Alimak Group AB (publ)

STO:ALIG

Earnings Call Transcript 2018-Q3

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Alimak Group Q3 Report 2018. [Operator Instructions] Today, I'm pleased to present, Tormod Gunleiksrud, CEO; and Tobias Lindquist, CFO. Speakers, please begin.

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Thank you for that, and welcome to the quarter 3 result call for Alimak Group. And this call, I'm also very pleased to introduce the new group CFO, Tobias Lindquist to join the group as of September 1, and this thereby his first quarterly call to make with the capital markets. So welcome to Tobias.Then, I think, we just dive straight into it. And if you turn over to Page #2 in the presentation, just for the sake of good order, the acquired businesses that we acquired in late 2015 is, of course, with us. And I think it's important to mention for comparison reasons that the Avanti Wind Systems was consolidated into Alimak Group as of 1st of February 2017, while Facade Access Group was consolidated into the group as of 1st of March 2017.Moving on to next page, Page #3, view on, what I would consider being the highlight for the quarter. It goes without saying that organic growth over 17% on orders received was a strong orders received result for the quarter. Taking the orders received for the quarter up to SEK 1.1 billion or slightly above SEK 1.1 billion versus last year Q3 at SEK 869 million. So I think, 17% on orders is a strong quarter, and I'm also very happy to see that it came in from industrial equipment and after sales. And I will get back to what I -- especially to what's very positive when we get into the different DA.Slightly more above us from the revenue side, an organic growth of 5% we ended up with for the quarter, taking the revenue up to 1 million short of SEK 1.1 billion versus last year SEK 980 million. Still, what I would consider being a decent number for the revenue side.EBITA adjusted, we ended up on the quarter at SEK 136 million versus last year SEK 101 million. That leaves us with a margin of 12.4%. And I should say that this is also an improvement within all different areas. However, I think it's also fair to mention that last year SEK 101 million was also impacted by PPA adjustments that was done through the acquisition of Avanti Wind Systems with SEK 17 million. But even if you take that one away, I think it is still a strong quarter result-wise compared to the quarter last year.Also, happy to see or report that the operational cash flow that we considered being weak in the first 2 quarters of the year. And the improvement that we set up, we would expect going forward after Q2, has also materialized. And that means that we ended up on the quarter with a positive cash flow of SEK 113 million versus last year SEK 74 million. So all-in-all, on the group KPIs -- financial KPIs, I think we have with a fairly strong quarter behind us. And we will shed some more light onto the different business areas when we get to that portion.Also very pleased to mention the launch of new brand, Alimak Service brand that was launched in connection with the wind expo in Hamburg in September, and that focus is very well received by the market or by our customers. And for us, the Alimak Service and the plan we have there is quite instrumental in our continuous journey with after sales. So good reception and I'm excited to see how that will develop moving forward.If we now move to next page, Page #4, that takes us into Construction Equipment. Starting with the revenue side, we had an organic growth of 13%, meaning that we ended up at SEK 176 million versus last year SEK 146 million. So the SEK 146 million also means that it is a favorable comparison. Very strong EBITA margin or EBITA margin adjusted over 15.1% versus last year 9.2%. And that is also very much linked to the fact that we've been having vast majority of revenues coming out of favorable markets and also with a strong product mix.Looking then at the order size, where we had decrease of 31% from last year 188 in the quarter to 143. This is really linked to weak market suscitation in Middle East and the same goes for Southeast Asia. Further to that, there has been few large projects that are really requiring new investments on the machine result. And do we believe that we have lost any market share? No, we do not believe that at all. We believe that we have maintained our market share in construction. Do we believe that there is a generic -- real downturn in construction? We don't really see that either. We didn't see a strong pipeline that we are chasing. However, as I said, fewer of the large project that we know will come and materialize in the quarter. And do I expect them to come in Q4? Not so sure about that. So I think those will move into the opportunity list of 2019. But given still the strong backlog we have, solid pipeline in new opportunities out in the market that I would expect to convert into orders, at least in 2019, I am still quite optimistic when it comes to the construction market.Moving then to next page, Page #5, Industrial Equipment. Of course, an organic order intake growth of 60%. All segments were really contributing to that one. We ended up at SEK 585 million versus last year SEK 338 million. So very strong quarter on the order side. I have to say, I'm pleased to see that definitely on the order front. But also very pleased to see that oil and gas is also starting to move and getting some traction. It's good to see that as well. It's been a long dry period for oil and gas. So I'm quite happy to see the activities that goes on. On the revenue side, slightly more moderate. We had a growth of 3%, taking the revenue up to SEK 537 million versus last year SEK 487 million. So we're building backlog and that is, of course, also good to see.EBITA, we ended up at SEK 18 million versus last year SEK 9 million. And even if we are improving, it is still a low margin. I think, we've spent quite some time on the reasons for the lower margin on the industrial side after Q2, and this is still down to the [ review ] side. And asked if backlog is breathing out, we are, of course, also expecting the margin side doing pretty well on the industrial side going forward. So all-in-all, on point -- I should probably not say happy, but I'm modestly happy with this development that has taken place on the industrial side. And of course, I'm very happy to see the development on the order side.Moving on to next page, Page #6, takes us into after sales. Also here, good strong quarter on the order side. We ended up at SEK 314 million versus last year SEK 239 million, that leaves us with a organic growth of 23%. Very happy to see that also on the after sales side, we have momentum both for the new businesses, meaning wind and BMU. But also, in particular, happy to see that I think, some of the pent-up demand that comes out of oil and gas has also materialized into orders in the quarter. And that, of course, is good to see. Probably, the numbers would have been even higher because if you take some of the larger refurb orders on, for example, oil and gas, we would normally do only the material part of that and everything that is related to labor, we purchase. We would take that booking as it comes slowly down the road. So all-in-all, I'm quite happy with the development that we have seen on the order side on after sales.Moving to revenue. It's relatively flat, moving from SEK 271 million last year to this quarter's -- this quarter SEK 290 million. So all-in-all, it's a decent development. EBITA adjusted of SEK 76 million versus last year at SEK 71 million in the quarter, leaves us with a EBITA margin of 26.2% versus last year margin of 26.1%. Still within that kind of a margin window that I would consider accessible, given the mix we have between parts, labor, services, [ sweeper, ] et cetera. So all-in-all, good quarter. Already mentioned the launch of Alimak Service, new brand as we have introduced under a common umbrella for all of our businesses, where we put the whole service offering together. And Alimak Service is, as I said, also incremental in the further development of the group's offering to the market.Moving on to next page, Page #7, take us into Rental. And also here, I would like to start with a focus on the strong organic revenue growth of 19%, taking revenues from last year SEK 76 million to this quarter revenue of SEK 95 million. And we also expect to stay at a fairly high level on the revenue side in Rental. Again, strong EBITA margin adjusted of 15.8%. Last year, we reported 11.3%. So also on the margin side, I'm very happy.Now everybody would, of course, ask what happened on the order side, where we went from last year, SEK 103 million to this quarter SEK 61 million, an organic decrease of 46%, following 2 very strong quarters. Fact is, we are actually close to sold out on the order side in Rental. We have been working on improving our utilization for the last couple of years. This has led to the fact that we do have a very high utilization on the whole fleet. We've been cautious on investing in used equipment. We have a very solid backlog. I think, we have a backlog close to 1 year. So given the super cycle that I would consider having been in now for quite some time on construction, we will also forwardly cautious on new investments. We are not sacrifice demand for short-term top line. But of course, if we believe that this is where the market will be also going forward, we will, of course, also look into, are we invested enough in order to serve this market. But we are very, very selective when it comes to picking short orders or picking long orders.So all-in-all, I have to say that I see good conditions also on the rental side. So it's really for us to decide, do we invest more to serve that market and we, of course, do not want to contribute to overrating the market, so this is a balancing act. All-in-all, I think the market is good in Rental. I also think that we are delivering strong performance in Rental.And I think by that, we have arrived at some cash points. And I think, we should leave to Tobias to take us through some points on cash and net debt and also on the result. So Tobias, I hand it over to you.

[Tobias Lindquist, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you, Tormod, and good morning, everyone. Let's turn to Page 8, cash flow and net debt for the group. The cash flow from operations was positive SEK 113 million in the third quarter. And this was an effect of improvements in collections of trade receivables as well as a reduction in project-related inventories. All business areas improved the collections, whilst inventory improvement mainly related to the BMU project. On a year-to-date basis, the cash flow is SEK 92 million, which is due to the negative cash flow in the first 6 months, still behind SEK 162 million we had last year.The positive cash flow supported improvement in net debt, which decreased by SEK 110 million during the quarter and thereby, amounted to SEK 980 million by end of September. The leverage ratio improved to 1.81 in Q3, following the reduction in net debt and the improved EBITDA results.In July, we signed a new revolving credit facility with Handelsbanken amounting to SEK 2.5 billion, replacing the previous one of SEK 2 billion. The facility has a tenure of 5 years and includes 2 extension options of 1 year each.So the increased credit facility further improves our financial flexibility and our financial position remained strong.Let's turn to Page 9, tax expense. Tax on profit for the quarter was SEK 23 million and the result before taxes of 92, meaning we had a tax rate of 25%. Year-to-date, our tax rate is 27%, which is within our estimated mid-term range of 25% to 30%. Following the acquisitions we made last year, we are performing a country-by-country legal review and we expect tax efficiencies from that starting in Q4 2018.If we move to Page 10, earnings per share. The net profit in Q3 was SEK 68 million, which could be compared to SEK 72 million last year. The financial net and profit in Q3 to 2017 was positively impacted by onetime effect of SEK 43 million relating to revaluation of loans. The 12-month rolling average net profit of SEK 291 million is, therefore, slightly lower than in the previous quarter. And with the same number of shares also affecting the earnings per share, which now is at SEK 5.36. If we turn to Page 11, integration plan. So this slide we have shown several times in the previous quarter reviews. So the integrations of the acquisitions of Avanti Wind Systems and Facade Access Group is progressing according to plan, even considering the challenges we had and talked about earlier this year when it comes to projects within BMU side. There identified synergy potentials are within areas of procurement and manufacturing of the sales as well as efficiencies in organization and legal structure.The short-term potentials for procurement related to utilizing improved scale of economy in negotiation with suppliers and also further efficiencies in the supply chain.The synergies within manufacturing is more on a mid-term range, where we would unify design and construction of common parts aim to reduce cost of production and maintenance. Throughout the sales, the synergies related to increasing our penetration in installed base in the acquired businesses as well as improving the service capabilities, having a larger share, larger service organization with a broader international coverage. Organization and structure potential related to cost savings for all business and support staff as well as a simpler legal structure. Their integration plan is divided into 15 functional work streams across organizations, of which some already are finalized and closed. The estimated cost for the integration is SEK 110 million, of which SEK 46 million was realized in 2017, and another SEK 49 million in the first 9 months of this year.And with the integration synergies, we are targeting at 2 percentage points to the EBITDA margin. If we turn to next page, Page 12, integration project update. As Tormod mentioned before, one of the main event in the quarter was the launch of a common brand for our office sale activities, Alimak Service. The consolidation of the after sales organizations is progressing well and will be fully implemented by the end of this year. On the procurement side, we continue to review and negotiate the terms and the conditions with suppliers. And so far, several improvements have already been executed and additional ones are on the way.The organizational changes combining sales, admin and support staff is on ongoing and several countries have now merged their offices and also the management and administration teams. We also initiated the changes in legal structure in several countries. So all-in-all, we expect that the positive effects from these changes are expected to seen from Q4 this year, impacting cost of sales, operating expenses as well as taxes.So if we move to Page 13, our mid-term financial targets. So the mid-term financial targets were set in 2017 and remains the same since. The revenue target is an annual organic growth of at least 6% and this could be compared with the 5% we achieved in Q3. And for the year as a whole, so far we are -- but we are still negative on 2%.For the targeted EBITA margin is -- it is 15%, which have achieved by synergies in acquisitions that we have talked about before, combined with improvements in the underlying business. EBITA adjusted margin was 12.4% in Q3 and 12.5% so far for the first 9 months. The leverage target is up to 2x and the Q3 comparable was 1.81x. In other words, we are ahead of this target.So on overall basis, we are making progress, reaching the financial targets and remain positive that this target since both achieved. With that, I hand over to Tormod to summarize the quarter.

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Thank you for that, Tobias. And if we turn over to next page, Page #14. I think we have arrived at the point where we try to summarize a little bit on how we view the quarter. And so of course, natural to start with the strong organic growth that we had on the order side of 17%, very much driven by industrial equipment and after sales. And on the industrial side, as I already mentioned, very pleased to see that wind continue to deliver. I think renewables overall looks good also going forward. So I am very positive and I think it was a good move also to move into that business. Also on the after sales side, also here I am happy to see there is a growth on the order side. Again, to repeat myself, I'm also happy to see that things are moving on the oil and gas side. I was mentioning, what I believe is kind of a pent-up demand that is materializing, coming from the period between 2017 to -- sorry, 2014 to 2017, where the cost in oil companies were really kept at an extremely low level. And I think, we do see some result of that today. So on the order side, I'm very pleased with how we ended up on the quarter. Revenue growth organically on the quarter sitting at 5%, also quite happy with that, in particular, knowing that we do build some backlogs as well.And of course, on the earnings side, even with having in mind the PPA adjustment of SEK 17 million last year, going from last year SEK 101 million that we had reported as the EBITA adjusted to this quarter SEK 136 million is a good number. So solid delivery from the organization and all the people that have contributed to it.I've mentioned order backlog quite a few times. It's good to see that there is a solid order backlog, gives the good foundation for Q4. It gives a good foundation also beyond Q4. So it's naturally good to see. Also mentioned Alimak Service, a new brand that we are taking to the market. I think there's a lot to expect also from that going forward. So all in all, sum it up, overall good development, and I believe that we are in a good trajectory towards the target that we have set for the group.What was disappointing in the quarter was, of course, how order intake in construction has developed because there, I would have expected to see higher numbers, that I honestly have to say. What is good, though, is that I do not see that we are losing any market share. But this is market conditions that are as they are. And in particular, as I've said, maybe Southeast Asia, we've been looking at conditions like this for quite some time, while Middle East, we have actually expected to see a stronger development. And you could add to that, the current Brexit situation in U.K. is adding some uncertainty to the start of some larger project. And I would also expect that provided some clarity is materializing on what U.K. will look like from a customs point of view next year, I would expect some uncertainty to be taken away before we actually exit 2018.So all in all, I think the quarter was good. I already said that I'm very happy with order intake, and I think that was important.So by that, I think we open up for questions from the analysts and others that might have questions. So please open up.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Mattias Holmberg from DNB.

[Mattias Holmberg, Analyst]

Looking on order intake in construction. At a 12-month rolling trend, I think this is the sixth consecutive quarter where you're in a negative trend. And then, you continue to say that you look favorably upon the market going forward. To me, it starts to seem more like a negative trend than anything else. And then, obviously, as you already have stressed, the organic growth of negative 30% is obviously disappointing, especially putting that into context that you've earlier said, Tormod, that you believe that the organic growth for the full year could be positive. And now given that there's only one quarter left, doing some back-of-the-envelope calculation, that would require some 150% year-on-year organic growth in Q4 or a doubling sequentially, Q3 into Q4, in order intake for you to achieve that. So first of all, just how reasonable is it to look at a positive or black number for organic growth for the full year? And second, what would you say has gone wrong compared to your expectations over the past year here?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Yes. No, I -- it's not very difficult to understand your comments, to start with that, because I think it's absolutely fair to say that I am also disappointed, as I already said, about the order intake on the construction side and how that has materialized in the quarter and even year-to-date. There is no doubt about that. Do I believe? I thought I already answered on whether I believe there will be growth on construction. And I do not believe there will be growth in construction. As I said, I think those, I believe, are opportunities that will materialize in 2019. There are large projects out there. They struggled sort of coming online. I was mentioning, in particular, a couple of regions. When I look at Middle East and compare that a year back on the same period this year, there's almost a dead market. And on the drawing table, there have been even new cities being planned in the region that has not materialized throughout the year. So I think it was fair to have an expectation that some of this would materialize during the year. I will not tuck in my hope that this will come in Q4. So I'm cautious to say that this is something that we will catch up. So I am cautious on that. However, it is also important to be aware that, when you look at the regions that are hit the most severely, the way that we see it, speaking about Southeast Asia, Middle East, those regions hits us more on the top line than on the bottom line. That is probably something that you can see also. That is also, when I said that I'm still positive going forward, because when I look at the backlog and the strength of the backlog and the sort of gross profit that sits in the backlog, I'm still -- that still makes me positive both for the quarter ahead and also beyond that. So at the same time, even if they are talking about a significant downturn of construction in Sweden, you have to remember that Sweden is a fairly small part of our market. So overall, given the activities that I see in the rest of Europe, given what I see in the U.S. market, given what I see in U.K., as I believe that when they get their Brexit process sorted, I think that market also will pick up again, I am still optimistic on what the global markets look like. I even believe that, eventually, Southeast Asia will start to pick up again. But I am cautious on 2018. Although, I think that we'll have a fairly strong quarter ahead, also revenue-wise and earning-wise.

[Mattias Holmberg, Analyst]

I have one more question on the issue with deliveries or what you would like to call them in BMU. And you've been quite clear here about that we should still expect the margin in Q4 to be hampered by this. But could you give us some help on how we should think about the dynamics here in Q1 and for 2019? Will it still be impacting at all or how should I think of it?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

You will have some impact. But as we have said, the ratio that the remaining revenues coming from these impacted projects will have on the total is getting smaller and smaller. So I think we have started on a journey to -- where we sort of go towards a reinstatement of margins at the previous levels. So the impact or influence of those projects should get smaller and smaller by the quarters.

[Mattias Holmberg, Analyst]

Do you have any visibility on sort of when the last of these orders will be out of your books?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Yes, I have that.

[Mattias Holmberg, Analyst]

And would you like to share that with us?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

No, I said I won't.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Johan Dahl from SEB.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

I was just wondering, on the -- on Tobias' presentation on synergies and the tax situation, that sounded a bit like there will be a step change in terms of synergy realization here towards year-end. Was that correctly understood? And could you possibly put it a bit more into numbers, the effect of tax and also on synergies, if possible?

[Tobias Lindquist, Chief Financial Officer]

Well, as I mentioned, yes, we are doing a legal restructure and that it will have a positive impact on the tax situations in several countries where we have tax loss carryforwards that we will be able to utilize, and so forth. So we will be expecting to see some improvements from Q4 -- starting from Q4.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

And on general cost, I mean, what's...

[Tobias Lindquist, Chief Financial Officer]

So there, we will see starting effect from the Q4, yes.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Okay, got you. On the order intake, can you share with us what -- how much of orders were to oil and gas? And also put it a bit into context where the oil and gas orders are now, sort of comparing it to the -- sort of previously?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

As you know, we do not split the segments. So I don't think I would be specific on how much is what. The only thing I would like to say is that we do see -- we have so far seen a pickup. We expect to continue to see a pickup. But I think I've also been pretty clear earlier that I am not expecting oil and gas to return to the -- sort of the heights it had back in the period before 2014. Still, it is a fairly large change for us on, let's say, the legacy part of Alimak if the things now start to move again the way that we maybe have seen some early -- or frankly have seen signs of in this quarter, and I also -- or in Q3. And I also expect to see some of that in -- certainly in Q4. But we have not given out on the more narrow numbers done than so.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Yes, but is it fair to say that your activity on the sector has roughly halved or is it more than half where you stand currently?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

What do you mean more than half from...

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

If you take a combined look at orders and revenues to oil and gas compared to the previous take?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

No. I think if you look at oil and gas prior to 2014 and combine that where we have been in the whole of '17, '17 was probably just a fraction of the activity level that we used to have in oil and gas.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Okay, fair enough. Can you -- on wind, are you able to sort of -- the lag between order intake for turbine manufacturers and then into Avanti's orders, how long is that approximately, would you say?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Now that is pretty short actually because, normally, the wind OEMs, either they would make the towers themselves or they would purchase the towers from their sourcing partners. And when they are awarded, it's normally a pretty rapid process from they are awarded to the tower manufacturers actually start to manufacture. And that would also result in pretty rapid orders onto our results. So the delay in orders from the turbine OEMs to where we are sitting is not that long. Still, I would probably consider a couple of months, a few months, but that is probably what I would consider doing -- take as an average.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Okay. Just finally, on steel prices. Would you say that your sort of visibility on that area has improved, i.e. have your price sort of -- you have better visibility in getting compensation for price compared to previously? Or is that still a major challenge for the group when you look forward?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Sorry, I didn't understand. What prices?

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Steel prices.

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Ah, steel prices.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

I'm saying, clearly, they've increased significantly. You seem to be compensating for it. But would you say that risks have increased or decreased on that particular topic compared to where we were earlier this year?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

No. I think we have fairly good visibility. We probably have maybe the best visibility. And we should, at least, have the best visibility when you compare the different players in our space of awarding. So I think we have a good visibility. But having said that, high volatility is also increasing the risk, I would say, in general. But I think we have good processes in place to manage that risk. So overall, I think we have a good hand on actually working with it and making sure that we either have it covered in sales side of it or on the sourcing side of it.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question from Johan Dahl from SEB.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Can you just elaborate slightly on the effect of foreign exchange on earnings for the group the way hedges have played out?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Well, when it comes to what we mentioned in the -- when it comes to the currency effect, it's mainly a translation effect or for -- in foreign currency, for the financial statements. When it comes to the other currency impact or currency hedging, it remains basically the same. We make -- we take -- we hedged for currencies when we receive the orders and so, of course, we did -- we have a backlog, of course, so it takes about 6 months or so, of course, we were having full effect of the exchange rates on a transaction on average.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

So is it fair to say that you're -- sort of in the results of Q3, you realized the depreciation effect pretty much?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Excuse me?

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Is it fair to say that in Q3, you realized sort of what's showing in the results or where spot rates are pretty much as we had the weakening of the krona happening roughly half year ago?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Yes, the weakening of the Swedish krona started 1/2 year ago. So we're starting to see the effect of that, yes, when it comes to the currency hedging, yes.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Does that -- are we starting to see or are we seeing pretty much the full effects?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

We're seeing the effects, as I said, it's a 6-month lag. So yes, the sharp decrease in Swedish krona came a little bit later this summer.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Okay. Can I just follow up? Tormod, given the comments you talked about Rental, how you're sort of tactically playing that market. It seems to contradict slightly how you view the improvement in project awards for the construction business looking into next year. Am I totally incorrect in seeing that sort of contradiction there?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

No. I'm not -- I don't really understand what the contradiction is. I -- we are working with a fairly strong pipeline in quite a few geographies, and I believe that will materialize. We are probably -- we probably have learned that there are certain regions that we need to put less weight to when it comes to expectations on future orders. Some of you might be quite familiar -- or now of regions in the -- countries in the Middle East that currently are seeing quite some uncertainties. And there's a few other countries in Europe as well where some uncertainties needs to be taken away. But I think, as I've said, when that is sort of cleared out, I think 2019 will offer good opportunities. I have tried to not give any guiding on Q4. I think, in particular, the order side versus last year orders on Q4 will still be good. Most of you would know that we had an extremely high revenue on Q4 last year that won't -- I don't see us meeting given where we are on the order side and the backlog. So there is no doubt that what I've said earlier that I expected growth both on orders and revenue this year is not coming through. These regions haven't seem to materialize into order. And that is the price we are paying for that. But when I then mention, next year, both the pipeline as well as the backlog and the gross profit of the backlog still leaves me with a fairly good ceiling.

[Johan Dahl, Analyst]

Understood. What would you say the -- Tormod, the readiness and capability of the organization to take on new acquisitions at the moment?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

I have said for quite some time that you don't refurbish in first floor or any other part in the ground floor. And I think we have paused that stage. And yes, it's -- we start to get ready. We have a new CFO in place. We thought to be more complete on the organizational setup that we said we should be -- should have in place in order to support also the long-term strategies that we have. So I think we have a lot of interesting opportunities. And that, of course, includes also M&A, without being more specific on that. But I think, definitely the readiness of the organization, I thought -- I see definitely improved. I also feel that we're maybe feeling more comfortable about getting the hands around those issues that have been sort of taken time also from the management side. So yes, it's -- I think we're in a good position.

[Operator]

We have a question from the line of Kenneth Toll from Carnegie.

[Kenneth Toll Johansson, Financial Analyst]

Just a short one. The strong order intake you had in aftersales, how long do you think it will take until -- how much time on sales do that order intake cover? Is it just orders for the next quarter or does it still stretch also into next year?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Yes. Well, no we will -- hard to say, but a quarter or slightly beyond a quarter is for us quite good visibility and quite good. And I think you should probably look at it from that perspective, Kenneth.

[Kenneth Toll Johansson, Financial Analyst]

Yes, great. So it would be -- orders to -- in aftersales from oil and gas was already in Q4 sort of being -- start to ramp up?

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

May have probably. I'm actually not absolutely sure when the stops are planned for some of those midyear refurbs that are in that. I would expect some of that also to come out in Q4. But I'm positive that, to be honest, we're on top of all those details.

[Operator]

Thank you, and as there appear to be no further questions, I return the conference to you.

[Tormod Gunleiksrud, President & CEO]

Thank you. And I think for us we're done. Only remains to say thank you to all of those who dialed in to listen to the quarter 3 results call from Alimak Group. By that, I just wish you a good day, and thank you for that. Bye for now.

[Operator]

Thank you. This now concludes our conference call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect your lines.