Observe Medical ASA (OBSRV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Observe Medical's half year report. I hope you are all joined us now and can hear us. I'll do this in English, even though I'm Danish, but I feel that this is going to create the best transparency in terms of what is going to be said. Please observe the company rights and disclaimer notice. These materials have all been uploaded to our home page. And so you can pick up these documents afterwards, if you need further details. Today's presenters are myself. My name is Jørgen Mann, I'm Danish. I have recently taken on the CEO position in Observe Medical since April as an interim, but also now as a permanent CEO since quite recently. Second speaker will be our CFO, Johan Fagerli, who will give you some numbers on the first half year of 2024. The agenda for today is some of the highlights that we have seen during the first half year, and also the progress. So you can see how we are progressing compared to what has been communicated on earlier occasions. We will also give you some key financials and also the outlook for the rest of the year and also something into the following years in terms of financial overall numbers. As an overall presentation of what we are and what we aim to do is that we are a medtech platform. That's how we see ourselves. We are very much into two specific segments, one of them being the urine measurement area, which is the area where we are currently having the most focus in terms of commercializing the opportunities that lies in the portfolio that we have under our control taken over from the Convatec portfolio, but also launching our own products within that platform. The ultrasound segment is also a part of our strategy going forward. It is somewhat different, as communicated after the rights issue late last year. We are looking now in a direction where we are seeking partnerships within the Ultrasound segment in order to continue that journey in the best possible and most profitable way for -- also for Observe Medical. On the full year report earlier this year, we also introduced a new segment, which we call distribution opportunities. We are now present at -- with the latest changes, 24 distributors across Europe, Middle East, Asia and also now South America. So this platform is something that we are aiming to use to launch also products, third-party products from other companies, innovative companies that can benefit from this commercial platform going forward. If we look at 2024, H1 highlights, we are looking at the main target. The main focus has been to continue the rollout of the UnoMeter 500 and the UnoMeter Abdo-Pressure through this distribution network I was referring to before. And we are also continuingly trying to expand and succeeding also in expanding our geographical footprint. So on plan for that one, and it as a crucial platform also for the future launches that I'm going to talk to you about in a minute. We are also experiencing, now is about 2 years ago that Convatec stepped out quite abruptly from the market. We are now seeing also, as expected, an increasing competitive situation in the market. And in that context, of course, also UnoMeter 500 is somewhat under pressure. And under that, it sort of headline, we are also very happy to be able to say that the launch of the UnoMeter Safeti, which is the differentiated unique product is also now being launched as we speak, basically, so this is our answer to that. But of course, we are fighting again now to continue the growth within our market share. As I also alluded to in the start of this presentation, we have changed the management in -- within the company with Johan joining as CFO in the early spring. And we are also now having me there as the CEO. We are extremely focused right now on the commercial journey that we are having. We are also very much focused on bringing the pipeline of new products to the market, which is the ones that will bring us from where we are today to a completely different situation financially, market share-wise, et cetera. So you'll see that in some numbers later on. We also see that we want to have a more focused approach on our cost, our spendings. We do definitely want to come to a situation where we are in a company that are able to make our own cash -- positive cash flow. And under that umbrella, these are the three main topics: launching the new products, growing the top line, definitely also having full control of our cost in that perspective. As I mentioned before and also on the full year report, commercial launch of the UnoMeter Safeti Plus is now going on. It started out in June with an approach to all our distributors. Very positive feedback we have received as expected because all of them have been waiting for us to launch the Safeti Plus. And we are now expecting the full launch also with full capacity and deliveries starting either very early -- sorry, very late September or early October. So we are on plan with the launch of the Safeti Plus. To put that in perspective, Safeti Plus is the product that also was part of the Convatec portfolio. It was the part of the Convatec portfolio that had around 70%, 75% of the full revenue that Convatec was seeing, which was in total around NOK 200 million. Therefore, this product is extremely important for us to launch. Also for our distributors, they will get an enhanced tool, you could say, compared to the UnoMeter 500. Also from a profitability wise -- profitability perspective from our company, this product will also, both revenue and profitability-wise, be an extremely important step for us. We have launched, as you probably know, UnoMeter 500 late last year. And during the spring, we have had the first feedback from the market, which has been both positive and also indicating areas where we needed to improve the product. Not related to the core of the functionality of the product, but nevertheless, certain areas that we needed to improve. This is the reason why we have now launched an Edition 2 of the UnoMeter 500. It is launched. It is being delivered as we speak. So we're also very proud that we sort of in a ramp-up or a scale-up situation are able to manage not only the planning of the launch and also manage our portfolio being a very important step for us that we can keep up the demand for UnoMeter 500, and making sure the quality is second to none on that product as well. We did complete also now a private placement process just in June that has raised NOK 22 million gross. And we are continuing on that journey now with the next step going into a repair mission quite shortly here in late September. And also, we are working on, as also announced earlier an undertaking with our current strategic manufacturer based in China. Biim, the strategic journey that we announced, we wanted to pursue in the early part of the year. We have taken important steps there and have now signed an LOI with a renowned American player within the imaging field. And we are now, together with them, exploring how will the best possible cooperation look like going forward. We expect to be able to complete that journey in Q4 2024. These are the headlines going through the last 6 months. The biggest one is no doubt the launch of the Safeti Plus. This is the product as I hope you understood from my comments before, this was the core of the Convatec portfolio. This will be the core of our products going forward, our product portfolio. This slide was also presented earlier this year during the full year presentation. And this shows what our plans are in terms of product launch. This is the pipeline we're looking at. So what you see there is that the first three products that we have in the UnoMeter portfolio within urine measurement have now been launched. And as I mentioned, a very important step with the Safeti Plus now. We are thereby getting into the situation of having the same strength as Convatec had when we made the deal with them. So we are -- we have now recreated the strength of Convatec with the current portfolio. We also, as you will see on the 2025 perspective, have specific projects that will take us further. We will differentiate even the manual UnoMeter segment with the UnoMeter Max. And we will also plan to launch the UnoMeter Sippi at the second half of 2025. Very important step for us because that will move us even further into a market-leading position, which is definitely where we are aiming and will also give us access to increase revenue and definitely also increase profits, supporting our journey to a strong financial organization. The Biim strategic journey, as I already mentioned, after the rights issue in December, a new direction for that part of our company was set out, saying that we wanted to find a strategic partner to grow this segment. We have spent the last 4 months evaluating different opportunities, different partnerships that we could enter into. And now we have made a decision who will -- could be the best potential partner going forward. As I mentioned, a U.S. industrial player within the imaging field. And we are confident that this is going to be a very interesting journey in the next 3 or 4 months. The due diligence process has now commenced. We are keeping an open mind in terms of how the partnership will finally look, but they offer a certain market potential on their own. And together with us, we do set out a very strong portfolio and a strong market presence that we expect to be able to exploit going forward. So go ahead. Over to you.

[Foreign Language]

Thank you for that, Johan. Yes, as an overall comment to the numbers, we are in a situation now where we feel that we have fully compensated for the negative effect of the closing down of the Nordic business, which was the only generating -- revenue-generating activity we had until last year. We are now replacing that with what we consider our strategic focus, meaning the urine measurement portfolio under the UnoMeter brand. We're quite happy with the development. Having said that, of course, we have seen, as also indicated in the highlights, increased pressure in the market in terms of competition. And also the upgrade of the product has led to -- the upgrade of the UnoMeter 500 has led to, let's say, short-term effects on our -- on the progress we have been able to see. All of that is -- just taking a step back, the UnoMeter 500 was always meant to be the platform to launch the UnoMeter Safeti Plus product as we have communicated on several occasions. So right now, we feel that we have the tools that are needed because we have the 500 in the more price aggressive segment and also now we can position the UnoMeter Safeti Plus as the differentiated unique product that will take us forward on the revenue journey and profitability, obviously also. So under that note, starting deliveries. When we talk about second half deliverables, we're talking about the most important one is the first one. I've mentioned it a number of times, UnoMeter Safeti Plus. Starting delivery of that product will be the very important factor in terms of how we will develop in terms of revenue and profits. And as I mentioned also, we are on track with the launch. The launch is actually going to happen precisely on time. It's been September. And our distributors are eagerly waiting to be able to position this product. They have received what they need to start working on the market already. This product will also give us access to a number of geographies that has so far not been within our reach because UnoMeter 500 were not strong products in those geographies. With the Safeti Plus product, we will get access. We will regain and establish competitiveness in certain markets where we have not yet been with the UnoMeter 500. And we do expect that we can even go to a situation where we will be close to covering 90% of the previous Convatec geography that they covered with their -- when they were on the top of their game. We are on the journey now, as indicated in the early part of the year to establish an increase, expand our portfolio with other distributor products. And we have several specific projects that we are working with that will start -- give us the effect in 2025, expectedly. And they will give us both the revenue stream and profit stream but also just give us a broader strength within the markets with our distributors that we need in order to continue our journey. Another extremely important part for us or a project for us, it would be to conclude the due diligence process on the Biim project. The U.S. partner that we work with, we are both very focused and determined to get this business done and start taking it from a due diligence process to a really -- a real business perspective. We do also now already have started already before summer holiday to the ramp-up towards the launch of the UnoMeter Safeti Max, which is the product that has enhanced safety features, focused very much on the infection risk within the ICU and the usage of urine measurement devices. And we still aim at a Q1 launch of that product. Other very important part is the -- completing the repair issue that is going to start here in late September, going into August -- sorry, into October. And also a private placement from the manufacturer we have in China. They are eager to be part of the business. They see the opportunity as we do and would like to be closer to us on that journey. The last part I want to mention here is that as most of you will probably know is that on the logistical setup that, let's say, the world is looking into at the moment, we do also need to manage that with supplies coming and with a need for fast track deliveries to support our revenue and profit. We do need to manage the logistical complexity that is offered to us now with extremely high prices, but also longer delivery times. We do have an active approach to this, but it's certainly going to be a challenge for us to manage that over the second half of the year without exploding cost or increasing delivery times beyond expectations. Looking into the -- an outlook into -- on the financial side. We do see now, going forward, a diversified revenue stream. Going towards a broader portfolio, we will be seeing revenues coming in from not only the 500, not only the UnoMeter Safeti Plus and the Abdo-Pressure, but also the new products, the UnoMeter Safeti Max, and not least in the second half of next year, the UnoMeter Sippi, which are important stepping stones to further expand our market share. Our market -- the gross margin right now, we do see some challenges there with the 500 as mentioned. We do also see that Safeti Plus and the Max and the Sippi is exactly what we need to fight this situation because they are more differentiated, they will offer the uniqueness that we need to be able to boost our profits and thereby support the ambitions we have going forward. We are looking into a Q4 where we will be looking into how do we make sure that we, as an organization, are prepared for the quite strong growth we are expecting in 2025, and therefore, also looking into what kind of competencies do we need within our organization to drive that. We cannot drive that with 5 employees, but we are very conscious that we do this very selectively so that we build the competencies that are needed from a strategic perspective, and we'll continue to have that focus to manage our cost in an effective way. What you see there on the number side and expectations of between NOK 100 million and NOK 135 million in revenues next year. And as you will see, it spread over the UnoMeter Safeti Plus and 500 portfolio, but also now distribution business is starting to make a difference. And also the Sippi launch in the second half year is now included in our forecast going forward. Right-hand corner, you would see an estimated gross margins within the three segments, and that is exactly what I was indicating before. We do forecast profits for the manual UnoMeters, that means the UnoMeter 500 and Safeti that are around 40%, while the more differentiated portfolio of particularly Sippi will give us margins that are significantly more interesting in that perspective. And that will have effect next year, but even more effect in the coming years because Sippi will then expand further. The distribution business, we have put that in with a margin around 25%. That is a different situation. We are sharing profits with both distributors and the original manufacturer. But we are looking to launch innovative products under that umbrella. So we do feel confident that this is the level we are going to be able to realize. All right. That ends the presentation. So we'll go into some Q&A, if there are any.

[Foreign Language]

A number of comments. UnoMeter 500 sales was already announced to start in October 2024 -- '23, sorry. So yes, that is correct, but that's not really anything new or surprising. As for the revenue development within the UnoMeter segment, we are actually seeing a growth from H2 last year and into H1 this year, not a very big growth. Very much related to the fact that we had a very hot start, so to speak. A number of distributors were buying in stock that would cover a period into 2024. And also, we do see that, as I mentioned before, that some of the speed of the UnoMeter 500 has been challenged by the market conditions. And this is pretty much where we are looking at -- what we're looking at. So we do see growth, but not at the level we need. But we -- I think we -- it's fair to say that we have indicated from the beginning that the Safeti Plus will be the product that will carry the majority of the growth going forward.

[Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

Well, thank you for attending this presentation. And if there's any more questions, please don't hesitate to use either Johan's or my contact details, and we will follow up on whatever questions that may come in. Thank you very much, and have a great rest of the day.

Thank you.