Pexip Holding ASA

OSE:PEXIP

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pexip's fourth quarter presentation. My name is Trond Johannessen, and I'm the CEO. I'm here at Lysaker together with Oystein Hem, our CFO; and Åsmund Fodstad, our Chief Revenue Officer; as well as Christine Arnesen, who is heading up our Investor Relations department. Together, we'll take you through the highlights of the fourth quarter and what we're focusing on going forward.

For today's presentation, the standard notice and disclaimer applies as always. Pexip was founded in 2011 and has grown to become a global technology company. We're building our business on unique technology. And our mission is powering video everywhere.

The Pexip platform provides video interactions within the public and private sector and in a wide range of industries and application areas. We do not compete with the major videoconferencing players for generic video meetings. We'd rather compete with them and complement their solutions where relevant.

We're serving more than 4,000 customers, mainly large organizations with complex needs for video communication.

Highlights from the fourth quarter. We left the fourth quarter with a team of 329 people. That's about 40% down from what we had in the middle of the second quarter. In Q4, we realized an additional NOK 189 million annualized cost reduction, leaving us now with an updated estimate for our cost base in 2023 of NOK 850 million, which is an improvement of about NOK 100 million from what we presented when we presented the third quarter. This cost base underpins our cash flow targets at the current revenue level going now into Q1. We're now well positioned for growth.

Within Secure Spaces, we have a growth in our recurring revenues in the fourth quarter alone of about 8%. We continue to strengthen our partnerships within Connected Spaces, and we estimate a positive impact from this on our ARR in medium term.

In the fourth quarter, we delivered revenues of NOK 260 million which is pretty much the same or about 2% below what we delivered last year. Total ARR leaving the fourth quarter was $99.6 million. The EBITDA in the fourth quarter was just below NOK 22 million, which is approximately double what we delivered in the fourth quarter last year. The cash flow was minus NOK 67 million leaving us with a cash position of NOK 419 million out of the quarter.

The financial targets for 2023 remain unchanged. We target a 20% plus growth in ARR within Secure Spaces and Video Innovation combined. We target flat to positive development in our overall revenues. We target an EBITDA of NOK 100 million to NOK 150 million with a NOK 40 million to NOK 60 million free cash flow, excluding one-offs.

Now to the business update, some more details. We now have a much leaner and more efficient organization than before. From the peak in the second quarter last year, we had -- where we had 571 employees, we now have approximately 330 people. The balance between technical and commercial resources is seen as healthy, and we have taken steps to reduce overhead to an absolute minimum.

Pexip is serving at least 2 slightly different market categories where the dynamics are different. In the connected spaces area, we serve a mature, well-established market where we have high market share and a market-leading product. We are the only independent provider in this increasingly consolidated market.

The sales channels are efficient and our partnerships with Microsoft and Google put us in a position to stay ahead. In total, this gives a highly profitable and cash-generating business.

Within the Secure and Custom Solutions area, we serve large and fast-growing markets, where Pexip's unique technology really gives us an advantage. The total market is growing and becomes more and more diversified as technology enables customized solutions.

The market is driven by an increased focus on security, with many organizations requiring total control and data sovereignty.

We also see an increased need for tailored solutions, and our flexible deployment methods and interoperability knowledge gives us an advantage here. So in summary, we have 2 different categories of markets that require 2 different strategies that we are actively applying in the market today.

Pexip is built on unique technology, and I cannot say this too many times. This is the reason why we are engaged in all these partnerships across the industry we're operating in and why we are able to serve attractive niches in the video market with leading solutions.

One of the key characteristics of our technology is transcoding. And transcoding is about centralizing data processing, reducing the dependency on the end point to deliver high-quality service. Also, Pexip's system architecture enables flexible deployment with self-hosting options. This is quite unique and in demand in the market today.

Within Connected Spaces, which is about infrastructure and interoperability, we continue to take steps to strengthen our position as technology leaders. We deliver the best user experience when connecting to any team's meeting from a meeting room. With the latest developments, you can attend any Teams, Google, Zoom or Webex meeting from a Pexip-enabled meeting room. This is regardless of whether the one that invites you to the meeting is using Pexip or not. We call this SIP guest join.

In addition, by using Pexip, you can take advantage of your existing endpoints longer and still have an optimal meeting experience. Naturally, this also plays well on the sustainability agenda.

Security and privacy is a real driver for our business today. And the current geopolitical situation has caused both governments and private companies to become more aware of where their critical data is stored and who has access to it.

Organizations are evaluating the risks of all their critical IT solutions and cyberattacks continue to escalate both in scale and complexity. So in this market, why is Pexip successful? Why are our customers choosing Pexip's solution in this market? Well, first of all, we can deliver complete control over where our customers decide to host their solution so that it's aligned with their organization's IT and security strategy.

In addition, Zero Trust is a term that's being used a lot these days. And Pexip's clean architecture allows us to easily work in Zero Trust environments. You do not have to trust Pexip to take advantage of our solutions.

Moreover, Pexip offers a modern solution that many organizations are looking for when they replace their older on-premise solutions like Skype for Business server or Jabber.

And finally, interoperability is a key differentiator. As always, Pexip can deliver interoperability with the different video services that our partnership with Rocket Chat enables us to do the same also for chat. So in combination, this is a powerful combination of unique selling points that help drive Pexip's success in the secure market.

We ended the fourth quarter with an ARR of $100 million, down from $101 million in the previous quarter. If we exclude the legacy areas from this picture, we had a small growth in underlying ARR in our core business through the quarter.

Self-hosted software stands for a little more than half of the ARR and Europe is still our biggest region. As before, we need to go a little bit below these totals to understand the dynamics in the different solution areas, and Åsmund will help share some light on this.

[Åsmund Fodstad, executive]

Thank you, Trond. Let me explain dynamics in the different market segments and Pexip's continued success, for Secure Spaces and especially in public sector, Pexip have a very strong momentum and with our unique technology and solutions. The underlying growth is the year-over-year 60%.

Increased awareness for cybersecurity speaks to an attractive market opportunity for Pexip solutions.

In Q4, Pexip continues to win large marquee logos, for Secured Spaces, another major Swedish public organization for a total contract value of USD 3.5 million over 5 years. So why do Pexip win? Pexip's unique highly secured solution based on a 100% on-premises solution. No one else can offer that.

Secondly, Pexip's ability to offer a complete and modern public sector offering, including secured chat as well as integration to their workflows. In fact, replacing their old Skype for Business solution for 14,000 users overnight. We are the only one.

As this organization is growing rapidly, Pexip's technology is second to none when it comes to our ability to either scale up or down for that sake and to provide them with an enterprise-wide agreement gives the customer the predictability they require. Their customer is expected to grow and expand over the 5-year period.

Looking at Video Innovation. Video Innovation is an immature market but represents a large potential, and we see increased market traction in attractive segments, for Pexip Engage, previously known as Skedify, we had a strong Q4 with a 15% growth.

In Q4, Pexip secured a 3-year agreement with the biggest mortgage consultant they service in the Netherlands with our Video Innovation solution, Pexip Engage, the customer being the De Hypotheker.

So why do Pexip win De Hypotheker? Number one, Pexip's unique technology when it comes to scheduling, and integration with their existing work tools like websites, customer portals, CRM, ERM and their entire Office 365 solutions.

Secondly, enabling De Hypotheker brand and professionalize their own products, not just inviting the Zoom or Teams meeting, but to have a business professional solution by providing a 1 single branded user experience when they talk to the customer. Again, Pexip is unique here.

And thirdly, security is also of importance, unique security and GDPR compliance is of essence for a professional organization like De Hypotheker and of course, for their customers, their branches and partners when they discuss mortgages online. Security is of the highest importance. De Hypotheker is also expected to further expand and potentially grow over the 3-year period.

Then on Connected Spaces. In 2022, Pexip continued innovation to regain our technology leadership and to expand this market space. the SIP guest join that Trond just mentioned before will yet again improve the user experience and is being powered by Pexip. We just make it seamless and it's easier to use.

In spite of course, a much more competitive space here, Pexip continued to win major logos in this market, both Fortune 500 company and the largest banks in the Nordics. Some claim that this market is dead but looking at the numbers and the wins that Pexip is, that is certainly not the case.

So why do we win these logos? Let's use that Nordic Bank as an example. We win because of the Pexip's unique user experience in integrating Microsoft and Cisco, not replacing. We provide a Microsoft Team solutions on -- to any meeting no matter the software or the hardware platform being used. No one else actually do that.

Second, Pexip additional features like end point registration, management systems, One-Touch Joins makes the maintenance of a videoconferencing estate just better and easier for the customer. It's unique across platforms for Pexip.

And thirdly, this bank is basically revisiting its communication strategy and the fact that Pexip can deliver both Video Innovation and secure communication platforms, in addition to this Connected Spaces solution makes us a preferred choice going forward in discussion with the bank.

The bank just deployed approximately 40% of their existing video conferencing estate on the connected space solution, and it is expected to further expand and grow this as well as other Pexip's solutions over the years to come.

Looking at the ARR development for Q4 is at a neutral level. The legacy area is driving both downsell and churn for Q4 as expected. Sales to new customer continues being strong, USD 13 million last 12 months.

And lastly, Pexip had several initiatives like the price increase to partly compensate for what a somewhat negative trend in churn.

And with that, I will hand it over to Oystein for more details on the financials. Oystein?

[Øystein Hem, executive]

Thank you, Åsmund. Let me start off with an update on our cost reduction program. The cost-reduction program is progressing well. And in Q4, we realized an additional NOK 189 million in annualized savings. This is a result of both lower costs on the P&L but also lower cost put on the balance sheet, especially related to contract costs.

On top of the reduction in Q3, this means that we are close to realizing NOK 400 million in savings from our baseline in Q2 of 2022. In addition, through Q4, we implemented further reductions, reducing the number of employees in Pexip, which is the main driver of the cost base in Pexip. This, we will start to see effect of on the P&L in Q1.

With these measures now implemented, we're lowering our estimates for our 2023 cost base to NOK 850 million. This is close to NOK 500 million lower than our baseline in Q2 and is underpinning our 2023 EBITDA and cash flow targets.

Moving the focus to the P&L and looking at Q4, we landed on a revenue of NOK 260 million. This is a slight decrease from Q4 of last year and is related to revenue from software contracts. This is a result of a lower ARR but also fewer multiyear contracts in 2022 compared to 2021. This is partly balanced by a stronger U.S. dollar, which is impacting our revenues positively.

On EBITDA, we're starting to see the impact of the cost reduction program. And we have an improved EBITDA adjusted for restructuring costs compared to 2021 now in Q4. This means that for the full year, Pexip had revenues of NOK 867 million, which is up 8% compared to 2021.

On EBITDA, adjusted for restructuring costs, we delivered minus NOK 184 million due to the 2 high-cost level at the start of 2022. With our target of NOK 100 million to NOK 150 million in EBITDA for 2023, this means that we're targeting an improvement on year-on-year EBITDA of around NOK 300 million for 2023, which will take us from negative cash flow to a positive one.

In addition to revenue and EBITDA, we are reporting lower cost of goods sold now in Q4 compared to Q4 last year. This is despite stronger asset service revenues this year compared to last and is a result of efficiency measures in our Software-as-a-Service production, but also some one -- beneficial one-offs at year-end effects.

Salary and personnel expenses are slightly up from Q4 of last year while other operating expenses are significantly down, meaning that we, in total, have NOK 18 million in lower cost Q4 of 2022, compared to Q4 of 2021.

Below the EBITDA line, we have higher depreciation this quarter related to the purchase of a service provider portfolio that Pexip purchased at the start of this year. This asset has now been reclassified from goodwill to intangible assets and is then depreciated over 10.5 months in 2022, of which the full effect is now reported in Q4. This takes us to an operating loss in Q4 of minus NOK 52 million or minus NOK 360 million for the full year of 2022. With this, I give the word back to Trond.

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

Thank you, Oystein. Now to the summary and outlook. Profitability, positive cash flow and getting back to overall growth is on top of our agenda. We target an EBITDA of NOK 100 million to NOK 150 million in 2023, with the NOK 40 million to NOK 60 million free cash flow.

We did exit the Q4 with an EBITDA of NOK 22 million, showing that the cost reductions have had the desired effect and that we are on our way back to real profitability.

Obviously, like for many companies today, the macro environment is impacting how our customers make their purchasing decisions. And most notably for us, it's about slightly longer sales cycles than we have seen before.

In the Secure Spaces, as we talked about during the presentation, we see continued good traction. The increased security and data privacy focused globally is visible in the number of customer dialogues and close deals that we have.

Growth in Secure Spaces was almost 10% in Q4 alone, which gives us confidence in our target for 20% plus growth in Secure Spaces and Video Innovation for 2023.

For the first quarter of this year, we estimate an ARR out of the quarter in the range of USD 97 million to USD 100 million. However, for the full year of 2023, we target a flat to positive development in total revenues. And the legacy areas are estimated with a negative effect in this target.

Partnerships with both the technology giants like Microsoft and Google but also other players that integrate with our solutions are key to our development and an area that we do spend a lot of time on. It's comforting to see that our technology leadership and differentiated position in the market continue to provide and attract interesting partnership opportunities.

Last point before we go to Q&A, we have our annual report coming out on March 29. We have the Annual General Meeting on April 20, and we will present our Q1 on the 4th of May.

Now Christine will help us go through the Q&A.

[Christine Arnesen, executive]

Thank you, Trond. I will start with the questions from the analysts that are with us live. We are joined -- all right. We are joined by Kristoffer and Kristian from Arctic Securities. Let's start with the questions from you.

[Kristoffer Haugland, analyst]

So with the revised costs lower by NOK 90 million, reiterate your revenue guidance, but you maintain your EBITDA guidance. Could you please provide some color on that?

[Øystein Hem, executive]

So I think even in our -- what we said last time is that regardless of revenues that we will deliver on our EBITDA targets. And we already had these cost estimates in line with setting that target. However, now we are comfortable in giving a new estimate for our cost base as well. So at the current point in time, we don't feel it's prudent to increase the EBITDA guidance until we're sort of a bit further into there.

[Kristoffer Haugland, analyst]

Got it. And are you happy with the current headcount? Or are you planning to skim down more, maybe start from higher again when you see growth returning?

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

I think we -- the current organization seems to be working well. It's balanced. We have the appropriate commercial resource. We have the appropriate technical resource to on the targets. But it's a dynamic picture this, and we need to see how it develops through the year, and we will probably make business as usual adjustments like every company does depend that's both up and down, depending on how it develops.

[Christine Arnesen, executive]

Thank you. Any additional questions from you, Kristian? Or should we move on?

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

You're muted.

[Kristian Spetalen, analyst]

There you go. Can you hear me now?

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

Yes. Yes.

[Kristian Spetalen, analyst]

Good, good. Could you just elaborate a bit on the visibility you have on growth here? You say revenues flat to positive, Video Innovation, Secure Spaces, 20% plus. And Connected Spaces as well, what kind of visibility do you have there?

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

Yes, I think the visibility is reflected in the estimates that we give you. And it is, we are working on some larger deals that could tilt it in the positive direction. On the other hand, there could be negative effects going in the other direction. So it's difficult to actually give more color to that picture the way it is right now. We're trying to guide on the quarter, and this is how we guide $97 million to $100 million for the first quarter this year, which is relatively -- which is lower than what we expect for the year. So there needs to be a progression through the year in the development in the ARR, and that's kind of the visibility we have right now, and that's what we believe in. And there are things we're working on that we believe will contribute to that development.

[Kristian Spetalen, analyst]

And we came across an article a few weeks ago with, I mean, since there's been a lot of activity in the Secure Spaces segment in the public sector in Sweden. There was a large deal in Stockholm that went to Zoom. I think it was $1 million. Could you elaborate on why perhaps you did not win that contract?

[Øystein Hem, executive]

Yes. So happy to do so. I think in any market, it will be difficult to win all contracts. And I think if you look at the Swedish market as a whole, we have very strong momentum in that market, including now in Q4 and so far looking good for 2023 as well.

On the specific deal in Stockholm, they have then chosen a vendor, which is providing a cloud service out of Germany, which they have received a fair amount of pushback on as well, even from the sort of public body that presented these recommendations on basically how to procure cloud services in Sweden. So I don't think the final word is said in that matter, but sort of why the customer chose the way that it choses, it's difficult for me to comment on in detail. But we're confident in our ability to continue to do well in that segment. And I think we have the track record to show that, that confidence is justified.

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

And it's a market that's in its kind of early stage -- in its early stages of forming which solutions will be out there, what is acceptable, what's not acceptable based on the regulations that are in place in Sweden. So I'm not surprised that we're seeing a bit of back and forth before we land on the right solutions going forward.

[Kristian Spetalen, analyst]

Looking a bit for, again, my last question. You have a quite strong cash position now, more than NOK 400 million, and you're guiding on positive free cash flow going forward? So what are the plans to do with that cash position I asked you last quarter as well. Then you wanted to wait until you prove the cost cuts, which you kind of have now with the headcount. So could you give any color on alternatives that you might explore with this?

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

I think the alternatives are quite obvious what they could be. And I think you're right that we are closer to having a view on how we should evaluate these different options. And, but still, I think it's premature to have that discussion here. It's something that the Board needs to look at in the near future.

[Christine Arnesen, executive]

Thank you. We have also received the following questions on e-mail. First, what's the reason for salary expenses being relatively high in Q4 compared to Q3 and Q4 last year, considering the significant reduction in employees.

[Øystein Hem, executive]

So if we compare to Q4 because I think Q3 last year, you have the impact of holiday pay, which are lower EBIT or lower salary expenses in Q3. In Q4 last year, we had an average of, I think, just above 500 employees, whereas in this quarter of Q4 this year, we had an average of just around 450. So while we've reduced significantly now at the end of Q4, we won't see the impact of that on the P&L until we're into Q1 next year. That's the biggest driver.

Then obviously, on Europe comparison, you do have slightly higher salaries on a per employee basis this year, but you also have a decent impact of the exchange rate. Pexip having a lot of employees, both in the Eurozone, in the U.S., in Asia is impacted by the lower, Norwegian kroner now in Q4 this year compared to last year, which then increases salary expenses.

Net though, that's a positive development for Pexip because we have -- also have all of our revenues in U.S. dollars, in euros and pounds. So net capital-wise, that's a good thing for us.

[Christine Arnesen, executive]

Thank you. Next question is, what kind of amount are you expecting on a quarterly and annual basis, specifically for salary expenses for 2023?

[Øystein Hem, executive]

Can you repeat that?

[Christine Arnesen, executive]

What kind of amount are you expecting on a quarterly and annual basis on salary expenses?

[Øystein Hem, executive]

So while I won't give a specific estimate on a per quarter basis. I think it's important to take into account the full impact of salary, which is basically it's what we report as salary and employee benefit expenses is what we -- most of what we report on CapEx and software development, and it's what we report as the difference in contract costs. And I also think if you take into account the impact on the balance sheet costs. You see an even bigger saving this year compared to last year.

That being said, this is -- I would expect a decrease in salary expenses, which is more or less in line with the impact of the employee reduction that we've done from Q3 this year to Q4 this year in 2022.

[Christine Arnesen, executive]

Thank you. And with that, I think we conclude our Q&A session.

[Øystein Hem, executive]

Thank you, everyone.

[Trond Johannessen, executive]

Okay. Thank you very much.