Jouni Toijala
Good afternoon from snowy Finland and welcome to Revenio Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings call. My name is Jouni Toijala, I'm the Group CEO for Revenio, and then with me as always we have Robin Pulkkinen here as a CFO.
Plan for today is to go through the business highlights for Q4 2025, and then a couple of highlights also from the whole 2025. Then we are going to go through recap regarding to the three-year strategy period, focusing on the strategy execution during 2025.
Then Robin is going to take over and go through the financials for the Q4 2025 and then the whole year 2025. Then we'll finish up with the guidance for 2026 and, of course, the Q&A at the end.
Q4, net sales grew to the €31.2 million, reported growth 2.2%, currency-adjusted growth 8.6%. If you think and go back for the Q4 from the region perspective, Q4, US sales grew strongly and we received the all-time sales record in the USA during the December.
Also strong growth in Europe, Middle East, Africa region. If you look for the APAC, bit more similar trend during the Q4 for APAC as we had for Q3, the sales was down year-on-year, but on the positive note, now the tide bit turned, and APAC started to perform bit more better during the Q4 compared to the Q3.
On the profit side, quite a lot of down. I think it's good to understand couple of things regarding to the EBIT development and comparing to the last year.
We had a couple of bigger buckets here which had an impact to the EBIT performance for the Q4. The first one was related to the delayed price increases that cost on the bottom line about half a million euros, 2% on the GM level.
Then we had roughly half a million non-recurring costs, and then bit more increased costs on the FDA side. Then if you go back to the 2024 Q4, we had roughly currency tailwind about €860,000 which then passed through also to the bottom line, but Robin is going to cover this one in more detail.
I think these things are just good to keep in mind. Cash flow, extremely strong, bit shy on the €16 million compared to the €10 million on the comparable quarter.
For full year, more or less in the middle of the guidance, currency-adjusted net sales growth 9.1%, totaling to the €109.7 million euros. Profitability in good level, and then perhaps a highlight from the 2025 links also to the cash flow, strong cash flow ending up to roughly €30 million from the €23 million.
Perhaps this is a right time to say big thanks for all our customers, they have been trusting us during the 2025, and then of course for all our partners, and especially for the team. I think the year 2025 was a good year for us in this turbulent market environment.
Then bit doing the recap to the strategy and main drivers which have been driving our growth for quite many years, and we don't see that tide changing at all. Even though that we have had turbulence in geopolitical environment, also on the economical side, the megatrends have been and they are going to support our growth also in the long run.
People are aging, there's a more lifestyle-related diseases, really the need for care is growing globally, as we are going to have more and more patients every day. Then if we compare to the amount of the available resources, the gap is going to be widening.
Where we have been seeing this one especially during the 2025 is the pick-up on our retina screening solution in general. These trends have been driving our growth and they are going to be there for sure for years to come.
When we entered to the strategy period, we laid out four core cornerstones. The first one related to devices, which is here improve the quality of clinical diagnostics with targeted product innovations.
Then we had the solution side as a second, then sales and operations, and then the people part. During the 2025, we have been able to get the new products out in the market.
First example is the MAIA microperimeter. Then also on the solution side, the data management solution FDA-cleared in the USA was launched during 2025, and now in first client installations.
Then on the solution side, we have been really successful on rolling out the screening solution. It has been driving already during the 2025 our hardware sales, especially on the new segments where we haven't been before.
The good example is, and I think this is the first numbers what we are giving out, even in a short period, we have now live sites more than 350 up and running, and in these days even more. Also the report volume, we have been doubling them during the 2025.
On the sales side, I think good year for the sales, all product categories grew during 2025 in all regions, even in the APAC if we take into account the strong Q1 which we had in APAC. Then, of course, ending up the all-time sales record during the December in the USA.
From the operations side, we were really well prepared to take the stock levels up because of the tariffs, full on the money on that one. Then we have been able to increase also quality, product quality across all product categories.
On the people side, we have been putting a lot of effort regarding to leadership development in general, and then also we laid out the new product operating model during the second half 2025. I think this all have been contributing our ability to maintain profitable growth during 2025.
If looking the priorities for the remaining part of 2026, top three items here is, of course, to focus on the sales and marketing side. We are going to put even more focus on that one in order to guarantee the sales growth also during 2026.
Then we have been constantly investing to the R&D, in our mind, we have a really compelling product portfolio also in the future on the tonometry side, also on fundus imaging and perimetry side, and software solution side. The key is to focus on those areas and get the new products out on time.
Of course, the topic what we have been discussing in quite many earnings calls and there always have been quite many questions around the M&A, so that's going to be high on our agenda also in the coming quarters. I think, Robin, before giving speech to you, we are starting a new strategy period early 2027.
We are planning to have a Capital Markets Day during the fall '26, keep eye on the more detailed dates, we'll come back to this one. Over to you, Robin.
Robin Pulkkinen
Thank you, Jouni. Let me run through the numbers a bit.
Like mentioned, Jouni covered the sales, 8.6% in the last quarter growth FX-adjusted and 9.1% for the whole year. Basically, the sales didn't include any of those larger deals we're discussing at the end of Q3.
None of those are gone or have been lost, they're all still in the works and kind of looking quite promising going into this year for the company and from the sales point of view. The margin has been a surprise for the market clearly.
The price increases were not fully implemented in the US during the last quarter. You can see it clearly visible here, we kind of ran out of the tariff-free inventory at the end of Q3, and the impact is here when you see that the price increases are not in, it really had an impact on the gross margin.
Like we discussed earlier, though, we are increasing the prices to cover for the cost of the tariff. Basically, for example, if we had a 1,000 in the cost of goods sold as tariff and you add 1,000 of revenue, it will have a lowering impact on the percentage, but the kind of euros should be covered by the increases.
If you have the tariffs running through, it will have a lowering impact on the gross margin, but it shouldn't be this low. We're working on getting all those fixed now early this year.
Looking at the ASP reports, we're seeing now signs that the prices are going up in the US, and this will be hopefully fixed in the coming months. Basically, I don't think the price increases will maybe get us closer to 70%, but that's probably more realistic level for the coming quarters as long as the tariffs are at the level where they are today.
I'll get back to the profitability a bit more later. Basically, our earnings per share slightly down for the year from last year.
Net gearing -13.3%, kind of balance sheet, in a very healthy situation, I'll also have more slides on those to come. The sales.
Basically, some people have been wondering why the FX impact was so big, and Jouni also mentioned that slightly earlier, but the comparison period, some of you hopefully remember that the end of Q4 '24, we made some adjustments to the balance sheet where we reallocated, restructured some of the foreign currency balances into different parts of the balance sheet to kind of avoid having direct impact on the kind of revaluations hit to our top line. Last Q4 '24 was the last quarter we still had those, and in that quarter, there was €860,000 of kind of FX adjustment to the top line from the balance sheet items, which basically flows through the whole P&L.
The comparison number, if we take those out, we take it out from the top line for report and currency-adjusted growth, but actually the same 860 also has a full roll in the EBIT line. Mentioned, no larger deals, it's really business as usual for the quarter.
We left the guidance gap quite wide still at the end of Q3 with the assumption of the possibility to close some of those, but they didn't materialize yet, but we're still working on them and quite positive how things are looking. The profitability.
Basically, I explained the FX part, looking at why the revenue profitability is down from the Q4 '24, the FX had the 860k impact. Then we had clinical trial costs, which are half a million higher, which is related to the FDA iCare ILLUM DRs Plus, the screening platform FDA trials.
Those are expected to continue into this year. We're still now in the pre-study phase.
Based on the findings, then we'll kind of have a better understanding how the actual clinical trial is going to be done and what scope. The full value or the cost is not fully clear yet at this point, but we're talking about above a million definitely, most likely around €1.5 million cost for this year.
Those are hitting the P&L, they're something we don't capitalize. The price increase delays also had an impact on the profit, and then finally we had non-recurring costs during the quarter basically related to negotiations and also other one-off projects.
Kind of going into '26, we've always been kind of seen as a scalable company. If you leave out the FDA clinical trial costs, which are in one way one-off costs, our expectation is that we are going to target to grow the top line faster than the other operating expenses, kind of getting scale back to the bottom line.
The balance sheet remains strong. There hasn't been any major shift here for the last couple of years.
We had over €26 million in the bank at the end of the year versus a little bit more than €20 million a year earlier. The interest-bearing debt was roughly €11 million at the end of the year.
Same picture you can see here, basically the net gearing coming down fast driven by the strong cash generation. The interest-bearing debt basically breaks down, basically have €5.8 million left of the bank loan we withdrew for acquiring Centervue.
Basically six quarters, the down payment is roughly €1 million a quarter, next six quarters will be bank debt-free at least. Then the remaining part is the right-to-use liabilities, which are about €5 million at the end of the year.
Cash flow, very strong, record high, almost €16 million within Q4, basically driven by efficient working capital management and then lower payments in tax than we had earlier. Then the dividend.
We had a long trend of more than 10 years of paying a growing dividend. Now reading today's analyst reports and media, seems like mostly people have read it, or maybe it's AI doing some of the parts, but seems like the reports are stating that the dividend is 44 cents that is payable just as normal.
If you read carefully what the board is proposing to the AGM, it's asking for authorization to decide separately on a dividend payment for up to 44 cents during this year. How maybe the investors should read it is that there is a chance that we will pay the dividend as normally after the AGM, but I'd say there's just as good of a chance that the dividend is paid after summer, it's maybe smaller than 44 cents, or there could be no dividend this year.
That's just to kind of clarify, and hopefully I think some of the articles have been fixed already during the day. Shareholder side, not really any major changes.
Demant ownership slightly increased, not much. The foreign ownership is up less than 1%, the Finnish down and foreign up.
Then looking at the top 10 list, it's mostly the same. SEB Bank and Livförsäkring have fallen out, and we have Keva, Keskinäinen and Handelsbanken that have come as owners on the top 10 list during the quarter.
The guidance, we expect the exchange rate adjusted net sales to grow by 8% to 15% from the previous year, and profitability excluding non-recurring items is estimated to remain at a good level.
Jouni Toijala
Thank you, Robin. I think it's time for the questions.
Operator
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad.
The next question comes from Nikko Ruokangas from SEB. Please go ahead.
Nikko Ruokangas
Hello, this is Nikko Ruokangas from SEB. Thank you for the presentation.
I have three questions and I'll go one by one. Starting with your sales guidance, could you discuss about different building blocks behind the sales guidance and maybe their importance, although not exactly quantifying them?
For example, the big deals in your pipeline, microperimeter growth, price increases, and kind of underlying market growth, how important are they?
Jouni Toijala
If you look at drivers, what we see for this year, we see tonometry growing, we see fundus imaging growing, we see microperimetry growing. Those are the drivers.
Of course, if you think the USA, the plan is to offset the tariffs now, and we were slightly delayed on that part. There we have been discussing that for the USA, in order to offset the tariffs for the US part of the business, it's roughly 4% to 5% that we have to increase the prices.
I think that's more or less in a nutshell. Anything to add on the drivers' side, Robin?
Robin Pulkkinen
I think to get to the upper end, we hopefully are successful in some of the larger deals we're working on
Jouni Toijala
and
Robin Pulkkinen
kind of the base assumption excluding those is somewhere hopefully in the middle. Those are kind of the swing factors.
Nikko Ruokangas
All right, understands. Thanks.
Then continuing on the price increases related to tariffs, what is the reason for lagging in price increases compared to your tariffs costs now, as you already had kind of a pre-shipped inventory for six months ahead of the price increasing due to the tariffs?
Jouni Toijala
I think we were just perhaps too optimistic to get everything through the chain, meaning through the up to the proposals, up to the customers. I think it was as simple as that.
Nikko Ruokangas
All right, but you're now seeing that that is progressing? Is it so?
Jouni Toijala
Yes. Yes, we said yes.
Niko, yes. Answer is yes.
Nikko Ruokangas
Yeah. Good.
Then final one from me. You mentioned that your fixed costs should scale now in 2026 if excluding the FDA costs.
If you also include the FDA costs and gross margin headwinds from tariffs, should we expect kind of a improving adjusted EBIT margin this year still?
Robin Pulkkinen
Depends a bit where we hit on the guidance, it's maybe challenging on the lower end. If we're in the upper end, it is a very scalable model, basically we can grow 12% or 3% more, say 5% more than €5 million more than that, and it's still kind of making the 70% margin on the additional sales, I think it depends a bit where we hit on the guidance level.
I think the FDA is a bit tricky because we don't even know ourselves how much it's exactly going to be and it's a kind of a one-time. Basically, the operating engine, the clinical trial costs are not really generated by any of our people.
It's kind of outside service that we pay for. Basically, our internal OPEX, that should be kind of now quite well under control regards to growth and how the top line is growing versus costs are growing.
Nikko Ruokangas
Good. Thanks, that's all from me.
Jouni Toijala
Thank you, Niko.
Operator
The next question comes from Jack Reynolds-Clark from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Jack Reynolds-Clark
Hi, Jouni. Hi, Robin.
Thanks for taking the questions. Three for me also, please.
The first was on screening. Could you talk through how much growth in Q4 and 2025 was driven by screening kind of both in the hardware sales that the system generated, but then also the reports that come out, and then what your expectations are for 2026?
Then I've got two more questions as well that I'll ask after that.
Jouni Toijala
Hi, Jack. On the screening side, here I have to slightly disappoint you on the detailed numbers, we don't disclose the kind of a subgroup numbers.
I would perhaps frame it so that if we think the Europe, Middle East, Africa region, and we think the imaging sales, especially the DRS Plus sales, during the 2025, we saw strong growth on the hardware side of the business in EMEA region driven by the screening cases. The amount of the reports, we have doubled that one.
I think we have tripled the amount of the live sites, and quite many of those also take the hardware. On that front, it's scaling up quite nicely.
Sorry to disappoint you slightly, Jack, we are not able to give the sub-breakdowns per product group in terms of the revenue. Anything
Robin Pulkkinen
to
Jouni Toijala
add, Robin, on this?
Robin Pulkkinen
Basically the model is that we do recognize actually the whole hardware when we make a new deal for the screening centers. In a way, up front, it's very hardware-weighted, the revenue.
Once the customer base and installed base increases, we'll start to see a bigger part of the revenue coming from the software and AI side as well. Now it's actually, yeah, you will have the hardware on day one, and then the software the following X years.
In a way, it's very front hardware-weighted.
Jouni Toijala
Here, just to remind everybody about the business model, we sell the hardware, then we sell the ILLUM yearly recurring software license, which scales up based on the reports, based on the DRS Pluses which we have been attached to the system, and then the third component is the AI reports. There the logic is bit like the prepaid SIM card, when you run out of the minutes, you have to top up to be able to speak.
Here, if you want to run the reports and you out of the reports, you just have to buy the new set.
Jack Reynolds-Clark
That's super helpful, thank you. That's actually more than I was expecting, thanks for that color.
The next question is on sales and marketing. You talked about this being a strategic focus for you for 2026.
Can you set out kind of exactly what you're doing here and kind of what the changes are and how that will feed through to revenue growth? Thank you.
Jouni Toijala
I think it's good to go back to the 2025, end of first half 2025, when we were wondering that what kind of approach we should have, especially in the USA. Should we wait and sit still to see what kind of impact the tariffs are going to have for the US business, but we took the other approach.
We were more aggressive on the sales side, we hired really good sales people, more really good sales people for the USA. We pump up the marketing expense regarding to digital marketing in the USA and in other parts of the world to create more leads.
I think that explains and outlines also this year strategic focus. If only talking about the sales and marketing, more relentless attention to the distribution cooperation and more relentless focus on really closing the sales in the USA via direct or rep network.
Then, as you saw, we also recruited a top-notch global head for our marketing department, Jussi Mälkiä, strong background on the marketing, product marketing, and marketing in general across the globe. A couple of examples, Jack, on that front.
Jack Reynolds-Clark
Thanks, that's great. Thank you very much, Jouni.
My last question, Robin, you talked through one of the swing factors for top-line guidance in next year obviously being that the contracts. Could you give any color on any other swing factors that we should be thinking about, any risks to the downside or any other kind of big things that might swing?
Robin Pulkkinen
Our our kind of internal plan is somewhere in the middle. Then of course we leave some some move room for movement regarding to any changes in the US US economic environment, or tariffs, or or sudden change in the the demand.
Our our visibility is quite limited, our backlog we've sold almost nothing for March even yet, so.
Jouni Toijala
That's normal.
Robin Pulkkinen
That's normal. In a way also how we don't see that far in the future.
The kind of baseline assumption is somewhere in the middle, and then the larger deals are the kind of the swing factor there. What
Jouni Toijala
we see, though, Jack, is is the of course we see the pipeline and and so so the pipe pipeline is is strong, so that's a good thing. Then then also the year year started so that we are well on the track for for the first first first couple of weeks.
Robin Pulkkinen
The APAC, for example, has been a bit problematic now for two quarters, hopefully we can turn that around during this year.
Jack Reynolds-Clark
Great, that's super clear. Thank you so much, appreciate the time.
Jouni Toijala
Thanks,
Robin Pulkkinen
thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from Daniel Lepistö from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Daniel Lepistö
Hi, it's Daniel Lepistö from Danske Bank. I have also couple of questions.
Maybe still continuing with the ILLUM and these 350 sites you have in operation. Can you give us any indication what kind of revenue potential there could be for one of these sites?
Are we talking about thousands or, for example, hundreds of thousands? Any help here?
Jouni Toijala
Sorry, Daniel, and hi. Sorry, not too much, but it just shows the pace of getting the sites operational.
Then of course, if you think the Germany, then we have the unique Connect feature, which then also combines the ophthalmologist being part of the network, so that's also picking up nicely and it's a unique feature compared to the others. We are bit by bit starting to build the ecosystem around the retina screen.
Robin Pulkkinen
There's a message that the audio stopped. Do you see?
I just got a WhatsApp, somebody saying that the audio cut off. You guys hear us on the line?
Jouni Toijala
Are you hearing us, Daniel?
Daniel Lepistö
Yes, I can hear you.
Jouni Toijala
Okay. Maybe it was some.
Robin Pulkkinen
Another problem. Good.
Jouni Toijala
That's good.
Robin Pulkkinen
Just got a WhatsApp that the audio cut off.
Jouni Toijala
Okay. I think we are up in the air.
Daniel Lepistö
Maybe if I then ask is there any estimation how many such sites are there for you to address, if I put it this way? You have 350, what's the universe that you are targeting, any thoughts on this?
Jouni Toijala
Yes, but not willing to comment too much, sorry for that one, Daniel.
Daniel Lepistö
Okay. Maybe then on the capital expenditure, if we look at '24, '25, there has been a bit of a small uplift, what comes to maybe historical level, it's 4% to 5% of sales over the past few years.
Is this the new normal level or could there be a bit of a moderation looking forward?
Robin Pulkkinen
It depends a bit on the roadmap, once products start to come out, that always kind of changes the CapEx run rate, but it's probably something similar you could expect for this year.
Daniel Lepistö
All right, that's clear. Then my final question still on these clinical trial costs.
Can you give any sort of indication on the phasing of these costs, will these run from Q1 onwards or will these start from the summer or any sense on the phasing how these will come?
Robin Pulkkinen
For the pre-study or?
Jouni Toijala
Maybe I take that one. The biggest variable is that how we are able to recruit the patients into the clinic.
The current assumption is that it's reasonably evenly split, but it bit depends on the pace of recruiting the patients in. That's the logic.
Robin Pulkkinen
Okay. Then the next phase then is still a bit open.
Jouni Toijala
Here one thing, and that's a good point, Robin, if we think the structure of the clinical study, where we have had a challenge and why we are late is that we have to now run the so-called pre-study because of the good quality of DRS Plus images, and then we see and compare that one to the reference implementation or reference set-up, and then most probably we have to bit fine-tune the algorithm so that it matches the worse quality imaging device which is used as a reference, and then we have to then start running the kind of official clinical study. Those are the variables on this one.
Daniel Lepistö
Okay. Can you clarify what's the latest timeline due to secure the FDA approval in the end?
Jouni Toijala
The latest on that one is towards the end of first half 2027, so that timeline hasn't changed.
Daniel Lepistö
That's clear. Thank you, that's all from me.
Jouni Toijala
Thank you, Daniel.
Operator
The next question comes from Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
Hi, gentlemen. It's Pia from DNB Carnegie.
Thank you for taking my questions. I start by looking back at Q4 and your FX-neutral growth of roughly 9%.
Can you split up that anyway in how much came from volume, how much from price increases, given your comments on delayed price increases in the US?
Robin Pulkkinen
That's more on volume-based. We did have a record sale in the US in December, clearly better than ever before.
The volumes grew actually quite nicely in Q4. We didn't actually have much price increases during that quarter.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
All right, thank you. Then if I continue regarding these larger-than-typical orders, do I understand correctly that these relate to imaging devices for screening purposes?
Robin Pulkkinen
Actually no, generally in imaging and tonometers might be part of the picture as well, and specifically in the USA.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
All right, clear. Thank you.
With regards to your comment on really strong sales in the US particularly in December, are there any new client groups kind of becoming more active or is this just a reflection of a broad demand?
Robin Pulkkinen
I think the sales was good also on the broader terms, but we have been now getting also around the different tables if I may use that phrase, where we haven't been before thanks to the investments to the sales team during the end of first half. I think that's the logic.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
All right, thank you. Still on your gross margin, can you repeat, Robin, your comment on your indication of the gross margin for 2026?
I missed that. Did you say it will remain below 70%?
Robin Pulkkinen
We have a internal magical 70 that we kind of try to reach with the gross margin. With the tariffs, it's of course bit more challenging, but we definitely should be higher than what we now saw in Q4, closer to the 70 mark.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
Closer, but still below?
Robin Pulkkinen
Could be above also. Depends a bit on the mix and everything.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
All right. Thank you.
Then two final short questions. Regarding the cash flow, you referred to it as an exceptionally strong cash flow.
Were there any exceptional items in that strong cash flow?
Robin Pulkkinen
No, it wasn't really. There was basically a small tax return that hit the Q4 numbers, but basically it's clearly less than a million, other than that, it's business as usual.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
All right, that's good. Thank you.
Then finally, can you remind us regarding Centervue and you allocated some of that purchase price, I presume, to be kind of depreciated. When are those depreciations coming to an end?
Robin Pulkkinen
If I remember right, the technology bucket was the biggest and I think it's 10 years, we have still some time to go. Could be seven or eight or 10, I don't remember right top of my head what the depreciation period is, but I think we still have some.
I can check and come back to you separately if you want.
Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi
All right, that's great and that's all for me. Thank you so much.
Robin Pulkkinen
Thank you,
Jouni Toijala
Pia.
Operator
The next question comes from Joni Sandvall from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Joni Sandvall
Thanks, Jouni and Robin, for the presentation. Maybe starting with the new product pipeline, noticing that the R&D costs were somewhat elevated in Q4.
Could you give any more color on the new product pipeline for this year?
Jouni Toijala
Perhaps a couple of view points and, Robin, you please correct me if I'm wrong. We have been doing a bit of allocation, right?
Certain FDA costs are now visible on the R&D bucket.
Robin Pulkkinen
The clinical trials. Clinical trials are also in the R&D bucket, so that might be the reason.
I think otherwise we have been running quite steadily, roughly 10% per year out of the revenue. Am I correct, Robin?
Perhaps if you see elevated numbers, the FDA costs are now coming as a part of the R&D cost bucket. I think that partly explains the lift-up
Jouni Toijala
on the R&D costs.
Robin Pulkkinen
Then we do have used for R&D outsourced service providers, those also go project-wise, not necessarily evenly month after month, there's some swings in those as well.
Joni Sandvall
Okay. We should expect something new also this year?
Jouni Toijala
Unfortunately, cannot comment that one too much, but that one I can comment that in our mind, we have a good roadmap for the products on the tonometry, fundus imaging, and perimetry side in the forthcoming years, and then timing to be decided and communicated when they come out. Okay.
Joni Sandvall
Then maybe a second question on the sales mix. Robin mentioned that depends a bit where you will end with the gross margin in '26, but was there any specific in the gross sales mix in Q4?
Robin Pulkkinen
No, it was actually all the main product groups were doing quite well, nothing kind of out of normal over there. Also kind of depends how the APAC sales, they're struggling with we selling euros, a bit hands tied regards at least what comes to price increases there.
Then kind of US, of course, direct sales has a very good gross margin, depends on the geography as well slightly.
Joni Sandvall
Thanks. That's all for me.
Robin Pulkkinen
Thank you, Joni.
Operator
Please state your name and company. Please go ahead.
Erik Karlsson
Hi, gents. It's Erik Karlsson from Kepler Cheuvreux.
Three questions, please. Maybe on the gross margin in a bit longer perspective, not so much 2026, but over the next two, three years, when you look at your product roadmap and whether the business is heavy, you think gross margins will go up or down in the next two, three years?
Robin Pulkkinen
And.
Erik Karlsson
Maybe we take them one by one, it's easier. Maybe
Robin Pulkkinen
it's easier to remember. No, I think the software is starting to play and the recurring revenue is starting to play a bigger part in the coming years, and that will have an increasing impact on the gross margin.
AI reports, for example, are more or less almost 100% gross margin and the software in general, definitely hope to see that actually increasing going forward. The software part is still like the screening, like we discussed earlier, that's very hardware-heavy in the front.
Once the installed base and the user base grows, then that kind of starts to have a bigger impact on the gross margin. Then I don't know what happens with the tariffs, but that's a separate problem.
If it increases, it will probably have a lowering percent impact, and vice versa.
Erik Karlsson
Got it. On microperimetry, what's your ambition there roughly?
How much sales can you generate or would you target to generate this year?
Robin Pulkkinen
Microperimetry, was it?
Erik Karlsson
Correct.
Robin Pulkkinen
Historically, we've sold before the latest MAIA and the latest developments in geographic atrophy drug development, we used to sell €2 million to €3 million a year. I think our kind of message has been that we expect it to be clearly more than that.
Maybe do you want, Jouni, open the clinical potential on the MAIA side?
Jouni Toijala
Yes, of course, clearly I think we would be disappointed if it's not way higher than the previous years when we had the products. I think that's to say very clear.
Then during 2020 2026, we are putting quite a lot of effort to trying to push MAIA out from the research also to the clinical use in order to be able to measure the efficacy of the geographic atrophy-related drugs. If we are able to be successful on that one, so that's going to have a major impact also to the MAIA sales in years to come.
That's shortly the logic.
Erik Karlsson
That's helpful. One last one, I think on M&A, you talk about it and then you mentioned that you're proposing to even postpone the dividend and even lower it.
It's a bit unusual, I think. It seems to me to signal that you might do that in the event of M&A.
What are you specifically looking at? What type of product categories or type of acquisitions would be most of interest to you?
Jouni Toijala
Perhaps to just to be silver clear on this one, so that we keep the two two buckets perhaps separately. If first commenting the dividend, I think it was ex-Volvo CEO that said 1980s that the cash is king when there's a turbulent times.
Now the logic why the board is proposing the setup is that we have a bit more freedom in this bit more let's say non-forecastable times that we maintain a bit more freedom to allocate the capital into the best places. I think that's just good to keep in mind.
Then the second topic is your comment related to the M&A, and that has been on the table for quite a long time. We would have been able to close already the deals on the M&A side, but we haven't closed them and the reason simply is that they wouldn't have been good for our existing shareholders, growth potential, profitability hasn't had a match to the overvaluation.
We have been working now with Robin for quite heavily during the last quarters, during the last years, to fill the gap. If we think the market where we operate, it's ophthalmic diagnostic device market, roughly €3.5 billion, we cover only one-third, we have a €1 billion market coverage.
It would be great if in the coming years, coming quarters, we would be able to expand our product portfolio on the hardware side, and that would enable us to go directly also in the big countries and of course bring scale to the top line, bring scale to the bottom line. I think that has been the logic on organic growth side as a driver.
Robin, anything you would like to add on this one?
Robin Pulkkinen
No, that's exactly. Kind of we've been working on that quite a bit for a long time with Jouni, and still remains on the agenda as we go into the new year.
Erik Karlsson
It's very much appreciated by shareholders that you're so disciplined on price. It seems to me at least the public market valuations have come down, just look at the share price of Carl Zeiss Meditec or most names in the Alcon, etc.
in this space. Do you also feel that in your M&A discussions that they are more realistic price expectations now, or it hasn't yet filtered down to slightly smaller companies?
Robin Pulkkinen
I think it's now becoming more reasonable also in the non-listed companies. At least couple years, they were sticking to the corona-hyped pricing.
Jouni Toijala
Quite often they were looking our multiples and not growing as much and not making profit as much, but the multiples are more or less.
Robin Pulkkinen
Expected to be the same.
Jouni Toijala
Expected to be the same, yeah.
Erik Karlsson
Great, thank you.
Robin Pulkkinen
Hey, thank you, Erik.
Operator
There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Jouni Toijala
Thank you all. Thank you for your time, thank you for the very good questions.
I think next time, we are back on April with the Q1 earnings call. Thank you very much and have a nice spring when it comes, at least here in Finland it's not in too short time seems to be.
Thank you and have a good end of the week and good spring. Bye.
Robin Pulkkinen
Bye.
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