Okay. Good morning and welcome. Welcome all to the Q1 report for 4C Group. I am Magnus Bergquist, and I am the CEO.
Yeah. I'm Anders Nordgren, Group CFO. I will be presenting the Q1 figures later in the presentation. Before we kick off, Magnus, just to highlight for everyone, we will end with a Q&A session, so feel free to add and submit your questions in the chat, and we will pick them up when we move into that section.
Perfect. Before Anders goes through all the details, I'd like to start by giving some key highlights of Q1. 2023 has started well. It's a solid quarter of growth and profitability. If we high-level look at the Q1 net sales, we have achieved the growth of 18%, equaling SEK 90 million, with an EBIT of 13%. On rolling twelve-month basis, we have reached the net sales of SEK 345 million. Significant to highlight though are the continued investments made into products, into sales and brand awareness and the geographical expansion.
We're pleased to report that our new geographical markets, such as APAC that we reported last year, where we established local presence, are developing according to plan, with a promising pipeline of new software deals, and clients in multiple sectors. With the growing interest from the North American market for our non-military offering, we will in the next quarter establish a local business unit to address the public and corporate sectors' demands there. More sales and tech resources locally in these new markets and new offerings are crucial to support our customers and to achieve further growth. During the first quarter, we have onboarded several new customers to the Exonaut platform and extended and prolonged multiple customer contracts. I'll give you some examples.
In Nordics, we have closed an agreement with a global life science company to help them build resilience against different threats using our Exonaut platform. Over in North America, we reached an important milestone with the US military delivery and are now progressing towards deployment in the second half of 2023. In the U.K., we have signed an agreement, for example, with a large client in the financial sector to support them within operational resilience. I'm also glad to announce, I'll come back later on in the webinar with more details, that during Q2, we'll launch the Exonaut Climate Resilience Solution.
The solution is based on our Exonaut Resilience Platform, and what we see on the market, with the growing interest and demand for ESG and climate solutions, we see great potential for a comprehensive solution to manage all aspects of climate resilience. As said, I'll come back with more details later on in the webinar. Before I hand over to Anders for Q1 financial details, I like we always do, highlight some examples of the solution we provide and the societal impact they have. As presented in previous reports, we started 22 years ago with the idea to digitalize training for the Swedish Armed Forces, always with the purpose to collect and analyze data, reuse this information, and achieve process improvements, increase the efficiency, and lower cost. That still stands.
If we look back at the start of 2023, we continue to see an increase in our relevance and the ability to make impact out there. I'll highlight some examples for you. A growing and important business segment for 4C is clearly the financial sector. As mentioned earlier, during Q1, we added several new customers to our operational resilience solution in the U.K. We're also further adopting our solutions to support our financial customers to manage their regulatory requirements. If you take an example like DORA regulations for cybersecurity in the European Union. We're also glad to read and see that Gartner listed us as the only full suite provider on a global leve.
If we move over to the protect and the crisis response, in Q1, we have supported our customers, and Exonaut, our software, has been in active usage in managing the evacuation from Sudan that I guess most of you guys have been following in the news. Last but not least, I would like to end with an example that 4C is built on customer trust. We once again won the framework as the advisor for the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Fantastic, but important to state is that this partnership for financial security was initiated back in 2005. As I said, I'll come back later in the presentation. Anders?
Thank you for that, Magnus. If we take a more detailed look at our financial performance then, we can see that we delivered SEK 90 million in net sales during the first quarter. This equals an 18% growth compared to same period last year, where we delivered SEK 76 million in net sales. FX adjusted growth number is 13%, indicating that we are still getting some support from the currency development. The positive development in sales is mainly driven by our sales of software and software-related services, where the growth rate was 19% and 21% respectively during the first quarter. On a rolling twelve-month basis, net sales amounts to SEK 345 million, up SEK 14 million compared to year-end closing, which is a direct result of the growth in the first quarter.
The CAGR, meaning the average annual growth rate for the period 19 to Q1, 2023, is 22%, as you can see on the slide, confirming current growth journey. The share of software sales for the quarter amounts to SEK 56 million, equaling 62% of total sales on the same level as the comparative quarter. Up 2% compared to Q4, 2022. On a rolling twelve-month basis, software sales amounts to SEK 220 million, equaling 64% in relation to total net sales figure. If we take a closer look at our segments, it's to the left of this slide, we can see that all segments are growing and that our international segment during the first quarter had the strongest performance in terms of growth. Something that, for example, was driven by signing of a new software client within the financial sector.
North America delivered SEK 42 million in net sales for the quarter, a quarter that, as for the comparative quarter, included larger license call-ups. The Nordic segment reached SEK 27 million during the first quarter, confirming the positive trend and performance we saw in 2022. The growth in Nordics is both driven by a solid expert service business, but more importantly, an improved software sales. Looking at our verticals to the right, we see solid positive variances for all our verticals compared to last year. The most significant increase is found within the public sector and where the increase was driven by increased software sales. Profitability, we reached an adjusted EBIT margin of 13% for the first quarter, up 2% compared to last year, and also up 2% compared to Q4, 2022.
An improvement, in line with our expectations as we are growing our business and maintaining a solid share of software sales. At the same time as we are growing and increasing our profitability, we are moving forward with our expansion investments. Investments that are focused on software and our offering, our sales force, and geographical expansion. These investments have limited impact on our current net sales figure, but are, of course, important for us to reach our growth target in the future. An example of such an investment is the establishment of the non-defense business in North America that we are now moving forward with. If you take into account the expansion investments we are carrying out, analyzing our profitability, the EBIT margin is much closer to the financial target. A target, just to remind everyone, that is 20%.
Summarizing and taking a look at some KPIs, we can see that we continue to have a strong financial position, something that, of course, is important for us moving forward with our planned expansion investments. We have a net working capital figure just about SEK 61 million, a relatively high number if you compare it with previous quarters. We have a fairly volatile net working capital due to the fact that we have large software deals, and the timing of when these are invoiced and paid have large impact on this specific KPI. Another KPI worth mentioning is the annual recurring revenue, a KPI where we see a positive trend. It amounts to SEK 108 million at the end of Q1, an increase of SEK 11 million, and where software is the main driver to the positive development.
Can also highlight CapEx or capitalizations continues to be around 8%-9% of total net sales in Q1, a level that we saw during 2022 as well. I don't, or we don't expect to significantly see any larger variances in relation to net sales going forward or on the rolling twelve-month basis. Concluding my presentations, I believe that Q1 was solid.
Yeah.
Considering that we are moving forward with all the initiatives, we managed to deliver 18% growth and 13% profitability.
Okay, we move forward. Thank you, Anders. I promise to come back with something I think very exciting. As mentioned in my introduction, we are at this quarter launching our brand new Exonaut Climate Resilience solution. I'll move slide for you guys. It is based on our Exonaut Resilience platform. As I said, with a growing interest and demand in the market for ESG and climate resilience solution, we see great potential to provide a comprehensive software to manage all the aspects of the field. This solution provides a web-based, end-to-end software that allows organizations to bring together their environmental management. It including the analysis and response of climate risks and vulnerabilities in a single platform. The solution ensures integrated resilience.
It allows managers to make timely and evidence-based decisions on their climate risks, to make their plans to mitigate and adapt, to identify, but also to explore new business opportunities. It's also, of course, to fulfill their regulatory reporting requirements that we will all be facing in this field and continually improve their resilience for a more safer and sustainable future. The most widely used standard for this, Exonaut Resilience is based on ISO 14001. So over the last year, we have, in collaboration with our customers, addressed the challenges and business opportunities that this really entails. Our customers are faced with new risks and new regulatory requirements that needs to be managed to avoid severe consequences. Even more important, it has to be combined in addressing these challenges as potential business opportunities.
As we, as a company, already support our customers in different sectors in areas very closely aligned with these topics, we decided to invest into this market. Over the last six months, we have conducted a market analysis, and our result shows that we fill a gap that will be important moving forward. We see great market potential and believe we have a unique offering for this growing and important market, and I look forward to presenting more on this topic in the upcoming meetings. Oops. Before going to the next slide. There we are.
Yeah.
To summarize Q1, we're pleased to see that we started off well in Q1, both for growth and profitability. Also as mentioned in the report, this is the year where we extend and expand several of our larger military engagements, and due to timing of these contracts, there could be a larger quarterly volatility in the short term. It's difficult at this stage to be more precise. Our full year and the rolling 12-month outlook is solid at this stage, and we are optimistic when we look at the full year. We're focused on growth, and we're continuing to invest, that you have heard in this presentation, in new regions and into new Exonaut software offerings. We feel confident, in our ability to invest in the right areas, to achieve our financial targets.
Exonaut Climate Resilience, I think is a perfect example of that. Now thank you all. That concludes the formal part of the presentation.
Yeah.
We need some help here.
Yeah
to move into questions.
Maybe before we open up for questions, just to comment and maybe clarify, we're seeing some detailed questions around financial outlook, or specific customer questions at previous calls, questions that we can't comment upon in this forum, and that might be the reason why we didn't pick up certain questions. That was the reason to that.
I see, I see questions rolling in here.
Yeah.
So, um...
If we start then, from the top, what is the unique selling point regarding the new solution, Climate Resilience?
When we-- As I said, when we have analyzed the market and we have looked at current providers in the field, we see that our new solution, I would say, covers, you know, the full spectra of the need. We foresee, as a company, we have always focused on evidence-based risk management and not only tracking regulatory requirements. I think that's unique. This will also be key when organizations start managing their climate resilience challenges. Another topic I would say is information security. As most of you now know, we have a history of managing confidential and secret information, which is normally a unique selling point for us as a company. Last but not least, it's always the combination of our expertise in this field.
You know, the combination of services and software, how we can assist the customers, I think will be a key differentiator. More to come, as I said.
All right. Okay. You mentioned a fluctuation between the quarters. What is the reason for this?
Okay. As I said, we are extending and expanding several of our largest customers this year in the military. What I meant is we do not have exact clarity in what exact quarter this will be finalized, if it's gonna be Q1, Q2. Q1 we know, but Q2 and 3 and Q4. One major reason for this is that our customers are also extremely occupied in managing and adapting to the insecure world we live in, and there could be an impact on timing based on these resources. I also said that we feel very confident in our full-year outlook, which is based on that these extensions will happen this financial year due to budgets. We'll come back as we have more clarity in that timing.
We have quite a lot of questions, I can say.
Yeah.
It's gonna be a long one.
It's gonna be a long one.
Yeah. Let's see. You mentioned the new operations in APAC and the new expansion in U.S. What is the current status?
We opened Australia. Businesses in Australia is now fully operational. We also have several new engagements down there. We hope to announce more in the upcoming quarter. In the U.S., this is important, in the U.S., that's for the non-defense business, we're currently setting up our new operations, and we plan to have this operational late summer is the current estimation.
Okay. You mentioned variations in net working capital. What is the reason for the development? I think I can take that one.
Yeah.
As I said, I hope, in my presentation, this is often due to larger software deals and the timing of them. Dependent on when they occur, I would say the net working capital can become volatile in our business. I expect it to come down in Q2, coming back to, so to say, normal levels.
Thank you, Anders. Okay, here is a question that we have not... This is interesting. How do we see... I'll combine two questions here.
Yeah, I saw.
Two of the same topic, actually. What are our plans, and what efficiencies and benefits do we see in using artificial intelligence? I'll say it like this, a very interesting question. We have, as a company, over the last year, been evaluating how we can use this technology. First, primarily to support our customers because we gather large amounts of data. Without going into details here, we are conducting and have conducted several trials in this area. The second answer is, of course, we see a large impact on how this will impact the way we deliver services and build software, and are evaluating that, how we can also become more efficient in optimizing our own operations. I will also say more on this topic in upcoming presentations.
Yeah.
I'll take another question. I'll start there. Interesting to see the new product and climate resilience. Are you seeing traction of this in terms of deals already now? How should we think about this in relationship to lead time, say, in the industry? I would say yes. We are already, of course, in dialogue, and that's also a reason why we started, because several of our customers are faced with the upcoming regulations, but they're also managing. We have, in previous calls, also presented and during the IPO that we already today exercise our customers when it comes to oil spill scenarios and so forth. What we have done now is to combine and build a new product specific for this market based on ISO 14000, and that one is being launched this quarter.
If you scroll down between the different questions, you scroll up there.
That one is...
Yeah. Congrats to the solid Q1 results, and many thanks for taking my question. What % of sales is your target to achieve for the new ESG solution in the coming years? We do not have that % set. The climate resilience solution will be a combined offering of our crisis management, risk management, business continuity. What I can say is that we see great opportunities for that area, I think I would come back with that after we have launched the product itself to the market.
Congratulations for the result. Will the growth of the company require new equity or debt financing?
As of now, I would say no.
Yeah. That's the short answer. As for today, I
There are no plans for that.
That one is commented on. I think that one. Can you comment on the expansion investment outlook? When do you expect margins to reach the target level?
Well, as we said in the start, I don't think we're gonna give an exact projection clearly on when the, you know, when the profitability will reach our financial target of 20%. It will also depends on the aggressiveness of our investments. I think what Anders referred to in the, in the call is the underlying profitability being at, you know, close to that target. I think we need to come back with more details on that projection. That was actually the last question.
I have that one we can take. Can you comment on the prolonged procurement process you mentioned in the report? What regions, sectors, et cetera?
Yeah. I mentioned that, but it's not any specific region or any specific question. I will answer that in two ways. As we as a company grow, this is both corporate, public, but main military, the larger contracts we sign, the longer the procurement cycles take. That's one area. In the defense sector, especially, and we see this in the Nordic region, we see this in the international region, and we also see this in the U.S., the accessibility and the time pressure that are on the procurement organizations, mainly due to a lot of the work with Ukraine, delays some of these cycles. As I said, the good thing is they have to stay within budget years. That's why it's hard to say if it's exactly gonna be signed in Q2, Q3, or Q4. That's the uncertainty.
Yes.
I think we have concluded all the questions.
Yeah, I think so.
Thanks for all the questions.
Yeah.
Hopefully that makes it more live.
Yeah.
By that, I think we thank for today.
We do.
We thank for the shown attention, and we end the webinar. Thank you.
Thank you very much.