speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Thank you and welcome to today's earnings call. As I mentioned, my name is Johan Ostrom and I'm also joined by our CFO, Markus Holmström, who will manage the financial section of this presentation in a few minutes. But as always, let me tell you about the most recent performance and put that into context. Now, the first quarter of 2026 showed a strong organic growth of 11%. And we also saw an improved underlying EBIT A compared to prior year with adjusted for capital gains. And we also had a stable cash flow in the quarter. Now, if we are adjusted for items for comparability, the EBIT A amounted to 27 million, and that is an increase of 29% compared to previous year. Then the performance across the group is a little bit of a mixed bag. We saw in Sweden there we delivered clear earnings improvement and that is driven by the actions we have implemented. Other Europe reported a season with stable profitability and in Norway we continue to see a weak performance in a challenging market. And of course, we are not satisfied with the overall outcome for the company, but we do remain fully focused on improving the profitability in particular in Norway. And also during the quarter, we have invested in one strong company through the acquisition of Finke Landschaftenstraße in Germany. So I think that's the perspective that it's a mixed bag. So Sweden and other Europe was performing and we had some challenges in Norway. why we overall saw an organic growth of 11% in the first quarter. So let's move into the presentation. Just a brief overview of the Green Landscaping Group. We are a leading company in the ground maintenance and landscaping industry in Europe. We operate in a very large and attractive market with structural growth in the marketplace. And also, we do have an entrepreneurial culture inside our company and that is supported by a decentralized structure that works pretty well for us as we have local customers and we're active locally, close to the customers on the ground. And then to top it off, we do see a value creation through a proven M&A strategy that we chose to invest in the best companies in the industry. So moving on to the long term performance, I think it's wise to zoom out a little bit and look upon the performance of the company for the last few years. And we can clearly see that we have had a steady growth over time, while the year 2025 was to some extent a challenging year for us in terms of growth and also in terms of profitability. But Given the first quarter where we are back to 11% growth, I think that's a pretty strong sign we are sending that we are back on track. In terms of profitability, again, 2025 was a challenging year for us. But right now we have been focusing heavily for the last one and a half, two years on improving the situation in Sweden. And we do see an improved performance in Sweden. And we do see a stable performance in the segment we accord to as Europe. while we do have some challenging market conditions in Norway, and that's what we're focusing on going forward. And next slide. So to sum up the first quarter, if we look upon the net sales, there was a total growth of 14%, amounting to close to 1.4 billion SEK. And also, as I did mention, we have an organic growth of 11% in the quarter. Profitability wise or EBITDA, there we saw a decrease of 25%. We were landed at 30 million versus 40 million a year ago. And as I did mention, we see a stable improvement of margins in Sweden and other Europe, while we do have some challenges in Norway. And also putting that in perspective, prior years EVTA included a 19 million capital gain on the property divestment we made in Lithuania. So really, when I'm comparing the underlying performance, I am reducing the 40 million by 19 million. And that's where we see the improvement in the profitability. Now, cash flow was OK. We do have a heavy cash flow because we are not that we see some room for improvement in terms of cash flow. So the cash flow for the first quarter was stable, but slightly below our own expectations. And that also means that from the financial leverage perspective, we are at 3.1. That is from our perspective on the high side, and we will focus on that one going forward so we can get it down to a more, from our perspective, acceptable level. And then, as I did mention, we are continuing our successful expansion in Germany, and we completed one investment in Finke in the beginning of the year. And then of course, the last bullet there, the divestment of Svensk Jordelit, that's a part of the program we set out one and a half year ago in order to improve situation in sweden now uh svensk yordlet is a profitable company that we choose to divest because of the way the company has the way we have developed and the way that the yordlet have developed we came to the conclusion that that company would probably be more successful outside the landscaping group so that's why we choose to divest that company in the first quarter of this year Now, looking into the Swedish market, then we saw for the role in 12 months, we see a decrease of 3% to 2.5 billion SEK, where we have an organic growth of a negative one. While profitability wise, we increased to 1% to 115 million SEK, and there we have a margin of 4.6%. Now, the first quarter performance, they actually saw an increase of revenue of 5% to 609 million. And also we saw an increase in EBITDA of 9% to 39 million. And that gives us a margin of 6.4% in the first quarter. And I think we should keep in mind that the first quarter is typically a low season for what we are doing. and having a 6.4% in the Swedish market from a historic perspective, that is actually quite a nice number. And then moving on into Norway. And as we clearly can see there that the net sales have been decreasing by 6% to 2.3 billion SEK, where organically we are a negative five. And then of course, profitability wise, we do see a significant decrease in profitability in Norway. which leaves us with a margin of 3.4, and the decrease is 60%. So we have an 80 million EBITDA margin in Norway, and that is clearly below our expectations. And then for the first quarter, we actually saw an increase in revenue in Norway of 5%, while we saw a decrease on EBITDA with a negative margin of 3.2%. So what's really going on in Norway is that we are having a difficult market situation and we have two companies who are not performing and we are working on improving the situation in Norway quite significantly. And then looking upon other Europe, So for the rolling 12 months, we can see that we have a net sales increase by close to 40%. And right now, that means they are up to 1.5 billion SEK. So it's becoming substantial to us. We have an organic growth of 2%. And then, of course, we saw an increase on EBITDA by 26% to 280 million. And that keeps us with a very strong margin of 18.2% in the other Europe segment. Then for the first quarter, equal to Sweden and Norway, that's the low season we have in the first quarter, but still we see a significant increase in net sales by 60% in the quarter, while we saw a decrease of profitability to 15 million, and that gives us a margin of 4.9. And I think here we should keep in mind that the prior year EBIT A for the segment of Europe included the sales of a property capital gain of 19 million. So one should bear that in mind when you compare the numbers. And then, of course, we completed, as I did say, one investment in the first quarter. So that's pretty much for the other Europe segment. And then just a short introduction to Finke that we closed in the beginning of the year. It's a company that was founded back in 2010. It's based in Borken in Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany. and they do provide classic groundwork, sewer construction and landscaping services to a broad array of customers. And size-wise they are, I would say, a sweet spot company for us with about 12 million euros in annual revenue. So we do welcome Finke into the group of companies we already have. So by that, I think that concludes my part of it. And then I hand over to Marcus, who will walk you through the financials. So Marcus.

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

Perfect. Thank you, Johan. And I will cover the main financials. First quarter showed net sales growth of 14%, totaling at 1.4 billion and bringing our rolling 12 months sales to 6.4%. For the quarter, organic growth was, as Johan said, 11%. Structural effects contributed with 4%, and impact from exchange rates was negative with 2%. As Johan also mentioned, all segments delivered organic growth in the quarter, largely driven by higher demand of winter services in Sweden and Norway, while colder weather had negative impact on demand for landscaping services. Also reflecting on structural growth in the quarter, as we usually, or for the first time, have divested company, and it's not the strategy shift we have, but looking at structural growth 4%, putting it down to, we had 7% contribution from acquired entities, and the sales of Udelit impacted negatively 3% in the quarter. Reported EBITDA was 30 million, a decrease primarily due to the comparison period included a capital gain of 19 million. But adjusting for this one, we had underlying organic improvement in our EBITDA numbers of 29%. EBITDA margin came in at 2.2% and rolling 12 months 6.8%. And we are of course not satisfied with this number and we are strongly focused on executing on the actions we have implemented in Norway and continuing to deliver the positive trend we have in Sweden. I will go into more details on cash flow in next slides, but operating activities amounted to positively 137, broadly in line with last year, and financial leverage sequentially increased to 3.1. And here we're also heavily focused on delivering the cash home in order to be able to deleverage in the coming quarters. The order backlog amounted to 7.7 billion, which is higher than last year. And the increase is actually noted in all regions. But it's important to know that the order book fluctuates between quarters and should not be viewed as short-term leading indicators. Earnings per share in Q1 declined to minus 1%. 0.36 compared to 0.33 last year, mainly due to lower EBITDA in the period, while lower cost of funding had a positive effect. Looking at cash flow, in line with seasonality, operating cash flow contributed heavily positively in the quarter at 137 million, Following the negative development in 2025, we're not fully satisfied with our outcome and have a high focus on delivering reduced working time, delivering on our action to tire less working capital. Progress have been remained, but it made in the forecast, but it may remain a focus area for us. Rolling 12 months cash flow from operating activities amounted to $340 million. Looking at the cash flow bridge for total free cash flow in the quarter, operating activities contributes with 137. Then we completed acquisition, totaling of cash consideration 112 million in the investment on Finke, Landschaft and Strave in Germany. which Johan also presented earlier. And then we also had a small portion of earn-out payment in the quarter, including in that number. We also divested Svensk Odelid, which was divested, and it had an annual revenue of 117 million. And the divestment strengthens the group's focus on our core operation within maintenance and landscaping for public customers. That brought in plus 37 in our total cash flow. So the net from acquisition and divestment was negatively 75 million. Then we had the capex totaling, including lease amortization at minus 18. And we did not repurchase any shares in the period, totaling the free cash flow from the period at negative minus 15. and as i mentioned earlier working capital development and cash flow generation continue as always to be a focus area for us and we're committed to deliver on our actions Financial leverage increased sequentially in light of our net debt being at 2.5 billion and leverage at 3.1, which is above our financial target. And our ambition remains to return to the target, driven by improved operational cash flow and, of course, improved earnings. However, I would like also to underline that we maintain good headroom to meet our financial confidence in the funding. And our maturity profile for our financing. We did a lot of activities in this area during last year. We broadened our financing base with issuing a bond, and we also refinanced the bank debt to much more favorable terms and conditions compared to the previous ones, which helps us lowering funding costs going forward. And we're very pleased with how we were received in the capital market of the bond issue. And it signals the strong confidence the credit market has in us. Concluding my part of the presentation, looking at our financial target, leaving 2025 at the negative growth numbers. We're pleased to see that we're turning a shift here and have been rolling 12 months now, plus three. And on the EBITDA margin side, very positive with the development we see in all the task orders in Sweden and the stability in earnings in other Europe. And we're focused and committed to turn the trend in Norway Rolling 12 months EBITDA margin ended up at 6.8. And finally, the leverage at 3.1. We also have a fourth financial target, which is dividends. And in conjunction with the Q4 report, the board proposes to the annual meeting that no dividend should be distributed for the fiscal year of 2025, which is in line with the recommendation and decisions from previous years. And our AGM will be held at the 7th of May in next week. And with that, I will hand back to you for a few closing remarks before we open up for questions.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Yes. Thank you very much, Marcus. And as I said, it was a mixed bag in terms of the performance. We are back on growth. That is very good to see. And in terms of the local markets, look upon the performance of Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Germany. I'm quite happy with the performance and the activities we had done there. We do have some challenges in Norway and we are addressing those in a diligent way, I would say, where we actually have a new management, new country structure in place. So we have some new players there and made some significant changes to the structure in Norway and in order to improve going forward in the Norwegian market. So by that, I think we open up for the Q&A.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

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 Jin from Seb. Please go ahead.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Yes, good afternoon, Johan and Marcus. I have a couple of questions. I think I will start with Norway profitability where Yeah, Ibiza is even more negative this year, despite to have this record low snow level last year and organic growth is 7% this year. So elaborate even more what is really happening in Norway, what is driving this and how we should think about the Norwegian margin going forward ahead.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Yeah, thank you. Johan here. In terms of the revenue, it's quite simple because we had not a perfect winter, but we did have a decent winter this year, so we can't complain about that one. However, that means that it's one of the companies who is one of the big players we have in Norway taking care of the winter services in the Oslo region. So we did have the revenue, but they weren't able to turn that into profitability. So that's kind of the simple answer on it. We had the revenue, we had the winter, but they failed in terms of making money out of that revenue that came. that goes back that goes back to the management change we had in that company uh so we had a fairly new management who were capable of turning the revenue into profit margins that we are expecting and and should be expecting them to do but is it a execution

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

problem down from your side? Or is it more of a market pricing pressure? Or what?

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

These are good question. Those are long term contracts we have with with the municipality of Oslo. So the prices are determined in the contract. So there's nothing wrong with the contract. So this is down to execution on how you execute on the contract per se and turn the revenue into profit. And that's where we failed. Okay.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Were there any extra costs in this quarter, reflecting those restructuring or such charge in the quarter here?

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Not really, no. So we had the revenue in Norway, but we weren't able to turn, or this company specifically, because it was more or less one company we are referring to.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

typically should have had a good first quarter and fortunately they did not turn that revenue into profitability and that affected the whole segment of norway okay uh okay but looking forward then i mean on a rolling 12-month basis you earn around 3.4 percent the beta margin here in norway so my question is where are you heading now i mean Is it fair to assume that you could maybe reach a mid-single-digit EBITDA margin in Norway? And if so, how quick could these things you're implementing now, how fast can they take before they are showing in numbers?

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

The first quarter is always a bit tricky for us because to begin with, it's a low season. And in Norway, we do have some winter services. If you look upon Sweden, for instance, and the profit margins we're having there, they have been working actively in order to minimize the impact of the winter. And if you look upon last year, we didn't have any great winter in Sweden. We were still able to, I don't remember the numbers exactly. I think it was around 6% or something. And this year we have like 6.4%. And that means we have been successful in minimizing the dependency on winter. And of course, Norway is a different animal in terms of the winter services. But again, when the high seas and second quarter begins, then you have all the landscaping companies is different type of services we are providing. So I will be careful on comparing the first quarter activities to what we do for the remainder three quarters of the year, because there you have different types of services done by the companies who've done with the services. And then of course, all the landscaping companies who have a low season in Q1 are fully up and running in the following three quarters.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Yeah, okay.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

But I mean, the actions you're implementing now. It's hard to compare the activities we're doing in the low season in Norway versus what we're doing in the second, third and fourth quarter in Norway. It's a little bit like comparing apples and pears.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Yeah, yeah. Okay, I understand. But on a rolling basis, I think you should have all of those quarters in it. So, I mean, 3.4% of ETH margin now. Where are you heading? I mean... Can we assume that these actions are implemented now and you are improving margin from Q2 onwards? Or where are you heading? Is a mid-single-digit margin fair to assume in Norway for the full year?

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

So we're looking at how those rolling 12 months look leaving... Q1 now basically is that we started to have challenges in more with the significant extent during Q3 last year when we had one company delivering product write-downs and so on. Then the market has also turned negative during that time. On the rolling 12 months, we still have quite tough comparables looking at Q2 last year. But then, of course, we are committed to bottom out in the next few quarters and delivering the result of the actions we're actually driving out in the business. Then we don't guide for the future. So tough to say.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

It's kind of tough to ask the question as we typically don't guide into the future.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Okay, I will see. Then on the cash flow here. Moving on to cash flow here. While free cash flow is positive here in the quarter, I think working capital tie up is still negative on a rolling basis. I think it's negative 170 million on a rolling 12 months basis here. So how should we think about this going forward? Can we expect a further working capital release ahead the coming quarters or what is further?

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

We have a clear seasonal pattern in our working capital build-up. Going into the high season, we traditionally tie more capital. But what we faced during the last couple of quarters, we haven't released the amount of working capital that the business should have delivered. Therefore, we addressed it with actions and are expecting us to have a catch-up effect during this year in light of the actions we have done. Looking at our portfolio, we have in total 60 companies, and many of these are delivering solid cash flow. And in a few entities, not in a specific area, we are addressing those specifically and making sure that the cash flow comes. So it is down to households. traditional housekeeping on a company level and that's where we are addressing it currently together with the local mds and so for the full year we're driving action in order to release working capital on rolling 12 months basis okay good just a follow-up quick there to understand the cash flow better because it looks like on a rolling 12-month basis it looks like that the change in

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Receivables is the main drag, explained in the most of the drag here at Working Capital. So can you maybe elaborate what is driving that and the dynamics going forward?

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

Yeah, so we don't see that it should be represented that there's a shift in our model or market. But of course, the tough market itself contributes that it takes a bit longer to get paid than in a good market conditions. But from a structural point of view, we We are on top of those companies and we see a bit of a timing effect during quarters, but the actions we're now putting in place is to reduce those type of timing differences also going forward. So yeah, that's my short answer.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Okay, just a final one from my side and that's on Outlook. Could you maybe say something about how we should think about

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

outlook here in in norway and sweden and also can you say something about how april has started for you uh that's a tough question as we don't typically give uh fork or in detail forecast but as i did mention i'm uh given that we talked about the performance we have done in or the improvements we've done in sweden Over the last, it's almost two years now, we have been working in improving the profit margins in Sweden. So we are at the positive trend there. I don't have any further information to say that that trend will continue. That's my expectations, given what we have done. during the course of 2026. Finland were down, I think it was two years ago. We have made a significant improvement in profit margins in Finland over the last 24 months. I do expect that one to remain solid. Then you look upon Germany, for instance. I think on that level, there's a couple of companies who are performing, a couple of companies we are dealing with, but overall the performance in Germany is kind of solid as well and becoming a very important market to us. And then we are back to Norway with the discussions we have had there that now we are going into the landscaping services and the high season in Norway. And as I did mention, we have had several actions in place in Norway in order to improve that situation. So when that would take into effect, I think that's a bit too early to say, but we are working diligently, as I said, on improving the situation in Norway. And from my perspective, I think we are doing the right things in Norway and eventually we're going to see the improvement in Norway. But I can't guide actually at what pace and what magnitude those improvements will come. But of course, we are at like 3-4% EBITDA margin in Norway, and that is significantly below our expectations for the Norwegian market.

speaker
Johnny Jin
Analyst, SEB

Okay, understood. That was all for me. Thank you.

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Thomas Blixted from Pareto Securities. Please go ahead.

speaker
Thomas Blixted
Analyst, Pareto Securities

Yes, hi, sorry to be asking about this again, but to clarify on Norway, you say that there are no contract specific pricing issues and it's just on the execution. Could you please elaborate sort of what kind of execution challenges it is then and what sort of immediate action you have taken to improve this considering the average snow level, average activity levels, so forth, and 7% organic growth? Thank you.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Okay. As I did mention, overall in Norway, first of all, the market is a tough market at this point in time in Norway. They do have a high interest rate. They have fairly high cost increases or inflation, if you like. And that, of course, affects the situation why the supply for new work, so to say, is actually down. So that means it's a heavy competition going on in Norway. So that's kind of the basic we have in the energy market. And then we have two companies who are clearly not performing. So we do have the volume or the revenue to work with, but they are not able to turn that into profitability. And those are basically two company specific situations, if you like. while we do have a good number of really good companies in norway so i do expect norway to to start to perform why the two other companies i'm referring to there we do have a new management in place and we're working with those companies in order to uh improve the performance So to the best of our understanding, when we look upon the contract per se, we are not sitting with long term contracts who are unprofitable. It's much more on the execution. So it's the same contract as we had before. We were capable to make money under the old management. And then while we have the new management, we are not making money under the same contracts.

speaker
Thomas Blixted
Analyst, Pareto Securities

Okay. Do you have any sort of sense on the execution timeline and when you can sort of see a lift-up due to initiatives taken by the new management.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

I think that's a very hard question to answer, but that also goes back to the discussion I had that in the Q1, we have winter-specific services, and that's one type of services we are providing, and that's where they fell short, while now we're going into the high season, and you have all the companies in Norway who will contribute to the performance of Norway. so those those companies typically have a low season in the first quarter anyway so in terms of the mix if you like means that now we're going into landscaping and that then we should be expecting a more solid performance from our norway norwegian colleagues okay okay i understand and just lastly

speaker
Thomas Blixted
Analyst, Pareto Securities

fuel costs, was there any impact in this quarter? The lag between price clauses or similar?

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

No, largely we get the cost over to customers, but of course, we as everyone are impacted by increased cost in short term. But since our project business is so short in time in terms of the average project is three months, we manage to compensate that in the new projects that we're now winning for the next coming quarter. Short term, yes, but we don't see a significant effect and the explanation from the Q1 numbers from there.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Not like we had one or two years ago when we had a very sharp increase in inflation. That's not the situation and we do have indexation in most of our contracts in Norway. And as Marcus said, we have a share or a turnover of the project-based business. So no, we do not consider us being locked down into unprofitable contracts. That's not the case we are looking at in Norway.

speaker
Thomas Blixted
Analyst, Pareto Securities

Okay, that's very clear. Thank you.

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

Thank you, Tomas.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial poundkey5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Karl-Johan Bonnevir from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

speaker
Karl-Johan Bonnevir
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Yes, good afternoon, Johan, Marcus. Some follow-up from me as well, please, if possible. First, looking at snow removal in the quarter, how much of the 13% organic growth would you say was applicable to that normalizing, say, in the way of talking and thinking about it as being an easy year-on-year comparison?

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

I think that's really a tough question, because what happened this year, and I'm not making any excuses here, this is just a fact, and that is we had good snowfalls in the month of January, and then we had a very cold season in February and onwards. So we did have snow in January, and then it was cold. And when you look upon the specific companies, how they performed, we can clearly see that the landscaping companies were suffering, and that's pretty much by design, while the service company who does have snow removal, they had a good January, not so good February. So that's kind of the situation and going deeper into that analysis, we still have to dig into the data, but it's hard to make those how much the contribution was. But clearly, there was a contribution from the wind if you compare to 2025 numbers where we basically didn't have any snow at all. So of course, we had an impact on the snow in the first quarter of 2026. But to what extent organic growth was contributing to that one, it's unfortunately hard to say.

speaker
Karl-Johan Bonnevir
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

I fully appreciate the challenges of Q1 when it comes to it. And looking at the order backlog, I know you don't want to have it as a predictor of the future, but I saw a nice move both Q1Q and year on year. I know one of the things, particularly for the Swedish operation, was to improve and strengthen the order backlog or the type that you had in the order backlog. Could you give some sort of indication what is driving it for the moment and where the components come from?

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

On overall, you're absolutely right. One should be careful because if you win one new big contract, then that will have a very big impact on the order book. But we have done an analysis on the order book per company level. And on the average, we are, I won't say happy, but we typically a company should have a minimum of three months. And then if they have a longer order book than nine months, then they're probably filling it up too much. So when we did the analysis based on a company level from the order book, and this includes Norway, then we were actually not seeing any alarming numbers. So for the horizon, we can foresee that is six to nine months from today, the order book is in a good condition on a company-specific level.

speaker
Karl-Johan Bonnevir
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Sorry, my line is pretty poor here, so you're breaking up a little, but I'll look into the transcript on that. Continuing on the questions, then looking at Sweden, obviously you have talked about phasing out some operation that hasn't really delivered historically. still seeing this kind of nice organic move in the Swedish operation in this quarter is that a sign of strength in the remaining operation or is there something is it also a more of a normalizing effect that is happening there?

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

When it comes to Sweden this dismantle of entities still impacts us negatively on the top line perspective but it improves our profitability so so there we it's moving according to plan then of course when we refer to the top line as you once said also on the organic growth in sweden then obviously the winter services year over year has a impact but but and it's tough to break it down but but Yes, the improvement actions are negatively impacting growth, but positively impacting profits.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Yes, to be clear that Sweden is a kind of, I won't say a special situation, but the company was founded back a long time ago in Sweden, and we had a totally different strategy from the beginning. And then we had incorporated a lot of stuff during the last ten years in Sweden. And that means it's kind of special situation, we don't foresee us closing or shutting down businesses on like a normal going constant for us. It's something we did in Sweden because we were not happy with the performance in Sweden. And then we basically said, okay, we have to do something. I won't say dramatically, but we have to do something in Sweden to achieve a higher profit margin. And that was a starting point for the program we launched almost two years ago. And that included the dismantling of three companies and the divestment of one company. And we are getting towards the end of that program. And then, of course, we are looking upon improving the remaining companies and they are improving in a very nice way. So I'm kind of positive to the development we have in Sweden. I don't see us shutting down companies left or right. That's not part of our strategy. That's what we did in Sweden in order to. But they do have another historical background. We need to keep that in mind. And then we are improving performance in Sweden. I'm kind of happy with that one. And now, as I said, we are working heavily on improving the situation in Norway. So we're going forward. Then of course, we will see a return to higher profit margins in both Sweden and in Norway.

speaker
Karl-Johan Bonnevir
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Excellent. One final from me, looking at the acquisition pipeline, is it still promising lots of potential transactions out there or during this period where you have been a little more reluctant of closing transactions, have you missed anything to any competition that has bridged the gap, so to say, underneath them from you?

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

Not really. No, I think we are working closely and I'm spending quite a bit on the M&A activities as well. So I'm deeply involved in that one. So I think we have a solid pipeline in terms of companies. I don't see us missing any companies that we really would like to have invested in to any competitors or such. So I think it's moving along in the way we want. So of course, we are looking upon our gearing or a depth level and the financial performance of the company and at what pace we can acquire companies. And of course, given that we are at 3.1%, then we have to be prudent in terms of what we are doing in terms of investing in companies. So you have to watch what's going on there in order to not make any bad decisions. So the pipeline is from that perspective, we are in dialogue with great companies and the pipeline looks as it's supposed to be looking, it looks okay from that perspective. And then we have to manage the cashflow and the profitability and the depth level, making sure that we can carry on with what we are doing.

speaker
Karl-Johan Bonnevir
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

And the goal for this- That's very logical and very wise.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

So the goal, as we have communicated, that's to acquire 80 to 100 million EBITDA. And then we also have to look upon the 3.1. Of course, that's an analysis we have to do. What type of free cash flow we have available for acquisitions for the remainder of the year.

speaker
Karl-Johan Bonnevir
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Excellent. Thank you very much for all the extra color and all the best out there.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

speaker
Johan Öström
President and CEO

OK, thank you very much and thank you for listening in to this. Q1 repo for 2026. And as I said, we are happy to be back on track in terms of organic growth. The underlying performance, EVTA performance of the company is actually improving. We do have some challenges in Norway. So that's pretty much where we are. So by that, I thank you for listening in.

speaker
Markus Holmström
CFO

Thank you for listening. Take care.

Disclaimer

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