Tobii Dynavox AB

STO:TDVOX

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this earnings call. We will cover the first quarter 2024, summarizing our business in January, February and March. So I'm Fredrik Ruben, I'm the CEO of Tobii Dynavox.

[Linda Tybring, executive]

Hello. I'm Linda Tybring, the CFO of Tobii Dynavox, and I will cover the financials.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

So for those of you who have participated in this call before, you will be familiar that we will start by a quick recap about what Tobii Dynavox does and then we will summarize the main takeaways from the quarter. We will dive deeper into the financials, and thereafter, we will open up for a Q&A session. And you can submit your questions during the live session in the chat function here in Teams. But we, of course, always welcome offline questions sent by e-mail to Linda's email address, [e-mail].

Okay. So a brief overview of Tobii Dynavox, the company. First and foremost, it's super important to reiterate our mission and vision, which I know is very dear not to only our 700-plus colleagues around the world, but also to our ecosystem of partners and investors. And our vision is a world where everyone can communicate and we contribute to this while focusing on our mission, which leads to empower people with disabilities to do what they once did or never thought possible. And this also summarizes 2 of our main user stories.

The first one is that do what you once did. Let may refer to the person who led a normal life until diagnosed with something such as ALS, which rendered her then unable to control the body or communicate like before. The other, the never thought possible can refer to the child that's diagnosed at an early age with the conditions such as autism or cerebral palsy, where thanks to our solutions, he can do much more than the world around him ever thought possible. And on the picture here, you see [ Brock ]. He's from Louisiana USA. He's one of those amazing young users and he's diagnosed with nonverbal autism, and he's a great example of exactly this.

The market that Tobii Dynavox serves is hugely underserved. Some 50 million people have a condition so grave, they simply cannot communicate unless they have a solution such as ours. Every year, about 2 million people are being diagnosed and yet, we estimate that only 2% of those are actually being helped and the rest, they remain silent. The main reason for this spells lack of awareness also among the professionals and the prescribers task to assist these users, combined with a poor health care reimbursement system.

Tobii Dynavox, we operate with a global footprint, some 3/4 of our business today stems out of the U.S., and that's largely because of reasonably well functioning funding system, which was established some 20, 30 years ago. Our products are sold in about 65 markets around the world, of which the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Denmark and Sweden and Norway are markets where we sell directly while the other are served by a network of some 100-plus reseller partners.

Our staff is distributed in a similar way after revenue, meaning that some 70-plus percent of our staff are based in North America with our U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our second largest office is our headquarter here in Stockholm. But we have branch offices in several European countries as well as in Suzhou, China. And as of today, we are a little bit north of 700 employees in total.

In September of last year, we added a new division to our team via the acquisition of Rehadapt, which also means that we welcome some 50 new colleagues, mainly based in Rehadapt headquarters in Kassel, in Germany. With prior acquisitions, we have also then established or increased our presence specifically in Belgium, France, Ireland and Denmark.

We provide a comprehensive portfolio of solutions and that ranges from the content, such as the world's leading symbol library. It's symbol -- communication symbols called PCS and a solution for the off-the-shelf or custom-made voices that are of the highest quality in diversity of languages, ages, ethnicities. We have highly sophisticated communication software tailored to the type of user, which can greatly -- which, of course, can vary greatly based on the needs.

We develop and design devices with cutting-edge technology and medically certified durability, including communication aids controlled via eye tracking and accessories such as the Rehadapt mounts. The services portfolio to help our users through the complexity of obtaining and getting funding for solutions. And then last but not least, we're there to help our users, the therapists and the caregivers through our global teams of support resources.

And we operate this model globally. Hence, it's important to note that each piece of the picture here is critically important, but also a significant differentiator for us, making us absolutely unique. Our go-to-market model is predominantly as prescribed aides. Hence, some 90% of our revenue comes from either public or private insurance providers, but this also means that we have solid paying customers. We have always historically been resilient towards changes in the overall economic climate.

Great. So now we'll come back to the main topic of today, focusing on the earnings report for the first quarter of 2024. And if I summarize and look at the highlights, we had another very solid quarter when it comes to revenue growth. The growth compared to the same quarter previous year sums up to 28%, both before and after adjusting for currency effects. This basically continues the trend that we've seen for the past 8 quarters.

The first quarter is normally also our seasonally weakest quarter. During the first quarter, we continue to report good growth across the board, meaning in all geographies, across all products and user groups. We benefit from a market leading and up-to-date product portfolio, which we continuously improve with new products and features.

Our work to improve awareness and competence continue specifically among prescribers and professionals. The North American market continues to show strong growth. It is by far the largest and most influential market, both for us and for our industry, but we continue to have equally good growth rates also in Europe and other countries. The strong momentum among the younger user base continues and that includes children with autism, for example, that rely on our symbol communication solutions and in particular, a software called TD Snap.

Our OpEx levels increase, but we are a consequence of investments to secure the future growth and building the foundation for a much bigger company in the future. Hence, we continue to invest in our staff, mainly within sales and marketing but also in back-end systems and tools. We also continue to improve our profitability at an even faster pace, so our operating profits increased by more than 50% in the quarter. Our earnings per share increased by some 45% compared to the same quarter 2023. But over to you, Linda, to dig a little bit deeper into the financials.

[Linda Tybring, executive]

Thank you. So revenue for the first quarter came in at SEK 428 million, a 28% year-on-year growth, both before and after currency effects. M&A contributed with 7%, and hence, the organic growth was a solid 21%, continuing the trends action put for 2 years quarters, I would say. As Fredrik mentioned, North America continues to be a strong growth but remains the same case for Europe and the rest of the world.

And as we have talked about prior -- both in prior quarters and today, we continue to see growth across regions, products and user groups. The gross margin ended up at 68%. The main factors behind the improvement are of just above 1 percentage point where economic of scale, increased sales price as well as price adjustment implemented last year. But partly offset by negatively impact on increased purchase price.

EBIT for the quarter was SEK 32 million or 7.6% versus 6.3% last year. Our OpEx increased by 26% organically. The OpEx increase mainly relates to staff increase with about more than 100 additional FTEs, including acquisitions. A majority of these were added in sales and marketing organization. In addition to that, we -- the salaries increased and was into force in April 1, 2023.

We have invested in systems tools of around SEK 3 million to manage a growing business and setting up us to be able to be -- handle a much bigger company in the future. This contributed to the cost increase and is something we need to continue to invest in to be able to manage the growth we see.

The cost for our existing long-term incentive programs was affected by the increase in the Tobii Dynavox share price during the quarter. The associated cost for this increased with about SEK 7 million.

Net R&D costs increased by SEK 5 million. And if we look at the earnings per share, it increased by 45% versus last year from SEK 0.7 per share to SEK 0.1 per share, so this quarter. If we then talk about the cash flow. Cash flow after continuous investments was positive SEK 10 million. Cash at hand by the end of the quarter was SEK 120 million, net debt was SEK 603 million, and we amortized our credit facility with SEK 43 million in the quarter.

The total used credit facility and term loan at the end of the quarter was SEK 635 million. And net debt over last 12 months EBITDA was 1.8x net debt to EBITDA. Fredrik, let's conclude the meeting.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Yes, short and sweet. Thank you, Linda. So before we open up on this call for questions, I'd like to reiterate some of the main takeaways from the first quarter 2024. So first of all, we continue to show solid growth, a trend that was started in Q2 2022, meaning almost 2 years ago.

We grew the revenue in the quarter by 28% and it should be noted that the first quarter is our seasonality-wise, weakest quarter every year. We continue to see revenue growth across all geographies and all product segments and our profitability continues to move upwards with the price adjustments in effect and an organization that scales better day by day, and that grant us an increase in earnings per share of 45%.

Previously acquired companies contribute well and are developing favorably. Given the unprecedented growth, we continue our investments in systems and tools, preparing us for being a much, much larger and successfully managed company also in the future.

During the quarter, we updated our long-term financial goals, which reads that -- and we revised these targets, I should say, on February 21 this year in a Capital Markets Day, and they are expressed with the time horizon of roughly 3 to 4 years. So the first metric we're looking at is the average -- on average, grow our revenue by 20% per year adjusted for currency effects, but including contributions from acquisitions. And we have, for the past 8 quarters, proven that a growth of 20% in local currencies is possible, which means that we have found a revenue growth momentum to build on.

The market that we serve remains hugely underserved and with the examples of the growth levers we have spoken about today, the sales expansion, meaning adding local presence and operational excellence, and for example, M&A will continue to build on our growth journey.

If you then look at profitability, the target reads that we will deliver an EBIT margin that reaches and exceeds 15%. We have proven to build strong growth with incremental improvements in profitability. We need to continue to invest in future growth with improvements in scale, for example, of continue to grow through better educated prescribers that become more self-sufficient and more satisfied customers that leads to higher degree of replacement sales.

Hence, the recipe is rather simple: the continued revenue growth, high and stable gross margin and a total operating expense that increases at a lower pace than our revenue. As a consequence, we see good opportunity to further leverage how revenue growth translates to reaching and exceeding an EBIT margin of 15%.

Last but not least, we did update our dividend policy which is then looking a little bit into the future, where Tobii Dynavox, I mean, we do have a very attractive cash flow profile given the growth opportunities we need to maintain a capital structure to enable strategic flexibility, for example, to do acquisitions. But still, we are expected to generate excess cash and our policy is, therefore, to distribute at least 40% of the available net profits to shareholders via dividends, share repurchases or similar programs.

All right. With that, we are handling and inviting to the studio, [ Christian Hal ], who is task will take any questions from the audience. Fire away, [ Christian ].

[Unknown Executive]

Thanks, Fredrik. Hello, everyone. So we have a question, first of all, from Daniel Djurberg at Handelsbanken and he asks regarding the financial net and so on. And he -- regarding the main factors affecting the net financial items during the quarter. And if you can guide us regarding the underlying run rate of the financial net going forward?

[Linda Tybring, executive]

Yes. If we look at the interest rate, it's stable and has been so for the past quarters. The main factor in the financial net is actually FX impact we have on assets that are in different currencies. So that's a negative impact in the quarter. So it's noncash effective impact.

[Unknown Executive]

Can you say something about the run rate going forward?

[Linda Tybring, executive]

It should be pretty stable going forward when it comes to our interest rates. So historically -- I mean, we are amortizing our loans, so it will slightly go down, but interest rate is market levels, I would say.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. Thanks. Okay. And then we have another question from Daniel. Your above teen growth level started in Q2 2023. Hence, you meet tougher comps from Q2 and onwards. I guess the plus 20% level organic growth should fall back some mid -- to some mid-teen coming quarter, also given the lower positive impact from pricing. Any view on the bits and pieces would be great regarding the organic growth going forward?

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Sure. I can probably -- first of all, the new trend started in 2022, not 2023. So we actually have 2 consecutive years. And hence, the tougher comps is something that we already have in our pockets for a year. We stand by our projections when it comes to the long-term financial targets, where we believe that we will have a sustainable year-on-year growth of 20%. Hence, that's as close as we come to kind of giving any type of forecasting and that's expressed on a 3- to 4-year horizon, but we feel quite confident in the continued growth rate. And the tougher comps is, again, that's something that we now live with for 2 years, in fact.

[Linda Tybring, executive]

And that's also why we continue to invest in sales and marketing is to continue to build the growth.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. And then a question from Oscar Ronnkvist at ABG. Were there any skewing factors impacting the organic growth negatively such as delivery bottlenecks or less working days during -- due to Easter, for instance? Anything to get a good sense of the organic growth run rate would be helpful.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Sure. So the access to products and inventory was not the hindering factor. We feel quite well equipped in terms of having enough security stock of products. So we were not limited by any means during the quarter. The seasonality effect with Easter and everything, this year was a leap year. So we gained a day. And Easter came early, so we lost a day. But there are no material impacts from seasonality effects. But I want to stress again that the first quarter is our weakest quarter.

Typically, specifically in our biggest market, the reimbursement system almost resets on January 1, which means that it does take some time before the machinery start rolling. On the other hand, that's something we have seen for the long time. We have equally good confidence in the underlying business in both what we delivered and how we stand today.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. And another question from Oscar at ABG. Gross margin was a bit impacted by higher components you mentioned. Anything FX or has the prices in U.S. dollars risen over the last quarter? And can you elaborate on the expected price increases phases -- phasing during 2024.

[Linda Tybring, executive]

It's nor. I would say that the price increase is the normal in -- I would say, inflation that we see some cost impact on the prices on our devices. But over time, as we grow, we will continue to be able to negotiate this down hopefully.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

I think it's important to note, we will have fluctuations from one quarter to the other. There are certain quarters when we need to buy more inventory, maybe where we need to ship more hastily, which typically happens at the higher cost. And then there will be quarters going forward where that will be the contrary. So don't read too much on our long-term performance when it comes to individual quarters. Again, we reiterate confidence both when it comes to our long-term opportunity when it comes to growth, but also when it comes to EBIT margins. And whatever happens in between, there is -- time will tell.

[Unknown Executive]

And Dan Djurberg asks also regarding your view on the possible growth hurdles ahead, focusing on various reimbursement systems and efficiency of this. What is in your hands and what are the structural limitations to growth, if any?

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Yes. When it comes to reimbursement, we don't have any hurdles and for the very simple reason that the share of spend for a reimbursement system or a medical insurance system in a country that -- when it comes to communication, it is a tiny, tiny fraction. Hence, we're not worried that by any means there are politicians, policymakers that will kind of try to limit this. In fact, since they are politicians and policymakers making sure that inclusion, accessibility and spending money on people with disabilities, that typically something you get reelected on, not the contrary. So we don't see the type of hurdles. The hurdles we experienced are largely bureaucratic, that the systems are slow, even though the law is favorable to the type of business that we deliver. Maybe the bureaucracy is complicated. With that said, that's one of our strong points as a company because not only do we have the products and the people in the field. We are some sort of expert on finding ways through the complexities of funding and regulatory. So we do the analogy from time to time about Tobii Dynavox being a super tanker, which means that we are in a good good speed forward. It doesn't accelerate fast, but it also doesn't slow down fast. It doesn't turn very fast, but it's a very, very predictable path that we're on.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. And we have a question from Mikael Laséen at Carnegie. Can you break down the organic growth in volume price and mix effects? And also the gross margin decline in Q1 compared to Q4, what is your view on the gross margin outlook for '24?

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

I can start, and maybe you can fill. The gross margin is -- to some degree, effect on the total volume. And hence, Q4 is our strongest quarter where we sell more. And the Q1 is our weakest quarter. The component of our COGS, that is fixed, of course, kind of makes the gross margin decline in the weaker quarter. So that's more mathematics. Isn't that your view as well?

[Linda Tybring, executive]

Yes, I think you covered it.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

When it comes to revenue per product, et cetera, that's not something that we elaborate on further. But what we can see as the product mix over the past, I don't know how many quarters, is largely unchanged. So it's a like-for-like sale, but the only difference then is that we sell more products and ship more products in Q4 than we do in Q1.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. And then we have a question from Oscar at ABG again. He had a question regarding price increases and the phasing. And now he writes, sorry, the price increase phasing question was on your own expected price increases.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Understood.

[Unknown Executive]

The Medicare support was 2.6% in '24. Can you assume that you have already started to implement that?

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Yes.

[Linda Tybring, executive]

Yes. And as soon as normal calendar year, it will take time to implement. It takes some 6 to 9 months until we see the full effect. But we already started to implement it in the beginning of the quarter.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

If you really want to make it simple, think about it as linear. So if we have a certain percentage increase that happens on January 1, the implementation of that price increase will happen linearly over the year and will be fully implemented on New Year's eve. And hence, last year, the price in 2023, the price increases in the U.S. was 9%. So that's kind of in the works of being implemented. And this year, it was a little bit above 2.5% and similar there. Think about it as a linear implementation over the year.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. And we also have a question regarding price increases from an anonymous, ask, within the organic growth of 21%, how much was price increases?

[Linda Tybring, executive]

A smaller part, very small part.

[Unknown Executive]

And then we have a question from Mats Hyttinge at Redeye. Could you elaborate on the incentive program costs dependent on the share price, of course, and limits to costs?

[Linda Tybring, executive]

It's actually -- so the majority of the long-term incentive program is related to the social costs that we will have when vest those program. And that is the benefit that you, as an employee then need to -- or we as an employer need to pay for. So when the share price goes up, the value for the incentive program goes up and we'll have a higher cost.

[Unknown Executive]

And then a question from [ Juha ]. Why Q1 is typically the weakest? Who is actually the gatekeeper or customer cost? It's not always the consumer that decides to buying service.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

Yes. I can explain the seasonality effect. So first of all, the seasonality effect, it's largely a U.S. phenomena, but since the U.S. represents 3/4 of our business, it becomes a Tobii Dynavox phenomena. And the health -- and just like [ Juha ] says, it's not the consumer or the end user that decides on the product. These products are prescribed. With that said, if the products are paid for by a medical insurance system in the U.S., the system works in a way that there is such a thing as a deductible or co-pay so that every year, if you reach your deductible limit, the rest of your products are paid for entirely by the insurance system. These systems reset on New Year's Eve. And basically, you start fresh on January 1. Hence, everybody has a big incentive to get their device, not just prescribed, actually delivered before New Year's Eve. Because on January 1, you need to start to pay and those could be substantial amounts, maybe USD 1,000, USD 2,000 or USD 3,000 for each individual. So there is an incentive for the payer to have everything happening before New Year's Eve. There are similar trends in other markets, but that's more based on budgets. The budget can be used up. But it's a smaller fraction. It's not as mathematically correct as we see in the U.S. So it's a system -- it's a consequence of the reimbursement system and this has been the case for over a decade from -- so it's very, very predictable.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. And right now the final question from Mikael Laséen of Carnegie. Can you talk to us about the reimbursement submittal trends in the U.S. and how this works as a leading indicator of sales growth and demand in Q2 and the second half of this year?

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

That's not something that we disclose to the market. We have, in certain markets, a better insight into the future, but we refrain from communicating that publicly.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. And then we have another question from an anonymous, asking there was a large negative change in working capital in Q1. What caused this? And what moment -- movement should we expect for the working cash flow for the financial year of '24?

[Linda Tybring, executive]

This was more of a timing effect, partly driven that we increased inventory because we saw a lot of increased demand at the end of the quarter. Also that we pushed a lot of sales. March is the stronger month and it gradually improves over the year. So we saw an improvement of sales at -- in March, which will then render a bigger receivable impact. And then we we paid more suppliers. And so we will continue to see improvement of that over the year.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

And again, to summarize, the second half of the quarter was stronger than the first half of the quarter, hence, receivables, like I said, they basically pops over into the second quarter, but that's also the normal trend that we see. There's nothing new into that.

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. So that concludes the questions.

[Fredrik Ruben, executive]

All right. With that said, thank you very much for dialing into this earnings call. We will come back, obviously, in our Q2 report in July. And until then, don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you for dialing in.

[Linda Tybring, executive]

Bye.