Santova Limited (SNV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Depending where you're signing in from, I'd like to say a very good morning to all or a very good evening to you. Most importantly, thank you for your time and interest in our group and in our endeavors to date. Our journey has certainly not been one without character, and we look forward to sharing our experiences with you over the last year. Please note, I'll cover the group at a strategic level as well as an operational level. And then James will take over, and he'll work through the detailed breakdown of the financial performance of the group for the year under review. Once James has completed his presentation, we'll take a 5-minute break to collect any questions that may have been raised. You've obviously got the functionality to raise those questions on the presentation itself. At the end after 5 minutes, we'll then obviously proceed to answer the questions as best as we can. I think James -- yes, thank you very much. I think I'd like to just start off because there's -- often the question is raised, what do we -- what does Santova actually do. And I'm just going to spend a bit of time on covering our actual activities. And I know some of you heard them in the past, but it's probably not a bad thing to repeat and to go through it again. But first and foremost, at a very high level. We are an international technology-based trade solution specialist. And we effectively changed the name Santova Logistics, some years ago to Santova Limited. And the reason for us changing the name was to incorporate obviously a far broader service capability, and encompass a greater service capability, which we wanted the importers and exporters or businesses in general, to see us as a trade solution specialist. And as I said, hence, the name change. But we do focus on leveraging off our international IP or international capital and ultimately strive towards delivering innovative end-to-end supply chain solutions, but the focus is on the entire supply chain solution from source to final destination. And that is one of the reasons why we've actually established offices at strategic locations where it enables us to control the whole supply chain. But certainly, international technology solutions as opposed to a product and being innovative and innovative off the back of global IP. But as I said, at a high level, that is what we're all about. If we take a step down, I guess, people -- many people equate supply chain with logistics. However, if you look at the activities, we get engaged with, it's more than that. Logistics is actually only one part of the supply chain, so to speak. In today's digitally-based supply chain management systems, one that includes material handling and most importantly, today is software. And for all parties involved in the movement of a product, order performance and information tracking. The latter we refer to track and trace. And obviously, TradeNAV is our software that enables us to offer a client the visibility into our supply chain. But the participants in the supply chain and the entire supply chain, incorporate the supplies, the manufacturers, wholesalers, transportation, logistics, service providers, retailers as well as consumers. And that visibility, as I said, is the differentiator, and it's not possible without the technology that we have been able to build over the years. But these activities also include for us forecasting, demand planning, procurement strategy, shipping, CA road and rail, inventory management, distribution, sales and customer service. And as I reiterate, it's visibility, it's real-time data, and it gives one insights across all processes and systems. But it's -- most importantly, it enables one to make decisions based on factual information. And as I said, we're on a pathway of perfecting the deliveries, so to speak, in regards to that proposition to clients. And as time goes by, we get better and better at it. But I'd also like to add to that and to say that something we do underestimate the value of our service offering. And that refers to advance globally in regards to tariffs or taxes on imports, quotas, such as [indiscernible] and quantity of imports in various geographies. And then also non-tariff barriers, which incorporates regulatory and procedural barriers and then subsidies. In some of the countries globally, a government do support pro-offer quite significant support to domestic industries as well as customs restrictions, which is customs procedures and duties. And every country is different. And our guess with our presence globally, and we have a pretty good knowledge, capability, and we're able to guide clients in regards to these challenges in the various geographies. So it's not just moving a container. And then the other point -- the other area of activity is managing the global suppliers for companies and their multinational production processes, which are located in different geographies. And then finally, it's the management of data and finances related to the product or service from procurement or ex works to delivery of the product to service its final destination. So we're involved in a significant part of any organization. And as you can see, it does entail a fairly matrix set of skills and capabilities globally in order to provide that service to clients. But our proposition, most importantly, is assisting clients and streamlining the global supply chains. I think the logistics probably makes up half the landed cost of a product. And the impact on margin for any trading organization, it is significant and is probably underestimated by most companies. And right now, you'll see the impact in the market where there is no capacity, they are blank sailings, and they're rollover of cargo. And obviously, a lot of importers and exporters are unable to meet some of the commitments they've made to the retailer, wholesalers or consumer market. and the consequences of that goes straight to the bottom line. So if you're able to streamline that supply chain, which is what we focus on, we can play and we do play a significant part in any organization's operations. But most importantly, we focus on the directors of an organization, particularly the CEO and MD of a business because it's at that level that I guess, information becomes important to them and decisions based on factual data. And in almost all cases, the senior leadership is not necessarily favor the intricacies of the supply chain, and it tends to be left to the shipping staff below them. But so we do move in and try and incorporate the leadership of organization, sits around the table. And in sitting around the table with their staff, we work at determining or understanding the client's business, determining their needs and the various options they have. We also spend a lot of time diagnosing issues and beneath the service issues within the business itself because if you ask a client, how are the logistics or supply chain, it's always fine. Until such time, you have the discussion, and you're able to unearth a lot of issues within the business. And obviously, that leads to us to making suggestions to current methodologies, processes even the systems that they actually utilize. We focus on setting up KPIs and various metrics, which allows them to manage that supply chain. All heading in the direction of dropping the landed cost of per product. But certainly, the reduction of expenses and optimization of the resources is [indiscernible]. And I guess the final point I'll make here is the executional implementation of those proposals. And a lot of consulting businesses, there is no execution. No one actually holds the clients' hand and ensures the execution is done. With ourselves, we're able to not only survey the business and come up with proposals, we're able to assist the client in the implementation and execution of those solutions that we come about with. So it's quite a unique difference to general consultancy. And as I said, it plays a significant role in the profitability of any organization trading globally. And it's a highly complicated environment. But more and more so, companies are looking towards third-party IP and certainly digital capabilities and what's coming through more and more is automation of a lot of manual processes within the supply chain. Whilst it seems fairly straightforward and reasonable, it's not -- it's a lot more complicated to actually achieve. And because to achieve the ultimate deliverable, you need the right people and technology alone doesn't necessarily work. Regarding our stakeholders and diversification, it sort of just an interesting slide. Number of shareholders, 8,782, we have been buying shares back in the market. Every time we pull it back, it goes out again. But I guess that is as a result of platforms like EasyEquities, which allows the greater market to participate in stocks. But it does explain the number of shareholders that we currently have. Employees, Interesting enough, our employees have not increased year-on-year. We have got more expensive, but numbers haven't increased. And as I've said in the past, with the technology and automation within the business itself, it allows us the scalability within the business. 2,359 suppliers across the globe. And then clients 4,794. But please note this, there will be a discrepancy between this number and what I'll show you just now. The main reason being is 4,794 are regular clients, whereas the 6,000-something clients or those that we deal with, even if it's a one-off shipment for the year. So these are sort of the core clients that we have, and it excludes the one-off transactions. But we are in 10 countries. We were in 11. We closed Thailand, and the reason for us closing Thailand was a small operation. We could only hold 49% shares in it due to currently in the local legislation. It wasn't worth our while and it did complicate matters when they came investing further in the business. And it wasn't, as I said, as a result of that, we decided to close it, and you'll pick it up in the dividend paid as well. Some of the questions might be raised in that regard. So we're sitting at 21 offices, staff the same, and in offshore earnings pretty much the same as the previous year. The year under review was an interesting one. As I've said, it was not plain sailing. It was a tough year, and coming out of COVID. Our profit for the year declined 30% from ZAR 210 million to ZAR 147 million. The dramatic fall off in revenue over the last -- I mean the decline in shipping rates over the last year saw revenue reduced by 4.5% or ZAR 30 million. [indiscernible] corporate tax rates were a lot higher than the previous year, with earnings and being more and weighted towards South Africa, the higher tax rate than previous year, it results in us paying more taxes. And then when the U.K. came out with a sudden adjustment to corporate taxes from '19 to '25, that obviously had a significant impact on our business. We also, as a result of COVID, saw an upward adjustment to employee salaries across the board by about 11%, which results in about ZAR 30 million, an additional increase in cost. So if you just took the adjustment to employee salaries, and we took the reduction in shipping rates, which result in ZAR 30 million down on revenue. It's almost ZAR 60 million. And if we took that back to the bottom line, we wouldn't be far off the previous years before tax numbers. I mean obviously, James will run through the numbers, but we have pushed a lot through the income statement in the year gone by, as opposed to acquiring a business in the State and in Vietnam. But if one looks at our results as disappointing as they are. I guess we need to be realistic and acknowledge the fact that the icons of the industry, and we all know who they are. They're always a good indicator where economies are, but some of the earnings have decreased by as much as 65%. Not that we like to compare ourselves to the industry, our colleagues. We need to also, I guess, acknowledge the fact that it was a tough year. And it continues to be a tough year. As I said, the rates have been pretty low. It's only recently we've seen an adjustment to freight rates, which will have a positive impact as we move forward. But there is still uncertainty and the risks still prevail. We seem to say that every year. The new norm is unpredictable and full of uncertainty, but we do have the Russian-Ukraine war. We do have the conflict in the Middle East, and we do have trade tensions between China and the United States. All of which make it a very difficult trading environment. However, the developments in the Red Sea, which originated not so long ago, have assisted us to limit to the extent and the recent -- very recent increase in freight rates overnight has offered us some [spot]. However, the problem now is at these incredibly significantly increased rates, we can't find space on vessels. There are a lot of rollovers and a significant number of delays to shipments. Some clients may put out a month or 5 weeks and so far as getting to the cargo to the final destination. So it is a very fairly difficult trading period right now. Volumes are down right now, simply because we can't get space. But I guess it all does normalize. Businesses have to trade, and we will find the space and we'll probably be shipping at higher rates, which does -- is fairly favorable for us going forward. Visually, you can see Africa constituted 37% of profit, the U.K. 37%, EU 29%, Asia Pacific, 8%, and the U.S.A. negative 11%. It just -- the slide just gives you a feel for the diversified earnings of the group. And there's not much reliance between businesses or between offices other than Hong Kong, that's pretty dependent on our rest of our offices. As a result being our control tower or our central buying house, for all trade out of China to the rest of the world. Other than that, the businesses are relatively independent and don't rely on one another. In Africa -- South Africa, as you all know, it has been a tough trading environment. I don't need to spend much time going through where it's been tough. But certainly, it has not been easy. But if I look at the group performance within South Africa, it was very, very impressive. In the previous year, we had significant transactions going through in the form of projects, which was lumpy revenue, but significant revenue. And this year, we didn't have it. So if I took out project work, which are almost extraordinary line items and earnings, the business did more than hold its own, it performed extremely well. It's a solid business with good management. And its reputation, its brand, is holding out and growing as we move forward in a difficult climate. And I guess we're just becoming a bigger fish in a small pond, inspite of the challenges within that country. So earnings have been good. Mauritius, have done extremely well. Surprisingly, it's a tough economy. It's a small island, but they've had really extraordinary growth in the year gone by and it seems to be continuing. But if one looks at the performance of our African operations, you do find our service levels have held their own, in fact, improved whereas the market has struggled in the face of a challenging environment, and most importantly, our international exposure or intellectual capital and our ability from a technological point of view, and our high client centricity has resulted in us being a favorable service provider. And I've said it last year. I think it's the first time we're getting phone calls from clients to visit them and to sit with them and workshop with them and to see what value we can actually bring to the table, which is encouraging. And I think these businesses are very well positioned going forward. So my concerns are not in Africa, in spite of the last quarter and the economic situation there that we've obviously been exposed to, or been published of recent. Europe and the United Kingdom, has been a struggle, particularly in Germany, in Holland, in France and so on in Europe. You're all pretty much aware of the economic situation. It hasn't been easy. Lower freight rates have had a significant impact on our Holland business, particularly in view of the fact that Holland is the gateway to Europe. So it's a good measure. It's a very good measure of the state of the European economy. But with the rates having come down to the extent they have, we've lost ground and so, in regards to earnings, and it has had a big impact on the group. However, shipping demand carry capacity is rebalanced, inventories have reverted to normal. So -- and with rates having increased, we should see that changing. But I don't see it changing too quickly until such time the European economy improves. And I'm not sure how long that's going to take because whilst the media keep talking it up, we don't see it, they get conflicting reports in the market. I do know it's tough. But at the moment, I'm sitting in the U.K., I've visited clients, I'm closer to the ground. And in the U.K., it's the same situation. I've seen a lot of companies balance sheets and income statements and it all points in the same direction. It's a tough economy. But in the U.K., we held our own in so far as our shipments to -- from the U.K. to Africa and subcontinents concerned, particularly India. It really held our earnings in a way, those trade lanes were hedged, whereas the rest of the market and other trade lanes really felt the economic conditions. Going forward, as I say, I just think it might be a little slower than what we expect, to correct itself. But it always does get back to normal, we just need to be patient. North America, I did say to my colleagues when we started this, we avoided buying a business on the EBITDA of 13% or 14%. We went for something on our EBITDA of probably about 4% or so. And I did say we're buying -- the price we're paying, it might not be expensive, but we brought a lot of hard work, and it's turned out to be more than hark work. It's taken an extraordinary amount of effort, cost and time to work our way through the regulatory environment to get into a position where we can start trading in the new legal entity center over logistics. We acquired A-Link, but we bought the assets. We didn't want to buy the legal entity for various reasons. At the same time, we started a grassroots operation in Chicago with 2 people. It's been a tough long haul. It's cost us a lot of money. You've seen the negative earnings on the visual. We have now succeeded in getting all the regulatory approvals, and we have started trading in Santova Logistics as of the beginning of the month. We can now get down to business and start working on growing that business going forward. It fits in with out strategy, Los Angeles to Asia Pacific countries, China, Hong Kong, specifically, Taiwan, South Korea and other Asian countries, it has a massive opportunity for us. But it has cost us. And if we do get it right, and we show a positive growth in the year, it will be a good asset for the group. But we took the hard road, not easy. I guess we'll probably do it again, in spite of the time and effort it has actually taken. As I said, to spend -- to take a business on a multiple -- on earnings before tax multiple of 13%, 14%, it's a long way to earn to from an earning -- from a payback point of view. And also, I think going into the States is not an easy market. But as I've said to my colleagues, going to States and being subjected to this kind of journey, it is barriers to entry for anybody else who wants to get into that market. If we get it right, we're in a good place. But certainly, it's a massive market for us and has huge potential going forward. Asia Pacific has been interesting. Singapore, we had a change in leadership, which obviously resulted in us losing a few clients and losing a few staff that was for the better. And secondly, we've changed our strategy to focus on direct client business and not just agent business. If you focus on agent business, you don't own the client, your margins are lower as opposed to direct line business, where you own the client and your margins, you can own the supply chain from one end to the other. Where as in agent business, you're simply doing the clearance and participating only in the landside logistics in your country. So it's a change in strategy. We -- and together with that, there was subdued demand in China. We didn't get the project work we got in the previous year. In fact, at one stage, we were paying the ship -- the shipping lines were paying us to ship a container with them. So it was -- it has been a very tough year in Singapore. And we seem to be finding our feet, and I do believe it's going to take some hard work, but we'll be heading off in the right direction. Fortunately, it's not a big business. It doesn't have a significant impact on the group's earnings. Australia, we lost a significant client. The client was probably 40% of the groups of Australia's earnings. And as a result of the loss of that large client, we obviously didn't generate the earnings in the year before. But in the year before, we also had not only the loss of this large client, we also had enhanced earnings as a result of higher freight rates. But if you take the Australian business over a period of time, we still had a good year, in spite of the numbers that show for Southeast Asia. But Australia is in good leadership hands. We've invested. And I'm excited about the business going forward. We have the right team to take it to a different level altogether. Despite the challenges in Southeast Asia or Asia Pacific, I'm very positive about this region. And it's certainly displaying a status as the largest and fastest-growing hub, in so far as contract logistics is concerned. It is difficult to get into that market, but we will get it right. The growth in this region is also going to fast track, as a result of the growth in trade between India, China and the growing retail sales in the Asia Pacific region, but particularly e-commerce, which not only globally, but particularly within the Asia Pacific and China, it's growing at a rapid rate. Furthermore, the tensions between Europe, U.S.A., china are resulting in the Asian countries and India becoming a preferred source of manufacturing and imports. So it's a region that, as I said, as hard as it is, we need to make inroads into this environment. And so far as our new client revenue by region is concerned, you'll see revenue by region. We looked at new revenue of about ZAR 31 million. It's a lot lower than the previous year. I think in the previous year, we probably had in the region in excess of ZAR 50 million. So we're well down on that. And that is obviously as a result of lower freight rates. But certainly, we've still generated new clients. We still generate new revenue, which is always ahead in economic slowdowns, but it's a significant booster in economic upturns. But if one looks at Europe and the United Kingdom, we currently are driving at a strategy to expedite the taken of more senior clients, quality clients that will generate far greater earnings per shipment than what we currently have. It is a strategy that we've been working on for some time. And I think now for the first time, we are in a reasonable position to execute that strategy and make good progress. In Asia Pacific, yes, Asia Pacific, as I said, the change in direction, focusing direct client and also focusing cross trades, out of Singapore, specifically, we focus another across trades between Vietnam and some of the Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan and so on and Indonesia to the rest of the world, which has all been run out of Singapore. And I think that will also get traction as we move forward. Just having a look at clients and transactional analysis. If one looks at the number of clients that we had in 2024 as opposed to 2023, we're slightly up. We're 6.3% up on the number of clients. However, I just want to point out under Asia Pacific, those 600 clients, new clients are really distorted in the sense they fall under Hong Kong. And Hong Kong services our clients globally. So in a sense, they have their own client base, but it is distorted by Hong Kong and not Singapore, Australia. That is where the growth has taken place. And that has taken place in Hong Kong as a result of our various offices geographically spread in the generation of their new clients. But we've held our own in terms of -- as I said, the number of clients that we currently have. The number of transactions, once again, it's slightly up -- is slightly up on the previous year, which shows we haven't lost a lot of transactions. We've been hurt by the revenue and the low freight rates. But we've held our own in terms of number of transactions. One would have expected that to have been a lot lower, considering the tough economic conditions globally we faced. It's just earnings per file that has come off, which, as I say, is off the back of very low freight rates, abnormally low freight rates, which are even lower than pre-pandemic. So it should come back. We haven't lost ground in clients. We're still putting on new clients. we just need the market to normalize. A quick slide, global client distribution. I think last year, our largest client was 1.5%, it's now 1.7%. But if you have a look at the top 20 clients on a cumulative basis, you're only looking at 15.8% of the revenue. And what's nice about that spread is that 8 in Africa, 8 in United Kingdom, 2 in Asia Pacific and 1 in Europe. Europe, we expect to get a lot more participants on the schedule than what we currently have. But that's a function of not yet getting to your senior clients, which, as I've just said, we have a strategy and we will get to that market. But a good spread, and you don't -- I've never seen a spread of clients like this in all the businesses I have come across. So it's something that we can be proud of. As I said, not just on value, but also by industry and geography. It's a very good spread of clients. It gives us security. We're a good hedge in tough times. And so far as global trade is concerned, you'll see 73% of our global trade is by sea, 25% by air. And imports constitute about 56%, whereas exports 41%. Obviously, SA is a big import country, predominately imports, which distorts the model, but it's a well-balanced business, nevertheless. The number of origin and destination slides -- sorry, the number of origin destination slides. Effectively, if you take Africa, for example, the origin of 85 countries, we import from and we export 114 countries. If you go to the United Kingdom, we import from 76 countries with export 150 countries. So if you look at Europe and the United Kingdom, there's good spread in terms of trade lanes, which gives one comfort. Whereas Asia Pacific, there's a lot of interregional trade within that region. I've said it before. We do focus on building value per share. We stuck to our guns over the years. I know it has -- the issue has been raised that we have far too much cash flow on our balance sheet. We need to -- it's been requested that we look at distributing that cash. But I've always said that it's not necessarily free cash flow because if rates do move up as they just have, we needed to trade. And during COVID, we were able to trade. We reached our limit from a cash flow point of view simply because of the higher high freight rates, but we were able to trade where other companies couldn't trade. So that cash flow, whether we free cash flow or not will depend on the freight rates. And it also depends whether you make acquisitions or not. We have not made a decent acquisition in the last 4 years. And as a result of we are sitting with cash on the balance sheet. If we make an acquisition, that cash will be used. So it's not there -- and hence, we're not -- we haven't paid a dividend simply because we're retaining it, as I said, to buy back our own shares and also to make acquisitions. But I'll cover the acquisitions in the next slide. But our focus is on the cultures and values of the group, and you'll see just now why I say that. It's built us. It holds us together. And it creates a very important foundation to the group. And a lot of organizations have not come through over the years and the direct result of the -- dry cause of that is a failure in the [ carton ] value of those organizations. And there are plenty of examples now to talk to. This second heading is headline earnings per share. We focus on return on every shareholder funds. Operationalizing our strategy. It is all about execution. You can have the world's best strategy. You can have the world's best IT. You can have great people, but unless you can operationalize your strategy, it's all worth the serve. So a big area of our focus is on execution. And without that, as I said to you, the rest doesn't carry much weight. Our operating margin has always been important to us. As you've seen and you'll pick up on the numbers, it has come off for good reasons. And then our earnings after tax. So that is what we effectively focus on of all the various ratios that are out there. And it can be -- I guess it can be debated, but I'm always open to debate on that, but we are building value per share. And we'll buy our shares back when the price we consider it low, and we'll also make acquisitions as and when the appropriate acquisition comes up or was on the table. We won't force acquisitions. We need to be patient. Once again, only 20% of these acquisitions work. So one needs to be very, very cautious. We've got a good business, and we don't want to destroy it through a poor acquisition or impatience. Governance and sustainability. I'm raising it on this particular slide because I've been criticized for not mentioning it. I just want to point out upfront that we do have a separate section on our website. If you look on our website, you look under Corporate Governance and Sustainability, you'll pick up a sustainability report, and it's very detailed. And yes, as I said to you, it's a big topic and it can take quite a bit of time. And we are always open to engage one-on-one outside of the presentation, if you want to get into our sustainability report. And obviously, we cover social responsibility investment, human capital, safety, health and environment and quality. But it's well set out, is very detailed. And we have won awards for the way we've actually reported in the past, but I'm open to engaging with that outside of this presentation. And then getting back to tangible net asset value, we've had a 27% increase in tangible net asset value. And I know some of you will say to me, you need a report in hot currency. We'd love to, and I certainly don't disagree with you. Our focus going forward is going to be in operations, growth through organic -- organic growth and then growth through acquisitions. On the first point, just strategic position of operations. I cannot emphasize enough how important people are to us. We need to find the attribute skill and knowledge and experience that can enable us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors, through extreme client centricity and obviously being able to apply technology and a bit of innovation to client supply chains. It's far easier said than done. The second point I want to make is we are engaging in technological projects on an ongoing basis. We've had a complete review of technology of the group. It is expensive. It's complicated, and I guess, it's become a high priority for the business. We all need to be involved a lot more than we have been in the past. It's in the game -- the game of technology is changing around us daily. So it's quite a complicated environment, and you need to be current, but we're very much aware of that. But it's certainly a differentiator because we need to focus on digital fitness because it's a prerequisite for success. You need to invest for the long game. And we certainly must exploit a complete range of the new technologies that become available and allows a leverage of AI, data analytics, connectivity, automation and certainly cloud-based platform solutions. And this is the language that we talk to clients. And it's attractive to clients because generally, importers, exporters or the market as a whole is a long way from leveraging of technology to the extent that we can enable them to leverage off. It's almost unknown territory for many clients. And then the final point is global ecosystem. This is finding the right network around partners internationally. It enables us to build into international intellectual capital as well as enhances our global capabilities. And we can't do it all on our own. We need to find the right partners who care and who share the same vision and share in the same rewards as what we do. And that has also enabled us over the years to grow to what we have. Had we not been global, international, we wouldn't have been out to grow as what as we have to date. And I guess the confirmation of the above is we retain clients. We often speak to some of the sales work in the market when we interview and they say to us, they never visit a Santova client because they can never take the Santova client away. So Santova holds itself in good stead. It's nice to hear. We just need to get that right in Europe and in the U.K. in some of our other regions, which we're working on. But we don't lose clients. So, in terms of operational capability and level of deliverables, I can say that we're at a very high level, and it's worked in our favor. From an organic point of view, Vietnam, and you can do a lot of reading, but Vietnam is critical to us. It's a pivotal point for China in Southeast Asia. We opened up operations last year, also a slow process. And going forward, it's going to play an important role in the group. Europe, we're going to develop Germany specifically. We're going to use the winning formulas in the best practice in Holland, which is a successful business. And it's also the gateway to the rest of Europe. So Germany and Holland are working fairly closely together now, as of this year, and they are making good inroads in developing Germany and growing that region. So that is going to be a focus for us. The next area of focus is the U.S.A. It's the second largest goods export in the world, only behind China, it has a significant economy. Hard work, but we will get it right. And then I guess in the U.S.A., the near-shoring, intentions in China have also led to Mexico playing a prominent role with the U.S.A. I mean, Mexico is a U.S.A. stop trading partner. In 2023, the U.S.A traded ZAR 798 billion with Mexico, which has surpassed both China and Canada. So -- and when I was in the States, not so long ago, a couple of weeks ago, a lot of the talk in logistics was Mexico manufacturing. And if you look at Mexico, China has moved into Mexico now or they've moved into Vietnam. Acquisitions, I'll talk about the -- the 4 last years, it's been very frustrating. We had 2 years of COVID. And then the last year of COVID, the first year out of COVID, we were really setting down, setting the business down. People have changed, values a change. We haven't seen each other. It was a tough year after COVID. And then I guess the fourth year out of COVID, we had very much a tough economic environment to deal with. And also a lot of people made a lot of decisions. If one looks a staff turnover, 2 years after COVID, I've spoken to some of the businesses in the U.K. The staff turnover has been phenomenal. People have made changes in their careers. But certainly, it's been very, very tough. And to buy a business during COVID and the year after COVID, it is impossible. The earnings were far too high, crazy multiples. And also, we weren't close to the underlying trading of the businesses. So we abstained from that. In the year gone by or now this year, I've actually looked at 16 companies from an acquisition point of view, I've walked away from all 16. And the simple reason being, I'm not comfortable with the client spread. And I'm also not comfortable that they can actually sustain their earnings. So it's patience. It's discipline, self-control and patience. And I know some of the shareholders are getting impatient. There haven't been acquisitions but we need to be patient. And we're not going to be rushed into it or pressurized into it. We'll do the right things. We will get our growth, and we'll keep it going. But also, if you have a look at the [ media ] report on the private company price index, in quarter 1 of '24, you'll see that the private company index is about 9.4 EBITDA. And if you look at where we're trading, it's interesting frame of reference. And then private equity has always been -- always pays more. They're sitting about 11.5. But if you look at your index, it has come down over the years, and it's reaching favorable playgrounds now, and we are still looking. So be patient, we will pull something off. It needs to be a quality business though. Our challenges -- our challenge is our workforce and I've covered quite a bit on that. With the social ecopolitical disruptions globally, it's made it very difficult to find -- if I find the right people. Most importantly, our leaders need a unique skill set to manage and motivate our staff now. And people don't just work for you to grow your business. They want a lot more from you. And the more important technology becomes, the more important people become. And our whole strategy is to be even more client-centric than ever before, the more we engage in technology. That will be our differentiator and it is working for us. But to keep people motivated, to keep people in stretch, to keep people achieving the best of breed, you need to have a sense -- create a sense of purpose amongst all. And that comes from leadership. And we need high-caliber leaders. They are, at the end of the day, custodians of our asset, and we need to coach people and we have to instill our company culture and values. So the game is people that really is people. And I just ended off there saying, what people want from work is a reflection of what people want from life. Also, you don't build a business, you build people and then the people build the business. That is our biggest challenge. The potential of the logistics industry is exciting, and I say it year after year, is an unlimited market. The global logistics infrastructure is growing, it's getting better and better and global trade just continues. So there will be growth. And if one looks at stats and the global logistics market size is accounted for $7.9 trillion in 2022. It is expected to be worth around $18 trillion by 2030, which is a compound annual growth of about 10.7%, up until 2030. It's there. It's available for us. We just got to stay -- keep doing what we're doing at the moment. What has led the way is road transportation, and we are building that in Europe. We've created quite a good network. We've created a division. I do see good value coming out of road transportation in Europe with us getting involved in it. We're not buying vehicles. It will be a brokerage as we have in South Africa, which is very successful in cross-border trade in Africa. The second area where there's massive potential, I've covered it, is in the Asia Pacific region. You see Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India and China, there's a lot of trade going on, particularly on the interregional side. And then the industry faces challenges, which is good for us because we're well ahead of the game on technology. But the industry needs to adapt to technological disruptions and rising costs to maintain profitability. And secondly, you need to invest in innovation, operational excellence and also client-centric management. Today, it's all about the transactional cost. You have to reduce it. It's not about your sell rate, your sell rate is governed by the market where there's absolute transparency to do it. But all in all, there's massive opportunity in the logistics industry. And I guess this is why the private equity market is passionate about it. There are headwinds. We all know that. But if we keep investing on future possibilities, I guess we will leverage off it at the right time. And also, it's nice to see some optimism and the shipping lines do believe towards the end of the year, things will come right. But from a Santova point of view, our leadership is in a good place. We've got a good team. In fact, the group is in a better position now than ever has been from a staff complement and structural point of view. The results might not show it. The economy might not allow us to do it, but we're certainly in a better position than we've ever been. With the sound leadership and quality team and improvement in marketing conditions, I do believe we'll turn this -- we'll turn around quite quickly, and we'll probably make some good gains going forward. But tough times do provide the foundation for advancement. But to benefit, we do need to show the resilience that we have shown, which is developed through our cultures and values. I'd like to now hand it over to James, who will then take you through the numbers.

Thanks, Glen, and good day all. I have the pleasure in presenting the financial results for the period ending February 2024. If we just start with some perspective and some key highlights. I'll run through them quickly because I'm sure you've all already seen these revenue and net interest income decreased 4.5% to ZAR 637.8 million. Net profit after tax decreased [ 30.1% ] to ZAR 147.3 million. Offshore revenue increased to 70.7%. You'll see there that we've changed the metric from offshore earnings to offshore revenue with offshore revenue probably been a more stable indicator with the earnings tends to jump around. Billings margin improved 1.1% to 11.5%. HEPS decreased 20.1% to [ 123.77 ] cents per share. And then Glen has already touched on this, tangible net asset value per share decreased 27.3% to ZAR 6.11 per share. Moving on to the statement of profit and loss. And if I can just start off by explaining the difference between billings and revenue. Obviously, Santova acts as an agent on behalf of our clients, whereby we incur recoverable disbursements such as customers VAT and duties, which we then on charge to our clients together with our fees. So billings is the combined total, while revenue is the total billings less the recoverable disbursements. So starting with billings, decreased 13.7% to ZAR 5.5 billion. As a result, which Glen has chatted about already the decrease in freight rates. So I won't add too much more there. The same with revenue declining 5.6% to ZAR 617.7 million. And then that decline was across most of our geographic regions with the exception of the U.K., although that was due to some uplift in the currency. Net interest income increased 47% to ZAR 20.1 million, as a result of the higher interest rate environment as well as extensions taken by clients in SA as well as a lower ID facility drawdown levels due to decreased freight rates. Other income decreased 54.5% to ZAR 11.4 million due to lower ForEx gains and less government grant support post COVID. We did receive a fair bit of this across some of our regions. So that obviously falls away now moving forward. Depreciation, amortization and impairment loss on nonfinancial assets increased 33.7% to ZAR 29 million. Most of that -- and the depreciation on our right-of-use asset, which mainly relates to office and warehousing space and the increase, obviously, due to the inclusion of the U.S.A. for a full year, the U.S.A also holds a warehouse, which is a significant component of that depreciation as well as the depreciation of the ZAR on those foreign operations. We also incurred higher intangible amortization as additions to TradeNAV, we depreciated over the remaining useful life as well as the depreciation of the ZAR with that asset based in euros. Administrative expenses increased 6.9% to ZAR 417.5 million. Glen touched on it earlier, and this mainly relates to the increase in employee costs of 11.1% due to the high inflationary environment and the depreciation of the ZAR as well. Impairment loss and trade receivables, we'll cover in more detail later on. So I won't cover that right now. And then impairment loss on goodwill of ZAR 14.6 million was incurred on the goodwill allocated to A-Link freight in the U.S.A. Share of profit of associate decreased 100%. As Glen mentioned, that business was liquidated. But before it was liquidated, we had amended our shareholder agreement to give us credit control, so that business was consolidated from the beginning of the year and then finally liquidated in January. Operating profit increased -- decreased 35.7% to ZAR 183.7 million. And then on to finance income and finance costs. Finance income increased 1352.7% to ZAR 26.2 million, and that's largely comprised of the fair value gain on the contingent consideration allocated to the acquisition of A-Link and that relates to the warrant profit that we no longer expect to pay to the sellers of A-Link. So above, you have the goodwill impairment of ZAR 14.6 million to R6 million, and here you have the write-back of the contingent consideration of ZAR 18.3 million. And then also included in finance costs is interest earned on the cash deposits and money market accounts of ZAR 6.5 million. Our finance cost decreased 26.7% to ZAR 4.9 million, and that's due to the ongoing repayment of the MTL facilities, one of which is due to be fully repaid this year and the other facility the following year, also included there is the financing element on the lease liability. Income tax expense decreased 17.7% to ZAR 57.6 million and that decrease is obviously in line with the decrease in profitability of the group. And I'll cover the increase in the effective tax rate, which Glen spoke to earlier, later on in my slides. Overall profit for the year declined 30.1% to ZAR 147.3 million for the reasons just explained. This is a slide we include every year, just to give some context to the impact on our income statement and balance sheet. Obviously, with the significant portion of the group-based overseas and hard currency, we do experience quite significant currency volatility. So the average exchange rate is obviously used to translate the income statements of our offshore operations. And there you can see the weighted average currency movement provided a 15.5% uplift on the translation of those foreign operations, which is obviously quite a significant amount. Moving on to closing exchange rates, which are used to translate our closing balances of our balance sheet items. There you can see 7.2% uplift. And there you can see the movement -- effective movement on your net assets is taken through the foreign currency translation reserve. You also see the impact on our -- mainly on our goodwill and cash balances. Moving on to the statement of financial position. Starting with cash and cash equivalents of ZAR 477.2 million, obviously, a strong cash position. Glen spoken to already, with 93.3% of our cash held offshore in hard currency. Obviously, over the last couple of years, there's been a significant devaluation of the ZAR, which is provided about ZAR 70 million upward revaluation of that cash balance. I'd also like to just point out that typically, in February, would be our highest balance of cash on our balance sheet as it comes off a generally slower trading period in January-February after a peak and leading up to Christmas. Deferred tax assets that obviously decreased cost significantly, 59% to ZAR 8.8 million, and that's largely relating to the reversal of provisions and accruals and underlying accounts. Intangible assets, while only a 2% movement, there was some movement within that account, which resulted from the uplift coming from translation effects of ZAR 23.9 million. Most of the goodwill is recognized on offshore subs. And then that was partially offset by an impairment on the A-Link goodwill, which I've already spoken to. I've already covered the investment in associates. So you can see it coming off the balance sheet there in the current period. And then just to comment on the noncurrent asset held for sale. While we did expect that asset to be sold in the prior period, we did experience some regulatory delays, and we now only expect that property to be sold in FY 2025. Moving further down to the right-of-use assets. We -- quite a significant increase there of 22% to ZAR 34.5 million as a result of us entering into new leases in the current period in the U.S.A., SA and the U.K. So that's purely a timing thing there you'd expect in the coming year that would come down as that is depreciated. Trade and other receivables, an interesting one. We probably expected this to come down a bit further than it did and it was probably sitting at -- that balance was probably sitting at lower levels leading up to February. But with -- there is sea crisis emerging towards the end of the year. We saw a lot of pressure on our credit limits and terms. And as such, that balance has increased -- I mean, it does remain in line with prior year, but increased compared to 2 months earlier. Capital and reserves 16%, up to ZAR 1.2 billion as a result of the retained income retained in the business as well as the foreign currency translation reserve recognized on translating our foreign operations. Interest-bearing borrowings have declined 59% to ZAR 10.2 million, and that's largely due to the ongoing repayment of the MTL facilities, which we expect to be fully repaid in FY 2026. Financial liabilities declined 100% from ZAR 29.2 million to 0, as a result of the settlement of deferred -- the deferred contender consideration of ZAR 12.5 million relating to the acquisition of A-Link as well as the derecognition of the contingent consideration of ZAR 18.3 million relating to A-Link freight. Lease liabilities increased 14% to ZAR 35 million, for the same reasons described above on the right-of-use asset. And then trade and other payables decreased 16% to ZAR 369.7 million, as a result of the decreased freight rates, which was slightly offset by increased creditors days from 21.6 days to 22.7 days in 2024. Provisions declined 100% from ZAR 12.2 million to 0, as a result of the settlement of the underlying claim of ZAR 2.9 million and the release of the remaining provision of ZAR 9.7 million, and this relates to the good negotiation on settlement on that claim. Overdrafts and borrowings decreased -- sorry, current tax liabilities, obviously, decreasing 50% to ZAR 10.5 million, and that's linked largely to the decreased profit of the underlying subs. Overdrafts and borrowings and bank facilities, which mainly relates to the ID facility in SA, decreased 15% to ZAR 198.2 million, and that's due to the decreased utilization due to lower freight rates and lower volumes in Jan-Feb. Moving on to some key financial ratios that we like to look at in our business, and we think will be beneficial. Billings margin increased 1.1% to 11.5%, as a result of the decreased freight rates, lowering record disbursements and increasing the margin. Operating margin declined 13.9% to 28.8% due to the decline in revenue due to the lower freight rates as well as the increased overheads, which we have covered already. However, I would just like to point out that operating margin does remain above industry average. The effective tax rate, something that hurt our profitability quite a bit in the current period increased from 24.9% to 28.1%, and that's due to the increased proportion of SA profits, which are taxed at a higher marginal rate as well as the increase in U.K. corporate tax rate from 19% to 25% as well as deferred tax assets not recognized on assessed losses in the U.S., Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore in the current period. Headline earnings per share declined 20.1% to ZAR 123.77 per share. And that's obviously linked to the decline in the underlying earnings, which was partially offset by the continued share buybacks, which resulted in a reduction and went-off from 136.1 million shares to 132.2 million shares. Percentage offshore revenue increased margin from 70.2% to 70.7%, and this is materially in line with prior year. However, there was a slowdown in offshore revenue in the current year, which was partially uplifted by the depreciation of the ZAR and the inclusion of the U.S.A. for a full year. Debtors days increased from 38.4 days to 41.4 days, and that's as a result of the Red Sea crisis, which has extended sailing times, added additional cost and put pressure on our clients, which has resulted in higher credit terms and limits in some cases. Creditors days, I've covered before, our net debt-to-equity ratio remains largely in line with prior year. And just to point -- just to show net asset value per share increased to ZAR 8.96 and tangible net asset value per share, which excludes goodwill and other intangibles increased to ZAR 6.11. Moving on to trade receivables. This is a slide we include every year just given the significance of the balance to our balance sheet, the highest -- the largest balance sheet item on our balance sheet. Trade receivables, like I mentioned earlier, largely overall remained in line with the prior year. And with -- just to go into the underlying, South Africa decreased 8.1% to ZAR 403.4 million, and that's due to the lower freight rates, which were slightly offset by higher volumes. While the offshore region had also experienced a decline of 2.4% to ZAR 231.8 million due to lower freight rates, which were offset by extended credit terms in some regions, as well as the depreciation of the ZAR. Debtor's days we've covered already. Moving on to the impairment provisions. You'll see there that the impairment provision declined 33.9% to ZAR 26.9 million and that's largely as a result of write-offs that we processed in the current period relating to specifically impaired debtors of ZAR 18.1 million. I'd like to point out that these were fully provided in the prior years, and this purely a timing issue of when we reach the point of actually writing these off. The other factor at play on the impairment provision is the remeasurement of the loss allowance, which was remeasured upwards by ZAR 4.3 million and as a result of provider for specifically impaired debtors in the U.S.A. and South Africa. I'd also like to point out that credit insurance does remain in place for a significant portion of our debtors booked with 80% to 90% of the South African debtors book covered by credit insurance, with Santova Logistics in the U.K., operations in the Netherlands and Australia always -- already having credit insurance in place. And that typically covers around 80% to 90% of the value of the debtor. Impairments written off, I've already covered and then just add down to the aging, just talking to the specifically impaired items further down, that obviously decreased due to the write-offs of ZAR 18.1 million that was fully provided in the prior period. Moving on to the cash flow analysis. Cash on hand decreased ZAR 14.8 million. And if we look at the major cash flow movements, net cash from operating activities of ZAR 52 million. Obviously, a lot weaker than in the prior period, where we had a significant amount of working capital return to us due to the rapid decline of freight rates. The opposite is true of the current period with the Red Sea issues, posing pressure on our credit limits and terms result in debt is sucking up a fair amount of that working capital in the current period. We spent ZAR 49.4 million, acquiring 6.1 million shares in the current year, which were canceled. We spent ZAR 14.8 million, settling our medium-term loans. ZAR 12.5 million spent on settling the deferred consideration in relation to A-Link Freight and the payment of lease liabilities of ZAR 20.9 million with IFRS 16 lease payments recorded outside of cash generated from operations. The effect on movements and exchange rates, which -- that slide I showed earlier, it resulted in a ZAR 29 million uplift to our cash balances at year-end in the current year with 93.3% of our cash held offshore and the depreciation of the ZAR. Other items are negligible. And then moving on to unutilized available banking facilities, which increased by ZAR 27.6 million to ZAR 258.5 million, with the increase in available funding due to the repayment of our MTL facilities, the lower drawdown on our SA ID facility as well as the translation effects on foreign-denominated facilities. And that brings us to the end of our presentation. As Glen mentioned earlier on, we'll take a 5-minute break here, just to run through your questions, and we will resume answering those shortly.