Investment Latour Stock

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of Investment AB Latour's Interim Report for the Second Quarter 2026. [Operator Instructions].

And with that, I hand over to CEO, Johan Hjertonsson; and CFO, Mikael Albrektsson.

Thank you very much, Katarina. Welcome, everybody. This is Johan Hjertonsson, and welcome to our presentation of the Q2 report. I'm here together with our CFO, Mikael Albrektsson. So the presentation is divided into 2 sections. Firstly, we will walk you through the Latour Group's development in Q2, commenting on the development for the investment portfolio and the wholly owned operations.

Then we open up for questions together with Mikael. Then we have a second part where we will make a deep dive into Nord-Lock Group, one of Latour's 7 wholly owned operations. There, we will invite Daniel Westberg, CEO of Nord-Lock Group for this section. Finally, we'll have a Q&A session altogether with Daniel on the Nord-Lock Group presentation.

If we go to the first slide, I would say on commenting overall, solid second quarter performance, supported by positive market developments, especially toward the end of the quarter. Order intake grew organically by 13% and net sales by 4%. Adjusted EBIT amounted to SEK 999 million with a margin of 13.8%. The order backlog increased to just over SEK 8 billion, which provides a solid foundation for continued growth in net sales going forward for the remainder of the year.

As you all know, geopolitical uncertainty remains with delays in some project start-ups as one effect. Our assessment is that no business has been lost, rather deliveries and revenues that has been postponed to upcoming quarters. The turmoil in the Middle East, unfortunately, continues. However, Latour has limited exposure to the region and no material negative impact has been identified or recorded to date. I will comment more on the financial outcome in details later in this presentation. The investment portfolio has seen some activities during the quarter.

In May, we made a partial divestment of our holdings in ASSA ABLOY and in Securitas. This is something that we don't do often, and it's important to emphasize that we remain as the largest shareholder in both companies with full support for their respective long-term strategies. By realizing a small portion of the value created in ASSA ABLOY and Securitas, we can continue to develop and expand our wholly owned operations as we communicated earlier. The acquisitions activity in the wholly owned operations has been high during the quarter with 5 completed acquisitions.

Thereby, I'd like to hand over to Mikael to comment on our net asset value development. So over to you, Mikael.

Thank you very much, Johan. When summarizing the first half of the year in figures, we can conclude that the net asset value decreased by 3.7% during the 6 months, and this is adjusted for dividend and amounted to SEK 203 per share to be compared to the SIXRX that increased by 8.1%. The share price at the end of June was SEK 193, which means that there was a discount of 5% compared to how we present the net asset value. As of yesterday, the net asset value was SEK 204 per share, and the share price on the same day closed at SEK 188, which gives a discount to our way of describing the net asset value of about 8%.

The consolidated net debt decreased during the quarter from SEK 15.3 billion to SEK 12.3 billion, and this is driven by proceeds from divestments in the investment portfolio and partly offset by dividend payments. The net debt corresponds to about 9% of the market value of our investments, leaving headroom for further acquisition as we go forward.

And with that, I hand over back to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael. Then we would like to continue by commenting on the investment portfolio. As I said in the beginning of this presentation, we made a partial divestment of our holdings in ASSA ABLOY and Securitas in May. Following the divestment, we hold 29% of the voting rights in ASSA ABLOY and 27.6% of the voting rights in Securitas and remain, as I said, the principal owner of both companies.

The stock market improved slightly in Q2, while volatility remained elevated due to the geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainty. Adjusted for dividends and portfolio changes, the value development of our portfolio of listed holdings amounted to minus 8.8% during the first half of the year, whereas SIXRX was plus 8.1%. Some of our holdings have shown weaker stock market performance, while others have been better. Until yesterday, August 18, the portfolio value was SEK 75 billion, and the total return amounted to minus 7.9% so far this year, whereas the SIXRX is plus 10.6%.

If we go to the next slide, the holdings, to comment on the holdings results that are reported are mixed, but the majority of the companies continue to show positive underlying performance and are adapting well to the changing market conditions. As in the wholly owned operations, market conditions improved towards the end of the quarter and several companies reported strong demand in their key segments during their Q2 reports.

Over the past decade, our holdings have demonstrated strong underlying growth and earnings development despite the more challenging market conditions in recent years. We believe we own high-quality companies and continue to act as active principal owners in all our holdings, providing strong support for their long-term strategies.

Then we go to comment on the wholly owned operations. Market conditions continue to improve, although the picture remains mixed across regions and sectors. Within the construction industry, demand is particularly strong within the building renovation, energy efficiency in industrial and infrastructure sectors, which benefit from several -- which benefits to several of our companies. Most of our holdings report solid underlying demand with healthy order intake and growing order books.

As I said, some projects start-ups have been delayed, which has somewhat impacted net sales during the quarter. However, we expect revenues to be recognized in the coming quarters and do not believe any significant orders have been lost. During the quarter, order increased organically by a strong 13% and net sales increased organically by a healthy 4%. Currency headwinds continue to give negative effects compared to last year, however, somewhat lower effects now than in the beginning of the year.

The adjusted operating result for the quarter amounted to SEK 999 million with an operating margin of 13.8%. The profit development reflects good cost control and efficiency improvements in the operations. Overall, I'm pleased with the quarter. Strong organic growth, especially in order intake, but also in net sales, as I said, and improving market positions and the impact of implemented measures provide a solid platform for the second half of the year to come.

Then if we continue to comment on the acquisitions and divestitures, we have had a high pace within the acquisition area. During the quarter, we completed 5 acquisitions across our wholly owned operations. Swegon accounted for 3 of these through the acquisitions of Western Airconditioning in the Netherlands, LaminAir in Switzerland and the residential ventilation business of Dantherm in Denmark. Caljan acquired WyCo in the U.S., enhancing its service offering and market presence in North America. Bemsiq acquired U.K.-based cThings, strengthening its presence in the energy metering market.

Two acquisitions was made in the first quarter. Latour Industries completed the acquisition of Alstor and Densiq within Latour Industries acquired Scandinavian Sealing. Both companies are based in Sweden.

Finally, as mentioned in the last quarter, Swegon also streamlines its operation and have divested noncore holdings. The transactions will have a positive impact on Swegon's margins. All in all, we have added net sales of SEK 700 million on an annualized basis so far this year, and I'm looking forward to see what the upcoming quarters can bring.

Then I hand back to Mikael to comment on the performance of respective wholly owned holdings. So over to you, Mikael.

Thank you very much, Johan. We start with Bemsiq Group. Bemsiq had a continued positive and stable performance in the quarter. Good growth in order intake amounted to 14%, driven by organic growth and partly offset by negative currency effects. The total organic growth in net sales was 6% with a strong development on the North American market and within the Building Automation business. The Metering business is somewhat slower, and this is driven by a weak demand in the Nordics.

The adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 124 million with a good margin of 21.3%. As Johan just mentioned, Bemsiq acquired cThings in the U.K. during the quarter, an end-to-end hardware and software solution provider, primarily focused on energy usage. The company has an annual turnover of GBP 2.5 million with a profitability level well above Latour's financial targets.

With that, we shift page and take a look at Caljan, where we could see that the positive momentum continues during the quarter with a strong demand from the large customers. Order intake more than doubled compared to the same quarter last year and driven by larger project orders within loading and unloading. Net sales grew organically by 3%, and the order backlog is at solid levels for coming quarters. The gross margin remains at a healthy level. However, adjusted operating profit for the quarter was adversely affected by approximately SEK 20 million on a net basis, and this is reflecting a provision for a previously underpaid Section 232 steel tariffs in the U.S. and the impact of refunded IEEPA tariffs also in the U.S.

As mentioned just before, Caljan acquired WyCo in the U.S. during the quarter, and WyCo is a premium provider of maintenance and installation services within the material handling sector. WyCo has an annual turnover of USD 23 million with a profitability level above Latour's financial targets.

We then continue with Hultafors Group, where we saw that the net sales grew organically by 4%, reflecting strategic investments in product development, sustainability and digitalization. Strong performance in the personal protective equipment with 6% year-on-year growth, while the hardware division continues to face a more challenging market. Gross margin remained at a high level, which combined with good cost control, supported an increase in adjusted operating profit to SEK 252 million, corresponding to a margin of 15.2%. The adjusted operating profit was positively impacted in the quarter by SEK 13 million following the repayment of U.S. IEEPA tariffs that was implemented during 2025.

We then turn page again and take a look at Innovalift. Order intake is in line with last year despite challenging markets in the Middle East and Asia. We see stable net sales development with positive growth when adjusted for currency effects. The gross margin continues to improve step by step, and this is driven by good price management and cost control. Adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 98 million, corresponding to a margin of 11.4%, demonstrating resilience in a challenging market conditions and continued currency headwinds.

We then continue with Latour Industries. Latour Industries saw the order intake grew by 14%, of which 5% was organic growth. REAC and Alstor continues to see a good underlying demand, while the other business units operate in a more challenging market. Net sales increased by 9% during the quarter driven by acquisitions, while the organic growth decreased by 1% in the quarter. The adjusted operating profit was driven by strong performance in REAC and Alstor and the margin increased to 10.3% in the quarter.

As the heading on the slide states, Latour Industries remains focused on developing its existing holders while continuing to identify new platform investments opportunities for the future.

We turn page and take a look at Nord-Lock. Nord-Lock continues to deliver a very strong performance. Underlying demand remains solid, although order intake was below last year's level, but this is primarily due to a SEK 100 million project order received in the corresponding quarter last year. Net sales grew organically by 8%, and all regions contributed to the growth and the order backlog remains at a healthy level. The adjusted operating profit increased to SEK 162 million in the quarter, corresponding to a strong operating margin of 28%. You will all get the opportunity to learn more about the Nord-Lock Group later in this presentation as we welcome CEO, Daniel Westberg, to the call in just a few minutes.

But before that, we turn the page and we take a look at Swegon. For Swegon, order intake continued to develop positively during the quarter with organic growth of healthy 20%, supported by strong demand in the Netherlands, North America and India. Net sales was in line with last year's level, negatively affected by divestments and currency headwinds and organic growth amounted to 5%, where North America and Sweden performed well, delivering solid growth.

The adjusted operating profit came in at SEK 268 million with a margin of 10.4%. As Johan mentioned earlier, Swegon completed 3 acquisitions during the quarter. We had Western Airconditioning, a supplier of high-quality HVAC solutions in the Netherlands; LaminAir, a Swiss distributor of room unit products for air distribution and Danther's Danish residential ventilation business, strengthening Swegon's position in the residential indoor climate segment in Denmark.

Swegon has also completed 3 strategic divestments since December 2025, and this is as part of its efforts to streamline the core business and strengthen long-term competitiveness. While these divestments have impacted growth figures compared to last year, they are expected to contribute positively to the margins going forward. That wraps up the run-through of the business areas, and we change slide to our financial targets, and I hand over back to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael. The financial targets, let's comment on those and where we are. Summary of our financial targets. During the last 12 months, we have had a growth of 3.8%, EBIT margin of 14% and return on operating capital of 14%. This is an outcome that we're very pleased with and keep in mind that the targets are to be seen over a business cycle. Growth is driven by both by acquisitions and organic growth, but with currency headwind. Adjusted for currency, the growth amounts to 8%. EBIT margin is on a good level and return on operating capital is satisfying.

If we comment a bit on our long-term perspective on the next slide. Overall, we're pleased with the quarter and the progress made across the group. A strong order backlog provides a solid foundation, as I said, for revenue growth in the coming quarters, and our organizations are well positioned to capitalize on the improving market conditions. As a long-term principal owner, we remain committed to supporting our holdings for both opportunities and challenges. Our focus continues to be on the long-term sustainable value creation, and we remain dedicated to creating attractive returns for our shareholders over time.

With strong market positions, committed teams and a long-term perspective, we are confident in our ability to continue creating sustainable value for our shareholders. Thank you. That was the presentation so far from Mikael and myself. Then we open up for the first Q&A session here to answer questions on the overall Q2 results, and then we will go into the Nord-Lock presentation. So open for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.

So starting off, could you give some color on these comments about postponed project starts? Like what kinds of extended time lines are we talking about? And which parts of the business would you say are mainly affected?

Mikael, would you like to start to comment on that?

Yes, I can do that. In terms of timing, I mean, we are not talking about very lengthy postponements. So we are -- but rather, I mean, possibly a push forward into the coming quarter or so. In terms of what type of business that these are reflecting is where you see a bit of a more project orientation for element certain aspects of the Swegon business, and you can also see some elements of it in, for example, the Caljan business. But in terms of timing, it's not an extensive time line extension that we are looking, but more push from quarter to a quarter or so.

Yes. I could just add to that, that you have dynamics effects. I mean I would argue that 13% order income growth organically is very strong in the quarter. But I would also argue that actually 4% organic growth in net sales is quite healthy in the quarter. However, there is a material difference between order income and net sales. I think it's effect -- and the lion effect of the difference is because of the order income is recorded in the quarter. Normally, we have kind of an average delay of 60 to 90 days from order income to sales. That's the main effect. I think the minor effect is this postponed projects that we have seen.

Correct.

It was probably correct for us.

And then moving to Swegon, positive to see the organic momentum picking up. Just a question on the margin development. I mean, given the organic growth and that these divested businesses were margin dilutive, if I'm not mistaken, what's driving this lower margin year-over-year? Is it just as simple as cost inflation?

Yes, I can start by commenting and then please you add, Mikael. I think of the divested businesses, it was kind of nonstrategic businesses. You're correct, Linus, they were margin dilutive. So just by investing those businesses, we look forward to improve margins just by that effect. In the Swegon case on the margin, I mean, it is quite volume dependent, Swegon. Swegon is a manufacturer and have factories and quite a lot of fixed assets in that sense.

However, I think they defended the margins fairly well, even though on lower volumes in early quarters. With increased volume and the market coming back and Swegon continuing to take market share with a good, healthy gross margin development, we look forward to a quite strong drop-through coming in the coming quarters in Swegon. That's what we expect.

Mikael, would you like to add to that?

No, I can just add. We have had a rather long stint of positive book-to-bill with Swegon where order income has been coming in. Which means, of course, that we feel confident that this will be funneling through to revenue over time. Of course, when you build a company, you need to take on some costs. It's very hard to do that exactly one-on-one with how the net sales develop. But that, as Johan said, we -- as those volumes funnel through, there is no reason to believe that the fundamental profitability of the company has reduced. So...

That's fair. And then on Hultafors, I mean, same there, positive to see good momentum in PPE in particular. I mean, is there any kind of project or type of customer, especially that's driving the improvement there in PPE?

Mikael, would you like to start?

Yes. I mean I think -- I would say more that Hultafors is doing a good job and moving towards the end customer. That it's been a very strong -- I mean, the underlying organic growth in that industry of construction have been a bit subdued, but I would say that Hultafors has done a great job in stepping forward, working toward the end customer, being more active in the market, driving campaigns.

I think as we see it, it's a receipt of well-done market activities and being close to the customers more than any specific big projects. I think they have a really good portfolio of products, but I think they have been serving the market and being out there in a good way, which we now see the fruits of.

Yes. I'd like to add, I think the lion's share of Hultafors sales is to the business-to-business sector, other professionals. But there is a fairly large share also of the Hultafors sales that is more exposed to private consumption. That has been more subdued during the last couple of years. I think maybe we see some early signs of that coming back as well.

Then just finally on Hultafors, the reorganizing of the segment structure, is there anything we should be aware of there? What's the rationale behind that?

Mikael?

Yes. No, I mean to be -- that's, I would say, just a way of presenting. It's the figures for you guys in the market really. It doesn't mean that there is a significant underlying difference in how they operate. It makes more sense from a business content perspective to bucket it in this way for -- and it's also a closer way of how they operate in Hultafors. There is no significant change underlying that has landed in that segmentation.

Yes. I think that's the important part, the latter thing you said there, Mikael, it's more correct way of describing the business in the quarters how it's operated actually.

Yes.

The next question comes from Derek Laliberte from ABG Sundal Collier.

I wanted to follow up on the order intake, which was clearly strong while the sales and particularly EBIT growth were more muted. How much would you say of this is -- this gap is timing and how much reflects any slower conversion mix or margin pressure?

Thank you, Derek, for the question. Sorry, I dropped you in the beginning. Was it on the overall group results.

Yes, on the overall industrial operations.

On the overall industrial operations. Mikael, would you like to take the first one?

Yes. I mean we see them primarily as a timing effect rather than that there is a difference in more increased margin pressure on the businesses overall. As Johan commented earlier, as that the order intake funnel through the system as revenue, we feel confident that, that will funnel through with a good drop-through. That's why we see it more as a timing effect rather than anything else really.

Just to underline again, which Mikael said, we have had for many quarters, positive book-to-bill. We have -- and as yes, I think I said in the beginning, we have an order stock of over SEK 8 billion orders on hand, which is a record high for us.

Okay. Great. And that SEK 8 billion, I think you alluded to it a bit, but we should see then, I suppose, most of that to be converted into revenue at least during the second half, I would presume.

Yes, absolutely. I cannot promise everything will be converted in Q3, but in Q3 and Q4 together, absolutely, it should be converted.

Perfect. And then in the report, you described this gradual market recovery, but also the sort of the construction trends looking at it overall here, which end markets are actually improving? And where would you say that demand is still weak, if you could give some more flavor on that?

Yes, very good question, Derek. As you know, since you follow Latour, we are fairly heavily exposed to the building construction industry at large, right? But that's a huge industry in most economies around the world, right? I think it's important to look deeper down into the different segments of that industry. You see segments like air quality, air handling, the air climate, the indoor air climate, there is a strong demand there. Then we're well positioned with Swegon and with Bemsiq, for instance. You see big investments coming into infrastructure development, defense.

Defense is, of course, not only weapon and weapon system, but it's also a lot of buildings and roads and things to be construction. You see a segment as data centers with extremely high growth in that area. So it's -- I think it's important to look at the building industry in its different segments. Then you have segments like residential building. I would argue strongly that it's very, very subdued in most markets, both in the U.S. and in Europe. There, you have some examples of good, strong expanding segments, but also an example of a subdued segment in the residential construction area.

All right. I appreciate the clarity there. I wanted to ask on Swegon also. I'm not sure exactly how to look at this, but you mentioned it benefiting from data center and industry-related projects here sort of. I mean, can we view this as this now being sort of enough to offset any, say, remaining weakness in the commercial and residential construction areas?

Yes, Derek, I think you can -- it's important to remember, Swegon is exposed to the residential segment, but that's a small part of the Swegon business. The absolute lion's share of the Swegon business is on business-to-business to commercial buildings and infrastructure and so on. I would say the short answer is yes to your question.

Okay. Great. And finally, after this sell-down here in ASSA ABLOY and Securitas, I mean, can you say something about how quickly you expect to deploy this additional financial flexibility into the wholly owned industrial operations?

No. But over time, we will deploy that in the wholly owned industrial operations. But I think you can expect the same pace as we have had and maybe somewhat increased pace, but it's also a way to assure that we long-term can follow and support and add -- provide capital to our wholly owned businesses when they expand both organically, but also inorganically via M&A going forward.

It's kind of a long-term action that we've taken to be able to support this very fine businesses that we believe a lot in and I think has proven throughout the years to create a lot of value, and we expect to continue to do that. So this has assured us that we can do this over a long period of time going forward.

There's no more questions there. Any written questions, Mikael?

No, we do not have any written questions here.

Good. Then we are done with the Q&A session then on the overall report. Then to the highlight of this day's presentation, I'd like to introduce again then Daniel Westberg, CEO of Nord-Lock Group, to give us an overview of Nord-Lock. As I said before, after Daniel's presentation, we will have a Q&A. Mikael, I and Daniel together with all of you. So by saying that, I hand over to you, Daniel. Please, you have the floor.

Thank you, Johan. So my name is Daniel Westberg, I'm CEO of the Nord-Lock Group, as Johan said. My ambition here, I will try to give you an overview of how we work to create both shareholder value and customer value in the Nord-Lock Group. Also by the end of my presentation here, you should understand what's behind our tagline, build connections that last.

With that, if we can move to the next slide. The group is a truly global group today. You see on the map here, we've got presence in most industrial companies. 95% of our sales are outside of Sweden today, although the origin is very Swedish. Being global, it's one of the things that makes Nord-Lock good. We're able to serve our customers globally wherever they are and follow them around the world. It's also a good way to fence off competition. We meet them early and make sure we're better than competitors in every part of the world.

But it's also good in terms of tariffs, high transport costs, currency fluctuations and also not to forget from a sustainability aspect to try to minimize tariffs. But the main driver being global, it's absolutely being close to the customer, being able to work with the customers in local language, their time zone, et cetera. You see this as well. I will not go through all the numbers here, but the 10 tech centers we have is a good example. These are centers where we can bring in customers, we can do tests on their applications to make sure that they perform as they should.

We have this in 10 places around the world. This is something where we are significantly better than competition today. Also here, the geographical expansion, and I'll show you later how we've created value for Latour over time. But also now we're able to continue to expand into new geographies. The end of last year, we opened our own sales center in Brazil. Typically, we do an investment like this and around 24 months later, we see a positive EBIT impact from investments into new markets. We still have areas where we can grow within the countries and within regions. I think especially Southeast Asia is an area where we can continue to be more active to grow long-term.

Let's move to the next slide. If we look at this global perspective here from a numbers perspective, you see that we've got a healthy split here, Europe, Middle East and Africa, 40%; Americas, 35% and APAC 25%. Good, all regions grow for us. That is important also in a slower growth region like Europe, we are growing, and we're growing above industrial production. Fastest growing for us is as it should be, it's the APAC region. It's probably more than 50% of the relevant market for us. That being 25% of our share today, I mean, we want to grow faster than the other regions, and we're doing that.

If we look at the segment exposure, also here, we have a healthy mix of segments. We sell into a lot of industries, and that's making the group very stable over a business cycle, it kind of even out a little bit. But also when we look where we are right now, we are active in some industries that are attractive to be in like power generation, of course, is an attractive area to be. It's our largest segment. Mining is an area where we're very active as well and growing in. Also in the others part here, we see rapid growth in the defense side for all our product lines basically. We're quite pleased with the exposure we have, and we're continuously playing that to try to maximize our growth.

Let's move to the next one. The Nord-Lock Group today, we're -- all our activities are based on 5 product lines and 5 brands. It's important for us that we have these 5 brands because we tailor our go-to-market per brand. This is one of the things that is accelerating the growth, I think, a little bit in the last 2 years where we're really emphasizing that -- make sure we sell each product in the best way we can. As an example, the well-known Nord-Lock washers, the origin of the group, we serve primarily via distribution. We work with OEMs and end users to get in spec'd in, but we supply via distribution.

Whilst on the mechanical tensioning side and the hydraulic tensioning with the Superbolt and Boltight brand, it's very engineered. There's an engineer from our side involved in almost every sale. Here, we sell directly to OEMs and end users and normally don't go via distribution. It's important to have this tailored approach to make sure we're as good as we can for every customer.

As you see on the right, we are always looking at, okay, what can we do more? What brands can we add and so forth. That leads us to the next slide. When we look at how we shall develop our company, we are very strict on where we want to be strategically. If we look at the market as a pyramid, it's quite a traditional way to look at the market. We are in the top of the pyramid. This is an area where we want to be. This is where we have a lot of application challenges. This is where it's really safety critical. The cost of failures is high when something goes wrong. There's a lot of engineering often needed. This is also where the customers are prepared to pay more.

This is where we are today, and this is also where we will stay. We don't want to become a commodity supplier. Also, as you can see here, one of the reasons why we're growing well and have been over a long time is that we're able to convert applications that are using what we believe is less good solutions, more commodity type of solutions into our premium solutions that are more safe. This is fueling growth, and this is something that we've been able to industrialize on a global basis, finding the applications around the world that we want to turn to Nord-Lock solutions.

I believe we have a solid idea of where we are and where we want to be also in the future and also what will continue to drive growth for us over time.

Let's move to the next one, Katarina. Another important aspect claiming to be leaders, it's easy to claim, but you also need to make sure you are a leader in every aspect. We also need to follow the customers through the full -- through their full journey. We're very active in the predesign phase. As I mentioned before, we've got engineers out in most industrial companies working with the customers answering their specific questions. We help with product verification. We can do on-site assessments. We do a lot of testing and validation. Then, of course, we manufacture, we supply, we invoice, and that's where we make the money.

But we need to be there in the whole -- through the whole lifetime of the design and assembly process as well. This as well is something where we are well ahead of competition and making it quite difficult for smaller companies to come in and start competing on a global basis because this takes time to build up.

If we move to the next one, we can see what has this resulted in over the years. As you see here, I mean, there's been a phenomenal growth. Here, I just shows the value creation since 2009, Latour has owned Nord-Lock longer than that. But you see an average growth here of around 13% organically and via acquisitions and then also including currency effects. If we look at where we are right now, we're in a good period right now. If I exclude currency effects and M&A effects, we grew by just over 10% last year. So far this year, 12.6%.

This is, of course, the result of everything we are doing around the world and not becoming complacent as a leader and continue to have high ambitions. Conversion, I mean, that's probably the main one. As I said, identifying the right applications driving growth globally and also this world-class service that we try to provide engineering, but also availability, quality, we offer lifetime warranty on all our products, among others. There's a lot of things behind this fantastic financial development that is very sustainable as well over time.

With that, Katarina, I think we're down to the last slide here. When safety really matters, that's when we want customers to work with Nord-Lock. Here you see a picture of Oresundsbron. Our solutions keep the cables in place. I hope you can feel quite safe next time you pass the Oresundsbron.

With that, that's all I had and open for questions, I'll leave it to Johan.

Yes. Thank you, Daniel. Excellent overview flying over the Nord-Lock Group, fantastic. We open up for the Q&A session. It's Mikael, myself and Daniel will try and answer the questions you have on Nord-Lock. No questions?

The next question comes from Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.

Thank you, Daniel, for being on this morning. First off, a question on APAC, and I assume China is obviously a big market opportunity for you. But what do you see as the main challenges to grow in that?

We see this regionalization very clearly and China has been driving the Make in China 2025, that started that a long time ago. There is a strong push in China for having it domestically produced. We are moving in that direction as well. We have good presence in China today. If we look on the mechanical tensioning side, we're doing that locally now in China to support the growth. If we look on the washer side, we are supplying that out of Europe still. We've got enormous advantages of scale, and it's massive investments to duplicate that. But today, we see this clearly, and we're trying to navigate this actively in the group.

Yes. No, but it's impressive. I think Nord-Lock, as you alluded to, Daniel, has been present in China during a very long time, and we've been taking part of the growth in China over a long time, and we have many great examples of customers and infrastructure projects in China where we have provided our solutions. I think we're well positioned to continue the growth also the coming years in China with Nord-Lock. We have very good contacts, very good local team. We have a very strong presence in China.

APAC is a region, but if we split it up, we develop as well in China as we do in the other part of APAC. So...

Yes.

I don't see a situation where we're now losing China due to the regionalization and tariffs and so forth. We're on track.

And then if you could talk a bit about this opportunity that you see in specialty bolting and how this area can command the same kind of margins that you have in sort of the legacy washer business?

That's a good question because specialty bolting, it's an area where it's typically bolts and nuts manufactured to customer specs where you have a lot of certifications around it. It could be for different energy applications, could be like nuclear, could be defense certifications, et cetera. Typically, what we supply, it's a machine product that is all not that complicated, but it's fully traceable down to an individual level. It's been -- full manufacturing process is documented. There's normally a lot of coatings on it, a lot of nondestructive testing, so they're often ultrasonically tested, so you don't have cracks in them and often in quite unique materials to withstand corrosive materials, et cetera, and so forth.

The paperwork and that aspect often has a higher value and cost than the product in itself. It's quite difficult for a local machine shop to replicate this because they don't have that infrastructure in place. This is a large market. It's -- we estimate it's between SEK 10 billion and SEK 30 billion if we look at this from a global space. So it's quite an attractive area for us to enter as a group.

A very interesting new growth segment for Nord-Lock in the coming years. I agree with Daniel.

And then could you explain a bit more how you work strategically with Vusion? I mean we've seen you buying some distribution businesses in the past. And I assume this is something we could see more of going forward.

Yes, we've been -- typically, Nord-Lock has been buying the distribution companies in a specific country, and that's been a very successful way to grow the group. When we look at distribution today, they are our main channel to market for the washers. We try to stay very loyal to our distributors. More than 90% of all products -- all the washers we supply go via distribution. The way we work is we try to create the market in every country, working with OEMs and end users. But these are C items supplied in high volume, often going together with other C item components.

We have this great synergy between Nord-Lock as the engineering partner and the product owner and then the distributor that makes sure that they can get the right quantity at the right time when they need it. This is an ecosystem that is serving us extremely well on the Nord-Lock side. But as I explained before, we've got the different dynamics on the more engineered part of the group. Did that answer your question?

Yes. Yes, that's helpful. And then I had a final question more broadly on M&A and the opportunity there and what your pipeline looks like currently?

We have a pipeline. I think naturally, I cannot go into more details for that. But of course, we have both dimension of growth that are important to us. Always foremost is organic growth. I mean we should grow organically above 10% every year. That is very important for us. Then we can absolutely grow via acquisitions as well. We want to do both.

I think we can add, Daniel, that we look for acquisition opportunities in all of the product segments, which Daniel alluded to. But especially, I would say there is quite interesting acquisitions opportunities in this new energy bolting segment also going forward, right.

That's correct, Johan.

Let's see if we have somebody else who would like to ask some questions.

The next question comes from Derek Laliberte from ABG Sundal Collier.

Great. I wanted to ask on your fantastic high-quality products here and looking over time, their pricing power has remained intact and whether customers are still accepting premium pricing in the safety critical applications.

Good interesting question, Derek, and I'm sure Daniel can answer it.

It's a difficult question to answer, of course, there is price competition, and there are competing products on the market. We then actively work how do we defend our position. I alluded to some of the aspects that are making us great. I mean it is the absolute service levels we have and the proximity to customers, being able to solve their problems. I think moving forward, also being able to support our customers digitally in a superior way. It is important.

We're also working quite hard to make sure that we are perceived as a leader as well. The brand is very important for us here. When you look at safety critical applications and safety product critical there is a reluctance to take risk. This is benefiting us quite well when -- if it fails, it could result in massive asset damages with large costs, personal damage, environmental damage, et cetera. The willingness in a lot of cases is, okay, it's not worth it. We want with Nord-Lock. We know it works, it's proven, et cetera. I think it's a large cocktail of activities that positions us where we are. Yes, anything to add from Mikael or Johan?

Mikael, would like to add.

Yes. I think in that assessment, I think it's also important to add that the Nord-Lock product in the applications that they go into is a very, very small part of the total cost of material for the applications, which means back to the comment that Daniel had to take risk on that, is that where you want to save the extra cent. It's a typically very good position also to be a very small part of the total solution, but very safety critical, which helps in maintaining and arguing for that price position over time.

I think Daniel's example with the Oresund Bridge is a pretty good example, right, massive investment to build that bridge, but quite important that those bolts for the cables hold up, right, but still a fairly comparatively small part of the whole investment of the bridge. I think it's just important to underline, yes, we sell the best product, but we also sell knowledge in this area. The engineers building the bridge, they want a knowledge partner that are really experts on secure bolting. I think that's important as well to remember. It's a knowledge business as well. Right, Daniel.

Absolutely. I think we can -- so coming back to the margin question, I think if we look on the last 2 years, I mean, we are able to increase margins actually. I think when we see margin development, it will be more mix effect, our portfolio rather than margin dilution. That I don't see, at least not in the next few coming years. We will be able to maintain that.

Yes. Got it. It's very interesting points there. I really appreciate it. And finally, I was wondering if you could give also some flavor on anything to say about how much of Nord-Lock's demand, you would say is structural versus sort of cycle driven, particularly in the infrastructure, energy and I suppose, industrial applications.

Daniel?

Yes. I think most of our applications actually are exposed to the business cycle and follow the demand like any other industrial product. The big difference, if you would compare, I come from SKF, for example, and if you look on the growth we have compared to SKF, I mean, it's a lot higher all the time and there's a lot smoother. It's because we have this constant inflow of new customers all the time. We're able to convert customers to the Nord-Lock Solutions.

The business cycle doesn't really matter. It should never be an excuse for us for not doing well. But of course, it will maybe be a difference, do we grow by 11% or 14%. That is the business cycle. That is -- we are affected by the business cycle in every industry and follow that. But you don't really see it. I don't think you will see it if we do a good job.

Having said that, Daniel, as we said in the beginning of your presentation, we are in quite many industrial segments. One is energy, for instance, and energy has its cycle, depending on oil price and other things. Infrastructure has its cycle. These cycles are not necessarily always in tune and are in the same. They also even out throughout the year. You can say we limit our cycle exposure in that sense that we are in different segments, if you understand.

Absolutely. And also the regional exposure, I mean...

Thank you, Derek. And then just to check if there's any other questions. No and no written ones, Mikael?

No written questions recorded, no?

Great. Thank you so much, Daniel, for the presentation of Nord-Lock Group, and thank you all for listening into both the presentation of Latour's Q2 report and a deep dive into Nord-Lock. We look forward to speak to you again when we release our Q3 reports later this autumn.

That concludes the whole session. We would like to -- from Mikael and Daniel and myself, thank you very much for listening in. Thank you.

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of Investment AB Latour's Interim Report for the First Quarter 2026. [Operator Instructions] With that, I hand over to CEO, Johan Hjertonsson; and CFO, Mikael Albrektsson.

Thank you, Katarina. And once again, welcome, everybody, to the Q1 report on Investment AB Latour. I'm here together with Mikael, our CFO. So very welcome, Mikael, as well. And the presentation is divided into 2 sections. The first part, we will walk you through the Latour Group's development in Q1, commenting on the development for the investment portfolio and the wholly-owned operations. Then we open up for questions. And then we have a second part where we will make a deep dive into Innovalift, one of Latour's 7 wholly-owned operations, and there, we have invited Andrea Veggian, CEO of Innovalift, for this section. And finally, after that, we will have a Q&A session together with Andrea about answering questions on Innovalift.

Good. So if we dive into the first slide here, I'd like to comment a bit overall. So it's a positive start to the year, organic growth despite the geopolitical turbulence, indicating an overall good underlying demand on the markets we operate on, but it varies between industries and regions. I'd like to highlight that the order intake grew organically plus 5%, and the net sales grew organically plus 4%. And then we had negative currency effects of quite large of about -- of minus 6% in the quarter.

We follow the turbulence in the Middle East closely and our exposure to the region is limited and no material negative impact has been identified to date. Currency effects continue to put pressures on our margins, but we keep the profitability in line with last year despite the quite negative currency headwinds. I will comment more on the financial outcome more in detail later on in this presentation. The acquisition activity has been quite high during the quarter. We have finalized 2 acquisitions during the quarter. And after the reporting period, we completed an additional acquisition and signed an agreement for another one.

And by that, I'd like to hand over to Mikael to comment on our net asset value. Over to you, Mikael.

Thank you, Johan. And if summarizing the quarter in figures, we can conclude that the net asset value decreased by 5.9% during the quarter and amounted to SEK 203 per share, which is to be compared to the SIXRX that decreased by 1.2%. And the share price at the end of March was SEK 201, which means that there was a discount of 1% compared to how we present the net asset value. And as of yesterday, the net asset value was SEK 206 per share, and the share price on the same day closed at SEK 215, which gives a premium to our way of describing the net asset value of about 4%. The consolidated net debt increased during the quarter from SEK 15 billion to SEK 15.3 billion, and the net debt corresponds to about 11% of the market value of our investments, leaving headroom for further acquisitions going forward.

And with that, I hand over back to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael. So if we start with the listed portfolio, no changes within the listed portfolio during the quarter. The stock market was hard hit by the turbulence in the Middle East, as you all know, during the quarter. The value development of our portfolio of listed holdings amounted to minus 9% during the first quarter, whereas the SIXRX was minus 1.2%. Some of our holdings have shown weaker stock market performance, while others have been better. Until yesterday, April 28, the portfolio value was SEK 82 billion, and the total return amounts to minus 6.1% so far this year, whereas the SIXRX has increased 3.6%.

And if we go further on to comment on the listed portfolio, the results reported so far are mixed, as I said, with strong negative currency effects and weak demand persisting in parts of the market. Geopolitical instability continues to affect the markets, though the impact varies depending on market exposure and geographical presence. Clearly, a positive underlying growth, however, and profit development over the last 10 years. We own quality companies who have the ability to grow and win market shares in both booms and recessions.

And if I continue, as Latour is a long-term owner, it is worth evaluating the total return of the listed portfolio from a longer-term perspective. During the last 15 years, the total return amounts to 540% compared to the SIXRX that amounts to 350%. We see this as a confirmation that the holdings in our portfolio are contributing to a positive shareholder value creation.

And then we move over to our wholly-owned operations. Our wholly-owned operations started the year in a positive manner with several business areas performing very strongly in a demanding market. We see signs of gaining market share in many markets and regions. And as I said at the start of the call, the order intake increased organically by 5% and the net sales increased organically by 4%, which I think is a very strong growth performance in a very demanding market.

So the organic growth indicates an underlying good demand for our products and businesses, but the picture is mixed. The construction industry remains weak, but growth drivers such as renovation, energy efficiency and infrastructure investment is benefiting companies like Swegon, Bemsiq Group, Innovalift and the Nord-Lock Group.

The adjusted operating result for the quarter amounted to SEK 886 million with an operating margin of 13.2%. So profitability is in line with last year, and we believe this is an acceptable and good level, considering also that the first quarter often is somewhat weaker for Latour. Also currency headwinds continue to put pressure not only on the top line, but also on the operating margins. And with that in mind to have the same margins, we are quite pleased with the first quarter performance for our wholly-owned operations.

And if I comment on acquisitions. During the quarter, Latour Industries finalized the acquisition of the Swedish company, Alstor. Alstor is a provider of compact forestry machinery for thinning and forest management. And with this acquisition, Latour Industries is entering into a new segment, the market for forest equipment. In addition, Densiq within Latour Industries increased their services offer by acquiring Scandinavian Sealing based in Sweden. After the reporting period, Swegon acquired Western Airconditioning, a supplier of high-quality HVAC solutions in the Netherlands. Swegon also signed an agreement to acquire the residential ventilation business of Dantherm in Denmark, further strengthening Swegon's strong position in the Nordic ventilation market.

Should we include the 2 acquisitions communicated after the reporting period, the acquisition so far this year adds about SEK 0.5 billion in net sales on an annual basis, and we're very happy with that. And also, I'd like to mention that Swegon is streamlining its operation and divesting noncore holdings. The divestment will have a positive impact on Swegon's margins.

And by that, I hand over back to Mikael.

Thank you very much, Johan. And in regular fashion, we start with taking a look at business area Bemsiq Group. Bemsiq had a continued good performance in the quarter. Order intake is in line with last year, driven by organic growth and partly offset by a negative currency effect. The total organic growth in net sales was 5% with a strong development on the North American market, while Europe is somewhat slower. And the metering business is performing well and demonstrates a clear positive momentum after a slower period. And the adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 121 million with a good margin of 22%.

We then turn page and take a look at Caljan, where we can see that the positive momentum from 2025 continues during the quarter. Order intake grew organically by a strong 34% and the market activities remain high. And the order backlog is at solid levels for coming quarters. Driven by the higher order intake last year, net sales showed a very strong development in the quarter, growing organically by 44%. The adjusted operating profit was strong as well, amounting to SEK 63 million, with an operating margin of 16.5%, driven by good cost control, a strong gross margin and the higher volumes. Caljan has decided to phase out its Label operations in Germany, which is a subset of the Automated Systems business. The Label operation has an annual revenue of about SEK 60 million with low profitability. Support for ongoing projects and customers will continue and the one-off cost related to the phaseout has been recognized in the quarter.

We then turn page again and look at Hultafors. And the market environment remains cautious which, combined with currency headwinds, has resulted in a slightly lower net sales compared to the same quarter last year. Organic growth for the quarter amounts to 2%. PPE Europe is performing in line with last year, whilst the hardware divisions continue a bit slower, especially on the North American market. And the operating margin remained stable at 14.9%, demonstrating a resilient underlying profitability despite lower volumes and negative currency effects.

We then turn page again and look at Innovalift, where we can see that order intake declined compared to prior year, mainly due to weaker demand in the Middle East and Asia, together with negative currency effects. Net sales were lower year-on-year, primarily driven by currency headwind, but the organic growth amounts to 2%. And the gross margin continues to improve step-by-step and the cost controls remain strong. And the quarterly adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 70 million with a margin of 9% despite the lower volumes. And as Johan said earlier, you will have an opportunity to listen to Andrea Veggian following our presentation for a more in-depth presentation about Innovalift.

We then turn page and take a look at Latour Industries. And adjusted for acquisitions, order intake was slightly lower than last year, reflecting varying demand levels across the business units. Net sales increased by 5% in the quarter, driven by acquisition, whilst the organic growth decreased by 2%. Adjusted operating profit was driven by strong performance in companies, REAC, MAXAGV, and newly acquired Alstor. And as the heading of the picture states, the focus of Latour Industries continues to be on developing the existing holdings and to find new platform investments for the future. On that note, as Johan mentioned before, Alstor and Scandinavian Sealing were acquired in January this year, adding 10% of acquired growth in net sales in the quarter, which we are very happy to see.

We continue with Nord-Lock, and Nord-Lock Group continues to develop strongly, reporting a record quarter on several metrics despite currency headwind. Order intake, net sales and adjusted EBIT are all on all-time high, which is impressive. Order intake grew organically by 13% during the quarter, partly driven by a major order with expected delivery in 2027, and the net sales grew organically by a strong 17%. All regions contributed to the growth and the order backlog remains at solid levels going forward. The quarterly adjusted operating profit increased to SEK 166 million with a strong operating margin of 29.4%, despite negative currency effects.

With that said, we turn page to our last business area, Swegon. And the general market continues to be uncertain, although it strengthened towards the end of the quarter. Order intake continued to develop positively during the quarter with organic growth of 5%, and invoicing was slightly lower than the corresponding quarter last year, mainly driven by negative currency effects and divestments. North America and Sweden is performing well with solid growth, while Central Europe is a bit slower. The adjusted operating profit came in at SEK 170 million with a margin of 7.4%, affected by the lower volumes. And as mentioned before, Swegon has conducted 3 strategic divestments from December 2025 up until today as a part of its focus on streamlining the core business and strengthening the long-term competitiveness. This affects the growth figures a bit compared to last year, but will contribute positively to the average margin going forward.

And that sums up the run-through of the 7 business areas, and we continue with the picture regarding the financial targets, and I hand over back to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael. So to comment on our financial targets. So in summary of our financial targets, during the last 12 months, we have had growth of 5.1%, EBIT margin of 14.1%, return on operating capital of 14%. This is an outcome that we're very pleased with and keep in mind that the targets are to be seen over a business cycle. Growth is driven by both acquisitions and organic growth, but with a negative currency headwind, as we have mentioned before on this call. But if you adjust for the currency, the growth is actually 10%, which is on the financial target level. EBIT margin is on a good level and return on operating capital is satisfying.

And then we go to comment on the long-term perspective. So overall, a good start to the year. We are pleased with the outcome to date and continue the year with a strong order backlog and an organization well prepared to meet both opportunities and challenges. Latour is a long-term sustainable investment company and a responsible owner. We are financially strong and continue to invest in our holdings, both existing and new ones, to enable future growth and create value for our shareholders. I'm confident that we are well positioned to take on the challenges that the current market environment may bring.

And with that, I'd like to thank you for listening to us, and we open up for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.

Starting with a question on Hultafors. So what initiatives are keeping these solid margins in the quarter despite volumes and currency down? Is it a mix effect? Is it cost cuts? What's the biggest driver here?

I can start a bit and then you can add on, Mikael. I mean, to your point, it's a good impressive margin. We have taken cost measures to protect our margin when we also saw the continued signs of a weak market. I would also argue that we are most likely taking market share in this tough market. We have continuously invested in products, in R&D, and in our brands. We have very strong brands within Hultafors Group and a very good product portfolio in that sense. I think those are the main reasons, but I'm sure Mikael can also find other reasons. I just want to confirm that, Mikael?

Yes. No, I mean, I confirm what you're saying, but a slight positive product mix as well. But I think the most important thing is that even though volumes have not been growing super strong, we have been able to keep up gross margins well, just confirming what Johan said that we have premium brands well positioned in the market as well, in combination with adjusting our OpEx as well to be developed in line with how topline develops.

Okay. And then staying on Hultafors, but just looking at now that we're going into Q2, and Q2 last year was pretty tough on organic growth, and that's when the currency started to turn negative. Can you say anything about sort of the conditions during April versus last year?

Yes. I shouldn't comment too much on April, but I can say if you're looking for trends, you could say, we ended the Q1 much stronger than the Q1 started overall when it comes to the organic growth. So it was a good strong momentum at the end of the Q1 quarter. We expect much less currency headwinds in Q2 as of Q1, considerably lower. That's what we see. And we see no particular signs that we have picked up now end of April that makes us uncomfortable for not delivering a good Q2, you say like that, right? Do you want to add, Mikael?

No, I think that summarized it well.

Yes. That's very clear. And then a similar question on Swegon. Anything that you can say on this market improvement you saw at the end of the quarter? Is it fair to assume that Central Europe was part of that improvement? Or what's driving that?

Yes. I would say, particularly Europe was strong, that also includes the Nordic countries when we talk Europe. So that's mainly where it was, but also good development in North America, so pretty much across the board. And we have a strong order intake in Swegon that has not yet materialized in net sales. So we're also quite confident for increased volumes going forward in Swegon.

Okay. And then my final question is on Nord-Lock, which was impressive as always. But can you say anything about what the organic development was in Asia Pacific in Q1? And in general, how they're doing when it comes to the Asian business?

Do you want to take a stab on that, Mikael?

Yes. I mean I don't have a specific figure to present to you here. But I think as we commented, it's all of the geographical regions are contributing to the growth, which is, of course, underlying very strong. And of course, there is a mix between the regions, but all regions are contributing positively to the growth and Asia Pacific as well.

Yes. And you could also add that you see both the agent business is contributing nicely. That's with the short lead times and what we have on stock, so to speak, but also the specification-driven business. I mean, we have won quite large specification orders to very special projects in a good way. So I think it's both the daily ticking business, so to speak, and the more strategic specification-driven business that is performing well, and it's correct. Yes.

The next question comes from Derek Laliberte from ABG Sundal Collier.

Just wanted to follow up there on Nord-Lock, which really outperformed in the quarter. Could you also share a bit about, in terms of types of customer segments, what's driving the relative strength there and how sustainable you believe it is?

I think overall, that's the funny thing, or what is important to have some closer look at the market, how it's not a general downturn market. It is a downturn market, but it's especially in the consumer segment. But you see many industrial segments that are growing quite nicely. Many energy segments are growing nicely. That is an important segment for Nord-Lock. You see many infrastructure segments such as rail, for instance, which is an important segment for Nord-Lock.

And you also see the defense segment that also has a very strong growth for quite sad reasons, as you know, but it's also an important segment for where Nord-Lock's bolting applications come into play. So Nord-Lock plays in quite many good segments that has a good underlying growth and plays less in the consumer-related segments in that sense. So that's kind of a macroeconomic explanation. But I think it's also important to highlight that we have a very good management team in place. We have invested in R&D over the years, and this pays off. We have a good momentum and a good drive and energy in the Nord-Lock organization.

Okay. Great. It sounds like a really broad-based performance. And then I was wondering, in general, for the wholly-owned operations here, if you could share any thoughts about whether you saw any meaningful change in order intake or demand sequentially throughout the quarter and into April given sort of the uncertain environment and everything?

Yes. As I said a little bit commenting on Linus' question before, we saw a very strong momentum in March coming out of the quarter. And there's nothing we've seen in April that worries us for Q2. So continued good momentum there. One could have expected maybe indirect effects from the Middle East conflict, but I can't say we have seen that in the numbers. So we are quite confident going forward. And not to brag too much, but to speak on behalf of all our companies, in this macroeconomic environment that we have had in Q1, to have an organic order growth of 5% and a net sales growth of 4%, in this macro environment, I have to say that's quite strong, and you don't see many industrial companies showing those growth numbers during this period.

Okay. Great. And then I was wondering on -- I mean, looking at the valuations here of the wholly-owned operations, it seems, at least from my perspective, that peers were down by quite a bit in the quarter. And obviously, EBIT was down slightly year-on-year. So just wondering, from your perspective, how does that lead to essentially unchanged valuations on the whole for the industrial operations?

Valuation question, Mikael, for you.

Yes, absolutely. No, I mean, we have our peer groups that we follow over time. And of course, I mean, this is one indication how we present the value. And we always look -- those valuation metrics remain rather stable over time. And we always look -- I mean, if you take the example, end of March, there was really a short-term downturn spike on valuations, which were bounced back up rather quickly directly after. And we take those short-term movements into considerations looking at the peer group as well to avoid too much volatility over time. So I think when taking that into consideration, we think the peer group valuation -- I mean, we kept rather stable in the quarter.

I think it's good to remind, Mikael, which we write in the report, we do a prudent valuation to ours. It's more also to help the reader to also calculate and do valuation.

Absolutely. And we have a range in the peer groups as well on the valuation multiple as well, and that's correct.

Yes, that's great. Then what would typically need to happen for you to sort of mark down the private valuations? Is it sort of sustained weaker multiples or weaker earnings outlook? Because, I mean, obviously, the portfolio as a whole has performed very well over the years, but it just seems like it's always very, very stable and sort of moving up over time.

Yes. I mean that is a correct interpretation. So if there is a sustained, I mean, down valuation of the peer group, I mean, that influences our peer group valuation as well, not necessarily that one data point triggers us to move it down at that instance. But if the peer group, over time, sustained goes down, it, of course, moves our valuation peer group down as well.

And logically, we have exactly the same view when it moves up.

Moves up. Exactly.

We're quite slow in moving up as well.

Absolutely.

See if we have any other questions on that. No questions on the chat, right?

No questions on the chat, no.

Great. Thank you very much for listening in and those questions. And then we have our Innovalift deep dive. We move on, right, to Andrea Veggian, the Innovalift CEO, that is with us here today.

Thank you, Johan, and hello, good morning from my side, and I'm very happy to have the chance to introduce Innovalift to you today. So recently, Innovalift celebrated its second anniversary as independent business area within Latour. In just a short time, we have established ourselves as the third largest business area within Latour's wholly-owned operations, reaching SEK 3.4 billion in revenues. Today, Innovalift brings together 10 companies and 11 proprietary brands, all focused on the lift industry, creating a unique platform with both scale and specialization. This rapid development demonstrates not only our ability to execute, but also the strong potential we see in building a global integrated leader in vertical mobility and accessibility solutions.

Our journey started with Aritco and Gartec, and we have continuously expanded by adding complementary companies. This has not been about scale for the sake of scale, but about building a complete ecosystem across the lift value chain. Each addition has strengthened either our technology capabilities, our market access or our service offering.

Here, let me have a highlight of a few key figures. We have around 1,300 employees with a global footprint across 6 continents and more than 30 locations. We sell over 10,000 lifts per year, service more than 15,000 units, and equip over 200,000 lifts annually with our components. As I said, we generated SEK 3.4 billion in revenue. And importantly, we invest more than SEK 100 million annually in R&D. These numbers reflect both scale and credibility, but also significant headroom for further growth.

Our business is structured around the 3 complementary clusters. The number one is the smart component and system integration. With these groups of products, we help a customer to bring intelligence to every lift. Our expertise in advanced control and system integration enables us to deliver a next-generation solution for both new installation and modernization projects. From high-performance drive system and inverters to intuitive control panel, elegant display and cutting-edge IoT platform, we design systems that are easy to install and commission, highly reliable and efficient and fully connected and future-ready. So the result, smarter lifts that simplify complexity for both our customers and the end users.

The number 2 is our lift manufacturing cluster, bringing together 3 companies delivering complete solution for accessibility and home lift. Our products are installed worldwide in airports, metro station, office building, helping make this environment not only be accessible, but truly inclusive, enabling everyone to move freely and confidently.

At Innovalift, we believe a lift is more than a functional necessity. It is also a design-driven element that enhances the living experience. In residential settings, our lifts combine comfort, aesthetic and technology to become a natural and valuable part of the home, contributing to both quality of life and property value. This is why we invest significantly in design and user experience and why our products have been recognized with several international design awards.

The number three is the installation and service. Our activities in some selected countries ensuring for full control across the value chain. Installation is a critical step. It secures the quality, the safety and the performance of each system. At the same time, it acts as a key enabler for our service business, creating long-term relationship and recurring revenue opportunities. By integrating installation services, we ensure consistent quality of our customer while strengthening the life cycle value of every system we deliver.

Here, we have a picture regarding the submarket where we measure ourselves. We have been carefully selecting the market where we want to play and where we want to be relevant. The picture you see here represents our relative position in the European market, which is somewhat our home market. While some areas are fairly consolidated, a large part of the industry is made up of regional and local players. This creates for us a significant opportunity to grow. So we combine scale and global reach with local presence and flexibility. This allows us to compete effectively across segments and geography, while also creating opportunities for consolidation and market share gains over the time.

Our footprint spans across Europe, South America, Asia and beyond with both production facility and sales offices close to our customers. This proximity is critical in our industry. It allows us to ensure fast delivery, local compliance and strong customer relationships. At the same time, our global scale enables us to leverage technology, sourcing and best practice across the markets.

We believe that 4 major macro trends will affect our business going forward. So an aging population is driving sustained demand for home accessibility reinforced by public policies that enable people to age at home. Urbanization is accelerating residential demand, which is growing significantly faster than the commercial segment and is the core focus for Innovalift.

Sustainability is creating a major modernization opportunity across a large installed base. I'd like to say that in this context, Innovalift is committed to achieving Net Zero emission by 2050, in line with the Science-Based Targets initiative. Finally, digitalization through Smart Lift, remote monitoring and AI will drive efficiency, recurring revenues and margin expansion. So together, these trends create a strong long-term growth and tailwind for Innovalift.

Our growth trajectory has been good so far, both in terms of revenues as well as profit. This was possible, thanks both to a solid organic development, together with some very nice acquisitions. At the same time, we continue to invest in R&D and expansion, ensuring that growth remains sustainable and future-oriented.

So to sum up, we are a truly global house of brands with a significant footprint internationally. We are on the road to unleash our full potential as a group. We see major opportunities to increase internal collaboration and business. We have quite a unique position in the market, I would say. We count on strong macro trend, which will support us going forward. And we have operated -- or we have experienced positive financial trajectory and solid capability to continue to invest.

That, I think, was all from my side to give you a brief introduction to the company and to the group. And I hand over the line back to Göteborg.

Thank you. Thank you, Andrea, for a great, in-depth and good overview of Innovalift. And we, therefore, open up for Q&A also on this section of the presentation. So Mikael and myself and Andrea are ready to answer if you have questions on Innovalift.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.

Starting with a question on what you can say about the margin potential in the longer term? And I guess, especially how we should think about the drivers? Is it mainly growing scale? Or is it more about mix and sort of growing the service business?

I can start a little bit. Mikael and I, we expect higher margins going forward from Innovalift. And we actually -- and also to be serious, we're supposed to see a good margin improvement lately, but we think there's more improvement to come. And then I hand over to Andrea to see if he can confirm that.

Yes. Of course, we confirm this. And I think we have -- our plan is to be fully aligned with the macro target that Latour has been putting. So I think that is our compass for the coming months and years, I would say.

And on the second question, I think that is a little bit of a mix. Obviously, increasing the service revenues will obviously help, because I think it's an important part of the profitability in this segment. So we are working in order to expand our share of services within the group.

Great. Andrea.

And could you...

No, please, Linus, go ahead.

Yes. Could you perhaps talk a bit about the pipeline for acquisitions and sort of what kind of companies you're looking for, both in terms of size and also which segments are most relevant? You alluded to this in the presentation.

Great question. I'm sure Andrea has a view on that. So over to you, Andrea.

Yes. Of course, we see different opportunities. As we said during the presentation, the market is still quite fragmented. And we are playing an interesting role. So we see ourselves as one of the consolidator on this. So both in terms of completing our products and the technology, I would say, but also to expand our market exposure, I would say. So we see both of those kind of main drivers that will help us to develop our pipeline when it comes to the M&A. We are fully, I would say, at full time working to keep our pipeline well, I would say, in a healthy condition. And I'm sure that during this year, we should be able also to conclude some of those.

Okay. And then my final question, and it's a similar one, if there are any major building blocks missing to execute on your ambitions, I guess, both in terms of your own capabilities, but also in terms of the demand environment?

You ask for if there's like segments that Innovalift hasn't addressed yet? Or is it building blocks in those present segments?

Yes, I guess both.

Okay. Andrea?

I think our current footprint should give us the possibility to have a healthy growth without entering into a new segment. However, there are a couple of segments that are very complementary to us and which we are looking at. I think one of the key for us is that if we enter into new segment, we want to be relevant to that. So we are not just entering for the sake of entering, but we really need to find, in that segment, the potential to be one of the main players into the market. So I think this is a little bit the philosophy. So we are looking at those without big stress in a way, because I think we have a lot of things in our plate right now to develop the business.

And I think if I may comment, I think one of the most important building blocks for Andrea to realize your strategy and your high ambition is to continue to build the talent pool of talented people in Innovalift. I think you've done a super good job there, Andrea, in attracting and developing good talent, but continue to do that in order to have the right people, at the right position, at the right time going forward. So that's always a challenge, but we're on a really good way there.

Yes. And I see no questions on the chat function, right, Mikael?

No, no questions on the chat.

No other on live. So that concludes. 41 minutes we took to present the Q1 and a deep dive into Innovalift. I'd like to dearly thank Andrea so much for visiting us on our Q1 report. So thank you so much. And thank you also my dear colleague, Mikael, and also Katarina for the help with the call. And thank you all for listening in, and I hope to hear you also when we have the Q2 presentation in August. So thank you, everybody.

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of Investment AB Latour's year-end report for 2025. [Operator Instructions] With that, I hand over to CEO, Johan Hjertonsson; and CFO, Mikael Johnsson Albrektsson.

Thank you very much, Katarina. Welcome, everybody. I'm here together with Mikael. Today, the presentation will be divided into 2 sections. The first part is the usual one with we've always done. We'll walk through the Latour Group's development in Q4 and the full year. And we will be commenting on the development of the investment portfolio and the wholly owned operations. And then we will open up for questions. Then we have a new thing, a second part, where this time, we will make a deep dive into Latour Industries, which is 1 of our 7 wholly owned operations. We will then later rotate our 7 wholly owned operations on the quarterly report. So you will meet more colleagues later on. But today, we're inviting Tina Hultkvist, who is the CEO of Latour Industries for this section. And finally, we will have -- after Tina's presentation, we will have a Q&A session together on the Latour Industries. So thus, 2 Q&A sessions today.

Good. Let's go into the Latour Group key highlights. We finished the year on a very positive note, delivering a record quarterly results with improved profitability. Continued strong performance across our operations despite the challenging business climate. We had an organic order intake growth in both Q4 and the full year, which indicates a positive underlying demand, although it does vary between industries and regions. On the one hand, we're facing a weak market environment driven by increasing geopolitical instability. On the other hand, we own companies operating in sectors shaped by global megatrends such as energy efficiency, accessibility and automation, which provide strong prospects for growth going forward. I will comment more on the financial outcome more in detail later in this presentation.

And finally, the acquisition activity has been quite high during the quarter. We signed an agreement to acquire Alstor to Latour Industries and divested 2 companies within Latour Industries Mobility division, AAT and Batec. In addition, Latour Future Solutions made a minority investment in NOAQ. It is rewarding to see that all the efforts of our M&A teams, both centrally and within our businesses are paying off. Summarizing the year, we have completed 7 acquisitions, adding SEK 1.8 billion in annual revenue, a solid foundation as we enter into 2026.

And here, I would like quickly to hand over to Mikael to present our net asset value. So over to you, Mikael.

Thank you very much, Johan. And if looking on the net asset value development during the year, we can conclude that it increased by 2.4% adjusted for dividends during the year and amounted to SEK 216 per share compared to SIXRX that increased by 12.7%. And the share price at the end of December was SEK 225, which means that there is a premium of 4% compared to how we present the net asset value. And as of yesterday, the net asset value was SEK 218 per share. And the share price on the same day closed at SEK 229, which gives a premium to our way of describing the net asset value of about 5%. The consolidated net debt decreased during the quarter from SEK 16.8 billion to SEK 15 billion, supported by a strong cash flow. And the net debt corresponds to about 10% of the market value of our investments, leaving headroom for further acquisitions going forward.

And with that, I hand back over to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael. And then we have the dividend here. We have a good profit development in our holdings and a strong financial position. So the Board of Directors proposes an increased dividend to SEK 5.10 per share, which is an increase of 10.9%. And the proposal is in line with the dividend policy, which you can see here on the slide. And thus, we have a strong historic trend of increased dividends, as you can see on this slide that shows at least the last 10 years.

So if we move on then into the investment portfolio. So there's no major changes within the listed portfolio during the quarter. Earlier in the year, however, we increased our holdings in CTEK to 35.3%. And value development during the year was 1.2%, where SIXRX was 12.7%. Some of our holdings have shown weaker stock market performance, while others have been strong. Until yesterday, February 10, the portfolio value was SEK 89.2 billion, and the total returns amount to 1.4% so far this year. And the SIXRX was 5.4%.

And if we go to the next slide, looking at the underlying performance, it is clear that the greater part of our holdings have demonstrated positive growth and profitability over the years, also especially the last couple of years that has been quite tough business-wise. The majority of our companies have reported the Q4 results and performance has been strong for most of them despite challenging market conditions. Geopolitical instability continues to affect the markets though the impact varies depending on market exposure and geographic presence. The acquisition activities are high in our listed holdings. And one example among several is Sweco, who acquired assar architects during the quarter, thereby strengthening its position even more in Belgium.

And if we take the next slide, just to show a little bit longer perspective on our listed holdings. As Latour is a long-term owner, it is worth evaluating the total return of the listed portfolio from a longer perspective, as I said. And during the last 15 years, the total return amounts to about 600% compared to SIXRX that amounts to 350%. We see this as a confirmation that the holdings in our portfolio are contributing to the positive shareholder value creation. And then I would like to comment on the wholly owned operations. And the wholly owned operations ended the year with a very strong quarter. Order intake increased by 7%, of which 8% was organic and net sales increased 6%, of which 5% was organic.

The organic growth indicates an underlying good demand for our companies, but the picture is mixed. The construction industry remains weak, for instance, with the Hultafors facing the toughest market conditions. At the same time, long-term drivers as energy efficiency, accessibility, automation support growth opportunity, benefiting companies like Swegon, Bemsiq and Innovalift. Caljan also reported solid underlying demand driven by major logistic customers and Nord-Lock Group has performed strongly throughout the year, supported by its global industrial exposure and an increasing focus on safety. We have good cost control and profitability is increasing in the quarter. The adjusted operating result for the quarter is record high with an operating margin of 15%.

And then to comment our wholly owned business on the full year. And our businesses have navigated their operations well throughout the year in markets marked by the geopolitical disturbances that you all know. Total growth order intake was 13% and net sales 9%. Various growth initiatives, combined with currency headwinds have put pressure on the operating margin. The Q4 outcome, however, indicates that we are moving in the right direction and that our investments are paying off. Adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 3.9 billion compared to SEK 3.8 billion the previous year, and the EBIT margin was 14% compared to 14.6% in the previous year. Lastly, a strong cash flow generation accounting to more than SEK 3.7 billion in positive cash flow. So a strong result, especially in a turbulent year, and we are very happy and proud for that.

And if I go over and comment on our acquisitions during 2025. And during the quarter, Latour Industries signed the agreement to acquire Swedish Alstor, which I mentioned, which was finalized in January of this year. And Alstor is a provider of compact forestry machinery for thinning and forest management. And with this acquisition, Latour Industries is entering a new segment, the market for forestry equipment. Latour Industry also divested AAT and Batec during the quarter. And with that, they left the Mobility division. In addition, after the reporting period, Bemsiq within Latour Industries increased their services offer by the acquired Scandinavian Sealing based in Sweden. In total, this year, we have finalized -- in last year, I should say, we have finalized 7 acquisitions. Should we include the 2 acquisitions finalized in January of this year, the acquisitions during the year adds to more than SEK 2 billion in net sales on an annual basis. And we're very happy with our M&A performance as well during 2025.

So having said that, I hand back to Mikael to comment on our 7 business areas. Over to you, Mikael.

Thank you very much, Johan. And the regular fashion, we start by taking a closer look at Bemsiq Group. And Bemsiq had a continued good performance in the quarter. Order intake in line with last year, which is driven by both organic growth and acquisitions, although partly offset by negative currency effects. And the total organic growth in net sales was 12%, driven by the Building Automation division, while the Metering division is a bit slower. A strong performance overall, considering the challenging market within the real estate and construction industries. And the adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 94 million with a good margin of 18.4%. And the margin was slightly negatively affected by growth initiatives ongoing and recent recruitments.

With that said, we then turn the page and direct the focus towards Caljan. And order intake remained strong during the quarter, increasing by 20% when adjusting for currency effects, and the order backlog is at solid levels for the coming quarters. Caljan is now increasing the production capacity to meet the strong demand. Driven by the higher order intake during the year, net sales showed a very strong development in the quarter, growing organically by a very strong 38%. And the adjusted operating profit was very strong as well, amounting to SEK 109 million with an operating margin of 23.9%, which is a combination by good cost control, a strong gross margin and high volumes.

With that said, we turn the page and take a look at Hultafors Group. And as Johan commented a bit earlier, the overall market conditions continues to be challenging for Hultafors Group, especially in North America. And the total net sales is organically down by 4% compared to the corresponding quarter last year. The profit margin is lower than last year, mainly due to a combination of long-term investments for future growth as well as lower volumes in the period. And the adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 301 million with a margin of 16.8%, which is good under the circumstances.

We then turn page and take a look at Innovalift. And for Innovalift, we saw order intake continue to grow, supported by acquisition and a very healthy organic growth. Total net sales grew by 37%, driven by both acquisition and organic growth and especially within the Components & Modernization segment as well as the direct service and sales segment. And the gross margin continues to improve step-by-step, and the cost controls remain strong, which allowed the operating profit -- the quarterly adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 132 million with a margin of 13.8% and summarizes a very good year for Innovalift.

With that, we turn the page and continue with Latour Industries. And Latour Industries business unit showed a mixed development with a sustained strong demand for REAC and MAXAGV while the remaining units faced somewhat softer market conditions. In total, order intake is growing organically by a strong 12% during the quarter. Net sales is down by 3% from last year, driven by REAC and LSAB. And the adjusted operating profit amounts to SEK 30 million with an operating margin of 6.4%. And the result is negatively affected by currency effects and the weak market climate as well as ongoing investment for future growth. And as we have commented, worth mentioning again, Latour Industries is currently -- has an under-absorption of the fixed cost on the central level following the distribution of Innovalift putting additional pressure on the margin for the time being.

And as the heading of the picture states, the focus of Latour Industries continues to be on developing the existing holdings and to find new platform investments, which Tina will talk more about later in the presentation. And to briefly recap what Johan also had said earlier, the Mobility division was divested during the quarter and the acquisition of Alstor was signed in December and finalized in January.

We then turn page again and take a look at Nord-Lock Group. That continues to develop strongly during the year and in quarter 4, despite the tough business climate, reporting growth across several metrics. Order intake grew organically by a strong 19% during the quarter. The net sales grew organically by a very healthy 10%, reaching an all-time high for a single quarter. All sales units contributed to the growth and the order backlog remains at solid levels going into the coming quarters. And the quarterly adjusted operating profit increased to SEK 139 million with a strong operating margin of 25.5% despite significant negative currency effects. But summarizing a very strong year for Nord-Lock Group overall.

We then turn page again and look at our final business area, Swegon. And for Swegon, the market has stabilized somewhat during the quarter and order intake strengthened during the quarter and is up 10% organically from last year. Total net sales grew organically by 4%, driven by North America and the segment air handling, cooling and heating. Adjusted operating profit came in at SEK 307 million with a margin of 11.4%, supported by higher volumes and an improved margin. We can also once again comment that Andreas �rje Wellstam left his role as CEO of Swegon on February 1 and will assume the role of Chief Investment Officer of Latour in April. Very exciting and welcome back, Andreas, we say. And we can also comment that Eva Karlsson now is serving as Interim CEO for Swegon. So we want to take the opportunity to congratulate Eva to that appointment and wish you all the best in that position.

And then to continue, we continue with the financial targets. And with that, I hand over back to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael. Excellent. So our financial targets. During the last 12 months, we have had a growth of 8.7%, EBIT margin of 14% and return on operating capital of 13.9%. This is an outcome that we're pleased with. The targets are to be seen over a business cycle, and we have been in some time in recession for some time now and growth is driven by both acquisition and organic growth, but with strong currency headwinds. We had about SEK 900 million in negative headwinds on the top line in the quarter -- no, in the full year. EBIT margin is a good level and return on operating capital is satisfying.

So -- and then I go to the next slide here before the Q&A. To summarize, 2025 have been yet another year marked by the global uncertainties affecting the business climate. However, we are pleased with the outcome, and we are entering 2026 with a strong order backlog and an organization well prepared to meet both opportunities and challenges. Latour is a long-term sustainable investment company and a responsible owner creating value for our shareholders. We are financially strong and continue to invest in our holdings, both existing and new ones to enable future growth and create value for our shareholders. We have a strong corporate culture that we treasure, which is of great value while we move forward in a volatile and rapidly changing world.

So with that, I'd like to thank you listening in so far, and we open up for the first Q&A session here together with myself and Mikael.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.

So my first question is on Hultafors and the margin profile. And I agree that 16.8% margin is definitely strong in the face of these headwinds. But could you just help us pick apart how much of this headwind comes from the FX and the negative volumes? And how much is these strategic growth investments that you're undertaking?

I can start and then Mikael, maybe you can shed some more light on it. I think overall, on the full year on the industrial operations, it's about 3% negative headwind on the top line and about the same on the EBIT. So that translates to a little bit less than SEK 1 billion on the top line and some SEK 120 million to SEK 130 million on the EBIT in total. But then over to you, Mikael, if you want to comment a bit more specifically on Hultafors.

No, I can just -- I mean, for Hultafors, I think, I mean, the important -- the most important driver for Hultafors per se is the volume that is -- we are very confident looking at underlying margins that when volume comes, the EBIT margin profile is where we want it to be for Hultafors specifically.

Okay. And then my second question is on Caljan since -- I mean, it's been a while, if ever, since we've seen sort of normal circumstances in this company. Should we think that this 20-plus EBIT margin level is reasonable to expect going forward if these market conditions persist?

Yes, I agree with you, Linus. It's been really roller coaster ride with Caljan. That's a little bit -- one is the nature of the business. It's a very project-oriented business with a very large projects. But it's also a business that is exposed to heavy CapEx type of investments with new clients, right? And then thirdly, I'd like to say -- they had an extreme peak during the pandemic when e-commerce was booming and then they had the equivalent reverse downward trend when the pandemic was over because there were overinvestments in the logistics sector. And now those investments are coming back. So I would say that last year, you would see that a more normalized year. Of course, the growth numbers are a bit crazy because you compare to very low numbers in the year before in 2024. Margin-wise, I think Caljan is a company that should operate somewhere on 20-plus EBIT margin on everything else the same over a longer period.

Okay. And then my final question was on Swegon. I understand that volume growth is obviously a key driver here as well for margin improvements. But are there any other, say, notable actions that move the needle that you're taking in Swegon on the margin or cost side?

We always work with optimizing our cost. On a positive note, we have seen strong growth and indications that the market has turned in Q4 for Swegon. So, hopefully, we will see a stronger growth going forward. And also as a general comment, I would like to say that Swegon is very nicely positioned in the area of energy efficiency and also there is an increased interest in a healthy indoor climate,. And that's exactly what Swegon works with. So that plays very well in that sense. Something you want to add, Mikael on the margin?

No, not really. I think as you mentioned, Johan, the -- I mean, the increased demand for indoor air quality requires more advanced products, which plays well ahead for Swegon's offering and also that type of product is also more technology content typically offer healthy margins in that business as well.

There are no more phone questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions.

And we do not have any written questions in the activity feed. So I hand back to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael. So that ends our first Q&A.

Now into our new thing, we will, on our quarterly report presentations, do a quick deep dive into each business areas, and we will have a rolling schema coming up. And the first one is the Tina Hultkvist for Latour Industries. So I hand over to you, Tina, and I know that you have a presentation, and then the 3 of us will together take Q&A on Latour Industries after that. So over to you, Tina, please.

Thank you, Johan. So then moving into a deep dive of Latour Industries. Latour Industries is 1 of the 7 companies in Latour's wholly-owned portfolio. The main mission for Latour Industries is to build new company platforms. We are the home where good companies are young, grow as teenagers and ultimately move away becoming new company groups in the Latour wholly owned portfolio. Actually, 3 out of 6 sister companies have grown within Latour Industries and then moved out forming new company groups. And that's Nord-Lock, which was quite a few years ago, then Bemsiq and last Innovalift roughly 2 years ago. If combining us, around SEK 10 billion out of the current wholly owned operation of Latour comes from previous Latour Industries companies. Altogether, we've made around 60 acquisitions and stands for around 30% of the value of the wholly owned portfolio.

And this is just to show how building the new platforms has played out over time, forming the SEK 10 billion. The gray part is the portfolio currently reported as Latour Industries. And within here, we continue nurturing companies that have the potential to form new platforms, and we also develop companies that may be more relevant on a stand-alone basis. So when Latour Industries as such is small, we are most successful because by then, we have most probably recently let one of our company groups move away from home, and our work starts all over again.

So creating new business areas is our main mission. We do this by proactively establishing and nurturing contacts with good companies. This is an area we have strengthened the last 2 years. And of course, we also engage in structured processes as they come out. By active business development to support growth and add-on acquisitions, we take the steps towards forming a new business area. Guiding stars in the acquisition process is, of course, the Latour Investment criteria, focusing on acquiring good companies with good growth potential. As mentioned, we have intensified the actions in proactive deal sourcing lately and are spending quite some time in building and growing relations with good companies.

The current portfolio we have is a quite wide range of companies. With respect of time, I will just mention the last 2 acquisitions, the most recent one then being Alstor. Alstor designs and manufactures compact forest machines for customers ranging all the way from professional players to self-employed forest owners. And then before that, it was MAXAGV and MAXAGV designs and manufactures automated guided vehicles, combined with in-house developed software solutions for various kinds of industrial use cases.

So coming back to what Mikael showed, what you see on the 5-year perspective to the right is the development of the companies still within Latour Industries portfolio. The 2 new business areas built during those 5 years are excluded here and reported separately, but have, of course, been a major part of the efforts made within Latour Industries. We have a quite widespread operations in the portfolio and the performance differs between the companies that we have today. As you know, 2 companies that we had has been divested during the quarter. And in addition to that, the underlying demand is good in REAC and MAXAGV, but we are exposed to currency fluctuations, and we do have some headwind in other parts of the portfolio.

When looking ahead, we are striving for a high level of acquisitions. Historically, the pace of platform builds has been around 2 platforms in roughly 5 years. And this is a quite good indicator of the pace that we are aiming for going forward. We hope this has given a clear view of who we are in Latour Industries and what our value for the Latour Group is. And with that, we open up for questions.

Thank you, Tina, for an excellent and to the point and clear presentation. And therefore, we open up for the Q&A session with Tina and Mikael and myself.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.

Hello again. Thank you for being on. I had 2 quick questions. The first one being, I mean, I understand, of course, that there's lower pressure on the companies within Latour Industries to sort of show immediate, say, profitability improvements, et cetera. But where do you draw the line where you would decide that you would divest a business in Latour Industries?

It's a good question. I can take a first cut on that and then Mikael and Tina, please join in. I would say we have the same pressure expectation on Latour Industry companies as all our companies. But naturally, we take a slightly higher risk in parts of Latour Industries when we enter a new segment and so on. And it can also be that when we come into a new segment, we learn a lot about the segment and we learn about that industry and we see things we like, and then we continue and we build and we see that our initial hypothesis was correct.

And sometimes we see that it was tougher than expected, and we see that maybe it doesn't fit us in that sense. And that you could see them in the Mobility division was an example where we said we can't add value. There's more other interesting opportunities and then we go up. So it's not that we have fixed EBIT margin that you come -- it's where we feel that this is not long-term viable in that sense, that's where we exit. You want to add to that, Tina or Mikael?

I think it's a good description. Maybe just adding there that we are, of course, very much looking into the potential also when looking at the profit. So where can we go with this kind of business. That's an important metric for us. And then to some extent, maybe we do have a little bit more patience also in developing the companies here within Latour Industries than what we usually have.

And many of many -- if I can add to that, many of the Latour Industry companies are naturally slightly smaller in size. And therefore, Latour Industries has a very professional central overhead, if I may say so, to support them, to support and develop in terms of business development, M&A, strategy formulation and so on.

Okay. That's helpful. And then my second question was on if there are any sort of sectors or megatrends that you're actively working with currently, but that you don't have in the portfolio right now?

Good -- very good question. Do you want to say something on that?

Of course, we are continuously looking into interesting sectors. And there were a few that we are maybe more interested in others. And let's see what happens with that. But I think we should not disclose that particularly here. But we are open to many new sectors as long as it is within the Latour investment criteria. So we are looking broadly, of course. And Latour Industries is the area where we can enter into completely new sectors. So that's why we are open to entering into anything new that is enough interesting and fits into the criteria.

But I think we can mention Tina, one acquisition that we just did as an example of how we think is Alstor then in the forestry sector. And we have identified that the forestry sector is a very long-term globally interesting sector to be in. It's an under trend, so to speak, of the whole green thinking of more -- you will build more with wood and energy and all of that, that comes from our forest. And then also you know, Linus, that has followed us a long time. We are also looking for a company with good technology that has an international potential. And within the forestry sector, actually globally, Sweden and Finland are the technology leading countries in the forest industry sector. So obviously, then we start with one company, and now we will learn this sector in depth. And hopefully, we can make add-on acquisitions and build something interesting within that. So I think that's the way we think, and I think Alstor is a good example of that, right?

The next question comes from Oskar Lindstrom from Danske Bank.

Yes. Just a quick question on the execution of acquisitions within Latour Industries and when you do acquisitions in your companies, are these the same M&A teams carrying out all of these acquisitions? Or does Latour Industries have its own dedicated M&A team? That's my question.

Good question. It is a mix. We have Investment AB Latour has its own M&A team that works with many of our wholly owned businesses to help them with as internal consultants, you could also say, to help them with M&A. One of those business areas is Latour Industries. So Latour Industries draws its resources, so to speak, from the Latour team in that sense. Other business areas might also have their own M&A team. So the precise answer to your question, there is a mix between central team and the local teams, but they all work tightly together, of course.

If I may, a follow-up question. When you look at acquisition targets for Latour Industries, are you actively thinking about businesses that could, in the future, be merged with your other wholly owned companies? Or is that not really part of the consideration when selecting acquisition targets?

I can start and then, Mikael, if you want to comment. I think no, primarily, it is to find new areas. Obviously, Latour Industry will have a lot of inbound interesting cases, but they will be funneled directly to the other business areas where it's more appropriate in that sense. So we would not -- I think I understand your question. I think we would not buy something that we think would fit in Swegon and keep it in Latour Industries and then transfer it. Then we will ask for instance, to do the transaction directly. So Latour Industries is a transaction vehicle for the other business areas to be clear.

Good. So it's like a stand-alone incubator, not an incubator for the other wholly owned company. Excellent.

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

Yes, we do not have any written questions in the feed. So I think that concludes then the final segment Q&A. And I hand over to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael, and thank you, Tina, for this premier of an in-depth in one of our business areas. That was great. Tina, thank you for visiting us here on the call. And thank you, everybody, for listening in, and that concludes the complete presentation of the Q4 report and looking forward to talk to you and speak to you again when we have our Q1 presentation later on this year. So from Tina and from Mikael, thank you very much. Bye.

Welcome to the presentation of Investment AB Latour's Interim Report for the Third Quarter 2025. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to CEO, Johan Hjertonsson; and CFO, Mikael Johnsson Albrektsson.

Thank you very much, Katarina. Welcome, everybody. I'm here together with our CFO, Mikael, and we will take you through our Q3 report that we published earlier this morning.

So if we start with the first slide, the overall group structure is unchanged. Continued good performance of our operations despite the challenging business climate. The construction market is still slow overall, but some areas are growing, thanks to trends like energy efficiency, automation, where several of our businesses are well positioned. I will comment more on the financial outcome more in detail later on in this presentation.

As for the U.S. tariffs, Latour's exposure in the U.S. corresponds to the 11% of our total net sales and the effects from tariffs are limited. Caljan, Hultafors Group, Nord-Lock Group and REAC within Latour Industries have the most exposure in the U.S. And we aim to pass on as much of the increased cost to customers as possible related to tariffs.

Then if we go to the next slide with our portfolio on the 10 listed companies. The majority of our companies have reported for the Q3 and the picture of a weaker business climate is fairly consistent. However, the financial effects varies depending on the industry and geographic exposure. And I think in general, our 10 listed companies in general, show strong resilience. And many of the listed companies has reported strong Q3 results, for example, ASSA ABLOY, Sweco and HMS. The acquisition activities are high in our listed holdings. One example among several is Tomra, who acquired C&C during the third quarter, a leading provider of bag drop solutions for collection and processing of beverage containers in the U.S.

And if we go to the next slide, no major changes with the listed portfolio during the quarter. Earlier this year, however, we increased our holding in CTEK to 35.3%. In the 9 months period, the value development of the listed portfolio was minus 2%, whereas the SIXRX was 5.8%. And the value has increased since then. And until yesterday, November 3, the portfolio value was SEK 90 billion, and the total return amounts to 3% so far this year, whereas the SIXRX is 9.6%.

And if we go to the next slide again, about the wholly owned industrial operations. The order intake has increased by 70% of which 10% was organic and net sales increased by 8%, of which 2% was organic. This is a strong development, especially considering the somewhat weak business climate. The overall demand is difficult to predict, and the picture is mixed between regions and industries. For example, Caljan's order intake is very strong in the quarter, indicating renewed investment activities in the logistics sector, while Hultafors Group, for example, is still suffering from a weak construction market.

The total order backlog is on a strong level, ensuring stable net sales going forward for the next couple of quarters. We have good cost control, but various growth initiatives, combined with currency headwind puts pressure on the operating margin on a short-term perspective. Continuing investments in our companies, however, key to ensure long-term growth and profitability. Hence, we can tolerate somewhat lower margin for a shorter period of time, confidence that will pay off looking ahead. And the adjusted operating profit increased to SEK 936 million compared to SEK 935 million with an operating margin of 13.9%.

And if we go to the acquisition slide, during the quarter, Nord-Lock Group has finalized the acquisition of 75% of the shares in Energy Bolting in the U.K. and Latour Industries has signed an agreement to divest Batec in Italy to the Swedish Company, Decon. Batec is a manufacturer of electric and manual handbikes with an annual revenue of approximately EUR 5 million. With Decon as a new owner, the company will get great support to further develop the Batec's product offering. Energy Bolting is a U.K.-based manufacturer of critical fasteners. The company has an annual net sales exceeding GBP 7 billion -- GBP 7 million. Earlier this year, we have finalized 6 acquisitions. All in all, the conducted acquisitions so far this year adds more than SEK 1.8 billion in net sales on an annual basis. And we're very happy with that with good M&A activity so far this year.

And having said that, I hand over with a warm hand to Mikael to take us through our business areas to comment on that. So over to you, Mikael.

Thank you very much, Johan. And in ordinary fashion, we turn page and we start with the business area of Bemsiq Group. And Bemsiq had a continued good performance in the quarter with growing order intake driven by both organic growth and acquisitions. The total organic growth in net sales was 5%, which is a strong performance considering the challenging market within the real estate and construction industries. The operations in North America recorded the most robust development over the quarter. The adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 110 million with a good margin of 21.4%. The margin was slightly negatively affected by ongoing growth initiatives and recent recruitments. Very well done Anselmi and team.

We then turn page and move over to Caljan. And as Johan mentioned earlier, Caljan has recorded a very strong order intake during the quarter, well ahead of last year and a strong order backlog has been established for coming quarters. Net sales is down organically by 8% during the quarter. Aftermarket is growing while product divisions are below last year, adversely impacted by geopolitical uncertainty. But I think it's worth again to mention the very strong order intake in the period that shows a clear positive sentiment from customers' willingness to invest again. Caljan continued to have a good cost control and gross margin, however, not to fully compensate for the lower volumes and the operating margin amount to 13.3% in the period. Thank you, and very well done, Henrik and team.

We then turn page and go to Hultafors Group. And the overall market conditions continues to be challenging for Hultafors Group in both Europe and North America and especially for the hardware divisions. The PPE division is, however, growing during the quarter. Total net sales grew organically by 2% compared to the corresponding quarter last year. The profit margin is lower than last year, mainly due to long-term investments for future growth and the adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 214 million with a margin of 13.4%, which is good under the circumstances. All in all, very well managed by Anders and his team.

We then turn page again and look at Innovalift. And order intake is growing by 41% in the period, supported by acquisitions and with a very healthy organic growth of 10%. Net sales grew by 36%, driven by both acquisitions and organic growth, especially within the Components & Modernisation segments. And the gross margin continues to improve step by step, however, slightly negatively affected by the cost inflation in Turkey. But as you can see on the chart, there is a very positive underlying trend on the margin within Innovalift. The quarterly adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 109 million with a margin of 13.4%. All in all, very well done, Andrea and team.

We then continue with business area Latour Industries, and the picture is somewhat mixed for Latour Industries business units, where we see a continued underlying good demand for REAC while the other business units are operating on somewhat slower markets. Order intake is growing organically by 7% during the quarter. Net sales is up 3% from last year and driven by a good performance by LSAB. The adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 47 million, driven by strong results from MAXAGV. And the result is negatively affected by currency effects and the weak market climate as well as ongoing investments for the future.

And it shall also be mentioned that Latour Industries currently has an under-absorption of their fixed cost on the central level following the distribution of Innovalift, putting additional pressure on the margin. But despite this, we are very happy to see a positive development on the margin during the quarter. And as the heading of the future states, the focus of Latour Industries continues to be on developing the existing holdings and to find new platform investments for future growth. So well done, Tina and your team.

We then turn page again and look at Nord-Lock Group, who continues to develop very strongly despite a tough business climate, reporting growth across several metrics. Order intake grew organically by 5% during the quarter, and the net sales grew organically by a very healthy 13%, where all sales units contributed to the growth. And the order backlog is now on good levels. The quarterly adjusted operating profit increased to SEK 130 million with a strong operating margin of 25.5%. And as Johan mentioned before, Nord-Lock has acquired 75% of the shares in Energy Bolting in U.K., complementing the product portfolio in a very nice way. Very well done, Daniel and your team.

We then turn page again to our last business area, Swegon, where we see that order intake is up 4% organically from last year. And given the business climate, this is a fairly good performance. Net sales were hampered by the general market uncertainty during the quarter. Total net sales grew by 10%, driven by acquisitions and organically, it was in line with last year. Profit margin is somewhat lower than last year, affected negatively by lower volumes, currency effects as well as investments in product development and other growth-oriented investments. And the adjusted operating profit came in at SEK 280 million with a margin of 11.2%. Very well done, Andreas and your team.

We then continue the presentation to take a look at our net asset value. That decreased by 0.6% adjusted for dividends during the 9 months and amounted to SEK 210 per share compared to SIXRX that increased by 5.8%. The share price at the end of September was SEK 223, which means that there is a premium of 6% compared to how we present the net asset value. And as of yesterday, the net asset value was SEK 216 per share. The share price on the same day closed at SEK 238, which gives a premium to our way of describing the net asset value of about 10%. The consolidated net debt decreased during the quarter from SEK 16.9 billion to SEK 16.8 billion. And the net debt corresponds to about 11% of the market value of our investments, leaving headroom for further acquisitions going forward.

And that summarizes my presentation, and I hand over back to you, Johan.

Thank you, Mikael, and some comments around the financial targets. The summary of the financial target during the last 12 months, we have had growth of 10%, EBIT margin of 13.8% and return on operating capital of 13.8%. And if this is the bottom of the cycle, the low cycle that we're in right now, I have to say that's fairly strong because our targets, as you can see here, growth above 10%, operating margin above 15% and return on operating capital above 15% are to be seen over a business cycle. And it's nice to see that growth is once again increasing, and it's driven both by acquisitions and organic growth. And the operating margin I have commented.

So let's go to the next slide. And to summarize, we are very happy with the development during the third quarter, especially considering the business climate with a 10% organic growth in order intake and 17%, including M&A. Latour is a long-term sustainable investment company and a responsible owner of creating value for our shareholders. In our wholly owned operations, we continue to invest with a forward-looking view to enable future growth and profitability and in the end, create value for our shareholders. We have a strong corporate culture that we treasure, which is of great value when we move forward in a volatile and rapidly changing world.

Thank you for listening. And thereby, we also open up for questions and the Q&A section.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Linus Sigurdson from DNB Carnegie.

Starting off with a question on Bemsiq. So by no means is this a bad quarter, but we're seeing some deceleration of growth here. And you also talked about this short-term pressure on margin from growth initiatives. Could you just help us understand what kind of initiatives these are? And how material the impact is in the quarter and going forward?

Yes, absolutely. So good morning Linus, thanks for the question. And I mean, I think it's worth to mention that if you look on the historical growth rate for Bemsiq, it's been growing, I mean, double-digit 20% -- north of 20% for multiple years. And I think, of course, that takes its toll to the organization that every now and then you need to, in some way, also step up both, I mean, a bit of central resources, but also to, I mean, invest in the companies to be able to continue to bear that growth level. So I say, I mean, from -- it's that type of investment that is going into Bemsiq to I mean, build a bit more of a central structure as it is, as you know, very much an acquisition-driven growth journey as well in combination with taking the acquired companies to levels where we see that the quality of processes and quality of reporting and everything gets up to standard, which we think is necessarily to continue to grow organically over time. So I think that's what Johan means when that we are investing, but it will pay off over time.

And a more general answer to your question, Linus, we see that more than 1/3 of the drop on the EBIT margin is currency related that goes directly on the gross margin. And then I would say a large portion is that we have not taken down any forward-looking costs or investments in R&D, marketing or sales activities. And that's a kind of a credo for Latour that we continue those investments on a high level even in a tough market. And then I would say maybe 1/3 of the drop is related to that we have managed to get pricing out quite strongly related to tariffs and other things, but like maybe not 100% but almost.

That is very helpful. And then I had a question on Caljan. Obviously, very impressive order intake and nice to see that the underlying demand is healthy. But it's been a while since we had sort of a normal environment for this company. Could you remind us the typical order book duration for a company like Caljan?

I would say the order book duration is a bit hard to say exactly, but about 6 months out, you could say, 3 to 6 months out on an average on the order book. Caljan do operate in a market that is fairly volatile. And you could see if we backtrack some years in the onset of the pandemic, there were some extremely heavy investments into the logistics sector because of e-commerce and so on. And then at the end of the pandemic, you could say the sector was overinvested. So it was very low demand, but it's also now very nice to see that the investments are coming back into the logistics sector. So it looks quite good for Caljan now. But to your point, Linus, there has been over the years, some swings in the demand in that market.

Okay. My final question is on MAXAGV. Could you talk a bit about what kinds of end customers this company has? And if it's fair to assume that their geographic exposure is fairly local?

Yes. And please add on, Mikael. MAXAGV is automated guided vehicles is mainly for manufacturing and factories to help move material in an automatic way in factories. And I would say it's a fairly Nordic-based market that they are addressing. Do you want to add to that, Mikael?

No. I think that summarized it well.

Thank you. Thanks for your questions. Highly appreciate it. Let's see if we have any more questions or in the chat.

No questions in the chat.

Well, we have to assume it was crystal clear then. So thank you, everybody, for listening in and looking forward to speak to you when we present the full year report in the beginning of next year. Thank you all.