NetSol Technologies, Inc. (NTWK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to NETSOL Technologies Fiscal Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. On the call today are Najeeb Ghauri, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Roger Almond, Chief Financial Officer; and Patti McGlasson, General Counsel, who I would like to turn the call over to in order to provide the necessary cautions regarding the forward-looking statements made by management during this call. Please go ahead, Patti.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Following a review of the company's business highlights and financial results, we will open the call for questions. Before we begin, I will now provide the necessary cautions regarding the forward-looking statements made by management during this call. Please note that all the information discussed on today's call is covered under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. The company's discussion may include forward-looking statements reflecting management's current forecast of certain aspects of the company's future, and our actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied. These forward-looking statements are qualified by the cautionary statements contained in NETSOL's press release and SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. I would also like to point out that we will be discussing certain non-GAAP measures. The press release issued earlier today contains a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial results to their most comparable GAAP measures. Finally, I would like to remind everyone that this call will be recorded and made available for replay at www.netsoltech.com and via a link available in today's press release. Now I'll turn the call over to Najeeb Ghauri, our Founder, Chairman and CEO. Najeeb?

Thank you, Patti, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'm happy to be dialing in from my Encino office in California. We delivered solid performance in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, with strong growth in our services revenue and continued momentum in our subscription business. Our results reflect the growing demand for our digital solutions for the global finance and leasing industry under our unified Transcend platform alongside the strength of our global delivery model. As we continue transitioning towards revenue generated from a recurring revenue model, we remain focused on driving innovation, operational efficiency and long-term value for our customers and shareholders. This quarter, we successfully completed a major deployment of our Transcend Finance platform for a financial institution in Australia, an existing customer of NETSOL, further deepening our partnership and expanding the use of our technology for their operations. Following this successful implementation, Kubota, a leading Japanese powerhouse that provides products and technologies in various fields, including tractors and other agriculture machinery, is now using our solutions for their financial operations in both Australia and New Zealand. In addition, we signed 2 new multimillion-dollar contracts with financial services providers in both countries of Oman and Indonesia. We signed an agreement with Sindbad Management SBC in Oman for the implementation of Transcend Finance. The customer is a major Muscat, which is the capital of Oman, Oman-based company, which provides big ticket asset financing and leasing covering various asset types such as marine vessels, aircraft, machinery and other equipment alongside vehicles in Oman and other countries. The successful implementation of this project will serve as a model for future collaborations in the Middle East, reinforcing our commitment to expanding our footprint and delivering world-class technology solutions to a region that is ripe for growth and innovation. The second multimillion-dollar agreement signed during this quarter was with a Chinese leasing company known as [ Yulon ], which is acquired by BYD, a Chinese giant, for the implementation of Transcend Finance in Indonesia. This marks the customer's expansion into the Indonesian market. The company offers a diverse range of leasing solutions across various industries with a strong focus on equipment leasing, asset financing and commercial leasing. Our powerful technology platform, combined with tailored regional customization, makes us the ideal partner to support their success in the Indonesian market. These wins are a clear signal of the growing confidence our clients place in us to drive their digital transformation agendas. At a time when institutions are under pressure to modernize and differentiate, our ability to consistently deliver mission-critical solutions at scale sets us apart and cements our position as a preferred technology partner for financial institutions worldwide. The go-live for Kubota in Australia during this period, plus these 2 major multimillion-dollar signings, reinforce our reputation as a trusted strategic technology partner to the global asset finance and leasing industry. These developments serve as a powerful endorsement of the products, innovation and service excellence we deliver in an increasingly competitive marketplace. At the core of our transition to becoming an AI-first organization is our commitment to redefining how technology can drive smarter, faster and more secure decision-making across the financial services ecosystem. In Q3, we announced the launch of Transcend AI Labs, our dedicated innovation hub focused on developing cutting-edge AI solutions tailored primarily for the asset retail, finance and leasing sectors. Transcend AI Labs brings together our deep domain expertise with advanced machine learning and generative AI capabilities, enabling us to create next-generation solutions for our clients that unlock real business value whether through intelligent automation, hyper personalized experiences or predictive analytics that empower risk decisions and overall operations. As part of our ongoing initiatives, we appointed Dario Morelli as our new Vice President of Artificial Intelligence in this quarter. Dario is a proven business leader and AI strategist with over 15 years of experience spanning data analytics and AI. His vision and leadership will be instrumental in scaling our AI capabilities and embedding intelligence across every layer of our product portfolio. With Dario at the helm and the launch of Transcend AI Labs, we are well positioned to lead our industry into the AI-powered future. Further, a quick update. Our BMW USA retail platform rollout in 350 dealerships in the U.S. is on track. Looking at our business through a long-term lens, I'm pleased with the progress we have achieved this quarter, and I'm optimistic about the momentum carrying into the final quarter of fiscal 2025 and beyond. I'm confident that our strategic investments especially in AI and the ongoing evolution of our revenue mix will drive stronger profitability and deliver lasting value for our shareholders. I'd now like to turn the call over to our CFO, Roger Almond, who will go through the financials for Q3 of fiscal year 2025. Over to you, Roger.

Thanks, Najeeb. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review NETSOL's financial results for the third quarter fiscal year 2025. I'll take you through our key financial metrics and provide some context on our performance drivers. We delivered solid top line growth in the third quarter, driven by continued strength in our services business and stable subscription revenue performance. Total net revenues for Q3 fiscal year 2025 increased 13% to $17.5 million compared to $15.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2024. This increase was primarily fueled by significant growth in services revenue. Services revenue increased 24% to $9.7 million compared to $7.8 million in Q3 of last year. The increase was primarily driven by a cumulative catch-up of approximately $2.3 million related to a contract amendment for an ongoing implementation project. Total subscription, SaaS and cloud and support revenues increased 10% to $7.9 million compared to $7.1 million in the prior year period. Gross profit for the quarter was $8.7 million or 50% of total revenues compared with $7.5 million or 48% in Q3 of fiscal year 2024. Operating expenses for the quarter totaled $7.2 million or 41% of sales compared to $6.2 million or 40% of sales in Q3 of fiscal year 2024. This increase aligns with our ongoing investment in growth areas, including customer delivery, marketing, R&D and employee development. GAAP net income attributable to NETSOL was $1.4 million or $0.12 per diluted share compared to $328,000 or $0.03 per diluted share in Q3 of fiscal year 2024. Included in our GAAP net income in the quarter was a foreign currency exchange gain of $322,000 compared to a foreign currency exchange loss of $964,000 in the prior year period. Because we operate in several geographical regions, a significant portion of our business is conducted in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. A decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currency exchange rates generally has an effect of increasing our revenues, but it also increases our expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Similarly, as the U.S. dollar gains strength relative to foreign currency exchange rates, it tends to reduce our revenues but it also reduces our expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Moving to our non-GAAP metrics. Non-GAAP EBITDA for the third quarter of fiscal 2025 was $2.2 million or $0.19 per diluted share compared with non-GAAP EBITDA of $767,000 or $0.07 per diluted share in the prior year period. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of fiscal 2025 was $1.8 million or $0.15 per diluted share compared with a non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $810,000 or $0.07 per diluted share in the third quarter of the previous fiscal year. Please see the reconciliation schedules contained in our earnings release for our revised calculations of adjusted EBITDA for the quarters ended March 31, 2025 and 2024. Turning to our balance sheet. As of March 31, 2025, we held $18.8 million in cash and cash equivalents compared to $19.1 million at June 30, 2024. Our working capital was $23.7 million as of March 31, 2025 compared to $23.6 million at June 30, 2024. In summary, Q3 of fiscal year 2025 was a strong quarter across the board comprising of double-digit revenue growth, increased gross margins and a significantly improved net income. These results reinforce the strength of our operating model. As we continue to execute our strategy, we remain committed to sustainable growth, product innovation and delivering long-term value to our shareholders. Back to you, Najeeb.

Thank you, Roger. Much appreciated. Before I hand the call over for questions, let me take this opportunity to remind our shareholders that our annual meeting is scheduled for June 24, 2025. We encourage all shareholders to please vote at this meeting and ask that you vote yes for each of the proposals approved by the Board of Directors. Finally, as mentioned earlier, I'm very pleased with the progress we achieved in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. We continue to focus on innovation and are actively investing in our product and services under our Transcend platform. We're also encouraged by the growing number of opportunities we are seeing across the diverse markets we operate in. As always, we remain committed to a long-term strategic approach, and we believe we are well positioned for continued growth in the final quarter of fiscal 2025 and into the future. With that, I now turn the call over to operator for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Todd Felte with StoneX Wealth Management.

Congratulations on an outstanding quarter. It's nice to see the subscription and support revenue grow to $7.9 million for the quarter. Do you expect that to be at least a baseline that continues to grow moving forward?

Thank you for your comments, Todd. Yes, I think we do because our SaaS revenue is in a very positive growing side and there's numerous things happening in the retail front. So I believe this trend will continue.

Okay. And now that we're moving more towards a stable profitability, I hope you anticipate for the next fiscal year possibly giving out revenue and earnings guidance.

I think we'll do that, absolutely, as we close the year in the next couple of months. So -- but we are pretty optimistic, Todd, because one thing I want to address here or say, company initiated a few months back, and I was driving this whole exercise in the company, to look at all the areas of productivity and efficiency improvement and, at the same time, look at the headcount. So I think we made good progress and I am enjoying the results. And this is, to me, just a start. And we will maintain the same, the way we have managed this company in this next 9 months. So I think the future is quite bright for the company both from the revenue and from the bottom line.

Sure. And a final question. The results today are outstanding and it seems like the future looks very promising. Do you plan on kind of letting the investor community know? Are you planning on engaging any -- another IR company or getting analyst coverage?

Well, I think let us deliver the year-end first and we'll weigh in carefully. One of the advantages we've seen by using our in-house is that they have a lot more knowledge, understanding of the business in the technical terms. So for now, I'm enjoying the in-house service. But we'll see how we plan in the next fiscal year budget, if we can bring back an IR from -- but we'll decide at the time. Right now, I'm happy with what they're doing. But we'll see. We'll definitely weigh in and pay attention to your suggestion.

Congratulations again.

Thank you, Todd, again.

[Operator Instructions] Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer segment. If your question was not addressed during the Q&A session, please contact NETSOL's Investor Relations team by e-mailing them at [email protected] or by calling them at (818) 222-9195. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Ghauri for closing comments.

Thank you, operator, and thank you for joining us today for our fiscal third quarter 2025 earnings call. We appreciate the time you have taken to join us today and look forward to providing further updates on our next earnings call. Until then, we wish you a pleasant day. Thank you all.

Thank you for joining us today for NETSOL's Fiscal Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.