Operator: Welcome to the Balder Q3 Report 2026. For the first part of the conference call, the 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 IR Jonas Erikson. Please go ahead.
Jonas Erikson: Hi, everyone, and welcome to this presentation of Balder's Q3 Results 2026. Within the room, I have Sharam and Eva, CEO and CFO of Balder. I will first hand the word to them for run-through of some of the slides, and then we will open up for questions.
Sharam Rahi: Thanks, Jonas. As usual, we start with this picture. Our portfolio is roughly half residential and half commercial. We have a portfolio value of SEK 246 billion and an occupancy rate of 95%, and net debt of 50.2%. We have a good liquidity of SEK 25 billion and NAV per share now stands at SEK 97. That's a growth comparing rate of 24% since the start of Balder. Our credit rating from S&P remains at BBB with a stable outlook. If you look at the figures for this quarter, rental income is up 6%. Profit from the Property management is down 2%. If you adjust the comparative figures for the effect of distribution of Norion means that have an increase of 11%. Our funding cost increased from last year, but at a slower pace than our portfolio has grown.
Sharam Rahi: In current earning capacity, we have seen an increase in profit per share of 11%, adjusted for Norion's contribution in the comparative figures, which means that we have seen an underlying healthy growth. Like for like rental growth is 1.2% and NAV per share is now SEK 97, as I said before. Looking at the earning capacity, you can see that rental income is up and the net financial items is up as well. All in all, SEK 6.1 billion, which is unchanged from the last quarter and SEK 5.2 per share. You can also see that the improvement per share is a bit better than the profit improvement. The reason is that we bought back roughly 13 million shares in this quarter. Here is an overview of the portfolio, which is very well-diversified. Helsinki is the single largest region, followed by Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.
Sharam Rahi: The residential side of the portfolio is a little bit more than 50% of the portfolio. Office stands for 15%, retail 11%, industry logistics 7%, and other stands for 13%. The hotel are the majority of that. Looking at the whole portfolio, you can see that 80% is located in capitals and larger cities. We have always had a long-term view on the business, which, of course, we will continue. If you take a longer time horizon, we have a really good improvement over the years. The latest three, four years have been flattish, obviously because of the interest rates going from zero and upwards and because of the distribution of Norion. Here you can see that the development of property values, net debt to total assets and occupancy. We have over time increased the portfolio and the net debt has been around 50% for some time.
Sharam Rahi: We would like to decrease our leverage a bit over the coming years. Occupancy rate is now 95% and as you can see, it has been very stable, which is an effect of our diversified portfolio. The explanation for a bit weaker occupancy compared to earlier 96% is primarily due to some weakness in the office segment occupancy. Yes, that was all for me. Now I will hand over to Ewa to comment a little bit more about the financing.
Ewa Wassberg: Thank you, Kjell. Looking at the financing, the funding mix is more or less a 50/50 split between bank and bond financing. The level of available liquidity is continuously a bit elevated due to the concentration of large maturities in the beginning of 2027. The interest rate fixing and hedging ratio is stable. Our average funding cost has increased slightly in the quarter. During the last couple of years because of the volatility in the rates market, we have had the opportunity to enter hedges with optionality, like an extendable swap at very favorable rates. It is hard to judge whether these opportunities will continue. If they do not, this might present a slight headwind on our financing costs compared to our normal hedging activities. Net debt to total asset is down a bit to 50.2 in spite of continuous share buybacks.
Ewa Wassberg: The ICR is at 2.4 and rolling 12 months net debt to EBITDA is 13. If you look at Q3 compared to last quarter, net debt to EBITDA was down 0.7 times, primarily due to FX effects, and that acquisitions made in previous quarters were not fully reflected in the EBITDA for the second quarter. Here you can see the long-term trend of the portfolio value in relation to net debt to total assets. As I mentioned on the previous slide, net debt to total assets came down a little bit during the quarter from 50.4% to 50.2%. Current encumbrance level is at 24.1%, and with our current funding mix, we think a level roughly in the 23% to 25% range is where we need to be. Over to the maturity structure.
Ewa Wassberg: During the quarter, we took advantage of the favorable conditions in the bond market and issued a green bond in the SEK market amounting to SEK 500 million on the tightest spread level since 2021. Currently, our bond funding is cheaper than the bank funding, comparing like for like maturities. However, during the last few weeks, there has been a widening of bond spreads, in particular in the Eurobond market. Let's see how things develop in coming months and quarters. This slide we have shown before, and it's a structural overview of the funding and capital side. As we have said before, we will continue to have a balanced capital allocation until reaching our target of 11 times net debt to EBITDA, and that target remains unchanged. We expect net debt to EBITDA to gradually come down.
Ewa Wassberg: I would not expect net debt to decrease in absolute amounts, but rather EBITDA being the factor that will improve this metric. Here is also an updated calculation on the convertible bond, which when that is converting, assuming that we are above the strike price, obviously will have a positive effect on the indebtedness numbers. That was all from us, and on that, I will leave the floor open for questions.
Operator: 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 Staffan Bülow from SB1 Markets. Please go ahead.
Staffan Bülow: Good morning, and thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions starting off with the buybacks. You have repurchased shares for SEK 700 million this quarter, and that is a run rate of SEK 2.8 billion or 5% of the shares, as you say in the CEO letter. You have reached the conclusion that that pace suits you well. Could you elaborate on how you have reached that conclusion?
Jonas Erikson: Morning, Staffan. I think when you look at our cash flow run rate, then you deduct some minor investments that we always take in development projects or the existing portfolio, then you have a certain amount left. If we are pretty much zero net buyers in the market, you will end up with something around that number. We might even be able to buy something small. That is really using the cash flow for share buybacks for the most part.
Staffan Bülow: All right. Free cash flow funded buybacks, understood. Looking at the investment cash flow in Q3, you have been a net buyer of investment properties, quite small, but still. Do you expect that case to be the case going forward as well?
Jonas Erikson: I think Sharam mentioned in the CEO letter as well that most of those transactions have been ongoing discussions for a long time. I do not think we would have initiated those discussions today when we have this share price level. The relative attractiveness of the share buybacks is too high. At the same time, I think the difference is not as large as you might think because the acquisitions that we have made, I think we feel are pretty decent. I think ultimately, Staffan, I fully realize why you are focused on the share buybacks, but I think from our perspective, having 11% growth of the profit from property management per share in Q3 compared to last year, I think that is more the number that we are trying to optimize. Obviously, share buybacks is a very good tool when the share price is at the current level.
Jonas Erikson: It is not the only tool in the toolbox.
Staffan Bülow: Okay. Yeah. Thank you. You have made one divestment of associated company, Anthon Eiendom, in the quarter. Are you looking to divest more associated companies and JV structures?
Jonas Erikson: No, Anthon was not part of a sort of divestment program of any kind. I think Erik alluded to that when we started that process as well, that it is a sort of generation shift in that company. We have built the company with the founders and when they retired, we decided to divest it. So, it is not part of a structural program to divest things. But it is good timing, and it suits us and the other owner as well.
Staffan Bülow: Okay. That makes sense. One final question from me, that is on the like for like outlook for Finnish resi. What is your expectation?
Jonas Erikson: Sorry, let me just add one thing on the JVs, Staffan.
Staffan Bülow: Yeah.
Jonas Erikson: I think what we have said as well for the last few quarters is that JVs obviously should exist for a reason and for a purpose. There is no point in having loads of assets and JVs for the sake of it. You have seen us obviously divest some of those in the last few years. So in that sense, I think we have become a little bit more stringent and there has to be a very clear purpose with the JV. Anthon Eiendom is one example. We also divested parts of the portfolio that we owned together with Investor recently, as you have seen. So I just wanted to add that to the discussion around the JVs.
Staffan Bülow: All right. Yeah. Thanks for the clarification. My final question was on the like for like outlook for Finnish resi for next year.
Staffan Bülow: All right. Yeah. Thanks for the clarification. My final question was on the like for like outlook for Finnish resi for next year.
Jonas Erikson: I don't think we try to forecast that. I think your guess is as good as ours in a way. What we can see is that the Finnish economy seems to be recovering. There's been sort of estimate upgrades of Finnish GDP during the year. I think the general consensus seems to be that the labor market is finally looking to improve, will improve more noticeably into next year. All else equal with a very, very low new construction and a recovery of the economy and the labor market, I think should be positive for our business there as well.
Staffan Bülow: All right. Thank you. Excellent. Those were my questions.
Operator: The next question comes from Robert Phillips from Green Street. Please go ahead.
Robert Phillips: Thank you very much for the presentation. I just had two questions from my side. Firstly, you've asked management to reevaluate how you work with the aim of reducing costs and lowering vacancy. I was just wondering if you could elaborate a bit on those plans and what specifically you plan to do differently to achieve that.
Jonas Erikson: No, I think the point that we're trying to make is that we need to be prepared to reevaluate everything we do. I think the signal is that we're not content with the efficiency level that we have. Let's look everywhere we can look to find efficiency improvements. We mentioned one example in the report where we're moving our Norwegian, the headquarter for ABP from Oslo to Trondheim. That will save a bit of money, and actually move the company management closer to its clients as well. There are two good aspects with it. There are many more examples that we're working with. We're not planning to give any clear guidance. Sharam stated in the CEO letter that we're expecting costs to go down in absolute terms. We've also flagged that we might need to do a little bit of investment to make that happen.
Jonas Erikson: The direction is down, and I think that's the clear message. We don't have a finalized list yet of exactly what components will make that happen. We are not content with the efficiency. We see potential in various areas that makes us confident that we can have a decline in the central administration expenses.
Robert Phillips: Perfect. Thank you very much. Just secondly, on your debt metrics, they're of course slightly higher than your targets, and I was just wondering how you plan to balance continued buybacks against getting your leverage back to targets.
Jonas Erikson: Yeah, no, it's a relevant question. If you look at the different metrics, I think they exist for slightly different reasons. The net debt to EBITDA metric, where we are sort of the furthest away from the target, has been a self-imposed target that we issued as more of a directional statement. The more, let's call it hard, or de facto restrictions on our balance sheets are obviously the leverage metrics from S&P, and there we're well in line with where we need to be for the current triple-B rating. I think long term, we still are clear that we want the leverage to come down slightly, but it's not going to happen at a very dramatic pace. It's not going to require us to take active actions with the balance sheet, but rather have those metrics improve slightly year by year going forward.
Robert Phillips: Got it. Thank you very much.
Jonas Erikson: I think Eva mentioned as well that the net debt to EBITDA target, we do not expect the net debt to decline in absolute amounts, but rather the EBITDA doing the job of closing that gap over time. But it is going to take a while. We are not particularly stressed about that.
Robert Phillips: Understood. Thanks.
Operator: The next question comes from Lars Norby from SEB. Please go ahead.
Lars Norby: Good morning. I have a follow-up question on share buybacks. First of all, I appreciate the clear message. Right now, it is the best investment available, quoting from the CEO statement. Funding it through cash flow is one thing. Another thing is to finance buybacks through divestments of properties. I am thinking, of course, about what Castellum has been doing, which freed up some SEK 8 billion yesterday for buyback. What is your view on divestment-funded buybacks? Is that an option for you?
Jonas Erikson: I think we are always weighing all capital allocation options. I have not read Castellum's report, so I do not know what kind of growth numbers they are looking at. But we are pretty okay with the 11% year-over-year growth in profit from property management per share that we showed in Q3. So I think that is our main metric that we are trying to steer on. If we can find interesting opportunities to divest something and do share buybacks, that it is definitely on the table as well. But it is the earnings per share that is our overriding metric that we are trying to optimize.
Lars Norby: Well, let us just assume that if you would sell something, either it is because you are actively looking for it yourself or if you are approached by another entity that would like to buy a portfolio for you, and you think it is a fair price, the profits of such a transaction, what would those be used for?
Jonas Erikson: If we were to be net sellers, I would assume that we would use that for share buybacks, definitely.
Lars Norby: Okay. Thank you.
Jonas Erikson: After some debt repayment, obviously.
Operator: The next question comes from Fredric Stensvid from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Fredric Stensved: Yeah. Thanks. Morning, all. Most questions already asked. I'll have one. The acquisitions in Q3, SEK 1.3 billion and the divestments of 360. What is that? Is there anything we should keep in mind thinking about the contribution in the next quarter versus Q3? Thanks.
Jonas Erikson: There are a number of different transactions behind that number. We do not usually comment individual transactions. It is not one large one either. There are quite a few behind it, but all of them are a little bit too small to dig deeper into.
Fredric Stensved: Understood. Thanks, Jonas.
Operator: The next question comes from Tobias Kaj from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Tobias Kaj: Yes, thank you. I also had some questions regarding buybacks, but I think that has already been asked many times. On another note, you have some debt maturing or interest maturing going forward. Can you give some indication on what we should expect regarding the average interest rates one year ahead from now, given the maturities you have and the current interest rates level you see in the market?
Jonas Erikson: Interest rates have been so volatile recently, which impacts both obviously the funding costs per se, but also the hedging that we do of interest rate risk is even more impacted by that. It is a little bit hard to make a precise forecast because it all depends on what interest rates you assume going forward and which day you are looking at the interest rate curve. But with the current curves, we are going to creep up slowly in the interest expense or in the interest rates level for sure. But it is not going to be that dramatic. We are pretty well hedged, and that is the way it should be. I do not think we need a very high like-for-like rental growth to compensate for the higher interest expenses with what we are seeing in the rates market today.
Jonas Erikson: Having said that, I think last quarter we also commented that when we look at the interest expenses quarter by quarter they are not moving in a linear fashion because you have for instance in Q1 next year, you have two large Eurobond maturities that have been issued under pretty much the zero interest rate environment. When those are refinanced, obviously you are going to see a slight tick up that particular quarter, and then you might see even a decline in other quarters as we are refinancing bank loans that were issued in 2022 and 2023, 2024. It is not a linear development, just be aware of that. Try to look at rolling 12 months development would be my best tip there.
Tobias Kaj: With the high volatility we have seen in the interest markets, that has also enabled the kind of contract, like callable swap contracts with very low levels, which we have seen that some of your peers have used. Is that something that you also have used but does not disclose, or have you more plain vanilla swaps in your books?
Jonas Erikson: No, we have used those as well. I think we have commented on that before as well. I think we have already mentioned last quarter that we have done a few of those, and depending on the volatility in the rates market as well as the interest rate level, that decides whether we will be able to refinance those at attractive levels going forward as well or not. So far so good with the interest rate volatility that we are seeing, but we have no idea how that will look a month from now, right?
Tobias Kaj: Can you say how large part of your debt portfolio where you have used callable swaps?
Jonas Erikson: That is not very low. Most of our interest rate risk is hedged through the Eurobond market. I think the total swap book is the minor part of the overall interest rate hedging, 20% to 25%, something like that. Of that, in turn, only some of it is obviously extendables or callable swaps. It is not huge, but it is helping us a little bit on the margin.
Tobias Kaj: Thank you for taking my questions.
Jonas Erikson: Thanks, Tobias.
Operator: The next question comes from Pranava Boyidapu from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Pranava Boyidapu: Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. A follow-up to the previous question, actually. You mentioned the EUR 1 billion euro bonds coming due in January. Considering that the last, say, six weeks or so in the euro bond market, we have only had a couple of deals print, and as you said, the volatility in the market has been quite high. I was wondering, what are the options for you? What are you considering in terms of how you may be able to pre-finance these bonds?
Jonas Erikson: We look at our financing portfolio as a portfolio. From one quarter or year to the other, the new issues might differ a little bit depending on what the market conditions are. I think the spread differential between bank and bond financing is probably less important to us, unless it is a very large difference. But the spread differential between the SEK and euro markets obviously becomes more important. But we can also do a little bit more bank financing if we feel that the spreads are temporarily elevated.
Jonas Erikson: I think it is not a matter of, from our perspective of trading, but if we see that there is a credit market event of some kind where as we have seen in the last few weeks, volumes have been very low, spreads have shot up by a few. We are probably up by 40 to 50 basis points from the low point in the five-year space. During a time like that, we have no problem with sitting on our hands for a few quarters and seeing what happens in the euro bond market particularly.
Pranava Boyidapu: Thank you for that. That is all I have.
Jonas Erikson: Thanks.
Operator: As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Stefan Andersson from Danske Bank A/S, Danmark, Sverige Filial. Please go ahead.
Stefan Andersson: Thank you. Nitty-gritty one here. Sorry. Just to understand correctly, what you and Eva commented there on the net debt and LTV and leverage, should I interpret it as you said, Jonas, that you aim to keep the net debt unchanged, not the LTV or leverage? Is that correct?
Jonas Erikson: Well, I think there are two parts here. On one hand, you have the LTV, or S&P calls that debt through debt plus equity, but it essentially is an LTV metric. There we are roughly where we need to be relative to their requirements for our current rating. It might come down a few percentage points, but it is no large difference. The metric where we are a little bit away from our own target is obviously the net debt to EBITDA, and there we have said that we do not foresee that we will reduce the net debt in absolute amounts, but rather to improve the net debt through EBITDA, we will improve the earnings.
Stefan Andersson: Yeah. I was just curious in how you aim to do that. Because the mix change, getting yields up and so on. But my impression is that keeping the net debt at the same level and then just letting the operational improvements do the work.
Jonas Erikson: Yeah. Like for like growth, operational improvements.
Stefan Andersson: Yeah
Jonas Erikson: Potential asset rotation, whatever it might be. So that should be plenty to improve the net debt to EBITDA over time, even if our leverage in absolute terms is constant and we are not adding any assets.
Stefan Andersson: Yeah. Do I interpret correctly if I assume that you hold back on acquisitions for now, but you do not rule out making them? You could still do net acquisitions going forward, even though it is on a lower level.
Jonas Erikson: Yeah. It is hard to be very precise in guiding on that. I think the likelihood of us doing acquisitions that are anything more than very small bolt-ons on a net basis is pretty unlikely. I think we were pretty clear on that in the report as well.
Stefan Andersson: Yep
Jonas Erikson: The relative return on share buybacks is so much better today that it is hard to find those type of acquisitions. I think it was a difference when the share price was at 65, then it was easier to find acquisitions that could not compare to share buybacks in return terms, right?
Stefan Andersson: Yep. Then my final one. Pal, at the Castellum presentation, talked a little bit about Entra. Of course, this is a board decision, but his view was that Entra should move in the same direction as Castellum, selling off properties and repurchasing shares. You are two owners in that. Do you have a different view to that?
Jonas Erikson: No, I think we are pretty eager to extract shareholder value from our Entra holding. If that is one option that could help us achieve that, then it is definitely on the table.
Stefan Andersson: Perfect. Thank you.
Jonas Erikson: Thanks.
Operator: There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Jonas Erikson: Thank you very much for listening in. As usual, we are available if you have any follow-up questions. Just give us a call. We will be seeing you all, if not before that, then when we present the Q4 numbers. Thank you very much.
Operator: The host has ended this call. Goodbye.
