Bildkälla: Stockfoto

Atvexa: Organic growth of 6% in Q3 - ABG

Q3: Healthy organic growth but adj. EBIT lower than last year
Atvexa reported Q3 sales of SEK 576m (+23% y-o-y), 4% ahead of our forecast. However, SEK 14m was from other income in conjunction with a revaluation of the earn-out for ULNA. Adjusting for that, sales were 1% ahead of ABGSCe. The organic growth remained strong at 6.2% in Q3 despite a challenging environment in Germany following COVID-19 restrictions that have led to a slower intake of children than anticipated by the company in the country. Adj. EBIT excl. IFRS 16 was SEK 19m (24m), corresponding to a margin of 3.3% (5.1%). We were expecting SEK 24m and a margin of 4.4%. Part of the deviation was from a slight change in seasonality following an increased share of compulsory schools in the group as opposed to preschools. The other explanation for the lower adj. EBIT was higher opex due to a normalization of activities in schools, as last year had some cost savings due to COVID-19.

New acquisitions lead to small positive revisions
The Q3 report revealed two new acquisitions that had a combined yearly turnover of SEK 26m last year. We include those in our revised forecasts and in total it results in a 2.5% increase in our ‘22e sales estimate. However, due to the lower adj. EBIT margin in Q3 we reduce our adj. EBIT margin assumption by 0.1pp. That results in a small positive revision to our adj. EBIT for ‘22e.

ND/EBITDA down to 0.8x leaves room for more M&A
We argue that the Q3 report was solid, with strong cash flow lowering the ND/EBITDA excl. IFRS 16 to 0.8x. With a robust balance sheet and a business model that is non-cyclical we expect the M&A agenda to continue. We lower our DCF valuation range slightly to SEK 86-158 (87-159) to account for our 0.1pp decrease in the long-term adj. EBIT margin excl. IFRS 16.
Börsvärldens nyhetsbrev
ANNONSER