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spk12: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. All participants are present in listen-only mode. Welcome to today's conference call to discuss Nano Dimensions 2022 first quarter results. On the call with us today are Yoav Stern, CEO, and Yael Sandler, CFO. Before we begin, may I remind our listeners that certain information provided on this call may contain forward-looking statements, and the safe harbor statement outlined in today's earnings press release also pertains to this call. If you have not received a copy of the press release, please view it in the investor relations section of the company's website. Yoav will begin the call with a business update, followed by a question and answer session, at which time Yael will answer questions regarding the first quarter 2022 financial results. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded May 31st, 2022. I would now like to hand the call to Mr. Yoav Stern. Mr. Stern, would you like to begin?
spk11: Sure. Thank you very much. I will change a little bit the order. I will speak about business and some numbers and then Yael will give a little bit of an input as well from her point of view about the numbers. And then we'll open it to Q&A and both of us will answer accordingly. So we're completing a successful quarter. The numbers speak for themselves. We have about $10.5 million, $10.4 million revenue. And We have, if you look at the, more importantly, the revenue of the last quarter was 7 and change, I think 7.6, 7.5. And obviously the revenue of the same quarter a year ago was dramatically lower. So if you just look at the last two quarters and multiply it by two, the run rate, you'll find out where are we in this year, and we may even be higher. considering the fact that first quarter traditionally is a less strong quarter in any year, even though with the situation specifically in Europe, there's a little bit of unknowns. And we see this in our European revenue. If not that, our revenue would be higher than the 10.4. So that's good news. I gave you some information We gave you some information that's beyond just the revenue, of course. We start by gross margin with the 37%. I invited you to read the CEO method, which I wrote in detail what it's consisting of. And it's important to note that because it actually consists of the typical or different assortment of businesses and technologies we have, the more advanced, And disruptive technology, which is in electronics, is above 60% gross margin, which is great. And that's before doing value engineering to the machines and reducing the cost, which we originally tested, considered doing it a year and a half ago in China and increased our gross margin by almost 20%. Obviously, we didn't do it luckily, but we can do it in the future and not only in China. So that's on the 60% side. And then we have other assortment that spread between 35% to 50%. And interestingly enough, the portions that are 35% to 50% deliver beautiful dollars to the bottom line. So it's a combination by now. It's much more a balanced business as it was a year and a half ago. And it's slowly maturing into a growth business. As we grow and the product assortment and the sales will change, so will our gross margin accordingly. And that's the reason why I also gave you EBITDA numbers with a net of certain depreciation of shared based payment, which is another call it data point that will indicate to you, how do we manage a profitability and how do we intend to take dollars to the bottom line? And in this case, it's important also to look at the cash side as well. And also taking into consideration that the share-based payment and depreciation and amortization is not necessarily a steady expense forever. As we do acquisitions, there's a bit more of that. And eventually, if we don't and we stop, we will be less than those that goes down. And the last input, so EBITDA is 19.2 net of the non-cash expenses. The other data point I gave is How much EBITDA without R&D? Because R&D is a major, major investment. And mostly, not only, but mostly in additive manufacturing electronics, which is also delivering high growth margin, which is good. Without that, we would be already minus 7.5 million EBITDA. And if we look a little bit further ahead with growth, this will turn into profit. it ain't going to happen. And we really have to look at our business as two arms. One arm is the most disruptive innovation technology, which we intend to invest in R&D and continue to invest in this way. And the other part of the business, which we invest in R&D, but a bit less in ratio to revenue, and it's growth with profitability. Where we aim is for this to merge And I wrote in the CEO message what we expect in how long a time. And obviously to merge and eventually deliver dollars to the EBITDA level and to the profit level. So we are in a very good position. Another positive development for us, unfortunately for others, is that the prices in the market are going down. It's all led by the public markets. It's always starting to affect the private markets. And the amount of carefulness within which we manage the cash over the last year and a half in spite of pressure to spend and buy and buy bigger companies and why aren't we doing it? Our cash now is worth much more than $1.3 million in a way of saying because what we can buy with it is changing slowly to be dramatically more. And by now we did so many searches and discussions and valuations that we know what we're looking for and at what values we're ready to buy them. So we are hoping there'll be a continuous trend in this direction and it will enable us to buy within reasonable price. And just to remind you, The last two acquisitions which we bought, which was not the technologies we bought earlier in 2021, we bought at around between less than one times revenue to a little bit more than one time revenue. And both companies were profitable. One of them was 10% EBITDA, the other one close to that. So we did pay the right price, otherwise we wouldn't have bought them. And of course, there's technology synergies and business synergies with that. So that's on the acquisition side. Of course, the market going down affects our share as well. But since we don't intend to raise more money and we don't need to raise more money, then it is an effect that is more a psychological effect, obviously, on all of us, including myself as a shareholder, which just recently bought an open market, and you. But we're not going to use this share price as we raise more money. we're just going to do the right thing on the business side. And we actually also in a process in court to get approval for shares buyback program, which we intend to implement as approved by the board. And I announced about it. So that's in order to affect the share, our share price, because we realized that by now people are buying with one share, they're buying $3 of cash or almost that. just by buying the share for $3, which is pretty attractive, actually. So that's what I have to tell you. And as usual, I prefer, of course, to answer your questions because you direct me toward things that are more interesting for you. But before, I want to say a few words.
spk06: Thank you, Yav. So I would really like to just point out a few items in our financials. We continue to have a strong balance sheet with cash and deposits balance of $1.3 billion. And as Yav mentioned, if you look at our profit and loss statement, you will really see that the expenses include a lot of depreciation and amortization as well as share-based payment expenses. This is why this quarter we added the EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA calculation and reconciliation with all the details, which you can see towards the end of the press release. So we basically adjusted almost $14 million of non-cash expenses, and this is how we arrived to the adjusted EBITDA of $19.2 million. Minus $19.2 million. Yes, loss. We also added in this quarter the report on cash flow. We, until today, didn't publish the statement of cash flow on a quarterly basis. So from this quarter going forward, we will add it on a quarterly basis as well. So you will see how we use the cash. So if you look at it, the net cash used in operations is minus $21.4 million. And you can also see in the net cash use and investing activity, the acquisitions that we did in the first quarter. And if you have any questions regarding the financial, I will be happy to answer them.
spk11: Okay. Before we open up to a question and answer, thank you, Yael, for reminding me. I just remind you one thing. Many investors ask me what is our cash burn rate. obviously wanting to know when and if we'll be under pressure of cash. Most of the numbers I gave them was based on a bad budget and plan, and I'm detailing it in my message to the shareholders. It was planned to be $110 to $120 million this year. We had the rate of around 80. Our cash burn is around 20, $21 million per quarter. Does it make me happy? Well, it's a nice feeling to burn less cash and to squeeze down on expenses in spite of supposedly being with a lot of cash in the balance sheet. But actually, I would have been happier if I could spend more mostly on hiring engineers on data science and software and also salespeople mostly in North America. which are very difficult to hire because of the prices going up, high employment rates. And frankly, in Israel, the millennial generation and Z generation are living with different life principles in so much as career. So somebody wants to tell me there's no more career in high tech. There's only what do they offer you today? And if tomorrow they offer something else, then you go. So we have some difficulties. but we insist on not compromising on quality, which means we will hire slower, but only high quality people because we believe at the end of the day, even if we are a bit late in hiring, the quality people that are in will close the gap in the development by being talented and team players and long-term team players. So that's as much as the cash burn rate, which is, if you multiply this quarter, it's $80 million a year. I'll stop now and refer to you, operator, please, for questions and answers.
spk12: Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star 1. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you are using speaker equipment, kindly lift the handset before pressing the numbers. Your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Please stand by while we pull for your questions. I repeat, if you have a question, please press star 1. The first question is from William Riechkamp of Intrinsic Edge. Please go ahead.
spk11: Hello?
spk12: William?
spk11: Nobody's there, operator.
spk12: The next question is from James Strillheim. Please go ahead. Hello? I'm here.
spk04: Hello?
spk11: Yes, who is this, please?
spk04: This is James Strillheim. I'm a shareholder. In light of the... problems of hiring qualified engineers and scientists that you mentioned in the press release. I was wondering, is the release later this year of the Deep Dragonfly with the deep learning incorporated in it and the 2023 release of the next gen machine still look realistic?
spk11: We didn't change our release dates. Plus, the Dragonfly 4 never was intended to have artificial intelligence and DeepCube. It's the next generation product that will have it, and right now it's on time.
spk04: Oh, okay. So there's nothing scheduled for a release in 2022?
spk11: No. There will be releases of Dragonfly 4 versions, but the next product is early 2023. Okay.
spk04: Oh, all right. And the other question I had, several phone calls ago, you mentioned some purchasers of the Dragonfly were using it to do small batch production runs. I was wondering, in light of the turmoil in Asia, the likelihood of electronic components being cut off and the prices skyrocketing, Do you think any manufacturers would look at buying several of your machines?
spk11: The skyrocketing is, because of the turmoil you are right about, is of semiconductors and chips mostly, not of other products. And we do not manufacture and we do not prototype and we do not print semiconductors. We print electronic devices that start from the silicon up outwards, which means... packaging and especially specialized three-dimensional treatment circuit boards. So we are not in the business of manufacturing semiconductors.
spk04: Okay, I see.
spk12: Thank you.
spk11: Thank you.
spk12: The next question is from Yoram Perlman. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hello, good morning or good afternoon. I'm concerned about DeepCube and I was I would like to know if you have any other customers except Nano Dimension.
spk11: No, it never meant to have. We bought the company just for the technology, not to use the product to sell to other people.
spk03: Don't you think you're missing an opportunity?
spk11: Never intended to. We were going to use their product in all our machines and in all the machines in the companies that we're purchasing to improve the machines.
spk12: Okay. Thank you.
spk11: Thank you.
spk12: The next question is from James Vistat. Please go ahead.
spk01: You indicated that you're going to repurchase $100 million of shares. Have a number of these shares been purchased yet?
spk11: First of all, I didn't indicate that we'll purchase $100 million. I indicated that we're going to implement the program to purchase up to $100 million and within the next year. And the answer is no. The purchase plan was not approved yet. According to Israeli corporate law, it has to be approved by court. The application to the court was filed. It's more of a formal process where the court is in charge of making sure that the company is not buying its shares where it doesn't have enough resources to withstand its other obligations to its suppliers, et cetera, et cetera. In our case, of course, it's obviously not an issue. We have enough cash and very small amount of liabilities. So once the court will approve it, the program will be in place and then we will decide when and what to buy.
spk12: Thank you. The next question is from Byron Mio of 1031 Private Exchange Group. Please go ahead.
spk08: Hi. Thank you. It seems like, you know, the forecast calls for maybe a further potential slowdown. And with the inflation in Europe or Ukraine, the problem with Ukraine is it's causing a sort of worldwide inflation. And I'm kind of wondering... on the cycles of how your product works, it seems like the demand will be there, the questions will get pushed out, and how this affects your business. Will there be more of delay in purchasing, or are people going to continue their spending path regardless? Can you kind of give me an idea of demand?
spk11: Yeah, in the area of... Printing machines, electronic additive manufacturing printing, the Dragon 5-4, we don't see any slowdown. Actually, our revenue there is growing compared to last year by order of magnitude almost, at least in the pace of growing. And we see the growth more in the United States, mind you, than in Europe. But on this area, I cannot tell you if it's because of what's happening in Ukraine. From the other side, part of that we are selling very, very sophisticated mounting machines of surface mounting technology for assembly of PCBs. There's a very, very clear slowdown, especially in the companies in Eastern Europe. It comes from two main reasons, which are pretty obvious. One, the slowdown in supply chain of semiconductors, which is the material that's being used for the assembly. And if they can't get the raw material for assembly, the semiconductors, then they're holding back buying the assembly machines which we have it's a hold back i don't think it's that i'm going to buy it that's just going to postpone it until they have to secondly the events in ukraine obviously put the european under anything between stress and mild heart attack and we see in the side of poland and ukraine obviously and all the eastern europe countries basically held back and revenue went to zero with customers that are there. And on the Western side, companies are realizing they're now going to divert a lot of activities to the defense community locally because the defense budgets are growing. And while all this is happening, it's kind of a slowdown because what I believe will be an acceleration because they have to approve the budget, the government has to go through the process, So everybody is waiting for the first budget. So there's a little bit of slowdown on Western Europe, but not dramatic. In other aspects of the rest of our business, we don't see a slowdown, and definitely not in the United States.
spk08: Okay. Then the second part I have is just the overall commentary, and that is I think if we can use this downturn and – worldwide sort of slowdown to look for and to intensify your efforts to buy companies that are near give up or have to, that sort of flow in your policy, in your guidelines of what will enhance your business and revenue flow. This seems to be a major opportunity that can turn a negative into a positive over the three or five years.
spk11: You're absolutely right. Totally right. And we're expanding as we speak our effort in this field. We're going back to companies that were too expensive before we're coming, we're going to companies that we see that became less expensive, some of them private, private, some of them public, and you're totally right.
spk08: Thank you.
spk11: Thank you.
spk12: The next question is from Peter Jones of ARPC. Please go ahead.
spk01: Peter?
spk11: Oh, it has appeared.
spk12: If there are any additional questions, please press star 1. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. Please stand by while we poll for more questions. The next question is from Peter Jones of ARPC. Please go ahead.
spk09: Good morning. Sorry about that. a big thing that is on a lot of people's minds is you raised $250 million at $9.50 and $500 million at $12.80. So investors like me are down 80% right now. And I know that's, look, the macro situation, that's not all on you. But also, we were given, you know... the impression that you were going to use that capital and not be a year and a half later sitting on it where we were going to be buying companies and generating $100 and $250 million in revenue. So now our concern is how we're going to even get our money back and break even. You know, we're down so much. So, you know, is selling a company $10 per share on the table? Is merging with a big company who can actually take the technology to the next level or even taking the company private? I mean, everyone is down huge in this, and this is the elephant in the room.
spk11: So what is your question?
spk09: Please ask me a question. How do we get back to where we were? We're way too undervalued, way too undervalued. It's kind of embarrassing right now.
spk11: I'm not going to relate to your embarrassments. But do you want me to relate to your question?
spk09: Yes, sir.
spk11: Okay.
spk09: You're the leader. So lead us. We want our money back. Be the leader and let's go.
spk11: I'm not in the business of giving you money back. I'm in the business of increasing the value of the company, which will cause the share.
spk09: Excuse me.
spk11: You want me to answer or you want to give an election? Yes. Okay. I'm answering now. I'm not in the business of giving you the money back. and the business will be increasing the value of the company, causing, as a result, the share to go up. And as the share goes up, you will either buy more or sell or do whatever you like. That's up to you. Point number one. Point number two, and I'm focusing on doing that. Point number two, I invested where you invested, and I'm in down as well, so I'm on your side. I'm a shareholder. Point number three, you are very lucky as a shareholder that I did not spend your money over the last year and a half. When companies like desktop metal as an example and three, four other companies in this field, we traded three companies for $10 billion together, the three of them together traded at 1.3. So if I would have done any transaction in this field in the last year and a half, you would be now not in a share that's $3 when there's a cash under it of $5.50. You'll be at the share of $3 when the cash under it will be half, $1.50. So you should be very grateful that I did not spend the money and I'm ready to spend it now, subject to the prices continuing to be down and being attractive and enabling to create return on investment. Because the only thing that will cause the share to go up is... Buying the company, increasing value, delivering dollars to the bottom line, and hence the multiple takes it up to the dollar value of the share and the value goes up. The last thing, you ask two questions and the two answers to the two questions are no and no.
spk09: Okay, look. If the technology is so great, why can't you sell machines? Why isn't GE or someone else doing a hostile takeover to take over this company with $1.3 billion in cash and with this technology?
spk11: You're asking me a question now or you're having a comment?
spk09: Yeah.
spk11: Okay, I want you to answer. Okay, so I cannot answer you in the name of GE, but I can tell you that in the last 2020, we sold $4 million of machines. And in this year, we're at the rate of 40. Do you have any complaint about that?
spk09: Do you remember when the stock was $12, you said three times return at $12?
spk11: Do you remember when the stock was $9.50, you said downside protection? I'm answering one question at a time. You asked me why wouldn't GE buy the company. I said you should speak with GE. You asked me why are we not selling more machines. You're totally wrong. I spoke about it earlier today. We sell a lot more machines. And the numbers, please look at the release, is $10.5 million a quarter. Four quarters ago, it was $2 million a quarter. So please update yourself with the numbers and the answer. We are selling more machines.
spk09: Okay. Where's the results with L3 Harris? It's been over a year and a half.
spk11: We don't disclose things that we're under NDA with. Okay.
spk09: Okay. All right. Just know that there's a lot of frustration out there. We gave you a lot of money and everyone is down huge.
spk11: You didn't give me any money.
spk09: Shareholders gave you $1.5 billion.
spk11: I don't want to hear about you giving me money. You want to meet in downtown New York and give me money? We can set a time. You didn't give me any money. You invested in the company.
spk09: Yeah, and we lost 80% of our money, and we're praying to get our money back.
spk11: Did you sell your shares?
spk09: No, but how many years is it going to take? Just a minute.
spk11: Did you sell your shares? No. So you didn't lose. No. So you didn't lose. Okay. Okay, all right. When you sell, you will lose, and I suggest to you not to sell and to buy because the way we're going, if you listen to the data, is brightfully forward and upwards.
spk09: Okay. Well, hopefully a year from now, it'll get back to 10 so we can get even from the $1.5 billion in cash that you raised.
spk11: I'm sure you will not call me again, I'm sure. Okay.
spk09: All right. Thank you. Bye.
spk12: The next question is from Bob Belner. Please go ahead.
spk07: Yes, sir. This is Bob Downer. I'm just an individual investor, been an investor for two or three years. I have one question for you, the CEO. Do you have any connections as a company with China or Russia? No. Thank you, sir. That's all I need to know. Thank you very much.
spk12: The next question is from Andrew Kegel. Please go ahead.
spk05: Yeah, my question was about the hiring of engineers. Is one of the things that you guys look to when you're looking at acquiring a company, so like basically being able to poach a bunch of engineers from them?
spk11: Is it... Absolutely, yes. Absolutely, yes. This is one of the key... Thank you for asking the question. This is one of the key... call it items in due diligence. And I can tell you that the first two companies that we acquired originally, DeepCube and Fabrica, was mainly because of this factor, because I was going to start an artificial intelligence and deep learning group within the company. I am very familiar with the subject because I've been doing this before. I also have a degree in mathematics and computer science. And I found out after I tried that there's five, six groups like this that are leading around the world and there's no way I can put together a group and DeepCube was one of them. Fabrica in a very similar way in a different field. So you're absolutely right and the answer is yes. And I can tell you that if we will complete other transactions we're working right now, it will also be mainly not only because of the business, the product, but because of the personnel. All the personnel of the companies we acquired until now have joined our company. All of them, bar none, maybe we had one or two left out of 200, close to 200. Maybe we had one or two left. I wouldn't remember. Probably not, but maximum one or two. All of them are with us. All of them are shareholders. All of them get not a huge amount of money, of shares, but shares. And... And you pointed a very important aspect of the acquisitions.
spk05: Excellent. I wanted to make sure we're on the same page on that. Absolutely. I'm a shareholder as well, and I have a completely opposite perspective of what you're doing. When a company goes parabolic, that's when the company's president, like you, is supposed to raise the money. It's not your job to protect the investors. Your job is to grow the company, and I appreciate that. that she got out at the top, basically, and now you're buying low. That's all we can ask for as investors. Thank you.
spk11: Thank you so much. I just want to add one more thing for the previous question about connection with China and Russia. The answer is no, but we did sell machines to a couple of universities, if I remember right, in China a while ago, maybe one machine in Russia, but... a while ago, but I can tell you that since the Ukraine, it was very small, again, selling to distributors and not even directly, just selling machines. And once the Ukraine war started, based on not having to do it legally, but my own decision, I said to all our divisions to stop doing business with Russia. And to the point that we had customers there that needed support. And the customers are not at fault. But I refuse to be paid for that. So a couple of customers that the one or two machines we gave them support without being paid, I don't want to be doing business until this thing is resolved. There. So that's what the question before I'm sorry. Next question, please.
spk12: There's a follow up question from their meal, please go ahead.
spk08: Yeah, considering the couple of questions ago, most of the stocks in the microcap world are down 70%, 80%, 90%. And you can't operate even thinking like that. You need to have cash because you have to brace yourself. If this becomes a severe economic downturn, you might even have to slow down the R&D expansion until we can kind of see the other side. But you're going to have to brace for a battle for the long term. But if you've got an area that has huge growth potential, and like I said, you can inquire companies that are bailing out, that's where the upside is going to be, and it's going to take time. Desktop Metal had to go back to the market and raise $150 million, dilute their stock tremendously at $2, $3, whatever, when it's down 90%. And you're not in that position. And so... I think you really have to stick to your gun and be real insistent and be careful not to burn too much, but to enhance the revenue growth enough to where you get the economies of scale.
spk11: I agree, and thank you for the support. When I noticed, by the way, that we spent just less cash than we intended to from one side, I said, hey, we're going to be late on certain things. But from the other side, it hits straight in this quarter, and I said, you know what? Better be slow and, you know, while we have 12 years if we want to or more, spend at least $80 million a year. I don't intend to do it. The idea is to increase the revenue and to deliver dollars to the bottom line. And bottom line is positive cash flow. I once had business with a very, very famous venture capitalist in New York. I don't want to say his name. By now he's 85. That's my early days. I went into his offices. And on his couch was a pillow. On the pillow it said, happiness is positive cash flow. That's my motto.
spk08: Great. Keep up the good work.
spk11: Thank you.
spk12: The next question is from Amir Ansuri. Please go ahead.
spk10: Hi. So I'm talking from Australia. I'm a private investor and a shareholder. I believe what we're missing is a consultancy business. So You need to come up with reference designs that are used in specific industries. For example, propriety trading. These guys make a lot of money by FPGAs that work in close connection with network cards and then process data very quickly. So you need to come up with reference designs and say, hey, look, we know your business needs this. We can provide you reference designs, and we can give you the machines to – make the cards that you need, because these proprietary trading firms, they don't have the technology today to make up their own PCBs.
spk11: Are you available to work with us in Australia, sir? You are so right on. It's not even funny. I mean, you hit the nail in the head on the issue of selling disruptive technology. You have to start with the design. You have to start from the application. We have built over the last seven months a group of 22 application engineers which are doing exactly what you're describing. We do not sell anymore to salespeople. Application engineers are going to the customers and analyze. First of all, we're inventing applications based on knowledge of the market. And secondly, we're listening to the customers. And we're starting with the design and solving issues through applications. And you couldn't be more right on an issue that is so internally deep in the concept of how you go to market that it's quite surprising how bright observation it is. Congratulations to you.
spk10: Thank you, sir. Thank you. And one more thing is we've got an Australian company named Altium. These are PCB design software makers. I don't know if you've got the cash today to buy them, but if you want to raise cash to buy these guys or at least have Controlling shares in them, I would be happy to, though.
spk11: Please connect with Yael offline. We have a lot of cash. We don't need to go for cash. And if you can connect to the regular network with Yael, she'll refer you to me, and I will work with you on that.
spk10: Sure. Thank you so much. Thank you.
spk12: There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Stern, would you like to make your concluding statement?
spk11: Yeah, let's give it a minute or two. Maybe people kind of get a last thought and they want to squeeze it in. I don't want to close the call on their face, so let's wait 60 seconds. I see that the participants are slowly going down, so probably the end of the questions, but give it another half a minute. Oh, here's a gentleman, actually two gentlemen I see.
spk12: The next question is from William Rettkamp of Insurstic Edge Capital Management. Please go ahead.
spk01: William?
spk12: There's a follow-up question from Andrew Kegel. Please go ahead. Andrew, you're on the line.
spk05: Yes. I'm sorry. I had my mute button on. I wanted to follow up and ask you about we have, you know, $1.3 billion of cash obviously you can take that money and make interest with it someplace, I'd imagine. Do you guys have like a way to, I mean, there's a large chunk of change. I mean, you could probably pay for your company expense somehow, make an interest out of that money in the meantime while you're doing your shopping. Do you guys have some kind of like a plan to get as much value as possible out of that?
spk11: Yeah, we have, and I'll let Yael in a second tell you the details, but we have a special cash management committee, which is meeting I think twice a week, but I'll let Yael describe exactly how we're doing it. We are leveraging, we are hedging, we know we have expense in euros, we have expense in shekels in Israel for salaries, we have expense of course in dollars. And we, of course, now enjoying the interest rate went up from 1% to 3.5%. But Yael, please give the gentleman a description, if you will.
spk06: Yes, so basically we are monitoring our cash and investment policy really closely, especially now with the crazy interest rate going up. But we don't invest the money in any securities other than obviously the companies that we acquired during the M&A. but we don't invest in any other portfolio companies. We are mostly using low-risk instruments like deposits and money market accounts, and we are enjoying currently the increased rates across the board. And with respect to different currencies, then we are holding the cash in multiple currencies based on our expenses in order to lose as much to not lose money on exchange rate differences. And I can tell you that in the first quarter, we had it in the finance income that you can see in the profit and loss statement, but we had about $1.5 million of income from interest only.
spk05: In the quarter. In the quarter. I don't want to try to catch you guys off guard or anything like that, I don't know what your opinion on this is at all, but obviously, cryptocurrency is a brand new kind of development that you can make interest on. And I look at it as an investor. There's, like, ridiculous amounts of interest that you can make with slightly higher degrees of risk. Do you guys have any opinion on cryptocurrency? Is that something that... I mean, I don't even know if it's legal for you guys to, like, try to make money off of something like that, but is it? Do you guys have a plan or anything when you have... you know, pie interest that you can earn that is something that your company is willing to, or legally able to consider?
spk11: Legally, yes. But let me tell you my point of view about that. I feel very modest and humbled when people invest in our company and notwithstanding certain people like before voicing their frustration and which I share and I understand why. but sometimes it takes them to be in the wrong place and totally ruins their judgment. But I still don't lose the respect for them. Part of this respect is the respect to know that if they wanted to invest in cryptocurrencies or any other risk and return, other risk return curves, they don't need to invest in nanodimension. They may think, and they are probably right, that they can make a decision themselves to invest directly in cryptocurrencies. So when I received the money a year ago for a certain use of proceeds, I'm totally committed to that. And I can't afford to take a risk, not because I don't want to make more return. I don't. But if I will lose instead of making more return, for instance, I will get the interest on crypto, but the crypto also lost value. It's the same like bonds. then how would I go back in front of you guys and say, I'm sorry, I lost the $250 million of the principle because the market went south and I didn't realize it. So I can't afford it. I'm too modest to do it. Some other people in the market have done it and were very successful. Good for them. My intention is and my direction, directive to both the board and the board is online with me on that totally. is to be conservative, to invest with minimal risk of losing a principal and maximizing the return by either investing in the right currencies, not because we trade currencies, it's because if we invest in a currency, even if it goes down and we need to spend salaries in this currency, we don't really lose because the salaries are still the same salaries. So we can play... Yeah, so that's how we do it.
spk12: The next question is from Joseph Hounstern. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hi. Congratulations on all the progress.
spk11: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
spk02: I'm a frustrated shareholder. I own a lot of shares. Obviously, I have a loss like a lot of other people, but I am patient. I love what you're doing. You seem to be spending the money prudently, waiting for the right opportunity, and that's the way it should be. Well, why are we selling at 60% of cash? I know the stock market has been difficult. We should be at least $5. We should be selling at cash. I mean, we're making a lot of progress. I think the future looks extremely bright. I also want to know, there doesn't seem to be any analyst coverage of of our company, which I think is silly.
spk11: No, it's not silly. It's more than that. We need it, and you're absolutely right. I'm in discussions with analysts, specific, probably the leading analyst that covers companies like us is actually on the line today and been on the line before, and we are hoping that he will pick us up. It's extremely important. We feel that whoever picks us up now within a few quarters will be industry leader, so it will be a great attractive proposition for the analyst and his organization, the bankers. And I'm speaking with a couple of them, and you're totally right, because that's what creates the exposure and the interest of institutions is increasing based on that. Right now, we have two low institutions holding, to my taste, is about $20 something percent, and I would like to bring it up to 45, 50, and I'm working on that. And the question or the frustration of why is it trading where it's trading, I did a very deep analysis, and I can tell you that our shares traded up and down, totally unrelated to what the company is doing, and the best metaphor, if you wish, that I can give you is when there's waves, especially big waves like tsunamis, You cannot fight the wave. You can just try to catch the wave and be in the right place to catch it. So if the wave is taking everybody down, I want to be on the top of the wave. And if you will measure our company comparing to similar companies, we went down less than 75% of them. But it still takes us down below the cash, which is unique, which creates an opportunity. And you know, there's people who see... problem and opportunity, and there are people who see opportunity in the problem. I believe here is an opportunity in the problem. I agree.
spk02: Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next quarter and the next quarter. Hopefully, things will grow in a proper way.
spk11: Thank you so much, sir. Have a good day.
spk12: The next question is from Michael Eisner. Please go ahead. Famous name. Hi.
spk13: I think you'll be able to begin buyback.
spk11: Sorry, say it again if you get disconnected for a second.
spk13: When do you think you'll be able to begin the buyback of shares?
spk11: Once we get the approval of the court in Israel.
spk13: Well, do you have any idea how long that takes? No. Oh, there's no... All right. If you don't know, you don't know. I would not get into crypto.
spk11: I know, I know.
spk13: We're not a crypto company. If someone wants to buy crypto, they can buy it, but not with my money.
spk00: Yeah, no, I agree.
spk11: I agree 100%. Thank you very much. You're welcome.
spk12: There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Stern, would you like to make your concluding statement?
spk11: Yeah. It's now 53 minutes, so I'm sure people need to go work. The market is open. So thank you very, very much, ladies and gentlemen, for participating. I've been talking with investors offline, which means not on these calls since the market is going down a lot, and I invite you. through Think Equity or through directly, probably through Think Equity, which is bankers, to find a way to speak with us. I'm always available and I'm spending time both in each continent now and I look forward to connect with you as soon as possible. And thank you very much for your support.
spk06: Thank you.
spk12: Thank you. This concludes the Nano Dimension 2022 First Quarter Financial Results Call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.
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