Karooooo Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 15, 2025

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello, and welcome to Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal twenty twenty five Financial Results Presentation. On behalf of Karoo, we would like to thank you for joining us today. I'm Paul Bieber, VP of Investor Relations and Strategic Finance. We are joined today by Zach Callisto, founder and group CEO Hoshin Goy, chief financial officer and Carmen Calisto, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer. I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements that we make today regarding our business, operations, and financial performance may be considered forward looking.

Operator

Such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions. They are subject to several risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially. Please refer to the Safe Harbor statement in our Form 20 F, including the risk factors and the six ks that we filed yesterday. We undertake no obligation to update any forward looking statements.

Operator

During this call, we will present both IFRS and non IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of non IFRS to IFRS measures is included in the six k that we filed with the SEC yesterday. Our comments will refer to year over year comparisons unless stated otherwise. Before handing the call over to Carmen, we'd like to present a six minute video of our SaaS platform to illustrate the depth and breadth of our platform's capabilities.

Speaker 1

Cartrack's all in one IoT platform simplifies decision making From conquering fuel and maintenance to empowering a safety first culture and setting teams up for success, our platform gives businesses visibility and control of their entire operation in a single place. Low visibility and manual checks leave companies struggling with fuel theft, fuel card fraud, claim validations, and inefficient driving behavior challenges. Our platform validates fuel transactions with telematics data to ensure that vehicles were at the right station and that all fuel actually entered the right tank. Transactions are assessed from low to high risk, automatically notifying managers and enabling quick verification of fuel claims. Hundreds of fuel transactions are verified in minutes.

Speaker 1

All transactions are audited and time and money are saved. Fuel wasting habits like idling are conquered with in vehicle buzzers, management alerts, comparative dashboards that benchmark drivers and businesses against others in their industry. This empowered a top food and beverage company to save more than 200,000 US dollars in fuel costs in a year. When managing deliveries or field jobs across a fleet, keeping track of where everyone is and what's getting done is no small feat. Drivers need clear instructions.

Speaker 1

Dispatch and collections teams need estimated times of arrival to prepare. Clients want real time updates. And in such competitive industries, even minor delays and a few bad days can affect brand and customer loyalty. Our workforce management solution allows businesses to transform their workflow by digitally creating, assigning, and monitoring each task. They simply indicate daily jobs to complete, driver availability, and any special requirements such as cold storage or skills to landscape bonsais.

Speaker 1

And our platform automatically generates job cards for every worker that optimize the work flow of the entire business, minimizing total travel distance and costs. Workers get everything to complete their tasks via mobile app, and customers get real time updates with live tracking and proof job completion. Our tool enabled a medical lab to quickly expand its blood collection operations from 15 clinics to more than 400. Tenfolding productivity and decreasing sample collection times. Businesses sharing vehicles and assets struggle with double bookings, cumbersome booking processes, frustrating key management, and license renewal slip ups, resulting in unnecessary team friction, fleet increases, and wasted costs.

Speaker 1

Our software allows businesses to seamlessly combine vehicles and centralize fleets. Managers set up driver permissions, vehicle requirements, and an approval matrix. Then workers request bookings via our app, and vehicles are automatically allocated to evenly distribute asset usage and maximize acceptance rates. Drivers digitally lock and unlock vehicles, and requirements for inspections are automated into one workflow with full reporting. Our tool empowers businesses to reduce fleet sizes, increase utilization, and improve user experience while eliminating unnecessary admin headaches and costs.

Speaker 1

Globally, businesses and governments have growing road safety concerns. Our AI vision technology scans and monitors hundreds of data points every second, detecting high risk driving behaviors the moment they happen. When high risk driving is spotted, an immediate in cabin audible alert gives drivers the chance to correct their actions and prevent an accident. But the goal isn't to be reactive. Managers gain unmatched visibility into the driver's seat so they can coach drivers before bad habits turn into real risks, setting a new proactive standard for safer driving.

Speaker 1

Every day off the road costs a fleet. Preventative maintenance is key. Our platform sends managers custom reminders using real time data when it's time for a service, tire swap, oil change, and more. They assign the vehicle out for maintenance. And once it's back, drivers confirm that everything is in order.

Speaker 1

And if drivers spot something out of the ordinary, they simply report an ad hoc defect or highlight this in customized digital inspection forms. Everything gets logged. Assets get repaired quickly, maintenance costs decrease, and fleets run reliably. Sometimes every second counts. Businesses need a control room that keeps an eye on all events and takes action right away.

Speaker 1

Whether that means live streaming what's happening on the ground or dialing into the cabin and speaking to drivers directly or using real time sensor data, teams can react instantly, investigate appropriately, and mark incidents as resolved with full audit trails. From fuel to maintenance to fines and taxes, businesses enter all their expenses to understand their full cost of ownership and how that translates to outputs and profits. We integrate with tons of partners and bring all fleet data into one place With contextualized data points, tailored reporting, and one single source of truth for their operation, businesses easily pinpoint leakages, make the right decisions faster, and better deliver on their missions. Simplify decision making with Cartrack today.

Speaker 2

Welcome to Karoo's Q4 and full year fiscal twenty twenty five financial results presentation. We hope you enjoyed the demonstration of our SaaS platform. For those new to Karoo, we operate a SaaS platform for connected vehicles and mobile assets that enables businesses to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve safety and ensure compliance. We help businesses across industries simplify decision making to optimize their physical operations. We serve a large, underpenetrated market with strong, sustained demand driven by digital transformation, a constant need to improve operational efficiency, and an increasing focus on safety and compliance.

Speaker 2

As a founder led business, we have a strong financial profile, a proven track record of execution excellence and a cultural focus on disciplined capital allocation. Our platform supports more than 2,300,000 subscribers across more than 125,000 businesses in South Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe, spanning industries such as logistics, mining, agriculture, construction, retail and the public sector. Our financial model is anchored by high margin subscription revenue and robust customer retention. We continue to scale our proprietary data asset, now generating over 200,000,000,000 data points monthly, which we leverage to drive actionable insights for our customers and long term customer value. During our presentation, we will review both of Carrefour's operating segments: Kartrak and Carrefour Logistics.

Speaker 2

Kartrak is our operations management platform. Kartrak operates at scale and has a very attractive financial profile. CardTrak's operating momentum has primarily driven Karoo's growth and strong financial performance. CardTrak's momentum continued in FY25. In FY25, CardTrak generated 4,100,000,000.0 ZAR in subscription revenue, an increase of 15% or 19% on a US dollar basis, and CardTrak's operating profit margin was a healthy 31%.

Speaker 2

Karoo Logistics is our rapidly growing delivery as a service business that empowers large enterprise customers to scale their e commerce and logistics operations. Karoo Logistics is a structurally lower margin business in Kartrak, showing strong growth momentum. Karoo Logistics is strategically important to us as it empowers our customers to scale their e commerce and logistics operations through a capital light model while driving high Kartrack customer retention. We continued to profitably scale the Karoo Logistics business in FY25. In FY25, Karoo Logistics' Delivery as a Service revenue reached $420,000,000 ZAR, an increase of 33% or 37 on a U.

Speaker 2

S. Dollar basis. Given Karoo Logistics' robust revenue growth, we are very excited about the long term growth opportunity for the business. Karoo exited FY25 with growing momentum despite a fluid macro backdrop. In Q4, '1 hundred and '20 million, an increase of 16% subscription revenue of ZAR 86,001,000, an increase of 16% and adjusted earnings per share of ZAR 9.48, an increase of 39%.

Speaker 2

While delivering profitable growth at scale, in Q4, we were a rule of 60 company when adding our Q4 subscription revenue growth of 16% and our Q4 Kartrak adjusted EBITDA margin of 48%. Our operating profit margin of 34% remained robust in Q4 and underpins our stellar financial performance. It's noteworthy that the Q4 Kartrak subscriber growth rate of 17% was consistent throughout FY25 and represented a 200 basis point acceleration versus FY24. Also, Kartrak's FY25 operating profit margin expanded modestly while FY25 subscriber growth accelerated. Before detailing our Q4 business and operational accomplishments, we want to take a moment to underscore our distinctive financial profile, something that is exceptionally rare in the public markets, particularly among small cap companies.

Speaker 2

We believe we are among a select few SaaS companies operating at a rule of 50 plus based on 2025 Gap Street estimates. Notably, within a SaaS universe of approximately 160 companies, we believe we are the only small cap company operating at this level. Being part of this elite group reflects our unwavering commitment to disciplined and profitable growth. In Q4, Kartrak's total subscribers increased 17%, highlighted by stable growth in South Africa and a 100 basis point quarter on quarter acceleration in Europe. Net subscriber additions were strong and increased 2530% in Q4 and FY25 respectively.

Speaker 2

With ongoing investments in sales, marketing and infrastructure to support future growth, we believe we have ample runway to accelerate our organic growth while maintaining strong, robust earnings. Annualised recurring revenue, or ARR, accelerated 300 basis points quarter on quarter to 17%, and ARR increased 21% in US dollars. We delivered healthy subscriber additions in Q4 while maintaining strong unit economics. Our results reflect our ability to grow at scale with discipline. Our Q4 financial highlights included: Kartrak subscription revenue accelerated 200 basis points quarter on quarter to 16%.

Speaker 2

Kartrak subscription revenue increased 20% on a U. S. Dollar basis. Southeast Asia constant currency revenue growth accelerated to 31% compared to 26% in Q3. Kartrak's operating profit margin was a robust 34%.

Speaker 2

We remained a rule of 60 company, and Karoo's adjusted earnings per share increased 39% to 9.48 SAAR. Our balance sheet remains strong and unleveraged, and we ended the quarter with net cash and cash equivalents of $838,000,000 ZAR. Our healthy subscription gross margin, efficient customer acquisition and attractive commercial retention rates continued to drive our healthy unit economics. In Q4, our subscription gross margin was 76%, our LTV to CAC ratio remained above 9% and our commercial retention rate was 95%. It's noteworthy that we accelerated our subscriber growth by 200 basis points in FY25 while maintaining healthy unit economics.

Speaker 2

We are excited about our massive TAM and remain committed to profitable growth as we pursue the expansive growth opportunity ahead of us. We ended FY25 with more than 1,700,000 subscribers in South Africa, representing 75% of our global subscriber base. Our recent investment in a newly built central office supports our long term growth strategy in the region by enabling us to scale operations, enhance customer service and drive deeper platform penetration within our existing customer base. We are optimistic about the future of our business in South Africa, driven by ongoing digital transformation, rising demand for video solutions and the market expanding impact of car track tag. With a trusted brand and an experienced team, we're well positioned for continued success in South Africa.

Speaker 2

We are encouraged by the strong momentum that we are building to accelerate our organic growth in the region. We ended FY25 with more than 274,000 subscribers in Southeast Asia and The Middle East, with most of the subscribers in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia and The Middle East comprised 12% of total subscribers. In Q4, our constant currency subscription revenue growth in the region reached an impressive 31%, an acceleration compared to 26% in Q3. As the second largest contributor to group revenue, Southeast Asia continues to present the most compelling growth opportunity for the group in the medium to long term.

Speaker 2

In September 2024, we started a strong yet prudent drive to increase sales and marketing in Southeast Asia and believe that we will begin to see results in FY26. We aim to increase our sales headcount by 70% in FY26 in the region. Our differentiated SaaS platform, growing brand equity built on superior customer service, service delivery and distribution, and attractive regional macro trends provide us with a solid foundation foundation to drive continued growth and expansion in the region for years to come. We ended FY25 with more than 200,000 subscribers in Europe, which comprised 9% of our total subscribers. Our subscriber growth in the region accelerated 100 basis points quarter on quarter to 20% in Q4.

Speaker 2

We remain focused on increasing our presence in the region, especially through OEM partnerships. We have partnered with leading OEMs to provide easy access to our platform, seamlessly integrating their connected vehicle data into our platform through application programming interfaces or APIs. We expect these partnerships to contribute to our results in the medium term. In addition, we are experiencing encouraging demand for our proprietary compliance technology in the region as customers seek to simplify compliance with evolving legislation and enforcement. In FY25, Karoo Logistics continued to build scale and delivered revenue of ZAR420 million, an increase of 33% and a 9% operating profit margin.

Speaker 2

By immersing our platform into large customers' operations, contributing to strong customer retention. Karoo Logistics also enables us to learn about the operational and logistics challenges confronting our large customers. We see a large opportunity for Karoo Logistics going forward, as large businesses seek to increase their e commerce offerings and optimize their logistics capabilities through a capital light model. Our platform simplifies decision making by seamlessly unifying and contextualizing data from a wide range of sources, including OEM devices and proprietary devices, as well as open APIs. By consolidating business operations into a single, centralised hub, we enable our customers to overcome complex operational challenges related to safety, compliance, productivity, service delivery, cost control, fuel management, maintenance, routing, resource allocation and workforce retention.

Speaker 2

Powered by our extensive data asset, advanced AI and robust analytics, our platform delivers actionable insights that drive meaningful improvements to our customers' physical operations. We are deeply committed to continuous innovation, ensuring our platform remains intuitive, fast and adaptable to the ever evolving business needs of our customers. Simplicity is at the core of our solution, from implementation to daily use, helping customers make smarter decisions faster while driving ROI. The CarTrack Operations Cloud is an end to end SaaS platform that delivers significantly more than traditional telematics. By unifying mission critical capabilities into one intelligent solution, we help customers enhance safety, boost productivity and reduce operating costs, driving measurable ROI.

Speaker 2

Key platform capabilities include: Real time telematics, fleet management and asset optimization Video and AI powered safety monitoring Field service and workforce management Risk management and compliance last mile delivery and logistics management, seamless integration via open APIs, and analytics and reporting. By delivering a unified, feature rich platform, we empower our customers to scale efficiently, improve operational and financial performance, and drive long term growth. We remain deeply committed to investing in product innovation, and CARTRAC TAG exemplifies our commitment to innovation and expanding the power of our platform. In Q4, we launched Car Track Tag, a next generation wireless asset tag that extends our platform to any mobile asset in South Africa, delivering secure, near real time visibility even in areas with limited or no cellular coverage. Built for demanding commercial environments, CARTRAC TAG helps businesses locate misplaced or stolen assets, reduce operating costs, and simplify asset management.

Speaker 2

Powered by our proprietary RF network and cloud integration, Cardtrac TAG offers tamper resistant protection. When paired with a Cardtrac IoT device, it can detect signal interference and instantly alert both the asset owner and our twenty fourseven surveillance team, enabling rapid response and recovery. We're excited about CARTRAC TAG's potential to deliver unparalleled asset protection, advanced risk management and expanded operational oversight. Its easy installation on a wide range of mobile assets such as trailers, generators, compressors, heavy machinery and large tools reduces friction to adoption and supports our committed TAM expansion across industries. Our customers choose us because we deliver tangible ROI by reducing costs, boosting productivity, and enhancing safety through a user friendly platform backed by a best in class service team.

Speaker 2

The value proposition of our platform is significant, with a proven ability to create meaningful business impact. FY25 was a year of strong execution, impactful innovation and significant progress. We accelerated customer acquisition, enhanced our platform with more advanced AI video capabilities and other features, and successfully launched the Kartrak Tag. We also continued to invest in strategic headcount expansion, ensuring we are very well positioned for durable, long term growth. Our solid financial performance and robust balance sheet underscore the strength of our operating model.

Speaker 2

We remain confident in our competitive positioning across regions and believe we are exceptionally well positioned to accelerate our growth in FY26. Looking ahead, our key strategic priorities for FY26 are as follows: cement our leadership position in the countries we have achieved scale expand our distribution footprint in Asia and Europe, broaden platform adoption by driving deeper customer engagement with our platform and capturing growing demand for video capabilities including AI video. Capital allocation is a fundamental part of our culture, and we aim to remain disciplined with our capital allocation strategy rooted in a twenty year culture of profitable growth and prudent financial management, key drivers of long term shareholder value. Our capital allocation framework is unchanged and prioritizes: organic growth and innovation. Our paramount priority is investing in organic growth and product innovation, given our strong unit economics, sustained profitability and large market opportunity.

Speaker 2

Returning capital to shareholders. At current growth rates, our business generates significant excess cash. With our strong balance sheet and net cash position, we aim to return surplus capital to shareholders when we cannot efficiently invest it for growth, primarily through an annual dividend, as to avoid doubt, management prioritizes growth over dividends. Strategic M and A. We take a prudent and strategic approach to M and A.

Speaker 2

We view M and A as a tool to accelerate time to market in key geographies, expand our product portfolio or strengthen our competitive position. However, given our compelling organic growth profile, customer centric culture and attractive unit economics, we set a high bar for any potential acquisitions. M and A opportunities must offer clear strategic value or optionality to meet our criteria. Ultimately, we see it as our responsibility to allocate capital thoughtfully, always with the goal of maximizing long term shareholder returns. I will now hand it over to Hu Xin, who will discuss our Q4 and full year FY25 financial performance as well as our outlook for FY26.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Carmen. I will now discuss Karru's financial performance for quarter four FY 'twenty five and the full year FY 'twenty five. Please note my comments will refer to year over year comparisons unless we state otherwise. Our proven and profitable SaaS business model continued to deliver strong results in quarter four. Karoo's total subscription revenue increased 16% to R1,086 million.

Speaker 3

On a U. S. Dollar basis, Karru subscription revenue increased 20%. Operating profit increased 30% to R385 million and adjusted earnings per share increased 39% to R9.48 dollars For FY 'twenty five, Karru's total subscription revenue increased 15% to R4,068 million. On a U.

Speaker 3

S. Dollar basis, Karru's subscription revenue increased 19%. Operating profit increased 26% to R1,312 million. Adjusted earnings per share increased 33% to R31.67 dollars We will now focus on Kartrak's financial performance which is fueled by SaaS revenue momentum. In Q4, Kartrak subscription revenue increased 16% to R1,084 million and comprised 98% of CardTrak's total revenue.

Speaker 3

On a U. S. Dollar basis, CardTrak subscription revenue increased 20%. For FY25, CardTrak subscription revenue increased 15% to R4,055 million and comprised 98% of CardTrak's total revenue. On a U.

Speaker 3

S. Dollar basis, Kartrak's subscription revenue increased 19%. In Q4, ARR increased 1721% in Rand and U. S. Dollar respectively.

Speaker 3

As you can see from the trend of the charts, Car has a proven track record of scaling in varying macroeconomic conditions given our consistent executions, resilient subscription revenue model and attractive historical retention rates. In quarter four, Kartrak experienced healthy customer acquisitions and quarter four subscriber increased 17% to R2.3 million. Subscription revenue increased 16% to R1,084 million and operating profit increased 30% to a record R377 million. Kartrak experienced solid customer acquisition in Q4 with net subscriber additions of about 79,000, an increase of 25. For FY25, net subscriber additions exceeded 330,000, an increase of 30%.

Speaker 3

Kartrak continues to grow its subscription revenue across geographies. Most notably in Q4, our Asia and Europe constant currency subscription revenue growth was 3119% respectively and we are encouraged by our momentum in both regions. South Africa subscription revenue growth was 15% in Q4 and we remain excited about the opportunity in this region. Kartrak continues to grow its subscription revenue across geographies. Most notably in Q4, our Asia and Europe constant currency subscription revenue growth was 3119% respectively and we are encouraged by our momentum in both regions.

Speaker 3

South Africa subscription revenue growth was 15% in Q4 and we remain excited about the opportunity in this region. We are proud of the momentum in our business highlighted by the underlying acceleration in FY 'twenty five. Most notably, Kartrak subscriber growth accelerated 200 basis points in FY 'twenty five to 17% reflecting strong execution, investment in sales and marketing and a broader distribution footprint. SaaS ARR also accelerated 100 basis points to 17% in FY 2025. Karru's adjusted earnings per share increased 39% to R9.48 dollars in quarter four, driven by higher subscription revenue, expanding gross margins and disciplined expense management.

Speaker 3

For FY 'twenty five, Carus adjusted earnings per share increased 33% to R31.67 dollars In Q4, Kartrak adjusted earnings per share increased 42% to R9.28 dollars and Carus Logistics earnings per share increased 54% to R0.20 dollars For FY 'twenty five, Kartrak adjusted earnings per share increased 25% to R30.90 dollars and Carus Logistics earnings per share increased 60% to R0.77 dollars In FY 'twenty five, we continue to generate significant free cash flow. Adjusted free cash flow was R425 million. In quarter four, we proactively scaled up our IoT device investment to meet anticipated demand. We also made additional growth oriented investment that impacted working capital and other property plant and equipment, further influencing adjusted free cash flow in Q4. Importantly, we experienced an acceleration in subscriber growth.

Speaker 3

This performance underscore the soundness of our strategy and reflects disciplined executions. As our growth accelerates, it is natural that capital expenditure and strategic investment temporarily increase as a percentage of revenue to support the planned growth. When we stabilize at a higher growth rate, we also expect adjusted free cash flow to normalize at higher levels. To be clear, the recent decline in quarterly adjusted free cash flow does not indicate a structural issue with our ability to generate strong free cash flow. The decline is a result of deliberate investment made to support growth, as evidenced by our growth in quarter four and our outlook for accelerating Car Track subscription revenue growth.

Speaker 3

The adjusted free cash flow generated is in line with Karoo's disciplined capital allocation strategy and support our future growth. Our balance sheet reflects our track record of growth at scale, profitability and cash generation. Our net cash on hand plus cash in bank fixed deposits was million. We expect our disciplined approach to capital allocation coupled with our earnings and free cash flow growth to continue to bolster our strong balance sheet. Debtors collection days remain extremely healthy and within our historical norms at thirty two days.

Speaker 3

Last August, we paid a cash dividend of $33,400,000 or $1.08 per share to our shareholders. The dividend per share increased 27. We have strong unit economics, robust operating margins and unleveraged balance sheet and attractive cash conversions. We remain confident that our track record of consistent execution and success, especially our ability to generate healthy cash flow, is sustainable. We are proud of our execution in FY 2025 as we comfortably met our outlook.

Speaker 3

Moving on to our outlook for FY 2026. Over the last several years, COVID and the challenges associated with the post COVID labour market negatively impacted our growth. In FY2025, we accelerated the pace of our car track subscriber growth. In FY '20 '20 '6, we aim to continue accelerate Car Track subscription revenue growth by expanding our distribution footprint in existing market, driving broader platform adoptions and capitalising on growing demand for our solutions. With that said, our guidance for financial year 2026 is as follows.

Speaker 3

Car track subscription revenue between R4,700 million dollars to R4,900 million which implies Carthrex subscription revenue growth between 16% to 21%, Carthrex operating profit margin between 26% to 31% and Carus earnings per share between R32.5 to R35.5. As we expand our distribution footprint in existing market, we expect lower earnings per share growth in FY 2026 given our planned upfront investment in sales and marketing for the year. Our strong and proven track record of disciplined execution, sustained growth at scale and highly profitable business model is supported by a solid balance sheet and a healthy cash position. We believe our ongoing investment in AI, platform innovation and customer experience will continue to drive durable growth and robust result. We are excited about the year ahead.

Speaker 3

With that, I will turn the presentation over to Zach Callisto for Q and A.

Speaker 4

Hello. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Thank you everybody for joining us today. I will go to the questions. I'll start off the first questions from Dylan, from William Blair.

Speaker 4

Hi, team. Handful of questions below. And question one, contract tag launch. Use cases, you've you're seeing receptivity of the product, and now you're looking and thinking about the opportunity to drive incremental adoption of this product within the core subscription base. Dylan, we've only put up the infrastructure in Southern Africa, so that infrastructure goes all the way from Cape Town up till about Kenya.

Speaker 4

We've started very successfully providing the product to our customers. It's been taken up really well by both businesses and by consumers in South Africa, and I believe it's got traction. It's very robust. We've we've we now feel very comfortable that we're already reaching quite a quite a quite a substantial amount of scale. So we feel very comfortable it was the right decision that we took and that once it's working well, we can then decide which is the next region that we can do the same.

Speaker 4

And it's pro would probably be Asia. Drivers for acceleration for twenty twenty six, our our ROI offering, but how would you think about components growth algorithm between subscriber count from new logos, incremental product upsell, and AI cameras, camera tag, and asset to existing customers and roll out incremental assets. We have planned that in FY '26, we haven't given an an outlook on subscribers because we've decided that this year, specifically in Southern Africa, we're gonna be very much focused on the tag. We're gonna be focused on the video. We're gonna focus on a lot of other sales to existing customers because we need to we've got the footprint into the customers, so we need to now enhance the customer offering.

Speaker 4

So that's gonna be our primary focus in FY twenty six, and we believe that could lead definitely to higher ARPU. We're expecting an increase in ARPU by year end of about 10%. Irene, how are you thinking about opportunity for added capacity, here? And where are you in the rent maturation of existing sales force across re reasons as they look increasingly on the entire customer footprint? I I think as we continue to hire, we now have got more than 5,000 employees.

Speaker 4

I think this is an ongoing challenge because if you wanna grow and you wanna accelerate your growth, you know, it's you know, if you, for instance typically, the mathematics behind it would be if you increase, for instance, in Asia, 70 Percent of your Salesforce a perfect world, that should give you about 70% net ads. 70% net ads is probably it will definitely increase the subscriber growth, but that just can you can sort of see the compounding effect. So this year, we last year, we increased our our staff by about a thousand people. We expect in this year, we could do as much as 1,500 people. So it's an ongoing exercise, but I certainly believe that we started to get really good traction in the last six months.

Speaker 4

And I believe in FY twenty six, we'll continue that good traction. Regions, continuous strength in South Africa, acceleration in Europe, strong momentum in Southeast Asia. Anything to call out relative to each of the core markets in enabling sustained broad based success? You know, we focus on all the regions. I think all our regions offer a huge opportunity for growth, you know, over the long term or we believe Asia's got the best you know, it's the biggest market with the highest growth opportunity, but I believe we will get good growth in FY twenty six from all the regions.

Speaker 4

Next question from Alexandra Skar. Calling for an impressive acceleration growth out of f y twenty six, what is giving you the confidence on being able to execute on the sales iron plans? Alex, the reality is we saw good momentum in the last six months, and we really believe that we're gonna get even accelerated momentum during f y twenty six. I think the work from home culture that we saw globally, I think most companies have realized that, you know, that doesn't actually work. So that plays exactly into the way we operate our business.

Speaker 4

We've never had a culture of work from home. And, you know, now that I believe that it's it's normalizing to pre COVID, I believe that we'll have less headwinds in hiring people. Second question, how would you think about potential blended ARPU growth in Camera Cross? And as I said before, we're expecting about a 10 increase in our ARPU during FY '26. Really funny, Kirk.

Speaker 4

You ended the period with net cash of about 840,000,000, and no dividend declared. What is your thinking about the net cash balance? Really, we remain very much focused that, you know, it's all about how quickly can we allocate this capital for shareholders because our return on investment on is very high, and we will deploy as much capital as we can to customer acquisition, failing which we will, you know, return any excess cash that we believe the board will look at it and to shareholders. Typically, we we look at this at the end of q one, and we typically have, in the past, decided whether we're paying a dividend or not in q two, and we pay the dividend also in q two. Typically, this is how we've done it in the past.

Speaker 4

As a follow-up question from Rudy, what is your current view on share buybacks? And I think share buybacks, you know, it's very difficult for with a low liquidity. We've tried to do it earlier on with little success. So I think we must put our focus into other things at this point in time. It's we weren't very successful given the low liquidity.

Speaker 4

Another question from Alex. Total APAC net subscribers added in FY 'twenty four are slightly down versus FY 'twenty four levels. Is there anything you'd call out in the market? And how do you feel about the existing sales productivity in those markets that embark on great hiring? I think the sales productivity in Asia was strong, and we certainly believe as we hire more people that the sales productivity will probably take a little bit of a dip until typically, these salespeople have been with us for over six months.

Speaker 4

And then I believe we'll get productivity even in the sales that you know, salespeople that we all hire. In the first two months of the year, we've done very good progress already in the first two months. Alex, with 10% ARPU growth outlook, is there any like for like pricing increases for the core bundle plant or just camera tag attached growth? It's it's mostly on the back of camera and the tag growth. You know?

Speaker 4

So to get a 10% increase, you've you obviously can only sell to a small percentage of your base. And it's you know, we we expect a small percentage of our base to take up the products in year one and year two. And as we progress, that should increase further. I think that's all the questions for today. Thank you very much, everybody, that's joined us.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Bye bye.

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