Observe Medical ASA

OSE:OBSRV

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Rune Nystad, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this third quarter presentation of Observe Medical.

My name is Rune Nystad. I'm the CEO of the company. And with me today, I have Per Arne Nygård, CFO, who will be participating in this presentation.

It has really been a busy quarter and a quarter yielding progress and some really great opportunities that we will speak about today.

From this point forward, this presentation will be held in English.

If you look at observes -- Observe Medical's portfolio and which is also today's agenda. We have the -- a Biim device, which is an ultrasound device. We have a Nordic portfolio consisting of various products being sold primarily in Sweden. And then we have Sippi. And today, we are adding the UnoMeter portfolio, subject to the presentation. And it's highlighted in the presentation that this is well connected and a natural connection between the Sippi and the UnoMeter portfolio.

If we look at Observe Medical as a company. Our long-term goal is still to reach NOK 1 billion revenue and beyond. That is our goal and that's what we work for every single day. And the -- I mentioned the UnoMeter, which is a step in that direction together with the rest of the portfolio that is in Observe Medical today, yes. Our focus has been and is on the health economics, the patient welfare and data accuracy; and we find that in our portfolio as well.

So what will take us there? And this is also mentioned in the past, we are looking at significant growth opportunities. Biim, Sippi, the UnoMeter are examples of that. We are looking for synergy opportunities, for accelerated rollout. The UnoMeter is an example of that. It's a large portfolio with a global reach and proven clinical benefits, very important. And we are also focusing to have a strong management team. And we have also an example of that, the most recent hire of our technical chief: Carsten, who came from Fresenius, has -- is such an example of resources and talent and skills that we need to add to the organization to deliver on what we are set to do.

If we look back into -- back in Q3, Sippi. We mentioned before that we had to relocate the manufacturing site of the device due to the closedown of a factory in a OEM partner we had in -- who had their business in Belarus, so we have located a new manufacturing partner. We have arranged for production. We are doing some verification testing, which is the last steps before we officially start production of Sippi in this new site. We continue to work with distributors. We do see an increased request for the Sippi device not only in Europe but also in South America and also from Asia.

We have worked to prepare the organization. Today, we're a fairly small team, but we need to be strong and add resources as we plan execution of Sippi. MDR is a word that many of you have heard. It's also a readiness activity for some of our resources as well, and we have had progress on that in the last quarter.

Let's talk about Biim for a few minutes. We are strongly supporting Fresenius with the training. The project is going according to plan. They have specific steps to take to go all -- or into all clinics in the U.S. that they need to have in place before they take that big step. So I see a company who's dedicated and a company who's willing to implement ultrasound into every clinic in the U.S. And I have maintained my weekly dialogue with the executive team, members of the executive team, at Fresenius in order to keep the project on track. We have done things like educational videos. These are our training videos that we have implemented and added to the -- to Fresenius' internal training system, so I'm optimistic that we will continue with -- seeing progress with Fresenius and -- yes.

If we look at Nordic sales and the distribution platform. The task there is to -- really to chase tenders, which we continue to do. And we are trying to add products to the portfolio. We have a product range, but we are both working to add products to the portfolio. UnoMeter and the Convatec deal is an tremendous opportunity for that sales organization, where we cannot only expand our business in Sweden but also in Nordic, in Norway, Denmark and Finland.

And we continue, like I said, with the organizational work. We have added Carsten Bøgh, global experience with Fresenius in Europe, Asia and U.S. And he is already well into doing what he's hired to do.

Financially. Our revenues were NOK 3.4 million with a good gross margin of 41%. The EBITDA is minus NOK 10.7 million, as we continue to invest in all areas. Our cash is shy of NOK 25 million. If we look at the equity situation, our equity is NOK 160.8 million with a equity ratio of 70.8%.

Let's go back to talk some more about the UnoMeter. This is huge. This is very exciting for a company like Observe. This is according to strategy. This is also an example of, if you work closely with a bigger corporation, this is what you sometimes in life can achieve. It's a market-leading portfolio in the segment. The annual revenue is about EUR 18 million for sales in Europe and some countries in South America and Australia. The asking price, USD 4.2 million with really healthy margins.

So why the connection between, yes, Sippi and UnoMeter? Well, at every bedside where you see a UnoMeter, there's a spot for Sippi, so that's why this is of such an interest for us. And not only that, and we spoke about this in the CEO letter: The products and the brand names are visualized here on the display on the screen. And this takes us to more than 600 distributors. Convatec will introduce us and assist in opening up those channels for Observe as well. The products are being sold in more than 50 countries. These are patented. We take over ownership of the patents as well. And these are also well-established brand names in the industry.

So what took place? To give you some of the background to our connection to Convatec. When they announced in May that we were -- that they were closing down their factory in Belarus, we reached out to them, showing our interest in the portfolio. And we have worked with them throughout the summer quite a bit. And at the end of the day, in competition with others, their conclusion was that Observe Medical was the most suited company to do this. They are in the same space, but we're not competing with Convatec elsewhere with the rest of their business. So that's the short version of the -- what led up to the agreement that we currently have with Convatec.

So brand names like the UnoMeter 500, the UnoMeter Safeti Plus and the UnoMeter Abdo-Pressure are well-known products and brand names used by nurses all over the world. And that says really much about what a fantastic opportunity this is for the company.

The deal rationale. It's fast track. This is a big leap on the revenue side for Observe Medical. It has a strong market position, quite unique, in several countries. We're talking about 90% position in the space. When you add a product to your own portfolio this way, it's low risk. There is no R&D. There is no research. There is no risk of failing building this product. It's proven. It has regulatory approval, et cetera, et cetera, so this is a job for me and my team to simply set up production, push the products into the same channels as Convatec and see how far we can go with the UnoMeter portfolio. And of course, the network is enormous being able to work with more than 600 distributors globally.

So looking ahead based on this. I have been now with the company for a few months. I think we are turning a corner with UnoMeter. This is an add-on to the story we have told so far and what the company [ has spent ] so far.

So if you look at Sippi and Biim. We continue to support Fresenius with this multi-clinic effort. There is more than 3,000 clinics in the U.S. alone. That is the plan is to introduce or sell the Biim ultrasound device too, so we continue the weekly effort with that. With the Sippi, it's all about getting this ready for production after -- since we have identified a new manufacturing partner.

The UnoMeter process. This is a big task for us, but it's doable. We have to set up production since the factory has closed down. The regulatory, everything is in place. This is a market-approved device, being sold today even, so there is not much on us to do for market clearance. Resources, we have to build an organization to support this type of an effort. With sales, we have a big task following up to distributors, but we are being introduced to all of them. And that's an easy task finding them. And company overall, we need to add to our organization to do business in more than 50 countries through more than 600 distributors. That's -- that requires more than -- more resources than what we have today.

So looking forward, looking at the company that we are, nothing has really changed. This is what we are here to do and this is what we have said before that we are going to do. So we believe that this is a significant opportunity to be added to existing business of Observe Medical and a big step forward to become a NOK 1 million (sic) [ NOK 1 billion ] company and beyond.

With this, I end the presentation and take your questions.

[Per Nygård, executive]

We have got some questions from the web, mostly financial questions to -- you'll start answering. I will follow up. It's about the result onwards, about when we will see a positive EBIT result; and revenue guiding for next year. Will you start, Rune?

[Rune Nystad, executive]

Yes. This is a question we have seen before too. With the UnoMeter process throughout the summer, we are much closer to be able to communicate that. We still need some more work with the Board and internally to fully answer that question, but what I said today, this is a EUR 18 million opportunity with healthy profit margins. That will help. So we will fully answer that question later.

[Per Nygård, executive]

Yes, yes. I support that. And as Rune mentioned in his in -- presentation, we have our revenue ambition. And this possibility we have now will accelerate this process, so -- but we need to come back later with the exact guiding for next year and the result guiding, I think, yes.

And also a question about the financing of the transaction. How will Observe Medical finance the transaction?

[Rune Nystad, executive]

Yes. This is a subject we are -- we will continue to work with the Board to resolve. I have to point out that with Convatec we are -- we have -- still have a final agreement to be made with them for the full acquisition. And part of that process is to also decide and work with them how we pay for this opportunity, so that's yet to be concluded.

[Per Nygård, executive]

Yes, yes. And we have a close dialogue with the Board of Directors and also with major shareholders in Observe Medical, so we will come back when we have more detail about the financing. And we, yes, will look in different solutions, yes.

Yes, that's the question we got from the web. I don't know if we have any questions from the audience. No.

[Rune Nystad, executive]

All right, no questions from the audience, so thank you very much.