Zalaris ASA

OSE:ZAL

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

Good morning. I'm Hans-Petter Mellerud, the CEO and Founder of Zalaris. Joining me today for this webcast presentation of Zalaris Q2 '24 results, is our CFO, Gunnar Manum. We are using Teams for this purpose and hope that you will find it informative and engaging. [Operator Instructions]

Please note that the presentation is being recorded. You can access the recording in the Investors section of our website.

First, we'll look at some of the highlights of the quarter as normal. In Q2 '24, team Zalaris delivered its fourth consecutive quarter of all-time high revenues, reaching NOK 323 million, an increase from NOK 281 million in Q2 last year. This signifies a 15% year-on-year growth in both actual and constant currency. We are now almost at NOK 1.3 billion in annualized revenue, well ahead of our target of becoming a NOK 1.5 billion company by 2026 as defined as aspiration just a year ago. EBIT stood at 8.8% amounting to NOK 28.4 million, which is an increase of 41% from NOK 20.2 million in the same period last year.

Zalaris market success persisted with strong developments in all markets, including starting implementation projects with more than 40 million annual contract value when fully implemented. Our operating cash flow for the quarter was NOK 18 million, up from NOK 3 million last year. Following a planning period, we focus on solid preparatory work, the strategic review process announced in April is well underway.

Our market success continued, supporting maintaining our current growth profile and targets for the next 12 to 24 months with an increase in signings and a strengthened pipeline of opportunities. In the Nordics, we expanded and renewed services with existing customers, supporting both further revenue growth and maintaining our low churn.

Finland was added as another country to our services for Telenor. For SaaS, we expanded Zalaris SaaS solution to cover their U.K. footprint. A good example of how we continue expanding along our customers' footprint, a footprint that we have estimated to have the potential of 5 to 6x our current Managed Services revenue.

In Germany, our Professional Services organization continued its success in the public sector. In addition to our agreement with the City of Berlin as communicated earlier, we won another firm agreement to provide additional services to our existing customer, the State of North Rhein-Westphalia worth more than NOK 32 million over the next 4 years. Sales in Managed Services solutions in Germany continued its strong development through securing 2 new customers with a total annual contract value of more than NOK 40 million under a letter of intent allowing us to start the implementation projects while contracts are being finalized for signature and compensated for the work that we do. We will see revenue from one of these customers already from September this year.

APAC continued its positive trajectory with 25 deals done in Q2 and by delivering the third consecutive quarter with sales bookings higher than EUR 1.8 million in total contract value. This achievement includes the largest Professional Services deal in APAC to date, where Zalaris will assist [indiscernible] in transitioning from a legacy SAP payroll solution to our cloud-based SAP employee central payroll alternative. We are thrilled that leveraging Professional Services as a spearhead into the [ ANC ] market is yielding a significant influx of new revenue, with a healthy balance between recurring revenue at about 59% and projects were at 41%.

Our pipeline of new projects as well as the opportunity to expand with existing customers into new geographies has continued to develop positively. Our strengthened brand and leadership position have enabled us to capture a significantly larger share of the relevant large enterprise multi-country opportunities originating out of Europe.

Then let's look at the segments. Managed Services revenue increased by 19% to NOK 242 million. This is a new all-time high for Managed Services on a quarterly basis and defines our Managed Services, of which the majority is recurring revenue on long-term agreements, just short of being a stand-alone NOK 1 billion annual revenue business. Our net revenue retention remained strong at 106% year-on-year, as existing customers expanded their geographic footprint and functionalities. All our regions showed good growth with Germany, again, leading the way with 32% year-on-year, reflecting the massive opportunities we see in this market. Managed Services grew to 75% of total revenue, a step-up from previous periods.

Then let's look at Professional Services, our consulting practice. Professional services revenue declined with 3.6% to NOK 69.7 million. The main reason for the decline in revenue was 4 less working days in the quarter compared to last year, and lower revenue from application maintenance services in Poland. In addition, significant Professional Services capacity has been utilized to support Managed Services in implementing new customers, particularly in Germany.

And again, let me remind you, in Professional Services, we see that the application maintenance business or AMS, helping customers maintain their payroll and HR systems, mostly on long-term or subscription basis, continue generating around 52% of the total revenue. Our long-term relationships with customers continue being visualized through 82% of our Q2 revenue in this segment coming from customers that were also customers in Q2 last year.

With this, I hand over to our CFO, Gunnar Manum, who will take you through the financial part of the presentation.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

Thank you, Hans-Petter. The revenue for the second quarter of NOK 323 million was an increase of 15% year-on-year as reported and when measured in constant currency. In the second quarter, 81% of total revenue was invoiced in currencies other than NOK.

Revenue in Managed Services increased by 18.8%, while Professional Services had a reduction of 3.6%. The reduction in Professional Services is mainly explained by lower AMS volume in Poland during the quarter. As noted in previous quarters, significant Professional Services resources, particularly in Germany, are being utilized on the implementation of new customers and change orders within Managed Services, thus reducing the external revenue capacity within that division, as Hans-Petter just explained. Net retention within Managed Services was 106%. This shows that year-on-year revenue in constant currency from customers that were fully implemented in the second quarter last year grew by 6%.

In Professional Services, approximately 82% of the revenue for the quarter came from customers that were customers also in the second quarter last year. New contracts signed during the second quarter and expansion of contracts with existing customers amounted to annual recurring revenue of approximately NOK 29 million. In addition to the revenue that will come from the new signings and contract expansions in the second quarter, we have the revenue that will come from new contracts signed in earlier periods, but not yet implemented as of Q2. This slide shows the total future revenue impact of all these new contracts. The total net annual recurring revenue from this contract is NOK 113 million, up from NOK 90 million last quarter, which represents a further increase in annual revenue for Managed Services of 12.5% when compared to the revenue for the last 12 months. There are now a nonmaterial churn going forward.

In the top graph, we show on the left side the annual recurring revenue for Managed Services of NOK 854 million as of the second quarter, calculated by annualizing the revenue for Q2. On top of that, we have NOK 113 million in additional net annual revenue from signed contracts and contract expansions that will go live in 2024 and 2025. Thus, the contracted annual recurring revenue going forward is NOK 967 million. The timing of the additional net amount of NOK 130 million in revenue is shown in the bottom graph.

On top of the estimated recurring revenue of NOK 967 million within Managed Services, we currently have change orders of more than 12% of the recurring revenue, that is NOK 116 million, and revenue from Professional Services and APAC of NOK 327 million based on the revenue for the last 12 months. This gives an estimated future annual revenue for Zalaris of approximately NOK 1.4 billion based on signed long-term Managed Services contracts and calculated using the average exchange rate for the second quarter. This is 15% higher than the total revenue for the last 12 months.

The adjusted EBIT for the second quarter was NOK 28.4 million, an increase of 41% year-on-year. The adjusted EBIT margin was 8.8%, up from 7.2% last year. The improvements in EBIT and EBIT margin is the result of increased revenue and operational improvements, particularly in the Nordic region, such as delivering our largest share of the services from nearshore and offshore locations. APAC contributed with a positive EBIT for the quarter.

The adjusted EBIT for Managed Services was NOK 33.4 million, which was NOK 3.7 million higher than last year, explained by the factors just mentioned. Adjusted EBIT for Professional Services was NOK 2.3 million, NOK 1.9 million lower than last year. As Hans-Petter mentioned in his presentation, the margin for Professional Services was adversely impacted by reduced revenue and the onboarding of new SuccessFactors team, which requires time to implement. Compared to the first quarter, revenue was significantly lower, mainly because there were 4 fewer working days in Germany in the second quarter. And in addition, more annual leave was taken, resulting in less billable hours. This, together with the new employees had a negative impact on the EBIT when compared to the first quarter.

Moving on to some of the other key P&L items. With the increased revenue and ongoing transformation projects for new customers, the number of FTEs have increased by 78 year-on-year. This, together with the higher option costs as a result of the significant increase in the Zalaris share price largely explains the increase in personnel expenses. Revenue per employee in constant currency increased by approximately 7% year-on-year. A majority of the new FTEs has come from nearshore and offshore locations, and personnel expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased by approximately 3.3 percentage points when adjusted for the increased option costs in the quarter.

Other operating expenses were 3.5 percentage points higher as a percentage of revenue compared to last year. We saw higher operating expenses in general due to increased volumes, but particularly within IT hosting, use of external payroll providers and external consultants. The external payroll providers are used to service global payroll contracts in countries where Zalaris is not physically present.

The EBIT was NOK 12.3 million for the quarter compared to NOK 10 million last year. Net financial expenses were NOK 6.2 million compared to NOK 21.9 million last year. Expenses for the quarter include an unrealized gain of NOK 6.6 million, mainly related to our euro-denominated bond loan. Net profit for the period was NOK 5.3 million compared to a loss of NOK 11.3 million last year.

We continue to have a strong cash position with a cash balance at 30 June of NOK 163 million. This graph shows the bridge between the EBITDA and the cash increase in the quarter. The operating cash flow was NOK 18.4 million in the second quarter, up from NOK 3.2 million last year. The net interest-bearing debt at 30 June was NOK 286 million, down from NOK 298 million at the end of the previous quarter. Our leverage, measured by the net interest-bearing debt divided by adjusted EBITDA, decreased from 1.7 at the end of the first quarter to 1.6 at the end of the second quarter.

And that concludes the financial section, and I will now leave the word to Hans-Petter, to present the outlook for Zalaris.

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

Thank you, Gunnar. Then we're back to the outlook where I will use the opportunity to reiterate some of our financial targets and comment more on our German EBIT improvement program before summing up.

Looking ahead, we have set an annual growth target of 10%, aiming for a total revenue of NOK 1.5 billion by 2026. The growth targets for Managed Services and Professional Services are 15% and 5%, respectively. As demonstrated in today's presentation, we continue to exceed these targets. Over the last 2 years, our annual growth rate has been approximately 18%. When removing the impact of currency changes, the annual growth rate has been approximately 14%. The growth primarily stems from increased revenue from existing customers within Managed Services and recurring revenue from long-term contracts with new customers. These contracts typically have an initial duration of 5 to 7 years. Consequently, recurring revenue from long-term contracts with customers in Managed Services is expected to represent an increasing share of total revenue, rising from 68% in '21 to projected 77% in '26. In this quarter, it was 75%.

Our growth will be driven by our continued focus on acquiring new customers and upselling to existing customers with expanded geographic coverage and enhanced functionality. We always prioritize growth that supports the utilization of our existing capacity and infrastructure.

On an annualized basis, our Q2 revenue is almost NOK 1.3 billion. In addition, as just described by Gunnar, we have NOK 113 million net of churn in annual recurring revenue already contracted for future periods. As it currently looks, we only need another about 50,000 revenue sold and implemented and we are delivering on our NOK 1.5 billion annualized revenue target measured in constant currency. A key element in reaching our margin target involves improving the margins of our German operations, which I will discuss in the following slide.

Our continued focus on automation and the use of AI, along with scaling will drive us towards our Capital Markets Day communicated target EBIT of 12% to 15% in '26. With a target cash conversion of 70%, we anticipate an operating cash flow before interest of approximately NOK 190 million to NOK 250 million.

As previously discussed, a key factor in achieving our group margin target of 12% to 15% EBIT is to enhance our German operations to align with the performance of our more mature Nordic operations. This quarter, we have formalized our German improvement program, aiming for annual enhancements of approximately NOK 54 million over the next 12 to 24 months. The NOK 54 million target is based on '23 baseline, where our German operations achieved an EBIT of NOK 6.7 million.

The key elements of our improvement program aim to elevate Germany's EBIT from 1.7% in 2023 to 13.9% within the next 12 to 18 months through several actions, including, by merging the operations of base GmbH now Zalaris Retail Solutions GMBH, with our broader German operations, we estimate an EBIT improvement of 1.7% through realized synergies. Then we'll renegotiate in contractual terms with key customers is projected to increase revenue and improve margins by 4.1%. This effort is progressing well with agreements already in place with two key customers. These agreements involve migrating to a fully digital PeopleHub solution with a corresponding price increase or updating commercial terms to reflect the true value we provide. We anticipate seeing some of these improvements as early as now in August with a full realization expected by Q1 '25.

Then implementing Zalaris 4.0 operating model and optimizing our service delivery with a balanced [ extra ] approach will improve our German EBIT by another 2.6%. Additionally, normalizing the use of external consultants currently at 33% to a target of 15% within the next 18 months will contribute significantly to the cost efficiency. Although the sale of Leipzig office in Q1 and the move to rented premises will slightly increase costs, we only anticipate a minor EBIT reduction of approximately 0.5% due to this.

In total, this will elevate '23 figures from NOK 6.7 million to NOK 48.4 million when fully implemented. Additionally, considering the contributions from agreements currently under implementation, we are targeting a German EBIT of NOK 61 million or 13.9% of revenue. With these implementations, the Zalaris Group would deliver pro forma of 12.7% EBIT in '23 compared to the reported baseline of 8.5%.

To sum up, we have delivered another all-time high revenue quarter and are well underway to deliver on margin targets as improvements in Germany materialize. Delivering Q2 with a 15% growth and an annualized revenue of nearly NOK 1.3 billion provides a solid foundation for further growth and achieving our communicated 3-year target. We anticipate continued growth with more than NOK 113 million worth of annual contract value currently under implementation, which will be recognized as revenue over the next 12 months. Additionally, the impact of our significant public sector wins in Germany will gradually become apparent. This, combined with a positive pipeline that has already resulted in wins being reported in '24, bodes well for our future.

We expect to see further improvements -- EBIT improvements as the results from our German EBIT improvement program start to materialize. Being in the middle of the quarter, we already see positive signs, this moving in the right direction. This will be supported by scale effects from our centralized cloud solution infrastructure, organizational capabilities and ongoing focus on automation and the incremental implementation of AI functionality to boost productivity.

As announced on April 2, the Board of Directors has initiated a strategic review process. This decision reflects Zalaris' successful expansion of its portfolio of large agreements for global payroll and HR services to leading international enterprises in recent years. The strategic review is designed to assess structures and opportunities that could further propel the company's growth and create additional value for our customers and shareholders. After an initial planning period, the review is well underway. Any further announcements will be made when the review has been concluded.

Thank you for joining us today. We will now open the floor for questions.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

Yes. And we have some questions. Can you elaborate on the weaker margin in MS and PS year-on-year?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

Can I elaborate on...

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

On the weaker margin in the Professional Services this quarter compared to last -- the same quarter last year?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

Okay. So elaborate on the weaker margin in Professional Services compared to the same quarter last year. Well, the main reason for both lower revenue and weaker margins in Q2 compared to last year has been as Gunnar as mentioned, 4 less working days, so it's that we had less revenue, but we eventually have more or less the same costs as people are paid on a monthly basis, as well as also Gunnar mentioned, we had in our German operations, we have always been thinking long term, and we had call it boomerang team, a team that left us in the SuccessFactors field for about 18 months ago, returning in May and not being fully utilized neither in May, nor in June, but that has been addressed now from July and August as they have started implementing new projects and are nearly full utilization.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

So would you then expect the margins to improve in the second half of the year?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

Yes, I would expect margins to improve in Professional Services during the second half of the year due to higher utilization and also organizing and better using resources across our global organization. As we increasingly are also moving from a local organization to a more globally-focused organization, enabling better resource utilization.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

New question, vyble is no longer reported as discontinued. What is the plan here going forward? And how should we think about it in a modeling perspective?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

First of all, vyble -- the costs and revenue for vyble are now more or less in balance, such that vyble from Q3 will have no major result impact for -- also on the group basis. But we will also, as part of the strategic review process, we evaluate also what we eventually will do with vyble. Clearly, the process we had where we looked at disposing vyble did not succeed and -- or we did not get offers that we thought was worth the value, and we will continue evaluating this also going forward. But I think the key message from a modeling perspective is that vyble no longer will have a material impact on the EBIT of Zalaris as costs and revenue is more or less in balance.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

New question. How confident are you that you can renegotiate contracts in Germany at the favorable terms you outlined?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

They have, in fact, already been negotiated. We have signed with one of our large customers, we have signed a new agreement to implement PeopleHub instead of the current legacy solution. The implementation is well underway, and we are also compensated from the second -- from now second half of the year with the increased revenue to also -- yes, to value the work that we do. And in another large contract that we have been struggling with in the past, we have also just concluded a large activity which will take our costs quite down, and we have also change orders that will impact revenue positively and margins correspondingly from now the second quarter. And we already start to see the results of that.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

New question. How is the new contract pipeline building? Last quarter, you noted you're receiving incoming deal flow. Is this still the case?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

Yes, that's still the case. We still have a good incoming deal flow from large potential opportunities, but also a number of smaller ones that have a tendency to fly under the radar these days as some of the larger ones have typically take -- get the main attention when we communicate to the market.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

A new question. You mentioned that Zalaris has started implementing customers under letter of intent. Is there a risk associated with this?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

I think we shall be fair, there is always a risk until you have a final signed agreement, but a letter of intent that we start to work under regulate compensation for the costs that we incur in the project period in the event that the work -- the contracting work does not end up in a final agreement. So the risk lies mainly in not winning the final deal, not the cost of actually doing the work for the customer.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

And a final question. Can you comment on why the strategic review is taking longer than expected?

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

I think the strategic review is not taking longer than expected. One could have hoped that we could have concluded earlier. But realistically, it's taking the time that it takes. We've had, as you know, also summer holidays in Norway is July, and now we see most of Europe is still on vacation, and that also reflects the process that we have.

[Gunnar Manum, executive]

Thank you, Hans-Petter, and that concludes the Q&A section.

[Hans-Petter Mellerud, executive]

Okay. Thanks for joining us today and for lots of good questions. So if you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on [e-mail], and we will do our utmost to support you. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.