Investor AB (publ)

Good morning and welcome to Investors Results Call for the second quarter and first half of 2026. I'm joined in our Stockholm studio by CFO Jenny Arsman-Harkvinius and CEO Kristian Sederholm. Following the presentations, we'll be opening up for questions both via our operator as well as online. With that, over to you, Kristian.

Thank you, Jacob, and hi, everyone. In Q2, net asset value growth was 9%, and total shareholder turn for investors' B-share was 15%. The growth was all driven by listed companies, where both Patricia Industries and investments in EQT contributed negatively. Importantly, when multiples were down, underlying performance in the Patricia companies was solid. At the end of the second quarter, adjusted net asset value stood at 1,215 billion Swedish. Let me briefly go through the three business areas, listed companies, Patricia Industries and investments in EQT. Starting with listed companies then. Listed companies generated a total return of 14% in Q2. Performance was primarily driven by a few of our industrial companies, led by ABB, which benefits from electrification and demand related to the build-out of data centers. During the quarter, we participated with our Prorata share of 1.7 billion Swedish in Rexolux's rights issue, as they strengthened their balance sheet. The joint ventures with Midea is another important strategic step aimed at improving profitability in North America. As you know, Wärtsilä has recently completed a number of divestments of non-strategic assets, basically pruning its portfolio. In Q2, Wärtsilä announced a joint venture for its global energy storage business, teaming up with a seasoned partner who knows the business and has a proven track record of performing also under challenging market conditions. We believe this can unlock further potential from the storage business itself, while also allowing Wärtsilä to focus even more on its remaining core marine and energy businesses, where they continue to expand capacity to meet strong demand. Börje Colm announced his departure from Ericsson. Per Narvinger, his successor, takes over a company in strong shape. Ericsson today is a company with technology and market leadership and with a number of opportunities for accelerated growth. Per has been a key contributor to the journey thus far and knows the customers, the technologies and the company well. Now over to Patricia Industries. Total return here was minus 3% with lower multiples outweighted earnings growth and cash flow in the quarter. For the major subsidiaries, organic sales growth was 7% and adjusted EBITDA grew by 16%, with solid cash flow conversion. For the first time in quite a while, FX was not a big drag on reported earnings. A few highlights then. Nova Biomedical performed strongly, with healthy growth and efficiency improvements from the ongoing integration work. However, a lot of work remains. Mönlycke formed the JV with Sender Medical to broaden access to high-quality wound care solutions in China and to help Mönlycke adapt to China's speed on, for example, product development. And in the quarter, Mönlycke and 3 Scandinavia both distributed cash to Patricia Industries. Now for the major subsidiaries, and our 40% in 3 Scandinavia, revenues amounted to almost SEVENTY ONE BILLION Swedish in the last 12 months. And EBITDA for the corresponding period was just north of EIGHTEEN BILLION. Now remember, this is all in Swedish kronor, so of course sensitive to FX. And finally then, investments in EQT, our third business area. Here, total return was a negative 2%, dragged down by the decline in EQT AB's share price. Dividends from EQT AB and a net positive funds flow more than offset the 349 million Swedish investment we made in EQT AB shares. Activity remained high. For example, EQT was selected to lead the Scale Up Europe Fund, a 5 billion euro initiative designed to support the growth of Europe's most promising technology companies and to strengthen the continent's innovation ecosystem. Also, EQT successfully raised 15.6 billion US dollars for its new Asia flagship fund, making it the largest Asia-Pacific dedicated private equity fund ever raised. These are both great testaments to the strength of EQT. Now, as we all know, the world remains complex and increasingly competitive. Right now, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East causes additional volatility and uncertainty, with clear risks to cost inflation for many input goods, for freight, etc., and potential disturbances in supply chains. In this operating environment, companies need to focus on improving efficiency and strengthening resilience. In general, our companies continue to do a good job to adapt, protecting the businesses and the profits here and now. They're staying close to customers and are able to make quick decisions and adapt as the world around them changes. Our companies do have a strong starting point with excellent customer offerings and leading market positions. And over time, prosperity hinges on innovation. Offering truly differentiated and sustainable solutions to customers is the only way to ensure long term profitable growth. This is why we will always encourage our companies to make well considered investments in innovation. AI and sustainability are, of course, two key dimensions of innovation, with opportunities really across the whole value chain, in R&D, in products and aftermarket, of course, but also in manufacturing, go-to-market, administration, etc. Within AI, our companies are making progress when it comes to finding and implementing and scaling relevant high-value use cases for AI. That said, we've only scratched the surface so far and we need to continue accelerating our efforts here. Sustainability also offers attractive opportunities. Creating added value for customers while also contributing to the green transition remains a very powerful proposition. As I've said many times, we're confident in our platform. Investor has a clear purpose and a focused strategy. a portfolio of high-quality companies, an engaged ownership model that's been proven over time, financial flexibility with low leverage and strong underlying cash flow, and, importantly, great people here at Investor in our companies and in our network. We remain focused on building and supporting great companies and are confident that this will create shareholder value over time. And with that, I leave the floor to you, Jenny.

Thank you Christian and good morning. So let's move over to the financials for the quarter. So in Q2 2026 adjusted net asset value was 1215 billion and this implies an increase of 9% compared to Q1. And for the quarter, the value uptick was driven by listed companies, increasing with 14%, while Patricia Industries and investment in EQT declined. And now double-clicking on each of the business areas, and I will start with listed companies. And within listed companies, share price performance was mixed, particularly strong quarter for the ABB share, which of course benefits from electrification and strong data center-related demand. Saab had a tougher quarter looking at total return. And total return for the listed company's portfolio was 14%, which is 5 percentage points ahead 6RX. And this strong relative outperformance is largely driven by ABB. And as for absolute contribution, ABB again in particular stands out given strong share price performance as well as weight and size in our portfolio. And then moving on to Patricia Industries. Although the adjusted net asset value for Patricia Industries contracted in Q2, we did see solid performance by the portfolio companies. The major subsidiaries grew 7% organically and adjusted EBITDA increased by 16%. And for the first time in quite a while, as Christian mentioned, FX was not a big drag on reported earnings. And now, double-clicking on performance across the companies in Patricia Industries, and I will comment on a few of them. So for Laboree, growth was driven by all business areas, and also this quarter to a large extent by the Optilum urethral strictures product. And if we adjust for 17 million US dollars in expense related to the JADA acquisition, profitability for Laboree was up, and this is despite continued commercial investments. NOVA Biomedical grew 10% organically and profitability increased on the back of efficiency improvements from the integration. And integration is off to a good start. It is still early days, but performance thus far underpins the potential of this platform. Bronability and Sarnova also delivered double-digit organic growth in the quarter. For Bronability, operating leverage was offset by unfavorable product mix, and for Sarnova by continued strengthening of the organization. We saw single-digit organic growth for Permobil and Piab. For Piab, the margin was pressured by 46 million Swedish kronor in restructuring cost and increasing sales cost. For Permobil, the margin was impacted by costs related to the production facility relocation mentioned in Q1, as well as investments in the commercial organization. And then moving on to Mönlycke. Mönlycke had a quarter with 2% organic growth, with growth driven by all of the four business areas. And if we focus on wound care specifically, we saw 2% organic growth, and we recognize that we have yet another quarter with more modest growth. And first of all, we are comparing to a strong quarter last year. And for wound care US, specifically, it was essentially flat this quarter. We do see somewhat softer market conditions, including continued destocking in some channels, and we're also seeing increased competition in some product categories. The more established and mature wound care markets, such as the US, are growing low to mid single-digit, but Mönlyck's ambition to outgrow the market over time remains. And this is on the back of an innovative premium product offering, focused commercial execution, and continued geographic expansion. And in the quarter, great to see strong momentum in APAC, specifically China, which is a very attractive growth market, and here Mönlyck has strengthened its position through the partnership with Sende. And also positive to see that EMEA grew in the quarter. Mönlyke protects share in France, which has been a challenging market. And this is on the back of the company working agile to continuously adapt product assortment to meet changing reimbursement landscape. Despite modest growth in the quarter, it's very positive to see improving profitability as the company is doing a really good work with efficiency improvements and cost control. For this quarter, we had a couple of non-recurring items that were net positive in total, including a tariff refund. And if we adjust for these, the underlying margin is almost 30%. So for Patricia Industries, we saw a 3% contraction in estimated market values compared to Q1. So from 230 billion to 222 billion. And this drop was explained by contracting multiples, which more than offset earnings growth and cash flow generation. And as a reminder, our multiple based valuation method uses a three month value weighted average price and not the quarter end spot price. And then if we look at value development across the companies, it's a mixed bag. Main positive contribution from Nova Biomedical and Bronability, while Mönlycke is the biggest drag in the quarter, and this is explained by the multiple contraction. Also worth highlighting is the distribution, roughly 2 billion Swedish kronor from Mönlycke, and also 300 million Swedish kronor from 3 Scandinavia. and then also an equity contribution to Victura of 300 million Swedish kronor to fund the recent GOKO acquisition. Moving on to investments in EQT. Total value change was a negative 2% in the quarter and that's explained by EQT AB which was down 4%. Fund investments were essentially flat and as a reminder we report EQT fund investments with one quarter lag so the 0% is based on EQT's Q1 report. And here on the right hand side, you see the net cash flow from EQT to Investor, which was 500 million Swedish kronor roughly in Q2. And here we also illustrate net cash flow from investments in EQT to Investor over time. And while it's quite lumpy on a quarterly basis, over the past 10 years, we've received a net cash inflow of 1.6 billion on average per year. And our balance sheet remains strong. Our leverage as of Q2 is 1.9% and it remains in the lower end of our policy range. And we closed the quarter with 29 billion Swedish kronor in cash at hand. And then on to my final slide. If we look at the longer term perspective, the performance of the investor ABB share truly demonstrates the strength and the resilience of our portfolio and our strategy. And with that, I will leave the word back to Jacob.