Mycronic AB (publ)

Mycronic AB (publ)

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Q2 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptJuly 14, 2026

Sven Chetkovich

Hello, welcome to the presentation of Mycronic's Q2 report. My name is Sven Chetkovich.

I am the Director, Investor Relations at Mycronic. With me, I have Mycronic's CEO, Anders Lindqvist, and CFO, Pierre Brorsson, who will be presenting today.

With that, I hand over to Anders. Please go ahead and present Mycronic's Q2 report.

Sven Chetkovich

Anders Lindqvist

Thank you, Sven. Good morning, everyone.

Today, we have the standard agenda talk about the Q2 in general, in short, go deeper in the different divisions. Pierre will talk about the financials and some words on sustainability, we end the session with the question and answer session.

As usual in the material that is on the website, you also have the market update, which we will not present, but it is there for information. Just to summarize the second quarter, it was an excellent quarter, really.

Many records in different ways. We had a record order intake up 119%, but also the level is very high at SEK 2.9 billion, we have never been higher.

What is very nice to see is that we have contributions from all the different divisions, very much from Global Technologies, you will see, but also very strong development in High Volume and Pattern Generators. Pattern Generators is compared to quite weak quarter two last year, but still decent level.

Also very nice to see is that sales is also picking up, not only orders alone, that second-best level up to SEK 2.4 billion, very much from Global Technologies in that increase. Very strong gross margin at 57% and also very strong EBIT at close to SEK 700 million, corresponding to 29%.

Because of strong order intake, of course, we could say that the backlog have increased to SEK 5.25 billion, which is quite a good level for us to have. Going a little bit more in detail on the different divisions, starting with Pattern Generators.

Percentage-wise, it looks like you had the super order intake with 253%, but last year, quarter two was very weak, where we had no system orders at all, actually. The level we reach now is SEK 625 million, which is a decent level, but compared to a weak quarter, a lot of percent, of course.

We had four different SLX on orders in the quarter, three normal machines, then we had this one customized SLX that we announced already last quarter, which is a one-off project with a very high sales price, almost $30 million on that one. Sales a little bit down to SEK 900 million, this is positively impacted by the Cowin acquisition by SEK 26 million.

Strong gross margin at 72%, EBIT close to SEK 500 million, where we had the negative impact from Cowin acquisition of minus SEK 14 million, and overall an EBIT margin of 53%, which is quite nice. Order backlog SEK 1.7 billion, and we have 13 systems now in the backlog as of end of the quarter quite solid, basic.

PCB Assembly Solutions here we have both positive and negative we have the two largest order ever taken in the quarter, and both of them coming from the defense industry, so very strong orders. This has resulted in a record order intake of SEK 444 million.

At the same time, you can see that we continue to make a loss. We had the sales of SEK 303 million, and the gross margin of 37%, but still we had a negative EBIT of SEK 44 million.

In that SEK 44 million, there is a restructuring cost of SEK 39 million, but even taking that out, we're still negative on the EBIT. This is also why we now have started a restructuring program, where we want to bring the EBIT margin back about 10%, and this should happen latest by next year at current volumes.

Make PCB Assembly Solutions great again, really. High Volume, very strong demand here as well, which you can see very much coming from the Chinese consumer electronics industry that has started to invest a lot they're launching new products, but also markets outside of China.

We can also see in this division that we have a positive impact from opportunities when it comes to building up AI infrastructure, where we have sold the dispensing solutions to server assemblies and the final assembly of optical modules. Strong order intake, almost SEK 700 million, up 82%.

Sales a little bit less, up SEK 513 million. Very strong gross margin at 44%, and EBIT SEK 68 million, which is equal to 13%.

Here we have a financial impact of ESOP of minus SEK 24 million as well included in that number. Strong backlog at close to SEK 1.2 billion.

Very good performance from High Volume the best performance of all the divisions we have in Global Technologies. We can see that, especially in the PCB test and die bonding, but very good contributions from the other businesses as well in this division.

Order intake up above SEK 1 billion for the first time, SEK 1,111 million, so SEK 1.11 billion, which is 176% up. Sales, also very good to see that this is following.

Up to SEK 700 million that we don't only build backlog but also are building up the delivery capacity. We have a small positive impact from acquisitions of Surfx and the German company ETZ of SEK 31 million, but nevertheless, very strong sales increase and gross margin, super strong at 56% and EBIT up to SEK 250 million, which is a very strong pick-up from the same quarter last year.

Small impact of the different acquisitions. We have still some noise from acquisitions in here, so negative from Surfx and ETZ, but also positive impact of an earn-out that was reversed in Surfx.

That was SEK 14 million all that together means a very strong EBIT margin at 36% and an increase of backlog to SEK 2.1 billion. I think we can start to see that Global Technologies start to have quite a meaningful contribution to the group numbers.

The strong momentum we have right now in the business, we have very little bit of currency also in our favor right now has made us to revise the outlook for the full year, and we revised that up half a billion to SEK 9.25 billion to reach that by the end of the year. With that, I will hand over to Pierre Brorsson for a while.

Anders Lindqvist

Pierre Brorsson

Thank you so much, Anders. I will take you through a bit the graphical look on the numbers.

We increased year-on-year with 17% on an already quite good quarter last year, up to the second-best level at SEK 2.4 billion in the quarter. We also had another record when it comes to aftermarket revenue, which was SEK 544 million, just above what we had in Q1 2025.

Our EBIT margin on a high level, close to 30% at 29%, which is not a record, but still very strong. If we look where we stand on a rolling 12-month basis, we have now reached SEK 8.65 billion, with an EBIT margin at a solid 26%, after two strong quarters starting this year.

The aftermarket revenue crossed the line of SEK 2 billion for the first time, that corresponds now to 24% of our net sales, this is something that we put strong emphasis on. If we look at the quarter-on-quarter and where did the result improvement come from, it was all in the gross margin.

It was both improved gross margin, which we have had in Global Technologies as well as in High Volume. Then we had a volume effect on top of that.

On the cost side, we continue to invest both in building the organizational footprint globally, in various parts of the divisions, we continue to invest in technology. The technology investments in R&D is this quarter more broad-based than before.

In three of the divisions, we have continued to increase the spend distinctly. Pattern Generators, High Volume, and Global Technologies.

On the PCB assembly, we have a more moderate level of spend in the R&D side at the moment. Marketing and sales and G&A, we continue to build and expand the footprint.

There is a little bit of acquisition effect in these numbers as well, we continue to expand and take advantage of the strong positions that we have. Ending the quarter at SEK 698 million or 29%.

If we compare in the other direction and look division by division, you can see that all the improvement actually came from Global Technologies in the quarter. Pattern Generators had a strong comparison in the same quarter last year.

In PCB Assembly Solutions, as Anders mentioned, we have SEK 39 million of exceptional costs for restructuring. High Volume, good quarter, also loaded with the ESOP costs this year, actually underlying an improvement.

Strong development in Global Technologies, that took us back to SEK 698 that we have reported. Oh, this went the wrong way.

Cash flow. We have a strong result, which, of course, is very supportive to the cash flow as well.

The growth that we have is causing a bit negative impact on the working capital, even if the effect was even bigger during last year, where we also started the year strong. A little bit of cash impact there on the investment side, we have the relatively moderate acquisitions, ETZ and Cowin, that we have invested in this year.

We have also invested a little bit more in our organization than we would normally or had historically have done. Among other things, we are investing in Täby and Kista for the PG and PA divisions.

On the financing activity side, we had the dividend is the majority of that takes us to cash at the end of the period of SEK 2.7 billion or a net cash position of SEK 2.3 billion. With that quick walkthrough of the numbers, I hand the word back to Anders again.

Pierre Brorsson

Anders Lindqvist

Thank you, Pierre. We move over to sustainability and different topics each time.

This one, we zoom in on the transportation, which is today 7% of our greenhouse gas emissions for Mycronic. We're doing efforts to reduce the emissions by changing transportation mode.

Many of our equipment are transported by air freight, we try to the largest extent possible to move that into sea freight. From Pattern Generators, we have started to ship spare parts to Asia by sea.

We have also improved the flows from PCB Assembly Solutions between China and Sweden and shifting from air to sea transport. Also Global Technologies on the Photonic Interconnects business line, we also are starting doing sea freight for equipment going to the U.S.

Of course, sea freight instead of air freight requires a little bit more on the packaging to protect the equipment, also in terms of planning and so on, because it takes a longer time. We are in a good position to do that.

Those initiatives, which is very much in close collaboration, both with the customers also with our suppliers, we are all on the same line, are contributing to reduce our emissions across the total value chain. Quite important steps here.

That was the end of the normal presentation. Now we can move into question and answer, Sven.

Anders Lindqvist

Sven Chetkovich

Yes. Thank you, Anders, and thank you, Pierre.

Now we are moving over to the Q&A session, we start with Ina Djupsund at SEB. Ina, please go ahead and ask your questions.

Sven Chetkovich

Ina Djupsund

Yes. Hi, Sven and Anders, thanks for taking my questions.

I wanted to start by asking on your raised outlook again here for 2026, if you could give some flavor on the kind of main drivers behind this and where the kind of positive delta for 2026 is coming from. A second, you previously indicated that you're kind of fully booked within PCB test for 2026.

Will you be able to kind of increase delivery capacity here and what can you say about kind of the current utilization and potential expansion plans?

Ina Djupsund

Pierre Brorsson

Got you. If I take the first one with the increased outlook, we have seen very good demand in High Volume.

You could say that it's basically one third, one third, one third we have increased demand in High Volume. We have also further increased demand in the Global Technologies, it's in particular the AI infrastructure-related products, the die bonding, to some degree, PCB test.

The third one is, of course, the currencies have a certain impact as well. Basically, these three buckets, a little bit similar in size compared to prior quarter.

Pierre Brorsson

Anders Lindqvist

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was the question about the delivery capacity in PCB test, I think, in particular.

I think we announced already before that we're doing expansion of the production facility, which is not yet there, but it will be end of this year, I think it is.

Anders Lindqvist

Pierre Brorsson

Yeah

Pierre Brorsson

Anders Lindqvist

Planned for. Already, we are doing improvement in the total supply chain.

It's not only factory floor space that is kind of impacting the delivery capacity, it's also the whole supply chain with sub-suppliers and so on, and can see that also the revenue numbers are picking up in that business. We are able to deliver more, also improve the current situation a little bit the order intake is even stronger, so it means that the long lead time remains long.

It's more than a year and a half right now. It depends on the equipment, of course, also.

We are super cautious we have quite large down payment parts in the contract and so am I really to safeguard that we will not suffer from any cancellations or speculations in this backlog. It looks quite good.

We are better and better on delivery, so it's also good for the revenues, which is visible, I think.

Anders Lindqvist

Ina Djupsund

EBIT was super strong in Global Tech here in Q2. How sustainable would you say this level of profitability is for the whole division?

Ina Djupsund

Pierre Brorsson

I think it's a good question. I think this 36% that we delivered in the quarter is a little bit on the high side, if you want to have a direction, I think for now, I think we will be able to be around the 30% mark.

I think that's a level where we are at with this strong demand and good volumes that we have.

Pierre Brorsson

Ina Djupsund

Thank you. Yeah, that was all for me.

Ina Djupsund

Pierre Brorsson

Thank you.

Pierre Brorsson

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Ina. Now over to London and Oliver Wong at Bank of America.

Please go ahead and ask your questions, Oliver.

Sven Chetkovich

Oliver Wong

Hey, guys. Hope you can hear me.

Yeah, thanks a lot. I was wondering for maybe for Pattern Generators, I think the revenues in the quarter exceeded expectations quite a bit, so I was wondering if there's anything to flag there, any one-offs in terms of revenue, and also just a general update on the trends in terms of underlying demand for display mask writers, for China semi mask writers, for non-China semi mask writers would be super helpful.

Thank you.

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

No, there was nothing extraordinary in the quarter I think we delivered according to plan, I think it was five systems, Sven, that we delivered, and that was planned, and also, I think, according to what we have in the previous reports also on what should be delivered when, and so on that was just following that. On the market situation, starting with the displays, we had a little bit, or still have a little bit lower than normal, I would say, order intake on the display side, which I think is kind of normal.

We have those cycles normally coming up and down, and also the replacement programs goes a little bit in cycles as the generations shift a little bit at the same time. I think we're a little bit lower than normal, and we should expect that to pick up, but difficult to say when, really.

There is nothing in the market that has changed, actually. We can see that the display manufacturers and the demand is still quite high, and we can also see that there is a lot of technology development on the display side.

An example is this, if you look on mobile phone, they start now to have integrated privacy filters into the display. That drives the mask demand quite significantly, actually.

Innovations like that is to our favor, really on the semi side, it's holding up surprisingly good. I think we said it before that China bought a lot in the past and maybe a little bit less now, but you can actually see that I think demand in China is still strong and could even be even bigger.

I think China is still moving quite ahead on the semi side, and as do the rest of the world as well, of course, with everyone still stronger and strongly believe in owning the supply chain, and also with the demand that is on the market right now, investing quite a lot. Semi is also quite strong, I would say.

No surprises, maybe, but that's as it is.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

Semi mask writer demand, China is quite strong. Non-China, how is that trending?

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

Similar, I would say.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

Okay. Sounds good.

Okay. If I may ask another question?

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

Sure. Mm-hmm.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

On the Global Tech growing very strongly, driven by PCB test and die bonding, it seems like it's sort of silicon photonics die bonding or something like that, or maybe just optical in general. I was wondering if you could just talk a bit more about how you see the growth trending going forward, how do you see your EBIT margins for the group growing into the future?

Thanks.

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

On the demand side, very much is driven by photonics and communication-related equipment, it is really about the optical, very much on the packaging of optical components into transceivers and stuff like that. Typical customers are, of course, like InnoLight, Lumentum, and those kind of people who are building transceivers for different manufacturers.

If you look on their numbers, they are very strong as well, I think. That is really following that on that side.

Super strong demand. This is impacting die bonding directly with those customers, but also the whole AI infrastructure is impacting PCB test as well because then later, a lot of components are coming on very complicated boards that we test with our equipment, or not we test, but our customers test that.

What was the second question now?

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

On the EBIT margin going forward.

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

We had 36% in the quarter on Global Technologies that's little bit on the high side because we still need to build up capability and capacity in the division. Right now, the revenue and profit moving a little bit faster than the planned cost.

When the planned cost comes to kind of a normal level, I believe at the current demand and the current mix, we will be around 30% in this division on a normalized level. As everything looks right now, that should be kind of the normal rate at the current momentum.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

I was wondering, you say 30% normalized EBIT margins, presumably, let's say the trends continue, revenues will continue to grow. In terms of normalized, what kind of timeframe do you expect?

Or do you expect more like, let's say if trends continue 30%, that will continue to increase going forward?

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

No, I think normalized, I mean, if you take that the current order intake translates into revenue, let's say a year from now, and then we are able to invest as we would need to in that division. I think that point in time should be within a year.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

Okay

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

That's the thinking. Mm-hmm.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

Potential upside to that into the future.

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

Yeah, if volume goes beyond that, then that should have leverage.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

Yeah

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

The gross margin is quite strong in this division.

Anders Lindqvist

Oliver Wong

Absolutely. Thank you very much.

Oliver Wong

Anders Lindqvist

Thank you.

Anders Lindqvist

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Oliver. Now over to Nordea and Anders Åkerblom.

Sven Chetkovich

Anders Åkerblom

Thanks, Sven. Good morning, gents.

I wanted to ask firstly, Anders, you said a bit about the display market being stable, expecting potentially some orders to come through there as well, I guess, with the Prexision 8000. Just balancing that with what we're seeing in terms of component price inflation and that impacting some of the display manufacturers potentially, investment willingness and such.

How do you balance that against, I guess, a good pipeline of eventual customers taking the Prexision 8000?

Anders Åkerblom

Anders Lindqvist

Yeah.

Anders Lindqvist

Anders Åkerblom

Timing-wise.

Anders Åkerblom

Anders Lindqvist

Yeah. If anything, that would possibly delay a little bit, maybe decisions, because of course, the payback calculations will look differently with the higher component cost and so on.

At the same time, the development has to happen in a way. We haven't seen so much of that.

If anything, it's difficult to say because the pipeline is, I would say, quite normal, as usual, the time between initial discussion and closing is extremely variable in our case, and we don't really know always if this is depending on what is the reason for that, and so on. My thinking is that it has a minor impact on decisions on that in the bigger perspective.

We should really soon sell a P8000. I think logically it should happen, customers are not always as logical as we are, I think.

That's interesting.

Anders Lindqvist

Anders Åkerblom

Yeah. No, thanks.

I appreciate that answer. You elaborated a bit on that before in terms of Globaltech, and I know what you're trying to do in terms of protecting, I guess, your demand and your existing customers with expanding capacity and working with sub-suppliers and whatnot.

How do you see the competitive landscape evolving here? As you say, lead times are quite long, a year and a half in PCB test.

Is this something that keeps you up at night, so to speak?

Anders Åkerblom

Anders Lindqvist

Yeah, I think it's something that we really want to improve. In one way, it could be very convenient to have a backlog because then we know the future.

On the other hand, it's also quite a big risk on that one. I think we definitely don't want to expand it more or to prolong the lead time more than what we have now.

I think we can see that it stabilizes and normalizes, because we are getting better and better on deliveries as well. I think this is less and less an issue.

Absolutely, this is super important. I think right now, because the customers also have quite some lead time at their end, because it's not only our equipment that needs to go into the factories, and almost everyone has the same challenge right now.

You can see the lead times from, even though it's not competitors, but complementary equipment is also extremely long and in many cases longer. As long as we're not the worst or the bottleneck, we don't get the heat, really.

If it would be longer, then it might happen. We should definitely keep it where it is and preferably shorten it.

Anders Lindqvist

Anders Åkerblom

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

I know it's still fairly early, but I would as always appreciate your speculation here. On the current backlog in PG, all else equal, how do you see revenues trending into 2027 in PG compared to 2026?

Do you expect it to be at a materially lower level, or do you see some orders coming through that would support that? Anything you could say there would be great.

Anders Åkerblom

Anders Lindqvist

Yeah, I think we only know what we know right now in a way, that is the current backlog and the delivery schedule. As you say, there are quite some gaps in the quarters.

Anders Lindqvist

Anders Åkerblom

Yeah

Anders Åkerblom

Anders Lindqvist

We can still fill. I think the next half year will really tell on how well we are filling that.

It's a little bit on the thin side, for sure. I agree to that.

We work very hard to fill it. It's a

Anders Lindqvist

Anders Åkerblom

That I know you do.

Anders Åkerblom

Anders Lindqvist

It's a product that is difficult to sell in a way that if the customer doesn't need it doesn't matter how good you are in selling it.

Anders Lindqvist

Anders Åkerblom

Thank you very much for your answers. I'll get back in line.

Anders Åkerblom

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Anders. Now we move over to Henric Hintze at ABG Sundal Collier.

Please go ahead and ask your questions, Henric.

Sven Chetkovich

Henric Hintze

Thank you. First of all, I'd like to just follow up on one of the Globaltech questions there.

You said you don't want to let the PCB test lead times increase further and preferably shorten them. Could you give us any detail on how you intend to achieve that?

Henric Hintze

Anders Lindqvist

We are expanding the factory, that effect will come towards the end of the year, it's also the whole supply chain that is, in many cases, quite constrained, and we can see that from many different businesses right now that it's a little bit choked. I think the majority of improvement will come from there.

Right now, I think we can also improve our, how do you say, lead time in the factory even further a little bit. We will be able to deliver more and more every day, you can say.

It's small improvements all the time. The big difference will come from early next year, I would say, when we have more space or more capacity.

Anders Lindqvist

Henric Hintze

Could you remind us how much your capacity should increase from current levels when that comes online?

Henric Hintze

Anders Lindqvist

25% more.

Anders Lindqvist

Henric Hintze

Okay. On the margins in this segment, could you just give us some more detail on what has driven the sort of qq change in the margin?

Is it operating leverage? Is it price?

Is it mix?

Henric Hintze

Pierre Brorsson

It's a mix of different things. Of course, the level of fixed cost in relation to the turnover is going down as we are increasing the volume and as we are getting the throughput up.

That's one important lever. We have also quite a good level of software content with the backfill functionality that we've spoken about a few times in these products, and where we have launched a second version, which is also supporting the total price paid, even if it's not a price increase on the product as such.

Then, of course, given the situation, there is not so much of a price pressure. It's more a delivery pressure that we feel from the customers.

This, in combination, supports the improved gross margin in the PCB test specifically. On the die bonding side, we have since already some years, worked hard on improving the cost base and focusing on highly profitable products, supporting the improvement of gross margin in that business line.

Pierre Brorsson

Henric Hintze

Okay. Orders in the first half year have obviously been very strong.

Is 25% extra capacity really enough with the demand situation as you see it now? Doesn't sound like that much given the growth numbers we're seeing.

Henric Hintze

Pierre Brorsson

We believe that on top of what we have, that will at least, for what we can see, support the deliveries that we need to do.

Pierre Brorsson

Henric Hintze

Are you getting any indications from the customers here on sort of the longer-term demand picture?

Henric Hintze

Pierre Brorsson

We are already taking orders with a pretty long lead time and with down payment. We know that if the world continue to exist, then 2027 will for sure be good and beginning of 2028 as well.

Beyond that, I think we can speculate, of course.

Pierre Brorsson

Henric Hintze

Okay. I would love to hear you speculate more, but I'll get back in line for that.

Henric Hintze

Sven Chetkovich

Yeah. Thank you, Henric.

Now we will move over to Mikael Laséen at DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead and ask your questions, Mikael.

Sven Chetkovich

Mikael Laséen

Thanks. Yeah, I have more of a detailed question first on the PG segment.

You had quite good sales, I think, I think you have delayed one SLX system delivery to Q3. The margin was still really good I'm just curious here about the service and upgrade revenue development in Q2, if you can elaborate on that.

Was that maybe higher than normal, higher than usual?

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

It's a slight positive, but it's within what we say is normal it's not totally different. You can say that the mix of machines delivered were quite strong.

There was a lot of Prexision machines delivered in the quarter, which is having a higher price than SLX is.

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Yeah.

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

That contributes, of course.

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Okay. When it comes to the R&D spending, it was a bit lower than in Q1 for the PG segment.

Can you talk to us about if you are slowing down the R&D activity here from high levels or what we should expect going forward?

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

No, I think you can take Q1 and Q2 and combine them, it's a little bit when investments in certain external services fall more. It's correct that it's SEK 15 million lower in Q2 than it was in Q1.

That's correct. I think if you take the average of those, I think it's a fair representation of where we spend at the moment.

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Okay. Going over to the Global Technologies segment, I'm a bit curious here if you can elaborate on the different businesses you have there, maybe more in detail, the profitability development and also how Surfx is performing it was a relatively large acquisition last year.

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

Maybe it's worth mentioning that acquisition effect as we reported is one year, as we took on Surfx from the beginning of June last year, there is only a two-month acquisition effect reported in the report. Actually, June was a very strong month.

You see a loss reported here for ETZ and Surfx, but this only relates to April and May for Surfx, June was very strong. I think development in Surfx is at the moment strong.

Order intake is picking up, we will be distinctly above last year when we end this year. Margins are stronger than average in Global Technologies.

This is also supportive to the growth, or will be supportive to the gross margin and the EBIT margin going forward.

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Just to follow up on Surfx, I noticed that you have a litigation process ongoing, or you have just started that. Can you talk to us about what that is about?

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

It's a U.S. litigation process.

A small competitor of ours that we are investigating whether there is an infringement or not.

Pierre Brorsson

Anders Lindqvist

On patent.

Anders Lindqvist

Pierre Brorsson

On patent, yeah.

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Okay. I guess that you're doing this for a reason that you noticed that the competition is maybe improving or I don't know.

Can you.

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

No

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Say something more about the backdrop of this?

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

I think we are always trying to uphold our IP. We have certain processes ongoing at various times.

We have other processes going on in Global Technologies in other markets. I think there's nothing, no drama about that one.

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Okay. Just a final one on Global Tech, if I may.

The segment is obviously performing really well, but what about further M&A opportunities, if you can talk to us about that, and how you allocate capital in that segment, if you focus more on the organic side, the CapEx expansions on the organic side, or if you have more M&A opportunities out there?

Mikael Laséen

Pierre Brorsson

I think we have a number of things that we are doing organically now in particular with the recent acquisitions. I think they still have to come up to speed, a few of them.

There is no limitation on the M&A side. We have a strong cash position.

We have a willingness to invest if we have the right technology at the right price. Of course, tech valuations, as you know, they are quite challenging for now.

This may be a little bit of an obstacle, but we continue to explore and we continue to drive forward, and we think that also in the future, a meaningful part of the growth should come from new businesses.

Pierre Brorsson

Mikael Laséen

Okay, thanks.

Mikael Laséen

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Mikael. Now over to Fredrik Lithell at Handelsbanken.

Sven Chetkovich

Fredrik Lithell

Thank you for taking my questions as well. I thought we could start off with PCB assembly that we haven't really dug too much into and see what you will achieve with the total SEK 100 million restructuring charge you're taking, how you intend to spend that, and what it will deliver for you in terms of lowered OpEx base.

What is that more specific? It would be interesting to hear.

Fredrik Lithell

Anders Lindqvist

It's a mix of quite a lot of different things in there. We are reducing the workforce.

This is one part of cost, of course, but we're also changing the way we manufacture and do business and so on. We're looking into opportunities to insource possibly some products instead of manufacturing ourself, and still want to offer the same kind of product portfolio that we do, but maybe made in a different way.

This is still on investigation, but the real target is to lower the cost really, the OpEx cost, and to a level where we can make the solid minimum 10% EBIT even in a valley or in a downturn and so on. If you take the current sales volume or even a little bit less, we should still be able to make 10% on that one, then I think we have a contribution to the group financial-wise.

That is the whole aim for the exercise. I think we have eight or 10 different kind of work streams on how that should really happen.

There are small pieces of everything, but.

Anders Lindqvist

Fredrik Lithell

It has been a weak market for a long time, let's call it that. Have you seen changes in pricing dynamics as a consequence of that, so that it has been tougher on pricing?

Fredrik Lithell

Anders Lindqvist

Not so much as you could maybe expect, and we could say, but what we see is this market is not really growing, this high mix market really. It's there, and it's not that small, and it's existing, and it's a quite interesting market.

The problem is there is very little growth in the market, I think, but that's why I think we can still be a meaningful player and make money in it, but more maybe on a stable base than on a growing base. You could see that many competitors are announcing that they are withdrawing from the PCB assembly market.

We have seen announcements from ASMPT that they are what they call having a strategic overview on the PCB assembly. We saw last year that Kulicke & Soffa just closed their PCB assembly business without not even trying to sell it and so on.

We know that competitors are struggling. At the same time, the high volume segment in PCB assembly goes quite well.

We can see that the companies like Fuji and Panasonic and those high volume players are doing quite well and enjoying that, which means also they spend a little bit less time maybe on the high mix side. It's not so much price pressure, but it's more that the market is a little bit too small.

Anders Lindqvist

Fredrik Lithell

Okay. Thank you.

Fredrik Lithell

Anders Lindqvist

Not growing.

Anders Lindqvist

Fredrik Lithell

Another question. I noticed, Pierre, you alluded to atg and a new product version that had been launched.

I had a question here on when we visited Productronica, we got the A9 showcased for us. Can you describe a little bit how the innovation and how the development on the flying probe machines are looking for you?

What sort of scope and time plan for more advanced machines do you have?

Fredrik Lithell

Pierre Brorsson

I think this is not maybe the best case to make a future product launch. We continue, of course, to develop and enhance the machines that we have in the market.

The A9 is relatively new. We have the back drill functionality, which we have in now a second version, which is better and then also priced at a different level.

We have made certain acquisitions where we will also see what we can combine out of those. There is a relevant product development taking place also in PCB test.

Pierre Brorsson

Fredrik Lithell

Okay, thank you. Just a final one from me.

The P8000 went to Photronics. Is that the first time a merchant is picking up the new high-end machines for the coming 10 years?

Or did the merchants always be in the lead?

Fredrik Lithell

Pierre Brorsson

I think this is actually no difference to when the P800 was also.

Pierre Brorsson

Fredrik Lithell

Okay

Fredrik Lithell

Pierre Brorsson

Anders going first.

Pierre Brorsson

Fredrik Lithell

Okay. Thank you.

Curious, yes.

Fredrik Lithell

Pierre Brorsson

Yeah.

Pierre Brorsson

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Fredrik. Now we will do a second quicker round, I assume.

We go back to Ina Djupsund at SEB to see if you have any further questions, Ina.

Sven Chetkovich

Ina Djupsund

Yes, I could do a follow-up on the question about R&D spend. How do you expect this to develop in 2027?

What kind of portion of the current R&D spend is related to new product launches within PG? Can we assume that R&D spend will peak in 2026?

Ina Djupsund

Pierre Brorsson

That will depend on how good ideas we have in the future. I think that we have now the big investments that we do on inspection, as we have been talking about before.

I expect that we continue to run on this level at least the coming year. Because just that you get into the market doesn't mean that the product is 100% ready and that you can stop developing on it.

Pierre Brorsson

Ina Djupsund

Okay, thank you. That was all for me.

Ina Djupsund

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Ina. Now over to Oliver.

Any further questions from you, Bank of America?

Sven Chetkovich

Oliver Wong

No further questions at this point. Thank you.

Oliver Wong

Sven Chetkovich

Okay. Anders Åkerblom, Nordea, do you have any follow-up questions?

Sven Chetkovich

Anders Åkerblom

Yeah, sure. One final, if I may.

Speaking about good ideas, you seem to have a few in High Volume, at least, judging on R&D spend being up almost 50% year-over-year. Anything you want to say there?

Anders Åkerblom

Anders Lindqvist

No, it's nothing in particular, I think on High Volume in particular, we have been very good in adapting to market needs, really, to constantly develop new features and for new applications. I think that has been quite a large portion of the growth that we have seen in this division, we continue to do so.

We still have the majority of applications in consumer electronic, but we see opportunities on the AI side, on the semiconductor side, especially we can do more on the automotive side and so on. I think we will see more and more.

Also we see more and more products, actually, that requires new solutions. We have now these AI glasses.

It's very hot in China, that requires totally new features from the dispensing equipment when it comes on how to rotate the object and how to fill and to what precision and also on quality assurance and so on. I think it's majority of innovations really this kind of application-oriented innovation where we're solving new problems because of new challenges for customers.

By that, we are able to grow the business. That's also quite a good way to stay ahead of competition, actually, because we have a lot of competitors on the dispensing side, but I would say that most of them are quite behind because of our speed of innovations.

Anders Lindqvist

Anders Åkerblom

Okay. Very good answer.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

Anders Åkerblom

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Anders. Now over to Henric Hintze, ABG Sundal Collier.

You have any further questions?

Sven Chetkovich

Henric Hintze

Yeah. Just to follow up quickly on that.

You wrote in the report and you mentioned now again that you're capitalizing on some new AI opportunities in the High Volume segment. Could you give us any idea of what the potential is here?

I assume we're not going to see High Volume start growing the way Global Tech is, but is it a significant potential?

Henric Hintze

Anders Lindqvist

I think it's a potential. I think the difference is that High Volume is very broad.

We have numbers of different applications, and AI is a bit of that. Most likely the AI-related applications will grow, but they are maybe less than 20% of the total, that will not, while it is in Global Technologies, maybe more closer to everything.

That's a difference, of course. It's difficult to say what the potential is, but I think you can see the rate of order intake and so on, and I think that is very much driven by new applications and also an improved market situation.

I don't really know how much is exactly AI related and so on, but it is helping for sure, and I think it also have some spillover effect that even if it's not maybe pure AI, it's still electronics assembly will need to happen more and more.

Anders Lindqvist

Henric Hintze

Okay. Thank you very much.

Henric Hintze

Anders Lindqvist

Thank you.

Anders Lindqvist

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Henric. Now over to Mikael Laséen, DNB Carnegie.

You have any more questions?

Sven Chetkovich

Mikael Laséen

Actually, I have a follow-up, again, on this high volume demand driver from AI applications. You mentioned AI glasses.

What other applications are you talking about and is relevant here?

Mikael Laséen

Anders Lindqvist

That is under consumer electronics, you can debate if it's AI glasses or glasses with a little bit of AI functionality inside and so on, it's still labeled like that, I think. More precise is what we refer to in the report, I think, which is this kind of heat dissipating dispensing equipment, which is going directly into the I don't remember exactly what it was actually.

It was the communication equipment, I think.

Anders Lindqvist

Mikael Laséen

Communication equipment, yes.

Mikael Laséen

Anders Lindqvist

Yeah.

Anders Lindqvist

Mikael Laséen

Also have a bit on the optical module assembly.

Mikael Laséen

Anders Lindqvist

Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly.

This is more precise. As previous question also, it will not create the same boom as we have in Global Technologies, but it will be a meaningful contributor, for sure.

Anders Lindqvist

Mikael Laséen

You estimate it to a bit less than 20%, that type of-

Mikael Laséen

Anders Lindqvist

That was a super high level estimation, I would say, but it's not more for sure.

Anders Lindqvist

Mikael Laséen

Okay. Just to follow up on the memory market, are rising memory prices and tightening supply affecting any of your businesses?

Can you comment on that if that's the case?

Mikael Laséen

Anders Lindqvist

Not a lot on our cost side. A little bit, of course, but it's maybe more on the customer side where the product calculations from customers maybe look different and so on.

We don't believe that we have seen so much impact of that in-

Anders Lindqvist

Mikael Laséen

Okay

Mikael Laséen

Anders Lindqvist

any of those two ends. Yeah.

Anders Lindqvist

Mikael Laséen

Okay. Thank you.

Mikael Laséen

Anders Lindqvist

Thank you.

Anders Lindqvist

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Mikael. Finally, over to Fredrik Lithell at Handelsbanken for.

Sven Chetkovich

Fredrik Lithell

Yep

Fredrik Lithell

Sven Chetkovich

extra questions.

Sven Chetkovich

Fredrik Lithell

I have one. If we could maybe elaborate a little bit on Cowin, that just have entered into your group.

The first impressions, how you met the company, the plans you're tailoring, what the ambitions are, and so on, would be interesting to get some more details on it.

Fredrik Lithell

Anders Lindqvist

Yes, maybe not give too much. We do see good potential with the base business of Cowin, and we do see possibilities to combine certain areas.

We are, however, a little bit restricted in the combination because this is a national core technology in Korea, and we have to deal with it with certain precautions. It will take us a little bit longer to combine it with our technology.

We do see some good prospects on the base business, meaning repair for panels and repair for photomasks.

Anders Lindqvist

Fredrik Lithell

Okay. Thank you.

Fredrik Lithell

Sven Chetkovich

Thank you, Fredrik. With that, we have reached the end of the presentation of Mycronic's Q2 report.

Before we finish, I would just like to mention the fact that Mycronic will hold a Capital Markets Day on the 31st of August in Täby at our headquarters, and we invite media, analysts, you guys who have participated today, and institutional investors. You can sign up on the webpage or through the quarterly report, and there will be some exciting things happening there.

Welcome to that. With that, thank you very much for attending today's presentation.