Zaptec ASA

OSE:ZAP

Earnings Call Transcript

[Kurt Ostrem, executive]

Welcome to the presentation of the fourth quarter financial results for Zaptec. My name is Kurt Ostrem. I'm the CEO in Zaptec.

[Eirik Haerem, executive]

And I'm Eirik Haerem, I'm the CFO of Zaptec.

[Kurt Ostrem, executive]

The fourth quarter was a breakthrough quarter for Zaptec with all the KPIs on the right track. The fourth quarter was also the last quarter we compare ourselves with the record year 2023. It turns out that a lot of the chargers sold in 2023 ended up as an increased inventory with our distribution partners. Throughout 2024, these partners sold out and installed these chargers. And this has, of course, an impact of the sales of new charger in 2024.

But this is no history. Throughout 2024, the installation rate of Zaptec charger have been way higher than the sales. And the fourth quarter was a turning point. We see that now that despite of a really strong order intake, we still have a high installation rate of Zaptec chargers. When we look at the fourth quarter, we have managed to have improved revenue and EBITDA compared to the last quarter. Continuously initiatives to lower the COGS as a result is a stable and increased gross margin.

We had a really strong order intake, and this gives us visibility through a solid order backlog. And we have reduced inventory further as planned. In the fourth quarter, we had a significant cash flow, improved liquidity and added also new financial flexibility in the fourth quarter. And in the first quarter, we launched a new product. These new products unlock major European markets for Zaptec in 2025.

[Eirik Haerem, executive]

Okay. So I'll take you through briefly the financial highlights of the quarter before we dive into more detail later in the presentation. Our revenue in the fourth quarter came in at NOK 327 million. We almost doubled the order intake from the last quarter to NOK 456 million. This puts us in a strong position going into 2025 with a backlog of firm orders of almost NOK 500 million. On top of that, we have forecasted orders of over NOK 500 million, bringing the total to over NOK 1 billion in order backlog visibility.

We continue to increase the gross margin to 40%. We continue to lower OpEx to NOK 111 million, and we delivered NOK 90 million of EBITDA. This was higher than both last quarter and also the same quarter in '23. So I'll leave it back to you, Kurt, to go into some more detail.

[Kurt Ostrem, executive]

Yes. When we look at the sales in the fourth quarter, the revenue was 15% down from the fourth quarter of 2023. And as mentioned, we don't compare apple against apple. If you look at the organic growth from the fourth quarter 2022, we have a 37% growth in that period. We are now present in all of Europe. And with this solid order backlog, we are well positioned for strong growth in 2025. The order intake in the fourth quarter was an increase by 26% compared to the fourth quarter last year. We had NOK 456 million in order intake in Q4, and this positive momentum in order intake continued into the first quarter this year.

We have secured revenue from significant deliveries in the first half of 2025. And we have visibility through a solid order backlog when we go into 2025. We have firm order backlog of NOK 495 million with deliveries in the first half. In addition, we have forecasted order intake for the second half. And in total, this order intake exceeding NOK 1 billion at the end of Q4. And I also want to point out that these preorders are mainly in selected mature markets like the Nordics and the Benelux. In the same time, we have ongoing sales in all markets, include these mature markets as in addition as a part of the ordinary business. And we try to illustrate this with this purple graph, and this is showing a really strong order backlog for 2025.

[Eirik Haerem, executive]

So let's look a bit more into our gross margin. Improving the gross margin is a key strategic priority for Zaptec. As you can see on the graph, we have increased our gross margin for 4 quarters in a row. As we look into 2025, we believe in a continued strong gross margin. This is backed on that we have actually reduced the COGS on our products already. These effects are yet to fully materialize in our financials due to accounting principles. We have a continuous focus on improving gross margin by reducing COGS. On top of that, the Zaptec Go 2, which we have launched, has a higher gross margin than the current Zaptec Go, which will boost our overall gross margin for the year. When we look into the second half of the year, we look to increase the production again. And from that, we will benefit from lower unit costs when we scale the production.

And then diving a bit more into the EBITDA. As mentioned, we had NOK 19 million EBITDA in the fourth quarter. It's important to note that based on a lower top line in 2024 compared to 2023, the full year EBITDA was up over 30%. As we look into '25, we continue to improve our forecast for increased EBITDA. This is driven by the sales pipeline, which is strong, the continued focus on gross margin and also keeping OpEx at a reasonable level. And then Kurt will talk a bit about the market and our strategy.

[Kurt Ostrem, executive]

Yes. As mentioned before, the EV market is set for recovery in 2025. And the recent analyze shows that the European market is expected to grow with 23% in 2025. We have already seen a range of new affordable EV models coming into the market. We have already seen stricter EU CO2 rules implemented from the 1st of January this year. And now we see that EU have plans for new incentives for EV. This is really positive news for Zaptec. But this is not only plans. If you look into the start of 2025 and look at the number for EV sales in Scandinavia, in Denmark, we have an increase in plug-in vehicle sales for 99% in January.

In Norway, we have an increase of 90%. And even if in the weak market in Sweden, we see an increase of 12%. This is really important for the sales of Zaptec since this is our core markets. And now I want to show you how we execute on our strategic road map. First of all, we build on the success in our core markets, which we have a really strong share -- market share in. We're also working on the finalized our product market fit to be ready for all of Europe, and then we expand into these major markets in Europe.

And all the time, we drive improvements to maximize cash flow and profit. In the fourth quarter, we installed 59,000 Zaptec chargers. Throughout 2024, we saw a 20% increase in installation versus 2023 despite lower revenue. And the installation rates exceeding units sold in 2024 demonstrate the significant sales growth potential of 2025 for Zaptec. We're also demonstrating our product leadership in Europe. We still have new awards, winning new awards. We recently got the Product of the Year in Norway for the Zaptec Go. We also recently won the Bast I Test in Sweden for our product. And this is important since this is our 2 largest market still. When it comes to finalizing product market fit, in January, we launched the new Zaptec Pro Eichrecht.

The Zaptec Pro with compliance to the German calibration law, and this secures a competitive edge for public and semi-public charging in Germany and Austria. And just to give you an example, -- without the Eichrecht certification, we compete with about 200 different charging stations. With the Eichrecht certification on the Zaptec Pro, we are down to about 20 competitors. So this is really great news for Zaptec.

Yesterday, we launched the next-generation Zaptec home charger, the Zaptec Go 2. This new product generates a strong interest in the market and all the first months of production is already sold out. The new Zaptec Go 2 includes key features who will unlock major European markets. It's compliant with the MID calibration law. This gives us access to the huge company cars market in Europe. It contains phase switching for solar integration and it has vehicle-to-grid hardware ready. That means when the back end, the regulation and the cars are ready, you can take power from the car battery back to the building or the grid with the Zaptec charger.

[Eirik Haerem, executive]

Okay. Let's talk about the next on our strategic road map, and that is to grow in major markets. We are now ramping up significantly in the Benelux region. We more than doubled the revenue from 2024 from 2023 to 2024 in the region. And we have now more to come. With the release of the Zaptec Go 2, the addressable market is increasing significantly in the region, and we see strong growth potential for 2025.

Then we're going to go to the U.K. The U.K. is one of the largest EV markets in Europe. I'm going to go a bit back in time now, but in 2023, Zaptec refocused its strategy and swapped management in the U.K. We started to see the results of this in 2024 with revenue increasing 75%.

But that's not all. We also built a foundation for growing beyond '24 in 2025. We're working towards the wider ecosystem of EVs in the U.K., and we're working with some highly exciting deals. We're confident to increase the revenue next year with at least 100% and the potential is much higher than that. And then Germany. Germany is the largest vehicle market in Europe, and we are ready for Germany. As Kurt mentioned, we have now both the Zaptec Go 2 and the Zaptec Pro Eichrecht, so we have the full product portfolio for the German market.

We have received recognition for our work already. The Zaptec Go was an award winner in AutoBild, which is a magazine with 1.5 million readers every month. And importantly, we have started sales and order intake at a very strong level in Q1 so far. We actually have more sales so far this year than in '24 in total. So now let's go back, Kurt, on some efforts to drive our cash flow.

[Kurt Ostrem, executive]

Yes. So as mentioned, we are stabilizing OpEx and enhancing efficiency. We have reduced the OpEx by 10% from 2023 to 2024. And to give you an example, we have improved our cloud solution and the setup. So from 1st of January 2025, we have reduced the cost on our cloud solution with yearly NOK 12 million.

We have also, in the last year, done a lot of organizational change to improve the efficiency and be ready for the growth going forward. And we have also moving the marketing efforts closer to the sales channels, and this will have a positive impact in 2025.

And all the time, we are spending our money and building for the future. We have launched the Zaptec Pro Eichrecht and the Zaptec Go 2 as our main product in this quarter. But in the same time, we have launched a lot of other new products, both in hardware and software.

But we are not only chasing lower OpEx, we are also driving the COGS improvements. The COGS is decreased despite high inflation and reduced production volume in 2024. We are leveraging 2 production partners for price comparison and negotiation. And in these days, we renegotiating contract with our main production partner.

[Eirik Haerem, executive]

Yes. So then let's look at our inventory. We further reduced our inventory in the fourth quarter with NOK 49 million. This is according to plan and as previously communicated. We have a plan and a clear path to normalized inventory during 2025.

And then some more positive news. Let's look at our cash flow. In the fourth quarter, we significantly improved our operating cash flow and delivered NOK 78 million in the quarter. We had a net cash position of NOK 18 million at year-end and a solid available liquidity position of NOK 318 million. As we look further for 2025, we look to increase the cash flow, partially because we're going to have a cash release from normalized inventory, but also from profitable operations. This will lead to a strengthened liquidity going forward.

Another highlight in the fourth quarter was that we extended our overdraft facility with DNB and ex fin. This provides a sound financing structure for Zaptec going forward. We actually removed the net debt-EBITDA covenant in the new facility. This makes us in a robust position, both financially and operationally for 2025. And I'll leave it to you, Kurt, to sum up.

[Kurt Ostrem, executive]

Yes. If you look at the fourth quarter summary, all the KPIs on the right track. We increased revenue, we increased gross margin and we increased EBITDA. We have a very strong order intake continue into the first quarter of 2025. We have reduced our OpEx and have strong cost control. We lowered the inventory as planned, and we have improved the cash flow. We improved the liquidity, and we have added on financial flexibility in the fourth quarter.

So let's look at the outlook for 2025. Zaptec have a solid plan for 2025. We start the year with a strong momentum with over NOK 1 billion in backlog visibility, and this is increasing in the first quarter. We have shown that the EV market recovery is underway in Europe, and we have new products who is now targeting the major European market in 2025.

So all in all, we have a positive outlook for growth, higher earnings and stronger cash flow. And let me make myself crystal clear. 2025 will be an all-time high and a record year for Zaptec. I want to thank all your shareholders for your support, and thank you for following our journey.