Welcome to the Vimian Group Q4 2025 Report presentation. During the Q&A session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO Alireza Tajbakhsh, and CFO Carl-Johan Zetterberg Boudrie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Vimian's 2025 year-end and fourth quarter earnings call. I'm Ali Tajbakhsh, the new Group CEO since end of last year, after leading the veterinary service segment for the past four years. To give you some background, during my four years as head of veterinary services, the business developed from a Northern European purchasing organization into a global service platform with over 10,000 member clinics. I've personally experienced Vimian's ability to attract talent and entrepreneurs and take something relatively, relatively small with potential and build it into global scale and a market leader. I'm a firm believer in our strategy of organic and acquisition-driven growth, and we operate in an exciting and resilient industry going through change. I know the sector, the customers, the business, and our organization well, and I'm confident about our industry and Vimian's future.
We will now go through Vimian's full year and fourth quarter, and Carl-Johan will later give you deeper insights into the financials. Looking back at full year 2025, Vimian delivered revenue growth of 13% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 11%. We saw broad-based growth across most of our businesses, not least in Specialty Pharma, Veterinary Services, and our MedTech Dental businesses. We also put in focused efforts to address the headwinds within MedTech Orthopedics, in particular in the U.S. In fall, we received a positive judgment in the U.S. indemnification process, and all counterparts have now, as per year-end, paid us in full. The year also delivered a strong operational cash flow of EUR 105.7 million, corresponding to a cash conversion of 101%.
Last but not least, we also completed the list change to Nasdaq Main Market, where we are now a large cap company. Going deeper into Q4 and looking at the quarter, we delivered a solid finish to 2025, with 6% organic growth and 6% adjusted EBITDA growth. Excluding currency effects, its adjusted EBITDA grew by 12%. We saw continued momentum within our specialty pharma segment. We saw strong finish with MedTech Dental, while active measures were taken in the quarter within MedTech Orthopedics. Veterinary services continued to perform at scale, reaching over 10,000 members, and in the quarter, we increased our M&A activity with three acquisitions across three different segments and expanded our M&A pipeline the past few months ahead of 2026.
Ivet, an important milestone for our diagnostic segment, was just signed just before Christmas and is an acquisition to strengthen the companion animal offering within that segment. The quarter also delivered strong cash conversion. Looking at Q4, we had 4% revenue growth to EUR 109 million. Our organic revenue growth was 6%, driven by Specialty Pharma, Veterinary Services, and our MedTech Dental business. 3% contributions from acquisition, and we saw 4% negative impact from currency movements, in particular, the movements within US dollars. We improved our margin by 60 basis points versus Q4 2024, driven by bolt-on acquisitions and delivered 6% adjusted EBITDA growth for the quarter. As I said before, excluding currency effects, adjusted EBITDA grew, growth was 12%.
Looking at Specialty Pharma, we continue to see positive performance in the fourth quarter, with 6% organic growth following an exceptionally strong Q4 2024, where we reported 22% organic growth. Normalizing the positive effects from the national sales campaign in the U.S. in the fourth quarter 2024, the underlying organic growth was double-digit in the fourth quarter this year. All four therapeutic areas delivered growth in the quarter, with the strongest contribution from our dermatology portfolio. Overall, organic growth continues to be driven by our innovation, cross-sales activities, and veterinary education. Adjusted EBITDA grew 4% or 7%, adjusting for currency effects to EUR 13.8 million, which is an all-time high quarter for us. The margin improved from 29.4% to 30%, driven by revenue growth, at stronger gross margin.
For the full year, Specialty Pharma grew 6% to EUR 182.4 million and adjusted EBITDA by 10% to EUR 53.9 million. In January, our Head of Specialty Pharma, Magnus, announced his departure after 10 years in the company. I believe the business stands strong and the recruitment process for a successor is ongoing, and we've secured a strong transition plan with Carl-Johan as interim head of Specialty Pharma. As interim head of MedTech since end of July, I'm happy to see the accelerated momentum in our dental business in the quarter, as well as early operational improvements within our orthopedic business, although we still have work to be done and the market remains soft. In total, we delivered 4% organic growth in the fourth quarter, supported by strong growth in our dental business and orthopedics in Europe and APAC.
Within Orthopedics, we have implemented a reorganization in the quarter, which focus on strengthening commercial performance. We built out our field sales organization in the U.S., and we reviewed and rationalized our product portfolio, where we had over 22,000 SKUs and have decided to discontinue over 4,000 overlapping SKUs. We are still in transition phase in U.S. Orthopedics during the initial period of 2026. We continue to drive sequential sales improvements, but do not expect Orthopedics to deliver year-on-year growth until later in spring. The recruitment for a permanent head of MedTech is ongoing and progressing well. The margin in the quarter of 24.6% is a 370 basis point improvement versus Q4 2024, mainly driven by the consolidation of bolt-on acquisition within Dentistry in 2025. Adjusted EBITDA grew 23% in the quarter and 32%, excluding currency effects.
For the full year, MedTech grew revenues by 25% to EUR 155.5 million, where our acquisitions within Dentistry contributed 30%. Full-year Adjusted EBITDA grew 15% to EUR 39.6 million. Veterinary Services deliver another strong quarter with 10% organic growth. In October, we completed the acquisition of a local service platform in Belgium with 300 member clinics and passed the ten thousand milestone when it comes to member clinics, closing the year with 10,999 member clinics. As previously communicated, we are accelerating our investments into new geographies and services in the quarter, taking the margin to 26.6%. For the full year, Veterinary Services increased revenues by 11% to EUR 64.3 million, and then Adjusted EBITDA grew 9% to EUR 18.4 million.
Mikael Tunell, who has been part of Veterinary Services since 2018, was appointed Head of Veterinary Services when I became CEO, and I'm pleased to see how the team has come together and continue to build momentum as the global leading veterinary service platform. Our diagnostic business reported 5% organic growth in the quarter and a margin of 9.2%, reflecting our investments in new products and personnel to strengthen the companion animal offering. The growth was supported by bluetongue outbreaks in Europe and avian Influenza globally. For the full year, diagnostic grew by 9% to EUR 22.9 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined 3% to EUR 2.2 million. As I said initially, we welcomed 5 new businesses in 2025 that expanded our portfolio and geographic footprint.
We've seen improving M&A momentum towards the end of the year, with three out of these five acquisitions coming in the fourth quarter. We've built a stronger pipeline over the past months, and I'm optimistic about the M&A opportunities going into 2026. We continue to focus on successful, entrepreneurial-led businesses that can grow and reach their full potential faster as part of Vimian. A good example of that is Ivet, that we signed in December. Ivet is one of the top three in companion animal diagnostics in Italy and forms an important addition to our diagnostic segment. Ivet is a typical Vimian acquisition, high growth, successful and entrepreneurial-led business, where the entrepreneur, Daniele, is highly motivated and will continue to lead the business as part of Vimian.
Annual revenues of EUR 5.6 million, where two-thirds of the revenues comes from laboratory services, where they have 3 ref labs in Italy, and the remaining third is from sales in in-clinic diagnostic tests. Ivet also has a well-renowned educational platform with over 100 courses annually and offer residency program in partnership with universities. Looking at our sustainability, as we now close 2025, we can see that we continue to make important progress within our ESG agenda. Our sustainability agenda is closely integrated into the core of the business and focuses on animal, our people, and the planet. During 2025, we educated 65,000 veterinary professionals to improve animal health, and we launched 94 new products to advance veterinary medicine. Our employee Net Promoter Score reached 30, and we have exceptionally high scores from our teams in areas of inclusion, trust, and autonomy.
On the environmental side, we continue to reduce our emissions in total with 25% since 2022. We also received external recognition for our work with an improved rating at both MSCI to AA, and Sustainalytics to low risk. With that, run through of the year and the quarter, I will now hand over to Carl-Johan .
Thank you, Oli, and let me give you some further insights to the financials for the fourth quarter and full year. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was EUR 26.1 million, an increase of 6%. This represents a margin of 24.0% for the quarter. The margin increase is primarily an effect of consolidation of bolt-on acquisitions within MedTech Dentistry during 2025. Also, our largest segment, Specialty Pharma, contributed to the margin expansion, supported by operational leverage in the business. We report an operating profit of EUR 19.2 million, a significant 54% increase from last year's result of EUR 12.5 million. Items affecting comparability decreased in the quarter and totaled -EUR 0.7 million. The majority of items affecting comparability is relating to MedTech.
This consists of EUR -1.6 million in restructuring costs from organizational changes and inventory write-down as a consequence of the product portfolio rationalization, as well as EUR 2.7 million relating to payments, net of litigation costs in the U.S. indemnification dispute. Acquisition-related costs amounted to EUR 1.1 million in total for the group. Net financial items amounted to EUR -7.5 million and consists of 4 main parts: financing expenses of EUR -4.1 million, with an average interest rate of 4.5% during the quarter, a quarterly discounting impact of EUR -1.6 million, and a negative impact of EUR -3.1 million from probability adjustments related to contingent considerations. The probability adjustments primarily relates to stronger performance within our acquired dental businesses.
A negative result of EUR 0.7 million from liquidation and divestments of subsidiaries, and lastly, a positive impact of EUR 2.2 million from exchange rate effects on the revaluation of debt. Income tax expense for the quarter was EUR 0.8 million, with an effective positive tax rate of 7%. In the fourth quarter, the tax expense as percentage of pre-tax profit was positively affected by recognition of deferred tax on tax losses carried forward at year-end, amounting to EUR 3.7 million. The effective tax rate was inflated by non-deductible expenses, mainly probability adjustments of contingent liabilities. In total, this results in a profit for the period of EUR 12.2 million, with an earnings per share of EUR 0.02 for the quarter.
Cash flow from operating activities reached EUR 55.7 million, including payment from U.S. indemnification dispute of EUR 28.7 million in the quarter. Excluding the litigation payment, cash conversion was 92% for the fourth quarter. Net working capital amounted to EUR 96.6 million at the end of the quarter, equal to 23% of revenue, a decrease from EUR 102.2 million at the end of the third quarter, which equaled 24% of revenue. The majority of the EUR 5.6 million decrease in working capital relates to lower current receivables and increase in trade payables. Cash flow from investing activities amounted to minus EUR 17.5 million, primarily relating to acquisitions, earn out payments, and investments in tangible and intangible assets. Cash flow from financing activities of minus EUR 35.5 million from repayment of borrowings.
At the end of the quarter, net debt amounted to EUR 245.4 million, which is down from EUR 253.5 million at the end of the third quarter. Cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 55.0 million, an increase compared to EUR 51.3 million at the end of September. External lending was EUR 223.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter. This resulted in a leverage at the end of the quarter, equal to 2.0x, which is down from 2.1 at the end of the third quarter, and we remain well capitalized with an ability to execute on our strength and acquisition pipeline. With this financial review, I hand the word back to Ali for concluding remarks.
Thank you, Carl-Johan. We deliver a solid finish to 2025, and we are well positioned in a resilient market that continues to grow. I'm a firm believer in our strategy of combining organic and acquisition-driven growth, and my focus is to accelerate what is working well and address the areas we need to improve. We have an attractive platform for entrepreneurs, and I'm optimistic about our M&A pipeline going into 2026. I hear frequently from industry peers and partners that the entrepreneurial spirit and the quality of our people consistently stands out. This is something we take pride in and will continue to build upon. With our focus on global market niches with unmet medical needs and high growth potential, with a strong team in place, and with the product and the services we offer, I'm confident we can deliver a good 2026. Thank you.
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 Kavya Deshpande from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a couple, please. So the first was on organic growth from here after the you know, the very good exit you've had in Q4. I understand you don't give an annual guidance, but could you give us a sense of how significant an organic acceleration we can expect in 2026? I ask because you have a long-term guidance for double-digit organic growth to 2030, you're at sort of 7% for the first two years of the plan. Consensus has you at high single digits for 2026, so that obviously implies quite a ramp towards the end of the decade. Are you comfortable with this cadence, or do you think we can start to get closer to that double-digit organic growth target sooner?
Thank you for the question. I think we see an overall, and the overall animal health market continues to grow, and we have positive business momentum, as I said, in most parts for Vimian. So I think we should be able to deliver a good growth in 2026.
Brilliant. Thank you. My second question is just on Specialty Pharma and the cross-selling initiatives there. If I have it right, it slowed a fair bit sequentially in terms of the contribution to the divisional organic growth in Q4, off Q3 and also off Q2. Are you just reaching sort of the end of this program? And if not, then how much of a contribution can we expect to come from cross-selling for Specialty Pharma and group organic growth in 2026, please?
Yes, thank you. Cross-selling has been and continues to be a robust contributor to organic growth. We saw in 2025, just as we saw in 2024, that one-third of the organic growth was driven and supported by our cross-selling initiatives. We are launching and we launch new cross-selling initiatives going forward. In 2026, eight new cross-selling initiatives will be launched, while we see continuous runway for a solid contribution from cross-sales in 2026 and beyond.
Just to clarify, so is it one third of organic growth in the quarter? Because the press release says in 2025, and I think the previous ones give it as year to date. But just to confirm, that would be great.
The one-third is the year-to-date number. So for 2025, a third of the organic growth was supported by cross-sales.
Okay. All right, fine. Thank you.
The next question comes from Adela Dashian from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. Ali, congratulations on the new appointment. A couple of questions from me as well. Firstly, if we start with MedTech, I believe you said here that you don't expect an acceleration or a year-over-year growth until spring. Should we read that as some sort of guidance that you do expect MedTech to return to double-digit organic growth by Q2?
We see early operational improvements, but we are undergoing significant change with the new sales team fully in place as of January. So I think Q1 or spring will be a transition phase for us, but we continue to drive sequential sales improvements, but we don't expect it, as you said, to deliver year-over-year growth until later this spring. I think that's all we can say at this stage. But I think-
Um, okay.
Or I could add to a full recovery will probably require the market to regain momentum as well.
By a full recovery, you mean double digits?
Yes. The market remains soft right now, so I think the combination of our efforts into the operational side of the business and the market returning to better growth is needed to get to double digits.
I see. And then you mentioned also, a number of SKUs being discontinued. Could you just have those already been discontinued, or is this an effort that will take place now in 2026 as part of the, the new commercial efforts?
We've already initiated the work of discontinuing those SKUs, but there are a few that will be transitioned and discontinued now, early this year as well.
Would it be possible to quantify what the impact of that was on sales in 2025?
Limited. This is overlapping SKUs, so the SKUs we are discontinuing, we have equivalent products that are better and more relevant for our customers to buy.
Okay, great. And then lastly, on veterinary services, still a high pace of investment. What's the, I guess, pacing of that? Do you expect a continuation even in 2026 or a slowdown at some stage?
We see continued momentum in veterinary services. It's been one of our segments performing very well for a long period of time, and we see that continue. The investments we're doing is to ensure that we capture the full potential and the inbound need we get from our partners and veterinarians across the world.
Okay. Thank you. I'll stop there.
The next question comes from Sten Gustafsson, from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning. I was wondering if you could give us a little bit of color on the M&A market right now in terms of number of opportunities, price levels on targets, and also where you focus your efforts on, where do you want to grow? What areas specifically are you looking to go after?
We see an increased M&A momentum. As we stated, three out of the five acquisitions we made in 2025 happened in Q4. We're also confident about the building of our pipeline going into 2026, where we see Vimian being a good and interesting platform for entrepreneurs within animal health to join. With the acquisition of Ivet, I think we now have four active verticals looking at interesting bolt-on or platform acquisitions.
In terms of price points, has there been any change, would you say, like, compared to a year ago?
Morning. No, I wouldn't say that we see a change. We have a historical average of approximately 9x EBITDA, and we are around that average. As previously communicated, typically, platform acquisitions, such as iM3 within the dental space, come with a slightly higher multiple, whereas add-on acquisitions to that comes with a lower multiple, but the average is 9x.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. And then a quick question on the U.S. MedTech market. What do you hear from your customers? What kind of feedback and what do they tell you in terms of the market sentiment and activity levels?
I think the feedback from our customers are similar going into 2026 than during 2025 from a market sentiment perspective. But with our approach of now building a field sales team in the U.S., this allows us to come even closer to our customers, and together with them, support them in growing the business into the future.
But what sort of are they waiting for in terms of the market to return? Is that sort of higher consumer confidence, or what's the sort of inflection point that will drive the market back to normal levels?
A simplified question of that is, of course, macroeconomics in general. There is still, I mean, this is advanced care, but I think if with the macro return of we will see impacts on the business as well.
Okay, thank you very much.
The next question comes from Arvid Necander from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. So first off, on Spec Pharma, do you expect this segment to be able to return to double-digit organic growth in 2026? And if so, it would be great to sort of get your view on what would be the main drivers for this surge in growth. And then secondly, on MedTech, comparisons have become a bit easier, of course, but if we look at the industry data, it seems to have stabilized somewhat since mid-year. Do you view this as a genuine inflection point, and how would you characterize the overall market sentiment right now?
Good morning, Arvid. I'll start with your question on Specialty Pharma. So we have a good momentum in Specialty Pharma. If we look through the full year, and if we look at the fourth quarter 2025, all of our four therapeutic areas grew and had a good momentum. In the end of the year, in the fourth quarter, we delivered 12% organic growth. If we exclude or normalize for the national sales campaign that we did in Q4 of 2024, that we did in Q3 of 2025. So we see a continued positive momentum in Specialty Pharma, and we see that as a double-digit growth business. In terms of what will take us to sort of continue to deliver on a good growth momentum, we have a two-pronged strategy in terms of organic growth and inorganic growth.
From the organic growth perspective, we are focusing, as we discussed before, on cross-sales, on innovation, and on education. We see that all those three, the organic initiatives, will drive and contribute to continued good momentum in organic growth in Specialty Pharma.
Okay, just a quick follow-up on that one. How would you characterize the pipeline for 2026 versus 2025, when if you were to size the growth opportunities?
We have a continued good momentum in the business, and we see continued opportunities to sort of to expand in existing areas and to find new growth in new areas.
Okay, fair enough.
Then to your MedTech market question. I think going into 2026, we see the U.S. surgery market condition remaining relatively unchanged. There are signs of stabilization, but I don't think it's returned to healthy growth yet. With that said, I mean, we are confident in our strong product portfolio and the brands we offer. And combining that with actions I mentioned we're taking, over time, I think we will get back to good growth and also beat the market. But given that we have a new sales team fully in place as of January, we believe that Q1 and spring is still a transition phase. Yeah, we see sequential sales improvements quarter by quarter.
Great. Thanks a lot. Those are all my questions.
The next question comes from Adrian Elmlund, from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Pleased to meet you, Ali, and good morning to you as well. I have a few questions, please. So, first off, could you provide perhaps some more details here into the field sales organization build out in the MedTech business in the U.S.? And kind of also, we've had a previous question regarding put the portfolio streamlining, but kinda could you give some more color, I guess, on what the expectations will impact the business over the coming year? Could there be some positive mix effect?
I think with the field sales, sales in place as of January, we're convinced that that's the right strategy going forward, being close to our customers and together through our educational platforms and, and efforts we do, drive growth. Given that it's a new sales team in place and investment we're doing into into that, we believe that, as I said before, the spring and, and Q1 of the spring will be slightly soft, but over time, with, with driving sales up on the back of having a strong and present field sales with our customers, that will also drive margin up. With that said, we expect the margin to be fairly, flat beginning of the year.
And there's no specific mix effect with reducing the SKUs there? In terms of gross margins, or EBIT margins.
Nothing sub-substantial.
No. Okay, another question regarding mix effects. You had some negative ones in the VetFamily business. What should we expect going forward, and kinda what were the results there?
I think the VetFamily margin, as we guided throughout last year as well on the back of these investments, has gone down, although there are some mix effects as well. But we believe the margin will improve throughout the year on the back of these investments starting to show signs of effect.
Right. Okay, and regarding here, the recruitment of a potential successor here for Kjellberg of Nextmune, kinda what profile are you prioritizing here? And could his departure perhaps prompt any shift in strategy in any way, shape, or form?
No, I think, no, Magnus has been a very appreciated colleague and has built Specialty Pharma throughout the last 10 years. We believe that, with him departing, we will look for a strong operator, somebody that can help us take the business and continue the successes we've had and take the next step. There's so much more, things we, we believe Specialty Pharma can do and continue to grow. At the same time, the leadership, bench within Specialty Pharma, and also Vimian, is very strong, so I believe the business is run by our strong operators in the markets. So I'm confident that what we've built up until now will continue to drive, similar success in the future.
Okay, thanks. Last question here. I don't know if I missed this, but what was the main reason here behind the large change in the operating receivables in the quarter? Is this purely the patent litigation, or did I miss something?
To a large extent, that's driven by the patent litigation, as we received EUR 28.7 million in the quarter.
Okay. That was all for me. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
No, thank you very much for listening in on our Q4 call. As I started off with, we are extremely ready for 2026. We delivered a solid finish to 2025, and we look forward to continue growing the business together with all the fantastic employees we have within Vimian. Thank you very much.