Financial target: 
Average sales growth shall amount to a minimum of 10% per year over a business cycle. Growth is to be achieved organically as well as through acquisitions.

Target achievement: 
During the last five-year period, average annual sales growth was 14%. Net sales rose 18% in 2023. Comparable units increased by 6%, acquired growth was 7% and divestments had a marginal impact. Currency movements had a positive impact of 5%.

Financial target: 
The EBITA margin shall amount to a minimum of 14% per year over a business cycle.

Target achievement: 
The EBITA margin has averaged 14.2% over the last five years. The EBITA margin in 2023 was 15.0%.

Financial target:
The return on capital employed shall be a minimum of 20% per year on average over a business cycle.

Target achievement: 
During the last five years the average return on capital employed was 21%. In 2023 it was 21%.

Financial target: 
The net debt/equity ratio should normally not exceed 100%.

Target achievement: 
During the last five years, the net debt/equity ratio at the end of each year ranged from 53% to 85%. The net debt/equity ratio at year-end 2023 was 53%.

Financial target: 
The dividend payout ratio shall range from 30% to 50% of net profit.

Target achievement: 
During the last five years, the dividend payout ratio has been an average of 37%, including the proposed dividend for 2023 and not including 2019 when no dividends were distributed. For 2023, a dividend of SEK 2.85 has been proposed, corresponding to 36%.

We facilitate long-term growth in our companies by focusing on continuous leadership and competence development, inclusive and productive work groups and workplaces where employees thrive, and always prioritising health and safety. For example, Indutrade works proactively with development programmes and training, succession planning, recruitment, diversity and inclusion.

Indutrade makes it possible for companies to derive benefits from the collective expertise that exists in the Group. Companies belonging to the Group enrich each other and are given opportunities for exchanging valuable knowledge via networking opportunities and internal benchmarking. Indutrade has also developed a digital communications platform where best practice and tools are available in several strategic areas, such as strategy planning, pricing, working capital efficiency, IT security and sustainability.

Indutrade puts much emphasis on accelerating the Group’s contribution to reduce global warming and we see it as a business opportunity. We do this by having our companies work proactively to lower their carbon footprint and by ensuring that our companies, through innovation and business development, are on the forefront with products and solutions that help customers lower their carbon footprint.

We exercise active ownership primarily through the Boards of Directors of our subsidiaries with the aim of developing them, generating sustainable value growth and contributing to society. As an active and professional owner, we work in a structured way through our business areas and the Boards of Directors of our subsidiaries to develop our leaders and inject both knowledge and capital so that companies have everything they need for being able to choose the right strategic direction, invest in product development and improve their customer offerings.

In order to ensure the Group's ability to identify, acquire and support a continuous inflow of new companies to the Group, we work to stepwise and proactively improve our organisational capacity. The work includes, among other things, ongoing evaluation and development of the business areas and their business units, to ensure the right board composition for our companies and to enable more efficient processes and routines through shared working methods in selected areas.

Indutrade continued to work actively on initiatives in each of the strategic focus areas in 2023. There was a special emphasis on further developing the Group’s various programmes to promote knowledge sharing and on leadership development. This work includes resource reinforcements, succession planning, Group-wide leadership trainings and internal network meetings on various topics, including a bespoke conference for business unit managers.

Indutrade also made progress in the sustainability area, where key areas included a focus on preparing for CSRD (upcoming EU legislation within sustainability reporting) and extended Scope 3 reporting.

New Group structure
To strengthen the platform for the next growth phase, it was decided during the year to reorganise the Group into five international business areas with a clear strategic focus on different business segments and technologies. The new Group structure came into effect on 1 January 2024.

The change reflects a number of Indutrade’s strategic focus areas and has the main aim of improving the basis for both organic growth and acquisitions by creating further opportunities for knowledge-sharing across companies in the same market sectors and segments. It also offers long-term improvements in scalability and company governance, while at the same time retaining the decentralised structure where the individual company is at the core.

Indutrade has an opportunity-oriented acquisition strategy. We acquire well-managed, successful and typically owner-led technical and industrial companies. We are also open to considering companies in different industries and markets and sometimes also make smaller add-on acquisitions through our existing companies to strengthen market positions. A central feature of the acquisition process is to ensure that there is a shared foundation of values and ethical principles.

Indutrade puts a great deal of emphasis on a company’s ability to continue generating profitable organic growth. Particular focus is put on identifying and acquiring companies that are active in a segment with structural growth, such as medical technology and pharmaceuticals, as well as companies with products that make a positive contribution to the green technology transition.

Indutrade has a strong presence in the Nordic countries and Western Europe and this is where we primarily intend to make our future acquisitions, with greater focus on Germany and northern Italy. Gradually and in a well thought-out manner, we can enter new geographic areas when the right acquisition candidate is identified and we have ensured that we have the necessary market knowledge.

As Indutrade grows, we continuously strive to ensure that we have the right prerequisites for being able to manage more acquisitions in an efficient way, without compromising on the quality of the evaluation process. Among other things, the work involves identifying, recruiting and developing talent in our acquisition teams.

Indutrade has a continuous inflow of new, interesting acquisition candidates, both from its own internal network and from external brokers and business advisers. In recent years, we have strengthened our acquisition teams in the business areas, partly in order to further increase the proportion of acquisition candidates generated via our internal network.

Indutrade's basic principle is always to acquire 100% of the shares in a company and for the acquisition to be completed at a price that makes the deal value-creating for both parties. In order to create continued financial incentives for key people in the acquired company, there are typically agreements on additional earn-out payment, which means that additional payment will be made if the company reaches a certain level of profitability after the acquisition. Indutrade will continue further developing the price model with a stronger link between price and the organic growth potential of companies.