Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG Conference Call regarding the financial results for the first quarter 2022. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Carsten Lind, CEO of FP Group. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the presentation of our financial results for the first quarter, 2022. I'm Carsten Lind, the CEO of Francotyp, and I'm here with Martin Geisel, our CFO of Francotyp. Good morning, everyone. Before we dig in, let me say that the presentation today will follow the same structure as last time. We will look at the reported figures. We offer also a normalized EBITDA, some comments on the next level on FUTURE@FP, and a few comments relating to the guidance at the end. In terms of the presentation, also important to note here that as you know, we've acquired Azolver a few months ago. Azolver will come in for the second quarter numbers. No numbers that you will be presented with now includes Azolver. There are a few references to Azolver as we go along, but no revenues, EBIT or something for Azolver. Let's start. This is where we stand after a year and a bit on driving the communicated FUTURE@FP program. If we look at our revenues, we came in at EUR 65.2 million versus EUR 51.5 million last year, which is a year-on-year 26.5% growth. At least we can say we continue the path from the second half of 2021. Every business unit, Mailing, Shipping & Office Solutions, Mail Services, and Digital Business Solutions, is contributing with growth. When we are looking at the EBITDA, we are up EUR 10.3 million from EUR 5.1 million. The margin is just under 16%, with 15.8% versus 10%. Last comment, earnings per share EUR 0.33 versus EUR 0.05 last year. In terms of the revenues, we have some non-recurring effects in there, especially for freesort, I will go a little bit more in detail with that later, but relating to extra volumes coming in in relation to special shipments due to Corona. We also have the rate change in the Mailing, Shipping & Office Solutions, which as such is actually a recurring item because every two or three years there are rate changes. In terms of comparing it on the next slide with making a comparison with Q1 2021, we need to take that out. A number of positive and negative impacts on the EBITDA. If we bridge down from the EUR 10.3 as reported, we take out the rate change, we take out some currency effects, since we have due to largely the dollar to euro effect, which, by the way, last year all the time was a bit negative, this quarter it came in positive. We also have backed out the M&A expenses relating to Azolver and other activities in the M&A field, which brings us to a normalized EBITDA of EUR 8.3 million and versus EUR 5.6 million. Year- over- year, as we can see on the right side here, around 50% increase. I think one interesting takeaway here, of course, is that the margin, both on the reported, as reported and on the normalized picture, the margin is improving. We have here both the effect of getting a contribution from the increased revenues, but also, of course, the spillover effects here based on the restructurings and cost-based adaptations that we did last year. Next slide. Looking at cash flows, we have an increase in the operating cash flow. We had here, at least as reported, a reduction in the free cash flows. A very important notion here is that we acquired Azolver based on our free cash flows. Normalized, the free cash flows would not be EUR 2 million versus EUR 4.5 million, but actually EUR 6.1 million versus EUR 4.5 million. An increase normalized both in the operating cash flow and in the free cash flow. As we continue to have focus on, we have reduced our net debt and, of course, kept our covenants for also this quarter. Mailing, Shipping and Office Solutions, 15%, almost 16% up versus 2021. As said, basically good developments in the sales of equipment, consumables, but also products falling under the Office Solutions, as we also mentioned in the 2021 call, air purifiers and other products that we are experimenting with in terms of finding a broader palette of both hardware and software products to sell into the install base and new customers. As mentioned, some positive effects here from the rate change, which was in Germany and also some positive currency effects on the revenues here of EUR 1.1 million, which links to the EUR 0.9 million on the prior slide on the normalized EBITDA. Without the special non-recurring items and doing a year-on-year comparison, we are in the 2.5%-3% growth rate. Digital Business Solutions, at least as we said in the beginning of 2021, the aim was to pick up some or most of the digital products, which we did. We have done some improvements to those. We have also changed the sales approach, and we are now having everywhere the similar methodology on really bringing in the voice of the customer and market. We have clear roadmaps in terms of where we want to go with the products, and we at least are now continuing where we left in 2021 in terms of going from the beginning of 2021 was basically no growth. During 2021, we saw some growth, and now we have a higher growth in 2022 compared to 2021. Important here is that the approach of engaging with customers and market is now much more based on learning going forward, so not burning a lot of cash developing a product and then looking for a customer. That was a bit the issue of the past. Now we have a lot of focus on validating the business models before we go in with big investments and unlike in the past where ambitious business plans were on the table without a business model, now we work hard on making it the other way around. Outside of the products that we have mentioned here, like FP Sign, De-Mail, the Output management, and also a bit Parcel Shipping, we are working on other products where we are still in search of a business model. We are driving that forward with the aim of later to bring more products onto the growth track, similar to the ones that we are looking at here. Mail Services also growth, quite some growth versus last year. As said, some of it or a big portion of it is actually considered to be non-recurring. It relates to special shipments, special situations, and customers that were not able to operate their mail rooms due to Corona and so on and so forth that brought more volumes to freesort. However, also, a net increase in the customer base in terms of winning some new customers over at the end of last year also is contributing. It's not all the growth here that are non-recurring. Some of it is recurring. Of course, with a business model as freesort, which typically would be modeled as following the declining mail volumes year on year in the German market, normally you would not associate such growth rates with such a business model. Even taking out the recurring, we are still having quite some growth in this business area. Basically, we are through what we could call the first phase of the FUTURE@FP program that we introduced about a year ago with a number of programs. You could say the headlines are more or less the same. We have this year and also next year still quite focused on from program left to right from program one to two adaptations in the cost base. Originally, we looked at FP as on a standalone basis, now with the Azolver included, and we have, of course, some improvements to be made out of the post-merger integration program that we are driving, and it seems to be going quite well. On the second program, we started out with the headline of a new operating model. I would say now that we basically have the operating model in terms of the business, the three business units, our nearshore center. We have worked on target operating models for different functions in the group headquarters. Now, of course, with the acquisition of Azolver, we are focusing now on getting the parts of Azolver that belongs to the Digital Business Solutions in and working there, the parts that relate to the Mailing, Shipping and Office Solutions. That is largely setting up the supply chain short term so that we can start selling and replacing Pitney products with FP products in all the Azolver countries. Our own initiative initiated last year on establishing a service and technology center in the Baltics, in Tallinn, basically now have been replaced with the existing nearshore technology center from Azolver. We have put, let's say, our project there in the hands of Azolver since they already did at least once what we tried to do for the first time. That is very helpful. ERP, CRM, instrumental core and key project. We are driving it. We are moving into the late stage of this. Quite some work still to be done. Programs four and five, as announced, there we have the situation that the so-called, we coined it digital business foundations in terms of for the products where it's possible to do low touch, no touch onboarding of customers. We have found there the solution, the blueprint that we want to use. We have right now FP Sign in there, and it's picking up. It seems to be going well. The learnings there we will apply to a number of other applications, for example, parcel shipping, and others. In the last set of programs, which is, of course, never ending since this is kind of the group or the Digital Business Solutions innovation, we continue driving the roadmaps that we already have established, for example, for FP Sign for Input/Output. At the bottom of this box five, there is again a reference to Azolver since the software as a service platform that we acquired, that we got in through that acquisition, delivering a broad set of applications within asset tracking. We have some, let's say, positive perspectives on how this is going to develop. We do expect that before the end of this year, we will see deals coming out of that piece of software that none of the two companies, Azolver and FP, could have achieved on a stand-alone basis. This is one of the areas where we expect to get some revenue synergies, more, it takes some time, but we expect to get some revenue synergies out of that. Basically here, a significant piece of work to do. We are done with the first phase. Now, we are at the next level, and there is much more work and improvement in front of us than what we have done so far. In terms of the guidance, obviously, the numbers we have presented can be considered as a jump start. We see, of course, like any other business, some uncertainties in terms of where the economies are going, the European ones and the U.S. ones. We have FUTURE@FP as a real piece of work, as I described before, and also real investments in terms of we will have more investments per quarter than the first quarter for the rest of the year in terms of ERP, CRM. We will also increase the spending on product development and also the post-merger integration at Azolver comes at real efforts and real costs. What we take back from the businesses and having reviewed those and looking at the current performance, the non-recurring, and also adding Azolver for three quarters out of four for this year, we at this point in time stick to our guidance although pointing to the upper end of the guidance at this point in time. That was basically the words from our side, and we are happy to take some questions should there be any. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your telephone keypad. In case you wish to withdraw your question, please press nine and star again. Please press nine and star to register for a question. First up is Peter Rothenaicher from Baader Bank. The floor is yours. Yes. Hello, gentlemen. Firstly, congratulations on the really great results for the first quarter, and also thank you for the transparency with the one-off effects. This is really very helpful. I would start firstly with the core businesses, franking machines. Can you a little bit comment on the market situation and what do you currently already see from the U.S. market with the need to replace your old equipment, and what are your hopes for the future in this business? If we start with the U.S., the first quarter we were, lets say having the, we have in the U.S. a special market situation of the decommission of 700,000 franking machines before the end of 2024. That is something that we have all the time viewed as an opportunity to get over some customers from the competition onto our machines, especially in the smaller segments. That is still our view, and that is also an integral part of the numbers that we have presented, that it's in our guidance that we will increase the installed base in the U.S. from the start of the year. We have been, let's say, on plan on our dealer channel go-to-market a little bit short in the direct sales since we, let's say, struggled for a while to fill the seats with the sales reps that we need in terms of driving the growth. This has been improving over the last six, eight weeks. Overall, our, let's say, our story and our ambition with the U.S. market is intact. For Europe, 2021 and let's say still some effects coming from that was included a number of, let's say, turnarounds across some countries. We have done that, and we see that they are now performing better, even some of them having during Q1 the highest sales month ever. With the Azolver acquisition, we will start replacing shortly Pitney gear with Francotyp machines. Basically, those effects with an assumed year-on-year growth for the franking machine side, these assumptions are already reflected in our guidance. They are, let's say, at least as per Q1 confirmed, because without the non-recurring effects, we still have 2.5%-3% organic growth in a difficult market, I think, but that is where we stand. Okay. A problem more or less every machinery company or industrial company has is the current situation regarding supply chains and in particular cost increases. Can you comment on this? How is this affecting your business and your profitability, and how do you react on this? Are you increasing prices? Yeah, what is the situation here? For the machine, I think we talked about that also with 2021, that we had, like many other companies using chips or CPUs, we had there some outrageous price increases, and we needed to acquire to make sure that we can deliver the assumed volumes we acquired at a high expense, like EUR 1.5 million or something, above the normal level. These numbers are already. This increase, which we, well, at least hope is non-recurring, we already have in the numbers for 2022. With acquiring the amount of components with it and in parallel, looking for new solutions that are much cheaper. We consider ourselves at this point in time to be good, at least until the end of 2023 on chips. Then we have, let's say, regular, we are reviewing the total base of that we are procuring of components. Here and there are some increases, but we have not in other components found, let's say, dramatic increases. It has been largely the computer chips that was driving up cost. In terms of your question, how much of the inflation, and by the way, how long time will the inflation stay at this level? How much can we pass on? We have in our revenues a certain assumption on adjustment for the pricing. We need, of course, to be careful since it is a competitive market. This is something that we are reviewing all the time. Can we also come up with bundles that might make some opportunity for increasing prices by having a bit less transparency for the customers of actually delivering price increases? Also, adding the software components for more value add around the franking machine to drive extra revenues is also, if not a weapon, then at least some lever or stealth harbor for doing some increases on the pricing. Okay. You mentioned your investment into ERP and CRM. Can you give us an amount, what investment do you expect in total for 2022 for this? We think we will spend around this year. How much? EUR 5 million. EUR 5 million. For 2022. Okay. When will it be finalized? In 2023 or? Well, the idea was to finalize it in 2022. Okay. That is still the idea. We also want to say that it should be much more than an idea because we need to get this job done. As we see from the FUTURE@FP, it is a bit like an octopus or a calamari. It has connections to a number of the other value-driving programs that we have identified. It is important that we get this done. It is a real mouthful and no excuse, et cetera. The Corona situation and the not really strong ability to bring people into the same room on a frequent basis, et cetera, that has been also a challenge. A good learning, by the way, because this project has, from the beginning, been running 99% virtual, which is, well, a challenge and not normal for such type of a project. You had already a strong free cash flow in the first quarter, considering the acquisition. What is your target here for the full year 2022? Well, it's actually not a number that we are reporting and we are not putting it into the guidance. I would be reluctant to give out a number, but I can say it's going to be better than last year. Okay. The last point, Digital Business was now growing in the first quarter, but is it fair to assume that EBITDA is still negative in this business area? It is a fair assumption in the light of the need for not just a lot of work but also further investments and we are, let's say, very conservative on the capitalization of those projects. Without and continuing down this path, there is more work before we get a real contribution from this area. We have it in sight and we see it coming. Okay. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Roland Könen from Value-Holdings. Over to you. Yes. Good morning from my side. Thanks for taking my questions. First of all, also congrats to the Q1 figures, even if we discount the positive one-off effects. They're really good numbers. First question is on your Azolver acquisition. In the press release of the acquisition, you were talking about a sales of EUR 30 million and an EBITDA of roughly EUR 4 million. Now you're guiding for 2022 more or less neutral effect. Is this have we to think about roughly EUR 4 million integration costs in this year or were the 2021 figures a very good year or could you remind us of a normal contribution of Azolver in the next years? There were in let's say if we look at the normalized EBITDA for Azolver 2021, it was a bit lower. We also have a lower number in our merger case. In terms of the revenues, we have revenues in for nine months. In terms of having a neutral outlook for let's say the EBITDA contribution this year, there are two components. One is that we obviously have a restructuring case that we are looking at that costs money. In terms of picking up also the Azolver digital products, which, let's say we want to put onto the same path that we have used for bringing onto a growth trajectory FP Sign and other products Input/Output, that also cost some money. That is why we have modeled it with a neutral effect this year. In the next year we some positive contribution from this acquisition. Yes. Of course we have there a very different outlook for what this should look like for 2023. We need to get the job done before we can harvest the results. Of course. Thanks a lot for this. One question on this. If we look at the depreciation and amortization, we saw some little increase in the first quarter with the Azolver acquisition. What would be the run rate for the next quarters in depreciation and amortization? I think we should call. I mean, it's not a number I have on top of my mind to say it as it is, but, we are happy to give, to communicate it back, take a note on it and communicate it back. Okay, great. Next question would be also more or less housekeeping question on the tax rate. It was very low with 50% and 60% in the first quarter. What would be the best guess for the full year and going forward? Well, the rate was low due to some tax losses in Germany. Hence it is a bit, let's say, not normal in terms of what you would expect of a tax percent. For the full year it's 30%, normalized tax rate? Yeah. We expect that. Okay. My last question, also more or less a housekeeping question. Could you remind me of the character of the telepostage of EUR 28 million in the other financial liabilities? When you're calculating your net debt, you're deducting the postage you're holding in the cash. But you don't calculate the liabilities on the postage. Could you remind me of this character? How we have to think about this position in the balance sheet? I think again, it's a good question, and I think it's better to take a note on this and we can kind of drive this out in two dimensions. What is really, let's say, the bank debt, et cetera, which we consider the normal debt and what are, let's say, how to consider or how to view the situation with the postage, et cetera, et cetera. We are happy to outline how this should be looked at, but I think it calls for a few more steps and details and a couple of notes that would be better to do offline than in this call, if that's. Happy to answer your question, but rather do it after the call. No, it's fair enough. Thanks a lot for this. Yes, that's one more question. Thanks a lot and all the best. Thank you. There are no further questions. All right. From our side, thank you for spending the time with us today. Yeah, we are always looking forward to coming back at a later point in time this year. Now we have to get more work done, and we will, and we speak again in September.