VOLAF - AB Volvo (publ) (VLVLY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-04-17 11:43:10 ET
AB Volvo (publ) (VLVLY)
Q1 2024 Results Conference Call
April 17, 2024 03:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Johan Bartler - Head of IR
Martin Lundstedt - CEO
Mats Backman - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Erik Golrang - SEB
Hampus Engellau - Handelsbanken
Daniela Costa - Goldman Sachs
Klas Bergelind - Citibank
José Asumendi - JPMorgan
Nicolai Kempf - Deutsche Bank
Olof Cederholm - ABG Sundal Collier
Mattias Holmberg - DNB Markets
Agnieszka Vilela - Nordea Markets
Hemal Bhundia - UBS Investment Bank
Presentation
Johan Bartler
Welcome to the Volvo Group First Quarter Report. We will do, as always, we'll listen to the presentation from our CEO and CFO, Martin and Mats. And then we'll follow up with the Q&A session.
So with that, I hand over to you, Martin.
Martin Lundstedt
So thank you, Johan, and also from my side, most welcome. And as we conclude now the first quarter of 2024, I would like to start with thanking our customers, business partners, and colleagues for a good continued cooperation and partnership also during this quarter.
As all of us now know, we are living in a world with lots of uncertainties. And in a world with lots of uncertainties, strong relations are more important than ever. When it comes to the quarter, as expected, demand continued to normalize across many of Volvo Group's major markets during the quarter, and still despite lower volumes and lower deliveries of primarily vehicles, sales were on the same level as in the same quarter of 2023 of SEK 131 billion with an operating income of SEK 18.2 billion and an operating margin of 13.8%.
Earnings per share increased with almost 10% to SEK 6.92 per share. And as a company, we continue now to prioritize high quality in the business by having a strong focus on our service operations serving our customers, volume flexibility in the industrial system, tight cost control combined with commercial and pricing discipline. At the same time, we will continue to drive our R&D investments in the new technologies and services that are transforming our industries and thereby also securing our current and future competitiveness.
If we summarize the quarter, the group continued, as I said, to deliver strong results with the sales in line with last year. Our adjusted operating income came in on SEK 18.2 million, corresponding to a margin down of 13.8%. With the combination of strong earnings and focus on inventory management, we had a level of operating cash flow amounting to almost SEK 9 billion, which elevated our net cash position to almost SEK 89 billion, and that was before then the distribution of shareholders' dividend in April.
Return on capital employed in Industrial Operation increased to 37.7%. And as I said, EPS or earnings per share to SEK 6.92.
So all in all, we summarize another strong results, thanks to great work by colleagues supported by strong commercial and operational execution....
AB Volvo (publ) (VLVLY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript