SOMNF (SOMNF) Q4 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to SomnoMed's results presentation for the FY '26 full year. My name is Jane Lowe, and I will be your moderator for today's session. With me today are Karen Borg, who is CEO; and Ye-Fei Guo, who is CFO of SomnoMed. They will take us through the results presentation, which was lodged with the ASX this morning. A bit of housekeeping before we kick off. Today's webinar is being recorded, including the Q&A, and we will post this on SomnoMed's website following the completion of the webinar. We will invite you to ask questions at the end of the presentation. [Operator Instructions]. For now though, I'll pass over to Karen to kick off the presentation. Thank you, Karen.

Great. Thanks, Jane. Before we begin, I'd like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on the screen. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those anticipated, and investors should not place undue reliance on these statements. So now let's have a look at the company highlights. Looking at these dynamics around the SomnoMed business, and then we'll look at our financial and operating highlights. Now SomnoMed's vision is a world where oral appliance therapy is the standard of care for obstructive sleep apnea treatment, or OSA. Our mission is to set the standard for outcomes, innovation and patient experience while helping drive the transformation of sleep medicine worldwide. The market opportunity remains vast. Approximately 1 billion people globally suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, which presents a significant opportunity for market penetration with the appropriate therapy. At the same time, increasing consumer awareness, growth in GLP-1 therapies and rising demand for CPAP alternatives continue to expand the oral appliance therapy market. Importantly, we also operate within a large potential customer market of more than 700,000 dentists across our key regions. While we ultimately service the patient, our customer is the dentist. So every extra dentist we build a relationship with has the potential to support our market penetration. As the global market leader in oral appliances for OSA, we believe SomnoMed is well positioned to drive growth. Looking at our financial highlights. FY '26 delivered a solid financial result and demonstrated our continued disciplined approach to cost and capital management. EBITDA increased 19% to $10.9 million with EBITDA margin improving to 9.6%. Revenue increased 3% to $114.5 million, with North America leading the result. This is in line with preliminary unaudited results provided in the ASX announcement on the 27th of July this year. We invested $5.7 million in capital expenditure with more than 50% of CapEx spend driven by growth initiatives and capacity investment. And we generated positive operating cash flow before leases of $8.3 million and after leases of $5.2 million, while maintaining a solid 30 June closing cash position of $17.2 million and $16.8 million of net cash. Overall, the business has established a strong foundation from which to advance and deliver on its strategic priorities. Looking at the operational highlights. FY '26 was a year of focused execution, strengthening the foundation of our strategic priorities. During FY '26 and into FY '27, our leadership team transitioned to a single CEO structure, which is a privilege to step into. Greg Knight was appointed as Chief Operating Officer; and Nathan Minnich joining as Chief Marketing Officer. In late July, Amrita Blickstead announced her decision to step down as Co-CEO. The Board and I thank Amrita for her leadership and service to SomnoMed over the last 6 years, initially as Non-Executive Director and later as Co-CEO. It was a real pleasure working with Amrita as Co-CEO. The partnership we built was instrumental in the company's turnaround and in shaping a strong platform for SomnoMed's future. I sincerely wish her well and all that lies ahead. We delivered a number of production improvements. Manufacturing capacity expanded by over 20% in FY '26 and by over 40% across 2 years. Manufacturing production times improved by more than 50% across 2 years. We advanced the controlled market release of Virtus, our purpose-built solution for OSA patients with coexisting sleep bruxism. Virtus uniquely addresses their dental needs and is engineered to withstand the intense clenching and grinding forces that typically damage standard oral appliance therapy appliances, a meaningful opportunity given that more than half of all OSA patients experience bruxism. For dentists and patients, Virtus fills a critical gap in care by providing a durable solution where traditional OAT appliances often fail. I will now hand over to Ye-Fei to take you through the financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Karen. FY '26 represented a year of solid performance for SomnoMed. The first half revenue was up 13% or 8% in constant currency, with this outcome driven by growth in both North America and Europe. In a tale of 2 halves, the second half revenue was down by 7% or less than 1% in constant currency, impacted by a change in European market dynamics and the significant appreciation of the Australian dollar against our key currencies. EBITDA increased 19% to $10.9 million, and the EBITDA margin improved from 8.2% to 9.6%, reflecting higher revenue, improved gross margin and disciplined operating cost management. Operating cash flow after lease payments increased 8% to $5.2 million compared with $4.8 million in the prior year, owing to both revenue growth and cost management. Turning now to regional performance. Europe, our largest and most mature region, contributed $61.9 million in revenue for the full year, up a reported 1%, but down 1% on a constant currency basis. While first half growth was strong, second half sales were impacted by structural shifts in key European markets, slowing the pace at which patients were able to access oral appliance therapies. These included changes to clinical eligibility and public payer reimbursement criteria plus a shift in patient referral pathways. In response to these challenges, the company has restructured its European commercial, administrative and operational leadership to strengthen customer focus and is reviewing its commercial and product strategies to respond to the changing environment. North America is our primary growth region and continued to perform strongly, contributing $45.8 million in FY '26 revenue, up 6% on a reported basis and 11% on a constant currency basis. APAC, our first commercial region, contributed $6.8 million of revenue for FY '26, down 3% on a reported basis and 2% on a constant currency basis. Cost of living pressures impacted patient demand across these largely nonreimbursed markets. While regional dynamics varied throughout FY '26, all markets remain strategically important and continue to provide attractive long-term opportunities. Turning to the P&L statement with a few notable callouts. Operating expenses were tightly managed with year-on-year total OpEx growth of less than 3%. The other line within the EBITDA section increased primarily due to higher share-based payment expenses, which were noncash in nature. And margins improved across all key metrics despite European market dynamics and the foreign exchange headwinds. Turning to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents ended the year at $17.2 million, broadly unchanged from the prior year with net cash increasing from $16.5 million to $16.8 million. Trade receivables reduced materially during the period, reflecting improved collections performance and working capital management. The balance sheet remains strong and provides flexibility to support future investments and growth. The business delivered operating cash flow before lease payments of $8.3 million and after lease payments of $5.2 million. One-off expenses were slightly higher at $0.9 million, up from $0.5 million in the prior year as a result of cash settlement of prior year and current year one-off cost provisions. Capital expenditure totaled $5.7 million, consisting primarily of investment in manufacturing infrastructure and research and development activities. Free cash flow was negative $0.6 million, reflecting these planned growth investments. The sale of 2.86 million shares through the employee share trust delivered net proceeds of $2 million during the year to the business. An important note here on foreign exchange adjustments, which reflects the appreciation of the Australian dollar against key currencies, primarily the USD and the euro in FY '26 and in particular, in half 2. Approximately 95% of the company's revenues are derived in non-AUD currencies. Overall, we continue to balance growth investments with disciplined cash management. I will now hand back to Karen to take you through our strategy and outlook.

Thanks, Ye-Fei. Now let's have a look at the strategy and outlook section. The sleep apnea market continues to evolve. Up to 50% of CPAP patients discontinue therapy, creating a significant opportunity for oral appliance alternatives. At the same time, we're seeing growth in lower-cost OAT products and clinical differentiation challenges, GLP-1s and other emerging pharmaceutical entrants driving patient growth. Newer, high-cost invasive neurostimulation procedures and direct-to-consumer models that remain emerging but nascent. Now while these trends are reshaping the marketplace, they also contribute to greater awareness of sleep health and reinforce the attractiveness of oral appliance therapy within the broader treatment pathway. Our strategy is focused on moving from the financial and operational turnaround delivered through FY '26 and into the next phase of growth and profitability. From FY '24 to FY '26, we established the foundation for that next phase. Financially, we cleared the company's legacy higher costing debt and delivered positive operating cash flow. We made deliberate investments in talent to support execution. And operationally, we increased manufacturing capacity and improved turnaround times for our customers and patients. So now looking ahead to FY '30, our objectives include returning to double-digit revenue growth, progressively expanding EBITDA margins through scale and efficiency gains and remaining focused on organic growth while considering small-scale acquisition opportunities where appropriate. Looking at our product portfolio, it's been clearly designed to reflect the different reimbursement and market requirements that exist globally. Flex & Fusion are established platforms reimbursed across key European markets. In North America, Herbst Advance Elite is our Medicare reimbursed platform. And now Virtus represents our next generation of OAT innovation with the controlled market release underway. Each of these products allow SomnoMed to effectively address differing regional reimbursement and market requirements to ensure that our therapies reach as many patients and customers as possible. Our commercial priorities are focused on the most tangible growth opportunities in each region. In North America, our major growth driving region, we are focused on product innovation targeting the most accessible CMS reimbursement codes and on developing customer-specific engagement strategies. As noted earlier, Europe, our most mature region, delivered a strong first half before encountering reimbursement and referral path pressures in the second half. We have responded by reshaping commercial and operational leadership, sharpening product strategies and advancing a key reimbursement application. Within Asia Pacific, our first commercial region, we are continuing engagement with a GLP-1 manufacturer and investigating product line extensions suited to the non-reimbursed environment. And looking beyond. Our longer-term growth vision is underpinned by 3 key themes. Firstly, we're focused on capturing the growing patient pool, GLP weight loss drugs, Connected Care, home diagnostics and CPAP failures. These are all expanding the number of patients who may benefit from oral appliance therapy. This shift is creating a larger cohort actively seeking alternative treatment options. Second, accelerating new products aligned to market needs across our established portfolio. Virtus and future Connected Care opportunities. And thirdly, expanding the number of referring and treating clinicians through stronger clinician connectivity, engagement and an expanded reimbursement framework. We will be detailing a broader strategic road map at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. So looking now towards FY '27, our focus is on delivering growth while continuing to invest in the business. As we announced on the 27th of July this year, the company is targeting high single-digit revenue growth in FY '27 while maintaining EBITDA margins consistent with FY '26. I know we promised a more definitive guidance outlook at these results, but in hindsight, it's too early in the new financial year. And there are still some key assumptions and sensitivities that we need to establish further, such as seeing the growth continue in North America and seeing Europe stabilize, executing a successful global rollout and adoption of Virtus in the second half of FY '27, ensuring that we're maintaining stable EBITDA margins while continuing to invest to support future growth and of course, monitoring for significant FX movements as we saw in the second half of FY '26. So it would be more appropriate for SomnoMed to provide our guidance ranges alongside the AGM in November. And a quick word on investor engagement. We've listened closely to market feedback, and it's clear that you want more regular engagement with SomnoMed across the year. In response, we have plans to increase our cadence of ASX updates as we do have some important news flow coming and to introduce new FY '27 initiatives that provide greater access to management. We look forward to sharing more shortly. With that, I'd like to hand back to Jane and ask her to open up the floor for Q&A. Thanks, Jane.

Thank you, Karen, and thanks to you also, Ye-Fei. So that concludes the formal presentation, and we'll now open up the floor for questions. [Operator Instructions] we do have a couple of questions in the queue already. So we'll go to those. So the first one. What initiatives does SomnoMed have in mind to address the European reimbursement changes and pace at which patients can access oral appliance therapy?

Great question. So I think we'll start off just as I already touched on in the presentation. So we already have a significant reimbursement submission underway in one of our largest markets, in fact, in probably our highest growth market which is -- which I'm at this point, not disclosing, my apologies because as you think you might all be aware, we obviously are the only oral appliance manufacturer that reports. So at this point, we're trying to manage that, obviously, as it is commercially and somewhat sensitive. But we definitely are already -- as I said, we have our submission underway there. The second thing is, obviously, there's been some changes to reimbursement pathways in other parts of Europe. We're currently investigating those to see how we might best ensure that our strategies for engagement in those markets now take into account some of those changes. And then I think the other question was around the...

The pace at which these patients can access OAT?

Yes. So look, I mean, I think that the reality is that it's a real challenge for patients depending on the jurisdictions as to how fast they can get access to this therapy. And to be honest, at times, it's not even the patients -- it's not the clinician's fault or the citizen's fault, it's purely because it really is a therapy that the patient has to actively pursue to some extent themselves. So we are working on ways that we can facilitate access for patients so we can make sure that the awareness is made more broadly visible to them and also what pathways they need to seek. Certainly in reimbursed environments, obviously, it's very critical for patients to maintain a close relationship with -- between their sleep clinician, who's the diagnosing clinician and also with the dentist with whom they have to make the appointment. And in some instances, we actually facilitate those appointments for patients directly. So we are doing various things to help them along the way, so to speak.

Thanks, Karen. What has the feedback been on the Virtus -- sorry, what has feedback been on Virtus during its controlled market release in late FY '26?

Look, it's quite early. So we have actually -- we didn't launch in every single location globally at the same time, simply because, obviously, there are different regulatory pathways into these regions. So each of those have to be observed. And so as a result -- and also, as you can imagine, it takes a bit of time before the patient then receives the product. Early-stage feedback, we're about sort of, I'd say, 6 weeks into patients having them, I guess, in their mouth, so to speak, at nighttime, is very positive. And certainly, patients who for many years have had huge challenges finding a product that allows them to both treat their sleep apnea and their bruxism has been very, very positive. I can only say to you that some people, they really do have very, very strong forces every night in their mouth due to bruxism. So you need a very strong product indeed. And more importantly, their clinicians have said -- and I can say anecdotally, one clinician actually said to me that their patient was literally going through products, a new product every 6 months. And they've had this product now, and it looks like they may not be coming back every 6 months. So I think the early-stage feedback is positive. But nevertheless, I am cautious. I'm a great believer in test before you launch to ensure that you really understand all aspects of how products will interact with clinicians and with patients. So we are still going to gather some more feedback before we commercialize.

[Operator Instructions] As it stands at the moment, we're at the last couple of questions in the queue. So jump in now if you'd like to ask one. So -- and the last 2 that we have are fairly similar. So I'll wrap them up into one, which is what's happened with Rest Assure? And do we have a likely date for FDA approval? So what's the current timetable?

Sure. So I mean, I think, first of all, we did actually receive FDA approval for the compliance component of Rest Assure. And so we have been looking obviously at the second section, which is around the AHI. We did receive feedback from the FDA on their requirements for the AHI to be approved, and we're currently working through how that might best be done. We have looked very carefully in the last few weeks, certainly now that my leadership team has transitioned, and I'm now in the role to sort of really work out, what is the best way to optimize Connected Care. There are now, of course, there are a couple of products in the market, particularly in North America. And so for us, it's really -- let's really understand how we might best deliver Connected Care to the market and ultimately ensure that we get a fast and highly accretive result for entering into this category. So that will be something that we look to obviously share with our investors ideally around the same time as the AGM because we do want to then share our strategy for going forward, which will include, of course, Rest Assure.

Thank you. We have had another question coming to the queue. Could you please elaborate on which areas of the business you wish to reinvest in through FY '27 as per the guidance of flat EBITDA margins?

So I would assume that this is a question around OpEx and CapEx rather than just CapEx. So I think more broadly, I would say that, look, we are very much focused on looking at how to ensure that we capture as we always have what is a growing patient pool. And that's really how we might, should we say, enable and accelerate Connected Care. So that is one big area of investment. The second is really how do we expand our product pipeline. So we really obviously have one product out there. We're looking to obviously now accelerate that pathway. So that's another area of investment. And clearly, obviously, the rollout of Virtus is obviously part and parcel of that. I think the big opportunity, and you can hopefully see that from the narrative that we shared with you today, is not just saying that we obviously need to talk to dentists, but we need to recognize that, that is a huge opportunity that we need to really crack. And we have some, I think, pretty good ideas in terms of how we -- as we know dentists very well. And obviously, we're -- we have been talking to dentists now for nearly 20 years. So we do have some idea as to probably what will resonate most with them. But expanding that pool of customers is going to be really, I think, one of the big areas for us of focus. So I think probably if you're looking at total available market, lots of people with sleep apnea, but lots of dentists who we want to then enroll in the sleep apnea treatment area. And I think we have some ideas as to how we can make them very, very enticing for them very soon. So that's kind of the 3 areas. So hopefully, that helps.

Thank you. Okay. Final call for questions. I know it's a very busy day in the market today with lots of people reporting. So we have kept people's attention for a good deal of time. Okay. I think we're at the end of our question queue, Karen and Ye-Fei. So with that, I might just hand back to you, Karen, for any closing comments.

Great. Thanks again, Jane. So look, I think, first of all, thank you to everybody who's participated in this call. This is obviously now a new leadership team. And so we're looking at the business and working out what is really, really important and ultimately, how we can do our best to ensure that you as our investors and those that have been supporting our company for a long time can ensure that you feel that we really are getting you the best results possible. I would like to send a big thank you to Amrita, who I think might be listening to this call. So a shout out to her. And I'd also like to thank, of course, our employees around the world who every day do so much to ensure that ultimately, people's treatment and more importantly, their sleep is improved through the application, obviously, of oral appliance therapy. I'm excited about the future, and there's a lot to do. So I look forward to your ongoing support. And of course, I wish you a great day. Thank you.

Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Ye-Fei. I'll add my thanks to everyone else who joined us today. We look forward to keeping you across SomnoMed's progress. And with that, I'll invite you all now to disconnect. Have a good day. Thanks.