Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ambea Interim Report fourth quarter 2025 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mark Jensen, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much, and welcome to Ambea's presentation of the fourth quarter 2025. I'm Mark Jensen, CEO, and with me today is Benno Eliasson, CFO. We will start with a brief overview and our growth drivers, and then Benno will take you through the financials and business areas before we wrap up with concluding remarks and Q&A. Ambea is the leading care provider in the Nordics, with operations across Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. We operate through strong brands and business areas covering elderly care, social care, and staffing and competent solutions. This breadth and scale create resilience and long-term growth potential. In 2025, we reached over SEK 16 billion in sales and delivered an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.6% on group level, and we continue to grow through both organic expansion and acquisitions.
Let's go straight to the highlight of the fourth quarter. Quarter four was characterized by strong growth and continued investment to support future growth, which I will come back to. Net sales increased by 15%, mainly driven by acquisitions, but also solid organic growth. We continued to build our pipeline of new care places and expand capacity in Vardaga and Nytida, while Validia strengthened its positions through acquisitions in child welfare services. At group level, Adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 347 million, with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 8.3%. Let's look at our future growth. Organic growth is a cornerstone of our strategy, and the demand for care continues to rise across the Nordics. We have almost 1,700 care places in our pipeline, which is an industry-leading number in the Nordic care sector.
During the quarter, we added new contracts and expanded our own management pipeline. Vardaga signed 2 new contracts for new nursing homes in this quarter, contributing to 250 new care places in the Stockholm area, and totally in the second half of 2025, we signed 6 new nursing homes. Nytida added new assisted living and daily activity capacity, and then they also expanded through new contracts and increased capacity. Looking ahead, we have a strong number of planned openings across our business areas during the coming 12 months. Almost 500 new care places to be opened, which supports continued growth and improved economies of scale. In a midterm perspective, Vardaga alone will, in the next 5 years, employ another 2,000 qualified care workers as assistant nurses, nurses, and operational managers as organic pipeline materializes.
This is why we continue to develop and invest in our workplaces, our work environment, leadership, and development and career opportunities. More about that later in the presentation. We will now have a look at acquired growth. Acquisitions are an important complement to organic growth, and we have maintained a high level of M&A activity with a focus on bolt-on acquisitions. During the quarter, Validia expanded through two strategic acquisitions and entered child welfare services, a new sub-segment, strengthening our Finnish platform and adding SEK 210 million in annual net sales. Nytida also completed a bolt-on acquisition aligned with our strategy. We continue to see an active pipeline, and we remain selective, focusing on quality assets, strong operational fit, and value creation through integration. Let's have a closer look at revenue growth on the next slide.
Revenue growth remains above our long-term target, driven primarily by strong acquired growth combined with solid organic development. This reflects the strength of our business model. We grow by improved occupancy, expanding capacity in our existing operations, signing contracts for new care units, and by successfully integrating acquisitions. Overall, this creates a balanced and sustainable growth profile. At the core of our model is quality in care, strong local leadership, and long-term partnerships with educational institutions, which I will talk about on the following slides. The satisfaction level of our care receivers and their loved ones are of the utmost importance to us. In quarter four, we continued to receive strong results from care receiver surveys carried out in all four Nordic countries. The foundation of high quality is our employees.
In our latest eNPS survey, where we ask our employees whether they would recommend Ambea as an employer, we continue to see a strong result of +26. It is particularly pleasing that Validia participated in the survey for the first time and achieved its highest eNPS score ever. During the quarter, Validia has continued to strengthen its long-term skill supply. Collaboration with vocational schools and universities has been deepened to create clear pathways into care professions, for example, through mentoring programs. You can read more about our quality and sustainability work in the quarterly report. I would like to highlight two other initiatives that will support Ambea's continued future growth. During the quarter, we launched a new group-wide and value-based leadership framework designed to strengthen our leadership across the organization.
The new model established a common Nordic standard for leadership and strengthens our ability to lead in a complex and regulated care environment. This model is, as a start, brought to life through two new leadership programs, Leader Impact and Next Horizon. Leader Impact focuses on operational leaders closest to care delivery, strengthening execution, change capability, and day-to-day leadership quality. Next Horizon, developed together with the Stockholm School of Economics, builds long-term strategic and cross-border leadership capability at senior levels. Strong leadership is a key driver of care quality, employee satisfaction, and operational stability. Just as importantly, leadership capability is a prerequisite for growth. Opening new care homes requires strong, ready leaders.... Our ability to develop leaders internally is therefore a key enabler of scalable growth and an important factor in attracting top leadership talent to Ambea, supporting our growth pipeline.
Today, we have more than 1,050 physical workplaces spread across a large geography in 4 countries. A distributed organization with many different workplaces requires strong leadership to withhold and further develop a good and attractive work environment for our care workers. And this is why we continue to develop and invest in our leadership across the entire organization as a core strategic priority. Now turning to care concept development. During the quarter, we also launched our strength in care, co-offering in elderly care through a renewed and improved version of The Good Day, our care model for residential elderly care. The extensive update is directly aligned with the new Swedish Social Services Act, which raises requirements on evidence-based and structured care delivery.
To ensure rapid and consistent execution, we launched the new model at a national management conference with all Vardaga's operational managers, creating clear ownership and alignment across the organization. Besides workplace information on the job training, we've also introduced web-based training to support implementation at scale, giving all employees practical, standardized guidance in daily care delivery, and importantly, this makes the model scalable and transferable. The same concept is now being prepared for rollout in Altiden in Denmark, adjusted to Danish elderly care legislation and national culture, demonstrating that The Good Day is a robust platform for residential elderly care across markets. Overall, this strengthen compliance, consistency, and long-term quality, while supporting scalable growth in our core residential elderly care segment. During 2026, we will continue to strengthen communication around The Good Day to existing and new care receivers, their relatives, and our customers in the municipalities.
Now, I will hand over the presentation to Benno, who will provide a financial overview of our performance this quarter.
Thank you, Mark. Net sales grew with 15% and were primarily driven by the acquisition of Validia, but we also saw solid contributions from Nytida and Vardaga. The good growth we have seen in recent quarters continued, driven both by acquisitions and organic growth in Nytida and Vardaga. Validia added SEK 410 million to the net sales, which is almost 6% higher than last quarter. Stendi and Altiden faced a headwind in SEK of 5-6% because of the strong Swedish currency. They both showed steady growth in local currency. Turning to EBITDA, this slide shows how the different business areas have contributed to the Adjusted EBITDA of the group. The acquisition of Validia, of course, affected EBITDA. From seasonality point of view, Q4 is a slightly softer quarter for Validia, but still added SEK 32 million to the group.
Stendi faced very tough comparisons, with SEK 30 million in positive one-offs last year, as well as decreased underlying EBITDA, and on top of that, the currency headwind. Total decrease in SEK was SEK 54 million. Nytida continued the EBITDA growth, which with expanded capacity and higher margins. This quarter, Nytida added SEK 23 million more to the group EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA in total increased by 1% to SEK 347 million, and Adjusted EBITDA margin in the group was 8.3%, down 1.2 percentage points from last year's exceptionally strong Q4 of 9.5%. Cash flow. Operating cash flow continued to increase during the quarter, supported by strong profitability and good working capital management. Our operating cash flow increased by 19% and amounted to SEK 1.04 billion in the quarter.
This is the first time we exceed SEK 1 billion in a single quarter, and cash conversion is now again over 95% rolling twelve. Again, this shows that the underlying cash flow is very strong, and we had some softer cash flow quarters in the beginning of the year with negative one-off effects affecting cash flow. This slide show the utilization, the way from, EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, down to the free cash flow post-tax. We are now back at rolling twelve numbers above SEK 800 million and expect that to increase further in the coming quarters when the one-off effects of the Validia acquisition and the settlement of the old Norwegian dispute is out of the rolling twelve numbers. The solid cash conversion gives us both flexibility and strength to continue investing in quality and growth.
Now to the utilization of the cash flow. So this is how we have used this year's generated SEK 824 million in free cash flow. SEK 185 million was distributed to our shareholders as dividend. SEK 1,268 million was spent on the four acquisitions, and SEK 485 million was spent on the share buyback programs. Net debt has increased by SEK 1,160 million, of course, driven by the strategic acquisition of Validia, which mainly was financed by external loans. The increased debt has led to increased leverage from 1.7x EBITDA to 2.3x, still with much headroom to our financial target at below 3.25x. Now to the earnings per share.
This slide shows the strong development of our earnings and dividend per share over the years. Reported earnings per share, EPS, increased 10% this year and have a compound annual growth rate of 33% since 2021. The proposed dividend per share, DPS, of 2.65 SEK, gives an increase from last year of 20%, and a compound annual growth rate since 2021 of 23%. The positive development in earnings and dividend per share is mostly due to the strong underlying earnings development, but it's also positively affected by the share buyback programs conducted the last years. On that positive note, we continue to the overview of our six business areas in the fourth quarter, and as usual, starting with Nytida. Net sales increased by 6%, driven by both acquisition and startup units.
EBITDA rose by 19% to SEK 144 million, compared to 121 last year, thanks to the continued good performance in previously completed acquisitions, together with improved occupancy for startup units and some adjustments made in the service portfolio. We have continued to adapt our service offerings in favor of those services with expected high demand going forward, as well as successfully adjusting capacity to meet the changing demand. During the quarter, we have acquired four units from Serigmo Invest, with a total annual turnover of SEK 45 million, and opened one new facility with 38 care places, supporting continued growth. Then turning to Swedish Elderly Care, Vardaga. Vardaga continues to deliver solid growth. Net sales increased by 7%, driven by higher occupancy in both new and existing facilities, and by the Avesta acquisition.
Sales in own management grew by 9%, reaching SEK 977 million due to the higher occupancy in new as well as established nursing homes. Net sales in contract management also increased. EBITDA decreased by 4% to SEK 117 million, mainly due to the higher startup costs from more openings than last year, and costs related to planned openings in early 2026. For the quarter, the EBITDA margin was 8.3 versus 9.3 in the same quarter last year. For the full year, we reached a total margin of 9.5%, and for mature units, the EBITDA margin was 11%. During the quarter, we opened one new nursing home in Nynäshamn with 50 care places, and increased capacity in one existing nursing home in Nacka by 38 care places.
On the next slide, we turn to our business area in Norway, overview of Stendi. Stendi had a weaker quarter. Occupancy fluctuated in the quarter and negatively impacted profitability. In local currency, net sales increased by 4%, but in SEK, net sales decreased by 1%. EBITDA amounted to SEK 39 million, and the margin declined to 4.7%. The earnings performance was partly due to the lower and more fluctuating occupancy, which could not be fully offset by lower personal costs. This reflects also the fact that the comparative favor benefit from one-off effects, which led to exceptionally strong Q4 2024.
Taking that last year's positive one-off of SEK 30 million into consideration, the Q4 EBITDA margin was 2.8 percentage points lower this year, and at least 1 percentage point in margin represent temporarily cost in this quarter, which means that the underlying performance is closer to last year than what you see in these reported numbers. Stendi continues to adjust capacity to match shifts in demand and to protect profitability over time. Now to our Finnish business area, Validia. Validia is reported as a new business area from second quarter and has been consolidated in Ambea's accounts from April 1, 2025.
Validia had a solid performance in the fourth quarter, and net sales amounted to 410 million SEK, up 6% from the third quarter, and EBITDA reached 32 million SEK, corresponding to a margin of 7.8%, which also affects seasonality; seasonality is a slightly weaker quarter. This quarter also included transaction, startup, and integration costs related to the recently completed acquisitions and the establishment of a new sub-segment. This means that the underlying margin is somewhat higher than the reported margin in the quarter, with more than 1 percentage point. The entry into a new sub-segment, child welfare services, through two acquisitions with an annual turnover of 210 million SEK, will strengthen the platform and support continued growth. Furthermore, the integration of Validia into Ambea was completed during the quarter.
No further integration costs are expected. We will continue to create growth in Finland through new establishments, both on acquisitions and continued development of the existing operations. So now take a look at Altiden. Altiden delivered stable performance with growth in local currency, driven by higher occupancy across both elderly and social care. Net sales increased by 6% in local currency. In SEK, in SEK, however, net sales were flattish and in line with last year. Net sales in own management increased by 10% in local currency. The decline in contract management was due to the termination of one social care contract. The profitability improvement continues. This quarter, EBITDA increased to 11 million SEK, corresponding to a margin of 3.3%, up from 3.0% last year.
The new national elderly care legislation, effective for first of July this year, enables expansion of own managed nursing homes, and we are evaluating several opportunities to sign contracts for new nursing homes. Finally, Klara. Klara saw lower net sales due to weaker demand across several services. Net sales decreased by 8% to SEK 97 million. Historically, the historically strong supply of nurses in the labor market has led to some customers to employ their own staff instead of purchasing external services from companies like Klara. EBITDA amounted to SEK 12 million, with a margin of 12.4% compared to 10.4% last year. The good margin development reflects cost adjustments and continued focus on profitability, even in a softer market environment. With that, back to you, Mark.
... Thank you so much, Benno. Our financial targets remain as we drive profitable growth, strong margins, and disciplined leverage, and we remain committed to consistently deliver on all three financial targets. In Q4, we delivered on our targets, supported by our growth strategy, cash generation, and active capital allocation. The rolling twelve-month growth rate is now at 13%, which is above our growth target, thanks to the high pace in acquisitions and good organic growth. Profitability landed at 9.6%, which is above the target of 9.5%, but also reflects the significant investments we have made in the quarter. Our leverage is down to a ratio of 2.3 times net debt to EBITDA, well below our target of 3.25 times.
We have, in the quarter, secured a new financing agreement with committed financing of SEK 5 billion, and thus have the financial capacity to engage in the right bolt-on acquisitions. To summarize the fourth quarter and the year, we continue to grow and invest for the future. We have an industry-leading pipeline, an active M&A agenda, and we continue to strengthen our Nordic platform. Our focus remains on care quality, leadership, and operational performance, enabling us to grow and add new care bases, creating shareholder value as well as value to society. Before we open for questions, I would like to provide an outlook into 2026. We remain focused on growth and further strengthening our market position. Investments in our operational structure support a higher pace of openings and continued market share gains.
Our already industry-leading pipeline will further expand across countries and business areas, and we will see more bolt-on acquisitions. At the same time, we maintain an active capital management through dividends and share buybacks, aligned with our policy and financial position. The board proposed a dividend of SEK 2.65 per share, an increase of 20% compared to last year's dividend. The dividend is in line with our dividend policy and adjusted from items affecting comparability. Given the company's strong financial position and cash flow, the board has decided to implement another share buyback program of 2 million shares. As a team, we are committed to make the world a better place, one person at a time, and be a positive force in Nordic care.
Our 41,000 employees are solving important tasks to people and society every day, and I'm proud of their work and strong achievements. This concludes our presentation, and we will now open for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will now take the first question from the line of Björn Olsson from SEB. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. You mentioned now in the end, Mark, you're investing in your operational structure, and in the report, you also writes about this a bit more in investments in IT and training and so forth. Could you give any flavor and guidance on the cost effect of these investments and sort of how we should view them on a run rate basis?
I mean, the cost effects I cannot give guidance on, but I can say that, based on the strong pipeline we have, for organic growth and also, the entry into, Finland as a new market in 2025, and our continued growth through acquisitions and greenfield in Finland, we need to invest in our structure to make sure that we can grow with quality, and also that we have attractive workplaces, with good infrastructure and good leaders, as we need more care workers in the years to come, and we want to be the most attractive employer in the, in the sector in order to, to be able to, to achieve and get the competent staff. We can also say that the investments will not, impact our financial targets.
I mean, we're still committed to deliver an EBITDA margin of 9.5%, as I mentioned, when we went through the financial targets, so I think that's the way you should view it.
Okay, great. And on Vardaga, as you mentioned, you're sort of entering into a growth phase, and looking in your pipeline for Vardaga, you have a higher degree of new openings in the... and own own openings in the coming years. Should we view the, maybe the margin for 2026 to be roughly flat, as the pipeline seems to be quite similarly higher than 2025, both 2026, twenty-seven and 2028? Or how should we view the margin development in Vardaga for the coming years?
I can take that. In Vardaga, we have three openings in the later part of 2025, and three new to come in the beginning of 2026 now. So short term, it mean in the first quarter, it will probably hurt the margins a bit. Over time, that will of course come back when these nursing homes are up-ramped, so to speak. And then in the pipeline, we have a lot of openings in the later part of 2027 and in 2028. That is what you can see in the mid-term, how the... And that will, of course, at that time, also affect the margin. But over time, of course, this will strengthen the margin in Vardaga when these, all these are up-ramped.
Clear. On final question on Stendi, then, you're mentioning now that you're sort of right-sizing to demand. Can we expect cost efficiencies, or how, how should we view this, and the margin effect it have?
There will be some operational improvements, of course, as we adjust to demand. We have, over the last 3-4 years, been looking also at our portfolio of care homes in Norway, trying to get into a different structure of slightly larger and more effective, operationally effective care homes. We will continue that journey, while we adjust capacity to demand, so there will be some operational improvements, of course, also as a part of that journey.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
... Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Jakob Andersson from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, guys. Just a question on M&A. 2025 has been a quite active M&A year with quite strong momentum, and given that your leverage now is under control and below your target, can we expect bolt-on acquisitions at a similar pace during 2026? And is it still valid, the initiative where you have the strongest pipeline going on?
Yeah, I mean, we will continue to be active in the M&A market in 2026. We are looking across markets actually, for quality acquisitions. We are quite picky on the target, so we're always looking for quality with good operational performance. And that, of course, narrows the field somewhat, but we are looking in all markets for those acquisitions. We will be active in 2026. In 2025, of course, we had the large acquisition of Validia in Finland. Will there be such a large acquisition also coming in 2026? I cannot say. We will focus on both bolt-ons, as we said, and we also believe that we are in a good financial position, so this is absolutely possible.
The strongest pipeline is, as you also mentioned, in the Nytida, the Nytida segment and, for Validia in Finland. But, we have an active pipeline in all countries, and we are looking, we're looking into all business areas, except from Klara.
Okay, I see. And also, another one on Validia. Is it possible to break down the SEK 20 million integration costs, or can you give any more detail on that one?
This is the planned integration that we planned when we made the large acquisition. It's IT, it's a lot of different change of contracts that we have. So it's a mix of a lot of things that we have concluded a little bit earlier than we said. And that is why maybe the number is a little bit higher than maybe was communicated before. But we are doing it in a rapid time. So now Validia is ready to take on new acquisitions and are no longer dependent of a lot of Ambea integration, so to speak.
Okay, thank you. No more questions for me.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Kristofer Liljeberg from Carnegie. Please, go ahead.
Thank you. Four questions, hope that's okay. The first one, I'm coming back to Vardaga margin, sorry for that. Do you think it's reasonable, reasonable to believe you could actually keep margin flat in Vardaga despite the negative impact here starting of the year?
There is a possibility, of course, but we should expect a little bit lower margin in the beginning of the year. And then depending on how fast these new nursing homes are ramped up, the margins will probably improve during the year. If that is going to be fully in line in the full year, it's a little bit hard to say, of course.
Could you comment on how occupancy have developed for the three you open now already, and what type of contracts you have in, yeah, maybe all of them, if this is contracts-
Yeah.
that has the possibility to fill up quickly?
Yeah, we opened 3 in the later part of 2025, and we actually have already opened 2 in now in January, February in 2026. And I... There is one of them who is already full, they will have a contract, deep down contract, where we have the occupancy guarantee, where the municipality are filled it up. And then there is a mix of all this. If you take all the 5 together, they are up-ramping according to plan, at least according to plan, or even a little bit better. So we are satisfied with that. But as you know, it's a lot of differences between different market situation in different municipalities, so they could vary a lot, these ramp-up times.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one and one. We will now take the next question from the line of Adrian Elmlund from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys, good morning. A couple of questions for me, please. Could we just get some more color here on what the reason behind the weaker occupancy rate in Stendi is during the quarter? And also, you mentioned here in the CEO letter that the demand was stabilizing towards the year end. Could we expect or could you give any sort of trading update here into January and February in this year as well?
I can comment on the occupancy in quarter four, for sure. I mean, where we see the fluctuating occupancy is in social care for adults. Childcare is stable and performing well. But we have seen differences in the demand for municipalities in social care for adults over the majority of 2025, and that has been fluctuating up and down quite a lot. And the fluctuations are particularly hurting in a market like Norway, because you have one move out in one part of the country, and you have a move-in maybe some weeks later in the next part of the country.
As you have quite high demands on competency among staff, you need to be sure that you match the staff to the demand, and also you don't want to get rid of the staff too fast, I mean, because then you would not be able to welcome new care receivers. So you need to balance this in a good way and to make sure that you have both the right competence and the geographical mix in the right way, and that is sometimes a bit tricky to manage and you hold on to staff a little too long and these kinds of things. So the fluctuations are making it operationally difficult to meet the targets from a financial point of view.
As we are focused on quality of care, of course, we need to make sure that we are fulfilling all the demands from our customers, but also from legislation, and we're keeping all competency demands and everything in line. That gives the impact to margins in that segment, which is a large segment to us in Norway. We saw a more stabilized situation towards the end of the year, and that situation has continued into the beginning of 2026. We would like to see demand pick up a bit in this particular segment over the coming quarters for us to improve margins as we plan to.
Excellent. Thanks for that color. And another follow-up question here, I guess, you know, should we expect, I guess, continued normalization down to perhaps 7% or 8% in terms of margins? Or what would you need to do to reach, sort of, you know, double digits margins again here in Stendi?
We have not spoken about double-digit margins in Stendi. We have said that previously that we believe that the mid- to long-term sustainable level is 8%-9% EBITDA margin. We are now a bit below, but we believe we can get back to that range for sure. Maybe not this year, but in the midterm, we will; we plan and expect to see improved margins during 2026. But that will probably come a little later in the year. And in order to achieve that, we would need to continue to work on operational efficiencies, which we are doing, and we will also need to see occupancy pick up a bit in the segment for vital care, as I just mentioned.
Right. Two more questions, if that's okay. One here regarding the leadership training and the Nordic quality management system, et cetera. I think there was a question before about the cost, but could we perhaps, you know, discuss a bit the investments here into the top line? So do you think this can, you know, have some effect on the top line, or is this merely only to stay competitive in the market?
This is to stay competitive, but it's also in order to grow with quality. And when you grow, I mean, you have a company of this size, which is so people intense-
Please stand by. Your conference will resume shortly.
In the leadership. Can you hear us?
Can you hear me?
Yes.
I think, I lost you. Can you hear me?
Yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me now?
Oh, yeah. Okay, we're back.
Yeah, we're back. Sorry. Yes. So the investments into to leadership and people are important with the growth pipeline that we have. And remember that we have a growth target of 8%-10% per year, which we are now overachieving and which we are committed to deliver year on year. And that means a lot of new people coming into to our business, and, you know, we'll have to conduct training. It's a lot of new managers coming in, and it's a lot of existing managers that we need to build in our own pipeline. So the investments that we are making are simply to make sure that we can grow with quality in line with our targets.
Okay, I'll stop there. Thank you very much, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take the next question. From the line of Kristofer Liljeberg from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yeah, I was cut off for some reason. I have a few more, if that's okay. Is it possible to quantify the number of openings in Vardaga 2027, 2028, as the plans are now?
I mean, we have on our website the expected opening dates for Vardaga, for all the care homes that we have in the pipeline. Sometimes, I mean, they move a bit from quarter to quarter, depending on construction times and different permits, so building permits and so on. So the further out we get, the more likely it is that there will be, you know, some moving in between quarters, which could move, you know, an opening from one quarter to another, from one year to another. I don't have a top of mind, but the information we have-
Okay.
- is, is on the website. I can come back to you, Kristofer, with more details.
Yeah, yeah. I could check, I could check there as well. Then, there have been a lot of discussions here during the call about investments that seems to have been quite significant. Is it possible to quantify this in any way, and we just compare with Q4 last year and how much this have impacted the overall group margin?
I answered a similar question. Maybe that was when you were offline, but we have said, you know, that the investments are definitely more significant than they were in quarter four last year. I mean, we went through some of the examples here, not all of them.
Mm.
- but some of the examples we went through in the presentation. We also have quite significant investments in our IT structure, I mean, infrastructure upgrades. We are investing in cybersecurity, we are investing in a new Nordic quality management system. And this is also enable, you know, growing at high pace with quality in all parts of the business. And sometimes, I mean, the investments, you know, are, they are not always, you know, coming in smooth with the same amount every month because you have some launches and some things that are happening, and this particular quarter, there were quite a lot of things happening. But we are not planning this to impact our financial target or our margin target of 9.5%. So, that's for sure.
Do you expect similar level of investments here in the next coming quarters and 2026 as a whole?
No, but I mean, we are expecting, of course, continuous investments in, in, in the business, and that's also why we have not, guided any, any higher margin target, because we believe that, the importance here is to grow, with quality. It's, to fulfill all new legislation and demands that are coming in. That's quite extensive, these, recent years. There's a new Social Services Act in, in Sweden, which has required quite a lot of changes in Nytida, now also in Vardaga, to make sure that we are updated, fully compliant, and on top of things. There's a new elderly care legislation, last July in Denmark, which also puts additional requirements on us and, and overall society, just putting more demands on us, and we need to make sure that we can fulfill them, can fulfill them with quality.
As we grow, I mean, and keeping that high pace of growth, delivering consistently on our margin target is what we plan to do with a controlled leverage in line also with our financial targets. So, yes, you should expect investments to continue, but not investments that would impact our financial targets as communicated.
Okay, that's clear. And my last question, could you just repeat what you said about the new financing package?
Yes. We have a new financing package-
Yeah.
negotiated and in place, and maybe, Ben, you-
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have a so-called committed finance agreement of SEK 5 billion in multiple currencies that is increased from SEK 4 billion over the last three-year period. There's also an option, a so-called accordion, to expand that with SEK 1.5 billion more in that three plus one plus one year period.
Is this just replacing what you have had before or something new?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's replaced the one we had before, and it comes
Okay
... with more volume. We had, as I said, SEK 4 billion in the previous. Now we have SEK 5 billion with an optional expansion of SEK 1.5 billion still over that.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to Mark Jensen for closing remarks.
Thank you so much, and thank you all for joining us today and for your continued interest in Ambea. The report for the first quarter will be published on the 7th, May the 7th, 2026. So I wish you all a nice day. Stay safe and healthy.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.