EuroEyes International Eye Clinic Limited ($1846)

Good afternoon, good morning, everybody, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the EuroEyes 2025 Annual Results Presentation. It's our pleasure to introduce to you the management joining us today. They are Dr. Jorg Slot Jorgensen, Chairman, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Marcus Huascar Bracklo, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer; [Operator Instructions] May I now pass the time to Dr. Jorgensen to start the presentation, please.

Yes. Hello, everybody. Good morning here from Hamburg in Germany. I'm going today to present you 2025 annual results. I'm sitting in Hamburg and our CFO, Mr. Bracklo is sitting in Frankfurt, and we will let you through the different parts of the annual result. Please, the next thing -- the next slide, please. Okay. This year, we did 2 major transition and one of them was in Switzerland and the other one in Holland. I wish to start with that today that you have a little feeling about what was going on, on this front before I come to the results. As you know, we have -- we were listed in 2019. So we had proceeds from the listing. And this year, we have been looking for that a long time. We until now did two, one in London, one in Manheim. So we have been very selective there. But this year, we found 2 at the sphere. The one was in Switzerland. And Switzerland is a very important market for our high-end products here in Europe. And also with the competition landscape is very favorable. And we managed to get a company with 9 clinics in Switzerland and 8 in Switzerland and 1 in London. So it was taken over the 15th of October. Because of the business model, it was -- the business was deteriorated and it was run from non-doctors and let's see. But they have managed to have a good revenue and put a lot of money in marketing but had many costs. So we managed to take it over to, for us, a very favorable price. Of course, we need to rename that. So target is its name with better view and we renamed that to EuroEyes. And also because of up to the signing, it was no -- let's say, no business running. We took over with a very low -- so let's see from the 15th of October, end of the year, we -- didn't have that revenue, but we had the cost. So it can be mirrored in our earnings. You see the earnings is -- we had a good revenue and EBIT, but the earnings is -- have decreased. And this is one of the reasons for that we had past. But we have now this, let's see, this for almost a year, and it looks very good. I would not go into detail here, but we have managed to get it up, and it looks to be a very good clinical buy. We will implement also what we are strong in, that's the treatment of presbyopia. And so I think we will hear more about that during the year. The other strategic expansion was buy FYEO. You have heard about that. We have done the signing. So we are now right in the process screen sign and closing. It's 13 clinics and it's 3 major clinics, and it's a fantastic. They are this year doing a revenue of -- last year 2025 revenue of EUR 64 million and EBITDA of EUR 13.2 million. So it's a very strong group and what is very good is doing exactly that they must price. They are strong in presbyopia out of the pocket. So you can see, maybe this also tell a little about our product managed to do over HKD 60 million revenue in small country like Holland. So it tells a little about what what's lying in front of us. And so you know about that. We will then later in some time to send out circular. It's a very major transaction. So we will need to follow the exchange rule, and we are now doing a circular and due diligence and so on. So I think closing will be later on in some months or weeks. So we will come up upon. So this was, let's see, the extended footprint to Switzerland and Netherlands this year, which will put EuroEyes into a new level. Next one. Next slide, please. Here, you have the clinics. you see overall in Switzerland in all EMEA cities. You maybe aware of Sweden, it's a very good target for high-end products. And right now the 2 front runners in Switzerland is Zurich and Lugano, but we have the French part of Switzerland with in Lausanne and Geneva, German and the Italian. So we have -- we go over brand new clinics. Everybody know how much it costs to put up a clinic. So we took them over. We took over the staff. We did as the deal. So we don't have any old problems to take care of. So we could literally start from the new and in London, we also took over a clinic in Westfield. So we have 3 clinics in London, and this clinic is running very already a half a year. So next page, please. Yes. And in Holland, you see here that is you must see the strongest part of Holland and it is the middle to the southern part. The upper part is for countryside. Actually here It's 3 operating facilities, Arnhem, Den Bosch and Amsterdam and the rest is satellites. And with this setup, they managed to do over EUR 60 million of revenue and they plan to grow with 20% growth. So you have also seen the CAGR until now, as I started, was about 36% gross, so they are strong. And it's, again, presbyopia, trifocal lens. We will also now implement what we have learned in London from London Vision Clinic that they do treatment of presbyopia with laser and we do it with a lens, so we will really be customized in this area. Next slide, please. So again here business model is 76% of the revenue is lens-based and the rest is laser-based. So it's fit to our model. So what we are going to do also here is implement presbyopia laser business in Holland. Next please, yes. And we also -- next please again, we also not only took over the revenue in the businesses, but also very strong management. And this is, of course, also very nice while, as you may know, you're right, sometimes a little bit lack of -- hence we hope the Holland Group can support us there. So I now come to the highlights of financial year 2025. And you see here 2 numbers. You see the other numbers. This is excluding the 2.5 months, we had the new group in Switzerland and below is throughout the year. So it is Betterview now called EuroEyes from the middle of October. So you see they be started from because of I mentioned before really in the basic. We grew year-on-year without them 10% in terms of revenue and with them 11%. So we are almost now HKD 800 million. That's without Holland. Just EBITDA without them, we grew 11% and with them only 6%. Of course, we had 2 big costs. We lost money, but HKD 242 million. And by the EBIT, we grew without them 17%. And this is a little what can -- Yes. So this is a little the highlights for the 2025. So you see here presbyopia treatment. It was really -- again, the big growth in terms of revenue. So we are a presbyopic treatment. We are a presbyopic group. So let's take the next slide. Sorry, I need to fix some computer here. Yes, when you have here the demand for lens exchange and Presbyond, you see here on the side, we are still lens exchange, you can treat presbyopia by way of trifocal lenses or by laser-based. Laser-based is called Presbyond. This is what we learn from Vision Clinic. You are seeing it's picking up, and we are very happy about that. But the whole market, you will see that here, what we are growing is presbyopia. And what is very strong competition is the classical laser smile and people -- we see young people don't have that money that higher. And you are seeing this is really also directed out in the market where the people 45 plus, they wish to put themselves, they have their money. And this is a new lifestyle. When you go over to also read by surgical by type, lens you see 56% and relative laser SMILE and LASIK is only 25%. So this is what we have seen during the year and this also would continue. And this also we see in Holland, it's not implemented here while it will be implemented in 2026, but it will -- you will see it will be a continuation. So next slide. And here, you have the different groups with Holland from Germany to China. We have 9 clinics in China. I must say when I should -- my personal opinion still here, the biggest, let's say, opportunity to is still in China and especially in presbyopia. It's such a huge market, and we haven't really digged into it. But my -- we have put into marketing into Little Red Book and into WeChat, we have really implemented that and I still see that as the biggest opportunity. But this is how we see it today in 2026 without Holland. Next time, 43 clinics in total. And Switzerland, I have shown you that we expected -- we expect a turnaround that we get profitable in the second quarter of 2026. Next one. And Germany here, I call the powerhouse. But it's still where we have the revenue saw and also seeing the potential, you can imagine when you have such a big country and you see a small country like Holland how they really have managed to put up the growth. So you can see which potential do we have here. But most accelerated, especially in the second half year, and revenue in presbyopia by 14%. And myopia that's laser vision correction only 6%. Next one. And also England. England have -- we had a difficult year. Let's see, it's '24 with London Vision Clinic. London Vision Clinic was the clinic we acquired. And we saw that we were not happy in 2025 because of one thing because London Vision Clinic was only a laser-based clinic. They did have really lenses. And this was spelled over. We saw that in general, worldwide, it was also in the U.S., it's in China, in general, you see all clinics who only do laser vision correction, you see they are really have problems. We are good while we have presbyopia in the lens patient. And because of the things, we were not only able to change this clinical setup because of autonomy and different things. But we have been that in 2025, so we have now that lenses get more and more in 2026. It will get even more. And our clinic -- our new clinic LEC has also have beakeven. So we saw a year-on-year growth of about 20%. The London group. This year, we'll also come. Westfield will get into the clinic, and so this will also improve it, although we don't do any marketing at all in Westfield, it seems to be a very good location. And it seems that this -- so a little marketing will pick up very quickly, it's a good location. Next time, next field. Denmark, yes, Denmark is single number grtwth and we have now in this year in the first quarter of 2026 put up a new marketing team. We have put a new online team. So we hope to push that here the market in Denmark that got double digit. Next one. In China, yes, China, as I said before, we've been in China since 2012, and I think one of the only worldwide who have stayed there and who have grown there. We grow because of one thing because of presbyopia. I think we are the group in China. We're the first in presbyopia market. And I think still we are the one who are in this work best in China. So I think we are on a real big part. We are sitting now several we've done -- got in the beginning, we've got a new marketing in China. We had our best months ever in March this year. So as I said to you, never underestimate China, I think like other high-end consumer brands, we have also the biggest market in China. So I think in -- not in laser vision correction but in presbyopia, I think China is a big market, you need to be in and you need to solve solution how to penetrate this market and when you do it, that will be a good business. Next one. So I will now hand the word over to Mr. Bracklo, he will tell you about the financial numbers in detail. Okay, Bracklo ?

Thank you, Mr. Jorgensen. Happy to take over and to add a little bit more detail to the information already given by our CEO. Next slide, please. So I think the overall message after a disappointing 2024 last year is that the group has returned to a growth trajectory. We had, including Switzerland growth of 11%. And excluding the acquisition, organically grew by -- revenues by 10%, which is a very positive development. Also, EBITDA grew by 11% and as Dr. Jorgensen already said, the Swiss acquisition is a turnaround case, therefore, initially in taking in their results in Q4 of 2025, reduced EBITDA and profitability. So EBITDA only grew 6% if you take into account the Swiss acquisition. However, this is a controlled and planned investment in future expansion. And if you like, the Swiss acquisition had 2 components: one, as Dr. Jorgensen already explained, very good purchase price we paid for these 9 clinics, CHF 10 million, which, if you know that setting up these clinics and doing the investment would have caused us a multiple of that normally. And of course, the second part is that we had to take 1 or 2 quarters losses before getting them turned around to our standard. But the good news is we're well on track and do expect based on current information to achieve a positive EBITDA from Q2 going forward. Yes, as I mentioned, that is true that the [indiscernible] is down 1%, excluding Switzerland organically, which is basically the reflection of business performance, it's up 13%. Next slide. Yes. To explain the impact of both Switzerland and the foreign exchange effect in a bit more detail. I've produced this slide. First of all, let me start with our overall performance. As I mentioned, we delivered solid growth during the period with revenue increasing by 10% and EBITDA up 11%, both excluding the Swiss acquisition, reflecting continued strength in our core operations. At the net profit level, we saw a decline of 33% on a reported basis and 12% excluding the Swiss acquisition. Importantly, and I'd like to stress this, this does not reflect the deterioration in the underlying business, but is driven by two specific factors. First, as already mentioned, we recorded an approximately HKD 18 million impact related to our Switzerland turnaround case. This is, as I just mentioned, a planned and controlled investment phase and we are making good progress. We expect this operation to reach EBITDA breakeven by the second quarter of 2026. Second, we recorded an unrealized foreign exchange loss of around HKD 10 million. This arises from the mark-to-market revaluation of certain euro-denominated intercompany balances following the appreciation of the euro against the renminbi and also, of course, of the euro against the Hong Kong dollar. Let me highlight three key points regarding the foreign exchange impact. First, it is noncash in nature and does not affect our cash flow. Second, it relates purely to intra-group balances. And third, we have full flexibility on the timing of settlement allowing us to manage exchange rate movements over time. As a reminder, our functional currency is euro, while we report in Hong Kong dollars. As a result, our reported net profit may be affected by translation and revaluation movements, which do not emphasize do not reflect the underlying operating performance of the business. Looking ahead, excluding these temporary and noncash factors, our business continues to perform well. We expect continued EBITDA improvement in the Switzerland operation towards breakeven and reduced volatility in reported earnings as these items normalize. In summary, our core business remains strong, and we are confident in our trajectory going forward. Next slide, please. Through the Swiss acquisition, our geographic diversification continues. The pink portion of this pie chart underrepresents the importance of Switzerland because, of course, the revenues are only in there for 1 quarter, and we are currently in a strong ramp-up phase. So I think it's safe to say that fundamentally, Switzerland will represent at least 10% of our business going forward as we ramp up. So in other words, broadening the geographic profile. And of course, the addition of Netherlands once that transaction closes, we'll even further diversify the geographic footprint. Having said that, Germany remained the largest contributor during the year. And the U.K.'s contribution is growing, driven by a quicker-than-anticipated expansion of the flagship clinic in Knightsbridge and a strong recovery in London Vision Clinic, as Dr. Jorgensen has already explained. Next slide. Yes, taking the countries one by one and adding a bit more detail than already given by Dr. Jorgensen. Here, I'm showing not just the year-on-year but a 5-year development of revenues showing that 2025 was a very robust recovery total revenues increasing 11% over prior year, and indeed, well over the record year 2021. And that is driven, as Dr. Jorgensen has said, primarily by the very strong growth in the presbyopia part of our business, which, in fact, grew 14%. Of course, it is positive that in Germany, we saw a recovery also in the myopia business, which grew at around 5%. So less dynamic, but also recovering despite the overall consumer confidence issues that are lying over the laser market, the myopia market globally. The presbyopia growth of 14%, however, as -- is the dominant part of the story given that now over 60% of our business is in that space. Next slide, please. Yes. China, basically, there are 2 stories within what is an overall stagnation in the last 3 years of our revenues. One story is a very intense competition and indeed difficult market dynamic in the myopia in the laser business, where our revenues have shrunk. That's one part of the story. On the other hand, we have strong double-digit growth in the presbyopia piece. They have, in this year, more or less canceled out against each other. But as we continue our focus on the presbyopia, the more rapidly growing and as that share in our business grows, that will also drive growth going forward. And I share Dr. Jorgensen's belief that especially in the big well-established clinics in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. We have quite substantial growth opportunities for the group going forward. One additional comment on Hong Kong. There, we have taken the decision to close our information center on the ground floor and to focus fully on marketing our business through word of mouth and social media, given the restrictions on marketing that are in place in Hong Kong. We did not find that, that particular approach was cost efficient. So we will be focusing mainly on the clinic, which is on the third floor. That will, of course, substantially reduce our core cost base. And also, we have increased their our strategy on marketing. So we expect that sort of from the mid of this year, profitability in Hong Kong or positive numbers will be achievable. And therefore, the Hong Kong's impact on the overall China earnings will increasingly become positive. So we see big turnaround or anticipated a turnaround in Hong Kong in the second half for those 2 reasons, cost reduction and revenue increase. And again, focus on marketing in key areas like Beijing, Shanghai, et cetera, we believe that we have significant growth potential in China. Thank you. Next page. Yes. As Dr. Jorgensen mentioned, after 3 years where revenues did not meet our full expectations in U.K., we've had a very good 2025 with a 19% revenue increase in both our locations, both in Knightsbridge and in Harley Street and that's driven by substantial growth in the presbyopia segment. Additionally, we will be adding through the Betterview acquisition, as Dr. Jorgensen already mentioned, a third one, which is located in the Westfield shopping center. And that will be operated initially not as a clinic because we have sufficient capacity in the 2 locations, but as a consultation center for patient acquisition. That third location, although we signed it at the same time as the Swiss one, it had a closing condition, which was the transfer of the lease, which had not yet been achieved due to difficulties in agreeing the final transfer of the lease agreement, but we expect that to happen shortly. So Betterview U.K. part of the transaction has not yet been closed. We added that as an asterisk on the earlier slides, but we expect that closing to happen shortly. And then we will have 3 locations in London, and we expect that to also accelerate our growth because there's quite a lot of foot traffic. We're seeing a very positive impact on our business despite The fact that, that has not yet closed. Next slide, please. Yes, Denmark has also grown and recovered from last year. But we are not satisfied with the single-digit growth, as Dr. Jorgenson explained. So we've made some changes to the marketing, and we hope very much to be able to take that also to double-digit growth in the current year. Next slide. Yes, giving you some perspective a little bit below the revenue numbers. Positive is also that not just total revenues have increased, but also the volume of surgeries is up from 27,000 last year to 28,000 or over 28,000 this year. So a very positive fact that the surgery numbers have regained momentum. The second part of this slide addresses the capacity utilization rate, which as you will be aware from past presentations has been relatively low at around 20%. From my point of view, this represents a significant opportunity because already at this relatively low capacity utilization, we have quite strong EBITDA margins. So you can imagine what those margins will be like if we get closer to full capacity utilization. So without additional CapEx at these locations, we can grow patient volumes fivefold as regards to the physical capacity. Of course, we need to then add surgical and nursing capacity. The reason it's gone down is through the Swiss acquisition. We've added additional capacity. And as you've heard from Dr. Jorgenson, we're in the process of ramping that up. So I think just in summary, I think quite a lot of opportunity to grow profitably through focused marketing measures at existing locations. Next slide, please. Yes. Looking a little bit at the cost side. You can see that that's the top right of the slide, that we've been very successful over the years in reducing costs through negotiations with our suppliers on the raw material and consumable side. On the administrative expenses, you can see at the bottom right, they moved up significantly in '24 to 16%, and we managed through various measures to bring them down again to 14%. And other 2 items that I'd like to comment on, on the one hand, salaries and doctors fees. We've managed to hold them stable or even reduced slightly this year to 27% the salaries and doctors' fees. I think we started from relatively low levels in 2021. And I think to hold them around a quarter. I think it's a competitive market for surgical talent. So I don't think we will be able to move them down, but we -- our attempt will be to hold them stable at those levels. Selling expenses, we've relied historically a lot on word of mouth, and that's one of the strengths of EuroEyes, and we continue to get positive referrals from happy patients -- but we're also having to spend more through social media and Internet channels to accelerate our growth. We continue to be very disciplined . But I think the fact that those costs have moved up reflects the fact that we are looking to increase our growth rate and therefore, are investing more money in the advertising and marketing space. Next slide. Yes. This has been one of or and continues to be the strength of EuroEyes, very strong operating cash flow, giving us the opportunity to invest and grow our business, both through opening of new clinics and through mergers and acquisitions. You can see that our cash and cash equivalents actually went up this year despite the Swiss acquisition. And in fact, that has been one of the questions that have often been asked, when will we fully deploy the capital we raised through the IPO and that we are generating through the acquisitions. And we have, since the IPO bought London Vision Clinic, bought the FreeVis in Mannheim from Mannheim University. And now, as you know, in '25 acquired the Swiss deal. But cumulatively, they did not fully deploy cash, but we have done that now through the acquisition of the FYEO group. So once FYEO closes, we will have fully deployed the cash raised. And indeed, we are through a syndicated loan raising EUR 75 million in order to enable us to do this transaction. And of course, going forward, we will continue to managing our cash flow so that we can repay that facility as quickly as possible. Of course, that transaction is not yet reflected in these numbers. So these numbers are before the Dutch acquisition because it won't be closed until probably middle of the current year. Next slide. Yes, I think that completes my part. And I think I hand back to Dr. Jorgensen to summarize and to give you an outlook going forward.

Yes, let's take the next slide. Yes. I think our position is very clear also with the acquisition of FEYO. We Are probably the biggest clinic group for treatment of presbyopia we mean this will represent the biggest growth story here in the next few years. And also what make us very good, that is so I think we understand presbyopic patient. We are doing customized treatment and so it's not easy. It's not see, but it's not easy. It's a lot of psychology in there. is very good in our group. We have, as Bracklo said, we have the capacity to increase our revenue. So we have high-paid procedures and we space and we have staff and we have plots to let's see improve and without building new clinics. And last but not least, we have showed this year with two major additions, at least one very major FYEO , but also talent where we -- I think in the year will be the main player. I think this shows we have -- it took a little time to find the right path. And the main target we finally did it, and it has also been a very big task to do that. So M&A now play. Now we need to consider that. So we are working very hard on that here at the moment. The next slide, please. Yes. What will it look like in 10 years. So the revenue target, the revenue CAGR, low to mid-10s. And I think we see that Holland have shown us how much potential it is in presbyopia. They were able to grow 20% in such a small country. So I have -- so it's very relative to say what I say here CAGR at 10% and net profit CAGR 10 to 20%. It's a conservative estimate, but I think that -- we never know external factors like we see in Iran, like we see in Ukraine, like we are seeing with high gasoline price. So you never know, but we didn't feel it yet. So next slide. So we have key takeaways, what you will take away here from today is, again, I think the several here is presbyopic leader. Everybody over 45 gets presbyopia. So you can see everybody is our patient. Above 50, look at his iPhone 100 times a day. So it's difficult to put on a reading glasses 100 times. You can imagine what happened with the TikTok people. When they get 50, I think they will need to look at their iPhones 200 times a day. So reading glasses will be very difficult. We have a global presence. So we are now and we said to you, I believe in the Chinese market. Maybe we didn't always have time, maybe we didn't do the right things, but I think we have the right focus. And M&A, we proved this year what will go on and M&A still will play a big role in the right partner, maybe in other parts of the world as well. Next slide. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was a little about our financial numbers for 2025. It was a little about the outlook. it was about the M&A, what had happened. So thank you very much for your attention. And I don't know, I give the word back to Rosana and to you.

Yes. I think we have some questions. Thank you, Dr. Jorgensen. I don't know who will lead off, maybe we take them in the turn that they were presented. I think first question, I'm aware that some were submitted before.

Yes. Thank you, Dr. Jorgensen, and thank you, Mr. Bracklo. [Operator Instructions] We have received a few questions already. Let us read it out one by one. The first one comes from Mr. Matthew Roberts of Blue Quadrant Capital Management. He has three questions. Let me read it out and we answered it one by one. The first question is, looking out at the geographic split and in context of the recent acquisition, what kind of growth does the company see over 20 years for additional clinics? In North America and Europe, somewhat oversaturated? Or is there scope for additional clinics in those regions? This is his first question.

Okay. I will take the first cut at it. And if Dr. Jorgensen feels I've not fully answered the question, he will then add to my comments. My answer to this question would be, when we look at long-term growth, particularly over a 10-year horizon, we see very significant runway, especially as Dr. Jorgensen has already mentioned, driven by presbyopia, which now represents over 60% of our business and remains a structurally underpenetrated market. In Europe, despite being the clear market leader in presbyopia following our recent acquisition our geographic footprint is still relatively limited. We are currently active in 5 markets with only a partial presence in the U.K. This gives us substantial room for expansion, both through greenfield openings in larger cities and selective acquisitions across additional European countries. So rather than being saturated, Europe is a core expansion market for us where we can leverage our leading position and operating model. In the U.S., we see what we would describe as a sleeping giant in presbyopia. The market has significant long-term potential, but remains relatively underdeveloped today. Our approach there will be disciplined with an entry once we are ready to -- once we have identified a suitable target and are ready to scale effectively. Overall, we see deep long-duration growth potential, especially in presbyopia, which is still in the early stages of adoption globally. Next question.

What other geographics does the company see as having potential for opening clinics?

Our geographic strategy is clearly focused. First, Europe remains our primary expansion priority. There are multiple attractive markets where we are not yet present, as I just mentioned, and we see opportunities to expand both organically and through acquisitions, building on our leadership in presbyopia. Second, the U.S. represents a highly attractive medium-term opportunity. While currently underpenetrated in presbyopia, the underlying demographics and purchasing power make it a very compelling market as awareness and adoption increase. In China, our strategy is different. We will focus on growing within our existing facilities rather than expanding our footprint. Given our current capacity utilization of around 18% on average, we have significant room to grow without additional capital investment. So overall, our expansion is prioritized, capital efficient and region-specific rather than broad-based. Next question?

Yes. The third question from Matthew is, are there any specific demographics or economic indicator matrix that are being looked at for opening a new clinics, for instance, say, a region has 10 million people of a certain level of wealth, that means that would be a 1 clinic per x million or something to that extent. Just any indicator or matrix?

Yes. I think we take a highly data-driven and disciplined approach to site selection, particularly given the premium and elective nature of refractive procedures. The factors that we consider include demographics, especially age profile as presbyopia is strongly age-linked, income levels and willingness to pay for elective procedures, awareness and adoption levels of refractive solutions, the competitive landscape and the availability of experienced surgeons and clinical teams. That said, we do not rely on a simple rule as such as clinics per population. Demand in our sector is influenced as much by education and conversion as by raw population size. And also, as I said, our current network is operating at around 18% capacity utilization. While we are already generating attractive EBITDA margins, this means we can accommodate significant growth within our existing infrastructure before requiring substantial additional capital.

Thank you. The next question comes from [indiscernible]. First question is, would you consider a secondary listing in Europe like Euronext or Eurex since it's mostly in European country. This may lower the valuation gap of roughly 2x EBITDA after acquisitions versus a 10x EBITDA market multiple.

Yes. I mean we are clearly aware of the valuation gap and have been trading at a significant discount to what we believe reflects the intrinsic value of the business. Historically, part of this was related to the fact that we had not fully deployed the capital raised at IPO, which impacted returns and investor perception. Over the past months, we have addressed this through two substantial acquisitions, and we will, once the closing has happened in Holland, have fully deployed that capital in line with our strategy. While the share price has not yet fully reflected these developments, we believe that as we execute on integration and demonstrate the earnings contribution from these investments, this should become more visible over time. In parallel, we are actively reviewing a range of strategic options to address the valuation gap, including potential secondary or alternative listing scenarios. No decisions have been taken at this stage, and any such step would be carefully evaluated in terms of liquidity, investor access and overall value creation. Our primary focus remains on executing the strategy and delivering sustainable growth, which we believe is the most fundamental driver of long-term shareholder value.

Thank you. The second part of the question says, regarding the FYEO financing, the deal is partly financed with EUR 75 million in bank debt, the first debt that the company has ever taken on. What are the covenants, the interest rate and how will free cash flow be allocated between debt repayment and further M&A?

Yes. This is indeed the first time we have introduced bank debt into our capital structure, and we've done so in a very measured and disciplined way. The facility is structured with standard market covenants, primarily linked to leverage and interest coverage ratios, and we are operating with significant headroom under those covenants. The interest rate is in line with current market conditions for a business of our profile, and we have secured terms that we believe are both competitive and appropriate given our strong cash generation. We've also secured sufficient liquidity and room within the covenants to allow for further acquisitions. Given our strong EBITDA margins and low capital intensity, especially with current capacity utilization, we are well positioned to both service debt comfortably and continue investing in growth.

The last part of this question, can you disclose details on the syndicated loan, specifically percentage interest, durations and amortization scheduled?

Yes. I think we will be issuing in the context of the fact that this is a very substantial acquisition of ESA. We are required to produce a circular, and that will contain detailed disclosures also on the financing. So I think what I -- my comments just now are what I'm prepared to say at this stage.

Now we come to the third question from Mr. Martin. He is asking, I'm wondering with regards to's the acquisitions of FYEO, besides more facilities and scale advantages, does FYEO also offer new or other or better surgical procedures where other EuroEyes facilities can benefit from? And how is this vice versa? Where can FYEO learn from EuroEyes?

Yes. The acquisition of FYEO is strategically important, not just for scale, but also for clinical and operational synergies. On the clinical side, both groups bring strong expertise in refractive surgery, particularly in presbyopia. In addition, as Dr. Jorgensen pointed out, through the acquisition of London Vision Clinic, we have a particularly strong capability in the innovative procedure called Presbyond, which is a laser method to treat presbyopia, especially for younger patients. And the inventor of the procedure, Dr. Dan Reinstein is a member of our group and on our Board. And ZEISS, who developed this together with Dan Reinstein is a strong strategic partner of our group. So we are well placed to implement this and also extend that into Holland. So that would also be a very specific aspect of the synergy. EuroEyes can contribute significant experience in scaling operations and standardizing procedures and driving patient conversion, particularly in presbyopia, where we are the market leader in Europe. And FYEO, as Dr. Jorgensen has mentioned, has a very strong sales and marketing organization. And that, in turn, will be something that we can benefit from. So the value creation is very much 2-way. We can roll out best practices and clinical approaches across the combined platform, and we can enhance efficiency and utilization through shared operating models, and we can accelerate market development by leveraging combined brand strength and expertise. Overall, we see meaningful opportunities to create value through knowledge transfer, standardization and scale beyond the immediate footprint expansion.

The next question comes from Mr. [indiscernible] once again. You mentioned expecting suites operations to be EBITDA positive from Q2 onwards. Is there on an IFRS 16 basis, that is excluding rent? Or does it include the lease rent causes?

I think the -- we believe that on an IFRS basis, we will be definitely cash breakeven in the second quarter. And we believe that for the full year, we will be EBITDA positive even after deducting the rent, i.e., on a cash EBITDA level, if you want to call it that.

Now we received questions from Mr. Alex Thomas from [indiscernible] Capital. The first part of this question is, what are the business trends across different regions in 2026 Q1?

I mean we are reporting now on 2025, and we will be also reporting midyear on our midyear results. We do not publish quarterly figures. So therefore, I'm not in a position to comment on Q1, which, by the way, we're the 1st of April. So it's still a bit early to do that, even if it were our policy to give quarterly results, which does not...

Second part of this question is, what are the reasons behind the escalating expenses over the years? What is the absolute level and percentage as revenue going forward?

Yes. I think during my section on -- I had one slide given various categories of expenses. And I think there, we showed that the cost of consumables, in fact, are going down and that the administrative expenses, which went up last year, we've also been able to reduce and that the surgeons expenses, which had gone up over several years, we've been able to hold them at prior year level, which I think is still would be our target. I think the only one that has gone up continuously and which may go up further is the marketing and sales costs, and that's very much driven by our desire to increase the overall growth rate. But we will do -- we will only expand that if it's value accretive.

The third part of Mr. Thomas' question, do you see another M&A happen anytime soon? Would you use that to finance it?

First of all, our priority, having done two substantial strategic acquisitions, one of which, as we've described and Dr. Jorgensen has described, was a turnaround case and the other one, which is a very substantial acquisition of ESA, our focus in the next 18 months is clearly on integration. Having said that, we are open and we are still looking at smaller fill-in acquisitions, which we can finance from our existing cash flow and with the headroom that we negotiated in terms of our syndicated loan. So that is what we are planning. On the other hand, if a strategic opportunity came along, we have the flexibility and principle to do it, but that is not something that is our current plan. Our focus is on integration and adding fill-in acquisitions in specific cities within our existing geographic footprint.

Thank you very much Mr. Bracklo. We have received many meaningful questions today, and we have answered all of them. May I ask if Dr. Jorgensen or Mr. Bracklo, if you have any final remarks to share with the management -- sorry, with the investors before we conclude the meeting.

Dr. Jorgensen?

Well, no, I'm fine. I hope we were able to see our expansion. I also -- Mr. Bracklo -- we gave the answer to many of your questions. You are very -- we are very willing also to take your question afterwards in -- through our Investor Relationship department. So no, I'm very happy and many thanks for your attention.

Also from my side, thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you very much. Thank you, management. This concludes our presentations today. Should you have any questions later on, please feel free to contact the IR department. Thank you for your participation and wish everyone good health. You may now disconnect. Thank you once again.