Supercom Ltd (SPCB) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Good morning, and welcome to the SuperCom 2020 Financial Results and Corporate Update Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Participants of this call are advised that the audio of this conference call is being broadcast live over the Internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. A webcast replay of the call will be available approximately 1 hour after the end of the call through July 30, 2021.

I would now like to turn the call over to Scott Gordon, President of Core IR, the company's Investor Relations firm. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Hobart. Good morning, and thank you for participating in today's conference call. Joining me from SuperCom's leadership team are Ordan Trabelsi, Chief Executive Officer.

During this call, management will be making forward-looking statements, forward-looking statements that address SuperCom's expectations or future performance and operational results. Forward-looking statements involve risks and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements.

For more information about these risks, please refer to the risk factors described in SuperCom's most recently filed periodic reports on Form 20-F and Form 6-K and SuperCom's press release last evening, particularly the cautionary statements in it.

Today's conference call includes EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure that SuperCom believes can be useful in evaluating its performance. You should not consider this additional information in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. For a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to net loss with most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, please see the reconciliation table located in SuperCom's earnings press release.

The content of this call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, April 30, 2021. Except as required by law, SuperCom disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any information to reflect events or circumstances that occur after this call.

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ordan Trabelsi. Ordan, please go ahead.

Thank you, Scott. On February 21 of this year, I began my new role as CEO of SuperCom, after being with the company since 2013. Arie Trabelsi, our prior President and CEO, will continue to contribute to the company's success as a member of the Board of Directors. I'm excited to have the opportunity to lead SuperCom and focus on the company's current initiatives to enhance shareholder value.

In this new role, the focus of my company is to grow revenue and expand our customer footprint. Much of our investment will be in our IoT segment, where we believe lies the greatest opportunity given the market dynamics and our competitive capabilities. Currently, we have a high win rate in our project bids. Over 65% in Europe in the recent past, which is a result of outscoring our competitors with the help of superior technology. With every new project we win, whether it be Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic and many others, we continue to develop more cutting-edge capabilities and features to our technology suite.

While we will continue to lead with strong technology, we plan to start investing more in our sales and marketing teams to drive revenue growth. For as recent years, our investment in sales and marketing was minimal in IoT compared to our competitors. Additionally, beginning in the first quarter of 2021, we plan to return to reporting our results on a quarterly basis. We have invested in our finance department in efforts to improve the quality of our financial management and timeliness of our reporting. And we will be providing more transparency to the street.

Furthermore, in 2021, together with our enhanced cash position, new product offerings and gradual release of COVID-19 limitations and restrictions, we are seeing increased activity in our target markets and are excited about the direction in which we are going. COVID-19 initially had negative impacts on our IoT business, and governmental agencies limited their operations. And with courts closed, there's less use of our electronic monitoring devices from inmates, being used in all confinements, and our active unit count decreased. However, due to higher amounts of COVID cases in many correctional facilities, given the challenges in maintaining proper social distancing in close quarters, we saw a general industry trend towards the increase in the use of home confinement as a way to adjust overpopulated prisons.

This trend increased demand for our PureSecurity Electronic Monitoring Suite of products, particularly other governmental agencies are being -- are beginning to reopen. We expect this trend to benefit this segment in 2021 and in coming years. And in 2021, we're seeing the growth towards our pre-COVID activity numbers in many of our customer regions. We're also seeing increased RFP and bid activity as restrictions related to COVID-19 are gradually beginning to ease.

We have been gaining significant traction in recent years in both 2019 and 2020. We secured over 10 new multiyear government projects each. Highlighting our value-add and also setting the stage for increased recurring revenue in coming years. Our primary focus is our IoT segment, which has been gaining traction and addressing 2 challenges directly and indirectly associated with COVID-19.

First, in many areas, the COVID-19 outbreak has forced local authorities to reduce the prison population (technical difficulty) through a condition to home confinement. Our PureSecurity Suite solution directly addresses this challenge with a comprehensive offender tracking platform that provides real-time electronic monitoring and tracking for national and municipal criminal agencies.

By being able to accurately and effectively track inmates, authorities are able to safely consign offenders while minimizing the risk of COVID spread in already overpopulated prisons. This solution not only enables to manage our inmates that are at home, but also uses the cost to maintain (inaudible) by providing a safer environment with a prison facility.

During the second half of 2020, we won several contract awards validating the value of this technology. On September 3, 2020, we converted a pilot in the Caribbean into a new contract for our PureSecurity Suite our electronic monitoring and tracking platform. This solution ensures public safety by securing, monitoring offender location restrictions, providing a platform of tools that aid in the reduction of offender recidivism.

On November 30, 2020, after a live incentive pilot, we secured a new electronic monitoring contract in the state of Wisconsin for our PureSecurity Electronic Monitoring Suite.

On December 1, 2020, we announced the launch of a $1.2 million 5-year contract to the government of Latvia in Europe for national electronic monitoring, billed monthly, which will provide a recurring revenue stream. This contract also includes our PureSecurity Electronic Monitoring Suite, which will monitor subjects under house arrest with GPS tracking.

On December 3, 2020, we won a new juvenile electronic offender monitoring contract in the State of Alabama, using our free track GPS solution, which also billed as a recurring revenue resource based on a daily usage rate.

On December 7, we won a new electronic monitoring contract in the State of California with a private company serving the additional service and marketing, a new electronic monitoring contract.

On December 9, we announced working with Sheriff's office in Southeast U.S., each for our PureTrack solution. Our PureHealth Technology Suite has also been in demand and became an effective tool to implement quarantine measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In March of 2021, we launched a pilot using the solution with Israel Ministry of Health to ensure traveler quarantine compliance. The pilot enabled people arriving to Israel the option of performing the quarantine for 10 or 14 days at home instead of having to go to a specific isolation location or a Corona hotel. In this case, designated corona hotel.

In the program, 100 PureCare on the PureHealth devices and braces were installed on nonvaccinated travelers who entered Israel from other countries to ensure compliance with the government's quarantine requirements. After the pilot proved successful, the Israeli government issued a competitive RFP and SuperCom was awarded the contract -- awarded tender with an estimated value of $3 million per month in recurring revenues. The initial term of the project is for 3 months with an option to extend up to 36 months. We believe this project validates our PureHealth Technology as an effective solution in fighting COVID-19 and hope for continued momentum as other countries continue to adjust the spread of the virus.

Additionally, SuperCom's R&D department has been focused on building the next-generation people monitoring products, which are expected to be released throughout 2021 and years to come. These new products will enhance our overall solution and ensure we keep our technology as the leading one in this industry. We also announced our supply chain capabilities. In order to support increased demand for our IoT products, we have adjusted our manufacturing capacity to enable more flexibility, allowing us to scale up to 1,000 new units per day of production, a very high amount for our industry.

Furthermore, we have made our global supply chain more resilient by reducing our dependencies on specific suppliers and geographic regions in light of the difficulties faced in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While our primary focus is on the IoT segment, we continue to drive value through our Secure ID and Cyber Solutions segments. In fact, over the year, the Secure ID segment has completed more than 20 national government projects, implementing electronic identification and biometrics for entire countries located in South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.

These projects provide SuperCom a strong track record and opportunity to win additional business after having established a strong reputation and build sustainable relationships. Our revenues in these types of projects have shifted from being project-based and onetime in nature to a recurring revenue model.

Our cyber security solution is safe and continues to perform well, also evidenced by a 5-year $1.2 million contract won in December in Israel. These contracts are awarded in the second half of last year, and the corresponding recurring revenue provides strong momentum into 2021, while clearly validating the value of our product offerings. We are confident we will continue to build on this momentum.

We have taken action in the second half and beyond to strengthen our balance sheet. In July 2020, we closed a $3.2 million private placement with 2.4 million shares. And in February of 2021, we closed a $7 million subordinated note financing with a 5% coupon, providing us additional liquidity to execute on our business plan.

In terms of financial performance in 2021 -- 2020, our revenue declined 29% for the full year of 2020. The decline was primarily COVID related. Many governmental agencies shut down, and they have been impacting our customers' ability to process prisoners in home confinement. As these agencies are beginning to reopen, we are seeing an increase in activity in 2021. During 2020, we focused on cost improvements and optimization to address the uncertainty related to the pandemic.

Our gross margins improved to 47%, up from 39% from the prior year, primarily driven by improvements made to our services segment. We reduced our research and development spend by $1.6 million in 2020 or from 24% of revenue to 20% of revenue. Our sales and marketing expenses declined by $100 million in 2020 or from 21% revenue to 15% of revenue. And our general and administrative expenses declined by $1.2 million, although increasing the percent of revenue from 33% to 35%.

Our cash and restricted cash balance at the end of 2020 was around $4 million. As we see economic -- economies beginning to open back up, we will invest in our sales and marketing to drive revenue growth.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to operator to open the call for questions. Operator?

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Kevin Dede with Rodman and Renshaw.

Kevin Dede, H.C. Wainright, now. Ordan, congratulations on the new position.

Thank you, Kevin.

I was hoping that -- sure. I was hoping first you could sort of characterize the win rate, I mean, branded COVID, but I think you mentioned 20-odd IoT deals. Can you tell us how many you won in '19 and how many you won in '20?

We've won over 10 in each of the years till now.

Okay. Could you give us a little more insight on the technological differences between PureHealth and PureCare?

Sure. PureCare is part of PureHealth. It's from a quarantine compliance. PureHealth also has anti-wandering capabilities and other solutions, which serve the health care industry. Does that make sense?

Yes, sure, sure, sure. PureCare is just...

Quarantine compliance. (inaudible)

Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. Yes, yes, yes. So the -- just a little on the balance sheet. The short-term debt was up versus the last time we saw the balance sheet in June. And I'm just sort of wondering what the thinking is and how you're managing the cash flow that you'll need to sponsor the initial rollout, understand that there -- when you get a new deal, they're a little capital-intensive upfront.

Right. You're correct. When we launch new projects in IoT because we need to manufacture units, require some cash. But after 6 to 12 months, these projects become cash flow positive. As we continue to win new projects, all projects are generating positive cash flow. But our hope, of course, is that project size continues to grow. And then we will need to leverage external financing to help like this project that we just were awarded in Israel.

So it depends on the stock price. We've been leveraging a lot of debt because we believe the company has been undervalued and the stock doesn't represent the value properly, so you saw our debt levels raised in the future and then also utilize equity to support the projects.

So does the $15 million -- does that represent fortress loan?

Yes. Yes, $15 million (inaudible).

Okay. The -- yes, so the next question really has to do with revenue mix and sort of your strategic thinking. No mention, obviously, e-Gov or the software side of business. And I'm just sort of wondering whether or not you could characterize the contribution in 2019 versus 2020? And how you're thinking about those business capabilities as SuperCom moves forward?

Okay. If you give me just a moment, I will get you those numbers break out. One moment, please. Yes, yes, you will see our 20-F filed, and we'll have these numbers, but just for the call, our e-Gov actually stayed more or less the same. The revenues from 2019 to 2020 went from $19.25 million to $19.11 million (inaudible). So $1.9 million roughly in e-Gov. In IoT the revenues went from $11.6 million in 2019 to $7.6 million in 2020. And a lot of that has contributed to a decrease in service revenues.

And that's because a lot of ongoing services you couldn't provide because we weren't getting as many offenders to track because of course for COVID in many parts of the U.S. And also in the projects that we do have, we couldn't provide full service because people couldn't come and actually meet us because of COVID restriction. So the numbers went down with existing customers, even though we maintained the customers.

And now when some of the restrictions have been alleviated, we're seeing those numbers actually jump right back up, not yet to the same level as pre-COVID, but they are increasing in that direction, which is (inaudible). And in cyber security, the revenues went from $2.8 million in '19 to $3.2 million in 2020.

Okay. How are you -- I guess, sort of the big part of the question is really how are you looking at those other 2 segments. Understand, based on your prepared remarks, the focus is on IoT. Got that clear. I'm just sort of wondering how you're looking at the other aspects of the business.

Okay. Good. So yes, when we analyze the competitive landscape, actually the small note that probably should have been filed already. But in terms of the competitive landscape, we are analyzing different divisions and in IoT tracking a couple of billion dollars in market size, only 10 players were able to generate a high win rate and have opportunity to reach market-leading positions who invest properly and execute.

In other divisions, in identification and private securities, a little bit more challenging. I do believe that we can maintain our revenues and then grow them. Firstly, we talk about identification. We launched over 20 projects with governments around the world, including in China, and Tanzania, and Panama and Ecuador. And these are national projects with very high sensitive data, and we're able to show governments around the world now that we're doing PureSecurity and PureHealth, that we're able to manage all this data and receive such trust from these large nations.

It provides an excellent track record and helps us win more projects around the world. So the same DNA of serving these national government customers, supporting them and interacting with them as well as winning bids have stayed between identification to tracking the offenders. It's just the underlying technology is a little different. And we maintain the customers we have. We try to maintain the relations with them and support them, and they order additional expansions and enhancements and identification. Opportunistically, we will bid on more projects as well, but we will try to use our capital resources more towards IoT.

In terms of cybersecurity, we have a very strong sales distribution channel. We have many enterprise customers throughout U.S. and Europe, which utilize our technology for endpoint protection, essentially protecting sensitive data from leaking out of laptops and endpoint to enterprises. Very important enterprise does have a solution as such.

In today's world, we will have some new traditions, advanced persistent threat protection with anti-malware protection. And it's much easier for these enterprises to add more components to existing solutions and to bring on a completely new vendor. And so we're trying to leverage that and to add our technology offerings to existing customer base and not only maintain high margin revenues, but potentially grow them in the coming years with minimal investment.

Perfect. One last housekeeping question. Can you give me the share count at year-end, please? I couldn't find it in the press.

Close to 20 million. Exact number -- 1 second please, 19.98 million -- sorry, 19.998 million -- yes, 19.999 million if you round up -- 19.99 million to be really precise.

(Operator Instructions) Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Ordan Trabelsi for closing remarks.

I want to thank you all for participating on today's call and for your interest in SuperCom. We look forward to sharing our progress on our next conference call. Thank you very much, and have a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation, and have a great day.