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spk00: Greetings and welcome to Voxeljet AG fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Jonas Pesch. Thank you. You may begin.
spk02: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. With me today are Dr. Ingo Ederer, Voxeljet's Chief Executive Officer, and Rudy Franz, Voxeljet's Chief Financial Officer. Yesterday, after the market closed, Voxeljet issued a press release announcing its fourth quarter and full year financial results for the period ended December 31, 2020. The release, as well as the accompanying presentation for this conference call, is available in the investor relations section of the company's website at voxeljet.com. During our call, we may make certain forward-looking statements about the company's performance, including expectations on results from our current order backlog. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore one should not place undue reliance upon them. Forward-looking statements are also subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed including the risks and uncertainties caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic and the residing uncertainty in the global economy. For additional information concerning factors that could cause extra resides to differ from those discussed in our forward-looking statements, you should refer to the cautionary statements contained in our press release, as well as the risk factors contained in the company's filings, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Ingo, Chief Executive Officer of WaffleJet.
spk04: Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you, Giannis. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our earnings call today. Let's turn to slide four. Our roots reach back to the year 1995 with the first successful dosing of UV resin. In the context of a hidden project, initial 3D printing tests were performed at the Technical University of Munich. I co-founded the company on May 5th 1999 as a spin-off from university with a clear vision in mind to establish new manufacturing standards. Today, we provide our customers a strategic competitive advantage by upgrading the existing conventional production methods to additive manufacturing solutions. We push technologically boundaries and develop new generative processes for their serious production of complex components. On slide five, you can find some more information about Rudi and myself. We and our supervisory board together hold roughly 20% of the company. We are happy to announce that we both extended our contracts just recently. We have a clear plan in mind and are fully committed to make this success for all stakeholders. Let's turn to slide six and some thoughts on the additive manufacturing market. As you can see, Wohlers Associates projects growth to accelerate over the next years. This growth will be driven by a larger share of safe manufacturing. How big could this opportunity become? If we assume that the global economy is about $80 trillion, and if we assume that manufacturing accounts for 16% of it, this would put the manufacturing economy at around $12.8 trillion. If additive manufacturing captures only 5% of it, this could potentially become a $640 billion industry. I believe we are in an excellent position to capture our fair share of this growing market over the next years. Because what really differentiates us from the other players in the 3D printing industry is our focus on solutions for manufacturing or industrial production at scale. I would estimate that with our current portfolio of 3D printers, our share in sales to manufacturing is already higher than any of our competitors. I expect this to grow further significantly with VJX and the new high-speed sintering printer. I believe so, because we are working with leading industrial OEMs basically since our foundation. We sold our first 3D printers to BMW and Daimler in 2002. In addition, our technology evolved significantly over the last years in terms of speed, accuracy, and the degree of automation of the whole process chain. I firmly believe there is currently no other company in our industry who can offer a fully automated 3D printing line for large scale manufacturing like we do with the VJX. Let's turn to slide seven. Starting on the left side of the slide, you can see some of the highlights of the last seven years. In the years 2014 to 2016, We started our internationalization with own operations in the US, China and India. In 2017, we expanded our German headquarters and signed a deal with the European Investment Bank as part of their Horizon 2020 program. With this program, they support highly innovative tech companies. In 2018, we signed our first deal for VJX, collected additional funds from institutional investors and accelerated the development of HSS. In 2019, we moved into a new state-of-the-art production facility in Shanghai. Mid-2019, we presented VGNX for the first time to the public at a leading trade show in Germany. At the end of 2019, we presented our new HSS printer for the first time to the public. Towards the end of 2019, we implemented a structural efficiency program to reduce mainly overhead in the system's functions. In 2020, we received additional funds from the European Investment Bank, moved to NAVTAC, and received follow-up orders for VJDX under the contract signed in 2018. We invented key new IP for HSS, like greyscale printing, and are finalizing the development of our new HSS production printer. So for the next years, we focus on commercialization and accelerated growth through our new products. On the right side of this slide, we have summarized some of the recent highlights. In January and February 2021, we were able to sell new shares for aggregate gross proceeds of $22 million to the company. Also early in 2021, we successfully printed parts on the new HSS printer using the full build area. We have included some pictures in one of the later slides. The quality of the parts is excellent, and we saw no thermal warping across the whole build area. The IP we have developed over the last years in HSS, especially regarding multiple self-regulating heat sources, is critical to this success. Before we start with the formal part of the presentation, let's quickly remind those who are new to that what we do. Let's turn to slide eight, where we describe our technology. In the additive manufacturing market, you have probably more than 10 different technologies, each with its specialized field of application. We use a technology called binder chipping. Binder chipping is especially suited for high volume manufacturing because of its potential to scale. On slide 9, you can see some of our products. It's starting with the 200 on the left and goes all the way to the 4000, which is the largest binder chipping system available in the market. The idea is that we have one platform with many applications. Each of these models can be used with multiple material sets. For example, we offer the 1,000 3D printer for the printing of highly accurate sand casting molds and as a plastic polymerization printer. We expect to also offer it as a high-speed polymer sintering printer. Looking at slide 10 and our integrated business model, With this integrated model, we can capture business either as a 3D printer sale or on-demand printing contract. In the services segment on the left side of this slide, we operate our own 3D printers in three facilities around the world to offer affordable on-demand access to our technology. The barriers to entry are very low as customers just need to send in the 3D data and we will print parts for them. That is a great and easy way for our customers to understand new business opportunities in 3D printing. The short sales cycles and services help us balance the typical long sales cycles in our system segment. In our system segment, we manufacture and sell industrial-grade, high-speed, large-format 3D printing systems geared towards mass production of complex models, molds, and direct parts. Systems revenue also includes recurring revenue from the sale of consumables, maintenance contracts, upgrades, and other after-sales activities. Slide 11 shows our global sales network and production footprint. As you can see, we have reached an established position in all major markets in Europe, the USA, as well as Asia. We focus on educating our channel partners to ensure true global coverage. Turning to slide 12. We differentiate ourselves from our competitors by build size, mature diversity, and speed. Our printing systems are modular, versatile, and highly scalable, and therefore uniquely positioned to support critical, demanding applications and address the challenges and needs that are most important to our customers. We have established excellent relationships with blue chip customers from various industries. Products made with our technology are flying in space, make mobility more efficient and new engineering solutions possible. Let's start with the formal part of the presentation. I will begin with an overview of the results for the fourth quarter. Woody will then provide a more in-depth view of our financials for the fourth quarter and full year 2020 and our outlook for 2021. Following his comments, we will be happy to take your questions. Turning to slide 14, total revenue for the fourth quarter this year decreased 7% to 8.9 million euros as compared to 9.6 million euros in the fourth quarter last year. In services, our on-demand 3D printing segment, we had an excellent quarter in Germany with a significant revenue increase as compared to the fourth quarter 2019. This increase was offset by lower revenue from the US and China. In systems, we sold eight printers in the fourth quarter last year as compared to 11 printers in the fourth quarter 2019. We sold a higher number of large-scale printers, which generates higher revenues and higher gross margins. Also, after-sales revenue increased as compared to the fourth quarter 2019. Looking at the right side of this slide and gross margins, despite lower revenue, we were able to generate higher gross profits. This is mainly a result of significantly increased gross margin contribution from our German 3D parts production center. In addition to that, we implemented a structural efficiency program at the end of 2019 and start to see full P&L impact on the fourth quarter 2020. Slide 15 breaks down order backlog by orders, revenue by geography, and operating expenses by category. We are happy with order backlog through 3D printers, which more than doubled as compared to the fourth quarter in 2019. When looking at revenue by geographic region, we target an even distribution across the three regions to hedge against risk from local events. At the right side of the slide, we have summarized operating expenses as a percentage of quarterly revenues. We're happy to report that we have reduced operating expenses significantly as a result of implementing a structural efficiency program at the beginning of 2020. As mentioned, we see full P&L impact from the fourth quarter 2020 onwards. Annual savings from this program are estimated to be in the range of 2.5 to 3 million euros. Let's move to slide 16 and an update on our growth drivers, which is X and high-speed centering. We call them growth drivers because we believe they will help us capture a significant portion of manufacturing-related revenue. Keep in mind, these printers are made for automated industrial production. Let's start with high-speed sintering on slide 17. Over the next years, you will see that a growing number of parts currently made out of metal will instead be manufactured with high-performance plastic polymers. Engineering thermoplastic materials provide consistent strength and stiffness and outstanding impact performance for metal replacement. They are also lighter while offering excellent creep resistance and can maintain structural performance at higher temperatures and resist corrosion. We believe that the sales opportunity for 3D printing and the manufacturing of high-performance plastic polymers can become larger than the opportunity in metal 3D printing. We want to capture a significant portion of this growing market with our new large high-speed sintering printer. Thanks to some clever innovations in heat management, we can build larger build areas than any of our competitors. The powder reclaim rate of 80% in pH 12 helps us to reduce expensive waste and save our environment. And last but not least, you can top this with incredible short layer times. This whole package leads to unmatched low cost per part. We strongly believe that this technology will become a game changer in large scale production of plastic components. Let's turn to slide 18, and another innovation in high-speed sintering, grayscale printing. With our unique inkjet printer technology, we are able to print six different levels of gray, which indicate the amount of ink printed onto the powder. We can vary the amount extremely precisely in the picolita range. Different gray tones allow us to change the absorption of the thermal energy. That means that the darker the print area, the higher the absorption. This enables us not only to print different part properties within one layer, but also to influence these properties in all three dimensions. The benefits for our customers are better part accuracy and different material properties within one layer. On slide 19, we have summarized some details on the existing VX200 HSS printer. This is a platform for mature development, research, and small-scale production. Many customers and large chemical companies use this printer to qualify new materials for HSS. We can easily transfer this mature know-how to the large production printer VX1000 HSS. Slide 20 summarizes the polymer additive manufacturing technology landscape and its players. On slide 21, we have summarized key events in the development and commercialization of VJX. Just recently, we started to supply parts for pre-series production. We have shown that we can meet the extremely high quality requirements of this OEM consistently. Now it is about repeatability over a longer period of time. To my knowledge, this is currently the most ambitious project when it comes to bringing 3D printing into high-volume manufacturing. We expect to book revenue for the first VJDX units in mid-2021. Let's turn to slide 22. We are frequently asked if our technology is also relevant for electric vehicles. The answer is clearly yes, of course. While it is true that you have fewer components in electric vehicles, the geometries are still very complex and the demand for lightweight hollow structures is even higher. For example, we were 3D printing a lot of parts for the casting of structural components for a supplier to a leading US electric vehicle company in 2020. On the left side of this slide, you can see a new helical cooling channel for the engine or stator in an electric vehicle. The new layout has a greatly improved response time, which means it can reduce the temperature in an electric vehicle engine or battery in a significantly shorter time frame. We supplied the printed core set for the casting of this proof of concept. Our 3D printing technology makes the manufacturing of new engineering solutions possible. Therefore, it is highly relevant. With widget X, our customers have full flexibility in what they want to manufacture. On slide 23, we have included a link to the print-in action. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Rudi. Rudi?
spk03: Thank you, Ingo. And good morning, everyone. Overall, we are happy with the last month. We made significant progress in our research project and were able to get additional funds in to accelerate the commercialization of our new product. In January 2021, we sold 621,170 new ADS for gross proceeds of $10 million. In February 2021, we sold additional 443,414 new ADS for gross proceeds of $12 million. Both trade equity offerings were placed with institutional investors in the U.S. and Europe. With that, current shares outstanding are 5.9584 ADS million. Performer cash taking expected net proceeds of the two offerings into account is around $29 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2020. On-demand printing revenue in Europe continued to develop very nicely in the fourth quarter of 2020, and we are significantly above the fourth quarter 2019. This increase was offset by a decrease in the U.S. and in China. We continue to monitor our costs very carefully and have implemented a structural efficiency program, which Ingo spoke about. towards the end of 2019. We start to see full P&L impact from the fourth quarter 2020 onwards with annualized savings in the range of 2.5 to 3 million euro. Regarding COVID-19, we continue to work with some special measures in place around isolation and contamination protocols to ensure the safety of our employees and to reduce risk of operational disruption. Over the past few weeks, COVID-19 cases have increased in certain areas of the world, and we are monitoring the evolving situation carefully. I will now take you through the financial for the fourth quarter and full year 2020. After that, we are happy to take your questions. Turning to slide 25, total revenues decreased 7% to 8.9 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2020 as compared to 9.6 million euros in the last year's fourth quarter. While we have sold fewer printers overall, we sold a higher number of large-scale printers, which generate higher revenues. Revenues from our 3D-printed parts production center in Germany were strong in the fourth quarter 2020, with a significant increase compared to the fourth quarter 2019. The increase was offset by a decline in the U.S. and China. Cross-profit and gross margin in the quarter were 2.98 million euros and 34% compared to 2.9 million euros and 30% in the fourth quarter of 2019. We break this down. Systems provided increased gross profit margin close to the target corridor we have given in the past. Gross margins in the service also improved, driven by strong results in our German facilities. Our U.S. and Chinese service centers are working hard to improve their gross margin contributions. The next slide shows our segment reporting for the quarter. On slide 26, revenues from our system segment, which includes revenues from selling 3D printers, consumables, and spare parts, as well as maintenance, decreased 8% to 6.7 million euros for the fourth quarter of 2020 from 7.3 million euros for the fourth quarter of 2019. We sold six new and two refurbished printers this quarter versus six new and five refurbished printers in the fourth quarter of 2019. Product mix was different as we sold more large-scale printers which generate higher revenue in gross margin. It was good to see that revenues from our after-sales segment means consumables and maintenance continue to contribute strongly. Gross margin from the sale of 3D printers was again above 40% and gross margin from the sale of consumables above 50%. Cross-profit margin for the whole segment increased to 35.9% from 35 to 3% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Earlier this year, we implemented our structural efficiency program, Essentials 2020+. So we start to see full P&L effects from the fourth quarter 2020 onwards and expect annualized savings of 2.5 to 3 million euros. Let's turn to slide 27 in an overview of the development of order backlog for 3D printers over the last quarter. At the end of the fourth quarter, order backlog for 3D printers was €6.8 million, which is an increase of 145% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. On slide 28, services revenue decreased 5% to €2.2 million in the fourth quarter 2020 compared to €2.3 million in the same quarter 2019. Services gross profits increased to 27% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and 13% in the same quarter of 2019. The improvement was driven by strong gross margin contribution from the German Service Center at roughly 40%. Looking now to the rest of the income statement on slide 29. Selling expenses were 1.7 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2020 The majority of our selling expenses are personal expenses and distribution expenses, such as freight and commissions for sales agents. This compares to 2.0 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2019. Administrative expenses were 1.7 million euros as compared to 2.4 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2019. Keep in mind, we typically spend more than 1 million euros in auditing fees per year and 0.5 million euros in legal consulting fees. Research and development expenses were 1.8 million euros in the fourth quarter compared to 1.9 million euros in the same quarter 2019. Most of R&D expenses is related to VJX in the new HSS printer. Operating loss was 2.7 million euros in the fourth quarter 2020 compared to an operating loss of 3.2 million euros in the comparative period last year. The improvement is largely driven by reduced operating expenses across all functions and improved cross-margin in our service segment. Net loss for the quarter was €3.7 million or €0.77 per ADS compared to a net loss of €3.7 million or €0.77 in the prior year's same quarter. The improved operating result was offset by a non-cash expense from the revaluation of the derivative financial instruments with the European Investment Bank as part of the financial results. We have provided the same presentation for the full year ended December 31st, 2020 on slides 30 through 33. Slide 34 shows selected balance sheet items. At December 31st, 2020, the company had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments in bond funds of roughly 8.3 million euros. We increased our cash position with the two offerings in January and February 2021 that added gross proceeds of $22 million. Total debt at December 31st, 2020 was approximately 27.1 million euros. Of this 27 million euros are long-term. Long-term debt primarily consists of 15 million euros from the EIB's Horizon 2020 Venture Debt Programme. Rated average number of shares outstanding at December 31st, 2020 were 4.836 million ADS. Current shares outstanding are 5.9584 million ADS. Moving now on to slide 35 and our financial guidance for the full year of 2021. Full year 2021 revenue guidance is expected to be between 22.5 and 27.5 million euros. SG&A spending is expected to be in the range of 11 to 11.9 million euros, and R&D spending is expected to be between 6.0 and 6.25 million euros. Deplication and amortization expenses are expected to be between 3 and 3.25 million euros. Cash capex spending for 2021 is projected to be in the range of 1.0 to 1.25 million euros, which primarily consists of ongoing investments in our global subsidiaries. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange valuation, is expected to be neutral to positive for the fourth quarter of 2021. Revenue for the first quarter of 2021 is expected to be in the range of 3.75 and 4 million euros. This concludes my remarks, and with that, we will now open the call for your questions. Operator.
spk00: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Troy Jensen with Lake Street Capital. Please proceed with your question.
spk01: Hey, gentlemen, congrats on the results, and I'm happy to hear you extended your contract. Hey, so quickly, I'd like to start with Ingo. Ingo, could you just expand a little bit on your comment that you believe your share in manufacturing is higher than any other 3D printing company?
spk04: Well, we have delivered so far mainly large manufacturing platforms, while most of the other companies are dealing with smaller, smaller platforms, significantly less performance, and mainly used in production of prototypes and mock-ups, while our printers are I would say 90% used for production of parts, which are really in use. All these printers we have installed, for instance, they have a capacity. We already calculated that if you take the volumetric output of these printers, for instance, they can compare with hundreds of other 3D printers of other companies.
spk01: Right, understood. How about on high-speed centering patents, this gray scale sounds pretty interesting. Is anybody doing anything similar? Are you the only ones that really can have different material properties throughout a HSS print?
spk04: I cannot speak about the others. So what we currently know is that we have filed patent application for this one. We are confident that we get this through. We have not seen a similar announcement from the closest competitors, which you know is HP, for instance. So we believe that we can secure this IP for our own application. Whether they have different ideas which are maybe outside of our IP, I don't know.
spk01: Okay. And then also, I think you guys had a patent for iSpeed regarding just the heat or thermal inside the build envelope. Can you explain the importance of that? Exactly.
spk04: Exactly. So we have filed several IP and I think what specialized us also in the area of IP is that we focus on the larger print beds, on the larger fields. And I think that one of the differentiation factors is really here how we can provide an even heat contribution across the whole build area, which is on the larger builds much more difficult than on smaller build beds. And we are well positioned also IP-wise here.
spk01: Okay, understood. One more for you, and then I've got a couple for Rudy. Can you just talk about the leading European automotive company? It seems traction is going well. I think you had discussed that fine. But can you just talk about other customers? I mean, if this company is really going to get a performance and, you know, fuel efficiency advantage using these water cooling jackets, you know, when do you expect to see traction with other automotive? Hello?
spk04: So let me answer on the technology level. So we see that many of the automotive companies are facing the same challenges. So they currently are forced to develop electric drives for electric mobility. On the other hand, they have a current product portfolio and they need to sell this product portfolio also under the new emission standards with increased strictness of in the future and therefore they are also forced to develop these combustion technology further so this means they are let's say all in the same boat and are carefully watching what are the options to have full flexibility in their production with the possibility to change quickly from combustion engine technology to e-mobility. And therefore, I think the current VJDX project with this one OEM is a lighthouse project for us. All the others are carefully watching. And I think with the successful transfer of this project this year into a reproduction, it will be probably a start enabler for similar projects with the other companies. So we are already in contact with them. We know that they are clearly watching. And so far we haven't deepened our talks. because we are clearly focused on this one project at the OEM.
spk01: Gotcha. Understood. All right, then, quickly, just for Rudy, I think he said, you know, Germany was up nicely for you guys in the quarter of the year. U.S. was down. When you look in your forecast now for 2021, are you assuming a recovery in the U.S. and maybe weakness now in Germany because of the lockdowns?
spk03: I think fortunately here in Europe we have not seen any, at least for the last couple of months, an effect in respect of the lockdown. We expect, moreover, in the U.S., a recovery, and the same in China. So we are currently quite positive. Customer feedback is good, and what we see in the order income and what we see from prospects, it makes us very optimistic. positive and optimistic on the long run.
spk01: All right. Last question, and I'll see the floor. But can you just talk a little bit about gross margins? To me, they're a little weak in the quarter. You know, for services, once they get back to scale, do we think of that as like a mid-40s service gross margin and products also pretty well.
spk03: The answer is, as you have seen, that there was an impact in respect of revenue last year in Q2, partially in Q3. And the service center activity is what are the key drivers? They are amortization on equipment, labor. Those fixed costs are significant. And you can't sell off equipment as quick if your utilization goes down. So you always have an impact. Currently, we have recovered and are on a level almost before COVID-19 started. And accordingly, I expect to come back to gross profits, which we have been used to in all areas, meaning in all service centers. So Germany already is there. We have made our – I think our optimization program has helped us on that end. And in the U.S. and China, we expect higher utilization rates and, accordingly, cross-profits in the range of 40% plus. All right.
spk01: Understood. Good luck, and stay safe, guys. Thank you, Troy. Thank you.
spk00: We've reached the end of the question and answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Ingo Ederer for closing comments.
spk04: Ingo Ederer Thank you, operator. So, we faced many challenges in 2020, and I'm very proud of how our team responded. We've reduced operating expenses, increased gross margins, and most importantly, we were able to continue to invest in our long-term future success. We see a big opportunity in developing in front of us with more and more clients looking to use 3D printing in high volume manufacturing. As mentioned in the beginning, I believe we are in an excellent position to capture our fair share of this growing market over the next years. Thank you for joining today's call, and we look forward to speaking with you again in our next call, which we expect to take place in May with the results for the first quarter 2021. Thank you and goodbye.
spk03: Thank you everybody.
spk04: Happy Easter. Bye-bye.
spk00: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your
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