The shareholders, and a special thanks to those that sent in questions related to the 2023 financial results. My name is Cathy Hume from CHF Capital Markets, and I'll be asking Johnson Joseph questions that were sent in, and also about what he's expecting to achieve for the balance of 2024. Keep in mind that we can only address items that were discussed in the financial statements and the MD&A. So unfortunately, not all questions submitted will be covered during this interview. I also want to mention, as a forward-looking statement, that we will be putting forward-looking statements throughout this interview, but the events of those discussed in those statements may not happen. Welcome to the video interview, Johnson.
Thank you, Cathy. I'm very excited to do this, so let's get started.
Let's get started. Okay, first question: Given what took place in 2023, the disruption that took place, I don't think people are very surprised that the revenues dropped to the level that they did. I also understand that the company's putting most of its efforts on developing new data-driven business model outside of China, but will we ever see revenues in China get back to CAD 100 million-plus per year?
Okay, the short answer to that question is yes. But in terms of timing, it's too early to say whether or not we're gonna be on that run rate in 2024 or later on. Now, keep in mind, I understand that this is a point of concern for a lot of our shareholders. But keep in mind that the services that we provide in China were meant to attract businesses to the Business Hub. So in order to continue to attract businesses to the Business Hub and accumulate data, we have to continue to provide those services. So naturally, as we continue to provide those services, we expect the revenue to continue to grow the way they had been growing back before this whole thing happened, right?
So what we're doing with the data-driven revenue is in addition to what is already being done in China in terms of revenue stream. So think of it as adding a new revenue stream to what we're already doing in China. It's not a subtraction, but an addition.
Well, you're speaking about a change of revenue stream, which is a really big shift for the company, given your proven business model in China. So how are you so sure that your iePulse and Equity Insider products will fit the demand of the capital market clients that you're targeting will want to pay for this service?
You probably already know this, Cathy, but I'm sure a lot of our shareholders don't know this. I have a capital markets background. I actually used to work in the industry before I founded Tenet. Now, I know the value. Having worked in the industry, I know the value of data. So capital markets professionals make decisions every day on whether what stocks to buy, what stocks to sell, and so on and so forth, what industries are hot, and what industries are not, right? So they require data in order to make sound decisions.
Instead of just telling you about this or telling you about the Equity Insider product, which addresses another target market, so you have the capital markets professionals, and then you have individual investors who buy and sell stocks on their own, who manage their own portfolios. So we're trying to address both segments with the two products that we're gonna be coming out here in 2024. So instead of just telling the audience about the products, I thought maybe I would share a quick demonstration of what each of the products does. So let me start here with the iePulse product. So what you can see here, you have a series. What we do with iePulse is we allow the user to create a series of indexes. Now, here, the data that we have, it's sample data.
Of course, this is just a demo, but this is just representative of Canada. So we have different provinces, we have regions here. So we give our users—we will give the users the ability, basically, to create their own indexes. So as an example, let's say we wanted to have the general merchandise retailers index for the province of Ontario, and that can be cash, sales, accounts payable, inventory, and so on and so forth, and I'm gonna show you exactly what I mean in a second. So let's start by selecting Ontario as the region or province. By the way, keep in mind that once we expand to the US, so we'll have states similar to the way we have provinces listed here, we'll have states available.
So when you take into consideration the Canadian market, the Chinese market, and the US market, we will be in a position to offer over 2 million indexes to our users. That is extremely powerful. So again, quick example here, Ontario, let's go to retail trade. We're going to go to general merchandise retailers. We're gonna select small and medium-sized businesses. We don't have all of the data yet for 2024, so I wanna show you a complete set of data, so I'm gonna select 2023. Let's select all of the provinces. And okay, what do we wanna see? Let's say we wanna see sales, accounts payable, cash balances, and inventory, just to start with. So we're gonna click on this Generate Report. And what this is going to do is it's going to generate a report. So this is data here.
This is data from the index. You have Ontario General, General Merchandise Retailers and the retail trade sector in the province of Ontario. You have here the data from the indexes, total sales, accounts payable, cash balances, and inventory, right? This is information that can easily be downloaded. If I was to click on this button here, Export to CSV, this would download. It's an Excel file, but we're looking to add multiple data formats that this information can be downloaded in. Now, this is provided initially. It'll be provided on a monthly basis, but we do have plans basically to have this on a real-time basis, so the data would actually be available on a continuous basis. It would be changing on a daily basis, almost in real time.
So here, just to see, we can go all the way to the end of the year, December. Now, what's interesting about this product also is if I was to click on here, go to Graph, it's going to generate a graphical representation of the data of the indexes that we just created. So we have four different indexes here for the retail trade sector in the province of Ontario. So we have sales, we have accounts payable, we have cash balances, we have inventory. So if there's any correlation between the index values, for example, is sales going up when inventory is going down? So on and so forth. So the graphical representation is also extremely valuable. Now, don't wanna spend too much time on this, so I'm going to very quickly walk you through the... Just one second, the Equity Insider.
Here we go. Okay, so this is just a screenshot of the application. Keep in mind, this is not the final version of the application. We're working on this. Equity Insider, obviously, is a little bit more complicated than iePulse. iePulse is just data, right? Data coming from the small and medium-sized businesses that are part of the business hub, and that could be in China or it could be in Canada. Now, Equity Insider is a little bit more complicated. This is where we're gonna be developing a lot of IP, right? So, artificial intelligence, I've been working on this product, by the way, with our Chief Analytics Officer since 2019. So this is not something that we're thinking about coming out with, like, you know, tomorrow or whatever, or we just started working on this, like, a week ago.
We have been working on this product since 2019. Here, okay, so for example, here, Dollarama. This is an example that we provided in the MD&A. And what Equity Insider does is it looks to give the subscribers trading opportunities on earnings surprises. And what do I mean by earnings surprises? Earnings surprises happen when the companies, the publicly traded companies, either beat or miss the forecast, the earnings per share forecast that the analysts have done on their companies. So here, in order to help us get the proper data to be able to analyze a company like Dollarama, first, we have to identify what industrial sector Dollarama operates in here. So 45, which is retail, 44, 44, 45, which is retail sector.
The subsector is general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs, supercenters, and so on and so forth, general merchandise retailers. So Dollarama operates in these categories. So what we do is when we go to the iePulse product, we pull data from companies, private company data, that operate in the same sectors as Dollarama. So we also look at, geographical representation of Dollarama. Where does the company earn its revenues, right? So Dollarama, Dollarama is fairly easy. So Canada, 100% of the revenues come from Canada. Now, here, as a concrete example, here's the opportunities that we look to identify, right? So Dollarama filed their year-end results on April fourth, 2024. The quarter ended on January twenty-eighth, and here we say 15 days after the end of the quarter, so call it mid-February, Dollarama's stock price was trading at CAD 100, roughly.
Now, the analysts were forecasting for Dollarama to come in at CAD 1.05 per share. Dollarama instead came in at CAD 1.15 per share, which created the surprise. This is the actual EPS. Now, what we're looking to do with the Equity Insider product is we are using data, analytics, and artificial intelligence not to forecast, not to forecast Dollarama's results, but to infer the results after the quarter has happened, right? So after the quarter has happened, what we do is we compile data, we look at our data that we've established correlations with from the private company data that is at our disposal, and we determine, okay, that Dollarama will come in. EI stands for Equity Insider. So excuse me, our inferred result for Dollarama, let's say, would've been CAD 1.12.
So we provide this information, the idea is to provide this information 15 days after the end of the quarter. So now, if you have the Equity Insider product, 15 days after the quarter, you see that, hey, the analysts were forecasting CAD 1.05, Equity Insider is, has inferred CAD 1.12. So now you're saying, "Okay, you know what? I expect Dollarama to beat the results, the forecasted results, so naturally, I would expect Dollarama's stock to go up," right? So now, if you had this information, and you had purchased Dollarama 15 days after the end of the quarter for CAD 100, and then the stock price the next day, this is the surprise, right? So the next day, when Dollarama actually filed the results, the stock price went to CAD 1.14. This is the example that we see here.
This is a graphical representation of Dollarama's stock price. So as you can see, back in March, okay, Dollarama was hovering at around CAD 100 to CAD 105, and then, boom! As soon as they filed the results, boom, the stock price shot up, okay? That's the earnings surprise, that's the opportunity that we're looking to provide with the Equity Insider product. Now, here, what you see here is a graphical representation. Again, this is just test data. This is theories that we still have to prove. But as you can see, okay, the darker red line here, that's the delta between the forecasted values of Dollarama's earnings per share and the actual results of Dollarama, right? So the graphic... excuse me, the red line here shows that the analysts are not very good at forecasting Dollarama's results. As you can see, there are huge swings here, okay?
So they have missed—Dollarama has either exceeded or sometimes missed the analyst forecast. The pink, pinkish line here that you see here, that's the delta between what would be the Equity Insider forecast and the actual results of Dollarama. So the objective for us, with Equity Insider, will be to be as close to, you know, this—have this line as a flat line, okay, as much as possible, and not have these huge swings, so that we're gonna be able to infer results much better than the analysts are forecasting the results for Dollarama. I know that took a bit of time, but I thought it was important basically to explain the nature of the product to our shareholders. I'll stop sharing now, Cathy, and then you can continue.
Okay
... on with the questions.
Well, I can say I'll certainly want that product. Sign me up. Okay, speaking of, of Cubeler and the products on the platform, networking and advertising pillars, to the Business Hub, we've been hearing a lot about them, and I'd like to, to hear when, pardon me, when you expect the second, Q3 of this year, if all of those products are going to be completed?
[crosstalk]
Yeah.
Okay. So yes, the networking and advertising pillar, it has taken more time than expected, for these products to be delivered. The main reason for that, I have to say, is it goes back to last year, unfortunately. So when the company, a lot of the staff was laid off, we lost pretty much our entire development team, at Cubeler. So, unfortunately, when we came back and we regained control of the company, unfortunately, a lot of those developers had found jobs at other companies. So we did manage to bring back, obviously, our Chief Technology Officer and, a couple of very important developers, but unfortunately, we also lost a lot of developers.
So we had to start the machine back again and hire new developers, and when you bring in new developers, obviously, they're not familiar with the product, so writing code is not plug and play, right? So you can't just bring somebody that doesn't know the application, and then from day one, okay, they get in, they start writing code. It doesn't work that way. So there's a process, there's a ramp-up process. They have to get familiar with the application, and then they can get going, right? So because of that, we lost a lot of time. We're looking to catch up right now, but everything is on track for us to say, for us to be able to say that we expect the networking and advertising pillars to be launched, call it end of May or early June.
Once those modules are part of the Business Hub, we have high expectations. Because keep in mind that the Business Hub is first and foremost, it's a network, right? So right now, we have the financing pillar, so the people, the small and medium-sized business owners that are currently registered on the platform or registered on the platform, to see what their financing options are, which is also like, you know, a worthwhile reason to be on the platform. And they're also accumulating Cubeler Points, right? Because the longer they stay on the platform, the more Cubeler Points they accumulate, and then the more they're gonna be able to take advantage of what the platform offers, right?
So they're gonna be able to advertise their products and services, they're gonna be able to download market intelligence reports, and so on and so forth. But given the fact that the Business Hub is a network, by far, the most important feature is the ability to network, right? To make connections, to communicate. So we expect that once the networking feature is launched, that there's gonna be a lot more foot traffic on the platform, and it's going to become a lot more dynamic, and we're gonna be able to attract a lot more members to the platform.
Great.... Johnson, Tenet appears to be struggling financially. You say that that we're working here in Canada on financings for the future. There's apparently about CAD 8 million in China sitting in a bank account, yet you say in the MD&A that you'll be leaving that money in China. Why not bring that money here to make sure that your company's future is secure?
That's a very good question, and I get that a lot. Listen, China will always... China is where we started with the business hub. I said it was a proof of concept, but China is expected to always be key to us. It's a huge market, and one of the things that we want to do is business hubs outside of China, whether it's the US or Canada, a lot of these small businesses would not dream of being able to sell their products in the Chinese market, right? So one of the things that we want to do is we want to connect our small and medium-sized businesses here in Canada and the US, North America, eventually in Europe and everywhere else, to give them a channel into the Chinese market. And it's going to be very important for us, if...
In order for us to do that, it's going to be very important for us to keep China sound, right? We also talk about the data coming out of China being extremely important, right? China is known as the manufacturing capital of the world. A lot of products are made in China. Even businesses here, a lot of their stuff that they sell is made in China, and then they bring it here, or they have it distributed all over the world, right? The data coming from China is going to be extremely important. So because of the...
As we mentioned in the MD&A, because of the data rules, recently passed data security rules in China, it's not going to be very easy, at least not for the short term, for us to just take the raw data that we have in China and port it over here in Canada, and start using it the way we want to use it with our Tenet through subsidiary. So we have to establish a data science subsidiary in China. That's going to require a minimum amount of investment. So similar to when we created our financial services subsidiary in China back in 2018, we have to allocate some funds to create that data science subsidiary in China, and that's why I think it's best to leave those funds in China.
The other reason why we're doing that is, we also have a certain degree of confidence in our ability to raise capital here in North America to meet our needs. For those reasons, we've decided that it would be best to leave those funds in China.
Great. Johnson, the MD&A talks about you wanting to raise another CAD 5 million from now, from this point on. I thought the company previously said that you were going to raise CAD 7.5 million. Can you please clarify how much you're looking to raise and how long you figure it'll take?
Sure. So initially, when we launched the financing, the objective was to do up to CAD 10 million, and I think we said it was a minimum of 7.5. So that's where the 7.5 comes in, okay? So, we have raised so far, I think it was 4.6, almost CAD 5 million from that financing. So initially, if we were to stick to the minimum of CAD 7.5 million, that means that we would raise another CAD 3 million. But because of the opportunities that we have in front of us and, frankly, also the capital needs that we foresee in the short term, we've decided that it would be best to raise at least an additional CAD 5 million. So in total, we're going back to the amount of CAD 10 million.
In addition to what has already been raised, we're looking to raise another CAD 5 million. In terms of timeline, we expect to be able to do that before the end of May. That's why we've extended our engagement with Research Capital, which goes now till the end of May.
Okay. So here's a question. "I've been trying to tell my friends about Tenet. The MD&A has some very good information, but frankly, the website doesn't really describe what the company's all about and why anybody should invest in Tenet. It doesn't even have a corporate presentation. Are there any plans to create a presentation that explains what the company is all about and why people should invest in you now?
Yes, absolutely, there are plans for a corporate presentation. The reason why we haven't done it sooner is we were waiting for the year-end results to come in, and we're also wanted to have a little bit more clarity on the revenue potential of the data-driven products that we're gonna be coming out here in 2024. So over the next week or week and a half, we're gonna be sitting down with the finance team, with the operations team. We have done all of the market research in terms of what the size of the market is, for both iePulse and Equity Insider. As mentioned in the MD&A, we think the Equity Insider product, in particular, has a tremendous amount of potential.
We're talking about selling data plans at CAD 20 a month, roughly just in North America alone, if we look at Canada and just Canada and the US, there's an estimated 115 million individuals who manage their own investment portfolios using applications like E*TRADE, TD Direct Investing, and so on and so forth. So we think that these people are excellent candidates for the Equity Insider product. We also have plans to work with the discount brokerage companies. So how many can we sign up between now and the end of the year? Those are the things that we're gonna be compiling. This is the information that we're gonna be compiling so that we have a little bit more clarity, so that we can make the forecast.
Because in that presentation, what we're planning on doing, in addition to giving a sense of the market potential... Yes, revenue in China, revenue in Canada, and hopefully some revenue in the US before the end of this year. So there's a lot of information that we're still gathering, but we would also like to be able to provide forecasts in that presentation. So that's why it's gonna take a little bit more time. We wanna provide cash flow expectations, and so on and so forth. So I would say in terms of timing, give it maybe 2 to 3 weeks. Again, certainly before the end of the month of May, we should have a presentation available for everyone from our website.
Great. Speaking of transparency, we haven't heard much from the company, since we've been raising capital. When do you expect regular press releases to start happening?
Yes, that, that's another question that we get a lot. Listen, I do feel for our shareholders. Listen, we really want you, you know our company. We've tried to be as transparent as we can, but unfortunately, when you're raising capital, you have to kind of like keep things under wraps a little bit. You don't wanna be you don't wanna look like you're overly promoting the raise, so that's why we have to be a little bit more careful. But we are going to put out very material news if it occurs during that period that we're raising capital. But certainly, as I just said a couple of minutes ago, we expect the capital raise to be done by the end of May.
So I guess investors can expect to have regular news flow, because a lot... frankly, a lot is happening with the company, right? I mean, we're not just sitting around here doing nothing. There are things happening. We're making progress on the development of the applications. We're still talking to strategic partners, and so on and so forth. So, there are things happening. We're keeping things under wraps for now until we close the financing. So certainly by the end of May, call it, after May, investors can expect to see regular news flow coming from the company again.
Great. It's obvious that Tenet suffered a very serious blow when most of your key executives were terminated last year. Have you been able to recruit great candidates, to ensure timely execution going forward?
Yes, as I mentioned earlier, we did have some difficulties recruiting developers for the application, but in terms of executives, we managed to get everybody back, pretty much everybody back. Some people we didn't want back in terms of the executive team, but all of the key personnel, the key people, are back with the company right now. So we have, I would say, one or two positions that I would say are very important to be filled before the end of this year. But other than that, getting executives to come into the company has not been a major issue, no.
Okay. Okay, so given likely candidates for your SME data products are funds and institutions, have you shared your story to these groups, and have they participated in the current financing?
Okay, so this is a tricky one, because we were talking about forward-looking information earlier. No, we have not had any funds or potential clients, institutional clients, invest in the company. But I have showed the products to some potential clients, and obviously, like, when the product is not ready, so they haven't bought it yet, but I'm very optimistic as to the response, what the response has been. And we're actually working with some of them on the actual products themselves. Both the iePulse and the Equity Insider products that I showed a few minutes ago, they're obviously not the final versions, right? So we have ideas, right?
So we have ideas in terms of functionality, in terms of data, what we wanna show, what we think would be attractive to these potential clients, but we also wanna make sure that it really fits what they're looking for. So we are working with a couple of them right now, and they're telling us, "Hey, you know, can we see this? Can we see that?" So those are the kinds of things that we're working, that we're doing with them. Plus, we have hired external consultants, capital markets professionals, to give us a hand in that regard as well.
Great. Okay, so here's a question from one of our accounting shareholders. He said: "I was very pleased to see CAD 1 million of cash flow improvement year-over-year, even though the revenues were much lower. Do you see that trend continuing?
Okay, I don't wanna disappoint an accountant, one of our shareholders is an accountant. But listen, we're a development stage company, right? So we're not a mature company, so we have to continue to invest to develop, you know, these data-driven products. So in all likelihood, the cash flow from operations will be negative as we invest more, right, into developing and commercializing these products. So hopefully it won't be for too long, but in the short run, I would expect, you know, that unfortunately, that trend will not continue.
Okay. So how are SMEs registrations going on the Cubeler Business Hub right now, and what is your target to have SMEs by the end of this year? How many?
Okay. Well, that's also an excellent question. And in terms of the rate of registration on the platform, as I mentioned earlier, it's the Business Hub is a network, right? So without the networking pillar, it's really tough to get, you know, that traction that we're looking for. That's why I believe it's very, very important for us to come out with a networking pillar and also the advertising pillar as quickly as possible. We are getting a bit of a trickle in terms of registration. We have not, in all fairness, we haven't been spending a lot of money on marketing because we know we don't have the, I guess, the most important pillars yet or not there, which are the networking and advertising pillars, right?
So in terms of expectations, in terms of registrations, it's not as high as we'd hoped by, you know, the end of the Q1 of 2024. We're a little bit behind schedule, but that doesn't mean that we can't catch up, right, with an effective marketing campaign. So once we have the network and advertising pillars launched, we're gonna ramp up the marketing campaign, and then at that point in time, we would expect the registrations to accelerate on the platform. In terms of number, I have a number in mind right now, but I don't wanna advance something. So, I'm thinking maybe between 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 by the end of the year.
Ideally, that's what I'd like to see in Canada, and then depending on when we venture into the US market, I would expect a little bit more coming from that side as well.
Okay. All right, so the MD&A mentions that the Business Hub expansion to the US is one of your main objectives for 2024. Can you share a bit about the timeline for this?
That's another one that we have to do a little bit more homework on. But we're kind of like we're shooting for the fall, sometime after September. If it happens before that, great, but if it happens in the fall, that would be good. So that's what we're shooting for.
Okay. Are there any further developments that you can share about the AMF investigation?
Oh, okay. Listen, the AMF investigation started in 2021. We have been cooperative with the investigation, 100% ever since, the AMF reached out to us, like I said, back in 2021, and, we haven't heard anything from the AMF in well over a year, so that's all I can say on that point, unfortunately.
Okay. So now this is your last question, Johnson.
Okay.
I noticed that the company didn't mention about getting back on NASDAQ as part of your capital market strategy. Is that no longer on the table?
Oh, no, absolutely. It's definitely still on the table, getting back to the NASDAQ. Listen, we just don't have a timetable right now for that. There are a few moving parts, that's why we're kind of like keeping that on the back burner for the time being, but certainly getting back on the NASDAQ is still part of our plans, yes.
Okay, great. So that's the end of the questions that we have for you, Johnson. Thank you for your answers, and I'd like to thank everybody for joining in and listening to our presentation today. Certainly questions that were asked that weren't answered, I will be sure to get back to all of you with answers, or sometimes we can't answer them, but I will certainly get back to you regardless.
One last thing.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, just-
One last thing.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Just one last thing-
Yeah
... I wanted to add, Cathy.
Sure.
So, it may not have been one of the questions here, but, people have asked me, "What does a successful 2024 look like, for you," right? "So what are you looking to achieve in 2024?" So I have identified really like six elements. I've actually wrote them down, in terms of what I would like to see us accomplish in 2024.
Okay.
1, it starts with the Business Hub. Okay? So getting the pillars launched on the Business Hub, the advertising and networking pillars on the Business Hub to create the foot traffic, and by the end of this year, as I mentioned before, I would like to see 20,000+ businesses registered on the platform in Canada. So that's objective number 1. 2 is the expansion to the US We just talked about it a couple of minutes ago. Getting to the US, the US market is extremely important for us, in terms of number of businesses and potential, whether it's for the Business Hub, signing up small businesses, or the potential for iePulse Equity Insider. We all know the market in North America is the US market, so getting-...
You know, penetrating the US market is also a very important goal of ours, for 2024. Number three, we talked about the Business Hub being a network at its core, right? So if everything goes according to plan, by the end of this year, we will have members in China, in Canada, and in the US What I'd like to see happen before the end of 2024 is really meaningful connections between members across countries. That will bring the Business Hub into that global network that we're looking to build, right? So having business owners in Canada make connections in China, Chinese business owners make connections in the US, and so on and so forth. So creating that global network, having the first connections and the first transactions between those three countries is another objective of ours.
Number four, from a revenue standpoint, obviously, generating revenue from our data-driven products, iePulse, Equity Insider. Number five, we should have a data science subsidiary in China. That's going to be very, very critical. I think there is a treasure trove of information in China, data. Keep in mind, we started in China back in 2018, right? So we have a lot of data at our disposal in China, and to be able to mine that data, we need that data science subsidiary. So establishing that subsidiary in China before the end of this year is gonna be very critical. And finally, that was the last question, I believe, is the NASDAQ. We talked about, you know, we have ambitions. Being on NASDAQ, accessing the capital markets on the US side is gonna be critical for us.
So yes, getting back on NASDAQ is an essential part of our strategic plan going forward. So I believe, Cathy, if we're able to accomplish these six things, it's gonna be a very successful year for Tenet in 2024.
Great. Great. Well, good luck achieving all of those points. We're looking forward to it. Thank you.
Thank you, Cathy. Thank you.
You're welcome. Bye, everybody.
Bye-bye.