Welcome to Vitrolife Q3 2025 earnings call. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Please start by asking one question followed by a follow-up question. It's then fine to queue up again for more questions. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Bronwyn Brophy and Pär Ihrksog , please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to the Vitrolife AB Group Q3 2025 earnings report. My name is Bronwyn Brophy, and I'm joined this morning by our new CFO, Pär Ihrskog. I will now move you on to the first slide with our Q3 2025 highlights. I would like to start by highlighting three key achievements during the quarter. The first highlight is that we delivered 5% organic growth in local currencies, excluding discontinued business, despite the fact that the reproductive health industry as a whole has continued to face substantial macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges during the quarter. The second highlight I would like to bring to your attention is our growth in Americas. Sales increased by 11% in local currencies, with strong growth across the entire portfolio and in all markets in the regions.
Finally, we delivered a strong operating cash flow of SEK 255 million related to positive contributions from our net working capital. We'll now move to the key financial highlights. Starting with the market, conditions remain challenging in some of the key markets in the IVF industry. However, we did see some small and early signs of recovery in Americas. In EMEA, Western Europe is performing well, while the market in the Middle East remains impacted by the geopolitical situation. APAC also shows some signs of recovery, with the exception of China. Cycle growth in APAC overall remains below the other regions. Sales in the quarter amounted to SEK 835 million, an increase of 5% in local currencies, excluding discontinued business, and - 4% in SEK, impacted by - 7% due to currency effects.
Gross margins were stable, in fact slightly positive at 58.9%, and EBITDA was SEK 253 million in the quarter, an EBITDA margin of 30.3%. This was also impacted by a negative currency impact. A strong operating cash flow of SEK 255 million from our net working capital, as I mentioned previously. We will now move on and take a look at our sales and growth per geographic segment. We're very pleased, in fact, with our sales performance in Americas, delivering 11% growth. Even more pleasingly is we saw growth across the entire portfolio and in all markets. Just bear in mind, Americas is the U.S., North America, and also South America. IVF cycle growth is showing early signs of recovery in the US; however, share gains drove our growth rates above the market growth rates. Growth in EMEA was 4%, excluding discontinued business.
Once again, we delivered strong growth in consumables as a result of share gains in key markets in Western Europe. The geopolitical situation in the Middle East has impacted the region overall, but all other markets in EMEA remain strong for the Vitrolife Group. Sales in APAC increased by 1%, the first positive quarter for the Vitrolife Group year to date. We delivered strong growth across all markets in the APAC region, with the exception of China, where cycles remain depressed despite improved reimbursement. Another point that I think is critical to point out is the healthy regional revenue contribution of our company. This has been instrumental in helping us navigate the challenging economic environment. If you look at our share of total sales, we now have 33% coming from Americas, 37% coming from EMEA, and 30% coming from APAC.
We will now move into market region EMEA and take a closer look. EMEA remains our largest region, delivering sales of SEK 309 million in the quarter and an organic growth of 4% in local currencies. Again, this quarter, sales in consumables were strong, + 7% in local currencies, excluding discontinued business, due to share gains in key focus markets in media and disposable devices. Sales in technologies, + 6% in local currencies, driven mainly by customer wins for our lab-controlled solutions, which is really nice to see. We are seeing demand steadily increase for our witnessing solution, and customers also really like the integrated EmbryoScope and eWitness solution. Genetics performance was negatively impacted by the Middle East; however, a strong performance by our genetics business in Western Europe. We will now move on to market region Americas.
A very strong quarter in our Americas region, despite the fact that cycles have not fully recovered in the U.S. With an organic growth of 11% and strong growth across the entire portfolio in all markets in the region, we believe we are fully leveraging our relevance to our customers. The strategic investments that we have made in sales and marketing in the U.S. resulted in us delivering our strongest quarter in 11 quarters with share gains in key parts of the portfolio. Strong growth in technologies driven by increased adoption of EmbryoScope across the region, which is great to see. This has been a key focus area for us, as many of you will know. We are also starting to build a healthy pipeline of customers seeking to install our witnessing solution.
The combined offering of EmbryoScope and witnessing is also starting to gain traction in North America, as we are experiencing in this quarter in EMEA. Our market region APAC, the first positive quarter of the year to date, delivered an organic growth of 1%, with strong growth in all markets across APAC, with one exception, that exception being China. We delivered share gains in disposable devices, and our media market position remains very strong across the region. Coming back to China, despite the increasing reimbursement, we don't yet see an uplift in cycles. Consumer confidence, we expect, is also impacting the timing of patients presenting for IVF. I do want to point out that we are focusing on other key markets in the region where the Vitrolife Group holds strong positions and cycle growth is increasing.
I will now hand over to Pär, and he will take you through our geographical segments.
Thank you, Bronwyn. We are now on page nine, where I will provide some more details of the geographical segments Americas, EMEA, and APAC. On Americas, sales amounted to SEK 276 million, reflecting an 11% organic growth in local currencies and 1% growth in SEK, negatively impacted by currencies. The strong growth can be seen across the portfolio. Gross income amounted to SEK 149 million, with a gross margin of 54%. This compares to last year's gross income of SEK 144 million and a margin of 52.7%. An improvement of 1.3% points compared to the previous quarter, mainly driven by product mix. Selling expenses for the quarter rose from SEK 69 million to SEK 77 million, reflecting ongoing investments in sales and marketing in the U.S., as previously announced.
The market contribution margin for the quarter was 26.0% compared to 27.5% last year, impacted by the increased investment into sales and marketing capabilities in Americas. Moving to EMEA, sales declined by 2% in local currencies and by 6% in SEK, totaling SEK 309 million. The sales were negative, impacted by currency of - 4%. Excluding the discontinued business, sales increased by 7% in local currencies. Gross income was SEK 192 million, with a gross margin of 62.0% compared to SEK 198 million and a margin of 60.4% last year. Also here, mainly driven by the product mix. The selling expenses decreased from SEK 73 million to SEK 68 million. The market contribution margin for the quarter was 39.9% compared to 38.1%, explained by the improved gross margin and lower selling expenses.
In APAC, sales amounted to SEK 250 million, reflecting an increase by 1% organic growth in local currencies, but a 6% decrease in SEK, negatively impacted by currency. Gross income was SEK 151 million, with a gross margin of 60.4%, which is lower than previous year's gross income of SEK 167 million and a gross margin of 62.8%. A decline of 2.4% compared to the previous quarter, negatively impacted by currency and negative product and market mix within APAC. Selling expenses decreased from SEK 48 million to SEK 46 million. The market contribution for the quarter was 42.1%, down from 44.7% last year. Let's move to the next slide. Some Q3 financial highlights.
As earlier mentioned, the sales amounted to SEK 835 million compared to the previous year, with the sales of SEK 867 million, corresponding to 3% growth in local currencies and a 4% decrease in SEK and a 5% increase in local currency, excluding discontinued business. The gross income amounted to SEK 492 million compared to SEK 508 million previous year, corresponding to a gross margin of 58.9%, margin up from 58.6% previous year. The margin improved from a positive product mix, despite the negative impact from the currencies. In the third quarter, the increase in operating expenses was mainly driven by investment in capabilities, especially within IT and digitalization. All in all, that gives us an EBITDA of SEK 253 million compared to SEK 289 million previous year, which gives us an EBITDA margin of 30.3% compared to 33.4%.
The decrease in margin is mainly impacted by currency fluctuation, as well as an increase in investment in capabilities, especially within IT and digitalization. Let's move on to the next slide. Some comments about the operating expenses. In Q3, our operating expenses were SEK 20 million lower than Q2 this year, but compared to Q3 last year, OpEx was SEK 40 million higher, though last year's Q3 was lower than normal levels. Overall, Q3 aligns well with our average OpEx level over the past seven quarters, reflecting a consistent and stable cost trend. On the selling expenses, we had higher selling expenses in the U.S. due to the investment in sales and marketing, but it was offset by lower costs in the other regions, so it stayed stable. On administrative expenses, it was increased by the strategic investment in IT and digitalization.
Our R&D expenses slightly decreased year-over-year, mainly due to timing. On other operating expenses, this is mainly related to currency fluctuations. Next slide, please. Finally, I will look, we will comment upon the year-to-date numbers. Sales for the first nine months amounted to SEK 2.5 billion, corresponding to 1% growth in local currencies, a 4% decrease in SEK, and a positive 4% growth increase in local currencies, excluding discontinued business. The gross margin decreased from 58.6% to 58.1%, mainly due to currency fluctuations. The EBITDA amounted to SEK 253 million compared to SEK 888 million, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 29.5% versus 33.5% previous year. The decrease in margin is heavily impacted by currency effects driven by strengthening SEK against other currencies.
The margin was also negatively affected by the increased selling expenses of SEK 577 million in the U.S., but also negatively by the product and market mix. Net income amounted to SEK 301 million compared to SEK 375 million previous year, heavily impacted by currency fluctuations, which gives earnings per share of SEK 2.23 compared to SEK 2.76 previous year. Our operating cash flow amounted to SEK 475 million for the first nine months compared to SEK 640 million previous year, where SEK 255 million came from Q3. Changes in working capital had a negative effect of SEK 97 million this year compared to SEK 97 million last year. Our leverage net debt to EBITDA improved to 0.7% compared to 0.8% previous year by the end of the quarter. I will now hand over to you again, Bronwyn.
Thank you, Pär. You will have seen me present this slide several times. What I would like to highlight is that we are delivering on our commitments and doing what we say we will do. This slide I have presented, I think this is my third time to present it. It highlights what the focus areas were for 2025 and beyond: growth, innovation, and operational excellence. If we take a look at growth, continue to drive share gain in key markets, leveraging the full breadth of the portfolio. This is exactly what we are doing in the Americas, as an example. We are doing what we say we will do: accelerate the penetration of our combined EmbryoScope and lab-controlled solutions. This is what we are doing in EMEA. You can see it in the quarterly results.
When it comes to innovation, if I could highlight strengthen market access capabilities to bring new products to market faster, we've launched ultra-rapid warm blast. We received regulatory approval for EmbryoCath in Europe and the U.S. this quarter. Again here, we are doing what we say we will do. On the operational piece, automate manufacturing to increase capacity of key growth drivers. We have significantly increased capacity at one of our sites in the U.S. due to automation. The macroeconomic environment has been a challenging year for the medtech industry as a whole. It has been a particularly challenging year for the reproductive health industry. We continue to assess multiple parameters, not least of which is the impact of the U.S. presidential IVF announcement, the most recent one on 16th of October 2025.
Of course, we continue to monitor the development of the situation in the Middle East and the impact that the recent peace agreement may have on IVF cycles in the region. Before we open up for questions, I would like to thank the exceptional team at the Vitrolife Group for all of your hard work and dedication. I would also like to thank our shareholders for your support and your belief in the Vitrolife Group. [Foreign language] , thank you very much, and we will now open up for Q&A.
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. Please start by asking one question followed by a follow-up question. It's then fine to queue up again for more questions. The next question comes from Ulrik Trattner from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much and good morning. I will have kind of a broad-based question regarding consumables in the different geographies. Just looking at consumables in the Americas, what continues to drive your market share gains? The same question goes for EMEA. I guess for EMEA, it's more on the case of one of your competitors being in a restructuring phase, just trying to figure out how long this sort of gains could last for. As for APAC, I hear all what you're saying in terms of demographical challenges, one-child policy having its effect. Don't you believe that this is more of a consumer confidence kind of issue? I guess sort of the demographical changes in APAC have not really changed since 2019 or pre-pandemic, while the growth of general economic health of China has. That would be my first question, please.
Okay, thank you for your question, Ulrik. Yeah, so the performance of the consumables in all our regions, as you, it's positive. It's positive everywhere. I would say that in 2024, we took a lot of media share. We are now leveraging that even stronger media position to take share across the rest of the portfolio. I can't tell you who we're taking share from because we have one competitor who reports externally, but we don't get a breakdown. The other large competitor, as you know, is privately held. What we do know is that our growth is significantly up versus the cycle growth that our customers tell us across the various regions that they are experiencing. I can't say who we're taking share from, but we are firmly of the belief that we're taking share with the growth rates that we experience in the different regions.
What we see from our own numbers is it's across the entire consumables portfolio now. Your question on APAC, we think it's a combination. Yes, obviously we have the endemic issues in APAC in terms of desire to have children and low fertility rates. We do believe that the macroeconomic conditions in China are exacerbating the situation. As we know, reimbursement has improved in the country, but we haven't yet seen an uptick in cycles. It's likely multifactorial. I think what's interesting to note, and you'll see that in my CEO comments, is we do see growth across the rest of the region. China is becoming an outlier in APAC in terms of the growth that we can deliver for our company. Hopefully that helps to answer your questions, Ulrik.
Yes, thank you very much, Bronwyn. A follow-up, like a year ago, a year and a half ago, a lot of talk about the Indian market. The Indian underlying market growing at a very rapid pace, you tagging along with that market. It's been quite silent ever in the last few quarters. Can you provide us with some type of update on what's happening in India?
Yeah, that's intentional. It's intentional because this market has become increasingly competitive and everybody wants to know where the growth and profitability is. That's why we don't break down our APAC numbers or give additional detail. I'm sure we would have some very interested competitors probably listening in this morning wondering what the India breakdown is. India is a very large market, of course, with a lot of potential. Usually, in medical devices, it's also a low-priced market. While it may have high growth potential, it doesn't always have high growth that's profitable or at least profitable to the levels that we would need at Vitrolife Group. It is clearly a driver. It does form part of our APAC region, but it's not the largest market in APAC for us. That's probably about as much detail as I would like to give on India for obvious reasons.
Great.
Thanks, Ulrik.
I'll take that. Thank you, Bronwyn.
Okay.
I'll get back into the queue.
Awesome.
The next question comes from Suzanna Queckbörner from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Hello, Suzanna Queckbörner from Handelsbanken. I have a more broad question. I'd like to get your opinion on how or where you see Vitrolife going with the future M&A agenda and whether your stance has changed regarding this recently.
Great question. Thank you, Suzanna. Like all companies in the space, we're monitoring potential acquisitions. With the consolidation that has happened in more recent times, a lot of the larger scale acquisitions are off the table now. As we've always said, we have a very clear strategy in terms of building an end-to-end platform. Any of the targets that we are looking at would need to be synergistic with that strategy. They would also need to be able preferably to deliver accretive growth. The profitability needs to be broadly in line with our profitability levels, which are typically significantly higher than most of the other players. I'm not saying there's nothing for us to buy. There clearly are. Of course, those targets need to satisfy our key M&A criteria. They also need to be available at the right price. Multiples have come down a lot in medtech.
From an industry perspective, it's probably a good moment to buy. Still, it has to be the right company at the right price with the right fit for the Vitrolife Group. That's probably as much as I can say right now, Suzanna.
Just to quickly follow up on that, are there any areas that you're particularly interested in more than others?
I would say there are one or two areas which I'm not going to divulge, which would be of more interest. I mean, we have a broad portfolio now. We have a lot of differentiation. It's really, a lot of it is about bolstering the position that we have and staying ahead technologically. There are a couple of, I guess what I would call tuck-ins, potential tuck-ins from a portfolio standpoint.
Great. As a second question, with regards to your strategy in the U.S., we now see that you have 11% organic growth.
Yeah.
You've made some investments in sales and marketing. How should we think about that going forward?
Yeah, so from an expense perspective, I think sales and marketing line for Americas will be stable. We're kind of fully loaded for now. The investments that we made are, they're driving the growth that we saw in the quarter. We probably don't need to do anything additional for now. Obviously, we have to very closely monitor the effect of the announcement on the 16th of October and see what that means as we head into 2026. For now, I think it's sort of steady as we go on the sales and marketing investments in North America.
Very good. Thank you.
Thank you, Suzanna.
The next question comes from Johan Unnérus from SB One Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking our questions. Could you provide perhaps a bit further insight into the gross margin? It's pretty impressive or strong given the circumstances, FX headwind, different product solutions and mix, and presumably some tariffs as well.
Yeah. Hi, Johan. Thank you for the question. There are multiple factors in there. It's mixed for sure. Product mix and regional mix. I think our team has done a really excellent job in terms of managing the tariff impact. We did mention during our previous earnings that we did have to increase our prices to help mitigate against that tariff impact. The team in North America in particular did a superb job there. That largely helped to insulate us from that. I guess we're being more strategic in terms of where we're doubling down from a portfolio standpoint. All of these factors are playing a role there. I don't know, Pär, if there's anything that I've missed.
No, but on the currency part there, we see on top line - 7%. It's very much driven by the strength of SEK towards U.S. and euro, but of course, all currency. That, of course, flowed through the whole income statement down to bottom line, the impact of the currency.
Great. Yeah, follow up on the U.S. side. It's pretty healthy, your performance in the U.S. this quarter, quarter or quarterly variations, but also you're putting in effort to go-to-market investment in OpEx. What is the dynamic here? How much is sort of natural variations, your early traction from improved go-to-market strategy, or something else?
Thank you for the question. I think it's a couple of things. I think it's the increased investment. I think it's the adjustments that we've made to our go-to-market model. We've ramped up our marketing, which has increased our awareness. We've sharpened our branding. I mean, the Vitrolife Group is synonymous with quality and service. Americans like high quality, and they like best-in-class service. That is synonymous with our company. I think it's a combination. I think it's the investments, the go-to-market, the high-quality products, the really good service. All of these things are leading to share gains and wins in key accounts across the United States and Canada, it has to be said as well. In fact, I should also call out, Americas is Canada, as I said, U.S., and Latam. We have growth across all of the markets and all of the portfolio.
Big Brother is U.S., but the other markets are also performing nicely for the company.
Excellent. Congratulations, pretty good quarter given the circumstances.
Thank you, Johan. We won't get ahead of ourselves, but it's a good quarter. Thank you.
The next question comes from Jakob Lembke from SEB. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you very much. I also have a question on the U.S. and Americas. My question is, do you expect that the strong market share gains you're currently seeing are sort of on a similar level as recent quarters, or are they accelerating? Also, do you think that this momentum will continue into next year, considering that you mentioned you expect to invest less in the U.S. commercially here going forward?
Thank you for the question, Jakob. I think they're accelerating because obviously we see the breakdown by product. We don't report that externally. We can see in some of our key product groups, if we look at the rolling 12, that it's actually accelerating. We think this is a return on the investments that we've made there. How sustainable is that going forward? If you look at our five-year strategy, our number one double-down focus market is the United States. If we are going to win and deliver on our mission of becoming the leading global player here, we're going to need to keep this type of momentum up in North America. I'm sure our competitors will have something to say about that, but we're not going to have it all our own way. Nobody does. Our ambition is to keep this momentum up.
Where can it accelerate and where are we going to become increasingly challenged? Technologies, EmbryoScope with witnessing, that's a key differentiator for our company. I think we should be able to gain increasing traction there. On the consumable side, continuing to take this level of share, we're going to have a battle on our hands, but we have to be ready for that. We have to back ourselves. This is the plan. What you're seeing in this quarter is what you're starting to see. I don't want us to get too ahead of ourselves. It's very important not to be complacent, especially in America. What you're seeing in this quarter is a return on the investments that we've made, staying focused on our strategy, despite the fact that we had to navigate some fairly bumpy quarters as an industry.
I think the team, the team that we have on the ground there, we've recruited top industry talent and complemented it with a lot of in-house experience that had been built up in the company over many years. It's a lot of different factors, Jakob. I think the key thing here is not to be complacent. It's a good quarter. We need to keep up the momentum. We need to stay focused, don't get distracted, and stay the course. That's the plan.
Okay, and let's just follow up also on the U.S. genetics business. I mean, it seems to be developing quite nicely. Would you say that you have finally now turned that around and that you're confident that you can also take market share there going into next year and increase profitability?
Yeah, genetics actually had an excellent quarter in North America, genetic services. In genetic services, we have the services business and we have the kits. The services part is doing extremely well. Can we continue this momentum in North America into next year? Yes, we should be able to because we have some large network wins there. We have some good tailwinds. The genetics business has been impacted in the Middle East. You can see that in our EMEA numbers. We do have a not very large, but a sizable genetic services business in the Middle East that has been impacted. Broadly, the genetic services side is pretty steady and holding up a lot better than it has in previous quarters.
I never like to get ahead of myself and say, you know, we're going to shoot out the lights, but it's certainly looking a lot more stable than it has, certainly in the couple of years that I've been the CEO of the company. Hopefully that answers your question, Jakob.
Thank you. I'll get back into the queue.
Okay.
The next question comes from Ludvig Lundgren from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi, and thank you for taking my questions. Continuing on the U.S. and Americas, you highlighted that cycle growth recovered late in Q3 or at the second part of Q3. I assume the exit rate was a bit higher than the average or total growth rate in a quarter. Just to set some recent expectations here for, you know, market development heading into Q4 and 2026, are you able to share, you know, how much difference we have seen throughout the quarter in cycle growth?
Thank you for your question, Ludvig. I can't share exact percentages, but we did start to see a pickup. It was really just in the last month of the quarter. To be honest, the first two months of the quarter, we didn't see a pickup, but there is also a seasonal effect there, which can impact that. Despite the fact that we saw a pickup, we still don't believe that cycles have fully recovered in the U.S. It remains to be seen what the impact of the announcement on the 16th of October will be. It was more a case, Ludvig, of a slow, steady increase in the last month of the quarter. There was no explosion of pent-up demand or anything like that. I mean, it wasn't, you know, we're not talking about a very sizable jump.
More a slow, steady flow of IVF patients coming back to the clinics.
Okay, understood. A slight improvement than I suppose you're looking for. Just to follow up on the IVF announcement last week, do you expect this to yield any significant change in either cycles or IVF insurance coverage maybe into 2026 or ahead?
Yeah, I have the White House statement here in front of me. You can actually print it. You can print it off. Anybody can access it. This is good news for the IVF industry. It's not brilliant news, but it is good news. If you remove a lot of the hype and get down into the facts, what does this actually mean? What it actually means is a reduction in the price of the drugs, of the fertility drugs for patients. If you look at the White House fact sheet, there's talk of estimates, women, and I quote, women can save up to $2,200 per cycle of fertility drugs. In the U.S., nobody pays list price for drugs. I think that's the maximum amount that a patient would expect to save. Nonetheless, it is a saving. It's not huge, but it is a saving. That's a good thing.
The insurance piece is more complicated, but it is positive. Essentially, what happens with the way the insurance piece is now designed is you have typically in the United States, you have healthcare coverage. Usually people will have additional or supplemental things like dental. It can be dental, it can be hearing. Now there will be the opportunity to have supplemental fertility coverage. That is also a good thing, but that's going to take time. It'll take time for that to come through the system. What we are expecting, our interpretation, and there can be various interpretations, is yes, it's positive. Are we going to see an explosion in pent-up demand and suddenly employers all over the U.S. will grant coverage, fertility coverage to their employees? No, it's more likely to be a slow, steady improvement in terms of fertility coverage for employees.
Good news, more likely to lead to slow, steady improvement as opposed to a very significant pickup. My own personal assessment is at least we now have clarity because what we had in quarter two and for most of quarter three was uncertainty. Are we getting an announcement? Are we not getting an announcement? What is it going to entail? What is it not going to entail? The really good thing to come out of all of this from the 16th of October is patients now have clarity and they can decide how they want to time their IVF treatments. Personally, I see this as the biggest advantage of all. Hopefully that helps to answer your question, Ludvig. There's a lot to unpeel in that announcement. If you separate the hype from the facts and the 2,320% reduction, this is essentially what it means. Yeah.
Okay, thank you. Very clear. I just wanted to squeeze in one more for Pär on operating expenses up 4% year-over-year. I think it's mainly explained by these IT investments in admin. If you could give some flavor on these investments, like how is it up from Q2 and how should we expect this to develop in Q4 and into 2026?
Yeah. As I explained, it's the investment in IT and digitalization across the company in various functions, you know, in manufacturing, in admin, and so on. We have invested in the last couple of quarters somewhat more on IT and digitalization. The increase compared to last quarter, the quarter last year is not only IT and digitalization, but it's a big part of that increase. Compared to Q2 and Q1, it's more or less in line, slightly higher perhaps, but more or less in line.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Ulrik Trattner from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Great, thank you very much for taking my add-on questions as well. A little bit different angle here. Sentiment for genetics and predominantly PGT-A. I note from a lot of focus on SRA and ASRM on workflow protocols, how to manage sort of PGT-A workflows. Where is sort of the customer sentiment and where are we at in terms of your commercial traction in both EMEA and in the U.S.? I know that you're saying that you're having a bit of struggle in the Middle East, but good traction in Western Europe and U.S. is obviously doing quite well. Where are we at sentiment-wise?
Thank you for the question, Ulrik. PGT-A, it's accelerating for our company. We're doing very well. When I say PGT-A, you know this, Ulrik, I mean the PGT-A family of tests, PGT-A and PGT-M. The growth is more than robust. It's very strong in North America and it's also strong in EMEA and in Western Europe. I do agree with you on the workflow piece in terms of guidelines and bringing more consistency and standardization to that workflow. We see that as a positive thing. Standardization is good. Guidelines are good. We welcome that. It tends to positively impact us as opposed to negatively. The PGT-A family of tests is a key growth driver. For us in our key markets, it's very healthy.
How about the embryo tests and essentially your entire non-invasive family of tests?
Yeah.
How are those received, and how is that looking?
Also very well received. High growth, albeit from a much lower base. Very strong growth for embryos, actually. It's non-invasive, I suppose, in many ways the future. A lot of people like the standard test as well. If you look at our portfolio, the non-invasive piece in general, the growth rates from lower base are significantly above the growth rates across the rest of the genetics portfolio. You're spot on.
Would you say that customers have overcome the issues with potential maternal cell contamination of non-invasive PGT-A, or has that been less of an issue in reality versus what was implied technically?
I think it's less of an issue because there's much more education around that now. Initially, clinics would push back, Ulrik, on the contamination piece because they didn't understand it. Now, with increased education and understanding, they appreciate the benefits of the contamination factor. It isn't so much an issue anymore at all, really.
An additional follow-up on that, because this leads into potentially sort of the million-dollar question on your end. When can we expect a combination of a non-invasive PGT-A test, an error test, and time-lapse or your EmbryoScope on the U.S. market?
That is a million-dollar question or a billion-dollar question, which I could never reveal because it's such a source of strategic and competitive advantage to our company. We have our R&D programs and we're working on them steadily. Most of them are on track or slightly ahead of schedule. That's about as much as I would like to say on that topic.
Okay, great. Last question on my end. Since we have Pär on board, looking at the balance sheet and potentially another direction beyond M&A, I guess you're happy with your current portfolio, could add a few product [XC], Cryo, Genetics, but I guess platform acquisitions are out of the picture. How about not just exploiting the option of doing buybacks?
Thank you. That's a good question. We are looking into different alternatives, what to do with the excess cash. We will, of course, have our view and recommendation to the board. Ultimately, this is, of course, a board decision.
You have suggested it to the board of directors.
I have not suggested anything yet. I'm only three weeks in here. We are looking into that. Down the road, we will suggest our proposals to the board. Ultimately, that is a board decision.
Okay, great. Thanks for taking my additional questions.
Yeah, it's a pleasure, Ulrik.
The next question comes from Suzanna Queckbörner from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Hello, just one more question relating to the U.S. share gains. You said that you've been taking share gains across the entire portfolio. I was wondering if within genetics, there's been the long-term ambition to sell more high-margin tests versus low-margin tests. Can you maybe talk a bit about this dynamic in terms of the lab testing companies and whether you've been able to make that transition?
Fantastic question. Thank you, Suzanna. Within our PGT-A family of tests, we do have levels of differentiation. Obviously, you know this very well with your background. We have PGT-A, PGT-M, and we have PGT-A Plus. Some of those tests, I won't reveal which, but some of those tests have higher margin profiles. What we are doing is focusing our efforts on the more differentiated higher margin tests in order to improve the profitability. Essentially, we're doing exactly what you're asking in your question. How do we go about that? It's doubling down on the differentiated areas where we can command a premium price because of the level of differentiation. That could be [NIP], that can be [FLO], it can be [SEED]. There are various different elements in there. Does that answer your question, Suzanna?
Yes, I think it does. Yeah.
Okay, you're welcome. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Jakob Lembke from SEB. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. I have two further questions. Firstly, on APAC, I mean, 1% growth here in the quarter, and you say that regions outside of China grow well. I guess we could almost infer then that China is declining. Given this, could you maybe break down your expectations for APAC growth next year, sort of what you see in China and outside of China?
Thank you for the question, Jakob. China had the entire IVF industry in China impacted, as we know. Obviously, we have a lot of conversations with our colleagues in the drug companies. They're seeing the same dynamic. What's interesting is the rest of APAC is performing pretty robustly, at least it is for us. The key question for everyone is, when does China start to improve? When do the improved reimbursement conditions start to kick in? I think to one of the earlier questions, how much of this is linked to macroeconomic sentiment? There is an element of that. It's complicated, Jakob, to sort of assess when does China turn. I think what's key for us is that we hold a very strong position in China. We have market leadership positions in certain key categories, very strategic and important ones.
Making sure that we continue to hold very firmly there, and we are. Then accelerating our growth across the rest of the region. We're also doing that. As I'm speaking to you, I can see our growth rates in the other markets across the region. It's really a case of holding our position firmly and strongly in China as hopefully market conditions improve there and then accelerating our growth across the rest of the region and reducing our reliance on China. That's how we've been able to turn APAC positive this quarter. Hopefully, that answers your question, Jakob. I need to be rather circumspect in terms of the level of detail I give on APAC.
Yeah, I understand. That's fine. My second question is sort of a follow-up to the admin costs, which has been surprisingly high this year, both here in Q3. You mentioned IT investments, and they were also quite high in Q2. If you can give any thoughts on admin costs for 2026, if they will continue to expand or sort of normalize or maybe decline.
Yeah, as I said, the Q3 operating expense aligned well with our average OpEx level over the past seven quarters. We see it as a consistent and stable cost strand, and we don't have any plans to increase that from this level. Of course, we are exposed to inflation and stuff like that that we will have to handle, but we don't have any major plans to increase. Of course, our strategic investments in IT and digitalization are important for us, and we will continue to further develop our capabilities in that area.
If I would add, I think the OpEx, to Pär's point, has been very stable for seven quarters. What has changed is the mix. Obviously, we've been trying and had very tight cost control measures throughout the year. We do see some areas coming down, but other areas where we're strategically investing in a very premeditated way, and IT and digitalization is key there. Hopefully that helps to answer your question, Jakob.
Maybe if I can take a short, just final question, just on Technologies, it was a very strong quarter Q4 last year. What do you see there for Q4 this year?
Yes, it was. It was a huge quarter. Typically, it is our largest quarter of the year. The comps will be challenging. There are kind of pros and cons on this one. Challenging comps, that's a headwind. Typically, Q4 is the strongest quarter. That's a tailwind. We do have a very good pipeline, very robust pipeline. As I mentioned earlier, the combined EmbryoScope and eWitness is starting to gain traction. That's a tailwind. Throughout this year, I think across the entire medtech industry, capital purchases have been delayed and postponed. We ourselves see that the selling time of EmbryoScope has lengthened. We do very tight funnel management using Salesforce across all of our regions on EmbryoScope. We can see the metrics, and we know it takes longer for the deals to come in. We don't see cancellations of orders, or we don't see leads dropping out of that funnel.
I think there are pros and cons going into quarter four. The team are very focused on driving that. I guess that's about as much as we can say for now. Thanks, Jakob.
Okay, thank you very much. That's all for me.
The next question comes from Ludvig Lundgren from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Just a very quick question. I'll follow up to Jakob's question there. Quite stable OpEx year-over-year, but you also should have some headwinds on the OpEx side from FX. Looking at OpEx to sales, you're up a bit year-over-year, right? I just wonder, for us modeling, is it possible to share an organic OpEx increase year-over-year and how that has developed here in Q3 specifically?
Sorry, can you clarify that question again, please?
Basically, what I'm requesting is if you have an organic operating expense increase, because we saw a 4% increase reported, but you probably have some tailwind on the cost side from FX.
We have that as well. We have an organic increase partly offset with the currency impact, of course.
Okay, is the organic number closer to 10 or just to get a sense of how much costs are growing here into Q4?
Yeah, we don't discuss that number exactly, but it's, of course, higher than 4 and closer to 10. That's a good estimate.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.
You are correct, Ludvig. There is obviously a currency element in there. There is a currency element everywhere. It is flowing through all of the financials, as you can see.
Yeah, thanks. Great.
Okay, I think we need to finish up there. Thank you all for your time, your attention, your engagement, and your questions.