B3 Consulting Group AB (publ)

Good morning and a warm welcome to a presentation of BT Consulting Group's third quarter of 2025. And shortly after this presentation, we will also publish a subtitled version on our homepage. So, with that said, it's time to start, so I welcome you, Martin.

As you wish, Katarina. Yes, we presented the news yesterday that I will end as CEO and Daniel Juhlin takes over, so I thought we would start with that. I have been here for eight years, each as a CEO for the past year and a half. And I look forward to stepping down from my operational work and going into a calmer pace. So there is no drama behind this, but this is on my own initiative and it suits me well in the phase I am in my life now after 40 years in the IT industry. In the future, I will try to focus on some board tasks, we'll see. But as my successor, the board has mentioned Daniel Juhlin. Han har ju en lång och erfaren ledare med bakgrund inom management consulting, detaljhandel och digitalisering. För närvarande är han vd för ett bolag som heter Order Impact som är en svensk tech startup. Och han har ju också varit sedan två och ett halvt år styrelseledamot i B3. Det gör ju att han har en stor kunskap om B3 och på det sättet kan snabbt komma in i vår verksamhet. Daniel har en civilingenjörsexamen, industriell ekonomi och organisationsfrågan. So he will take over from the 1st of February and until then I will be the CEO. And we will of course ensure a smooth transition so that this goes smoothly and well. And I see this as a very positive development. I think it's good. And now, after many, many years here, bring in someone with a little external perspective. About that. I usually start with a little bit about our culture, and this time as well, even after this information about BD Bytra. Yes, part of our culture is that we want to win. This applies to both business and increasing profitability and growth, but we also see other achievements as proof of success. In recent months, B3 has received several achievements that confirm the strength of our brand and our culture. For example, we recently received an award from Carriereföretagen, where Pernilla Brolin, together with Katarina Lundqvist, won the Employer Branding Persona Award this year in Sweden. We have also been nominated for Site Vision Awards for digital solutions, together with our customers. Our subsidiary Rebel and Bird is nominated for the Swedish Design Prize, where the winner will be awarded tonight, so we keep our fingers crossed for that. We hope that we will win a prize there. We see these recognitions as a strong quota for engagement, creativity, high quality and the strong culture that characterizes B3, which we then think is very, very important. Yes, a little more Q3 results. But before we go into the Q3 results, three things I want you to remember for another presentation. One, we still have a challenging market, but a little light can be recognized. The reactions from the customers continued to mix, but now I think it's more positive than negative signals. So a turn is expected. We continue to work hard to improve growth and profitability, both by increasing income through better debiting and increasing our prices, but also recruiting. But also continue to adjust our costs to lower turnover. That's nothing we've stopped with. Thirdly, we are convinced that we are on the right track and that the turn will come. And the turn will show itself in our results in the future, although it may take a few quarters before we see it clearly in our books. With that said, we can go to the Q3 report. The turnover is rising by nearly 4% thanks to our acquisitions, but organically we are backing up by 3.4%. This is due to, as I mentioned earlier, a continued challenging market situation and a low turnover for consulting companies that have not yet completely let go of the market. And we share that with the entire consulting industry, I think. The profitability is not quite good, but it probably increases a little from last Q3 to 5%. Then you should note that if we look at the adjusted EBITDA, it is lower than last year, when we had big one-off things in Q3 2024. So it's a mixed picture, you could say. Now we have, I think, so much on the market, so now we focus more on recruitment than before, and more focus on achieving positive net recruitment. Our ambition is to achieve that already this year, in Q4, which is a very short quarter. We may not do that, but we will definitely have it with us next year. Vi har en ökning av vår debiteringsgrad, men det ska vi då tillskriva Polen, och i Sverige är den då bara marginellt förbättrad. Ja, och som sagt tidigare, marknaden är fortsatt osäker, men vi lyckas med att ta nya affärer trots det. From this more detailed picture, I will pick up the following facts. If we look at year-to-date, we have an increase in revenues of over 12% and a slightly improved GDP of 6.3%. But as I said before, that is far from enough, of course. Vi vill också förtydliga varför vi kan ha ett ökat genomsnittligt antal medarbetare och samtidigt ha en nedgång i antalet medarbetare under period. Det kan jag tycka är lite bakvänt. Detta beror på att vi konsulerade in all in i september förra året och därmed fick en avsevärt höjning. Därefter har vi som koncern tyvärr backat antal medarbetare, vilket vi ser som en av våra största uppgifter som du har att vända trenden på, att komma tillbaka till en positiv nettorekrytering. Mer om det senare då. Ja, och så Polen då. Som ju alltid brukar vara ett stort glädjande. It is still the case, but unfortunately, we have a negative growth in Q3. This quarter, it was minus 16%, and today it has decreased by 7%. We talked about this in the previous quarter report as well. This is due to the fact that Poland has lost a couple of international customers, and they have not yet been able to find new jobs for them. Poland works a lot with projects, and projects can consist of 5 to 15 consultants, so it can go up and down quickly. Sen är ju lönsamheten imponerande och fortsatt väldigt bra, med en ebit över 10% i kvartalet. Vi räknar ju med att tillgången är tillfällig, men troligen får vi väl vänta några kvartal innan vi kan se en vändning uppåt igen i siffrorna. The market in Poland is now tougher than before, with fewer projects on the market, which leads to higher competition in the market, which then leads to Poland trying to find more projects outside of Poland. And that has the great opportunities with many interesting prospects out here now. Vi stärker också säljteamet i Polen med mer seniorkompetens då det visar sig att kunderna nu när det är tuffare marknad kräver mer av säljpersonerna i avseende av teknisk kommersiell kompetens för att vara relevanta. Det har visat sig då, vi har haft framgångar med att flera nya ramavtal är tecknade som kommer att öka orderna längre fram, vi kommer att prata om det lite senare. Satsningen på cybersäkerhetstjänster som drogs igång i början av året har givit frukt med en strategisk affär på ett e-handelsbolag. And also in the AI area, we see that Poland is more likely to deliver an AI solution to a Swedish company, but which delivers services both in Sweden, Denmark and Belgium. So I think that Poland is soon back on the growth track. And then we have Norway, our latest addition to international business. We are looking forward to growth at 22%, which is a positive indication that we are on the right track. Q3 is a relatively poor quarter, as it was last year. This is due to how we handle the semester payments in Norway, in line with last year. It is a structural thing that separates us from Norway in Sweden. I think that the sub-regions understand the situation well. The turnaround has started, and we have a positive momentum in Q4. That is exactly how we are. We are making several important investments in Norway, as we talked about in the last quarter report, with strategic recruitment within the defence sector and recruitment activities. And during the quarter, we have grown more in defense and security with the strategic partnership agreement and the announcement of another new version. Very high activity and setting up several new businesses. And as I said, we have momentum and good input in Q4. This picture shows our revenues distributed compared to last quarter, three. And as we can see, we now need to increase the number of FDIs in line with an improved market. Den negativa effekten av det minskade antalet konsulter har i stort sett varit oförändrad jämfört med föregående kvartal. Intäkstillväxten under Q3 drevs i huvudsaken av förvärv och konsolideringar. Ålen konsolideras som koncernbolag den 1 september 2024, vilket innebär att verksamhet bidrar fullt ut under Q3 i år, men endast delvis under motsvarande period föregående år. Så fokus framöver är att gå från nettutflöde av konsulter till nettutflöde, vilket då naturligtvis kommer att leda till ökat intäkter, och det är också vår plan då. Debt rate. Our debt rate is stable, but it is still too low. We expect and demand that it will be much, much better. Q3 is normally a bad quarter when it comes to debt rate. But when we look at some kind of normalized debt rate, we are far behind anyway. In Sweden, we see a normalized debt rate for Q3 of about 83%. And here we are at 79.6%. That is, we can see that we have a lot of room for improvement in the future, which we can also count on. At the company level, we are at 81.7, and even there we can do better. 85% of our assessment is that the normalised behavior rate is at the company level for quarter three. At the same time as we expect the number of employees to increase, thanks to better and more tasks, we have entered a more offensive phase for recruitment, which can lead to an increase in the number of unemployed in the start-up phase of recruitment. When we employ people, it is not always that they get tasks the first month. But we still prioritize increasing the number of employees, but above all we need to increase the number of consultants. Yes, this so-called bubble diagram has been in several quarterly reports before. And if you compare this bubble diagram with the last quarter's bubble diagram, it hasn't changed much, but it's about the same. We have problems with getting growth in our subsidiaries. We work hard by increasing profitability through cost control and increasing revenue through increased debiting. And then we start the recruitment engine again. Som ni ser då att det är få av våra bolag som klarar att ta tillväxt i den tuffa marknaden det här året. Vi ser ju att det kommer att vända framöver då. Och vi fortsätter att effektivisera oss genom att bilda större enheter och på det sättet få bättre effektivitet. Så det är inte så mycket nytt där kan man säga. Pytobrot, det är ju två delar. Dels är det ju då det vi kallar tillväxtinitiativ och sen är det kostnadsprogrammet. Vi börjar med tillväxtinitiativet. Now we are entering a phase where we increase the pressure on recruitment. A new recruitment initiative has been launched to strengthen the network industry primarily in Sweden. We re-prioritize our time as a company management to focus on increasing recruitment. We can continue to make sure that we have high demand, but now the focus is also to fill in with more employees. In Norway we do a lot of good things, as we heard earlier, and we also develop closer cooperation across the country, both from Sweden and Poland, where we want to cooperate more and sell more services primarily to Norway from Poland and Sweden. We are also in the process of establishing a position within the defence sector, with strong potential and positive development, of course, as the situation is. So far, it is a very, very small part of our business. So we have come to the point that we have, as a company, 3% of our revenue in the defence sector, which is very little. But it is growing rapidly. So we see that this is a new growth area that we can develop within. We use AI ourselves, and we have built two tools, Sales Flow, which is a way to optimize sales of more inquiries, and CV Coach, which is a way to get our consultants to write better CV. This is for real, and it shows the strength of AI, that we can use it, and we can also do it for our customers. Then we have launched a packaging of an e-mail to AI agents, which we will talk about on the next page. Yes, AI agents, we have talked a lot about it for a long time, and it is out there. We see that we can help customers benefit from AI agents, which makes the customer's business smarter. And that's why we are now launching a package of our services, which makes it a little easier to buy from us. We were earlier investing in Competensium AI. We invested over 100,000 hours last year. We have already helped several customers, so this is not that we haven't done it, but we have helped customers, real cases with this. But we also see a strong increase in demand within the range of AI agents. And now the agent technology is so good that it can solve real business problems and in that way increase the customer's profitability and competitiveness. However, it still requires that you do the right analysis and if an AI agent is the right solution, it does not fit all tasks. And by To do this packaging of AI agents can increase service levels internally and externally, increase efficiency and scalability, and increase customer value. And for us B3, it broadens our offer and markets for us and strengthens us in some way as a leader within the AI area. And what we can offer is strategy and risk analysis, identity and processes, and workshops, development and implementation, the development of scattered AI agents and their interaction with existing tools, And we can train and adjust the AI agents that learn the customer's tone, routines and priorities. And then administration and support so that we can make sure that this works and develop further as the business changes. So I think we can increase our income on AI and help our customers even more with this. Then we come to the second part of FIT Growth, Cost Savings. There we have reached our goal. Everything we said we would do is done. And we will get the effect of lowering costs here in the next half year. We have succeeded in lowering our costs at least as well as the revenue growth has gone down. We are now very well equipped for growth with an effective and much more linear organization. Vi räknar nu att kunna växa bolaget en bra bit utan att levera mer overheadkostnader vilket förstås kommer att visas på ett starkt bottom line framöver. Alla beslut som behöver tas för att nå målet är tagna och nu går vi i det vi kallar harvest period där våra kostnader går ner i takt med att besluta på full effekt. So far, det är ett lyckosamt program. Ja, lite grann om kunder då. Vi har trots en tuff marknad så det har varit många framgångar på marknaden. including new framework agreements. And then I mentioned earlier that Poland has signed new framework agreements, and they have a framework agreement with one of Poland's largest telecom companies. They have also signed an agreement with a US-based company for software development and digital product development. And as I mentioned earlier, we have taken success on Saab within the defense sector. We have a rapid growth from very low numbers. We work a lot with Arbetsförmedlingen, where we have received more deals, where we have different roles as system developers, programmers and technical automation leaders. Regions in Sweden are still something we are growing on. Here we have delivered several new positions to Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset. And we have a company that is focused on procurement consultants, and they have done a good deal with Alekta Fastigheter, where they will help with procurement competence. And within banking and financial insurance, which is our largest sector, we have also taken new deals in system development, business analysis and information modeling. And on the network area, we also have a specialist company, we have taken new deals with one of Sweden's largest state-owned companies. And then we have our company that is working with SiteVision, and there new deals always fall in, and now we have taken a deal with Hoogas, Nacka Energi and Mela Energi, with Plero. Then we will take the final picture, to sum up. We have growth of almost 4%, despite still being a very challenging market. Our EBITDA goes up to 5%, but we are far from satisfied. We can do so much better. We are now pressing the recruitment button to be able to meet a better market, which we estimate will come gradually in 2026. The market is still challenging, but we take business and strengthen our customer base in order to stop this. Within B3, we use Jim Collins' book Good to Great in our management program. And there I pick up the quote that is usually called the Stockholm Paradox. Meet the brutal facts, but never lose faith in how the story ends. If you haven't read the book, you've probably all read it. Read it again, it's good. So we stick to the discipline, we keep focus, and we continue to believe that we will succeed, so we are convinced of that. So that means, back to the three points at the beginning. We have a tough market, maybe the toughest for a very long time. Vi jobbar hårt för att både öka intäkter och sänka kostnader och vi är 100% övertygade om att vi kommer att lyckas. Det får då bli slutordet och över till frågor.

Ja, vi får passa på att säga tack till er som har skickat in frågor. Det har kommit en del så jag försöker gruppera dem på lite olika områden. The first question is related to recruitment. There is a lot of focus on recruitment. Can you mention some concrete measures that are included in this initiative? How should BTL be able to turn the negative trend in net recruitment?

We have had so many tough quarters and months. So our companies have become a little defensive, a little insecure about whether they can hire and get people out. So it starts with a mindset to start thinking positively, thinking, yes, we can recruit, we will get them out. We have become too defensive. So there is a lot of mindset from our subsidiary management. Then we simply have to put more time into it. There is a lot of talent out there to recruit, but it's not like there are a hundred in line. It's about working and choosing the best. We're just going to recruit the really good consultants now when we have the opportunity. So it's a lot of work and a little shift of focus. The focus is more on half a foot of glass than half a ton. And what we at the company do is that we measure and follow up more closely. That's what we do. We have weekly surveys, which of course also affects.

You said that it might be a little more positive now. Yes. Then I have a question like this. How does BT look at the resumption in the market in 2026? And what signs do you see that the company would be fit for growth for the next stage?

Yes, if we take the second part of the question first. Are we fit for growth? Yes, we have adapted our Costas costume. Much, much more effective. We will be able to deliver higher volumes with exactly the same amount of overhead to people. So that will give an effect. And I think it's quite big before we have to fill it up with more overhead employees. The signs we see, as I said earlier, there are a lot of positive signs, there are negative signs. Different customers react in different ways. Now they are considering positive signs. I think we... There's a lot of belief as well. But it starts with belief. An improved economy starts with more people than me believing that the market will get better. Our customers start believing in it. And I feel that this is the shift right now. So we can't guarantee it, but the plan is there. But then of course, since we have also lowered our cost mass, we are much more stable if this growth would not come. It's not like B3... We can earn money even without growth. We see signs of a better market, but it is still uncertain.

And connected to future growth, what role do Poland and Norway play in the future?

Poland has been our growth engine for many, many years. Now they have had a little downturn. I'm sure they will start again. As we mentioned earlier, they have a super effective way of working, they are very good at selling, so they will be important. And Poland is a much bigger market than Sweden, so there is a lot of room for growth. They are also good at having businesses outside of Poland. So they will be a very important part of B3's future. Norway is so new. And Norway is a smaller market than Sweden, of course. But here we start with the acquisition of Habersla, a very good management consulting company. And they can grow, but above all, we can bring in more B3-expertise companies in there and broaden our offer. So that will also be an important part of B3 in the future. But in volume, I think Poland will still be significantly larger.

Let's see. You have talked a bit about this with larger companies, to group companies into larger units. How can you see that it has affected cooperation and profitability so far?

Can you see any concrete results? We have absolutely by... Grupera bolagen, det vi kallar kluster. Vi har ökat jättemycket i samarbete runt sälj. Tidigare var det lite grann tuber, silos, man jobbade och man hade sina kunder och man sålde sina konsulter. Nu är det mycket bredare, man går ut till sin kund. and talk about all of Petra's infrastructure. We have a huge advantage of that. And you also look at the layout in a more common way. We can be a company that has a full layout and someone has a very poor layout. It's about finding the integrity there. So I think it has given many positive effects. And also in terms of cost, that we can be a little more efficient through this. But there are some things to do, absolutely, within that area. But we are on the right track.

If you look forward, you talked about the defense. Which industries would you say are most promising for B2B so far?

I think banking, where we are strong. That's our strong point. There's a lot more to do there. We're not on all banks, and we can do more on the big banks we are. I think we can be even stronger there. Health and healthcare, absolutely. Also an area that we want to strengthen, but can also become even stronger. And then I think the bubble is just the defense. We come from no market share, really, but... genom att nu inte bara Google and Flow förrän så länge kan vi säga att vi har väl kommit dit för att vi har funnits på rätt plats och ska kunna leverera en konsult. Nu gör vi mer ett strukturerat arbete runt att utveckla försvarsmarknaden. Det är också intressant då att i Norge så är det ju mer fokuserat på försvaret och IT-delen. I Sverige är det mycket mer produktutveckling på SAAB så det finns ju en crossover där också om vi kan få det här att and infect each other's environment.

Then, connected to market insecurity, how can you see that it affects pricing and margins?

Or do you see that it affects? Yes, we have had a bit of that. Last year was when we had the big price increase. Now there is still discussion about prices, absolutely, but now I rather see that it is possible to increase prices. From bad levels, one should add. But it is rather a positive for us, positively, that we can as a new project, an extended project, we can discuss price increases. So it is in the right direction from our perspective.

Good, then I think we have been through most of the questions that have come in. If there is anything else you would like to ask, it is of course great to continue to e-mail us during the day or later. ir1bt.se, we will be back. So, with that, it is time to end the day.

Yes, thank you so much for listening and it has been fun to be able to present all of these quarterly reports. It will be one of my last, of course. Next time Daniel will be here to hold it. Så jag tackar för intresset och ser fram emot mitt nya liv.

Vi ses framöver. Ha det bra. Tack för idag.

Hej då.