IMPROVED PROFITABILITY AND FINANCIAL POSITION

This is a translation of the Swedish interim report. If there should be any discrepancies, the Swedish language version governs.

SECOND QUARTER, APRIL – JUNE 2020

• Net sales decreased by 8.9%, or 9.2% FX adjusted, to MSEK 64.6 (70.8)
• Gross profit decreased by 17.6%, or 17.9% FX adjusted, to MSEK 45.7 (55.5)
• EBIT was MSEK 4.7 (-0.4)
• Earnings after tax was MSEK 2.8 (-0.4)
• Earnings per share was, basic SEK 0.35 (-0.05), diluted SEK 0.35 (-0.05)

FIRST HALF YEAR, JANUARY – JUNE 2020

• Net sales decreased by 2.3%, or 2.6% FX adjusted, to MSEK 134.0 (137.1)
• Gross profit decreased by 7.9%, or 8.3% FX adjusted, to MSEK 98.0 (106.4)
• EBIT amounted to 4.4 MSEK (-3.7)
• Earnings after tax amounted to 3.2 MSEK (-4.0)
• Earnings per share amounted to, basic SEK 0.41 (-0.50), diluted SEK 0.41 (-0.50)

IMPORTANT EVENTS

DURING THE PERIOD       

• Working hours were reduced for more than 120 employees in Sweden and Finland.
• Pay cuts of at least 20 percent were introduced in many parts of the Group.
• Nepa Sweden was downsized with redundancies.
• Nepa Finland received a grant from government agency Business Finland to cover parts of salary costs during Corona.
• The AGM on May 20th elected Katarina Bonde, Martin Burkhalter, and Andreas Bruzelius as new members to Nepa’s board of directors.
• Online gambling operator Kidred extends partnership with Nepa on all major markets

AFTER THE PERIOD ENDED

• More than 100 employees in Sweden still have reduced working hours whilst employees in Finland are back at full time work.
• Pay cuts implemented during Q2 remain.
• Thomas Berthelsen was appointed as Managing Director of subsidiary Nepa USA.
• Eeva Karhu was appointed as Managing Director of subsidiary Nepa Finland.

A WORD FROM OUR CEO

Profitability continued to improve in the second quarter according to plan, despite challenging circumstances in the wake of the Corona pandemic. Gross profit is Nepa’s most important revenue number and it is defined as net sales less data costs purchased on behalf of clients. Even though gross profit decreased 18 percent to SEK 45.7 (55.5) million, EBITDA increased to SEK 7.1 (1.4) million and EBIT to SEK 4.7 (-0.4) million. This is the first Q2 with positive EBIT since 2016.

The main explanation for the increase in earnings is personnel costs, which decreased by nearly SEK 10 million or 21 percent, compared with the same quarter last year. The reason is measures taken during the quarter. It is also in line with the reduced cost level of approximately SEK 35 million on an annual basis from Q2 as previously communicated.

Although we have scaled back the number of employees, Nepa has the capacity to take on significant volumes of new customer assignments. The profit outcome for the quarter also demonstrates the stability recurring revenues bring. Recurring revenues based on long-term contracts accounted for approximately 64 percent of sales in the first half of the year.

Data purchase costs burden the results with some lag. In the quarter we had a high proportion of data costs from previous quarters with higher contract volumes, in addition to current assignments with high data costs in relation to sales. Our pricing level remains unchanged.

All in all, this means that although the Q2 outcome includes temporary government subsidies totalling SEK 5.7 million, we have adapted the business so that in a normalized market we can show good profitability in the long term.

The market

It has been a messy quarter which makes it hard to see any trends and draw some definitive conclusions. Deferred and slimmed-down projects of an ad hoc nature are the main reasons why gross profit decreased. It has not made sense to collect and evaluate data based on customer behaviour given the exceptional situation that has prevailed and partly still prevails. However, it is reasonable to start analysing the changes in consumer behaviour in most industries shortly. The fact that we have not lost any clients is to me a testament to our competitive products and outstanding people.

A stronger company

In many respects, we are a stronger company today. I am pleased that Katarina Bonde, Martin Burkhalter and Andreas Bruzelius were elected as new board members at the Annual General Meeting in the end of May. Katarina has a long career as CEO and board member of Swedish and American tech companies as well as broad experience in business development. Martin and Andreas bring extensive expertise and experience from the consumer goods and financial industries.

During the quarter, we continued to strengthen our financial position. As of June 30, we had cash and cash equivalents of SEK 56.7 million, which is more than double the amount of the previous quarter-end. The amount includes a temporary loan from the state of SEK 15.3 million in respect of social security contributions, VAT and other taxes.

Outlook

My most important mission is to bring Nepa back to profitability. In the quarter we proved that we are able to adapt costs quickly and vigorously under very difficult conditions. Although the pandemic is far from over, it creates some breathing space in order to start lifting our gaze. Now it is up to us to take advantage of our strong market position and long experience to further strengthen the opportunities to show profitable growth in the coming years.  

For further information, please contact:

P-O Westerlund, CEO                            Michael Wallin, Head of IR
+46 706 404 824                                     +46 708 788 019
p-o.westerlund@nepa.com                michael.wallin@nepa.com

This is a translation of the Swedish interim report. If there should be any discrepancies, the Swedish language version governs. The Swedish version is information that Nepa AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 08:00 CET on August 21, 2020.

Headquartered in Stockholm, with offices in Finland, Denmark, UK, USA, and India, we help some of the world's most reputable brands in more than 50 countries to optimize customer experience investments and get more effect out of their marketing and sales. Nepa has been awarded DI Gasell's award for organic fast-growing companies six times since 2011. The company is publicly traded at the Nasdaq First North Growth Market stock exchange since 2016. Erik Penser Bank AB is Nepa’s Certified Adviser (phone: +46 8-463 83 00, e-mail: certifiedadviser@penser.se).