Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ambea Interim Report Third Quarter 2026 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. 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 very much, and welcome to Ambea's presentation of the third quarter of 2026. I'm Mark Jensen, CEO, and with me today is our CFO, Benno Eliasson. We will begin with an overview of Ambea, the highlights from the quarter, and our continued work to build future care capacity. I will also cover the acquisition of Humana, which was completed after the quarter. Benno will then take us through the financial performance and individual business areas. I will return with our financial targets and priorities ahead before we open the call for questions. Ambea is the leading care provider in the Nordics, and we operate across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland through strong local business areas with a broad range of care services. This slide illustrates both our business mix and our geographical presence.
Elderly care and social care for adults are the largest parts of the group, complemented by social care services for children and young people and staffing and competence solutions. Over the last 12 months, Ambea generated almost SEK 17.3 billion in net sales with an adjusted EBITA margin of 10.4%. Let me now turn to the quarter's main highlights. The third quarter was both strong and eventful for Ambea. Net sales increased by 8% with organic growth of 5% and acquired growth of 2%. Adjusted EBITA increased to SEK 668 million compared with SEK 570 million last year, and the adjusted EBITA margin improved to 15.0% from 13.9% last year. The earnings improvement was supported by higher occupancy and operational improvements across several business areas. At the same time, we continued to build our future care capacity.
Our pipeline of care places under construction increased by 51% year-on-year, reaching 2,444 places. After the quarter ended, we also completed the recommended public offer for Humana, which we can turn to next. The completion of the public offer for Humana marks an important step in Ambea's development. Following the extended acceptance period, Ambea has acquired approximately 98% of Humana shares, and compulsory redemption of the remaining shares has been initiated. Ambea and Humana are complementary care companies with a shared commitment to quality, responsibility, and long-term development. Together, we will have an even broader presence across the Nordic countries and a stronger platform from which we can meet the growing care needs. Our immediate priorities are the quality of care, continuity for care receivers and employees, and maintaining strong day-to-day operations.
Integration planning is underway with an emphasis on sharing successful practices and building a sustainable combined organization. Humana will enter Ambea's financial reporting from October 1st, 2026. Now let's look at our continued organic expansion. Organic expansion continues at a high pace. During the first nine months of 2026, we signed agreements for 1,088 new care places. That already exceeds the 659 places signed during the whole of 2025. Vardaga accounts for 540 places signed so far this year, and Altiden has added 309. Nytida, Stendi, and Validia also contribute to the total. The need for quality care continues to grow across all markets, and these agreements are an important contribution to our future capacity. We will continue to be selective, focusing on locations and services where demand is clear and where we can establish high-quality operations. The next slide shows how these signed agreements contribute to our overall pipeline.
Our own management pipeline reached 2,444 care places at the end of the third quarter. That is an increase of 51% compared with the same quarter last year. During quarter three, Vardaga signed lease agreements for two new nursing homes in the Stockholm area, adding 220 places. Nytida signed agreements to expand existing daily activity operations in Norrtälje and Stockholm by 40 places, and Stendi signed agreements for three new care homes, adding 14 places. Looking ahead, around 480 care places are planned to open over the coming 12 months. When the entire pipeline is open and fully ramped up, it is estimated to represent approximately SEK 3 billion in annual revenue based on the current business mix and 2026 price levels. These are future capacity opportunities, not immediate revenue.
Opening and ramping up care operations take time, and we remain focused on quality, staffing, and demand in each local market. From next quarter, we will include Humana's organic pipeline to the numbers by business area. Let's now move to acquired growth. Acquisitions complement our organic expansion. Following the third quarter, we completed the acquisition of Humana. This is the largest transaction in Ambea's history, and it significantly broadens the scale of the group. Nytida also completed the acquisition of Imera on October 1st, adding operations within disability care with annual net sales of SEK 77 million. The chart illustrates the growing annual revenue base represented by acquired operations over recent years, with Humana clearly the dominant addition in 2026. We will continue to evaluate opportunities regarding bolt-on acquisitions in selected business areas. Let's have a closer look at total revenue growth.
The total revenue increased by 8.1% in the third quarter. We continue to deliver stable organic growth at around 4%-5% over recent quarters. This demonstrates the strength of our underlying operations and our ability to grow organically, even as the contribution from acquisitions normalizes following the acquisition of Validia in Finland. Looking ahead, the acquisition of Humana will significantly increase the contribution from acquired growth in the coming quarters, starting from quarter four of 2026. Quality and our people remain essential to delivering the growth, which brings me to the next slide. As we continue to grow across the Nordics, delivering safe, high-quality care remains our top priority. We work systematically with quality and sustainability, with monthly follow-ups across our care units. During the quarter, 29 of our Ukrainian employees graduated as care assistants through our partnership with Beredskapslyftet.
They completed a year of studies alongside their work at Vardaga and Nytida and are now continuing their education to become assistant nurses. The program aims to improve Ukrainians' opportunities in the Swedish labor market while helping to ensure a sufficient supply of skilled workers in the care sector. Vardaga continues to receive positive feedback in the annual care receiver survey, with improved overall satisfaction compared with last year. We are particularly pleased with the improvements in how residents experience the way they are treated by employees. This is an area in which we take a long-term approach through training initiatives and our care model, The Good Day. We have, as always, published the results for each nursing home on Vardaga's website. In Finland, Validia once again partnered with FightBack Run, an event promoting physical activity and community. The event encourages everyone to participate according to their own abilities.
You can read more about our quality and sustainability work in the quarterly report. Now I would like to hand over to Benno for a financial summary.
Thank you, Mark. I will now take you through the main financial developments in the quarter, revenue growth, adjusted EBITA, and cash flow, followed by our earnings per share and the performance of each business area. I will start with the revenue bridge. Group net sales increased from SEK 4,114 million in the third quarter last year to SEK 4,447 million this quarter, an increase of SEK 333 million, or 8%. All business areas contributed to the growth. The largest increases came from Stendi with SEK 150 million, Vardaga with SEK 84 million, and Validia with SEK 67 million. Nytida added SEK 46 million, Altiden SEK 21 million, and Klara SEK 5 million. Let us now see the adjusted EBITA development on the next slide.
The adjusted EBITA increased by SEK 98 million, or 17%, to SEK 668 million, and the adjusted EBITA margin improved from 13.9% to 15%. Vardaga had the largest increase of SEK 45 million, driven by higher occupancy in both new and established nursing homes. Nytida and Stendi contributed SEK 20 million each, reflecting better capacity and staffing efficiency. Altiden added SEK 12 million, and its higher occupancy and operational improvements continued. Vardaga and Klara was rather flat versus last year. Now turn to the cash flow. The operating cash flow showed a solid growth in the quarter, up 12% versus last year to SEK 766 million, supported by the higher earnings. Cash flow naturally varies between quarters because of the timing difference in customer payments, taxes, and other types of payments. Looking over a longer period gives a better indication of the underlying capacity to generate cash flow.
On a rolling 12 basis, cash conversion is 94.6%. On the next slide, we bridge this down to the free cash flow, excluding IFRS 16. This bridge starts with the adjusted EBITA, excluding IFRS 16, of SEK 1 billion 624 million for the rolling 12 months ending in this quarter. From there, we adjust for non-cash items, capital expenditures, interest, tax, working capital movements, and other cash flow items. This brings us down to the free cash flow of SEK 1 billion 29 million. This means that our operations, for the first time, have generated more than SEK 1 billion in free cash flow over the last 12 months. This cash flow provides a strong foundation for investment in quality and future organic growth. The next slide shows how cash generation has been used alongside our strategic capital allocation decisions.
This slide puts our cash generation and capital allocation into perspective. On the last 12 months, free cash flow, excluding IFRS 16, amounted to this SEK 1 billion 29 million. We paid out SEK 212 million in dividends and paid SEK 189 million for four smaller bolt-on acquisitions. Share repurchases amounted to SEK 1 billion 474 million in total, of which SEK 951 million related to the repurchase program connected to the Humana transaction, which was closed after the quarter ended. Net debt increased by SEK 980 million over the 12-month period, mostly, of course, linked to the preparation of the Humana acquisition. Now, let's take a look at the earnings per share. The improvement in earnings per share is also visible in our The improvement earnings is also visible in this earnings per share slide, of course.
On a rolling 12 basis, reported earnings per share after dilution reached SEK 10.45 compared to SEK 8.14 one year earlier, an increase of 28%. Adjusted earnings per share, excluding IFRS 16 and acquisition-related items, reached SEK 12.92. Over the last two years, adjusted EPS as well as reported EPS have both shown a compound annual growth rate of 23%. With that, we take a look at the business areas, starting with Nytida in Sweden. In Nytida, the net sales increased by 4% to SEK 1 billion 194 million. Growth was supported by higher occupancy in existing operations, as well as contributions from acquisitions in newly opened units. Sales in own management amounted to SEK 960 million, while contract management contributed with SEK 234 million. EBITA increased by 10% from SEK 194 million to SEK 214 million.
The EBITA margin continued to improve in this quarter by 1 percentage point to 17.9%, and rolling 12 up to 13.5%. This reflects from better alignment between demand and capacity, together with continued improvement in staffing efficiency. During the quarter, Nytida signed lease agreements to expand two existing daily activity operations in Norrtälje and Stockholm, adding 40 new care places in total. Now turn to Vardaga, the Swedish elderly care business. Vardaga delivered another strong quarter.
Net sales increased by 6% to SEK 1 billion 465 million, supported by higher occupancy in both recently opened and established nursing homes. Revenue in own management increased by 10% to SEK 1 billion 51 million. Contract management revenue decreased to SEK 440 million because of contracts previously handed back to municipalities. EBITA increased by 25% to SEK 222 million compared to SEK 177 million last year. The EBITA margin improved to 16.2% from 12.8%.
Profitability in mature units was also strong, reaching 16% in the quarter. The rolling 12 EBITA margin is now at high 10.6%. Vardaga signed lease agreements for two new nursing homes in the Stockholm area, representing another 220 care places. This will support future organic growth. Turning to Norway and Stendi. Stendi's net sales amounted to SEK 933 million , compared with SEK 818 million last year. Growth of 14% in SEK and 6% in local currency. The sales development was supported by higher share of care receivers with higher reimbursement levels, alongside occupancy and mix effects. EBITA increased by 20% to SEK 120 million , and the margin improved to 12.9% from 12.2%, mainly reflecting the stable occupancy in the quarter and effects of earlier operational adjustment and more efficient staffing.
We continue to work towards larger and more efficient units where we can improve capacity and operating performance. During the quarter, Stendi signed lease agreements for three new care homes with a total of 14 places. Next to go is Validia in Finland. Validia reported net sales of SEK 455 million, compared with SEK 388 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased by 17%, driven primarily by acquisition within the new child welfare segment.
EBITA was slightly higher at SEK 60 million , compared with SEK 59 million last year, and with a margin of 13.2%. The margin is below the strong Q3 last year by 2 percentage points, reflecting startup cost and the work to establish and integrate the acquired child welfare operations. During the quarter, Validia opened one new care home with 63 places, while closing three smaller homes and transferring care receivers to the new facilities.
Now let's move to Altiden in Denmark, which had continued to improve profitability in the third quarter. Starting with net sales. Net sales amounted to SEK 362 million, compared with SEK 341 million last year. In local currency, revenue increased by 7%, supported by higher occupancy in both social care and in elderly care. EBITA increased by 31% to SEK 61 million , corresponding to a margin of 14.1%, compared with 11.4% in the third quarter last year. Better occupancy and staffing efficiency remain the main drivers. All four nursing homes operated under contract management will be returned to the municipalities during the first half of 2027. The expected annual revenue effect is approximately SEK 320 million. These contracts have margins slightly below Altiden's average margins. Our focus in Denmark remains on operational improvement and developing future capacity in own management, as well as bolt-on acquisitions. Finally, Klara.
Klara recorded an improvement in demand during the quarter. Net sales increased this time by 6% to SEK 91 million , supported by demand for mobile nursing teams. EBITA amounted to SEK 8 million compared to SEK 9 million last year, giving a margin of 8.8% in the quarter. For the first nine months, demand in several service lines was still below the last year's level. Klara has therefore continued to adapt its cost base and develop services that provide higher value to customers. That completes the business area overview. Mark, back to you for financial targets and concluding remarks.
Thank you, Benno. I will close with our financial targets and the priorities for the quarter ahead, particularly the opportunity to bring Ambea and Humana together while maintaining our focus on quality and day-to-day care delivery. Our financial targets remain unchanged. Annual growth of 8%-10% and adjusted EBITA margin of 9.5%, and net debt below 3.25 x adjusted EBITA. Excluding IFRS 16. Looking at the rolling 12 months, revenue growth was 11.4% above our annual growth target. The longer-term revenue also shows the progress made over recent years, with a compound growth rate of 8.7% from full year 2022 to rolling 12, Q3 2026. The rolling 12-month adjusted EBITA margin reached 10.4%, above our margin target. Leverage excluding IFRS 16 was 2.7 x, still below the target, despite the increase in net debt associated with the Humana-related share repurchases.
When we announced the public offer to Humana shareholders in June, we reiterated our financial targets. With the inclusion of Humana, the pro forma annual revenue will reach SEK 25 billion, excluding personal assistance in Sweden. With this much larger base, we still target to grow 8%-10% per year from 2028 and onwards. The strong underlying market demand will play to our market-leading organic pipeline, and with the addition of future bolt-on acquisitions, the growth target is still relevant and reachable. Our profitability will short-term drop below 9.5% with the inclusion of Humana, but during 2028, we aim to be back at the profitability target through a combination of synergy realization and operational improvements. All in all, the Q3 numbers provide a solid starting point for the next phase in our development, although the Humana integration and future capital allocation will require continued discipline.
Before we open for questions, I would like to provide an outlook post Q3. Looking ahead, our first priority remains to deliver high-quality care and maintain the stability of our day-to-day operations. We are completing the rollout of MiraQ, our group-wide quality management system, and we will continue to invest in quality, leadership, and the work environment. This matters particularly as our pipeline creates a growing need to recruit and develop care professionals. Organic expansion remains an important growth driver, supported by new facilities and the existing pipeline. We also see opportunities for selective complementary acquisitions while maintaining discipline in how we allocate our capital. Just a few days ago, on October 30th, we gained access to Humana's operations. This allows us to take a closer look at how the business works, better understand ways of working, and develop a more detailed integration plan that includes synergy realization.
Throughout this process, our priorities remain a responsible integration, continuity for care receivers and employees, and identifying opportunities to share best practices across both businesses. Overall, our aim is to become a better partner to society. I am proud to see the focus on care receivers and care quality, both among the employees in Ambea and also in Humana. I am sure we will maintain this focus during the coming months, where many activities will take place to shape the future of the leading Nordic care provider. A future with a continued vision to make the world a better place one person at a time, because everyone is entitled to a good life. With that, we will now open the call for questions.
As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star, one, and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star, one, and one again. Please stand by as we compile a Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Björn Olsson of SEB. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. First on margins. I mean, both Nytida and Vardaga, you basically explained the improving margins on increasing occupancy. How close are you to a sort of a peak level in occupancy from here? Should we expect this to be a peak margin level, or do you see further occupancy improvements from here?
Occupancy? Vardaga has a number of nursing homes now that are full, and have had a really good occupancy development the last two, three years. There is not so much further occupancy to gain in Vardaga. In Nytida, we have much larger scale or footprint in Nytida, with a lot of smaller homes, of course, and there are still room for additional occupancy to gain. But that is also a little bit a different business model, with a lot of specified homes for specified care receivers and like that. This is more matching towards the actual demand in the local market.
I understand. Just on Nytida then, I guess one could call it positive sentiment then. Do you expect that to continue to support, assuming that you are matching efficiently?
Yeah. We think there is room for higher occupancy. Now we are getting into the, of course, integration with Humana, and that will also have an effect probably on the total occupancy, of course, since Humana has, specifically in the Nytida segment, a lot of homes as well. We will, of course, match this together when we start to integrate these two companies.
That is a good bridge to my second question. On Humana, I mean, you are clearly performing very well on your own segments. I understand it is early in the process, but if we just take them sort of segment by segment on Humana into you, where do you see the fastest operational improvement potential? Is that in Nytida, given the sort of similarity in operations, or could you give any flavor on that?
I think that is too early to say. I mean, we gained access to Humana only less than a week ago. We are now getting to know each other. We are starting to share data. We are starting to share care models and get together, so to speak. We maintain the kind of commitment we gave when we published the offer to Humana shareholders in June around the synergy target of SEK 120 million. We have also said that we will realize that during 2027. With the combination of those synergies and operational improvements, we will be back at the 9.5% EBITA margin target during 2028. That is what we know now. When it will come, exactly where it will come, and in which order, it is too early to say.
We need to do a good analysis, we need to do it together, and we need to make sure that we prioritize our care receivers and employees during this phase, so we are not rushing into the wrong decisions. We have good confidence, and we have not seen anything that would differ from what we have communicated earlier.
Okay, makes sense. Thanks.
Thank you.
We will now take our next question. Please stand by. Next question comes from the line of Kristofer Liljeberg of DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, thank you. Coming back to this previous question, I also understand it is very early, but your initial impression, has it changed in any way how you view the possibility to improve profitability in the Humana business and whether there are structural differences between the two?
Nothing has changed compared to what we have communicated earlier. Our view is still the same. It is two complementary care companies that are shared very much on the similar view on quality care and value for care receivers. We have not seen anything structurally will change what we have communicated, as I said, and the plans remain that we will work together to create a good plan. We will then work on synergy realization throughout 2027, and of course, operational improvements also in the right order during 2027 and 2028. We have good comfort in the acquisition, and we have good comfort in coming together with Humana.
How quick will you be to integrate Humana into the Ambea organization on the divisional level?
We will start to report the numbers from October 1st in terms of reporting. You will see, in terms of financial reporting, you will see Humana integrated in Ambea already from the fourth quarter. Then in terms of real life, you could say, in terms of the operational integration, we need to develop the plan together with Humana in good order, and we will have a focus on continuity, as I said, for care receivers and employees. It will take some months before we are there and have the detailed planning ready. But it will take place during 2027. That is as much as we know today.
Could you comment on the staff turnover in Humana? Has that been stable throughout this process?
From my understanding and what we have seen, there has not been any kind of changes in the staff turnover in Humana. I think the relationship is good between the companies. We have started to meet and engage, and I think it goes very well here in the first weeks. We, of course, aim and work hard to continue that way.
Right. My second question, another quarter with margin improvements. I remember when the year started, you indicated flat or maybe even a declining margin this year. Could you comment on what has surprised you most positively? Is this only about occupancy or something else as well?
It is a mix of occupancy improvements, also various operational improvements. Nytida has worked, as an example, hard to match the services better to market demand. I think they have become increasingly better in this. Demand is changing over time. Municipalities are buying somewhat different services, and Nytida has been very good at developing their service offering to meet the market demand. That has, of course, also helped. We are continuing with underlying improvements in terms of quality improvements. We are working a lot with our new quality management system, better data collection, predictive analysis, applying AI to our increasingly better data. With that, we can optimize business across the Nordics. That gives, because we have such a distributed business with more than 1,000 care units spread across this large geography, small improvements in many places, that is visible in the margins.
I will also point to Norway that has done a very good job here in the beginning of the year and has faster improved the performance of the Norwegian business than what we anticipated in the beginning of the year. That has been visible in the last two quarters, and we still think there is a little more to see there. We will enter again what we have said is market level profitability in Norway around 8%-9% EBITA margin. I think the Norwegian team has also done a good job. We also see very good improvements in Denmark delivered both by occupancy improvements and also various operational improvements. Our new business in Finland, which is the newest business area in Ambea.
We have the strongest growth of all business areas, good underlying organic growth in the acquired business from the start, the business we acquired from the start, and the addition of the child welfare services segment has also improved the revenue there. We will still need some more scale in Finland. We will get that now with Humana, and we are continuing also to look for additional scale in Denmark with hopefully more new contracts coming in on new nursing homes in elderly care, and also bolt-on acquisitions. As Denmark is not impacted by the Humana acquisition, the opportunity both for bolt-ons and strong organic growth in that market. We think the outlook is good. The year has proven to be, in the first quarter, the first three quarters, very good, and that has also made it possible for us to engage in the acquisition of Humana.
Overall, a good year so far.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We will now take our next question. Please stand by. Our next question comes from the line of Philip Ekengren of Nordea. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes, good morning both. I am sorry if I missed it, but just looking at Validia a bit here. Strong growth on sales, but broadly unchanged EBITA. You highlight a drag from startup costs related to some acquisitions here. Could you quantify the drag, and perhaps also when should these investments become earnings accretive, and how is the established online businesses performing?
We have acquired three different companies, one each quarter, the first ending in Q2 this year. We have also built up a new organization in child welfare, and there are, of course, things that have to, costs that we have taken during this time. The level of the companies we bought from, especially the first two, from Attendo, wasn't really on the par level that we have in our existing business. There are also lower margins in the acquired business than in the other businesses. We think that over time, we will come up to average margin. If that takes one quarter or a couple of quarters still, it is to be seen, but we are working and improving month by month the operational level in the acquired businesses. How much that will be affected, little bit hard to say.
Okay, appreciate that. Sorry to dwell on Humana here, and just perhaps as a follow-up to Kristofer's question, but what do you think are the main similarities between how you work and manage your operation, and perhaps also dissimilarities between you and Humana coming into the merger now?
It's a little early. I mean, we have only been together for less than a week. I think in any marriage, it takes a little longer time to get to know each other. We will, of course, work together with the team at Humana to find the similarities and what is uniting us, to find best practices across the two businesses. I mean, of course, there are differences between the segments. We are much larger in Swedish elderly care than Humana is, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing to learn. Humana is much larger than we are in social care for children and youth in Sweden, so that is, of course, interesting to look at from a new leader perspective, how that will impact and what is there to learn.
We will almost double our size in Finland, which is, of course, also interesting to see how can that play out and what can we do better together for the Finnish society. I think there are many interesting areas to look into. There are good opportunities, I believe, to find the best practices in both organizations that can be shared and transferred, and overall, that will lead us to become a better partner to society and be able to meet more of the future need. I mean, early days still, but positive and good collaboration so far. We will work in a good and structured way with Humana to get to the bottom of this and to build a good joint plan, while during the time we're doing that, focusing on continuity for care receivers, care quality, and also the employees in both organizations.
Makes sense. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We will now take our next question. Please stand by. Our next question comes from the line of Filip Wetterqvist from SB1 Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning, Mark and Benno. I am sorry if any of my questions have been covered. I had some technical issues. Looking at the rolling 12-month mature margin in Vardaga, it is almost up 1 percentage point year-over-year, and you commented on occupancy being a main driver. Do you see any further improvements there or any other operational improvements that could drive that margin further, or are we at peak margins there? Any flavor on that would be helpful.
Generally, there are always room for some improvements, but in Vardaga, at this level, there are, of course, less room than it was a couple of years ago, because now most of our nursing homes are running at full capacity. There are always something, but we are at a very high, as you said, historical margin in the mature units, so you should not expect that to grow significantly on these levels, no.
Perfect. On Denmark, the ending contracts there, how should we think about the timing across Q1 and Q2 in 2027?
Yeah. There are two different times. First of March, we are leaving two contracts, and first of July, we are leaving the other one, the other two. From Q3, we will have no contract management business in Denmark anymore. Then we will, of course, increase our own portfolio, own managed portfolio, but that will come later into 2028.
Perfect. Thank you.
We will now take our next question. Please stand by. Our next question comes from the line of Julia Angeli Strand of Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi, thank you for taking my question. A question related to the terminated contracts. Net is around SEK 300 million. Are you seeing any further signs that you should have more terminated outsourcing contracts in the future, or what are you seeing right now?
This is the only four contracts that we have in Denmark. This is, we will have no contract management business after we hand back these four contracts to the municipalities.
Okay. But across, I mean, across other segments, I noted that there were some terminations in-
Okay. Okay.
in Vardaga also.
Okay. In Vardaga, we have now SEK 100 million to be handed back in the coming four quarters. We had, in last quarter reported, we said SEK 200 million. That is because we have two larger contracts that were handed back on the very last day of Q3, end of September, which have not affected the Q3 numbers yet, but will affect the Q4 numbers going forward. We have no more signals that any of the other contracts will be handed back. But of course, we have a large contract management portfolio, and there are tenders out all the time. We win some and lose some, so that will, of course, could be in both directions going forward. But no other signals that we have waiting for someone to be handed back.
Okay. But in terms of mix of own contracts and outsourcing contracts, do you expect that to shift meaningfully over time?
Yes. Over time, it will probably shift, because I think that our expansion in own management will not be matched with the same type of expansion in the contract management portfolio. That is not to be expected. So over time, own managed will have a higher part of the total business, for sure.
Okay. By how much? Are we talking percentage points or?
Yeah, probably percentage points. I haven't made that calculation.
Okay, I understand. And this should be helpful for margins, I guess. On Altiden, what's needed to improve margins further from where you are now?
Yeah. In Altiden, we, of course, they are not loss-making these contracts. However, we have communicated they have lower margin than the average. Of course, we earn money on these contracts as well. Then we start with two new nursing homes in 2028, and they will, of course, have a ramp-up period that all new establishments have. They will probably lose money in the start and earn money later in the progress, when we progress.
But you're right, Julia, that over time, I mean, the increase in own management would contribute positively to the margin over time.
Yeah. Over time, these are fully ramped up. The margins on own management are higher than the average margin in contracts.
Okay, I understand. That's all my questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star, one, and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please stand by as we compile a Q&A roster. There are no further questions. Speakers, please continue.
Thank you so much. Thank you all for joining us today and for your continued interest in Ambea. The report for the fourth quarter will be published on February 11, 2027, and that will be the first quarter with Humana fully consolidated into Ambea's reporting, and we look forward to that. With that, have a nice day. Stay safe and healthy. Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.