Welcome everyone to this press conference and webcast teleconference. My name is Stefan Stern. I'm Head of Corporate Relations, Sustainability and Communication at Investor. This conference is about presenting our Q3 report. The presentation will be available afterwards on our website, but can also be viewed now in real time online. We will hear presentations by CEO Johan Forssell, and by CFO Helena Saxon. We also have our Investor Relations Manager, Agnes Dahrén here with us. We will take Q&A after the two presentations. Once again, very welcome. With that, I'm handing over to you, Johan.
Thank you, Stefan. Warmly welcome everybody to this conference. Let me start by giving a quick overview. If we start by the year-to-date performance, our net asset value has been up some 14%-15%. Our total share return is up 21% compared to the stock market plus 12%. If we look on the Q3 in isolation, you see that our performance is more or less flat compared to the stock market, up 2%. On the listed side, of course, a key highlight is that Ronnie Leten has been nominated as the chairman in Ericsson, that we have purchased more shares in Ericsson. When it comes to Patricia Industries, I would say it's a mixed performance in the quarter. I will come back to that later on.
Importantly, we continue to generate a very strong cash flow, that has made it possible to distribute SEK 4.3 billion in the quarter. Finally, EQT continues to perform strongly with a value change of 3% and a net cash flow to Investor of SEK 0.3 billion. Let me then start by the listed core investments. If we look, the performance has been good so far this year. Year to date, the listed portfolio is up 18% compared to the stock market of 12%. The quarter is up 2% in line with the market. Let me then say a few words about Ronnie. It has already been written a lot about it in the press, but it has been a full agreement in the nomination committee that Ronnie Leten is the right person for this task.
Ronnie has a very strong track record when it comes to value creation from the companies he has been in before. He has also, as you know, a very solid industrial background. He's a skilled businessman. He is very versatile when it comes to strategic thinking that he has proved over and over again, not the least in Atlas Copco. I'm very pleased that he has been nominated as chair for Ericsson. We have acquired shares for SEK 1.2 billion in Ericsson in the quarter. You might also remember that we bought SEK 1 billion in the Q4 last year. In total, we have invested SEK 2.3 billion in the company. The key reason for it is that we believe that long term, this will prove to be a good investment. When it comes to Wärtsilä operates in two key segments.
One is marine, and one is on the energy side, where they basically build small power plants with their engines. On the energy side, we have seen very good big orders from emerging markets, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and before that in Argentina. A number of our companies have also made large strategic investments. ABB recently announced the acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions within electrification. That is a SEK 2.6 billion acquisition, and that will strengthen the position within electrification and then mainly in the U.S. market. Also Nasdaq has done a rather sizable investment within information and analytics. That's roughly a SEK 700 million acquisition. In summary, good performance on the listed side, both performance-wise and also a number of activities going on.
On the Patricia side, if we adjust for the cash situation, the adjusted market value when we try to estimate the market values amounted to SEK 92 billion in the quarter. That is actually down 1%. Helena Saxon will later on come back to that and show you the bridge, what has really driven that performance. Let me take a step back. What are our priorities when it comes to Patricia Industries? The first one is to develop the existing companies. The second one is to find new platforms in the Nordics and the U.S., and the third is to basically gradually divest the financial investment portfolio. If I should just say a few words about the activity going on in the existing portfolio. In Laborie, we announced that we have a new CEO, Michael J. Coyle, that joins in the quarter.
He has 11 years experience from Smith & Nephew, the latest being as a chief commercial officer. I also would like to highlight actually Permobil. Permobil, we have talked before about the launch of the M3, the mid-wheeler, and now they actually are launching M1, which is a smaller version. There is a lot of activity going on when it comes to launching new products. You have also seen that they now very recently have announced three acquisitions, two distributors in New Zealand, and a product company in the U.S. market that makes basically cushions Backrest and some accessories to that. So it's a company where during the four years we have owned Permobil, sales and profits are more than double, and now we continue to grow this business. Moving over, I say a few words about finding new platforms.
The latest acquisition we did was last year when we acquired the Canadian company, Laborie. This year, we have not made any new acquisitions. It's fair to say that if we look in the market today, there is a lot of money out there chasing assets, and we all know that valuations are high. We are continuously looking and trying to find new platform acquisitions, but we will stay disciplined and we will only invest when we find the right companies that we can acquire at a price where we can get our return requirements. It's very easy to come and announce an acquisition. It's just paying more than anybody else. That's an easy part, but that's not why we are here. We are here to make money for our shareholders. We will stay disciplined, but we are actively working on this one.
The third part, managing the financial investment. Here, I must say, I think the development is going in the right trajectory. During the quarter, more than half a billion was released by divesting some of the financial investments. Going over to Mölnlycke. You have all seen that the growth in the quarter was weak, only 1%. There are a couple of reasons for it. The first one is that the growth in the U.S. market was lower than we have seen previously. In the quarter, the growth in the U.S. market was roughly flat, and previously, we have seen better growth figures. In the European market, we actually see volume growth. Due to the reimbursement cap in France, prices have come down, so the overall revenue is more or less flat also in Europe.
The key growth driver has been the emerging market, and this is the positive part. If I look on the growth markets, China, Middle East, Brazil, all these three markets were growing more than 15% in the quarter. Of course, they are a smaller part, still a smaller part of the pie, but they are actually the ones that now start to show the growth that I show on this page, even though it's only 1%. That is the work that we will continue to really find this growth opportunity in emerging markets. We must also increase the speed when it comes to product innovation and getting more feet on the street in the ordinary business. That is a work that is ongoing, and the top priority for us is to increase the organic growth.
Coming back to the profitability, a little bit fewer comments on that. In the quarter, the company took a decision to close down an unprofitable line, which was basically rental of pumps related to negative pressure. That meant that the company took a one-time cost to close that down. If we adjust for that, we can see that the profit margin is still down year-over-year, but it's actually up sequentially compared to the second quarter. Why is the margin still down from, on an EBITDA level, I think 31% last year to 28%, 29% this quarter? The key reason is the reimbursement cap in France. The second reason is that we continue to see somewhat higher raw material prices year-over-year, even though we continue also to see that on a sequential basis, it's roughly on the same level.
Finally, we have the distribution that I mentioned, which, of course, will lead to an even stronger balance sheet at Patricia and Investor level, and Helena will come back to that. Permobil organic growth on 3% in constant currency in the quarter. I mentioned that there is a good reception of the new products, and also in this quarter, that was the same in the second quarter, order intake continued to be somewhat above the sales figure. I think we see a solid development on this side. The growth was mainly driven by the power and the heating and cushion side, while the manual business line was more or less flat in the quarter. Here we did see profit margin improving and also some good operating leverage. I think I have mentioned already the acquisitions and the product launches. Laborie.
Also, Laborie grew 3% in the quarter, and here we also see profit improving, despite that we in this company are actually taking quite significant investments in business development and in the operations. As I mentioned, there is a new CEO in place. Aleris had an organic growth of 1%, and here we did see, as you can see, a margin improvement. The margin improvement was mainly driven by the healthcare side, while the margin was somewhat lower on the care side, but in aggregate, the margin improved. The company has done a small but important acquisition, Christinakliniken, which is within cancer treatment at Sophiahemmet. Then finally, BraunAbility. I mentioned during the second quarter press conference or conference call that the backlog was very strong in BraunAbility related to the new products. We can see that the backlog has really been executed.
The sales growth was 11% in the quarter, and the demand continues to be very good on the consumer side, both when it comes to Chrysler Pacifica and the new Toyota model. The margin was more or less flat in BraunAbility, and the best way if I should try to explain it is that on the positive side, we see a volume impact, which of course gives some leverage. On the negative side, there are some inefficiencies, some ramp-up cost when it comes to going over to these two models, and they basically canceled out each other. Then we have 3 Scandinavia. I will not say a word about that because we actually have Peder in the room. You are warmly welcome since we have the professional here. I will not say a word about that. Instead jump over to EQT.
You have seen the figures in the quarter, as I mentioned, SEK 0.3 billion coming in year to date. That means that we have received about SEK 1.8 billion from EQT. The year to date performance is something like 14%, 15%. To summarize, these are the strategic priorities we have. More companies to become best in class, and we are working with a number of companies, as you see, to really drive improved performance. We will continue to strengthen ownership in selected listed core. Over the last two, three years, we have invested in Wärtsilä, Atlas Copco, ABB, and now Ericsson. Over the last decade, we have invested in more or less all companies except AstraZeneca.
In Patricia Industries growth, organic growth is the key priority and of course to develop the companies both when it comes to product innovation and on new markets, and also finding new add-on acquisitions like the ones I discussed when I presented Permobil. We are continuing to look for new investments at the Investor Patricia level. As I said, we will continue to be disciplined. EQT, we get excellent returns. We will continue to invest in their funds. Then finally, on the cost side, we are well in line or actually below the targets we have set up. That is going well. All in all, our ambition remains to continue to pay good dividend and hopefully then to deliver also a good return. With that, I hand over to you, Helena.
Thank you, Johan. Let's start with the financial highlights. Reported net asset value landed at SEK 336 billion at the end of the quarter, an increase of SEK 4 billion equivalent to 1% increase. Based on estimated market values for Patricia Industries, the adjusted asset value landed at SEK 380 billion. What contributed to the reported net asset value growth? Well, mostly listed core investments. We can see on this slide that more than SEK 4 billion came from that area, while SEK 100 million was contributed from Patricia Industries and around SEK 200 million from EQT. Within listed core investments, we can see that three companies really contributed to this growth, Atlas Copco, Wärtsilä, and ABB, while Ericsson of course weighed on the performance.
If we look at the estimated market values compared to our reported values, we can see that Patricia without cash landed at SEK 92 billion, which is around SEK 45 billion more than the reported value. This difference is explained mainly by Mölnlycke, but also Permobil and Flygt. If you look at the estimated market value development during the quarter, and here we include the cash position because if you look at Mölnlycke on the slide, you can see that Mölnlycke seems to be down SEK 5.1 billion, but it actually includes the distribution of SEK 4.3 billion, which lands in the cash position to the right over there. Actually Mölnlycke was only down SEK 0.9 billion during the quarter. The major drivers then of the estimated market value during the quarter was the SEK 0.9 billion from Mölnlycke.
Mölnlycke was impacted by higher multiples but of course showed lower operating profits and currency EUR versus the krona also impacted negatively. If we look at Dornier MedTech, the market value also decreased, and that was mainly due to multiples and also the weakening USD versus the krona. Flygt had a small increase. Cash flow was positive, operating profit impacted negatively, and the multiples in this case were flat. Permobil increased its estimated market value by SEK 200 million, and this was due to positive impacts from operating profits and cash flow. However, in this case, the multiples contracted and had a negative impact on the estimated market value. Financial investments is the run-off portfolio within Patricia Industries. It amounts to around SEK 7.3 billion. There were some smaller follow-on investments during the quarter, divestitures amounted to almost SEK 600 million, and three companies were fully exited, among them Tobii.
Looking at our balance sheet, we can see that our leverage is only around 3.4%. Net debt amounted to almost SEK 12 billion and our gross cash position almost SEK 19 billion. The average maturity of our debt portfolio is a little more than 10 years, we still have the very strong ratings that you have seen before. That's what I was about to say. Stefan?
Thank you, Lena. I'm going to move over to the Q&A session. I'm starting in here, and I'm going to move over by telephone and look on the web as well. First question?
Thank you, Magnus Gavelin, Handelsbanken. Moving to Mölnlycke then, you made some further explanations to the weak organic growth. You mentioned here that growth in the U.S. market is flat. Does that imply that you lose market share in the U.S. market? Also maybe if you can comment on market share situation in Europe.
I cannot give you the details on the 3Q market share development because we haven't seen the peers yet. What I can see is that if we look on the 2Q performance, also in 2Q, Mölnlycke performed roughly at the 1% level. If you look on the key peers, they were at roughly that level too. From that perspective, it seems that we did not lose market share. On the other hand, of course, our ambitions are higher, but that's what we see when we look at the facts.
That was from a global perspective.
Yes.
I think you mentioned that you were growing in emerging markets and being flat in the U.S.
Yes.
My question was if the U.S. market was
We cannot do that because then we need to have a lot of details among the competition for those product segments, and we don't.
Right. Just thinking about your ambitions for Mölnlycke when it comes to organic growth. If we look back some three years, your organic growth rate has been at an average of around 5%. If you look back one year, it is down at 2.5%, and then the recent two quarters, as you mentioned, have been down at 1%. Is your ambition still for mid-single digit organic growth rate going forward for Mölnlycke or is this lower level something we should expect?
No. For sure our ambitions are much higher than the performance we have at the moment. If you have a company that runs with profit margins 25% to 30% and also have a cash flow profile that is so strong as in this case, the majority of the value creation will come from growth, both organic and complementary add-on acquisitions. The key priority for the coming years is for sure to make sure that we get good organic growth complemented with acquisitions. That's the key priority. How it will be in the next quarters, I will not go into that because that will depend on market and a lot of it, but our ambitions for sure are to get good organic growth also going forward.
Just a final one on profitability in Mölnlycke. You mentioned here that capital reimbursement levels in France is the key reason behind the weakness, and you also had some one-offs that you actually adjusted for here already when you mentioned the weakening of the EBITDA margin. How about price investments to support top line? If those are not major, then when we see an annualization of the capital reimbursement level in France, we should not see a continued deterioration of the margin in Mölnlycke. Is that fair to assume?
It's a very good question, but when it comes to the price and how you price the product compared to competition in different regions for different product categories, that for sure is an operational question in my mind. My answer is that we believe that the management should take that responsibility, and they need to look at different, and it will be different situation in different geographic markets with different product lines. I will not comment on that because it would be wrong. That's not how we operate. It's an operational question.
Okay. Fair enough. Just one question on Ericsson. You mentioned here that you are investing and you believe that this will be creating good returns in the long run. You as a major owner of Ericsson, if you can just give us a comment of how you view the long-term potential for the company in terms of the major opportunities but also the largest risks that you see in this company.
I think to be fair, I should not go into the details of that business. You should, of course, ask the management of Ericsson those questions, and they will report later this week. From our perspective, the key things that they try to address, to focus on the core business, need rationalization when it comes to the service part, focus on winning the 5G, focus on winning on the network side, and then do some changes in the portfolio structure when it comes to media. At the same time, work on cost efficiency in the operation because there is competition out there. That is what we believe is correct. If they succeed with that, our strong belief is that this company has the potential to really become a long-term winner again, and that's why we are investing.
Thank you.
Thank you. I have two questions. The first one is on Mölnlycke. If you look at organic growth, is that impacted whatsoever by any losses of patents for the company this year? My second question is on Aleris. We can start off with Mölnlycke please.
No, I cannot answer that because there are so many factors going on in it. I cannot answer that.
As far as you know, there are no major patents which have been expired, which could have a major impact this year for medtech?
Normally, I would say that when it comes to patents for most companies, including medtech, of course, patents can be useful, especially, of course, if we take away certain parts, certain businesses, for example, a pure pharmaceutical company, of course patent is the life of that business. If you take more, call it med tech engineering companies and so forth, we should not overestimate the value of the patent, because it's very much being continuously in ahead of competition in development, because competition is catching up, then you need to do it to the next level. I would rather say that that is more important than different patents. Of course, in certain products, in certain regions, patent expiration can be a smaller explanation or an explanation.
If you were to look at the organic growth and you looked at the surgical part and the wound care business, it's not two questions in one, I feel. What is the growth profile between wound care and surgical right now so far this year?
Yeah. Far this year, it's not maybe difference between it.
My question on Aleris has to do with margins. With the new CEO implementing the new cost-cutting programs, which is having an impact right now, is that the effect why you see even more coming up in the hospital business?
I think the focus is Aleris consists on a number of different parts. I think what Alexander and his team are trying now to do is to make sure we keep the strong positions. We have certain areas, both radiology in Norway and in Sweden, that is very good, certain parts on care producers, et cetera, that has performed well. We also have certain parts where we need to improve, for example, the healthcare situation in Stockholm. There, what the team is trying to do, which is the key, I think, is try to decentralize the business more, try to move the decision-maker closer to the customer. If you can do that, is it cost or efficiency?
It's a definition question. The thinking is by decentralizing, decision can be taken quicker. You can have a more cost-efficient operation, also actually much better care for the customers. Decentralization is a key thing that they are working on right now.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, Bosse at Nordea. You mentioned sustainability five times in your CEO statement. Not really concrete. Can you tell us something about what you are doing?
I think sustainability is a very important area, and sometimes you can see different ratings and so forth. I think from our side, we are working intensely on it, and we are doing it for the reason that we believe it will be important for our performance. What are we doing? First of all, we have to distinguish, we of course, is trying to do what we can in business, but the biggest impact, of course, is as an owner of the companies. The way we do it is that we try to see in our companies how well are the companies performing and how well equipped are they when it comes to processes. Call it in Swedish, that you really follow up, you have the different parts. We also look in the second dimension, and that is how is sustainability integrated in the business.
That means business areas really run the business to capitalize on the opportunities that sustainability creates. We have a matrix for all our companies. We evaluate and we have discussions with the companies to continuously improve, because the fact is today that is a great opportunity to gain market share if you can really integrate it into the business. Of course, you also need to make sure you have good order.
Do you believe there's a mismatch about how the market perceives you from an ESG perspective rather than how you operate?
It's difficult to say how we are perceived. Let me say it like this. If you go back five, six, seven years, I think we and many others, we saw it as an important area. We started to talk about it and so forth, but maybe have not really worked through so much. Today, I must honestly say that during the last two years, we have spent a lot of time in doing this, both here at Investor, but also in a very close dialogue with the companies, and Stefan is meeting regularly the people out in our companies to discuss this, and we are following it up also to the board. Finally, we have, as you know, and I presented that many times to you, value creation plans for the companies.
Normally, we call it three, four, five most important parts that we believe would drive value for the companies. We have now started to add sustainability in our value creation plans for all our companies.
A final question, if I may. The adjusted NAV that you introduced in the Q1 report, have you expanded your views perhaps on how that could potentially be implemented in the reported NAV going forward? You said that you are evaluating that as a potential. Can you also give us some of the feedback you received from investors?
Lena, what do you say?
I'm not sure we have said that we are evaluating. We are very happy with the changes that we made. We have received positive feedback. It is nice supplementary information that I think you and investors appreciate.
We have no plans on replacing the reported net asset value. As I think we discussed before, it's good to have the history and the development from a long time. We will stick to that, we're very happy with the change.
Thank you.
Joakim Gynning, DNB. Seems like the most central questions have already been asked. Given that you will be patient with new investments, your current very low gearing, and evidently very strong distributions from the appreciate space, could you provide an updated view on what is your stance regarding using your own balance sheet to create further shareholder value?
I think we have to remember that we, as you say, if we find good opportunities, we are not afraid at all to use that. We have said that if we would find a large one, we could even go beyond the 10%. It all boils down to if we can find attractive investment opportunities, whether it's on the listed or on the unlisted side. To put it a little bit in perspective, if you look over the last two, three years, we have invested some SEK 8 billion, SEK 9 billion in the listed. We have acquired two subsidiaries in the U.S. markets. In total, we have invested probably something like SEK 16 billion. We are, of course, continuously looking for it. As we presented at the Capital Markets Day, over a decade, we have invested SEK 42 billion on the listed side, both new and in existing ones.
We are not going to do investment just to do it. We need to find the right companies. We will prioritize our existing ones. If we buy new ones, we really would like to have companies that have a strong market position, good profitability, good growth prospects, and good cash flow relation to earnings. That's a priority. Then, of course, we need the data to motivate the price we pay. We are willing to pay, call it the full price, we are not willing to pay more than we can calculate based on our return requirement. That is enough.
Sorry if I was unclear. My question was rather about what is your view on using your balance sheet for extra dividends or anything like that now, given your financial situation.
When it comes to the distribution, we took a couple of years ago a decision that we will focus on our dividend policy, that is to have a steadily rising dividend over time. That is the priority, we will continue to do that rather than extra.
Thank you.
Any more questions from the audience? Okay, thank you for that. Moving over to questions by telephone then.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. That's zero one on your telephone keypad to ask a question. The first question comes from the line of Elisabeth [Millares] with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Back on Mölnlycke and the reimbursement cuts. I am just curious roughly how much does France contribute to sales? Further, what is your view on reimbursement cuts in France? Do you expect that this to be a continuing theme, or is this just a one-off? Thank you.
I can start with the latter question, what are expectations for future reimbursements in France or for that matter, other countries. I have no idea. We can just conclude that this has been taken, and we need to adjust because this is where we are right now. On the first question, the size of I will not give you figures, but for Mölnlycke, France is an important market in Europe. It's a big market for Mölnlycke.
Thank you. One further question. How many more quarters should we expect the rising raw material prices to impact margin in Mölnlycke?
I cannot predict the raw material prices, what I can say is that the raw material prices increased up until, let's say, first quarter or something like that. We had a ramp up on the raw material prices. Over the last quarters, it has been more or less flat, but if you look year-over-year, it is still up. If it stays at this level, this impact should gradually wind down. Of course, I don't know where it will go.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. No further questions in queue. Ladies and gentlemen on the phone, please press zero one on your telephone keypad to ask a question. There are no questions from the phone line at this point.
Okay. Thank you for that. Any questions on the web, Mr. Dalhammar? Thank you. I leave over again for any questions from the audience. Okay. Thank you for participating, and thank you for listening in. Thanks. Now, Johan.
Yeah. I have the pleasure now to introduce Peder Ramel. He has been with me I think roughly a decade or so, most of that time being in the field, but now he is an executive board person. Of course, extremely knowledgeable about this company. We are extremely pleased to have you here. The floor is yours.
Thank you very much. This is the camera? Okay. Wow. That was not my idea to have the photo there. Well, actually, I've been with the company now for 11 years, a little bit more than that. We have been growing all the time. We are the challenger in the Swedish and the Danish market, and we will continue to do that. We are a mobile-only player, and we believe that we should stay as a mobile-only player. In the rest of Europe, we can see that there are players, especially the old incumbents, who are offering triple play and quadruple play, and that's very popular, been very successful. We have not seen that in Scandinavia. The only player that tried a triple play offer is Com Hem, and that was not very successful.
They are not really offering that anymore because I think that most of the players in Sweden and Denmark, they only view a triple play and a quadruple play offer as a discount, and they haven't found the right way to do it. There are rumors that Telenor will come up with a big triple or quadruple play offer in Norway, but we haven't seen that yet. We have 3.3 million subscribers. We have a turnover last year of SEK 11.5 billion. The EBITDA result was SEK 3.1 billion. That is 25% EBITDA margin. We have 160 full-time employees, and we have had an annual growth, since we started actually in 2003, both in Sweden and Denmark, both in number of subscribers and in revenue. The EBITDA development over time, I started 2006, that's why I want to start with that number.
You can see we had an awful loss on the EBITDA level, then it has been growing. The changes or the dramatic increase you see in 2011 is due to accounting reasons. We made a change in the way we were looking at the accounting. The development between 2010 and 2013, 2014 is actually an increase in about the same numbers each year. Looking at being the smallest operator, I should say, both in Sweden and Denmark of the four large operators, we have to keep the cost very low. We are focusing very much on the cost since we have far less subscribers than our competitors. You can see here the cost per quarter, the OpEx per quarter since Q1 2007. The OpEx have increased by some 30%-35% over that period.
Then you can see the line that is the number of subscribers. While the OpEx has increased by 30%-35%, the number of subscribers has increased by three and a half times, 350%. Looking at the cash flow, we have had a positive development of cash flow until last year. I should say that this year will probably not be as good as last year, even if it will be rather close. We will invest quite dramatically in our network in Sweden 2018 and 2019. You will not see a continued increase of the cash flow here the coming two years. These numbers are not including the investments we have done in Spectrum. Spectrum Investments is not included here.
Looking at Sweden, we have 2.9 million subscribers, or rather subscriptions, I should say, not subscribers, because a number of subscribers have two subscriptions or more. SEK 7.4 billion in turnover last year. We have 58 stores and 900 resellers. The number of stores will definitely not increase. They may decrease over time just as all operators are doing now. We have a 99.8% population coverage, but with 4G we have 86%, and we have to continue to build out the 4G network, and that is why we are increasing the CapEx next year. It will be invested in mainly in 4G. We have done a cleaning up in the number of subscribers. We will continue to do that. We will focus less on subscriptions.
Subscriptions have been the way to value this market historically, but that will be a change, and it will be more view looking at revenue, of course, and the value per customer, which is of course a better way of measuring the market. The second brand, Hallon, is improving very well and developing very well. Hallon is a brand that is competing only on a SIM-only basis and not including any handsets. It's very cheap, without any binding, very easy to understand, and have very satisfied subscribers. For those of you who read the Swedish newspapers, you know that we have had some problems with the customer satisfaction in Sweden. We have a new CEO in Sweden since one year. Actually, he's the person standing there in the lobby at our office. He's been focusing enormously on customer satisfaction.
The reason for the problems we have had is because, you can say, too tough a sales, especially from retailers. We have a few retail chains that we have had big problems with, and the cooperation with these chains has now been terminated. We were surprised, I should say, to see the results of the surveys that came yesterday, because that is not the result we see in our internal surveys. We see definitely a change in the trend, and that we now have more satisfied subscribers. It's also interesting to see the result that came yesterday for consumers, where we're at the same level as we were one year ago. We had a far better result when it came to business. We were actually absolutely at the same level as our competitors. We were number two together with Tele2 in that market. We are the challenger.
That is our DNA. We were first with mobile broadband, for instance. I think we were number three in the world in February 2017. We were first in Sweden with Wi-Fi calling. Tele2 and Telenor have still not launched. We were first in Sweden with Voice over LTE, and that is the way we would like to continue to be. We have a steady growth of subscriptions, as I said, and we have a market share of about 14%, both in number of subscriptions and in revenue in Sweden. Looking at Denmark. Denmark is a tough market. The margins are definitely too low. I think all four operators have that view. We would definitely like to see the better result in Denmark. On the other hand, when you ask the Danish CEO, he prefer to compare ourselves with our competitors.
If we compare our results with the Telenor and the Telia subsidiaries in Denmark, we have a far better result than they have, even if we have far less subscribers. 1.2 million subscriptions, SEK 3.2 billion turnover, and 95% 4G coverage. We have a better coverage in Denmark, but of course, Denmark is far easier to cover. We have a solid performance on a highly competitive market, as I said, and Oister is very successful in Denmark. It is our second brand. Oister is actually competing more in the whole of the market in Denmark, since we are only allowed to have six months binding, compared to Sweden, where Hallon is only working on or competing on the market where we do not have any binding at all. Looking at the development of subscriptions, it is about the same kind of development as we see in Sweden.
We have 15% market share in Denmark, that is also about the same. The MVNOs are a little bit larger in Denmark than in Sweden, that is why we have included their market shares here. How should we continue to stay alive then? We have to continue to be the challenger. We are the David against Goliath. That is the way we view it from our point of view, looking at our competitors. We have three incumbents in Sweden, three incumbents in Denmark, and we are the only challenger in that market. It is very important that we internally view ourselves being the David against Goliath, independently of how big we will be. We should always view ourselves as David against Goliath, because that is a very good position to have.
It is a very good and easy way to also make your employees likely to fight these far bigger competitors. Speed. It is not the big ones who win over the small ones. It is actually the fast one who wins over the slow. It is, of course, easier for us to keep a high speed, easier for us to act faster than the old incumbents. They are much bigger, they have far more employees, and we are a much younger company. Speed, I think speed is the most important part for us to be able to compete. If we are not faster than the others, we do not have a chance. Then, of course, we have to dare to be different. We cannot offer the same services as our competitors. We have to be different. If we offer the similar services as our competitors, they will choose our competitors instead.
You will always go for security instead of going with the number 4 in the market, we have to be different. Of course, we must have the most cost-efficient operation in both Sweden and Denmark. Otherwise, we do not stand a chance. Thanks. Yes. Yes.
Thomas from Handelsbanken. Just a couple of questions on Q3, perhaps. The service revenue turning negative and cost going up. Obviously, any changes to kind of the market dynamics, or is it more that you're trying to respond to the kind of the survey, subject, weak customer satisfaction, so forth?
In Sweden, it is responding to the weak customer satisfaction. When this new CEO started a year ago, he, of course, is looking into the market and to the business and the company. His decision was that we have to first of all focus on customer satisfaction, and that's what we've been doing in Sweden. We should, of course, continue to sell, that's for sure, but that is an important part in Sweden. In Denmark, it is a very tough price competition in Denmark, and prices are going down in Denmark and will continue to do so. We are still growing. We are still taking market share, both in number of subscriptions and also when it comes to revenue, but it will be tougher.
Have you seen any significant impact from the change in EU regulation on your numbers?
Sorry, what do you mean?
I'm thinking about the changes to regulation regarding EU roaming.
Yes, of course. I should have mentioned that. Of course, the Roam Like Home makes a very big difference during Q3. Q3 is the first quarter where we don't get any revenue from the EU. We only have the cost. I mean, it is a very strange regulation. We have to pay for both phone calls and data usage in the EU, but we are not allowed to charge the customers. Of course, that is a net cost that we have for the first time in the Q3.
Yes, Stefan Gauffin, DNB. I have a couple of questions. First of all, relating to the customer satisfaction. Can you mention what factors have impacted that? Is it network quality, customer care, et cetera? Secondly, you are losing subscribers in Sweden. Is this mainly that you lose mobile broadband subscribers? Thirdly, you mentioned that you want to remain a mobile-only operator. We just saw Three Austria acquire fixed broadband operation from Tele2. Is it a change in within the group how you view the business? Thank you.
No. To start with number 3, because that's the one that I remember first. It's not a change. Not what we know about. I mean, it could of course be a change in the way Hutchison and Investor are viewing the market, we don't believe in that. I also think that we have to remember that Scandinavia has been acting in another way than the rest of Europe when it comes to triple play and quadruple play. I don't think we will go for any fixed line in Sweden. The problems with customer satisfaction is mainly that the customers have received two subscriptions, one voice subscription and one broadband subscription. We thought it was a great idea to offer these subscriptions jointly so that you could use the data you had on your broadband subscription together with your voice subscription.
We thought that was a great idea, and for many subscribers, they agree with that. It is a great idea. It's just that many of the subscribers did not understand the offer. They suddenly saw that they had two subscriptions, and they thought that they had only one. With a tough seller, especially from these retail chains, then the customers view when they see the invoice is that they have been cheated. We're not talking about all of the subscribers, of course, but we are talking about a number of subscribers. We have now proactively contacted a number of subscribers to offer them to change their subscriptions when we see that they are not using the broadband subscription. We have offered them proactively to change that. It did take some time.
When you get this bad will and this customer dissatisfaction, it's very hard to change that development. We can see now in terms of rates, as I said, that there is definitely a change in the trend. We are very sure that we will change this. Now, the number of subscribers. The result is the same here, that when we contact these subscribers who have one broadband subscription and one voice subscription, we offer them instead one voice subscription with more data. It's easier to understand. That means that we are churning a broadband subscription, that you get a voice subscription with higher AMPU and higher ARPU.
Thank you. Coming back to the roaming question, can you quantify the impact for you of this roaming issue in the third quarter? If you look at the year-over-year now, I guess the main impact is in the third quarter, considering it's the holiday season. If you were to give some guidance now going into Q4, Q1 and Q2, I guess, then it should be fine, I guess, year-over-year, that is.
We have decided to not make these numbers official. I'm surprised to see that our competitors are viewing this quite differently. I saw at least one has said that it doesn't have a big impact. It is very costly, I must say. All of us have had good revenue from this roaming. Now we only have the cost, so of course, it has an impact. You can see an increase of data usage while traveling in Europe. April last year, we reduced the cost due to EU dramatically. Then we saw an increase of four times the data usage. Now if you compare with July this year, you can see once again an increase of some six times compared to last year. You had four times last year and six times this year. It's a dramatic increase in data usage.
without saying any figures or anything like that, is it fair to assume that you would easily have had a year-over-year improvement in both service revenue and EBITDA if it had not been for the roaming thing in the third quarter?
Yes, we would have had a positive development of EBITDA, yes. The effect is much bigger in Sweden than in Denmark, because in Denmark we already offered roam like home before this regulation. In Sweden it would have an impact.
it's just impacting EBITDA, not the service revenue?
It does, but the impact on the service revenue is very small.
Okay, great. Thanks a lot.
Yeah.
Thank you. Yes, Bosse, Nordea. Investor mentioned earlier how they work with their holdings in sustainability questions. How often do you have these type of conversations with Investor, and how high is sustainability on your agenda? Thank you.
I guess there are two answers on that. First of all, how often do we talk to Investor about it? With Telia, Investor are looking very deeply into this. Yes, we have to work very hard to fulfill all their questions and to follow their rules and regulations. That goes also for Hutchison, actually. We fulfill that definitely. We have to do it, and we should do it. When it comes to the internal way of doing it, where of course it is very important. I would actually say, I think at least for our business, that it's more important for us internally. We have an average age of 29 years on all our employees. It's very, very important for us internally to show that we are active in this area.
That means, for example, we are using a lot of electricity in our base stations, and we have since one year that we have only green electricity, and we are doing a lot of things like that. It is very, very important internally. We are focusing a lot on it. First, you can see I'm more than 60 years old. First, I of course support that this is only a trouble and why should we bother? Someone else should do the dirty for someone else. Now I realize that this is quite fun, and we can do a lot of things better, and we can really be a part of the society, and I think that's great. We are very active, for example, also in ECPAT, the organization working against sexual exploitation for children.
I am personally active there and also the whole company, and we think that that is important.
Very clear. Thank you.
Okay. Before I thank you, Peder, should we hear if there are any final questions from the web?
Ladies and gentlemen on the phone, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. At this point, there are no questions on the phone.
Okay, just a big thank you, Peder, for coming and sharing this. Let's give Peder a big hand.
Thank you.
That's it.