Hello and welcome to the presentation of RaySearch Interim Report for the Q3 of 2024. My name is Eva Nelson and I will be the moderator here today. And joining us in today's call is, as always, Johan Löf, RaySearch Founder and CEO, and also Annika Blondeau Henriksson, the Interim CFO. Next slide, please. Johan and Annika will give you a short summary of the quarter first, including the financials. And after that we open up for questions. And you can ask your question either orally or in writing. And I also want to remind you that this session is recorded and you can find it through the same link as it used for this Teams meeting and also on RaySearch website. So with that I hand over to you, Johan. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Eva. I would also like to welcome all of you to today's webcast. I'm happy to announce that our sales for the Q3 were our highest ever. For Q3 SEK 293 million , which is up by 19% compared with the same period in 2023. Operating profit was SEK 62 million, corresponding to an operating margin of 21%. The improved margin was mainly driven by increased license revenue, which amounted to SEK 133 million . Order intake for the Q3 was SEK 253 million and we had a cash flow from operations of SEK 61 million. To summarize, we're keeping up our momentum and the opportunities for continued growth look promising. RaySearch has a strong financial position with cash and cash equivalents of SEK 425 million , stable cash flow and no loans.
In the beginning of September, Iridium Network in Belgium treated their first patient using RayCare, together with the Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator. This marks an important milestone since it greatly increases the market potential for RayCare, which now includes the approximately 4,000 TrueBeam machines in use at radiotherapy centers worldwide. In August we announced Connecticut Proton Therapy Center as yet another RayCare customer. The center plans to create clinic specific workflows and aim at taking RayCare in clinical use. In 2026, when the center opens, RayCare will be used together with RayStation that they purchased last year. Revenue from the RayCare order will be recognized in 2025. Okay, so now let's take a closer look at the financials. Annika, please go ahead.
Thank you, Johan. In the Q3 of 2024, our order intake increased by 5% from SEK 241 to 253 million. The order intake for licenses increased by 5% from SEK 113 to 118 million, and the order intake for support decreased by 9% from SEK 102 to 93 million compared to the same period of last year. Our net sales increased by 16%, amounting to SEK 293 million compared to SEK 253 million in Q3 of last year. Adjusted for the exchange impact, the net sales increased by 17%. The sales of licenses amounted to SEK 133 million and increased by 36% from last year's SEK 98 million. The support revenue amounted to SEK 120 million compared to last year's SEK 107 million, corresponding to an increase of 12%.
T he operating expenses for the period amounted to SEK 203 million compared to SEK 193 million in the same period of last year corresponding to an increase of 5%. It should be noted that operating expenses is categorized differently in the consolidated statement of profit and loss in the year 2024 compared to 2023. In the RaySearch interim report on page six, a separate table displays the differences between the two years. The strong sales in the quarter resulted in an operating profit amounted to SEK 62 million, an operating margin of 21.1% to be compared to last year's operating profit of SEK 29 million and a margin of 11.3%. This is RaySearch's ninth consecutive quarter with a positive operating profit.
The cash flow from operation amounted to SEK 60 million in the quarter compared to last year's SEK 124 million, a decrease which is explained by the change in operating liabilities in the working capital. The change in operating liabilities also explains the cash flow for the period amounted to SEK 1.7 million compared to SEK 64 million in the same period of last year. For the first nine months of 2024, the order intake amounted to SEK 782 million, an increase by 14% from last year's SEK 686 million. The order intake for licenses increased by 21% to SEK 364 million and last year the amount was SEK 302 million and the order intake for support increased by 4% from SEK 291 million in 2023 to SEK 291 million in 2024 from last year's SEK 281 million.
RaySearch's net sales amounted to SEK 869 million and increased by 20% from last year's SEK 723 million. The sales of licenses amounted to SEK 450 million and increased by 37% and support increased by 16% to SEK 642 million. The strong sales for the first nine months of 2024 resulted in an operating profit amounted to SEK 187 million compared to last year's SEK 71 million and operating margin improved to 21.5% from last year's 9.8% .
Cash flow from op erations for the period January to September improved to SEK 382 million compared to last year's SEK 340 million. The main driver to the improvement is the improved profit before tax. Cash and bank at the end of the period amounted to SEK 425 million, a significant increase from the cash at the beginning of the year which amounted to SEK 344 million. Looking at RaySearch's development of the operating result quarter by quarter since Q4 2022, it shows a steady growth and improvement in absolute amount as well as in operating margin with the last quarter amounted to SEK 62 million and a 21% operating margin. On this slide we present RaySearch's development of net sales and operating result in a 12-month perspective. Since Q3 of 2022, the development of the rolling 12 months net sales has grown from SEK 768 to 1. 169 billion.
End of September 2024, the operating result improved from SEK 5 million in Q3 2020 to in the rolling 12 months perspective. Now we are reporting SEK 231 million ending September 2024. Looking at RaySearch's net sales in a 12-month perspective, we have close to SEK 1.2 billion at the end of the last 12 months period. The number shows a steady growth as well as increasing support revenue, which amounts to 40% of the last 12 months net sales. We end the period with a backlog of SEK 1.7 billion, of which SEK 471 million it's expected to generate in net sales in the following 12 months period. To come over to you, Johan.
Thank you very very much, Annika. Okay, so with an operating margin of 21%, I'm pleased to once again be able to summarize a strong quarter. We see clear link between increased sales and a positive trend for operating profit, which shows the scalability of our business model, our strong performance in recent quarters and the fact that the operating margin has already exceeded the target of at least 20% which was set for 2026. The board has decided to increase the target for the operating margin to at least 25% by 2026. Finally, I would like to thank you, Annika, for your excellent work as an Interim CFO for the past year and a half. Annika will continue as interim until our new permanent CFO, Nina Grönberg, takes up her position at the end of January. So best of luck in your future endeavors, Annika. Thank you.
Thank you, Johan and Annika. Now we will open up for questions. You can either ask your questions orally or you can write them in the Q and A section. So if you'd like to ask a question orally, please press the little hand button at the top menu in the Teams window and I will announce your name when it's your turn. Please don't forget to unmute yourself. For those of you who prefer to ask your question in writing, just please use the Q and A function and you find that to the right in the Teams window. Okay, Kristopher, please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Three questions. First, if you could just maybe comment on the much lower increase in operating costs we have seen now lately versus recent year. And if you expect operating costs to continue at this pace. Or if that's the assumptions you made for the EBIT margin target for 2026, then I wonder if you could just also comment on the fact that orders has been tracking slightly below sales here in recent quarters. If you should read anything into that and maybe related to that, what you could say about the order pipeline and interest among maybe existing and new customers for the RayCare software. Thank you.
Thank you, Christopher. Yes, we start with the lower than perhaps expected increase in operating cost. We, as you all know, we are paying a lot of attention to that currently. We have a strong focus on the operating margin, and you asked about the target for 2026. What assumption is made for the operating cost? It's mainly driven by an expected strong increase in sales since we believe that RayCare will start to contribute significantly in 2025 and 2026 to our revenue, and also that we will be able to just adjust the operating cost according to how that turns out. Because of course it's a forecast, it's an assumption on how sales will evolve. We can always adapt the cost so that we can reach the target. The second question about the orders tracking slower than sales, that's not a concern at all for us.
We see that the orders vary quite a lot over time, but we have a very strong pipeline, a strong pipeline for RayCare, and we see a lot of interest both for RayStation and RayCare in the market, so we are not worried at all about the order situation.
Okay, thank you, Johan. Any more questions? No written questions.
There is a raised hand.
So, Arne Simonsen, please go ahead.
Yes, thank you and congratulations on a strong quarter. I have a question with regards to the RayStation 2024B launch. You mentioned that it comes with the new automation features and sounds quite interesting. I was just keen to learn more. What will this actually entail for the users? What sort of net benefit will they see in terms of time saving or other if you were able to expand a little bit?
Okay. It's a multitude of things. We're constantly working on automation both in RayCare and RayStation. Two major things are the improvements in deep learning segmentation that really speeds up the segmentation. So segmentation of organs at risk as well as deep learning planning that greatly facilitates and speeds up the planning process. But throughout RayStation we have several, in addition to machine learning, many other aspects of automation. For instance, scripting and the connection with RayCare via scripts and automation within RayCare. So there's a multitude of approaches and it's a constant, you know, focus for us to streamline operations and make things faster for the clinical. For the clinical work.
Okay, thank you, Johan. Kristofer Liljeberg, did you have another question?
Yeah, yeah, one more if that's okay. Just what about quite significant lower operating liabilities in cash flow? The reason for that and if there will be any structural differences for working capital if RayCare sales become a larger part of the total here coming years?
Yes, the reason for it, it's predominantly that part of what we have as current liabilities is prepayments and obviously we have on those been delivering quite a lot and at the same time not invoicing so much prepayments in the period and with regards to the launch of further launch and. And the RayCare business increasing. Yes, we can anticipate an increase in our current liability in the balance sheet because it's a longer timing to implement RayCare than to.
Yeah, basically we get paid earlier and we recognize revenue later.
For RayCare and the prepayment for such a deal, how large part of total payments would be before recognizing revenue?
It varies from case to case. Usually it's only like on the order of 10% for the final milestone, which is acceptance of the implementation.
Okay, and could I.
So it can be several milestones. Can be for instance 20% at signing and I think we hear a lot of noise. So different milestones but it's usually a very small amount remaining for the final acceptance.
Okay, and then I noticed that you said that you expect RayCare to start to contribute to sales already in 2025. So that means is that some orders you have already taken or is it a combination? Is the order momentum picking up here for RayCare?
Both, both. But there are several. For example, we start to deliver to Spain, the Ortega project , RayCare and that was, you know, an order taken maybe was it two years ago? Was a while ago. And then as we start to deliver that and roll that out, then those revenues will be recognized, plus others.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. Are there any more questions? No written questions. And Christopher seems to be happy. So if there are no more questions, I would like to thank you for your participation. And we conclude the session and we look forward to continue talking to you, if not before then, it's when the year-end report for 2024 will be presented, and that's on the 21st of February next year. So. And lastly, I'd just like to remind you that you can always find the presentation through the same link as we used for this meeting and also on RaySearch website. Thank you and goodbye.
Thank you. Goodbye.