Investor B Aktienkurs
Vergleich mit Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 Was ist das?
Die Peer Group sind die Unternehmen mit dem ähnlichsten Geschäftsmodell. Sie dienen als Vergleichsmaßstab, um eine Aktie einzuordnen.
🧮 Wie wird sie ausgewählt?
Nach Ähnlichkeit des Geschäftsmodells, also Unternehmen aus derselben Branche, mit vergleichbaren Produkten und einer ähnlichen Kundengruppe. Nur so vergleichst du Äpfel mit Äpfeln.
🏛️ Wofür ist sie wichtig?
Ob eine Aktie günstig oder teuer ist, lässt sich am ehesten im Vergleich beurteilen. Ein KGV von 18 oder ein EV/FCF von 20 wirkt je nach Maßstab günstig oder teuer. Die Peer Group liefert dabei den treffsichersten Maßstab: Unternehmen mit ähnlichem Geschäftsmodell, die denselben Bedingungen unterliegen.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
Liegt eine Kennzahl unter dem Peer-Durchschnitt, ist die Aktie relativ günstiger bewertet, über dem Durchschnitt entsprechend teurer. Ein Abschlag zur Peer Group kann eine Chance sein, aber auch einen Grund haben (zum Beispiel geringeres Wachstum). Der Vergleich ist ein Startpunkt, kein Urteil.
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📘 Marktkapitalisierung
📈 Was ist das?
Die Marktkapitalisierung zeigt, wie viel ein Unternehmen laut Börse aktuell wert ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie hilft Unternehmen in Größenklassen (Large, Mid, Small Cap) einzuordnen und gibt Hinweise auf Marktmacht und Stabilität.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Große Unternehmen gelten als stabiler, zahlen oft Dividenden, wachsen aber langsamer.
- Kleine Firmen können stärker wachsen, sind aber schwankungsanfälliger.
- Die Marktkapitalisierung ist ein guter Indikator für Unternehmensgröße, aber kein Maß für Unter- oder Überbewertung.
📘 Enterprise Value (Unternehmenswert)
📈 Was ist das?
Der Enterprise Value (EV) zeigt, was ein Unternehmen tatsächlich kostet, wenn man es komplett übernehmen würde – inklusive Schulden und abzüglich Cash.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
(= Marktkapitalisierung + Nettoverschuldung)
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der EV ist eine realistischere Bewertungsbasis als die Marktkapitalisierung, da er die Kapitalstruktur berücksichtigt. Er ist Grundlage für Kennzahlen wie EV/FCF oder EV/Sales.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Der Enterprise Value zeigt, was ein Unternehmen tatsächlich wert ist – unabhängig davon, wie es finanziert ist.
- Er ist besonders wichtig für professionelle Investoren, da er eine objektivere Grundlage für Bewertungsvergleiche bietet als die Marktkapitalisierung allein.
- Ein Unternehmen mit hoher Verschuldung erscheint im EV teurer, eines mit viel Cash günstiger – auch wenn sie an der Börse gleich viel wert sind.
📘 Nettoverschuldung
📈 Was ist das?
Die Nettoverschuldung zeigt, wie viele Schulden nach Abzug des verfügbaren Cashs tatsächlich verbleiben.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie zeigt, wie stark ein Unternehmen von Fremdkapital abhängig ist – und wie gut es in der Lage ist, seine Schulden kurzfristig zu bedienen.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine niedrige oder negative Nettoverschuldung bedeutet hohe finanzielle Stabilität.
- Unternehmen mit viel Cash und geringer Verschuldung sind besser gerüstet für Krisen.
- Eine hohe Nettoverschuldung erhöht das Risiko – besonders bei steigenden Zinsen oder konjunkturellen Schwächen.
📘 Cash
📈 Was ist das?
Der Cashbestand zeigt, wie viele liquide Mittel einem Unternehmen sofort zur Verfügung stehen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Er gibt Auskunft über die finanzielle Flexibilität: Ein hoher Cashbestand ermöglicht Investitionen, Rückkäufe oder Krisenresistenz.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Cashbestand zeigt finanzielle Stärke und Handlungsspielraum.
- Cash kann für Investitionen, Schuldentilgung oder Aktienrückkäufe genutzt werden.
- Allerdings: Zu viel ungenutztes Kapital kann auch auf mangelnde Investitionsideen hinweisen.
📘 Anzahl ausstehender Aktien
📈 Was ist das?
Die Anzahl ausstehender Aktien gibt an, wie viele Aktien eines Unternehmens aktuell im Umlauf sind und von Investoren gehalten werden.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie ist die Grundlage für viele Kennzahlen wie Gewinn je Aktie (EPS), Marktkapitalisierung oder KGV.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Je weniger Aktien im Umlauf sind, desto höher fällt z. B. der Gewinn je Aktie aus – wichtig für Bewertung und Dividendenrendite.
- Aktienrückkäufe verringern die Anzahl ausstehender Aktien – und steigern den Wert je Aktie.
- Kapitalerhöhungen haben den gegenteiligen Effekt: mehr Aktien → Verwässerung der bestehenden Anteile.
📘 Kurs-Gewinn-Verhältnis (KGV)
📈 Was ist das?
Das KGV zeigt, wie oft der Gewinn pro Aktie im aktuellen Aktienkurs enthalten ist – also wie „teuer“ eine Aktie im Verhältnis zum Gewinn ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das KGV gehört zu den bekanntesten Bewertungskennzahlen. Es hilft Anlegern einzuschätzen, ob eine Aktie im Vergleich zu ihrem Gewinn eher günstig oder teuer erscheint.
🧮 Berechnung
📊 KGV (TTM) = bezogen auf den Gewinn der letzten 12 Monate (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriges KGV kann auf eine günstige Bewertung hindeuten – oder auf Probleme im Geschäftsmodell.
- Ein hohes KGV kann Wachstumserwartungen widerspiegeln – oder eine überbewertete Aktie.
📘 Kurs-Umsatz-Verhältnis (KUV)
📈 Was ist das?
Das KUV zeigt, wie viel Anleger für 1 € Umsatz eines Unternehmens zahlen – unabhängig vom Gewinn.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das KUV ist besonders bei wachstumsstarken oder noch nicht profitablen Unternehmen hilfreich. Es zeigt, wie hoch der Umsatz an der Börse bewertet wird.
🧮 Berechnung
Marktkapitalisierung = 1,26 Bio. kr | Umsatz (TTM) = 84,56 Mrd. kr
Marktkapitalisierung = 1,26 Bio. kr | Umsatz erwartet = 70,76 Mrd. kr
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriges KUV kann auf Unterbewertung hindeuten – oder auf schwache Margen.
- Ein hohes KUV kann hohe Erwartungen widerspiegeln – oder übermäßigen Optimismus.
- Besonders sinnvoll bei Wachstumsunternehmen, bei denen der Gewinn oder Free Cashflow (noch) keine Aussagekraft hat.
📘 Unternehmenswert zu Umsatz (EV/Sales)
📈 Was ist das?
EV/Sales zeigt, wie viel Anleger für 1 € Umsatz eines Unternehmens zahlen, wenn man auch Schulden und Cash berücksichtigt – es ist eine kapitalstrukturbereinigte Version des KUV.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Diese Kennzahl eignet sich besonders für den Vergleich von Unternehmen mit unterschiedlicher Verschuldung – sie zeigt, wie teuer ein Unternehmen tatsächlich im Verhältnis zum Umsatz ist.
🧮 Berechnung
Enterprise Value = 1,35 Bio. kr | Umsatz (TTM) = 84,56 Mrd. kr
Enterprise Value = 1,35 Bio. kr | Umsatz erwartet = 70,76 Mrd. kr
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- EV/Sales ist neutral gegenüber der Kapitalstruktur und eignet sich gut für Unternehmensvergleiche.
- Ein niedriges Verhältnis kann auf eine günstig bewertete Aktie hindeuten – ein hohes Verhältnis auf hohe Erwartungen oder Überbewertung.
- Besonders nützlich bei wachstumsstarken, noch nicht profitablen Firmen.
📘 Unternehmenswert zu Free Cashflow (EV/FCF) | ex SBC
📈 Was ist das?
EV/FCF setzt den Unternehmenswert eines Unternehmens ins Verhältnis zu seinem Free Cashflow. Die Kennzahl zeigt damit, mit welchem Vielfachen des aktuellen Free Cashflows ein Unternehmen bewertet wird. EV/FCF ex SBC berücksichtigt zusätzlich aktienbasierte Vergütungen (Stock-Based Compensation, SBC). SBC verursacht zwar keinen direkten Cash-Abfluss, kann bestehende Aktionäre jedoch durch die Ausgabe zusätzlicher Aktien verwässern. Deshalb wird SBC bei dieser Variante vom Free Cashflow abgezogen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
EV/FCF ex SBC = Enterprise Value ÷ (Free Cashflow (TTM) − SBC)
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
EV/FCF ermöglicht eine Bewertung auf Basis des Free Cashflows und ergänzt damit gewinnbasierte Bewertungskennzahlen wie das KGV. Die Variante ex SBC berücksichtigt zusätzlich die wirtschaftliche Belastung durch aktienbasierte Vergütungen und ermöglicht dadurch eine konservativere Betrachtung aus Sicht der Aktionäre.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriges EV/FCF bedeutet, dass der Unternehmenswert im Verhältnis zum aktuellen Free Cashflow niedrig ist. Die Ursachen dafür sollten jedoch immer im Unternehmens- und Branchenkontext betrachtet werden.
- Ein hohes EV/FCF bedeutet, dass der Unternehmenswert im Verhältnis zum aktuellen Free Cashflow hoch ist. Das kann beispielsweise auf hohe Wachstumserwartungen oder eine vorübergehend schwache Cash-Generierung zurückzuführen sein.
- Bei positiver SBC und positivem bereinigtem Free Cashflow fällt EV/FCF ex SBC in der Regel höher aus als das klassische EV/FCF.
- Besonders aussagekräftig ist die Kennzahl bei Unternehmen mit relativ stabilen und gut einschätzbaren Cashflows.
- Bei negativem oder sehr niedrigem Free Cashflow ist EV/FCF nur eingeschränkt aussagekräftig und sollte nicht wie ein gewöhnliches Bewertungsmultiple interpretiert werden.
📘 Kurs-Buchwert-Verhältnis (KBV)
📈 Was ist das?
Das KBV zeigt, wie hoch der Marktwert eines Unternehmens im Verhältnis zu seinem bilanziellen Eigenkapital ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das KBV ist besonders bei Substanzwerten (z. B. Banken, Industrie) relevant. Es hilft Anlegern zu erkennen, ob ein Unternehmen unter oder über seinem buchhalterischen Vermögen bewertet ist.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein KBV unter 1 kann auf Unterbewertung oder schwache Rentabilität hindeuten.
- Ein KBV über 1 zeigt, dass der Markt dem Unternehmen Mehrwert über den Buchwert hinaus zuschreibt (z. B. Marken, Patente, Wachstum).
- Das KBV eignet sich besonders gut für Unternehmen mit stabilen, materiellen Vermögenswerten.
📘 Dividende je Aktie
📈 Was ist das?
Die Dividende je Aktie zeigt, wie viel Geld ein Unternehmen pro Aktie an seine Aktionäre ausschüttet – typischerweise jährlich oder quartalsweise.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie ist die absolute Größe der Auszahlung je Aktie – wichtig für alle, die regelmäßige Erträge suchen oder Dividendenstrategien verfolgen.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine stabile oder wachsende Dividende je Aktie ist oft ein Zeichen für ein solides Geschäftsmodell.
- Die Dividende je Aktie allein sagt aber nichts über die Rendite – dafür ist auch der Aktienkurs relevant (→ Dividendenrendite).
- Langfristig steigende Dividenden sind oft ein sehr gutes Merkmal (z. B. Dividenden-Aristokraten).
📘 Dividendenrendite
📈 Was ist das?
Die Dividendenrendite zeigt, wie hoch die Dividende eines Unternehmens im Verhältnis zum Aktienkurs ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie hilft dabei, Dividendenaktien vergleichbar zu machen – unabhängig vom absoluten Auszahlungsbetrag.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine stabile Dividendenrendite kann auf verlässliche Ausschüttungen hinweisen.
- Ein Vergleich der 1J- und 5J-Rendite hilft zu erkennen, ob das Dividendenwachstum mit dem Kurswachstum Schritt hält.
- Eine niedrige Rendite ist nicht zwingend negativ – sie kann auf starkes Kurswachstum hindeuten.
📘 Dividendenwachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das Dividendenwachstum zeigt, wie stark ein Unternehmen seine Dividende je Aktie über die Zeit gesteigert hat.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
5J: durchschnittliche jährliche Wachstumsrate (CAGR)
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Stetig steigende Dividenden gelten als Zeichen für finanzielle Stärke und Aktionärsorientierung – besonders interessant für langfristige Investoren.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein stabiles Dividendenwachstum ist ein Zeichen nachhaltiger Ertragskraft.
- Ein hohes Dividendenwachstum kann ein erheblicher Hebel deiner Rendite sein:
- Wenn ein Unternehmen z. B. 1 € Dividende zahlt und diese über 5 Jahre jährlich um 15 % erhöht, bekommst du im 5. Jahr bereits 2 € je Aktie – doppelt so viel wie zu Beginn!
📘 Ausschüttungsquote (Payout)
📈 Was ist das?
Die Ausschüttungsquote zeigt, wie viel Prozent des Unternehmensgewinns (pro Aktie) als Dividende an die Aktionäre ausgeschüttet wird.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Quote hilft einzuschätzen, ob eine Dividende auf Dauer tragfähig ist – besonders im Verhältnis zum erzielten Gewinn.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine niedrige Ausschüttungsquote bedeutet: Das Unternehmen behält einen größeren Teil des Gewinns für Investitionen – typisch für Wachstumsunternehmen.
- Eine moderate Quote (z. B. 25–50 %) steht oft für ein gesundes Gleichgewicht zwischen Ausschüttung und Zukunftsinvestitionen.
- Hohe Ausschüttungsquoten können attraktiv wirken, sind aber riskanter, wenn die Gewinne schwanken oder sinken.
📘 Dividendensteigerungen in Folge (Erhöhungen)
📈 Was ist das?
Diese Kennzahl zeigt, wie viele Jahre in Folge ein Unternehmen seine Dividende pro Aktie erhöht hat – ohne Kürzung oder Aussetzung.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Ein langer Track Record kontinuierlicher Erhöhungen spricht für Verlässlichkeit, solide Finanzen und aktionärsfreundliche Unternehmenspolitik.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein langer Zeitraum mit Dividendensteigerungen stärkt das Vertrauen – besonders in Krisenzeiten.
- Solche Unternehmen gelten als verlässlich und planbar für Einkommensinvestoren.
- Je länger die Serie, desto stärker das Commitment gegenüber den Aktionären.
📘 Umsatz
📈 Was ist das?
Der Umsatz zeigt, wie viel ein Unternehmen insgesamt mit seinen Produkten und Dienstleistungen verdient – also den Bruttoerlös vor Abzug von Kosten.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der Umsatz ist eine der zentralen Kennzahlen zur Einschätzung der Unternehmensgröße, Marktstellung und Wachstumskraft.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein wachsender Umsatz zeigt eine steigende Nachfrage und kann ein guter Frühindikator für Gewinnsteigerungen sein.
- Vergleiche von aktuellem und erwartetem Umsatz geben Hinweise auf das Marktumfeld und Analystenerwartungen.
- Wichtig: Starker Umsatz allein genügt nicht – auch Margen und Profitabilität zählen.
📘 EBITDA
📈 Was ist das?
EBITDA steht für „Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization“ – also Gewinn vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen. Es zeigt das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens, bereinigt um bilanztechnische und finanzierungsbedingte Effekte.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
EBITDA ist eine verbreitete Kennzahl zur Beurteilung der operativen Leistungsfähigkeit – insbesondere bei kapitalintensiven Unternehmen oder im internationalen Vergleich.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hohes oder wachsendes EBITDA spricht für starke operative Erträge – unabhängig von Bilanzierung oder Steuerlast.
- EBITDA ist besonders nützlich, um Unternehmen branchenübergreifend zu vergleichen.
- Wichtig: EBITDA ist keine offizielle Gewinnkennzahl – Abschreibungen und Finanzierungskosten werden ausgeklammert.
📘 EBIT
📈 Was ist das?
EBIT steht für „Earnings Before Interest and Taxes“ – also Gewinn vor Zinsen und Steuern. Es zeigt das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens nach Abschreibungen, aber vor Finanzierungs- und Steueraufwand.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
EBIT ist eine zentrale Kennzahl zur Beurteilung der Profitabilität aus dem Kerngeschäft – unabhängig von Kapitalstruktur oder Steuersystem.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hohes EBIT deutet auf ein profitables Kerngeschäft hin – vor Zinslasten oder steuerlichen Effekten.
- Es erlaubt objektivere Vergleiche zwischen Unternehmen mit unterschiedlicher Finanzierung.
- Im Vergleich mit EBITDA zeigt EBIT bereits den Einfluss von Abschreibungen auf das operative Ergebnis.
📘 Nettogewinn
📈 Was ist das?
Der Nettogewinn ist der verbleibende Jahresüberschuss (oder -fehlbetrag) eines Unternehmens – nach Abzug aller Kosten, Steuern, Zinsen und Abschreibungen
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der Nettogewinn ist die zentrale Erfolgskennzahl – er zeigt, wie profitabel ein Unternehmen nach allen Kosten tatsächlich arbeitet.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein steigender Nettogewinn zeigt, dass das Unternehmen effizient wirtschaftet – trotz aller Kosten.
- Die Entwicklung des Gewinns beeinflusst z. B. direkt das KGV und weitere Kennzahlen.
- Im Zeitverlauf lässt sich ablesen, wie stabil und profitabel ein Geschäftsmodell wirklich ist.
📘 Free Cashflow (FCF) | ex SBC
📈 Was ist das?
Der Free Cashflow gibt an, wie viel Bargeld tatsächlich übrig bleibt, nachdem ein Unternehmen seine Betriebsausgaben und Investitionsausgaben gedeckt hat. Der FCF ex SBC zieht zusätzlich die aktienbasierte Vergütung ab, um den Cashflow um den Effekt der nicht zahlungswirksamen SBC zu bereinigen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Free Cashflow ex SBC = Operativer Cashflow − SBC − Investitionen in Sachanlagen (CAPEX)
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der FCF spiegelt die tatsächliche Finanzkraft eines Unternehmens wider – unabhängig von den bilanziellen Gewinnen. Er zeigt, wie viel Spielraum ein Unternehmen für Dividenden, Aktienrückkäufe oder den Schuldenabbau hat. Der FCF ex SBC zieht zusätzlich die aktienbasierte Vergütung ab und zeigt, wie hoch die Cash-Generierung nach Abzug der SBC ausfällt.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Free Cashflow bedeutet, dass ein Unternehmen echte Finanzkraft besitzt – unabhängig vom bilanzierten Gewinn.
- Er ist oft die solideste Grundlage für nachhaltige Dividenden und Aktienrückkäufe.
- Sinkender FCF kann ein Warnsignal sein – auch wenn der Gewinn stabil aussieht.
📘 Umsatzwachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das Umsatzwachstum zeigt, wie stark sich die Erlöse eines Unternehmens im Vergleich zum Vorjahr verändert haben – tatsächlich (TTM) und auf Prognosebasis (erwartet).
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (Umsatz erwartet ÷ Umsatz Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Erwartetes Wachstum basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Ein wachsender Umsatz ist ein zentrales Signal für steigende Nachfrage, Geschäftsausweitung und Marktanteilsgewinne – besonders bei Wachstumsunternehmen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Wachstum ist der Motor langfristiger Wertsteigerung – besonders bei Technologie- und Wachstumsaktien.
- Wichtig ist nicht nur das aktuelle Wachstum, sondern auch dessen Nachhaltigkeit.
- Prognosen zeigen, ob Analysten weiteres Potenzial erwarten – oder eine Verlangsamung.
📘 EBITDA-Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das EBITDA-Wachstum zeigt, wie stark das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen im Vergleich zum Vorjahr gestiegen oder gesunken ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (erwartetes EBITDA ÷ EBITDA Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Erwartetes Wachstum basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Ein steigendes EBITDA ist ein Zeichen für verbesserte operative Ertragskraft – unabhängig von Finanzierungsstruktur oder Abschreibungen.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Starkes EBITDA-Wachstum signalisiert operative Effizienz und Skalierung – besonders relevant in Wachstumsphasen.
- EBITDA-Wachstum ist ein Frühindikator für Margen- und Gewinnentwicklung – sollte aber stets im Zusammenhang mit Umsatz und EBIT betrachtet werden.
📘 EBIT Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das EBIT-Wachstum zeigt, wie stark das operative Ergebnis eines Unternehmens (nach Abschreibungen, aber vor Zinsen und Steuern) im Vergleich zum Vorjahr gewachsen ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (erwartetes EBIT ÷ EBIT Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Erwartetes Wachstum basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Das EBIT-Wachstum ist ein direkter Indikator für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung des operativen Geschäfts – unter Berücksichtigung der Kapitalintensität (Abschreibungen).
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Steigendes EBIT signalisiert wachsende operative Rentabilität – auch unter Berücksichtigung von Abschreibungen.
- Das EBIT-Wachstum ist ein wichtiges Maß zur Beurteilung von Geschäftsmodellen mit hohen Investitionskosten.
- Im Zusammenspiel mit Umsatz- und EBITDA-Wachstum ergibt sich ein umfassendes Bild zur operativen Entwicklung.
📘 Nettogewinn-Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das Nettogewinn-Wachstum zeigt, wie stark der Jahresüberschuss eines Unternehmens gegenüber dem Vorjahr gestiegen oder gesunken ist – sowohl tatsächlich (TTM) als auch auf Basis von Prognosen (erwartet).
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Erwartet = (erwarteter Nettogewinn ÷ Nettogewinn Vorjahr − 1) × 100
Der erwartete Wert basiert auf Analystenschätzungen für das laufende Geschäftsjahr.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der Gewinn ist die entscheidende Ergebnisgröße für ein Unternehmen. Ein wachsender Nettogewinn deutet auf steigende Effizienz, stabile Kostenkontrolle und nachhaltige Ertragskraft hin.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Wachsender Nettogewinn stärkt die Bewertung, Dividendenfähigkeit und Kursfantasie.
- Stagnierender oder rückläufiger Gewinn trotz Umsatzwachstum kann auf Margendruck hinweisen.
📘 Free Cashflow-Wachstum
📈 Was ist das?
Das Free-Cashflow-Wachstum zeigt, wie sich der freie Mittelzufluss eines Unternehmens im Vergleich zum Vorjahr verändert hat – also der Betrag, der nach allen operativen Ausgaben und Investitionen übrig bleibt.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Free Cashflow ist der echte, verfügbare Geldzufluss. Wachstum in diesem Bereich ist ein Zeichen für finanzielle Stärke und steigende Flexibilität bei Dividenden, Rückkäufen oder Investitionen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Sinkender Free Cashflow kann auf steigende Investitionen, höhere Kosten oder stagnierende operative Erträge hindeuten.
- Besonders bei Dividendenwerten ist das FCF-Wachstum wichtig – denn Dividenden werden letztlich aus dem verfügbaren Cash gezahlt.
- Ein negativer Trend sollte genauer analysiert werden – er ist nicht zwangsläufig schlecht, aber potenziell ein Warnsignal.
📘 Bruttomarge
📈 Was ist das?
Die Bruttomarge zeigt, wie viel vom Umsatz nach Abzug der direkten Herstellungskosten (Material, Produktion) als Bruttogewinn übrig bleibt – also der „Rohgewinn“ eines Unternehmens.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Auch: Bruttomarge = Bruttogewinn ÷ Umsatz × 100
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Bruttomarge gibt Aufschluss über die Profitabilität eines Produkts oder Geschäftsmodells vor Fixkosten, Steuern und Zinsen. Sie zeigt, wie effizient ein Unternehmen produzieren oder einkaufen kann.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Bruttomarge deutet auf starke Preissetzungsmacht und effiziente Herstellung hin.
- Sinkende Bruttomargen können auf Kostensteigerungen oder Preisdruck hindeuten.
- Besonders im Vergleich zu Wettbewerbern liefert die Bruttomarge wertvolle Einblicke in die Geschäftsqualität.
📘 EBITDA-Marge
📈 Was ist das?
Die EBITDA-Marge zeigt, wie viel vom Umsatz als operativer Gewinn vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen (EBITDA) übrig bleibt. Sie misst die operative Effizienz – ohne Verzerrungen durch Finanzierung oder Buchwerte.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die EBITDA-Marge hilft zu verstehen, wie viel operativer Gewinn ein Unternehmen aus jedem Euro Umsatz erzielt – unabhängig von Kapitalstruktur oder steuerlichem Umfeld.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe EBITDA-Marge zeigt starke operative Ertragskraft – unabhängig von Bilanzierungseffekten.
- Die Marge ermöglicht gute Vergleiche zwischen Unternehmen und Branchen.
- Ein stabiler oder wachsender Wert kann auf effiziente Kostenkontrolle und Skalierbarkeit hindeuten.
📘 EBIT-Marge
📈 Was ist das?
Die EBIT-Marge zeigt, wie viel Prozent des Umsatzes als operativer Gewinn nach Abschreibungen, aber vor Zinsen und Steuern übrig bleiben.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die EBIT-Marge misst die operative Ertragskraft eines Unternehmens unter Berücksichtigung der Kapitalintensität (z. B. Maschinen, Anlagen). Sie eignet sich gut zum Vergleich von Geschäftsmodellen mit unterschiedlich hohen Abschreibungen.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe EBIT-Marge zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen auch nach Abschreibungen effizient arbeitet.
- Sie ist besonders relevant in kapitalintensiven Branchen.
- Langfristig stabile oder steigende Margen sind ein Zeichen wirtschaftlicher Stärke und Preissetzungsmacht.
📘 Nettomarge
📈 Was ist das?
Die Nettomarge zeigt, wie viel vom Umsatz am Ende als „Reingewinn“ übrig bleibt – also nach Abzug aller Kosten, Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Nettomarge gibt an, wie effizient ein Unternehmen über alle Stufen hinweg wirtschaftet. Sie zeigt, wie viel Gewinn tatsächlich je Euro Umsatz übrig bleibt.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Nettomarge zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen nicht nur operativ stark ist, sondern auch seine Finanzierung und Steuerbelastung im Griff hat.
- Vergleiche mit Wettbewerbern geben Einblicke in die wirtschaftliche Qualität.
- Sinkende Nettomargen trotz Umsatzwachstum können ein Warnsignal sein – etwa für steigende Kosten oder sinkende Effizienz.
📘 Free-Cashflow-Marge | ex SBC
📈 Was ist das?
Die Free-Cashflow-Marge zeigt, wie viel Free Cashflow ein Unternehmen im Verhältnis zu seinem Umsatz erwirtschaftet. Der Free Cashflow entspricht vereinfacht dem operativen Cashflow abzüglich der Investitionsausgaben. Die Free-Cashflow-Marge ex SBC berücksichtigt zusätzlich aktienbasierte Vergütungen (Stock-Based Compensation, SBC). SBC verursacht zwar keinen direkten Cash-Abfluss, kann bestehende Aktionäre jedoch durch die Ausgabe zusätzlicher Aktien verwässern. Daher wird SBC bei dieser Kennzahl vom Free Cashflow abgezogen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Free-Cashflow-Marge ex SBC = (Free Cashflow − SBC) ÷ Umsatz × 100
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Free-Cashflow-Marge zeigt, wie effizient ein Unternehmen seinen Umsatz in Free Cashflow umwandelt. Ein hoher Free Cashflow kann dem Unternehmen finanziellen Spielraum für Dividenden, Aktienrückkäufe, Schuldentilgung oder weitere Investitionen geben. Die Variante ex SBC berücksichtigt zusätzlich die wirtschaftliche Belastung durch aktienbasierte Vergütungen und ermöglicht dadurch eine konservativere Betrachtung der Cash-Generierung aus Sicht der Aktionäre.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Free-Cashflow-Marge zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen einen hohen Anteil seines Umsatzes in Free Cashflow umwandelt.
- Das kann dem Unternehmen mehr finanziellen Spielraum für Dividenden, Aktienrückkäufe, Schuldentilgung oder Investitionen geben.
- Die Free-Cashflow-Marge ex SBC berücksichtigt zusätzlich die mögliche Verwässerung durch aktienbasierte Vergütungen.
- Besonders aussagekräftig ist die Entwicklung über mehrere Jahre. Sinkende Werte können beispielsweise auf höhere Investitionen, Veränderungen im Working Capital oder eine schwächere operative Entwicklung zurückzuführen sein.
📘 Eigenkapitalquote
📈 Was ist das?
Die Eigenkapitalquote zeigt, wie hoch der Anteil des Eigenkapitals an der Bilanzsumme eines Unternehmens ist – also wie stark es sich aus eigenen Mitteln finanziert.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Eine hohe Eigenkapitalquote steht für finanzielle Stabilität, Krisenfestigkeit und gute Bonität. Sie ist besonders relevant bei der Beurteilung der Verschuldung.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Eigenkapitalquote signalisiert finanzielle Stabilität – besonders in Krisenzeiten.
- Ein niedriger Wert kann auf ein höheres Risiko oder eine aggressive Verschuldung hinweisen.
- Wichtig: Die Eigenkapitalquote sollte immer gemeinsam mit der Eigenkapitalrendite betrachtet werden. Nur so lässt sich beurteilen, ob ein Unternehmen nicht nur solide, sondern auch effizient wirtschaftet.
📘 Eigenkapitalrendite (ROE)
📈 Was ist das?
Die Eigenkapitalrendite zeigt, wie effizient ein Unternehmen mit dem Kapital seiner Aktionäre arbeitet – also wie viel Gewinn es pro Euro Eigenkapital erwirtschaftet.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Eigenkapitalrendite ist eine zentrale Rentabilitätskennzahl. Sie hilft Anlegern zu erkennen, ob das Unternehmen eine attraktive Verzinsung auf das eingesetzte Eigenkapital erwirtschaftet.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Eine hohe Eigenkapitalrendite spricht für ein starkes, effizientes Geschäftsmodell.
- Besonders interessant ist sie bei kapitalintensiven Firmen oder solchen mit hoher Eigenkapitalquote.
- Wichtig: Ein sehr hoher ROE kann auch auf hohe Schulden hinweisen – daher sollte sie immer im Kontext mit der Eigenkapitalquote betrachtet werden.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 Was ist das?
ROCE misst die Gesamtrentabilität eines Unternehmens – also wie effizient es das eingesetzte Kapital (Eigen- und Fremdkapital) zur Gewinnerzielung nutzt.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Das eingesetzte Kapital ist das gesamte betriebsnotwendige Kapital, unabhängig von der Finanzierungsquelle.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
ROCE eignet sich besonders gut für den Vergleich unterschiedlich finanzierter Unternehmen. Es zeigt, wie effektiv ein Unternehmen Kapital investiert – unabhängig von der Kapitalstruktur.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher ROCE zeigt, dass ein Unternehmen sein Kapital effizient einsetzt – unabhängig davon, ob es durch Eigen- oder Fremdkapital finanziert ist.
- Je höher der ROCE im Vergleich zu ähnlichen Unternehmen, desto mehr Wert schafft das Unternehmen mit seinem investierten Kapital.
- Besonders wichtig ist der ROCE bei Firmen mit hohen Investitionen – z. B. in Industrie, Energie oder Infrastruktur.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 Was ist das?
ROIC zeigt, wie effizient ein Unternehmen das Kapital investiert, das langfristig im operativen Geschäft gebunden ist – unabhängig davon, ob es aus Eigen- oder Fremdkapital stammt.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
- NOPAT = „Net Operating Profit After Taxes“
- Investiertes Kapital = operatives Vermögen abzüglich nicht-verzinster Schulden
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
ROIC ist eine der präzisesten Kennzahlen zur Bewertung der Kapitalrendite – besonders im Vergleich zur Eigenkapitalrendite, weil es Verzerrungen durch Schulden vermeidet. Er zeigt, ob ein Unternehmen Mehrwert für alle Kapitalgeber schafft.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher ROIC zeigt, wie gut ein Unternehmen mit dem tatsächlich investierten (betriebsnotwendigen) Kapital wirtschaftet.
- Im Unterschied zu ROCE wird nur Kapital betrachtet, das wirklich zur Finanzierung operativer Aktivitäten dient – und verzinst werden muss.
- Besonders hilfreich, um die Kapitalrendite von Unternehmen mit viel „überschüssigem“ Kapital oder zinsfreien Verbindlichkeiten realistisch zu vergleichen.
📘 Verschuldungsgrad (Leverage Ratio)
📈 Was ist das?
Der Verschuldungsgrad zeigt, wie stark ein Unternehmen durch verzinsliche Schulden (z. B. Kredite und Anleihen) im Verhältnis zum Eigenkapital finanziert ist.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Die Kennzahl hilft, das finanzielle Risiko und die Abhängigkeit von Fremdkapital zu beurteilen. Ein hoher Verschuldungsgrad kann die Eigenkapitalrendite steigern – birgt aber auch erhöhte Risiken bei Zinsanstiegen oder Liquiditätsengpässen.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriger Verschuldungsgrad steht für finanzielle Stabilität und Unabhängigkeit.
- Ein hoher Wert kann auf erhöhte Risiken hinweisen – insbesondere bei schwankenden Zinsen oder konjunkturellen Schwächen.
- Wichtig: Immer im Kontext zur Branche und Kapitalintensität bewerten.
📘 Ergebnis je Aktie (EPS)
📈 Was ist das?
Das Ergebnis je Aktie (EPS) zeigt, wie viel Gewinn auf eine einzelne Aktie entfällt – und ist eine der wichtigsten Kennzahlen zur Bewertung von Unternehmen.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Die verwässerte Aktienanzahl berücksichtigt auch potenzielle neue Aktien, etwa durch Optionen, Wandelanleihen oder andere Umtauschrechte.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
EPS bildet die Basis für viele Bewertungskennzahlen wie KGV, PEG oder Payout Ratio. Es macht den Gewinn für Aktionäre vergleichbar – unabhängig von der Unternehmensgröße.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- EPS hilft, die Profitabilität pro Aktie zu erfassen – und ist besonders wichtig im Zeitvergleich oder im Vergleich mit Analystenschätzungen.
- Steigendes EPS kann ein Zeichen für stabiles Wachstum oder Aktienrückkäufe sein.
- Wichtig: Verwende verwässertes EPS für realistische Bewertungen – besonders bei stark aktienbasierten Vergütungssystemen.
📘 Free Cashflow je Aktie (FCF je Aktie)
📈 Was ist das?
Der Free Cashflow je Aktie zeigt, wie viel freier Mittelzufluss einem Unternehmen pro Aktie zur Verfügung steht – nach Investitionen, aber vor Dividenden oder Schuldentilgung.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Der FCF je Aktie zeigt, wie viel liquide Mittel pro Aktie tatsächlich im Unternehmen verbleiben – wichtig für Dividenden, Aktienrückkäufe oder Schuldentilgung. Im Gegensatz zum Gewinn ist er schwerer manipulierbar und daher besonders aussagekräftig.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Free Cashflow je Aktie ist ein Zeichen für hohe finanzielle Flexibilität.
- Er zeigt, wie viel Kapital ein Unternehmen effektiv einsetzen oder ausschütten kann.
- Besonders relevant für dividendenstarke Unternehmen oder solche mit starker Kapitalrendite.
📘 Short Interest
📈 Was ist das?
Short Interest zeigt, wie viele Aktien eines Unternehmens aktuell leerverkauft wurden – also von Investoren geliehen und verkauft, in der Erwartung fallender Kurse.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Der Wert zeigt den Anteil der Aktien, der aktuell auf fallende Kurse spekuliert wird.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Short Interest dient als Stimmungsindikator: Ein hoher Wert deutet auf Skepsis oder negative Erwartungen gegenüber dem Unternehmen hin – kann aber auch zu einem „Short Squeeze“ führen, wenn der Kurs plötzlich steigt.
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein niedriger Short Interest deutet auf Vertrauen in das Unternehmen hin.
- Ein hoher Wert kann ein Warnsignal sein – oder eine Chance, wenn sich die Stimmung dreht.
- Besonders spannend in volatilen Märkten oder vor wichtigen Quartalszahlen.
📘 Employees
📈 Was ist das?
Die Mitarbeiteranzahl zeigt, wie viele Personen ein Unternehmen weltweit beschäftigt – ein Indikator für Größe, Struktur und Geschäftsmodell.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Sie hilft bei der Einschätzung von Skaleneffekten, Effizienz und Personalkosten. Zusammen mit Umsatz und Gewinn lassen sich Kennzahlen wie Produktivität je Mitarbeiter ableiten.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Viele Mitarbeiter bedeuten große operative Komplexität – aber auch hohes Umsatzpotenzial.
- Produktivität je Mitarbeiter ist ein wichtiger Indikator für Effizienz.
- Besonders spannend bei stark wachsenden Tech- oder Industrieunternehmen.
📘 Umsatz je Mitarbeiter
📈 Was ist das?
Der Umsatz je Mitarbeiter zeigt, wie viel Erlös ein Unternehmen durchschnittlich pro Beschäftigtem erwirtschaftet – eine Kennzahl für Effizienz und Produktivität.
🧮 Wie wird es berechnet?
Die Mitarbeiterzahl stammt in der Regel aus dem letzten verfügbaren Jahresbericht.
🏛️ Wofür ist es wichtig?
Diese Kennzahl hilft, Geschäftsmodelle zu vergleichen – insbesondere zwischen arbeitsintensiven und technologiegetriebenen Unternehmen. Ein hoher Wert deutet auf Automatisierung, Effizienz oder hohen Wertschöpfungsanteil hin.
🧮 Berechnung
🎯 Was bedeutet das für Anleger?
- Ein hoher Umsatz je Mitarbeiter spricht für ein skalierbares und margenstarkes Geschäftsmodell.
- Ein niedriger Wert kann auf arbeitsintensive Prozesse oder geringere Wertschöpfung hinweisen.
- Besonders hilfreich beim Vergleich von Tech- vs. Industrieunternehmen.
Investor B Aktie Analyse
Analystenmeinungen
13 Analysten haben eine Investor B Prognose abgegeben:
Analystenmeinungen
13 Analysten haben eine Investor B Prognose abgegeben:
Investor B Events
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aktien.guide Basis
Investor B — Investor AB (publ), Q3 2026 Interim Management Statement Call, Oct 16, 2026
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to Investor's results call for the third quarter of 2026.
I'm joined here in the studio by our CFO, Jenny Haquinius; and our CEO, Christian Cederholm. And after their presentations, we will be opening up for questions, both on the call via our operator as well as online.
And with that, over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Jacob, and hi, everyone. In Q3, adjusted net asset value grew by 4% and total shareholder return for the Investor B share was 1%. All business areas contributed to growth with particularly strong performance in Patricia Industries. At the end of the third quarter, adjusted net asset value stood at SEK 1,258 billion. Let me briefly go through the 3 business areas: Listed Companies, Patricia Industries and investments in EQT, starting with Listed Companies. Listed Companies generated a total return of 1% in Q3 with Saab and SEB contributing strongly.
As previously mentioned, ABB announced its USD 5.5 billion acquisition of Rotork, strengthening its position within industrial automation by adding a portfolio of electric actuators for controlling valves. This is a significant acquisition for ABB and a good example of how add-ons can be used to complement organic growth in strategic areas. Together with AT&T, in July, Ericsson demonstrated drone detection based on existing 5G infrastructure using advanced network sensing and AI. This highlights how Ericsson's leading radio technology can extend into applications also beyond connectivity.
Sobi's, Guido Oelkers and SEB's, Johan Torgeby have announced their departures. And we would like to take this opportunity to thank them both for their significant contributions. We're pleased that Jonas Ahlström has stepped in as interim CEO at SEB. And in Sobi, the Board leads the search for a new CEO. The Nomination Committee is currently preparing for the 2027 AGM season. Competition for top competence is intense and global and we will, hence, continue to push to close the gap between Swedish and international board remuneration levels for Listed Companies.
Now over to Patricia Industries, where total return was 15% driven by strong operating performance, further supported by multiple expansion and positive currency impact. For the major subsidiaries, organic sales growth was 7% and adjusted EBITDA grew by 26%. This was boosted by M&A, some FX tailwind as well as a few percentage points from tariff refunds.
But first and foremost, the underlying performance was strong, with solid underlying leverage in most places. A few highlights then. Mölnlycke announced its intended separation, creating 2 even more focused companies all with the intention to create even better basis for each business to reach closer to their full potential. I will come back to this shortly.
Nova Biomedical performed strongly with healthy growth in both bio and clinical and with efficiency improvement as the integration work continues. Vectura announced a major development project for a new R&D facility with Saab in Jönköping and Patricia Industries invested SEK 500 million to help finance this. Right after the end of the quarter, Vectura divested 2 elderly care facilities, all in line with its strategy of focusing on developing, owning and managing innovation clusters.
Sarnova acquired Mercury Medical, a manufacturer of respiratory and anesthesia products adding a proprietary product portfolio to Sarnova's acute care and emergency preparedness businesses. This is another step, adding on products to the Sarnova portfolio as a complement to the distribution business. And finally, in July, Permobil distributed SEK 550 million to Patricia Industries.
So on Mölnlycke, they announced its intention to separate into 2 stand-alone companies, Mölnlycke, where the Wound Care and the antiseptics business will reside, and Mölnlycke Surgical, where the ORS and the gloves business will reside. This creates stronger conditions for both companies and all 4 business units to reach their full potential and drive long-term value creation through sharper strategic focus, clearer accountability and even greater speed of execution.
Currently, focus is, of course, on executing the split successfully while keeping momentum in the underlying business. We will revert to this as it develops. For the major subsidiaries and our 40% in Tre Skandinavien, revenues amounted to almost SEK 73 billion in the last 12 months and EBITDA was SEK 19 billion.
And finally then, investments in EQT, our third business area. Total return was 7%, driven by both EQT AB and our fund investments. In the quarter, we invested SEK 0.7 billion in the funds net of exit proceeds. Activity remained high, EQT closed the acquisition of Coller Capital, complementing its portfolio with a strong platform in the secondaries market.
Also after the quarter, EQT announced the acquisition of Stockbridge scaling its real estate platform, adding a sector specialist team with a local presence in the U.S. And as reflected in our recent acquisitions of shares in EQT AB, we remain confident in their continued ability to generate attractive returns for its investors and its shareholders. As I've said many times, we're confident in our platform. In particular, I'd like to highlight our portfolio of high-quality companies. In today's complex operating environment, they're doing a good job focusing on improving efficiency and strengthening resilience while investing for the future.
Our companies have a strong starting point with excellent customer offerings and leading market positions. As engaged owners, we remain focused on building and supporting these companies, and we're confident that this will create shareholder value over time.
With that, I leave the floor to you, Jenny.
Thank you, Christian, and good morning. So let's move over to the financials for the quarter. So in Q3 2026, adjusted net asset value was SEK 1,258 billion, and this implies an increase of 4% compared to Q2. For the quarter, the value uptick was driven by all business areas, but particularly strong performance in Patricia Industries, which was up 15%, followed by investments in EQT, which was up 7%.
Now double-clicking on each of the business areas, starting with Listed Companies. Within Listed Companies, share price performance was mixed, particularly strong in terms of total return for Saab, SEB and NASDAQ with exposure to defense and financial markets, but a tougher quarter in terms of total return for industrials and consumer. Total return for Listed Companies portfolio was 1%, which is 1 percentage point behind SIXRX. As for absolute contribution, we see a similar pattern, although ABB is the biggest drag, given weight and size in our portfolio. And then moving on to Patricia Industries. Solid performance across the Patricia Industries companies in Q3. The major subsidiaries grew 7% organically and adjusted EBITA increased by 26%. The primarily due to strong operating performance, but also in part helped by M&A, positive FX and tariff refunds.
And then double-clicking on performance across the companies in Patricia Industries, and I will comment on a few of them. Solid organic growth across all companies in North America at attractive margins. For Laborie, organic growth of 13% was driven by all business areas. And also this quarter, to a large extent by the Optilume urethral stricture product.
Profitability for Laborie increased despite continued investments in commercial. Nova Biomedical grew 14% organically and profitability increased on the back of efficiency improvements from the ongoing integration. Integration work continues but performance thus far underpins the potential of this platform.
Looking at the Nordics, Piab grew 5% organically, and this was driven by lifting automation and vacuum automation. Profitability increased in part due to tariff refunds and FX, but also on the back of operating leverage. Permobil saw yet another quarter with muted growth. But despite this and commercial investments, it's good to see solid profitability and focus for the company is on ongoing product launches to fuel growth.
Moving on to Mölnlycke. Mölnlycke had a quarter with 5% organic growth, with growth driven by all 4 business areas. Focusing on Wound Care specifically, we saw 6% organic growth, driven by all regions, particularly strong quarter in Canada and good momentum in China and pockets of Europe. Wound Care U.S. showed organic growth, largely in line with the market, but we are seeing continued tough competition, and that's specifically within prevention.
Profitability was largely in line with last year, also when adjusting for tariff reclaims and FX, and this is despite higher raw material and logistics costs. We saw a 15% increase in estimated market values for Patricia Industries comparing to Q2. So from SEK 222 billion to SEK 256 billion, and this increase was explained by expanding multiples earnings growth, solid cash flow generation and positive FX. And as a reminder, our multiple-based valuation method uses a 3-month value weighted price and not the quarter-end spot price. And the positive impact from FX comes from a weaker Swedish krona in Q3 compared to Q2.
If we look at value development across companies, all companies contributed positively, and the main positive contribution came from Mölnlycke and Nova Biomedical. Also worth highlighting is the distribution of SEK 550 million from Permobil to Patricia Industries and the equity contribution to Vectura of SEK 500 million to fund the development of Saab's new R&D site in Jönköping.
And then moving on to investments in EQT. Total value change was positive, so 7% in the quarter, and that's driven by both EQT AB and fund investments. And as a reminder, we report the EQT fund investments with 1 quarter lag. So the 9% is based on EQT's Q2 report. And then on the right-hand side, you see the net cash flow from EQT to Investor, which was negative in Q3, and that's because drawdowns were larger than proceeds.
And here, we illustrate net cash flow from investments in EQT to Investors over time. It's quite lumpy on a quarterly basis. But over the past 10 years, we've received a net cash inflow of SEK 1.5 billion on average per year. And our balance sheet remains strong. Our leverage as of Q3 is 1.8%, and that remains in the lower end of our policy range, and we closed the quarter with SEK 29 billion in cash at hand. Also worth mentioning is that we, as part of the annual rating assessment were upgraded by Moody's from Aa3 to Aa2, and that reflects our strong track record, attractive portfolio of companies clear strategy and financial strength.
And then on to my final slide, looking at the longer-term perspective, the performance of the Investor AB B share truly demonstrates the strength and the resilience of our portfolio and our strategy.
And with that, I will leave the word back to Jacob.
Thank you, Jenny. Thank you, Christian. We are now ready to take your questions, and we will start with the questions through our operator, Sandra, please.
[Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from the line of Derek Laliberte from ABG Sundal Collier.
2. Question Answer
And my first question relating to Mölnlycke. We did see the Wound Care growth here accelerating to 6% in the quarter from a relatively weaker first half. So I know you mentioned all regions contributing, et cetera, but what would you say has driven this improvement? Is it mainly better market conditions? Or are you seeing sort of stronger underlying execution and market share gains? And how do you view sort of the sustainability of this growth going forward?
I can start. Thank you for the question. Yes, we are looking at a solid quarter for Mölnlycke and Wound Care specifically in terms of organic growth. But I would be careful to draw any too clear conclusions based on one single quarter. We alluded to before that if we look at the underlying kind of market growth for the more mature wound care market, which is the larger share of the Wound Care sales from Mölnlycke that is low to mid-single digits. So in the context of that, it's a good quarter. But I do want to highlight that we continue to see some tough and challenging markets.
We have France, which continue to have a lot of pressure on health care budgets. And in the U.S. specifically, we also see tough competition, and that's within prevention. But nevertheless, Mölnlycke, it did grow in the U.S. in line with the market. And I think that comes down to really strong execution. Mölnlycke has a premium product offering and has done really, really well in terms of execution of go-to-market. But also, as mentioned, it is a broad-based growth. So it is driven by all regions essentially we see particularly strong growth in Canada for this quarter, continued momentum in China.
Okay. Great. I appreciate the flavor there. And also on Mölnlycke, you obviously announced the planned separation of surgical. And we also know and you disclosed the sort of significant profitability difference between the 2 parts here. So beyond this greater focus and et cetera, where do you see the largest opportunities going forward for value creation in the [indiscernible]? And should we expect the separation to improve profitability in either of the businesses? Or is it more about accelerating growth?
Thank you. I'll start then. The intention to separate this basically should be seen as another step of creating even more focus and accountability in each of the businesses so as to ensure that we have the best possible basis for each business to reach their full potential. As you say, the businesses are different in terms of financial profile, et cetera.
And that's, I guess, one of the reasons why we think separating them makes sense. And then in terms of the potential, I mean, there's different things to work on in all of the business. I think one common theme worth highlighting is that we want to increase the level of innovation over time in Mölnlycke really across the businesses.
Perfect. And on Nova, obviously, here continues to deliver really impressive growth and profitability. How much would you say this current margin improvement is driven by the integration synergies versus, I guess, underlying operating leverage and how much further potential do you see from the integration?
Well, that's a good question. And I think we are in quite early days still in terms of integration, there's a lot more work to be done. And as we've alluded to before, there might be some added volatility, but we are seeing efficiency coming from the integration. But at the same time, the company is also investing in G&A, and we'll also continue to invest in G&A, in innovation and also commercial going forward to really make sure that we build a strong platform. So I think we'll have to kind of wait and see throughout the integration. At the same time, the quarter really kind of underpins the strength of this platform going forward.
Thank you. And finally, on Laborie, I think we touched upon this previously, but delivering another strong quarter with 13% organic growth. How much would you say that this strong momentum is coming from the established businesses versus the newer Optilume products, for example, and how do you see the growth outlook going forward for these products?
Well, in the quarter, we're seeing a growth contribution from all business areas, which is great. But also for this quarter, the main contribution is urology and that's specifically the Optilume urethral stricture. And I think when we have these product launches and the new products growth will likely not be linear. But I think we are really optimistic about the momentum going forward, both for Optilume urethral stricture, but I think it's also good to see in this quarter where we see good growth in the child and maternal health on the back of the Jada acquisition. So the company will continue to be focused on innovation to further fuel growth.
Okay. On the -- could you remind us what the status is of the BPH launch for Optilume.
Yes, of course. Well, the BPH product is in a much earlier stage of the launch cycle. I think if you remember, the company received the first reimbursement code in the U.S. earlier this year, and the work right now for Laborie is to make sure that you build clinical evidence and you do that in close collaboration with physicians. And that, of course, takes a bit of time because you need to ensure high quality and reliability of that data. But that's in line with kind of the plan for the launch, but it's much earlier if you compare it to Optilume urethral stricture.
We will now take the next question from the line of Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.
So starting with the question on Mölnlycke. I wanted to double click on China. You mentioned strength in that market. Is there anything you would highlight in China? And how far along is this Zhende JV that you announced earlier this year?
I can start. I think Mölnlycke has had a focus on China for quite some time, but quite recently built an own manufacturing site. And as you mentioned from last quarter, also announced a JV with Zhende, but that's very early days. So the growth in China that we're seeing right now, it's not on the back of the joint venture. So there are more opportunities within that lies ahead. but we do see continued organic growth, we're also coming from a relatively low base.
And it could be worth just to add there on China, unlike most of the rest of Mölnlycke in China, we basically have 2 businesses. One is the traditional hospital health care business, and there is also a rather healthy business-to-consumer line in China as well.
Okay. Appreciate it. And then a second one on Mölnlycke. On ORS, I mean, growth there has clearly lagged the overall group for quite some time now heading into this proposed split. Can you just remind us how much of that, say, underperformance is driven by a slower market compared to, say, Wound Care, for example?
I can start. Well, within ORS, we have typically, the growth is driven by the number of procedures, so like operating procedures, and there is structural underlying growth. At the same time, what Mölnlycke really offers for the customers with the ORS of the surgical trays is to address the efficiency in the OR. So I think based on the health care pressure that we're seeing globally, there's a very clear case for Mölnlycke to actually grow beyond that if we're looking ahead. But there is tough competition I think the moat for kind of Mölnlycke offering is that it's a high level of customization for the surgeon, which also means that you unlock even further efficiencies in the OR.
I think worth remembering for ORS, it's primarily a European business.
Right. Okay. But would it be fair to say that the sort of penetration level that they've been able to reach has been perhaps below where you had expected?
I would not say that. I think there is, to Jenny's point, I think there is more penetration to be had. And then where would we like to be now? Well, always further ahead, of course, but there is a strong case for continued penetration.
Okay. And then finally, on Laborie, could you quantify what the positive margin impact was from this tariff refund?
Well, I would say for Laborie, it was roughly -- I would say generally for all the companies, it's roughly 1 percentage point on the margin that comes from tariff refunds.
Or those where we highlighted tariff refunds.
We will now take the next question from the line of Björn Olsson from SEB.
Just to follow up what you said earlier, Christian, you said that one of the motivations for the split of Mölnlycke was to increase focus and accountability. Could you give any flavor of which parts of Mölnlycke do you see have been lacking this in the past?
Well I wouldn't say it's been lacking, but I would say that our experience from separating businesses is that -- I mean, it's hard to capture in PowerPoint or Excel but the level of focus and accountability that you achieve by providing even more separate P&Ls and separate boards, et cetera, is not insignificant.
Okay. Fair enough. So if we then look at that situation. I mean having two boards, two overhead functions to back office staff, I mean, that drives costs as well on a very often quite significant manner.
Do you see that cost headwind to be mitigated by different baskets of peer multiples near term in the two separate companies or do you see this as a potential strategic optionality as well to divest surgical maybe?
I'll maybe if I start, I mean, on your first question around extra cost, you're spot on. I mean, separation typically means that you will have to you will have to duplicate certain costs and functions and whatnot. And again, that's fairly easy to capture ahead of it. And the value and the potential is harder to quantify. But over and over again, we have seen how greater accountability and focus drives value.
Then on your second question in terms of multiples, I'm not sure I fully understood it, but let me try to answer and then you guide me if I was on it or not. The motivation for separating is not to sell one or both of the companies, nor is it to sort of enhance valuation by way of applying a different peer set. We'll obviously come back to and see what the peer group looks like, but that's not the motivation here.
Okay. Fair enough. So then on a performance basis, when would you expect that this will turn into a positive? I mean, after you'll naturally have a short period of higher costs and reorganizations always consume energy from organizations. But when do you expect this to be a net positive to -- from a sum of the parts perspective, is it end of '27 or '28 or when -- what's the sort of indicative time line?
I wish I could give you a clear answer. But I think you're on it in terms of the dynamics here. So focus right now is, of course, to execute on the split while -- and this is important, keeping momentum in the underlying businesses and then we'll see what happens.
I guess, like you say, easier said than done but good luck with it anyway.
Thank you.
We will now take the next question from the line of Oskar Lindstrom from Danske Bank.
Yes. You sold -- was it 2 million SEB shares and agreed to sell, I think, about 2 million more. Is it sort of a standing policy that you will sell SEB shares to sort of offset SEB's buybacks? And would you plan to do a sort of a similar policy, if that is a policy for your other listed holdings?
Thank you for the question. No, it's not a policy. It's driven by regulatory considerations, specifically around SEB. And even in SEB, it's not a policy, but I mean, clearly, you've seen a pattern. And what we've said before is that we're comfortable staying at roughly the ownership levels that we are.
We will now take the next question from the line of Johan Sjöberg from Nordea.
Could you talk a little bit more about the tariff impact? You mentioned 1 percentage point in -- on margins. We had -- if you look at -- can you please sort of just give an up -- what did you say about the tariff impact in Q2 on for that? And also, do you expect further tariff impact in Q4 and possibly into Q1 as well? Or how -- could you give some sort of guidance on that, please?
Let me start with the forward-looking part. To the best of our knowledge, we've seen the majority of tariff refunds. But again, this is an area that is moving quite rapidly as we all know. So let's see. But to our best of knowledge, we've seen the most of it.
And if you compare the tariff impact in Q3 versus Q2, was that sort of similar? Or I'm just trying to elaborate a little bit about how to estimate next year's margins?
It was slightly less in Q2. I -- as per my recollection.
So peaking Q3? Okay. Good. All right. And then also, I know you're not super keen on talking about sort of the -- your Mölnlycke and Laborie and also Nova Biomedical's future growth here. But maybe you can give some sort of guidance on the underlying markets. So -- because this is a bit tricky for us to have a clear view. So if you could provide some insight how do you view their underlying markets, not the individual companies, but more of their actual markets growing, that would be fantastic.
Yes. Well, I think Mölnlycke we typically talk about quite a lot where we have the kind of underlying market growth in the more mature markets of the low to mid-single digits. If we talk specifically about Wound Care. But then, of course, we're seeing higher market growth in more kind of growth markets. And if we take Nova as an example, had both the clinical and the biopharma, I think we look at the company in this quarter, we do have a somewhat easier comp.
So because we have the cyber incident from last year. So here, we might be more relevant to look at kind of what the historical average has been for the two companies, which has been around 8%, and they've also been able to take some share if that provides some guidance.
And then on Laborie, it's more difficult because here, you have a lot of new products that are entering the market. So I think here, it will be more volatile. I think it's hard to provide. And I think also referring to at the Capital Markets Day, which is upcoming. I think it's also a really great opportunity to have that dialogue with the CEOs. And we have all of the North American companies presenting and also Mölnlycke.
I think that is a fantastic thing actually because I think this is something which I think is something which is on everyone's mind here and sort of what is the underlying market drive sort of what some sort of figure that is fantastic if they could provide that, especially for the larger ones. And it's very -- also very nice to see that the size of the other companies in Patricia is not just -- they are growing. So of course, Mölnlycke is, by far, the biggest one, but it's catching up with that. So that's very good.
Last and final thing, just on the tariff. Obviously, you have raised your own prices to offset the tariffs. Was there some sort of surcharge here? Or is that could sort of come back if now when tariffs are disappearing? Or is that just pure actually list price increases?
It's a great question. And it's really -- it's a mix, but we don't foresee any major sort of reversals as of now.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Hannah Leivdal from Citi.
Just one question from me on the back of the increased stake in EQT today. So just kind of a bigger picture question, looking forward, where do you see the largest incremental contributors to your NAV growth over the next 3 to 5 years?
What areas are you most excited about? Is it the listed holdings, the Patricia Industries or the continued growth in the EQT platform. Obviously, you have a very strong balance sheet position, right now. So there's a lot of a lot of room and runway. So how do you think about that? And where would you prioritize?
I mean, thanks for the question. We love all our children equally. So in terms of capital allocation priorities, what we've said clearly is that number one is to continue to build and support the existing companies. Number two is to pay a steadily rising dividend, and then number three, but still important is to find new platform companies over time.
Now if you look at this in a slightly longer perspective, you will see that there's been quite significant investment in all 3 business areas. Now of course, quarter-to-quarter and even maybe year-to-year, it will vary. And we have deliberately not set a target where we sort of allocate X to one business area or the other, but rather we want to have all the good opportunities surface and then we pick from there.
There are no further questions on the phone at this time. I would like to hand back over for webcast questions now.
Thank you, Sandra. And let's take the question from the web. We start with one from [ Michael Gilkens ].
ABB is an important position, which benefits from the optimism around the build-out of AI, would Investor AB be willing to actively manage the position and trim when it becomes too large or expensive similar to how investor buys during market drawdowns?
Okay. Thank you for the question. The short answer is no. Selling sort on the margin is not really a tool in our toolbox as we see it. We think that this is not really helpful for our strategy of being a long-term and engaged owner. Now on ABB, they've clearly done well. I would say it represents maybe 20% or so of our net asset value today. I would emphasize though that ABB is, of course, not one business but underlying ABB is a number of different businesses.
Thank you. Then we had a question from [ Ken Slaski ] at Deutsche Bank that I think has been covered because around the Wound Care market conditions.
Next one, [ Alexandre ] there is the Mölnlycke split a second response to increasing Chinese competition.
Yes, I can start. Yes. I think Christian explained it very well, kind of the purpose of the separation. To increase focus and to create even better prerequisites for full potential of both the businesses going forward. And in part, we see an opportunity to accelerate innovation even further. And that is, of course, to make sure that both businesses remain competitive over time. So I wouldn't say that it's linked to Chinese competition specifically, but I think overall, a competitive global market.
Thank you. And we have another one from [ Michael Gilkens ]. Europe seems to be falling behind on economic -- important economic growth themes like AI build-out relative to China and the U.S. The Draghi report is still not finding momentum within the continent. Does this impact your ambitions with regard to portfolio composition, particularly within Patricia Industries.
I can start. Thank you for the question. And I would largely agree with your description of where we are. I would also highlight, though, that Europe remains a very important market for many of our companies. And if I see the glass as half full, the Draghi report, as you say, and the Letta Report points out a clear direction. In our view, we feel that there is great momentum and alignment around what needs to be done then, of course, doing it is it will require a lot of work and compromises and whatnot. But as if for as we get there, there is also a lot of potential in Europe. And if I have to pick one sort of factor, it is if we can create more potential and realize the full potential of a single market, be it around services, goods, capital, labor, et cetera. That's a great potential. And we need to be wary that it's a highly competitive world. And at the moment, to your point, Europe is not in the lead.
And we have a couple of questions from [ Holger ] [indiscernible]. I think the first one regarding the Mölnlycke split has been covered already.
So I'll jump to the second one. There is now a wide dispersion in operating performance within Patricia with Nova and Laborie performing very strongly, while other businesses are more challenged. How do you think about allocating incremental capital between the strongest compounders and the businesses that require more operational improvement?
Thank you. I can start. I think generally, our way of approaching growth in general and in particular, maybe M&A is we always look for stability, profitability and then growth. And to the extent we have businesses or parts of businesses that are not performing the way we want, then the focus is typically on making sure we get to the right level before we sort of pushed the accelerator further.
Then maybe just adding to that. If we look at the quarter, I agree, Nova has a good quarter, Laborie the same. But if I would say BraunAbility is also performing well this quarter and also Sarnova. So looking at the full North American portfolio. And in terms of the Nordic portfolio, we have a good quarter from Mölnlycke and also, Piab.
And so if we single out Permobil and maybe for this quarter, there are a few reasons for why growth is muted. We do still decent profitability. But for Permobil, there are a lot of focus on ongoing product launches to also fuel growth. I think for the context for this, I think we are seeing a broader kind of performance than maybe what the question is alluding to here, but I agree with your point.
And the final question doesn't have a name attached to it, but I'll make an exception since it's a short one. Will you consider making more buyback returning to shareholders?
I can start. Yes, I think Christian has partly already answered that. Our capital allocation priorities are very clear and the are very firm. First and foremost, we are to invest and support and grow our companies that we have in our portfolio today and then paying a steadily rising dividend and also looking to add new platforms to the portfolio. So that's our kind of main focus. And we do have a strong balance sheet, and I think we're very glad that we do. It's a quite volatile environment, and we want to always have the opportunity to act when we find really attractive investment opportunities.
Good. Then I can't see any further questions, and that means it's time to conclude. So many thanks, Jenny, many thanks, Christian, and all of you who have participated. Our next report is the full year and Q4 report on January 22 next year. However, as we mentioned, do not miss our Capital Markets update on November 4, where we will deep dive into a number of the companies in the Patricia Industries portfolio. All the North American companies are here with their CEO as well as Mölnlycke.
So hope to see you here. And until then, thank you, and goodbye.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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Investor B — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to Investor's results call for the second quarter and first half of 2026. I'm joined in our Stockholm Studio by CFO, Jenny Ashman Haquinius; and CEO, Christian Cederholm. Following the presentations, we will be opening up for questions, both via our operator as well as online. And with that, over to you Christian.
Thank you, Jacob, and hi, everyone. In Q2, net asset value growth was 9%, total shareholder return for Investor's B share was 15%. The growth was all driven by Listed Companies, while both Patricia Industries and Investments in EQT contributed negatively. Importantly, while multiples were down, underlying performance in the Patricia companies was solid. At the end of the second quarter, adjusted net asset value stood at SEK 1,215 billion.
Let me briefly go through the 3 business areas: Listed Companies, Patricia Industries and Investments in EQT. Starting with Listed Companies. Listed Companies generated a total return of 14% in Q2. Performance was primarily driven by a few of our industrial companies, led by ABB, which benefits from electrification and demand related to the build-out of data centers. During the quarter, we participated with our pro-rata share of SEK 1.7 billion in Electrolux's rights issue as they strengthened their balance sheet. The joint ventures with Midea is another important strategic step aimed at improving profitability in North America.
As you know, Wärtsilä recently completed a number of divestments of nonstrategic assets, basically pruning its portfolio. In Q2, Wärtsilä announced a joint venture for its global energy storage business, teaming up with a seasoned partner who knows the business and has a proven track record of performing also on the challenging market conditions. We believe this can unlock further potential from the storage business itself, while also allowing Wärtsilä to focus even more on its remaining core marine and energy businesses, where they continue to expand capacity to meet strong demand.
Börje Ekholm announced his departure from Ericsson. And Narvinger, his successor, takes over company in strong shape. Ericsson today is a company with technology and market leadership and with a number of opportunities for accelerated growth. Per has been a key contributor to the journey thus far, knows the customers, the technologies and the company well.
Now over to Patricia Industries. Total return here was minus 3% with lower multiples outweighted earnings growth and cash flow in the quarter. For the major subsidiaries, organic sales growth was 7% and adjusted EBITDA grew by 16% with solid cash flow conversion. For the first time in quite a while, FX was not a big drag on reported earnings.
A few highlights then. Nova Biomedical performed strongly, with healthy growth and efficiency improvements from the ongoing integration work. However, a lot of work remains. Mölnlycke formed the JV with Zhende Medical to broaden access to high-quality wound care solutions in China and to help Mölnlycke adapt to China's speed, for example, product development. And in the quarter, Mölnlycke and Three Scandinavia both distributed cash to Patricia Industries.
Now for the major subsidiaries and our 40% in Three Scandinavia, revenues amounted to almost SEK 71 billion in the last 12 months. And EBITDA for the corresponding period was just north of SEK 18 billion. Now remember, this is all in Swedish krona, of course, sensitive to FX.
And finally then, investments in EQT, our third business area. Here, total return was a negative 2%, dragged down by the decline in EQT AB's share price. Dividends from EQT AB and a net positive fund flow more than offset the SEK 349 million investment we made in EQT AB shares. Activity remained high. And for example, EQT was selected to lead the scale-up Europe fund, a EUR 5 billion initiative designed to support the growth of Europe's most promising technology companies and to strengthen the continent's innovation ecosystem. Also, EQT successfully raised USD 15.6 billion for its new Asia flagship fund, making it the largest Asia Pacific dedicated private equity fund ever raised. These are both great testaments to the strength of EQT.
Now as we all know, the world remains complex and increasingly competitive. Right now, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East causes additional volatility and uncertainty, with clear risks to cost inflation for many input goods, for freight, et cetera, and potential disturbances in supply chains. In this operating environment, companies need to focus on improving efficiency and strengthening resilience.
In general, our companies continue to do a good job to adapt, protecting the businesses and the profits here and now. They're staying close to customers and are able to make quick decisions and adapt as the world around them changes. Our companies do have a strong starting point with excellent customer offerings and leading market positions. And over time, prosperity hinges on innovation. Offering truly differentiated and sustainable solutions to customers is the only way to ensure long-term profitable growth. This is why we will always encourage our companies to make well-considered investments in innovation.
AI and sustainability are, of course, 2 key dimensions of innovation, with opportunities really across the whole value chain. In R&D, in products and aftermarket, of course, but also in manufacturing, go-to-market, administration, et cetera. Within AI, our companies are making progress when it comes to finding and implementing and scaling relevant, high-value use cases for AI. That said, we've only scratched the surface so far, and we need to continue accelerating our efforts here.
Sustainability also offers attractive opportunities. Creating added value for customers while also contributing to the green transition remains a very powerful proposition.
As I've said many times, we're confident in our platform. Investor has a clear purpose and a focused strategy, a portfolio of high-quality companies, engaged ownership model that's been proven over time, financial flexibility with low leverage and strong underlying cash flow and importantly, great people here at Investor in our companies and in our network. We remain focused on building and supporting great companies and are confident that this will create shareholder value over time.
And with that, I leave the floor to you, Jenny.
Thank you, Christian, and good morning. So let's move over to the financials for the quarter. So in Q2 2026, adjusted net asset value was SEK 1,215 billion, and this implies an increase of 9% compared to Q1. And for the quarter, the value uptick was driven by Listed Companies, increasing with 14%, while Patricia Industries and Investments in EQT declined.
And now double-clicking on each of the business areas, and I will start with Listed Companies. And within Listed Companies, share price performance was mixed, particularly strong quarter for the ABB share, which, of course, benefits from electrification and strong data center-related demand. Saab had a tougher quarter looking at total return and total return for the Listed Companies portfolio was 14%, which is 5 percentage points ahead of SIXRX. And this strong relative outperformance is largely driven by ABB. And as for absolute contribution, ABB, again, in particular, stands out, given strong share price performance as well as width and size in our portfolio.
And then moving on to Patricia Industries. Although the adjusted net asset value for Patricia Industries contracted in Q2, we did see solid performance by the portfolio companies. The major subsidiaries grew 7% organically and adjusted EBITDA increased by 16%. And for the first time in quite a while, as Christian mentioned, FX was not a big drag on reported earnings.
And now double-clicking on performance across the companies in Patricia Industries, and I will comment on a few of them. So for Laborie, growth was driven by all business areas and also this quarter, to a large extent by the Optilume urethral strictures. And if we adjust for USD 17 million in expense related to the JADA acquisition, profitability for Laborie was up, and this is despite continued commercial investments.
Nova Biomedical grew 10% organically, and profitability increased on the back of efficiency improvements from the integration, and integration is off to a good start. It is still early days, but performance thus far underpins the potential of this platform.
BraunAbility and Sarnova also delivered double-digit organic growth in the quarter. For BraunAbility, operating leverage was offset by unfavorable product mix, and for Sarnova, by continued strengthening of the organization.
We saw single-digit organic growth for Permobil and Piab. For Piab, the margin was pressured by SEK 46 million in restructuring costs and increasing sales cost. For Permobil, the margin was impacted by costs related to the production facility relocation mentioned in Q1 as well as investments in the commercial organization.
And then moving on to Mölnlycke. Mölnlycke had a quarter with 2% organic growth, with growth driven by all of the 4 business areas. And if we focus on Wound Care specifically, we saw 2% organic growth and we recognize that we have yet another quarter with more modest growth. And first of all, we are comparing to a strong quarter last year. And for Wound Care U.S., specifically was essentially flat this quarter, reduced somewhat softer market conditions, including continued destocking in some channels, and we're also seeing increased competition in some product categories. The more established and mature wound care markets, such as the U.S., are growing low to mid-single digit, but Mölnlycke's ambition to outgrow the market over time remains. And this is on the back of an innovative premium product offering, focused commercial execution and continued geographic expansion.
And in the quarter, great to see strong momentum in APAC, specifically China, which is a very attractive growth market. And here, Mölnlycke strengthened its position through the partnership with Zhende. And also positive to say that EMEA grew in the quarter. Mölnlycke protects share in France, which has been a challenging market, and this is on the back of the company working agile to continuously adapt product assortment to meet changing reimbursement landscape.
Despite modest growth in the quarter, it's very positive to see improving profitability as the company is doing a really good work with efficiency improvements and cost control. For this quarter, we had a couple of nonrecurring items that were net positive in total, including a tariff refund. And if we adjust for this, the underlying margin is almost 30%.
So for Patricia Industries, we saw a 3% contraction in estimated market values compared to Q1. So from SEK 230 billion to SEK 222 billion. And this drop was explained by contracting multiples, which more than offset earnings growth and cash flow generation. And as a reminder, our multiple-based valuation method uses a 3-month value-weighted average price and not the quarter-end spot price.
And then if we look at value development across the companies, it's a mixed bag, main positive contribution from Nova Biomedical and BraunAbility, while Mölnlycke is the biggest drag in the quarter, and this is explained by the multiple contraction. Also worth highlighting is the distribution, roughly SEK 2 billion from Mölnlycke, and also SEK 300 million from Three Scandinavia, and then also an equity contribution to Vectura of SEK 300 million to fund the recent GoCo acquisition.
Moving on to Investments in EQT. Total value change was a negative 2% in the quarter, and that's explained by EQT AB, which was down 4%. Fund investments were essentially flat. And as a reminder, we report EQT fund investments with one quarter lag. So the 0% is based on EQT's Q1 report. And here on the right-hand side, you see the net cash flow from EQT to Investor, which was SEK 500 million roughly in Q2.
And here, we also illustrate net cash flow from investments in EQT to Investor over time. And while it's quite lumpy on a quarterly basis, over the past 10 years, we've received a net cash inflow of SEK 1.6 billion on average per year. And our balance sheet remains strong. Our leverage as of Q2 is 1.9%. And it remains in the lower end of our policy range, and we closed the quarter with SEK 29 billion in cash at hand.
And then on to my final slide. If we look at the longer-term perspective, the performance of the Investor ABB share truly demonstrates the strength and the resilience of our portfolio and our strategy.
And with that, I will leave the word back to Jacob.
Thank you very much, Jenny. Thank you, Christian. Now it's time to take your questions, and we'll start with questions through our operator. So Sharon, please.
[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from the line of [ Bjorn Olsen ] from SEB.
2. Question Answer
Just a question on Patricia. Your listed portfolio has outperformed the Patricia for quite a few quarters now. And the Medtech focus, I mean, you're facing pressure both from multiples, but also you're mentioning that Mölnlycke is facing softer market conditions. And earlier this week, Coloplast flagged down sales outlook. I was just wondering, at what point would you reconsider the strategic Medtech concentration in Patricia?
Okay. Thank you. I can start on that one. So if you look at Medtech, we remain convinced about the long-term outlook for profitable growth in Medtech. You have an interesting combination of an almost endless demand, if you think about it with the demographics of aging people, the ability to treat more diseases, et cetera, et cetera. And then you have technological development that enables both better outcomes, but also importantly, better efficiency and cost efficiency in doing so. And then you couple that with funding systems that are, of course, always sort of strained, that is a very fertile ground for growing and developing business.
So we remain all committed to Medtech. And of course, we recognize that trading in many of the peer companies have been less positive in recent quarters. But there also, I would just look at what the earnings growth in Patricia is and in the Medtech company specifically, for a better indication of long-term performance.
Okay. So if anything, the current multiple environment actually make this part of your portfolio more interesting rather than that it sounds like?
I mean, in a way, you could say that I think when it comes to -- if you're referring to sort of the opportunity to go in and buy on the cheap, unfortunately, it's quite hard to do that for a couple of reasons. One is timing, of course, but also typically, the companies that we are looking to buy, the sellers aren't that keen to sell in a tougher environment. So normally, we're not here to make a bargain. But of course, as you say, there will continue to be good opportunities in this market environment and also if or when multiples recover.
[Operator Instructions] We will now take the next question, and the question comes from the line of Johan Sjöberg from Nordea.
I would like to start off with Mölnlycke talking a little bit upon the outlook -- growth outlook in the Wound Care business. You talked about the positive trends in Asia, but flattish in North America and also in Europe. And I would like to sort of -- if you could start off talking a little bit about the U.S. market here. What is sort of hammering the growth in this business? We are used to sort of mid- to high single-digit growth rates in Wound Care now where I know it's -- will be 2 quarters, but we are sort of at 2% growth in this business during these quarters. Could you -- could you say something about what you are doing in order to drive growth? Or is it -- yes, talk a little bit about that, please?
Yes. I can start. Well, thank you for the question, Johan. Well, as you very rightly point out, we have a second quarter where we do see some more modest growth from Mölnlycke. And if we zoom in on Wound Care, so the biggest business area and also U.S. or the biggest market, it's actually flat if we compare to the same quarter last year. And there are a few factors at play here.
I mean, first, we do see some softness in the market. If we look at the market data, it's quite early signals, and it's too early to draw any clear conclusions. If it's clear signals for softness or if it's actually noise, but we do see some destocking similar to Q1. But here, the company is really close to the market and looking at the data and really trying to understand what is what. So some softness.
But in addition to that, we also see specifically within prevention, fierce competition. And I think Advanced Wound Care, for a definition, is a competitive space. But in the quarter per se, we see some added intensity in competition and that's prevention and also specifically on price. And here, it's back to Mölnlycke really pushing the health economic case of Mölnlycke's products. So continue to invest in the sales force but also education for customers within both the clinicians and procurement.
And then in addition to that, I think it's also worth mentioning that we are coming from a very strong quarter last year as well. So that's some kind of nuance around it. But then I think we have the ambition to grow above and beyond that. If you look at the more mature markets, I think a good reference point to keep in mind is that the underlying market growth is low to mid-single digits. But on the back on a really qualitative premium product offering and strong commercial execution, the ambition is to grow above what we see in the quarter.
And then in addition to that, of course, the geographic expansion. And as you also mentioned, we have APAC for the quarter and specifically China. Very positive to see growth there. And also the strengthening of the position with the joint venture with Zhende. And I think another point, which I think is worth highlighting for the quarter is that even though we see this modest growth in Q2, we have a really good development in terms of profitability, and that's on the back of really good work from the company. As we mentioned last year, focus on finding efficiencies. So Mölnlycke still contributes with roughly 60% of the profit increase for the quarter.
Yes, I understand that. And the previous quarters, you have been impacted by the tariffs and the inability to -- well, you've been lagging in terms of price increases and also, I mean, could you talk a little bit about how that price or the price component now given the tariffs also, that's one thing?
And the second thing, I also want to -- you talked about the competition also in the U.S. market. I know it's always a tough competition and you have great respect for your competitors. And -- but do you see that the competitive landscape changing somewhat recently, i.e., has it intensified? Because, I mean, given the sort of mind-blowing margins you have in the Wound Care business, I would assume that would attract a lot of competition, you can say.
Again, I can -- do you want to say? Okay. Now in terms of the competition, I would say it's intensifying. We are seeing the same kind of competitors as we typically say. And we've seen similar situations before because in the health care sector and specifically Wound Care, the hospitals are always under pressure in terms of quite strained budgets, so you could actually compete on price. And that's why it's so important to offer true value to the customer. So over time, you will actually more push the health economics rather than the unit price. So this is the name of the game in Wound Care, so to say. So I wouldn't say that there are any new types of competitors. It's more in the quarter, we see specifically within prevention, competitors pushing price a bit more.
Yes. Okay. And then the question regarding pricing.
I can take a first shot about that, Johan. So as you referred to, I mean, tariffs has been one inflationary factor. But one should remember that we've had a lot of different things in recent years, driving the cost. I mean, we have rate cost. Now we're looking at oil and oil derivatives, et cetera. So really in our discussions with the companies, typically, we try to talk about the value that we bring rather than pointing to a specific and especially not tying any price increases to specific factors. Of course, there has been intense price discussions in a number of companies, Mölnlycke included. And of course, it's always, let's say, tough discussions. But by and large, there is an appreciation for the value that our products bring. And if you look at, for example, gloves, there's certainly been some real price increases.
Okay. If I may change a company and go to Laborie, looking at especially the growth rates here and also actually the margins. I have been looking at the 13% organic growth here in the quarter. Is this an effect of the launch of the recent -- or your -- the products that you've been talking about before, I don't dare to pronounce them in English because -- but is this sort of -- do we see the impact from that now? And should we assume that sort of the impact from these launches will continue now during the second half of this year?
And then also, if you could talk also about the margins in Laborie also, I mean it's -- if I adjust for the $17 million, the margin looks extraordinary. And is this just a consequence of the 13% growth in the organic growth? Or is there some other things?
Yes. Well, in the quarter, it's really good to see a strong growth for Laborie, and it's driven by all of the 3 business areas, but it is similar to previous quarters, to a large extent, still driven by the Optilume urethral structures product, which is one of the quite recently launched products. And we also typically talk about BPH, but that is much earlier in the launch cycle, and it's not the driver of growth in this quarter. But it is the Optilume urethral structures product. And then also when you have product launches, growth will not be linear and we are going to get into tougher comps as well. But it's certainly new products that are driving the majority of the growth for the quarter.
And then in terms of profitability, as you say, if we do the adjustments, it's a strong operating leverage as well as positive mix that is driving a good uptick in profitability.
Okay. So Optilume is clearly margin enhancing for Laborie, is that how we should see it going forward?
It's good margins in Optilume.
There are currently no further phone questions. I will hand the call back to Jacob for webcast questions.
Thank you very much, Sharon. Web questions. We do have a couple of questions from [ Michael Gilkins ]. I'll divide them into 2 parts. Christian, for you, in your letter to shareholders, you emphasized the importance of being present in China, and you highlight your recent trip to the U.S. How do you manage the growing geopolitical tensions and the push for strategic autonomy between the U.S. and China, given Investor AB's ambition to have its portfolio companies active in both nations?
Yes. Thank you for that question, and it's a good question. Basically, we will have to, as we've done previously, find ways to work with basically all markets globally. There has certainly been increased tension in a number of sectors and fields. And I think at the end of the day, it goes back to another thing that we write in -- about in our report and stress in our report, and that's innovation and differentiated products. I mean we do see that be it in China or in the U.S., when and if our companies have truly leading products and offerings, there is opportunities to do business. And then, of course, that's not to underestimate the level and the efforts to navigate the geopolitical landscape. But at the end of the day, with differentiated innovative products, we have a good chance of playing really globally.
And the second question from [ Michael Gilkins ]. With several of your holdings having significant software exposure, including NASDAQ and Sarnova, alongside your co-investment in Fortnox through EQT, are you experiencing any operational impacts from AI disruption? Additionally, do you see any spending hesitation or reluctance from major clients due to AI transition plans? And how is Fortnox performing in this environment?
Sorry, was the question related to Fortnox and what we see there? I didn't quite get.
Yes, mainly. I'll clarify again. With several of the holdings having significant software exposure, including NASDAQ and Sarnova, alongside your co-investment in Fortnox through EQT, are you experiencing any operational impact from AI disruption? You start there.
So really, I would start to look at it in terms of what kind of opportunities and leverage do we see from AI, including in these companies. And if you take the software, the slightly more software-heavy businesses, there, we do see clear upside and a clear realized potential from AI, not the least within coding, of course, but it also goes much broader than that. And if you take a Fortnox, for example, it's on the customer care side and the call center side and whatnot. So there's lots of opportunities.
When it comes to disruption, so far, I would say that the companies that we have, have been able to leverage the strong position they have in terms of customer relationships and customer trust, rather deep integrations with the customers, good understanding of the verticals that they're in. And finally, a significant flow of data from the existing platforms. But we remain super humble about the risks and just keep on pushing to make sure that we end up on the winning side of this.
Yes. I think you covered it briefly. But the second part, do you see any spending hesitation or reluctance from major clients due to AI transition plans? And how is Fortnox performing in this environment?
Well, it -- sort of to tie it a little bit to the first part, I would say that our ambition and what we need to do is to make sure that we bring enough value and I guess, enough AI capabilities to make sure that we fit into this bucket of AI spend and AI investments that the companies are doing because, to your point, that is a real shift we see. And I believe that some other players in other parts of the value chain are indeed seeing some pressure from the shifting budgets and the increased AI spend. But so far so good.
Thank you very much. I can't see any further questions. That means that it's time to conclude this session. So many thanks, Jenny. Many thanks, Christian. Our next scheduled call is the Q3 report, and that is on October 16. And until then, thank you, and goodbye.
Thank you.
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Investor B — Shareholder/Analyst Call - Investor AB (publ)
1. Management Discussion
Honored shareholders, welcome. Welcome to the Investor Annual General Meeting 2026, and I declare the meeting open. The first item on the agenda is election of the Chair of the meeting. And I would like to tell you at the same time that the Secretary for this AGM, Ms. Petra Hedengran, is sitting next to me. She is the General Counsel of the company, and she'll take the minutes here today. And here we also have the CEO, President of the company, Christian Cederholm. The Nominations Committee has proposed lawyer Eva Hägg to Chair the meeting, and she is here next to me as well. Can the meeting approve that proposal. Thank you.
Thank you, and I thank for that confidence shown in me. Before we continue with the other agenda items, I have a few practical matters. The Board of directors has decided to make this AGM more available by [indiscernible] shareholders and others the opportunity to follow the AGM via a webcast on the company's website and also allowing other shareholders to participate here as guests, and only the podium and the rostrum will be filmed.
When arriving here today, we're giving a voting device and voting devices are to be used where we need a qualified majority to make resolutions. And that being said, I would like to hand over again to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jacob Wallenberg.
Honorable shareholders, again, welcome to this Investor AGM 2026 at the China Theater. And this year as well, I would like to say thank you, thank you for the very nice investor dialogue that we've just had. And I have to say, it's more than a tradition. It's a way to, in a more informal manner, talk with shareholders and have those conversations. And I and Christian, we cherish that opportunity.
15 years. Well, that is the number of consecutive years during which Investor has succeeded in outperforming the market and provide a higher return. And I and Investor, we're immensely proud over this fact. And I do believe that I share that pride with all of you here today.
And now please do not misunderstand me. These 15 years, well, it's so much more than Investor. It's first and foremost, proof that everyday in our companies, we have very hard work that is being done to be at the forefront all the time. And this is being done by many amazing people. In times like these, where we have a new world order that is so complex, the future proofing, and those thoughts, well, it's of particular importance when the world is changing this rapidly. Well, in addition to navigating this and delivering here and now, it's also particularly important to try to understand those trends, new areas, sectors, markets.
And what will be the size for all these amazing companies 2 years from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now. How can we work smarter than competitors? Can we use artificial intelligence? And we talked about this earlier here today that artificial intelligence is here to stay. And things happen rapidly. Our companies, we have to keep up regardless of whether we want it or not or it will be very, very difficult out there. And then we also have to remember that we have to make sure that we have the most sustainable and the most efficient companies in the world, because resources will not last forever. And how can we and our companies learn from what is happening right now in China. We see how the, for example, shortened development times, produce in more efficient manners more so than anyone else. And at the same time, they're becoming more and more competitive and they're even becoming leaders in one sector after another.
And I've already mentioned this here today, that if I've understood things correctly, it takes them about 1.5, 2 years to produce a new car, a new model. And in Germany, it takes 4, 5 years. And then the question for us is how to become more competitive. And I do believe that we have to. We have to have the best leaders, the best coworkers and we have to be there when things happen. We have to learn from those here at the forefront. And that is our obligation, and that's also part of our business model. We have to do what we can to optimize our preconditions, the preconditions of our companies.
In our annual report, I wrote that a significant part of what we see in trade policy and rules that are to create stability. What we have had historically in the world trade organization, for example, globalization and those ideas, all those things that we have gotten used to, they are now gone, and we see a new protection as society and polarization in the world today is the fact. And then it's even more important that we act with decisiveness and we have to follow and try to, wherever we can influence, in Sweden, in the Nordics and in Europe.
In Sweden, well, our companies, of course, they also have to be given the best possible political preconditions, so that they become as competitive as they possibly can be. And the vision of a more developed Nordic collaboration with the platform that would give us a strong voice in Europe. That is something that we have to cherish. The 5 Nordic countries together, our combined economies, that's the 12th largest economy in the world. And that is a platform we should avail ourselves. We need a united Nordics. We need companies to have access to the European single market. And in Europe we also have to have that capability to build partnerships with the world outside of Europe like Mercosur. And we also have India to give a couple of examples of newer agreements. But at the same time, we have to invest more in infrastructure, physical infrastructure tracks, roads well-known questions in our country, but also digital infrastructure energy. We need nuclear power, wind energy. We need to invest more in R&D technology.
And we have to continue to agree on more appropriate regulations as well because, unfortunately, in Sweden and in Europe, we're not doing what we should. We cannot stand still. Christian recently said this, when we introduced our interim report, he said, if we lose, we lose. If we snooze, if we fall asleep at will, well, that will not be a good thing. And our companies, our colleagues, with all of us, we have to be very alert in these challenging times. The challenges are many, but there are also amazing opportunities.
And last but not least, I would like to turn to you and say thank you. Thank you, dear co-shareholders, so more than 700 here today. Now this is a very select gathering that we have here. We have heard this already today. We have more than 730,000 shareholders today in Investor, and a big thank you to all of you for your support and your confidence. And again, welcome to this year's Annual General Meeting.
Thank you very much. Now, it's time to resolve on Item 2, which is the drawing up on the approval of the voting list. Participation and attendance today can be done in different ways. In addition to shareholders present here today. There are some shareholders who have submitted postal votes, and we have a list of participants and a compilation of the postal votes submitted up here on the podium. And we see that the postal votes constitute approximately 80% of the shares and 87% of the votes in the list of participants.
For shareholders who submitted a postal vote and who have also notified for attendance here today and who are in attendance, the postal vote remains valid unless the shareholder chooses to notify us that they would like to revoke the postal vote. The voting list which is proposed to be adopted is 1 which has been established by Euroclear Sweden AB requested by the company. It's based on the shareholders register. The number of shareholders registered and the number of postal votes received. This list has been distributed here and every shareholder who have notified the company and who are right here today have been ticked off, and all shareholders who submitted postal votes have also been ticked off against this list, and shareholders who have been registered to attend the meeting but who did not arrive and register and who did not submit postal votes have been deleted from the list.
And it's therefore proposed that the list with the mentioned adjustments be adopted as the list of the voting list for the meeting. And we have a total of 57% of all the shares and 78% of the number of votes in the company that are represented here at today's meeting, and I ask if the meeting is prepared to approve this as the voting list. Thank you. That's carried.
Item 3, the approval of the agenda is next. The agenda was included in the convening notice has been distributed here. Can we adopt the agenda? Thank you. That's approved.
Item 4, election of persons to attest to the accuracy of the minutes. The Secretary has spoken to Fredrik [indiscernible] and Javiera Ragnartz of SEB Asset Management for this task. They've declared to be prepared to accept this assignment. Can I ask you to stand up for a moment, please. so that we can verify that you are here. Over there and over there. Thank you very much. Can the meeting elect the nominees for this assignment? Thank you.
And that takes us to Item 5, where we have determination of whether the meeting has been duly convened. And I find that notice has been given in accordance with the Companies Act and the Articles of Association. Can the meeting determine that it has been duly convened? That is carried. Thank you.
And then we have Item 6, where we have presentation of the parent companies and the consolidated annual report, financial statements and the auditor's report and the sustainability report. And these documents have been sent out to shareholders who have requested to receive them, and they've been available at the company's premises and website and been available here today. So the documents have been duly presented. We're now going to hear from the auditor to start with, and then we'll also hear from the CEO President, and then after that we'll also open up for shareholders to ask questions or present comments. But right now, I would like to hand over to the chartered accountant, Jonas Ståhlberg from Deloitte.
Thank you. Well, that is my name, Jonas Ståhlberg, I represent Deloitte, and I'm the lead auditor for this audit of Investor. We have presented an unqualified auditor report. For 2025, we find it the annual report, Pages 183 to 185. And I'm going to get back to the conclusions in that auditor's report. But before doing so, a few comments, if you allow me. I would like to remind you the fact that the audit of Investors carried out by a central team in Stockholm with local teams for the subsidiaries, and we give instructions to those auditors of the subsidiaries as to when and how to carry out that audit, and we have ongoing contacts with those teams, and they report to us on an ongoing basis.
This year, we have also had a deeper reconciliation with the team working with Nova and Biomedical due to the acquisition that was carried out by Advanced Instruments in 2025. The beginning of the financial year, we introduced our audit plan for the Audit and Risk Committee. And we have also on an ongoing basis, reported our audit and the results of it to them. We have done this on 6 occasions orally and in writing.
And together with the closing of the books, we also met with the entire Board of Directors where we gave an account of the outcome of our audit. And we also had a discussion with the Board of Directors without executive management being present in accordance with the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance.
The audit of investor, well, there are many areas that are audited, but there are 3 that are so-called key audit matters. They are described in the annual report, and they are the same as previous years. We have internal governance over financial reporting, where the most important thing is the subsidiaries that we have in the group.
Then we have valuation of listed and unlisted investments where we have significant values in the balance sheet and that we also have valuation of goodwill, but we also have a significant amount in the balance sheet growing because of acquisitions. When it comes to the first area, we have looked at how management governs and instructs subsidiaries so that they follow the principles that have been decided on by investor for their reporting. And here, we have also ensured that there are appropriate routines for quality insurance. And our conclusion is that Investor has well-functioning routines within this area.
The second area is processes for valuation of other investments listed and unlisted. And here as well, our opinion is that Investor has good appropriate routines that are applied consistently over time. And that is particularly important for unlisted assets. Then we have the third area, which is investor and how it assesses goodwill and balance sheet. And here, we have looked at methods and the valuations, assumptions that have been used by management. to do impairment testing as they're called. And we have found that the values are defensible.
There is one exception, and that is Atlas Antibodies and that goodwill value, where this year, there was an impairment of around SEK 1.4 billion. We have looked at that impairment, and we agree in that size of that impairment being correct. And this is also relevant and the relevant information is there in the annual report. We have also, in addition, presented 2 separate opinions and both of them are unqualified.
The first one is our limited insurance report on the sustainability statement, something that is statutory. And you find that on Pages 186, 187 in the annual report, where we feel that it is in compliance with the annual accounts Act and standards. We've also looked at the compliance with guidelines for remuneration to senior executive and that information has been sent out and that we haven't had any findings here either. So we feel that the financial reporting of investor gives a fair accurate view and has been established in accordance with applicable rules.
And as you can see from the auditor's report, we recommend that the AGM adopt the income statement and the balance sheet for the company and the group and that profit be appropriated as proposed and that the Board of Directors and the CEO President be granted a discharge. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Item 7, and I'm going to give the floor to Christian Cederholm, CEO, for his address.
Thank you, Chair. esteemed shareholders, guests. Once again, we note that the past year was an eventful one to say the least. Investor has been building leading companies for over 100 years through downturns and upturns in the business cycles through technological shifts and different situations in the world around us. And just as Jacob mentioned, there is certainly no lack of challenges, geopolitical tensions, including 2 and more ongoing wars being wage protectionist tendencies, sharpened competitive included ever more powerful Chinese competitors and the technological shift with AI, which is perhaps the greatest shift witnessed since the electrification. The list goes on and on.
In a world such as this, we and our businesses need to be able to deal with 2 things at the same time. We need to be flexible, and we need to adapt to deal with the world around us the way it looks here and now. And at the same time, we need to keep focus on the cap that we've set for us. Many of our companies, for example, need to deal with an increase in oil prices and the disruptions of supply chains as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, while at the same time, maintaining their focus on R&D.
If we and our companies can succeed with sufficient speed moving forward, we can continue to build values for people and for the community by building strong and sustainable companies. 733,000 shareholders have chosen to show us confidence. We are grateful and proud of this. And as Jacob pointed out, we sense the responsibility. We're also proud to be an important part of a relevant ecosystem, which is unique. Since 1917, the Wallenberg foundations have been the largest owner of investor with the aim of promoting Sweden's development in R&D.
All in all, the foundations have granted over SEK 50 billion allocated to long-term investments between research and industry. Investor's role in the ecosystem is basically to build strong and sustainable, resilient companies that will build value and generate an increase in dividend over time to the foundations and to the other more than 733,000 shareholders. This is the core of Investor. World-class companies with strong market positions in attractive growth areas, companies that build values for their customers, for investor and for investor shareholders in the end.
We often say that the way our companies perform, Investor also performs. As a result of the excellent work in our companies in 2025, '25 was a strong year also for Investor. It was indeed a year with high levels of activity. Let me give you some examples. The listed companies generated a profit growth of approximately 9%. Several major investments were announced, for example, AstraZeneca's extensive investments in both R&D and production in both the U.S. and China. Many companies completed add-on acquisitions in addition to organic growth. Wille and ABB are examples of companies who have also continued to fine-tune their activities by divesting business which were considered noncore.
Our companies in Patricia Industries generated an organic sales growth of 4%. The profit decreased to some extent due to the headwinds from the weaker dollar. But in addition, there were a number of add-on acquisitions as a complement to organic growth here as well. Advanced Instruments acquired Nova Biomedical, for $2.2 billion, making it Investor's largest acquisition ever. We are convinced of the strength of this combined deal and the integration has started and got off to an excellent start. We have also a high level of activity with investments in equity, the joint investment of Fortnox and acquisition of shares in Equity AB EQT. All in all, Investor made significant investments in all 3 business areas. All in all, SEK 29 billion in 2025, all of those investments in companies where we see good preconditions for long-term value creation.
Our net asset value was up by 14% and amounted to SEK 1,087 billion at the end of the year. The total return for the Investor share amounted to 15% -- and that's what I wanted to tell you about 2025. Investor has a clear, transparent strategy moving forward. The strategy has been made clearer and has been simplified, but the cap, the direction is the same. The overall objective is, of course, to generate an attractive total return to you as shareholders. And we do this by growing net asset value over time, pay continuously increasing dividend and by focusing on efficiency and sustainability.
And to achieve all this, we focus on our strategic pillars, our framework for future-proofing, if you will, performance, portfolio and people, our 3 key factors. Growing the net asset value is our single most important value driver over time. Over the past 5 years, net asset value is up by 14% per year on average. Profit growth and an increased cash flow in the companies are the final drivers behind net asset value and total return. When the companies develop well, it's a very gratifying task to be a shareholder and the CEO of Investor. And we will pay a continuously increasing dividend over the past 10 years. We've seen an increase in dividends by 8% on average per year, provided that today's AGM will resolve, of course, to adopt the Board's proposal to pay a dividend of SEK 5.60 per share.
Efficiency and sustainability are integrated parts of our value creation. We have an efficient organization with low management costs, not least in relation to our total assets. This is important because it safeguards our capacity for investment and dividend payment. We are proud but never satisfied. And in that spirit, we continue to constantly challenge our working methods, including to explore and implement AI to build efficiency and take even better decisions over time.
To us, sustainability is a basic prerequisite for long-term competitiveness as we discussed earlier today. The transition towards CO2 reduction and reduction of greenhouse gases is a way of building strong business while also benefiting the climate. And in 2025, we took several steps, very important ones forward and the work continues. We have 3 focus areas: climate and circularity, diversity and inclusion and business ethics and governance. In climate and circularity, the company has reduced its direct emissions, Scope 1 and 2, that is by 74% compared to 2016. Almost all the companies in our portfolio work in a systematic way with inclusion and all companies have supplier codes of conduct. Our 3 different objectives support our overall objective of generation of attractive total return.
And if we look at the situation so far, we follow the development on a continuous basis. It's the longer time elements which are more relevant to look at. The brighter parts of the columns here represent the annual average return for the Class B shares. It is higher, as you can see, than the dotted line and the other columns, we see that we've overperformed the return requirements and the market. And let's remind us here as well that the important thing is to have good return over time, not to overperform the market, outperform it every single year.
I would then like to talk a little bit more about our strategic pillars, the focus areas that are to help us to drive value creation and future-proof ourselves and there are companies, performance, portfolio and people, our 3Ps. Performance. It is about delivering results and profitable growth here and now and at the same time, invest in the future. As long-term owners, we have to be able to deal with both these things at the same time. our company's capability to generate profitable growth is the single most important driver for net asset value over time. And it is about customer value and to what extent our companies can create that customer value so that we get profits, profits that can then be invested so that we can future-proof activities.
And future-proofing is about innovation. And very often, our companies are market leaders, thanks to the product, products and services they develop. And we have to continue and the goal has to be to improve lives and business for our customers. It does happen that companies do not develop in line with their potential. And when that happens, we as owners, we have to ensure, one, that we are in agreement with the executive team and the Board as to what the problem is, two, we have to have a plan to rectify this. And three, we have to make sure that we have the right people around the table in management on the Board so that we can execute. Sometimes this is quickly corrected and other times, unfortunately, it takes a bit longer.
Our portfolio, well, it is about investor and all our companies having an ambition to have long-term growth. And the cash flow that we have gives us an opportunity and a responsibility to invest more over time, more than we have been able to historically so that we can continuously develop our portfolio. And of course, we do this in addition to all the excellent work that is being done in all the specific companies. Well, to work with a portfolio, that also means that sometimes we leave certain businesses where we feel that a company can find a better home with another owner. We cherish our financial flexibility, which means that we can act quickly when necessary.
And then the third P, people. We ensure that we have the right leadership by appointing a Board of Directors that appoint CEO President. We have to have the right agenda and the right values to drive long-term value creation. And it's about understanding what to do and also to ensure that these individuals have the sufficient pace that is necessary. And we maintain high business integrity. We respect our values, and we do the right thing even if it's difficult, even costs us in a shorter perspective.
But in a perpetual perspective, there is never the right time to compromise on values. To embrace new technology, that is about creating the right preconditions for our companies and our employees so that we have the right skills and competencies, investments and structures to drive innovation and test new things. So here, we have our 3 Ps: performance, portfolio and people. And this is what drive us forward. And our focus is always on going forward. And there are 3 areas that are of particular importance and that are of interest because this will have an impact on us and our companies for long term.
Innovation. Innovation is absolutely decisive for competitiveness over time. And for us, that begins with an obsession to develop better solutions for customers, users or patients. That is the foundation. That is what gives that reason for being for a company. And here, we have the right preconditions, but we also have sharp competition. We have already mentioned China. They used to compete with low costs and okay quality. But today, many Chinese companies in a very strikingly short period of time have forged ahead, advanced their positions. So in many sectors today, we see that those Chinese actors, they are there, they are quick.
They use innovation and they apply new technology. And this means that our companies that we have strong positions today, but we have to continue to work harder more rapidly to stay ahead. Digitalization and AI. Well, here, we have many opportunities in all our companies throughout the value chain from R&D to production to aftermarket. And we see many promising examples as to how AI can shorten development cycles, create more efficient businesses and improve products and offerings. Ericsson, for example, is using AI to optimize investments and operations of mobile networks. Sobi is using AI models to find new applications for their medicines. And there are many, many good examples. But at the same time, this is only the beginning of this journey.
Technology. Well, usually, that is not the bottleneck. It's rather our own capacity, innovation and willingness to change. That is what sets the limits. And one thing I know for sure, if we do not do this, then we will be outrun. Our role as engaged owners is to encourage and push for new investments in technologies, efficiencies and make sure that we have sharper and sharper offerings from our companies.
Sustainability, that is also key for competitiveness over time. And our companies are doing excellent work when it comes to reducing emissions in Scope 1 and 2 through electrification, making things more efficient and using renewables. But the main emissions we have in the value chain in Scope 3, and that is where we have the biggest business opportunities as well, we feel. 90% of our portfolio companies' total emissions come from the use of the products with customers. So when Ericsson, ABB, Atlas Copco, when they develop new, more energy-efficient solutions, that creates a direct added value for the customer because it brings energy costs down and at the same time, we reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. And that is just one example as to how the climate transition has a business value.
I would also like to highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion. Lately, this has become somewhat polarized. But we think that it's quite simple. We believe in meritocracy, and we believe that groups where we have different backgrounds and perspectives that they make better decisions over time. And to attract the most skilled coworkers, we have to recruit from that entire talent pool, and we have to make sure that everyone is given the same opportunity to develop. And that is why we stick to our ambition when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
Finally, the world around us will continue to offer challenges. But we have seen from history that at the same time, this creates opportunities for strong companies to forge ahead to move forward. And we -- our task is to navigate and also to catch those opportunities. We have a strong starting point, a clear purpose, a clear strategy. We have an attractive portfolio with strong companies, and we have a tried and tested ownership model. We have financial flexibility. And not least, we also have amazing coworkers at Investor and also in the companies.
And here, I would like to take the opportunity to extend a big thank you to all these people in the companies and Investor. Your strong drive and your excellent work makes all the difference. We continue to have high ambitions as engaged owners, strong companies, and we continue to keep our focus on the 3 Ps: performance, portfolio and people. And we have all the necessary preconditions to continue to create value for you, the shareholders. Thank you. Thank you for your confidence.
Thank you very much. And now the floor is open for questions and comments from shareholders. And we have our officials with the roving microphone. So any shareholder who would like to take the floor, raise your hand, and we will bring a microphone to you. And we're very grateful if you can start by introducing yourselves before you ask your question. Microphone #1 over there. Thank you.
Thank you. My name is Alexander Fernandez, and I represent the Folksam Group. We always ask a question related to sustainability at the AGM. And this year, we're focusing on climate and the environment once again. And I have a question for the CEO. You're describing in your annual report that resource utilization and the circular economy have a significant impact and is of strategic importance, both in the subsidiaries and the portfolio companies. And at the same time, the work is at quite an early stage in many cases and that the level of ambition varies. How do you perceive investor's role as an active owner in strengthening and further developing circular solutions, both in the portfolio companies and the subsidiaries?
Thank you very much for that question. As I emphasized earlier, sustainability is a crucial component. And at the end of the day, it's about being competitive over time. We've talked a lot about the climate, both in terms of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases measuring Scopes 1, 2 and 3. And as of this year, you will have noticed we also have explicit targets for circularity as well. And the good thing about all this is that here and in the larger -- in the scope of the larger challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have a moral responsibility to do better. for the next generations to take better care of this globe also benefits future generations and our businesses.
Circularity has been added at a later stage, but it links very well in with what we've already talked about. Let me give you a few examples. If we look at the emissions by one company moving up from the suppliers up through the value chain with circularity at an early design stage, you can make sure you use less materials, recycled materials. The life cycle of a product can be extended and need more material over time, therefore.
And if you look at the other end, the lifetime and the lifespan of a product at the customers, you could have a good service offerings, making sure that machines can run for a long time with no disruptions. And once again, this is clearly linked to value for the customer. So just as the other areas, it's very much linked to our business. Thank you very much.
Microphone #8.
Bjorn Lund is my name. And there's one area where I feel that you haven't talked about it today. And well, if you're involved at all, but what I'm thinking about is something that is becoming quite important. I'm thinking about the geopolitical situation on one hand, but then also how to be able to manage environmental changes in an efficient manner. And as a matter of fact, what I'm thinking about, that is space and how to develop that technology to be there. And Well, that takes us back to China. And they have invested a lot. And they've also taken market shares in Latin America and other places as well. And I feel that Sweden is not on board. I don't know if you're involved somehow, but I would like to know how, if so.
Well, thank you. Thank you for that question. And this is immensely exciting and a lot of things are happening in China, in the U.S., but as a matter of fact, also in Europe and in the Nordics, and we have a couple of companies that deal more with space than others and Ericsson, for example. Ericsson, for example, they have tens of thousands of low orbit satellites. which means that they basically have a global coverage for a satellite phone today. And then you could link that to the network that we have on earth. Well, that is something exciting and will be there. Thank you. Then microphone #5.
Nilson Peterson is my name. Hello. I'm retired now, but I'm proud to say that I worked for 35 years for ABB. It's an extraordinary company. I have a practical question about AI competence and skills supply. How do you find that competence? Is -- do you have it at the Board of Directors level? I know I understand it's bottom-up, but it's something that many people don't know very much about after all. Thank you.
Thank you for that question. You're very spot on in those remarks, and this is certainly one of the major challenges that many of us here today do not have our own experience to be able to drive the required technology shift. If we look at the talent pool and supply of skills, we have a benefit in Investor and in the companies that we have strong value brands able to attract individuals also in the new really hot -- red hot areas. So talent supply is a constant battle. We're waiting a war to get the people we need. We will get there, but it's only early stage of this journey. Would you like to say anything?
Yes. For the Board, the way we try to relate to this matter is this. We make sure that we have people with some sort of background in AI and experience of it. We have a number of people, 1/3 of the Board bring different types of experience to the work of the Board. So that's one point of reference when we discuss AI-related issues. But of course, we also, in different ways, need to delve deeper and a number of the members of the Board take part in different training events and schemes, not least together with senior management of investor, et cetera. But it's very important what you're underlying in your comment. It's still very early days. Very few people have the necessary competence. We all need to learn a lot more about this.
Station #1.
Well, thank you. I represent Shareholders' Association and the sister funds. And I'm thinking about gender distribution and the plan that you have ahead for even those numbers out. I do think that skills and competencies are more important, perhaps myself.
Well, thank you. Well, yes, we do have a target objectives for our own Board of Directors and also for the Boards of our companies. And we say that somewhere around 40% to 60% of whatever gender. And we are well on our way on that journey. The portfolio companies on average are at around 40%. And we're headed there in the executive teams as well in the companies. And well, like you're saying, it's mainly about skills and competencies, of course. But if we look at what the distribution was 10 or 20 years ago, I don't think that, that truly reflected the skills and competencies. We did not have enough women then in -- particularly in some of the sectors. Are you happy with that report?
I don't see any further requests. And if so, I find that we have dealt with Item 7 on today's agenda.
Now moving on, that brings us to Item 8, the adoption of the income statement and balance sheet for the parent company. And for the group, you've heard that the auditor is in favor, and I ask if the meeting can adopt these income statement and balance sheets. Thank you. That's adopted.
Moving on to Item 9, which is the presentation of the Board of Directors' remuneration report. The report is part of the material distributed here today. It's been available on the company's website and has been sent out to shareholders who requested to receive it. Are there any questions and comments on the remuneration report? I don't see anyone requesting the floor, and I ask if the meeting can approve this report. Thank you.
And that takes us to Item 10, where we have discharge from liability for the Board of Directors and the President for the management of the company in 2025. The auditor recommends discharge, and we would like to note that the Board members and the CEO will not vote under this resolution. And I ask the meeting if the meeting can grant discharge that is carried. Was there a question or a comment?
At station #3.
Thank you. Eon is my name, and I represent 400 shares. And I apologize, my voice isn't the best today. Honored shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, this is an important day for all of us. We can depose of the Board of Directors and the management. But we should -- I think we should deny them this charge for 2025. We have remembered the Holocaust, 11 million and incidents were murdered by the. And we had deliveries from Investor and the Golar factory in Gothenburg to those forces. And Investor could have stopped at any time those deliveries to Germany, but that was not done. And the United States of America, planned sanctions with that company. And 1 of the brothers also got the German Iron Cross. And a prosecutor should look at -- and the prosecutor Jacob Wallenberg for war crimes and crimes against the humanity. And that should award him 18 to 20 years of imprisonment. And then Mr. Wallenberg will be 90 years of age, and I will be 100. And that will then be a good meeting. Thank you.
Thank you. Then we have heard Sven Olof Erikson that you're against the discharge, but the discharge has also been granted all directors and the CEO President. So we will continue.
Item 11. And here, we have dispossession of Investor earnings. And you have the opinion on Page 182 in the annual report from the Board of Directors and the Board of Directors proposes a dividend of SEK 5.60 per share split on 2 installments and that the rest be carried forward. The first installment, the third proposal is that SEK 4 be paid with the record date of 11th of May and on the second installment, SEK 1.60 per share with the record date being 9th of November. And we have heard the auditor recommending this. Can the meeting vote as proposed? That is carried.
We have a number of items on the agenda where we have proposals from the Nominations Committee. And before we proceed with the resolutions, I'm going to give the floor to the Chair of the Nomination Committee Leif Johansson to present the proposals from the Nomination Committee. You have the floor.
Thank you. Just deal with my pollen allergy for a moment before I tell you everything. Esteemed shareholders and participants at today's AGM, the Nomination Committee for this year's AGM was made up of Jacob Wallenberg, Chair of Investor, Chair of Investor; Katarina Romberg of AMF; Magnus Carlson, the SEB Foundation; Peter Haslevo-lekta; and myself, Leif Johansson, appointed by the Wallenberg Foundations. The proposals from the Nomination Committee, the reasoned opinion and our presentation can be found in the material distributed here today. And therefore, I will only very briefly present our proposals to you now. Starting with the composition of the Board. It is the impression and opinion of the Nomination Committee that the work of the Board of Directors of Investor is functioning well. We have availed ourselves amongst other things, of an evaluation of the work of the Board as part of our assessment.
The Nomination Committee has also noted that there is high levels of attendance at the Board meetings. And in order to assess the requirements placed on the Board of Directors as a result of the company's challenges and future focus, the Nomination Committee has discussed the matter of the size and composition of the Board of Directors. An important point of departure was the principle that the composition of the Board shall reflect and give room for the different skills and experiences that are needed in order to support and develop the active owner philosophy of Investor as well as the long-term active involvement as an owner. We've also been informed that Board members, Tom Johnston and Isabelle Kocher have declined reelection.
The Nomination Committee proposes reelection of all other members of the Board, and you can see the proposal up here on the screen. The committee's proposal means that the number of Board members is reduced to 11, in line with the committee's ambition to achieve a certain reduction of the size of the Board of Directors. And we've assessed that the composition is fit for purpose and is characterized by breadth of competence, skills and experience in areas which are of strategic importance to investor. And we furthermore propose that Jacob Wallenberg be reelected as Chair of the Board.
And that brings me then to the Board fees. Nomination Committee has tabled a proposal that you can see up here on the screen. The starting point being that the fee level should be competitive in order to allow us to attract and retain individuals with the best possible skills and experience also from an international perspective. In our assessment, amongst other things, we've looked at analysis covering Board remuneration in different European countries, and we see that there's a significant difference between the Board fees in Swedish listed company and corresponding levels internationally.
Against this backdrop, the Nomination Committee is proposing an average increase of the fees by approximately 7% -- and in line with last year, we recommend to the Board to adopt a policy, which means that the shareholding of a director on the Board after 5 years should correspond to at least the fee of 1.5 years of directorship pretax. And in order to facilitate such a holding, we propose that we retain the possibility for individual directors to receive up to 50% of the Board fee in the form of synthetic shares.
The auditors then, Nomination Committee proposes in accordance with the Audit and Risk Committee's recommendation to elect Deloitte for 1 further year. It's a reelection. And when it comes to fees for the auditors, we propose that fees for the audit be paid according to approved invoice. And by way of conclusion, I would like to thank the other members of the Nominations Committee for excellent cooperation. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions for the Nominations Committee at this stage?
No, I don't see any request.
Thank you very much for that presentation. We'll proceed with the decision, starting with 12a, the number of members. You've heard the Nomination Committee's proposal. Does the meeting resolve in accordance with this proposal? Yes, that's carried.
Moving on to 12b, number of auditors. You've heard the proposal. Is the meeting in favor? That's adopted.
And we continue with Item 13, where we have compensation for Board of Directors and auditors. We will begin with 13A Board fees. We've heard the proposal from the Nominations Committee. Can the meeting resolve accordingly?
There is a question. So if we could have a microphone station #4.
Well, it looks like there are 8 plus 2 people receiving those fees. But aren't you -- don't you have a Board of 11?
Well, the CEO does not receive this fee.
Okay. 13A to start with Board fees. We've heard a proposal from the Nominations Committee. Can the meeting resolve accordingly? That is carried.
And then we continue with the 13B compensation for the auditor. We have heard a proposal from the Nominations Committee. Does the meeting wish to resolve accordingly? That is also carried.
And then that takes us to Item 14, where we have election of members of the Board of Directors. The meeting has decided on 11 members. We've heard a proposal from the Nominations Committee and then the count of other assignments that these nominees have in other companies that is included in the documentation that has been distributed here today and has also been sent out to those wish to receive it and has been available on the company's website, we're going to resolve, and we are going to vote on one person at a time in the order they were suggested by the Nominations Committee.
And I ask the meeting if the meeting wish to elect Katarina Berg, Christian Cederholm, Magdalena Gerger, Sven Nyman, Mats Rahmström, Grace Reksten Skaugen, Hans Stråberg, Fred Wallenberg, Jacob Wallenberg, Marcus Wallenberg, Sara Öhrvall?
And I find that the meeting has decided as suggested by the Nominations Committee.
Before we proceed, I would like to hand over to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jacob Wallenberg.
And I would like to -- after the elections of today, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thank you, and thank you to the Board of Directors to those directors who are stepping down, Isabelle Kocher and Tom Johnston.
Unfortunately, Isabelle couldn't be here today, but she's been on the Board of Directors for 5 years, and she leaves a clear impression. And we want to say thank you. To have a Board member that lives and works outside of Sweden, well, that is important. It gives important perspectives. We have talked about that earlier today. And I and the other members of the Board will miss Isabelle's contributions, well-informed contributions in our discussions. She's very knowledgeable as a business leader and has a lot of experience from energy and transition issues. And we are going to say thank you to her in person later on. But now I would like to turn to Tom. Tom?
Tom, you do understand Swedish. I will be speaking Swedish, if that is okay. And I am very happy to be able to, in person, convey this thank you from me and the Board of Directors. Thank you for all the work that you have done for the Investor Board of Directors and in the Remuneration Committee for many years. You entered -- came on to the Board in 2010. You were still the CEO and President of SKF, and you had done an amazing journey within that company. You were part of developing that company for almost 40 years and your career and your contribution to Sweden and to Swedish trade and business, well, it cannot be overestimated.
And this is not just me saying this or my cousin or my brother who are here today. You've also received distinctions from the Swedish King for your personal services to Sweden and Swedish interests. And you've also received distinctions from the British Queen for what you have done in the United Kingdom. So we see a bridge between cultures. And with all your experience and great competence, you have contributed to not only investor, but also the portfolio companies and this larger ecosystem.
You've had roles as Chair [indiscernible], Husqvarna and Combient, for example. And we know, Tom, that you have worked a lot and how involved you have been. And you always give everything you have to give. And Tom, you're a very experienced, wise knowledgeable person, and you have been a major asset for investor. When we have had meetings, well, I know that you're sharp, profound, but you're also creative, dynamic and very curious. And you have that ability, an amazing ability to see new perspectives and also to find solutions on very complex problems.
And you contribute in that you share your experiences, for example, through mentorships in our ecosystem. And your mentor have been a mentor for younger coworkers, and we're very, very grateful. And we -- I will miss your energy, curiosity and your nice laughter. And you will be dearly missed in this group of directors. And one more time, I want to say thank you for everything you've done. And as a tradition also some flowers for you. And I also want to shake your hand and say thank you.
And then we continue with Item 15, where we have election of Chair of the Board of Directors. The proposal from the Nominations Committee is that Jacob Wallenberg be reelected and I ask the meeting if the meeting wish to reelect Jacob Wallenberg. And that is carried.
And we continue with Item 16, where we have election of auditors. We've heard a proposal from the Nominations Committee, reelection of Deloitte AB. Does the meeting wish to resolve as proposed that is carried.
Item 17a and B next, the Board's proposal for long-term variable remuneration, and we 2 subitems to resolve upon. The proposals are contained in the material distributed here today, have been available on the company's website and been sent out to those who request to receive it. And before we proceed with the resolution, I'm going to give the floor to the Chair of the Board, Jacob Wallenberg.
Thank you very much. The Investor Board of Directors has presented an LTVR long-term variable remuneration plan for 2026, which in all main components is in line with the program and the plans. resolved upon by the 2025 AGM to ensure that investor is competitive and that we can offer efficient long-term so-called incentive plans that will allow us to attract and retain key competence. There are a few adjustments that are proposed this year. While they in themselves do not entail any major differences here and now, I would like to highlight them to the AGM, nevertheless.
First of all, we propose to set an increased ceiling, not distribution, but ceiling for the grant value, which can be used moving forward in the future to be able to offer a higher component of variable remuneration as a part of total compensation. In addition, a number of adjustments are made for Patricia Industries with the aim of, amongst other things, adapting the plan to current market practices in the U.S. for our U.S. people. And performance requirements in Patricia's plan have been adjusted to be more in line with the requirements within Investor.
So that was briefly a few words on the adjustments. And if there are any questions, I'm very happy to answer them, of course. And I think that there is a question over there, speaking point #2. Here we go.
Thank you. I'm an individual shareholder. For the third time this week, at the third AGM, I would like to speak against these programs. They're not good. They're making things less transparent. It's one of the least transparent points, 9 pages, 11 pages, consultants who produced all of this, nobody can comprehend it really, except possibly the consultants themselves and those who are directly concerned and covered by them. Now please bear in mind that I'm not challenging the level of compensation for these senior executives per se, but I think it should be done in a much more transparent way.
There was one meeting where the CEO received CHF 9 million, but actually CHF 20 million through the programs. And 2 days ago, we read about Kinnevik in the Swiss newspaper, Svensagblad, where the share has dropped 80%, but senior executives have been paid very large amounts of money, EUR 0.5 billion through these programs. I would appeal to the Board of Directors.
I understand that you won't be taking back this proposal this year, but review them, pay more in direct remuneration, have bonus programs for the entire group of employees if you exceed a certain result level, et cetera. And I'll remind you of the debacle of Scandia for 22 years ago where the company nearly went bust and ceased to exist, although there are some remnants left as a result of these horrific programs designed back then that nobody could understand. And I'm turning not just to the Investor Board of Directors, but to all the institutional large owners of Investor and all the other companies for that matter in the business community. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you for those reflections. I am the Chair of the Remuneration Committee of Investor. If as you say, you do not object as a point of principle to the level of remuneration, it's the how rather than the what. My view is that what we're looking to achieve is that we want to have an incentive for the employees, in particular, those in senior executive positions, but for all employees, whereby if investor develops well, they should be able to get more remuneration than if that weren't the case. If we only pay a cash compensation. I cannot create such incentives. Either you get paid or you don't.
And speaking as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Investor, to me, there is an added value to all of you that we set up these variable plans and programs that give more pay to our employees if things go well compared to when things go less well. And that brings us back to the how. You say that it's not transparent. I read between the lines, you seem to be suggesting that there could be -- that you could be skewing things or getting money which shouldn't be paid out. But we have a very close monitoring of our programs, large institutional owners are very active, and they're represented here today as well. It's not just us doing the monitoring. We have continuous conversations with those owners, what they deem reasonable, how we should do this.
It's not just us cooking up something back at the office. We are transparent, I would put it to you. We work with other people whom we are not able to influence and who present their views and opinions. And together, we devise programs, which will provide a model for variable remuneration. And the Board of Directors of Investor believe that this is what is in the best interest of all of you, shareholders, to ensure that we get the most possible out of Investor.
Having said that, if we agree on the amounts in kroner and , nevertheless, we do not agree on the how, but I believe that I have quite a lot of backing for my approach working in close cooperation with other people who I'm not able to impact per se, institutional owners, for example, and they are very knowledgeable in these matters. Thank you very much.
Any further questions under 17A or B? No.
Then it's time to proceed with the resolution under this item. And the second AP fund has asked that we include in the minutes that they are voting against 17A. But we will start with the resolution under 17A, and I ask if the meeting can resolve in accordance with the proposal for long-term variable remuneration for employees in investor, excluding Patricia Industries. That's carried. Thank you.
Moving on to the resolution under 17b. Does the meeting resolve in accordance with the proposal on a long-term variable remuneration for employees in Patricia Industries? Thank you.
And then items 18A and B, where we have proposals from the Board of Directors for purpose and transfer of own shares. The entire proposal has been included in the documentation that has been distributed here today, has been available on the company website and has been sent to those shareholders who have requested to receive it.
Are there questions or comments to 18A or B? If not, we're going to start with 18A where we need 2/3 requirement. We have a 2/3 requirement of votes cast and shares represented, which means that we're going to use the voting devices. So I would like to ask you to produce your voting devices. And if you are in favor of the Board's proposal, you press 1, which is yes. And if you're against, you press 2, no, and you can also abstain and then you press 3. Is that procedure understood? If so, we open up the vote under 17, 18.
And we're about to close the vote. It is closed, and you'll see the outcome on the screen. And I find that the meeting has resolved as proposed by the Board of Directors. And we continue with 18b. And here, we need at least 9/10 of votes cast and shares represented at the meeting, which means that we'll be using the voting devices again. And if you're in favor, 1; if you're against 2 and if you wish to abstain, 3. And the vote is open.
And in a few seconds, we will close the vote. And the vote is closed.
And we'll see the outcome on the screen, and I find that the meeting has voted in favor of the Board's proposal.
That brings us to the final item on today's agenda. And before we conclude, I'm going to give the floor to Chair of the Board of Directors.
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed shareholders, as of this meeting, 2025 is closed. But before we do so, there is one person I would like to pay tribute to. Petra Hedengran, our Chief Legal Counsel, who've been up here at the podium. And you have been sharing the podium with me, Petra, up here as the meeting Secretary for almost 20 years. But you will be stepping down from your position at Investor shortly. You will be receiving a proper thank you from the company. But here at the AGM, on behalf of Investor and all the shareholders, I would like to express our very deep debt of gratitude for all your contributions over so many years.
Many of you do not work with legal counsels. But I can tell you that it is a particular category of individuals. We are so very dependent on having individuals like Petra to help us, not just with such in-depth knowledge, but with significant integrity and the ability to relate to very, very complex issues whilst at the same time, being an adviser for us where we have ideas about doing business all the time and finding solutions, you provide us somehow with the best informed position of all in the room. It's been so valuable to us. And myself and the entire Board are so grateful to you, Petra. So thank you so very much, and you're not getting away without some flowers. Same for you here. Thank you.
Now I'm not going to close the meeting. That's not for me to do, but it is drawing to a close, nevertheless. And in my capacity as Chair of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank you. It's been a rewarding dialogue. And let me also take this opportunity to thank Christian and the ET, his team, thank you to you and the team for the extraordinary work that you have done over the past year. And it's such a valuable contribution to Investor, and we've continued to develop so well. Thank you.
I hereby declare the 2026 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Investor closed.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
Transkripte auf Deutsch freischalten
- Alle Event Transkripte auf Deutsch
- Sofortige Übersetzung
- KI-Zusammenfassungen für die wichtigsten Insights
Investor B — Shareholder/Analyst Call - Investor AB (publ)
1. Management Discussion
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to China Theater.
Now at 3:00, there's going to be the investor dialogue, first of all, where we'll spend some time with the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Wallenberg and Christian Cederholm, CEO, in order to ask questions about the situation in the world and other matters which may arise.
I have a few questions from stage. Jacob Lund is my name, first of all. I'm in charge of Communications at Investor. And then I'm going to open up for questions from you, shareholders. There are a number of microphone officials. So make yourself known, raise your hand and make sure they see you so they can pass you a rolling microphone. So so much for the practical matters, but let's get started with questions.
It has been a bit turbulent over the past few years when we've been here. We had the threat of tariffs last year that we discussed a great deal. Now we have yet another war that we need to consider. Unpredictabilities continue to characterize an ever more protectionist world, Jacob. You mentioned this in your Chairperson's address in the annual report. Could you tell us a little bit more about your thoughts on all this?
Yes. Well, there was someone who asked me before we got started here today before we came into the hall here, asking me if I had ever witnessed such a complicated time before. And I would say that, no, I actually haven't. And what's my reasoning behind that reply? Well, we've all grown up in the era of globalization where you're more or less my age of most of you in here. And we've learned that we should go and travel the world. We cross borders and boundaries, we get to know new cultures, the economy will develop and grow, et cetera, et cetera. Now over the past few years, this has changed to more protection isn't. You mentioned the tariffs and the global uncertainty U.S. and China with a great deal of friction.
We don't know what the President in the U.S. will be announcing by tomorrow morning that will change the game again, we have a horrific war in Ukraine being waged there and another horrific war in the Middle East. All of this changes the prerequisites and the conditions. How do we go about making long-term decisions on the Board of Directors of investor and individual companies. It's very, very complicated when you don't know what tomorrow is going to look like. And the difficulty of making decisions not just for tomorrow, but for the longer term, new factories, new research programs, et cetera. So it's an era indeed, where a pause for consideration is required even more so than we've been accustomed to.
Let's try and zoom in a little bit, Christian, on the conflict in the Middle East. And Iran, could you say a little bit more -- tell us how this will impact -- how it impacts the companies right now and what can we expect for the future?
Yes, I'd be happy to. And before I get into the Middle East specifically, let me say that just as Jacob commented, there are so many different challenges, a whole range of them, different parts of the world, different situations. And every company, of course, has different preconditions and possibilities. And before I give you a general answer, I think it's very important to remember to emphasize that centrally in our model with the decentralized governance where each company and each Board of Directors is responsible for taking action and being responsible for all opportunities and challenges that they face. But nevertheless, to try and say something more general about what we've seen in the Middle East, I would split this into 2 different time frames.
First of all, what we've witnessed so far, and we've read the Q1 reports from most of the companies, the interruptions have been quite limited, especially when it comes to the logistics and the flows. But fast forward a little bit, we see that there's no resolution yet. We might not expect a rapid resolution. There will be an impact. We have the price of oil, all the oil derivatives, plastics, et cetera, the freight costs, all of that is on -- is picking up and it is going to impact the income statements of the companies with perhaps a delay of a lag of one or several quarters. So not only will costs go up for the various input materials, but a scarcity as well. We're starting to see that a little bit already.
And what about demand? What happens with demand with the war, inflation on oil, more expensive fuel for final consumer. It's an additional burden for consumers in a fairly difficult time already. So when we extrapolate a little bit, it's going to take a lot of work, we believe, to balance all this. Now in Sweden, we have general elections this year. Jacob, what are some of the most important questions and issues at stake in terms of industrial policy and what will impact companies and the business community here at home and in the Nordics and in Europe. Where do you -- what do you emphasize when you meet politicians?
Well, I have the benefit of also being a Chair of Swedish business, and I represent the Swedish trade and industry and the questions, issues that we deal with and highlight, well, it has to do a lot with education, continued education training, the importance of R&D in companies and that universities alike. We also talk about infrastructure, tracks, roads, energy. This is something we talk about as well, nuclear wind. And I would very much like to see an agreement between political parties when it comes to how to finance nuclear power and wind alike. And the discussions that we see today, well, they do not seem to be able to agree and also how to manage all these licenses and all these processes that companies have to go through today that are very complex.
These are problems we see in Sweden, but we see exactly the same thing in the EU. And all in all, it's about how to become more competitive and how to make our companies more competitive so that we can create more jobs, better tax revenue, et cetera, because it is so important for our countries. So these are important questions. And we're not going to go into party politics here, but we've had a debate leading up to the elections, and there have been discussions about shortening working hours. And that has been given quite a bit of space. But we see a world today that is changing rapidly. I'm thinking about China, for example. And how do we think about that developments that we see in China and how will we counter that?
Well, I'm going to start with China perhaps and then continue with the shortening of working hours or mix the 2. Well, when we look at the trends in the world and what will impact our companies in the longer term, then it's -- well, competitiveness from China, that is one, AI, sustainability, there are other factors as well. But what we've seen in China is that, well, if we go back a number of years, they were competing with low production costs and the quality that was okay. But today, what we see is that we have many Chinese competitors that have become much, much more ambitious and also are much more capable today.
So the fiercest competition today in many sectors is from China, not to just low production costs, but they're leading innovation, technology, applications, et cetera. And our companies, they have a good starting point, but this is obviously something where we need to keep attention. And we cannot take a step back. We have to make sure that we can compete in China with those very fierce competitors and demanding customers. And against that backdrop, well, I'm not sure that shortening working hours that, that would be the right reply. And I would like to link on to what you're saying. I think that we should actually go back one more step. And then we can see that in 2008, the EU and the U.S., they had the same GDP. And then in 2023, the U.S. is 25 percentage points above the EU and the U.K. together.
So in those 15 years, they have grown so that they're 25% bigger than us, which means that they have shown that they have that capability to develop things rapidly. And we see the same thing in China today. In China today, they can make a car from the beginning of design until it's given to the customer, a new design. It takes them 1.5 years. And in Sweden and Germany, it would take 4, 4.5 years, so 3x as long. And the U.S., they're faster. China is faster, and these are our 2 main competitors. And we, as a nation and EU, we have to remember and understand that. And at the same time, we're saying that we should work less.
And from a trade business industry perspective, that is not the right response when we see that tough competition. And the same thing goes for qualifying days. We know that those qualifying days that you have when you're sick. Well, we know that, that is not the right response either. We have challengers, and we have to remember this as part of the equation. And just to tie on to what you said, China, you have decided to bring the Board to China. Why? Well, the Board of Directors, China and Patricia will travel together this fall, and we're going to do that because quite simply, we want to learn more. And what Christian said about the Chinese development, what we've seen in the car manufacturing business. Well, we want to see real examples. We want to meet with companies. We want to meet those people driving this from companies, politicians because we need to learn more on site because this is the reality today.
Another area where things move very rapidly is AI. Christian, what does investor do? What do the companies do not just to keep up, but to stand strong as they come out through this enormous technological shift. Well, first of all, it is a shift, indeed, the greatest one I've witnessed and perhaps the greatest one since the electrification potentially. It's major. It's going to impact all the portfolio companies, and it's going to impact and provide both opportunities and risks throughout the entire delivery chain and supply chain research, producing products, production, sales, aftermarket and of course, how AI is used to improve products and the product offering for our customers.
So there's lots to do. There are many good examples in all of the companies, I would say. But it's also very clear that we're only at the beginning of this journey. And here, you might think whatever you want about AI. I'm technologically optimistic. I believe that there will be mainly opportunities even though there is a shift and it can be difficult. But it doesn't really matter because if we don't do it, somebody else will do it. So it's our job as owners via the Board and all the work we do with our companies to ensure that we're driving and encouraging proper investments and real leaps forward so that we can come out stronger at the other end.
Well, that's interesting because there are some forces that will warn against AI and talking about it. Let's try and make this clear. If you're standing over here, you might think that AI is wonderful. And if you're standing here, you think it's the worst thing that ever happened to humanity. Where would you position yourself on that scale? I think here, you were there. I'm there. I'm over there. I'm optimistic when it comes to technology generally, as I mentioned. But I think that we will also see that there are more opportunities than risks.
Having said that, you need to relate, of course, to this from the perspective of the company, risk and governance based on AI, how do you share information? What do you permit AI to do individually and independently compared to where do you want to have the human in the loop so that humans make the decisions. Another obvious matter to deal with is the transition. So from a workforce perspective, it's going to require a lot of transitional actions. Some people will fall in between somewhere. But over time, things generally work out and you need to respect the process. But in spite of all the risks, I get back to the fact that if we don't do this, somebody else will. There's no [indiscernible]. We don't have an option to do anything else. And we are already doing it, as you heard.
Can I also add -- but just what Christian is saying here is important. In the meantime, others will do precisely this. And if they do it and you as an entrepreneur as a company in Sweden failed to tag along and you miss the train as it were, you're never going to be able to catch up. I believe that this is a matter of survival for us as well. It's not just, generally, how do we relate to it. I believe that it's a major transition and a great opportunity. And that's why we want to be an early adopter. And it's happening at a very rapid pace. If we look at what the companies are saying our company and other companies in their quarterly reports, they're going from experimenting with AI and talking about how they're using a little bit here or there. But today, it's very concrete. What are the revenue opportunities? How do you work with efficiency improvements? Just to underline the fact that this is happening here and now.
Very good. Another area with -- which requires a lot of refocusing is the green transition. We've talked about it for a long time, sustainability. It's an area which is central and crucial as far as we're concerned. We see that, that transition is being challenged from various channels. And at the same time, investor chose recently to sharpen and tighten our sustainability goals. Why was that? Well, as you mentioned, Jacob, sustainability is about long-term competitiveness for us. And if we don't do this well, we're going to end up with companies in our portfolio who are not really fit for the future. The great thing and the simple thing about all this is that sustainability already today both generates good business and is beneficial to the climate. And the simplest example is, of course -- well, I'll take one step back to say this.
If we look at our emissions, the emissions from all of our companies, 90% of the total can be found in the customers' use of, for example, Atlas Copco compressors or the engines produced by ABB because it means that it gives -- it also means that we have a great incentive. So when ABB produces an even more energy-efficient engine in the future, it's a saving for the customer here and now, and so ABB can gain market shares, raise their prices or what have you. So it's already going hand-in-hand with good business. Jacob, you recently were ranked the third most powerful person in sustainability. I know that you're very passionate about these issues.
Yes. And the reason I was awarded that distinction, people like you and Christian drive this so much in our organization in investor. And we're all working with this in many different ways. And to add to what Christian just said, at the end of the day, it's about a moral responsibility, nothing less. This is a matter which impacts all of us, and we need to and will deal with it. It builds business opportunities. You've mentioned that, but you need to also bear in mind the next generation of employees. They demand in most cases that their future employer will have an active way relating to the green transition. So there are so many different reasons why you need to keep working with these issues. And we've done this for quite some time in investor. We've been very active in relation to our companies for a long time to push these issues to canvas for it. And we see when we talk to companies, we go out and meet them, we get the report, a lot has happened and the work continues.
Well, we're soon going to open up for questions. So you can start to think about what you want to ask about. But Christian, there is a lot written about investor many analyses that are being made, most of them being positive, but there is a certain level of criticism as well, which then usually is how come that you continue with companies that do not develop at the same rate that you would have wanted. And here, usually, Husqvarna and Electrolux are mentioned. And why? Why all these patience? Well, in our strategy, we want to be long-term engaged owners. And then we also have to take responsibility and be there when the going gets tough. And Electrolux and Husqvarna, they have a mix of problems that are external competition, difficulties with distribution changes, et cetera.
And then I'm sure a few things that could have been done better internally as well. But what is important, and this could be a complete company that we have in our portfolio or part of Atlas Copco or Epiroc and their business. Well, usually, what you see is that there is a part of the business that isn't as successful as we would like it to be. And the most important thing is that we are in agreement that we can discuss it. Board of Directors, executive management, owners, we have to be in agreement. And then two, we have to have a plan on how to rectify things. And then we have to feel that we have the right people around at the table in management, Board of Directors, et cetera. And then you get started. And sometimes it's very fast, you can fix it. And other times, it takes a bit longer before you get there. We are going to talk about the strategy and the 3 business areas.
You'll be doing that later on, the 3 business areas that you have within Investor and that is unique in a way. And of course, we continue to invest. But if we start to think ahead towards 2030, which of these business areas, where will we be investing the most and why? Well, let's back up a bit. We have a very clear strategy for capital allocation. The most important thing is that we can be there, support and build the companies that we have in our portfolio. And then we want to be able to pay a steadily rising dividend. that's two. And three, we're also open to and we're actively looking for new opportunities. And then if we look at the 3 business areas, well, it is gratifying, of course, to see that in these different areas the last few years, we have invested in all 3 of them. And we will not -- or we haven't today a strategy where we say, no, this particular business area is to grow this much.
But we try to use this opportunity that we have 3 areas so that we can look at the different opportunities and what's best. And historically, we can see that a lot has been invested in Patricia Industries, and that is because we have seen opportunities in that portfolio. And if we look at things today, this pipeline is still very strong. But in 2025, we did invest in all 3 areas.
Okay. It's great to see so many shareholders here today. And we have a number of new shareholders since last year, some 70,000, I think, and we have 733,000 shareholders in investor today. And what do you think about this that we have so many new owners?
Well, great. It means a lot as a matter of fact. And it is proof, I would say, that there is a lot of interest in investor, and I and Christian and the executive team, the Board of Directors, we all think that, that's wonderful. But that also means that we have a responsibility to continue to invest and continue to do what Christian has highlighted here today. And as the Chair of the Board of Directors, well, it's a responsibility, of course. And it is important. I want to stress this. It is important that we have a dialogue around all these issues that we have touched upon today and that we do that on an ongoing basis that we talk about these issues. And we cannot get actively involved in everything that's happening around us. And as we've said already, these are very complex times, perhaps more so than ever before. But at the same time, I could say that it's exciting to be active.
Okay. Let's see if it now gets more complicated with the questions from the audience. We're going to open up. So if you have questions, then raise your hand. And I think we have someone there and someone well, at #9 as well. Please remember to let us know who you are before you ask your question, and we'll start with 9.
[indiscernible] is my name. I represent myself. One strength that I appreciate and have experienced with investors that you continue to take good care of having a possibility for an exchange of experience between portfolio companies between, for example, Chair Circle. We heard about the trip to China coming up. I'd be interested to hear a little bit more about the perspective of other topics that you've discussed over the past year and what -- how did they pay off? Let me first mention briefly some background, and you can tell us about the here and now. This started 50 years ago when the head of information from the companies were invited together and created a network. They set up a network where they met a few times a year. So you had somebody that you could talk to who wasn't a competitor. And then it's been opened up so that all CFOs have a network, all legal counsels, et cetera. There are a few networks.
So an informal network has been set up with an exchange of information, and it's meant that it's been possible to raise the bar for the knowledge that was needed, it built set up the stage for where we are now, tell us.
But it's a unique setup really. We have 24 or so portfolio companies where no one competes with any other one. And that's why we can gather tomorrow, we have a discussion of whether we can create a similar forum as Jacob outlined on digitalization and AI. Only today, we had a discussion about an exchange of experience with China in relation to China, what worked, what didn't work between the companies. It's a unique feature. And let me also add, you asked what this has meant. One of the clearest examples was the fact that when Atlas Copco was moving forward for decentralization as a role model company. I don't know any CEO who didn't call Ronnie Leten, who used to be the CEO at that time for Atlas Copco because they wanted to hear from him on his insights, good advice.
And this is something that Ronnie with great commitment was happy to be involved in. That's just one example. But it's just a very good example of how it can work really well. It's one thing to meet. You can have an agenda, you can have some external perspectives added and then you facilitate some sort of sharing. But where it becomes really interesting is when it takes on a life of its own, when Jacobs does one Head of Sustainability, for example, is there with a challenge. And just give makes a call to one of the civilian companies, then you really created something important.
Many questions. Let's deal with number one.
Thank you. I represent shareholders association and [indiscernible]. And you have been talking about sustainability. And we actually have a few questions about sustainability and how that is integrated in the work that you do and the follow-ups you have on portfolio companies. You can start perhaps.
Well, again, it is an integral part. And it is so because we have to have a sustainable company or it won't be competitive in the long run. And then you have to look at the different companies to see what it means. But as owners in concrete terms, we have expectations as to how they are to reduce Scope 1, Scope 2 emissions, also that they are to have strategic objectives, work with circularity, et cetera. And then the Board of Directors also discusses this. And we have to have a plan on what to do and also have clear follow-ups.
And then sometimes you also link this to incentives. And what do you do to impact portfolio companies so that they have clear sustainability objectives in their corporate governance?
Well, it's pretty much what I said. And Jacob has also mentioned this that end of last year, we upgraded the targets, also including climate, and we expect companies to adhere to those. And sustainability work in your portfolio companies, what type of follow-ups do you have? Well, of course, we look at it at an aggregate level with an investor. We did that at the Board meeting today. But the most important thing, the main bulk of the work that is being done in the respective company, and it has to be done that way with the model we have. The challenges and the opportunities are different for the different companies. But you have the same level of follow-ups for all companies. Do you follow up in the same manner for all companies? Yes. But of course, some of them are much more advanced and perhaps more sophisticated in the discussions that we have and other companies, it's more about getting them started.
And we will continue with #5.
[indiscernible] is my name. My question is a personal one. I'm thinking about hydrogen. Is that a good additional complement to the energy mix for Sweden generally?
Hydrogen. Well, hydrogen and hydrogen gas have been considered for a long time, a good addition. But currently, we note that there's no strong development in that area. There are a number of problems connected to this. It's very expensive to start with. It's cost inefficient. You take hydrogen, you have water, you extract hydrogen, you use it as a source of energy, but the process is very complex. It's difficult to transport. It's a high-risk activity, so much so that many have tried to find solutions, but we're not yet seeing any large-scale solutions, possibly somewhere, but it's not really expanding. So right now -- well, it could be a battery in the future. But right now, this is not something that we've identified as a viable alternative to the other options we already have. Then we have nuclear and offshore hydropower, et cetera, and wind.
Oswald is my name. I'm 17 years of age, and I represent myself. And my question, how to deal with an actor like the U.S. and also work with sovereignty within Europe, for example, with AI, when we rely on that infrastructure.
Well, a good question, a very good question. But I would say that there are 2 dimensions, one being integrity and how we make sure that it stays here, so to say. And I don't think that we should be using rules and regulations. I think that the EU, Europe is doing too much in terms of regulation because that hampers development. If we see the U.S. and China, well, they develop much faster. I would like to see that we have better incentives for a more rapid development so that we can compete on equal terms. But then there are many people who think in here as well, I'm sure also you have very strong opinions, many of you when it comes to the U.S. President.
But we have to distinguish between individual and relationships between nations because the latter is something much more long term. It's perpetual basically. And I personally, I do think that it is key that Sweden and the EU that we maintain the best possible relationship with the U.S. And we know that there have been ups and downs. But here and now, I do think that it's important for us to do that. And here, I also want to say that Sweden and the U.S. together have signed an agreement with a focus. It's a decision to focus according to what it's called [indiscernible], where it said that we should have that open exchange. And this is not about law, but that we are to have an exchange of technological developments so that we can learn from each other and that we should be able to send information in both directions.
And I do think that's immensely important. And I hope that we can deepen that so that we can have a long-term relationship with the U.S. And we should do the same thing with China. We need that relationship. And long term, we need to have that relationship with China. We have a mutual dependence between us and the U.S. us and China. And there, there can be specific questions, human rights in China, for example, where we have to stand up and fight for our values.
But at the same time, it must be possible to have a relationship with China, with the U.S. We might have our opinions on the precedent, but we still have to be able to maintain that relationship. And I apologize if this is somewhat lengthy as an answer, but I think this is very, very important. Thank you. I think we'll go to # 8 and then 4 after that.
[indiscernible] my name. I represent myself. I'm wondering what the Board of Directors do to constantly improve your work and your knowledge to secure competitiveness for future challenges.
Let me go first. The Board has an internal discussion ongoing on how we should work. But at the end of the day, it's based on the strategic work done in the businesses. So it's a bottom-up approach. The origin of this is the work of the company and its CEO, who will then raise this up to address at the level of the Board. That's where we discuss what we need to go -- where we need to go more in depth. And it has an impact on the Board. That's why we're going to China, for example, to learn more. But it's Christian and his team who drive the process and then we interact with them. And we have continually a follow-up process of the work that's being done.
If I can underline something, let me say that this specific point of making sure that you introduce external perspectives in that context, that's crucial. It could be listening to the CEOs of the companies, of course, but also try and look at what customers are saying, what does it look like in China, what happens in the U.S., et cetera. So it can be risky when things just go well fairly smoothly, you focus too much on the internal prospects. You need to remember what's happening in the world around us, technology, et cetera, et cetera. Number four.
[indiscernible] is my name, and this has to do with democracy. And it might seem a bit odd to ask this question here because we have this investor dialogue, the room is filled with people. And of course, it's great that you have this conversation with shareholders. But Sweden, we have close to 3 million shareholders, and I think we're kind of unique in that respect. And the investor alone over 700,000, I think that is a bit of a record as well. But at the same time, we see that ATMs, well, we have fewer and fewer shareholders attending. And Well, here today, obviously, well, most of us are a little bit older, one exception, one person being 17. But I'm thinking about investor in the olden days as well, you had special exhibits for young individuals. You were at exhibition center. And then in those days, there could be 3,000 shareholders attending an event. So what to do? Are you concerned about this?
The dialogue with shareholders that it's not just about speculating or hoping to get more money, how to get young individuals involved or is this kind of silly of me?
Well, I do agree as a matter of fact, I think that this is an excellent forum for us to meet with shareholders. And I do believe that -- well, sometimes there are discussions about whether we should have a good bag or more interesting sandwiches. But I do think that this opportunity to have an open dialogue, a 2-way communication, that is where we have the justification and what wants you to come here. That is our thinking, and we're happy to have you here. But it is very important. We would like to continue with this. And I want to add that what you're highlighting, it is a problem. It is. And there are many of you here today, and that is positive, of course.
And truth is what you're saying, we have less and less people coming to AGMs. And what we used to do at the stadium, well, I think that, that was extremely popular. But then we have to remember today that we also have digital means because we have more people attending digitally. Yes. But to have events like that, it is positive. And in the rest of the world, I have to say this is unique. They have annual general meetings, but then it's a formality. Usually, you only have employees there. So I do think that we can find and I hope we can find ways to improve this. But People today, they say using mutual funds, et cetera, well, that's a fact. But compared to last year, we have an increase here. So that is positive. That is a positive trend. Number 6.
[indiscernible] is my name. I was here last year as well, and I asked a question then about social democrats, but we can leave that aside and Trump. Now Trump has taken over Venezuela. They wanted to buy Greenland since you could have just ignored all of that and said, yes, why don't you pay with gold bars? So you don't have to worry more about that. But then they were going to take over Iran and then Trump wanted Cuba, he said, Elizabeth Santon went to the U.S., and she has some serious concerns about the U.S. sovereign debt. What is the U.S. going to do to deal with their situation when it comes to their indebtedness?
We have [indiscernible] in Europe as well with EUR 5,000 of an increase per second in their public debt. 117% of the GDP currently in France. And then currencies and then there's Iran. What's your question interruption? Yes, what's your perspective on the currencies and doing business, of course, you don't just want to be paid in sea shells or what have you. You'd like to be paid in something which has a permanent value. Well, but -- so let's take Iran. Should we try and answer the question. And the public deficit. Well, we are at very low levels in Sweden with the debt. giving us room to maneuver. All parties agree that we should allocate more money to defense. We will borrow money for some of that. I think that's the right decision under certain circumstances in a particular situation like this. I don't think it's good to have an indebtedness, which is too high. I'm going to leave to the Americans to decide what -- how to deal with their situation in the U.S.
I have no answer to that. But the matter of currencies generally is a very interesting one. Let's take another perspective on this. The euro, I think it would be interesting if Sweden actually in the sphere of politics and in look in depth into pros and cons with the euro because that's a discussion we should be having as far as I'm concerned. And the day when it's time to make a decision eventually on that matter, I don't think it should be by way of a referendum. It should rather be something based on factual elements and leave it to the politicians to make that decision considering all the factors because that's what they have to do. to take difficult decisions.
We're going to be democratic. I'm going to give the floor to point to [indiscernible]. Go ahead.
Well, I'm a shareholder, and I want to ask a question about the qualifying day when you [indiscernible] it. And I do see that there is good reasons perhaps that you have to take care of a child or something. And I hear many good arguments from trade unions. But we have a problem when this turns into a question for the elections. And do you think that there are any opportunities here?
Well, when it comes to that qualifying day, we have the people who decide to report that they're sick and can't work. And that doesn't have to do with having to take care of a sick child or bring the kids to preschool or something. The only thing we know is that there are numbers that are increasing and one might assume that people are not really as ill as they are. And perhaps that means that we aren't as efficient.
We work fewer hours in total compared to our competitors. And that is my perspective. And that is where we have the issue, how to maintain competitiveness. And that is a difficult issue. And I can say that, well, working from an office, there, of course, we have injustices. We have people who can work remotely from home, and we have others who have to go to their workplace. And I do believe that many things can be done efficiently from home, and you can also make your everyday life more efficient that way. But thinking about the team, the company when it comes to innovation and well, I think that it's important to meet.
And the two of you and the others here, you will meet again in 14 minutes. Thank you.
Shareholders, welcome to the Investor Annual General Meeting 2026, and I declare the meeting open. The first item on the agenda is election of the Chair of the meeting. And I would like to tell you at the same time that the Secretary for this AGM is Petra Hing, sitting next to me -- she is the General Counsel of the company, and she'll take the minutes here today. And here, we also have the CEO, President of the company, Christian Cederholm. The Nominations Committee has proposed lawyer [indiscernible] to chair the meeting, and she is here next to me as well. Can the meeting approve that proposal?
Thank you. Thank you, and I thank for that confidence shown in me. Before we continue with the other agenda items, I have a few practical matters. The Board of Directors has decided to make this AGM more available by awarding shareholders and others the opportunity to follow the AGM via a webcast on the company's website and also allowing other shareholders to participate here as guests and only the podium and the rostrum will be filmed.
When arriving here today, we're giving a voting device and voting devices are to be used where we need a qualified majority to make resolutions. And that being said, I would like to hand over again to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jacob Wallenberg.
Honored shareholders, again, welcome to this investor AGM 2026 at the China, and this year as well, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for the very nice investor dialogue that we've just had. And I have to say it's more than a tradition. It's a way to, in a more informal manner, talk with shareholders and have those conversations. And I and Christian, we cherish that opportunity.
15 years. Well, that is the number of consecutive years during which investor has succeeded in outperforming the market and provide a higher return. And I and investor, we're immensely proud over this fact. And I do believe that I share that pride with all of you here today. And now please do not misunderstand me. These 15 years, well, it's so much more than investor. It's, first and foremost, proof that every day in our companies, we have very hard work that is being done to be at the forefront all the time. And this is being done by many amazing people. In times like these, where we have a new world order that is so complex, the future proofing.
And those thoughts, well, it's a particular importance when the world is changing this rapidly. Well, in addition to navigating this and delivering here and now, it's also particularly important to try to understand those trends, new areas, sectors, markets and what will be decisive for all these amazing companies 2 years from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now. How can we work smarter than competitors? Can we use artificial intelligence? And we talked about this earlier here today that artificial intelligence is here to stay and things happen rapidly.
We -- our companies, we have to keep up regardless of whether we want it or not or it will be very, very difficult out there. And then we also have to remember that we have to make sure that we have the most sustainable and the most efficient companies in the world because the resources will not last forever. And how can we and our companies learn from what is happening right now in China. We see how they, for example, shorten developing times, produce in more efficient manners more so than anyone else. And at the same time, they're becoming more and more competitive, and they're even becoming leaders in one sector after another. And I've already mentioned this here today that if I've understood things correctly, it takes them about 1.5, 2 years to produce a new car, a new model. And in Germany, it will take 4, 5 years.
And then the question for us is how to become more competitive. And I do believe that we have to. We have to have the best leaders, the best coworkers, and we have to be there where things happen. We have to learn from those who are at the forefront. And that is our obligation, and that's also part of our business model. We have to do what we can to optimize our preconditions, the preconditions of our companies.
In our annual report, I wrote that a significant part of what we see in trade policy and rules that are to create stability, what we have had historically in the world trade organization, for example, globalization and those ideas, all those things that we have gotten used to, they are now gone, and we see a new protectionist society and polarization in the world today is a fact. And then it's even more important that we act with the decisiveness. And we have to follow and try to wherever we can influence in Sweden, in the Nordics and in Europe. In Sweden, well, our companies, of course, they also have to be given the best possible political preconditions so that they become as competitive as they possibly can be. And the vision of a more developed Nordic collaboration with a platform that would give us a strong voice in Europe.
That is something that we have to cherish. The 5 Nordic countries together, our combined economies, that's the 12th largest economy in the world, and that is a platform we should avail ourselves of. We need United Nordics. We need companies to have access to the European shingled market. And in Europe, we also have to have that capability to build partnerships with the world outside of Europe like Merc, and we also have India to give a couple of examples of newer agreements. But at the same time, we have to invest more in infrastructure, physical infrastructure tracks, roads, well-known questions in our country, but also digital infrastructure, energy.
We need nuclear power, wind, energy. We need to invest more in R&D, technology. And we have to continue to agree on more appropriate regulations as well because, unfortunately, in Sweden and in Europe, we're not doing what we should. We cannot stand still. Christian recently said this when we introduced our interim report. He said, if we snooz, we lose. If we snooze, if we fall a sleep at the wheel, well, that will not be a good thing. And we, our companies, our colleagues with all of us, we have to be very alert in these challenging times. The challenges are many, but there are also amazing opportunities. And last but not least, I would like to turn to you and say thank you. Thank you, dear co-shareholders, more than 700 here today. And this is a very select gathering that we have here. We have heard this already today. We have more than 730,000 shareholders today in investor. And a big thank you to all of you for your support and your confidence. And again, welcome to this year's Annual General Meeting.
Thank you very much. Now it's time to resolve on Item 2, which is the drawing up and the approval of the voting list. Participation and attendance today can be done in different ways. In addition to shareholders present here today, there are some shareholders who have submitted postal votes, and we have a list of participants and a compilation of the postal votes submitted up here on the podium. And we see that the postal votes constitute approximately 80% of the shares and 87% of the votes in the list of participants.
For shareholders who have submitted a postal vote and who've also notified for attendance here today and who are in attendance, the postal vote remains valid unless the shareholder chooses to notify us that they would like to revoke the postal vote. The voting list, which is proposed to be adopted is one which has been established by Euroclear Sweden AB requested by the company. It's based on the shareholders' register, the number of shareholders who have registered and the number of postal votes received.
This list has been distributed here and every shareholder who've notified the company and who've arrived here today have been ticked off and all shareholders who submitted postal votes have also been ticked off against this list. And shareholders who have been registered to attend the meeting but who did not arrive and register and who did not submit postal votes have been deleted from the list. And let's therefore propose that the list with the mentioned adjustments be adopted as the list of the voting for the meeting. And we have a total of 57% of all the shares and 78% of the number of votes in the companies that are represented here at today's meeting. And I ask if the meeting is prepared to approve this as the voting list.
[Voting]
Thank you. That's carried. Item 3, the approval of the agenda is next. The agenda was included in the convening notice that's been distributed here. Can we adopt the agenda?
Thank you. That's approved. Item 4, election of persons to attest to the accuracy of the minutes. The Secretary has spoken to Fredrik [indiscernible] of SEB Asset Management for this task. They've declared to be prepared to accept this assignment. Can I ask you to stand up for a moment, please, so that we can verify that you are here over there and over there. Thank you very much.
Can the meeting elect as the nominees for this assignment?
Thank you.
And that takes us to Item 5, where we have determination of whether the meeting has been duly convened. And I find that notice has been given in accordance with the Companies Act and the Articles of Association. Can the meeting determine that it has been duly convened that is carried. Thank you. And then we have Item 6, where we have presentation of the parent companies and the consolidated annual report, financial statements and the auditor's report and the auditor's report for the sustainability report. And these documents have been sent out to shareholders who have requested to receive them and they've been available at the company's premises and website and been available here today. So the documents have been duly presented.
We're now going to hear from the auditor to start with. And then we'll also hear from the CEO, President. And then after that, we'll also open up for shareholders to ask questions or present comments. But right now, I would like to hand over to the chartered accountant, Jonas Stroberg from Deloitte.
Thank you. Well, that is my name is Jonas Stberg, representative Deloitte, and I'm the lead auditor for this audit of the investor. We have presented an unqualified auditor's report for 2025. We find it in the annual report, Pages 183 to 185. And I'm going to get back to the conclusions in that auditor's report. But before doing so, a few comments, if you allow me. I would like to remind you about the fact that the audit of investors is carried out by a central team in Stockholm with local teams for the subsidiaries.
And we give instructions to those auditors of the subsidiaries as to when and how to carry out that audit, and we have ongoing contacts with those teams, and they report to us on an ongoing basis. This year, we have also had a deeper reconciliation with the team working with Nora and Biomedical due to the acquisition that was carried out by Advanced Instruments in 2025. At the beginning of the financial year, we introduced our audit plan for the Audit and Risk Committee. And we've also on an ongoing basis, reported our audit and the results of it to them. We have done this on 6 occasions orally and in writing.
And together with the closing of the books, we also met with the entire Board of Directors where we give an account of the outcome of our audit. And we also had a discussion with the Board of Directors without executive management being present in accordance with the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. The audit of investor, well, there are many areas that are audited, but there are 3 that are so-called key audit matters. They are described in the annual report, and they are the same as previous years.
We have internal governance over financial reporting, where the most important thing is the subsidiaries that we have in the group. Then we have valuation of listed and unlisted investments where we have significant values in the balance sheet. And then we also have valuation of goodwill, where we also had significant amounts in the balance sheet growing because of acquisitions. When it comes to the first area, we have looked at how management governs and instructs subsidiaries so that they follow the principles that have been decided on by investor for their reporting.
And here, we have also ensured that there are appropriate routines for quality insurance. And our conclusion is that investor has well-functioning routines within this area. The second area is processes for valuation of other investments listed and unlisted. And here as well, our opinion is that investor has good appropriate routines that are applied consistently over time. And that is particularly important for unlisted assets. Then we have the third area, which is investor and how it assesses goodwill and balance sheet.
And here, we have looked at methods and the valuations, assumptions that have been used by management. to do impairment testing as they are called. And we have found that the values are defensible. There is one exception, and that is Atlas antibodies and that goodwill value, where this year, there was an impairment of around SEK 1.4 billion. We have looked at that impairment, and we agreed in that size of that impairment being correct. And this is also relevant and the relevant information is there in the annual report.
We have also, in addition, presented 2 separate opinions and both of them are unqualified. The first one is our limited insurance report on the sustainability statement, something that is statutory, and you find that on Pages 186, 187 in the annual report, where we feel that it is in compliance with the annual accounts Act and standards. We've also looked at the compliance with guidelines for remuneration to senior executives and that information has been sent out and we haven't had any findings here either. So we feel that the financial reporting of investor gives a fair accurate view and has been established in accordance with applicable rules. And as you can see from the auditor's report, we recommended that the AGM adopt the income statement and the balance sheet for the company and the group and the profit be appropriated as proposed and that the Board of Directors and CEO President be granted [ to ] discharge. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Item 7, and I'm going to give the floor to Christian Federholm, CEO, for his address.
Thank you, Chair. esteemed shareholders, guests. Once again, -- we note that the past year was an eventful one to say the least. Investor has been building leading companies for over 100 years through downturns and upturns in the business cycles through technological shifts and different situations in the world around us. And just as Jacob mentioned, there is certainly no lack of challenges, geopolitical tensions, including 2 and more ongoing wars, being wage protectionist tendencies, sharpened competitive included ever more powerful Chinese competitors and the technological shift with AI, which is perhaps the greatest shift witnessed since the electrification.
The list goes on and on. In a world such as this, we and our businesses need to be able to deal with 2 things at the same time. We need to be flexible, and we need to adapt to deal with the world around us the way it looks here and now. And at the same time, we need to keep focus on the cap that we've set for us. Many of our companies, for example, need to deal with an increase in oil prices and disruptions of supply chains as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, while at the same time, maintaining their focus on R&D. If we and our companies can succeed with sufficient speed moving forward, we can continue to build the values for people and for the community by building strong and sustainable companies. 733,000 shareholders have chosen to show us confidence.
We are grateful and proud of this. And as Jacob pointed out, we sense the responsibility. We're also proud to be an important part of a relevant ecosystem, which is unique. Since 1917, the Wallenberg foundations have been the largest owner of Investor with the aim of promoting Sweden's development in R&D. All in all, the foundations have granted over SEK 50 billion allocated to long-term investments between research and industry. Investor's role in the ecosystem is basically to build strong and sustainable, resilient companies that will build value and generate an increase in dividend over time to the foundations and to the other more than 733,000 shareholders. This is the core of Investor.
World-class companies with strong market positions in attractive growth areas, companies that build values for their customers, for investor and for investor shareholders in the end. We often say that the way our companies perform, Investor also performs. As a result of the excellent work in our companies in 2025, '25 was a strong year also for Investor. It was indeed a year with high levels of activity. Let me give you some examples. The listed companies generated a profit growth of approximately 9%. Several major investments were announced. For example, AstraZeneca's extensive investments in both R&D and production in both the U.S. and China. Many companies completed add-on acquisitions in addition to organic growth. [indiscernible] and ABB are examples of companies who've also continued to fine-tune their activities by divesting business which were considered noncore.
Our companies in Patricia Industries generated an organic sales growth of 4%. The profit decreased to some extent due to the headwinds from the weaker dollar. But in addition, there were a number of add-on acquisitions as a complement to organic growth here as well. Advanced Instruments acquired Nova Biomedical for $2.2 billion, making it investor's largest acquisition ever. We are convinced of the strength of this combined deal and the integration has started and got off to an excellent start. We have also high level of activity with investments in equity, the joint investment of Fortnox and acquisition of shares in Equity AB equity.
All in all, Investor made significant investments in all 3 business areas. All in all, SEK 29 billion in 2025, all of those investments in companies where we see good preconditions for long-term value creation. Our net asset value was up by 14% and amounted to SEK 1,087 billion at the end of the year. The total return for the Investor share amounted to 15%, and that's what I wanted to tell you about 2025. Investor has a clear transparent strategy moving forward. The strategy has been made clearer and has been simplified, but the cap, the direction is the same. The overall objective is, of course, to generate an attractive total return to you as shareholders. And we do this by growing net asset value over time, pay continuously increasing dividend and by focusing on efficiency and sustainability.
And to achieve all this, we focus on our strategic pillars, our framework for future proofing, if you will, performance, portfolio and people, our 3 key factors. Growing the net asset value is our single most important value driver over time. Over the past 5 years, net asset value is up by 14% per year on average. profit growth and an increased cash flow in the companies are the final drivers behind net asset value and total return. When the companies develop well, it's a very gratifying task to be a shareholder and the CEO of investor. And we will pay continuously increasing dividend over the past 10 years. We've seen an increase in dividends by 8% on average per year, provided that today's AGM will resolve, of course, to adopt the Board's proposal to pay a dividend of SEK 5.60 per share.
Efficiency and sustainability are integrated parts of our value creation. We have an efficient organization with low management costs, not least in relation to our total assets. This is important because it safeguards our capacity for investment and dividend payment. We are proud but never satisfied. And in that spirit, we continue to constantly challenge our working methods, including to explore and implement AI to build efficiency and take even better decisions over time.
To us, sustainability is a basic prerequisite for long-term competitiveness as we discussed earlier today. The transition towards CO2 reduction and reduction of greenhouse gases is a way of building strong business while also benefiting the climate. And in 2025, we took several steps, very important ones forward and the work continues. We have 3 focus areas: climate and circularity, diversity and inclusion and business ethics and governance. In climate and circularity, the company has reduced its direct emissions, Scope 1 and 2, that is by 74% compared to 2016.
Almost all the companies in our portfolio work in a systematic way with inclusion and all companies have supplier codes of conduct. Our 3 different objectives support our overall objective of generation of attractive total return. And if we look at the situation so far, we follow the development on a continuous basis. It's the longer time elements which are more relevant to look at the brighter part -- the columns here represent the annual average return for the Class B shares. It is higher, as you can see, than the dotted line and the other columns, we see that we've overperformed the return requirements and the market.
And let's remind us here as well that the important thing is to have good return over time, not to overperform the market, outperform it every single year. I would then like to talk a little bit more about our strategic pillars, the focus areas that are to help us to drive the value creation and future-proof ourselves and there are companies, the performance portfolio and the people, our 3Ps, performance. It is about delivering results and profitable growth here and now and at the same time, invest in the future. As long-term owners, we have to be able to deal with both these things at the same time. Our company's capability to generate profitable growth is the single most important driver for net asset value over time. And it is about customer value and to what extent our companies can create that customer value so that we get profits, profits that can then be invested so that we can future-proof activities. And future-proofing is about innovation.
And very often, our companies are market leaders, thanks to the productions -- products and services they develop. And we have to continue and the goal has to be to improve lives and business for our customers. It does happen that companies do not develop in line with their potential. And when that happens, we, as owners, we have to ensure, one, that we are in agreement with the executive team and the Board as to what the problem is, two, we have to have a plan to rectify this. And three, we have to make sure that we have the right people around the table in management on the Board so that we can execute. Sometimes this is quickly corrected and other times, unfortunately, it takes a bit longer.
Our portfolio, well, it is about investor and all our companies having an ambition to have long-term growth. And the cash flow that we have gives us an opportunity and a responsibility to invest more over time. more than we have been able to historically so that we can continuously develop our portfolio. And of course, we do this in addition to all the excellent work that is being done in all the specific companies. Well, to work with the portfolio, that also means that sometimes we leave certain businesses where we feel that a company can find a better home with another owner. We cherish our financial flexibility, which means that we can act quickly when necessary. And then the third P, people.
We ensure that we have the right leadership by appointing a Board of Directors that appoint a CEO President. We have to have the right agenda and the right values to drive long-term value creation. And it's about understanding what to do and also to ensure that these individuals have the sufficient pace that is necessary. And we maintain high business integrity. We respect our values and we do the right thing even if it's difficult, even costs us in a shorter perspective.
But in a perpetual perspective, there is never the right time to compromise on values. To embrace new technology, that is about creating the right preconditions for our companies and our employees so that we have the right skills and competencies, investment and structures to drive innovation and test new things. So here, we have our 3 Ps: performance, portfolio and people. And this is what drive us forward. And our focus is always on going forward. And there are 3 areas that are of particular importance and that are of interest because this will have an impact on us and our companies for long term. Innovation. Innovation is absolutely decisive for competitiveness over time. And for us, that begins with an obsession to develop better solutions for customers, users, occasions. That is the foundation.
That is what gives us a reason for being for a company. And here, we have the right preconditions, but we also have sharp competition. We have already mentioned China. They used to compete with low costs and okay quality. But today, many Chinese companies in a very strikingly short period of time have forged ahead, advanced their positions. So in many sectors today, we see that those Chinese actors, they are there, they're quick. They use innovation and they apply new technology. And this means that our companies that we have strong positions today, but we have to continue to work harder more rapidly to stay ahead. Digitalization and AI. Well, here, we have many opportunities in all our companies throughout the value chain. from R&D to production to aftermarket.
And we see many promising examples as to how AI can shorten development cycles, create more efficient businesses and improve products and offerings. Ericsson, for example, is using AI to optimize investments and operations of mobile networks. Sobi is using AI models to find new applications for their medicines. And there are many, many good examples. But at the same time, this is only the beginning of this journey. Technology, well, usually, that is not the bottleneck. It's rather our own capacity, innovation and willingness to change. That is what sets the limits. And one thing I know for sure, if we do not do this, then we will be outrun. Our role as engaged owners is to encourage and push for new investments in technologies, efficiencies and make sure that we have sharper and sharper offerings from our companies.
Sustainability, that is also key for competitiveness over time. And our companies are doing excellent work when it comes to reducing emissions in Scope 1 and 2 through electrification, making things more efficient and using renewables. But the main emissions we have in the value chain in Scope 3, and that is where we have the biggest business opportunities as well, we feel. 90% of our portfolio companies' total emissions come from the use of the products with customers.
So when Ericsson, ABB, Atlas [indiscernible], when they develop new, more energy-efficient solutions that creates a direct added value for the customer because it brings energy costs down and at the same time, we reduced emissions of carbon dioxide. And that is just one example as to how the climate transition has a business value. I would also like to highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion. Lately, this has become somewhat polarized. But we think that it's quite simple. We believe in meritocracy and we believe that groups where we have different backgrounds and perspectives that they make better decisions over time. And to attract the most skilled coworkers. We have to recruit from that entire talent pool, and we have to make sure that everyone is given the same opportunity to develop. And that is why we stick to our ambition when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Finally, the world around us will continue to offer challenges. But we have seen from history that at the same time, this create opportunities for strong companies to forge ahead to move forward.
And we -- our task is to navigate and also to capture those opportunities. We have a strong starting point, a clear purpose, a clear strategy. We have an attractive portfolio with strong companies, and we have a tried and tested ownership model. We have financial flexibility. And not least, we also have amazing coworkers at Investor and also in the companies. And here, I would like to take the opportunity to extend a big thank you to all these people in the companies and an investor. Your strong drive and your excellent work makes all the difference. We continue to have high ambitions as engaged owners, strong companies, and we continue to keep our focus on the 3 Ps: performance, portfolio and people. And we have all the necessary preconditions to continue to create value for you, the shareholders. Thank you. Thank you for your confidence. Thank you very much.
And now the floor is open for questions and comments from shareholders. And we have our officials with the roving microphone. So any shareholder who would like to take the floor, raise your hand, and we will bring a microphone to you. And we're very grateful if you can start by introducing yourself before you ask your question.
Microphone number one. Over there.
My name is Alexander Fernanda, and I represent the [ Folksam ] Group. We always ask a question related to sustainability at the AGM. And this year, we're focusing on climate and the environment once again. Then I have a question for the CEO. You're describing in your annual report that resource utilization in the circular economy have a significant impact and is of strategic importance, both in the subsidiaries and the portfolio companies. And at the same time, the work is at quite an early stage in many cases, under the level of ambition varies. How do you perceive investors' role as an active owner in strengthening and further developing circular solutions, both in the portfolio and the companies and the subsidiaries.
Thank you very much for that question. As I emphasized earlier, sustainability is a crucial component. But at the end of the day, it's about being competitive over time, we've talked a lot about the climate, both in terms of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, measuring scopes 1, 2 and 3. And as of this year, you will have noticed, we also have explicit targets for circularity as well.
And the good thing about all this is that here, and in the larger -- in the scope of the larger challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have a moral responsibility to do better for the next generations to take better care of this globe, also benefits to future generations and our businesses circularity [indiscernible] at a later stage, but it's linked very well in with what we've already talked about.
Let me give you a few examples. If we look at the emissions by 1 company moving up from the suppliers up through the value chain with circularity at an early design stage, you can make sure you use less materials, recycled materials, the life cycle of a product can be extended, and need more material over time, therefore. And if you look at the other end, the lifetime and the life span of a product at the customers, you could have a good service offerings, making sure that machines can run for a long time with no disruptions. And once again, this is clearly linked to value for the customer. So just as the other areas, it's very much linked to our business.
Hello, [indiscernible] is my name. Now there's one [indiscernible] where I feel like you have talked about it today, and well, if you're involved at all, but what I'm thinking about is something that is becoming quite important. I'm thinking about the geopolitical situation on one hand, but then also have to be able to manage environmental changes in an efficient manner. And as a matter of fact, what I'm thinking about that is base and how to develop the best technology to be there. And well, that takes us back to China, and they have invested a lot, and they've also taken market shares, invested in America and other places as well. And I feel that Sweden is not on board. I don't know if you're involved somehow, but I would like to know how if so?
Well, thank you. Thank you for that question. And this is immensely pricing and a lot of things are happening in China, in the U.S., but it's a matter of fact also in Europe and in the Nordics, and we have a couple of companies that build more, which based than others [indiscernible] Ericsson, for example -- Ericsson, for example, they have tens of thousands of low-orbit satellites, which means that they basically have a global coverage for a satellite phone today. And then you could link that to the network that we have on Earch. Well, [indiscernible] something exciting and will be there.
[indiscernible] Peterson is my name. I'm retired now. But I'm proud to say that I worked for 35 years for ABB. It's an extraordinary company. I have a practical question about AI competence and skills supply. How do you find that competence. Do you have it at the Board of Directors level? I understand this bottom up. But it's something that many people don't know very much about [indiscernible].
Thank you for that question. You're very spot on in those remarks. And this is certainly one of the major challenges, but many of us here today do not have our own experience to be able to drive the required technology shift. If we look at the talent pool and supply of skills, we have a benefit in investor and as in the companies that we have strong value brands, able to attract individuals also in the new really -- red hot areas. So talent supply is a constant battle. We're waging a war to get the people we need. We will get there, but it's only early stage of this journey. Would you like to say anything?
Yes, for the Board, the way we try to relate to this matter is this. We make sure that -- people with some sort of background in AI and experience of it. We have a number of people, 1/3 of the Board bring different types of experience to the work of the Board. So that's one point of reference when we discuss AI-related issues. But of course, we also, in different ways, need to delve deeper and a number of the members of the Board take part in different training events and themes, not least together with senior management of investors, et cetera. But it's very important what you're underlying in your comment, it's still very early days. Very few people have the necessary competence. We all need to learn a lot more about this.
Well, thank you. I represent Shareholders Association and [indiscernible]. And I'm thinking about gender distribution and the plan that we have ahead for even the numbers out. I do think [indiscernible] competences are more important perhaps myself.
Well, thank you. Well, yes, we do have a target objectives for our own Board of Directors and also for the Boards of our companies. And we say that somewhere around 40% to 60% of whatever gender. And we are well on our way on that. This is a journey. The portfolio companies, on average, are at around 40%. And we're headed there in the executive teams as well in the companies. And, well, like you're saying, it's mainly about skills and competencies, of course. But if we look at both the distribution was 10 or 20 years ago, I don't think that, that truly reflected the skills and competencies. We did not have enough even then in particularly in some of the sectors. Are you happy with that reply.
I don't see any further requests. If so, I find that we have dealt with Item 7 on today's agenda.
Now moving on that brings us to Item 8. The adoption of the income statement and balance sheet for the parent company and for the group. We've heard that the auditor is in favor [indiscernible] these income statement and balance sheet. Thank you. That's adopted.
Moving on to Item 9, which is the presentation of the Board of Directors' Remuneration Report. The report is part of the material distributed here today. It's been available on the company's website and have been sent out to shareholders who requested to receive it. Are there any questions and comments on the remuneration report? I don't see anyone questing the floor and ask the meeting can approve this report. Thank you.
And I said that takes us to Item 10 where we have discharged from the ability for the Board of Directors and the President for the management of the company, 2025. We've [indiscernible] chart, we would like to note the [indiscernible] Board members and the CEO will not vote under this resolution, and I ask the meeting if the meeting can granted this chart so that is carried. If there is a question or comment?
[Operator Instructions] is my name and I represent 400 shares. So I apologize my voice isn't the best today. Honored shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, this is an important day for all of us. We can -- because the Board of Directors and the management, but we -- should I think we should deny this charge for 2025. We have remembered the [indiscernible] were murdered by the Nazis and we had the deliveries from investor and the [indiscernible] in Gothenburg to those forces and investor could have stopped at any time those deliveries to Germany, but that was not done and the United States of America plant sanctions towards that company. And one of the brothers also got the German iron cross. And a prosecutor should look at [indiscernible] to Jacob Balenberg for war crimes and crimes against the divinity. And that should reward him 18 to 20 years of imprisonment.
And then Mr. Budenberg will be 90 years of age and I will 100, and that will then be a good meeting. Thank you.
Thank you. Then we have heard [indiscernible] that you're against this is church, but this charge has also been granted to all directors and the CEO, President. So we will continue.
Item 11. And here, we have this possession of investor earnings. And you have the opinion on Page 182 in the annual report from the Board of Directors and the Board of Directors proposes a dividend of EUR 5.60 per share, split in 2 installments, and that's the risk be carried forward. The first installment of that proposal is that [indiscernible] paid with the record date of May 11 and on the second installment of EUR 1.60 per share with a record date of being November 9. And we have heard the auditor recommending this, can the meeting vote as proposed that is carried.
We have a number of items on the agenda where we have proposals from the Nominations Committee. And before we succeed with the resolutions. I'm going to give the floor to the Chair [indiscernible] you want some to present the proposals from the Nomination Committee.
Just deal with my pollen allergy for a moment before I tell you everything. The team shareholders and participants at today's AGM, the Nomination Committee for this year's AGM was mid of [indiscernible], Chair of Investor [ Caterina RoboAMF, Magnus Carlsson ] [indiscernible] and myself, Leif Johansson appointed by the [indiscernible] foundations. The proposals from the Nomination Committee, the reason the opinion and our presentation can be found in the materials distributed here today. And therefore, I will only very briefly present our proposals to you now.
Starting with the composition of the Board. It is the impression and opinion of the Nomination Committee that the work of the Board of Directors of investor is functioning well. We have availed ourselves amongst the times of an evaluation of the work of the Board as part of our assessment. The Nomination Committee has also noted that there is high levels of attendance at the Board meetings. And in order to assess the requirements placed on the Board of Directors as a result of the company's challenges and future focus, Nomination Committee has discussed the matter of the size and composition of the Board of Directors.
An important point of departure was the principle that the composition of the Board shall reflect and give room for the different skills and experiences that are needed in order to support and develop the active owner philosophy of investor as well as the long-term active involvement as an owner. We've also been informed that Board members, [indiscernible] have declined reelection.
The Nomination Committee proposes a reelection of all other members of the Board, and you can see the proposal up here on the screen. The committee's proposal means that the number of board members is reduced to 11 in line with the committee's ambition to achieve a certain reduction of the size of the Board of Directors, and we've assessed that the composition is fit for purpose and is characterized by a breadth of confidence skills and experience in areas which are strategic importance to investors. And we furthermore proposed that [indiscernible] reelected as Chair of the Board. And that brings you then to the Board B.
The Nomination Committee's proposal that you can see up here on the screen. The starting point being that the fee level should be competitive in order to allow us to attract and retain individuals with the best possible skills and experience also from an international perspective. In our assessment, among other things, we've looked at analysis, covering Board remuneration in different European countries, and we see that there's still a significant difference between the Board fees and Swedish-listed company and corresponding levels internationally.
Against this backdrop, the Nomination Committee is proposing an average increase of the fees by approximately 7%. And in line with last year, we recommend to the Board to adopt a policy, which means that the shareholding of Director on the Board after 5 years should correspond to at least the fee of 1.5 years of directorship pretax. And in order to facilitate such a holding, we propose that we retain the possibility for individual directors to receive up to 50% of the Board fee in the form of synthetic shares. [indiscernible] Nomination Committee proposals in accordance with the Audit and Risk Committee recommendation to elect Deloitte for 1 for the year, the reelection. And when it comes to fees for the auditors, we propose that fees for the orders be paid according to approved invoice.
And by way of conclusion, I would like to thank the other members of the Nominations Committee for excellent cooperation. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions for the Nominations Committee at this stage. No, I don't see any request. Thank you very much for that presentation.
We proceed with the decision, starting with 12a, the number of members. You've heard the Nomination Committee's proposal. Does the meeting resolve in accordance with this proposal? Yes, that's carried it.
Moving on to 12b, number of auditors. You heard the proposal is the meeting in favor? [indiscernible].
I'm pleased to continue with Item 13 where we have compensation for Board of Directors and auditors, who will begin with 13a Board fees. We refer to the proposal from the Nomination Committee, can the meeting results accordingly. There is a question, so if we could have a microphone station.
Well, it looks like there are 8 plus 2 people receiving those fees. But aren't you [indiscernible] well, the CEO does not receive this fee?
And 13a, just start with the Board fees. We've heard the proposal from the Nomination Committee. Can the meeting resolve accordingly that is carried.
And then we continue with this 13b, compensation for the auditor. We have heard the proposal from the Nomination Committee. Does the meeting wish to result accordingly. That is also carried.
And then that takes us to Item 14 where we have election of members of the Board of Directors at the meeting has decided on 11 members. We've heard the proposal from the Nomination Committee and on the count of other [indiscernible] have in other companies that is included in the documentation that has been distributed here today and has also been sent out to those wish to receive it and has been available on the company's website. We're going to resolve and we are going to vote on 1 person at a time in the order they were suggested by the Nominations Committee. And I ask the meeting if the meeting [indiscernible].
And I find that the meeting has certified as is suggested by the Nominations Committee. Before we proceed, I would like to hand over to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, [indiscernible].
And I would like to, after the elections of today, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thank you, and thank you to the Board of Directors to those directors who are stepping down [indiscernible] and Tom Duston. Unfortunately, Isabel couldn't be here today, but she has been on the Board of Directors for 5 years, and she leaves clear impression. And we want to say thank you to have the Board member that is worked outside of Sweden, well, that is important perspective. We've talked about that earlier today. And I and the other members of the Board will miss Isabel's contributions well informed -- contributions in our discussions is very knowledgeable as a business leader and [indiscernible] has a lot of experience from energy and transition issues and we are going to say thank you to her in person later on.
But now I would like to turn to Tom. Tom?
Tom, you do understand [indiscernible] I will be speaking in Swedish, if that is okay?
And I am very happy to be able to in person comes here and thank you from me and the Board of Directors. Thank you for all the work that you've done for the Investor Board of Directors and the Remuneration Committee for many years. You entered -- came on to the Board in 2010. You were still the President of SKF, and you had done an amazing journey within that company. You were part of developing that company for almost 40 years and your career and your contribution to Sweden, [indiscernible] trading business, but it can not to be overestimated. And this is not just me saying this or my [indiscernible] or my brother who is here today, you've also received distinctions from the Swedish King for your personal services to Sweden and Swedish interest and [indiscernible] from the British Queen for what you have done in the United Kingdom. So you see a bridge between cultures.
And with all of our experience and great competence you have contributed to not only investor, but also the portfolio companies in this larger ecosystem. You've had roles [indiscernible] for example. And we know Tom, that you have worked a lot and how involved you have been? And you always give everything you have to give. And Tom, you're very experienced, wise, knowledgeable person and you have been a major asset for investors. But we have had meetings, but I know that the sharp, profound, but you're also [indiscernible] dynamic and very curious and you have that ability, an amazing ability to see new perspectives and also to find solutions on very complex problems.
And you contribute is that you share your experiences. For example through mentorship in our ecosystem. And your mentor -- have been a mentor for [indiscernible] coworkers, and we are very, very grateful. And we will miss your energy, curiosity and your nice laughter. And you will be dearly missed in this group of directors.
And one more time, I want to say thank you for everything you've done. And as a traditional, some flowers for you. And I also want to shake your hand. Thank you.
And then we continue with Item 16, where we have election of Chair of the Board of Directors, proposal from the Nomination Committee, [indiscernible] be elected and ask the meeting if [indiscernible] And that is carried.
And we continue with Item 16, where we have election of auditors. We have heard a proposal from the Nominations Committee, reelection of Deloitte AB is just the meeting wish to resolve as proposed that is carried.
Item 17A and B next. The Board's proposal for long-term variable remuneration. Let me to sub items to resolve upon the proposals are contained in the material distributed here today, have been available on this website and then send out to those who request to receive it. And before we proceed with the resolution, I'm going to give the floor to the Chair of the Board, [indiscernible]. Thank you very much.
The Investor Board of Directors have presented an LTVR, a long-term variable remuneration plan for 2026, which is main components is in line with the program and the plans. Results upon by the 2025 AGM to ensure that investor is competitive and that we can offer efficient long-term so-called incentive plan that will allow us to attract and retain key competence. There are a few adjustments that are proposed this year.
While they in themselves do not entail any major differences here now, I would like to highlight them to the AGM nevertheless. First of all, we propose to set an increased [indiscernible] not distribution, but savings for the brand value, which can be used moving forward in the future to be able to offer higher components of variable remuneration as a part of total compensation. In addition, a number of adjustments are made for Patricia Industries with the aim of amongst other things, adapting the plan to current market practice in the U.S. for U.S. people. And performance requirements in [indiscernible] plan have been adjusted to be more in line with the requirements within investor. So that was briefly a few words on the adjustments. And if there are any questions, I'm very happy to answer that, of course. And I think that there is a question over there speaking point number two.
I'm an individual shareholder. For the third time this week at the third AGM, I would like to speak against these programs. They're not good. They're making things less transparent. It's one of the least transparent points. 9 pages, 11 pages consultants to produce all of this. Nobody can comprehend it really, except possibly the consultants themselves, and those who are directly concerned and covered by them. Now please bear in mind, I'm not challenging the level of compensation for the senior executives per se, but I think it should be done in a much more transparent way. There was 1 meeting where the CEO received EUR 9 million, but actually EUR 20 million through the programs. And 2 days ago, we [indiscernible] in the newspaper, [indiscernible] it, where the share has dropped 80%, but senior executives have been paid very large amount of money, in billions through these programs. I would appeal to the Board of Directors.
I understand that you won't be taking back this proposal this year, but review them, pay more indirect remuneration, have bonus programs for the entire group of employees, if you exceed a certain result level, et cetera. And I'll remind you of the debacle of Skandia for 22 years ago where the company nearly went bust and cease to exist, although there are some remnants left as a result of these horrific programs designed by them that nobody could understand and I'm turning not just to the Investor Board of Directors, but to all the institutional large owners of investor and all the other companies for that matter in the business community.
Thank you for those reflections. If as you say, you do not object as a point of principle to the level of remuneration is how rather than the what. My view is, but what we're looking to achieve is that we want to have an incentive for the employees, in particular, those in senior executive positions, but for all employees, whereby if investor develops well, they should be able to get more remuneration than if that's not the case. If we only pay a cash compensation, I cannot create such incentives, either you get paid or you don't. I'm speaking as the Chair of the Board of Directors of investor. To me, there is an added value to all of you that we set up these variable plans and programs that give more -- more paid to our employees if things go well compared to when things go less well.
And that brings us back to the how? You say that it's not transparent. I read between the lines, you seem to be suggesting that there could be -- that you could be skewing things or getting money which shouldn't be paid out. But we have a very close monitoring of our programs, large institutional owners are very active, and they're represented here today as well. It's not just us doing the monitoring. We have continued conversations with those owners what they deem reasonable. How we should do. This is not just us cooking up something back at the office. We are transparent, I would put it to you. We work with other people whom we are not able to influence and who present their views and opinions. And together, we devise programs, which will provide a model for variable remuneration. And the Board of Directors of investors believe that this is what is in the best interest of all of you shareholders to ensure that we get the most possible out of investor.
Having said that, if we agree on the amount in [indiscernible] nevertheless, we do not agree on the how, but I believe that I have quite a lot of backing for my approach working in close cooperation with other people who are not able to impact per se institutional owners, for example, and they are very knowledgeable in these matters. Thank you very much.
Any further questions under A or B, no? Then it's time to proceed with the resolution under this item. And the second AP fund has asked that we include in the minutes that they are voting against 17A, but we will start with the resolution under 17A, and I ask if the meeting can resolve in accordance with the proposal for a long-term variable remuneration for employees in investor excluding [indiscernible] Industries. That's carried.
Moving on to the resolution under 17B. Does the meeting resolve in accordance with the proposal on a long-term variable remuneration [indiscernible] Industries. Thank you.
And then items of 18A and B, where we have proposals from the Board of Directors for purpose of transfer [indiscernible] shares, the entire proposal has been included in the documentation that has been distributed to you today, has been available on the company website and has been sent to the shareholders who requested to receive it. Are there questions or comments to 18 A or B. If not, we're going to start with 18A where we need 2/3 requirement. We have a 2/3 requirement of both [indiscernible], which means that we use voting devices. We would not ask you to produce your voting devices. And if you are in favor of the Board's proposal, press 1, which is yes and if your agains press 2, no, and you can also abstain and then you press 3. Is that procedure understood. If so, we open up the vote under 18A.
[Voting]
And we're about to close the vote. It is closed and you'll see the outcome on the screen, as I find that the meeting has been resolved as proposed by the Board of Directors. And we continue with 18B. And here, we need at least [indiscernible] of votes cast and shares represented after the meeting, which means that we'll be using the voting devices again. And if you favor hit 1, if you're against 2, if you wish to abstain 3. And the vote is open.
[Voting]
And in a few seconds, we will close the vote. And the vote is closed. And we'll see the outcome on the screen. And I find that the meeting has voted in favor of the Board's proposal.
That brings us to the final item on today's agenda. And before we conclude, I'm going to give the floor to Chair of the Board of Directors.
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed shareholders, as of this meeting, 2025 is closed. But before we do so, there is one person I would like to pay tribute to, Petra Hedengran, our Chief Legal Counsel, who have been up here at podium. And you have been sharing the podium with me Petra up here as the meeting sector for almost 20 years. But you will be stepping down from your position as investor shortly. You will be receiving a proper thank you from the company. But here at the AGM on behalf of investors and all the shareholders, I would like to express a very deep debt of gratitude for all your contributions over so many years.
Many of you do not work with legal counsels. But I can tell you that it is a particular category of individuals. We are solving very dependent on having individuals like Petra to help us, not just with such in that knowledge, but with significant integrity and the ability to relate to very, very complex issues whilst at the same time, being an adviser for us where we have ideas about doing business all the time and finding solutions. You provide us somehow with the best informed position of all in the room. It's been so valuable to us. And I myself and the entire Board are so grateful to you, Petra. So thank you so very much. And you're not getting away without some flowers. Same for you here. Thank you.
Now, I'm not going to close the meeting. That's not for me to do, but it is drawing to a close, nevertheless. And in my capacity as Chair of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank you. It's been a rewarding dialogue. Let me also take this opportunity to thank Christian and his team, thank you to you and the team for the extraordinary work that you have done over the past year, and it's such a valuable contribution to investors, and we've continued to develop so well. Thank you.
I hereby declare the 2026 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the investor closed.
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Investor B — Investor AB (publ), Q1 2026 Interim Management Statement Call, Apr 21, 2026
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to Investor's results call for the first quarter of 2026. I'm joined here this morning by our CFO, Jenny Ashman Haquinius; and our CEO, Christian Cederholm. Both will soon be giving their presentations. And after that, we will be opening up for questions via our operator and online. With that, over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Jacob, and hello, everyone. So 2026 seems to be another challenging year from a geopolitical perspective, not the least with the situation in the Middle East. The human suffering aside, there are, of course, a number of aspects that we need to focus on from a business perspective. In terms of effects here and now, we have seen, I would say, disturbances, but no major disruption.
Price increases for energy, freight and other goods and services will, of course, come, but typically with some lag in time. If the conflict is not resolved anytime soon, however, we're likely to also see further supply chain disruptions, including potentially drying up of certain goods. Cost inflation will also, together with generally increased uncertainty, impact global demand in a more profound way than we've seen thus far.
In this environment, it's critical to focus on agility with a goal of always being able to continue serving our companies, our customers. It's about adapting and the companies are adapting. Generally, they're doing a good job protecting the businesses and the profits here now while continuing to invest to future-proof. In times like these, decentralized model with great empowered teams close to the customers, ready and able to make decisions is really showing its strength.
And we should not forget our companies have a strong starting point with excellent customer offerings and leading market positions. If we turn to Q1 for Investor, we had net asset value growth of 3% and a TSR of 7%, supported by Listed Companies and Patricia Industries, while EQT contributed negatively this quarter. We also saw high activity across the portfolio, including investments in all 3 business areas.
At the end of the first quarter, adjusted net asset value stood at SEK 1,125 billion. Let me briefly go through the 3 business areas, Listed Companies, Patricia Industries and investments in EQT. Starting with Listed Companies that represents more than 70% of our assets. Total return was 5% with strong contribution from, for example, ABB, Saab, AstraZeneca and Sobi. On the back of market volatility, we acquired shares in Nasdaq and Atlas Copco for a total of SEK 170 million.
Total investments in Listed Companies has now been SEK 2.5 billion in the last 12 months. We also received just over SEK 1.5 billion for SEB shares divested during Q4 to maintain our ownership level as the bank continued to buy back shares. In terms of future-proofing activities, companies continue to identify and implement high-value AI use cases really across the portfolio and across the value chain.
In Electrolux Professional, Paolo Schira was appointed new CEO effective from May. With the AGM season currently in full swing, I'm happy to see all the good additions of new directors to the Listed Companies' Boards of Directors. Based on the latest proposals, we expect north of SEK 14 billion in ordinary dividends during 2026 and an additional SEK 3.4 billion from extraordinary dividends.
Now over to Patricia Industries. Total return in Patricia was 4% with contribution from cash flow and multiples and with a positive translation effect as the U.S. dollar strengthened during this quarter compared to year-end. The major subsidiaries reported a sales decline of 7%. Organic constant currency growth was, however, a positive 3%. Adjusted EBITA declined by 4%, significantly impacted by the weaker U.S. dollar compared to Q1 of last year.
So remember here, the U.S. dollar strengthened during this quarter, which has a positive impact on valuations where we compare to the end of last quarter. But year-on-year, the U.S. dollar is down a lot, as you know, and that has a significant negative impact on year-on-year earnings growth, and Jenny will address this more in her remarks. Margins held up well across most companies despite headwinds from tariffs and currency movements, underlying the importance of operational discipline and efficiency. We saw continued high activity across Patricia.
On the people side, Guillaume Joucla and Bengt Thorsson were appointed interim CEOs in Molnlycke and in Piab Group, respectively. Also, Tomas Puusepp was appointed new Chair in Permobil effective this summer. Vectura announced the acquisition of the remaining 50% in GoCo Health Innovation City in Gothenburg. Patricia Industries contributed capital to support the financing of this acquisition, which closed just after the quarter. For the major subsidiaries and including our 40% in Tre Skandinavien, revenues amounted to SEK 68.6 billion in the last 12 months, and EBITDA was SEK 17.3 billion in the same period.
Note, however, that this is in kroner, so rather sensitive to FX. And finally then, investments in EQT, our third business area. Here, total return was a negative 13%, dragged down by the decline in the EQT AB share price. Generally, alternative asset managers saw valuations come down on the back of concerns about the viability of certain software investments as well as the quality and liquidity of some private debt funds.
We acquired shares for a total of SEK 1.4 billion at the valuation we deemed attractive. Investor had a positive net cash flow of SEK 1.2 billion from our fund investments. This was offset then by the investment in EQT AB shares, resulting in an essentially neutral total net cash flow during the quarter. As we mentioned last quarter, EQT announced the acquisition of Coller Capital, a leading global secondaries firm with nearly USD 50 billion of assets under management, further strengthening the EQT platform for its fund investors.
Looking ahead then, I remain confident in our platform. Investor has a clear purpose and a focused strategy, a portfolio of high-quality companies and an engaged ownership model that is well proven over the years. We have financial flexibility with low leverage and strong underlying cash flows and importantly, great people, both at Investor and in our companies and our broader network.
We, Investor, and our companies are facing a challenging environment, and we need to navigate that well. At the same time, our companies must continue and accelerate investments to future-proof their businesses. Our strong platform, combined with a relentless focus on customers is indeed a strong starting point to build from. But make no mistake, competition is tough, and we need to be highly aware of how fast things are moving out there, including the speed at which, for instance, AI and Chinese competition are evolving. To succeed, speed is crucial. And as we say in the CEO statement, if we lose -- if we snooze, we lose.
With that, I'll hand over to you, Jenny, to take us through the financials.
Thank you, Christian, and good morning. So let me take you through the financials for the quarter. So in Q1 2026, adjusted net asset value was SEK 1,125 billion, which implies an increase of 3% compared to Q4. For the quarter, Listed Companies and Patricia Industries contributed positively, while investments in EQT declined.
And now double-clicking on each of the business areas, and I will start with Listed Companies. Within Listed Companies, share price performance was mixed, particularly strong quarter for Sobi, Ericsson and Saab. Electrolux Professional and Husqvarna, however, had a tougher quarter looking at total return. Total return for the Listed Companies portfolio was 5% in Q1. And as for absolute contribution, it paints a similar picture, although with ABB in the top as the biggest contributor to net asset value given size and weight in our portfolio. All in all, a solid quarter for Listed Companies.
And now moving on to Patricia Industries. So for the quarter, Patricia Industries portfolio for the major subsidiaries grew 3% organically, while the adjusted EBITA declined by 4%. And as a reminder, we are restrictive when it comes to EBITA adjustments. So in the 4% drop for the quarter, we have only adjusted for transaction costs related to M&A, so specifically Laborie and Sarnova in this quarter and also one-off costs related to CEO transitions. And for this quarter, that is relevant for Piab.
So still weighing on the adjusted EBITA is FX, so the stronger Swedish Krona year-over-year, tariffs as well as restructuring costs as we deem this as part of ongoing operations. And for this quarter, we have restructuring costs for Permobil. And then double-clicking on performance across the companies in Patricia Industries, let me comment on a few of them. For Laborie, growth continued to be driven to a large extent by urology and specifically the Optilume urethral strictures product. And as we've alluded to before, short term, comps are continuously getting tougher as Optilume urethral strictures is included in benchmark quarters.
But longer term, there is a lot of runway in both urethral strictures and the more recently launched BPH product. Profitability for Laborie, adjusting for the USD 9 million in costs related to the JADA acquisition was up despite continued commercial investments. NOVA Biomedical grew 1% organically, which is sequentially lower but in line with expectations. So as mentioned last quarter, the acquired part of the business has a particularly strong comparison quarter. Despite muted growth, profitability increased significantly, primarily due to efficiency improvements from integration and integration is progressing according to plan.
Piab returned to growth with 1% organic growth, and the company has been seeing more choppy demand on the back of increased geopolitical tension, but did see some easing at the end of the quarter. Profitability was down, and that's primarily explained by costs related to the CEO transition as well as tariffs. And Permobil continued to see muted growth, also this quarter explained by negative impact from the voluntary product recall of the Power Assist Device announced in Q3 last year. Focus for the company is on innovation and upcoming product launches.
Profitability was weighed down by restructuring, as mentioned, as well as the product recall. Moving on to Molnlycke. Molnlycke had another solid quarter with 3% organic growth, driven by all 4 business areas. Focusing on Wound Care with 2% organic growth, that is sequentially lower and impacted by largely 3 buckets. So U.S. remains a significant growth driver, but at a lower rate than previous quarters, and this is in part due to destocking at some customers, but we continue to see solid market demand.
Further, we see the same tough market dynamics in France as previous quarters, but it's really good to see Molnlycke keeping market share intact. And then finally, we see weakness in the Middle East this quarter, where we see erratic order patterns rather than impact from the conflict in the region. Overall, positive to see improving profitability despite negative impact from FX, lower manufacturing absorption and tariffs, and that's because the company is doing a really good job with efficiency improvements and cost control.
We saw a 4% increase in estimated market values compared to Q4, so from SEK 225 billion to SEK 230 billion, and the increase was explained by positive impact from FX, from earnings growth and also expansion in valuation multiples. For FX, although the stronger Swedish Krona has a negative impact on the year-over-year earnings, the U.S. dollar strengthened during the quarter compared to the end of last quarter, and this provides a positive translation effect in the valuation for the U.S. subsidiaries.
Looking at value development across companies, we can see that the biggest contributor for Q1 was Molnlycke, and that's primarily due to expansion in multiples, but also earnings growth. Permobil and Laborie were a drag on value, for Permobil, mainly due to lower earnings, and for Laborie because of contracting multiples. And over the last couple of quarters, we've noticed an increase in questions on the FX exposure in our companies, specifically the U.S. dollar exposure in Patricia Industries.
So we thought that we will take this opportunity to provide some additional color, and we will focus on 2 main buckets, so impact on earnings and impact on valuation. And as you know, we have a U.S. dollar exposure given Patricia's global footprint with exposure to the U.S. as the main market with high profitability. For the U.S. subsidiaries, we have a relatively limited FX impact on earnings from U.S. dollar fluctuations, and that is because earnings are predominantly generated in U.S. dollars, and this is also the reporting currency.
So for the U.S. subsidiaries, the bigger U.S. dollar exposure is rather a quarter-on-quarter effect in valuation, so -- when we translate the U.S. dollar net asset value to a SEK net asset value in Investor's reporting. For this quarter, as mentioned, we had a positive effect on net asset value for the U.S. subsidiaries, and that's due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar versus the Swedish Krona in Q1 compared to Q4.
For the Nordic companies, first, Tre Skandinavien and Vectura have very limited FX exposure given Skandinavien operations. For the remaining Nordic companies, we do see quite a significant impact on earnings year-over-year, and that is because the companies have relatively large and healthy U.S. businesses with high gross margin. So roughly 45% of combined EBITDA is generated in U.S. dollars. And the U.S. dollar profits are translated to Swedish Krona or Euros as reporting currency.
And this impact on earnings, of course, implies an impact on net asset value given our earnings-based valuation method. In addition, for Molnlycke, we also have a quarter-on-quarter exposure to the Euro. So that's when we translate the Euro net asset value to a SEK net asset value in Investor's reporting. And in terms of mitigating actions, so the companies continuously strive for natural hedging, so having costs in the same currency as sales, and they are relatively well matched. If we take Molnlycke as an example, Molnlycke has roughly 35% of sales in U.S. dollars and 30% of cost. So not perfectly matched, and that's because headquarters, central functions, R&D, et cetera, are primarily located in Sweden.
Also, as an example, Molnlycke, despite increasing local U.S. production with the current build-out of the wound care plant in Maine, we'll continue to see imports to the U.S. from the Mikkeli plant in Finland, although to a lesser extent. In addition, the companies seek to borrow in currencies that match the currency of net cash flow. Molnlycke, again, as an example, has roughly 60% of debt in euros and 40% of debt in dollars.
So I hope that provided some additional insight into the U.S. dollar exposure for Patricia and how we think in terms of natural hedging. Now moving on to investments in EQT. So total value change was a negative 13% in the quarter, and that's primarily driven by EQT AB, which was down 22%. Fund investments were up 2%. And as a reminder, we report EQT fund investments with 1 quarter lag. So the 2% is based on EQT's Q4 report. On the right-hand side, we illustrate the net cash flow from EQT to Investor, which was essentially flat in the quarter as quite significant exit proceeds were offset by investments.
And this is an illustration of the net cash flow from investments in EQT over time. While it's quite lumpy on a quarterly basis over the past 10 years, we have received a net cash inflow of SEK 1.6 billion on average per year. Our balance sheet remains strong. Our leverage as of Q1 is 1.2%, and it remains in the lower end of our policy range despite continued investments. And then on to my last slide, looking at the longer-term perspective, the performance of the Investor ABB share truly illustrates the strength and the resilience of our portfolio and strategy.
And with that, I will leave the word back to Jacob.
Thank you very much, Jenny. Thank you, Christian. We are now ready to take your questions, and we will start with the questions through our operator, [ Ember, ] please.
[Operator Instructions] And we will now take the first question from the line of Linus Sigurdson of DNB Carnegie.
2. Question Answer
Okay. Starting with a couple of questions on Molnlycke. You talked about these continued challenging market conditions in France. But is it fair then to assume that Germany has stabilized? And also, are you seeing anything that sort of implies we could expect headwinds in France to ease in the near term?
I can start. Thank you, Linus, for your question. We've seen challenges in France for a couple of quarters, and that is due to pressure on the healthcare system, which has resulted in reimbursement cuts. And we do not see a reason for that to ease. However, moving along, we will see some easier comps for the French market, specifically when the reimbursement cuts have trickled through in terms -- for Molnlycke. And then it's really good to see that Molnlycke is keeping market share intact. But it remains a tough market. And as for Germany in this quarter, we are not seeing the challenges to the same extent. But again, in Germany, we are continuing to see pressure on the healthcare system. So I think it's too early to tell.
Okay. That makes sense. And then if you could just zoom in on the U.S. business and this sequentially lower growth? Is there any sort of major shift in the demand dynamics that we should be aware of in the U.S.
Well, I think from what we know now and the signals that we see today, we do not see a major shift in kind of the underlying demand in the U.S. But as you know, we are operating in a volatile environment. And so it, of course, depends on what will happen on kind of the global demand. But for Molnlycke specifically in this quarter, it's more about destocking with some customers in the U.S. for Wound Care specifically.
Okay. And then my final question is on Nova Biomedical. So you talked about the strong Q1 last year. And then given that from what we can read, Q2 last year also looks pretty strong. Is it reasonable to expect similar growth dynamics also in Q2 this year?
Well, we do not provide guidance. But I think what we can say is that the company is very much focused on the integration and making sure that they keep momentum in the business. But throughout the integration, as we've alluded to before, we might see some volatility in financial performance. But in terms of the longer-term outlook, we remain very confident in the opportunities for long-term profitable growth.
We will now take our next question from the line of Derek Laliberte from ABG Sundal Collier.
Just wanted to follow up firstly on Molnlycke, if you could comment anything on how it's developing in terms of volume versus pricing in the U.S. specifically?
Well, I think in general, we do not provide the details on volume and pricing. But for this quarter, it's more about destocking. And I think as a general comment for the underlying growth in the Wound Care market, what we do see is that we have mid- to low -- or low to mid-single-digit growth. And then, of course, Molnlycke has an ambition to, over time, grow above that, but that underlying growth is primarily driven by volume.
Perfect. And also on Molnlycke, I know you don't provide sort of forward-looking guidance, but can you comment anything on sort of anything to be aware of in terms of the margin trajectory going forward in terms of costs or any other mix headwinds that might be relevant?
Well, I think what we do see in this quarter, I mean, given kind of the volatility that is increasing also at the global arena, I mean, in this quarter, we are seeing primarily effects from the negative FX and tariffs combined roughly 2 percentage points on the margin. But I think looking ahead, it's too early to tell what the longer-term effects will be.
And then offsetting that, maybe just to add is, of course, the efficiency work that the company is executing on.
Great. And then over to Laborie, I am wondering if you could comment anything on the status of the BPH product rollout.
Yes. Well, as you saw in the report, Laborie received an active reimbursement code for BPH, and that's specifically for physicians. And that's really a first step for a license to operate. And then the ramp-up and the kind of launch of the product will be gradual and will be a lot of work because we need to educate or the company needs to educate the physicians and also receive a broader reimbursement for the product. But longer term, it's a very attractive growth opportunity for Laborie.
Indeed. And then on Nova Biomedical, you had some comments about that already clearly. But can you say something about how the overall market demand situation is developing for this company? Has it kind of gotten more challenging as in? Or is it more of a steady pace and more about continuing to capture market share, et cetera?
I would say, overall, more of a steady pace, but let's see what happens given the volatility that we see globally.
[Operator Instructions] We will now take our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Oskar Lindstrom of Danske Bank. Oskar, we cannot hear. Oskar, you have to come to the phone. All right. Thank you. We have lost Oskar there. So I'll be turning back to the room for webcast questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Ember. Lets see if we have Oskar back at some point. Let's take questions from the web. We have a number of questions. The first comes from [ Christian Salstrom. ] And it goes, Patricia Industries has represented around 1/5 of Investor's NAV for some time now. How do you view the balance between the listed holdings and Patricia Industries going forward? Could Patricia become a larger share of the portfolio over time? Or is the current balance roughly where you want it to be? And where do you currently see the most attractive opportunities for capital allocation between the 2 segments?
I can start on that. Thank you for the question. Really, when we think about capital allocation, we're pretty clear in that, our first and foremost priority is to continue to support and building our existing companies, and that could be by way of supporting add-on acquisitions, rights issues, both on the listed and the private side. Then the second priority is to pay a steady rising dividend over time.
And thirdly, but still important, we are actively looking also for new platform companies. And when it comes to the prioritization between the different business areas, first of all, we should say that we see it as a benefit to have 3 business areas, which all generate attractive opportunities to invest. And that's also what you've seen looking back at the last couple of years. We really have invested in all 3.
In terms of allocation between the 3, we don't steer or set targets based on one part becoming X percent of total assets or anything like that. I would say, however, that, again, if you look back in the last 5 years or so, an unproportional share of capital has gone towards Patricia Industries, and that is basically built on there being some really good opportunities there. And we continue to see a nice pipeline in Patricia but also in the other business areas.
Perfect. I can see now that Oskar Lindstrom is back, [ Ember, ] would you take over, please?
Certainly. So our next question comes from the line of Oskar Lindstrom of Danske Bank.
I hope you can hear me now?
Yes.
Yes.
Super. Sorry for that technical mishap earlier. I have 3 sets of questions. The first is regarding Molnlycke and operations in China. I've seen some peers in the Wound Care segment talk about China having introduced a new volume-based procurement program, essentially trying to reduce the cost of MedTech products and consumables. Is this something which you have noticed and which has impacted your business or margins in China?
I can take a first shot at that. It's correct what you say that those kind of regulations has been introduced. If you look at Molnlycke's business in China, you really have 2 parts. One is selling towards the hospitals, and that's where this would apply. And then the other part is really an E-commerce business, which is more business to consumer oriented, primarily within scar management. And that part is not affected by this kind of regulation. And without commenting in any detail on Molnlycke, these kind of programs typically do have an impact, and it really sort of stresses the importance to be locally present and over time also with production.
Right. But has this program already been impacting you? Or is this something more that you see in quarters ahead?
I would say that the impact so far has been limited.
My second question is also with regards to China, where we've seen some indications that Chinese MedTech and sort of consumables companies are seeking to enter Europe or EMEA. Have you seen that in local markets in Europe to any extent? I guess this is impacting both -- well, both Molnlycke and your MedTech business overall?
So I'll take a first shot at that. I mean I think the short answer is, yes, we do see Chinese competition in a number of segments or subsegments. And there are several, let's say, well-regarded Chinese manufacturers and vendors. And that includes, for example, on the ORS side, folks like [ Shende ] as an example. So we certainly see, and that's also why relating to the comment we make in the CEO statement that Chinese competition in MedTech, but also in other areas is increasing. Their ambition is high and their capabilities are increasing.
And then my third and final question is on Nova Biomedical, the drop in organic growth. I mean you partly, I think, mentioned tougher comps, but also how much was due to the sort of integration or is there a meaningful component, which is more sort of overall market slowdown?
According to what we see right now, it's not due to any weakness in kind of the demand or the market. So as we've alluded to already last quarter, the acquired part of the business has a very tough comparison period. And that is the main explanation for the sequentially lower growth. And then in addition to that, we've also mentioned earlier that we might see some added volatility in financial results throughout the integration. But we remain very confident in the longer-term prospects for profitable growth for the company.
If I may, just a follow-up on that. How long are the year-on-year comps going to be tough? And how long is the integration process, the possible sort of resulting volatility in earnings going to continue? I'm sorry if you already answered this and I missed it, but...
I think on -- in terms of the tough comps, we choose to call out Q1 of last year in 2025 as a sort of very significant comp quarter. And that says something, I guess. In terms of the integration, I mean, as always, it's sort of a -- it's an ongoing process. I would say that come the anniversary or maybe the 18 month or so anniversary of the acquisition, the majority of integration streams should be expected to be completed.
There are no phone questions at this time. I'll now turn back to the room for further questions from the webcast.
Thank you, [ Ember. ] And then we have a question online from [ Alexander Deprez. ] Could you provide an idea of how much of the consolidated cost of goods and services sold could be impacted by higher energy prices?
Yes, I can start. And as Christian mentioned, in the quarter, we are seeing limited impacts connected to this. But we do know from experience that these effects typically come with some lag, so 1 or 2 quarter lag. I think with the volatility that we're seeing, it's too early to tell what the actual implication will be. So I think what's important here and now is that the company are working actively in doing what they can to mitigate. And that goes from working with the supply chain, of course, but also active pricing. I don't know if you have anything you would like to add.
I think -- and maybe we read into your question that it relates to the Middle East and energy prices. I would point out that there are other choke points as well in the global supply chains, I mean, chipsets is one where the build-out of AI capabilities and AI data centers is clearly impacting us, and we saw Ericsson, for example, commenting on that in their quarterly report. Unfortunately, it's not just limited to energy.
Thank you. Next questions come from [ Holger Bergersten. ] Two questions. I'll take the first one. Investor has very strong financial flexibility and low leverage. How do you prioritize capital allocation today between new investments, adding to existing holdings, debt capacity and share buybacks when the share price trades close to or above adjusted NAV.
Maybe I can start. I mean in terms of capital allocation, as we talked about in one of the previous questions, we have a quite clear view on capital allocation priorities. Number one is to support and build on our existing companies. And that, again, can involve, for example, supporting add-on acquisitions in both listed or private companies. It could be buying incremental shares in existing Listed Companies, et cetera.
Number two is paying a steadily rising dividend. A buyback is not something we've used as a way to distribute cash, and I don't see that happening going forward either. And then thirdly, but still importantly, we are actively looking for new platform investments as well. And we are looking, as I said, to invest in all 3 business areas. If I look at the pipeline recently and also at this point in time, I think it's fair to say that we have an overweight of opportunities in the -- on the private side.
Good. Next question is also to you, Christian. Investor has compounded value for decades through active ownership, patience and disciplined capital allocation. If we meet again in 10 years, what do you think will have changed the most in Investor's model? And what must remain exactly the same?
Thank you. Great question. And I really think that as we mentioned in our presentation as well, the platform we have with a strong portfolio companies and a sort of well-proven and well-vetted model for engaged ownership seems to serve us pretty well. So I don't foresee any significant change there. Then in terms of capital allocation, our priorities are what they are. We do see that if we look at the coming, call it, 3 to 5 years and compare that to the previous, call it, 3 to 5 years, it's clearly so that our cash-generating ability is larger than it has been.
So that, of course, opens for opportunities to invest more. And then I think maybe the most profound change will be if you look at all of our companies really across the portfolio and across the value chain, there are a number of, call it, future-proofing initiatives and future-proofing themes that we need to get right. That includes, of course, AI and making sure we leverage AI across the value chain, everything from R&D to production, to how we go to market. And of course, ultimately, and the holy grail is a little bit to use AI in the products and in the solutions offered to our customers so as to enhance customer value.
And one other part is that we've been calling out is dealing with competition and competition is pretty tough out there, including from Chinese competitors, but also from elsewhere. And there, at the end of the day, you need this sort of relentless, almost obsessive focus on customers and making sure that you spend enough and are successful in innovating so that you continue to improve the lives and the businesses of our customers and our users. And if we do that well, we will be very strong also in 10 years' time.
Thank you very much. Then we have 3 questions from [ Michael Gilkins. ] First one, can you give some concrete examples of how your portfolio companies are implementing AI? Are there any examples that stand out?
I think maybe I can start, [ Jen. ] I mean we called out Verafin in our quarterly report, which is a software business that Nasdaq acquired a number of years ago. And really, what they do and what they provide to their customers is software to detect fraud and money laundering. And if you look at what AI can do to this software suite, it's really interesting because you can create both better efficiency for the customers. So Nasdaq is talking about maybe a 4x productivity improvement in terms of scanning of transactions, scanning of new customers, et cetera, for example, for a bank.
But also the outcome is significantly improved. And in that case, one important part is removing or getting away from what we call false positives that otherwise create a lot of extra work. Sorry, if I may. And I think there are lots of great examples, but as we also say, we have a lot more to do and all our companies are working with sort of good engagement, high ambitions and lots of resources to make sure that we really make AI an advantage to us as opposed to a risk or disruption.
Thank you. And you could stand here the whole morning running examples. So there are not -- there are many more than this one. Also related to AI, it would be great to learn a bit more about Piab's role in the AI hardware value chain. It seems they are a logical beneficiary of this megatrend.
Yes. So if I start, I mean, Piab is, as you alluded to in your question, well positioned in that it's a critical part of automation. And really, what we see in, call it, factory or production automation is that AI enables much more agility in robots or in machines, meaning that also -- steps in the production that are maybe a little bit lower volume, higher variations are now possible and sort of relevant to automate. So in that sense, very well positioned.
And then the final question from [ Michael Gilkins. ] Can you give us an update on the attempts to turn around the businesses through your Board work at Electrolux, Electrolux Professional and Husqvarna?
Yes. So if I take Electrolux and Husqvarna, I mean, as we've seen, they've been underperforming for a number of years. And really, our go-to model in these kind of situations is to, number one, make sure that we create as fast as possible, a common view between management, Board and us as owners about what the issues are; two, create a plan to address it; and three, for us to make sure that we feel we have the right people around the table to succeed.
And then we go at it. Does that mean that we will succeed the first time? No, unfortunately, often, it takes several attempts. But I would say in both Husqvarna and Electrolux, we do feel that we have sort of the building blocks in place, but a lot of work continues.
Thank you very much. We have another hand raised. So over to you, [ Ember. ]
Our next phone question comes from the line of Jacob Hesslevik of SEB.
I have a question on Laborie. It's finally completed the acquisition of JADA Systems. And at the same time, its EBITDA margin has been fairly volatile. It is up from Q4 last year, but it's still down year-over-year. So I'm just wondering what are the expected revenue and margin synergies from the JADA acquisition? How should we view the integration time line? And how does this affect Laborie's trajectory on EBITDA margin going forward?
So maybe if I start and just sort of taking a step back and looking at what the JADA acquisition is, it's really in very simple terms, it's adding a great product to the Mother and Child Care segment of Laborie. And in terms of synergies, without going into, call it, the margin effects of it, what we want to achieve with this type of acquisition is really matching a great product with a great channel and sort of sales force network at Laborie.
And in that sense, without any other sort of commonalities maybe, it's similar to Optilume. But of course, in JADA's case, this is a well-established sort of a gold standard of care product already. And with regards to the volatility in the margin, as we disclosed in Q1 here, it's primarily related to some acquisition-related costs for exactly JADA.
Yes. I saw the acquisition cost and adjusted for it. But you also mentioned it's partially offset by commercial investments. Are these one-off nature related to Q1? Or should we expect additional investments in coming quarters?
So that's really ongoing commercial investments, and they're related to not the least, the rollout of an Optilume, both urethral strictures which continues to grow, but also -- and Jenny had talked about that at some length, the introduction of the Optilume BPH product, where we now have sort of basic reimbursement, but then we need insurance coverage, physician training, et cetera, et cetera.
Okay. I can't see any further questions online, and I don't think there are any more in the queue. That means it's time to conclude this webcast. Many thanks to Jenny, to Christian. Our next scheduled call is the first half report for 2026, which is scheduled for the 16th of July. And until then, thank you, and goodbye.
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Investor B — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to Investor's Q4 and year-end results for 2025. I'm joined here in the studio in Stockholm by our CFO, Jenny Ashman Haquinius; and our CEO, Christian Cederholm and both will soon be giving their presentations. After that, as usual, we'll be opening up for questions, both on the call via our operator and online.
And with that, over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Jacob, and hello, everyone. As we look back on the past year, it's clear that 2025 was anything but straightforward. The world remains impacted by significant geopolitical uncertainty. Now despite these headwinds, the global economy delivered decent growth. And in this environment, our companies are doing a good job balancing profitable growth here and now, including focus on efficiency and cost out whilst continuously investing to future-proof their businesses.
Let's take a closer look at how we performed over the last year. So 2025 turned out a strong year for Investor. Adjusted net asset value grew by 14%, and our TSR, total shareholder return, was 15%. Listed companies total return amounted to 22%, and we strengthened our ownership in Ericsson and Atlas Copco for a total investment of about SEK 2.3 billion. Patricia Industries total return was minus 9% with considerable headwind from the weaker U.S. dollar.
Operationally, it was a good year in total for the major subsidiaries. And in addition to organic growth of 4%, the companies made add-on acquisitions for a total of SEK 24 billion, of which Patricia funded about SEK 16 billion with the rest funded by the portfolio companies themselves. The biggest one by far, of course, being the acquisition of Nova Biomedical.
Investments in EQT generated a total return of 15%. And here, we also made our first co-investment, Fortnox, alongside EQT X, exploring another way to create value together with EQT. Lastly, supported by a strong balance sheet and cash flow generation, Investor's Board of Directors proposes a dividend of SEK 5.60 per share for fiscal year 2025. This represents an increase of SEK 0.40 or 8% over last year. At the end of the year, adjusted net asset value stood at SEK 1,087 billion.
Now let me briefly go through the 3 business areas. Starting with Listed that represents about 70% of our assets. Listed Companies generated a total return of 6% in the fourth quarter. Investor received proceeds of close to SEK 900 million or SEB shares divested in Q3, so the last quarter to maintain our ownership level as the bank continued to buy back shares. Portfolio companies continued activities focused on future-proofing their businesses. So as an example, Sobi announced its acquisition of Arthrosi, expanding its portfolio within gout with a promising Phase III drug. Wärtsilä announced the divestment of its gas solution business, further focusing the Wärtsilä portfolio.
Now over to Patricia Industries, which represents about 20% of our portfolio. Total return in the fourth quarter was 1%, driven by earnings growth and multiple expansion, offset by significant negative currency impact. While reported sales declined by 5%, our major subsidiaries grew sales 5% organically. Adjusted EBITDA declined by 6%, heavily impacted by the same negative currency effects I mentioned and with some costs relating to restructuring initiatives in a couple of the companies. We saw continued high activity in Patricia. For example, Laborie announced the acquisition of the JADA system, expanding its offering within obstetrics for a potential maximum value of USD 465 million. Sarnova completed 2 add-on acquisitions for a total of $165 million, strengthening Sarnova's software offering for revenue cycle management.
Also, we contributed SEK 200 million to Atlas Antibodies to strengthen the balance sheet after a period of weak demand and performance. Mölnlycke and BraunAbility distributed a total of SEK 4.1 billion to Patricia Industries in the fourth quarter.
All the major subsidiaries and our 40% in 3 Scandinavia in aggregate, including the combined Nova Biomedical from Q3 and onwards, reported last 12-month sales stood at SEK 68.4 billion, and EBITDA was SEK 17.2 billion. We should note here that this is in Swedish krona, so of course, rather sensitive to FX. And finally then, investments in EQT, our third business area, which represents about 10% of the portfolio. In Q4, total return for investments in EQT was 8%, driven by strong share price development in EQT AB. Net cash flow to Investor was SEK 1.2 billion with approximately SEK 0.9 billion net inflow from EQT funds, driven by continued healthy exit activity in the funds. During the quarter, we also completed the very last part of our SEK 4.5 billion investment in Fortnox.
So it was a strong quarter and a strong year. But as always, our focus is on the future. I'm confident in our strong platform. Investor has a clear purpose and a focused strategy, a portfolio of high-quality companies, an ownership and governance model that is well proven and great people, both at Investor and in our network and in the companies. And we have financial flexibility with low leverage and strong underlying cash flow. Our strategy towards 2030 is clearly defined and well aligned with our purpose with the ultimate target, of course, of generating an attractive shareholder return. Our objectives are to grow net asset value, to pay a steadily rising dividend and to operate efficiently and sustainably. We will remain focused on our 3 strategic pillars: Performance, portfolio and people.
And let me say a few words about each of these. Performance first. While it varies between industry segments and geographies, overall demand remains lukewarm. In addition, the U.S. dollar is down significantly and tariffs need to be managed and the geopolitical situation remain profoundly unpredictable. Against this backdrop, companies need to focus on efficiency here and now to drive profitable growth. At the same time, focus on future-proofing initiatives is critical to ensure long-term competitiveness. This includes, for example, R&D, other investments for innovation, expansion of sales, including to new geographies and investments to leverage the potential of AI and other new technologies.
So moving to portfolio then. Based on our financial strength and strong cash flow generation, we continue to seek attractive investment opportunities across all 3 business areas. This includes additional investments in our listed companies, add-on investments and potential new platform companies within Patricia Industries and continued investments, of course, in and together with EQT. Ultimately, the allocation will depend on where we find the best opportunities.
And finally, people. Given the rapid transition pace in all industries, we have to ensure that the right people are driving our companies. With 24 portfolio companies and around 200 board seats across the portfolio, talent sourcing and succession planning is a top priority for us. So near-term priorities are clear, and we have a lot of work cut out for ourselves.
With that, I'd like to leave the word to Jenny to talk more about our financials. Please, Jenny.
Thank you, Christian. Yes, so let me take you through the financials for the quarter. So in Q4 2025, adjusted net asset value was SEK 1,087 billion, and this implies an increase of 6% compared to Q3. For the quarter, all business areas contributed positively. Investments in EQT increased with 8%, Listed Companies with 6% and Patricia Industries with 1%. So this implies a total return of 6% for the quarter and 14% for the full year.
And now double-clicking on each of the business areas, and I will start with Listed Companies. So within Listed Companies, share price performance was mixed, but with positive share price development in almost all companies, particularly strong quarter for the Electrolux share, followed by AstraZeneca, Wärtsilä, Ericsson and Sobi. Saab and Husqvarna, however, had a tougher quarter looking at total return.
Total return for the Listed Companies portfolio was 6% and largely in line with SIXRX. And as for absolute contribution, it paints a similar picture, but with AstraZeneca and Atlas Copco in the top due to the weight in our portfolio. All in all, a solid quarter for the Listed Companies portfolio.
And then moving on to Patricia Industries. For the quarter, the Patricia Industries portfolio, so the major subsidiaries, grew 5% organically, while the adjusted EBITA declined by 6%. For the full year, organic growth was 4% and the adjusted EBITA declined by 1%. And as a reminder, we are restrictive when it comes to EBITA adjustments. So in the 6% drop in EBITA for the quarter, we have only adjusted for transaction costs related to M&A and one-off costs related to CEO transitions. Other than that, and of course, then not adjusted for and hence, still weighing on the adjusted EBITA margin, we have negative impact from FX, so the stronger SEK and also tariffs as well as restructuring costs to unlock efficiencies in several of the companies, and we deem this as part of ongoing operations.
And now double-clicking on performance across the companies in Patricia Industries. And first to highlight a few positives. We saw a second strong quarter for BraunAbility, in part explained by a relatively weak comparison quarter, but also due to strong demand. Profitability improved, but coming from a depressed level in Q4 2024. Nova Biomedical had a solid quarter in terms of growth and profitability. Growth was partly helped by recovery following the cyber incident in Q3. Integration is progressing according to plan, and this includes initiatives such as merging the organizations and implementing a common ERP system. And this, as we mentioned last quarter, may have an impact on sales and earnings near term. We also do know that Q1 last year was a particularly strong quarter for the acquired part of the business.
Laborie continued to see solid growth, driven by a large extent the Optilume urethral strictures product. Reported profitability for Laborie was down as it includes USD 11 million in cost for the JADA acquisition and the CEO transition. If we were to adjust for this, profitability was still down, but only slightly on the back of commercial investments. Permobil and Piab had a more challenging quarter. Permobil is experiencing muted growth, and that's primarily explained by negative impact from the voluntary product recall of the Power Assist device announced in Q3. But positive to see good cost containment and a slight increase in EBITA margin, and this is despite SEK 32 million in restructuring costs.
Piab had a quarter with negative organic growth, and that's on the back of weaker customer demand, particularly in the semiconductor market. Generally, Piab's end markets have been more choppy following the introduction of tariffs and increased geopolitical disruption. Lower sales impacts margins together with negative FX and tariffs as well as SEK 37 million in restructuring costs to drive efficiencies. And finally, on to Atlas Antibodies, we contributed SEK 200 million to strengthen the balance sheet. And this is to give room to the relatively new management to execute on the plan. And we do see that roughly 70% of the business is recovering, but we still see challenges in terms of soft market and competition for the evitria part of the business.
And over to Mölnlycke. So Mölnlycke had a solid quarter with 3% organic growth, and this was primarily driven by Wound Care. So Wound Care grew 5% organically and Gloves 3% organically, and this was somewhat offset by a contracting ORS. On a general basis, we see continued good momentum in U.S. and China, while softer markets in Europe and the Middle East. In Europe, as mentioned before, there are pressures on health care budgets and that's specifically in Germany and France. And in the Middle East, we see customers with relatively high inventory levels.
Profitability for Mölnlycke improved, and this is despite negative impact from FX and tariffs, and this is driven by positive product mix, but also lower cost on the back of continuous work with efficiency improvements. And Mölnlycke distributed EUR 200 million to Patricia Industries in Q4. We saw a 1% increase in estimated market values compared to Q3, so from SEK 223 billion to SEK 225 million. And this increase was explained by earnings growth in the portfolio companies as well as cash flow generation and, to a lesser extent, also expansion in valuation multiples. However, the increase was essentially offset by a negative impact from currency.
And looking at value development across the companies, we can say that the main contributors for Q4 were Nova Biomedical and Laborie, while Sarnova and Piab was a drag on total value. For Sarnova, mainly due to multiples and for Piab, mainly lower earnings. Also worth highlighting is the distribution, so roughly SEK 2 billion from Mölnlycke and BraunAbility, respectively as well as the already mentioned equity contribution to Atlas Antibodies of SEK 200 million to strengthen the balance sheet.
And now moving on to investments in EQT. So total value change was 8% in the quarter, and that's primarily driven by EQT AB, which was up 14%. Fund investments were essentially flat. And as a reminder, we report EQT fund investments with 1 quarter lag. So the 0% is based on EQT's Q3 report. On the right-hand side, we illustrate the net cash flow from EQT to Investor, which was roughly SEK 1 billion in the quarter, and this is driven by exit proceeds as well as dividend from EQT AB. And here, we have an illustration of the net cash flow from investments in EQT over time. While it's quite lumpy on a quarterly basis, over the past 10 years, we've received a net cash inflow of SEK 1.6 billion on average per year. And the LTM net cash flow is a negative SEK 2.4 billion. However, this includes SEK 800 million in acquisition for EQT AB shares and also SEK 4.5 billion in investment in Fortnox. If we were to adjust for this, net cash flow on an LTM basis is a positive SEK 3 billion.
Our balance sheet remains strong. Our leverage as of Q4 is 2.1%. So it remains in the lower end of our policy range despite significant investments. And we closed the year with SEK 27 billion in cash at hand. All of our 3 business areas generate cash flow to support investments and a steadily rising dividend to shareholders. And as you know, from Listed Companies, we receive ordinary dividends as well as extraordinary dividend. In Patricia Industries, the portfolio companies generate cash flow, which can be reinvested in the companies or paid in distribution. And for investments in EQT, we have an ownership in EQT AB, which yields an annual dividend as well as fund investments where cash flow is, by definition, lumpy because it's dependent on drawdowns and exits, but it remains a strong contributor to cash flow over time.
Since 2015, we have received total funds from all of these 3 business areas of SEK 216 billion, and note here that EQT is net cash flow in the pie chart to the left. The use of proceeds is illustrated on the right of more than 50% has been distributed to shareholders, roughly 30% has been reinvested in Patricia Industries and north of 10% in Listed Companies. So this platform with 3 strong business areas provides a broad-based cash flow that supports continued growth and distributions. The incoming funds provide strong investment capacity and have been deployed across all of our 3 business areas. 2025 was a record year in terms of investments, and this has been executed on while maintaining a strong balance sheet going into 2026.
While sustaining this high level of investment activity, as mentioned, more than 50% of incoming funds have been distributed to our shareholders. We have continuously delivered on our commitment to pay a steadily rising dividend, and we continue to do so also in 2025. So the dividend proposal for 2025, as Christian has already mentioned, is SEK 5.6 per share, which is an increase of SEK 0.4 per share compared to 2024. And this applies an average annual growth of 8% over the last 10 years.
And then on to my final slide. So looking at the longer-term perspective, the performance of the Investor ABB share truly illustrates the strength and the resilience of our portfolio and strategy.
So with that, I will leave the word back to Jacob.
Thank you, Jenny. Thank you, Christian as well. We are now ready to take your questions, and we will start with the questions through our operator, Sharon. Sharon, please.
[Operator Instructions] And your first phone question comes from the line of Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.
2. Question Answer
Starting off with a question on Mölnlycke and Mölnlycke growth. Is there any visibility on these France and Germany headwinds subsiding? Or should we expect this effect to persist in the foreseeable future?
I can start. Thank you for the question, Linus. It's quite hard to say. We are seeing muted growth across many sectors at the moment, given what we're seeing globally. And specifically for Mölnlycke in Europe, there's weakness in France and Germany, and that is because there's a lot of pressure on health care budgets. But it's really hard to say if that would look any different in the next quarter, but really good to see continued momentum in the U.S. and China.
And maybe just to add, I think it's fair to say that this started somewhere during the first half of last year. But to Jenny's point, we don't really have visibility on the future development.
That's fair. And then on the margin in Mölnlycke, is it fair to assume that the sort of tariff and currency impacts on profitability there are in line with previous quarters? And I mean, with 30-plus EBITDA margin, have we sort of already reached the potential for the efficiency program?
Well, I can start. I would say that for the companies impacted by the tariffs, on a general basis, they're doing a really good job to mitigate, but it's roughly 1 percentage point or so still impacting margins. In terms of FX for Mölnlycke for this quarter, it's roughly 3 to 4 percentage points in negative FX. And Mölnlycke is doing a really good job working with efficiencies and really demonstrated that in this quarter. Then, of course, that's ongoing work because it's a mix of travel restrictions, using less consultants and also finding more sustainable efficiencies. So I think that work will continue also through 2026.
Okay. And then my final question is a more general one. When you talk about solid cash flow in the coming years and this ambition to accelerate investments, could we view this as a comment on, say, EQT exit markets and the potential for, for example, Nova Biomedical start generating dividends to investors after the integration?
Sorry, can you repeat the question? You were asking about our comment on accelerated investments and the cash flow, and then I didn't quite follow.
Yes. I mean, implicit in that statement is accelerating cash flows to fund those investments. So just -- is there anything you can comment on in terms of where those cash flows will come from?
Okay. I can take a first crack. So thanks, and it's a good question. And really, the way we think about it is we look at the cash generation from the 3 business areas. And when it comes to Patricia and you were asking about Nova, the way we think about it there is that really the cash flow generated and the debt capacity generated in the subsidiaries is all a potential funding source for acquisition and/or distribution. And really, cash is sort of a corporate asset. So whether it's distributed or not is maybe not the key point, but rather that the underlying cash generation in these businesses is solid. Does that answer your question?
Yes.
And your next question comes from the line of Derek Laliberte from ABG Sundal Collier.
I wanted to ask on Mölnlycke. You say the prevention and post-op were strong product segments in the U.S. I was wondering if you could give some more insight on why these areas are performing so strongly now and which product areas perhaps aren't doing as well. Also, I'm wondering if the product mix is similar in Europe in terms of performance right now.
I can start on that. I think the main difference we see is relating to the different geographies, as Jenny mentioned. And when it comes to product mix and channel mix, maybe the one thing to say there is that in the U.S., we're more heavily leaning on acute and hospital, while in Europe, including in France, for example, we have more towards post-acute and even some home care.
And I could also add to that maybe that the Prevention segment is larger in the U.S. because of the reimbursement structure. So there's a clear market for that in the U.S., which is very different compared to Europe as well.
Okay. Great. That's very helpful. And on Laborie, what's the status on this BPH product, is it reasonable to expect any meaningful contributions from that during '26?
Well, we don't really provide guidance, but what we can do say is that for this quarter, as we mentioned, the growth is a lot driven by the urethral strictures product. But as of now, we do have an active reimbursement in the U.S. for the BPH product. So we continue investing behind that launch. And of course, it will also depend on the reception in the market, et cetera. But the launch is very much ongoing, and we are very optimistic about the long-term runway with both of these products.
All right. And regarding Nova Biomedical, looking at the combined company now, I was wondering how the geographical split looks like, how high is the share of U.S. sales, for example?
We provided that in the last quarter. Let us come back to that.
Yes, absolutely. That's fair. And on Three Scandinavia, I was wondering generally here, the background, I think the growth looked pretty strong here in Q4 and actually over the year. What's driving this growth? Is it mainly continued market share gains or also some price increases involved here as a contributing factor?
Well, yes, we agree. Three has been continuing to gain market share, as you can also tell from the subscriber growth numbers. And then with regards to price, I mean, it remains a fiercely competitive market, of course, but at least they have been good at holding prices. That's what I would say on that.
Okay. Great. And finally, if I recall correctly, on Sarnova, you have this high inventory situation with distributors affecting market demand and so on. Is it fair to say that this has subsided now?
Thank you. Yes, this is primarily relating to the AED or cardiac response business. And really, what we see there is it is continuing to be a tough market. However, on a sequential basis, it has been more stable recently. And then, of course, inventory could be one part in that.
We will now take the next question. And the question comes from the line of Jakob Hesslevik from SEB.
First, on demand navigation. So several businesses face weak demand and cautious demand in their segment. How do you differentiate between cyclical weakness that require patience versus structural challenges requiring strategic pivots?
I can start there. Well, so really, what we try to track, if I start there is, one, of course, total market development, but also we're benchmarking with a certain cadence so as to make sure that we understand whether we're gaining, holding or potentially losing market share. And there, I think it's fair to say that for the majority of the portfolio, we're confident that we're holding or increasing market share. And then the other part of your question was whether -- to what extent we see structural weaknesses in markets. And that's, of course, something we continuously evaluate. And generally, when it comes to investments, we're quite keen and that's one of our top criteria to make sure that we are in industries where we see, call it, GDP plus rather than GDP or GDP minus growth. And of course, sometimes that changes over time. And then we make sure we keep track of that.
Great. And then double-clicking on the currency exposure management. So FX headwinds significantly impacted Patricia Industries performance during this year. It should have affected your Listed portfolio as well given its large exposure towards exports. But beyond the operational efficiency improvements mentioned, what strategic actions are you considering in order to manage your FX exposure across the portfolio more efficiently, especially to hedge the Patricia portfolio that seems to be more sensitive to USD weakening while not having a professional treasury department helping out, which you can maybe found in most of your listed portfolio. Is this something you're looking into how you can help out Patricia more in managing their exposure?
Thank you for the question. Well, as you allude to, our main way of, let's say, balancing FX exposure is by way of operational hedging, i.e., to try to have the costs where we have the revenues and the income. Now despite that, we do have a significant earnings stream in U.S. dollar, thanks to our presence and strong market positions in the U.S. When it comes to sort of further hedging within the companies, we typically don't engage much in that. But rather, we want the FX effect to be seen immediately and then addressed and dealt with. So with a long-term perspective, the changes and the FX environment will be a reality and will hit. So we'd rather just see it upfront and then try to deal with it. The only additional hedging we do is we try to match our debt currency with what our underlying cash flow is per currency. So for example, if you have a company with a lot of earnings in U.S. dollars, it's appropriate to have some level of U.S. debt there as well.
Okay. And then just finally on Atlas Antibodies. Following the goodwill impairment and now equity contribution, what strategic options are you evaluating for Atlas Antibodies? I mean it's a holding from back in the days when it was called investor growth capital. It is still a very small investment and contribute limited to NAV. Why are you not looking into divesting this holding?
Yes. Well, thank you for the question. First and foremost, so we are contributing the SEK 200 million, and that is to give management some room to execute on the plan. And we have a clear plan. I think we also mentioned in the presentation that roughly 70% of the business is doing well, while we have the 30% evitria business, which is struggling, and that's on the base of weaker market demand. But we have belief in management and also the plan to continue to build on Atlas Antibodies. So that's what we are focusing on here and now. I don't know if you want to add something.
No. As alluded to previously, I mean, you have 2 out of 3 business areas that are performing well. And the struggle we see is within evitria.
Yes. Fair enough. I'm just thinking about the time it takes versus the size of the company relative to the rest of your portfolio, maybe we can come back to Atlas in the future?
No, but I think the one thing to say there is maybe that, of course, with Atlas Antibodies as with the other companies, our ambition is to grow it bigger over time, for sure.
No, I agree. It should -- it's just it hasn't really grown over the past 15 years. It's not that much larger than it was when it came out of Investor Growth Capital. But it's clear. Thank you for the elaboration at least on the business performance in the name. That makes a lot of sense.
May I just, before we take the next question, come back to the question on the geographic split on the combined Nova Biomedical business. And then the numbers are roughly 60% North America and then the other 40% is roughly equally divided between Europe and rest of the world.
[Operator Instructions] And your next question comes from the line of Johan Sjöberg from Kepler Cheuvreux.
I hope you can hear me. My question is, if you start off with the Wound Care business and looking at the growth rates over the last year, it seems like you continue to be in the high single-digit growth area. And my question here, going forward here, I heard your comments on especially what's going on in Europe here. But do you see any change to that or any -- I mean, over the next, say, like 3 years, whatever, is that the sort of -- do you see any change to the market that would sort of change that picture, if you take some sort of a helicopter view on that one, please?
Yes, I can start. And I think the short answer is, not really. So no clear change. I think looking at the full year, Wound Care specifically grew 7% organically and was 5% in the last quarter. And that is, as we've talked about before, in a market that's growing low to mid-single digit. So Mölnlycke has continued to take market share within Wound Care on the back of a strong product offering, very much focused on the customer.
And we, of course, have the absolute aim to continue to do so by continuing to investing in innovation and also go-to-market. And then in addition to that, we also have new geographies. So we are investing in China, where we now have local production. And there we, of course, are seeing potential for higher growth. And then also the investments and the building presence in the post-acute channel, which is also an addition because Mölnlycke has historically had the strong position in acute, and that will also add potential avenues for higher growth. So we're not seeing anything differently now. But of course, in the more short-term perspective, we will always have markets that can be under pressure like we're seeing now in Europe.
That's great. And also, Jenny, can I ask you on EQT funds, EQT reported today also and sort of you -- given a quarter lag on your -- the reported value of EQT funds. Should we expect any shift -- or put it like this, is there any material change if you were to use the Q4 numbers compared with the Q3 numbers?
No, the short answer is that there will not be a material change, at least not for this quarter.
No, good. Then also FX is all over the place right now or rather going in the wrong way, you can say, to some extent. How -- what -- could you sort of give some sort of indication? We know about the domicile of all the companies, but just to get a feeling for what is sort of the -- what is the most important currency to look at? Is it Euro-Dollar, is it the Euro-SEK or the U.S. dollar-SEK, just to see sort of the flows within the company, so to speak here, because it is a little bit big movements, to put it mildly.
I assume you're referring to the Patricia portfolio?
Yes.
So this is what I would say. First of all, the #1 exposure is, of course, to the U.S. dollar, just given our big presence there with some U.S. domiciled companies, but also for a company like Mölnlycke and Permobil, I mean, the U.S., clearly the single biggest market for many companies. And then in Swedish krona, for most of the Swedish domiciled companies or the global, I should say, Swedish domicile companies, you would typically look at SEK exposure that is or krona exposure, where we sort of short the krona because we have headquarters here, R&D, et cetera. But of course, sales in Swedish krona is typically quite limited.
And then thirdly, just to comment on the euro, I think from Mölnlycke, in particular, it's worth to highlight that we do have manufacturing for Wound Care, for example, in the U.S., in Maine. That said, we are still net exporting from Mikkeli in Finland and so from euro into U.S. dollar. So that's another one to keep track of.
Okay. Cool. My last question, it's really about -- I mean, some of your portfolio companies are talking about also the hesitance among customers to place orders due to tariff uncertainty, geopolitical stuff and everything like that. I would like to hear your thoughts upon, especially when you're looking at -- or you are looking for a platform acquisition or if your companies are doing an add-on acquisition, do you see that being impacting, well, sellers and buyers also here in terms of hesitance. I know one thing is the sort of valuation, but that's always a thing you can say. But this geopolitical stuff here, is that something which is also sort of hindering your M&A ambitions in both platform and add-on?
Thanks for the question. I would not say that it's sort of the major obstacle. But of course, all the factors that you point to just add to the general sort of uncertainty in terms of deciding what's the underlying earnings, et cetera. That said, on a lot of things that we're looking at, for example, in the health care and life science market, tariffs, for example, is sort of not the biggest factor driving that. So it certainly adds to the unpredictability and uncertainty, but it's not a -- I would not call it out as a major obstacle for doing transactions as proven also in the recent year where we've done lots of add-on acquisitions, for example.
Thank you. There are currently no further phone questions. I will now hand the call back to Jacob for webcast questions.
Thank you very much, Sharon, and let's take the questions from the web. We can start with one from [ Tommy Falk ] around the dividend for 2025. Maybe add some flavor to that, Jenny.
Yes. Well, thank you for the question. Well, I think, first of all, the dividend proposal is the Board's proposal to the AGM and for the AGM to decide. But maybe some flavor commenting on the SEK 0.40 increase. It seems balanced looking at our robust balance sheet and also view on cash flow generation and investments. And I think the SEK 0.40 is also really a testament to the fact that we have 3 business areas generating cash flow that really supports continued growth, also investments and delivering on our dividend policy to pay a steadily rising dividend.
Next question, [indiscernible]. Please, how Investor AB is engaged in rearm Europe programs or other defense investments globally? Would you like to pick that up, Christian?
Yes, I'll take a crack at it. So Investor AB as such is not particularly involved in this. But of course, the build-out of the defense of Europe means business opportunities for Saab quite obviously, but also for other companies. And as an example, Ericsson do see a potential from the rebuilding of the European defense.
Next question comes from Oskar Lindstrom, Danske. On Mölnlycke, are there opportunities to growth, more through acquisitions in the Wound Care or adjacent segments given weak main markets? That's the first one. And then on Patricia acquisitions, for some time now, you've been talking on and off about adding a new major leg in Patricia, mentioning industrial automation as a segment of interest. Is that still the case? What does the pipeline look like? And what is your thinking on valuations?
Yes, I can start with Mölnlycke. Yes, well, add-ons is a priority for all of our subsidiaries and Mölnlycke included. So there is a lot of time spent to, of course, understand the different segments within Wound Care, but also adjacencies. And I think so far, there has not been any major available targets that have made sense because Mölnlycke has been able to grow so strongly organically. What Mölnlycke has done and is, of course, also continuing doing is add-ons that are smaller and more focused on innovation. So early-stage research, for example. And I think a recent example of that is a product for potential debridement of wounds, which would be a good addition to the Mölnlycke portfolio. But as for the other subsidiaries, it's also an important focus for Mölnlycke, of course.
And then the question on new platforms. And just to recap, our capital allocation priorities are quite clear in that we always put development and growth of our existing companies first. So that's our top priority. And as we've said, we are also open for and actively looking to add new platform companies, not the least in Patricia. And yes, industrial automation or industrial technology has been pointed to as one area that we're looking in, but we are also looking more broadly than that. And as for the pipeline, I think all I can say there is the work with identifying, scouting and potentially executing on acquisitions is a continuous process. And then when it comes to sort of closings and actual execution, that is inherently volatile and will remain so.
Then the next one is from [indiscernible]. Will you organize another Capital Markets Day in 2026 for us, long-term shareholders? This is helpful to gauge the development of nonlisted companies. I think I can answer that briefly.
It's been a while since we had the last Capital Markets update, and we'll be getting back with more information on that in due course.
Next question and the final question I can see is from Jens [indiscernible]. From a strategic perspective on China, how do you assess the competitive risks and opportunities, the latter in terms of growth, investment and cooperation?
So as we comment on in the CEO statement in this report, we do see China as a very important region and for several reasons. I mean, one is that for many of our companies, both on the listed side and in Patricia, China is a large and growing market. So that's one thing, the market potential. But also, it's increasingly clear that competition in China or from China is evolving and evolving quite fast. So as we comment on, it's important for many of our companies to be in China, not just for the market opportunity, but also to be where and to compete where some of our toughest competitors are. And it's quite clear to me that comparing China today to a number of years ago, they're not just leading on low cost, but also on implementation of new technology, on fast innovation cycles, et cetera. So even more reasons to be there.
Thank you very much. There are no further questions on the web. That means it's time to wrap up. Thanks to both of you. Our next scheduled call is the Q1 results for 2026 scheduled for April 21. And until then, thank you, and goodbye.
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Investor B — Investor AB (publ), Q3 2025 Interim Management Statement Call, Oct 16, 2025
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and a warm welcome to Investors Results Call for the Third Quarter 2025. I'm joined here in the studio by Jenny Ashman Haquinius, CFO; and Christian Cederholm, CEO. Both will soon be giving their presentations. And after that, as usual, we will be opening up for questions both via our operator on the call and online.
With that, over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Jacob, and hello, everyone. Q3 was a strong quarter with net asset value growth of 7% with contribution from all 3 business areas. In a turbulent environment, our portfolio companies maintain a good balance between focusing on efficiency to protect profits here now and at the same time, investing appropriately for the future, both organically and by way of acquisitions. The Patricia Industries subsidiaries showed solid performance with good organic growth and stable profits despite significant headwinds from a weaker U.S. dollar. We also saw continued high portfolio activity, including investments in all 3 business areas. At the end of the quarter, adjusted net asset value stood at SEK 1,028 billion.
Let me briefly go through the 3 business areas. Starting with the listed companies, that represents about 70% of our portfolio. Listed companies generated a total return of 8%, well ahead of the SIXRX return index at 3%. We invested in Ericsson and Atlas Copco at valuation levels that we deem attractive. We also entered into a new contract to divest shares in SEB with aim to maintain our current ownership level as SEB continues to buy back shares. Companies continue their efforts to future-proof their businesses.
For example, in the past 12 months, Atlas Copco has acquired more than 30 companies, including several in this third quarter. AstraZeneca announced a plan to invest USD 50 billion in the U.S. by 2030, further strengthening its position in this key market. Wärtsilä divested its Marine Electrical Systems business, further focusing its portfolio. After the end of the quarter, ABB announced an agreement to divest of ABB Robotics to SoftBank. We share the view of the ABB Board that this will be financially attractive for ABB while providing a good new home to ABB Robotics.
On people then, the Husqvarna Board appointed internal candidate, Glen Instone, as new CEO, effective August this year. And the nomination committees are currently forming ahead of next year's AGMs. We will continue to push for higher compensation levels to secure competitiveness for the long term.
Moving to Patricia Industries then. Total return for Patricia Industries was 4%, with the largest positive contribution from multiples this quarter. Our major subsidiaries grew sales organically by 4% with BraunAbility and Laborie growing significantly faster. Adjusted EBITDA declined by 2% and largely driven by a weakening U.S. dollar year-on-year. Chris Smith was appointed new CEO of Laborie. Chris has served on the Laborie Board and is a seasoned MedTech executive. Advanced Instruments completed the acquisition of Nova Biomedical, which is now the name of the new combined business. Organic growth in the quarter was a negative 4% on a pro forma basis, driven by a particularly strong comparison quarter last year for the acquired business and a cyber incident that disrupted operations this quarter.
Integration work is off to a good start and entails, for instance, implementation of a common ERP system and alignment and investments in the organization, all with the goal to realize the combined company's full potential. The underlying qualities of the business are all in line with our investment case. For the major subsidiaries and our 40% in Three Scandinavia, including also the combined Nova Biomedical business from Q3 reported last 12-month sales was SEK 68 billion, and EBITDA was just north of SEK 17 billion. We should note here that this is all in Swedish krona, of course, rather sensitive to FX.
Investments in EQT, our third business area represents about 10% of our total assets. Here in Q3, total return was 1% exit activity in EQT funds was high with net cash flow to investor of SEK 2 billion, excluding our investment in Fortnox. We invested an additional SEK 1.8 billion in the co-investment of Fortnox, taking the total investment close to the communicated SEK 4.5 billion.
After the quarter, Jean Salata was nominated new share in EQT, taking over after Conni Jonsson from the next AGM. In this turbulent environment, I'm glad that we have a really strong platform. Investor has a clear purpose and a focused strategy. We have a portfolio of high-quality companies, a proven ownership and governance model, great people at investor and in our companies. And importantly, we have a financial flexibility with low leverage and strong underlying cash flow from all 3 businesses. The current somewhat turbulent environment will offer opportunities to further strengthen the position of our companies and investor itself, building strong and sustainable businesses and ultimately driving long-term shareholder returns.
With that, thank you, and let me hand over to Jenny.
Perfrect. Thank you, Christian, and good morning. So let me take you through the financials for the quarter. So in Q3 2025, adjusted net asset value was SEK 1,028 billion, and this implies an increase of 7% compared to Q2. For the quarter, all business areas contributed positively. Listed companies increased with 8%, Patricia Industries, 4% and investments in EQT, 1%. So this implies a total return of 7% for the quarter and 8% year-to-date. Double-clicking on each of the business areas, starting with listed companies. So within listed companies, share price performance was mixed. Wärtsilä was a strong contributor also this quarter, followed by ABB and SEB. We saw positive share price development across several of the companies.
However, Electrolux and Electrolux Professional had a tougher quarter looking at total return. Total return for listed companies portfolio was 8% compared to SIXRX benchmark index of 3%. As for absolute contribution, the strong performance was mainly in companies with size and weight in our portfolio so this implies a strong net asset value contribution from listed companies in Q3.
Moving on to Patricia Industries. In Patricia Industries, we saw a 10% increase in estimated market values compared to Q2. So from SEK 202 billion to SEK 223 billion. Adjusting for the equity contribution from investor to Patricia Industries for the Nova Biomedical acquisition, the underlying increase is 4%. The increase was mainly explained by an expansion in valuation multiples as well as cash flow generation in the portfolio companies. However, the increase was somewhat negatively impacted by currency, so a stronger Swedish krona negatively impacting earnings in Mölnlycke and Permobil. Worth highlighting is that we have included the combined Nova Biomedical business in the estimated market value using our previously established method.
As a reminder, the method is relative valuation versus listed peers. So for each company, we have identified a set of listed peers, roughly 15 to 20 peers per company. And then for each peer group, we find an EV to EBITDA multiple where the EVs or the enterprise value reflects the 3-month value-weighted average price as opposed to the spot price at the end of the quarter and EBITDA over the last 12 months.
So backward looking and not forward-looking. And this relative valuation metric is then applied to the EBITDA of our companies. So for Nova Biomedical, we applied a relative multiple to the LTM pro forma EBITDA of the combined business. Looking at value development across companies, we can see that the main contributors in terms of value for Q3 were the North American companies, while the Nordic companies were more flat over the quarter. So some extent were done by a negative impact from FX.
And now commenting on performance across the companies in Patricia Industries. First to highlight a few positives. We saw a strong quarter for BraunAbility, in part, explained by a relatively weak comparison quarter, but also due to strong demand. Laborie continued to see solid growth, driven to a large extent by the Optilume urethral strictures product. In the short term, comps are getting continuously tougher as Optilume urethral strictures is included in benchmark quarters. But the longer term, there is a lot of potential in both urethral strictures and the more recently launched BPH product. Nova Biomedical and Permobil had a tougher quarter for Nova Biomedical, we are coming from a particularly tough comparison period last year for the acquired business.
We also had a cyber incident this quarter impacting sales, but this was partly offset by strong organic growth in the acquiring Advanced Instruments business. Permobil is experiencing muted growth, which is explained by weakness in the U.S., but also a negative impact from a voluntary product recall.
Moving on to Mölnlycke. Mölnlycke had a solid quarter with 3% organic growth, primarily driven by Wound Care and Gloves, both growing 5% organically. This was somewhat offset by a contracting ORS. Profitability improved despite negative impact from FX and tariffs, and that is driven by positive product mix but also lower cost on the back of the accelerating work to find efficiency improvements.
And then moving on to investments in EQT. Total value change was 1% in the quarter, and that's primarily driven by EQT AB, which was up 2%. Fund investments were down 1%. And as a reminder, we report EQT fund investments with 1 quarter lag. So the negative 1% is based on EQT's Q2 report. For Q3 earlier this morning, EQT reported 3% in positive development in key fund investment. But again, note that this is in euros and that the correlation to our EQT fund investment is not 1:1.
On the right-hand side, we illustrate the net cash flow from EQT to investor, which was close to 0 in the quarter. And this is despite exit proceeds given our investment in Fortnox and acquisition of shares in EQT AB. And here we illustrate net cash flow from our investments in EQT over time. While it's quite lumpy on a quarterly basis, over the past 10 years, we have received a net cash inflow of SEK 1.6 billion on average per year. The LTM net cash flow is a negative SEK 2.7 billion, but that includes SEK 800 million in acquisition of shares in EQT AB and SEK 4.4 billion investment in Fortnox. If we adjust for this, the net cash flow on an LTM basis is a positive SEK 2.5 billion.
Our balance sheet remains strong. Our leverage as of Q3 is 2.6%, so it remains in the lower end of our policy range despite significant investments. On to my last slide, over the 5-, 10- and 20-year period, the Investor AB B share has outperformed both SIXRX Index and our return requirement, which we highlight in orange. And this underscores the strength and the resilience of our portfolio and our strategy. The past 12 months have presented headwinds, looking at the Investor B share. However, adjusted net asset value is up compared to SIXRX, which has been essentially flat.
And with that, I will leave the word back to Jacob.
Thank you very much, Jenny. Thank you also, Christian, for your words. We are ready to take your questions, and we will start with questions through our operator, Sharon, please.
[Operator Instructions] And your first question today comes from the line of Jacob Hesslevik from SEB.
2. Question Answer
So maybe we could first start off with you mentioning that the portfolio companies are focusing on cost efficiency, while the Patricia Industries showed minus 4% reported sales growth. Can you elaborate on what you're seeing operationally? And how sustainable is the 4% organic growth when we adjust for the currency effects?
Well, I think it's a bit difficult to answer that question in terms of the entire portfolio because it varies across the companies. But if we start with the work in terms of operating efficiencies or finding cost efficiencies, the work is a focus for all of our business or subsidiaries. For this quarter, it's a lot about less hiring, also less traveling, reducing consultants. So a lot of focus on kind of external cost. But at the same time, there is a parallel work to find more structural efficiencies. But as we alluded to last quarter, the timing of the impact of such effects will vary. And I think in terms of the organic growth, how sustainable it is, I think it depends on each of the different businesses.
Maybe I can start commenting on Mölnlycke, for example, which is the biggest subsidiary. So we saw Mölnlycke with 3% organic growth for this quarter. And if I focus on the biggest business areas, the Wound Care, which is more than 60% of the business and even more so in terms of EBITDA. We saw a good 5% organic growth. And if we look at the year-to-date number, it's 7% organic growth, which is in line with the same number during the same period last year. And this is in a market where we see a low to mid-single-digit underlying market growth.
So we are very pleased with Mölnlycke continuing to take share. And that is on the back of attractive products, also a really good market -- go-to-market execution and in parallel focus on geographic expansion, where China is a good example. But we do recognize for all of our companies that we have fierce competition. So there will be a lot of hard work also going forward. I don't know if you want to add something, Christian?
Comprehensive.
And can you walk us through the integration plan for Nova Biomedical and how you're thinking about the leverage profile at advanced instruments post acquisition? And how should we expect organic growth to continue to be negative for the upcoming 2 quarters given your comment, Christian? Or is it only in Q4 that organic growth could be under pressure?
Okay. Thank you. If I start with, let's say, the underlying performance of the business and then maybe we can come back to the leverage question. So as we said in Q3, we had a negative minus 4% and really 2 things that stood out. One was a tough comparison quarter, including some one-off orders that we didn't expect to get back basically this year. And the other thing that we bring up is the cyber incident that impacted operations, both sales and cost during the quarter. Integration is off to a good start. And the integration work includes, of course, bringing the organizations together and aligning them but also other things such as rolling out a common ERP system. And really what we say is that, that may impact both sales and earnings near term.
But importantly, the first months since we got the keys here,have really confirmed the qualities of this business. And focus is now on moving fast forward with the integration to really realize the full potential of this combined business, creating a really strong platform for accelerated growth as we go forward. And then with regards to the leverage profile, I mean, we did use the combined business and leverage that to pay part of the proceeds here or the price for Nova Biomedical. And cash flow, as you know, is inherently volatile quarter-to-quarter, but we do expect to see deleveraging over time.
And did you mention how much the one-off costs related to the cybersecurity incident was?
I did not, and that's intentionally. So I mean it is hard to quantify the impact on both sales and operations. But what we said is that we are confident that it was significant enough to bring up.
Okay. And it's all completed now and fine?
It's -- the attack or the incident is remedied or rectified and operations are up and running since several weeks back.
Glad to hear that. And then just a final question. Could you help us understand the property divestment from Vectura? Is that there are a lot of renovation debt in that property portfolio as a price seem to be quite low, given how large [ Arsenalsgatan and Teknisk högskolan ] unique property position in Stockholm?
Yes. Well, thank you for the question. I mean the combined property value of SEK 1.4 billion is roughly in line with what Vectura has in the books, and that's been revalued every quarter. So it's in line with the market values that we've had. And in terms of the value in the transaction, we've also used on both sides of the transaction, independent appraisal firms and also done a fairness opinion of the entire -- so we have confirmed that this is the market values.
Maybe it's fair to say that the vast majority of the value lies in [ National Scott ] and Okta.
Yes. I would just say that [ Agarden ] is a unique property, which is -- could be difficult to sort of price on. That's where we came to as well, given it seems that [ Agarden ] is almost worth close to 0 when you take multiples on [ National Scotlands ] what's called space or office space?
Yes. Yes. I think in addition to that, one also has to reflect that it's a land less and also a significant renovation. So it's not renovated in the same sense.
So a there's a lot of renovation debt then, I guess, or upcoming renovation debt...
Yes. It's like always with the properties. When you haven't renovated for a while, you need to do renovation. So a lot is may be a bit too much, but it's, of course, more than [ Arsenalsgatan ] which is newly renovated.
And the question comes from the line of Oskar Lindstrom from Danske Bank.
My first question is on Mölnlycke. Should we expect any further impact from tariffs or any secondary logistics disservices as a consequence of tariffs that have been introduced? Is that still ahead of us?
Well, I think it's very hard to say because, as you know, tariffs also keep changing, is moving material. So for this quarter, the impact so far that we see is less than 1 percentage point in terms of sales.
Negative impact on organic sales growth?
Well, no, the actual cost is less than 1%.
On margin.
Yes.
And if we move on, you mentioned in your section on Mölnlycke, the weakness in the Wound Care market in France and Germany. I mean, first off, is this something that's sort of getting weaker? Or is it just sort of a weak spot? And what's the nature of this weakness? And do you have any sense of how long term that could be?
Well, it's a very good question. It's hard to know how long term it will be, but we do see pockets of weakness in Germany and France, and that's on the back of pressure on health care budgets essentially. There's no fundamental difference in the actual need for products that Mölnlycke provide. So it's more about the health care funding, at least for the short term.
Right. Okay. And sorry, when did this weakness appear? I mean, is it something that has come now in I can't remember if you mentioned it in your Q2 report as well.
No. I think it's a bit different in terms of both Germany and France. In France, we've seen more focus on kind of reimbursement cuts historically, which we've explained. Now we don't see the reimbursement costs to the same extent. It's more of the pressure on the health care budget and for Germany, I mean it's different. But I think for now, what we see in terms of the macroeconomic pressure, that kind of weakness has grown larger during this quarter.
All right. My final question is on M&A. You or investor rather have previously talked quite a lot about acquiring sort of business is in industrial automation, probably sort of a larger addition. Now you've further increased our exposure to -- in the pharma or [indiscernible] segments. What are you thinking about this sort of future direction of you privately held assets?
Thank you. Great question. And I think that -- if you look at the recent acquisition of Nova as an example, that's a great way for us to leverage the competence and the platform we have in advanced instruments, not the least in this case and we are happy to continue expanding where we stand. That said, we also remain open for new platform investments. And then as you point out, we have mentioned industrial technology or technology more broadly as one focus area. And we continue to be actively looking for that.
And you mentioned, I think, here in your introductory presentation about sort of the current turbulent environment. I mean is that something would you connect to this?
Sorry, could you repeat the question? I lost you there in the middle or we lost you.
Yes. Sorry. In your presentation now, you mentioned that the current turbulence environment offered opportunities for investors with regards to acquisitions and growth as well, I presume. Could you expand on that a little bit? Are you seeing a lot of acquisition opportunities at the moment? .
We do. And I mean, as we said before, the work of finding and courting and hopefully executing on these opportunities. That's a continuous work. And oftentimes, it takes a year before we identify a potential candidate and then until we close on an acquisition. So that work is ongoing, and I would say the pipeline looks healthy. Then in terms of closing rate, it will inherently be volatile over the quarters. Maybe just to add one thing to your last question also, which I think is important on where we expand it's also important when you think about our portfolio, we tend to think about it, first and foremost, as one portfolio. And that means that if you look at, for example, life science tools and reagents or MedTech, et cetera, it's still a relatively small share of our portfolio so I really see concentration risk in that sense.
I'm happy with those answers.
And the next question today comes from the line of Johan Sjöberg from Kepler Cheuvreux.
Continuing on the last question on the closing rate, which you mentioned, Christian, and talk a little bit about that. I mean, given the character of companies you're looking for sort of high growth -- high operating strong growth environment and good profitability. This comes with the cost or a high valuation, I assume. Do you think right now that the valuation multiples on especially in the U.S. on these sort of companies and also including the industrial or the automation or it doesn't technology. Is that a big obstacle right now, would you say?
Well, I think your observation is spot on. And I would say that the kind of companies that we're looking for puts us in a place where almost everything we look at comes at somewhat reached price. It obviously helps if you do add on acquisitions, you may not have to pay the same kind of, call it, platform premium. And also, you may have synergies that sort of help you finance and help to balance the calculation. But then again, I mean, this has been the case for many years. And I think the teams have proven that they can find and execute on really good opportunities. If you look at the investment pace over the years here, it's been quite solid. And I would say not just within Patricia, but across all 3 business areas.
And when you look at the pipeline here, sort of companies which are sort of coming up for sale or up for sale. I mean, first of all, you have these sort of family companies, which where you have no or no successor was to take over. But also you have the private equity market. And if I -- so the -- if they were quoted right, EQT was saying that the activity here or exit market is improving, et cetera, and in Sweden, we've definitely seen that. Is that sort of you share that and also looking at that portfolio is at sort of a good alternative for you now going forward here compared with what you've seen over the past sort of 3 years, maybe?
Well, I think absolutely, in terms of that is one of private equities is one source of good companies and opportunities, and they come with the benefit of being over time for sale as well. So we have done a number of those kind of transactions, but also a number of that first category mentioned, where it's a more sort of founder-owned business and sometimes a more bilateral process as well.
Just looking also at Mölnlycke, I want to come back to that. And I heard your comments here, Jenny on this. But I'm just sort of returning to a question. When you had Sladko on the call of the last one, but the sort of the one before, I think it was 2 or 3 years ago, and he mentioned that the Mölnlycke continue to grow with a high single-digit organic growth here. And I'm sure that continues to be the ambition also.
But of course, there is a market also. I just want to hear your thoughts upon is sort of not Mölnlycke looking at the underlying markets, you see that growth in the market supporting that for I understand that -- when you have 5%, that's a good growth for Wound Care, but being a spoiled analyst, well, we are used to higher operating organic rate in that. Maybe this is sort of clear outperforming. I just want to get your feeling on what is sort of the underlying market and sort of your -- how you view that growth rates, both especially for the wound care.
Yes. Well, first of all, I mean taking it back to kind of the year-to-date number, that's 7%. So that's in line with kind of the high single digit and similar to the same rate last year. the ambition remains, as you say, what we also said earlier is that the market is more low to mid-single digit in underlying growth. But I think as you also saw in Sladko presentation is that we see pockets of higher growth. We have a lot of attractive geographic expansion alternatives. We have China, which is a good example where we're also establishing a local presence also Middle East is another area. And then in terms of the U.S., we also have a shift of volumes from kind of the more low growth, acute setting to the higher-growth post-acute setting where Mölnlycke is also establishing a strong position.
So I think even though the underlying kind of acute channel growth is lower, we do see good pockets of growth that would help build to kind of the high single-digit organic growth over time. But it will require a lot of hard work and also continued focus on making sure that we have an attractive offering to customers. So in terms of investing in future innovation.
Okay. Cool. Just also coming to the cyber attack also here and minus 4% for -- in Q3, tough comps also, of course, here. Just do you I remember when Mölnlycke had this new IT system, you said that what part of this we could sort of catch up with over the coming quarters in terms of loss sales during the quarter. Is that a possibility also in Norway now?
I would say that you may catch up some of it, but it's never a 1:1 really.
And timing is also difficult.
Timing. Yes.
Cool. Just one final question, if I may. The continue to perform quite well. Now CapEx through sales is also coming down slightly in the quarter. Is this large investment phase over now? And it's sort of what is sort of a normal CapEx to sales figure in '26, just to get a feeling, especially for this has been a reliable source of funds for you also in terms of dividends when we could sort of expect that to start up again.
Maybe I'll start by disappointing you saying we don't provide guidance on the CapEx number or the dividends. But you're right in pointing out that we've been through a couple of years really with rather high investments. And that has included, for example, the swap out of Huawei equipment to Ericsson equipment that followed the decision from PTS here in Sweden as an example.
Thank you. There are currently no further phone questions. I will hand the call to Jacob for web questions.
Thank you very much, Sharon. Let's take questions from the web then. We can start with, in fact, 3 questions, I think, from Anil Sharma. I think one of them has been answered many times here. But the tax days, I have 3 questions on Nova Biomedical. The Q3 organic sales performance was disappointing, how much of this was due to the cyber attack and how much other factors such as the integration? Second one, the pro forma EBITDA margin is also lower than it should be. Can you explain the moving parts here? And the third, how do you expect 2026 revenues and EBITDA margins to evolve?
I can start. And as you said, Jacob, I think in terms of the quarter, we've discussed that, and it's really hard to say exactly what is what in terms of the impact from the cyber incident. But I come back to our statement that it's significant enough for us to bring it up. And then when it comes to margins, I would say, to some extent, they are also related to the very high comparison quarter where we had a couple of really good biopharma orders and more generally, again, we are in this phase. We got the keys here a couple of months ago. There is lots of integration work ongoing, and I've said it before, but both in terms of bringing the organizations together in a good way, but also implementing a common infrastructure across the companies, et cetera.
So there are lots of moving parts here. And therefore, we never provide guidance for '26. But we just all was worthwhile pointing out some of the factors that we think could impact performance in the near term.
Thank you. Then we have 3 separate questions from Michael Glen. First one, will Investor AB submit capital to the initiative of Wallenberg Investments and your subsidiaries with regards to AI infrastructure. I suppose he's referring to Sferical AI company.
So investor is not an investor in the company's Sferical AI. That is a, call it, a joint effort and investment between Wallenberg Investment AB, which is a separate entity, just to be clear, and the number of portfolio companies who signed up to use this AI infrastructure really to, for example, train models for R&D and better efficiency in terms of managing networks for Exxon, et cetera, et cetera.
Second question, can you provide some insights and examples of the Board work on future proofing initiatives, particularly with regards to digitalization and AI.
I can start. It's a great question. And just to sort of state the obvious here, we do see a lot of opportunities really across the whole portfolio in terms of all our companies and interestingly, the opportunities are distributed across the whole value chain. So from R&D to efficient manufacturing, efficient administration to go to market. And then ultimately, of course, also using AI to enhance the product offering for our service offering for our customers, so making life better for customers. This is really high on our agenda. We drive it, as you allude to, not the least through the Boards. I mean it's obvious that the recipe here and the focus areas are different from -- or between each companies.
What we try to do in addition to driving this company by company is to also make sure that we try and share as much as possible in between the companies what has worked, what has not worked, et cetera, so as to create an open sharing culture and also some healthy peer pressure.
Good. Third one, would you, as a shareholder, rather hold on to the Robotics division of ABB? Or was the valuation offered too attractive to pass up?
Well, we share ABB or the Board of ABB's view that this is financially attractive for ABB and provides a good new home for ABB robotics. So it's good for ABB. It's good for ABB robotics.
And the last question I can see here, it comes from Martin Lindgren, is the divestment of, 8C, I guess, [ Arsenalsgatan and Teknisk högskolan ], preparation of a divestment of Vectura in order to keep core Wallenberg property within the Wallenberg sphere?
Yes. Thank you for the question. On the contrary, the rationale for the transaction is that FUM provides a very good new home with the long-term perspective and long-term owners, given the importance of these properties to the Wallenberg ecosystem similar to the Grand Group transaction a couple of years ago. And as for Vectura, it is anchored in Vectura's strategy to continue to develop innovation clusters or knowledge intense clusters, and Vectura has a really promising and attractive pipeline of projects going forward.
Great. I can't see any further questions, so time to conclude and wrap up. Thank you, Jenny. Thank you, Christian. Next scheduled call, this our year-end report for 2025, which is scheduled for January 22 next year. Until then, thank you, and goodbye.
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Finanzdaten von Investor B
Umsatz
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Umsatz (TTM) einfach erklärtDirekte Kosten
Direkte Kosten sind die Kosten, die direkt im Zusammenhang mit der Herstellung des Produkts oder der Dienstleistung entstehen.
Bruttoertrag
Der Bruttoertrag gibt an, wie viel vom Umsatz nach Abzug der direkten Herstellkosten im Unternehmen verbleibt. Berechnet man den prozentualen Anteil vom Umsatz, spricht man von der Bruttomarge (engl. Gross Margin).
Brutto Marge einfach erklärtVertriebs- und Verwaltungskosten
Die Vertriebs- & Verwaltungskosten (engl. Selling, General & Administrative expenses, kurz SG&A) beinhalten alle Aufwände für Marketing und den Verkauf sowie die allgemeine Verwaltung des Unternehmens.
Forschungs- und Entwicklungskosten
Die Forschungs- und Entwicklungskosten (engl. research & development costs, kurz R&D) geben Auskunft darüber, wie viel das Unternehmen in die Forschung und die Entwicklung seiner Produkte investiert. Vor allem prozentual vom Umsatz und im Vergleich zu direkten Wettbewerbern sind die Kosten interessant.
EBITDA
Das EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) ist der Gewinn des Unternehmens vor Zinsen, Steuern und Abschreibungen. Berechnet man den prozentualen Anteil vom Umsatz, spricht man von der EBITDA-Marge.
Abschreibungen
Abschreibungen stellen Wertminderungen von Vermögensgegenständen des Unternehmens dar (z.B. durch Abnutzung von Maschinen).
EBIT (Operatives Ergebnis)
Das EBIT (engl. Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) ist der Gewinn des Unternehmens vor Zinsen und Steuern, das auch als operatives Ergebnis bezeichnet wird. Berechnet man den prozentualen Anteil vom Umsatz, spricht man von
der EBIT-Marge.
Nettogewinn
Der Nettogewinn stellt den Gewinn oder Verlust nach Abzug aller Kosten dar.
Nettogewinn einfach erklärtaktien.guide Premium
| Jun '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Umsatz | 84.564 84.564 |
6 %
6 %
100 %
|
|
| - Direkte Kosten | 34.626 34.626 |
5 %
5 %
41 %
|
|
| Bruttoertrag | 49.938 49.938 |
6 %
6 %
59 %
|
|
| - Vertriebs- und Verwaltungskosten | 24.592 24.592 |
12 %
12 %
29 %
|
|
| - Forschungs- und Entwicklungskosten | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBITDA | - - |
-
-
|
|
| - Abschreibungen | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBIT (Operatives Ergebnis) EBIT | 25.347 25.347 |
1 %
1 %
30 %
|
|
| Nettogewinn | 262.634 262.634 |
1.024 %
1.024 %
311 %
|
|
Angaben in Millionen SEK.
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Firmenprofil
Investor AB ist eine Investmentgesellschaft. Sie ist in den folgenden Segmenten tätig: Börsennotierte Unternehmen, Patricia Industries und Investitionen in EQT. Das Segment Börsennotierte Unternehmen besteht aus börsennotierten Beteiligungen und mehrheitlich im Besitz von operativen Tochtergesellschaften. Das Segment Patricia Industries umfasst die hundertprozentigen Tochtergesellschaften, Three Scandinavia und das ehemalige IGC-Portfolio sowie alle anderen Finanzinvestitionen mit Ausnahme des Handelsportfolios von EQT und Investor. Das Segment Investitionen in EQT tätigt Investitionen in seine Fonds. Das Unternehmen wurde 1916 gegründet und hat seinen Hauptsitz in Stockholm, Schweden.
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| Hauptsitz | Schweden |
| CEO | Mr. Cederholm |
| Mitarbeiter | 20.915 |
| Gegründet | 1916 |
| Webseite | www.investorab.com |


