Otovo ASA (OTOVO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome to this presentation of Otovo's results for the first quarter of 2025. My name is Andreas Thorsheim, I'm founder and CEO of Otovo. I'll be joined in today's presentation by our CFO, my friend and colleague, Petter Ulset. I'll be giving you a business update before Petter gives a financial update. We'll give a summary and outlook before opening up for our Q&A session. Do not hesitate to submit your questions as we talk or towards the end of the presentation. Today's quarter is something we've been looking forward to presenting. It represents a return to growth for Otovo, a new and reset company that we're proud of and that we're eager to develop going forward. It's a quarter with a strong growth in the order intake, both in terms of new customers and the value of those customers. We see our backlog grow once again. And we see the profitability per project as strong as ever. In terms of our cash position, the reset of the company, the portfolio sale frees up cash and receivable that represent more than NOK 200 million at the beginning of the quarter, a buffer that we find comfortable as we go into the remaining 3 quarters of 2025. Our cost structure is reset during the fourth quarter. We did an organizational reset centered around Madrid with a smaller, more robust team there. We present quarterly results where both marketing spend and personnel expenses are down, showing a resilient Otovo with a new reset cost structure going forward. On top of that, we experienced consumers that are eager to use the technological advancements that we see in solar and in storage in an environment where the profitability of both products is improving for the European consumer, giving us confidence in the outlook for the rest of the year. So this is a quarter in which Otovo returns to growth with improved cash structure, with a new cost structure set on the path towards profitability as these markets develop. Okay, now let's dive into the business update. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we entirely reset our cost structure. In the first quarter, we entered into a seminal agreement with Swiss Life Asset Managers for the sale of our continental leasing portfolio. That had a twofold effect: it both freed up cash latent in our leasing companies, but it also entirely changed the operational cash structure of the company in which we moved from investing every time we create a new leasing system to harvesting money from our joint venture as we develop new leasing assets. From this quarter onwards, Otovo is focused on growing the number of customers. The value of those customers adding more batteries, it's a story of a return to growth and we're eager to share that with you. The way Otovo works now is a much simpler company. We have 2 segments: customers who buy directly from us or customers who enter a leasing contract. We have a quite simple product range, consisting mostly of solar installations, battery installations, but also with added products such as heat pumps, EV chargers, backup solutions or home energy management systems adding value for the consumer. We are putting these 2 segments and multiple products into play in 10 European markets from Norway in the north to Spain in the South. The 2 business segments that we have, the direct-to-consumer household customer or the B2B2C leasing portfolio owner have a bit different characteristics. The business-to-consumer segment is one in which the consumer house owner pays in full at time of delivery. It represents 3/4 of our business with a margin of 23%. The leasing portfolio owner is Swiss Life Asset Managers, both for our Scandinavian assets and our European assets. In this segment, we make sure that the consumer enters a leasing contract for 20 years for their solar PV or 10 years for their batteries. And that represents about 1/4 of our business in terms of installations in Q1, but with a much stronger profitability: 24% in Scandinavia, 32% in Continental Europe. And obviously, as sound businessmen, we'll be shifting our business towards these segments as they're more profitable, more unique for us. And you can already see that in the order intake where the leasing share is up compared to the installation numbers that typically lag by a bit. This first quarter of 2025 represents a return to growth for Otovo. The order intake came in at above NOK 150 million, a marked increase from the fourth quarter of 2024, where it was NOK 118 million. Revenue materializes as we install projects previously sold and backlogged. Revenues came in at NOK 125 million, down 13% sequentially. The backlog grew 27% to NOK 195 million from the end of the previous quarter, the combined effect of added profitability of the same contracts in the new setup and a growth in new sales. Gross profit holding roughly stable despite the drop in revenue. Why? Because we expanded our gross profit percentage from 23% to 25% in the quarter, a continuation of the trend we've been on for quite some time and that we are proud and confident to be able to work on in the future. In terms of numbers of customers, the net sales came in at 1,410, a strong rebound in the winter quarter from 1,050 in Q4. Installations typically materialize roughly 90 days after sales, and you can see that this means that the installation numbers roughly lag the net sales numbers by a quarter. In terms of value, the order intake, the new sales value, was up 30% sequentially, a strong showing for us. Revenue came in at NOK 125 million as we installed previously sold installations in the quarter. Now moving our sights towards the future and what the customer is buying as they enter a contract with Otovo. Now households in Europe have multiple problems relating to energy. One is rising energy costs. Another is periods of extreme prices. A third is rising grid connectivity fees. Fourth is blackouts, we've experienced those in the past week or so. And then there's the opportunity of new markets opening up for frequency and capacity in which consumers can participate and generate more value from the assets that they have in their home. Now what do customers need to take full benefit in -- from new technology facing these challenges and opportunities? Well, they need solar PV in order to make energy. They need batteries for pretty much everything else. And if they add EV chargers, heat pumps, home energy management, they can increase their resilience, their savings and the value of their home. That, of course, underpins the major trends that we, as a company, are surfing. We've seen an increase in demand for batteries over time, but that spiked last week as customers in Portugal, Spain and parts of France experienced a substantial blackout. Now we do not know yet for how long that demand will be sustained. But it is a reminder that households face new challenges in a new era, and that adding storage and backup capability to existing systems or as a component in new systems sold is going to be important. It's another argument in a story that's been developing around batteries because batteries are potentially even more impressive than wind power and solar power have been in the last 2 decades in its ability to get more inexpensive month by month, quarter by quarter, a development that we see continuing into 2025. What that means is that storage becomes more competitive with the energy grid making it, in general, more profitable to put a battery into your garage or your home. And that, of course, gets expressed in our sales numbers in which our order intake in batteries is increasing. This quarter, we sold almost 8 megawatt-hours of batteries and that's a new record for us. And it's a number that we expect to be able to increase going forward, obviously. The story for PV is also much the same. The cost of solar PV installations on the Otovo platform is down 9% in Q1 compared to the same -- or rather to Q4 of last year. Comparing further back, of course, those numbers are stronger. And you can see that the benefit of cheaper equipment, more disciplined and efficient installers and the compression on the installer margins after the energy crisis are contributing to equipment and installation getting cheaper for consumers. And that means that even [indiscernible] energy prices across European market, we're able to move more areas of Europe into the area where this is highly profitable for consumers as shown in the map on the left on this slide, in which blue indicates good profitability and orange poor profitability for the consumer. And this is a trend that's very marked in the beginning of the year. What that means is that solar PV is once again increasing in profitability for the consumer. That is usually a good indicator in this business. Our order intake is up to almost 9 megawatt peak, an increase in 36% in the last quarter compared to the previous one. So on that positive note, I leave the floor to Petter Ulset for our financial update.

Thank you, Andreas. I will then take you through our first quarter financial results. The portfolio transaction simplifies our financial reporting. We have lost control of the 8 SPVs that was sold to Swiss Life Asset Managers, and as such, they are deconsolidated from our balance sheet. We will, from -- in this quarter and in subsequent quarters, record the revenues and the profits of those sales as they previously were eliminated in our consolidated financial reporting. As a result, we will then have 2 segments. Our B2C segment, which we previously named Marketplace, this is sales to homeowners across Europe. Then we also had the B2B2C segment, which is sale of systems to Swiss Life Asset Managers who have entered into new subscription contracts with homeowners across Europe. Turning over to the P&L. We see that revenue is down sequentially and also year-over-year as a result of lower installation activity in the first quarter. Looking at profitability, you clearly see the effect of the portfolio sale. There now 1/4 of the revenues in the first quarter was from the B2B2C segment and the remaining was to the B2C segment. The profitability in the B2B2C segment is 10 percentage points higher, which helps increase the gross margin as reported in the first quarter. Looking on order intake. We came into the quarter with a backlog of NOK 153 million. That backlog had a value uplift of NOK 12 million as a result of the portfolio transaction, bringing it to NOK 165 million. Out of that backlog, we installed NOK 125 million of revenue in the quarter. And we had NOK 154 million of order intake, meaning we exited the quarter with NOK 195 million in backlog, which is up NOK 27 million quarter-over-quarter. The cost cuts that we announced and effected in 2024 is also clearly visible in the financial results. Payroll is down NOK 29 million year-over-year to NOK 42 million in the quarter. Marketing costs is down NOK 39 million -- sorry, is down from NOK 39 million to NOK 23 million, which is a reduction of 39%. And other OpEx increased NOK 4 million year-over-year, but this is including roughly NOK 10 million of project-related costs that we took in the first quarter. If you remove that, the underlying trend is a decrease of 25% year-over-year. Going further down in the P&L, you will see that we have adverse currency effects of NOK 24 million in the quarter. This comes from financing of the group's subsidiaries in euro, which has an adverse impact given that the Norwegian parent company reports in Norwegian kroner. When the NOK strengthens, we will see an adverse impact. And when the NOK weakens, we will see a positive impact. This has no cash effect and has no impact on these subsidiaries' financials or solidity as they operate in euros. Then going over to the balance sheet, you see that the balance sheet is reduced significantly due to the portfolio transaction. Now in the quarter, we have our 11% ownership stake in EDEA Europe, is worth roughly NOK 70 million and is reported in total assets. And we also have a total of NOK 140 million of receivables towards that entity, which is a result of the portfolio transaction. Going forward, we will continue to invoice EDEA Europe for subscription projects, but the additional value creation in excess of CapEx will be invoiced quarterly and you will just see our receivable on a quarterly basis going forward. Then going over to the cash position. We started the quarter with NOK 183 million of cash in the group. We had a negative cash flow from operations of NOK 78 million, this is inclusive of roughly NOK 20 million in payments to employees related to severance and bonuses paid for 2024. And NOK 17 million negative trade payables development in the quarter. Investments in subscription assets and interest paid on the bank facility with DNB was a total of negative NOK 33 million. We had a positive impact of the first installment on the portfolio sale of roughly NOK 10 million. Other effects, such as sale of assets, capitalized R&D and FX of negative NOK 7 million, bringing us to an exit balance of NOK 75 million at the end of the quarter. But with the additional receivable available from Swiss Life, we had in excess of NOK 200 million in cash at the start of this quarter. I will then leave the word to Andreas to take you through the summary and outlook.

Okay. So what to retain from this morning's session? Otovo is returning to growth, selling higher-margin projects to more and more customers who add more and more equipment. Our cash position is comfortable. And our cost structure is much improved after the portfolio sale and our efficiency measures of the fourth quarter. The European consumer is seeing more and more benefits and profitability from solar panels and batteries and is returning to the market after a couple of years of tough adjustments. For Otovo, the combination of higher margins, a growing number of customers and a lean cost structure are what is going to add up to a profitable Otovo. And with that, let me open up for your questions.

All right. So a little bit of housekeeping here, we're ready to go. Can you sustain these sales numbers -- or sales improvement numbers? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that we see improvements in all important leading indicators of sales. The cost per lead in marketing, what we pay to attract the customer to the web page is at an all-time low in Q1 -- or not an all-time low, but a very good number, the strongest we've seen since the energy crisis. We do see improvement in the number of offers sent out to customers, and the conversion of those offers is also good. This was a quarter where our -- we ran the company with half the staff compared to Q4 and being able to grow the order intake by 30% with such a smaller staff is a very strong showing. So yes, our focus is on growing these sales numbers, and I will be very disappointed in myself if we're not able to sustain the progress here. What else do we have? Have you seen any effects of the blackouts in Spain on demand? Yes, we have in -- during last week, Google searches for keywords related to our products roughly doubled in Portugal and Spain. That compares to a peak of tripling from previous levels during the energy crisis. So it's a meaningful impact on the interest for storage, backup and solar. It's a bit early to say what this translates to. There is a risk that it could be noise with lots of people looking for solar panels that they can charge mobile phone with like the smaller kit, and that will divert attention from our sales staff and divert activity. That's kind of the worst-case scenario. The best-case scenario is that this is a serious awakening not only for Spanish and Portuguese consumers, but all across Europe and that solar and battery is part of your emergency kit. We know that resilience has gotten a lot more attention in Europe in recent years, and this could be another push in that direction. We are putting on extra staff to handle the increase in interest that has come in over the last week in Portugal and Spain, in particular. But also interestingly, Germany, increase in interest there. So it's a bit early to say. But yes, we've seen an effect and we need to see if these are people just browsing the store or who are serious about buying. The buying cycle is roughly 3 weeks from interest to decision. So by mid-May, we should know more about where this is headed. You have taken deep cuts to the organization. Is it impacting your ability to grow over time? Do you want to say a few words about that, Petter?

Yes. I think, as Andreas mentioned, we have been through a rough period in the fourth quarter. The transition was hard. I think both of us are very grateful for the efforts that all Otovistas put down to make it work. As Andreas said, we are doing more sales with fewer people. We are very confident in our ability to do more installations with fewer people. And as we have said before, we have geared the current size of the organization to roughly carry on 2,000 [indiscernible] per quarter and have operated at that installation speed before with an organization that is roughly of that size.

And of course, if we -- if and when we move beyond 2,000 per quarter, we will only marginally increase the staff on sales as we need to process more, but it's not nearly proportional to where we are now. So that's -- I think we're in a good place. We've tested the organization now for 1 quarter in its new shape, and the efficiency numbers are promising. You seem upbeat about Swiss Life. Is there a potential to grow the relationship? We have grown it this quarter, but Petter, [ your view ] on that relationship?

Yes. No, I think our partnership with Swiss Life remains strong. We take it as a sign of confidence as they entered into the transaction that we closed in Q1. We also take it as a sign of confidence that they also seek upside in Otovo stock through the warrants that they have received. Going forward, there is multiple ways of growing that relationship. One is inorganic, to do more transactions like the one we did in Austria in Q4 where we added more volume, which was beneficial to them and beneficial to us. But we could also grow this to cover more geographies. Italy comes to mind to a country where...

Because keep in mind, we do not have leasing in Italy currently [indiscernible].

Yes. And being one of our biggest markets, unleashing that product in Italy would have a very high potential.

And then, of course, these transactions have, both in Scandinavia last year and in the European portfolio this year, contained 2 parts. One was the existing assets that had been built that we sold to Swiss Life Asset Managers. But the other part, and more importantly for investors going forward, is the agreement to keep purchasing and leasing systems into the setup that we've sold every single month as we install. And of course, that is important. It lasts for the immediate and midterm future. There is, of course, the potential of expanding that partnership beyond the dates that are already pre-agreed. So in short, I think we're happy about that relationship. We feel trusted, we trust them. And it's a serious player to have as a partner in this unique product that we have on leasing. Your negative cash flow was high, any view on how it will develop?

I guess that goes to me.

I guess you can...

Yes. So if you look forward and you take the order intake that we had in Q1 and you assume we can install that in a quarter or so, our underlying negative cash flow would be around NOK 35 million to NOK 40 million. Gross profit would be around NOK 40 million. Payroll is around NOK 40 million. And then you deduct another NOK 40 million in other OpEx. But you also have other income that is from the portfolio recurring payments from Swiss Life for management services of another NOK 3 million to NOK 4 million, bringing us to that net. And then, of course, what has changed in the subsequent quarter is that we will not have investments in subscription assets flowing over our P&L. That was roughly NOK 25 million in this quarter. We will also not have interest payments on the debt facility as that facility to a larger extent is paid down, which, of course, helps to reduce negative cash flow.

And then I think the last point is working capital, is we have negative working capital, meaning that we get paid before we pay. And that means this ship that we built sails well in tailwinds. And with the growth in order intake, that also expands the cash.

Releases cash.

Yes. So that's good stuff. So we're happy about being in that position after a few quarters of contraction. Good. I think there seems to be no further questions. So thank you for your trust in the company. Keep buying solar and batteries and backup boxes. Thank you for your time this morning.