Fingerprint Cards AB (publ) (FINGB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fingerprints Cards Q2 (sic) [ Q3 ] Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand over the call to your first speaker today, Mr. Stefan Pettersson. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call this morning following the release of our Q3 report this morning. So we'll begin today's call with a presentation of the report by our CEO, Christian Fredrikson; and thereafter by our CFO, Per Sundqvist. And following this, we'll have a Q&A session. And if you're following the conference call on the web, you can post questions throughout this call. And for those of you participating on the phone instructions on how to ask questions will be given by the operator before we get into the session. And with that, I now hand over to our CEO, Christian Fredrikson.

Thank you, Stefan, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to this call on my behalf as well, where we are focusing on Fingerprint's progress and performance in quarter 3. Let me start by saying that I am pleased with our revenue and gross margin development. In constant currency terms, we grew our revenue by 25% comparing to the corresponding period last year. We are actually seeing growth across all our 4 main areas. Let me come back to discuss this soon. While we are still being impacted by the global semiconductor shortage and supply chain constraints, our access to production capacity improved during the quarter, both in semiconductor fabs and the module suppliers, which assemble and package various components into modules that are ready for assembly in, for example, a smartphone or PC. And as expected, production capacity at the Vietnamese supplier, which was affected by a shutdown due to a COVID-19 outbreak was fully restored in the third quarter, while we have also secured additional capacity with other players by now. We do, however, expect that the semiconductor shortage will continue well into next year. But clearly, our actions are improving our access to capacity throughout the entire supply chain. We continue with full focus for us. Our gross margin improved by 10 percentage points compared to last year and by 1 percentage point compared to the last quarter. The share of new higher-margin products in the mix continued to increase in the mobile business line, while our sales in the PC area continued to increase with a positive effect. We expect strong growth in the PC area, both in the short and in the long term. Next slide, please. On this slide, you can see our 4 pillars, the key application areas for our products and solutions as of today. It is very satisfying that we are now growing across all 4. Sales to our largest business line, mobile, continued to develop nicely in the third quarter. And at the same time, we are now really seeing good momentum in new areas, not least in PCs. Let me go through these one by one. Next slide, please. As you know, mobile is our largest business line, currently accounting for close to 90% of our business. By continuously driving innovation and developing our product portfolio, we have succeeded in maintaining a leading position in the market for capacitive Fingerprint sensors for smartphones. Our latest innovative curbside mounted sensor continue to do very well in the market. Our product mix is more favorable compared to last year with a positive effect on our gross margin. We will continue to focus on strengthening our leading position and driving innovation also in the mobile area by ensuring that we have comprehensive competitive product portfolio. It is also great to see our key customers like Xiaomi doing very well in the market, where we are the main supplier. The PC market -- next slide, please. The PC market is developing into a really interesting new area for us. We expect to see strong growth both in the short and in the long term. This is partly because the number of PCs sold has increased quite significantly compared to pre-pandemic levels. In 2020, around 300 million PCs were sold, up from about 270 million in 2019, the year before the pandemic hit. This year, we will probably see around 350 million sold PCs. And most analysts believe that the industry will establish itself at this higher level, if we look at the coming 3 to 5 years or so. But the main reason that we expect this area to be a growth driver for us is the fact that the share of PCs with Fingerprint sensors is expected to increase significantly from today's relatively low levels. We are just about a 20% share, and it will go clearly above 70%. Just a reminder that in mobile, the share of Fingerprint sensors is already today above 80%, and it is still growing. Microsoft's recent decision to allow all their users to completely remove the password from their accounts in favor of using biometric authentication and authenticator apps will further accelerate this trend. It is a clear signal that the users want and demand biometric for safety, speed and simplicity. I am very pleased that also Microsoft fully is aligned with our vision. We do believe that we want no more pins and passwords. Thus far, Fingerprint has been awarded design wins with 3 of the world's top 5 PC manufacturers. During the third quarter, Dell launched 5 Latitude models with our new PC solution. And in October, HONOR launched the MagicBook V14 with our sensor. We are working on several customer projects in this area, and we expect to be able to announce further PC models in the near future, which will feature our technology. As a reminder, we have to date launched our sensor in 30 PCs globally, and we just came out also with Acer and their PC solutions. We have the ambition to drive and develop the PC business into our second-largest area in terms of revenue after mobile within the next 12 to 18 months. As our revenue streams continue to diversify, we also expect positive impacts on our margins going forward. Next slide, please. The access/IoT area is quite fragmented with many different applications and form factors. Door locks and padlocks are the single-largest application area here. In Q3, ekey dLine smart door system launched with a touch sensor from Fingerprints. We expect smart locks to continue to grow, but new areas will grow faster. For example, in the logical access area, we see increased demand from makers of [indiscernible] tokens, where you can add an extra layer of security using biometrics. Different types of access cards are another growth area. The automotive area is also interesting as an application for us. It takes time to implement new solutions in this industry, but the potential for biometric there is also significant, both when it comes to touchless solutions as well as fingerprint sensors. In Q3, we started collaborating with a global distributor of Mouser Electronics to scale into new markets and application areas. Next slide, please. In the payments area, we took another huge step forward during Q3, where we could announce that we have enabled biometric authentication to be executed entirely within Infineon Secure Element. Basically, what we have done is to enable full-on card fingerprint authentication without having to add an extra microcontroller. Many industry experts believe this technological leap to be impossible, but we actually achieved it while maintaining biometry performance and increasing the level of security. So in this project, we collaborated with Infineon to combine their 40-nanometer security controller called SLC38 with our T-Shape 2 (T2) sensor module and our latest biometric software for payments. To achieve this, Fingerprints R&D team focused on reducing the memory footprints, flash and RAM requirements of its software to fit inside SLC38 Secure Element from Infineon. This technological achievement will make it cheaper and easier for card manufacturers to develop and roll out biometric payment cards at scale. I am pleased with our combined R&D effort to innovate in the payment industry. And once again, we are part of making a world's first achievement. In this context, keep in mind also that almost 1 in 2 payment cards worldwide with a chip has an Infineon security controller at its core. Next slide, please. We, of course, work together with all of 3 secure element providers in the world who together control the bulk of this market. So together, we look at the total card architecture and will and try working harder to optimize all key components in relation to each other. This makes for faster, more secure and efficient solutions. While we can also keep driving cost efficiency, which will be key to mass adoption of biometric payment cards in the coming years. And finally, we can see that this industry has started. So stay tuned for more news from these important partnerships. Next slide, please. As you know, Europe's largest bank BNP Paribas and the third-largest bank in Europe, Crédit Agricole, have started offering biometric payment cards to their customers in France. France has a history of being an early adopter when it comes to new technology in the financial sector, and this is true also for biometric cards. Therefore, it is interesting to follow the progress in France and the evolution of customer attitudes. The study that we conducted together with Kantar a couple of months ago in France points to a growing appetite among French consumers for biometric payment cards. When we asked 1,000 participants in the study, whether they want a biometric card, 59% said yes, with an increase of 9 percentage points compared to 1 year ago. Among those consumers that already knew about the existence of biometric cards in the market, 70% said that they wanted one. Next slide, please. We also asked to what length consumers would go to get the biometric payment card. 52% would switch banks. And this number rose to 64% in some areas of France and to 67% among the 18- to 34-year olds. Also, 55% would pay an average of EUR 3.30 more per month to have one. This is an increase also by 5 percentage points compared to last year. We obviously want to innovate and drive the [indiscernible] the industry to able large adoption and mass market volumes in the same way as we have done in mobile. So we can clearly see a positive reaction to the introduction of biometric payment cards in France, and so does all our partners. The feedback from the customers who have been using the new biometric cards in France has been overwhelmingly positive. The cards simply work all the time, every time, as they should, of course, after all, they are done with our technology. Next slide, please. So summarizing. We are growing across all areas and improved our gross margin by 10 percentage points. Demand continues to be strong in mobile, while PC is now emerging as a really interesting area for us. We are diversifying to new areas with attractive margins at a faster rate than before. We are continuing to innovate in payments and achieved what many in the industry deemed impossible, enabling biometric authentication to take place entirely in the Secure Element without the need for a separate MCU. And with that, let me hand over to Per Sundqvist.

Thank you, Christian, and good morning, everyone. Let's move to the first slide in the financial results section. Starting with the revenue. We reported a 21% increase compared to Q3 last year and a 25% increase in constant currency terms. We are, however, still being impacted by the general global semiconductor and supply shortage situation. We have, however, worked hard, as Christian mentioned earlier, and diligently to secure as much capacity as possible, both with our current supplier base of semiconductor fabs as well as with our module suppliers that assemble and package the various components into modules. That, in turn, are integrated, for example, the smartphone or a laptop. Demand for our products have been strong in the quarter. And even though we have improved our access to production capacity, supply chain limitations are still the main obstacle for us to achieve further growth at even faster pace than we are currently doing. We also continued to improve our gross margin by plus 10 percentage point year-on-year quarter and also by about 0.5 percentage point compared to the previous quarter. A higher proportion of new higher-margin product is the driver behind this positive development. Next slide, please. This means, of course, that the 12-month rolling trend is still positive, both from a revenue as well as a gross margin perspective. As Christian mentioned, we are diversifying our revenue streams at a faster pace than ever before, and with a positive impact on our margins at that. Our continued product innovation and diversification, both in mobile as well as in other segments, such as PC, has met with success in the market with an improved product sales mix and a GM effect as a result, of course. Next slide, please. Operating expenses in Q3 were SEK 90 million versus SEK 58 million in the same period last year. Development costs of around SEK 26 million were capitalized during the quarter, which should be compared to SEK 31 million in the same period last year. This corresponds to 53% of total development costs compared to 72% in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The reason for increased OpEx is the fact that we are now driving a higher number of R&D and operational projects than ever before and also to compare to last year. We are investing in growth both by new product innovation and by broadening and diversifying our supplier base. We are, as usual, pairing the above efforts with a maintained strong focus on cost and efficiency improvements going forward. Next slide, please. Our core working capital, that is accounts receivables plus our inventory less our accounts payables, was SEK 170 million at the end of the quarter, which compares to SEK 149 million in the same quarter last year and SEK 91 million last quarter. The increase in working capital is solely a result of our growth initiatives and us growing with higher receivables and inventory buildups to meet the demand and the customer requirements. As always, we continue to work very diligently and actively to manage our working capital in an efficient manner. Next slide, please. As mentioned in the previous slide, this growth-driven increase in working capital is the reason our cash flow from operating activities was a negative SEK 45 million compared to positive SEK 68 million in Q3 last year. Subsequently, our cash position stood at SEK 121 million versus SEK 453 million in the same quarter last year and SEK 193 million at the end of Q2 2021. Cash flow from investing activities, capitalized development expenditures was SEK 26 million compared to SEK 33 million last year. And as a final comment, let me also mention the fact that we have decided to commission Carnegie Investment Bank to evaluate the conditions for us to supplement our financing with debt capital with the aim of securing further financial readiness for our growth initiatives going forward. Thank you, everyone, and I'll now leave it back to Christian.

I think we're ready to take questions now.

[Operator Instructions] Looks like there are no questions on the phone. Please go ahead on the Q&A box on the web.

Okay. So let's take some questions from the web. First one is on market view that we presented 1 year ago. The question is, is this still current? Or do you have any changes to present on your ambitions for 2026?

There are some revisions, right, that we have made to that earlier, which is -- which was from 2026 and beyond. And the biggest was that -- of course, PC market is larger than we anticipated at the time when we did it. As I was going through, we thought that the PC market was running at 270 million roughly PCs per year. Last year, it grew to 300 million. This year, it seems to be close to 350 million units. So that market has gone bigger. The rest is -- the view is the same, very strong growth in rest of the markets itself.

Okay. Thank you. And what about your optical sensor. You said before that you expected this sensor to be in a model during the end of this year or by the end of this year. Could you elaborate on the status here?

We have been -- clearly, we have been late in getting to the market to the optical, and I'm not pleased with that, none of us are. But we have the product now after a long time. We have the product. It is good. It is working. And now we, of course, need to win deals, right, and get into models. So that is the work that is going on. And we basically cannot say anything else, except then once we win deals, we will get back to that.

Okay. Thank you. And in the press release, you say that you estimate PC market can pass the access market and become your second-biggest market within the next 12 to 18 months. So do you expect the mobile market to be #1? And does the payment cards still being below mobile, PC and access for, well, the next 18 months?

We don't give the view for others, but we expect the mobile -- if you look at 12, 18 months ahead, if you get in that range, yes, mobile because we see, of course, a lot of opportunities in mobile still. So I think the share volume of that makes it that it will be #1 for us. And we expect PC to continue growing now quarter-on-quarter all the time and to become, within that time range, the second-largest business for us and bypassing absolutely access, which is also growing but at a small rate. And then on the payments, we are not giving that level of guidance or views. We expect, of course, strong growth in the overall market. We are happy that finally, this year, it has happened. It has launched commercially for us in 5 banks. So now it is more for us to get more banks out together with our partners, and then the volumes will come with that. And of course, in the end, when you look at the 2026 and beyond, payment market will be the largest single market for us, absolutely as a business.

All right. Thank you. Do you have any comments on the strategic review that was communicated this summer?

Yes, we are. We communicated that in July, if I remember right. And it was -- it is, of course, a Board decision. And we are well aware of the clock is ticking. And the Board and the company, we will get back to this one when we have something to tell. Of course, it cannot go on forever, the strategic review, but that was done from a position of strength, and the Board initiated that, of course. So we will get back when that review has gone further down. It's only a few months that has gone now.

Thank you. And are both BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole using your sensor?

Yes. All commercial banks, all pilots, 22 pilots, 5 commercial banks and all of them are using our sensor and only our sensor. And I'm sorry, I missaid, it's 24 pilots, 5 commercial banks, more to come, all of them, 100% using our sensor, only our sensor.

And are there any Swedish banks that have expressed interest in these smart payment cards?

Yes. And of course, there are our partners and us are working with banks. There are small banks that have shown interest, and let's see how that goes, right? It's, of course, impossible for us to say when each bank will launch in which country because at the end of it, it is their decision solely in their hands when they launch. The products are ready, the systems are ready. Of course, every bank then needs to evaluate their marketing strategy, their enrollment strategy and how do they go out with it.

Okay. Thank you. And any update on progress in the automotive area, for example, Gentex Cooperation?

No, nothing else, but it is in different cases and pilots with automotive in the automotive industry with manufacturers. So that is going on. The car industry is a slow-moving industry. But we believe very much in biometrics in auto. It is clearly so that the idea of a naked driver that you basically have nothing -- no keys, no nothing on you, and you can get all the functions and the car functioning in the biometric, it will come, and it will come into cars for sure. So we believe strongly in that. It is just so that, that the industry is a lot of testing and piloting before they actually take into use.

Okay. Thank you. And how long is the lead time from receiving an order for card sensors until you can deliver?

It is now for us the same as it is in any other parts of our deliveries, right, because it has become part of our production. So we are not talking long times in terms of for us to do it. It is -- yes, you can easily -- if you think from what -- when you order to the whole chain, I suppose, 3 months could be when you have it, right? That doesn't include, of course, only us then, because when you do the products, it is, of course, many other components, whether you look at PC or you look at the mobile or you look at the card. But from our point of view, it is no difference.

Okay. Thank you. And the final question then on the cash flow, if you have any comments on operating cash flow, the fact that it's -- it was negative this quarter.

Maybe I can add a little bit light on that one. Well, it's natural given the fact that we've grown more than 25%, and we have to finance our growth in accounts receivable as well as inventory. So it's solely, as I mentioned in the call, due to that factor. So we -- it's a normal thing for a growing company. So it's actually a sign of health, the way we see it.

All right. Thank you. And let me then hand back over to Christian for some final comments.

All right. Thank you very much for joining us again, and we are looking forward to speaking and getting your questions, again, after the next quarter, as this quarter has run fast. And we continue, and we want to come out with exciting, interesting news. And I look forward to talking to you soon in this forum. Thank you very much for joining. Stay safe. Talk to you soon by now.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.