Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Kamux Q3 results presentation. My name is Juha Kalliokoski. I'm CEO and Founder of Kamux.
Good morning. My name is Marko Lehtonen. I'm Kamux CFO.
We have quite the traditional quarterly results presentation. First Q3 in brief. After that, financial development, and thirdly, strategic outlook and financial targets, and then we summarize these. When we published, when we listed the company, after that we told that our vision is to be number one used car retailer in Europe, and after this Q3 results we are little bit nearly in that our vision. There are some cornerstones what we made in Q3.
If you think that we published our strategy eight months ago, and we told that we are pushing for more of a growth company, and now we can tell that in Q3 we increased 22.8% and at the same time in all markets declined. We are very happy about the revenue increased, and the revenue was EUR 254.6 million. Like-for-like showroom revenue increased by 13.9%, and it is very nice figures. Gross profit increased by 0.4% to EUR 29 million. Adjusted operating profit decreased by 19.1% and was EUR 10 million.
Kamux internationalization proceeded, and total revenue increased in Sweden by 12.9% and in Germany 25.7%. It's important to remember, for example, in Sweden that our external sales grew 53%, and it means that we didn't sold so much cars from Sweden to Kamux Finland and Kamux Germany. It's important growth, this external growth. Where we succeeded, we had a strong growth and we are pleased about that. Also like-for-like sales, we are pleased. Our strategy proceeded, projects proceeded as we planned. The development area is gross margin, and I'm not satisfied about the margin, but we have the plan what we will implement just now.
We announced this week we nominated Jani Koivu as Finland Country Director starting latest in May 2022, and hopefully possible earlier. He is also our director of board, group director of board. We also announced nomination of Kerim Nielsen as Sweden Country Director. He started this week, and Kerim has been already getting familiar with our business in Sweden little bit more than two months. What happens about the market? In Finland the market decrease about 4% in this Q3 in used car market, and in Sweden about -2% and the whole Germany about -13%, and in the northern part of Germany -15%.
We can be satisfied about our growth if we compare that in all markets, the markets declined. New car deliveries declined due to shortage of components and it putting pressure about the purchase side. It tells also that our concept works that we can purchase cars also from the tiny purchase market. We are growth company, and our growth has been strong in past. In Q3 it was 22.8%, and adjusted operating profit decreased by 19.1%, and it's important to remember, if you compare Q3 2020, it was extremely high margin what we had in this time.
When the corona after the first corona curve the markets opened so fast and the margin was quite huge. We sold 8.2% more cars than earlier, and it means that the average price was higher in this Q3. Even we told three months ago that we believed that or our expectation was not that the average price is higher than earlier, but it seems that it still was higher. Integrated services revenue increased approximately 13%, and we are happy about that because if we compare the sold units was +8.2%, and this grew faster than sold units in this Q3.
In the long term, if we watch that, in Q1 2019, it was EUR 7.1 million revenue from integrated services and now EUR 10.7 million. It's slightly quarter-to-quarter growth, and it's more stable than this used car sales itself. It's good to keep in mind that new showrooms are according to new strategy. These are, as we say, mega store, which are about 3 times bigger, or there are 3 times more cars compared to our previous average showroom sites. It means that we don't open so many stores than earlier because these stores are bigger ones. Oulu and Gothenburg are also processing centers. In Germany, lockdown was lasting until 13th of June, and it was not possible normally to recruit personnel to new showrooms.
In Germany, COVID-19 situation is still very fragile, and Commercial Vehicles activities have been expanding in Finland. We opened new Commercial Vehicle department in Espoo in September. Then Marko told about financial development in this Q3.
Thanks, Juha. The big numerator in quarter 3 was of course our growth strategy and delivering the growth strategy, and there we managed really well. It is good to keep in mind that the comparison period, so meaning quarter 3 2020, it was a record high on relative terms, so meaning the margin percentages were very high last year. Also, it is good to keep in mind that if we look back, especially the balance sheet and also the cash flow, last year COVID-19 pandemic was impacting the inventory levels and of course there was some fluctuations up and down last year and also this year when we started to prepare for the growth strategy boosting the inventories. That was of course impacting.
Now, the picture is a bit more, I would call, normal on Kamux way, so meaning inventory levels decreased slightly during the summer season as planned. The net cash flow from the operating activities was EUR 22.8 million, and that was record high. We have never made in quarter three so high net cash flow from the operations. We paid also the second installment of the dividend at the end of October, EUR 0.13, and the return on equity was 18.6%, and it was significantly impacted by the EUR 3.9 million expense recognitions which was related to the purchases in Germany, which we announced in quarter two.
Of course, it's good to keep in mind that when we calculate the return on equity, we are using 12-month averages, so that expense recognition will still be visible for a while. Equity ratio was 41.7% and slightly decreasing from the previous year, and earnings per share was 0.18 EUR, and it was declining roughly 20.5% compared to the previous year. It is good to keep in mind, and what we have also underlined many times, that our strong balance sheet is the backbone for our growth strategy, and that is also very visible in this quarter. If we go to the key figures and look what was happening in the last quarter.
Juha was going through the quarter figures, so meaning the revenue and the operating profit and the margins for quarter three. I would like to point out a little bit more the January-September development. Our revenue was EUR 693.3 million, growing 32%. Our adjusted operating profit for the period was EUR 22.4 million, slightly declining from the previous year level. In the third quarter, our revenue from the integrated services was growing. It was EUR 10.7 million and the growth 12.9% was faster than the unit growth, so we can be quite pleased with that development. Also what is very pleasing is the sales growth like-for-like showrooms being strong 13.9%.
It is good to keep in mind that in all our markets, we estimate that the used car market was declining in the third quarter and especially in Germany and the northern part of Germany, the decline in quarter three was -15%. As I was saying, in terms of inventory development, the development looks now a bit more normal and the inventory turnover days was 48.8 and slightly reducing from last year, going to the right direction. If we then talk about our segments and start with Finland, we were growing in Finland 13.1%, and the revenue was EUR 164.3 million.
The gross margin was at previous year level and amounted to EUR 22.1 million or being 13.4% of the revenue. In the second quarter, we discussed about the KMS, our Kamux Management System, implementation in Finland, and it had certain impact to the business in the second quarter. Now in the third quarter, we have been more or less having business as usual, and it didn't have really any impact anymore to the daily operations in quarter three. Our operating profit decreased by 6.7%, compared to previous year and was EUR 11.1 million or 6.7% of the revenue. Integrated services revenue increased to EUR 8.9 million being 5.4% of revenue which is roughly on the last year level.
In Finland, growth was driven by the new showrooms and like-for-like showroom sales. As Juha was mentioning, we nominated Mr. Jani Koivu to be the Country Director in Finland and being also the group and management team member. If you talk about Sweden, in Sweden, we were having strong revenue growth. The total revenue increased by 12.9% compared to our previous year being EUR 78.4 million, and the external revenue was growing 53%, which of course we can be very pleased with. Gross margin increased to EUR 5.3 million being 6.8% from the revenue, slightly down from the previous year, and the operating profit decreased compared to the previous year and was EUR 0.8 million or 1% of the total revenue.
Revenue from the integrated services increased to EUR 1.3 million, being 1.9% of external revenue, quite close to the previous year level. In Sweden, growth was also driven by the new showrooms and sales growth of like-for-like showrooms. As we announced, Kerim Nielsen has already started as a Kamux Sweden Country Director and he's in full swing as he was already inside the company. In Kamux Germany, the situation was relatively different compared to the other markets. It is good to keep in mind that we had a lockdown until end of June in Germany, and the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Germany is still very fragile.
The new amount of infections and also the hospital capacity situation is still not on good track. There was also this autumn elections in Germany and it seems to be that the government or the coalition parties which will form the government will change, and of course, that is also a bit raising questions in people's minds how the practical or daily policy will change and how will that impact the cost of living and transport, for example. However, in Germany, the total revenue increased by 25.7% compared to our previous year, which was EUR 24.1 million.
Gross margin decreased to EUR 1.6 million being 6.5% of revenue, and the operating income decreased compared to our previous year being negative EUR 0.4 million or 1.7% of the total revenue. Integrated services revenue decreased, and it was EUR 0.5 million or 2% of the external revenue. We, when COVID-19 pandemic started, we saw quite some decline of the integrated services revenue in all the markets, but especially in the financial services, the recovery was relatively fast in Finland and Sweden, and in Germany, this recovery has been relatively slower.
The growth in Germany was driven by new showrooms and also sales growth of like-for-like showrooms. About our net working capital and inventories, as I was mentioning that there has been relatively drastic changes in the past or the past quarters related to the implementation of the new strategy and COVID-19 pandemic. Now this is more turning into the direction which I also like, meaning net working capital was growing 16.6%, which was slower than our revenue growth. Inventories were growing 23.8%, which is roughly on the same level than our revenue growth. About our net cash flow, which improved significantly compared to the comparison period being EUR 22.8 million.
It is good to keep in mind that in Kamux, the cash flow is relatively cyclical and related really to our sales cycle, which is going year by year more or less the same way when we have a normal year, so to say. However, typically the quarter three is the strongest, and this year we had the best result ever in the operating cash flow. The improvement on the cash flow, it was coming of course from the profit, but also from the changes in the working capital. During the summer period, we continued our investments according to our strategy, and we are investing systematically into our growth. The target of this is to seek a significant competitive advantage by investing in leading with knowledge and making strategic real estate investments.
We were investing in third quarter, roughly EUR 1.1 million to the fixed assets, mostly namely to the processing center and showroom in Oulu, and roughly EUR 0.5 million to intangible, mainly digital assets. Of course, there the spearhead was digital functions, meaning developing our Kamux Management System, CRM, ERP system. What I would also like to point out and what we are very pleased is that number of our shareholders have been developing very positively. At the end of September, we had 24,317 shareholders. Also at the end of September, we had nominee registered shareholders, 27.1%, so basically meaning foreign institutional owners. I move to our strategy outlook and financial targets.
If we start about our strategy implementation, the first pylon there is the omnichannel customer experience and services, and there we continue with our pilot project for Kamux Huoleton, or in English, Carefree, which is monthly fee driving service. We are collecting there now more and more experiences. The second pylon is the efficient processes and scalability, and there, the next mega store will be opened in Malmö, Sweden, and the project to build a processing center in Oulu is progressing well, as I also mentioned, from the monetary perspective of that project. Utilizing data and leading with the knowledge, our own CRM, ERP system, Kamux Management System, KMS, is now in use in all countries. Sweden started to use KMS now in early November.
What is of course positive with the lessons from Finland, our people have been learning well to use the system, and I would call that the daily operations are normal there with the new system. That is of course enabling us to use new possibilities to lead with data in the group level. Also developing capabilities and continuous learning, and not much changing from the previous quarter. We are focusing this year to develop our leadership and especially management skills and there the forefront is really the sales management.
If we look at our financial targets, our targets for the strategy period 2021 to 2023 is a revenue growth of over 20% annually, increasing adjusted EBIT and adjusted EBIT margin of 3.5%, return on equity over 25%, and target to distribute dividends of at least 25% of net profits, however, considering the company's growth potential. How are we doing so far? In January to September, our revenue growth annually has been 32%, adjusted operating profit EUR 22.4 million, slightly behind from the previous year. Adjusted operating profit margin 3.2%, return on equity 18.6%, and dividend for the year 2020 was 41%.
Our outlook, we updated that in September, and it is now in 2021, we expect the revenue to reach EUR 850 million-EUR 900 million and adjusted operating profit to increase from the previous year. Now I would like to summarize this all. Our revenue increased by 22.8%, being EUR 254.6 million. Our gross profit increased by 0.4%, being EUR 29 million. Adjusted operating profit decreased by 19.1% and was EUR 10 million. Like-for-like showroom revenue increased by 13.9%. Kamux internationalization progressed well, and total revenue increased in Sweden by 12.9% to EUR 78.4 million, and in Germany by 25.7% to EUR 24.1 million. We continued our very strong growth.
Thank you very much for your attention, and we are pleased to answer your questions.
Let's take-
Ready
Operator, any questions in English by phone?
Uh, we will see. If you do have any questions, please press zero-one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero-two to cancel. We will take a brief pause while questions are being registered. As of right now, we have no questions through the phone. I hand back to our travel speakers.
Okay, thank you. We have some online questions, though. When do you expect profitability to improve in Sweden, and what will be the key drivers to enable this?
If you think about the activities, what we are doing, they are very strongly aligned with our new strategy, and especially according to the pillars, what we mentioned. I would say that basically all the aspects, what we have, they are touching the whole group, so not only Sweden or Germany or Finland, but they are touching the whole group. The period to implement those actions are, of course, until end of 2023. That is then reflected in our financial targets and of course the outlook for this year. I mean, that is the strategic part. Of course, then there is the tactical or the operative part, which is our daily bread-and-butter business.
Of course, there we have a lot of smaller activities that we do, but I cannot unfortunately open those for competitive reasons.
How shall we think the capital expenditure for the coming years?
We have been in the past roughly investing EUR 1 million per quarter in different digital assets. Of course, now the investment profile was slightly changing when we were looking at these strategic real estate investments. Those are, of course, always quite unique or individual, so it's a bit difficult to estimate the timing or how the investment will go. I would basically say that without the real estate investments, I think the approximate number could be 1 million per quarter for different like normal investments.
About-
I think that it's also important to say also that we only invest in strategic real estate, not all, only some per country.
That is correct.
About online sales, how much of your sales are coming from online?
Yeah. If you think about the sales, what is pure 100% online, there we can talk about still single digits percentages of the sales. Then if you think about the sales which have a touchpoint in digital world and then we continue the transaction in the store or the car will be delivered to customers near a store. Those kind of transactions are already roughly 66% of them, over 66% in the group level.
If you think about the click-and-collect or cross-sales, what that means is that we sell from to other countries and other stores, it's in the group level 30%. It's very hard to differentiate what are, of course, only the online sale, 100% online sales. We think that it's important, the whole process, how it happens and there are many parts of digital processes in this process.
Yes. In our omnichannel strategy, the key point is the customer. The customer can choose the way how he or she would prefer to conduct the business.
Do you plan to update your website soon?
Yes, it's ongoing processes just now.
Integrated services growth is a bit subdued. Can you give us more color on that?
As I was telling that if looking back, especially like one year or a bit more time period, the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting quite strongly all the markets. However, Finland and Sweden recovered relatively fast. The recovery in Germany has been slower. Of course, there our aim and target is to grow our business, to be more interesting and more potential partner for the institutions who are offering these services, also getting better terms for ourselves and our customers.
Gross margin decreased strongly. Can you give us more color on your expectations for the coming months?
If you think about the expectations, we are giving on the group level, the financial targets, and they're namely the adjusted operating profit. We are not so to say giving guidance or expectation or targets in form of gross margin. I think it's really important to keep in mind that the last year quarter three gross margin was exceptionally high, and that was driven really by the COVID-19 pandemic and then the easing of the pandemic and also the pricing in the market, which was changing very rapidly last year. The last year comparison period was really exceptional. If I think and look back, for example, the EUR-level car margin, what...
Margin what we get per car, actually, now in 2021, quarter three was higher than in 2019, so in that sense, I wouldn't call this, like, any dramatic result what we have.
You are behind on EBIT so far this year. Where does the confidence come from to be able to meet the financial target for the full year?
How we work is, of course, that we are constantly updating our estimates, so the forecast process based, of course, on the actual results what we are getting. Of course, on these, based on this material, our board of directors is then estimating the risks related to the plan and also the like so to say confidence level what we have. Currently, in our forecasts are supporting our outlook for 2021.
Gross profit in the quarter was roughly flat, but operating profit declined 17%. How much of that is because of the increased number of employees? What else is a big reason?
Of course, if thinking about our new strategy, and of course in the new strategy, the strong denominator is growth. That has been requiring some investment or also some, let's say, taking some cost a bit more before in the house and especially if you think about the areas. As I was saying, we have been investing to certain product development, where we are piloting products. We have been also investing quite significantly the training of the people but also to the expansion of the business.
Is the Oulu mega store progressing as planned?
Oulu's?
Oulu Megastore.
Yeah, yeah. It's going in the schedule.
How many hybrid cars do you plan to sell in 2022?
We don't estimate diesel, gasoline, hybrid, and electric cars. It's about the markets. For example, just now we have in Finland over 500 cars which are hybrid and electric cars. It means that it's over 10% from our inventory. In Sweden it's also in this level, and in Germany it's lower level because in the market it's not so much hybrid and electric cars just now. The market tells what are interested in, and it's important to understand that it doesn't matter for us what is the engines of the cars or brand of the car.
It seems like there have been quite a few management changes in the layer below executive management. Why is that? Is there something specific that people are unhappy with?
If you think, of course everyone have this own decision makes, but also we are a high-performance company, and it means that sometimes we must change. At the same time, if you think about the company which grow very fast, it change the profile of the directors that we need, and we are very happy with Jani and Kerim, and that they make successful business and work in our company next coming years.
When can we expect to return to faster growth in Germany, including new showrooms?
As Juha was describing that this year has been relatively unusual in many ways, and also due to this COVID-19 pandemic, it was difficult to open new stores because, according to local regulation, if you have people in Kurzarbeit, so it's difficult to recruit new people for the new locations. We are of course working with the project pipeline, but at the moment, I don't have more details to be shared.
Can you talk about your new CRM ERP system? What can this system do that you could not do before? Which system is it?
If we start with the architecture or what system it is, that is a tailor-made system for us with a very modern technical platform. That is not, so to say, commercial package software. It is really made for us to really support the used car business in the best possible way. I think the key there, of course, is the core of the whole thing. It is really the vision to have European-level stock, meaning that we can very smoothly share the stock between the units that we have. Also, of course, the level and the granularity of the data that we get from the system is, of course, at a totally different level, meaning helping us to be better in pricing, buying.
Pricing and buying and selling and also of course in the performance management as well.
Should we expect operating costs to increase sequentially at Q4 or to remain flat versus Q3?
We have not been giving really any guidance about the operating cost level, but we basically have been giving guidance on the Group revenue and the Group adjusted operating profit.
Can you be more specific regarding your plan to improve EBIT margin?
As I was saying that there are, like, strategic actions where I was basically naming those silos and the activities what we do inside those silos, and then we have of course operative or tactic, I would call, actions and those actions we cannot unfortunately go into much more in detail for competitive reasons. I'm afraid I cannot really go maybe on the wished granularity level on that.
What is the status of KMS? Can you specify clearly the impacts in Q3, for example, lost sales, lower margins per car and so forth? Is the system now in go live mode in all countries and 100% operational?
Yes. System is 100% operational in all the Kamux businesses, so we are using that as our core system in Kamux. As I was saying, that in the second quarter we saw some impact on the implementation we had in Finland, and it had an impact to the business. However, in the third quarter I would say that it was more business as usual, so there was not really, like, any material impact to the business anymore. What I'm also very pleased is that when we started now to use KMS in Sweden in November, so that has been starting really well.
Are you satisfied with the employees' response from the implementation and usage of the new ERP?
If we now point to the latest implementation that we made in Sweden, my understanding is that the feedback has been very positive, so of course I am satisfied for that.
What are the actions that you believe will enable you to hit the operating profit targets for the whole year? The current outlook, is it still doable?
I think we already discussed about the outlook and also the process, how we are, so to say, judging the outlook, so meaning based on our operative forecasts. Currently, we don't have any reason to believe why we couldn't do it.
That was all the questions in English.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.