Datatec Limited (DTC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to our financial year 2024 full year results ended February 2024. Starting with the agenda. The format for today will follow our familiar format, covering a summary for myself, the financial results from Ivan, our CFO, and then a more detailed operating review of the divisions with a wrap-up from myself. At the end, we will then open for questions. In summary. Financial results summary. Overall revenues grew by 6% and adjusted EBITDA rose by 7% while gross profit grew more than double that rate at over 16% as the mix of services and software expanded. This very solid progress was held back somewhat by weak conditions in South America. Underlying earnings per share jumped by more than threefold to over USD 0.20 as last year was impacted by a large one-off IFRS 2 equity appreciation payout expense in Westcon. Overview. Unpacking our performance, Logicalis Latin America, which contributes approximately 10% of the group's revenue, performed poorly whilst the other 90% performed strongly. Westcon International turned in another exceptional performance, while Logicalis International had a second successive year of strong profit growth. Any expected improvement going forward in Latin America should feel -- should feed into the overall leverage. All divisions improved cash generation. Current trading. We remain in an environment of continuing secular growth driven by digitization and the proliferation of cloud-based solutions, fueled now by advances in Artificial Intelligence. We expect Latin America to improve, albeit of a low base. Interest rates have fallen in Brazil, copper prices are recovering strongly, helping Chile and Peru, while in Argentina, foreign exchange risk is being mitigated. Finally, supply chain affected backlog issues seem to have normalized and this is fed through into better working capital. Operating profit leverage is improving, and all divisions expect better performance this year. I'll hand over now to Ivan to go through the financial results.

Thank you, Jens, and good morning, everyone. We are very pleased to present another very good set of results on the back of strong operational execution in our Westcon and Logicalis International divisions. I'll start on Slide 8, financial performance. Revenues grew by 6% or 7% in constant currency. Westcon revenues grew by 8%. Logicalis international by 1.5%, impacted by more net revenue accounted software sales and LATAM revenues by 5%. The prior year EBITDA numbers were boosted by $15 million of foreign exchange gains, consisting of $24 million of realized gains, offset by $9 million of unrealized losses. In the current year, we incurred $22 million of foreign exchange losses, of which $6 million were realized and $16 million were unrealized. The current year unrealized FX losses arose mainly in Logicalis Argentina, where there had been a sharp devaluation of the local currency during the year. The quality of earnings in FY '24 was a lot better than in the prior year, with a large share-based payments and restructuring charges not recurring. Net finance costs increased as a result of higher interest rates and higher average utilization of facilities as a result of growth-driven working capital requirements. The effective tax rate of just over 33% is in line with a more normalized rate for the group. Both underlying earnings per share and HEPS are significantly higher than in the prior year. Slide 9, segmental financial performance. Both Westcon and Logicalis International had a significantly improved operating performance. Latin America was our weakest segment, showing year-over-year decline in large part due to the unrealized foreign exchange losses in Argentina. Slide 10, revenue contribution by geography. The geographic mix of revenues was relatively stable year-over-year with an increased contribution from Europe and Asia Pacific and a reduction in Latin America. Slide 11. Software represented approximately half of the revenue mix. It is important to note that there has been an increase in net revenue account at software in Logicalis International. Slide 12. The balance sheet. The balance sheet remains healthy. Goodwill increased as a result of acquisitions during the year including Mason Advisory becoming a subsidiary. Closing net debt increased as a result of higher working capital requirements with higher average debt utilization during the year compared to the prior year. Liquidity remains strong. Slide 13, segmental balance sheet, The Westcon net debt, in particular, is very pleasing as extended supplier payment terms that were advanced to address supply chain constraints were reversed during the second half. Slide 14, the cash flow statement. The cash flow statement for the comparative period is presented on a combined basis including the results from Analysys Mason, which had been disposed of during FY '23. Cash generated from operations improved slightly over the prior year with positive working capital cash flows. The Westcon EAP scheme was settled during the year and a $14 million cash dividend was paid to shareholders. I will now hand over to Jens to cover the remainder of the presentation.

Thank you, Evan. Moving on to the operational reviews and starting with Westcon International highlights, Slide 17. Another very strong performance and another year of expansion propelled by the relentless demand for increased cybersecurity. This was the sixth year of successive revenue growth. Gross profits and EBITDA growth far outstripped revenue growth as the combination of increased net revenue accounting on software sales and improved operating efficiencies, increased operating margins. There was an excellent year-end working capital management which helped offset cash out during the year for reduced Cisco terms, the management growth equity program payout and an acquisition. Revenue. Recurring revenues grew 24% or 3x the total revenue growth. This reflects the continuing strong shift towards greater recurring software license and services revenues. Recurring revenues rose by over $300 million. Revenue by geography. All regions had revenue growth with Asia Pacific delivering the fastest growth at over 12%. There was an increase in overall net revenue accounting as software license sales grew faster than the hardware products, a trend that's occurring throughout the industry. Backlog. The backlog and supply chain issues from 2 years ago have abated. This has accelerated the delivery of hardware and consequently improved software sales dependent on complete product delivery. We expect to move to a more normalized environment going forward. Revenue analysis. There was a stable mix between Cisco sales and the dedicated Comstor business unit and all other vendors in the Westcon segment. All the Cisco categories are switching, routing, WiFi, advanced networking and cybersecurity are in the Comstor segment. On revenue by customer, small and midsized business resellers, which represent the largest element grew, reflecting the continued strength of the mid-market. Revenue by technology category and segment. There has been steady and continuing growth for many years now in the cybersecurity category. This category grew at a rate of 16% to reach 42% of the total mix. The business represents the leading vendors in all major segments: network security, cloud security, application security, identity access management and data and endpoint security. The systematic building of the cybersecurity portfolio over many years links to our strategy that the industry will always share a close relationship with networking. For example, the recent acquisition of Splunk software by Cisco. Gross profit. The move towards cash flow hedge accounting, coupled with the low volatility in exchange rates, contributed to better gross margins in FY '24, especially in Europe, which drives over 60% of the gross profit. The greater software mix also tends to drive better gross margins. EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA grew faster than revenues and gross profits. The operational leverage continued as operating and net profit margins expanded down the income statement. The business is moving towards its medium-term goal of 4% EBITDA margins. Working capital. The reduction in inventory and fast stock turns more than offset the growth in receivables and slightly longer debtor days. The better net working capital days helped to offset the cash out during the year. Approximately $50 million for acquisition and management incentive equity programs was funded as well as absorbing a reduction in payment terms with Cisco in Europe. Despite this, the year-end net debt position was a modest $21 million increase. Outlook. Despite widespread economic uncertainty, most segments around cloud infrastructure, including networking and cybersecurity remain robust. The improvement in supply chain deliveries is rebalancing orders versus backlog. The development of the company's advanced digital platform has created a rich reservoir of data-driven knowledge, which in turn is helping to expand the addressable market and improve execution. We see a solid continuation of the positive multiyear performance improvement trend with consistent growth and expanding margins. The operating leverage enhances profitability. Moving on to the Logicalis Group and starting with the Logicalis International segment highlights, Slide 29. A very solid year overall. Order intake, delivery backlog and product lead times improved. Revenues related to cloud-based solutions and services showed the fastest growth. Working capital was well managed. Revenue. Reported revenue growth of 2% would have been higher, were it not for the large increase in software sales in the U.S. that were net revenue accounted. The growth in total recurring revenues was supported by cloud-based consumption, solutions and managed services. Revenue by geography, the larger component of net revenue accounting on software license sales explains the drop in the North America segment. EMEA had the strongest growth coming specifically from Germany and Spain. The ongoing shift to more software and services drives better gross profits and margins and improve the shape of the P&L. Product backlog. Backlog significantly improved in all regions. Asia Pacific inventory has always been structurally higher due to the nature of many customer contracts with multi-month phasing. There is still some way to go, but the unwind is largely over. Revenue by segment. Here, you can see the impact of increased software net revenue accounting, the segment shows contraction, but the total value of software invoiced actually grew. Hardware was constant on a like-for-like basis, while annuity recurring revenues had the most growth. Cloud-related revenues across all segments continued to show significant growth rising over 50% to $333 million. Gross profit. The real indicator of growth is the contribution of gross profit, which rose over 10% to $339 million. The increase in software sales and recurring revenue annuity services were the drivers. Moving on to adjusted EBITDA. This translated into even better EBITDA growth of 12%. The main contributors to the EBITDA growth were the U.S., Asia Pacific and Spain. The U.K. was breakeven and South Africa had losses. If it were not for this, the EBITDA could have been some $3 million to $4 million better. Working capital, better collections, lower inventory and maintaining supplier accounts payable terms meant overall net working capital fell by $26 million. The absolute number of net working capital days was constant year-over-year. Outlook. As IT infrastructure is such a large part of most companies' capital expenditure and budgets, the anticipated lowering of interest rates should be a boost. Many enterprises are moving towards hybrid infrastructure as being solely dependent on the cloud can become very expensive. The noncloud-based infrastructure can be housed on-premise or in third-party data centers and often run as a managed service. Most businesses, large or small, are looking for incremental efficiencies through digital technologies fueled now by Artificial Intelligence. We are internally harnessing AI technologies to streamline our operations and improve our customer services. Moving on to Logicalis, Latin America. Slide 39 highlights. It has been a challenging year with headwinds in many markets. The performances in Brazil and Mexico were below expectation, but the greatest knock came from the dire situation in Argentina. While bookings and revenues held up, the dramatic collapse of the Argentine peso led to large unrealized ForEx losses of over $20 million. Against this backdrop, management did a good job of focusing on operating costs, eliminating debt while generating growth in the top line and the gross profit contribution. Revenues. Total revenues grew by 5% to $513 million. Recurring revenues dipped slightly as some annuity contracts were reduced in scope or not renewed. Revenue by geography. The reduction in annuity contracts occurred in Brazil, which is also where the backlog remains elevated by historical norms. Northern Latin America, NOLA, which includes Mexico and Colombia grew as did South -- Southern Latin America, SOLA, which includes Argentina and Chile. Backlog. On product backlog, Latin America is the only region not to have fully normalized, still to happen is a more complete unwind of the backlog situation in Brazil, which is associated to mainly Cisco products that have been contracted for large telco service providers. We are expecting good progress on this in the coming months. Revenue by segment are stable but below expectation period. Disappointingly, some of the reduced annuity services in Brazil were in the cloud category, which was flat year-over-year. Growth in hardware made up for the decline in services. Gross profit. Gross profit improvement was encouraging and that it grew in proportion by more than the revenues. The growth in product sales and associated services was delivered with improving margins. Adjusted EBITDA. In terms of absolute impact to profitability, Brazil missed its EBITDA and profit expectations compared to last year. Argentina had significant unrealized ForEx losses of over $20 million. Overall EBITDA for the year almost halved to $13 million. Working capital, a very solid working capital result. Net debt at year-end was eliminated with a small net cash position of $5 million being generated. Accounts payable and creditors days outstanding were held while a great job was done on collections and in reducing inventory. Outlook in Latin America, We believe the situation in Argentina has reached a turning point with the new government and new policies of reform underway. Importantly, we are now less restricted on our ability to remit U.S. dollars for paying primary suppliers, which was the main source of accumulated unrealized ForEx losses. Across the region, we do not see a significant falling of interest rates but a more gradual easing. Latin America as a region has often been slower to adopt new technologies and trends but catches up rapidly when it does. The shift is now evident with cloud-based infrastructure becoming broadly adopted and AI technologies starting to be deployed. We feel confident the year ahead will be a pivot point towards a more sustained pickup for the business regionally across Latin America as many elements are being remodeled. Prospects and outlook. In summary, to conclude, Artificial Intelligence is starting to be implemented in many industries. The performance upgrades required in PCs, laptops and start -- and smartphones is yet to come. And this, in turn, will put more pressure on networks and other infrastructure. It is a very holistic extrapolation, but when this occurs, it will be very broad and long lasting, complementing the digitization age that was started by the cloud over 10 years ago. This will provide other opportunities for us as our divisions continue to develop in parallel with our stated strategic goals. I will hand over now to questions from the conference participants.

Thank you, and that concludes our presentation for the morning. We will now open up for questions. [Operator Instructions] As Currently, we don't have any questions. We will give it another 30 seconds or so, and then I will hand over to Jens to conclude the meeting. Okay. We have 1 question from Katherine Thompson from Edison. Westcon DPOs unchanged at year-end but you mentioned reduced supplier terms. How should we expect that to change?

I'll hand -- Evan can take that one. This is a Cisco payment terms in Europe.

Yes, that's right. So during the sort of period of some supply chain constraints, Cisco gave us extra payment terms to essentially settle our obligations. During the period that has -- sort of that has now normalized and that happened during sort of Q4 of the financial year over sort of under review. And we would expect the DPO days where we ended the year to essentially be more or less than normal going forward.

We have another follow-up question from Katherine. Could you talk a bit more about how the adoption of Gen AI is likely to impact each business?

Yes. I mean, obviously, we are part of the IT services and technology ecosystem in the most general sense. So obviously, all of our customers like most businesses and enterprises out there are looking at ways to improve the productivity and modernization of their own businesses and processes and the like through the adoption of AI tools and technology. For us, in the shorter term, we have -- I guess there are 2 different kind of major flywheels that we can address. I mean obviously, there's a considerable internal benefit for harnessing AI and the technology adoption in our own processes. I referred to it before in terms of client services operating efficiencies, managed services, the way we go about our own tasks internally. So that's internally. And there's also, externally, obviously, business streams to be developed where we are enabling and assisting our customers, whether it's through Microsoft technologies such as Copilot and OpenAI and ChatGPT and no doubt there are going to be many other platforms to follow. They will all require integrator or integrator's help in terms of the customers to be able to adopt and implement solutions around these technologies. So that's a business opportunity. So I think on both internally for our own efficiencies and productivity, that's where we're stepping out now in all of our businesses, Westcon and across Logicalis. And then as I said also, we are in the process of moving downstream to customer opportunities through out the -- across the group.

Next question is from [ Jared Houston ] from AWC. What was the reason for the 33.3% decline in the group dividend.

Thanks, [indiscernible]. I'll take that. So our dividend policy remains unchanged as -- and the dividend cover is a ratio of 3 relative to underlying earnings per share. i.e., we take our underlying earnings per share, we divide it by 3. Last year, our underlying earnings per share was $0.08 a share, which was materially impacted by the Westcon share-based payment charges relating to the settlement of the equity appreciation plans. And we then essentially did a notional adjustment for dividend purposes or a gross up of earnings for determining the dividend, excluding the incremental share-based payment charges. So last year, we paid dividend, which was significantly in excess of what our policy would have paid out. This year, we've simply applied the policy by taking the underlying earnings per share divided by 3.

Next question is from Myuran Rajaratnam from MIBFA. Can you please remind us of your medium-term margin guidance in the 3 divisions?

Yes. Well, with -- let me start with Westcon. We've most probably upgraded our medium-term guidance of EBITDA margins. We had said 3 or 4 years ago that target aspiration was to get to 3.5%, 4% zone. And we're kind of pretty close to that now. And we think there will be scope to most probably go beyond that. In other words, 4% plus. I think that's a positive outcome in terms of the trajectory of that business. And I think some of that is obviously driven by the increased -- the shape of the business and the increased software and recurring component. In Logicalis, both Logicalis International and LATAM, I mean, in a steady state or normalized date, both these businesses should be in the 6% to 7% EBITDA margin range. And in fact, Latin America, for those that followed us in the, let's say, in the pre-COVID era, if you go back before '19 -- '18 and '19, the margins there were much, much higher. They were 8% or 9%. So I think that's -- would be -- our zone going forward would be 6% to 7% EBITDA margins.

Next question from [ Eugene Chimille ]. Is there any progress on the offshore listing of Logicalis.

I assume this refers to Logicalis LATAM, where we had -- pre-COVID we had plans. I think it was in '19 and '20 to possibly separately IPO that business unit in Brazil. So obviously, the events of the last few years have clearly put that on hold for now. We had -- I think we took -- we had -- we've taken a charge on some of the costs associated to that. Was that last year or the year before? .

I think it was last year that we sort of experience that.

Which suggests that it's unlikely that we're going to be able to look at that in the next 2 years or so. But obviously, long term, aspirationally, that and other things remain all part of our considerations under our ongoing strategic review.

Thank you. That was the last question.

Great. Thank you very much for attending, and we will be back on air mid-October with the interims. Thank you very much.