BICO Group AB

STO:BICO

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q3

[Operator]

Welcome to BICO Q3 2023 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions]

Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers; CEO, Erik Gatenholm; and CFO, Jacob Thordenberg. Please go ahead.

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

Hello, and a warm welcome to BICO's Q3 report 2023. Thank you, everyone, for joining today. I'm Erik Gatenholm, President and CEO for BICO, and by my side, I have BICO's CFO, Jacob Thordenberg. We will guide you through the report today, shed some more light on our performance and go through the figures of which some you're already familiar with since we released preliminary revenue, EBITDA and cash flow from operating activities as of November 1, 2023.

We move on to the agenda slide on the next page. The agenda for today is divided into 4 sections before the Q&A, and we will give you a summary of the quarter, a deep dive into our financial performance, followed by performance by business area. And as always, we will end with a short outlook. The operator will be back with further instructions for the Q&A.

To start off, it's good to see sales growth and improved profitability for the quarter, especially given that it's still a softer market and we see that macroeconomic changes and political uncertainties have set a new context for the life science industry. We're especially pleased to observe the cost savings program show effects while organic growth continues. For the third quarter, we are delivering sales of SEK 587.2 million, which corresponds to sales and organic growth of 6.6%. The organic growth, excluding COVID-related business in Ginolis amounted to 16.3%. BICO's adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 69.2 million with a margin of 11.8%. When excluding Ginolis, the adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 97.1 million and a margin of 16.6%.

I would also like to highlight that we announced the divestment of Ginolis yesterday. Over the last couple of quarters, we have spent a lot of time addressing Ginolis, and the business has been rightsized during 2023. However, order intake has not developed according to expectations, and we have concluded to divest the company to Ginolis' current CEO. Jacob will give you further comments in the financial section on Ginolis' financial impact in Q3 as well as our estimated financial impact in Q4 2023.

I will now hand over the word to Jacob on the financial performance.

[Jacob Thordenberg, executive]

Thank you, Erik. I will give you a brief overview of Q3 as well as highlight a few events from the past quarter. And if we move on to the next slide. As Erik mentioned, we delivered stable sales despite a softer market and macroeconomic uncertainties and sales amounted to SEK 587.2 million with a total sales growth of 6.6% and 1.9% excluding currency effects. The organic growth, excluding Ginolis, amounted to 16.3%, and 11.1% excluding currency effects. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 69.2 million and reported EBITDA was SEK 64.2 million. The items affecting comparability for the quarter consisted of costs related to 3 main items: option programs, restructuring costs related to personnel changes, as well as acquisition-related costs and bonuses.

The gross margin for the quarter amounted to 69.2%. Gross margin in the quarter was, however, negatively impacted by Ginolis. And excluding this, gross margin amounted to 72.1%. The net loss for the quarter amounted to negative SEK 70.2 million. Since we are delivering strong sales in the quarter, I would like to comment a bit more on sales on the next slide.

As I mentioned on the previous slide, sales amounted to SEK 587 million, which corresponds to an organic growth of 6.6% and 16.3% excluding Ginolis. Organic growth, excluding currency effect, amounted to 1.9% as mentioned. On this slide, you see the sales development for BICO for the past 7 quarters. And as you can see, historically, H2 has been stronger than H1, which can be explained by seasonal effects where the group has gradually increased sales and profit during the calendar year.

For this quarter, BICO managed to show resilience in our sales compared with industry peers. And in addition to a currency tailwind of 4.7%, we believe that the growth in the quarter was a result of good focus on sales coupled with a strong product portfolio. We will not give any guidance about Q4, but I think it's important to reiterate what Erik mentioned on his first slide, we do also see a slower market as well as macroeconomic uncertainties.

And with that, moving on to adjusted EBITDA. The group delivered an adjusted EBITDA of SEK 69.2 million, corresponding to a margin of 11.8%. The Bioprinting and Biosciences business areas showed healthy profitability. Bioautomation is still being hampered by the negative effect of Ginolis and post-pandemic normalization. We have had a strict focus on cost control throughout the group. The rightsizing tied to the cost-saving program also showed effect. Seasonal volume effects also contributed positively, resulting in higher operational efficiency. This slide also shows what I mentioned on the previous one, i.e., that measures being taken are paying off and that we see seasonal effects during the years. Next slide, please.

A few more comments on the divestment of Ginolis. The transaction was a management buyout to Ginolis' CEO and the purchase price amounted to EUR 1 and the transaction was finalized on November 10. The rationale behind the divestment is that the company has now transitioned -- has not transitioned fast enough to mitigate the post-pandemic downturn. Ginolis has been rightsized during 2023, but order intake has continued to be a challenge and has not been restored according to expectations. IP rights and licenses related to the patented PMBi dispensing pump has been carved out from the transaction and transferred to BICO. Ginolis House, our facility in Oulu, will also be carved out from the transaction. It is also worth mentioning that BICO is entitled to 70% of net proceeds if the company is sold within 3 years after closing. The transaction is estimated to result in a divestment loss of negative SEK 25 million, which is a noncash item. Final divestment results will be reported and disclosed in the Q4 report.

As in the previous quarters, you can see to the table to the right, which shows how the group is performing, including and excluding Ginolis. I would like to highlight organic growth and adjusted EBITDA. And as mentioned, excluding Ginolis, organic growth for the quarter amounted to 16.3%, and adjusted EBITDA, excluding Ginolis, amounted to SEK 97.1 million. And if we go on to the next slide, I will comment a bit more on cash flow.

Before I start commenting on cash flow and working capital, I would like to reiterate also in this quarter's earnings call that improving cash flow and working capital will continuously be a priority for the group. In the quarter, cash flow from operating activities for Q3 amounted to SEK 4 million. This includes a negative effect from increase of working capital of total SEK 24 million, where operating receivables increased with SEK 46 million, driven by the strong sales in the quarters. Inventories decreased by SEK 21 million. I will give more comments about inventory on the coming slides. And operating liabilities increased by SEK 1 million in the quarter.

Investments in tangible CapEx amounted to SEK 36 million in Q3, of which investments into our facilities in Oulu and Berlin comprised SEK 10 million. Investment in intangible CapEx, mainly product development, amounted to SEK 34 million. Earnout payments amounted to SEK 35 million in the quarter and estimated remaining earnout payments amounted to SEK 69 million. Total cash flow during Q3 amounted to negative SEK 127 million, decreasing total cash reserves to SEK 562 million as per September 30. BICO's cash balance remains strong and will be further strengthened with approximately EUR 21 million in Q4 when the divestment of the building in Berlin is expected to close.

And moving on, this is a slide that was introduced in Q3 last year, and I will follow up on the actions being addressed to strengthen profitability and cash flow. Last year, 5 focus areas was identified, and I would like to elaborate on progress and what happened in Q3.

Starting off, the cost savings program of SEK 100 million has been completed. 3 out of 4 companies were profitable already in Q1 2023. And the fourth one was Ginolis, which now has been divested. In addition, we have worked with cost control all over the group. This has resulted in an operational merger of Visikol and Mattek as well as rightsizing.

Moving on to working capital. We have seen a positive development in collections of operating receivables during the year. We have, during the course of the year, seen healthy improvements in accounts receivables, although we saw absolute negative impact in Q3 due to the increased sales levels. A similar development is expected in Q4 when sales are seasonally strongest.

Factoring was introduced in Q1 2023 to some of the European companies. Factoring year-to-date amounts to around SEK 28 million and for the third quarter, factoring amounted to SEK 5 million. Factoring remains as a cash lever when needed and appropriate.

Inventory levels remained elevated and is a high priority for the group. During the year, we have carried out inventory management review, which has resulted in write-downs and scrapping, mainly in Q2 2023. We have also renegotiated volume commitments, working with our preferred supplier list as well as harmonization and stricter legal review of larger supply agreements.

The fifth area and the last area focuses on the buildings in Berlin and Oulu. And as you know, the building in Berlin has been sold. And as I mentioned on the previous slide, we expect a positive cash flow contribution in Q4. The facility in Oulu has been carved out from the Ginolis divestment and BICO is actively seeking to lease out and is also evaluating the opportunity to divest the facility.

To conclude, BICO has made progress on the cost savings side. There are still improvements to be made on working capital. And we have a plan set for the Oulu building, and we will continue to work with these activities continuously.

And with that, I leave over the word again to Erik, who will comment on our business areas.

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

Thank you, Jacob. And if we move on to the next slide, I will summarize our business areas. For Q3, the Bioprinting business area reported net sales of SEK 169.2 million, representing 29% of the total group sales. The organic growth in this segment was 16.1%, and the adjusted EBITDA was SEK 39.9 million, corresponding to a margin of 23.6%. The business area showed stable sales development and Bioprinting's profitability improved significantly compared with corresponding quarters last year, mainly due to efficient cost control, while commercial strides continued. Our academic customer segment continued to show healthy demand for our technologies and products. As we have previously mentioned, the academic and pharmaceutical customer segments will continue to be of high focus for us given the current market situation in the biotechnology sector.

Moving on to Biosciences, where the business area's net sales amounted to SEK 295.1 million, representing 50% of the total group sales. The organic growth was 25.2% and the adjusted EBITDA was SEK 65.8 million, corresponding to a margin of 22.4%.

The business area delivered strong sales development compared to the other business areas in the quarter. The profitability was positively impacted by the sales growth, cost control and better scaling due to higher operational efficiency. Much like previously communicated, the pharmaceutical customer segment continued to be a strong focus in Q3, and with ongoing demand for laboratory automation, our product portfolio is well positioned to assist our customers with their laboratory automation needs.

And lastly, Bioautomation. Our third business area, Bioautomation, reported net sales of SEK 123.1 million, representing 21% of the total group sales. The organic growth for the quarter was negative 27.3% and adjusted EBITDA amounted to negative SEK 11.8 million, corresponding to a margin of negative 9.6%. When excluding the COVID-19 related sales in Ginolis, Bioautomation performed as following in Q3. Net sales amounted to SEK 119.8 million, organic growth amounted to negative 0.5%, adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 16 million, corresponding to a margin of 13.4%. Bioautomation is still performing below expectations, mainly due to the ongoing pandemic normalization and the negative development in Ginolis. Both sales and profitability decreased materially compared with corresponding quarters last year. Demand for systems and technologies in the Diagnostics segment continues to be hampered by the post-pandemic normalization. With that being said, we have seen continued demand for some of our single cell sorting systems to academic customers and pharmaceutical companies.

Before the Q&A, I will, as usual, give a brief outlook where I comment on our focus for Q4. But before I do that, I would like to thank you for letting me serve this great company for the last 7 years. This is my 28th and last report, and I would like to genuinely thank you, our investors, shareholders, Board of Directors, beloved colleagues, and our loyal customers for contributing to the BICO journey. I'm proud of the commercial portfolio, talent and impact that the group has achieved. We have made an impact together, and we will continue to make change happen in the global life sciences industry.

Now it is time for the next chapter for me as well as for BICO. Maria Forss will join as new CEO and President on November 20, 2023. I will be supporting Maria Forss to make sure that she will have a smooth transition and handover and onboarding during the quarter. After this task has been completed, I will transfer into the role of a senior adviser. My focus will be mapping of potential collaborations and partnerships for BICO and vision for BICO 2030. My remuneration will be less than 50% of my previous compensation. I will not partake in any bonus programs and will decline Board compensation as long as I maintain my operational engagement.

Now what will our focus be during Q4? Well, I will reiterate what we have said in previous quarters, and that's during the last month of 2023, we will continue to focus on our transformation towards profitability and activities to strengthen our financial position. We will also continue working proactively with cost control and net working capital improvements to further strengthen our balance sheet.

I want to end this call by saying thank you for the past 7 years together. With that being said, we would now like to welcome any questions or comments that you may have.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Rickard Anderkrans from Handelsbanken.

[Rickard Anderkrans, analyst]

I'll start off. In the report, you mentioned a decline in sales from biotech customers, which I believe you previously said represent around 10% of group sales. Can you quantify the magnitude of this decline?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

I'm not sure I follow the question. Could you rephrase it or repeat it?

[Rickard Anderkrans, analyst]

Sure. In the report, and I believe, in the CEO letter, you mentioned that sales has continued to decline in the biotech customer segment. Could you add some commentary around that? How much it declined, or give us any further feel of the magnitude of that?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

I think it's difficult to exactly quantify how big the decline has been. But as we have mentioned in previous quarters, the biotech segment is still suffering from sort of the increased cost of capital and the macro uncertainties.

[Rickard Anderkrans, analyst]

All right. And I guess you don't expect that to -- do you have any signals of improvement? Or what are you hearing from this customer group?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

What we're hearing from this customer group is still that it's quite tough due to the macroeconomic uncertainties and also, of course, that the cost of capital in the world has increased. So we continue to see a tough market for the biotech segment in the industry.

[Rickard Anderkrans, analyst]

Okay. Moving on to the next one. As you mentioned as well, Q4 is normally seasonally a strong quarter for BICO and other players here, helped by budget flushing at year-end. And we're quite far into Q4, and it would be interesting to hear if we should expect similar seasonality or similar magnitude of seasonality given some weakness in the market and tighter budgets out there. If you could add some commentary around that, that would be helpful?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

Yes. I mean we don't give any comments about projections for Q4, but we expect a similar type of pattern in Q4 as we did in last year. But of course, the million dollar question is, how strong will Q4 be compared to last year, and that I can't comment. But we can, of course, confirm that we expect the same type of seasonality in this Q4 as we did last year. But then the question is how strong will it be.

[Rickard Anderkrans, analyst]

All right. And you mentioned also in the report that larger projects are holding back cash flows a bit. Can you give some examples from the quarter? And what share of your current sales roughly come from larger type of projects, just to get a sense of that sort of part of the business? And when do you expect cash flow release from some of these projects?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

I think it's difficult to go into the details of specific projects. And I won't give any comments about how much of the business relates to project-based businesses. But project-based business is an important part of BICO. And I can't give any details about expected cash flows from these projects, unfortunately.

[Rickard Anderkrans, analyst]

Okay. And final one, consumables have been trending sort of flat as a percentage of sales in quite a few quarters now. What strategy do you have to increase consumable pull-through and how should we think about the longer-term targeting or potential for consumables as share of sort of product sales in the longer term?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

I mean, you're correct, Rick. I mean, the share of consumables and services has been quite flat the past quarters, but that factor is more driven by the fact that tools and, as you alluded to, projects is now a larger share of the totality, whereas consumables and services has not grown as fast. With that said, consumables and services is a very important part of our business and is, of course, something that we will continue to focus on as these areas are quite profitable. In the past quarters, we have seen stronger growth really in tools. And as you alluded to, the project-based part of our business.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Ulrik Trattner from Carnegie.

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

A few questions on my end. And as you alluded to Q4 seasonally a strong quarter when it comes to sales and margin, but it's also a quarter of late deliveries, often hampering cash flow coming into Q1. What should be our expectation for cash flow for Q4? And then mainly operational cash flow, because I'm guessing you're accelerating the property to be cleared in Berlin before releasing that EUR 21 million?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

I mean if we follow the same seasonal pattern as we did last year, what you will see is that sales will increase in Q4. And with that, of course, we hope that also profitability, of course, will follow. The consequence of that is, of course, when sales increase, so does the share of working capital in absolute terms. So we expect profits to go up, of course, if we follow the seasonal pattern. But with that, we also expect an increase in working capital.

So to summarize, Q4 is sort of, hopefully, peak sales and peak profitability, whereas the following quarter after Q4, Q1 is typically, if we follow the same seasonal pattern, the strongest quarter from a cash flow perspective. And in Q4, we then, of course, also expect to close the divestment in Berlin and get the cash contribution of EUR 21 million.

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

Great. And then a question on sales. And obviously, very strong development for Biosciences. But also, are you getting some -- I'd like to ask you on the matter of geographical expansion, because you have entered into this collaboration with Sartorius for the Asian markets. Can you give us any more updates on what is happening there, which products are mainly sold and how that is looking out?

[Jacob Thordenberg, executive]

Perhaps I can start with commenting on the development in the Asia market, and then perhaps Erik can give a few comments on the Sartorius partnership. But what we see in Asia is really the effect from rather last year being a bit tough year for the Asian market due to sort of the COVID lockdown and especially China. And now in 2023, that market has opened up a lot more. Hence, we see greater sales in Asia Pac this year. However, when it comes to the Sartorius partnership, we expect to see that ramping up in 2024.

And I don't know, Erik, if you want to give any more comments about the Sartorius partnership?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

Now looking at the Sartorius partnership, I believe we're well in line with what we've previously communicated. Training of application specialists and sales teams are ongoing, and I think that we're also mainly looking at the [indiscernible] product portfolio, some of our systems, some of liquid handling systems as well in Biosciences. And I would say we're looking forward to a 2024 together.

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

Can you give us perhaps some more granularity into this? Because we have seen other lab tech companies underperforming in China throughout '23 and you look to be going in the opposite direction. I know you come from easy comps, but what customer segment is growing this?

[Jacob Thordenberg, executive]

You mean the growth in Asia?

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

Yes.

[Jacob Thordenberg, executive]

I will have to come back to you with the specific customer segments. But I think -- I mean, as I said, we saw -- I think it's rather the comparables for 2022, which were quite hampered then by the lockdown in Asia. And now that the market has opened up, our comps are that weak for 2022. Hence, we see quite nice growth compared to last year. And I would say the customer segment is the typical customer segments for BICO driving this growth.

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

Okay. Great. And last question on my end that would be referring to the cost saving program. And you say cost savings are now done, and we have seen a decline year-on-year on operational costs. Should we expect then OpEx to increase here gradually, sequentially throughout Q4 and for the rest of '24 as well?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

No, you should not. I mean, as we say in the report and as we have mentioned in our earnings call, we have rightsized most of the companies throughout the group in 2022 and also in 2023. And as we have repeated many times, cost control is extremely important for BICO. So going into 2024, we will continue to have very tight cost control. Of course, that could lead to some increase in OpEx, but the intention is not to increase OpEx. The intention is to sort of have this cost control in order to get the scalability on the cost base when we hopefully see sales continue to grow.

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

But are you capacity-wise able to grow at the level we saw here in Q3, 11.6% adjusted for Ginolis and FX, even with sort of maintained OpEx? Is that realistic?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

I think how you should look at it is that part -- I mean, we are not presenting our P&L in a functional cost base. So part of our OpEx is actually variable. And that, as we have mentioned in a couple of calls and also in discussions with you, Ulrik, is that next year we will present our P&L in a functional-based way where part of the OpEx now will be transferred into COGS. So you will see an increase in our OpEx in Q4 due to the variability or the seasonality of the business. But when it comes to how we will present OpEx in 2024 in functional reporting, we don't expect to see that grow in 2024. But as part of our OpEx is variable, we expect that to increase in Q4 as seasonality kicks in.

[Ulrik Trattner, analyst]

Okay. Great. Last question on my end, and that would partly refer to your financial target on leverage, which was set quite recently. And to the convertible debt outstanding that is to be refinanced here within the next 3 years or so. Should we interpret your financial targets and your current sort of reporting that you will be most likely going to issue bank debt to refinance that convertible? Or how should we interpret your financial targets and the outstanding convertible debt that you currently have?

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

I think the way you should interpret the financial target is that we're supposed to have 3x EBITDA and 3x EBITDA will most likely be enough to refinance the convertible debt with bank financing. So that is something that we're working hard towards. So we continue to set up the business in order to meet our financial targets. And the financial targets have, of course, been set with the convertible debt in mind.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

[Erik Gatenholm, executive]

So once again, I would like to thank you for taking the time today, and we wish you a great day.