TALKPOOL INTERIM REPORT JANUARY – MARCH 2018

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JAN 1st – MAR 31st  

  • Net sales amounted to EUR 6 116 thousand (3 455), a 77 percent increase
  • EBITDA of EUR 507 thousand (-130) and EBITDA margin of 8.3 percent (-3.7)
  • EBIT of EUR 400 thousand (-147) and EBIT margin of 6.5 percent (-4.3)
  • Profit after tax of EUR 153 thousand (-188)
  • Operating cash flow amounted to EUR 993 thousand (10)

JANUARY- MARCH HIGHLIGHTS

  • Financially the strongest quarter in Talkpool’s history
  • Revenue and profit overperforming the path set for 2021
  • LCC Pakistan fully consolidated into the group for the first time
  • Germany, Tanzania and Haiti exceed expectations
  • Saudi Arabian Market entry and signature of first strategic customer contracts
  • Blockchain management consortium JoorsChain founded by Talkpool and Joors

CEO COMMENTS
Q1 2018 was the start of a new phase in Talkpool’s history. During the first 15 years Talkpool built a worldwide reputation as a professional and efficient communication network services company, which laid a solid foundation for future growth. Four years ago, Talkpool installed some of the first dedicated IoT networks in the world. It then became clear that IoT would be the future of Talkpool and that we needed the right financial capacity to leverage on our head start in IoT and become a major player in this business. Step one in our new strategy was to go public through an IPO on Nasdaq First North. The raised capital has been used to acquire profitable niche companies in Network Services to develop IoT products and solutions. The cash generated by the network services business will be used to acquire IoT companies and ramp up own IoT development. We have executed on this strategy and thereby more than doubled Talkpool’s monthly revenue and, in spite of all investments, we have improved our profit margins significantly. We have exceeded the growth expectations for the first two years and we are well ahead of schedule.

The first quarter is normally the financially weakest quarter of the year, but Q1 2018 was the strongest in Talkpool’s history. This did not come as a surprise as Pakistan was fully consolidated into the group for the first time and
the implementation of our strategy started to pay off. Some key markets did however exceed our expectations thanks to additional customer orders and the group as a whole clearly overperformed compared to the budget.

In Q1 the trend of increasing customer demand for connecting larger volumes of things to the internet continued and as the existing availability of
IoT-networks does not meet the market demand, Talkpool started exploring the possibility of taking the matter into its own hands and secure a faster roll out of LoRa-networks in the Nordic countries. Together with a few partners Talkpool initiated a Nordic IoT Network operator that will build and operate a LoRa network but also cooperate with other network operators to consolidate and extend the network coverage. Once a nationwide coverage is in place this will enable us to supply our IoT-solutions nationwide and to transform towards the final phase of our strategy - to sell IoT solutions as a service instead of as a product. Our continued focus will be on solutions for smart buildings measuring and controlling the indoor environment quality, which already has attracted interest from several real-estate owners as well as construction companies guaranteeing the construction quality and insurance companies granting liability insurances.

Talkpool’s strategy of partnering with high quality sensor manufacturers both as assembly and sales channels, continued to show results in Q1. Among other partnerships
Talkpool and Norautron AB entered into a strategic cooperation regarding the production and industrialization of Talkpool's new generation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) Sensors and Modems. The sensors support the LoRa wireless technology, which is on the rise. The first series has been produced and tested with good results and is scheduled to be launched before mid 2018.

LCC Pakistan’s good relations and positive track record in the Middle East opened growth opportunities in the region. Talkpool entered the Saudi Arabian market in January as we expect large volumes of consulting and IoT orders to turn Saudi into one of Talkpool’s largest and most profitable markets. I
nitially Talkpool concentrates its efforts in Saudi on providing consulting services before increasingly focusing on IoT. Saudi Arabia is planning substantial investments in Internet of Things and the Saudi Vision 2030 includes smart city projects in which Talkpool is already involved.

Talkpool also broke new technical ground as it co-founded a consortium called “JoorsChain” together with Joors and TrueChain to develop a blockchain platform to support telecom operators, media and ad-tech in transforming the mobile internet advertising industry. The fundamental idea is to create a modern ecosystem for managing micro-transactions involving several different parties in an easy, efficient and transparent way. There are several potential future applications, but the initial focus is on advertising management for mobile users and publishers. Blockchain technology complements our IoT strategy where we use our network and security expertise. Blockchain technology adds a new dimension to internet as it makes it possible to cut out expensive middle-men and improve security and transparency for all kinds of internet transactions.

We continued to gain ground in Managed Services and Green Energy in several regions. We are implementing our own Pakistan-developed Remote Energy Management IoT solution ECHOTECH to manage client sites in Haiti. The IoT solution helps Talkpool and its customer Digicel to supervise the radio sites in the Operation & Maintenance project as well as control and reduce fuel consumption.
This shows how well Talkpool's innovative solutions, local engineering skills and strong customer relationships begin to work together to deliver smart solutions as a service.

Q2 2018

In Q2 the IoT Network company Nordic IoT was launched and phase one of the network roll out is already in progress. The network will provide coverage in the regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmoe/Lund and Uppsala. Subsequent phases will provide coverage across Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Talkpool also formally incorporated the company JoorsChain AG in Switzerland as a management company for technical solutions and ownership of Intellectual Property based on blockchain technology.

As clients ordered more work than Talkpool can finance, the board started evaluating additional financing methods such as bond, mezzanine and loans. Talkpool’s board is committed to minimise dilution going forward after having carried out several share issues in the part years.

At the beginning of April Talkpool and the IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet were awarded the ITSM initiative price 2018 for the environmental supervision project
“Luft och Vatten med Internet of Things” in Gothenburg.

Erik Strömstedt, CEO

 
This information is inside information that Talkpool AG is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 09:30 CET on May 25, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Erik Strömstedt, CEO Telephone:
+41 79 790 60 40
erik.stromstedt@talkpool.com

Hanna Rubensson, CFO  
Telephone: +46 73 140 48 40
hanna.rubensson@talkpool.com

TALKPOOL
Gäuggelistrasse 7      Telephone: +41 81 250 20 20
CH-7000 Chur            Mail: info@talkpool.com
Switzerland                Web: www.talkpool.com


THIS IS TALKPOOL
Talkpool builds, maintains and improves telecommunication networks globally. Through its cutting-edge technical expertise, long experience and agile business model, Talkpool offers global telecom vendors and operators high-quality services on short notice no matter the location. Moreover, Talkpool is one of few companies with complete solutions and contracts in place in the emerging IoT-market.