Ework Group AB

STO:EWRK

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q3

[Karin Schreil, executive]

A warm welcome to the presentation of Ework Group results for the third quarter 2024. My name is Karin Schreil, and I'm the CEO of Ework Group, And I'm here together with Klas Rewelj, who is our CFO for the group. Klas and I will now jointly review the results and developments during the quarter, after which we will open up for questions. We are recording the presentation to be able to share it with our stakeholders who are unable to join us during the live broadcast today.

During the third quarter, we continued to develop our business according to plan, albeit a slower recovery in our main markets. It's evident that the underlying need for talent is high, even though our clients are impacted by a weaker market and increased costs. During these circumstances, it's very satisfactory to conclude that we increase our order intake after 5 quarters with negative growth.

We continue to have good progress in winning new framework agreements and [ expansions ] in the quarter, both in private and public sector. Our new business contributes to overall higher margins in the order intake for the fifth consecutive quarter, and this is the result of proactive efforts and a testament to everybody's hard work along with our ability to articulate the value that we are creating for our clients. Our value-adding service volumes continue to grow, and we see great interest in our offering for clients as well as partners and professionals.

The new financing solution is now in place, enabling an attractive offering to our clients, partners, professionals and also a favorable contribution to [ Ework's ] margins. Our geographical expansion activities in Slovakia unfold according to plan, and we are growing our volumes in talent acquisition, in particular, permanent recruitments at both existing and new clients. During the quarter, we were happy to hire our first local Ework recruiter based in Kosice, the second largest city and epicenter of Eastern Slovakia.

While order intake is picking up, the volume of consultants on assignment is still lagging versus previous year. The main contributing factors are a slower market recovery across the board, along with the strategic phase-out of two clients and the legislative situation in Norway, as we have previously communicated. Thanks to our new operating model, we are now able to reallocate our efforts and resources more quickly to clients with higher demands and thereby optimize the volume and margin development [ onwards ].

So the third quarter summarized in numbers was as followed. Order intake increased 5.8% to just over SEK 3.2 billion. Net sales decreased to just over SEK 3.2 billion. Operating profit amounted to SEK 39.3 million and operating margin to 122 basis points. In Q3, we continued to see a mixed and volatile demand for talents across our client base. The automotive industry succeeded public sector as our largest industry in the quarter despite some temporary hiring freezes at some of our automotive clients, and this underscores the high demand for specialists to drive development in electrification, autonomy, connectivity and AI.

The recovery in the retail industry continues, and the third quarter growth was the highest across all of our industry segments compared to the same period last year. Life Science also continued to grow steadily, just like our banking clients. Although our third quarter volumes in the public and telecom industries continue to be lower than last year, we see a clear underlying demand for tech and engineering talent, and here Ework is well positioned for a market rebound and return to growth, having secured multiple public sector [ frame ] agreements in Sweden during Q3.

Looking into our markets, Denmark had good progress in the third quarter with substantial improvement in order intake, fueled by continued strong demand. Net sales, however, remained steady, reflecting the usual slowdown in activity during the summer holiday period and also the early autumn. Poland had a slight decline in order intake during the quarter, while net sales increased, driven mainly by higher fees and higher share of successfully matched professionals to clients.

In Finland, despite a decline in order intake during the quarter, activity levels remained high with a significant increase in orders coming from the public sector. In Norway, we are gradually reshaping our business in the new regulatory landscape, and we are taking our full range of services and solutions to the market. In Sweden, the development is impacted by the slower market recovery with volatility across clients and industries.

The Temporary Agency Work Act came into effect on October 1 this year, but so far, we have not experienced any increased desire among our specialists to transition from their assignments to permanent employment. And it's evident that our clients are managing the legislation in various ways with different interpretations and actions. So regardless of which Ework is here, and we have a good offering to support our clients when it comes to compliance advisory and any support needed. We are closely monitoring development in this area.

In the third quarter, we continued our positive momentum in securing new framework agreements, both with new clients and by renewing and extending our engagements with existing clients in both private and public sectors. These agreements provide a strong and important foundation for our accelerated and profitable growth moving forward. A key driver for our wins is the increased value creation for our clients, which is also contributing to improved margins for Ework.

In total, we added 10 new [ framework ] agreements during Q3, where one with a new client, NOVO Energy, a rapidly growing Scandinavian battery manufacturer with a key role in mobile electrification and green transition. Here Ework will enable development and value creation by providing relevant tech talent to their business. This is a good example of conditions where Ework's offering and our capabilities can make a real difference.

Another new client is Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions in Slovakia, a European leader in information and communication solutions and one of the top 15 largest employers in Slovakia. Here Ework is since a few months supporting their talent acquisition activities to enable their journey of fast growth, underpinned by quality and qualified motivated employees. As we continue our expansion in Slovakia, we look forward to leveraging Ework's complete offering to create value for Deutsche Telekom and more clients.

Over the recent months, we have co-created a new solution for management of contingent talent. It's called Program Management Office, PMO, and we've done that together with one of our industry clients. This solution will bring benefits to the client beyond the scope of talent provided by Ework and is another good example of value-driven business development. We have also continued to highlight our value-adding services offering, and we see an increasing interest for, in particular, our financing and protective security solutions.

As we continue to drive business development, our focus is to maximize value creation for our clients, partners and professionals, and to provide a superior experience. This will allow us to gain trust and climb the value chain together with our clients, which ultimately will lead to increased volumes and also higher margins.

As we bring our portfolio of services and solutions to the market, we see a rising demand and growing confidence in our offering. During the quarter, we made significant progress in expanding and diversifying our service portfolio. Building on our talent acquisition and talent management services, Ework now delivers a broad range of talent solutions, including temporary and permanent placements, both onshore and nearshore, as individuals or as teams working on a statement of work basis.

A key development during the quarter is, again, the Project Management Office that I mentioned. It's a solution that we launched as a complement to our Managed Service Provider, also called MSP offering. And this new solution developed in collaboration with an industry client allows Ework to manage the entire workforce, both individual professionals and teams, regardless of whether Ework provides the talent or not, and this all on behalf of the client.

Through Ework's PMO solution, clients can benefit from seamless and high-quality workforce management that ensures compliance with regulations like the Temporary Agency Work Act. It also provides valuable data and insights for better decision-making and control, and it allows our clients to focus on their core business. And we build this on a subscription model, and this is a solution that not only creates added value for clients, but also drives good margins for Ework.

During the quarter, we have also continued to develop our talent advisory services, and these services are designed to support clients with strategic and tactical insights for their overall talent planning and optimization needs, while they navigate the complex workforce landscapes.

And an example of this is our compliance advisory services, I mentioned them before, and here we provide clients with expert guidance on relevant legislation. We can help them with background checks and security clearance as an example. And this offering, which is provided by Ework on a consulting basis, further aligns with our strategic shift towards becoming a strategic talent partner to our clients.

During the quarter we also continued to refine our delivery model, and this is about delivery, but it's also about sales -- operation and sales. We want to ensure clarity, efficiency and quality end-to-end based on our standardized services and defined way of working. We now work as one team with one [ unified ] approach across the entire group and this is a cornerstone of our operating model.

We continue to develop our talent network and elevate talent acquisition by focusing on the areas of expertise that are in demand for our clients' activities in digitalization, green transition and strategic development. And there is a steady high interest in joining Ework's talent network from around the world. We add approximately 10,000 new professionals to our network every quarter.

Client governance is also being elevated to maximize value creation for clients based on Ework's extended portfolio of services and solutions. With client experience as one of Ework's strongholds and cornerstones, work is also ongoing to refine our voice of client assessment in support of continuous improvements and client development activities.

When assessing our operational performance, we can now see that we are able to handle similar volumes to 2023 with fewer resources. We're also seeing that the way we structured our talent acquisition teams into skill areas is leading to faster and more efficient delivery of candidates to clients. And one example is a nearly 50% increase in interview hit rate, the rate of our professionals securing initial client interviews, highlighting improved quality and precision in our matching process.

The development of our upgraded internal digital platform is on schedule with a planned launch in Q4. And once it's fully implemented, it will give us further economies of scale in our operating model, and we are now on a good path with a clear road map towards a proven, stable and scalable standard digital platform, which is based on a comprehensive data model and enterprise architecture, closely aligned to our business needs.

Another key aspect of the platform is the ability to serve as a foundation for the use of AI and automation, and this is something we are actively looking at as a way to accelerate our business performance further, as well as our collaboration with our clients, partners and professionals going forward.

And with this, I'd like to hand over to you, Klas.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Thank you, Karin. We take now a deeper dive into our financials. Starting with order intake, quarterly order intake was SEK 3.204 billion. This was 6% higher than what we reported 2023, a return to order growth after 5 quarters of negative [ surge ]. During the quarter, we observed an increased demand for some of our clients, but the broader market recovery was slower than we had earlier anticipated.

Despite a continued weak demand in public sector and a flattish approach from several of our larger client industries, we managed to increase the volume of assignments booked. As a very positive and strategic trend, we managed to increase the order margin for the fifth consecutive quarter. In fact, the Q3 realized margin was the highest one recorded in 4 years. Despite our return to order growth, it was not sufficient to increase our number of active assignments that fell with 3% during the quarter.

Looking at sales and EBIT, quarterly net sales was SEK 3.227 billion, giving a negative growth of 11%. The revenue development follows the lower assignment volumes. The quarter included one more working day, adding positively to revenue growth with 1.5 percentage points. Operating profit was SEK 39.3 million compared to SEK 44.8 million 2023. Adjusted for items affecting comparability, the 2023 result was SEK 38.1 million. Compared to this, the profit increased with 3%. Profit before tax increased 16%. The outcome represents an improved underlying profitability of the business in line with our expectation. We are pleased to see that the improved margins in active assignments and additional services as well as lower costs [ according ] to plan.

Net sales. The negative net sales development between quarters 2024 and last year is explained by fewer active assignments. Just like in the previous quarter, the main factor behind the reduction is the now completed phase-out of our lower-margin client business. This impacted with approximately SEK 250 million in reduced net sales between the periods.

Furthermore, the retraction of our Norwegian business impacted net sales negatively with some SEK 125 million. These two factors combined are thus the main explanation for the volume decline. Connected to the slower market recovery, assignments did not increase at the magnitude we expected and have indicated in earlier outlooks.

The EBIT development. In 2024, all types of [ the ] financing costs are reported in the financial net in our P&L. In Q3 2023, we reclassified part of these costs from above EBIT to the financial net. In Q3 2023, financing cost of SEK 6.7 million had a positive effect on EBIT, distorting the comparability between period. For a [ fairer ] comparability, we, therefore, suggest to use SEK 38.1 million as the Q3 2023 operating result. And against this, the operating profit actually grew with 3%.

It was very satisfactory to see that our increasing order margin now also translated into an improved margin in invoiced assignments supporting increased profit. Our add-on service also contributed in the same way. The reduced cost level was the main factor contributing to the underlying profit increase. The lower volumes is now the key factor holding back profit growth.

Our operating margin EBIT in relation to net sales was 122 basis points compared to 123, 2023. With adjustment for comparability, last year margin was 105 basis points, indicating another quarter of margin improvement.

Price increases on our add-on services, including PayExpress, contributed to the margin uplift. As a strategic milestone, we now saw year-on-year margin improvement in our portfolio of active assignments because of the positive trend already demonstrated in our order margin. The reduced cost level connected to a new operating model has increased profit and efficiency.

To obtain full targeted cost ratios and margin increase, we depend on market recovery and increasing business volumes. The outlook for our operating margin, therefore, remains very positive, supported by new client wins, new -- and a sustained increase in order margin and scaling from further volume growth.

With the last quarterly report, we introduced a new KPI by relating our EBIT to our retained revenue from services provided. In P&L language, service revenue will be equal to gross profit, as it is defined in our report. As of this quarter, we include this KPI in our report and we'll continue to follow up on this going forward. Relating EBIT as a percentage to the service revenue will give a complementary perspective on our profitability and allow fair benchmark to alternative business models such as consulting and recruitment companies on the wider talent market.

During the last years, we have shared information on our work developing a more comprehensive talent service portfolio, including a clarified and elevated value proposition to our stakeholders. Our strategy ahead, focus on profitable growth, therefore, includes a relative higher service revenue growth compared to that of volumes and net sales. We are, therefore, pleased to see a clear improvement in the underlying EBIT to service revenue margin ratio this quarter.

Thank you. That was all for me. Karin, so back to you on the outlook.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Klas. So in summary, we can conclude our Q3 as increased order intake after 5 quarters with negative growth, higher margins in the order intake for the fifth consecutive quarter, increasing margins and lower cost, improving our profitability, reduced volumes hampering growth and scaling and a slower recovery in our main markets.

So the outlook as follows. Our positive margin development and increased cost efficiency are in line with the plan and outlook for the year. We are seeing a gradually increasing demand and a higher order intake compared to the previous year, but a slower market recovery than expected. Despite this resulting in lower volumes of consultants on assignment, we are increasing our earnings per share, though not at the pace required to achieve a 30% growth in earnings per share by the end of the year. So this is the summary.

And with that, Klas, we will open up to questions.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

First, maybe [ from the audience ].

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Simon Granath from ABG.

[Simon Granath, analyst]

Thanks for the presentation and for you following up on the new KPIs. Initially -- I was wondering on the initial feedback that you have received from both customers and employees from the new operating model that you've implemented?

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Very good and relevant question, of course. We are in the midst of transforming into the new model. It's operational, but there is still work to be done to fine-tune the model to make sure we have the clarity and understanding and the collaboration that this model is built upon, across the organization.

So we are improving every week, every month as we move forward. And clearly, as we said, we can see some really good benefits coming out of it. But of course, it's a big change in our organization and a lot of work done by many people to get this into place. So I'm really, really grateful for everybody walking the extra mile to get our new model working and providing benefits to Ework.

But on the other hand, as you also asked, Simon, it's also providing benefits to our clients because, as we said, we also see, for instance, that we can respond quicker. We had a good increased ratio of consultants who were invited to client interviews as an example. So we will continue to make sure that we get the benefits from our model as we have anticipated. But clearly, I would say we're on a good path, although, of course, a lot of hard work to get everything into place.

[Simon Granath, analyst]

Very helpful. And in light of this new operating model, is your view that you are currently winning market share from competitors as well, especially that you -- considering that you're now seeing better response time, et cetera? And I also base that question in light of the solid order intake momentum that you saw here in Q3.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Yes. Also a very good question, thank you for that. Yes, it's our belief that in certain industries, in certain geographies, we are on a really good path and have a really good momentum, as we mentioned. So our ambition is to continue and increase our market share in all of the markets where we have a presence.

Currently, some markets are stronger than others for Ework. But we do see definitely that in some parts of our business we are gaining good traction in the market. And our ambition, as said, is continuing [ doing ] so across all of the markets going forward. And the model is certainly helping us here as well.

[Simon Granath, analyst]

Perfect. And then I was wondering if you can expand a bit on the gross margin, because you've previously had a large focus on attracting more senior consultants. Do you expect to see a similar trajectory going into 2025? Or may a recovery in the demand in 2025 mean that shift takes a step back to more junior consultants and thus holding back the gross margin a bit?

[Karin Schreil, executive]

So our gross margin, as we also shared, is related to a number of different aspects of our business. One, of course, is the mix of consultants on assignment, clearly. But we also have other aspects impacting our gross margin, such as the mix of different services, for instance.

But if we look at the seniority of consultants on assignment, we had a development in direction that you just said, towards more specialists and senior consultants on assignment. And we continue to see a high demand for really senior specialist consultants in the market, and they are needed, as we said, for digitalization and electrification and all the transformation that's going on in the market.

Having said that, we also want to encourage our clients, of course, to look at more junior consultants or in many cases, and in more cases, I would say, teams of consultants where we can bundle a few seniors with junior consultants, to get a good team where we can optimize teamwork and performance for a full team. This is also a good way of introducing and developing young talent and consultants into more senior, experienced specialists in the future. So we want to do both, I'd say, is the short answer here.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

And I think -- excellent, Karin. I think to add to that as well, I think our focus remains and even more so going ahead now the talent acquisition part, the find and select part where we actually do help to find either senior or more junior consultants, so the right person for the job, permanent or contingent. So that [indiscernible] -- and that's value provision from us in a nutshell, and that's our focus going forward. That will be helpful for our margins as well.

[Simon Granath, analyst]

Very good. And you have elaborated well on a couple of the value-added services that you currently have, and another one is on the PayExpress service that you offer. Could you talk about the current momentum in that business?

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Yes, I can start off and maybe you can continue then, Klas. So yes, we are focusing on this as one of our value-adding services, PayExpress, to our professionals and partners. This is a really good service where we can allow them to get paid when they wish to get paid regardless of the payment terms on the other end with our clients. We see a growing interest for this service. It's a flexible service. It's an attractive offering and we are growing gradually the share of PayExpress on our assignments. So that's something clearly we are focusing.

Also, our corporate PayExpress offering that we take to our clients is something we also bring further to the market and discuss with more and more clients. So here, we also have an attractive offering, and these solutions are based on a solid financing platform. And that's, of course, important so that we can make sure that it remains competitive in terms of the terms and conditions.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

I agree.

[Simon Granath, analyst]

Very good. And then finally from me, Ework is not historically known for doing M&A, but perhaps you could give an update on whether you think that such opportunities may present in light of the currently weakened demand? Or is this something that you do not look that much into?

[Karin Schreil, executive]

So I can just say we have a strategic plan and expansion plan. We talked about the geographical expansion. So far it's been done organically, and we continue to grow organically. Having said that, of course, we always look into opportunities to accelerate our growth and expansion. So I don't want to rule anything out, but I can't say anything more than that at this point.

[Simon Granath, analyst]

That's very fair. And finally, I'd like to say good luck in the future, Klas. You'll be missed.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Thank you, Simon, likewise. Right.

[Operator]

There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

We do have a few written questions. So I start and will help out in the answer here.

But the first question we have is about the new Work Agency Act that we have in Sweden applied, and whether that has been affecting or is affecting terminations of assignment?

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Yes, that's a good question. I'll just comment it with a few words. So far we haven't seen any big effects from the new legislation. We know, as I said, that most of the consultants and professionals that we have in our network, they are interested to continue and pursue a career as consultants and contingent specialists.

We know that clients are looking into and managing the legislation in different ways. And we will simply make sure we stay close to this, stay close to clients who are in need of advice, and look to see if there are any trends going in any direction. But so far we can't see any big effects from the legislation.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Okay. Then there's a question about our short-term outlook. Given that we've seen order intake growth now, which was positive, obviously, in Q3, is there a reason that we now should expect a return to revenue growth already in Q4?

And unfortunately, we would very much like to, and that was our hope going [ in ] -- and outlook going into the year 2024. But given the current business volumes [indiscernible] as a starting point when we entered October, it will be very challenging, and we will really have to see a very strong boost in the -- and -- a strong increase in the order intake in Q4 to achieve that. So it's not likely.

Then we have a question, [ have before ], cash flow -- where the cash flow was observed to be strong in the quarter, and whether we can explain how PayExpress affects cash flow and changes in working capital?

Yes. Good question. With the financing solution that we have secured for Ework, in particular geared to support a growth in our financial payment services, Corporate PayExpress, PayExpress, we have the opportunity to finance with an off balance sheet situation in the way that we sell our accounts receivables to secure the financing. So it will be cash flow neutral from the company in that sense, and also it will actually not tie up working capital. So we are very happy for that solution.

Then comes a question about our outlook. Notably that we do not anymore expect to grow our earnings per share this year given the market context of above 30%, but we do not say anything about the future. So anything we can comment on there in terms of our development or expectation?

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Yes. So as we said in the outlook, we continue to drive our own development according to plan. So we increase our margins. We drive cost efficiency activities, and they are according to plan. So what is missing is the volumes that we need to further grow the business profitably and achieve an earnings per share in the range of 30%. So we are working really hard on it, but the market is really hard to predict.

And as we've said now for a number of months, it's very volatile, it's a mixed and varying market across industries and markets. So it is hard to predict. But as the order intake is now increasing, that's at least a good sign that the growth should come. How fast it will come, that is the difficult thing here to forecast, but a positive development compared to last year. That's for sure something that we are looking for.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Then a question about our statement that the underlying margin or the margin we observed was the highest one in 4 years.

So -- and maybe a point of clarification here that it was the margin we got in our order intake in the quarter, which, of course, then underpins also what we expect to see in our P&L in coming periods. So we are very pleased to see that development. We've seen that now for 5 consecutive quarters for many, many months in a row. So it's a sustained trend. And it for sure gives opportunities for us then to improve our profitability, but more so maybe than anything else, it confirms the result and hard work with our development of our service portfolio and the elevated value proposition therein.

Okay. And then more specific question about that, what margins do we see there? What level do we see?

Well, the -- it's [ so ] of course [ so ] that our business is linked to long-term relations and frame agreements stipulating prices over several years. So it's a transitionary thing where we are working with that as our hunting license and kind of focused on providing more and more value. So it's a gradual increased process. We don't comment how much, but we expect to see increased margins in coming periods as a result of that.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Definitely. Yes. And we could add both in our base business, our base services and of course, with our add-on services that we bring in addition. So we're looking to grow in both areas and the add-ons are clearly important to further elevate our margins.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

[ Exactly ]. And finally, more an operational question again. Last one we have here is a question about our new operating model and how -- what impact we see in our ability to just do the find and select, find the right person for the job basically?

[Karin Schreil, executive]

That's a really good question. So one of the things that we introduced with the new operating model is that we use skill areas as a basis, both for network development and for find and select activities when we source and match consultants to our clients' requests. And we are now gradually building a stronger and stronger network that we can use to source from. So having a really strong and relevant network is really important in order for us to be able to provide our clients with the right candidates.

So here we see improvements, but we also see improvements in our speed, in our way of working because we have teams that are oriented around skill areas. They increase [ their ] knowledge about the network, but also the requests from the clients and how they can best match these two together. So it's really helping us and an important foundation for the whole model.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Excellent. Thank you. I think that concludes the written questions as well.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Okay. Good. And maybe then all the questions and answers that we had.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Yes.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

And with that, I would like to thank you, the audience, but also, Klas, I would like to thank you.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Likewise.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Yes. This was -- I actually counted. This was the quarterly presentation [ #12 ]. So this was our 12th presentation together, and I want to thank you. It's been a pleasure and a joy. And I will certainly miss you, Klas, but I know you have exciting things ahead of you. So I want to wish you the best of luck. And going forward, our new CFO, Johanna Eriksson, will, of course, make sure to step in and do these presentations with me onwards.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Karin, and that will work excellently. And thank you, everybody, who's been listening to us and also thanks to the many offline dialogues we've had in between reporting periods, and those been there very much appreciated and good. It's mixed feelings to leave Ework. I think we've taken so many good steps now that we have a positive outlook ahead, and we were just waiting the -- a stronger market recovery, and we will have some good quarterly reports for sure. And I -- so I will follow Ework with continued interest.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Yes. And we will keep you close to us, Klas, and I look forward to that as well.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Super. Thank you.

[Karin Schreil, executive]

Thank you so much.

[Klas Rewelj, executive]

Thank you.