SEB Group: Operating Income Climbs 42% in Q1
SEB Group has released its first quarter 2026 results. Operating income surged by 42%, however, this improvement is accompanied by moderate organic growth and a negative currency effect of 73 million euros impacting the reported figures.
Financial Performance Overview
SEB Group reported a revenue of 1,885 million euros in the first quarter of 2026. The organic growth rate was 2.7%, but reported figures show a decline of 1.1%. This discrepancy reflects a 73 million euro depression due to currency effects, accounting for nearly 4% of sales. The operating income (ROPA) reached 72 million euros, up 42% from 50 million euros in the first quarter of 2025. The operating margin improved to 3.8% from 2.6% a year earlier. The group attributes this performance to three factors: a favorable base effect in the first quarter of 2025, organic sales growth, and reduced operational costs. The US dollar and Chinese yuan also played a positive role as short currencies, while the group better offset the depreciation of long currencies from emerging markets.
Consumer Division Growth
The Consumer Division saw an organic growth of 2.9%, balanced across the three geographic areas. In Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), sales grew by 2.5% on a constant scope and exchange rate basis, driven by Western Europe (+4.8%), particularly France with a significant increase of 21%. Other countries in the EMEA region saw a decline of 1.8% organically, affected by a high comparison base in Eastern Europe and geopolitical disruptions in the Middle East since late February. In the Americas, momentum accelerated to +6.7%, with North America growing by 4.7% and South America by 10.9%, benefiting from a more favorable base effect and an expanded product portfolio. In Asia, organic growth reached 2.2%, led by China (+2.3%) in a highly promotional environment, and other Asian countries (+1.6%). The Professional Activity progressed more slowly, with a 1.1% organic growth, continuing the trend from the fourth quarter of 2025, in a context marked by client hesitancy particularly in the US and Middle East. However, the group consolidated its leadership in China and secured new contracts in North America.
Launch of the Rebound Plan
At the beginning of the year, the group launched the Rebound Plan, aimed at returning to a trajectory of profitable growth. This structural program combines accelerating innovation, transforming digital marketing, reducing product references (SKUs), savings on indirect purchases, industrial efficiency, and optimizing structural costs. The rollout of these initiatives is on schedule. At the end of the first quarter, SEB confirms a return to ROPA growth in 2026, as well as a more normative free cash flow generation, despite a macroeconomic and geopolitical environment that remains uncertain and deteriorated. The group also plans on reducing financial leverage in 2026, with the goal of bringing it back to group standards, around 2x, by 2027.
