ABLZF - ABB Ltd. (ABBNY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-04-23 14:52:08 ET
ABB, Ltd. (ABBNY)
Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call
April 18, 2024, 04:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Ann-Sofie Nordh - Head of IR
Bjorn Rosengren - CEO
Timo Ihamuotila - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Daniela Costa - Goldman Sachs
Hemal Bhundia - UBS
Will Mackie - Kepler
Alex Virgo - Bank of America
Sean McLoughlin - HSBC
Martin Wilkie - Citi
Gael de-Bray - Deutsche Bank
Sebastian Kuenne - RBC Capital Markets
Delphine Brault - ODDO
Jonathan Mounsey - BNP Paribhas
Alasdair Leslie - Bernstein
Andy Wilson - JPMorgan
Presentation
Ann-Sofie Nordh
Greetings to you all, as I welcome you to this presentation where we will talk through ABB's Results for the First Quarter. I'm Ann-Sofie Nordh, Head of Investor Relations. And next to me here is our CEO, Bjorn Rosengren; and CFO, Timo Ihamuotila. They will take you through the presentation before we open up for questions.
But before we begin, I should mention the information regarding Safe Harbor notices on our use of non-GAAP measures on Slide 2 of the presentation. This call includes forward-looking statements based on the company's current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties.
And with that said, I will kick off the presentation, and I hand over to you, Bjorn.
Bjorn Rosengren
Thank you, Ann-Sofie, and a warm welcome from me as well. Let's summarize the quarter on Page 3. The year got off to a good start with orders at $9 billion. This is one of the strongest quarters for ABB. Both Electrification and Motion were at new record heights. Orders in Process Automation declined, but remember that the comparables was on an all-time high level of $2.1 billion. And importantly, the underlying markets remain consistent with recent quarters.
In Robotics and Discrete Automation, you recognize the pattern of sharp order decline. In Machine Automation, you can still see the pre-buys effect. And the robotic market declined from last year. But we saw encouraging sequential signs. I will talk more about this on the next slide.
To summarize, we see a continued high level of customer activity in their project and systems areas. And it is encouraging to see the positive order development in Electrification's short-cycle business. I feel even more confident about 2024 than I did coming into the year. It was good to see the record level operational EBITDA margin of 17.9%. This was supported by Electrification and Process Automation, which both delivered new highs. This is a good sign that there is still upside potential in ABB.
Also, cash flow was strong at $550 million, a great start to what should be another strong year for cash. We expect free cash flow to be at least similar to last year. Timo will talk more about that later on. ...
ABB, Ltd. (ABBNY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript