Addnode Group AB (publ)

STO:ANOD B

Earnings Call Transcript 2019-Q4

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

Thank you. Welcome all to this presentation of the Addnode Group year-end report for 2020. With me, I also have the CFO of Addnode Group, Lotta Jarleryd, and we would like to present the Addnode Group results. So if we could please move to the next slide. And I think we could just move on to Slide #4 (sic) [ Slide #3 ], Addnode Group - digital solutions for a sustainable future. And looking at Addnode Group, as of today, we are trading at SEK 3.8 billion, and we have 1,800 employees. We are active in 19 countries, meaning that we have offices and operations there. We do businesses in a lot more parts of the world as well, but our main markets are Sweden, U.K., Germany, Norway and Finland. And as you can see on the map to the right, we are predominantly doing our operations in the Northern Europe. We are organized and active in 3 divisions: Design Management, Product Lifecycle Management and Process Management. And we will go in further in details on the businesses of the 3 divisions later in this presentation.So let's move on to Slide #5 (sic) [ Slide #4 ], the agenda for today. We will focus on Q4, of course, a little bit on 2020, and we will dive into our 3 divisions: Design, Product Lifecycle Management, Process Management. We will also discuss our cash flow and financial positions, and then we will end on acquisitions. And with that, I would like to move on to the next slide, Addnode Group, Q4 2020. Looking at this quarter, Q4, we were able to improve our margins, and we had a very strong cash flow. Net sales was SEK 921 million, down from SEK 933 million. And we were able to increase our EBITA from SEK 100 million to SEK 108 million. And we -- meaning that we improved and strengthened our margins from 10.7% to 11.7%. So even though net sales were down, we were able to be efficient in our operations, and we also had a cost-cutting program that we have been running in the PLM division that has been going as well as we expected. We had a very strong earnings in the Process Management division, and we were able to be diligent with regards to our costs during the quarter, and that was significant for all divisions.And looking at other events in the quarter, we have a new head of division for PLM and also this new CEO of Technia, Magnus Falkman, who took over from Jonas Gejer January 1 and is running the business as of now. We did an acquisition in the fourth quarter of Scanscot as well. I will come back to that later in the presentation. And as you can see, this is a quarter in that we are moving more and more to our business with -- to recurring revenue and the services provided when integrating and implementing our digital solution. This is a quarter where we actually sell some licenses as well, and then this had a good impact on our margins. And as I said, we will discuss later in the presentation more in details with regards to our divisions. But let's move on to the next slide, Slide #7 (sic) [ Slide #6 ], Addnode Group 2020. Looking at the full year, this was, of course, a year that was very much impacted, everything that has to do with the COVID-19 and the change in the market conditions. But I do believe that we were very fast and adaptive to the changes in the business. We can see that started in Q2, Q3. And now in Q4, we are a little bit -- do -- sort of running the business in a normal mode, meaning the normal mode that most of our employees are working from home offices, able to serve our customers in a good way. It was also a year when we can see that digitalization took at least a 2, 3 years leap, so to speak, meaning that we ourselves have become even more digital, meaning that we continue to work distributed in a good way. Our customers are becoming more digital, and this is also something that drives our businesses because this is actually what we help our customers with, to become even more digital in the way they work. And that mix has both for the things that we do for the construction industry, our architects, the people who are our OEM customers, discrete manufacturing, you can also see it in the public sector as well, becoming more efficient with the help of digital solutions. So even though it's been a tough year with the COVID, it has also been a significant year for driving our business long term as well. And what we also can see that we have been able to generate a very strong operating cash flow. Looking at the year, I think the operating cash flow from our operations was SEK 579 million compared to our EBITA of SEK 356 million, means that we have a very good cash generation. That has to do also with our business model. We have -- in our business model, customers prepay for the right to use the software, meaning that we are operating with a negative operating cash. Meaning that when we grow, we actually generate cash. So it's been a good year on that, and we have also been diligent in the way to getting customers to actually pay for this. So we have very low, if almost none, customer losses due to bad debt this year. We did 4 acquisitions of Excitech, Unizite, Netpublicator and Scanscot.And so with that comment to 2020, I would like to move on to the next slide, Slide 7. It's a slide that shows our 3 divisions that we operate in: Design, PLM and Process. And I will not spend that much time on that. And it's just an overview for you who are new to the business to see in the 3 divisions that we operate. So I think we're all interested in Q4. So let's move on to the next slide, Slide #8, and dive in a little bit more to the Design division, Design Management. In Design Management, we support 3 customer groups on a broad base, meaning that everyone who designed something, could be an architect, could also be a technical consultant, it could be someone in the discrete manufacturing producing [ smartphone ], they need software to design. And they also need software for taking care of all the product data being distributed. And also, we are working with customers on the construction side, helping them with product management tools. And we are also working with facility management customers when the things have been built and needs to be managed over time. So we provide software for that as well.So if we look at the figures for Q4, we are almost flat on net sales and almost on EBITA. And with that, we can also see that the negative -- with a negative organic growth, it has to do that in the beginning of the year, we made a major acquisition in -- of Excitech. So they have been contributing to both net sales and EBITA. And in Q4 this year, we have a lower net sales compared to last year. And then we have to remember that last year was a very good year for us. We had a very good organic growth that we hadn't seen before. So it's tough comps as well. And in the market as well as we are right now, we have seen effects from COVID-19 that our customers has not invested as much this year. But compared to Q3, I will say that nothing has changed. It's the same market condition. So it's more of a matter that we had a very strong Q4 last year. And unfortunately, we have not been able to repeat that. And that has to do with the sales of our Autodesk solutions. If we look at our proprietary software for BIM and project management and facility management, there has been a very stable demand compared to last year. And we have been able to mitigate the lower net sales with cost control.So if we move on to the next division and the next slide, Product Lifecycle Management. It's been a very good year-end for PLM, had a very tough year starting. And we have done cost reduction program for the year, adapting to the market conditions. And we can see the positive effect of that in Q4. But we can also see that the customers have invested in licenses in this Q4, as they normally -- or I should say historically, Q4 is always a strong quarter for PLM. And with the market conditions, there's -- we are happy that the customers have chosen to invest as well this year. And we can see that from sort of a low point with regards to demand, we can see some increase or at least stabilization in Germany and U.K. with regards to that. It doesn't mean that we are back on track compared to what we had, for example, in 2018, but I'm just saying that it's a little bit better right now. And in Nordics and the Benelux, they continue to be stable as well. But -- and here, you can see that licenses is 18% of the net sales distribution. That also has a positive effect of the margin this quarter, but that's historically the way it always had been, so to speak. And I'm very happy that we are able to execute and generate a good and healthy profit in the division PLM. They've done a good job executing that. So historically strong margins.So let's move on to the next division on the Process Management, did a really strong year end as well. And they managed to have organic growth as well, 3%. It's a good organic growth for this type of business in the public sector. We increased net sales from SEK 223 million to SEK 231 million and EBITA from SEK 38 million to SEK 45 million. We almost reached a 20% EBITA margin. So it's a strong year-end. And this is driven both by stable demand but also efficient operations and some cost restraints, of course, with regards to the COVID situation. But all in all, a very good quarter from the Process Management. And we can see that it's both from our customers in local municipalities and the central government that we are able to do good business with. So with that introduction to our financials for this quarter and the divisions, I would like to hand over to our CFO, Lotta Jarleryd, who will walk us through the cash flow and the financial position.

[Lotta Jarleryd, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you, Johan. I would like to start with an overview about the consolidated cash flow. 2020 was a very strong year for Addnode Group in terms of cash generation, as Johan said earlier. In the fourth quarter, we had a cash conversion rate, that is operating cash flow to EBITA, of 1.7x. And those of you who have followed Addnode Group for a while, you know that we usually start the year with a very strong first quarter in terms of cash generation. This is attributable to our business model with a large share of advance payments for maintenance contracts in the beginning of the year. In 2020, the operating cash flow for the first quarter represented almost 50% of total operating cash flow after a strong first quarter also in terms of net sales. This year, we had a strong cash flow also in the second quarter. When the COVID-19 pandemic was a fact, we intensified our work on bringing in customer payments. The focused work with cash collection, together with temporarily improved terms of payments from certain vendors and customers, had a positive effect on the operating cash flow. The third quarter was weaker when capital tied-up increased during the summer due to the business cycle. In addition, the temporarily improved terms of payment from vendors during the second quarter resumed to ordinary terms during the third quarter.Altogether, this meant that we, in 2020, generated an operating cash flow that was 40% above previous year, landing at SEK 579 million. This represents a cash conversion at 1.6x the EBITA. We have actually worked on reducing tied-up capital through challenging invoicing and payment routines. The share of account receivables that is overdue now is lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and we haven't suffered any significant credit losses.With regard to cash flow from investing activities, the fourth quarter contains about SEK 40 million referring to the Scanscot acquisition in November. And total cash flow from investing activities, above SEK 190 million, apparently mainly reflect the 4 acquisitions made during 2020. With reference to the accumulated cash flow from financing activities, please remember that no dividend for 2019 was paid to the shareholders, as decided by the AGM in May 2020. Previous year, the dividend amounted to SEK 84 million. We have also chosen not to amortize our external debt during 2020 in order to resume full flexibility in terms of access to liquidity.Next slide, please. I would like to continue to -- with some comments on the balance sheet. We have been operating during this challenging time supported by a strong balance sheet, giving us the confidence to continue to develop Addnode Group. By the end of December, our available cash was SEK 644 million. In addition to that, we had another SEK 300 million in the revolving credit facility for acquisition purposes and an unutilized overdraft facility of SEK 100 million. External debt was about SEK 700 million, and leasing debt amounted to SEK 125 million. This means that our net debt was on the lower side, about SEK 180 million. The equity ratio was 40%, and the return on shareholders' equity was just above 11%. Other large changes in the balance sheet items such as goodwill, other intangibles and other liabilities mainly refer to the acquisitions made during 2020.And by that, I hand over to you again, Johan.

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

Thank you, Lotta. And let's move to the next slide, acquisitions. In the fourth quarter, we did an acquisition of Scanscot. Scanscot is a Dassault partner which focus on SIMULIA, and SIMULIA is the simulation part of the platform. The company has also developed BRIGADE. It's a stand-alone software suite for a simulation of bridges and civil infrastructure. And Scanscot gives us extensive knowledge and experience of advanced simulation services, and they are active in a wide range of industries such as civil infrastructure, big science and nuclear. So this is an add-on acquisitions to Technia. Technia has a strong offering with regards to simulation earlier on, and this brings new capabilities and also some add-on software. So it's a very good addition to Technia that will make it possible for us to serve our customers even better going forward. So -- and that was the acquisition that we did in Q4. And as I said earlier, we did 3 more acquisitions earlier on this year.And one of the questions that I always get, "Are you still active within acquisition?" Yes, we are very much. But as you all know, it's a matter of timing when we are able to close deals on the terms that we -- seem favorable for us. So -- but I expect us to do more acquisitions in 2021.So let's move to the next slide. This is the summary. Why invest in Addnode Group? So it's not the same space. It's just a description of what we have done and what we are expecting to do going forward. We have a growth strategy, and we are very much a growth company. And we do it both organically and through acquisitions. We have a prudent track record. We have been profitable ever since the start, and we have found a way to double our operations every fifth year, meaning that we have a net sales growth of around 14% on average the last 10 years. We provide digital solutions for a sustainable future. It means that our offerings are supported by strong global trends as digitalization that we discussed but also urbanization. People are moving into cities, and we need the infrastructure there. And the infrastructure needs to be designed, and it needs to be maintained. And we provide software and digital solution for that. We are long term both to our customers and our partners and relationship, meaning that there are customers who have been with us for 30 years plus. We have been working with our partner almost as long as well, and we believe that it's a very good benefit. And it gives us more opportunities and stabilities as well.We do believe that we have an attractive business model. Lotta discussed the strong cash conversion, and there are a lot of recurring revenues as well. And in the business as well, there are diversification, meaning that we are supporting both customers in the private and the public sector. And we are doing that in different parts of the world as well and different industry segments. So with that summary, I would like to thank you for listening to us and open up for any questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from the line of Fredrik Nilsson from Redeye.

[Fredrik Nilsson, Equity Research Analyst]

Fredrik Nilsson from Redeye here. That solid margin in PLM, is that mainly an effect of the restructuring or are there also significant temporary factors?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

Thank you, Fredrik, for the question. Fredrik, I think you -- your question was that the strong solid margins in PLM this quarter, is it, long term, something that you can count? Or are there any short-term effects that we should be aware of? I think most of the fact is that we have been able to lower the cost base in the divisions, and that was -- that has an effect. And we can -- but then we can debate whether there are some -- with regards to the COVID, we are not traveling as much. We are not meeting up, and there are some furloughs still in Germany in the results. But the bulk, so to speak, are, I would say, long term. But we have to be aware that -- let's see how it pans out with what happens when sort of the COVID situation solves. Will we start traveling a little bit more? Will we meet a little bit more? And will that drive costs?Having said that, we can see that we are able to serve our customers in a very good way, working distributed as we are today. And that we will bring with us going forward as well. But there are some furloughs in Germany that will -- but at the same time, going forward, we will hopefully see that there are restructuring program that will mitigate that going forward as well. So we haven't seen the full effect of the cost-effective program as yet.

[Fredrik Nilsson, Equity Research Analyst]

Okay. That's a good answer. One more, the margin in Design Management seems quite weak considering the relative weakness of the Autodesk-related business. Could you elaborate a bit on that?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

You can always debate on what kind of margin we will have. But I think it's a good -- it's a -- with regards to the drop in the net sales, I think we have been able to mitigate it very well with regards to the cost structure as well. So I think -- so I wouldn't call it a weak margin. So I think we have actually mitigated it well. What happened is that when you -- the net sales -- there's a variable component in the net sales to the Autodesk business, and that's the cost of sale to Autodesk. So that is something that we don't have to pay out. So I wouldn't call it a weak margin. We have tried our best to mitigate going forward. So -- but as always, it's a matter of opinion.

[Fredrik Nilsson, Equity Research Analyst]

Okay. I see. I see. [indiscernible] public sector.

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

Sorry, Fredrik. I missed the question. You said something about the public sector.

[Fredrik Nilsson, Equity Research Analyst]

Yes. Do you believe that you are gaining market share?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

In the public sector?

[Fredrik Nilsson, Equity Research Analyst]

Exactly. Exactly, yes.

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

Yes. I would say we are -- there are no market data available for that. But let's say that I think we are at least not losing any market share. And if any, we are sort of fortifying our position in the public sector markets, I would say.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have one more question from the line of Daniel Thorsson from ABG.

[Daniel Thorsson, Research Analyst]

I was a few minutes late into the call, so I apologize if you have covered this one. But if I'm right, I look at the acquired growth in Design Management mainly coming from Excitech, obviously, it looks like it contributed with around SEK 100 million in sales in Q4, which is half the level of the reported in Q1. When we go into Q1 2021 now, should we expect this level of around SEK 100 million, meaning that, that has dropped 50%, and that will be part of the organic development in Design? Or how should we see the seasonality in Excitech here going into Q1?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

Let's answer that in 2 steps. When we calculate organic growth, we only calculate organic growth 12 months after acquisitions. So that means that if -- I'm looking at Lotta, it means that when we report organic growth in Q1, Excitech will not be part of that. They will be part of the organic growth in Q2. But going back to the second part of your question, what is the run rate of Excitech as of now? It's probably closer to SEK 100 million and SEK 150 million.

[Daniel Thorsson, Research Analyst]

Yes. I see. Okay. But regarding the organic growth, 12 months after acquisition, wasn't that closed end of January, so that it should be organic in February and March?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

No. No, 1st of January. So it should be...

[Daniel Thorsson, Research Analyst]

1st of January. Shouldn't that be organic in Q1 then?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

No. As it had been -- as we reported, that's part of the full Q1. So then we have to -- so we'll -- so that will sort of -- so that means that Q1 is -- and then we go -- starting from Q2, we will report it as organic growth.

[Daniel Thorsson, Research Analyst]

Okay. Okay. And the run rate is...

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

It will be part of the organic growth calculation.

[Daniel Thorsson, Research Analyst]

Yes. All of that in Q1?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

In Q2. In Q2.

[Daniel Thorsson, Research Analyst]

Okay. Entirely in Q2, okay. And the run rate is more like SEK 100 million versus SEK 150 million to SEK 200 million a year ago?

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

At least, we don't do any [ pros ], but it's closer to SEK 100 million and SEK 150 million. And you can see that in the figures that, that's the run rate. And just to follow up, that is that we had overall a very strong Q1 for our Autodesk business. I think it was -- for the whole division, the organic growth was plus 20% in Q1. And as you can see, the run rate that we have right now, we will not be able to deliver that as well. So we will have an effect on the net sales as well in Q1 for the Design business, and that goes along with your questions.

[Operator]

And as there are no further questions, I'll hand it back to the speakers for closing remarks.

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

Okay. Thank you for listening to our presentation. And with that, I would like to thank you from us here, from me and Lotta.

[Lotta Jarleryd, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you.

[Johan Andersson, President & CEO]

So thank you.