Sensys Gatso Group AB (publ) (STO:SGG)
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Earnings Call: Q4 2022

Feb 23, 2023

Operator

Welcome to the Sensys Gatso Q4 presentation for 2022. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing star five on their telephone keypad. I will hand the conference over to CEO Ivo Mönnink and CFO Simon Mulder. Please go ahead.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Sensys Gatso presentation of the fourth quarter and year-end of 2022. My name is Ivo Mönnink. I'm the CEO of Sensys Gatso. I will be presenting today our Q4 and year-end 2022 results together with Simon Mulder, our CFO. In this market presentation, we will provide you with an update on our business for the fourth quarter and full year 2022. We follow up with a financial update by Simon. Finally, I will finish this presentation with a summary and our outlook. Let's now look at an update of our business.

In this business update, I will take you through our historic order intake of SEK 1 billion in Q4 and SEK 1.5 billion for the full year 2022, the strategic TRaaS sales, which is up by 28% this quarter, our U.S.A. TRaaS sales up by 21% this quarter, the recently started Tasmania TRaaS project in Australia, new projects in the LATAM region, an update on our new project in Ghana, and finally, our strong and improving gross margin. Now, let's first look at our order intake for the quarter. 2022 has been a year in which our customers have clearly shown their appreciation of our traffic enforcement solutions by placing large orders in Europe, Australia, and the U.S.A. The order intake in Q4 arrived at a historic SEK 1 billion, up by more than 450% compared to last year.

One large long-term contract is the main driver of the large order intake, the Swedish Trafikverket project of SEK 850 million. This has been added in full to the order intake in Q4. Of this 12-year contract, 50% is recurring TRaaS business. Next to this large order, we booked two TRaaS orders from Australia for a total value of SEK 47 million, and additionally, two TRaaS orders were booked from the U.S.A. for a total value of SEK 128 million. Altogether, the total TRaaS part of the order intake this quarter is SEK 600 million or 56% of the total order intake. For the full year 2022, the order intake arrived at nearly SEK 1.5 billion. This is three times higher than 2021 and by far the highest order intake in the 65-year history of Sensys Gatso.

More importantly, 58% of the order intake in 2022 is recurring TRaaS revenue, clearly showing we are executing on our strategy to grow our TRaaS business. Our net sales in the quarter amounted to SEK 161 million, which is 6% lower than last year's sales of SEK 173 million. While total sales for 2022 came in 2% lower than previous year at SEK 495 million, our strategic focus on traffic enforcement as a service, or TRaaS as we call it, resulted in a significant increase in recurring revenue streams. In fact, our TRaaS sales arrived at SEK 93 million for the quarter, up by 28% from previous year. For the full year, our TRaaS sales were SEK 312 million, which is 26% higher than in 2021.

As a result of this focus, our share of TRaaS sales is now 63% of total sales compared to 49% in 2021. This clearly demonstrates that our strategy to focus on TRaaS recurring revenue streams is paying off. We grew our US TRaaS Managed Services business by 21% from $39 million-$47 million in the quarter. For the full year 2022, the growth was $36 million from $129 million-$176 million. This recurring revenue level provides our US organization with a solid baseline to build further on. With new US leadership and a new strategic plan in execution, our future looks promising in this large and strategic market for Sensys Gatso. In May 2022, Sensys Gatso received a three year $70 million contract from the Tasmania Police for an automated traffic enforcement program.

Our solution provides for Sensys Gatso sensor technology deployed in vehicles and trailers operated by our highly trained staff. Next to this, we provide a hosted detection system based on our PULS and Xilium software tailored to the specific needs of our customer. The enforcement by our customer using our solutions has successfully been implemented. It contributed in Q4 to the TRaaS Managed Services revenue to the amount of SEK 9 million, in line with our expectations. This successful implementation is a promising development of our TRaaS Managed Services business model outside of the United States. The momentum we have in the LATAM region continues. In this region, our strong Sensys Gatso brand name and global delivery experience carry significant value for our customers. In Uruguay, we have secured a part of the national tender through our local partner.

Due to our ability to deliver a fast solution, we could deliver the full order of SEK 9 million in the fourth quarter. Since 2021, we have been engaging with a strong local partner in Ecuador, resulting in three new projects that have been delivered in the fourth quarter of this year for a total value of SEK 25 million. Costa Rica continues to be an uncertain situation due to the government budget. We continue to work with municipalities to start our business in Costa Rica with local projects. The other large deal this quarter came from Ghana, where our 40% joint venture closed a SEK 800 million contract offer after several years of discussions and negotiations with our customer, the Ghana Government. Sensys Gatso's purpose is to save lives by changing the behavior of drivers in traffic all around the world.

From our 65 years of global experience in traffic enforcement, we know that the single most important contributor to fatalities and injuries in traffic is speed. Speed kills, as we say. Especially in countries where many different traffic participants use the same roads, the numbers can be astronomical. A clear example of such a situation is Ghana, where in 2021, nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in traffic, and unfortunately, this number is still increasing. Next to the fatalities, nearly 16,000 people were injured in the same period. This not only poses incredible social and emotional distress, it also causes significant cost to the Ghanaian society, 1.6% of their gross domestic product annually. Not surprisingly, the Ghana government has made traffic safety a spear point of their political program for the coming years.

We are very proud that Sensys Gatso, through its 40% share in our joint venture Nationwide, can contribute to this by introducing a full TRaaS program in Ghana. In this program, we will design, build, finance, operate, and maintain a national road safety program during the upcoming 11 years. The value of the contract is SEK 800 million, of which Sensys Gatso has a 40% profit share. We expect the program to contribute to our revenues in the second half of 2024, predominantly with sales of equipment and license fees for the use of Sensys Gatso software platform. The gross margin for the quarter was strong at 49%. This is 7 percentage points higher than last year at 42%. The increase in gross margin is caused by more TRaaS revenue with a typically higher margin and improved System Sales margins in this quarter.

For the full year 2022, the margin improved with 5 percentage points from 41%-46%. On a rolling 12 months basis, the gross margin improved by 2 percentage points from 43% in Q3 to 45% in Q4. Clearly, I'm very happy with this margin development of the company. On that note, I hand over to Simon for our financial update.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Okay. Thanks, Ivo. As usual, I will take you through the consolidated income statement, the performance of our segments, and finally, our financial position. Looking at the consolidated income statement, we focus on sales, margins, and profitability. The sales for the quarter and for the full year came in SEK 12 million lower than last year. Both from a quarter perspective and a full year perspective, the sales in 2022 has an improved sales mix. The year 2022 has seen significant growth in TRaaS sales compared to 2021, with 28% more sales in the quarter and 26% more sales growth for the year 2022. Due to the favorable sales mix, we have seen the growth margin improve to 48% in the quarter and 45% for the year.

Profitability in the quarter was good with a 40% EBIT margin due to higher sales volume and margins. From a full year perspective, the EBIT margin came in at 6% compared to 9% last year. Due to investments in mainly U.S. sales and software development staff, as well as temporary increased cost due to ERP implementation, the expenses are higher compared to last year. These investments are to support the growth of the company going forward by creating more demand in the market, optimizing software platforms, and increasing integration and global collaboration due to the introduction of a new ERP software for all Sensys Gatso companies. With this, the profit for the quarter landed at SEK 10 million and at SEK 20 million for the full year 2022. We have concluded the year with a strong Managed Services performance.

On this slide, I will talk about order intake, sales, and EBITDA profitability. During the quarter, we received SEK 128 million in orders, securing our market share in Rhode Island. New orders have been won to support growth of our sales in 2023 and beyond. For the full year, the segment has increased order intake to SEK 298 million total contract value. This order intake is both from extensions of existing contracts as well as new orders. Sales for the segment have improved in the quarter to SEK 45 million. The increase is caused by new programs coming online, but also due to a favorable currency impact. For the full year, sales ended at SEK 175 million, an increase of 35%.

Since the third quarter of this year, the segment has been investing in mainly sales staff to support the growth plan in the U.S.A. With the data-driven sales approach and approximately 14,000 cities to target with our full TRaaS solution, the sales team was in need of expansion. This has had an impact on our profitability in the quarter and aims at contributing to higher sales in the future. EBITDA profitability for the quarter was SEK 7 million compared to SEK 13 million for the same quarter last year. From a full year perspective, the segment has improved to SEK 33 million compared to SEK 27 million for 2021. Moving to the segment System Sales, starting with the order intake. The order intake in the quarter was very good, with the order of Trafikverket to the amount of SEK 850 million.

The order is divided into 50% delivery of enforcement systems and 50% of maintenance over the contract period. The segments have historically been created with specific entities that focus either on System Sales or Managed Services. It is the company's strategy to grow trust, revenue and in particular, Managed Services revenue. With the Tasmania Police project, Sensys Gatso Australia, a System Sales company, has secured a Managed Services project. The sales of this project and the EBITDA results have been accounted for in the segment System Sales. The sales for the quarter landed at SEK 115 million, including SEK 9 million in Managed Services sales related to the Tasmania Managed Services project. In the fourth quarter, the segment saw high sales in the LATAM region, with deliveries to Uruguay and Ecuador. Compared to Q4, 2021, the total sales was SEK 90 million lower.

This is mainly due to Saudi deliveries being pushed from Q4 and now expected to be delivered in the second half of 2023. With higher sales volume in Q4 compared to the previous three quarters, the segment has performed at a higher profitability level. EBITDA came in at SEK 26 million for the quarter, which is comparable to Q4, 2021, and SEK 14 million for the full year. Discussing the financial position of our company, I would like to focus on free available cash and interest-bearing debt as key metrics. The company's opening available cash position was SEK 101 million, consisting of SEK 72 million in cash at banks and SEK 29 million in remaining credit facilities. The relative low opening available cash was due to high receivable positions on the Saudi project as well as high in-inventory positions.

During 2022, we've received significant customer payments from Saudi, and we have delivered out of stock to our customers. This has resulted in a positive impact on our cash to the amount of SEK 85 million. We've continued to invest in 2022 in our software platforms and fixed assets in operations to support our Managed Services business. For the first time, the company has invested in a Managed Services project in Australia, being the Tasmania Police project. Other investments in fixed assets and operations relate to expansion of our operational camera base in the US. In 2022, the company has satisfied its payment obligations to shareholders by making the final payment on the vendor loan to the amount of SEK 9 million, as well as making the payments on a bank loan and other financial agreements to the amount of SEK 14 million.

The cash position in various currencies has seen favorable impact from FX fluctuations during the year. This has had a positive impact on cash of SEK 2 million and SEK 9 million on working capital. The impact is reported as part of other movements in the cash flow. Adding the EBIT result of SEK 31 million for the year, the company's free available cash landed at SEK 171 million, of which SEK 100 million in cash and SEK 71 million in remaining credit facilities. Our adjusted net interest bearing debt remains positive at the end of the year at SEK 47 million, an improvement of SEK 68 million from negative SEK 21 million at the end of 2021. With our solvency at 76% and a net positive cash position, the company's financial position remains strong. Back to you, Ivo.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Thank you, Simon. With SEK 1.5 billion of order intake in 2022, this year has been the most successful year in the 65-year history of Sensys Gatso. Long-term contracts with governmental customers in our home market, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia secure our revenue for many years to come. I'm especially proud to see our strategic focus on the recurring TRaaS business paying off. Our full TRaaS business in the U.S.A has grown this year by more than 20%, and we added new TRaaS revenue in Australia during the year. Together with our TRaaS business growth, our gross margin is growing, contributing to our already strong financial position. We therefore retain our long-term plan to, by 2025, grow our net sales to more than SEK 1 billion of which TRaaS revenues is more than SEK 600 million.

We also retain our ambition to increase our EBITDA margin to more than 15% in 2025. On this final note, I would like to open up for questions.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue.

Operator

If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Jesper von Koch from Redeye. Please go ahead.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Good morning, guys, and congrats to the strong report.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Good morning, Jesper. Thank you.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Good morning. All right, first starting with, I was thinking about, last quarter, you talked a lot about additional potential from the Saudi customer. Could you give some update there about how discussions are going?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Oh, yeah, sure. There is actually three options we're looking into to deploy in the U.S. One is a fixed execution of what we call our T-Series product. The second one is a fixed execution of what we call our S-Series product, and the third one is a continuation of the deliveries of our Vehicle-in-Motion solution. We're working with the customer to, you know, deploy either one of these three or maybe even more than one of these three solutions going forward. As with all our customers, we're dealing with governmental customers. You know, it typically is not the fastest way of moving forward. It's also got to do with permitting, and it's got to do with all kinds of other technical aspects related to that.

On the other hand, we also know that once you have implemented a solution and it typically will be there for many years to come. I would say it's continuing, and we'll definitely update you and the stock market on how we develop this business going forward, the coming years.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Good. You've previously talked about that being of a significant value, even above the previous contract stack. Is that for any of these specific, like the T-Series or the S-Series models?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

I mean, that's too early to say to be too specific on that one because it's depending on what the customer will decide. What is important to mention is that once you have introduced a solution, for instance, in this case, the Vehicle-in-Motion, of which we delivered already 950 systems that are deployed on the roads in Saudi Arabia, naturally, you will see that these cars will need maintenance and corrections and so forth. There will be some sort of an SLA we expect going forward to support these systems in the long run. They last for a long time, but they need to be maintained. That is something I clearly see as a future revenue line, possible future revenue line for our business in Saudi.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Okay, good. Just about the cost base, you say that the ERP implementation implied some one-off costs during the quarter. How much was that approximately?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

You want to talk to that?

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. it's about the ERP implementation, I suppose, Jesper.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Yeah. Yeah.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Throughout 2022, we've done the most part of the implementation, and the cost in Q4 is approximately SEK 2 million in total.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Yeah.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

We're nearing the end of the implementation. In 2023, we're working on the last companies to bring onto the ERP platform.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Okay.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

To add to that, Jesper, most of the cost you see is actually increase in sales expenses in the United States. We've been adding resources there to provide for future growth in a market where we see.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Yeah.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Huge potential going forward, and it's also adding to software development. You know, as we're moving from a box company to a software company, it's very natural that we invest in our platforms and, also, you know, to answer the increasing demands from customers that want to see more and more features on our products. That in return then also opens up new business opportunities for us going forward. That's, I would say you should look at the investments in the cost structure.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

I see what you mean. great. just about the SEK 9 million for the Tasmania sales, is that all, like, a one-off project revenues, or is part of that already the Managed Services, being live?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. I mean, it's actually all Managed Services, and it's sitting in the System Sales segment because that's how we report. I understand that might be a little bit confusing, but this, what we're talking about is a three-year contract from Hart, it's like SEK 74 million, and we have realized SEK 9 million of that, but it's recurring revenue over a three-year period. Every year, seventy-four-

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Okay. Okay. This is like a pure Managed Services, but you've taken, like, a big, a bigger cut, like upfront. Would be like, as a normal distribution of the, of the revenues. Is that fair to say?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

No, no. No. This is SEK 74 million, which is gonna be equally distributed over three years. This is the first transfer of that. Yeah.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Okay. Good.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Good. perfect. I noticed some positive notes and discussions that you're having with Costa Rica and the government there. Could you just provide some more flavor there?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

I mean, the flavor is that we are having discussions at ministerial level. You can imagine that's not the easiest party to get appointments with and go forward with. It is on the agenda, we know it, but the, you know, the country itself is economically in distress and it is on the agenda, but maybe not on the first position, if you see what I mean. It has the attention of the government, and we are moving on this, but not, you know, to the speed at which we want to move it forward. We gotta be patient, and we will.

On the other hand, we are working with the municipalities to make sure that if we get traction on the Costa Rica traffic enforcement, hopefully also to demonstrate to the national government that if we implement local projects, they can see the benefits from it, and it moves up on the political agenda nationally as well.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Okay. Good. Like, regarding your momentum in Latin America, it seems like things are going pretty well now with the four new projects there. Could you just elaborate on, like, the establishment that you've made in the region and the discussions that you're having with the different countries?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Well, we have hired a regional director for the Latin American region, and he's doing an excellent job in traveling the region, establishing contacts, reinforcing contacts we already had with our partners there. We can see the results of that, basically. Ecuador, we have a strong partner there that is ramping up its business. They like our brand. The Sensys Gatso brand name in the region holds a really high value. They like our brand and pricing is good for us, so margins are good as well.

That's what we see happening in Uruguay, we see a very strong partner that has won a part of the national tender, and we've been selected as the technology provider for that. These are not, these are not Managed Services deals. These are System Sales deals, but nevertheless, they are very.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Mm-hmm

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

...good and promising inroads with the Sensys Gatso brand name into the region. Who knows what will follow from that.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Good. Yeah. I was just going into the... I mean, about the higher gross margin that you talked about within System Sales, if that referred to the larger System Sales segment or actual systems. I expect it to be the actual systems being sold in Latin America primarily.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

That's correct.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

That's correct. Good. Then, also if you could just, I mean, you said that you continue to hire and so on in the U.S.A. If you could provide some more color about the discussions that you're having with the municipalities and so on.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. Well, we have enlarged our sales force with people that are actually coming from the industry, and they have their connections, of course, at the city level. We clearly see that in the development of our pipeline, our sales pipeline for the region, I can't disclose where we are actually operating, you can understand.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Mm-hmm

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

...watch the mailbox, I would say. I mean, I think, it looks promising. If you have people that have a strong network, and come from the industry, then it's not unlikely that that will pay off.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Okay, good. sounds promising. Just one last for me about, just wondering, were there any sales recognized from Trafikverket this quarter, or will that come from Q1?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

No, not this quarter. It will come from Q1. I mean, that's a good comment because we were expecting the tender already to be finalized this year. Because of a special request from one of the participants, it got pushed out by three months. We are now gonna see the first revenues coming in in 2023. Just imagine if it would have been in 2022, the numbers would have been really good. They're already good, as we believe.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Yeah.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

They would have been astronomical. It tells you something also.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

I, I-

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Jesper, on how the business works, right? You're in a tender process. All of a sudden, one of the parties ask for whatever technical reason for a delay, and all of a sudden something moves out for, in this case, three months. That's the nature of our business.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

[crosstalk]

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

To be clear, Jesper, we do have sales of Trafikverket in the quarter, right? On the existing install base.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

On the existing

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Service and maintenance.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Yes. Yes. The service and maintenance.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Not built on the new projects, right? Not on the new project, no.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

For that, I mean, I've made my estimates on it, but, could you provide any color about like how much like additional quarterly revenue from System Sales you expect like the next one or two years?

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

We're a little bit reluctant here.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Yeah.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

That would be a little bit too much forward-looking. Sorry for that, Jesper.

Jesper von Koch
Equity Analyst, Redeye

Okay. No, no worries. I am very happy with all my answers. Thank you so much, and good luck on going forward.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Thank you very much, Jesper, for your questions.

Operator

Please state your name and company. Please go ahead.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Hello, this is Eirik Haavaldsen from Pareto Securities. Hi, guys.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Hello.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Hey, Simon.

Hi. Hi there. With EBITDA margin in the Managed Services in the Q4, it seems a little bit like a rebound. We came from a very strong period, then we have been a little bit declining trend. How would you view the EBITDA margin in terms of underlying profitability in Q4 in the Managed Services part?

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

It has improved in the fourth quarter, right?

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Yes.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah, no, of course. We keep on investing in our sales force, right? That has increased the cost. At the same time we see new programs coming online and we're better in leveraging those costs in the quarter. Also in the fourth quarter, you know, any onboarding costs for new programs have already been taken, right? Yeah, that increases the profitability. And in this segment-

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

It's very. Yeah, sorry. Yes, please.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. I was gonna say, in this segment, typically, the profitability on the short term in the quarter can be influenced by onboarding, new programs, right? In the quarter that we onboard a new program, we have onboarding costs at relatively low revenue and therefore, somewhat suppressed margin. In the period thereafter, that should recoup because the onboarding costs are gone, there's higher revenue, and we can leverage our other costs better.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Is it fair to assume that those onboarding costs were higher than normal in the third quarter of 2022? I'm just trying to understand what happened in Q2, Q3, and Q4 of last year.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. There's been, of course, some onboarding costs, but I think what happened in Q3 we started to onboard new salespeople, right? That's where you see the increase of cost for the first time. Now in Q4 you see a step up in revenue, and that compensates.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay, good. Excellent. Second question relates to the gross margin. It's fair to assume that in 2023 System Sales will have a larger share, given especially the order from Trafikverket and a few others. Is it fair to assume some gross margin dilution going into 2023, because higher System Sales?

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. The sales mix typically has influence on the gross margin. Yeah, of course, Managed Services is a higher gross margin. That could have impact. Yeah.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Right.

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

It also depends on what kind of System Sales we have in 2023.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Yeah, that's what I would say as well. I mean...

Simon Mulder
CFO, Sensys Gatso Group

Mm-hmm

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Q4, you see System Sales margins be high because of a few contracts with high margins in that. It's also depending on whether you are in a tender situation or not, which is affecting your pricing and therefore your margins. There's a lot of elements. On Traffic4UK, there is, you know, on the long run, we talk about a contract of 12 years, it's gonna be 50/50 between System Sales with that and Managed Services, right? Or trials revenue, I should say. That's also there. There is a balance between what margin will fall in what exact period. It's gonna... That has to do with the delivery timing and so forth.

I realize I'm overcomplicating it for you now a little bit, Orion. It is a little bit of a mix, and it's. It's hard to predict. I think the more important graph to look at is the one where we show the 12 months gross margin development. I think that's a real interesting graph because it really shows you how the gross margin has been improving, you know, year after year after year. Yes, we are investing in our structure to provide the growth opportunities in the future, namely investments in sales in the U.S. and investments in software in our software cost structure. That affects EBITDA in the short term. It.

I think it's the only way forward to further growth or continue on the growth path we're on already.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah, I understand. Is it fair to assume that the 50/50 split, I mean, that's overall contract. In the beginning, I assume that there is more System Sales and less Managed Services. Is that the correct assumption?

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Well, that's We will see because in the end, the customer decides how the rollout of the System Sales, the hardware, is gonna take place.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah, and meanwhile, you still need maintenance, right? It is to some extent I should, I would say yes, there will be more System Sales, but not like 90/10, right? I think we got to be a little bit careful there. We are also basically bound by what our customer requires. It's not that we are in the driving seat here, they are. They will drive the roll-out of the hardware, and the hardware initially will be replacement. There will be also additional systems in that contract. Going forward, the total installments will be higher than what we had before and therefore also the maintenance part to that will also increase.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay, great.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

time is time. System Sales revenue and the recurring maintenance part thereof is at this moment difficult to predict.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Understand. My fear that the gross margin will be heavily diluted in the beginning because of large amount equipment relative to services that is probably not a little bit over-exaggerated.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

I believe so, yes. Yeah.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay, thanks. Yeah. Another thing is the deal in Ghana. Just to understand, you know, how is that company structured? You own 40%, or you how much of the business? How will you account for that business, basically?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. The way we, it's a 40% joint venture with NTMEL, which is we call it Nationwide. That's the company that holds the contract, and we have a 40% share in that. We have control in the joint venture through the way the board of directors is organized. Because it's only 40%, we're not consolidating the revenue, and therefore, you also do not see it back in the order intake. The SEK 800 million is not in the order intake, just to be very clear.

We're investing, of course, to ramp up the business there, building an organization, you know, selling from our structure in the Netherlands, our equipment and from the software company, the licenses for the software, to the joint venture. We also have people which are on the payroll in our company that are gonna be transferred to the joint venture. That's also what's happening. We are sort of, aiming to be operational, in Ghana within 12 to 18 months to be realistic. Right? From there on, it will start driving revenue, and it ultimately we will have a 40% share of the profit coming out of the joint venture.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay. It will be, I guess it's a question for Simon, then it will be booked as associated income, I assume.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yes. At the bottom end of the profit and loss.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Maybe to add to this, because I do believe it's an enormously important project for us because you see the fatality and the injury levels in Ghana. I'm very hopeful that after, you know, being in that market with our solutions, say after five years, we will be able to demonstrate these fatality and injury levels coming down significantly, which I think is, you know, if you talk about the purpose of the company is a real big contribution to it. I think it will also help us in building our ESG positioning. Right?

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Thank you. Another question is the integrated question of financial net that is quite high negative values in Q4 . What's the reason for that, especially given that you are in a net cash position?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Sorry, negative values on what?

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

The financial net.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Um-

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Minus SEK 10 million in the quarter, despite you're in a net cash position.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

On the financial items, you mean?

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Yeah.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Exactly.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. It has to do with the how revenue has been recorded, at what exchange rate and how it comes in.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay. It's FX items, basically.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Yeah.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

In Q4,nib we've seen, I think currencies, compared to Swedish krona or compared to euro, sort of stabilizing, or going back to a little bit normal again. Q1, Q2, Q3 have been extremely high.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay. It's a reversal of.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

of the previous nine months. Is that right?

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah. Unrealized gain.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Yeah.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Okay. Okay. Just, I think that was my questions. Thank you very much.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

Thank you.

Eirik Haavaldsen
Head of Equity Research, Pareto Securities

Thank you.

Operator

There are no more questions from the telephones at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers.

Ivo Mönnink
CEO, Sensys Gatso Group

All right. With no more questions, I really want to thank you for attending this broadcast, and hope to see you next time again.

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