Fredrik Ruben
We will cover the third quarter of 2026, summarizing our business in July, August, and September. My name is Fredrik Ruben.
I am the CEO of Tobii Dynavox Group.
Jacob Thordenberg
I am Jacob Thordenberg, and I joined Dynavox Group as CFO on September 14th. Most recently, I served as CFO of a publicly listed life science company, and before that, I had various M&A roles, both in corporate and advisory settings.
I'm very pleased to have joined the team and to be part of Dynavox Group's mission. Later in this call, I will walk you through the financial results for the quarter in more detail.
Fredrik Ruben
Great. Thank you, Jacob, and warm welcome.
It's great to have you on board. For those of you who have participated on these calls before, you might be familiar with that we'll start with a quick recap of what Dynavox Group does, and then I will run the main takeaways from the quarter.
Jacob will then dive deeper into the financials, and thereafter we will open up a Q&A session. You can submit questions during the Q&A session in the Q&A function here in Teams or ask them by raising your hand in Teams and unmute yourself, and then we will invite you to speak.
We, of course, always welcome offline questions sent by email to [email protected]. We start with a brief overview of Dynavox Group.
We start with the opportunity. The market that we service is hugely underserved.
There are about 50 million people around the world that have a condition that prevents them from communicating unless they have a solution like ours. Of the some 2 million people diagnosed every year with a communication disability, we estimate some 2% only are actually being served, and the rest remain silent.
The main reason for this is, frankly, lack of awareness about assistive communication as a whole. Why do we exist?
We reiterate often our mission and our vision, which I know is very dear not only to our over 1,100 employees around the world, but also to our ecosystems of partners and investors. Our vision is a world where everyone can communicate.
We will contribute to this via focusing on our mission, which reads to empower people with disabilities to do what they once did or never thought possible. This also summarizes two of our main user stories.
The first one, the do what you once did, may refer to a person who led a normal life until a diagnosis, such as ALS, which rendered her unable to control the body or communicate like before. The never thought possible can refer to a child diagnosed at an early age with a condition such as autism or cerebral palsy, where, thanks to our solutions, she can do much more than the world around her ever thought possible.
If we move on a little bit, we also see that we operate this on a global level. If we take next slide, please.
Today, almost some three-quarters of our business stems out of the US and Canada, and that's largely because a reasonably well-functioning system established about 20 to 30 years ago. Our comprehensive solutions are sold in more than 65 markets around the world, of which 12 are markets where we sell directly, while the others are served by a network of some 100-plus reseller partners.
Our staff is distributed almost in the same way, meaning that some 50% currently of our staff are based in North America, with our US headquarters in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. The second largest office is our headquarter here in Stockholm.
We have branch offices in several European countries, as well as Suzhou in China, Adelaide, Australia. As of today, as I mentioned, we're just north of 1,100 employees in total.
If we then take a quick look about our offering and what we sell, we provide a comprehensive communication solution, and that includes the content and language system, such as the world's leading library of communication symbols, and they're called PCS, and then a leading solution of off-the-shelf, custom-made synthetic voices for the highest quality with a large diversity in languages, in ages, in ethnicities, and so forth. We develop and own a suite of highly sophisticated communication software tailored to the type of user, which, of course, can vary greatly based on the needs of that individual.
We then, of course, develop and design cutting-edge technology and medically certified durability hardware that includes communication aids controlled via eye tracking or accessories such as the Rehadapt mounting solutions. We have a large team and a service portfolio to help our users through the complexity of obtaining and getting funding for solutions in multiple markets.
Last but not least, we're there in many markets, in many time zones, and languages to help users, therapists, and caregivers through our global teams of support resources. We operate this model globally.
It's important to note that each piece of what I just presented is critically important and also a significant differentiator for us, making us absolutely unique. Our go-to-market model is predominantly as prescribed aids that also then means that some 90% of our revenue come from public or private insurance providers.
This also means that we have solid paying customers and have always been resilient towards changes in, for example, the overall economic climate. Now we will go back at focusing on the main topic of today, namely the earnings report for the third quarter.
I'd like to briefly highlight a few of the key themes from the quarter. First, our long-term market opportunity remains substantial and unchanged.
The demand for assistive communication solutions continue to be strong, and we remain confident in the long-term underlying growth potential of this market. Similar to previous quarter, the performance this year must be seen in the light of last year's exceptional growth.
Yet, we deliver revenue growth of 15% on top of last year's numbers on a currency-adjusted basis, paired with an EBIT growth of 87%, resulting in an EBIT margin of over 17%. While we continue to see reimbursement-related complexities in parts of the US, we view this as delaying factors and the overall slower or more cumbersome processes rather than a demand issue.
If we look at Europe and other markets, we delivered a somewhat scattered growth with clear highlights, particularly strong momentum in Australia and in Germany, as we continue to benefit from investments in local execution and integration efforts. Then finally, we are increasingly seeing the benefits of a platform-building investments that we have made over the recent years.
Investments in systems, processes, and organizational capabilities are increasingly translating into efficiency gains. It's also translating to operating leverage and then continued significantly strengthened our cash flow as we continue to scale.
That was just the headlines. Now I'd like to hand over to you, Jacob, to run us deeper into the financials of the quarter.
Jacob Thordenberg
Thank you, Fredrik. In the quarter, revenue grew 13% to 684 million.
The currency-adjusted growth was 15%, where organic growth contributed with 13%, acquisitions with 3%, and currency fluctuations had a 2% negative impact on revenue. As Fredrik mentioned earlier, in the US, we see increased administrative complexity and longer lead times, primarily related to Medicaid and Medicaid managed care organizations, which held back some growth.
Despite these headwinds, we delivered 16% FX-adjusted growth in the quarter in US. In Europe and other countries, performance was more mixed, with Germany and Australia standing out as the strongest contributors to the quarter's 16% FX-adjusted growth in Europe and 13% in other countries.
Underlying demand remained healthy, and we continued to strengthen local execution and leverage our acquired businesses to build a more scalable platform for long-term growth. The long-term trend remains strong.
Revenue has grown from just under 1 billion on an LTM basis in 2022 to more than 2.6 billion today, corresponding to an annual growth rate just north of 25% on a currency-adjusted basis. Gross margin remained strong in the quarter at 69%, although slightly below last year due to higher component costs.
However, the increased component costs were offset by lower freight costs versus prior year. Overall, the quarter demonstrated the resilience of underlying demand, with FX-adjusted growth of 15%, despite continued operational and administrative headwinds in certain markets.
Continuing with EBIT, currency-adjusted EBIT grew 87%—oh, sorry, 94% year-over-year to 119 million, driving a 6.8 6.8 percentage points expansion in EBIT to 17.4%. The improvement reflects continued revenue growth, a stable gross margin of around 70%, and disciplined cost management, resulting in operating expenses growing organically by 7%.
Operating expenses increased primarily due to continued investments in sales and marketing and our IT organizations. These investments were partially offset by lower ERP-related costs, which decreased by 9 million year-over-year, as the ERP rollout was completed in most entities, and by a 9 million reduction in restructuring costs.
Operating expenses related to acquisitions contributed with a 10 million increase. Costs for research and development after capitalization and amortization decreased by 19 million compared to the same quarter last year, mainly driven by higher costs in prior year related to organizational restructuring.
The higher capitalization of R&D expenses in the quarter related to development of new products and lower amortization. Other operating gains and losses were positively impacted by 19 million, the majority of which related to adjustments of earnout liabilities.
To summarize, we continue to see operating leverage in the business and profitability improving. Cash flow after continuous investments increased to 62 million in the quarter compared to 20 million last year, more than tripling year-over-year, reflecting stronger profitability and improved cash flow generation.
Our cash position continued to strengthen and reached 273 million at the end of the quarter, providing significant financial flexibility. At the same time, net debt decreased to 829 million, and leverage improved to 1.3 times EBITDA compared to 2.0 times a year ago.
Overall, we continue to combine strong growth with healthy cash generation and a strengthening balance sheet. With that, back to you, Fredrik.
Fredrik Ruben
Great. You are now baptized, Jacob.
Good stuff. All right.
Before we open up for the Q&A session, I'd like to reiterate some of our financial targets. If we start by the growth target, which reads to on average grow revenue by 20% per year, adjusted for currency effects, and that includes contributions from acquisitions.
In local currencies, the second quarter growth was 15%, which means we continue our growth trajectory also in the light of last year's exceptional growth. As I mentioned, the market that we serve remains hugely underserved, and hence we remain confident that there is ample opportunity for strong growth also going forward.
As Jacob pointed out, in recent five-year CAGR, that summarizes to over 25%, we are well on that trajectory. The target on profitability reads to deliver an annual EBIT margin that reaches and exceeds 15%, and we have proven our ability to deliver strong growth paired with incremental improvements in profitability.
We have gone through a period of significant investments with a clear aim to build a robust and efficient operation that can continue to handle significant growth also going forward for an extended period of time. At just north of 17% EBIT margin in the quarter, 14.5% year-to-date, which is up by 87% compared to the year before, this quarter is just another clear evidence of our traction towards delivering on this too.
Then lastly, our dividend policy. We have a very attractive cash flow profile, and given the growth opportunities, we need to maintain a capital structure that enables strategic flexibility to pursue growth investments, and that, of course, includes acquisitions.
It is still expected to, over time, generate excess cash and our policy is therefore to distribute at least 40% of the available net profits to shareholders via either dividends, share repurchases, or similar programs, when so allows and when deemed the right prioritization. This year, 2026, is the first year where we started to pay dividends.
Given our ability to translate revenue into cash flow, as was also proven this quarter, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on this target too going forward. In summary, we continue to see strong underlying demand across all our markets.
The long-term opportunity remains substantial and unchanged. We grew revenue by 15%, adjusted for currency, despite the continued reimbursement-related complexities and longer lead times in parts of the US.
The growth in Europe and other markets remains solid, with particularly strong momentum in Germany and Australia, as we continue to benefit from our investments in local execution and integration. Profitability improved significantly during the quarter.
We are increasingly seeing benefits of the investments that we have made in systems and processes and organizational capabilities, and that results in, obviously, improved efficiency and operating leverage. We also delivered stronger cash generation, with the cash flow after continuous investment increasing by over 200% compared to the same period last year.
If I look ahead, we continue to monitor the reimbursement environment, the public spending development, the broader macroeconomic conditions closely. While these factors may create short-term volatility, the long-term fundamentals of the market remain very attractive.
Our area of focus coming year will be to further align a global team that has grown significantly, both organically and via acquisitions, and in just a few years. This has happened in just a few years.
Today, a global team of well over 1,000 great colleagues that we'll see will ensure to be ready for a continued journey ahead. Overall, we believe that Dynavox is well-positioned to continue delivering sustainable, profitable growth while, of course, advancing on our mission to help more people communicate and live more independent lives.
Okie dokie. We are now inviting our colleague, Abtin Aram, who will help us to moderate and help us to take questions from the audience.
Abtin, over to you.
Abtin Aram
Thank you, Fredrik. I see we have already a couple of questions from the audience, and we have one caller, Daniel Djurberg.
If you would like, you could unmute yourself and also turn on your camera.
Daniel Djurberg
Let's see if you can hear me now.
Abtin Aram
We can sort of hear you, Daniel, but let's give it a shot. Super.
Daniel Djurberg
Can you hear me now?
Abtin Aram
Yes. Try
Daniel Djurberg
again. Super.
Thanks. A couple of questions from my side.
First on AbleNet, and you had some positive non-recurring items in the quarter, 19 million, etc., and you gained some from higher capitalization and lower R&D amortization. My question is if you had any negatives on the NRI side that, for example, from AbleNet litigation and so on?
Fredrik Ruben
No, is the short answer. These are costs that we are taking over our normal OPEX, and we obviously had these costs both before we launched the lawsuit in May.
We had them through Q2, and we have had them through Q3. Obviously, this is the type of money that we would have loved to spend elsewhere, but there's nothing that we think we should adjust for.
You also had another question, Daniel?
Daniel Djurberg
It is a little bit on OPEX. I think it was up 7% year-over-year organically.
If you could say anything on the ambition ahead, and also on gross margin, perhaps another question. If you can give some ballpark details on the component headwind and tailwinds seen in the quarter.
Thanks.
Fredrik Ruben
Sure. Jacob, do you want to talk to the gross margin?
Jacob Thordenberg
Sure, I can. Hi, Daniel.
When it comes to the gross margin, we have seen increased component costs, and that is something that we are continuously looking over how to sort of mitigate that. One way to mitigate it is, of course, to work more efficiently, and by doing so, we have looked into different type of freight solutions, and by that lowered costs and been able to offset some of the margin pressure that we have seen due to increased component costs.
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah. No, the component costs are real, and they happened, but we're also quite proud to see that we're able to kind of fend that off to a fairly large degree by running a smoother machinery.
Then you can, of course, see that if we did not have the component cost increases, the underlying kind of operations and gross margin is actually strengthened. I believe you also had a question on overall OPEX?
Daniel Djurberg
Yeah.
Fredrik Ruben
I think it's important, of course, when you're comparing years where we had significant one-offs, etc., do we still see that this is a company that scales? Yes, we do.
Even if we adjust for one-timers, etc., we still see a good kind of drop-through in margin expansion. We believe, obviously, that part of the investments that we have done, we have done them so that we don't have to increase OPEX on G&A, back-end systems, etc., so that we can grow with $1 without adding $1 in cost.
That being said, we still want to make sure that we invest in our go-to-market capabilities, sales, marketing, IT is obviously something that we need to continue to invest in because that's part of the tools how we can leverage the rest of the organization. Does that answer your question, Daniel?
Daniel Djurberg
I think so. Thanks, and good luck here in Q4, and I'll get back in the queue.
Fredrik Ruben
Great. Thank you.
Jacob Thordenberg
Thank you.
Abtin Aram
Thank you, Daniel. We have a question from Jessica Grönvall from Redeye in the chat, and she's wondering about the Medicaid.
She's asking, how much did the Medicaid and managed care delays cost in Q3, and is it getting better or worse going into Q4? She's also asking, does resolving the two state cases change anything?
Fredrik Ruben
Great. Hi, Jessica.
If I go up in the helicopter a little bit, we have multiple funding sources in the US that pays for our devices. They could be the federal systems called Medicare.
It could be some of the almost 700 private insurance providers that we have contracted, or it could be Medicaid, which is a state-run program. Medicaid is either run by Medicaid themselves in that state or outsourced to something called a managed care organization.
Today, the Medicaids and the managed care organization represent some 40% of our current revenue, it's significant. We are seeing more fighting, if you will, and that typically comes from the fact that each state in the US is required to have a budget in balance.
They're looking to do all kinds of cost-cutting and including medical expenses, etc. This is not new.
This has always been the case, but it's clearly so that that has increased lately. The way to mitigate that is, of course, to when those cases arise, fight back or prove the fact that the law hasn't changed and you're certainly obliged to do it.
That's what we refer to in the two cases in the specific quarter, where there was a short standstill, and then they opened up. We expect that this will happen also going forward.
That being said, it's not like a customer can only have funding through, for example, Medicaid or Medicare. That's a little bit of a choice or a strategy.
What we might see going forward is that more and more of our reimbursement revenue in the US might actually move towards the other funding providers while we are ensuring that the go-to-market that we have today kind of sustains. Your last question, whether the solved cases will have an impact going forward, well, to some degree, but it was only two two states, and this is a Whac-A-Mole game.
There's something new that will pop up every month, and probably what you're seeing is that there has been more of that happening lately rather than specific cases. I don't know if that really answered your question, but this is a complex material.
Abtin Aram
Thank you. Next caller is Simon Larsson.
Please unmute yourself and turn off your camera if you want, and ask your question.
Simon Larsson
Perfect. Hopefully can hear me.
Fredrik Ruben
Loud and clear, Simon. Good,
Simon Larsson
good. Good morning, everyone.
Maybe starting on the earnout reversal that had a quite big positive impact on the reported EBIT in the quarter. Could you share any more information with us, maybe which acquisition this relates to, or which countries, or if we maybe also can expect more similar reversals just going forward?
Fredrik Ruben
Sure. This is a Jacob question.
Jacob Thordenberg
Yeah. Hi, Simon.
I'm not completely sure which acquisition it relates to, but how it works technically is when you acquire a company and you have an earnout component, you put the earnout component as a liability on your balance sheet, and then you assess that liability each quarter depending on the development towards the earnout targets. When you do this assessment and you do a reassessment where you think the likelihood of paying out parts of the earnout decreases, the liability decreases, and that decrease hits your P&L as a positive impact.
In the quarter, we saw a positive impact from that of 16 million.
Simon Larsson
Yeah. No, that's clear.
Also then maybe on, yeah, staying in Europe, on Europe organic growth, I think it was 3% in the quarter, down a bit sequentially. I think it was 5% in Q2.
What can you say about the organic situation in Europe just in general terms? I suppose you're not maybe fully happy with what you're performing right now.
Any sort of guidance and help on that?
Fredrik Ruben
Yes and no. This is where me as the engineer can debate whether IFRS rules and reporting really make sense.
If I paint the bigger picture, when we acquire, all our acquisitions lately have been our own resellers. If we buy a reseller which which has a turnover of 100, it's not like you add 100 to our P&L.
You only actually add the difference of what we sold to them and what then they sell to the market. You almost have to wait a full year until you have the anniversary of the acquisition to be able to compare apples to apples.
If you look at the actual FX-adjusted growth in Europe specifically, that was 16% in the quarter. That's kind of actually how much the revenue growth, but but because of these technicalities that I explain explained to you before, we don't see that as a fully organic growth both in Q2 and Q3.
We We celebrate the first anniversary of our German, which is a fairly significant acquisition, on September 1. In this quarter, you only had two months of, or sorry, one month of of actually kind of apples-to-apples comparison.
Similarly, we closed our also fairly large acquisition of our Italian reseller just before summer. It becomes a little bit technical, but it's it's not a true apples-to-apples comparison.
That being said, in Europe and the rest of the world, we did have a few highlights, but that also means that we we had a few kind of markets that didn't perform as we want to. The clear highlights were, as just said, Germany and Australia, which is not in Europe, and then we had some other markets where we where we expect performance to be a little bit higher.
Simon Larsson
Okay. Maybe the final one from my end on FX, because it seems like both me and maybe consensus as well were quite wrong on FX this quarter.
I think we all expected a tailwind, it became a headwind. Are there any dynamics in this that you can maybe speak about?
Timing of orders, etc. I know it's a bit of a difficult question, but if you can comment anything on FX, just anything to be mindful of.
Jacob Thordenberg
Simon, it's back to IFRS again, which can be a little bit confusing. According to IFRS, you compare the year-to-date average FX rates to last year's year-to-date average FX rates.
When looking at that, you actually have a slight headwind due to sort of a spike in the US dollar and to some extent also the euro in the beginning of 2025. That leads to a somewhat delayed effects on FX.
Simon Larsson
Okay. No, that's clear.
Perfect. Thanks so much.
Fredrik Ruben
Just,
Simon Larsson
yeah,
Fredrik Ruben
because I can just clarify. Your assumptions on currency flows is probably 100% correct.
There is nothing funky going on kind of in the background.
Simon Larsson
No, very good. Thanks.
Abtin Aram
Thank you. Next one is Jakob Lembke.
Please unmute yourself and turn on your camera if you want.
Jakob Lembke
Hi, and good morning. Starting on the US and the comments on the sort of turbulence among the insurers, would you say that the situation has become worse here in Q3 or is it more unchanged compared to saw in Q2?
Fredrik Ruben
Unchanged. Good.
Jakob Lembke
Then also on that then, when I look at it, it seems like the North America sales, when factoring in currency, is down a bit sequentially here in Q3 compared to Q2, and my sense is it's typically in line or a bit stronger. Should we read anything into this?
Fredrik Ruben
Oh, that was a tricky question. I don't actually have answer, but that's not my sense.
Hence, we owe you a better answer going back. I'm not sure, I'm looking at Jacob here if you have a, but that's not my sense.
Jacob Thordenberg
No, I understand the question, and maybe we'll have to come back to that one then, Jakob. We do expect to sort of see the same seasonal pattern.
However, in this quarter, maybe we saw less seasonality due to the headwinds that we have described.
Fredrik Ruben
That's not my gut feeling. I think the seasonality patterns that we have seen since forever largely remain.
Jakob Lembke
Good. Then on Europe, based on what you're seeing now across all of the markets, do you think that Europe can sort of grow in the double digits here going forward on an organic basis?
Germany is becoming organic right in Q4.
Fredrik Ruben
Yes.
Jakob Lembke
Good.
Fredrik Ruben
Short and sweet.
Jakob Lembke
Good. Then also maybe on just currency, but how it impacts the profitability.
Is there any currency one-offs or tailwinds in the gross profit and also any sort of working capital revaluation in the quarter?
Fredrik Ruben
I don't believe so.
Jacob Thordenberg
No, I wouldn't say so.
Jakob Lembke
Good. Then maybe finally also, based on the sort of current trends you see, how do you see the possibility to grow in line with your targets for 2027?
Fredrik Ruben
We typically don't respond to specific years, etc., but I think you hear me loud and clear. The ambition to on average grow revenue by 20% in local currencies absolutely remains because of the fundamental fact that our market remains the same, the laws remain the same, our products really really work, there hasn't been any huge shift in competition or other types of market dynamics.
We basically reiterate target. We also want to be clear that probably means that there will be fluctuations over weeks, months, quarters, and years.
That's a natural view looking at, and I think also this year has to be seen in the light of last year's exceptional growth. Obviously, having tougher comps also plays into that.
Jakob Lembke
Good. That's all for me.
Thank you.
Fredrik Ruben
Great. How are we looking, Abtin?
Abtin Aram
We have a couple callers left and then some questions in the chat. Filip Wetterqvist, if you want to unmute yourself, please.
Filip Wetterqvist
There we go. Can you guys hear me?
Fredrik Ruben
Yes. Perfect.
Filip Wetterqvist
Perfect. I forgot to unmute myself.
Good morning. I had one question on restructuring costs.
It declined by around 9 million year-on-year in Q3, while last year you had around 14 million of restructuring costs. Should we interpret that there was 5 million of extraordinary restructuring costs in this quarter?
Fredrik Ruben
No, that's probably not the right interpretation. That's a trick question for me if it is related to currency, perhaps, etc.
On the restructuring of our R&D organization, as mentioned before, the restructuring costs were largely severance pays. Basically for people that left in the US.
Since the last person left the US-based R&D organization in November of last year, those are literally all behind us. There must be some other kind of comparison that actually I don't have the answer to that, but there has been no other restructuring since that date, basically.
Filip Wetterqvist
All right. Then one on R&D capitalization, which increased by around 10 million, while amortization declined.
How should we think about the relationship between capitalization and amortization going forward?
Fredrik Ruben
Pass that to Jacob.
Jacob Thordenberg
That's a very good question, but what's the question really? How you should look at it?
Filip Wetterqvist
With how it should interpret it hitting the P&L going forward with capitalization and amortization, since this quarter you had a net positive effect on the P&L, since you capitalized more than amortized.
Jacob Thordenberg
The reason for that is that we have new product launches coming up in 2027, and that sort of increases our capitalized R&D compared to prior years, basically.
Fredrik Ruben
I think you can go up in the helicopter. We spent last year reorganizing to make sure that we have a machine that can deliver much more innovation, higher quality, etc.
Of course, while you're doing that, the level of new product development, frankly, goes down to some degree. Now, since the beginning of this year, this team is in place, and they are on fire, and you should probably see over time that you will have higher capitalization when we are building and developing new products.
As soon as they're launched, then we start to depreciate on those capitalizations. That cycle will always be a little bit of a swing back and fro.
Right now, the swing is kind of in the direction of more capitalization, but, of course, over time, that should even out more or less.
Filip Wetterqvist
We should assume that we will see an inflection in beginning of '27 if you have some product launches coming up?
Fredrik Ruben
Product launches in our space is not like big bang product launches. They are more evolution rather than revolution.
The numbers are made up of several parallel, exciting projects. There isn't a specific date when kind of the pendulum swing turns.
Filip Wetterqvist
Yeah. All right.
Thank you.
Jacob Thordenberg
Thank you.
Fredrik Ruben
Thanks.
Abtin Aram
We have questions from Mikael Laseen in the chat, and he's asking about the complexity that we highlighted regarding Medicaid and Medicaid managed care organizations in the US. He's asking, what specifically has changed during Q3, and did you see this also in Q2?
Fredrik Ruben
I think almost nothing has really changed. I think that the complexities that we experienced before summer sustain, but they're different.
There's a new challenge in a certain state or a certain payer that pops up, then we kind of take out that fire, and then perhaps something new. I wouldn't say that there has been any material change since the beginning of the year.
Abtin Aram
He's also wondering regarding the insurance-related issues highlighted in H1 in the US. How did that develop during Q3?
Have conditions improved, stabilized, or deteriorated?
Fredrik Ruben
Probably almost the same question. They're the same.
They have neither worsened or gotten better.
Abtin Aram
Are we seeing any increase in rejected claims, or is it more longer approval times, that is?
Fredrik Ruben
If you have a specific claim, and then you have a denial, and that also happens, and then we have a process to try to overturn that or appeal that, the ratio between kind of cases being rejected and the ratio of cases coming out of our pipeline has not changed.
Abtin Aram
Great. Nikola Kalanoski, please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Nikola Kalanoski
All right. There we go.
Hope you can hear me.
Fredrik Ruben
Yes.
Nikola Kalanoski
All right. Just a few questions from me.
The first one is on Europe. Europe grew something like 16%, I think, on an FX-adjusted basis in Q3 year-on-year,
Fredrik Ruben
and
Nikola Kalanoski
then you did have this really tough comp of over 50% growth last year. I'm thinking, given the strength in Germany, which I think you've highlighted a couple of times, I think even last quarter, it seems maybe some parts of Europe were a bit softer.
With that in mind, could you help us decompose Europe a bit more country-wise? It doesn't have to be in terms of numbers, but just in terms of some extra granularity.
That would be great.
Fredrik Ruben
I can give one example, and then I can give you more of a nuance. We are dependent in France on public financing for products, and anybody that reads the newspapers understand that the French situation right now is complex, to say the least.
That's an example of how it is sometimes softer, and maybe the French situation is more grave because it's a big item. Then we have other markets where fluctuations, or in this case negative fluctuations, can actually be more technical.
We have tender markets. Some of our markets, we basically sell through tenders, it's not like we ship our device to the individual end users like we do, for example, in the US or in Germany.
We sell our devices to a function in the healthcare apparatus. Here you can have swings.
Last year, in this case, we might have had some tender markets where there was bigger one-offs, and then in this quarter in this year, it was slower. The beauty of our model is we sell in so many countries, we don't have all our eggs in one basket.
I think that in this specific quarter, some of the tailwinds that we experienced in, as I mentioned, in Germany, and also, even though Australia is not a part of Europe, but also Australia, was then countered a little bit by some of those markets such as France, such as some of the tender markets. Does that give you a better nuance of the field we're operating in?
Nikola Kalanoski
That's definitely helpful. That's very helpful, especially the commentary on the tender markets and the associated swings.
Just the final one, if we look at, I guess, a bit of the medium to longer-term trend here being how you're growing in terms of the number of solutions consultants in the US, what's that pace looking like, and has it changed compared to your history, compared to last year, for example?
Fredrik Ruben
Normally, the pace of recruiting the field reps, or solutions consultants that we call them, is not even between January 1 and December 31. Last year, we had a fairly significant spike in new people coming on board during the fall.
That then meant that during the spring, maybe it was a little bit softer. We remain confident that one of the most concrete levers we can pull in order to grow revenue is actually to have more people on the field.
That's not just the US, that's equally the truth in, for example, Germany or Australia, for that matter. We haven't changed our model where that is the area where we invest the most, but there will also be a little bit of a swing where we will have the class of the fall of 2025 is probably bigger than the class of the spring 2026, etc.
Our ambition and our strategy remains.
Nikola Kalanoski
Just maybe to follow up, then would the class of 2026 be approximately the same size as the class of 2025, if we just adjust away for all of these seasonal effects and the spikes?
Fredrik Ruben
That's a good kind of ballpark understanding.
Nikola Kalanoski
Yeah. Fair enough.
That's all for me. Thank you so much.
Fredrik Ruben
Great.
Abtin Aram
A couple more questions from Mikael Laseen. Regarding North America's 16% organic growth, was that mostly driven by higher unit volumes, or mix, or price?
We have
Fredrik Ruben
the ASP is largely identical, it's only volume increases. Correct.
Abtin Aram
Yeah.
Fredrik Ruben
Yep.
Abtin Aram
Another question from Mikael as well. He's asking if we can quantify the positive EBIT impact from the reversal of contingent earnout liabilities included in the 19 million of operating income.
Jacob Thordenberg
We answered that question earlier, and it's 16 million in the quarter.
Abtin Aram
Perfect. We have one more calling in, and that's Jakob again, if you want to unmute yourself, please.
Jakob Lembke
Thanks. A few short, further questions.
Just on OPEX, when I calculate and try to understand it on a sort of underlying basis, excluding all of the one-offs that has been, it seems like you're still growing costs a bit faster than your revenues, and just be interesting to hear your thoughts about this. Is it in order for sort of this to reverse, will you have to accelerate revenues, or will you also start to adapt sort of the cost growth here going forward?
Fredrik Ruben
It's not entirely a correct analysis. I think we have a quite decent gap between revenue growth and cost growth.
There will be currencies, etc., but I also would like to say that the effects of the investments that we have done in, for example, ERP systems and digitalization, those are yet to be harvested. The platform we have right now, I think, is a platform built for growth.
My main ambition to grow OPEX, or if you will, is to kind of the previous conversations, is in field reps, basically sales and marketing and people on the street, certain areas where it comes to continue investing in IT, but I am expecting a more of a leverage when it comes to all the other G&A functions, if you will.
Jakob Lembke
Good. Then also on the currency impact on top line, which you elaborated on earlier, and then, yeah, it seems like it's calculated a bit different than I have done it.
Just for Q4, is it possible to guide on what the currency impact will be? I think based on the sort of current rates, I would imagine if it would be clearly positive, but if you could elaborate on that.
Jacob Thordenberg
I think we'll have to look into that analysis, Jakob, because then I need to go back to 2025 and look at the currency fluctuations and what that would yield in terms of average. I'll have to come back to you on that question.
Fredrik Ruben
I would assume that we can all make the average FX year-to-date, between January 1 and December 31, 2025, versus the average FX, and it's largely dollar to SEK and euro to SEK, but largely dollar to SEK. The average, I would assume that,
Jacob Thordenberg
but
Fredrik Ruben
of course we can't predict what the currency effect or the currency FX rates will be in Q4 yet. Assuming they are the same, and given that in absolute terms the dollar has strengthened to the SEK, the headwind should turn to a tailwind quite soon.
Jacob Thordenberg
Agree. It's difficult to quantify, Jakob, exactly how much, but I completely agree with Fredrik.
Fredrik Ruben
It also means that it will sustain into next year, a little bit depending on how the FX develops.
Jakob Lembke
Yeah. Hey, good.
Then maybe just finally, just wondering a bit, have you changed the way you calculate your organic growth in any way here recently? Because, yeah, the numbers don't really align with how I have had it before.
Jacob Thordenberg
No, we haven't changed anything.
Jakob Lembke
Good. That's all for me.
Thank you.
Abtin Aram
We have a last question, I think, from Mikael Laseen. He's asking, you state that the specific reimbursement challenges in two major US states were resolved during your favor in Q3.
How much did the challenges in these two states affect Q3 sales? What exactly was resolved, and have you already seen a positive impact on approvals and deliveries?
Does this remove the issue entirely, or do you see similar disputes arise in other states?
Fredrik Ruben
I don't have a number to give you, Mikael, but I can explain a little bit on what happens. When you have one of those states where they basically say, "For now, we're halting because we're evaluating," that, of course, means that you build up some sort of backlog of cases that are not served.
Then once the halt, which in both these cases basically were lifted, then those cases, they pop through the system. Whether we manage to get all of those held-back cases delivered during the quarter or if some of those pops into Q4 remains to be seen.
It's also only two out of 50 states in the US, and they were resolved by basically, how I explained it, there was a temporary halt, and then it opened up. Then going forward, I expect that more of these cases will pop up, and then we will resolve them.
If they are all fully solved within a specific quarter, I cannot tell, but it's typically not longer than that.
Abtin Aram
Great. I think that concludes the Q&A.
Fredrik Ruben
Excellent. Thank you very much, Abtin.
Thank you for great questions on our favorite topic, this company and our performance. That concludes today's call.
We're sorry for the slight delay and video issue, and we will make sure to sort that out by February 4th, because that's when we will summarize the full business for 2026. Have a great day.
Thank you.
Abtin Aram
Thank you. Bye.
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