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COMMS GROUP LTD Investor Presentation 2023

Jun 20, 2023

64618_rns_2023-06-20_e140e6e4-45d4-4019-91db-5f20099dd07f.pdf

Investor Presentation

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Market Guidance & Strategic Review

21 June 2023

COMMS GROUP LIMITED (ASX: CCG)

https://commsgroup.limited

1 This document has been approved by the Board of Comms Group Ltd

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Agenda

Agenda
Business Update 4
Recent Vodafone Announcement 5
Strategic Review Announced 10
Updated Guidance 11

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COMMS GROUP | 2

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Business Update

COMMS GROUP | 3

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Business Update

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  • Strong New Sales Level Continues

  • Continuing strong new sales levels in the business across the Board.

  • New sales contracts signed for 9 mths to end Mar-23 of $7.2m ARR (annual recurring revenue).

  • The sales cycle on key Global deals is proving quite long (6+ mths). Notwithstanding, the qualified pipeline has some significant opportunities.

  • Majority of targeted synergies in the SME & ICT businesses have been delivered over the last 2 years.

Synergies Delivered

  • Circa 40% of the expected $300k annualised network & COGs savings with the ICT business have been delivered. We expect to get to ~50% delivered by 30 June with the remainder in FY24. The delay in delivering these synergies has resulted in some additional non-recurring COGS in FY23.

  • Cross sell opportunity of IT services to wider customer base emerging with some key opportunities live.

Recent Restructure Completed Successfully

  • The recent restructure (announced 4 April) has been completed and has resulted in a reduction in opex costs of ~$2m pa, predominantly in the SME & ICT business units.

  • Post the restructure, the business continues to perform well across the board with strong levels of performance in sales and customer service.

Margins and Cost Inputs

  • Gross margins are continuing to hold up in the business at or similar to recent historical levels.

  • There has not been any major key supplier cost increases impacting the business.

Business Unit Performance

  • Expected run rate EBITDA for SME by year end is around $4.5m to $5m and for ICT around $1.8m to $2.2m, depending upon the level of new sales contracts provisioned and synergies delivered.

  • For Global, around $1m run rate EBITDA as we continue to add additional resources to support key growth prospects.

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COMMS GROUP | 4

Recent Vodafone Announcement

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New Agreement

  • Comms Group announced on 15 June 23 that it has signed a further agreement with Vodafone Business (via Vodafone Procurement Company SARL) to provide a range of advanced unified communications services.

  • New agreement is supplemental to agreement for Teams Calling Direct Routing announced 15 March 2022.

Key Services to be Provided

  • Core service is the provision of Microsoft Operator Connect for Vodafone globally across multiple geographies.

  • Advanced automation, self service and provisioning tools to automate and streamline many manual processes.

  • • State-of-the-art portal including API integration and other platforms delivered - to assist with fast turn-up of services.

Agreement Term

  • The new supply agreement is for a minimum commitment period of five years.

  • • After which the services will be provided on a month-to-month basis and may be terminated by either party with a minimum notice period of 12 months.

Deployment

  • The initial deployment of the service has commenced and is expected to be completed by June 23 with user onboarding to commence thereafter.

  • To be provided initially to the Enterprise Team UK, Vodafone UK and Germany.

  • Comms Group anticipates that other operating entities will come on board with the solution over time.

Financials

  • Vodafone Business have committed to a minimum monthly charge of ~A$30k per month from 1 Oct 2023 in relation to this new agreement. We expect the monthly revenues to grow significantly over time.

  • This is in addition to existing revenues of circa $20k to $30k pcm which are growing at around 10% month-on-month currently.

  • Comms Group has a strong pipeline of opportunities it is assisting Vodafone with.

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COMMS GROUP | 5

What is Operator Connect?

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Operator Connect (OC) is a comprehensive customer experience and network and technology standards that gives the power back to end customers to research, build and deploy their chosen Microsoft Teams calling solution for PSTN calling/integration.

Buying Journey (Click, Select, Deploy)

Using the OC marketplace , existing and prospective customers can Click on an approved participating Carrier, Select the calling plan that is suited for their business and Deploy numbers (inc porting their existing PSTN numbers in countries that support this) and calling capabilities within seconds. Operators enjoy a simple go-to-market offering that can be sold to customers zero-touch.

Simplified Setup and Management

Potential for customers to self-manage their Teams tenancy or use a wide range of automated deployment tools to enable Teams calling, manage telephone numbers and configure user profiles.

Enhanced Support and Reliability

The OC Carrier and Microsoft form a “team” to provide customers with a seamless support experience and through direct-peering and mandatory SLAs and KPIs, ensure enhanced uptime, availability and high call quality.

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COMMS GROUP | 6

Customer Experience

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Customer Selects Operator

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----- Start of picture text -----

Onboarding Deployment
• •
Operator collects key information Customer selects phone numbers or
from customer tenancy follows porting process

Tenancy is rapidly enabled for calling
Operator
OSS/BSS
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Orchestration

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Numbers and trunks are deployed
automatically on Customer tenancy
and Operator SBC
Operator 3 [rd]
Party Platforms
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COMMS GROUP | 7

Market Opportunity How do we position OC against TDR?

280 million

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Teams Direct Routing (TDR)

  • Multi-National

  • Complex Call Flows

  • Custom Deployment

  • 1000+ Seats

  • Requires technical knowledge

  • Custom Devices, Professional Services

Operator Connect (OC)

  • SME & Multi-National

  • Standard Call Flows

  • Standardised Turnkey Deployment (Hours/Days)

  • 1 to 1000+ Seats

  • No/Minimal technical knowledge

  • Competes with the legacy ‘Teams Calling Plans’

Teams monthly active users

80 million Teams Phone monthly active users

1 billion Calls in a single month

12 million Teams Phone PSTN users[3]

Leader in Gartner’s 2022 UCaaS Magic Quadrant report

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COMMS GROUP | 8

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Strategic Review & Guidance

COMMS GROUP | 9

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Strategic Review Commenced

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The Board is of the view that the current market valuation does not reflect the strong profitability and market position of the SME & ICT businesses or the inherent value and market position of the Global business.

It is the Board’s view that the sum of the parts is worth more than the market’s current valuation of the Company.

The strategic review will consider all options available to the Board including a potential sale of one or more of Comms Group’s businesses in order to maximise shareholder value.

Comms Group has retained Latimer Partners as financial advisers to assist in the review.

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COMMS GROUP | 10

Updated Guidance for FY23

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FY23 Revenue is expected to exceed $50m

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Gross margin performance strong with expectation of xx% gross margins or around $xm in Gross Profit

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FY23 Underlying EBITDA[1] is expected to be in the range $4.8m to $5m

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Preliminary guidance for FY24, is for underlying EBITDA of circa $7m

1 Underlying EBITDA excludes net interest, tax, non-cash share LTIP costs, rent, depreciation, amortisation, business acquisition, integration, restructuring and non-recurring costs.

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COMMS GROUP | 11

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Appendices - Company Overview

COMMS GROUP | 12

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Appendix 1: Introduction to Comms Group Limited

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  • Comms Group Limited is a global telco service provider and IT services provider, headquartered in Sydney Australia.

  • Established in 2008 and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:CCG) in 2017.

  • We provide services to businesses, Enterprise, Government and international telcos and IT services companies.

  • We have 3 key divisions:

1. Comms Group Global (Global telco business, voice specialist & leading Microsoft Teams Calling provider in multiple countries)

2. Next Telecom (domestic Australian telco business, extensive product offering); and

3. onPlatinum ICT (domestic Australian IT managed services provider or MSP)

  • Refer www.commsgroup.global and www.commsgroup.limited.

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COMMS GROUP | 13

Appendix 2: Comms Group at-a-glance

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A leading B2B provider of cloud-based communications and managed IT services to businesses

We service our customers via three key divisions

We enhance business agility through innovative cloud-based communications and IT solutions

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Global

Telco service Specialist UCaaS Award-winning IT provider to and CPaaS provider Managed Service Australian SME & to Wholesale, Provider supporting corp. mid-market Enterprise and corporate sectors (<1,000 Global MNCs customers' ICT employees) with (>1,000 employees) needs, focusing on the latest products with global network innovation and and award winning reach. developing longcustomer service. term relationships. www.nexttelecom.com.au https://commsgroup.global https://onplatinum.com.au

Note: Refer glossary for definitions.

  • Located across Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Singapore, Philippines, UK

  • Refer https://commsgroup.limited/managementteam for management team

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COMMS GROUP | 14

Appendix 3: Products and services A full telco & ICT product suite and leading position as a global unified communications provider

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Voice services

  • Replace legacy ISDN/ PABX lines

  • Move traditional “inoffice” PABX to the cloud

  • Advanced cloud business phone/hosted PBX (domestic)

  • Global PBX for International offices

  • Inbound 13/1300/1800 services

  • 4G/5G Mobile & Mobile Broadband

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Data services

  • High speed fibre-optic based data & internet services

  • NBN services inc. NBN Enterprise Ethernet

  • Own our own Layer 2 and Layer 3 (ISP) networks

  • SD WAN in key capital cities

  • Multi-carrier diversity services

  • Access to Cloud Services

  • Security (Firewall) services

  • • SD-WAN/Firewall services inc. Velocloud (VMWare) and Fortinet specialisations

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Managed IT services

• 24x7 IT Managed services (highly structured and productised offering)

  • Provision of ICT hardware

  • Security services inc. Fortinet specialisation

  • Cloud based services (Azure, VMWare)

• Own our own Cloud IaaS Virtual Server cluster (VMWare)

  • Desktop as a service

  • Backup as a service

• Managed telephony & data services

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Unified Comms Solutions (UCaaS)

  • Industry leading Global Microsoft Teams calling (Direct Routing)

  • Range of value-added applications

  • Contact Centre

  • Call Recording

  • Call Analytics

  • SMS messaging with integration to MS Teams

  • Extensive Asia Pacific offering

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Wholesale/Global

  • UCaaS & CPaaS services today

  • Global MS Teams calling network

  • Global hosted PBX

  • SIP Trunks - various countries

  • Call Termination Services

  • Global DIDs/Telephone numbers provision

  • 24x7 Global NOC and support

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COMMS GROUP | 15

Appendix 4: Global Network

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Comms Group is a leader in Microsoft Teams calling for global businesses.

Extensive international network with in-depth Asia Pacific coverage and carrier relationships.

Upgraded & expanded capacity of core Global voice network with 6 SuperPOP locations now in place – Sydney, Singapore, London, Frankfurt, US West & US East

Expanded network capability and capacity in key markets of China, Hong Kong, Vietnam & Thailand

Enhanced capacity of our domestic data (Layer 2), internet (Layer 3, ISP) & cloud hosting platforms in FY22

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COMMS GROUP | 16

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Glossar y

Term Definition
Cloud Communications The provision of key communications services from cloud servers based in data centres and over high speed internet connections.
Cloud PBX, Cloud Phone,
Hosted PABX
A cloud PBX functions the same as an in office PABX but is hosted in a cloud server accessed via the internet. This is becoming the preferred option for providers and customers today.
Comms Group operates a global Cloud Phone network.
Corporate mid-market For Comms Group, this is larger organisations with typically 500+ employees and monthly spend (MRR) of typically > $5,000.
CPaaS Communications Platform as a Service is a cloud-based platform that enables developers to add real-time communications features to their own applications without needing to build
backend infrastructure and interfaces. Comms Group provides call termination (SIP Trunks), telephone numbers and management across multiple geographies.
CTS Call Termination Services – provision of a service by wholesale service providers to terminate voice calls in different markets or countries and on to different networks such as mobile and
fixed voice networks.
Data Service A broadband service that delivers voice, video and data over a private network or the Internet. NBN and fibre optic services are the most common forms of data services in the SME and
corporate mid-market. Comms Group operates a domestic Layer 2 (data) and Layer 3 (internet) network with key Points of Presence (PoPs) in Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane and
aggregates a range of layer 2 wholesale access services.
Enterprise For Comms Group, this is organisations with typically > 1,000 employees and operating multi-nationally as an MNC.
Fibre (optic) Use of fibre optic networks to carry digital signals (data) via light transmission at very high speeds, transforming the telco and cloud services market globally.
ICT Information Communication Technology is an umbrella term that covers the wide range of IT services and Communications services provided to businesses.
MNC Multi-national corporate whereby the corporation has offices, facilities and assets in multiple countries.
MRR Monthly recurring revenue is the monthly recurring annuity style revenue received from customers.
NBN Australia’s national broadband network, which is a wholesale open access data network, replacing older copper and cable broadband with optic fibre networks, high speed switches and
other technologies.
PABX A typically in-house telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other as well as the outside telephone network known as the public switched telephone
network (PSTN).
SD-WAN A software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) uses software-defined network technology, such as communicating over the Internet with encryption between an organisation's
locations. Allow companies to build higher-performance WANs using lower-cost and commercially available Internet access. SD-WAN is replacing traditional data networks such as MPLS.
SIP Session Initiation Protocol - being the standard IP telephony signalling protocol used to manage voice calls over the internet.
SME For Comms Group, this is small to medium enterprise typically up to 500 employees.
Unified Communications
(UCaaS)
A communications delivery model based on the cloud, providing key communications services including telephony (voice), video, messaging, chat, collaboration, document storage
supporting teamwork, agility, mobility and work from anywhere. Comms Group is a leading provider of MS Teams calling with a global network and offering.

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COMMS GROUP | 17

Disclaimer

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The material in this presentation is a summary of Comms Group Ltd’s (CCG) activities and results, and is current at the date of preparation, 21 June 2023. Further details are provided in the Company’s full and half year accounts and results announcements released to the ASX.

No representation, express or implied, is made as to the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of information contained in this presentation, including the accuracy, likelihood of achievement or reasonableness of any forecasts, prospects, returns or statements in relation to future matters contained in the presentation (“forward- looking statements”). Such forward-looking statements are by their nature subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies and are based on a number of estimates and assumptions that are subject to change (and in many cases are outside the control of CCG and its Directors) which may cause the actual results or performance of CCG to be materially different from any future results or performance expressed or implied by such forward- looking statements.

Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements and except as required by law or regulation, CCG assumes no obligation to update these forwardlooking statements. To the maximum extent permitted by law, CCG and its related corporations, Directors, officers, employees and agents disclaim any obligations or undertaking to release any updates or revisions to the information in this presentation to reflect any change in expectation or assumptions and disclaim all responsibility and liability for these forward-looking statements (including without limitation, liability for fault or negligence.)

This presentation provides information in summary form only and is not intended to be complete. It is not intended to be relied upon as advice to investors or potential investors and does not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular investor.

CCG’s financial performance. All references to dollars are to Australian Dollars unless otherwise stated.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither CCG nor its related corporations, Directors, officers, employees or agents, nor any other person, accepts any liability, including, without limitation, any liability arising from fault or negligence, for any loss arising from the use of this presentation or its contents or otherwise arising in connection with it.

Certain financial data included in this presentation may be “non-IFRS financial information” under Regulatory Guide 230 Disclosing non-IFRS financial information published by ASIC. The non-IFRS financial information in this presentation may include underlying profit. CCG believes this non-IFRS financial information, where included, provides useful information to users in measuring the financial performance and conditions of CCG. The non-IFRS financial information measures do not have standardised meanings prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards and, therefore, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other entities, nor should they be considered as an alternative to other financial measures determined in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. Undue reliance should not be placed on any non-IFRS financial information.

This presentation is not and should not be considered as an offer or an invitation to acquire shares in CCG or any other financial product and does not and will not form any part of any contract for the acquisition of shares.

This presentation should be read in conjunction with other publicly available material. Further information including historical results and a description of the activities of CCG is available on our website https://commsgroup.limited

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Due care and consideration should be undertaken when considering and analysing

COMMS GROUP | 18

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COMMS GROUP LIMITED (ASX: CCG)

This document has been approved by the Board of Directors