Embla Medical Hf S/Adr

Welcome to EMPLA Medical Conference Call for Q2 2025. Today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. All participants will be in a listen-only mode throughout the presentation. Afterwards, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press 5 star on your telephone keypad. I would now like to introduce President and CEO Svend Sulvason and CFO Arne Svensdottir. Please begin your presentation.

Thank you very much, and good morning, and welcome to the Ampla Medical Conference Call, where we will review the second quarter of 2025. I'm Fred Sjölandson, President and CEO of Ampla Medical. Joining me on today's call is our Chief Financial Officer, Arne Svensdorf, and Ampla Medical's Head of the Investor Relations, Klaus Sinter. The presentation should take approximately 15 minutes, after which there will be an opportunity to ask questions during a Q&A session. If we go to the next slide, please. Sales in the second quarter amounted to 232 million, representing 7% reported growth, of which 5% was organic. Growth was strong in the prosthetics and neuro-orthotics segment, mainly driven by the continued momentum in MEA, and supported by solid contributions from our recently launched innovation. Growth in Americas and APAC was also good, led by the prosthetics and neuro-orthotics segment, while sales in patient care remained flat. Sales in bracing and support experienced a slight decline. The EBITDA margin was strong at 21% and 20% for the first half of the year, compared to 19% in the first half of 2024. The margin increase for the first half was driven by robust sales in prosthetics and neuro-orthotics, solid efficiency in manufacturing, and continued cost-disadvantaged G&A. In line with sales performance in the first half of the year and with the expectation of stronger growth in the second half, we narrow our guidance to 5-6% organic sales growth for the full year. On the EBITDA margin, we reiterate our full year guidance at 20 to 21%. The guidance continues to assume some absorption of tariffs while we continue to deem it too speculative to quantify and provide exact guidance given the frequent tariff rate changes. After quarter two, we continue to be pleased with the progress we've made so far on our strategic initiative. Last week, we announced the signing of an agreement to invest in a maturity share in privately owned Streifen Enter auto production. We are very excited about this investment, which is a strong strategic fit to our growth 27 strategy and will ultimately enable Emplemedical to reach more patients with a now broader product offering. In neuro-orthotics, we are also pleased to see that Turing Gans has been awarded a new reimbursement code in the United States for their microprocessor-controlled knee joint. The neuro-hydraulic joint is the smallest and lightest micro-hydraulic knee joint on the market today, and the L-code award represents a significant opportunity for our neuro-orthotics business in the important U.S. market. I'm also pleased to report that we're now more than halfway through unifying our patient care facilities under the Promotion brand. And during the second quarter, patient care facilities in Iceland, Sweden, and Finland were rebranded to Promotion. Lastly, we are pleased to be honored by Forbes magazine for championing accessibility and by Iceland's president for excellence in global exports. If you'd now turn to the next slide, please. Last week, we announced the signing of an agreement to invest in a majority share in privately owned Stripenator. Stripenator is an international developer and supplier of orthopedic mobility solutions. In addition to its prosthetics, the company also sells orthopedic materials and equipment to O&P clinics, a very important offering within our industry. I also want to note that the agreement captures the product business, while the network of O&P Clinic's striped metal currently operates will remain with the striped metal group. In 2024, the business realized sales of 25 million euros with 70% of sales related to prosthetics and orthopedic materials. Today, the majority of sales are generated in Germany, while the company also sells into other key European markets and distributes into the Americas and the IPEC regions. And this investment in the Stripenet business represents a very strong strategic fit to our Goal 27 strategy, offering an attractive opportunity for AmpliMedical to become a, you could say, a more full range provider to a larger cost of the global O&P market, including potential to expand our reach in emerging or private pay markets. We are very excited to welcome the Strife Editor team to the AmpliMedical family. The cooperation between the two businesses will help secure a leading position in the growing O&P market with now also a stronger value line offering. The transaction is largely to be financed through a SEER issue worth 93 million Danish kroner, in addition to some cash components and performance-related payments. The closing of the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval. Pending this, the transaction is not expected to have any material impact on the financial guidance for 2025. If you now please turn to the next slide for an overview of our regional performance here for the second quarter. We had good growth across all regions with strong sales in EMEA as the region delivered 7% growth driven by continued momentum in prosthetics and neuro-orthotics. Growth in Americas and APAC region was also good at 3%, led again by the prosthetics and neuro-orthotics segment. Can we turn to the next slide, please? On prosthetics and neuro-orthotics, organic sales growth was 9% in the quarter. The strong growth momentum we've seen over the last several quarters and across key European markets continued in quarter two. Growth was driven by strong volume growth in addition to good uptake from our recently launched innovation. In America, the performance was very encouraging as we see signs of improvement in the region, especially in the latter half of quarter two, following a somewhat soft first quarter. The good growth in the region was supported, again, by high-end solutions with positive impact from newly launched innovation. Lastly, our sales performance in the APAC was solid, driven mainly by markets such as Australia and New Zealand, while sales were somewhat softer in the rest of Asia. In new orthotics, the business is moving ahead according to plan. Our focus remains on ramping up the new market. Should we go to the next slide, please? Sales in bracing and support declined by 2% in the second quarter. In EMEA, sales ended soft for the quarter despite good performance in selected regions. While in Americas, sales were also soft, partly ascribed to lower patient volumes for elective procedures and moderate price pressure. AIPAC experienced some recovery from previous quarters with good growth in markets such as Australia and New Zealand. Our Brazilian support business experienced some impact during the quarter from the US tariffs on imports from China. And on July 2nd, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a proposed rule with a section dedicated to its competitive bidding program. The new rule is designed to reduce Medicare spending in certain off-the-shelf orthosis categories. The proposed rule does in its current form not identify which orthosis and braces will be subject to the next regulation. competitive bidding round, nor does it specify the timeline for implementation. And since several factors related to the proposed change remain uncertain, we believe it's too premature to disclose the potential impact. We go to the next slide, please. Sales in patient care ended flat for the quarter. Very good performance in several European markets, which was partly offset by softer sales in other markets, and also partly impacted by Easter holidays shifting between current and comparable quarters. In America, our patient care business showed increased momentum following a very soft first quarter. Lastly, our sales in APEC were impacted by timing, as sales in the first half of the year were strong. Now this concludes our sales performance overview for the quarter. I would now like to hand it over to Arna to go through the financials in more detail. Arna, please.

Thank you. Please turn to the next slide for an overview of our financials. In the second quarter, the gross profit margin was 62% compared to 64%. The positive impact from strong sales in our prosthetic and neural prosthetic segments, supported by manufacturing efficiency, was offset by softer sales in the rest of the business, as we experienced less benefit of scale on our fixed manufacturing costs, in addition to some impact from U.S. tariffs. For the first half, the gross profit margin for special items was on par with the same period last year. OPEX amounted to $111, or 48% of sales, in Q2, compared to 105 million, or 49% of sales, in the comparable quarter. OPEX growth was 2% organic in the second quarter, or below our organic sales growth, and in line with the solid cost discipline we have on the SG&A side. Consequently, we delivered an EBITDA margin of 21% for the quarter, which is one percentage point below last year's level, impacted by a softer gross profit margin in quarter two. However, for the first half, the EBITDA margin expanded from one percentage point to 10% versus 90% in the same period last year. The margin expansion was driven by higher gross profit margin and cost discipline in SG&A. Net profit grew 5% for the quarter and 17% for the first half. Growth in net profit was positively impacted by strong operating results, but negatively impacted by an increase in net financial expenses in the quarter, largely due to non-cash currency fluctuations. Please turn to the next slide for the status on our cash flow and leverage. During the second quarter, capital was $10 million and 4% of sales, and within the guided range of 3% to 4% of sales. Capital increased in the quarter in comparison to quarter one, mainly due to timing of investments in manufacturing equipment. All things equal, we expect our capital to remain at a normalized level of 3% to 4% of sales for the remainder of the year. Our free cash flow was $12 million in the quarter compared to $18 million from the same period last year. Our free cash flow benefited from strong operating results that was partly offset by net working capital, mainly a temporary increase in account receivable due to stronger sales in the latter half of the quarter and an elevated car tax level in quarter two. Our levels were 2.6 times at the end of the quarter, The net increase in our net interest credit debt is mainly due to currency effect as part of our loan portfolio is in euros. Lastly, we entered into a new 50 million euro loan agreement with Nordic Investment Bank with a seven-year term and also brought back more than 600,000 shares for approximately $3 million during the second quarter. And with this, all of our financials, I will hand over to Sveig for his closing remarks and comments around our guidance.

Thank you very much, Asma. If you go to the next slide, please. In the second quarter and first half, we demonstrated continuous strong performance in prosthetics and neuro-orthotics driven by momentum in EMEA, while we see signs of improvement towards the latter half of Q2 in Americas with positive impact from recently launched innovation. In line with performance in the first half and expectations for historical growth in the second half, our full year guidance for organic sales growth is narrowed and is now expected to be in the range of 5-6%, while outlook for EBITDA margin is maintained at 20-21%. The guidance assumes some absorption of tariffs in our financial guidance, although uncertainty around the exact impact remains. With this overview, our presentation is now concluded and we would like to open the call for questions. Operator, please move to the next slide and the Q&A can begin. Thank you.

Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press five star on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question again, you may do so by pressing five star again. We will have a brief pause while questions are being registered. The first question is from the line of Yiwei Zhou from SEB. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.

Thank you for taking my question. I have two. Firstly, regarding the acquisition, you have not talked about its margin impact. I was wondering if this one would be a creative or a dilutive on the margin in longer term, if you can elaborate a bit.

Yeah, hi, William. Thanks for your questions. In the short term, it will be slightly dilutive, but we expect in the medium term that this acquisition will contribute on par with the rest of our prosthetics and neuro-orthotics business.

Okay. Could you maybe elaborate a bit on the gross margin and also on the EBTA margin separately?

Yeah, I mean, if we look at our margins year to date, we are one percentage point off on gross and EBITDA margin. Despite, let's say, slower sales performance than what we had anticipated, there is some impact or kind of some shift between quarter one and quarter two. We do have some impact of Easter moving between quarters. especially on our European patient care business. But year to date, we have an increase in our margins, which is in line with how we have guided it.

Sorry, it must be me. So my question is regarding the margin impact on the gross margin and also on EBITDA margin from the acquisition. And could you comment on that?

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I think I'll comment on the EBITDA margin. I think here in the short term it will be slightly different. slightly diluted to the tune of around 20 basis points, something like that. But as I mentioned earlier, we have a clear plan in the medium term to sort of make certain changes such that the business will contribute and not be diluted for our portfolio.

Okay, thank you. And next question on the guidance, you still keep the 6% organic growth. I was wondering what your assumption is for the growth in the Americas that you can deliver the 6%.

Yeah, maybe I'll address sort of the bigger picture in guidance in relation to this question. this question. I mean we went into the year when we set guidance in the beginning of the year at five to eight percent the main kind of and it's always something as we then get into it some aspects of our business are performing better and in some areas we're behind plan. I think the main what is clear is that the main variance from expectations has been the region and the the Americas region as a whole across all our business areas. And we did see a very soft quarter one. However, we see clear signs that volume demand is healthier here in the second quarter. And therefore, our expectations are always equal that we will have a higher average organic growth here in the second half of the year indicated by our guidance, the 5% to 6% organic growth guidance.

Okay, thank you. I will jump back to the queue.

Thanks, Wayne. The next question is from the line of Martin Brenner from Nordea. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.

Thank you very much, and thank you for the presentation, Sven and Anna. I have three questions as a starting point. Maybe just starting with the competitive bidding. I understand that you don't want to be too specific with the uncertainty ongoing, but I guess that there was a competitive bidding back in 2020. And do you have any feeling or sense whether it's the same codes and the same sort of magnitude that we're looking into? as it was back five years ago. That would be sort of the first question to that. And is it correctly understood that this, from what you know now, is only related to bracing and support and you don't see any impact in your prosthetics business?

Hi, Martin. Thanks for the question. Yes, I can confirm that this will only impact our bracing business. And this announcement was expected as such. And as you mentioned, there was another round of competitive bidding a couple of years ago. It is still very early for us in terms of estimating the impact. Firstly, because it's not clear which product categories will be um impacted and i will say that this sort of will is the part of the of the business in certain pockets of basic support meaning that there is meaning that we can expect changes in reimbursement to continue to put some moderate pressure on on pricing in the last round of competitive bidding the impact was was less than what we had modeled and we were able to make certain adjustments such that we did not experience as much impact as what we had anticipated. So we will continue to monitor the situation and report when we do have a clear view on what the sort of end result would be. But it's also worth mentioning that the underlying volume growth drivers for bracing and support are still intact. But this competitive bidding will, though, have some impact on on sort of how volume shares can shift in the market, because you will have providers in certain regions in the U.S. who are able to bid and will capture. And you're likely to see some volume shift. So we could see some shift of volume between our customers. But we will report back on this as we gain more insights into how this will be implemented.

Okay, just a quick follow-up on this question would be, is there anything that has, because back five years ago, it was estimated to be around 22 million USD that was in scope. Is there any signal that this should be more this time or less this time or more or less similar sort of scope that we're looking at?

Again, it's too early for us to say, but our initial indication is that it's at least not higher than that.

Okay. That's very clear. Then just on the US, you could argue that you are looking at a significant market expansion. You have product launches. You also have bigger platforms grow on. you say you have signals that US is picking up, or indications, can you maybe, you know, help us a little bit understand what's going on a little bit more granularly. Also, is the market growing? Are you losing market shares to your main competitor there or to competitors? And in which sort of product areas are you seeing a potential pickup in the very near term? That would be very helpful to understand.

Yeah, so if we look at quarter one, our performance in the Americas in particular was below our expectation and simply our outlook when going into the year. But our sense is that volumes were down across the industry here in the most part of the first half of the year due to several factors. The overall environment in the United States, there were some delays, particularly on approval of reimbursement applications. But at the end of the day, the patient populations that we serve still need to maintain their mobility devices and the demand drivers are are intact and it's not our view that we have lost Sierra in any form and what we see here in the second quarter of the year is that patient volumes have gradually come back and we see good demand especially for our new innovation. The Navi also the icon and a very positive signal here on the new orthotic site as we have been granted a new reimbursement code for our knee joint So the market remains healthy and the demand for solutions remains healthy and our competitive position remains very strong.

Okay, and then just to understand in the very near term here, you've lowered your prices as far as I understand on certain products. How should we expect to see any impact both on revenue offsetting some of the volume pickup that you might see? And are we also going to see a potential cross-margin impact as you are selling at a lower price going forward?

I'm not sure which price decrease you're referring to, but let's say if you're referring to our bionics portfolio, we now have a broader portfolio with products positioned at different price points, which all is equal enables us to be in a better position to grow our unit share in the bionics market. And the bionics market is very healthy in the U.S., also following the changes that were announced last year in terms of expansion for low active and we see more lower active patients being fitted with bionics in the market. But again, I'd like to reiterate that this is a long-term, a medium long-term topic, this expansion of coverage, like we've seen in other jurisdictions when a change like this is implemented, it takes But the patient population that is now eligible for receiving this type of technology is now vastly bigger and will provide the industry with more work around getting more patients using better mobility devices going forward.

Okay, makes sense. So are there any costs that we should be aware of in terms of you are, you know, now you have products ready, you have the portfolio out there, but you need to do some sort of marketing push or is that already in the numbers as you have printed today?

You shouldn't expect any sort of necessarily change in the run rate of our commercial cost as such, no.

Okay. And then just a final question for Anna would be net financials being a bit higher than expected, driven by... the FX fluctuations. Can you maybe help us just housekeeping-wise how we should think about net financials over the next quarters and also more structurally how we should see the finance costs?

If you see, we first talk about the exchange rate differences we saw in quarter two, then we continue to see some effects from our lease liabilities. We also went into new lease liabilities. There was a long-term agreement sitting on our balance sheet, so with non-pass currency effect in the quarter. And we, just based on how the currency fluctuation is, we should continue to see that. But if the currency stays flat, there should not be any effect going forward.

Okay. Makes sense. Thank you.

Yes, so it is sort of, as I mentioned, related to kind of translation impact on our balance sheet items that is pumping or impacting the P&L here on the net financial items. So if we assume no change in exchange rates going forward, this should already be reflected in our finance cost and not be repeated.

Okay, perfect. I'll jump back in the queue.

Thanks, Martin. The next question is from the line of Tobias Nielsen from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.

Good morning, Sven. Good morning, Anna. Just coming back to growth and the growth outlook for Americas versus EMEA. You had 3% organic growth in Americas and 10% here in the quarter. What should we expect for the remaining of the year? I know you started out at the beginning of the year saying that the growth should be quite similar for both, looking at the full year. But what should we expect for the remaining of the year and also with EMEA being the strongest Can you perhaps dive a little bit deeper what's driving this growth? I suspect some of this is new innovation and new product launches, but is it just the new products cannibalizing existing products or also taking market share? That would be my first question. Thanks.

Yeah. Hi, Tobias. Thanks for your questions. We will not provide specific growth guidance for the region as a whole, but it's clear that we expect Americas to show higher growth here in the second half than here in the first half. That's clear, and we see clear signs that Americas is moving in the right direction here in the latter part of quarter two. Now, with regards to our EMEA business, we continue to see the solid performance across all major markets in the European region. And definitely helped by the new product launches that we brought to market mid-ish quarter one are again Navi and particularly the Navi. And you are correct, the Navi will cannibalize part of our Rio sales, but But overall, our combined unit sales and bionics were very strong across the region and globally here in the second quarter.

Okay, thank you. And just coming back on the growth market and the tariff impact, can you try to quantify how much headwind you saw here in the second quarter and how much you expect for the remaining of the year at current rates? Thanks.

Yes, we have an impact here in quarter two of around half a million dollars. We haven't nothing specific around what we expect here in the second half of the year, again, due to some uncertainty and continued changes in these tariff rates. But we have now assumed a somewhat higher amount of being realized in terms of paid parents here in the second half of the year.

Perfect, thanks. And then just a final one for me, a bit of a housekeeping. I've seen the P&L share of net profit of associates around these 3.7 million for the quarter, quite higher than previous quarters. Can you dive a little bit deeper on what's driving this? Thanks.

Yes, this is... In our associate company, we are seeing an extraordinary one-off income of around 2.4 million in the quarter due to a sale of products in this company, but we do not expect that to continue as it is a one-off sale.

Okay, one-off. Perfect. Thanks. I'll jump back in the queue. Yes, please.

The next question is from Amara Singh from InformHealth. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.

Morning. Can you talk us through how the K2 expansion in Medicare has progressed so far? Is it tracking with your expectations? And when do you expect it to make a noticeable contribution to revenues? Thank you.

Thanks for the question. I would say that it is largely tracking in line with our expectations. As I mentioned briefly earlier, we expect this to be a gradual, medium, long-term topic. What we see is that our independent clinical customers have gradually been building confidence in terms of testing these new reimbursement protocols. There are some increased requirements compared to the K3 population, and we also registered in our own clinics So I would say that this is largely developing in line with our expectations. However, as we've seen, lower patient volumes and overall, you could say, slower development here in the first half of the year than what we anticipated for the industry as a whole. That is largely related to external factors. The impact is maybe less clear than it would have been otherwise. So I hope that adds some color.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next question is a follow-up from Martin Brainerd from Nordea. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.

Hi, thank you. Just one brief follow-up. When you are saying you are seeing indications of improvement, it doesn't really show that much in the H1 numbers. Is that something very recent that you have seen, or is it because of something underlying? Can you maybe just help us a little bit understand what these indications are, just so we can get a better sense of that?

Yeah, I mean, when we say that we see, let's say, a trend line moving in the right direction in both our prosthetics product business and patient care business in the United States, what that means is that throughout the course, we see a positive trend, meaning that our run rates are picking up. And we closed the quarter strong in both business areas. So that's what we mean with, let's say, that we feel that the underlying trend line is definitely stronger than what it was here in quarter one.

Okay, so would it be fair to assume that the U.S. exit rate would be more like in the mid-single-digit territory?

I would say, Martin, and again, a little bit what I referred to earlier, I mean, if you look at business area performance and regional performance, and for us to meet 5% to 6% guidance, we need a higher growth rate for the Americas region. America's region. And that's what we expect here in the second half of the year, that we will have more balanced contribution from the two big regions in May and America's here in the second half of the year.

Okay. And then on patient care, being flat is, as you've said a couple of times, it's not where you want to be. So that's requiring quite an acceleration to be at the level that is sort of satisfactory. So what is it what exactly is going to be the inflection point is it just that the market is going to rebound or is there anything that you can do to to to to impact it is it a full motion thing where i can see you get a higher conversion when you when you have translated to to the promotion brand or what is it exactly that is going to to re-spark growth in in in patient care

If you look at the patient care business year to date, our European business has been has been strong. And we also expect strong contribution from our, let's say, our APAC business. But here in quarter one, Europe compensated for the U.S. And here in quarter two, again, because the Easter effect is largely a European topic, let's say the U.S. is moving in the right direction, but less relative sort of growth contribution in EMEA due to the unfavorable comparison. So going into second half of the year, it's mainly getting back on track with regards to growth in the Americas region. That will be the kind of main determining factor on where we end up on growth for the business area as a whole for the year.

Okay, and is that just that the market in the U.S. is picking up and that's what you're banking on? Or is there anything that you as a company is actively doing to get growth accelerating?

It is a market patient volume topic here in the second half of the webinar. of the year, and as well as always, always in our patient care business, it is about being effective in terms of how we work with our referral sources to drive patient volumes into our clinics. And that is always a key topic for our patient care process. But in addition to, we expect more, higher patient volumes here in the second half of the year.

Okay. Interesting. Thank you very much for taking my questions.

Thanks, Martin.

Thank you.

We have another follow-up from Yue Zhou from ACB. Please go ahead.

Your line will now be unmuted. I would also like to follow up on the U.S. market. A lot has changed since the Trump administration. We have seen the budget cuts on Medicare and putting pressure on some product categories. And now we have talked about this reimbursement expansion even for the prosthetic surgeons for the bionic products. um and it's fine i was wondering if um the current uncertainty in the u.s change your view or if you have heard anything from your uh industry network um sort of giving you some concerns of that if this will be sort of the trend will sort of eventually materialize or if any sort of budget cut of budget pressure what happened in the U.S.?

That's a great question, Wei. I mean, the environment in the U.S. is compared to previous years. How should I put it? There's been more news flow with regards to topics that could impact reimbursement. First of all, I would like to say that Medicare has sent us strong signals that they, or let's say that they're willing to finance good mobility devices that over time will decrease costs for the patient population. An example of that is the K2 expansion and also now the science that we have received from Medicare in terms of their willingness to fund the new orthotic devices. So all of this is positive for patients and positive for the O&P industry. The so-called big beautiful bill that has been or is in process of being approved in the U.S. will talk about impact on Medicaid, which is the reimbursement party on a state level in the U.S., and we estimate that Medicaid covers up to 10% of the end-patient population that we serve in our own patient care system. So how this will develop over the next years, we will need to see. This population today, all as equal, receives in most cases fairly or on average lower cost mobility devices, not necessarily the premium devices. But we will closely monitor this development around what potential impact there will be on Medicaid. But overall, the environment in the U.S. remains healthy. There's no discussion on any changes in general to what products or technologies provided to amputees.

Okay.

So I think that's the best answer I can give at the moment.

Can I just follow up? Do you see you or the industry have enough data to support the healthcare economics of the bio-need products for the patient in order to justify its value?

I think the industry can do more with regards to fighting for increased access. I believe that we have very strong health economic data around the efficacy of our solutions. As we've talked about many times before, prescribing high-end, high-quality mobility devices for individuals with chronic mobility challenges is a very effective investment decision on behalf of public payers. The data is there and the environment that we operate in will just continue to require us to be effective in generating health economic data and working with payers to maintain good access to amputees to good technology.

Okay, great.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tobias Nielsen from Danske Bank with another follow-up. Please go ahead, Juleiden will now be unmuted.

Perfect, thanks. I just have another one on patient care and the promotion rebranding. You're now halfway through the rebranding. Has this had some effect and could this explain some of the weakness we have seen in the patient care for the last few quarters? And just another one on this, when do you expect this rebranding to be completed? And can you tell us a little bit more what the key learnings have been from the rebranding so far? Thanks.

Yeah, same to BSI. I mean, we will be mostly through this rebranding this year. It's worth mentioning that we will expand $3 to $4 million this year on this, which will not be repeated next year. and it's in our guidance and just cost that we absorb. Every time we launch in a region, it requires time and effort. This is a positive change for our patient care organization. We are now taking the next step in consolidating and reaping the benefits, you could say, of operating a global patient care franchise. So this has been received very positively from our patient care team. But every time we launch in a region, it requires effort and time spent not spending patients. So there might be a minimal effect, but it's not a reason for why we see slow growth here in the first half of the year. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thanks.

As there are no further questions from the conference call, I will hand it back to the speakers for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. And thanks, everyone, for calling in here during the middle of the summer. If you have any follow-up questions, please reach out to our investor relations team. And with that, I wish you all a great summer break. And see you in the fall. Thank you. Bye-bye.