BHG Group AB

STO:BHG

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Welcome to BHG Q2 Report 2025. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Gustaf Ohrn; and CFO, Jesper Flemme. Please go ahead.

[Gustaf Ohrn, executive]

Hi, and welcome. My name is Gustaf Ohrn, CEO of BHG. I'm here together with Jesper Flemme, CFO, to present our Q2 report. We will also be available after the presentation to do our best to answer your questions.

Slide 2, please. We are happy to present another solid and strong quarter for BHG. For the third consecutive quarter, we continued to show strong organic growth. For the second quarter of the year, we report 5% organic growth, bringing the year-to-date growth to approximately 7%. All three business units continue to show organic growth versus the previous year. Based on our available data points, we conclude that we have taken market share during the quarter.

We also report significant improved profitability in the quarter, now with the seventh consecutive quarter of profitability improvement year-on-year. This quarter, reporting SEK 118 million in earnings, which corresponds to a 19% improvement versus previous year. It should be noted that underlying profitability improvement is another SEK 9 million better if adjusted for the divested businesses of IP-Agency this year and Designkupp last year. The improvement in earnings comes primarily from top line growth in combination with high efficiency in marketing costs and SG&A well in control, creating leverage from top line and improving profitability and demonstrating the scalability of our model. We report a strong cash flow of SEK 363 million following the normal seasonal pattern and showing further improvement on last year's already strong cash flow.

Slide 3, please. A few words about market development. We have seen market turmoil in this quarter, but our assessment is unchanged that the market continues to improve compared to last year and that the market continues to grow in the second quarter of the year. The main driver of market improvements we assess comes from the disposable income on the rise as an effect of lower interest levels in a few of our main markets, including Sweden. We also see positive effects on our largest market of Sweden from government-supported tax reductions from the increased [ RUT/ROT ] Most positive is, however, that the main long-term trends remain intact and the migration from the physical channel to the digital channel continues in our categories, and we assess that the online market will grow faster than the total market.

Slide 4, please. We have now had three consecutive quarters of organic growth. And in the first half of this year, we delivered approximately 7% organic growth. And as mentioned, we assess that we have grown more than the market and taken market share. This year, we had an early start of spring already in March, which had a positive effect on sales of spring products already in the first quarter. This was then followed by a second quarter with a relatively cold May, which is also our most important month in the quarter in terms of sales. In summary, this affected Q1 somewhat positively and Q2 somewhat negatively.

On a general level, our view is unchanged that the market is continuing to recover even if it is at a somewhat lower speed than earlier anticipated. Our assessment of the market outlook remains unchanged. We expect a continued market recovery during the year, driven primarily by improvements in disposable income. Sweden leading the way, but with the same tendency, but from lower levels and with some time lag in most of our markets.

Slide 5, please. So continued growth also in the second quarter. Let me try to further clarify where this growth comes from. From a geo perspective, the main growth comes from Sweden being our largest market and continues to show growth. We also see strong sales development in the important markets of Norway and Germany, driven by successful geographic expansion. The most challenging of our key markets is currently Finland, which trails our other main markets in recovery. With that said, we achieved marginally positive sales growth in Finland adjusted for the sale of IP-Agency.

From a category perspective, the main growth comes from strong sales development in indoor furnishing driven by successful assortment development in value home and continued recovery in capital-intensive categories such as bathrooms, windows and doors, primarily in our Home Improvement segment. Following strong sales in Q1, we, in the second quarter, saw weaker demand in the garden and outdoor furnishing categories as a consequence of the relatively colder than usual weather in May.

Slide 6, please. Looking ahead, we are leaving the restructuring phase and now with full focus on the profitable growth phase. We operate in the home and household market, and we are the largest consumer-focused online company in the Nordics. Our goal is to grow more than the addressable market and targeting the 5% pre-pandemic profitability levels in the first phase and then further on to the 7% adjusted EBIT that we have in our financial goals. The categories that we focus on are still low in online penetration and demand in the online channel is further driven by continued migration from the physical to the online channel.

The main pillars of our strategy boils down to we seek to grow by expanding our strong offering into adjacent product categories and by expanding into new geographies, using and maintaining our leading positions in large categories such as Bathroom, Garden, et cetera, and benefiting from the combination of our multi-destination, multi-banner format and our business models ranging from drop ship to inventory based and private label to better than the competition, target and serve multiple consumer segments with a combination of own and external brands. Being primarily online and using the advantage of the asset-light and scalable model enables our core focus on efficiency and cost control to provide the best offer to the consumer. Using our generated cash flow to reduce net debt and strategic growth initiatives, but also increase our focus on bolt-on acquisition to fuel growth in existing platforms. With this, I will leave it to Jesper to take us through the numbers.

[Jesper Flemme, executive]

Thank you, Gustaf. And Slide 7, please. All 3 segments drove solid organic growth in the second quarter of the year. Net sales increased by 1%, reaching SEK 2.7 billion and organic growth was 5.4%. The Value Homes segment had a strong quarter, nearly reaching double-digit organic growth, which clearly testifies that our efforts to improve both offering and product availability has paid off. Geographically, as Gustaf just said, we continue to experience growth in our largest market of Sweden. We noted the strongest performance in Norway and Germany and Finland remains challenging.

Turning now to Page 8 and profitability. Profitability improved almost 20% compared to last year. Adjusted EBIT amounted to SEK 118 million in the quarter, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 4.3%. The strongest profitability was seen in the Value Home's segment with an EBIT margin of 7.1% Home Improvement had a solid quarter with an adjusted EBIT of SEK 77 million, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 5.2% and Premium Living managed to improve both profit and EBIT margin over last year.

Moving on to Slide 9 and the EBIT bridge. Our EBIT margin improved by 0.7 percentage points in the quarter, primarily thanks to growth and effective cost control, which enable us to better leverage our fixed cost base. Organizational costs and D&A have decreased by SEK 10 million in total compared to the corresponding period last year. Also, marketing costs continue to be a positive driver this quarter for improvements in all segments. The lower product margin for the quarter compared with the year earlier period is almost entirely explained by the mix effect from divesting IP-Agency, which affects the margin by 0.6 percentage points.

All in all, our EBIT margin amounted to 4.3% in the quarter.

Slide 10 and cash flow, please. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 363 million, corresponding to a robust cash conversion of 169%. Pro forma was driven equally by EBITDA and working capital gains, the latter thanks to inventory reduction. The positive development in working capital reflects both our targeted inventory optimization activities and the normal seasonal pattern. The right-hand graph showing the development in liquidity walks us through the starting period position of SEK 473 million, adding the cash flow from operations and the impact of investing activities and finally, deducting the financing activities, which are primarily related to utilization of our revolving credit facility and amortization of leasing liabilities, but also include interest payments, bringing us to the period end SEK 682 million of liquidity at hand.

Slide 11, please. The group's net debt amounts to SEK 1.0 billion at the end of the quarter, and net debt in relation to LTM adjusted EBITDA ended at 3.0x. On top of our liquidity at hand, we had unutilized credit facilities at the end of the quarter of SEK 600 million. Acquisition-related liabilities amount to SEK 335 million at the end of the quarter. Cash flow-wise, SEK 110 million will be paid out this year and another SEK 100 million in 2026. With that, I will hand it back over to you, Gustaf to summarize and conclude.

[Gustaf Ohrn, executive]

Thank you very much, Jesper. Next slide, please. Let me try to summarize this. The year has started strong for BHG and summarizing the first half of the year, we report 7% growth and a 42% earnings improvement. We report continued growth for the third consecutive quarter and growth in all three business units. Earnings continue to improve, and we report improvement in earnings for the seventh consecutive quarter. Our assessment of the market remains unchanged. We expect a continued market recovery during the year, driven primarily by improvements in disposable income. With full focus on the profitable growth phase, we remain humble but confident to continue our hard work towards the 7% EBIT margin we have in our financial goals.

Thank you very much for listening, and now happy to do our very best to answer your questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Daniel Schmidt from Danske Bank.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

A couple of questions from me. You were quite clear, I think, Gustaf in your commentary prepared remarks regarding sort of May and the very cold weather that we had in the Nordics, which impacted some of the categories quite a lot, I expect. What is sort of -- what did you see at the end of the quarter? What was the exit rate you think compared to the average for the full quarter?

[Gustaf Ohrn, executive]

Thanks, Daniel. I'll do my best to elaborate a little bit on it. And just as you say, May was unusually cold. It affected the Garden category and to some extent, also the outdoor furniture category, which was strong in Q1 because we got the spring early. On a general level, I can say that the improvement we see in market and that we saw through Q2, they were stronger in April and June than the negative effect that we had in May.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

Okay. And weather conditions might be more important during the spring, of course, because that's really when the season shifts. But is there any reason to believe that weather has been unfavorable so far in Q3? It's only been 2.5 weeks, but still?

[Unknown Executive]

It's a very short time, as you say. But no, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say we've seen any negative effects from the weather in the beginning of this quarter, no. And as you say, the biggest weather effect we have in our seasonal pattern is actually when the spring starts and how warm the spring is.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

Okay. Good. And just maybe a detailed question. I think you earlier guided for the [indiscernible] earn-out payment to be happening in Q2. Is that instead of happening in Q3?

[Unknown Executive]

Yes.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

And then just also coming back to the entire sum, you said SEK 100 million, SEK 110 million for '25, SEK 100 million for '26. Is that remaining part, which is SEK 125 million, I think, evenly divided between '27 and '28.

[Jesper Flemme, executive]

2/3 in '27 and 1/3 in '28.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

Okay. And just maybe then you've had a very strong improvement trend in profitability over the past 7 quarters. You have 3 quarters now in a row with organic growth. It sounds like you believe that will continue. I think you did mention a couple of months or quarters ago that the 5% target is not going to be reached in '25. Is there any sort of guidance you want to give on when it's reasonable to get to the 5%?

[Unknown Executive]

Let's put it this way. We're very happy that we have improved our earnings for the last 7 quarters. And what we focus on doing is continue to do that until we reach the 5% in the first phase and then 7% in the second phase. And when we achieve the 5%, we don't guide because we're very careful and don't want to give any forward-looking statements. So we just continue to work on improving our earnings until we reach the 5% in the first phase, but have not given any guidance on when that will be.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

Okay. You've done a lot on the cost base. So let me put it this way then. Do you believe that going forward as of Q3 and onwards, the margin improvement trajectory is going to be more dependent on seeing that organic growth coming through? Or is there more savings coming through also in the second half of this year?

[Unknown Executive]

I think we can say if last year was about bringing down the cost to improve profitability. This year is very much about maintaining cost levels and drive top line to improve profitability. And looking back, I'm very proud of what we have achieved in the first 2 quarters of this year, where actually cost is down, SG&A is down, considering that we have still between 3% to 5% cost increase on labor and rent on a general level. So I think my answer would be that primarily our focus this year is to maintain our cost levels.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

Yes. And just looking at the support from the market, it does sound like if you adjust for weather conditions in May and March, your trend has been about the same in terms of organic growth around maybe 6%, 7% if you add the 2 quarters together and adjust for the weather. And you also stated, I think, in Q1 that you did see better support from other markets outside Sweden as well. Do you think -- do you see that, that trend apart from Finland maybe has picked up? Or is it still sort of that they are lagging quite a bit, but you see the same tendency. Is there any change to that sort of -- could you give any sort of nuance to what's happening outside the Swedish market?

[Gustaf Ohrn, executive]

I think both Sweden and internationally, we are -- we were very happy with the first quarter. We were somewhat worried going into the second quarter because of the geopolitical disturbance and how it would affect consumer sentiment. Looking back, I think it's very reassuring to see that the market has continued to improve with the geopolitical disturbance that we've had. And I think that is valid for all markets. And currently, we see no changes from what we've seen -- what we saw in the first quarter.

[Daniel Schmidt, analyst]

Yes. And on top of that, you do have the ROT deduction increase in play now since mid-May. And of course, it's hard to say maybe how that is impacting your sales short term, but clearly a good indication for the second half at least.

[Gustaf Ohrn, executive]

Yes. As we say in the report, we see positive effects. We have good development in the renovation-intensive categories. But with that said, we had that before the reduced [ RUT/ROT ] also. So we see positive effects, but it's somewhat hard to distinguish how much comes from underlying market improvement and how much comes from the [ ROT/RUT ] change still. Still early to say.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Benjamin Wahlstedt from ABGSC.

[Benjamin Wahlstedt, analyst]

I just have one follow-up, if I may. So May was unusually cold. April was plagued by Easter, one could say maybe. My question is quite simple. I'm not sure if you will answer it. Did June grow more than Q1 in organic terms?

[Unknown Executive]

As you know, we don't disclose specific months. But I think your conclusions are fairly right that April to some extent, was affected by Easter. May was affected somewhat by the colder weather. And based on that, I think you can draw your own conclusion.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

[Gustaf Ohrn, executive]

Then we say thank you very much for listening. And again, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are happy to do what we can to answer. And if not, I wish you all a great summer, and thank you very much.