Precise Biometrics CEO Sees Easing of Supply Chain Stressors in Q3 Update

Precise Biometrics has issued its latest quarterly update, depicting a challenging third quarter along with a brighter outlook going forward.

Net sales amounted to SEK 16.9 million, a year-over-year decline of 27.1 percent. The company’s operating loss came in at SEK 3 million.

For the interim period, the biometrics specialist is reporting net sales of SEK 55.9 million, and an operating loss of SEK 11.4 million.

That having been said, Precise has delivered positive EBITDA numbers, at SEK 1 million for the latest quarter and SEK 0.2 million for the first three quarters of the year. That’s important, and reflects Precise’s efforts to roll with the punches of the supply chain disruption that affected industrial activity around the world in recent months, as CEO Stefan K. Persson explained in his comments on the Q3 results.

“Precise has generated a positive EBITDA through cost control and an agile work method during the ongoing component shortage that affected our customers in the third quarter,” he said. “The profitable Algo business provides the opportunity for continued investments in Digital Identity. Despite these investments and the fall in royalty revenues, we are reporting a positive result at EBITDA level of approximately SEK 1 million.”

Persson went on to assert that his team saw “clear improvements” in the supply chain situation at the end of the quarter, adding that while the company saw low levels of client orders during June and July, September’s activity suggested that “there will be good opportunities in the future to return to previous volumes.”

More broadly, Persson asserted that the “fourth quarter has started strongly, with high levels of activity continuing in all verticals.”

While Precise Biometrics is best known as a supplier of fingerprint algorithms for mobile devices, the company has sought to expand into new market areas in recent years. Persson highlighted ongoing progress in Precise’s efforts to commercialize YOUNIQ, the company’s biometric access control solution based on facial recognition. Persson said that the company has continued to establish new partnership agreements with respect to distribution partners, and that YOUNIQ has maintained a 100 percent customer retention rate.

Intriguingly, Persson also noted that Precise Biometrics has initiated “a number of pilot projects under way involving the personalization of settings in cars through fingerprint technology.” With a growing number of auto makers embracing biometric technology, this could point to an important new business area for the company.

–

November 15, 2021 – by Alex Perala