Datatec Limited (DTC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to our full year FY '23 reporting. Just for noting, at the top left of the screen, there is a tab. Please use this to submit any questions as we go. The agenda is similar to the past. I will begin with a summary and then hand over to Ivan to go through the detailed financial results before covering the divisional presentations and closing comments. In summary, overall, we had a solid year. The very strong performance in Westcon more than made up for the consistent but lower-than-expected growth in Logicalis, especially from Latin America. The 13% increase in ongoing revenues to $5.14 billion did not translate to similar growth in gross profit. The surge in the U.S. dollar last year significantly impacted cost of sales in Westcon, [indiscernible] were at record highs. Our hedging mitigation meant that a lot of the reduction in gross margin was made back in ForEx hedging profits. Consequently, the growth in adjusted EBITDA was the same as revenues at 13%. Our full year underlying earnings include a large onetime pickup in our IFRS 2 charge, which totaled approximately $50 million due to the crystallization of Westcon's 5-year executive equity and SARS program. This program has been highly effective in creating value and is being replaced with an executive equity ownership plan that will not accrue any future IFRS 2 charge. Excluding the IFRS 2 charge, our earnings per share would have been $0.30 this year compared to $0.27 last year on the same pro forma basis. Overview. The main highlights of the year were the exceptional year in Westcon, a second half turnaround in Logicalis LATAM, a strong operating cash generation in all divisions. In addition, we had a special dividend to reflect the highly successful sale of Analysys Mason for an enterprise value of GBP 200 million. This -- our share of this generated a special dividend of ZAR 2.7 billion. We are also declaring a final dividend of ZAR 439 million or ZAR [ 1.95 ] per share. By July, we will have returned over ZAR 3 billion to shareholders in less than 12 months. Our total dividends paid and declared since January 2018 were approximately ZAR 10 billion. Current trading. What we are seeing is a strong fundamental position for all of our divisions, underpinned by many years of skills acquisition, improving processes and advanced digital platforms. Many of the sectors we operate in are very robust and continue to drive above-average growth rates. We believe we have seen a peak in semiconductor shortages, supply chain delays, interest rate increases, inflation and possibly the strong dollar. The reversal of these factors will have a cumulative benefit. Our working capital management and balance sheet remains strong. We are expecting an improved performance in all divisions this year. I will now hand over to Ivan to go through the financial results.

Thank you, Jens, and good morning, everyone. An important feature of this year's results is the disposal of Analysys Mason which was effective September 2022. Under IFRS 5, Analysys Mason is therefore disclosed as a discontinued operation with a net result, including gain on disposal, being disclosed on the discontinued line. The prior year P&L is accordingly represented. The prior year balance sheet and cash flow statements are not restated, and the cash flow statement for FY '23 is prepared on a combined basis, i.e., including Analysys Mason for the period of our ownership. Slide 8, financial performance. Revenue from continuing operations grew by 13% or 20% in constant currency. Analysys Mason was owned for approximately 7 months during our financial year. We had a very strong revenue growth in Westcon, good growth in Logicalis and the decline in revenue in Latin America as expected. The significant strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the sterling and euro during the first half negatively impacted gross margins in Westcon Europe, largely offset by foreign exchange gains on hedging contracts further down the P&L. Total foreign exchange gains for the group were $15 million comprising of realized gains of $24 million and unrealized losses of $9 million. There was a significant increase in share-based payment charges representing the much improved valuation of Westcon. The IFRS 2 charge from continuing operations was $53 million for the year compared to $15 million in the prior year. This had a material impact on all of our reported earnings metrics. Net finance costs increased as a result of rising interest rates. The effective tax rate was distorted as a result of a loss before tax being caused by the IFRS 2 charge for which limited tax credit were recognized and one-off withholding tax items impacting EBITDA. Underlying earnings per share reduced to [ $0.079 ] and but would have been approximately [ $0.30 ] if IFRS 2 charges are excluded. The dividend was calculated on this [ $0.30 ]. Slide 9, financial performance - segmental. This slide shows our segmental P&L for continuing operations. With effect from FY '23, Logicalis is being shown as 2 segments: Logicalis International and Logicalis Latin America. As communicated at the half year stage, we amended our definition for adjusted EBITDA. This metric excludes the impact of restructuring costs, share-based payment charges, one-off tax items impacting EBITDA as well as acquisition, integration and corporate action costs. Slide 10. Consistent with the interim results, this slide shows that LatAm was our most challenged region. This was in line with our expectations and the guidance we had given in our FY '22 results announcement in May last year. We had seen an increased contribution from Asia Pacific. Slide 11. As the business has become less asset-intensive over the years, software & services have grown significantly. Hardware is now just over 50% of the revenue mix. Slide 12, the balance sheet. Analysys Mason is included in the FY '22 comparatives. The balance sheet remains strong. Solid working capital management resulted in reduced net debt and enhanced liquidity. Slide 13. This slide represents the segmental balance sheet from continuing operations. The reduction in net debt in Westcon is especially pleasing considering the very strong growth in the year. Slide 14, cash flow. The cash flow statement is presented on a combined basis with no restatement required under IFRS 5. We had much improved operating cash generation despite strong growth and significant supply chain constraints. $154 million of cash dividends were paid during the year. I will now hand over to Jens to cover the rest of the presentation.

Thank you, Ivan. I'll move on to the operational review, starting with Westcon International and the highlights, Slide 17. Another exceptional year, the sixth successive year of revenue and profit growth with improving margins and working capital. The investments in digitization and ID system platforms are yielding competitive benefits in transaction automation. This is improving productivity and creating opportunities to grow market share. Our longer-term target EBITDA margins remain at 3.5% to 4%. Last year, Westcon had a record order intake. Total revenue. The 18% revenue growth would have been even stronger in constant currency at 25%. Recurring revenues grew at over 30% as the mix of software license sales and service contracts capable of being renewed increased. Revenue by geography. All regions had strong double-digit revenue growth. Asia Pacific grew the fastest at 20%, while Europe, the largest market, grew the most in absolute terms with an increase of over $300 million in sales. Hardware & software backlog. The overall backlog has been falling since the fourth quarter of last year after peaking in the middle of last year at close to $1 billion. We reported a total backlog of [ $965 ] million [ past ] interims. Whilst modest, we believe it represents a clear trend change that will continue. Revenue analysis. As the backlog has improved, the increased Cisco's total share of the mix as represented by the Comstor segment. The largest customer segment, small and mid-sized resellers, faster than large service providers over the year as technology emphasis on cybersecurity has grown our customer diversification. Revenue by technology category & segment. We have regrouped what was previously in the unified communications segment mainly into the networking segment. This is a more appropriate positioning of the underlying technology for vendors such Juniper and Extreme Networks. Unified communication vendors with a cloud subscription model have moved into the cloud segment. Many vendors in this category have been consolidated through acquisition as the business models have changed. The cybersecurity segment, which has been consistently growing faster than all other categories and has a smaller software content, did not benefit from the backlog unwind to the extent that networking and infrastructure products did. The hardware, software and services segments remained very similar to last year. Gross profit. The rapid movements with a very strong U.S. dollar last year increased the cost of goods sold and impacted gross profit growth and margin. There was a large corresponding benefit to operating expenses as ForEx hedging gains mainly offset the lower trading margins. The significant excess backlog increased the complexity of hedging as it became harder to determine exact delivery time frames. EBITDA. A very robust increase in underlying adjusted EBITDA. Stripping out IFRS 2 share-based payment charges and other one-off items, the like-for-like increase was $16 million or 21%. There has been a steady and significant improvement in gross profit to EBITDA conversion from less than 5% 5 years ago to now approaching 30% this year with an objective to move to beyond 35% conversion in future. This goal should mean that 3.5% to 4% EBITDA margin targets are achievable in the medium term and in line with the best in our industry. Working capital. Equally impressive has been the working capital and balance sheet management. Despite the increase in net working capital driven largely by supply chain bottlenecks and backlog inhibitors, strong payables management helped to offset the rise in inventory and debtors. The strong profitable growth and cash generation meant that overall net debt decreased by $17 million. Outlook. The outlook remains robust for many areas that Westcon address. We have no exposure to consumer devices or the endpoint PC industry. The company has been very successful in picking many of the winners, new areas of cybersecurity and next-generation networking by employing a strategy of handling a specific group of leading vendors in sectors they dominate but with little overlap. This has built a strong rapport at both ends of the supply chain, with suppliers and customers allowing the company to develop its advanced digital platform for increasingly automated transactions. The winning strategy continues to be refined with excellent results. I'll move now on to the Logicalis segment. Logicalis Group is now reported as Logicalis International and Logicalis LATAM since the beginning of last year. Slide 28. This shows the transition to the 2 separately reported and managed Logicalis divisions, where the Logicalis Group has ceased to be a consolidated entity and is now an intermediary holding company. This was effective at the beginning of last financial year. Starting with Logicalis International. Slide 30, highlights. Order intake has remained strong, especially around cloud-based recurring revenues, which also drive one-off professional services. Improvements in supply chain and backlog reduction are yet to show up in a meaningful way, but the situation is not deteriorating. Internally, there is a lot of focus on enhancing processes, capabilities and reporting all through modern technology. Cash conversion has improved, but more can be done. Total revenue. The 9% growth in revenue was driven by hardware and software product [indiscernible] Recurring revenues, which comprise of a lot of non-dollar-based revenue streams was broadly flat. In constant currency, total revenues would have been up 16% and recurring revenues up 6%. Revenue by geography. The U.S. and Asia-Pacific regions both had strong double-digit revenue growth. EMEA, which comprises of mainly Europe, contracted slightly. This was due to the very weak pound and dollar -- and euro last year, which were both down over 20% against the dollar for much of the year. All regions experienced continuing excess backlog. Product backlog, Slide 33. It's clear that the supply chain and backlog issues associated with the COVID years are now behind us. The trends seen in North America and across Europe is also the case across Asia Pacific in our particular business. Strong order intake in Asia over our year-end inflated that region. Asia Pacific also has a structurally higher backlog due to the long-term nature of infrastructure projects. Revenue by segment. The product hardware segment of the revenue mix jumped with a pickup in new sales from mainly the U.S. but also across Asia. The dollar value of annuity revenues fell as the majority of this is derived from outside the U.S. and in other local currencies. Pleasingly, we had another strong step-up in cloud-associated products, services and subscription-based revenues. Gross profit. The gains in gross profit did not match the increase in revenues mainly due to the greater product mix and associated strong dollar impact on cost of goods sold and the translation of local currency services. Overall gross profit increased 3%. EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA was similar to last year, with $1 million of growth at $66 million. This number includes $12.5 million fundamental restructuring charges arising from the separation of Logicalis LATAM and operational winding down of the Logicalis Group to become a holding company. The U.K. and Germany were the weakest markets. Working capital. Inventory management was much improved despite the backlog and supply chain issues. The growth in accounts receivable was matched by the growth in outstanding accounts payable. Strong cash collections drove a $14 million decrease in net working capital. Outlook, Slide 38. Macro uncertainty is delaying or lengthening certain IT capital equipment investment decisions. The industry decline in PC and laptop refresh and a slowdown in public cloud utilization has not impacted network demand or hybrid infrastructure as digitization continues. We believe the unwinding of the backlog created by supply chain disruption will improve during the year. Moving on to Logicalis Latin America. Highlights, Slide 40. The environment in Latin America has been challenging, with Argentina, in particular, still gripped by hyperinflation. Technology and customer diversification is improving the business mix with profitability recovering well in the second half. The most promising indicator has been the growth in services-led recurring revenues. As real interest rates remain very high in the region, a lot of focus has gone into debt reduction in order to lower the interest burden. Total revenue. Revenues declined 6% as long Cisco product lead times delayed project completions and invoicing. Encouragingly, recurring revenues rose 7% as follow-on managed services increased. Revenue by geography. Logicalis Brazil was the region most affected by product shipment delays and elongated supply chains. Product backlog, Slide 43. Like the other divisions, backlog has either peaked or is trending down. The exceptional situation in Southern Latin America, SOLA, is entirely driven by Argentina and compounded by local economic constraints. We expect the situation to improve this year. Revenue by segment. A mirror opposite dynamic to Logicalis International. Relatively stronger local currencies, especially the Brazilian real and Mexican peso, boosted the value of locally generated services in U.S. dollars. Hardware revenues declined as delays hampered deliveries and invoicing while software sales held relatively firm. There was another strong showing in associated cloud revenues. Gross profit. The underlying shift in the quality of the revenue streams enable gross profit to grow even as revenues fell. The main driver to this was the increased managed services contribution. EBITDA. There was a significant bounce back in adjusted EBITDA in H2 compared to the first half. The second half yielded more than 100% of the full year adjusted EBITDA. Working capital, despite the lag in deliveries and buildup of inventory, a combination of strong collections and the reprofiling of payables drove a big improvement in the net working capital days. Net debt was reduced by $15 million. Outlook, Slide 48. We expect the growth in the region to remain low, albeit there is a clear trend to embrace digitization in most economies. Telecommunications and network infrastructure still lags in many countries, and this remains a big opportunity. Unfortunately, supply chain issues have been a drag in being able to fully recognize revenues. However, good growth in services and software helped mitigate. We think the lows are clearly behind and good momentum is starting to build in many areas. Prospects & Outlook, Slide 50. Our industry segment remains robust, with high innovation continuing to coincide with fundamental demand. Nowhere is this more apparent than the access between the increase in digitization and cloud usage driving eased networking and, in particular, cybersecurity protection. A combination of the COVID years, the war in Ukraine, along with restricted and soaring energy prices, all conspired to really mess up global logistics last year. This is now improving and quite rapidly in some industries. Decoupled from these dynamics, we expect an improved performance in all divisions this year. This concludes the presentation, and I will now hand over to any questions.

We have a question from Shane Watkins, All Weather Capital. Great results. Well done. The 2 remaining divisions are doing very well, but the head office costs are very high. What can you do to address this issue?

Thanks, Shane. Well, our head office costs haven't actually moved, been pretty constant for many years now. But I'll hand over to Ivan to explain the optics behind the pickup and bridge to why that is.

Sure. Thanks, Jens. So the increase in the reported head office cost is almost entirely due to an increase in the share-based payment charge. So the IFRS 2 charge for the corporate or head office segment is just under $11 million higher than the prior year and the vast majority of this increase is a one-off charge. So as Jens has mentioned, central costs are essentially broadly in line with those of the prior year, excluding the share-based payment costs.

We have another question from Katherine Thompson from Edison. Could you give a bit more detail on where exactly you are seeing issues in the supply chain and how this affects each division.

Thanks. Surely. There are a few dimensions to this question. And obviously, the most striking supply chain or backlog increase dynamic of the last year, 1.5 years, has been obviously the hardware. You're also seeing, we break it out with the Westcon reporting, that hardware delays can also affect software being shipped because software needs to get shipped on hardware. But to answer the question directly, our most significant supply chain headache of the last 12 months or so had mainly been around Cisco and some of the other hardware-centric networking vendors, less so in the cyber security segment, which is mainly software. Within the hardware backlog issues that we've seen, there are a couple of different dynamics, but they all head in the same direction. Westcon has seen steady improvement in backlog reduction since the end of our third quarter last year which was around October, November. And there's been a steady staircase down of backlog unwind especially around Cisco, which was obviously the area of the business has been the most acute, and that's looking to continue. And when you compare Westcon to Logicalis, Westcon has clearly been, just like it was going into the supply chain issues, is the same. It's the same coming out. It's a lead indicator. And one of the clear difference for Logicalis is that Logicalis is not a supply chain business to the extent that Westcon is and the project and contract cycles are much longer. Within Logicalis, our most acute pain point with supply chain and backlog has been in Latin America, most probably to do with -- or mainly to do with -- sorry, mainly to do with the type of projects, the type of customers. We have very large projects with very large customers, and they're the ones that have been the most impacted. So a bit of a long-winded answer, but we're obviously seeing the return to the mean taking longer in Logicalis than we are in Westcon. But then again, Westcon has faster inventory turns and cycles in this business, as I say, as a supply chain company.

We have a question from [indiscernible] from Investec. Has the value unlock process been completed?

No. It's ongoing, and we think there are many areas of -- there are going to be many opportunities in different areas for us to continue to exploit and extract value from other corporate actions going forward. And obviously, we're in an environment now where capital markets are not in as good shape as they were maybe 2 years ago. The cost of capital and the cost of debt is a lot higher. M&A activity in many parts of the world is down significantly. So we think we're in an environment now where we're really focusing on the internal workings of our different divisions and the trajectories -- the trajectory of those businesses which is looking pretty good from where we sit. And we will continue to examine things that make sense as and when they present themselves.

A question from [ Sandile Magagula from Umthombo Wealth ]. How close are you to a spin-off of Logicalis what sort of a multiple would be associated with this business post unbundling? Would you sell parts of Westcon to reduce hardware exposure given SOLA underpinned for software. So he's got 2.

Okay. I'll attempt to unpick this. Well, we're not actually in the process of selling anything at the moment. There are various things that we continue to look at with all of our divisions. We're not -- the hardware versus software, we're not averse to any particular technology stream. It's the trend going on in the industry. You can have good and bad margins around hardware and you can have good and bad margins around software. And the same exists in the product versus services analogy as well. You can have good and bad services and good and bad product businesses. So I don't think one should conflate the different business streams as creating different challenges or opportunities. And similarly, we wouldn't look to separate one type of business activity from another. It's better to look at the individual divisions. We think there's continuing growth in all of our businesses in terms of -- hold on, I need to just read this question again here. Yes, sorry. We wouldn't look at -- yes, we wouldn't look at -- we wouldn't look at unbundling parts of the different divisions. I think that was one of the -- if I understood this question correctly. So each business has its own potential outcomes. We've already split Logicalis International and Logicalis LATAM, which is -- which should give investors a clear understanding of where we might go with those different businesses. They might have different outcomes or they may end up -- they may very well end up being unified from an investors' perspective, but we don't know what the ultimate outcomes will be in that regard.

We have a follow-up question from Shane Watkins regarding head office costs. My point is that the operating business is getting smaller as you sell divisions while the head office costs are unchanged, but the overall business is smaller. Can we expect a head office reduction as you sell further divisions?

Well, let me -- I think we partly answered that before. So other than the IFRS 2 share-based payments charge, our head office costs haven't really budged in the last few years. Obviously, if there was a major optimization of the group and we sold or disposed or merged or separately listed or there were some other corporate action around one of our -- one or more of our major divisions, clearly, that would be the trigger for a rethink in the overall Datatec corporate structure and, of course, going with that our costs. So I think that's the answer there. Of course, you wouldn't continue to remodel and not address the corporate structure and the corporate overheads. In terms of where we are now compared to a year ago, even post the Analysys Mason sale, on an absolute basis, we're bigger now than we were a year ago. If you look at the profit increase mainly coming out of Westcon, but to smaller extent Logicalis International, if you look at our total EBITDA in this current year, it's bigger than what it was last year, including Analysys Mason. So it's not like the group is getting smaller. The Analysys Mason transaction was a highly successful, highly valued spin-off opportunity. It was represented last year, I think, about 7% of our net income. And the transaction that was valued at more than 30% of our market cap. So one needs to calibrate that in the context of what we have ongoing.

We have a question from Muneer Ahmed from Denker Capital. Can you please provide your justification for the magnitude of the share-based payment charge. This will be a $64 million cash outflow in the short term.

I'll hand it over to Ivan.

Yes. Thanks for the question, Muneer. So essentially, the IFRS 2 charge is, as a result, mainly of the Westcon equity appreciation scheme coming to an end. And this scheme was put in those 5 years ago to essentially incentivize the team to turn around the Westcon business. So you may recall at the time that we sold Westcon Americas to SYNNEX, the remaining part of Westcon that remained, which is now Westcon International, was a significant loss-making business at the time. And the financial performance of that business has dramatically improved over the last 5 years as has the valuation of that business accordingly. Now it is important to note that this IFRS 2 charge is largely a one-off charge that is not expected to recur.

Okay. We have a question from Irnest Kaplan from Kaplan Equity. What is the impact of AI that you are seeing in your various businesses? What impact do you think it will have to Datatec over the medium term?

I think AI will affect, challenge and benefit any technology business out there. I mean, I think in the context of what that means for us, I mean we are at the data mining, data analytics, information for customers, information to manage and control and develop our own business. So I would assume there are elements of -- there are, not assume, there are elements of AI which will help our business intelligence and automation, no doubt. But I mean, I think that's going to be a rising tide for everyone in -- especially in the technology industry.

A question from Alexander Duys from Umthombo Wealth. How will Westcon achieve 3.5% to 4% EBITDA margins and over what time period can this be expected?

We would expect this steady staircase of improvement to continue. And if you extrapolate the increments in margin expansion that we've put on in the last 2 or 3 years, I guess you could model another 2 or 3 years out, and that would get us to that landing zone in terms of our ideal margin profile. How the business is going to get there? The business is going to get there through -- sorry, achieve those margins through a few things. The growth that we put on is increasingly software and increasingly more asset-light which helps the margin and ratio profile and, of course, working capital and so on. So that's one. The other area is, of course, the business mix, and the business mix can be by technology type and also by geography. Obviously, we're very large in Europe. That's where we've got opportunities to move the meter, where we've got many countries, many people, a lot of significant amount of infrastructure and so on. But it also applies to smaller markets across the world where previously we've been subscale, and we're growing in scale. So we go from being a narrow or more marginal operator to being a fully profitable operator. So there's a bunch of dials that are all coming together. And of course, the best tonic for all of this is continued impetus and continued growth. And as we put that growth on, we do not increase our operating costs at the same rate that we increase our revenues and gross profit. So more and more of that gross profit converts into EBITDA. And I think I touched on that on one of the slides. So that's basically the summary, more gross profit to EBITDA conversion is how we're going to get there.

A question from Willie Pelser, Harvard House Investment Management. Slide 22 shows data center and cloud contribution 10% of revenue contribution. Can you give an indication on growing share of revenue over next, let's say, 5 years?

This is the -- data center and cloud infrastructure is a segment within Westcon. I think that's what the question is aimed at. And in there, we collect the revenue streams from many of the existing vendors that are in the other buckets, mainly networking. So for example, Cisco is an example of a very large vendor that has products that are aimed for the data center. And we classify those in the data center or for other cloud infrastructure and we put those into that bucket. I did mention earlier on in the presentation that unified communications is an area that used to be a very physical business. It was derived from the original PBX and telephone systems. That industry has moved pretty much almost entirely into software-based switching. It's most -- a lot of the vendors are running their business models as a service -- as a software service through the cloud with little or no infrastructure required that uses premises. So these are examples of the type of technologies that are moving into that segment.

A question from Kefilwe Ndala, Mazi Asset Management. What will the executive equity ownership plan to replace the scheme that just incurred the share-based payment involved? Then there's a second part, and what will the basis be since the Westcon performance is so much improved? And thirdly, will it involve as onerous an expenditure as the recent share-based payment?

We have already put in place in Logicalis International a senior executive equity ownership program. And we're going to model an equivalent program in Westcon. The bar evaluation that is used to set that investment opportunity is exactly the same valuation that the old scheme is being paid out on. So that's the -- so there's no -- so it's completely neutral from that perspective. In terms of how this is treated going forward, going forward, these schemes embed the senior management as co-shareholders in the subsidiaries alongside Datatec. So there is no future IFRS to share-based payments charge until a realization event happens for those individual businesses and divisions.

There's a follow-up question from Mazi Asset Management. Can you give us some insight into the group's thinking on currency hedging going forward?

Thank you, Kefilwe. So essentially, sort of the group's hedging policies will remain substantially the same. We're very prudent when it comes to hedging, and we will continue to essentially hedge the net open position of the balance sheet working capital items as well as the backlog essentially consistent with past practice.

We're just seeing if there are any further questions. No further questions.

Well, that's okay. Thank you very much, everyone, for your participation, and we will be doing the same again for our interims later in October this year. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.