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BIMobject: Year-End Report and Interim Report  October – December 2018

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The complete report is available on the Company’s website info.bimobject.com.

Fourth quarter 2018

  •  Billing increased by 7 percent to SEK 59 (55) million.
  •  The Group’s net sales increased by 2 percent to SEK 39 (38) million. The distribution between projects and web services (subscriptions) was 42/58 (44/56) percent.
  •  The Group’s operating profit/loss amounted to SEK -34 (-4) million.
  •  Basic earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.26 (-0.10).
  •  Cash flow from operating activities was SEK -22 (-19) million.
  •  The accumulated number of users increased to approximately 1,052,000.
  •  The accumulated number of downloads amounted to 32.5 million.
  •  The number of manufacturers (Brands) was 1,310.

Full Year 2018

  •  Billing increased by 17 percent to SEK 133 (113) million.
  •  Net sales for the full year increased by 37 percent to SEK 114 (83) million.
  •  EQT Ventures Fund invests SEK 240 million through a private placement.
  •  Hjalmar Winbladh and Patrick Söderlund are elected to the Board.
    The Board proposes that no dividend be paid.

Significant events after the end of the period

  •  Stefan Larsson stands down as CEO to take on a new role and Johan Svanström is appointed Interim CEO.
  •  Acquisition of Convergo, a Swedish company that builds BIM objects primarily for furniture manufacturers. The acquisition brought manufacturers to BIMobject Cloud.
     

Forward-looking information

  • Our goals for 2019 are to reach 450,000 objects, increase billed sales by 30 percent, reach at least 1.5 million users and streamline core operations through improved focus.

CEO’s comments

Net sales for 2018 increased by 37 percent with a weaker fourth quarter and challenges in the United States

Dear Shareholders,

My name is Johan Svanström and I have been Interim CEO of BIMobject since 25 January. I have a background as President of Hotels.com and Expedia Partner Solutions, two divisions of Expedia Group Inc, which means that I have global and growth-oriented experience of running and developing internet-based marketing platforms. I was approached on the basis of my role as Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Ventures Fund, BIMobject’s second-largest owner. In addition, I personally own over 600,000 shares in the Company and my goal is to drive productive and positive development until we find the right person to lead BIMobject.

For the full year 2018, BIMobject made major progress in building the world’s largest cloud-based platform for BIM objects. The Company increased the number of users by a massive 63 percent to 1 million, and at the end of the year had over 1,300 customers (manufacturers) with over 350,000 objects uploaded. In terms of sales, billing increased by 17 percent while net sales rose by 37 percent. Looking at the individual markets, the Nordic region and the rest of EMEA showed strong billing growth for the full year, while the trend was slightly positive in the United States. Overall, we have had varying sales growth for different regions and time periods. This is not entirely unexpected considering the phase the Company is in, but we are working hard to achieve more even and stronger growth.

Some important challenges emerged in the latter part of the year, particularly the fourth quarter. Firstly, we can see that total billed sales grew by 7 percent in the quarter, and that this was a weaker growth rate than in previous quarters. Looking at billing for the individual markets in Q4, we saw increases during the fourth quarter.

The weak sales trend in the United States over the full year is due to the failure to achieve our growth targets for the existing customer base, and insufficient new customer sales. We also fell short in the execution of sales work and control. We are now taking focused measures to return to much stronger development and untap the potential we know is there in the US.

We invested heavily in the organisation and development of BIMobject Cloud during the year. The fact that our sales growth rate was lower than our ambition presented a challenge on the cost side. Many of these costs are closely related to, and necessary for, continued growth in our position and customer base. Other costs have been driven by concept and development projects in the leading platform we are building to digitalise and modernise the construction industry. We aim to build BIMobject into a long-term and innovative world leader, but certain revenue streams are further away in time, or are only possible when we have scaled up the usage to even larger volumes. Visionary work, cooperation and pioneering product development remain an important part of our strategy, but we must ensure that our efforts are in pace with the digitalisation in the construction, property and interior design industries.  

The way forward in 2019: focus on core operations, cost control, customer value and acquisitions

The focus on core operations will involve increasing the sales rate through additional sales to existing customers and by continuing to attract new manufacturers, thereby increasing the number of BIM objects on the platform. In the first instance, we will concentrate our sales efforts on our main markets, namely the US, the Nordic region, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. We also have exciting opportunities in Asia, but they are still in an early phase.

On the cost side, we are concentrating more clearly on revenue-generating activities and development of core functions on the platform. We see opportunities to increase automation and streamline the process for creating BIM objects from our customers. Costs driven by visionary projects without clear economic viability in the near future are being reduced until it is more logical to capitalise them and in doing so to embark on new strategic development tracks. During the first half of the year, we will mainly use the existing organisation, which was expanded in 2018.

I mentioned above the strong growth to over 1 million registered users. This is a clear testament to the value and benefit of our BIMobject Cloud, with its existing object volumes and manufacturers. We now aim to further increase platform users’ activity and satisfaction. And this is where product, community and CRM development will make a positive contribution.

Last but not least, we will pursue active acquisition work. We see opportunities to increase core operations, thereby strengthening our position in selected local markets, and to supplement this with interesting technical solutions.


In summary:

  • We are in a clear leading position as a global BIM content provider.
  • Our focus is on cementing core operations in the near future and at the same time we see enormous potential in the long term.
  • Our goals for 2019 are toEN PM BIMobject Year-End Report 2018 reach 450,000 objects, increase billed sales by 30 percent, reach at least 1.5 million users and streamline core operations through improved focus.

The BIMobject journey began a while back, but the construction industry’s digitalisation journey, and the associated potential and work we have to do, has scarcely begun. We look forward to an exciting and growth-oriented journey ahead.


Johan Svanström, Interim CEO

For more information, please contact:

Johan Svanström – Interim CEO
Tel. +46 40 - 685 29 00
E-mail: press@bimobject.com

Stefan Hansson - CFO
Tel: +46 40 - 685 29 00
E-mail: press@bimobject.com

__________________________________________________________________________

This information is information that BIMobject AB (publ) is obliged to publish in accordance the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was provided by Johan Svanström for publication on 14 February 2019 at 08.00 CET

About BIMobject AB
BIMobject is a leading global IT company at the forefront of digitalisation of the construction industry. BIMobject offers a cloud-based platform, with over 1,300 manufacturers providing digital product information. Around the cloud-based platform, which currently has over 1 million users, BIMobject offers a number of solutions aimed at property owners, construction companies and the trade sector. BIMobject, founded in 2011, operates in 20 countries and has over 200 employees. Revenue for 2018 amounted to SEK 114 million. BIMobject's shares are traded on Nasdaq First North under the ticker: BIM. Certified Advisor: FNCA Sweden AB, info@fnca.se, +46-8-528 00 399. www.bimobject.com

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