B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 22, 2023

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the BOS conference call. All participants are at present in listen only mode. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available on the BOS website as of tomorrow. Before I turn the call over to Mr.

Operator

Cohen, I would like to remind everyone that forward looking statements for the respective company's business, financial condition and results of its operation. This meeting is being recorded. These are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated. Such forward looking statements include, but are not limited to product demand, pricing, market acceptance, changing economic conditions risks and product and technology development and the effect of the company's accounting policies as well as certain other risk factors, which are detailed from time to time in the company's filings with the various securities authorities. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr.

Operator

Eyal Cohen, CEO.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Thank you

Speaker 2

for joining our call today. On the call with me today, Mr. Ziv Beckert, Chairman and Moshe Zeltzer, CFO. I'm excited to launch our new conference call for Mark through Zoom, which is live with the management presentation. The result of the first half of the year twenty twenty three were above our expectation.

Speaker 2

Compared to the first half of twenty twenty two, revenues grew by 11%, EBITDA by 56% and net income by 168% and the EPS by 144%. In 3 years' perspective, our performance has been improved very consistently. Compared to year 2020, our last 12 months revenue grew by 31% to $44,000,000 Our EBITDA increased by 342 percent to $3,100,000 and net loss of $1,000,000 in year 2020 turned into income of $2,100,000 in the last 12 months ended June. Our balance sheet has significantly strengthened over those years. Our shareholders' equity increased from $12,000,000 at the end of 'twenty year 'twenty to $18,000,000 on June 23.

Speaker 2

Our bank loans remain roughly the same around $2,000,000 The business trend that impacted our business result in the first half of this year were intense demand from the Israeli defense market that has positively affected the growth of our supply chain division. Those demands are attributed to the military conflict in Europe and in the Middle East. Those demands will probably continue to support our supply chain division growth this year. Our robotic division is in transitioning toward the Israeli defense market and currently most of our project in process are attributed to one of the major defense companies in Israel. There are signs of slowdown in the Israeli civil market, which negatively impacted the RFID revenues in the Q2 of this year.

Speaker 2

Our growth strategy is based on both organic growth and M and A. The key elements of our organic growth plan are strengthening our competitiveness by adding more brands to our existing offering, developing new markets by expanding our offering with complementary technologies and keeping the high market presence through trade shows and digital market. At this stage, I want to return the call to Mr. Zvi Teke, our Chairman, who will elaborate on our M and A strategy. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Eyal, and good morning and afternoon to everybody. The second dimension of our growth planning is, as Eyal mentioned, the M and A strategy. Within this framework, the typical profile of the target acquisition is of 5 criteria. The first criteria will be that the company, the acquisition company has a strong competitive position with last 3 years of profitable results track record. The second one, the second criteria is that in terms of the company's business model, it will be of a significant high portion of recurrent revenues and not projects.

Speaker 1

Market dynamics reflect an attractive market conditions such as growth, level of innovation, fundamentally high margins and so on and so forth. The 4th and 5th elements are off. 1 will be the size of the target company of which we wish it would be it would exceed $5,000,000 of annual revenues and our planned investment is up to $5,000,000 with target equity share of around 51%. Thus, we are also hedging our forward looking risk. To define the scope of our search, we first need to categorize BOS as our business scope.

Speaker 1

As it will be the basis for leveraging comparing or keeping our risk profile intangibles. RFID is our traditional hardcore business. Automation comes next, supply chain and high above is the improved technologies of innovation process representing the highest, the broadest scope of our capabilities know how and fine expertise. This slide is described our BOSSS specific scope of M and A in which we are going to focus. The scope is defined by the derivation of bosses around business, amongst our scope of business and scope of client.

Speaker 1

Our strategy is to include targets around our core business. Also we will look for targets in the adjacent to the core and it may be that we'll find some opportunities in the high level in the next core area, these targets will require are required to be very, very attractive. We run a structured process with the comprises of 6 phases. I will now take you along of each phase in order that you could be all aligned. The first phase is engage with an agent.

Speaker 1

This is done. We are currently engaged with 2 or 3 agents that are doing the search intensive and comprehensive search for us along the criteria that I elaborated further. The second phase is defining the scope of M and A. We're doing it currently together. 3rd phase is to have a to acquire a list of target companies.

Speaker 1

Phase 4 are the most attractive one we will do, meetings and then of course due diligence and raising the equity. 6 phases also is of course the closing phase. To look at the broader view, I trust all Bosch's team led by Eyal to win this challenging this very challenging process actually. And with the broader perspective actually of the overall to run and manage the overall company strategy and operational plan. Thank you all for your attention.

Speaker 1

I will now hand over back the presentation to Eyal. Thank you,

Speaker 2

Ziv. At this time, we will begin the Q and A session. If you have a question, please unmute and present Usually, Todd asks a question. I see that

Speaker 3

Hey, guys, can you hear me?

Speaker 2

Yes. We're exactly here.

Speaker 3

Congratulations on another great quarter. I was a little surprised that the revenues were that high given the devaluation of the shekel. Can you talk a little bit how that has affected you? I know a lot of your contracts were done in U. S.

Speaker 3

Dollars, but I thought it would have more of an effect on your revenue.

Speaker 2

Actually, the most of our revenues are quoted in dollar and the effect of the devaluation of the lease, again, the U. S. Dollar is mainly on our operational expenses on one side and on the other side, in the other direction, the effect on our financial expenses. When there is a devaluation, our operational expenses decreased, but our financial expenses increased For the financial report aspect, the strong dollar is good for the performance because of the effect on the operational expenses, which has a higher effect than the effect on the financial expenses. But on the long term, I think that the devaluation of the NIS causing to inflation, then after we have to upgrade and to update our employees' payroll.

Speaker 3

Okay. That's helpful. I was also wondering if you could comment on some of your growth. I know a lot is coming from the Israeli Defense Industry. In the last couple of years, you've had some new business with countries like Saudi Arabia and also moving into some new verticals, I think retail and clothing lines.

Speaker 3

Can you kind of talk about the growth and where this is coming from?

Speaker 2

Okay. The growth in the we are working in 2 segments. 1, the different segment, which is mainly come from the supply chain and recently also the robotic division did a transition to the defense market. And this market is growing by the sales to the Israeli players. We are not selling directly to the client of the Israeli manufacturers.

Speaker 2

We are selling to the Israeli manufacturer to their subcontractor around the world. And in the recent years, there are growing demands and all this industry growing very fast and consistently. So we have a very strong leg in this segment. In the civil segment, we have the it's a main business of the RFID division. And in the recent year, there were huge investment in logistics centers and this pushed the close of this division.

Speaker 2

And as I mentioned, in the recent quarter, in the Q2 of this year, we faced a sign of a slowdown. We hope it's temporarily, but we are doing a lot of actions to strengthen our competitiveness position in the market and to expand our product offering in order to continue the growth of this division.

Speaker 3

Okay. Thanks. I'll hop back in the queue. Congratulations to you and your team on an outstanding quarter.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Todd. Thank you very much. Any other question? Any other question?

Speaker 4

Hi, Yaron. It's Shuky. How are you?

Speaker 2

Hi, Choky. Good to see you.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Long time no see.

Speaker 2

Yeah. You had her in the last time that we talked.

Speaker 4

Yes, you know, time is doing the job. Eyal, I wanted to ask you about the Intelligent Robotics division. Yes. I see that in the Q2, you are around breakeven. Do you see another improving in the second half, let's say, to be a little bit profitable?

Speaker 4

Or what's the near future that you see for this division? And also I wanted to ask about the RFID division, which in the Q1 watch much better than the Q2 as you said, but do you see it stabilizing or do you think it won't be profitable in the near future or it will be stabilized on small net income more or less? What do you see?

Speaker 2

Okay. Thank you, Shuky. First, regarding the robotic division, today it's a small division. It had a lot of business risk because it's automation and its project. So we minimize the risk and we reduce significantly the size of this division.

Speaker 2

But still, it's a very important unit to be in the group because it had a great offer to our customers in the industrial segment and in the logistics segment. And we are in transitioning to the defense segment now and it's going very well. But still, it's a company that works on projects with a high risk. And our plan is that this division will be profitable. We reached to a brightening point and we hope and we work very hard that it will continue to be so in the next quarter and then after in the Q4 to generate profits.

Speaker 2

As much as we will extend the penetration to the defense market, I believe the ability to generate significant profit from this division will increase because we learn the customers, the negotiation in this industry is a little bit easier. They have a lot of budget, very rich, it's different to work different than the civil industry that competitions. We have license to work with the defense industry and we open the vendor, so it's an advantage. Regarding the RFID division, it has a direct link to the Israeli GDP. If the Israeli economy is going well, so it's growing.

Speaker 2

If it's not going well, so it's not growing. And currently, the civil market in Israel is in standby and we feel it we see it in the investment in the logistics centers, in the amount in the number of logistics centers that opened. But we hope that it's temporarily and we will see the continuing growth in the Israeli civil market. But still in this situation, we are working very hard to strengthen our competitive position advantage and to expand our offering to continue to grow. I don't see a risk of this division to turn into loss.

Speaker 2

I don't see such a scenario.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you, Eyal.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Any further questions? Okay. So thank you for being with us today and looking forward to meet you again on both third quarter call. Thank you again.

Speaker 2

[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED

Speaker 1

COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Thank you, everybody.

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Key Takeaways

  • H1 2023 financials: Revenues rose 11% YoY, EBITDA jumped 56%, net income soared 168%, and EPS increased 144%, while a three-year view shows revenue up 31% and EBITDA up 342%.
  • Defense market demand: Intense demand from the Israeli defense sector—driven by conflicts in Europe and the Middle East—fuelled supply chain growth, and the robotic division is transitioning most projects to major defense companies.
  • Civil market challenges: A slowdown in the Israeli civil market led to softer RFID revenues in Q2, prompting actions to strengthen competitiveness and expand product offerings, though management does not foresee losses for this division.
  • Growth strategy: The company pursues both organic expansion—adding brands, complementary technologies, and digital marketing—and an M&A strategy targeting profitable firms with high recurring revenues above $5 million, seeking ~51% equity stakes.
  • Currency effects: With most revenues in U.S. dollars, the shekel’s devaluation has lowered operating expenses more than it has raised financial costs, benefiting reported margins despite potential inflationary pressures on payroll.
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Earnings Conference Call
B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Q2 2023
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