Morning, welcome to the third quarter 2022 Zaptec report. I am Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen, and I'm the CEO of Zaptec.
My name is Kurt Østrem . I'm the CFO in Zaptec.
2022, bit of a rollercoaster, and Q3 most definitely has been no exception. Central banks have been fighting inflation, interest rates have been going up, and comes as no surprise, the macroeconomic and geopolitics plays a big part of this quarter. Despite these headwinds, we've been working very diligently, very hard, and that has paid off. We've had revenue growth of 73% year-over-year, with something that I'm extremely proud. Despite this, we've had a growth in our team as well. 20%-30% growth from Q2 to Q3.
Something again, that of course has a cost-bearing element, and it's no secret that doing expansion in this market is something that has a cost on the bottom line, and that's something that we'll be talking about as well this morning. That being said, the industry is still relatively strong in the EU, although we are seeing some slowdown. We are remaining bullish on our abilities in this market. As this market in EU and Europe is maturing, we're also seeing more regulations, more guidelines being imposed. Something that, of course, Zaptec needs to navigate in, and we are very bullish in our ability to do so. Zaptec provides charging solutions that are without any compromise. We believe that we have the best tech in the market, not least our best designs. We always aim to do future-proof designs and future-proof techs, so that we have the highest quality in the market.
We've signed many new partners through this quarter, and we're staying very much abreast with our mission of providing cutting-edge tech and ensuring that we are future-proofing everything that we do. One of the testaments to this, we'll be talking about that also a little bit later, is a strategic investment into a company called Switch EV, ensuring that we have the best software out there to provide vehicle-to-grid solutions using AC chargers as well as Plug & Charge, all on a ISO 15118 platform, basically putting Zaptec right at the forefront of technology. Another highlight and something that, again, I'm super excited about is the fact that we have strengthened our working relationship with Sanmina, ensuring that production has started off in Q3 and that, of course, is moving towards Q4 with a full ramp up in Q1 2023.
Alongside with this, our working partner, Westcontrol, has been ramping up so that they've been able to deliver even more products in Q3, and also, again, ensuring that the very large and big plans that we have for 2023 will definitely be able to be delivered with the current setup that we have both with Westcontrol as well as with Sanmina. We remain very committed to delivering on our very ambitious growth. The highlights, as I just went through, of course, very strong revenue growth of 73%, up to NOK 226 million and 58% increase in our order intake, up to NOK 233 million, compared to Q3 2021.
We continue our international expansion, now up to 70% versus 56%, comparatively to 2021. As mentioned before, our gross margins are dropping a little bit, due to these very, I would say to a certain extent, aggressive investments that we're doing. Of course that has an effect on our EBITDA, though it's still in a plus and we have NOK 14.9 million there. Electrification continues, as mentioned in the mega trend, in relation to EV adoptions across all markets, particularly in some of the markets that we are going into as new markets. We'll be looking at that a little bit later. As mentioned, the prototype on Plug & Charge functionalities is something that we've been working hard on to ensure that we are fully future-proof, specifically going into vehicle-to-grid capabilities. Of course, our successful Sanmina test production that started ramping up in Q3, and more so also coming from Westcontrol.
Yes. As a preparation for the uplisting to the Oslo Børs main stock exchange list, we are now preparing the key financial figures for the third quarter according to IFRS. This also applies for the comparable figures for 2021. As mentioned, the revenue was NOK 226 million in the third quarter. This is an increase of 73%. Year- to- date, we have revenue for NOK 509.9 million, up from NOK 296 million, and this is also an increase for 72%. If you look at the graph on the right-hand side, you see that we have a very strong order intake, and it's increasing every quarter. The export share was 70% in the third quarter, up from 56% in the third quarter last year.
Year- to- date, we have an export share for 69%, up from 47% last year. As mentioned, the gross margin for the third quarter is affected by one-off expenses in this quarter and was 38.8%, down from 44.8% in the third quarter last year. If you look at the gross margin year-to-date, it's 41.6%. It's up from 39.2% last year. The operating expenses was NOK 72.8 million in the third quarter, up from NOK 41.5 million in the third quarter last year. Year-to-date, we have operating expenses for NOK 185 million, up from NOK 85 million last year. The main explanation for this increase in operating expenses is that we have more than double the number of employees the last 12 months.
We have also increased our effort and expenses for marketing, sales, and consultants, and of course, expenses expanding our presence in Europe. This gives us an EBITDA of NOK 14.9 million in the third quarter. This is down from NOK 17.2 million in the third quarter last year. Year-to-date, the EBITDA is NOK 26.6 million, down from NOK 30.2 million last year. This gives us an EBITDA margin for 6.6% in the third quarter, down from 13% in last year, and 5.2% year-to-date, down from 10% last year. This reduction in EBITDA margin has to be seen in context of our investment to secure future production and revenue. We have still a very strong liquidity, and at the end of the third quarter, the available liquidity was NOK 264 million. This is up from NOK 248 million last year. Yes.
On a positive note, increasing addressable markets keep being strong. Governments seek and incentivize emission reductions throughout Europe. This is despite the geopolitical tensions that are going on throughout Europe. Automakers are still being very focused on their transition towards the electric, and this remains obviously very relevant. Customers demand more environmentally friendly solutions. That is basically across all European markets and favorable development in costs of ownership, of course, also is something that's pushing out the internal combustion engine vehicles. Of course, increasing availability of charging infrastructure, something that obviously plays very much into our hands, is helping push this agenda.
We're seeing these markets being very strong and particularly the markets that we are naturally already in, but also, more importantly, the markets that we're just about to enter, such as the U.K. as well as Germany and some of the southern European markets. Despite a slowdown in vehicle sales, electric vehicle adoption continues across Europe. We're seeing an increase across the European nations, particularly going up from 18.8%-20.4% year-over-year in 2022 versus 2021. And this in itself shows that battery and EV plug-in solutions has a very strong market in EU as we move forward.
New market, EV sales Zaptec for Zaptec core markets, it's important here to note that there has been a decrease in the actual sales of EVs in our current markets. However, as the numbers earlier showed in relation to revenue, we have an increase in our revenue share. Despite there is a decrease in the sales of EVs in these markets, we are taking quite a considerable land grab in these markets, despite having been in them for several years. We are very strong here.
What's even more interesting is that the new markets that we're going into, Germany, U.K., are actually increasing their sales on EVs, making and giving us even more tailwind as we go into these markets in the coming quarters. In relation to the international growth, it's still very fast-paced. As the graph on your right absolutely shows we've had a 10x increase in the last two years, which I definitely believe is very interesting to note, particularly as we are now focusing even more on international expansion. As the numbers showed earlier, we're now above 70% of all our revenue is export, and this will continue even more so as we go into the future.
We now have subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark, U.K., Germany, Switzerland, France, and Benelux. The Benelux was established here in Q3. We have distributors across Western Europe, so this is in addition to the subsidiaries that we have in all the other countries. Our U.S. entry strategy is still being finalized, and it's still very much on our agenda. This is something that we've been working through in Q3 as well as the coming quarters. We're still not able to share an exact date as to when we're going to go into this market, but it is still firmly on our future plans.
In Q3, we've signed several new partners, both here in the Nordics, but more specifically in the U.K., some of which are house builders, some are value-added resellers, others are B2B businesses. What's very interesting here is that it's across the board, and they are partners that are willing to take large number of chargers both here in 2022 but most definitely also in 2023. Something that I'm very excited about and have been pushing in Q3 was an investment into a software company, Switch EV.
It's a U.K. setup that has a specialization into ISO 15118 protocol, which is basically a protocol outlining the communication between EVs and charge plugs, ensuring that there is an easier flow of information between the cars and the charge points, giving the ability to do Plug & Charge. That's basically an ability where you can plug in your car without using a credit card, without using an app, but basically, as the word implies, just Plug & Charge without and making it very seamlessly easy for any users to be able to use that kind of technology.
Alongside this, there is also the opportunity to have vehicle-to-grid, something that usually is only related to DC charging, but we have successfully made a prototype that can do exactly that. This was showed in Berlin in September, and something that we will be putting into production early 2023. This investment into Switch EV ensures that we are staying very much abreast of the technology and ensuring that we can give the best future-proof products to our customers as we move forward. Very important for this quarter has been the growth and in relation to reduce our risk associated with capacity and component market.
This has been done specifically through our production partner, Sanmina, which started production lines during Q3. As you can see in the photo, bottom right, that shows our first charger, Zaptec Pro, being delivered by the German team to our team here in Norway. This of course is a monumental part of us now that we've gone from just having one manufacturer to now having two. The strategic partnership with Sanmina enables us to be able to go not just in the markets here in Europe, but actually opens an opportunity throughout the markets across the world.
Sanmina now operates 41-42 sites across the world, many of which are placed in the Americas, and thereby of course giving us an opportunity to go into local production almost anywhere in the world. We now have that blueprint ready to be able to emulate into these markets. Something that also has been very important for us, it's been a long time coming, is our product market compliance for the U.K. This is a very large addressable market, 68 million population there. Actually, U.K. is now number three of markets in the market readiness for EVs, with Norway being top, Benelux or Netherlands being second, and U.K. is actually on the third place there.
A very, very important market for Zaptec to go into. We now have a very strong team. Our U.K. organization is actually the biggest outside of Norway, with 16 full-time employees. Both our products, Pro and Go are now compliant to go into this market, and we're getting ready for the first deliveries towards the end of this year. In Q3, we started using our Zaptec Park payment solution throughout the U.K. as well, which is a collaboration with the Danish company Monta. On top of that, we've had several significant and very large contracts, also what we alluded to earlier, with partnership contracts being signed, again, ensuring that we have a very, very strong pipeline as we go into 2023.
Recurring revenue potential is also something that's important. We have, of course, our Charge365, which is still growing. This is a solution only offered to our Norwegian customers. However, even in this very mature market, even in Q3, we still had 800 new installations using Zaptec Pro with Charge365, which was added in Q3, and again, adding to our monthly recurring revenue.
On top of that, as mentioned earlier, we earlier this year in end of Q2, beginning of Q3, successfully launched Zaptec Park, which is a payment solution system made in collaboration with Monta in Denmark, where we have a revenue shares scheme, again, ensuring that we have a recurring revenue coming out of this. We launched in Denmark and U.K. in Q3, and we're preparing to launch in basically all the other European markets that we have subsidiaries in. Also, further to the investment into Switch EV, this will also open up for further recurring revenue potential in relation to the full scope of the platform that ISO 15118 unlocks, both in relation to Plug & Charge as well as this bi-directional capabilities.
We're still working on the exact business case for this, but this will enable and give even more revenue streams for Zaptec as we go forward. Just to sum up the investment highlights for Q3, increasing addressable markets, despite headwind, we still see this as a bump on the road. There are strong electrification trends. Our technology still award-winning charging systems that, again, despite these headwinds, still are the winning recipe for most customers out there. We have a very user-friendly power-balancing hardware and software, something that's become even more relevant in these energy crisis markets. Again, superior safety, high-quality products certified at the very highest level. We see a strong growth and ramp up for full-scale European expansion.
We're investing a lot into these markets. U.K. compliances, as well as German and French compliances, are following. Very importantly, our components sourcing is in place. We managed to get all of this in place in Q3, also ensuring that we have everything for components in ready for the following quarters going into Q4 and Q1, Q2 in 2023. Production is on track, both in Germany as well as here in our neighboring town, where we have best control. With that, I will now open up for questions. When adjusted for the one-off in gross profit, the gross margin was 40.7%. That seems low given comments on high Pro sales. Can you explain, do you expect?
We don't have all the details here. We have explained it in the financial reports, but we have had an increase in production costs from the July 1st, and this has also increased more from the fourth quarter. This is something we are planning to correct by adjusting our prices from 2023.
Right. Great to see that Zaptec Go is approved for the U.K., but what is happening with the Zaptec Pro in Germany? When can we expect to have that to be approved, and when do we expect to start full scale sales? We are working diligently on ensuring that we have all the MID certifications in place. Since this is predominantly aimed at the Q3, of course, this was something that we were working on throughout the previous quarters. We're very bullish on ensuring that this will be ready before Christmas this year. We have recently, well, in Q3, we signed a new German country director who started here in Q4 and building up a very strong German presence and a strong sales team. With that, of course, we're ensuring that they have the right products to be able to win the German market. We believe that all the certifications will be ready for production so that we can go strong into 2023. Says, "Has Zaptec given any long-term financial ambitions in terms of revenue and profitability, et c.?
We want to follow the market and when we go into new markets, we expect to see the growth following this EV market as the EV adoption is growing in each market. Of course, we then will get some large scale positive effect, and that will do something with the profitability for the company.
You mentioned large-sized contracts. How strong is the pipeline in 2023, and how strong is the visibility for sales in first half of 2023? Yes, when we mention these, specifically for U.K., we have signed quite a few and very, very large contracts, specifically in the house building sector. Anyone who has any insight into the U.K. regulations will note that all new buildings in U.K. have to have a charger, as part of the new builds. Of course, we have not let that go by without having a specific focus.
Our team in U.K. have had that as one of their main focus areas, and that has paid off with more than two, I believe actually three now, contracts made specifically in this field. Therefore, of course, this will enable 2023 as being very strong when it comes to these contracts. In relation to our visibility into these, of course, we also have working relationships with many of our current partners, both in the Norwegian as well as the Danish and the Swedish market. We believe that what we have seen and what's been presented gives us an indication that this will be a very, very strong first half of 2023. Costs are increasing 75% year-on-year, and annualizing costs in Q3. Have you a run rate cost base at NOK 290 million? What would you expect in OpEx increases for 2023?
Well, we don't want to present any numbers, of course, but the cost will increase in actual numbers, of course, but not in the same speed as the revenues. We should improve the percentage of sales when it comes to cost in 2023.
We're not seeing so many new questions here, but just a side note to all of this is, of course, that expansion and growth, of course, comes with a cost. Basically, that's what we're seeing. It is a cost and an investment that we're willing to take as we move forward. Do you see any signs of the expected consolidation in the market, EV charger markets and is Zaptec ready and actively playing a role here? Well, yes, we are seeing, and this is something that I've definitely been promoting for or relating for quite a few months and few quarters as we go back, is that there is very clear indications that consolidations are going to happen.
This was even before the, let's say the " financial or economic clouds" were starting to show. It's just from the mere fact that we see so many new players in the market, that it is a natural given that consolidations will be going on. Of course, we as one of the main players on this field specifically, certainly being one of the older market players, we are naturally looking at what's going on out there. We don't have any specific targets at this given point. However, it is an area that we're looking at with interest.
That being said, right now, in these uncertain times, we're being very diligent in ensuring that we have a positive bottom line and that we also have a strong war chest ready, and it would have to be a very, very specific and interesting M&A acquisition target before we would move in that direction. Thank you for sharing great results. You mentioned a lot of recurring revenue. Could you tell us more about the share of recurring revenue in your overall turnover? Furthermore, you mentioned the potential Switch EV. Do you have some figures in mind in terms of future revenue? This is something that will play very much into 2023. The share of recurring revenue in our overall turnover is still relatively small.
We have a very clear ambition of ten-folding the number of online chargers that we have. This is part of our strategy for Zaptec over the next coming years. We are at approximately 150,000 chargers online at this point. Of course, for each new charger we put out there, the potential for having that as a revenue generator increases. Therefore of course, in order to, well, to be bullish on these numbers, we do expect that if we tenfold the number of chargers online, we will also be able to tenfold the amount of recurring revenue that's being generated in on these figures. We can't give an exact number right at this point of how large or small that is.
However, we can say that the potential that lies, for instance, with Zaptec Park is big. There are so many more aspects to this type of revenue generation that you can add on and of course increase all depending on what services you can add on. The same can be said for our collaboration with Switch EV. Switch EV is a strategic investment. It is no secret that also the American company Nuvve, which do specific software in relation to peak shaving and load balancing and actually making a business case on that. It is a listed, Nasdaq-listed company.
We of course have a collaboration in relation to our investment with Switch, and we do see that there is potential here to find common ground on how we can continue and even grow that potential further in relation to having a strong recurring revenue stream as we go into the future. I cannot share details with that currently. Based on your purchase obligations of EV chargers from Westcontrol and Sanmina implies that a production capacity of NOK 2.1 million in revenue during the next five quarters, to what degree are components secured for this production capacity?
Well, we have secured all the components for the next five quarters o f course but t he delivery will happen during 2023, when the production take place. We have no guarantee that we get all the components we have secured. As it look as today, it's looking good when it comes to future production.
Is there a timeline for MID calibration law, and will it affect the price of Zaptec Pro? It will not affect the price of Zaptec Pro. We have done the development, so the cost of the shelter will be the same.
Yes.
Yeah. You've signed a lot of new distribution agreements in Q3. Have you lost any agreements in Q3? Not to my knowledge. Well, just a side comment to that one, of course, not to my knowledge, but there is, as mentioned earlier in the presentation, has been a slowdown in relation to the incoming orders. Again, we're seeing this as a glitch as we move forward. Do you expect the backlog to be delivered in Q4? If no, is that due to weaker production or stronger sales?
As it looks right now, as mentioned before, in Q3, Westcontrol has been able to ramp up production. We're still working with Sanmina for them to start their actual serial production. Their full potential will be reached in Q1 2023. However, we do believe, given the current numbers on production of Pro, that there is a possibility of us being able to catch the backlog in Q4. There is a possibility. It's not 100% certainty that we will, but we are aiming for a full backlog retrievable within Q4, at the very latest, beginning of Q1.
Yes. It's a combination of the question that the sales is stronger. One thing is the production capacity in the Q4, but there's also a question about the components available for such short notice. As we say, we will probably go over in Q1 before we get rid of all of the backlog.
Is this the first time you've made significant purchases in the spot market and inventory write-offs significantly impacting gross margin? What do you expect for gross margin going forward?
Well, it's not the first time we have done write-off of inventory due to components. This is mainly that we redesign our chargers to secure further components to secure the production. This was a significant write-off in this quarter. What is your expectation for gross margin going forward? It's very hard to promise a number because it depends on the production cost going forward, the raw material cost that we do not control, and it also depends on the mix of sales of chargers. If we are able to increase the sales of Zaptec Go, it will affect the gross margin since we have a lower margin on the mass production product, Zaptec Go.
Expansion of organization, how do you think about the trade-off between growth and profitability? At what pace do you expect to increase your organization in the coming quarters? Well, yes, expansion of our organization is, of course, a natural given our ambitious expansion plans. It has to be said that a lot of the expansion that's going on is of course directly associated with the new markets that we have established both in Q3, but obviously also in the previous quarters. For each country, there will obviously be a need to build up an organization. I previously shared with you the number of our U.K. team, which is 16 at this point.
Of course, every time we add another subsidiary into the equation, new numbers are being added. Of course, we are also adding to our technical teams as well as our product teams to ensure that we are completely abreast with new technology as we move forward. Those are some of the trade-offs that you will be seeing is that we need to ensure that we are strong enough to be able to meet the demands of our customers in the various markets that we go into. That being said, we have grown quite at a high rate here in 2022.
We are at a point where we will be reducing the number of new employees as we go into 2023. However, we're only doing this to ensure that we can retain the DNA in the company, ensure that we have the strong part of Zaptec that can be carried over to new employees as we grow and as we move forward, and then we will again be pressing the increase button as we move further into the new year. However, it's important for us to ensure that everybody's up to date.
Of course, now that we've added a lot of new team members, they need to be trained, they need to come up to speed, and that generally takes more than just two or three months. It generally takes up to six months. We're seeing the effect on this rather large increase in new team members over the next coming months. Again, giving us a very bullish insight into how the new year is going to look with that increased capacity of all the new team members that have joined us throughout 2022. Do you believe that you have a long-term margin target of 15%-20%, if that's still valid?
It's valid, but, of course, we have to look at the timeline and we are spending a lot of expenses to build the organization, as Peter mentioned, to meet our new markets and to be up to speed to have this growth that we are planning for. We will not be specific of the EBITDA target, but it's way higher than we have delivered in this quarter.
What is your guidance heading for upcoming quarters?
We expect to follow the growth in the market we are present in when it comes to EV growth. As you know, we have very high ambitions since we have prepared for high increase in the production in the next quarters.
I'd like to thank you all for listening in this morning. Again, just to reiterate, we remain very committed to delivering ambitious and very strong growth in the next quarters, both here in 2022, but also in the year to come. We're very, very diligent in ensuring that we always deliver on a positive bottom line. Once again, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
Thank you.
Thank you.