Hello, Welcome to the Proximus conference call. Please note this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Mr. Guillaume Boutin, CEO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this special webcast covering our announcement earlier today. People who are following Proximus a bit closer know that our international segments are a fundamental part of the growth trajectory of the company. This is a topic we covered extensively during our CMD in January. In that context, it won't surprise you that I'm very enthusiastic about the transaction we just announced, which allow us to become one of the worldwide leaders in CPaaS and digital identity. I will therefore take the next 10 to 15 minutes to walk through this strategic and transformational step for our group. Let me start with an overview of the deal. I won't go into the details of this page, since many of these elements are covered in the rest of the presentation. I will rather focus on the key highlights.
Through our subsidiary, Proximus Opal, we will acquire a controlling majority of Route Mobile through purchasing close to 58% of the shares for a cash consideration of EUR 643 million. Remaining listed shares, we are launching a mandatory takeover offer at exactly the same price per share as for this 58%. Route Mobile's founding shareholders will reinvest in Proximus Opal, the company which owns 100% of Telesign and the acquired controlling stake in Route Mobile. The net cash consideration for us will therefore be EUR 343 million rounded, excluding the MTO process. Through this operation, this is crucial, Telesign will implicitly be valued at EUR 1.4 billion. Before I get into the details of the strategic rationale, two other numbers you should have in mind.
First one is a combined annual revenue of Telesign and Route Mobile this year, which will be reaching EUR 900 million, propelling us among the top three players globally in terms of volumes and in top five in terms of value. And second one, the transaction is going to be highly value accretive, with EBITDA synergies estimated at a minimum of EUR 90 million per year at run rate. That slide, we summarize the five key value drivers for our group. first one, this transaction is highly value accretive, as I said, and an efficient capital investment in a fast-growing CPaaS market. second, Route Mobile is a well-established company with a track record of delivering strong financial results. third one is that in combination with our U.S. subsidiary, Telesign, the transaction will turn the Proximus Group into one of the leading players in the CPaaS space.
Since Route Mobile management will be invested in the combined entity, we ensure that all incentives are aligned to make this work and deliver incremental value for all stakeholders. Moreover, the product offering of Route Mobile, as well as its geographical footprint, are highly complementary to those of Telesign, hence creating very interesting avenues for further revenue growth. Then there are also the synergies I already mentioned. These synergies are roughly 75% cost synergies that will come from the complementarity of the platforms, combined with the offshoring of several activities to lower cost geographies. We are, as management, extremely confident to get to at least the EUR 90 million number mentioned here. Let's deep dive now in those different elements.
As you all know, CPaaS is a very large market, reaching $53 billion by 2026, it's also a fast-growing market with a CAGR above 20%. Growth will be underpinned by several structural trends: the ongoing digitization of our societies, the acceleration of the move to cloud across sectors, and of course AI which will help create more relevance to those industries and boost volumes. Let's take now a closer look at Route Mobile. In short Route Mobile is a global CPaaS provider with offices in over 20 locations, employing over 700 people and servicing over 3,000 active customers. Founding family were the majority owners, owning roughly 58%, and it's the shares that we are acquiring. The remaining 42% is free float, listed on the Indian Stock Exchange. Current market cap is around EUR 1.1 billion.
Route Mobile has a world-class executive team that has shown a superior execution ability. I'm therefore delighted they will be investing the combined entity, Telesign and Route Mobile, so we can continue to count on their expertise and drive. As to the product offering, Route Mobile is primarily a CPaaS provider, so they have also some early-stage DI assets and capabilities. For those that are less familiar with the CPaaS market, customers of Route Mobile interact with the customers through omnichannel communication platforms. Basically, provide the ability to deliver the right message in a secure way to the right person, while using the preferred communication channel, and all this being powered by AI. Route Mobile has reported a strong and generally above market revenue increase in recent years, both driven by organic and inorganic growth.
Specifically for the last full year results, the company announced an increase in revenue of 78%, of which the organic growth was 41%. The midterm ambition, three to four years out, is to become a $1 billion revenue company. Route Mobile is also a profitable company, which delivers an attractive EBITDA margin of 12.8%. And as a key difference to the telco sector, which business would provide business model requires minimal investments in fixed assets, which helps to drive strong return ratios. The low capital intensity is reflected in a strong EBITDA to cash conversion. How big is going to be the combined entity, Telesign and Route Mobile?
You have the answer on this chart, where you, where you see that Proximus Group will be holding a solid top three position in the global CPaaS market based on aggregated messages volumes. Like Telesign, Route Mobile is a company with presence across the globe. As I alluded to earlier, there is a strong complementarity in terms of regional presence. Route Mobile's business is strong in a number of areas, and especially in its own market India, which is one of the world's largest and a rapidly digitizing regions . Telesign's business mainly concentrates in APAC, Europe, and North America, which is therefore great potential for both companies to expand their respective footprints. In terms of product offering, here too, both companies show a strong complementarity, which creates significant revenue growth opportunities through cross selling each other's services.
Route Mobile's advanced omnichannel capabilities will benefit from the strong expertise and commercial presence of Telesign, especially in the US, but also in regions where Route Mobile is less prominent. Parallel, being strong in CPaaS volumes and having a truly global presence will allow us to supercharge Telesign's ability to deliver on fraud protection and verification. As I said, we are very confident to deliver at least EUR 90 million of yearly synergies. Besides the revenue synergies I just mentioned, we estimate also significant cost synergies, which will account for 75% of the total synergies. For example, as already indicated, and as a result of the consolidation of the two CPaaS platforms, we'll be able to offshore some of Telesign operations to lower cost geographies. Combination of both companies will also provide additional benefits in terms of costs.
The synergies will, of course, be beneficial for both parties. Mark, I think you can get care of the next two slides.
Thank you, Guillaume. Turning to the specifics of this transaction, the agreement we have signed consists of several steps. The agreements for our subsidiary, Proximus Opal, to acquire 57.56% of the Route Mobile shares. This represents the full share of the founding shareholders on a fully diluted basis. For the total cash consideration of EUR 643 million, the price paid per share is at no premium to the 10-day volume weighted average price. The acquisition of the majority interest in Route Mobile will, in line with Indian regulations trigger a mandatory takeover offer of up to 26% of the voting share capital of Route Mobile for the same price we paid for the 57.56%, so at no premium.
Depending on the outcome of the MTO, the stake held by Proximus Opal could further increase to around 83.56% of Route Mobile's shares. Total cash consideration for this part of the operation will be determined by the effective MTO take-up. The acquisition of the majority stake in Route Mobile for the MTO will be followed by a reinvestment of close to EUR 300 million by some of the founding shareholders of Route Mobile, for up to 14.5% of the shares of Proximus Opal. Overall, Proximus will acquire a controlling interest of nearly 58% in Route Mobile, valued at EUR 643 million, with the net impact on cash being roughly EUR 343 million, including the reinvestment in Proximus Opal.
Note also that the reinvestment by some of the founding shareholders of Route Mobile values Telesign at EUR 1.4 billion, a strong increase from the EUR 219 million cash consideration we paid back in 2017 for Telesign. As customary, the agreement remains conditional upon the receipt of regulatory and antitrust approvals and the completion of the mandatory takeover offer. We expect to close the transaction within the next 6-9 months. The finance of this transaction has been fully secured through a bridge facility, which shall be followed by the issuance of a new board on closing of the transaction. We don't expect a meaningful impact on the Proximus Group leverage ratio.
Independent of the MTO outcome, we anticipate to remain within the company's comfort zone of less than three times net debt to EBITDA under S&P's definition. Guillaume, I'll hand it back to you.
To conclude on the transaction, clearly, this is a transformational step for Proximus, as we significantly scale our international activities. We'll also have access to world-class technology, which we will be able to cross-sell in a worldwide customer footprint. All along the way, we'll capture these substantive synergies at both revenue and cost levels. To end this presentation, what's next for us now? No surprise that closing this deal will be a key focus point of the coming months. In parallel, we'll deliver on our domestic market with three major objectives that you already know: maintaining a strong commercial momentum, leveraging our superior GEAB networks, being fully prepared for the arrival of Digi, whenever they arrive, and we will continue to strive for supporting regulatory framework for fiber, so that we can invest in fiber with nice returns for all stakeholders.
With this, I've covered my presentation, so should there be any questions on this transaction, we can take them now. Note that any question outside this context will be covered next week Friday, when we will release the Q2 results of the company. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. The first question comes from the line of David Vagman, calling from ING. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. I've got two. first, on the governance of Opal. If we can come back a little bit on this holding company. Do you intend to transfer economically the CPaaS business of Telesign to Route Mobile? The other way around, could you transfer the digital business of Route Mobile to Telesign? Knowing that you know, from a management point of view, I understand that the CEO of Route Mobile will be managing the CPaaS business of Telesign. That's my first question. second, more on the financial of the deal.
You say that the, based on the reinvestment of the founding members of Route Mobile, Telesign is valued at EUR 1.4 billion EV. How does this take into account the annual synergies of, you know, at least EUR 90 million? When I do simple math, and possibly this is incorrect, it seems to me that you derive the 1.4 allocating all the synergies to Telesign and none to Route Mobile. Yeah, thanks. These are my question.
I'll take the first one, Mark, and you take the second one. On the governance, I think, you know, we'll give more clarity when we have closed the operation. But I think the way I look at it, you know, from where we are today, is that we have to a little bit separate what are the legal entities of Telesign and Route Mobile, and Opal, from the way we're gonna steer the business. We're gonna have, you know, a business line around CPaaS, and we're gonna have a business line around NDI.
Then you're gonna have, you know, some legal entities dealing with the domain they are active today. That's the way I look at it from an operational standpoint. So that we can make sure that we can deliver values for both companies as well. I will let Mark answer the second question.
Maybe a very quick follow-up on this one, that I forgot to ask is who will be managing Opal? That's not really relevant?
It's not really relevant, but both Joe and Rajdip are going to report to me.
Okay.
At the end of the day, you know, I will be managing Opal, but, you know, operationally, it doesn't make sense.
Okay. Yeah.
David, thank you for the question. I think the way that I would look at it is, if you look at the value of the reinvestment by the founding families or promoters of Route Mobile. The reinvestment and the share that they get into Opal effectively gives us that valuation, and that's pre-synergy. That's how we get to the math on the valuation of Telesign.
Okay. That's the way to understand it, is pre-synergies, because I was.
Yeah.
I was going to say, indeed, that the Route Mobile shares, I think you'll agree with me, they've done quite well actually, I would say also relatively speaking, compared to CPaaS players. I was wondering how we can explain that basically they're not asking for control premium and especially also given the synergies which are really significant it seems to me.
Yeah, I mean.
I get the question.
Okay.
That's, I think this is not the way you should look at it.
Okay.
I think this is a transaction that has been discussed for months. That is good for both parties. I think we cannot comment on every details on the transaction, obviously. At the end of the day we have a transaction that will create value for everyone.
Yeah.
That's really the objective of that transaction. I can repeat what I said but when you look at the synergies, when you look at the geographical footprint complementarity when you look at the product capabilities that are you know very complementary to each other, I think the deal will create values for all stakeholders existing shareholders of Route Mobile future shareholders of Route Mobile, but also-
Mm-hmm.
For all Proximus stakeholders.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from the line of Nicolas Cote-Colisson calling from HSBC . Please go ahead.
Oh, thanks. You talked about geography and product complementarity. How complementary both client bases are, can you update us on what the proportion of revenue and maybe gross profit your top three clients are representing for Telesign, and also for Route Mobile? Got a second question about the financing. Can you give us some indications on the conditions for the bridge financing, and what kind of a cost of debt with the bond you are expecting for financing that deal please? Thank you.
The first question, I think we do not disclose that information, Nicolas, but what I can say that Route Mobile has a more diversified customer base compared to Telesign. It will be probably a positive on that front. But we are not disclosing the top three or the top five, the concentration, customers concentration of that at Telesign. I think we discuss some information during the IPO deck, but we are not updating that information.
Nicolas, on the financing, it's a little bit the same, right? Again, the deal is fully financed, but we're not disclosing the details of that nature.
Okay. Maybe a follow-up, just to get an answer on one of my questions. On the synergies, I have to say I'm struggling a bit with the synergy number. It's a very high number, but before I take it for granted, can you just get through a bit more details here? Obviously Telesign makes no EBITDA today, may change in the future, and the Route Mobile EBITDA is not that huge. Your EUR 90 million, I was also wondering, what is the cost of consolidating the platform?
I think we're gonna give more clarity on all the details of the synergies when we're gonna close the deal for obvious reasons. I think if you look at the combined entity, and if you look at the best players in the field of CPaaS, you have EBITDA margin around 13%-15%. And I think if you look at what we have announced we want to be best in class in terms of EBITDA margin for the industry. So to be at least at that level.
That will be really the objective of the management team to be best in class. With the structure of the group that we're gonna have with the tropism of the group being around India and India subcontinent, I think this is clearly an objective that is realistic. That's why we are extremely confident to reach at least EUR 90 millions of synergies for the combined entity going forward. Really, that's something we think it's an objective that we can meet and we are quite confident to get there. We made some analysis, preliminary analysis but we are confident. Amongst those EUR 90 millions of synergies, we are also confident that at least 75% of those synergies are going to be around cost synergies, on COGS and on OPEX.
Okay, got it. Thank you.
The next question comes from Joshua Mills, calling from BNPP Exane. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thank you for the questions. A few from my side. The first one is, what was the rationale for undertaking this transaction now? You know, a year ago or so, when the SPAC of Telesign failed, I think the comment from management was, We can achieve all our objectives on a two-year view with EUR 90 million of funding. Obviously, this accelerates the target going to become a EUR 1 billion revenue company, but what was the pressure to do this now, rather than wait perhaps until we resolved the Telesign position within Proximus Group? That's the first question. The second question is, could you give us any kind of sense of what the impact of this will be on Proximus Group, free cash flow to equity in the near term?
I understand that there's, you know, targets of EUR 90 million synergies, and we can do the pro forma math on the two businesses based on Route Mobile's disclosure in your previous IPO guidance. But given that it doesn't sound like you're making cash at the moment, it'd be interesting to understand what near-term headwinds from these integration costs, financing costs there will be. The final question is, what happens to the remaining stake in Route Mobile at the end of this transaction? Be that a 42% stake or a 25% stake. Forgive me, I'm not that familiar with the Indian kind of listing laws, but is there any scenario in which you have to come back and acquire the remaining minorities?
If so, what would that mean for your potential exit, as Proximus Group from the Telesign business or the spin-off of the transactions was initially envisaged? Thanks very much.
I'll start with the first question.And Mark, you probably gonna take number two and number three. Why, why now? I think making that deal, we are also de-risking the trajectory of Telesign going forward. Because here we are acquiring, you know, a best-in-class company, led by an executive team that has delivered in the past, and that also delivered its ability to run the CPaaS business profitably. I think this is one of the key rationale of the deal. Being subscale in the CPaaS market is probably not the right strategy.
With that deal, we gaining scale, being top three in terms of volume, so we can scale the platform and make sure that platform that Telesign had before, thanks to the addition of Route Mobile, will be rapidly re-profitable one, thanks to the efficiency that will be brought by the fact that Route Mobile is going to be part of our environment t hat's one. second, here you start always acquiring a founder-led business, and how you convince founders to reinvest meaningfully to partner with you going forward. The spirit of the deal is fantastic because this is a deal where the acquisition of the 58% stake is financed partly by cash and partly by equity stake.
Again, with an implied value of Telesign at EUR 1.4 billion before synergy. Here we are managing to use the currency of Telesign to de-risk our internal activities, development, while bringing within the family of the Proximus Group, an entity that has proved to be strong, profitable, and super efficient as it comes to managing its cost base. Last element, access to India. Access to India is key because it's a 1.4 billion people, a country where digitization is a bit lagging behind compared to some other European countries. The growth for CPaaS players in the context of India is going to be really, really, really a tailwind for that deal.
Last, as I said, our ability, because this is Route Mobile, to deliver the synergies is probably, you know, not comparable compared to all other combination we would have sought to execute with other players of the market. So, I think we have cherry-picked the only, the best player of the market and probably led by the best executive team of the industry. In terms of ability to deliver efficiencies, I think this is the best partner that we have chosen. So that's another element. Last element, as you might have understood now, it's a quite structured transaction performed with a very, very strong balance sheet discipline. Here we are again capturing many of the strategic and financial goals we have set in the past for our international activities and for Telesign.
That's really completely and 100% aligned with the vision of our international missions. I think we stay in control. We own the combined entity. We're gonna get at least 58% of Route Mobile. I think in the context of the CPaaS market of today, being in the top five players and owning one of the top five players of the industry is really something that will create significant value for our shareholders. I'm convinced of that. Mark, can you answer to.
Yeah, Joshua, thank you for the question. On the free cash flow, I think, you know, refer back to Guillaume, you know, we'll come back fully with a view of what that looks like on closing. I mean, you know, just two, three points. It's clearly gonna be, you know, free cash flow accretive. We're confident on the estimation of the synergies that we've set out as being at least EUR 90 million, Joshua. You know, I think, it's, you know, for us, we see this as highly value accretive for the company. In terms of the, you know, the remaining stake, you know, the...
We will remain the majority owner of a listed company in India. We have no obligation to do anything further than our purchase of the Route Mobile founder stake and TO. There are many examples of great companies with listed companies in India. That's where we are on the kind of structure of the stake in the public company in India.
Can I Thank you very much. That's really clear. Can I just come back on the first question? If you don't mind me asking, how long have you guys been looking at this transaction? Was it already on the table when you were thinking about the SPAC? Now that you've done this deal, should we expect further follow-on bolt-on acquisitions by Telesign? Or do you think that this gives you the scale required to compete with the number one and number two players? Just, the reason I'm asking is, yeah, it does seem like there's been a shift in message since the commentary made by management at the point when the SPAC failed to where we are today with the size of this transaction. Thanks.
In terms of what we had in mind, I think this is really fully aligned with what we had in mind. You know, we have reinvested in the growth of Telesign to make sure that we can exercise and crystallize the value of Telesign as soon as possible. Here we are using the currency of Telesign at what was forbidden to acquire a company with propel us at the, you know, within the top five players of the industry. This is exactly what we want it to be when we thought about leveraging the growth of Telesign to crystallize value. It's of course, an intermediary step towards more value crystallization.
If you ask me whether I want to do some other movements strategy movements as of today, I think my clear answer to that is going to be, we have first to focus on growing the deal and delivering the synergies that we have announced today. And that will be the focus of all the teams of the combined entity in the coming quarters. That's really the priority for us as we speak now.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Roshan Ranjit, calling from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. Thanks for the question. Maybe just a follow-up to Joshua one actually. Guillaume, you and Joe talked about the scope for scaling up Telesign back in January. And at the time, I think the thinking was more on the kind of material organic opportunities, hence the potential drains at the EBITDA level. So just circling back to your previous answer, should we now think about the immediate focus being on this deal integration and maybe the scope for scaling up geographically from the kind of underlying Telesign business being on the back burner or not needed anymore?
Or is it a case of right, you know, we're still gonna go after that, but let's integrate this deal first and then further go up to scale up on the organic side? I guess, yeah, my question is, you know, have you got the appropriate scale now that you think you need or still hungry for more?
I think now we have reached a scale, which is a scale that allows us to deliver a profitable CPaaS activity within the group. The scale we had before without that move at Telesign was more difficult to deliver, probably. Now we have a highway to deliver thanks to the scale of that deal. We have a highway to deliver the 15% EBITDA margin kind of target we have in mind for this activity. In a context where, you know it's there no CapEx in those activities, and so it means that there is a huge cash conversion once you have delivered the EBITDA of the business. So, focus , I think we've got the scale now. Focus will be on delivering the organic growth, but of course, also the cost synergies, because we have reached the scale, we needed to get there.
Okay, understood. Thank you.
Next question comes from Nuno Vaz, calling from Societe Generale. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Just a few questions on my side as well, and thank you for the opportunity. first on the financing side, firstly, why is there an interest in sort of keeping this minorities in India? Was there any time at any time the possibility to take the whole company private? This makes the structure a bit more confusing. Was there any opportunity for to do a more equivalent equity for equity swap with the founders? Proximus has to of course invest a lot more in net cash than the founders. Another point would be if there's any interest at a later point to sell more minorities you know once the transaction closes as Proximus was looking to do in Telesign in the past.
A few questions on the EBITDA, because the synergies are quite significant, but Proximus was sort of guiding for Telesign to improve the EBITDA quite significantly already, so it's tough to know where the combined EBIT of the group will land. Could you give any numbers of where we might n the medium term the EBIT of the combined business might end up including this sort of EUR 90 million synergies? On those, if you could give a bit more detail in just what especially the consolidating the CPaaS platform synergies come from specifically, especially given that the I'm assuming the companies will continue to operate very much independently and the geographies are so distinct. Thank you.
Mark, you want to?
I mean Nuno, I think on your first two questions you know we've been discussing with the founders this deal for some time. I think you know the deal we struck, we think, provides fantastic value for both sides of the transaction. You know as always in these things there's always different structures. We've come down on one that we feel is balanced and provides as Guillaume said value for both sides. In terms of the overall question for minorities in the future again I don't think we'll take that question today. You know that's not something that we going to talk about.
In terms of the overall EBITDA guidance I think again I think you can get a view. We've been talking quite specifically about Telesign. I think you know there's public market numbers on Telesign from the SPAC. I think we've been super pleased as you know, in terms of their delivery against that plan and you know, we don't see any you know slowdown in that delivery. You can y ou know you've got the our synergy view, and Route Mobile give guidance as well. I don't think it's super difficult to get to you know what that could look like.
Can I ask a quick follow-up? Just to confirm no change in the Telesign guidance today, I'm presuming from what we heard, I believe at the CMD the last time. Just very quickly, the EUR 300 million reinvestment from the founders in the in the later date is that sort of set in stone or is there some conditions in there that could change? Thank you.
So again [crosstalk] Oh, go again. Yeah, let's go.
We were probably going to say same thing, so.
No, I mean again you have our guidance on Telesign. I think you know there's you know, data points out there. You have our guidance for the Capital Market Day. We don't see again if you look at the performance of the Telesign business, it's provided you know it's trading exactly where we expect it to be. In terms of the reinvestment there's you know, we're not disclosing any you know specific details but the EUR 300 million reinvestment is exactly where we expect it to be. That's where we are.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Konrad Zomer, calling from ABN AMRO- ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, please. Firstly, could you share with us, if you've agreed any deals with the existing shareholders of Route Mobile in terms of their reinvestment in the Opal business? Have they committed to staying an investor for a number of years? Are they allowed to sell part of their stake once the deal has closed? Have they committed themselves in terms of time as well? For example, Mr. Gupta the new CEO of Route Mobile, and will manage the CPaaS activities. As has he committed himself to stay on board for a few years. Another question, you stated in your press release that you do not think that this deal will have any meaningful impact on the leverage ratio of Proximus.
However, if I take the EUR 343 million of initial cash outgoing after the reinvestment, I still think that the leverage ratio for the group might go up maybe 20- 30 basis points. Is that what you call not meaningful, or am I just making the wrong calculation? Thank you.
Let me take the first question. I just said just the previous answer. I think what we disclosed on the deal structure today, I think is, you know, that's what we're comfortable disclosing. We're not gonna go into the details of Mr. Gupta's or arrangements with Mr. Gupta. In terms of leverage, I think you know I think you can do the calculation very straightforward. I think you've got to take into consideration the accretion of the synergies and the EBITDA of the Route Mobile business. Again, we stand by if you do the math on our leverage, it's for us again not significantly material and then well within our comfort range that we talked about the capital markets day.
Just as a quick response to that, the synergies are likely to take quite some time before they actually come in. I can imagine that your leverage, your guide for 2.6x S&P comfort level, less than 3. There's not too much of a range left, and am I right in thinking that this deal will certainly nudge it up instead of not being meaningful?
Yeah, yeah, I think you're you know you're right. It is going to raise but again I think we are it will be within our comfort zone that we've talked about the Capital Markets Day. Again, if you point back to the Capital Markets Day, we also have some asset disposal programs in there that will you know support that coming down in addition to the synergies and the EBITDA that comes with this acquisition.
Yeah, yeah, that's a fair point. Okay. Thank you.
We currently have no question coming through, so as a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one now. We have another question coming from Nicolas Cote-Colisson, calling from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Just a precision. On one of your charts, you mentioned the CPaaS total addressable market at $53 billion in 2026. Does it include the digital identity? It sounds like it's a very large number compared to the kind of numbers you were providing back in December 2021 on the market size.
It's a different view of the market. When we're talking about the DI market of Telesign, of course, this is a sub-segment of the CPaaS market. It depends on the way you look at that market. Here we are broader because Route Mobile is active in a broader business compared to where Telesign was, you know, active. That's explain the difference.
Okay, because it looks, okay, so it is CPaaS but cause it's a bit confused, because eventually the market size of $50 billion plus, that's what I have in mind for the classic CPaaS and digital identity. What you're saying is this graph, with the same kind of number like $50- $53 billion, is a different definition of CPaaS, or it does include digital identity?
It does include DI.
Okay.
DI, as I said in the when I opened the deck is a subsegment of CPaaS. it's that's the way
Okay.
We look at it, but you know, you can have, you know, sometimes, you know, and those have different views, but for us, it's DI is a sub-sub-subsegment of CPaaS, the way
Okay.
the way we look at it.
No, that's much clearer. Thank you.
The next question comes from Joshua Mills, calling from BNPP Exane. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Very quick follow up to that one. What percentage of revenues is coming from DI, after this transaction, versus CPaaS? I'm just trying to understand how the kind of joint CEO model will work, and who's gonna be you know managing what sides of which businesses. Thanks.
On the Route Mobile, the DI percentage is extremely limited. They are really focusing today on CPaaS. DI is a very small but growing business for them, but super small at the moment, and you can refer to the investor presentation of Route Mobile. They are a publicly listed company, so you can find information on the site to have more information. Today, I can confirm to you that you know, DI shares of Route Mobile revenue is rather small. That's why again, it's an opportunity to do more cross-selling between our DI products using the sales force of Route Mobile in India and Indian subcontinent.
Sorry, I might have missed this. How much of it, how much of Telesign currently is DI then?
That we don't disclose on Telesign, the share of DI. It's, it's part of the you know of the things that we are not disclosing that precisely. You know it's way more important within Telesign DI. I would not talk about revenues for that but DI. As we say also in the bookings in the new customers of Telesign more than 50% of those customers are DI customers. That's what we disclose today. We are not disclosing the you know, shares of DI amongst the gross profit of Telesign.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question come from David Vagman calling from ING. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks for taking my question. It's on the CPaaS market. You said that there was basically a question of scale, and that you found you had to do something on scale for Telesign. Could you come back on this and describe what is basically the dynamic at play in the CPaaS market? Maybe excluding digital identity, do you see basically let's say the smaller player yeah becoming sub-subscale indeed and kind of disappearing or? What is exactly, what do you see exactly going on let's say with client and yeah, the market share profitability? Thank you.
It's, the CPaaS market is a platform business. Scale is important in platform businesses to create profitability. As all platform business you have value creative you know combinations that could take place. That's why, you know, that deal is so value creative because you have two platforms. You keep one, and then you create a lot of synergies. On the smaller players what is important also in the way that market is structured the more size you have the more market power you have also to negotiate the access to the different geographies.
And size matters in that field especially for small players that have not access to India or to Asian countries or African countries. That's where scale matters. And scales that bring access to geographies that are not open for everyone, is a key differentiator of that deal. Because not only it provides scale, but it provides also access to India, where most of the growth of the CPaaS will be probably concentrated in the coming years. Because of the, you know, of the specificities of the Indian society. That's, you know, my answer to your questions. Then you know, if you look at the CPaaS market and it would be my last comment you know it's a super fragmented market.
That's why, you know when you have a fragmented market and you are in the top five top three players of that market you can see you know because it's been you know seen in other industries that were in that situation you can think about a lot of value creation. Because fragmented markets when you're in the top five you have opportunities to create a lot of value.
Thanks. Does it imply right down on the, let's say, Telesign and CPaaS platform if they move migrate basically migrate the clients of Telesign to the platform of Route Mobile?
I will not go into too much details because.
Okay.
preliminary views but at the end of the day you got one DI platform one CPaaS platform.
Yeah.
That's the way you should look at it.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks very much.
The next question comes from Nuno Vaz again, from Societe Generale. Please go ahead.
Thank you. It's just a quick clarification on slide seven because you do mention some one-offs both negative, I presume, you also mentioned some inorganic on revenue, which I think may be acquisitions. Would be useful to know which one-offs, positive or negative, you expect, and which ones are already in the last 12 months numbers, just to understand a little bit better? Thank you.
I mean, I think this chart seven is effectively just giving you a split of the inorganic organic growth of Route Mobile. I don't think there's anything more specific to disclose than that. Really, they've made several purchases of M&A activities of basically product add-ons to their business and that's the main differentiation.
Yes, to the side you say Impacted by one-offs on the strong cash conversion. I guess those would be mostly transaction costs.
Oh, yes. The cost conversion they're the primary. On that one on that part. That's just in terms of timing of contractual commitments to several suppliers. That's what that's related to. That's all it is.
Okay, thank you.
The last question comes from Halima Elias, calling from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, you've actually got Yemi Falana from Goldman here. Congratulations on the announcement, thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, it looks like the shift to growth technology continues on your side. You've laid out the Route Mobile guidance, kind of year, on a year-ahead basis. On a combined basis, what top line growth do you expect for the combined business over the next few years, post-closing of the transaction, for example? That'd be super helpful. Secondly, as discussed already on the call, the synergies seem very large on the cost side, perhaps, but perhaps slightly light on revenues. Is that revenue outlook just conservative, or are there any other considerations we should be making? Kind of thirdly, connected to that, is that the end of your big picture ambitions on the CPaaS or technology side?
You mentioned value creation in a fragmented marketplace, could that mean more M&A? Equally, is there a call option to buy in the Proximus Opal minorities? Then finally, on financing, what rate do you expect on the cash components of the deal, and is every element of this transaction currently hedged? Also, are there any early thoughts on what this could mean for upcoming refinancing rates? I think you've got kind of EUR 600 million or so coming online over the next year. Cheers.
Let me try and take so, let me try to take some of those that were Recall them all. In terms of the call option, we're not gonna go into detail of that today. As I said earlier on the financing again, I You know, we feel like the leverage impact is minimal and therefore, we don't see a significant impact on our financing going forward. In terms of top-line growth again you know we've done a initial estimate of the synergy value and we're confident that that will be a you know minimum number. We're you know between now and closing we're clearly gonna be doing further work there so we're not going to disclose you know that.
In terms of the top line you know you may be right, but we'll see over time. I think that's where that probably addressed most of your questions but maybe there was another one I missed as only.
Yeah. No, no, very helpful. Maybe just one final thing then, just on the 6-9 month expected closing window. Are there any kind of key concerns that you'll be resolving over the next 6-9 months? Could you just give us a flavor of the key kind of milestones along that process?
No. In terms of key closing, you know, we've got clearly got the several regulatory filings to make. Again, our evaluation of that as we've been studying this transaction is, it's, you know, completely normal for one of these types of transactions. As we said in the deck, we fully believe that the transaction will close in 6-9 months.
Thanks, everyone.
Okay, thank you. Well, there are no further questions. I will hand you back to Nancy Goossens, Investor Relations Lead, to conclude today's conference. You might be on mute, Nancy.
Hi, awesome. Thank you. Hello, do you hear me? I just want to say thank you. And If you have any follow-up questions, you can reach out to the IR team. Thank you.
Thank you for joining today's call. You might now disconnect. Host, please stay connected on the line. Thank you.