Volue ASA

OSE:VOLUE

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Trond Straume, executive]

Welcome, and thank you for joining me for this presentation of the fourth quarter financial results from Volue. Total operating revenues amounted to NOK 339 million in the fourth quarter. This is a record high quarterly revenue for Volue and 9% higher than in the same period the year before. Adjusted EBITDA came in at NOK 64 million, which represents a margin of 19%.

We're happy to continue on our growth path, while staying true to our promise of increased margins in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half last year. Annual recurring revenues amounted to NOK 211 million, of which NOK 79 million were SaaS revenues. Recurring revenues grew by 12% and SaaS revenues grew by 22% compared to the same quarter the previous year.

Looking at sales performance. Volue had a great quarter, and I would like to highlight 2 contracts. First, a breakthrough contract with a German power major in the Energy segment. The customer has split its business into green and brown power production and chose a cross-portfolio platform of capabilities from Volue to digitize the entire value chain of its renewable portfolio.

The contract was signed less than 5 months after the first point of contact, which demonstrates that our customer base is moving faster and perhaps becoming less conservative. This puts Volue in poor position for winning market share. SaaS revenues make up 75% of the contract, which is a testament to our ongoing SaaS journey. After conducting a comprehensive market analysis, the customer found Volue to be unmatched in the competitive landscape.

Winning this breakthrough contract also brings validations to Volue's ambitions for continental Europe. The second contract I would like to highlight is a transformative deal in the Power Grid segment. To meet the expectations of fast and efficient electrification of society, Volue and Elvia, a major Nordic utility have signed a strategic contract. Our joint goal is to launch a set of solutions that will enable Elvia to digitize the end-to-end process of planning and constructing new grids.

These solutions will be modular, targeting a wider European market, deployable across different geographies and regulations. SaaS revenues make up 45% of the total contract value, yet again, highlighting our ongoing SaaS transformation. By automating what is today manual work processes and enabling mobile access, the end result is a streamlined workflow and high efficiency improvements for electrical utilities.

This will significantly strengthen Volue's offering in Europe. As we're leading 2022, let's take a moment to look back at what we've achieved since Volue was established and listed in 2020. We've expanded from the dark area and grown a significant position in Iberia and Italy. We've established operations in Japan to take advantage of the opportunity following a deregulation of the energy market.

The Japanese deregulation is built on the Nordic model, which we've helped shape since its inception in the '90s. Also since listing, we've acquired 2 strong competitors and created a fully integrated organization, scale for growth. Our operating revenues have increased by 37%. Our annual recurring revenues have increased by 34%, and SaaS revenues are up 93%. The number of Algo trades executed on the Volue platform has increased by 76% from NOK 21 million in 2020 to NOK 37 million in 2022.

The Volue platform has become the market leader and executes about 1/4 of all intraday trades on the European Power Exchange, EPEX, on behalf of our customers. These are impressive numbers, and it is a testament of trust from our customers. The numbers prove that we are bringing more customers on the platform and that customers keep growing their activities in the short-term market.

Consequently, Volue's offering is critically embedded in our clients' day-to-day operations, which is at the core of our strategy. The recent breakthrough contract and Volue's achievement so far validates our European ambitions. They confirm that energy markets are growing more intelligent and sophisticated as well as Volue's ability to execute on opportunities arising from these market changes. That's all for now. More details is available on our website, volue.com. Thank you for your attention, and have a great day.