AcadeMedia AB (publ)

So good morning everybody and welcome to this presentation of Academedia Q2 result and I will take the presentation together with Petter Sylvan and I will start with a few remarks and the second quarter we think it's a very stable solid quarter and in line with our strategy The Q2 quarter is usually a quarter where nothing so much happens, but we think that this quarter has been really, really good. And if we look at the sales, it has been affected by FX effects because of the changes in currency, but the growth is around 5.5% if you adjust it for FX effect. And the EBIT is developing stable and good in all our segments. But the real driver behind this is the international group and adult education. And if you look at adult education, we also have a very good result when it comes to the We have strengthened our position when it comes to higher vocational education and we increased the market share and just this vocational education is very important for us. We think that is a positive step and we keep and improve our market shares. And we have also continued to make acquisitions. We have a very solid and stable balance sheet, so we made an acquisition of a group in Germany and we also announced this morning that we make an acquisition in in Finland with the Bolton acquisition of a group of English-speaking preschools in Finland and we think that is very positive and we have had a very tough time in the recent years when it comes to the increase of voucher and decrease of cost because of inflation and post effects of the inflation but when we look at 2026 we think it's very positive that now the school voucher is up 3.4 percent And that is a little bit higher than the salary increase. And if we look at the lease contracts, it's more than double up. So that is also finally, it's a stable year when we are looking at 2026. And then if we continue to make some short remarks, we are very proud of Vitra. Vitra has been a grand part of the compulsory group for many years and they get really top results from the school inspection and we just want to highlight that because Vitra is also a school that is working with some of the social, economic tough areas in Sweden and they perform really, really well. They also put the right grades and we really want to to show you that Vitra is important to improve school results in Sweden. And then if we look at this difference between the natural test and the actual grade, that is a question that we get a lot because it has been in the media debate in Sweden. And we just want to focus and give you this information that Academia is performing very well when it comes to these results. Better than the average in Sweden. And we have also improved the differences over years. So we can say without no doubt that we are very good at setting the right grades. And then if we look at this higher educational sector, and this is a very important part of the adult education, important for Sweden because we still have high unemployment rate. And every year you get the number of school places and programs that you could run the coming years. So this is very important for us. And the result in this year's result was very good for us. The number of places was up, and we increased our market share, and the total number of places was also up. So the overall result when it comes to the vocational education was very positive for Academedia's adult education, and this will also help us the coming year. And this just gives you the picture of the historical development of Academiedia's performance, because we have stable profitability, stable over a year, and now we also improved the international group. So the role in 12 numbers is positive, and the result in this quarter was up, both margin, revenue, and in all segments, in fact, also. And our international strategy and the roadmap for Academedia, we have had this focus for many years now, and we have built a very solid and good platform internationally, both in Finland, both in Norway, in Poland. We are starting to look into Poland. In Germany, we have a stable platform. In the Netherlands, we have a stable platform. And if we look at the numbers here now, we are a little bit above 40%. of the revenue that is outside the Swedish gold system, and we are aiming for 50%. And this is a target that we will reach through organic growth, but also mainly through acquisitions. And we have a good pipeline, a lot of discussions that we will be working with 2026. Now I hand over to Petter.

Thank you Marcus and good morning everyone. I will start with an update of the political reforms in Sweden. We have had three reforms currently, three major reforms currently proposed. It's the profit inquiry, the principle of publicity and the school voucher inquiry. The first report from the bottom, the school voucher inquiry, it has been announced since on time that the legislation proposal will be delayed until after the election. The principle of publicity has just recently come with a more detailed proposal. So I will talk a little bit more about that within a few minutes. And the profit inquiry, we are still waiting for a potential proposal to come in the near future here. Next page, please. On January 19, the Swedish government presented a legislative proposal to extend the principle of public access to all independent educational providers. The legislation is now expected to be adopted in January 2027, which is about one year earlier than previously anticipated. And under this proposal, the public will have the right to request access to documents from our operations on essentially the same basis as for public authorities. And all requested documents will be subject to confidentiality assessment and formal decisions will be required in cases where information is not disclosed. We are closely monitoring the legislative process and we have prepared for some time for an implementation. The ongoing implications, however, are assessed to be manageable within existing financial frameworks and in accordance with the principle of equal conditions. Next page, please. I strongly would like to highlight our investor podcast, which is available wherever you find your podcasts. And these episodes are in Swedish. For instance, in our latest pod, we did describe the proposal of public access legislation potential impact on academia more thoroughly. and the purpose overall of this podcast is to engage with swedish investors and other stakeholders through short focus episodes delivering clear insights in just 10 to 15 minutes this far we have released seven episodes and as i said you find it on all platforms for pods you can use the qr code here also next page please So let's start with the financial insights. As Marcus outlined earlier, we achieved a good growth of 4.1% year on year, and all segments contributed to the positive development. Additionally, our adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 6.6% compared to last year's 5.8%, reaching 345 million in absolute terms, up from 289 million. And the increased profit has translated into higher free cash flow. Now, turn to page 12. The improved adjusted EBITDA are evident across all segments as mentioned. In the preschool and international segment, the increase of 43 million is positively impacted by acquisitions, higher volumes and efficiency improvements in our international operations. The compulsory school segment is up 11 million year over year. The upper secondary school segment saw increased earnings of 5 million, primarily attributable to higher capacity utilizations. Earnings were negatively affected by purchase of literature together with increased costs for libraries. Adult education continues to report strong results driven by increased volumes in higher vocational educations. Group costs increased compared to the same period last year. We also have some non-recurring items affecting comparability, which amounted to 13 million. These are personal costs related to harmonization of employment terms within upper secondary education. Now turn to next page. The 12-month rolling net sales continue to grow and amounts to 19.5 billion. The rolling 12-month adjusted EBITDA amounted to 1.388 million, corresponding to a margin of 7.1%, which is within our profitability target of 7% to 8%. We continue to have a solid free cash flow. Okay, now let's look at the quarters development within each segment. And we then start with the preschool and international segment on page 16. So the number of children increased by 7.7%. Our growth was primarily driven by new preschool openings. The international operations account for more than 30% of the group's total sales. Net sales increased by 5.9% year over year, positively affected by acquisitions. Currency changes had a negative impact, 3.9%, and the organic growth was 7%. Adjusted EBITDA was 150 million, and the acquisitions during the first half year and last year contributed positively to the performance. Okay, move on to compulsory school on the next page. And we note 1.3% decrease in student numbers. Adjusted for units that are to be closed, the number of students decreased by 0.6%, primarily explained by lower number of children in the integrated preschools. Net sales rose by 2.9%, primarily explained by the annual school voucher revision. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 14.3% year-over-year, reaching 88 million. This is corresponding to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.2%. Move on to page 18, an upper secondary school segment. The number of students here grew by 0.5%. We saw a stable growth in sales, while profitability was somewhat softer year-over-year. with an adjusted EBITDA of 114 million compared with 109 million in the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 7.3%. The increased result is primarily attributable to higher capacity utilization. Higher costs connected to purchase of literature and the expansion of library staff had a negative impact on the result. Okay, next slide 19 and adult education, where we continue to see strong performance with profitability now improving for the 10th consecutive quarter. Sales increased by 1.8% to 501 million, mainly attributable to higher volumes in higher vocational education and labor market services. adjusted EBIT A came in at 67 million up to 6.3% year over year. The adjusted EBIT A margin amounted to 13.4%, which is up from 12.8% in the same period as last year. In January, Academedia was awarded approximately 7,700 new study places, which is an increase of over 60% compared with the previous year. Okay, continuing to page 21, which is free cash flow and investments. And just in short, free cash flow for the last 12 months amount to 1.342 million. The free cash flow as a percentage of EBITDA is now 71%. Maintenance cap as a percentage of sales continue to decline. This is a consequence of fewer openings and expansion units. Okay, the financial position on the next page, net debt excluding IFRS 16 decreased by 288 million compared to last year with the leverage ratio excluding IFRS 16 at 0.4, well below the financial target of less than three. Even including property related lease liabilities, the net debt is lower. in the period repayment on revolving facility and credit line amounted to 491 million okay finally on page 33 here our financial performances against targets Our last 12 months organic growth, including small bolt-on acquisitions, stands at 5.3%, which is within our financial target of 5-7% growth. Our adjusted EBITDA margin is 7.1%, with an in-hour target range of 7-8%. Under our former profitability target of adjusted EBIT, that typically is 20 basis points lower than our adjusted EBITDA. As previously communicated, it would have been just below the target range. The leverage ratio of 0.4 remains well below the required threshold of 3, which leaves further rooms for acquisitions when opportunities occur. And with these words, I end the presentation and we open up for questions.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. To enter the queue, if you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Johnny from Ginn. Please go ahead.