All right. Good morning. Welcome to Optomed's Q4 Investor Call. My name is Sakari Knuutti, and I'm the CFO of Optomed. We have also our CEO, Seppo Kopsala, on the line. Our Q4 release came out this morning, and the presentation is now available on our IR site. Note that everyone can unmute themselves by pressing star six, when you have questions. While we wait for the joining notifications to end, we can start.
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All right, Seppo. The stage is soon yours.
It seems that there are still people are joining, so. I assume everybody's here now. All right. Welcome everyone for Optomed Q4 presentation. I'm Seppo Kopsala. Let's start with the slide number 2.
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Basically, we feel that we are continuing in a good direction in terms of revenue and profitability of the company. This was the second quarter now on a row with continued double-digit growth. Whereas the previous quarter was very strong in the devices segment, driving the growth, this time it was a software segment that was driving the growth. All together on the second half of the year was pretty good and going in a good direction. Another noticeable thing is that even though we have hired significant amount of new staff into United States, we still managed to improve the EBITDA and cash flow. That is mainly due for two factors. One of the things that improved operational profitability has been the improved gross margins in our sales.
The secondary factor has been that overall company expenses outside of United States have been lower than before. Those two contributed in both EBITDA and cash flow improvement during the quarter. As a third key point was that we completed a financial round for the company, raising around EUR 4 million new capital. Going to slide number 3, I give stage to Sakari, our CFO.
Thank you, Seppo. Slide 3, key figures for quarter 4. First of all, if you start from the top line, we saw 13% growth from EUR 3.6 million- EUR 4 million. The growth there was driven by our software segment, which saw a significant growth of 23.2%. That growth was pretty much driven by our healthcare solution sales of our software segment. Our devices segments had extremely strong Q3, where they grew 45%. This quarter, the decline, we saw a decline of -4% due to that kind of timing of the revenues. Moving down the P&L to gross margins. As you can see, our gross margins improved slightly by 110 basis points.
The primary driver there was the steep increase of gross margins in our devices segment. Going down to EBITDA, we saw the EBITDA result was - 9% against the comparison period of - 43%. There last year, we had other operating income. We had a credit loss in relation to a Chinese customer. As you can see, that's not the only thing that was in the proximity of EUR 700,000, EUR 600,000. We saw also operational improvements in both of our segments as well. That's something that we were happy about. Finally in Q4, moving to cash flow from operating activities. Here we actually saw significant improvement, and this is also against unfavorable Forex mix from the cost point of view.
The cash flow from operating activities, the improvement of almost 80%, that was something that we were very, very happy with. A big driver there was the R&D costs. They went down as we are moving towards finalizing our new product development. Moving on to slide number 4, which is the key figures for the full year 2022. Starting from the revenue, I think the first point that should be kept in mind is that as we disclosed in our release, we received last year EUR 1.5 million less revenue from China than during the comparison period. If you actually adjusted that, the revenue had the Chinese revenue been the same, we would be looking at a double-digit growth, but that's not the case, unfortunately.
What we actually saw is the slight decline of top line of 1.3% for the year. In terms of gross margin, as you can see, we had a couple of extraordinary items which pretty much offset each other, so they net each other, so there's really no such a big difference there. We can also see some inflationary pressure on our gross margin, and finally, that means that we are seeing a slight decline of 240 basis points driven by both of our segments. If we move on to EBITDA margin, we saw a slight improvement of 20%.
Operationally, in terms of EBITDA and OpEx, we get some headwind from the increased investment base, U.S. staff cost increases as we still don't have the FDA clearance, but we have already staffed the U.S. fully. On the other hand, if you look at our global other than U.S. staff costs, we have actually managed to decrease those. Cash flow from operating activities, the trend has been good this year. We saw an improvement of almost 20%, 19.4%, and the goal there is to keep the trend as is. A couple of words about Forex as well. We slightly benefited from the strong USD in terms of revenue growth. As mentioned, we are still in the investing phase in the U.S.
The growth investments are still yet to fully pay off. Also our COGS are in USD, so the effect on profitability, the Forex effect was not favorable for us. Moving on to segment highlights and back to Seppo.
Going to slide number 6. Devices segment, the revenue was roughly on the same level like last year, -4% or EUR 50,000 difference. That was following the very strong Q3. Q3 was 45% growth, this was stabilized. The biggest deliveries happened in Q3. Overall, the second half was pretty good for devices segment. The revenue grew around 19% overall during the second half of the year. Sales gross margins improved significantly. There was good development on that. We had a 67% sales gross margin towards end of the year.
That was a combination of improved product sales margins, and then we had one OEM customer project, what we are doing at the moment. Geographically, the biggest market is at the moment United States, including both of our channels, the own branded product sales and the OEM channel. EBITDA was improved significantly. There is this operational EBITDA development. On one hand, we have more U.S. expenses than before. During Q4 now we see our U.S. expenses at more or less the full scale. All the expenses are in place now, fixed cost in the U.S.
Still, we managed to keep improving the EBITDA, so we are happy with that development. In outside of United States, the fixed cost have been decreasing compared to earlier years. Going to slide number 7, software segment, that was a really good quarter on Q4. Q3, we had to focus quite much in product development and supporting the documentation and Aurora AEYE product FDA approval process and US integrations. We used software resources quite much there. That shifted some of the bigger solution deliveries to Q4, so they materialized now during the Q4, and therefore the big revenue increase of 23%.
Overall, the second half of the year was good for software segment as well. We were happy with that. The revenue was EUR 2.7 million, and gross profit increased as well and then the EBITDA increased as well. Positive development there. Going back to Sakari for slide number 8 and cash flow.
Thank you, Seppo. A couple of highlights from the cash flow. First of all, we already mentioned the improved cash flow from operating activities, that was something that we were happy with. Second key thing that we want to highlight is that we conducted a service survey in Q3. We closed that in Q4, I mean, we collected the gross proceedings of EUR 4.1 million. If you consider the net effect on cash position, that was EUR 3.8 million. If you think about our cash position, adjusted for the share issue proceeds, we are looking at a cash position decrease of EUR 1 million in Q4. Moving on to slide number 9, our brand new outlook.
What we are saying here is that we are expecting growth in 2023 as compared to 2022. If you remember, the outlook is essentially the same as it was in the beginning of last year. A couple of comments on the drivers as well. First of all, the key uncertainties is again, which is not surprising to you guys either, I suppose, is the FDA process. We don't have visibility on the exact timing of the FDA clearance and so on. When the FDA is received and the sales will actually start, and we can have some more visibility towards the sales performance there, we might take another look at the outlook. The second driver there is the Chinese market.
It is still down. Now this year we are looking at soft comparison period numbers, so that would help us there. Still, we would like to get sales going on in China as well. China is not fully accounted in our outlook for the year. If China wakes up to the levels it was last year, I mean, two years ago, then we also might need to take a look at our outlook again as well. On balance, at this point, we felt that growth as compared to 2022 is a fair and balanced view. Back, Seppo, slide 10.
All right. Slide 10, this is our in the long-term future and in our strategy, the most critical project. United States is now starting to shift these diabetic retinopathy screenings, and we believe in the future other eye disease screenings by utilizing AI in a diagnosis. The reimbursements are being put in place, and the first installations by a few pioneering players have been done now. We do see the market taking off quite strongly during the following years. Our main target is to get this our AI camera product FDA-approved and then commercialized in the U.S. The team is now put in place. They are selling the cameras and our other software solutions at the moment.
Now, we hope to get our AI camera to FDA-approved and commercialized as soon as possible, and we are working towards that. We do believe that the market opportunity is very significant. There is a lot of diabetics, big amount of them is not under screening programs yet. Reimbursements are supporting this quite well, and it seems that there is a tendency to shift these screenings towards primary care, and we will be a good product and good solution in that. These are the key statistics what we have shown earlier. There is a reimbursement and the product is expected to match the market need.
And the revenue model for Optomed will be recurring type of revenue from renting the complete solutions to the clinics once it is we can bring it available. Going to slide number 11. This is unchanged. This is the direction where we are looking to grow. First of all, opening the new geographical markets, especially the United States, is very much in our focus. Certain larger markets, for example, in Latin America, we are working to open them. Then shifting the customer segments towards primary care. Earlier, most of our products and typically retinal imaging devices have been sold only to eye clinics and optometrists.
Every year we have more and more primary care customers, and this is the direction where we see long-term growth opportunity for especially for the head health products. Bringing these AI solutions along with our cameras. This is the direction that we continue in the long term. That was the presentation for Q4, and I will be happy to take questions now.
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Hi, this is Pia Rosqvist calling from Carnegie. I've got a few questions. Starting with the devices, you say the gross margin has improved in the U.S. Is this due to, you know, a shift towards your own products and direct sales? What is the driver behind the gross margin improvement?
Yes. This is precisely the case. The channel is different now, so we have much more direct sales than earlier.
Yeah.
Okay.
Just to build a bit on that, we also disclose in our release that we also had some project work for an OEM client. That means that that's actually cross-margin 100% when we are doing the project work, but that's not the only driver and not even the key driver. Overall, we have been able to improve our margins. We have worked towards it, and we have been able to improve our margins overall in the U.S. in direct sales and all... Especially in the direct sales.
Okay. Thanks. Yeah, coming back to the OEM channel, what is happening? What kind of activity do you see? I assume we're not back to levels you were before the pandemic, but what's going on in the OEM channel?
We have a few existing OEM customers and some new projects ongoing as well. The existing products, some of the OEMs have been waking up very well during the year, but not all of them yet. We are kind of like halfway to see which direction the OEM business will go in the future. Some of the channels have been growing now, but we still have a couple of customers that are not growing yet. As mentioned, there is some new projects ongoing as well, but they may contribute in coming years in the revenue then.
Okay. These new projects, are they with the new OEMs or with the ones you already work with?
We are unable to give comments on that.
Okay. Okay. If I can continue on the software segment, you say, you had some healthcare solutions sales. Is this related to your screening products, diabetic retinopathy, or to something else?
Maybe those are also the details we... Since we have not published, the details of these deals, unfortunately, I cannot comment that accurately. They are our core solutions, what we have been aiming to sell within last few years actively.
Okay. Okay. If I still can continue, on your plans for China, what are you doing currently in China? Do you have already people on the ground developing your sales and distribution?
Yeah. Now it seems that finally, after Chinese New Years, people have been able to start moving again. There was the first ever whole last year, these continuous lockdowns in various regions going back and forth. That was hard to get new things done. Then when the lockdowns went away, then the big wave of pandemic came. Now people are optimistic that businesses start moving again. The expectation is that the screening volumes are becoming back now after several years of being down. We have a downsized team in place. It is nowhere near that big as we used to have a couple years ago, but it is still sufficient so that we can start rebuilding the distribution there again now.
Okay. Right. I have two more questions if I still may continue. In terms of the guidance, you refer to new product launches midterm. Should we understand that we are talking about this year or next year or even beyond?
We have had these two major products under development within last couple of years. One was this software product for eye clinics, and that launch is now starting. We have the first pilot users starting to use it in Finland, university eye clinics. Based on these experiences, we are now starting to commercialize it also internationally. That is one of the main efforts what our software segment will be doing this year. The second product is a new devices product that has not been disclosed yet.
We had to little bit slow down the development of that product in order to preserve the cash for our FDA approval of our Aurora AEYE. That was the compromise that we needed to do. The launch activities start to happen once we get the CE approval for that product. Our goal is to have it CE approved. Well, I think that's also we haven't given out timeline in writing, but the CE process has been now started.
Just to give some more flavor on that, it's kind of a tenable industry problem at the moment is that since the MDR transition, the CE registration times for medical devices, they have increased significantly. We, we don't really... We hope to get it done sooner rather than later, but again, we are kind of dependent on external parties, the notified bodies of the authorities, to get the CE done here.
Okay, thanks. My final question. I know, team, you have not yet appointed, but you have two new board members to be proposed for the upcoming AGM. Interesting competencies, I think. Can you comment on, yeah, on your thinking behind these appointments?
Yeah, well-
If I take this, since I was the secretary, I was kind of part of those discussions a bit. As you know, it was actually our nomination board that proposed those new two new board members. What they were looking for was basically strengthening the board from the U.S. business point of view. This is what these two impressive persons were the ones that they've that they proposed. To be honest, we were very happy from the management point of view with the proposals.
Yes. As the CEO-
All right. Okay, thank you.
Yeah, I, I really think that these two people can contribute significantly if they will be elected by the general meeting. Our clear direction is to grow in the United States, and competence of that market will help us a lot.
Good. Thank you so much. That's all.
All right. Any further questions, from anyone? Star six for unmuting yourself.
Hi, [Ville Vainio] from United Bankers. Can you comment on trade receivables or any development in China?
Yeah. As it comes to the trade receivables, we have been receiving a monthly payment each and every month from the customer in question. We are fairly confident that the full amount will be received in the end. As we disclosed in our release, there is kind of a 30% management discretion added still to the receivable from the Chinese customer. No really big changes there. The payments have been going on every single month since the very beginning. Albeit they are still late from the original payment schedule, I mean.
All right.
We are happy to take further questions still.
Okay. If no more questions, then I guess we are ready. Okay.
We are ready. Thank you very much.
You're now exiting.
For participating.
Thank you.