Planisware SAS (PLNW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and thank you for attending our call on Q1 2025 revenue of Planisware. This is Loic Sautour speaking. And as usual, I will share the presentation with Stephanie Pardo, our CFO. Well, I would like to start with the key highlights of this publication. First, Q1 revenue reached EUR 47.5 million, it represents a robust 16% year-on-year growth and 14.3% in constant currency. This growth is totally within the range of our expectation for Q1 and aligned with our planned trajectory for the year, aiming towards our mid- to high-teen growth rate objective for 2025. Our revenue growth continues to be driven by the success of our SaaS operation. This includes both our existing clients, who will support closely through our Evolutive support practice and new clients who are joining us. Both our clients and prospects are expressing a greater need for advanced solutions to manage our portfolio of strategic projects, more than ever, they see better visibility and agility to navigate and adapt their operation, supply chain and strategic priorities in this particularly uncertain and challenging environment for them. In this context, although we are not directly impacted by tariffs, we are still observing elongated customer decision-making processes. So we continue to leverage our close connection with our existing customers while also initiating new commercial relationships. At this time of the year, and given the current environment, we acknowledge a high level of uncertainties that may drive further innovation of sales cycles and delays in the start of new contracts. However, we remain confident in confirming our mid- to high teens revenue growth objective for the year, along with our profitability and cash conversion targets. On the next slide, let me present some of our key recent achievements. First, I'm happy to announce the opening of 2 new offices, the first in Brussels and the second in Seoul. While Planisware has been present in the [ Benelux ] region for several years with projects for customers such as Galapagos, KLM or UCB and now consolidating its position in this strategic fast-growing market. In particular, the group had recorded a significant increase in its business with sales doubling over the last 4 years. The goal with the location is to be close to our customers and leverage a dynamic market with almost 1,200 target companies, nearly half of which have sales in excess of EUR 1 billion, particularly in high-tech sectors such as manufacturing, with chemicals, agrifood and industrial equipment as well as retail and financial services. Against this backdrop, Planisware's new sites strengthen its proximity to customers and its understanding of local issue. Alongside an enhanced visibility, Planisware will be able to accelerate the signing of new logos and sustain the group's growth in the region. As for South Korea, its advanced economy, strategic industry alignment and openness to digital transformation make it an ideal market for Planisware growth in Asia. With a GDP exceeding $1.7 trillion and strong sectors like semiconductors, automotive and electronics, South Korea offered a favorable environment for Planisware project and portfolio management solution. The presence of multinational clients using Planisware in their Korean subsidiary and the proximity to Japan further enhance business prospects. Planisware's regional experience. Robust growth in Asia Pacific and commitment to local expertise provides a solid foundation for success in South Korea. Point number two is about our annual user conference, Exchange, that we hold in each of our key geographies. This event is very well named as a truly embodies the spirit of exchange, a platform for sharing knowledge, experiences and innovation. Every year, we gather the key project portfolio stakeholders from our clients to foster a collaborative environment. This is not just an opportunity for us to connect with our customers, but it's also for our customers to connect with each other. Our clients, our ambassadors spreading the word of mouth and sharing their incredible success stories. This year, the North American 2025 edition took place in San Francisco at the end of March. It was a tremendous success with incredible attendance of 216 of our clients represented. The energy, the enthusiasm was so high as we came together to share best practices, celebrate successes and discuss emerging market plan. Once again, this year's session provided a hands-on experience, allowing our clients to see firsthand the innovative solutions that we are developing to meet their needs. And one of the highlights of the conference was the live demos showcasing our latest features and in particular, of our AI-powered unified platform that I presented to you in February, and that generated a lot of interest. As a quick reminder, this new version of our platform, which is set to shape the future of strategic portfolio management. By staying at the forefront of innovation, we aim to deliver a next-generation experience with the latest version of our platform, keeping us 1 step ahead of the competition. Now looking ahead, we believe that within the next 5 years, up to 80% of our users will interact with applications like Planisware through voice or chat. To prepare for this evolution, we have developed a semantic metadata model. This model abstracts and modify physical database object into logical dimensions, making our platform future-proof for increased AI usage. This deployment of AI agents, which rely on the semantic model will enhance our platform performance and create a significant barrier to entry for competitors in our business. Now before letting Stephanie detail the revenue performance that we have, I would like to illustrate the commercial dynamic of Q1 with a few notable wins. Now despite sales cycles remaining longer than a year before, clients and prospects expressed greater needs for advanced solution to manage our portfolio of strategic projects and gain better visibility and agility to navigate in the current uncertain environment. Planisware continued to support its existing customers in adapting and reorganizing themselves to a rapidly changing environment while maintaining or enhancing their operational efficiency. As a result, key clients such as Philips or Boston Scientific, expanded their usage of Planisware solutions and support practices. This was particularly the case in the automotive industry with clients such as Fox Factory in the U.S. in PD&A, Continental in Germany or Forvia in France. Now Forvia is a typical scope extension following an acquisition made by our clients. After the merger between Faurecia and HELLA, HELLA wonders whether to stay with SAP PPM or switch to Planisware. They carried out a comparative study of the 2 solutions and Planisware's advanced and spot on functionalities made the difference. The relevance of Planisware multi-specialist approach has been demonstrated in many sectors from retail in Australia with Coles or the pharmaceutical industry in Japan with Takeda, to automotive in the U.S. and Sweden with Dana and HADV Group, which now uses Orchestra to manage its product development portfolio. Dana is emblematic of the new logos that came much later than initially planned. This global leader in drivetrain and e-propulsion system has selected Planisware Enterprise as its program-wide PPM solution. At a time when automotive suppliers are under pressure to accelerate innovation and improve efficiency, Planisware is a valuable partner in driving their successes by ensuring consistency and [ visibility ] and serve as the backbone for embedding global launch processes and centralized program tracking, providing a unified platform to streamline communication and foster collaboration. Dana also implements Planisware to manage cost buildup and business case analysis, enabling faster, more informed strategic decision-making. Now Stephanie, let's take a deeper dive into our revenue building blocks.

Thank you, Loic, and good morning to all. I will start my presentation with revenue evolution by revenue stream for the first quarter. As usual, in order to reflect the underlying performance of the company independently from exchange rate fluctuations, I will focus my comments on revenue evolution in constant currencies, which means applying Q1 '24 exchange rate to Q1 '25 figures. FX effect was fully related to the U.S. dollar year-on-year appreciation versus euro. As usual, the key driver of the revenue performance was our SaaS model, which represented 82% of the total revenue and grew by almost $6 million or plus 18%, fueled by new customer wins as well as continued expansion with our large installed base. Our SaaS model is made of SaaS & Hosting revenue, up by 18.5%, support activities, which grew together by 16.7%, including a healthy plus 20% in evolutive support, particularly important in this time where our clients further rely on Planisware to adapt fast to the upturn context. Still in the recurring part of the revenue profile, maintenance grew by 4.4% in Q1, a bit faster than its usual run rate, thanks to the licenses sold in 2024. I now move to the nonrecurring part of the revenue, which represented in Q1 8% of the total revenue and declined by minus 4.4% or EUR 0.2 million. All the decline came from Perpetual licenses, which faced a high base effect. As you may remember, we had a strong demand early in 2024 from customers with specific on-premise needs, in particular, in [indiscernible]. Oppositely, the plus 4.4% revenue growth in implementation translates a dynamic activity in Q1 '25, led by the implementation of several large SaaS contracts signed end of 2024. I move to the next slide. As usual, we would like to present how this revenue performance translates to the evolution of our revenue mix towards more and more recurring. In Q1, recurring revenue made of SaaS operations and maintenance of Perpetual licenses represented 92% of the total revenue, which is 150 basis points higher than from the [ period ] last year. The SaaS model itself represents 82% of total revenue, while it was 80% in 2023. Thanks for your attention. And I let Loic to conclude.

Thank you, Stephanie. Well, before concluding though, I would like to share with you why we consider the Planisware Group is fully geared to cope with any potential economic slowdown. First and foremost, we operate in a double-digit growing market, fueled by powerful megatrends, digitization, innovation, automation and energy transition. These trends are driving significant long-term growth and providing us with numerous business expansion opportunities. The solutions proposed by Planisware are mission-critical for our clients even more in time of downturn, that provides the necessary visibility and agility, enabling the organizations to adapt and reorganize themselves to fast-changing environment and to preserve or improve operational efficiencies. In addition, we entertain long-term relationships with our clients. These kind of partnerships are the backbone of our business built on trust and mutual benefits, ensuring sustained successes for all parties involved. This translates in a recurring revenue profile that is largely diversified in terms of geography and industry exposure, ensuring that our revenue is extremely resilient, especially in challenging times. We delivered high profitability and cash generation, which translated over the year in a particularly strong balance sheet. This financial strength is a testament to our prudent financial management and allows us to reinvest in our business, drive innovation and deliver value to our stakeholders. At the end, it provides us with the flexibility to navigate economic uncertainties and face the new opportunities as they arise. Of course, I will not be comprehensive here without mentioning our talented, engaged and loyal employee base, which is our greatest asset. Their dedication and expertise for our success and enable us to achieve our strategic goal. I'm so thankful to have the privilege to work with such an outstanding team every day. All in all, we remain guided by a long-term vision and sustainable investment policy. This ensures that we are not only focused on immediate gain, but also on creating long-term value for all of our stakeholders. As mentioned during the introduction, while acknowledging a high level of uncertainties that may drive further elongation of sales cycles and delays in the start of new contracts, we consider our high commercial pipeline, and we remain confident and we so confirm all of our objectives for 2025. A mid- to high-teen revenue growth, circa 35% adjusted EBITDA margin and circa 80% cash conversion rate. This concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention. We are now ready to answer your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Can you hear me?

Yes, please go ahead.

This is [indiscernible] from BNP Paribas. I just had a quick question, given the moderate acceleration in H2 to reach the guidance, what would be needed to underwrite H2 acceleration? Would it be more an improvement in yield win rates or just a mix effect of the SaaS in the revenue mix?

For H2?

Yes.

Well, for H2, we have more favorable comps that favor an acceleration.

And would you have any sense, any color to give us on -- in this type of environment, how have Q1 deal win rate trended versus Q4? And do you note anything starting in April as it won't be reflected in Q1?

No. As we stated, we really have -- continue to have a very, very strong pipeline, very dynamic. The need for the solution that we provide in some uncertain times of year more than ever. We help our customers to reposition themselves strategically to a changing world and the changing environment to take the right strategic decision to respond to some of those changes. So it continues to be very, very dynamic for us. Sometimes, there are a few delays that are coming from some announcements as people we position them to sales, but it is not the major impact for us.

Okay. So nothing to notice starting in April versus Q1 so far in the deal win rates, if I understood well?

Yes, that's correct. That's correct. As I said, a few days of delay as people struggle to understand some of how the situation was evolving. But at the end of the day, they get back to work and they need the right solution to reposition themselves strategically and we provide this solution.

[Operator Instructions]

Can you hear me?

Yes, please go ahead.

It's [indiscernible] Chang from Bank of America. If I think about the guidance you have for the full year, what assumptions do you have on the underlying macro assumptions on both the high end and the low end of your guidance on top line, what are your thoughts into it? Maybe on the high end, is it a more benign macro situation that you have in mind? Or just internally driven by kind of the pipeline conversion rate or just sales cycle, whether it's more elongated or shortened?

Yes. Absolutely. Well, if you look at the building block of our top line, a lot of this top line come from recurrence and with a net retention rate that we had, like the one from 2024, 121%, a very low churn rate that we have, 2.2% in 2024. Our top line growth takes the dip. Now you're right that the range that we have given is primarily driven essentially by new logos. And the changes come from the timing. A new logo sooner has a direct impact to this variation of the growth -- of the top line growth as opposed to a new logo later in the year, which is why we have such a wide range because that factored in some of the uncertainties that we see in the decision cycle, primarily for new logos, which is just a portion of our top line growth.

[Operator Instructions]

Yes, sorry, Pavan Daswani here from Citi. Just a quick one on some of the trends you're seeing by vertical potentially. You called out some macro elongation of sales cycles. Where are you kind of seeing that appear more than others? And last quarter, you called out defense as being a potential area of focus. Is there any upside that you started to see come through? I appreciate there's a bit of a time lag of when the sales cycles come through.

Yes. I wouldn't say specifically that there is an industry where we see the elongation more than. It's more like across the board, that we see the elongation of sales cycle. The need to justify spending is definitely here, but it's really across the board.

And on defense?

On defense, well, I mean, fairly defense is extremely active at the moment. We -- our pipeline -- commercial pipeline is very, very active, both new logos as well as existing clients that we have. We have several clients that operate in the defense industry. And they expand their usage of Planisware, clearly, their market is expanding. They need to deliver more projects, they need to deliver more projects faster, they need to position their sources on those projects properly. And there is a very large increase of Planisware usage there that translates to some good expansion for us in this industry.

[Operator Instructions]

It's [indiscernible] from Bank of America, again, assuming -- well, there's just one more question I want to squeeze in. Obviously, you talk about depending on the timing of winning new logos. But given the current elongated sales cycle and the current macro environment, are you doing anything different maybe to get the new logos either in the form of have -- landing a bit smaller and looking at expanding later or any other kind of different ways to go to market that you are looking at?

Yes, it has always been the case for us that we don't necessarily seek to land big from the get-go. Now don't get me wrong. If it is the case, we are pleased to see that. But it's true that once our customers start using Planisware, they clearly get the value. They clearly get the value. It's very sticky. So it's true that we start with some new logos, sometimes quite small, because we know that by providing the right solution by bringing to our customers, specialist approach that we have, we know how to solve the issue that they are currently facing. We know that this is expanding. And that's why the -- a lot of our top line growth comes from revenue expansion because we don't necessarily want to land big. So we definitely enter the customer this way. It's not necessarily something new to us. But clearly, it is the duration that it is taking.

[Operator Instructions] We appear to have no questions at this time. I'll hand back to management for closing.

Well, thank you very much for attending this call and for your attention. Please feel free to reach out to Benoit d'Amecourt if you have any additional questions, we'll be very happy to answer them. Thank you.

That does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.