NASDAQ:MTLS Materialise Q1 2024 Earnings Report $5.16 -0.13 (-2.46%) Closing price 04/25/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$5.18 +0.01 (+0.29%) As of 04/25/2025 07:50 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings History Materialise EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.07Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/AMaterialise Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$68.80 millionExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/AMaterialise Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date4/25/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateThursday, April 25, 2024Conference Call Time8:30AM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Materialise Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrApril 25, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:03I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Harriet Fried of LHA. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:10Thank you, everyone, for joining us today for Materialise's quarterly conference call. With us on the call are Praveet Jan Devett, Chief Executive Officer and Kumg Belgis, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call and webcast are being accompanied by a slide presentation that reviews Materialise's strategic, financial and operational performance for the Q1 of 2024. To access the slides, if you haven't already done so, please go to the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.materialize.com. The earnings press release that was issued earlier today can also be found on that page. Speaker 100:00:52Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that management may make forward looking statements regarding the company's plans, expectations and growth prospects among other things. These forward looking statements are subject to known and unknown uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed, including competitive dynamics and industry change. Any forward looking statements, including those related to the company's future results and activities, represent management's estimates as of today and should not be relied upon as representing their estimates as of any subsequent update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect future events or changes in expectations. A more detailed description of the risks and uncertainties and other factors that could impact the company's future business or financial results can be found in the company's most recent annual report on Form 20 F filed with the SEC. Finally, management will discuss certain non IFRS measures on today's call. Speaker 100:02:02A reconciliation table is contained in the earnings release and at the end of the slide presentation. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Brittain De Wet. Speaker 200:02:14Good morning and good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Looking at the agenda for our call on Slide 3, you'll recall that in our last earnings call, I described my observations about the market dynamics and our strong position in this market, build on the foundation of the last 34 years. I also clearly described our priorities for 2024. Today, I will build on that theme and share with you key highlights of our team's performance in the Q1 2024 as well as the progress made on our strategic priorities. Speaker 200:02:56After that, I'll pass the floor to Koen, who will go through our Q1 numbers in more detail. Finally, I will come back and explain what we expect the remaining months of 2024 to bring. We've completed our prepared remarks. We'll be happy to respond to questions. Looking at our key results for Q1 2024, summarized on Page 4, you can see that we were able to deliver profitable results in line with our expectations. Speaker 200:03:31For the comparisons versus the Q1 of last year later on this call, please bear in mind that the Q1 2023 was a particularly strong quarter with record high revenues and high EBITDA supported by significant tailwinds, mainly in our Medical and Manufacturing segments. Over the Q1 of this year, our total revenue decreased slightly by 3.4 percent to €63,600,000 compared to the record Q1 2023 that I just referred to. When compared to the Q1 of 2022, our consolidated revenues still grew by more than 20%. At the same time, our gross margin increased to 56.5% from 55.9% over the same period last year. Adjusted EBIT amounted to €2,700,000 representing 4.2 percent of revenue. Speaker 200:04:31Net profit amounted to €3,600,000 or €0.06 per share, which is stable versus the very strong Q1 of 2023. Our net cash position at the end of Q1 2024 was €69,200,000 an increase of €6,000,000 versus the beginning of the quarter. Koen will elaborate further on these results in his remarks later in this call. Moving now to Slide 5. I'm also very pleased that we made progress in our strategic priorities and achieved critical milestones, including the introduction of new technologies and the expansion into new markets and segments to capture the growth opportunities in the market for mass personalization and in the market for serial end use parts and to ensure sustainable healthy growth in the near, mid and long term. Speaker 200:05:27In Medical, we managed to keep the momentum and grew further compared to an exceptional Q1 2023 that was already 33% higher than Q1 of 2022. We continued to drive the the growth in number of cases delivered to patients, in particular in the U. S. And Europe, in our existing and new segments. We managed to expand into the trauma segment with the first cases delivered into this segment from our U. Speaker 200:06:05S. Manufacturing plant, which enabled us to deliver a shorter lead time. This is building a solid platform for further growth in 2024 and beyond. 2nd, we made progress with our new software solutions and in particular with Mimics Flow, a case management solution used to manage workflows for 3 d Labs in hospitals, for which we have received the first order in this only limited launch phase. We also achieved key milestones to break into new markets in the future. Speaker 200:06:39We received IDE approval for our tracusprit program, which is part of our respiratory business line. And we got FDA and MDR clearance for our DARPA planner to offer planning services for transcatheter aortic valve replacements in our cardiac business line. Moving to software, as mentioned in our last call, our focus is to capture the growth opportunities in the market for the manufacturing of end use products. We launched key new products that add value for users of additive manufacturing in this segment. At AMUC, we launched e Stage for metal plus a software that optimizes data and build preparation for laser powder bed fusion. Speaker 200:07:28Using physics based modeling to automate support structure generation that will also help make metal additive manufacturing more economically viable. Laser part of that fusion is the leading segment for EM accounting for over 52% of the industry's global revenue in 2022. It's also one of the most complex technologies to use with many potential challenges. By automating support structure generation with e Sage for MethylPlus, users can reduce support volume up to 80%. They can simplify support removal, ease power extraction and decrease build plate machining after an effortless part removal. Speaker 200:08:10Automating support structure generation at the sweet spot of printability and required supports, saves time, material and post processing costs. We also released an additional module on our OEM QPC, quality process and control system. Layer analysis, a model that allows to auto detect and quantify defects in 2 d layer data and map them to 3 d models for early scrap detection and root cause analysis was released at RAPIDS last year. ProcessLab, a tool to trace process biometers and test lab results was announced at Formnext last year and released in the Q1 this year to the market. This QPC ProcessLab enables customers to transform additive manufacturing process monitoring and quality data into actionable insights using AI and IAoT connectivity in a secure, collaborative and open software system. Speaker 200:09:12We also made progress in shifting our business model to cloud and subscription based agreements to better suit the market for end use products. While this shift is negatively impacting our Q1 software revenues, it prepares us for further scaling in the market for serial end use products. In manufacturing, we focused on capturing growth in selected segments to drive revenue in 2024, even as market circumstances remain difficult for our 3 d printing serving business due to very weak prototyping demand. Keeping in mind that the Q1 2023 was a very strong quarter with 25% growth in revenue, I am pleased with the performance in the Q1 of this year and in particular with the strong progress in our certified manufacturing business, driven by aerospace and medtech. Both industries are strictly regulated and our ability to provide process documentation and historical process performance data enables us to drive growth in both segments. Speaker 200:10:20Koen will now take you through the detailed results by segment. Speaker 300:10:25Thank you, Brigitte. Good morning or good afternoon to all of you on this call. I'll begin with a brief review of our consolidated revenue on slide 6. As a reminder, please note that unless stated otherwise, all comparisons in this call are against our results for the Q1 of 2023, which as Brigitte already indicated was an exceptionally strong quarter. Now compared to this high baseline, revenue in the Q1 of 2024 decreased 3.4 percent to €63,600,000 However, Materialise Medical continued on its growth path and increased its revenue by 8%. Speaker 300:11:08On the other hand, revenues at our Software segment were impacted by the accelerated transition towards a cloud based subscription business model and low prototyping demand had an unfavorable effect on our manufacturing segment, resulting in revenue decreases of 8% and 11%, respectively. As you can see in the graph on the right side of the page, Materialise Medical accounted for 41%, materialized software for 16% and materialized manufacturing for 43% of our total revenue over the Q1 of 2024. Deferred revenues related to software maintenance and license fees grew further in the Q1 of this year by €500,000 bringing the total amount carried on our balance sheet to €45,400,000 On slide 7, you will see our consolidated adjusted EBIT and EBITDA numbers for the Q1 of this year. Consolidated adjusted EBIT ended at €2,700,000 compared to €5,000,000 for the same period of last year, representing a decrease of 47%. Our adjusted EBIT margin was 4.2% compared to 7.6% last year. Speaker 300:12:29Consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the Q1 amounted to €8,100,000 decreasing from €10,300,000 last year. Our adjusted EBITDA margin reached 12.7 percent compared to 15.6% prior year. Now this decrease reflects partly the impact from continued investments in innovation to secure long term profitability. We fully executed our planned R and D investments despite being confronted with less favorable market conditions. In Q1 of 2024, R and D spend corresponded to more than 16% of our total revenue. Speaker 300:13:09The decrease in adjusted EBIT and EBITDA is also partly due to the high reference point in the comparisons shown, being the exceptionally strong Q1 of 2023, which was impacted as said by one off tailwinds in all business segments. Moving now to Slide 8, you will notice that the quarter's total revenue in our Materialise Medical segment increased by almost 8%, building further on an already strong revenue growth in 2023. This solid growth was generated by both medical software and by revenue coming from medical devices sales, which grew respectively by 6% 9%. Adjusted EBITDA grew further to €7,900,000 with an adjusted EBITDA margin that remained stable at 30.3%. Slide 9 summarizes the results of our Materialise Software segment. Speaker 300:14:06In the Q1, software revenue decreased by 8% to €10,400,000 However, recurring revenue from software maintenance and license sales, including CoAM, increased by 4%. On the other hand, nonrecurrent revenue further decreased by 31%, driven by the accelerated transition from perpetual license sales to cloud and subscription based agreements, but also by the more difficult market conditions. Accordingly, adjusted EBITDA decreased to €1,100,000 representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.4%. Now let's turn to slide 10 for an overview of the performance of our Materialise Manufacturing segments. In the Q1, manufacturing continued to operate in a difficult market environment. Speaker 300:14:58Compared to a strong Q1 2023 and as a result of low prototyping demand, revenue decreased by 11% to €27,000,000 On the other hand, we noticed promising further growth of our certified manufacturing business, in particular, in MedTech and Aerospace market segments. Adjusted EBITDA dropped to €1,500,000 and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 5.7%. Slide 11 provides the highlights of our consolidated income statement for the Q1 of this year. As you will notice, we increased our gross profit margin by 60 basis points to 56.5 percent compared to 55.9 percent in Q1 of 2023, which compensated part of the lower revenue. Our operating expenses in the quarter increased by €1,800,000 or 5.5 percent in aggregate, with the biggest increase coming from the higher R and D spend. Speaker 300:16:01Net operating income in the quarter was positive with €800,000 compared to €500,000 last year. As a result of these elements, the group's operating result in the quarter was €2,600,000 compared to €5,000,000 in last year's periods. In Q1, net financial income amounted to €1,500,000 including a positive currency exchange result of €700,000 interest income of €1,200,000 from our cash reserves and interest expense on our financial debt of €400,000 Income tax expense in the quarter amounted to €500,000 compared to €700,000 last year. As a result, net profit for the Q1 was positive at €3,600,000 representing €0.06 per share, coming very close to the net profit of €3,700,000 or also €0.06 per share for the corresponding 2023 periods. Now please turn to Slide 12 for a recap of balance sheet and cash flow highlights. Speaker 300:17:09In the Q1 of this year, our balance sheet remains strong. Our cash reserve increased to €129,000,000 by the end of the quarter. Loan and lease repayments reduced our gross debt to below €60,000,000 The resulting net cash position at the end of the quarter was €69,000,000 an improvement by €6,000,000 compared to the position at the beginning of this year. Our trade receivables and trade payables positions both decreased, while inventories remained stable. The total deferred income position increased further to €52,000,000 out of which €45,000,000 was related to deferred revenue from software licenses and maintenance contracts as already mentioned. Speaker 300:17:56As you can see from the graphs on the right of the page, cash flow from operating activities for the Q1 was high and amounted to €10,000,000 while capital expenditures for the quarter amounted to €2,800,000 all of which were internally financed. And with that, I'd like to hand the call over to Birgitte again. Speaker 200:18:16Thank you, Gun. Let's turn to Page 13. I'll conclude my remarks with a discussion of our full year 2024 guidance. The fundamentals of our 3 business segments are strong, and we therefore remain confident that we are well positioned to deliver on our growth objectives. We continue to expect to report consolidated revenue for the full year 2024 within the €265,000,000 to €275,000,000 range we communicated in our prior earnings call. Speaker 200:18:49We are also maintaining our adjusted EBIT guidance of €11,000,000 to €14,000,000 for the fiscal year. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we're now ready to open the call for questions. Operator00:19:04Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer Our first question comes from the line of Alexander Kramersch of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is now open. Speaker 400:19:37Hey, good afternoon. Brigitte and Coen, and thank you for that presentation. A couple of questions from Kepler Cheuvreux side. I'm a bit surprised at how many times you stressed that Q1 2023 was exceptional, especially in manufacturing. So that was definitely not as stressed as last year. Speaker 400:19:56So could you maybe elaborate on what was so exceptional? And then are you also indicating to us, the markets, that these are also not realistic numbers in the next years in manufacturing? And then second question would be, you also stressed that the Medical segment was exceptionally strong in Q1, 2023, yet you were able to book better results than last year. So why was one exceptional different than the other exceptional? And then the third question would be on the low CapEx levels. Speaker 400:20:28You're building the AC Tech plant that's coming up live in H2 2024. Why was there not a lot of CapEx coming into the cash flow statement? I was just wondering why that was exactly, whether those projects are either being delayed or and then maybe on the ACTech, following up on that specific topic, I was just wondering, with the Astec plant coming up, whether you're not fearing any overcapacity considering that the volumes of and manufacturing are trending lower? I'll keep it there, wait for my colleagues then and then maybe ask some questions afterwards. Speaker 200:21:09Thanks, Eikhan, for all the questions and for joining the call. So I'll maybe start answering and then I'll let Koen fit in for the CapEx question. So your first question on the exceptional manufacturing results. So last year, well, essentially, your question being are these structural or not and what can we expect for the future. If we look at what happened in the Q1 last year in manufacturing, I see a structural part and a nonstructural part. Speaker 200:21:39Let me explain what I mean. So the results last year were driven the exceptional results last year were driven by 2 main factors. One is that our AgTech business had very strong revenues at that point in time. Over the last couple of quarters, we have noticed that we are capacity constrained at AgTech, which leads to the revenues being lower than what we think or what we strongly believe is possible in the market. And with the capacity extension that we are now planning, we believe that, that gives us a road towards further increase and growth of those revenues going forward. Speaker 200:22:17So I think there's a structural element at AgTech that gives us a path towards future growth in the manufacturing segment. The second driver of that exceptional results last year is not so structural, I would say, and which is why we call it exceptional. What was this? You might know that as part of our services within the manufacturing unit, we deliver consulting services to customers. And consulting services as such have the beauty of when we have these contracts that they come at a very healthy profitability for us. Speaker 200:22:57But the nature of those consulting services is that you don't necessarily have a recurring element because once this consulting project is over, you start from scratch. And we had a very strong revenue component in our Q1 last year on that business line specifically. And that's honestly, in all transparency, I'm not confident that we will be able to repeat that every single quarter going forward. So the answer on manufacturing is a bit mixed. But yes, there is a structural element there that gives us a path towards future growth as soon as we have resolved the capacity constraint at Artech. Speaker 200:23:40Switching into Medical, which was your second question. So yes, we had an exceptional quarter last year, essentially because we were able to take for a specific period of time, we were able to take on business from another party in the market and wasn't able to deliver for a certain time. And we benefited from that in the last in the Q1 last year. Now despite that exceptional growth number of 33%, we delivered even stronger growth on top of that this year. And that is I referred to it in my remarks, we have been able to break into this trauma segment, which is an additional market segment for us, which has large potential, and we have proven this year in the Q1 that we can actually access that potential with the short lead times that we can offer. Speaker 200:24:37And again, that gives us a path to continued further growth on that baseline that we have seen. And that's one of the drivers of that additional growth despite a very strong Q1 last year. And then I'll hand it over to Koen for the CapEx question regarding AgTech. Speaker 300:24:59Yes. So on AgTech, I can confirm, Alexander, that the investment program is in full execution and this is still fully on track to have a start up of the plant later on in this year as we've indicated before. Now the reason why the investment is limited in the cash flow statement of the Q1 is because we include of course only the cash component of CapEx investments in our cash flow statement. And you will see that there is a ramp up of investments that are being made, but where the cash out has not been made to the suppliers and will typically come or mainly come in the Q2 and Q3 of this year. That is because at that point also the machinery will be installed in the factory and will be started up. Speaker 300:25:46And the way we have negotiated most of the contracts with these suppliers is that the bulk of the payment is a delivery of the machinery, which is going to take place is taking place in the coming weeks. And of course, then there is also a payment term to be applied. So you will see a different picture for sure in the Q2 and partly also the Q3 and with the deferred the late payments related to Agtech Investments. Speaker 400:26:15Could you maybe indicate there how much we need to foresee in terms of CapEx maybe just for the full year but then maybe for Q2 and Q3 specifically? Speaker 300:26:26I think we've always indicated the total order of magnitude of the investment is around €30,000,000 and upwards and it will depend will come in several stages. But that has been spread over a number of years. So I think I don't have the exact number. It will also depend on the exact timing of what will be delivered when. But I think you can expect that our free cash flow, as I've indicated also in last call, might be negative in the Q2 and driven by this nonrecurring CapEx. Speaker 400:27:02Okay. Thank you for that. Speaker 200:27:06Thank you, Orestina. Operator00:27:15Our next question comes from the line of Jacob Stephen of Lake Street. Your line is now open. Speaker 500:27:22Yes. Hey, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe could you just kind of give us an indication in the manufacturing segment? How have project volumes been trending? I know you said prototyping has been weak, but maybe just kind of overall project size, if you can give us a sense for that? Speaker 200:27:44Jacob, thanks for the question. And when you say project size, you refer to an indication of what our average type of project is in terms of the revenue driven by? Speaker 300:28:00Yes. Speaker 200:28:01And it's a hard one to say because the manufacturing segment is such as composed of so many different components. I think in general, when we look at our core manufacturing segments, so the core three d printing services that we offer, What we have indicated is that we want to make and we see the shift from prototyping to certified manufacturing. And in general, the certified manufacturing projects are slightly larger than our prototyping projects. Now I can't give you an exact number, but that is certainly a shift that we see and that we will continue to see going forward. Now if you then put in the mix, AgTech and the other business lines that we have, It's a very different structure in terms of the order sizes, etcetera. Speaker 200:29:00So I can't give you an exact pneumonia question, honestly. Speaker 500:29:06Okay. You said that you shipped the first products in Q1 here from the Michigan facility. Is that correct? Speaker 200:29:14In the medical, well, so no. So we shipped the first product from our Michigan facility last year in August, and we started ramping up that facility. So we were up and running in 2023. What we now have done in the Q1 is access the trauma market that I was talking about. And those are products that require very short lead times. Speaker 200:29:38And we have done that out of our U. S. Manufacturing facility now, which has enabled us to get into the U. S. Trauma market. Speaker 200:29:46That's essentially a type of a new product line in that facility, which gives access to that large market segment. Speaker 500:29:53Okay. And maybe you could just kind of give us a sense on how things are trending as we are a month into kind of Q2 here. But maybe just help us kind of think about where you're seeing the most opportunity in that trauma space? Speaker 200:30:10Yes. So I think the trauma opportunity remains a large one for the rest of the year in the medical business. The way you should look at that is probably to say that in the Q1, we were cautious because we first wanted to make sure that we were able to deliver in those short time lines. We are seeing confirmation that we are able to bring that offering successfully to the market. So that definitely will stay a growth driver for the remainder of the year and beyond. Speaker 200:30:46And that is for that particular Trauma segment. I think the other one that I referred to in my remarks as a growth driver is an important one too. And it's on the more on the software side with more and more personalization being done in the market, the parties bringing personalized cases to the market will face more volume and with that need a system that helps them stay organized and do that in an efficient and effective way. And that's what our Mimics Flow product does. So despite the fact that we're still in a limited launch, we've seen traction there in the Q1. Speaker 200:31:26And I would expect that as well in 2024 and beyond to stay a nice opportunity for us. Speaker 500:31:35Okay, great. Thank you. Speaker 200:31:36Specifically for the Medical segment. Speaker 500:31:38Okay. Yes. No, I appreciate the color. I will turn it over. Thank you. Speaker 200:31:44All right. Thank you, Jacob. Operator00:31:46Thank you. Speaker 500:31:57Thank Operator00:32:01you. Our next question comes from the line of Kieran McCabe of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now open. Speaker 600:32:09Thank you for taking my call. I'm calling for Troy Jensen. My first question was maybe R and D was about 16% of revenue and continue to make investments for sustainable growth. I was wondering maybe you can set some details or color sort of on the strategy or plan for continued investments in R and D and sort of the timeline of payoff of those investments? Where do we kind of see R and D going for the year and into next year and sort of the benefits from those investments, the timing of that? Speaker 200:32:45Yes. So let me maybe give you a little bit of color on our high 16% R and D spending. So the R and D efforts that we're doing at this point in time are really going into a number of our strategic priorities that I also referred to in my remarks. The first one is that on the medical in the medical segment, we still have significant untapped market opportunities, where we have taken first steps, but we do believe that there is a significant market potential. I'm talking about markets like the respiratory field, the cardiovascular or structural heart field. Speaker 200:33:31Those are markets that are still relatively new for us and where it is untapped potential of NSR and D efforts going into those markets. The second main strategic priority is on the software side. For our software unit, specifically, I talked to the priority that we have to tap into the growth that is in the market for in the area of manufacturing of end use products. And that is where in terms of our product portfolio, we still make significant investments to bring appropriate offerings into the market to tap into that growth potential. I think that gives you a bit of color as to what are the what type of R and D investments are driving to a large extent the 16% that we talk about. Speaker 200:34:28Now to your question, what is our view on those investments going forward? The new markets that we are want to tap into, we will certainly not be at the end of our efforts there in the next couple of quarters. I think there is still significant R and D investments going forward that we are planning to do. We see those untapped markets and market expansions. And as a market leader, we want to take the advantage of being one of the first in those market segments and take the lead there. Speaker 200:35:12And therefore, I would expect our R and D spendings to remain at least in the area of what we are spending today. Speaker 600:35:22Right. Thank you. And my other question was, I think you recently quoted an article talking about replicating some of the success that the medical segment has had trying to replicate that in the other segments. I was wondering if you could provide any kind of details on the strategy or practices that you're looking to apply to the other segments to really kind of replicate that success that you've seen in the medical? Speaker 200:35:45Yes. So I think the there's a couple of strategies or retractions that we've seen have led to success in the medical market that we'll seek to apply in the other markets as well. I mean, Additive Manufacturing is a growth segment still. And selecting carefully where we play and how we play with the deliberate market strategy is and setting continuously setting the right priorities, focusing our efforts there where we see we have the highest chances of a return on our investment. That's what we've done in the medical market, making clear choices about what are the markets we want to serve and how do we want to serve them and focus. Speaker 200:36:35I think that is certainly an effort or it's a reflection that we want to apply to other markets as well. Speaker 600:36:44Great. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Speaker 200:36:47Thank you, Kieran. Operator00:36:49One moment for our next question. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alexander Kramersch of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is now open. Speaker 400:37:05Hey, Jose. Just maybe one more question on the Kuvan platform. So that was back in the time a significant investment also on the back of an acquisition. So could you maybe just give us an indication where that stands today? How that the demand is moving? Speaker 400:37:23Were you able to increase the prices? Because if I look at the Q1, where it was not exceptional as far as I understood it, in 2023. So I just see 8% decrease in sales. So yes, I see there that the subscription fees rose by 4%. Does that then imply that basically the volumes are down? Speaker 400:37:50Or how do I need to see this? Speaker 200:37:53No, I don't think you can conclude that from the numbers. So let me talk to OEM and the strategic importance of that. And you're absolutely right, we have invested a lot in COEM in the past. And it is an absolutely critical driver of our growth going forward. Why? Speaker 200:38:15Because I talk a lot about that shift in the market from prototyping to end use products. And that's the shift that we want to tap into with our software unit. And CoEM plays a major role in that because CoEM is one of the vehicles that we could use to cater the needs of those customers that are additively manufacturing end use products and that needs to scale. They need offerings and systems that help them to do this efficiently and effectively. And OEM is the vehicle to do that. Speaker 200:38:51In my remarks, I mentioned one of the functionalities that we brought out now in the Q1 that is based on Covium and that is the QPC modules to the quality and process control functionality, which that's exactly that. It helps customers that really want to scale in the production of end use products and that they need to have better tools to monitor the quality, monitor their process and capture that data to scale efficiently and provide their products at an appropriate market I don't know, appropriate cost to their markets. So OEM stays an absolutely critical element in our strategy to tap into that market where we see growth, and it is the perfect vehicle. Now we did an acquisition to at least get the basis of this vehicle in house. But obviously, we continue to develop further on that vehicle. Speaker 200:39:58And on that basis, which again is what is reflected in our 16% R and D spend. Does that answer your question? Speaker 400:40:09Yes. But why are the sales down? Why are clients less interested in your software? Speaker 200:40:15Yes, but it's not less interested. Speaker 300:40:16At least Speaker 400:40:17that's the impression that the numbers give you, but probably I'm wrong. Speaker 300:40:20No, maybe what I can add to it Alexander is if you look at the number at a 4% increase that we've mentioned for recurring revenue that includes far more than just only our OEM platform. There is growth mainly on 2 components within recurring revenue that is first on CoAAM, secondly also on the switch to annual licenses. On the other hand, we see a decline, of course, if we do the switch from perpetual to annual licenses with regards to maintenance contracts. And maintenance contracts go down and historically there has been a large bulk. So when we do the transition from perpetual to annual that component goes down. Speaker 300:40:57So if you take the bulk of the 3, then overall, there is still an increase of about 4%. But there is various components within that. And also in the Q1, we can confirm that COEM continued to grow even if the product has more functionality is being added to it. Speaker 400:41:17Okay. Thank you. Operator00:41:20Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Brigitte de Wette, CEO, for closing remarks. Speaker 200:41:31Well, thanks again for joining us today. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with all of you through investor conferences or in 1 on 1 virtual meetings or call. And as you know, you can always reach out to us if you have any questions or if you need further clarification. Thank you, and goodbye for now. Operator00:41:53Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallMaterialise Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K) Materialise Earnings HeadlinesMaterialise NV American Depositary Shares (MTLS)April 25 at 1:14 AM | nasdaq.comMaterialise NV (MTLS) Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptApril 24 at 3:10 PM | seekingalpha.comTrump’s Secret Social Security Plan?In less than a decade, Social Security could be out of money. But a surprising plan from Trump’s inner circle may not just save the system — it could unlock a major opportunity for savvy investors. Financial insider Jim Rickards calls it “Social Prosperity,” and says those who act now could see the biggest gains.April 26, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)Materialise Reports First Quarter 2025 ResultsApril 24 at 6:30 AM | businesswire.comMaterialise Q1 2025 Earnings PreviewApril 23 at 9:50 PM | msn.comMaterialise NV to Report First Quarter 2025 Earnings on Thursday, April 24, 2025 | MTLS Stock NewsApril 14, 2025 | gurufocus.comSee More Materialise Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Materialise? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Materialise and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About MaterialiseMaterialise (NASDAQ:MTLS) provides additive manufacturing and medical software, and 3D printing services in the Americas, Europe and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Materialise Software, Materialise Medical, and Materialise Manufacturing. The Materialise Software segment offers software through programs and platforms that enable and enhance the functionality of 3D printers and of 3D printing operations. Its software interfaces between various types of 3D printers; and various software applications and capturing technologies, including computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing packages and 3D scanners. This segment serves 3D printing machine manufacturers; production companies and contract manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, and hearing aid industries; and 3D printing service bureaus through its sales force, Website, and third party distributors. The Materialise Medical segment provides medical software that allows medical-image based analysis, planning, and engineering, as well as patient-specific design and printing of surgical devices and implants. It serves medical device companies, hospitals, universities, research institutes, and industrial companies through its direct sales force, Website, and picture archiving and communication system. The Materialise Manufacturing segment provides 3D printing services, design and engineering services, and rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing of production parts to industrial and commercial customers. The company has collaboration agreements with Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.; Encore Medical, L.P.; DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson; Limacorporate Spa; Mathys AG; Corin Ltd; Smith & Nephew Inc.; Corin Ltd; Medtronic Inc.; and Abbott Laboratories Inc. Materialise NV was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium.View Materialise ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Markets Think Robinhood Earnings Could Send the Stock UpIs the Floor in for Lam Research After Bullish Earnings?Market Anticipation Builds: Joby Stock Climbs Ahead of EarningsIs Intuitive Surgical a Buy After Volatile Reaction to Earnings?Seismic Shift at Intel: Massive Layoffs Precede Crucial EarningsRocket Lab Lands New Contract, Builds Momentum Ahead of EarningsAmazon's Earnings Could Fuel a Rapid Breakout Upcoming Earnings Cadence Design Systems (4/28/2025)Welltower (4/28/2025)Waste Management (4/28/2025)AstraZeneca (4/29/2025)Mondelez International (4/29/2025)PayPal (4/29/2025)Starbucks (4/29/2025)DoorDash (4/29/2025)Honeywell International (4/29/2025)Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (4/29/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:03I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Harriet Fried of LHA. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:10Thank you, everyone, for joining us today for Materialise's quarterly conference call. With us on the call are Praveet Jan Devett, Chief Executive Officer and Kumg Belgis, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call and webcast are being accompanied by a slide presentation that reviews Materialise's strategic, financial and operational performance for the Q1 of 2024. To access the slides, if you haven't already done so, please go to the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.materialize.com. The earnings press release that was issued earlier today can also be found on that page. Speaker 100:00:52Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that management may make forward looking statements regarding the company's plans, expectations and growth prospects among other things. These forward looking statements are subject to known and unknown uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed, including competitive dynamics and industry change. Any forward looking statements, including those related to the company's future results and activities, represent management's estimates as of today and should not be relied upon as representing their estimates as of any subsequent update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect future events or changes in expectations. A more detailed description of the risks and uncertainties and other factors that could impact the company's future business or financial results can be found in the company's most recent annual report on Form 20 F filed with the SEC. Finally, management will discuss certain non IFRS measures on today's call. Speaker 100:02:02A reconciliation table is contained in the earnings release and at the end of the slide presentation. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Brittain De Wet. Speaker 200:02:14Good morning and good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Looking at the agenda for our call on Slide 3, you'll recall that in our last earnings call, I described my observations about the market dynamics and our strong position in this market, build on the foundation of the last 34 years. I also clearly described our priorities for 2024. Today, I will build on that theme and share with you key highlights of our team's performance in the Q1 2024 as well as the progress made on our strategic priorities. Speaker 200:02:56After that, I'll pass the floor to Koen, who will go through our Q1 numbers in more detail. Finally, I will come back and explain what we expect the remaining months of 2024 to bring. We've completed our prepared remarks. We'll be happy to respond to questions. Looking at our key results for Q1 2024, summarized on Page 4, you can see that we were able to deliver profitable results in line with our expectations. Speaker 200:03:31For the comparisons versus the Q1 of last year later on this call, please bear in mind that the Q1 2023 was a particularly strong quarter with record high revenues and high EBITDA supported by significant tailwinds, mainly in our Medical and Manufacturing segments. Over the Q1 of this year, our total revenue decreased slightly by 3.4 percent to €63,600,000 compared to the record Q1 2023 that I just referred to. When compared to the Q1 of 2022, our consolidated revenues still grew by more than 20%. At the same time, our gross margin increased to 56.5% from 55.9% over the same period last year. Adjusted EBIT amounted to €2,700,000 representing 4.2 percent of revenue. Speaker 200:04:31Net profit amounted to €3,600,000 or €0.06 per share, which is stable versus the very strong Q1 of 2023. Our net cash position at the end of Q1 2024 was €69,200,000 an increase of €6,000,000 versus the beginning of the quarter. Koen will elaborate further on these results in his remarks later in this call. Moving now to Slide 5. I'm also very pleased that we made progress in our strategic priorities and achieved critical milestones, including the introduction of new technologies and the expansion into new markets and segments to capture the growth opportunities in the market for mass personalization and in the market for serial end use parts and to ensure sustainable healthy growth in the near, mid and long term. Speaker 200:05:27In Medical, we managed to keep the momentum and grew further compared to an exceptional Q1 2023 that was already 33% higher than Q1 of 2022. We continued to drive the the growth in number of cases delivered to patients, in particular in the U. S. And Europe, in our existing and new segments. We managed to expand into the trauma segment with the first cases delivered into this segment from our U. Speaker 200:06:05S. Manufacturing plant, which enabled us to deliver a shorter lead time. This is building a solid platform for further growth in 2024 and beyond. 2nd, we made progress with our new software solutions and in particular with Mimics Flow, a case management solution used to manage workflows for 3 d Labs in hospitals, for which we have received the first order in this only limited launch phase. We also achieved key milestones to break into new markets in the future. Speaker 200:06:39We received IDE approval for our tracusprit program, which is part of our respiratory business line. And we got FDA and MDR clearance for our DARPA planner to offer planning services for transcatheter aortic valve replacements in our cardiac business line. Moving to software, as mentioned in our last call, our focus is to capture the growth opportunities in the market for the manufacturing of end use products. We launched key new products that add value for users of additive manufacturing in this segment. At AMUC, we launched e Stage for metal plus a software that optimizes data and build preparation for laser powder bed fusion. Speaker 200:07:28Using physics based modeling to automate support structure generation that will also help make metal additive manufacturing more economically viable. Laser part of that fusion is the leading segment for EM accounting for over 52% of the industry's global revenue in 2022. It's also one of the most complex technologies to use with many potential challenges. By automating support structure generation with e Sage for MethylPlus, users can reduce support volume up to 80%. They can simplify support removal, ease power extraction and decrease build plate machining after an effortless part removal. Speaker 200:08:10Automating support structure generation at the sweet spot of printability and required supports, saves time, material and post processing costs. We also released an additional module on our OEM QPC, quality process and control system. Layer analysis, a model that allows to auto detect and quantify defects in 2 d layer data and map them to 3 d models for early scrap detection and root cause analysis was released at RAPIDS last year. ProcessLab, a tool to trace process biometers and test lab results was announced at Formnext last year and released in the Q1 this year to the market. This QPC ProcessLab enables customers to transform additive manufacturing process monitoring and quality data into actionable insights using AI and IAoT connectivity in a secure, collaborative and open software system. Speaker 200:09:12We also made progress in shifting our business model to cloud and subscription based agreements to better suit the market for end use products. While this shift is negatively impacting our Q1 software revenues, it prepares us for further scaling in the market for serial end use products. In manufacturing, we focused on capturing growth in selected segments to drive revenue in 2024, even as market circumstances remain difficult for our 3 d printing serving business due to very weak prototyping demand. Keeping in mind that the Q1 2023 was a very strong quarter with 25% growth in revenue, I am pleased with the performance in the Q1 of this year and in particular with the strong progress in our certified manufacturing business, driven by aerospace and medtech. Both industries are strictly regulated and our ability to provide process documentation and historical process performance data enables us to drive growth in both segments. Speaker 200:10:20Koen will now take you through the detailed results by segment. Speaker 300:10:25Thank you, Brigitte. Good morning or good afternoon to all of you on this call. I'll begin with a brief review of our consolidated revenue on slide 6. As a reminder, please note that unless stated otherwise, all comparisons in this call are against our results for the Q1 of 2023, which as Brigitte already indicated was an exceptionally strong quarter. Now compared to this high baseline, revenue in the Q1 of 2024 decreased 3.4 percent to €63,600,000 However, Materialise Medical continued on its growth path and increased its revenue by 8%. Speaker 300:11:08On the other hand, revenues at our Software segment were impacted by the accelerated transition towards a cloud based subscription business model and low prototyping demand had an unfavorable effect on our manufacturing segment, resulting in revenue decreases of 8% and 11%, respectively. As you can see in the graph on the right side of the page, Materialise Medical accounted for 41%, materialized software for 16% and materialized manufacturing for 43% of our total revenue over the Q1 of 2024. Deferred revenues related to software maintenance and license fees grew further in the Q1 of this year by €500,000 bringing the total amount carried on our balance sheet to €45,400,000 On slide 7, you will see our consolidated adjusted EBIT and EBITDA numbers for the Q1 of this year. Consolidated adjusted EBIT ended at €2,700,000 compared to €5,000,000 for the same period of last year, representing a decrease of 47%. Our adjusted EBIT margin was 4.2% compared to 7.6% last year. Speaker 300:12:29Consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the Q1 amounted to €8,100,000 decreasing from €10,300,000 last year. Our adjusted EBITDA margin reached 12.7 percent compared to 15.6% prior year. Now this decrease reflects partly the impact from continued investments in innovation to secure long term profitability. We fully executed our planned R and D investments despite being confronted with less favorable market conditions. In Q1 of 2024, R and D spend corresponded to more than 16% of our total revenue. Speaker 300:13:09The decrease in adjusted EBIT and EBITDA is also partly due to the high reference point in the comparisons shown, being the exceptionally strong Q1 of 2023, which was impacted as said by one off tailwinds in all business segments. Moving now to Slide 8, you will notice that the quarter's total revenue in our Materialise Medical segment increased by almost 8%, building further on an already strong revenue growth in 2023. This solid growth was generated by both medical software and by revenue coming from medical devices sales, which grew respectively by 6% 9%. Adjusted EBITDA grew further to €7,900,000 with an adjusted EBITDA margin that remained stable at 30.3%. Slide 9 summarizes the results of our Materialise Software segment. Speaker 300:14:06In the Q1, software revenue decreased by 8% to €10,400,000 However, recurring revenue from software maintenance and license sales, including CoAM, increased by 4%. On the other hand, nonrecurrent revenue further decreased by 31%, driven by the accelerated transition from perpetual license sales to cloud and subscription based agreements, but also by the more difficult market conditions. Accordingly, adjusted EBITDA decreased to €1,100,000 representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.4%. Now let's turn to slide 10 for an overview of the performance of our Materialise Manufacturing segments. In the Q1, manufacturing continued to operate in a difficult market environment. Speaker 300:14:58Compared to a strong Q1 2023 and as a result of low prototyping demand, revenue decreased by 11% to €27,000,000 On the other hand, we noticed promising further growth of our certified manufacturing business, in particular, in MedTech and Aerospace market segments. Adjusted EBITDA dropped to €1,500,000 and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 5.7%. Slide 11 provides the highlights of our consolidated income statement for the Q1 of this year. As you will notice, we increased our gross profit margin by 60 basis points to 56.5 percent compared to 55.9 percent in Q1 of 2023, which compensated part of the lower revenue. Our operating expenses in the quarter increased by €1,800,000 or 5.5 percent in aggregate, with the biggest increase coming from the higher R and D spend. Speaker 300:16:01Net operating income in the quarter was positive with €800,000 compared to €500,000 last year. As a result of these elements, the group's operating result in the quarter was €2,600,000 compared to €5,000,000 in last year's periods. In Q1, net financial income amounted to €1,500,000 including a positive currency exchange result of €700,000 interest income of €1,200,000 from our cash reserves and interest expense on our financial debt of €400,000 Income tax expense in the quarter amounted to €500,000 compared to €700,000 last year. As a result, net profit for the Q1 was positive at €3,600,000 representing €0.06 per share, coming very close to the net profit of €3,700,000 or also €0.06 per share for the corresponding 2023 periods. Now please turn to Slide 12 for a recap of balance sheet and cash flow highlights. Speaker 300:17:09In the Q1 of this year, our balance sheet remains strong. Our cash reserve increased to €129,000,000 by the end of the quarter. Loan and lease repayments reduced our gross debt to below €60,000,000 The resulting net cash position at the end of the quarter was €69,000,000 an improvement by €6,000,000 compared to the position at the beginning of this year. Our trade receivables and trade payables positions both decreased, while inventories remained stable. The total deferred income position increased further to €52,000,000 out of which €45,000,000 was related to deferred revenue from software licenses and maintenance contracts as already mentioned. Speaker 300:17:56As you can see from the graphs on the right of the page, cash flow from operating activities for the Q1 was high and amounted to €10,000,000 while capital expenditures for the quarter amounted to €2,800,000 all of which were internally financed. And with that, I'd like to hand the call over to Birgitte again. Speaker 200:18:16Thank you, Gun. Let's turn to Page 13. I'll conclude my remarks with a discussion of our full year 2024 guidance. The fundamentals of our 3 business segments are strong, and we therefore remain confident that we are well positioned to deliver on our growth objectives. We continue to expect to report consolidated revenue for the full year 2024 within the €265,000,000 to €275,000,000 range we communicated in our prior earnings call. Speaker 200:18:49We are also maintaining our adjusted EBIT guidance of €11,000,000 to €14,000,000 for the fiscal year. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we're now ready to open the call for questions. Operator00:19:04Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer Our first question comes from the line of Alexander Kramersch of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is now open. Speaker 400:19:37Hey, good afternoon. Brigitte and Coen, and thank you for that presentation. A couple of questions from Kepler Cheuvreux side. I'm a bit surprised at how many times you stressed that Q1 2023 was exceptional, especially in manufacturing. So that was definitely not as stressed as last year. Speaker 400:19:56So could you maybe elaborate on what was so exceptional? And then are you also indicating to us, the markets, that these are also not realistic numbers in the next years in manufacturing? And then second question would be, you also stressed that the Medical segment was exceptionally strong in Q1, 2023, yet you were able to book better results than last year. So why was one exceptional different than the other exceptional? And then the third question would be on the low CapEx levels. Speaker 400:20:28You're building the AC Tech plant that's coming up live in H2 2024. Why was there not a lot of CapEx coming into the cash flow statement? I was just wondering why that was exactly, whether those projects are either being delayed or and then maybe on the ACTech, following up on that specific topic, I was just wondering, with the Astec plant coming up, whether you're not fearing any overcapacity considering that the volumes of and manufacturing are trending lower? I'll keep it there, wait for my colleagues then and then maybe ask some questions afterwards. Speaker 200:21:09Thanks, Eikhan, for all the questions and for joining the call. So I'll maybe start answering and then I'll let Koen fit in for the CapEx question. So your first question on the exceptional manufacturing results. So last year, well, essentially, your question being are these structural or not and what can we expect for the future. If we look at what happened in the Q1 last year in manufacturing, I see a structural part and a nonstructural part. Speaker 200:21:39Let me explain what I mean. So the results last year were driven the exceptional results last year were driven by 2 main factors. One is that our AgTech business had very strong revenues at that point in time. Over the last couple of quarters, we have noticed that we are capacity constrained at AgTech, which leads to the revenues being lower than what we think or what we strongly believe is possible in the market. And with the capacity extension that we are now planning, we believe that, that gives us a road towards further increase and growth of those revenues going forward. Speaker 200:22:17So I think there's a structural element at AgTech that gives us a path towards future growth in the manufacturing segment. The second driver of that exceptional results last year is not so structural, I would say, and which is why we call it exceptional. What was this? You might know that as part of our services within the manufacturing unit, we deliver consulting services to customers. And consulting services as such have the beauty of when we have these contracts that they come at a very healthy profitability for us. Speaker 200:22:57But the nature of those consulting services is that you don't necessarily have a recurring element because once this consulting project is over, you start from scratch. And we had a very strong revenue component in our Q1 last year on that business line specifically. And that's honestly, in all transparency, I'm not confident that we will be able to repeat that every single quarter going forward. So the answer on manufacturing is a bit mixed. But yes, there is a structural element there that gives us a path towards future growth as soon as we have resolved the capacity constraint at Artech. Speaker 200:23:40Switching into Medical, which was your second question. So yes, we had an exceptional quarter last year, essentially because we were able to take for a specific period of time, we were able to take on business from another party in the market and wasn't able to deliver for a certain time. And we benefited from that in the last in the Q1 last year. Now despite that exceptional growth number of 33%, we delivered even stronger growth on top of that this year. And that is I referred to it in my remarks, we have been able to break into this trauma segment, which is an additional market segment for us, which has large potential, and we have proven this year in the Q1 that we can actually access that potential with the short lead times that we can offer. Speaker 200:24:37And again, that gives us a path to continued further growth on that baseline that we have seen. And that's one of the drivers of that additional growth despite a very strong Q1 last year. And then I'll hand it over to Koen for the CapEx question regarding AgTech. Speaker 300:24:59Yes. So on AgTech, I can confirm, Alexander, that the investment program is in full execution and this is still fully on track to have a start up of the plant later on in this year as we've indicated before. Now the reason why the investment is limited in the cash flow statement of the Q1 is because we include of course only the cash component of CapEx investments in our cash flow statement. And you will see that there is a ramp up of investments that are being made, but where the cash out has not been made to the suppliers and will typically come or mainly come in the Q2 and Q3 of this year. That is because at that point also the machinery will be installed in the factory and will be started up. Speaker 300:25:46And the way we have negotiated most of the contracts with these suppliers is that the bulk of the payment is a delivery of the machinery, which is going to take place is taking place in the coming weeks. And of course, then there is also a payment term to be applied. So you will see a different picture for sure in the Q2 and partly also the Q3 and with the deferred the late payments related to Agtech Investments. Speaker 400:26:15Could you maybe indicate there how much we need to foresee in terms of CapEx maybe just for the full year but then maybe for Q2 and Q3 specifically? Speaker 300:26:26I think we've always indicated the total order of magnitude of the investment is around €30,000,000 and upwards and it will depend will come in several stages. But that has been spread over a number of years. So I think I don't have the exact number. It will also depend on the exact timing of what will be delivered when. But I think you can expect that our free cash flow, as I've indicated also in last call, might be negative in the Q2 and driven by this nonrecurring CapEx. Speaker 400:27:02Okay. Thank you for that. Speaker 200:27:06Thank you, Orestina. Operator00:27:15Our next question comes from the line of Jacob Stephen of Lake Street. Your line is now open. Speaker 500:27:22Yes. Hey, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe could you just kind of give us an indication in the manufacturing segment? How have project volumes been trending? I know you said prototyping has been weak, but maybe just kind of overall project size, if you can give us a sense for that? Speaker 200:27:44Jacob, thanks for the question. And when you say project size, you refer to an indication of what our average type of project is in terms of the revenue driven by? Speaker 300:28:00Yes. Speaker 200:28:01And it's a hard one to say because the manufacturing segment is such as composed of so many different components. I think in general, when we look at our core manufacturing segments, so the core three d printing services that we offer, What we have indicated is that we want to make and we see the shift from prototyping to certified manufacturing. And in general, the certified manufacturing projects are slightly larger than our prototyping projects. Now I can't give you an exact number, but that is certainly a shift that we see and that we will continue to see going forward. Now if you then put in the mix, AgTech and the other business lines that we have, It's a very different structure in terms of the order sizes, etcetera. Speaker 200:29:00So I can't give you an exact pneumonia question, honestly. Speaker 500:29:06Okay. You said that you shipped the first products in Q1 here from the Michigan facility. Is that correct? Speaker 200:29:14In the medical, well, so no. So we shipped the first product from our Michigan facility last year in August, and we started ramping up that facility. So we were up and running in 2023. What we now have done in the Q1 is access the trauma market that I was talking about. And those are products that require very short lead times. Speaker 200:29:38And we have done that out of our U. S. Manufacturing facility now, which has enabled us to get into the U. S. Trauma market. Speaker 200:29:46That's essentially a type of a new product line in that facility, which gives access to that large market segment. Speaker 500:29:53Okay. And maybe you could just kind of give us a sense on how things are trending as we are a month into kind of Q2 here. But maybe just help us kind of think about where you're seeing the most opportunity in that trauma space? Speaker 200:30:10Yes. So I think the trauma opportunity remains a large one for the rest of the year in the medical business. The way you should look at that is probably to say that in the Q1, we were cautious because we first wanted to make sure that we were able to deliver in those short time lines. We are seeing confirmation that we are able to bring that offering successfully to the market. So that definitely will stay a growth driver for the remainder of the year and beyond. Speaker 200:30:46And that is for that particular Trauma segment. I think the other one that I referred to in my remarks as a growth driver is an important one too. And it's on the more on the software side with more and more personalization being done in the market, the parties bringing personalized cases to the market will face more volume and with that need a system that helps them stay organized and do that in an efficient and effective way. And that's what our Mimics Flow product does. So despite the fact that we're still in a limited launch, we've seen traction there in the Q1. Speaker 200:31:26And I would expect that as well in 2024 and beyond to stay a nice opportunity for us. Speaker 500:31:35Okay, great. Thank you. Speaker 200:31:36Specifically for the Medical segment. Speaker 500:31:38Okay. Yes. No, I appreciate the color. I will turn it over. Thank you. Speaker 200:31:44All right. Thank you, Jacob. Operator00:31:46Thank you. Speaker 500:31:57Thank Operator00:32:01you. Our next question comes from the line of Kieran McCabe of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now open. Speaker 600:32:09Thank you for taking my call. I'm calling for Troy Jensen. My first question was maybe R and D was about 16% of revenue and continue to make investments for sustainable growth. I was wondering maybe you can set some details or color sort of on the strategy or plan for continued investments in R and D and sort of the timeline of payoff of those investments? Where do we kind of see R and D going for the year and into next year and sort of the benefits from those investments, the timing of that? Speaker 200:32:45Yes. So let me maybe give you a little bit of color on our high 16% R and D spending. So the R and D efforts that we're doing at this point in time are really going into a number of our strategic priorities that I also referred to in my remarks. The first one is that on the medical in the medical segment, we still have significant untapped market opportunities, where we have taken first steps, but we do believe that there is a significant market potential. I'm talking about markets like the respiratory field, the cardiovascular or structural heart field. Speaker 200:33:31Those are markets that are still relatively new for us and where it is untapped potential of NSR and D efforts going into those markets. The second main strategic priority is on the software side. For our software unit, specifically, I talked to the priority that we have to tap into the growth that is in the market for in the area of manufacturing of end use products. And that is where in terms of our product portfolio, we still make significant investments to bring appropriate offerings into the market to tap into that growth potential. I think that gives you a bit of color as to what are the what type of R and D investments are driving to a large extent the 16% that we talk about. Speaker 200:34:28Now to your question, what is our view on those investments going forward? The new markets that we are want to tap into, we will certainly not be at the end of our efforts there in the next couple of quarters. I think there is still significant R and D investments going forward that we are planning to do. We see those untapped markets and market expansions. And as a market leader, we want to take the advantage of being one of the first in those market segments and take the lead there. Speaker 200:35:12And therefore, I would expect our R and D spendings to remain at least in the area of what we are spending today. Speaker 600:35:22Right. Thank you. And my other question was, I think you recently quoted an article talking about replicating some of the success that the medical segment has had trying to replicate that in the other segments. I was wondering if you could provide any kind of details on the strategy or practices that you're looking to apply to the other segments to really kind of replicate that success that you've seen in the medical? Speaker 200:35:45Yes. So I think the there's a couple of strategies or retractions that we've seen have led to success in the medical market that we'll seek to apply in the other markets as well. I mean, Additive Manufacturing is a growth segment still. And selecting carefully where we play and how we play with the deliberate market strategy is and setting continuously setting the right priorities, focusing our efforts there where we see we have the highest chances of a return on our investment. That's what we've done in the medical market, making clear choices about what are the markets we want to serve and how do we want to serve them and focus. Speaker 200:36:35I think that is certainly an effort or it's a reflection that we want to apply to other markets as well. Speaker 600:36:44Great. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Speaker 200:36:47Thank you, Kieran. Operator00:36:49One moment for our next question. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alexander Kramersch of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is now open. Speaker 400:37:05Hey, Jose. Just maybe one more question on the Kuvan platform. So that was back in the time a significant investment also on the back of an acquisition. So could you maybe just give us an indication where that stands today? How that the demand is moving? Speaker 400:37:23Were you able to increase the prices? Because if I look at the Q1, where it was not exceptional as far as I understood it, in 2023. So I just see 8% decrease in sales. So yes, I see there that the subscription fees rose by 4%. Does that then imply that basically the volumes are down? Speaker 400:37:50Or how do I need to see this? Speaker 200:37:53No, I don't think you can conclude that from the numbers. So let me talk to OEM and the strategic importance of that. And you're absolutely right, we have invested a lot in COEM in the past. And it is an absolutely critical driver of our growth going forward. Why? Speaker 200:38:15Because I talk a lot about that shift in the market from prototyping to end use products. And that's the shift that we want to tap into with our software unit. And CoEM plays a major role in that because CoEM is one of the vehicles that we could use to cater the needs of those customers that are additively manufacturing end use products and that needs to scale. They need offerings and systems that help them to do this efficiently and effectively. And OEM is the vehicle to do that. Speaker 200:38:51In my remarks, I mentioned one of the functionalities that we brought out now in the Q1 that is based on Covium and that is the QPC modules to the quality and process control functionality, which that's exactly that. It helps customers that really want to scale in the production of end use products and that they need to have better tools to monitor the quality, monitor their process and capture that data to scale efficiently and provide their products at an appropriate market I don't know, appropriate cost to their markets. So OEM stays an absolutely critical element in our strategy to tap into that market where we see growth, and it is the perfect vehicle. Now we did an acquisition to at least get the basis of this vehicle in house. But obviously, we continue to develop further on that vehicle. Speaker 200:39:58And on that basis, which again is what is reflected in our 16% R and D spend. Does that answer your question? Speaker 400:40:09Yes. But why are the sales down? Why are clients less interested in your software? Speaker 200:40:15Yes, but it's not less interested. Speaker 300:40:16At least Speaker 400:40:17that's the impression that the numbers give you, but probably I'm wrong. Speaker 300:40:20No, maybe what I can add to it Alexander is if you look at the number at a 4% increase that we've mentioned for recurring revenue that includes far more than just only our OEM platform. There is growth mainly on 2 components within recurring revenue that is first on CoAAM, secondly also on the switch to annual licenses. On the other hand, we see a decline, of course, if we do the switch from perpetual to annual licenses with regards to maintenance contracts. And maintenance contracts go down and historically there has been a large bulk. So when we do the transition from perpetual to annual that component goes down. Speaker 300:40:57So if you take the bulk of the 3, then overall, there is still an increase of about 4%. But there is various components within that. And also in the Q1, we can confirm that COEM continued to grow even if the product has more functionality is being added to it. Speaker 400:41:17Okay. Thank you. Operator00:41:20Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Brigitte de Wette, CEO, for closing remarks. Speaker 200:41:31Well, thanks again for joining us today. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with all of you through investor conferences or in 1 on 1 virtual meetings or call. And as you know, you can always reach out to us if you have any questions or if you need further clarification. Thank you, and goodbye for now. Operator00:41:53Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by