Mölnlycke's stall meets the data-center boom: Investor AB's twin-track quarter
NAV +9% in Q2, but behind the listed-led 14% surge, Patricia's flagship wound-care engine slips to 2% organic growth — and the market is asking whether the med-tech bet still fits.
INVE-B.ST · Earnings Call · 2026-07-16
A quarter of two portfolios
Investor AB's Q2 2026 print is a study in contrasts. Adjusted net asset value rose 9% to SEK 1,215 billion, with the listed portfolio posting a 14% total return — "primarily driven by a few of our industrial companies led by ABB, which benefits from electrification and demand related to the build-out of data centers," as CEO Christian Cederholm put it in his opening remarks. Jenny Ashman Haquinius, the CFO, echoed the point, noting the ABB share was "particularly strong... which of course benefits from electrification and strong data center-related demand." Meanwhile, Patricia Industries contracted 3% in estimated market value — with Mölnlycke the single biggest drag, explained by multiple contraction even as the underlying subsidiaries grew 7% organically and adjusted EBITA rose 16%. The most telling signal, though, is which keyword now anchors this company's trajectory: modest growth — a phrase affixed specifically to Mölnlycke. It has displaced "rising dividend" and "Nova Biomedical" as the top theme, capturing a genuine narrative break rather than boilerplate.The wound-care engine slows
Mölnlycke's 2% organic growth, with U.S. wound care essentially flat, is the clearest operational change of the quarter. A year ago, the company was still framing Wound Care as a high-single-digit grower — "the year-to-date number, that's 7%... in line with kind of the high single digit," Haquinius told analysts in the Q3 2025 call. By January's call, weakness was already visible in Europe, with "muted growth across many sectors... specifically for Mölnlycke in Europe, there's weakness in France and Germany." Now the softness has reached the biggest market. Asked what is hammering U.S. growth, the CFO gave a layered answer:The softness keyword spiked hard this quarter, and management was candid that the signals are still too early to call structural: "it's quite early signals, and it's too early to draw any clear conclusions if it's clear signals for softness or if it's actually noise." Against a low-to-mid-single-digit underlying market, Mölnlycke's ambition to outgrow the market now rests on the health-economics case and on China, where the new Zhende joint venture (joint venture) is the growth bet.We do see some softness in the market... In addition to that, we also see specifically within prevention, fierce competition. I think, advanced wound care by definition is a competitive space, but in the quarter per se, we see some added intensity in competition, and that's prevention and also specifically on price.
The med-tech strategic question surfaces
This deceleration collided with a sharper challenge on the Q&A line. SEB's Björn Olsson pointed out that the listed portfolio has now outperformed Patricia for several quarters, noting both multiple pressure and Coloplast's recent downgrade — and asked directly at what point Investor would reconsider its med-tech concentration:Cederholm's answer was a firm reaffirmation — "we remain convinced about the long-term outlook for profitable growth in med tech" — anchored in demographics, technological progress, and ever-strained funding systems. Notably, the MedTech keyword registered its highest momentum in two years on this very debate, and the CFO later added steel to the defense: "we recognize that we have yet another quarter with more modest growth... we do see somewhat softer market conditions." For the med-tech defenders, the counterpoint lives in Laborie, where Optilume urethral strictures product kept driving 13% organic growth — "we typically talk about BPH, that is much earlier in the launch cycle... It's certainly new products that are driving the majority of the growth."Your listed portfolio has outperformed Patricia for quite a few quarters now, and the med tech focus, you're facing pressure both from multiples, but also you're mentioning that Mölnlycke is facing softer market conditions... at what point would you reconsider the strategic med tech concentration in Patricia?
The AI budget shift — and FX finally neutral
The most forward-looking commentary concerned AI. When asked whether major clients are hesitating to spend amid AI transition plans, Cederholm acknowledged a real shift — and a threat to parts of the portfolio:Yet he framed AI primarily as upside across the holdings — in coding, customer care, and "deeper integrations" — while noting, “we've only scratched the surface so far, and we need to continue accelerating our effort here.” — Christian Cederholm, CEO · 2026-07-16 These AI spend and AI transition plans keywords are new to this company's vocabulary, absent from prior quarters — a sign the theme is shifting from aspiration to tangible capital-allocation pressure. One quiet positive: the FX drag that has dogged Patricia for over a year finally abated. "For the first time in quite a while, FX was not a big drag on reported earnings," Haquinius noted — a visible reversal after nearly a year of negative currency hits that had elevated Swedish krona into the company's top keyword movers. The reported FX headwind that had run "roughly 3 to 4 percentage points" at Mölnlycke in the prior quarter is no longer the operative explanation for tepid results.That is a real shift we see, and I believe that some other players in other parts of the value chain are indeed seeing some pressure from the shifting budgets and the increased AI spend. So far, so good.