Earnings Call Transcript - NAAS Q3 2024

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the NaaS Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. John Wang, the company's Investor Relations Director. Thank you, and please go ahead.

John Wang, Investor Relations Director

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to NaaS third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. The company's results were issued earlier today and are posted online. Joining me on the call today are Ms. Kathy Wang Yang, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Steven Sim, our Chief Financial Officer. For today's agenda, Ms. Wang will provide an overview of our business highlights and Mr. Sim will discuss our operating results and go through our financial highlights. Before we continue, I refer you to our safe harbor statement in the earnings press release, which applies to this call as we will make forward-looking statements. Also, please note that this call includes discussions of certain non-IFRS financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release, which contains a reconciliation of non-IFRS measures to the most comparable IFRS measures. Finally, please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during this conference call are in RMB. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Ms. Kathy Wang Yang. Kathy, please go ahead.

Kathy Wang Yang, CEO

Hello, everyone. I'm NaaS' CEO, Kathy Wang Yang. Today, I'm excited to share our performance highlights for the third quarter of 2024 and update our investors on our business progress. First, I'd like to announce a significant milestone. After achieving operational breakeven in June during the second quarter, we delivered a positive non-IFRS net profit for the first time in a single quarter through strategic iteration, cost reduction, efficiency gains, and technological advancement. In the third quarter, our non-IFRS net profit reached RMB20.6 million. Our core charging services business reported revenues of RMB42.37 million in the third quarter, a year-over-year increase of 36%. By strategically concentrating on high-growth, high-margin core charging services, our overall gross margin has improved for four consecutive quarters, reaching an all-time high of 57% in the third quarter. This move is clearly producing positive outcomes. This quarter, we accelerated our strategic shift towards the core charging services business. This strategy is centered on fully leveraging our technological capabilities and analytical insights to meet the market's demand for AI-driven and digitalized charging resource allocation. Furthermore, by concentrating on our core business, we are unlocking greater profit potential, laying a more sustainable growth foundation for the company. We've also significantly reduced operating costs. For instance, selling and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased to 67% in the third quarter of 2024 from 160% in the third quarter of 2023, substantially improving our operational efficiency. Meanwhile, the number of users transacting through the NaaS platform grew by 30% year-over-year this quarter, with user activity hitting a record high. These achievements have directly enhanced the company's profitability. China's new energy vehicle market continues to grow rapidly. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, September 2024 saw record-breaking monthly production and sales of new energy vehicles, with domestic sales increasing by 45.5% year-over-year and the EV market share in new car sales continuing to surpass 50%. Amid this robust growth environment, our priorities for the fourth quarter of 2024 and full year 2025 will center on profitability, scale, and technology. We will continue to strategically focus on interconnectivity charging services, leverage technology and innovation to support growth on both the supply and demand side, and strengthen our industry position and enhance profitability by capitalizing on economies of scale. Next, please welcome our newly appointed CFO, Steven Sim, who will provide a detailed overview of our strategic progress along with our operational and financial performance. We're excited to have Steven join NaaS. Born and raised in Singapore and with over 20 years of experience in domestic and international capital markets, as well as a background in big four accounting firms and US-listed companies, he brings deep practical experience in corporate strategic expansion and financial management. We trust his extensive expertise will empower our business and create more value for our shareholders. Steven, over to you.

Steven Sim, CFO

Thank you, Kathy, for the warm welcome. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Steven Sim, the new Chief Financial Officer of NaaS. I'm delighted to join the team at such a pivotal time for our company and to review the substantial progress we've made for this quarter. We are intensifying our focus on core charging services, leveraging AI to optimize supply and demand connectivity. This shift, coupled with phasing out low-margin Energy Solutions, has improved profitability, with record high gross margins and our first positive quarterly non-IFRS net income. For details about the non-IFRS measures and reconciliation with IFRS measures, please refer to our press release. Our NEF platform enhances efficiency for charge point operators and shows promising monetization potential through collaborations like the Zhejiang Government Project. We are strengthening our EV charging ecosystem with key partnerships, including FAW-Volkswagen and IM Motors, and expanding our network of charge point operators and chargers. Notably, our October partnership in Fujian adds 100 stations and 1,600 chargers, enhancing connectivity and convenience. Our AI-driven NEF system optimizes charging operations and unlocks customer site benefits like subsidy allocations and better user experiences. Early success includes the Zhejiang platform, demonstrating NEF's value in boosting efficiency and monetization. On ESG, our sustainability remains central to NaaS. Our 2023 ESG report highlights efforts to expand green energy access and partnerships with initiatives like the Carbon Inclusive City Cooperation Alliance and China ESG Alliance, reinforcing our leadership in sustainable development. Through focused strategy, ecosystem growth, and innovation, NaaS is positioned for long-term success and value creation. Next, for our financial highlights. In Q3, we reached a major milestone by achieving our first-ever positive quarterly non-IFRS net income of RMB20.6 million, following our non-IFRS breakeven in June. For details about our non-IFRS measures and reconciliation with IFRS measures, please refer to our press release. This accomplishment reflects the strength of our strategic direction and operational execution. Charging Services revenue surged by 36% year-over-year reaching RMB42.4 million this quarter, a testament to the proficiency of our strategic focus on high-margin core offerings. This is due to our continuous expansion in both supply and demand sides, along with our technology development to keep improving efficiency. Energy Solutions revenue was RMB0.56 million, driven by our strategic shift to focus on high-margin platform business. The company exited Energy Solutions businesses through various ways. For example, we announced to sell Sinopower to our parent company, NewLink, in August 2024. Again, as mentioned earlier, we have been deliberately transitioning away from lower-margin, capital-intensive Energy Solutions projects to concentrate on our core charging services business, which offers higher growth potential and profitability. As a result, there was a substantial improvement in our gross profit margin, which reached a historical high of 57%, up from 29% in the same period last year. Cost efficiency remains central to our strategy for sustainable growth. In Q3 2024, we achieved significant reductions in operating expenses with sales expenses decreasing by 81% year-over-year, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of substantial declines. The substantial reduction in sales expenses was primarily driven by our improving sales strategies, operating efficiency, and customer subsidy schemes. As a result, despite these reductions, we maintained strong customer engagement with transaction users through the company's platform increasing by 34% year-over-year and user activity reaching record high. These results demonstrate that our disciplined cost management effectively supports engagement and market expansion without compromising performance. Our focus on scaling high-margin charging services supported by a 49% year-over-year increase in connected chargers and AI-powered tools like the NEF system, which optimizes charger placement, utilization, and dynamic pricing. These advancements are driving both profitability and efficiency as we expand. This quarter, we reduced sales expenses by 41.7% quarter-over-quarter and administrative expenses by 15.5% quarter-over-quarter, while transaction users grew by 34% year-over-year. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of our disciplined cost controls in supporting growth without compromising engagement. Looking ahead, our asset-light model enables us to scale efficiently while improving gross margins and delivering sustainable value for shareholders. By focusing on high-growth opportunities and leveraging technology, we are well-positioned to maintain this momentum in the coming quarters. This concludes our prepared remarks for today. We are now ready to take questions. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question comes from Ting Song with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Ting Song, Analyst

Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations on the positive profitability this quarter. I would like to explore the progress you have made on gross profit and margin improvement in the third quarter this year. Could you elaborate more on how you are able to make it and what we could expect in the future? This is my first question. And for the second one, I would like to ask for the improving operational efficiency this year, which is important to the company as you mentioned before, I would like to know more about your operational expenses trend and how you could significantly narrow your operational loss this quarter? Thank you.

Steven Sim, CFO

Thank you, Ting. Let me address your first question. In the third quarter of 2024, we saw a significant increase in gross profit by 19%, reaching RMB25.1 million, up from RMB21.1 million in the second quarter. This remarkable growth reflects our successful execution of strategy, focusing on high-margin revenue streams and effective cost control while taking advantage of the scaling benefits of our platform. Our gross margin also reached a record high, improving from 38% in the second quarter to 57% in the third quarter. This substantial improvement highlights the effectiveness of our strategy, concentrating on our core business and avoiding distractions from non-core, capital-intensive projects. Additionally, our margin growth has benefited from optimized operations and enhanced efficiency across departments. As we regularly review our departmental performance and overall operational efficiency, we will continue to engage in this process to support ongoing margin enhancements and sustained profitability. Looking ahead, we have mentioned in our prepared remarks that our goal is to deepen these efficiencies and maintain a strong gross margin. While this presents challenges as we expand alongside the increasing number of electric vehicles, we are confident in our ability to achieve further improvements in the coming quarters. Regarding your second question on operational efficiency, as I noted earlier, we have implemented aggressive cost control measures to maintain growth without compromise across all operational areas, resulting in significant reductions in expenses and operational losses. Selling expenses were reduced considerably, decreasing from RMB50.9 million in the second quarter to RMB29.7 million in the third quarter, reflecting our efforts to streamline resources and focus on cost-effective projects, such as optimizing customer subsidy policies and enhancing sales team efficiency. Administrative expenses related to R&D also saw a 15% reduction from the second quarter to the third quarter, amounting to a decrease of RMB8.9 million. As we scale, we expect to achieve more operating leverage, allowing our fixed costs to support higher levels of growth without a corresponding increase in fixed cost percentage. Overall, these efforts resulted in a 44% reduction in operational loss compared to the previous quarter, with total operating losses decreasing by RMB39 million from the second quarter. This reduction has been possible because of our proactive approach in identifying cost-saving opportunities and scaling down non-essential projects while maximizing resource efficiency. We will continue to pursue this focus and streamlined approach to unlock market potential. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from Amber Yu with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on your outstanding results. I have two questions. It seems your revenue composition is shifting rapidly and the margins are improving due to your strategic focus on your core charging service. Could you please talk about the background and why you made that decision and how has it been impacting the company's operations and financials? And my second question is, competition is tough in any market, and it seems NaaS has done so well. What competitive advantage does NaaS plan to leverage to maintain its leadership in a market like this? Thanks.

Steven Sim, CFO

Thank you, Amber. On your first question on the revenue composition and the focus on our core business, I think from day one, NaaS' strategy has been building a key platform business linking our customers to the various charging services. And going back to this core business, it's nothing new, except that it realigns our thinking in what the long-term value in the business will be. Therefore, our strategic focus is really a key initiative in our ongoing efforts to achieve not just profitability, but also to go back to what we do best in increasing the value of the platform. And unlike the Energy Solutions business, which we previously mentioned in the past quarters, that requires heavy investments and deep knowledge in operations, focusing on long-term lower-margin businesses. And we are retreating from that because we believe that business doesn't give our shareholders the best value. So, we are returning to a higher-margin asset-light business, allowing us to scale efficiently. This shift has already shown significant impact on our financials, with the company gross profit margins reaching a record high of 57%. Additionally, by simplifying our business lines and focusing on core services, we are able to better allocate resources to areas that drive growth in our users and on our costs, delivering better services to help our charging partners find more and better customers and deliver higher margins for them. So, this in turn will allow us to return more value to the platform and in turn to our users. That's the answer to the first question. On the second question on competition, I would say that we've done very well in a very competitively tough market. And I think that the whole point of really growing a platform business is to essentially focus on delivering values, as I mentioned in my last answer, to various stakeholders in the platform. To do so, we have a few distinct advantages. We have a key advantage through our advanced AI-powered analytics, which essentially takes in all our user behavior data, and these analytics provide real-time insights that enable operators to optimize operations dynamically and help users locate chargers instantly at an optimized price. These tools enhance charging efficiency, boost station utilization and profitability, and ensure a seamless experience for both operators and users. Secondly, our strong partnerships with ecosystem players, including OEM, charging operators, and energy companies, give us extensive market reach. As we grow in scale, these collaborations will allow us to expand infrastructure efficiently while fostering user loyalty and retention. Lastly, our asset-light platform enables scalable growth with minimal capital investments, helping us maintain a streamlined cost structure and profitability. I think this combination of tech, strategic partnership, and cost-efficient growth will enable NaaS to remain a leader in the evolving EV market, allowing us to be prepared to meet future competitive challenges. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from James Zhou with UBS. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Thank you for taking my questions. I'm very pleased to see that NaaS has achieved positive non-IFRS net profit for the first time this quarter. Looking ahead, can we anticipate sustainable profitability in the long term? My second question relates to the metrics affecting NaaS' financials. Specifically, what key trends are we observing in user subsidies, and how have these trends influenced the company's overall profitability?

Steven Sim, CFO

Thank you, James. First question on the profit and on the, I guess, what our expectation is moving forward, again, this quarter marked a significant milestone for us with quarterly non-IFRS net profit turning positive for the first time for the whole quarter, reaching RMB20.6 million in Q3 compared to negative RMB39.9 million in Q2 and negative RMB174 million in Q3 last year. So, on all aspects, quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year, it's a significant improvement. Obviously, we want to continue to drive the momentum to continue our profitability and to make sure it's both sustainable and to really leverage our scaling and also our cost efficiency. I think the key drivers will be a continued healthy growth in the charging services business with gross margin reaching a record 57%. I think we will want to try to maintain those margins and growth, finding the right balance to grow the business on an overall basis. Similarly, on the operating leverage, our operating expense has fell by 70% year-on-year. This is streamlined by operations and also tax efficiencies. Again, we want to focus on that without sacrificing growth and user experience and our services to our partners. Looking ahead, I think we are confident in sustaining this positive trend by expanding the high-margin services. We will leverage our AI-driven efficiency as our core advantage, and we will continue to scale our platform. With a 39% year-on-year increase in connected charges and a 34% year-on-year growth in transaction users, I think we are well positioned to deliver long-term value and maintain profitability. Regarding your second question on trends in user subsidies and how they've impacted the company's overall profitability, without a doubt, our users are NaaS' main focus. Without creating the right value for our users, we cannot continue to grow, and we cannot continue to provide excellent value both to them and our charging station partners. The competitive landscape of the EV charging platform market has been relatively stable since 2023, which means that the companies do not need intensive customer subsidies to grab more market. I think there's been more focus on deepening relationships with our users, creating better value, improving user experience via our app, helping them find charging stations faster, delivering better costs, and offering a more transparent user experience, for example, helping users have an overview of when the charging cost is on a daily basis, split into different timings. For example, it's obviously cheaper to charge at night when electricity prices are lower. So, I think anecdotally, these are various things that we do well and will continue to improve on a going-forward basis to retain and grow our users. With that being said, the company initiated a gradual reduction in user subsidies because we believe that users, other than looking at subsidies itself, also care about experience. Since the beginning of 2024, we have reduced subsidies and have seen a significant positive impact on our net and gross take rates, both of which reached historically high levels. By decreasing reliance on subsidies, we are fostering a more sustainable revenue model and avoiding incentives to rely on discounts for growth. This focus also allows us to allocate resources more effectively, concentrating on higher-return areas rather than subsidized growth, which in turn supports our long-term profitability growth and allows us to build a deeper network to benefit our users more. I think continuously optimizing our customer subsidy scheme will streamline our revenue generation process. Instead of using subsidies as a primary driver, we are seeing stronger organic growth. This is driven by user acquisition channels and partnerships. This move also strengthened our market position by making our offerings more attractive based on inherent value rather than discount-driven strategies. I think another key fact to keep in mind is that with the reduction in customer subsidies, newly registered users and transaction users through the company's platform have also been growing. So, it hasn't been impacted too much. Overall, it aligns with our vision of becoming a profitable leader in the EV charging space with a more sustainable revenue model that can adapt and grow with market demand. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from Ethan Zhang with Nomura. Please go ahead.

Ethan Zhang, Analyst

Thank you, management, for addressing my question. First, congratulations on your results. I noticed that NaaS has seen a significant increase in charger connections, which appears to be above the industry average growth rate. My question is, what factors do you attribute this rapid growth to, and how is NaaS positioning itself as a leader in China's expanding EV charging network? Thank you.

Steven Sim, CFO

Thank you, Ethan. I think this is a really good supply side question. The 39% year-over-year increase in charger connection also reflects our strategic focus on the supply side infrastructure. And this is again to meet the growing demand for new charging amid the substantial growth in the number of EVs on the road and on new EVs, with new car sales being 50% EVs. This growth can be attributed to a combination of factors. In our case, it's through technological innovation. Again, going back to our AI-powered big data analysis, the NaaS Energy Fintech system, which we call NEF, has optimized station operations and site selection. This helps our partners ensure that we place chargers in the most high-demand areas. This strategic partnership is helping us forge this alliance with regional and national partners. And we've been able to expand our network quickly and efficiently as we scale. On operating efficiency, the improvement in predictive maintenance and dynamic pricing have made our network more attractive to charging operators, and this is driving growth across the board. I think our rapid expansion makes NaaS a continuing leader in China's EV charging market. We continue to grow a strong and connected network of charging stations, and we are not just adding more chargers, but making sure that they are easy to access and efficient for EV drivers across the country. With smart site placement, advanced AI technology, and strong partnerships, we are creating a better, more reliable charging experience for users. This is our continuing commitment to simple fundamentals that position NaaS for long-term success as the global EV market continues to grow. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from Zhe Zhao with Tianfeng Securities. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I read that NaaS' recent partnership in Fujian Province has expanded the company's presence in key cities. How does this regional expansion contribute to NaaS' long-term strategy? And how is the company's AI-powered technology enhancing the user experience and operational efficiency for regional charging operators? Thank you.

Steven Sim, CFO

Thank you, Zhe Zhao. So, the partnership in Fujian Province significantly strengthens NaaS' regional presence, particularly in key cities like Xiamen and Fuzhou. And this extends our coverage to smaller cities like Ningde and Putian. This expansion is a crucial part of our long-term strategy to create a highly interconnected EV charging network across China for our users, both large and small. Specifically with the collaboration in Fujian, we've integrated over 100 charging stations and over 1,600 DC fast chargers into our network. This really improves our general accessibility for consumers. And we are also successfully working with the government at a local and national level to increase both China and the world's progress towards a green future. Our AI-powered NEF system again plays a central role in this asset, enhancing the user experience by providing real-time charging station availability, predictive maintenance, and optimized site selection. For regional charging operators, this technology boosts profitability through dynamic pricing based on real-time demand for electricity supply, as I mentioned earlier, which creates a user-friendly experience for our customers. This ensures both operational efficiency and financial sustainability. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

As there are no further questions now, I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.

John Wang, Investor Relations Director

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you.