D-Market Elektronik Hizmetler ve Ticaret A.S. Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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March 25, 2024

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Sabrina, your Chorus Corporater. Welcome and thank you for joining the Epsi Brorada conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the 4th quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results. All participants will be in a listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.

Operator

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Milan Onal, CEO Mr. Ceshkin, CFO Ms. Helene Selig Vilek, Investor Relations Director. Ms.

Operator

Selig Vilek, you may now proceed.

Speaker 1

Thanks, operator. Thank you for joining us today for Hepsiburada's 4th quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. I'm pleased to be joined on the call today by our CEO, Nihan Onal Gokcekakin and our CFO, Sejkin Kyo Saola. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, reflects management's views as of today's date only. We undertake no obligation to update or revise this information, except as required by law.

Speaker 1

Certain statements made on today's call are forward looking statements and actual results may differ materially from these forward looking statements. Please refer to today's earnings release as well as the risk factors described in the Safe Harbor slide of today's supplemental slide deck, today's press release, the 6 ks, our Form 20 F filed with the SEC on May 1, 2023, and other SEC filings for informational factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward looking statements. Also, we will reference certain non IFRS measures during today's call. Please refer to the appendix of our supplemental slide deck as well as today's press release for a presentation of the most directly comparable IFRS measure and the relevant IFRS to non IFRS reconciliations. As a reminder, a replay of this call will be available on our Investor Relations website.

Speaker 1

And with that, I will hand it over to our CEO, Neha.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Helen. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm delighted to be with you today to present our Q4 and full year 2023 results. It has been over a year since I first addressed you as the CEO of Hepsiburada. At that time, I made it clear that my mandate was building Hepsiburada's profitability turnaround.

Speaker 2

Last year, we have weathered a period of election related uncertainty as well as the fallout of a tragic earthquake in February. Simultaneously, we remain in an inflationary environment, pressuring consumer purchasing power. Regardless, I am very proud to note our excellent teamwork, our focus to strategy and meticulous execution have resulted in strong financials. Our GMV more than doubled year on year in 73, well above the average inflation rate. We delivered a substantial EBITDA turnaround with an highest full year growth contribution margin of 10.6% in diligent OpEx Management.

Speaker 2

Our EBITDA as percentage of GMV rose by 400 basis points yearly to 1.8%. With robust cash generation from operations and optimized investment, we recorded a free cash flow of around €3,900,000,000 on an adjusted for inflation basis. These results confirm the validity of our strategic plan and encourage us to aim higher going forward. Now let me compare our performance in Q4 and full year against our guidance. We broke our all time high sales record during legendary November and high shopping trend also continued in December.

Speaker 2

This resulted in exceeding our quarterly guidance for both GMV growth and EBITDA. Consequently, our full year results also exceeded our forecast. Our GMV growth was around 104%, exceeding our guidance by 3 80 bps. Our EBITDA as percentage of GMV turned to positive 1.8%, exceeding our guidance by 30 bit, thus highlighting our robust growth and disciplined approach to spending. This performance marks the beginning of our profitability turnaround objective.

Speaker 2

Here are some eye catching numbers to put consumer preference for our platform into perspective. Our platform attracted 3,900,000,000 visits in 2023. Consumers continue to trust Tetsu Brador while setting up their new home, in particular buying their home appliances. To highlight a few related numbers, 1 out of every 2 dishwashers, 1 out of every 2 washing machines sold online were purchased on Hepsiburada last year. Meanwhile, Hepsiburada is also a go to platform for consumer electronics, which was our strength from inception.

Speaker 2

In 2023, 2 out of every 5 laptops and 1 out of every 3 iPhones sold online were also sold on Hepsiburada. A majority of these purchases reached their destination via our own logistics company, Hepsijet. Let me now elaborate on our achievements in the commentary. Early in the commentary, we have set very clear targets for our 4 strategic priorities, which I'll explain throughout this presentation. Fully progressed across all these KPIs reflect the dedicated performance of and strong execution by our entire team.

Speaker 2

Before we move on, I should mention the expansion of our share based incentive plan in the second half of the year. Current plan is triggered upon meeting certain vesting conditions and covers our key executives. Let's now consider some highlights of our achievements regarding our customers, merchants, business partners and key components of our ecosystem. Let me begin with our customers whose satisfaction is ever in our minds and is reflected in our KPIs. In 'seventy three, total orders reached $113,000,000 on a 41% year on year growth.

Speaker 2

On top, 44% growth in order frequency proved that our customer engagement and loyalty strategy are working. As a trusted e commerce brand in Turkey, we are proud to announce our market leadership in Net Promoter Score for the 2nd consecutive year. In line with our pledge to customer centricity, we work very hard to improve our value Our profitable our affordability solutions are appreciated by our customers, especially in the challenging macroeconomic climate. We work to create lasting relationships, and our strong loyalty program is best indicator of our success in this endeavor. Hepsiburada premium program numbers have more than tripled within a year to exceed $2,200,000 Their monthly order frequency rose by around 40% after joining the program.

Speaker 2

We noted 270 bps yearly improvement in the share of 10 plus frequency customers in overall customer base in 733. This level confirms the program's potential to position Hepze Burda as Turkey's go to e commerce platform and underlines the strategy to grow its retention. We will continue leveraging our core strength and prioritizing customer satisfaction going forward. Now let me elaborate on our commitment to a deeper merchant relationship. In 2023, we enhanced advanced solution for our merchants such as fulfillment, logistics, tool and handling, fintech and advertising solutions.

Speaker 2

To facilitate higher conversion to sales for our merchants, new tools and features such as fast service campaign management, coupon creation and tailored advertising solutions now feature on our merchant and reliable flexible logistics service led to a greater merchant preference. With almost 102,000 active merchant base, our total SKU count climbed to nearly $230,000,000 This year, we onboarded 38,000 new brands on the platform almost half of them were in fashion and beauty categories. With new global brands, our growing brand portfolio confirms our ability to unlock selection holdouts. Meanwhile, we deepened our long lasting relationships with also well established suppliers. And thanks to this strong relations, our platform has come to respond even more comprehensively to customer needs with its wider selection and appealing campaign.

Speaker 2

Let me now elaborate on our strategic priorities for 2024. Delivery of sustainable and profitable growth remains at the heart of our strategy. As confirmed by our results, pillars of our strategy are sound. With more to be unlocked on each pillar, we aim to raise the bar in each KPI. Accordingly, in 2024, we remain focused on loyalty, cultivating sustainable differentiators of Pepsi Pay and Jet and expanding our B2B services as a turnkey e comm solution partner for merchants in Turkey.

Speaker 2

In the next few slides, I'll talk more about each pillar by providing a snapshot of our achievements as well as our ambitions. With regards to our loyalty program, we remain dedicated to growing its member base and keeping satisfied customers on board with enhanced offering and partnerships. One key initiative that I'm super excited about is our co branded credit card with Yupo Credit. The card offers its users market lending benefits. Hence, we will focus on increasing premium credit card user base, which will also contribute to our strong growth.

Speaker 2

Let's now look into one of our key strategic differentiators. As a 4th runner in the Turkish logistics sector, Hestijet delivered around 68% of total 67% of total parcels on our platform. Hesterjet continued the volume expansion of its competitive oversized delivery services that In 2023, 59% of oversized packages on the platform were delivered by HepTijet, up by 12 percentage points year on year. In today's world, fast and reliable delivery is a must for typical Turkish customer. Head suggest 82% next day delivery ratio among retail orders confirms our commitment clearly.

Speaker 2

Transitory was a year in which we expanded Jet's flexible delivery and return capabilities further. We believe these additions boost our value proposition. And accordingly, Jet maintains a strong NPS underscoring its acknowledged service excellence. We will build further on Hexijet's integral role in our logistics ecosystem and excel in the speed of delivery and customer experience. Let me now move on to our next differentiator, HeptiPay.

Speaker 2

And let's start with HeptiPay's strong contribution to HeptiBorada. Leveraging our e money and payment service licenses, we offer a comprehensive suite of payment and affordability solutions. In today's economic landscape and in the face of market expectations of potentially tightened credit availability in the second half, affordability gained purchase significance. Under these conditions, consumers welcome the optionality of our affordability solution, which include our in house buy now pay later solution as well as shopping loans from banks and general purpose loans from partner banks. On this front, our platform provides an excellent user service.

Speaker 2

Within seconds, our customers can check their BSI limits and alternative loan options from partner banks and complete their purchases instantly. BMPI, our unique solution in the Turkish e commerce market had been utilized by nearly 330,000 customers by end of Q4. On a broader scale, total finance transaction volume, including general purpose loans, reached EUR 6,100,000,000 in 20 3. In 20 4, we will further fortify our position as an e commerce player, providing the widest affordability solutions. We also recently launched Hepta Finance, our own consumer financing company, which we expect to contribute to our success.

Speaker 2

On the payment front, Hep C Pay continued to improve our customer experience at our checkout during 2023 with multiple additional features. We extended this solution to enable our merchants on dotcom business also at their checkout. Hexi Pay is now available at the checkout of 10 major retailers. Hexi Pay also aims to win additional key accounts while also launching its proposition targeted for SMEs. The launch of Hexipay prepaid card in collaboration with Visa was another highlight of the year.

Speaker 2

The additional cashback benefit available is a motivator to become a premium program member. The card has got value of customers with 1,200,000 cards issued so far. On the strength of the Evol, HesiPay's wallet base rose to 15,000,000 by mid March, following a yearly net addition of 3,300,000 users in 2023. In 704, HEPC Pay is working to become Turkey's most used digital wallet solution in physical and online retail. This would ultimately position Hesipay as Turkey's leading fintech company.

Speaker 2

Now let me give you an update on our strategic priority of offering our logistics services to 3rd parties. Doing this has unlocked new revenue streams, contributed to our operational efficiency and reinforced our position in respective sectors. JET nearly doubled its external customer base in Silventy 3, while its 3rd party volume rose 1.6x year on year. This confirms our ability to generate B2B revenues off Pilotsborg, showcasing Capstead's strong momentum as an appealing logistics partner. Overall, Solanci III was a Europe initiative that leveraged our strength in fintech and logistics for creating a solid B2B business.

Speaker 2

Meanwhile, resulting numbers confirm that we are on the right side. In 2024, we will continue to accelerate our focus on this business line. Achieving profitable equip form the basis of our strategy, and I'm glad to see this confirmed in our year end results. A robust turnaround in EBITDA was made possible through the key building blocks of optimized marketing and advertising expenses, higher gross contribution margin, process automation and OpEx frugality. In 2024, our ambition is to sustain our profitability trajectory.

Speaker 2

We believe growing our advertising business, raising third party revenues, a higher share of margin up rates of categories and the continued frugality will be instrumentally achieving this year's higher profitability target. On the next slide, I would like to deep dive on where we stand in our advertising business and our ambition. Our well established advertising business, headset, suggests a huge opportunity to increase our share of Turkey's rapidly growing digital media market. The current up trend of global peer performance in the advertising business suggests the possibility of scaling our performance levels going forward. Hexade is equipped with various set formats that boost the visibility of participating merchants.

Speaker 2

Through these ad, merchants reach their target audience, increase their sales, while benefiting from actionable consumer analytics. Around 18,000 merchants used our advertising solutions last year. Increasing head to head penetration and revenue per merchant will be among key focus areas this year. And now I'll close my presentation with our guidance. I have meticulously outlined our strategic priorities and our focused areas for 2024.

Speaker 2

With dedicated execution on this, our objective is to continue our GMV growth, focus on incremental revenues and higher margin businesses and achieve higher profitability margins in 2024. Accordingly, for the Q1 of 2024, we expect to deliver GMV growth around 120% compared to the same period of 'twenty three. The low base of the Q1 23 was mainly due to earthquake, had a positive impact in this expected growth level. At EBITDA level, we expect to deliver around 2 percentage percentage of GMV, and these guidance figures are unadjusted for inflation. With this, I thank you for listening and leave the floor to Tejgan, our CFO, to provide further insights into our financial performance.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Nihal, and welcome, everyone. I'm glad to share that we have delivered an outstanding financial performance across all metrics, both in quarter 4 2023 and in full year despite all the challenges. On an unadjusted basis, GMV grew by 104% in 2023. This came through 41% order growth and 45% average order value growth. When we exclude our small ticket digital products, the average order value growth was in fact 79%, outpacing the average inflation of 54% in 2023.

Speaker 3

The faster average order value growth is attributable mainly to faster than inflation rise in average selling prices and a higher share of large ticket items in electronics in our orders. On an inflation adjusted basis, we recorded a double digit real GMV growth of 31% in 2023 year on year. This resulted in 34% revenue growth, which was possible through strong revenue growth of both retail and marketplace operations, as well as solid growth in advertising and co marketing revenues and loyalty program subscription revenues. With 9.2% gross contribution margin and disciplined OpEx management, we recorded a 0.4 percent EBITDA as a percentage of GMV in 2023, marking a notable 5.2 percentage points year on year improvement. For more color on each of these, let's move on to the next slide.

Speaker 3

First, our GMV performance. Our marketplace operations corresponded to 2 thirds of our business in 2023. While the share of electronics in GMV was at around the same level of last year, there is a 0.3% point shift towards non electronics in marketplace operations. Let's have a look at our revenue performance. 34% revenue growth in 2023 was achieved mainly through 27% retail and 60% marketplace operations revenue growth.

Speaker 3

Delivery service revenues contributed to the revenue growth with 48% year on year increase. This was mainly due to rise in unit delivery service charges, higher parcel volume and almost doubling of off platform revenues. Other revenues that include advertising services, co marketing and loyalty subscription, altogether grew by 125% year on year. Now let's elaborate on our gross contribution performance. Unadjusted for inflation, our gross contribution margin was 10.6% in 2023 on a 1.6 percentage point year on year improvement.

Speaker 3

Adjusted for inflation, we recorded a solid 2.7 percentage points rise in the margin, reaching 9.2%. This was mainly attributable to 1.3 percentage points in the 1P margin due to a relatively lower inflation impact on cost of inventory sold during the year and shorter inventory turnover days in 2023. 0.7 percentage point increase in the 3P margin as a result of margin improvement across all categories and 0.7 percentage points rise in the contribution of delivery service and other revenues. Let's move on to our EBITDA performance on the next slide. As highlighted, 2023 was a year of profitability turnaround for HEFCI BORADER.

Speaker 3

Together with strong top line growth, our focus on costs and marketing spend optimization enabled us to deliver positive EBITDA for the full year. Unadjusted for inflation, we recorded 1.8 percentage EBITDA as a percentage of GMV in 2023 with a 4.0 percentage point improvement on a yearly basis. Adjusted for inflation, our full year EBITDA is again positive at 0.4 percent of GMV with a 5.2 percentage point year over year improvement. This was mainly through a 2.7 percentage point rise in gross contribution margin, 1.2 percentage point decline in advertising expenses, 0.3 percentage point decline in payroll and outsourced staff expenses, 0.2 percentage point decline in shipping and packaging expenses and 0.9 percentage point decline in other OpEx items. Excluding the one off items, year on year improvement in EBITDA was still strong at 4.5 percentage point for the full year in 2023.

Speaker 3

Next, let's have a look at our cash flow dynamics. Our cash generated from operations was TRY 5,000,000,000 in 2023, up from 707,000,000 TL a year ago. The year on year increase in EBITDA accounts for more than 100% of the improvement in operating cash flow. More precisely, TRY 4,700,000,000 rise in EBITDA was partially offset by 400,000,000 TL decline in change in monetary gain, working capital and realized FX gain and loss to yield a TRY 4,300,000,000 improvement year on year. With around TRY 1,100,000,000 CapEx, our free cash flow was around TRY 3,900,000,000 in the full year.

Speaker 3

Next slide please. As I end my presentation, I would like to summarize the key takeaways from today's presentation. Our robust top line growth and outstanding EBITDA performance, both in the Q4 and full year exceeded our guidance ranges. Adjusted for inflation, we recorded double digit real GMV growth on a year on year basis. Our gross contribution margin on an unadjusted basis reached 10.6%, marking the highest full year level since 2018.

Speaker 3

With this performance, we generated a strong free cash flow as well. As we reflect on the good start to 2024, we are committed to building on our performance from the previous year and strive towards achieving even greater success. Thank you for listening. We can now open the line for questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Feedback box below the presentation. For those participating in the audio question and answer session,

Speaker 3

We had a question via mail related with different interest expenses, charge on purchases and credit card receivables. Basically, we do not have any lending related with our purchases. The interest on purchases refers to interest expense that is embedded in our inventory procurement that we buy on a term basis. That amount we classify from gross contribution margin to financial expenses, and this is done due to IFRS 9 as a reclassification. Early collection commission is the commission that we pay to the banks for early collection of our credit card receivables, and this is also showing up in the financial expenses section in our P and

Operator

We have a question from Muharram Gullseve from Kona Capital. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much for the presentation. I have a couple of questions, if I may. The first one is the credit card spending in Turkey is running at a really fast pace in the Q1. So far, we have observed around 150% increase on a year over year basis on online credit card purchases. Your guidance was 120 percent around GMV growth for the Q1.

Speaker 4

Do you think there is an upside to that guidance to start with? And what is the advertising budget for 2024? Thank you very much.

Speaker 3

Basically, we are estimating this 120% versus the relatively lower base in Q1 2023 due to the earthquake. And as you pointed out, the credit card spending in the market is a little bit higher than this amount. So we may potentially see some upside, but not necessarily a very significant amount versus our guidance. So related with our marketing expenses, we are continuing to increase our return on advertising spending for each of our channels, both for influencers and performance marketing. So we will continue to see the efficiencies going forward that we have experienced in 2023.

Speaker 3

So we will continue to optimize our marketing spending while growing profitably.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

I have one built for the credit card spending and fast penetration of e commerce in Turkey. As you know, Turkey is a very, very high potential market for e commerce penetration. So every year, there is another 15% to 20% growth in the penetration of e commerce within total retail. One area that we will significantly get shared is our turnkey e commerce solution. So with Hexijet, we are significantly increasing our volumes from off platform customers, as I mentioned.

Speaker 2

And with our FinTech solutions, now we are also providing to these merchants that are just coming to e commerce with OneClick solution and our landing solutions in our checkout. So we are celebrating actually the fast growth of e commerce in Turkey.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. And I have another one, if I may. All other international e commerce companies stressed that, I mean, Jumia and your other not competitors but peers, I would say, trying to increase the take rates. And in fact, they had a couple of them announced that increasing take rates by 200 basis points at the beginning of the year. And your largest competitor, Trent Yol, it's parent Alibaba, by the way, in their conference call also said that they are trying to increase the take rates in their international operations, which also includes the trend through.

Speaker 4

So my question is, do you observe an increase on the take rates on your peers and as well as on your side since the beginning of the year?

Speaker 2

So in terms of I can give some context from Telenci III, as well. So our gross contribution margin improvement, which was 2 70 basis points, was also as a result of not only mix and increased delivery service revenues, but also improvement in overall take rates. And as we have aspirations in increased profitability this year, we are also seeing opportunity here. And we will be continuing to find optimal rates that we will still make us relevant, grow our business while optimizing for profitability.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much, very clear.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time.

Speaker 1

Sorry Sabrina, could you please hold on? We have a question from via e mail. I'd like to read that. Please provide an update on the competitive dynamics in Turkey. Has anything changed?

Speaker 1

Which players are gaining market shares versus losing? And whether we're expecting to see to start to see a consumer slowdown in the second half of the year?

Speaker 2

So let me start with the second question, our high level expectations for 2024. Our progress and results clearly prove that our strategy works. Our sustainable profitable growth will remain unchanged, and we maintain our commitment to the strategic priorities, which I think is going to be very relevant for Turkey in this changing macroeconomic context. We are also with higher e commerce penetration. We will be waiting expecting a higher B2B revenues from Edge, Jet and Pay and further solidify our group's position.

Speaker 2

We anticipate a more tough environment in the second half of the year given the tight macro prudential policies. However, our ability to build on our strong value proposition, our tailored payment options and affordability will differentiate us and continue to make us relevant for consumer demand. I think this also macro context we have could provide other opportunities like lower credit card costs, further differentiate us from our competitors as well. So as much as there is an expectation for reduced demand in overall Turkey with higher digital population coming to e commerce with our right to win in this macroeconomic context, we believe that we will be relevant and strong throughout the year. This brings me to answering the first question about competitors.

Speaker 2

If we start with the macroeconomic context on the need for affordability, we have the widest solution in the market by far with BNPL shopping loans, with our own consumer financing company with mixed checkout and payout. I think these are going to be more and more relevant and will make us more competitive. And also from logistics, we have a very strong network where we are adding new features for delivery service every month for our consumers as well. So I think competition will remain as is in Turkey, but we are the local player with high agility, widest affordability solution and with highest NPS. And that's why I believe we will continue to have right to win in 724 in Turkey.

Speaker 1

So okay, we have another question via e mail that asked for outlook for 2024 revenues and margins.

Speaker 3

Our progress and results clearly prove that our strategy works. Our focus on sustainable and profitable growth remains unchanged for 2024 as well. We maintain our commitment to proven strategic priorities, emphasizing precision in delivery services, affordable shopping options and the exclusive benefits of our premium program. Additionally, the upward trajectory of our B2B revenues, as Nihan mentioned, from HepCS, Hep C Jet and Hep C Pay will further rise and solidify our group's position. So in 2024, we believe that we will continue to trend in our profitable growth trajectory like we have done in 2023.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. Ms. Nilan, back to you.

Speaker 2

Thank you so much for your patience and listening to our call. We wish you an amazing day and amazing evening. Thank you.

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D-Market Elektronik Hizmetler ve Ticaret A.S. Q4 2023
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