Arjo AB (publ)

Welcome to the Arjo Q3 presentation for 2025. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to interim president and CEO Niklas Choseverd and CFO Christopher Carlson. Please go ahead.

Hello and good morning to everyone and welcome to Arjo's Q3 2025 earnings call. With me here today, I have Christoffer Karlsson, our CFO. We will give you some details on the quarter three report that we released an hour ago. The agenda looks as usual and includes a summary of activities and results from quarter three, the balance sheet items and outlook for 2025 before we open up for questions. We intend to keep this call to an hour and finish no later than nine o'clock. Next slide, please. We closed the third quarter in a solid way and could see how demand continued in the quarter with organic net sales growth well in line with our targeted range and as expected, sequentially higher than first half of the year. We had continued strong momentum for our service business and now also supported by stronger growth in our capital sales, while our rental business was slower this quarter. Our North America business is showing stable growth also this quarter, while global sales is now delivering from a strong order book and healthy customer demand and is showing the strongest growth quarter for several years. This altogether makes us close the quarter with plus 3.8% organic net sales growth for the group. We continue to have materially higher order book than the same period last year, and we are looking forward to a strong finish of the year in Q4. Our gross margin came in at 41.1% compared to last year, 42.0%. We continue to get support from lower material cost and price adjustments, while these improvements are offset by currency and US tariff headwinds. In Q3, we also had unfavorable geomix impact due to the relatively higher sales volume in global sales and the rest of the world markets, as well as higher medical bed sales, which also impacts the gross margin. Excluding currency and US tariffs, the gross margin would have been on par with last year, despite the geo and product mix effects. For the rest of 2025, we will continue to drive efficiency focus throughout the value chain based on the plans that we have put in place, for example, within supply chain. Our focus on price adjustments will obviously also remain to secure compensation for salary inflation and the US tariffs. The organization is doing a good job on the OPEC side, and we have been able to slow down the cost increase versus quarter two. Our efforts to increase cost efficiency are showing effect, bringing down the organic OPEX growth versus last year to almost flat. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased to 436 million SEC versus 434 million SEC in Q3 last year, a result coming from higher sales and improved OPEX-to-sales ratios. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved with 0.6 percentage points versus last year. Overall, our underlying profitability continues to improve, and excluding the effects of currencies and tariffs, the adjusted operating profit increased over 20%. Our operational cash flow came in at 446 million SEK, leading to a cash conversion of 105% for the quarter. Both cash flow and cash conversion improved versus last year's same period. So in summary, we are delivering a stable third quarter of 2025. Our underlying business develops in a solid way and we can see how our business model with capital, rental and service is helping us to deliver stability and growth and underlying earnings trends. In addition to this, we see several important markets showing good signs of increased activity level and healthy demand for our products and solutions. We see increased sales growth and an overall positive momentum in the business, making me believe in a strong finish to 2025 in Q4. Next slide, please. Our North American business continues to show stable growth also this quarter. In our largest market US, we have this quarter as stable, but sequentially versus last quarter, a more modest growth due to timing of customer deliveries, following on a very strong quarter two. We have a positive momentum in the US business, an overall high customer activity level, and expect a stronger quarter four. Canada also had a stable quarter, but sequentially versus last quarters, a more modest growth after some exceptionally good quarters. And also here, we expect sales growth to increase again in quarter four. Then over to Western Europe and the rest of the world that make up the global sales region. In quarter three, this region grew net sales organically with plus 5.7%, coming from a strong order book and high customer activity level. In Western Europe, the organic net sales growth was plus 2.1%, despite the continued weak market development in the UK. Several other European countries saw good demand and strong organic net sales growth in the quarter, such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Our service business in Western Europe continued to develop well in the quarter as well. Our business in the rest of the world markets had an organic net sales growth of 15.9% in the quarter, with most markets performing well. Many important markets grew double-digit in the quarter, where India stands out with an impressive 40% growth for the second sequential quarter, which now makes India one of the top 10 markets for hardware. In addition, Australia, Africa, Singapore all perform well, and we enter into the last quarter of the year with overall good momentum in the rest of the world markets. Next slide, please. Our gross margin came in at 41.1% compared to last year, 42.0%. We continue to get support from lower material cost and price adjustment, while these improvements are offset by currency and US tariff headwinds. In Q3, we also had negative geo and product mix impact due to relatively higher sales volumes in global sales rest of the world region with high volume of medical beds. Excluding currency and tariffs, the gross margin would have been on par with last year, despite the geo and product mix headwinds. We are, as before, working hard to mitigate the headwinds with continued long-term efficiency gains throughout the value chain, including solid focus on continuous supply chain efficiencies. We will also continue to work on price adjustments as one part of the puzzle to mitigate the US tariffs and other external cost increases. Next slide, please. Adjusted EBIT in Q3 was in line with last year despite headwinds in gross profit due to increased sales and improved OPEX sales ratio. The EBIT margin improved slightly. Excluding the effects of currencies and tariffs, the adjusted EBIT increased over 20%. On the OPEX side, we have been able to slow down the cost increase versus Q2. And our actions to mitigate cost increases are showing effect, which makes organic OPEX development now almost flat versus last year and gives us an improved OPEX to sales ratio. I'm happy to see the response from the organization with much sharper focus on cost improvements over the last quarters. And we have now set the tone going forward to manage OPEX in a good way. We had a negative effect from revaluation of AP and AR of minus 4 million SEK in the quarter, hooked under other expenses. This was minus 13 million SEK in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was 436 million SEK versus 434 million SEK in quarter three last year. A result coming from higher sales and an improved OPEX to sales ratio. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved with 0.6 percentage points versus last year. Restructuring costs came in at minus 13 million SEK in the quarter, related to ongoing improvements in global sales structure to improve the cost situation for the future. Next slide, please. And here I hand over to our CFO, Christoffer Fahlsson.

Thank you, Niklas. Operating cash flow improved significantly with 241 million SEK compared to the second quarter of 2025 and was 9 million SEK higher year over year, primarily due to good receivable collection, which includes the vast majority of the temporary VAT receivable from Q2. The increase in inventory is modest and in line with last year. Our supply chain inventory is declining and instead the goods are now residing in sales units for deliveries in Q4. As a result of the decline in working capital, working capital days decreased to 82, down from 83 in the second quarter, 25. Combined with lower interest costs, this led to an operating cash flow of 446 million SEK versus 437 million SEK in Q3 2024. Consequently, cash conversion was 105% compared to 102% last year. The last quarter is typically our strongest cash flow quarter. For the full year, we expect to be in line with last year, just below our full year target of 80% for the cash conversions. For reference, cash flow from investing activities was 148 million SEK compared to 190 million SEK last year. The decrease is mainly due to 38 million SEK lower business acquisition. This year we made a small 5 million SEK acquisition in Australia of art and service business, while last year we had the acquisition of Jermed in Germany. Next slide, please. The decrease in net debt this quarter is mainly due to the improved operating cash flow. Our financial net improved to minus 41 million SEK, an 80 million SEK improvement from Q3 2024, and it's driven by lower interest rates. Our cash position remains strong. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA improved versus Q2 this year and came in at 2.2, which is on par with Q3 2024. Our equity ratio stood at 49.5%, up from 48.7% in Q2 2025, mainly due to the profit made in the quarter. With that, I hand it back to Niklas.

Thank you, Kristoffer. Let's also update you on some other business highlights during the quarter. We received the US FDA approval for our fetal monitors in our diagnostics business. Furthermore, we completed two small supplementary acquisitions, which will strengthen our local business in Netherlands and Australia, both of which will start contributing positively already during quarter four this year. During the quarter, we also received the latest ESG rating from MSCI, and RU was upgraded to the highest possible scoring, triple A, And finally, earlier in the quarter, it was announced that Andreas Elgard has been appointed to president and CEO starting in January. Next slide, please. Our outlook for 2025 is that the organic net sales growth will be well within the group's target interval of 3-5%. With that, I would like to summarize today's tail quote. We have continued healthy demand for our products and solutions with net sales growth comfortably in line with target and sequentially higher growth than the first half of the year as expected. Global sales is the growth engine in the quarter and is showing the highest sales growth in several years. Several markets are standing out positively and we see good opportunities to continue to build on this momentum moving forward. We see clearly that our cost efficiency measures are paying off and our focus in this area will continue moving forward. The underlying profitability continues to improve and seen in this quarter with adjusted EBIT excluding the effects of currency and tariffs increasing over 20%. Our cash flow and cash conversion improved in the quarter and our work to improve working capital is paying off. Overall, a positive quarter for us, despite the current macro environment and related uncertainty. And we remain confident that we will be able to deliver a strong finish to the year in quarter four. So with that, we can open up for questions. Moderator, please go ahead.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Ludwig Germunder from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.

Good morning. It's Ludwig Germunder from Handelsbanken. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one would be on the tariff impact for the quarter. Is it possible for you to quantify a general impact that you saw from tariffs over the quarter? Is it close to the 15% rate or is it below the 15% rate still? And then my second question is around the development in the UK, which we know is a weak market for you right now. Do you see any changes in the development there? Any comments would be helpful. Thank you.

Thank you, Ludvig. Regarding the tariffs, the way we explain the impact there is in million sec as we did last quarter. So we are slightly above 10 million sec negative impact in the quarter, in quarter three. So it's similar impact as last quarter. On the UK market, we are working very hard, of course, to find a way forward in the difficult market situation. And of course, we have plans in place. But with uncertainties, with NSA's restructuring in the market, we think probably that we can improve from where we are. But it will continue to be a difficult market the rest of the year. I think we need to see it like that.

Okay, thank you. And then one more, if I may. You have had a positive development in your net debt to EBITDA. Do you have any plans or could we expect any bigger M&A going forward or anything to, anything in different?

Yeah, we have a good development there. And of course, if there are any M&As that we see are helping our business forward, we are open for that. But short term, nothing in the pipeline that we can talk about.

Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from Sten Gustafson from ABG Sundahl Collier. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. So a question on the U.S. market. It sounds like you're quite upbeat there, and I think you mentioned that you have a strong order intake and expect strong deliveries in Q4. I assume you don't want to comment on the sort of growth rate in orders you have received there but if that could be sort of the first one but maybe you can comment on what type of products where you see growth for Q4 in the US please.

Yeah, but what I can say is that we have a strong order book in the US, materially stronger than the same period last year. That's why we are upbeat. We had some, you can say, timing issues in quarter three. We grew very, very strongly in quarter two, more modest in quarter three, but the order book is still there and should be delivered. And the piece of the order book that has been growing quickest is the patient handling part in US.

Excellent. And rental, how is that in the US?

It's comparable to last year, so it's no big growth in Q3. We are a little bit waiting and anticipating the flu season, which has not kicked in yet. But it will depend on the magnitude of the flu season, how Q4 plays out.

Okay, thank you. My second question would be on India, if you could comment on how much lower profitability you have there in general compared to group average?

Yeah, exactly. So I think, generally speaking, it's not so bad in India, if you put it that way. But medical beds was one of the drivers of the sales in India this quarter. So you get a combination of geomix and product mix in quarter three, you can say. So that's what we're trying to say there. Otherwise, generally, we are selling our products as premium products in India. And with that comes... lower than Western Europe and North America, obviously, but for being an emerging market, not bad at all.

Okay, excellent. Thank you very much.

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Okay, thank you very much for joining and listening in to our Q3 update. We close the meeting by that.