Atlas Copco AB (OTC:ATLKY) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Atlas Copco AB (OTC:ATLKY) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript October 23, 2025

Atlas Copco AB reports earnings inline with expectations. Reported EPS is $0.14 EPS, expectations were $0.14.

Operator: Welcome to the Atlas Copco Q3 2025 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CFO, Peter Kinnart. Please go ahead.

Peter Kinnart: Thank you, operator, and a very warm welcome, good morning, good afternoon or good evening to all of? You attending this third quarter 2025 earnings call. Together with me is Vagner Rego, who will guide you through the presentation together. But before we start, I will repeat the same topic I always say when we start the call, and that is when we start after the presentation with the question round, please only ask one question at the time. So we make sure that all participants have the opportunity to raise their most important question. Is there more time available afterwards, you are, of course, more than welcome to line up again to ask your next question. With that, I hand over to Vagner Rego, who will start the presentation.

Vagner Rego: Thank you very much, Peter, and welcome to this conference call. We’re quite happy to be here once again. So if we go straight to the summary of this quarter, we have seen a mixed demand with stable orders pretty much aligned with what we have said on the guidance for Q3 during the Q2 conference call. So — and then you can see industrial compressors flat. Gas and process, we see a decline in the orders received when you look to year-to-year comparison was good on the industrial vacuum side, but negative on the semiconductor vacuum side. When it comes to industrial assembly and vision solutions, there, we saw a negative development, mainly driven by automotive due to the conditions in the market. We had a solid growth for power equipment that we were quite happy to see that.

And again, good growth on our service business. We see that our efforts to further develop our service business and the implementation of the installed base, I think we managed to capture that installed base that has been deployed over the years. When it comes to revenues, it was somewhat up, and we had 2 business areas with a good organic — reasonable, let’s say, organic development and 2 business areas with a negative development that led us to a growth of 1%. The profit margin has been affected by restructuring costs. We will come back with more details and acquisitions. We have done 6 acquisitions. 2 acquisitions I would like to highlight because they are very important for our strategy. The first one is ABC compressors that is increasing our ability to serve customers in hydrogen and CO2 applications.

And the other one is Shareway, which is a joint venture. We acquired 70% of the company, and it’s going to be a very important one for our development in China, adding as well technologies that we didn’t have in our portfolio. So cash flow was quite solid. We were very happy to see we continue to generate very good cash flow. So going to the next, if we look into the financials, how was that translated? We reached SEK 40.5 billion in terms of orders received, as you can see, SEK 41.6 billion in revenues, orders received more or less aligned with previous quarter, but unchanged organically. And like I have mentioned, 1% organically in the revenues. Operating margin was 20.5%. But then if we readjust for the restructuring cost, we end up at 21.3%.

Q&A Session

And the operating cash flow, we have mentioned already SEK 7.3 billion, which is quite solid, and we were quite happy to see that development. If we then move to how we have performed all over the world. If I then start with North America, we saw still the environment there is, let’s say, has challenges, uncertainty, but we are happy with the quarter with plus 10%, if you correct for currency. So — and there, we see very strong development in Compressor Technique and Power Technique that it was really good to see. And Vacuum and Industrial Technique were slightly negative, impacted by semiconductor and the automotive market. When it comes to Europe, it was also good to see 10% development. And here, again, Compressor Technique had a good development, positive development, Power Technique, the same, and we had a negative development in Vacuum Technique and Industrial Technique.

When it comes to Asia, basically, all business areas had a good development, positive development. The only headwind we had was in Compressor Technique, mainly due to large gas and process compressors and some large industrial compressors where we saw negative development. But combined, we still had a positive development of 1%. Latin America continues — not Latin America, but South America being more specific, had a positive development, almost basically most of business area with positive development [indiscernible] Industrial Technique negative. And then Africa, Middle East, they had quite a big comparison to be. And there, we saw a negative development that is mainly influenced by Compressor Technique and Power Technique. Overall, if we adjust for currency, plus 2% in orders, which is more or less aligned with what we have seen year-to-date.

If we then move — if we combine again all the figures, we can see that we had plus 2% in structural change. That is basically our acquisitions. In revenues, the acquisitions performed better, plus 3%, quite a lot of currency headwind, minus 6% in orders, minus 7% in revenues, organic growth unchanging orders like we have mentioned, we end up at SEK 40.5 billion in orders received and SEK 41.6 billion in revenues. So if we then see the split among the the business areas. We can see now that Compressor Technique in the last 12 months as an order — has contributed to 46% of our orders received and this quarter with 0% growth or no growth basically. Vacuum Technique, 21% of our orders with 1% growth, very good contribution from Industrial Vacuum and Service.

Power Technique continues a good development in orders, 17% now of our business, plus 5% in the quarter and Industrial Technique with minus 3% in orders received. If we then move to Compressor Technique, it’s what we have seen, industrial compressors were basically unchanged. Let’s say, a little bit more negative towards the larger compressors, a little bit more positive towards the smaller compressors. That is not a big indicator, but just what happened in the quarter. We saw decreased order intake year-on-year on gas and process compressor, but sequentially, we saw a good development and improvement compared to Q2. Service business continued to develop very well. Once again, quite happy to see that. Revenues as well that shows that the quality of our order book is good, and we continue to develop 4% organic growth profitability, we are quite happy with this level of 25.3%.

We should have in mind, we have done slightly larger acquisitions that has a bigger impact, and we are focused to do more integration items at the beginning, meaning deploying our IT, our — especially when it comes to cybersecurity. So a little bit more cost at the beginning to safeguard our acquisition. So a bit more cost, but we are happy with that level of 23.5%. So ROCE remains at a good level. And we continue our innovation pipeline with Compressor Technique. And here, today, we brought an example of our development in China that sometimes you have to develop to come with more features that you can come with a different value proposition to the customer. Sometimes you have to innovate to cost reduce. And this is a good example of how we innovate also to cost reduce to be competitive in China, but also to create options as well in other regions.

A very good achievement now with this new innovation. Then if we go to Vacuum Technique, we saw 1%. It’s good to see positive development, although it’s not in the semi market, but it’s very good to see that industrial and scientific vacuum in terms of equipment continues to develop very well. We still don’t see — we are yet to see a positive development in the semi market, but we still have headwinds, especially for North America when it comes to the semi. In the other hand, it’s very good to see the service business developing very well, especially in the semi part of the business, new fabs being built coming into operation, and we managed now to get the aftermarket from these fabs. But also not only on the semi service, but also the industrial service is developing quite well.

And then we have headwinds in the revenue. Revenues were down 6% organically. That put pressures in the bottom line, but we see good traction on the restructuring activities that we have announced and performed during the year. But this quarter, we felt that we could — because of the headwinds we have in the North American organization when it comes to some market and semi as well, we decided to further optimize our footprint there without damaging our ability to grow, to sell, to further develop the business. I think that we didn’t touch, but we have reorganized our North America that include to reorganize one factory to adapt one of our service centers to integrate and also to work in our customer center, try to optimize, decrease management structure and safeguard that our ability to support our industrial and semi customers are not touching.

I think that was the main target. And that’s why we decided to do a new round of restructuring in Vacuum Technique to make sure we safeguard our bottom line. So then the adjusted operating margin was 20.1%. So return on capital employed 18%. And we continue to innovate in the semi market. You know that real estate is very important in the semi market. I mean, the footprint that your product utilized is very important, and we managed to come now with this integrated abatement system that we occupy 30% less space in the fab. That’s also important to support our customers in that market segment. If we then go to Industrial Technique, we saw order decline of 3% and is mainly driven by the headwinds in the automotive. And I would say not everything is negative in the automotive.

We still get quite a good level of orders when it comes to flexible production lines, meaning if the production line needs to be more flexible, we can support our customers on that. We have more products, more software-driven products as well that can support our customers. And we also see more demand for automation. That is good. But in the other hand, we see less production lines being built, and that means less project. And the project business is having more headwinds. So — and that’s what we have seen. And service was basically unchanged. That has also — that is also influenced by the number of cars produced. And that’s why we see a stable level in Service and Industrial Technique. Revenues were down 1% organically. Operating margin were at 18.8%, excluding the restructuring costs, a minor restructuring cost of SEK 53 million compared to Vacuum Technique.

So we keep on fine-tuning our organization in Industrial Technique because we have the headwinds. And it’s the same concept. We have optimized management structure, and we try to adapt to the circumstances that we see today in the market. And again, the innovation efforts continue. Here, we develop a product that is reducing the dispensing time in about 50% that definitely can support some of our customers, and we are also quite happy with that development. So if we then move to Power Technique, and that is more a positive picture when it comes to the orders development, solid growth in equipment. Basically, most of the Equipment division had a positive development. Good growth in rental. I think that we continue to develop. Revenues were up 3% organic and operating margin at 17%.

And here, we have higher functional cost and then a little bit of dilution from the acquisition. But I think the main topic here is higher functional costs. We have created a new division to sell industrial flow products. We are building up competence in our customer centers. I think that will bring — is bringing a good organic growth, but I think we haven’t seen — we are yet to see translation in improved margin that will come over time. We believe we can operate in a higher margin with a higher margin in Power Technique. And now it’s important as well, the acquired companies, we also invest in innovation. On the functional cost, there is also a component of higher R&D because also the acquired companies, we buy technology, but we believe we should continue to innovate.

And this is one example of an innovation of one of our acquired companies, Wangen that they managed to come with a new twin screw pump for applications, pumping high viscous media in demand high flow rates. So also there, very good to see our innovation. So with that, I will transfer to you, Peter, to talk about our profit margin.

Peter Kinnart: Okay. Thank you, Vagner. So from the operating profit of SEK 8.5 billion, we go through the net financial items, which are slightly lower due to somewhat lower exchange rate — financial exchange rate differences to a profit before tax of SEK 8.5 billion compared to SEK 9.2 billion last year. and an income tax expense of SEK 1.8 billion. That means that we have an effective tax rate of 21.1% for the quarter, which is on the low side. Main reason for that is that besides the normal things that we see recurring that we also had a lowering of deferred tax liabilities linked to the lower announced tax rate for the German market. Therefore, this is a fairly low tax rate. It also still includes some of the release of provisions from the past from China high-tech we used to have.

And so for the next quarter, we think the effective tax rate will be somewhat higher, probably around 21.5% to 22% in the near term. And that gives us a total profit of the period of SEK 6.7 billion and basic earnings per share of SEK 1.37 for the quarter. Then I will move on to Slide #12, talking a bit more about the profitability in detail. I would say, first of all, overall, I think we were quite pleased with the overall profit level that we managed to achieve in these quite turbulent and difficult circumstances. As already explained by Vagner, we had some restructuring costs. Actually, also last year, we had some restructuring costs. So therefore, you see here in the bridge, the net. For this year, the total cost was about SEK 205 million.

For last year, we had a cost of SEK 123 million, leading then to the net SEK 82 million in the bridge, slightly diluting the margin as well as the impact of the LTI programs also having a small negative impact. But the main headlines of the profitability development, I would say, were, on the one hand, a slightly positive currency development. As you remember, last quarter, we had quite significant impacts of currency, but this month — this quarter, it’s much more mild and actually slightly positive. So I will not go into more detail like I did last time. The acquisitions, however, are then a detractor of about 0.6%. And also the tariffs had a bit of a negative impact on the profitability for the quarter. Nothing dramatic, but I have to admit that we did not manage to completely compensate for the tariff impact and the turmoil in that particular area throughout the quarter.

And so I think that are the main contributors to the profit development for the quarter. Talking about currency, also for next quarter, we do expect actually, in absolute terms, a continued negative development of the currency contribution due to the fact that the average rate continues to lower, all things being equal. And therefore, we would expect anywhere around SEK 800 million potentially of cost impact, also depending, of course, and that remains to be seen on the revaluation of assets on the balance sheet. If we then take the profitability and dive a little bit deeper into each of the business areas, highlighting the main contributors to the respective profit developments on Slide #13. Then starting with Compressor Technique. First of all, 25.3%, continuing at a very good and solid margin.

There was a slight detraction from the acquisitions, which is, in our belief, a very important investment in future growth. We also front-load a bit more with costs in order to safeguard a good, speedy integration process from the beginning onwards. And that is the reason why we see a bit more of detraction from the acquisitions. Otherwise, I don’t think anything else was very strong. Secondary, maybe also, of course, the tariffs had to have a minor impact as well. On Vacuum Technique, here, a bit of a mixed picture, a bigger impact from currency, as you can see. The main reason is that last year, we had quite a big negative impact, and that in the bridge then turns into quite a significant positive. Otherwise, it would be relatively comparable to the other business areas, but that’s the reason for the high positive.

On the other hand, volumes were the main detractor. We see, of course, the top line going down with SEK 591 million, and that has an impact on the profitability on the bottom line. That’s the main contributor. But also here, tariffs are part of the equation. Again, a minor impact, but still an impact in our profitability development. And of course, we already mentioned the restructuring net impact in the profit bridge as well. Industrial Technique, also here, the impact of the restructuring cost, as I already mentioned. Further then also revenue volumes being negatively affecting the profitability. The currency also slightly negative impact from a margin point of view. Also, the acquisitions were a bit dilutive. So overall, going to 18%. But I think with the restructuring activities, we are also there working hard to try to turn the corner and improve the profitability.

As already indicated, we evaluated quarter-by-quarter how things develop. And whenever needed, we take the necessary measures. And we need to do it cautiously because, for example, in Vacuum Technique, you’ve seen the very solid development of service. So obviously, we cannot just cut away everywhere in the organization. We need to do it in a careful way, so we don’t jeopardize the growth of the respective businesses. And then last, in the table here, Power Technique with delivering a solid margin of 17% again. Here, as we already mentioned, the main topic of the lower profitability from an organic point of view was more the functional costs. We are investing in a new division as one aspect of it. We are also working on a number of transformation projects, rejuvenating some of the old ERP systems we have for specialty rental for some of our production entities, for example.

And that also triggers a number of additional costs for the time being. But over time, of course, we expect them to become more efficient and as a result, also improve the margin coming from those different investments. Also investments in dedicated salespeople in Power and Flow also within IFD in the Industrial Flow division, we are working hard to build that organization so we can leverage the sales of all the different technologies we have acquired in the last few years. So I think that explains the overall profitability business area by business area. If I then move to the balance sheet, I would say, relatively uneventful. Of course, on the one hand, intangible assets go up due to the acquisitions. On the other hand, we amortize, so basically quite stable.

We see some impact on the inventories, for example, which is beneficial. We are actually indeed improving the inventory levels across the organization with all the different actions that we have ongoing. The receivables overall fairly quite stable, especially from a relative point of view. So we are quite happy with maintaining that good performance on the receivables side. On the equity side, also there, not so much to mention, mainly the equity is changing because of the fact that we are generating more profit, while on the other hand, of course, we are also paying dividends. And on that point, I would like to just highlight the fact that tomorrow, we will actually pay the second installment of the dividend related to 2024, SEK 1.50 per share roughly in total volume, an amount of SEK 7.3 billion.

And with that, I turn to the cash flow. In the cash flow also there, I think a solid performance. You could say, well, yes, it’s a little bit lower than last year. But on the other hand, quarter-over-quarter or over the different quarters, I think this is quite a significant value of operating cash flow we are generating. On the one hand, we have a little bit lower operating cash surplus, but we have a little bit less taxes paid. On the other hand, we have a slightly less positive impact from the change in working capital compared to the same quarter last year. But we also see a gradually slight slowdown in the increasing rental equipment, but also in the investments of property and plant. We continue to do a number of investments that are necessary for the future to replace some of the old assets, but also to build some new capacity, but at a slower pace than we used to a while ago.

Also, of course, given the current climate, I think that makes a lot of sense. And with that, we end up with the SEK 7.3 billion operating cash flow. And with that, I think we have come to the end of the comments to the financial statements. And I would like to hand over back again to Vagner, who will comment a bit more on our near-term outlook.

Vagner Rego: Good. Thanks, Peter. And once again, I would like to repeat that our forward-looking statement when it comes to the outlook is not — is a sequential guidance. It’s not a straight projection of our orders received. And again, to do that, to come to that statement, we look to the external world. And once again, we don’t see a change in the environment. The world continues with a lot of uncertainty that are not supporting our customers to take decision, especially on large orders. So — and then when we also look to our business internally, we don’t see a dramatic change. We talk with our 24 divisions, look to the pipeline, different market segments, and we see no reason to believe that there will be a dramatic change compared to Q3.

So that’s why we continue with our statement that we expect that our customer activity to remain at the same level — to remain at the current level. And then I would like to invite you for our Capital Markets Day that will happen in Germany. We will first go to Stuttgart, and there, we will have some presentation. And after lunch, we will go to our innovation center in Breton, where we will share some of our innovations related to Industrial Technique and Vacuum Technique. And I’m looking forward to see you there.

Peter Kinnart: Yes. Thank you, Vagner. And we actually have still a few places left. So if you’re really eager to see those products, then please come forward so we can reserve your seats. With that, we come to the end of the presentation, and we would like to start the question round. Again, I would like to repeat, please refrain yourself to only asking 1 question at a time. And then we are looking forward to receiving your questions. Back to the operator.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs.

Daniela Costa: I want to ask a question about sort of what you mentioned regarding the margin still and the fact that you didn’t fully compensate the tariffs entirely. Is this — do you see that as sort of a delayed impact? We should see sort of eventually the full compensation within the coming quarters? Or is it more sort of an intention to not fully compensate it, I don’t know, because of competitive reasons or anything else? Can you elaborate a bit there, please?

Peter Kinnart: Sure, Daniela. Thank you for your question. No, first of all, it’s definitely not intentional not to fully compensate for the tariffs. I think it’s just been a very turbulent quarter with a lot of changes, especially towards the end of August with Section 232 being added to the equation and asking quite a lot of effort from big parts of the organization to investigate more deeply and to qualify a number of products, et cetera. So that has caused, of course, a bit of delay in being able to answer fully to some of these issues. And therefore, we have somewhat higher tariffs. I wouldn’t say that it is necessarily so that in the very short term, we would be able to fully compensate, but we are quite confident that over time, over the quarter that we will be able to compensate for the tariffs as they exist today.

With that, I also need to immediately apply some caution because as the changes are happening overnight very often, we don’t know, of course, what’s coming, but we continue to monitor it very closely. Maybe one thing to underline as well is that I did indicate that the tariffs did have an impact on the profitability for the quarter, but I also want to underline that the impact was not humongous that it was not totally destroying the profitability level. But we do admit that we did not manage to fully compensate for the tariff impact for the time being.

Operator: The next question comes from Michael Harleaux from Morgan Stanley.

Michael Harleaux: I’ll limit myself to one as requested. On the large gas and process category, would it be possible for you to help us understand where we are in the LNG ordering cycle?

Vagner Rego: Well, I think to say exactly where we are in the cycle, I think it’s a bit more difficult. What I can say is this — our presence in the market, we cover several market segments including LNG. Particularly this quarter, we did have orders on LNG as well. We had orders for fewer gas boosters. There are quite a lot of investments ongoing to increase the energy production capacity with gas-fired turbines. So — and we do have products for that. And — but we also saw good order development in industrial gases, for instance. So it’s a quite a diverse market, let’s say, segments that we cover, and we saw a good development this quarter, including in LNG.

Operator: The next question comes from Klas Bergelind from Citi.

Klas Bergelind: So I just want to come back on the impact from tariffs. You mentioned Section 232 added through the quarter, but that was 18th of August. And then you probably had some inventory to cover you through September, right? So shouldn’t Section 232 hit you harder, Peter, in the fourth quarter when the full effect kicks in from steel and aluminum. So shouldn’t we see a weaker drop-through here in the fourth quarter? Or can you take out enough cost to raise prices to mitigate that incremental impact?

Peter Kinnart: Thank you, Klas. I think a very fair question and logical reasoning, of course. But I think it’s also fair to say that the introduction of 232 didn’t allow us immediately to get to lower tariffs with the Section 232. There’s a lot of documentation required to pass the customs in order to prove that you don’t need to pay 200% tariff or that you pay 50% tariff. So as a result, I think we had a bit of a spike, you could say, maybe in September towards the end of the quarter when it comes to the impact of 232. While now, of course, we have worked with a lot of people in the organization on trying to sort out both through our suppliers, both through our engineering departments throughout different locations, et cetera, how we can document all the products in the best possible way in order to be able to get the best possible tariff, so to say, under the present rules.

So as a result, I think in quarter 4, we are better placed to pass the products to custom duties. That being said, I think on the other hand, of course, there will be more products going through the full quarter, as you indicate. And therefore, you could say that in absolute terms, the cost will be higher. But I think overall, and it’s hard to really estimate, of course. But overall, I don’t think it would result in a dramatic increase of the tariffs in the fourth quarter for us.

Operator: The next question comes from John Kim from Deutsche Bank.

John-B Kim: I’m wondering if you could give us some color on what you’re seeing in semiconductor demand. I’d say fairly recent news flow has been positive both on the memory side, plus you have better clarity on what Intel is going to do or not do. Can you just tell us what you’re seeing in VT right now and how we should think about development into next year?

Vagner Rego: Yes. What I can say, I think when it comes to leading edge nodes, I think the market environment is very positive, very good. A lot of investments ongoing, players that are — some that are more mature on scaling up really the leading-edge nodes. Some are trying. And there, I really cannot say where they are. So we also not — we don’t comment on specific customers. We are not allowed to talk about specific customers. But one thing that is important to remind, leading edge node is going well, and we get orders. We are happy with that business. But of course, the entire market still has quite a lot of capacity. So — and if you take a little bit advanced nodes and legacy nodes, there — there is overcapacity. And of course, we need the entire market developing very well in order we can see a bend in the trend when it comes to orders received in that market.

John-B Kim: Okay. And can you comment on memory, please?

Vagner Rego: Sorry, I didn’t get the last comment.

John-B Kim: Could you offer a similar comment on memory, memory customers?

Vagner Rego: No, we are a bit more agnostic when it comes to memory and logic. We are present in both markets. And I think if there is a good development in that market, we will be able to capture that development. I think we are well positioned to capture any movement in that market.

Operator: The next question comes from Sebastian Kuenne from RBC.

Sebastian Kuenne: I spoke recently to some of your competitors in Europe, and they speak of a more aggressive pricing behavior of some of your American competitors inside of Europe. Could you maybe give us an idea of what the pricing situation is and whether that’s related to the currency differential?

Vagner Rego: Yes. I cannot really comment what is happening with our competitor. I must say we do have positive price development in our — if you are referring to our compressor business, for instance, we do have positive price development, including in Europe. We also have positive development in the U.S. that we try to compensate as well for the tariffs. That’s what I can say. difficult for me to judge what’s happening. I think our position in Europe remains quite solid. I think we had a good development in Q3. As you could see, I mentioned that we had positive development in Europe. So we are quite happy with the development in the orders that we have had in Q3. So good. That’s what I, let’s say, I would like to comment when it comes to price.

Operator: The next question comes from Magnus Kruber from Nordea.

Magnus Kruber: Magnus from Nordea. Sorry to labor the point about the tariffs. I think you had a 40 bps headwinds on the organic part in the bridge — margin bridge this quarter. Could you help us frame the tariff impact within that? I’m not sure if you want to comment exactly what it was, but some help on the magnitude would be helpful.

Peter Kinnart: Yes, I think it’s hard to pinpoint exactly, of course, because, okay, on the one hand, we do follow up quite closely what is the exact impact of the tariffs. As such, the custom duties that we need to pay when we clear the goods. On the other hand, there’s, of course, a lot of indirect costs as there’s a lot of people in the organization working hard on the whole topic. Secondly, there’s also additional storage costs when you are holding goods for a longer time before clearing them into — waiting for maybe additional information or other type of things. And then last but not least, of course, we also work a lot with extra support external to help us make sure that we don’t make big mistakes in the way we assess the value on which the custom duties will be paid.

But like I said, overall, I think the tariff impact was not dramatic. It didn’t turn around the profitability completely. It was one of the contributing factors. So okay, as you say, minus 0.4% overall on the group from an organic perspective. Tariffs were a contributor to that, but not the only one in there. There was also volume mix and price combined, you could say. So I think, like I said, no very substantial impact, but altogether, still an impact in that I think we didn’t — we don’t want to shy away from, so to say, to say that there is a minor negative impact from the tariffs in the profit margin.

Operator: The next question comes from Alexander Jones from BofA.

Alexander Jones: You mentioned that industrial compressor orders in Europe were up in the quarter, whereas last quarter, you talked about stable. Could you highlight for us whether that’s driven by any particular areas? And how are you thinking about that European outlook in the coming quarters?

Vagner Rego: I think it came especially from our effort — we have created as well a new division that we call Air & Gas Solutions. And they managed to have quite a good development for some gas generation project. I think we did quite well. Also, medical air did quite well. There are some pockets where we can find good opportunities for growth. But the industrial market in general, there was not a huge uptick. But in some pockets, we managed to have good business. I think it’s also fair to say smaller compressors developed quite okay as well. That was important. So — but not something that I wouldn’t like to say the overall market is bouncing back. It’s more driven by the activities that we have done to try to gain market share and in some areas to have — to capture the opportunities in a market segment that is developing a little bit better.

Operator: The next question comes from Rizk Maidi from Jefferies.

Rizk Maidi: So the question is, can we double-click, please, on Compressor Technique in 2 regions, North America and China. If you could just walk us through how you’ve done in small- to medium-sized compressors, gas and process and large industrials and how you feel your competition has done as well, how you feel you’ve done versus the market?

Vagner Rego: I think in North America, to say against the market, I think it’s a bit difficult. But in North America, we are quite happy with the development in Q3 because we have all these uncertainties around tariffs and Session 232 and the teams, they did a very good job, very solid job. We had a double-digit growth in North America when it comes to compressors. We also had good development in — in gas and process compressors. And there is more around industrial gases and fewer gas boosters that they go to gas-fired power plants. So that was the pockets that we’re doing quite well. And then if I comment a little bit more about China, there is a little bit more challenging. I think the scenario has not changed. We see less projects in industrial compressors, but also in gas and process gas and process is a little bit more difficult than industrial compressors.

Operator: The next question comes from Rory Smith from Oxcap.

Rory Smith: It’s Rory from Oxcap. I just wanted to sort of double-click on that industrial compressor piece. And if you could add any more color to the difference you’re seeing in the quarter between the sort of small and medium-sized industrial compressors and the large industrial compressors. Is that by market, by region? Any color there? And I might try my luck with a follow-up, if that’s okay.

Vagner Rego: I think overall, like I said, it’s a bit more difficult in Asia, particularly in China that we have mentioned already. There is a very small difference between small and large, a little bit more in favor of the smaller compressor, but it’s not a huge difference. It’s not something that is becoming an indicator, I would not use as an indicator because the difference is very small. But it was more in favor of the smaller compressors.

Rory Smith: Understood. And if I could just follow up on that. You obviously called out the investment you’re making to innovate to cost compete in China. I was just wondering if you’d be able or willing to put some numbers around that R&D piece, yes, for the investment in sort of, I guess, not lower spec, but yes, innovating to cost compete. Any numbers around that, that would be the question.

Vagner Rego: No, I don’t have a number to share. But what I can say, we are focused as well to be competitive in China. We have done an investment in our facility in Wuxi that we call now the Wuxi campus, where we have concentrated most of the Compressor Technique facilities in one place. And that gave a lot of R&D capabilities to the team we have in China, capabilities that we didn’t have before with more test cells with more R&D facilities to do test, to do design. We are increasing the autonomy that our Chinese teams, they have in terms of design, still with good collaboration with our Belgium team, but a little bit more independence. And I think that is going well. And that’s why we would like to share that product because I think that comes out of that reorganization and that investment.

Operator: The next question comes from Johan Sjöberg from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Johan Sjöberg: My question is also regarding semi CapEx. I understand your near-term comments on leading edge and also the overcapacity. I think that is sort of comments you made before, Vagner, if I’m not mistaken. But given all this, a lot of news flows in during Q3 here, when you’re talking to your customers about sort of 2026 and beyond, how have they responded to these news and also especially the future CapEx plan from their side because — I stop there.

Vagner Rego: Yes. It’s difficult to talk about 2026. We only talk about Q4 first. In Q4, we believe that it’s going to be stable. I think it’s difficult. You know this market, how it works. It’s key account business. When they decide to place order or to populate a fab when they — first, they do the R&D stage and then they do the pilot, then they need to try to nail that production facility with the right yield and then they scale up and sometimes can come very fast. I think it’s difficult for me to comment looking at 2026 or even 2027. What I can say from Q3 to Q4, we see the market — we don’t see any reason to change the trajectory that we have seen lately.

Operator: The next question comes from Anders Idborg from ABG.

Anders Idborg: Just wanted to ask about acquisitions. So we’ve seen a very nice flow of bolt-ons. I’m just a little bit surprised when we look at the — over the last, well, 6 quarters, basically, there’s been very little of EBIT contribution on the bridge, and I don’t have really the impression that you bought unprofitable companies here. So what is the reason? Is there some just initial cost restructuring going on? Or could you — would you care to explain that?

Vagner Rego: Yes. Thank you for the question. I think we — definitely, we try to add good businesses to our portfolio of technologies and companies that we have definitely. But we also have an effort to integrate these companies faster and I mentioned during the presentation that we — for instance, cybersecurity is very important. And we try to — that is a kind of nonnegotiable. We try to bring that to our spec as soon as possible. We have deadlines to meet because I think it’s very important to protect the assets that we have bought. And of course, that incur in some cost at the beginning. We have seen now with the acquisition of Shareway. For instance, there was quite a lot of costs that we had at the beginning. So — but of course, those companies are profitable.

And that happened — that has happened as well in the years before. So the first year is a bit more challenging. And then we recuperate over time deploying synergies. And acquisition is very important for us. We have reorganize our post-acquisition process to be able to capture the synergies in a good and structured way. We are reinforcing the teams there because we have acquired more companies that required even more structured process that what we used to have. So we are investing on that as well to be able to capture this value that we believe when we — before the acquisition. So I think we are happy with the companies, a lot of activities. And year 1, we see that is normally challenging because we want to do some of the integration items quite fast.

Operator: The next question comes from Sebastian Kuenne from RBC.

Sebastian Kuenne: I have a question on VT. You mentioned lower volume as one of the key reasons for the lower margin. But at the same time, you have competition that sits in Japan like Ebara, you have Busch in the U.S., [ Pfeiffer ] in Germany. Is the price situation in the global vacuum pump market stable? Or do you see the pressure from manufacturers in lower-cost countries effectively?

Vagner Rego: What is key for the price development is technology, and we need to continue to develop our products to come with better products to be able to exercise some pricing power. And I think that’s our focus, and we will continue to develop the products that will allow — that can deliver superior value to our customers, and that could help us with our price efforts. So — and I think that’s where we are focused on now.

Sebastian Kuenne: Okay. So no change in pricing.

Operator: Next question comes from Magnus Kruber from Nordea.

Magnus Kruber: Just reverting to some of these announcements that has been in the media over the past couple of months with respect to some big framework agreements, particularly on the memory side. Is there any way you can sort of help us scope what these opportunities could mean to you if they come to fruition over the coming years? How — can you frame them, for example, with respect to sort of how big that potential is compared to your legacy semi business?

Vagner Rego: What I can say about the market, we — let’s say, we know all the players in the U.S., in Asia, including China. So we are present in all these players. We have a good position in most of the players. If this comes to fruition, we will be there to capture. I think that is our main focus. We don’t know which one we will scale up first or later. That we don’t know. I think the most important for us is what give us confidence as well is the fact that we are very well positioned. Any movement we will be able to capture.

Magnus Kruber: Got it. And can I just have an additional question. You talked a little bit about ramping up on R&D in Compressor Tech going forward to drive additional growth. Is that sort of a China-focused initiative? Or could you highlight a little bit of potentially how much you would be willing to interest and invest and in which pockets?

Vagner Rego: I would say the investment were more in capabilities in facilities, better places where they can test the machine testing environment. So those capabilities we have — we have created — we have increased actually. We always had, but we have increased in China. And I think we continue — this is not a dramatic increase in R&D in Compressor Technique. They have been focused. They will continue being focused. But I think we can get more out of our Chinese organization. That’s what we are doing, getting ready for that.

Peter Kinnart: Okay. Thank you very much, Magnus, for that question. And actually, with that, we have also answered the last question on the call. I would like to thank you all for your presence and for listening to our presentation. As always, of course, should you have any further detailed questions on any of the business areas or the group overall, you’re more than welcome to contact our IR department as always. So with that, thank you very much for attending, and have a great rest of the day. Thank you. Bye-bye.