Zaptec ASA: Increased liquidity reserve and financial flexibility by MNOK 230
20.12.2023: Zaptec ASA (“Zaptec”, OSE ticker: ZAP)
Zaptec has today signed a new agreement with DNB which increases the liquidity reserve with MNOK 230 by an increase of the overdraft facility from 70 MNOK to 300 MNOK with immediate effect. The new facility is backed by Export Finance Norway which guarantees for 50% of the credit limit.
"We are very pleased to get this financing in place which provides a significant increase to our liquidity reserve. In addition to this we have managed to adjust production commitments towards our production partners Westcontrol and Sanmina for the first half of 2024 while maintaining flexibility to scale up in tandem with anticipated growth. In sum this provides Zaptec with the strength, flexibility and ability to maneuver in the dynamic and growing EV market” says Acting CEO and CFO, Kurt Østrem.
For more information:
Kurt Østrem, Acting CEO and CFO, Zaptec ASA
Tel: + 47 40 40 47 00, e-mail: kurt@zaptec.com
Kristian Sæther, Finance Director & IR, Zaptec ASA
Tel: + 47 90 70 85 12, e-mail: investor@zaptec.com
About Zaptec ASA:
Zaptec is a technology company within Electric vehicle (EV) charging systems in Europe. The company develops EV charging systems for multi and single-family homes and office buildings. The product portfolio enables large number of charging points at a low cost and includes Zaptec Pro, Zaptec Go, Charging columns, Zaptec Portal, and Zaptec Sense. The company accelerates the electrification of the transport sector to assist European countries in reducing CO2 emissions from light-duty cars.
Oslo aims to boost the electrification of the vehicle fleet. Support for charger installation was increased to 8,000 NOK (previously 5,000 NOK). Initially, the subsidy scheme will last for a year.
The article interviewed, for instance, a housing cooperative representative who praises the new system. The housing cooperative currently has 4 charging spots and 60 electric cars. There are 260 parking spaces in total, and the goal is now to get charging points for all of them.
Was Nordnet’s calendar wrong, or why has the Q4 report been pushed back a week? Originally it showed Feb 14 and now Feb 21.
Edit: and this morning it still said “earnings release tomorrow”
Now the share price chart is starting to stabilize in the 23-24 range. Granted, it has already risen 48% from the bottom, so it has climbed well in that regard, but it’s still not expensive. The upcoming results this Wednesday, Feb 21, will be good as they include that 30 million NOK unit sale during Q4, and the future outlook remains good, even though there might still be some bumps.
In my opinion, it’s a good result and the future outlook doesn’t seem any worse (the following excerpts from the presentation):
Outperforming competitors and gaining market shares by significantly
increasing sales in a temporarily challenging EV market
Expecting significant cash flow generation in 2025-2026
A profitable, or at least nearly profitable, EV charging company that is growing faster than other companies and gaining market share. The valuation multiples still don’t seem overly stretched (at least relative to loss-making competitors).
Have they started competing on price, given that even with that growth, EBITDA was in the red for the final quarter despite being positive on an annual level?
Naturally, if overall demand is weak, it’s easy to reduce inventory levels at the expense of margins, but I don’t think that’s a good signal regardless. Or were there some one-off items involved?
It’s certainly promising if strong cash flow is projected for '25–'26, but it’s quite difficult for anyone to forecast that far ahead—not the economic cycles, nor the EV or charger markets.
Quite a golden handshake for the former CEO. Well, hopefully it won’t become a habit.
Order books have apparently turned back upwards, which was the biggest bear thesis after the last interim report. So, that anomaly from the first half of last year seems to be settled, and we can return to the so-called normal growth curve.
Profitability development was also quite good last year, excluding those one-off items at the end of the year. So, if everything goes according to plan, we could expect significant growth this year combined with steadily improving profitability
Actually, the technical development of the share price is the only reason keeping me from adding to my position. This morning, we broke through all previous (daily) bottoms so sharply that I believe the gap between 17.86 - 18.56 NOK will still be filled in the coming days.
It really is a very large golden handshake if it indeed was “NOK 11 million”, or just under a million euros… It is larger than the sales of several new countries combined…
This leads to the point that surprisingly little has been sold yet in many so-called new countries, if we use the small markets of Finland and Iceland as a benchmark, for example.
In Iceland, sales have been 9.3 million NOK (approx. 823 thousand euros)
In Finland, sales have been 17 million NOK (approx. 1.5 million euros)
In the UK, 24 million NOK (approx. 2.1 million euros)
In Germany, only 5.2 million NOK (So approx. 460 thousand euros ??)
Whereas if you compare it to a larger market, for example, Sweden has sold for 422 million NOK (approx. 37 million euros)
With good execution and success in the German and UK markets alone, the figures will grow significantly even in a short period of time.
CEOs are changing and the product doesn’t have any particular technological moat. Does the headline promise of “smart EV charging” still hold true now that they have given up Charge365?
Kurt Østrem, who has served as CFO and interim CEO, has now been appointed as the official CEO. Good that a qualified guy was found from within the company.
Based on my experience with hardware from several charger manufacturers, I’d argue that Zaptec has the best potential, at least for housing cooperatives and corporate use. Zaptec is also one of the few EV charger manufacturers currently able to turn a profit. I think I’ll pick this horse now that the price has crashed. Though, I wouldn’t mind if it dropped a little further.
At the start of the week, the share price seemed to hit a 3-year low… if you believe that this “winning” horse’s downward spiral won’t continue, then so be it.
Personally, I’m well in the red on this one, and I won’t fall for averaging down my purchase price anymore, at least not until I see better earnings power and a more concrete competitive advantage—which is unlikely to be seen in such a competitive industry. I’ve already mentally written this off as a loss.
