Flerie AB (publ) (STO:FLERIE)
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Earnings Call: Q3 2024

Oct 16, 2024

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

Good morning, and welcome to Flerie's Q3 report presentation with me, Ted Fjällman, and our CFO, Cecilia Schéele. We're very excited to tell you about the advancing life science innovations from our portfolio and also to help explain our unique share redemption scheme that was introduced with our IPO three months ago. Before we do that, the usual disclaimer. And let me start before we go into the details about the Q3 report, and just reminding those of you who may not know us so well of our way of working, and also the fact that we have been around since 2011 and have a proven track record of 14% IRR per year. Just a reminder, we are a life science investment company.

We're very active investors, investing in a diversified portfolio of twenty-nine companies, using these four pillars on the left-hand side, always taking a board seat, and through that, being active. Also working with the CEO and Management teams on product roadmaps and also the expansion of their often platform technologies that are very widely applicable, and of course, building up this famous 'Flerie' n' Peers', peer-to-peer network that we've had for many years now, really valued by the CEOs who get to exchange with each other and really learn from each other. And last but not least, the collaborations and the synergies that we try to establish to advance our both products and services on the market. The most famous case of that being NorthX Biologics, then our manufacturing powerhouse, not unlike the very early days of Recipharm that our Chairman, Thomas Eldered, built up.

We're now building up NorthX Biologics, and all many of our companies are working with NorthX. Let's move on to the Q3 report details. So we have an active portfolio approach, and it is delivering results. So today, I'll talk a little bit about the syndication and also the development progress that we've had during the quarter. First, the net asset value was almost SEK 4.3 billion, about SEK 54.6, or precisely SEK 54.59 per share. This really shows that we are a top-tier European investment company with significant assets. We also have significant firepower after the IPO. We now have SEK 911.3 million in cash and cash equivalents. That actually represents SEK 11.67 per share out of the SEK 54.59.

So actually, if you think about it, we really have quite a substantial 20% of NAV in cash, and we're deploying roughly 10% of NAV per year into mostly our current portfolio of 29 innovative companies. So what has happened during the quarter? We have very significantly catalyzed investment from other investors into three companies that I'm exemplifying here. We've also continued to syndicate with others to do that in future quarters in other companies. But in this quarter, Atrogi attracted SEK 30 million, Strike Pharma, SEK 12 million, and Chromafora, SEK 40 million. Y ou can see in brackets how much Flerie put in into each of those rounds. So by no means, if you take the total here, are we the majority shareholder. Actually, we catalyzed SEK 47.5 million alongside our SEK 34.5 million.

So, very happy about that, and also very good syndicating partners who also know what they're doing and have a long-term view on building these companies. Significant value changes during the quarter. The first two are very positive. Lipum, SEK 66 million up, Xintela, SEK 60 million up. Xspray, unfortunately, went down to SEK 173 million for in Flerie's fair value. So this is. These, all three of these companies are actually publicly listed companies. That's where most of the volatility exists in our portfolio. But we're very happy. Lipum, who is actually moving on in their product development into phase II, I'm showing here. Lipum actually is a company that's working on rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis is, of course, a big indication.

They are having a new candidate, SOL-116, that addresses several things that are not available to patients today. The last patient enrolled in this phase I study, and they successfully are developing the manufacturing for the next clinical trial together with NorthX Biologics. So this is actually a very good example of our this collaboration that we're doing. The bottom right-hand side, you can see that actually the fair value is SEK 164 million, and the capital invested that we've invested into Lipum is SEK 103 million. We own 57% of the company, so it's one of the few, actually, only seven of our companies out of the 29, where we own more than 50% of the shares. Xintela is another company that's really gained on the stock market during the quarter, also publicly listed.

You can see at the bottom right here again, the fair value, SEK 165 million, where we've invested SEK 91 million in capital. Again, a company where we actually own more than 50%. It just happens to be that these companies are the ones we're mentioning during the quarter. Actually, this company is very exciting. Allogeneic stem cell-based treatments focusing both on osteoarthritis, so bone arthritis, and also difficult to treat leg ulcers. So these are wounds that just don't close up a nd these stem cells, and they have a very specific way of selecting these stem cells, are able to help these wounds close and also help to build up bone mass in osteoarthritis patients.

Last but not least, Xspray, which of course, many of you have been following separately, and of course, all three of these companies you could technically invest in yourself. Xspray had a second complete response letter from the FDA. What that means is the FDA provides feedback ahead of the commercialization in the USA. And of course, it was disappointed to get this feedback, but actually, the feedback is not around any fundamental issue with the pharmaceutical itself. It's actually around the labeling and the labeling comprehension by pharmacies and by doctors. So as you may know, if you follow Xspray, Xspray is developing a better version of an original drug called Sprycel, which is selling, you know, it's a blockbuster drug by BMS.

This, of course, means that, you know, the payers, the pharmacies have to watch out to not give the same dose as Sprycel, because Xspray's dasatinib is actually more potent. So the FDA wanted more clearer labeling there, and that's what the company is working through now. There's actually only some delay here, but we really do believe in the company, and that they will go to market in the U.S. next year. Not only that, this technology can be applied to many protein kinase inhibitors, so it's not just the dasatinib and Sprycel market, but it's actually a lot more that Xspray could solve. Again, you see here the fair value, SEK 294 million. We've invested SEK 299 million, so we are a long-term investor.

We really believe that Xspray will have that, success that they deserve, next year and beyond. Other key developments in the private portfolio, they don't affect our NAV as much, but, that's precisely because of our very prudent valuation methodology, which our CFO is going to speak a little bit about later. But just to point out the innovations that are advancing in our portfolio, AnaCardio is a heart failure company. In fact, today, all heart failure drugs are addressing the symptoms of heart failure, while AnaCardio is actually developing a drug that will improve the contractility of the heart and help the pumping of blood. Very excited that they will be moving into phase II, going forward.

Microbiotica, just recently, after the end of the quarter, so beginning of this new quarter, have dosed their first patient with their microbiome treatment both for melanoma and ulcerative colitis. So, welcome, Microbiotica, to the clinical part of our portfolio and Amarna Therapeutics has received positive feedback on the development strategy for their type one diabetes gene therapy. Again, a very innovative technology here that allows tolerization in the future. It's really quite unique technology that nobody else has and exemplifies what Flerie does overall. We invest in really innovative products and companies that are developing them. So with that, I'll leave you to the numbers with Cecilia Schéele.

Cecilia Schéele
CFO, Flerie

Thank you, Ted. Let's start by looking at the financial information in summary for the Q3. Our net asset value was SEK 4.262 billion end of September, and SEK 4.379 billion end of June. That's a decrease by almost SEK 180 million in the quarter. NAV per share was SEK 54.59 , as compared to SEK 56.10 end of Q2, so that's a - 2.7%. When adjusted for the transaction cost that occurred from the reverse merger and the capital raise in June, equivalent to SEK 1.30 per share, NAV per share in Q3 was 55.91.

Our portfolio fair value was SEK 2.993 billion end of September, as compared to SEK 3.058 billion end of June, which is a decrease by SEK 65 million or 4%. The decrease is due to value decreases of SEK 121 million, and investments in the portfolio in the quarter was SEK 56 million. So we will shortly talk a bit more in detail of the value changes and the investments made in the quarter when we look at the segments. Net profit for the quarter was -SEK 117 million, and end of September, we had a cash balance of SEK 911 million. And together with a loan facility, we have available more than SEK 1 billion for future investments in our portfolio.

When we talk about NAV per share and NAV development, the single most important factor driving NAV development is, of course, the changes in the valuation of our portfolio companies. So for that, just a few words on our valuation methodology. We have a portfolio that consists of both listed and unlisted companies, and the listed companies are valued in accordance with the latest share price, obviously. The private, unlisted portfolio companies, generally constituting around 75% of our portfolio, are valued based on the latest financing round. So normally, valuations are unchanged between financing rounds for the private companies. But we do adjust the valuation down if the company has, for instance, had a trial setback or is experiencing delays in sales growth.

Since we sit on the board of all companies except one, in accordance with our active ownership model, we have good knowledge of the company's progress or any issues that occur, and therefore, we can reduce the value when negative events happen. Also very important, when the company eventually is getting back on track, we can reverse the write-down back up to the value of the latest funding round with the previous valuation, but not higher. We make reversals, but we don't increase the valuation. Let's look at the segments more in detail. If you go to the next slide. These are the three segments that Ted also outlined.

If we start looking at the Product Development or the PD segment, which is our largest, end of September, it constitutes 77% of the total portfolio value and is split by 72% of private companies and 28% of listed companies. The fair value of the PD segments, the fair value of the portfolio at the end of the quarter was SEK 2.354 billion, as compared to SEK 2.365 at the beginning of the quarter. This is a decrease by SEK 11 million. Change in fair value of the segment in the quarter was -41, and as Ted outlined just a couple of minutes ago, the changes in value mainly come from the listed companies.

Xspray, with a decrease of SEK 173 million in the quarter, but also Lipum and you see that Xintela that developed positively, up by SEK 66 million and SEK 60 million , respectively. Just coming back to what I mentioned just on the valuations previously. In the quarter, there was also changes in the valuation of two of the private companies in the segment that were not to do with financing rounds. Starting with EpiEndo, the fair value of our shares in EpiEndo, we wrote down the fair value in Q1 already, in full. And this was due to the absence of efficacy results in the then-ongoing phase II study.

But after further analysis of the data, and given that the study showed safety and tolerability, as well as beneficial effects on inflammatory biomarkers, the decision was made to continue the development in the company. A s the company now shows that the development is progressing and that there is a plan for continued operations, the previously made write-down was partially reversed in the quarter, resulting in a fair value increase of SEK 55 million. And then on ViTri Medical, we decreased the value of our shares in the private company, ViTri, in the quarter by an additional SEK 13 million. So that's a decrease, following a lower valuation in an upcoming funding round. So the round wasn't closed in the quarter, but since we had an approved term sheet, we chose to adjust the valuation accordingly.

Investments in shares in the quarter for the PD segment was SEK 30 million, of which the largest was in Atrogi, SEK 22 million and SEK 6 million in Xspray. We continue to C ommercial Growth or the CG segment, which is our second largest, constitutes 20% of the portfolio fair value end of September, and 93% of the segment fair value is private companies, and 7% are listed companies, 7% of the fair value. The total fair value of the CG segment end of the quarter was SEK 547 million, compared to SEK 617 million at the beginning of the quarter.

It's a decrease by SEK 70 billion, and the decrease is mainly due to a negative share price development in Nanologica that reduced or decreased SEK 56 million in the quarter, and also an adjustment of the value of shares in A3P Biomedical to reflect the valuation of a couple of share, external share transactions, resulting in a decrease in fair value of SEK 33 million. Investments in the quarter were SEK 10 million in the segment, which is a follow-on investment in Chromafora, and then briefly on the third segment, limited partnerships. This is the smallest of our segments, 3% in terms of our portfolio value, characterized by long-term commitments. We invested SEK 16 million in the quarter in our funds, and the fair value, as you can see, was more or less unchanged, so this is about the financial performance.

Let's continue with a couple comments on Flerie's share redemption program. Skip to the next slide. Flerie has. We provide a share redemption scheme or [Foreign language] in Swedish, where up to 5% of all the shares can be redeemed annually at the value of the latest NAV per share. The first conversion period will be around the Q2 next year. In the following years, the conversion period will appear at Q1 instead and some of our shareholders have agreed not to utilize this right. The majority owner, for instance, will not use the redemption scheme for several years, and the investors that participated in the directed issue in June are also exempt to participate in the first redemption, but they may participate in the other ones.

You will be able to redeem your shares at NAV per share, which gives you a really good opportunity as it looks now. Our NAV, again, per share, was SEK 54.59 end of Q3, and the share price on the same day was SEK 42.09 , which means that at that day, our NAV per share exceeded the share price by 30%. There are two main reasons for implementing the redemption scheme. The first one is that to provide our shareholders a liquidity option. Some investors may need to realize liquidity to sell off part of their shares, even if they have invested with a long-term perspective aligned with Flerie's long-term active company building strategy.

But the redemption scheme will provide for our shareholders a recurring liquidity option and a certain one, since we have included the share redemption scheme in our articles of association, so it will not be taken out very easily. The second reason for the share redemption scheme was to align the share price and the reported NAV per share. So Flerie is an active investor, helping to build portfolio companies using specialist experience and network. So build portfolio companies and build the value. And to support the market in understanding the added value that Flerie provides, in addition to, well, say, only investing money, the redemption scheme should have the effect to reduce the current discount and to align the share price and the reported NAV per share.

Although in the end, the market sets the price, once Flerie has become more known and there's overall confidence in the way we value our portfolio, there's no reason for why we shouldn't instead trade at a premium, we think. So all of you who want to read more about the detailed conditions for the scheme and the process for redemption, you can find this on our website, flerie.com. So that wraps up the financial section. I will hand back over to you, Ted.

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

Thank you, Cecilia. And just some concluding remarks from me. I'm showing you a slide here that really gives you the flavor of the diversified portfolio that we have, and we've just exemplified a few companies during the quarter who had advances that are worth mentioning, but actually many more companies have advances. If you just look here, this is as of thirtieth of September, but I mentioned that Microbiotica, who here is still shown as a preclinical company, actually dosed their first patient just in the second week of October. S o we have now placed them in the phase I bracket, and this really is showing that this is a dynamic development of our portfolio. We have actually been in companies that are now in commercial growth when they were in the Product Development segment.

So we are a long-term investor who really is helping these companies to move forward, not just with the money to do their clinical trials, but with our expertise and network to both attract other investors, to make M&A, to basically be acquired or at least collaborate with Big Pharma. And here I can mention a few, actually. So KAHR Medical has, that's in the phase II there. They have actually collaborated with Roche. You know, we have, of course, many other companies like Prokarium who've collaborated with large companies. We have companies who have used, for example, the checkpoint inhibitors of other companies in a supply agreement. So we're always out there helping these companies to create connections and just a few highlights that are continuously advancing.

So Geneos Therapeutics, that's in phase II, again, is a company in the personalized cancer vaccine space for advanced liver cancer. I've spoken about them before in previous quarters. They've now are having even more long-term data from their patients. The patients are continuing to survive, even though according to the standard of care, many of them, you know, would actually be dead if they hadn't been given this personalized cancer vaccine treatment. We also have Mendus, who's making tremendous progress as well on upscaling their manufacturing together with NorthX Biologics, which you see on the right-hand side over there in the commercial growth.

That's a manufacturing powerhouse that, together with Mendus' expertise in cell therapy, both companies are gaining a lot of expertise and growing their business, but at the same time helping each other to advance the AML maintenance therapy that Mendus has to a bigger trial that eventually can result in a licensure and marketing of a completely new drug that doesn't exist today. So, all in all, there's a lot going on in the portfolio, and happy to take more questions on this in the Q&A session.

Cecilia Schéele
CFO, Flerie

Welcome to today's Q&A session. If you have a question, then please click on the Raise Your Hand icon on the toolbar. I will then activate your microphone when it's your time to speak. We are a bit limited by time, but we will do our best to answer all of your questions, and you are, of course, very welcome to contact us after the presentation. So please click on the Raise Your Hand icon if you wish to speak. We will begin with Arvid from Carnegie. I will activate your microphone. Please go ahead, Arvid.

Arvid Necander
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Carnegie

Thank you, and good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one's sort of on the valuation method and the events ahead that bear significance for Flerie. Positive readouts with your valuation methods does not translate into an increased value, since it's primarily based on the latest financing round. But I guess you must have some internal model, since you sometimes do write down based on negative events. With that in mind, you highlight some upcoming readouts in the report, including Prokarium's upcoming data in bladder cancer, KAHR's data in solid tumor, Geneos' long-term data, among some other events. Which of these events should drive the most value for Flerie, in your view, had they been accounted for in the NAV? I'll start there. Thanks.

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

Thank you, Arvid. So, first of all, I should say that even though it doesn't immediately translate, of course, many of these companies do end up doing financing rounds relatively soon, maybe within six to 12 months after having a great readout. I mean, that's a natural way of private companies. They develop their data, they have built up relationships, they go to conferences, and they meet the potential investors and potential collaborators, and then it takes a few months to develop a syndicate to do a new financing round. But of course, it will translate. It's just a delay. But to answer your question, I think there are several companies. Prokarium will have the largest impact on our NAV, obviously, because it's over 10% of our NAV in the first place.

So in terms of companies to watch, Prokarium is one and AnaCardio is a company that actually, you know, should be doing a financing round and to do their phase II trial. That's obviously a company that will have an impact. KAHR, again, also, will actually have a large impact because it's a relatively. It used to be one of the very large companies in our portfolio, but we did have to do a down round, and that's why it's now slightly lower on the top list, so to speak, in terms of the valuation. But that doesn't mean that it isn't a very top end. So, KAHR, if things go well, will have to do a more financing round and eventually, do a collaboration with Big Pharma, as they have done in the past. So looking forward to their data as well. I hope that answers your question.

Arvid Necander
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Carnegie

Yep, yep, that was great. Thank you, Ted. And then secondly, that sort of brings me to the next question then. So you invested SEK 56 million in the quarter, roughly half the amount of what we saw in Q2. So looking ahead then, what are the companies with the greatest financing needs? How does the investment need look like for Flerie in the coming 12 months? If you can give us any flavor there, and how optimistic are you that you will be able to bring on co-investors for the largest finance amounts over the coming 12 months?

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

Sure. I guess I'll take that as well. So we are deploying around about 10% of NAV per year, but as you pointed out, it's not every quarter is the same, so it obviously depends on the situation. So this quarter was a smaller quarter, so to speak, in investment terms. Next quarter might be a larger one. The companies that require the most investment are the ones where we are still building the syndicate. So if we are a very large shareholder and the other shareholders are not, you know, larger, don't have deep pockets, we have to work even harder to expand that syndicate, and that's really a big part of what I do. What my team does is to go out and talk to other investors. So we're gonna be at many conference.

We're gonna be at Jefferies in London. We're gonna be obviously at BIO-Europe, which is even in Stockholm this time around. I'm gonna be at JP Morgan out in San Francisco in January. At all of these events, we're really trying to expand our syndicates. But to answer your question, in those companies where we are the biggest shareholder and one of the few, those are the ones that are gonna require the most funding from us until we expand the syndicate.

Arvid Necander
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Carnegie

Okay, thank....

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

Does that answer your question?

Arvid Necander
Equity Research Analyst of Healthcare, Carnegie

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Ted and team. I'll jump back in the queue.

Cecilia Schéele
CFO, Flerie

Thank you. Do we have any other questions within the audience? Please feel free to click on the Raise Your Hand icon.

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

It's great to see so many listening. I know there's a lot to take in. We have 29 companies. There's a lot to follow. If you're thinking of questions now, please ask them now. Otherwise, you also can email us at ir@flerie.com. We're very happy to answer questions through that as well. I know we're in the early stages of our journey as a public company, and it's really important to us to explain how we work to the market so that you can understand that we're providing an opportunity, a diversified portfolio, that otherwise would be very difficult to access. I'm also thinking if there might be some question around the redemption scheme. Anybody else wondering about that? No, crystal clear, it seems. That's great. You can read more about that on the website as well. Just, it's just under the Investor section on the website.

Cecilia Schéele
CFO, Flerie

Perfect. Does it seem to be any more questions, so?

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

Thank you very much, everyone, and have a wonderful day, and speak to you in a quarter from now, if not earlier.

Cecilia Schéele
CFO, Flerie

Thank you.

Ted Fjällman
CEO, Flerie

Thank you.

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