MSAB: Continued investment for growth

January - June

• Net sales increased 1.6 percent to SEK 130.4 (128.3) million (-4 percent in local currencies).
• EBIT amounted to SEK -17.1 (3.8) million.
• The EBIT margin was -13.1 (3.0) percent.
• Profit after tax amounted to SEK -15.3 (5.7) million.
• Earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.83 (0.31).
• Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -6.2 (-11.1) million.
• Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments amounted to SEK 52.5 (80.4) million at the end of the period.

Second quarter

• Net sales increased 1.7 percent to SEK 64.1 (63.0) million (-4 percent in local currencies).
• EBIT amounted to SEK -11.4 (0.1) million.
• The EBIT margin was -17.8 (0.2) percent.
• Profit after tax amounted to SEK -10.8 (1.3) million.
• Earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.58 (0.07).
• Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 0.7 (-11.4) million.

Comments from the CEO

Sales amounted to SEK 130.4 (128.3) million for the first six months of the year. EBIT came in at SEK -17.1 (3.8) million, the decline in profit resulting from a decrease in new sales, combined with continued investments within product development and marketing with the aim of generating future growth. For the second quarter, sales reached SEK 64.1 (63.0) million.

Growth for the first half of 2019 is not to my satisfaction. The market for mobile forensics carries significantly greater potential than what is visible in our numbers. Income from license renewals continues to grow, which demonstrates that our existing customers are satisfied with the systems they have invested in. My dissatisfaction lies primarily with new sales.

Our greatest growth potential lies in the decentralised solutions which we call Frontline. Decentralised solutions mean that police, who currently seize suspects’ mobile phones and send them elsewhere for analysis, can instead easily extract data themselves from the phones. In this way, they can quickly take advantage of important information, thereby solving and preventing crime more effectively. One of the reasons that new sales of these systems is lagging is that they entail a whole new way of working for the police. Changing ways of working takes time in large organisations. Nevertheless, the vast majority of customers realise the enormous benefits of decentralisation, but it takes time to decide where the responsibility for these solutions should lie.

I can also report that those customers that have invested in and have experience with our Frontline solutions are very satisfied. In my assessment, MSAB is the company that has delivered the greatest number of decentralised solutions world-wide. We have however seen a trend towards more aggressive price-setting from competitors to win these deals.

We have customers who have been using our systems for many years, and some customers extract data from up to 700 phones per day with XRY. This means that XRY handles extremely large amounts of information every day, and this makes an enormous difference in creating a safer and more secure society.

We continuously develop our product portfolio. Most recently, we released a new version of XRY, that extracts more data in a shorter time and with a significantly improved user experience. Besides offering a strong concept for extracting information from mobile phones, we even have tools for efficient analysis of data from mobile phones through our XAMN products. Thanks to our unique way of sorting data immediately as the mobile phone is being read, in combination with smart AI functions, our products can also analyse vast quantities of data in a short time. With high precision, we can present data relevant to the criminal investigation that the investigator is working on in the moment.

During the third quarter, the company will also carry out some process- and organizational changes in order to strengthen our product offering and intensify our marketing activities. The purpose of these changes is to increase growth and profitability of the company.

MSAB is a company on a market with all the prerequisites for growth and healthy profitability. 

Stockholm, July 2019

Joel Bollö

Chief Executive Director

The information in this report is such that MSAB, Corporate ID number 556244-3050, is required to disclose in accordance with the EU’s Market Abuse Regulation. The information in this report was submitted for publication on 19 July, 2019 at 08:00 CEST through the offices of the contact person listed below.

Questions should be addressed to:
Chief Executive Officer Joel Bollö
Tel. +46 8 739 0270
Email: joel.bollo@msab

MSAB in brief
MSAB is a world leader in mobile forensics technology with the aim of extracting and analysing data from confiscated mobile devices, mainly from mobile phones. The Company has its own sales offices and sales representatives in Europe, North America, South America, China, Australia, Singapore, Japan and Russia, and together with a number of distributors, covers most of the world. The proprietary products have become a de facto standard in the field and are used for securing evidence in more than 100 countries. These products are complemented by a wide range of training courses with the possibility of becoming certified in a forensically sound methodology. Customers are primarily law enforcement agencies, such as police, military and customs. MSAB is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm under the ticker symbol: MSAB B.