Instalco AB

Instalco AB

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Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 12, 2026

Operator

Welcome to the Instalco Q4 presentation 2025. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode.

During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers.

Please go ahead.

Per Sjöstrand

Welcome to this presentation of Instalco's report for the fourth quarter and full year 2025. My name is Per Sjöstrand, I'm CEO of Instalco.

With me today is our CFO, Christina Kassberg, and our Head of IR, Mathilda Eriksson. The fourth quarter concludes a challenging year, but also marks an important shift driven by our own actions.

As always, I will start with a short snapshot of Instalco today. We are a leading installation group across the Nordics, with an established platform also in Germany.

Our strength is our decentralization: local companies close to customers, combined with common standards, tools, and governance. With over 6,000 employees, we are exposed to market segments driven by long-term needs such as energy efficiency and electrification.

Over to slide 3. First, for a quick glance at our LTM numbers, which for the fourth quarter also represents the full year.

Net sales amounted to 13.6 billion, and we ended the year with a backlog of 9.5 billion, which represents a steady book-to-bill of about 70%, exactly where we want it to be. It allows us to be disciplined in the projects we take on, focusing on quality and profitability rather than growth for growth's own sake.

Our EBITA for the full year amounted to 800 million, corresponding to a margin of 5.9%. When adjusting for one-off costs taken in the first and second quarters, this would amount to 875 million, corresponding to a margin of 6.4%.

Despite the extraordinary circumstances around these one-offs, I believe that this is the cost of doing business in a project-based environment, and we have during the year taken several steps to take down our risk. With or without adjustments, we are however not satisfied with this level, but the quarter shows that we are moving in the right direction.

Service remained strong and again accounted for 38% of net sales in the fourth quarter. The strong cash flow in quarter four as well as throughout the year kept our LTM cash flow from operations above 1 billion, even despite the decrease in earnings, showcasing our strong focus on improving working capital.

Next slide, yes. Then let's move on to a quick summary from the quarter.

Our improvement initiatives are beginning to deliver results. For the first time in seven quarters, EBITA increased compared to previous year.

We are proud of the progress, but not satisfied. The improvement is primarily driven by our own performance.

Market conditions vary geographically, and the installation market is late-cyclical. We are not relying on the external environment.

Instalco 2.0 is making a tangible difference in daily operations: sharper priorities, clearer accountability, and more consistent follow-up. A focused approach to doing the right things collectively and with precision.

Our financial positions has strengthened, and our leverage has come down significantly. Improved earnings, improved POC ratio, and a clear focus on cash flow are reinforcing the balance sheet and increasing financial as well as strategic flexibility.

Now I will hand over to Christina, who will take you through our financial development in more detail.

Christina Kassberg

Thanks, Per. Let's start off with looking at how our net sales and order backlog has developed during the fourth quarter of 2025.

Net sales grew by 4.4% to almost 3.8 billion. Currency had a negative impact on the outcome with -1.4%.

Organic growth, on the other hand, turned positive at 4.9%, and we saw growth in both reporting segments. Our order backlog also reported growth of 5.6%, or 7.5% organically, again impacted by FX.

Most of the growth came from Norway, but we also saw strongly increasing order intake from a few of our Finland-based subsidiaries that mainly work towards industrial clients. Especially for the Norwegian order growth, it is important to keep in mind that many of the projects taken have long durations.

I would therefore caution against expecting it to quickly go to execution. In addition to the backlog, we saw our service business, which remains an important stabilizing factor.

For the fourth quarter, service amounted to 38% of sales, and at the same level for the full year. Then on to our earnings: EBITA in both millions and margin.

Q4 tends to be seasonally strong with lots of projects wrapping up by the end of the year. This pattern continued also in 2025, though December saw activity going down for both ourselves and our customers due to the holiday period.

In total, EBITA grew by 39% compared to last year to 272 million. This corresponds to a margin of 7.2%.

The higher margin and improved result are explained partly by prior-year items affecting comparability and partly by implemented operational improvements. The outcome breaks the negative year-on-year EBITA trend observed over recent quarters.

The adjusted EBITA margin is unchanged year-on-year. In the context of a market that has pressured margins throughout the year, maintaining that level in Q4 reflects underlying operational improvements.

It also marks a clear break in the pattern of year-on-year margin decline we have seen in recent quarters. The focus on margin improvement remains a key priority for the entire group.

To break it down into more detail, over to a slide that summarizes segment Sweden in Q4. Overall, net sales grew to 2.6 billion, with an organic growth of 6.6%.

Acquired growth contributed with 1.3%. The order backlog was down by 3% compared to a year ago to 6.6 billion.

This, however, represents a sequential growth of 300 million compared to the end of Q3. The EBITA amounted to 180 million, corresponding to a margin of 6.8% compared to 5.5% last year.

The stronger margin is the result of the segment no longer being burdened by last year's one-off costs, combined with operational improvements. Improved margins and earnings are evident across the majority of geographical areas.

At the same time, performance continues to be weighed down by a persistently challenging market. When adjusting for the one-off costs of 54 million, adjusted margin for the same quarter last year would have been 7.7%.

The Swedish market is showing early, cautious signs of recovery, particularly in the major cities where new projects are starting to move forward. At the same time, decision-making remains slow and conditions are still challenging in parts of the country, with pressure on pricing in some regions.

Demand within technical consulting, automation, and digitalization continues to strengthen, providing early signals of gradual improvement despite a mixed industrial backdrop. As always, it is important to keep in mind that installations is late-cyclical.

Now for a summary of the Rest of Nordics segment. Overall, net sales were down slightly to 1.1 billion due to FX effects.

Organic growth amounted to 1.2%. The EBITA margin amounted to 7.8% compared to 5% last year, or 6% last year if adjusting for the one-off costs.

The improvement was driven by both countries, but primarily by Finland, and in particular by projects for industrial customers. The segment showed very strong development of the order backlog, which increased by 33%.

As I mentioned a few slides ago, this was primarily driven by Norway, which saw some, for us, larger orders come in during the year, but also in the quarter. In Norway, the market has stabilized following a weaker period, with early signs of recovery, particularly in Oslo and the south regions, supported by public investments in infrastructure, defense, healthcare, and education.

Competition remains intense, and the macro environment is still somewhat uncertain, with inflation and interest rate expectations affecting investment decisions. Overall, the market is gradually stabilizing, but any recovery is likely to be gradual rather than fast.

In Finland, activity remains subdued, with residential construction and larger private investments still on hold. Demand is mainly driven by renovation work, industrial projects, and longer-term investments linked to the energy transition, defense, and digital infrastructure, while a broader recovery is not expected in the near term.

Finally, a reminder that this segment will be split up in our external reporting starting from January 1st, 2026. We will publish historical numbers according to the new segment reporting before our Q1 report.

Then on to the cash generation in the quarter. In Q4, cash flow from operations amounted to 451 million.

The slight decrease is attributable to last year's much higher adjustments for non-cash items related to the one-off costs taken in Q4 2025. Q4 tends to be a period where we build up working capital due to the typically increased invoicing at the end of the year.

Was the case also this year, but I'm happy to report that we did so to a lesser extent than a year ago, despite our increased top line and earnings. Taken together with a strong development throughout the previous quarter, this means we ended the year with a cash conversion of 108%, which is above our target.

This is the result of improved earnings and improved POC ratio and a clear focus on cash management within the full group. In total, the cash flow performance gives us confidence in the direction and the quality of our execution.

This cash flow profile strengthens our financial foundation and increases our flexibility going forward. Then let's have a look at our performance on a rolling 12 months basis in relation to our financial targets.

Our targets are defined over a business cycle, and in the current market, we continue to prioritize profitability and disciplined project selection over pure volume growth. Despite this, we ended the full year 2025 with a negative net sales development of only -0.7% and an organic development of only -0.3%.

The EBITA margin came in at 5.9%, or if adjusted, at 6.4%. It remains below our long-term ambition.

We are not satisfied and are taking actions. These actions are making an impact, as can be seen in the quarter.

Operational cash flow was again strong, with a conversion rate of 108%, above our target, supported by ongoing improvements in working capital efficiency. Our leverage remains somewhat over our own long-term target of 2.5 times net debt to EBITDA, as it currently sits now at 2.8 times.

This represents a significant deleveraging compared to 3.3 times at the end of Q3. The board proposes a dividend of 0.5 SEK per share based on the current number of shares, which amounts to 133 million.

Of course, we remain firmly focused on delivering on our climate commitments as part of our long-term targets. By that, over to you, Per.

Per Sjöstrand

Thank you, Christina. Let's talk about Fabri for one slide here.

I want to point out momentum in Germany remains strong. Our German platform, Fabri, continues to develop well and has made two further acquisitions during the quarter.

This means Fabri has now reached 22 companies in total, underscoring the steady progress of the platform. As with previous additions, these companies are a strong fit with the Fabri model.

They are entrepreneurial-led, technical-skilled, and firmly rooted in the local markets. Together, they strengthen both the platform's technical capabilities and also its geographic reach.

The collaboration between Instalco and Fabri is built on a long-term agreement, and the next step in ownership under our multi-phase model is gradually approaching. At the same time, execution is very much about timing and preparation, and based on our current assessment, step two is expected to become relevant in the second half of 2026.

Overall, the development in Germany continues to confirm that our platform strategy is working and that the market offers attractive opportunities for long-term, profitable growth. Then I have a theme here on next slide, I think.

I wanted to do a brief look back at the year we have just added to the books. As I said in the beginning of this presentation, the fourth quarter concludes a challenging year, but also marks an important shift driven by our own actions.

2025 was a challenging year in the market, we all know that, with uneven demand and limited visibility at times. We also started the year with setbacks, including Northvolt.

What really defines this year is not the market we were given, but the choices we made within it. We deliberately reset the fundamentals of the business.

A lot of focus went into Instalco 2.0, which we introduced to you during our Q3 call. This includes better follow-up, planning, and execution, and a more structured way of driving improvements across the group.

Getting the basic right matters, especially in a decentralized project business like ours. We also chose discipline over volume.

We're not chasing growth at any price, but focusing on margins, risk, and the right projects with the right customers. That is both a profitability choice and a risk management choice.

This focus on discipline has also shaped our approach to expansion. Execution comes before expansion.

That applies to organic growth, but also to M&A. We completed though one acquisition during the year: Alf Näslunds Eltjänst in Örnsköldsvik.

This was a very deliberate choice. The region is seeing positive momentum with several major upcoming investments, and Alf Näslunds Eltjänst gives us a strong local platform.

It strengthens our position in the region and our multidisciplinary offering, allowing us to deliver more complete solutions to customers locally. At the same time, we have remained selective and patient elsewhere.

On the strategic side, we took several important steps during the year. In March, we took possession of our minority stake in Fabri, giving us exposure to a new market while keeping risk balanced.

Over the summer, we extended our credit facility to a total of 3.4 billion SEK, securing financial strength and flexibility in a time when that really matters. Taken together, this has been a year of deliberate choices: choices to focus, to be disciplined, and to make sure we execute well before we move on to the next step.

Those choices are now starting to shape where Instalco is heading next. While we have made a lot of changes during the year, our focus has, of course, remained on our core business.

Day in and day out, our subsidiaries are out in the market, competing for and delivering complex installation projects. These slides show a small selection of four important orders secured during the year in a market that has been anything but easy.

What they have in common is not size, but quality. They are technically demanding projects, often multidisciplinary, with long-term customers and high requirements of execution, planning, and collaboration.

They also reflect the parts of the market where activity continues even in a downturn, such as healthcare, public infrastructure, retail with scale, and secure or specialized facilities. For us, these orders are a clear confirmation that our model works.

When the market is challenging, it is the subsidiaries with strong local positions, technical competence, and discipline that continue to win the right kind of business. I'm assuming most of you have seen this slide before, I won't go through it in detail again.

Instalco 2.0 is the core of where our efforts have gone during the past few months, it's worth a short recap. At its heart, Instalco 2.0 is about protecting what has always worked for us, and that means local entrepreneurship, closeness to the customer, and fast decision-making, while being more deliberate in how we run and support the business.

We are raising the bar on one-day-to-day execution, building stronger capabilities across the organization, and taking a clear, more hands-on approach where performance is not where it should be. The goal is, of course, stronger execution, more predictable outcomes, and a more resilient group over time without moving decision-making away from the subsidiaries.

It's very important. Slide 16.

The slide illustrates how Instalco 2.0 has progressed over the past two quarters. During Q3, the focus was on setting the direction, defining the framework, aligning the operating model, and establishing common principles.

That work was about creating the conditions to execute in a more disciplined and consistent way. In Q4, the focus shifted to implementation.

Parts of the framework are now being applied in daily operations, and we are working systematically on rolling out across the group. This is not about launching a new process or sending out material, but about gradually changing ways of working and how performance is followed up.

We are seeing tangible effects in better visibility across all levels of the organization, earlier identification of deviations in results and projects forecast, and a more disciplined approach to risk and working capital. Issues are surfaced, challenged, and addressed rather than postponed.

While we are still early in the journey, we are starting to see these improvements reflected clearly in operations and, to some extent, also in the numbers. Importantly, Instalco 2.0 is not a one-off initiative.

The ongoing phase is about maintaining momentum through continuous improvement, structured follow-up, and capability building, including targeted training and leadership initiatives. This is about establishing a new way of working for the long term, not delivering a short-term project.

I think this is the last slide and summary. Let's return to the quarter and look at the key takeaways.

As we have mentioned, for the first time in seven quarters, EBITA is growing, which marks an important shift after a prolonged period of pressure. At the same time, market conditions remain varied across geographies, which continues to require a disciplined and selective approach.

Operationally, we deliver strong cash flow and further strengthen our financial positions, reflecting improved control and focus in the business. Instalco 2.0 continues to progress according to plan.

The rollout is ongoing, and we are starting to see clear effects in daily operations, with sharper priorities, clearer accountability, and more consistent follow-up across the organization. The focus is on doing the right things together and with precision, and reinforcing these ways of working over time.

All in all, we are taking steps in the right direction from a stronger financial position. With that, I would like to thank you for joining in on this call, and now open up for questions.

Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad.

The next question comes from Oscar Rönnkvist from SEB. Please go ahead.

Oscar Rönnkvist

Thank you, and good morning. Just my first question would be on the Swedish contract sales.

I think they seem extraordinarily strong here in Q4. I just wondered if there are any temporary effects, or if we should extrapolate the strength here, the market is still pretty cautious, and this is a late-cyclical business, and also considering that you highlight the seasonality going into Q1 then.

Just wanted to hear if I'm reading too much into that or not. Thanks.

Per Sjöstrand

What do you say, should we take that one? Yeah.

Christina Kassberg

The organic growth in Q4 was encouraging, particularly given, I would say, the market environment we have discussed and we all are aware of. It reflects a combination of good order intake earlier in the year, but also solid execution in the quarter.

I would say also the fact that we continue to see demand in parts of the market that are less exposed to new build activity.

Per Sjöstrand

Maybe adding to that that our selling process has also developed, I think you're on the right track there.

Oscar Rönnkvist

All right. Underlying strength, not sort of particular or temporary positive effects.

Per Sjöstrand

We don't believe that. We think it's a slightly better market, better offer more offensive selling process and yeah, a combination of that.

Oscar Rönnkvist

Got it. Next one just a more technical one on the working capital release here.

I think it was almost 200 million now in 2025. It's despite having pretty flat-ish organic growth.

Do you expect any setback on the working capital levels, or should we see this as a new normal?

Christina Kassberg

As you are aware of, when it comes to leverage, for example, if you look at that, it's a combination when it comes to how we go forward on both net debt and the EBITDA components. Through cash flow forecast, we have worked hard with it during the quarter and the full year.

We have given out measures and we have really focused on it. We will continue to do that.

Cash flow and working capital improvements, it's hard work, and we continue, and we are happy that we have made a positive conclusion like this for the end of the year: 108% in cash conversion.

Mathilda Eriksson

If I can just add on to that as well. I think we can definitely see several components of this really improving.

We have an improved percentage-of-completion ratio, which is very positive, as well as several different components of the working capital. This has been a focus area from the entire group throughout the year, and we're happy to see it pay off.

Oscar Rönnkvist

I can add thank you so much. All right.

Last question, just on the market outlook, had some mixed confidence or some mixed comments about the sort of cautious confidence that you say in the report. Implied order intake, as we have spoken about, seems pretty strong.

I believe also that you mentioned in earlier calls that you don't want to fill up the order book with low-margin projects, quite naturally. Should we expect that when the orders are accelerating a bit here, that the project margins on new orders have improved regarding competition?

Per Sjöstrand

It's hard to say, of course, but it's in the right direction, I think. We are talking also a lot about partnering projects.

We are talking about the service sector. I will say that market conditions remain mixed, and of course we try to address our efforts towards the market where we think we can have gained most of, of course.

It's still weak in certain new build segments, but there is a demand in infrastructure, service as I mentioned, more complex installation. That is also something we look into, and I think we suit very well in that.

It's more stable with those more complex installations, and we see signs of gradual improvement. The recovery is uneven and varies by geography and customer segments, of course.

We have to be on the right place and take the right projects and the right customers, as we mentioned.

Oscar Rönnkvist

All right, perfect. I'll stop there.

Thank you so much.

Operator

The next question comes from Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea. Please go ahead.

Carl Ragnerstam

Good morning, it's Carl here from Nordea. Few questions from my side as well.

Firstly, in Rest of Nordics, you mentioned that the margin was partly, at least, driven by industrial clients in Finland. I wonder if you could give more flavors around whether these are several projects?

Was it completion now during Q4 means that you released some POC, boosting the margins? Or do you think that the projects will continue at the current level for 1, 2, 3 more quarters?

Per Sjöstrand

I think we see a rather stable market within the industrial part of our business. There is still several investments that we are looking forward to, and there are signs, as have been mentioned, of also new projects coming up.

I think we can say that a major part or a large part of our business is in the industrial, what we call industrial sector right now. I think we will see continuously improvements, but also new projects coming out there.

Several projects, good order intake, that is something we are looking forward to.

Mathilda Eriksson

Yeah. Hi, Carl.

I think you can see that also written in the report under the Rest of Nordics segment that Norway, of course, was the majority of the strong order intake, but also some industrial leading companies in Finland saw good growth as well.

Carl Ragnerstam

No, yeah, I specifically referred to the margin, though, not order intake in Rest of Nordics.

Per Sjöstrand

In general, the industrial projects have slightly at least higher margin than maybe other parts. Also I think they did good in quarter three as well.

I think it's a rather stable margin. Those companies have a rather stable margin, and I think, or I know, that also the business area has a little bit higher margins.

There's no reason for changing the opinion about that. I think that they will continue to leverage a little bit higher margin.

Carl Ragnerstam

That is good that it's sustainable to keep in mind then. In terms of the cash conversion, you talked a little bit about it.

Of course, we've saw previously the POC coming down quite a bit quarter-to-quarter, year-over-year as well. Firstly, do you see that you are where you want to be on the POC right now, because you've obviously done a lot of measures over the past years?

Also secondly, in the cash conversion in the quarter, you've taken some big or large contracts over the past year. Start-up of these tend to come with an up-front payment.

Is cash conversion boosted by front payments to any extent in the quarter, or is it sort of Instalco 2.0 effect or any other?

Christina Kassberg

It's a mix of everything, I would say, Carl. The cash flow and the cash conversion and the working capital in the quarter was strong.

As you mentioned, variation in work in progress or the POC ratio is very, very important here. Then we tend to tie up more accounts receivable at the end of a year.

We have good invoicing and that ties up accounts receivable, but in less extent, I would nevertheless say, compared to previous quarter. In the end, what we have done and what we are working with is more effective, I would say, use of payment terms in Instalco 2.0 and our measures around this.

This is an important theme and a lot of best practice in contractual payments and ensuring compliance across all units. Measures and Instalco 2.0 and a good work in the entire organization.

Carl Ragnerstam

That is very clear. Also looking at service sales in Sweden particularly, seems to be down a bit year-over-year, of course you've done some measures with discontinuing sales, it's hard to see the underlying data, but do you still see a sort of stable/sluggish market in services or what should we read into that number?

Christina Kassberg

Service, we ended up for the group 38% and in the quarter and approximately the same numbers in the quarter, in quarter and the full year. A little less in the group, smaller numbers in Sweden than in Rest of the Nordics.

This is a measure we have worked with around for many years to stabilizing and have this strengthening part with service in our businesses. We will continue that.

I think we can't say exactly the numbers for the coming year, and we are not giving forecasts, but it is a priority to have a stabilizing service business.

Per Sjöstrand

Exactly. I think also we can say that when we saw the market downturn a couple of years ago, it was a strategy to strengthen up the service sector.

Of course, when more projects is coming out, it can be so that we are now focusing more on projects and the service part is going down slightly. That depends on how much and how many projects that will come out there and the price level, of course, of them, because the best is a mix, a healthy mix, but also the possibility to change almost from day to day between projects and service.

So

Carl Ragnerstam

That's very clear. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.

Karl Bokvist

Thank you. Good morning.

First one on Fabri. Is it possible to give an update on kind of a run-rate revenue level for the entire Fabri group?

Per Sjöstrand

I can say so much that they have performed well, and of course they now have 27 22 companies, as we said. They have a turnover 150 million euro.

They are growing, and as I think we have mentioned before, they have at least the margin that we have in the Nordics, and I would say at least, because they are performing well. That's what I can say, yeah.

We are satisfied, to speak.

Karl Bokvist

Understood. Also I noticed in the report also on Fabri that you now say you expect to close it by second or during second half.

Any particular reason or decision why in the second half compared to perhaps first half before?

Per Sjöstrand

I say it's just a little administrative work, it's nothing that has changed. It's just that we think that we have to go through the figures, of course.

We have to see that everything is okay. They are a little bit, not slower, but they have more administrative work down to do that down there.

It's just a, yeah, almost a coincidence. The figures are fixed, and we have to just to look into them.

Karl Bokvist

Understood. My second question, it's a bit of a follow-up to Oscar's regarding contract sales.

In the past, if we look back a few years, you have been a projects execution installation group, and this is a part of the market where you have historically also had good margin. Contract sales now growing, good to see.

I'm just curious to hear about your view on kind of pricing environment right now compared to what you can do by just well, as you said, doing better things internally from the Instalco 2.0 model, et cetera.

Per Sjöstrand

Good question. One of the main targets and one of the pillars, I would say, in Instalco 2.0 is also to improve our selling capacity, as I mentioned, and pricing goes with that.

It's one thing that you calculate projects, but the pricing is another expertise, I would say. That is something we have added to our Instalco 2.0 and what we are doing now.

Hopefully, of course, and that's also both our view of it and our wish, of course, but still, we will work a lot with what we call pricing and value-added pricing. That is something we have picked up now and looking forward to.

With that said, maybe you can imagine that this is on the highest on our agenda.

Karl Bokvist

Understood. Thank you.

That's all from my side.

Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Johan Lundqvist Sundin from DNB Carnegie.

Please go ahead.

Johan Lundqvist

Hey Per, Katarina Christina, and Mathilda. Few questions from my side as well.

Hope you can hear me

Per Sjöstrand

well. Just go on.

Christina Kassberg

We

Per Sjöstrand

hear you perfectly.

Johan Lundqvist

Curious to hear a little bit of your thoughts on FTE count. I note that year-end FTE numbers was down some 60 versus end of Q3.

Have you planned any further FTE reductions going into the beginning of 2026 and potentially some kind of restructuring charges related to that?

Per Sjöstrand

No, we have not planned. There's no FTE saving or what you call it, a program going on.

We launched a couple of cost savings program during 2024 and 20 maybe 2025 in the beginning. It's more like cost control right now in every subsidiary, and we are doing our business plans with these head counting as well.

We have no specific plans to reduce FTEs or so. Of course, it depends on the market.

One of our main points here is, and we have talked about it during this call as well, to act very quickly to response on if we see ups or downs in the project intake.

Christina Kassberg

I can also add that, of course, we have a big mix of companies in our portfolio, and we have strong companies with very high profitability, and we have companies that are struggling. We work individual with company after company of where they are, and where we need to make reductions, if that is the case, we work with cost control and, et cetera.

We have a mixed portfolio, and the geographies is different, and the market difference in the different countries and regions. So

Per Sjöstrand

It's a day-to-day business, yes.

Johan Lundqvist

Makes sense. Another margin drag that you have been fighting with for quite some time is the building automation startup.

Possible to give any color on where you are with regards to margins in that area?

Per Sjöstrand

I didn't hear clearly about Intec or Inmatic or

Johan Lundqvist

Inmatic, specifically.

Per Sjöstrand

Inmatic, so. Okay.

We know that the demand for their services are high. I think also that what we can see now is they are catching up.

This is a startup, and startups always start with empty hands. What they're doing now is, and we can see that they are less dragging now than in Q3.

I think we see signs of really, really recovering in that company and in that segment. They now are more stabilized in the market.

I think that they are well known now, and that means that they have more tenders or offering to do, and customers start to understand that we have this in-house. We're looking forward to the development of Inmatic, and of course Intec as well, during 2026.

Johan Lundqvist

Are they still negative or

Christina Kassberg

Let's phrase it like this: today they are approximately 90 consultants in our automation startup businesses. They are still negative, but they are dragging less than in Q3.

They are making better in Q4, but they are still negative. What we are saying is that their margin is improving stepwise as we expect.

Johan Lundqvist

Excellent. My final question is on Fabri.

Can you give some comments on how the balance sheet of Fabri looks like?

Per Sjöstrand

I think when we acquire in part two, we will acquire 27%. Then we will have a better view and also it's more important for us.

Of course they have taken up a loan, but it's very small figures today. I think we will come back after Q1 Q2 here and explaining the situation in Fabri.

It's nothing to worry about.

Christina Kassberg

They are very well capitalized.

Per Sjöstrand

Exactly.

Christina Kassberg

They have a strong balance sheet.

Per Sjöstrand

Yeah.

Johan Lundqvist

Very well. Those were my three questions.

I get back in the line. Thanks a lot.

Per Sjöstrand

Thank you.

Operator

There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for written questions and any closing comments.

Mathilda Eriksson

We have no written questions at this time, Per, if you want to wrap up?

Per Sjöstrand

With that I want to thank you for dialing in and for your questions. Of course, before we close this call, I want to take the opportunity to truly thank the people that make up Instalco for the work, responsibility, and commitment demonstrating throughout the year, especially in what we call Instalco 2.0.

Give credit where credit is due. We have seen good progress, and there is more to do and more to come.

Thank you very much.