BillerudKorsnäs AB (publ)

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Billerud's third quarter report, 2026 webcast and conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Lina Chateau, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to the presentation of Billerud's third quarter results. Our CEO, Ivar Vatne, and our CFO, André Kress, will give you an overview of the results and the highlights of the quarter. After their presentation, conference participants will have the opportunity to ask questions. By that, I hand over to you, Eli.

Thank you, Lena, and good morning, everyone. And thank you all for listening in to our Billiard Update this Thursday morning. There are several highlights to talk about, but it's first and foremost been a quarter where we see progress on the profitability recovery. and we continue the positive trend since the beginning of the year. So let's get into it. The next slide, please. And overall, our Q3 result is coming in quite close to our expectations, and we do see progress on several fronts. We return to positive net sales growth, plus 3% versus a year ago, and plus 2% currency neutral. Net sales is also up versus previous quarter. Our sales growth is coming from increased volumes in both regions, and we have positive pricing momentum for most of our categories. I want to in particular call out a region, Europe, for strong profitability improvement. And we have been through some tough years in Europe, but EBITDA margin for Europe now in Q3 is the highest since beginning of 2025. Our saving measures on both variable and fixed costs are working and we have succeeded to increase our competitiveness. Now for North America, it's been a big quarter in taking the next step in a program evolution. We have installed some new equipment at our Scannaba mill, which will enable further acceleration towards packaging materials, but more about that later. Focusing on converting a high share of a profit into cash remains a clear priority, And we had another excellent quarter in terms of cash conversion, coming in at 127%, which makes our year-to-date position very strong. Next slide, please. Our strategic direction to evolve gradually towards packaging materials in North America is of high priority for us. And we reached another milestone now during the third quarter. And in combination with the annual shot in Escanaba, we upgraded some of the assets, specifically with the changes on roll handling, roll wrap, winders, and sheet dewatering elements. And this has been needed to enable further capabilities to produce heavy basis weight versus what we historically have focused on. And with that, complement the custom offering Vida mentioned that are more in the sweet spot within the packaging materials space. Commercially, we are continuing to pick up speed and recording other record sales quarter during Q3.