Earnings Labs

Karooooo Ltd. (KARO)

Q3 2024 Earnings Call· Tue, Jan 23, 2024

$49.85

+0.02%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Hello, and welcome to Karooooo’s FY 2024 Q3 Earnings Call. On behalf of Karooooo, we'd like to thank you for joining us today. I'm Carmen, the Group's Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, and together with Hoeshin, our Group Chief Financial Officer, we will be taking you through our strong business updates and financials. All investors are advised to read through the disclaimer. We will be reviewing all three of Karooooo's business units in today's webinar, namely, Cartrack, Carzuka and Karooooo Logistics. Karooooo remains committed to our mission of being the leading operations cloud. Our focus is to simplify the lives of operators and maximize the scale and efficiency of their operation. Our innovative platform goes far beyond connected vehicles and equipment to centralize and unify an entire operation into one single place. We are helping to pave the benchmark and future of efficiency, safety and impact for operational businesses. Fundamentally, every operation wants to achieve safety targets and compliance targets and well-being targets, but historically these have come at the compromise of the core survival and success targets of a business, productivity and efficiency. Having a tool that solves complex problems in simple ways is no small feat, and this is a constant driver for our strong growth at scale. Everything is embedded together. The tool that automatically flags potential fuel fraud to save thousands is the same tool that automates carbon emission tracking. The tool that optimises routes to slash mileage and fuel consumption also makes drivers' lives easier and puts them at ease to ensure they get paid for every minute they worked. When burdens like maintenance are well managed, they become strong differentiators for operators and this is easily done through our automation and integrations. Karooooo's platform allows operators to prioritize safety and compliance with heightened productivity.…

Goy Hoeshin

Operator

Thank you, Carmen. I will now talk through Karooooo's financial performance for Q3 FY 2024. Please note that all comparisons are against Q3 FY 2023, unless otherwise stated. Quarter three has proven to be an exciting period for us. Our well-established and profitable SaaS business model and robust financial position provide us with multiple levels for growth. And our primary focus remains on growing our subscription revenue. Our subscription revenue grew 17% to ZAR904 million and our ARR demonstrated an increase of 20% to ZAR3,711 million. Operating profit increased by 31% to ZAR275 million and our earnings per share grew 35% to ZAR6.34 despite our prudent provision made in the quarter relating to Carzuka's reduced operations. All segments continue to see strong tractions with the benefits of our strategic investment beginning to show. Earnings in this quarter stood at ZAR199 million and our free cash flow are at ZAR162 million. Our free cash flow has remained positive over the last eight quarters despite our investment in the development of our new South Africa Central office. Up to this quarter, we had invested ZAR231 million in this development. Our high cash conversion are demonstrated through our strong financial discipline as we continue to invest for our future growth. Our net cash on hand stood at ZAR782 million in this quarter. Debtor's turnover days improving to 30 days alongside with prudent provisioning to weather off strong economic headwinds in some of the market we are operating. We have strong unit economics, robust operating margins, unleveraged balance sheet and a strong cash conversion. We remain confident that our track record of success, especially our ability to generate healthy cash flow is sustainable. Despite our provision in the quarter for Carzuka, our earnings per share increased by 35% to ZAR6.34. The increase is the…

Zak Calisto

Analyst

We do use part of the Carzuka's IP for the broader spectrum of Cartrack business. So we intend at this point in time to continue using the Carzuka IP, although we're very aware that we could sell part of it if we wanted to. We're not certain at this point in time if we sold it and we made another, whether that wouldn't just create another competitor that would upset the OEMs and the dealerships. So we've sort of got to tread carefully and decide if we do sell it to be outside South Africa. On a scale of 1 to 10, how does Cartrack performing in Southeast Asia and Europe relative to your expectations? I think Miles, we definitely are on target with our budgets. Clearly, what we would like to do is start growing faster and we definitely -- that's exactly what we plan to do. Do you see growth in South East Asia and Europe scaling fast in FY 2025 than in the current financial year? I think in the results of the next quarter we're certainly going to give the outlook and there we will be more firm in what we believe we can deliver. The next question coming from Matt from William Blair. Can you update us on the progress with the OEMs? I think the progress has been slow, but we certainly believe that once that progress starts, it's definitely going to be a kicker for attracting business and for customer acquisition. So we remain very hopeful that our integrations with the OEMs and our current collaboration with them is going to yield good results. Another question from Matt from William Blair. How is Asia performing relative to your expectations? And Matt, we are seeing in equivalents with our forecasts and our budgets for…