The supplier payables have deteriorated because of two reasons. On the one hand, we have been using quite extensively supply chain finance and with the current interest rates, the bigger multinational companies that have stepped into the supply chain finance are no longer participating because the cost is too high to compare, considering that they have a good funding base of their own. Secondly, what we have also seen is that considering that we are trying to reduce our inventory levels also on the product company side, buying components from our suppliers, we are of course buying less volume and that also results in lower payables on our balance sheet and therefore also on our cash flow statement. The next thing you see on the cash flow is then the increase in rental equipment.
I already indicated there we are boosting a little bit the investments that are needed, both in replacing older equipment to run the existing business, but also in some new equipment like following, for example, the acquisition of Climorent in Spain, where we are addressing now also industrial cooling with rental solutions. I think investments of property, plant and equipment have been a highlight in the past couple of quarters, but not so much this time. Now we could say that the level is stable on a high level of SEK900 million roughly, almost the same as a year ago. Actually, if I look at the main investments, if I look at the top 10 investments over the last 12 months, then we have spent about SEK2 billion on the top 10 investments with the Atlas Copco Group and like I said, mainly Vacuum Technique, but also Compressor Technique and then also specific investments in the other business areas that contribute to this number.
So all of this together leads us to an improved cash flow of SEK6.7 billion, compared to SEK5 billion just a year ago, and that is, of course, then what triggers also the improvement on the cash account, on the balance sheet. You can also note from the overview here that we have acquired companies for an amount of about SEK2.2 billion, where we last year spent in the same quarter about SEK0.5 billion. So with that, we’ve come to the end of the, let’s say, analysis of our different financial statements and I would like then to hand over back to Mats to comment a little bit on the near-term outlook.
Mats Rahmström: So, in the near-term outlook, we are trying then to guide you a little bit on the activity level at our customers between Q1 and Q2. It’s not so scientific. We are looking into the number of quotes and the activity level among our customers. And what we have seen on the positive side, of course, that sequentially it came in significantly better than we expected them. So there were more activity in most areas. Slightly then positive on semi. At the same time, we see that our new product offers, if you will, we spend quite a significant amount on R&D and we are launching a new product that creates lots of activity as well, we created ourselves. On the negative side, I think, you can see that we have discussed it before that in China, we can see battery, solar and EV are more hesitant to invest at this time, and that has an impact on both Vacuum, Industrial and Compressor Technique.
There is uncertainty, but we don’t have a clear view that things are going to be significantly better in Q2. On the other side, we have no reason to be negative either, so that it will go down dramatically and that’s why we ended up in remain at the current level. I think that’s the best outlook we can give at this point.
Peter Kinnart: Thank you, Mats. With that, we have come to the end of our presentation. And I would like to hand over back to the Operator to start the Q&A session.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Daniela Costa: Hi. Good afternoon. Hope you can hear me. My question is regarding whether you can give a more granular color on the underlying industries contributing to the strength on compressors. Specific to the point, so you mentioned positive signs in Europe. If you could give us some clue of which countries, which industries are causing this. And also given Europe has some high dependency on China on the general industrial side outside of solar and EVs. Can you comment about the sustainability going forward that you see on these European better signs? Thank you.
Mats Rahmström: I’ll start with CT at least. The Industrial Compressors held up better than expected in North America and it was so achieved growth in South America and in the Middle East. The Middle East is, of course, related to oil and gas. We see continued strong gas and process, although we didn’t reach the level we had last year, but the demand is still there, and that are still application within fuel gas, booster, liquid natural gas, for example. So that’s what we have seen for compressors in general. And then you said specifically on Europe, was that correct?
Daniela Costa: I think you mentioned earlier that you had been positively surprised in Europe, but maybe I misheard you.
Mats Rahmström: No. You’re absolutely right. So, year-on-year, of course, then Europe was up 4%, if I remember correctly, and it was same here, overall weaker demand for Industrial Compressors. But on the other side, a bit softer in Middle Europe, Germany, Italy, France, Turkey. But then VT was flat, which I think was good and ITB was even up, where we can see automotive being approximately the same level, but very good development on general industry, aerospace being one of them. And then Power Technique came in better. We thought that the rental business would be slow, but the comeback here was mainly in the industrial pump side, where they did really well, I must say. I think that summarizes a little bit Europe for us. I don’t know if Peter wants to add something on Europe.
