CapMan Oyj

OMXH:CAPMAN

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q1

[Joakim Frimodig, executive]

Hello, and welcome to CapMan's Q1 results presentation. My name is Joakim Frimodig. I'm the CEO of the company.

CapMan had a very good start to the year. I'm happy to say -- see that our growth continues and that our profitability keeps on improving and reaching new record levels. Our outlook still looks very good despite of the increased uncertainty in the geopolitical and general market conditions.

In the following presentation, I will first give you highlights of our first quarter results and then move on to more broader strategic topics. As I said, happy to see strong growth continuing in the first quarter of this year.

Here are some of the key metrics. If we look at our assets under management, they grew by 22% compared to the previous 12 months. Also, if we look at the turnover in the first quarter and compare that to the corresponding period last year, our turnover increased by 26%, our fee-based profitability increased by 23% and reached a new record level, and our EBIT improved by over 85%, reaching also new record levels. So growth continuing based on many metrics.

If we look at some other highlights of the first quarter and in terms of numbers, turnover reached EUR 14 million, and our EBIT stood at EUR 19 million for the first 3 months of this year. Our assets under management are at record level. During the last 12 months, we have raised over EUR 850 million in new assets under management and also over EUR 300 million in the first 4 months of this year, and we expect this growth to continue.

Partly due to this positive development in assets under management, we have seen our Management Company business develop very well. Their turnover growth was 29%, and EBIT improvement, 77%. The positive development of the Management Company business is a key driver for the continued strong growth in the fee-based profitability that we are emphasizing.

We saw a continued positive development also in our Investment business. So investment income was plus EUR 15 million in the first quarter. All of our strategies made a positive contribution to this number, and we also saw a strong development in external funds. At the end of Q1, we wrote down our investments in our Russia funds completely, so this plus EUR 15 million includes that negative impact.

Happy to see that many of our funds are reaching carry. Nordic Real Estate I fund entered into carry in the first quarter of this year, and we already see some of that impact in the figures. And also, we expect Growth Equity I fund to move into carry in the second quarter of this year. In addition to these 2 funds, we also have other funds that are fast approaching carried interest.

Last year, 2021, CapMan posted an EPS of EUR 0.21. Out of that, EUR 0.15 was decided to be distributed to our shareholders. This is the ninth consecutive year that the distribution is increasing. And like last year, this year, we are paying the distribution in 2 parts, so that EUR 0.08 was already paid last month and the remaining EUR 0.07 will be paid in September. So we are continuing on our track of growing dividends and distributions to our shareholders.

Here, you can see in a graphical form the development of our turnover and EBIT over the last 3 years. So you can see the first quarter in relation to the previous 2 years, and especially when you look at the EBIT development, the difference is significant. In 2020, we saw the impacts of COVID, in 2021, we saw a solid first quarter, and now we are improving over 85% on the performance of last year.

Here is a breakdown by segment. And what's good to note here is that actually there is an improvement in all of our business segments compared to the same period last year. So Investment business improving by EUR 6.6 million, our Management Company profit improving by EUR 2 million and also a positive impact from the Service business. And our general overhead costs have actually slightly reduced from last year's level. And we have a positive outlook going forward, looking at all the different earnings components and segments.

Here is a slightly more long-term view. Our EBIT development on a quarterly basis, I would highlight the first quarters of 2020 where you can see the COVID impacts. Then the 5 quarters proceeding this now reported quarter, we had EBIT each quarter around EUR 10 million to EUR 12 million, and now as said, EUR 19 million in the first quarter of this year. So if you look at the previous 4 quarters, the EBIT cumulatively over EUR 53 million, that's a new record level for CapMan. We are trending in the right directions.

An overview of our business model and our earnings stream. What I'd like to highlight from here is that as you might recall, we have been introducing a number of new products and a number of new strategies in recent years. This means that our earnings streams are more diversified than ever before, which also gives us better stability and predictability when it comes to overall earnings.

And if you look at the EBIT of CapMan, that is the combination of our Management Company business' management fee profit, carried interest income, our Service business service fee profit and then the investment income from our Investment business. These combined add up to our EBIT.

And if we break down these earnings and leave out the investment income part and look at the fee-based business and its development, this includes our Management Company business and Service business. And you can see the development over the current strategy period, starting at the end of 2017, you can see that the fee-based revenues have on average grown by 17% per annum, and the fee-based profitability has grown by close to 50% since 2017 and are now at a new record level.

And we expect the growth in fee-based profitability to continue this year and beyond, and this is one of our key strategic themes. Key drivers for continued growth here are growing assets under management, a well-developing Service business and then solid cost control.

And if we look at the operating expenses for the first quarter, compare them to last year, you can see a slight increase in personnel expenses mainly due to an increase in our head count and a slight decrease in our other operating costs. In total, costs grew by 600,000 -- 6%, which can be compared to a 26% growth in turnover and 86% growth in EBIT. We have a cost base in place, an organization in place, which is supporting our growth. As we grow, we will add head count but in a controlled manner.

If we then turn to our balance sheet, look at some of the key metrics there. Book equity at the end of the first quarter, EUR 117 million, equity ratio at 48%, these are post-dividend distribution. So even if only 8% -- EUR 0.08 out of EUR 0.15 have been paid out, so far, the full impact is booked in our book equity.

Interest-bearing debt, EUR 25 million and EUR 60 million cash at hand. In addition also, a EUR 20 million undrawn credit facility. So we have a very solid balance sheet and good liquidity, which gives us support in any foreseeable market situation. And we also have the required liquidity to make new commitments and respond to existing commitments in outstanding funds.

Our financial position is further strengthened by the EUR 40 million sustainability-linked bond that we issued a few weeks ago. This is the first sustainability-linked bond issued by a public company in Finland. And here, we are committing to targets of validating our pathway on science-based targets and also of integrating sustainability into the remuneration of our management team.

As said, we raised EUR 40 million. We used the proceeds to partly repay the bond, which was due in 2023, and partly for general corporate purposes. What this leads to is a clear improvement in our maturity profile. So now the next bond is maturing in 2025, and the now raised bond is maturing in 2027.

Here is a further breakdown of our own balance sheet investments. In total, we had EUR 142 million invested into the private market at the end of Q1, EUR 76 million of that in private equity and credit, EUR 44 million in real estate and EUR 10 million in infrastructure. With this allocation on average, we are looking for 10% to 15% returns. We had stellar returns in the first quarter, 11% or, on an annualized basis, 44% returns.

But it's not only value gains, we have actually been able to realize a lot of this value, which means that we have received cash flow from our Investment business. If you look at 2021, the year as a whole, over EUR 40 million in distributions to CapMan and also, in the first quarter, close to EUR 9 million distributed back from the investments. At the same time, we have also been able to deploy capital into new products and funds.

Overall, looking at our investment allocation, as said, EUR 142 million invested into private asset market, and then we had EUR 60 million cash at hand. So in total, a bit over EUR 200 million of own investments.

And here, you can see how that is spread among the different strategies. You can also see the development there. So clearly, an increased diversification recently and currently a fairly healthy mix between private equity, infrastructure, real estate and then also external fund investments. You can see remaining commitments at the end of the first quarter of EUR 95 million and the majority of those in the private equity space. So as we are making those commitments, the share of private equity is set to increase over coming quarters and years.

Then some words about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its potential impact on CapMan. You might recall that CapMan discontinued its own Russia fund management company operations at the end of 2019. And at the same time, we wrote down the goodwill associated to that business. What remained on our balance sheet was our own investments into these funds and some outstanding loan receivables from the former investment team, in total EUR 4.7 million. At the end of the first quarter, we wrote down these balance sheet items in total.

What is positive is that our business otherwise has fairly limited exposure to the Russian and Ukrainian market. So if you think about the direct impact of the crisis, it is to the balance sheet items that we have now written down to 0. Otherwise, impacts will be indirectly felt by CapMan.

Let me then turn to the broader strategic direction and the picture and how we are moving along with our plans there. As a reminder, our vision is to be a Nordic private asset powerhouse. There are 3 main blocks we believe that need to be in place: we need to show top quartile value creation in all of our funds, we need to have access to capital, especially international capital, and we need to be innovative and provide an attractive offering to our clients. And when we have this in place, it's the virtuous circle that will drive us towards the private asset powerhouse that we want to be.

In terms of strategy, you might recall, there have been 3 main components that we have been working on in recent years. Broadening the access to capital is the first of those. There, we are increasing the share of international capital but also increasing the share of smaller local institutional capital. And you can see the development here since 2016. So we are moving in the desired direction, international capital growing from 10% to close to 60% and the Tier 2, 3 capital from 5% to 12%. At the same time, the total assets under management has almost doubled.

We have also tried to be more flexible in the way that we combine the investment opportunity and the capital and also to facilitate the need of new investor groups. So alongside the traditional closed-end funds, we have introduced new types of solutions: open-ended funds, mandates, club deals and the like. And today, closed-end funds are about half of the capital under management. And then as I said before, we have been broadening our offering overall in the private asset space. So now we are more diversified than ever before.

A key driver of growth is our assets under management. Here, you can see the development going back 5 years since 2017, starting off with EUR 2.7 billion. At the end of the first quarter this year, we were at EUR 4.7 billion. And in the last 12 months, we have raised some EUR 850 million in new capital and, in the first 4 months of this year, over EUR 300 million. And we foresee that this growth will continue.

And the driver in the shorter term of this growth are the ongoing fundraising processes that are described on this page. You can see that we are out fundraising in virtually all of our main strategies. So in real estate, we have open-ended funds open for new commitments. We have been growing our Residential fund. In less than 9 months, it has grown to EUR 700 million and is well ahead of its original schedule of reaching EUR 1 billion at the end of next year, very good demand for that product.

We have also said that we are going to launch a new real estate product this year. That is still the case. We are slightly delayed by a few months due to authority approval processes, but the project is otherwise moving along in the way that we have desired and planned.

Special Situations fund, there, we're expecting next closing in the second quarter. The Nest III fund, we did a final closing in the first quarter. And Infra II fund fundraising is going well. We are expecting a first close in the second quarter, and we are seeing good investor demand for this product. And also in CWS, we are planning to launch a new program, and the next closing is scheduled for the third quarter of this year. So if you look at the more short-term growth in assets under management, these are the sources, and good to see the growth coming from multiple sources.

One exit from the first quarter I would like to highlight, this is from our Nordic Real Estate I fund, the sale of Heron City to Serena Properties. Here, we are talking about close to 50,000 square meter facility in Kungens Kurva, just south of Stockholm, where we have been putting a lot of effort into our ESG work. We have been especially focusing on energy efficiency at Heron City. So we have reduced the overall energy usage during our ownership by 22% and also completely shifted to renewable energy. Why I highlight this exit is that this transferred the Nordic Real Estate I fund into carry. And we still have 4 remaining assets in the portfolio. And as those are exited, further carry will be booked in CapMan's result.

And overall, looking at the carry outlook, as said, Nordic Real Estate I with 4 assets remaining is in carry. We are expecting Growth Equity I fund with 9 remaining companies to move into carry in the second quarter of this year. And we also see a positive development in other funds that are approaching carry, and some of them will reach that in the next 12 months as we now foresee. Overall, this is leading to a situation hopefully where we will have multiple funds in carry at the same time, and we can show a more steady and stronger stream of carried interest income in our earnings going forward.

When it comes to dividend distribution, that's a key part of our capital market story. We have been increasing the distribution to shareholders now for 9 consecutive years. The earnings per share last year, EUR 0.21, out of that, EUR 0.15 was distributed to shareholders. And so that it's paid in 2 installments, one paid in March and the other one will be paid in September.

If we then take a long-term perspective and look at our financial objectives, you can see that we are aiming for over 10% growth in our Management Company and Service business. In the first quarter of this year, 15%, which is in line with our more long-term average from 2017 to '21.

When it comes to return on equity, historically, we've been below the target of over 20%. But if you look at the year 2021, we did an ROE of 29%, and in the first 3 months of this year, we are at 44%. So clearly heading in the right direction there.

We want to have a solid balance sheet with equity ratio over 60%. On average, we've been very close to that. We are slightly below it at the end of the first quarter, but always after the first quarter, this number is at its lowest when distributions and dividends have been paid. And as said, the fourth objective, growing annual dividend distribution. I'm happy to see that we have been able to grow that now for a number of years.

When it comes to the outlook estimate for this year, that remains unchanged.

And maybe as closing remarks, I would say, very happy and satisfied with our results of the first quarter, happy with the direction in which our business is developing, and also happy to see that the outlook still remains strong. The ongoing geopolitical and market uncertainty has not so far greatly affected our business. Nevertheless, the conflict, the Russian aggression on Ukraine has affected us emotionally very strongly. Our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people, we condemn the aggression by the Russian people, and we hope that this terrible war will soon end.

Thank you.