First quarter 2026 compared to 2025, group
- Net sales amounted to SEK 60.1 million (90.9), corresponding to a change of -34% (20), primarly driven by timing effects
- Growth adjusted for foreign exchange (FX) amounted to -28% (19).
- Software revenue amounted to SEK 31.9 million (50.2), corresponding to 53% (55) of net sales
- Operating profit (EBIT) amounted to SEK -20.4 million (9.0), corresponding to an EBIT margin of -34% (10), as a result of lower revenue and a one-off restructuring cost of SEK 4 million
- Net income for the period amounted to SEK -17.8 million (-9.4)
- Earnings per share before dilution amounted to SEK -0.47 (-0.25) and diluted to SEK -0.47 (-0.25)
A word from the CEO:
The first quarter came in below our expectations. Net sales were SEK 60.1 million (90.9), EBIT was SEK -20.4 million (9.0), and software accounted for 53 percent of net sales (55). The Q1 2025 comparison period included a sizable U. S. software transaction, and several defense contracts we had expected to close in Q1 2026 have moved out, including a NATO award, U. S. COTS deals, and an award in one European market. Even so, order intake reached SEK 91 million, weighted clearly toward defense.
From Q1 2026, we have also updated our revenue recognition principles and now take less upfront on license and software revenue at initial delivery. The change reflects how our customers actually buy today. The value of the software in our deliveries is increasingly an evolving capability, and our faster development cadence reduces the share of revenue tied to license installation. Reported revenue now tracks cash conversion more closely. We are applying the principle prospectively from Q1 2026, and the change reduced reported revenue by approximately SEK 12 million in the quarter relative to the previous model.
Defense
Order intake in the defense segment was good in Q1, but revenue was held back by the nature of the new contracts and by temporarily lower exercise activity, particularly in the United Kingdom. We expect exercise volumes to return to more normal levels from Q2 onward. Two of the quarter's orders were in the U. S. defense market and totaled just over SEK 40 million combined. They strengthen our position in a priority market and are the result of long-term work to establish Exonaut with U. S. defense customers. We also extended a Canadian agreement by five years during the quarter, an example of how our customer relationships evolve from initial implementation into longer engagements that combine project delivery with recurring revenue.
Resilience
The cost reduction program we announced after Q3 2025 was fully implemented by the end of Q1 2026. We are running Resilience selectively, focused on renewals and expansions where the profitability is clear. A key customer expanded its agreement during the quarter, which confirms our view that a more selective Resilience continues to create value.
Expert Services
Expert Services is performing on plan. Q1 is seasonally the segment's quietest quarter, but the orderbook and pipeline going into the rest of the year are strong. The segment reinforces our operational presence close to customers and supports the exercise and training software business by deepening our domain knowledge and market position.
Market development
For several quarters, European governments have communicated higher investment levels and larger defense budgets, and that spending is now beginning to flow past platforms and munitions into the capabilities that determine whether armed forces are actually ready. Exercise and training systems are part of the capability set now entering procurement plans. At the same time, procurement capacity has become the binding constraint across most of our markets, and purchasing cycles are lengthening in several countries as volumes grow. We are adjusting by qualifying pipeline earlier and by working more closely with the larger defense industry primes to capture a greater share of the available market.
In North America, the approval of the U. S. defense budget in February has improved predictability relative to the autumn shutdown, although the political environment continues to create short-term uncertainty. In APAC, deliveries are on plan and customer activity remains healthy.
Cash, financing, and priorities for the rest of the year
Cash remained tight during the quarter, partly reflecting delays in certain projects and variation in the timing of customer payments. The position has improved since quarter end. During the quarter, we also negotiated new financing with Svensk Exportkredit and Exportkreditnämnden, placing the company on a more long-term financing footing. Improving cash conversion is the operating priority alongside the strategic transformation.
We are largely through the transformation we announced after Q3 2025. It has been a significant body of work, and I am beginning to see the effect in the right places. The strength of the quarter is in order intake, weighted clearly toward defense. Combined with the lower cost base we now have in place, that gives us a better starting point than the one we entered the quarter with. What I find most interesting in the day-to-day work is what AI is enabling inside the company, both in how we develop Exonaut and in how we run our own operations. It is one of the reasons I am confident we will come out of this period more capable and more efficient than we went in.
Jonas Jonsson
CEO
About 4C Strategies
4C Strategies is a leading global provider of organisational readiness and training management solutions for customers in the defence, public and corporate sectors. 4C Strategies provides an integrated offering of organisational readiness and training management solutions in mission-critical environments, consisting of its software platform Exonaut as well as expert services and software-related services. Exonaut complies with the strictest demands on security and data integrity and is accredited by NATO. From its offices in the Nordics, the UK the US and Australia, 4C Strategies serves over 150 customers, including some of the world's most high-profile public institutions, global enterprises and several NATO allied armed forces. 4C Strategies was founded in Sweden in 2000, and is headquartered in Stockholm. 4C Strategies is the operational brand within 4C Group AB (publ), which is listed on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market under the ticker "4C".
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This information is information that 4C Group is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 2026-04-29 08:05 CEST.
