All right, so let's start. Good morning, everyone, and I hope you had a good morning so far, and welcome to the presentation of the interim report for Awardit, first quarter, 2024. This presentation will be recorded and published on our website after this call. If you have any questions, please put them in the chat, and I will answer them orderly, in an orderly fashion, after the presentation. Let's begin. Let's see here. My name is Erik Grohman. I'm the CEO of Awardit, and I joined Awardit in March, 2022. Awardit, as most of you know, is the market leader in the Nordics, with a strong footprint in German-speaking markets of Europe within two business segments: loyalty and gift card solutions. And within these, we cater for all client needs. We have a full house of service within these two business areas. We develop and work together with clients to bring out solutions to the market. We work with conceptualization, strategy around loyalty solutions and gift cards, design and UX. We cater for SaaS-based platforms, we provide partnership models to our clients, we provide loyalty marketplaces, and shop solutions, and customer support, logistics solutions, et cetera. So in principle, whatever a client needs in gift card solutions and loyalty solutions, we can provide this. The company was founded in 1999. We have made 12 acquisitions since our IPO, 6.5 years ago, to put us in this position where we are a one-stop shop provider of gift card and loyalty solutions. Today, we have offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Wels in Austria, and Weingarten in Germany. Our vision is to become the leader in the industry on a European level. On this journey, o ur mission is to help customers to improve customer satisfaction, retention, and sales. We have developed our SaaS toolbox that covers all parts of the value chain for loyalty, incentive, and gift card programs. Today, we run and support more than 250 programs in the Nordics, reaching more than 15 million end users, and we have a very wide reach also in DACH, the German-speaking markets of Europe. Over time, we have seen strong organic growth, a highly scalable business model, and increased profitability over time. And as I mentioned, we have a track record of 12 completed acquisitions since our IPO, and we see the European market remaining fragmented, which gives us the potential to consolidate the European market further. And if you look at our timeline of the business, these are our 12 acquisitions across the gift card and loyalty segments, and notably, the last three acquisitions that we have made, from December 2021 of Prämie Direkt, moving on with Connex in February 2023, and IPO in November last year. All the last three acquisitions are in DACH and the German-speaking markets of Europe, in Germany and Austria. Twelve acquisitions, nine in Nordics, and the latest three in DACH. If you look at our last years, we are on a growth path, obviously due to organic growth and acquisitions. Last year, we delivered 1.1 billion SEK in revenues for the full year, and we delivered an EBITDA of 76 million SEK for the full year. Here we had a negative effect on the EBITDA last year, by primarily MBXP audits and movements in our fully owned subsidiary, MBXP, in Denmark. Also, so in total, we had non-recurring events of around 20 million SEK in 2023. Obviously, you can read more about those details in the annual report. And if you look on the right-hand side here, that shows that the core business of Awardit, which is the business of Awardit, excluding the acquisitions made in 2021 to 2023, which is Inspiration Company, MBXP, Prämie Direkt, Connex, and IPO. This core business continues still to grow, and last year, we had a growth of 9% in this core business. And if you adjust for seldom occurring sales that we had in 2022, the growth was 13% in 2023 on the core business. And this comes from existing clients that continue to grow with us, despite the challenging market. It comes from adding new clients to our existing platform, platforms, and also from some extraordinary events that could in some cases trigger additional sales. So moving on to this year and to the first quarter, we see a growth in revenue in both loyalty and gift cards for the quarter. For the loyalty business, we had a net revenue growth of 35%. However, the organic growth of loyalty business area was 0%. Same numbers basically in terms of revenues as last year. This is due to we have seen a strong development of the Nordics, where we even though the market is a tough one, our clients somewhat face difficult market circumstances, we continue to grow in the market. Obviously, we believe we could see even stronger growth in the Nordic market with other market circumstances. But in Q1, we continued to grow in the Nordic market, in the loyalty segment. However, the DACH market remained challenging in the first quarter, and both Connex and Prämie Direkt showed negative organic growth for the quarter, which makes the total organic growth zero. Here, in the quarter, Connex adds SEK 9.5 million of non-organic, so non-comparable, revenues for January, as we acquired Connex in February last year. IPO, our latest acquisition, adds SEK 49 million to the quarterly revenue of the loyalty business area, as it was not part of Q1 last year. If we look at the gift card business area, we had a growth of 9% in the quarter. And here, the organic growth is negative by 2.2%. So we are adding here Connex for January, which is adding 6.4 million SEK of growth, which is non-comparable to last year. Again, because we acquired Connex first of February last year. Here, in the gift card business area, we see an organic growth from new customers within our Swedish gift card business. We see a year-on-year net revenue growth at MBXP, which is very positive to us. However, also in the gift card business area, Connex shows negative organic growth for the quarter for the two months of February and March. This is mainly both for the Connex loyalty business and the Connex gift card business. The reason for a slower first quarter is mainly because a slowdown in our campaigns-based business. And here we have campaign business in both Connex and Prämie Direkt on the loyalty side, but also on the gift card side. We are running campaigns with large clients, where we see that part of these campaigns have been delayed and pushed, and we see that we have not had the number of campaigns that we ran last year in the first quarter. So a decline, and we see that we will have the potential, obviously, to deliver better revenues comparably to last year in the coming quarters, but might not recoup all of the campaigns that have been postponed from Q1. So moving on to the total revenues. In the quarter, we delivered SEK 286 million of revenues for the group, and it's a 29% increase. So again, it's a slight negative organic growth, but adding Connex and IPO, which contributes on a total level 64.9 of non-organic net revenue, brings us to the 29% growth in revenues on a total level for the group. And here, as I mentioned, we see an organic growth also in the Nordic business, but a decline in DACH, and therefore, a slightly negative organic growth on a total level. And also the SuperGift net revenues included in the total revenues are at par with last year's numbers, so roughly SEK 26 million of sales in SuperGift, which is a good number. We were rather happy with that last year, and we believe we have the potential to continue the success of SuperGift also this year. On the EBITDA level, we saw a growth of 25% of EBITDA compared to last year, delivering SEK 8.9 million in the first quarter, compared to SEK 7.1 million last year. And if we adjust the EBITDA for the costs that we have incurred related to the public bid, which is SEK 4.9 million, the adjusted EBITDA is SEK 13.8 million, and that can be compared to SEK 11.5 million last year, adjusted for the acquisition costs of Connex. The costs incurred from the public bid comes from legal and financial advisory fees, and it's customary that these fees, while evaluating a public bid, lie on the company side. Obviously, there are also costs on the bidder side that we are not taking as a company... And it's worth mentioning that in the EBITDA numbers, we have a non-organic contribution from Connex in January. Again, to compare apples and apples, where Connex delivered negative 0.2 million SEK for January, and IPO delivered 5.5 positive million SEK for the quarter. So the organic EBITDA comparable to last year's Q1 is 3.6 million SEK. And in those also is included 1.5 million SEK of breakage from SuperGift. The SuperGift breakage has increased due to higher sales, basically last year. As you know, breakage is unredeemed values with SuperGift. Moving on, if we look at the core business again for the first quarter, it continues to stand strong. We continue to see stability in the core business. We have in the quarter delivered 8.5% growth in the first quarter, delivering SEK 119 million from the business, excluding inspiration company, MBXP, Prämie Direkt, Connex, and IPO. In the new business, so everything else that we add on here shown in blue, we have also again non-organic addition from Connex, SEK 16 million for the quarter, and IPO, SEK 49 million for the quarter, which is then non-organic. The gross margin remains stable and somewhat growing. We have a contribution, a positive contribution, comparably to last year from Connex, as they are part of the full quarter this year. Also, Prämie Direkt, even though they show slower net revenue compared to last year, the gross margin is strengthened year on year and contributes positively to the gross margin on a group level. So the gross margin moves from last year's 32.0 on the group level, to 32.7 this year. Also, affecting gross margin, as always, is SuperGift sales and channel mix affecting the gross margin of primarily Awardit CLS, where SuperGift sales is recognized. Looking at the P&L for the quarter, to summarize, the net revenue, SEK 286 million, compared to SEK 222 million last year. The cost of commodities increasing due to primarily higher turnover, the product mix, et cetera. And as I mentioned, gross margin is slightly higher than last year. The other external expenses increase by SEK 8.1 million in the quarter compared to last year. And here, most of this is related to the addition of Connex and IPO for the full quarter. And also, we have costs again related to the public offer of SEK 4.9 million included here. That compares to 4.1, 4.4, sorry, SEK 4.4 million in Q1 last year, related to the acquisition of Connex. The increase in personnel expenses are related primarily to the addition of IPO and Connex, which brings us then to the EBITDA of SEK 8.9 million, compared to last year's SEK 7.1 million. Moving on to the cash flow, as some might remember, we had a negative cash flow from operating business in the fourth quarter of last year, and that has now been caught up in the first quarter, which we also indicated would happen after the fourth quarter. We had a positive cash movement from the operating business of SEK 27.1 million for the first quarter. Within the investing activities, the lion's share of the difference between opening balance and closing balance for the quarter is that we have invested in short-term financial assets of roughly SEK 49 million. And also, in terms of financing activities, we have closed a term loan of SEK 90 million within our existing revolving credit facility. And this is to balance our cash position in a better way than when we entered into the quarter. So, comparably, if you want to look at a comparable cash and cash-like position in the end of the year, we can take the SEK 170.2 million and add the SEK 90 million that we have paid back and the SEK 48.7 million that we have placed in short-term assets, which makes the comparable cash position around SEK 309 million. So to summarize, we see continued organic growth of our core business, and that lays the foundation for higher, higher revenues and improved results this year and beyond. I believe we have a strong position in DACH through the three acquisitions that we have made, and we have the potential to grow in the region, getting these three in place to combine in a very strong way, and also benefiting from synergies of scale that we also already can see in the profitability levels that we can deliver from IPO in the first quarter. We are realizing procurement savings. We are realizing cost savings that we have identified across the group of around 15-20 million SEK, that we have talked about last year. And then would like to point out that partly these cost savings are balanced by other investments, and partly also balanced by, by inflation driving costs up in part of the business. We see a continued potential to launch SuperGift, and we have launched SuperGift in DACH through the Connex sales channels. We also have other products and other brands that we could launch in additional variants and in new markets, such as our very successful Hotelbox product at Connex. We do still have a steady flow of new customers. We have added customers in the first quarter, primarily in the gift cards business area, but also in the campaign-based loyalty business. And we have a continued strong pipeline of new prospective customers that we are in dialogue with. We also have additional value-creating acquisitions that we have identified. We have a strong position of cash and cash-like items, which provide a buying power, and we believe that we can continue to consolidate the European market. We believe there are opportunities also still in the Nordics and in the DACH region as well. Also, I want to bring up that we have completed the internal audit of MBXP, and that the business is on track to be back to a profitability on a full year level this year. Our vision remains to become the leader on the European market for full-scale loyalty and gift card solutions. So with that, I will open up for questions in the chat, and I will try to pick them in order here. Let me see. First one, non-verified. "The cost of SEK 4.9 million related to the bid in Q1 as comparison to the EBITDA of SEK 8.9 million, what cost services did we buy externally that amount to SEK 4.9 million?" Well, the, that cost comes from legal and advisory fees and the fairness opinion, delivered in relation to the bid. So, that's where these costs come from, and we have taken the costs as they have appeared in the books. So, and, I mean, there might be continued costs in relation to the process, depending on where the process ends up, basically. So, but we have not seen the last cost in this process on the company side. I suppose the SEK 4.9 million was spent after March 25th, correct? If it was spent before, twenty-fifth, why did the shareholders not know of the bid before?" So, I mean, we, the costs incurred in relation to, as an example, of the fairness opinion is, occurring before the bid is made public. So the cost. I mean, first there is a, an offer. The board needs to, look at the offer to take, make a fairness opinion on the offer before coming out with any kind of recommendation and before there is a, an offer that is made public, so therefore, costs can incur before. What more costs related to the public offer could affect the company going forward?" So, partly, and I, I believe that most of these sort of, legal fees, are taken and fairness opinion, fees has been, taken already, but there are potential additional financial and legal advisory fees, and potential, potentially fees such as delisting costs, depending, again, on where the process, ends up and what happens with the bid. But this is not, I mean, it's a bit premature, of course, to comment on what would happen with the bid as the acceptance period is not, ended yet. All right. So, "Sorry, Erik, but we need more color on this topic than the answer already given. The cost related to the external bid of almost SEK 5 million looks fraudulent and shady. How can you, as a CEO, accept 50% of the quarterly EBITDA in external bid costs for a fairness opinion? We need detailed step-by-step comments and split of this cost. I cannot provide that in this call. I mean, in my view, the process has been fair, and we have followed a process. As you know, Marlon, I am not part of any consortium. I'm not part of the bid. I work for all shareholders. I believe that we have taken the steps as a company necessary to evaluate the bid, and the working has been directed by the independent bid committee, led by Peter Borsos of the board. So that is not me that has led that. Obviously, the cost is rather high. I agree, and it's the legal fees, the financial advisory fees, and fairness opinion fees that all come together for the SEK 4.9 million that we have taken as part of this process. What date did the board get the information of the bid? The bid was made official March 25. So I don't have any other information to share around the process about around the bid than has been shared publicly already by the board and by the bid consortium. So I believe all information that I can share around the process of the bid is publicly available as we speak. So I have no further comments than or rather than other than that. So obviously, if you read through everything publicly available, if you still have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly during the day or afterwards, but I don't have any other comments related to the process than that. Next question. How to understand that you still have the SEK 80 million credit facility loan for IPO, given that you have a cash position of SEK 170 million and net receivables of SEK 165 million? Is the credit loan also with Nordea? Yes, it's with Nordea, within the revolving credit facility, and there is no specific loan for IPO. This is what we have taken out in total from the revolving credit facility. The loan for IPO was repaid in January. Right. Okay. But how can the cost Q1 isolated be SEK 4.9 million if the bid did become official 25th of March? One million SEK per day. So, it's costs that we have occurred in the evaluation of the bid, also prior to going public with the bid from the consortium side. And again, the timelines, I believe, are clear in the publicly available material, which has been published by the bid committee, the board, and the consortium. Okay, any other questions, please? I can add that obviously, I mean, again, I'm not part of the consortium placing the bid. My focus is obviously to build a strong and healthy company. So, so that has been... I mean, if you have any more questions around that and the business as it stands, of course, that's appreciated. In Q4, you talked about the great pipeline of the new bigger customers in loyalty segment. How has it progressed? So we have progressed in discussions. We have a strong pipeline still. We have no new large signatures yet, so it's still a strong pipeline of some smaller potential clients and some larger potential clients that we have good dialogues with. So I'm still hopeful we will close, of course, some of these this year. Okay. So great. Thanks, everyone, for joining. And again, if you do have questions that you don't feel is answered, in the publicly available material in relation to the bid and the process, please don't hesitate to reach out to me, or the board, the independent bid committee, or the consortium that is placing the bid. So, thank you very much for joining. Have a great day. I hope to see you soon again. Bye-bye.
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