Q-Free ASA

OSE:QFR

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Thale Solberg, executive]

Welcome to Q3's presentation of the second quarter and first half year results from 2023. My name is Thale Kuvas Solberg, and I'm the CEO and President of Q-Free ASA. And with me today presenting is also our CFO, Trond Christensen. There will be opportunities to ask questions, and please do that by using our chat function. And the Q&A presentation will be at the end.

First of all, I want to share with you some of the highlights on the financial results in the second quarter and first half year of 2023. In Q3, we ended up with growth year-on-year on 52% in recurring revenue with a calculated ARR of NOK 481 million. We have NOK 290 million in revenue, and that is up 36% year-on-year and is mainly driven by product deliveries.

In the second quarter, we ended up with NOK 33 million in EBITDA, which gives a margin of 11% and also NOK 7 million in net cash flow from operations. Our order intake in the second quarter ended up NOK 284 million. That gives us an order backlog of NOK 1,419 million.

Summing that up for the first half year of 2023. We ended up with a total revenue of NOK 534 million, which is actually a year-on-year growth of 25%. We ended up with an order intake on the first half year of NOK 473 million. So all in all, a very good second quarter and first half year of 2023.

Before we go into a more deep dive in the financial results from our CFO, I want to share with you a bit of glimpse on Q-Free as a company. Q-Free is a global market player. We are in the intelligent transportation services, and we provide technology that is serving communities across the globe. We are in the DSRC tolling globally as well as traffic management in North America. And we are an industry-leading tech company with unique references in more than 50 markets around the globe.

From an organizational perspective, we are 350 industry professionals with an unrivaled experience and know-how, having been in the industry for more than 40 years. We have a strategic plan going forward, and we are using the time now to also review our strategy for the future. We have an attractive standard of financial focusing on recurring revenue and the recurring revenue base is growing.

So why do we go to work every day? Well, Q-Free is developing technology that is solving some of the global challenges that we see across the globe. There is increased urbanization, more people are living in cities, thereby also ensuring there's more pollution in the cities. And we want to ensure that traffic flow and traffic is being conducted safely across the globe.

We have collected our solutions into 3 main pillars: Q-Flow, which is all about optimizing how people and goods are moving in both cities and interurban; Q-Safe, which is all about making the roads and travel more safe; and Q-Clean, which is stimulating sustainable transportation, which we're now seeing an increased focus on, especially in the European cities and congestion charging and low emission zones.

So all in all, the technology that we have been levered for 40 years with our industry experience now is really a pivoting time for our technology, and we see an increased demand in the market space, not only in Europe, also in U.S. and worldwide.

In Q-Free, we really have the whole value chain. We have hardware, firmware and software. And we both develop and deliver world-class technology. In Tolling, we are leading in our DRC technology. We have world-class ALPR in image systems. We have scalable tolling software and back-office platforms, and we're also looking into the future road user charging.

On the traffic management point of view, we did last year launch our new industry-leading software platform, Kinetic Mobility. We deliver traffic controls and cabinets across the globe and also infomobility solutions with weigh-in-motion technology in counties.

As I said, we are a truly global company. We are in 14 different markets around the globe and also, our organization is based with people both in Americas where 30% of our employees are based, in Europe with 60% of our employees and in the Asia Pacific with more 10% of our employees.

I want to spend some time giving you some of the market highlights from the last quarter. So in the second quarter 2023, we have been working on scaling for impact. In a Traffic Management or ATMS portfolio and projects, we have spent a lot of time on innovating and pivoting on technology.

We have therefore launched Software as a Service for the entire kinetic mobility platform last quarter, and we also launched our AI-enabled Velocity processor for traffic controllers. On the market side, we had an extension of our SaaS contract in the U.S. with a value of NOK 25 million.

So the other highlights from a Tolling perspective is that we have delivered a road system equipment project in Northern Spain. That's now finalized. And we also started a replacement here in Norway with all of the roadside equipment team. We had a win in Norway for NOK 27 million, also a win in Australia for NOK 19 million. Intrada Insight contracts in the U.S. worth NOK 26 million as well as OBU contract in Chile worth NOK 15 million. And this is just some of the highlights, which is also that we're building on going forward.

From a technology point of view, Q-Free is investing in the future. I did mention this in the last quarter presentation as well, but kinetic mobility is for us the essence of how can we ensure a seamless platform where we have third-party integrators, and we are now connecting systems across urban, interurban and infomobility in a one single off-shelf system with modules that can scale.

And in the second quarter 2023, we launched Kinetic Mobility as a SaaS subscription advanced software for the entire platform. That gives us opportunity to sell and provide this to both our small customers, which do not necessarily want to host everything themselves, but actually can have that as a Software as a Service.

Looking into some of the other aspects of technology advancements that we made in the second quarter. We did launch the Velocity. It's the first fully ARM-based processor in the traffic signal industry. What does that mean? That actually gives us the power at the edge, meaning that we can bring AI and machine learning out from the cloud and out to the field where the traffic signals are actually situated.

It gives us a whole new range of opportunities for data analysis, and it gives us the power to produce data and also provide data as a service going forward. We think this is a game changer with regards to how we can utilize data and provide that to our customers going forward. Because the intersections is really a hub for data is where we can have detection, connected vehicles, data from priority signal solutions, video processing and many other applications, which will going forward be necessary to have computing power at the edge. So we launched this just last week with very good attention in the market space, and we are happy to share more information on this going forward. .

So what is the outlook for the ITS industry? There's no doubt that the ITS industry is growing. And why is that? Well, there's a combination of technology advancements is increasing traffic challenges that we see across the globe. It's more focused on security and safety but also now the impressing sustainability goals that we see in many countries and cities around the globe, supported by shift in government, which is now providing regulation and funding that is now supporting the ITS industry's technology. But we also see the economic benefit of having free flowing traffic that is minimizing pollution in our cities.

And this is just really emphasized by the 100 European cities, which are now committed to become climate neutral by 2050 and reducing the greenhouse gases by emissions. And this is important and is really part of the essence of what we do here in Q-Free because the transportation sector is actually accounted for more than 20% of the global greenhouse emissions and more than 40% is coming from private cars.

So ensuring that we have technology that is emphasizing on how can make traffic flow with less stop, start, stop as well as ensuring that people are coming safely and with less pollution. And it is a huge industry going forward. It's estimated at a value of USD 67.2 billion in 2028.

And what are really those drivers for growth? As I mentioned, there's a need of efficient transportation as more people are going into the cities living there. It's increased urbanization, more congestion as well as air pollution and really inefficient transportation systems in many countries. We have the help of technology advancements. I mentioned that we're already now looking into how do we utilize artificial intelligence even more going forward.

We have been using AI in our systems and products for many, many years, and this is just escalating, opening new opportunities. As Internet of Things, it's connectivity and data analysis, and we do believe that data analysis will be key also going forward. And as always, safety and security concerns. We are looking into how do we ensure that automated emergency response systems can be introduced, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which is now coming to be more and more present to avoid accidents and improve safety for all.

And as I mentioned, environmental sustainability, it is in the forefront of this industry. We have been working with sustainability as part of our DNA for many, many years. And we are escalating this journey, taking it back also to our product development processes, ensuring that this is on top of mind and also what we deliver to our customers.

The growth in the ITS industry is also driven by the government initiatives. As I presented in the last quarterly presentation, there is now a shift in the U.S. where there are a lot more funds to Department of Transportation in cities to ensure that they are investing in infrastructure, which is also smart city technology. And as always, economic benefits with less traffic jams and pollution, fewer accidents, it is for the greater good of all.

So on the market outlook, we are continuously shaping our markets and business. We are continuously adapting our organization, our investments and also a portfolio to ensure that we are on the speed of this technology. We do see a trend in growing demand for toll and infrastructure. We see higher urban and inter-urban traffic requirements, which is needed by digitalization and also, as I mentioned, the political push. We will continue to ensure that we are in the forefront of the technology, and we are continuing our investments in this. And that means also that we are producing scalable solutions, which are driving our recurring revenue base going forward. So we have been in a process of ease to really focus within Tolling and Traffic Management.

We have the last year's works on developing scalable solutions, which we are now selective markets targeting. We are expanding our presence. And part of the strategy process that we are now currently in is ensuring how do we utilize partnerships and technology going forward and both have organic and bolt-on growth.

As part of this, I just want to emphasize the principle for growth in the period coming forward. We will continue to focus on our core markets and regions. We will continue to build recurring revenue, focusing on long-term perspectives, both in business and partnerships. And we'll emphasize on building a portfolio of standardized scalable solutions with a high innovative capacity to meet our customers' needs, both today and tomorrow.

And we do see there's a lot of synergies within our company. So emphasizing on the fact that we are now building One Q-Free is key, where sustainability is part of our DNA and decision-making processes. And we will conduct opportunistic acquisitions where products, markets or competency are bolt-on to our industry and business.

So on the way forward, I just want to share with you that we are planning to have a Capital Markets Day in the second half of 2023, where we will detail more on our strategy, product road maps and market outlook. Also, as we have this shift for recurring revenue, we will from the third quarter onwards have a principle of announcing to the stock market any annual recurring revenue contracts of a value of NOK 2 million or more as well as all contracts with an expected value of NOK 15 million or more.

So this gave you a brief insight into Q3 our market outlooks and our achievements for the second quarter as well as first half year of 2023. And I now want to give the word to our CFO, Trond Christensen, who will give you more detail on the financial updates.

[Trond Christensen, executive]

I'll start by repeating the 5 kind of key takeaways from this quarter. We have a very solid revenue growth this quarter, 36% year-on-year. Our recurring revenue keeps showing substantial growth, and we're now at the level of NOK 455 million as an annual run rate. We have improved our EBITDA year-on-year and have continued very strong backlog of more than NOK 1.4 billion. Also, our balance sheet remain very strong, and we are now in excess of 50% equity share.

Financial summary shows a total revenue of NOK 290 million and an EBITDA of NOK 33 million, which is a bit up from same period last year. It's worth mentioning that high turnover always decreases a little bit on our gross margin. In quarters where we have a high turnover, it's partially because we have increased product sales and product sales always have a slightly lower margin than systems and projects and definitely a lower margin than software, which is at a more stable level. So the margin is very much affected by the level of revenue.

As we mentioned, EBITDA is up from last year. Even if we keep investing a lot in not only capital expenditures but also in hiring key personnel in both commercial and product and development to make sure that we build Q-Free for the future.

Plus 36% on revenue. As I mentioned, it's a lot driven by product sales, which has been very good this quarter. We see now that there's less issues with supply chain situation and it's a decent market out there with good requests from customers in both business areas, both Tolling and Traffic Management.

We are continuously working to look at our capacity to make sure that we are able to fulfill every request that comes from our customers and win as much as this as we can continuously but a very solid revenue growth. We are, of course, especially proud by the development in our recurring revenue. We have been very clear for a long time now more than a year that Q-Free is in a transition to move into more recurring revenue to ensure that we have a very solid base of customers and revenue that can secure and stabilize our long-term profit. Again, a quarter with very, very good growth year-on-year.

A couple of things worth mentioning. It's that we will not always be able to continue growing like this. It's kind of obvious. We won't be able to have the same steep growth. It will flatten out eventually even if it shall definitely grow in absolute terms. Also, we have a few people asked us that, okay, do you have kind of a target or an objective of how large percentage share of your revenue should be recurring.

We don't follow that very closely because we are and we will continue to be a company which is also very much involved in projects, one-off deliveries and, of course, product sales that will not be reported as recurring. And this is still a profitable business. So we're not turning away from that to become a pure recurring revenue company. But recurring revenue is a target area, and we will continue to grow it over time even if it will vary a little bit from quarter-to-quarter, and we will not be able to keep the growth as steep as it has been for the last few quarters.

Revenue growing in both segments, both on quarterly but also on half yearly basis. As I mentioned, some are growing revenue growth now is fueled by product sales since we see the supply chain situation and the sourcing of components at a much more healthy level than before. We also see that some of our customers on the product side who have been a little bit holding back a bit after Corona -- I mean kind of the start of the Corona. They're now running out of products and are sending more requests our way.

And we are continuously working on our capacity to make sure that we can fulfill the requests that we get from customers. But in general, it looks healthy, and we are involved in a lot of bidding and potential contracts in both segments that give great opportunities throughout the remainder of the year and the coming years.

Another strong quarter EBITDA-wise, NOK 33 million. It's up from the same quarter last year, not by a lot, by 5% and but also second quarter 2022 was a pretty strong quarter. So we are altogether very happy about this outcome. And it's, again, very important to remind you that we are these days investing a lot in both commercial resources and technology and development to further strengthen the company for the growth to come and new products and new technologies.

And even if we have increased what we capitalize, we also have a lot of these things that run through on the operating expenses. So to be able to present you our result with an EBITDA of NOK 33 million in this situation, we are quite happy with it.

Especially Tolling had a very good quarter. Traffic Management was slightly down this quarter year-on-year but is significantly up on the half year and that's what really matters. So both segments are doing okay in our opinion. Again, Tolling is kind of more fluctuating based on product sales, while Traffic Management is trying to build a more and more stable basis based on the new software solutions that they are working on.

Also, a decent order intake this quarter. We are on more or less 1 in book-to-bill, which is good when we have a quarter with such a high turnover. And there's a lot out there in the pipeline. So we are very happy and confident with that and had a total order intake of NOK 284 million on the quarter, almost 50-50 between the 2 business areas. And the remaining order backlog, which is extremely strong of more than NOK 1.4 billion.

And it's worth mentioning that we do not include frame contracts, which we have quite a few of in our order backlog, we only include hard kind of obligational contract. So there is more that is kind of secured even if it's not legally binding. You might also ask why our order backlog actually increased slightly from last quarter, even if we had a book-to-bill of slightly under 1, and that's because we are, of course, taking into account currency value adjustments in this calculation.

Cash flow is fine. Of course, our working capital, et cetera, varies a little bit from quarter-to-quarter depending on payments and projects and all of these things. No big changes or dramatic changes on that. We are investing a lot in products to be developed for the future, both software and hardware. And that is, of course, visible on our CapEx level, but these are healthy sound projects that we are very confident will give increased profits in the future.

And we still have a very solid balance sheet with equity ratio of more than 50%. Of course, the total numbers in our balance sheet is also affected by currency fluctuations since a lot of our assets and obligations are in other currencies and down the NOK, which has been, as everybody knows, weakening quite a lot over the last few years.

No big changes to our net interest-bearing debt. Varies a little bit depending on capital expenditures, et cetera. We have a very low gearing compared to many growing companies. So we feel very confident that we have a very healthy financial balance sheet altogether. Yes, and that was basically the highlights from our financials. We are then open to any questions that might come from the people joining us. So far, nothing has been filed, but you still have a few seconds, I should think to have questions. But if there isn't any. I think you might be rounding this up.

[Thale Solberg, executive]

Yes. But now, I want to just say thank you so much for joining us this morning, and I wish you all a very good day, and we'll be back on the third quarter and also our Capital Markets Day in the second half year of 2023. Thank you so much for joining. .