Hello. All right. Let me see. Do we have Terry with us? So our Chairman, Terry Virts, was supposed to be joining us and actually welcoming, but he's actually not attending yet. So I think just to, sorry, there is Terry. I'll let him come in, and then he will just open the meeting. Are you there, Terry? Terry, you're muted. Can you hear us? Can you hear me? Okay. Seems like we have problems getting Terry on the line here. So I think, Terry, then I'll just wish everyone welcome and start the meeting here, and thank you for taking the time to this webinar for Eevia Health. Basically, we have a rights issue ongoing, and for that purpose, we would like to explain the recent developments and the strategy and the roadmap going forward. So, just a little bit before we get going, that if anyone would like to raise a question during the presentation, you can raise a hand, and we can open the microphone for you. Same if you're sending a Q&A, we may not see it during the presentation. So again, raise a hand if you have a Q&A question during the presentation. After the presentation, we'll have a real Q&A session, and then basically open the microphone for those who would like to ask questions. I think I'm already sharing my screen, am I? Yeah. So let's get started. Basically, the presentation is about Eevia Health and our most focusing on our recent strategy to refocus the company towards gut health applications within the nutraceutical space. But just briefly, for those who are new to the company, we are a small company founded in 2017. Since 2021, we are listed in Sweden. So we are a small microcap company listed in the Spotlight Stock Market in Sweden. It's an MTF exchange. As a company, our hotspot is really health ingredients, or so-called nutraceutical ingredients, mostly for dietary supplements. And we develop and we manufacture and market these ingredients, standardized extracts from wild-harvested plant material that we harvest in the northern part of Sweden and Finland mostly. And we are so-called experts in this type of compound, polyphenolic compounds, secondary metabolites from the plants. And recently, we're focusing on gut and eye health. Just quickly about the team. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Terry's voice on Terry here, but Terry is our chairman, Terry Virts. He's based in Texas, U.S. We recently have Marinus Blåbjerg join us, Diane Clayton, who is a scientist and a business person with long experience, Per Benjaminsen, and then Oskar Vigueles. Those are on the board. Today, I am presenting. Also, Erik and Petri Lackman are present and will also have a little bit of input to the presentation. In addition to that, we have several young managers on our team. As you may know, we undertook a development in our turnaround process in September, October last year, and the change was to focus more on gut health. That came from an earlier strategy that was developed already a year ago, where we talked about working more with so-called branded ingredients. We call them condition-specific bioactives, and then separate those from more what we call compendial extracts or standard extracts that are typically defined by an official standard, a monograph, for example, European Pharmacopeia, so the strategy was already a year ago to focus more on substantiated extracts. But in the fall, in the turnaround process, we came to the conclusion that that's not enough, we need an even more stricter focus on what is the value proposition we're really offering. How can we penetrate? How can we create more revenues? How can we get back the revenue growth, so we decided to go even harder on this change towards what we call health solutions, basically products with documented effect, and in that way, leaving this kind of compendial area where you basically provide standardized extracts based on one raw material, so that is a very key part of the strategy, and in addition to that, we decided to focus the strategy even more. This was during the turnaround process, so before, we had quite a broad indication span. In a way, the products were directed at cognitive health, cardiovascular health, digestive health, etc. But we decided that for us to be able to penetrate, we need to have a very specific focus, and we decided to do that for gut and digestive health. Of course, that is also still a wide area. There's lots of issues there. We'll come back to that in a second. But of course, it's also very closely related to kidney health. And lately, we have now also focused on the urinary tract health. There's a urinary microbiome, which is actually very under focused. And there are consumer groups, like for instance, post-menopausal women that are clearly in need of solutions for microbiome problems in the urinary tract. And of course, the other part is that we have had, in addition to being unprofitable for some years, meaning that we had a burn rate, we have also investment-heavy aspects of our business. So we're always struggling with enough funding. One of the things we would like to do is to improve our funding position. Over to gut health, basically, we see it as an enormous market opportunity. It's a huge market, vast market. Some people estimate it to over $40 billion, and it's growing. There are key drivers in that which will make it grow also for the foreseeable future, so to speak. The problems are there. A lot of people have digestive issues, gut issues, so-called dysbiosis, unbalance of the microbiome. For the last five years, 10 years, there's been more and more focus also on the relationship between problems in the gut and the function of the gut and other health areas, kidney health, cardiovascular health, cognitive health, and so forth. People talk about the gut-brain or gut-cognition axis and so forth. I'll have Petri explain a little bit more. Petri, are you there? Yes, I am. Yeah. Can you explain a little bit more about what exactly we're trying to do in gut health? Yeah, just quickly. So basically, there's a definite market drive towards improving personal gut health. And if we think of gut, most of things happen in this small intestine, in this microvillus where everything regarding digestion happens. Basically, where do we absorb nutrients, where we interact with the bacterial environment, and so forth. So if you go to the next slide, we actually have a great opportunity there. So there's a market push towards gut health solution, but we also have an amazing opportunity with Arctic polyphenols and especially proanthocyanidins. So with the Eevia Gut Health Project, there's a simple aim with a simple goal. We want to exploit this innate efficacy of the proanthocyanidins to restore maintenance of the gut epithelial lining. That's like one cell thick layer that basically is the barrier between us and our environment. So consume proanthocyanidins, restore the normal balance and function of your digestive system. We are working very similarly to the probiotics that are probably very familiar to everyone. But instead of trying to modulate the microbiome and that way influence the health state of the gut, we want to make an environment that actually is where the beneficial bacteria can thrive. So if you go to the next slide, the opportunity comes also that many of our existing products and the Arctic polyphenols within them are heavily leaning on proanthocyanidins. There's very much emerging and developing science that is established that given that proanthocyanidins are quite large molecules, they must be localized to the gut because there are no systems that are facilitating the transport of proanthocyanidins to our digestion. So that would mean that many of the reputed health benefits of proanthocyanidins must actually begin in the gut. We have ample access to very scalable sources of both B and A-type proanthocyanidins. So with MaxBiome, we have planned to combine the best of these two worlds and make a possible very disruptive product in this space. Next, please. We have also gathered pretty much a world-class team of science partners to help us with that. For example, Dr. Hani El-Nezami from the University of Eastern Finland and Hong Kong that is able to guide us. One of the leading authorities actually in gut health in Finland. We also have Professor Johan Ärnlöv from Karolinska Institutet to help us, especially when we are talking about gut health in connection with kidney health, which is the part of our bodies that actually processes everything that we excrete from our digestion. We think next we would be talking about distribution partners. So that would be probably something for you, Stein. Yes. And I think I forgot to present. So this was Petri Lackman, our CTO, who just spoke. And yeah, so of course, one of our biggest headaches is building revenue and getting back the revenue growth that we experienced some years ago and getting back to break-even and profitable levels. And of course, that comes down to what markets, what customers, and what kind of target groups are we looking for to launch and sell our products. And currently, we have a few markets we are focusing on, a few countries in Europe, Australia, and the U.S. And we have strong partners in these markets, which are the platform for building the revenues. But yeah, one of the main problems of our business has been very volatile revenue development. And of course, particularly after one very large customer's halted orders in the late 2023. So in 2024, we had a significant drop in revenue compared to 2023. And we have not been able to regain back to the revenue level of more than EUR 1 million per quarter, which simply is the target to become profitable. So in addition to the focus on gut health and these types of health solutions, we also have decided to, or at least we are preparing. It's subject to various types of approvals. We need creditor consent. We need board approvals. We need a couple of other things. But subject to that, we are planning to undertake multiple divestments. The first one is to divest wood-related products to a new company called Havu Health. And first of all, it's Retinari, which is an eye health product. Later, it might be, and that has actually been taking place, later, it might be possible that all the wood-based products will be divested to Havu Health. And it could even be so that in an extreme version, Havu Health might overtake our production facility in Kauhajoki, in the south of Seinäjoki. And one of the main points of doing this is that there are possible funding options for Havu Health. It will be a private company, not a public company, and it will basically be a startup. So within the context of being a startup, it has a lot of possible funding options. And it's easier also for corporate ventures or seed funding and other types of investors to invest in a very focused type of business. On the other side, we are planning to split out our berry manufacturing. We do have a lot of competence. We have a lot of knowledge. We did an incredible improvement during 2021, 2022, and 2023 on elderberry. We went from really having poor performance to having probably the lowest cost in the industry on elderberry. So we had our batch size increase from 30 kilos per batch to 300 kilos per batch. So we had a 10-doubling of productivity. So we know we can improve, and we know how to do this. But simply, again, it requires funding, and it requires space. And the idea is to simply take this part of the business out and see if we can get that funded in a different setting. Just for you to understand, we can quickly also talk about these two businesses. Petri, can you explain a little bit about Retinari? Yeah. So in case Retinari is not familiar to the people present here, basically, it's an Arctic polyphenol product like everything else that we produce, but it's aimed for age-related macular degeneration. Basically, just in the Western world, where the people are getting older and older, there's a degenerative eye condition called age-related macular degeneration, or AMD in short, that is already pushing these healthcare systems to the breaking point. So basically, already 200 million people directly affected already today and 200 million more to come in the next few decades. Next slide, please. So the objective here is that since AMD is a degenerative condition that leads to blindness, we want to reduce that AMD-related onset of blindness with a preventive nutraceutical approach, a product made from Arctic polyphenols directly against this development. Next slide, please. The problem is in this picture. Currently, AMD is addressed only in the late stage of the condition, where the only thing that helps is basically administration of drugs directly to the eye. Very invasive, very painful. So once these injections are necessary to maintain one's vision, it's immediately an expensive lifelong commitment, and that's a huge economic burden, not only to the people affected, but also national healthcare systems, so what Retinari is? It's a non-invasive dietary supplement developed to prevent AMD development years before these injections are required. Basically, the product will slow down this progression, stop it entering the late stage by restoring the capacity of retinal cells to maintain themselves, which is something that it's an ability that we lose when we get older. With Retinari, there could be no need for these injections, no need for monthly doctor visits, and the cost is less than 10% of even the most affordable injection option out there. So next slide, please. Yeah. Maybe I can just add there that we're also looking into another food category, which is called food for special medical purpose, so that is another possible regulatory category for Retinari. Yeah. So when I say that the product is in development, it means that we've been studying this for a while now. But we've been able to demonstrate in AMD mice models that Retinari is able to improve some of the underlying conditions behind AMD. For example, this age-related impairment of autophagy and internal cytoprotective capacity. We have completed three mice studies, two retinal cell studies, and even one human primary cell study. And we've been able to show that these AMD animals, they receive remarkable beneficial effects from Retinari, basically restoration of vision performance, retinal tissue integrity. And even when these mice have been quite old in age, so they have already developed a lot of problems, we didn't even have the chance to prevent them. But basically, it was able to restore the dysfunctional retinal tissue back to normal levels and then some. Yeah, that's Retinari. Yeah. So of course, we have a lot of upside in possibility for launching such a product, and we are talking to some of the largest. We have NDA, the largest eye health company in the world, and we're talking to others. So the commercial opportunity is, of course, extreme when it comes to Retinari if we could get this product ready for market. When it comes to the other divestment, I will not say so much. We're still working on it, and of course, it's a little bit more complicated divestment, but in general, the idea is to use the competence we have, use some of the equipment we have, and to rebuild state-of-the-art berry processing and move it basically to the north of Finland. There's a small city called Kemijärvi in the area called Lapland, which, by the way, is on top or in the middle of the optimal harvest area. The absolutely most potent raw materials, berries, are growing in this northern climate in the Lapland. And on top of that, also all fundings have maximum rates in this area. For instance, investment grants from E.U. Rural Fund is up to 40%. So by starting a new private company and by rebuilding the berry manufacturing, we think that we can achieve the lowest cost position in the industry, simply at par or even lower than Asian conversion cost, including high yields and so forth. And of course, just to show you one slide here, these two divestments, not only is assets going, but also personnel will be following the divestments. That means that Eevia Health will have a dramatic reduction in personnel. There will be a transformation over to more product management, marketing, regulatory competence, and the capital-intensive parts will be divested to the other companies. So yeah, in summary, here you can see our financial development. We had very strong growth in 2021 and 2022. The 2020 and 2021, we had significant production problems. Our gross margin was extremely low. But then, as I mentioned, we had an enormous improvement in those years. And we were at some point up to 60% gross margin in 2023, which was the first year we had a positive EBITDA of a little over EUR 500,000 in EBITDA. But then, of course, in 2024, the revenue has come down dramatically, and we will have a negative EBITDA this year. Then I have to underline that the green bars there, they are targets. They're not projections. As a listed company, we are not allowed to provide projections. It is just an illustration for the purposes of, of course, where we will have to grow our revenues very quickly and rapidly already this year. The financial target for this year is 3 million EUR and positive EBITDA, which we think we will achieve. Then, of course, from there, we plan to grow rapidly. Now I am talking about Eevia Health. This is not including the side. So Retinari and Baccas Salus will have its own financial targets, which will be for the benefit of shareholders as well. Yeah, and just to illustrate also this roadmap for the three companies, which is one of the main purposes for this restructuring, is that you kind of expand the eligibility in terms of funding. Each of these three companies will have their own funding plan. When it comes to Eevia Health, we have already handed in a fairly large, close to EUR 600,000 R&D loan application to Business Finland. We're waiting for the decision there. A positive decision on this would allow us to start multiple human investigations related to our MaxBiome, primarily also one other product. But it will be a pilot study and eventually also a full clinical study plus mode of action studies, etc., enabling us to go to market with substantiation for health claims. Then we're looking at multiple other funding opportunities for Eevia Health, eventually possibly also the European Innovation Council's accelerator program. When it comes to the berry manufacturing plant, it's, like I said, in the north where you have very good funding opportunities. So we're looking for multiple fundings there, including Business Finland and also Finvera Green Loan, which is a special loan guaranteed by the European Investment Bank. For Havu Health, I know there's already work to file a big EUR 1 million application for Retinari. So Retinari needs a safety study to be able to do the clinical study. And this first application to Business Finland for about EUR 1 million will be the trigger for getting the safety study started, which is basically where the project is stuck right now. And for those who have followed the company, you might know that Retinari won two Seal of Excellence in the European Innovation Council. So basically, it was very close to getting EIC funding a few years ago. And now they're preparing a new EIC accelerator application for EUR 2.5 million and then potentially also other fundings after that. Then, of course, the one key thing is to stabilize the funding situation in Eevia. So multiple actions are kind of planned for us to regulate down and improve the working capital. So of course, we have a rights issue. We just kind of budgeted EUR 500,000 net proceeds from the rights issue. If it's not, then it's not fully subscribed. And then, of course, some of the divestment to Baccas Salus will be paid for in cash. We are working to reduce inventory, and we are actually quite successful right now. A lot of our sales right now are straight from inventory. So we should be able to squeeze out about EUR 500,000 in capital from the inventory. And there's still more to go. And then we are also already agreed some debt-to-equity swap with a couple of creditors. So that's part of the plan to stabilize funding. So in summary, and then I hope we haven't used too much time, you'll have three companies now. As an investor in this rights issue, you basically will have three companies that have their own value proposition, their own target groups in terms of customers, in terms of market, their own go-to-market strategy, dramatically improved funding opportunities in terms of, if not tens of millions, but at least millions of euro, and focus. Each of these companies will have extreme focus rather than trying to do a small team trying to do many things within one company. So each company can streamline its operations and its work to valorize and realize the values that are inherent in these three different business ideas. So that was basically the presentation. And I haven't seen anything if there should be. So I think I'll stop presenting. And then we can leave it to questions if anyone would like to. Let's see there. Stop sharing. So if anyone would like to have any question, Lourdes, I haven't seen any Q&A during the presentation. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Yeah. So if anyone would like to, you can raise your hand. I'm happy to also answer questions now after the presentation. Erik, I forgot to include you there on the sales slide, but would you like to add anything if people are thinking? I think you did a good job. But what I will say, looking at it from a commercial side or sales and marketing side, the customer is a direct-to-BB, but it includes direct-to-consumer. And so as a supplier, what's really critical here is that the product works and that these solutions are able to be substantiated and have claims. And it is the missing piece of the puzzle that de-risks it for most of our current customers, but also for new customers. And we have strong confidence from known experts that we are on a novel path, but also on to a solution that will have substantiated claims, will be unique to propositions in the segments in the gut health segment, is sustainable, is plant-based, all of the things that a consumer brand would value. And then finally, in some of the hottest segments in the vitamin supplement category overall, the opportunity here for very quick growth is real. It depends on the science, which we're working on currently. And then it depends on the scalability, which I think you covered with Baccal Salus and also our ability to scale. We're confident in our ability to scale. So I look at it from a growth opportunity, something that is rare in this industry, a novel solution that works. Of course, the initial conversations with customers will be difficult because they're risk-averse and they need to understand and they want proof and they want claims. But once we are through that and we are lined up to be through that, this is a very unique opportunity. Erik, since you're talking about the opportunity, I'm glad we're forward-looking. But I haven't seen any hands up. So maybe investors are also a little bit interested in, from a sales, from a market point of view, what was the trigger for the turnaround? In a way, what didn't work and why did we need to change the strategy? Exactly. The switch question to you. Switch sales didn't work. The challenge with switch sales, it's a little counterintuitive. The industry historically is a relationship-based place where the products are interchangeable. The approach is a relationship-based switch strategy. You can buy my product because we're a better supplier. We have slightly better response times, quality, more trustworthy. You can bundle us with other things. Those are all true in commoditized products. The switch strategy is very difficult for established business with established products because it introduces risk to the company that's buying it. This powder fills my production room with dust. This powder sticks to my lines. This powder crumbles when I tabletize it. Anytime you bring a switch opportunity to a customer, what really is important for it to work is that the customer has to have a problem that they're trying to solve. The act of switching to save 1% or 2% cost of goods is actually a very high risk for the customer. It was part of our initial sales plan. I think it, in hindsight, was not the best plan. When we look at what we are good at and what we're unique to a customer's point of view, it is this novel approach and these claims. There still is opportunity to switch. We will still get requests for Bilberry and Elderberry and all the wonderful things we do. It is, in my view, far more difficult to lead with that approach and far more promising to the business to lead with unique claims. Maybe I also forgot to present Erik. Erik Eide is our commercial director, and he's located in the western part of Canada. He still has not had breakfast, I think. Oh. It's early morning here, but that's okay. Yeah. So, as far as I, Lourdes, is it correct? I cannot see any Q&A or hands up. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. There is no questions and no hands up. Yeah. So I think we have done the presentation and basically focused on the forward-looking what we're planning to do and what we're planning to focus on, on the opportunities we see in the market and how we can capitalize on that. And then obviously, there will be more information coming during the next week or so. We extended the rights issue with one week because we really learned last week that the insiders in this company cannot subscribe over their pro-rata share unless the interim report, the quarterly report, is released. So we're pushing the interim report out today so that also insiders can subscribe. But of course, we are hoping that we will have a fully subscribed rights issue within. I think it's in Sweden. It ends on the 18th of February and in Finland on the 20th of February. But we will have also more webinars. And we have planned one for Thursday. And we also planned, now we will probably announce one or two next week as well. And of course, we're always available. I mean, you can contact us also directly for questions and so forth, more information. But I think I will stop now. We spent only 35 minutes, but that's good. So I really like to thank everyone who showed up and took the time to listen to us. And yeah, wish you a good day. Thank you. Goodbye. Thank you, everyone. Goodbye. Thank you.
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