Welcome to the Getinge Q3 report 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 the speakers, CEO Mattias Perjos and CFO Agneta Palmér. Please go ahead.
Thanks, and welcome everyone to today's earnings call. As mentioned, I have our CFO, Agneta Palmér, with me today. In the conference call today, we'll go through our performance and some highlights in the third quarter before opening up for the customary Q&A. Let's move to page number two right away, please. If we start looking at the development of some of our longer-term strategic KPIs, we continue to clearly track in line with plan to increase the share of sales from recurring revenue, accelerating the share of sales from high-margin products like, for example, our ECLS offering and the DPTE-BetaBags since their transfer, which have both had a very strong year so far. All these activities are, of course, supported by solid and effective quality processes as well.
If we look at sales from recurring revenue, it continues to make up about 2/3 of our sales, and the high-margin products are at 70% as of Q3. When it comes to quality, the number of field actions in relation to sales have decreased significantly in the last three years. We are currently tracking slightly above last year's level, but remain within our expected range on this KPI. These improvements should, of course, be achieved also through responsible financial leverage and an attractive long-term return on invested capital. Let's move to page number three, please. If we look at the key takeaways when it comes to the third quarters, and with an emphasis on the financial KPIs. Overall, we deliver a healthy financial performance in the quarter with top-line growth. Net sales grew 2.1% organically, with positive development in most of the business areas.
Order intake increased by 2.6% organically. If we then look at the adjusted gross and EBITDA margins, they were up in the quarter as a result of the continued positive underlying performance that we've seen for quite a while now. Margins were also supported by a remaining tariff refund of SEK 45 million . This led to another quarter with strong cash flow and a very solid financial position. Our financial leverage is at 1.5x right now, so well below the 2.5 x EBITDA as we have an internal threshold. Let's move to page number four and talk about some of the key events from the quarter. I think first and foremost, I would like to share the information that we recently had the results of our annual customer feedback survey, and I'm very pleased to report that our net promoter score has reached an all-time high.
We also had very strong employee engagement, and these are two KPIs that are extremely important for long-term success. I am also happy to say that we, at the end of the quarter, initiated the launch of the new version of our ECMO platform, Cardiohelp II, in CE countries and in Hong Kong. So far, this has been very well received by our customers, so we look forward to continuing this launch. Within our digital health solutions, we launched Torin Plan Optimizer, which supports the surgical planning in hospitals thanks to an AI-powered system. Just to quote the head of OR management at Klinikum Stuttgart in Germany, he mentioned that this supports better informed planning decisions and much more effective use of our existing surgical capacity.
Furthermore, in collaboration with the Swedish non-profit organization Beredskapslyftet, we continued our support to the National Specialized Children's Hospital in Kyiv through a donation of ECMO consumables. The hospital operates one of Ukraine's leading pediatric ECMO programs, treating critically ill children from across the country. In 2025, the hospital reported that it doubled its ECMO capacity, and this continues to trend in a good direction. We are very happy to be part of supporting this important initiative. It is really clear that our donation helps sustain life-saving capability. Just continuing on the pediatric track for a moment, we received also in the quarter 510(k) clearance for a new smaller Edi catheter, which is used with our ventilators, and this makes it possible to support premature infants between 500 g and 1,000 g in weight. It is also very comforting to see that our sustainability KPIs are tracking well.
Just to highlight two of them. Compared to last year, we have reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20%, and the share of renewable energy is above 70%. We can then move to page number five, please. If we talk about then our organic top-line growth, this was driven by ACT and SW in the quarter. Order intake grew 2.6% organically. The organic order intake in Acute Care Therapies increased primarily in ECLS therapy consumables and Cardiac Assist and EVH consumables. Life Science organic order intake, it declined slightly during the quarter. The positive performance in bioprocessing and service did not fully offset the continuing decline that we see within our washer, isolator, and sterilizer sub-segment. Surgical Workflows increased, mainly driven by strong performance in operating room equipment, such as surgical tables and lights.
If we then look at the net sales part, we grew net sales with 2.1% in the quarter. This was mainly driven by disciplined work with pricing. Acute Care Therapies increased the net sales organically, primarily due to ECLS therapy consumables, intra-aortic balloon pumps in Cardiosave, and also our covered stents. Organic net sales for Life Science fell slightly following a continuing decline in washers, isolators, sterilizers, and this was despite a robust growth in Sterile Transfer. In Surgical Workflows, organic net sales rose slightly following growth in infection control and in our digital health solutions portfolio. We can then move to page number six, please, and I hand over to you, Agneta, for a moment.
Thank you, Mattias. Overall, we continue to improve our margins, and I am particularly pleased that the main driver of this is the underlying improvement in the business. Mainly thanks to the disciplined pricing efforts that Mattias mentioned, but also positive mix shift and productivity. Let us have a look at adjusted gross profit. For the group, adjusted gross profit amounted to SEK 4,343 million in the quarter, primarily on the back of the factors I just mentioned, but also supported by the remaining tariff refund of approximately SEK 45 million . This led to an increase of the adjusted gross margin by +2.2 percentage points in total. Moving on to adjusted EBITDA. The effect from adjusted gross profit on the EBITDA margin was +1.7 percentage points. OpEx increased less than inflation and adjusted for currency.
OpEx had a slight positive impact on the margin by about +0.1 percentage points in the quarter. FX impacted by +0.3 percentage points. All in all, this resulted in an adjusted EBITDA of SEK 1,278 million and a margin of 15.1%. Let us move to page seven, please. The strong operating results further strengthen our financial position. Free cash flow was again above the SEK 1 billion mark, amounting to SEK 1,302 million in the quarter. Compared with last year, free cash flow was impacted by the improved operating profit and changes in working capital. At the end of Q3, net debt decreased to SEK 10.4 billion due to the cash flow generation. If we adjust for pension liabilities, net debt was at SEK 8.1 billion .
This brings us to a leverage of 1.5 x adjusted EBITDA, which is well below the 2.5x which we have as an internal threshold.
If we adjust for pension liabilities, leverage is at 1.1 x adjusted EBITDA. Cash amounted to approximately SEK 3.2 billion at the end of the quarter. All in all, we can conclude that the financial position continues to be strong. Let us then move to page eight, please, and back to you, Mattias.
All right. Thank you, Agneta. Just one picture as well to show the traction that we are making towards our midterm guidance span. Looking at the rolling 12 months development for adjusted EBITDA margin, we have over two years, improved from 12% to 15.6%. Normalized, which means excluding tariffs, we are at 15.8%. Even if excluding the tariff refund of SEK 381 million in Q2 and Q3 of 2026, we are at 14.5%. In the capital markets update that we had in May 2024, we guided for an adjusted EBITDA margin span of 16%-19% by the end of 2028. We have a bit more than two years until the end of 2028, and as you can see, we are steadily closing in on the span.
The main drivers which will support us getting there in spite of continued tariffs are the gradual cost release from the second half of this year, mainly impacting 2027 and 2028. This is stemming from the regulatory submissions and the approval process when it comes to Cardiosave and Cardiohelp II. We also have the mix shift to more recurring revenue and high margin revenue that I mentioned in the beginning of the call. We also rely on the continuous productivity measures and the key product launches that we've had recently and will have before 2028. With that, we can move over to page number nine, please. If we then focus on the outlook for the remainder of 2026. As we all know, there are still some geopolitical uncertainties that we need to navigate.
Based on the underlying demand that we see, a regular dialogue with customers, our expectation remains for an organic net sales growth to be in the range of 3%-5% for 2026, adjusted for the phaseout of Surgical Perfusion. Surgical Perfusion is still expected to have net sales in 2026, declining from about SEK 250 million to SEK 50 million. Year to date, we are at 2.5% organic growth and believe Q4 performance will take us into the span of 3%-5%. Q4 is usually our largest quarter net sales-wise and multiple factors, especially on the customer side, impact if deliveries can go out before year-end. Here, all involved are always doing an incredible effort. We've seen this the last three or four years, and we rely on that type of performance again for the end of this year.
The uncertainty here is the main reason why we're not tightening the guidance span. We can then move to page 11, please. Just to talk about and summarize the key takeaways then. Overall, we have a solid financial performance with organic growth in top line. Margins came in healthy in the quarters, primarily thanks to the improving underlying performance in our business. Cash flow in the quarter was very strong. Our financial position also remains very solid. For 2026, we reiterate our guidance for organic net sales growth of 3%-5%, adjusted for the phase out of Surgical Perfusion. Our priorities for the last quarter of 2026, they remain the same as they've been before. It's about addressing the remaining challenges when it comes to quality work and Acute Care Therapies.
It's about sustainable productivity improvements and cost consciousness when navigating the political uncertainty that we see on a daily basis, and also addressing, of course, the impact from tariffs. Most importantly, continuing creating the added value for our customers, which you could really see when it comes to the net promoter score at an all-time high during this year. With that said, I open up for questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound 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 Philip Ekengren from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Thank you operator and good morning, Mattias and Agneta. I'll have two questions. I'll take them one by one. Starting with the outlook, that implies some growth acceleration in Q4 obviously here. Which products or segments do you think will support that acceleration? Is the upper end range still in place?
Yeah, we don't disclose which categories we believe are most important when it comes to a specific quarter like this. I think the patterns that you've seen before, they will remain intact. ECLS consumables is definitely one of those categories. Sterile Transfer, another one. But other than that, we don't want to single out anything specific here. I think it goes without saying that the lower part of the guidance span is easier and much more realistic than the upper part. But again, like I said in the summary, we do have a lot of deliveries scheduled for the fourth quarter, and there's a lot of swing factors involved there. That's the reason for not narrowing the span.
That makes sense. Thank you. You highlighted some positive customer response following the launch of Cardiohelp II. Are orders primarily replacing existing Cardiohelp systems or is it expanding your installed base?
It's a mix of both. We don't disclose this, but it's a mix of both. This is a therapy that is in general expansion mode. So it's both about replacing but also opening up new ECMO centers and adding capacity in existing ones.
Perfect. Thank you much. I'll get back into the queue.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Ludwig Germunder from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have the first one, which is a general question on demand. I am interested to hear what you are currently seeing and hearing from customers. We see some industry peers to you reporting more challenging demand situation, but you seem to be doing well, and I think you sound confident on the outlook here. Beyond the reported numbers, what are you seeing and hearing from your customers right now?
I think the general situation when it comes to demand is stable and positive. We see that across most categories. This is a pattern that has been with us for a while. I think on the challenging side, it is mostly on the big capital part in Life Science that is still sluggish. I think one of the small bright spots maybe in the quarter was that we had a little bit better momentum in the U.S. for that category, which is a first in a while. I describe the general situation as rather stable when it comes to both the surgical procedures that are being performed and the way they drive this demand in the short term. I also think customers seem to have long-term faith in the future and willing to also place capital orders.
You saw, for example, order intake in Surgical Workflows, operating tables is one example of that.
Okay, thank you for that. A second question on order mix. You mentioned that the order intake was primarily increasing in ECLS therapy consumables, Cardiac Assist, and EVH consumables. In the total ACT orders, do you see any change in the mix when it comes to these consumables, or would you say that they make up a normal share of total orders?
Yeah. Nothing to point out, I think, from a mix pattern. I think what we've predicted and seen for a long while keeps happening, keeps unfolding, I would say.
Okay.
With that, maybe just to add that Q4 is usually a bit of a different mix, more capital heavy per seasonal pattern.
Get it. Thank you for that. Just a quick one, if I may. I noticed that the acquisition cost in the quarter was SEK 33 million. I know it's a small number, but it's still standing out a bit compared to previous quarters. Could you comment anything on what's driving this increase?
Yeah. Nothing specific other than that we remain very active when it comes to looking at M&A. There is a good inflow in the funnel of interesting targets, and we do spend some money on due diligence in processes here, but nothing I can call out or talk about any result from here. It's a normal part of what we do, a little bit heightened level in the third quarter, and I think that's all.
Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Erik Cassel from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Hello. Morning, everyone. First question on ACT margins. You've said that quality costs were going to taper off a bit now during H2. Have you already seen the help the ACT margin now in Q3, or is it more to come in Q4?
I think just to say that we are progressing on that trajectory that we have described before when it comes to quality cost, but it still remains elevated compared to normal levels, and that will remain for some time. That message is the same as before. Just to reiterate the drivers of the margin in ACT as a continuation of what we have talked about before. It is pricing, it is mix, positive mix shift, and then underlying productivity factors. Then in this quarter, a little bit of help then from currency.
Okay. But you can't say if the effect is going to be bigger in Q4 than it was now?
I would not count on it being bigger in Q4 than now.
Okay. You said on the last conference call that the vent comps were going to be a lot cleaner now in H2, but it looks like vents continued to fall. Do you think that's anything on timing, or is the market still perhaps a bit weaker than what you expect?
Yeah. Nothing particular to call out. I think it is a market that is normalizing in the wake of a number of players leaving the space here. We've had an uptick in the past, but nothing specific to call out here other than sometimes there's a bit of lumpiness also when it comes to contracts on ventilators.
Okay. Thank you. It looked like balloon pump consumables did fairly well as well. Is that some sort of effect from supply constraints being released in Europe? Also if it is supply constraints being lifted, do you have any sort of backlog that you now bring into Q4, which you expect to catch up on?
I think the consumables supply, we don't really have any restrictions on. That's been fairly smooth for some time. The capacity restrictions on the balloon pumps themselves, you know very well the history here, and we do still have constraints when it comes to everything from certain components to manpower to build the pumps. That's the situation, and we do expect this to be a challenging situation for the remainder of this year as well. I can't call out any specific dynamic now for Q3 compared to Q4, but until we have worked through the entire supply chain situation and the capacity, I think we will have a bit of sluggishness when it comes to the hardware.
Okay. Thank you. Just a quick last one. Didn't see a mention on ECMO filing in the U.S. Do you have any update on if you're still aiming for previous communication on ECMO filing timeline?
No news, really. We will communicate once it has been submitted. We continue to have a constructive dialogue in these pre-submission meetings with the FDA. Nothing new to share here.
Okay, great. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Mattias Vadsten from SEB. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is on Life Science. No comment on Sterile Transfer on the order side this time around. I just want to see if this area is still showing solid performance and if momentum is holding up there.
Yeah, I think generally, yes, the momentum. It is a category where we expect to have good long-term momentum. Then, as you know, some of these orders are because of large contracts as well. You can have some lumpiness quarter by quarter. In the quarter, the order intake wasn't spectacular here, but we believe that we have confidence going forward in both order intake and sales of Sterile Transfer products.
That's clear. Thanks. Just to take a step back, maybe you're thinking about ECLS consumables as a contributor to organic order intake in ACT. I think all throughout last year. Just some more broader words on the reason for this strength and with the new product, I guess that strength will continue also for next year.
Yes. That is the assumption. Like we said in many occasions, we believe that this is really a core area for us for the future. We have a very strong market position, so we do benefit from just the day-to-day usage of ECMO therapy. In addition to this, then we have the launch of Cardiohelp II in CE markets and Hong Kong. This will be a gradual addition to that part of the business here. But I want to underline that a launch takes a while to really roll out properly and see the effect of this in terms of consumables usage as well. But it's a very good start, I think, for the next generation of ECMO therapy.
Thanks. I squeeze in one last question. You single out mix as opposed to FX in Q3 year-on-year. I just wanted to see if this is more around the general rotation to more margin accretive revenue streams or if it is anything in particular for Q3 that you want to single out. That is my last one. Thank you very much.
Thank you. This is the overall trend that we have described now, and the ambition to also have this mix shift towards high margin disposables is a little bit more pronounced in Q3 compared to the general trend.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Thyra Lee from UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, Kavya in for Thyra, just one please, and that was on the Acute Care margin strength. Could you elaborate on how you expect margins in this business to evolve from here and into 2027, please? Thank you.
No, because it's the short answer. I think we've seen some strength based on the factors we mentioned when it comes to mix, to pricing and some of the underlying improvement work. But we don't comment on neither Q4 or the outlook for 2027 when it comes to specific BA margins here.
Okay. Thank you.
All right. Thanks.
The next question comes from Sten Gustafsson from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Two questions, if I may. I know you commented on the ECMO U.S. filing. Can you give us an update on the Cardiosave U.S. filing as well? That would be my first question, and then I have a follow-up.
Yeah, I think there isn't that much to say. We've submitted the applications. We have a dialogue now with the FDA about some follow-on questions on this. Nothing out of the ordinary. We still expect a long approval time. We said six to nine months because it's a very complex product, a complex 510(k) submission. Nothing really to update since last time we reported.
That's good. You have an ongoing dialogue—
Yes
—with them and unusual.
Yeah.
Perfect. Thank you very much. My second question is on, well, it's the same product, Cardiohelp and Cardiosave, and what you see here in Europe where you actually have those products. I noticed that one of your competitors have some issues or, well, maybe not issues, but there was some clinical paper questioning a little bit one of their products. Are you see any benefit from that on your products?
No, I think we follow the same news that you do, but I can't really call out any specific benefits from this adverse news for competitors. I think we remain close to our customers. It's a therapy field where you, depending on the complexity of the situation with the patient, you have different choices to make. I think maybe there's some net benefit from this, but nothing that we have seen that we can call out or measure.
Okay. Well, thank you. Get back to the queue.
All right. Thank you.
The next question comes from David Adlington from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. A couple from me, please. Firstly, I was wondering if you were able to quantify any stocking impacts from Cardiohelp II launch in the quarter. Secondly, just wondering how you're thinking about inflation going into 2027. Anything you will be putting out there in terms of particular headwinds? Thanks.
Yeah. I think there's no stocking FX when it comes to Cardiohelp during the quarter. Absolutely not. When it comes to inflation, we do see, of course, an upward pressure when it comes to everything from labor to energy to certain materials, freight and so on. But I think our team have done a great job as well mitigating this for the most part. So nothing of material impact that we see right now.
Super. Thank you.
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 Kristofer Liljeberg from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning. Three questions. First, coming back to the visibility here for Q4 sales, I think you need at least 4% to reach the low end of the guidance. What would you highlight as the main risk of not reaching that?
Yeah. I would highlight if there is a slowdown in some of the areas that are book and turn in Q4 when it comes to ECLS consumables, Sterile Transfer, those categories that we depend on. I think that would be one main thing that could potentially have an impact. The other one I think is more what we've seen in previous years, that sometimes customers are not entirely ready to receive a shipment of capital goods, most often because something on their part isn't finished yet, and then it ends up in the first quarter instead. So that would be maybe the second thing that is kind of a risk factor here, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's the same dynamics as every year in Q4.
Okay, great. Then I was wondering a little bit about the Life Science margin. I guess high-margin products are making up the larger part of sales there, given what you have said. Why is that not resulting in a better margin? Is it just the leverage effect you have on lowering manufacturing of bigger capital equipment or something else?
Yes, that is essentially it. You describe it well. As you can see, the gross margin is up somewhat, so we do compensate on it. But overall, through the P&L, this leverage effect on the lower levels in the WIS category are difficult to fully compensate.
Great. Then the final question, I know it has been asked before, but based on what you say, it seems lower quality cost hasn't been a big impact at all for the ACT margin in the third quarter year-over-year. Is that correct?
Yes, that is right. We are seeing that we are continuing to improve in this area, but it is not a material impact that I would factor in in Q3.
This means for 2027, this should be a pretty big positive tailwind for you.
Well, overall, we are following this trajectory that we have described before, a gradual step down in quality-related cost.
Okay. But possible to say whether the decline is going to be in absolute terms, larger in 2027 or 2028 versus current levels?
Yeah. It's definitely larger in 2027 compared to 2026, and then larger again in 2028. That's the dynamic we expect.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
All right. Thank you very much. Thanks for joining here. I think we already summarized this, and I appreciate the attendance today and the dialogue when it comes to the Q&A. Thanks very much, everyone. Have a great rest of the day.