VNV Global AB (publ) (VNV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Vostok New Ventures Interim Report January to March 2020. Today, I am pleased to present Chief Executive Officer, Per Brilioth, and management. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you over to Per Brilioth. Please begin.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. On this call, we are -- I'm joined here with my colleagues, Nadja, who's our CFO; Anders, Head of Legal; and Bjorn, who is an investment manager here at Vostok. We have some more colleagues. But we are -- starting with this quarterly call, you won't only hear me blabber on here. There will be other people blabbering as well. But -- and this is -- we thought it would be good to get going with this, as of this call, because there are some important topics to cover beyond this quarterly report. So as for the agenda here, we're going to talk about this quarterly report, Nadja will help on the numbers, and then Bjorn is going to talk about the more -- give us a little bit more detail on the construction of the VNV. And then Anders here is going to talk about our move to Sweden. So that's the agenda. But starting off, as usual, with this sort of longer sort of historic sort of view of our performance over the years, we, obviously, go back all the way from 1997. 2007, we spun off the Gazprom shares, and this shows the performance in Swedish krona. So -- and since we sold our portfolio of listed shares in 2012, the IRR is now an annual 33%. But diving into the details of the -- of this quarterly report. It's, of course, COVID-19 is on everyone's mind. And I think we touched upon this in the annual report, and we've touched upon this, of course, in this report. And I'm not -- we're not going to go into the macro. I think there's maybe a little bit more visibility now than when we wrote the annual report a couple of weeks ago, which seems like a lifetime ago, but there's still a lot of uncertainties out there. What is certain is that the GDP is having a big contraction. And we -- on the whole, high level, I think we feel very strongly that our portfolio consists of companies that have products that will even benefit from the changes to society that we will, for sure, witness post this COVID-19 crisis. And -- but -- so it's -- so the work right now is super important that we see that these companies have enough runway to -- so that they and we, shareholders, in them, can enjoy that positive impact, which we feel very strongly will come. So the general sort of activity that's been going on is one of reviewing all costs and making sure that the cash balance at the company's balance sheet is long enough to, at least, live through the sort of maybe extreme volatility and extreme lack of visibility that we are subject to now in the midst of -- I mean, right now. Beyond that high level, it's -- well, it's a mixed bag, despite sort of the companies having a sort of having products that, I think, will benefit from changes to society. It's, of course, a mixed bag as this Page 5 tries to sort of highlight in the -- in our presentation. So I mean, the transportation companies are, obviously, seeing big sort of demand contraction, a little bit of various degrees. But -- and Babylon and its sort of -- and the other constituents of the portfolio that are health-related see demand level that's certainly unprecedented, and in many ways, maybe they see too much demand, right? They can't handle all the demand. And going a little bit further into detail, I mean, we feel, VOI, for example, is still active in Sweden. Sweden, as I think most people know now, is not under a forced lockdown, but under a voluntary lockdown. And as I think it's been clear for everyone here in Sweden, and also people sort of viewing it sort of with -- from various data sources abroad, despite Sweden being not under forced lockdown, it's still -- I mean, most people here have been sort of in voluntary lockdown, activity levels have been very, very low, although all the businesses, shops, et cetera, have been open. So VOI has been opened in Sweden, but in most of its other markets, importantly, Germany and France, which are under complete lockdown, are -- there's no -- I mean, there's no business going on. We feel though that when these markets start to ease their lockdown, and this will be gradual, I'm humble about that. But when they do, we feel strongly that the populations of cities will prefer to walk, to ride a bicycle or to ride an e-scooter, rather than spend time with incontrollable amount of people in a tube, metro or a bus. So we feel the VOI stands in that sort of very logical way to benefit from, and this will be witnessed in the recovery phase. We also feel that because it was so clear that this e-scooter phenomenon was so popular -- has been so popular and you can -- I think it's fair to describe it as it's become a part of city's infrastructure, transportation infrastructure. And that's also meant or led to that most cities, not all yet, but I think all, will issue licenses to 1 or 2 or 3 different operators, who will be able to run these sort of operations, these fleets of scooters in a city. And VOI has, of course, from the start, had that as an integral part of their strategy to only launch in cities with a very -- in cooperation -- if not on the license, in cooperation with the city municipalities. So I think it's the operator in Europe that has the most licenses currently, and it's very -- it's sort of built up to be successful in these license rounds. And so as we recover out of this COVID-19 crisis, I think -- and as lockdowns ease, I think both cities, councils and the populations in these cities will be eager to sort of provide these type of transports likely under licenses, and VOI will stand to benefit from that. I think also because this sort of demand contraction, it's also -- this crisis is an accelerator of the consolidation of the industry. I mean, we -- I've been here in Stockholm, we've had, I don't know, 10 different players. And there is, certainly, much less now. And I think that's a general sort of theme across Europe. And in fact, the 2 sort of heavy-hitting players in the world, 2 American companies, Bird and Lime, are not present anywhere in Europe, at this moment of time, perhaps not anywhere in the world. But -- and it's very unclear if people -- if operators, who are not present, will ever be able to come back and participate in these license rounds. So overall, on VOI, I mean, the market now is smaller than anticipated, but the market share the people who are still around, like VOI, is certainly higher. And I think also the market will become -- the market's demand for these services will become bigger and faster than we earlier anticipated. And then over to BlaBlaCar, where -- if VOI has some activity, BlaBlaCar, long distance in France, which is the big contributor to their revenues, although they're present in many, many countries, is basically -- there is very little activity going on. If any, people are at home, they're not traveling inside the cities or beyond the cities. So a big sort of air pocket of demand. But again, in the recovery phase here, instead of sort of going for a long weekend and visiting your parents or your kids and spending time on a bus or train with a large amount of people, who you don't know what they carry with them, I think people will prefer to sit in the controllable environment of a car, where you can, basically, make yourself sure of what risks you are subject to from the other passengers. So again, big demand contraction now. But because of the nature of the product, in the recovery phase, we feel enthusiastic about it. And then finally, as per this slide, if you go over to Babylon. I mean, I don't think -- I mean, there's an enormous increase in demand for health products, in general, I mean, be it physical or digital right now, as people worry about the symptoms of COVID and the physical sort of -- more traditional sort of health producers are super busy with handling COVID, so other type of diseases have been -- are left to be dealt with someone else -- by someone else. So this has, certainly, led to an increase in the demand for digital health services. And Babylon is, of course, the global leader in that one. And furthermore, I think the product that they provide, which has AI at its heart, is, of course, one that will benefit enormously also as we go forward in the recovery phase from this crisis. I think we try to compare it to something in our -- in the quarterly report and in our writeup there. But I sort of get a sense of that we'll ask ourselves in 1 year or 2 from now, like we'll be astonished that we went down to the physical sort of doctor or care provider without a digital sort of interaction in advance of that. I think that will be the same as that we were astonished that people allowed to smoke in restaurants before. I mean, that just doesn't happen anymore. And I think this will sort of be the same sort of natural starting point. But when you feel symptoms or whatever sickness, you will have an interaction with a digital sort of care provider first, and then that may lead on to something else. And then, of course, as we look across the world, and certainly here in Sweden, which where, I think, the penetration of digital health is perhaps the highest in the world, I mean, most of the producers of digital health services are simply video calls with a doctor, which is interesting. I mean, not interesting, but it's efficient. I mean, I can get home as a patient, the doctor can essentially be at home as well, but it doesn't really sort of leverage. There's still interaction between a patient and a doctor. Babylon with AI at its heart, where it's a computer that takes the symptoms and essentially makes diagnosis is, of course, one that can leverage the time of the doctor enormously. And as demand increases for this, that type of product will be crucial even. And hence, Babylon is seeing an enormous amounts in demand right now. And if you look across our portfolio, I mean, there's some obvious changes in our NAV, which, my collegue, Bjorn, will talk about later. But Babylon is in our NAV, which, overall, in dollar terms, is down some 6% has been marked up and -- by some 30%. Whereas the transportation stuff, even though we think positively, very positively about it long term, when you measure the value in the midst of this demand contraction, they are marked down, BlaBlaCar by 24% and VOI by some 16%. Before we go to more details around the numbers here, Nadja and Bjorn will help me with that, just some other general thoughts -- general sort points from the quarter at large. We have been active in investment work. We have put more money into SWVL, which, again, is a product. I mean, intercity, inside the city transportation in big emerging market cities is one that will be in even bigger demand beyond the sort of crisis that we're in now. We put $7 million into SWVL. Including an earlier convertible, we have, during the quarter, closed a total of $3.3 million into Housing Anywhere, which is the Airbnb for long-term rentals. And we have also concluded a deal, which we started earlier, but we're totaling $2.5 million of additional investment in Numan, a male health platform based in the U.K. And then I think we've also continued to try to provide sort of insights into the performance inside the quarter of as many companies as we can. If we start off with Babylon, they delivered just under 12,000 daily consultations during the first quarter of 2020, that's up 70% year-on-year. Be mindful, though, that this is -- January and February were pretty normal months, and maybe the bulk of March, too. So I think 70% is sort of a pre-COVID-19 kind of increase -- general increase as sort of digital disruption/penetration was at work in the health sector overall, as we -- and we see that accelerating. So when we talk next time and look at the Q2 report, I think that figure may be higher. Babylon also launched a specialized COVID-19 care assistance, and it's basically subject to an enormous amount of demand of states buyers and corporate buyers of its products. They closed longer contracts with Rwanda and the NHS in Wolverhampton, and there's many more to come. BlaBlaCar ended this first quarter with just over 90 -- in fact, 93.2 million members. We're happy to continue to sort of produce these numbers so that you can get a feel how these companies sort of fare. And also during the first quarter 2020, they clocked 18.3 million passengers, which is a 35% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Of course, April, basically being shut down, locked -- the major markets are under lockdown, that figure will increase, of course, during the quarter we're in now. I don't think that will come as a surprise to everyone, but business, going into the COVID-19 crisis, was strong. VOI, we've spoken about that they're delivering according to plan during first quarter. And then, COVID, of course, they've been forced to suspend services in many cities. Gett is delivering according to budget. And then COVID has had them also see demand contraction. But their B2B business, which is the business that they're pivoting to or focusing on now, is much less negatively affected than the sort of the B2C ride-hailing industry at large. So I think that concludes some general thoughts on the portfolio, and we will talk more about the NAV. But I just thought I'd also leave you with the aspects of -- I mean, we're not only moving on to Sweden, which Anders will talk about here later, but we're also changing our name. And having spent, I don't know, what is it, 20 years? So 20 years, yes, at the company. And calling ourselves or saying Vostok, you'll have to bear with me, I may say Vostok for quite some time. But subject to shareholder approval, at the 12 of May AGM, we will become VNV Global. And so when we talk next time around, this -- you're going to be talking to the same people, but it will be a Swedish company by the name of VNV Global. The shift to the abbreviation of Vostok New Ventures to VNV is something, I think, people are already starting to call us that. And I think it's a better reflection of what we do since we sold Avito. When we sold Avito, we had like 65%, 70% of the portfolio in Russia, now it's more like 5%, and the bulk of the investments are in the -- are in more globally focused companies than purely Russia-focused companies. So the Russian sound in Vostok has been dropped, benefit of VNV Global. And that will also mark sort of a more -- sort of permanent, maybe step into what we do today, which is still sort of seeking out business models -- companies with business models that can build very high barriers to entry through network effects, but also others. But we're flexible as to the stage, as to the sector, and we'll build on our experience and our track record of these past 20-plus years to seek out very good risk-reward investments to do. So I think we're going to do Q&A a little later. But with that, I leave it over to Nadja for a financial update.

Thank you. I will go through the financials. Our net asset value was USD 731 million or GBP 45 million compared to the year-end 2019, which responds to a 6% decrease. The portfolio value change is driven by negative effect of variation of mobility and travel-related companies, like BlaBlaCar, VOI and OneTwoTrip, which was partly offset by positive value change in health sector companies, Babylon and Vezeeta. The net result for the period was minus $45 million, which is mainly coming from devaluation of our portfolio. As regards to financial position, a February effect issue of Bond 2019/'22, in the amount of SEK 150 million was carried out. Including this Feb issue, as at the end of March, we hold cash and money market investment in the total amount of $38.5 million. During the first quarter, we invested $12.4 million in our existing portfolio of companies, of each biggest part, $7 million in SWVL and $3.3 million in Housing Anywhere. And Bjorn right now will tell us more about valuation of our portfolio of companies.

Thank you, Nadja.

Thank you. Yes. As Per mentioned on the beginning of the call, we have moved the vast majority of the portfolio to valuation models rather than keeping them on the last transactional market terms, given the high volatility and lower visibility situation at the moment, on the back of COVID-19, as per the end of the first quarter. Among the largest holdings, to give an example, both Babylon and VOI has market transactions that are less than 12 months old but are now as at the end of March valid on the back of valuation models. Overall, the fair value of the total investment portfolio is down some $48 million during the period. The largest contributors to the fair value movements in absolute terms on the downside for BlaBlaCar, minus $50 million; VOI, minus $16.5 million; and OneTwoTrip, minus $13.5 million. While on the upside, we have Babylon as the only significant contributor with an increase of value of $62.5 million. The remaining portfolio in aggregate is down some $30 million. In general, downward-adjusted valuations has been driven by lower trading multiples of listed peers as well as adjusted financial outlooks on the back of COVID-19. For Babylon, it's the opposite with higher peer multiples and increased demand for their services. Babylon, our 10% -- 10.8% ownership is now valued at $262.5 million, which is corresponding to a 31% increase compared to the end of 2019, now based on an EV revenue model compared to last transaction as for December 31, 2019. And noteworthy reference point for Babylon is that it's listed peer, maybe closely peer, Teladoc in the U.S. is up some 85% during the same period. Our 8.7% ownership in BlaBlaCar is valued at $159 million, which is down some 24%, on an EV revenue model -- compared to EV revenue model as for December 31, 2019. VOI, which we own 32.7% of, it's valued at $85.9 million, which is down some 16% from year-end, which was the last transaction, and now valued on -- based on EV revenue model. Similarly, OneTwoTrip, which is our Russian OTA, which operates in a sector that's probably most impacted directly by COVID-19, given that very global limitation on international and domestic air travel, which is down 47% based on an EV revenue model Here, currency depreciation of the ruble, following the low oil price, has also had a negative effect on the USD value. So this was the list of the main contributors on the upside and downside of the NAV during the first quarter. And I would encourage you to go through Note 3 in the first quarter report for more details on these evaluations and how they're built up and the sensitivity analysis around that. And with that, I'm handing over to Per again.

Briefly to me, and I'll -- thank you, Bjorn, for that. We can come back to more details, if there are any questions in the Q&A. But before that, I hand over to Anders, who will talk about us moving home to Sweden.

Thank you, Per. So in front of you, I think soon you will have a picture, which I hope you've seen before, which explains, I think, the main features of what I'm about to talk about. And this is a project that's been growing for some time, I think in the minds of management as well as the Board. The structure you see on the left, with the Bermuda parent company, that's issued depository receipts to Swedish on the Swedish Stock Exchange, is a legacy structure, which has been, I think, active for the last 20 years. Now the right-hand structure, what we've done is we've simply removed that top Bermuda parent with the Swedish company that we are all currently -- certainly, everyone around this desk is currently employed at. And so the management will be employed in the parent company, and the structure becomes that much simpler to manage. Simplicity of management is one key consideration, which is behind this. Also, there are cost-effectiveness benefits in the way we govern and run the group. So as some of you have noticed probably last night, we dropped quite a bomb of documents in your lap to make this happen. I think what I wanted to do is just in a few points describe what we're doing and what those documents mean. So the way to achieve the switch to a Swedish company is by way of a Bermuda scheme of arrangement. And if the notice and materials ahead of the meeting to decide on that arrangement that were announced yesterday, and we've managed to time it so that, that meeting can be held immediately after the AGM, even though, legally, it is a distinct meeting from the AGM. And so those of you who want to support us in making this move, we'll have to register not only to the AGM, but also to this scheme meeting, which will be held immediately awards, according to those separate documents that we released last night. The vote -- I mean, participation is important since it requires a 75% majority vote. All the comments we've received from shareholders we've spoken to so far have been positive, so we're optimistic. But we do encourage you to support us at that meeting. Because the outcome of the meeting will be binding on all shareholders, regardless of how or whether they vote if the requisite majority has achieved, maybe that goes without saying. The main result of the scheme is that the Swedish parent will be not holders of depository receipts, but in shares in the Swedish company. I think, in terms of governance and transparency, there are benefits to this. It will be more similar to other companies on NASDAQ, Stockholm certainly, but also, I think a lot of the regulatory and legal protections of shareholders in Sweden are probably more in line with what you would expect from public companies generally than the setup we have now, even though we've tried to emulate that as best we could. And the governments will be simplified, it will be more transparent. There is no tax effect to the group itself in this change, so effectively the group and the economic interest that you'll be holding will be undiluted and unaffected. Trading will -- we will set it up so that you will hold the SDR one evening; and the morning you wake up, you'll be holding the shares. So there shouldn't be an interruption in the way of trading. And there is, however, depending on where you live, who you are, how you're set up, there may be tax consequences for you as shareholders. So that's something that you -- we described at length in a document called, the explanatory statement to the scheme, which is -- which was distributed yesterday, and is available on the company's website as well. But obviously, that's -- as with these matters, always, it's your unique situation needs to be taken into the account. I'll just -- the next step in this progress is, obviously, the meeting on the 12th of May. After that, the Bermuda Supreme Court has to sanction the scheme, which is effectively confirmed that the meeting took place and was conducted in an orderly fashion. After that, there will need to be a listing prospectus filed with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in order for the Swedish shares to be admitted for trading. We have a tentative positive already decision from NASDAQ that those shares will be accepted, subject to that prospectus. And the whole procedure is expected to close in mid-June, if everything goes according to plan. So that's about what I wanted to talk about. Over to you, Per.

Okay. Thank you, Anders. And I think we'll move to Q&A now. If the operator could help us organize that. This would be great.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Lars-Ola Hellstrom from Pareto Securities.

Starting with the mobility segment and VOI, we have all been reading what is happening, and COVID-19 is making operating environment troublesome. But has there been any new licensing rounds? Is there anything that has been positive for the long term that has been happening underneath the main headlines in Q1 for VOI?

Not -- I think the city councils have been very busy with other things, right? So this -- to my knowledge, there's been no license round that have been announced and completed since we last spoke. The -- I think it's just the overall trend is, of course, positive scooter versus tube and all of that. I think the big one that's -- the big license around that we are -- that VOI is subject to is the one in Paris, which is, of course, a very big market. And there -- that's -- the deadline for that is over, so -- but the announcement of the winners will happen later on and because this COVID stuff has sort of postponed that. In addition to that, there is -- what do you say, there's an election for the Paris major that's interrupted this. So I think the results of that is only due out. It was supposed to be due out now in May, June. I think that's been postponed until about September. But the life -- but the round is very much happening, and we're a very enthusiastic bidder for such a license, of course.

And in terms of competition and funding, let's say that we get back to business in sometime second half of the year, how many competitors -- do you think half of the competitor will be -- have bankrupted or merged into some other entities before the turn of the year? I mean, it can be that easy for companies with low cash balance to raise money?

No. No, I think that's -- I mean, I don't think it's possible at all to enter this market at this stage and raise funding for a new player or even an old player within significant sort of market share. I think, the presence here in Stockholm is pretty telling probably for what I see the European landscape overall looking at is which is VOI, which is the largest in Europe, followed by Tier, which we see here in Stockholm, but which is a German player and very focused on Germany, and a good operator, but still smaller than VOI, and with good sort of shareholders and backers. And we also have Dott, which we don't see in many cities at all in Europe, but which is a company that's very focused on France and Paris, especially. They're big in Paris. And I'm sure they're a license bidder for the Paris licenses. They are backed by our friends at Naspers, so obviously, a good shareholder with deep pockets. So -- but not have taken very different route to the market. So I think it's really VOI or Tier that are the 2 main players in Europe. And at some point, I think, from my point of view, some kind of consolidation will be logical also at that level. The U.S. ones are in disarray, right? I mean, they -- one of them was sort of sidestepped about -- sidestepped by this crisis in their funding cycle, very large sort of cost bases and the other -- and the organization is in a bit of a disarray, and the same with their competitors in Bird. I also understand they've sort of basically pulled out from Europe. And from what I hear anecdotally, it's very -- in pulled out and also reduced the number of employees in a bit of a wild fashion basically. So yes. No, I think the European landscape is pretty much Tier and VOI, and doubtful about the American ones if they come back. And then there is some local competition like Dott in Paris.

But the American ones, I mean, they have really strong owners. I guess they will be able to raise funds again. But of course, they have a sizable operation in the U.S., which they need to take care of first. But shouldn't we expect them to be in Europe still?

Well, I think because this will be even important -- more important part of city infrastructure because of the demand structure for these type of services versus demand from being transported on the packed tube, then I think license rounds will be even more important. And I mean, cities will accept that this is here to stay, this is important. Our -- the people who live in the city, this is how they want to be transported. We will allow people to operate these fleets, of these scooters, but only on the licenses. And who do you give a license to? Do you give a license to someone who stayed and sort of was helpful to hospitals and local businesses who took care of their employees -- and help their employees who have to leave with new jobs? Or do you give it to someone who just left, fired everyone and never showed up during the war? I think it will be very tough for someone like that to come and get any licenses in the recovery phase, but we'll see.

Okay. Moving on to Babylon. We have also witnessed what is happening to Teladoc, et cetera. Can you give us some update? What has changed in the U.S. on the state level? Will it be possible to roll out the contracts in a faster pace than it has been? Before, there has to be some legal changes on state level that will be permanent? Or is there -- can you give us some flavor on that?

I think Babylon launched in the U.S. during this quarter, which we're now documenting, right? They launched with Centene in January. And that the -- I think the rollout -- United States of America is one country, but it's many different states, and these different states have different regulations and different sort of -- different aspects that you have to go through legally and perhaps also technically to launching them. So that's still a cumbersome process -- or cumbersome, it takes time. But, of course, given the state of this -- of the spread of this virus in the U.S., I think this is -- there's an unprecedented amount of resources being put to this area, and demand is certainly very, very high. So I think as someone put it here, and that you've had 10 years of change in 1 week basically in terms of digital sort of health producers. Trump has expanded telehealth benefits to Medicare beneficiaries, and of course, Centene is, I think, even the biggest producer of Medicare sort of services and Medicaid. And so the FCC has also developed and approved the $200 million program to fund telehealth services and devices for different sort of medical providers. So there's an enormous amount of activity. So I think demand for Babylon service is gone straight up. And I think there's a lot of resources being put to work also to help them get out there to potential patients quickly. Yes. And I mean, I think this is very -- Babylon is not listed, so it's difficult to see through, although it's, of course, about -- nearly 1/3 of our portfolio, so maybe we are the listed sort of exposure to Babylon. But Babylon in our portfolio is about $2.6 billion. Teladoc, their listed peer, as Bjorn put it, it's up some 3x over the last 3 months -- last 12 months. And I think it's even above $12 billion valuation now. So $2.6 billion, Babylon immensely more sophisticated product than Teladoc. It's a very interesting sort of valuation gap between the 2.

In terms of pipeline for Babylon, already, the last quarters, it has been a really strong pipeline. What -- is it factor 2 or factor 3 on potential customers -- clients reaching out for them are? How has that changed? And can you give us some flavor on the quality of the customers reaching out as well?

I mean, I think the quality of the customer is already present at Babylon. From the NHS, the largest sort of health producer, care producer in the world to Centene, the largest sort of U.S. Medicaid insurance company, to the Bill Gates Foundation, to Prudential. I mean, the quality can't get any higher. And I think it's difficult to say if it's 2x or 3x or 4x or 5x, it's something to that order. The number -- I think, it's fair to assume the number of sort of reach outs to -- for this type of product. So then it's still -- even with more resources, it's from initial sort of interaction to negotiated agreements to implement sort of a product it takes a little time. And during that time, there's some heavy lifting, right, at the company. But when the product is out there, it's a very sort of very large revenue, very high-margin kind of business. So -- but it's not that our sort of liberty to go into sort of the individual contracts, unfortunately, but there's lots of interests.

Okay. And Gett, can you give us some flavor on how the business-to-business, the SaaS business and rollout is progressing? I mean, the platform was rolled out in the end of last year. And -- so is business signing up to use it more widely?

Yes. I mean, I think in terms of the company sort of contracting the need for this type of SaaS business, that's still -- that activity is still going. And then, of course, in a similar fashion to VOI and BlaBlaCar, of course, activity also at the corporate level, we're all at home, right? Most corporates work from home and are unable to move around. So in terms of an activity level, we should also expect that to be -- to sort of be subject to the same sort of drop as the other mobility players, maybe for SWVL, which is still -- there's still a lot of activity. But in terms of the interest in the product, I think that's still -- that's unchanged, perhaps even stronger.

Okay. And in terms of capital needs for the holdings, is there -- can you give us some more flavor? What part of the portfolio, is it mostly related to mobility asset that possibly would need money, if any?

I think the big holdings are in a good spot in terms of cash and runway, so with no sort of immediate needs to do anything there, and certainly enough sort of runway to, at least, get to a space of more visibility. And we think more visibility is good visibility. I think that we believe these products will benefit from changes in society. There are some bits and pieces that we're still -- that we're in the sort of the funding cycle of needing funding now. And we have ability to support our pro-rata in those. But those are not really any of these sort of the larger parts of the portfolio. So good to know.

And a final question here on BlaBlaCar. I think you have -- BlaBlaCar has started very cautiously to monetize in Russia. How has that, the early signs been before COVID?

Yes. No, I think that's -- any country sort of the launch of monetization is a very, very gradual one. As per online classifieds as we know it, right, it takes -- it starts very, very small, and then it's very gradual, and so in this case, too. Of course, Russia is also subject to lockdowns now for extended holiday, as they say there. And so activity also there will be smaller. But of course, there, it doesn't mean a matter of consensus pre-revenue, essentially pre-revenue. Then, of course, it's not subject to any revenue loss either, so that sort of revenue scope is all for the upside. But -- and if anything, you don't start to monetize in the midst of a lockdown, so that one should sort of expect that to be something that happens in the recovery phase in all essence, at least.

Finally, on the mobility asset, would it be fair to assume that 2020 will be a lost year in terms of growth? And that we can see the growth in 2021, but with 2019 as the starting level? Would that be a safe assumption...

Yes. I don't think that's unfair, at least, right? That's very much, as Bjorn -- I mean so -- I mean, that's the way we look at it that 2020, last year, it's maybe hard to say because, of course, we had some serious growth and activity in the first part of the year. Now mobility-wise, demand has contracted. But then -- and I think easing of lockdowns will be gradual and visibility into the exact sort of -- when the recovery happens is tough to say. But it's -- during the latter part of this year, I think it's -- I think there'll be more activity than what we see now. I think that's not such a wild thing to say and assume, I believe. So I think it's maybe unfair to say, it's lost. But given that these products, we believe, will be in good demand, I think it's not unreasonable to assume that 2021 will assume the characteristics of 2020 than how we thought 2020 would look like when we were looking at it from the distance of the end of 2019, if you see what I mean. So the contraction, some companies will use some of their cash piles. But as the recovery starts in 2021, at least, the recovery will be present. I don't know if GDP per -- global GDP may not have recovered to 2019 -- the levels for 2019 and 2021, I think the contraction this year is larger than that, but that's sort of the aggregate GDP level if you look into the sort of specific sort of sectors, I think these companies very well could assume financial characteristics of 2020 -- what we thought was going to happen in 2020, but now in 2021.

A final, final question here. Given that the market is a lot tougher, now the valuation is coming down in this market, some assets that you might have been considering to sell is probably not likely to be sold at the valuation you wanted. So how do you view new investments? Should the portfolio activity be pretty low in coming quarters that just will have enough funds to be able to support the existing holdings? Or can it even be a new investment as well?

No. We continuously look at new investments. I mean, hand on the heart, we're not seeing anything that's coming our way at sort of the kind of maybe even distressed levels that you sort of be willing to put money at work. So it's not like there's some huge activity, I think right now. But we continue to look at sort of young companies, and should there be opportunities in more mature companies as well. So we're active, absolutely.

But if there is absolutely a level of cash you wanted to still hold?

Sure. We have -- we hold -- since we don't have any large dividend-paying sort of parts of the portfolio like we did within Avito in the latter years, we don't -- we hold certain OpEx levels, a certain number of -- certain periods of OpEx level we'll hold and reserve. And so yes, it's -- but still we have capacity to sort of fund the companies in our portfolio that needs funding in the shorter-term now. And we're also -- we're always actively looking at investments that we think are in the interest of our shareholders to do. But despite sort of the world being very volatile now, especially the -- and that's sort of reflected in the listed parts of the capital markets, I think the private markets are -- or our part of the capital markets have not been subject to lots and lots of supply of people looking to fund themselves, not yet at least.

[Operator Instructions] And there seems to be no further questions at this point. So I will hand the word back to our speaker for any final comments. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for listening in. Please reach out if there's anything you'd like to -- that you want to talk to us about, and we will interact with you as we go along here. I mean, the next call of this nature, which I'll conduct, together with my colleagues, will be sometime in mid-August with our Q2 report. So if not before, then until then. Nadja says it's July. Yes, it's a little earlier this year. Everything is little early this year. So July, mid of summer, 29th of July, that's when we speak next. Okay. Thank you, everybody.

This now concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for attending, and you may now disconnect your lines.