Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining us today. My name is Steve Ferguson, and with me is our Chief Financial Officer, Monica Jónsson.

We appreciate you taking the time to join us this morning as we present CellaVision's results for the second quarter of 2026. Following the presentation, both Monica and I will be happy to take questions.

As this is my first quarterly earnings call since joining CellaVision as CEO on June 5th, I'd also like to take a moment just to very briefly introduce myself. Before joining CellaVision, I spent more than 25 years in international leadership roles across the life science, diagnostic, and healthcare industries.

Most recently, I was serving as CEO of Medix Biochemica in Finland, following senior commercial and operational leadership positions at Thermo Fisher Scientific, or Phadia, in Uppsala, and prior to that with Lundbeck, based in Valby in Copenhagen. I'm really super excited to be part of CellaVision and to the challenge ahead, I look forward to working together with our very talented team, our partners, and all of you as we continue to build on the company's strong foundation to advance laboratory workflow and diagnostic certainty through intelligent microscopy.

I'm speaking to you this morning from Vancouver, where it's 2:00 A.M., I'll do my best to keep our energy high during this call. With that, please let's turn to our second quarter results.

CellaVision's second quarter represents a solid performance and recovery from the slower start to the year. The quarter resulted in net sales of SEK 200 million, an increase of 4.5% over Q2 2025.

Sales increased organically by 5.6%, where we saw a 1.1% headwind on currency. EBITDA for the period amounted to SEK 55 million, which corresponds to 27% EBITDA margin.

EBITDA for the second quarter was charged with expenses of SEK 9 million associated with the initial costs of the CEO transition. Adjusted for these expenses, EBITDA increased compared to the same quarter last year.

As we highlight in the report, Americas reached an all-time high sales, fueled by large instruments. This was driven by the accelerated workflow uptake among mid-size and large laboratory networks.

EMEA showed a stable result, but was still slightly affected by the now concluded inventory adjustment from our main distributor partner. Finally, in APAC, we maintained a steady development, though market conditions remain challenging, particularly in China.

We see a notable uptake of the reagents business in both Japan and Australia, along with a tender win for the U.N., the United Nations. The commercial launch of our Bone Marrow Aspirate Application, or BMA, in EMEA marks an important milestone in our expansion into specialized microscopy.

Initial customer interest and sales have been encouraging, reinforcing our confidence in this market opportunity and demonstrating our ability to translate our innovation and our R&D investments into commercial results. We continue to progress outside of Europe with the FDA registration process for bone marrow, with our aim of obtaining a 510(k) clearance in the U.S.

before year-end. Finally, the development of the FPM technology continues to progress through our development phases, forming the foundation of our next-generation hematology analyzers.

This strengthens our confidence in FPM as a platform technology for future innovation beyond hematology. These are exciting developments for CellaVision.

Right now, let me hand over to Monica to present an overview of the financial development during Q2 2026.

Thanks. Let's unpack the P&L and cash flow.

Net sales was SEK 200 million in the quarter, representing 4% growth or 6% organic growth against the same quarter last year. We had a gross margin of 70%.

That entails also an increase in our amortization of capitalized development expenditures for bone marrow and also the upgraded software program that we are amortizing throughout the full quarter. Here we are now amortizing SEK 4 million versus SEK 2 million last year.

Operating expenses landed at SEK 100 million, equaling 50% of net sales. If we unpack that, we see that sales and marketing expenses are kept on a stable level.

Administration expenses were impacted by the costs of SEK 9 million associated with the initial phase of the CEO transition. R&D costs before capitalization were SEK 45 million, just a little higher than last year.

However, comparing to the same quarter last year, we have a lower capitalization of SEK 15 million versus SEK 20 million the last year, and that results in an R&D cost of SEK 30 million. The lower capitalization is mainly due to the different maturity stages of our ongoing projects, and we expect to see some increase in capitalization from Q3 as projects are maturing.

The EBITDA reached SEK 55 million, with an EBITDA margin of 27%, and the increased operating expenses related to the initial phase of the CEO transition, of course, impact these results. Adjusted for this, EBITDA and EBITDA margin increased compared to the same quarter last year.

We are continuing to invest in R&D with 22% of net sales. Our R&D investment programs are developing well and maturing according to plan.

Finally, operating cash flow was SEK 29 million. Working capital increased by SEK 32 million during the quarter.

Accounts receivable increased as a result of the higher sales and contributed negatively to cash flow, as did the increased capital tied up in inventory as a preparation for summer break. Total cash flow of SEK -58 million for the quarter included dividend to the shareholders of SEK 66 million.

Our financial position remains robust, with cash and cash equivalents of SEK 172 million sitting on the balance sheet. Let's go into the regional development.

Thank you, Monica. Just briefly, a quick comment on the business by region.

If we look first at America, this is an all-time record high quarter, driven, as I said earlier, by large instrument sales, tender wins, and instrument refreshes. Sales increased to SEK 105 million, up from SEK 66 last year.

Really, this is a reflection of our strong partnership in the U.S. Our sales here are really being driven by robust demand in the large and medium-sized laboratory segments, but it's also boosted by strong order books in Canada and LatAm.

This reflects excellent marketing and commercial activities that have been carried out in the run-up to Q2 this year. In EMEA, sales amounted to SEK 75 million, which are slightly down on last year.

Here we see the full impact of the now concluded inventory adjustment from our main distribution partner, and we are confident that that inventory adjustment has now been fully executed. The bone marrow launch that I referred to earlier has generated initial sales and a lot of positive customer interest, with commercial activities supporting customer evaluations at numerous sites.

These activities have remained high throughout the quarter, supported by our presence at key industry events. It should be noted that instrument sales in EMEA are above Q1 and above the same quarter last year.

For APAC, sales amounted to SEK 19 million, significantly below Q2 2025. Now, on the face of it, this looks extremely disappointing.

However, there are underlying positives. We see the double impact from China, where trading market conditions today remain challenging for current trading.

We also have a tough comparison quarter for Q2 2025. This included significant instrument module shipments to enable us to locally produce in China, which in the long term will make us more competitive, but that quarter last year was particularly tough to compare against.

We look across the APAC region, reagent sales grew strongly, particularly in Japan and Australia, and this is excellent news for us because this is recurring business. Sales were also boosted by a U.N.

tender win, as I mentioned at the start. We quickly look at sales by product line, instruments really drove the quarter results up 7% to SEK 113 million.

As I said, it was an all-time high for large instrument sales, particularly in America. Primary driver here is automated workflows of mid-size and large laboratory networks.

The order intake in EMEA is slightly affected, or sorry, slightly still affected by the concluded inventory adjustment from our main partner there. There's a steady performance in APAC, with sustained traction in key markets outside of China, as I mentioned.

We look at the reagents, sales increased by 11% to SEK 42 million in the quarter. EMEA reagent sales were in line with the same quarter last year, despite temporary delays on shipments from our production site due to the recent heat wave in France.

Due to excess temperatures, we had to requalify materials from the warehouse, and this led to some delayed orders, which had not happened would have posted higher growth. In APAC, there was strong growth across all subregions, particularly in Japan and Australia.

Finally, we look at software and other, the sales amounted to SEK 46 million in the quarter. It should be noted that the software sales aren't completely synchronized with the instrument.

Obviously, we sell the instruments, but there's then typically a lag or a delay, which would then be the software would then be consumed once the instrument is actually installed at the customer site. Quarterly fluctuations in software sales have impacted the EMEA performance overall here.

The other segment consists mainly of spare parts, consumables, and currency effects. Just to summarize the overall picture for the quarter, the key takeaway is that this quarter we delivered an increase in net sales of 4.5% to SEK 200 million.

Sales increased organically by around 6%, with 1.1% headwind on FX. EBITDA delivered a result of SEK 55 million, which corresponds to 27% EBITDA margin.

This is in line with typical returns given the costs associated initially with the CEO transition. The commercial launch of Bone Marrow Aspirate Application marks an important milestone as we expand into specialized microscopy.

We continue to progress the FDA registration process, and the aim is for 510(k) clearance in the U.S. before year-end.

From an innovation perspective, FPM technology, as I mentioned, it has progressed through our internal development phases significantly. FPM will form the foundation of our next-generation hematology analyzers.

This progress strengthens our confidence in FPM as a platform technology for future innovation beyond hematology in adjacent markets such as pathology and cytology. These are excellent markets to be able to penetrate.

The results that we're seeing reinforce our confidence in the market opportunities we face, and it demonstrates progress in translating our investments in innovation into commercial results. As I step into the role of CEO, I'm committed to building on this momentum by combining our strong innovation portfolio with more focused commercial execution.

With that, I'd now like to open up to questions. I will be ably assisted with by Monica today, so if there are any questions I can answer, I'm happy to do so.

Anything that requires more information or is beyond my five-week knowledge gap, I'll hand over to Monica, but very happy to receive questions.

Yes, thank you, and good morning. I have a couple of questions, and I will take them one by one.

The first is regarding the exceptionally high growth in America. Since you already have high, large instrument penetration in North America, was this growth driven by Latin America or by replacement cycle activities?

Okay, thanks for the question, Christian. The main driver for sales here is robust demand for the larger instruments in the medium and lab segment.

This is the drivers here again were tender wins and instrument refreshes in those segments. The LatAm and Canada business are showing promising growth within that, but the main driver here is that lab segment, those two lab segments.

Okay, thank you. If I remembered correctly, I believe you have almost 100% penetration rate in North America.

How come you can show this kind of growth rate in the second quarter?

Yeah, I would say that we have a high market share in the large and medium lab segments. There's refresh and tender wins that are coming up.

They are continual. There's a life cycle on laboratory systems that we have an opportunity to win new business, but also to refresh.

There are other segments outside of that that probably touching on commercial focus I'd like to explore more. The smaller labs where perhaps our partners aren't present, there may be more opportunities for growth here in the future for us.

It's by no means saturated. I think there's still room for growth in America and that region.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

My second question is regarding EMEA and with the inventory adjustment now concluded at your main distributor there, how do you see the Q3 demand trajectory? Could you also perhaps give us some color on the share of EMEA sales that this partner is representing?

Thank you.

Yeah, the share we have a strong partnership with our main distributor partner, and the majority of our business goes through them. The order book looks promising for EMEA.

It looks like we have a strong order book for Q3 overall, but we're confident that the inventory depletion has now been run down, and we're seeing orders in Q3. Monica, there's anything to add there?

No, that is correct. Inventory adjustment has been completed, and the orders are coming back to normal levels now in Q3.

Perfect. Thank you very much.

That's all from me.

Good morning. Maybe also following up on the America sprint, just wondering if you are aware of any channel stuffing in this very strong second quarter, and maybe how it could help us line out the future here for the second half, if it's something to be extrapolated, or if should it sort of be a more normalized pattern in second half, or what do you see in America?

Yeah, Simon, I missed a word there. Sorry, could you repeat the what stocking?

Yeah, if you're aware of any sham and stuffing or like stocking effect in America, yeah, given the strong print, I mean, how we should think about it when we think about our estimates for the remainder of the year in America specifically.

Yeah, I would say there's no evidence there at the moment, Simon. If anything, it's the opposite with the inventory normalization, if that's the right word, that impacted us in EMEA.

There was also some of that in America as well. We've seen units being consumed.

We have, as a response to this, we've had much stronger dialogue with our partners, and we have set up processes that will give us much clearer, much more transparent visibility into their inventory levels. We're confident that actually the order book for both America and EMEA will be robust for the second half of the year.

Okay, cool. That sounds reassuring.

Also on the Bone Marrow Application, which I think you sold your first couple of units here in the quarter, are you still sticking to your former statement on, I think it was like one or maybe two percentage point incremental growth here for second half from that product, or what internal expectations do you have for that product here in the second half?

Thanks again, Simon. We maintain the same view.

The initial feedback, there's obviously a long lead cycle in in vitro diagnostics, especially or in diagnostics, as customers evaluate new technology. They have evaluations on site, qualify the instruments and the analyzers on site.

There is a long lead cycle. Having said that, the news that is coming back from the market, the number of evaluations and the customer reactions is extremely encouraging, and we still hold our position that by year-end, the bone marrow sales should account to 1%-2% growth, that range.

Perfect, perfect. Also in APAC and the reagent side of the business, a couple of strong quarters in a row now.

Just curious to what drives that adoption, what kind of users, if you can name any countries, stuff like that, just to get a grip of that business.

The main in the quarter, the main customers are anyone who's producing or scanning microscope slides. That could be any laboratory, any research institute.

It could be partners that we're selling through. The growth is encouraging, as you said, sustained now, or we're starting to see momentum in that area.

It's a model for us to look at for the other regions. Looking at the countries specifically in APAC, it's Japan and Australia that are really driving the growth.

Like I said earlier, this is pleasing because that is recurring business for us. Those are the two that would highlight in that.

That's despite significant headwinds in China for not just CellaVision, but for the industry broadly. To see that the reagent growth in APAC is very, very encouraging.

Are these like pilot projects that have now transformed into returning customers, so to say, or how has that sort of, what's the development been like when it comes to?

Yeah, maybe Monica, you can add to this. The business that we see coming from Japan and Australia in Q2, that is definitely recurring.

I think the majority of the sales elsewhere tends to be recurring. Monica, if you want to comment on that.

Yeah, you're right. We have spent a lot of resources on really getting into those markets here in Japan and Australia, and it is recurring revenue.

Yeah, no, good. Maybe a final one from my end to you, Steve, because I noticed in the CEO letter that you talk about commercial execution a couple of times.

I was just wondering what that sort of entails for you, given the tight relationship with your main partner today. Maybe one would think that there's maybe not that much you can tweak in the go-to-market strategy.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, what are you seeing when you speak about commercial execution?

What can be done better or more from CellaVision's side?

Sure. Great question, Simon.

I think firstly, let me talk about our major distribution partner. This is in the fact that we want to be more commercially focused is actually a reflection that we want to invest more in that relationship.

I think that partnership is successful for both parties. It has been a great relationship, and we want to make sure that we sustain that and nurture it.

I think there's a lot more that we can do. We are serving the customers that we jointly serve extremely well.

There are other segments out there and other laboratory segments where perhaps our partner is not playing that I would like to get closer to. That could, in turn, throw up more opportunities for the partnership.

I want to make sure that every laboratory everywhere in the world that has a microscope is aware of the CellaVision technology. That's an opportunity for us to take more responsibility in that, looking more at the horizon and really understanding the customer need more closely.

I would like to stress that we do that in partnership with our major partner globally. The other thing to talk about is that as we expand through FPM, there could be other segments outside of hematology that we really want to get to know better.

That's when I talk about commercial, I want to really understand that we understand the customer need, the end customer, and that we're continually evolving our solutions to meet those needs fully.

Yeah, cool. Thanks so much for the answers.

I'll get back in queue.

Thanks, Simon.

Hi, thank you for taking my questions. Congrats on the appointment, Steve.

I have a few questions, I'll take them one by one. Maybe just starting off a bit of a clarification here on the stocking you saw on the instrument side in EMEA in Q2.

If you're able to quantify approximately how much this affected in the quarter, then also as well how much, if you can quantify the reagent delayed in shipments in Q2.

I will start with that one, the first question on how much the EMEA inventory stocking impacted Q2. It was not that much.

It was mainly in the beginning of April where we saw it was still slow, throughout the quarter, we saw that orders were coming back. The impact was not that big in Q2.

When it comes to the reagent delay in France, it's SEK 2 million that were delayed into Q3. If you remember, in Q1, there were some other delays happening that we now got in that was the UN tender.

Things happened between the quarters, but about a few SEK 1 million were delayed due to the heat wave in France.

Thank you. Very clear.

Also a bit of follow-up on large labs in America. I wonder if you have seen any change in lab investments or large lab investments and tender activity during the quarter.

Because I note that Abbott guided for accelerated core lab demand in H2. Do you share that view, or yeah?

I think if I can, just the results from our side would indicate that those segments in America are growing strongly. We haven't seen anything specific that we would call out from an external perspective as Abbott have done.

That's clear. Then on the cost side, I note that admin expenses was up about 10% even after adjusting for the CEO transition cost.

I just wonder if there's anything you can call out there if there were any other non-recurring items.

There were some additional consultant costs that came in as part of the admin cost this quarter.

All right. Like trying to dissect an underlying admin cost, would you say that it's more flat year-over-year, or how should we think about that one as we head into H2?

Yeah, there is some increase due to salary increases that happened from April 1st on all personnel costs in the company. There has also been some investments, especially in the IT area, and that is going into administration costs as well.

That could be more fluctuating throughout the quarters.

All right. Very clear.

Thanks. A final one just on the total or yeah, R&D, including the capitalized portion, grew quite a bit here year-over-year, which I assume might relate to the upcoming U.S.

launch of the bone marrow. Maybe, yeah, help us how we should think about this as we head into H2.

If there's a new level we should kind of extrapolate or, yeah, how to think about this number.

R&D costs excluding capitalization are increasing slightly, exactly as you say, as we are spending some resources also on the FDA applications and also increased focus on innovation. If we then start thinking also about what we capitalize, we will see higher capitalization starting from Q3 due to the fact that we have some projects that are advancing in the maturity.

That will compensate for some of the increase.

Okay, great. Thanks.

If I just can squeeze one more in, just on the estimated timeline for bone marrow launch in the U.S., is there any news there or like FDA application?

We're in line with expectations, Ludvig, that that should be there by year-end. We're in dialogue and the process is going according to plan.

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

I'll jump back into the queue.

Thanks, Ludvig.

Good morning, Steve and Monica. A lot of questions asked already, but maybe I'll ask a follow-up on one of Simon's questions regarding kind of the commercial execution part.

I hear that you want to accelerate the partnership with Sysmex. Kind of a follow-up to that, is there any kind of now I know that it's early days for you, Steve, but are there any kind of if we look on a regional basis where you feel that CellaVision perhaps has been lacking a bit historically, where you feel that you can accelerate either salespeople or support functions in order to capture kind of a higher share of growth?

I know that you've invested quite a bit in the Americas, but are there any kind of regional white spots where you feel that you're able to kind of accelerate the organization a bit if you can comment?

I think firstly, the relationship with Sysmex is vital for us, and I think it's symbiotic. I think there's a lot of value for both parties.

Together, our combined value proposition is greater than the sum of the individual parts. If you look just at the results, the relationship in the Americas is particularly strong.

I think that's the role model for us, and that's a discussion that we're already having with Sysmex and how can we win together more effectively using, for example, the Americas as the strongest model. Having said earlier, I think it was Christian or Simon's question about market share in America.

I still think there's more in America that we can go after. I think that in every country, we can be more effective together.

That's why we want to invest, take ownership of that, take responsibility for it, for our part of that, and really drive much more effective commercial activities.

Great. Thank you.

Maybe a question on Americas then. On smaller instruments, for the second quarter now, I believe you mentioned that there has been some, I mean, there are some elevated inventory levels in America for smaller instruments.

Can you give some sort of outlook or guidance on when you expect these effects to kind of normalize and when smaller instruments can pick up again in the region, or how should we view that for H2 and onwards?

From what we're able to see, and again, Monica, please chip in if I misunderstood this, but from what we're seeing, we think that the inventory normalization has washed through. We did see consumption from their inventory in quarter two, and also we have an order book.

We have orders placed already for Q3.

Okay. Perfect.

Finally for me, a nitty-gritty question or perhaps irrelevant, but you say that the quarter was charged with SEK 9 million for the initial phase of the CEO transition. Should we expect any further CEO transition-related costs in Q3, or how should we think of that?

Yeah, thanks. I think the costs incurred so far are a mixture of the CEO severance, the recruitment costs, other involved consultants.

The discussion is still ongoing, it's not possible to comment any further on that. This is obviously a transition period, the costs associated to that first phase have come to SEK 9 million in quarter two.

At this point, I can't really comment any further on that.

Okay. Perfect.

Thank you. I'll get back in line.

Thank you for answering my questions.

No problem. Thanks, Elvin.

Yes, thank you. I have a follow-up question regarding your R&D expenses.

Monica, you mentioned that you expect capitalizations to increase in the third quarter. Is that in absolute terms compared to the second quarter?

Could you also give us some color on how we should consider the total R&D investments, including the capitalizations starting from the third quarter? Thank you.

Yes, they will increase versus what we have seen now. Q1 and Q2 capitalization has been quite low.

We believe we will go back to levels where we were in the beginning of last year and probably a little beyond that as well when it comes to capitalization, as we have some bigger projects now advancing through our different tollgates, which means that we are starting to capitalize them. Your question was also about the total R&D costs, and there we see some increase versus previously, but that one is not huge.

It's gradual increase as that is hiring more people into the organization, takes more time, is more gradual increase. There will be a positive impact on R&D costs including the capitalization.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Okay, thanks everyone for joining the call this morning and for following us here at CellaVision, and thank you in particular to the four analysts who asked us questions. Before I close today, I'd like to thank all of the team at CellaVision for their very warm and their very patient welcome as I get up to speed as a new CEO.

I want to thank in particular Simon Østergaard and the outgoing CEO who has been really working with me on a very professional and very smooth handover. Not just for this, I also want to thank Simon for his contribution over his five-year tenure as CEO at CellaVision.

Simon's work and that of Zlatko before has built a tremendously strong company with huge opportunities for growth. I'm really excited to be at the helm to help the company realize its potential going forward.

Our next interim report will be published on October 29th, 2026. I look forward to commenting on that report with you then and to take your questions at that point.

Thank you for joining this morning and have a great day.