Shape Robotics A/S (SHAPE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

So good afternoon, again. Thank you for joining us in this Q&A session discussing about the first quarter of Shape Robotics and achievements in the first quarter. Again, thanks for the questions that were sent by our esteemed shareholders. I will start going through the questions that have registered before the live event. And then we would look to the live questions in the comments. So first of all, we have announced the new financing agreement with UniCredit, and I hope that everybody has had the chance to read the announcement. This is an important milestone for us, a very proud moment because it's a continuation of our efforts started late last year. This extension of the financial support from UniCredit basically is a confirmation of the commitment they have towards us. And it's also a confirmation of our activities and our expanding contract base.

The first question that we got was what does the new financing agreement entail? Just better overdraft terms or more substantial support? We have received a EUR 7.5 million in revolving credit facility. This is secured through a strategic partnership with [indiscernible] which is basically the European Investment Fund that is a co-guarantor for the whole facility. It's not a simple refinancing, so it's an extension of the existing contract. It gives us the flexibility to finance our growth. And also, it has a very strong layer of support for the next 2, 3 years in the sense of revenue and, of course, payment terms contribution. Given both the realities of our business model in which the public sector is our main customer, which, of course, everybody knows that this is entailing very long payment terms, this is extremely important to have in our arsenal to have this kind of facilities available and ready to use from our esteemed banking partner, UniCredit. Let's see if we have any other questions that came live. Till now, I don't see anything. I will ask my colleagues also to monitor this and give me the questions should they arise. Now let's continue with some of the questions that we received in off. More clarity or reassurance about customer intake and financing. We have repeated ourselves and hopefully, we'll get to a point that this becomes a little bit more clearer. For us, it's also sometimes getting difficult taking consideration the political environment where we operate currently. We are a company that follows business to governmental funding, especially the Recovery and Resilience funding and the European funding. Therefore, the customer financing that you see and the way we have -- we are proceeding with that is strictly linked to the payment cycles that are surrounding large projects financed by European Commission or similar European investment solutions. Therefore, the long payment cycles are a normal situation for our business. It's not something that we should consider extraordinary for a territory like Romania or Slovakia or Poland or however, it's the same situation everywhere. It will apply to Denmark, it will apply to any other European country out of the 27 European countries because this is a process that is centralized and follow certain rules and let's say, procedures in the end for the tender process and for the delivery of goods. That's why the next question kind of comes naturally and says that is Shape Robotics acting like a bank to its customer? Of course, financing our customers and financing our deliveries is part of day-to-day operations for every company that operates in a similar sector like ours. And by the fact that we are growing in a rapid pace, of course, the need to finance this growth is very linked to the working capital generated by the implementation of the projects. One question was that if we reduce the dependency from EU funding, we can expect better, let's say, financial terms from partners from Vietnam, Southeast Asia or the Middle East. For sure, we can look at other payment conditions with our partners in these territories because one thing that we have to take in consideration is the fact that EU funding is a very reliable source of funding with high, let's say, quality, high rating. When we are talking about Southeast Asia or Middle East, the usual way to operate there is to try to obtain some sort of insurance on some sort of risk mitigation solution for the payment terms. And at the beginning, we'll start for sure with prepayments. It is up to the financing line to see what is exactly the solution for those customers and how big is the project in which we are involved. But keep connected, and we will let you know at that point. Of course, for us, these are very important territories to expand into because our products are extremely compatible to the needs of those territories. Going forward, again, questions regarding the trade receivables, which I believe that is one of the more important aspects, let's say, have generating some back and forward in the investor community. This is something that, in the end, it's improving day to day, as you have seen in the last 12 months discussing about trade receivables and discussing about our financial health in generally. We are doing the right approach to mitigate and derisk the company when it comes to cash flow management. And for that reason, debt financing is critical for us and by the fact that we have received the support of -- the continued support of UniCredit today, we are much more safe or safer, let's say, if you can use that word when it comes to any kind of financial risk. Now question was regarding the mortgaging invoices, if it's sustainable, so basically the factoring activities. Yes, it is very sustainable if the quality of the debtor is high. So that means that like I explained in earlier part of the comment, when looking at EU funding, we have a very strong source of financing. So that means that the rating of EU funds is very high. So every bank will finance that at a very low cost and with very high -- or low franchise, let's say. So this is a sustainable way to improve our cash flow, and we hope to increase that and to have even more options going forward in the Polish market. Many questions have been surrounding elections and political turmoil in Romania and Poland. Poland is not yet solved. Romania is a pro-EU presidency. Everything is falling into the right place. I would believe that without commenting too much on politics as this is not our job here. We are just happy that the news that came from the EU based on our presidency. Presidential elections are very favorable for extending the recovery and resilience plan, and I'm happy to make you aware that we have extended the period of the recovery and resilience plan with another 18 months. So this is public information, publicly available information on the EU website. So this will further increase potential business opportunities in the sector for the next years. Questions were related by the fact -- another question was related by the possible expansion as we have announced in some situations, contract in the U.S. market. And of course, why there is no expansion, U.S. expansion yet, I think that the answer has come quite naturally taking into consideration the tariff situation. We are currently very careful when discussing about U.S. markets. We just need to make sure that we are on the right track when it comes to production and manufacturing there. We have alliances with TD Synnex, as you are aware, with Lenovo. So products from our portfolio reached the U.S. It's just important to understand exactly how this tariff war will end and where we will be positioning ourselves. Of course, questions again about the share price. I highly avoid discussing the share price. What I can say is that from the last Q&A until now, we have quite an interesting rally up. So hopefully, this gives a little bit more trust into the company. Why hold the Q&A on a Danish public holiday? This was the schedule that we always had. It's important that everybody receives the same level of information no matter where they are located. So hopefully, you will have time after you come from vacation to see this recorded and to answer -- hopefully, I will answer all of the questions even after. Why not raise guidance after such a strong Q1? I believe that the strong Q1 only emphasizes that the guidance was well selected. So right now, I would prefer not to comment on that. And I would just try to do what we do till now and the results will speak for themselves. This is till now what we have received in off. Let's see if we have any other questions that we received in the live section? I don't see anything on my tablet. My colleagues see anything? Don't you see anything? So in conclusion, I think that we'll call it a day, and I will leave my Danish colleagues to relax for the day off. And hope to see you soon. Thank you again for taking the time to follow our Q&A session. Thank you for your support as shareholders, as partners, as advisers in many situations and keep in touch. Thank you for everything again. Bye.