Alimak Group (Stockholm:ALIG) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 You, and welcome to this quarter one twenty twenty six call. And, yeah, as always, I have with me Silva here. Turning page and a short recap of the group. First, global industrial company focusing on vertical access solution working safely at height, moving people and material. We have some fundamental drivers for our, success in the group and global trends like urbanization, health and safety, the regionalization trend that we are seeing, electrification trend, but also now robotization trend that we can facilitate, the usage of, of mobilization and automation at height. We do have a leading market position in the niches where we operate, a strong global footprint, which is giving us a fantastic base for our service business, which is a fundamental piece of each division, and also a capital light operation giving us a strong balance sheet and opportunity to invest.

1:04 Turning page. Our strategy, the new Heights has been with us since 2020, and it's something that has served us very well. And we now, you know, made the step up to 2.0 end of last year. So this will continue to be with us as the foundation for the for the group activities. Turning page. We updated also last year some key financial metrics. And most important maybe to highlight, it's to have an average annual revenue growth of 8% to 12% and also an adjusted EBITA margin of 20% reached by 2028. Turning page. We dive into Q1.

1:52 And yes, overall, it's a result that I we are not fully satisfied with, given our ambitions. As you can also understand, even though it's I would qualify it as a resilient performance in a continued challenging market. Organically, we went down 4% on order intake, but we were up 3% on revenue in the quarter and a good book to bill ratio of 108%, supporting also a good backlog growth. We continue to see a challenging construction market, and this is affecting Construction Division, as you understand, but also partly HSPS and Facade Access. Also to note in the quarter, a heavy winter season in North America affecting new sales product sales for HSPS in the quarter, but also the service business for several divisions.

2:47 We continue also to see a significant currency negative currency impact, and it was 8% in the quarter on order intake, giving effect of million and also negative impact on adjusted EBITDA of SEK24 million. This as long as the currency more or less stabilizes where we are now, we will also see the same effects in Q2, but then it should be more on the year over year level. Adjusted EBITA margin of 16.7%, down from 17.3 markets and also some temporary negative effects in the Industrial division that we will come back to. Cash flow, 75,000,000, giving a leverage of SEK 185,000,000.

3:35 And yes, normally, Q1 is somewhat lower. Last year, we also had a one off of SEK 28,000,000. Then this quarter, we had a slow January and February with more invoicing in March, which is then tickling into accounts receivable and something we will collect now in Q2, plus an additional tax payment. So multiple effects also affecting this, but nothing fundamentally changed, and it will come back. Turning next page, some more details about Q1. Order intake was SEK 1,788,000,000, down 11% or 4% organically. We saw an organic increase in industrial, wind and facade excess, while we had a lower order intake in construction and HSPS division.

4:26 And if you look at construction, you will see now that we have had four quarters more or less stable on order intake and somewhat lower level than also the previous year. Revenue was 1,653,000,000, down 5% or up 3% organically. And we saw growth in wind, industrial and HSPS. It was flat in Facade Access and an organic decrease then in Construction Division. Adjusted EBITA at SEK $275,000,000, down from the SEK 300,000,000, and it's an 8% decline year over year. And also 8% is also coming from the currency impact. Turning page into Service.

5:14 Key component in all divisions and the Service order intake was SEK $749,000,000 in the quarter, down 9% or 1% down at constant rates. We saw an increase in Facade Access and HSPS. Revenue was $626,000,000, down 3%, up 6% at concentrates, with positive contribution from Facade Access, Construction, HSPS and Wind. The long winter season in North America affected order intake and revenue in the beginning of the quarter for multiple divisions then. And as you know, this is a fundamental piece of our business. Creates resilience. It creates opportunities.

5:59 And we see continue to see growth opportunities in all divisions, which we are actively driving. Turning page and diving into divisions. Fastad Access, continuing on its improvement journey. Order intake was SEK $460,000,000, down 7%, but up 3% at constant rates. Book to bill, above one now for the second consecutive quarter, which is a good trend. Strong order intake in The Middle East ahead of the war. Refurbishment and replacement orders continue to be important, and we also had some nice growth in France in the quarter on this topic. We continue to see mixed market conditions in North America now with strong momentum in also California, along with Florida, while New York market remained soft.

6:48 Revenue was SEK $431,000,000, down 11% or 1% at constant rates and reflecting the lower backlog, but also service revenue was affected by this extensive winter season in North America. EBITDA at SEK 52,000,000, up from SEK 46,000,000, giving a margin of 12,000,000, up from the SEK 9,500,000. And it's coming from our continued focus on more efficient processes, better order backlog and disciplined project execution. Turning page. Integrated design services continues to be an important part of this group. And one of the initiatives, as you know, won here and it's in all divisions on how to take more control of our destiny and growth.

7:40 And we continue to see positive momentum here in North America and The UK where this were started. But also now, we start to see more orders coming in the rest of the world because we drive focus on this. We also, overall, drive geographical activities and develop our presence in Malaysia and Indonesia, important markets, we believe, going forward, overall Asia, but also, of course, focusing heavily on infrastructure, not only North America, but now also in Europe and Middle East. Middle East is an important piece for Facadexx, not neglectable. We have quite a lot of people there. But what we have seen so far is that, our projects, they are continuing as planned, more or less.

8:29 However, some new investments, are delayed, primarily smaller projects, while the longer, bigger, more strategic projects are remaining active. So short term, not a lot of impact. And then it depends on what happens going forward, of course, whether we will see more impact or not. But if the war now seems like to be ending and tourism are coming back, then we feel also very sure that investments will also continue there. Turning page, Industrial continued to grow nicely. Order intake was SEK440 million, up 2% or 6% organically. Solid equipment order intake in Europe, Asia Pacific and also stable performance in Americas.

9:16 Ports, power, infrastructure, especially strong for us. And also aftermarket here was somewhat slow in January and February, but back to speed in March. Revenue was SEK $367,000,000, up 4% or 10% organically, but still impacted by project delays and lower aftermarket activity early in the quarter. But here, we have, as you know, a good backlog to support both on the product and the service side going forward. EBITDA at SEK 83,000,000, down from SEK 90,000,000, giving, yeah, a somewhat disappointing margin of 22.5 versus 25.3.

10:01 And so it's lower than the 25 mark that we've been used now for multiple quarters, but driven by temporary mix effects, like more service and even though it was less service in the beginning of the quarter, but also less spare parts sales, but also this effect of the project delays that we saw in the quarter. Turning page. We continue to invest into our key segments, and there is a lot of investments also in general into SDS ship to short cranes. It's also new actors coming into this market, and we're staying close. And we are getting our share here. We see the power segment, especially in North America, is very strong, driven by data centers, also reigniting all the coal fired power plants and more gas fired power plants. So a lot of focus on the energy, which is a strong segment for us, so that's also good.

11:02 But then we're also driving, you know, out of the box or or new type of growth initiatives in also this division, utilizing our technology in rack and pinion. So we have facilitated to move a robot, which is then inspecting and also welding and maintaining the tower, which have this flare tip on oil rigs. So a new segment or a new opportunity and, yeah, an example of things we drive in all divisions. Turning page to construction. Order intake was SEK $369,000,000, down 25% or 18% down at constant rates. And it's the hoist market specifically that continues to be very weak in Europe and North America.

11:49 Rental business showed some signs of recovery in Europe, but was partly also offset by some project delays in Canada, and this is driven by the tariff situation between U. S. And Canada. But also, we had a very strong comparable in Australia last year. Revenue was SEK $346,000,000, down 16% or 9% at concentrates. Revenue was impacted by the lower order intake for new equipment in previous quarters, of course, and also the strong performance in parts and service partly offset the lower revenue then from new equipment. EBITDA at SEK 40,000,000, down from SEK 66,000,000, giving a margin of 11.4 versus SEK 16,100,000.

12:35 Last year, we had a good margin, but still this SEK 11,400,000 is a good sequential improvement from the previous quarter and supported by our cost initiatives and activities drive both volume and profit in the division. But the division is, of course, as said, in a challenging situation with a very tough construction market. Turning page, Karin Borte is now the new Head of this division. So she started beginning April. We're very happy to have her in place, but also happy that David is then taking the responsibility for Asia Pacific in Construction division going forward.

13:24 Here also, we work on product expansion and looking everywhere to find growth when the traditional hoist market is weak, and we have been focusing for a long time on mass climbing work platforms. We believe this is a technology that has huge potential. And we start to see that this is also turning into lots of opportunities, but also concrete sales. So we have some examples of a nice swap order in Denmark, big rental project in Frankfurt, but also a very strong pipeline of new projects in Australia and India that I hopefully can come back to later. Geographical expansion is also important, of course, to find growth. And Adelaide, which has been an area we haven't focused much on or not been so much present, we have some very nice projects coming in the quarter.

14:19 Turning page, HSPS. Order intake was $315,000,000, down 18% or 13% organically. And also important to note, they have somewhat high comparable. Suspended access and guardrail business in North America was then negatively impacted by the weather conditions in the beginning of the year, January and February. And also the general construction market in Europe is also impacting this business as it has been doing for a while. Revenue was SEK $336,000,000, down 4% or up 2% organically and supported by a strong elevator business, while North America was soft overall.

15:05 EBITDA at SEK 63,000,000, down from SEK 70,000,000, but still giving a good margin of 18.9 versus a relatively high one of 20% last year and a strong sequential improvement to what we saw in the previous quarter, which is what we also expected. Turning page, a business update on HSBC. So it's a division where we have a lot of things ongoing to really ensure that we can deliver sustainable profitable growth. It used to be a division with good margins, but not so much growth. So this is why we are changing. And again, because we have high ambitions, and we want to see this as something fundamentally different than what we have seen.

15:51 So that means that we are changing how we work with R and D. We are changing how we work with marketing and all support functions, manufacturing. We are changing how we work in the front end with the sales organization, much closer to our end users, different with our dealers. And we're also focusing on more geographical expansions to move to areas where we haven't been before as well as integration of Interlift. So lots of activities inside this division, but again, the long term goods investments that we are committed to. We have been doing this for a while now. So we also start to see effects from this product development and R and D projects. So here, we have some nice examples of projects or products launched in the previous quarter, and it's more to come in the pipe.

16:47 Turning Page, wind, another very strong quarter. Order intake SEK $214,000,000, down 2%, but up 6% at concentrates. That's the high level. Order intake increased mainly in North America, India and Americas. And we have strong customer engagement through all regions, basically. Revenue was 186,000,000, up 22% or SEK 32,000,000 in concentrates. And here, we continue to have a solid backlog across all markets, and we see growth in lifts, leather, safety devices and parts, so basically the full portfolio. EBITDA was SEK 38,000,000, up from SEK 28,000,000, giving very solid margin of SEK 20,300,000 versus SEK 18,200,000, and it's driven by discipline in all parts of the business.

17:40 Turning page. The wind market continues to look strong. It's an improved growth outlook. And I think as many also read and talk about due to this war in The Middle East and the closing of the Hormuz Strait, it's creating even more focus on regionalized energy production and more green electricity. So the outlook will most likely continue to be upgraded, we believe. And we also work very good in this division, as we have talked about many time, to offset raw material. This is a very automotive driven type of business. So you really need to be on top of everything and excel in everything. And this division continues to do that, both on the cost side, manufacturing, sales.

18:33 We focus on India. It's an important growing market. South America is coming more back again after a couple of years more quiet. And of course, the service and the aftermarket focus. So with that, we turn Page into profit and loss, and then I leave for Sylvain. Thank you, Ole, and hello to everybody on this call. I will be starting with adjusted EBITA, which decreased by 8% versus Q1 twenty twenty five, 1% organically, whilst revenue decreased by 5% and grew 4% organically. This obviously implies an adjusted EBITA margin contraction, which primarily comes from a slightly lower gross margin, and I will come to that on the next slide.

19:21 There were no items affecting comparability in the quarter. In q one twenty twenty five, the 28,000,000 SEK profit was related to the Mamondorf Capital Dame. Mamondorf was the former facade access site, which we sold. The quarterly amortization of 34,000,000 SEK was in line with our expectations and should stay stable throughout 2026. The financial net charge decreased in the quarter despite around SEK 10,000,000 of one off costs, which related to the refinancing, which we executed in the quarter. This refinancing is good news for the group, and it will lead to lower margins looking forward.

20:10 And if if the base interest rates don't go up too strongly, we would expect a quarterly financial net charge of around 30,000,000 SEK in the next few quarters. Taxation rate was up in the quarter from 25.5% to 27% due to changes in the country mix. In particular, less earning in Sweden, and and we and that's that's due to the lower utilization in our Swedish facility. So in the quarter, net earnings came down by 37,000,000 SEK. That is minus 20%, and the main contributor to that decrease is ISE. As obviously, we did not replicate the one off capital gain related to the moment of sight. So now moving to gross margin and operating expenses.

21:00 As I said, gross margin went slightly down from 42.1% to 41.7%. Facet access expanded its gross margin to the quarter. Wind was flat, construction and HSPS were flat minus, and industrial basically drove most of the group margin contraction with a temporary decrease in particular due to unfavorable mix effects. One comment regarding the potential effects of the war in The Middle East. We have recently seen cost increases, including freight, energy, but those increases have been negligible impact in the quarter. Looking into the future, we will be protecting our profits the way we have done it in in similar circumstances when we have faced inflationary pressures, including due to tariffs.

21:54 And that will be a combination of sourcing optimization and sales price increases if need be. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses excluding ISC went very slightly up in the quarter, but they were down in absolute value despite some cost inflation, typically salaries. And as you know, we have taken actions to contain our cost base. In particular, we have significantly decreased cost in facet access in anticipation of the lower revenue. So we will continue to hunt waste to allow us to keep. And and when we can increase the allocation of expenses fueling future growth, typically r and d, sales and marketing.

22:45 Reset for the period was 147,000,000 sec versus 184. That's a 20% decrease, 13% organically. Excluding the ASE, the result went 147,000,000 SEK versus $1.56 in q one twenty twenty five. So that's a 6% increase. And once again, you see the impact of ASE in q one twenty twenty five. EPS was one thirty nine in the quarter versus $1.74. It's a 20% decrease. We had a stable number of of shares. Adjusted for ASE and acquisition related amortization, EPS was 1.62 SEK versus SEK 1.79, and that is a 9% decrease.

23:36 Moving to operating cash flows, and, you know, that was on the low level this quarter. Comparing with Q1 twenty twenty five, we saw three drivers for the reduced cash flow. First, the lower earnings, primarily coming from ASC. Second, the phasing of the corporate tax payments. We made more tax payments in q one twenty twenty six. And third, the phasing of the revenue within the quarter, leading to temporary higher accounts receivables. The revenue of March would typically be bigger than the average of January and February. But this year, the share of the March revenue in the quarter was even higher than in 2025 or in the prior years. But with our continuous focus on cash flows, we are definitely confident the working capital increase of the quarter will be reversed in the next few quarters.

24:36 Net debt was stable at 2,400,000,000 SEK. And as I said earlier, we successfully refinanced the group with two three plus one plus one facilities maturing at the earliest in 2029 and at the latest in 2031 if we do exercise the two extension options. Leverage was 1.85, slightly up versus q four twenty twenty five due to the lower earnings, once again, primarily coming from ASE. The leverage ratio remains well within our target of being below 2.5. And as I said, we will continue to focus on operating cash flows, which will contribute to future deleveraging. Our capital allocation priorities are the same.

25:27 We will invest in organic profitable growth, implying the growing share of sales and marketing and R and D expenses. We continue to actively and selectively work on acquisition opportunities, which are allowed by our low leverage. And and we are committed to delivering our dividend policy, which is 40 to 60% of our net earnings, knowing that, of course, this is ultimately an AGM decision. And finally, one comment on ROCE, which decreased to 23.4% excluding goodwill versus 24.7 in q four twenty twenty five. That was 9.5 including goodwill versus 10% in q four twenty twenty five.

26:12 And that decrease is driven by the lower EBIT, once again impacted by ISE. And on that comment, I will be handing over to Ulle. Thank you, Silva. And we turn to the summary page. So resilient performance in a challenging market. Even though, as I say, we have higher ambitions, so not fully happy with the result in the quarter. But we do did have a very solid book to bill, important. The strong the decentralized divisional structure that we are having are securing, that we are close to our customers and making decisions where they decision should be taken.

27:01 And I feel also very confident that the right things are ongoing inside each of these divisions to secure that we continue to develop on our strong new heights journey. Quick look into the divisions. Facade Access continue to show progress and that I feel confident we will continue to do. Industrial division, strong growth has been there for a long, long time. Small dip in the result now, but that will be back. Construction facing a very challenging market. It's difficult for in the short term to see that, that will fundamentally change. So I think we should expect a similar type of trend also here that they are facing the same market, but we do have a lot of activities to both strengthen the result, but also to find new growth.

27:54 In HSPS, we have a lot of things ongoing, a lot of turbulence, but a lot of change, all for the better. But that also means that it's a little bit more uncertain. And uncertainty around this business is also part of that business with a lot of dealers the presence we have in the market. So a little bit more day to day and more difficult to predict. While the wind remains very solid and the prospects are just growing, we believe, for this division. So the focus is to continue to drive new heights, product development, sales, operational excellence, and ensuring that our people, the most important asset we have, have the support and the means to both enjoy and excel and continue to take the group to new heights. And we do have the means, and we're working also very diligently with our m and a funnel and opportunities.

28:52 And as I've said before also, I do expect that we will see some nice M and As every year also this year. But it needs to be the right ones. And with that, we turn to Q The next question comes from Andreas Koski from BNP Paribas. Just one question on the relatively weak margin in the industrials.

29:41 How confident are you that the margin will recover already in the coming quarter or in the quarters? Or is this mix effect, is that something that might persist for several quarters and that we will see somewhat lower industrial margins for the full year? No. We feel, yes, first of all, Heiko here. Maybe we should try to kill the echo. Yeah, now that's gone, it seems like. So that's good. It's mine line. Sorry about that. No. No. No worries. We feel quite confident, absolutely, that this was some sort of, as we say, very clearly, a temporary mix effect in the quarter and that we should be back to the level we have more been used to in the next quarter or the quarter we are in. So we don't see any fundamental change in that business at all. We continue to grow. We continue to have solid gross margins on the order intake that we are having.

30:52 So we feel confident. Understood. Thank you. And then on construction and the weak demand there, I mean, for some time, I would say you have sort of been supported maybe yes, of course, it depends which quarter we look at. But by a backlog, and that's maybe not true only for Construction but also for Facilities, how does the backlog look like today, say, compared to a year ago? And yes, will there be a lot of backlog deliveries for the rest of this year? Or are you now much more dependent on new orders? Yes. The construction business, it has never been so that we have long term order book. It's more six plusminus, three to nine months maybe, the order book and the visibility there. So we don't see a risk of dropping.

31:51 But if you look into the curves of our order book, the last four quarters has been now relatively stable on this level that we are seeing. And the previous four quarters, they were somewhat higher. So we are on that level now, you would say. So I don't see any risk in the order book per se to that you might be able to do. Good. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. The next question comes from Anna Woodstrom from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

32:38 Yes. Hi. Good morning, Ola and Silvan. Just two Good questions from my side. Firstly, on the Construction division. So could you maybe give some details again on how the sort of ongoing margin improvement initiatives are looking and going and if you're sort of accelerating these initiatives? As you've said, there's no clear signs of order activity picking up clearly in the near term? No. This it's a good question because this is a division which has been under strain for quite a long time. So we have done a lot on the cost side all the way. And it starts to be a little bit more limited, as I've also been saying for for quite a while, you know, until you start to destroy things that you don't want to destroy.

33:26 But there's always things that we can do, and we are doing things in manufacturing. You know? And it's to balance because things are also moving in different parts of the of the world and what we are seeing. So it's nothing really fundamentally bigger type of cost initiatives. It's this trimming and finding things and being very, very prudent, you know, on on, and stopping everything that is absolutely not necessary, but still investing in growth because this has also been fundamental to us. If we if we would have been exposed like we were five, six years ago, that this business would have been in very big problems. You know? We have many competitors and players in this market. We're focusing on the construction market, which have either gone bankrupt or are making losses or yes, have big issues. We still made 14% EBITDA the last two years.

34:24 And this is because we are very, as I said, on the cost, but also that we are investing in the business to find new growth. And one of the areas that I talked about now, which we are talking about for a while, mass climbing work platforms, we see a lot of opportunities. We see also the funnel now start to increase, and we have also seen some concrete, you know, results of our activities. So so it's paying off. So it's to find this balance, you know, between investing and stop spending where we don't need to. So you shouldn't expect big cost savings, you know, but I'm just highlighting that we are very, you know, diligent in the management of of, you know, this balance of cost and investing.

35:16 Perfect. That's very clear. Thank you. And then just a final one on the HSPS. Maybe a bit similar here on, like, how the order decreased, how you're navigating volumes ahead, but also how we should think about the quarterly improvements that's been in the margins. Should we view this as a sort of sole impact from slightly better volumes? Yes. We had lower volumes last quarter, which also took down margins, plus we had the ones off. So the whole plan with this division is that we shouldn't drop margins too much. We should but we should, at the same time, also reset where we are, you know, more turning maybe dead spending into really active, you know, growth type of spending. So so here also, we try to do this thing, you know, that you take out whatever costs that you should take out, that you change the things you should change to instill growth and the right focus and so forth. You know? And that's not meaning that everything was wrong before, but it means that, you know, to get change, you need to change. So it's a target in itself to drive change.

36:32 It's been always been a resilient, very good, high performing profit wise business, but it's not been growing. And that's what we are trying to achieve. So and we couldn't do that the first two years part of the group because we feel felt we needed to have their arms around it very well first so that this is what we're driving now. So that means it's turmoil. It's turbulence. Some people leaving, unfortunately, and you know? But it's it's multiple things, but it's all good things happening still, but painful. And then it's a market exposure that also this division is having towards the construction, which is very weak. Then you have distributors, partners. You know, the nature of this business is very short cycles, so it's more book to bill. So it's difficult more difficult to have that type of visibility long term into that business also. So so that's why I'm a little bit more cautious also on on saying or plan you know, exactly what will happen.

37:29 But but still, we are convinced we are doing the right things, and we are convinced that we are also managing it relatively well and that you should see more of what you have been seeing. Okay. Great. Thank you. Just just one additional question from my side. Sorry. Could you maybe give us some more color on what you saw in improving activity towards the end of the quarter? Was this sort of solely an impact from the weather condition in North America improving? Or was there other changes as well? Sorry. I didn't understand. What the question is related to HSPS or no to No. Sorry. Just just on a whole group per region or per sector or whatever.

38:15 Just on it sounded like January and February was much weaker in in in activity and Yep. Than a pickup in March. And I'm just wanting to clarify if that's only relating to the weather conditions in in The US or if it's more broad based. That was that was the main effect that we had, but it was also a little bit broader in general, a little bit it seemed like, you know, a little bit longer Christmas break. You know, the Chinese New Year was a little bit longer, and it was multiple effects that seemed like it was a slow moving start at the beginning of the of the year. So it's, it was a little bit wider than just the weather even though that had, I think, a significant impact on, on the North American business in the first two months.

39:04 Perfect. Thank you for answering my questions. Yes. Thank you. There are no more phone questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions or closing comments. Yep. Thank you. So it's no questions on the screen here for now. So I'll give it, some seconds to see if someone starts typing. No. We are not getting anything on the web, so that means that, we round off. And with that, I would like to say thank you to all, our dedicated employees, partners, and also shareholders, investors and you listening in here and asking good questions. Thank you all.

39:52 And, yeah, till next time.