Voxeljet AG (VJET) Q2 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Voxeljet AG  (NASDAQ: VJET) Q2 2022 earnings call dated Aug. 19, 2022

Corporate Participants:

Johannes Pesch — Director Investor Relations and Business Development

Ingo Ederer — Chief Executive Officer

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

Analysts:

Brian Kinstlinger — Alliance Global Partners — Analyst

Jacob Stephan — Lake Street Capital Markets, LLC — Analyst

Presentation:

Operator

Greetings. Welcome to Voxeljet AG’s Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time I’ll turn the conference over to Johannes Pesch, Director, Investor Relations, and Business Development. Johannes, you may begin.

Johannes Pesch — Director Investor Relations and Business Development

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. With me today are Dd. Ingo Ederer, Voxeljet’s Chief Executive Officer; and Rudy Franz, Voxeljet’s Chief Financial Officer. Yesterday after the market close, Voxeljet issued a press release announcing its second quarter financial results for the period ended June 30th, 2022. The release, as well as the accompanying presentation for this conference call, is available in the Investor Relations sections of the company’s website at voxeljet.com.

During our call, we may make certain forward-looking statements about the company’s performance, including expectations, and results [Phonetic] from our current order backlog. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and, therefore, one should not place undue reliance upon them. Forward-looking statements are also subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed, including the risks and uncertainties caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting uncertainty in the global economy. For additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in our forward-looking statements, you should refer to the cautionary statements contained in our press release as well as the risk factors contained in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Ingo, the Chief Executive Officer of Voxeljet.

Ingo Ederer — Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Johannes. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our earnings call today. Let’s turn to Slide 4. Our roots reach back to the year 1995, with the first successful dosing of UV-resins. In the context of a hidden project, initial 3D-printing tests were performed at the Technical University Munich. I co-founded on May 5, 1999 as a spinoff from the university with a clear vision in mind to establish new manufacturing standards. Today, we provide our customers a strategic competitive advantage to upgrading the existing conventional production methods to additive manufacturing solutions. We pushed technology boundaries and developed new generative processes for the series-production of complex components.

Let’s turn to Slide 5 where we describe our technology. In the additive manufacturing market, there are likely more than 10 different technologies, each with a specialized field of application. We use a technology called binder jetting. Binder jetting is especially suited for high-volume manufacturing because of its potential to scale. With our VJETX technology, we are pushing new boundaries.

On Slide 6, you can find a high-level overview of our company, including recently achieved milestones. We believe these will help us on our mission to establish new manufacturing standards. In recent months, we have probably seen some of the best order inflow for 3D printers we have ever had. Now the focus is on delivering these printers on time.

On Slide 7, you can see pictures of our production facilities in Germany, the U.S. and China. As you might have seen from the press release last week, we have entered into a sale leaseback transaction for our headquarters here in Germany. We expect gross proceeds of EUR26.5 million and plan to use the funds to repay our debt. We expect the transaction to close towards the end of the third quarter of 2022.

Now let me briefly explain our two business segments. In the Services segment, top left side of this slide we operate our own 3D printers in three facilities around the world to offer affordable, on-demand access to our technology. Demand in this segment has been outstanding in recent months in Europe and in the U.S., and we were basically at or over capacity for the whole time. The barriers to entry are very low as customers just need to send in the 3D data, and we will print parts for them. That is a great and easy way for our customers to understand new business opportunities in 3D printing. The short sales cycles in Services helps us balancing the typical long sales cycles in our Systems segment.

Customers come from various industries, including automotive, aerospace, general engineering, as well as art and architecture. In the U.S., one of our largest on-demand printing client is a supplier to a leading space exploration company. In our Systems segment, we manufacture and sell industrial-grade, high-speed, large-format 3D printing systems geared towards mass production of complex models, molds, and direct parts. Systems revenue also includes recurring revenue from the sale of consumables, maintenance contracts, upgrades, and other aftersales activities.

Let’s turn to Slide 8 and an illustration of the wide range of applications of our technology. We are encouraged by the many discussions that we are having with different players in a broad variety of industries. They are all seriously looking at adopting our technology for well-chosen [Phonetic] applications, and this interest is translating into orders. In recent months we have seen some of the best order inflow for our 3D printers ever. To give you some examples, there is, for instance, an innovative U.S. yard [Phonetic] company producing several thousands of advanced propellers with our technology. These new propellers have a shape that cannot be made conventionally. We have added more details on this exciting project in one of the other slides. A leading U.S. space exploration company is using our technology to make parts for their rockets more aerodynamic. There are car makers who use our technology to make their vehicles more lightweight and energy efficient. There’s a leading university in Zurich, Switzerland, the ETH, using our technology to make the most amazing concrete structures. And there are many more.

Let’s turn to Slide 9 and some thoughts on the additive manufacturing market. As you can see, Wohlers Associates projects growth to accelerate over the next years. This growth will be driven by a larger share of sales to manufacturing. I believe we are in an excellent position to capture our fair share of this growing market over the next years. Because that really differentiates us from the other players in the 3D printing industry, it’s our focus on solutions for manufacturing or industrial production at scale. We have been working with leading industrial OEMs since our foundation. We sold our first 3D printers to BMW and Daimler more than 20 years ago. Our technology has evolved significantly over the last years in terms of speed, accuracy, and the degree of automation of the whole process chain.

Slide 10 shows our global sales network and production footprint. As you can see, we have reached an established position in all major markets in Europe, U.S. as well as Asia. We have halted our activities in Russia and Belarus until further notice.

Turning to Slide 11. On the left side, we have summarized our USPs. We differentiate ourselves from our competitors by build size, material diversity, and speed. This leads to a complete set of industrial 3D printers to support critical, demanding applications and address the challenges and needs that are most important to our customer. Each model can be used with multiple material sets. For example, we offer the VX1000 3D printer for the printing of highly-accurate sandcasting models for ceramics or as a plastic polymerization printer.

On the bottom right side of this slide, you can see some of our new products. With these new printers, we believe we can increase our total addressable market considerably. We can target new applications within the existing customer groups, for example, VJETX. With high-speed sintering, we can address both new and existing markets, like for example audio equipment, automotive interiors and exteriors, ceilings, gaskets, valves, grippers, and other consumer products.

Let’s start with the formal part of the presentation on Slide 13. I will begin with an overview of the results for the second quarter, Rudy will then provide a more in-depth view of our financials for the second quarter and our outlook for the rest of 2022. Following his comments, we will be happy to take your questions. We are very happy with the results for the quarter and how the momentum has continued to build in recent months. We are extremely busy in our on-demand printing segment and won major orders for 3D printing systems. Very recently we signed an order for two printers worth over EUR2 million with [Indecipherable]. With the currently signed number of orders for 3D printers, we have already achieved our target for 2022.

Now we are working hard to make this — the deliveries and installations. Some time to be able to book revenue for these orders in 2022. Similar to many other companies, we continue to see some delays with our suppliers, especially for electrical components. We are working closely with our suppliers, and the support we receive is excellent.

Let’s look at the numbers in some more detail. Total revenue for the quarter increased 35%, with both segments contributing equally to this growth. Revenue in the on-demand 3D printing segment increased 36% year over year and absolute gross profit almost doubled. As mentioned earlier, it is great to see that this growth comes from a wide variety of applications. Projects for space exploration and yards [Phonetic] in U.S., large orders from the art and architecture sector here in Germany, components for cooling of parts in the electric vehicles in the U.K., and so on. The high utilization leads to excellent gross margins in this segment of roughly 40%. The high utilization is also means that each printing shop is fully packed and there’s less waste.

We mentioned in our earlier conference calls that on-demand printing revenue is a good leading indicator for future sales of 3D printers. This is exactly what we have seen in recent months, and especially in July and August, order inflow for 3D printers was one of the best we ever had so far. This makes us very optimistic for our Systems segment.

Looking at the right side of the slide and gross margins, we are very pleased with the high gross profit and gross profit margins in our Services segment of roughly 40%. Utilization is key and, as it was the case in the first quarter, we had more orders than printing capacity. In our Systems segment, gross profit margin from the sale of 3D printers slightly increased. The overall segment saw a decline in gross profit margin as a result of change in valuation allowance for inventories following our inventory reserve policy. This valuation allowance is a noncash item.

Let’s turn to Slide 14 and a quick update on a really exciting project, U.S.-based Sharrow Marine developed a new type of propeller that cannot be manufactured conventionally. On the left side of the slide, you can see a standard propeller and the corresponding turbulences it creates underwater. In the center of the slide, you can see the new propeller. It creates significantly less turbulences and the tip cavitation and vortices. This new design has several advantages, and it is up to 30% more energy efficient and creates more speed and also less vibrations for much better ride comfort. Sharrow Marine purchased two printers so far and also ordered a large amount of parts in our U.S. 3D parts production center. On the right side of the slide you can see the 3D printed pattern and the cast propeller in a close up. We believe that this part cannot be made with any other technology in higher quantities at comparable cost to our approach of printing the pattern and then casting it. On the bottom left side of the slide, we have included a link to a video of these propellers in action. It is really remarkable.

On Slide 15, we have provided a quick update on our high-speed sintering technology called grayscale printing. We have mentioned this in one of the earlier calls and can now show more details. With this technology, we can adjust the amount of ink on the voxel level. Remember, a voxel is a 3D pixel. Let’s start at the left side of this slide. Here we can see printing data that has been prepared with different levels of grey. This information is then sent to and processed by the print head by adjusting the ink amount on the voxel level. We can also filter the energy input and can avoid a detailing agent, which makes our technology cost efficient in production.

On the right side of this slide, you can see the results from this greyscaling effect. It enables functionality, graded, mono material components. This means that you can tailor, for example, the flexibility of a shoe sole to the specific needs of a person, and you can do it with only one material by adjusting the amount of ink we are currently trying to bring this technology from the 200 high-speed sintering to the larger production HSS printer.

On Slide 16, you can see some parts printed on the big high-speed sintering printer and an overview of the topics we have been working on. I would like to highlight that we have improved overall part quality and are already printing many benchmark parts for our customers. We identified a third potential beta client and are in advanced discussions with them. Also unattended operation of this large printer is now possible. This means we can, for example, run overnight jobs.

In the lower half of this slide, you can see some of the parts we have been printing. We have printed an air duct for a student-built racing car. After printing, it was colored and then mounted onto the car. It looks very impressive. Above that, you can see a car grill and a housing for vacuum cleaner robot. We continue to make progress with VJETX and are improving the stability and performance of the printer. We now have a large high-tech industrial microwave [Phonetic] in operation in our facility and Friedberg, similar to the ones at the carmaker. This allows us to develop the inorganics process further to an application in our standard VX1000 IOB printers. In the coming years, we believe there will be a lot of demand for this inorganic process because it creates no harmful emissions during casting and is fully environmentally friendly.

Regarding materials in high-speed sintering, we are currently exploring the use of PBT. This is a thermoplastic engineering polymer that can be used as an insulator in the electrical and electronics industries, for housings in electrical engineering, in automotive construction as plug connectors, and in household applications like showerheads or irons. Just recently we have put commercially available concrete powder from [Indecipherable] VX200, and we were able to print parts of good quality. We are now scaling this up to our larger platforms.

Slide 17 breaks down order backlog by quarters, revenue by geography, and operating expenses by category, then looking at revenue by geographic region. [Indecipherable] even distribution across the three regions to hedge against risk from local events. As mentioned earlier, we were able to win major orders for 3D printers in recent months, and our backlog is growing. We target to have at least a one-year backlog because that makes it easier to plan and optimize our production we are getting there.

To sum up the recent months, excellent growth rates and exciting projects in our on-demand printing segment, one of the best order inflows for our 3D printers, and good progress in key R&D projects. We are very excited about how the company is positioned and our opportunities ahead.

With that I would like to turn the call over to Rudy.

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Ingo, and good morning to everyone. As mentioned in previous calls, it’s our target to deliver long-term value for our shareholders through attractive growth, stronger margins, and optimal deployment of capital. Last week we entered into a sale and leaseback transaction of our headquarters in Friedburg. We are fully committed to our operation here in Germany and signed a 15 years lease term, with two consecutive five years extension option. The buyer is an institutional, unaffiliated real estate investor. We expect gross proceeds of approximately EUR26.5 million and the closing to take place towards the end of the third quarter.

With the proceeds, we plan to repay our financial liabilities. As we continue on our path towards profitability, the sale and leaseback transaction aligns with our objective to source nondilutive financing wherever possible and focus on our main business, which is developing, manufacturing, and selling high-tech industrial 3D printers. We’re very happy with how the business went in recent months, both in our Systems and Services segments.

Regarding COVID-19, we continue to work with some special measures in place around isolation and contamination protocols to ensure the safety of our employees and to reduce risk of operational disruption. We are monitoring the evolving situation carefully.

I will now take you through the financials for the second quarter of 2022. After that we are happy to take your questions. Turning to Slide 19. Total revenues increased 35.4% to EUR6.7 million for the second quarter of 2022 as compared to EUR4.9 million for the last year’s second quarter. Gross profit and gross profit margin increased to EUR2.1 million and 31.3% from EUR1.4 million and 28.6% for the second quarter of last year.

The next slide shows our segment reporting for the quarter in our Systems segment on Slide 20. We were able to collect major orders for 3D printers, especially in recent months. Revenues for the second quarter of this year increased 35% compared to the same period last year. Gross profit and gross margin for the quarter for the Systems segment were EUR0.9 million or 24% compared to EUR0.8 million and 28% for the second quarter of 2021. The gross profit margin for 3D printers slightly increased. The overall margin for this segment decreased as a result of a change in the valuation allowance for inventory following our inventory reserve policy. This is a noncash item.

Turning to Slide 21. Revenue from our 3D parts production center summarized in the Services segment. In Germany and the U.S. continues to be exceptionally strong and it’s great to see that the momentum is carrying on. In China, we saw strong sequential increase from the previous quarter this year. The second quarter was one of the best quarters we ever had in the April to June period in our demand for parts production. Services revenues increased 35.8% to EUR3.1 million and for the second quarter 2022 compared to EUR2.3 million for the same quarter of 2021. Services gross profit margin significantly increased to 39.7% for the second quarter of 2022 from 28.9% for the same quarter of 2021. The improvement was driven by strong gross margin contribution from our German and U.S. 3D parts production center. Absolute gross profits almost doubled to EUR1.2 million for this year’s second quarter from EUR0.7 million for the same quarter of last year.

Looking now to the rest of the income statement on Slide 22. Selling expenses increased to EUR1.9 million for the second quarter of 2022 from EUR1.5 million for the second quarter of last year. This increase was mainly related to higher distribution expenses in line with the increase in revenues. Distribution expenses like shipping and packaging are main driver of selling expenses and not only depend on the amount of revenue but also the quantities and types of products sold, as well as destination to which those products are being delivered. Therefore, distribution expenses can vary from quarter to quarter.

Administrative expenses were EUR1.5 million as compared to EUR2.0 million for the second quarter of 2021. This decrease was mainly related to significantly lower legal advisory fees related to our stock market listing and lower fees expended on financial institution in connection with fundraising activities. Research and development expenses were stable at EUR1.7 million. These expenses are usually driven by individual projects, especially through the consumption of material, as well as per demand of external services, it may vary significantly from quarter to quarter.

Operating loss was EUR2 million for the second quarter of 2022, compared to an operating loss of EUR3.9 million for the comparative period last year. The improvement was mainly due to a positive net impact from other operating income, higher gross margin, and lower administrative expenses. Net loss for the quarter improved to EUR1.8 million, or EUR0.26 per ADS, compared to a net loss of EUR0.5 million or EUR0.41 per ADS for the prior year’s same quarter.

We’ve provided the same presentation for the first half period ended June 30th, 2022, on Slide 23 through 26. Slide 27 shows select balance sheet items. At June 30th, 2022, the company had free cash of roughly EUR13 million. Total debt at June 30th, 2020, was approximately EUR27.5 million. As mentioned in the beginning, we plan to repay the debt with the proceeds from the sale and leaseback transaction and expect a closing of this transaction towards the end of the third quarter of 2022. Weighted average number of shares outstanding as of 30th June 2020 was 7,026,711 ADS. This is out of the current number of shares outstanding.

Moving now on to Slide 28 and our financial guidance for full year 2022, which remains unchanged. Revenue for the third quarter of 2022 is expected to be in the range of EUR5.5 million to EUR6 million.

This concludes my remarks. And with that, we will now open the call for your question. Operator?

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed with your questions.

Brian Kinstlinger — Alliance Global Partners — Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking my questions and great to see the order flow during the second quarter. My first question is about those bookings. I’m hoping we can get a little bit more information. You certainly talked about a lot of different projects. Can you share information such as how many customers ordered, what I calculated was, five printers? How many were repeat customers, industries, and even which printers potentially you sold? Anything you can share would be helpful.

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

Thank you for the question. Usually, we don’t share this in that detail you’re asking, Brian. What I can say is there is the five printers were sold to all new customers. Sharrow Marine was named in this presentation where we gave as well some more insights. And the booking of those printers is planned towards the second half of 2022, as well as the first half of 2023. The industries are, as I said, Sharrow Marine, in more way, engine technology automotive, renewable energy, I think these are currently the main projects where we see a high demand of equipment. Material sets sent, PMMA, again, positive for the demand of complex metal pieces.

Brian Kinstlinger — Alliance Global Partners — Analyst

Great. And you had mentioned on several occasions that one of the leading indicators is the Services business. So were these — how many of these 5 customers were previously Services customers, whether you were printing parts for them?

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

So I would say, almost every Systems customer was or is still a Services customer. So the Services segment is real cash flow positive marketing tool because initially we don’t have to oversell. Clients can send U.S. data sets, and we print the goods for them, which is a real good showcase. So as I said, every Systems customer was always a Services client. And the Services segment, that’s what we currently see as well, the high demand very likely comes from the geopolitical challenges all of us are facing and supply chain issues, we assume that those — we see those as well in 2023 and another driver is for sure that the industry really is seeing additive manufacturing or what we do as a standard process meanwhile and really start ordering high volume.

Brian Kinstlinger — Alliance Global Partners — Analyst

Great. And then I think in the press release you mentioned the challenges of the supply chain, which I assume is sourcing components for you, and your focus is on getting these built and delivered. Can you touch on whether there’s one or several components that you’re having trouble with? What the lead times look like, and anything that is in your control that can speed up the process?

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

High level we manage it very good. Our team is focused and very close with our suppliers. Critical components, and I’m sure you hear this everywhere, our electrical components, microchips, I think we’re getting closer and we get the parts, but it’s still a challenge, and we have to order a lot earlier and accordingly we have to accept the higher inventory. So lead times are a lot longer and accordingly we currently build our book for 2023 on the Systems side, and we already negotiate volumes with our suppliers to be on the safe side. Maybe, Johannes, you want to add something. It’s your department.

Johannes Pesch — Director Investor Relations and Business Development

[Indecipherable]. The critical parts are the electrical components in the electrical cabinet, but the supplier is really helping us nicely. We are chasing them and then we get the parts. So there’s a delay, but we will get them absolutely.

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Johannes.

Brian Kinstlinger — Alliance Global Partners — Analyst

And my last question relates to your large German auto OEM. Have they installed all the printers from the original order, if you could just remind me? And have they ordered additional printers since?

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

I’ll hand over to Ingo. So he’s working on this client.

Ingo Ederer — Chief Executive Officer

So to understand, whether we have…

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

All five printers are installed?

Ingo Ederer — Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we are in ongoing discussion with the client about further sales also with his suppliers. Such a car maker has a network of suppliers supplying similar or the same products at scale. And these discussions are ongoing, and we believe that we can gather further sales probably next year for the same technology.

Brian Kinstlinger — Alliance Global Partners — Analyst

Great. Thanks, guys. Thank you so much.

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

You’re welcome. Thank you, Brian.

Operator

Our next question is from the line of Jacob Stephan with Lake Street Capital. Please proceed with your questions.

Jacob Stephan — Lake Street Capital Markets, LLC — Analyst

Yeah. Hey, guys. Congrats on the good results and thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just touching on gross margin in the Systems segment, looks like they were down just slightly year over year. Is that mainly due to the product mix or the supply chain component constraints like we were just talking about?

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

As mentioned in the presentation, the decrease or the lower gross profit is primarily related to a one-time effect where we adjust or where we had to adjust our inventory, which went through this, if you would — that was a noncash item. If you would exclude this, gross margin would look very different. So overall, we are — pre this booking, we were very happy with the gross profit.

But you’re right, the gross profit margin is fluctuating, but in this specific quarter, there is a good reason for, as I said, before [Phonetic] this booking of inventory.

Jacob Stephan — Lake Street Capital Markets, LLC — Analyst

Okay. Yeah. No, that’s helpful. Thank you. And then maybe you just revenue in Asia, looked like it was up nicely sequentially and year over year. Could you just talk about the primary driver of that growth?

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

As mentioned, I think our clients are really seeing this technology as a standard technology and they build their own production plans against it. Ingo gave a good example of Sharrow Marine, for example. That product is designed for using a production process which is called additive manufacturing. I think the global supply chain issues are not only on microchips. We see this on other components as well. I think that pushes additive manufacturing as well. And we believe, as I said in the call, that going forward, we will see a lot more growth because that technology is meanwhile really an accepted and very robust technology where you really can start building production capacity against.

Jacob Stephan — Lake Street Capital Markets, LLC — Analyst

Okay. And is it maybe fair to say that EUR1.5 million from Asia this quarter was mostly Services revenue, but could potentially lead to some additional Systems revenue?

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

No, I think we signed up on one system and the rest is for sure service activities and aftermarket business components. But we signed up on one big printer in Q2.

Ingo Ederer — Chief Executive Officer

Interesting news [Phonetic] with this printer is that the facility is already prepared at this site for accepting multiple printers of the same type.

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

So it is — yeah we can’t say more about this, sorry.

Jacob Stephan — Lake Street Capital Markets, LLC — Analyst

Okay. Well, thanks again for taking my questions. Congrats on a solid quarter.

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We’ve reached the end of the question and answer session. I’ll turn the call over to Ingo Ederer for closing remarks.

Ingo Ederer — Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. We are pushing ahead with full speed and are very excited about the opportunities in front of us. Order inflow is one of the best we ever had, and we are working hard to deliver those printers on time. Hopefully, we can see many of you next month at the IMTS in Chicago. Have a great summer, and we look forward to speaking with you in our next earnings call, which we expect to take place in November, with results for the third quarter of 2022. Thank you and goodbye. Have a good weekend.

Rudolf Franz — Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

Thank you. Have a good weekend.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]