insignificant impact on the cost structure and the cash flow as well.

[Karl Norén, analyst]

Yes, that's great. And just the last question on organic growth within Medtech. I mean, a bit lower here in the quarter. I note that, for example, the U.K. looks to be down some 10% year-over-year in the quarter and we have seen some strikes and elections in that market. I'm just wondering if we're seeing an improved situation here? And if you believe that the organic growth should accelerate given this into the fourth quarter in Medtech?

[Fredrik Dalborg, executive]

Yes. Well, I think the situation in the U.K. longer term is pretty positive. I think our position there is great. We have a strong team and a great portfolio within new government. Everyone is expecting that there will be a solid effort to improve NHS and take a firm action to really reduce that waiting list. The waiting list, as you probably know, was flat in the quarter. Nothing changed really, which is disappointing. These are people that have been waiting for a long time now for the surgical procedures. So absolutely, we think it's going to be a healthy development there.

I think with the new government, there will be actions taken, there will be new initiatives, but it will take, of course, a little bit of time for it to materialize. That's something we have to keep in mind. And I think as usual, we have the Q1 being the final quarter of the NHS fiscal year. So that should be a solid one for the U.K. business. But I do think that maybe we'll see a little bit of a more healthy development already in Q4, but the Q1 will be the big one. And I think for 2025, then we should start to see the effect of these new initiatives that are happening as well.

So yes, we suffered a little bit in U.K. The growth wasn't as we have become used to and it's been a little bit slower, as I mentioned earlier as well in the Swedish and Finnish market too. While we had the normal summer effect, if you will, last year in the Q3 was pretty healthy. This year was maybe a little bit slower. I think the weakness of the summer months extended further into September than it has in the past.

So let's see. Do we have any more questions? Not that we can see, right? So well, thank you, everyone. Thanks for listening in, and thanks for great questions. As you all know, you're more than welcome to contact us on the phone or e-mail afterwards if additional questions come up. But now as we wrap up here, we do have a very nice video that's been recorded describing the very nice company, Hepro, a Norwegian-based important part of our Homecare business. So please stay on for that 3 minute video. Thank you.

[Christina Rubenhag, executive]

Thank you.

[Presentation]