Investor: Patricia Industries finally fires, but ABB stumbles and EQT lags

The headline for Q3 2026 is that Patricia Industries, Investor’s private portfolio, delivered its best quarter in recent memory. This is significant  because it has underperformed for most of the past two years, held back by currency headwinds and soft industrial demand. In Q3, however, it generated a 15 percent total return, boosted by genuine earnings growth, expanding valuation multiples, and a weaker Swedish krona. This is not a one-line story about currency luck. Adjusted EBITA (a measure of operating profit that strips out acquisition related items) rose 26 percent year on year, which is real underlying improvement. The contrast with the listed portfolio, which was flat in Q3, but is still up 21 percent year to date, and the continued drag from EQT gives the quarter a genuinely mixed character: strong in the private portfolio, quiet in listed equities, and unresolved in alternatives.

Adjusted NAV reached SEK 1,258 billion, or SEK 411 per share, on September 30, 2026, up 4 percent for the quarter and 17 percent year to date. That compares well to the SIXRX total return index, which gained 11 percent over the same nine-month period. Patricia Industries’ private subsidiaries grew aggregate sales by 12 percent in Q3, with 7 percent coming from organic growth in constant currencies. Nova Biomedical stood out with 14 percent organic growth, helped partly by a weak comparison quarter last year, though the margin improvement, EBITA margin up from 26.6 to 31.4 percent, looks genuinely earned. Investments in EQT recovered 7 percent in Q3, but the nine-month picture is still -9 percent, a meaningful drag that has cost the portfolio approximately SEK 9.8 billion in NAV contribution year to date. Leverage (net debt as a proportion of total assets) sits at 1.8 percent, well within the 0 to 10 percent target range.

The largest listed holding in the portfolio is ABB, which fell by 9.4 percent in Q3 and is now the biggest detractor in a single quarter. At first glance, this looks like a serious setback, but on closer inspection, it emerges that ABB is simultaneously announcing the USD 5.5 billion acquisition of Rotork and launching Infinitus, its DC power solutions business aimed directly at AI data centres. These are strategic moves into high-growth markets, not signs of operational distress. The Q3 dip reflects market-level uncertainty rather than anything company-specific. Separately, Mölnlycke’s intention to split itself into two standalone businesses, one focused on Operating Room Solutions and Gloves, the other on Wound Care and Antiseptics, is significant. Investor frames this as unlocking strategic focus and long-term value, and that argument has merit: the two businesses have different growth profiles and customer bases. The structural logic is sound. However, execution risk, however, is real, and a split of this scale takes time to prove itself. Moody’s upgrade of Investor’s credit rating from Aa3 to Aa2 during the quarter is a quiet but meaningful signal of financial quality, it gives Investor slightly cheaper access to the debt market should it choose to raise capital.

Interest rates rose notably during Q3 as inflation expectations driven by higher and growing concerns about the sustainability of sovereign debt in financial markets. Equity markets held up reasonably well thanks to earnings growth, but the rate backdrop is not entirely benign for a holding company like Investor, which carries debt and values private assets using  rate-sensitive multiples. The CEO’s commentary on Europe’s industrial and regulatory fragmentation, written after a trip to Brussels, reflects the fact that the company is closely monitoring the geopolitical environment. With holdings straddling defence (Saab), healthcare infrastructure, and automation, Investor’s portfolio has more exposure to structural tailwinds than cyclical ones, which gives it a relative advantage when sentiment is volatile.

The most important near-term event is the Capital Markets Update, scheduled for November 4, 2026. This could include strategic guidance on the Mölnlycke split and updates on the acquisition pipeline of Patricia Industries.. Regarding EQT, the question is whether the partial Q3 recovery, up to 7 percent, marks a genuine turnaround or merely a quarterly bounce in an environment that remains challenging for alternative assets.. Fund investments continue to draw down capital, and net cash flow from EQT to Investor has been negative for most of the year. Investors should also monitor whether Patricia Industries can maintain its EBITA momentum in Q4 without the benefit of favorable currency tailwind, which may moderate. At the current share price of SEK 413.25 (as of October 15, 2026), Investor is trading at a slight premium to its adjusted NAV of SEK 411 per share, an unusual position historically, and one that leaves relatively little margin for EQT or ABB to disappoint further.

Source: Investor AB Q3 2026 report.