Welcome to the Enento Group Q2 2026 results webcast. My name is Virva Vesanen, and I'm the Head of Investor Relations and Strategy. I'm joined today by our CEO, Teppo Paavola, and our CFO, Elina Stråhlman. Teppo will start with the key highlights from the quarter, followed by business segment performance. Elina will provide a closer look at our financial results. After the presentation, we'll open the session for your questions. You're welcome to send them in at any time using the webcast tool. With that, I'll hand it over to Teppo.
Thank you, Virva. Let's start with highlights from the quarter. Growth continued in Q2, with overall demand stabilizing throughout our segments. Swedish consumer credit continued to grow, supported by volume growth. This brings us confidence that the market environment in Sweden has started to improve. Profitability improved significantly in Q2. We have therefore specified our guidance, which I will present later today. We continue to sharpen our strategic focus, which can be seen, for example, in our recent M&A deals. During the quarter, we divested Emaileri's email marketing business and acquired Swedish ownership data provider Eivora, which strengthens our compliance services capabilities. Our organizational transformation has also continued during Q2, of which I will share more information soon. Overall, the strong start to the year continued in Q2. Even though the market environment remains uncertain, we are looking positively towards the following quarters.
Let's look at the key figures in more detail. Second quarter was strong, with growth across all key figures. Net sales grew by 2.6% and reached EUR 39.9 million. As said, all reporting segments grew as in Q1. It is good to note that excluding Emaileri, the group growth in Q2 was 2.9%. Profitability improved significantly with adjusted EBITDA increasing to EUR 14.6 million, up 11.2%. This improvement resulted in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 36.5%. Cash generation was strong, and free cash flow amounted to EUR 8.7 million. This was supported by exceptionally high cash conversion affected by the Emaileri divestment, reaching 133.4%.
Overall, the first quarter performance shows that Enento is delivering profitable growth, providing a solid foundation for the rest of the year. During this year, we have focused on building a winning organization and culture to drive stronger growth and profitability by clarifying roles and responsibilities.
First, we moved into a country organization during Q1 and updated our executive management team. In Q2, we were delighted to announce the appointment of Alexandra Åqvist as the Country Director for Sweden. She will join the company at the beginning of next year at the latest. In Q2, we completed change negotiations to adjust the organization to the new country model. Negotiations concerned all employees in Finland and Sweden. The results were 32 terminated roles and 27 role changes. We continue to invest in commercial, technological, and AI competencies in the organization. However, we expect the number of FTEs to remain below 350 in 2026. We're also introducing changes to our operating model. Our sales model is updated towards a more proactive, growth-oriented model. This includes establishing teams targeting only new customers.
In addition, we believe that we can access more growth through partnerships, and we are now enhancing that capability. In service and product development, we are resetting the way we develop our services. This work is led by our new Chief Product Officer. Target is to increase speed and return on investment in product development, also by having lighter governance. As a result of transforming into a country organization, multiple local operations teams are now combined into one for each country. The new organizational structure is now in place and is expected to bring positive results going forward. Finally, AI is developing fast, and we aim to take maximum advantage of its possibilities. Examples of AI usage include using AI for product development, AI solutions introduced to product and service offerings, meaning the way data is consumed and analyzed.
AI usage in all internal operations is increased, and we are also aiming to reduce our technical debt with AI. As said earlier, we continue to invest in these capabilities. Many of these activities require new roles, and recruitment is ongoing. During the quarter, we announced two M&A transactions. We divested Emaileri's email marketing business in Finland, and we acquired Swedish company Eivora, which provides ownership data of Swedish companies. Both of these transactions relate to Enento's strategy work aiming at increasing growth, improving profitability, and focusing on the core credit information and related services business to improve operational efficiency. Divesting Emaileri enables Enento to allocate resources more strongly to its core businesses and to the development of digital data and analytics solutions in the Nordic countries. Eivora, on the other hand, is related to building our compliance service offering with AI capabilities.
Eivora has been earlier providing Swedish companies' ownership data to us, and now we will have that information in-house. This strengthens our ability to build high-quality compliance data and services for our customers. Both of these transactions have a limited impact on Enento's adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBIT, and cash flow in 2026. Let's turn to key regulatory developments, where we continue to see both risks and opportunities for Enento. In Sweden, the legislation affecting loan brokers changed in July 2025, and the deadline for loan brokers to apply for a banking license is now in July 2026. We're seeing the largest loan brokers and some smaller ones applying for licenses, and based on this, we currently expect only a modest impact on Enento. Brokers have been able to continue operating during the transition period, and they can also continue while the license process is ongoing.
The second key development is the upcoming Consumer Credit Directive II, or CCD2. It is expected to come into force in November 2026, although implementation will differ between countries. In general, we expect this to support demand for credit information in Finland and Sweden. Credit information requirements are also expected to extend to new players, including buy now, pay later providers, creating a potential growth opportunity for us. Let's move on to the business segments update. Finland grew 1.7% despite the weak market environment. Without Emaileri, the growth was 2.4%. Net sales amounted to EUR 18.9 million. Looking at the business drivers, business credit performed well, supported by continued demand for financial risk services.
Real estate also grew despite the weak Finnish real estate market, thanks to new services. In premium services for SMEs, we had successful marketing campaigns and sales efforts, resulting in a positive development in digital sales.
Consumer credit information volumes, however, were flat compared to the previous year. Even though there have been some signs of the economy improving in Finland, it was not yet visible in our Finnish consumer credit business. Profitability improved in Finland with adjusted EBITDA increasing by 4.9% to EUR 7.9 million. The improvement was mainly driven by net sales growth and a better gross margin, supported by the sales mix. Overall, Finland delivered moderate growth and improved profitability despite the still-weak market environment. Sweden delivered good growth and significant profitability improvement in Q2. Net sales grew by 3.6% at comparable exchange rates and amounted to EUR 18.1 million. Growth was driven by strong performance in consumer information, supported by higher consumer credit volumes. Real estate services also developed well, benefiting from both increased volumes and a larger one-time sale.
Business information was weaker, mainly reflecting the SME transformation, where premium revenue declines in the short term but is offset by lower sales commissions. The SME transformation is progressing according to the plan. Churn has remained at an acceptable level, and new sales order intake is improving. This supports more stable and sustainable growth over the long term. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 16.4% at comparable exchange rates and amounted to EUR 5.9 million. Profitability improvement was driven by net sales growth and operational efficiencies. In addition, sales commissions decreased following the SME transformation, while data acquisition costs decreased as a result of earlier savings measures. Norway and Denmark grew by 2.5% at comparable exchange rates, and net sales amounted to EUR 2.9 million. Growth slowed down compared to Q1, but profitability remained strong. Growth came primarily from visibility and data-driven premium services for SMEs in Norway.
Display advertising sales developed weaker during the quarter. At the same time, the acceleration of digital sales is progressing, and we expect this to support the segment's performance going forward. Adjusted EBITDA improved by 17.5% at comparable exchange rates and amounted to EUR 1 million. The improvement was mainly driven by net sales growth and improved sales efficiency. I'll hand it over to Elina for the CFO highlights.
Thank you, Teppo. Let's start with an overview of net sales development in our segments. We had growth in all segments, as well as also quarter-over-quarter growth in Finland, while Sweden and Norway, and Denmark were on the same level as in Q1. As Teppo also mentioned, we are especially happy that the development in Sweden continued on a good, stable level, which is also very much visible in this picture. Moving on to adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA, as mentioned, improved significantly by 11.2% at comparable FX and amounted to EUR 14.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 36.5%. Profitability was supported by increased net sales, a more beneficial sales mix, and efficiency actions. Going through the line-by-line development, so materials and services, meaning our data acquisition costs, decreased year-on-year, and the development was supported by savings actions.
We have taken targeted actions, especially in Sweden, to reduce data acquisition costs. Personnel expenses increased despite a lower level of FTEs, and this was due to higher incentives. Change negotiations still had a limited impact on the Q2 costs. Other operating expenses decrease was driven by lower sales commissions that were impacted both by SME transformation and also due to decreased sales in the SME business in Sweden. Also, IT costs were lower than in the prior year, following the savings related to infra transition. We expect to continue to see savings in SME transformation going forward, but also the sales to stabilize. Also good to note that especially in Q4, we have, every year, large one-off sales in the SME business in Sweden, where commissions continue to be paid normally. What then comes to IT, we expect IT costs to remain stable, while savings being offset by modernization activities.
We have some larger maintenance upgrades planned for H2. Finally, capitalized production for own use was flat compared to the prior year, and krona supported the net sales and profitability development with reported FX rates. Moving on to cash flow. Free cash flow increased by EUR 2.1 million and amounted to EUR 8.7 million. The improvement was driven by improved operational results and lower tax and one-off payments. Investments remained on prior year level. Cash conversion was very strong, over 100%, but was impacted by a high amount of non-cash costs recognized in reported EBITDA. Emaileri's non-cash goodwill amortization was the largest, but also the termination benefit provision recognized in connection to change negotiations will mainly be paid during the coming quarters. Adjusted cash conversion that excludes the impact from one-off payments remained stable at around 65%. Lastly, key indicators.
Our cash position was at EUR 17.5 million and strong at the end of Q2. Our committed credit facilities of EUR 30 million were fully unutilized. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA was below our target range at 2.5x . Gross investments were EUR 1.4 million and, as said, roughly on the prior year level. Adjusted EPS increased to EUR 0.35 per share, supported by improved adjusted results. Finally, the share of new services from net sales, that was 9%, remaining close to our target range of 10%. I'll hand over back to Teppo for the outlook and guidance.
All right. Based on Q2 results, we specify our outlook and guidance concerning adjusted EBITDA. Macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties remain. Regulatory changes in the Swedish lending market continue to influence the operating environment. However, the impact on Enento is expected to be modest. In Finland, the macroeconomic outlook is more subdued, but demand for Enento services is anticipated to remain stable. Supported by stabilizing market activity and improving conditions in Sweden, we expect Enento's net sales to grow in 2026 at comparable exchange rates. Enento Group expects that in 2026, with comparable exchange rates, its net sales will grow by 0%-5%, and adjusted EBITDA will increase compared to 2025, with adjusted EBITDA growth exceeding net sales growth at comparable exchange rates. Thank you. Now it's time for Q&A.
Okay. Maybe we'll start with questions from the studio, please.
Hi, good morning. It's Matti Riikonen, DNB Carnegie. I'll take three questions one by one. First of all, regarding the new guidance, there was no concrete changes in the exact numbers. What do you want to message with the new guidance? What does it tell us?
I think the important part is that EBITDA is expected to grow faster than sales. This we had not specified earlier; that's really the change.
All right. Given that most of your costs are still fixed, if you get any top-line growth, there should be quite a good operating leverage in your business in the first place. Was this just necessary to spell it out to the market that this is actually happening, or is it something else?
Yes. Okay. It is, of course, so that if there was a clear sign of sales clearly declining, then that would've been an issue, like you say. Yes, I think it was helpful to specify that. Of course, we have now shown that the first two quarters that EBITDA is growing faster. We just wanted to make that clearer. Otherwise, of course, there's no real change here. Of course, we have had a less favorable sales mix in the past years. Clearly then also impacting the profitability negatively. What we also want to highlight is that now, for example, the Swedish consumer credit situation has stabilized, is showing growth, and we also expect the risks to remain moderate in terms of, for example, the broker regulation, which also supports the profitability, on top of also all the actions that we have actually taken to support the profitability, also going forward.
All right. Thank you. Secondly, regarding the Swedish SME conversion, you said that you have basically taken the measures, and I assume that your sales partners have also taken the measures to improve or increase their staff so that they would be able to sell more. When do you expect that the new sales would also start to grow year-over-year within the new system?
First, in terms of the profitability impact, that will, as it was partially started in Q4, partially in Q1, this will continue for some time when it comes to the renewals. When it comes to new customers, actually because of this change, our sales partners decreased staff considerably end of last year. Now, the good sign is that they are now increasing staff. It seems like the new model is working. Exactly what the numbers are from there, what we did say already is that the last couple of months, we have seen sales pipeline and contracting activity working well. These are periodized over 12 months. The dip that we had in Q4, Q1, will still be seen in our numbers until Q1 next year.
All right. A follow-up to that. If we think about your cost base regarding the Swedish SME business in 2027 versus now, 2026, and assume that most of those sales commissions that you are paying this year will not be there anymore next year. What would be the kind of cost base change in relative terms which would benefit your profitability, of course, and I think that's the whole point of this exercise. Just to give a flavor of how much savings you could actually make, which we don't see this year, but which could affect positively next year.
Maybe I'll just, you can then add. That's kind of the point here on the sales mix as well, is that the faster it grows, the more commissions we will pay. In other words, the bigger the percentage of the sales that comes from new customers, it actually lowers the short-term profitability. That's why this is one of the reasons to going back to your first question of why we have not been that clear about the guidance on EBITDA earlier. This is the balance that, actually, not in all situations; the relative profitability improves when there is growth. Do you want to add?
Yeah. We can expect, basically due to the periodization of the revenue and commissions, we can expect to see a similar impact on the profitability also for the next year, as we see this year. If we assume that the sales would remain the same. As Teppo mentioned, since we pay commissions on new sales and we do want to get new sales back on track, then of course that impacts the equation.
Right.
Actually, let me add one more thing because it's important for our future activities. One is the percentage of business that comes from new customers, but then part of that comes through digital sales. The more we can increase digital sales, the lower the commissions will be, because then that comes through these digital channels instead of the sales partners. That's why we mention the digital sales also in the presentation.
Okay. Finally, just to understand the big picture, what share of your current sales is coming through the sales partners, and which is coming through digital or your own initiatives? What kind of sales split are we talking about? How much of the base do you need to resell again or renew?
The sales partners relate to our premium and freemium businesses, but especially in Sweden. We have been told that the Swedish SME businesses is a bit more than EUR 10 million a year, and that's where the largest sales commissions come from. In Finland, we have a much bigger own sales team that is also responsible of the SME sales. Although we use some partners as well, but the cost is not that significant.
Of that EUR 10 million. How much did actually churn, and what is the kind of amount that you need to win back? Just to understand the magnitudes of your sales and then the sales that need to be resold, or where the partner is in a crucial role in actually making the sale back to you. Is it 50%?
It is not that high. It has been in the previous model a bit over 20% that we need to then cover with new sales. We do believe, and what we have also seen now with this new model, is that the churn is lowering. We do expect and take a lot of actions to get the churn on a lower level going forward as well. The previous model, when you have always called that, "Do you want to renew your contract?" is naturally such that results in higher churn as well. We do believe that the ongoing subscriptions will also result in lower churn, but that's too early to say where we will land at that.
All right, thank you. Less than 20% at the moment. Of course, expecting that the number would be coming down.
Great. Finally, the third question is that you recorded quite significant adjustment costs in Q2 related to the restructuring. How much is still left of those costs for the second half? Assuming that this was now a fairly large exercise compared to many previous ones, should we expect that the level of restructuring costs would be slightly lower in 2027?
We currently don't have any further plans on restructurings. Of course, one can assume that there may be smaller changes here and there, but at least bigger ones are now done. Of course, good to remember that on top of the change negotiations and restructurings, there was also a large non-cash goodwill amortization over EUR 4 million related to Emaileri burdening the reported results.
Right. All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. please.
Yes. Roni Peuranheimo from Inderes. First, about the CCD2 regulation that you mentioned. How has your view regarding this changed? Has it changed towards the risk or the possibility outlook?
Yes. This is mostly an opportunity because it increases the number of companies that need to do a deeper credit risk analysis. Now the risk is more because it's a new regulation, how exactly will it be applied in each country? It will probably be applied a little bit differently in each country, because the credit register systems are also different in each country. We just don't know how it's going to exactly evolve, but it increases the size of the market.
All right. About AI. Have you seen any meaningful market dynamics changes due to that? For example, new competition or so on. Maybe talk about that generally.
Yeah. We think about the different steps in the value chain. One is just getting access to data, and where generative AI is good, it's good at making sense out of unstructured data. However, it also guesses things and sometimes wrong, which, of course, means that when you do important or regulated decisions, the data still needs to be well-structured and verified, and of good quality. In other words, you need a source of truth or a system of record that you can trust, and that's what we are. That's at the stage of the data acquisition and data manipulation before then going to analytics. In analytics, it seems to be that outside regulated areas, so if we think about, for example, our business information services, there are lots of new tools to do analytics.
We want our data to be available for that, so that when people use data differently because of AI, we are still there where they go and look for it. That's one area where we will do product development. The decisioning systems, where, for example, banks would have their credit strategies and so on, those are still very much embedded inside the banking infrastructure, and we have a lot of those customized solutions. There again, it's when you get out of the financial services area then we can see differences there. Going back to the first point, which is maybe the part that is being talked about most, whether you can now, for example, do credit decisions, which is our largest business, and with data that just comes from somewhere, is still very challenging and will continue to be challenging.
Good data is needed.
All right. One smaller technical question about the one-time sales in real estate services in Sweden. Are you able to elaborate on the size of that?
Well, it was, of course, significant to that specific business, but not significant on a group level. Sizable compared to the quite small size of that business.
Yeah. I'll just add that we have quite a bit of these, where a customer does a one- time, and it looks like a one-time sale, then they come back the following year or every six months. It's recorded as one time every time because there isn't a continuous contract for that. For example, let's say, again, if we take an example in banking, that the banking supervisor or regulator tells to the bank that you have to check this data every year. They may come to us in March or April; then it's either in Q1 or Q2. That's part of the dynamics.
All right. One more question about the growth investments to digital sales growth in Denmark and Norway. How meaningful are these going forward, and should they, or will they be seen in the profitability of the segment?
Well, overall, when it comes to the amount of investments, we of course hold to the full- year guidance on the group; it's more like how we allocate the money into different areas in terms of investments. These types of investments do not tend to be very high- cost investments when we improve the digitalized capabilities, of course means that we will probably allocate a bit more to those markets to support that development.
Yes. Now, the organizational change was also much bigger in Finland and Sweden. In terms of specifics on the commercial side, we have quite a few open roles in sales in Finland and Sweden, much more than in Norway and Denmark. That's an important part of the investment, which, of course, is there to support growth.
All right. No further questions from me.
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. Let's move on to the chat. There are several questions from our other analysts. Let's start with Sanna from Nordea.
One other question regarding the guidance. Does this mean that adjusted EBITDA will improve by more than 5%?
No, it doesn't exactly mean that because we do expect that sales growth will be between 0% to 5%, whatever the sales growth is, we expect adjusted EBITDA to grow faster than the sales growth level.
Okay, good. Good to clarify. About the economy in general, what positive signs do you see in the economy exactly?
Well, for example, the consumer confidence in Finland was the highest in four years now in June. As we noted, it wasn't visible in our consumer credit demand yet, nor in the Finnish housing markets, but it clearly builds some trust in the future. Of course, also on the business side, we have seen positive development in the demand already. As we know, the Finnish GDP is expected to actually grow this year, which is something very positive. In Sweden, as we have noted, although the consumer confidence is still lower than the long-term average, but still it has been stabilizing and improving, and we have also seen our volumes stabilizing and improving, which also builds trust for the future.
Yeah. About the consumer credit volumes in Sweden, can you quantify the level now compared to the normal level seen a few years ago?
I think that we need to still see the markets really recover to understand where the new normal will land. As we know, we have now seen two quarters of improving volumes; it is way too early to say where the markets will then eventually land.
Okay. About the regulatory environment, especially regarding the brokers. Sanna is asking, you now describe the regulatory environment to impact you only modestly. Can you describe the current situation?
If I could just give maybe one piece of data is that when we talk about the brokers, it's good to separate in Sweden brokers and the CCD2 topic, and we talked about the CCD2 here earlier. The top four brokers, I think, have 95% of the market. Our understanding is that they have all applied. Assuming they get their licenses, which of course nobody can guarantee, it might take a year. That should normalize to approximately, I guess, where we are now.
Okay. If we move on to Daniel Lepistö from Danske Bank.
There has been a lot of changes, some larger, some smaller, since you started, Teppo. Are there still more big moves to expect, or are you happy with the state of things for now?
If there will be big moves, we will announce them once they happen. Nothing to be expected right now.
Okay. A question about the savings. Can you quantify the net savings run rate from the reductions, considering the need to invest to some new capabilities?
We have stated the number of reductions, and then we have also guided that we will remain below the 350, even though we continue to invest in certain capabilities, as Teppo mentioned in connection with operating model changes as well.
Okay. If we move on to Jaakko Tyrväinen from SEB.
He is asking, were the higher employee incentive costs impacting just this quarter, or will these be visible in the coming quarters as well, assuming EBITDA improvement continues?
Yes, of course, we can assume that it continues impacting Q3, Q4 as well. As we all know, the results haven't been on good enough level in past years, and that means that especially the short-term incentives have been very low. Now we start seeing normalized levels on those this year, and that, of course, impacts then the development in personal expenses. On top of that, we have the new LTI program that also increases the costs. However, those are of course non-cash costs, as we know.
Yes. Okay, one question about the CCD2 impact. You are seeing increasing demand for the services. Do you anticipate any changes in the competitive environment?
Well, that's too early to say. It goes back a little bit to we don't know exactly how it will be applied. We're hopeful but can't really guarantee anything on that before we see how the local regulation is applied. It does grow the market.
Okay. S till a few more questions from other viewers. Why is gross profit in Sweden very high, but EBITDA very low? What problems are there in the cost structure?
Well, there are two main things. One is the SME business and high sales acquisition cost that we are currently acting upon, as we know, called SME Transformation. Another thing is the IT costs and fragmented IT landscape, including mainframe operations that explain the Swedish cost levels.
Yes. Then, a question about Denmark and Norway. Since this quarter was much weaker than past years, are you seeing the demand there slowing down now?
No. The specific thing that we have been struggling in this quarter in Norway and Denmark has been the advertising, meaning our display sales. We have seen good continuing growth when it comes to the visibility services, meaning our market packages as well as the premium SME services. Due to various resourcing issues and also some partner issues, we struggled specifically in display sales that declined during Q2. Of course, we are taking actions to get back on track with that. The good thing is that the decline took place in, let's say, in our deprioritized area. Also good to highlight that the traffic in the sites has remained on very good levels. It's not related to traffic decrease or anything like that, or market demand. It's more related to specific issues with resourcing and the partner.
Okay, good. We still have one question in the room. Matti Riikonen from Carnegie.
Hi, it's Matti Riikonen, DNB Carnegie. Two more questions, maybe more long-term oriented. First is about the capitalization of development costs that we haven't spoken in a while. Over the past couple of years, the capitalizations have increased quite significantly, so that there's quite a big difference between your kind of real personnel cost and then the one excluding capitalizations. It's kind of improving your profitability. In the balance sheet, there's quite a lot now of capitalized development costs. If I remember right, it's over EUR 20 million. Of course, there's a risk that if it seems impaired, then of course there's a risk that you would need to write it down. Maybe two questions related to that. Do you think that it might be a problem going forward that there would be an impairment risk?
The second, maybe more important, is that when do you think that the capitalization level or activity would be coming down, so that we would see your reported and capitalized numbers would be closer to reality or what you are doing? That is a habit that I am always saying that good companies don't capitalize anything. They record all costs as they come, and they are always without the balance sheet risk related to that.
I understand that you have had difficult years, and I understand that there has been quite a lot of IT projects going on back and forth, and maybe still work to be done. At the end of the day, I think we should assume that the capitalization levels would be kind of back to where they were, maybe a million or two, or not EUR 20 million in the balance sheet. When is that happening, and what can you say about that?
Firstly, if we look at the investments and CapEx that we have been doing, we have actually been decreasing that every year now since couple of years already. Three, four years back, we were at EUR 15 million CapEx. We have stated that we are six to eight. We will most likely land closer to six. We have taken a lot of actions to optimize our development capacity and cost, actually, which means that we are actually capitalizing less every year, which then, of course, eases the so-called balance sheet risk, if you may call it that. If you look at the production for our own use, how much we capitalize the work of our own developers, that has also been, for example, last year it was decreasing. This quarter, it was exactly on the same level as the prior year.
Actually, we have taken a lot of actions to optimize and secure that the money we capitalize and use is used very efficiently, and, of course, I expect that to turn into returns as well. When it comes to the balance sheet risk as such, also a couple of years back, we took a lot of write-offs on some modernized assets and are also very carefully reviewing all the business cases where we invest going forward, and there isn't any major risks in the balance sheet. Our business model is such that we drive growth through new services and product development, and that is a natural part of the operations as well, which means that we will continue to invest in service development going forward as well.
Yeah, of course. I understand it's good that you invest in new products.
The question is that, will you expense that in the year when it happens? It seems that since it is a continuous work that you are doing, I would assume that it would be best if you just expense everything when they come, and then, of course, the balance sheet is clean. If they really bring the results, like higher sales, then of course, the scalability in margins would be immediately quite good. Of course, vice versa, it would be easier to see where that investment is leading.
Now, if you use this current amortization schedule, it takes quite many years before the balance sheet. You said it has been coming down in recent years. That's right, still it's a very high amount that you have in the balance sheet. Why don't you just expense everything? Your balance sheet would be clean.
At the moment, you also have other items in the balance sheet, like the amortizations of the acquired companies, which makes the balance sheet quite big. It kind of reduces your capital return ratios. So
Yeah. We have looked into this before as well, and we apply a similar practice than our peers. If we want to compare our adjusted EBITDA with larger peers, that's then similar practice, or they even use more aggressive ways to capitalize certain costs compared to us. That's one argument. Of course, then that kind of change in accounting principles is something that would be rather big for us, and currently, we feel that still the best way to show our result is the current one. There are always various changes in how much we want to invest, and that then investment levels change quarter- by- quarter, and then that also brings some volatility into the results.
All right. I'm saying this because now that you are fixing problems that have actually persisted for many years, and that's very good to see. You are fixing the Swedish issues and many structural issues. Why wouldn't you just fix this one as well? I'll leave it at that. My second question was related to a question that I asked previously in the previous call, but I think you didn't answer that, so I'll ask it again. If you think of the share of data that is brought into your database from different kinds of sources, how big a share of that is coming from public and free sources? If you think about the new data that is in there, and if you think about the existing data that is in there. That is related to the AI question that we discussed earlier.
If you see that the number of proprietary information data bytes is very high, then of course it's easy to understand that you would have a competitive situation. If the share of just freely available data, which basically can be brought to somebody else's database with AI, is very high, then of course it means that there is a business risk. Would you want to discuss that question?
You're quite correct that not all public data is necessarily free data. Even for the part that is not free, there are different business models. In other words, we may be allowed to store it, in which case we have some scale benefits from it, or we may have to buy it by transaction. There are quite a few business models in that sense. Now, it is also quite visible in the gross margins of our different services that when it is data that you're worried about, that it usually also is a lower gross margin business. If you can get the same thing from elsewhere.
If we gave a number, which we actually don't have, but if we gave a number of what percentage of our business comes through public sources or especially free sources, it would not be descriptive of what percentage of our gross margin would be impacted at all. Most of the business, a very large portion of the business, comes from proprietary and unique data
To specify, for instance, if we think about the Swedish Consumer Credit business, it's fully based on proprietary data, the credit register data that we hold. In Finland, we do have a lot of proprietary data sources as well. We gather, for example, payment behavioral data directly from several companies that then enable us to make better scores, not only using past financial statement data to build business credit scores, for instance. We have proprietary data in compliance. We also have proprietary data in Consumer Credit Finland. We gather information directly from our customers. As Teppo said, a large part of the business is based on proprietary data.
Maybe I'll still say that the focus in data is absolutely on proprietary and differentiated data. Some of the business that we do, which is not proprietary or differentiated data, we partially do that also as a service to our customers because we understand their regulations, we understand their processes, we are deeply integrated into their processes. Even when they could actually get the data from elsewhere, they prefer to take it through us. On top of that, we also sell analytics and decisioning services on top of data that is partially public and partially not. You can start debating whether that is then proprietary or not. The source data may be public, but what we sell is already value-added through the analytics.
All right. If the large share of your data is proprietary, is it then 60% or is it more?
We don't have that number, no. A large majority was what I said.
All right. I would imagine that is an important question from many investors. Maybe if you don't know what it is, maybe we would like to find the answer to that.
Well-
I'll ask it in three months' time again.
Mm-hmm. We'll take that under advisement.
Thank you. I have no further questions. Thanks. This was very helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. If there are no further questions, then we can end the webcast. Thank you, Teppo and Elina. Thank you, everyone viewing. If you have some further questions, don't hesitate to reach out to investor relations at Enento. Wishing you all a nice day. Thank you.
Thank you.
Great summer. Thank you