Second quarter
First six months
Comment from the CEO
The second quarter of the year offered a mixed picture. We achieve a record turnover of SEK 416 million and our second-best quarterly result ever of SEK 72 million, while at the same time, the organic order intake in local currency is weak and at the same level as the previous year (+1 %). The sales increase of 26 % is a combination of organic growth (+13 %), currency effects (+5 %) and acquisition effects (+8 %). The large difference between sales and order intake is partly due to the fact that a number of major orders from 2018 were delivered during the quarter and a weaker development in order intake during the last part of the quarter.
The gross margin has developed as expected and has strengthened from the first quarter to reach 61.2 %. Price increases for older products in combination with a positive marginal effect from the acquisition of WEBfactory are the main factors for the improvement. Despite an increased cost base, due to continued investments in both the market and development organization and acquisition effects, we can report an operating profit of SEK 72 million, corresponding to a margin of 17 %.
The market situation reported in the first quarter also continues in this quarter, which means increased uncertainty in the short-term perspective regarding investments in our industrial segments. This is now reflected in a weakened order intake in most of our markets and increased caution among our customers, where we primarily see a decrease in ongoing customer orders from existing customers. We see great interest in our new products and during the quarter we have exceeded internal expectations of new Design-Wins for our Embedded products, so we feel confident that we have an attractive product offering to create long-term future growth.
In Asia, we delivered several major orders during the quarter, which were received in 2018 and has created good growth in the quarter. However, the order intake had a weak development, particularly in Japan. Although our operations in China and India are relatively good and growing, the large but weak Japanese market is pulling down Asia as a whole. Also in the US, the picture is mixed with good invoicing but weak order intake, which reflects the increased uncertainty our US customers see in the state of the market and trading situation. Europe and the important German market have been relatively stable, but we see indications that our customers’ customers are taking more caution regarding future investments.
Since April, HMS is the majority shareholder (74.9 %) of German WEBfactory GmbH. Our ambition is to use WEBfactory’s software as a value-adding accessory for our customers who want to visualize data from their machines that are connected via our IIoT solution HMS-HUB.
During the quarter, we have also acquired Dutch Raster Product B.V., which has been our distributor for some of our products for many years. 80 % of Raster’s sales today consist of HMS’s product offering and we intend to continue to develop the business and build a larger base for increased sales of HMS offerings in the Netherlands, which is an interesting market for the future.
During the quarter, our HMS Labs team has started to work on Machine Learning (ML) to explore how we can support our customers to implement AI functions in their industrial equipments in the future. We continue our commitment to 5G and during the quarter, we participated in various marketing activities in Germany and the US around 5G together with leading players in the Telecom industry, where we see a great interest in using 5G communication technology in industrial applications.
Despite the uncertain investment climate within our main segments, which will be challenging for our growth in the short term, we stick to our ambitious long-term goals - a long-term growth of 20 % per year and an operating margin of 20 %. Our focus is to drive continued growth in all our business areas. We continue to work on our long-term growth goals based on a balanced view of costs and growth potential. In the long term, we believe that the market for industrial communication will be an interesting growth area and we will continue to focus on our motto “HMS - Connecting Devices”.
Halmstad July 16, 2019
Staffan Dahlström
Chief Executive Officer
Further information can be obtained from:
CEO Staffan Dahlström, telephone +46 (0) 35 17 29 01
CFO Joakim Nideborn, telephone +46 (0) 35 710 69 83
This information is such that HMS Networks AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the contact persons set out above, at 08.00 CET on July 16, 2019.
HMS Networks AB (publ) is the leading independent supplier of solutions for industrial communication and the Industrial Internet of Things. HMS develops and manufactures products under the Anybus®, Ixxat® and Ewon® brands. Communication solutions for building automation are offered through the subsidiary Intesis. Development and manufacturing take place at the headquarters in Halmstad, and in Ravensburg, Nivelles, Igualada, Wetzlar and Buchen. Local sales and support are handled by branch offices in Germany, USA, Japan, China, Singapore, Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, India, UK, Sweden, South Korea and UAE, as well as through a worldwide network of distributors and partners. HMS employs over 600 people and reported sales of SEK 1,366 million in 2018. HMS is listed on the NASDAQ OMX in Stockholm, category Mid Cap, Information Technology.
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