Medistim ASA

OSE:MEDI

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Kari Krogstad, executive]

Okay. So good morning, everyone, and welcome to Medistim's Fourth Quarter Presentation for 2022. My name is Kari Krogstad. I'm here together with my CFO, Thomas Jakobsen. And as usual, we will take you through the results.

And we will move directly into the highlights for 2022 and the fourth quarter. So I'm very happy to report an outstanding finish to our best year yet. This is another all-time high sales quarter for Medistim. As you can see, we are ending up at NOK 141.8 million compared to the NOK 112.7 million we had same quarter last year. So by this, we are beating our previous sales record by 25%. Actually, this second best quarter was the second quarter last year. And the third best was the third quarter last year. So of course, it all ends up with a very good year as well.

As you can see from the numbers here, the imaging sales is also outstanding. So we're seeing for the quarter a growth of 33.5%. Flow is also growing nicely at 28% for the quarter. So this is really a development that we like to see. For the Vascular portfolio, we continue to see growth our Vascular products. This is also very important. But this particular quarter, we're also seeing that the Cardiac portfolio is showing fantastic growth.

If we look at the currency neutral situation. And as you can see to the left here, we have a relatively small positive currency effect. So with the currency neutral, we are looking at the total growth of 21.6%. And taking a look at our own products in isolation, this shows a currency-neutral growth of 24.6% in total.

And as we can see from the numbers, it's Asia that is really driving this growth for the quarter with 51.8% growth. Europe is also showing very strong development this quarter, and U.S.A. continued to deliver very nicely. Our smaller region, rest of the world is also positive this quarter.

When it comes to our third-party portfolio, this is growing by 6.5% this quarter. And when we then look at our EBIT margin, this is the third best EBIT of NOK 36.5 million that we have ever delivered and is also the third best EBIT margin ever. So we're ending up at NOK 36.5 million and a margin of 25.7%.

Lastly, for the quarter, the Board of Directors have suggested or will suggest to the General Meeting a dividend of NOK 4.5 per share. So that's the quarterly highlights.

If we then move into looking at the highlights for the year. This is, as I alluded to, the best year ever for both revenue and EBIT for the company. Our sales revenues is growing at 15.1%. If we are actually excluding the PPP grant we had in 2021, sales is growing by 16.6%. And again, look at this imaging development, imaging sales of the imaging portfolio growing at 44%.

And I think this -- I just want to stress and emphasize these companies believe in really the combined use of transit time flow measurement and also high-frequency ultrasound imaging. In combination, which is really the best solution for the patients, for the surgeons and of course, also for Medistim as a company. And this goes for the cardiac applications and it goes for the vascular applications. So this is a very deliberate development from the company.

Yes, currency-neutral total revenue growth is 10.5%. If we look at the geographical developments through the whole year, we are clearly seeing that U.S.A. is taking the lead this year with a tremendous 22% of currency-neutral growth. Asia is up 15.6%, Europe, up 8.4% and also rest of the world showing a small growth here. Third party, more modest, 2% growth for the year.

Then when we are looking at the EBIT, we are then delivering a new record for a year, NOK 141.3 million and also the best margin we have delivered so far, 28.7%. So with that, I will leave it to Thomas to go through the P&L and the balance sheet.

[Thomas Jakobsen, executive]

Thank you, Kari. It's always nice to be able to present another record quarter. So we will dive into the numbers. And -- we will, as we traditionally do, Kari will go through the sales numbers in more detail, split on geography and by product. So I will go into that detail now.

What I need to mention though, is that growth is coming from our own products, and that improves our margin and the reduction of cost of goods sold is explained by that in percent and the gross margin improvement is 1.6%.

Salary and social expenses is up around 3%, one would expect a little bit higher growth in those expenses related to what we've been talking about earlier with that -- by the fact that we've strengthened our organization within R&D, sales and administration, but the fact is that we have had a higher level of activation on R&D expenses related to product development. And we also had last year a higher level of commission and also a share program for management, which we did not have this year. And that explains the lower increase in the salary and the social expenses.

Other operating expenses increases from NOK 18 million to NOK 23.8 million. And the main reason for that is related to traveling activity and exhibitions. In the fourth quarter, we've been participating in 3 major exhibitions, the European Congress for Coronary and [Indiscernible] surgery EX, the ICC International Coronary Congress and last but not least, the Vascular Congress for European surgeons. And those are 3 major exhibitions where we have had our teams represented. So those exhibitions are costly and therefore, other operating expenses have increased for this quarter.

However, we still have a very positive development in the EBITDA, which is up from 22.6% to 29.9% and ends at NOK 42.4 million. Depreciation is at the same level as last year. And our operating result EBIT ends at NOK 36.5 million. EBIT percentage, up from 17.2% to 25.7%. So it's a nice development.

Net finance is related to currency, mainly and the weak Norwegian krone results in either realized or unrealized gains related to U.S. dollars and towards euros and it gives us a positive effect for the quarter by NOK 5.4 million. This results in a profit before tax that ends at NOK 41.9 million and profit after tax ends at NOK 32.5 million, a doubling compared to the same period last year.

Then summarize the year. Sales ends at NOK 492 million. And with growth driven by our own products, margin is improving in the same way as for the quarter. And also when it comes to expenses, salary and other operating expenses, the explanations are the same as for the quarter, only larger numbers. So I don't go into that detail right now. We end with an operating result EBIT at NOK 41.3 million and net pretax profit ends at NOK 146 million and profit after tax ends at NOK 114 million, meaning that the top line growth of 15% ends with a profit growth of 25%. So it's a nice development.

Balance sheet. Intangible assets increases naturally since we have activated more of our R&D expenses, fixed assets, however, has been reduced and the total intangible and fixed asset is at the same level as last year. Inventory increases, the supply situation has improved in the second half of 2022. So we have been able to secure more end-of-life components and critical components in the manner that we would like to do.

Customer receivables increases. It's a natural thing when sales grow pretty strongly, but also it's related to timing of sales. Sales ending late in the quarter is not due and therefore, it will be in the balance sheet by the end of the year.

Cash position is still very strong and best ever going out over the year, and ends at NOK 142.6 million. So it's a solid cash base. And with the dividend that is being suggested by the Board, this would mean a cash payment of NOK 81.1 million, and so there should be a good solid cash position even after paying out a dividend.

Equity and liability. The company has no interest-bearing debt. The long-term debt that we have in the balance sheet is related to lease contracts and deferred revenue, lease contracts is NOK 10 million and the deferred revenue related to service and warranty contracts is NOK 5 million. We do have NOK 17 million in lease obligation, but NOK 7 million of the NOK 17 million is booked in short-term debt since it's due within 1 year. Solid balance sheet, as you can see, with an equity of more than 75%.

And with that, I give the word back to Kari. Thank you.

[Kari Krogstad, executive]

Okay. So we will take a look at the various parts of the business, starting with imaging probes and systems in units. So we will see that the sales of the imaging units is growing steadily over time. This particular quarter, we are growing at a high 21.7% in units. Also for the imaging probes, we see growing trend over time. However, for this particular quarter, it is down by 24%. So this is -- the numbers here are showing some quarterly variations for sure.

When it comes to the flow probes and systems in units, looking at the number of flow systems sold for the quarter is down by 16.3%. Again, we see a lot of quarterly variations actually, Asia is showing a very high growth in the number of flow systems this quarter, while Europe is quite low compared to the very strong fourth quarter last year.

If we look at the sum, the total sales of systems flow and the combined systems in total, we are at more or less the same level as last year, 3 units less, but since the growth in the imaging number of systems is so high, of course, that is driving the revenue growth for the quarter. We're also seeing a very strong number in development in a number of flow probes that we've sold for the quarter 36.7%. That is unusual to show this kind of growth number for flow probes, and it is partly driven by an announced price increase implemented in 2023.

If you take a look at the revenues now divided by the geographical regions, starting with Europe. And in Europe, we, of course, sell both our own products and the third-party products. And for fourth quarter, the sales of our own products increased by 32%, almost the same currency neutral, while the third party had a slower increase of 6.5%.

And looking at the total year number, the sale of own products increased by 7.7% in NOK almost the same in currency neutral and third party is ending up with 2% growth compared to last year.

For the U.S.A., there is a much bigger currency effect. We can see that U.S.A. is growing 22.8% in Norwegian currency. Currency neutral, this quarterly growth is close to 10%. So a big difference there. For 2022, the currency-neutral sales is growing 22% as previously mentioned. So a very, very strong year from the U.S.A.

In Asia, we continue to see recovery from the slow start in the first quarter. As you will remember, we were waiting for a regulatory approval for the sort of the midterm upgrade of our MiraQ, meaning that we had to implement a number of new components that also required some regulatory assessments and approvals. And China was a country that has taken a long time to go through this approval process. So in first quarter, we were lacking the approval, and we were lacking a solution for delivering the systems to our customers, we found an interim solution so that we were able to get back into business and start delivering again in second quarter and third quarter. And now from fourth quarter, the regulatory approval is in place, and we are able to fill all the customer orders. So really strong development in Asia for the quarter, also driving a good result for the year.

Yes. Rest of the world is, as you can see, a very small region with high quarterly variation. If you now take a look at the revenues split by the various product categories, starting with the procedures in United States. Yes, we see pretty good correspondence between the growth in number of procedures. And number of procedures are driving the growth that we're seeing together, of course, with the capital sales.

When it comes to flow probes, as I mentioned, number of units, 36.7% up for the quarter, but a more normal 7.7% growth for the year. Yes.

Flow systems sold as capital in number of units, down 16.3% for the quarter at the same level as last year for 2022. And yes, here, we're seeing some channel effects. Obviously, the higher reduction in Norwegian currency for the quarter is due to the higher level of sales going through the distribution sales channel. And these are the factors that are always sort of influencing the difference between the developments in number of units and the results we're seeing in Norwegian currency, so both the currency effect, the sales channel effect and also the business model in the United States. So whether we are selling a unit as a capital sales or as a lease or a PPP sale.

For imaging systems, 21.7% increase in units for the quarter, 21.7% for the year, and the high growth here in NOK is driven by strong sales through the direct U.S. sales channel and positive currency on top of that. So that really drives the fantastic development.

For third party, a 6.5% increase in sales for the quarter, 2% growth for the year. So we're seeing a pretty modest year for the third party. We have seen increased competition in one of our biggest agencies for breast implants from Mentor as we are seeing more competition. So this is driving both sort of volume down a bit and also the pricing down a bit. So this has been a challenging year for that portfolio.

At the same time, we have secured a new agency from A.M.I. in Austria for urology and gynecology products, which is showing very nice progress and the promise for 2023.

Yes. A final comment on the COVID-19 situation, we have consistently reported on the impact on the situation for the company. And I think now it's fair to say that we have entered into a normal situation, and we are back to more normal growth levels. We are not facing really problems out in the marketplace any longer. So this will probably be the last report, hopefully, on this particular topic.

Of course, there are other worries out there in the global market. And I think for Medistim, it is supply chain issues that will always keep us alert. And as you've seen from our balance sheet, we are trying to mitigate this partly by keeping pretty high security stocks of components to ensure that we have our production secured.

Yes, implementing the strategy this quarter, nothing particular other than commenting on the U.S. as strategically very important market for the company. And the performance here in the U.S., as I said, very good development. Currency-neutral sales for the quarter, up almost 10%, more than 22% for the year. And it's very interesting now to follow the number of procedures, which is also, of course, steadily growing.

If we're just looking at flow procedures applied for coronary artery bypass applications, we can now calculate that Medistim share of the number of procedures in the United States is more than 30%. So this shows that we have established a really meaningful position in the U.S. market and it will be interesting to see whether this will be able to further spur the implementation and adoption of flow technology primarily, but also, of course, imaging as we move on.

As the figures show, the flow procedures was up well for the quarter and almost 70% for the year, imaging procedures growing even higher with 17% for the quarter and over 31% for the full year. We are continuing to see a tendency of our customers preferring to buy the equipment as capital -- and although it's a little bit lower than the same quarter last year, we sold 8 units as capital in Q4. But for the total year, we are as high as 46 units compared to the 32 last year and -- sorry, the 6 -- yes, 46 units in '22, where 32 of those were imaging. So this is really driving the revenues and the high growth that we are seeing from the U.S.

So great development there. And we are also keeping winning new customers. These numbers have tended to be very high. I think they're still high. Same number of customers won this quarter compared to last year, a little bit lower in the total number, but still a very significant addition to our portfolio of customers in this country.

So I think in conclusion, we can say that we are adding another great year to our history. And these graphs are, of course, very good to have a look at and with the plan now to continue to pay out dividends at NOK 4.50 per share as announced. This is also sort of keeping the track record or pace that we have seen from the past.

And speaking of the future, we would like to mention also in this presentation that Medistim is now inviting to our Capital Markets Day. This will be held on March 21. We're actually going to start with little breakfast at 8:30, and we will start the meeting at 9:00. So we will be very proud to present a couple of really highly renowned speakers. First and foremost, Professor John Puskas, which is one of the world's leading cardiovascular surgeons and really an innovator in his field also a global leader in the development of minimally invasive coronary revascularization, where they are combining robotic bypass grafting with catheter-based stents in selected patients. So we will look forward to hearing his perspectives on the past, the present and the future of this fascinating surgical field.

I will also mention that he was one of the lead investigators in the REQUEST study, demonstrating the benefits of the combined use of flow and imaging and he is then also very much familiar with Medistim technology.

Vascular surgery is as we are highlighting the next sort of growth market for the company. And we would like to present also a leader in this field to potential investors and investors. So Professor Vikatmaa will come from Finland. He's the current President of the Finnish Surgical Society and former member of the European Society of Vascular Surgery. So also a leader within his field, performing a variety of vascular procedures and also with extensive experience from using Medistim's equipment. So we really hope that this will shed more light into these exciting surgical fields and also the role for medicine in this place also going forward.

And -- in the Capital Markets Day, we will also talk a little bit about our innovation strategies and efforts. We will talk a little bit on our history in innovation and also give some directions of what to expect next from the company.

So with that, I will thank everybody who has been listening this morning. This presentation is recorded and will be uploaded on our website as soon as possible today. Do we have any questions so far?

[Thomas Jakobsen, executive]

Yes, we have some questions from the web here. First one is related to Asia. Congratulations on the strong fourth quarter. You are showing strong growth rates in many markets, especially in Asia, with 50% growth in the quarter. From which markets did the growth come? And how do you see the future growth potential in this region?

[Kari Krogstad, executive]

Okay. So yes, so a question about Asia. Yes. So in Asia, as I mentioned, it is really China as the market insulation that is driving the good growth that we're seeing in this particular quarter, and it is good development in China in total. It's a market that we believe strongly, and we see that it is growing, and we expect it to continue to grow. But the really high percentage-wise growth that we've seen both -- well, earlier in last year, but particularly this fourth quarter is coming from this regulatory approval that we gained and just really our ability to feed this pent-up demand that was building through the year.

[Thomas Jakobsen, executive]

Yes. And we have another one regarding cost levels. Cost levels were rising in Q4, especially in other operating expenses due to high market activity and sales activity in the reports. Is this level what we can expect to see going forward?

[Kari Krogstad, executive]

Yes. So the fourth quarter is typically, I would say, an activity-intensive quarter. So these large conferences that Thomas was mentioning, sometimes they fall in the third quarter, sometimes in the fourth. This quarter that fell in the fourth quarter. So of course, that increases expense levels somewhat. But I will also say that our continued efforts in strengthening our innovation and R&D teams also are impacting on the costs that we're seeing for this fourth quarter.

I have to say though that if you're looking at our margins, those have also been improving both for the quarter and for the year. So of course, we -- our ambition is to continue to keep developing and delivering really nice margins here. I think it's very important for the company to continue to invest in the -- in our R&D and innovation in particular. So we will continue to do that.

[Operator]

And there is one question from the chat that I missed. It says how do you -- with sales and OpEx developing, do you see sales to grow faster than OpEx growth?

[Kari Krogstad, executive]

That is definitely our goal. That is definitely our goal. That, in fact, has been our historical development, and that will continue to be our goal.

Okay. Then I think we are closing this presentation and looking forward to the first quarter of 2023. Thank you very much.