4/24/2026

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Terveystal's first quarter 2026 results call and webcast. My name is Kati Kaksan. I'm responsible for investor relations and sustainability here at Terveystal. As usual, we'll go through the results with our CEO, Ville Iho, and our CFO, Juuso Pajunen, and after the presentation, you'll have time for your questions. Without further ado, over to you, Ville.

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Thank you, Kati, and good morning. Let's... dive into it. So Tervestalo first quarter, during the first quarter, the market was even more negative than we expected going into the year. That was then clearly reflected into our revenue line, which came clearly down. And despite the adjustment measures that we did especially in our operations to adjust the ops to lower demand, there was a drop through to our adjusted EBIT, which was at 34 million euros. Quality across the operations and services, high as per standard, even improving, which is, of course, a positive sign of a very professional and robust organization delivering in any circumstances. If one then dives a little bit deeper in what's happening in healthcare services market, it is the market that is exceptionally negative this time around. We have not seen this type of a dip since the start of COVID, and basically all of the segments, regardless of what data you look at, all of the segments and services are roughly minus five to minus 10% down. The positive thing and silver lining with this one is that we are seeing a market bottoming out. So according to our judgment, And that's reflected also in our plans and actions. The bottom has been passed. And now the market shall start gradually, slowly but steadily, grow from a low level. In our own operations, we have been, as we have reported earlier, we have been suffering from a lower connected employees number. And that one as well, we see bottoming out. Going forward, now the number has been stable throughout the quarter, and now looking at the sales funnel activities, looking at the renewals, looking at new opportunities, looking at win rates, we can with confidence say that we start turning this one into positive, going into H2. Of course, the progress will not be rapid, because this is B2B business, and turning agreements around will take a while, but anyways, market and our own portfolio has bottomed out and now we can start developing from this new base. The negative market environment was present in all of our three P&Ls, healthcare services, portfolio business. and Sweden, a little bit different reasons and different levers into that one, but bottom line was that the market conditions were very, very tough during quarter one, 26. Despite that one, of course, the absolute result level and profitability we achieved was high and we can be pleased with our own ops but now the eyes need to be fixed on growth going forward. Market will not give, even though it starts gradually improving, it will not give anything for free. We still focus and concentrate on our own agenda. It is very much geared to boost growth in all of our segments. In healthcare services, we'll concentrate in occupational health care turnaround program and transforming that one to higher value for our customers and growth. We are renewing our offering for insurance customers and companies and intensifying cooperation with insurance companies. We are focusing in segments that are growing in our traditional integrated care. One prime example is seniors where we have captured big market chain in Kela65 and Kela65 continues developing positively for us. And of course, on top of this one, we are seeking drastic improvements in efficiency with our digital agenda. In traditional operations, in digital 10x and also in prevention. In portfolio business, of course, a positive move from our side is dental growth. Actually, dental has been a sort of a light or positive glimpse during quarter one. The market conditions have been fairly good and the team has done very good work in improving the business And with Hohde deal, the platform will be ever stronger, and an integration of that platform, Juuso will comment on the phasing and timing of that one later in the presentation. We are actively engaging with healthcare counties. It is evident that they are very low with their purchases still. But at one point that market will activate and we want to capture our fair share and even more from that one. In Sweden market conditions have been tough. Now the efficiency is there and we are operationally improving. Now the focus is in commercial actions and getting the revenue line in with the higher operating leverage and improving through that one profitability. Cycle is cycle, and it's clearly very, very negative at present, but we need to look beyond this cycle. As I said, market will start gradually improving, but every time a strong cycle goes through an industry, some things change permanently. And that one coupled with... Accelerating speed of technology development will mean that we need to be even speedier than the transformation of this industry, and we need to invest in all of the three modalities in healthcare technology. In integrated care, we are investing in Ella. We are making the life of our professionals easier, smoother, more efficient, and we are giving more time for professionals with the patients. In digital healthcare retail, we are improving the customer engagement, call centers, we are investing in digital Tenex and AI assisted appointments and efficiency potential in this modality is huge. We are also starting to invest in prevention at scale, so digital engagement through digital and based on data, proactive, active engagement with our customers being relevant when they need, actively guiding them through their lifelong health journey and looking for new growth in this emerging new market. We have the dry powder, we have the agenda, and we have the speed in executing in all of these three buckets. Two landmark milestones in this development during Q1. Tervestalo launched its new novel occupational healthcare digital platform for its first clients. This one is next level compared to current platforms in the marketplace. It's developed jointly with our joint venture MedHelp. And it's now live and it's used by the first paying customers. Early feedback from the market is very positive. We continue scaling this one rapidly throughout the year. And as I said, this is next level, this is future, and this will give way more value for our customers and better insights in their own personal than before. This is a big step in our main business. In digital 10X, we have introduced AI assisted appointments and we are scaling that one also during the year. The efficiency potential in this modality is huge. We are also scaling volumes so that we can, with our intelligent steering engines, can steer more volumes in the digital modalities. At the same time, we are improving traditional physician-led integrated care. And the prime tool is Stella, which we have launched. It's the user interface for our physicians. And already now, we have gained some 30% efficiency improvement with the new platform. And at the same time, we have been able to give more time to physicians and patients. As I said, we continue to scale this one up during the year. Within the next 12 months, this is going to bypass any present platforms in the marketplace and will be a clear and powerful asset for Tervästö. So, Market has been negative. It has bottomed out. We have agenda for growth. We continue investing. We continue accelerating our technology journey. And with that one, over to Juuso.

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Thank you, Ville. So, good morning all. I'm Juuso Pajunen, CFO of Terve Stalant. Let's go to the topic numbers. So, first of all, if we look at Key numbers from first quarter, it is clear to say that the relative numbers are weak. We see negative on everything else, excluding the NPS of appointments, which is improving and is a stellar 88. But outside of that one, each and every number is negative, and the market has been weaker than anticipated. But let's go through then number by number what we are talking about. But before we go to that one, it is good to note that if we look at the absolute numbers, these are still quite robust figures. Our Q1 is materially above our average Q1 if we come to relative profitability. If we look in absolute EBITDA terms, this is the third best quarter ever in absolute EBITDA or EBIT. either way you want to look at. So in absolute terms, we are fairly strong, but the relative terms, we are absolutely disappointed and obviously we'll work on to get forward. If we then look the group, we know that our big ticket component is the headwinds in the revenue. We also know that the megatrends are there and in mid to long term, they will support the growth But as stated, the market sentiment at the moment is exceptionally weak. If we then look on different segments, we will go a bit further into details. But in the healthcare services, the big thing is occupational health. In the portfolios, it is the public sector. Sweden, we are now evening out. Then if we look on the group level and think about positives in here, our efficiency is strong. No matter how you view it, in an exceptionally weak market, we have been able to adjust our operations towards the lower demand, and we will continue to do that one. So all in all, with the efficiency, we will get forward. If we then look on the EPS impacting adjustment items, we have 7 million euros of these ones It is slightly more than I would like to see in there, but if we double-click those ones, we have a €1 million related to divestment of child welfare, which was a strategic move, and we have now closed that deal at the end of January. We have €1 million related to re-evaluation of the values in the real estate assets. We are doing investments in those ones, and this is something that, when you re-evaluate, this will take place. And then finally, €1 million related to restructuring. It's good to note that structures are restructurings, items that impact us in the future, not the demand-facing restructurings. And then finally, we have €4 million in the strategic projects, which we have been communicating earlier that we have, and we have guided how much annually is coming. This is slightly front-heavy now, facing a bit more into one than I was anticipating. So all in all, then we end up in the reported EBIT of 26.6 million euros. If we then go deeper into the healthcare services, margins are on a historically good level. So if we take any period of time and if we look at the Q1s of the history, the actual EBITDA and EBIT margins are solid, but obviously they are coming materially down. So we come into the discussion of relative weakness and absolute weakness. And then if we look further, Further, where this is coming, this is coming from demand. The visit growth is minus 9.6, and then everything else is basically flat. The visit growth, we will double-click that one on the next slide, but basically low morbidity impacts us through two different parts. We have the less appointments and weaker mix, as the diagnostics are lesser than in a higher upper respiratory area. disease situation. And then obviously the occupational health care has been contributing to that one. At the same time, as said, we are continuously adjusting for the lower demand and we have also during April announced statutory negotiations towards the demand situation. And However, of these ones, once again, in absolute terms, we are in a good place, and we will continue to invest, for example, digital transformation like we last played. Then looking at the patient visits, we have the same factors we have been now going through in a couple of different quarters. We have the seasonality. We do know that we have some 43,000 fewer upper respiratory diseases than previous year. This is part of normal variation and changes annually. This is the lowest prevalence since the COVID pandemic, if we take take it on the curves. Then if we look on the occupational health, it is very good to note, like Ville said, that we are now minus 5% in the connected employees, but it is now bottoming out, or has bottomed out. Then the underlying impacts in there are still the same. We have the macro component where there is less less employees, and then in the dire times, employers are spending less into employee well-being. And then we have the actual part where we have the ongoing strong program to address this one. But at the same time, the connected employees and the large account sales cycles are longer, so we are getting back on growth in the second half of this year. Public sector has been now bottoming out like we see that this is not, it's a miniscule bar in the chart and consumer is having positive momentum in the total supported by the Kela 65 and general tendencies are there. If we then take a segue with that one to the portfolios, we already now see that in the consumer part the dental business has been actually the best performing in relative terms of our businesses they are basically flat while other modalities have been clearly down this is a positive and then hopefully reflecting the future demand environment also We have then to note that in the portfolio numbers, we have the divestment of child welfare is visible in the bar other in here. Outsourcing is down 50%. This one we have known. The contracts are expiring and ending. Staffing is still having negative momentum in the welfare being county market, but also that one is now little by little stabilizing out. Dental assets. positive in relative terms in the performance, and we have announced the Hohde acquisition. That one is progressing well in a very good and positive dialogue with the authorities, and we are expecting the closing in the second half, and now based on the current visibility, it looks like it will be rather third quarter than fourth quarter, but obviously in these processes, there are variables that are beyond our control, but as said, solid... positive dialogue with the authorities, and if I would need to guess, it would be rather in Q3 closing than in Q4 closing. Going to Sweden, we are having a weak market. It is a continued weak market, and Sweden as an export-oriented nation is also having their share of the market environment. At the same time, it's good to know that our efficiency is in place. We have the EBITDA margin is now improving, absolute numbers 50% up, give or take. almost 60. Obviously, within our scale, that is peanuts in the total absolute numbers, but it's signaling that we are going to the right direction. If we then look beyond the efficiency, our next battle in here is the growth, and we already now see that our connected employees are increasing significantly. But at the same time, the behavior is similar by the employers as in Finland, so their behavior is dampened by the weak macro. But we have the means and the tools for growth in here, and we are confident that this will improve as we have iterated many times earlier. When talking about investments, we continue our investment cycle. We are now at 56 million on the LTM. I think that it's good to highlight from here that what we are doing is facing the real world. It is in production. It is in use. brightest investments ella it's the user interface for professionals it's already live we have been rolling it out to wider user groups in with improved functionalities and we are seeing continuous growth on the usage rate so this is live this is not something that happens at at the back office, and then one day comes somewhere. We are doing this one. The same applies to our joint venture MedHealth. We have in March rolled out this to customers. We have paying customers on this one, and we are continuing this one. So what we are doing is already now impacting us positively. If we then look on the balance sheet, We continue to have a positive balance sheet position. Our net debt to EBITDA is at 2.4. It has been increasing due to weak cash flow in Q1 and reduced profitability in Q1. But if we double-click that one, we are in a good component. And on the cash flow perspective, it is good to note that how our cash operates, first of all, we are a negative net working capital company. which is obviously positive from balance sheet perspective, but when the revenues decline, our cash flow also weakens because we don't actually release networking capital, we increase it. So that one is impacting us negatively. Then the second component on the cash flow is that if you look on the taxes paid now in Q1, we paid taxes from the record profits of 25, and that is having a negative impact on the cash flow. So all in all, our balance sheet is strong. We can continue to invest. We are not limited by the balance sheet. But at the same time, we are working on the cash flow, and the key component in there is going back on cross. Then before going to guidance, let's take a quick view on the market environment. First of all, if we look at the red arrows, they are all pointing down. This is weaker than we originally expected in February. We have had negative momentum through all periods. payer groups, and then we have had incidents in the world that are also impacting, for example, the consumer confidence that Ville was showing, now referring especially to the Iranian war. So the market environment in Q1 has been exceptionally big. However, then if we look on the next 12 months and we look further the outlook, actually the arrows are the same we had in February, and based on the data we have, we believe that the bottom has been seen. We do know that public sector, both in portfolio businesses and healthcare services, is on a lower level. They are still having stickiness in the system, but little by little, it will improve over time. If we then look at the consumer market, we have the dental is already performing well. As stated in relative terms, it was the best performing payer group and discipline and then looking forward we have the Kela 65 we have recently heard the news on the widening of the scope of Kela 65 and widening the scope of the services within Kela 65 which are positive insurance market continues to be in a positive momentum and then we have Sweden which still is having positive macro macro forecasts slightly coming down compared to the February post-Iranian war, but they are still positive. So if we look at the market momentum, we believe that the market will improve. Then at the same time, we do know that this is tilting toward second half and the latter part of that one. So if we think about the developments, Q2 will definitely be difficult. Q3 is always seasonal low, and then Q4 is the place where we would see the impacts. And with these ones, we reiterate our guidance. We expect full year 26 adjusted debit to be 135 to 165 million euros. The estimates are based on the gradually improving demand environment, as explained earlier, and normalization of the upper respiratory infections in the second half, and as stated, profitability in the first half is expected to be below the first half of 2025. Then, further to that one, it is good to note that our scenarios at the moment are pointing rather below midpoint than above midpoint of our guidance. So all in all, We have a difficult first half, but we have a strong, robust and efficient motor, and we are investing in the future, so we are confident that we are also delivering with those investments. With these words, thank you, and let's go to Q&A.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Thanks, Juuso. We are ready now for your questions. Do we have any questions from the phone lines?

speaker
Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial star 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star 5 again on your telephone keypad.

speaker
Operator

The next question comes from Iris Tiemann from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

speaker
Iris Tiemann
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Hi, I have a couple of questions. So if I ask them one by one. So firstly, what data indicates that the market has bottomed out? Can you explain that?

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Over to you, Juuso.

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Yes, so basically it depends how you look at it on the market perspective. We obviously continuously follow up our different type of data points, consumer behavior, visits on different intervals on days, on weeks and those ones and at least our internal data is indicating that we have now bottomed out. Then you saw from Ville basically the connected employees perspective Ville mentioned already in the call that it has been now stabilizing and gradually with the pipeline looking that we can capture going forward. But on the external marks, we are especially referring to our own internal data.

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Yeah, and I think it's important to know that now we are talking about sequential improvement. So if one little bit cuts the corners, market has reset. to post inflation new normal and now from that base it starts slowly but steadily grow.

speaker
Iris Tiemann
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay, and why did you keep your full year guidance even if your scenarios are pointing below the midpoint?

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Well, we have actually discussed this topic also earlier, that when we are within the range and we see that both ends of the range are something within plausible scenarios, then we don't change it. So that is how we have behaved earlier, and that is how we continue to behave earlier.

speaker
Iris Tiemann
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay. And can you still go through the drivers that will contribute to reaching the midpoint of the full-year guidance, which implies basically only a 4% EBIT decline?

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Yeah, so first of all I iterated that we are likely to be rather below midpoint than above midpoint, so then it is up to you to decide on that one, but basically the drivers that are pushing or that are impacting our guidance, and obviously you need to put your own finger in the air, how you take them within your estimates but we have the upper respiratory diseases we have the consumer confidence and a general corporate behavior that we are expecting to improve from the current rock bottom and then we are also confident that we have bottomed out in the connected employees and that we are getting forward with those ones in the second half so these are the key drivers if we look And then, of course, the public sector behavior is expected to have bottomed out at the moment.

speaker
Iris Tiemann
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

And then a question regarding portfolio businesses. The margin decreased significantly from Q4 and Q1 last year. So is this a one-off or a level that we should expect for the coming quarters? Yes.

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Well, all in all, portfolios is also facing a negative demand environment, especially from the public sector, and then it is good to note that now the outsourcing contracts have been also value contributing, and declining those ones will not anymore deliver margin expansion, but declining revenues is negative for us in the total perspective. So we are expecting improved performance in portfolios also now, sequential improvement, as Ville explained, for the full year.

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Yeah, so question obviously is warranted, but if one looks at our plan and also our internal forecast, so we are not expecting as a drastic drop for upcoming quarters, as you see during quarter one. As you said, we are looking for, realistically looking for gradual improvement from lower base.

speaker
Iris Tiemann
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay, but basically the margin decrease, is that related mainly to outsourcing business?

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

It is mainly related to the public sector, but basically the overall market environment has been weak. So that has been contributing throughout.

speaker
Iris Tiemann
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay. And my final question is related to the Finnish government's budget proposals that was just released. So is there anything negative or positive that you would like to highlight regarding private health care service providers?

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Well, if anything clearly positive, expansion of Gela65 obviously is a highly welcomed initiative from our point of view. We have been investing in this segment, so user segment seniors. We have been investing in Gela65 and are now expanding the scope of the service to do more diagnostics and also allowing higher frequency of use will most probably increase the number of users and also frequency of use. So that's welcome news.

speaker
Iris Tiemann
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay. That's all. Thank you.

speaker
Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial star 5 on your telephone keypad.

speaker
Sami Sakamis
Analyst/Investor

Hi, can you hear me? Hello?

speaker
Sami Sakamis
Analyst/Investor

We hear you.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

We hear you fine. Can you hear us? Yes.

speaker
Sami Sakamis
Analyst/Investor

Go ahead. Yes, okay. Four questions. We'll take this one by one. You're calling first half to be down from last year, but how should we think about the second quarter relative to last year? given your comments regarding the market having bottomed out during the latter part of Q1.

speaker
Operator

The next question comes from Sami Sakamis.

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Thank you, Sami. We identified you.

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Some stickiness online.

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

But basically, we don't guide per quarter, but it is clear that quarter two will be also weak, but what we think about is sequential improvement

speaker
Sami Sakamis
Analyst/Investor

in total so at the moment it is not against comparables as weak as quarter one was okay and then on connected employees you're expecting these to start growing sequentially in the second half the year have you already won these deals and how are front book prices looking relative to your current backlog prices

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Very good question. So deals are won and equally lost all the time. So then the real question forecasting forward is the funnel, how much renewals you have and how much new opportunities you have. And then against that one, win rates. And then, of course, you have the packages and scopes and price levels. So what we are seeing now is clear improvement in the new opportunities funnel. So new opportunities bucket increasing all the time and applying sort of average win rate to that one. We see clear increase from that source. On the other hand, renewals from our existing customer base that bucket is shrinking and wind rates are improving and really high. So just mathematically looking forward, we can sort of with confidence expect growth. It's not going to be sort of early on rapid and skyrocketing, but it starts to grow. And of course, we want to accelerate it over time. Then looking at the scopes, when these bids enter this tender space and comparing those ones with our current portfolio, the price levels are higher than existing ones. But then you need to, of course, do the full cycle of negotiations and go over the finish line And only then you see what is the final package and what is the final price level on those agreements. But all in all, this forward-looking picture is positive, finally bottomed out and now looking forward and progressing to more positive.

speaker
Sami Sakamis
Analyst/Investor

Okay, then I may have missed, but did you give any commentary regarding cash flow in Q1? It was quite a bit below last year level. So what are you expecting for the full year?

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Yes, so basically what I iterated on the balance sheet slide was that first of all, cash flow was negatively impacted by the profitability. Then the second component is that we paid taxes from the record year previous year. So all-time high profits lead to all-time high taxes, obviously. And then the third component is that our network capital is structurally negative, which means that decline in revenue impacts negatively our cash flow. And these are the three components. And obviously taxes, we don't pay twice, but the growth component is very important for us for the cash recovery when we are going forward.

speaker
Sami Sakamis
Analyst/Investor

Okay. And then my final question is on the acquisition. Are you expecting to see any remedies from competition authorities? And what was your thinking on timing for closing when you sort of announced the deal at the year end?

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Yes, so I also iterated that one on the portfolio slide. But basically, first of all, we don't comment the ongoing process from the content perspective. So that one we don't. state at here but on the closing we have stated that the closing is expected to happen on the second half based on the dialogue so far that we have had with the authorities we believe that it's rather in Q3 than in Q4 so we have a positive constructive dialogue continuously ongoing yeah and maybe still even though you said we don't comment the content I can say that against the assumptions going in

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

be what PROS indicates and what is our current view on the sort of a deal perimeter and that the final package, I would say it's rational, it's rather on slightly more positive than we thought going in.

speaker
Sami Sakamis
Analyst/Investor

Okay, thanks Anuva. Any further questions?

speaker
Operator

There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Thank you. We covered some of the questions from the webcast audience already earlier, but there are a few left, so maybe starting from the cost structure and the adjustment made, what specific actions did we take and what actions are we still implementing going forward?

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

So we are, of course, we are adjusting as a child company should for the lower demand and lower volumes, especially in our sort of customer-facing activities, in our operations. We have scaled down almost according to the lower volume in our ops, in healthcare services, where the volumes were down by 11%. We were able to adjust FTEs by 10%, so that's a very, Very good and sort of robust achievement by Ops team. Then we are – one needs to note and remember that at the same time we are also investing. So we are increasing resources in product, customer service. sales, account management related activities, especially in occupational health care, but also in consumer and insurance related activities. But all in all, we have been able to adjust nicely. Looking forward, of course, we are given the negative cycle. We are using this window as a as an opportunity also to look at the overhead and look at some structures. We have a separate program related to applying AEI in the back office functions, and that has started, but that's not really now in the scope when we are adjusting for the lower volume. But during the next 12 months, you will hear more about this project NOVA also.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Thanks, Ville. Then let's talk about the outsourcing in the portfolio businesses where we have seen the revenue decrease for quite some time. What does the remaining outsourcing portfolio look like, and do we expect further planned reductions beyond 26?

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

Yes, so basically, if we look at the numbers, in 25, the outsourcing delivering revenue of 55 million euros, give or take, and we have already now guidance stated that we are expecting roughly 20 million, or we are expecting 20 million reduction in the outsourcing portfolio revenues in 26, and currently we are we are very clearly going towards that one. And then beyond 26, there's a... Beyond 26, that remaining roughly 30 million euro portfolio will continue shrinking year on year.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Yeah, exactly.

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

And there we are, of course, talking about legacy outsourcing deals, and that's the focus for that sort of sliding curve. We are of course, interested in partnerships with the healthcare counties, and we are engaging actively. Right now, sort of the sales funnel for larger outsourcing type of – new type of deals is fairly thin, but sort of engagement is active, and I would say – Also, according to our sort of data and interviews, some 50% of the counties are interested in increasing their purchases from private sector. But as we have seen, it's very difficult to put a date on when that starts to grow.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Yeah, and it should be noted that the remaining legacy contracts are on a higher end in the margin as well. So getting healthier from that perspective as well. Then a question on the connected employees in the occupational health. We have seen a decrease for a few quarters for now. Can we just reiterate the reasons behind the decreases and what are the sort of consequences from, for example, last year we had some negative media coverage and had that any impact?

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Yeah, it's a very good question. It's a combination of a couple of things. When we went into our profitability improvement program in late 23, one of the activities that we were adjusting back then was our very low price level in our main business, occupational health care. So the market had bypassed us in pricing for quite some time. And hence the gap was way too large to operate with adequate profitability in this business. We did the increases in two steps. And in hindsight, I guess we could have done it a little bit more smoothly so that maybe three steps would have been the better option. that sort of latter price increase coupled with the negative media coverage related to billing was a negative trigger point for sort of many companies and additional tendering since then of course it has been rectified and trust is back but we saw the damage last year but as said the important thing is that the after negative developmental cycle now it's bottomed out and forward-looking funnel looks positive.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Exactly. Then the last question is related to the cooperation with the insurance companies. We have talked about intensifying our cooperation and also next generation of insurance partnerships and what's the plan there?

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

First of all, we are doing fine with insurance companies. So actually looking at the market view, even though the absolute volume in use of insurance coverage for healthcare spend, all in all, for all of the operators, it is negative at the moment. Our market share has been improving. So we are gaining in that market, even though even that one is in negative cycle currently. So what we are doing there, of course, we are, in a way, putting ourselves in insurance companies' shoes and looking at what they are facing, what type of problems they are seeing, how they want our operations to serve the end customer, but also then what type of transparency we want and need to give them related to effectiveness of our care chain, fluency of our care chains, and cost level. And we are building that sort of more active engagement all the time and getting positive feedback from that front. So with our capabilities, excellent capabilities, we can be a better partner for insurance companies and guiding and steering the customers and patients to right morality of service, right care chain, measuring the care chain effectiveness, being very precise in billing and also give transparency on that one and also provide more transparency on sort of a full scope of the population on those contracts. So there are many things that we are doing and continue to do to further improve our relationship.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Thanks. With that, we don't have any questions left. So any closing words first from you, Juuso, and Ville?

speaker
Juuso Pajunen
CFO

No, thank you. We will continue pushing for 26.

speaker
Ville Iho
CEO

Absolutely. It's a tough environment, but, of course, we are tougher. And now see forward. building on a lower base, but with a very, very positive view.

speaker
Kati Kaksan
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability

Thank you. And on a personal note, this is my last quarter with Terve Stalo. It's been a pleasure working with you guys for the last almost nine years. I have full faith in this company and the team, and I believe that Terve Stalo will come through as a winner from this cycle and from this industry transformation. Thanks. Have a great rest of the day and weekend.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

-

-