Addlife Aktie

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to AddLife's second quarter call. As usual, we will be providing you with an overview of the quarter and then go through the financials, and then have the Q&A. And after the Q&A, as always, a video from one of our subsidiaries this time around from Ropox, one of the companies within the Home Care area, which we are focusing on a little bit extra in this quarter.

So let's move on to the numbers. In the second quarter, we are really pleased to note that we see positive development across AddLife's companies. Margins, our highest priority, are improving significantly. So 12.6% EBITA margin for the group compared to 11.9% in the corresponding quarter of last year. Margins improved in both business areas in Labtech, a full percentage point up to 13.4%; in Medtech, a strong improvement to 12.8% EBITA margin.

Improvement initiatives are part of our DNA. And in many areas, we have had long-standing improvement efforts. In Home Care, we are pleased to note that we see a significant growth in the quarter and margins are clearly improving. In Eye Surgery, there's been a long effort to gradually evolve the business and now we are in a very positive margin trend, and we think this demonstrates stability and confidence in the future. Overall, sales is in a positive trend. Advanced products are driving growth and margins. We see strikes in Spain and a little bit subdued capital spend in the U.K. market that did hold back revenue growth a little bit, but strong growth in the Nordics, solid improvement in Eastern Europe and continued positive development in research, as we have talked about in the past.

And then as I mentioned earlier on, very, very good growth in Home Care. So a lot of positives when it comes to growth. And then finally, we are pleased to note that our recent acquisitions are really meaningfully contributing to earnings growth. And now I hand over to Christina to take us through the detailed numbers.

Thank you, Fredrik. So organic growth in the quarter was 4%, while acquisitions contributed with additional 3%. Organic growth of 4% have been adjusted for the divestment of the endoscopy business in the U.K. end of last year. Also, the doctor strikes in Spain had a negative impact on organic growth. Profit expansion or EBITA growth was 11% in the quarter. Organic growth was 5%, and acquisition contributed with additional 6%.

So revenue increased with 6%. Underlying organic growth was 4% and acquisition was 3%. Gross margin improved in the quarter with 0.5 percentage point. This is due to diligent price management within our companies and also product mix with a higher share of advanced products. OpEx increased. This is reflecting both gross investment into current companies, but of course, also the completed acquisitions and acquisition costs. And if we divide both of them, it's approximately half-half between current business and new acquisitions and acquisition costs.

EBITA margin increased to 12.6% from 11.9% last year, and profit before tax was up 29%. EBITA margin has clearly established on a higher level. It was 12.6% in the quarter compared to 11.9% last year. And EBITA margin increased in both Labtech and Medtech. Labtech increased with 1 percentage point to 13.4%, while Medtech was at 12.8% from 12.4% last year. Margin expansion has been a key priority for us since 2023, and that remains going forward. Operating cash flow increased SEK 165 million compared to SEK 119 million last year and last 12 months cash conversion remained strong at around 100%. Operating cash flow was SEK 65 million. Working capital was a negative SEK 149 million compared to a negative SEK 180 million last year. Working capital includes lower accounts payables, but also slightly higher inventory driven by introduction of new products and suppliers.

We had an expectation of an account receivables released in the quarter due to strong sales end of Q1. But we also had strong sales end of Q2 in June, meaning that it was approximately the same numbers. Closing cash was impacted by acquisition and dividend payments. Acquisition and dividend payments of around SEK 400 million, lowering the cash balance is the main reason for net debt to increase in the quarter. Also with majority of the loans in euro, we had a negative FX impact of SEK 58 million. The acquisition also comes with earnouts and we have booked earn-out liabilities of SEK 114 million in the quarter.

Leverage increased to 2.6 in the quarter, mainly driven by acquisition and dividend payments. This is comfortable below our ambition of being at 3 or below. Also, net equity ratio was 0.8 below the internal guidance of 1. And the balance sheet now clearly supports both organic and acquisition-driven growth.

And with that, I hand over to Fredrik again.

So Labtech had a strong second quarter. Currency adjusted growth was 7%, and EBITA margin improved a full percentage point to 13.4%. The positive demand trend that we have talked about for a few quarters now in research that really did continue and strengthened further during the quarter. So that's a positive sign. And then also customers in Eastern European countries are investing significantly in research and diagnostics. So we see a positive development in multiple countries, including, for example, Poland.

Recently completed acquisitions really are making a significant contribution to the positive development both in sales and margins. Moving on to MedTech. The acquired growth was 2% and organic growth, 5%. So solid growth there and EBITA margin also improved to 12.8%. Growth and profitability was quite strong in the Nordic region. Advanced products is really driving this growth and the margin improvement as well. In Spain, we had a good underlying growth. Our strong companies there are really delivering. However, there was a doctor strike in the country that affected each month of the quarter in a significant way. So that certainly held back revenues a bit. And in the U.K., the subdued market for capital investment in the health care system was still ongoing. So it was a bit slow. But the order book for capital goods for us is strong. So we are confident in the future.

In Eye Surgery and Home Care, as I mentioned earlier, we have been driving long-term significant improvement programs, and we are really pleased to see that in both of those areas we are making strong improvements. And I will talk a little bit about -- more about Home Care, that's an important area for us and also where we will be focusing with the video after the call. So moving to Home Care.

Here, we have a quite comprehensive product offering. Our products include home adaptation to update and adapt homes for people to be able to live at home for longer. We have technical aids that are portable and fixed. We have welfare technology, various digital solutions such as fall detectors, safety alarms and so on and also construction supporting the work to create adapted homes for elderly and the people with various disabilities.

So all in all, a very comprehensive product portfolio, and this is indeed important because just one product cannot achieve the goal of having a higher quality life in your home for longer, you need a range of products, which we are pleased to be able to provide. So the product portfolio that we have really corresponds well with the macro trends that we see in Home Care. We all know that the population in Europe and in other parts of the world is aging. And so with that comes the requirement for allowing people to age at home for longer. So that is a -- call it, a life topic, but also a way for the societies to handle that potential burden.

Fortunately, there are a lot of new things coming, new technologies. So the digital products, for example, are a big piece of the puzzle, allowing for a safer environment at home, and we have those products in our portfolio. Well, taking care of all these elderly people is, of course, a challenge to society in particular, in light of the fact that we see health care staffing shortage across Europe. So these technologies that we are able to provide from Home Care can really help address these things in an efficient way taking care of more people with fewer staff.

So all in all, we have a portfolio that fits really well with the market trends. So the AddLife Home Care offering then to summarize. It's a comprehensive combined product portfolio, which we're quite proud of. We have a large share of proprietary products much more than the rest of the company, actually around 50% of the products we make ourselves. So that's clearly a strength. We are well established in the Nordic region and the Nordic region is leading in many areas of Home Care. We have a growing export business and we certainly have the ambition to expand this business outside of the Nordics.

The business unit consists of 6 well-established companies. A turnover of around SEK 700 million and with improving margins. So to summarize the second quarter, we see consistent positive development across the board, sales, earnings, operating cash flow, all developing quite well. We have been driving for quite some time the initiatives to increase the share of advanced products in our product portfolio, and we're certainly seeing that in this quarter that it is generating both growth and improved margins. We are also consistently and diligently driving improvement efforts in our companies, and sometimes these are long-term efforts.

In Home Care and Eye Surgery, we have really seen this quarter strong improvements and stability that gives us good confidence for the future. We see strong growth in the Nordics, in Eastern Europe in research, in Home Care and we are really pleased to note that the recently acquired companies are making a significant and important contribution to our earnings growth. And also, of course, we are actively pursuing a number of new acquisitions. We are developing our processes, and we are developing the resources to further pick up the pace when it comes to acquisition.

So with that, we can sum up the quarter and open up for Q&A.

Okay. So we got a bit of an echo here, but let's open up for questions, maybe we start with Zino.

Zino from Handelsbanken here. I'd like to start off on the U.K. capital products you talked about. So a bit lower on the sales side, but a strong order book. Can you talk a bit about the conversion assumptions you have for H2 related to that?

Yes, I will answer that. So the question was around the U.K. capital investments. So you are correct. We had a quarter where we continue to see a bit of hesitation around the capital investment as we have seen in previous quarters also. This continued in the second quarter, but I would also say that we are fairly confident in a positive development there because we do have a good order book. We have instruments in stock, and we have orders. So we will be delivering those as it suits the customer. So a little bit of still a slow moving activity there, but the orders are coming in and we are ready to ship.

Understood. I don't -- I know you don't report...

Does that answer to your question?

Yes, very much. I know you don't report it, but is it possible to share and talk about book-to-bill on the segment.

Yes, we have a little trouble hearing the question. Could you please repeat?

Yes, of course. I know you don't report it, but is it possible to talk about the book-to-bill in the second half.

I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Perfect. Is it possible to comment on the book-to-bill in the segment. Can you hear me?

No, I wouldn't want to comment on the detailed level like that. But I think, as I mentioned, there is a bit of [Technical Difficulty]

Could not hear the last part, but I heard that you could not comment on it at least.

You guys are muted.

[Technical Difficulty]

Did you have another question, Zino.

Just lastly on that same topic. If there are any new dynamics to it which just the same as we've seen in the first quarter.

We're working on the sound [Technical Difficulty] Okay, so is it working now? Can you hear us?

Yes. [indiscernible] It's working.

Okay. Sorry about that. So let's give it another try. Sorry about that, Zino. So please give us your final question again.

Yes. So the final question on the same topic. I'm wondering if this the hesitation that you're seeing, if you could talk a bit more about the underlying drivers behind that. But since you have an increased order intake or it sounds like that if there are any concrete shifts, you can talk about that happened during the quarter.

Okay. That's a great question. I think the challenge that we've seen for quite some time now in the U.K. has been a little -- there's been a knowledge that there's going to be changes in how things are done in the NHS. I think that change is continuing. We have been seeing, for example, new guidance for procurement that was issued in June. So this changed to more, for example, more value-based procurement is continuing. So that's a positive. I think the slow sales of capital has been there for a while, but we all know that cannot go on forever.

Equipment needs to be changed and updated and so on. So I think what we're seeing is a decent development after all, but in this quarter, we know that some of the customers prefer to wait a little bit with deliveries, for what reason, we don't know. But -- so I think we shouldn't expect a massive change in this short term, but I think what we've seen in the past is that gradual -- slow but gradual improvement, and I think that's the case this time around as well, the number of procedures seems to be growing, the waiting list is coming down not drastically, but a little bit. So I think what we can conclude is gradual improvements. not a dramatic shift.

Okay. Let's move on. So we have, let's see, Alvin here. Are you ready.

Maybe beginning a little bit looking at the acquisition breakdown in the report from what I can gather since you've consolidated the business and the kind of pro forma first half of the year, the margins in these companies seem really, really strong. Is there anything we should kind of have any respect for in that regard that has affected kind of these companies' performances so far during the year? Or is this kind of the level where you kind of expect these companies to operate at given that it's more or less twice the margins of AddLife as a whole.

Yes. That's correct. I mean a good analysis there. The acquisitions we have made in the past 2 quarters are quite solid when it comes to growth and margins. So -- and there's nothing out of the ordinary in the margin levels. So we do expect continuing roughly at the same level. Is it something you have to add to that, Christina.

No, I think that that's a fair assumption. So that -- I think those are high-margin companies. So we could expect this to continue. .

Okay. Great. And maybe a little bit on Eye Surgery as well and Home Care, it's obviously positive to see that Home Care, I meant that the initiatives are yielding such good results in Home Care and that in Eye Surgery that your gradual improvements there. Can you perhaps give us a color on kind of how far you've progressed within Eye Surgery? And how much do you -- like how much improvement potential do you still have left in that area of your businesses and how far away in time do you feel that, that is until you're "done" with those improvements, so to say? I think your sound went away.

You're muted guys.

Okay. Now can you hear us?

Yes.

All right. So when I come -- we start with Eye Surgery now. So Eye Surgery has been a long-standing improvement project. We have addressed cost. We have addressed product portfolio. And having done that, we have shifted over to focusing on sales. And now there's been a while where we actually were at a negative EBITA margin, then we have started to move upwards. And so in the last year, we had around mid-single-digit margins so over the past year, but now we have seen a gradual improvement from that. And we also did not see the drop in margin that we did last year in the second quarter. So instead, the margins continue to improve over the year.

So that gives us much better confidence that we are on the right track here. So we are now above that 5% level that we were at last year, gaining a few percentage points. So we do think that evolution will continue. We know that some of the companies are in double-digit territory. We think that the whole group should get to that level in the coming quarters, not super quick, but gradually in that direction. And when it comes to Home Care, here, we have also had a number of improvement initiatives. And here, we see a combination of stronger growth, new product launches and more streamlined operations, more efficient operations.

So with that, we're confident that we are on the right track there as well, and we are at a great margin level in this quarter. Q2 tends to be the strongest quarter in Home Care, but I think we're still pretty confident that this is also a business that will be contributing to margins. And on top of that, it's a fast-growing business as well. So I think we're fairly optimistic about Home Care as well. And the position is strong. Many companies are showing improvements. So I hope that was an answer to your question.

Yes, yes, of course. And maybe if I may, one last question is regarding working capital. You had quite a big buildup in Q1, if I remember, it was due to quite significant late deliveries with Q1. And then you have a more favorable capital effect year-over-year here in Q2. But I would have expected perhaps a bit more favorable effect, so to say, in the quarter given the buildup in Q1. Is there anything specifically driving these dynamics here in Q2 that we should be aware of? And should these effects kind of reverse to a larger extent than normal towards H2? Or how should we think about working capital there?

I think that's a great question and a good observation there. I think we still had a fairly high inventory in the quarter, and that was partly driven by, of course, these deliveries and related to the order book that we have that didn't happen in the quarter. And then in the first quarter, in the final month of the quarter, we had a strong sales increase and that then, of course, ties some more capital in accounts payable -- accounts receivable. And then actually, if everything would have been stable throughout the quarter, you would have seen a little bit of a release in accounts receivable. But we had, in some ways, a similar pattern in Q2, a strong final month of the quarter. So therefore, we didn't have maybe a release on the accounts receivable that we thought. So maybe you want to add to that something, Christina?

As you said, we also expected to release in accounts receivables. But like Fredrik said, strong ending to the Q1 was the reason in Q1 for building working capital, and we had the same situation in Q2 then with a strong June. And also inventory increased a bit, but that is mainly driven than, one, that we have embed on order intake that we have in orders and then also that's been introducing new products to the market.

So we do -- we are hoping that we will have a releasing accounts receivables, assuming a more steady patterns throughout the quarter [indiscernible], but no worries otherwise. And as usual, this is a focus here for us.

So yes. So should we move on then. I see that the Jakob, you have a question or 2.

My first question is on M&A, and I appreciate the comments here in the report that you have a lot of active processes. But from my perspective, you've been talking about the intention to do more for some time now and when I calculate over the past year, you have only added 2% to top line for M&A, which I guess is below your ambitions. I'm just wondering, yes, if there's hard to close deals or if it has taken some time to sort of get going with the M&A engine or yes, what you're seeing there?

Yes. Well, thank you, Jakob. That's a good comment. So we do need to increase the pace and it depends a little bit on how we look at it, if we look at past 7 months or so, we have done 4 deals, but some of them have been on the smaller side. And then as was previously commented also, they had some quite nice margins. So that also helps for sure. We do have a lot of discussions ongoing. The timing of it is sometimes a little bit tricky, especially when we focus on these small and medium-sized companies, and we have processes exclusive with the seller.

So we do feel quite confident about the pipeline, about the processes that we're in and that we're about to enter. So I think we're on the right track here. But the pace when it comes to revenue, in terms -- in relation to the total we'll need to pick up a little bit. I agree with that. But I think we are fairly confident that, that will happen.

Okay. And if I may follow up, if you look at the active processes you have now in a late stage, and I guess sort of sales or EBITA potential of those, is that sort of materially higher than it was a year ago?

Yes. I would say so. Absolutely. In the number of processes that we are in an advanced stage for sure is higher than last year.

Okay. Good. Then I have a question on Labtech, which we saw strong profitability here in Q2 and has been at strong profitability levels for some time. So I guess my question is, is there any sort of one-offs or large orders or something that is helping that? Or do you see the current profitability level as sustainable?

I think, in particular, in terms of one-off, no. So it's progressing well as it usually does. Diagnostics, quite stable. Moving forward, adding products, winning tenders, research. We see a pickup in demand, as we've talked about earlier, but that continues. So that's -- that's a nice development there. So no, I think we're -- it's nothing out of the ordinary, but we have also noted a good demand development in Eastern Europe. That's another positive. And of course, last quarter, we talked a lot about genomics, and that's also a positive in that. So nothing out of the ordinary, but a lot of good things going on.

Okay. Good. And then on Medtech EBITA margin, I'm wondering if it's possible to quantify how much sort of gain or tailwind you get from improvements in Home Care and ophthalmology in this quarter?

I wouldn't want to quantify that, but I can give you some hints then. I think when it comes to Eye Surgery, we have talked about mid-single-digit margins in the past. Now that has improved a few percentage points, and we haven't seen the reduction in margin in the second quarter that we've seen in previous years. So that gives us confidence that we are on the right track. So -- and then when we talk about Home Care, a very strong growth there and a lot of companies contributing to that growth and then pleased to note that 2 product launches, product mix, increased sales and the margins have increased.

So normally, it tends to be slightly below the average of the group. But in this quarter, it was actually a positive contributor. And I think that should be in industry, it should be something important for us in terms of margin support and then also quite healthy growth. So I think that's a positive. So I think we cannot give in to the specific numbers there. So good contribution there and good outlook, I would say.

Good. And if I may have a final question just on Spain. It looks like it was quite good growth despite the strikes here in the quarter. So I guess the question, is there anything in particular that is driving Spain or something you're doing well there?

Yes. I think I would highlight 2 things. First of all, our Medtech business in Spain. This is MBA. They're doing a fantastic job. They are continuously evolving the product portfolio adding more and advanced products to the mix. So they have fantastic underlying growth. But then again, the strikes that have been ongoing for about a week or month during the quarter, they have held back on many of the planned surgical procedures. So that has been not insignificant drag, but overall, still growth. And then, of course, also on the Labtech side, we have strong primarily genomics business in Spain and Portugal, and that developed also very nicely. So Spain is growing well in many ways. And in spite of the little bit of a headwind there when it comes to the strike.

So let's see, do we have more questions. Gustav?

Gustav here from Nordea. Just to build on Spain here, Jakob's question. Is it possible to say, quantify -- I know maybe you don't want to quantify, but just give -- elaborate a bit on the margin impact -- negative impact from the strikes in the quarter. I mean what could MedTech have been, so to say?

So I don't -- I probably will not give you a detailed answer to that, but I'll give you some flavor at least. I think in the Spanish business, and now we're focusing on MedTech then, we are seeing 1 week per month of strikes. And during that week, of course, it's not that there are no surgical procedures, but it is a significant reduction in procedures during that week. And it's compensated in some ways. But that's a significant impact during that week each month. So that's one. Then there is a lot of work to add new products, and that's going very well. And that also drives an improvement in gross margin. So the gross margin is improving in our Spanish business because of the product mix primarily.

So of course, adding new products also requires a lot from us in terms of staffing and running trade shows and what not. So there is a cost associated with the advanced part. But I think it's being compensated by the better gross margin. So once we see increased sales, of course, that will be a positive and we hope these strikes will be resolved soon.

Do you see any risk of what you hear today, risk of strikes in Spain or U.K. here in Q3?

Risk of what, I didn't hear that.

Risk of strikes.

I think from what I understand, and these are difficult topics to speak with confidence about. But my understanding is that the strike situation in U.K. has improved a little bit. There has been some agreements and whatnot. So maybe a little less worry there. The Spanish one has been ongoing now for 5 months. So I mean, that's a long time. So -- and I don't want to speculate on how quickly that can be resolved. But in general, I mean, there will be pressure to get that sorted one way or the other. So that's certainly a hope that will go away soon.

Okay. Perfect. And then just one last question on Labtech here. I mean, you commented on I mean, in the quarter, you're seeing some results from the previous larger tenders that you won, but you also comment on securing new tenders. So just are these material? And should we expect them to come through already here in Q3 or...

Yes. I think material tenders. And so as you correctly state, we are benefiting from previously won tenders and sometimes the installation of instruments and machines can go on for -- can be 1, 2 years after the tender has been won. So I think we're benefiting with that. And of course, the consumable side of things. We have spoken about tenders won. And then I'm particularly thinking of a number of tenders in various parts of Eastern Europe, but also another big one in Sweden. So -- and these tenders should start coming into fruition in the coming months, I would think so. So I think that's a positive. So -- and the Swedish one, you can find that it's just won, yes.

So that's -- positive there, long -- and those things tend to be long-term, positive additions.

Is it going to be gradual? Or is it full effect from day 1.

Well, some of them can be a big immediate effect if it's a big instrument installations. But I think more normally, it would be such that there's an overtime replacement of previous instruments, so that can stretch over like a 2-year period and then, of course, the new pricing would come to effect immediately. So that should be a positive normally and then consumables. So I think it's both a bump and then establishing business at a higher level.

So let's see, do we have any other questions? I know it's a busy reporting day today as well. So thank you for listening in, and we do apologize for the challenges of the sound there. And if you have a few more minutes, we do encourage you to stay on to see a nice video from the Home Care business unit focusing on Ropox, really strong company that has great product range, but also quite qualified manufacturing. So thanks, and please listen in a few more minutes. And after that, wish you a good Thursday and a nice summer.

[Presentation]

Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to the AddLife first quarter presentation. As usual, we will be going through the developments in the different parts of the business, as well as the financials, and after that, open up for questions. After the Q&A session, we have prepared a video from one of our subsidiaries, this time around, BonsaiLab. So we do encourage you to stay on to listen to that very interesting video.

So let's move on to the highlights of the quarter. So in the first quarter, we're pleased to note that these high margins continue and at the same time, we are increasing the acquisition activity. The EBITA margin remained high at 12.5%, only slightly below the very high levels of Q1 in 2025. In Labtech, which had a really strong quarter, we saw an increase of 1 percentage point to 13.1% margin, very, very strong. On the Medtech side, we were able to retain almost 13% EBITA margin, even though it's slightly below the record level of 13.5% in Q1 of 2025.

The underlying demand in all businesses is quite solid. And if we exclude the divested endoscopy business in the U.K., we saw an organic growth on a group level at 3%. It's also worth to note that we had a fantastic finish to 2025. So the start of the quarter was somewhat more cautious, but towards the end of the quarter, the demand picked up significantly. So we had a very strong month of March.

We are going to talk quite a bit about advanced products in this quarter. We are seeing a fantastic development for a broad range of advanced products, both in Labtech as well as in Medtech. And we are pleased to note that since we have been able to reach and exceed our ambition level when it comes to the balance sheet, we are able to pick up the pace with acquisitions, and we have done that in the past few months. So we are going to talk today about 2 acquisitions, one in March, BioSpectrum in the U.K., and one in April, CoaChrom in Austria.

So with that, I'm going to hand over to Christina, who will take us through the highlights of the financials. Welcome, Christina.

Thank you, Fredrik. In the first quarter, our companies delivered stable underlying growth. The growth was impacted by significant FX impact as well as divestment from the endoscopy business in the U.K. in the latter part of last year. If you adjust for the divested endoscopy business, organic and acquired revenue growth was 5%, organic being 3% and acquired growth contributing with additional 2%. Currency had a negative impact of 4%, and the divested endoscopy business impacted with negative 3%.

The endoscopy business had a full year revenue of SEK 140 million last year. With this being a capital-intensive business, the majority of revenue was in the first quarter. It was about 40% of total year, meaning that for the coming quarters, the impact will not be as big as in this quarter. The organic and acquired EBITA growth was 1%. The organic growth of negative 2% was, of course, also impacted by the divested endoscopy business. Acquisitions contributed with 3%, and currency was negative 4% in the quarter. So total net sales was negative 2%, currency was negative 4% and the divestment was negative 3%. The underlying organic growth was 3% and acquired growth was 2%.

The lower volumes was somewhat mitigated by a stronger gross margin, and the gross margin increased with almost 1%. This is due to higher prices in new tenders, also by diligent price management within the companies and the move towards more advanced high-margin products. Also, OpEx increased in the quarter, driven by growth investments for the future. The interest cost was significantly lower compared to the comparable quarter last year, and the profit before tax increased 7%.

EBITA margin has definitely established at a higher level. If we look at the last 3 years, in 2023, full year EBITA margin was 10.5%. 2025, the full year EBITA margin was 12.1%. In this quarter, the Labtech margin was a clear improvement year-over-year. It improved to 13.1%, 1% more than last year's 12.1%. The Medtech margin was also at a high level, even though it was slightly lower compared to the all-time high last year. So in this quarter, it was 12.8% compared to 13.5% last year. Improving the EBITA margin remains our top priority.

Operating cash flow in the quarter was seasonally weak. Cash conversion remained high at above 100%. This is slightly higher compared to where we should be. Looking ahead, probably, the level of 95% is more reasonable. Working capital efficiency, of course, continues to be a focus area. And the cash flow was negatively impacted by working capital, negative SEK 228 million, compared to approximately negative SEK 70 million last year. The main reason was that the year started a bit slow in revenue, but we had a very strong finish to the year, and that meant that accounts receivables was much higher compared to last year.

Also, inventory increased. This is more a temporary impact due to timing and when we receive deliveries, et cetera. And looking at inventory towards sales, last year, we had 16% throughout the year. This year, we increased a bit to 17% inventory towards sales, and the ambition is to come down towards the 16% again during the year. Acquisitions of SEK 84 million, that relates to the acquisition of BioSpectrum and also earn-outs that has been paid for previous acquisitions.

Net debt increased slightly with SEK 85 million in the quarter. With majority of the loans in euro, the main driver for the increase was FX. And net debt-to-EBITDA was 2.3, clearly below the ambition of being at 3 or below that we set up to ourselves back in 2023. Net debt-to-equity was 0.7, below the internal guidance of 1. So I think we can summarize that the balance sheet now supports both organic and acquired growth going forward.

And with that, I hand over to Fredrik again.

Thank you very much, Christina, for that comprehensive review of the financials. Now we will dig into the business area update, starting with Labtech, of course. Labtech had a very strong quarter in the first quarter of 2026. The currency adjusted growth was 3%, which is great, growing in line with or above market, I would say. EBITA margin improved 1 percentage point to 13.1%. So very strong margin development there.

We have a few important drivers of this strong performance. One is the previously won tenders that continue to support growth and margin improvement. On top of that, we can see certain areas that are developing really well, the well-established area in blood gas and the more new and fast-growing areas of immunology and Alzheimer's disease diagnostic are developing very well also. Advanced products, including genomics, which we're going to talk about in more detail soon, are supporting growth and margin development as well.

And it's great to note an improvement in demand in the European research arena. We have been seeing for a long time, a bit of a hesitation around future funding for research. In the previous quarter, we talked about signs of improvement. And I think in this quarter, we can see that those improvements are really taking shape and happening. So positive development in research spend across European markets. So that's good news. Something else that's also very good news is, of course, the acquisition of CoaChrom that we were able to conclude last week. We will get into the details of that very soon as well.

So moving on to advanced technologies. And genomics and gene sequencing is an area that we're very excited about, and this is an important area for life science in general. It's become an indispensable tool in research, but also in diagnostics and health care guiding therapies. So it is not only gene sequencing. We're also talking about technologies like single cell technology and spatial transcriptomics that allow for an even more accurate definition of changes and localization of the problem. So very exciting technology there. And these things are really enabling precision medicine with examples such as cancer treatment, rare disease diagnostics, infectious disease diagnostics and prenatal diagnostics.

AddLife companies are active in many markets with these technologies in Scandinavia, in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in Southern Europe. We are representing more than 10 leading suppliers in this area, and the sales are actually around SEK 400 million. So this is a substantial business for us in an area that's growing at least 10% to 15% per year. So all in all, a substantial business for AddLife with good margins, high growth and significant potential.

So moving into Medtech. The revenue development was a little bit more slow, but the acquired growth was 2%, and organic growth, 3% when adjusting for the divestment of the U.K. endoscopy business. In the U.K., we saw a positive sales trend. Capital equipment developed well, and the fact that patient waiting lists are coming down are indication that the NHS efficiency measures are indeed, starting to take effect. So we are cautiously optimistic about the development in the U.K.

In Spain, we had a solid underlying demand, but the growth was somewhat held back by doctor strikes in February and March. All in all, in the Medtech business area, we continue to focus on the work to lift margins in selected companies and increasing the share of advanced products, driving growth and margins.

So in the Medtech business area, the majority of business is indeed within advanced products, and in this case, specialist devices and equipment. And these are advanced specialist products with high revenues per procedure and proprietary consumables and a substantial service revenue. So to be able to handle these products and make them work in the hands of the hospitals, you need training and technical support resources, oftentimes clinical and patient-specific support on site. This gives you the opportunity for a differentiated offering and high value proposition.

So this represents around 70% of our products in the Medtech business area on average. And the medical supplies, which are more volume products with slightly lower margin that are used in volume during surgical procedures, that represents around 30%. And in this area, we try to have a substantial part of that business with own products. So advanced products represent the majority of the product portfolio within the Medtech business area.

But I want to dig into one example, and this is Mediplast. Mediplast is one of the biggest companies within our group. They were the foundation of the whole Medtech business area. And so they've been with us since the start of AddLife back in 2016. They have a very broad range of products. The majority of them today are in the specialist devices and equipment area. As you can see, a broad range of product groups here described in the slide. And -- but they also have a comprehensive portfolio of the more basic medical supplies.

They have a high share of own brands, almost 40% of the product portfolio is actually own brands. And part of that is own manufacturing as well. This is way above the average of the group as a whole. The group as a whole has between 11% or 12% own products. So they are much more than that, and they are quite good as well.

But I want to highlight the transition that Mediplast has gone through because that has been a very important and deliberate move to improve the business. Looking at the sales back in 2016, more than half of the business was indeed in the more basic product like medical supplies, 55%. But over the years, they have developed in line with customer demand, adding more and more advanced product to the portfolio.

So as you can see now, the advanced products are actually representing almost 80% of the portfolio. This has been a long and deliberate activity to move the portfolio and build the competencies and customer relationships. It has worked very well. They have grown to become a much bigger company during this period of time. They have raised their margins from single digit into solid double-digit margins today. So a great example of a long-term effort to drive the change in portfolio towards more advanced products with higher margins.

We're super happy to welcome BioSpectrum into the AddLife family. This is a fast-growing distributor of surgical solutions in the field of urology, gynecology and general surgery. These are hospitals and clinics across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland through framework contracts with the NHS. The portfolio includes single-use endoscopy, which is a very exciting technology, urology, gynecology, consumables, surgical staplers and capital equipment.

They are just about -- just below SEK 100 million in terms of sales. They are certainly contributing to our ambition to improve margins. They are well above the average of 12%, and they have been acquired at a healthy multiple in the range of 7%.

Moving on, we are very pleased to announce last week, the acquisition of CoaChrom. This is an Austrian niche company specializing in advanced coagulation diagnostics. They develop and supply highly specialized assays and reagents for primarily hemostasis diagnostics. The company has a really strong reputation for scientific expertise, quality and service and maintain long-standing relationships with leading hospitals as well as major industrial clients.

So this will become a part of the Labtech business. Here, we also see a very healthy margin, significantly above the 12% average, and a healthy acquisition multiple also. So we're super happy to be able to welcome both CoaChrom and BioSpectrum to the AddLife family. Warm welcome to you all.

And this takes us through analysis of the acquisition funnel and the acquisition activity. So over 2025 and 2026, we have acquired 5 companies. But as you can see, the activity has really picked up the pace because in the past 5 months, we have actually made 4 acquisitions. So this is a reflection of our increased activity. And we are also optimistic about the funnel for future acquisitions, even though we are picky, we are selective, but we are finding very healthy companies of the type that we have just seen.

So with that, we can summarize the quarter and the outlook for the remainder of the year. We're pleased to note that the margins are continuing to stay at a high level with significant improvements in Labtech, continued high level in Medtech in spite of a slightly softer demand development. The gross margin has strengthened, which is also a very good sign. The adjusted organic growth was at 3%, even though doctor strikes in Spain temporarily reduced the growth, and we see positive underlying demand trends in multiple areas.

Advanced products, which we have talked about quite a bit in this presentation, are very important for us, and they are relevant in multiple areas. They drive growth and higher margins. And this, together with a strong balance sheet, we can now feel very confident in our ability to improve margins, to grow organically, but also to pick up the pace further when it comes to acquisition.

So with that, I want to wrap up this presentation and open up for the Q&A.

All right. Well, thanks for listening, and I think we are now ready for the questions. So if we can start with Albin.

So maybe you answered this question already, but one on the working capital tie up. You mentioned it reflecting higher trade receivables here, following a stronger end to the quarter. So maybe if you can comment on what exactly you saw in the end of the quarter, and also how that has developed through April?

Sure. I can start, and maybe Christina can fill in. So that's correct. We did see a clear strengthening in sales in the month of March. So that was great. And maybe to be expected after the strong finish to 2025 that we'll have a slightly slower sales in January and February, but March picked up, clearly.

And that is, as you correctly state, it drove not only inventory in terms of we're building up some inventory to be able to deliver, but also, of course, accounts receivables. So that clearly impacted cash flow in the quarter. But it should be noted that cash flow in Q1, seasonally, it tends to be relatively weak. So nothing out of the ordinary there, really. Is there something you'd like to add to that, Christina?

No, I absolutely agree. And we can also looking at the amount of accounts receivables, we can conclude that, that amount is less in comparison to total accounts receivables end of Q1 compared to end of the year. So it's really due to an increased revenue, end of the quarter.

And then have you seen a pickup in April, or can you comment on that?

We can't really comment on April sales just yet, but I think we have seen and we have also described a few quite positive trends when it comes to demand that we are observing both in Medtech and Labtech. So we see no reason to believe that, that would not be continued. And then, of course, we'll have to keep an eye on the strikes in Spain and hopefully, that will be resolved. That will also have a positive impact, no doubt.

And then also just the last one on that question, the pickup in March, can you split that between geographies?

I think it was pretty much across the board, to be frank, both in terms of geography and when it comes to the companies and business areas.

Thanks. I will jump back in the queue.

Great questions. So -- and then we go further with [ Philip ]. Are you ready for us?

Let's start with capital goods sales in the U.K. So positive signs here. Could you elaborate a bit on the broad base? So how broad-based was this? And is the order book supporting a continued positive trend into Q2 and perhaps into the rest of the year?

Well, I think we have seen an increased activity. That is clear. I mean, that's clear from data generally available as well. The number of procedures did increase substantially over pre-COVID levels. So that's clear. So activity picking up. We did see a reduction in the waiting list, which is a positive.

So we are cautiously optimistic, I would say, about this being the first signs of all these things that have been discussed for a long time, how the NHS can and will and need to pick up the pace, and we are hopeful that this is actually the first sign of that actually starting to happen. So I think we're cautiously optimistic about a continued positive development.

When it comes to capital spend, I would like to also clarify that, as many of you know, the endoscopy business was relatively capital heavy. So when we say capital-intense sales in Q1, it was much less in absolute terms than it was in the previous year because endoscopy is no longer there. But there is other -- there are other products like various type of imaging products that we do sell. And so those were -- the sales of those went well, and we saw an increased activity there.

So I think cautious optimism about further reduced waiting list and more surgical activity. And these are activities that support the product portfolio we have, the type of products that can actually help in terms of efficiency in the hospital, in terms of better clinical outcomes, in terms of being able to send the patient back home quicker and so on. So that aligns super well with our product portfolio. So we're cautiously optimistic. I hope that was an answer to your question.

Yes, it was, Fredrik. And then perhaps on the divested business, how should we think about the impact for the rest of the year? So SEK 63 million in Q1 impact. Is the rest, so to say, distributed throughout Q2, Q3, Q4? Or how should we think about the seasonality of the impact?

Yes. It's pretty much the same distribution throughout the rest of the quarters.

Yes. So evenly distributed after this. But again, you are very correct. So we have communicated earlier that this is around SEK 140 million sales per annum, but we actually saw SEK 63 million in the first quarter. So around 43% of the annual sales happened in 1 quarter.

So that may be a little bit of a surprise to some that it was such heavy first quarter, way above the 1/4 that should be logical in some ways. So less of an impact going forward is the conclusion.

And then perhaps two more, if I may. You cited potential cost pressure from the Middle East [ restriction ], and I understand this will be difficult to answer. But how much is realistically -- or how much do you realistically believe you can push through price increase? And what time frame do we talk about here?

Yes. I think this is something we need to be aware of, and that's true for every business, I would imagine. We're talking about freight costs here and perhaps raw material cost that is related to oil and gas prices.

So I would say nothing that we have been feeling or seeing happening just yet. But of course, if this conflict continues, I think we need to be prepared for a little bit of a cost increase related to those things. I would not be enormously worried about it because I think in many ways, it resembles the situation we had in connection with COVID when prices came up due to inflation and so on. So -- and during that period of time, I think our companies proved that they were able to handle that type of adjustment very well in close collaborations with the customers.

So I wouldn't make too big a thing of it yet. It's more that we are aware of it. We are prepared for it. I think we have high confidence in the ability to handle it.

Great. And then a final one for me. Both BioSpectrum and CoaChrom, both came in above margins, or so you say in the report. Are you seeing multiples staying around the historical 6x to 8x EBITA that you get -- that you pay for? Or is competition pushing prices up? What do you see in the pipe right now for what you paid?

Great question. I think that you're correct. We have communicated around the multiple range of 6x to 8x. I think these are clearly in the lower end of that range. We're very pleased with that. So these are fantastic companies, well performing, high margins, and quite a reasonable and fair price tag.

I think in these cases, they're both exclusive. So we cannot say that prices have increased through competition or whatnot, absolutely not in these instances. I wouldn't worry too much about it. We have a good ability to find targets individually or on our own, so to speak. We don't feel an enormous competition here.

I think we also have a benefit of being at home in around 30 countries in Europe. Our hunting ground is bigger than for others. And there are many companies that we talk to that see the value of becoming part of AddLife based on our presence and our relationships with both customers and suppliers. And being part of a bigger group with very, very strong product knowledge in-house is a benefit as well. So I'm not super worried about competition, to be frank, and I think multiples are very reasonable.

All right. Thank you very much. I'll get back into the queue and leave room for the others.

All right. Let's continue. We have Zino, right?

Yes, just starting off with a follow-up question on the U.K. Medtech side. You mentioned the positive statistics, which are pointing in the right direction. Can you elaborate if you can provide some color on why now that we're seeing these positive signs?

Well, I think maybe there was an expectation that this would have happened much earlier. I mean, there has been a very clearly stated intent and direction from the current government in the U.K., so it's been somewhat delayed. But of course, it's -- the NHS is a big organization, changing that takes time.

Now in the quarter, we did see -- not an enormous, but still a noticeable drop in the waiting list. So that was positive. We also have data indicating that the number of procedures is increasing by around 5% compared to pre-COVID levels. So there are some solid data supporting what we are also feeling in the organization.

So -- and then, of course, discussions with our teams as well as representatives from the NHS do seem to confirm the same conclusion. However, it's not everything at once. It's a gradual increase. It's a step-wise approach. So we are -- but we do remain cautiously optimistic based on both official statistics as well as behaviors that we are noticing.

And moving over to Labtech with a strong margin there. You point to tenders and [indiscernible]. Can you help us with seeing when we're looking at this ahead, have these new tenders, are they structurally different to how they were in previous years? And should we expect them to continue with giving good support ahead as well?

I think we can expect them to continue to be supportive. We have won over the past few quarters, a number of big and important tenders, some new ones, of course, bringing new business to the companies. Others, an update or a prolongation of previously won tenders with updated pricing and so on.

So I think it reflects our strong service organization. I think we are very much a trusted partner to the health care systems. It reflects the value that the customers attach to that, and it's not only around the price of the product. And I think that's very rational in some ways because the cost of having challenges when it comes to these types of diagnostics is way above the cost of the actual product. So there is clearly a value to reliability of product and reliability of support and service. So I think that's one thing.

So stable and well-developing business within diagnostics. Some very well established technologies, but also some that are more recently added and in more of a growth phase like immunology and Alzheimer's disease diagnostics that I also mentioned in the report. And then, of course, quite excited about genomics in general, which we're kind of highlighting here. So all of these things contribute with advanced products with high margins with an important service component.

And then finally, the research field, which has been a bit of a drag for a number of quarters. Research funding in Europe has been a little bit subdued, a bit of hesitancy around it now. We talked about it in the last quarter that it looks to be improving. And I think that improvement trend we clearly saw strengthening in multiple countries in the first quarter.

So I think a lot of contributing factors. And I think in many of the companies, we have a great habit of cost consciousness, continuous development of the product portfolio, continuous improvement of how we work and efficiency internally and fantastic focus on customer service. All of these things contribute. So I hope that was an answer.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. So we have Jakob, right? Are you ready for us?

Yes. First on the EBITA margin in Medtech was down, obviously. But I know there was a tough comp, there's probably some mix effect and the divestment. So my question is really, do you still see that sort of underlying trend among subsidiaries, that you are improving efficiency and margins? And also when we look into Q2, for example, do you think that we can see margin expansion again in Medtech?

The quick answer is yes. I think, of course, we are down from 13.5%, but we have to remember that not long ago, we were around 8% to 10% margin in Medtech. So now down a little bit to 12.8% from 13.5%. I mean, it's not to be seen as a drop. It's more of a -- I would see it rather us keeping a very high margin level in the Medtech business.

Then, of course, we had an impact of this divestment. And as we talked about earlier in the call, a big chunk of that impact did come in the first quarter, and less would be in the coming quarters. Then apart from that, we are driving a number of improvement initiatives which we haven't talked that much about in this quarter, but they remain on track and in a positive direction. And then I'm talking about a number of companies, but the big ones are, of course, within the area of eye surgery and Homecare, where we do see a lot of improvement potential still, and we are seeing a positive trend in those activities. So that's great.

Another thing is, of course, the continuous addition of new products. In the U.K., we're adding a range of new products that will, over time, compensate for the drop in revenues linked to the endoscopy business. And so that will be a positive. And then we are adding a number of highly advanced products. And a great example of that is, of course, robotics, which has picked up the pace, I must say, faster than I had expected. And the companies are doing an excellent job here and a meaningful business has already been established.

So in combination, the effect of the endoscopy divestment will fade away. We are working on improvement programs in multiple companies that are moving nicely in a good direction. A number of new products are being added to the portfolio. And then of course, on top of that, acquisitions as well. So I think we are optimistic about the profitability in the Medtech business for sure.

Sounds promising. Then another question on the instrument sales in Medtech, which is also down, and that's probably also the part. But I'm wondering a bit on what you're seeing now in Q1, so if it's more normal levels or still subdued? Yes, what do you see?

Yes, I think you're right. The endoscopy business did represent a big chunk of the instrument sales in the U.K., and that's now out of the numbers. So that was a big thing. The other types of capital investments are doing well. And I think we're -- it looks healthy and a positive development. I don't know if there's something you'd like to add to that, Christina?

No, the underlying instrument business actually grew in this quarter. So if we exclude the endoscopy, then we actually had an increase. So moving in the right direction.

Great. Thank you, Christina. So maybe that answers the question. And now we move on to Ulrik, right?

Great. And I'm actually just sort of tagging along on previous questions here. And a bit of sort of the strong development in Labtech, and you talked about higher-margin tenders. And I just recall that we talked about this a year ago, when you actually started to leverage and get more high-margin tenders. Is this a continuation of those tenders? Or have you been awarded further tenders which have further increased your margins?

Great question. I think in general, it's the continuation of -- we won in -- during a few quarters, we won a number of tenders sequentially, so to speak, and they are still contributing to improvement. And then, of course, we are also winning smaller ones, but there were a few substantial ones that we won, and they continue to contribute.

So by that fact, the margins that we've seen in Q1, which were really, really high should be able to be somewhat sustained throughout the rest of the year?

Well, we don't see a reason why they would come down. And we are always, as you know, cautious about making forecasts or predictions, but I think there is no big one-off or unique sale that went through in the quarter that would indicate that it should come down. So I think there's a huge level of stability in general in Labtech and even more so in the area of diagnostics, of course. And now when we see that the research is rebounding and a number of companies have been successful in their improvement programs as well in the area of Labtech, both big and small companies have really picked up the pace when it comes to margins, which we are pleased with. So I think we are optimistic about the development there.

And also sort of [ impact ] that you talked about previously in sort of the introduction about lower volume balanced by higher gross margin. One part was the higher margin tender and the higher advanced products, but one part was also increased pricing. So if you can just sort of talk a little bit about what type of price measurement has been done here?

I think that is actually part of our business model always working with price. So diligent price management is something that we do on a regular basis. So that's probably more down to normal day-to-day work that our company is doing in a great way.

Absolutely. And that means various ways of continuous uptake of pricing, not just once a year list price update, but a more detailed and more thoughtful way of doing it.

And just last question on my end. Obviously, the last few acquisitions you've done are margin accretive to the group. And it sounds like a lot of your segments are on the higher end of the margin spectrum as group margins. So that sort of comes down to what is sort of the current margin development? And I know you talked a little bit about sort of favorable trends for Homecare and eye care, but at what level are we today at? And what should we expect for '26?

Yes. I think it's like you correctly stated, it's a mix of new acquisitions with clearly high margins. It's addition -- continuous addition of new products with high margins. Then it is true, both in Medtech and Labtech, that we do have a few companies that are pulling down the averages. And you highlighted 2 areas that are -- that do pull down the margins, but they are in a positive development trend.

And then on top of that, we have a number of companies that are doing reasonably well but can do better, and we have improvement initiatives in those. And then we have a group of small companies mostly that are -- absolutely not at the level where we think they should be. And in those cases, a handful of companies, perhaps we have clear initiatives in place.

And we are pleased to note that these are -- these initiatives are really starting to show results, even though we are not where we want them to be long term, but we're very pleased with the fact that improvement measures are starting to show in the numbers. So I think there's a lot to work with, both in terms of areas of the business that are kind of pulling down the average and then constant addition of businesses that are raising the average.

That will be all on my end. I'll get back in the queue.

Thank you. Great question. So we move on to Charles. I think you have raised your hand. So let's see if we can hear you now. Yes, we probably can.

It's Charles Weston from RBC. I've got three, please. First question on European research improvements. You've been talking about the stronger funding environment. Just wondering if you could give us a little bit more color around why you think that's happening now, where it's coming -- where the funding is coming from and what it's going into?

Yes. I think this is a great question. I think there hasn't been in the European market, a strong reduction of funding. I think there has never been, but there has been a concern about future funding, and that has held back some of the researchers in maybe ordering new instruments, uncertain about the next project that they're going to apply for, is that going to be funded or not.

I think that uncertainty has come down a little bit. So we see an increased activity again, we see picking up a little bit in terms of confidence to order new instruments and whatnot. So I think that's clear. It's -- maybe not tons of new money being poured into it, but rather an increased confidence and the researchers feel that our next project is going to be funded.

In the U.S., the situation is different. We're not that exposed, but we have some exposure. And there, funding has been withdrawn, clearly. And so there, for the few companies that sell into that market, that's a clear reduction and a clear drop in sales from that. But in multiple countries, I would say, Central and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, in particular, we see a pickup in research spend, so to speak. So -- and that's consistent across multiple companies.

Just following up on the previous question around pricing. Can you comment perhaps a little bit more on like-for-like pricing levels across your portfolio?

Yes, sure. I mean, I wouldn't say that there have been any dramatic changes in pricing during the quarter. No, we work on that continuously, but there's nothing dramatic that has happened in the quarter. In some ways, we are preparing for the potential risk of price increase coming from suppliers based on the crisis in the Middle East.

So we haven't seen it in a meaningful way just yet, but we are somewhat prepared just like we were in the time around COVID, where we saw price increases coming. And I think we feel confident based on that experience and the good discussions we've had internally and with customers with a great understanding of the need to have a good dialogue around this and adjust as needed. So I wouldn't say price increases was a major driver in the quarter, but we are prepared in case we need to use that if prices do increase a lot. You have another one? Yes, go ahead.

Yes, sorry. We'll have one more, please. You commented that March improved nicely off the back of a weaker first couple of months, which you said perhaps wasn't surprising given the strong ending to 2025. But if I could just challenge you a little bit on that. In your fourth quarter report, you didn't expect -- you didn't call out any expectation that there would be a weaker month or 2. So can you just sort of provide a bit more color on perhaps how much of a surprise this was to you?

Well, I think we did notice a strong finish to the quarter in Q4, absolutely. That kind of -- that's a very normal pattern. And in some cases, it's -- oftentimes, it's driven by the customer. But -- and then it can be that we kind of sell a lot that's in the order book in December. And then we kind of need to get started again with building a new order book in January or February.

These things are -- we are -- as you know, we're a quite decentralized company. We don't control it in detail. We don't have access to the specific of each customer and whatnot. So these things, we know and see the magnitude of relatively late. So -- but of course, noticing a big bump in sales in December can indicate that we might have a bit of a slow pickup in January, and that was the case this time around. It has happened before, and we did expect a gradual pickup in February and March, and we did have that.

So nothing too dramatic, nothing that we have been pushing very hard. But I think it's a very natural cycle of the business mostly driven by customers with budgets and so on, I would say. So it's a little bit hard to predict, I would say, yes.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. So we have one more question from Jakob here, right? So sorry if we cut you off earlier, but you're back again.

Yes. I have two quick things. First, if you can comment a bit on the sort of dynamic when your -- the OEMs distribute for raise prices that you purchase for and how you sort of mitigate that or push that forward to your customers? So I guess, are the price sort of fixed for your customers and the delay effect, or is it sort of an ability for you to compensate directly?

Great question. So this is -- there are many factors to keep in mind here. And again, we haven't seen this happening in a big way at all at this point in time. But we can draw some learnings from the time around COVID. Then, price increases came in. And sometimes we also go back and challenge them and say, this is too much. We can't deal with this. We have to think about this again, be a supplier. And that usually works, a good and respectful dialogue around what is reasonable. So that's one aspect of it.

Another is then, of course, the dialogue with the customer. And sometimes, you are correct. Sometimes the prices do not have inflation or currency clause in there. And then it's more down to a negotiation and a dialogue. And in that context, we can -- we could conclude that in most cases, the customers, they read the papers too. They understand what's going on in the world. So we can very often come to a reasonable way of handling this since we are indeed in a good partnership and they value the products and the services that we provide. So that's the, I would say, the normal outcome of a dialogue with suppliers, dialogue with customers.

And then, of course, we can always shift pricing as well. We can always maybe agree with the customer on less frequent delivery so we can save some money and time relating to transport costs. We can have a good dialogue around various pieces of the cost and price situation. So -- and we have, I think, a very good and -- good experience from the time of COVID, where this was handled in a good way.

But there will be instances where we cannot increase price, and then we'll have to deal with it. But in most of the cases, we can. So not a big concern for us, but we also want to highlight that we are seeing it, and we are preparing in the event that we would need to.

Very good answer. Then finally, I noticed it was other operating income that was a bit larger than usual, and also, the tax rate is a bit higher in the quarter. So if you can comment on that?

The tax rate was 30%, same as last -- Q1 last year. And it can go a little bit up and down. It's a little bit tricky to [ set an exact one ] quarter-by-quarter. But I think that we had around 30% last year as well as a rolling 12. So probably, that is approximately where we should be this year as well. Hopefully, going down a bit further on that. But I think it's approximately in line with what we saw last year. And then operating income and costs, that also goes up and down a little bit quarter-by-quarter. So just a few pieces from different companies to summarize.

All right. Thank you, Jakob. I hope that was the answers you were looking for. Let's see if we have any more questions coming up. It doesn't look that way. So let's see. No more questions, right? Or did you have the final one, Jakob? No? Okay. Then I think we will wrap up here. And as always, please feel free to call or e-mail Christina and myself after the call if you have any follow-up questions you want to make.

But now again, do stay on to look at the BonsaiLab video. It's a great video, relatively recently acquired BonsaiLab. We acquired that in 2024, a fantastic company with advanced technology. And here, you will hear more about the technologies provided and also get some insights from a very important customer of ours at a leading cancer research center. So you'll get some perspectives of these technologies and how they can contribute to [ albino ] patients in cases of serious disease. So please stay on to watch the video.

[Presentation]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the AddLife Fourth Quarter Presentation. This morning, we will take you through the highlights of the quarter and then, of course, open up for a Q&A session. After that Q&A, we do encourage you to stay on because we have recorded a wonderful video of one of our companies, this time, Biolin, a manufacturer of advanced research instruments. So now let's go.

I'm very pleased to note that the AddLife companies were able to wrap up 2025 in a good way. We saw continued profit improvement. We saw strong profit and strong cash flow. On the EBITA margin account, we saw that Labtech were able to protect the very high level at 14.1%, EBITA margin, same as we had in the strong fourth quarter of last year. And on the Medtech side, it improved to 12% compared to 11.6% in the corresponding quarter of last year.

Overall, we saw healthy customer demand in our markets. But of course, currency effects impacted our sales growth, but the currency adjusted sales increased by 2% in the quarter. We are working diligently with profit improvement initiatives, and this is one of the core parts of our business model. We have seen for many quarters now a continuous improvement, and we do expect that to continue in the future as well.

In the U.K., we have had a long-standing dialogue with a key partner in the area of endoscopy. They have chosen to go direct, and we have supported them in that, handing over the team and the resources related to that business, and we have received a consideration of SEK 158 million in the quarter.

So this, in combination with the strong cash flow that we saw has helped us to achieve a net debt-to-EBITDA of 2.2. So this -- with this, we achieved our goal of remaining at 3 or below, and we have actually far exceeded the ambition as well. So very pleased with that.

So now I hand over to Christina, who will take us through the details of the quarterly financials. Welcome, Christina.

Thank you, Fredrik. We had a stable growth in the quarter after a very strong fourth quarter last year. Organic and acquired revenue growth was 2%, while adjusted EBITA growth was 5%. In the quarter, we had negative effect from currencies. And looking at revenue, it was minus 5%, and the EBITA was impacted with minus 7%.

We have 2 financial targets within AddLife. One is to improve profit with 15% year-over-year. On the long term, this is supposed to come approx half from acquired and half from organic growth. Looking at 2025, organic growth was 10% and acquired growth contributed with additional 2%. Then we had FX impacts in the quarter. So total EBITA growth for 2025 was 8%. So including currencies, sales growth was minus 3% in the quarter with organic and acquired growth of 1%, respectively.

We had stronger gross margin. This is due to price management, also increased prices in new tenders and the product mix where we are moving towards more advanced high-margin products. We had higher OpEx in the quarter as well, driven by growth investments and also some specific projects.

The adjusted EBITA margin was up to 12.4% in the quarter compared to 12.3% last year. Also, lower interest costs continue to have a positive impact on the profit and loss. And then adding divested operations, profit before tax increased with 129%.

EBITA margin is clearly in a positive trend. Looking back to 2023, we were at 10.5%, increasing to 11.3% and now we end 2025 on 12.1%. Looking at the fourth quarter, Labtech margin remained at a high level of 14.1%, same as last year, while Medtech increased to 12% from 11.6%. Full year EBITA margin has also increased for both business areas. They are approximately at the same level now. Labtech, 12.5% and Medtech is on 12.4%. An increasing EBITA margin has been a focus area throughout the last 3 years, and that remains a top priority moving into 2026.

Operating cash flow is normally high in the fourth quarter, and this year was not an exception. We delivered almost SEK 900 million in the quarter and for the full year, it was SEK 1.4 billion. Also cash conversion remains high at 111%. Excluding sales of operation, it was at a high 98%. And to be above 100%, that is a little bit too high. So going forward, probably in the range of 95% is more realistic.

And of course, focus on working capital efficiency remains a priority also in 2026. Working capital contributed with SEK 426 million in the quarter. And here, we had lower inventory. We had strong collection of accounts receivables and also account payable was higher. Looking at inventory towards sales, we were at 16% throughout 2025, slightly better compared to '24 that was 17%.

Acquisitions in the quarter relate to Pharmacold and Opitek.

Net debt was reduced with almost SEK 800 million in the quarter. With majority of the loans in euros, here, we had a positive impact from currencies. But the main reason for the net debt to be reduced in the quarter was due to repayment of loans and increase of cash. When we talk about net debt, we include in addition to bank loans and deducting cash, lease liabilities, contingent consideration, pension liabilities and provisions.

Net debt in 2025 decreased with almost SEK 900 million. And at the end of the year, leverage were at 2.2, which is clearly below the target of 3 or below that we set up for ourselves. Net debt towards adjusted EBITA was 2.5. The second financial target for AddLife is to have a profit over working cap of above 45%. 2025 ended at 62% compared to 51% last year. And debt has been reduced via self-generated cash flow. And entering into 2026, we now have a balance sheet that supports both organic and acquired growth.

And with that, I hand over to Fredrik again.

Well, thank you, Christina, for that thorough review, and now we will get into the business areas summaries. So starting with Labtech. As you may remember, Q4 of 2024 was a very strong quarter for Labtech. And this quarter, we saw currency adjusted revenues declined a little bit by 3%. We're really pleased to note that the EBITA margin were maintained in spite of that slight drop in revenue. So we are still at 14.1%, same as the corresponding quarter last year. So that's very healthy.

We saw a little bit less instrument sales in this quarter compared to last year. And in that last year quarter, we had a very high level of instruments being delivered linked to various tenders that we won. In the market in general, there has been some hesitation with academic market sales. We saw that this quarter also, but slightly better, I would say. We also saw a little bit of caution in the pharma industry segment. In the third quarter of this year, we were really pleased to note a very healthy development in Central and Eastern Europe, and we saw that continue into Q4. So that helped a lot, wrapping up the quarter for Labtech in a very healthy way.

Moving on to Medtech then. We saw growth, excluding currency effects at 4% and acquired growth was 1%. EBITA margin improved to 12% from 11.6% in the corresponding quarter. Capital sales in the U.K. have been weak for some time now, as many of you have noted. We were really pleased to see that, that actually improved in the fourth quarter. So that's great news.

As I mentioned earlier, we have an agreement with a supplier to hand over the endoscopy business in U.K. and receive the consideration for that. Elective surgery in general in the European market tended to be relatively flat. The patients list weren't really shrinking. And on top of that, we also had strikes in U.K. as well as in Spain during the month of December. So number of surgical procedures was relatively low. But anyways, a good growth in the Medtech business and also helped by a healthy development in Homecare, which we think will continue going forward.

We talk a lot about improving margins, and that is indeed a key activity for us, actually what we have chosen to prioritize the highest. So what are we actually doing? We are working on margin improvement initiatives in the eye surgery business, we are strengthening the margins in Homecare. We are working with specific initiatives in the companies where we see further improvement potential. And then on a more general level, we are always driving gradual and continuous performance improvement programs across all companies. This is a key piece of our business model.

We are also pruning our product portfolio, removing products that are less profitable and adding new and advanced high-margin products. We are also increasing the share of own products. And of course, the acquisitions we make are focused on higher-margin segments and are expected to contribute to this positive development in terms of margin. And we do these activities, we drive them, of course, starting with our fantastic companies within the group.

They are all led by strong and empowered leadership teams, and they have a very nice entrepreneurial spirit that we like to see. So they are very strong in this continuous work to improve margins. They are also supported by a group of experienced business unit leaders. We are also leveraging the activities we have within AddLife Academy and a strong group of business controllers. And on top of that, the companies together with the business unit leaders work on an acquisition agenda improving margins over time. So with this, we have a lot of activities ongoing. We have seen a lot of good results, and we do expect those results to continue.

I also want to highlight our unmatched European coverage. This is something that we have been working on for quite some time, creating a pan-European footprint. So of course, our origins in the Nordics are strong, but we are very strong in Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe as well as Southern Europe. This is important for us because it gives access to a very large market. It gives us more supplier opportunities. We are also able to choose from a broader range of acquisition targets, which is quite powerful because we can be selective and really choose the acquisition targets that are attractive in many ways, including healthy multiples.

So -- and I also want to move forward to acquisitions now. Again, acquisitions are again becoming a very important growth driver for us. And in the month of December, we were very pleased to welcome 2 new companies to the AddLife family, starting with Pharmacold, which is a specialized in highly customized refrigeration technologies as well as services for the pharma industry and for the health care sectors. Together with Holm & Halby's customer base and regulatory know-how, we see great potential for these highly customized products and to grow that business even further. So a very nice and healthy acquisition here, relatively small, but with great potential.

Another acquisition that we concluded in the month of December is a Danish manufacturer specializing in patient positioning products that address both staff ergonomics as well as the patient safety. We have worked with this company for many years. We know the products well, and they are really well renowned in the market. This business will become part of Mediplast and very much in line with the strategy that we have to increase the share of our own products. So a nice addition to the business and very much in line with the strategies that we have laid out. So very happy to also welcome Opitek to the AddLife family.

So to summarize the quarter, we are very pleased to note that the margin improvements, they do continue in the fourth quarter as well as for the full year, of course. And we are working diligently on these efforts, and we do expect further potential to improve the margins going forward.

Of course, currency effect impacted revenues, but organic and acquired growth were positive compared with a strong Q4 in 2024. We're very pleased with the fact that net debt-to-EBITDA is now at 2.2. So this means that our ambition to reduce it below 3 has been achieved and exceeded. With this, we have strengthened the balance sheet, and this enables us to really pick up the pace with acquisitions again, which we did already in December, and we expect a lot of activity going forward. So I can really say that we look forward with confidence and enthusiasm to a strong 2026.

Thank you very much. And with that, we open up for Q&A.

All right. So thank you for listening into the presentation. And now we are ready for questions. And I think we see a few of you having raised the hands already. So [ Philip ] maybe you can start and don't forget to unmute.

I hope you can hear me now.

Yes.

I can.

Starting on the U.K. market recovery, positive to hear that you're seeing some early signs there. Could you elaborate a bit on the momentum you're seeing entering '26 and what you're seeing throughout the coming year here?

Yes, of course. Thank you. Good question. So as you may remember, we have seen for really the whole year a bit of a hesitation in primarily capital spending and capital investments in the U.K. market. And we're pleased to note that in the fourth quarter, that actually started to improve again. So that's a healthy.

Sign. Looking at the general trend in the U.K. market, there was a little bit of a, I would say, subdued surgical procedures because of flu and also strikes and whatnot. But capital really did pick up. So we're pleased to note that. So that's a good sign also for the future. We can also note that as we have stated before, the NHS has become more and more clear in their vision for the future, where after the election immediately was relatively big. It's become more and more focused and clear what they are planning to do and in January, we have seen further statements talking about robotic surgery, talking about AI, talking about gene sequencing, things that we, as a group, are quite engaged in. So I think these are all positive signs. I hope that's an answer to your question, [ Philip ].

Yes, of course. Good. And while we're on the notion of U.K. and also perhaps Spain, the strikes in December, early December, is it possible to quantify that impact or give any indication of how large that impact was?

A little bit tricky, but I think we should look at it as a few days of lost surgical procedures. So a few days of lost sales in U.K. as well as in Spain.

Sure. Makes sense. And then perhaps finally for me, and then I'll get back into the queue. You talked about an improvement in home care market, which is positive, of course. How sort of -- what's your visibility on it? And how sustainable is it? Is it throughout the year? Or is it a few months or...

Well, I think we're starting to see signs of improvement, but we still have work to do. I mean it's still an area where we think there is further growth and margin improvement potential. So there are a few things that are going on here. We have a few initiatives that have been worked on with -- in terms of product launches and so on that are now starting to show signs of really picking up the pace. So that's exciting that a lot of that is on the technology side. On top of that, we have also seen in multiple countries, a healthy trend in terms of construction. So some new care homes and so on that are being built or being planned to be built. So I think the outlook is in general in that market is improving. And our internal initiatives are also starting to show signs of results. So more work to do, but some positive direction there, I think we can see.

All right. Thank you for good questions. So I think we have Ulrik here.

Yes, hopefully, you can hear me, all right.

Yes, we can. Yes.

A few questions on my end. You commented on a slightly softer Labtech market, especially in Denmark and a bit of caution from the pharma companies. Is that something that you see broad-based and something you potentially could elaborate a little bit about?

Well, not super broad-based. I think it's quite primarily a Denmark thing where we see a little bit of hesitation just very recently. We're not super worried about it. I think there is a healthy underlying market and growth there. So I think in 2026, that should pick up again is our expectation. So nothing dramatic there. But looking at our numbers, Denmark came down a little bit on the sales side, partly currency, but also a little bit of a slower activity. But again, we do think it's temporary.

And just general on the market conditions because I remember like 1 year ago, we did see a trend shift in tender activity. You entered into a few higher-margin tenders, and that looks to have continued throughout '25. So can you just give us sort of the state of the sort of tender market where we're at versus what we entered into '25?

I think we're -- we have seen the impact of these tenders. There were quite a few in fairly short period of time that we were successful in winning and those instruments were installed -- a lot of it were installed back in Q4 in 2024. So that was a bit of a peak on the instrument sales there.

Of course, we have been benefiting from those sales related to the instruments that were installed. So the consumable sales have been supporting us throughout the year and will continue to do so going forward. Tender activity in general, I think it's normal, I would say, activity ongoing for sure, but sometimes there's a little bit more sometimes there's a little bit less quarter-to-quarter. But then overall, no trend shift really, I would say. I hope that's answer your question.

Yes, yes, absolutely. That's perfect. And you sound optimistic about continuous margin improvements. And you guys have spoken before that there is improvements to be done in Homecare. And you've done a lot of tail cutting on the Medtech side generally throughout '25. Have you seen the full effects of the tail cutting? And are you done on that end where you feel -- obviously, there's some natural tail cutting going on, I guess, in your business, but majority of it is done in '25. And second question would be then the follow-up if you have enjoyed sort of the full effects on the margin side from those cutting out lower-margin products?

There were a few bigger measures taken during the year, you're correct. So we've seen that playing out nicely. So -- but the evolution of the product portfolio, it continues. And so there, I'm sure that we will be looking at portfolios and taking out less interesting products. For sure, we are adding a lot of new things. So I think the -- over all of 2025, we've increased our activity in terms of business development, finding new suppliers. And that has generated a number of new products being brought into the portfolio. Some of them have started to sell, but sometimes it takes time, especially if it's a novel technology and these activities and increased resource, both in the larger companies, but also using our network to support the smaller companies evolution of the portfolio. So I think more to come in terms of continuous addition of advanced products for sure.

Great. And last question on my end before getting back into the queue. Can you say anything about the margin profile of the divested endoscopy business, if it was on par with rest of Medtech or roughly where they were at?

Yes. It was a healthy margin business for sure compared to the Healthcare 21 other product line. So good margin business.

All right. Thanks, Ulrik. So now we move forward, so we have Albin here, right? Are you ready for us? Albin, are you ready for us?

All right. I think I will stay on the margin side here. We've never seen such high gross margin in Q4. And of course, you're working with it, focusing on it. But is this just like the new focus? Or is it some timing effects as well? And how should we think about the gross margin heading into '26?

Yes. I think. Do you want to comment on that, Christina? Or is it something...

There's no one-offs into it. No, it's more the result, I think, of the continuous work that has been done during the last 3 years.

So nothing dramatic disturbing the comparison, I would say. I think it's -- like Christina said, something we have prioritized and something that we're working on and something that every company is contributing to.

All right. That's good to hear. And then on the M&A pipeline, you're now down at 2.2x net debt-to-EBITDA impressively. So can you give us an update on the pipeline? And how do you find the competition and pricing in the market currently?

Yes. No, I think we're very pleased that we have reached a really good level on the net debt-to-EBITDA. So we can put these concerns about balance sheet behind us. That's nice. We have been expecting this and preparing for it, right? So we have over the last almost 2 years, been gradually gearing up the activity and resource that are focusing on acquisitions.

So the business unit leaders are driving their respective agendas for what type of acquisitions they want to make, and they are supported by a strong team of transaction specialists here in -- at the head office. So this pipeline looks healthy. We have a number of discussions ongoing, and we have a pretty clear plan of what we expect to do in the coming quarters. So I think we are optimistic about it.

And then, of course, we are picky. We do stick to our criteria. We are picky about valuation and so on. And since we have a quite long list of attractive targets and we can search all over Europe, as we mentioned earlier, we will be picky when it comes to quality of company and the valuation as well. But I think it looks good. So we're excited about it.

That's clear. And then looking at net sales per country, I just noticed that rest of the world is now down at SEK 2 million. Maybe I missed something here, but what does that stem from? And is that part of the plan?

Rest of the world, I think that's primarily China, Australia, U.S. to some extent, yes. So it's coming down a little bit. Well, I think we're clearly seeing some of our companies that are selling into the U.S. market, primarily research, certainly feel a change in behavior there. But it's -- on a group level, it doesn't really move the needle. But for those companies, it's obvious.

And now let's move forward to Jakob. Let's see. I think he's still on mute, right?

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

My first question is on the Medtech EBITA margin. Just to understand -- or looking at the U.K. on the sales, it seems that the U.K. actually grew in the quarter but you still say that the profitability is down from the U.K. [indiscernible].

Well, I think if we look at the U.K. for the whole year, it's been negative, unfortunately, in the first 3 quarters. But now it improved significantly in the fourth quarter. So we're pleased about that. And it was driven to a large extent by more capital sales. So that's exciting.

So the question there on the profitability, I think that we received a question earlier that asked about business that we're discontinuing and whether that was a high or low-margin business, I would say it's a good margin business in line with what we normally see in the U.K. market. So that's how we would look at it. Is that -- was that the question you asked?

Yes, not really. I mean, if I recall correctly, you had quite good sales to the U.K. a year ago. And now you were able to grow that earnings contribution from the U.K. in this quarter as well despite the sort of negative impact from flus and worse operating days and so on.

Yes. I think the conclusion is that a number of surgical procedures hasn't really grown. It's been a little bit challenged by flu and strikes and whatnot. But it's been holding up, so to speak. And then on top of that, we've seen a marked pickup when it comes to capital. So that's good. I mean it's been a bit of a challenge, a decline over the past few quarters, but now it's changed direction. So that's a positive.

Okay. Then just if we look forward, last year, I think Q1 was clearly the strongest quarter in terms of EBITA margin for Medtech. Is that still what we should expect in 2026? I know there's a sort of U.K. budget effect in Q1.

Yes. I think we don't want to really make any projections or forecasts or outlooks for coming quarters. But normally, we do see Q1, the final year of the fiscal year for NHS is normally strong. Of course, the discontinued business, there might be in previous years, some sales related to that, that will not happen in Q1. But other sales will. So that's to keep in mind. But apart from that, I don't want to give any real outlook for the coming quarters. But of course, we -- in general, we are -- we think many parts of our business is really picking up the pace, and there's a lot of stability in other parts. So I think overall, we're very optimistic about the future.

And just a short follow-up. The divested business, is that more capital or consumables?

Mix. Capital and consumables and service.

Okay. And then just a final question, sort of a follow-on on the M&A pipeline. If you can talk a bit about sort of what type of companies you have in the pipeline and also the size, if -- it's more smaller companies or larger ones?

Well, yes, I think we have a good mix in the pipeline. We're actively in active dialogues with a few and then analyzing a number of others and so on. So it looks pretty healthy. We are sticking to our criteria, which means that the company should be below EUR 50 million in turnover and the sweet spot is probably lower than that, say, EUR 10 million to EUR 30 million, somewhere in that neighborhood, EUR 10 million to EUR 30 million of turnover. And they should also be in areas that we understand and then we have a good knowledge base to assess the companies.

We love the entrepreneurial ones, of course, prefer to buy companies from entrepreneurial owners. So we're sticking to the plan here. And of course, what we can look at the previous acquisitions, I think Edge and BonsaiLab are excellent examples of acquisitions we like to see. The ones we made in December are also great additions, but they are a little bit on the small side. So a little bit -- little bigger than that, but certainly not the very big ones of 2021 and 2022.

And of course, an EBITA margin contributing to the growth as well.

Yes. Of course. So I hope that gives some clarity, but hopefully, we will be able to communicate more about that in the not-too-distant future.

And now we have Mattias. I think, he's on mute.

I had only a few left. So -- but I'm going to try and push you a bit more on the M&A side. So you state in the report you will be fully able to execute your growth plan for both organic and acquisition-driven growth. So is it possible to give us maybe a number or range in terms of your aspiration for '26, if not at least compare with the contribution from M&A in 2025, which added 1%, so which is obviously below -- it's a more towards the right direction. But should we think about a 5% to 7% contribution? Or what -- obviously, dependent on deals and signatures, but your aspiration would be interesting to hear.

Yes. Something like that, Mattias. I mean, traditionally, we have said that to achieve our 15% profit growth target, roughly half of that should come from organic and half of it from acquisitions. And in the past, we're kind of proud that we have almost achieved that 15% through organic activity. The organic activity will continue, no doubt. But in 2026 and beyond, we should get back to that more of that mix of roughly 50-50 over time. So that means a few more acquisitions. So we have 3 in 2025, right? So it's going to have to be a few more than that.

That's helpful. And then with regards to the divestment and the SEK 140 million in revenues, obviously, you spoke about Q1, so obviously, no more shipments there. But then in the report, you talked about an ability to gradually replace it over time, but perhaps not already in '26. So talk about that process in terms of gradually replacing.

Yes. So I think that's a great point. That's something -- first of all, I would like to say having a setup like this where we hand over a business to a supplier is fairly normal, right? This is something that happens all the time in the life of a distributor. What sets this apart a little bit is we really got handsome payout for all the work we've done to build that business. So that's a positive in many ways.

And then, of course, this is something we know happens from time to time. So we work in a continuous way to add new products to the portfolio. And we like to add more products and to broaden the portfolio as well as evolving it towards even more advanced products. So this has been ongoing for a while. We don't expect and actually don't want just one quick replacement of the same size. We would rather have a few more products added to it.

And of course, that's not starting now. That's been ongoing for a long time now. So the gradual addition of products has started to happen and will continue during the year. I think, will there be a big chunk of the business immediately replacing it of the same size coming in Q1? No, but it's been ongoing for quite some time. So I would say a gradual replacement of that business is already ongoing.

That's helpful. And final question for me. You spoke about products that were discontinued due to shaping the portfolio towards more higher-margin products. I didn't catch if Christina perhaps quantify what portion of sales that were discontinued during the year to help us understand the bridge from 2024 base to where you ended 2025.

We haven't really quantified that. But then if we look at the mix of everything that then it's approx 1% [ reduction ] yes.

Gustav, yes.

It's Gustav here from Nordea. Just to come back to Medtech here and our favorite topic of AddVision. In terms of that margin, can we get some sort of ballpark indication of how that is progressing here? Is still within the range of mid-single digits? Or what's your view there?

Yes, mid-single digits. It is improving over last year, not dramatically, but it is improving. It's better than last year Q4. So that's, that's nice. We have actually taken quite a few measures within that group in this quarter as well, the things that we have seen that needs to be addressed and have been addressed in the quarter. So that gives us further confidence in the direction of the British and German business.

In other parts of the business, I think as you know that we have, what I would say, achieved a good level of stability and a nice trajectory. So that's great. So now with these measures, we hope that the same thing will apply for all the parts of the business. So mid-single digits still improving, but of course, lots of more upside, I would say, in that business before we are happy with it as it stands.

No, that's perfect. Then do you expect effect already here in 2026 from these measures you have taken here recently or...

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. We're aligned there.

And then in terms of Labtech, just as one final question here. Given that you saw, I mean, lower instrument sales in Q4 and of course, I mean, compared to Q4 last year was a strong quarter, we know that. But in terms of the Labtech margin, I mean, did you see a net positive mix effect on the margin coming from gene sequencing? Or how would you describe it? I mean, we saw organic growth down 3%. So just to get a better understanding there.

Yes. I think it's a good point. I mean we didn't have the same level of instruments as the somewhat unusual Q4 of last year. So we're actually quite happy with the fact that we remained at 14.1%. That's a very healthy margin. So I think you're correct. There is a healthy underlying trend in that business. Some of the businesses are gradually improving, great customer relationships and strong supplier relationships and also doing an excellent job in adding new products.

Others still have some work to do in -- primarily those on the research side, where we had seen a little bit less stability in demand, but I think we have a quite impressive product portfolio, and we see good evolution in those areas. We have made some changes also there in the past few months. So I think we're confident that we are on the right track there as well. So I think it's a healthy business, but there is also room for improvement.

Okay. So it sounds more like it's structural rather than a temporary mix -- positive mix effect in Q4 then?

Yes. I would say there's a structural improvement underneath, so to speak.

Okay. So now let's see. Do we have any more questions? None seem to be raising their hand. But thanks, everyone, for listening in, and thanks for great questions. And you're all free to e-mail or call afterwards if you want to follow-up on specific topics.

So with that, we wrap up. But I do encourage you to stay on to see the video about Biolin. Biolin is a very exciting company, developing and manufacturing really advanced products for the research field. So please take a look at that if you have a few more minutes to spare. Thank you very much, and take care.

Good morning, everyone, and warm welcome to the AddLife Third Quarter Report. As usual, we will take you through the numbers and description of what has happened in the company during the quarter.

Then we will open up for a Q&A session. And after that, as usual, we encourage you to stay on for a few more minutes to see an interesting video from one of our companies.

This time around is from Healthcare21 Ireland, a very important piece of the puzzle as we are growing throughout Europe and an important platform acquisition.

So let's get going with the highlights of the third quarter. So the AddLife companies all had a good quarter in the third quarter of 2025.

We saw a strong EBITDA improvement in both business areas. We saw healthy customer demand. Currency-adjusted growth increased by 7%, 6% organic and a nice addition of 1% from acquisitions.

The growth in Labtech was really strong, 9% excluding currency effects. And on the Medtech side, a very healthy demand in spite of the fact that we are updating our product portfolio, and we saw a little bit of a weakness in capital sales. So 5% growth in Medtech, a strong quarter.

We are driving profitability improvement initiatives in a handful of companies. These are progressing quite well, but there's more work to do, and we think there's more potential to improve the performance of some of the companies within the group.

We're pleased to note that we have achieved our net debt-to-EBITDA goal of being below 3. We stick to that goal. That's a good target for us, we think. But of course, now that we are below that level, we can increase the acquisition activity. So with that, I hand over to Christina to take us through a little bit more of the details of the financials. Welcome, Christina.

Thank you, Fredrik. So the companies within AddLife delivered solid revenue and EBITDA growth in the third quarter. Organic and acquired revenue growth was 7% and organic and acquired EBITDA growth was 20%.

EBITDA has been adjusted for revaluation of contingent considerations and also restructuring costs relating to Camanio. This is SEK 7 million in total and relates to last year.

The FX had an impact of 3% negative, both on the revenue and on the EBITDA growth side. So total sales growth was 4%, of which organic growth was 6%.

Labtech delivered 9% and Medtech 4%. We also had acquired growth of 1% that relates to Edge Medical and this within Medtech. We had stable gross margin and also strong cost control within the companies.

Compared to last year, we also had a positive impact on the OpEx side from the closure of Camanio in total, that was SEK 10 million. The EBITA margin summarized to 11.1%, up from 9.8% last year. And we had significant lower interest cost in the quarter, SEK 30 million.

But then in financial net, we also have exchange gain and losses. And with the loss this quarter and the gain last year, it was a total of minus SEK 12 million comparing year-over-year.

But the profit before tax increased with 164% and profit after tax improved with 228% since also tax rates is coming down.

So the EBITDA margin between the quarters can vary a bit. And normally, Q3 is the seasonality lowest one, but EBITA margin is definitely in a positive development.

And if we look at the EBITA growth, it was 17% over last year, and the year-to-date EBITA margin was 11.9%, compared to 11% year-to-date last year.

And the improved EBITA margin comes from both Labtech with 11.2% and Medtech 11.6%. Also, normally, operating cash flow is slightly slower in the third quarter.

This year, it was SEK 145 million and accumulated operating cash flow was SEK 504 million, compared to SEK 429 million last year.

Cash conversion remains high at above 90%, and we are still focusing on inventory reduction and working capital efficiency.

So working capital was negative SEK 143 million. Inventory increased slightly, mainly due to preparation for an expected strong Q4 sales. Looking at inventory towards revenue, that has remained at a stable level throughout the year at 16%.

Also, accounts receivable increased. That was due to strong end of quarter sales, but also we had somewhat slow collection due to vacation period expecting to recover in the fourth quarter.

The acquisitions relate to purchase price adjustment for Edge. The net debt was improved with SEK 52 million. And with loans being majority in euros, we always have an FX impact.

This was limited this quarter. When we look at net debt, we include the bank loans, leasing liabilities, contingent considerations, pension liabilities, provisions and then we deduct cash. So that is the total of our net debt.

So with net debt decreased and last 12 months EBITDA increasing, leverage declined to 2.9. This means that we have reached our ambition we set up for ourselves to be at 3 or below.

And as I said before, debt will be reduced through self-generated cash flow. The interest rate in the quarter was 3.8%, below last quarter's 4.2% and significantly lower compared to last year's 5.7%.

We have 2 covenants, interest coverage ratio and equity ratio. Interest coverage ratio should be above 4%, that was 7.9% in the quarter and equity ratio should be above 25%, and that was 42%, meaning that we have solid and increasing headroom to the covenants. And with that, I hand over to Fredrik again.

Well, thank you very much, Christina, for that thorough review of the numbers. And now we move into the business areas. So starting with Labtech, had a strong quarter with 9% growth and strong EBITA margin development.

Demand in diagnostics is stable and growing. And as we have talked about in previous quarters, we have had fantastic success with tenders, both new and renewed, and that helps us to grow, but also to improve margins, and we see that effect in this quarter as well.

Demand in pharma remains high, and that is, as you know, an important customer group for us. There is a hesitation in academic research investment. We've talked about that in the past. There are, however, some signs of improvement in this quarter. So we're pleased to see that. So that's great news.

Also great news is good progress that we see in gene sequencing. This is an area that we have really prioritized. We are active in it in multiple parts of Europe, and we see very strong developments, in particular in Southern Europe, where we had been driving together with customers, significant projects that are now coming to fruition.

We have added new products, both in Southern Europe, but also in Central and Eastern Europe, and we see good progress also in the Nordics. So great progress with an important area of gene sequencing.

So moving on to Medtech. We had a nice quarter with 5% growth. And of those 5%, 1% came from acquisitions, which is nice. EBITA margin improved significantly to 11.6%. And even though the demand is somewhat lower normally in the summer months because fewer surgical procedures are scheduled, we had a healthy development.

In U.K., however, a little bit lower. There is uncertainty about budgets. There is uncertainty about capital spend that we have discussed previously, and that still continued, unfortunately, in the third quarter.

We are working very diligently on continuously evolving the product portfolio towards more advanced and more high-margin products.

And in some cases, we see a little bit of a decline on the top line as we remove some of those projects in that process.

We wanted to also share with you a somewhat new perspective of our market coverage. So looking at the map, you can see here, we have a quite unique pan-European coverage, of course, with a strong presence in the Nordics.

But over the years, we have taken conscious and strong steps to establish ourselves all across the European markets. So we're not only strong in the Nordics, we're strong in Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe and Southern Europe.

And this gives us some really important benefits. Of course, we have an access to a bigger market, both in terms of sales, but also in terms of acquisitions.

We have more supplier opportunities driven by our strength as a company. We have access to a broader range of acquisition targets and of course, with that, more attractive multiples.

And this is further underlined by the fact that we are also active in both Medtech and Labtech across all these regions in Europe.

So we got into this very strong pan-European position by making a few relatively large platform acquisitions. And I want to speak a little bit about those 2, primarily Healthcare21 in Ireland and U.K. and MBA in Spain and Portugal.

So starting with Healthcare21. This acquisition was made in 2021. And since then, it has developed very nicely. As you can see here on the slide, the revenue development has been an impressive 35%. So this is now a company at around SEK 2 billion [indiscernible] in turnover.

And this has been driven by continued addition of advanced products. Not only has the company grown in a fantastic way, EBITA margin has improved significantly, 2 percentage points, and is currently at around 14% EBITA margin. So that has been driven by continuous efforts in efficiency improvements and increased share of advanced products and also pruning of products that don't have the profitability profile that we like to see.

We're extremely proud of the fact that the profit over working capital, as you well know, an important metric for us within AddLife has improved significantly as well.

This has been done through a range of efforts, renegotiation with suppliers, stricter inventory management to improve processes and systems, but also, I would say, market-leading collaboration with our partners to ensure efficient payments. Healthcare21 has also contributed nicely as a platform for acquisitions with O'’Flynn Medical, Emmat Medical, and Edge Medical. So all very good acquisitions that have been added throughout the years.

So a great example of our geographical expansion and also improvement -- solid improvement in the performance of this company. So moving forward to MBA in Southern Europe, Spain and Portugal, mainly, an acquisition that was done in 2022.

Also there, we have seen a fantastic revenue development, getting close to EUR 100 million in turnover, 25% growth since the acquisition. And this has been driven by adding -- continuously adding advanced products and supported by industry-leading service and support.

We have also organized the company in 3 divisions that has really enabled an accelerated growth. EBITA margin improvement has been fantastic, 3 percentage points up since acquisition and now above 18% EBITA margin.

And this is, of course, through growth in high-margin advanced products, but also a very consistent efficiency and cost control work.

And then finally, profitable working capital, again, an important topic for us, that has improved tremendously as well within MBA. They have a fantastic forecasting process. They have improved and have now a very tight inventory management process, and they are also very good in managing payments.

So these acquisitions, MBA and Healthcare21 have not only enabled us to become a much more pan-European player, they have also improved their performance quite a bit, and they are a platform for future acquisitions.

So moving forward, I also want to share with you a little bit of an overview of the product portfolio that we have, the different categories in our product portfolio. This is a new way of showing this data, which we haven't done in the past. But what it really highlights is our unique strength in advanced products.

So looking at the top of this slide here, we talk about specialist devices and equipment. These are advanced specialist products that often comes with proprietary consumables and service revenues as well.

This really requires advanced training and technical support and often also on-site clinical and patient-specific support, so requires a very competent organization in the field.

These are products that are very differentiated and have a high value to the patient and the health care system. And these -- and you can see some examples of these products that we have in the portfolio.

They are more than 70% of the revenues within Medtech. We also have what we call medical supplies. These are more volume products, oftentimes at lower margin and oftentimes used in surgical procedures.

They include products like infusion, transfusion sets, respiration, wound care, surgical procedure packs and so on. And for AddLife companies, these are an important piece of the puzzle around 29% of revenues.

We try often to have these products within our own manufacturer or own brands to further improve the margins. So this gives you a perspective of the product portfolio that we have, and this is something that sets us apart from competition as well.

With that, we are about to conclude the presentation about the third quarter results. And I want to underscore that the companies have been doing a fantastic job in this quarter. So thanks to everyone involved. You're doing an important and great job.

So in short, we have seen a significant margin improvement. We have seen a solid organic growth. Profit has improved both in terms of margins, but also further strengthened by lowering interest rates and reduced debt, improving the bottom line performance as well.

We have reached our ambition to be below 3 in terms of net debt to EBITDA. So we're very proud of that. And of course, this strengthened position allows for us to gradually increase acquisition activity again. So a good quarter and exciting times ahead. So with that, we are opening up for Q&A, but I would also like to encourage you again to stay on to see a great video about Healthcare21 in Ireland. Thank you very much.

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