Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this Hoist Finance earnings call for the third quarter of 2026.

I'm Harry Vranjes, CEO of Hoist Finance, and next to me, I have Magnus Söderlund, our CFO, and Karin Tyche, our Chief Investor Relations Officer. Let's see if we can switch slides.

Yes. Thank you all for logging in, and for your interest in Hoist Finance.

We'll try to run you through this third quarter in about 30 minutes to leave room for any questions you may have. I think before we get into the material, I think the third quarter has been let's say more of a nuts-and-bolts quarter compared to the blowout we had in Q2 when it comes to the headline numbers.

As you can see from this year-on-year profit growth and our solid return on equity, the scaling benefits of this business are now sort of consistently shining through. We have successfully onboarded the extraordinary volumes from Q2, and we're busy with integrating Azuro into our structure.

We said it during Q2, and I'll say it again, this is a light-touch integration, right? We want to learn as much as possible from our new colleagues, and we are happy to see that collections have come in spot-on forecast for this first quarter as a joint company.

We haven't booked any integration activities as one-offs in the quarter for this, and Magnus will take you through that in more detail shortly. I think in the marketplace or in the world around us, we see a bit of stress in the system with interest rate, inflation, and sovereign debt fears.

In this market, we're actually strengthening our funding cost. As before, when it comes to the collections, we don't see any impact on our collections relating to this.

The cash flows tend to remain stable during worrying times, let's say. We are, of course, though, monitoring this closely.

We do expect that these movements will add volumes, not least in the secondary markets where portfolios are resold by funds and industrials, and we expect more developments to happen there during the beginning of 2027. Let's dive into the highlights of the quarter.

Strong, steady delivery with high profitability. We closed portfolio investments of 1.6 billion in the quarter at accretive returns after a summer where most deals landed in Q2, as you saw, before the holidays, which is typically a cut-off point.

Per the last of September, we have now invested 9.7 billion SEK this year, close to 10, and post-quarter closing, we've signed and/or closed an additional 1 billion SEK. Now, the market is active, the pipeline is healthy, and the investment team is still fully occupied.

Our portfolio now stands at 40 billion SEK, up 27% from last year. Collection performance, as Q3 is our sort of seasonally slowest quarter.

We did collect 3 billion SEK in absolute collections, which is a new Q3 record for us, and the collection performance came in at 103%, same as last year. I'm really happy about that number, basically shows that we are able to over-collect at the same time as we are onboarding significant volumes.

The performance is broad-based, with all markets contributing. Return on equity, 21.2%, well in line with our new financial targets that we announced on the Capital Markets Day.

Our new floor is 20, we are in line with that, I would say. Then the profit before tax had a strong 503 million SEK compared to 349 million last year, a 44% growth or 47% if you adjust for the 10 million non-recurring.

Now, those of you who have followed us for a while, you'll remember that 2 years ago, we announced that we were super proud of reaching 1 billion in EBT for the year. Now, we deliver the same amount in 6 months, scale matters.

Earnings per share, same trend, increase of 34% to 4.5 SEK per share. At the end of the period, we had a CET1 ratio at around 12.88%, very strong capital position, giving us ample firepower for the upcoming quarters.

Investments, compared to the 6.1 billion in Q2, this is a softer quarter. We keep repeating that to be the leading investor and manager of NPLs in Europe, you need to have significant presence in the largest six European economies, because that is where the NPLs are.

We now have 80% of our portfolio diversified over those six markets: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the UK. That's also where we acquired 90% of our volumes in Q3: UK, Germany, Poland for unsecured, and Spain, Italy, France secured.

As you can see from the doughnut diagram there, we maintain our very nice geographical diversification. Looking at the secured versus unsecured split remains at 30% secured, 70% unsecured.

If we would split the portfolio by borrower type, we don't have a doughnut for that here yet, we would have 17% SME, or small companies, and 83% private individuals. We managed to close a number of smaller SME portfolios in Q3 through Azuro, and also a large forward flow, and the forward flow will deliver monthly volumes now for the coming years.

Average IRRs are holding up in the quarter, and as during the summer, we keep seeing selective aggressiveness around certain transactions, especially in the Nordics. As always, if returns drop below our appetite, we walk away.

Far in October, we've signed transactions for about a billion SEK, and we expect to close those transactions by the end of the year. As per the end of the second quarter, our total portfolio now stands at 40 billion SEK with an estimated 180-month remaining collections of 67.8 billion SEK.

With that, I will hand over to Magnus to take us through the quarter in more detail.

Thank you, Harry. Good morning, all, and thank you for for calling in.

Going into a bit more detail around the quarter, as Harry concluded, we saw new investments of 1.6 billion SEK, leading up to a 40 billion portfolio at the end of the quarter, and delivering a really strong 21.2% return. Profit before tax at 503 million SEK versus 349 last year, leading up to a 44% growth year-on-year.

The FX impact in the quarter is not material compared to last year, and the level of one-off impacts are also limited. We have a total of 10 million SEK related to indirect costs that appeared in the quarter, part of it related to project costs, and then one piece of provisioning for legacy case.

Excluding this, we have an underlying profit before tax of 513 million SEK, and therefore a 47% growth compared to last year. Net profit at 384 million compared to last year's 284, so that's a 35% growth, and 39% adjusting for the one-off impact in the quarter.

We have a return on equity of 21.2% compared to 17.6% last year, and if we adjust for the one-off costs, we land at 21.5%. We see a continued strong return level also now in in Q3.

Then looking a bit more in detail in the P&L, we have interest income, including the income from co-investments, at a combined 1.6 billion SEK, leading up to a 25% growth compared to last year. This to be compared to a portfolio book value growth of 27%.

Then for the book book value, the FX is, however, carrying some impact, as it is a point-in-time reporting. Adjusting for the FX, the the underlying book value growth is 24%.

In the net interest expense, we see an increased cost of 18 million SEK, which represents a 5% increase. We have a lower NSFR ratio at 138% compared to last year's 142%, and a continued good NSFR efficiency level in our deposit composition, driving an improved net interest margin.

This leads up to 1.24 billion SEK of net interest income compared to last year's 937 million. That's a 33% growth year-on-year.

Out of this, 103 million comes from our Q2 acquisition of Azuro. Looking at our impairments, we close the quarter at 103% collection performance.

That's in line with the outcome last year, and at expected levels, considering third quarter is normally a bit slower, as Harry mentioned. We collected a total of 3 billion SEK in the quarter, and we have a 264 million total overperformance, of which we de-risked 175 million as timing adjustments, resulting in a net 88 million SEK of pure overperformance.

This, combined with some smaller positive revaluations across the group, leads up to the 98 million SEK we see in the impairment line. Out of the 3 billion collected, we saw roughly 250 million coming from Azuro in the first quarter now after implementation.

In other income, we see 49 million SEK for this quarter, mainly coming from the servicing side of the Azuro entity, that's 27 million SEK, and the rest coming from real estate sales in Spain, and a small servicing piece we have in Germany and have had for some time. It's a minimal impact.

Net result of financial transactions at 11 million SEK, mainly driven by overperformance and gains coming from the notes held in co-investment vehicles, where the UK and our co-investment structure there came in very strong for the quarter. This leads up to a total operating income of 1.4 billion SEK compared to last year's 1.05, so that's a 34% growth.

Again, to be compared to the portfolio book value growth of 24%, adjusted for FX. Out of the 1.4 billion, 133 million comes from from Azuro.

On the cost side, we see a year-on-year growth of 39% in direct costs, so that's 629 versus 451 last year. This is a larger-than-usual increase.

Out of the 629, roughly 90 million is coming from Azuro, where we see a high activity in legal investments for the quarter, so that's roughly 35 million out of the 90. This is obviously to drive higher collection in the coming period.

Within the 90 million, 17 million is coming from the servicing part of the business. In the indirects, we see 266 million versus last year's 250, so that means a 6% growth.

Adjusting for the 10 million of one-offs in the quarter, this comes to a 2% growth. This is including the indirect costs coming from Azuro as well, and that's roughly 20 million SEK.

A really positive outcome for the quarter. All in all, we end on a total cost-to-income ratio of 63.8% in Q3 versus last year's 66.8%, a good development year-on-year.

Go to the next slide. To conclude, another strong quarter with an annualized ROE about 21%, solid collection performance, and an improved operational leverage.

Net interest income and total operating income at good growth levels compared to the portfolio growth. We also see a really strong outcome in the funding costs, very happy to see continued results from the tireless efforts in our treasury activities.

On the cost side, as said, a higher growth than what we normally see in the direct costs, but mainly driven by increased legal investments, and also the servicing part of Azuro. For the underlying indirect part, we are pretty much flat, despite despite 20 million of new costs coming from Azuro.

We are hap- very happy with that. We can go to the next slide.

Looking at the direct costs, we we see an increase, as I mentioned, in the quarter compared to Q2, and also an increased cost-to-collect ratio. We were at a total 17.2% in Q2, and we now come in at 21% in Q3.

This is mainly driven by increased legal expenses, as I said. We also have the 17 million related to third-party servicing as part of the direct costs as well, and these costs do not have any relation to the reported collection figure in the graph.

For Q2, we had two big one-off intra-impairments factored into the forecast, and that was a total 180 million SEK, and I mentioned this in in the Q2 call. They did neither impact the performance percentage nor incur any costs in Q2, but they had a material impact on on this collection total figure, and this obviously impacts the change in the ratio as well.

Then, if we further consider the seasonally lower collection in Q3, this impacts Q3 negatively to the tune of roughly 150 million of collection for the quarter on a like-for-like basis compared to the second quarter. Then, for the indirect costs, we see the already mentioned flattish development despise- despite taking on new cost.

On the FTE side, we see a small movement in direct FTEs, and that's mainly a consequence of of our growing NPL portfolio. Looking at the funding structure, no major movements during the quarter.

We had one Tier 2 issuance in the quarter at favorable levels that we are very happy with, but besides that, things remain similar to prior quarters regarding the funding mix. We see a further improvement of our funding cost to a great 3.21%, driven by similar or slightly lower costs for our deposits, and a continuously improved pricing in the bond market.

This keeps us, obviously, keeps us at a very competitive competitive level moving forward. The funding cost in relation to the NPL portfolio book value continues to drop, and is now below the 4% level, where we saw a really strong 4.1% in Q2.

That has improved even further. NSFR comes in at 138%, which drives the cost down as well.

At this level, we feel that we are very much in control, as our ambition is to be at around the 140% mark. Can go to the next slide.

Then looking at our capital position, CET1 comes in at 12.9%, well above regulatory levels, and not materially different than the level we saw in Q2, which was also to be expected given the investment volumes for the quarter. LCR remains at continued high levels.

Our liquidity reserve remains at around 27 billion SEK, which leads to a ratio compared to the NPL book value of 68%, and this is to be compared to 79% in Q3 last year. We're continuing to improve our NSFR efficiency.

This ratio has steadily been decreasing quarter-by-quarter, with now a record low level in Q3 of this year. As mentioned, 138% NSFR, relatively low, but still very much in in control.

To conclude, a continued strong operational performance in the quarter with a really strong and healthy return level. We are in a really favorable position from a capital and liquidity perspective to continue to grow in the coming quarters, and to continue to perform at the great levels we have been dem- demonstrating now last couple of years.

That's about it for me. With that, I hand back to you, Harry.

Thank you very much, Magnus. Yes, before we open up for questions, just a few concluding remarks here.

Q3, as I said, has been in many ways been a nuts-and-bolts quarter, a delivery quarter, heads down, collecting and integrating and onboarding, and at the same time, optimizing our funding mix and cost, and keeping the teams active on the sourcing end of the business. We've invested close to 10 billion SEK already in the first months of this year, and we continue to see an active market for the end of the year, with the pipeline also for Q1 starting to fill up.

As I mentioned earlier, we see renewed activity in the secondary market. Now, in the UK, we're building position there.

We're merging the Azuro 2.6 billion SEK SME portfolio and operations with our previous 2.6 billion SEK private individuals portfolio, making it our second largest portfolio in the company, with a solid platform for continued growth and local scale advantages in the UK market. Then on the funding side, following our successful launches of our own euro deposit platforms in Germany and Spain during late '25 and early '26, we will now also launch a Polish zloty platform in Poland during Q1 '27 to further diversify our funding sources, and, of course, trimming our NSFR efficiency and thereby funding cost.

We have come a long way as Hoist Finance to becoming the leading investor and manager of non-performing loans in Europe, and we will continue to strengthen our position going forward, portfolio by portfolio, quarter by quarter. With that, let's open up for questions.

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.

Hi, guys. First, on the funding cost, the mix between the asset and liability side clearly supports your funding margin, although market rates are going up.

I guess with an average deposit fixed for more than a year, is this sort of fully priced in now, or could we expect this trend to continue into '27?

Hi, Björn, and thanks for the question. I think, as you say, we have increased our maturity period for the deposits, and we are now sort of more optimized than we were a couple of quarters ago from an NSFR efficiency perspective.

I would expect our favorable outcome here to continue for at least a couple more quarters, 1 or 2 quarters.

Clear. Then just second on portfolio acquisitions.

I guess is it only seasonal volatility explaining that you're only investing in primary this quarter, or are you seeing a trend where, I guess, the most portfolios for sales are coming from your market, while secondary is a bit more muted, or how do you see this trend going forward?

Hey, Björn. Thanks for the question.

I think for the last few quarters, we've been heavy on the primary market, and I think last time we saw a lot of activity on the secondary market, that was '24, '25 during those years. What we see now is that activity on the secondary market is picking up again.

This quarter, just like the previous one, was primarily primary, but I think now we see funds and industrials looking over their positions, and we see some activity there we expect will materialize during 2027.

Okay. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

Good morning. Thanks for the presentation or taking my questions.

Maybe first, I think you said that you saw accretive returns on your investments in the quarter. Is that any trend shift?

I think before you've talked about seeing more stable returns relative to your back book. I think,

hey, Ermin, by the way, first of all, thanks for the question.

No, so,

I guess we have been investing on accretive returns over the last five years, right? I think in terms of sort of compared to the average, I would say, yes, slight uptick this quarter, very slight, but of course it helps the average for the year as well.

You've had some peers out talking about increased competition in the market. Do you see that as well, or are you able to offset it by having maybe a more diverse investment pallet?

I think, as as we have said, I think, before, what we we have seen on certain transactions in the Nordics, we've seen let's say new competition or or or increased competition. Now, of course, we we are, we're we're able to deploy capital in 15 different markets, in in unsecured and secured, in in consumer, in SME.

Of course that optionality gives us, well, gives us exactly that, right? Optionality to to deploy in other markets when we see a certain market becoming tight.

In the Nordics, we've seen we've seen increased competition.

Good. Then last question, maybe just if you could talk a little bit more about the cost outlook.

I think it's quite impressive with the indirect costs being still flat despite consolidating Azuro and so on. How much more scale can you actually get out of this?

Hi, Ermin. No, and I think what we illustrated at CMD in September, I think it was, we have, throughout the last couple of years, been improving this on a steady basis.

We expect to see this improvement to continue as we grow the book, and we are extracting scale out of the existing business. I don't want to give any guidance on an exact percentage number or something, but we are expecting and working hard to keep improving this metric.

Splendid. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ermin.

That seems to—

Right. We have a couple of written questions as well, we will take them.

First one: You mentioned that your 27 billion liquidity reserve acts as natural hedge against rising interest rates. Can you briefly explain how that works?

I would say that our 27 billion liquidity reserve mainly acts as a mitigant to our FX mismatch in the balance sheet. When it comes to the rising interest rates, what we see now, where we have moved from overnight to now longer tenors in our deposit base, we will see a delayed impact of any interest rate hikes.

Were we in the wholesale section of our funding, we would obviously see it immediately, and likewise in the liquidity reserve. The longer tenors we have now in our deposit base, that is really what covers us for a longer period of time for the actual financial impact.

Yeah. To simplify, you could say, I guess, if the interest rates go up, it's bad for the bond side, let's say, or the bonds get a little bit more expensive, and we have about 10 billion of bonds.

At the same time, then you also get higher yields on the treasuries that we have in the liquidity buffer, and there we have 27 billion. That's sort of how we think about that hedge.

Yeah.

Thanks for clarifying.

It's both on the asset and liability side. That's clear.

Another question then: How should we think about the net impact of higher rates on Hoist today? Has your overall interest rate sensitivity changed compared to a few years ago?

Let's see if I understand this question correctly.

I think let me try that one. I think a little bit as Magnus just explained, right?

We have a delayed impact on the deposits because all of it is fixed term, right? I would say that impact is, on average, 1.2 years.

How has this interest rate sensitivity changed compared to a few years ago? If the market is rational and interest rates go up, that should mean that portfolio prices will go down, right?

The funding for the competition has gone up, basically, right? People should be bidding a little bit lower for new portfolios.

If you look at Hoist in the years '22, '23, even '24, maybe, when interest rates went from the zero level almost up to, well, was it even 4%, I think, for a while, 4.5%? Those were some of Hoist's, let's say, most competitive years, right?

Our funding was much more competitive in that environment than most of our competitors. We don't fear interest rate changes, right, as Hoist.

I think that's clear. Great.

There are no more questions. If you have any, just call us.

Thank you all very much. Hope you have a great day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.