CTEK AB (publ) (CTEK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the CTEK Q4 2023 report. [Operator Instructions]. Now I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Henrik Fagrenius; and CFO, Thom Mathisen. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, operator, and good morning to all of you, and welcome to the Q4 results earnings report from CTEK. As mentioned, today's presenter will be myself, CEO of the company, Henrik Fagrenius; and our CFO, Thom Mathisen. Before we dig into our figures, I would like to just present CTEK. We have mainly 2 technologies, EVSE, which is our charger for electrical vehicles; and our Low Voltage segment, which is chargers for low-voltage batteries in passenger cars, both electric and ICE. We're also having professional chargers for workshops and client brand and integrated solutions. As we communicated last quarter, we have changed our organization and we have combined the former OE and E&F into one new division called Professional. They are mainly focused on sales to B2B customers, and we see the synergies in market sales and development. It's mainly the same product platforms. And then we have renamed our old Aftermarket division to Consumer, which is a more relevant term for what we are doing there. But let's talk about the figures for Q4. We came in at a revenue of SEK 240 million, a bit down from comparable quarter. We increased the gross margin to 53.6%, and our adjusted EBITDA was SEK 31 million that's 12.8 percentage, up 8 percentage from the comparable quarter. Cash flow came in at SEK 75 million, strong cash flow. And the result and the cash flow, of course, then made our net debt go to 2.7x. So what has led to the improved profitability that is the previously announced cost-reducing activities that we have completed as per plan end of last year. We also have strong sales in our Low Voltage, which changed the product mix a bit. And the strong cash flow is due to reduced inventory levels and normalized development costs. As I mentioned, we have record high Low Voltage sales. And that is due to sales activities in Europe, allowing -- showing results. We also were concentrating quite a bit on the online sales, especially during Black Week and saw good results of that and also the cold weather has a contribution to the high sales in specifically Nordic region. I'm also proud to say that we have launched our new version of our EV destination charger, Chargestorm Connected 3. It's a market-leading features with Vehicle to Grid and cybersecurity capabilities. And we will start to roll that out during Q2 in foremost U.K. and Sweden, and then in the second half of the year to Germany as well. So we are broadening our market for our destination charging. And then we also closed a new cooperation with Odyssey, a battery manufacturer to sell Client Brand chargers to them. And with that, I will leave the word to you, Thom.

Thanks, Henrik. So I'll take you through some slides of numbers. The first quite busy slide about the key financials for quarter 4. I would say that super summary of this slide is that Henrik already mentioned, improved profitability despite somewhat lower volumes in comparable quarter. So I'll come back a little bit to the reason for decline in the division's net sales, but we can see an increased gross margin around 3 percentage up compared to similar quarter last year, mainly due to the higher sales in the Low Voltage segment and Consumer division. As Henrik also mentioned, significant improvement in our EBITDA going up on the adjusted level from SEK 12 million last year same quarter to SEK 31 million this year, 8 percentage up compared to last year and also an increase from the quarter 3 of around 9% EBITDA margin. So having said that, and switching to the division reports, we can see that the Consumer division that stands for around 70% of our net sales have increased the net sales significantly to above SEK 170 million for the quarter. Coming from what Henrik just mentioned, focused sales activities, not the least on the online, and the significant improvement also in the adjusted EBITDA coming both from these higher volumes, of course, but also from the cost-reducing activities we have performed during 2023. Coming then to the Professional division. We can see that this division stands for the remaining 30% of our turnover. We have had a worse development as you see on the graph below and that also led to some activities we have done during the year, forming [ this new ] division and also cost-out activities. Net sales that was down around 40% compared to similar quarter last year is coming both from lower EVSE volumes to our big North American customer, but also from the lower activity in the construction sector, mainly in Sweden, that is our home market for destination chargers. So -- but even if this slide looks a bit [indiscernible], we see that with the new formed organization, the cost-out activities done during 2023 and also coming with the launch of the new Chargestorm Connected 3, we have built the foundation for a gradual improvement in coming quarters. Cash flow and CapEx. As you have heard from our hearings all the way one year back has been a big focus on the cash flow improvement. And all the activities done now with both cost reduction activities, bringing down net working capital significantly and also coming back, as you see on the graph on the bottom slide -- bottom of the slide, back to more normal levels, we are still investing in our products, but on more normal levels. All these together makes our cash flow significantly better than last year. On the full year base, we have turned cash flow after investments from a negative of more than SEK 160 million to a positive above SEK 50 million. So it's a SEK 200 million improvement in cash flow for 2023. So with that, I hand over back to you, Henrik.

Thank you, Thom. And then to summarize this, just to have a conclusion of our previously announced actions to improve profitability, we can see that the workforce has been reduced with 70 people from 300 at the end of 2022 to 230 now. So that is done. OpEx, we had a run rate of SEK 100 million end of 2022 and we were targeting SEK 80 million. We are now at SEK 85 million, a little bit higher, but that's mainly due to performance costs for online sales. So I don't see any worries in that. Development cost was at SEK 150 million, and we are now down to a run rate of SEK 80 million, which was our target. And cash flow after investments was minus SEK 160 million, and the target was positive, and we ended just above SEK 50 million for the whole year. So we can conclude that we have succeeded in meeting our targets when it comes to the announced actions. And then to summarize the quarter, it is a stable quarter, improved profitability, strong cash flow. And that, of course, reduced the net debt ratio. And we had a record high Low Voltage sales and also launching the new version of our destination charger, Chargestorm Connected 3. So with that, I open up for questions.

[Operator Instructions]. The next question comes from Sofia Sörling from Carnegie.

This is Sofia Sörling from Carnegie. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes.

Great. Okay. So my first question is related to the EV charger market. And our impression is that when reading different market reports, that this EV charger market overall is expected to grow significantly for at least until 2030. And what are your market expectations for your EV charger segment? And specifically, maybe in the short term, 2024 and perhaps also in more of a 3-year horizon. That's my first question.

Thank you, Sofia. We agree that it is a growing market. We have focused on the destination charging market since we are aiming for profitability [indiscernible] market in that segment as well.

Okay. And you especially refer to the destination charger market. Could you give us the split between your destination chargers and other EV chargers, the segment -- product segment split between your focus on destination chargers and other perhaps EV chargers. 70 -- is it the total product offering of destination chargers. Is that about 70% of your offering, or is it higher, or is it lower? If you understand my question. Or is it 100% only within this destination chargers that you are focusing on now and ahead?

Our main part of our focus is destination charging. We also have a model called NJORD GO, which is a flexible charger what you can bring with you. But as of today, it's a [ smaller ] part of our portfolio.

Okay. And then a couple of questions on your new product, this CC3. Could you give us some details on the price level perhaps compared to competitors and your own previous products? And also, as I understood it, this will replace your CC2 or the previous version of this CC3. What are you expected to do with the previous versions? Is this something that you need to -- yes, is that something that you could continue to sell? Or is now all focused on CC3? Maybe a competitive question, but...

Well, the Chargestorm Connected 3 is our new version of our destination charger, and that will seamlessly then be introduced instead of the previous version, and we are still selling the previous versions today, and we will continue that in all countries. And then we will enter with the new version first, as I said, in Sweden and U.K. during quarter 2 and then during second half of the year in Germany as well. But that will be a continuous switch from the previous version to this version. And what is new with this version is that it's quite easier to install. And it has also market-leading capacities when it comes to Vehicle to Grid and Vehicle to Everything, both when it comes to the hardware and to the software. And then it's also [ highly ] updated with some of the security to meet the demands that we see there.

All right. And can you say something about price level?

Price level, we generally do not disclose, but it will be in level with the previous version.

Okay. So maybe I should put this question, how do you view the risk of not being able to sell the previous version when launching this new one? How do you view that risk?

Yes. It's like whenever you are changing models, you need to plan demand and production capacity. So I don't see any major problem in that. We are mainly [indiscernible] after demand, so we will switch our production accordingly.

All right. Okay. And it seems like this new product will be quite exposed to the construction and especially the new build residential market. Is this correct? Or do you see any other stronger demand from other end markets than the perhaps new build markets.

Absolutely. We see an existing parking garage that needs to update to meet the demand for electric [ vehicles ]. So I would say both when it comes to new build, but it's -- the biggest market, I would say, is the existing parking garage and also when it comes to companies that want to offer [indiscernible] employees. So this is a big market.

All right. And many questions here, but let me take a final question, and it's about the Low Voltage business. And perhaps a little bit if you can give some more details on your view on the market expectations in the short term and also in the longer perspective. And also, given if we see now a continuous increase in EV sales versus traditional cars, in your view, how will that impact your Low Voltage business? Or how are you preparing your Low Voltage business for market outlook with perhaps less traditional cars?

Yes. First of all, we have been launching a lot of sales activities during Q4, which we will continue in the new year. And about your question regarding the change from ICE engines to EV engines. I read a report from Norway about the main problem for EV cars in Norway was the 12-volt battery. So all EV cars have a 12-volt battery and they are also depending a little bit on model and [ make ], but most of them are in the same need as the ICE to be maintained and be charged as well. So at the moment, we do not see any threats on the long term to our LV business.

The next question comes from Johan Eliason from Kepler Cheuvreux.

This is Johan at Kepler Cheuvreux. Continuing along the line of -- on Low Voltage, we saw a good demand here, I guess, partly driven by this colder weather, et cetera. But how do you see the retailer inventory levels. Is destocking done now and we are seeing the underlying end market demand? Or do you think there's further risk for some destocking after this sort of potentially weather-induced [ kicker ] in the fourth quarter?

Now -- it's been very turbulent times in the wake of the pandemic, but I see a normalization coming now. And the signals that we have is that the stock levels are on a normal level and maybe even at the low level in some cases. So I do not see today a big risk of too high stocks out of our distributors or customers.

Okay. Excellent. And you talked about the Q4 sales activities to continue here going forward. What that is? And should we expect it's fairly okay growth from Q4 to continue in the coming quarters on the back of those?

As we have said in the report, we are a bit dependent of the cold weather, which has boosted our sales a bit. But we are also doing focused activities in Nordic, and we are also continuing with our effort and focus on online sales. So as you know, we are not guiding for future quarters, but we hope that these activities will continue to have a result.

Good. And another growth trajectory for your Low Voltage business has been the U.S. market. What's happening on that front? Anything already part of Q4? Or should we see some more things happening going forward rather?

Now I wouldn't say that it's any in Q4. It takes a little bit longer time for us to penetrate that market. But it is of high interest of us -- for us and in focus in coming quarters.

And then the gross margin, you mentioned it's mainly a mix improvement. But is there any other underlying trends you see on sourcing costs, et cetera, or logistics that would allow the gross margin at current mix to continue to improve going forward?

We have seen a normalization when it comes to logistic costs during the year. It started quite high and it's becoming more normalized in quarter 4. So I think that has some impact on the gross margin as well. I do not see any further reduction there. We have the unrest in the Red Sea that might be going up. We see that some freight prices are going up, but not material at this stage. So it is still a turbulent world that we're living in.

Yes. Absolutely. And then finally, I guess you won't say much about the GM contract as such. We saw the numbers. But are you having any other sort of discussions with OEMs for further contracts like those?

We -- as you started to say, we will not disclose that, but we are in constant contact with our existing customer for the Low Voltage segment that could also be interested in EV chargers, but nothing new to communicate at this point.

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

Thank you very much for attending this presentation, and welcome back next quarter. Thank you very much.

Thank you.