Operator: Welcome to BioGaia Q2 report for 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 CEO Theresa Agnew and CFO Alexander Kotsinas. Please go ahead.
Theresa Agnew: Hi, this is Theresa Agnew, CEO of BioGaia, and I am here with Alexander Kotsinas, and we are here to present our Q2 results for 2026. Some of the highlights of the quarter, our growth excluding currency effects was 12% versus year-ago. Our EBIT margin is 30% with an adjusted EBIT margin of 33% for the quarter. Overall, our net sales reached SEK 441 million, as I said, with growth, excluding currency effects of 12%. Specifically in the regions, in Europe, Middle East, Africa, our sales increased by 21%, excluding currency effects. In the Americas, increased by 16%, excluding currency effects. While Asia Pacific decreased by 6%, excluding currency effects due to order variability. Our operating profit in the quarter was SEK 132 million, which is an increase of 22%. Our EBIT margin was 30%, versus the 27% last year for Q2. Our adjusted EBIT margin was 33% for the quarter. Overall, our net sales year to date reached SEK 813 million, which is growth excluding currency effects of 13%. Our BioGaia company strategy remains the same. Our first strategic pillar is grow the core, the core being our core health areas of the business, of which gut health, which includes colic, oral health, and immune health, are our biggest priorities. Our second strategic pillar is what we call expansion through direct markets, where we look at particular markets, to take from a distributor partnership to a subsidiary or a direct market. We currently have 12 direct markets. Our third strategic pillar is breakthrough innovation. This is market creation opportunities for probiotics where people don't routinely use probiotics today. The foundations of our company are people and culture, investing for profitable growth, using digital as an enabler, both in how we go to market through our omni-channel approach, as well as digitizing our business internally. Driven by science, which has been a foundation for over 30 years. Sustainable solutions, highlighting the importance of sustainability to our business. How are we delivering on our strategy? In terms of grow the core, in the quarter, we drove growth for both the pediatric and adult segments. We are investing in our marketing and selling activities to grow strong growth in our direct markets. We are continuing to roll out our new products. We had originally launched BioGaia Gastrus PURE ACTION in October of 2024. We continue to roll that out this year. We also launched last year BioGaia Prodentis Fresh Breath. We're continuing to roll that out to more markets this year. We just recently in May, launched our next generation patented probiotic drops called BioGaia Protectis Plus. BioGaia Protectis Plus will be available in addition to our original Protectis drops. In terms of expansion through direct markets, we continued our launch in Germany and Austria in Q2 that originally launched in January this year. One of our largest direct markets, the U.S., had record sales in Q2. We've seen strong performance in France in Q2. In terms of our breakthrough innovation, skin health is one of our exciting new areas, we expanded our portfolio in the quarter with two additional new products and updated our design across the full range. Some of the launches that we had in the quarter, as I mentioned, we launched BioGaia Protectis Plus. We launched that in the U.K., Ireland, as well as in Sweden. We launched our Pharax drops in a number of markets. As I said, we launched our two new skincare products, a face and body lotion and a balm to milk body wash, both microbiome friendly and organic containing ingredients, those launches happened in the U.S. and China. Some of the key events for the quarter, on April 28th, we published some new scientific findings on one of our patented technologies. It's called LongevityGuard. It is a desiccant technology that goes into our drops products and our probiotic ointment that improves the stability and shelf life of our probiotics so that they live throughout the shelf life. May 7th, we announced our launch of BioGaia Protectis Plus, which is, as I mentioned, a proprietary patented combination of our strain DSM 17938 as well as BG-R46. Also on May 7th, at our annual general meeting, we elected a new board member to our board of directors, Amy Byrick. On June 18th, we announced the new product launches that I mentioned, the lotion and wash for the BioGaia skincare portfolio. Our growth, as I said, for Q2 was 12% organic growth. As you look at it from a pediatric and adult segment standpoint, pediatrics grew 9% organic growth, adult segment grew 23% organic growth. A little bit more on the segments. If you look at the quarter, as I said, excluding currency effects, pediatrics grew 9%, adult health 23%. If you look at the total for the year to date, pediatrics grew 11% organic growth adult grew 21%. In terms of pediatrics for the quarter, sales mainly increased in France, U.S., and Brazil. In terms of adult health, sales increased in our Protectis tablets, sales also increased in Asia Pacific, mainly in Indonesia and Japan. Overall, our pediatric segment for the quarter is 75% of our sales, year to date is 74% of our sales. By region, as I said previously, Europe, Middle East, Africa increased by 21%, excluding currency effects, mainly in France and Poland. These were strong markets for us. In addition, other strong markets in EMEA were Germany as well as U.K. In Asia Pacific, our sales decreased by 6%, excluding currency effects. It was lower in our sales in the pediatric segment, while the adult health segment did increase. As I said previously, the sales were lower, mainly in China and South Korea. This was due to quarterly variations for individual orders, so order variability. In the Americas, which includes Latin America as well as North America, our sales increased by 16%, excluding currency effects. This is due to higher sales in both the pediatric and the adult health segment, and sales increased mainly in the U.S., Canada, and Argentina. I will now turn it over to Alex to go through the financials in more detail.
Alexander Kotsinas: Thank you, Theresa. To summarize, as we heard Theresa mention, we had a sales growth of 9%, from SEK 405 million to SEK 441 million in the quarter. Our gross profit also increased with 9%, and our operating profit increased with 22%. We had a margin of 30% in the quarter, compared to 27% one year ago. If we look at the sales, as we heard, we had a growth of 9%, and we had a negative currency effect of 3%, and thus a growth excluding currency effect of 12% in the quarter. Our gross margin in the quarter was 73%, which was at the same level as last year. We had 1 percentage point higher margin in the pediatric segment and 1% lower in the adult segment. That variation is mainly due to mix effects. There are some movements between different products and geographic markets that explains the variation. If we look year-to-date, we have a margin of 72% versus 73% one year ago, with a slightly lower margin in the adult health segment. If we look at our operating expenses, our total operating expenses were SEK 189 million versus SEK 186 million, so 2% higher versus one year ago. Our sales and marketing expenses increased due to higher expenses for sales and marketing activities, mainly in our subsidiaries. For example, in France and Germany, which are new markets where we were spending less one year ago. The sales and marketing expenses also include a one-time expense of SEK 11.3 million. Our R&D costs decreased mainly due to lower cost for clinical studies. It is a normal variation between the quarters. We have a positive effect in the other OpEx, due to some exchange gains on receivables of SEK 7 million. Therefore, we have an OpEx of SEK 189 million versus SEK 186 million, 2% higher. On an adjusted basis, our OpEx was SEK 177 million versus SEK 186 million, which is then 4% lower compared to one year ago. If we summarize and look at our profit and loss statement, again, we see an increase in sales of 9%, an increase of OpEx at a lower extent of 2%, and therefore our EBIT increases with 22%. On an adjusted basis, our EBIT increases with 32%. We then have a margin of 30% in the quarter, and on an adjusted basis, our margin is 33%. Profit earnings per share of SEK 1.02 versus SEK 0.87, an increase of 17% in the quarter. If we look at our cash flow, cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 51 million. The decrease in cash flow from operating activities compared to the same period last year is mainly due to negative change in working capital. It is also, I would say, a normal variation between the quarters whereby we have some higher receivables, a bit higher inventory, and lower payables, all three giving a negative effect then in the change in working capital. The cash flow from financing activities amounted to SEK -466 million. That then includes the additional purchase payment that we did for Nutraceutics, our U.S. company, of SEK 59.5 million, which we paid at the 1st of April in this quarter. We also had dividends in the quarter of SEK 405 million. The net effect then is the cash flow for the period of SEK -428 million versus SEK -624 million in the same quarter last year. We have a cash at the end of the period of SEK 446 million. With that, I hand over to Theresa for some concluding remarks.
Theresa Agnew: In summary, as we said, our second quarter showed growth, excluding currency effects, of 12%. Both our segments grew for the quarter. Pediatric segment growing 9%, excluding currency effects, and adult segment growing 23%, excluding currency effects. The increases were primarily driven by our Protectis drops, our Prodentis, and our Gastrus PURE ACTION products. Europe, Middle East, Africa is regaining momentum, as you saw, in key markets following a period that we had of transition from when we went from partner distribution to direct market operations in France and Germany and Austria. Our sales overall increased by 21%, excluding the currency effects. France, as I said, was established as a direct market in April 2025, Germany in January 2026. Both contributed to the strong performance in Europe, Middle East, Africa. For Asia Pacific, our sales decreased by 6%, excluding currency effects. This was mainly due to the lower sales in the pediatric segment. The adult health segment increased, as I mentioned previously, but the sales decreased mainly in China and South Korea in our partners in those markets, that was due to quarterly variations in the individual orders. The Americas delivered strong performance with a 16% growth, excluding currency effects. Both Canada and the U.S. had robust growth in sales of our adult products, specifically Prodentis and Gastrus PURE ACTION, as well as double-digit growth in sales of our Protectis drops. Our operating margin for the quarter was 30%. Our adjusted operating margin was 33%. Overall, our year-to-date adjusted operating margin is 30%, compared to 27% last year. We are announcing that we will host a capital markets day in London in December this year, with more information to come on that. We remain, of course, focused on driving our growth by leveraging our strong scientific foundation that we have built over many years. We are expanding our presence in key markets by continuing to launch new products in these markets, and of course, investing in increasing our brand visibility and our brand recommendations through healthcare professionals. We will open it up now for any questions that you may have.
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 Kristofer Liljeberg from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Kristofer Liljeberg: Thank you. Good morning. I have four questions, but they are short, I promise. First, the higher investments compare with the first quarter last year, or the second quarter last year, if you could just comment on that. I wonder about the gross margin improvement second quarter versus first quarter. Is that just mix effect or is it something else? Third question is if you could give this figure of direct sales market proportion of total sales in the quarter or year to date. Finally, if you're willing to comment about when you expect the China distributor to start ordering again. Thank you.
Theresa Agnew: What was the fourth question? When we—
Kristofer Liljeberg: When do you expect the distributor in China to start order again?
Theresa Agnew: China.
Kristofer Liljeberg: Yeah.
Theresa Agnew: Okay. The first two questions, I'll have Alex address.
Alexander Kotsinas: The investments in the quarter, yeah, that's mainly BioGaia Production, and we are ramping up our investment levels. We are expanding our manufacturing capacity, so we will see a higher CapEx level for this year and also next year. That is why you have a higher CapEx. We've actually had an abnormally low CapEx for the last year or two, because we have been preparing.
Kristofer Liljeberg: Is this the level we saw in the quarter? Is that, you think, a good representation for the remainder of the year?
Alexander Kotsinas: It will vary a bit, going a bit up and down. It's a bit difficult to say. It depends on the speed of that deployment of those investments. I think for this year, we could have investments around SEK 30 million-SEK 40 million in total.
Kristofer Liljeberg: Okay. That's helpful. Thank you.
Alexander Kotsinas: Yeah. For the gross margin, yes, as you guessed, it's mainly due to normal or, well, variations between geography and products. Not really that we have changed any pricing or anything similar.
Theresa Agnew: In terms of the direct market percentages, for the quarter, our direct markets are 41% of our growth, year-to-date is 45%.
Kristofer Liljeberg: Of the growth? Do you mean of the growth or of the actual sales?
Theresa Agnew: I'm sorry, of the sales. Apologies. Of our sales. 41% for the quarter is direct markets, 45% of our sales for the year-to-date for direct markets.
Kristofer Liljeberg: I guess if you have a quarter, and that leads us into my final question. If APAC is picking up again, I guess that number should go down, or is this trend so strong that the direct sales proportion will still continue up this year, would you say?
Theresa Agnew: No, that number will go down because we had lower orders for China and South Korea in the first half of the year. We do expect, and that gets to your fourth question, that our China distributor will increase their orders in Q3 and then larger orders in Q4 as well.
Kristofer Liljeberg: Okay. Do you expect China third quarter sales to be up year-over-year?
Theresa Agnew: Yes, we do.
Kristofer Liljeberg: Okay. Thank you.
Operator: The next question comes from Filip Wetterqvist from SB1 Markets. Please go ahead.
Filip Wetterqvist: Good morning, guys. I just have a couple questions. The first one on the extraordinary sales costs, can you elaborate a little bit more on what that relates to, and did it impact cash flow here in the quarter?
Theresa Agnew: Well, in terms of the overall expense, it's a one-time expense, and this is confidential for competitive reasons, so we don't share the specifics on that, but it is a one-time selling expense.
Alexander Kotsinas: It did impact the cash flow in the quarter. That's correct.
Filip Wetterqvist: Okay. Thank you. My second question is, still on the selling costs and excluding the extraordinary expense, selling expenses grew 3% year-over-year, below the 12% organic growth. Should we assume selling expenses to grow slower than sales from Q2 onwards? Is this a good run rate for H2, or how should we think about the selling expenses going forward?
Alexander Kotsinas: It's a bit tricky to give an exact answer on that. On one hand, yes, we are trying to contain our costs. Last year, we did have this global marketing campaign, which we did, for example, which we're not doing this year, so we will have a lower sales and marketing cost for that. On the other hand, we are ramping up our costs in the sales and marketing area in terms of, for example, direct operations in Germany, that we didn't do last year, and also we're ramping up in France and some other direct markets. We don't really give an exact guidance on the proportion of the marketing and sales spending. As we mentioned before, we're committed to try to keep our total OpEx basically flat for this year.
Filip Wetterqvist: Okay. That was all from me. Thank you.
Alexander Kotsinas: Thank you.
Operator: As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Mattias Vadsten from SEB. Please go ahead.
Mattias Vadsten: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. In EMEA now, when you look at the performance, would you say it's anything in that region that is not performing according to plan, or is it really a good performance across the key markets in EMEA?
Theresa Agnew: In terms of Europe, Middle East, Africa, there are a couple countries, I would say, not performing to plan. Turkey is one where we have switched our distributor partner earlier this year. That business is going to start ramping up in the second half and has been poor in the first half of this year and also the second half of last year. Turkey, and I would also say Italy is slower than expected in terms of orders from our partner. That has to do with some of the probiotics market in Italy overall declining. We have high share and we're growing share in that market.
Mattias Vadsten: Okay, good. That's a clear answer. The next one, the Protectis Drops, the Protectis Plus. Can you talk about the launch plan in your key regions here going ahead and maybe the development that you anticipate versus the current Protectis Drops product that you sell?
Theresa Agnew: Yes. We just launched in the U.K. in May, and we actually launched at a baby show, with about 30,000 consumers and received very positive feedback on the new product. The product so far has been launched in the U.K., Ireland, and Sweden since our announcement on May 7th. We will be rolling it out over time in other markets. It all depends on the regulatory situations. This is a new strain, it does take an additional registration in a lot of our markets, so it will take time, such as in the U.S., you need to have GRAS certification for a new strain. There are a number of things from a regulatory perspective that will cause the launch to be over many years coming.
Mattias Vadsten: Okay, good. In terms, is this part of the production investments that you do now? Or let's say that if you could launch in the U.S., would that be doable with the production setup that you have right now?
Theresa Agnew: Yes, definitely. We have plenty of capacity. We actually had a new easydropper line installed, which is actually the main U.S. SKU, is an easydropper format. That was installed about two years ago. We have plenty of capacity. Also we have capacity on our glass bottle line as well.
Mattias Vadsten: Very clear. Thank you very much.
Operator: There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Theresa Agnew: Thank you for your questions. We are happy to present our Q2 results. We will be back again when we have Q3. Thank you.