Hi, and welcome to our presentation on the acquisition of SMS Portal. My name is Christian Nygaard, and I'm IR and Corporate Strategy Manager here at LINK. The presenters today will be CEO Thomas Berge and CFO Morten Edvardsen. Please feel free to ask questions in the Q&A tool during and after the presentation. Thomas, the word is yours.
Thank you, Christian. Today, LINK released the news regarding the acquisition of SMSPortal, the market leader in South Africa. LINK Mobility has a strong track record for growth through value-accretive acquisitions. Over the last decade, we have acquired over 35 targets, which has contributed to a strong CAGR in messages sent, of around 40% over the last 10 years. In this period, LINK has become the number one European provider and currently operates in 18 European countries. Our extensive M&A activity has provided us with significant experience and a clear understanding of the key drivers of successful integrations, as well as the pitfalls to avoid. With this experience, we have developed a structured M&A playbook that defines a set of criteria we consider essential for value creation. These criteria have been refined over time and serve as a guiding framework in our evaluation of M&A opportunities.
Companies that meet all these requirements have consistently shown the highest likelihood of successful integration and long-term value contribution to LINK. We look for companies with strong local positioning and deep industry relationships, a proven ability to generate cash from day one, and a resilient customer base. Technological and commercial alignment is key, along with clear potential to realize synergies after the acquisition. It will become evident throughout the remainder of this presentation that SMSPortal clearly meets the criteria of our acquisition framework and represents the type of level of opportunity we actively seek in our M&A strategy. Let me briefly walk through why SMSPortal stands out as a compelling acquisition for LINK. First of all, this is the market-leading messaging provider with a strong position in South Africa and an international customer base.
They operate within a growing market with strong fundamentals, providing a solid foundation for continued expansion. Secondly, they have a leading technological platform that is recognized for delivering the best customer experience in the region. This gives the company a competitive edge and enables scalable operations. Third, we see strong growth opportunities supported by a large, loyal customer base and increasing demand for enterprise mobile messaging solutions. This provides a self-sustaining growth engine before any synergies are considered. SMSPortal has a competent management with a historical track record for taking market share on top of operating in a growing market. We also see a clear potential for accelerated growth by introducing LINK's high-margin CPaaS offerings into the customer portfolio, leveraging our broader product portfolio to unlock additional value.
We will export OTT products combined with our chatbots and other software solutions to start market adoption of the more advanced CPaaS products, which we see rapidly increasing demand for in Europe. Finally, the acquisition comes at an attractive upfront multiple of 4.6 x LTM April 2025 cash EBITDA, which we consider highly compelling given the quality of the asset and the upside potential we see ahead. We are acquiring SMSPortal, a company with its core operations in South Africa and established subsidiary in Europe. We have followed the company since 2020 with close dialogue over the last five years. LINK's understanding of the business, customer base, tech platform, and growth opportunities are at a very detailed level accumulated over years of reviewing the business.
The structure of the acquisition includes $100 million in upfront cash, $15 million in equity consideration, and a conditional payment of up to $30 million over two years, linked to performance and milestone. The deal is attractively valued at upfront 4.6 x cash EBITDA for the 12 months ending April 2025, below our historical mean multiple of around 6.5 x. We expect the transaction to close in Q3 2025, subject to regulatory approvals and customer closing conditions. Looking at the business performance, SMSPortal generated $112 million in revenue and $25 million in cash EBITDA over the last 12 months, corresponding to a solid cash EBITDA margin of 22%. The company has achieved impressive growth with a 31% revenue CAGR and a 43% gross profit CAGR over the past three years.
The historical growth momentum is much higher than market growth, as the company has taken significant market share. Looking ahead, we see continued growth momentum with expected gross profit growth in the high single digit, assuming a growth level somewhat above market growth. The company can outperform the mentioned growth target if further market share is taken or the adoption of the more advanced CPaaS solutions materializes sooner in time. SMSPortal stands out as the clear market leader. With an estimated 35% market share and over 20 years of industry experience, the company has built a strong, focused position in the market. The competition consists of mainly smaller local players historically focused on SMS as the only channel. SMSPortal has the position as the most trusted and preferred A2P vendor for large enterprises in South Africa.
The company serves more than 5,100 customers, of which around 70% are enterprise clients. At the core of this performance is a market-leading technology platform offering superior throughput and latency capabilities. With capacity to process over 50,000 SMS per second, the platform enables reliable, large-scale delivery, which is a critical requirement for enterprise-grade messaging solutions. The quality of the business is further underscored by strong customer retention, with churn rates averaging approximately 1% annually over the past three years. In short, this is a high-performing, highly defensible business with a proven ability to compete at scale with a competent management team and a strong strategic and business overlap with LINK. In our view, this is an acquisition with low risk on execution, which also provides good growth potential at an accretive valuation. SMSPortal has also demonstrated a strong and consistent track record of profitable growth over time.
Over the past three years, revenue has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of over 31%, supported by effective upselling strategies and high customer retention. This growth has been achieved while maintaining a robust and improving EBITDA margin, rising from 17% to 22% over the same period. The company operates a highly scalable model with end-to-end automation and self-service features, enabling strong profitability across customer segments. The company also benefits from a capable and independent local management team with proven ability to deliver growth, which will continue under LINK's ownership. Looking ahead, we expect continued high single-digit gross profit growth from the existing business, combined with further market share gains driven by SMSPortal's strong competitive position. In addition, there is a meaningful upside potential through the introduction of LINK's high-margin CPaaS products, which can significantly expand the company's revenue and margin profile over time.
Turning to the market environment in South Africa, the fundamental remains attractive and supportive for continued growth. SMS is the dominant communication channel with unmatched reach. By contrast, email has very limited penetration, only around 10 million active email addresses in a population of 64 million, making SMS a uniquely scalable tool for digital engagement. The population is also young and increasingly middle-class, driving demand for mobile-first communication solutions. As a result, A2P SMS volumes have grown steadily at a compounded annual growth rate of 7% from 2020 to 2024, as shown on the figure on the right. SMSPortal is well-positioned within this growing market with a diversified customer base across industries such as financial services, retail, insurance, and wholesale, as shown on the lower right chart.
A key point to highlight is that CPaaS adoption remains in its early stages, creating clear potential for LINK to add value through its advanced high-margin multi-channel offering. By introducing solutions such as RCS, WhatsApp, and conversational messaging, LINK can both expand the revenue base and strengthen customer relationships. This positions us well to capture incremental growth as the market matures and demand for more integrated communication channels increases. Finally, there is additional long-term potential in expanding into under-penetrated sectors like healthcare and the public sector, where SMS remains an effective and underutilized channel in the country. Beyond SMSPortal's internal strengths and strong market fundamentals, South Africa offers a business environment characterized by regulatory stability and financial transparency, which are key enablers for long-term execution and sustainable growth.
First, the regulatory and legal landscape is similar to that of Europe, with structured frameworks and highly regulated standards that reduce execution risk. The country also offers strong financial infrastructure, including transparent tax and banking systems that enable efficient capital flows. Additionally, experienced local partners play an important role in facilitating both execution and market access. Secondly, the market offers a predictable and low-risk operating environment. Telecom regulations and licensing regimes are well-defined and consistently enforced, which supports fair competition and stable business conditions. SMSPortal is one of four companies in the country holding interconnect agreements for messaging, a clear competitive advantage supported by high barriers to entry. Finally, the rapid growth of South Africa's digital economy and mobile-first user behavior continues to drive demand for scalable messaging solutions.
Overall, the combination of a predictable legal environment, financial infrastructure, and structured barriers to entry creates an attractive environment for long-term value creation for LINK in the country. With that, let's turn to the combined financial post-closing of the acquisition. Morten, over to you.
Thank you, Thomas, and good morning to everyone listening in. In this slide, we have illustrated the combined financials, including the acquisition of SMSPortal. We are presenting in the first column the LINK's pro forma footprint numbers, as was presented in our Q1 2025 earnings release, excluding acquisitions that took place later in April. The second column is the effect of adding on SMSPortal to the group financials.
The combined entity generated NOK 8.2 billion in last 12 months' revenue, with an adjusted EBITDA exceeding NOK 1 billion and with an accretive margin of SMSPortal, bringing the combined EBITDA margin to 12.4%, up from LINK's standalone margin of 10.9%. In absolute terms, adjusted EBITDA increases by 32% as a result of the transaction. Due to SMSPortal's low CapEx level, the uplift in cash EBITDA is even more pronounced with a 41% increase on a combined basis. As mentioned, in terms of consideration, the transaction consists of a $100 million equivalent upfront cash payment reflected in the table, financed through existing cash reserves, and a $15 million equivalent equity component, corresponding to an approximate 2% increase in the number of shares outstanding.
There is also a conditional payment potential of up to $30 million equivalent payable in two annual tranches, subject to performance milestones, as mentioned. From a financial perspective, the transaction is highly accretive, both in terms of margin profile and cash generation. It also compares favorably to LINK's current trading multiples, with a valuation based on the upfront consideration of 4.6 x cash EBITDA or 5.8 x, including the full conditional payment. Importantly, we maintain a solid financial position post-closing. Net interest-bearing debt increased to approximately NOK 2 billion, resulting in a combined leverage ratio of 2 x adjusted EBITDA, which remains within our financial policy range of 2-2.5 x adjusted EBITDA. Adjusting for the expected U.S. receivables, the underlying leverage ratio is 1.8 x, preserving further flexibility for future growth initiatives. I will leave the word to you again, Thomas, for some closing remarks.
Yeah, the summary.
This acquisition represents a strategic step forward for LINK, establishing a strong position in a new region with a clear potential for growth, value creation, and long-term market leadership. First, we are acquiring a market-leading player with a robust customer base across both South Africa and selected international markets. SMSPortal brings a proven, scalable model supported by a leading technology platform and has demonstrated a solid track record of profitable growth. It also operates in a fragmented market with relatively low competitive pressure dominated by smaller local players. Secondly, this is a region with strong underlying fundamentals. South Africa has a predictable regulatory framework and a high level of mobile engagement, with SMS as the primary communication channel used by over 76% of the population. The country is experiencing continued digitalization and growing demand for scalable messaging solutions, making it an attractive environment for LINK's offering.
Third, we see substantial opportunities for synergies and accelerated growth. This includes expanding this small and medium-sized customer base, addressing under-penetrated verticals, and introducing LINK's high-margin CPaaS products to meet local enterprise needs. There is also a clear opportunity to integrate SMSPortal's technology into LINK's broader platform, enhancing capabilities and unlocking efficiency gains. In conclusion, this is a complementary acquisition with a strong fit in terms of technology, customers, and market opportunity, and it aligns well with LINK's business model and long-term strategic priorities. With that, we open up for Q&A, and over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Thomas. Please feel free to ask questions in the Q&A tool. We already have received some questions. We can start with some questions from Jesper Stygemo in Handelsbanken. With SMSPortal already having high market shares in South Africa, which other key markets are you going to target from there?
Yeah, I can start. SMSPortal has direct connectivity with the surrounding countries as well. What we see international companies are doing is that they're basically attacking neighboring countries from a legal entity in South Africa. That is not sort of the main priority for us. The main priority for us is to grow the market in South Africa, but we also see interesting business opportunities with our direct connections to the mobile operators in surrounding countries. That is going to be done from the legal entity in South Africa. Good. If you break down SMSPortal's revenue, how much stems from marketing, notifications, and wholesale messaging? When you look at most of the revenue, it is coming from the enterprise segment. In the enterprise segment, you have mostly notifications.
You do have some marketing too with some bigger retail clients, but the largest portion of revenue is on notifications. Wholesale messaging is a more material part of revenue, but a smaller portion of the gross profit. Most of the gross profit is generated by enterprise clients. Great. Are there any regulatory hurdles in the South African market? Not any material that we see. Another question from Jesper Stygemo. Which under-penetrated sectors do you target in South Africa? Now we see healthcare, the public sector, logistics, e-commerce. Those are examples of sectors where we, yeah, based on our experience in Europe, see a growth potential.
Do you think SMSPortal's high EBITDA margin is sustainable in a mid- to long-term perspective?
Yes, I would imagine it would grow a little bit also as the scalability in the business model sets in.
You can maybe repeat it, but can you say anything about the milestones for further payments, the $30 million?
Yeah, I can hand it over to Morten. He can respond to that.
Yeah, it is payable in two annual tranches following sort of the one and two-year anniversary of the deal. That will follow that basically.
Great. A question on tax. Can you explain the tax situation in SMSPortal? What corporate tax will it pay on its profit, and is there any withholding tax on dividend tax when upstreaming cash to LINK?
There is a corporate tax rate which is valid for SMSPortal as any other company located in South Africa. There is a small tax on doing dividends out of the country.
I'm not going to go into detail how we are planning to do sort of the tax setup here, but the way we see is that a large portion of the residual cash we're going to extract from South Africa is going to be in a different way than dividends, and that will not be impacted by any tax. The effect would be material.
A question on employees. How many employees are there in SMSPortal?
Around 34 employees.
On volumes, what is the European volumes?
Most of the customers and the volume is based from South Africa. There's a subsidiary in Europe with activity. Most of the employees are in South Africa. There's only one employee in Europe. The business is very much concentrated around South Africa.
As I said, there's a subsidiary in Europe where there is some activity as well. At the current time, we do not really want to go into details on what that is and what kind of customers and volumes and so on. We might revert back to that after we have closed the acquisition.
Good. Do you have any CPaaS timeline in South Africa for SMSPortal?
Yeah, it's lagging far behind Europe. What we see in other areas of society is that these countries have a tendency to come quite quickly when they first start. It's a little bit too premature for me to comment on that now. First, I need to close the deal, and then I need to see how the customers are responding to the pitch that we are doing.
That is probably going to be further communicated in future quarterly reports. Great. A question on how large part of the growth in the company is inorganic. All the growth is organic. Just to be clear, 0% is inorganic. 100% is organic growth.
Do you have internal estimates, targets on income synergies?
We do not have any targets that I want to comment publicly, no. It's a little bit early for that. We need to do the closing first before we sort of hash out all the different details.
Great. Now we have answered all the questions. We will give it 20-30 seconds for anyone to write more questions. We have a question from Sigurflór. Is RCS available in South Africa? If not, when do you expect RCS to be available?
As far as I know, the RCS volume in South Africa is more or less zero. We haven't been able to conclude exactly, but it seems like one of the mobile operators is in sort of like a conceptual phase, but it's very immature. WhatsApp is a channel with a large penetration on P2P. I would imagine also in that country, WhatsApp could be just as interesting as RCS.
Are there any significant adjustments in SMSPortal's P&L?
Only connected to this transaction. Yeah, there's some money that the founders took out.
Great. Last question. Why is the footprint in South Africa interesting for LINK, given it looks to be an immature market when it comes to more advanced CPaaS solutions?
It's interesting for us due to the market conditions. The market is growing.
Email is not really used, so SMS is the dominant channel for enterprise communication to the population. That indicates a good growth momentum going forward as well. The penetration rates are high at the level that we see in Norway. Of course, as the enterprises are not really able to utilize email, then most of the enterprise and communication is happening on SMS, which is a deviation to what we see in the Nordics. The potential for a market growth momentum for many, many years to come on SMS is present. On top of this, SMSPortal is a great company. It is by far the number one player. We have done customer interviews and market interviews, and the market recognizes that SMSPortal's tech stack and operational model is by far the best compared to competitors.
We see that there's a lot of growth momentum on the existing business. On top of this, SMSPortal hasn't made a lot of investments into chatbots and OTT channels. LINK has done that. We can basically just piggyback on those investments and import them into the country and then build market demand for the solutions.
Thank you. That concludes today's Q&A session. Thank you all for your questions. Thank you all for attending, and thank you, Thomas and Morten, for the presentation and answers to the Q&A. Have a good day, everyone.