Magnus Ahlqvist
Good morning and welcome, everyone. Andreas and I are proud to report strong results for Q4 and for the full year 2025.
Let us go straight to some of the performance highlights. The organic growth in the quarter was 3% and this was supported by 6% growth in Technology and Solutions.
We had a good finish to the year in Technology and Solutions with 2% improvement sequentially. The adjusted organic growth for the group, and that means when you exclude the close-down of the SCIS business, was 4%.
Now to something important. The operating margin was 8% and 8.2% adjusted in the quarter thanks to strong delivery across the entire business.
North America achieved a 10% operating margin in the quarter, and Europe delivered another quarter with more than 8%. We have improved the operating margin now 20 quarters in a row and are delivering on the 8% target that we communicated 3.5 years ago.
EPS real change, excluding IAC, was also strong at 18%. We had continued strong delivery in terms of cash flow, with operating cash flow of 88% for the full year, and the net debt to EBITDA ratio improved further to 2.1.
Based on the stronger underlying performance, the dividend proposal is Swedish kronor 5.30, which represents an 18% increase. Looking at the future, we announced a very important milestone for our journey with the acquisition of LifeRaft yesterday evening.
This is a leading provider of threat intelligence, and I will provide more details regarding the strategic importance of LifeRaft at the end of this presentation. Let us then shift to the performance in the business lines and the segments.
We deliver strong margin development in both business lines, with 12.7% for Technology and Solutions, 6.6% for Services in the quarter. The real sales growth, as I stated, in Technology and Solutions was 6%, 2% improvement compared to the previous quarter.
The growth in Security Services was 1%, and this growth is obviously negatively impacted by the SCIS business, where we're closing down the government part of that business. With that, let's move to the segments, and we are starting, as always, with North America, where we're delivering a very strong set of results and a record 10% operating margin in the quarter.
If we start, with a growth of 5%, this was driven by good portfolio development and price increases in the guarding business and by good development in technology. The real sales growth in Technology and Solutions improved to 4% compared to lower growth in the previous quarter.
When looking at the profitability, strong leverage and cost control in guarding, together with solid profitability in technology and a recovery in the Pinkerton business, all contributed to the record-level operating margin. All in all, very strong performance, a record-breaking 10%, well done by our North America team.
We then move to Europe, where we are also very pleased with the development. The organic growth was 4% in the quarter, and the growth was supported by price increases, including impact from the hyperinflationary environment in Turkey, and also by solid growth of Technology and Solutions, while active portfolio management in the Services business had a negative impact on the growth.
Sales growth in Technology and Solutions was 7%. It's the profitability development that stands out, with 110 basis point improvements to 8.1%.
The margin improvement was driven by both business lines, including positive impact from the business optimization program. The Security Services business was positively impacted by higher margin on new sales, active portfolio management, and also the divestiture of the airport security business in France.
We also recorded solid improvement in the operating margin in the Technology and Solutions business line, driven by good portfolio development and solid cost control. As commented earlier, we expect the work where we are addressing low-margin guarding contracts to be completed during the first half of 2026.
All in all, solid development by our European team and also here an operating margin at a record level. Shifting then to Ibero-America, where we are pleased to report good organic growth and decent margin improvement.
The growth was 5%, and this was driven by high single-digit growth in Technology and Solutions and price increases in the Services business. Similar to Europe, there is a negative impact on the growth from active portfolio management, but we're making good progress here and driving good conversions to technology solutions.
The real sales growth in Technology and Solutions was 7% in the quarter. The operating margin improved 20 basis points in the quarter, and the improvement was primarily driven by positive impact from active portfolio management in the Security Services business line.
To conclude, strong delivery in 2025 by our Ibero-America team. Looking then at the performance across the group, we are driving disciplined execution of our strategy and I'm really pleased to see strong execution across all segments.
The client retention is solid at 90%. With that, turn to the finance update and handing over to you, Andreas.
Andreas Lindback
Thank you, Magnus. If I sound different to normal, it is because I'm about to lose my voice.
I apologize for that. We start with the income statement, where we had organic sales growth of 3% and improved the operating margin with 70 basis points to 8%.
It is a strong quarter where we improved our operating income with 15% adjusted for currency. As we communicated in Q2, we have introduced two new KPIs, which are adjusting our organic growth and our operating margin for the government business to be closed down within SCIS.
In the quarter, the adjusted organic growth was 4% and the adjusted operating margin was 8.2%. Looking below operating results, there are no material developments in amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, nor in the acquisition-related costs.
The items affecting comparability was 78 million, and this was related to the ongoing European transformation and business optimization programs. The full-year cost for these programs was 382 million, approximately in line with our previous guidance.
We have executed the business optimization program in a good way, where the annualized savings in Q4 are in line with the targeted 200 million savings. The business optimization program is now closed, and in 2026 the only remaining program is related to the European transformation.
Here we estimate to have a full-year 2026 program cost of 225 to 250 million, a material reduction compared to the 382 million related to the programs in 2025. In Q3, we took a 1.5 billion cost in items affecting comparability related to the close-down of the government business within SCIS.
The close-down is progressing according to plan and had limited impact on our operating results in Q4. We continue to expect the vast majority of the business to be closed down by the end of 2026, and we will also start to see an accelerated execution of the close-down during the first half year.
Our finance net came in at 383 million, a reduction of 146 million compared to last year. Here we continue to see a positive trend of reduced financing costs as interest rates and our debt levels are going down.
For the full year 2026, we estimate the finance net to continue to reduce and land around 1.6 billion, to be compared to the 1.8 billion for the full year 2025. Moving to tax, here we had a tax rate of 29.5% for the full year, slightly higher than our Q3 forecast of 29.2.
The full-year tax rate was impacted by the SCIS close-down cost in Q3, where we estimate around half of the cost to be tax-deductible over time. Adjusted for the close-down impact, the full-year tax rate was 27.2%, and we expect the 2026 tax rate to be in the approximately same area.
All in all, we have a strong quarter where we grow our FX-adjusted EPS with 18%. As we summarized 2025, we have improved our adjusted operating margin with 60 basis points to 7.7%, grown our operating result with 11%, and grown our EPS with 18%.
At the same time, we also achieved our financial target of an operating margin of 8% the second half year of 2025. The adjusted operating margin in the second half was 8.2%.
We then move to cash flow, where our operating cash flow was solid at 3.9 billion or 128% of operating income. The cash flow was supported by low growth rates and a continued improved DSO, but also negatively impacted by the additional $44 million payroll in our US guarding business, as we communicated in the third quarter.
This negative impact is a timing impact only, which occurs every fifth to sixth year. The free cash flow landed at 3 billion, supported then by the solid operating cash flow, reduced interest payments due to the lower interest rates and debt levels, and positive tax timing impacts.
Looking at the full year 2025, we deliver another year of record cash flow. The operating cash flow was more than 10 billion or 88% of the result, supported by good working capital focus and low growth rates.
We have now delivered operating cash flows above our financial targets of 70% to 80% of the last two years, a result of our strong focus to build a more qualitative business and also structurally improve our working capital over time. This has of course also translated into stronger free cash flows, which creates increased flexibility and opportunity for us as we move into a new phase of our strategic journey.
Our cash generation will also be positively impacted as our items affecting comparability continues to reduce as we go into 2026 and beyond. We then have a look at our net debt, which was 31.3 billion at the end of the quarter.
This is a reduction of 2.1 billion compared to Q3, mainly supported by the strong free cash flow, but also by the strengthened Swedish krona. In the quarter, we paid the second tranche of our dividend and we had 321 million of total IAC payments, whereof approximately 160 million was related to the final payment for the US government and Paragon settlement.
We have now made all three payments related to this settlement and expect no further cash flow out related to the case. Looking at the right-hand side, our net debt to EBITDA reduced to 2.1.
This is an 0.4 times improvement compared to Q4 last year, where positive EBITDA development, good cash generation, and the strengthened Swedish krona have supported positively. We are well below our target net debt to EBITDA of less than 3 times.
Moving on to have a look at our financing and financial position, where we continue to have a strong balance sheet, remain with strong liquidity, and we have no financial covenants in our debt facilities. After a period of important refinancing focus, our main focus during the second half of 2025 has been to amortize debt, supported by the strong free cash flow generation.
In the quarter, we repaid 1.9 billion of debt, and throughout 2025 we have amortized a total of 3.3 billion. This continues to support our cost of financing going forward, and looking at the maturity chart, we have very limited refinancing needs throughout 2026.
As always, we remain committed to our investment grade rating. With that, I hand over back to you, Magnus.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Many thanks, Andreas. I would like to share a few perspectives regarding our strategic development and the LifeRaft acquisition before we open up the Q&A.
First, we are proud over the fact that we're reaching our 8% target in the second half of 2025. Back in 2022, when we did the Stanley acquisition, we accelerated the work to change the profile of Securitas, create the company with the strongest technology and digital offering to our clients, in combination with high-quality guarding services.
When looking back at the last 4 years, we have been executing well. We are a sharper, more focused company today and operating at a different margin level.
As we're entering 2026, this also means that we can then start to retire this bridge that we have kept coming back to every quarter and over the last 3.5 years. Looking at the future, we're very excited about the acquisition of LifeRaft.
When you look at the transformation of Securitas during the last 6-7 years, we have kept a clear focus on investing in the core capabilities that we consider critical to winning in this industry and also are focused on presence, technology, and data. In this context, we strengthened our guarding value proposition, we have improved the profitability of guarding, we have built a globally leading technology position and a more modern and digitally capable business.
We have strong pillars in our business today. We have also worked to meet the increase in client demand for better understanding the risks and the threats facing their business.
Over the past 5 years, we have developed in-house risk intelligence capabilities that we are providing to more and more customers. All this is good, you might say, but what is then the importance of the LifeRaft acquisition?
LifeRaft is one of the leading SaaS-based threat intelligence providers focused on OSINT, and that's open source intelligence. This is a very strong team with deep expertise in threat intelligence, and they have been a partner and provider to Securitas for many years.
With LifeRaft, we will be able to scale and leverage their capabilities across our client base and in the process strengthen our client value proposition. When looking at the financials, the company is currently prioritizing rapid expansion, and growing organically around 30% on an annual basis, but also then reinvesting very strong gross margins to accelerate organic growth.
Given the increase in demand in this market, I fully support this approach. The acquisition is fully in line with our strategy to create a more scalable business model and becomes an important addition to accelerate growth in high-margin recurring monthly revenue.
As previously stated, the recurring monthly revenue for the group exceeds more than 1 billion SEK. We are thrilled to welcome the LifeRaft team when we are closing the transaction, joining forces to shape the future with more intelligence-led security.
The future is promising. With the transformation of Securitas, we are well positioned with a clearly differentiated client offering, well positioned for profitable growth.
We are operating in an attractive market, but also a growing market, where we see steady increase in the demand for quality security. We have transformed and repositioned our client portfolio with a clear focus on segments with more sophisticated security needs and higher growth profile.
We partner with our clients for the long term, and we see that our deeper engagement model, where we leverage our technology and digital capabilities, is generating high value for our clients and also for us. The approach is working.
Andreas and I have commented, we're executing well in our plans: 20 consecutive quarters of operating margin improvement and solid cash flow generation. We've had a clear focus on enhancing the quality of our business and margin improvement in recent years, but as more and more units reach the required profitability thresholds, from my perspective that means for a good sustainable business, they also gain the right to shift focus to profitable growth.
With the business now in much better shape, we can shift emphasis towards commercial synergies and driving growth. As stated many times, we do this with a clear focus on building a more scalable business.
We are confident and excited about our longer-term opportunities, and we are looking forward to sharing more in the Capital Markets Day in June. In conclusion, we are on the right path, well positioned for the next phase.
With that, we conclude the Q4 presentation and happy to open up the Q&A.
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 Francesco Nadinocci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, morning. This is Suhasini from Goldman Sachs actually.
I just had a couple of questions, please. If we had to think about your growth and margin expectations for first half versus second half of this year, would it be fair to say that because of the impact of your underperforming contract exits that's going to be completed by first half this year, maybe the growth is a little more weighted to second half, and similarly on margins?
I'm not sure I read, but how much are you expecting to pay for the acquisition of LifeRaft? How is your M&A pipeline looking at this point in time?
Thank you.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Thank you. When you're looking at that, I think it's the right assumption that finalizing that work will have a negative impact in the near term from the active portfolio management, but that's why it's also so important and so positive that we are soon done with that work.
As I commented in the last couple of years, we were more quick in North America in terms of finalizing that work, I think that is obviously something that we're looking forward to also in Europe. Then when you look at the growth in Q4, we had 6% growth in Technology and Solutions, and that's a clear improvement compared to the previous quarters.
We have a strong offering. Solutions is more of a portfolio business.
Technology part, there is also some variability with installations, but we feel that we are on a good path. I think that is the other part that I would just highlight, because that part of the business, there is no impact from active portfolio management.
Andreas Lindback
We have not disclosed the purchase price related to LifeRaft simply due to commercial reasons that we are not doing that. We have paid a fair market price for this type of business overall.
There will be some more details coming as we have closed the transaction as well. On the M&A pipeline side, as we have said, we are ramping up our focus on continued bolt-on acquisitions within Technology and Solutions and some targeted also acquisitions in the intelligence area.
We have made a few minor ones outside LifeRaft, but we are still in ramp-up mode, I would say, the pipeline is not there is not a huge pipeline at this point in time, but it's something that we're working towards improving.
Thank you very much.
Operator
The next question comes from Rémi Grenu from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Rémi Grenu
Morning, gentlemen. First, a quick question on the 2026 outlook.
I guess given you've achieved the 8% and the CMD is not before June, we are left a little bit in the dark in terms of margin development. Just trying to have your view on 2026 margin development if we exclude, excluding the positive impact that the closure of SCIS is going to generate, but on an underlying basis with the portfolio of the company, do you believe that there is still potential for margin improvement from the current run rate at the end of 2025?
That would be the first question. The second one is on North America.
The organic growth very suddenly accelerated in Q2, and it's been normalizing a little bit over the last two quarters. Just trying to understand the drivers of that sudden acceleration and what's happening since then, why it's coming back down.
Is it about volume normalizing, lower pricing? Also taking a step back on that market, what do you think is the structural level of organic growth in North America?
Then the last one, you've come to the end of that strategic plan in 2025. Have you started to have a think about the new KPI for management remuneration, variable remuneration, and going into the next phase of the company, what do you think would be most relevant in terms of aligning the interest of shareholders with management?
Magnus Ahlqvist
Very good. Thank you, Remy.
We don't provide guidance, but first of all, I think it's been really important for all of us internally and also externally that we are delivering on the 8%, because it represents a very significant shift. When you're looking at 2026, driving good growth in Technology and Solutions will have a positive impact on margin.
Could also expect some positive impact from active portfolio management work, that we still have some of that work yet to be done. Business optimization program, we've commented as well, we successfully completed that in 2025, should also help and support.
Generally speaking, we are, and I spelled that out I think back in 2022, is that 8% is important to achieve. We believe that now we have a really good opportunity to also be, related to your third question, calibrate more precisely as well how we maximize the value creation.
Because we've had very hard focus on improving the quality and the margin, but it's quite obvious to us as well that we get done with some of the structural work and the heavy lifting and the cleaning. We're largely done with that now, and that also means that we can then also start to shift focus on more profitable growth going forward.
I think that is something that we that is clearly on our minds, and it's also clearly something that we're also reflecting also in how we calibrating some of the incentive programs as well so that we really gear those towards maximizing value for our shareholders. I think those are the key points.
North America, maybe briefly on your side, Andreas.
Andreas Lindback
I can just follow up on the KPIs, because there is also a misunderstanding related to that up until now. We have both long-term incentive programs and we have short-term incentive programs.
It's right, as you say, that operating margin has been a focus for the long-term incentive programs, but in the short-term incentive programs, which is a material part of total compensation, it is also about driving growth in the earnings as well. I just want to highlight that, and then if you want to take the— We can
Magnus Ahlqvist
Yeah, no, that's an important point. Because if you look also at the operating result growth, really solid double-digit levels in 2025 in constant currency, and we are here obviously to drive that type of change, but it's always got to be a balance as well, and we should also remember that operating margin improvement is also helping and accelerating also the operating result growth.
I think that's an important clarification about the programs that we've had up until now. When you look at North America, we feel good about our position, we feel good about the market in general.
I wouldn't, and it's a little bit difficult to call out the specific growth numbers. This is something that in our industry, it is a little bit difficult to get a very clear understanding of how the total market is developing, but I would say that we are well positioned in terms of the segments where we are, and also segments where there is generally speaking a higher emphasis on the quality, security is important, but there is also very healthy underlying growth.
I would say that we are well positioned, but it's difficult, Remy, to call out a very specific overall growth number. I believe with the offering that we have, we should be able to grow at least with the market and preferably above market rate, and that is very much based on the strength of the offering, but also that we are well positioned in terms of the segments that we serve.
Rémi Grenu
Great. Thank you very much.
Operator
The next question comes from Andrew Grobler from BNPP. Please go ahead.
Andrew Grobler
Hi, good morning. Just a couple from me if I may.
Firstly, just in Q4, in terms of European growth, can you talk through the tailwinds from Turkey and also the headwinds from portfolio management, to sort of get to the underlying numbers there? Then secondly, on a longer-term perspective, technology keeps evolving at a pace as we can see from the stock market.
Just wondered what you're seeing in your end markets, and if at this stage there's any signs, or you expect to see over time, price deflation within your monitoring activities, and the extent to which that is possible. That'd be really helpful.
Thank you.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Thank you. When it comes to the European growth rates in the fourth quarter, you can say more or less all the positive growth is coming from Turkey in essence.
That's the first statement. Turkey had an impact for sure.
If you then looking at where we have good volume growth was in Technology and Solutions in Europe, and then there was a negative impact that we have not quantified related to the APM that is impacting the Security Services portfolio. I think those are the three pillars to bear in mind when looking at the European organic growth.
Then, Andy, on the technology, what we call the technology business is essentially business where we drive or we design, we install systems, and then we operate and serve those systems for our customers. There's a couple of different components.
A big part of the value, I would say, when you look at this kind of the three main areas of activity, installation, service maintenance, and also monitoring, is that work is quite tightly connected. When we are doing good integration and installation work, we're very well positioned to also provide the best type of service and maintenance.
More and more of what we are doing and what we're also interested in building is more the recurring revenue, and they're obviously connected services, and those are usually not just simple kind of monitoring lines, for example, it's usually part of a broader value proposition. There I believe that we are in a good position based on the great strengths that we have built, and where also the deep integration of Stanley has really helped us, because we have built genuinely good service capability and levels and also rich service offering to our clients as well.
I think that we are in good shape in that sense from a market perspective and also the offering that we bring.
Andrew Grobler
Thank you. Then just lastly, Andreas, thank you for all your help over the years and best of luck with whatever the future may bring.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Thank you and likewise, Andy.
Andreas Lindback
Thank you.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Remember to say a special thank you to Andreas at the end of the call today as well, but I'm glad you comment that, Andy. Andreas has been great partner all along here.
Operator
The next question comes from Allen Wells from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Allen Wells
Hey, good morning, Andreas. Good morning, Magnus.
A couple from me, please. Firstly, just following up from Remy's question on North America.
Obviously, very mindful that active portfolio management has been a headwind to growth. As that starts to end, you flagged in Europe in the first half, that should be a positive as you switch to that growth focus.
As Remy flagged, as we look at North America, the portfolio management has ended and growth has slowed sequentially from 2Q through to 4Q, the 5% we saw in 4Q. To what extent is that slowing in North America you guys maybe holding back to focus on margin rather than kind of fully pushing the commercial engine in the business, and to what extent maybe is it just that it's a continued tough market that is still hard to drive growth in?
That'd be the first question. Secondly, just a bit of an update on the technology side.
Obviously, growth improved sequentially, 6% in the quarter, but still well below the 8% to 10% target. I'd be keen just to understand of that 6%, how much is pricing, how much is volume, and how you think about the outlook towards that 8% to 10%.
Then third question, just on free cash flow. Just in the full year, obviously, a positive outcome overall, but there was a positive impact from working capital for the full year.
I don't typically think of you guys as a positive net working capital business. To what extent is that net working capital number sustainable, and on how we should think about a potential unwind as we move through 2026 as well?
Thank you.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Thank you, Allen. I think on the first question, we don't see any change in the trend in North America.
Some variation there will be between the different quarters. We are well positioned.
Like you highlighted, we're done with the active portfolio management, and it's obviously a dynamic market, but when you look at what we are winning and what we are losing, yeah, we feel good. No major issue or anything specific to read into that from my perspective.
Andreas Lindback
When it comes to the Technology and Solutions growth, when we set the target of 8% to 10%, it's important to remember that was also including acquisitions, and there we have done limited, we've been focusing on integrating and then also taking down our balance sheet, although it's something that we are looking at ramping up. In that context, 6% is a decent number.
When you look into that 6%, on the technology side it is definitely volumes mainly from that growth. If you're looking at the solutions side, it's a combination of both volume and some price.
All in all, more volume than price when it comes to the 6%. It's also a decent number, we should say.
When it comes to free cash flow, a couple of lenses here. We said in the last Capital Markets Day, there will be a mix shift in the working capital with the technology and technology business coming in, but we also said clearly that we are working on structurally improving our working capital, and that's really what we have been doing over the last couple of years, which is giving a positive result.
We have definitely structurally improved on the working capital side. Then we also showed that in the 88% cash flow this year, 84% last year, it's also not just a temporary change.
Then as you all know, we have seasonality in our cash flow, where our Q4 cash flow is stronger. Now the number is coming in somewhat below Q4 last year, but still at a very strong level.
Going into Q1, it will definitely be weaker from that standard seasonality that we're having. The underlying trend, I think, is most important when it looks at the cash flow, given we have volatility, and there I hope you all see that we have elevated the cash flow and we are now delivering above our financial targets two years in a row.
Allen Wells
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from Viktor Lindeberg from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Viktor Lindeberg
Morning. Thank you for taking my questions.
Two initially, if I may. Looking at the mounting down of CIS in 2026, if you could share some more details on the run rate and how it's expected to progress, and then where we maybe end of 2026 in terms of revenue.
Are we all the way down to zero or is it only maybe halfway there? Second question is associated also to this, trying to trickle out the underlying cost base for the, call it group, other item or overhead line items here.
If you could share any guidance or thoughts on the underlying costs for the Securitas business excluding CIS, that would be very much helpful. Thank you.
Andreas Lindback
Thank you. If we start then with the government business within SCIS close-down, as I mentioned earlier as well, we have started to see some impact in the fourth quarter from the close-down on the top line, but it's not much.
You should expect to see an accelerated impact first six months from the close-down activities. Then if you're looking at your question there, where will it be at the end of 2026, we expect that most of it would be for surely be done.
The vast majority will be done by the end of 2026. I hope that helps a little bit by understanding how we expect this to progress throughout the year.
When it comes to other in our segment reporting, three components, as you know: our Africa, Middle East, and Asia business; we have our SCIS business; and we have the group cost. The Africa, Middle East, and Asia business continued to deliver strongly in the quarter comparing then to last year.
The SCIS business was fairly stable when you look at the bottom line. Then on the group cost, it was higher than last year.
Here we've been running tight cost control throughout the year, but in the fourth quarter we released some more project investments in the quarter. That's the main reason, and then some year-end reconciliation.
That's the main reason compared to last year. To understand the trend there, I would also very much look at the full-year number.
Viktor Lindeberg
That's very clear. Another question on the topic you have brought up, Magnus, in the CEO letter this quarter.
You mentioned the run rate is about or at least $1 billion or looking at the SAS and recurring revenues. I recall you mentioned 18 months ago a run rate of 1.25 billion per month.
Just to understand, are we talking apples-to-apples here or what why the mentioning, or maybe confusion from my side here?
Magnus Ahlqvist
Thanks, Viktor. No, we're just keen also on highlighting that we have quite a significant number.
We are clearly above that 1 billion, but we will share a lot more detail in the Capital Markets Day in June, because this is an important focus area also in terms of building a more scalable business.
Viktor Lindeberg
It has not deteriorated over the past 18 months, that's what you're saying?
Magnus Ahlqvist
No. No, we have seen growth in the business since then.
Viktor Lindeberg
Clear. Thank you.
Operator
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Johan Eliason from SB1 Markets.
Please go ahead.
Johan Eliason
Yes, good morning, Magnus and Andreas. I just had a bit of a detail follow-up on to Andreas.
You mentioned that in 2026 you expect some 225 to 250 in items affecting comparability. Is that sort of including this 1% of revenue you are sort of reviewing right now or could there be some one-offs on top of this from this review?
Thank you.
Andreas Lindback
Relevant question. The number that I mentioned is excluding any impact from strategic assessments, which obviously then could be both a positive or a negative number, to say.
Excluding that just for clarity.
Johan Eliason
Excellent. Many thanks.
Operator
The next question comes from Nicole Manion from UBS. Please go ahead.
Nicole Manion
Hi, good morning. Just one quick follow-up question from me, please, on the Security Services margin.
Obviously, that's now up more than 100 bps over the past couple of years. Just wondering if you can give us a sense of how much of the improvement there you've seen this year or over the last year is portfolio management versus what's coming from price increases or any other drivers.
Are we pretty close to peak margins in this side of the business as you get to the end of the portfolio pruning or are there other levers you think you can look at as you move into next year? Thanks.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Thank you. A couple of different drivers, Nicole.
When you're looking at that margin improvement, new sales margins have been consistently very healthy, and that's a good indication that we have a good offering. Clients see the value in that offering.
Active portfolio management has also contributed, but I would also say that we've also been working to also run the business leveraging the new platforms that we've invested in a more efficient way. Automation, also AI, has also been helping us to also optimize how we run the operation.
If you're looking at the Services margin on a group level, I think that there is further opportunity to continuously improve that in the next couple of years. I would not agree with the comment that this is kind of peak margin.
We believe that driving the things that we have been driving, but also continuously strengthening the value proposition, we are in a good position to enhance the value essentially.
Nicole Manion
Great. Thank you.
Operator
There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the President and CEO, Magnus Ahlqvist, for any closing comments.
Magnus Ahlqvist
Thanks a lot, everyone, for your interest and special thank you to you, Andreas, highly respected, appreciated colleague. I also think with in the dialogue also with many of you have also been a really good asset.
Just to say thank you, but obviously then looking ahead as well, we are now full speed in terms of the assessment and also seeing really good interest also for this position. We will come back on that matter.
Most important today, I think, is just to yeah, for me to also express our appreciation from the entire team.
Andreas Lindback
Thank you very much, Magnus, and thank you, everyone on the call, as well for really good collaboration the last couple of years. Highly appreciated.
Magnus Ahlqvist
I think with that, we wrap up the Q4 and 2025 presentation. Thanks a lot, everyone.
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