Earnings call transcript: Talenom Q1 2025 sees growth in net sales and EBITDA

Talenom Oyj reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings, showcasing a 5% year-over-year increase in net sales to €36 million and a 12.5% rise in EBITDA to €11 million. The company’s stock opened with a 3.9% increase, reflecting investor optimism despite the lack of specific EPS and revenue forecast comparisons. According to InvestingPro analysis, Talenom is currently trading below its Fair Value, with a P/E ratio of 25.6x that appears attractive relative to its near-term earnings growth potential.

Key Takeaways

• Talenom’s Q1 net sales grew by 5% year-over-year.
• EBITDA increased by 12.5%, indicating strong operational performance.
• The software business was separated into a distinct entity.
• Talenom’s stock rose by 3.9% following the earnings announcement.

Company Performance

Talenom’s performance in the first quarter of 2025 reflects a steady growth trajectory, with net sales reaching €36 million, up 5% from the previous year. The company reported an EBITDA of €11 million, a 12.5% increase, demonstrating improved operational efficiency. Talenom’s strategic focus on digitalization and market expansion, particularly in Spain and Sweden, has bolstered its competitive position.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €36 million, up 5% year-over-year.
• EBITDA: €11 million, up 12.5% year-over-year.
• Software Business Revenue: €7 million.
• Accounting Business Revenue: €29 million.
• EBIT: Close to €5 million.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings release, Talenom’s stock experienced a 3.9% increase, reaching a price of €3.21. This movement is within the company’s 52-week range, with a high of €5.5 and a low of €2.79, suggesting a positive reception from investors. The stock’s rise is likely driven by the company’s robust financial performance and strategic initiatives. Despite recent gains, InvestingPro analysis indicates significant upside potential, with analysts maintaining a strong buy consensus and setting price targets that suggest room for appreciation.

Outlook & Guidance

Talenom has set a full-year guidance with net sales projected between €130 million to €140 million and EBITDA between €36 million to €42 million. The company maintains strong fundamentals with a Piotroski Score of 6 and an Altman Z-Score of 6.36, indicating solid financial health. For comprehensive analysis including detailed valuation metrics and growth projections, investors can access Talenom’s full Pro Research Report, available exclusively on InvestingPro. The company plans to capitalize on e-invoicing opportunities in Spain and improve profitability in Sweden. Talenom also aims to enhance its software business, with a strategy to start charging for software services in 2026.

Executive Commentary

CEO Otto Pekka Ustala emphasized the company’s growth ambitions, stating, "Our ambition is to grow. We are not happy with the current speed." CFO Matti Erolin highlighted the company’s customer retention strategy, noting, "We don’t force the clients to start using our software."

Risks and Challenges

• Market Saturation: Potential limitations in expanding market share in Finland.
• Regulatory Changes: E-invoicing mandates in Spain could pose compliance challenges.
• Customer Churn: Risk of losing clients if software adoption is not well-received.
• Competitive Pressure: Increasing competition in digital accounting solutions.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts raised questions about Talenom’s software pricing strategy and client churn risks. Management confirmed the service business’s ability to retain clients independently of software offerings and indicated minimal additional investment in the software division is anticipated.

Full transcript - Talenom Oyj (TNOM) Q1 2025:

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Hi there. You are welcome to follow-up Tallinn on Q1 business review. My name is Otto Pekka Ustala. I’m ASO’s CEO and here is my colleague.

Matti Erolin, CFO, Talenom: Hello, I’m Matti Erolin, CFO. Good day to everybody.

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Today, our content will be short review of period. And after that, Matti will open more about financial development and outlook and guidance. And after that, I will be deeper talk about strategy process and software businesses. Let’s go. The separation of the software business was completed.

The Finnish business profile profitable improved future. As you can see our net sales increased about 5% and it was €36,000,000 and EBITDA increased 12.5% and we achieved around €11,000,000 And it has boosted with excellent Finland business. And now we will open first time business areas revenue. And here you can see in first quarter our revenue in software side was close to €7,000,000 and in accounting business €29,000,000 This is shortly after the whole recap. And now Matti will open more about the figures.

Matti Erolin, CFO, Talenom: Welcome to follow this business review of TALENOM first quarter from my behalf also. Let’s start with the revenue. Revenue ended up €36,000,000 growing by 5% and the comparable net sales was pretty much on the same level than last year growing by 0.5%. Net sales in Finland, it increased while the customer churn in Sweden during the 2024 was tracking down the growth to the opposite direction. Net sales in Spain, it remained at pretty much on the same level than last year.

Having looked on the business areas, the software business was around CHF 7,000,000 and the accounting business was CHF 29,000,000. We managed to separate the software business from the accounting business and the structure changed a little bit, so that the recognition of the revenue was different in the software business and it boosted the first half with €1,500,000 higher revenue. So the group comparable net sales was €34,200,000 growing by 0.5%. EBITDA ended up almost €11,000,000 and the EBIT was close to €5,000,000 And this was pretty much because the profitability in Finland improved significantly supported by organic growth. And as I said, the Sweden slowed down the profitability improvement because the net sales declined there.

If we look at the comparable EBITDA, it was better when we compare it to last year, 300,000.0. And the comparable operating profit was slightly below the comparison period because of the higher depreciation level. On an investment level, our investment to our own software went down by €800,000 And with the steady pace, it would mean €3,000,000 for the full year. And that, of course, will have the influence on the depreciation level in future. Business in Finland, it grew by 11%.

And we saw last at the end of last year that our customers’ transaction volumes, the decline of that has stopped. And that gave the space to successful sales to create growth. So the comparable net sales increased by about 5%. Profitability also improved in Finland because of this onetime EUR 1,500,000.0 improvement in the net sales, but also because the organic growth and further improved efficiency. So the EBITDA on a comparable level went up by €500,000 The business declined in Sweden by 14% and that was mainly because of 2024, we had higher churn in few offices.

But recent months, we have been seen we have seen a better trend on getting new customers and also on churn. But what happened in 2024 when the churn was higher, it will have the influence to 25%, mostly on H1, but also for the second half, but it should ease up on the second half. Profitability was pretty much on the same level, a little bit declining. And we’ve been adjusting our personnel costs against the new revenue level. But we didn’t want to do it that too strongly because we have to maintain the capabilities to create organic growth in the future.

In Spain, the revenue was pretty much on the same level as last year, and we have focused on getting recurring customers instead of nonrecurring customers. So the recurring customers went up that sales and the nonrecurring went down. So that’s why the revenue was pretty much on the same level than last year. We expect this positive trend to continue in getting new customers and we expect that it will create growth for this year. Profitability was on the same level measured by EBITDA.

And we believe that when we can create organic growth, it will also bring good results on the profitability in Spain. And when we look at the business areas, the accounting business has revenue almost €29,000,000 and the comparable software business net sales was €5,500,000 The reported revenue was €7,000,000 and it was increased by this 1.51 time net sales. So if we look at the long trend for the rest of the year with the €5,500,000 net sales, it should end up more than 20,000,000 Then looking on the profitability side, the accounting business EBITDA was €5,300,000 and the relative profitability was 18.5%. In the recurring software business, the profitability was measured by EBITDA €3,800,000 when this €1,500,000 extra sales is also counted on that. So the real EBITDA relative profitability is 70%.

So it’s really good business and very good profitability. We remain the guidance unchanged. We expect the net sales to be between 130,000,000 1 hundred and 40 million euros and the EBITDA from 36,000,000 to 42,000,000 Thank you very much. This was my part and Otto will then continue with the strategy progress.

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Okay. Let’s go through the our strategy. Everything starts from the target state and our ambition is to growth. We are not happy with the current speed what we have when it comes to the growth rate. And we want to focus on our core competencies and promote scalable growth.

I will open this later on. But first look at market trends, which will accelerate our businesses. And the first one is the legislation and market trends, which are driving digitalization. For example, e invoicing will be as a mandatory way send and receive invoices near future in Spain. Second One is customer behavior is changing towards digital platform.

And the third one is digitalization is happening just now especially in Spain and in Italy if we look at our markets. Our updated strategy in nutshell. Our vision is most preferred financial management partner and our mission and we help entrepreneur succeed and our competitive advantage basis for these three things easy for use, I mean the customer applications and automation for professional, for accountant. And the more we have automated accountants’ daily routines, the more they have time for to care their clients. And these things we have developed many, many years over two decades and now we will scale both.

Accounting businesses and of course these Software businesses. After Q3 end of Q3, we reported of our updated strategy and the most important thing is that we start selling this huge and great software to our competitors as well. Before that software were used only internally. Here is the picture of proven strategy and strong historical track record. High investment pace is over and fruits will be collections future.

And this first phase 02/2015 was time when we created our digital way of working and we adapted our first version of our Telenom production line. And you can see in second phase digital transformation impact on profitability in Finland. So you can see that EBIT rate increased triple or four times higher compared to time before adopting our own software and processes. Well, and after that in 2019 we first went to the new market in Sweden and after that we have invested for acquisition in foreign countries and for our software that we could implement in other countries as well over €100,000,000 And now we are in the phase when we are replicating our proven strategy and concept in international markets. And the first capabilities for profitable growth created in Sweden.

And the second, well positioned in Spain to benefit from the e invoicing reform. I will remind that e invoicing will be mandatory way sent and receiving and we acquired two years ago local platform, so we are ready for this change. Third one focusing on our core businesses, we de invested our collection services for example in Finland last year. And we also ended our own banking services and we moved this totally for our partner and so on. Forerun in Software business becomes a second pillar alongside Service businesses.

These three things are our main priorities for this year. First, improving profitability in Sweden Second, trying to get all benefits from the e invoicing in Spain and the third one is building sales channels and developing SaaS capabilities in the software business. In Sweden, we are systematically implemented one Talenum operation method and process as well as our proprietary software. And the benefits will come when we really get all things in places. We have like technical issues, we have results, but now we have to get all people in way of working via Talendo Way, One Talendo way.

And we invested in turning net sales on the growth track. We saw the trend turning for the better in new sales and customer churn as Matti told. And second issue is this e invoicing. The transition to e invoicing driven by legislation is the most significant trend driving future customer demand. And like Tax Officer is our best sales guy in short term.

And we have built GE software capabilities to respond to the market change. We also continue to roll out our proprietary software to our customers to facilitate their businesses and prepare them for the e invoicing transition. And now we will drill down to the software business deeper. What is Talendom Software? We have like one software and there is two different user groups, two different interfaces and the first one is this Telenum online and Telenum app.

In our opinion is that this is easiest to use software on the market for small and medium enterprises. And we are also getting the feedback from the partner offices that this is very smooth and easy to sell these customer interfaces to our customers because it’s so easy to use and they like to sell it. And for professional we have TALENOM accounting. It’s like the bookkeeping software and it’s the most efficient software on the market for accounting professionals. If you look at, if you compare the interfaces you can see so much more buttons in professional side compared to customer interfaces.

Normally these interfaces are together and it means that it’s more difficult to use for entrepreneurs. And otherwise there is not so good interface for accountants. And we have compared our unique selling points or benefits. So the most important thing is that we can really duplicate accounting offices, profitable because they see that this is so smooth to use and the automation level is so high and so on. And of course for enterprise it’s most easiest to use.

How about in figures? We have over 12,000 small and medium enterprises clients. Annual recurring revenue is over €20,000,000 It comes like 99% from Finland. And we have over 60,000 end users. In Finland, we sent and received over 9,500,000 transactions like e invoices.

We have 140 people working in this company and we have over 200 thousands logins per month. And these figures open for you a picture of the software. It’s very well working and it’s like so well used. If you look at the numbers, it means that our clients have to log in like daily or weekly to our systems and it’s very critical component in their businesses. And we have started to sell our software also in Finland and now we have over 40 partner offices.

And if in Finland we have approximately 4,500 accounting offices. So now you understand if Telenom service business market share is like 6%, seven % in Finland, so now software is also available for the other 94 persons. So there’s the huge potential if you look at the market that we would have a good market fit. And only in Finland, of course, we know that in Spain market is 10 times bigger and in Sweden Two times bigger compared to Finland. And here is development of the number of customers.

If you look at the pillars, the total numbers what there is, is the customers what we totally have in Tallinnum Group. And this dark blue is the clients who use the software and we have started the billing separately of them. And the light blue is the customers who are using our systems, but we are not billing them separately, I mean the software. So we have converted them to use our software, but we have not started to charge anything of software. And this orange is the potential, conversion potential and it comes especially from Sweden and Spain and this rollout process as we have told it’s ongoing just now.

And so you can see that we can duplicate our number of clients who can use our software and only 40% of them are charged clients. So there’s like 60% of the total volume what we can charge later on. And so we see that in near future the software business growth comes mostly from the conversion and when we start charging off of using software. And it’s good to know when you look at the pillars that in Finland our software business price is like two times higher compared to Sweden compared to Spain market price. In Finland, we have high prices in software business if you compare to other markets.

And this is the figures what we have just now and how you can estimate that what’s the potential of the business that how much it will growth in future. And what’s the roadmap for launching software business? Distribution? So we reported in Q3 to start selling our software for our competitors’ accounting offices. In Q4, Software separated into its own company and we are now invoicing separately for software and services in Finland.

There is like two companies who are sending own invoices to end clients. And management and responsibilities of the software and service business reorganized. So, the group level, I’m using like 80% of my energy for software businesses and Juha Ahosola is responsible of the service business and reporting for me. And we both have our own management team that we can really focus for own both businesses own strength. And in Q1 as you saw, we reported first time our software businesses numbered numbers and we started also recruitment of business leads in Spain and in Sweden.

This means that we it looks that we can find people from inside of the Tallinnum who can start selling our software to other accounting companies as well. And good to know, you are welcome to Telenom software brand launch on May 28 this year. And ’26, we estimate that the most of growth comes from the conversion potential from Sweden and Spain. After that in 2017, more than 50% of the Platform business growth came from partner agencies. Of course, we know and believe that Service business will continue growth and the big part of the growth comes from there and the conversion.

But after 2027, we really believe that the most of growth comes from the partner offices. So this is shortly our presentation. Now it’s time for the Q and A.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: Hi, this is Johann from Hinderes. Couple of questions. Let’s start with the software business. If I understood correctly, you are indicating that you have about 100% more clients that are not paying currently from the software. And the price level is lower, so maybe you are indicating something like 50% growth from 20,000,000 to €30,000,000 at some time line.

First question, is this a correct indication that I’m reading? And what is the timeline?

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Yes. This is like the right direction. And we don’t really know that how much we can really charge. If we look at the numbers in Finland, if we look at the partner offices, clients, how much we are getting revenue per clients of of those, it’s like the half of the companies what we are getting from the Dalenmo service. So it looks like that we have very even bigger clients in our service businesses compared to other.

And we know that in Sweden and in Spain businesses are smaller than in Finland. So it’s like between 25%, fifty % what’s the like the potential. And of course, the conversation is ongoing and we will start charging like first phase will happen like the beginning of twenty twenty six and later on like step by step.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: All right. Well, there will be some clients that are not going to be paying. That means churn, I suppose. What kind of churn do you expect? And what is an acceptable level?

And if I continue with another question from that is that if you fail to capture the client in software, is it likely that you will lose them also in the service business, or have you been able to kind of draw that out in a way that you can still service them?

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Of course, it is a risk. But we have also experienced in Finland when they have used our software and they are happy and we have started from zero, we have started to charge of software and there was no impact. And of course, the first phase what we can start charging is very low. And also other method because now there is like the fixed price and it includes software. So the other possibility is also like separate as we did in Finland.

So we have not like decided yet how do we do that, but we will start in any case charging separately both of them.

Matti Erolin, CFO, Talenom: Yes. And of course, we offer the clients our software, but we don’t force them there. For example, if in Sweden somebody wants to use Fort Knox in the future, it’s possible. So we don’t force the clients to start using our software. Yes.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: And I will just continue on that. Do you see that it’s a that the Service business has the competitive advantage to keep them even though they are under Fort Knox or something like that?

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Yes. Yes, we really believe that. And we have like good method and it’s like one Talenum concept. How do we run our accounting businesses? And there is many, many things which are not dependent with software like processes, leadership, customer care, and care of employee and so on.

Many, many things what we can do without software. And if customers are happy, they are not changing anything, they don’t want to change software, they don’t want to change Akkadan. If they are happy and we are recommending our software, they can change it. But like with what comes to the cannibalization, we don’t see it in Finland, for example. It’s only some clients which have moved from service side to the partner offices.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: All right. Okay. Finally, about the software business. Do you see the current investment level, your cost level to be somewhat stable? Or do you see some significant increases coming up in the coming years?

So how much is this growth, let’s say, 5,000,000? Should it be €5,000,000 or €2,500,000 in the bottom line?

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Yes. What comes to the conversation, so it doesn’t need any more energy. And later on when the Service business is converting clients to using software, so it means that we are getting the clients in and later on when we start charging, so we get revenue. And when it comes to the investment level, so we want to keep this €12,000,000 new investment level. And now it looks like that we can close down all systems really in Finland.

So we it gives us more energy to use, for example, in Spain to boost its software and sales, of course. But not so big or significant increase of our personal expenses. Of course, we have to hire some people to contact accounting offices. And when we really get new clients, we have to pay some person compared to some group of clients like 1,000 clients. So, we have to pay maybe one super people.

So when the business really run well and the revenue is increasing, we see that the support functions have to increase. The investment level, we try to beat as well in fixed as possible.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: Alright. So, slight increase is likely, but nothing dramatic.

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Yeah. And in this year, it’s like in the group we move people a little bit from the service side to software side. So in the group level, no impact.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: All right, understood. Okay, let’s move on to the first quarter figures. Comparable sales growth in Finland was 5%, if I understood these figures. Is there something that is boosting that figure? Or is this going to be the level to go forward also in the coming quarters?

Matti Erolin, CFO, Talenom: Yes. We believe that now when the transaction volumes, the declining has stopped at the end of the last year and now the organic growth is really coming through. So we are expecting to have similar growth in the future. Maybe possibly some even some growing in the H or half two, but we’ll see what happens there, but definitely growing.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: Excellent. Maybe from all your areas, what kind of levels are I think you are measuring the new sales compared to churn. What kind of growth rates would these methods imply in your market areas?

Matti Erolin, CFO, Talenom: Well, we haven’t really announced those figures. But as said in Finland, it will be probably with the current speed a little bit variation of course. And now in Sweden, we are heading to that situation that the churn and the sales is pretty much uneven and possibly growing in the future. But the revenue in Sweden, it will decline on Q2 as well, but possibly it’s getting better on second half. In Spain, we talked about last time that difference on net sales and churn was about 1,000,000 and it should come through this year as an organic growth.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: All right. If I understood correctly, there’s some adjustments in the recurring sales in Spain. You are moving from nonrecurring to recurrent. And that, I guess, is slowing down your growth right now in the first quarter. Could you say like how much would it would have been the growth figure without this change?

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Yes.

Matti Erolin, CFO, Talenom: The recurring revenue was is growing maybe 4% to 5% and the nonrecurring is slowing that down, so it makes it even. 4% to 5% was the current speed.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: All right. And then I just final curiosity. Italy business seems to be losing a lot of money considering that it has very little sales. Is this acceptable for you or you are making some measures taking some actions there?

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: Yes. We have ongoing there like actions when it comes to the software businesses. And we have opened our marketplace here, comercialistar.it. You can find it. And we like our piloting there that could feel like Sylvia that way our software.

This is the like piloting process what we have there ongoing. And what comes to the Service businesses, so as we have notified, we can continue Service business here in long run. So, because there is this charter accountant who has like the license, who can work with tax offices and we can’t have as a company this kind of licenses. And tax officer changed this point of view about one year ago and we have been after that in this phase that, okay, we will move it only to software businesses. So it is in this space just now.

Johann, Analyst, Hinderes: Alright. So no service in Italy?

Otto Pekka Ustala, CEO, Talenom: No. No service in later on. But, of course, now we are serving those chartered accountant. But yes, that’s the situation. At this time, we don’t have any questions in the chat.

So from my behalf, we thank you for the presentation. Okay. Thank you for your audience and thank you in online. See you soon.

Matti Erolin, CFO, Talenom: Bye bye. Thank you. Bye bye.

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