Good morning, everyone. I'm Sandra Åberg, Head of Investor Relations at Essity. Thank you for joining our audiocast today, following yesterday's evening announcement with the news that Essity acquires Edgewell's feminine care business in North America. Today's presenters are Essity's President and CEO, Ulrika Kolsrud, and our Executive Vice President and CFO, Fredrik Rystedt. They will take us through the highlights of the acquisition and the financials. Presentation slides are shown in this webcast, and you can also find them on Essity.com. After the presentation, we will open up for questions. With that, I hand over to our CEO, Ulrika Kolsrud.
Thank you, Sandra. Also from my side, good morning, everyone. I am very pleased with our announcement last night that Essity is acquiring Edgewell's well-known feminine care brands in North America. We're talking about Carefree, Stayfree, o.b., and Playtex. This is a business with net sales of approximately $260 million, or SEK 2.5 billion. This means that our global feminine care business of today will increase 18% in net sales based on 2024 numbers. Now, the benefit of this acquisition goes beyond that increased size, and I will come back to that in a minute. In addition to the brands, the acquisition includes a production facility, and this is where most of the 500 employees who will join our organization work. The purchase price is $340 million, approximately SEK 3.2 billion.
The brands that we are welcoming into the Essity portfolio through this acquisition are well-known, established brands with strong positions both in the U.S. and in Canada. They have a number two or number three position in their respective segments: Carefree within liners, o.b. and Playtex within tampons, and Stayfree and Carefree within pads. This is a strong foundation to build on. By applying Essity's recipe for success in feminine care, we aim to revitalize these brands, gain market share, and grow further while improving profit margins. Feminine care is a high-margin category where we have the right to win and where we do win where we choose to play. The acquisition of these brands represents a unique opportunity for us to expand our feminine care business also into North America.
In addition to expanding our presence in feminine care, the acquisition provides scale in retail for the benefit of our incontinence retail business in the U.S. This will generate revenue synergies. We also expect cost synergies, and Fredrik will soon provide more details on what those are. With this acquisition, we take an important step on our journey to create a stronger personal care business in North America, not the least in the U.S. We can leverage Edgewell's brick-and-mortar footprint for our personal care categories, and we become an even more relevant partner for retail customers by having a broader portfolio and bigger scale. The tangible benefits that I've just now mentioned are one reason why I'm truly excited about welcoming these brands to Essity. Another reason is the perfect strategic fit.
This is our strategy for profitable growth, and you have seen it many times before, with the first two pillars being to focus on high-yielding segments and to grow in attractive geographic areas. Feminine care is definitely one of our high-yielding categories, and so is, by the way, incontinence retail that will also benefit from this expanded platform. U.S., being the world's largest hygiene market, where we currently have limited presence in personal care, is certainly an attractive geography where we would like to expand. It is furthermore a perfect match with our M&A strategy. For those of you who joined our capital market day in Valls, you might remember our inorganic growth priorities in consumer goods: to grow in the feminine care category and to expand our U.S. presence. Now, you might wonder how we will make these brands more successful.
Feminine care is a focus area for Essity. We know how to win and have strong positions where we choose to compete. If we look at the last five years, we have clearly outperformed the market with a net sales growth CAGR of around 8% to compare with a market growth of 2%-3%. One of the ingredients in our recipe for success is our global innovation platform with unbeatable protection and superior products, innovations that now will benefit our acquired brands. Another ingredient is our bold and purpose-driven brand building, combined with relevant product positioning and strong claims. We know how to cut through to consumers. Among the many other ingredients in our recipe for success, I'd like to highlight also our go-to-market expertise and, in the back end, a cost-competitive supply chain, including global scale benefits in purchasing of raw materials.
Briefly, a few quick touchdowns around the world to illustrate how we have developed the feminine care business in other regions. We start now with Australia and New Zealand, where Essity acquired Asaleo Care and the Libra brand in 2021 and has since successfully gained market share and advanced to be the number one brand. Moving on around the world to Latin America, where we have a strong number one position in both Mexico and Colombia. The graph that you see here shows our fantastic journey with the Saba brand in Mexico, which we can attribute to consistently applying Essity's way of working in the feminine care category. Finally, in Europe, where we are the fastest-growing player in feminine care with strong positions in key markets, we are, for example, number one in the Nordics and number two in France and in the U.K.
Now, over to some more details about the transaction. Over to Fredrik.
Thank you, Ulrika. As already been said here, the purchase price on a cash and debt-free basis is $340 million or equivalent to about SEK 3.2 billion. The revenue in here, we're basing it on the 12-month rolling ending June 30 of 2025, was approximately $260 million, and the operating profit approximately $17 million. So roughly SEK 2.5 billion in sales and about SEK 160 million of operating profit. We expect to complete this transaction. Of course, this is subject to customary regulatory approvals. We're not expecting any specific issues there. We expect the transaction to close sometime during the first quarter of 2026. Obviously, the company is a continuous business, and it will continue to run as is for the time being.
There is a transaction service agreement or TSA with Edgewell, and this will last for up to one year relating to such areas as IT, HR, administration, customer service, and actually also for sales. We will gradually, over the course of 2026, take these things over or these services over. If we look at the financial impact, I'll bridge a little bit the EBITDA multiples on the next slide. I'll show you some more detail. As you can see, based on that June 30, 2025, rolling 12-month number, the EBITDA multiple is approximately 12x or just over. If we include all the synergies on a pro forma basis, run rate basis, then multiple is 8.3x. We expect those synergies to fully materialize by the end of year two at the latest. It's worth noting here that these synergies relate to cost synergies.
There are also other synergies relating to more revenue benefits coming from joining our incontinence sales in the North American market and the feminine sales of Edgewell. We have not calculated the benefits within those multiples that you see here. There are additional synergies that we expect to come from year three and thereafter. You are already aware of, most of you, I guess, that we have a very strong balance sheet. As of September 30, we had an approximate leverage or net debt to EBITDA of 1.18x or close to 1.20x. If you now look at this acquisition, as if we had done it by September 30, the pro forma number would have been 1.28x. The impact is 0.2 in net debt to EBITDA. We expect this to be neutral from an EPS perspective year one, excluding one-time costs.
Now, those one-time costs are not material, so largely neutral, you can say, for the first year. Of course, accretive from year two and onward. If I turn to the next slide and just show you briefly the bridge. We have based it on, as I already mentioned, June 30, rolling 12 months, approximately [$17 million]. If you look at historic depreciation and amortization, roughly about $10 million. There are smaller accounting adjustments to translate the result into IFRS with another $1 million. You get to an underlying pro forma EBITDA of approximately $28 million. We have, and I already mentioned that, cost synergies. They are relating to COGS, so procurement. They are relating to admin and many other areas. The total amount there is $30 million.
We've done a lot of benchmarking versus our own cost in other parts of the group to derive at this number. We feel very certain that we will be able to deliver this in cost synergies. All in all, pro forma $41 million. That leads to an EBITDA multiple of 8.3x. With those words, stop.
Yes. Thank you, Fredrik, for that. And thank you, Ulrika. Now we will move to Q&A. Operator, please open up for questions.
Thank you. The first question comes from the line of Niklas Ekman from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Yes. Can I just ask about your view on the strength of this feminine care business? Because when I look at Edgewell's reporting, it seems like this is a business that has been struggling for quite a few years with declining sales and margins that are well below historical levels. What is your view on this? What do you view as the reason for this? How confident are you in managing a turnaround of this business?
You are totally right that sales have declined. There has been a weak development, and sales have declined and profits have declined. The brands acquired are very well known. They hold number two to number three positions in their respective segments. They do that and have been able to retain these positions based on a lasting brand equity despite being non-core, if I may say so, under the previous leadership or ownership. For Essity, of course, feminine care is a core business. We will give it another level of attention and our full focus. That is the starting point. The brands, with them being well known and trusted among women, then we have a very good base to build from. We have this success recipe that I talked about. We know how to win in feminine care.
We will apply this to these brands. They will get the benefit of the innovations that have been successful across markets. They will get the benefit of our brand building that has been successful across markets. That will help to revitalize the brands and thereby gain market share and grow.
Very clear.
Can I add, Niklas?
Niklas, if it's possible, may I add just one thing? When you look at the numbers, as you've seen, sales and profit has fallen, as you rightly point out there. There was a special circumstance. During Q4 of 2024, the Edgewell feminine care business migrated the pads business from Stayfree to Carefree. That migration was less successful. There was a quite significant loss of sales at the early or late part of 2024 and to a smaller degree in the beginning of 2025. If you look at the year-on-year sales development, it is exactly, as you say, quite a lot down, a bit over 10%, as you see. If you actually look at it sequentially, you will discover that the situation has clearly stabilized. In fact, it's not shrinking anymore. This was a result of that migration that was less successful.
That has now partly been mitigated and partly reversed. The company has now stabilized. It looks a bit weaker than in reality it is, if that makes sense.
Very clear. Thanks. Can I also just ask, when you're talking about sales synergies, is your aim to use this as a springboard to expand your existing brands into the North American market? Or are you more talking about using the existing technology and applying that to these Edgewell brands?
There we have to differentiate between the trademarks and the brand positioning. The trademarks, of course, have built a lot of trust and awareness in these markets. That trust and awareness, we, of course, want to build on and keep those trademarks. The brand positioning that we have that is driving and how we communicate around our brands, how we drive innovation, what innovations that we put on the market in order to deliver on customer or consumer needs, that we will apply to those brands. There is a difference between the two.
Very clear. Thank you so much for taking my questions and good luck.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Patrick Folan, Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I understand the U.S. angle and increasing exposure in femcare. In the fem category, what makes you believe you have the right to win in U.S. retail? I mean, considering you have a relatively small exposure there at the moment, as you said. I get what you've done in LatAm and European femcare. The U.S. market is quite different and very competitive, as you touched on. Secondly, on the synergies within the COGS front, can you maybe elaborate here where in particular you'll see the benefit? Is it across raw material buying? Does it change the raw material mix much in the consumer segment? Thanks.
Obviously, as you say, the U.S. market is competitive. The competition that we see in the U.S. market is quite similar to what we see in other markets as well. That competitive set is not unknown to us. I mean, if we look at Australia, we look at Europe and many other markets where we are successful, we meet the same competitors and have a lot of competitive pressure. We believe that our and the consumer needs, by the way, are actually quite similar across the different mature markets. We believe that our recipe for success will work as well in the U.S. as it will in other markets. Of course, what is important in the customer-facing part is to have a broad portfolio and a scale and thereby a relevance with the retailers.
By now having both incontinence care and feminine care in the U.S., we are much better placed to drive that growth across our personal care business.
You were asking specifically on the COGS savings. There are two sources. I'm sure there are more, but what we have been able to very clearly quantify. The first one relates to procurement conditions. Of course, using our scale relating to materials used for feminine products production will enable us to simply have better conditions for better terms. The other one is relating to, and you were actually mentioning it yourself, material rationalization and those kind of projects. Those are the main two parts in the COGS side. We have very significant synergies also in the admin side.
Okay, thank you. Just to follow up, Ulrika, on your comments, I mean, in terms of volume growth, which in terms of the target you guys are focusing on over the medium term, that's obviously a key focus for you guys. I'm just wondering how you plan to turn this around to the business that's kind of been struggling for the last few years to get to that maybe 3% top-line target, considering some of the headwinds. Is that something that will be a bit more long-dated, or should we expect immediate improvement? Thanks.
I think there are two aspects of that. Firstly, to your point, I mean, the market growth is roughly 2%. We have the clear ambition to outgrow the market. I think one effect you will get just by us having a different level of focus and attention, that in itself will be a benefit to the business. When it comes to reapplying the innovations and brand building and so on, the effect of that will, of course, take a bit longer time.
Thank you both.
The next question comes from the line of Celine Pannuti from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My first question is probably a bit of clarification because I think Edgewell yesterday said that for fiscal year 2026, they expected the business to contribute $35 million-$45 million in EBITDA. You are saying that with the synergy is $41 million. I just want to understand whether within your $41 million, there was anyway something backed up, backed up, sorry, from like some form of recovery in the underlying business. If you can specifically talk about where are the synergies that you and quantify the synergies that you are seeing on top. The second question in terms of understanding how you plan to turn around this business, can you talk about the A&P spending? Once you have done this EBITDA level, how much do you need to spend on top in order to revitalize the business?
What do you think this business will need to have? What are the plans? If you think about one to two years, your plans in terms of reinvestment and when the new innovation will come through?
If I start with the second question, then I'm afraid we can come back to the first one. I mean, that level of detail is difficult to go into at this point. Of course, we will invest in A&P in order to revitalize the brands. As I said before, it's a very good starting point because the fact that these brands have been able to keep their positions in spite of quite low attention tells something about the strength of these brands. We have something good to build on and will gradually apply our innovations and our brand building over the coming years.
Celine, on your first question, I'm actually not sure I fully understood it. Just to explain the bridge, perhaps as a starting point, it is a mix of history and future, as I explained there. The starting point is $17 million is to roll in 12 months up until June 30 of 2025. That is history. The DNA there is, as well as the pro forma IFRS adjustment, all of that is history. You can say the $28 million is just what would it have been sort of EBITDA June 30 of 2025. The $13 million I mentioned there, or you can find in the bridge, is forward-looking. This is the run rate after two years, fully realized in year three. You can say the $41 million is a mix of history and the future.
Of course, the profit in three years' time will be different than 41, obviously. I'm not sure. I think you were referring to an estimate done by Edgewell.
Right. But basically, Edgewell says that the impact on 2026 fiscal year is $35 million-$45 million EBITDA. So I mean, that means that they're forward-looking. So the $28 million would have become $35 million-$45 million for fiscal year 2026. So there was already a bit of a step up that they were planning for.
As I said, we are not providing, as you already know here, Celine, we're not providing any forecast. The view they're portraying there is then more a forward-looking statement for next year. We're not doing that. We're just taking pro forma numbers for 2025 and adding synergies in the future. We're not providing a forecast for 2026. They are doing that. It's a bit comparing apples to pears. Of course, it's good that they envisage a positive development for the company. That's helpful.
Yeah. Maybe can I just follow up on that? The synergies, because the level of profitability of that business is quite low and much lower than that of your feminine care business, if I look at the $41 million EBITDA, basically more or less will raise that margin to the low teens level. Is this including, I mean, do you think that this is a right level of profitability you can maintain including the investment that this business needs?
When we look at their reported margin today, it also in our view reflects an overallocation of costs. When we apply our costs based on benchmark that we have internally, what we need to drive the feminine business, then the real profit margin is higher. It is still below what we have in total for the Essity feminine care business, but it's higher than what you see in the reported report from Edgewell.
I think, Celine, to be fair, without giving you kind of a time frame on that, we do not see a reason why this business should be no or weaker in performance than the rest of the business. Of course, the priority, as Ulrika very clearly alluded to, is to revitalize the brand, make sure that this business is growing. We will do that through investing in the business with A&P. Over time, as we grow this business and we grow scale, then over time also, and we kind of normalize A&P investments, then of course, over time, margins will also expand and approach those of the rest of our business. That is of course for the future. This is a long-term investment project, a very exciting one. This is the plan. It is not immediate, of course, as we have already said here.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question as a reminder, please press star one now on your telephone keypad, and to withdraw your question, hit star two. The next question comes from the line of Oskar Lindström from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Two questions from my side. First off, looking back a bit, back in 2022, you acquired the Knix Wear business based in Canada, but I guess operating in the U.S. as well. How does that fit into this or maybe vice versa? That is my first question. Second question is, do you see this acquisition now of the Edgewell business as a platform acquisition enabling you to grow further in the wider U.S. personal care segment? Should we expect further acquisitions? Yes, the sort of strategic implications of this acquisition. Thank you. Those were my two questions.
Yeah, I think to start with the first one, the M&A strategy and the strategy for profitable growth that we have, that remains the same. Feminine care is still an attractive category to invest in, and the U.S. remains a priority market. Yes, this is a platform for further growth, organic and potentially inorganic. When it comes to Knix, Knix is having a bit of a different go-to-market today, but of course, being stronger, having a stronger presence and strength in the retail environment could potentially over time benefit also Knix.
Right. Just coming back to the first answer there where you talked about further acquisitions in this segment, would that be within feminine care, or do you see also that there are attractive opportunities in other personal care or health and medical segments in North America?
Yeah, I mean, we have talked about the categories where we have the highest potential for profitable growth and where we have the strongest right to win. That still holds true. That holds true for North America as well. It is incontinence care and feminine care, also wound care being a very attractive category together with lymphology.
All right. Thank you very much. Those were my questions.
The next question comes from the line of Antoine Prévot from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Just coming back on the run rate synergies of $30 million over the coming years. As you said, there will be needs of reinvestment. Within this $30 million, I mean, what level of reinvestment rate should we be thinking around, thinking about maybe? The second one, on the gross margin level for this business, I mean, is there a major difference compared to your feminine care business that you have right now? Thank you.
Antoine, could you repeat the first? I actually didn't get the first question. Sorry about that. The sound was a little bit bad.
Yeah. No, sorry. No, just on the $30 million run rate synergies, as you said, there will be need of reinvestments. So within this $30 million, I mean, what level of reinvestment rate should we be thinking about maybe?
Yeah. So if I understand it, of the $13 million in synergies, how much of that are we going to reinvest? Is that what you're asking?
Exactly.
Yeah. We have not actually defined that or stated that specifically. I think, Ulrika, maybe you should comment, but the aim is, of course, to invest sufficient funds in A&P in other ways, including new products, etc., to make sure that we get the growth to an attractive level. As we get that growth and enhance, yeah, grow our sales, then margins will over time come up and in the longer perspective, of course, approach the rest of our feminine business. That is the plan. We have not given any specific number, but I am not sure if you want to comment more, Ulrika.
No, I don't have anything to add. I would answer the exact same way.
For gross profit margin question, whether this is lower or higher, the answer is that it is currently lower in gross profit than the rest of our feminine business. This is partly, there are many things, I think partly a cost issue and a scale issue. Of course, we will over time make sure that, as we have already said, gross profit or margins over time will improve.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we currently have no question in the queue. As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one now on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from the line of Diana Gomes from Bloomberg Intelligence. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking the question. Very exciting transaction here. I'm just wondering if you could share some of your thoughts around the fact that some of these iconic brands that you are acquiring in North America also play a very important role around the world, but they are owned by another company. Just thinking if a West Cougar cut in that sense and the brands travel, are there thoughts in terms of how the brand's global perception is in terms of consistency of image, communication, and quality outside North America? Just some thoughts there would be quite helpful.
Yeah, thank you. You are right. Of course, there could be implications of how brands are driven and positioned in other parts of the world. I think the overarching aspect is how they are perceived and how they are positioned within that market. Here we have the freedom to position the brand and drive the brand credentials that we see fit for the, and that is what's important to us.
Thank you.
We have another follow-up question from Celine Pannuti from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes, my question is on feminine care. I think you made the point how successful you've been in running these businesses in Latin America, in Australia, in Europe. I would say there you also have a quite strong footprint if I think about the Nordics or France. My question is, what is your assessment of the competitive landscape in the U.S., where obviously you have two major competitors who have big exposure overall and big muscle to the overall retail space? I think you know like you obviously you have a recipe for success in terms of innovation and brand building. If you could talk about how your assessment of that problematic as you were looking into this acquisition.
Yeah, I think there we could actually look at our incontinence care business, where we are growing in spite of having a low market share in one category with retailers. Since we have a differentiated position and are seen as adding value to the category, we still can drive a very strong growth. I do not remember the exact numbers, but I believe it was 21% growth in Inco in U.S. retail in Q3. I think that is proof that, of course, the scale and a broad portfolio help, but it is not an absolute necessity. With having now two brands in the portfolio or several brands in the portfolio, two categories in the portfolio, that would improve our probability of success with the retailers.
Can you talk specifically how you see the competitive dynamic in the category in the U.S.?
Do you have any specifics in mind? I think there.
I think there are two major competitors. Whether as you obviously, it is a brand that those brands that you acquired need to be revitalized. You talked about your ability to build brands and as well to come with innovation. At the same time, you are facing, yeah, two major players with entry in the retail and across many categories.
As I said there, I think, of course, it is a benefit to have scale and a broad portfolio, but that is what we're building. We have proven with incontinence retail that we can drive growth and revitalize the brand and drive growth also with fewer categories in our portfolio. When it comes to the competitive set, we have, of course, one market leader, and then the second player is Edgewell. A shared second player is Edgewell, where Edgewell is a clear number two in panty liners and a shared number two basically in tampons, and then number three in pads. That is a strong position as a starting point for us. Of course, there are some new entrants into the category as well as can be expected.
The competitive set is not that different from many other markets that we compete in. Of course, we have respect for this being a very competitive market, but we also believe in our success recipe.
Excellent. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Mikheil Omanadze from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have just one. Do you think that this acquisition will result, will be accretive to your top line growth in the coming years? You mentioned that it will be earnings accretive, but do you believe it will be accretive to your growth profile? If yes, when do you expect it to be the case? Thank you.
The market growth is 2%, and we aim to outgrow the market, meaning that we should be at least on 3% in growth. And you know our financial target being to be 3% in organic growth. So of course, that depends on how fast we progress towards our financial targets in the rest of the business.
Thank you. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions in the queue, so I will hand it back to your host to conclude today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you, and thank you for all the questions. Now it's time to wrap up. Before we end, I would like to hand over to Ulrika again for a summary.
Yes, thank you, Sandra. Let's summarize what we achieved through this acquisition. We expand our presence in North America by acquiring a feminine care business, feminine care being a category where we have a proven recipe for success, as I now have said a number of times. We are acquiring well-known brands with high potential for further expansion, and we're also adding scale and synergies to our existing North America personal care platform. This move, focusing on high-yielding categories in attractive geographies, is perfectly aligned with our strategy to drive profitable growth and to create value. With that, I say thank you.
Yes, thank you, Ulrika, and thank you to our audience for listening in today. If you have any further questions, you know where to find us. We wish you a good rest of the day. Bye.