NCAB: "We are in a strong position and continue to invest in growth"
Despite the economic climate, NCAB reports that the company's order intake has remained stable so far. During the company's third quarter net sales increased 35% and order intake increased with 8%.
"It is gratifying to report NCAB’s strongest quarterly profit ever in an environment dominated by negative headlines about war, interest rates hikes and rising electricity prices. We continued to note net sales growth on an annual basis, and with gradual improvement in the gross margin this produced a record EBITA result. The strong cash flow was also positive, affected by the continued reduction in working capital which continues to be an important focus area," says NCAB president and CEO, Peter Kruk, in the 3Q report.
During the third quarter, the PCB supplier recorded net sales of SEK 1.16 billion (EUR 107.7 million), an increase of 35% from SEK 863.6 million (EUR 79.6 million) during the same period last year. Order intake during the period increased by 8% to SEK 1.01 billion (EUR 93.1 million), compared to SEK 935.2 million (EUR 86.2 million).
EBITA increased 49% to SEK 183.5 million (EUR 16.9 million) from 123.2 million (EUR 11.3 million) during the same period last year. Profit after tax ended up at SEK 138.5 million (EUR 12.7 million), compared with SEK 91.2 million (EUR 8.4 million) last year.
The CEO continues to state that during the quarter, NCAB noted a reduction in lead times and an improvement in the supply of components to its customers, which in turn has led to bottlenecks slowly disappearing.
"We are in a good position to continue our profitable growth journey and to win new customers in growing segments, such as energy optimisation and security," Peter Kruk says.
He continues to say that all of the group's segments performed at a high level. Growth in Nordic was highly favourable, with strong results in most units – the segment was further strengthened by the acquisition of Elmatica.
In Europe, the rise in net sales continued and margins improved further. The integration of Kestrel International Circuits in the UK, which was acquired in June, has made good progress and synergies have, according to the CEO, already materialised both on the income and cost side.
In North America, net sales growth continued to be good. The East segment experienced clear challenges during the quarter.
"In addition to our exit from the Russian market, which has a significant impact on year-on-year comparisons, net sales in China were also weak. The zero-COVID policy has had a considerable impact on business activity in the country and our ability to grow in the region," Peter Kruk explains.
Looking ahead, the CEO says that despite the current uncertainties in the world, NCAB is still in a "strong position in many ways and continue to invest in growth, both organic and through acquisitions". Peter Kruk details this further by saying that the group has expanded its pipeline of acquisition candidates and that it currently is in talks with several companies.
