Sweden behind beat on sales and EBITA

Sales +3% and EBITA +25% vs ABGSCe

Argentina, not as bad as feared

US & Asia in line on sales, slightly behind on EBITA
Opus reported net sales of SEK 699m (634m), +3.2% above ABGSCe. The deviation was mainly driven by the strong performance in Sweden where the new inspection interval have distorted the historical seasonal effects, making it harder to predict the overall market. In addition, Opus has continued to increase the price per inspection, which further drives net sales and margin improvement. If this is a permanent effect, which we believe it is, we will increase our margin assumptions for Sweden. The other Vehicle Inspection segments were more or less in line on sales. On EBITA, US & Asia were slightly behind but that was offset by better than expected performance in Latin America. Reported EBITA amounted to 95.9m (90.7m), 25% above ABGSCe and again entirely driven by the performance in Sweden.

IVS division behind expectations, actions are taken
Growth continued in the IVS division with net sales of SEK 80m (74.6m), -7% vs ABGSCe. However, EBITA was negative for the second quarter in a row as Opus continues to take necessary investments to fuel further growth. In November, Opus launched a new brand called Opus IVS, which will integrate Drew Technologies, Autologic, Farsight and Bluelink under the same brand. We think it is logical and will lead to some cost synergies as well as a clearer marketing focus.

Strong cash flow, net debt/EBITDA within target
Finally, we note that the cash flow continues to be strong, bringing down the lease adjusted net debt/EBITDA to 3.0x, within Opus financial targets. The company has a conference call/webcast at 10:00 CET, dial-in: SE +46 8 506 92180, UK +44 8 445718892, conference-ID: 3393326 link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/dnntvbhj

info@introduce.se (Introduce.se)

ABG Sundal Collier - Introduce.se