Mogo Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
November 9, 2023

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Mogul Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. This call is being recorded on Thursday, November 9, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Craig Armitage.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Joanna, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Just a few notes before we get started. Today's call will contain forward looking Statements that are based on current assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to update these statements except as required by law.

Speaker 1

Information about the risks And uncertainties are included in Mogo's Q3 filings as well as periodic filings with regulators in Canada and the United States, which you'll find on SEDAR, Edgar, and you can access through our Investor Relations website as well. Secondly, today's discussion will include several adjusted financial measures, Non IFRS measures, please consider these as a supplement to and not as a substitute for the IFRS measures and we've Reconciliations to those, which you'll see in the press release and the investor deck. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dave Peller to get us started. Go ahead, Dave. Thanks, Rick.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to our Q3 2023 results call. I'm joined today by Greg Feller, our President and CFO. Our Q3 results showcase the continued progress we're making in building a highly efficient and more profitable operating platform at Mogo, One that will allow us to scale more profitably over time, while also driving long term organic growth across our products. As you can see, we're continuing to make solid progress.

Speaker 1

Q3 revenue was $16,200,000 up from $16,000,000 in Q2 of 2023. This is our 2nd quarter in a row of sequential quarterly revenue growth. Another solid quarter with continued improvement in adjusted EBITDA from a loss of $800,000 last year to positive $2,100,000 this quarter. Q3 gross profit increased $11,400,000 70% margin compared to $10,800,000 to 63% margin in Q3 of last year. We continue to Be on a path towards our EBITDA target of $7,000,000 to $9,000,000 Our progress goes beyond efficiencies as we're also seeing growth in our business, which we'll touch on.

Speaker 1

We continue to focus on both our Canadian Consumer FinTech Business and our B2B International Payments business. Over the last 18 months, we've successfully to narrow our focus and you can consider 2 main business segments Mogo, which includes wealth and lending Encarta, our payments business, this runs completely independently with its own team resources. Let me highlight some of the progress and plans for each, beginning with Encarta. We saw strong year over year growth in payment volume driven by growth from our existing customer base. Q3 payments volume increased over 30% To $2,400,000,000 Similar to our wealth products, Carta offers payment processing at a fraction of the cost of big players.

Speaker 1

And given the massive market size, we believe there's a lot of runway for growth. We continue to make progress in terms of improving the efficiency of the platform and productivity of the team, including a migration to the Oracle Cloud, which will enable us to scale more efficiently. We continue to be excited about the progress Our main focus is on building the ultimate wealth building platform that helps Canadian investors dramatically improve their performance while also making a positive impact. The reality is that wealth management and the investing space in Canada is broken and it's the primary reason why the vast majority aren't on track to retirement. This graph illustrates the problem we're focused on solving.

Speaker 1

A 30 year study showed that the average return of equity investors was only 4% versus the 10% average of the S and P. Now if you look at our target customer who has a 50 year investing time horizon, the difference translates into a staggering 16.5 times more money. This is also one of the key reasons why 75% of Canadians The ages of 55 to 65 who have yet to retire have less than $100,000 saved. Why is the problem so big? The incumbents are focused on optimizing for their profits, not their customers.

Speaker 1

There's almost $2,000,000,000,000 mutual funds that are charging an average 2%. That's $40,000,000,000 a year in fees for the privilege of underperforming. Simply put, it's a racket. So how do we fix this? One of the big inspirations to our approach is Warren Buffett, who is widely considered the greatest investor of all time.

Speaker 1

His recommended approach is for the average investor to rely on a passive S and P 500 index strategy and only those that are truly prepared Do their homework and have the right temperament should consider actively picking their own stocks. The reality is this isn't the approach the vast Majority take and is the reason why the vast majority dramatically underperformed the market. Buffett's partner, Charlie Munger said it best, knowing what you don't know is more useful than being brilliant. The advice Buffett has given many times is also brilliantly simple. Consistently buy an S and P low cost index Keep buying it through thick and thin and especially through thin.

Speaker 1

We've made it simple for anyone to get a long term path to financial freedom by following this formula while also making a positive impact. For only $4.99 a month, we automated and fully managed this for our users. We choose the ETFs. This is actually more complicated than most realized given how many ETFs are available, the difference in fees and importantly choosing between hedged and unhedged. What's more, we enable fractional investing, so users can easily set up $10,000,000 $25,000,000 $400 a week, any amount they choose.

Speaker 1

We also automatically reinvest the dividends. This is another important element that the DIY investors often aren't aware of. About 30% of the 10% average return On the S and P actually comes through dividend reinvesting. At any time, users can adjust their contribution, easily do one time deposits and set as many goals as they want all from the app. Again, this is a massive market and we are a very small player with a compelling value proposition that positions us for significant long term growth.

Speaker 1

It's also important to note that in most of life, the more money you have, the better things you can buy. But in investing and personal finance, this is rarely true. For those who want to actively manage their investing, we've built MogoTrade. There are many things that set us apart from every other DIY trading app. But without question, the biggest one is we are primarily focused on helping our users improve their performance versus actively trying to get them to trade more.

Speaker 1

Not only do we educate our users on how hard it is to beat the market, if 95% of professionals can't do it, what makes you think you can't? We, in fact, are actively encouraging people to not trade given the reality. And for those that are really prepared to do the homework, we're building an experience that helps some investors avoid the Speculation that causes poor performance and really focuses on thoughtful long term investing. As an investor, you can have 3 kinds of advantages informational, You know something that other investors don't. Analytical, you do your homework better than others.

Speaker 1

And behavioral, you think and act more rational than others. Behavioral advantages are by far the most interesting as they are most enduring and impactful. As Buffett says, the most important quality for an investor is temperament, Not inflect. On top of our focus on helping users invest wisely, we also offer 0 commission, 0 FXV and 0 CO2, Making MogoTrade the lowest cost and most sustainable way to invest in Canada. We're not only proud of the experience we've built to help people improve their performance, but doing it in a way that also has a meaningful positive impact Really puts our solution on another level.

Speaker 1

This is also something that our internal surveys show that our users really appreciate and value. Thought it was important that we also showcase how this is impacting real people. Vince is a real person and like many Canadians in their 20s, wasn't sure how to invest, But knew it was important. Although he is consistently saving, he wasn't sure whether or not that would put him on a path to financial freedom. After discovering MOCA In gaining confidence in the approach, he's now on a path to financial freedom and what he discovered was shocking.

Speaker 1

He had just kept doing had he just kept doing what he was doing, he would have ended up with Fraction of what was possible. One of the things we consistently see as well is when someone lacks confidence in the approach, it also impacts the level of commitment. So as you can see, Vince significantly increased his contributions, but that's only part of it. Had he simply increased but kept savings, he would have been on a path to $350,000 versus the $6,000,000 We've seen many of these examples where the impact is typically 10x plus versus their existing strategy. Lastly, our results continue to be driven by the performance of our team and the high performance culture we've been building.

Speaker 1

This has also helped us increase our revenue per employee, metric that we believe captures efficiency improvements. We are relatively small team going up against literally the biggest companies in Canada With almost unlimited capital and resources. This along with our mission is what motivates our team to work hard to deliver products that really help Canadians dramatically improve their financial path. With that, I will turn it over to Greg.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Dave. Good afternoon to everyone. The Q3 was our 2nd quarter in a row of sequential top line Growth in 4th quarter in a row of positive and increasing adjusted EBITDA, clearly demonstrating the strength and resiliency of our model. While we placed significant focus on driving increased efficiencies and profitability over the past 18 months, which included a decision to exit unprofitable products, We've also continued to invest in our wealth and payments platform as we view these as the 2 strong drivers of growth going forward. And while our reported revenue year over year due to difficult comparisons to 2022, we have now clearly seen a return to revenue growth with Q3 revenue up sequentially to $16,200,000 Our 2nd quarter in a row of sequential top line growth.

Speaker 2

Importantly, this growth is happening with less than $1,000,000 a quarter of marketing spend today. As we move into 2024 and launch our marketing initiatives for our wealth platform, we believe that this along with the strong growth we are seeing in our payments and lending business We'll set us up for delivering on accelerating revenue growth in 2024. Our strong focus on efficiencies resulted in total OpEx decreasing by 34% $18,500,000 in Q3 of last year to $12,200,000 this quarter. In dollar terms, that's a decrease of $6,200,000 in quarterly expenses, well ahead of our original target. And although we expect some additional cost savings going forward, we plan to invest some of those savings into increased marketing development spend to drive the accelerating revenue growth we're Targeting 24.

Speaker 2

Importantly, any investment spend we do make will be guided by the rule of 40 and therefore require expectation of increased top line growth from that These cost reductions translated into another strong quarter of adjusted EBITDA expansion. Adjusted EBITDA grew for the 6th Quarter in a row increasing nearly $5,000,000 over the same period last year to $2,100,000 in Q3. Importantly, we've also seen significant increase in cash flow from operations, which went from negative $1,500,000 in Q3 to positive $2,600,000 this quarter before discretionary investment in loan book. These improvements also resulted in a reduction of our adjusted net loss in every quarter since the start of 2022 And that continued in Q3 with adjusted net loss of $2,600,000 versus $2,900,000 in Q2 $8,400,000 in the comparable period in 2022. These results keep us solidly on track to deliver further adjusted EBITDA expansion in the 4th quarter and reach our full year 2023 targets.

Speaker 2

In addition to the improved operating profitability, we continue to have a solid financial position. We ended the quarter with cash and total investments of roughly $44,000,000 This included combined cash and restricted cash of $19,300,000 our investment portfolio with a book value of $12,700,000 And as we discussed last quarter, our assets now also include 87,000,000 shares in TSX listed WonderFi Technologies, which was valued at approximately 12,000,000 We continue to believe that WonderFi is well positioned in the crypto market in Canada as the only fully regulated crypto exchange, Growing crypto payments business and a strong balance sheet. As of July, the company had $35,000,000 of cash and $18,000,000 in other investments And over $700,000,000 in assets under custody on the platform. Importantly, with less than 25,000,000 Mogo shares outstanding today, our shareholders have leveraged to about 3.5 shares of WonderFi per Mogo share, giving the meaningful exposure to this exciting asset class in crypto. Turning to our outlook, with our Q3 results, we reiterated our objectives for the full year 2023.

Speaker 2

Specifically, we are focused On achieving full year adjusted EBITDA of $7,000,000 to $9,000,000 and exiting 2023 with an annual adjusted EBITDA run rate of $10,000,000 to 14,000,000 Based on a Q4 adjusted EBITDA target of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000 Our year to date results position Well to achieve these objectives and as we look out to next year to deliver an attractive combination of both top line growth and positive adjusted EBITDA margins towards our Rule of 40 target in the second half of twenty twenty four. With that, we will now open the call to questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Your first question comes from Scott Buck from H. C. Wainwright.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Hey, good afternoon guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Greg, it seems like you guys are obviously poised for Turn to revenue growth in 2024. How does that kind of fit in? Or could you give a little more specifics about how that fits in with your Rule of 40 and what That means for adjusted EBITDA just in terms of what levers are going where?

Speaker 2

Sure. Yes. Thanks, Scott. So, yes, I think as you know, we've been focused on adjusted EBITDA, Positive adjusted EBITDA in 2023, which we've now clearly achieved and have achieved that every single quarter. Also importantly, from a revenue growth perspective, although we are not Showing year over year revenue growth right now, due to the comparison period in 2022 when we had other products, We are, importantly showing sequential growth.

Speaker 2

So we really believe that revenue troughed in Q1 of this year, and we're growing from that level. But we do expect To return to year over year growth in early 2024, and as you mentioned, we're targeting the rule of 40. So what does that mean? It means that we are looking to get to a revenue growth combined revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin that Total at least 40 at some point in 2024. And I would say that our bias is to Obviously, remain adjusted EBITDA positive, but our bias is to have our revenue growth higher than Adjusted EBITDA margin at this point in time, just given the fact that we believe we have such a massive TAM.

Speaker 2

And so I think As we look at those two levers, we're going to be leaning more heavily on the growth side of it. But importantly, our plan And is to remain adjusted EBITDA margin positive. So we have no intentions to go back negative there Just to drive growth, that will be sort of a key guidepost for us is staying adjusted EBITDA margin positive. But I think in the near term, given the That we've got ahead of us, we're going to be more focused on getting there more weighted towards the growth side of the equation in that rule of 40 calculation.

Speaker 3

Great. That's really helpful. And second one for me. I think this was the 6th consecutive quarter of sequential decline in tech spend. Does that reflect confidence in where you guys are in the product pipeline?

Speaker 3

Or is that more reflective of just trying to get to adjusted EBITDA positive?

Speaker 2

So, yes, here's what I would say there. We have, as Dave talked about, been focused on efficiencies. And the reality is, is we believe with the high efficiency culture we've been building internally at Mogo, We're seeing very meaningful improvements in productivity from the team, and we believe we're operating at a higher level of productivity From all areas, including technology, with a smaller team than we were before. Now as we move into 2024 And as we look at, really sort of accelerating the top line, I think the 2 big growth Lever Investments will be both marketing and technology. So as I mentioned, we do believe that we have Some additional cost saving opportunities, but we actually expect to be investing those more in the growth related investment areas and the big ones there will be Technology and Marketing.

Speaker 3

Okay, super. And then last one for me. We've been Bombarded down here in the States with negative moves flow in terms of where credit card balances are and then increases in auto delinquencies. Can Can you just give us an update on the state of the consumer credit in your business?

Speaker 2

Yes. So we, as you know, we've been operating in the credit environment in Canada for now 20 years. We've gone through all cycles, including the global financial crisis, and managed to Keep that business profitable throughout those cycles. Our customer base in the subprime Space, as we say, is more used to operating in an environment, I would Say a more pressured environment, that quite frankly is now covering more of the economy. But the reality is our customer base operates in that kind of area most of the time.

Speaker 2

And because of that, we generally don't see The prime lender see, so that's point number 1. And in fact, actually, on our major credit metrics that we follow and track whether it's charge off rate, whether it's total delinquencies, We've seen continued improvement over the last couple of quarters and over the last several quarters, including since 2022. So we feel really good about where we are in terms of managing the risk of that book. We We've been pretty conservative on it and we also think we have a customer base that manages well through these cycles. One other data point I would just give you is that the big concern increasingly is just refinancing on mortgages and the impact that has on Consumers that their mortgage payment increases significantly, but the reality is for us is a less than 25% of our customer base actually have mortgages, majority of them actually rent.

Speaker 2

And so in a lot of ways, there a lot of them are insulated from what we kind of see as the biggest impact for a lot of consumers out there. So that would just be another data point.

Speaker 3

Great. Appreciate the added color there. And just if I could squeeze one quick one in. Curious where you guys are on your current repurchase authorization? Should we expect to see you guys continue to buy back shares at these levels?

Speaker 2

Yes. We have significant capacity in our share Buyback authorization both on NASDAQ and the TSX. I think what you have seen Is that over the past several quarters, we have been a buyer of our stock in almost every quarter in the last four quarters. So, obviously, we continue to believe that there's significant value there and the markets aren't reflecting that Value appropriately. So we think that's an opportunity, and a good use of our excess capital on our balance So, yes, I think it's fair to say that, that trend will probably continue at these levels.

Speaker 3

Great. I appreciate the time guys and congrats on the quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question comes from Adiara Khadze from 8 Capital, please go ahead.

Speaker 4

I just wanted to talk about maybe the 3 pillars of growth that you guys have been talking about, and that return to growth into next year. Where do you really see or what do you really see driving that in terms of the 3, the cards business, the payments business, the wealth business and the lending business? Where do you really see That's the growth coming from?

Speaker 2

It's Greg. I mean, really it's going to be a combination of all 3 of those. I think over the long run, we believe that you're going to see wealth and payments Growing at a faster rate than the credit side of the business. But we think the credit side The business will be a contributor to growth and not a drag on growth, which quite frankly has been on in the past. But clearly, the big upside that we see It's going to be from the wealth and the payment side.

Speaker 2

And so I think ultimately, that's where you're going to see it more heavily weighted. But we believe that there's a great opportunity in all three of these segments. And so that's why we're Feeling pretty confident about our ability to drive accelerating growth as we go into 2024 and beyond.

Speaker 4

Okay, excellent. And then maybe just on the marketing, you guys have historically always had a very strong user base, 2,000,000 users for as long as I can remember. When you think about investing in marketing, how will you balance that investing in trying to acquire new users? Or will you kind of just Push the new products to your current user base. Just kind of give us how to think about that balance as we head into 2024 and the growth aspect?

Speaker 1

Sure. It's Dave here.

Speaker 2

I mean, obviously, at the end of

Speaker 1

the day, we're going to continue To focus on leveraging our member base, obviously, our member base, any at the end of the day, it's all about efficiency. So obviously, Acquiring, converting an existing member into any of our products is always going to be kind of priority number 1. On the external marketing, we've always been very kind of disciplined and focused as it relates to efficiency there as well. I mean, we track Very closely, our cost of customer acquisition, the customer payback, how quickly do we get that acquisition cost paid back And ultimately tie that into the lifetime value of the customer. So and then we continue to kind of optimize that based on what we're seeing.

Speaker 1

Part of that also comes to there's different customers out there, different segments, same thing in lending, all customers aren't equal, same thing on the wealth side, right? We're really focusing on growing assets. So obviously, you'll have different customer segments That are obviously worth more than other segments as well. And so as we continue to go out there with our paid marketing, Develop kind of those profiles, figure out what those LTVs are and what the appropriate CAC is. In the long run, it really becomes kind of a balanced blend of the 2, right?

Speaker 1

So I think that's the way we look at

Speaker 4

Awesome. And maybe just one last one for me. Just in terms of the broader optimization cost efficiency that you're looking at, Of course, we've seen the strong EBITDA performance over the last six quarters. But is that largely behind you? Are you guys all done with that?

Speaker 4

And if you're not, what else needs to kind of be done on those broader initiatives?

Speaker 2

So, yes. Go ahead, Greg. Yes. So as I mentioned, Adir, in my comments, we actually do still have some additional initiatives that we are working on, including our migration to the cloud. But what we're expecting to do is to take a lot of those Savings and investment in growth.

Speaker 2

So we are going to be less focused on just driving absolute OpEx Use that freed up capital to invest in growth initiatives.

Speaker 4

Awesome, guys. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I'll pass the line.

Speaker 2

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. We have no further questions. I will turn the call back over for closing comments.

Speaker 1

Okay. Well, thanks again for joining us on our Q3 call. We look forward to updating you post Q4. Thanks again.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.

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Key Takeaways

  • In Q3, revenue reached $16.2 million, marking the second consecutive quarter of sequential growth, while adjusted EBITDA turned positive at $2.1 million versus a loss of $0.8 million a year ago.
  • Operating expenses fell 34% year-over-year to $12.2 million, supporting the sixth consecutive quarter of reduced tech and general spend, with freed-up capital to be reinvested into marketing and technology to pursue their Rule of 40 growth-profitability target.
  • Mogo’s Encarta payments segment drove over 30% year-over-year volume growth to $2.4 billion in Q3, while a migration to the Oracle Cloud aims to boost platform efficiency and scalability.
  • The Mogo wealth platform offers fully automated S&P 500 index investing for $4.99 per month with fractional buy-ins and dividend reinvestment, alongside MogoTrade’s zero-commission, zero-FX-fee model designed to improve user performance and sustainability.
  • As of Q3, Mogo held approximately $44 million in cash and investments, plus ~87 million shares of WonderFi (valued at ~$12 million), and continues share repurchases under existing buyback authorizations.
A.I. generated. May contain errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Mogo Q3 2023
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