Bokusgruppen AB (publ)

Välkomna till dagens sändning där vi är med hos Bokusgruppen som presenterar rapporten för första kvartalet 2025. Med oss idag har vi vd Maria Edsman och CFO Ola Mosnes. Önskar ni ställa frågor så går det bra att använda formuläret till höger så tar vi upp det efter presentationen. Och med det sagt så lämnar jag ordet till er. Varsågoda med er presentation.

Tack så mycket. Maria här som inleder och återigen varmt välkomna till presentationen av det första kvartalet. Innan jag sätter igång här så tänkte jag bara påpeka att det här är det första kvartalet då BTI, det vill säga vårt nyförvärv från december förra året ingår i våra siffror. Det kan vara bra att känna till. But then we roll on and are glad to be able to say that the year started in a very good way with yet another very strong quarter where important sales events have been book sales and course start, which we always have in the first quarter. And worth mentioning is that we now on the rolling 12 base passed 2 billion in turnover, which is a bit of a milestone. As I said, the turnover increased, but also with strong gross marginals, which led to a good gross profit growth. And with costs that were in control, this got a very positive effect on Ibita. And last year we acquired three companies and all of them have contributed to the improved result in the first quarter. I would also like to mention one of our sustainability initiatives, which we call the Vesa Penna. Under that heading, we do different initiatives to increase writing skills among young people. Among other things, we have held a Nobel Prize competition among high school students, where the winners have been published by Novelix. Det är det ni ser på bilden där. Den här fina novellboxen med unga författare finns också att köpa i Akademibokhandelns butiker. En annan sak som jag vill lyfta om kvartalet var att vi passerade en milstolpe vad gäller utrullning av vår nya e-handelsplattform. Den första delleveransen är nu genomförd och det är ett so-called PIM, or Product Information Management System. So it's an important piece of the puzzle in the development of our new system. If we instead look at the first quarter in figures, then we show a revenue growth of 9%. And as I said, to an increased margin of 2.5 percent, which resulted in a gross profit growth of 15.8 percent. And as I said, since we have had the costs under control, EBITDA also increased by 26.3 percent this quarter. This picture shows a several-year overview of the last five years' turnover and EBITDA during the first quarter. Here we see a long-term positive development for the focus group. Omsättningen har i det här kvartalet tagit ett ytterligare kliv upp och ligger nu på den högsta nivån under de senaste fem årens första kvartal. Likaså EBITA har förstärkts gradvis år för år och hamnar i år på en all-time high för just det första kvartalet. Efter den här korta inledningen så lämnar jag över till vår CFO Ola som kommer gå igenom den finansiella delen av rapporten.

Thank you, Maria. This picture shows our seasonal variation in our business. We can see how revenues and results vary during the different quarters of the year. The Q1, which is framed to the left, is our next largest quarter in terms of revenue, characterized by book sales and stock prices as important sales events. Further, we see that the second quarter has the lowest turnover of the year, to then increase in the third quarter with, among other things, school start, to end in the fourth quarter, which is the year's strongest quarter with Black Friday and Christmas trade, and which stands for about 35% of our annual turnover. If we look at the outfall of the quarter, we see that we have a net turnover that goes up to 506.3 million kronor, which means an increase of 9% compared to 2024. We have a gross margin that goes up to 42.5%, which is an increase of 2.5% which is explained by several factors such as optimized pricing, increased share sales in stores and, not least, incoming businesses. Our EBITDA for the quarter ended at 13.6 million kronor, which is 2.8 million kronor higher than the previous year. A strong quarter with an EBITDA all-time high for the first quarter, as Maria just mentioned. The quarter's result then rises to minus 3.8 million, which is 0.2 million kronor lower than the previous year. The discounting of the additional purchase difference has burdened the result in the quarter with 0.6 million kronor. Costed for this, the underlying result is 0.4 million kronor better than last year. If we move on to the next 12 months, we have a net turnover that exceeds 2 billion for the first time and rises to 2 billion 30.7 million kronor, which means an increase of 7.6% compared to last year. We have a gross margin of 43.5%, which is an increase of 0.7%. The increase is mainly explained by the same factors as for Q1. A result of continued work to optimize pricing, increased sales in stores as well as incoming businesses. Our EBITDA for the 12-month period fell to 123.1 million kronor, which is an increase of 1.6 million kronor compared to previous years. Resultat för rullande tolvperioden uppgår till 41,7 miljoner kronor vilket är 4,1 miljoner kronor lägre än föregående år. Tittar vi på ebitda-marginalen för rullande tolv månadersperioden så är den 6,1 procent. Går vi sedan vidare så kan vi konstatera att bokhusgruppen har en stark balansräkning och uppvisat ett kassaflöde i nivå med föregående år. Kassaflödet för det första kvartalet var negativt, vilket är normalt för kvartalet. Vi ser i grafen till vänster att vi har en tydlig säsongsvariation även för kassaflödet, där det fjärde kvartalet är det starkaste, drivet inte minst av julhandeln. När vi kommer till det första kvartalet så betalas en stor del av de inköpen till det fjärde kvartalet, vilket leder till ett negativt kassaflöde i perioden. Det justerade operativa kassaflödet för det första kvartalet 2025 uppgick till minus 113,4 miljoner kronor, vilket ska jämföras med minus 112,4 miljoner kronor mot sådana kvartal 2024. Det innebär en minskning om en miljon kronor, vilket vi kan se i mitten på bilden. Minskningen är primärt kopplad till ökade investeringar och högre skattebetalningar. Detta betyder att det underliggande kassaflödet utvecklats positivt i kvartalet. For the next 12 months, the adjusted operating cash flow will increase to 77.8 million kronor, a decrease of minus 15.6 million kronor compared to 2024, which we can see in the middle of the picture. The decrease is mainly explained by investments that have increased by 33 million kronor compared to the previous 12 months. Det justerade operativa kassaflödet innebär att vi lägger tillbaka de utbetalningar som avser amorteringar av leasing-skulder enligt IFRS 16 och rörelseförvärv och leasing-skulderna handlar primärt om våra butikshyror. Tittar vi längst ut till höger i bilden så ser vi att nettoskuld genom justerad EBITDA uppgår per bokslutsdagen för Q1 2025 till 0,6 att jämföra med 0,2 2024. Det innebär att vi nyttjar 63,1 miljoner kronor av vår kreditfacilitet på 31 mars 2025. Att jämföra med 4,3 miljoner kronor i 2024. I december så tecknade vi ett nytt långsiktigt finansieringsavtal med Nordea på en revolverande kreditfacilitet, en så kallad RCF, som uppgår till 250 miljoner kronor och kan utökas med ytterligare 50 miljoner kronor. Den ersätter då den tidigare checkkrediten som uppgick till 200 miljoner kronor. Solidity is still high and goes up to 41% compared to 47% in 2024. In the beginning of 2024, we set up new financial goals. When we sum up the 12-month period, we can see that we have developed better than our first goal, revenue growth. The goal is to reach an average of 4% over the year. And the decline for the 12-month period goes up to 7.6%, which is a good bit above the goal. The growth has been positively affected by the two retail acquisitions and the BTI that was carried out in 2024. The second goal was to increase the EBITDA margin by 8% in the long term. När vi summerar ökar vi jämfört med föregående kvartal till 6,1% och vi ser att genomförd IT-transformation ger oss rätt förutsättningar för att vi ska kunna röra oss mot vårt uppsatta mål. Och det tredje målet är att nå en rose på 35% och utfallet för rullande 12-månadersperioden har förbättrats jämfört med föregående kvartal upp och nu till 28,3%. Och med det så lämnar jag över till dig igen, Mariette.

Thank you very much, Ola. And then I thought that we should talk a little more about the development in our two segments. We have two business segments. The first is the Academy Bookhandel, which covers both stores and online. And then we have Bokus, which covers Bokus e-commerce, the subscription service Bokus Play and the new contract BTI. Both segments developed positively in the first quarter and on the Rulande 12 basis, and you can see this at the top of the picture. The academic book sales increased by 8.7% in the quarter, which is still somewhat lower than the Rulande 12 figure of 9.4%. The growth is both organic and comes from acquired franchise stores. Online contributed with a high turnover growth, which I will return to. Bokus increased strongly in the quarter with 9.5%. Growth comes mainly from the added acquisition of BTI. But we also see growth from digital books with Bokus Play at the top. On a whole year basis, Bokus grew with 4%. Extra glädjande i det här kvartalet är att vi har fortsatt se en fortsatt ökning av försäljning av kurslitteratur till studenter som är ett viktigt segment för Bokus. Det är ett segment som har haft en negativ utveckling under en längre tid men nu hoppas vi att vi börjar se en positiv trend här. In the lower part of the picture, you can see how the revenue and EBITDA are divided into the two segments during the quarter. The Academy Bookhand is the larger segment, both when it comes to revenue and EBITDA. Bookhouse revenue and EBITDA have increased with the incoming business in BTI. Boke's EBITDA marginals saw a greater deterioration last year, which was explained by higher logistics costs and project costs related to the development of new e-commerce systems. But fortunately enough here in the first quarter, we have seen a positive development of logistics costs compared to the quarter before. So here we also see a positive development that we intend to continue to work with in the future. And then we'll go on to a little more detail per segment, and we'll start with the academy bookend. And this picture focuses on the first quarter. And on the left you see net revenue development in the first quarter. And the academic book market has continued the positive trend that has remained since the pandemic. And it is not visible here in the picture, but now we are also at levels that are higher than before the pandemic's negative impact, especially on stores. So a very positive revenue development. And we also see to the right an equally positive development in the number of active customers, which are customers who have traded at least once during the last 12 months. And net revenue growth in stores was 7.9% during this quarter, and online even more, 16.8%. And this made the online share grow to 10.5%, as you can see in the bubble on the far right, compared to 9.8% in previous years. Jag kan också nämna, vilket inte syns i bilden, att vi har också ytterligare stärkt NPS. Det är vårt kundnäckeltal som mäter kundernas rekommendationsvilja. Den har då stärkts till 68 i det här kvartalet mot föregående års första kvartal då det låg på 66. Det här är ju oerhört högt, båda av de här, men det är ändå positivt att vi från en hög nivå lyckas utvecklas ännu mer positivt. I can also mention, which is not either seen in the picture, that all stores except one generate positive operating income. And this is a focus that we have and there are also plans for this last store. Our goal is that all stores should generate positive operating income. And last year, one store opened and seven came through acquisition. And then we step over to our second segment, focus, where we also in this picture have focus on the first quarter, then we also see here to the left, the turnover in the first quarter in the last five years. And here it was actually reversed for stores. We had a very positive boost from the pandemic and since then there has been a return, but now it has still started to turn in a positive direction. The year's turnover increased significantly, as we have already mentioned, which was primarily explained by the new BTI grant. And up in the right corner here in the picture, you can see that digital books continue to increase strongly with 13%, and that is mainly driven by Bokus Play. But we also sell digital bookstores on Bokus, which also exists in that figure. We also saw a positive development in course book sales. In the graph to the right, you can see the development of the number of active customers, and here the customer base remains at about the same level as last year. And down to the right you can also see the development of the customer number NPS. And the knowledge among e-commerce customers has increased significantly with an NPS that increased to 66 from last year's 62. And we see this primarily as an improvement that comes from the fact that we have improved our e-commerce suppliers' lead time and precision with the help of the change to a new supplier for e-commerce logistics. And if we turn the perspective a little bit and look forward, then it is the fact that we have more and more satisfied customers and also access to acquired businesses. Something that gives us a strong momentum here now when we continue into 2025. And during the year we will also gradually launch our new e-commerce system, which gives us even more, that is, gives us improved opportunities to drive sales and further increase our cost efficiency. At the same time, on the other side of the coin, we have a deteriorated geopolitical situation and it has again increased insecurity when it comes to the development of connectivity. which can have a negative impact on the customer's consumer desire. Vi brukar säga att vi inte är så konjunkturkänsliga, men det är klart att det alltid är någon typ av påverkan och det är svårare att driva organisk tillväxt med försiktiga konsumenter. Men vi är absolut inte ett segment som är det mest drabbade av en svagare konjunktur eller ökade osäkerheter. I will also just remind you of something that we already talked about last quarter, and that is that the board proposes a high allocation from 3.30 as it was last year to 3.60 this year. But this is something then that we hand over to the annual vote to make a decision on, and that happens on May 7th. Till slut så tänker jag att vi tar en kort repetition av vad vi har presenterat för er idag. Det första kvartalet blev ännu ett mycket starkt kvartal. Omsättningen ökade, bruttomarginalerna stärktes och det ledde då till en ordentligt förbättrad EBITDA. De tre bolag vi förvärvade föregående år bidrar positivt till både omsättning och lönsamhet. En viktig milstolpe är att vi genomförde en första delansering av vår nya e-handelsplattform i form av ett nytt PIM, Product Information Management System. Vi ser med spänning fram emot nästa delansering som kommer synas mer tydligt ut mot våra kunder. And thus we are done with our presentation part and open up for questions.

Thank you so much Maria and Ola for that presentation and we open up for the question time. And we take the first question that sounds like this. The gross margin increased to 42.5%. How sustainable would you see these improvements in the future, especially in relation to increased logistics costs?

I can take that question. It is a very good increase in this quarter. It partly has an effect on the work that we are currently doing, with both price optimization and supplier negotiations. It depends on our sortiment and channel mix and so on. But we also have a positive effect on av våra förvärvade verksamheter här. Så att vi ska fortsätta i den takten varje kvartal framåt, det är inte så sannolikt, men däremot så är ju vår ambition att vi ska fortsätta att förstärka våra marginaler över tid. Så att ja, fortsatt förstärkning, men kanske inte i den storleksordningen.

Håller du med, Olof? Jag håller med, ja. Men det är ju inte så att det är någon speciell one Tack för det svaret.

Kan ni utveckla lite hur bokrean utvecklades? En stor konkurrent, Adlibris, hade väldigt positiva kommentarer kring starten.

I would say that if we had expressed ourselves at that time, we would also have had very positive comments. Because it was a great start for the REA, it accelerated quickly. But I would say as a whole that our REA was on a level with last year, which is very good. But as a whole, it was not much better than last year, but rather on the same level.

Vad har ni för förväntningar på Q2? Och betyder den sena påsken något enligt er uppfattning?

The Easter doesn't have a huge impact on us. There will be a certain calendar delay, but it's not such a big sales event for us. There will be a few more red days and so on. And then in April, a small month in general in Q2. So that won't be decisive for Q2. And we watch out for making forecasts, so that's really what I mentioned here at the end, that we feel that we have a positive momentum and there are several exciting things on the way that we're going to launch. So we're positive about that, but I can't say more than that.

Thank you for that answer. Hur upplever ni att marknadsandelarna har utvecklats för bokhusgruppen relativt Storytel och BookBeat etc.? ?

Unfortunately, we report before the market statistics are published. It won't come until next week, I think. So we don't have facts just for the first quarter. But we have seen a trend throughout last year that we are developing better than the market in all segments that we operate in. So both within the store, e-commerce and also in the streaming segment. Men just första kvartalet har jag tyvärr inga siffror på än.

Jag förstår. Och hur ser ni på tillväxtpotentialen i Bokus Play? Och vilka åtgärder planeras för att öka lönsamheten i det här segmentet?

We see big growth opportunities in Bokus Play, but we are still a small company compared to our big competitors. We have higher growth than the market, but we still have a long way to go to get up to their size. We have chosen a strategy where we mainly recruit in our own customer bases, so that we recruit mainly among book customers and academic bookkeeping customers, both digitally and via our sellers in the store. And it is a cost-effective recruiting channel where we step by step see that we succeed better and better with it. When it comes to profitability in the segment, it is of course a balance between how forward-oriented we choose to move forward to grow and how much focus we have on making money here and now. We will see which way we choose to move forward. So I can answer that question right now. So far we have been relatively careful and focused on making money.

I understand, thank you for that answer. Can you specify how much of the growth during the quarter that came from organic factors compared to acquisitions?

No, we can't specify that in detail, but as I said in the presentation, we have both organic growth and a certain percentage that comes from the acquisition. While for Segmented Bokus, it was the upcoming BTI acquisition that stood for growth.

Thank you. And you mention positive currency effects. How sensitive are your margins for future currency changes?

In total, they are not particularly sensitive. It is not such a big part of our purchases or costs that have a connection to till utländsk valuta då. Nu har det ju varit en ganska stor förändring under just det här kvartalet, Q1. Så det har ju haft ett visst genomslag och dessutom så var effekten Q1 2024 åt andra hållet då. Så skillnaden mellan kvartalen blev ändå en peng. But overall, we don't have any major exposure.

And what financial impact do you expect the upcoming launches of the new e-commerce system to have, both in the short and long term?

Ja, alltså det är inget jag kan specificera i detalj men det är ju alltid så när man lanserar någonting nytt så finns det ju alltid en inkörningsperiod så det kan ju bli ett litet negativt hack i kurvan precis runt lansering men annars så är ju det här någonting som vi ser ger oss mycket bättre möjligheter till att både driva försäljning men också på sikt göra det på ett mer kostnadseffektivt sätt.

Och då tar vi en Avslutande fråga här. Med tanke på osäkerheten i omvärlden, inklusive handelskonflikter, vilka konkreta riskstrategier har ni för att skydda kassaflöden men även tillväxtmål?

Oh, that was a difficult question. It is very difficult to navigate in the environment right now. So I think that listening to the rail and ensuring that we have space for action and flexibility is the best risk strategy right now. Because it changes from day to day what happens. And then we can say this, we are not... We are not particularly import and definitely not export dependent, so that is not the big risk for us. We see a greater risk for what this does for the conjecture and how... our customers are then affected and thus act in the future. And there, as always, we have just had a longer period of low congestion and we have managed to navigate well in that and we will continue to do so if it continues to be tough times.

Thank you, Maria and Ola, for your presentation, but also for answering all of our questions. And now the floor is yours for a few final words.

Thank you very much. Ja, men då vill jag passa på att också tacka för att ni tog er tid att lyssna in på presentationen. Och sen vill jag påminna om några viktiga datum här framöver. Nästa viktiga händelse är vår årsstämma. Den hålls den 7 maj. Och mer information om den hittar ni på vår hemsida. Och ni som är aktieägare är ju varmt välkomna att anmäla er. Och då är det senast den 30 april som ni behöver göra det. And this year, the annual rating is on GT30 instead of what we usually do in our store. And that's because it's under renovation, so you can't go to the wrong place. And we hope to be able to go back to the store again next year. But this year, another place. And then we have after that to look forward to the quarter report for the second quarter that we release on July 15th. Så med det så vill vi tacka för oss och säger hejdå!

Hejdå!