Exsitec Holding AB

Exsitec Holding AB

115.50
SEK
0.00
(0.00%)
7.45EPS
13.70P/E
1.37BMarket Cap
Feb 02Next Earn

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptOctober 20, 2026

Operator

Hi, and welcome everyone to this web presentation of Exsitec's Q3 report for 2026. My name is Edvin, and I will be moderating this webinar.

Here to present today are our Group CEO, Niklas Ek; our Group CFO, Carl Arnesson; and the CEO of Exsitec Norway, Anders Ranum Nordahl. If you do have any questions, please use the raise hand function or write your questions in the chat function here in Zoom.

Now, over to you, Niklas.

Niklas Ek

Thank you, Edvin. Hello, everyone.

This is Niklas Ek speaking. I am the CEO at Exsitec.

I will start off by making a short recap about our business as a reminder what we do. After that, we will cover Q3 financials and a short market update and also our priorities going forward.

We are Exsitec, making IT work together. Our business is about helping companies improve the way they operate through digital solutions.

We aim to be a one-stop shop for our customers, taking responsibility for their business-critical systems. We do this by combining software from different vendors with our own integrations and expertise.

We're not tied to one single system, but can select and combine solutions based on what each customer actually needs. What we do is not just about technology.

A large part of our work is about understanding our customers' businesses, their processes, and how they operate, and then finding the right solutions to improve them. This could be anything from reducing financial administration through automation to improving supply chain processes or helping management make better decisions based on data.

Importantly, our relationship with the customer doesn't end when a system is implemented. We continue to support, maintain, and develop their solutions over time, building long-term relationships.

Exsitec is a Nordic company, originally founded in Linköping, Sweden back in 2000. Today, we have more than 700 employees across the Nordics, with Sweden being our largest market.

Over the past decade, we have established a strong track record of growth, both organically and through acquisitions. Importantly, we have managed to combine that growth with strong profitability.

Our EBITA has developed largely in line with revenue, with 2024 being the main exception. Best-of-breed is how we approach our customer solutions.

Many of our deliveries are centered around the ERP and finance system, which acts as the core. By selecting the right software components and making sure they work seamlessly together through our in-house developed integration, we can take full responsibility for the entire solution.

Our business model is built around three revenue streams. Our sales and marketing efforts are primarily focused on selling software and integrations.

This is mainly sold on a subscription basis, generating recurring revenue, and currently account for approximately 28% of our total revenue. The largest part of our business, just under 2/3 of our revenue, comes from professional services.

This is where we implement the software, adapt it to the customers' needs, and help them make the most of their systems over time. We also provide custom development and integrations when needed.

The third revenue stream is support, where we offer our customers a single point of contact for their systems, typically through recurring fixed price agreements. Together, these three revenue streams allow us to support our customers throughout the entire life cycle of their business systems.

Today, we serve around 7,000 customer organizations, primarily medium-sized and large companies across the Nordics. Our customer base is well diversified, with no single customer typically accounting for more than around 1% of our total revenue.

This gives us a very low dependency on individual customers. By combining different software solutions, we can address the needs of companies across a wide range of industries, as illustrated on the slide.

These are the primary software providers and partners that we work with today. We are resellers of more than 20 selected software components, which we combine with integrations developed in-house.

Our partnerships are based on revenue-sharing models, where we help software providers reach new customers by marketing and selling their solutions. Our role goes beyond sales.

We also take responsibility for implementation and help customers make successful use of the software over time. This makes us an important long-term partner, both for the software providers and for our customers.

I also want to explain a bit more about how we typically work with our customers because our delivery model is quite different from traditional IT consulting. We normally start with a clearly defined project, typically lasting a few months, rather than starting with a large, multi-year IT project.

We prefer to start with something manageable, deliver value early, and then build from there. Once the first project is completed, we often move into phase two, phase three, and so on, gradually expanding the solutions we deliver to the customer.

Another important difference is what our consultants actually do. Most of their time is spent understanding our customers' businesses, processes, and workflows, and finding ways to improve them through technology rather than writing code.

In fact, we estimate that less than 10% of our total consulting time is spent actually writing code. Our consultants also typically work with several customers every week, often around 10, rather than being assigned full-time to one customer.

Since we mainly work from our offices when we're not visiting customers, we can easily share knowledge and experience between colleagues. A solution developed for one customer can often be adapted and reused for others.

Our model is really about delivering value step by step, building long-term customer relationships, and continuously sharing and developing our expertise across the organization. Exsitec runs one of the largest trainee programs in the Nordics, and has done so at scale since 2015.

We are very proud of this, and today almost 40% of our employees started their careers with us as trainees. The trainee program is our primary source for recruiting new talent and an important driver of our long-term growth.

In August, we welcomed another group of trainees, with the 2026 intake being in line with the previous year. This allows us to continuously develop talent and build the expertise we need to support our customers and grow the business over time.

Let's dive into specifics for Q3. I will start off with the highlights, and then leave the word to both Anders Ranum Nordahl, our CEO in Norway, and then Carl Arnesson, our CFO, for the financial details.

Overall, I'm pleased with our performance in the third quarter. We delivered 23% year-on-year growth, primarily driven by the acquisition of Amesto Solutions, while organic growth was 3%.

Adjusted EBITA reached 30 million SEK, corresponding to a margin of 12.9%, slightly below last year's level of 13.5%. Our recurring net software revenue continues to develop strongly, reaching 270 million SEK on a last 12-month basis, up 24% year-on-year.

Importantly, organic growth in recurring software revenue reached 14%, showing that we continue to develop this part of our business also organically. Order intake was another positive highlight, increasing by 23% compared with the same quarter last year.

Finally, the integration of Amesto Solutions is progressing according to plan. During the quarter, we also implemented restructuring measures across all three segments, creating a more efficient Nordic organization and improving our prospects for future profitability.

The acquisition has had its greatest impact in Norway, where it has significantly strengthened our business and expanded our recurring revenue base. I will hand over to Anders, CEO in Norway, who will tell us more about the acquisition and the development of our Norwegian business.

Anders, over to you.

Anders Ranum Nordahl

Thank you, Niklas. My name is Anders Ranum Nordahl, and I'm the CEO of Exsitec Norway.

I have been in this role for the past 3.5 years. I will give you a brief update on the integration of Amesto in Norway, what we have accomplished during the quarter, and where our focus is going forward.

From the beginning, our ambition has been to integrate the two companies quickly, so that we can start utilizing the synergies as soon as possible. We have therefore worked hard during the quarter to complete the integration activities.

We have implemented a new organizational structure for Exsitec Norway, combining the strengths and the capabilities of both Exsitec and Amesto. A new management team is now in place, with experienced leaders from both organizations.

With the changes we made and the team we have in place, we have strengthened our ability to deliver more complex projects, support customers over time, and build long-term customer relationships. As part of the integration, we also identified overlaps in roles and capacity.

This resulted in a workforce reduction, which was completed during the quarter. We also completed an important part of the integration by bringing our Oslo teams together in one location.

The Amesto team in Oslo has now moved into Exsitec's main office, bringing more than 100 colleagues together in our largest location. This creates a stronger concentration of expertise, and provides better opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing across teams.

The majority of the integration work is now behind us. This allows us to shift our attention from integration to growth, and to the market opportunities created by the combination of Exsitec and Amesto.

Going forward, our focus will be on strengthening our position in the Norwegian market, making full use of our capabilities, and make sure that both existing and new customers experience the added value of the combined company. I'm very pleased with the progress we have made on the integration during the quarter.

I'm also very excited about the team we have in place, the new structure, and the opportunities ahead. I'm really looking forward for the next phase of this journey.

That concludes my short update on the Amesto integration in Norway. Over to you, Carl, for the financial details.

Carl Arnesson

Thank you, Anders. As mentioned, we carried out a group-wide restructuring of our business in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in Q3, following the Amesto acquisition, aiming for a more efficient organization and to realize cost synergies.

The one-offs restructuring costs of approximately 27 million SEK covers mainly staff reductions, but also other cost synergies such as offices and other OpEx. The main part, over 60% of the one-offs, are related to our Norwegian business due to the size of the acquired Amesto business in Norway.

The one-offs have been excluded in our adjusted EBITA and have had a limited effect on our operating cash flow in the third quarter. During the integration program process, we have identified higher synergies than we expected initially.

The restructurings are estimated to generate net cost savings on a group level of around 35 million SEK on an annual basis, with full cost effect from Q1 2027. By this action, we have no further one-offs planned for following the Amesto acquisition.

Moving over to our net sales in Q3, we report a 23% growth in Q3 versus last year. If we exclude both divested and acquired operations, the organic growth was plus 3%.

We see organic growth in all our segments, although it varies a bit between the different countries, and I will come back to the development per segment shortly. Our growth comes mainly from recurring revenues from software that stands out also in this quarter, as Niklas described, both in terms of total growth, as well as organically.

Our professional services in Q3 were a bit lower in Norway and other Nordics in Q3, while Sweden was a bit stronger, as it was in Q2 as well. New projects driven from our sales department continues to develop positively, but we still feel that customers in general are a bit cautious and tend to push decisions of minor updates and adjustments into the future.

Moving over to our adjusted EBITA, we report a 30 million SEK profit, which is a 18% growth versus the third quarter last year. Main drivers behind the uplift is continued growth in recurring revenues, but also by a solid cost control from an organic point of view.

As I mentioned, we report one-offs of totally 27 million SEK related to the group-wide restructuring after the Amesto acquisition. These costs, again, has been excluded in our adjusted EBITA.

Despite the year-on-year growth in adjusted EBITA, we still feel we can deliver even stronger performances and profitability almost across all our segments. Even though we have seen organic growth also in Q3, we now have a more efficient organization in place, which is a good foundation for an even stronger long-term and profitable growth going forward.

Year to date, the adjusted EBITA of 128 million SEK equals a growth of 11% versus last year. Let's continue with the net recurring revenues from software that grew 24% compared to the LTM revenues last year, in this revenue stream that has reached 28% of our revenues on an LTM basis.

This growth is of course driven through price increases, but also by volume, and our new sales that has been strong for several quarters in a row now. Finally, a certain part of the growth of course also comes from M&As, in this quarter also from the Amesto acquisition.

Overall, the organic growth LTM, as per Q3, summarized to approximately 60% of the total growth, or 14% year-on-year. This development is of course a very important contributor to our earnings, and it also indicates a strength with our business model.

It's also a good indicator for us that we have a strong offering and that our customers continue to use and deploy the software that we deliver. Here, we see a consolidated view over the net sales and adjusted EBITA margin for the Exsitec Group.

The adjusted EBITA margin of 13% was slightly lower versus Q3 2025. For the last 18 to 24 months, we have seen a more solid margin stability, following stronger recurring revenues, a good cost control, while the organic growth also has improved step-by-step.

In addition to this, it's also satisfying that we continue to see a general increase in the net sales per employee. Regarding our different segments.

Sweden delivers a 2% growth year-on-year in Q3, while the organic growth was plus 3% if we exclude the divestment of the Zetecom business and the Amesto acquisition. The adjusted EBITA margin also developed positively and ended up at 12%, slightly above last year.

We deliver stronger growth and maintain the margin trend from last year. Sweden continues to develop well, with gradually stronger demand in combination with an improved efficiency in the professional service operation.

Norway reported a 76% growth in net sales year-on-year in Q3. Excluding the acquired Amesto business, the organic growth in local currency was plus 1%.

In Norway, it's also satisfying that we increase our adjusted EBITA and margin in Q3 to 18% versus 15% last year. The restructuring of the development department we made in Q2 is of course one of the explanations behind this, but not only.

Also the recurring revenues continue to grow positively and contribute to the margin uplift. As we've said in previous quarters, we have been satisfied that we managed to get a higher and more stable margin in this segment.

With the restructuring carried out now in this quarter, with the most impact in Norway, we feel, that Anders also mentioned here, that we are well positioned here going forward. Finally, our third segment, other Nordics, covers our offerings in Denmark and Finland, reported a growth of 26% in Q3, where the organic growth in local currencies was plus 2%.

Our Danish operation had a very strong Q3 2025, and we've managed to improve the margin compared to previous quarters this year. Despite this, we feel that the margin can improve going forward.

The integration of the Amesto business and a more positive trend in our order intake gives us a good foundation for the future here as well. In addition, it can be mentioned also that our Finnish operation delivered solid revenue development also during this quarter.

By that, I hand over to you again, Niklas.

Niklas Ek

Thank you, Carl. I will continue with a short update on the market conditions and our priorities for 2026.

Moving on to market conditions, we continue to see a slow, but positive improvement, although development varies between countries. Sweden is currently showing somewhat stronger development than our other markets, particularly within consulting services, where we see improving demand and utilization.

Sales momentum also remains positive, with a strong order intake, as mentioned before. I've talked about pent-up demand in previous quarters, and we still believe there is a growth potential within our existing customer base.

As market conditions slowly improve, we see opportunities for customers to move forward with investments and projects that may have been postponed. AI is developing rapidly, creating new opportunities for both our customers and Exsitec.

While we don't yet know its full potential, we believe we are well positioned to benefit from this development. A large part of the value we bring to our customers comes from understanding their businesses, processes, and needs, and making different systems work together.

It's all about combining business understanding with technical expertise. We see opportunities in several areas.

First, our software partners are continuously adding AI capabilities to their platforms. This creates opportunities for us to help customers implement these features and adapt their ways of working.

Second, we're developing our offering in AI agents and automation, connecting different systems and enabling customers to automate specific business processes and tasks. Third, AI is making software development more efficient.

We believe this can improve productivity in our deliveries and make more solutions affordable for our customers. We're also actively sharing knowledge with our customers.

Two weeks ago, we held our AI Week, focusing on practical examples of how AI can create value across different business functions. Moving on to our three business priorities for 2026.

I'm pleased with the progress we are making across all three areas. Starting with Business NXT from Visma, we continue to see good momentum, with new deals across all three segments.

The acquisition of Amesto Solutions has also given us a larger customer base and additional expertise, particularly strengthening our position in Norway. This creates good opportunities for further growth.

Turning to Microsoft, we had a strong start in the autumn, with good order intake for Business Central, Power BI, and Fabric. Finally, organic growth remains one of our most important priorities.

We see opportunities to increase our growth rate by taking advantage of improving market conditions and continuing to develop our relationships with the existing customers. Finally, a quick reminder of our financial goals.

Our growth target is to increase net sales by at least 15% per year over time. We also aim to increase adjusted EBITA per share by at least 15% per year over time.

Our financial stability target is that net debt must not exceed two times EBITDA, and our dividend policy is to distribute between 20% and 40% of profit after tax. As we move into the final quarter of the year, we have a larger Nordic business and a more efficient organization, with long-term profitable growth as our objective.

That concludes our presentation, and we're now happy to take your questions. Are there any questions for us, Edvin?

Operator

Yes, indeed. We have questions from an anonymous participant.

When you acquired Amesto, what yearly run rate of cost savings was in your calculations since you write that you realized more?

Niklas Ek

I can go on that one. We estimated approximately 10-plus million.

The net savings has been significantly more.

Operator

Perfect. Also from anonymous, "The order intake grew 23% in line with your revenues.

This is a shift from previous quarters where order intake grew more than revenue. What is your view on this?"

Niklas Ek

We have not really put those together to see anything between them. I think if we look just for the order intake and the increase of 23%, we are pleased with that.

I think that's higher than we reported in Q2. Just a reminder, when we're talking about order intake, that's from new customers, new logos coming in to Exsitec, we can help more customers, and also existing customers that we can deliver a new offering to.

For us, when we report order intake, it takes a bit of time before we actually see that in the numbers in the revenue. We have the project that usually can start pretty soon after a closed deal, so that we can see in our books pretty early, but then when it comes to the recurring revenue and the support, that may take some time before we actually see that.

Say for example that a project runs for 3 to 6 months, then maybe it's a delay from when we actually report the order intake up to 6 to 9 months before we can actually invoice the support and the softwares. That's a delay from the actual order intake to when we see it in the revenue.

I don't think that you should draw any big conclusions between the order intake and the actual growth rate for the total.

Operator

Perfect. Then we have a Thomas Nilsson.

I will try to let you into the call. There we go.

Thomas Nilsson

Okay. Thank you for taking my question.

Can you hear me?

Operator

Yes. Yep.

Thomas Nilsson

Okay. First, this quarter saw a bit slower organic growth than in Q2.

What's your outlook for organic growth for the rest of this year and for 2027? My second question is, what would need to happen for Exsitec to return to sustainably higher organic growth?

Is the main constraint customer demand, project starts, or your own sales execution?

Niklas Ek

Yeah. If we start with the first one, so that the organic growth was slower in Q3 compared to Q2, that's correct.

We had 8% in Q2, and now we have 3%. If you compare the quarters, in Q2, we had easier comps, if we just look at that, and in Q3, we had tougher comps.

Last year, we performed 6% organic growth. I think you just need to bear in mind that the Q3 quarter is a bit special, since half of the quarter just goes away with holidays.

I don't think that you should look into Q3 and draw any big conclusions from that. Also, if we look in the past 5, 6, 7 quarters, we've been sometimes over zero and sometimes below when it comes to organic growth.

I think this 3%, it's okay. We're feeling pretty pleased with that.

If we look forward, we don't give out any forecasts in what we think that we should perform in Q4 and 2027. As I've mentioned before, we have the financial goal of 15% increase in revenue, and I think a healthy over time is a mix of 50/50%.

If 50% can be organic and 50% comes from M&A, I think that's pretty healthy for us. That's something that we're aiming for, and that has been the priority for the entire year here of 2026, to increase the organic growth.

I think it's a combination of things that we do to actually achieve that. We need to continue with the strong order intake, and we're pleased with that in this quarter, and we have been pleased with that for I think it's six, seven quarters in a row now.

We have a big sales force out there working to bring in new customers and to talk to existing customers to expand the solutions and offerings that we're working with. That's one part.

Still, the biggest part, and if we're going to be successful with organic growth, is that we can actually take care of our existing customers. If we look at our different revenue streams, the biggest revenue stream is professional services, just under the 2/3.

From that, almost 80% of the revenue is from existing customers. It's important for us to still be out there talking to the customers, suggesting new solutions, bringing customers from on-prem system to the cloud versions, and so on.

Also take care of all the AI possibilities that's coming now. It's a combination of those, and also take care of the existing customers, not to churn any customers at the same time.

I think that's, was that maybe answered to both of your questions? What was the other question you had?

Thomas Nilsson

No, that was a good question. Also, reassuring that you say that despite 3% organic growth this quarter being lower than in Q2, you're mentioning easier or more difficult comps and also it's a holiday season in Q3 was reassuring that we should not be extrapolating this into the future.

Thank you very much for those answers.

Niklas Ek

Thank you, Thomas.

Operator

Then we have another question from Jacob Benon?] .

Hi, Jacob.

Jacob Benon

Hello, everybody. Can you hear me?

Operator

Yes. Hello.

Jacob Benon

Hello. Hi, Niklas and Carl and everybody.

Thank you for the presentation, and congratulations on very strong performance here. I have a couple of questions, I'll dig right into it.

Firstly, maybe a question to Carl out of the 27 million in items affecting comparability here in the quarter. Can you give us any rough split between personnel cost and other external costs there?

Is it like 50/50 or tilted to some of those line items?

Carl Arnesson

Approximately 17, 18 million or something is staff-related. The rest is OpEx.

Jacob Benon

Perfect. Thank you.

Just curious. I think you said now that your initial assumption regarding savings in Amesto was somewhere around 10-plus million, and now you think you can save 35 million.

That is a pretty big discrepancy there. What really happened that made you find another 25 million or so to save?

Carl Arnesson

Initially in the project, we estimated only basically with general cost synergies such as office-related and stuff like that, and we did not look into staff synergies or staff reductions at all basically. That has been clear for us during the process that there are some overlaps in the organization.

That is why we've added those in the synergies.

Jacob Benon

Okay. It's always good to be conservative.

Thank you for the color. Moving on here with items affecting comparability, or maybe not then.

I noticed that you had another 6.9 million SEK that has impacted adjusted EBITA. That, to me, it seems like a one-off, but it seems like you didn't adjust for this, if I understand you correctly.

Why was this cost not adjusted for? Is it anything special with that item?

Carl Arnesson

I saw that Martin and David posted the same question as well. Normally, that's right.

We have those severance pay costs here in the third quarter, and we normally have those in every quarter, and we don't adjust for them since we think that is something in the ordinary course of business when you have a company like Exsitec. I think we had the topic also when we discussed Q2, but the reason why we mention this in the report for Q3 is that the level of the cost here in Q3 stands out quite a bit.

Normally, that level perhaps is somewhere around 1 to 1.5 or 2 million per quarter. This quarter, 7 million.

That's why we mention it, but we don't normally adjust for these kind of costs,

Jacob Benon

and

Carl Arnesson

they are not related to the restructuring following the Amesto acquisition, it shouldn't be mixed up.

Jacob Benon

Okay. It's actually a recurring cost for you every Q3, but this Q3 was

Carl Arnesson

Not only in Q3. It's not Q3-related as such.

We have these kind of redundancy costs for in every quarter more or less. Sometimes they're very low, but this quarter, very high.

Jacob Benon

Okay. Do as since you said that this quarter was very high, I suppose maybe 7 million is not a level you expect going forward, then.

Carl Arnesson

No, no, no. No, no.

That's correct.

Jacob Benon

Okay. Thank you very much.

Two more questions for me, then I will hand it over to the other ones. The average number of employees was 660 during the quarter.

Just wanted to see how we should view that number together with the restructuring and cost savings you've done, and also the trainee program at the same time. How does those two things affect that number just so we know how to think about headcount going forward?

Carl Arnesson

When it comes to trainees, we welcomed approximately 60 new colleagues in August, in mid-August. In the average employee number for Q3, it's only half of the period included for those trainees.

Jacob Benon

That's why, and

Carl Arnesson

when it comes to the redundancies, more or less all people were working during the quarter.

Jacob Benon

Okay. Those will at the start of Q1 2027, when you have realized all synergies, those employees will be gone.

Carl Arnesson

During Q4, yeah, yeah.

Jacob Benon

Okay. Perfect.

Thank you. Can you say anything about how many people that were affected?

Carl Arnesson

Around 20.

Jacob Benon

Around 20. Okay.

Perfect. Thank you very much for that.

Finally for me, you say that, Niklas, you say the focus going forward is organic growth, and at the same time, you say that you think you're a bit constrained in your capability to deliver in Sweden. How do you think about that challenge if you're going to accelerate organic growth?

What's your take how you will solve that challenge? Yeah.

Niklas Ek

We feel that we are a bit restrained. It's not all of Sweden.

It differs quite a bit between our different areas and different offerings. In some areas with offerings, for example, with BI, we feel that we are a bit restrained.

We are working and trying to do what we can. Of course, always look into, can we move people from another area into that area, and also, of course, looking into hiring more people.

For us, we usually work with trainee programs. The big intake for us is always in August, but we're also doing an intake in January, so that what we are looking into short-term to bring in more people for that.

It's a combination of what we can do, but it's the first time in a pretty long period that we are feeling a bit restrained. I think that's a positive sign, I guess.

We try to do anything that we can to take advantage of the opportunities that we see when demand is actually increasing.

Jacob Benon

Yeah. Definitely.

Was a long time ago since I heard those that you were constrained, I think it's also positive. Maybe then you can adjust and staff up a bit in the January trainee program, all good.

Thank you very much for taking my questions. I will get back in the queue.

Niklas Ek

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Here we have some more questions from Martin Wahlström.

Hello, Martin. Hello, Martin.

Martin Wahlström

Can you hear me now?

Operator

Yeah. Now, we can hear.

Niklas Ek

Yes.

Martin Wahlström

Okay. Excellent.

I sent my questions, but I thought I would take them verbally as well. It feels like Thomas and Jacob have been asking a few of them already.

Just zooming in again on the 23% increase in the order intake, just how we should think about this number, how much is Amesto-related there, and kind of if there is an organic component to that, to say.

Niklas Ek

Yeah. The 23 increase, you can really look at it like it's all organic.

It's not much from the Amesto. We are actually working on that IT side as we speak, bringing the systems together.

You can more or less see it as organically.

Martin Wahlström

All right. Great, great.

Then just one final question. It would be interesting if you could give some more color on your position in Norway, before and after Amesto.

What has been the reception from customers and potential customers, and kind of how much stronger your position is now.

Anders Ranum Nordahl

Yes, I can answer you on that. We now hold a market-leading position in the Visma ecosystem, approximately the double in size of our nearest competitor.

We are also among the largest ERP resellers in the broader ERP market in Norway at the moment. Our increased capacity and experience also makes us more attractive now for larger customers, and that's what we have seen in the first quarter already, that the larger customers now see us as a more attractive partner.

There we also see a greater growth potential going forward.

Martin Wahlström

Super. That was all the questions I had.

Thank you.

Operator

Perfect. Thank you.

Niklas Ek

Thank you.

Operator

Then we have some questions here in the chat from Carl N. Regarding your AI agents and automations that you developed in-house, how are you getting paid for these?

Niklas Ek

Yeah. That's a combination of recurring price component and also some consultancy hours or fixed price.

It's a combination of professional services and we're always trying to have that component with the recurring price. That's usually how we do it.

Operator

Let's see. After an impressively fast integration of Amesto, are you ready and active within the M&A again, also from Carl N.?

Niklas Ek

We are always active when it comes to M&A, but of course, you should not expect another big acquisition here in Q4 after the Amesto Solutions. We have on the other side, we have not put a hold to our M&A activities, we are continuing to work with M&A, building pipe, and talking to potential acquisitions out there.

It's pretty much business as usual.

Operator

Perfect. Also from Carl N., "Thanks for the clarification regarding the salary cost at 7 million this quarter.

What's the reason behind this high level? Is this due to efficiency gains or due to lower demand than expected?"

Carl Arnesson

I can take that one. I think I would say it's a couple of different reasons behind those.

I think in Q2, we mentioned that we've downgraded our e-commerce operations, and we took a redundancy cost for that in Q2. Another part here in Q3 is one of the reasons behind the redundancy cost out of 7 million.

The other part is more I would say, definitely not due to a lower demand. More from an efficient point of view.

Operator

Perfect. One more question from anonymous participator to our Norwegian, Anders.

The margin in Norway is lower than in Sweden. What are the key drivers behind these differences?

Are there any structural differences between the two markets that could explain the lower margin in Norway in the medium term? Could you talk a bit more about your focus going forward in terms of growth?

Anders Ranum Nordahl

Yes. On the margin first, no structural differences in large, I would say.

We have continuously worked to improve margins in Norway, and we still believe there is room for improvement, also after the uplift in Q3. When it comes to growth, as I mentioned on the questions before here, we intend now to build on the position, on the market-leading position we have by investing further in our market presence and increase awareness of the Exsitec brand in Norway, where we see a potential.

When it comes to large and more complex customers, we are always seeing a stronger demand, and we will work to maintain that position on larger and stronger customers in the Norwegian market going forward where we see that there is a clear position to take in Norway, and we intend to take that.

Operator

Perfect. I think we have one last question from Carl N., not regarding the topics we talked about.

I understand that you shifted some consulting from hourly billings to fixed prices. How is this affecting your revenue and margins on the short term?

Niklas Ek

In short term, not really at all. We are doing that now, we're trying for some offerings, for some smaller projects, and so on, we are trying fixed price or value-based price.

I think that is something that should increase over time, but if we look to our total revenue right now, we don't see anything affecting that really. It's from low levels from the start, but maybe in long term, we will see an impact.

Operator

Perfect. I think that concludes the questions, if you don't have any more questions out there.

Here we go. From anonymous once more, "How much do you estimate that the integration of Amesto during the quarter has affected your organic growth in consulting?"

Niklas Ek

Of course, we know that we have been focused on bringing two organizations together, especially in Norway, and that has affected us. We know that, and we have been clear from the beginning and we said that also in Q2 that we are taking the first time here to just to get to know each other, and then we are bringing the organizations together in Q3 to look forward from the 1st of October.

We have done so, and we're pleased with that progress. Of course, we know it has affected us in some extent.

We don't really have an estimate on numbers of that, but the most impact in Norway, of course, and then Denmark, and lastly, Sweden. We are glad that we are through with that, and we can look forward and to focusing on our customers instead of looking to our own organization.

Operator

Perfect. That concludes this session, and thank you everyone for listening in, and thank you all for the great questions.

Happy to see you again for the next quarterly report, and have a great day.

Anders Ranum Nordahl

Thank you.

Niklas Ek

Thank you.