Risk and risk management

Business risks

Market conversion

The company's accelerated growth depends on the continued changes on the market. Product sales tenders have historically dominated contracts for provision of medical supplies within the European medical supplies distribution and services market. However, tenders shifting from product sales to system sales is a trend in several European markets. Asker works actively in conducting the ongoing structural market changes toward system sales tenders, which is expected to support the company's continued growth. Should the ongoing market trend toward increased system sales slows down or not continue as expected this could affect on the company's continued growth possibilities.

Financial risks

Exchange rate fluctuations

Asker may enter into and maintain certain hedging arrangements designed to fix or limit risk on a portion of these rates. The Group currently hedges 50-70 percent of its foreign exchange (FX) currency transaction exposure on a monthly basis during the first 12 months and 30-50 percent during the following 12 months for each floating currency pair in the upcoming 24 months. Adequate hedging arrangements may in the future not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Hedging arrangements may also involve certain risks in themselves, including that OneMed may need to pay a significant amount to terminate them.

Financing and liquidity

The company may not be able to obtain financing or it may only be able to obtain financing at a significantly higher cost than is currently the case. It is possible that the company in the future will have difficulties in obtaining additional financing. Factors such as market conditions, the general availability of credit and the Group’s credit rating affect the availability of additional financing.
Disruptions and uncertainty in the capital and credit markets may also restrict the access to capital.