Inwido AB (publ)

STO:INWI

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to the Inwido Q1 Teleconference 2021. For the first part of this call and afterwards, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today, I am pleased to present CEO, Henrik Hjalmarsson; and CFO, Peter Welin. Please begin your meeting.

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this Q1 2021 Presentation for Inwido. My name is Henrik Hjalmarsson, I am the President and CEO. And with me, I have Peter Welin, CFO and Deputy CEO.Next page, please, Page 2. We're going to spend the coming 25 to 30 minutes going through a short introduction to Inwido, some Q1 highlights and a look into the Q1 performance, short update on M&A status and a few words on the acquisition of MV Center that we announced just after quarter 1 ended, a few words on our initial thinking around EU taxonomy alignment, looking to the market outlook and our short-term priorities. Peter will then go through details of the financials and I will wrap up with a summary, after which there will be plenty of time for questions.Next page, please, Page 3. So just a short introduction to Inwido, for those of you who are new to us. We're the leading window group in Europe, a clear market leader in the Nordic region with a strong presence in the U.K. and Ireland. Net sales in 2020 of SEK 6.7 billion with an operating EBITA margin of 10.9%. And we have roughly 4,300 employees spread across the geographies that you see marked in dark blue on the right-hand side of this chart. And as you can see, we have production facilities in a number of locations in Northern Europe. And we market and sell all the fantastic brands that you can see on the bottom part of this slide.Next page, please, Page 4. So very briefly, highlights on quarter 1. Well, first of all, I'm really happy to say that we posted the all-time high Q1 operating EBITA, driven by both the strong growth as well as continued good cost control. We saw the eighth consecutive quarter with strengthened margins and the fourth quarter in a row with organic growth as well as a continued strong order intake and closing the quarter with a strong order backlog. We saw continued nice growth in e-commerce, growing organically 34%. And we also saw continued margin recovery in Business Area North and further strengthened margins in Business Area South. And as I said previously, we closed the acquisition of MV Center in April, which is an important step towards materializing our growth strategy in Finland.Next page, please, Page 5. Very briefly then summarizing the numbers of quarter 1. We obviously see this as a strong start to 2021. Sales grew organically 18% to SEK 1.644 billion with operating EBITA then strengthening considerably from SEK 48 million last year to SEK 121 million, which means that the operating EBITA margin grew by 4 percentage points to 7.3%. Order intake was good, plus 15%, which then means that the order backlog at the end of the quarter increased 43% versus same time last year to SEK 1.471 billion. And with continued good cash flows, our net debt versus EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, came in at 0.9, which is considerably down then from 2.3 at the same time last year. Next page, please, Page 6. Looking then first at Business Area South. As you can see and might remember from previously, as you can see in the ring chart on the right-hand side, Business Areas South has a considerable exposure to the consumer market, which with robust consumer markets here in the first quarter was also visible with a really strong start to the year for Business Area South. E-commerce grew, as I mentioned, 34% organically. Order intake grew organically 39%, which means that the order backlog at the end of the quarter is 64% up versus same time last year. We saw continued strong sales and results development in the larger Danish units. And despite some shutdowns earlier in the quarter, we saw a continued good development in the U.K. and Poland. Ireland, however, with a Level 5+ shutdown, closing down all nonessential construction activity, was negatively impacted in the quarter with less sales as a consequence. But overall reported sales grew 19% or organically 25% to SEK 717 million, and the operating EBITA margin then increased by 3.6 percentage points from 11% to 14.6%. And a strong order backlog at the end of the quarter, up 69% versus same time last year.Next page, please, Page 7. Looking at the Business Area North. And as we can see on the ring chart here on the right-hand side, we have some more industry exposure, but with relatively robust consumer markets and a somewhat continued recovery on the industry side. Really pleasing to see that we saw profit improvements in all the business units in Business Area North in the quarter. As I mentioned, consumer markets stable overall and some continuing signs of stabilizing industry markets. We saw a particularly strong profit development in the Finnish units, very pleasingly. However, we have seen some continued operational disturbances from high sick leave due to COVID-19, which has impacted us particularly in Sweden. Reported sales up 11% or organically up 13% to SEK 887 million, which means that the operating EBITA margin increased by 3.1 percentage points to 2.9%. And the order backlog at the end of the quarter, up 25% versus same time last year.Next page, please, Page 8. Just a few words on COVID-19 and the status in the business. As I mentioned, it has challenged our production efficiency due to periodically high sick leave, particularly in Sweden. I also mentioned the shutdown of all nonessential construction activity in Ireland, which obviously impacted our sales quite considerably in that geography in the quarter. At the same time, we've had a likely continued positive demand impact, particularly on e-commerce, with more people staying at home and doing renovations. But as before, the long-term effects due to COVID-19 still remain hard to predict, but we stay very close to the situation and we remain prepared to take action if and when we need them.Next page, please, Page 9. Looking then at M&A. We have gradually increased our M&A activity level over the second half of 2020 and going into 2021. As before, it is relatively easier to make progress in smaller transactions and in existing geographies given that we have local management and a better overall view of the market. But it's still a bit more challenging to carry out larger processes and particularly in new geographies given the restrictions, particularly around travel and meetings, which holds back our ability to meet and interact with potential targets.Next page, please, Page 10. However, as many of you have seen, we closed the acquisition of MV Center just after the quarter closed. MV Center, or Metallityö Välimäki Oy, as they trade, specialize in aluminum and steel doors, windows and glass facades, runs its operation from Nokia in Finland with 45 employees, achieved sales just over SEK 100 million in 2020. It's a good business with a strong position in a growing segment, and we see synergies, particularly in terms of a wider sales coverage as well as with sourcing efficiencies. The acquisition has been financed with available cash and will have a marginally positive impact on our earnings per share. And the purchase price is in line with regular multiples. Given that we acquire a business with a skilled management, I'm really happy that the existing management stay on as minority owners for a period of at least 3 years, which will vouch for the long-term success of this business.Next page, please, Page 11. I also wanted to take the opportunity to mention a few words on our progress on our 8 sustainability KPIs in 2020. I'm really happy that we made progress on 7 out of 8 KPIs. The only 1 where we didn't fully reach progress was sick leave, obviously considerably impacted by COVID-19. I'm particularly happy to note that the good work we're doing in terms of reducing our carbon footprint paid off, decreasing our CO2 per 1,000 wings by 7.1%. But also that we took a good step in the right direction in terms of being a very safe place to work with lost time accidents improving by 16.4% during the year.Next page, please, Page 12. A few words then on the EU taxonomy alignment. As many of you know, the European Commission has presented the Delegated Act for taxonomy's environmental objectives 1 and 2 with an update here only last week. The energy requirements for windows, stated as U-value was then revised from 0.7 to 1.0, whereas doors remain at 1.2. And we estimate that roughly 45% of our sales of windows and doors in 2020 meet the requirements. And given all the activities we have around continuous energy improvements in our products, as well as continuously increasing requirements with regards to building standards, we expect this to increase further in 2021. And more details on this will follow in due course, obviously.Next page, please, Page 13. If we look into the market outlook, we entered quarter 2 with a very strong order backlog versus last year. We also see continued healthy demand in the consumer market in the short term and a somewhat more stable development in industrial markets. On top of that, there is some recovery potentially in the U.K. and Ireland following the COVID shutdowns that we've had. On the other hand, we do see raw material inflation coming through in several of our input materials, which could have a negative short-term impact on margins as we push prices through to end consumers and customers. However, we believe that our size as well as our market positions gives us an advantage both in terms of securing raw material supply, but also in price negotiations with suppliers. And as before, the medium-term outlook is somewhat more uncertain as the exact impact of societies reopening again is a bit hard to predict. Next page, please, Page 14. If we look then at our short-term priorities, they do remain largely the same. We want to continue to manage our way through COVID-19 and the remaining parts of that while obviously continuing to build for growth. So we want to make sure that we continue to keep our employees as safe and healthy as possible. And although we are now getting closer and closer to a full vaccination program rollout, we don't want to lose the patience with all the good activities we've taken to protect our employees. We want to continue to strengthen our positions in our key geographies in this quite dynamic market. We obviously have continued, as I mentioned, ongoing screening of and dialogue with select acquisition targets. We're going to continue our investments in -- for e-commerce growth. And we will continue with very proactive cost management in the face of changing demand, also remaining prepared if and when we'll see demand fluctuations, which will require us to take action.Next page, please, Page 15. And with that, I'm going to hand over to Peter, who's going to take you through a bit more the details of the numbers.

[Peter Welin, Deputy CEO & CFO]

Thank you so much, Henrik. Then I'll ask you to go to Page #16, please, Page #16. On this page, we can see the income statement for Q1. To the left, we can see Q1 2021 then Q1 2020, and then to the right, we can see the rolling 12 months -- or latest 12 months.Inwido had a record strong order backlog end of December or beginning of this year. And that meant that the quarter sales was improved for -- compared to last year. Sales was plus 14%. Organically, it means that, if we change for the currency impact, sales was plus 18% compared to last year. The gross margin was improved in the quarter from 21.9% to 23.5%, thanks to improved efficiency, higher capacity utilization and a better mix in the quarter. Q1 is our lowest season and lowest quarter, and we have lower capacity utilization compared to the other quarters. With the free capacity, which we had in Q1 this year, we were able to increase sales and improve our capacity utilization, which have a large impact on the results development due to the lower season in Q1. At the same time, overhead costs were slightly below last year. So with a high organic sales, improved gross margin, lower costs resulted in an improvement in EBITA -- operating EBITA and operating EBITA margin in the quarter. Inwido has now succeeded to improve the margin 8 quarters in a row. We have also, in Q1, received government subsidies related to COVID-19, in total, SEK 3 million. They have all been booked at reduced costs in the quarter. In Ireland, we have received subsidies related to furlough because of closedown. And in Sweden, we have received subsidies related to sick leave compensations.So operating EBITA of SEK 121 million and a margin of SEK 7.3 million (sic) [ 7.3% ] is the highest result in margin ever for Inwido in Q1. EBITA was on the same level as operating EBITA for the quarter. Thanks to improved margin in the quarter, the rolling 12 months margin has been improved and is now up to 11.4%, and operating EBITA of SEK 801 million, just above SEK 800 million in operating EBITA rolling 12 months.In the quarter, Inwido has a positive currency impact. The financial net was, in a quarter, positive by SEK 11 million. Last year, we had a financial net of minus SEK 43 million. This year, some positive currency impact. And last year, quite large negative currency impact impacting the income statement. A total net impact of SEK 54 million compared to last year, where the interest costs were reduced by SEK 4 million and the other comes from currency impacts. So thanks to improved operating results, positive currency impact, lower interest rate costs, the profit after tax and earnings per share was improved substantially in the quarter compared to last year. Earnings per share was increased from SEK 0.10 last year to SEK 1.71 this year. And on rolling 12 months, we are above SEK 10. We are on SEK 10.25.We will then turn the page. We go to Page #17, please. On this page, we can see sales and order intake for 2019, 2020, 2021. To the left, you can see the sales development; and to the right, we can see the order intake development. Sales was plus 14%. If we then adjusted for the currencies, the sales was plus 18% in the quarter. North had an organic sales growth of 13% in the quarter and South had organic sales growth of 25%, where e-commerce had a growth of 34% in the quarter. In total, for the entire Group, consumer sales has higher growth compared to the industry sales, which is positive for the margins. The order intake was plus 15% in the quarter. North had order intake growth of 12% and South had order intake growth of 21% with continued strong development within e-commerce.If we then turn page, we go to the Page #18, please. This page is showing the order backlog in million SEK end of each quarter from Q1 2016 up until Q1 this year, 2021. Inwido started this year with a record or high order backlog. And in Q1, the order intake grew by 15% and sales grew by 14%. Thus, the backlog continued to grow this quarter and was end of the quarter 43% compared to last year, equal to SEK 1.471 billion backlog and increased by SEK 440 million compared to the backlog last year. This is a record backlog for Inwido. The higher backlog end of March will have a positive sales impact in the near future. The backlog of North was 25% compared to last year -- an increase by 25%. And the backlog of South was plus 69% compared to last year.If we then turn page, we go to Page #19, please. This page is showing the operating EBITA and the operating EBITA margin for Q1 for 2019, 2020 and 2021. In -- the margin has been improved in the quarter from 3.3% last year to 7.3% this year. In 2018, the margin was 3.1%. The margin of 7.3% is the highest margin ever for Inwido for Q1. Historically, the margin has been between 3% and 5% except for 2017 when it was on 6.1%. So this year, with the improvement of 7.3%, is a record for Inwido.High organic sales, improved gross margins due to improved efficiency, higher capacity utilizations and positive segment mix and somewhat lower cost has, together, improved the margin in the quarter, and we reached a result of SEK 121 million compared to SEK 48 million last year and SEK 45 million in 2019.If we then turn page, we go to Page #20. This page is showing net debt versus operating EBITDA. The blue staples is the net debt in SEK million, the gray staples above the blue staples, that is the IFRS 16 impact on the net debt. The golden line is net debt versus EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 and the red line is the net debt versus EBITDA including IFRS 16.In the quarter, the net debt has increased, excluding IFRS 16, from SEK 740 million in December last year to SEK 868 million end of March. It's quite normal for Inwido to have a higher net debt in Q1 due to the seasonality of the business. The IFRS 16 debt was, end of March, SEK 366 million. And the net debt versus EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, has been improved compared to last year. Last year was 2.3%. And now end of March, it was 0.9%, same level as in December 2020. The improved operating result in the quarter has compensated the higher net debt in the quarter. And thereby, the net debt versus EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, is on the same level as in Q4 2020. Including IFRS 16, the net debt was SEK 1.234 billion end of March, and the net debt versus EBITDA including IFRS 16 was SEK 1.2 billion, compared to SEK 2.5 billion 1 year ago.

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Next page, please, Page 21. So a brief summary from my side. We've seen in the quarter overall robust consumer activity with continued strong e-commerce performance. We posted the eighth consecutive quarter of strengthened margins and the fourth quarter in a row with organic growth. We've, as I mentioned earlier, estimate currently that 45% of our 2020 sales of windows and doors are taxonomy-aligned and we expect that to increase in 2021. We closed the acquisition here in April of MV Center, strengthening our position and our growth potential in Finland. And we entered the high season with a record strong order backlog and in a short-term stable consumer market. But the mid- to long-term consequences of COVID-19 and societies opening up is hard to predict.Next page, please, Page 22. So with that, we open up for questions. Operator, please.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Adela Dashian from Handelsbanken.

[Adela Dashian, Analyst]

Yes. Let me first start by congratulating you on a very strong quarter. And I do have a couple of questions. Firstly, related to the inflationary pressures expected in 2021, if you could please elaborate a bit on that maybe in terms of timing. When should we expect margins to take the largest hit? And how fast have you historically been able to push on prices to customers?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Yes. Thank you very much, Adela. Henrik here. And I think the -- to answer your question, we've seen material inflation coming through here, let's say, particularly in the second half, I would say, in the first quarter. And we're obviously there and particularly on wood, partially on aluminum, and to some extent, on glass. We're taking action across the board in all our businesses to increase prices to customers. I think we've demonstrated historically that we are -- we've been good at actually passing price increases on. But as you allude to, there will be a lag. So there could be some short-term impact, both likely then in quarter 2 on the margin as the price increases take effect throughout the customer landscape.

[Adela Dashian, Analyst]

Got it. Okay. And then on the acquisition of MV Center and your M&A strategy going forward, you previously said that it's pretty challenging to make any larger acquisitions in new geographies because of COVID and the travel and meeting restrictions. So is it safe to assume, at least in the near future, the next year or 2, that you will announce similar announcements to the acquisition in Finland? Or do you expect, because of your market position now, you will be able to announce something maybe larger and in a new geography anytime soon?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Yes. I think it's really hard actually to predict exactly. I think it's -- we have some interesting dialogues, which could materialize in the near to medium term, but -- and it depends a little bit where you draw the line in terms of a larger acquisition. But in the near term -- and I wouldn't extend that to as much as 2 years, by the way. But in the near term, it will likely be more of the magnitude of MV Center or somewhat bigger and to make something radically significant or something transformative will take a bit more, but not necessarily 2 years in that case. Obviously, all depending on the development of the market and the other acquisitions that might be small to medium sized, but still be very interesting for us in how they develop.

[Adela Dashian, Analyst]

All right. And then, finally, on e-commerce, we've seen continued momentum within that segment in this quarter. And I've asked this question in previous quarters as well. How should we think about that segment going forward once society reopens? What are your expectations for a more normalized growth rate?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Yes. I think -- I mean, overall, it's a -- I think we should recognize that there's a macro moving behavior from traditional brick-and-mortar to online. And that will actually continue is our view, irrespective of the impact. Now then, obviously, e-commerce has a 100% consumer market exposure. And particularly on the small work side, and that market has been particularly strong during the COVID pandemic. But we still think that there is considerable growth potential going forward in that segment. Is that going to be of the magnitude of the 30% to 40% that we've seen in the past quarters? Maybe not fully to that extent, but we still see some considerable growth potential even with societies opening up and the imminent pandemic effect sort of toning out.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Kenneth Toll from Carnegie.

[Kenneth Toll Johansson, Financial Analyst]

So one question I have is if -- I was a bit surprised also by the strong order intake you had in the first quarter and the strength of the order book at the end of the quarter. Do you think that there was any sort of extraordinary things that explained the strong order book at the end of the quarter? I'm thinking maybe there was sort of an early start of the selling season or something like that. Or do you see the business trend and order intake trend being reflective of the very high order book at the end of Q1?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Yes. Thanks, Ken. I mean we don't really see anything extraordinary timing-wise that has impacted that. We have had a -- it's spread all across the group in basically all segments. And we have seen continued good consumer activity in -- basically with the exception of Ireland, which has been a bit strange in the quarter. But in all the other quarters -- sorry, in all the other geographies, in the quarter, we have seen robust development. And we think that -- I mean, we actually don't have the data yet, so we can't say with certainty. But we think also the actions we've taken and the segment position we have has also allowed us to take some market share in the quarter on the order side. But the short answer to your question is, no, nothing un-normal or unusual in terms of timing as such. It pretty much reflects the activity level that we've seen through the quarter.

[Kenneth Toll Johansson, Financial Analyst]

Great. And also then, when you have such a strong order intake, does that mean that you run into capacity problems in the South? Or are you able to deliver? I mean what about your delivery times? Are they longer than normal? And have you started to sort of lose orders due to those kind of issues?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

I think, I mean, there is one difference as we go into the high season here because obviously, in quarter 1, we do have some spare capacity as that's normally low season so growth is a bit easier. Now coming into quarter 2, there is opportunity to grow versus what we saw last year, obviously, particularly that we had some COVID impacts in the supply chain not the least during the second quarter last year. But maybe not to the same magnitude that was on quarter 1. But I think it's -- we're fairly well positioned at the moment. We have been able to increase capacities a bit and we feel that, although the order backlog that we have is longer than what we normally see because it is -- I mean we do have slightly longer lead times than we normally have, but we still feel we have a -- we're fully confident that we can deliver to this according to customers' expectations, I phrase it like that, but with a slightly longer lead time than normal due to the size of the order backlog.

[Kenneth Toll Johansson, Financial Analyst]

Are you taking any decisions to increase the production capacity in Business Area South to -- I mean, maybe growth will stay for a while?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Yes. We have made both short-term decisions in terms of increasing shifts and capacities, but actually also conscious investments. So basically, CapEx both in 1 or 2 of the larger Danish units as well as in e-commerce, some -- from our perspective, relatively considerable CapEx to continue to increase capacity. So we've taken choices, let's say, both the short-term actions as well as some more longer term.

[Kenneth Toll Johansson, Financial Analyst]

Okay. Are those sort of major CapEx, will it sort of increase the CapEx at share of sales for the near future? Or is it more smaller add-ons?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

It's -- maybe you could say in between. We normally say around 3%. We did spend a bit less in 2020 due to COVID. So we have some catching up to do on that. So maybe we're more closer to the 3.5% rather than the 3%, but it's not going to be -- no massive moves. It's still in sort of the normalized type of bracket.

[Kenneth Toll Johansson, Financial Analyst]

Okay. It all sounds very good.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Victor Hansen from Nordea.

[Victor Hansen, Research Analyst]

It's Victor Hansen from Nordea here. A few questions for me, and I'll take them one by one. So regarding the strong order backlog, could you tell us about the split between consumer and industry and how much of the current backlog do you expect to deliver in 2021, please?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Well, we expect to deliver basically all of that order backlog in 2021 or at least the vast majority of it, 95-ish percent maybe. We don't expect, however, to deliver it all in quarter 2 because obviously, on the industry side, there are some projects with relatively long order lead times, not driven particularly by us and our capacity, but more driven by customer construction lead time. So it's a relatively -- I mean we expect that to go out basically.When it comes to the split between industry and consumer, it's -- I don't have that number off the top of my head, but it's roughly in line with the split that we've seen. Maybe I think consumer is up around 40% and industry is slightly more than that. So maybe a slight skew to industry. And I think part of the explanation is actually that we pushed a considerable amount of industry orders in Ireland ahead of us in the quarter due to the construction activity shutdown. But it's roughly the same growth on both fronts.

[Victor Hansen, Research Analyst]

Okay. Great. So -- and you mentioned pent-up demand in the U.K. and I noticed sales decreased 66% year-over-year there. And could you try to quantify this potential recovery demand? And what have you seen since the country reopened about 2 weeks ago?

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

So we've gradually seen actually a recovery. There was a bit of a scare early on in the quarter and that was -- I mean, quite -- within January, early January, when they went into another wave of shutdowns. That has actually gradually released, and we've seen the activity gradually coming back in the quarter. And towards the back end of the quarter, we did see some opportunity for basically a rebound in the market. But it all depends, obviously, on the vaccination scheme fully taking effect in the U.K. and then being able to get out there and do all the installations that are expected from customers.

[Victor Hansen, Research Analyst]

Okay. And the final one for me. Could you explain what's driving the strong sales development in other in Note 4? I noticed that it's twice the total amount in 2020 this quarter.

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

So I'll hand it to Peter.

[Peter Welin, Deputy CEO & CFO]

We have -- when it comes to other, we have higher sales in -- we have 2 companies reporting on the other is A-lackering and Alakiernia. They are painting aluminum. They are painting aluminum to the Inwido as well as external customers. And they have a high growth due to the higher increase in sales in Q1 on the internal customers, but they have also improved sales on external customers in the quarter.

[Operator]

We have no further questions. So I will pass back for any closing comments.

[Henrik Hjalmarsson, President, CEO & Executive VP of North]

Okay. Well, thank you very much, everybody. And then we will close this call. Thank you. Take care, and be safe. Bye-bye.

[Operator]

Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect your lines.