Ratos AB Class A

Ratos AB Class A

3.42
USD
0.00
(0.00%)
0.05EPS
3.84P/E
1.08BMarket Cap
Oct 23Next Earn

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptOctober 23, 2026

Operator

Welcome to Ratos Q3 earnings call 2026. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode.

During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to CEO Gustaf Salford and CFO and IR Anna Vilogorac.

Please go ahead.

Gustaf Salford

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin with the quarter's main events and developments across our portfolio companies, and then Anna will take you through the financials.

Overall, Q3 was a strong quarter for Ratos. We delivered continued robust sales development at 6%, and if you break it down, we saw strong sales performance for our portfolio companies in industrial products and infrastructure.

Order situations was improving for the industrial services companies. We also saw continued growth in defense-related orders and products.

We also saw improved results for a majority of our companies, and adjusted EBITA growth of 29%. This was a broad-based performance improvement across companies, but especially in industrial products and infrastructure companies.

Adjusted EPS nearly doubled compared with last year. The improvements in EBITA together with improvements in net financial items and taxes resulted in a nearly double adjusted EPS.

Return on capital employed improved with 160 basis points to 7.9. If we now go to our strategy, during the quarter we continued to execute on the Ratos 2030 strategy, and let me take you through progress against our three strategic objectives.

To the left, under our strategic objective of building a more focus Ratos, we continue to work diligently on the divestment processes related to our non-core companies. We will update you as soon as we have more information to share.

Our second objective is to drive profitable and capital-efficient growth. We saw good progress, with almost all our companies improving profitability compared with last year.

Add-on acquisitions remain a priority for our platform companies, and HL Display sign an acquisition of Top Global in October at attractive multiples. We're also building the acquisition pipelines in our other platform companies, and that is going well.

Finally, under our objective to develop our ways of working, we continue to strengthen our model as an active and long-term investment company. One important part of this objective is to strengthen our portfolio companies' boards with experienced external chairmen.

This is an important component of our efforts to support the companies' continued development and long-term value creation. In the quarter, we added external senior leaders as chairs of the boards in two of our platform companies, and I would like to welcome Henrik Ager as Chairman of the Board in Diab, and Joon Sintorn as chair in HL Display.

Welcome Henrik and Joon. Then early in the year, we launched our financial targets, focusing on organic revenue growth, EBITA margin improvement, and return on capital employed.

On this slide, you can see the development by portfolio company. Overall, our infrastructure and industrial products companies developed relatively stronger, and our industrial services companies faced more challenging market conditions, let us now turn to the performance company by company.

If we now turn to our industrial products companies, starting with Diab, organic growth was modest, but defense made a strong contribution, while the company deliberately reduce its exposure to Chinese wind power market. A stronger product mix drove improvements in EBITA and EBITA margin, and return on capital employed increased significantly from 7.4 last year to 16.6 this year.

At HL Display, organic growth was 3%, supported by electronic shelf label products and price increases. Product mix and the Dainser acquisitions weighed on margins, while we also saw offsetting support from pricing and foreign exchange.

Return on capital employed increased to 21%. As mentioned earlier in the presentation, the acquisition of Top Global was signed in October.

The acquisition strengthens HL's presence in Spain and its position as a leading supplier for in-store merchandising and communication solutions in Europe. It is the latest step in the HL's accelerated growth journey, and a sign of its dual engine of organic growth and growth from add-on acquisitions.

Ledil delivered organic growth of 4%, with growth in the indoor business, outdoor demand remains subdued. We also saw there were signs of stabilization, and improved operational efficiencies supported the higher profitability.

Return on capital employed was 5%. Turning to our industrial services companies, market conditions continued to be more challenging.

Aleido's organic sales declined by 7% in a cautious market, with defense remaining a bright spot. Despite this decline in sale, the EBITA margin improved, primarily reflecting efficiency measures that was implemented, and the return on capital employed was at 8.4%.

At Knightec Group, organic growth was flat, with a slight improvement in market sentiment during the quarter, mainly in the heavy vehicles area. Defense continued to develop favorably, and we also saw high utilization that supported improved profitability.

Return on capital employed was at 5.9%. Speed's organic growth was 32%, supported by larger new contracts, including the contract with Plantasjen.

However, the automation projects continued to weigh on profitability, and these projects are expected to be fully ramped up towards year-end. The return on capital employed was at -2.2%.

At TFS, organic growth was 8%, but this was primarily driven by an increased share of pass-through revenues. The service revenue that you can see here in the graph was declining by 8%.

The focus is really remaining on strengthening order intake, and we got a large ophthalmology order booked after the end of the quarter. Return on capital employed was at 16.7%.

Now moving to infrastructure and Presis Infra, that maintained a robust order backlog, and also delivered organic growth at 20%, but it was primarily driven by price indexation on large contracts compared to last year. This organic sales growth supported improvements in both EBITA and EBITA margin, despite an unfavorable product mix.

Return on capital employed, excluding cash, was at 13.5%. Then, lastly, moving to our minority holdings, we saw that Aibel experienced an improved sentiment in the European and the Norwegian energy sector in light of the Middle East conflict.

We had positive impacts from successful project execution as well as project extensions. I'm very also happy to say that yesterday, Aibel announced that Equinor and its license partners have awarded Aibel a significant contract related to the Wisting field, big congratulations to Aibel.

Then turning to Sentia, the share price has increased by almost 40% year-to-date, and by approximately 50% since its listing in June 2025. In the previous quarter, Ratos reduced its ownership from around 40% to around 31%, and Sentia will report its Q3 results on November the 10th.

Then, lastly, our non-core companies in the consumer segment, and we start with KVD Group, where that saw a organic growth of 4%, with volume growth in the private segment and with motorhomes. Profitability and margins improved, driven by improvements at Forsbergs, and also return on capital employed, excluding cash, was 10.3%.

Then turning to Oase, organic growth was 19% in a seasonally low quarter, but it was supported by the solid order book when we entered 2026. The gross margin improved as initiatives to optimize production costs took effect, and return on capital employed was at 11.4%.

Finally, Plantasjen delivered organic growth of 3%, and it was primarily driven by positive developments in the Swedish market. Gross margins improved, although this was partly offset by higher logistics costs.

Return on capital employed, excluding cash, was at 4.7%. With that, I would like to hand it over to Anna, who will take us through the financials in more detail.

Anna Vilogorac

Thank you, Gustaf. If I would to summarize the quarter with one word, it would be progress.

We are building step-by-step. We are not fully content where we are yet, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.

If we turn to the headline number, the organic growth came in at 6%. It's great to have one good data point, but here now we are in the fourth consecutive quarter of growth, posting +4 for the last 12 months, it is a bit of a trend, even though we must say that the recovery is uneven among our portfolio companies.

Looking at profitability growth, we see healthy, almost 30% improvement versus previous quarter, and if I would to exclude our associated companies, we are +40. Let us jump into some more details how these different building blocks have developed since the last quarter.

If we look at the organic component, we saw a nice drop-through of 20% from the top line down to bottom line, and also healthy 70 basis points accretion on the margin. On the M&A side, we have two different components in that box.

One is, and speaking about focused Ratos, we also exited Expin business, which is actually quite margin accretive in this bridge. On top of that, HL Display did two acquisitions so far this year, and they're also the Australian one contributing positively, whilst we still see some way to go for the German one, partially impacted by the seasonality in this quarter as well.

These are the things that we have under our control. Moving into the next piece, that is FX, currency effect, and here, of course, we are predominantly impacted by Norwegian krone strengthening towards Swedish krona and Presis Infra's profitability, bringing that component to 20 basis points in the bridge.

As we announced previous quarter, we sold partially our ownership share going from 40% down to 30% for Sentia, and now, for the first time, we do have a negative impact in the bridge of 20 basis points. This is, again, now we are at the long-term ownership share here, and please bear in mind that this is based on consensus numbers, as to Gustaf's point, Sentia will report their quarter 3 numbers after us.

Then a quite good contribution from Aibel, 60 basis points coming in from really good project execution, but also project extensions. Then if we also turn to how different companies and different industry segments have contributed to this development, we see a clear trend of industrial product companies being margin accretive, growing both the top line and the bottom line, whilst we still have this mixed picture when it comes to industrial services company.

What is good to see is Knightec kind of turning the corner, and now for first quarter in many quarters contributing positively and being margin accretive. Speed and TFS, as Gustaf said, are still struggling with the top-line growth, TFS on the service side and Aleido with some pockets of growth, but still the overall picture is still down.

Presis Infra contributing really well, price-driven, but also good top-line development, volume-driven top-line development. We should note also that many of our consumer companies have a low season in quarter 3, hence posting negative numbers, but what is good to see that all three of them are actually improving both bottom and top line.

Now turning to net working capital and cash, on the relative net working capital, I would say we are hovering around that 7% to sales mark. We saw a slight relative decrease into Q3, that's predominantly driven by higher sales.

When it comes to movements sequentially, we did see an uptick in net working capital. That's normal seasonal behavior and has to do predominantly with the seasonal unwinding in Plantasjen.

Here also, we saw a bit of increase in contract assets in Presis Infra. What that mean is really that we have delivered on some projects, but haven't invoiced it yet.

Then on the offsetting side, we saw really good collections in Diab, Oase, and TFS. Then this is one of the things that stands out a bit negatively from the headline part.

We saw quite a staggering cash flow decline, almost 70% down, but we need to remind ourselves that in the same quarter last year, we got this settlement of 700 million SEK. This is, of course, very distorting in this picture.

If we were to exclude for that, we saw quite good cash development. All our industrial segments improved year-over-year, in particular industrial services, and in particular TFS.

We had some positive timing impacting us positively in Speed, but overall, it's good to see that the cash flow is improving. Also, one more comment worth mentioning is on the group side, we saw quite negative cash flow impact, and this has to do with settlement of currency hedges on our internal loans, as, again, Norwegian krone has increased quite significantly versus SEK.

This is just a timing issue. It's not an economic loss, but it does impact the cash flow in this month and, of course, consequently, the cash conversion.

Then a couple of words on return on capital employed, because this is one of the most important metrics. It regulates how we allocate capital, and, of course, not to be naive, it is a consequence of the previous decisions made, which we need to also take responsibility for.

Over the two years, we have improved the return capital employed by 300 basis points. We are not happy where we are at, but again, we are happy that we are moving in the right direction.

Here, I would say again, product companies, Diab especially, both improving the profitability side, but also on the capital employed side. HL Display posting very high figures throughout this period.

Then we have more work to do on the industrial services side. Here, still we have negative last 12-month profit development, but, of course, we are happy to see some signs pointing us in the right direction there.

Looking at our balance sheet and our balance sheet leverage, we are at 1.1 times for the quarter on adjusted basis. There was a slight uptick sequentially from the previous quarter.

Again, normal seasonality has to do with Plantasjen seasonal unwinding here in the net working capital. We also did acquire the Australian company in HL Display.

Those are the biggest drivers. Also, I just want to point out that during the past 12 months, we have had some non-operational positive one-off items, one being us selling down our shares in Sentia, and the other ones us receiving an M&A insurance.

This has impacted the leverage positively by 0.3 times. That said, I would still say that we do have quite good financial flexibility to continue on organic initiatives, to continue with add-ons in our portfolio companies, but we should definitely continue to be selective and disciplined when allocating capital.

Now concluding on that fantastic adjusted EPS, which grew by almost 100%. Also, on the LTM basis, we improved by over 50%, taking us up to 3.8 kronor.

What is extremely positive is that we have several levers within the P&L. Underlying result up significantly.

We have support from net financial items. Taxes also came in quite low, and I should say here it is the utilization of net operating losses, specifically in US, where we now have quite healthy defense activity in Diab.

All in all, this is a great development for EPS. A couple of words, just effective tax rate, 12 is quite a low percentage.

I would say our normalized effective tax rate is somewhere between 17 and 19%. Again, just concluding on this, it has been a strong quarter.

It is moving in the right direction, but we do have more things to do here. By that, I will turn over to Gustaf for a summary.

Gustaf Salford

Thank you, Anna, for that, and let me now close by summarizing some key messages from the quarter. I think the highlight is that we delivered profitable growth and continued to execute on our strategy.

The performance, as you've seen, improved in almost all our portfolio companies, and we also strengthened the portfolio company boards with external expertise. We are prioritizing add-on acquisitions, especially on our platform companies, and I think HL's acquisition of Top Global is an excellent example of that in the quarter.

The strong financial position that Anna also described, it will enable us to pursue add-on acquisitions and invest also in organic growth across our portfolio companies. The demand overall remained robust in industrial products and in infrastructure, while our industrial services companies continued to face more subdued market conditions.

Looking ahead, we remain focused on driving improvements and continue to developing our investment company model, and it's really about sustaining profitable, capital-efficient growth in the remainder of the year and beyond. With that brief summary, thank you, and we're now open to take your questions.

Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad.

The next question comes from Jacob Hesslevik from SEB. Please go ahead.

Jacob Hesslevik

Good morning. If we start with Speed's margin, the EBITA was negative again because of the automation projects.

Once they're fully operational at the end of 2026, what margin should Speed reach in 2027?

Gustaf Salford

Hi, Jacob. I'll take that question.

I think Speed is in the middle of this automation projects, and I think many other companies in logistics industry and retail and so on, they gone through it. We are seeing progress week by week, month by month, and we expect it to be almost fully ramped up here in Q4, and then onward into the next year.

I don't want to say specific margins going forward, but, of course, significantly much better than they are today. I think a positive sign also for Speed is I see a great demand for their offerings and their services in the customer segments.

I think there's lots of business opportunities in the 3PL area in the coming year. There will be volume, then I think it's crucial for us and for Speed to take the right decisions to improve the margins, and really focusing also on capital employed will be an important part for a 3PL company.

I don't want to go into any specific margins.

Jacob Hesslevik

No, that's fair enough. A follow-up on what you just said.

Speed's 32% organic growth came largely from internal customers such as Plantasjen, which is non-core. How dependent is Speed on Plantasjen, and how do you protect that volume if Plantasjen would be sold?

Gustaf Salford

I wouldn't say it's very dependent on Plantasjen. I think Speed had done a great job the last couple of years to diversify its customer portfolio.

It was quite dependent on a couple of customers before, that's not the case anymore. They have a much broader portfolio, and the Plantasjen volumes are not so substantial so it would have a huge effect.

Anna Vilogorac

Just Jacob, this is totally a commercial deal between Plantasjen and Speed that will not change regardless of exit or not an exit.

Jacob Hesslevik

Great. Appreciate that color.

Then just finally, quickly, organic growth slowed in Diab to 1%, as you exit Chinese wind. How much wind revenue is left to run off, and what growth can defense and other segment deliver in 2027?

Gustaf Salford

I think it's a bit not the similar story, but it's key that Diab has been able to transform from being very dependent on wind volumes in the last couple of years into being much more diversified customer portfolio. The key driver, not the only one, but the key driver has been defense, where these kind of value-added Diab materials have a huge role to play in many, many defense products.

I think that has been the biggest, if you see customer mix shift within the portfolio, and I expect that to continue. Wind can be a good business as well, but will be much more selective compared to the more overarching big bet strategy of the past.

Customer diversification, more value-added components, more value add from Diab also in product development and so on. That would be the key path forward, and I think there are lots of good growth opportunities there.

Then Diab, of course, also have the marine segments from shipping and boats and so on, and we expect that to improve going forward as well after a period that has been quite challenging.

Jacob Hesslevik

Appreciate those comments. Tack så mycket.

Gustaf Salford

Thank you.

Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time.

I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Gustaf Salford

Yes. Thank you for listening in and for your questions today.

With a brief recap, I would just like to say that Q3 was a really strong quarter for Ratos. We delivered organic growth, we improved the margins, and we also continued to execute on our strategy and implementing and building our investment company model.

With that, I would like to thank you for listening in and have a great day. Thank you.