The share in Saab rises 6 percent in the early afternoon trade on the stock exchange after the quarterly report. Since the turn of the year, this means that the market value is up 123 percent.
The decline in order intake in the report is no warning flag for the Saab CEO.
You can't look at quarters when it comes to an industry like defense, says Micael Johansson.
He notes that Saab has already received new orders worth 16 billion kronor in October - after the end of the third quarter.
So it's also about timing - when do the orders come in? This will be a strong year on the order intake side as well. I absolutely see no slowdown in the market in any way.
Ukraine announcement "extremely important"
This week's declaration of intent from Ukraine - which may result in a major order for 100-150 combat aircraft for Saab - he describes as "extremely important":
It would of course be an incredible opportunity to help Ukraine build up its air force.
I really look forward to trying to solve the financing arrangement now.
He adds that Saab is now starting to plan for different scenarios to increase production capacity if the declaration of intent results in a major order.
We would need to invest more in Linköping, of course, if this becomes a reality. Then we will look at further partnerships, both with Ukrainian industry but also perhaps with some industry in Europe or Canada.
"War never good"
When asked if war and more geopolitical unrest benefit Saab, he replies:
Geopolitical unrest and terrible wars, like in Ukraine, are never good. It's just a big failure. At the same time, you have to be realistic and not naive and think that everything is eternal peace.
He describes it as Saab fundamentally working to create security, protect societies and their populations with deterrent capability.
That's what we stand for. We don't stand for conflicts. We don't stand for geopolitical unrest. We stand for stability.
Then we have been naive for a fairly long period, not least in Europe, and we have a lot to build up. That's what we see now, that the demand is very large to create this defense capability.
Saab reports an operating result of 1.4 billion kronor for the third quarter of the year, an increase from 1.2 billion a year earlier. Analysts had on average expected an increase to 1.3 billion.
Order intake in the quarter fell to 20.9 billion, which can be compared to 21.2 billion a year earlier.
Sales revenue in the third quarter rose 17 percent to 15.9 billion, which can be compared to 13.6 billion a year earlier.
Saab raises its forecast for "organic sales growth" to 20-24 percent for 2025. This can be compared to a previous forecast of 16-20 percent. The profit forecast and the forecast for the operating cash flow remain unchanged.
