Enento Group Oyj

OMXH:ENENTO

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Welcome to Enento's Q1 2023 results webcast. My name is Arto Paukku, and I'm the Investor Relations Officer here at Enento. With me here today are Jeanette Jager, CEO of Enento Group; as well as Elina Strahlman, our CFO. We will start a typical earnings update from Jeanette and Elina, and then we will go over to your questions, which you can then type in the chat or ask directly here at the studio from the audience.

But now let's kick it off and hand it over to Jeanette. Enento had a good start for the year, right?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Yes, Arto. We did have a good start of the year. Thank you very much. So thank you very much for joining this results briefing, and we will share with you some of our both numbers and our accomplishments that we usually do in our briefings with you.

Before we're going into numbers and accomplishments, I want to share with you that we have made some changes when it comes to roles and responsibilities within the management team of Enento. As earlier communicated in the beginning of the year, Mikko Karemo has, in addition to his role as Chief Commercial Officer, also taken on the role as Deputy CEO. Then on the other hand, also Victoria, who has already the role as heading Marketing and Communication is also taking on Customer Operations from sales and Mikko. And then Karl-Johan, who is today heading Data and Analytics is in addition to that role, taking on the role of COO in the management team. And last, but definitely not least, we have a new Deputy HR Director, Sari Ek-Petroff. Very welcome to you, Sari.

Regarding our Q1 highlights, so our revenue grew in line with our expectations in the first quarter of 2023, and the group net sales was of 2.3% at comparable exchange rates. And the net sales development was particularly supported by the strong development in the Business Insight risk management services Enterprise Solutions area. We also had high volumes in Norway overall, still positive net sales development in consumer credit business, but the consumer credit volumes are clearly lower than before. In Digital Processes, the weak housing market impacted the net sales significantly, but the demand for compliance services remains high.

Adjusted EBITDA increased by more than 12% at comparable exchange rates, and our margin was at 36.8%. And this is because of, we would say, both a favorable sales mix, but also the implementation of efficiency measures. The efficiency program is proceeding as planned and around half of planned efficiencies are already realized on a run rate basis. Last, but not least, I would also like to mention that we are also continuing to have very good NPS scores on our business-to-business customers. We are remaining on a high level if you compare it to industry peers, and we have not lost any strategic or large customer during this quarter.

So let's move over to the key figures and KPIs for the Q1. They are all developing positively. We continue to deliver growth and resilient results, as mentioned. And that is also, of course, according to our guidance. Free cash flow improved significantly, and net debt ratio as well was below our maximum level. The share of new services started to improve, that is also according to plan and was at 8.3%. That is a good level. If we compare it with last year, that is almost double in average in comparison to the 2022 levels. The biggest reason behind the improvement is the adoption of the Swedish daily credit register by our customers in Sweden. More than half of the customers are now using the new register. We also launched several exciting new services during the quarter, but let's come back to that. We have actually allowed ourselves to take some extra time when it comes to new services for this quarter update.

Regarding our efficiency program that we initiated in January, we can now report that the program is proceeding well. And around half of the EUR 8 million benefits are already realized on a run rate basis, and that is mainly because of the FTE efficiency measures that are fully implemented. In IT efficiency, the pre-study, which is ongoing in Sweden now and completed during Q2 is also important part of this going forward. So let's see how that pre-study now develops when it goes for decisions. Other implemented measures include optimizing our facility costs in Sweden done. And what is enabled also by the Nordic business platform is that we have continued to digitalize manual processes, which has also contributed to our efficiencies.

When it comes to Nordic business platform update, as a follow-up to earlier update on the Nordic business platform, we have now established KPIs, which are possible to follow up. This won't move that much on a quarterly basis, and we are thinking about rather sharing this on a half year or a yearly basis. But instead, keep you up-to-date on the key highlights in the program on what's going on. When it comes to establishing Nordics shared capabilities, which is one of the KPIs, we have commercially started to use now Enento's modernized identity and access management solution during Q1. And that is 1 of 23 shared capabilities within the program. And in addition to that, we have continued to make good progress in further development of the Swedish data pipelines and to utilize the modernized API gateway and developer portal.

When it comes to transforming products and services, we have launched 2 new modernize services during Q1 that have the potential to cannibalize the older similar services as visualized in the PowerPoint. It is the new Business Insight API, which is enabled by the Nordic platform and also then [indiscernible] as already mentioned. Another KPI is then customer migrations. And the customer migrations to new services that use the modern platform is mainly visible with the Swedish daily credit register at this point. The commission of legacy is, of course, also a very important part of the Nordic business platform, and it is progressing at this point. It is mainly connected to Swedish infrastructure and that we are consolidating cloud suppliers within that area.

So business area update Q1 and also a little bit extra regarding the services this time. If we start with Business Insight in Q1. Business Insight has had a very good start of the year where we have seen that it has developed positively for the risk management offering, but also for sales and marketing services for larger customers. And additionally, our ESG services and business overall in Norway are growing double digits. So good start. Some of the highlights when it comes to Q1 is that we have launched the Business Insight and profit premium credit APIs. I'm going back to why this is important and interesting. We have renewed the company rating model, Rating Alfa, and renewed the company certificate offering and improved ESG service with CO2 calculator in Finland. The preparations for the launch of the Swedish compliance offering are also proceeding well. So we have good hopes now for Q2 on that one.

But let's step a little bit diver -- look, sorry, let's deep dive into now Finnish Rating Alfa, which is renewed. So what is the -- what is renewed then regarding Finnish Rating Alfa? Well, one thing is that we have improved some of the data, which is actually handling smaller risks. But what I would like to underline is that we have also identified more data in order to be able to detect serious issues like bankruptcies and to do that better than the old version. The model uses more information, as mentioned. And one of the information, which is also added on is ESG information. And this new model allows users to combine the ratings and the ESG data with one score. So we think that this will improve our position even further. We have the strongest position in Finland on this, but this gives us a further competitive edge. And we're really happy to see also that the ESG to be part of this Finnish Rating Alfa.

Couple of APIs launched. I would like to say that we do invest in -- within Business Insight in modern delivery mechanisms as well as intelligence. And the rationale for this is modernization is keeping up with the competition, of course, but it's also that we see that open up possibilities to enter into new customer verticals or even new markets. The first steps on this new API journey we are having is that we launched this new 2 APIs one in Sweden, Business Insight and now also the credit API shortened abbreviation for Norway.

And the goal is to deliver a consistent voice and brand experience from new services, improve efficiency and, of course, also lower implementation costs. We see that modern solutions like this will actually give us a continuous development, which is also easier both to take in new data and to deliver new data. And of course, the leverage of strong brands across the Nordics.

Last, but not least, I would also like to mention that we see that the Nordic target architecture in Nordic business platform has, of course, also helped these services to actually be developed on a Nordic basis. That is what makes it possible. Just to give you a few examples here and there what the Nordic business program or Nordic business platform actually gives us.

When it comes to Consumer Insight, the quarter started with higher volumes in consumer credit information services, but started to slow down now in March. The housing transaction volumes are low in both countries, but especially in Sweden and the consumer lending is on a low level. We have though still strong growth in direct-to-consumer business in Finland. When it comes to our development, some of the key highlights include that we have daily credit register, full coverage of the market in Sweden. And more than half of the customers using daily credit register now. And that is also reflected in the share of new services KPI, which we discussed earlier or which was mentioned to you earlier.

In Sweden, despite the weakening macro situation, the consumer credit information business is growing in e-com and also in short-term loan verticals. Interesting, we think, is that Account Insight PSD2 service is now available through a web interface and first customers are signed. So now we are taking our first steps into actually including PSD2 data into our offering as we develop again also further. We are digitalizing consumer credit inquiry notifications mentioned, and that also gives us both, of course, a digital experience as a consumer, but it also makes it more effective for us as a company, how you deliver it, meaning also less euro on that one and how we deliberate.

So, last but not least, Digital Processes, Q1, despite housing transaction volumes being down by 30%, 40% in Finland and Sweden, Digital Processes were able to partially compensate with good results from value-added real estate information services and also, of course, from compliance services in Finland. And those grew double digit. The demand for compliance services are still very high, and we are now further improving the compliance services also with the monitoring service, which we are planning to have in place now in Q2. We have launched an energy certificate information report in Finland, which is a product used in the energy efficiency information database about buildings and houses in associations.

I think that we can then summarize a little bit of what is going on ahead of us and move further into the numbers. When it comes to different happenings, which is, of course, of great importance for us, we would like to mention that we have now closed Tambur. The service has been transitioned successfully. In addition to that, we see now that the interest rate cap will be introduced in Finland on October 1st. Moving over to credit registers. We are preparing the new solution, which will utilize the public credit register in Finland, and we are -- and that one is ongoing to be tested now in Q3. When it comes to the Swedish credit register investigation, there is still no actually news to share on that one. We will see when any information on that investigation will be shared. But nevertheless, and of course, we are preparing for many different scenarios, so that we can act upon those with speed when that is the time.

I would like to more or less kind of conclude there. And just to underline that we're really happy to see this development now in Q1, both financially, but also when it comes to our ability to go to market with a number of different new services, which are actually open up in new markets like credit in Norway, new verticals like the BI API is doing now starting off with Sweden, but we are going in Nordic with that one. So exciting times ahead of us in the coming quarters and really good to see that we are moving into this direction.

And by that, I would like to hand over to our CFO, Elina Strahlman, please go ahead.

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Thank you. Thank you, Jeanette. As you already mentioned, we had financially a good start for this year. So if I start by going through the highlights of the figures. As said, we managed to grow profitably, and our profitability also improved significantly in this first quarter. Our revenue grew by 2.3% and reached EUR 40 million. And there, the main driver behind was positive continuing development in business information services that even strengthened now in the first quarter. However, the growth was somewhat more modest than what we've seen in the previous quarters. And that was mainly due to the fact that the real estate transaction volumes, those remained on a very low level. And at the same time, also the consumer lending volumes started softening, especially towards the end of the quarter. And this development we saw especially in the Swedish markets.

On the profitability side, adjusted EBITDA that developed very positively. It grew clearly faster than revenue by 12.3% rate and reached EUR 14.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin also obviously, then expanded significantly to 36.8% and expanded by 3.5 percentage points. This development was obviously thanks to scalable growth, but also, and especially thanks to, various efficiency and cost optimization activities that we have been taking already starting from last year. Adjusted EBIT that grew even faster than adjusted EBITDA with more than 30% rate. And there, the explanatory factor is that comparison period was impacted by the impairment of Tambur assets.

But now let's move on and continue with some revenue highlights in more detail. So in this first quarter, the highest growing business area for us was Business Insight business area, where the growth was 4.7%. And I said, that was thanks to strong development in enterprise services and the increasing demand for risk management services in both markets, but markets -- but especially in Finland. As we know, the bankruptcy rates have been going up now recently, and it seemed to also increase the demand for our services. Also the Norwegian business continue to bloom. We saw very good development both in the premium and premium businesses in Norway. And in premium side, the growth was further boosted by the recently launched risk management offering for SMEs.

Then premium segment in Business Insight, there the development was more weak. We saw in Swedish markets that the macroeconomic situation clearly started impacting the demand of SMEs for the services. And then in Finland, we also had some timing issues and revenues -- certificate revenues shifting to the second quarter partially. But then moving on from Business Insight the Consumer Insight. So there, the growth somewhat slowed down from the previous quarters and was at 2.2%. The consumer credit volumes have now clearly been softening. Softening, especially towards the end of the quarter, and this development we especially saw now in the Swedish markets. This is obviously following the high interest rates, high inflation that is then impacting consumer behavior.

And then how this an impact it is that lending volumes were low, both on housing and unsecured lending side. The development in smaller business lines and the Consumer Insight, direct-to-consumer, consumer marketing. That continued to be -- that was actually modestly positive, but continued to be impacted by the macro situation still. Finally, the Digital Processes that revenue continued to decline by 10.8% level, and that was obviously due to the continuing low levels of the housing transaction volumes in both markets, Finland and Sweden. The strong continued growth in compliance services, that was not obviously enough to offset the declining development.

Then on the profitability side, so adjusted EBITDA, that continued as said, to develop very positively, thanks to both scalable growth and cost efficiency measures that we have been taking. And if I start to go through this line by line. So the favorable sales mix, that is, first of all, visible both, obviously, in the net sales, but also in materials and services, i.e., data acquisition costs. Data acquisition cost development was flat compared to prior year, and that was due to the fact that the growth was coming from the scalable areas such as enterprise services.

Personnel expenses, those increased somewhat EUR 100,000 from prior year, despite the fact that the number of FTEs on average was slightly lower than previous year. And there, the main reason behind is the salary inflation. The efficiency measures, reductions of FTEs that we have taken now under Q1, those impacted only some with quite low levels, this figure still. So the main impact will be then visible in the coming quarters.

Then finally, the successful savings actions and measures that we have been taking. Those are very much visible in other operating expenses that decreased by EUR 1 million compared to prior year. Of that EUR 1 million, we can say that approximately 1/3 can be considered as permanent type of savings and those come from leaning of our operations, reducing usage of consultants as well as then, for example, moving to smaller premises into Sweden, and that also partially impacts other operating expenses. Then on the temporary side, we had quite a lot lower marketing expenses compared to prior year, and that is due to the current market situation and our optimization of our activities, but also relates to timing of activities.

Also, what is good to remember is that in comparison period, we had rather high operational expenses related to various pre-study and similar activities. Production for own use, that was close to flat. We continue to invest in our product development pretty much on the same level as seen in prior year. And then obviously, currencies, heavily weakening Swedish krona, Norwegian krona impacted the reported figures negatively.

But on adjusted EBITDA side, we managed to improve our adjusted EBITDA also on the reported figures and actual euro level. Free cash flow, that development was also very strong. Free cash flow was EUR 10.1 million and cash conversion was at 83.5%. And that strong development was thanks to improved profitability and also a positive impact coming from the change in working capital. Investments on product development, those were on the prior year level, but then we had one hardware investment in the first quarter that impacted the level of investments increasingly.

Finally, then our financial position. It continues to be strong. We have some EUR 27 million of cash at our hands and our credit limits remain fully unutilized. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA was at 2.1x, so clearly below the set maximum of 3. What then comes to our financial outlook, we have kept our guidance intact. What is good to remember, of course, as Jeanette already mentioned, is that the Tambur business and operations have now been discontinued. And those revenues now costs will longer be included in our figures from second quarter onwards.

On the guidance side, we continue to guide 0% to 5% growth for the full year, excluding the impact from the discontinuance of Tambur services. And we continue to guide adjusted EBITDA margin between 36% to 37%. And then, finally, a few words on the announcement -- another announcement that we made today. The Board decided to launch a 5-year -- 5-month share buyback program up to EUR 5 million, and the repurchased shares will be canceled. And the Board wanted to take this decision since we believe in our ability to generate profits, cash flow going forward as well. And we have financial resources to return capital to shareholders and support shareholder value.

Thank you. But this was what I had to say about the Q1. So Arto, will you start with some questions?

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Yes. You want to take this one?

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Thank you.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Good. And we have Jeanette back. Thank you for the update, and let's kick off the Q&A session.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

And it's a new setup for us. So we will start with the questions from the audience first, and then we will go back to your questions via chat. But now I think it's Felix.

[Felix Henriksson, analyst]

Felix Henriksson, Nordea. Congrats for good Q1. I have a few questions. I can go one by one. Starting off with growth. You mentioned that in Business Insights, there was some revenue shift from Q1 to Q2 in premium due to some product renewal. So how significant was this? Are we talking about some hundreds of thousands? And should this imply that the organic growth in the Q2 should be a bit better.

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Well, in Business Insight, the comparable growth would have been a bit more than 5%. So we are not talking about several hundreds of thousands, but a couple, so to say.

[Felix Henriksson, analyst]

Okay. That's clear. And how should we expect the year to sort of play out in terms of organic growth. There's the revenue shift to Q2. Then in the back half of the year, there will be the lowering of the interest rate cap in Finland. Is your sort of base case assuming that growth will sort of decelerate on the back half of the year or what's your sort of current thinking in terms of your guidance assumptions?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Yes, I can start, and then you can continue with interest rate cap. We have a couple of -- we have a couple of different areas that affect us. And actually, the longer we go into the year, the more difficult at the moment is to be clear on expectations. One thing which we have already mentioned here now is that we do see that the consumer credit market in Sweden is weakening, and that is, of course, also strongly connected to the inflation level, interest rates level, et cetera. Now we have good hope that we will see that this inflation, interest rates, et cetera, would stabilize.

And therefore, also, we could probably see that the housing real estate market can get a better volumes back to because right now, the volumes are very low. That would, of course, be positive for us, but it's still too early to say. And therefore, I must admit that it's kind of dim for us as well. Enterprise is developing well. We see also that under these circumstances, of course, need for risk management is good, but a little bit too early to say anything about any steep changes. It usually means that you need to have an even more clear risk scenario than we have at the moment to say anything about that. And last but not least, also, we have the interest rate cap. So if you want to add to the picture on that one, which we have in the end of the year?

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Yes. So starting from the interest rate gap. So yes, we expect that it will impact in the last quarter somewhat for the consumer credit business Finland's volumes. However, it's not going to 10% this time. So it's remaining at 15%. So we don't expect to see that drastic impact than we -- what we saw previous the last time. So a bit different views on different sides of the gulf, so to say. So for Q2, we now clearly see weakening consumer credit volumes for the Swedish markets. Finnish markets are still rather balanced or good, in that sense. But then probably what we are hoping for is then that the Swedish markets could start recovering towards the end of the year, whereas then Finland will be most likely impacted by this interest rate cap.

[Felix Henriksson, analyst]

And then moving on to the cost side. You're in pretty good pace already with your efficiency program level in Q1. So just how much of this -- what do you expect the sort of run rate to be during this year? How much of the sort of efficiencies will be achieved in 2023? And what will be left for 2024?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Yes. I can start in, you can continue. Now we have improved our margins, and we have improved our margins based on the activities that we have planned and acted upon since earlier, these efficiency margin improvements that we will see from the efficiency program is actually coming into place from Q2 and forward. And now the first quarter, as mentioned, this is mainly then connected to the negotiations and that we are fewer in total, 40 according to plan, and that has worked out well.

Now in addition to that, and what we're aiming for is a run rate on 8. So that still needs -- for example, I mentioned the pre-study that we're working on. That is an important part of this cost efficiency, whether we can continue with that kind of IT efficiency improvement, which is on a larger scale. We have quite many actually IT efficiency improvements that we are working on. But this is an important one. And then I think that maybe if we also have some numbers that we would like to connect to this already now. We have mentioned also that we have done a number of different efficiency measures like a new office, et cetera, et cetera. But would you like to continue to put any more numbers into these activities and what impacts when?

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Yes. So what we will see now in the coming 2 quarters is that we will have a small improvement in the progress. We are doing a lot of smaller activities, but then the bigger gains are related, especially to the IT-related activities, which we assume that run rate wise will partially start then realizing in the last quarter. But of course, we know that operationally, those are very -- there are a lot of challenges and risks related to those. So we want to proceed carefully in that sense. So we are not stating any exact target for this year. That's it.

[Felix Henriksson, analyst]

And I guess those savings will be the main tool for you to offset cost inflation for this year. And this is very clear. But perhaps just a final question related to pricing. You have been sort of hinting that you would be able to sort of implement these inflation index clauses into your longer-term contracts. And obviously, that will take time, once those longer contracts roll over that you get the benefit, but what's the sort of early feedback from customers, and especially larger customers? Are they sort of willing to take these kind of clauses into the contracts or is there some pushback?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Well, that was a difficult one. To start with, you are mentioning the larger, I would like to go back to the softer part, which is easier. We do have index clauses in quite many of our customers' agreements and we do raise prices. But as mentioned, that has not been the case with the larger customers in the same extent. And now we are now introducing index clause to all large and strategic customers and that will take time, as mentioned earlier. And of course, we are taking -- as mentioned earlier, we are talking about years. Usually, we have average contract time of about 3 years. So we are thinking that somewhere in 3, 4 years, then we are on pace on that one. Then of course, you can ask yourself what has happened with the inflation during that time.

So we are not leaning towards the index clause as such. We are leaning towards what's in our control. And the reactions, I think, as you can as you can expect, various, I think that right now, we are in an environment where, on one hand, index clauses are very much put it on the table for agreements, in general. But on the other hand, there is, of course, a strong pushback for efficiency and costs because we are all in the same boat in the macroeconomic circumstances. So I'm a little bit vague when I'm answering this when it comes to expectations. But I think we kind of need to stay awake on this one for a little longer. What we are not vague about is that we are introducing index clauses and that is what's going on.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Great. And then we have plenty of questions from the chat. So let's get started. So first of all, about the Swedish daily credit register. So how does it work? And what has changed from the old credit register that we had or how?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Yes. So I wouldn't -- I would like to say it's real-time updates, but it's not real-time updates as such. But it's actually that what happens now with the daily credit register is that you get a daily credit update. So it means that you have more relevant and real-time data to base your conclusion and decisions on. And what has changed now is that all our suppliers of data are delivering those on a daily matter, which means that all our data in Sweden is daily updated. And now, as I also mentioned earlier, about half of our customers are buying that. So there is, of course, still an upsell possibility here also in addition. But I think this is needed actually and especially in a time like this, where you need to have as relevant data as possible and time is also about relevance.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Good. Very good. And then perhaps to Elina, what was the gross margin improved -- was the gross margin improved due to less real estate information and less third-party costs? If so, how much?

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Well, the gross margin was slightly improved due to the fact that the data acquisition costs were basically flat. Our sales mix, of course, developed somewhat under that. Real estate information or real estate services in Finland as well as consumer marketing information services in Finland, those continued to decline under this market situation, whereas then consumer credit services in Finland still continue to grow and basically netted the cost impact. So I hope this helped to clarify that.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Let's hope so. Then what type of impact are you expecting on your current business from the Finnish and potential Swedish central credit registers? So the business impact from the public registers.

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

If we start with the Swedish one, it is actually a question which is impossible to answer because you need to know much more, A, if there will be one, which we have -- we don't know that; and B, if there is one, then that is very much depending also on how you develop that one. And it's even more also based on so what do we do in order to stay relevant and keep our position. So when it comes to Sweden, much too early to answer on to be concrete, but I would like to underline that we are very heavily involved in the investigation so that we can provide information when asked for, of course; B, we have a good understanding of different potential outcomes of it. We have been studying all of Europe and different outcomes, which different regions has taken.

We have also started and we -- I would say, even say, if I'm a little bit bold, that to some extent, we are already preparing for it, depending on how you see it. But it's a combination as always, on having the best data, having the best tech and having the best analytics. And that is how you stay relevant. When it comes to the Finnish credit register, I'm leaving over to you to get some numbers on that one, but we are actually already now on our way to look into -- not only look into, we are developing the solution for a Finnish credit register, and we start testing that one in Q3. So we feel fairly confident about both that we have a solution, which is fit for the market. We feel also fairly confident about what we know so far that we, with the pricing setup of that one will continue to also be relevant in the existing manner. So all in all, I'm still confident, if I may say so. Please, Elina.

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Yes, yes, I fully agree. We continue to be confident and whether what comes to business impact, we -- let's say, we see also a lot of opportunities when it comes to the Finnish consumer credit register. And we are not seeing any high risk what comes to our current position in that area.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Very good. Then moving on to Business Insights and Enterprise Solutions. So has the performance been in line with your initial assumptions going to this year? And is the increasing uncertainty in the economy and bankruptcies, should that be boosting the demand even further this year? Is that the right sort of expectation on?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

To start with, what we see now is that Business Insights is developing very nicely, as stated in the presentation today. And that is also according to what we are expecting. So it is developing according to expectations. And then whether we will see that bankruptcies will further drive the demand, yes, probably because the more risk we see in the environment, the more you are ready to pay for the data to take on de-risked decisions. So yes, the more risk, the more data is actually usually asked for and therefore, also our volumes go up, and we know that these are nice volumes.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Good. Anything you want to add or...

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

No, no, I think Jeanette covered well.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Good. And then a couple of questions or at least one question regarding acquisitions. So is that something that we are looking at right now, especially when the valuations have come down recently?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Yes. Yes. We do continue to look at M&A definitely. So it's a straight answer, yes.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Good. Short and sweet. All right. Your other operating costs declined quite much. Looking ahead, do you see that the cost savings coming from personnel costs or are you able to take further down other costs as well?

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Well, those will mainly now this year be coming from the personnel costs, clearly. As stated, we are taking actions on the IT side, but those impacts will be seen on full scale only in next years. results. So when it comes to other operating expenses, we see more of a -- somewhat more cost pressures on that side. For example, some of the maintenance-related costs and inflation clauses will only impact us from Q2 onwards. So there are also some cost increases on the other operating expenses side. But then, again, we will be realizing the savings on the personnel cost side more and more from Q2 onwards.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Good. Then let's move on to new services. And as the share was now increasing quite much compared to previous quarters. And given now the new services that you presented, they are still young, but are we now expecting that the share of new services will be sort of on a positive trend going forward as well?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Well, I think -- and I would like to actually say [wise] from last year that as is the KPI is kind of short, I think, in the way that it's based on 2 years, which we are looking into, whether that is the way forward. So coming back to this KPI, I think that -- of course, Swedish credit register, we have heard that I am saying that we have additional potential in that one.

And I would say that, that comes closer to making a difference within a time span of 2 years rather than if you go with the new service into a new market, like, for example, we have done now in Norway, that will take longer time because the customer base will need to get to know us from a new angle where they haven't seen us before. But still, we have a very good customer base. We have a strong brand. We are known for our data. So it will take longer time, but it's definitely very interesting. So in that sense, I think that it would be valuable to look at the KPI and the time span of it. I think we have new services, which are still triggering on a larger scale when it comes to revenue short term, if I may say, short term. And then I think we have now a number of new services coming into play, which might take a little bit longer time than the KPI is based on.

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Yes. Adding on to that, so now in the daily credit register, 50% of the customer revenues are implemented into the daily credit register, and we continue to add options. We do not expect to get 100% of customers in this year. But nevertheless, we will continue to see positive development, for example, from that service also in the coming quarters.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Good. And then 2 more to go. How much did the 10% consumer interest cap affect you earlier in euro terms per year?

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Well, I will not go into euros, but it was the decline that we saw in transaction levels was clearly double digit. So that had definitely a quite high impact on the demand, and that was due to the fact that the 10% cap is so low than some of the players even, let's say, left the markets and stopped totally lending. We don't currently expect that kind of development to happen on the 15%, but it will have some impact, definitely.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Yes. Good. And then the last one, will you have full access to Finnish public credit register and at what cost?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

At what cost we have access to it?

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Well, it will be with customer constant but by law. So that is how it works. And of course, we will need to pay the same price as anyone fetching the data from it and the data will be identified by the government. So we will not have any special terms with the government, unfortunately. So that's what we can say on that.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Yes, very good.

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

I hope that is what they meant. We will see. Otherwise, we will get more questions now.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Yes, exactly. Now we're done with the questions. So thank you very much, and thank you, everyone online and Felix here. And any closing words or should we just thank everyone and close session?

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

I think I will also kind of repeat that we're really happy to see now that we have been able to, with very conscious activities, get us into the level of efficiency we are into now. I think we have a good momentum in our operational excellence and our thinking of how we drive operational excellence, which actually is also extremely good for growth down the road because when we see that we have somewhat more favorable macroeconomic dynamics, which actually growing GDP, et cetera, would be, then we see that we also have -- we have also increased our efficiency in a way so that we can grow and not necessarily with the same amount of costs. So we are becoming smarter. I think that was the humble last word.

[Arto Paukku, executive]

Yes. Good conclusion for the session, I think. So thank you, everyone online, and have a great week.

[Jeanette Jager, executive]

Thank you.

[Elina Stråhlman, executive]

Thank you.