Welcome. This is Jesper Söderqvist. I am the CEO of Boule. We're here to present our quarterly results for the fourth quarter and the full year 2020. I'm here in Spånga at the Boule headquarter, together with our CFO, Christina Rubenhag. Before we start the presentations, a few practical matters regarding questions. You can submit them in the chat function. You can add them during the presentation. We will respond to them at the end of the presentation. Please send your questions, and then we will show them and respond to them after this presentation. 2020 has clearly been a very challenging year. Near patient diagnosis has been impacted by COVID-19. The demand has really not been there. Also, instrument sales have been difficult in spite of new digital method. Before we dive into the results, I want you to do a little recap of Boule. Boule, we provide blood diagnostic for the near patient segments. We have a strong hematology background. We have a large active installed base of about 29,000 instruments. In a normal year, more than 130 million tests are done in the 100 countries where we are represented. Even if 2020 was a challenging year in terms of sales and profitability, we have used the time to improve and prepare ourselves for the future. In the fourth quarter, we passed a very important milestone for Boule, for our new product platform development. Through the past years, we have strengthened our organization, particularly in R&D, product development, QARA, and operations. Thanks to that, we have made significant progress during the year. Very importantly, we passed this milestone where we have now defined a clear path forward for our first release on the new platform, a five-part instrument, a very advanced, that will broaden our portfolio. We have made design choices. We also made some technology choices where we will use our proprietary laser technology instead of the technology we acquired in 2018. With this new five-part instrument, we'll get a broader, more attractive portfolio. We will address a larger market, which have a higher growth than our current market. Over time, we will also release other new instruments on this platform. If you look at our business, you can clearly see that we have been severely impacted by COVID. Instrument sales has recovered after the dip we had in second quarter. We see also that the testing went down, and our consumable sales also went down. Once the market open up again, we will see that both instrument sales and consumable sales will recover. We do have an active installed base of around 29,000 instruments. With around 3,000 instruments that we sold this year, what it really means is that our install base is flat year-over-year, where we have been used to a growth. Even if it's been a bad year, I think we still have a very good position to get back to growth and profitability once the demand return. When we presented our third quarter, I think there was some optimism in the market, and we had very positive signals. That demand and optimism went down as the second or third wave of the pandemic hit many countries. If you now compare our fourth quarter compared to 2019, which was a record year and a record quarter, our sales are down about 23% in constant currency. Our gross margin dropped by 2.3 percentage point, and that's mainly driven by the low utilization in our manufacturing. As I said, we took some design choices in our platform development, which meant that the technology that we acquired in 2019 became obsolete, and we instead chosen the proprietary technology. That's a major step forward, but it also triggered a write-down of that asset of SEK 40 million, which we take as OpEx in the fourth quarter. Hence, we have a very poor operating margin, even though that's a non-cash effect. If you look at our operating cash flow, we generated SEK 24 million in the fourth quarter. We did investment in the new platform of around SEK 11 million during the fourth quarter. Here you can see how COVID-19 and the pandemic hit our sales. We see that there's low sales in all product areas, both the instruments, because it's very difficult to get out to the hospitals and the healthcare really have other priorities. We also see a lower consumption of reagents due to the lower testing done. As I said, there was an upturn in the third quarter, but that optimism declined. In the fourth quarter, we land 6% lower on sales compared to the previous quarter in 2020. We basically see that all markets are impacted. As you know, this is really a global pandemic. What does this do to our profitability? This is an EBIT bridge for this quarter versus fourth quarter 2019. The main effect on the EBIT is, of course, the lower sales. Of course, what you see as we take this write-down of the acquired technology as OpEx, that also hits the OpEx line with SEK 40 million. If you look at the adjusted EBIT margin for the fourth quarter, it's -1.6%, which corresponds to an EBIT margin of -1.7%. This is of course below our standards, and we don't reach our full potential. It's been a very difficult quarter in many aspects and related to the pandemic. If you zoom out a little bit and look back on all of 2020, I think despite the pandemic, we have instead focused on things that we could impact, and we have made good progress with many of our strategic initiatives. Prior to 2020, Boule has seen a positive growth trend during many years. That trend was now broken. We think that this is only a bump in the road. With three quarters that are heavily impacted by COVID-19, it really has a big effect on our sales. Net sales in constant currency is down about 18%. I must say that I'm really proud and very pleased with the progress we made with our strategic initiatives, not only related to the important progress we made in the platform development, we have also worked with improvements related to our operations. We have strengthened our QARA organization. We are preparing ourselves for the new European regulatory framework, IVDR. We are establishing local production in Russia, which we plan to start up at the end of the first quarter this year. If you look at our results, we have these non-recurring items. We did the write-down of the associated company Biosurfit in the second quarter, and we did the write-down of the technology that I discussed earlier in the fourth quarter. Net sales for the full year, SEK 400 million, versus the SEK 499 million we had last year. Gross margin of 44.2%. That's slightly below last year. Our operating cash flow for the full year is SEK 75 million, and the adjusted EBIT margin for the year is 8.5%. The board proposed a dividend of SEK 0.55 per share to be decided at the annual meeting in May. Looking at the profitability for the full year and compare that to 2019. With the write-downs, we had an EBIT of SEK 5.9 million. If you exclude the write-downs, the adjusted EBIT is SEK 34 million, which I said corresponds to an adjusted EBIT margin of 8.5%, which really show the strength and the resilience we have in our business model. The lower profitability is mainly related to the lower sales. In terms of gross margin, we're down 1.1 percentage point. That's mainly driven by low utilization in our manufacturing. We have done savings in admin and sales and marketing. We've done less travel, we haven't participated in trade shows, et cetera, due to the pandemic. We have replaced that with a number of digital initiatives. Overall, it's been a very difficult, very tough year. We really have used the time to really improve internally and prepare ourselves and invest for the future. I must say I'm satisfied with the achievements that our partners, our distributors have managed in this difficult time, and also to the staff in Boule that have worked through this very difficult time. If you look at our financial position, we talked about the cash flow. The operating cash flow was SEK 24 million in the last quarter and SEK 75 million for the first full year. We have done large investments in our new product platform, but also done other investments. Our finances also includes a payroll protection loan of SEK 11 million, and that recognizes revenue in the third quarter. Overall, our available liquidity has increased by SEK 5 million this year. Going into 2021, I think we have a fairly good position going forward. I guess everyone is eager to see how 2021 will play out. If you look at the priorities, and clearly some things we can control and some things we can't control. If you look at the market recovery, the recovery will really be driven by declining spread of the virus and ease restriction in our markets. Clearly we think there's a continued uncertainty during the first half of this year. Let's see how much the vaccine will slow down the spread and how quick the markets will open up. I think the challenge that we've seen during this past year and also see right now is really related to transport and logistics. There is lack of capacity and pricing has gone down and lead time has gone up, et cetera. We haven't seen that much of problems with the supplies of components, but what we hear from other industries is that there is a potential risk for component supplies. However, even if the fourth quarter was really tough, we see some positive signs of recovery now in January. Let's hope that's how it will continue. If looking at what we are doing in Boule now to make sure that we quickly and with full force get back to our customers and start sell again and drive up profitability. We will drive a lot of digital marketing initiatives. We'll make sure that we will enhance our support to distributors, make sure that the instruments that has been turned off during the pandemic, when physician office labs et cetera have closed, that they really get up in operation quickly. We look very much forward to start local production of reagents in the first quarter. We also announced an OEM agreement in August, the production to that customer will ramp up here during the first half of this year. Of course, very importantly, we're now in the phase that we, regarding our new product platform, we will industrialize that product during 2021. With that, we end the presentation and open up for questions. I have one question from Victor at ABG. Many moving parts in Q4. What can you say about underlying improvements made in 2020, primarily in terms of production efficiency and supply chain efficiency? Will you have better leverage when volumes increase? The answer to that question is yes. We have made significant improvements. I feel confident that when demand returns, that we will have the capacity and capability to ramp up fairly quickly. Next question, Christian Lee at Pareto. The board's proposal to reintroduce dividend signals improving outlook for 2021. Will this mean that you plan to wrap up your OpEx again? Well, I think what it signals is that we look very positive to the future. I think the OpEx clearly with some more marketing activities, et cetera, the OpEx will probably increase during the year. I think the main thing is more in the investments that we will do now when it relates to industrializing our new platform. It's more the investments that will increase in the latter part of the year rather than the OpEx going forward. There's another question, Christian. Can you talk a bit about the size of the procurement you recently won in India? Should we expect softer margin to this delivery? I think it relates to probably what we mentioned in the CEO word, that we won some business in the blood bank segment in India. That's not a very big business, but it's significant because we open up a new segment where we haven't been before. It will not have a big effect neither on revenue nor on our operating margin. Is there more questions coming or? Just one. Okay. Sorry. Victor again. Please elaborate a bit on the potential of the blood bank segment. Is this a global opportunity and specifics regarding competition? I think it remains the same. We have now started open up, but I think the bigger opportunity is really in Asia. It's not a super big opportunity compared to the other growth opportunities we have. I think it's important that we address these specific segments and really learn. I think it's a break-in, but I don't think this is not going to be the big thing, but it's important because we actually get a better presence, better understanding of the overall market in India. Should I scroll down further? Thank you. Here's Chris. Thank you for the presentation. Could you please elaborate more on the revenue impact of the new five-diff platforms in terms of volume? What will be key functionality and key selling points? What will be produced in Russia, and what's the impact? We have some five-part diff instruments already. I would say they are more low-end. With the new development that we're adding that we will have a more complete five-diff product offering. This instrument that we're developing will be an advanced instrument that will be very reliable, very easy to use, and where we can also manage a lot of tests per hour. If you look at the five-part diff market is significantly smaller than the three-part market where our main revenue comes from today. It is a market that is growing faster than three-diff market. Also the consumable used in the five-diff has a higher price and higher margin. It's clear that we will enter, and we will have a broader five-part offering, and we will enter a market that will increase our overall market, and it will grow faster. It should have a significant improvement on both sales and revenue two years from now. I think, the key functionality and key selling points. I mean, Boule, our brand, we are well-known for high quality, very reliable, accurate instruments. I think this is really what is needed also in the future as there is lack of skilled personnel, and the instruments that we have are really easy to use, very reliable and very accurate. We will also add new measurements like reticulocytes to this instrument as an example. Then, of course, this is a platform where we will also release other products that will replace our current products in the portfolio. Going forward, it is really important and a major improvement in our product offering. For Russia, we will make reagents, and the impact are two actually. In tenders, local production is favored, so you actually get a bonus, an incentive if you have local production. It will help us win more business, and it will also help us with improved margin. Here Victor has the question, how do you assess the trend for a global market share? How has it developed in 2020 in your view? This is a question that is very difficult to really know for a fact. I think there are so big movements, things are changing so rapidly, and that I think it's hard to have some specific measures. We have talked to distributors. We have compared ourselves to peers. More or less everyone see around the same loss in sales as we do. I don't think the market share has shifted a lot due to the pandemic. Going forward, I think it's very important that you very quickly get out to the market, that you're very active in marketing. You're really first on the ball and really helps distributors make sure that you get involved in the tenders when they come out. I think moving forward, I think it's extremely important that we are moving fast, being aggressive, and be very present in the markets. Of course, we will watch the market share very carefully. What did your new customer find interesting about Boule selected for reagent manufacturing? I think you, Martin here, it probably relates to the OEM agreement that we signed this summer, which is a 10 plus 10-year supply agreement for reagents. First of all, Boule is a company, one of few, which really manufacture both the instruments, the reagents, and also the controls and calibrators. I think we have some unique expertise when it comes to developing new reagents, new controls. I think that's one thing. We have worked very closely with this customer during several years as they have developed a new instrument. It has really been co-development where they have developed the instrument, and we have developed the reagents to fit their technology. It's also an old relationship. We have worked with this customer in the past. They have really developed themselves or buy, and they trusted both due to our R&D expertise, but I think also very importantly, our quality and the capacity and the capabilities we have in reagent manufacturing. Right now, these products will be produced at our plant in Florida. I think they have global ambitions, and with our manufacturing footprint, with manufacturing now in both U.S., Sweden, and Russia, they also see that as an upside. We have, in particular for the controls and calibrators manufacturing, we have automatized that, so we can really ramp up that volumes very significantly without long lead times or big investments. I hope that was an answer to the question. Here's another question from Martin. Are there further similar manufacturing reagent opportunities available for Boule in the future? Yes, there is. We actually have very recently appointed a person that are addressing that specific segment to go in to look for new business. Many of our OEM clients today are US-based. I think there's also an opportunity to address clients in other parts of the world. Of course, this type of business has long lead times, but once we win those contracts, they are very rewarding because they give us five, 10 years, 15 years, 20-year-old long supply agreements. It creates stability, and it creates recurring revenue. Any more questions? No. Okay. I would say thank you very much for the question. Thank you for your attention. It's not been a good year in terms of the market situation. I'm optimistic about the future. I think once the market will turn around, I think we have a strong market position, and we're really well prepared to leverage the opportunity that will open up, hopefully very soon during 2021. That remains to be seen. Thanks a lot for your interest, your questions. You're always welcome to reach out to myself or Christina if you have further questions. Have a nice day or evening. Bye-bye.
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