voxeljet AG

Greetings. Welcome to the Voxel Jet AG second quarter 2023 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the prepared remarks. If anyone should require operator assistance during the call, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand the call over to Mr. Johannes Pesch, Director of Investor Relations and Business Development. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operators, 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 second quarter financial results for the period ended June 30, 2023. 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 a company's performance, including expectations and 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. For additional information concerning factors that could cause Actual results 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 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Ingo, Chief Executive Officer for SETS.

Thank you, Johannes. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our earnings call today. We are very happy with the results for the quarter, with revenues coming in well above our guidance corridor. With Jackie Schneider and Jane Arnold, we added two new US-based board members with significant experience in our industry. Since the start of this year, BMW Group, who owns five of our next generation VJX printers, has successfully printed more than 10,000 jobs in a fully automated process. That is an excellent result and true milestone for the entire additive manufacturing industry. With GE Renewable Energy, we are already discussing the second phase of our project to develop the largest 3D printer ever made for the production of next generation wind turbines. Let's turn to slide four and a brief overview of our company. Our roots reach back to the year 1995 with the first successful dosing of UV resins In the context of a hidden project, initial 3D printing tests were performed at the Technical University Munich. I co-founded the company on May 5, 1999, as a spin-off from the university with a clear vision in mind to establish a new manufacturing standard. Today, we provide our customers a strategic competitive advantage by upgrading the existing production methods to additive manufacturing solutions. Let's turn to slide five, where we describe our technology. In the additive manufacturing market, there are likely more than 10 different technologies, each with its specialized field of application. We use a technology called binder jetting. Binder jetting is especially well suited for high volume manufacturing because of its potential to scale. With our VJX technology, we are pushing new boundaries. Slide six shows our global sales network and production footprint. As you can see, we have reached an established position in all major markets in Europe, in the US, as well as in Asia. Turning to slide seven, where we explain our two business segments, as shown on slide eight. In the services segment, we operate our own 3D printers in three facilities around the world to offer affordable on-demand access to our technology. Our business model is very user-friendly, as customers only need to send in the 3D data, and we will print parts for them. That is an efficient and easy way for our customers to understand new business opportunities in 3D printing. Customers come from various industries, including automotive, aerospace, general engineering, as well as art and architecture. For example, in the US, one of our largest on-demand printing clients is a supplier to a leading space exploration company. In our system segment on slide 9, we manufacture and sell industrial-grade, high-speed, large-format 3D printing systems geared towards mass production of complex models, molds, and direct parts. We differentiate ourselves from our competitors by build size, material diversity, and speed. This leads to a complete set of industrial 3D printers to address the challenges and needs that are most important to our customers. Each model can be used with multiple material sets. Systems revenue also includes recurring revenue from the sale of consumables, maintenance contracts, upgrades, and other after-sales activities. This recurring portion of revenue is growing as the installed base of our 3D printers expands. On slide 10, we summarize the key advantages of combining 3D printing and conventional manufacturing, what we call indirect metal printing. First, you 3D print a mold or pattern and then cast it in metal. Key advantages include high economies of scale, no need for certification, no limitation regarding the size of the part and the alloy used. While direct metal printing has its applications, it's not suitable for high volume production. Because of very limited economies of scale, the cost per part in direct metal printing are simply too high compared to the combination of 3D printing and metal casting. Slide 11 presents a comprehensive illustration of the wide range of applications of our technology. Slide 12 highlights recent improvements in the performance of our binder chaining technology. It all started with a tiny printer that I and some colleagues built almost 30 years ago. It was our goal from the beginning to bring 3D printing into high-volume production. And today, with massive partners like BMW, GE Renewable Energy, and others, we are doing exactly this. On slide 13, we summarize illustrative case studies showcasing how we add value for clients across several different industries. Let's start with the formal part of the presentation. I will begin with an overview of the results for the second quarter. Woody will then provide a more in-depth view of our financials for the second quarter 2023 and our outlook for the rest of the year. Following his comments, we will be happy to take your questions. Turning to slide 15, total revenue for the second quarter this year came in well above our guidance corridor and increased 2% to 6.8 million euros from 6.7 million euros in the second quarter last year. This is a new record in revenue for second quarter in combination with a record high order backlog for second quarter. This makes us very optimistic. Just a few weeks back, we sold our largest printer to a client in Europe, so the business is going quite well. In services, our on-demand 3D printing segment, we saw another very robust quarter with continued high demand for our products. Revenue from our German and Chinese service centers were slightly below the very successful second quarter last year. Our US subsidiary continues to fire on all cylinders and achieves the highest on-demand printing revenue for any quarter in more than three years. In systems, revenue increased 12%. as we sold three new printers in the second quarter of 2023 compared to selling two new and one refurbished printer in the second quarter of 2022. The recurring portion of revenue is also growing as the install base of our 3D printers expands. This includes the sale of consumables, maintenance contracts, upgrades, and other after-sales activities. Gross profits from the sale of 3D printers likely improved. Overall margin for the system segment decreased because of lower gross profit contribution from offices. Gross profit margin in the services segment decreased to 33.3% from 39.7% in the second quarter 2022. This was mainly related to lower gross profits from our German and Chinese service centers. Slide 16 breaks down order backlog by quarter, revenue by gross and operating expenses by category. When looking at revenue by geographic region, we target an even distribution across the three regions to hedge against risk from local events. Order backlog for 3D printers increased 23% from 8.3 million euros at the end of the second quarter last year to 10.2 million euros at the end of this year's second quarter. Let's turn to slide 17. We had a very busy GIFA show in Düsseldorf, Germany, where we presented some of our latest products. GIFA, the largest show of its kind, takes place every four years and is an important showcasing opportunity for us. Traffic at our booth was excellent throughout the week, probably as good as ever. and we were constantly speaking to new and existing clients. Visitors were very keen to learn about our solutions for real industrial production, and we showed for the first time a video of our new VJX printers in action at the BMW plant in Germany. This brings me to slide 18, where you find snapshots of the VJX setup at BMW, a truly industrial-scale production unlike everything, anything I have seen from any other players in our industry. Turning to slide 19, we are delighted to welcome Jackie Schneider and Jane Arnold to the Oxfordshire Supervisory Board. As highly respected business leaders, they each bring valuable experience to further enhance and balance the diverse skills on the board and advance our value creation initiatives. We especially look forward to benefiting from the expertise and network in the additive manufacturing industry as we continue to drive durable top and bottom line growth and build on our own position as a leading provider of solutions for industrial production. Slide 20 summarizes our value proposition. We believe we are well on track on our way towards profitable growth. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Rudi. Rudi?