Good afternoon and welcome to Enento's Q1 Earnings Webcast. My name is Arto Paukku. Today I am joined by our CEO, Jeanette Jäger, and our CFO, Elina Stråhlman. Jeanette will start by providing an overview of our first quarter results, highlighting key achievements and updates from our business areas. Elina will then share insights from the financial perspective. Following their presentations, we will open up the floor for your questions. Feel free to submit your questions at any time using the webcast tool. Without further ado, I'll now hand it over to Jeanette to lead us through our Q1 highlights. Jeanette.
Thank you very much, Arto. Good afternoon to all of you, and welcome to this results briefing from my part. Let's firstly shortly review the Q1 key developments, both in terms of numbers but also what we have accomplished as a company. After that, I will be presenting the usual business area update with highlights. Taking a closer look into the key figures in Q1. As anticipated in our 2023 financial statement release, the macroeconomic environment has remained challenging, particularly in Sweden, and has shown clear signs of weakening in Finland as well. The strikes in Finland have had a broad effect on the overall economic activity in the society and therefore impacted the demand for our services. In Sweden, the demand for consumer credit information services remains sluggish, while in Finland the demand was significantly, sorry about that, weaker compared to the previous year.
Additionally, the first quarter included one less business day compared to 2023. On the positive side, net sales in Norway and Denmark continued to grow. In the first quarter, our organic net sales were EUR 37.3 million, representing a decrease of 5.2% at comparable exchange rates. Our adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 12.4 million, decreasing by 15.2% at comparable exchange rates, while resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 33.3%. Furthermore, our free cash flow is expected to remain strong, enabling us to continue investing in our growth areas and return capital to our shareholders. During the first quarter of 2024, we successfully continued to concentrate on sustaining our profitability level. This was achieved despite lower volumes and declining net sales, thanks to advancements in our efficiency program and the implementation of cost-saving measures.
We continued to make significant progress with our efficiency program and have decided to increase the efficiency target from EUR 8 million to EUR 10 million by the end of 2024. The program has already achieved almost 74% of its updated target on a run-rate basis by the end of the first quarter. Our customer-first approach and regular engagement with our customers is key to remaining and maintaining our strong market position. I am very proud to say that our customers are giving us great recognition for the service we provide. The NPS score from our strategic and large customers remained high at 51, which is well above industry peers, reflecting the trust and value we have built with our customers.
In our continuous efforts to enhance the relevance of Enento Group's financial reporting, we have decided to revise the calculation logic of our share of net sales from new services KPI, now in line with the industry standard. The revised calculation now extends to cover services launched within the past 36 months compared to the previous 24 months. We progressed with our growth strategy execution in several areas, including further developing our compliance offering as well as preparing for launching the new open banking service for the Swedish market. We can be very content with the share of new services figure being 14%. Biggest contributors in the improvement are still the positive daily credit register in Sweden and the renewed certificate offering in Finland. But there are other new strategic services delivering good results in both business areas, as the new real estate information service, as an example.
In the financial statements earnings call, we announced our plan to extend our efficiency program from the prior EUR 8 million target to the EUR 10 million by the end of 2024. The decision for the new EUR 10 million target has now been made, and the actions are proceeding according to plans. The extended program has advanced as planned and achieved almost 74% of its target on a run-rate basis by the end of Q1 2024, equaling roughly EUR 7.4 million. To recap the main drivers, the further FTE efficiencies realized through voluntary redundancies and through the transition of application service and the streamlining of our IT infrastructure so that we have one Nordic IT environment with one vendor. We are starting the implementation phase in the area of streamlining our IT infrastructure in Sweden in Q2 and advancing further in the other operating countries later on.
We are doing that together with our partner, TCS. In direct-to-consumer business, we are moving into a partner sales model, which will decrease the customer acquisition costs, and the progress has been positive during Q1. We are also proceeding with a plan to move into smaller facilities in Finland. Then let's review the highlights from our business areas, and I'll start with the Business Insight , which continued positively in Finland, Norway, and Denmark. Norway and Denmark net sales growth being very strong. In Sweden, the challenges in the macroeconomic environment are impacting the demand for our services as customers are being more cost-conscious. Business Insight organic net sales were EUR 22.2 million and grew 1.8% at comparable foreign exchange rates. We continue to see net sales growth, especially in the real estate information services in Finland and Sweden and premium services targeted to SMEs across all countries.
We have introduced several new services in real estate service, which are driving the growth even if real estate transactions are on a very low level in both Sweden and Finland. Our Nordic compliance offering development and expansion continues. The transition of the service offering towards a recurring revenue model is expected to provide stability in terms of revenue development and product development. The push continues now in all the markets. During the first quarter, we have launched an improved offering also out in Sweden. The ESG data plays a pivotal role in driving the transformation towards a sustainable society. This applies to lending and procurement process, as well as ESG is one of our strategic growth areas.
Now, let me give an example of Business Insight s service, which is combining real estate data and ESG data to support our customers in property evaluation, as well as credit and portfolio management processes in Sweden. Damages to properties and buildings caused by climate change, such as heavy wind and rain, flooding, and fires, implicate the financial risks that must be managed both at a portfolio level and in day-to-day processes. Our high-quality data and services help companies in making sustainable decisions for resource management, lending, and investment, and in assessing ESG and compliance risks with the help of a digitalized service. The Property Climate Risk Report service in Sweden is Enento Group's unique proprietary service, which automates mortgage and property information processes to make decisions easier. It supports financial institutions, banks, and other companies measure financial risks related to damages to properties and buildings caused by climate change.
The service is combining the up-to-date property and owner information from Swedish authorities, company and group information, and the climate risk class on the property and building developed by Enento. The reports that are offered save a lot of time and money for real estate stakeholders, whether owners, buyers, sellers, advisors, banks, accountants, and ESG consultants, who would otherwise have to analyze each property manually or with on-site inspection to assess climate risks. Currently, several banks are using the service, of which one is a top five bank in Sweden. In 2024, we will enhance our ESG services and introduce new features to better support our real estate customers. Our efforts will focus on providing essential insights into climate risk management for property holdings. So, over to Consumer Insight . Consumer insight business area faced lower demand for credit information services in both Sweden and Finland.
In Sweden, the consumer credit information sector is declining due to reduced lending volumes, broker usage, fraud, and market exits. Finland faces downturn but without the market consolidation, largely due to lenders pausing operations and reevaluating business models. Both countries are experiencing reduced transaction volumes influenced by consumer caution amidst high inflation, rising interest rates, and increasing bankruptcies. The lenders are also reevaluating their operations as a result of declining profitability and implementing cost-efficiency measures that impact demand for our services and transaction volumes. Regarding the highlights from Q1, to mention a few, a significant achievement for Consumer Insight is the adoption of our credit information services for the Finnish Positive credit register, started 1 April this year. Our Finnish services are now integrated with the new governmental register data.
Many of our customers have opted to rely on our expertise to retrieve the data and enhance it with our analytics and decisioning services. We have not lost any customers because of the register starting its operations, and the impact is rather the opposite. In Sweden, we have started discussions with potential customers to promote our new PSD2 offering for open banking data. With the service offering, we have already attracted high interest and a promising sales pipeline. The adoption of the daily updated credit register continues, with the old legacy register scheduled to be closed down during Q2. Consumer Marketing information services in both countries witnessed growth as new customers were onboarded. Let's now take a closer look at how Enento services give value in relation to the Finnish Positive credit register .
The register opened on April 1, and integrating our credit information services with it represents a significant achievement for the Consumer Insight business area. Many of our customers have chosen to rely on our expertise to retrieve data and enhance it with our analytics and decision-making services. We play a clear role in delivering enriched data and adding our intelligence. Customers can connect to the Positive credit register via an API or GUI. We manage the data flows, maintain the integrations, and provide responses through API, PDF file, or with a recommended decision. Of course, companies and customers also have the direct option to use the Positive credit registers themselves. However, by doing so, they miss out on the flexibility and ease of workflow that our services provide. For example, our service includes a decision service with affordability calculation and relevant off-the-shelf policy rules.
We also collect data in a compliant manner for future analytics and for modeling. Moving on from Q1 to our priorities going forward, we are currently navigating a challenging and unpredictable period, especially in the consumer credit information market. 2024 is highly dependent on general development in GDP growth, consumer credit demand, and consumer confidence. Additionally, variations in our sales mix may impact profitability. Given these conditions, we are holding off on providing specific financial guidance for the year. We are focusing on areas where we can make a significant impact through our own actions, specifically by driving growth from new initiatives and maintaining tight cost control. Our growth strategy includes generating new business from innovative services and increased market penetration. We are making progress in launching new services in strategic growth areas such as ESG compliance and master data, open banking, and fraud prevention.
Having previously identified key areas for market penetration, we are now actively executing on these plans. Cost control is being achieved through a continuous focus on efficiency with advancements in IT consolidation and vendor management. This is crucial for maintaining our profitability despite the fluctuating macroeconomic environment and market volatility. Despite the current unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, the measures we have implemented in executing our strategy give us confidence in our ability to generate value supported by improving macroeconomic factors. By that, I would like to welcome our CFO, Elina, to also bring us forward and deep dive more into the numbers.
Thank you, Jeanette. Let's focus on the financial outcome of Q1 and grow through the numbers in a bit more detail.
Our net sales reached EUR 37.3 million, and unfortunately, due to continuing heavy pressure in consumer credit volumes, it declined by 5.2% at comparable FX rates, excluding the discontinuance of the Tambur business. The negative development in Swedish consumer credit information business continued, and now, following the challenging macroeconomic situation, volumes also started declining in consumer credit business in Finland. The stable development in the business information services, including strong growth in real estate new services and good demand for premium services, was not enough to offset the volume decline in consumer credit side. Adjusted EBITDA declined as well following the revenue development and resulted at EUR 12.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin ended at 33.3%, and as said, this negative development can be fully explained by the revenue decline and weakening sales mix.
In Q1, we continued to keep the costs in very good control, and costs were actually decreasing, but obviously, we were not then able to offset or mitigate this heavy decline in volumes with cost actions. There is a limited amount of variable costs in the Swedish consumer credit business, which means that the volume decline, revenue decline, then directly impacts the profitability. Adjusted EBIT development, that was in line with the adjusted EBITDA development. And then, on the financial position side, net debt to adjusted EBITDA remained on a good level at 2.4 times. Continuing then with some details on the revenue development. And starting from the Business Insight there, the development of the business area returned to slight growth in Q1, and revenue increased by 1.8% compared to last year. And this is with comparable FX rates and excluding the discontinuance of the Tambur business.
Finnish business continued on a stable track and was supported by strong demand for new services and the real estate business. This, nevertheless, is that the transaction volumes remained in Finland on a low level. Also, the business was supported by good demand for SME premium services. In enterprise business, we saw solid development, but the volumes were clearly impacted by the one less working day and timing of Easter, as well as the strikes that took place in Finland. In Sweden, the business area was likewise supported by good demand for real estate new services. Jeanette talked about the climate risk service that we have introduced, and that has gained good traction in the markets. Also, the business information services for SMEs continued to perform well. Where we saw biggest struggles was the premium business and display sales that were clearly impacted by the macroeconomic environment.
In Norway, as also mentioned, the business continued to perform well likewise and was specifically strong in the premium segment where we have introduced new services. In the Consumer Insight there, the negative development, as said, continued and the revenue declined by 14%. In Sweden, the volume decline continued in the levels that we saw already in Q4, following the low lending transaction volumes, decreased usage of broker segment, as well as then market consolidations and exits. In Finland, the volume also turned now into decline, largely due to low lending volumes, but also due to lenders pausing operations or reevaluating their business models. But what is important to note and understand is that markets are different between Finland and Sweden.
In Finland, we see a bigger impact coming from volumes, and it's not a similar trend in terms of broker segment or market exits or consolidations than what we are seeing on the Swedish side. On the Consumer Insight then, the smaller business lines, those performed well, and we saw good growth in Consumer Marketing business thanks to successful sales efforts. Obviously, those are small business lines, so good performance there is not then enough to offset the heavy decline in the consumer credit businesses. Moving forward with the adjusted EBITDA development. As said, adjusted EBITDA landed at EUR 12.4 million in the first quarter. Despite the fact that we kept costs under good control and even decreasing the declining consumer credit volumes and weaker sales mix turned the adjusted EBITDA into a sharper decline.
As already mentioned, we have a limited amount of variable costs connected to the Swedish consumer credit business, which means that the decrease in volumes and revenues then pretty much directly hits the profitability. Looking at the EBITDA development in more detail, the negative sales mix impact can be seen in the materials and services, meaning our data acquisition costs that increased despite the hefty revenue decline. This is due to the good demand and development in real estate and Consumer Marketing businesses in Finland that come with variable data acquisition costs. As well as, as mentioned, the fact that in Swedish consumer credit business, the amount of variable data acquisition costs is very limited. As a result of this weaker sales mix, gross margin declined by 1.5 percentage points.
Personal costs, those on the other hand, decreased by EUR 300,000, mainly following the savings and efficiency actions that we took last year in Q1. This positive impact then was partially offset by the salary inflation. The savings actions are also visible in decreasing other operating expenses that declined by EUR 200,000. Behind this decline, we have a mix of permanent and temporary cost decreases, but also negative impacts from contractual cost inflation and some OpEx projects that we have then successfully offset with efficiency and savings actions. Then finally, production for own use that remained on prior year level, and the currency impacts have now stabilized, while also the levels have somewhat stabilized from prior year. Free cash flow resulted at EUR 6.9 million and declined following the profitability development, but also largely due to the change in working capital.
The change in working capital was impacted by the timing of accounts receivable payments. This is basically due to the fact that last day of March happened to be during the weekend, meaning that the payments were largely postponed to April. Both cash conversion and adjusted cash conversion remained above the 60% level. Then finally, financial position continues to be strong. We have some EUR 80 million of cash at our hands on top of unused credit lines. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA was at 2.4, clearly below our set maximum level of 3. Gross investments, those were somewhat lower than prior year, but that is mainly due to the fact that in last year's Q1 we had some hardware investments that took place then. Good, but thank you on my behalf. We have now time for some questions. Arto, please.
Yes, thank you, Elina. Thank you, Jeanette. Let's start with the questions we have from the studio. So, Roni.
Roni Peuranheimo from Inderes, hi. Regarding the Positive credit register , earlier you commented that you expect flat development in this area. So, can you elaborate a little bit more on how you have seen that? Have you seen it affecting your demand in the beginning of April?
Yeah, well, I think it's a little bit early to say anything about how it will affect our demand forward. As we shared now, what we have developed is a service for our customers where they can integrate the data from the Positive credit register together with our services. So, in that sense, I think we have built a solid foundation actually for our customers. And as mentioned, we have also actually attracted new customers to this.
But now and forward, now we need also to see, on top of the integration and on top, of course, that as a service on its own, how will it affect then the data as such from the earlier service? But all in all, we expect a flattish development.
So, that still holds true, like in revenue-wise, flattish development?
Yes.
You mentioned that the strikes did have some effect in Q1. Are you able to comment anyhow how big that effect was?
Yeah, it's really difficult to evaluate how much was due to strikes, but we could clearly see in March volumes decline in some customer volumes that we know were clearly impacted by the strikes. Very difficult to say what was the exact impact, but we saw some.
Then one about Outlook. H2 is getting closer, and you have mentioned that you see some optimisms towards that. So, what are the main drivers for that optimism at this point, given that the interest rate expectations, interest rate cuts are pretty low?
Yeah, of course. I mean, we do see some signs, and all of us take part via media and, of course, other forums that we can foresee that there will be interest rates which will be lowered at some point. Then I would say that it depends on when and how much that will affect, of course, the H2. In addition to that, I would also say that the consumers and how the consumers react to this, do the consumer feel confident or more confident about the future? That also, of course, has an effect. So, in that way, we still at this point need to conclude on what we have said earlier. We see positive signs, but at this point, there are positive signs. Remains to see how they realize.
All right, no further questions from me.
Thank you.
Okay, great.
Then we have a few questions online, so let's start to go through these. Maybe the first one for Jeanette. So... Do you see risks with the Business Insight going further, I assume, down this year? Or is it most of the uncertainty linked to the consumer side in respect to the fact that we don't issue any guidance at this point?
I would say that we are not issuing any guidance at this point. It is still due to that there is... It is difficult to see how this will affect us forward without knowing when we can see the light in the tunnel connected to the earlier question we just had here. Again, also connected to Consumer Insight .
So, in that sense, I would say that the question is more or less answering itself in the way that we are more concerned on the consumer credit and how the environment, macroeconomic in general, and also the consolidation, as I call it in Sweden, is affecting us rather actually than the Business Insight , which we, of course, have different... We have different business lines within the Business Insight . So, even though you see that the macro is still affecting the, for example, the advertising leg of us, we do see that we are also doing well in the premium. So, it's not either/or. But all in all, business, we still feel that it is continuing on a
Yes. Good. And maybe a follow-up on this. You have probably sort of answered it already. So, what would it... Or what would need to happen in order for us to give a guidance this year?
Yeah. When it comes to the guidance, we would like to, we would like to give a guidance when we also, which a guidance we can keep. We want to see how the dim outlook, as I have commented on earlier, is developing now during Q2 and when we can see the signs of also, a better foresight. So, in that sense, I think we need to see how Q2 plays out. I think we need to see whether the indication of a better future comes into play now, before summer or after summer. And also not only whether the interest rates come in place, but also how is the market reacting to those? Is the confidence, consumers and business-wise, are they coming up then?
Yes, then we can probably conclude, and that would give us a better base for a future outlook. But we want to feel confident when we also conclude for the market.
Right, very good. And then let's continue with the credit register theme a bit. So, do we see it as a possibility that the tax authorities here in Finland would also cover the negative register, meaning the payment remarks? And what would that mean to us?
Okay. Now, Elina and Arto, please jump into this, but it has not been on the table as such. And what it would mean then needs to be, t hat needs to be analyzed.
Yes. Good.
Yes, at the moment we don't see this kind of development, and it's not according to the laws set currently. That it would cover the negative payment remarks. So, no such development foreseen at the moment.
Yes.
And it could be good for those who follow us to understand that that is the general, also when it comes to the law, that you combine. You don't combine it. You go either/or. So, that would mean a change of legislation if you would happen here in Finland. And we also have a similar setup for the Swedish legislation. You don't combine it.
Yes, exactly. Very good. And then, Jeanette, you can breathe for... Or take it easy for a while, and we continue with some financial questions to Elina. So, net financial expenses. So, those declined materially from the Q4 level. So, what's the reason behind that?
Well, the main reason behind are currency exchange rate differences related mainly to the cash accounts that we have in various currencies. So, the interest costs as such have stayed on the same level as in Q4.
But what then varies is are the currency rate differences arising from the cash that we have in balance sheet in different currencies. Yes, very good. And how do you see the sort of the next following quarters in terms of financial expenses? Well, in terms of financial expenses, we have the EUR 150 million term loan, of which one third roughly is in Swedish krona and rest in euros. And the interest rates are checked or adjusted for the Swedish krona denominated part at the end of March and at the end of September. So, obviously now the STIBOR came a bit down. A bit down. So, there will be slight impact of that, but EURIBOR obviously is what it has been now and will be checked next time then at the end of September.
Right, good. And then regarding the depreciations level. So, now we saw a little bit higher at EUR 3 million level in Q1. That has been typically very stable. So, is this the new run rate going forward?
Well, of course, we continue to invest in service development roughly on the same level than what we saw last year. And when we take new services into use, those, of course, always impact the depreciation levels. And then, we can assume that the run rate is close to where we are at the moment, but of course, always the new service implementations impact the depreciations. And also if we have some legacy services dropping off from the base. So, there are always differences between quarters in that sense.
And the PPAs?
Yes, and overvalued depreciations. There we have a slight decrease from second half. Second half onwards. So, that will impact the run rate level then for the second half.
Right. Okay, very good. Then let's jump back to Jeanette then. Do you still consider the 5%-10% average annual growth target for the strategy period of 2024/2026 as realistic now given the macro headwinds that we are facing?
Yeah, well, I think that is a fair question. And of course, now we have started our strategic long-term financial plan period with a kind of, I would say, challenging start. So, in that sense, I think that we need to look into that and analyze that. And now, as we go along with Q2, how will this develop? So, I think we will have to come back on it based on macro.
Right. Good. Then regarding cost savings and the extended target to EUR 10 million. So, how much of this is considered as structural savings versus then the sort of the variable element? So, are these all permanent?
These are all permanent. Permanent efficiencies. So, we don't include any temporary variations in costs into this program.
Yes, good, clear. And then perhaps the last question. Have we now still witnessed the same pace with the Consumer Insight s revenue decline that we have seen before? Or is it, Is the decline rate moderating against the comparables we had in Q2 last year? We have stated earlier that minus 20% level is what we have seen.
Yes, and minus 20% is sort of a run rate level. But of course, of course then in Q2, we already last year started seeing, y es, volume decline. So, that will of course impact the comparisons.
And even more so then when we go to Q3 and then obviously Q4 was already on that -20% run rate level. So, yes, you will of course need to take into account where we were at the comparison period.
Yes, very good. I'm out of questions. So, it's time to say thank you. And see you in July.
Yes, and thank you for all the questions.
Thank you, bye-bye.