Welcome to Inderes TV! Today, our student research team is interviewing Inderes CEO Mikael Rautanen. You released your Q3 earnings today. There is quite a nice boost in both the company's revenue and margin. Do you have any comments on this?

Yes, 11% growth, the second consecutive quarter with double-digit growth rate. Recurring revenue in particular is supporting this. We have accelerated to 9% growth there. A clear improvement in margin. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of margin improvement. EBITA grew by 35%, and that is certainly good.

It is good to mention that last year our Q3 comparison period was very weak in terms of project revenue. That certainly played a part. It made strong growth easier when facing a slightly weaker comparison period. But things were heading in a good direction.

Our large investments are now starting to show. Many of them have turned out well, and the market environment is picking up, so there are quite good conditions to continue on this track. That we have now reached.

Yes, especially regarding IPOs, the market environment has picked up significantly during the beginning of the year. Looking at business segments specifically, how has research fared recently? You have brought in quite a few new clients over the course of the year.

Yes, the research business has gained 10 new agreements compared to the year on year. Every company that went public in Finland last year has become a client. The IPO market is naturally an important growth driver for the research business. In Sweden, revenue is also growing and losses are narrowing. Things are moving in the right direction on that front as well.

And in research, we should not underestimate the significance of our major AI transformation. We have made major investments and efforts, and now we are starting to see the benefits of being able to deliver more valuable and better service to clients, listed companies, and doing things more efficiently internally, which also supports the operational efficiency of the business model. It is already a highly profitable and good business. But we can make it even stronger.

Surely so. What about the software side, for example? Where has your strongest growth been, and will this likely continue to be the case, or how is it?

Our goal is to build software into Inderes' third pillar alongside research and event business in this strategy, and we are on the right track with this strategic goal. Regarding the third quarter, Videosync and IR software saw good growth, coming from both domestic and international markets. And AI is naturally a big theme there as well.

Our products are advancing at a rapid pace. We are increasingly able to make life easier for our listed company clients through our software and AI solutions. Which resonates well with that client base.

Yes. Finally, looking at project revenue and event production, do you have any highlights from the past quarter?

The event business in Finland. Things are rocking. This year has gone completely according to plan or slightly better than expectations. Sweden is more challenging. The market there remains challenging, with tight price competition for a little while as well.

In the Swedish event business, we are still going through a certain transition as we drive the business through it. Remote earnings calls are becoming more and more automated and sort of software-like businesses. It becomes more scalable, but that weighs on price levels and growth.

We are aiming for the same thing we have succeeded brilliantly with in Finland, namely more demanding, larger event productions especially for large listed companies. On that front we are growing and moving forward, but not fast enough. As the net sum of these two. Our Swedish event business is not currently growing.

Continuing on Sweden, you mentioned that losses are shrinking in research, but taking all these businesses together, are we on one side of the line or the other, so to speak?

Well, we haven't reported or commented on that, as there are three different businesses at very different stages of development. Also in Sweden, the software business is still very much in its start-up phase, so we primarily view this whole picture through these three business units in our strategy.

Right! This year we have seen turnover among several key players, for example the CFO recently or Verneri Pulkkinen. Is this typical turnover, normal career development, or should investors perhaps be worried that key players are leaving the company?

Yes. I would say this is very typical career development and in many ways positive career development. Consider our CFO, who is moving to become the CFO of Deskra. Managing a portfolio of 4 billion is quite something. A career leap. Which is a bit like, if such an opportunity arises, you really have to. You have to take it, and at the same time, new talent within our company grows to take on more responsibility and steps into new roles.

So our people grow and. And from us. They move on to great jobs. Or Verneri's amazing 10-year run. He started at Inderes as a young talent and grew into one of Finland's biggest investment influencers, moving on to a new career path in portfolio management. So I think it is.

Good development in the sense that our people grow and move on from here, while people within our company also grow, and we also have a good draw for new talent. And that side of things works too, so we are not worried about this ourselves.

Inderes domestic revenue is at a quite good level, growing and strong, but internationally that revenue has been perhaps a bit volatile. The first quarter showed strong development, but this second and third have been perhaps a bit variable. So how? How should one think about it?

Yes, international revenue growth is not at that level at all compared to what we. What we are targeting with it. It is good to be honest about that. We have invested a lot in international growth, and we have not achieved growth there for this year, so we are seeing slight growth for January-September.

Within that international business, software revenue internationally is growing. Research revenue internationally is growing, and in the event business, which represents the biggest part of this international revenue, the situation in Sweden that we discussed is the biggest influencing factor at the moment.

Yes, I would have one last question about the software business. How much do you see that you still have room for growth in Finland, because e.g. On the research side, we are already pretty much at the top in terms of new customers coming practically only from the IPO side.

We still have quite a comfortable amount of room for growth there now. The report stated that we achieved a market leader position in all these individual product areas in Finland, but we are not satisfied with that yet, we want to take more. Capture more of that market.

Then on the general meeting side, there are quite interesting growth opportunities from the shift of large companies to digital general meetings. We see an opportunity there to increase not only average prices, but also margins.

Regarding the Videosync software platform, it is a more international product, but even there in Finland. We see growth opportunities in the sales of this event platform in Finland. We certainly still have work to do in Finland. Especially if there are IPOs, then even more so.

But at the same time, we cannot be satisfied with having so much work to do in Finland now, but we must already start sowing seeds internationally and building that growth base on that side, and we are doing a lot of that too. Absolutely.

Yeah, this sounds really good.

Thank you.

Thank you Mikael.

Thank you, thank you.