MIPS AB (publ)

Good morning everyone, my name is Max Ramvits, I am the CEO of NIPS and with me today we also have our CFO Karin Rosenthal and we will take you through the interim report of the second quarter 2026. So if we start with the quarter we did see strong development with 72% growth in the quarter. Organic growth was 42% so we adjust for Forex which was more or less flat and then of course we also adjust for acquisition effect. So very strong organic growth. Year-to-date growth is now at 53% and organic growth level at 35%. We do see strong momentum in all categories and all geographies. Continued strong performance in Europe. US growth helped by the acquisition and software comparators after the implementation of tariffs last year. If we start with Europe, we did see strong organic growth with 48% growth in the quarter. And if we look at the US market, we actually managed to deliver a 32% organic growth. So very, very strong number in a challenging market. The Goroid acquisition is developing well, good interest from existing and new customers to integrate new products. We did reach a settlement agreement regarding the legal dispute in the US. It was actually not in the quarter. It was signed on the 2nd of July, but a very important factor. So good to put that behind us. We did see good improvement also in profitability. Adjusted EBIT margin in the quarter was 47%. So also very strong development in profitability. And it's also a strong testimony of our scalable business model. And we remain confident in our long-term strategy and our financial target. If we start with the biggest category and look at sports, we saw good development. It was a good quarter with 51% net sales growth in sport. Adjusting for acquisition and forex, organic growth was 40%. We saw good development continuing in the European market, especially in bike, but also good performance in snow. And then, of course, positive development also in the softer US markets, Asia is actually start coming back after a softer period. We had a small growth number in Q1 with 6%, and then in Q2 we see 80% growth in the Asian market, although from quite small numbers, but still really good to see the development also in the Asian market. The strong performance in bike continues with volume growth for the 11th quarter in a row. which is not given in the bike industry. Good season in the snow subcategory driven by European markets. Europe didn't have a fantastic snow season from a weather point of view, but the snow came very early and especially in connection with the very important Christmas sales. We actually did see good sales growth also in the North American market in snow. But of course, it was also helped by a bit of softer prior year comparator relating to tariffs. We see strong interest in both MIPS and Koroid, and we are long-term positive about the outlook in the sports category. In Moto, we saw continued growth. We saw good performance with 80% growth in the quarter. If we adjust for acquisitions and Forex, net sales grew with 56%. Year-to-date growth is now at 49% and organic growth at 28%. Off-road and especially motocross are still the main driver, but encouraging to see that the hard work that we have done on on-road is also showing a positive effect. We continue to roll out new innovations and new launches in moto and actually look forward to really exciting end of 2026. And also here, no change in the long-term outlook. Good opportunity to continue to grow in the category. In safety, we see that the Koroid acquisition accelerates the growth in safety. Really big increase in momentum after the Koroid acquisition. Net sales growth was 604%. And if we adjust for acquisition effect, our organic growth number was 80%. We did also announce entry into firefighting helmets with the world-known brand Drager, which is a very strong brand in fire and safety equipment. And it also feels great to, of course, being able to go into a professional workforce that risk their life every day. We do see good interest from new and current customers in MIPS and Koroid's portfolio which now also includes body protection gloves and footwear and we remain excited about the opportunity in the category and no change to the long-term outlook in this category too. If we look a bit more in detail about the development in the different categories if we start with sports We saw good performance in all the three sub-segments, which is bike, snow and equestrian. 51% growth in the quarter, 40% organic growth. If we look at motor, like I said, very much driven by the strong performance in off-road. But happy also about the development also in road. And if we look at the growth, we did deliver 80% growth in the quarter and organic growth was 56%. And then of course, With Koroid, our relevance and size, of course, in the safety category changes quite a lot. We did have 33 million in net sales in the quarter, which actually equates to 15% of the total sales of NIPS. If we look at the growth of the category as such in Q2, we did grow with 600% and organic growth was 80%. Then hand over to Karin.

Good morning. I'm Karin Rosenthal, CFO of MIPS, and I will take you through the financial part of the presentation. We saw goods development in the second quarter with an increase in net sales of 72%. The Koroid acquisition contributed with 30% growth and no FX impact in the quarter versus last year. so net sales increased 42% organically. Gross profit increased by 71%, with a gross margin of 74.1% versus 74.2% last year. Good underlying improvement in profitability. Adjusted EBIT increased by 98%, with an adjusted EBIT margin of 46.7%, versus 40.4% last year. OPEX was impacted by legal costs of 12 million versus 14 million last year and 1 million in transaction costs, which was adjusted. The legal settlement amount of 3.25 million US dollar will affect the third quarter. And we also had good operating cash flow in the quarter of 62 million versus 18 million last year. So looking at the financial KPIs, organic growth of 42%, adjusted EBIT margin of 47%, and operating cash flow of 62 million in the quarter. If we then look at the development for the first six months, Good development with an increase in net sales of 53%, Koroid contributed with 24% growth and adjusting for that and the negative FX effect of 7% due to stronger SEK versus US dollar, net sales increased 35% organically. Gross profit increased by 52% and we had a gross margin of 72.9% versus 73.2% last year. Good underlying improvement in profitability. Adjusted EBIT increased with 80% with an adjusted EBIT margin of 41.4% versus 35.1% last year. In OPEX, we continue to invest in R&D and marketing. OPEX was impacted by legal costs of 19 million versus 23 million last year, which was adjusted. Operating cash flow of 80 million for the last first six months. And financial KPIs, organic growth, 35%, 41% EBIT margin, and 80 million in operating cash flow. If we then look at the balance sheet and cash flow, we had cash and cash equivalents of 187 million. We did a dividend payout of 66 million in April corresponding to 2.5 SEC per share. Since the acquisition of Koroid last year, we now have a revolving credit facility and the utilization of that is 300 million end of June. And operating cash flow in the quarter amounted to 62 million. Over to you, Max.

Thank you. So if we then summarize the quarter, we did see good development with 72% net sales growth in the quarter, 42% organic, Year-to-date now at 53% with 35% organic. We did see good growth in all the categories in all regions. Strong performance in Europe continues and we expect that to continue throughout the year. North America has surprised us a little bit how strong it is. It continues to develop well and also good to see that Asia coming back after a softer period. We are happy about the integration of Koroid, and that's developing well. We see a lot of interest from our existing and new customers, of course, for the newly acquired portfolio. Good underlying improvement in profitability. Adjusted EBIT margin in the quarter was 47%, so we are closing in on our ambition of maintaining an EBIT margin of about 50%. Legal dispute in the US now closed to the settlement, favorable outcome for MIPS. And important to note is that the cost relating to the settlement will be expected in Q3. And we remain positive on our long-term outlook and delivery of our financial targets. And with that, we open up for questions. So over to you, operator.

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click Submit. One moment for our first question. And this question comes from the line of Emmanuel Jansson from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

Good day Max and Karin. First of all congratulations on a very strong report and starting with the market environment and especially the US market as you mentioned, could you give us a sense of where we are right now? Are we seeing signs of growth returning in the market and are there any particular price segments that are performing better than others, for example premium versus lower end products?

Yeah, it's very difficult to say. If you look at the market data, it seems to have flattened out. So we don't see a decline anymore, more flattish number. Some markets or segments are actually growing because, of course, you have an element of price. But if we talk volume on the market, it seems to have flattened out. So basically around zero. And if we look at the different segments, we still see, and this is something that surprises us all the time is how strong the premium segment is on the market. So if you can come with great innovations, there is a lot of consumers that are still prepared to buy. We also see a big opportunity in the lower price segment, especially also now when there has been some inflation on the market. We see that the lower price points are coming up and of course that increases also our ability to get into helmets also at lower price points. So, of course, with inflation also the possibility for MIPS to integrate MIPS solution into more helmets increases. I think the weakest segment is probably the mixed segment. Like I said, it seems to have flattened out. There is some early indications for the ones that are following reporting of other brands. You saw that Giant in May reported growth of, I think it was mid single digit and then actually up 16% in June. So they at least seems to have turned around and start growing again. I think Everyone that has been in bike for a couple of years has been very keen to say, now it's over, now it's easy again. I don't want to say that. Our assumption is that if the market is flat, we will still be able to grow. We are betting on a flat market for the rest of this year if we are helped by the market. Fantastic. But I don't want to take that into our assumption because we have been disappointed too many times when it comes to the bike market.

Perfect and do I understand you correctly that also looking at the inventory levels that they are still on a very low on the low end in the US especially?

Yeah if you look at the inventory level and you take the last four years is the lowest in those four years and if you take historic levels, and then we go back to 2002, then they are actually the lowest that they ever have been. So yes, it is lower levels when it comes to our products, of course. When it comes to bicycles and others, then of course you still see some inventory at some segments, especially the ones that haven't done any innovations and so on. have difficulties to turn that products into sales and so on, but overall low inventory level.

I see. So several different ways for you to grow going forward then. And also it was very encouraging to see the safety bouncing back with strong organic sales. Could you elaborate a bit on what is driving the development? You mentioned earlier the launch of the full-brill helmet models into the market. How important has that been and are there potentially any other factors behind the strong improvements?

We see good development on the base assortment that we already have, but of course when we add the full brim helmets even though it's early days of course we do that without any comparators because it's product expansion into new categories and so on. So the main driver of the acceleration of growth is the rollout of the full brim helmets which seems to be very well accepted on the market.

Perfect and then on Koiroid that also seems to be developing nicely. Which part of its business segments are currently standing out, you believe? And looking at the group gross margin, I think it appears that Cora as well is moving around 70% gross margin. Is that the right way to think about it? And what do you think about the margin profile going forward on the gross margin?

Yeah so I mean if we start with the segment we see very good development in the safety segment for Koroid and also we saw good development in the quarter for snow so within the snow market so really positive development there. When it comes to gross margin of course Koroid has a little bit lower gross margin than MIPS has Our ambition is of course to achieve a gross margin according to our financial model, which is to say about 70%, and that's what I believe we can do.

Perfect. And looking ahead then, how should we think about the comparable base heading into Q3? It may not be as easy as it was in Q2, but would you still describe it as relatively manageable rather than particularly demanding going forward, given the tariff situation last year?

Yeah, I think we had 18 or 19% growth comparator in prior year. There was some overhang effects from the tariffs and so on. So I would say decent comparators and so on. Our ambition, of course, has not changed. We have said that our ambition and also in line with our financial targets is that we want to grow. with a little bit more than 30%. We are a little bit ahead of that plan so far, but over 30% is what we really try to achieve.

And did you see any pickup in sales demand during the quarter? Was it stronger in the beginning of the quarter or was it even throughout the quarter?

No, it was quite even. We saw quite good momentum throughout the whole quarter, of course. Q2 is important to note that it's a snow quarter historically with main part of the sport sales is in snow helmets, but we also saw very good development when it comes to bike helmets, both in the US, but also in the important European market.

Perfect. And finally, on profitability then, I mean, on a rolling 12-month basis, you're basically at 42% EBIT margin, which is more or less in line with what the full year expectations from consensus are at the moment. How close to 15% do you think you could realistically get already this year?

Yeah, I mean, I don't think we will get to 50% this year. Our ambition is, of course, to get there. There is, of course, months where we go above 50%, and there is months where we are below. This quarter was a very strong quarter with 47%. A lot of investors think that we have lost our scalability, and, of course, I think this is a clear testimony that we haven't. With growth comes our improvement in underlying profitability. That has not changed. When it comes to our financial model, the most important thing is, of course, the gross margin. Then we have a very scalable business model. And of course, when those two work well together, you get very high profitability. We have had the smallest quarter behind us, which is Q1, where we normally have a little bit less profitability. And then we have a bit two bigger quarters ahead of us. But I think it's too much of a stretch to go 450 for the full year.

Totally understand, but it's likely to expect improvements if you are continuing to grow then. Thank you very much, Max and Karin. That was all of me for now.

Thank you.

Thank you. We are now going to move to our next question. And this question comes from the line of Adela Deschenes from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thank you and congratulations Max and Karin for me as well. A couple of questions. If I may start with a continuation on the profitability question as before. I was under the impression that Koroid would be margin dilutive in the near term, but thank you to you obviously show momentum with both the gross margin and EBIT margin expansion. So can you just maybe again explain a bit further, is this more or less driven by legacy MIPS or Is there anything in Koroid where you're already today starting to see the early signs of improvement?

No, I think important to point out that with MIPS, you have a very successful and profitable business. With Koroid, you have a very successful and profitable business. Of course, if you would isolate MIPS alone in the quarter, you would have an even higher EBIT margin. So of course, the 47% that you see in this quarter is the combination of the two with MIPS having a higher EBIT margin and Koroid having a little bit lower, but it is still two very profitable companies. When we look at acquisition targets, there is a lot of different things that we are looking at. We always start with a superior product. I believe that the one that has the best product will win. Then, of course, you look at other things like global reach, global brand, scalable business model and so on. And Koroid can, of course, tick a lot of those boxes and so on. So it is a very profitable business, but not to the extent of Mips.

That's good to hear. And then maybe if I'm not mistaken, Q3 tends to be a pretty heavy trade fair. quarter for you, is that correct? So should we expect that to burden your expense base to some extent?

No, normally it would be, I agree. This year there is only one trade fair in September, which is NSC, which is a fair within safety. Eurobike was a bit earlier, but it has become a very small fair, so it was actually in end of June. So no, I don't think you should be worried about trade fair expenses in Q3.

Okay, that's solid. So I guess the level that you reached already in Q2, there's no reason to not expect this as long as you have at least 30% organic growth in Q3. There's nothing that is stopping you from not being able to deliver that in the second half as well.

You will always have a little bit of swings between the different cost lines. If you look at R&D expenses, of course, we are investing heavily. That's a little bit higher than we have as a long-term ambition of 5%. And if you look at marketing expenses, we are a little bit lower than the long-term ambition of 7%. So you will have swings of 1% or 2% between the quarter. There is nothing extraordinary in Q2, and I don't see anything extraordinary in Q3. But bear in mind that we will recognize the settlement of the legal dispute in the US in Q3. But adjusted, no, there is nothing that will stand out.

Okay. And then good traction and safety. You've previously guided for a doubling every six to 12 months. Does that still hold now with corroid dynamics?

No, it doesn't. I mean, we said that if we can achieve a hundred million for the year, we will be very happy. We are at 47 now. So of course, and we had the smallest quarter behind us. So I think we are in a good trajectory of hitting the hundred million for the year, which is of course more than doubling, but it's a little bit skewed because of course you have an acquisition effect there, which is not fair.

And Q1 was also the smallest quarter per koroid, right?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. And then lastly, you mentioned acquisitions there before. In the press release, when you announced your new CFO, you highlighted her background in M&A and integration. Does this suggest, and especially now also after koroid, that MIPS will lean more towards inorganic growth? in the coming years?

Yes, probably. First of all, we need to find the right target, of course. But it's also that for me, everything is a matter of timing. Because when you have the right timing, it's the right time to do certain things. And for me, MIPS has not been ready to take on board bigger acquisitions. It's always difficult to manage acquisitions. It takes a lot of time, but you also need to make sure that you are a better owner than the previous one. And of course, that's not normally that easy where you have a very strong founder. He knows the business inside out and so on. So, of course, you need to put a lot of attention to make sure that it continues to grow. We have had a focus of de-risking our business very much away from the US. We have been very heavily dependent on the US market. We said that when we feel that we have established ourselves in Europe, then it's time to start looking for acquisitions and actually start integrating acquisitions. In 2025, 40% or actually a little bit more than 40% of the growth came from Europe, so we felt on that de-risking exercise or growing ourselves out of the problem has been achieved. Then, of course, that was the right timing for Koroid. Then would we like to add one or two additional targets over the years? Yes, I think we are ready for that, but it will never be a forced decision. If we get the right opportunity with the right company, yes, I think we are ready for it. And of course, organizationally wise, we need to be ready and also build an organization that can continue to scale.

Very clear. Thank you, Max.

Thank you.

Thank you. We are now going to move to our next question. And this question comes from the line of Johan Fred from SAP. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, Max and Karin. Thank you for taking my questions. A first one on the organic growth. So in Q1, you stated that the organic volume growth was roughly 33% versus the reported, yeah, call it total organic growth of 25, which of course imply a negative price mix effect. Could you give us the equivalent volume price mix split for Q2, please?

Yeah, it's very close to the 42%, so not the same difference there. And of course, we see also a lot of snow helmets in Q2, which is also normally quite stable in price.

Perfect. Very clear. Thank you. And a follow-up question on safety. So given the strong growth in Q2 and the well-accepted launch of the full-brim helmet, how should we think about the trajectory for the segment in H2, given that you're now accelerating from a higher base or from the higher base that you're currently building?

Like I said, I think 100 million is a good number to go for, of course, and an excellent number in safety. I think we start there. Then, of course, what is exciting for us in safety and what we are preparing for, and that was also the key driver of the acquisition, that was, of course, to be able to advance into new product segments. So, of course, the big one is body protection. Ergonomic body protection in safety is a very big area, of course. So there you will see product launches coming out. And then, of course, you also have gloves. KROID have unique technologies within gloves that makes them thinner, but you can offer the same protection and, of course, for better dexterity in gloves and an area which we see very interesting and then we will also have the opportunity to go into protection within shoes with metatarsal technologies which is basically protecting the front part of the foot which is also a very interesting area for us so So far, the growth that you will see will be focused very much for this year on head protection. But of course, as we go into 2027, you will see us also advancing into other areas and become even more relevant in safety.

Thank you very much for the answer. And the final one, if I may. So in Q2 last year, you noted that the customers were heavily focused on reallocation production from China. to, I believe you stated, Vietnam as a region, which you then stated that it crowded out new product starts. Given that we saw an organic growth re-acceleration here in Q2 and project revenues also appearing to have picked up, could you give us a sense of whether the ramp-up disruption is now largely behind us, or is there still a tale of factor factory reallocations that could continue to dampen project activity into H2?

No, we don't see any deceleration of the amount of projects. We actually see a very high interest. Anyone that follows us on LinkedIn also sees that there is a lot of new recruitment out. So of course at the moment we can't do all the projects that we get in and that's why we are hiring more people. So no, we don't see that

Very clear. Those were all my questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Johan.

Thank you. We are now going to move to our next question. And this question comes from the line of Daniel Thorson from ABG Sandalskoglje. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you very much. Two questions. First one on Koroid, 40 million in sales in Q2. Seasonality-wise, is that also a pretty good estimate for Q3 and Q4, or are there any movements between quarters like we've seen in MIPS over the years? And then the second one on, have you signed any new safety brands during Q2 that you expect to launch products in 27 already, or is near-term volume ramp more driven by historical wins? So, when it comes to the projection, we have said that the Koroid business would have a net sales in 2025 of 120 million.

That our ambition is to continue to grow it, at least in line with what they have been doing previous year, which means a CAGR of 15%. which we actually seem to be doing actually a little bit more at the moment so calculating backwards you get roughly to the numbers that you talk about a little bit less and we see that happening of course when it comes to new brands yes of course we have saved or signed more brands but there is also of course a cross-contamination coming from and that we see interest from a lot of MIPS customers also adding Koroid to their portfolio. The world is not getting cooler, we see the heat wave effect of course in a lot of areas and there is a lot of brands that wants to add Koroid because it's considered as being one if not the most ventilated technology out there. So we see good interest in that.

Okay, perfect. That's all.

Thank you. We are now going to move to our next question. And this question comes from the line of Carl Degenberg from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Two questions from my side. First of all, maybe some housekeeping going into Q3. I just wanted to understand what the sort of total impact will be from the settlement now and then you have stated the number in the absolute figure for the settlement amount but I guess you will have some incremental legal fees on top of that as well in Q3 could you give any yeah rough number what you believe will be the total amount now for this quarter yeah

So first of all, if you take the settlement agreement, that means 3.25 US dollar. And then you can also assume a few millions when it comes to concluding the whole settlement agreement and so on. So not at all to the same extent, but a few millions in the quarter relating to legal fees to concluding the whole agreement.

So it sounds like around 35 million SEK per park.

Yes, I don't expect more than that.

Yeah, great. Secondly, also, given the growth rate you've had in Europe now for a couple of quarters, could you give us an update what the approximate penetration is there now on the bike side? And maybe also what you believe is the accurate rate also in the US now? I know that there's been, you know, inventory drawdowns and so forth, but high level, what's your approximation now?

Yeah, so when we start with Europe, we see that we are closing in on the penetration level of 30% in both bike and snow. And of course, with the growth rate we have in Europe, that goes quite quickly. We have an ambition to, first of all, get to 50% of both of those categories. And of course, we have the trajectory to do that. When it comes to the U.S. market and you take the snow helmet market, the total snow helmet market, there we don't differentiate between what's addressable or not. We take the whole market. There we managed to get to 85% penetration, which is, of course, a fantastic number. And then when it comes to the bike category, which is still very difficult to estimate, somewhere between 50 to 60%. Closer to 60 than 50.

Okay, great. And then maybe just finally on that topic as well. I mean, the TAM you displayed a couple of years ago on the capital markets, with the split, I believe, I think you said like 15 million, 15 million Europe and the U.S. on the bike side as a TAM. Is that a still representable number or has that shifted a little bit in favor for Europe given how the cycle has developed?

I mean, it has changed quite a bit on the total addressable market. In safety, of course, we see quite a big conversion into more advanced helmet protection, which of course increases our opportunity. When it comes to the sports helmet market, we see, like I explained in the US, that the high inflation means that a lot of helmets has passed the 30 US dollar threshold. So there, of course, you see that our opportunity to get into more helmets has increased and therefore also the time. And then what has happened in Europe and of course that's also a key driver that you already see in our numbers is two things. One is in Europe there is a very big push for mobility and especially e-bikes. With e-bikes you see that people tend to pay a lot more attention to which helmet they are buying. So they're actually buying more premium product, you know you will travel with higher velocity and you normally go for more premium protection which is of course benefiting us. So we see the quite price sensitive European market has changed quite a lot. And then of course we also see another effect on the European market and that is that Europe has been very price sensitive. The US has been a very strong premium market. Everyone wants to have the helmet as their pro has and so on, and a very high attention to which gear you have. In Europe, you could only a couple of years ago see someone with a very expensive bike and a cheap helmet. That has also changed a lot. So the attention to gear has really come to Europe also. and you see that price points are moving quite a lot. I will not speculate exactly how much the market has changed, but there is nothing that has happened on the helmet market that has decreased our opportunity. Helmet wearing in Europe is still somewhere around 40% among adults. We see that it's increasing 1 or 2% every year. and so on. But at our next Capital Markets Day, of course, we will update that number. The part that we haven't covered correctly, and that is, of course, Asia, we only had 5 million helmets in total for the total Asian market as addressable. We had 1 million helmets addressable in China, and we are already selling more than that in China. So, of course, we are wrong in that number, but I will not put a huge number for Asia because still most of the helmets are cheaper than our addressable market. But yes, there is things that have changed over the years. And of course we did the last update in 2022, and there is a lot of things that has happened since then.

Fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions on the phone line at this time, so I will hand back to Max Strandvitz for questions.

Yeah, and when I look at the written questions, I think we actually managed to cover most of them. So if no further question or you feel that we missed anything, you feel free to reach out to us, of course, either by email or phone. I wish you all a great summer and then speak to you again at the Q3 results announcement. Thank you everyone for listening in.