Ambu's Single-Use Pivot Gains Speed, but Risks Linger in the Pipeline

The Quarter That Reached a Tipping Point

Ambu's Q3 FY26 results crystallize a narrative we've seen building: high growth in single-use endoscopy is becoming the company's engine. The company reported 16% growth in Endoscopy Solutions, driven by a resurgent Respiratory segment (up 17.1%) and a Urology, ENT & GI business that continues to compound (up 15%). CEO Britt Jensen opened the call with a confident assessment: “we see a very strong shift towards single-use endoscopy” — Britt Jensen, CEO · 2026-08-26. That shift is not just a company story—it's a market-wide theme, reflected in global keywords like Net tariff refunds appearing across the tape.

The real headline, though, is the reacceleration of Respiratory. After a slower Q1 (8.3% growth), the segment posted 17.1% in Q3, and the 12-month rolling growth sits at 11.5%. Management attributes this to the Endoscopy Solutions portfolio selling aScope 4 and aScope 5, with customers still willing to pay a premium for the latter. The new SureSight videolaryngoscope is creating a synergistic pull-through: hospitals adopting SureSight are also driving bronchoscope conversions. "SureSight is still an important growth driver," Jensen noted, "and that has both created a new adjacency for our business and also a synergistic market opportunity with our bronchoscope portfolio."

Margin, Tariffs, and the Q4 Promise

The margin picture is more nuanced. Reported EBIT margin came in at 13.5%, up 2.2pp year-over-year, but the adjusted EBIT (ex-tariff refunds and one-offs) landed at 12.5%. CFO Henrik Bender was careful to walk through the moving parts: tariff refunds of roughly DKK 40 million received in the quarter, plus an additional DKK 85 million received after closing that will hit Q4. "We received slightly less than DKK 40 million back from the U.S. government on the reclaimed IEEPA tariffs," he said. The net tariff impact was slightly positive for the quarter, a stark contrast to earlier quarters where tariffs were a drag.

Looking to Q4, Bender expects a step-up in adjusted EBIT, driven by higher growth, better margin mix, and lower OpEx ratio as the company leverages the commercial investments made in Q3. He also reiterated that the company will carry a ~1pp tariff cost into next year before refunds. This is a story we've heard before—in the Q1 call, he had flagged that “you should expect also an above 2 percentage point tariff cost for the second quarter” — Henrik Bender, Chief Financial Officer · 2026-02-04. But the timeline has accelerated: the refunds are now materializing faster than previously assumed.

Q3 specifically was impacted by a few small time costs, particularly the commercial expansion that we mentioned in our Q2, where we did do extra investments, particularly in the U.S. to expand our sales force... but we are comfortable that this will turn around for Q4.

The bigger change is the revenue guidance. The company updated its full-year outlook to "around 10% organic growth," down from the prior "10% to 13%." Management attributes this to A&PM, which, while returning to positive growth at 1.6%, is expected to remain "very low single digit" for the year. This is a de facto acknowledgement that the 3-5% A&PM long-term growth won't be achieved this year, though they maintain it for the strategy period.

What's New, What's Not, and Where Risks Sit

Digging into the keyword landscape, the company's own momentum history shows tariff cost as a dominant theme that has flipped from a headwind to a tailwind. The tariff reclaims are now a source of beat-and-raise potential. But the strategic risk isn't tariffs—it's execution in newer categories. Ureteroscopy, where Ambu entered later and faces a crowded field, is gaining share but "not at the speed that we were originally planning," Jensen admitted. This is a company-unique nuance that the market's broader single use endoscope trend doesn't capture.

In prior quarters, the company had promised "above 15%" endoscopy growth for FY26, and the current momentum—16% in Q3, with a 12-month rolling 15.9%—supports that. But the guidance trim on the topline and the dependence on tariff refunds for Q4 margin should give investors pause. The SureSight launch is a genuine growth catalyst, but the real test will come when the company needs to expand into GI and ureteroscopy beyond its core cystoscopy franchise.