Hello and welcome to today's webcast presentation where we are I-Tech presenting the Q1 report for 2024. With us presenting, we have the CEO Philip Chaabane and CFO Magnus Henell. If you'd like to ask a question, you can use the form that's located to the right and we'll take it up during the Q&A section. With that said, please go ahead with your presentation.
Well, thank you everyone for tuning in to I-Tech's quarterly report, the first one of the year 2024. It is with great pleasure we will run through this presentation together with my CFO, our CFO, Magnus Henell, and myself, CEO. We will split the presentation and then we'll be ready for questions once we get through the last slide. So by that, let us bring us into the first slide. So for you who may be new into the game, I-Tech is an interface technology company based on trying to make surfaces smooth and efficient, and in this case it's about marine ship hull surfaces, so those who are in contact with water, and trying to avoid marine growth attachment to those surfaces. To keep them clean is essential for efficient transport through the sea, and that is where our ingredient technology, Selektope, makes a difference.
Our growth has been substantial over the years. We have now more than 20 available customer products using our ingredient technology, Selektope. We are part of the product portfolio of nine of the world's biggest, sorry, of six of the world's nine biggest paint companies. And to date, we recognize that the technology is serving somewhere on the hull of more than 2,500 ships. That's still ways to go, knowing that there are 100,000 ships out there, but it's a strong indication that the technology is well received on the markets. The total opportunity, if all those 100 vessels and a whole bunch of small or medium-sized or bigger-sized yachting vessels are included, we could go to $350 million-$500 million as a total turnover figure on Selektope sales. That's the total maximum. We're listed, as you know, on the Nasdaq First North.
We are protected through patents, the IPR assets, but also regulatory hurdles that need to be overcome by others. So it's a very protected area, and we're quite few in this industry. We're only seven other biocides, if we categorize them a bit, that actually are available for the paintmakers to use. Biocides are part of almost all antifouling coatings sold in the industry today. So it's a small and very condensed industry group we're in. The purpose, as I mentioned, is to enhance the power of the coatings and make sure we lower emissions to air and sea by reducing the friction on ship hull. In our case, that's all about avoiding barnacle attachments to the hull surface. That's where our technology is significantly more powerful and sophisticated than many other approaches that have been tested and used in the past.
So for this quarter itself, we are proud to present a growth on sales amounting to SEK 38.3 million. That's to compare to SEK 30.8 million, the same quarter last year. And certainly so, a quite big shift from fourth quarter last year. So all that is really positive, indicating growth this year is here. We are on a steady pathway to a very interesting future. But it also comes with the positive aspects of strong earning. We display here the EBIT margin being 24% compared to 27%. We'll go into the details of that a bit more later with the help of Magnus. And it all boils down to a strong positive net result of SEK 8.6 million to compare to SEK 6.7 million. So it's nice to see how the net result is growing here as the sales are growing as well.
We conclude also that a group of three customers are now engaged in driving this top line. We did have commercial sales to six different customers of the period, but on the more magnitude of side things, it's three that we look on specifically, and that's a welcome contribution. So what brings us to work in the mornings? Well, first of all, it's the product Selektope's correlation to make marine hull coatings much more efficient and higher performing than what they have been in the past. This is then a technology that links into a puzzle of ingredients and other technologies that the paintmaker are producing and developing. And altogether, that brings forward an antifouling coating that's expected to sustain for the lifetime of the dry docking interval, normally five years. If that works optimally, 100 million tons of CO2 can be saved.
That's in an industry that's responsible for quite a big part of the global CO2 emissions. It's a high impact if we succeed, and certainly if our customers succeed, to integrate our technology in the best possible way. It's not only that. If you dive down and understand the marine ecosystems, you get quickly familiar with the risk of having invasive species or alien species being transported around these different ecosystems. We have had, as most of you probably know, the issues on the ballast water side, which to a very large extent is fixed through technology innovation. Now the next focus is hulls, because if a hull is fouled with whatever organisms, they are constituting a quite high risk to actually bring on and transport species that in some cases may be invasive.
So several ports around the world are requiring documentation on how well the hull is maintained, how to try to make a risk evaluation of the fouling condition. Of course, this drives industry, meaning the shipping community, into investing in high-performing, much more reliable antifouling coatings than maybe they had to do in the past. A negative, heavy fouling condition will likely then result in a non-accepted port call with a lot of extra work and cleaning somewhere out in the ocean. These are the two main factors driving the development of premium antifouling coatings, and they are taking a bigger share of total markets than before. These are the two driving forces. The third one is trying to optimize material use, and that goes for any industry in any condition, of course, right? Don't use excessive amounts of anything.
In our case, with our super small or minimal amounts of Selektope that's used per liter paint, it is a part, it's actually a tool to see if the paintmaker can optimize and reduce the amount of chemicals used or biocides in the paint itself without compromising performance. There are a few examples of that. That's not the only way forward, but there are a few examples of that. That's a third trend that may come along, trying to bring down the biocidal loadings to a lower level than what's been used in the past without sacrificing performance in any shape or form. Three good reasons to go to work and three good reasons to speak to you as hopeful investors in I-Tech. Over the quarter, we have had very exciting news.
For us, it's not every day that new customers come on board, and certainly not in combination with a new, very broad-spectrum premium antifouling coating. Here we are with PPG's new antifouling coating called Nexeon 810. That is containing Selektope, and that's replacing the previous Nexeon products year-over-year here, although they will probably run in parallel for some time. It's a copper-free, low biocidal, self-polishing paint with very strong emphasis on vessel performance, emission reduction, and sustainability, which all goes fully in line with what we hope that our customers will do when they take maximum use of our technology. Again, it's not the only way to use it, but it's one way. So this was a major event for us, although we've been working with PPG for more than 15 years, I think. Finally, things came into place, and here we are with the Nexeon 810.
We're excited to see what that would bring for us and the industry in the many years that are ahead of this product. So that also brings us into the now almost famous customer chart. As you know, there are only nine customers in this industry if we focus on the shipping part of it that make any difference. And if you're going to be really tough on these nine numbers, it actually boils down to six that are controlling 80% of the global market. So we're expanding that list a bit beyond those six because there are a few that are really big on a local geographical level, and there's one that is emerging that will probably take much more space moving forward.
The interesting thing here is, again, the launch of PPG, which is a green checkmark, and that is a dry docking product that can also be applied at the new building stage, but it's certainly designed for 5-year service. Then we also had adjusted the potential launch column a bit. One thing is that we were a bit optimistic in the test scheme on that final fine-tuning project that was to clarify and approve the product for launch. That will take a bit longer time, which is not an indication of issues at all. It's just an indication that things take time in an industry like this, but there's no major changes other than a short delay in time. But on the other hand, there's a new customer showing up on the radar that we have engaged in on licensing agreements and commercial discussions.
None of that is complete, but it came much faster than we expected. So we added that as another second blue checkmark because it certainly appears like something is cooking, although I cannot really set a firm time frame on it. But we believe that within 10-18 months, which is quite a broad window, there is a chance that these two materialize. Again, be a bit patient on those timelines, but at least it's in the right frame of the development process to believe in that. So both of those blue checkmarks are products that are either alone going to cover both the dry docking and new building, or there are actually more than one product in pipeline which will then cover either new building and/or the dry dock. So let's see how that plays out, but it's clearly interesting activity ongoing. So that's on the customer side.
And we also have to show the strong position that Selektope has, in this case, at Chugoku Marine Paints, this pioneering customer and also the largest contributor to the top line. When they display their some of the products, should be said, at the Sea Japan exhibition in Japan, in Tokyo, not too long ago. And this is pictures I will have that looks. And it's, of course, from an I-Tech perspective, extremely encouraging to see how well they attach to the brand, how well they take use of the very specific mode of action in our molecule, which is then a repellent technology in sharp contrast to all other technologies used in the market.
So the small dosages, the biological effect that we have, the biotech approach that lies behind the research is now brought forward and used by one of the three biggest paintmakers in the world, in this case, Chugoku Marine Paints. So, of course, it's rewarding for an entrepreneurial team that has been working for this for 15-20 years. Let's see that this is now coming through in this way. The final push before I leave to Magnus here to present some financials is the overall industry ambitions pushed by IMO to reduce greenhouse gases. This is a slide you've seen many times before, but it's important to reiterate the fact that 2030 means a milestone. It's associated with a milestone of reducing 40% CO2 per transport work. That's quite a big difference from where the industry is today.
So ways to go and more premium antifouling and more other technologies need to come on the board of ships to achieve this. Looking forward, obviously, some sort of energy transition is needed. Fossil fuels will probably move out, at least if we believe the targets of IMO. And already, which is quite near term, if you think about it, 2050, the whole industry is supposed to be net zero, almost net zero greenhouse gas by 2050. And that's a significant undertaking to achieve that. Everybody knows that that's conversion to different fuels, which are much more expensive than today's fuels, meaning efficiency measures need to be fully in place and proven before that step can be taken. Again, that plays in favor for the marine coating industry, and hopefully, Selektope continues to play a big part in that transition.
There are also other aspects coming in, like the EU emission trade system that's going to actually hit the cost side of any transporter, I think, next year starting, or at least 2026. Then there are different indexes on the ships that are also being measured that may have an impact on financing capabilities and/or charter rates. Many different things are now in place to step by step transform this very important industry for globalization into something that is probably the most sustainable transport sector per ton goods shipped that can be put in place. That supply chain is important. We're really happy to be part of that. Now, I leave to Magnus to review financials and some words on production because that also is part of Magnus's responsibilities. Go ahead, Magnus.
Thank you, Philip. It's very nice after the encouraging talk about the customer development and all the traction we're gaining from the customers to look in a little bit more to the financials. And it's very nice to present, after the hiccup in the last quarter, to present the growth curve on the top line again, where we should be, and hopefully we'll continue to be moving forward. You can also see that on the profit level, the EBITDA level, we are growing a little bit. But, of course, the quite weak quarter, last quarter, still has an effect and will have so over the year when you're talking about the 12-month rolling. And also that we're keeping the operating cost levels somewhat intact. We will come back to that later on as well concerning the ED costs and stuff like that.
But overall, it's really nice to show you the growth uptake and that we are also increasing the earnings. A little bit more detail, as Philip said, we had a strong growth on the sales side with 24%, giving us the best quarter ever on the turnover. When we're looking into the operating profit, then we grow with 9% on the EBITDA level. That should be said is compared to a very strong quarter last year. That is very satisfying, but taken into account the cost side as well. Of course, we are significantly burdened by the ED-related cost that amounts to roughly SEK 1.3 million this month or this quarter, I mean.
We should also take into account that this is the first quarter where we have the full effects of our transfer into new premises, new laboratories, etc., where we've set a cost base that is a little bit higher up than it used to be. But we did discuss the customers before. CMP continues with very strong growth, with 30% up compared to last year. And as Philip said, PPG launched a new product in the quarter, and it's already impacting on turnover. It's the third customer that shows some impact with 4% of the actual turnover. And we have some interesting news during the quarter as well, where we concluded that we now, with all the deliveries we made to customers over the time, have exceeded over 20 metric tons of Selektope.
It should be said also that in every one liter of paint, it's only one to two grams of Selektope. So it's quite a lot of liters of paint that has been out there. Taking this day also, I would like to go in a little bit to the balance sheet. It's not common that we discuss it, but as you've all seen, we have a very strong balance sheet. We have a good cash conversion rate with a strong cash balance. Very much depending on that, we have so far a very low net working capital. It's only 7% on 12-month rolling. It should also be said that we will have to spend some money over the year.
We will soon, maybe not this year, but soon into next year, come into a tax payment position since our tax assets will be reduced down to zero, and then we start to pay tax, of course. We are debt-free. That's very important to say. We also repaid over SEK 16 million that we borrowed from Swedish Energy Agency and Almi over the years of 2013 to 2018. We have the final royalty payment to the Energy Agency in Q3 of around SEK 800,000. That's not really burning us. What will we use cash for? Well, of course, we will need to increase working capital a bit because we are transitioning to a different supplier setup where we will need to take a little bit higher responsibility of the working capital.
We also announced that we are on a dividend scheme with the company, which we intend to push forward over the years. And then, as Philip has said in other quarterly reports and also in the annual report a little bit, we are assessing new growth plans and potential execution of those, of course. So we are strongly equipped with almost SEK 100 million in cash, and we will hopefully find very good ways of putting this cash into work. So a little bit about production as well, which is my responsibility as well. Today, we have one main manufacturer continuously running industrial-scale production. They are not on the full scale of their production, but almost. But in order to strengthen this, we're also on the verge to reopen our cooperation with a second supplier, which is very interesting, also a large medical company, a medical API company in India.
But I think that the more interesting part here is that late last year, we did reveal that we are putting some investments into a new supplier, which is a specialized contracted research and manufacturing supplier, where we have invested in the familiarization on their side, and they are now investing in the facilities. We have the aim to start delivering from them in Q3, Q4 this year. So why are we broadening the supplier base? I think it's very important because, first of all, we need to secure the supplier redundancy. Sitting on only one or two suppliers is not healthy for a company like us, where we need to deliver timely to our customers. Of course, we also would like to increase the process yield. With every increase in the process yield, of course, reduce cost, but it also improves the production sustainability.
The focus is, of course, a lot on cost. But when, for example, if we succeed in establishing higher recycling of raw materials, etc., it will, of course, reduce our carbon footprint. The third part is we want to secure the most efficient production setup. That's not talking only about the process. It's talking about everything around the production. It's process, it's material handling, it's logistics, etc., where we want to achieve the highest possible customer satisfaction and, of course, the most attractive total production costs. So then I leave for you, Philip, after this short financial run-through.
Finally, we had a view of balance sheets. Anyway, this is our last slide.
We normally end by a short business outlook to give you some ideas on what we have in front of us and what maybe we spend the most time on or at least would like to see happen as important steps. One is obviously that we are really excited about new customers coming on that we've also been working with for some time, but not as long as for the others. The quick, how to say, turnaround from idea to actually entering some sort of commercial discussions is highly encouraging, although we know that they know what you're doing, of course. It's just a different leadership in place and a different way to look on innovation, which we're interested to follow and see where that goes. That's important. We have our previous acknowledgment of licensing with AkzoNobel that hopefully also plays out well moving forward.
And that would combine to give us a commercial footprint with the 8 of the 9 largest in the world. And you can say that's way beyond 90% of the total market that we capture by that because the ninth is quite small. So that would be a wonderful position for I-Tech. So looking forward to that. And as Magnus said, the operational improvement project is underway. And we also have technical milestones within reach, finally, that can help to overcome some tricky challenges in certain coating types that we believe can accelerate the work, or sorry, the uptake into the dry docking scheme of products. And that's, as you may know from before, where the volumes is. We're talking about 15,000, maybe even 20,000 dry docking opportunities per year, as opposed to 1,500 new buildings. So it's very important to get into that.
And some of it is already flowing in, like the PPG product and a few of the Chugoku's products. So there is a technical hurdle that maybe if we come through that can help others to move in as well. So we're excited about that. And maybe we can come back to that later, but it's still some time needed before we prove what we have found. On the challenge side, it's no secret that the ED process is continuing. It's a pathway forward. We have invested everything we can, taken every angle we can to the issue.
In this first phase, which is then the Chemical Agency scientific review, we're trying to put our interpretation, and that's then supported by many external experts, to the table and hopefully making member states pay attention to this very delicate situation where a difficult parameter is introduced into the industry into a very difficult and different biocide, Selektope. And if details are not understood, it's a big risk that the general thoughts are overruling the nitty-gritty details. Then there might be an unfavorable outcome of this first process. But let's see. I emphasize that's only one out of many steps ahead. We're doing everything we can, and we will come back once there is anything meaningful to say on that industry, on that process.
As you have seen from the financial report, there's a lot of money going into that, which obviously is showing our ambition and our willingness to defend. Then we have the cost that is also jumped up on a little bit different level for good reasons because we invest in strategic search. We invest in developments, manufacturing, as we discussed, but also regulatory affairs. Obviously, regulatory affairs is maybe not a pleasant strategic expenditure when it comes to the ED, but in many other aspects, it is. The U.S. process, which we would hopefully restart here after summer, and we have other countries where we do have a very positive momentum around the need of Selektope and the dialogue with authorities. And then, as mentioned, right, we have the suffering of delays in EPA.
Let's hope that staff at EPA is not completely changed after the presidential election because then everyone is back to square one again. But if not, we do see a pathway forward now once they have aligned the resources finally after three years of recovering from COVID backlogs and a lot of turnaround of key people, I would say. But I also want to have this opportunity to say this is my final public presentation of a quarterly report for I-Tech. It's been 10 exciting years as CEO. It's been enormously ups, how to say, interesting events that we have gone through together in the team and also with you as shareholders the last six years. And it's with great pride I leave with these good results, of course, and in good hands of a very strong team who is everything to this product.
It will be headed by a very stable and robust experienced person next to me here, Magnus Henell, who will be the interim until the full CEO process is completed. That process is ongoing. I hope that somewhere in June, we have the conclusion of that. We choose to do it thoroughly. We twist and bend and check the alternatives at hand. Then we'll make a decision. Maybe you will be seeing me in a presentation of the next CEO as our next opportunity to meet. In between that, it's all in good hands. I wish Magnus all the best in his interim position here. Hopefully, I can help him as a chairman if the election goes the way we hope at the AGM on May 16th. By that, I say thank you and look forward to your questions.
Thank you very much, Philip and Magnus, for that presentation. Like I said, now we'll jump into the Q&A section here. We'll start with the first one. You write in the Q1 report that the EU re-registration process costs are expected to continue over the coming quarters. Does this mean that you think that it's unlikely that there will be a positive outcome from the working group stage that was scheduled for Q2? And what is the current timeline of the process?
We have to live under the assumption that it will continue beyond that, that there will be a bumpy ride, which you said before. That doesn't mean that we don't have a good momentum right now in the pending for this second quarter meeting, the BPC meeting. But we have to count on a continued process over a longer time frame, of course, because it takes time to change minds. Therefore, we make the statement that it likely will come at costs the next few quarters. Nothing is done until it's done. And also this first BPC meeting is only an opinion, again, although it's a little bit more important than last time. But it still is far from a decision. But either way, we will probably need to spend the efforts in concluding the whole dossier and communicating around it. But you're right.
We do always tend to look on the cautious side when it comes to this and plan for the next quarters as if we do not have success, because it's too late to plan it if we start at that point, already far ahead in those plannings, just in case.
Other external costs were around SEK 3 million more in the quarter compared to the previous Q1. Besides SEK 1.3 million, EU regulator-related costs, what else has driven the increase? And should we expect this level of costs going forward?
Well, to a certain part, we should expect this level of cost. Except the ED process, as I mentioned before, we have moved into new premises. We are taking external services costs for support, etc., around the laboratory equipment, which we didn't need to do before. We have taken, as you know, we have the CEO search. We're also taking some costs related to that. But lately, we also have been traveling more and been able to see our customers on site in Asia to a much larger and greater extent than previous years. And that will, of course, go up and down between the quarters. But I think we should count on a cost level that is close to what we see today, except for the ED cost there.
You have stated that Chugoku has grown by 30% in your report. Could you comment anything about how your smaller customers are growing at the moment compared to how Chugoku grew when it was smaller? And would you say that the development is similar, or is there a difference there?
That's a good question. We see an exciting uptake on the PPG account to start with, but it's only a few months into the game, right? So it's too early to answer that question. For the second biggest customer, it was a really strong growth last year, which was probably faster than what Chugoku had at that time. We will see after this year how they grow, if it's comparable to the Chugoku uptake. Remember, for those who've been with us for quite some time, we had years in 2017, 2018, where nothing grew. We had no growth at all, right? And there was also the COVID year. So there will be a plateau in every customer's uptake. But we're quite positive that there will be a growth on all those accounts. And as I said, in PPG case, maybe in line where Chugoku were at the time.
For the other smaller ones, we are not seeing any significant movements right now.
Okay. And can you tell us a little bit more about the PPG launch?
Well, yes. It's been something they've been working on for quite some time. They are very familiar with this Nexeon technology that they have, which is a very high-performing system that is now made even better through the addition of Selektope. Our relation with PPG goes way, way, way back, right? I think it's 15 years or even more, maybe, that's been some sort of dialogue. And there was ups and downs in test results, and the routes were changed. So we're very familiar with PPG. PPG are very familiar with our product. So in that sense, it feels safe and good, reliable, and they're really picky on doing the testing correctly. On a global perspective, it's interesting to see that PPG's two main products are a silicone-based biocide-free product, and it's this one, Nexeon 810, which is then a low biocidal version of self-polishing.
So they're clearly moving into that direction very strategically because the premium uptake is obvious. They want to be part of that, and they want to do it with their angle. So they go forward with two different products. One is then the biocide-free silicone, and the other one is this one. There are other products as well, should be said, right? But on the new side of the coin, of the release side, of the trend side of their development, this is what you can see. We're really excited to see how big a portion this will take of their total portfolio.
Your annual reports a few years ago stated that your formulation patent expires in 2026 and your product patent expires in 2030. However, last year, your report says that your patents run until 2034. Did you renew this patent last year? Could you please explain the difference between these two statements?
Yes. First of all, it's correct that one of the most important patents for I-Tech expires 2026. The one how shall I say expired in 2020, which was the original patent. 2034 is a co-shared patent that is very important for us. That's in place, as I said, until 2034. That gives some sort of protection that we obviously want to give to our customers for use of the product. But that's protecting from others to access Selektope in certain formulation types until, well, more than 10 years from now, right? So those are the differences. I should also say that we are constantly trying to renew. We cannot renew an old patent, but you can renew the patent portfolio by new innovations and finding solutions to problems that you learn about much later in the game. We're trying to be active on that.
There is a new patent that may be useful for us that was made public not too long ago. There is one or two more in the pipeline that we hope can help that. I need to emphasize every time we go to this discussion, though, that regulatory approvals are important. The manufacturing patents are also important. Those go also to 2034, right? The approvals are for long term. So all in all, the hurdles are quite high to engage in this. But yes, if you want to play it that way, you could probably find a way through somewhere 10 years from now with a quite simple way.
How is the allocation in sales between Drydock and the new build today?
We have no other indication, as I say, as last quarters, which I think we said is 60 new build and 40 dry dock. The launch of the PPG product and the potential uptake, bear in mind, everything takes time in this industry. But if you look a few years ahead, that will definitely contribute to dry docking because it's clearly specified as a five-year system for dry docking. Of course, they sell it also as a new building, but then it's for the five-year system. So that will help us and help the whole momentum into the dry docking industry.
Would you say that your customers now are at normalized inventory levels?
We see that there is a sharp demand. We'll shorten it or at least push a date on deliveries. So we do not see any levels of inventory buildup. I should maybe also check this with Magnus if you see it different from your perspective.
No, I have exactly the same view. And as Philip said, there are no dragging in the deliveries. It's just the opposite. They would like to push the delivery dates forward or closer to us. So I would say that they are on a normal level for them. And a normal level for them are normally actually quite low since they demand quite fast delivery dates.
What are your expectations for additional regulatory costs for the remainder of 2024?
It's very hard to say, of course. How long is a line, so to speak? But of course, we are on a level today of a little bit over SEK 1 million in a quarter. And one case could be that we stay on that level. Of course, we aim to spend as little as possible. But we need to bear in mind that we will do whatever we need to do in order to have a positive outcome of the process. And if that means that we need to spend a little bit more, then we will do that. We have the strength to do it.
You have made some reinforcements on the personnel side. In which areas have you made these reinforcements?
Well, over the quarter, we haven't made any firm reinforcements. We have engaged a consultant to review and help us walk through some sort of initial strategy work to see what options we have at hand. We did have last year some reinforcements on the R&D side. That's what's known as of today. Of course, we're looking into some areas depending on where the strategy work comes in and depending on what a new CEO will have in his or her mind, of course. But that's the only thing we know for now.
Could you please elaborate on the strategic decision to spend a significant amount on the EU regulation issue, considering that the EU market is such a small part of the global market?
That's an interesting question that is asked many times in different forums. But you've been in the industry a long time, which we fortunately have. Understand that the EU approval has a few different important aspects. One, it is the entry barrier for any paintmaker to work with the technology. If they don't have the EU approval, normally, they are reluctant. Of course, that one-time approval is what they need to see, right? But when a product has been used many years as ours, the approvals are more of a market share thing. But it's also such that if we don't have an EU approval, it makes their lives more complicated. Products need to be registered in a certain way outside of Europe. You cannot really apply it on ships that are flagged in the EU. So it comes with some unease, so to say, right, which is not favorable.
The third thing is the brand reputation, of course. I've been talking on this topic before. If Selektope would be the only biocide being phased out, which you obviously don't hope and don't believe in. But if it would happen as a worst case and it would be the only one, obviously, that's a very difficult brand-building, brand recognition situation to manage. Although we have lots of evidence that the decision may be wrong, it is a big industry to convince differently. Now, we don't think any of this will happen. If it happens, we won't be alone. That is almost for granted as we see it. But again, we don't see that coming as a negative scenario. Reason to invest is because we want to make our customer lives as easy as possible.
We want to keep the brand recognition of being approved in the most rigorous, maybe over-conservative market there is. But as you say, businesses elsewhere, this just happens to be the key you need to access some of that.
As a future chairman, what opportunities do you foresee for the Selektope business and the company as a whole? And how will you support its continued growth and innovation?
First of all, we foresee a very strong future. It's a very good time to shift leadership in the company. As you've seen from the report, we have a very strong financial position. We have a very strong momentum in the industry. It's a very good time for someone new to come in and not only continue to develop the Selektope story, but take use of the tailwinds we have to broaden I-Tech as a company if we find suitable things to go into, which are not obviously endangering the Selektope business in any way or endangering the nice financial metrics that we have. So from a chairman position, I'm obviously with great excitement. I want to see how we step by step can build I-Tech to an even bigger and more attractive company. That's the key focus, of course, right? The timing is perfect.
We have a good runway to make a difference somewhere else if we want to find opportunity. And for that, you need new energy. You need a time frame of multi-years, of course, to make a change. So I'm really excited as a chairman to follow the era of Selektope and see what new angle we can put to I-Tech, if any, without compromising our current performance.
We'll take one final question here. As acting CEO, how does Magnus Henell plan to steer the company during the interim period? What are his key priorities in maintaining momentum until a new CEO is appointed?
Well, of course, we will not make any major changes in the company during the interim period. That comes per se. And of course, me and Philip will continue to work closely together in order to continue the good customer development, continue the strategic work until we have the final solution in place. So don't foresee any major changes. Just foresee to see that me and the entire team will continue the great work that Philip has been carrying out for 10 years.
Okay. That's a wrap of the Q&A section here. Thank you very much, Philip and Magnus, for presenting and answering all our questions. Also, thank you very much to everyone who followed along for this presentation with I-Tech. Until next time, thank you very much and goodbye.