Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Knowit interim report Q3 2025 conference call. I am Maja, the call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Per Wallentin, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, and warm welcome to this presentation of Knowit 's Q3 report 2025. With me, I have our CFO as well, Marie Björklund. First, I would like to take you through some operational highlights in the quarter. We, as you see, continue to improve utilization in our three largest business areas: Solutions, Experience, and Connectivity, leading to a stronger margin than a year ago. We see in Insight that we continue to face challenges. Q3 is typically a soft quarter connected to management consultancy with delayed projects starting after summer, and this is a pattern that we see even clearer in the current weak market. We continue to focus on work with our operational efficiency to ensure that we have a solid ground when we get back to organic growth.
Thanks to the rapid AI development, we are able right now to deliver projects that include new technology, and this opens up for a lot of new opportunities, both internally and at our clients. This is an entirely new play field that we are seeing evolving. Next slide, please, going into Solutions. Our largest business area, accounting for more than 50% of our total revenue, reporting net sales of SEK 648 million for the quarter. The EBITDA margin was 9.9%, improving compared to last year. We are happy to see that improvement, and this is, of course, also a key factor for further growth in the coming years. Improvements are particularly strong in Sweden, while margins remain solid in Finland and Norway. Our main focus is to continue to deliver high-value products to our clients and get back to positive net recruitment, of course, following hopefully organic growth.
We see that projects including AI increase and expand the market. Next slide, please. Our digital agency Experience reported net sales of SEK 225 million in the quarter with an EBITDA margin of 3%, an improvement compared to last year, even if it's still very low. We have a clear improvement in utilization driven by the development in Sweden. We have invested and worked hard to enhance sales and leadership, which is paying off with several new deals in the quarter. Our focus going forward is to balance challenges in the price development with improvements in utilization to ensure persistence and increased profitability. We can take the next slide, please. Our business area Connectivity reported net sales of around SEK 190 million for the quarter. EBITDA margin was 10.8%. It's a stable development compared to last year.
We have worked really hard on efficiency and proactive sales, and we've been able to successfully replace lost projects with new ones. Utilization is increasing, improving, with room for, of course, further improvements. We have a long and strong long-standing relationship with our key, quite big key customers, and we continue to focus on growing together with them. We can take the next slide, please. Business area Insight reported net sales of approximately SEK 167 million for the quarter. The margin was - 6.5%. We are impacted by a continued increase or internal restructuring in our operations, as I talked about before, a slow start after summer. The market uncertainty remains. We have experienced in this quarter clients still postponing investment decisions. We see improvement in utilization in some areas, and some of the other areas remain burdened by lower demand.
Our focus on building stability through intensified sales and recruitment of competencies in core areas such as cybersecurity and defense, and this is areas that actually are growing in Insight. I would like to turn over to you, Marie, going to the financials a little bit more in detail.
Next slide, please. Back to the group as a whole, we delivered sales of approximately SEK 1.2 billion, a decrease of 8%, but when adjusted for pro forma of acquisitions, divestments, and FX, it was -3%. We have more or less the same number of hours in this quarter, but fewer employees than the previous year. The average headcount during the quarter is down by 6%. The adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 62.5 million, up from SEK 57.9 million last year. The adjustment in this quarter concerns acquisition-related costs of SEK 1.9 million and a capital gain from our Danish divestment of SEK 16.8 million. The EBITDA increased compared to the same quarter last year, mainly for two reasons: improved utilization during the quarter and efficiency gains. Our three largest business areas are all trending in the right direction. We still experience price pressure.
As mentioned before, it has not been possible to fully compensate for salary revisions. However, with the increase in utilization, we managed to achieve an adjusted EBITDA margin of 5.1% in the quarter compared to 4.4% last year. Here we also have an increase. We see that the market remains challenging, fragmented, and competitive, nevertheless, we have areas where demand is really good. As Per Wallentin has also mentioned, defense, cybersecurity, data analytics, for example, and the clear focus has paid off this quarter. Solutions has improved utilization for more than a year now, and Experience utilization is trending upwards for the third quarter in a row. All in all, utilization is slowly getting better for the whole group, and we deliver improved results, yet we know there is more to be done.
We have the right competencies and have developed the capacity to shift them quickly when needed due to changes in the market. This, combined with our focused work on cost structure, leaves room for further improvements. Next slide, please. This slide illustrates our development over time as well on a rolling 12-month basis. Our adjusted EBITDA for the past 12 months amounts to SEK 328 million, showing that the negative trend has been broken. Revenues stand at SEK 5.9 billion with an EBITDA margin of 5.5%. As highlighted earlier, this marks a slight but important improvement compared to the rolling 12-month figures we presented in Q2, confirming that our actions are delivering results. Next slide, please. We currently have SEK 400 million in used credit facilities. Knowit has a total credit facility of SEK 1,050,000,000, with maturities in 2029 and 2030.
Other liabilities, mainly related to leasing, amount to SEK 420 million, and this results in a total net debt of SEK 608 million. When divided by our EBITDA of SEK 511 million on a rolling 12-month basis, our leverage is 1.2. Overall, we maintain a solid balance sheet and a good financial position, well within our financial target of not exceeding the leverage ratio of 2. Next slide, please. We have a solid platform and a strong position as a digitalization partner in the Nordic region. Having a broad footprint is a clear strength in tougher times, helping us to ensure stability. The share of revenue from the public sector is increasing compared to last year, mainly driven by positive development in Norway and our large framework agreements. The retail sector remains stable this quarter and continues to be our second largest segment.
We note a negative development in the banking and finance sector, primarily related to the divestment of consulting services in Denmark. The decline in the telecom sector mainly relates to one major client that has reduced its share over the past year, not fully compensated by other assignments. However, we are now seeing that this client increased its business with us again during the quarter. Last but not least, we continue to see good growth in the defense sector. Next slide, please.
Thank you, Marie. To summarize, we see a continued positive trend in utilization across our three largest business areas: Solutions, Experience, and Connectivity, yet with remaining upside. It is important to be said, activity levels are high, and we have secured several new assignments during the quarter. We remain focused on internal efficiency, sales, and client dialogues. Aligning price development with rising salary costs continues to be a challenge for us. We have to continue to work with that. Going forward, we will intensify our recruitment efforts to get back to organic growth. As I mentioned before, we see how AI creates great opportunities to innovate together with our clients. This will expand the market. Thank you. Now we open up for questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from [Jeff Stoimo] from [Handelsbanken ]. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Good morning, Per and Marie, and congrats to the very good results in Q3 here. A couple of questions from me. I start with the public sector and some more positive commentary. It looks like sales is up 13% year-on-year. Is this mainly related to the downsizing that you have, or do you actually see increased demand, higher budgets, and higher budgets going into 2026? What's your outlook here?
We see some early signs. I wouldn't say that we have enough accurate data points connected to the development of the public sector, especially talking about Sweden. We see some early signs. As we all can see, the overall budgets are in place for 2026. I have good faith that we will see increased digitalization budgets in some areas in Sweden as well. That's very important, both for the development of Sweden and for the development of our businesses connected to the public sector. As you know, in Norway, we have the last years won quite a lot of the new big contracts. In Norway, since last year, we are really on track connected to the public sector.
The main explanation for the increase is the Norwegian framework contract.
All right. Thank you. That's good. On price relative to the salary development here, how big is the gap between the two, would you say, the yield? Are we talking like 1 percentage point, 2 percentage points, or?
As you know, we don't disclose the hourly rates and not the salaries in detail. We get a lot of questions if we were forced to lower the prices compared to last year. If we adjust for currency, this is not the case. We do see a slight increase, but it is slight. I would say if you weigh the average salaries in the different countries, it is somewhere between 3% and 4% in salary increases. You can do a rough calculation on that.
Okay. All right. Thanks. On the net recruitment then, you have been a little bit more cautious here. As we are seeing some more improving signs here in Q3, do you think that you can come back to a positive net recruitment a bit earlier? You have highlighted somewhere in the middle of 2026, maybe we would see a positive net recruitment. Do you think that you dare to speed this up now, or will you remain cautious on this side?
I don't think it's appropriate for us to speculate too much in that right now. I think the answer is pretty much the same as before, that the main focus is to increase the utilization first and then move into net recruitment. Of course, in Q3, we have net recruitment in some areas, some units of Knowit, and those are the areas with good margins already and good organic growth. That's something that needs to be in place first, and after that, we will slowly go into net recruitment. I can't give you any more details.
Yeah, yeah.
As you know, the fourth quarter normally for our type of business is not a big recruitment quarter also.
Okay. That's everything from me. Thank you, Per and Marie. Good luck in Q4 here as well.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Daniel Thorsson from ABG. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thank you very much. First question, I missed the beginning of your presentation here, so I apologize if you already respond to this. The utilization and group level has clearly stabilized throughout 2025, and you say that you see some improvements. How far off are we from a normal mid-cycle level in your view, and when in time could we be back to that level? Is mid-2026 a fair assumption, or is that too early?
Hi, Daniel. It is several percentage points below what we aim for. As you know, we really don't give any forecast, so we can't answer you on the question when we will achieve that. As we said earlier during the presentation, there is surely room for further improvements. That's for sure.
Okay. Fair enough. A question on the Norwegian market that has been quite strong relative to other Nordics the last two years. It looks like that is starting to be a little bit more competitive. We see declines of some competitors there. How do you perform in Norway today, and what do you think about Norway into Q4 and 2026?
As you know, the last two years, we have been held up a little bit by Norway, and we still see good margins there. The big shift right now is that we see increased utilization in Sweden. I think that we are performing well in Norway. The most important for us in Norway is our big framework agreements that we signed the last two years, and they are still there at least two to four years from now. That's a clear answer on that question.
Okay. No drastic decline in the Norwegian business, at least.
No decline. No.
I see. Okay. Another topic to get back on the margin side is offsetting the office rental increases that we have seen during the inflation years here. Can you do that with less space, given that you have reduced headcount over the last two and a half years here? When should we expect that you can do that? I guess that you have three-year or four-year deals with the property.
Yeah. It will take one step at a time. When we see possibilities due to the length of the contracts, we, of course, take measures in every city. That's something that we always continuously do. Even 10 years ago, we did that. It is a little bit special right now because we see that we are able to, due to that, we are a less amount of people right now and that we have a quite different pattern of work than before COVID. We see that we are able to decrease the areas quite a lot in some places. It will evolve gradually the next three, four years, something like that.
Yeah, I would say on average, I think most of our contracts are five years. There's still some time left. Of course, we are very cautious of the cost. We're looking at both trying to price negotiate, and also, of course, reducing the.
That will be an upside in the coming three, four years.
Yes.
For sure.
I see. That's clear. That's all for me. Thank you very much. Good to see a good margin quarter here.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
For any further questions from the phone, please press star and one. There are no more questions from the phone.
Okay. We have a few questions from the webcast as well, coming from Joni Grönqvist at Inderes. First question, can you elaborate on the customer demand in the different geographical markets and how you see the difference between public and private? Has pricing pressure eased in some pockets? Thank you.
We talked a little bit about it. Start with Norway. We have a good platform connected to the public sector. There is still room for us to grow in the private sector in Norway, especially connected to utilities and defense industry. Of course, there is a possibility for the future. Sweden, I think that Sweden's been on the market side, it's been quite strong connected to the industry sector the last years. That's something that's a little bit softer right now, but we see a future increase in public sector. That is, of course, much more important for us due to our size in the public sector. Connected to Finland, I really feel that we are performing better, really. We have talked about that the earlier quarters as well, but we are performing better than average in the market, both connected to the public and especially the private sector.
I'm really happy with the margins in Finland. I hope that that's an answer. Otherwise, I hope that you continue to write.
Yeah, we actually have one more question from Joni Grönqvist. Have you seen more postponements and pricing pressure from the public sector now after summer as one of our peers is saying it's got much worse?
No, we haven't.
Good. There are no further questions here.
All right. Thank you for listening in, and I hope that you have a continuous good Friday. Bye.
Thank you. Bye.