Okay. G ood morning, everyone, and welcome to this earnings call. We will cover the second quarter of 2023, summarizing our business in April, May, and June of 2023. My name is Fredrik Ruben. I am the CEO of Tobii Dynavox, and with me on this call, I also have Linda Tybring, the CFO. Can we hear you, Linda?
Yes, you can hear me, I hope.
Yes, she will, of course, cover the financials in more detail. In this earnings call for the second quarter of 2023, we will first, in our usual manner, take you through some of the brief fundamentals about the company. We will summarize the main takeaways from the quarter. We will dive deeper into the financials, and thereafter, we will open up for a Q&A session.
You can submit questions during this live session in the chat function in Teams. We of course always welcome offline questions sent to the email above, which is Linda's email, linda.tybring@tobiidynavox.com. Okay, but again, before we dive deeper into the second quarter of 2023, I'd like to make a short summary about what Tobii Dynavox is about. This may be repetition for some of you, but still fundamental to really understand the company. First and foremost, it's important to reiterate our mission and vision, which I know is very dear not only to the roughly 600 colleagues around the world in Tobii Dynavox, but also to our ecosystems of partner and investors.
Our vision is a world where everyone can communicate, and we will contribute to this via focusing on our mission, which reads, "To empower people with disabilities to do what they once did or never thought possible." This also summarizes two of our main user stories. The, do what you once did, that may be the person who led a normal life until a diagnosis such as ALS, which rendered her unable to control the body or communicate like before. The other story, the never thought possible, that can refer to a child diagnosed at a very early age with a condition such as autism or cerebral palsy, where thanks to our solutions, she can do much more than the world around her ever thought possible. On the picture here to the right, you see Delaina Parrish from Florida, USA.
She was born with cerebral palsy, she's a great example of just that. The market that we serve is hugely underserved. Some 50 million people have a condition so grave, they simply cannot communicate unless they have a solution like ours. Every year, about 2 million people are being diagnosed, yet only about 2% of those are actually being helped, and the rest remain silent. The main reason for this spells lack of awareness, also among the professionals, and the prescribers tasked to assist these users and combined with a poor healthcare reimbursement system. Tobii Dynavox, we operate with a global footprint. Today, some three-quarters of our business stems out of the U.S., and that's largely because of a reasonably well-functioning funding system established some 20, 30 years ago. Our products are sold in some 65 markets around the world.
Our staff is distributed similar way as our revenue, meaning that some 70% of our staff are based in North America, with our U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our second largest office is our headquarter in Stockholm, but we also have branch offices in several European countries, as well as in Suzhou, China. As of today, we are about just over 600 employees in the company. With the recent acquisitions, we now also have established increased presence, specifically in Belgium, France, Ireland, and Denmark, in addition to a smaller number of remote countries, primarily in Central Europe. We provide a comprehensive portfolio of solutions, and they range from, if you start from the top on this slide, the content, such as the world-leading library of communication symbols called PCS, the synthetic voices as well.
Specifically, the voices is a component of an acquisition that we made in 2022 of Acapela Group, who are the world's leading provider of naturally sounding and diverse synthetic voices. If you then go down, we have highly sophisticated communication software tailored to the type of user, which can vary greatly based on the need. Further down, we develop and design devices with cutting-edge technology and medically certified durability, including communication aids controlled using eye tracking. Further down, we have a services portfolio to help our users through the complexity of obtaining a device, and getting funding for our solutions. Then last but not least, we are there to help our users, the therapists, the caregivers, through a global team of support resources.
We operate this model globally, so it's important to note that each piece here is critically important and also significant differentiator for us, making us absolutely unique. Our go-to-market model is predominantly as a prescribed aid. Some 90% of our revenue come out of a public or private insurance providers. This also means that we have solid paying customers, and we have always been resilient towards changes in the overall economic climate. In addition to that, our market is extremely underpenetrated. With that said, we'll now go back to focusing on the main topic of the day, namely our earnings report for the second quarter of 2023. Looking at the highlights, we had another solid quarter when it comes to revenue growth.
The growth compared to the same quarter last year sums up to 32%. I f we adjust for currency effects, the growth was 24%. This continues the trend as we have seen since basically the second quarter of 2022. During the second quarter, we continued to report good growth across the board, across our different geographies, our different products, and the different user groups. We benefit from a market-leading and very up-to-date product portfolio, continuously improved with new products and features. At the same time, we continue to invest in our sales and marketing organization, including further strengthening our U.S. funding organization. This is key to navigate customers through the complexities of obtaining funding for their new communication aid through public or private insurance systems. Our work to improve awareness and competence continues, specifically among prescribed professionals.
The value of being able to meet our customers is of course of major significance, both internally and within our teams, as well as with our customers. The North American markets continue to show strong growth. It is the largest and most influential market, both for us and for our industry, but we have similar growth rates now also in Europe and other countries. The strong momentum among the younger user base continues, such as children with autism, they rely heavily on our symbol communication solutions and in particular, our software, TD Snap. We furthermore see a clear trend that the market where we sell directly, including the recently added Irish and Danish markets, are the ones that shows the strongest growth.
The reason is primarily that we have much greater opportunity in those markets to effectively both train but also support prescribers, while at the same time, obviously gain deeper understanding of the local requirements, the local processes, reimbursement systems, et c. Our OpEx levels are higher than a year ago. This must be seen in the light of the significant investment in our staff, mainly within sales and marketing. We are also investing in systems and tools to manage a very fast-growing business. Last but not least, as a highlight, at the end of the quarter, on the very last day of the quarter, in fact we entered an agreement to acquire Rehadapt Engineering in Germany, and I will shed some more light on this acquisition here.
The acquisition of our long-term German partner, Rehadapt, which we agreed on at the end of June, complements in a very natural way our products portfolio, while also strengthening our presence in the German market. The company is unique with their offering of high quality, medically certified mounting systems, or mounts, as they are typically referred to. Mount is a product that either we or our local dealer or the prescribing entity in that market, combine with a communication aid when these are fixed and attached to, for example, a wheelchair or a bed. This acquisition means that we can create solutions that makes it easier for our users to access and use their communication aids, but it also improves our ability to better, in the future, design and innovate further around the physical setup of each individual user.
Rehadapt will be part of the group as an independent subsidiary to Tobii Dynavox under its own brand and its own organization, and continuing to serve the entire industry and all of the customer segments. We expect to close the deal during the third quarter, and thus welcome some 50 new colleagues to the Tobii Dynavox team. Some financials. In 2022, Rehadapt had worldwide sales of roughly EUR 10 million, at an EBIT margin of about 20%. Tobii Dynavox, we will pay EUR 15 million upfront in cash, with a potential earn out of up to EUR 3.5 million after 12 months, based on the financial development of the company. This deal is financed from our own cash and with an extended credit facility with our bank. All right, now I will hand over to Linda, to have us dive a little bit deeper into our financials.
Thank you, Fredrik. The Q2 financials. Revenue for the quarter came in at SEK 381 million, a 32% year-on-year growth, and adjusted for currency effects, the growth was 24%. M&A contributed with 4%, hence the organic growth was solid 20%. As Fredrik said, this has been a continuing trend for the past five quarters. North America continues with solid, strong growth, as well as Europe, and some of the rest of the world. The gross margin ended up at 68%. The main factors behind the improvement of the four percentage points were normalized component and shipping costs, as well as the sales price increases. Almost half of the price adjustment announced earlier in 2023 are now visible in our income statement.
EBIT for the quarter was SEK 29 million, or 7.6% versus 5.4% last year. Excluding non-recurring cost of SEK 6 million, EBIT was SEK 35 million, corresponding to a margin of 9.2%. This was more than double versus last year's EBIT of SEK 16 million. Our OpEx increased with 16% organically, excluding the non-recurring items on SEK 6 million, mainly related to the acquisition of Rehadapt. The OpEx increase mainly relates to significant staff increases in the sales and marketing organization, but also a new agreement regarding salaries and benefits that came into force, April 1st. Investments in the system and tools to manage our growing business also contributed to the cost increase.
Net effect of R&D spend increased with -5 million SEK, and mainly driven by depreciation related to main or major product launches during the last 12 months - 18 months. Cash flow after continuous investment was SEK 30 million . Cash at hand was SEK 116 million . Net debt was SEK 476 million , and net debt over the last 12 months, EBITDA was 2x in absolute terms, which is the lower range of our financial target, which we have said between 2x and 3 x.
The financing of the acquisition of Rehadapt Engineering, we expanded our credit facility with an additional loan from Swedbank of SEK 100 million during the quarter, the total of SEK 800 million . This will come into effect when we have closed the acquisition of Rehadapt. We have amortized our credit facility with SEK 30 million in the quarter, and the total used credit facility and loan at the end of the quarter was SEK 542 million. That was a lot of numbers, Fredrik. Let's get back to you to conclude the earnings call.
Thank you, Linda. Yes, a lot of numbers, but in our world, good numbers I would say. Before we open up for some questions, I'd like to reiterate the main takeaways from the second quarter of 2023. We continue to show solid growth, a trend that we started over a year ago. In absolute terms, we grew our revenue in the quarter by 32%. If we adjust for currencies, the growth was 24% and if we then further adjust for acquisitions made in last year, the organic underlying growth was 20%. We see revenue growth in this quarter across all geographies, and across all product segments. There is a clear trend that markets where we sell directly to our customers are the ones that show the strongest growth.
Our profitability continues to move upwards, mainly from higher prices and normalized costs after the pandemic. The Medicare's announced increase in the reimbursement levels for our products by roughly 9% gradually affects our revenues in 2023. In the quarter now, we see that almost half of these price adjustments are now visible in our income statement, but we expect to see the full effect of this during the second half of the year. The acquired companies contribute well and are developing favorably. We look forward to prospects both for growth and profitability, and we think that they are bright. We are investing in systems and tools to further solidify and increase the scalability of this company.
We reiterate our long-term financial goals, which for the sake of repetition, reads that over time, we aim to maintain an annual growth adjusted for currencies in excess of 10%. This is obviously a target that we currently overshoot. At the same time, we want to reach and maintain an EBIT margin of 15% or more. H ere we still have some more ground to cover, but we take a clear step in that direction with continued growth, strong growth margin, and OpEx levels that is normalized. We remain confident that we will reach this. We want to maintain a net debt ratio over the last 12 months EBITDA, of between 2x- 3x , and the outcome in absolute terms in the quarter was 2.0.
Once we have landed in our split from Tobii, and we have consolidated our balance sheet somewhat, we will distribute a dividend, provided that other more compelling alternatives, such as acquisitions do not take preference. These targets are expressed with a rough time horizon of two years. All right, w ith that said, I'm actually handing over the microphone to Christian Hall, who in the usual manner, will take questions from the audience. Hey, Christian.
Hello there. Let's start with some questions. First of all, a couple of questions from Oskar Rönnkvist at ABG. Admin costs came up sharply quarter and quarter, partly driven by non-recurring expenses, correct? It's still up significantly quarter on quarter. What is the run rate we should expect when this item is stabilized?
[audio distortion]. Yeah.
Yes, Linda. [audio distortion].
Yes. Thank you. I mean, as you are stating, Oskar , in the administration cost, you have the one-time cost that you should adjust for. We also stated that we are now starting to invest in our IT infrastructures and processes. You should expect that this will continue going forward as well.
Okay, another question from Oscar. As the acquisition is margin accretive and you have not changed your targets, do you still expect to reach plus or over 15% EBIT margin, excluding Rehadapt? Any update on timing?
Oskar, the short answer is yes. We still expect to reach the +15% EBIT margin, even if you take Rehadapt out. Rehadapt obviously has a slightly higher run rate historically, but they're also significantly smaller than Tobii Dynavox . Any update on timing? No, w e expect to close this. There are some formalities that we need to sort out, but during the third quarter is still our best guess to close the deal.
Okay, another question from Oskar. Could we expect further price increases in the second half of the year to support additional gross margin improvements, or are there any COGS effects we should keep in mind, like current component and freight prices?
I can start since I'm on the video already, Linda.
Yep.
Yes, we do believe that the price increases will support additional gross margin improvements, and no, we don't see any negative outlook when it comes to current component prices or freight prices. I would say that your underlying estimates here are largely correct, Oskar. I don't know if you want to add something to that, Linda.
I think you're totally correct. What we see is that, I mean, as we said, close to half of the price increase that Medicare has announced, can we see in the income statement now, and gradually, we will get up to the 9% at the end of the year. There is no large cost or cost of goods sold related to that.
Okay, and then we have a question from Daniel Djurberg at Handelsbanken.
Congrats to a very strong report. You had some progress in several markets outside the U.S. in the quarter. Can you comment on the visibility for the second half, i.e., temporary improvements or more of a structural uptake? Can you also comment on the OpEx increase? I guess the 16% is a fair number also for coming three quarters, or the hike in pricing seen in the U.S., how much of this was visible in the quarter, and how much ballpark is left to benefit from?
Do you want to start, Linda, and then I can follow up?
Yeah. I mean, repeating when it comes to the price increase, we have seen close to half of it, and we will continue to see that gradually over the second half of 2023. When it comes to OpEx, we had an organic growth, revenue-wise, of 20%, and we have had OpEx growth adjusted for one-timers with 16%. A s we have said before, we need to continue to invest in sales and marketing to be able to grow. You should expect that our OpEx will continue to grow, but of course, to improve our EBIT, it will not grow as fast as our revenue. Do you want to comment something else, Fredrik?
Yeah, and I hopefully this is the last time I say it, but last year's Q2, we're still to some degree, affected by COVID, in the sense that we had unusually low OpEx levels. This means obviously that the percentage-wise increase should be lower. In the second quarter of last year, we still couldn't really travel to all countries and meet as we can today.
That's a good point.
Okay, we have a question from Johan Berggren, as it looks now, it's the final question. Should we expect any additional non-recurring costs in Q3 related to the Rehadapt acquisition?
Hopefully, no, and if they are, they are non-material. The costs that were non-recurring were largely related to the fairly large team of advisors, et c, that you need to conclude a deal. Hopefully, those costs will be significantly lower once we're over that hurdle.
Okay, that finalizes the questions.
Great. With that said, thank you, everyone for dialing into this earnings call. As always, for those of you who know us, don't hesitate to reach out. We'd be happy to answer and clarify any questions. Otherwise, until next time, have a great day.
Thank you.