Operator: Welcome to the Trelleborg Q3 2026 report presentation. 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. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Peter Nilsson and CFO Fredrik Nilsson. Please go ahead.
Peter Nilsson: Thank you. Welcome all of you to this Q3 call for 2026 for Trelleborg. Presenting, myself, Peter Nilsson, President and CEO of Trelleborg, and also joined on the call, Fredrik Nilsson, our Group CFO, will guide you through some of the financials. Also on the call and available for potential questions and guidance is also Christofer Sjögren, our Head of Investor Relations. As usual, we are going to speak through the slide deck, which you can find on our webpage, and quickly moving to that. Then moving to page 2 on that slide deck agenda for the call, which is as usual, we starting with some highlights, some individual comments on the business areas.
Peter Nilsson: Fredrik will then guide us through financials. Then we sum it up with some summary and also some comments on the outlook for the running quarter. Then finishing off as usual as well with a Q&A session. Then moving to page 3 in the slide deck. Headline for this report, strong growth and record high margin. It is the best ever quarter for us in terms of both sales, absolute profit, and margin. So solid quarter, if you're looking on the totality. Increase of 8% compared to a year ago, which is organic sales is up by 6%. Then we are also supported by some M&A and currency with one percentage point each. That means also these higher volumes, we feel well managed, and then our profit is up by some 16%.
Peter Nilsson: All in all, it also delivers a margin of 19.3%, which is, as I already commented, both in terms of EBITA and margin highest to date for a single quarter for Trelleborg. That also boils down to the earnings per share is also up, well managed also on the financial costs in this quarter, which means that we have an even higher increase in earnings per share in the quarter compared to a year ago. We still, as usual in Trelleborg, continue to invest in a better structure, so we also have some restructuring costs, basically in line with what we had a year ago. Cash flow also solid. On this higher growth, of course, that is entailing a little bit higher inventory, a little bit higher accounts receivables, but all in all, well managed.
Peter Nilsson: We managed also, although on these much higher sales, to also deliver good cash flow. Also note, we continue to do buybacks on a level as before, SEK 538 million exactly in this quarter, and we continue to do buybacks around this SEK 500 million a quarter. It has been for some time, and it is also the plan going forward. We also note with satisfaction, we are able in the quarter, we have bought M+R Dichtungstechnik in Germany, which is a small bolt-on for us, important, which is supporting us in one specific niche for what we call extruded profiles, extruded seals, benefiting us there in a niche part of that market. We also have signed in the quarter, we signed an agreement to acquire Cascade in Washington State outside of Seattle, aerospace-oriented asset, which we are very happy to welcome to the Trelleborg family.
Peter Nilsson: We have also managed there post, actually, the closing of Q3 to sign another one, Producta, which is also extruded profile, sealing profiles, specifically for the construction industry, with the focus on Italy and Southern Europe, where we are, let's say, supplementing us specifically by adding presence in some geographies where we had a little bit more limited presence before. We also just here the other day, another acquisition, let's say, related to aerospace called Tri-Mack, which has also been signed and waiting for closing. All in all, a very good quarter for us, where a lot of things has been moving in the right direction. This is a result overall of our continued focus on specific segments.
Peter Nilsson: We see especially strong, I will get back to that later as well, but we want to note already here that we have specific strengths in some of the focus areas for us, like aerospace, semicon, LNG, and others, which is kind of slow movement in the right direction, slow movement towards these more attractive segments, and that is where the game plan also going forward is the same, that we can continue to move in the same direction. Moving to page 4, a little bit individual comments on the growth in the quarter. We note, as you see, a relatively same growth globally. Not a lot of difference for us between Europe, Americas, and Asia. It is, as you know, we have some project-related sales, which is kind of making the Asian sales a little bit. Plus 5% is not bad, but nevertheless, it is down compared to a year ago.
Peter Nilsson: We had more project sales in Asia a year ago, and the opposite in Europe. We have had more project sales in this quarter than we have a year ago. Overall, as you say, fairly evenly split for us, and it is 2 percentage points up compared to a year ago. So very solid development all over the world, if you put it like that. Turning to page 5, agenda slide again, business areas, and then quickly turning to page 6 on Trelleborg Industrial Solutions. Solid organic growth. We are back. Solid organic growth, as we said. Project sales is up by 4%, and we also, as I already commented, have some M&A kicking in here as well, so that is adding another 2%. We are seeing this positive momentum as we guided for before. We see infrastructure, marine projects, more deliveries in the quarter.
Peter Nilsson: By the way, which we also see that is going to increase, the growth going to continue here into Q4. Not a big change in construction demand, which is both residential and, let us say, commercial construction continue with a very, let us say, slow demand in a way. Not really big changes compared to a quarter ago, but nevertheless, no real uptick yet in this segment. Automotive and rail is also down slightly. It is not really any big movements in those areas. Rail is more project related to be direct on that one. While automotive, of course, we continue to see relatively good development in Asia and Americas, while Europe, slightly softer. Aerospace, strong. That is also benefiting Industrial Solutions and benefiting even more when we look at Sealing Solutions later. We continue to see very strong aerospace in more or less all aspects, both commercial space and defense.
Peter Nilsson: So that is driving in all directions. EBITA up, but margin is down a little bit due to sales mix, and that is related to the project-related sales, which was stronger in a certain area last year, where we had a very strong margin in that area, which we did not have this year. Overall, let us say, a step in the right direction for Industrial Solutions, and we looking with more confidence going forward. Already commented their acquisition. It is a small acquisition. It is a more M&A addition technique, but nevertheless, adding some strength in an area where we were a little bit weaker in Europe, more specialty sealing profiles for more engineered applications. We are going to benefit from that. It is not going to move the needle a lot, but that is the way we work.
Peter Nilsson: We are strengthening already strong positions, and this is kind of a bolt-on, which is adding some skills in an area where we already have a good position. Turning to page 7, Medical Solutions. We have a slight decline due to tough comps. Where we had, as those of you following us for some time, you remember a year ago, we guided for a very strong growth. We are +13% a year ago, where more than half of that growth was actually coming from an individual startup of a new program. So the underlying is still moving basically the same as a year ago in terms of if you adjust for that, you get to same growth this quarter as we had a year ago for the underlying business.
Peter Nilsson: We see good demand in North America and Europe, a little bit weaker market in Asia, where there is some reset of some of our customers. We are not concerned about that long term, but in this quarter, it is hitting us a little bit. That means in total that an EBITA and margin is somewhat down. No big numbers here, as you say. We are talking a million EUR down compared to a year ago, but nevertheless, it is down. That is, of course, impacting the margin. Also here, we need to note that the comparison numbers were kind of tough in the quarter, and it is also some mix where we can explain with some customer deliveries. Once again, there was an extraordinary delivery a year ago, and that is, of course, also impacting these comps here when we look at both the EBITA and the margin.
Peter Nilsson: Also with satisfaction, we have, since a few months, up and running Costa Rica facility, which we are expanding into one of the medical valleys of the world. Costa Rica is growing a lot of medical down there, and we are satisfied to see that that is now starting to make money for us, and we are starting to get some commercial sales. We have done some trial sales for quite some time, but there are some approval processes and everything, and now the approvals are in place, and now we are starting to grow that facility and starting to deliver for that. We expect more of that going forward, but it is nothing happening overnight. But the direction is clear, and we will see benefits going forward on this Costa Rica investment that we have done in Trelleborg Medical Solutions.
Peter Nilsson: Moving then to page 8, Sealing Solutions, strong sales and profit growth. A very solid quarter. Organic sales is up at 9%. M&A also adding a percentage point. We see basically healthy growth in industrials all over, and especially then where we report within industrial, the semicon sales is very strong, especially in Asia, where we see both startup with new customers and also with existing customers ordering more. That is an area where we are investing. We are expanding in China. We are also looking to some other investments in that area in order to be able to follow the growth in this segment. Automotive sales for Sealing Solutions is up, especially supported by Asia, North America.
Peter Nilsson: There we see, especially for those of you following it, know we have a brake shim kind of sealing automotive product, where we have been suffering a little bit in the aftermarket. There is some pickup in the aftermarket and also generally, actually, a good demand, where we continue to see benefits of our, if I may say, our superior solution compared to our competitors. We continue to grow market share, and we continue to grow in the OE. Now in this quarter, as I already comment, supported also with some bounce back, if I may say, in the aftermarket for this product. Overall good.
Peter Nilsson: Aerospace, very strong, if I say globally, continue to move in this, and we are very satisfied also that we, although not in the figures yet, we continue to work on, let's say, bolt-on acquisitions here, and we are working on our product portfolio. We are working on our customer access, if I may say, and that is also where we see possibilities also going forward. Very strong in aerospace and continued. We expect that to continue to be very strong for quite some time. Overall, EBITA margin then is up by almost 3 percentage points, which, of course, very strong.
Peter Nilsson: Overall here, which I started to comment on the overall business, we see it also as a result on growth in prioritized segments where we creating foundations in all of these sub-segments with the focusing in order to get better growth, but also get the profitability as we go. So a good delivery of Sealing Solutions and also confidence going forward. Page 9, sustainability. We are on very good level. We continue to bring down the CO2 emissions. Getting to levels where it will be more challenging to improve further, and that is why focus here is maybe going forward to maintain us in this level and do some fine-tuning in order to get it even better, but well managed and very well under control.
Peter Nilsson: The same applies to next page 10, where we have basically all electricity we buy now is renewable or fossil-free electricity. We are up to 97%. The remaining 3% in some geographies is impossible to get fossil-free and renewable energy because that is not available to buy in some geographies. That is basically where we are at the moment. So this is not possible to improve further without really substantial investment. So our focus going forward is to keep it on this very high level. Page 11, agenda slide, financials, and then leave it to Fredrik for page 12.
Fredrik Nilsson: Thank you, Peter. Starting with sales development. Reported net sales increased by 8% in the quarter, up to SEK 9,232,000,000. Highest sales for a quarter. Organic sales growth of 6% in the quarter. Industrial Solutions plus 4%, Sealing Solutions, as Peter mentioned, plus 9%, and Medical Solutions decreased by 1%. As you can also see on the slide, we have some positive translation effects, added 1% in the quarter, and structural changes added another percentage point. Moving on to page 13, looking at the sales as fixed FX. Here you can see that we achieved 7% sales growth at constant FX, which is almost in line with our sales target of 8%. Moving on to page 14, looking at the rolling 12 months development for sales. You have SEK 35.3 billion, and you can see here it is ticking upwards. Moving on, page 15, EBITA and EBITA margin.
Fredrik Nilsson: EBITDA excluding items affecting comparability increased by 16% to SEK 1,781 million, which is the highest quarterly EBITDA and margin ever. In the quarter, we also have a positive impact of SEK 21 million in translation effects. Margin-wise, up from 18.1% to 19.3%, and here you can see the margin improvement is due to the focus on fast-growing segments, which is paying off with higher demand. Continue to page 16, looking at the rolling 12 months trend. You can see we are now at an EBITDA of SEK 6,670 million, which translates into a margin of 18.9% on a rolling 12 months basis. You can also see here on the page that we are up 5% during the last 12 months. Please remember, there was a quite significant FX impact during Q1 and Q2. Moving on to page 17, going into some more details on the profit and loss statement.
Fredrik Nilsson: You can see items affecting comparability of SEK 67 million in the quarter, and it is entirely related to restructuring. Financial net, SEK 109 million negative versus -SEK 126 million 12 months ago. The improvement here was primarily attributable to positive FX effects on credit facilities. I would also like to highlight here, going forward, we expect that the financial net will be somewhat more negative due to the higher interest rates that we are seeing. The tax rate for the quarter, 25%, which is in line with our communicated guidance for the full year as well. Moving on, page 18, earnings per share. A very nice improvement, as Peter Nilsson mentioned, up from SEK 4.20 to SEK 5.15, excluding items affecting comparability. So an increase of 23%. That is mainly due to improved EBITDA, improved financial net, and also the effect of the ongoing share buyback program.
Fredrik Nilsson: If we include items affecting comparability, up from SEK 3.94 to SEK 4.92. Turning to page 19, looking at the cash flow. As you can see here, a very solid cash flow for the quarter, up 6%. We continue to see a good improvement of EBITDA. Working capital, as you can see, slightly negative. Two main reasons here. Accounts receivable is increasing due to the higher sales growth, and we have also built up some inventory to secure that we can support the organic growth. Lower CapEx by SEK 26 million in the quarter has also a positive impact. Moving on to page 20, looking at the cash conversion. You can see that we continue to have a very good cash conversion. So the last 12 months ending up at 95%. Page 21, looking at the gearing and leverage development. We ended the quarter with a net debt of SEK 9,480 million.
Fredrik Nilsson: Did share buyback of SEK 538 million during the Q3. As you can see here on the page, the debt equity ratio 24%, and the net debt divided by EBITDA 1.2x. In other words, our balance sheet remains very strong. Moving on, page 22, the return on capital employed. You can see it is excluding items affecting comparability, ended at 13% end of the quarter. As you can see on the page here, you see the nice trend from Q3 2025 continues, and we are gradually improving our return on capital employed. Turning to page 23, the financial guidelines for the full year. Starting with CapEx, SEK 1,450 million, unchanged as previously communicated. Restructuring costs going up from SEK 375 million to SEK 550 million, and that is due to faster execution of projects originally planned for 2027. This should imply lower restructuring next year.
Fredrik Nilsson: Amortization of intangible assets, unchanged SEK 650 million, and underlying tax rate also 25%. With that, I would like to hand back the microphone to you, Peter.
Peter Nilsson: Thank you, Fredrik. Turning to page 24, agenda. Summary and some comments on the outlook for the coming quarter. Page 27. We see this quarter as a move in the right direction for us, a continued move in the right direction. We see this overall development as a result of showing strength by having continued to benefit from strong market positions, our local footprint, our global footprint, where we are able to create benefits all across the world. Also see it as this systematic approach to having Trelleborg continue to invest in improving our structure, continue to improve in efficiency.
Peter Nilsson: Maybe most importantly, also we see the benefits of our ambition to continue to focus and continue to grow in these areas where we have identified as our speedboat areas, where we see in this quarter, especially good moves in aerospace, in semicon, LNG, but also in a lot of other smaller subsegments. Overall, individually for the quarter, we see an improved demand. Bigger sales as an all-time high. We see a solid organic growth. We see also this is, then, let's say, also benefiting that improvement to earnings. We feel we manage this increased demand, increased sales in a good way. So we have also higher growth in earnings than we have in sales.
Peter Nilsson: Also we are with satisfaction also see that we are able to manage cash flow and thereby also continue to keep our balance sheet very healthy and continue to have a balance sheet with creating options and possibilities for us going forward. We also note that in order to continue to support our shareholders and continue to use this good balance sheet, we continue to do share buybacks at the level of SEK 500 million per quarter. So all in all, a good quarter. We feel it's a good quarter, and we see this is a move in the right direction. Of course, we are not at all at the end of the development of Trelleborg.
Peter Nilsson: We're going to continue to invest in good areas where we want to grow, profitable growth, and also we're going to continue to invest in making sure that we have a structure as good as possible. Turning to page 26 and commenting on the outlook. We see strong markets in more or less all areas, and we see that demand is going to remain on this level, where we have a strong order intake in the quarter, going into Q4 with a better order book or, let's say, higher order book than we're going into Q3. We are confident on the sales growth here also in Q4, and that is why the guidance is that we will be on par with this very relatively high organic growth, or we could even be one or two percentage points higher than that if everything goes as planned and expected.
Peter Nilsson: But of course, we note this also, there is still fairly big geopolitical, let's say, challenges around, and things can happen. We want to add a note like that. It's not a new note. We have kept it for some time, but nevertheless, we want to remain cautious and be ready to act if there is any dramatic changes anywhere in the world. With that, turning to page 27, and then quickly turning to page 28 and opening up for questions. Please go ahead.
Operator: If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Ope Otaniyi from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Ope Otaniyi: Hi. Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just on outlook. I might have missed the color in terms of the specific number you gave, but could you just help guide in terms of the range and sort of what that means for the LNG revenues? I suppose, if you're on par with the 6% in Q3, what does that imply in terms of delivering LNG revenues?
Peter Nilsson: No, the guidance is that we are a minimum 6%, if you put it like that. Then it could be, let's say, a few percentage points higher than that. That is depending on that we have a solid order book, especially for the project deliveries in Industrial Solutions, but it is also always some uncertainty whether the customer accepts the delivery or whether we are able to actually deliver this. That is really where there is some kind of uncertainty whether we will be able to get it out. But if we get it out as planned and as in the order book, it will be 6% plus, but the plus is not that it is going to be several percentage points higher. That is the way we see the figures at the moment.
Ope Otaniyi: Okay. I may have missed this earlier, but I suppose margin performance by division, Sealing Solutions is extremely strong. Industrial Solutions, slightly weaker, Medical, slightly weaker. What are key deviations driving that? How should we think of that going into Q4?
Peter Nilsson: Starting with the Medical, it is fairly small numbers, to be honest, and that is if you had a very strong quarter a year ago with extraordinary high deliveries, then we get something. We are talking a million EUR here of difference, but between the, let's say, performance last year and performance this year. So that is for us some kind of smaller items. So we do expect Medical to remain on this level, give or take. But it is not going to be any dramatic changes going into Q4. For Industrial Solutions, we have commented already earlier that if these project deliveries kicks in as expected, we are going to see a positive, let's say, movement between Q3 and Q4 in terms of margin for the Industrial Solutions. But there is also, as we have these kind of project deliveries, which is impacting quite a lot between the quarters.
Peter Nilsson: We have to look at the rolling 12 number basically for Industrial Solutions. That is the way we look at that. But once again, confidence on that we are going to see an improvement between Q3 and Q4. For Sealing Solutions, we are on a high level where we are basically back to the levels now where we have been before, if you go back a few years, and we are confident on high demand and continued good delivery in this. I do not want to give any specific guidance on Sealing Solutions, but that it will remain on a healthy level.
Ope Otaniyi: Great. Thanks for taking my questions.
Operator: The next question comes from Chit Sinha from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Chitrita Sinha: Yeah. Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, please. The first one, maybe if you could just provide a bit more color on the sales mix impact that you saw in Industrial Solutions. Was the magnitude expected? Should we expect this headwind again in Q4? I am just trying to understand the underlying margin for this business now.
Peter Nilsson: To be very open, it was a specific, very profitable project a year ago, which we did not have this year. But underlying performance is still the same. If you get a little bit extra, as I said before in the previous question here, if we get the deliveries as expected in Q4, if we get that out of the door, we are going to see a positive movement on that margin. I understand that you want to give, let us say, quarterly guidance, but for us it is more longer term and see the direction. We have the rolling 12 figure and there is some kind of mix changes in between the quarter. Now we have a little bit negative mix in this quarter, but it could very well be that we have a positive mix in the next quarter. That is unfortunately the nature of this business.
Peter Nilsson: It is some project deliveries and the project is in a certain way a little bit different profitability on it. We feel confident that it is going to be better in Q4 than in Q3, but it is difficult really to give a firm guidance on exactly how much.
Chitrita Sinha: Okay, good. Thank you. Then maybe if you could just touch on the broader cost environment that you are seeing at present and maybe the pricing contribution that we saw in Q3.
Peter Nilsson: We have some cost increases. You know, inflation is high on freight and there is some specific raw materials and there is some salary inflation. But we feel overall the environment is solid. You get your price increases through. Of course, we do not want to overuse the situation, but we feel, I do not know, Fredrik, looking at Fredrik, but overall, we feel that we are in balance.
Fredrik Nilsson: Yes.
Fredrik Nilsson: It is not that we are neither positive nor negative in a way. The overall development we see is more from underlying cost efficiencies and let us say better volumes. I do not know, Fredrik, if you want to add some more flavor on that one.
Fredrik Nilsson: No, I would say it is quite neutral, the net impact of it. I think it is more the demand that is the driver.
Peter Nilsson: Yeah, and the mix on certain sales is a little bit higher profitable than others, but that is more individual effects. It is difficult to get to a, let us say, long-term conclusion on that one because it varies in between the quarters a little bit. But overall, it is small figures. I understand that you want to identify it individually per quarter, but for us, it is not really a big thing. We manage the cost inflation in a good way. We get price increases, and we get cost efficiency in, so we are not overly concerned about this kind of inflationary pressure, if you put it like that.
Fredrik Nilsson: No, I think also if you look a little bit on our historical development, when we had a little bit more high cost inflation environment, we managed to get that covered up. You could see during that period, we managed to improve our margin as well.
Chitrita Sinha: Perfect. Thank you so much.
Operator: As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Tore Fangmann from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Tore Fangmann: Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Just one from my side. Could you please remind us of what percentage of Sealing Solutions comes from the semicon end market, and is this accretive to your margin profile? Thank you.
Peter Nilsson: What do we usually say there?
Christofer Sjögren: Well, we usually say that the semicon is overall, I would say it is about 4% or 5% of the group, and slightly more than on Sealing Solutions, of course.
Peter Nilsson: I think 4% or 5%.
Christofer Sjögren: It is 4% or 5%.
Peter Nilsson: It is a small part, but it is rapidly growing, and it is also positive to the margin. It is more profitable than the average.
Christofer Sjögren: Yes.
Peter Nilsson: By the way, which is also valid for the aerospace. Aerospace is also more profitable than the average. So we see benefits on this in especially Sealing Solutions that we are moving with strong growth in aerospace, strong growth in semicon, and we are benefiting from that in both growth perspective, but also in terms of margin perspective.
Tore Fangmann: Much appreciated. Thank you.
Operator: There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Peter Nilsson: Thank you, and thanks for the continued interest in Trelleborg. We are, as always, available for follow-up questions individually. Main contact point being Christofer, but of course also with Fredrik and myself being available for potential, let's say, follow-up questions or comments. Thanks again for your interest and speak and see most of you soon again. Do take care and all the best.
Operator: The host has ended this call. Goodbye.
