Welcome to BioGaia Q3 report for 2026. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to CEO Theresa Agnew and CFO Alexander Kotsinas. Please go ahead.
Hello, this is Theresa Agnew, CEO of BioGaia, and we are here to present our Q3 results. From a financial highlights standpoint, our growth, excluding currency effects, is 23% for the quarter. Our net sales, SEK 400 million, and our EBIT margin is at 33%. Overall, our net sales, as we said, has grown 23%, excluding currency effects. If you look at the regions, our EMEA, Europe, Middle East, Africa region, increased by 38%, excluding currency effects. Americas, which includes Latin America as well as North America, increased by 23%, excluding currency effects. Sales in Asia Pacific increased by 8%, excluding currency effects. Our overall operating profit for the quarter was around SEK 132 million, which is an increase of 54%, and our EBIT margin was 33% compared to 26% last year in the same quarter.
Our overall net sales year to date reached SEK 1,214 million, with growth excluding currency effects of 16% and an overall year-to-date adjusted EBIT margin of 31%. To talk about our strategy, we have three main strategic pillars. Our first is what we call Grow the Core, which is focused on our core health areas of gut health, oral health, and immune health. Our second area is expansion through direct markets, where over the last five years, we have been taking certain markets direct as subsidiaries and driving growth through those markets. Finally, breakthrough innovation, where this is probiotics that we're working on that will be category-creating opportunities where probiotics are not typically used today.
Our foundations are people and culture, investing for profitable growth, digital as an enabler, both in the way we go to market with our omni-channel approach, as well as digitizing our business internally to drive more productivity and efficiency. Driven by science, which has been a foundation of the company and a very important one for the last 35 years, and sustainable solutions, with a strong focus on driving sustainability in our products as well as how we go to market. In terms of delivering on our strategy for the quarter, in our Grow the Core area, as you saw, we have had strong growth across pediatrics and adult health segments. This is supported by Protectis drops, Protectis tablets, and Prodentis.
We continue investment in consumer and medical marketing to drive growth in our key markets, specifically some of our direct markets, where the combination of medical marketing and consumer marketing is driving our growth upwards of the overall category. We are strengthening our position in oral health, particularly focusing on Prodentis, and especially in the U.S. and Canada for the quarter, we've seen strong growth in Prodentis in those markets. In terms of expansion through direct markets, we continue our development in our direct markets, where our direct markets have contributed to 38% growth in EMEA.
We are expanding distribution in France, so we started our direct market in 2025, and over the course of the last year, we have been driving distribution dramatically in France, as well as across some key retailers in the U.K., where we are now in Holland & Barrett, which is a major retailer in the U.K. with our Protectis drops in over 600 stores. We continue our focus on strengthening our BioGaia brand. We're expanding our global reach, and as I said previously, we have an omni-channel approach where we make our products available in the channels where the consumer wants to buy, and we surround the consumer with digital marketing through social media, video, and so forth. In terms of breakthrough innovation, we had an exciting launch this quarter with BioGaia Colus, so it adds to our science-based portfolio in adult gut health.
Two years ago, we added a product called Gastrus Pure Action into adult gut health, and now this year, adding BioGaia Colus. This is a unique proprietary strain, BG-R59, and it's supported by two independent randomized control clinical trials. Our initial launch has been in the U.K., and this will be followed by rollouts across selected markets globally. In terms of our launches, you can see here the launches that happened in the quarter. One of particular interest is we've launched a new flavor of our Protectis kids tablets with vitamin D. It's a strawberry flavor, and this has been well-received in the markets where we're launching this. We continue our rollout of our skincare products, our wash as well as body lotion, into the U.K. We've also launched our BioGaia Aldermis, which is our probiotic ointment in Czechia and Poland.
In addition, we had some key events in the quarter. We announced on August 31 that we are continuing our exclusive distribution agreement with Recordati in Spain and Portugal. As I said, we also announced the launch of our BioGaia Colus product, which is targeted for people to support colon health. We have some clinical studies, as I said, also in the areas of acute uncomplicated diverticulitis. On September 16, we announced that we will be hosting a Capital Markets Day in London on December 8, and we will be holding both an in-person event in London as well as our presentation will be broadcast live. In terms of our different segments, as you can see here, pediatrics has grown 21% for the quarter, excluding currency effects, and adult health has grown 29% for the quarter.
As you can see over the past quarters, we've had strong growth each quarter in pediatrics as well as adult, especially adult, with strong double-digit growth. Getting a little bit further into the segments. As I said, pediatrics grew 21% and adult health 29% in the quarter. If you look at this year to date, pediatrics is growing 14%, excluding currency effects, and adult health is growing 23%. Specifically in pediatrics, our sales increased mainly in U.S., China, and France, and our Protectis drops performed very well in the Americas and EMEA. In adult health, our Protectis tablets increased significantly and sales increased overall in Asia-Pac and EMEA, mainly in Hong Kong and Italy. If we now go into more detail in the regions, EMEA grew 38% for the quarter, excluding currency effects.
Overall year to date, that puts us at 26% growth for Europe, Middle East, Africa. Asia Pacific in the quarter grew 8%, and overall that puts us at 2% growth, excluding currency effects year to date. Americas in the quarter grew 23%, overall year to date at 17%. For EMEA, some of the highlights for the quarter, our sales increased mainly in France, Poland, and Germany. We did communicate that we had some quarterly variations for individual orders where customers decided to move some of their orders from Q4 into Q3 for EMEA. In Asia Pacific, as I said, the adult health segment grew. The pediatric segment did decrease. Sales for the quarter were mainly in China, South Korea, and Japan. In the Americas, some of the highlights are both the pediatrics and the adult health segment grew, and sales increased mainly in U.S., Canada, and Brazil.
Overall, this puts us overall at 74% for pediatrics year to date. You can see the breakup of our sales of year to date, 43% for the Americas, 35% for EMEA, and Asia Pacific 22%. I will now turn it over to Alexander Kotsinas to go through the financials in more detail.
Thank you, Theresa. To summarize, as we heard Theresa mention previously, our sales grew 23% from SEK 327 million to SEK 400 million. Our gross profit grew 20%, and our operating profit grew 54%. If we look at the sales bridge, we had a growth of 23%, both including and excluding currency effects. Basically in the quarter, no major currency effects. In terms of the gross margin, we had a gross margin of 73% in the quarter versus 74% in the same quarter last year. This is mainly due to 2 percentage points lower gross margin in the pediatric segment. Year to date, however, the pediatrics margin is flat at 75%, and we have a somewhat lower margin in the adult health segment, and thereby year to date, a 72% margin versus 73%.
It is worth to mention also that in the quarter, we did receive some U.S. tariff refunds from the IEEPA Act, and those were SEK 3.2 million , which positively then affected the gross margin in the quarter. In terms of the operating expenses, the total operating expenses were SEK 159 million versus SEK 157 million in the same quarter last year, a growth of 2%. On an adjusted basis, it was the same since we did not have any adjustments in the quarter. Sales and marketing expenses increased due to higher expenses in our subsidiaries mainly. Also worth mentioning is that we have a positive effect in the other OPEX of SEK 14 million due to exchange gains on receivables.
If we move on to the profit and loss then, as we already mentioned, we have sales of SEK 400 million, a gross profit of SEK 292 million and an OPEX SEK 159 million, leading to an EBIT of SEK 133 million, which was then 54% higher than in the same period last year. If we look at the EPS now stands at SEK 1.09 per share versus SEK 0.65, a growth of 67%. Year to date, our profits grew on an adjusted basis 29%, and our EPS grew 25%.
Coming to the cash flow. We have a cash flow from operating activities of about SEK 80 million . The decrease in cash flow from operating activities compared to the same period last year is mainly due to a negative change in working capital, which in turn then is due to higher receivables, a slightly higher inventory, and lower payables.
These are normal variations, and in the coming quarter, we expect these to normalize. We always see these swings between the quarters. Cash flow from investing activities also is worth mentioning. It was SEK 12 million versus SEK 1 million in the same quarter last year. This is due to that we are ramping up, as we have explained previously, our investments in building our production with the new warehouse, that is now ongoing. For year to date, we have investments of about SEK 26 million versus SEK 3 million in the same period last year. With that, I hand over to Theresa for some concluding remarks.
In summary, we had a strong Q3 performance with a 23% growth excluding currency effects, and an EBIT margin at 33%. We had double-digit growth across both of our segments, pediatrics as well as adult health. We also had broad-based regional growth, with EMEA at 38% growth, Americas at 23%, and Asia Pacific at 8%. We will continue our focus on driving growth in our direct markets, on strengthening our overall product portfolio for our core areas, and one of those ways was launching BioGaia Colus in the quarter, as I said, which is a product specifically focused on supporting colon health. We do have a strong platform for continued profitable growth. We will continue to invest in our science-based innovation, in our key markets, both direct markets as well as partner markets, and in building our BioGaia brand globally.
As we said, we will host a Capital Markets Day in London on December 8, and we remain focused on driving our sustainable growth through our strong scientific foundation, expanding our presence of our portfolio in our key markets, and continuing to increase our brand visibility and drive awareness. We will now open it up for questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pund key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Simon Larsson from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Hopefully, you can hear me all right. Would like to start on the EMEA side of the business, and if you could possibly quantify the revenue that was pulled from Q4 now into Q3, and also if it was pediatrics only or also in adult health. That's the first one.
Yeah. So we won't quantify a specific number, but it is substantial, which is why we are talking about it, so that we give some direction around Q4, and it is mainly with the pediatrics business.
Understood. On the two percentage points pediatrics gross margin drop, could you give any more flavor on that? Was it a mix effect or geographic effect or anything related to production?
No, it is not really related to any manufacturing cost or anything like that. It is more mix effects between both geographies and products.
Yep. Understood. The final one, maybe on APAC. We had a couple of softer quarters in APAC, but now I read it like you see drops growing in China. How should we expect this to pan out in Q4? Should we expect orders to maybe pick up again in the APAC region, or what can you see right now?
Yes. In terms of Q4, we do expect orders to pick up in the Asia-Pacific region. So we anticipate strong results for Asia-Pacific in Q4.
Understood. Thanks so much.
The next question comes from Mattias Häggblom from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Thanks so much for taking my question, as I have two, please. Firstly, on the pull forward orders in EMEA, did those partly explain the soft gross margin? Because again, it was on the low side versus consensus expectations, not least if we adjust for the tariff refunds. Sometimes we know from history that lumpy orders come at a lower margin. Any clarification on that? Alex referenced product and geographical mix. I am curious to hear if it was perhaps even more so driven by this one. Secondly, on OPEX, you state 2% OPEX growth, but that of course includes the help from the FX gain. If I look at what I would call true OPEX, selling, admin, R&D, it is up year-over-year 13%.
That may not be a problem when you are growing top line so fast, but perhaps help me think about OPEX expansion going forward, as we cannot count on FX gains for every quarter. Thanks so much.
Okay, so when it comes to the gross margin, no, I would not say it is those EMEA orders in themselves. Normally, we have quite stable and good margins in EMEA. So no, it is more like a mix, like I said previously, between the regions and the products that we saw in the quarter. Yeah. Then about the OPEX. Yes, of course, we do have quite strong growth in the quarter. And that is due to a lot of activities we are doing in marketing and sales. So it is some correlation, of course, between the marketing and sales cost and the actual sales that we do get from those activities. So, that is why we see quite high growth in the marketing and sales costs, due to that correlation, so to speak.
The next question comes from Kristofer Liljeberg from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yeah. A few questions. First, coming back to this previous question on operating cost, but is not it so also that you have some selling costs correlated to the actual sales number in the quarter to distributors, et cetera?
Yes, like I mentioned previously, that is correct. We do have some sales costs that actually then lead to sales in the same period, so to speak. So there is a correlation between sales and the cost. Yes, of course. And of course, some of the costs within that line, more fixed ones, which do not really depend on the sales, but some costs are definitely variable. And as we have quite high sales, the cost will increase also.
My second question relates to what you said about Asia Pacific, that it expected to be strong in Q4. You had very strong growth in Asia Pacific in Q4 last year. But do you mean that despite that, we should expect strong year-over-year growth in Asia Pacific this last quarter of the year?
Yes. We would expect in Q4 to have strong year-over-year growth, even from the quarter last year. But that will balance out across the regions. But Asia Pacific, we expect to have strong year-on-year growth in the quarter.
Great. And maybe on Asia Pacific, given that you are back to growth now, could you explain a little bit the market outlook there for key markets such as China, Japan, and Korea, maybe?
Sure. Overall, in terms of China, that market in particular does see some slowing economy, which does impact consumer spending. So overall, compared to last year, that market dynamic has changed. Our business is continuing to grow at a healthy rate, but not as high as it was previously, specifically in China. In Korea, we are seeing our business continue to grow in a healthy way across our portfolio. The majority of our sales in Korea are pediatrics. And in Japan, our main business is Prodentis oral health. So we are seeing some strong growth of Prodentis in Japan, and we expect that to continue. We are putting some emphasis on our pediatric business in Japan because it is very small, so we are looking at driving growth there more in the future.
Great. Finally, the strong adult health growth in Asia Pacific and America. As you mentioned, Prodentis in Japan. Is this the main product driving the strong growth in both those two regions or other products as well?
Prodentis in the Americas region, specifically U.S. and Canada, is strong growth as well as Japan, as we said. Also our Protectis chewable tablets grew well in the quarter, specifically in Hong Kong. We have a large business on our chewable tablets in Hong Kong. For the quarter, that was stronger.
Okay, great. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound-key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Filip Wetterqvist from SB1 Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Theresa and Alexander. One question on sales and marketing costs. I noticed it grew about 70% in the quarter compared to gross profit, which grew about 19%. In order to reach the 34% EBIT margin target, presumably requires selling expenses to grow materially slower than gross profits. How confident are you that you can achieve that operating leverage? If you cut back on sales and marketing costs, are you still confident that you will be able to grow the top line at the same rate as you've been doing in the last years?
Yes. Our long-term target is 34% for EBIT margin. We don't give specific guidance, but we anticipate getting to the long-term target over the next couple of years, and we do anticipate continuing to look at our marketing and selling costs to ensure that we're able to reach the margin. We have delivered on this as we have reduced our sales and marketing costs overall, where we had some larger investments last year, for markets such as the U.S., where we are continuing to drive the growth. We do feel that we can continue to drive growth even with a smaller amount of sales and marketing costs.
Could you give us some color on where the incremental sales and marketing spend is going as of right now, like between adult health and pediatric and the regional split between Americas, EMEA, and APAC?
Yeah. It's very much dependent on the market and their products. When we talk about U.S. and Canada, we focus around our Baby Drops business as well as Prodentis. The expenses will go towards those products in those regions. I would say our marketing costs are going to mainly be around the Americas as well as EMEA, because in EMEA, we've added some direct markets. We've added France, Germany, Austria, so we will continue to invest in those direct markets.
All right. That is clear. Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
That is our Q3 2026 results. Thank you for attending, and we will talk to you next quarter.