CapMan Oyj (CAPMAN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

A warm welcome to CapMan's 2021 result presentation. My name is Joakim Frimodig, and I'm the CEO of CapMan. 2021 was a very strong year for CapMan. Actually, in terms of financial performance, it was a record-breaking year. But last year, we also made significant advancements in many of our important strategic areas. We, for example, broadened our international investor base. We launched a number of new investment products. We created sustainable value in our company's assets and funds and we were able to recruit key talent into our company. These are important actions and the impact of them will be seen well beyond the year 2021. Let me start by giving you some financial highlights of last year. As I mentioned, it was a record-breaking result. Our turnover last year was EUR 53 million. That's a growth of 23% compared to year 2020 and our EBIT stood at EUR 45 million, also a record number, growing approximately 260% from last year. Our assets under management were EUR 4.5 billion, and we saw a growth of some 20% last year and we are expecting further growth this year. Another notable trend behind our assets under management is the growing share of international investors. So the share of capital coming from outside the Nordic region is in the magnitude of 60%. Our Management Company business continues to develop well. Turnover grew by some 30% last year, and EBIT was up by 40%. And this is the key driver for our continued strong fee profitability growth that we foresee for this year. What really stood out from the year 2021 was a very strong development in values of our fund investments. We saw fair value changes of EUR 34 million last year. And this was a combination of very successful value creation work by our teams, but also a very strong market situation. Given the strong value development, multiple funds are on a carry track this year. Value creation is at the core of everything that we do, and we see and we believe in the link between sustainability, ESG and value creation. That is why we have put a lot of effort last year into developing this function. We have made new recruitments, we have developed our processes and we have improved our coordination within ESG tasks. Today, we are announcing our commitment to science-based climate targets and also other key ESG targets that we will adhere to from here onwards. Bottom line in terms of financial performance last year was an earnings per share of EUR 0.21 and a proposal to the Annual General Meeting is the distribution of EUR 0.15 per share. This is well in line with our dividend policy of annually growing distribution. This would mean that distribution would grow for a ninth consecutive year. And then some further details. Here, you can see on a quarterly basis, our turnover developed last year and you can see an accelerating growth pace by each quarter. And all of the actions taken in '21 are not fully reflected in these figures since they were launched midyear. So the full impact of already implemented actions will be seen in 2022, together with the impact of new initiatives that we are working on. EBIT, very strong development, of course, the year 2020, especially the 3 first quarters of that year were impacted by the COVID situation. But this year, very strong performance on many fronts, EBIT plus 262%. And here is a breakdown of where that figure is coming from. So you can see that our Management Company profit grew by EUR 4 million last year, especially the fee-based profitability continues on a very good track. Our Service profit is roughly on the same level as last year. And the big improvement came from the Investment business while our general costs, other and eliminations were at roughly the same level as in 2020. When you add this up, you come to the figure of EUR 45 million EBIT mentioned before. And if we take a slightly longer perspective, these are quarterly EBIT figures since the beginning of 2018. You can see a clear step-up in our profitability level in the last 5 quarters when our quarterly EBIT has been at or above the EUR 10 million mark. Before we dig into further details about our earnings, a quick reminder of our business model and our earnings streams. So we are reporting 3 segments: the Management Company business, from that part, we earn management fees and carried interest income; from the Service business, we receive service fees; and then from the Investment business, our own balance sheet, returns on investments and fair value changes. So a combination of these adds up to CapMan's EBIT. And if for a second, we leave the own Investment business and the balance sheet aside and we look at the development of the fee-based business, here, you can see the development of our current strategy period since the end of 2017. Our fee-based revenues have on average grown at 17% per annum, and our fee-based profitability has grown at close to 50% per annum during the same time period. And we foresee that the strong growth in fee profitability will continue in 2022, driven by the full impact of already implemented actions by new assets under management to be raised during this year and the broadening of the fee base and in combination with the controlled cost development. Speaking of costs. Here, you can see the operating cost development in '21. So we are at EUR 7 million higher level than in 2020. The growth is coming from personnel costs, and there are 3 main factors behind that. The largest component is an increase in variable personnel costs, earnings and earnings growth linked bonuses. This makes up roughly half of the increase. The other 2 components are onetime cost savings that we did in 2020, but were not in '21. And the third component was an increase in our personnel selected recruitment to support our future growth initiatives, the impact of that roughly EUR 2 million. Other nonpersonnel-related costs were roughly in line with the previous year. So you can see growth in operating costs plus 20%, excluding the variable bonus costs plus 11%, and that can be compared to a growth in EBIT of over 260%. We can also note that our incentives are built to support earnings growth, which means that the dynamic is such that to reach the same level of variable personnel costs next year, the performance needs to be significantly stronger. So an equal performance would lead lower variable personnel expenses. If we then move to our balance sheet, it is solid. It has good liquidity, book equity close to EUR 130 million. Equity ratio is over 50% and we have EUR 65 million in cash at year-end in addition to a EUR 20 million undrawn credit limit. This means that we have good financial stability, strong liquidity and the support in any market situation foreseeable. We also have the required liquidity to meet and make new fund commitments and thereby support the growth of our fee-based business. And if we look at how we have made our own investments into the different areas of private equity, real estate and infrastructure, you can see the breakdown here. And you can also see the long-term return targets that we have set for the different segments. With the current allocations, we would, over the long term, foresee a 10% to 15% annual return on our own investments. Last year was very strong. So the fair value change was 27%, well above our set target. And let me give you this breakdown also. So here, you can see the value of our own fund investments at the end of 2020. And then on the other hand, you can see the same situation at the end of 2021. That's the EUR 130 million figure mentioned earlier. And the change in between EUR 21 million new investments, new capital invested into funds then we had a EUR 34 million value increase, but also over EUR 40 million distribution from distributions, disposals and transfers to CapMan. So not only an increase in values but also a significant return of capital in terms of cash to CapMan Plc. In total, we have own investment capacity then of roughly EUR 200 million. So the EUR 130 million invested in private market investments and then the other part, EUR 65 million, currently in cash. And here is some further breakdowns. Our balance sheet -- our own balance sheet investments have developed over years. And I think this fairly well represents also how our strategy has developed. So a more diversified setup during recent years. Private equity, infrastructure and real estate investments from our own funds. And then also, we make selective investments into other funds in the private market, always with a clear business linked to CapMan's other businesses. And if we look at the remaining commitments, they are at the magnitude of EUR 90 million at year-end and the largest part of that is into the private equity segment. So as those commitments are drawn, that part of the balance sheet will increase. Then I would shift focus, taking a bit longer-term view, look at our strategy. Our vision is to be a Nordic private asset powerhouse. We want to focus on the Nordic nonlisted private asset market. We want to be the best value creators in that market. At the same time, we want to be international when it comes to sourcing of capital and fundraising, which opens many growth avenues for us. At the same time, part of CapMan's DNA is to be innovative to launch new products and services and with a top quartile performance and access to capital, that is possible. At the core is the value creation in the Nordic private asset market. As mentioned before, we are actively creating value with our own actions. We, from tactical terms, see the link between sustainability, sustainability actions and value creation, and we want to enhance this. CapMan is present in many segments and industries. We have a wide footprint. Our companies have a combined turnover of EUR 2.2 billion with some 13,000 employees. And on the real estate side, we have some 1.3 million square meters of lettable space and thousands of tenants. So we have the footprint and the ability to make real change when it comes to sustainability actions, and that is something we want to focus on and develop. Last year, we did a lot of efforts, we did new recruitments, we developed our processes and the coordination within the group was significantly enhanced. And today, we are announcing new ESG targets and a commitment to science-based targets. These are commitments on the CapMan Plc level as well as on the portfolio -- fund portfolio level. So we are committing to a 1.5-degree science-based target, which will be followed by a net zero commitment. We are also making targets when it comes to employee satisfaction and when it comes to diversity in the workplace and in our portfolio of companies. In addition, we are also working on integrating ESG metrics into our own remuneration models. This is a big step for us, a further step-up in the ESG actions. Then I would like to take you briefly back into our strategy. You might recall that we have 3 main components in the strategy that was launched in 2017 to broaden the access of capital, introduce new types of products and develop our offering in the private asset space. Here, you can see that we are developing in the desired direction. So the share of international capital is steadily increasing, currently at some 60%. Also the other part, growing the share of smaller local Tier 2, Tier 3 institutional investors is steadily progressing. We have a number of open end and other types of products to complement our traditional closed-end funds, and we now have a multitude of different strategies and products in the Nordic private asset space. These factors have also been driving our growth in assets under management. They are at a record level of EUR 4.5 billion at year-end. In the year 2021, we increased assets under management by some EUR 830 million. That's plus 21% on a gross basis. But at the same time, we also did a number of exits, so we returned capital to our investors. So on a net basis, the increase was EUR 700 million or some 18%. But clearly, we are in an acceleration phase when it comes to growth in assets under management, and we foresee continued growth in 2022. And here are some of the key actions, some of the fundraisings ongoing that will drive this growth. You can see that they are in most of our investment areas, in the open-end products on the real estate side, on the second Infra fund, in new CVS access products and also we are looking to launch a new real estate product shortly. Basic theme for this year is scaling up existing strategies and products and you could say that all of the actions that we are taking are now progressing well according to plan. So when we are able to do closings here, we will drive up our assets under management. We have also been successfully been able to deploy the capital that we have recently raised. Here are a couple of examples from the fourth quarter. So our Special Situations fund made an investment into Marinetek, a leading supplier of premium marinas. This was the second investment from that fund. And what is positive is that we are seeing a very strong deal flow for that strategy. When it comes to CapMan Infra, they acquired Koiviston Auto in the first -- fourth quarter, that's Finland's leading bus operator. And here, the investment thesis is built very much around the sustainability of ESG themes. So on electrification of the fleet in the coming years is at the core of this doing. The Fund I, with this deal, is largely invested and now we are, therefore, shifting focus to the fundraising of Fund #II on the Infra front. We have also been active when it comes to making exits in 2021. If we look at the Nordic Real Estate Fund I, we made several exits in the second half of '21. And earlier in January, we announced that with the most recent signed exit that when it closes, will move the Nordic Real Estate I Fund into carried interest. There are 4 remaining assets in that fund that, when exited, will return the bulk of the carry to CapMan. Also when it comes to Nordic Real Estate Fund II, yesterday -- or the day before yesterday, we announced a significant exit property in Sweden in Stockholm called Lubeck, whereby we returned a significant amount of capital to the fund investors. It was the largest investment from that fund and also very good returns. If we look at the private equity side, we could mention Growth Equity fund where RealMachinery was sold during the summer '21. And also in the fourth quarter, there was the IPO of Digital Workforce, which is a company in that particular fund. And also on the other investment areas such as credit and buyout, several exits taking place last year. At the moment, we have a number of ongoing exit processes. And if and when they materialize, they will give a positive result impact on CapMan through fair values and carried interest. So to summarize on carry, where we stand today, Nordic real estate is entering carry in the upcoming months with the closing of the latest deal, and we have multiple other funds that are developing well are approaching carry and where we hope to close a number of key deals. Then if we look at the dividend distribution, so the proposal to the Annual General Meeting is a distribution of EUR 0.15 per share this year. This can be compared to an earnings per share of EUR 0.21 for this year. And in line with our dividend policy, this would be the ninth year of growing distribution to our shareholders. This is an important key part of our investment story. And maybe to summarize our current situation through our long-term targets. CapMan is on the growth track. We have been on the growth track now for several years. So if you look at the average annual growth 2017 to '21, 17% and last year was well in line with that long-term track. We are improving our profitability. It was very strong in 2021 on record levels, which is also taking the average over the longer term to the desired levels of an average over 20%. Our balance sheet remains strong with over 50% equity ratio. And as previously mentioned, dividend distribution growing for ninth consecutive year. Here is our outlook estimate for this year. As before, CapMan does not give a numerical estimate for 2020. But as mentioned before, we are looking for growth in our assets under management and improved profitability in our fee-based business. So a very strong 2021, but also a very good situation starting and heading into 2022. I would finally like to thank all of our stakeholders, our customers, our investors, the LPs, our shareholders and not least our employees who have made all of this development possible. I look forward to reporting more on our 2022 actions later in the year. Thank you.