Good morning. Welcome to the Q2 results presentation for Link Mobility. I'm Tom Rogn, Head of Investor Relations. I'm joined by Thomas Berge, CEO, and Morten Edvardsen, CFO, who will present the results. Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. To ask questions directly, please see dial-in details in the stock exchange release. It is also possible to post questions online during the presentation and Q&A. Thomas?
Thank you, Tom, and welcome everybody to Link's Q2 presentation. We're happy to report strong numbers for the Q2 , with a good growth momentum, reducing the leverage from 4.3 in the previous quarter to 4.0 in the current quarter. Before going into the number in details, we start off as usually with a brief overview of Link. Link is the leading and largest CPaaS player in Europe. We started out more than 20 years ago in the Nordics, and has been part of building the messaging market in the Nordics to one of, if not the most advanced messaging market in the world. Link is using this experience to fuel the development in the less penetrated markets in Europe and in the US.
Our strategy is dedicated to providing digital communication products to the enterprise market for them to interact with their end customers. We approach the market through a strategy of local touch points with our clients. We have numerous sales reps, customer service, and customer success employees on the ground, winning new contracts and supporting existing clients in local language and culture. This setup is creating a larger reach than many of our competitors, who have a more regional or centralized approach to the market. Link's 50,000 clients, serviced by our 30 offices in 18 countries, are a result of the successful implementation of this strategy over many years. Group revenue during the last 12 months was recorded at NOK 5.9 billion. Link has grown significantly over the last years, with a revenue CAGR of 20%. Profitability has always been a key priority.
Link is growing the business while generating profitability and net positive operating cash flow. Reported adjusted EBITDA has more than doubled over the last four years, or a CAGR of 24%, which is higher than the revenue growth due to Link's scalable business model. The growth comes from both organic growth and growth from M&A. In the current quarter, adjusted EBITDA ended at NOK 726 million on an LTM basis, up from NOK 625 million end of last year. This is a growth of more than NOK 100 million in six months. As we will see later on, both the current quarter and H1 are positively impacted by currency movements. We're also reporting a strong growth momentum underlying or on a fixed currency basis.
In the current quarter, revenues reported at almost NOK 1.7 billion or an organic growth of 23% in fixed currency. The US had a very good quarter, with strong growth on messaging solutions, with higher revenue streams from licenses and usage on both new and existing contracts. In Europe, the growth momentum has improved compared to the previous quarters, due to more activity in the retail sector and higher volumes and revenue from implemented contract backlog. Gross profit is reported at NOK 410 million, or an organic growth of 15% in fixed currency. Adjusted EBITDA is reported at NOK 191 million, or an organic growth of 32% in fixed currency. OPEX reductions contributed NOK 20 million in the quarter, which is above plan.
Higher growth increases profitability and cash generation, which drives down the leverage from 4.3 last quarter to 4.0 in the current quarter. Net cash after CapEx and interest is reported at NOK 129 million for the quarter, bringing cash deposits to almost NOK 1.1 billion. The NOK has depreciated compared to most other currencies, with an impact in our P&L in the quarter. For clarity, in the table on the right, we separate out the organic growth on fixed currency basis and the currency effects for the main reporting lines. In the Q2 , Link reports strong organic growth, and the quarter was in the upper end of expectations, also when we exclude currency effects. As usual, we're signing a significant number of new contracts in the current quarter with 715 new agreements.
Over the last 3 quarters, we are observing a significant increase in gross profit on new contracts from both new and existing clients. During last year, Link recalibrated the commercial approach and execution, and the ramp up of won contracts are taken as a sign that Link's commercial efforts are on the right path. Link has been monitoring AI developments for several years and see a huge potential with the new technology. Link's chatbot, Xenioo, was AI-integrated 2 years ago and recently also added ChatGPT in concept phase. Medium term, Link sees benefits from AI related to better supporting clients with fraud and spam issues, and to reduce costs of goods sold by more intelligent routing of traffic between traditional MNOs and the new competing OTT platforms.
AI could also support and increase the efficiency of Link's software development, which accounts for the most of the group's CapEx. The timeline for full commercial adoption by clients is, however, more uncertain, with key questions related to data protection and the regulatory framework still unanswered. Gross profit grew organically 29% in reported currency and 15% on fixed currency basis. Both the US and Europe are displaying solid growth momentum, with a gross profit growth of $21 million and $18 million respectively. Global Messaging performed strongly, with a $7 million gross profit increase in the current quarter compared to the same quarter of last year. The US generated significant gross profit growth in the current quarter, with a strong momentum on messaging solutions. Messaging solutions increased from $8.8 million in revenue, up from $4.9 million same period last year.
Messaging solutions in the current quarter is positively impacted by the high contract backlog into 2023, and the implemented customer base in December 2022. We closed several large agreements in H2 of last year, and as these agreements are implemented, revenue and gross profit are recorded in the P&L. We are seeing an increase on both license revenue and normal usage from the implemented contracts. Professional service fees in the current quarter are more in line with same quarter last year. Critical event revenue is normally low in the Q2 and is reported at $100,000. Europe reports a higher growth rate compared to previous periods as a result of implementation of new contracts from the build-up of the contract backlog over the 3 previous quarters. We're also observing higher activity in the retail segment.
The Q2 is the Q1 , where the reported growth rate is equal to the underlying growth rate, as the high comparable COVID volumes from testing and vaccinations are out of the comparison figures. Global Messaging is reporting a growth rate of 38% on fixed currency basis. The growth momentum is driven by scaling volumes on new clients, as well as good growth momentum on existing contracts. We see that we have built a portfolio, or routes, that are in demand. Link reports significant improvements in new business win over the near-term quarters, based on the renewed focus and change in commercial execution during 2022. The graph on the top right shows the estimated annualized gross profit on new contracts signed for the last 6 quarters.
The numbers are extracted from our CRM system. The estimations are based on contractual arrangements and specific dialogue with clients. In the current quarter, gross profit from new contracts is 55% higher than the same period last year. These numbers only contain new agreements for Europe. The US is not included. Historically, about 75% of the gross profit is recorded in the P&L after 12 months. The company expects the higher contract backlog to benefit gross profit growth gradually during 2023. Link has a healthy sales pipeline in addition to the higher number of new agreements won. New contracts for more traditional A2P products grew with NOK 10 million on estimated annualized gross profit contribution year-over-year, or a 52% growth.
New contracts for CPaaS products are displaying an even higher growth rate of 71% compared to same quarter of last year on estimated gross profit contribution. For these advanced products, we observe longer lead times to scale and generate the estimated gross profit in the P&L. Link is in the forefront of the industry in RCS adoption, and we continue to onboard new large customers on RCS in selected markets. RCS, which is an evolution of SMS to compete with the new OTT channel, like WhatsApp, is most mature in France, Italy, and the UK. RCS was developed by the MNOs together with Google and only works on handsets operated by Android. In France, 23 million end users now use RCS as their rich messaging application, and more and more businesses are communicating to the end users on RCS.
With its richer content, output on marketing campaigns are more than 4 times better on RCS compared to SMS. This means significantly higher click-through rates and sales conversions for our clients, driving their ROI on the campaigns. Higher ROI for our clients translates also to better margins for Link. The slide shows some examples of recent customer wins utilizing RCS to boost their marketing efforts. Link has close to 50,000 customer accounts. In the current quarter, we have removed some inactive customer accounts that should have been corrected historically, which negatively impacts the net organic growth of new customer accounts. We have also acquired a small customer stock in Italy, which is already fully integrated in our existing business. No OPEX increases has been incurred from the acquired customer stock. Our Italian team is operating the additional clients with existing resources.
Organic growth of new client accounts is reported at 1,306 accounts, or a 3% growth, which increases to 8%, accounting for the historical adjustments. Revenue churn is low for this quarter, reported at 2.1% of revenue. Of which 0 percentage points is explained by a churn aggregated client within the Global Messaging segment. The enterprise segment has a consistently low churn of approximately 1.5%. Link has signed 750 new contracts in the quarter, an increase of 25% year-over-year. The full year contract value on gross profits is estimated at NOK 36 million. We are reiterating our forward-looking statement for a full year organic adjusted EBITDA growth of 12%-15% in fixed currency.
This translates into an EBITDA target for 2023 of between NOK 700 million and NOK 720 million, assuming stable currency from the 2022 starting point of NOK 625 million. H1 2023 delivered adjusted EBITDA growth in the high end of expectations, with a 23% growth rate in fixed currency, which of course, gives increased confidence in delivering on the full year target. The strong underlying growth in H1 was supported by cost initiatives delivered ahead of plan and better commercial performance in Europe and in the US, especially when compared to a softer last year in percentage terms. H2 of last year saw higher growth rates as the market experienced a catch-up from H1. H2 is also typically a seasonally stronger, partly driven by uncertain weather-related critical events, or revenue in the US.
Link is thus keeping its full year 2023 ambition in line with previous communication. That was it for me, handing the word over to Morten.
Thank you, Thomas, and good morning to everyone on the call. I will now go through the Q2 financials for the group. Link reports quarterly revenue of close to NOK 1.7 billion, a 40% growth year-on-year. Revenue growth in fixed currency is 23%, with healthy growth momentum across all regions. The Global Messaging segment contributed positively with strong revenue growth, reported at 64% in stable currency, with contributions from both new clients and existing portfolio. As expected, we observe an improved growth momentum in the European enterprise segments, growing 12% year-on-year, driven by an improved retail segment versus last year. Strong COVID traffic comparables out of figures and contribution from buildup of contract backlog since mid 2022.
The US business posted a 79% revenue growth in stable currency, driven by messaging solutions, while critical event revenue was limited as per normal seasonality. Total volume growth for the quarter was 21%, fairly in line with top line growth. Demand for channels with richer feature set is increasing as clients realize the larger return on investments on such channels. In total, other messaging volumes constituted more than 10% of total volumes in the quarter. Moving over to the next slide on gross profit. Gross profit is reported at NOK 410 million, or a reported growth of 29%, with positive impact from currency effects of 14 percentage points, resulting in a gross profit growth in stable currency of 15%. As Thomas highlighted, we report significant gross profit growth in the US, contributing NOK 21 million, total year-on-year growth of NOK 46 million in stable currency.
We report an improved contribution from the European enterprise segments, with NOK 18 million or 7% year-on-year growth in stable currency. As mentioned, supported by more retail activity and a higher contract backlog. Gross profit growth from Global Messaging was NOK 7 million in stable currency, or 38% for the quarter. In the lower graph, we bridged the development in gross margin year-on-year. The reported gross margin was 2.1 percentage points lower year-on-year, at 24.8%. A margin dilution effect related to the low margin Global Messaging segment, representing a larger share of total group revenue, was the main explanation. The enterprise segment margin had a small negative 0.3 percentage points impact, as a higher share of US business with high margin, nearly offset revenue mix effects in Central Europe related to further scaling of large global clients.
In the next slide, we touch on OpEx and the cost initiatives. Total reported OpEx was NOK 219 million, or a reported growth of 16%, impacted by currency effects of 14 percentage points, leaving an underlying growth of 2% in stable currency. The main contributors to higher OpEx year-on-year was the US and costs related to group functions. In the US, the increase is related to commercial investments through 2022 and additional resources added to operate the customer base acquired late 2022. OpEx in the European footprint declined in accordance with cost initiatives and the booking of an extraordinary telco tax of NOK 4 million in France, same quarter last year. Group OpEx expanded NOK 5 million year-on-year from general inflation and increased costs linked to annual incentive models, compared to the same period last year, and partly offset by cost initiatives.
The cost initiatives are delivering ahead of plan, with a total effect of NOK 27 million in the Q2, compared to run rate in Q2 2022, whereof NOK 20 million contribution from OPEX initiatives. The year-on-year positive P&L effect on OPEX was NOK 14 million in stable currency in the Q2. To the next slide on adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA is reported at NOK 191 million, or a reported growth of 48%, or 32% in stable currency from strong gross profit contribution from all regions and cost control measures. In stable currency, H1 adjusted EBITDA growth was 23% in stable currency, supporting the full year guiding. The adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 0.6 percentage points to a reported margin of 11.6%. The lower gross margin was more than compensated for by the reduction in OPEX to revenue ratio.
Adjusted EBITDA margin declined quarter-over-quarter, mainly due to a US business revenue mix effect, as high margin professional services and critical event messaging constituted a lower share of total US revenue this quarter. Moving on to the P&L. In the previous slide, I have covered the development down to adjusted EBITDA. In the quarter, we report non-recurring costs of NOK 48 million, consisting of share option cost of NOK 40 million, restructuring cost of NOK 6 million linked to the cost initiatives, and M&A cost of NOK 3 million. The materially higher cost per share options this quarter is largely related to a one-off following the AGM approval in May for a new incentive program. This quarter's cost include a total catch-up cost of NOK 15 million, in addition to the normal quarterly cost of the LTI and RSU programs.
We also recognize the Social Security tax component of NOK 5 million related to the programs. The incentive programs had no cash effect in the Q2 . Cost of depreciation and amortization is reported at NOK 129 million, up from NOK 102 million last year, mainly from currency effects of NOK 13 million, as well as a one-time effect of NOK 10 million related to projects in the US, with completion date back in time. Q on Q is similarly impacted by the effect in the US, but also currency effects and overall depreciations are expected to come down in the quarters going forward. Net financial items are reported at negative NOK 43 million, impacted by a net currency loss of NOK 4 million, mainly related to variance in US dollar to NOK and euro to NOK rates.
Net interest cost of EUR 38 million related to outstanding bond of EUR 370 million, including amortized transaction costs, partly offset by interest income on cash balances. To the balance sheet. The balance sheet is obviously also impacted by FX movements, while we have limited contribution from M&A. Cash reserves reported at nearly NOK 1.1 billion or up NOK 125 million quarter-on-quarter from improved cash contribution from operations, and NOK 50 million from positive currency impact. Receivables increased by EUR 366 million year-on-year, and payables increased by EUR 351 million. Balances are impacted by currency effects and organic growth, as well as normal timing effects of working capital related to collection and payments.
Net interest-bearing debt is reported just below NOK 3 billion, calculated in accordance with our bond agreement and related mainly to the one outstanding bond, fully maturing in December 2025, at an attractive fixed coupon of 3.375%, with no maintenance covenants. To the last slide of my section, showing an overview of cash flow. Net cash flow from operating activities, including non-recurring costs for M&A and cost initiatives, is reported at NOK 242 million for the quarter and NOK 598 million on an LTM basis, with positive contribution from working capital of NOK 73 million in the quarter. Adjusted for non-recurring costs, which were mainly related to M&A and the cost initiatives, the cash flow from operations was NOK 681 million on an LTM basis, or a ratio of 94% compared to LTM adjusted EBITDA.
CapEx for the quarter was NOK 49 million, and interest paid NOK 73 million, related to biannual interest payments on the bond loan. After payment of CapEx and interest, Link generated a free cash flow of NOK 368 million on an LTM basis, or NOK 129 million in the quarter. Leverage or net debt to adjusted EBITDA, calculated in line with the bond agreement, was supported at 4 times, which is down from 4.3 times in the previous quarter, demonstrating that we are on track to deleverage towards the financial policy of 3.5 times. That completes the financial section. Now to Tom and Q&A.
Thank you, Morten. We are ready to start the Q&A. Please dial in to ask questions directly or post questions online. Operator, can you please help us with the Q&A?
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press five star on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing five star again. There will be a brief pause while questions are being registered. As there are no questions in this call, I'll hand it back to the speakers for any written questions.
W e will continue with the posted questions. The first question is regarding the long-term incentive program, which was a new program in May, and how we should look at in the future, if this is the last new program or will be more new programs coming?
The LT program is a three-year program that the General Assembly approved. I don't expect any new programs during this three-year period, so that's it.
We have a question regarding the organic growth numbers and how the customer base, which was mentioned in Italy, how that impacts the organic figures.
In the quarter, we, this customer base was not consolidated in the Q2 numbers. That will start from the first of July.
We have a regulatory question in the US that SMS and MMS messages will not be able to be sent from unregistered phone numbers from August 31.
That's correct. That's not a big issue for Link because we're mainly using short codes in our US business. We are on top of it, and we don't foresee any, any negative impact or any impact at all for our business.
There's been a good growth in new contract wins. How is the annual gross profit growth, if you look at it annually compared to historical levels?
The simple answer, if we continue the level on winning new contracts, as we've seen the last three quarters, the impact should be somewhere between NOK 50 million and NOK 80 million per year when they are implemented. Please remember, there's a lag here. We use 12 months to implement around 75% of the estimated gross profit amounts.
Mm. Then we have a specific question on the US business and exposure to critical events, what they actually are.
Critical events are mainly weather-related issues. It can be anything from blizzards, snowstorms, hurricanes, it can be drought or problems with the capacity of the power grid. The second half of the year is normally peak season for critical events, driven by blizzards around the Gulf of Mexico, and also droughts and power shortage in California or in the western part of the US. I just want to remind everybody that in Q1 also, we saw for the first time that we had critical events in the northeast because we have won several new clients there due to blizzards and snowstorms.
We have another question on the US and regarding the-- if there was any catch-up effects, explaining the strong growth, which was posted in the, in the quarter.
Not in the Q2. We have that in the Q1 as we implemented a lot of new contracts that we won the second half of 2022. The revenue growth that you are seeing in Q2 is mainly related to licenses and usage from the implemented contracts. If you isolate professional service revenue, that is in line with what we reported same period last year, so that's sort of on a normalized basis.
There is a question regarding Europe, where we mentioned in the report that we saw an improvement in the retail market and how we look at that into the second half of the year.
Yes, we have said previously, the retail market is more volatile. We I would expect basically the same as we saw in last year. Q3 might be a little bit lower than what we would have defined as normal, and then there's a catch-up effect in the Q4 as we get closer to the festive season, to Christmas. That would be my best guess. I wouldn't expect for the 2nd half of of this year that we would have a a material deviation from what we would define as normal.
There is a specific question on Central Europe and the margin development, and if the hyperscaler specifically has anything to do with that.
We are in Central Europe, we are scaling on several global clients, including the hyperscaler, with where we have signed material number of new contracts on also products which are high margin. We are working to implement that. In general, overall, the scaling of the global clients in terms of more volume is impacting the margin. When it comes to nominal gross profit, our expectation is to grow that. That's expectation from management, to grow that business. We can also mention that we have some mixed effects within the region related to less Austria being a smaller share of the region, and typically, Austria had high margins, just above 50% historically.
We have a broad question on the different type of products or solution that Link offers. Is there a traction on the more advanced, or is it still the more mature options that are preferred by the customers?
Yeah, I can take that one. As you see from the slide on the contract backlog, we have NOK 10 million growth on, on more legacy products, while we foresee about NOK 73 million growth, 71%. We are able to, to, land and, secure new contracts also for the more advanced products. My view on it is that the current market makes it a little bit more difficult with new products. Clients view them more as investments, and in the current economic environment, businesses are more stringent on accepting as new in, in investments. As I said, we're still delivering and landing new CPaaS agreements as well.
There's a question related to the cost inflation in general, and if the adjustment for salaries have been all included in Q2, or if there's more to come in the second half.
We do, most of the salary adjustments in, from the 1st of April, so that should have been included in the, in the Q2 figures.
Yeah, we have a question regarding the, the customer base in, which was acquired in, in last year, and how that is, impacts the organic growth. Same question as you had earlier on the, the Italian one, I guess.
Yeah. Yeah, the acquisition we did of the customer base in the U.S. is fully integrated into the U.S. entity. We are not able to separate it accurately in the figures. It's part of the organic growth, but it's not a material part of the business.
There's a question regarding the churn, which was slightly higher this quarter, and if there are any specific drivers behind that.
Yeah, basically, the ramp up in churn compared to the Q1 , was related to one specific time within the Global Messaging segment, which is more volatile in nature. We don't see any sort of big worries about that. The enterprise churn remains low at around 1.5 percentage points.
Yeah, just a side comment from me, too. The churn on the Global Messaging segment was directed by us. We didn't want them as a customer anymore due to what we perceived as an increased bad debt risk. That's the reason for why we, we have that one this quarter.
We have a broad question on the, on the margin development, where we saw a, a slight contraction in the margin, and how we should look at that going forward in the second half of the year?
Yeah, I think quarter-over-quarter, it's, obviously, we have a contribution from the Global Messaging segment, which dilutes the margin, but also, usually professional services and critical event messaging in the US comes with a very high margin. That is by, as Thomas mentioned, we had to catch up on professional services in the Q1 , and by seasonality, critical events are low in the Q2 . That representing a lower share of the revenue mix, impacts the margin quarter-over-quarter.
We have a couple of questions on the, on the outlook, how we should read into the second half implied guiding, given that there's an unchanged, guiding and a strong growth in the first half.
Yeah, as I said, we were at the high end of expectations in the first half of this year, with a 23% growth rate in fixed currency. We have not done any changes to the forward-looking statement. That doesn't reflect anything on H2. We don't see sort of any negative elements happening in the market so far, and we don't expect anything either. On critical event, the second half is normally peak season, as I said. We don't see any things indicating that we will not have a normal critical event season. If we have a normal critical event season, I would say that we would probably over-deliver on the forward-looking statement.
We are not there, where we want to do this commitment now, due to the uncertainty around critical event.
Also in general as well, if you have a specific policy on the, on the outlook, if you do it annually or not, obviously, we do that, when the figures change.
Yeah, the board normally decides on the forward-looking statement in the beginning of each year in connection with the Q4 reporting, and then, of course, we will update it if required. We don't have any policy other than that.
There's a specific question on the, on the number of employees that's gone down and how that should impact the OPEX going forward.
Yeah, I think we, we commented on this in a previous quarter. There is, there is some, some lag in that number, because basically there is a notice period, and technically, we report them as employees, even though they're in a notice period, and we don't incur any, any costs on them. We, we are a bit ahead of the plan when it comes to termination. The, the effect going forward on the OpEx side is more, will be more marginal. Yeah.
We have a question on the net working capital development, and how we should look at that, in the next couple of quarters.
I think in general, it can be a bit lumpy between the quarters. What we guide on specifically, is it's gonna be fairly stable over over time and over the last few quarters. We're, we're working on, on collections, obviously. We were quite successful on that in the, in the, in the Q2 . I think over time it will sort of be fairly stable. I think that's the best, best view on it. As this is related to timing effects, on payments and also, when the operators invoice us and, and cut off between the quarters.
We have a longer-term question on the margin development and the top-line growth, if you go beyond 2023, and how Link will work on that.
I can start answering that question. First of all, it's going to depend a little bit on where we get the growth. Most of the gross profit variation is due to client mix effects, as we're having a different gross profit in different regions and on different products. I would expect it to be fairly stable over time. It might be a small increase if we get a larger growth in the US because the profitability there is higher compared to Europe. Also it depends a little bit on the product mix. We see that the gross profit on the more advanced products, CPaaS products, it's higher.
If the market normalizes a little bit, and we're able to get some more growth momentum on the more advanced products, that should be beneficial to the total gross profit margins.
There is a specific question on comparables for Q3 and Q4. Is there any special events or in the figures which we should be aware of?
No, not really. We had the normal critical event season in the US in the second half of last year. If you want to go into the details, you could say that we had an elevated professional service revenue in the Q4 . It's not a huge amount. We're probably talking about $800,000 in that neighborhood.
The, as mentioned in the reporting and the cost initiatives have been largely completed, are there any scope for further optimizations?
I think we are constantly reviewing the cost base and optimizing that. Right now, the program is delivered, and more will be more sort of normal marginal improvements that we will we'll do.
Partly linked to that and the strong cash flow, and the strong cash position obviously reduces the net debt. If, you know, approach then 2025 and the EUR 370 million bond matures, do you need to refinance the whole, or can you reduce the gross debt level?
I wouldn't expect us to refinance the whole, no. We are generating a lot of excess cash, and there's still more than two years until the due date of the existing bond. I would expect us to refinance-
Yes.
A lower amount than the gross amount. Yeah.
At the moment, we don't have any further questions. Please post any additional questions, on-