Good morning, all, and welcome to this press conference on Bittium Corporation's half-year financial report. My name is Karoliina Malmi, and I am here today with Mr. Johan Westermarck, our CEO. Welcome.
Thank you.
If you have any questions, please use the chat, and we will take them afterwards. Please, Johan, you can start.
Thank you, Karoliina. Good morning to everybody. Today, well, I will go through the half-year financial report of Bittium Corporation. First, I would like to have some disclaimers. In this presentation, we will have a lot of forward-looking statements, including expect, believe, foresee, and so forth. By nature, these statements involve risk and uncertainty, and therefore, so we have to keep that in mind. Let's first have a look at the summary. There are a few things I would like to share with you, what happened during the first half of this year. First, if we look at the results, first half year was weak, especially the first quarter. There are two main reasons for that. One is the component shortage globally. This especially hit our medical business first quarter, but also on the second quarter.
The second thing is the cyclical nature of our business in the tactical communication business area. Second point is that Q2 net sales decreased year-on-year. However, operating result was slightly positive. Component shortage really hit us in the first half of the year, and it's expected to recede by the end of this year. We rearranged the management team in the group, and we strengthened the management team. We have a new CFO, Antti Keränen, and a new Corporate Development Officer, Laura Kauppinen, has joined us. What we also have continued is the strategy work. The company came out last year with a new strategy going towards independent, independent business units, and this strategy work will continue, and we will communicate how it develops later in this fall.
Part of this strategy work is to go through the organization, go through the processes, and really go for the efficiency of the organization, and from that perspective, also making sure that we reach our profit targets and get the profitability in place. Business highlights. First, let's have a look at the tactical communication business. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led the states to increase their defense budgets and to modernize their defense forces, and this also includes tactical communication. Finland has joined the military alliance, NATO. This strengthens Bittium's market position, especially in the NATO countries. Global shortage of the, the components, as mentioned earlier, also affected our deliveries in this area in the first half of the year. Cooperation with the Finnish Defence Forces, deliveries of products was low in the first half due to the cyclicality of the business.
Deployment of Bittium Tough SDR handheld in vehicle radios are ongoing with the Finnish Defence Forces. We received approval for Bittium Tough SDR software, and also orders for support for Bittium Tactical Wireless IP Network and Bittium Tough VoIP during the first half-year. If you look at the international defense markets, we continued to deliver and do integration work for our customers in Austria and Estonia, and also, we have ongoing discussions with international air defense and sensor system suppliers go ongoing. Secure communications. It's seen that, that's clear that number of cyberattacks, cybersecurity attacks have increased in the world, and this has a impact of increasing the interest towards our solutions. The interest towards Bittium Tough Mobile phone and security-related software has continued to grow, and we have delivered secure phones and systems to several authorities in several countries....
We have applied for NATO listing the Tough Mobile 2 C, we expect to receive this during this year. We have good cooperation with our partner in Sweden, Tutus, we have been delivering together with Tutus to a large Swedish authority. We have received good feedback from our Tough Mobile 2 tactical solutions in the defense market. Medical technologies. During the first half year, as mentioned earlier, is the deliveries of our Faros ECG device was slow due to the component shortage in the first half. Deliveries of Respiro, Bittium Respiro, home sleep apnea measuring devices continued, customers' clinical trials have been positive. The company sees that this Respiro product is something that will be a significant growth driver for our medical business in the future. For the Bittium Respiro, we have applied for FDA approval.
Process is ongoing, but we have received information that more extensive clinical tests are required, which will take some time. Today, we expect to have the approval during the next year. Also, customers are piloting Bittium BrainStatus measuring device, and that is proceeding as planned. R&D services. During the first half of the year, you can see the demand of R&D services, especially in the IoT, telecom, medical technology markets, have been growing. Customers seek wireless connectivity and really based on the 5G technology, which is our expertise as well. Also, what we see that Western companies are increasingly shifting their R&D closer to their own geographical locations, like Europe, and that is a benefit for us. Cooperation with current customers continued well, and customer satisfaction has been increasing, and it's on a high level at the moment.
Also customer portfolio expanded with several new customers in the transportation, for example, and professional tool markets. Let's have a look at the financials. Quarterly development of net sales. What we can see from this picture is that this is highly cyclical, our business, and traditionally, Q4 has been a strong quarter for us. If you look at Q2, the net sales decreased due to the reasons mentioned earlier, and the product-based sales was, was EUR 13.3 million, and service-based sales was, was EUR 7.3 million. Product-based sales dropped, and the significant drop came from, from the defense and security business, which we can see here, due to the reasons mentioned earlier, cyclicality of the business. Looking at the half year development, where we see first half this year decreased 13.2%. Product base, net sales EUR 21.4 million, service-based EUR 14.2 million.
Again, we can see especially the defense and security product was where we can see the net sales was lower than last year. Operating results development. We saw the net cyclicality in net sales, and we can see logically that the development of operating the results follows that. Q1 was really a challenging quarter for us. Q2, weak, but better than Q1. Look at the half year, due to the tough Q first quarter of the year, you can see the first half was weak. R&D investments. The company will continue to have strong investments in research and development, and it will continue to be on the same level, monetary level as before. Here we can see it is approximately the same level as last year. Due to the lower turnover, the percentage is a bit higher.
Main focus in the R&D investments during the first half year is on medical business, biosignals, measuring and monitoring products. Bittium, then in the tactical communications, Tough SDR. We have tactical communication system networks, and also in the devices, Bittium Tough Mobile 2 smartphone-related security software has been invested in. Cash flow. Here I want to highlight a few things. Net cash flow from activities, -EUR 4.6 million, and then we look at the net cash from investing activities, which the biggest part is investments made to own product development, EUR 4.4 million. Net cash from financing activities, major part is the dividend paid, EUR 1.8 million, and purchase of own shares, EUR 0.4 million. Balance sheet. EUR 161.2 million was the total value. Assets, we can see non-current, 53%, current, 47%.
Liabilities, equity and liabilities, equity, 68%, and liabilities, 32% of the total value. Equity ratio on a level 69.5%. How do we see the rest of the year? Market outlook. The big issue that we have challenges with the component availability, which I mentioned earlier, was really tough for us in the 1st quarter. 2nd quarter, we're still having challenges this area, but we expect it to recede during the, during the year, end of this year. This about 70% normally of our net sales is generated from products and related system. So from this perspective, this will have has had, during the 1st half year, an impact on us, and the we can say that the sales will get closer to normal by the end of this year during this component shortage.
Financial outlook, Bittium expects the sales grow compared to the previous year, the operating result better than the previous year. The cash flow is expected to be positive. Our long-term targets, financial targets, as I mentioned earlier, we are doing the strategy work now, looking at the organization, go for, for efficiency, look for profitability, working systematically on sales. We have excellent customer relationship, excellent products, excellent people, know-how. We will go for Next year, we will go for a growth of 10% and operating profit level of 10%. This is what we estimate to achieve 2024. What will be happen here during the second half of the year? We will have a business review, January, September, on the 20th of October, 2023, and we will arrange a Capital Markets Day on the 30th of October this fall. Thank you.
Thank you, Johan. Here are some questions from the chat, and, let's start with them. How do you see that the cost structure and the cost culture of the company is?
I think this is something, as I mentioned in my presentation, is that we will now go through, we have the strategy work. A part of the strategy work is to go through really the structure, the efficiency, profitability, and this is something that we will go through in detail, and, and, we will come back to that. I think it's, it's-- this is something that we will, we will work on and make sure that, that we, we have a healthy and a good cost structure once we have done the, the strategy work.
Thank you. How do you see the strategy, the current strategy? Could it be sharper?
I think current strategy is towards independent business units. Of course, it will also have, we will have a Bittium group working together strongly with the business units. At this stage as well, what we will do is clearly to have a strong focus. Which is really the strong focus area in the different business units? Which are the customers? The current customers we will continue to work with, but where are really the things we will invest in the future and make sure that we will be the best in the future in this area? I think it's, we will have a very strong focus in this strategy work.
Thank you. Could you please comment on the activity in defense markets? There are many significant bids out in tendering process. When could we expect some results?
This is, as I mentioned, it's cyclical, and also in the defense market, when we go into national defenses, the, the tender process negotiations is, are long. It's really difficult to say exactly when things are going forward. Already during these negotiations, we might have some trials going forward, and so forth. This is something that, that we will work systematically and continue to work systematically, and hopefully we will have soon more information to tell you.
Thank you. Do you believe that the 10% EBIT margin target is realistic in 2024?
This is something that, that we will definitely work on, realistic, yes, the answer is. That comes from going through the organization, the strategy work, really make sure we work efficiently, we get the profitability to a healthy, healthy level, and, and, and combined with strong focus on sales and growth, the 10% growth that we are aiming for, as we have really good products, good customer relationships. We will be working hard on this. My answer is yes.
Okay, thank you. On customer relationships, the next question as well. Here says, "Welcome to Bittium, and nice to meet you. Nokia has announced that it's going to invest on defense. Do you see this as an opportunity to collaborate or just a competition?
My first thinking is this is something that we have a good relationship with, with Nokia, and I hope we can find good cooperation, new cooperation in the future as well.
Thank you. I think that the defense sector needs bigger shoulders to be credible supplier of products. Has Bittium applied for a partner in that field, from Finland or abroad?
Think is when, when we go into to defense sector, for instance, locally, when, when we are working with, in, in different countries, we are always looking into partners to co- work together. The partnership is, is extremely important in this area.
Thank you. Are you expecting more customers from NATO countries now that Finland is in NATO?
As I mentioned, our Now we are a part of the NATO family, so that has definitely a positive impact on our tactical communication business. Yes, I expect that this cooperation will be closer within the countries, and that will open opportunities for us in the NATO countries.
Okay, thank you.
At the same time, if I may say, keeping in mind that negotiations, discussions take a long time and can take up to five years to, to do this.
Exactly. Yeah. Thank you. A question about the cyclical nature. What do you mean by that? Is it because of the nature of the business, or is it because Bittium has such small customer base?
Say, the, the cyclicality of the business, this is significantly coming from the, from, you could say, the, the tactical communication side of the b- defense side. Of course, we have one significant important customer is, is the Finnish Defence Forces, and, and, and, and this is something the cyclicality comes from, from, from the local defense forces.
Okay, thank you. Going forward to Austrian TAC WIN delivery, so what's the status there?
The moment, it's proceeding as planned, and, and we don't have. It's proceeding as planned, but it takes some time, and, and we will keep you up to date once we have new developments and things are when things are going, then when we have news to tell.
Okay, thank you. Final questions. Can you comment, are you able to comment on the timing of the main product deliveries for the rest of the year?
I would, I would say that, that, I cannot comment exactly product deliveries, but I would like to highlight, if you go back to the presentation I just made, we could see the, the cyclicality of the, of the business. Traditionally, we have Q4 is, is strong, at the same time, we look at, at how we can see the rest of the year. We will stick to the, to our estimates for, for this year, which I mentioned here. The, the net sales higher than last year, profitability higher than last year, and, and a positive cash flow. This answers the question.
Thank you, Johan, very much. That was all from here.
Thank you!