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 Dynavox Group.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Hi, I'm Jacob Thordenberg, and I joined Dynavox Group as CFO on September 14th. Most recently, I served as CFO of a public listed life science company, and before that I held 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.
Jacob Thordenberg
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. So 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, and 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 you take next slide, please. Today, almost three quarters of our business stems out of the U.S.
and Canada, and that's largely because a recently well-functioning system established about 20 to 30 years ago. Our comprehensive solutions are sold in more than 65 markets around the world, which 12 are markets where we sell directly, while the others are served by a network of some 100+ 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 U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania.
The second largest office is our headquarter here in Stockholm, but 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. Then, the 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 comes 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. But now we will go back at focusing on the main topic of today, namely the earnings report for a third quarter.
I would 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, and yet we deliver a 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 U.S., we view this as delaying factors and the overall slower or more cumbersome processes rather than a demand issue. If you 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 investment in local execution and integration efforts.
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 is also translating to operating leverage and then continued significantly strengthened our cash flow as we continue to scale. But that was just the headlines.
Now I would like to hand over to you, Jacob, to run us deeper into the financials of the quarter.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Thank you, Fredrik. In the quarter, revenue grew 13% to SEK 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 U.S., 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 U.S. 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 cost 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 94% year over year to SEK 119 million, driving a 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 cost, which decreased by SEK 9 million year over year as the ERP rollout was completed in most entities, and by a SEK 9 million reduction in restructuring costs.
Operating expenses related to acquisitions contributed with a SEK 10 million increased. Cost for research and development after capitalization and amortization decreased by SEK 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 SEK 19 million, the majority of which related to adjustments of earn-out liabilities.
To summarize, we continue to see operating leverage in the business and profitability improving. Cash flow after continuous investments increased to SEK 62 million in the quarter compared to SEK 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 SEK 273 million at the end of the quarter, providing significant financial flexibility. At the same time, net debt decreased to SEK 829 million and leverage improved to 1.3x EBITDA compared to 2.0x 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.
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
Great. You are now baptized, Jacob.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Yes. Thank you.
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
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, that includes contributions from acquisitions.
In local currencies, the third 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, 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%. So we are well on that trajectory.
The target on profitability reads to deliver an annual EBIT margin that reaches and exceeds 15%. 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 these two. Lastly, our dividend policy.
We have a very attractive cash flow profile, given the growth opportunities, we need to maintain a capital structure that enables strategic flexibility to pursue growth investments, that of course, includes acquisitions. It is still expected to, over time, generate excess cash, 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 U.S. 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 markets 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.
This has happened in just a few years. Today, a global team of well over 1,000 great colleagues that we 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.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Thank you, Fredrik. Okay, I see we have already a couple 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.
Abtin Aram
Daniel Djurberg
Well, let's see if you can hear me now.
Daniel Djurberg
Abtin Aram
We can hear you, Daniel, but let's give it a shot.
Abtin Aram
Daniel Djurberg
Can you hear me now?
Daniel Djurberg
Abtin Aram
Yes.
Abtin Aram
Daniel Djurberg
Again. Super.
Yeah, thanks. A couple of questions from my side.
First on AbleNet, and you had some positive non-recurring items in the quarter, SEK 19 million, et cetera. You gained some from higher capitalization and lower R&D amortization.
My question is if you had any negatives on the NRI side, for example, from AbleNet litigation and so on.
Daniel Djurberg
Fredrik Ruben
No is the short answer. The AbleNet process is 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 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.
Fredrik Ruben
Daniel Djurberg
Yeah, 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.
Daniel Djurberg
Fredrik Ruben
Sure. Jacob, do you want to talk to the gross margin?
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Sure, I can. Hi, Daniel.
Well, 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 mitigate that. One way to mitigate it is, of course, to work more efficiently.
By doing so, we have looked into different types 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.
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah, the component costs are real and they happen, but we're also quite proud to see that we're able to fend that off into a fairly large degree by running a smoother machinery. You can, of course, see that if we did not have the component cost increases, that would have the underlying operations and gross margin is actually strengthened.
I believe you also had a question on overall OpEx.
Fredrik Ruben
Daniel Djurberg
Yeah.
Daniel Djurberg
Fredrik Ruben
I think it's important, of course, when you're comparing years where we had significant one-offs, et cetera, do we still see that this is a company that scales? Yes, we do.
So even if we adjust for one-timers, et cetera, we still see a good 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, et cetera, 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, so 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?
Fredrik Ruben
Daniel Djurberg
Yeah, I think so. Thanks, and good luck here in Q4.
I'll get back in the queue.
Daniel Djurberg
Fredrik Ruben
Great. Thank you.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Thank you.
Jacob Thordenberg
Abtin Aram
Thank you, Daniel. We have a question from Jessica Grunewald 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?"
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Great. Hi, Jessica.
If I go up in the helicopter a little bit, we have multiple funding sources in the U.S. 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 represents some 40% of our current revenue, so it is significant.
We are seeing more fighting, if you will. That typically comes from the fact that each state in the U.S.
is required to have a budget in balance. So they are looking to do all kinds of cost-cutting including medical expenses, et cetera.
This is not new. This has always been the case, but it is 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 has not changed and you are certainly obliged to do it. That is what we refer to in the two cases in the specific quarter where there was a short standstill and then they opened up.
But we expect that this will happen also going forward. That being said, it is not like a customer can only have funding through, for example, Medicaid or Medicare.
That is a little bit of a choice or a strategy. So what we might see going forward is that more and more of our reimbursement revenue in the U.S.
might actually move towards the other funding providers while we are ensuring that the go-to-market that we have today sustains. Your last question, whether the solved cases will have any impact going forward.
Well, to some degree. But it was only two states, and this is a whack-a-mole game.
There is something new that will pop up every month. Probably what you are seeing is that there has been more of that happening lately rather than specific cases.
So I do not know if that really answered your question, but this is a complex material.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Thank you. Next caller is Simon Larsson.
Please unmute yourself and turn off your camera if you want, and ask your question.
Abtin Aram
Simon Larsson
Perfect. Hopefully, you can hear me.
Simon Larsson
Fredrik Ruben
Loud and clear, Simon.
Fredrik Ruben
Simon Larsson
Good. Good morning, everyone.
Maybe starting on the earn-out 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 here going forward?
Simon Larsson
Fredrik Ruben
Sure. This is a Jacob question.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Yeah. Hi, Simon.
I am not completely sure which acquisition it relates to, but how it works technically is when you acquire a company and you have an earn-out component, you put the earn-out component as a liability on your balance sheet, and then you assess that liability each quarter, depending on the development towards the earn-out targets. When you do this assessment and you do a reassessment where you think the likelihood of paying out parts of the earn-out 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 SEK 16 million.
Jacob Thordenberg
Simon Larsson
Yeah. No, that is clear.
Also then maybe on 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 are not maybe fully happy with what you are performing right now, so any sort of guidance and help on that?
Simon Larsson
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, all our acquisitions lately have been our own resellers. If we buy a resell which has a turnover of 100, it is 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, and that is actually how much the revenue growth. Because of these technicalities that I explained to you before, we do not see that as a fully organic growth, both in Q2 and Q3.
We celebrate the first anniversary of our German, which is a fairly significant acquisition, on September 1. In this quarter, you only had one month 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 is 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 had a few kind of markets that did not perform as we want to. The clear highlights were, as just said, Germany and Australia, which is not in Europe.
We had some other markets where we expect performance to be a little bit higher.
Fredrik Ruben
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, et cetera. I know it is a bit of a difficult question, but if you can comment anything on FX, if there is anything to be mindful of.
Simon Larsson
Jacob Thordenberg
Yeah, Simon, it's back to IFRS again, which can be a little bit confusing. So 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 a spike in the U.S. dollar, and to some extent also the euro, in the beginning of 2025.
So that leads to a somewhat delayed effects on FX.
Jacob Thordenberg
Simon Larsson
Okay. No, that's clear.
Okay, perfect. Thanks so much.
Simon Larsson
Fredrik Ruben
And just-
Fredrik Ruben
Simon Larsson
Yeah
Simon Larsson
Fredrik Ruben
because I can just clarify, your assumptions on currency flows is probably 100% correct.
Fredrik Ruben
Simon Larsson
Yeah.
Simon Larsson
Fredrik Ruben
There is nothing funky going on in the background.
Fredrik Ruben
Simon Larsson
No. Very good.
Thanks.
Simon Larsson
Abtin Aram
Thank you. Next one is Jakob Lembke.
Please unmute yourself and turn on your camera if you want.
Abtin Aram
Jakob Lembke
Yeah. Hi, and good morning.
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Starting on the U.S., 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 what's in Q2?
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
Unchanged.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Then also on that then, when I look at it seems like the North America sales, when factoring in currency, is down a bit sequentially here in Q3 compared to Q2. My sense is it's typically in line or a bit stronger.
Should we read anything into this?
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
Oh, that was a tricky question. I actually don't 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 take, but that's not my sense.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
No, I understand the question, and maybe we'll have to come back to that one then, Jakob. But we do expect to see the same seasonal pattern.
However, in this quarter, maybe we saw less seasonality due to the headwinds that we have described.
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah. That is not my gut feeling.
I think the seasonality patterns that we have seen since forever largely remain.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Okay, good. Then on Europe, based on what you are seeing now across all of the markets, do you think that Europe can grow in the double digits here going forward on an organic basis?
I mean, Germany is becoming organic, right, in Q4.
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
Yes.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Good.
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
Short and sweet.
Fredrik Ruben
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 working capital revaluation in the quarter?
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
I don't believe so.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
No, I wouldn't say so.
Jacob Thordenberg
Jakob Lembke
Good. Then maybe finally also, based on the current trends you see, how do you see the possibility to grow in line with your target for 2027?
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
We typically don't respond to specific years, et cetera. 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. So we basically reiterate the target, but 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 of looking at. 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.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Okay, good. That is all from me.
Thank you.
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
Great. How are we looking, Abtin?
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
We have a couple of callers left, and then some questions in the chat.
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Great.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Filip Wetterqvist, if you want to unmute yourself, please.
Abtin Aram
Filip Wetterqvist
There we go. Can you guys hear me?
Filip Wetterqvist
Fredrik Ruben
Yes.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Yes.
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Perfect.
Fredrik Ruben
Filip Wetterqvist
Perfect. I forgot to unmute myself.
Good morning. I have one question on restructuring costs.
It declined by around SEK 9 million year-on-year in Q3, while last year you had around SEK 14 million of restructuring costs. Should we interpret that there was SEK 5 million of extraordinary restructuring costs in this quarter?
Filip Wetterqvist
Fredrik Ruben
No, that is probably not the right interpretation. That is a trick question for me if it is related to currency, perhaps, et cetera.
On the restructuring of our R&D organization, as mentioned before, the restructuring costs were largely severance pays. So basically for people that left in the U.S.
Since the last person left the U.S.-based R&D organization in November of last year, those are literally all behind us. So there must be some other kind of comparison that, actually, I do not have the answer to that.
There has been no other restructuring since that date, basically.
Fredrik Ruben
Filip Wetterqvist
All right. Then one on R&D capitalization, which increased by around SEK 10 million, while amortization declined.
How should we think about the relationship between capitalization and amortization going forward?
Filip Wetterqvist
Fredrik Ruben
I pass that to Jacob.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
That is a very good question. What is the question, really?
How you should look at it?
Jacob Thordenberg
Filip Wetterqvist
Yeah. 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.
Filip Wetterqvist
Jacob Thordenberg
Yeah
Jacob Thordenberg
Filip Wetterqvist
Since you capitalized more than amortized.
Filip Wetterqvist
Jacob Thordenberg
Yeah. 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.
Jacob Thordenberg
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, et cetera.
But 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.
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, and that cycle will always be a little bit of a swing back and forth.
Right now the swing is in the direction of more capitalization. But you will, of course, over time, that should even out more or less.
Fredrik Ruben
Filip Wetterqvist
Yeah. We should assume that we will see an inflection in beginning of 2027, if you have some product launches coming up.
Filip Wetterqvist
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah, 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 the pendulum swing turns.
Fredrik Ruben
Filip Wetterqvist
Yep. All right.
Thank you.
Filip Wetterqvist
Jacob Thordenberg
Yeah.
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
Thanks.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
We have questions from Mikael Laséen in the chat. He is asking about the complexity that we highlighted regarding Medicaid and Medicaid managed care organizations in the U.S.
He is asking what specifically has changed during Q3, and did you see this also in Q2?
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah. I think almost nothing has really changed.
I think that the complexities that we experienced before summer sustain, but they are different. There is a new challenge in a certain state or a certain payer that pops up.
Then we take out that fire and then perhaps something new. But I would not say that there has been any material change since the beginning of the year.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
He is also wondering, regarding the insurance-related issues highlighted in H1 in the U.S., how did that develop during Q3? Have conditions improved, stabilized, or deteriorated?
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
It's probably almost the same question. They're the same.
They have neither worsened or gotten better.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Are we seeing any increase in rejected claims, or is it more longer approval times, that is?
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
If you have a specific claim then you have a denial, that also happens, then we have a process to try to overturn that or appeal that. The ratio between cases being rejected and the ratio of cases coming out of our pipeline has not changed.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Great. Nikola Kalanoski, please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Abtin Aram
Nikola Kalanoski
All right. There we go.
I hope you can hear me.
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Yes.
Fredrik Ruben
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.
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah.
Fredrik Ruben
Nikola Kalanoski
Then you did have this really tough comp of over 50% growth last year. I am thinking, given the strength in Germany, which I think you have 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 does not have to be in terms of numbers, but just in terms of some extra granularity, that would be great.
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah. 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. 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 bigger 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 U.S. 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. Then in this quarter, in this year, it was slower.
But the beauty of our model, since 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 on the field we're operating in?
Fredrik Ruben
Nikola Kalanoski
Yeah, that's definitely helpful. That's very helpful, especially the commentary on the tender markets.
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah
Fredrik Ruben
Nikola Kalanoski
and the associated swings. Just a 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 U.S. What's that pace looking like, and has it changed compared to your history, compared to last year, for example?
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Normally, the pace of recruiting the field reps or solutions consultants that we call them, it's 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. But 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 U.S., 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 there 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, et cetera. But our ambition and our strategy remains.
Fredrik Ruben
Nikola Kalanoski
Hmm. Just maybe to follow up, so then would the class of 2026 be approximately the same size as the class of 2025?
I mean, if we just adjust away for all of these seasonal effects-
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah
Fredrik Ruben
Nikola Kalanoski
and the spikes.
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah. That's a good kind of ballpark understanding.
Fredrik Ruben
Nikola Kalanoski
Yep. Fair enough.
Okay. Yeah, that's all from me.
Thank you so much.
Nikola Kalanoski
Fredrik Ruben
Great.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
A couple more questions from Mikael Laséen. Regarding North America's 16% organic growth, was that mostly driven by higher unit volumes or mix or price?
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
The ASP is largely identical, so it is only volume increases.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Volume.
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Correct.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Yeah.
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Yep.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Another question from Mikael as well. He is asking if we can quantify the positive EBIT impact from the reversal of contingent earn-out liabilities included in the SEK 19 million of operating income.
Abtin Aram
Jacob Thordenberg
We answered that question earlier, and it is SEK 16 million in the quarter.
Jacob Thordenberg
Abtin Aram
Perfect. We have one more calling in, and that is Jakob.
Again, if you want to unmute yourself, please.
Abtin Aram
Jakob Lembke
Yeah, thanks. A few short further questions.
On OpEx, when I calculate it and try to understand it on an underlying basis, excluding all of the one-offs that has been, it seems like you are still growing costs a bit faster than your revenues. It will just be interesting to hear your thoughts about this.
In order for this to reverse, will you have to accelerate revenues, or will you also start to adapt the cost growth here going forward?
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
It is not entirely a correct analysis. I think we have a quite decent gap between revenue growth and cost growth.
There will be currencies, et cetera. I also would like to say that the effects of the investment 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 the previous conversations, is in field reps, so basically sales and marketing and people on the street, certain areas where it comes to continuing investing in IT, but I am expecting more of a leverage when it comes to all the other G&A functions, if you will.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Okay, good. Then also on the currency impact on top line, which you elaborated on earlier, it seems like it is calculated a bit different than I have done it.
Jakob Lembke
Fredrik Ruben
Yeah.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Just for Q4, is it possible to guide on what the currency impact will be? I think based on the current rates, I would imagine it would be clearly positive, but if you just could elaborate on that.
Jakob Lembke
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 our average. So I'll have to come back to you on that question.
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
I would assume that we can all make the average FX year to date, so 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-
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Would
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
Of course, we can't predict what the currency effect or the currency FX rates will be in Q4 yet. But 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.
Fredrik Ruben
Jacob Thordenberg
Agree. But it is difficult to quantify, Jakob, exactly how much, but I completely agree with Fredrik.
Jacob Thordenberg
Fredrik Ruben
It also means that it will sustain into next year, a little bit depending on how the FX develops.
Fredrik Ruben
Jakob Lembke
Yeah. Okay, good.
Then maybe just finally, I am just wondering a bit, have you changed the way you calculate your organic growth in any way recently? Because the numbers do not really align with how I have had it before.
Jakob Lembke
Jacob Thordenberg
No, we have not changed anything.
Jacob Thordenberg
Jakob Lembke
Okay, good. That's all for me.
Thank you.
Jakob Lembke
Jacob Thordenberg
Yeah.
Jacob Thordenberg
Abtin Aram
We have a last question, I think, from Mikael Laséen. He's asking, "You state that the specific reimbursement challenges in two major U.S.
states were resolved, doing your favor in Q3. How much did 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?
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
I don't have a number to give you, Mikael, but I can explain a little bit on what happened. 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 managed to get all of those held-back cases delivered during the quarter or if some of those pops into Q4 remains to be seen.
But it's also only two out of 50 states in the U.S. And they were resolved by basically how I explained that 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're all fully solved within a specific quarter, I cannot tell, but it's typically not longer than that.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Great. I think that concludes the Q&A.
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Excellent. Thank you very much.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Thank you.
Abtin Aram
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin, thank you for great questions on our favorite topic, this company and our performance. That concludes today's call.
We are sorry for the slight delay and the video issue. We will make sure to sort that out by February 4th, because that is when we will summarize the full business for 2026.
Have a great day. Thank you.
Fredrik Ruben
Abtin Aram
Thank you. Bye.
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