Earnings Labs

Endava plc (DAVA)

Q4 2019 Earnings Call· Wed, Sep 25, 2019

$4.23

+0.71%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+2.98%

1 Week

-5.05%

1 Month

+5.88%

vs S&P

+4.54%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Endava Q4 Fiscal Year 2019 and Full Year 2019 Results Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Laurence Madsen, investor relations, you may begin.

Laurence Madsen

Analyst

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Endava's fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 and fiscal year 2019 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Joining me today are John Cotterell, Endava's Chief Executive Officer; and Mark Thurston, Endava's Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin a quick reminder to our listeners. Our remarks today include forward-looking statements, including our guidance for Q1 fiscal-year 2020 and for the full fiscal-year 2020 and other forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Actual results and the timing of certain events may differ materially from the results or timing predicted or implied by such forward-looking statements and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Please note that these forward-looking statements made during this conference call speak only as of today’s date and the company undertakes no obligation to update them, to reflect subsequent events or circumstances or other event to the extent required by law. Please refer to our SEC filing as well as our financial result, press release for a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results. Also during the call, we’ll present both IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of non-IFRS to IFRS measures is included in today's earnings press release, which you can find on our Investor Relations website. A link to the replay of this call will also be available there. With that, I'll turn the call over to John.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Thank you all very much for joining us today. Mark and I are very pleased to be here to provide an update on our business and financial performance for the three months ended June the 30, 2019, and for our fiscal year 2019. Endava had another record quarter for Q4 fiscal year 2019 with revenue of £76.6 million, a strong growth of 24.6% year-on-year from £61.5 million in the same quarter in the prior fiscal year, all of it on an organic basis. Our revenue growth rate at constant currency was 22.7% year-on-year. Our strong revenue growth is driven by the expansion of our existing customers and the acquisition of new ones during the quarter. We continue to broaden our client base and added 20 new ones during the quarter in all regions and verticals. We ended the quarter with 275 active clients, up from 258 at the end of the same quarter in the prior fiscal year. I'd like to reflect on our accomplishments in our first year as a public company. It's been an exciting journey for us, and our listing on the New York Stock Exchange has been a catalyst for our visibility. We continue to expand in all three of our industry verticals while accelerating our growth in new verticals. The fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, our revenue totaled £287.9 million up 32.3% year-over-year. The total number of clients who generated revenue over £1 million increased by 37% year-on-year to 63%, while those generating revenue over £5 million increased by 88% to 15% during the same period. In the last fiscal year, we grew in all of our regions and verticals. In North America, our revenue increased 73.8% year-on-year, in Europe by 7.8% and in the U.K. 31.4%. All of our verticals also grew very…

Mark Thurston

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Thanks John. Endavas’ revenue totaled £76.6 million for the three months ended June 30th 2019, compared to £61.5 million in the same period last year, a 24.6% increase over the same period in the prior year. In constant currency, our revenue growth rate was 22.7%. Our adjusted profit before tax for the three months ended June 30 of 2019 was £13.5 million compared to £9.7 million for the same period last year, a 39.9% year-over-year increase. Our adjusted profit before tax margin was 17.6% for the three months ended June 30, 2019 compared to 15.7% for the same period last year. The year-over-year improvement in our adjusted profit before tax margin is mainly due to a continued positive pricing environment, FX tailwinds and a control of SG&A. Adjusted profit before tax is defined as the company's profit before tax for the period adjusted to exclude the impact of share based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, realized and unrealized foreign currency exchange gains and losses, initial public offering expenses incurred, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance readiness expenses, fair value movement of contingent consideration, secondary offering expenses incurred, and stamp duty on transfer shares all of which are non-cash, other than realized foreign currency exchange gains and losses, initial public offering expenses, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance readiness expenses, secondary offering expenses incurred, and stamp duty on transfer of shares. Adjusted PBT margin is calculated as a percentage of our total revenue. Our adjusted diluted EPS was £0.20 for the three months ended June 30 of 2019, calculated on 55.2 million diluted shares as compared to £0.15 for the same period last year, calculated on 51.3 million diluted shares, up 33.3% year-over-year. Revenue from our top ten largest client’s accounts for 40% of revenue for the three months ended June 30 2019, compared to 39% in…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Bryan Bergin of Cowen. Your line is open.

Jared Levine

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Hey. Yes. This is actually Jared Levine on for Bryan. So I just have one question and a quick follow up after. So in terms of the cap-to-sale now completed, what is the updated outlook in terms of the broader FIS account and any cross-sell successes to date you can mention?

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Sure. Hi. Was it Joe?

Jared Levine

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Jared.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Jared, Hi. Yes thanks for that. The – yes just to recap, so the captive deal closed at the end of August. Obviously the FIS deal with Worldpay also closed slightly more recently than that. I mean the relationship with Worldpay remains very strong. We've got a number of conversations going direct with FIS. But I think in the few weeks since that's closed, it's probably too early to actually see Cross sale [ph]. What we are seeing is some of the FIS strategy about what they want to do with Worldpay to start to cascade through into some of the backlog of work that we're starting to perform.

Jared Levine

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Got you. And then just one quick follow up. We notice the new board member anything to call out there as far as new potential opportunities there.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Sulina is currently at Facebook. And she runs a number of their partner programs there. So you know we'll let her ease in as a Board member first, but hopefully overtime there might be some introductions there that she can make.

Jared Levine

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Perfect. Thank you. Congrats on the quarter.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Bryan Keane

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Hi guys. Congrats on the solid results. Wanted to ask about clients [ph] over £1 million it looks like it dropped sequentially by £463. It looks a little bit unusual compared to the recent trend. Anything to call out there?

Mark Thurston

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Hi. Hi Bryan. No not really. It's -- it's a 12 it's a 12-month measure, so any sort of minor change in activity quarter-on-quarter can relegate the client [ph] below the £1 million. I think, we'll give you a better sense of the progress actually is, if you look at it annually, and 20F [ph] hasn't. I think it's just come out. So it's hidden there in the detail, but – what’s very encouraging is actually the progress of a number of clients going up the band. So we call out in the 20F are over 5 million, 2 to 5. So over 5 million from 2018 went from 8 to 15 or 2 to 5 million went from 22 to 26. And then 1 to 2 million went from 16 to 22, so I think it's just one of those small movements that we'd get essentially from quarter-to-quarter.

Bryan Keane

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Got it. Got it. And then on, I know you guys talked about no impact from Brexit at U.K. Could you talk a little bit about the Europe geography. A lot of concern out there, on you know potential slowdown. Are you guys seeing anything or anything in the pipeline that could suggest pressure from Europe?

John Cotterell

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Yes. So actually the reason why we're not growing as strongly in Europe is because we're pushing more of that new territory energy into the U.S. in terms of where we're expanding the salesforce and putting our investment. So you know the slower growth in Europe is more a function of our focus and energies over the last 12 months, than a function of actually lack of opportunities there. You know just to rewind, it was about 21 months ago we did the Velocity Partners deal, which gave us a big step up in the States. That integration is going very well. And you know combining those sales teams and beginning to drive the action and activity in the U.S. was a critical part of following through on that merger and acquisition. So the organic growth that you're seeing in the U.S. absolutely plays to that. We will start to put some attention back in Europe and are starting to do so now and so I think over the next 12 months you'll see a pickup in the results from the energy we put into that.

Bryan Keane

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Okay, great. And then last question I had is on the revenue guidance, 20% to 21% constant currency both for the first quarter and for the fourth fiscal year. Looks like you guys are expecting pretty constant growth not a lot of fluctuation by quarter. Is that just -- that you are moving pieces inside there, or is that just steady demand that you're seeing you don't expect to see any real fluctuations in that revenue growth rate?

John Cotterell

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

So I certainly sort of looking out of Q1, we're not that far off from it. So you know that is a pretty sort of nail down sort of figure. The growth for the full year obviously is a good sort of 9 months off. So we have good sort of visibility going ahead and you know the demand for our services sort of continues. There may be some variation over the quarters, but I don't expect it to be significant.

Bryan Keane

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Okay great. Thanks for taking the questions.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

All right.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Charlie Brennan from Crédit Suisse. Your line is open.

Charles Brennan

Analyst

Great, thanks for taking my questions. Just to actually. The first is a follow up on that revenue guidance. As you remarked, you've got basically 100% visibility of Q1. Your visibility is less than that for the full year as a whole. If I look at my mojo [ph] it looks like the second quarter comps are two or three points harder than Q1. Can you just give us some visibility into the known contracts that are ramping up and ramping down to give you some confidence that you can sustain that Q1 growth rates. And then secondly, if we just dropped down through the P&L, we’ve seen -- we've seen margins ticking higher, you obviously called out the rising prices and FX benefits. Can you just update us on where you think the right sort of medium term margin window is for the company? Thank you.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

So you're actually right about the sort of visibility sort of Q1, Q2. So, I think there's no -- there's nothing sort of significant in terms of growth. I think the council consensus we have out there is quite sort of strong for Q2. We see more strength actually in the second half from where we're looking at the moment. So that's basically all I could say really about that. In terms of margins, and our margins sort of structure, so absolutely right. We maintained our gross margin, adjusted gross margin going from Q3 to Q4. Basically that was a factor of utilization not coming off as strongly as we anticipated, because of the continuous strength. We were helped with the strong pricing environment that we're in, and we are getting a little bit of help on FX. I suspect that our Q1 gross margin will probably be as strong as our Q4 margin mainly because the utilization remains where it is, and we, as I’ve said that the pricing remains good. We are keeping a weather eye also on the Argentinian peso as well where we have a proportion of our cost base. So I think the gross margins are going to remain where they are at the moment, going certainly through Q1, Q2, but going out further into the second half, which is when just to remind you, when we have our major pay round, that should adjust the margins down by a percentage point or so. And SG&A as we go through the year, it was pretty high as we sort of had flagged for Q4 at 22.7%. We had anticipated that moving down over the course of the year, but it will remain roughly about that level in the first half. So I think we're going to see some strong adjusted PBT margin in Q1, but then it will move down to levels that we're indicating in the guidance for the full year.

Charles Brennan

Analyst

And just a quick financial follow up. Certainly relative to my model, there was a nice earnings beat, but it looked like it was driven by interest income. Can you just remind us where the interest incomes come from, and what happens to the interest lines through this year?

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Yes certainly. So the income is basically because of the IPO proceeds that are current on deposit. They have not been sort of meaningfully deployed at the moment, and we are a cash generative sort of business. So you know we've had a net income for Q3 and Q4, and I think we will also see that in Q1. We are anticipating we have to take into account Charlie that we move our FX in those lines, but then also we're anticipating putting in place an extended revolving credit facility. We currently have a facility of 50 million and we see significant sort of upsizing in that, in time for Q2, Q3 and Q4. So the interest line will move up as we cover the commitment fee costs on that.

Charles Brennan

Analyst

Correct. Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open

Hi, this is Ted [ph] on for Maggie. So I wanted to ask about the new client adjustments this quarter. Could you give us an idea of what verticals those additions were, and if there are any high potential accounts there?

John Cotterell

Analyst · Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open

So could you repeat the question, we were struggling to pick that up?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open

Yes. So wanted to ask about new client additions this quarter. Could you give us an idea of what verticals those additions were in, and is there any high potential accounts there?

John Cotterell

Analyst · Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open

So there's new client additions, so seven of them were in the U.S. and out of those seven, four of them were in TMT. One was payments financial services, and the two others were both in healthcare. The six of them were in the U.K. one in the payments financial services space and five in the Other space ranging across education, healthcare, non-profit and some retail activity. Does that give you a feel for..?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open

Yes that's it. That's very helpful. And then as a follow up, I wanted to ask about 10 areas of the business that you believe will – you’re going to emphasize this year in terms of investments. So this last year in North America is clearly a priority for the business. Could you add a little color about which side of the business you are going to double down here in 2020? Thanks.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open

Sure. Yes. So as you've picked up one of the areas that we’re starting to push energy in is ramping sales activity in Europe, certainly if we can find some M&A opportunities that are going to fit that Europe focus as well, we'll give those a lot of attention across the segments and so on that we operate in. There -- what we're always looking for is those sectors of the business where technology and the new technologies that are coming through are actually going to drive changes to business models and changes to the way in which organizations operate. And, we've got our eyes on a few segments where we're seeing these things pick up, and certainly insurance in the financial world. We're seeing more and more activity and a few clients starting to really get going on their transformations, asset and wealth management. Also, that one's been going for a little while, but it continues to build momentum. If we look across to the other space where we see a lot of activity, healthcare now that we're more established in the U.S. is becoming a much bigger opportunity for us than it was over here in Europe. The logistics space, we're actually seeing some opportunity to look at convergence across logistics, travel, automotive essentially the whole mobility space around helping people and items move from one place to another. And the changes of business models are being enabled through the technology through 5G etcetera that's starting to be applied to that space. So once again, in the early stages of shaping programs with clients around what could happen there and starting to see a pickup in execution.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Your line is open

That's very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions at this time. And we'll turn the call back over to the presenters.

John Cotterell

Analyst · Cowen. Your line is open

Well thank you all for joining us today. As you've heard, through the call we remain optimistic about our ability to maintain our sustainable growth. And we look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.