Bittium Oyj (BITTI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this press conference on Bittium Corporation's half year financial report. My name is Karoliina Malmi, I'm Head of the Communications and Investor Relations at Bittium. Today, I'm here with our CEO, Johan Westermarck, who will soon give you the presentation. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. So now I will hand over to Johan.

Thank you, Karoliina. Let's start the presentation and let's first have a look at some forward-looking statements. Just to remind everybody that, by nature, forward-looking statements involve risk, uncertainty and there is always a risk related to these statements. Today, we will go through, first, the summary of the first half this year, then we will look at the financial review, second quarter, first half. We'll have the business segments reviews. And then we'll look at the outlook for this year. And in the end, we will have possibility for questions and answers. Summary. First half '24 net sales grew and operating results improved. Net sales, first half, was EUR 37.9 million, which is an increase of 6.5% year-on-year. Net sales for Q2 was EUR 19.8 million, which is a decrease of EUR 4.4 million -- 4.4%. Operating results, first half, was EUR 2.9 million, representing 7.7% of net sales. And operating results in Q2 was EUR 1.9 million, representing 9.6% of net sales. And last year, we updated our strategy. The strategy was building the company from an R&D house to a company towards profitable growth. And we can say -- and we are on this path. The implementation is going forward systematically, and we are on the path. We can see the Defense & Security business grew 36.6% year-on-year. However, Medical business was affected by the extended schedules of regulatory approval process, and engineering services was affected by the challenging market situation. We can also see that the results from the cost-saving measures are starting to kick in. R&D investments decreased as we are focusing on continuing strongly developing existing products and services to meet -- to be even more competitive. Order book was EUR 33.8 million, which is an increase of 46.3% year-on-year. And then group half yearly financial development. First half, we see the year-on-year growth was 6.5%, ending up in EUR 37.9 million. And keeping in mind as well that we can see that -- let's go forward to these operating results. And the operating result was EUR 2.9 million. And comparing to last year, we can see a significant improvement. And then group quarterly financial development. Second quarter decreased year-on-year 4.4% -- minus 4.4%. And here, keeping in mind that Q2 last year was affected by the improved component availability, which boosted the sales. And also, we can see the nature of the quarters here. Traditionally, we can see that we have Q1, Q3 are quite slow, as Q4 has been the strongest quarter for Bittium. Then at the operating profit. Operating results ended up in which is 9.6% of net sales. R&D investments. Level of R&D investments decreased, being EUR 7.9 million. Capitalized was EUR 3.9 million. Compared to last year, lower than last year. Depreciations, EUR 2.8 million. Same level as last year. And the total R&D cost and depreciations in the P&L was EUR 6.9 million. And here, we can see in the first half this year, the main focus of R&D investment was in improving the competitiveness of existing products and services in medical technology and software, and tactical communication systems and radios. Cash flow. Net profit, impacted EUR 7.7 million. We have change in net working capital minus EUR 3.9 million Interest and taxes, minus EUR 0.8 million. And net cash from operating activities was EUR 3.0 million compared to last year, minus EUR 4.6 million. Net cash from investing activities minus EUR 4.1 million. Net cash from financing activities, minus EUR 1.7 million. And change in cash and cash equivalents, minus EUR 2.8 million compared to last year, same time, minus EUR 12.2 million. Then the balance sheet. Noncurrent assets, EUR 84.3 million, which included property, plants, equipment, capitalized development and other assets. Current assets, inventories, EUR 28.3 million. Trade and other receivables, EUR 39.4 million. Cash and liquid assets, EUR 5.5 million. Liabilities, EUR 48.6 million, where we have trade and other payables, EUR 21.6 million; interest-bearing debt, EUR 22.3 million; other liabilities, EUR 4.7 million; and net gearing of 15.5% on a good level. Equity ratio, 70.3%. And then let's have a look at the development of the business segments. Let's start with the Defense & Security business. Here, we see the significant growth, 36.6% year-on-year, ended up in a net sales of EUR 21 million and an operating result of EUR 2.4 million euros, significant improvement from last year. The megatrend of geopolitical uncertainty, which has led the states to increase their budgets and modernize their defense forces, we see that will continue. Good cooperation with finished the force Finnish Defense Forces continues. We have the partnership agreement under work. We have received new orders, tough SDRs, TAC WIN products and other products. The internationalization strategy is proceeding, progressing as planned. We signed frame agreements with Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. And also Croatian Armed Forces ordered Bittium tactical communication products and systems. We also received NATO approval for the Tough Mobile 2 mobile phone -- Tough Mobile 2 C. Medical business segment. Here, we see a decrease year-on-year of minus 14.8%, ended up in EUR 9.7 million. Operating results, however, improved, being EUR 0.2 million. What is really impacting our Medical business at the moment is the stricter requirements in the regulatory approvals for medical devices, and this subsequently lengthens the schedules for the approval. And this has an impact on our growth strategy. What we have done is we have -- to speed up this process, we have -- we are strengthening our organization in regulatory affairs. And we have also received positive feedback from clinical trials regarding the Respiro device. For us, very important is the cooperation with Boston Scientific, and that is continuing well. And remote diagnostic markets, the underlying remote diagnostic market continues to grow. Then Engineering Services business segment had a decrease of 18.1% year-on-year on net sales, ending up in EUR 7.3 million. Operating result, positive EUR 0.5 million. Here, we see a challenging market situation at the moment. Customers are really cautious to start new development projects, postponing existing projects. And this market situation, we expect to continue for the end of this year. Despite the current challenges, 5G implementation creates demand in the market and also different IoT solutions. We won new customers in telecom and construction during this period. A new project started to design test terminal for satellite communication system testing. Outlook for this year. Despite some challenges with what I mentioned in the Medical and Engineering Services, we are on track towards the profitable growth. And the strategy -- implementation of strategy is ongoing systematically. Megatrends are supporting our growth. Strong customer base. And we are really focusing in the strategy on taking good care of existing customers, acquiring new customers. So there's a good base for growth. World-class products and services, the products what we have, and we will continue to focus to increase their competitiveness. And our people, committed high-skill people in the organization, what we have is really good. And we have strengthened the organization. Like I mentioned, for instance, regulatory affairs, we have strengthened, to speed up the approval process in the Medical. So strategy forward is in full implementation. Financial outlook for this year. Net sales, EUR 85.95 million (sic) [ EUR 85 million to EUR 95 million ]. Operating results, 7.7 and -- between EUR 7 million and EUR 9.5 million. So these are the financial outlook. This is the financial outlook for this year. Investor calendar. Today, we are meeting here for the Q2 results first half, and the next one will be 18th of October for Q3. And then we have questions and answers. Karoliina?

Thank you, Johan. So there are a few questions here online. And the first one is about the second half of the dividend. So what was the schedule for that? Do we have already date approved?

This is something we will officially come out when the Board so decides, when the time is, so that we will give officially out when that has been decided.

Yes. Then can we expect some bigger Tough SDR radio orders from Finnish Defense Forces?

Say, we are in a really close cooperation with Finnish Defense Forces, and we saw in the presentation that we have delivered SDRs. And how the future, what are the plans of Finnish Defense Forces to order SDRs is something that I cannot comment at this stage.

Yes. How about the BAE cooperation? Do you already know where can we expect some results from the first common tenders that you are about to attend?

Cooperation with BAE, we have signed the frame agreement. Cooperation is on a good level. At the moment, we are working together. And once we know more, which what is -- what we are aiming for together, we will keep you informed.

Yes. Thank you. Then there are quite many questions regarding Medical business development. And the first one is about the FDA approval. What is the schedule for that?

Yes. So if you look at what we have seen in the past years, the increased requirements is really a significant issue. And that is really delaying our process to get the approvals. But at the same time, we have -- what we are doing as we speak here, we have started to strengthen the organization. We have strengthened the organization to make sure that we get it as fast as possible. And this work is under progress at the moment. And once we have a clearer picture of the date when we can that we can get the approval, we will give information regarding that. But at this stage, we are working really hard with our organization, regulatory authorities and partners to get this approved as fast as possible, top priority.

Yes. Thank you. So I think you already answered the next question, which were, so what are we doing about it? Then there are questions regarding the approvals. What products does it concern basically?

Well, we have come out -- we have, of course is -- the one example is the Respiro. Respiro is something we have come out, and we have mentioned it before. And this is one of the products that we are focusing and also new versions of some other projects that we are pushing forward. So this is -- but -- an example, for instance, the Respiro is what we are really working hard, and strengthen the organization to make sure we get it as fast as possible.

Yes. I think we answer all this. Then demand in Medical seems to rely heavily on Boston Scientific cooperation and development in the U.S. market. Could you give us some information on the demand in European market? What are your expectations for the future development?

If I look at the Medical markets, so we have the regulatory approvals, we had it for U.S. And from that perspective, the U.S. market is really, I'd say, a good market. There is one regulatory approval that is taking it. We have -- the dynamics in the market is clear. And here we see the cooperation with Boston Scientific is something we are extremely proud of, and the cooperation continues strong. And then we look at the European market. So European markets is -- we have the MDR regulatory approvals. But additional to that, there are also local requirements that we have to have in place to go forward. And this is something that we are really working, strengthen the organization, strengthen the sales to see which are the markets we should really focus on going forward in Europe. So there are opportunities for sure. But really to understand how we go forward there, and that is something we are working hard, and we are. We have excellent products, so I'm not worried about it. We just have to do our homework good to get it up and running.

Yes, I agree. Could you describe the scope regarding how broadly TAC WIN system is implemented in the -- into the use of Croatian Armed Forces, if you kind of compare it with Finland and Finnish Defense Forces?

Well, like we came out with a press release that now we are cooperating with the Croatian Armed Forces, and there is a rollout of course, that some -- you start with something and it's going forward. But at the moment, we cannot compare it to how we have worked so many years with the Finnish Defense Forces. So that is on a different level at this stage.

Yes. Then something about the financials. So the R&D spending has lowered significantly. Is the current level sensible estimate for the future?

I think at the moment, what we have done is we did the strategy. Here, we saw the key in the strategy is to improve the competitiveness. We have excellent products. So improve the competitiveness and offerings of the existing products and services. And that reflects now we can see that the spending -- aligned with the strategy. How we go forward is something we will look into. But in general, we could say R&D spending. This is something we will have on a high level. This is part of our business. We are working with our customers to do that. Our products requirement -- require R&D submissions, following versions and going forward. So it will continue on a significant level. What exactly the level in the future, that is something I cannot say at this stage.

Okay. Then about the cash flow and net working capital. Could you comment on that?

I think we have cash flow, net working capital, as we have in our strategy, we have clearly that improving the processes delivery processes, different processes, to be more efficient. And this is something that is ongoing, and we expect that to have, of course, an impact also on the net working capital. And this is something that clearly is under focus, to improve the net-net working capital.

Then a question towards the future. So what do you see? Are there any risks for the company for getting to the outlook, what you have given today?

Yes. That's a good question. And if we look at the outlook, what we have given, we strongly see that this is what we are aiming for and what we can deliver. Risks, there are always risks. And in the defense market, especially, it's the timing of deliveries. So there might be significant deliveries that are planned for a certain time period. But these deliveries can be postponed for a quarter or something. And this, of course, then would have impact on things. But at the moment -- we don't see these risks here at the moment, clearly. But we can see that this is always a risk in the defense sector. Timing of significant deliveries.

Yes. Okay. This was it. So I have now walked through all these questions that have been placed here. So on my behalf, I'd like to thank you all for participating.

Thank you all for participating. Thank you.