7/14/2026

speaker
Christine
CEO

Thank you, Operator, and a warm welcome to everyone joining us for Back to Guard's second quarter presentation for 2026. I'm joined today by our CFO, Patrick Buck, and I'll take you through the quarter's strategic highlights and then hand over to Patrick for a closer look at the numbers before we open the line up for your questions. Today's title, solid performance driven by revenue growth, captures exactly where we landed this quarter. Strong top line momentum across the business, confirming that the slower start to the year was simply a matter of timing rather than any change in trend. So let's drive straight into the quarter. And let's start with the numbers. We're pleased to report second quarter net sales growth excluding currency of 16%. The main driver was a recovery in BD revenues alongside one of the strongest quarters our wound management portfolio has ever recorded. This quarter confirms that the softer start to the year was a matter of timing, not a change in trend, as I said, and our strategy execution is on track. Adjusted EBITDA came in at 5.6 million SEC, up from SEC 4.4 million a year ago, lifted by sales growth and continued cost discipline. It's a good illustration of how top-line growth flows through to earnings in a scalable licensed business, and it gives us room to keep investing in future growth. Cash flow from operations amounted to $12.4 million, a clear step up from the $1.7 million in the same quarter last year. Strategically, it was an eventful quarter too. We signed a new long-term agreement that deepens our already 35-year partnership with BD. We're seeing growth in the use of patients of Bactiguard-coated implants with Zimmer Biomet, and we had strong momentum in our early partner dialogues. Let me take you through these one at a time. Let's turn to BD. In May, we announced a new long-term agreement with BD, deepening a partnership that goes back to 1990, more than 35 years. Few things illustrate the long-term value of our coding technology that creates for partners better than this, or how embedded back-to-guard coded products become in patient care once adopted. What started as a collaboration covering select markets has steadily grown into a true global partnership. Today, it spans the full value chain from technology development to global market execution and is focused on expanding adoption of our infection prevention technology. The restated agreement modernizes the partnership terms and strengthens that foundation further. It builds on the December 2023 extension under which BD was granted worldwide exclusivity for back to guard coated Foley catheters outside of China. Alongside the commercial terms, a key part of the agreement has been aligning on the regulatory approvals needed to support smooth market transitions, something that's been a shared focus with BD over the past two years, and that has now enabled recent launches in the Nordics, Poland and parts of the Middle East. We have backed each of these commercialization initiatives with technology training across the regions, and we continue to transition our KOL relationships and former customers to support market access and commercial execution for BD. As I said when we announced the agreement back in May, this is a great example of the power and potential of our license-focused strategy, a partnership that's global, growing, and built on shared success. In the quarter, BD revenues came in 50% above the weak second quarter of last year and are also up 8% so far this year, reaching $28.2 million on a reported basis. As in prior quarters, BD revenues are shaped by the timing of concentrate shipments into their supply chain, which can create variation from one quarter to the next, but we continue to see underlying growth, both from existing and new markets. Now to Zimmer Biomets. Our partnership continues to focus on driving commercial adoption. Actiguard is leading the work to transition the trauma implants to the MGR regulatory requirements in Europe and supporting the post-market clinical studies. We are very pleased to note that the first of the ongoing multicenter studies is now complete, which is an encouraging step, and the key comparative study is progressing according to plan. We are especially pleased to see growing use of back to guard coded implants in patients. There's still meaningful headroom here given how small a share of the total trauma market coded implants represent today. Overall, we see the partnership as financially stable with revenues of 3.8 million in the quarter in line with our expectations, double digit growth in product sales and clear long-term potential as adoption continues to build. Let's turn to business development. We spent a good part of the quarter on new business development, meeting potential future partners at conferences and in direct discussions across the US and Europe. Since launching our five focus therapeutic areas back in March of 2025, we have now completed a full annual calendar of conferences across all of them, where we focus on business development activities. The need to find infection prevention solutions is especially recognized in orthopedics, and it is clear that the strongest engagement with Bactiguard is here. We are also enabled to capitalize on this category by having rights in various orthopedic segments available for licensing since amending our agreement with Zimmer Biomed at the end of 2025. We remain focused on advancing these discussions with potential partners while recognizing that in a licensed business, Dialogues like these can take time to mature into signed agreements. Now to wound management, which had a standout quarter. The portfolio delivered very strong performance indeed with 67% revenue growth for the quarter and 25% over the first six months. Our flagship Hydrosyn Aqua line led the way supported by stabilization in sutures. with growth in the portfolio across the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Tender business in select regions also gave a positive boost in the quarter. Alongside the strong commercial execution, we continue to strengthen the product portfolio, invest in availability of products in new markets, and build out our operational setup in Malaysia. As we've said before, we continue to expect double-digit growth from the combined wound management portfolio fuel by high double-digit growth from hydrogen aqua and a stable contribution from sutures. And this quarter confirms that we continue to be on track. With that, over to Patrick for a closer look at the numbers.

speaker
Patrick Buck
CFO

Thank you, Christine. We are very happy to present solid growth this quarter. For Q2, we report both revenue growth, continued profitability, increased cash generation, and we see positive momentum across the business. Total revenue came in at 57 million SEK, up from 52. Total revenues grew 12%. Net sales grew 16%, excluding currencies. As said, this is driven by strong growth in BD revenues and a very strong quarter from our management portfolio. In fact, the strongest quarter and the strongest revenues on a rolling 12-month basis ever. Looking closer at our core license business, we see license revenues lifted by the strong growth in BD, which came at 28.2 million. This is up 50% versus a weak second quarter last year, but up 8% versus the first half of last year. And as I said, we see strong continued underlying momentum in the BD business and the BD partnership. CIMA Biomed contributed with approximately 4 million in the quarter, in line with our expectations, and reflecting in fact a double-digit growth in the sales of the CNN Bectiguard coated nails. The reason for the decline in the total license revenues is found in the high comparable on CIMA last year, in which Q2 included a full year of minimum royalties from the previous agreement. As communicated, fixed fees in our new agreement will be consistent across the quarters going forward. Across both partnerships, we continue to see positive in-market volume growth, and we are excited to see the future demand from customers and clinicians for our technology, which underpin and adds to the risk reduction efforts healthcare professionals must deal with on a daily basis. On OPEX, we remained cost conscious and with cost discipline during the quarter, while also investing selectively to support growth. This includes, for example, within our regulatory capabilities, within business development activities, as well as strengthening our teams and operations globally, including in our Malaysian business. For the quarter, we did see an increase of total OPEX of 11%, while the half year period holds about a one and a half percent total increase in OPEX. The Q2 increase mainly pertains to timing effects on bonus accruals, which was reversed in Q1, 2026 versus Q in Q2 last year in 25, i.e. a lower comparable for Q2. As communicated previously, we will continue to operate with the cost discipline while ensuring the right investments in growth. On adjusted EBITDA, we came in close to 6 million for the quarter, up from 4.4 million in Q2 last year. driven by sales growth and a set continued cost discipline. Our margin on adjusted EBITDA increased to 10% for the quarter, as well as approximately 10% for the first six month period. Net profit for the quarter was minus 8.2 million in line with the 8.1 million in Q2 last year. On cash flow, we see cash flow from operating activities amounted to a bit more than 12 million for the quarter, a substantial improvement of more than 10 million versus the 1.7 in Q2 last year. Also cash flow, total cash flow for the period was positive at 7.4 million and our total Cash and cash equivalents at the quarter end amounted to 43.5 million, up from 35 million approximately at the end of Q1. So with that, back to you, Christine.

speaker
Christine
CEO

Thank you, Patrick. With growth across all of our businesses, including double-digit increase in wound management, our focus now is on converting these investments into sustained traction. we are on the right track, and we will keep executing towards our strategic targets. I want to be clear that nothing about previous quarters changes our strategic direction or the fundamentals of the business. To sum up, This was a quarter of broad based growth with net sales up 16% and further improvements in both EBITDA and cashflow. We renewed and deepened our 35 year partnership with BD and we continue to see growing momentum with Zimmer Biomet with double digit growth in product sales as coded implant use in patients builds. Wound management delivered one of the strongest quarters ever up 67%. and we have a strong partnership pipeline building, particularly in orthopedics. Taken together, we remain firmly on track. With that, let's open up for questions.

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