VNV Global AB (publ)

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to VNV Global's second quarter 2024 conference call. On the call today, we have Per Birger, CEO, and Dennis Mohamed, who's a member on the investment team, and myself, Björn Fosslid, who's the CFO of the company. As per usual, Per will start with a summary of the developments during the quarter and a few highlights out of his management letter. And then I'll follow with some NAV drivers and then we do Q&A. And as a reminder, if you want to ask a question, please use the Q&A function here in Zoom and we'll try to address your question towards the end. With that, I'll hand over to you, Per. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Bjorn. So we just flicked through a couple of pages highlighting what's been going on here. $600 million NAV, which is just under 49 Swedish crowns per share, which is down 10% on the quarter, which is basically a reflection of the multiples that we follow in the peer universe. in the public universe that we use for our valuation work has been falling in this manner. And then also, of course, we signed... We sold GET. I mean, we get to close it and we can talk more about that later, but we sold GET and that was slightly below NAV. So that's also contributing to this NAV being a touch lower. If we flick to the next page, I think... Yeah, that page. So I think most of you are well aware of this transaction. We've spoken about it a lot. But in this quarter, we did announce that we had sold Get. All of Get has been sold to a company called Pango. And our... For a total of $83 million net to us, of which $70 million we get on closing, and then another $30 million, $13.13 will come in installments over a few years. And that's not an earn-out. It's an escrow. We, as sellers, provide the buyer with... sort of a pack, you know, cash and security. So we've indemnified them for that the things like tax and legal stuff, et cetera, is like we've said it is. And we're very confident that it is, but it's customary. this part of the world to sort of leave some money in escrow that is then released as it becomes clear also that the company is in the shape it is. So it's a long winding explanation of that. But anyway, that's the difference between 83 and 70. And yeah, this is now waiting for Israeli antitrust to... study that this sort of acquisition or merger of pango and get doesn't decrease competition now pango is like a parking app uh parking parking um product in Israel. We have one in Sweden called Easy Park and I guess that's European. So it's that type of service. So it really doesn't alter the competitive nature of either the parking business or the taxi business. So I don't think anyone is really concerned that this will not go through. But both Pango and Get are very large Israeli brand names so it's very customary that the authorities they take a good look and they ask for a lot of data and they go through the data and we're in the midst of that process now but we've seen nothing that sort of gives rise to concern that it's not going to close when it's going to close it's difficult to say because they're going to sift through the data it's summer it's all of that but we have no reason to be concerned that it won't close So that's Get. If we flick to the next page, you see our portfolio looks as of now, before we've actually sold Get or closed the portfolio. the sale of GET and then on the right hand side, you see how the portfolio looks as if GET was sold by the end of June this year. So that renders a portfolio where blah, blah, blah increases and well, GET is gone essentially. And we've also paid back our debts and have a small cash balance to the order of like $5 million before we get the inflow of this escrow. That $13 million will be released over a couple of years, and that will obviously increase that, but there's a small cash net positive if we would have closed GET on the end of June. So you get a picture of that. I think what we'll do now is have Bjorn go through the mechanics of this balance sheet and NAV, and then I'll come back and do some commentary on the actual underlying businesses.

Sure. Thank you, Per. I'll walk through our balance sheet quickly and then the top three holdings and the movements during quarter before handing back to Per. And if we start with this, I mean, as Per mentioned, NAV is at 48.6 crowns per share or $4.58 per share at the end of June, down 10% in both second and dollar terms over the quarter, primarily driven by BlablaCar, Get and Housing Anywhere. Leads us with an investment portfolio of some $670 million or 54 crowns per share. Cash and cash equivalents of $14.6 million following the redemption of the remaining 2021-2024 bond earlier this quarter in the order of 306 million crowns that we repaid in June. In addition to the $14.6 million in cash and cash equivalent, we also have $2 million in liquid and management investment. So all in all, $16.6 million in liquidity at the end of the quarter, which is some 1.3 crowns per share. So all in all, it's a gross portfolio of 55.5 crowns per share. And then the borrowings at the end of the quarter following the redemption of the The June 24 bond is $81.2 million or minus 6.6 crowns per share, which leads us with 48.6 crowns per share NAV at the end of the quarter. Still trading at a significant discount to that NAV. If we move to the next slide, Dennis, we have the portfolio companies. If we start with BlaBlaCar, the main driver over the quarter, down 14%, primarily driven by peer multiples in our EV sales valuation models. There's also some FX in that, and more than two-thirds of the NAV down awards adjustment this year of $42.6 million is BlaBlaCar. Second is Esket, which Per mentioned that we agreed to sell, not yet closed, but at this core branding, we've valued it on the basis of the ongoing transaction, which is down approximately 11% versus the valuation-based model we used at the end of Q1. Voy here is completely flat over the quarter, still valued on the basis of the transaction from earlier this year. companies performing well. And finally, as mentioned, one of the other key drivers of the NAV this quarter was Housing Anywhere, which similar to Blah Blah, and there's some overlap in that peer group, is down 14% or $7 million over the quarter. All in all, private value change over quarter is some $61.7 million. If you just look at the top three names again, it's becoming an increasingly concentrated portfolio. BlaBlaCar represents approximately 21 crowns per share or 43.4 of the NAV. This is pre-GET being sold as of June 30th. GET is still or soon to be cash, hopefully 11% of the quarter or 6.7 crowns per share. And then if you look at void, it's approximately 6.5 crowns per share. So all in all, the top three largest holdings is just over 34 crowns per share and just above 70% of the total NAV. I mentioned the cash and that the large movement during the quarter is due to the repayment of the bond. And if you look at the net debt figure, it's down significantly from year end 2023 and slightly up over the quarter, given some optics as well. And with that, I think I'll pause and hand over back to Per before moving into the Q&A.