Karooooo global growth journey intact despite Mr Market being moody
Cartrack, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nasdaq and JSE-listed Karooooo, released its financial results for the first quarter of its 2022 financial year. Since Karooooo is now listed on the Nasdaq in the US, the reporting requirements are more stringent, hence a first quarter update has been announced to the market. Formerly Cartrack, the software as a service (SaaS) business has been one of the best performing JSE counters over the past five years. The company is embarking on a global growth journey in an attempt to achieve the success they have experienced in the South African market in other jurisdictions. Founder Zak Calisto has been labelled a visionary and Wall Street analysts alike are expecting this share to continue to outperform. At a high-level, the results look good with subscription revenue growing in the teens despite bottom line suffering as a result of higher operational costs. Chris Logan is one of the few South African analysts that cover this stock and he'll be speaking to the BizNews team over the course of the day to unpack the results in further detail. The share was up 8% in the morning session only to fall over 13% intraday by 13:00 SAST. – Justin Rowe-Roberts
Karooooo media release:
Karooooo, that owns 100% of Cartrack Holdings ("Cartrack"), today reported financial results for the first quarter of its 2022 financial year ("2022"), ended May 31, 2021 and announced the appointment of new independent director.
"Despite the pandemic, our 2022 financial year commenced on a solid note as the strong growth in net subscriber additions continued.
New customer additions across a broad base of industries are at historical highs demonstrating our ability to innovate and to provide a differentiated fleet management platform corroborating the strength of our mission to build the leading mobility SaaS platform that maximises the value of data.
The global vehicle parc continues to grow, and customers seek to reduce operating costs, optimise the use of resources, improve the efficiency of fragmented workflows and enhance safety, risk management and eco compliance.
Our comprehensive fleet management platform and vertically integrated business model differentiates us from competitors. Our focus on product development and distribution has led to our continued growth with limited industry or customer concentration risk.
As we think beyond the pandemic, it is imperative that we are positioned for expansion to meet the growing customer demand for our SaaS platform. After curtailed investment for expansion in the first two quarters of our 2021 financial year when the pandemic emerged, we entered a phase of investing for growth in November 2020. We increased our headcount by 761 employees in the last three quarters positioning us well for the expected expansion to come. This planned recruitment drive focused on customer acquisition in South Africa, general expansion in Asia and research and development ("R&D"). The contraction in operating margins during the quarter is in line with our growth strategy.
We are delighted to report strong subscriber and subscription revenue growth for our first quarter despite the ongoing operating restrictions imposed due to the pandemic." Zak Calisto, CEO and Founder Karooooo.
Announces First Quarter 2022 Unaudited Financial Results
First Quarter 2022 Highlights:
(All comparisons relative to the First Quarter 2021)
Scale
- 1 366 470 subscribers in total, up 21% (Q1 2021: 1 133 547)
- Net subscriber additions increased 760% to 60 470 (Q1 2021: 7 032)
Growth
- Total revenue increased 17% to R626m (Q1 2021: R535m)
- Total revenue increased 22% on a constant currency basis
- Subscription revenue increased 15% to R606m (Q1 2021: R526m)
- Subscription revenue increased 20% on a constant currency basis
- Subscription annualised recurring revenue ("ARR"), a non-IFRS measure, increased 18% to R2 491m as at May 2021 (May 2020: R2 106m)
Karooooo achieved excellent revenue growth of 17% in the first quarter of 2022. The South African Rand ("ZAR") significantly strengthened against the basket of currencies in which Karooooo operates. Subscription revenue growth was driven by Karooooo's robust business model that delivered 21% growth in the number of subscribers to 1 366 470. On a constant currency basis revenue grew 22% and subscription revenue by 20%. The ZAR appreciated by 19% against the US Dollar ("USD") and on average 16% compared to the rest of the group's operating currencies.
New customer additions contributed significantly to the first quarter 2022 net increase of 60 470 in subscribers (vehicles or other mobile assets on our platform), meaningfully higher than the first quarter of 2021 where subscribers increased by 7 032. Sales and marketing basic salaries and marketing costs are a major component of the cost of acquiring new customers and are not expensed over the expected life span of a customer, but rather expensed when incurred. This component of operating expenditure was significantly higher by R37m in this quarter compared to the first quarter of 2021 and we believe the negative effect on operating profit in this quarter places us well for future margin expansion.
Operating expenditure related to sales and marketing increased 71% in the first quarter of 2022 as the group continues to enhance its vertically integrated sales and marketing teams and drive customer acquisition. R&D operating expenditure increased 44% compared to the first quarter of 2021, supporting the continued enrichment and expansion of our SaaS platform. General and administration expenditure increased 21% compared to the first quarter of 2021.
The group delivered operating profit of R168m (Q1 2021: R182m) and Adjusted EBITDA, a non-IFRS measure, of R275m (Q1 2021: R266m) for the first quarter of 2022, an 8% decrease and 3% increase respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2021. In line with our growth plans for this financial year, the Adjusted EBITDA margin, a non-IFRS measure, dropped to 44% compared to 50% in the first quarter of 2021.
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