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HMS Networks — Call Transcript 2026
Apr 23, 2026
Welcome to the HMS Networks' Q1 2026 presentation. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to CEO Staffan Dahlström and CFO Joakim Nideborn. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to this quarter one call. It's me, Staffan Dahlström, CEO, and Joakim Nideborn, calling in from a crispy and sunny spring day in Halmstad. I think also this report is quite crispy and sunny, and we're very pleased to present three sections, business update, I'll do that, and then Joakim dive into the numbers, and we end up with a Q&A. If we look on the quarter one here, we are very pleased to see a fairly good momentum. We have good organic growth on sales, up 15%. Little bit of headwind on the weak Swedish currency at the moment. Joakim will talk more about that. Also order intake is organically growing double-digit, and this combination of double-digit growth on both net sales and order intake, we're really pleased to see that, and we feel that the market is fairly strong and it's a broad, good market we feel. We're also happy to see that we are improving our profits on the EBITDA level that we follow from this year. EBITDA margin 27.2%, better than we expected. I think we're seeing stable development on gross margin. We have kept OPEX on a flat level, and of course, this gives a good EBITDA margin when we have good net sales growth. Cash flow continued to be strong, and this gives us adjusted EPS, earnings per share, at SEK 3.78. If you look on the last 12 months, I think it's only one thing I would like to highlight, and that is the cash flow for operations, where we almost make SEK 1 billion in a year. We are very happy to have this, and Joakim will talk more about our debt and how we see the covenants and things like this. As I said, market is fairly strong in North America after a dip end of last year. We said that was temporary. It was strong development. We also see that China, that's a smaller market for us, but growing well. In China, we also saw some boost effect where we felt that some Chinese customers, they were concerned about lead times. Otherwise, we see a balance between order intake and invoicing to a large extent. Europe, that's been quite slow, and Japan continue to slowly improve. Positive signs. It's broad and positive. 1 billion SEK in order intake make us proud. Of course, we're worried about the situation in Middle East. For us, this have not a direct impact to a large extent. It's mainly our business in building automation, where we have a fairly decent business in the Middle East and Saudi and Dubai. That's a lot of real estate projects there. There we've seen a drop in order intake in March. But all in all, I think Middle East is less than 2% of our revenue. But of course, we are worried, and we follow this, but it seems like our industrial customers and the industrial markets are almost getting used to this kind of turbulence and changes, and they keep on investing, and we see a fairly stable market. We continue to invest in product development, part of our new strategy, in all our divisions, and we see this on a little bit higher R&D expenses. We also work a lot with different pilot projects and use more AI, but we are not implementing AI on a full scale in our operation yet. We are more in the exploration and test phase, where we test and try with our engineers. The ambition here is to be able to do more with the current resource we're having. We're also very happy to see that the asset acquisition we did from Molex Industrial Communications from January 1 got a very good start. We integrate this business with their two development centers in Canada and France very well. We also integrate the supply chain, and the customers have welcomed this, been very positive. Some customers also placed orders for the entire 2026, so this is also a little bit boost on the order intake. This was not a big acquisition, but it's very positive to see the smooth integration and how positive this has been. Just as a reminder on the next slide, this was fairly small acquisition. We got this from Molex, and from their point of view, this was too small and too strange for their large sales organization, and we did not pay a big amount of this. We said that we hope this will add more than $10 million annual revenue. Quarter one, I think the order intake was SEK 140 million. Yeah, it's true. It's more than $10 million annually. I think this is better than we expected. All in all, this is a good addition to our INT division, where we feel that their product complements our technologies and our products. It's very positive with a positive customer feedback that we have a lot of common customers, and they feel that, okay, now when HMS takes over, we are ready to invest in this technology and commit to it. All in all, a very positive asset acquisition. With that, Joakim, some numbers. Yes, some numbers. I'm going to start with the order intake as we normally do, which you saw was very pleasing. We did just about SEK 1.1 billion in order intake and 19% growth or 10% organic growth. You see, we also have 10% organic growth for the last 12 months. Staffan touched upon it already. One very big contributing factor to the strong order intake was the Molex acquisition and the fact that we got many of these full-year orders. We're very pleased with the underlying business as well. In that number of SEK 1.1 billion, we do think we have around SEK 130 million where customers have been placing orders that they normally would maybe do throughout the year, but now placing everything in Q1. Underlying, we can see it's really all divisions and all geographic markets that are doing well. We see a broad-based strong demand. With everything happening in the world, we were quite happy to see that the customers are still investing and placing orders. Maybe what sticks out the most for us is the INT division, I'll come back to that, with organic growth of 25%. We've been talking about this for maybe some 12, 18 months that we thought we would see this pickup. Now we're maybe a bit later than what we believed, and now we're seeing that business coming back on a really broad base also now in Q1. If we move over to the sales side, we're also continuing the growth. You see on the graph there, it's a nice continued development. SEK 971 million and 9% growth, which is actually organically 15%. Now it's the second quarter where we have double-digit organic growth. If you've been following us, you've been seeing that we had a more challenging situation throughout 2024 and first half of 2025, and now we feel that we're back on the right track with all the inventory levels have been normalizing out in the supply chains. Very good to note that we do have a book-to-bill of 1.16. We've been saying that we believe we should have more than one this year to continue the growth journey and to place the foundation for future growth. That's the 1.16 is a very good number, especially when we show this 15% organic growth on sales. What's behind also here, it's quite broad-based. We see our four largest markets are among the ones that are performing the best. In order of size, we have the U.S., the biggest market, Germany, Japan, and China. All of them are contributing very well to this development. Going into the divisions. We're starting with Industrial Data Solutions, the largest one, and now 40% of the group profits. Here you see on the order intake that we report a negative 3% in development. Actually, organically, that's +5% due to the massive currency effects from Q1 2025 until now. As you might remember, after Q1, I think it was in April, especially the U.S., dollar took a big hit versus the Swedish krona, and that is a big impact on the bridge, of course, when you compare quarter-over-quarter. Net sales, a good number. The Q4 number for 2025 was exceptionally strong at SEK 481. Now, SEK 418, as we do in the quarter, for us is not bad. 13% organic growth. I think this also comes down to good margins of 25.4%. We've been able to build the margin in this division quite well from around 20%-25%, if you take 18-month period. Here, North America is the biggest market. That's also what is performing the best. It's a little bit slower for us in IDS in Europe and APAC, still okay. To mention one big driver, we've been seeing the data center vertical performing very well. We're winning new business in various applications for data center business. Yes, to mention also, we are meeting on the order side, a very tough comp in Q1 2025. Both in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, we had some big project orders that we did not really have now in the beginning of 2026. We see a strong underlying development. Over to Industrial Network Technology, a fantastic quarter with 25% organic growth in orders and 23% growth on net sales. Here you also see on the green bar in the left-hand side graph, that Molex business coming in with SEK 140 million. The reported growth is now 73%, a very strong add-on to the business. Of course, this order intake pace is not sustainable. I think Staffan said it, that it's basically our customers placing orders for the full year. I think what you can expect is maybe more the pace that you see on the sales around SEK 40 million on a quarterly level. Staffan also mentioned this has been turning out a bit better than we expected. We didn't know exactly what to expect given that it was some older products and some customers that had been announced with end of life, and it seems like the business is still going very strong here. Integration is going well, and we see it difficult to pick a lot of markets that are performing good or bad. We see the very key markets in Central Europe and Japan is driving. Those are really big markets for INT. That's very good to see that we are back to see good growth in those key markets. Finally, New Industries. Also solid quarter for New Industries. We have a 7% organic growth on orders and 8% on net sales. Pretty much in line with our financial long-term targets. Good profitability with over 27% EBITA margin. Here we saw a good development in the vehicle communication business, both in Europe and North America. On the building automation business, we had a good start. The first two months were quite good, and then in March we saw a massive slowdown in orders from the Middle East, which has been impacting the numbers a little bit. Again, for the group, this is not a big impact. It's less than 2% in the Middle East of the total sales, but for building automation, it's 20% of the business. With a big slowdown that is, of course, visible for that part of the business. Going over to the results. First, I just want to make you aware that we are now reporting a new main profitability metric, EBITDA, which was SEK 264 million and a 27% margin. This is our long-term operating target for profitability. This is where we have the 25% target to reach 25% of EBITDA. The difference compared to before when we showed adjusted EBIT is actually a bit more difficult for us as a company to live up to. It's the same in the fact that we are taking away the excess values, the amortization of the excess values, but we are not making any other adjustments. So all the integration costs, M&A costs, and this is actually burdening the EBITDA results. Also, amortization of activated R&D cost is impacting the number. I hope that was clear how that works. Otherwise, you have to ask. What we can see then, SEK 264 million, 27% margin, very strong start of the year for us and good to see that we are above the financial target. It's really a strong top line and cost controlling that is behind the numbers, so nothing strange. Looking at the gross margin, we were slightly down compared to last year. A big negative effect from currency and also, I would say it's a good product mix within the divisions, but the fact that INT is growing a lot and taking a bigger share of the whole is reducing the group margin a little bit. I think we've been talking about this before, that if and when INT starts to come back to good old form, that will put a bit of a pressure on the margin. On the other side, we have been rather successful with the price increases, and also the volume of course is good in the quarter, which is mitigating. All in all, with the mix that we have, we're quite happy to be able to present 62.4%. On the OPEX side, we came in a little bit short of what we believed we would do, and we're a little bit behind on some of the plans. We are investing in some certain areas of the business, both in R&D, also adding a team in artificial intelligence to drive that development within the group. It's a little bit behind the schedule, but we will be there and recoup. We also have salary increases coming in Q2. Looking ahead, we will have a little bit of a higher cost level. Just two more things I want to mention here. One is the R&D, where we are, as Staffan also said, we're now investing in both INT and IDS in the new generation of products, which is increasing the pace of investment in R&D on an acceleration of costs. This increased to SEK 27 million from 15 last Q1. 12 million more in activated R&D, which is of course, you could say a little bit helping the results. On the other hand, you see the FX effect. We had some really good currency hedges in 2025, which has been wearing off towards the end of the year and now into 2026. We still have hedges, but it's at lower rates than what we used to have before. We see a pretty big impact on EBIT or EBITDA of the 31%. That's SEK 31 million from the FX rates. If we move on further down in the profit and loss, we come to the adjusted results, adjusted EPS results, and here we have a 3.78 as adjusted EPS. A pretty solid number. We're happy to see interest costs coming down from SEK 34 million a year ago to SEK 20 million now. It's a combination of course, reduced debt, but also better terms in the financing agreement, which is keeping that down a little bit. If you want to see the reported EPS, we're at 3.24, and here we are just adjusting for the excess value amortization of the acquisitions. We continue to show a good cash conversion, and the cash flow is solid with SEK 250 million. Behind that, we're reducing inventories a little bit in Q1. We're tying up quite a bit more in our customers' good invoicing in the end of the quarter. March was a very strong month in invoicing, so we tie up some SEK 37 million more in working capital in Q1. For the year, Staffan mentioned already SEK 940 million on good track to that SEK 1 billion mark that we would really like to reach soon. If we look at the net debt situation, it continues to move in the right pattern. We are reducing a bit more since Q4, and we're now down on net debt to EBITDA. If I look at pre-IFRS 16 basis of 1.87, and of course, that puts us in a good spot compared to 3.36 a year ago. I think we're quite happy with that reduction. It also means that we can put some more efforts into the M&A agenda again, and we are building that agenda now in the divisions. We're going quite well in looking at new targets and building that pipeline. Just to summarize before we hand over for questions, takeaways from the first quarter. Well, what we would like you to remember is the order intake. Solid over SEK 1 billion for the first time for us. Organic growth in sales, 15% second quarter in a row with double-digit growth on the net sales side. Then we also would like to be clear with these pre-orders of about SEK 130 million that you can not expect to come back in coming quarters. Then INT, we need to lift out INT, a very strong development here with both over 20% organic growth in both orders and sales, and a good start to the new acquisition in INT. The macro situation is still uncertain. We are happy to see that the underlying market seems to be working well enough anyway. Middle East, even if it's a bit of an impact on the building automation business, not a lot for the whole group. What we also do see, I'm not sure if we talked about this before, we do see lead time for certain semiconductors coming up again, for instance, memories. Also, some prices been coming up a bit. We are not impacted by the worst, latest geometries, but still, it's a bit of a push upwards in pricing. We are trying to now place orders for more or less the full year to make sure that we have the material we need to be able to continue to deliver. Then finally, profitability and cash flow quite well. Both cash flow, cash conversion good, and the underlying profitability is slightly better than our long-term targets. We are continuing to invest in business now in R&D, in AI, and we are very happy to see the continued development of the year. With that, I would like to hand over to operator for questions. If you wish to ask a question, please dial #5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial #6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Jesper Stugemo from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, Staffan and Joakim, and congrats to the very strong results here. Three questions from me, if I may. My first one is related to the increased order placements you saw among Chinese customers here, given the disruption in supply chains. It sounds like pre-buying. Do you expect a similar pattern in H1 or full 2026 as we saw in the pandemic years in terms of boosted orders, or how should we view this? We start with that. We'll say, Joakim, I think we list here SEK 130 million on order intake as a little bit boosted, but I think we are much more into a balanced situation. We see some concerns in some Chinese customers due to geopolitical things. The memory is a bit worrying. It's not that we are using the same memories as the AI market, but it's the same factories, the Micron of the world. I think the fact that they have a full schedule also affects this kind of industrial component that we buy. We don't really see that this is a big trend. It's mainly related to some customers in China, and of course, this with the Molex acquisition is a one-time effect. We bought this asset without order book, and some customers were really happy, so they committed to larger time order. What do you say, Joakim, do you see this as a big trend? No, I think we've been discussing that a lot, Jesper. I think it's been something we've been also challenging the different business owners in the company, how they see this. I think what we say in the report, we believe that about SEK 130 million was maybe placed a bit early. Otherwise, it seems to be a quite solid market, and we've also been seeing other peers reporting strong numbers for the first quarter. We're happy to see that the investments seem to continue. Yeah, okay, thanks. Very clear. A follow-up then on the memory prices here. How do you work to secure your volumes to deliver to the customers and the risk here? Also on inflationary COGS coming up and potential workarounds to not lower the gross margin here. Yeah, very relevant question. What we've been doing is we've been placing orders for the rest of the year. We haven't taken all the volume yet. We will probably take volume a bit earlier than what we normally would do. I think you can maybe expect that we build a little bit of working capital for throughout the year. I would maybe have expected that we could reduce. Before, if you asked me half a year ago, I'd probably think that we could reduce working capital throughout the year. Now, that might be challenging. I think that's pretty much what we can do. On the pricing side, so far, it seems like we've been covering what we need to cover in the yearly increases. If that view changes, we will, of course, act as we always do to protect the margins. Okay, thanks. Very clear. I'll jump back in line here. Thanks, Jesper. The next question comes from Victor Hagberg from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Good morning. Just on the EBITDA margin potential. Of course, we know that costs are not fully ramped up yet, but the organic margin potential looks higher than at least what we picked up at the CMD. I was thinking that maybe, I don't know, 27% as an organic potential by 2030. You're already at that level. Just what are your thoughts on the organic potential if we would exclude the M&A impact, which we know will probably dilute it? We have a target, 2030, that includes the M&A impact. We are talking about most of the M&As we look at will have a dilutive effect on our margins, gross margins, and net margins. We look on the combination. Of course, the more organic growth we are able to generate, the better it will be for our margins, I think, because there we have a higher leverage. Joakim, any comments from you? It's really difficult. I think we try to be humble. I mean, 25% is It's a pretty good margin in itself. Now we've been having three good quarters in a row with slightly higher margins. We also see that we need to continue to invest to be able to get organic growth. We think that we don't want to save ourselves to a higher margin and miss out on potential growth. I think it's always a balance, but we think that 25%, maybe some quarters we will be a bit better, but that's pretty much what we're trying to steer against. Okay. Fair enough. Also on the gross margin, given your expectations now on the growth in respective segments with different profiles, balancing this with effects and price hikes, do you see a change in the gross margin profile today versus what you saw at the CMD in September? Not necessarily. Not a lot, I'd say. Compared to then, I think we've been seeing even weaker U.S., dollar and euro versus the SEK, which is, of course, not great for our margins. I think maybe that will do a percentage point or so. I think we have some good things going on. We think that we don't want to change the long-term target for sure. We set a target of 65% to 2030. We will not be the next quarter, but we think that's still relevant with what we're doing. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks, Victor. The next question comes from Erik Larsson from SEB. Please go ahead. Thank you. First, a question on OpEx. You talked about ramping costs here and perhaps lagging a bit, but at the same time, it's only up 3% here in Q1 organically, if I understood correctly. So maybe if you could just speak to how steep this increase could be the coming quarters would be helpful. Yeah, I don't expect it to be super steep, but we're probably going to add SEK a couple of million per quarter. I think you can expect that when we're ramping up. Normally, Q2 and Q4 are a bit more heavy for us in terms of market investments and traveling and different customer events. I think that you can probably expect to add on. It's going to be slowly but safely increasing a few percentage points from where we are today. That's pretty much what we believe. I think we are in a good place, and we will do some smart investments but not go crazy. All right, great. On data centers, I think the last time, at least that I remember, that you mentioned a larger order was in Q4 2024 or something. Could you give some more backdrop on how this vertical has developed over the past year? Because now it seems to have been a good driver. I think we see this in different projects that we see for INT, they are selling some gateways. We see in building automation, they are connecting the ACs for cooling. We don't see so much of this switching business for network infrastructure we got for power conversion in Q4. It's a quite broad mix of automation projects that are related to data center. As you said before, we are not part of the compute in these centers. It's about incoming power, the cooling or heating, and these kind of things, automation systems around it. We see broad automation projects with our system integration in U.S., that they are involved in this kind of automation projects in data centers. Okay, a final question, if you could just explain more about the improvements you see in Europe. Is it broad-based or is it any specific driver? I think we see two different things on INT. We see a pickup, quite broad-based on customers who don't have inventory anymore, and also customers who work towards automotive business. It's not great, but it's not too bad either. Then we see some verticals where automotive, in general, is not good. Maybe it's not getting worse, but other verticals are pretty good. Infrastructure and automation in general, electrification. That's starting to see some momentum in Europe, we think. Okay, thank you. That's all from me. Thanks, Erik. The next question comes from Simon Granath from HMS. Please go ahead. Hey, guys. Should be ABG, of course. Congrats again on the strong performance. We have previously been discussing that there have been some discrepancy in recent quarters between the larger and smaller projects, with larger projects being a bit on a pause. Are you seeing any change on the latter, either in terms of orders now or in terms of customer dialogs? Thanks. No, I think we're still waiting for some larger orders. I would say we see more of small and mid-size broad-based orders and not too much of this larger projects order that we got end of 2024. Thank you. Only one follow-up more, and that is another topic that we spoke about at the CMD, and that was on the potential upgrade cycle for Anybus to meet upcoming security requirements. Are you seeing that play out? Very good question. We're doing some initiative in security, and there's a lot of new regulations, and we try to get our arms around how to monetize on this. We have a team working on this with some products. In general, we see a lot of customers who want to talk about cybersecurity and this, but we can't really see that there's a. If you look at our revenue, it's not a big part of our revenue, and we're still trying to find a way in this cybersecurity landscape. I can't really see that we have cracked the code there yet. There's a lot of customer interest. Right now it's more interesting in education and consultant services and not really a product business yet. We are still working, trying to find our ways there. Very clear. That's all from me. Thanks. Thanks. The next question comes from Joachim Gunell from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning. Just two questions from my side. The first one relates to end market momentum in some of your verticals. You commented a bit on the data center opportunity, and to your point, it could be any other industrial building. Right? It's not necessarily the service and rec center. But you also comment a bit about semicon manufacturing. To what extent do you see that as a growth driver? And oil and gas, are you seeing customers in that more broader energy, and the market become more opportunistic? Where CapEx investment is going there. Well, if I start, and this is a little speculation, we see that we have customers in semiconductor. They are highly successful. There seem to be a lot of investments, broad-based, not only AI, but most of the customers we have is more on the machine side in semiconductor, doing all these vacuum things and these kind of things, and that seem to be very strong momentum. On oil and gas, we are speculating that with the challenges we see now in Middle East, wouldn't that drive more investments in other areas of the world to be in where they have oil, that this would be more investment. We haven't seen it yet, but we are speculating that there might be good market opportunities in North America, in other parts of Europe, in other parts of Asia, where you could explore more of the oil and gas resources they have there to complement the Middle East market. We haven't seen it yet. We're just speculating about it. Understood. In terms of exposure in the IDS division, the energy footprint is quite sizable, right? Yes, it is. Perfect. Just finally. Just to comment that, Joachim, North America is the big market, so the exposure is mainly related to North American oil and gas. Absolutely. That's clear. We saw here, of course, with the Molex order activity, that yet another acquisition for which you paid fairly low price tags are playing out the way that you hoped for. Now that we see cash flow take your net debt levels to, call it, acquisition territory, can you just comment a bit about your appetite and, call it, self-confidence when it comes to pursue more M&A towards the latter part of the year? I think we have a pretty good confidence, and I think the reason is probably that we are a bit selective, so we want to continue to be selective. We are looking at a couple of things at the moment, so we hope that we're going to be able to get something done this year as well. We will be as active as we can, run as fast as we can. Now we have three divisions that are all looking into building their pipelines and managing those pipelines. I think we have a pretty good foundation. Sounds encouraging. Thank you. Thanks, Joachim. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Jesper Stugemo from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi again. Sorry, I just have a follow-up on this $130 million in early orders. Maybe I missed that, but how much of this was translated into sales in this quarter? Thank you. Nothing has been translated into sales of that SEK 130. Nothing. The point is that. Okay ... normally we would have received those in Q2, Q3, and so on. Joakim, the larger part, this SEK 130, is related to this Molex pre-orders, and the other part is related to these Chinese customers. That's the two things we have there. Some of the panel meters. Oh, you're right. Okay, yeah. Where we have some more lead times, yeah. Okay, perfect. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Jesper. Thank you. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments. Thank you, operator, and thanks everybody for joining this call. We are just getting ready for our AGM here in Halmstad, and we are very happy to see a strong quarter, solid quarter, and we feel that the market is fairly stable. It's not great, but we feel that things are falling into the right places. We're very happy to see good progress on the acquired unit from Red Lion, PEAK-System, and now also this Molex business we acquired from 1st of January. Things are moving in the right direction, but it is an uncertain world out there. As I said, we are impressed by our customers' robustness and their willingness to continue their plans despite the geopolitical things and trade things. We are fairly optimistic about the coming quarters. Stay tuned, and I look forward to talk to you next quarter. Have a great Thursday. Thank you, and bye.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the HMS Networks' Q1 2026 presentation. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to CEO Staffan Dahlström and CFO Joakim Nideborn. Please go ahead. Welcome to the HMS Networks' Q1 2026 presentation. welcome to the hms networks' q1 2026 presentation During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. during the questions and answers session participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad Now I will hand the conference over to CEO Staffan Dahlström and CFO Joakim Nideborn. now i will hand the conference over to ceo staffan dahlström and cfo joakim nideborn Please go ahead. please go ahead
Speaker 7: Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to this quarter one call. It's me, Staffan Dahlström, CEO, and Joakim Nideborn, calling in from a crispy and sunny spring day in Halmstad. I think also this report is quite crispy and sunny, and we're very pleased to present three sections, business update, I'll do that, and then Joakim dive into the numbers, and we end up with a Q&A. If we look on the quarter one here, we are very pleased to see a fairly good momentum. We have good organic growth on sales, up 15%. Little bit of headwind on the weak Swedish currency at the moment. Joakim will talk more about that. Thank you. thank you Good morning, everybody. good morning everybody Welcome to this quarter one call. welcome to this quarter one call It's me, Staffan Dahlström, CEO, and Joakim Nideborn, calling in from a crispy and sunny spring day in Halmstad. it's me staffan dahlström ceo and joakim nideborn calling in from a crispy and sunny spring day in halmstad I think also this report is quite crispy and sunny, and we're very pleased to present three sections, business update, I'll do that, and then Joakim dive into the numbers, and we end up with a Q&A. i think also this report is quite crispy and sunny and we're very pleased to present three sections business update i'll do that and then joakim dive into the numbers and we end up with a q&a If we look on the quarter one here, we are very pleased to see a fairly good momentum. if we look on the quarter one here we are very pleased to see a fairly good momentum We have good organic growth on sales, up 15%. we have good organic growth on sales up 15% Little bit of headwind on the weak Swedish currency at the moment. little bit of headwind on the weak swedish currency at the moment Joakim will talk more about that. joakim will talk more about that Also order intake is organically growing double-digit, and this combination of double-digit growth on both net sales and order intake, we're really pleased to see that, and we feel that the market is fairly strong and it's a broad, good market we feel. We're also happy to see that we are improving our profits on the EBITDA level that we follow from this year. EBITDA margin 27.2%, better than we expected. I think we're seeing stable development on gross margin. We have kept OPEX on a flat level, and of course, this gives a good EBITDA margin when we have good net sales growth. Cash flow continued to be strong, and this gives us adjusted EPS, earnings per share, at SEK 3.78. Also order intake is organically growing double-digit, and this combination of double-digit growth on both net sales and order intake, we're really pleased to see that, and we feel that the market is fairly strong and it's a broad, good market we feel. also order intake is organically growing double-digit and this combination of double-digit growth on both net sales and order intake we're really pleased to see that and we feel that the market is fairly strong and it's a broad good market we feel We're also happy to see that we are improving our profits on the EBITDA level that we follow from this year. we're also happy to see that we are improving our profits on the ebitda level that we follow from this year EBITDA margin 27.2%, better than we expected. ebitda margin 27.2% better than we expected I think we're seeing stable development on gross margin. i think we're seeing stable development on gross margin We have kept OPEX on a flat level, and of course, this gives a good EBITDA margin when we have good net sales growth. we have kept opex on a flat level and of course this gives a good ebitda margin when we have good net sales growth Cash flow continued to be strong, and this gives us adjusted EPS, earnings per share, at SEK 3.78. cash flow continued to be strong and this gives us adjusted eps earnings per share at sek 3.78 If you look on the last 12 months, I think it's only one thing I would like to highlight, and that is the cash flow for operations, where we almost make SEK 1 billion in a year. We are very happy to have this, and Joakim will talk more about our debt and how we see the covenants and things like this. As I said, market is fairly strong in North America after a dip end of last year. We said that was temporary. It was strong development. We also see that China, that's a smaller market for us, but growing well. In China, we also saw some boost effect where we felt that some Chinese customers, they were concerned about lead times. Otherwise, we see a balance between order intake and invoicing to a large extent. If you look on the last 12 months, I think it's only one thing I would like to highlight, and that is the cash flow for operations, where we almost make SEK 1 billion in a year. if you look on the last 12 months i think it's only one thing i would like to highlight and that is the cash flow for operations where we almost make sek 1 billion in a year We are very happy to have this, and Joakim will talk more about our debt and how we see the covenants and things like this. we are very happy to have this and joakim will talk more about our debt and how we see the covenants and things like this As I said, market is fairly strong in North America after a dip end of last year. as i said market is fairly strong in north america after a dip end of last year We said that was temporary. we said that was temporary It was strong development. it was strong development We also see that China, that's a smaller market for us, but growing well. we also see that china that's a smaller market for us but growing well In China, we also saw some boost effect where we felt that some Chinese customers, they were concerned about lead times. in china we also saw some boost effect where we felt that some chinese customers they were concerned about lead times Otherwise, we see a balance between order intake and invoicing to a large extent. otherwise we see a balance between order intake and invoicing to a large extent Europe, that's been quite slow, and Japan continue to slowly improve. Positive signs. It's broad and positive. 1 billion SEK in order intake make us proud. Of course, we're worried about the situation in Middle East. For us, this have not a direct impact to a large extent. It's mainly our business in building automation, where we have a fairly decent business in the Middle East and Saudi and Dubai. That's a lot of real estate projects there. There we've seen a drop in order intake in March. But all in all, I think Middle East is less than 2% of our revenue. But of course, we are worried, and we follow this, but it seems like our industrial customers and the industrial markets are almost getting used to this kind of turbulence and changes, and they keep on investing, and we see a fairly stable market. Europe, that's been quite slow, and Japan continue to slowly improve. europe that's been quite slow and japan continue to slowly improve Positive signs. positive signs It's broad and positive. 1 billion SEK in order intake make us proud. it's broad and positive 1 billion sek in order intake make us proud Of course, we're worried about the situation in Middle East. of course we're worried about the situation in middle east For us, this have not a direct impact to a large extent. for us this have not a direct impact to a large extent It's mainly our business in building automation, where we have a fairly decent business in the Middle East and Saudi and Dubai. it's mainly our business in building automation where we have a fairly decent business in the middle east and saudi and dubai That's a lot of real estate projects there. that's a lot of real estate projects there There we've seen a drop in order intake in March. there we've seen a drop in order intake in march But all in all, I think Middle East is less than 2% of our revenue. but all in all i think middle east is less than 2% of our revenue But of course, we are worried, and we follow this, but it seems like our industrial customers and the industrial markets are almost getting used to this kind of turbulence and changes, and they keep on investing, and we see a fairly stable market. but of course we are worried and we follow this but it seems like our industrial customers and the industrial markets are almost getting used to this kind of turbulence and changes and they keep on investing and we see a fairly stable market We continue to invest in product development, part of our new strategy, in all our divisions, and we see this on a little bit higher R&D expenses. We also work a lot with different pilot projects and use more AI, but we are not implementing AI on a full scale in our operation yet. We are more in the exploration and test phase, where we test and try with our engineers. The ambition here is to be able to do more with the current resource we're having. We're also very happy to see that the asset acquisition we did from Molex Industrial Communications from January 1 got a very good start. We integrate this business with their two development centers in Canada and France very well. We also integrate the supply chain, and the customers have welcomed this, been very positive. We continue to invest in product development, part of our new strategy, in all our divisions, and we see this on a little bit higher R&D expenses. we continue to invest in product development part of our new strategy in all our divisions and we see this on a little bit higher r&d expenses We also work a lot with different pilot projects and use more AI, but we are not implementing AI on a full scale in our operation yet. we also work a lot with different pilot projects and use more ai but we are not implementing ai on a full scale in our operation yet We are more in the exploration and test phase, where we test and try with our engineers. we are more in the exploration and test phase where we test and try with our engineers The ambition here is to be able to do more with the current resource we're having. the ambition here is to be able to do more with the current resource we're having We're also very happy to see that the asset acquisition we did from Molex Industrial Communications from January 1 got a very good start. we're also very happy to see that the asset acquisition we did from molex industrial communications from january 1 got a very good start We integrate this business with their two development centers in Canada and France very well. we integrate this business with their two development centers in canada and france very well We also integrate the supply chain, and the customers have welcomed this, been very positive. we also integrate the supply chain and the customers have welcomed this been very positive Some customers also placed orders for the entire 2026, so this is also a little bit boost on the order intake. This was not a big acquisition, but it's very positive to see the smooth integration and how positive this has been. Just as a reminder on the next slide, this was fairly small acquisition. We got this from Molex, and from their point of view, this was too small and too strange for their large sales organization, and we did not pay a big amount of this. We said that we hope this will add more than $10 million annual revenue. Quarter one, I think the order intake was SEK 140 million. Yeah, it's true. It's more than $10 million annually. I think this is better than we expected. Some customers also placed orders for the entire 2026, so this is also a little bit boost on the order intake. some customers also placed orders for the entire 2026 so this is also a little bit boost on the order intake This was not a big acquisition, but it's very positive to see the smooth integration and how positive this has been. this was not a big acquisition but it's very positive to see the smooth integration and how positive this has been Just as a reminder on the next slide, this was fairly small acquisition. just as a reminder on the next slide this was fairly small acquisition We got this from Molex, and from their point of view, this was too small and too strange for their large sales organization, and we did not pay a big amount of this. we got this from molex and from their point of view this was too small and too strange for their large sales organization and we did not pay a big amount of this We said that we hope this will add more than $10 million annual revenue. we said that we hope this will add more than $10 million annual revenue Quarter one, I think the order intake was SEK 140 million. quarter one i think the order intake was sek 140 million Yeah, it's true. yeah it's true It's more than $10 million annually. it's more than $10 million annually I think this is better than we expected. i think this is better than we expected All in all, this is a good addition to our INT division, where we feel that their product complements our technologies and our products. It's very positive with a positive customer feedback that we have a lot of common customers, and they feel that, okay, now when HMS takes over, we are ready to invest in this technology and commit to it. All in all, a very positive asset acquisition. With that, Joakim, some numbers. All in all, this is a good addition to our INT division, where we feel that their product complements our technologies and our products. all in all this is a good addition to our int division where we feel that their product complements our technologies and our products It's very positive with a positive customer feedback that we have a lot of common customers, and they feel that, okay, now when HMS takes over, we are ready to invest in this technology and commit to it. it's very positive with a positive customer feedback that we have a lot of common customers and they feel that okay now when hms takes over we are ready to invest in this technology and commit to it All in all, a very positive asset acquisition. all in all a very positive asset acquisition With that, Joakim, some numbers. with that joakim some numbers
Speaker 4: Yes, some numbers. I'm going to start with the order intake as we normally do, which you saw was very pleasing. We did just about SEK 1.1 billion in order intake and 19% growth or 10% organic growth. You see, we also have 10% organic growth for the last 12 months. Yes, some numbers. yes some numbers I'm going to start with the order intake as we normally do, which you saw was very pleasing. i'm going to start with the order intake as we normally do which you saw was very pleasing We did just about SEK 1.1 billion in order intake and 19% growth or 10% organic growth. we did just about sek 1.1 billion in order intake and 19% growth or 10% organic growth You see, we also have 10% organic growth for the last 12 months. you see we also have 10% organic growth for the last 12 months Staffan touched upon it already. One very big contributing factor to the strong order intake was the Molex acquisition and the fact that we got many of these full-year orders. We're very pleased with the underlying business as well. In that number of SEK 1.1 billion, we do think we have around SEK 130 million where customers have been placing orders that they normally would maybe do throughout the year, but now placing everything in Q1. Underlying, we can see it's really all divisions and all geographic markets that are doing well. We see a broad-based strong demand. With everything happening in the world, we were quite happy to see that the customers are still investing and placing orders. Maybe what sticks out the most for us is the INT division, I'll come back to that, with organic growth of 25%. Staffan touched upon it already. staffan touched upon it already One very big contributing factor to the strong order intake was the Molex acquisition and the fact that we got many of these full-year orders. one very big contributing factor to the strong order intake was the molex acquisition and the fact that we got many of these full-year orders We're very pleased with the underlying business as well. we're very pleased with the underlying business as well In that number of SEK 1.1 billion, we do think we have around SEK 130 million where customers have been placing orders that they normally would maybe do throughout the year, but now placing everything in Q1. in that number of sek 1.1 billion we do think we have around sek 130 million where customers have been placing orders that they normally would maybe do throughout the year but now placing everything in q1 Underlying, we can see it's really all divisions and all geographic markets that are doing well. underlying we can see it's really all divisions and all geographic markets that are doing well We see a broad-based strong demand. we see a broad-based strong demand With everything happening in the world, we were quite happy to see that the customers are still investing and placing orders. with everything happening in the world we were quite happy to see that the customers are still investing and placing orders Maybe what sticks out the most for us is the INT division, I'll come back to that, with organic growth of 25%. maybe what sticks out the most for us is the int division i'll come back to that with organic growth of 25% We've been talking about this for maybe some 12, 18 months that we thought we would see this pickup. Now we're maybe a bit later than what we believed, and now we're seeing that business coming back on a really broad base also now in Q1. If we move over to the sales side, we're also continuing the growth. You see on the graph there, it's a nice continued development. SEK 971 million and 9% growth, which is actually organically 15%. Now it's the second quarter where we have double-digit organic growth. If you've been following us, you've been seeing that we had a more challenging situation throughout 2024 and first half of 2025, and now we feel that we're back on the right track with all the inventory levels have been normalizing out in the supply chains. We've been talking about this for maybe some 12, 18 months that we thought we would see this pickup. we've been talking about this for maybe some 12 18 months that we thought we would see this pickup Now we're maybe a bit later than what we believed, and now we're seeing that business coming back on a really broad base also now in Q1. now we're maybe a bit later than what we believed and now we're seeing that business coming back on a really broad base also now in q1 If we move over to the sales side, we're also continuing the growth. if we move over to the sales side we're also continuing the growth You see on the graph there, it's a nice continued development. you see on the graph there it's a nice continued development SEK 971 million and 9% growth, which is actually organically 15%. sek 971 million and 9% growth which is actually organically 15% Now it's the second quarter where we have double-digit organic growth. now it's the second quarter where we have double-digit organic growth If you've been following us, you've been seeing that we had a more challenging situation throughout 2024 and first half of 2025, and now we feel that we're back on the right track with all the inventory levels have been normalizing out in the supply chains. if you've been following us you've been seeing that we had a more challenging situation throughout 2024 and first half of 2025 and now we feel that we're back on the right track with all the inventory levels have been normalizing out in the supply chains Very good to note that we do have a book-to-bill of 1.16. We've been saying that we believe we should have more than one this year to continue the growth journey and to place the foundation for future growth. That's the 1.16 is a very good number, especially when we show this 15% organic growth on sales. What's behind also here, it's quite broad-based. We see our four largest markets are among the ones that are performing the best. In order of size, we have the U.S., the biggest market, Germany, Japan, and China. All of them are contributing very well to this development. Going into the divisions. We're starting with Industrial Data Solutions, the largest one, and now 40% of the group profits. Here you see on the order intake that we report a negative 3% in development. Very good to note that we do have a book-to-bill of 1.16. very good to note that we do have a book-to-bill of 1.16 We've been saying that we believe we should have more than one this year to continue the growth journey and to place the foundation for future growth. we've been saying that we believe we should have more than one this year to continue the growth journey and to place the foundation for future growth That's the 1.16 is a very good number, especially when we show this 15% organic growth on sales. that's the 1.16 is a very good number especially when we show this 15% organic growth on sales What's behind also here, it's quite broad-based. what's behind also here it's quite broad-based We see our four largest markets are among the ones that are performing the best. we see our four largest markets are among the ones that are performing the best In order of size, we have the U.S., the biggest market, Germany, Japan, and China. in order of size we have the u.s the biggest market germany japan and china All of them are contributing very well to this development. all of them are contributing very well to this development Going into the divisions. going into the divisions We're starting with Industrial Data Solutions, the largest one, and now 40% of the group profits. we're starting with industrial data solutions the largest one and now 40% of the group profits Here you see on the order intake that we report a negative 3% in development. here you see on the order intake that we report a negative 3% in development Actually, organically, that's +5% due to the massive currency effects from Q1 2025 until now. As you might remember, after Q1, I think it was in April, especially the U.S., dollar took a big hit versus the Swedish krona, and that is a big impact on the bridge, of course, when you compare quarter-over-quarter. Net sales, a good number. The Q4 number for 2025 was exceptionally strong at SEK 481. Now, SEK 418, as we do in the quarter, for us is not bad. 13% organic growth. I think this also comes down to good margins of 25.4%. We've been able to build the margin in this division quite well from around 20%-25%, if you take 18-month period. Here, North America is the biggest market. That's also what is performing the best. Actually, organically, that's +5% due to the massive currency effects from Q1 2025 until now. actually organically that's +5% due to the massive currency effects from q1 2025 until now As you might remember, after Q1, I think it was in April, especially the U.S., dollar took a big hit versus the Swedish krona, and that is a big impact on the bridge, of course, when you compare quarter-over-quarter. as you might remember after q1 i think it was in april especially the u.s dollar took a big hit versus the swedish krona and that is a big impact on the bridge of course when you compare quarter-over-quarter Net sales, a good number. net sales a good number The Q4 number for 2025 was exceptionally strong at SEK 481. the q4 number for 2025 was exceptionally strong at sek 481 Now, SEK 418, as we do in the quarter, for us is not bad. 13% organic growth. now, sek 418 as we do in the quarter for us is not bad 13% organic growth I think this also comes down to good margins of 25.4%. i think this also comes down to good margins of 25.4% We've been able to build the margin in this division quite well from around 20%-25%, if you take 18-month period. we've been able to build the margin in this division quite well from around 20%-25% if you take 18-month period Here, North America is the biggest market. here north america is the biggest market That's also what is performing the best. that's also what is performing the best It's a little bit slower for us in IDS in Europe and APAC, still okay. To mention one big driver, we've been seeing the data center vertical performing very well. We're winning new business in various applications for data center business. Yes, to mention also, we are meeting on the order side, a very tough comp in Q1 2025. Both in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, we had some big project orders that we did not really have now in the beginning of 2026. We see a strong underlying development. Over to Industrial Network Technology, a fantastic quarter with 25% organic growth in orders and 23% growth on net sales. Here you also see on the green bar in the left-hand side graph, that Molex business coming in with SEK 140 million. It's a little bit slower for us in IDS in Europe and APAC, still okay. it's a little bit slower for us in ids in europe and apac still okay To mention one big driver, we've been seeing the data center vertical performing very well. to mention one big driver we've been seeing the data center vertical performing very well We're winning new business in various applications for data center business. we're winning new business in various applications for data center business Yes, to mention also, we are meeting on the order side, a very tough comp in Q1 2025. yes to mention also we are meeting on the order side a very tough comp in q1 2025 Both in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, we had some big project orders that we did not really have now in the beginning of 2026. both in q4 2024 and q1 2025 we had some big project orders that we did not really have now in the beginning of 2026 We see a strong underlying development. we see a strong underlying development Over to Industrial Network Technology, a fantastic quarter with 25% organic growth in orders and 23% growth on net sales. over to industrial network technology a fantastic quarter with 25% organic growth in orders and 23% growth on net sales Here you also see on the green bar in the left-hand side graph, that Molex business coming in with SEK 140 million. here you also see on the green bar in the left-hand side graph that molex business coming in with sek 140 million The reported growth is now 73%, a very strong add-on to the business. Of course, this order intake pace is not sustainable. I think Staffan said it, that it's basically our customers placing orders for the full year. I think what you can expect is maybe more the pace that you see on the sales around SEK 40 million on a quarterly level. Staffan also mentioned this has been turning out a bit better than we expected. We didn't know exactly what to expect given that it was some older products and some customers that had been announced with end of life, and it seems like the business is still going very strong here. Integration is going well, and we see it difficult to pick a lot of markets that are performing good or bad. The reported growth is now 73%, a very strong add-on to the business. the reported growth is now 73% a very strong add-on to the business Of course, this order intake pace is not sustainable. of course this order intake pace is not sustainable I think Staffan said it, that it's basically our customers placing orders for the full year. i think staffan said it that it's basically our customers placing orders for the full year I think what you can expect is maybe more the pace that you see on the sales around SEK 40 million on a quarterly level. i think what you can expect is maybe more the pace that you see on the sales around sek 40 million on a quarterly level Staffan also mentioned this has been turning out a bit better than we expected. staffan also mentioned this has been turning out a bit better than we expected We didn't know exactly what to expect given that it was some older products and some customers that had been announced with end of life, and it seems like the business is still going very strong here. we didn't know exactly what to expect given that it was some older products and some customers that had been announced with end of life and it seems like the business is still going very strong here Integration is going well, and we see it difficult to pick a lot of markets that are performing good or bad. integration is going well and we see it difficult to pick a lot of markets that are performing good or bad We see the very key markets in Central Europe and Japan is driving. Those are really big markets for INT. That's very good to see that we are back to see good growth in those key markets. Finally, New Industries. Also solid quarter for New Industries. We have a 7% organic growth on orders and 8% on net sales. Pretty much in line with our financial long-term targets. Good profitability with over 27% EBITA margin. Here we saw a good development in the vehicle communication business, both in Europe and North America. On the building automation business, we had a good start. The first two months were quite good, and then in March we saw a massive slowdown in orders from the Middle East, which has been impacting the numbers a little bit. We see the very key markets in Central Europe and Japan is driving. we see the very key markets in central europe and japan is driving Those are really big markets for INT. those are really big markets for int That's very good to see that we are back to see good growth in those key markets. that's very good to see that we are back to see good growth in those key markets Finally, New Industries. finally new industries Also solid quarter for New Industries. also solid quarter for new industries We have a 7% organic growth on orders and 8% on net sales. we have a 7% organic growth on orders and 8% on net sales Pretty much in line with our financial long-term targets. pretty much in line with our financial long-term targets Good profitability with over 27% EBITA margin. good profitability with over 27% ebita margin Here we saw a good development in the vehicle communication business, both in Europe and North America. here we saw a good development in the vehicle communication business both in europe and north america On the building automation business, we had a good start. on the building automation business we had a good start The first two months were quite good, and then in March we saw a massive slowdown in orders from the Middle East, which has been impacting the numbers a little bit. the first two months were quite good and then in march we saw a massive slowdown in orders from the middle east which has been impacting the numbers a little bit Again, for the group, this is not a big impact. It's less than 2% in the Middle East of the total sales, but for building automation, it's 20% of the business. With a big slowdown that is, of course, visible for that part of the business. Going over to the results. First, I just want to make you aware that we are now reporting a new main profitability metric, EBITDA, which was SEK 264 million and a 27% margin. This is our long-term operating target for profitability. This is where we have the 25% target to reach 25% of EBITDA. The difference compared to before when we showed adjusted EBIT is actually a bit more difficult for us as a company to live up to. Again, for the group, this is not a big impact. again for the group this is not a big impact It's less than 2% in the Middle East of the total sales, but for building automation, it's 20% of the business. it's less than 2% in the middle east of the total sales but for building automation it's 20% of the business With a big slowdown that is, of course, visible for that part of the business. with a big slowdown that is of course visible for that part of the business Going over to the results. going over to the results First, I just want to make you aware that we are now reporting a new main profitability metric, EBITDA, which was SEK 264 million and a 27% margin. first i just want to make you aware that we are now reporting a new main profitability metric ebitda which was sek 264 million and a 27% margin This is our long-term operating target for profitability. this is our long-term operating target for profitability This is where we have the 25% target to reach 25% of EBITDA. this is where we have the 25% target to reach 25% of ebitda The difference compared to before when we showed adjusted EBIT is actually a bit more difficult for us as a company to live up to. the difference compared to before when we showed adjusted ebit is actually a bit more difficult for us as a company to live up to It's the same in the fact that we are taking away the excess values, the amortization of the excess values, but we are not making any other adjustments. So all the integration costs, M&A costs, and this is actually burdening the EBITDA results. Also, amortization of activated R&D cost is impacting the number. I hope that was clear how that works. Otherwise, you have to ask. What we can see then, SEK 264 million, 27% margin, very strong start of the year for us and good to see that we are above the financial target. It's really a strong top line and cost controlling that is behind the numbers, so nothing strange. Looking at the gross margin, we were slightly down compared to last year. It's the same in the fact that we are taking away the excess values, the amortization of the excess values, but we are not making any other adjustments. it's the same in the fact that we are taking away the excess values the amortization of the excess values but we are not making any other adjustments So all the integration costs, M&A costs, and this is actually burdening the EBITDA results. so all the integration costs m&a costs and this is actually burdening the ebitda results Also, amortization of activated R&D cost is impacting the number. also amortization of activated r&d cost is impacting the number I hope that was clear how that works. i hope that was clear how that works Otherwise, you have to ask. otherwise you have to ask What we can see then, SEK 264 million, 27% margin, very strong start of the year for us and good to see that we are above the financial target. what we can see then, sek 264 million 27% margin very strong start of the year for us and good to see that we are above the financial target It's really a strong top line and cost controlling that is behind the numbers, so nothing strange. it's really a strong top line and cost controlling that is behind the numbers so nothing strange Looking at the gross margin, we were slightly down compared to last year. looking at the gross margin we were slightly down compared to last year A big negative effect from currency and also, I would say it's a good product mix within the divisions, but the fact that INT is growing a lot and taking a bigger share of the whole is reducing the group margin a little bit. I think we've been talking about this before, that if and when INT starts to come back to good old form, that will put a bit of a pressure on the margin. On the other side, we have been rather successful with the price increases, and also the volume of course is good in the quarter, which is mitigating. All in all, with the mix that we have, we're quite happy to be able to present 62.4%. A big negative effect from currency and also, I would say it's a good product mix within the divisions, but the fact that INT is growing a lot and taking a bigger share of the whole is reducing the group margin a little bit. a big negative effect from currency and also i would say it's a good product mix within the divisions but the fact that int is growing a lot and taking a bigger share of the whole is reducing the group margin a little bit I think we've been talking about this before, that if and when INT starts to come back to good old form, that will put a bit of a pressure on the margin. i think we've been talking about this before that if and when int starts to come back to good old form that will put a bit of a pressure on the margin On the other side, we have been rather successful with the price increases, and also the volume of course is good in the quarter, which is mitigating. on the other side we have been rather successful with the price increases and also the volume of course is good in the quarter which is mitigating All in all, with the mix that we have, we're quite happy to be able to present 62.4%. all in all with the mix that we have we're quite happy to be able to present 62.4% On the OPEX side, we came in a little bit short of what we believed we would do, and we're a little bit behind on some of the plans. We are investing in some certain areas of the business, both in R&D, also adding a team in artificial intelligence to drive that development within the group. It's a little bit behind the schedule, but we will be there and recoup. We also have salary increases coming in Q2. Looking ahead, we will have a little bit of a higher cost level. Just two more things I want to mention here. One is the R&D, where we are, as Staffan also said, we're now investing in both INT and IDS in the new generation of products, which is increasing the pace of investment in R&D on an acceleration of costs. On the OPEX side, we came in a little bit short of what we believed we would do, and we're a little bit behind on some of the plans. on the opex side we came in a little bit short of what we believed we would do and we're a little bit behind on some of the plans We are investing in some certain areas of the business, both in R&D, also adding a team in artificial intelligence to drive that development within the group. we are investing in some certain areas of the business both in r&d also adding a team in artificial intelligence to drive that development within the group It's a little bit behind the schedule, but we will be there and recoup. it's a little bit behind the schedule but we will be there and recoup We also have salary increases coming in Q2. we also have salary increases coming in q2 Looking ahead, we will have a little bit of a higher cost level. looking ahead we will have a little bit of a higher cost level Just two more things I want to mention here. just two more things i want to mention here One is the R&D, where we are, as Staffan also said, we're now investing in both INT and IDS in the new generation of products, which is increasing the pace of investment in R&D on an acceleration of costs. one is the r&d where we are as staffan also said we're now investing in both int and ids in the new generation of products which is increasing the pace of investment in r&d on an acceleration of costs This increased to SEK 27 million from 15 last Q1. 12 million more in activated R&D, which is of course, you could say a little bit helping the results. On the other hand, you see the FX effect. We had some really good currency hedges in 2025, which has been wearing off towards the end of the year and now into 2026. We still have hedges, but it's at lower rates than what we used to have before. We see a pretty big impact on EBIT or EBITDA of the 31%. That's SEK 31 million from the FX rates. If we move on further down in the profit and loss, we come to the adjusted results, adjusted EPS results, and here we have a 3.78 as adjusted EPS. A pretty solid number. This increased to SEK 27 million from 15 last Q1. 12 million more in activated R&D, which is of course, you could say a little bit helping the results. this increased to sek 27 million from 15 last q1 12 million more in activated r&d which is of course you could say a little bit helping the results On the other hand, you see the FX effect. on the other hand you see the fx effect We had some really good currency hedges in 2025, which has been wearing off towards the end of the year and now into 2026. we had some really good currency hedges in 2025 which has been wearing off towards the end of the year and now into 2026 We still have hedges, but it's at lower rates than what we used to have before. we still have hedges but it's at lower rates than what we used to have before We see a pretty big impact on EBIT or EBITDA of the 31%. we see a pretty big impact on ebit or ebitda of the 31% That's SEK 31 million from the FX rates. that's sek 31 million from the fx rates If we move on further down in the profit and loss, we come to the adjusted results, adjusted EPS results, and here we have a 3.78 as adjusted EPS. if we move on further down in the profit and loss we come to the adjusted results adjusted eps results and here we have a 3.78 as adjusted eps A pretty solid number. a pretty solid number We're happy to see interest costs coming down from SEK 34 million a year ago to SEK 20 million now. It's a combination of course, reduced debt, but also better terms in the financing agreement, which is keeping that down a little bit. If you want to see the reported EPS, we're at 3.24, and here we are just adjusting for the excess value amortization of the acquisitions. We continue to show a good cash conversion, and the cash flow is solid with SEK 250 million. Behind that, we're reducing inventories a little bit in Q1. We're tying up quite a bit more in our customers' good invoicing in the end of the quarter. March was a very strong month in invoicing, so we tie up some SEK 37 million more in working capital in Q1. We're happy to see interest costs coming down from SEK 34 million a year ago to SEK 20 million now. we're happy to see interest costs coming down from sek 34 million a year ago to sek 20 million now It's a combination of course, reduced debt, but also better terms in the financing agreement, which is keeping that down a little bit. it's a combination of course reduced debt but also better terms in the financing agreement which is keeping that down a little bit If you want to see the reported EPS, we're at 3.24, and here we are just adjusting for the excess value amortization of the acquisitions. if you want to see the reported eps we're at 3.24 and here we are just adjusting for the excess value amortization of the acquisitions We continue to show a good cash conversion, and the cash flow is solid with SEK 250 million. we continue to show a good cash conversion and the cash flow is solid with sek 250 million Behind that, we're reducing inventories a little bit in Q1. behind that we're reducing inventories a little bit in q1 We're tying up quite a bit more in our customers' good invoicing in the end of the quarter. we're tying up quite a bit more in our customers' good invoicing in the end of the quarter March was a very strong month in invoicing, so we tie up some SEK 37 million more in working capital in Q1. march was a very strong month in invoicing so we tie up some sek 37 million more in working capital in q1 For the year, Staffan mentioned already SEK 940 million on good track to that SEK 1 billion mark that we would really like to reach soon. If we look at the net debt situation, it continues to move in the right pattern. We are reducing a bit more since Q4, and we're now down on net debt to EBITDA. If I look at pre-IFRS 16 basis of 1.87, and of course, that puts us in a good spot compared to 3.36 a year ago. I think we're quite happy with that reduction. It also means that we can put some more efforts into the M&A agenda again, and we are building that agenda now in the divisions. We're going quite well in looking at new targets and building that pipeline. Just to summarize before we hand over for questions, takeaways from the first quarter. For the year, Staffan mentioned already SEK 940 million on good track to that SEK 1 billion mark that we would really like to reach soon. for the year staffan mentioned already sek 940 million on good track to that sek 1 billion mark that we would really like to reach soon If we look at the net debt situation, it continues to move in the right pattern. if we look at the net debt situation it continues to move in the right pattern We are reducing a bit more since Q4, and we're now down on net debt to EBITDA. we are reducing a bit more since q4 and we're now down on net debt to ebitda If I look at pre-IFRS 16 basis of 1.87, and of course, that puts us in a good spot compared to 3.36 a year ago. if i look at pre-ifrs 16 basis of 1.87 and of course that puts us in a good spot compared to 3.36 a year ago I think we're quite happy with that reduction. i think we're quite happy with that reduction It also means that we can put some more efforts into the M&A agenda again, and we are building that agenda now in the divisions. it also means that we can put some more efforts into the m&a agenda again and we are building that agenda now in the divisions We're going quite well in looking at new targets and building that pipeline. we're going quite well in looking at new targets and building that pipeline Just to summarize before we hand over for questions, takeaways from the first quarter. just to summarize before we hand over for questions takeaways from the first quarter Well, what we would like you to remember is the order intake. Solid over SEK 1 billion for the first time for us. Organic growth in sales, 15% second quarter in a row with double-digit growth on the net sales side. Then we also would like to be clear with these pre-orders of about SEK 130 million that you can not expect to come back in coming quarters. Then INT, we need to lift out INT, a very strong development here with both over 20% organic growth in both orders and sales, and a good start to the new acquisition in INT. The macro situation is still uncertain. We are happy to see that the underlying market seems to be working well enough anyway. Middle East, even if it's a bit of an impact on the building automation business, not a lot for the whole group. Well, what we would like you to remember is the order intake. well what we would like you to remember is the order intake Solid over SEK 1 billion for the first time for us. solid over sek 1 billion for the first time for us Organic growth in sales, 15% second quarter in a row with double-digit growth on the net sales side. organic growth in sales 15% second quarter in a row with double-digit growth on the net sales side Then we also would like to be clear with these pre-orders of about SEK 130 million that you can not expect to come back in coming quarters. then we also would like to be clear with these pre-orders of about sek 130 million that you can not expect to come back in coming quarters Then INT, we need to lift out INT, a very strong development here with both over 20% organic growth in both orders and sales, and a good start to the new acquisition in INT. then int we need to lift out int a very strong development here with both over 20% organic growth in both orders and sales and a good start to the new acquisition in int The macro situation is still uncertain. the macro situation is still uncertain We are happy to see that the underlying market seems to be working well enough anyway. we are happy to see that the underlying market seems to be working well enough anyway Middle East, even if it's a bit of an impact on the building automation business, not a lot for the whole group. middle east even if it's a bit of an impact on the building automation business not a lot for the whole group What we also do see, I'm not sure if we talked about this before, we do see lead time for certain semiconductors coming up again, for instance, memories. Also, some prices been coming up a bit. We are not impacted by the worst, latest geometries, but still, it's a bit of a push upwards in pricing. We are trying to now place orders for more or less the full year to make sure that we have the material we need to be able to continue to deliver. Then finally, profitability and cash flow quite well. Both cash flow, cash conversion good, and the underlying profitability is slightly better than our long-term targets. We are continuing to invest in business now in R&D, in AI, and we are very happy to see the continued development of the year. What we also do see, I'm not sure if we talked about this before, we do see lead time for certain semiconductors coming up again, for instance, memories. what we also do see i'm not sure if we talked about this before we do see lead time for certain semiconductors coming up again for instance memories Also, some prices been coming up a bit. also some prices been coming up a bit We are not impacted by the worst, latest geometries, but still, it's a bit of a push upwards in pricing. we are not impacted by the worst latest geometries but still it's a bit of a push upwards in pricing We are trying to now place orders for more or less the full year to make sure that we have the material we need to be able to continue to deliver. we are trying to now place orders for more or less the full year to make sure that we have the material we need to be able to continue to deliver Then finally, profitability and cash flow quite well. then finally profitability and cash flow quite well Both cash flow, cash conversion good, and the underlying profitability is slightly better than our long-term targets. both cash flow cash conversion good and the underlying profitability is slightly better than our long-term targets We are continuing to invest in business now in R&D, in AI, and we are very happy to see the continued development of the year. we are continuing to invest in business now in r&d in ai and we are very happy to see the continued development of the year With that, I would like to hand over to operator for questions. With that, I would like to hand over to operator for questions. with that i would like to hand over to operator for questions
Speaker 5: If you wish to ask a question, please dial #5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial #6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Jesper Stugemo from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. If you wish to ask a question, please dial #5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. if you wish to ask a question please dial #5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial #6 on your telephone keypad. if you wish to withdraw your question please dial #6 on your telephone keypad The next question comes from Jesper Stugemo from Handelsbanken. the next question comes from jesper stugemo from handelsbanken Please go ahead. please go ahead
Speaker 2: Yes, good morning, Staffan and Joakim, and congrats to the very strong results here. Three questions from me, if I may. My first one is related to the increased order placements you saw among Chinese customers here, given the disruption in supply chains. It sounds like pre-buying. Do you expect a similar pattern in H1 or full 2026 as we saw in the pandemic years in terms of boosted orders, or how should we view this? Yes, good morning, Staffan and Joakim, and congrats to the very strong results here. yes good morning staffan and joakim and congrats to the very strong results here Three questions from me, if I may. three questions from me if i may My first one is related to the increased order placements you saw among Chinese customers here, given the disruption in supply chains. my first one is related to the increased order placements you saw among chinese customers here given the disruption in supply chains It sounds like pre-buying. it sounds like pre-buying Do you expect a similar pattern in H1 or full 2026 as we saw in the pandemic years in terms of boosted orders, or how should we view this? do you expect a similar pattern in h1 or full 2026 as we saw in the pandemic years in terms of boosted orders or how should we view this
Speaker 7: We start with that. We'll say, Joakim, I think we list here SEK 130 million on order intake as a little bit boosted, but I think we are much more into a balanced situation. We see some concerns in some Chinese customers due to geopolitical things. The memory is a bit worrying. It's not that we are using the same memories as the AI market, but it's the same factories, the Micron of the world. We start with that. we start with that We'll say, Joakim, I think we list here SEK 130 million on order intake as a little bit boosted, but I think we are much more into a balanced situation. we'll say joakim i think we list here sek 130 million on order intake as a little bit boosted but i think we are much more into a balanced situation We see some concerns in some Chinese customers due to geopolitical things. we see some concerns in some chinese customers due to geopolitical things The memory is a bit worrying. the memory is a bit worrying It's not that we are using the same memories as the AI market, but it's the same factories, the Micron of the world. it's not that we are using the same memories as the ai market but it's the same factories the micron of the world I think the fact that they have a full schedule also affects this kind of industrial component that we buy. We don't really see that this is a big trend. It's mainly related to some customers in China, and of course, this with the Molex acquisition is a one-time effect. We bought this asset without order book, and some customers were really happy, so they committed to larger time order. What do you say, Joakim, do you see this as a big trend? I think the fact that they have a full schedule also affects this kind of industrial component that we buy. i think the fact that they have a full schedule also affects this kind of industrial component that we buy We don't really see that this is a big trend. we don't really see that this is a big trend It's mainly related to some customers in China, and of course, this with the Molex acquisition is a one-time effect. it's mainly related to some customers in china and of course this with the molex acquisition is a one-time effect We bought this asset without order book, and some customers were really happy, so they committed to larger time order. we bought this asset without order book and some customers were really happy so they committed to larger time order What do you say, Joakim, do you see this as a big trend? what do you say joakim do you see this as a big trend
Speaker 4: No, I think we've been discussing that a lot, Jesper. I think it's been something we've been also challenging the different business owners in the company, how they see this. I think what we say in the report, we believe that about SEK 130 million was maybe placed a bit early. Otherwise, it seems to be a quite solid market, and we've also been seeing other peers reporting strong numbers for the first quarter. We're happy to see that the investments seem to continue. No, I think we've been discussing that a lot, Jesper. no i think we've been discussing that a lot jesper I think it's been something we've been also challenging the different business owners in the company, how they see this. i think it's been something we've been also challenging the different business owners in the company how they see this I think what we say in the report, we believe that about SEK 130 million was maybe placed a bit early. i think what we say in the report we believe that about sek 130 million was maybe placed a bit early Otherwise, it seems to be a quite solid market, and we've also been seeing other peers reporting strong numbers for the first quarter. otherwise it seems to be a quite solid market and we've also been seeing other peers reporting strong numbers for the first quarter We're happy to see that the investments seem to continue. we're happy to see that the investments seem to continue
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, thanks. Very clear. A follow-up then on the memory prices here. How do you work to secure your volumes to deliver to the customers and the risk here? Also on inflationary COGS coming up and potential workarounds to not lower the gross margin here. Yeah, okay, thanks. yeah okay thanks Very clear. very clear A follow-up then on the memory prices here. a follow-up then on the memory prices here How do you work to secure your volumes to deliver to the customers and the risk here? how do you work to secure your volumes to deliver to the customers and the risk here Also on inflationary COGS coming up and potential workarounds to not lower the gross margin here. also on inflationary cogs coming up and potential workarounds to not lower the gross margin here
Speaker 4: Yeah, very relevant question. What we've been doing is we've been placing orders for the rest of the year. We haven't taken all the volume yet. We will probably take volume a bit earlier than what we normally would do. I think you can maybe expect that we build a little bit of working capital for throughout the year. I would maybe have expected that we could reduce. Before, if you asked me half a year ago, I'd probably think that we could reduce working capital throughout the year. Now, that might be challenging. I think that's pretty much what we can do. On the pricing side, so far, it seems like we've been covering what we need to cover in the yearly increases. If that view changes, we will, of course, act as we always do to protect the margins. Yeah, very relevant question. yeah very relevant question What we've been doing is we've been placing orders for the rest of the year. what we've been doing is we've been placing orders for the rest of the year We haven't taken all the volume yet. we haven't taken all the volume yet We will probably take volume a bit earlier than what we normally would do. we will probably take volume a bit earlier than what we normally would do I think you can maybe expect that we build a little bit of working capital for throughout the year. i think you can maybe expect that we build a little bit of working capital for throughout the year I would maybe have expected that we could reduce. i would maybe have expected that we could reduce Before, if you asked me half a year ago, I'd probably think that we could reduce working capital throughout the year. before if you asked me half a year ago i'd probably think that we could reduce working capital throughout the year Now, that might be challenging. now that might be challenging I think that's pretty much what we can do. i think that's pretty much what we can do On the pricing side, so far, it seems like we've been covering what we need to cover in the yearly increases. on the pricing side so far it seems like we've been covering what we need to cover in the yearly increases If that view changes, we will, of course, act as we always do to protect the margins. if that view changes we will of course act as we always do to protect the margins
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks. Very clear. I'll jump back in line here. Okay, thanks. okay thanks Very clear. very clear I'll jump back in line here. i'll jump back in line here
Speaker 4: Thanks, Jesper. Thanks, Jesper. thanks jesper
Speaker 5: The next question comes from Victor Hagberg from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. The next question comes from Victor Hagberg from Danske Bank. the next question comes from victor hagberg from danske bank Please go ahead. please go ahead
Speaker 8: Good morning. Just on the EBITDA margin potential. Of course, we know that costs are not fully ramped up yet, but the organic margin potential looks higher than at least what we picked up at the CMD. I was thinking that maybe, I don't know, 27% as an organic potential by 2030. You're already at that level. Just what are your thoughts on the organic potential if we would exclude the M&A impact, which we know will probably dilute it? Good morning. good morning Just on the EBITDA margin potential. just on the ebitda margin potential Of course, we know that costs are not fully ramped up yet, but the organic margin potential looks higher than at least what we picked up at the CMD. of course we know that costs are not fully ramped up yet but the organic margin potential looks higher than at least what we picked up at the cmd I was thinking that maybe, I don't know, 27% as an organic potential by 2030. i was thinking that maybe i don't know 27% as an organic potential by 2030 You're already at that level. you're already at that level Just what are your thoughts on the organic potential if we would exclude the M&A impact, which we know will probably dilute it? just what are your thoughts on the organic potential if we would exclude the m&a impact which we know will probably dilute it
Speaker 7: We have a target, 2030, that includes the M&A impact. We are talking about most of the M&As we look at will have a dilutive effect on our margins, gross margins, and net margins. We look on the combination. Of course, the more organic growth we are able to generate, the better it will be for our margins, I think, because there we have a higher leverage. Joakim, any comments from you? It's really difficult. We have a target, 2030, that includes the M&A impact. we have a target 2030 that includes the m&a impact We are talking about most of the M&As we look at will have a dilutive effect on our margins, gross margins, and net margins. we are talking about most of the m&as we look at will have a dilutive effect on our margins gross margins and net margins We look on the combination. we look on the combination Of course, the more organic growth we are able to generate, the better it will be for our margins, I think, because there we have a higher leverage. of course the more organic growth we are able to generate the better it will be for our margins i think because there we have a higher leverage Joakim, any comments from you? joakim any comments from you It's really difficult. it's really difficult
Speaker 4: I think we try to be humble. I mean, 25% is It's a pretty good margin in itself. Now we've been having three good quarters in a row with slightly higher margins. We also see that we need to continue to invest to be able to get organic growth. We think that we don't want to save ourselves to a higher margin and miss out on potential growth. I think it's always a balance, but we think that 25%, maybe some quarters we will be a bit better, but that's pretty much what we're trying to steer against. I think we try to be humble. i think we try to be humble I mean, 25% is It's a pretty good margin in itself. i mean 25% is it's a pretty good margin in itself Now we've been having three good quarters in a row with slightly higher margins. now we've been having three good quarters in a row with slightly higher margins We also see that we need to continue to invest to be able to get organic growth. we also see that we need to continue to invest to be able to get organic growth We think that we don't want to save ourselves to a higher margin and miss out on potential growth. we think that we don't want to save ourselves to a higher margin and miss out on potential growth I think it's always a balance, but we think that 25%, maybe some quarters we will be a bit better, but that's pretty much what we're trying to steer against. i think it's always a balance but we think that 25% maybe some quarters we will be a bit better but that's pretty much what we're trying to steer against
Speaker 8: Okay. Fair enough. Also on the gross margin, given your expectations now on the growth in respective segments with different profiles, balancing this with effects and price hikes, do you see a change in the gross margin profile today versus what you saw at the CMD in September? Okay. okay Fair enough. fair enough Also on the gross margin, given your expectations now on the growth in respective segments with different profiles, balancing this with effects and price hikes, do you see a change in the gross margin profile today versus what you saw at the CMD in September? also on the gross margin given your expectations now on the growth in respective segments with different profiles balancing this with effects and price hikes do you see a change in the gross margin profile today versus what you saw at the cmd in september
Speaker 4: Not necessarily. Not a lot, I'd say. Compared to then, I think we've been seeing even weaker U.S., dollar and euro versus the SEK, which is, of course, not great for our margins. I think maybe that will do a percentage point or so. I think we have some good things going on. We think that we don't want to change the long-term target for sure. We set a target of 65% to 2030. We will not be the next quarter, but we think that's still relevant with what we're doing. Not necessarily. not necessarily Not a lot, I'd say. not a lot i'd say Compared to then, I think we've been seeing even weaker U.S., dollar and euro versus the SEK, which is, of course, not great for our margins. compared to then i think we've been seeing even weaker u.s dollar and euro versus the sek which is of course not great for our margins I think maybe that will do a percentage point or so. i think maybe that will do a percentage point or so I think we have some good things going on. i think we have some good things going on We think that we don't want to change the long-term target for sure. we think that we don't want to change the long-term target for sure We set a target of 65% to 2030. we set a target of 65% to 2030 We will not be the next quarter, but we think that's still relevant with what we're doing. we will not be the next quarter but we think that's still relevant with what we're doing
Speaker 8: Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. okay Thank you very much. thank you very much
Speaker 7: Thanks, Victor. Thanks, Victor. thanks victor
Speaker 5: The next question comes from Erik Larsson from SEB. Please go ahead. The next question comes from Erik Larsson from SEB. the next question comes from erik larsson from seb Please go ahead. please go ahead
Speaker 1: Thank you. First, a question on OpEx. You talked about ramping costs here and perhaps lagging a bit, but at the same time, it's only up 3% here in Q1 organically, if I understood correctly. So maybe if you could just speak to how steep this increase could be the coming quarters would be helpful. Thank you. thank you First, a question on OpEx. first a question on opex You talked about ramping costs here and perhaps lagging a bit, but at the same time, it's only up 3% here in Q1 organically, if I understood correctly. you talked about ramping costs here and perhaps lagging a bit but at the same time it's only up 3% here in q1 organically if i understood correctly So maybe if you could just speak to how steep this increase could be the coming quarters would be helpful. so maybe if you could just speak to how steep this increase could be the coming quarters would be helpful
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't expect it to be super steep, but we're probably going to add SEK a couple of million per quarter. I think you can expect that when we're ramping up. Normally, Q2 and Q4 are a bit more heavy for us in terms of market investments and traveling and different customer events. I think that you can probably expect to add on. It's going to be slowly but safely increasing a few percentage points from where we are today. That's pretty much what we believe. I think we are in a good place, and we will do some smart investments but not go crazy. Yeah, I don't expect it to be super steep, but we're probably going to add SEK a couple of million per quarter. yeah i don't expect it to be super steep but we're probably going to add sek a couple of million per quarter I think you can expect that when we're ramping up. i think you can expect that when we're ramping up Normally, Q2 and Q4 are a bit more heavy for us in terms of market investments and traveling and different customer events. normally q2 and q4 are a bit more heavy for us in terms of market investments and traveling and different customer events I think that you can probably expect to add on. i think that you can probably expect to add on It's going to be slowly but safely increasing a few percentage points from where we are today. it's going to be slowly but safely increasing a few percentage points from where we are today That's pretty much what we believe. that's pretty much what we believe I think we are in a good place, and we will do some smart investments but not go crazy. i think we are in a good place and we will do some smart investments but not go crazy
Speaker 1: All right, great. On data centers, I think the last time, at least that I remember, that you mentioned a larger order was in Q4 2024 or something. Could you give some more backdrop on how this vertical has developed over the past year? Because now it seems to have been a good driver. All right, great. all right great On data centers, I think the last time, at least that I remember, that you mentioned a larger order was in Q4 2024 or something. on data centers i think the last time at least that i remember that you mentioned a larger order was in q4 2024 or something Could you give some more backdrop on how this vertical has developed over the past year? could you give some more backdrop on how this vertical has developed over the past year Because now it seems to have been a good driver. because now it seems to have been a good driver
Speaker 7: I think we see this in different projects that we see for INT, they are selling some gateways. We see in building automation, they are connecting the ACs for cooling. We don't see so much of this switching business for network infrastructure we got for power conversion in Q4. It's a quite broad mix of automation projects that are related to data center. As you said before, we are not part of the compute in these centers. It's about incoming power, the cooling or heating, and these kind of things, automation systems around it. We see broad automation projects with our system integration in U.S., that they are involved in this kind of automation projects in data centers. I think we see this in different projects that we see for INT, they are selling some gateways. i think we see this in different projects that we see for int they are selling some gateways We see in building automation, they are connecting the ACs for cooling. we see in building automation they are connecting the acs for cooling We don't see so much of this switching business for network infrastructure we got for power conversion in Q4. we don't see so much of this switching business for network infrastructure we got for power conversion in q4 It's a quite broad mix of automation projects that are related to data center. it's a quite broad mix of automation projects that are related to data center As you said before, we are not part of the compute in these centers. as you said before we are not part of the compute in these centers It's about incoming power, the cooling or heating, and these kind of things, automation systems around it. it's about incoming power the cooling or heating and these kind of things automation systems around it We see broad automation projects with our system integration in U.S., that they are involved in this kind of automation projects in data centers. we see broad automation projects with our system integration in u.s that they are involved in this kind of automation projects in data centers
Speaker 1: Okay, a final question, if you could just explain more about the improvements you see in Europe. Is it broad-based or is it any specific driver? Okay, a final question, if you could just explain more about the improvements you see in Europe. okay a final question if you could just explain more about the improvements you see in europe Is it broad-based or is it any specific driver? is it broad-based or is it any specific driver
Speaker 7: I think we see two different things on INT. We see a pickup, quite broad-based on customers who don't have inventory anymore, and also customers who work towards automotive business. It's not great, but it's not too bad either. Then we see some verticals where automotive, in general, is not good. Maybe it's not getting worse, but other verticals are pretty good. Infrastructure and automation in general, electrification. That's starting to see some momentum in Europe, we think. I think we see two different things on INT. i think we see two different things on int We see a pickup, quite broad-based on customers who don't have inventory anymore, and also customers who work towards automotive business. we see a pickup quite broad-based on customers who don't have inventory anymore and also customers who work towards automotive business It's not great, but it's not too bad either. it's not great but it's not too bad either Then we see some verticals where automotive, in general, is not good. then we see some verticals where automotive in general is not good Maybe it's not getting worse, but other verticals are pretty good. maybe it's not getting worse but other verticals are pretty good Infrastructure and automation in general, electrification. infrastructure and automation in general electrification That's starting to see some momentum in Europe, we think. that's starting to see some momentum in europe we think
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. That's all from me. Okay, thank you. okay thank you That's all from me. that's all from me
Speaker 7: Thanks, Erik. Thanks, Erik. thanks erik
Speaker 5: The next question comes from Simon Granath from HMS. Please go ahead. The next question comes from Simon Granath from HMS. the next question comes from simon granath from hms Please go ahead. please go ahead
Speaker 6: Hey, guys. Should be ABG, of course. Congrats again on the strong performance. We have previously been discussing that there have been some discrepancy in recent quarters between the larger and smaller projects, with larger projects being a bit on a pause. Are you seeing any change on the latter, either in terms of orders now or in terms of customer dialogs? Thanks. Hey, guys. hey guys Should be ABG, of course. should be abg of course Congrats again on the strong performance. congrats again on the strong performance We have previously been discussing that there have been some discrepancy in recent quarters between the larger and smaller projects, with larger projects being a bit on a pause. we have previously been discussing that there have been some discrepancy in recent quarters between the larger and smaller projects with larger projects being a bit on a pause Are you seeing any change on the latter, either in terms of orders now or in terms of customer dialogs? are you seeing any change on the latter either in terms of orders now or in terms of customer dialogs Thanks. thanks
Speaker 7: No, I think we're still waiting for some larger orders. I would say we see more of small and mid-size broad-based orders and not too much of this larger projects order that we got end of 2024. No, I think we're still waiting for some larger orders. no i think we're still waiting for some larger orders I would say we see more of small and mid-size broad-based orders and not too much of this larger projects order that we got end of 2024. i would say we see more of small and mid-size broad-based orders and not too much of this larger projects order that we got end of 2024
Speaker 6: Thank you. Only one follow-up more, and that is another topic that we spoke about at the CMD, and that was on the potential upgrade cycle for Anybus to meet upcoming security requirements. Are you seeing that play out? Thank you. thank you Only one follow-up more, and that is another topic that we spoke about at the CMD, and that was on the potential upgrade cycle for Anybus to meet upcoming security requirements. only one follow-up more and that is another topic that we spoke about at the cmd and that was on the potential upgrade cycle for anybus to meet upcoming security requirements Are you seeing that play out? are you seeing that play out
Speaker 4: Very good question. We're doing some initiative in security, and there's a lot of new regulations, and we try to get our arms around how to monetize on this. We have a team working on this with some products. In general, we see a lot of customers who want to talk about cybersecurity and this, but we can't really see that there's a. If you look at our revenue, it's not a big part of our revenue, and we're still trying to find a way in this cybersecurity landscape. I can't really see that we have cracked the code there yet. There's a lot of customer interest. Right now it's more interesting in education and consultant services and not really a product business yet. We are still working, trying to find our ways there. Very good question. very good question We're doing some initiative in security, and there's a lot of new regulations, and we try to get our arms around how to monetize on this. we're doing some initiative in security and there's a lot of new regulations and we try to get our arms around how to monetize on this We have a team working on this with some products. we have a team working on this with some products In general, we see a lot of customers who want to talk about cybersecurity and this, but we can't really see that there's a. in general we see a lot of customers who want to talk about cybersecurity and this but we can't really see that there's a If you look at our revenue, it's not a big part of our revenue, and we're still trying to find a way in this cybersecurity landscape. if you look at our revenue it's not a big part of our revenue and we're still trying to find a way in this cybersecurity landscape I can't really see that we have cracked the code there yet. i can't really see that we have cracked the code there yet There's a lot of customer interest. there's a lot of customer interest Right now it's more interesting in education and consultant services and not really a product business yet. right now it's more interesting in education and consultant services and not really a product business yet We are still working, trying to find our ways there. we are still working trying to find our ways there
Speaker 6: Very clear. That's all from me. Thanks. Very clear. very clear That's all from me. that's all from me Thanks. thanks
Speaker 7: Thanks. Thanks. thanks
Speaker 5: The next question comes from Joachim Gunell from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead. The next question comes from Joachim Gunell from DNB Carnegie . the next question comes from joachim gunell from dnb carnegie Please go ahead. please go ahead
Speaker 3: Thank you. Good morning. Just two questions from my side. The first one relates to end market momentum in some of your verticals. You commented a bit on the data center opportunity, and to your point, it could be any other industrial building. Right? It's not necessarily the service and rec center. But you also comment a bit about semicon manufacturing. To what extent do you see that as a growth driver? And oil and gas, are you seeing customers in that more broader energy, and the market become more opportunistic? Where CapEx investment is going there. Thank you. thank you Good morning. good morning Just two questions from my side. just two questions from my side The first one relates to end market momentum in some of your verticals. the first one relates to end market momentum in some of your verticals You commented a bit on the data center opportunity, and to your point, it could be any other industrial building. you commented a bit on the data center opportunity and to your point it could be any other industrial building Right? right It's not necessarily the service and rec center. it's not necessarily the service and rec center But you also comment a bit about semicon manufacturing. but you also comment a bit about semicon manufacturing To what extent do you see that as a growth driver? to what extent do you see that as a growth driver And oil and gas, are you seeing customers in that more broader energy, and the market become more opportunistic? and oil and gas are you seeing customers in that more broader energy and the market become more opportunistic Where CapEx investment is going there. where capex investment is going there
Speaker 7: Well, if I start, and this is a little speculation, we see that we have customers in semiconductor. They are highly successful. There seem to be a lot of investments, broad-based, not only AI, but most of the customers we have is more on the machine side in semiconductor, doing all these vacuum things and these kind of things, and that seem to be very strong momentum. On oil and gas, we are speculating that with the challenges we see now in Middle East, wouldn't that drive more investments in other areas of the world to be in where they have oil, that this would be more investment. Well, if I start, and this is a little speculation, we see that we have customers in semiconductor. well if i start and this is a little speculation we see that we have customers in semiconductor They are highly successful. they are highly successful There seem to be a lot of investments, broad-based, not only AI, but most of the customers we have is more on the machine side in semiconductor, doing all these vacuum things and these kind of things, and that seem to be very strong momentum. there seem to be a lot of investments broad-based not only ai but most of the customers we have is more on the machine side in semiconductor doing all these vacuum things and these kind of things and that seem to be very strong momentum On oil and gas, we are speculating that with the challenges we see now in Middle East, wouldn't that drive more investments in other areas of the world to be in where they have oil, that this would be more investment. on oil and gas we are speculating that with the challenges we see now in middle east wouldn't that drive more investments in other areas of the world to be in where they have oil that this would be more investment We haven't seen it yet, but we are speculating that there might be good market opportunities in North America, in other parts of Europe, in other parts of Asia, where you could explore more of the oil and gas resources they have there to complement the Middle East market. We haven't seen it yet. We're just speculating about it. We haven't seen it yet, but we are speculating that there might be good market opportunities in North America, in other parts of Europe, in other parts of Asia, where you could explore more of the oil and gas resources they have there to complement the Middle East market. we haven't seen it yet but we are speculating that there might be good market opportunities in north america in other parts of europe in other parts of asia where you could explore more of the oil and gas resources they have there to complement the middle east market We haven't seen it yet. we haven't seen it yet We're just speculating about it. we're just speculating about it
Speaker 3: Understood. In terms of exposure in the IDS division, the energy footprint is quite sizable, right? Understood. understood In terms of exposure in the IDS division, the energy footprint is quite sizable, right? in terms of exposure in the ids division the energy footprint is quite sizable right
Speaker 7: Yes, it is. Yes, it is. yes it is
Speaker 3: Perfect. Just finally. Perfect. perfect Just finally. just finally
Speaker 7: Just to comment that, Joachim, North America is the big market, so the exposure is mainly related to North American oil and gas. Just to comment that, Joachim, North America is the big market, so the exposure is mainly related to North American oil and gas. just to comment that joachim north america is the big market so the exposure is mainly related to north american oil and gas
Speaker 3: Absolutely. That's clear. We saw here, of course, with the Molex order activity, that yet another acquisition for which you paid fairly low price tags are playing out the way that you hoped for. Now that we see cash flow take your net debt levels to, call it, acquisition territory, can you just comment a bit about your appetite and, call it, self-confidence when it comes to pursue more M&A towards the latter part of the year? Absolutely. absolutely That's clear. that's clear We saw here, of course, with the Molex order activity, that yet another acquisition for which you paid fairly low price tags are playing out the way that you hoped for. we saw here of course with the molex order activity that yet another acquisition for which you paid fairly low price tags are playing out the way that you hoped for Now that we see cash flow take your net debt levels to, call it, acquisition territory, can you just comment a bit about your appetite and, call it, self-confidence when it comes to pursue more M&A towards the latter part of the year? now that we see cash flow take your net debt levels to call it acquisition territory can you just comment a bit about your appetite and call it self-confidence when it comes to pursue more m&a towards the latter part of the year
Speaker 7: I think we have a pretty good confidence, and I think the reason is probably that we are a bit selective, so we want to continue to be selective. We are looking at a couple of things at the moment, so we hope that we're going to be able to get something done this year as well. We will be as active as we can, run as fast as we can. Now we have three divisions that are all looking into building their pipelines and managing those pipelines. I think we have a pretty good foundation. I think we have a pretty good confidence, and I think the reason is probably that we are a bit selective, so we want to continue to be selective. i think we have a pretty good confidence and i think the reason is probably that we are a bit selective so we want to continue to be selective We are looking at a couple of things at the moment, so we hope that we're going to be able to get something done this year as well. we are looking at a couple of things at the moment so we hope that we're going to be able to get something done this year as well We will be as active as we can, run as fast as we can. we will be as active as we can run as fast as we can Now we have three divisions that are all looking into building their pipelines and managing those pipelines. now we have three divisions that are all looking into building their pipelines and managing those pipelines I think we have a pretty good foundation. i think we have a pretty good foundation
Speaker 3: Sounds encouraging. Thank you. Sounds encouraging. sounds encouraging Thank you. thank you
Speaker 7: Thanks, Joachim. Thanks, Joachim. thanks joachim
Speaker 5: As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Jesper Stugemo from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. as a reminder if you wish to ask a question please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad The next question comes from Jesper Stugemo from Handelsbanken. the next question comes from jesper stugemo from handelsbanken Please go ahead. please go ahead
Speaker 2: Yes. Hi again. Sorry, I just have a follow-up on this $130 million in early orders. Maybe I missed that, but how much of this was translated into sales in this quarter? Thank you. Yes. yes Hi again. hi again Sorry, I just have a follow-up on this $130 million in early orders. sorry i just have a follow-up on this $130 million in early orders Maybe I missed that, but how much of this was translated into sales in this quarter? maybe i missed that but how much of this was translated into sales in this quarter Thank you. thank you
Speaker 4: Nothing has been translated into sales of that SEK 130. Nothing has been translated into sales of that SEK 130. nothing has been translated into sales of that sek 130 Nothing. Nothing. nothing The point is that. The point is that. the point is that
Speaker 2: Okay Okay okay
Speaker 4: ... normally we would have received those in Q2, Q3, and so on. ... normally we would have received those in Q2, Q3, and so on. normally we would have received those in q2 q3 and so on
Speaker 7: Joakim, the larger part, this SEK 130, is related to this Molex pre-orders, and the other part is related to these Chinese customers. That's the two things we have there. Joakim, the larger part, this SEK 130, is related to this Molex pre-orders, and the other part is related to these Chinese customers. joakim the larger part this sek 130 is related to this molex pre-orders and the other part is related to these chinese customers That's the two things we have there. that's the two things we have there
Speaker 4: Some of the panel meters. Some of the panel meters. some of the panel meters
Speaker 7: Oh, you're right. Okay, yeah. Oh, you're right. oh you're right Okay, yeah. okay yeah
Speaker 4: Where we have some more lead times, yeah. Where we have some more lead times, yeah. where we have some more lead times yeah
Speaker 2: Okay, perfect. Thank you, guys. Okay, perfect. okay perfect Thank you, guys. thank you guys
Speaker 7: Thanks, Jesper. Thanks, Jesper. thanks jesper
Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you. thank you
Speaker 5: There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments. there are no more questions at this time so i hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments
Speaker 7: Thank you, operator, and thanks everybody for joining this call. We are just getting ready for our AGM here in Halmstad, and we are very happy to see a strong quarter, solid quarter, and we feel that the market is fairly stable. It's not great, but we feel that things are falling into the right places. We're very happy to see good progress on the acquired unit from Red Lion, PEAK-System, and now also this Molex business we acquired from 1st of January. Things are moving in the right direction, but it is an uncertain world out there. As I said, we are impressed by our customers' robustness and their willingness to continue their plans despite the geopolitical things and trade things. We are fairly optimistic about the coming quarters. Stay tuned, and I look forward to talk to you next quarter. Thank you, operator, and thanks everybody for joining this call. thank you operator and thanks everybody for joining this call We are just getting ready for our AGM here in Halmstad, and we are very happy to see a strong quarter, solid quarter, and we feel that the market is fairly stable. we are just getting ready for our agm here in halmstad and we are very happy to see a strong quarter solid quarter and we feel that the market is fairly stable It's not great, but we feel that things are falling into the right places. it's not great but we feel that things are falling into the right places We're very happy to see good progress on the acquired unit from Red Lion, PEAK-System, and now also this Molex business we acquired from 1st of January. we're very happy to see good progress on the acquired unit from red lion peak-system and now also this molex business we acquired from 1st of january Things are moving in the right direction, but it is an uncertain world out there. things are moving in the right direction but it is an uncertain world out there As I said, we are impressed by our customers' robustness and their willingness to continue their plans despite the geopolitical things and trade things. as i said we are impressed by our customers' robustness and their willingness to continue their plans despite the geopolitical things and trade things We are fairly optimistic about the coming quarters. we are fairly optimistic about the coming quarters Stay tuned, and I look forward to talk to you next quarter. stay tuned and i look forward to talk to you next quarter
Speaker 4: Have a great Thursday. Thank you, and bye. Have a great Thursday. have a great thursday Thank you, and bye. thank you and bye