Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the TomTom's Q3 twenty twenty-four results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question and answer session towards the end of today's prepared remarks, at which time, if you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star one one on your telephone keypad, where you will hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised, if you're calling in via Microsoft Teams, please ensure you press star one one from the keypad where the call is made, not from your Teams screen, in order to enter the queue. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to your host for today's conference, Freek Boest, Investor Relations. You may begin.
Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our conference call. Today, we will be discussing the operational highlights and financial results for the Q3 of twenty twenty-four, together with Harold Goddijn, our CEO, and Taco Titulaer, our CFO. Harold will begin by discussing the operational developments. Following that, Taco will provide insights into our financial results as well as our outlook. We will then proceed to your questions. As always, please note that safe harbor applies. And with that, Harold, let me hand it over to you.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Freek, and welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. I will take you through some of our recent developments and operational highlights, and then we hear from Taco about the financials. We are facing a slowdown in the global automotive industry. Near-term market conditions are challenging. Car makers are reducing inventories in certain markets and are delaying new model introductions. Combined with an overall reduction in end-user demand, this is affecting car production volumes. But despite these factors, we remain optimistic about the longer-term industry trends that call for deeper integration of our technologies into vehicles. We are witnessing growing interest in advanced safety features and automated driving technology, and to enable these trends, vehicles will increasingly rely on highly detailed, near real-time maps that support both the driver and the vehicle itself.
And there are many other use cases where location technology plays a critical role. Think of live assets tracking, logistics, location-based recommendations in social media, and location-informed decision making for governments. With TomTom Orbis Maps, we now have a platform that allows us to address all of these use cases and more, and as a result, our enterprise business is gaining traction. Let me give you some examples of recent wins. This quarter, we strengthened our partnership with NextBillion.ai, and that is collaboration to provide them with data and APIs that are needed for route optimization, scheduling, and dispatch across various sectors. GfK also selected our data to power the geomarketing activities. S&P Global Mobility use our maps and other data to enhance their automotive intelligence products with a focus on market sizing and customer loyalty analytics. And furthermore, Iveco has chosen our technologies.
Most of their trucks, including electric models, will now come equipped with our full-stack navigation solution, complete with truck-specific routing technology. And these collaborations underscore how our products support a wide range of innovative application, and innovation is at the core of what we do. On top of our unique platform, we're creating new and improved applications that make it easier to work with our maps and with our data. This quarter, for example, we launched our premium geocoding API, that's aimed at tackling one of the toughest challenges in the last mile logistics, the last one hundred meters. This new API delivers precise location data, including nearby parking location, building entrances, floor numbers, elevators, and more. And this means couriers can make deliveries at complex addresses with ease, leading to improved efficiencies and customer satisfaction. Thank you. I will now hand over to Taco to discuss the financial performance.
Thank you, Harold. I'll now share some insights into our financials and outlook, and after that, we'll move on to your questions. Group revenue in the Q3 of twenty twenty-four was EUR 141 million, a decrease of 2% compared with the same quarter last year. With our location technology segment, we saw divergent trends in our automotive and enterprise business. Let me touch on them both, starting with automotive. As Harold already mentioned, we experienced a continued weakening of the global automotive industry in the Q3, combined with delays in the launch of new car models to which we are supplying. This had a negative impact on the performance of our automotive business, including the development of our backlog. We'll provide an update of our backlog with our full year results, as it's too early to fully quantify the impact now.
Automotive operational revenue for the Q3 was EUR 69 million, down from EUR 85 million in the same quarter last year. Automotive IFRS revenue saw a limited decline of 5% year on year, coming in at EUR 78 million.
... In contrast, our enterprise business showed good growth, with revenue increasing by 13% year on year to 42 million EUR. This can be attributed to the growing success that our existing customers are having with our location technology products, as well as the continued commercial traction that Harold already pointed to. Overall, location technology remains stable year on year, totaling at at 120 million EUR. Lastly, as anticipated, consumer revenue declined by 16% year on year to 21 million EUR. Due to the larger relative contribution of location technology in our revenue mix, our gross margin increased to 87% for the Q3, up from 83% in the same period last year. Third quarter operating expenses were 126 million EUR, showing a marginal decrease compared with last year. This decrease mainly resulted from lower depreciation and amortization charges.
Free cash flow was an inflow of EUR 50 million, compared with an inflow of EUR 30 million last year. The year-on-year increase in free cash flow is mainly a result of lower investment in property, plant, and equipment. At the end of the Q3, our net cash position was EUR 270 million, compared with EUR 258 million at the end of the Q2. Having covered our results, let's now turn to our outlook. With free cash flow turning positive this quarter, our year-to-date free cash flow has reached break-even. Accordingly, we reiterate our free cash flow guidance and continue to expect full year free cash flow to be positive. We're also maintaining our full year guidance for group revenue and expect location technology revenue to land around the lower boundary of our guidance.
With that, we're now ready to address your questions. Operator, please start the Q&A session.
Thank you. We'll now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad, where you will hear an automatic message advising that your hand is raised. Please be advised, if you're calling via Microsoft Teams, please ensure you press star one one from the keypad where the call is made, and not from your Teams screen in order to enter the queue. Please give us a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Thank you so much. And now we're going to take our first question. And the question comes to the line of Marc Hesselink from ING. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Thank you. First, my question is on enterprise. I think nice traction with the smaller clients, and you also said the idea that eventually you want to land also the larger clients, which have longer cycles. What still needs to happen for these larger clients to get involved as well? Is that they need more testing time? Do you still have to change things on your side? Maybe a bit like what are the important things, the important hurdles to win those kind of clients?
Yeah, I think the product is there. The product is ready, is established now. I think we have a seal of approval from a number of leading technology companies who are already using those maps. So mostly what you see is the internal organization, the client side. So typically, those transitions take place. They take a lot of time and effort that needs to be planned for, and the urgency needs to be there. Those are typically the most important elements that lead to quite long implementation times and decision cycles. I think the credibility of the platform is no longer an issue.
I think it's fair to say that we're seen as a forward-looking modern location platform technology provider now, and it is a matter of mostly internal priorities on the customer side.
Great, thanks. And my second question is on automotive. Given the weakness in the end markets, how are discussions on pricing? I hear quite a lot that the OEMs are pushing on the supply chains to lower prices, especially on the EV side. Is that something that's also feasible for you?
We know it's tight. There is price pressure, undeniably. We are well protected with longer term contracts against that. So like for like, I think if you-- if there's no innovation taking place, you will see pressure over time. But at the same time, we see that the requirements on maps are going up. They are deeper integrated in automation, and there's electric EV functionality now tightly integrated in the vehicle, and those functions typically command a higher value. So I'm not so worried about price pressure, but I acknowledge that we need to throw in more in the equation to get the same value per vehicle than let's say two or three years ago.
Okay, and final question is on if you look at the moving parts for the short term, we see the weakness in automotive and the push out in some of the EV adoption. And then you also mentioned the more longer term positive of higher safety features and where you also require the map. When will those things inflect? That as you think that the what you're currently seeing for the long term is going to be offsetting some of the more yeah near-term weaknesses. Is that something that? Is there visibility for you on when that can inflect, and when do you expect that?
Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think we have pretty good visibility what's coming, what's up and coming in the next couple of years. I think there is a, you know, broadly speaking, I think around 2026, 2027, there will be a kind of a next generation of automation into the mainstream, volume brands, that require maps to... That deliver more information than what we currently deliver. So higher fidelity, a deeper integration in the vehicle. You will see all sorts of functionality that is linked to mapping and automated driving coming on stream. I think in the next six to 18 months, we will see quite a lot of activity on the procurement side.
And then, you know, typically this will lead to revenue in second half of 2026, additional revenue in the second half 2026, 2027. That's kind of my internal planning. So I see a wall of RFQs coming. It's quite clear where that is leading us. I think we're well positioned to play a role. I think we have a very competitive product now, and I think that's recognized by the market. So I expect in the next, again, six to 18 months, quite a bit of deal activity taking place that will leads to shipments in 2026, 2027.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Now we'll go and take our next question. And the question comes through the line of Wim Gille from ABN AMRO. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Yes, hi there. This is Wim Gille from ABN AMRO. I got two questions. First of all, if we look at, let's say, the backlog, you're gonna give us a new version at the end of the year. I get that. And there's two moving components there, which is on the one hand, let's say the new expectations from the OEMs regarding their future sales. Then there's the order intake, and then there's the revenues. Specifically looking at the order intake, what's the current activity that you see, and how are the win rates looking for you? Is this going to be a good year for order intake or a bad year?
And is there, given the current turmoil in the market, a bit of a wait and see approach, on that end? The second question I would have is, that most of the OEMs are in a sort of an existential fight. Does that change their narrative and their views on, on how they look at Google Automotive Services? Is that potentially a solution for them, or is it the opposite, that they would actually say, "We need to get the product from TomTom in here in order to differentiate ourselves even further?" And then, lastly, if we look at the operational results that we see in automotive this quarter with a minus 19%, there's a lot of moving parts.
Some of it is market driven, like in general, low OEM volumes. Your customers, predominantly Stellantis being a big one, not doing very well. And then the push out in EVs. But there's also the more, let's say, company-specific thing. One is product phasing with Volkswagen moving in, and Renault-Nissan partially moving out, which is a temporary thing and the destocking effects. Okay, try to give us a bit of an indication on what is kind of, you know, a structural underlying trend versus what is specific to this quarter. Thank you.
Yeah, on your question, let me take the question about the operational revenue, and then maybe you can comment on the dealer activity. But it's true, which I mean, you almost answered your own question yourself, but there are various components. You have these the end market that is softer together with destocking, especially in the U.S., that has an effect on our production levels. I think there's also a certain effect of true-ups, and so for certain royalty reports we provide in our accounts, and then later we get the true-up usage report, and they can be lower.
So some parts of what happened in Q3 is also a belated effect what already happened earlier in the year. So if we look ahead towards Q4, I still think that there continues to be pressure on the operational revenue, but not as severe as what we've witnessed in Q3. So that will probably be more single digit and not double digit. On the order intake, so the backlog movement is indeed also what you said. There are three components: one is the reported revenue in the given year, second is the order intake, and third is the adjustments that we have to make for volumes in the future. Now, the contracts that we have with automotive are fixed on price, but not on volume.
So what is happening or what we expect that will happen is that there will be adjustments on the expectations the OEMs see for the future. One, overall car production, but also in the mix between internal combustion and EV, and EV tends to have a higher correlation with take rates of navigation. So if there's less EV in the mix, that also has some relative effect on the attachment rate. So there will be an adjustment. For now, that is too early to call that exactly, to name that precisely, because normally the sequence is that by the year end, you get all the updates of all our customers, and then we can make a more accurate picture.
On the deal activity, deal activity tends to be back-end loaded, and there's a lot happening in Q4, so also for there, it is early, but we also see there that it is, on the one hand, it's transitioning more to the use case is transitioning more to the vehicle, next to the driver that needs digital mapping for navigation into the vehicle, but also more and more the vehicle itself for safety features and autonomous driving, so the type of request and the type of the RFQs is changing. I don't hear or feel that there is a market share story going on, but there is. We're witnessing some delay in decision making, that is true, but over the overall size of the order intake, that is also early to say.
There's a lot pending at this moment, and it also highly depends if it falls into December or January for it to quantify the overall size.
In terms of win rate?
Yeah. Yeah, win rate, I think we're doing well. You know, everything, all the discussions and all the meetings we have, there is good support for strategy team, the way we work. I feel we are on a good trend, and we're in a good position to win market share in the next six to 18 months. There's a lot going on. Then your question about GAS. Yeah, it's Google Automotive Services and how that is affecting the market. It's not so easy to say, to be honest.
I think if this trend is sustained, that you see deeper integration in the safety features. I think we have an advantage. So the Google product is obviously a consumer product derived from Google Maps and not specifically developed and designed for automotive use case. So I think we have an edge there. ADAS and HD and those type of functionality that typically car makers increasingly demanding. So I think we're looking good. We're confident, team is confident. As I said, a lot of activity going on. We need to focus on the prices that are out there, that is what we're doing. And I feel confident that we can lay a solid foundation in the business in the next eighteen months.
Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad. We'll give a moment for any participants wishing to ask a question to join the queue. Now we're going to take our next question. The question comes from the line of Nikos Kolokotronis from Van Lanschot Kempen. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Hi, good afternoon, Seth. Thanks for taking my question. So obviously, there is a lot of uncertainty in the automotive market at the moment, and also with regards to the adoption of electric vehicles versus the ICE platform. So at your 2022 CMD, you guided for navigation take rates of 50% by 2025. So I was wondering if you could provide some more color on how you're tracking these numbers in 2024, and what do you expect in 2025? Thank you.
Yeah. Fundamentally, I think take rates are in an upwards trend. What the exact number is today, I don't know. I think it always takes a little bit of time to have all the data in front of us. But the relative mix of EV versus internal combustion engines makes a difference. And so EV sounds like it's becoming more a story of when and not if, and it starts to be it looks like it's a little bit more delayed, and it will have an effect on adoption rates indeed, or take rates. But the exact number, I can't say precisely, but it's still going up.
Perfect, thanks. And my second question is on the cash flow side of things. Because if I look at your trade receivables, they fell to approximately EUR 60 million in Q3, and that number looks quite lower compared to levels we've seen in the last two years or so. So I wanted to check with you whether we should expect some reversal into Q4, or there is something more long term, perhaps in the terms with your customers or whatsoever?
No. No, there's nothing to expect... for Q4.
You mean no, no reversal, we should expect flattish, more or less, trade receivables going forward?
So I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly. Can you... So your question was about the cash flow?
Yeah, sure.
Receivables.
Yeah, on the trade receivables, specifically because they fell to EUR 60 million in Q3, which seems quite low comparing to historical trends. So I was wondering if you expect that trade receivables will continue being at these levels or they will pick up again,
I think it will be around 60 by year end.
Around 60. Okay, perfect. Thanks.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I'd like to thank you all for joining us this afternoon. Operator, you may now close the call.
Thank you. This concludes today's presentation. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect.