Avensia AB (publ)

Welcome to today's broadcast with Aventia. Today's host, Robin Gustafsson, will present the Q2 report for 2024. If you have any questions for Robin, please use the form at the top right of the broadcast. With that said, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Martin. Tack för att ni har kommit hit idag. Det ska bli jättespännande att göra den här presentationen. Det är ett nytt format för mig och för bolaget. Ta gärna emot feedback på hur vi kan utveckla det framåt. But today's agenda is to discuss the financial report that we released about an hour ago. I thought I would talk a little bit about how the market is developing in our market. I thought I would talk a little bit more detailed, operational development. How is it going for the company under the hood? And then of course open up for questions at the end, where Martin will be the moderator. If we look at the quarter that we released, we have after a few months and a quarter turned the development and got an increase, so we had a revenue increase of 10%. We feel that the market we are in has become more stable and also that we are taking market shares. We have seen that in the past year that we have taken market shares. It is a very tough market, but we feel that the trend continues even if the market stabilizes as I said. If you look at these 10% and analyze them a little bit, you can see that there is a positive calendar effect, just like we had a negative in Q1. So this year, the move from Q2 to Q1 gives a little boost. So if you clean up for that effect, the growth has been 7% completely organic. Of course, we make very few acquisitions. The result has turned from negative to positive 11 million and an EBIT margin of 9.8%, which is a small part of our financial goals, but a good bit closer than we have been and looks like a very positive development. Vi har haft ett starkt kassaflöde som motsvarar egentligen rörelsens resultat det här året. Men jämför vi med förra året så noterar man att trots den negativa utvecklingen förra året så hade vi ändå ett operativt kassaflöde som var positivt förra året. Men då hade vi väldigt stora förändringar i rörelsekapital. Våra fordringar minskade kraftigt under kvartalet och våra... And we got money in and at the same time increased our short-term debt this quarter. So that figure is a bit surprising. But if you look at the year, it looks very healthy. Available funds are also 48.4 million. And in a number of months, it's a healthy level for us. We would like to increase it a little bit more, but it's a healthy level. If you look at our financial goals, we want to achieve 10% organic growth over time, as we say, over some kind of contract cycle, one should interpret it as. And in the last 12 months, we see 7% growth. If we look at the movement margin, we want to be short-term at 10% and long-term at 15% movement margin. And if you look at the rolling 12 months now, backwards, we have 6.7% growth. So we have a bit left to wander, but we are still on the right track from where we came from. If we look a little more at the quarter, we usually show these stacks at the top in our report. It shows a rolling 12 months for each quarter, how it ended each quarter, 12 months back and forth. And it gives a fairly clear picture of the development. And here you can see, especially in the left diagram, that The turnover curve has changed from having a weak closing down to a growth again, which is very nice. We are used to being a growth company and we have that culture in us, so it is very healthy for us to come back to a growth environment. If we look at the turnover result, we have had a sequential improvement of this turnover result in the last four quarters. We have made four positive quarters, not more than that. But we also see that some quarters have been very strong, some have been less strong, but in any case, all of them have contributed positively and now we are in a completely different position than when we started. Vi har minskat mängden medarbetare. Vi är 15 procent färre medarbetare idag än för ett år sedan. Personalkostnaden har sänkts med 16 procent. Det är lite mycket kan man tycka. Har ni inte haft någon löneutveckling? I förra årets personalkostnader hade vi faktiskt vissa reservationer för uppsägningar och andra saker som vi gjorde då. Det är inte helt jämförbara siffror. Städar man för det så tror jag skillnaden är runt 11 procent. Personal costs have been lowered, and some other costs have increased. If we look at purchased goods and services, they have increased a bit. That is, we have increased a little under consultants in the business. The purpose of this is to create financial flexibility and a possibility to pair up and down in the market. As I said, the market is more stable, but that is still not what it has been historically. And a small comment about A&E as well. You can see that it has increased this year. The A&E has gone from 3.6 million a year to 4.5 million this year. And it is actually that we have had more material A&E, more furniture and other investments in offices that have increased. If we look at the financial situation, the immaterial access has decreased. It is based on the fact that we no longer activate product development. We have a goodwill of 1.7 or 1.8 million SEK for our British company, Insider Trends. That goodwill will not be written off according to IFRS, but we will continue to lower it to 1.8 million SEK. We have increased material supplies, mainly leasing supplies according to IFR 16. The other types of materials have actually decreased by 35%. But the leasing activities are connected to the offices and the office investments we've made. Short-term rents have increased by 20%, to some extent depending on an increased turnover. So 10% had been expected based on the turnover increase. But we also see that this quarter ended on a Sunday, so... The last of June was a Sunday, so a lot of customers, in principle all of them, and actually we ourselves also paid our suppliers the first on Monday. And when you cut at the end of the quarter, it naturally means that just this quarter we have very large both short-term benefits and short-term debts. Our own capital has increased with 19.8 million SEK and we have built up to a much more stable platform this year after a tough year before. The long-term debts that we have in the business are only leasing debts, that is, linked to office leasing according to IFRS. The company is debt-free and has a net and cash account. In addition, we have reduced personal debt this year, and it also affects the short-term debt negatively compared to the previous year. If we leave the quarter behind us and look a little more long-term, we as a company have been rejuvenated in modern trade since 2015. The focus has always been growth, revenue growth, and if you look at the last 10 years, we have 18% annual revenue growth. If you look at the share, it was at 9.10% at the end of Tuesday, two days ago. The total loss in the last ten years has been 9.6%. If you were to invest completely passively in Avanza Zero, you would get 9.3% in the same period. So 18% growth per year has given us a total of 9.6% and we are not satisfied with that. We have had an expansion of 9% in these 10 years if you look at the share expansion. So we have not made any acquisitions or anything like that that has affected Envert either. This type of growth has happened to our shareholders. and thus our total return should have been higher in that comparison. So it means that we have been a little bit undermined for our growth strategy and we are changing a little bit quickly in the future. We have set new financial goals where we want to focus more on profitability from the base we have and of course continue the growth journey, but perhaps not as uncompromising as we have done historically. So we see a future ahead of us where we lower the growth rate a bit, but instead we increase profitability. And of course, we got a share of that this quarter, but there is still a lot to do in that regard. If we look at our market update, how does the market look? We have had the first interest rate drop from the Riksbank for eight years. There is a prediction that there will be more interest rates drops. We see that consumers are starting to get a little more trading space, which affects both retail or retail retail, but then in the next step, or next step, also B2B trade. So we see a stabilization overall, our customers get a little more faith in the future. We also see that the investments that are happening today are very much from established companies. I will mention a few customers a little later. It is mainly brands that you recognize and that have been established for a very long time on the market. So if you look a little bit at our different offers, then on the e-handling system, which is our main offer, we see a very stable market. And a fairly low level compared to 2021, which was... the post-Covid boom, when a lot of investment was made. However, we see a stabilized development for existing customers. If we look at information management, that is, systems for information management of, above all, product information, but also customer information and other master data information, as another of our offers, we see that We've had a pretty slow new customer market. We've held back the investments a little. They are often quite long-term and you can wait a little with the investments in many cases. They can be an increase in efficiency, but over time, there is rarely a very clear deadline that now we have to have this in place. So it means that many have waited a little with their investments. On the other hand, we see that the customers we already have have invested more in their information management here now. If you look at the smaller projects, they are often a little shorter, within customer experience and strategy, we see a positive development there. Our strategists and our CX experts have gotten a lot more to do in recent months. It may be a sign that our customers are starting to see a growing market out there, that they want to work with the end customers a little more actively and want to invest in this area. I hope this is a positive sign, and I hope that the other parts of our offer will get a stronger market in the future. If you look at the graph you see, it is from Postnord's e-barometer Q1, so it is not completely up to date, they have not released their Q2 yet. But here you can also see e-commerce development, the total is plus 1% per quarter. Very unevenly spread between different industries. And if you look at where the investments happen, it can be interesting to note that the investments happen in the top and bottom. So those who have the most to earn and those who are established and have the toughest are generally the ones who invest the most. And that's where we see our new customers actually within those industries. If we take a little more in-depth look at the operational development, just to give a little sense of how the events are now, how it's going, this graph shows a little bit about how debitable hours, rate of factoring, hourly taxes and the number of debiting staff have developed. The first column shows compared to the previous quarter, so it's sequential, and the second column shows compared to previous years. And if you look at the number of debatable hours, it has decreased, both compared to the previous quarter and compared to the previous year. Compared to last year, it is simply because we have implemented a recovery program and we have fewer employees, and thus fewer debatable hours. If we compare it to quarter one, it is a pure calendar effect. Q1 has more working hours, which affects the consulting business a lot. If we look sequentially at the rate of invoicing, it has improved. We have increased sales compared to last quarter, and we have increased employment. We have actually increased the number of employees somewhat since Q1. If we look at the previous year, however, we have both the effects of improved sales and fewer employees. These two stacks are slightly greener, slightly upwards, but if you look at the size, the other one is significantly stronger compared to the previous year. If we look at the timetax development, which is very crucial for our profitability, we see that we have managed to both monitor and increase our prices, both compared to the previous quarter and compared to the previous year. And it depends both on a pure price increase compared to the previous year, but it also depends on a changed delivery mix, that we deliver a little more qualified services, Våra medarbetare har fått ett års höga erfarenhet och vissa har gått från en juniorposition till en mer seniorposition. Det påverkar också vilket pris vi kan ta. Det påverkar naturligtvis även lönekostnad, men så ser det ut. If we look at the proportion of debiting staff, it is the last piece of the puzzle in this solution puzzle. In a consulting company, it is important to keep the management small and the consulting management large. And if you look at the previous quarter, it is by far the same. If you look at the previous year, of course, these measures have been implemented. It seems very positive and has made the proportion of debiting staff greatly increase. I would like to comment on some of the new customers. If you look at the new customers, Camphill, KJ Knutsson, Musti, Sturmark and Trichem, they are very established companies that have existed for a long time. It's a mix of B2B and B2C. There are a few different countries, but these are the customers we have communicated with in this quarter that we have taken as new customers. If you look at the big or essential additional orders that are written here, Bygg Hemma Sverige and Norska Vita, with the beauty and a little apothecary insert, have been the slightly larger additional orders that have taken place during the quarter. Of course, there are a lot of additional orders and more sales in the ongoing project, so a lot of There is a very large number of names behind these names in how the sales have gone. But we usually raise them a little bigger customers in our reports. In summary, we see a stable market. We see customers who have a little more faith in the future. As a company, we have acted on the rapid market shifts in recent years. We have created greater financial flexibility. We have reduced our cost cost and we have created a stronger financial position. We are back on profitability. I also want to say that there is potential for increased supply. There is definitely a possibility that our existing crew can take more projects and do more for our customers. And we have not reached our financial goals yet, we should add. Of course, we aim to get there as soon as possible. That was my presentation. Are there any questions, Martin?

Thank you for that presentation, Robin. There are a few questions here. The first question is this. What has contributed the most to an increase in revenues with 7% compared to the same period previous years?

It's a little bit back to the slide I told you about the operational development. That is to say that we have both increased our income tax and our repayment rate. But I would say that of the 7%, I would say that the repayment rate has had the greatest effect. For a real 7% it has not been in price development.

And how do you see the risk of the Riksbank's interest rate being changed and how would that affect Aventia?

It affects Amensia quite a lot, but also indirectly. Of course, a negative return would mean that customers would again be more careful with their investments. A more positive return would of course mean that consumers would start to buy more and there would be greater demand. So it affects us. It's not that we have 80-90% of this market and are completely controlled by the Riksbank. We still have a lot of operational work to do. We can still work with our sales, our customer service, etc. So we can pair swings as well, which we have proven in recent years. But certainly it has an impact.

And when do you think you need to recruit again, given what you know today?

We are actually a bit too cautious on the rise again. If I remember the numbers correctly, we are 303 employees per last June against 300 equally in the last March. It is definitely not the same as in the old days, and maybe we are not going there either. But I see that we are resettling to a very large extent those who leave, and we are also new employees a little bit. We have a new academy program for the first time in a couple of years, where we hire people directly from school who we are going to teach and get into our routines, which is usually very successful. We are weathering the morning air as a company, but at the same time we are focused on the market and market development. We have not pressed the gas pedal as we did in 2020, 2021 perhaps, but we are slowly starting to let go of the brakes.

And do you dare to give it an approximate quantification of the additional potential for the application?

I think you have to write a report first, to be honest. I don't think it's a good idea to make such a presentation. But of course, there is additional potential. We have increased our supply grade. We are up in some kind of low normal level now. And if you go up to a high normal level, there is a whole lot of percent to do. If you want to build your understanding, you can read some reports from other consulting companies and get a feeling for what the demand usually is and what level of difference it can be. Unfortunately, I can't be clear about that right now.

I understand. What exactly do you see as strong faith in the future among your customers?

As you mentioned, the interest rate has a certain importance, especially in the consumer trade. If you look at business-to-business trade, production, distribution and the like, there are also issues like currency effects and the like. The weak Swedish krona has held up a lot in B2B. And that type of effect can also have a certain importance for the investment will in Sweden. Then you also see other types of investment will in Sweden also affect. I would say that there are a number of effects that from a rather weak situation as it is today could make it significantly better, as I would say.

And what is your thought on the business in the US? Will you keep it in the long term?

Vi finns i USA, vi servar våra partners i USA och vi har en anställd i USA. I den mån vi har den så är den extremt bantad i nuläget. Den är lönsam, den är liten och den personen vi har i USA stöttar också den övriga verksamheten. Jag ser inte någonting i nuläget som skulle förändra den inställningen.

Om det då finns för mycket likvida medel på balansräkningen, vad kommer det då att göra med pengarna? Är det utdelning, återköp eller kanske förvärv?

The easiest answer is resale, because we noted on the first note that we are not allowed to resale, but we have to be on a regulated list. So it's not possible, it's closed for us. Expansion is what we have done historically. We have made relatively few acquisitions. There are acquisition candidates, there are companies you could look at. We have historically had a culture of growing organically and working with our own corporate culture, integrated, and have done well with that. But of course, if we were to see a slightly slower development, So it is possible that there is more management capacity to also carry out acquisitions as soon as possible. But right now, we have not communicated or discussed that we would turn around. So the natural answer for Aventia and the historical answer for Aventia is definitely distribution if too much media is accumulated, absolutely.

And Q3 2023 was also very strong. Then you went back. Would you say that the margin improvement is more sustainable this time?

It's quite hard to say, depending on the market. And the semester quarter is very dependent on how you succeed. We have a certain business in Cebu, in the Philippines, where we have employees who work all summer, and if we succeed in applying them fully, we get a very nice third quarter. If we have Sweden's application, we get a different figure. So it's... It's a business that goes up and down, but we want to increase the level overall, so these 10% and 15% are not quarter by quarter, but it is of course on rolling numbers that we aim for. If you own a venture, you get a little variation from quarter to quarter. You can get used to that, but we will definitely raise it to a higher total level.

What specific measures have you taken to stabilize sales to your existing customers?

A number of things. We have engaged a little more people from different positions to the customers. We have also worked a lot with a slightly broader roll-out offer. We see a lot of requirements and regulatory issues that affect or meet many of our customers in the coming years. We are very careful to update our products, come up with a clear offer. If you work with Aventia, you have a clear roadmap for how to take over these requirements. It's a pretty natural way to sell up and sell more to existing customers in the current situation. And then we also work a lot with the customers who work with acquisitions and of course integrate new acquisitions into their solutions and their sites to help them as well as possible. So we have a number of typical strategies, one could say, to support our customers and continue to be relevant to our customers over time. Since we have such a long customer relationship, I would say that we are quite successful in that. Then of course it is important that they have a future faith, a will, a total will to invest in fund management and management. But we definitely have a toolbox, I would say, where we can go out to our customers and sell more solutions to them, quite simply.

And how has the implemented savings program affected your long-term strategy, but also the personal strength?

Depå är lite grann kopplat till de finansiella målen kan man säga. Den här skiftet från ganska kompromisslös tillväxt till att balansera tillväxt med en lite högre lönsamhet, det är egentligen kopplat till åtgärdsprogrammen också. I åtgärdsprogrammen så tog vi ner en hel del investeringar vi hade gjort i in their own ability to recruit, in our marketing strategy, etc. Typical activities that you do when you want to recruit and grow very fast. Of course, that type of central cost has decreased a lot. It affects both the pace we can grow in and the profitability we can maintain.

Let's move on to the last question, Robin. What is your strategy for continuing to win market shares in a competitive market?

There are a number of things we do. Some things are harder, some are easier. The most important, and in a way the easiest, is to continue to build good solutions and continue to build a reference list. If you have a... To put a very large turnover online in the hands of a new supplier, you naturally want to have the one who has the best reputation, is safest to work with, never fails, always makes a good solution. And since we have been in this industry for so long and have so many references and such a broad customer base, I think we are unbeatable on the Swedish and Norwegian market. The easiest strategy to continue marketing is that there is a security factor in this type of business and delivery that is difficult to establish quickly. If you look at our competition, There will be very few new upsticks that will come in and threaten us. If you don't already have a long reference list, you can almost buy it together via a number of acquisitions and then come in. So I would say it's almost the most important competitive advantage and the most important strategy. It's a bit of an unfair advantage that I think Avensi has and that I think we need to continue to develop.

Thank you, Robbe, for your time, for presenting and answering our questions. I would like to thank everyone who followed today's presentation with Aventia. I wish you a pleasant day and see you soon.

Thank you very much. Thank you.