Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this year's 3rd quarterly financial webinar. My name is Benedikte Meidl and I'm the marketing communications manager here at Medistem. Before we start, I would like to share with you a few important points. We will address questions at the end of this webinar and you can add them in the questions section of your bar to the right hand corner. It's important that you make sure that the panel is expanded by clicking on this little arrow here.
And the second part is that you go to the question section here at the bottom and you enter your question right here. Note that all of these questions will be addressed anonymously and you can add them whenever you want to during the presentation. Secondly, I would like to inform you that this webinar will be posted on our web pages under the Investor Relations tab. So, thank you for your attention and I will now hand over presentation to CEO, Kari Krukster.
Yes. So good morning, everybody. My name is Kari Krogstad and welcome to our Q3 presentation. As normal, I will start by going through the highlights for the Q3 and then my colleague, CFO, Kannes Jacobsen, will take us through the financial statements. Then we will get back also into some comments related to the business segments update, comments related to our strategy and at the end of the presentation also talk a little bit more in-depth about the COVID-nineteen pandemic situation.
So in the Q2, we saw the effects of the COVID pandemic and the effect it had on the surgical activity around the world, not only for medicine, but for all players in this field. And you could see that our sales in the 2nd quarter was down by 12% in Norwegian currency and actually down 19% currency neutral. So the big question for this Q3 is really, is it getting better or is it getting worse? And now we have the results from that. So the 3rd quarter ended with the sales at NOK 83,400,000.
This is a 2.5% decrease in Norwegian currency. And as you can see on the slide here, we still have some favorable currency effects and some help. So if you take that into consideration, we do have a decline this quarter of 9.7%. However, compared to the 19% decline we saw in the 2nd quarter, we have to say that this is a significant improvement from that quarter. When it comes to the various regions, it's very important and I'm very happy to report that the U.
S. Region is coming back much stronger this Q3. As you will remember, the currency neutral development in USA in the Q2 was actually down 36%. This quarter, we're coming back with a currency neutral growth of 6 0.5%. So that is really driving the decent results for this quarter.
When it comes to the other regions, they were down. Europe were down with 3.3% in Norwegian currency, 11.9% currency neutral. Asia was down 23% in Norwegian, 30% down currency neutral and the rest of the world was also down 63% in NOx, 66% currency neutral. A comment to that is that this is for the most part distributor markets, and we do have a little bit different dynamics in those markets. So I reflect that in the U.
S, we saw really the big effects of the pandemic in the second quarter, and we now are seeing a little bit delayed effects of the same fundamentals in the market in the other regions. When it comes to our vascular portfolio, as you are all aware, of course, the vascular business is strategically important for Medistin going forward. And in this quarter, we are delivering sales at the same level as last year. When it comes to imaging, that is also a very important growth lever for the company going forward. This quarter, it is down by 25%.
We are still able to contain costs. Of course, there has been almost no traveling at all, and we're also making savings from marketing events and just a different way of operating. So also this quarter, we are delivering a very good margin of 25% on the EBIT level. I'm also pleased to announce that the board has resolved to pay a dividend of NOK 2.75 per share. And this is reflecting, of course, their confidence in the company being able to navigate through this pandemic period.
If you then take a look at where we are year to date September. So we're delivering sales of NOK 268,900,000. This is at the same level as last year in Norwegian currency. Still, we do have a little bit of help here. So currency neutral, we're down 7%.
I do think this is a pretty strong result, everything considered in this situation. If we then go back and look a little bit into the different regions, again, U. S. Meaning a lot to the Medistim results, considering about 50% of the revenues coming from our own products. The year to date sales are decreasing with a modest 1.5% in Norwegian currency.
It's actually 10% in dollars, but not that bad. The other region that is also down is the rest of world region. It's high percentages, but then we should remember that the rest of the world region considered only 5% of the total own sales revenues, so it doesn't really impact that much. Then we see some growth. Year to date, we have, in Norwegian currency, growth from our own products in Europe, up 9.5%.
Currency neutral, it is flat. And then also Asia showing growth at 22.3% in Norwegian currency and 11.5% currency neutral. So that's also very good. Sales of the vascular portfolio so far this year is up 20%, and that is very good. We can compare that status with our 18% growth from 2019.
That's how we ended up 2019. When it comes to the imaging sales, yeah, going back to 2019, we actually had a growth of 33%. So obviously, the imaging portfolio, as I said, is very important and we seen good growth over time there. So far this year, it is down and I will get further into the details explaining a little bit background for that. When it comes to our 3rd party products, which is now constituting less than 20% of the total sales, This is down 11.2% year to date.
Actually, in the Q3, it was slightly up at 3.8%. And then again, we are able to contain costs and operate efficiently, and we are delivering an EBIT of SEK 73,300,000 and a good margin of 27.3% as well. And this is actually our best result ever for a period year to date September. So with that introduction, I will hand the word over to you, Thomas.
Thank you, Kari. You will then, as normal, dive into the numbers. And again, we will come back to split of sales within regions and products later on. So Kairi will take you through that. So I go directly to the cost of goods sold.
And as we can see, the cost of goods sold has decreased compared to the revenue for this quarter. There are two main reasons for that. One is that we have had good sales through our direct channels, especially in the US, but also in the other direct representations that we have in Germany and Spain. So all in all, they performed better this quarter than they did in the same period last year. And that improves margin.
The other thing is related to currency. We have a favorable currency situation for Medistem this quarter compared to last year And those two factors result in an improved gross margin for Medistim in the 3rd quarter. Also, when it comes to salary and social expenses, those are down. Obviously, we do have here also currency effects that increases expenses. But all in all, when it comes to commissions for sales reps and also bonuses and bonuses in general, since we are affected by the COVID-nineteen and less sales, We have a reduction in accruals for bonus and commissions with about 2.3 percent sorry, 2,300,000 and about 1,000,000 is related to currency, which actually increases expenses for the quarter.
We have similar effects for other operating expenses. Less travel and exhibition expenses, congresses, is about NOK1.8 million for the quarter. And then again, we have on the negative side for an exchange effects of about NOK800,000. So the total expense for the quarter is down about NOK 1,000,000. So with improved gross margin and less expenses, the EBITDA is then increasing from $23,600,000 to $26,600,000 and an EBITDA percentage increases from 27.6% to almost 32%.
When it comes to depreciation, that has increased from 4,400,000 to almost 5,800,000. And the main reason for that is related to leasehold improvements or prolonged agreements related to production facilities in Horton and also in larger premises to make sure that we are well fitted for growth in the future. And that increases then the depreciation compared to the same period last year. Still, operating result or EBIT is up from 19,200,000 to 20,800,000 and EBIT margin increases from 22.4% to 25%. Net finance is negative by almost 2,200,000 this quarter.
And the reason for that is related to currency, Realized and unrealized losses related to currency for the quarter is amounting to this SEK 2,200,000. So pretax profit ends at 18.6 and profit after tax ends at 14.4 compared to 16.7 compared to the same period last year. Then go to the numbers year to date. Sales end at the same level as last year, but the margins are also much better when it comes to the year to date numbers. And again, we do have an increase in sales of our own products and a decrease in sales of 3rd party products.
That obviously improves margin. And we also have help from currency. When it comes to salary and social expenses, we have the same effects as for the Q3, only larger numbers. The total bonus and commission reduction is about SEK 7,000,000, but the currency effect is about negative SEK 3,000,000. So net SEK 4,000,000 is what we see as a saving actually compared to what would have been a more normal situation.
Also, when it comes to other operating expenses, we have currency effects of about NOK 2,000,000 and then in total, less travel and exhibitions, congresses amounts to about NOK 4,600,000. So this gives us an EBITDA of NOK 90,200,000 and a percentage of NOK 33,500,000, which is an improvement compared to the same period last year. Again, the increase in depreciation is related to premises for production, but also extended the premises related to our main office here in Oslo. So our EBIT ends at NOK 73,400,000. That's up NOK 3,300,000 compared to the same period last year.
And as Kari mentioned, that is actually the best operating profit we've been delivering in the company history despite the COVID situation. That is a pretty solid performance. Net finance, same as in for the quarter, only smaller numbers. And net profit before tax ends at 71.6 percent and net profit after tax ends at 55.8 up from 54.8 last year. So when we look at the balance sheet, intangible assets are being reduced from 40,800,000 to 35,400.
Million. That means that we've been depreciating the activated development expenses to a higher degree than what we've been activating. When it comes to fixed assets, the additions is related to the lease agreements, which we have prolonged here in the main office, but also the premises related to production. Inventory increases from $90,000,000 to $112,900,000 which is a relatively high increase. We are still securing NO life components and also making sure that critical parts related to our products are being has a very solid security level of stock.
But also, we do see effects that some of these components that we are ordering, we need to order them 9 to 12 months in advance. And at that time, we were not aware of the COVID-nineteen situation. And when sales are then going down compared to what we expected, that also results in increased inventory levels. Our cash position is solid. By the end of the quarter, we have NOK 115,000,000 in the bank account.
And as I mentioned earlier, the board has decided, based upon the development of the company and decided to pay the dividend of about NOK 50,000,000. That is about NOK 2.75 per share. Then on equity and debt. As we can see, the equity is solid, almost 300,000,000. What I would like to mention is long term debt, which has actually increased a bit.
We've received a PPP loan in the US that is a Paycheck Protection Program, which is recorded in our balance sheet as a long term debt for now. And this is a program to make sure that employees are being employed in the US. There could be some debt forgiveness related to that, but for now, we don't have the criteria already. So it is recorded as a long term debt with interest. The other long term debt is related to lease obligations, and €22,500,000 of that is recorded as long term debt.
The remaining is short term debt. And all in all, the balance sheet is very strong and equity of 75.7%. And with that, I leave the work to Kari.
Okay. So we will continue looking a little bit more into how the sales are going. And as I was alluding to in my introduction, it's really in the imaging portfolio that seeing the most dramatic effect of the COVID situation. And as these numbers tell us, we are going down in the number of units sold of the imaging system from 27 this quarter last year to 10 units this year. So that's a 63% decline.
And we're seeing a following decline in sales of imaging probes as well naturally. And I don't think it's that strange that we are seeing actually that it's the imaging portfolio that takes the largest tier to put it that way. I think when our customers are considering to buy a new system in more challenging financial times and more insecure times, it's probably not that difficult to understand that some of the potential imaging sales projects that we have been working on turns into a flow system sales instead. It's also a fact that when it comes to really having to choose between doing a transit time flow measurement procedure versus an imaging procedure, transit time flow measurement is the most clinically valuable modality. So I think that will also create sort of a priority for flow over imaging.
Then when it comes to the sales in our flow portfolio, we do see that the Flow Probes is also declining. It's a 21% decline from the Q3 last year. But when it comes to sales of Flow Systems, that is actually increasing. So an 11% growth quarter this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. And year to date, we are still seeing actually a 39.5% growth in the total number of flow systems sold this year compared to last year.
So that in itself, I think, is pretty solid and really speaks well to the future as well. If we just take a look at sort of the total number of systems, whether that's flow systems or flow and imaging systems combined, it was down in the Q3, but year to date, it's up by 4.9%. So all in all, not bad. This is then segmentation of our sales revenues per geographical regions. So looking at sales from our own products in the different regions, I just want to remind that Europe contributes with about 30% of that revenue, U.
S. A. Up to 50% of the revenues, Asia is about 15% and the rest of the world is about 5%. So of course, there are big differences in the sizes and contributions of these different regions. When it comes to Europe, we saw flat development in locks from our own products or in Talti.
If you divide that into own products and third party, own products decreased with 3.3%. The 3rd party increased with 3.8%, as previously mentioned. And the growth in NOK has been driven by favorable currency. In the U. S.
A, as mentioned, we had growth both in local currency and in Norwegian currency this quarter, but are still seeing a decline year to date. Asia, a slow quarter this Q3, but very solid year to date. And you will remember that we started off this year with a very solid sales in Japan due to the introduction of Miracu and the regulatory approval of that product in the market. And the rest of the world, well, it's showing big numbers here in percentages, but means very little in the total. Again, looking at revenues now split on the various product groups.
And the reason why we are trying to do this analysis is that we see differences between the units sold and really the revenues in NOKs. So we can have typically growth in the units sold of a product group, but not seeing that reflected in the currency, in the Norwegian currency. And of course, that is explained both with currency effects from period to period. Also, it depends on which sales channels these units are sold through. As you know, we are selling both in our direct markets, U.
S. A. Being the largest and also Germany, Spain, U. K, Denmark, Norway also contributing to the direct sales. And then we have distributors in the remaining markets making up about 30% of the sales of our own products.
So these are factors that are influencing how the numbers pan out. I'm not going to go through all of the explanations here. It was written down and hopefully making some sense when we go through the details here. Just then comment on the strategy. Well, this continues to be the strategy, of course, being very much committed to growing in the coronary artery bypass grafting market, still very much focusing on the U.
S. A, but of course also the other regions are very important. We are working to convert from flow to flow in imaging. We're also working to establish ourselves in a more meaningful way in markets where we have modest market share today, and we're working also to build a position in emerging markets. Vascular continues to be a very important target for us.
When it comes to the development in U. S. A, I've already mentioned that we are sort of coming back very nicely in this Q3 compared to the 2nd quarter. Are seeing that the total number of procedures was up 2.3% in this 3rd quarter, is down 9.9% year to date, of course, reflecting the lower surgical activity level. And also here, we see that flow procedures were up 5.8% in Q3, while imaging procedures are down 15.4% in the same quarter.
So again, reflecting my previous comments about how the imaging seems to be taking a little bit of a hit right now. Capital sales is still good, 9 units for the quarter compared to 4 last year, so that's fine. And maybe most important, we're still continuing to see growth in our new customers. So ten new customers acquired this Q3 compared to 6 last year. And year to date, the number is 18 versus 22 last year.
Then the final part of this presentation will be the continued reflections and the comments with regard to the COVID-nineteen pandemic situation. And some of these comments are very similar or the same as we talked about last quarter, and that's just because it's very much a similar situation still. So we are as I said, we see continuously negative effects on the sales revenues, but not to the same extent as we saw in the Q2. And the situation with lockdowns and travel restrictions and all of this is, of course, continuing to challenge our sales reps in being able to see their customers and establish new sales projects, etcetera. So it's not a normal situation.
And we're also seeing that how the healthcare systems are being pressured. It still continues to be a situation where elective surgeries are being postponed to some extent. From sort of the internal medicine operations, we are still working well. We have had no health effects on our employees. We have had an intact supply chain.
The production is running as normal. And as I said, we have been able to contain costs. So operating profit year to date is very good. The cash from operations is very solid. And in that respect, it's going really well.
We continue to be optimistic about the situation. We continue to have a lot at the end of the tunnel. We know that serious medical conditions such as the ones that we are addressing, they cannot be less than treated infinitely. So that's sort of the background. As mentioned last quarter as well, we have seen data really demonstrating that lack of treatment capacity and reluctance among most patients to seek care have had serious consequences, meaning that more people have been both dying and suffered from cardiac arrest outside of the hospitals and at the same time seeing a lower percentage of patients seeking care.
So this is of course very seriously and we know that the change is ongoing to make sure that the hospitals are both well, ensuring that they have the capacity to treat, but also that they are able to convince the patients that it's safe to seek treatment. I still want to be clear that the situation has lots of uncertainties. We don't know for how long the pandemic will last. We don't know for sure how the how our business will continue to be affected. We do what we can in order to be monitoring, of course, controlling whatever we can control here.
We have contingency plans in place and that's the situation. I think in summary, we can see that the sales revenues development that we've seen now from the Q2 to the Q3, it may indicate that we see we're seeing a decreasing impact from COVID on the Meds in business. We do believe that continued positive development will take surgical activity back to the normal capacity. This is due to hospitals getting more sort of used to and trained in handling the normal patient population side by side with COVID patients. Of course, there are increasing pressures now to treat patients on waiting lists.
And we also believe that there is increasing confidence from patients to seek medical care. So these are factors that are working towards a more normal situation. But still, we do not assume that the COVID goes away. We have seen recent informations from the vaccine programs telling us that it's not really likely to have vaccines in large quantities until 2022, so that will still take some time. And we know that it's demanding for the hospitals to treat patients while the COVID is present.
Of course, it requires more time to plan and to just keep space, well, keep distance. And there is increased cleaning and disinfection procedures and more requirements for personal protective equipment. And this is not, of course, speeding up the efficiency in the hospitals. But I think my final comment today would be that Medistem have proven to be running a robust business that can withstand a challenging situation. And we're still delivering solid profit and cash flow.
So that will be the final remarks today. And with that, we are going to open up for questions.
And then I assume that we've been very clear in our presentation today. We don't have any questions for us at this moment.
And no hands. And no hands. Christ. Okay. So it doesn't look like we have questions.
Then I will just want to thank everybody for listening in this morning. And of course, if you have questions after the presentation, you are very welcome to make contact with us. And as also noted, the presentation and all the other information will be available from our website. So thank you very much for listening in this morning.