Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q3 report that Matteo and I are presenting from Stockholm this morning. Let's go straight to the performance highlights. This is a quarter with some clear positive developments, but also a few areas with some weakness. The adjusted sales growth was 3%, and at a high level, North America contributed with solid Technology & Solutions growth, but Europe was weaker. The real sales growth in Technology & Solutions improved sequentially to 6%, and this was supported by the performance in technology in North America. Similar to the last couple of quarters, the installations order entry growth was very strong in the technology business. We had record level order entry in North America and Ibero-America. From a strategy execution perspective, I am very pleased with the fact that we are increasing the share of Technology & Solutions across all segments.
The adjusted operating margin was 8.2%, and this was supported by the highest Q3 margin to date in North America, so very good development. Aviation in Europe had a very negative impact, and if we look at the underlying business performance, that means when we exclude European aviation, the operating margin for the group is at 8.4%, so 20 basis points impact. I will go through the main reasons in the European section, but given the poor performance, our team has initiated actions to ensure that the aviation performance returns to acceptable levels. Looking at the earnings growth, the aviation issues in Europe burdened, and we recorded a flat operating margin in the quarter. EPS improvement is 6% in the first nine months of the year. The cash flow was healthy at 82%.
As previously commented, the active portfolio management activities in Europe and Ibero-America were finalized in Q2, but we expect a continued negative top line impact from the terminated contracts during the coming quarters. The quality of the portfolio is now significantly stronger today as we transition to driving profitable growth. Related to SCIS, the transfer of the last remaining contracts with the federal government is expected to be concluded by the end of October, so this month. This means that there is no further government-related revenue recognized in that business, but as previously communicated, we keep the commercial cleared business. We are very glad to have this concluded a few months before the targeted end date, and it also means that we can then focus on the core business. Let's then move to the performance in the business lines and the segments.
As a result of the technology momentum, the share of Technology & Solutions reached 35% in the quarter. The real sales growth in Technology & Solutions was 6%, as I mentioned before, and North America Technology & Solutions contributed together with very strong T&S performance in Ibero-America. The real sales growth in security services was 1% in the quarter when excluding the impact of the government business close down in North America. We had decent growth in North America, but the main negative drivers were aviation and the impact of active portfolio management in Europe and Ibero-America. When I look across the different segments, our security services offering continues to be well received in segments such as data centers, defense, and pharmaceuticals, where long-term partnerships and high-quality security services offerings are highly valued.
But in certain markets and client segments, demand trends remain somewhat more cautious, and this is resulting in more selective purchasing behavior with an emphasis on price and also with longer decision cycles. Now we're managing this dynamic effectively in North America, while market conditions in Europe and Ibero-America remain somewhat more fragmented. And this is also then something that has impacted the top-line growth in the quarter. So with that, we then move to the segments, and we start with North America, where we recorded a continued sequential sales growth increase and margin improvement. The organic growth of 3% was driven by both the technology and the guarding business lines. And technology installation sales were strong with continued record-level order intake and backlog growth. Strong commercial momentum and good portfolio new sales also supported the organic sales growth in guarding.
The Pinkerton business is smaller, as you know, but continued to hamper the North America growth as a result of the termination of a large temporary contract. And that contract, I can mention, we have until the end of this year in the comparatives. And the recent divestment of the GEG aviation business also had a negative impact on the real change in operating results in the quarter. But with good commercial momentum, the sales growth in Technology & Solutions increased to 7%. And the operating margin improved 20 basis points despite the weakness in Pinkerton. So all in all, very good delivery by our North America team. And then we move to Europe, where the total performance was below our expectations, primarily as a result of negative impact from the airport security business. The organic sales growth was 2%, supported by price increases in Turkey.
And in the services business, as I mentioned before, active portfolio management had a negative impact on the growth, but we recorded improved new sales activity in the quarter. Real sales growth in technology and solutions was also below expectations at 3%, with decent growth in technology but lower than expected in solutions where we had some terminated contracts. The operating margin in Europe was 8.1% in the quarter. This represents a 30 basis point decline versus a very strong comparative, and the main issue was the airport security business with negative impact on the profitability. And just to give some better understanding of this, because this is somewhat of a surprise and definitely disappointment also from my perspective, there are three main factors behind the poor performance in aviation when comparing to Q3 last year.
And as we commented last year, it was also a very strong third quarter in aviation. But the first one is the situation in the Middle East, that burden will reduce number of flights and similar to last quarter, approximately 20% demand reduction in key markets like Germany. And second, some contracts were converted last year in Germany from price per passenger to fixed hourly contracts. The changes were implemented at the beginning of this year, but the biggest impact of these changes happened during the summer season, which is the peak traveling season. And with demand picture changing in combination with the new contracts, this had a significant negative impact on the profitability and associated negative leverage in the third quarter. And the third issue is related to very challenging start-up period of a new major contract in the Netherlands.
It goes without saying, this performance is disappointing and well below our expectations, but our team is now taking actions to drive improvement in aviation during the coming quarters. All in all, weaker development in Europe in the third quarter, but as stated, actions are underway to improve. We then shift to Ibero-America, where we had stable development of the business. Sales growth was 5%, and this was driven by very strong growth in Technology & Solutions and price increases in security services. Similar to last quarter, there is a negative impact on the growth from active portfolio management, but our team are driving good conversions and new sales of technology solutions, and the real sales growth in Technology & Solutions was very strong at 14%. The operating margin was stable at 7.9%.
Strong growth in Technology & Solutions contributed, but overall margin was held back by negative leverage on the cost base in security services. Overall, solid results from our Ibero-America team, despite some of the near-term headwinds. If we then look at the totality, we're driving disciplined execution of our strategy and looking at Q3 as a whole, we're very pleased with North America, with increase in sequential growth, continued margin improvement. Ibero-America was solid, and we delivered below expectations in Europe, but primarily related to the very significant impact from aviation. Similar to previous quarters, we recorded very good growth and margin development in the EMEA business, which is reported in the other statements. As commented earlier, we increased the share of Technology & Solutions to 35%. Client retention is stable around 90%. With that, we turn to the finance section and welcome Matteo.
Thank you, Magnus, and good morning, all. As usual, we start with the income statement. Reported organic sales growth was 0%, and the operating margin improved by 10 basis points to 8.2%. Adjusted for this SCIS government business being closed down, organic sales growth was 3%, while the adjusted operating margin was 8.2%, 10 basis points below last year. Operating income was flat in real terms in the quarter and increased by 4% over the first nine months. Looking below operating results, there are no material developments in amortization of acquisition-related intangible nor in the acquisition-related cost. Item affecting comparability was SEK 36 million in the quarter. Compared with last year, the year-on-year comparison is heavily impacted by the SCIS Paragon closedown of $1.5 billion reported in Q3 2025.
Excluding the divestment of the SCIS closedown, item affecting comparability amounted to SEK 46 million in the quarter, compared with SEK 65 million in the corresponding period last year. The costs in the quarter were related to our transformation program in Europe and in line with our plans. We continue to expect total costs for 2026, excluding the capital gain for the divestment, to be in the range of SEK 225 million-SEK 250 million. We are currently adjusting the phasing of some elements of the European transformation program. This is expected to result in a lower activity level and lower program-related spend in the fourth quarter. However, during quarter four, we expect to utilize part of the remaining amounts for additional restructuring and optimization action across the group that qualify as item affecting comparability.
Year-to-date, IAC remains positive at SEK 102 million due to the capital gain of SEK 223 million resulting mainly from the divestment of Global Elite Group in the U.S. in the first quarter. Our finance net was SEK 364 million, a reduction of SEK 55 million compared to last year. We continue the positive trends of reducing finance cost and interest rate and our debt leverage is decreasing. Consistent with our previous communication, we expect finance net for 2026 to continue to improve and come below SEK 1.6 billion, compared to the SEK 1.8 billion for the full year 2025. Going forward, the year-on-year benefit is expected to moderate each quarter as leverage normalizes and comparatives become tougher. Now moving to tax, I want to start with some good news.
The Supreme Court in Spain has ruled in our favor in the tax case, which dates back many years ago. While this is non-cash item, it had a positive impact on our net income in the quarter through the reversal of the related tax provision. For the full year, we now forecasted a tax rate of 27.9%, excluding the capital gain from the divestment of Global Elite Group and the reversal of the Spanish tax provision. This is slightly above our previous forecast of 27.5%, mainly due to the higher tax cost in the U.S. EPS benefited in the quarter from both the lower finance net and the reversal of the Spanish tax provision, which was treated as IAC. Earning per share before item affecting comparability amounted to SEK 3.28, and the real EPS declined by 3% compared with last year.
While we continued to see benefit from a lower finance net, this was more than offset by a higher tax charge in the quarter, with operating income remaining flat in real terms. For the first nine months of 2026, our currency-adjusted EPS, excluding IAC, increased 6% compared to last year. Now moving to the FX effect in the quarter. Currency had a positive translation effect on reported operating income in the quarter, while the real change was flat. Turning now to cash flow. We deliver another solid quarter, ending at SEK 2.6 billion, corresponding to 82% of operating income. For the first nine months, as Magnus said, cash generation is slightly below last year at 71% versus 74%. The cash flow in the third quarter was slower than last year, primarily due to higher CapEx and change in operating payables.
Trade receivable improved compared with the second quarter, although the improvement was partially offset by continued strong installation sales. We remain well positioned to achieve our full-year cash flow at 80%-90% of operating income before amortization. As mentioned, the capital expenditure was higher than last year at 2.9%, but remained below our target. The free cash flow ended at SEK 2 billion, and year-to-date improved by SEK 94 million compared to last year.
I apologize. The presentation froze here, so we are not showing the cash flow slide properly.
Did we next slide? Okay.
Okay, perfect. We then move, and we look at our net debt, which was SEK 31.5 billion at the end of the quarter. This is a decrease of SEK 1.2 billion compared to quarter two this year, despite SEK 702 million negative currency translation effect. Item affecting comparability remain according to the plan, and as anticipated during Q1, we are forecasting a cash flow for the full year 2026 in the range between SEK 880 million and SEK 850 million. Looking at the right-hand side, our net debt to EBITDA is now at 2.1%, which is an improvement of 0.1x compared to Q3 last year. We are below our target net debt to EBITDA of less than 2.5x and expect to continue to deleverage our balance sheet in the short term.
Looking at our financing and financing position, we continue to have a strong balance sheet, strong liquidity, and we remain without any financial covenants in our debt facilities. Looking at the maturity chart, SEK 1.5 billion maturity was repaid in full at the beginning of October, leaving no further refinancing needs in 2026. We continue to focus to amortize debt supported by a strong free cash flow generation. Finally, a further confirmation of our stronger financial position was the S&P upgrade of our long-term credit rating from BBB to BBB+. And with that, Magnus, I hand it over back to you.
Thanks a lot, Matteo. Before we open the Q&A, just a few words regarding the longer-term development. I also wanted to share some feedback on our strategy from our clients. I just need to confirm that we are now on the right page here. Okay. A few months ago, we shared the new financial targets for the next phase. We decided to make our targets sharper and more ambitious. We are fully committed to delivering on these numbers in the coming years. One important change was the introduction of the target of 10% average EPS growth. The 10% comes from three main drivers. The first one is about growth. Now we aim to grow organically by 4%-6% per year, which would allow us to increase market share. Today, we have all the components required to deliver intelligence-led security at scale.
Second, margin improvement is another important part of the mix. We aim to expand margins by 20 basis points-30 basis points per year, driven by efficiency and mix. A cross-sell opportunity between our business units as well as the possibility to sell more integrated services will improve our mix and therefore also the margins. Third, disciplined capitalization, deleveraging and value accretive M&A. On the M&A theme, we have been focused on building a quality pipeline during the last 12 months and now looking at attractive electronic security bolt-on targets that represent aggregate sales around SEK 2 billion. Since launching our strategy this summer, I met with clients across three continents. The response has been very positive with both existing and prospective clients recognizing the value of our ambition to become the trusted partner in intelligence-led security.
Our clients see compelling value in our emphasis on quality and in a more dynamic intelligence-led approach. While this represents a shift from established industry practices, there is also strong support for the direction. Clients increasingly recognize Securitas' unique ability to leverage AI, automation, and actionable risk intelligence to deliver greater value. We are already beginning to see early signs of a shift in buying behavior towards intelligence-led security. As I've said this before, I'm expecting more change during the coming years in our industry compared to the last 2025. We are encouraged by the positive feedback and expectations on the partnership from a number of leading companies around the world.
To ensure that we deliver the highest possible value to our clients and to our shareholders, we are also doubling down on strengthening our ability to win together with the clients, simplified and enhanced incentive systems, how we are enhancing the coordination and the account management, and also then leveraging the full range of capabilities that we have externally and together with our clients. We are still on the right path to achieve our wanted position as the trusted partner in intelligence-led security and to deliver on our targets. With that, let us open up the Q&A session.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Zach Al-Qaryooti from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Three questions, please. Firstly, just digging a little bit deeper on the margins, given it was down year-over-year when excluding SCIS. You called out most of that was driven by aviation. Do you expect a similar impact from that business on the group margin development in Q4, or should it be less of a drag given the tougher comp you called out last year? Then just as a follow-up to that one, you noted you are taking some actions to improve the performance there. Could you please share some further details on that? Secondly, you called out some impacts from active portfolio management. My understanding was the vast majority of that completed by now. Is there any further impact expected over the remainder of the year or perhaps into next year?
Then third question, just more broadly when we look at the group organic growth profile, it still remains a little bit below the 4%-6% medium-term ambition. Could you help us better understand just the bridge to get to that guidance and what needs to improve from here to accelerate towards that range? I know you called out better T&S momentum that you're seeing, but are there any more positive signals maybe in demand guarding business that can help or in some of your data center exposure? Thank you.
Thank you, Zach. On the three questions, the impact for the entire group was 0.2% on the margin from aviation, and it's essentially related to two countries in Europe, as I highlighted. Our team is. They are taking actions. My view is that we're going to see improvement during the coming quarters. But some of the operational issues and the challenges that we have, we are also not solving overnight. So very high attention, but taking actions to ensure that we are driving steady improvements, but over the coming quarters, as stated. If you look at the active portfolio management, this was more of a strategic program for us that we were driving over a number of years to ensure that all the portfolio is in good shape across the company. We will obviously, with our business, we will continuously be evaluating, assessing all contracts.
That is just good leadership and good management. If you are looking at the impact, and the reason that I say that there is an impact now and also in the coming quarters is that while we finalize that work, looking at Europe and Ibero-America, numbers will be in the comparatives from Q2 for 12 months, essentially. So that's why we are highlighting that there is some impact. The important thing that we need to do there, of course, is that we are also then taking out costs so that we are not suffering, if you will, from negative cost leverage in that type of a process. On the growth, we remain fully committed and also believing that we are going to be able to grow at 4%-6% organically.
If you are looking at the different parts, Technology & Solutions, as I highlighted, 6%, so that is a good sequential improvement the last couple of quarters. Order book as order entry and also backlog on the technology side, especially North America and Ibero-America, very strong. Continued very strong, and that is obviously important when we're looking at the next couple of quarters. I'm also very glad about that because we invested a lot in technology. We have done great work in terms of building capabilities, and there I'm also seeing that we're really building better traction. So I think that's the main part on the technology side and broader Technology & Solutions. On solutions, and specifically, there is more a matter of also leveraging the different capabilities that we have.
We had very good growth in North America, continued very strong growth in Ibero-America when looking at the third quarter. There we have a very strong offering, stronger than anyone else in the market because we have that capability to combine. Like I said as well, and Matteo and I also shared that during the Capital Markets Day, we're also enhancing incentive systems and things like that to ensure that we are really aligning with what is good for the clients is also good for Securitas and our shareholders. If you then look at the guarding part of the business, here, we have been suffering for quite a number of years from the active portfolio management on the top line. We've done that based on conviction that it's good for us to build a quality portfolio.
There will, like I said, be some impact in the next couple of quarters, but the idea here is obviously that we are stabilizing this part of the business so that we are winning and retaining very healthy parts of the business so that we can also then get back to positive volume development, but always then with very clear profitability thresholds to ensure that it's sustainable business. There we have some good development, like I highlighted in North America. There was some portfolio volume growth also driving the improvement in North America, and that's obviously the ambition, more broadly speaking, across the group. So I think those are the main points.
I hope that is helpful to your question in terms of how we're also then improving the growth rate, because right now it seems like we are a bit in the transition between the last period, which was very much about operating profit margin improvement, which was the right thing to do, and now then shifting focus towards profitable growth.
Great. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Andy Grobler from BNPP. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Three from me as well, if I may. Firstly, just on the cash flow payables were weaker in the period. Could you just talk through the drivers of that and whether you expect it to reverse? Secondly, around France and some of the issues that are going on in the country, have you seen any impact on your pretty large business in that country, and what are your expectations through the rest of this year? And then thirdly, Magnus, you talked about sometimes pushing harder on price, and the impact that was having on margins and growth, especially in Europe. Can you just give a bit more depth to that commentary? What's changed? How are you dealing with it? Do you think that is going to persist through the coming quarters? Thank you very much.
Maybe I can start, Magnus. Good morning, Andy. About the cash flow and the payables related question. If you look a bit, the quarter is impacted by the change negatively in operating payables. This is mainly related between the two quarter, quarter two and quarter three. As you can see in the first nine months, our position on operating payable is still very positive and very good. There is also maybe another point to raise, and this is related to the SCIS close down as well. It was negatively impacted on the operating payables because of the acceleration that we are having in quarter three. As Magnus said, the positive news is that we are almost at the end of this, and we see that by the end of October that we are going to transfer the last contract. These are the two main issues.
The timing issue between quarter two and quarter three and the SCIS acceleration close down.
Andy, on the last two questions on France, we have fairly significant business in France, but I would say it's a marginal impact from this really unfortunate riots and the situation that we have seen. What I would highlight, though, is that if we kind of lift the perspective a little bit from my viewpoint, there's more focus on security, there's more focus on risk, more broadly speaking, in society. I think that the security is higher up on the agenda. But that's not driving immediate demand. But one area where I see this is also what we are creating with the third area of our business, security risk management, is that there is also an increasing appetite and demand to really better understand and manage risk in a more structured but also more dynamic way.
But to the question about France, I would say marginal impact from a revenue perspective. On the last question, we did highlight that, and I think also we've had that discussion with some of you in the last six months as well. We have continuously said that we're very well positioned in a number of segments that are growing, such as a lot of the tech companies, a lot of data center business, same thing in defense, pharmaceuticals, et cetera. What I see is that it's a bit of a diverging picture in terms of the type of dialogue that we see. Part of it you can explain, kind of see patterns between different kind of vertical segments, but then it's also partly how progressive or conservative some of the clients are in the purchasing approach.
I think where we have the best traction is typically where security and quality security is really emphasized and prioritized. We also have the best traction with clients who are seeing that the future of security is a combination of people and technology and how we leverage data and intelligence, while in procurement-led processes where it is just kind of we want to buy X number of hours. When it just becomes kind of lowest price, then it costs, there we obviously then not as successful. I think that is just a pattern that we have seen for a couple of years now. My interpretation to your question is that in some of the European markets, like in Germany, for example, it feels like there is quite a lot of uncertainty in the general economic environment and some of the clients and companies are struggling.
Short-term priority, just think about how do we tactically kind of reduce costs. My belief is that when we engage in a really good way with any client, given that we have very strong leg in our guarding capabilities with the presence that we have on site, same thing with the technology and also security risk management. We can actually help clients and build better security equation, but in many cases also at a lower cost, which means that the value for money is improving. The kind of the view here between more progressive and somewhat more traditional, there we are seeing some differences, but there it is obviously extremely important that our teams are really on top of these trends. I feel good and confident because we are getting so good feedback on the strategy and how we are thinking about the next phase.
I think everyone is also recognizing that Securitas is standing out as quite unique, given that all the competitors are either in the systems integration space or more in the traditional guarding space. I hope that gives some flavor, Andy, to the question.
It does. Can I just ask one quick follow-up? Is there a risk there that some of those more traditional clients, particularly in some of the struggling industries in Germany and across Europe, become the next leg of portfolio management if you are not able to shift them to your strategy or vision that margins just get eroded and we see that pressure continue on organic growth in the German business?
Yeah. We have seen these patterns, like I said, in the last couple of years. When we communicate to the financial targets, Matteo and myself, we do those based on genuine belief that we're going to be able to grow at that type of a pace organically. That obviously means that when you look at the total picture, that we're able to manage in a good way. We are also seeing underlying growth in some of the other segments where we are really successful, which is also quite strong. So that should obviously then help and also compensate. I think in the long term, it is always the best value proposition and the best value for money that will win. There I feel that we are very well positioned to manage the totality in a good way.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Harshita Bhatter from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. This is Harshita on behalf of Suhasini from Goldman Sachs. Two questions from our side, please. Firstly, you mentioned in North America that commercial momentum in global technology business remains healthy with record high installation order intakes in both North America and Ibero-America. At what point can we expect this to translate to higher growth? Is it 4Q or will it take a few quarters? Then the second one, just quickly on M&A pipeline. Could you comment on how it is looking, which regions, verticals are you focused on for expansion? Thank you.
Thank you, Harshita. On the first question, we feel really good about the order entry and also the back and the backlog. When you look at the conversion time, it does differ a little bit, but if you were to indicate averages, quite a lot of it in the next four to six months. Some order entry is also stretching well into 2027. The good thing of course, is that if you're looking sequentially from Q1, Q2, and Q3, it's been a good growth development overall. I think that is obviously a very important starting point. That is the typical timeline. It does also differ a little bit depending on which client segment and what type of project as well.
A lot of our business is consisting of smaller projects, but we also have some fairly large and more complex ones that we are managing, and there the lead time will typically be significantly longer as well. If you look at the acquisition pipeline, we have obviously been very focused on deleveraging after the Stanley acquisition. We have done that successfully, and we have started to build up the pipeline to look selectively more at electronic security's technology bolt-on acquisitions. That is the vast majority of the SEK 2 billion that we are currently looking at as a quality pipeline. Those are mostly bolt-on electronic security acquisitions. The important thing there is that we are now one of the largest players within systems design integration, and if you look at how we help clients and also operate technology around the world.
There is also real benefit of continuing to strengthen the coverage in the markets where we have a presence, but also to build more depth and density. Because the depth and the density, it gives significant advantages in terms of the service level that we can bring to the client in terms of SLA fulfillment and turnaround times, et cetera. It also gives significant economies of scale and financial benefits. We are continuously then looking, but can also now afford to be quite disciplined because we already have a pretty good footprint. I think that's why we also highlight that these are mostly bolt-on acquisition profiles.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from Geoffroy Michalet from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Thank you, gentlemen, for taking my question. I have one actually regarding the security services business. Would you be able to help us quantify a bit the impact of the different buckets that led to this -5% growth? Thank you very much.
Yes. Thank you. If you look at the security services business, the main impact here is the close down of the SCIS business in North America. When you adjust for that, we are looking at a 1% growth on a year-on-year basis. I think the 1% is the relevant number because we announced the close down of that business more than a year ago, and then it's just been. We're glad that we're now concluding that a bit earlier, a couple of months earlier than previously planned. That is having a very significant impact from one down to -5 on the unadjusted number.
If you're looking then at the 1% adjusted figure, it is a bit of a different picture there because there, North America, like I highlighted, we had some volume portfolio growth, which is good, so that is not mostly on the price increase. In Europe, I think we had majority of the growth is price-related and also some impact from Turkey. Those are the two major units, and I think also relating to Andy's question before, there obviously the active portfolio management in Europe and Ibero-America is having an impact in the third quarter and will have an impact also in the coming quarters on the growth. When that is out of the comparatives, then the ambition is obviously that we then have a higher quality portfolio that we can return to more kind of normal growth numbers again based on the strength of our offering.
I hope that gives a flavor at a high level.
Yeah. Thank you. Just reconfirming, would you be able to give us some hint on the magnitude of the portfolio management impact this quarter or in the following quarter as well?
Yeah, we haven't broken that out, but I have, on previous occasions, said that we are talking percentage points and not basis points when you look at that, and that has been the case. It's been quite significant, but everything done then based on making that type of shift once and for all, that all the business that we have is healthy business and sustainable business, and that is the work that we have then concluded in the second quarter of this year.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Nicole Manion from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Just one from me, please. Can you just talk a bit more about the trends within solutions and T&S? It looks like obviously there's been a slight improvement in the past couple of quarters, but maybe more from the installations piece and maybe a bit more mixed in solutions. I think you called out some terminations in Europe. Can you comment a bit more on the terminations? Then just maybe give a bit of detail on the types of clients in terms of size and segment, where you are seeing maybe better traction on the solutions side. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Nicole. If you look at North America, technology and solutions, I should just remind everyone, because some of you know very well how we define these ones. Technology is essentially the design integration and then how we help and operate. We then also have remote services for monitoring and service and maintenance. Solutions, that is where we are combining different capabilities and in a simple way, you can say combining people and technology into an integrated offering to the clients. If you look at North America, we had very good growth in solutions, very healthy growth also in technology. I think that is the North America view. If you look at Europe, the technology growth was decent. Solutions were a little bit lower than my expectation, and that was mostly related to a few larger solutions terminations in a few markets.
That pulled down a little bit the solutions figures in Europe in the third quarter. If you look at Ibero-America, the 14% of growth, that is a combination of very strong technology and solutions. Both of them were performing in a very good way. That is really the breakdown. Then I think to your question, we are able to help many clients with integrations, so it's not so segment-specific. What you can say is that if you look at a lot of, talking about technology and some segments, it's a bit more installation, higher emphasis on installations in the early phase, but we obviously always work to then try to ensure that we're also building and offering recurring services. Those are, we are then picking up on a more recurring basis afterwards, essentially.
But there is applicability and we're leveraging regarding the technology and the security risk management capabilities to the benefit of the client and how we help them optimize the security equation into an integrated offering.
Great. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Tomas Kanek from Thomson Reuters. Please go ahead.
Hello, and thank you for having me. My question relates to the recent disruptions at European airports that have been caused by drone-related activities. Have you seen a measurable increase in customer demand for drone detection and other solutions in that respect, and can you quantify the trend in any way? Has there been a shift in customer priorities following these incidents? Are airports becoming more willing to invest in drone detection systems more willing than they were a couple of years ago? Thank you.
Yeah. This is a very important question, and in the dialogue that we are having and also dialogue that I've been directly involved with in the last couple of years, there is a very strong demand for leveraging drone detection. What are you then able to do based on local law in terms of the drones that you are identifying? I would say if I simplify it, I would say that there is very strong interest, there is very strong demand. If you look at the amount of activity that we are driving here, we've been at some sites in Germany, for example, been operating drones for quite a number of years. The demand is significantly stronger than services that are currently being delivered, and it's coming down to legislation.
The demand is very strong, and it's not only for critical infrastructure, it's also for many clients who are also looking at what is critical or critical sites for them, like more advanced R&D labs, for example, and test tracks within the automotive space and those types of things. The challenge is the legislation because it's very slow. I think that is the one thing that still has to be figured out across a number of countries. In a lot of the discussion that I'm involved with, this is constantly an issue that I'm bringing top of the agenda to the politicians and also legislators because it is needed. There is very significant demand.
Because it's very early, it's difficult to quantify any impact, but I think the entire strategy that we have been building and what we also shared at Capital Markets Day, we believe in a future where the integration capability and then the operational capability to first then integrate different types of technology, and here we're then going outside of traditional access control alarm system and intrusion and video cameras. When we then talk about drones or if we talk about robotics and other things, that type of capability that we have and that we have been building together with how we then leverage our people that we have on site, we are very well positioned to be able to leverage and to do that work very efficiently for our clients. When it comes to drones specifically, it is very much held back by slow regulation.
That's something that it would be helpful if that is being sped up in the next couple of quarters.
There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the President and CEO, Magnus Ahlqvist, for any closing comments.
Okay. Thanks a lot everyone for your continued interest and engagement. Wishing all of you a good weekend when it comes. Thank you.