Cavotec SA

STO:CCC

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Welcome to Cavotec Q1 Report 2024. [Operator Instructions]Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, David Pagels. Please go ahead.

[Joakim Wahlquist, executive]

Good morning, and welcome, everyone, to Cavotec's first quarter presentation. I am Joakim Wahlquist, CFO of Cavotec. Our CEO, David Pagels, that's normally presenting together with me is, unfortunately, stuck on a delayed flight and will not be able to attend today. But I will do my best here to run this presentation without him and answer your questions in the Q&A session also at the end.First, I would like to say a few words on the reason for postponing the publication of the report with a couple of weeks. We had a temporary interruption in our IT environment caused by a cyber incident, that is now closed and under control. However, the event affected some of our servers and delayed the financial consolidation. And therefore, we took the decision to postpone this investor call with a couple of weeks.Even though the incident caused a short-term interruption here in April, we actually have now strengthened our IT and IT security quite significantly quicker than we were planning. And many of the improvements that we had planned for the year has now been introduced in Cavotec.So with that short introduction, I want to recap a bit about Cavotec, about -- before I comment on the first quarter performance. So Cavotec has close to 50 years of experience, and we have built a very strong position as a leading cleantech company with a global presence. Our offering consists of design and delivery of solutions to electrified ports, vessels and other industrial applications like heavy-duty vehicles, that are used, for example, in the mining industry.Our main products are shore power systems, motorized wheels, crane electrification and automatic mooring systems. Our main attraction is that our solutions and services contribute to the reduced emissions in the ports and terminals and from ships and heavy-duty vehicles.Over the years, we have created a large installed base worldwide, and our current footprint reach over 80 countries and continues to grow. This large installed base provides us with an untapped potential of service business that we're now focusing even more on.But let me now give you a quick overview of the main drivers of our markets. First of all, we have leading technology and a very strong market position with long-term customer relationships. More markets in which we are active are driven by megatrends of electrification and the global need to reduce greenhouse gases.Our solutions are crucial for reducing emissions in ports, terminals and from vessels and heavy-duty vehicles. Our solutions also contribute to reducing noise pollution, imports in terminals, which is a growing problem, not at least in the cruise terminals and cities.We also see that demand is increasingly driven by regulation, both from international and local authorities that want to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases as well as noise pollution. Our solutions and leading technologies that are proven, reliable and efficient and secure, and are therefore a perfect fit for our customers' requirements.A few words about recent business progress. As we have informed earlier in our sessions is that we have established a facility in India to better serve the important Indian market and also explore attractive supplier base. David Pagels and our Chairman just came back from a visit in India and met with -- to look at the facility and -- but also meet with several of our potential clients in this booming markets, and we are now even more confident that this was a correct strategic move to make.The facility that has been -- recently is now operational and official inauguration is planned for July this summer. And we are already now meeting a lot of interest from potential customers in the market. And very exciting also is that we have signed the first orders with Indian customers. However, having said that, the ramp-up to larger volumes from this facility will only happen over time.About 1 month ago, also, we announced in the release -- press release that we won an order for shore power with a global shipping company. The order is valued about USD 5 million and includes a substantial number of PowerFit shore power units, establishing vessels to connect the short power while at dock. PowerFit is a complete containerized solution and includes all equipment for high-voltage shore connection. The deliveries of those units are scheduled for later this year.Earlier this week, we also announced a 2-year service agreement with Port of Salalah in Oman for our 32 installed MoorMaster vacuum mooring units. Port of Salalah was established about 25 years ago and has really grown into one of the leading and most prominent multiports in the region. And in 2021, Port of Salalah was ranked as the second most efficient container port in the world. And with this new service agreement, Cavotec will contribute to the continued efficiency in this port by minimizing the downtime and continue to make sure that the units are running properly.The other 3 orders here that we have on this presentation slide is -- was signed in the quarter, but we talked about them already in the previous presentation. But I would once again just like to stress the importance of the service agreement signed in the major port in North America. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you the port's name, but the deal is very important for us because we are taking care of the plug-in and plug-out of our power units for the first time. And this provides us with a lot of valuable insights and data on how we can further improve our products, while also ensuring that it's operated in the most efficient way.We have in earlier presentations given you some information about our change programs, and we will continue to work with them and inform you about what we are doing. As you know, we are driving 6 strategic priorities with related change programs in order to lay a strong and very stable foundation for profitable growth and value creation. And as we execute on the changes, we continuously develop new prioritized areas for further improvement as value creation is really a never-ending work.We can at this point in time conclude that the Ports & Maritime division has been most successful in implementing these changes. As a result, we see a very steady improvement in profitability, mainly driven by better profitability in the order backlog. But it's also satisfying to notice the increased number of service orders coming from -- in the Ports & Maritime segment. However, in the Ports & Maritime segment, we also still have a lot of things to be done. So we've not done there yet.As you saw in the report, David has now taken up as Acting President of the Industry division, while we are searching for a permanent solution. And we have identified many opportunities in the Industry segment and see a good potential for increased profitability. By accelerating the implementation of the change programs, as we have done in the Ports & Maritime segment, we believe that we can achieve significant improvement in the Industry segment too.Near term, we are also focusing on a number of group-wide actions in the global supply chain, not the least as well as in the product development area, both areas that are really important for us for continued profitable growth. We believe that we must increase our focus and speed in the product development in order to remain a strong leader in the electrification industry. And for both divisions, we have important potential and like we said earlier, in the service area, and we still have a lot to explore.So over to some of the financials of the quarter. I must say that I'm happy to see that our strategic initiatives and our change programs are starting to yield results. We report for the fifth consecutive quarter a positive EBIT in the quarter, and it amounted to EUR 2 million, a significant improvement from the last year's EBIT of EUR 0.3 million. The EBIT margin also increased to a 4.5% compared to the 0.7% last year.After financial costs and taxes, we also reported for the third consecutive quarter a positive net profit this quarter of EUR 0.5 million, which is an improvement from the loss in the first quarter 2023. The improved profitability and our initiatives to improve working capital had a positive impact on cash flow also, which increased in the quarter from minus EUR 2.9 million last year to a slightly positive this year. The performance in this quarter, in Q1, continues to show that we are on the right track, and our change programs are working, and we're very happy about that.Let's talk a bit about revenue. So year-on-year the growth in revenue was 8.5%, where currency effects had a negative impact of 1.2%. And this growth is primarily driven by a strong demand of services, but also an increased delivery of shore power solution for container vessels. We are happy to see that we will continue to see a very high activity among our important customers.Now to the order backlog. And as you know, we have informed you that for some time that we have focused a lot on the profitability in our order intake and not only the volumes. And we have decreased the order backlog slowly but surely, while we have normalized the margin levels in the backlog. And the decrease of the order backlog now was a moderate 2.4% from year-end 2023, meaning that we are now seeing this normalization of the order backlog. And at the same time, we are ready to increase the focus on volume, and we continue to see a strong interest of our electrification solutions and service offerings.So to our EBIT, we reported a positive EBIT in the quarter, thanks to our strategic initiatives and focus on profitability. This is very much related to the successful execution of the programs in our Ports & Maritime division. And our colleagues in the Ports & Maritime have focused a lot on a number of change activities to improve profitability such as product -- production optimization. However, we still have a lot to do, and we focus near term on our supply chain as well as the implementation of our change programs in the Industry division.I mentioned the cyber incident earlier in the second -- and which happened early on in the second quarter, and that incident is now closed and under control. The incident incurred some costs and delayed certain deliveries and will have an impact on the second quarter on the operating result with approximately EUR 1 million to EUR 2 million. But I want to mention that Cavotec is well covered by cyber insurance.We continue also to implement our strategy and change programs for improved profitability, and I'm very pleased to see that we've experienced improved contribution margins in the underlying orders and a positive development of the business.Now to our net profit. I'm very satisfied to see that we are -- continue to show a positive net profit for the third quarter in a row. We had a net profit of EUR 0.5 million compared to the minus EUR 1.3 million last Q1 and also a small, but important positive earnings per share then. So it's a positive net profit and also positive earnings per share, is a good signal that we are on the right track with the transformation of Cavotec and that we have an ability to grow profitably.A few words on cash flow. We reported a small, but positive operating cash flow in the quarter, and this is thanks to higher profitability in the business, driven by the operational efficiency, but also our strict financial management.The leverage ratios also continue to improve from 1.29 in the previous quarter to 1.09 in this quarter, and this needs to be compared with the first quarter 2023. That was 4.54. So a great improvement year-on-year.This good development is positive for us since it means that our strengthened financial position has also lowered our financing costs, something that David has stressed in the previous quarterly report. I want to say, though, that cash flow and especially the working capital development will continue to be one of our key priorities also in 2024.Let me now briefly say a few words about the Ports & Maritime division. Ports & Maritime, which delivers solutions to decarbonize ports and vessels, they grew with 12.8% in the quarter. The increase was driven by improved volumes in services, as I already said, and deliveries of shore power solutions for container vessels. The currency effects had a negative impact of minus 1.2%.Ports & Maritime has really steadily improved its operational results and margins over the past quarters due to really successful work with a focus on profitable growth in the order backlog and higher service volumes.So let me now move over to our second division, the Industry division. So revenue continued to increase in the quarter, mainly driven by demand for services. Volumes are up 3.6% and the currency had an effect of minus 1.3%. We are now searching for a new President for Industry that will have a very clear agenda to accelerate the change programs in the division. We have planned actions and activities that we want to implement, and we now need a strong execution and leadership to reach those targets. But we are already now taking really active action to accelerate the change programs under the leadership of David in the position as Acting Industry President.Okay. So let me now quickly summarize a bit before we open up for some Q&A. We continue to have a high business activity with important customer wins, that gives us a very good foundation for continued profitable growth in 2024. We have a good growth and a strong financial performance. I'm happy with the development of Cavotec, even if we still have more work to be done, and we really feel here that we are on the right track.I think what can be felt across the whole organization is a very strong momentum and engagement, and we can see that across all the departments and all the divisions and that we want to continue to deliver on our commitments to our customers. We now have clear strategic priorities and change programs in place to build a stronger Cavotec. That also takes a while to get in place, and it's now starting to be well-known in the organization. And I and David are very confident that Cavotec will continue to be a key player in transition to a more sustainable and emission-free world going forward.So by this, we have ended the first quarter presentation and are now ready to take some questions. You can either call in to ask questions or write your questions in the webcast. With me also to support me with the questions here is [ Niklas Edling ], who is working in Investor Relations, and he will help us to read up some of the questions here so I have an extra hand. But let us then first start with the questions over the phone. Do we have any questions over the phone?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Lara Mohtadi from ABG Sundal Collier.

[Lara Mohtadi, analyst]

Lara here from ABG. It's great to see that the group's profitability has increased this quarter, but the Industry segment was actually down a bit year-on-year. Could you please give some detail on the strategic initiatives that are aimed at increasing the profitability in this segment and how that work is progressing?

[Joakim Wahlquist, executive]

Very good question. And we are working through some of the same activities that we've done in the Ports & Maritime division for the Industry division, starting with the order intake process and making sure that we use all the capabilities in the whole company when we are closing our customers and making sure that we do profitable deals. So that's a very, very big focus for us.On top of that, we're working very hard with our supply chain activities to bring down material costs, but also on the product development side with cost out activities. On top of that, we are looking into the competence and the [ feed ] from the street in our sales organization for the Industry division also. So it's really a full 360 view of everything that needs to be done in the Industry division, just like we've also done in the Ports & Maritime division.

[Lara Mohtadi, analyst]

I would also like to ask a bit regarding the order intake. As we witnessed the sales grew this quarter, but that order intake was down year-on-year, especially in the Ports & Maritime segment. How should we view this? And do you expect this to remain the case for the rest of the year? Or is there anything in particular that affected this quarter negatively and what are we seeing on the demand side?

[Joakim Wahlquist, executive]

We continue to have a very strong interest in our solutions. And as we have said earlier, there has been an active decision from the management to normalize the backlog and make sure that we have a profitable order backlog in not only volume. But we're ready now to also -- with the foundation that we've been laying for the last few quarters to start to focus more on the volume also. But it also can vary quite a bit between the quarter because we are still to some degree a project business.

[Lara Mohtadi, analyst]

And to my final question. Historically, services amounted to roughly about 20% of your sales. So our understanding, service sales has increased during the quarter. Do you expect services to comprise a larger part of sales going forward or -- and how would this affects your profitability?

[Joakim Wahlquist, executive]

I will answer it like this, that we -- for all of us here in the management, services is a very important strategic competitive advantage. So we continue to focus on having a strong service organization. And we see an untapped potential in the installed base that we already have out there. We have an installed base, as I said, in 80 countries, and we have delivered solutions for the last 50 years. So we still have a large untapped potential. We are continuing to tap into that potential with our very strong service team.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] There are no more phone questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.

[Joakim Wahlquist, executive]

In the chat here -- Okay. The first one here is, when can we expect the reimbursement for the cyber, incident already in Q3 or later this year?We are working with the insurance company actively on this incident, and we have a very good dialogue. So it always takes a little bit of time. There is 2 different parts of the cyber incident. One is the direct costs that comes with it. That is quite clear to define, and we have a little bit of business interruption in our case, not that much because we were very quick to take control of our environment. And both of them are covered with our cyber insurance. We feel comfortable that we will be able to regulate and catch up during the year so that this will not have any significant financial impact on the full year.And then we have another question. Could you elaborate on any seasonality patterns in Cavotec and when it comes to revenues and cash flow?And that's a good question. We have -- historically, Q1 is a slower quarter and I think that's very good for us to see that we also during our -- historically lowest quarter can continue to deliver with a profit. And as you could see in Q4, we already have an installed base, and we have some economy of scale when we start to get the volumes when we get the volumes up. So the profitability very quickly comes around these levels.How long -- Next question, how long time will it take until we will see improvements also in the Industry division?That's a question to our new Industry President, that is -- unfortunately is not with us here today, David. But we're working very hard and we've already identified a number of improvement areas. We already have what we believe is a winning concept from the turnaround of the Ports & Maritime division. So I don't want to put an exact time line on that, but we feel confident that we will be able to implement these -- a number of improvement activities already during 2024.That was all the questions we have at the moment. We'll wait a couple of seconds here and see if there's any other questions that are popping up.

[Unknown Executive]

Any questions on the telephone?

[Joakim Wahlquist, executive]

Any more questions on the telephone? No?If there are no more questions, then I want to thank you for participating. And also, I want to wish you a good day ahead, and I hope to see you then on the second quarter presentation on 25th of July. So thank you, and goodbye.