I-Tech AB (ITECH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

It is 1:00, and we welcome viewers here to the report presentation of today where you, as a viewer, also have the opportunity to ask questions to the management, and you do that via the live chat during this broadcast, I will be keeping an eye on it. Today, we are joined here on stage by I-Tech, who has published their final and fourth quarterly report for the fiscal year of 2025, and standing beside me is Markus Jonsson, who is the CEO of the company. Welcome.

Thank you very much. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. You have a presentation prepared for us here today, and I will simply hand over the word and come back later to ask a few questions.

Yes. Thank you very much, Mikael. So a new year, new possibilities. We're here live from Stockholm today from the Investor Studios to give you the presentation of the year-end report of Q4 for I-Tech. So before we get into the numbers, et cetera, I will just do a brief introduction of the company in case there are any new viewers or people that are not acquainted with I-Tech from the past. So essentially, what I-Tech is and what we are doing, we are a biotech company, an ingredient provider. But our key focus market is maritime shipping, and really, the problems that we are here to solve or one of the major problems is the question that we are posting here on the first slide. So what if 1/3 of the full global fleet were using 36% more fuel than needed even for 1 day, what would that mean in terms of costs and emission for shipping? And that's exactly one of the key challenges that we are addressing in I-Tech. So our solution is targeting a problem of fouling for ships. So really, the underwater surface area of the ship can get fouled of various organisms. And our solution is targeting barnacles, which is so-called hard fouling. And why are they a challenge? Well, they create a big additional drag on the ship. So it means they increase friction and increase need for power and more fuel to actually smoothly travel through the water. The barnacles are thriving in most marine environments, so all across the globe. And they are cunning little creatures in a sense that they are super gluing themselves to the surface. So they are very, very difficult to remove, and you risk damaging the coating if you try to remove them. So really, the most efficient strategy is to actually prevent them from settling on the ship is how. So our solution is called Selektope, and it is actually a clever solution coming from the world of pharma. So originally, it's a sedative that is used for humans and for veterinary medicine, but scientists then found out that it has the opposite effect on the barnacle larvae, it actually makes them temporarily hyperactive. So it doesn't kill or harm the target organism, but actually deter them from settling on the surface. And this really helps the shipowners then to reduce the emissions to air but also protect our sensitive coastal marine ecosystems because biofouling on ships' hulls is today is the #1 vector for spreading of invasive aquatic species. So it's really important to keep our ships clean so that we protect sensitive local ecosystems. And the third thing, which is so ingenious with our solution, Selektope, is that we are also reducing the emissions to the ocean very, very significantly. It's extremely efficient. So you need a very, very small amount, which in itself then protects the environment further. So now we will come to the results. And in that case, I will hand over to CFO and Head of Operations, Magnus Henell, who will take you through the numbers, and see you later.

Let's go into the results, and very nice to be here again, talking to all of you. And as we start on this slide, I just want to give you a short overview of what happened in the company over the past years. As most of you know, we have had a very nice growth of the company. Even though we are declining a little bit this year, we're still on an average of roughly 30% since our IPO in 2018, which is very strong numbers over the 7 years that these are presented. And I also want to give you an idea that when we're coming into Q4 and the full year of 2025, we are comparing to very extremely strong sales numbers in Q4 '24 and also in Q1 '25. But these are very strong, and we will talk a little bit about why we are not as strong today. Looking on the full year, we see that our smaller customers show a really strong growth, but we also see that the sales to our second largest customer is much lower than last year. We will go into the details later on. Talking about Q4, as I said, we're comparing with a tremendous quarter last year. We have, unfortunately, a decline in net sales in Swedish krona of 33%. I think it's quite important to point out that the currency adjusted growth downturn is only 23%. It's still large, but it's much lower. And then you can see that the U.S. currency has really impacted us. What is really nice to see for this year is that we actually improved the gross margin by 6%. We're going from 54% gross margin to 57%, and that is due to mainly our operational efficiencies, where we have better production processes, more producers making sure that we have a stable production price, which means that we can also be stable towards our customers. Coming into the result. Of course, we have reduced both EBITDA and EBIT down 5% roughly on both, but they are still very strong. And this shows also by the very strong cash conversion that we have in the company. For the quarter, we have an operating cash flow of almost SEK 13 million compared to SEK 6 million last year. So on the cash side, it's growing. And our cash balance, of course, is also growing into the almost SEK 150 million. Looking into '25 as a full year, the comparison numbers are not that dramatic. We are down 6% on the net sales. We are up 3% on volumes. We are up 2% in the currency adjusted growth. But unfortunately, in Swedish krona again then, we are down 6%. Also here, for the full year, where we have improved the gross margin up to 57% also for the full year. We need to point out that our largest customer, Chugoku Marine Paints, they grew by 21% this year, which is a really strong growth compared to what we show in the final end. So with this growth in gross margin, we're in Swedish krona actually larger gross profit than we had previous years. And then we have invested a little bit more in our operational cost, which means that we lower the result of it, but we're still on almost 30% EBITDA level. And looking into the geographical spread of our customers, which is quite important. We have emphasized before, we're coming back to the regulatory part that Europe is a very low percentage of our sales. It's only 2% for '25 as full year. Last year, it was 3%, which means that Asia has taken yet another little bit bigger part. The ratios between the 3 largest markets, which is Korea, China and Japan has leveled out. Last year, Korea was 50% of the sales, and China was quite much lower. Japan has been stable over the years. But the main reason is actually the very nice growth in China and the lower sales to our second largest customer, which means that China is a really important market moving forward with all their maintenance work. It's really growing nicely, and 96% in 2025 is a very strong growth. So just to summarize the financial year of 2025, we have forward momentum. We have headwinds in some parts, tailwinds in some parts, but we have a very strong margins and cash position, 57% gross margin, 25% EBITDA. We have a diversification. Our smaller customers grow really strong. They grew by more than 100% over the year. We have our largest customers growing by 20%, and the volume growth in China is 96%, which means that we were quite -- we are confident for the future, but we also need to prepare for all the upcoming work. So in the proposal from the Board, there is a proposed increase of the dividend, of the ordinary dividend from SEK 1 per share up to SEK 1.25, but with no extra dividend for this year. And I think Markus will talk a little bit more about that when he's coming back into the picture.

Thank you very much, Magnus. Yes, as you mentioned, we have underlying very good developments with the majority of the customers in the portfolio. And as you mentioned then, very strong cash generation and really a large cash at hand, right? So what is it that we will be doing with these funds, you could say, besides giving it back to our shareholders then. Well, we want to keep some of the cash to develop the business. And we will come in and talk about business development now in the next section, which is the outlook then, and how we will move the company forward. So if we start a little bit talking about the market outlook, I mean, overall, for shipping, it's still quite positive. We saw a small increase in seaborne trade around 1.1% during last year. It was a little bit higher in 2024. In terms of, you could say, the shipyards output, it increased actually by 6% measured in gross tonnage, and we expect that to continue actually in 2026 as well and even growing more by 15%. So really the -- at the moment, there is a large output coming out of the shipyards, right? We see, of course, contracting activity being somewhat lower during 2025. It was quite a bit of a turbulence in the first half of the year that sort of impacted the new contracting. So we are talking then the order books of the shipyard, you could say, 3 to 4 years out into the future, they dropped, but they are still significantly above, you could say, the 10-year trend. We also see a quite solid outlook in the maintenance and repair market. It is somewhat cyclical, but of course, it's the larger part of the market. We say typically new ships around 1,800 to 2,000 ships per year, and the service events are between 15,000 and 20,000. So it's a much bigger market then, of course, very important for us as a growth market. And Magnus was mentioning that also as China as being one of the key regional markets for us to grow. So I think we look back at 2025 and are really happy about the uptake that we're seeing in China and looking forward to that. So from a market perspective, of course, there is this risk, you could say, of geopolitical instability. But also you could say on shipping, if we have a more stabilized world, you could say, going forward, it could also be that the tonne-miles of shipped goods could actually go down, right? If the Suez Canal opened up as in the good old days, et cetera, right? So there are sort of risks of stability as well, you could say, to shipping and the charter rates, et cetera, going forward. But we see continued good momentum in the market, really. So that, it's good to see for 2026. Another parameter that we are following is actually the price of copper. Copper oxide is the traditional antifouling solution that is used, you could say, to prevent barnacles and hard fouling from settling on the ships. And Selektope then, representing sort of a new technology could also be quite interesting from a cost performance perspective going forward. So we have seen quite an increase of copper prices. And actually, what this slide is demonstrating is the margin benefits for 2 companies or, you could say, 2 products competing head-to-head with similar price points at different prices of the copper, right? So if you go back to 2016, the copper price was quite low. It was around $5 per kilo. And at that time, you could say, it was actually slightly beneficial then versus an entry price level to use a formulation without copper and Selektope instead. But sort of in the recent years, we've been in a market setting actually where copper prices have been high enough so that Selektope is actually more advantageous from a margin perspective, right? And also then looking into the future here, it's predicted that there is actually a lack of copper going forward, right? And that would drive up prices, and it would make Selektope much more attractive as a solution to prevent barnacles as well, right? So we see that as giving us additional momentum for the future for growth of Selektope. So it's really nice and a good factor going forward. Now we come then to the reregistration process in Europe that we have been talking about, you could say, extensively over the past 2 years. So essentially, where we are in the process for this year, then we reported back in December, that there is now a proposal for a nonrenewal of Selektope's approval for the European market, which we, of course, regret that EU, despite our best efforts to inform, has come to this conclusion, right? There is still, of course, a chance to influence this decision because we expect then a decision to happen, you could say, earliest in Q2, most likely. So there is still some time for us to affect. And of course, we are preparing for a scenario where there is a nonrenewal, and we also say that, of course, we will take this on more from a legal perspective in that case. So we should see this as the first round, and it's a story that will continue. So regulatory costs and costs associated, that will be continuing to be on a slightly elevated level at least for this year and probably also for the foreseeable future if we have to do additional testing. So this is the status and the situation with EU. So if we come to a more positive story, it's the story of our business development pipeline. We also have talked about that quite extensively on previous earnings calls. And we are really, really active, and we can see that now also during Q4 and into this year that our activities are ramping up. So we are speaking to several new interesting collaboration partners in parallel. We were fortunate enough to actually announce our collaboration with Havey Advanced Materials in the end of November. So that is one partner that we are talking to, and there are several others. And you can say then, what is the focus of your business development pipeline. Well, it is to bring sort of complementary solutions to our existing customers. But also looking then into other attractive marine markets such as aquaculture, the more of the yacht market, et cetera. So we are really actively working here, and we can see also that this is now starting to consume quite a bit of resource from the entire team here. So that's something we will come back to, again, the need really to invest in the company for the future here when it comes to fixed costs and resources. But it's quite exciting results so far. And we, of course, look forward to be able to talk and give more news about the business development pipeline during the course of this year. So coming then to the business outlook. We spoke about in the report as well, we see new customer product launches, specifically for the Korean market. So we will, of course, closely monitor and see how these products develop. But as we're also stating, most likely, it will take quite a bit of time until these volumes contribute -- sorry, these products contribute significant volumes going forward. As I mentioned then for the business development pipeline, we are sort of in active negotiations around a variety of new potential strategic partnerships, and that's something we are looking forward to advance and close them during this year. We will have continuous advocacy linked to regulations and of course, engage the European Union, but also our other key markets on the topic of sort of Selektope and Selektope approval. And as I was mentioning then in order to be ready for the future and to be able to complete all the business development activities, we have taken the decision to increase the team. So we will be welcoming several new team members, permanent members then during the first half of this year. So we also need to bring them up to speed and introduce them to their new tasks, et cetera. So that is the focus of the company. So coming back then to the strong cash position. So Magnus was mentioning that we're looking into increasing the ordinary dividend. Also, there could be changes in the regulation so that we could be actually -- to be able to consider share buybacks for the future. But we also need to keep some of the cash to be able to realize some of the business development opportunities going forward. So that is really the plan as it looks now for this year. So with that, I think we're done with the presentation, and we look forward to an engaging Q&A session.

Thank you very much, Markus and Magnus. If I'll begin with sort of the numbers first, looking at your net sales decreased by 33%, and the operating profit almost halved. But looking at the full year, as you explained during the presentation, it's not as dramatic, a respective 10% decrease there. How should shareholders sort of interpret this development in your long term? And how does this quarter sort of reflect your long-term development?

So maybe we should talk about our customers a little bit, right? So we have very few customers, right? And as we have talked about in earlier earnings calls, for 2025, we had a very big and significant customers that actually came back to us and said then due to financial difficulties, they were actually then going to reduce the demand for this year, right? So that was something you could say that happened well into 2025. And you could say that we have grown very positively, you could say, with the other smaller customers. But so far, I mean, it hasn't been able to fully compensate. Although actually, our volumes are higher, right, for 2025 than 2024. So yes.

And considering that the volumes are higher in 2025 than 2024, how come net sales are still decreasing?

Well, I think as Magnus was mentioning, currency has been sort of a big headwind for us as well, right? The fact we are buying and selling in U.S. dollars. So I mean, there is no currency risk as such, right, in the business, but because of sort of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, it looks more dramatic, you could say, in Swedish crowns than in dollars.

Global seaborne trade has been increasing this year. It's not as big as last year, but this is despite the global uncertainties that you sort of described in your report. A question from the chat asked the following question. Industry data shows strong results, but the company still struggles. Is that suggesting that you're losing market shares?

No, we do not believe we are losing market share overall. I mean on the contrary, we believe that we are actually increasing our market share, right? And I think especially the results in China is demonstrating that, that we are growing so substantially in China, right, for 2025. So underlying, it is actually quite a positive development. As Magnus was mentioning, our biggest customer grows by 20%, right? And we have several of the smaller customers, although from a lower level, growing more than 100%, right? Unfortunately, overall, then you're looking at in Swedish crowns, right, it's not able to compensate sort of the dramatic reduction of volume that we see from one of the larger accounts there, right, which was actually down 2/3, right? If you just compare calendar year, right?

And let's talk about that customer then, 2/3 scaling down that volume compared to your other customers that are sort of scaling up. Talking about the significant customer that is scaling down, what can you tell us about that customer?

Yes. We actually touched upon that also in the Q3 presentation, right? But they were sort of reporting 2 things during last year. One thing was temporary financial constraints internal, right? So that was one reason. And also then, you could say early on in the year that they actually had higher stock levels. So that sort of one thing led to the other, right? And that's why we saw the significant drop. However, long term, we do not see that this customer is in trouble, sort of, and they will most likely recover in the long picture, right? It's not that they are going to disappear from the market, that we see is very, very unlikely, right?

There are many who are wondering the identity behind this customer. And well, I understand that you might not be able to tell us exactly who it is. Can you tell us something?

Well, unfortunately not. I think several of our customers actually do not want us to mention them specifically, right? So we have to respect that. But it is a significant customer, right? And I mean it is, you could say, a financially sound and stable partner long term, but they have had some sort of temporary challenges during last year. So of course, we remain sort of positive in the long run also with them, you could say, to be able to recover and come back from the situation that we have been in during 2025.

And in recovering those volumes for I-Tech, are you seeing that your smaller customers are continuing to ramp up their volumes? Or are you also expecting your more significant customer to recover?

Well, long term, definitely, we would expect them to recover, but how quickly that is happening, right, is, of course, a little bit unclear to us, right? But if you look at the smaller customers, they were logging very impressive growth figures, right? And if you're launching a completely new product or an extension, et cetera, right, they do develop quite differently as well, right? But we see, we previously talked about PPG as one customer that was launching a new product during last year that really sort of replaced an old product, right, and has been taking significant volume, and we see that continuing as well, right?

There are people in the chat also curious about what we can expect from that one significant customer more concretely during 2026, but also your other customers during 2026.

Yes. I mean we cannot go in and comment specifically account by account. And I think it's also fair, and we keep on stressing this, I think, at every call as well, right? There is quite substantial variation between quarters, right? That depends on the customers' purchasing behavior, right? And since we have so few customers, you actually see then quite big deviations between quarters also in sales, right? The long-term prospects are positive, right? And we expect to continue to grow with Selektope. Of course, then Asia being the key growth market, right?

Let's talk about reapproval then on the EU front. The EU has proposed not to renew the proposal for -- the approval for Selektope. What are the reasonings from the EU side? And what are your counterarguments when sort of, how do you call it, disputing this?

Yes. Yes. So this, you could say, proposal is based on what we claim then, you could say, 2 essential flaws, right? So the first thing is that the expert group, which is called the BPC Group, they have then proposed to label medetomidine, which is the active substance in Selektope as an endocrine disruptor, right? And for us and looking into the scientific definition of an endocrine disruptor, we, of course, see that our substance does not fulfill that criteria, right? And I think the key criteria is that you have to cause an adverse effect in the organisms that you're looking at. And it's not -- there is no adverse effects, right? So we, of course, then dispute, you could say, the conclusion that the substance is endocrine disrupting. I think the second thing, and that Norway then as the reporting state, they were concluding is that there are several alternatives to Selektope in the market. So it's not needed, right? And that's the second thing which we believe is also flawed, right? Because in reality, there are very, very few biocides that actually work against hard fouling and barnacles, while you could say the report is erroneously suggesting that there are 8 or 9 different other biocides, right? They do not even discriminate between soft and hard fouling, right? So you can see that there is really a lack of industry understanding and chemical understanding, right? And then they're also mentioning an array of, you could say, of non-biocide alternatives, which we see they are not really mature enough commercially or available for that type of solution and so on, right? So there are several errors then, right? And also not only I-Tech, but an array of stakeholders have been pointing this out to the European Commission and the member states of all this what we believe are errors in these conclusions then, right? And so far, unfortunately, we haven't been heard or sort of they haven't listened to this. So hence, we believe if there is finally a negative decision, we will, of course, move on and challenge this legally, right, which we think we have a very stable base to do.

And talking then about cost because you did mention in the presentation that you're expecting elevated costs relating to this reapproval process, can you elaborate on that and sort of what levels you're expecting?

I'm handing over that one to Magnus, actually.

Yes, I think we have quite a bit of cost already today for the year we're trying to influence and that takes external resources. And these costs that we have, which is roughly SEK 2 million a quarter. So roughly SEK 8 million to SEK 9 million for the full year. We expect them to continue, maybe not the same resources, but as Markus says, maybe into the legal resources, et cetera. So that will continue for next year. And that is not an elevation of it. But what we also see is in order to fight this wrongfully labeling of endocrine disruptor, we most likely will, during the year, start a larger study where we actually can prove even more scientifically that it is not an endocrine disruptor. And those large studies, they are around SEK 10 million in cost, which will be spread over a couple of years, but it will still increase our cost. So maybe half of that could come this year. But that is really also depending on what happens in the outcome.

Let's talk a little bit about the outcome then. Someone from the chat is also curious, if the decision becomes negative to say, if it's not reapproved, then is that effective immediately? Or is there any sort of countermeasures you can take to delay the date of effectivity?

Well, when sort of the vote has happened, and it's sort of public, right, there is what they call a 6-month grace period, right? So then sort of it's a grace period for where the customers then have time to adapt, you could say. Unfortunately, a legal case or a challenge of the decision could take between 6 to 12 months, right? So we actually could end up in a situation then where it can affect the market. Hopefully not, but let's see. We still are hopeful for a positive outcome.

And if we look to the European market, it's still a very small share of your net sales today, 2% if I'm not mistaken. Can you elaborate a little bit on the -- on your strategy to roll out the product in Europe granted that the reapproval is approved?

Yes. Europe is not a big market. It is 5% to 8% maybe of the global opportunity for Selektope, right? So it is quite a minor market from the beginning. Unfortunately, because of this piece of legislation that we have, which is called the BPR, the Biocidal Products Regulation, it doesn't really work in Europe. So Selektope was originally approved in Europe back in 2016. But until today, actually, no end product, so a coating product from a customer has actually received EU-wide market approval under this piece of legislation so -- because the member states have not been able to agree on what they call the environmental protection criteria. So actually, the legislation is not working today. So it's very difficult, you could say, even with the reapproval, it's very difficult for, you could say, the opportunities to be realized very quickly in Europe as long as we have this piece of legislation that is sort of working from our perspective very less than optimal, right? It's actually blocking new innovation, which we believe is a key challenge for shipping, right? And if we want to stay competitive in Europe, it is an issue that we will have to address, right?

And with this entire process and the challenges you're facing in the EU regulatory, could that potentially cause some concern for potential customers in Europe?

Yes, we see, of course, a negative decision in Europe, right, is sort of tarnishing the brand a little bit, right? And of course, you could say that the other regulatory regimes in other regions of the world work differently. Some of them resemble a little bit of legislation in EU, but none of them have really picked up on the topic of endocrine disrupting so far. So of course, we need to be closely monitoring this, right, and be proactive also in our communication versus, you could say, regional stakeholders and also regional regulators in our key important markets. So that is a key focus for us, right? We do not want this to spread outside Europe, right, in the future.

And what is the risk or sort of uncertainty around that, that you're facing at the moment? I know some of the people in the chat are very curious to know. What is the risk that Asia will also sort of reevaluate this thing?

Well, we assess it as very low at the moment, right? But we need to continuously sort of be close both to the regulators and to the market, right? So to make sure that we are informing them that we bring up the scientific proof on the table, et cetera, right, to show sort of what does the data really say about, on one hand, endocrine disrupting and endocrine deficiencies and then also, what type of alternatives are there out there, right? For instance, we can mention another region, which is very important to us is South Korea, right? They have also a very restrictive policy around biocides. But they are going about this completely differently than Europe is doing. So they are now looking to implement sort of a cap, you could say, on the amount of biocides that you can use in an antifouling product, a 1% cap, which means that it's actually a source for innovation, right? And that's why we saw these 3 new products that we were talking about being launched in Korea then during the autumn is actually to be able to match this new legislation, which is a headache and it's driving innovation, right? And a 1% cap is no problem for Selektope. We are fully effective at 0.1%, right? So it's actually a positive for us, right? So we see, you could say, one other country that we're shipping is really important. And they also want to protect ecology and have low emissions to the ocean, but they take a completely and more, what we think, much more educated way of sort of reducing then the emissions of biocide, right? So there are really positive examples for Europe actually to follow on how to regulate, you can say.

You mentioned the 3 new products that you launched in Korea?

We are not launching. Our customers are launching coating products.

Are these expected to be significant contributors to revenue as they ramp up?

It will take time because these products have been developed then to match this new piece of legislation, right? And that has sort of -- it's going to be implemented, you could say, step-wise, et cetera. It will take a number of years before you could say that, that new piece of legislation is phased in and so on. So we expect it to take time also because before these products really contribute significantly. And of course, we should also know that we are already quite big on the Korean market. So you could say there could be some cannibalization between different customer products, right, on the market. Overall, it's not negative for us, right? If you replace an old product with 0.1%, a new product with 0.1% Selektope, that's an even game, right? So it's, of course, that additional potential that we are after in Korea, which are the products that are not using Selektope today. So that's what we mean. It could take some time before it's significantly contributing to our sales.

Let's talk about your cash position then. You're entering 2026 with a cash reserve of SEK 148 million. It's a rather sizable position considering that it's roughly SEK 12 per share, but also while you're proposing a dividend of SEK 1.25 per share. In utilizing this cash reserve, I know you mentioned it in the report, but could we get a repetition?

Yes. So besides the dividend, we want to keep money, sort of cash at hand for our business development opportunities, the opportunity pipeline, right? So if we are able, you could say, to act on any of these partnerships and there could be elements of acquisitions involved, et cetera, right, or upfront payments, we want to ensure that we have cash available so that we don't have to go out and ask for money for such smaller things, right? And then also, there could be better things to do with the cash than actually giving it back in dividend. I don't know, Magnus, if you want to comment on development?

Yes. But there is a proposal on the table to actually change the regulations about First North companies or nonregulated market companies to actually be able to buy back shares, not synthetically but really buybacks as the companies on the main market are allowed to do. And we are actually then also considering waiting in this legislation for us to be able to buy back shares instead of increasing the dividends.

Yes, there's a question -- there's a viewer who's asking a follow-up question. Why are you not doing share buybacks in the first place instead of dividends?

Yes. As I said, today, on a nonregulated market, you could do -- I'm not totally into it, but you could do some kind of synthetical buyback twist, which we are not really interested in doing right now. But you need to be on the main markets, the main regulated markets in order to follow regulation and be able to buy back shares. But that regulation is considered to be changed by end of this year.

And Markus, you mentioned you wanted to have cash on hand. How much?

How long is a string? Now we see, and you can say several of these opportunities, it's ranging, right, how much would be needed. So we prefer to stay on the safe side, right, for now. And let's see. Hopefully, we want to really act on some of these opportunities and move fast, right? And then it's better to have the cash at hand to be able to do this.

There's a lot of viewers who are posting their questions here in the chat. So I'll just fire off as I see them. Following question, your balance sheet shows an increase in year-end current liabilities of SEK 3.6 million but your cash flow statement shows that liabilities consumed SEK 4.2 million of cash. Could you explain this discrepancy?

I actually can't say without the numbers in front of me exactly what they claim from the cash flow analysis that liabilities consumed those SEK 4.2 million. But there is -- there are normal changes in the current liabilities with the vendor payments, et cetera. But of course, we also are increasing our tax liability as a current because we need to pay it during 2026. So that might be the discrepancy that he is talking about.

Regarding the MOU that you have with Havey, for those of us without a background in chemistry, could you please explain in simple language how this helps to diversify I-Tech's current portfolio of products?

Yes. So I was showing a paint can at the slide earlier here. Maybe we can go back to that one. It's maybe easier to explain. So if you look at the paint can, you see here what are the contributions or the value in that paint can of different raw materials. And today, we are in that part, which is called additives here, which represents 30% to 40%, but it can be even higher, you could say, 30% to 40% of the value of the raw material cost of the formulation. And what Havey is doing, they are working with the binder systems or as it's called here, resins, which is essentially the part of the formulation that binds the coating together. So the biocides and the binders, so the resins, these are the 2 key ingredients that actually, on one hand, represents the majority of the cost of the formulation, but also then provide sort of the key performance criteria and benefits of the formulation. So we have been working, you could say also before Havey then with binders as one of the innovation tracks, you could say, in I-Tech. But sort of we have started to work together on looking at future innovations here. You could say, both better performance but also more sustainable antifouling solutions going forward. So we hope to be able to continue and close that discussion, you could say, during this year as well. And then we have a very interesting space for future innovation and something that can also contribute significantly to sales.

We hope that answer will suffice as we move on to the next question. You also wrote that you will be welcoming new permanent members in the first half of this year. Can we expect the operating cost to increase moving forward?

We have been talking about slight increases. We are increasing the staff by a few numbers over the year. We have been talking about what kind of costs we are driving from the regulation part. There will be some external costs, maybe not increase, but we will still have external costs in regards to the business development activities. And of course, if we come up with a really interesting internal business development where we need to spend a little bit more R&D cost. But significantly changes -- the only significant change, I would say, that would be if we go into this long-term study on the endocrine disruption. But otherwise, yes, small increases. But we are at -- we have a slim business model, and we should try to keep it slim. We have like, for the full year 2025, we're almost 30% EBITDA. So we shouldn't, even if we make a lot of money, we shouldn't start spending too much money, but we should spend money on developing the company. And there, we shouldn't be afraid. If we need to spend money there, we should spend money because we're making money as well.

As we move over to the next question. As with the new building activity up in 2026 and much easier comparables, is there any reason why we shouldn't expect a strong growth in Q2 2026 and onwards?

Well, as we said, long term, we remain very, very positive on the case, right? We have very, very good momentum with the majority of the customers, right? So we stay very positive sort of on the long-term prospects for Selektope, but of course, also for the other interesting things that we have in the pipeline to complement, you could say, and build a more diversified and stronger I-Tech going forward, right? So yes.

I just want to complement that. As Markus is talking about the organic growth of the company, we still have the hustle with the U.S. dollars even now during the first part of this year, it decreased significantly even more. So where will the bottom be on the dollar, we really don't know. So that could be one part that counteracts. But as we said, organically, we're very -- looking very nice into the future.

So should we be prepared for stable sales or increase in costs? That's the question, I'm sorry, I will elaborate on the question. What level of growth should we expect in the SG&A in 2026? Do you think that we will see organic growth excluding FX currencies or should we be prepared for a year of stable sales but increasing costs?

I think we have guided enough at this time. We are not giving any forward-looking statements, really. But we have been talking about cost drivers for the coming year. And we can do -- we are talking about how we see on the market. And then I think you need to draw your own conclusions about that.

Let's talk about new hires then. When you're looking to recruit, what key sort of skills are you looking for and the focus areas?

So you could say the business development part is, you could say, driving a need for more capacity. But then you're right, I mean we also need additional skill sets. So one area we are looking into strengthening is, for instance, regulatory affairs, right? We have this ongoing case with the EU, but we also know that we have to stay proactive with the other regions. We are working on new things as well. So that's an area we need to strengthen. Of course, also the commercial side, we will look forward to strengthen going forward. So these are the main areas, really.

And when we're talking about the reapproval process, we also talked about that the European market is a rather small market. And there's another question here. Why spend the -- between SEK 8 million and SEK 9 million per year in legal cost and potential new studies when Europe is already a small addressable market?

Yes. I think we touched upon it a little bit. It's mainly to prevent tarnishing the brands, right? Of course, we want to have a technology that is seen as an environmental sound option, right? And what EU is sort of claiming now, it's claiming that it is an endocrine disruptor and therefore, should not be on the market. We need to challenge this more out of principle than out of direct commercial value and also to prevent that this would spread in the future, right? So we need to take this head on, right? That's the option for us, right?

And so far, has there been any spillover effect of the reapproval process in Asian markets?

Well, we talked about this earlier as well. There has been a spillover effect in terms of, you could say, new developments, not in the existing sales, so you could say what has already been launched in the market. But you could say some customers then, they look on the market very globally, and they want to launch, you could say, products that are available in all regions, right? We have had feedback that they have paused global developments. They have still continued with their Asian product developments, right? But sort of we have already seen it impacting these global products, right? But that is now sort of very much in the past, right? So yes, we do not see that affecting them, you could say, Asia to that extent.

In the start of this Q&A, you mentioned that you're not seeing yourselves losing any market shares. But if you were asked the following question, do you see any increased competition from silicone-based antifouling or new technologies?

Yes. I mean silicone technology is an alternative coating technology, right? So you could say that you could view then silicone maybe versus traditional antifouling coating, right? There, of course, is a competition here. And some silicones, they claim to be without biocides, right? But the most commercially successful silicones do contain biocides, right, today. And to -- actually, we see also, I mean, for the future to continue to have high performance, right? Biocides are really giving an edge also in silicone technology, right? So I think we view silicones more as a growth opportunity because to date, there are no silicone products with Selektope inside. So that is actually a growth opportunity for us, right?

Yes. We will ask the final question here from the chat and ask the following. Can you address the sales in the maintenance segment, are they ramping up?

Definitely. I think we see maintenance sales in China sort of be more predominant than new build for our sake, right? So the fact that we have grown significantly in China is also sort of a tick for us growing in the maintenance segment. So both of these things are sort of interconnected and a key strategic objective of us, right? So yes, definitely.

CEO, Markus Jonsson; and CFO, Magnus Henell, thank you very much for being here presenting and answering questions.

Thank you, Mikael.

Thank you.