First Quarter Report 2024
April 29 2024 - 6:00AM
First Quarter Report 2024
Serstech Group - Key Figures
- Net sales amounted to KSEK 14 174 (12 337), an increase of
15%.
- EBITDA amounted to KSEK 1 368 (1 305), corresponding to an
EBITDA margin of 10%.
- EBIT amounted to KSEK -522 (-1 642), corresponding to an
EBIT margin of -4%.
- Cash flow from operating activities amounted to KSEK 1 627
(-1 570).
- Earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.00 (-0.01).
- Earnings per average number of shares amounted to SEK
-0.00 (-0.01).
Message from the CEO
The strong growth that resumed in 2023 continues into 2024, and
by the end of the quarter, the total order intake was above 25.6
MSEK. We invoiced 14.1 MSEK of these in Q1, with the remaining 11.5
MSEK to be invoiced and delivered in April. Despite the rapid pace
of orders and increasing volumes, we continue to deliver on time on
all orders. The operational cashflow for Q1 was 1627 KSEK and
EBITDA 1368 KSEK.
Several of the orders we received were repeat orders from
existing customers – in Singapore, South Korea and Chile. In our
early commercial phase, in 2018 and 2019, every order was the first
time we sold in a country and the first time a new partner made a
sale. As partners become more experienced and Serstech becomes more
established, our effort for each order is reduced and our sales
team can increase their focus on business development and to
strengthen and help partners that are yet to make their first
sale.
We added a European Sales Director in December, and a Senior
Optics Specialist joins our Swedish R&D team in April. With
these two persons in place, we have no further open positions and
have no need to expand the team further in 2024. In 2023, we
focused our efforts on creating an efficient, well-defined
organization and making sure all processes were in place. As a
result, we are confident that we can continue our growth journey
without adding any significant fixed cost for at least the rest of
the year.
For almost 18 months, we have been working on our next
generation Raman instrument. The new product is launched in April
2024, and is called Serstech Arx mkII. The new instrument has the
same appearance and almost the same name as the current one. The
similarity is intentional, to allow us to replace the previous
products in already ongoing sales projects without disruption. The
Serstech Arx mkII contains latest-generation electronics, which
reduces the risk of component shortage and speeds up the substance
matching speed significantly. Optical upgrades dramatically improve
its ability to obtain chemical spectra and the significantly
improved algorithms improve the matching against our libraries. We
also launch a mobile version of ChemDash, a biotoxins reference
library, communication protocols for military networks and
Bluetooth for connection to peripheral devices.
The military communication capability will strengthen our
position in the US and with Nato customers. In the past,
communication to and from Raman instruments has been uncommon, but
we are starting to see requirements for this now. Our software and
connectivity focus has put us in pole position to grab these
opportunities over the coming years. The military network
communication module we added will make Serstech Arx mkII the first
and only Raman product that can function in US military networks
and with military infrastructure.
We expect to remain at or above our long-term goal of at least
50% growth per year on average over a five-year period. The market
remains larger than normal, driven by the pent-up demand from the
pandemic, the increasing narcotics problems, the war in Ukraine and
the risk of war in other regions. In 2024, one of our focus areas
is to reduce our COGS to allow a continued increase of our gross
margins, while maintaining a similar fixed cost level as in 2023.
We expect to be debt-free by September 2024 and based on the
growing opportunity pipeline, we believe that we will continue to
improve our net profitability over the coming years.
Stefan Sandor, CEOApril 2024
For further information, please
contact:Stefan Sandor,CEO, Serstech AB Phone: +46 739 606 067Email:
ss@serstech.com
or
Thomas Pileby,Chairman of the Board,
Serstech AB Phone: +46 702 072 643Email: tp@serstech.comor visit:
www.serstech.com
This is information that Serstech AB
(publ.) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse
Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through
the agency of the contact person set out above at 12:00 CET
on April 29, 2024.
Certified advisor to Serstech is
Svensk Kapitalmarknadsgranskning AB (SKMG).
About
SerstechSerstech delivers solutions for chemical
identification and has customers around the world, mainly in the
safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police
authorities, security organizations and first responders. The
solutions and technology are however not limited to security
applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some
kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech’s head
office is in Sweden and all production is done in Sweden.Serstech
is traded at Nasdaq First North Growth Market and more information
about the company can be found at www.serstech.com