Good morning and welcome to Investor Q4 and Year-End Results for 2025. I'm joined here in the studio in Stockholm by our CFO, Jenny Ashman Haquinius, and our CEO, Christian Cederholm. And both will soon be giving their presentations. After that, as usual, we'll be opening up for questions, both on the call via our operator and online. And with that, over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Jacob, and hello everyone. As we look back on the past year, it's clear that 2025 was anything but straightforward. The world remains impacted by significant geopolitical uncertainty. Now, despite these headwinds, the global economy delivered decent growth, and in this environment, our companies are doing a good job balancing profitable growth here and now, including focus on efficiency and cost out, while continuously investing to future-proof their businesses. Let's take a closer look at how we performed over the last year, so 2025 turned out a strong year for Investor. Adjusted net asset value grew by 14%, and our TSR, Total Shareholder Return, was 15%. Listed companies' total return amounted to 22%, and we strengthened our ownership in Ericsson and Atlas Copco for a total investment of about SEK 2.3 billion. Patricia Industries' total return was - 9%, with considerable headwind from the weaker U.S. dollar.
Operationally, it was a good year in total for the major subsidiaries. In addition to organic growth of 4%, the companies made add-on acquisitions for a total of SEK 24 billion, of which Patricia funded about SEK 16 billion, with the rest funded by the portfolio companies themselves. The biggest one by far, of course, being the acquisition of Nova Biomedical. Investments in EQT generated a total return of 15%. Here, we also made our first co-investment, Fortnox, alongside EQT X, exploring another way to create value together with EQT. Lastly, supported by a strong balance sheet and cash flow generation, Investor's Board of Directors proposes a dividend of SEK 5.60 per share for fiscal year 2025. This represents an increase of SEK 0.40 , or 8%, over last year. At the end of the year, adjusted net asset value stood at SEK 1,087 billion.
Now, let me briefly go through the three business areas. Starting with listed, that represents about 70% of our assets. Listed companies generated a total return of 6% in the fourth quarter. Investor received proceeds of close to SEK 900 million for SEB shares divested in Q3, so the last quarter, to maintain our ownership level as the bank continued to buy back shares. Portfolio companies' continued activities focused on future-proofing their businesses. As an example, Sobi announced its acquisition of Arthrosi, expanding its portfolio within gout with a promising phase three drug. Wärtsilä announced a divestment of its gas solution business, further focusing the Wärtsilä portfolio. Now over to Patricia Industries, which represents about 20% of our portfolio. Total return in the fourth quarter was 1%, driven by earnings growth and multiple expansion, offset by significant negative currency impact.
While reported sales declined by 5%, our major subsidiaries grew sales 5% organically. Adjusted EBITDA declined by 6%, heavily impacted by the same negative currency effects I mentioned, and with some costs relating to restructuring initiatives in a couple of the companies. We saw continued high activity in Patricia. For example, Laborie announced the acquisition of the JADA System, expanding its offering within obstetrics for a potential maximum value of $465 million. Sarnova completed two add-on acquisitions for a total of $165 million, strengthening Sarnova's software offering for revenue cycle management. Also, we contributed SEK 200 million to Atlas Antibodies to strengthen the balance sheet after a period of weak demand and performance. Mölnlycke and BraunAbility distributed a total of SEK 4.1 billion to Patricia Industries in the fourth quarter.
For the major subsidiaries, and our 40% in 3 Scandinavia in aggregate, including the combined Nova Biomedical from Q3 and onwards, reported last 12 months' sales stood at SEK 68.4 billion, and EBITDA was SEK 17.2 billion. We should note here that this is in Swedish kronor, so of course, rather sensitive to FX. And finally then, investments in EQT, our third business area, which represents about 10% of the portfolio. In Q4, total return for investments in EQT was 8%, driven by strong share price development in EQT AB. Net cash flow to Investor was SEK 1.2 billion, with approximately SEK 0.9 billion net inflow from EQT funds, driven by continued healthy exit activity in the funds. During the quarter, we also completed the very last part of our SEK 4.5 billion investment in Fortnox.
So it was a strong quarter and a strong year, but as always, our focus is on the future. I'm confident in our strong platform. Investor has a clear purpose and a focused strategy, a portfolio of high-quality companies, an ownership and governance model that is well proven, and great people, both at Investor and in our network and in the companies. And we have financial flexibility with low leverage and strong underlying cash flow. Our strategy towards 2030 is clearly defined and well aligned with our purpose, with the ultimate target, of course, of generating an attractive shareholder return. Our objectives are to grow net asset value, to pay a steadily rising dividend, and to operate efficiently and sustainably. We will remain focused on our three strategic pillars: performance, portfolio, and people. And let me say a few words about each of these. Performance first.
While it varies between industry segments and geographies, overall demand remains lukewarm. In addition, the U.S. dollar is down significantly, and tariffs need to be managed, and the geopolitical situation remains profoundly unpredictable. Against this backdrop, companies need to focus on efficiency here and now to drive profitable growth. At the same time, focus on future-proofing initiatives is critical to ensure long-term competitiveness. This includes, for example, R&D, other investments for innovation, expansion of sales, including to new geographies, and investments to leverage the potential of AI and other new technologies. So moving to portfolio then, based on our financial strength and strong cash flow generation, we continue to seek attractive investment opportunities across all three business areas. This includes additional investments in our listed companies, add-on investments, and potentially new platform companies within Patricia Industries, and continued investments, of course, in and together with EQT.
Ultimately, the allocation will depend on where we find the best opportunities. And finally, people. Given the rapid transition pace in all industries, we have to ensure that the right people are driving our companies. With 24 portfolio companies and around 200 board seats across the portfolio, talent sourcing and succession planning is a top priority for us. So near-term priorities are clear, and we have a lot of work cut out for ourselves. With that, I'd like to leave the word to Jenny to talk more about our financials. Please, Jenny.
Thank you, Christian. Yeah, so let me take you through the financials for the quarter. So in Q4 2025, adjusted net asset value was SEK 1,087 billion, and this implies an increase of 6% compared to Q3. For the quarter, all business areas contributed positively. Investments in EQT increased with 8%, listed companies with 6%, and Patricia Industries with 1%. So this implies a total return of 6% for the quarter and 14% for the full year. And now double-clicking on each of the business areas, and I will start with listed companies. So within listed companies, share price performance was mixed, but with positive share price development in almost all companies. Particularly strong quarter for the Electrolux share, followed by AstraZeneca, Wärtsilä, Ericsson, and Sobi. Saab and Husqvarna, however, had a tougher quarter looking at total return.
Total return for the listed companies' portfolio was 6% and largely in line with SIX RX. As for absolute contribution, it paints a similar picture, but with AstraZeneca and Atlas Copco in the top due to the weight in our portfolio. All in all, a solid quarter for the listed companies' portfolio. Moving on to Patricia Industries. For the quarter, the Patricia Industries portfolio, so the major subsidiaries, grew 5% organically, while the adjusted EBITDA declined by 6%. For the full year, organic growth was 4%, and the adjusted EBITDA declined by 1%. As a reminder, we are restrictive when it comes to EBITDA adjustments. In the 6% drop in EBITDA for the quarter, we have only adjusted for transaction costs related to M&A and one-off costs related to CEO transitions.
Other than that, and of course they're not adjusted for, and hence still weighing on the adjusted EBITDA margin, we have negative impact from FX, so the stronger SEK, and also tariffs, as well as restructuring costs to unlock efficiencies in several of the companies. And we deem this as part of ongoing operations. And now double-clicking on performance across the companies in Patricia Industries. And first, to highlight a few positives. We saw a second strong quarter for BraunAbility, in part explained by a relatively weak comparison quarter, but also due to strong demand. Profitability improved, but coming from a depressed level in Q4 2024. Nova Biomedical had a solid quarter in terms of growth and profitability. Growth was partly helped by recovery following the cyber incident in Q3.
Integration is progressing according to plan, and this includes initiatives such as merging the organizations and implementing a common ERP system, and this, as we mentioned last quarter, may have an impact on sales and earnings near term. We also do know that Q1 last year was a particularly strong quarter for the acquired part of the business. Laborie continued to see solid growth, driven by a large extent the Optilume urethral strictures product. Reported profitability for Laborie was down as it includes $11 million in cost for the JADA acquisition and the CEO transition. If we were to adjust for this, profitability was still down, but only slightly on the back of commercial investments. Permobil and Piab had a more challenging quarter. Permobil is experiencing muted growth, and that's primarily explained by negative impact from the voluntary product recall of the power assist device announced in Q3.
But positive to see good cost containment and a slight increase in EBITDA margin, and this is despite SEK 32 million in restructuring cost. Piab had a quarter with negative organic growth, and that's on the back of weaker customer demand, particularly in the semiconductor market. Generally, Piab's end markets have been more choppy following the introduction of tariffs and increased geopolitical disruption. Lower sales impact margins together with negative FX and tariffs, as well as SEK 37 million in restructuring cost to drive efficiencies. And finally, on to Atlas Antibodies. We contributed SEK 200 million to strengthen the balance sheet, and this is to give room to the relatively new management to execute on the plan. And we do see that roughly 70% of the business is recovering, but we still see challenges in terms of soft market and competition for the evitria part of the business. And over to Mölnlycke.
Mölnlycke had a solid quarter with 3% organic growth, and this was primarily driven by wound care. Wound care grew 5% organically and gloves 3% organically. This was somewhat offset by a contracting ORS. On a general basis, we see continued good momentum in the U.S. and China, while softer markets in Europe and the Middle East. In Europe, as mentioned before, there are pressures on healthcare budgets, and that's specifically in Germany and France. In the Middle East, we see customers with relatively high inventory levels. Profitability for Mölnlycke improved, and this is despite negative impact from FX and tariffs, and this is driven by positive product mix, but also lower cost on the back of continuous work with efficiency improvements. Mölnlycke distributed EUR 200 million to Patricia Industries in Q4.
We saw a 1% increase in estimated market values compared to Q3, so from SEK 223 billion to SEK 225 billion. And this increase was explained by earnings growth in the portfolio companies, as well as cash flow generation, and to a lesser extent, also expansion in valuation multiples. However, the increase was essentially offset by negative impact from currency. And looking at value development across the companies, we can see that the main contributors for Q4 were Nova Biomedical and Laborie, while Sarnova and Piab was a drag on total value. For Sarnova, mainly due to multiples, and for Piab, mainly lower earnings. Also worth highlighting is the distribution, so roughly SEK 2 billion from Mölnlycke and BraunAbility, respectively, as well as the already mentioned equity contribution to Atlas Antibodies of SEK 200 million to strengthen the balance sheet. And now moving on to investments in EQT.
So total value change was 8% in the quarter, and that's primarily driven by EQT AB, which was up 14%. Fund investments were essentially flat, and as a reminder, we report EQT fund investments with one quarter lag, so the 0% is based on EQT's Q3 report. On the right-hand side, we illustrate the net cash flow from EQT to Investor, which was roughly SEK 1 billion in the quarter, and this is driven by exit proceeds as well as dividend from EQT AB. And here we have an illustration of the net cash flow from investments in EQT over time. While it's quite lumpy on a quarterly basis, over the past 10 years, we've received a net cash inflow of SEK 1.6 billion on average per year. And the LTM net cash flow is -SEK 2.4 billion.
However, this includes SEK 800 million in acquisition for EQT AB shares and also SEK 4.5 billion in investment in Fortnox. If we were to adjust for this, net cash flow on an LTM basis is a +SEK 3 billion. Our balance sheet remains strong. Our leverage as of Q4 is 2.1%, so it remains in the lower end of our policy range despite significant investments. And we closed the year with SEK 27 billion in cash at hand. All of our three business areas generate cash flow to support investments and a steadily rising dividend to shareholders. And as you know, from listed companies, we receive ordinary dividends as well as extraordinary dividends. In Patricia Industries, the portfolio companies generate cash flow, which can be reinvested in the companies or paid in distribution.
For investments in EQT, we have an ownership in EQT AB, which yields an annual dividend, as well as fund investments where cash flow is by definition lumpy because it's dependent on drawdowns and exits, but it remains a strong contributor to cash flow over time. Since 2015, we have received total funds from all of these three business areas of SEK 216 billion. Note here that EQT is net cash flow in the pie chart to the left. The use of proceeds is illustrated on the right. Of more than 50% has been distributed to shareholders, roughly 30% has been reinvested in Patricia Industries, and north of 10% in listed companies. This platform with three strong business areas provides a broad-based cash flow that supports continued growth and distributions. The incoming funds provide strong investment capacity and have been deployed across all of our three business areas.
2025 was a record year in terms of investments, and this has been executed on while maintaining a strong balance sheet going into 2026. While sustaining this high level of investment activity, as mentioned, more than 50% of incoming funds have been distributed to our shareholders. We have continuously delivered on our commitment to pay a steadily rising dividend, and we continue to do so also in 2025. The dividend proposal for 2025, as Christian has already mentioned, is SEK 5.6 per share, which is an increase of SEK 0.4 per share compared to 2024. And this applies an average annual growth of 8% of the last 10 years. Then on to my final slide. Looking at the longer-term perspective, the performance of the Investor AB share truly illustrates the strength and the resilience of our portfolio and strategy.
So with that, I will hand the word back to Jacob.
Thank you, Jenny. Thank you, Christian, as well. We are now ready to take your questions, and we will start with the questions through our operator, Sharon. Sharon, please.
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. We will now take the first phone question. One moment, please. And your first phone question comes from the line of Linus Sigurdsson from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good morning. Starting off with the question on Mölnlycke and Mölnlycke growth, is there any visibility on these France and Germany headwinds subsiding, or should we expect this effect to persist in the foreseeable future?
I can start. Thank you for the question, Linus. It's quite hard to say. You know, we are seeing muted growth across many sectors at the moment, given what we're seeing globally. And specifically for Mölnlycke in Europe, there's weakness in France and Germany, and that is because there's a lot of pressure on healthcare budgets. But it's really hard to say if that would look any different in the next quarter, but really good to see continued momentum in the U.S. and China.
And maybe just to add, I think it's fair to say that this started somewhere during the first half of last year, but to Jenny's point, we don't really have visibility on the future development.
That's fair. Thank you. And then on the margin in Mölnlycke, is it fair to assume that the sort of tariff and currency impacts on profitability there are in line with previous quarters? And I mean, with 30+ EBITDA margin, have we sort of already reached the potential for the efficiency program?
Well, I can start. I would say that for the companies impacted by the tariffs, on a general basis, you know, they're doing a really good job to mitigate, but it's roughly a percentage point or so still impacting margins. In terms of FX for Mölnlycke for this quarter, it's roughly three to four percentage points in negative FX. Mölnlycke is doing a really good job working with efficiencies and really demonstrated that in this quarter. Then, of course, that's ongoing work because it's a mix of, you know, travel restrictions, using less consultants, and also finding more sustainable efficiencies. So I think that work will continue also through 2026.
Okay, thanks. And then my final question is a more general one. When you talk about solid cash flow in the coming years and this ambition to accelerate investments, could we view this as a comment on, say, EQT exit markets and the potential for, for example, Nova Biomedical to start generating dividends to investors after the integration?
Sorry, can you repeat the question? You were asking about our comment on accelerated investments and the cash flow, and then I didn't quite follow.
Yes, no, I mean, implicit in that statement is accelerating cash flows to fund those investments. It's just, is there anything you can comment on in terms of where those cash flows will come from?
Okay, I can take first crack. So thanks, and it's a good question, and really, the way we think about it is we look at the cash generation from the three business areas. And when it comes to Patricia and you were asking about Nova, the way we think about it there is that really the cash flow generated and the debt capacity generated in the subsidiaries is all a potential funding source for acquisition and/or distribution. And really, cash is sort of a corporate asset, so whether it's distributed or not is maybe not the key point, but rather that the underlying cash generation in these businesses is solid. Does that answer your question?
Yeah, yeah, thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now take the next question, and your next question comes from the line of Derek Laliberte from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you, good morning. I want to ask on Mölnlycke. You say the prevention and post-op were strong product segments in the U.S. I was wondering if you could give some more insight on why these areas are performing so strongly now and which product areas perhaps aren't doing as well. Also, I'm wondering if the product mix is similar in Europe in terms of performance right now. Thank you.
Thank you. I can start on that. I think the main difference we see is relating to the different geographies, as Jenny mentioned. When it comes to product mix and channel mix, maybe the one thing to say there is that in the U.S., we're more heavily leaning on acute and hospital, while in Europe, including in France, for example, we have more towards post-acute and even some home care.
I could also add to that maybe that the prevention segment is larger in the U.S. because of the reimbursement structure. So there's a clear market for that in the U.S., which is very different compared to Europe as well.
Okay, great, that's very helpful. On Laborie, what's the status on this BPH product? Is it reasonable to expect any meaningful contributions from that during 2026?
We don't really provide guidance, but what we can do say is that, you know, for this quarter, as we mentioned, the growth is a lot driven by the urethral strictures product. But as of now, we do have an active reimbursement in the U.S. for the BPH product. So we continue investing behind that launch. And of course, it will also depend on the reception in the market, etc. But the launch is very much ongoing, and we are very optimistic about the long-term runway with both of these products.
All right. And regarding Nova Biomedical, looking at the combined company now, I was wondering how the geographical split looks like. How high is the share of U.S. sales, for example?
We provided that in the last quarter. Let us come back to that.
Yeah, absolutely. That's fair. And on 3 Scandinavia, I was wondering, generally here, the background, I think the growth looked pretty strong here in Q4 and actually over the year. What's driving this growth? Is it mainly continued market share gains or also some price increases involved here as a contributing factor?
Well, yes, yes, we agree. Three has been continuing to gain market share, as you can also tell from the subscriber growth numbers. And then with regards to price, I mean, it remains a fiercely competitive market, of course, but at least they have been good at holding prices. That's what I would say on that.
Okay, great. And finally, if I recall correctly, on Sarnova, you had this high inventory situation with distributors affecting market demand and so on. Is it fair to say that this has subsided now?
Well, thank you. Yes, this is primarily relating to the AED or cardiac response business. And really what we see there is it is continuing to be a tough market. However, on a sequential basis, it's been more stable recently. And then, of course, inventory could be one part in that.
Perfect. Thank you. Those were all my questions.
Thank you. We will now take the next question. And the question comes from the line of Jacob Hesslevik from SEB. Please go ahead.
Good morning. First on demand navigation. So several businesses face weak demand and cautious demand in their segment. How do you differentiate between cyclical weakness that requires patience versus structural challenges requiring strategic pivots?
I can start there. Well, so really what we try to track, if I start there, is one, of course, total market development, but also we're benchmarking, you know, with a certain cadence so as to make sure that we understand whether we're gaining, holding, or potentially losing market share. There, I think it's fair to say that for the majority of the portfolio, we're confident that we're holding or increasing market share. Then the other part of your question was whether to what extent we see structural weaknesses in markets. That's, of course, something we continuously evaluate. Generally, when it comes to investments, we're quite keen, and that's one of our top criteria to make sure that we are in industries where we see, call it GDP plus rather than GDP or GDP minus growth. Of course, sometimes that changes over time, and then we're, you know, we make sure we keep track of that.
Great. Then double clicking on the currency exposure management. So FX had been significantly impacted by Patricia Industries' performance during this year. It should have affected your listed portfolio as well, given its large exposure toward exports. But beyond the operational efficiency improvements mentioned, what strategic actions are you considering in order to manage your FX exposure across the portfolio more efficiently, especially to hedge the Patricia portfolio that seems to be more sensitive to a USD weakening while not having a professional treasury department helping out, which you can maybe find in most of your listed portfolio? Is it something you're looking into how you can help out Patricia more in managing their exposure?
Thank you for the question. Well, as you allude to, our main way of, let's say, balancing FX exposure is by way of operational hedging, i.e., to try to have the costs where we have the revenues and the income. Now, despite that, we do have a significant earnings stream in U.S. dollars thanks to our presence and strong market positions in the U.S.
When it comes to sort of further hedging within the companies, we typically don't engage much in that, but rather we want the FX effect to be seen immediately and then, you know, addressed and dealt with. So with a long-term perspective, you know, the changes and the FX environment will be a reality and will hit. So we rather just see it upfront and then try to deal with it. The only additional hedging we do is we try to match our debt currency with what our underlying cash flow is per currency. So, for example, if you have a company with a lot of earnings in U.S. dollars, it's appropriate to have some level of U.S. debt there as well.
Okay, thank you. And then just finally on Atlas Antibodies, following the goodwill impairment and now equity contribution, what strategic options are you evaluating for Atlas Antibodies? I mean, it's a holding from back in the days when it was called Investor Growth Capital. It is still a very small investment and contributes limited to NAV. Why are you not looking into divesting this holding?
Yes, well, first and foremost, and thank you for the question. First and foremost, so we are contributing SEK 200 million, and that is to give management some room to execute on the plan, and we have a clear plan. I think we also mentioned in the presentation that roughly 70% of the business is doing well, while we have the 30% evitria business, which is struggling, and that's on the basis of weaker market demand. But we have belief in management and also the plan to continue to build on Atlas Antibodies. So that's what we are focused on here and now. I don't know if you want to add something.
As alluded to previously, I mean, you have two out of three business areas that are performing well, and the struggle we see is within evitria.
Yeah, fair enough. I'm just thinking about the time it takes versus the size of the company relative to the rest of your portfolio. But maybe we can come back to Atlas in the future.
No, but I think the one thing to say there is maybe that, of course, with Atlas Antibodies as with the other companies, our ambition is to grow it bigger over time, for sure.
Yes.
Yeah, no, I agree. It's just it hasn't really grown over the past 15 years. It's not that much larger than it was when it came out of Investor Growth Capital. But it's clear. Thank you for the elaboration, at least on the business performance in the name. That makes a lot of sense.
Thank you. May I just, before we take the next question, come back to the question on the geographic split on the combined Nova Biomedical business? And then the numbers are roughly 60% North America, and then the other 40% is roughly equally divided between Europe and the rest of the world.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. We will now take the next question. And your next question comes from the line of Johan Sjöberg from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I hope you can hear me. My question is on if you start off with the wound care business and looking at the growth rates over the last years. It seems like you continue to be in the high single digit growth area, and my question here, going forward here, I heard your comments on especially what's going on in Europe here, but do you see any change to that or any? I mean, over the next, say, like three years or whatever, you know, is that the sort of? Do you see any change to the market that would sort of change that picture? If you take some sort of a helicopter view on that one, please.
Yeah, I can start, and I think the short answer is not really, so no clear change. I think, you know, looking at the full year, wound care specifically grew 7% organically and it was 5% in the last quarter, and that is, as we've talked about before, in a market that's growing low- to mid-single-digit. So Mölnlycke continued to take market share within wound care on the back of a strong product offering, very much focused on the customer, and we, of course, have the absolute aim to continue to do so by continuing to invest in innovation and also go to market, and then in addition to that, we also have new geographies, so we are investing in China, where we now have local production, and there we, of course, are seeing potential for higher growth.
And then also the investments and the building presence in the post-acute channel, which is also an addition because Mölnlycke has historically had the strong position in acute. And that will also add potential avenues for higher growth. So we're not seeing anything differently now. But of course, you know, in the more short-term perspective, we will always have markets that can be under pressure like we're seeing now in Europe.
That's great. And also, Jenny, can I ask you on EQT funds? EQT reported today also. And sort of given a quarter lag on your reported value of EQT funds, should we expect any, or put it like this, is there any material change if you were to use the Q4 numbers compared with the Q3 numbers?
No, the short answer is that there will not be a material change, at least not for this quarter.
No, good. Then, also, FX is all over the place right now, or rather going in the wrong way, you can say, to some extent. Could you sort of give some sort of indication? We know about the domicile of all the companies, but just to get a feeling for what is sort of the, what is the most important currency to look at? Is it Euro Dollar? Is it the Euro SEK or the U.S. Dollar SEK? Just to see sort of the flows within the company, so to speak, because it is a little bit big movements, to put it mildly.
I assume you're referring to the Patricia portfolio.
Yes, correct.
So this is what I would say. First of all, the number one exposure is, of course, to the U.S. dollar, just given our big presence there with some U.S. domiciled companies, but also for a company like Mölnlycke and Permobil. I mean, the U.S., clearly the single biggest market for many companies. And then in Swedish kronor, for most of the Swedish domiciled companies, or the global, I should say, Swedish domiciled companies, you would typically look at a SEK exposure that is, or a krona exposure, where we sort of short the krona because we have headquarters here, R&D, etc. But of course, sales in Swedish kronor is typically quite limited. And then thirdly, just to comment on the euro, I think for Mölnlycke in particular, it's worth to highlight that we do have manufacturing for wound care, for example, in the U.S., in Maine.
That said, we are still net exporting from Mikkeli in Finland and so from euro into U.S. dollar. So that's another one to keep track of.
Okay, cool. My last question, it's really about, I mean, some of your portfolio companies are talking about also the hesitance among customers to place orders due to tariff uncertainty, geopolitical stuff, and everything like that. And I would like to hear your thoughts about, especially when you're looking at, or you are looking at for a platform acquisition, or if your companies are doing an add-on acquisition, do you see that being impacting, well, sellers and buyers also here in terms of hesitance? I know one thing is the sort of valuation, but that's always a thing you can say. But this geopolitical stuff here, is that something which is also sort of hindering your M&A ambitions in both platform and add-on? Thank you.
Thanks for the question. I would not say that it's sort of the major obstacle, but of course, all the factors that you point to just add to the general sort of uncertainty in terms of deciding what's the underlying earnings, etc. That said, on a lot of things that we're looking at, for example, in the healthcare and life science market, tariffs, for example, is sort of not the biggest factor driving that. So it certainly adds to the unpredictability and uncertainty, but it's not a, I would not call it out as a major obstacle for doing transactions, as proven also in the recent year where we've done lots of add-on acquisitions, for example.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. There are currently no further phone questions. I will now hand the call back to Jacob for webcast questions.
Thank you very much, Sharon. Let's take the questions from the web. We can start with one from Tommy Falk around the dividend for 2025. Maybe add some flavor to that, Jenny.
Yes, well, thank you for the question. Well, I think first of all, the dividend proposal is the board's proposal to the AGM and for the AGM to decide. But maybe some flavor commenting on the 40% increase. It seems balanced looking at our robust balance sheet and also view on cash flow generation and investments. And I think the 40% is also really a testament to the fact that we have three business areas generating cash flow that really supports continued growth, also investments and delivering on our dividend policy to pay a steadily rising dividend.
Thank you. Next question, Emmanuel Besson. Please, how is Investor AB engaged in rearm Europe programs or other defense investments globally? We'd like to pick that up, Christian.
I'll take a crack at it. So Investor AB as such is not particularly involved in this, but of course, the build-out of the defense of Europe means business opportunities for Saab, quite obviously, but also for other companies. And as an example, Ericsson does see a potential from the rebuilding of the European defense.
Thank you. Next question comes from Oskar Lindström, Danske Bank. On Mölnlycke, are there opportunities to growth more through acquisitions in the wound care or adjacent segments given weak main markets? That's the first one. And then on Patricia acquisitions, for some time now, you've been talking on and off about adding a new major leg in Patricia, mentioning industrial automation as a segment of interest. Is that still the case? What does the pipeline look like and what is your thinking on valuations?
Yeah, I can start with Mölnlycke. Yes, well, add-ons is a priority for all of our subsidiaries and Mölnlycke included. So there is a lot of time spent to, of course, understand the different segments within wound care, but also adjacencies. And I think so far, there has not been any major available targets that have made sense because Mölnlycke has been able to grow so strongly organically. What Mölnlycke has done and is, of course, also continuing doing is add-ons that are smaller and more focused on innovation. So early stage research, for example, and I think a recent example of that is a product for potential debridement of wounds, which would be a good addition to the Mölnlycke portfolio. But as for the other subsidiaries, it's also an important focus for Mölnlycke, of course.
And then the question on new platforms. Just to recap, our capital allocation priorities are quite clear in that we always put development and growth of our existing companies first. So that's our top priority. As we've said, we are also open for and actively looking to add new platform companies, not the least in Patricia. Yes, industrial automation or industrial technology has been pointed to as one area that we're looking in, but we are also looking more broadly than that. As for the pipeline, I think all I can say there is the work with identifying, scouting, and potentially executing on acquisitions is a continuous process. Then when it comes to sort of closings and actual execution, that is inherently volatile and will remain so.
Thank you. The next one is from Mikael Gilkins. Will you organize another capital markets day in 2026 for us long-term shareholders? This is helpful to guard the development of non-listed companies. I think I can answer that briefly. It's been a while since we had the last capital markets update. And we will be getting back with more information on that in due course. Next question and the final question I can see here is from Jens Henning Koch. From a strategic perspective on China, how do you assess the competitive risks and opportunities, the latter in terms of growth, investment, and cooperation?
So as we comment on in the CEO statement in this report, we do see China as a very important region and for several reasons. I mean, one is that for many of our companies, both on the listed side and in Patricia, China is a large and growing market. So that's one thing, the market potential.
But also it's increasingly clear that competition in China or from China is evolving and evolving quite fast. So as we comment on, it's important for many of our companies to be in China, not just for the market opportunity, but also to be where and to compete where some of our toughest competitors are. And it's quite clear to me that comparing China today to a number of years ago, they're not just leading on low cost, but also on implementation of new technology, on fast innovation cycles, etc. So even more reasons to be there.
Thank you very much. There are no further questions on the web. That means it's time to wrap up. Thanks to both of you. Our next scheduled call is the Q1 results for 2026, scheduled for April 21st. And until then, thank you and goodbye.