Nederman Holding AB
STO:NMAN
Nederman Holding AB
STO:NMAN
Price:
209.5 SEK
3.97%
Market Closed
Updated:
May 11, 2024
Section:
Earnings Call Analysis
Summary
Q3-2023
Q3-2023
Nederman Q3 2023: Growth Amid Uncertainties
Amidst uncertainties and growing protectionism, Nederman reported a strong third quarter in 2023 with significant achievements including an 11% currency-neutral order growth and an 8.2% organic growth, reaching SEK 1.488 billion in orders. Sales also saw a rise to SEK 1.574 billion, marking it the second-highest sales quarter with 7.7% currency-neutral and 3.3% organic growth. The acquisition of Denmark's Aagaard by Nederman for SEK 48.9 million strengthened their European market presence, adding 35 employees to their workforce. Despite a competitive quarter with modified margins, they recorded the second-highest EBITA at SEK 175 million and strong cash flow from operations at SEK 137 million.
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Welcome to the Nederman Holding Q3 Presentation for 2023. [Operator Instructions]Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO, Sven Kristensson; and CFO, Matthew Cusick. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome to Nederman's Interim Report for Third Quarter 2023.We start with some highlights for the last quarter, and starting with what we think is a very good order intake. We had strong growth in sales and orders received, and we continue to have a stable profitability and a strong cash flow. I've been hunting moose in Gallivare. So, I've been going back to sloppy wording. Sorry for that. But all divisions are advancing their positions which we've seen.We have also seen that all divisions have strengthened their presence in expanding industries. We also, during the third quarter, during the summer, acquired the mid-sized small company, Aagaard in Denmark, which strengthened our position in the European wood market, secondary wood. So for the future, we are cautious and overly optimistic in this very uncertain [Technical Difficulty] uncertainty is growing and there is a risk of growing protectionism.We also see somewhat more uncertainty when it comes to the [Technical Difficulty] more medium-term here, but so far so good. And we have been able to move forward in all areas. Risk remains, but inflation and some weaker economic development can have an impact in investment decision. Time will tell.Some words about the acquisition of Aagaard. We acquired it in the mid of the summer, July 21. And we took 100% of the shares, and we valued it at SEK 48.9 million. It will definitely strengthen the Extraction & Filtration Technology division in the European wood segment, the secondary wood where we have a solid market leader position in the US, North American market and where we are gradually strengthening ourselves in the European side of it. And the acquisition of Aagaard gives us technical capabilities as well market capabilities. But we will continue trying to strengthen our position further.Aagaard has a strong market position in some areas. They develop, produce complete system for woodworking and furniture manufacturing especially, a bit of the global business, but the absolute major focus is on the European markets. It's in Hadsund, Denmark with 35 employees.
If I take over and move on to the key financials for the third quarter of this year, starting with orders received. As Sven already mentioned, it developed well. We had good organic and currency-neutral growth in the quarter. Incoming orders were SEK 1.488 billion, which is currency-neutral growth of 11% and organic growth of 8.2%. Year-to-date, we are now at SEK 4.538 billion, which is currency neutral plus 7.4% and we've just crept over onto a positive organic development for the year-to-date as well when it comes to orders. What you can see on the charts on the orders slide is, on the left side, the bridge from 2022 to 2023 for the third quarter, organic growth was the biggest impacting factor there, whereas when you -- if you see on the right-hand side for the year-to-date, it is still the acquisition growth that has given us the most overall, but nevertheless pleasing organic growth. We are currently trending just above SEK 6 billion on the rolling 4 order intake as you see from the central chart there.On to sales. It was our second highest quarterly sales ever, SEK 1.574 billion, 7.7% currency-neutral growth and organically 3.3%. Year-to-date, we're now at SEK 4.687 billion for the sales and currency neutral at 21.3% growth, organically 13% growth. Just about reaching SEK 6.25 billion on the rolling 4 quarters. We'll talk about the outlook moving forwards again.Profitability, second highest quarterly EBITA ever for the Nederman Group, SEK 175 million against a very strong, it must be said quarter 3 of last year at SEK 165 million. The margin dropped somewhat to 11.1% compared to 11.8% in Q3 last year. Again, we'll come back to that. Profit after tax, SEK 85 million, gives us earnings per share of SEK 2.43, which is slightly down from the SEK 2.64 seen in Q3 last year.Obviously, financing costs have increased significantly since Q3 2022. Year-to-date adjusted EBITA SEK 543 million, well ahead of 2022 figures. Margin,11.6% versus 11.1% for the year-to-date last year, and profit after tax of SEK 264 million gives an earnings per share of SEK 7.51 versus SEK 6.78. So, we are still ahead of last year there as well.Adjusted EBITA on a rolling 12 -- rolling 4 quarterly basis, as you can now see on the chart at the bottom there is very slightly over SEK 700 million. We also had good cash flow in the quarter. Cash flow from operations, SEK 137 million for the quarter, SEK 364 million for the year-to-date, which is above last year. This is quite pleasing given that Process Technology is executing on its backlog very well, but that typically has a somewhat negative impact on cash flow on the larger projects where you are typically never as cash positive as on the day you receive the order and the first downpayment.Cash flow from operating activities is above SEK 450 million on a rolling 4 quarters basis. Net debt came down slightly in the quarter despite the acquisition of Aagaard. We have made some further investments in our operations as well, but the good cash flow from operations has led to a reduction in net debt nonetheless.If you move on to the divisions now and if I hand over to Sven and Extraction & Filtration Technology first.
Yes. We start with the Extraction & Filtration Technology, has been a mixed bag when it comes to reporting. What is very positive, we had orders received that were the highest ever for a single quarter for the division. And we came back here with several major medium-sized orders, and we continue to have a solid core business. It's been a bit so-so, the nervousness we've seen. The last 6 months have meant that the smaller businesses has cut back on their purchasing and investments, but some of that came back here. Service had again a very strong quarter. We are growing both in EMEA and in Americas, which is positive and bodes well for the future. It's a focused area where we want to [Technical Difficulty] better ability to service our own equipment as well as others. And we are also now implementing the Energy Save Systems application on own installation, as well as some competitive installation in order to be better servicing the market than the aftermarket.We had better sales and stable projects they could choose in, and that was positive for the earnings. However, we have seen in some markets, especially where we have local regional competitors that the price pressure in some segments has been severe and that the inflationary pressure and cost has not been completely compensated for. And that meant that the margins on EBITA declined.If we go to the regions, EMEA saw continued good activity and sales orders growth in most, but not all markets. We grew in Americas despite the very strong comparison from Q3 last year. APAC was a bit weaker, except for China, but we are starting on very low levels in China, but we saw some new growth and we have got some inroads to battery manufacturing, food segment, et cetera, which is important for us to find growing new segments. And what is positive, it's been so that we have achieved projects and orders in food, battery manufacturing, both in Europe and in US, and that's interesting for the future.Key activities during the last quarter was, of course, the acquisition of Aagaard, which we have discussed earlier. Also, the launch of some new products, Fume Eliminator, the LBR SmartFilter. And what's also been interesting is the well-received participation in the large FABTECH in Schweissen & Schneiden exhibitions, one in Chicago and one in Europe. We also get more and more recognition, the Nederman SAVE, which is the energy saving system, the digital energy saving system we have launched some time ago. We again got the reward, the Visionary New product Award and we are very pleased about that. The relocation of the China -- the restructuring of the Chinese operation has been proceeding according to plan.
Shortly on the finance, shows then for Extraction & Filtration Technology. As Sven already mentioned, very good order intake, the best quarter ever, 18.4% currency-neutral growth and strong organic as well. Sales approximately SEK 24 million lower than the orders, but still very good, strong growth there. The adjusted EBITA is SEK 82.7 million versus SEK 103.4 million in quarter 3 last year. That must be pointed out that was the strongest quarter for EBITA ever for Extraction & Filtration Technology. So some tough comparative figures there.Adjusted EBITA margin, as Sven mentioned, down 12.7% from 17.6%. And given that this is the largest division in the Nederman Group, that does -- that is the biggest single explanation to the group's reduced EBITA percentage. Year-to-date now, currency-neutral growth in orders, 11.5%, still very strong, organic growth slightly negative at 2.4%. EBITA for the year-to-date SEK 256 million versus SEK 265 million for the first 9 months of 2022. Margin for the year-to-date, 13.5% versus 17.3% at this point last year.Moving on to Process Technology, Sven?
Yes. Process technology last quarter, we have had good development. Sales increased in all segments for both solutions and service. And we've continued to see good growth in the aftermarket side of it. It's been a focus over the last few years to have a more stable and better service, and we're increasing our geographic coverage when it comes to serviceability. And we are very pleased to see that.Orders received increase following a somewhat of a recovery in the textile segment. You have listened to us for some time, have seen that we've seen a decline in the textile segment. There's been overcapacity [ nuisances ]. But what we've seen in the last quarter was a rebound in the market in other places outside China, where the Chinese market is still a bit slow. But on the other hand, our business in India is showing enormously good progress and we also see in some other areas. So that is a bounce back.We also have a [ robust ] sales and good delivery and project execution, and that has led to improved profitability. So again, textile and fiber sales unchanged, while orders received growth following the growing level of activity globally with, as I mentioned before, the exception of China. Foundry and smelters, we see a sustainability trend and that is recycling. We have focused over the last few years to create good offers when it comes to metal recycling, especially lead, aluminum, also other materials like magnesium and so on. And these offers to the market has been well received. And we have landed a number of good orders here, both in US and in Europe.When it comes to customized solutions, we have had strong sales during the last quarter. There's been some activity in APAC, where we have been successful with these special solutions. Again, continued focus on project execution. We have seen healthy growth in the service, demonstrating the division's ability to adapt its offering to market needs. We have implemented the restructuring program in China. We are in the latter part of that, and we will hopefully see some better profitability in that market area.
Financials then for Process Technology division. Some order intake growth, [ 4.0% ] exactly currency-neutral and organically, SEK 419 million versus SEK 404 million there. And sales for the quarter very strong at SEK 555 million versus SEK 481 million. Those of you that can see the slides at the top right, you see the chart where we've got orders and sales being compared. We can see the order intake has declined a little bit versus the previous 3 quarters. And given the extremely good execute -- project execution rate right now, the backlog is reducing. It's approximately SEK 250 million, down from the absolute peak at the end of -- towards the end of last year.Adjusted EBITA for the division, SEK 51 million in the quarter, if I round up versus SEK 36 million in 2022. Quarter 3 is extremely strong, 9.1% EBITA margin versus 7.5%. And if we see year-to-date now, if we compare orders and sales, we can see that the backlog is coming down, but a currency-neutral growth nevertheless in order intake, which is pleasing and perhaps ahead of where we dared hope we would be for this year. Adjusted EBITA now for the year-to-date, SEK 167 million versus SEK 61 million for the first 9 months of 2022, gives a margin of 9.7% versus 5.1% for last year.Moving on now to Duct & Filter Technology, Sven?
Yes. Duct & Filter Technology, we had -- sales and orders were behind Q3 last year and also Q2 2023 this year. And what we have seen is that, that is fewer large, medium-sized order in wood and machining industries. But on the other hand, we have started to compensate by getting orders in different new segments like aerospace, food, battery manufacturing and recycling here. So, this has partly compensated for the traditional industries that has been weaker during the quarter, like our old core business, wood manufacturing.Profitability was positively impacted by the improved manufacturing sites, and the processes in inventory and handling our overall manufacturing. We now see some positive effect of the quite extensive investment programs. We've had both in Europe and in US. And we have now started to take -- making use of the new facility or the extended facility in Thomasville in the US. And we also have taken into use the new machinery that we have invested in. And we see that the efficiency and the more stable manufacturing capabilities is giving us better profitability.If we look at the Nordfab, the division operations displayed weak orders received. However, a large number, as I said, was secured in new -- for us, new segments, and this is boding well for the future. The minority, which is the filter back division, part of the division, we saw a good continued order growth. Also here, many minor improvement to safe process and activities have combined to contribute to a strong increase in the number and value of orders received in 2023.We have also here made some investments in the manufacturing side of it, and become more efficient in our -- both in our sales process as well as in our manufacturing and logistics distribution capability. And that has given a good boost in our profitability. The key activities, the preparations ahead of launch of Nordfab QF, Quick Fit ducting system in Australia in October. It is the traditional system. And from the acquisition of Ezi-Duct a year ago, we are now introducing the new product or for them new product, the traditional Quick Fit system that we have in U.S. and Europe.We have been participating in the trade shows in US, both FABTECH and especially the Battery Show in Detroit, where we saw good interest in our capability of delivering Quick Fit solutions to that industry. The work to renew and update manufacturing machinery continued and reduced product downtime. And it's already, as mentioned before been seen in better profitability and delivery time.
Finances for Duct & Filter Technology. Then external orders received, as Sven mentioned, somewhat around SEK 195 million for the third quarter is negative organically and currency neutral of 6.6%. It must be mentioned that, albeit, with a bit of currency help, this is the second highest order intake for a quarter for this division ever. Sales ended up at SEK 210 million, which is very slightly behind Q3 of 2022. However, adjusted EBITA was increased to nearly SEK 39 million from just under SEK 33 million in the same quarter last year. That gave us a EBITA margin of 18.5%, which is very pleasing versus 15.5% for Q3 last year.And now for the year-to-date, we see currency-neutral growth. Order intake growth is 0.4% positive, organically slightly down at 3%. sales SEK 638 million, clearly up from SEK 578 million last year, is 2.6% currency neutral. And adjusted EBITA is clearly up as well, SEK 121 million versus SEK 93 million for the first 9 months of last year, margin for the year-to-date of 19.0% versus 16.1% for the first 9 months of last year.Final division now. Turn on to Monitoring & Control Technology.
Monitoring & Control Technology, during the quarter, we have seen that the demand for digital monitoring and control of production process has further increased. We are doing well here, and it's well -- we are well positioned. All other brands contribute to the growth, but especially Gasmet had very good success in the APAC region, especially with a new launch there, portable units.In EMEA, orders received and sales increased compared to last year, and it's been high activity for both Gasmet and NEO Monitors. We acquired a small company, the Swiss distributor of a specific Gasmet, the NEO product, MBE in 2022. And it has contributed to a stronger market presence. In APAC, orders received and sales grew well compared to last year in Q3. And as mentioned, Gasmet reported a particularly very strong quarter.Orders received in China has gradually improved throughout the year-to-date. We had some difficulties, especially with the -- in China-for-China message that hit Gasmet last year in the last quarter. But again, we have gradually come back here. In Americas, we had another strong quarter, especially in sales, although FilterSense was able to deliver on major order backlog following early capacity limitations. And that -- we have now finalized the ERP system rollout and they are fully operational.Key activities, again, GT6000 Mobilis, it's a unique new portable, very user-friendly emission analyzer, and it continues to generate very large interest, and not only interest also turned into orders. The continued investment in Insight Cloud and Insight Control solution continues, and we also continue to invest in production capacity and just now -- especially in NEO Monitors. We need to increase our capacity of the assembly, test and deliver from a very record high backlog. Auburn FilterSense's new ERP system is operating, and it gives us a better control over the business there.
Some numbers for Monitoring & Control Technology division then. Orders received SEK 197 million, up from SEK 150 million in Q3 last year. That's currency-neutral growth of 27%, and organic growth of [ 21% ]. Very pleasing, second highest -- there's lots of silver medals today, the second, the highest sales for the group, second highest profitability for the group. Second highest order intake for Monitoring & Control technology in the quarter ever Q4 last year where we secured 2 very large orders was the highest. We were not far behind that even this time.Sales SEK 183 million versus SEK 148 million in Q3 last year, gave an EBITA of SEK 37 million, up from SEK 19 million last year, so that's an EBITA margin of 20.5% for Q3 2023. Year-to-date now, currency-neutral growth for the division in orders is 21%, 17% organically. Sales, SEK 531 million, up from SEK 429 million for the first 9 months last year, again, extremely good growth, 18.6% currency neutral. Adjusted EBITA up to SEK 105 million from SEK 63 million for the first 9 months of last year has an EBITA margin for the year-to-date of 19.7% this year.Finally, then before we open up for questions, Sven, on to the outlook for coming period.
Yes. How we believe the outlook would be is that the demand and orders received has remained good. There is a continued geopolitical uncertainty, and that is having a evocative effect. And of course, it's a risk of protectionism that could have a negative effect in long term. Our base business and strong digital offering enable us to asset ourselves well in the current market. At the same time, there is a risk that inflationary pressure and weak economic prospects will impact customers' investment decisions. But with our good order backlog and our ability to increase our share of sales in industries with good structural growth, we take a positive view for the next quarter, but are somewhat more uncertain regarding development into 2024.Although various factors may temporarily contribute to dampened outlook in our industry, Nederman's long-term potential continues to strengthen. In the world in which insight into the damage that poor air does to people is increasing, Nederman's with its leading industrial air filtration offering has a key role to play in good possibility for continued growth.
The financial calendar now with -- the next time you will hear from us in this forum will be on the 15th of February next year when we will talk around the full year report for 2023. And the other dates you can see on this slide -- the final slide here and also in the Q3 report.So with that, I think we can open up for any questions that people listening may have.
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Anna Widstrom from Handelsbanken.
So firstly, if we maybe can go into some more details on the sort of price effects and the inflation situation. Could you maybe give us some details on how the price have developed year-over-year? And it seems like it's actually quite different in different segments if you read into the comments that you have on, for example, Extraction & Filtration Technology.
I can start off with this one. I think Sven wants to add to it. But what you say is very true, Anna. It's extremely different between the different divisions. The price pressure in Extraction & Filtration Technology is a little more extreme than is seen by the other divisions. We have -- they have a very fragmented, competitive landscape there with lots of smaller national companies and some even very maximum size regional companies that are competing with them. Those sort of companies are more willing to sync prices in quotations and such, frankly, in order to keep their factories fully operational, for example. And we do not typically want to get dragged into that game too much. Some of the other divisions have larger international competitors that are less likely to go down that route of price pressure.The other thing that Extraction & Filtration Technology hub is -- and this has been a secret of their success to a large extent in Europe, but they have a very large footprint with sales entities in pretty much every Western European country, for example. So that -- and that was -- we know what's happened with inflation in Europe in particular. So, this division has been hit harder -- somewhat harder than the others in that respect too.Sven, is there anything you want to add to that?
No. But I think that it has to do with the extremely fragmented market and also as the -- you see the inflationary pressure when the Belgian system tells you that you should increase hours with 11.4%. It's not negotiable, et cetera. And that has been a challenge for them. It's an excuse -- it's not an excuse. It's more an explanation. They continue very strong to compensate and continue, and we are looking positively for the future that they will sort of be able to gradually recover this. But again, it's been a very quick process with you've seen the inflation. You've seen what's happening. And it takes some time to fully -- without losing the market and the very strong market share we have in a number of countries.
Okay. Good. That's very clear. But I have a follow-up question, if you have any sort of bigger positive price effects in any of the other divisions?
What you can say -- I mean, the only thing to say is the NEO, for example, in Monitoring & Control Technology, when they launch new products such as the Gasmet, one that we mentioned, when those come out and they are clearly the market leader, and it's clearly a better solution than any competitor has. It keeps us well ahead of any competition that allows us to keep -- maintain high prices. And this is something that's very important that we keep on investing in research and development, not only in Monitoring & Control Technology, but it's one where we have a key -- a competitive advantage, and we must maintain it.
Okay. Great. That's very clear. And have you noted any trends during the quarter? Are there any differences in the end of the quarter in comparison to the beginning of the quarter?
Yes. We're seeing now. It's -- we see -- as we concluded, we still see a reasonably good demand, and we -- especially in some industries, there are industries, traditional industries that has been hurt by this inflationary pressure. You've seen it in the wood industry, especially in some of the accessories to house building. You've seen it to furniture industry where people have been a bit more reluctant to invest. On the other hand, you've seen that food, you have seen that recycling and some others like battery manufacturing is compensating gradually for some on that.So, our diverse portfolio has been positive in this sense. So, we still see that there is a demand, and we see that our offer is well received in the market, especially the sales system where we -- with the digitalization offers where we have won another award for that. And we are winning other awards for our way of, again, digitalization, making it life easier for the buyer, et cetera. So, we are well received in the market, and that has compensated so far well for the more gloomy macroeconomic outlook. But we'll see. We have another war in Middle East. We have a war in Europe. We have all of these kinds of things. And of course, you can speculate about what could happen and why. But we continue to work and adopt to the realities. And so far we can clearly see that we have improved our position in the market. We are growing on the factory. In fact, we are growing our market share. But how clear -- it's our clear opinion. And we see that from a lot of sources not going into here, that we are developing better than a lot of the competition.
Perfect. Going into inventory levels, what's your view of this quarter on your current level? I mean, we did see positive effects from working capital release on the cash flow. But what's your current view on your current levels? And is there a different focus for the different segments?
Inventory has developed positively in the quarter. It's come down somewhat. There's always the division where we increased most, you remember through the COVID period was Monitoring & Control Technology, where there were some components where we just -- you just did not want to be without. And we thought that we've done what many others didn't bought up inventory. On the other hand, that division has continued to grow order intake extremely well. So, that's left us in a positive position. So, we will work on the inventory days, I keep telling that division, but it might not necessarily mean they reduce the amount of inventory in real terms. Nevertheless, that would obviously mean that profit turns straight into cash in that case.Process Technology is the other division where we've seen the biggest change. They continue to execute on projects and that one will see a reduction in inventory. Again, the downside of that, if they continue, which is probably going to be the case eating into there, while it's still quite a high backlog, as you know, the down payments that we received upfront on orders for Process Technology usually leave us in a very strong cash position, which is -- can be sometimes the best cash position you ever have during the lifetime of the project until it's fully executed. So, that can be somewhat of a negative impact, too.
Okay. Great. And I would be curious on the duct and filtration because you've seen an improved -- I mean, my interpretation is basically you've improved efficiency in this division. And so my question is, could you continue to see a negative organic growth of these levels and still see an improved profitability ahead?
We have significant -- as we have reported, we have had a quite significant investment program in renewing our facilities and also invested quite a lot in new manufacturing equipment, some designed together with suppliers. And yes, we have seen a very, very good efficiency development. And of course, that also gives us a possibility to fill up more in the factories. We are also now introducing new systems, and we are going to next year launch in US Nordfab direct. That means even shorter lead times and so on, and that will further strengthen our market position in this. So yes, we are increasing efficiency and we will continue to -- I think we will continue to increase efficiency a bit more, then we also need to fill it up with the good orders, of course.
Okay. Great. And going to the extraction and filtration -- Extraction & Filtration Technology. You mentioned that an order in Denmark also included extension of a significant service contract. Could we maybe get some additional details and maybe some comments on the sort of general tendency to add or extend service contract?
Yes. That large order in Denmark, as you mentioned, that had a service, that had an extension on the service contract as well. That was a good one. And that's one of the reasons behind the growth in service business there is that we -- when we start having these digital solutions and you have a customer that's interested in our save, this is the energy saving software that's implemented into the filtration system, then customers are also more interested in working with you outside of the initial capital purchase. So, this is a key part of the strategy to keep on growing the service business. But in order to do that, the digitalization part is really important. This was an example in Extraction & Filtration Technology. In reality, that division has a little bit less potential than Process Technology division, it must be said. But nevertheless, there is still quite clear potential for Extraction & Filtration Technology, too.
Our ambition has been -- and here is a good case that is to make it more of a captive market where we guarantee as long as you use our Nederman Insight, meaning the analyzing tool that we can see what's going on using our service offer, using our -- it's like warranty for a new car. If you're using these parts that are accepted, if you're using the service and doing the service intervals and so on, you'll get an extended sort of warranty period. And this is what we are doing. And we see no risk in that because we know what we're doing, and we have full control of what's going on in the equipment.So, that's again a successful sales. But as Matthew mentioned that it's more for the large Process Technology systems where you are more into the process, generally speaking. But in this case, it's a food factory. And if the filtration goes down, the factory is going down. So again, then it's a small cost for them to secure that they have a fully operational system that has a surveillance capability. And again, that's what we've been working on, continue to work with to try to move forward in those positions.Was it a good enough answer for you?
It was a very, very good answer. Lastly, I want to focus a bit on Process Technology because you've both mentioned that you've seen a recovery in the textile segment. So, I'm a bit curious on in which regions and mainly, if it's larger or smaller players that's been reflecting this recovery? And also, if you could give us some elaboration of the -- because you mentioned that you've seen some indication of a potential slowdown in demand. So maybe give us some more details on that and also some comments on how sustainable you think that this very good profitability level that we've seen in this division has going forward?
So, I can start with the sustainability of the profitability. Obviously, they're well over 9% EBITA margin. And that is not where we expect them to be in the long term, but to fall below something like 7% is not what is expected either. They have a benefit from volume and they have continued to -- and they continued to eat backlog. So they are seeing it. They're reaping the rewards of that right now. Nevertheless, we -- and this is something they've worked on for quite a long time.We acquired Luwa back in 2018, and we focus on more profitable projects, maybe limiting the scope of the project by having a more profitable project as well. And we feel reasonably confident that, that division has developed strongly there. So, that profit sustainability, it is there, 9 plus percentage EBITA, maybe not, but it should not drop down. And we never forget that this is the return on capital employed business here. This is a fantastic return on capital employed right now for this division. It is extremely good. Then...
I would add as long as we can continue to get good order intake, it is a sustainability. It has to do with the volatility in the industry. We are active in a number of different areas with similar or related technology. And we've seen that we have balanced during last year some of the decline in the traditional textile industry by having significant growth and development in our, what you call, nonwoven, which is diapers, feminine care, et cetera, where we have. So, we are broadening the scope using the same or related technology. And we believe that we can continue to do that. Then, of course, the macroeconomics and so could see a change here, but we have clearly taken market share in the market. We see that from -- compared to some of our competition in this field.
And then if we just mention on textile business, where we've been seeing orders, China is reasonably slow. There's no business there, but we've seen some Chinese customers investing abroad still with one large order in the quarter. I know I haven't got a full list in front of me. I know one was in Egypt, for example, there. But it does -- I think we should be a little cautious not to call it a full recovery for the textile industry or anything. We've had a good quarter, but you need more than one good quarter before you start celebrating too much.
So basically, where you see, you have seen a little bit of a move from China, the investment in Africa. There is a reshoring investment in US as well. And you also have in other areas in Asia where you see -- and our Indian business is doing very well in the textile segment, selling to all the countries where it's accepted to sell from India and some of the assets we need to take from China. So, we will have to, through these macro political issues, have supply both from China and India.
Okay. Perfect. That was a great answer to you to all my questions.
The next question comes from Gustaf von Sivers from Sivers Urban Fonder AB.
Just a follow-up there on the Nederman Extraction & Filtration Technology about the price pressure in that market. Is that a new thing you're seeing if you look on previous cycles? And does it have to do anything with destocking or smaller family-owned companies going valiant and really have to struggle to keep going? That's question number one.Question number two is about RoboVent. When you think they're going to reach the -- well, the margin you're looking for in that company?And my third question is, is your debt at these levels with the interest rates prevailing now? Is that sort of a -- do you see that as a bit of a hindrance doing new acquisitions?
We start from the first. I think you are pointing in the right direction because we've seen -- we've seen -- we've seen it before, and we've seen also here in this process right now that there are, I shouldn't say, but some smaller businesses are in shock. They see the bill when it comes from energy. They see the bill from the bank to pay the new interest rate. They sort of see some -- yes, other negatives, and that has been a negative feeling. So what we see is that smaller businesses been very reluctant to spend any money, whereas larger investments continue when larger companies are focusing on the new world of recycling, focusing in our Energy Save Systems, et cetera. So there has been, as you've seen in some comments that the large orders coming back, they continue to invest, but whereas smaller businesses has been very reluctant to open the world at all. And that's what we see. And that's why we also have the most local competition in this smaller investment or improvement.
Then maybe I can answer the RoboVent's one. RoboVent has improved quite well already in the year since we had them basically. We had them just over a year now.
They are moving ahead better than planned.
Exactly. I can say they are now above 10% EBITA, but not quite at the 12.7% that we saw in the quarter 3 for Extraction & Filtration Technology. So, they will not be -- they sell largely solutions. So, they will never be the most profitable in percentage terms a company within that division. And they will probably be slightly below the average for that division, but they're moving into the range where we want them to be now. We will keep working with that. But it's definitely going at least according to plan, if not, yes, I think a little bit better. Sven, you are probably right.And then the third question was, did we see debt and interest rates as a hindrance? Not really is the answer at all. We've got -- we're in constant dialogue with our banks. We still have significant capacity in the agreements that we have. And if we look at in terms of [ covenants ], something like that for financing, we're very, very well inside any of those. So if the right acquisition comes along, we're still -- we're looking actively on the market, and there are more and more appealing prices for companies. Expectations are starting to drop somewhat as well.
It's still so that there are -- we see that profitability has been going down in a number of targets. They are coming out in the market. However, they -- as someone very eloquently said, well, the profits might have gone down a little bit, but it's the same, very nice company [Technical Difficulty]. We are not rushing into anything. But again, we are extremely active in looking and we'll see. We will, as Matthew say, have the capacity when the right comes -- the right companies of that and we're following quite intensely.
There are no more questions at this time. So, I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Then we thank you very much for taking this hour listening to us, and hope you have a good continuation of the day and the year. And we'll be back in February to report the final outcome of 2023. Thank you very much.