Panostaja Oyj’s Half-year Financial Report November 1, 2022–April 30, 2023

Panostaja Oyj          Half-year Financial Report         June 2, 2023 10.00 a.m.

Panostaja Oyj’s half-yearly report
November 1, 2022-April 30, 2023

Growth and good profitability development in the first six-month period

February 2023-April 2023 (3 months) in brief:

• Net sales increased in three of the four segments. Net sales for the Group as a whole improved by 6% and were MEUR 35.0 (MEUR 33.0).
• EBIT improved in two of the four segments. The Group’s EBIT decreased from the reference period to MEUR 0.1 (MEUR 7.9). The EBIT for the reference period includes MEUR 9.4 in sales profit from the SokoPro deal.
• Comparable EBIT improved for three of the four segments (Grano adjusted with the impacts of the SokoPro divestment).
• Grano’s net sales for the review period increased by 7% from the reference period in the previous year. EBIT totaled MEUR 0.8 (MEUR 8.6). The reference period EBIT includes the SokoPro sales profit of MEUR 9.4.
• Earnings per share (undiluted) were -1.1 cents (7.2 cents).
  
  

November 2022-April 2023 (6 months) in brief:

• Net sales increased in three of the four segments. Net sales for the Group as a whole increased by 2.5% to MEUR 70.5 (MEUR 68.8).
• EBIT improved in two of the four segments. The Group’s EBIT decreased from the reference period to MEUR 0.2 (MEUR 7.0). The EBIT for the reference period includes MEUR 9.4 in sales profit from the SokoPro deal.
• Comparable EBIT improved for three of the four segments (Grano adjusted with the impacts of the SokoPro divestment).
• Grano’s net sales for the review period increased by 2.4% from the reference period. EBIT was MEUR 1.6 (MEUR 9.0), including the SokoPro sales profit of MEUR 9.4. Net sales for the review period increased by 5.4% from the reference period net sales that were adjusted based on the SokoPro sale.
• Earnings per share (undiluted) were -2.5 cents (5.9 cents).
  
  

CEO Tapio Tommila:

"The first half of the financial period mainly progressed positively for our segments, and we have been able to push our operations toward our goals on a broad scale. Our clear focus in this financial period has been in improving the profitability of our business operations, and we have succeeded in driving profitability improvements across all of our segments – particularly with regard to Grano’s sales profit measures. Grano’s growth has also been at a good level, and the demand situation as a whole has remained stable.

At Hygga, we have put a massive amount of work into improving the profitability of the clinic business amid the pressure imposed by the challenges with employee availability in the field, and the work continued with the new CEO has begun to yield good results. At Oscar Software, we have focused on ensuring a good level of profitability, along with growing the continuously invoiced software business and investments aiming at a full transition to a cloud-based software platform. The progress has been good, but the unfortunate cyber attack on some of Oscar Software’s systems in March caused one-off costs and delayed new projects. That said, I am proud of the Oscar Software team who stepped up in the difficult situation and minimized the detriments caused to our customers. We naturally are continuing our measures to continuously improve data security at Oscar Software and all of our segments. As regards CoreHW, customer project activity for design services remained high, but our project profitability suffered somewhat due to the slow progress of certain technically challenging projects.

During the review period, we carried out a substantial additional investment in the development and commercialization of the company’s own product business by allocating almost MEUR 4 in extra funding to bolstering the product development and commercialization measures of the indoor positioning solutions. Our clear goal is to achieve significant sales volumes for component products in the next financial period.

Even though the number of completed deals has dropped from the peak levels in the corporate acquisition market, there have been fairly active discussions and new projects are being initiated. However, the high price expectations of the sellers are hampering the deals in some cases. For our part, we will continue to actively explore corporate acquisition opportunities in our own target sectors.”

Financial Development November 1, 2022-April 30, 2023

Panostaja Group’s business operations for the current review period are reported in five segments: Grano, Hygga, CoreHW, Oscar Software and Others (parent company and associated companies).

One associated company, Gugguu Group Oy, provided a report for the review period. The impact on profit/loss of the reported associated companies in the review period was MEUR -0.1 (MEUR -0.1), which is presented in a separate row in the consolidated income statement.The development of Gugguu’s net sales and EBIT has been commented on more specifically in the Segments section.

Outlook for the 2023 Financial Period

As regards the corporate acquisition market, new opportunities are available and the market is active. SMEs will still need to utilize ownership arrangements and growth opportunities, but the consistently high market liquidity and the high price expectations of sellers, which tend to follow changes in economic trends with some delay, make the operating environment challenging for corporate acquisitions. We will continue exploring new possible investment targets in accordance with our strategy and assess divestment possibilities as part of the ownership strategies of the investment targets.

It is thought that the demand situation for different investments will develop in the short term as follows:

• The demand for Oscar Software and CoreHW decline to satisfactory.
• The demand of Grano and Hygga will remain satisfactory.

The demand situation presented above involves uncertainties relating to any geopolitical and macroeconomic impacts that are difficult to anticipate. The effects of the war in Ukraine and the related economic sanctions and geopolitical tensions will increase economic uncertainty in Finland and abroad, which may negatively impact segment demand or the availability of materials, and thereby material prices and delivery capabilities. If strengthened and prolonged, the Inflation may have a negative impact on the purchasing power of consumers and the willingness of companies to make investments, which may weaken the demand situation of our segments from the estimate provided above. 

Panostaja Oyj

Board of Directors

For further information, contact CEO Tapio Tommila, +358 (0)40 527 6311

Panostaja Oyj
Tapio Tommila
CEO

Panostaja is an investment company developing Finnish companies in the growing service and software sectors as an active shareholder. The company aims to be the most sought-after partner for business owners selling their companies as well as for the best managers and investors. Together with its partners, Panostaja increases the Group's shareholder value and creates Finnish success stories.

Panostaja has a majority holding in four investment targets. Grano Oy is the most versatile expert of content services in Finland. Hygga Oy is a company providing health care services and the ERP system for health care providers. CoreHW provides high added value RF IC design services. Oscar Software provides ERP systems and financial management services.

Attachment

• Panostaja Oyj Half-year Report 2.6.2023