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Good afternoon and welcome to MTG's interim report presentation for the fourth quarter. My name is Lars Torstensson, and I'm CFO and EVP, Communication and IR here at MTG. And joining me, I have, as always, our Group President and CEO, Maria Redin. We will begin by presenting the quarter and then take your questions in the Q&A session for dial-in participants only. With that said, I'm now handing over to you, Maria, to take us through the quarter.
Thank you, Lars, and hello, everyone, and welcome to our Q4 call. For us, as you know, the biggest news actually came after the end of the quarter, where we announced the divestment of the ESL group to Savvy Gaming. That was a transaction that transformed the esport market overnight. And the deal actually meant that MTG has been able to create the first esports unicorn, thanks to the valuation north of $1 billion. The transaction also provides MTG shareholders with a 2.5x return on investments on ESL. This is the combination of a 7-year long journey driven by clear vision, close partnership with ESL management and supporting shareholders. For the ESL gaming, it brings a merger with FACEIT and a new supportive long-term shareholder who loved esports as much as we do and can also help the company take the next step to become the clear leader in the competitive gaming space. So where does it then leave MTG and us? Well, the answer is quite simple. MTG is now a pure-play gaming company. With the transaction and the sale of ESL, we fully expect the transactions closed in Q2 as announced this year. One of the key priorities going into this deal was actually deal certainty. Given the competitive landscape that was highly important to us, and we have now done the final filings this week, and we are fully confident in the closures. So post announcement, it now is the time for us to take the first step as a pure-play gaming group. And we're very happy to see the strong operational performance that we're having in the gaming vertical and that we delivered in Q4. The performance growth accelerated to 13% year-over-year in the quarter. The main driver of this growth has been PlaySimple and Ninja Kiwi, supported by improved sequential performance from InnoGames. In turn, we reported group revenues of SEK 1.7 billion, with a pro forma year-over-year growth of 7%. We've also had a record high adjusted EBITDA in the quarter of SEK 346 million. This operational financial results reflect a year of focus work and a dedication for the whole team, and that has resulted in a fundamental transformation of the group. So if you move to the next slide and looked at more detail on the gaming vertical. We've taken several important steps to make sure that we're building a more relevant and competitive gaming group for the future. We convinced that we ended 2022 with a well-diversified portfolio of gaming titles that enable ongoing organic growth. We began consolidated results with Ninja Kiwi in May and later PlaySimple in August 2021. This means that now in Q4 it's actually the first quarter where we have fully consolidated our complete current gaming portfolio. That is, of course, the main reason that we're reporting 100% year-over-year growth in both revenues and EBITDA for this segment. Therefore, it's really important to look at the like-for-like development. So I would suggest we move to the next slide, and we look at the organic growth and the drivers behind it. If you look at the pro forma growth, we delivered 13% year-over-year net sales growth in the quarter and 12% for the full year. Our adjusted pro forma EBITDA margin was 32% in the quarter and 31% for the full year. We reported revenues of SEK 4.8 billion for the combined gaming portfolio. And the exciting part is that we clearly outperformed the market, which is expected now to grow around 7%. At the same time, as we deliver accelerated growth, we kept our margins intact with the total group EBITDA for the gaming part of SEK 1.5 billion. And as I said, this was done in combination with accelerated pro forma growth. Looking at slides on Q4, we reported revenues of SEK 1.3 billion. The growth rate has accelerated from 8% in Q3, which is mainly driven by stronger underlying performance of the classic performance, which improved sequentially on a quarterly basis. So what are then the drivers of the success? Well, I want to mention a few parts. First and foremost, the PlaySimple InnoGames franchise and Ninja Kiwi Bloons TD 6 with strong performance drivers in the quarter. And then the growth was further supported by the launch of Battles 2 and the improved performance coming from InnoGames Forge of Empires. And finally, we're also very happy to see that Rise of Cultures showed strong early signs of success as it was commercially launch now already in January. It's clear that most of our growth is coming from our newly acquired businesses. We're very happy with the performance on how we look at the combined portfolio. And the new assets are delivering just over 40% year-over-year growth in Q4. That means that our newly acquired access represents roughly 50% of our sales and EBITDA. And when we do talk about our newly acquired businesses, it's worth highlighting Ninja Kiwi's performance. We've always been firm believers in the strength of evergreen IP. Despite that, the performance of Ninja Kiwi's title still exceeded our expectations. As a result, we have adjusted the earn-out liability in the quarter. This has a payout threshold that Ninja Kiwi is going to reach will be higher than what we expected at the time of closing. And we are, therefore, making an adjustment of SEK 320 million in Q4, which primarily relates to Ninja Kiwi outperforming our expectations. So we take a step back and put this in context, when we take into account the upfront payments and the estimated total earnout, the implied EBITDA multiple for this deal is 6.9x the adjusted 2021 actual EBITDA adjusted. And when we look back and we see the expectations when we announced the deal, this was a multiple of 7.3x paid to 2020 adjusted EBITDA based on only the upfront consideration. So understandably, we're quite excited about the performance even taking into account the extra earn-out liability, which is purely driven by the improved financial performance by the company. When we then look forward into 2022, several of the soft launch types are now set to launch commercially, both in Q1 and later on this year, and these will, of course, be a key growth driver for our organic growth as well as the group's overall marketing spend. Moving on to the next slide and we look and then we drill down into the portfolio. Our dependence on top 3 titles have come down further in the quarter as we fully consolidate pricing. Currently, our top 3 performing games are Forge of Empire, Word Trip Word Jam. And as said, PlaySimple has now been consolidated for the full quarter. In Q4, they saw an opportunity to excel in marketing initiatives around the InnoGames franchise, in particular, the game has continued to perform very well and we saw a positive return on that investment. The strong performance of the PlaySimple InnoGames has also had positive of our monthly and daily active users in the quarter. This, combined with the strong early trends for Battles 2, which was launched by Ninja Kiwi as well as the Rise of Cultures launched from InnoGames. If you take it all together, they are gradually building up for a full commercial launch in Q1. And all in all, it's driving sequential growth in monthly and daily active users, building a fantastic momentum going into 2022. And if you then look down into our IP, evolving and expanding our portfolio of IP is critical to our future success. We want to continue to broaden our strong coverage, balance out the impact from differences in maturity for different titles and to continue to diversify our revenue streams. With the new portfolio, we also -- this is really key to reduce our dependency on individual games. The work that we are doing on diversification means that we are less dependent on our top 3 games today than we were before. And as we go into 2022, we have a clear portfolio of strategy, well-developed priorities and a team that is ready to deliver on our ambitious strategy. Moving on forward, of course, one of the most important strategic priorities as a pure-play gaming company is to ensure that we have the right operating model and framework to nurture our game companies, their teams and entrepreneurs. We will continue to execute on our buy-and-build strategy going forward. Thanks to the recent divestment to ESL Gaming, we have demonstrated that we have the patience, vision and the focus to grow and develop companies for success. Our next journey will be to embrace and involve MTG as a growth accelerator for our gaming companies. We will accomplish it by creating value across the group through strategy focused on building selected center of excellences around best-in-class capabilities we already have in the group. Some of these most critical areas for us include business intelligence, user acquisition and blockchain technologies. We want to make sure that we elevate talent and knowledge no matter where it originates, both from the headquarter and also from the people in our companies. In the coming months, we'll continue to develop our strategy and refine our approach. Our ambition is to host the Capital Markets Day in Q2, and we hope that you can join us then for a deeper dive into these topics. So let's now move into the esport segment. Operationally, ESL Gaming successfully delivered and produced 5 multi properties in Q4. This was a mix of both studio and online events. ESL Mobile continued to develop at a high pace and finished 3 regional seasons with games like Clash of Clans and PUBG Mobile. Some of the developments in Q4 also included ESL Gaming announcing a multiyear extension with Monster and Maincast, as well as publisher deals with Psyonix for the Rocket League Championship. DreamHack went back to the roots and successfully relaunched live LAN events in Sweden and DreamHack SportGames also organized 3 Challenger properties in golf and football. Net sales for the esports vertical was down 10% year-over-year in the quarter, with a positive FX impact of 1%. Sales declined 11% organically year-over-year in the quarter, mainly as a result of Q4 2020 being packed with events because of the impact of the pandemic have on the year, which meant that we actually moved properties to Q4 rather than Q3. Looking at the second half performance, we see that esport is back to growth in the second half of the year. Looking on the announced transaction that we have now in January, that is, of course, the biggest news of the quarter, the sale of ESL to Savvy Gaming. And if we take a step back, I mean, part of being a great owner is to know when to add value and support, but also to know when the time has come to divested companies to help them on the next phase of the journey. We're a huge and believer in the strategic merger of ESL and FACEIT. But we also were realistic about the fact that we could not have made this happen on our own basis. The sale of ESL Gaming to Savvy therefore helped us achieve several strategic and important objectives. First of all, it lets us -- it enables the merger and the creation of the world's leading competitive gaming platform. It enables us to also create the first-ever esports unicorn with a valuation north of $1 billion. And it also helps us to deliver substantial shareholder return that equals 2.5x on our investments. We do expect around $875 million of net proceeds from the transaction, and we are going to propose to provide back at least 40% of that money to shareholders. And most importantly, we are now becoming a pure-play gaming company with a strength in balance sheet, which gives us the opportunity to pursue an acceleration of our gaming strategy as well as further relevant M&A. And on that high note, I'll hand over to Lars.
Thanks, Maria. And let's have a look at the financial performance of MTG on a group level. I would like to reemphasize what Maria has already said, a very solid quarter, displaying our execution of our strategy to build a more diversified group of companies on the gaming side. Net sales increased by 56% on the back of an intensive M&A year, adding 3 great companies in Hutch, Ninja Kiwi and PlaySimple. On a pro forma basis, net sales increased by 7%, represented -- representing a strong performance by our gaming vertical. And speaking of the gaming vertical, it grew 13% pro forma, a very strong showing. Adjusted EBITDA for the group grew 80% year-over-year. And I think it's quite impressive to see that we are able to accelerate growth and still maintain the margin contribution from the gaming vertical. And then speaking of the gaming vertical, we had an adjusted EBITDA margin of 32%. Once again, the stable performance -- we saw stable performance from Ninja Kiwi, the main driver, but also supported by InnoGames. Adjustments in the quarter to the long-term incentive program -- were mostly related to the long-term incentive program in both the esport and gaming vertical. Additionally, and no surprise, we saw costs associated with our M&A activity amounting to SEK 28 million in the quarter. We also have slightly elevated central costs on the back of building an even stronger team around the gaming vertical.Moving on to the next slide, please. There are quite some items in our cash flow statement that are worth highlighting in the quarter. As we grow as a company, purely mechanically, our cash flow contribution from operations improves. It also impacts taxes paid as we now have more profit generating units in the group. On net working capital, we had a positive swing, partly due to ESL Gaming seeing early payments or prepayments from partners in the quarter. Additionally, our gaming vertical contributed positively as payments made through Google Play and App Store had a positive impact on accounts receivables. It should be noted that this will reverse somewhat in Q1 2022. In the quarter, we paid the last part of the upfront payment to Ninja Kiwi amounted to around SEK 100 million. Additionally, the first earn-out payment based on the calendar year was finalized and paid in December amounted to SEK 160 million. At the end of the period, we had SEK 943 million in cash in MTG. We are currently carrying approximately SEK 1.9 billion in debt, divide between a bridge facility of SEK 1 billion and the revolving credit facility of SEK 1 billion, of which SEK 900 million has been drawn upon. This leads to a total net debt of SEK 957 million. Also a few words on the general strength of the balance sheet following the sale of ESL Gaming. All the net proceeds, SEK 8 billion approximately, we anticipate to distribute 40% back to shareholders equaling SEK 3.2 billion. Just to clarify on the distribution, we plan to do that in a fair and tax-efficient manner. That leaves a net cash position of slightly shy of SEK 4 billion, including bank debt. It provides MTG with a strong position to be able to act if interesting M&A opportunities would arise. Last but not least, we're looking into 2022. I would like to remind all listeners that we are commercially launching 3 games from InnoGames across the first half. That will be backed by increased marketing. Additionally, the esport vertical will be treated as discontinued operations in Q1 2022 and hence not be consolidated. With that said, I hand it back to you, Maria.
Thank you, Lars. And let's continue on the forward-looking stage. The sale of ESL will help us refine and simplify our equity story. We are now a gaming company. We have a clear and focused strategy, and we have the team and the balance sheet to continue to build on our success. The transaction also serves as a catalyst to accelerate our buy-and-build strategy and to continue to be one of the driving forces in the market consolidation that we see around us. We have full confidence in the sale of ESL that they will close within the time frame that we have outlined, and we don't see any significant risk in this area. So to wrap it all up before taking your question, we have a fantastic team in place to execute our strategy. We have the firepower to be an active force in our industry, and we enter now 2022 with a strong operation momentum. So taking that all together, we're extremely excited as we now put 2021 behind us, and it's also looking forward into 2022. So with that, Lars and I are ready to take your questions.
Thank you, Maria. And that concludes our formal presentation for our fourth quarter. We are now ready to take any questions that you might have on the report. And operator, if you could help us to have the first question, please.
The first question comes from the line of Oscar Erixon.
Oscar Erixon here at Carnegie. A couple of questions from me on the gaming segment. You're seem to primarily be pushing Rise of Cultures now for InnoGames. Could you elaborate little bit on the early indications? Do you expect continued scaling up of the marketing investments throughout Q1? Could you say something about retention and monetization please?
Yes. Oscar. Yes, we're talking about rights of culture, but then I think that's the game that is now actually moved into full commercial launch. We have been actually in a slow scale, been ramping it up in the second half of the year. But I think it's now in sort of Q1 and onwards where you're really going to see meaningful marketing be put behind it. When it comes to retention and monetization, I mean, I don't want to give out too much rather than we would not put it into full commercial launch unless we saw really strong metrics because that's the way that we feel comfortable that we can do marketing and also scale marketing on back of it. You need the proper both retention and monetization metrics. The only good news I can share with you that we are actually looking at already now around 300,000 daily active users in that game, which is something that we're very excited about.
Perfect. Thanks, Maria. And on the similar note, organic growth, minus 8% in Q4. Looking into Q1 here, would you expect such to contribute positively in Q1? And also, did you expect InnoGames to have better year-on-year momentum, also taking the rights of cultures lease into account?
No. We're quite happy actually when we see the sequential performance, Q3 going into Q4. We see that there is a good traction in our companies and they're delivering according to the plan, which means that we expect that the organic growth momentum will continue to build in a good way going into Q2 and Q3 this year. So you should expect organic growth to return during the first half this year. I don't want to give specific detail on the different companies because we look at the company in its totality and making sure, to be honest, that the most important number, the way we look at it is the combined group performance, which means that it's a 13% pro forma growth with the combined group in Q4 and 12% for the full year, which is the number that we would like to continue to grow better than the market the way we've done now actually throughout the whole sort of 2021, which we are excited about.
Understood. And then just a final question from me before handing over. Clearly, a fantastic performance by the high margin Ninja Kiwi in Q4. First of all, I mean, is it sustainable? What's the pipeline ahead? And if you could give any sort of indication on the Q1 and full year EBITDA margin given the strong performance by Ninja Kiwi?
Yes. No, it goes without saying that the Ninja Kiwi performance is absolutely stellar. And it shows the relevance of evergreen IPs, so strong IPs. And it obviously also performs than what we anticipated, which is something that we're really excited about. There is no reason to not believe that, that strong performance will continue. That is also why we increased the earn-out, not just for the existing year growth for the 2022, but the margins are, to your point, extremely high, and that is driven by the fact that everything is sort of community and influencer-driven when it comes to the users. And I think that what we would like to do is as Battles 2 is being launched in November, we want to make sure we start to scale that up and actually start to put marketing behind that. And that is the first time actually Ninja Kiwi has spent any marketing dollars. So that should imply in theory that the margin should go down a little bit, but then you should, over time, see positive growth instead. But the high margins overall will sustain and Ninja Kiwi is a fantastic company with a strong profitability.
The next question comes from the line of Martin Arnell from DNB Markets.
So yes, my first question is on the shareholder distribution of the SEK 3.2 billion. How will you prioritize between the alternatives you have like buybacks and then some cash dividend?
Martin, thanks for the question. I think what we have said is that we're going to distribute at least 40% of the net proceeds back to our shareholders. And the comment that we made is that we need to make it as tax efficient as we possibly can. We haven't yet clarified exactly how that distribution will look like, it is something that the Board will come back with in front of the upcoming AGM. And hence, we will let that the rest for a while until that is the case. So for now, I mean, the only indication that we provide is that this needs to be tax efficient.
Okay. And when was it that you expect -- when do you expect closure? And is everything sort of running according to plan in everything so far?
Yes. Everything is running in line with them, which is great, and we have no reason to expect anything else either from day 1, to be fair. So the relevant applications will be filed this week. And thereafter the clocks are ticking in, then it's just a waiting time, we have announced that we said initially that we expect closing in Q2, and that remains true.
Okay. Great. And I also have some questions on your organic growth performance. You mentioned that you expect a return to organic growth in the first half of this year. If you look at your Q4, did it improve at the end of the quarter? And can you share anything on the progress so far almost halfway into Q1?
Yes. No. As you said, I mean, we're quite happy to see the improvement in Q4 versus Q3, and it has been sort of a gradual improvement. And of course, the next big driver of improvement also lies in the successful launch of the new games. I mean, you have 3 games going into full commercial launch in Q1 and Q2. That will, of course, be a big driver to that, together with the improvements that we have seen, in particular in Forge of Empires in the way that we change the in-game events and also being able to do more efficient marketing, which is also an equally important part of it. So when you take it all together, I mean, we look very positive in the future, but it will continue to come on sort of sequentially build up.
Okay. Do you expect continued growth improvements in the old games like Forge of Empires also here in Q1 compared with the second half of last year?
We don't want to go in and comment on individual sort of games and the improvements. What we always try to do is to optimize the performance of every single game and then it is also to be fair, to some extent, the capital allocation on how do we then divide our marketing spend, where do we see the best return on that marketing spend. And that is also a judgment that both on the company level and on the group, we will look at that. So that is something again just looking at their end. And on a good note, we have 3 games where they can then also increase the marketing spend on next year. That is quite exciting. And the company has never been in that good position.
Yes. Okay. And just finally, when you look at where we are today when it comes to InnoGames just thinking about the margin progress in this quarter when you increase the marketing spend for the new game?
Yes. You didn't see the full effect in Q4, rather you've got to see that coming up now in Q1, we'll be going into full commercial launch. And as you do that and as we have always said, especially in the mid-core games, I mean, the first year, I mean, you actually have a negative contribution on the bottom line. But of course, there will be a driver of the top line growth. So that's what you should see as well for InnoGames as we now go into 2022. But on a good note, that will also accelerate their growth. And that's the part we're excited about, and that growth would then eventually turn into higher profitability.
The next question comes from the line of Rasmus Engberg from SHB.
Two questions, actually. This improvement that we see in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, what do you make that -- where do you think it comes from? Is it comps or is it changes in InnoGames? Or is it the product portfolio? Or what is it? And then the second question, as we go into Q1 and Q2, comps can you remind us -- or comps not that easy as they were in the fourth quarter. So on a pro forma basis, potentially we could see a little bit of a slowdown. Is that how do you look at that?
Yes. No, if we start with the sequential improvement that we see now in Q4. I mean, they really comes from both, the continued strong performance of the newly acquired assets. I mean, we saw an opportunity to scale marketing in PlaySimple and back of InnoGames franchises, which we're very happy about. That saw a big ramp-up on the top line revenues and the increase in daily monthly active users. And that is, of course, something we also bring with us going into 2022 that we come in with elevator usage levels and engagement level, which is fantastic. And then also on top of that, of course, the Ninja Kiwi continues to perform strong in the BTD6 and also launched Battles 2. And when you saw the sequential improvement in InnoGames, in particularly Forge of Empires where, I mean, we said in Q3, we were not happy with the events calendar, it was simply not strong enough, which meant that it was not appealing enough for our customers, the users indirectly, they told us so.So that was something we improved now in Q4, and we also saw better marketing environment for that game as well. So those are the great things that we saw sort of improving and driving the sequential performance in Q4. And I think as we move into the Q1 and Q2, of course, we then bring with us those strong operational momentum. And I think that as we look into Q2, I think that's when you will see the comps also easing up when you talk about the sort of the COVID effect, if I can put it that way.
And the next question comes from the line of Tom Singlehurst from Citi.
Tom here from Citi. I was interested in the throwaway line earlier on where you talked about your sort of central capabilities and I think you referenced business development for the marketing. And then you said blockchain technology. Can -- I mean, a bunch of other sort of mobile gaming platforms we've seen sort of, let's not call it a one-off, you've seen a boost from sort of selling NFTs and other sort of metaverse related to the revenue streams in the fourth quarter. Was there any sort of major impact for you from those kind of activities? And does that comment about blockchain at the central level indicate that you think that's going to be a big opportunity going forward?
Thank you, Tom. No, it's a good question. I think the honest answer is I don't think anyone truly knows the impact that sort of blockchain gaming and NFTs will have long term on the gaming space. But what I do believe, it's important to understand it and understand how could it possibly change the unit economic within free-to-play mobile and how could we potentially play a part of it. And on a good note, we've actually within been working with different sort of crypto partners and exploring already not in any material sort of monetary part, but from a learning experience, it's been very relevant. And I think those are the parts we want to build on now and observe the outside to say, is this something we should do when it comes to actually providing relevant entertaining sort of blockchain gaming because there is today probably not any out there that is sort of entertaining blockchain game. And could it possibly have an impact on how actually the free-to-play model will work going forward. So I think -- for us, it's more getting ready and observe the outside a little bit for the future rather than to have any financial impact sort of in the quarter that we just left or in the quarter that is to come.
The next question comes again from Oscar Erixon from Carnegie.
Oscar here again. Two follow-up questions. I mean, first, on the EBITDA margin, 32% here in Q4. Do you have any input on what to expect here in Q1, just I mean, describing for the dynamics, given the full commercial launch of Rise of Cultures and also, as you indicated, Maria marketing spend for TD Battles 2? Any sort of indication on sort of the direction and magnitude would be helpful.
No. I would say, I mean, we have in the whole almost 2021, even though we've been launch in the new games, I mean, we have only been putting marketing on back of already existing launch game, which of course, gives you high margins than what you would do if you actually started to launch a new game and actually have a negative contributing EBITDA. So that implies that you should expect the EBITDA margin to go down in the first quarter and then, of course, throughout the year, so sequentially improved, but you will see a lower margin in the first half of the year than the second half of the year in theory. But having said that, on a good note, that we also have a broader portfolio, of course, you have more profitable games that contributes to the broadness and the richness of the EBITDA contribution. So that makes it all easier for us to be able to scan new games. Sorry, I'm a little bit frosted, but it's hard to be sort of very concrete on it.But you have 2 different dynamics. You have a negative contribution of the new game launches that we're doing, which will bring our future revenue growth to be fair, but on the same side, you have really strong performing underlying games in the existing launched portfolio that you saw operating now in Q4, that is, of course, keeping that sort of strong margin up. So those 2 will sort of meet each other in Q1 and Q2.
Yes, it's a little bit of the beauty of the new structural portfolios that we can balance better push -- marketing pushes within specific studios while -- then having more mature games in other studios. So as Maria said, even though we will see market spend go up in Q1 to some extent, first half, we still are going to be able to benefit to some extent with the performance of the other portfolio companies, which is, of course, a strength of the more diversified entity.
Great. That's helpful. And then last one from me, specifically on Hutch, which seems to have had a slightly slow performance in the second half of 2021. Could you say something about the pipeline of new content and seasonality here in Q1, Q2, please?
Yes. I think the Hutch is very much focus on the 2 games now, which we are supporting. It's Top Drives and Formula One and have a much better focus on the live ops. And we're also with the center of excellent that we're building out are going to be able to support them and also work together with them to make sure that we drive UA also to 1 level better. So I think there's a lot of things that should work in favor of Hutch and to see these 2 great games to really move forward.
Operator, do we have any more questions?
There are no further questions at this moment. [Operator Instructions] Dear speakers, there are no further questions at this time.
Okay. Very good. Thank you. In that case, that concludes the conference call for the fourth quarter. We appreciate that you have taken the time today to join us, and we look forward to staying in touch until we release the next quarterly report, which will be on the 27th of April. With that said, thank care, everyone, and speak soon. Bye-bye.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect. Have a nice day.