Welcome to Coor's Q3 presentation for 2026. 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 President and CEO, Ola Klingenborg, and CFO and IR Director, Patrik Sjölund. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Coor's Q3 report 2026. The agenda for today, I will be going through the first CEO update from me, then Patrik will take us through the financials. We will then summarize with some key takeaways and finish off with a Q&A session. Summarizing Q3, we had a top line which is largely flat versus last year, slightly negative, and that decrease is driven by previously communicated contract losses in Denmark. Sweden and Finland are growing, and Norway is flat versus Q3 last year. This is quite good work, I think, as we are comparing to a 2025 with very high variable volumes in Norway in Q3. So good work from Norway there. Looking at EBITA, we continue to improve our EBITA by 12%, and our margin improves from 4.5%- 5%. This represents, for Sweden, an all-time high EBITA for a Q3.
It is a strong performance there on the EBITA side. We are improving our earnings in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. So, good work, I think. Turning to the commercial and operations side, we appointed a new commercial director, where we appointed Stine Solheim, who has been the head of our Norwegian business, into a commercial role at the group level. We have had quite a bit of success with our sales in Norway, so we think that that will be an interesting choice that will propel us to the next level of growth. We made a customer satisfaction survey, which showed that we increased our customer satisfaction index to an all-time high level as well, and the same with our customer net promoter score. So we are doing some good work out with our customers, it seems.
That is proven also by the fact that we extended quite a few big contracts, including ABB, CGI, the student housing of Oslo, part of Karolinska, and UPP Vedel in Denmark. We are participating in a lot of tenders. There are many things going on in the market, and we are actively participating. To do that and to realize our strategy, we have also strengthened our sales force and recruited quite a bit new salespeople, both on the central level but also in our markets. Part of our strategy has also been, or is, to strengthen our property business, which is on our technical maintenance services. One example of that is that during the quarter, we launched Coor Connect, which is a newly launched 24/7 monitoring center that will enable us to provide new digital services for our property customers.
We are also, as we have previously communicated and described, a quite comprehensive program for operational efficiency. As you see in the margin numbers, that seems to be paying off. Particularly on the AI side, we are working with an agents program that we are rolling out across our business. As a fun fact, yesterday we won an innovation award from the International Facility Management Association for our AI agents. I think AI is a good opportunity for productivity and service development within our industry. If we look a little bit forward, we continue to see high market activity, a lot of things going on in the market, and we are focusing on what we previously communicated: cross-selling opportunities, efficiency improvements, margin enhancement, and growth, where we are putting in more resources to produce organic growth.
We see positive development in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and we are expecting that to continue, and in Denmark, we continue to work on our stabilization efforts. As a highlight for Denmark, I think we have lost some revenue, but if we look at the bottom line effect, there was actually a particularly smaller effect on the bottom line than you perhaps could expect with such a loss of revenue. So really good work from the Danish business to maintain profitability. With that introduction, I would like to hand over to my CFO, Patrik.
Thank you. We start with an overview of the business KPIs. In the third quarter, organic growth is -1.5%. Importantly, Sweden and Finland grow 3%- 4% organically while Norway is having a slightly negative organic growth of 0.9%. We are having a negative organic growth of 15% in Denmark due to the previous communicated contract losses. The EBITA margin for the Q3 is 5%, which is an improvement comparing to last year's third quarter. Margins continue to improve with improvements primarily in Sweden and Norway driving the margin improvements. Cash conversion continues to be solid at 87% on the LTM basis. Leverage on the last 12 months numbers are also in favor, 2.3 times the EBITA continues to be stable. On the P&L, net sales ended at SEK 3 billion , which is in line with last year.
Organic growth was negative with - 1.5% and FX positive with 1.6%. Adjusted EBITA amounted to SEK 149 million , which gives an adjusted EBITA margin in the quarter of 5%, which is an improvement from last year's 4.5%. This leads to that the EBITA in absolute numbers compared to last year's increase. Items affecting comparability during the quarter amounted to SEK 40 million versus SEK 21 million last year. SEK 27 million relates to the arbitration decision regarding a customer case in Denmark from 2022. As mentioned, in quarter 2, that it will be booked in quarter 3, which is this quarter. Net income is 48 million and adjusted net income when adding back amortizations amounted to SEK 56 million . On the LTM numbers, we see that the net sales is at SEK 12. 363 billion . Organic growth is 0.7% and FX negative with 0.4%.
The LTM adjusted EBITA level is SEK 646 million, which gives us an LTM EBITA margin of 5.2% versus 4.8% for the full year 2025. Adjusted net income for the LTM is SEK 264 million versus SEK 218 million full year 2025. Looking at Q3 country by country, we start with Sweden. Organic growth of 3.5% in the quarter, primarily a result of favorable activity level and higher income in all three areas: IFM, cleaning, and property services. Adjusted EBITA and margins are improving with strong performance across all our business in Sweden. During the third quarter, sales in Denmark declined with 15% versus last year. The negative organic growth is - 15%, was due to previous communicated ended contracts, which are estimated to also have negatively impact upcoming quarters. This affected the EBITA negatively for the quarter that amounted to SEK 17 million versus last year, SEK 21 million.
The EBITA margin is 3.0% versus last year 3.2%. We can see in the quarter that the measurements being executed to size the business to, for the time being, a lower revenue are having an effect as the EBITA margin 3% is almost in line with last year's percent despite the lower sales. As mentioned earlier, an IAC to the amount of SEK 27 million related to the arbitration decision related to a customer case in Denmark from 2022 is accounted for in the Q3. Denmark continues to work to adjust their businesses with the lower volumes, with the balance to position themselves to future growth. Turning to Norway, during the quarter, the organic growth was slightly negative, with 0.9%. The negative growth was due to the high variable volumes from last year in Q3.
We are now during Q3 year 2026 can see a normalization of the level of variable volumes. The new contracts continue to have a positive impact on the volumes and profitability. During the quarter, these contracts largely offset the decline in variable volumes compared with last year when variable volumes were unusually high. This result in a more balanced contract portfolio in Norway for the time being. Adjusted EBITA for the quarter amounted to SEK 36 million to be compared to SEK 29 million last year.
The EBITA margin increased to 5.4% versus 4.6% in last year. Turning to Finland, organic growth was positive and amounted to 4%, and the foreign exchange effects were 0.1%, very immaterial. Operating profit, adjusted EBITA, amounted to SEK 11 million to be compared to SEK 10 million in last year. EBITA margin was reported to positive 6.2%, which is exactly in line with last year.
Finland continue to focus on increasing their organic growth. Moving on to cash flow and balance sheet. Continued solid cash conversion at 87% on the LTM basis. Working capital is - 7.8%, which is in line with the seasonal pattern in prior years. Leverage continues to be stable for the time being in the quarter, we reported 2.3 times EBITA in leverage. With that, I hand it back to you, Ola, to summarize.
All right. Thank you, Patrik. To summarize, we see a continued high level of market activity. There is a lot of tenders going on in the market. We have seen organic growth in Sweden and Finland. We see a flat revenue development in Norway, but a mix shift from high variable volumes to more subscription-based, which is good. We see a negative growth in Denmark. We see continued improvements in EBITA margin, with a 12% increase in EBITA, and where we are approaching now our financial targets and delivering a 5% margin in the quarter. Continued strong cash conversion. The leverage of 2.3 puts us in a very solid position and opens up for opportunities to do investments and continue to develop the business.
We have a solid strategy that we have communicated on our Capital Markets Day last year, and we continue to work on that, and that is yielding positive results. We see positive development in Sweden, Finland, and Norway, and in Denmark, we are stabilizing the business after some contract losses and working to regain organic growth in Denmark. A solid quarter all in all, I think. With that, I would like to end this part of the call and go into a Q&A session. Please open that up.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pond 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 Johnson from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Ola and Patrik. It was very encouraging to see organic growth margins continuing to be on the right track here. I think Norway was the main region standing out here in Q3. Organic growth was a challenge of flat, but holding up very well against the strong 22% last year, and especially considering the normalized variable volumes. What would you say is the difference compared to last quarter when you had 10% negative organic growth? Is all of that difference coming from the new contracts you have signed or anything else boosting Q3 here in Norway?
No, I think it's a combination of the two that you mentioned. We are phasing in new contracts with subscription revenue, and they are increasingly contributing to our top line, and we are phasing a new contract. At the same time, we had a very high level of variable volumes in both Q2 and Q3 last year. That came down from those levels. I think it's a mix of these things that you see. To me, I think the encouraging thing is to see the improvement in subscription volumes coming up so that we are less dependent on variable volumes. It creates a more stable and predictable business.
Got it. The follow-up on that is that usually variable volumes are quite good for your margins, and new contracts tend to hold back margins. I think that's typically what we see and what you have communicated here from Norway as well. Here you had the higher margins in Norway despite this mix effect. Were the new contracts better margin they thought, or how should we think about it?
I think we are seeing a general improvement in profitability and productivity across the Norwegian business. If we double-click, we see an improvement in our cleaning business. We see an improvement in many of our other businesses in Norway as well. There is a general lift in productivity in the Norwegian business, and we are managing the new contracts very well, I think, and maybe have less of a start-up hiccup than what we usually see. Particularly now coming into Q3, those deliveries are really starting to stabilize. Talking about the margins on the variable volumes, generally speaking, we see a good margin on those. It's also the case that in these large oil and gas contracts, there are several different types of variable volumes, and they have a different level of profitability depending on what it is.
It's a little bit more complex.
All right. You think the current margin strength here is sustainable and something we should expect to continue here in Norway?
Well, we don't make forward-looking statements like that. But generally speaking, we think that it's an encouraging productivity development in the Norwegian business.
All right. Can you explain a little bit more on the specifics? What's behind that? Any specific reason or changes?
In the Norwegian business?
Yeah.
Well, as I said, I think if we double-click on that, we see improvements in productivity. We see improvements in scheduling. We see improvements in how the business is run, how we manage the contract portfolio. I think this is a business where there is not one big fix. It is usually many small decisions every day that drives productivity. Stine and the team in Norway have been very successful at pushing all of these day-to-day kind of continuous productivity efforts that have improved the margins of the Norwegian business. With that to say, I think we are doing a similar good job in the Swedish business, which resulted in our all-time high EBITA in the Swedish business. We are doing those improvements across, you could say, but it is particularly noticeable in the Norwegian business perhaps.
All right. Interesting. Thanks for that. Just final from me here on the cash flow. It is regarding the arbitration fee that was booked here in Q3. Was it paid in Q3 here as well? Or how was the cash flow effect on that, given that the free cash flow was down compared to last year? That is why I want
Yes, that is correct. It was paid in Q3 as well.
Okay. Perfect. That is all from me. Thank you.
The next question comes from Karl-Johan Bonnevier from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Ola and Patrik. Good answers already on Norway. Could I elaborate a little more on Denmark? How do you see the progress and the stabilization going for you, and what is next as you now seem to be turning more to a sales focus when I read the comment as well?
Well, Denmark, there are several moving parts at the same time. First of all, we did, as we mentioned quite a few times here, lost a couple of big contracts, and we are still working through that and making sure that we are able to offset that both on the fixed cost, but also in the business. At the same time, we are doing a similar kind of productivity improvement effort that we are doing in Norway, and we are seeing that the Danish business is operating in many of our contracts at a better margin. At the same time, there are many contracts, both ours and our competitors out in the market currently for tender. We also have a significant effort put on our sales team in Denmark to both try to win new business and defend our existing business.
The Danish business and the team there really have a very full agenda of things to do, and we are staying close to it. Many moving parts in the Danish business. But from my perspective, I think we see a stabilization of the underlying business and an improvement of the underlying business, which is also reflected in the fact that we more or less were able to keep the same margin and the same profitability despite having lost 15% of the revenue. I think that is a testament to a strong work in the Danish team. I was just there myself the other week, and we see a quite positive energy in the team, despite a heavy workload and many things going on.
When you look at the year-on-year headwind from the contract losses going into Q4, I guess those were starting to get out of your operations in Q4 last year. How big is the headwind going into Q4 compared to Q3?
I think we continue to see headwinds in both Q4 and the beginning of next year as well in the comps. Hopefully after that, we will also get a clearer picture of both our growth efforts in Denmark, the full effect of the contract losses, et cetera. We will see a continuation of these type of numbers in the coming quarters, is our prediction.
So similar headwind in Q4 as in Q3?
We are not making predictions like that exactly, as you know. But the math can be done quite easily, I think.
Yeah, I think our focus is of course, coming in with winning new tenders and new deals with the customers, of course. That is something that we have been talking about for a long time, and we are aware of it. So we are putting a lot of effort, as Ola said, to increase the sales force, and also hopefully will bring in some new customers and tenders upcoming quarters. Which doesn't mean that the revenue will come immediately when we have a new customer on board. It will take a while until that actually turns into a revenue in the P&L, so to say. As you know.
Exactly. On the theme of adding sales resources, both centrally and in the geographies as you talked about, could you elaborate a little more on that and maybe what is your historic kind of traction when you add resources, how quickly do they become productive and add to the sales that comes in and the revenues then in the next part of it?
Good question. As I mentioned before, we are adding sales resources both on central level, group level and on local level. We're trying to make sure that is financed through efficiency gains in the business, so that we are able to offset the margin effect of those increased resources. Coming to the second part of your question, I think if we look at the local sales resources, we generally see a more speedy kind of market effect of that, because it's usually smaller deals with shorter lead times. Then if we look at group level, it's usually longer cycles, longer contracts, longer tender periods, et cetera. So it depends a little bit on where you see the resources coming in, how long the payback is.
But usually there is, as Patrik said, a time delay first for the sales guys to come in, then for them to actually make deals, and then for those deals to come into production and into the P&L. So there is a time lag, which is also the reason why there is no time to lose. But rather, we try to be as aggressive as possible now and without affecting the margins.
Just to elaborate a little bit on that, we of course also have an existing sales force. They are working a lot with doing tenders and deals, so to say. We should not forget about that.
You mentioned the busy contracting situation in Denmark. How does it look for you in the other markets?
I think that, as we said, it's quite an active market. There's a lot of tenders, both ours and the competitors out on the market. Our sales force are being kept very busy, let's put it like that. Of course, being the market leader, we of course have a lot of defending to do as well of our current contracts. There's a lot of market activity in basically all of our markets. I think that's the short of it.
Excellent. When you look at the different markets and the competitive position, do you feel that keeping retention levels high is a bigger challenge in certain of the geographies given that, or is it the similar picture across the different markets?
We haven't released numbers like that really before, but generally speaking, we have a high retention rate, and we're aiming to be in the 90% of our retention rate, the way we measure it. I think we so far have been able to stay at those levels. Obviously, as you can see, we've had some challenges in the retention work in Denmark. These are long processes. The contract losses that we're feeling now is something that we lost a year before that, and the retention work was a year before that again. These are very long processes. We have to be always there, always working with our customers, always making sure that they are satisfied and that we can prolong contracts.
When you look at the sales resource addition, I saw you mention it particularly in Finland, but I guess Sweden, given the strong progress you have in the operation for the moment, that must be the next catalyst for getting Sweden up to the next level. Is there something more you can do on the efficiency side that hasn't come through yet?
I think the good news for Coor is that there is opportunity on both of these sides. There is more productivity work to be done for sure, and we're looking at that. At the same time, we're facing cost increases from our suppliers and price pressure in the market. We need to continue to push productivity to be competitive. As you mentioned, now that we are approaching our financial targets on the margin, we're not there yet, but we're working to get there. I think organic growth and getting more scale is obviously a high priority for us. If you look in Norway, for example, where we have a very positive momentum on productivity and margins, we would really benefit from having a scale that is more similar to the Swedish scale.
I think that would really boost the margins to the next level in the Norwegian business, for example.
Excellent. Finally, on the new contracting businesses. When I try to track it seems that has been a little slower during this year than during last year, and I know obviously that is in part depending on what kind of renewals you have in your own portfolio. Do you feel that processes out there are taking longer for the moment, or is there something in the market that might explain why your contracting also has been a little slower this year?
Well, as I said, I think there is a lot of activity. The processes are a little bit longer. There is for sure tough competition, as there always is, for every big contract. We have had some wins and some losses, so it is a tough market out there, and we are facing some really strong competitors, both local and international. So it is a tough job that has to be done every day from our teams, both the customer teams and the sales teams. So it is not like a giant shift in the market, I would say, but it is tough competition.
Excellent. Thank you very much for the call and all the best out there.
Thank you, Karl-Johan.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Oliver Uusitalo from Aktiespararna . Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. I just had two short questions from my end. First of all, in terms of the Danish market, on the margin here, we see those slight improvements quarter to quarter here, which kind of breaks the normal seasonality where you start Q1 at high levels and then it gradually decreases. Where do you see margins going into Q4? I mean, due to the improvements that you have been done in this Danish operation, do you think you can maintain a higher margin Q4 compared to Q3, or should we expect the normal seasonality patterns to continue here?
I think, as we said, we are not doing any outlook, so to say, but of course our ambition, as we communicated a couple of times, is to size the Danish business to, for the time being, a lower revenue. That doesn't change, of course. That will still hold. So our ambition is of course to grow the top line with a right-sized cost base. I think you are rightly observing that there are some trends if we are looking at the margin levels and so on, that seems to indicate that we see some light in the tunnel in some of those regards. You remarked on one of those measures. But we haven't pushed that too hard because there are so many moving parts in Denmark, so we don't dare to say that we turned the corner, but we see some positive signs.
All right. Great. Thanks for that. My next question was regarding the variable volumes there in the Swedish market, perhaps especially going into Q4. I mean, variable volumes being quite substantial in Q4, I suppose. What are you seeing here compared to last year?
I think we have had a continued and very targeted effort to improve our sales efforts in the day-to-day work of our businesses. That has resulted in larger variable volumes across our Swedish business. We are hoping and thinking that that will continue. But variable volumes are always also dependent on what is happening in the general economy and the sentiments in the different markets where we operate. It is dependent also partly on the market, but I think we are doing a lot better work, generally speaking, in our businesses to do upselling and cross-selling than we have been doing in the past. There is a lot more to do, but I think we are doing a good job there in terms of improvements over last year. We are hoping that that will continue, of course, but it is not something that we will put in an outlook.
Yeah. Right. For sure. Thanks for that. That is it for my end, and I jump back in the queue.
There are no more phone questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you very much for listening in to this year's Q3 call, and we will all hopefully meet again in one quarter. Thank you very much.