Investor AB (publ) (INVE_A) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to Investor's Results Call for the first quarter of 2026. I'm joined here this morning by our CFO, Jenny Arsman-Hakvinius, and our CEO, Christian Sederholm. Both will soon be giving their presentations, and after that we will be opening up for questions via our operator and online. With that, over to you, Christian. Thank you, Jakob, and hello everyone. So, 2026 seems to be another challenging year from a geopolitical perspective, not the least with the situation in the Middle East. The human suffering aside, there are of course a number of aspects that we need to focus on from a business perspective. In terms of effects here and now, we have seen, I would say, disturbances, but no major disruption. Price increases for energy, freight and other goods and services will of course come, but typically with some lag in time. If the conflict is not resolved anytime soon, however, we're likely to also see further supply chain disruptions, including potentially drying up of certain goods. Cost inflation will also, together with generally increased uncertainty, impact global demand in a more profound way than we've seen thus far. In this environment, it's critical to focus on agility with the goal of always being able to continue serving our companies, our customers. It's about adapting, and the companies are adapting. Generally, they're doing a good job protecting the businesses and the profits here and now, while continuing to invest to future-proof. In times like these, the decentralized model, with great empowered teams, close to the customers, ready and able to make decisions, is really showing its strength. And we should not forget, our companies have a strong starting point, with excellent customer offerings and leading market positions. If we ...