We think it will probably develop in a slightly more favorable way and we would end up, let’s say, on a similar absolute number, but of course, a different sign. So maybe somewhere around plus SEK100 million, plus SEK140 million, we expect all things being equal. Then, of course, the heart of the matter is then the drop-through here, which was very favorable, I think well above the existing margin from last year, and therefore, that contributed then to an improvement of the margin if we look at the organic development. If we then move on to the next slide to dig a little bit more into the different business areas when it comes to the profitability development, I would say, the picture tends to be quite similar across all the business areas.
The acquisitions tend to be slightly dilutive, as usual, considering that we have the integration costs in the beginning of the project, et cetera, so quite a normal development. The currency differs a little bit, but overall, for the Group, of course, as I already said, basically not a really dramatic impact and then the drop-through tends to be quite solid across most of the business areas with the exception of Vacuum Technique, and in Vacuum Technique, we’ve been suffering a bit from the lower revenues, the volumes that have dropped a bit there as we are eating through the orders on hand and the order book has normalized, while we also had a small impact from, let’s say, unfavorable mix across the different categories that we invoice to our customers.
Of course, our customers decide what they want to order, so that’s something that is not really so easy to control, so that contributed then to the slightly negative drop-through we have seen in Vacuum Technique s. If I then move on to the balance sheet on Page 15, I would say, if you compare year-over-year, March 31, 2023 to March 31, 2024, the total assets have grown by about SEK23 billion. That’s a significant amount and it’s a bit scattered across different categories. First of all, the intangible assets, growing by about SEK5 billion, which is basically attributable to the acquisitions. Then when we look at rental equipment, also there we see an increase, you could say, kind of equally split between acquisitions. As you remember, the NPE acquisition in Australia was quite substantial, and at the same time, we also invest quite strongly into rental fleet, considering that we have lowered a little bit our investment base during the COVID period and that needs to be adjusted, and we are also trying to attack new segments, so therefore we also need a bit more equipment there.
Also, on the other property plant and equipment, we see an increase of about SEK2.6 billion, which is purely related to all the investments that we have announced and that we’ve spoken about in earlier calls, not only in Vacuum Technique, also in Compressor Technique, also in Industrial Technique, we’ve seen a number of investments, so it’s a bit across the different business areas, you could say. The next category that is worthwhile to give some special comment to is, of course, the inventories. We have indicated that our inventory levels have been on a fairly high level and we have been working hard to try to reduce them, which looked quite good when we remembered the fourth quarter of last year, then we managed to have a good improvement there.
Now we see an increase of the inventories. If we look at this balance sheet and that is mostly related to the fact that customers across different business areas tend to be pushing out a bit those deliveries, it’s in Power Technique, for example, on the rental companies that are still having the orders in our order book, but not necessarily demanding the equipment to be delivered right now. The same is valid for Compressor Technique in China, for example, where customers are pushing back a little bit, given the current situation there. And then also in Vacuum Technique, where the utilization of the fabs is not maybe at the exact level the big OEMs want to have it. We also see a bit of those pushouts for the equipment in their new fabs that they are building in different locations.
That being said, we are not concerned about the quality of the order book in any way and we haven’t seen any relevant number of cancellations, neither in quantity nor in volume, so nothing that we are specifically concerned about. The next category that increased substantially is the receivables, but also they’re purely linked to the volume of invoicing that we have generated across the past quarters and when it comes to the risks that we see that is associated with these receivables, also there we don’t see any deterioration basically, so that’s on a healthy level still. And then last but not least on the asset side, the cash, which of course, is increasing, thanks to the positive cash flow that we’ve been generating. If I then turn to the equity and liabilities, I think, the only thing to really mention is then, of course, the equity, and the equity increase of by SEK18.6 billion is simply put split into two, based on net profit improvement and at the same time also translation differences when we consolidate all of our subsidiaries.
That I think when it comes to the balance sheet, moving on to the cash flow, just like in previous quarters, I would say that we’ve been able to see a quite healthy development of the cash flow, with a continued high operating cash surplus from our operations. Net financial items are basically on a similar level from a cash flow perspective as last year. The taxes paid are going up and that is partly linked to the fact that we are invoicing more in territories, geographies where there is a higher nominal tax rate, but also of course, the mere fact that we are generating more absolute profitability means that we are paying somewhat more tax. Then the change in working capital on the cash flow side is actually not attributable to receivables nor to the inventories, but almost entirely linked to the slight deterioration we have seen in the supplier payables and also in some additional accrued accounts.
