Zaptec ASA (ZAP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] of Zaptec's financial results for the third quarter. My name is Kurt Ostrem, and I'm the CFO and also the acting CEO in Zaptec. Together with me today, I have Kristian Sæther, our Finance Director. I'm pleased to announce that the third quarter in 2023 was, once again, a record quarter for Zaptec with revenues of an incredible NOK 421 million. The order intake in the third quarter was also very strong, considering the weak electric car sales in our core markets in the same period. At the end of the third quarter, we have a solid order backlog of NOK 483 million for delivery in '23 and '24. As expected, the gross profit is increasing and stands at 41%, which is a solid 5% higher than the previous quarter. With record high turnover, increased gross profit and a strong cost focus, we delivered a record high EBITDA in the third quarter of NOK 53 million. The domestic market in Norway was very strong, but the export share was still strong at 65% in the third quarter. Next slide. The quarterly growth continues for the 6 quarters in a row with strong 86% growth compared to the third quarter in 2022. We achieved a new milestone for Zaptec this quarter with the year-to-date revenue of more than NOK 1 billion. The key to this strong growth has been a successful ramp-up of production at our production partners in both Norway and in Germany. We have a record strong order intake year-to-date in 2023 with over NOK 1.3 billion in the first 9 months. Very strong growth in the first and second quarter in the Nordics due to change in competition. The order intake in the third quarter shows that the trend of increased order intake continues with 37% growth compared to the third quarter last year. The growth in order intake is very strong, taking into account the weak development in electric car sales in our core markets. We see increasing in order intake from new markets, and we expect this to continue.

Thank you, Kurt. Moving to export. Export revenue increased 75% compared to the same quarter last year, but somewhat lower in share, we had significant domestic deliveries this quarter. Going forward the export, there is expected to continue to increase. On gross margin, we increased to 41% from 36% in the second quarter. It is due to reduced production costs on both our main products, Zaptec Pro and Zaptec Go. We expect to maintain a strong gross margin going forward. Moving to EBITDA. Strong production and deliveries, improved gross margin, high focus on cost controls enabled to make an advantage of scale. EBITDA landed at high levels of NOK 53 million versus NOK 15 million the same quarter last year. This is an increase of 253%. This is an achieved margin of 13% compared to 7% in the same quarter last year.

A new milestone was reached in the third quarter. When we started the production of Zaptec Go as planned at Sanmina in Germany. We now have production of both our products, Zaptec Pro and Zaptec Go at Westcontrol in Norway and at Sanmina in Germany. This reduced the risk and gives us flexibility to meet future change in demand. There was still strong growth in sales of electric cars in the EU in the third quarter. The growth was 36% compared with the third quarter last year. while sales of electric cars in Norway in the third quarter were reduced by 11% compared to last year. There was also a weak development in electric car sales in our core markets in the Nordics. And we are, therefore, very satisfied with continued growth in order intake compared to the third quarter of the last year. When we look forward, the lower electric car sales in our core market will probably have an impact on order intake in the short term. We will, therefore, reduce production to adapt to the market while we are maintaining our flexibility so that we can quickly ramp up production when the demand increases again. We have a strong cost focus and believe in continued strong gross profit. We will secure access to increase the overdraft facility to meet any increase in working capital in the short term. So we are well prepared for the future, thanks to adaptable production lines, cost control and access to additional financing if it is required. We expect that future sales growth will closely correlate to electric car sales growth both in our core markets and in new markets. The EU has committed itself to a zero emission target for cars by 2035. As of now, they are far behind. And strong incentives are likely to be needed to reach this target. This should provide strong electric car growth in the coming years and a large market potential for Zaptec. Sales of electric cars is a mega trend that is here to stay. We are positioned and well prepared for mass-market EV adoption from 2025 and onwards. So to summarize, we had an all-time high quarterly revenue and EBITDA in the third quarter. We have a significant order backlog at the end of the quarter. We will adapt the production levels to the current market, and we have strong cost control and access to additional financing if required. So we see that we are well positioned to capitalize on mass-market EV adoption in the years to come. So that was the presentation for the third quarter, and we will now open up for some questions. Kristian, I can't hear you. So maybe you should join me during the questions.

I noticed the pace positive trend in gross margin will persist to have a robust level. Does that mean you expect gross margin to increase further from the third quarter level of that -- or that you expect the gross margin to remain at current healthy level? We don't expect it to increase, but we expect to keep a strong margin above the current level. So we have now 41%. So if we achieve 40%, we are pleased with that. Can you share some light on your development in Germany, U.K. and France? Any other new countries you are optimistic about 2024? I have to explain that the market in Central Europe is quite special these days. The case was that especially in Germany, they have these incentives in 2021. And the production was ramped up with all suppliers and also the other distributors, the other large volume, and the incentives was taken away in 2022. And in the same period, the interest started to rise and the inflation was higher than they stopped -- they didn't stop there quickly enough. That's led to that all the distributors have a large inventory of charges, not from Zaptec, but for all suppliers. And that's the reason that the order intake all over Europe is slowing down. And we saw that from one of competitor in the Netherlands earlier this week that they have a very strong reducing in order intake. But we are in Germany. We have started sale of Zaptec Pro with MID certification. So we are picking slowly up there. We are working with the next step [indiscernible] for public charging that will be finished in 2024. In the U.K., we have done some organization change. We have a [indiscernible]. We are changing our focus with now more focus on the wholesalers and other distribution channel that we do in the rest of Europe. In France, I'm happy to say that we are -- have started production of the product, the French version of the Pro. We have delivered the first prototype for testing in France and we will get the latest approval in January and are ready for mass production in February. New countries, we see that the sales are really picking up in the Benelux. Order intake is the soft spot in the report. Could you comment on how order intake has developed in Q4 so far? As I mentioned, we see that the increase in interest and inflation have led to lower EV car sales in our core markets, and that will impact our order intake. That's the reason that we expect some impact from that, and we have therefore, taken action to both reduce production and also get financing to handle this working capital. What is your view on the credit risk from the large account receivables? Will you answer that?

Looking at the historical numbers and the customers we have, we see a very limited risk on the receivables at the moment.

When do you plan for inventories to start reducing to a normal level again? Well, that depends of the sales, of course, but we are reducing production. So -- during 2024, but I cannot be more exact about that due to now the sales, of course. How is the hand for new CEO going? That's a question you have to address through the Board of Zaptec. So I cannot give you any more detail about that. Any new major product launch planned in the near future? Yes, we are launching improvement and new feature all the time. The first step now in December is the OCPP on Box 11 on the Zaptec Go. And also the security reg for the Zaptec Pro for the U.K. market will be launched now in December. In the new year, as I told you, we launched the Pro in France and the big next project that will be finished during 2024. I cannot give you exact date, but we hope to have it ready after the summer is the MID certified home charger that will really open up the market in Central Europe.

So no further questions. Give it a couple of seconds more.

How is the competitive landscape? Any change lately? Not lately. As you all know, we have a big change in the competition in the Nordic in the first half of 2023. But since then, we don't see any big change, and we are taking market share in our core markets. When do you expect positive cash flow? Again, we have to look at the sales because even if we can ramp down or step down the production, it takes some time to step down. So we have to look how it developed. But all analysts agreed that at the end of '24 -- into 2024, we will see a huge uptake in EV sales in Europe. So we are very optimistic about the future. Have you talked about a certain exit of the former CEO. I think that has been informed during our press release and the situation about our former CEO. It was nothing about the company, it was more about his situation and private and a combination with the job in Zaptec. How do you see CapEx development this and coming quarters? Kristian?

We expect CapEx to be approximately the same level next year as this year. And I can take the next question as well. How do you see OpEx developing going forward? Looking at OpEx, we expect to maintain the same level. But of course, we can adjust this if order intake says we have to.

You have purchase obligation in the next 3 quarters of NOK 1.2 billion, which is a gross margin of 40% is equal to revenue of NOK 2 billion. This is a quarterly run rate of almost NOK 700 million doubled order intake in the third quarter. How will you balance the 2? Well, we are working with the reduction of production. So on the next quarter report, you will see that this obligation will be less. What is the forecast for the 2023 sales? We don't give forecast. So we will do our best to get the sales as high as possible. Okay. No more questions. We'll wait a minute and then we -- now that seems to be the last question. Thank you for listening into the third quarter presentation, and thank you for your support.

Thank you.