We Buy Cars Holdings Limited (WBC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, everyone. I'm Faan van der Walt, CEO of We Buy Cars. It's my privilege to present our second set of interim results since listing over a year ago. Joining me today is Chris Rein, our Chief Financial Officer; and Willem Klopper, our Chief of Strategy. Chris will walk you through our financial performance for the 6 months ended 31 March 2025. Willem will then provide an update on our ESG initiatives, our property expansion program and our strategic priorities for the remainder of the year. We will open the floor to questions after Willem's sections, so please feel free to submit your questions via the link provided. The past 6 months have been strong for WeBuyCars, underpinned by volume growth, improved margins, greater operational efficiency and significant advancements in our technology platform. This period was characterized by a generally positive environment during the summer months, aided by lower interest rates and slightly more favorable fuel prices, both of which boosted sentiment among South African motorists. However, recent months have presented new challenges, including rising political uncertainty, both locally and abroad. Concerns around U.S. trade tariffs and instability within the Government of National Unity have somewhat dampened the optimism that prevailed towards the end of 2024. Despite these headwinds, we are proud to report core headline earnings growth of 26.4% for the 6 months ended 31 March 2025. Core headline earnings came in at ZAR 508.2 million, up from ZAR 402 million in the prior period. This growth was driven by a 15.2% increase in revenue, which reached of ZAR 13.1 billion, a result of both increased volumes and higher average selling prices. Core headline earnings per share rose by 1.6% to ZAR 1.218. There has been a dilutionary effect at the per share level, which Chris will expand on shortly. Our strong performance has enabled us to declare an interim dividend of ZAR 0.30 per share. Turning to our nonfinancial performance. This map highlights our expanding national footprint. The orange dots indicate the new buying pods opened during the period. These locations have been well received by the market, with an increasing number of vehicles being purchased through them. Also noteworthy is the opening of our new supermarket in Rustenburg in October 2024. These sites follow a capital-light open structure model, very similar to our East London location. Early results have been very encouraging, with both branches performing well compared to our larger big-box supermarkets. These expansions, along with enhancements to our existing footprint have positively impacted our volumes. Units bought increased by 12.9% to 92,339, while units rose sold by 13.5% to 91,392 compared to the prior period. At our last market update, we reported a Level 6 B-BBEE rating. I'm pleased to report that we are now a certified Level 5 B-BBEE contributor, reflecting our continued progress in our transformation journey. The next slide presents the vehicle parc data, which remains critical to understanding our growth potential. The gray line shows steady growth in the number of registered vehicles on South African roads over the past 13 years. The darker line shows the new vehicle replenishment rate has remained steady. This indicates a growing vehicle parc with more consumers now viewing affordable quality used vehicles as a viable alternative to new vehicles. This trend is highly positive for WeBuyCars as our market share continues to grow. Focusing more specifically on the used vehicle market and reinforcing my previous point, we observed a steady increase in total used vehicle registrations. Over the past 7 years, the compound annual growth rate for used vehicles has been a positive 0.9%. In contrast, new vehicle registrations have experienced pressure with compounded decline of 0.8% over the same period. As a result, the ratio of pre-owned to new vehicles continue to rise, a trend that aligns closely with our -- and supports our business model. Our volume growth over the past few years have significantly outpaced the market trend, demonstrating the strength and flexibility of our business model. By remaining agnostic to vehicle make, model and age, we can adapt swiftly to market dynamics and proactively curate our stock mix. This is a new slide, highlighting our digital presences, growth and our marketing team's work to expand engagement across all key platforms. If we look at the left of the slide, we can see a steady increase in the average monthly website visits as well as the number of unique visitors. Most users have multiple sessions on a monthly basis, and therefore, tracking unique visitors is also another metric we look at. Today, our website consistently records the highest traffic of any automotive retail platform in South Africa. Looking to the right, you will notice our social media presence on all major platforms. As you can see, there has been significant growth on all platforms. TikTok and Instagram have been our fastest-growing platforms recently, helping us broaden our reach, particularly amongst younger motorists. Looking ahead, we anticipate that most consumers will remain under financial pressure. With debt-to-income ratios at record highs and muted salary growth, purchasing power has declined in recent years. Affordability, therefore, remains the single biggest concern for buyers. This trend is evident in the declining market share of luxury German brands, whilst they've lost about 70% share over the past decade, affordable Asian brands have rapidly gained ground. As the South African automotive market continues to evolve, the emphasis on affordability and value for money will persist. This bodes well for WeBuyCars as we offer compelling variety of affordable vehicles at affordable competitive prices. I'll now hand over to Chris for our financial performance.

Thank you, Faan. Good morning to you all, and thank you for taking the time to participate in our 31 March 2025 interim results presentation. Before taking you through our results, I'd like to share a few contextual comments that may be useful in interpreting the set of interims. Firstly, the numbers in the interim financial statements have been compiled in full compliance with IFRS and the principal accounting policies are consistent with those applied when preparing the annual financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2024. We think that the quality of earnings is very good, and I would encourage everyone to read the interim results booklet, which sets out a huge amount of useful information and gives more comprehensive insight into the interim results. The WeBuyCars Group delivered a very pleasing set of interim results for the 6 months to 31 March. In a challenging macroeconomic environment, characterized by low GDP growth, pressure on consumer affordability, local and political uncertainty and low levels of consumer confidence. Faan has taken you through the salient features at a high level. Highlights from my perspective include a 26.4% increase in core headline earnings, a 20.4% increase in adjusted EBITDA, and that's after excluding the once-off professional, legal and JSE listing fees in the prior comparable period. The operating leverage is evidenced by a 15.2% increase in revenue and a 19.8% increase in core operating profit. We had a higher core ROIC at 26.7% and a core ROE at a very respectable 47.6%, a 6.4% improvement in net cash generated from operating activities and the declaration of an interim cash ordinary dividend of ZAR 0.30 per ordinary share, calculated at 25% of the headline earnings for the 6 months ended 31 March 2025. As you heard from Faan, volumes bought and sold at 92,339 and 91,392 were 12.9% and 13.5% up on the prior comparable period. We recorded an all-time record number of units sold in the month of November 2024 at 16,294, and sales volumes exceeded 15,000 units in 4 of the last 6 months. We also recorded an all-time record daily sales volume at our annual Black Friday sale on the 29th of November, selling just north of 1,000 vehicles in 1 trading day. The next slide sets out a summary of our consolidated statement of profit and loss. We recorded a 13.5% increase in units sold, a 15.2% increase in revenue at ZAR 13.1 billion, a 20.4% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 19.8% increase in core operating profit. The business delivered a 26.4% increase in core headline earnings, which was favorably impacted by higher average selling prices, higher margins, operational efficiencies, cost efficiencies driven by economies of scale and a positive contribution from our leisure and commercial vehicle channels. Ongoing investment and enhancements to the technology platform, particularly with respect to the prioritization of buy-leads, resulted in operational efficiencies and margin improvements. Another key driver of the growth in core headline earnings was an improved net insurance result. Our insurance cell captive delivered a profit of ZAR 54.8 million in the 6 months compared to ZAR 41.1 million in the prior comparable period. This represents a 33.5% improvement. Both 6 months periods were accounted for in line with the requirements of IFRS 17, which is the accounting standard for insurance contracts. Moving to earnings, headline earnings and core earnings. You will remember that we had 2 adjustments to the headline earnings to get to core earnings for the 6 months to 31 March 2024. These are the same 2 adjustments that we communicated with our first set of full year results for the financial year to 30 September 2024, and there were no adjustments to the headline earnings in the current 6-month period. For those who are listening to this presentation for the first time, I will briefly explain these 2 adjustments in the prior period. Firstly, pursuant to the successful listing on the main board of the JSE, the company incurred once-off professional, legal and JSE listing fees of just over ZAR 45 million. The second adjustment, which is a ZAR 426.5 million adjustment relates to the pre-listing call options on the founders' 25.1% shareholding in the group, which was derecognized on the 25th of March 2024. This fair value loss on derecognition of the call option derivative was once-off in nature, noncore and had no cash flow impact. So core headline earnings at ZAR 508.2 million or 26.4% up on the prior comparable period. And the core headline earnings per share at ZAR 1.218 is 1.6% up on the prior year. The basic headline and core headline earnings per share in the current 6-month period were impacted by the February, March and April 2024 new share issues, which were implemented as part of the pre-listing capital raise, which was approved by shareholders prior to the listing on the JSE on the 11th of April 2024. A total of 83.2 million new shares were issued in this regard. On the next slide, core operating profit is up 19.8% on the prior comparable period. Finance income is up 90%, but more importantly, finance costs were down 24.2% year-on-year. The average prime interest rate in South Africa was 0.5% lower on a time-weighted basis in the 6 months to 31 March 2025 when compared to the prior 6-month period. On the finance costs, we managed debt levels proactively and we were able to pay down our debt during periods of high cash generation, specifically in the months of October, November, December and January. Despite a strategic inventory build of approximately ZAR 318 million during the 6 months under review, we were still able to lower the finance costs. As explained in our year-end results presentation in November 2024, this was also aided by interest savings from agreeing more favorable interest rates with all of our working capital finance providers. The effective taxation rate was lower than the company tax rate of 27% due to exempt dividend income and the higher net insurance result discussed earlier. This income is taxed in the Guardrisk insurance cell captive and is accounted for accordingly. On the next slide, adjusted EBITDA at ZAR 800.2 million is 20.4% up on the prior comparable period. Core operating profit at ZAR 730.3 million is up 19.8% on the prior period. And the core headline earnings, as explained previously, at ZAR 508.2 million is up 26.4% on the prior period. All 3 of these income statement metrics are all-time records for WeBuyCars. The lower graph shows the cash conversion in H1 of 2025 when compared to the same periods in the 2024 and the 2023 financial years. In the current 6 months, we generated net cash from operating activities of ZAR 284.1 million, and this is 6.4% up on the prior comparable period. The cash conversion at 56% was unfavorably impacted by a 12.9% or ZAR 318 million inventory build in the current 6-month period. This investment will support our growth plans and has WeBuyCars well placed for the new supermarket openings that are planned for August and December 2025, which Willem will explain in more detail. The next slide sets out a sales channel analysis for the 6 months under review. Total units sold were up 13.5%. Sales to dealers, which is the B2B category, were up 16.4% at 20,808 units. Demand from our dealers was higher in the current 6-month period, and the majority of these sales are enabled on our online auction engine where we conduct a new arrival auction every day of the week. We also work closely with our high-volume dealers to improve the value proposition. Finance transactions at 16,562 were only up 8.7% on the prior period. It was a difficult 6 months for the finance channel despite a declining interest rate environment with lower levels of consumer confidence and consumers displaying a lower propensity to take on new debt. The recent enhancements made to our own finance application and enablement platform, should positively impact finance sales volumes going forward. Despite the lower percentage increase in finance deals, we managed to grow our finance and insurance commission income by 9.7% to ZAR 251.4 million. The private cash channel showed an increase of 13.9% to 54,022 units. A constant supply of affordable vehicles to meet the demand for mobility at the appropriate price points is the ingredient for success in this channel. Our partnership with Capitec Bank is bearing fruit. In this 6-month period, we sold approximately 600 vehicles a month, funded in part or in full by an unsecured Capitec purpose loan. From a balance sheet perspective, the investment in property, plant and equipment is up 32.8%. The majority of the property, plant and equipment, more specifically, ZAR 1.3 billion thereof is the land and buildings that are owned by the group from which the group trades. We added ZAR 228.5 million to the land and buildings for the Vereeniging, Lansdowne and Montana facilities, which are currently under construction. The other big increase relates to the Silver Lakes supermarket, which property transfer was approved by the city council and the transfer was effected on 31 January 2025. This property transfer added ZAR 80 million to the property, plant and equipment balance as at 31 March 2025. Inventory rands are up 30.8% and inventory volumes are up 17.1%. The inventory volume growth is in line with the increase in sales volumes and parking bays. The inventory value per unit at approximately ZAR 184,000 has increased in comparison to the prior period due to vehicle price inflation and a strategic shift to buying more low mileage financeable units to meet current market demand. Total interest-bearing borrowings were 7.7% up on the prior period. I will elaborate more on these borrowings on the next slide. So moving to net interest-bearing liabilities. A company's debt levels are always of interest to investors. WeBuyCars is a cash-generative business and is conservatively geared. The net interest-bearing liabilities at ZAR 1.3 billion are ZAR 154 million or 13.1% up on the prior comparative period. This debt comprises property mortgage loans of ZAR 955.6 million to fund properties with a net book value of ZAR 1.315 billion and working capital facilities of ZAR 374.6 million to fund inventory with a carrying value of ZAR 2.783 billion. The loan-to-value for the property mortgage loans and the working capital loans have dropped from 73.2% and 21.1% in the prior year to 72.7% and 13.5%, respectively, at 31 March 2025. From this slide and the previous slide, it is clear that the increase in inventories and the land and buildings was only partly funded by interest-bearing borrowings. As a consequence of this prudent management of borrowing levels, WeBuyCars has comfortably met all loan covenants. From a cash flow perspective, the cash generated by operations is up 1.8% period-on-period, and the cash generated from operating activities is up 6.4%. This indicates the high cash conversion rates and the surplus cash has primarily been invested in inventory and the land and buildings. My final slide addresses the interim cash ordinary dividend for the 6 months ended 31 March 2025. As set out in the WeBuyCars pre-listing statement, the company's normal dividend policy as a high-level benchmark is to declare between 25% and 33% of its headline earnings as a dividend, subject to working capital requirements and the capital expenditure required for expansion. WeBuyCars is a growth company, and intends to responsibly grow its footprint across South Africa. It believes that there are opportunities to capitalize on in the short to medium term, some of which Willem will speak to next. The pursuit and efficient execution of these opportunities should add value to shareholders. In this morning's SENS announcement, the Board of WeBuyCars notified shareholders that a gross interim cash ordinary dividend of ZAR 0.30 per ordinary share has been declared as of today's date. The dividend has been calculated at 25% of the headline earnings of WeBuyCars for the current 6-month period. I think that, that is enough said from me. I'll now hand over to our Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Investor Relations, Willem Klopper. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning to all our shareholders, colleagues and other business partners. I will cover the following topics today: an overview of the progress we have made from an ESG perspective, provide an update of our property expansion and infrastructure initiatives and give an overview of our strategic priorities as we move into the second half of the year before we move to the Q&A part of our presentation. Our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen predates our separate listing on the JSE. We believe that long-term success is about more than just financial performance. It's about doing business in a way that uplifts people, supports communities and protects our environment. That's why we continue to deepen our commitment to our ESG initiatives. We proudly support over 30 community-based organizations, spanning from early childhood development, feeding schemes to education and upliftment programs. Within our business, we provide apprenticeships and learning development opportunities to empower employees, ensuring accessible and meaningful growth for all regardless of role or background. We have also partnered with specialist organizations to support the advancement of key employee segments, including individuals with disabilities and those in blue collar or entry-level roles. To echo Faan's previous remarks, we're proud to have reached a Level 5 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment rating, significantly ahead of our original target time lines. Solar energy systems at 9 of our 17 branches generate 22.7% of our total electricity needs. Similarly, rainwater harvesting infrastructure at these locations account for approximately 21% of the overall water usage. By embedding environmental and social considerations into our operations, we aim to grow in a way that's not only commercially sound, but also sustainable, inclusive and aligned with our expectations of our shareholders. Our strategic property developments and wider regional footprint are crucial for increasing our operational capacity. By increasing our footprint in strategically important regions, these developments enhance our ability to serve the growing demand we're experiencing and capture additional market share. Our buying pod expansion has reached 93 pods nationwide. These pods offer vehicle owners a convenient way to evaluate and sell their vehicles. This expansive network enhances our service offering and provides a distinct advantage in engaging with potential sellers effectively. We focused on maximizing the use of our existing premises, adding approximately 360 bays through expansions at our facilities at George, Polokwane, the Dome, Johannesburg South, Riverhorse Valley and Gqeberha. We opened our Rustenburg supermarket in the first day of our financial year. This facility has shown strong initial sales and can accommodate 300 vehicles, increasing our presence in the North West Province. In December 2024, our Pietermaritzburg facility was relocated to a larger facility that can also display 300 parking bays. We are planning to open 3 significant new supermarkets before the end of 2025. These pictures are the latest renders of these projects. Firstly, in Vereeniging, we acquired an existing facility with a capacity of 550 vehicles, with anticipated opening date of 1 August 2025. Additionally, 2 greenfield projects are under construction in Montana and Pretoria North and Lansdowne in Cape Town. Construction is progressing well, and both supermarkets are expected to open for trading before the end of the calendar year, each accommodating around 1,300 vehicles. Together, these developments place us in a strong position to be able to handle our targeted volumes, expand our national reach and drive the next chapter of growth for our business. As we pursue this growth, our leadership team has set focused priorities to maintain this momentum. These align with our goal to buy and sell vehicles more effectively than our competitors while enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency. Our real competitive advantage begins at the point of vehicle evaluation, where accurate data collection is critical. Making hundreds of informed data-backed decisions each day is fundamental to our business model. Paying the right price for vehicles consistently and at scale remains our most powerful lever. That is why we maintain a relentless focus on reliable, trustworthy data. Our buying teams now leverage enhanced lead qualification models, enabling us to assign higher potential vehicles to the most suitable teams, improving efficiency, conversion rates and ultimately, unit profitability. Our data infrastructure also enables us to run continuous pricing experiments, testing the elasticity and pricing accuracy within targeted data segments. These experiments aim to deliver marginal gains across our buying function, small improvements that at scale can deliver meaningful impact to our overall performance. Our software development team has built the Wefin platform, a tool that assists our finance and insurance teams in processing client application for vehicle asset finance. This is the vehicle finance granted by the various commercial banks that we partner with. Previously, the bulk of the application work was done via a stand-alone enablement platform, but now it operates within the WeBuyCars ecosystem, the same system that we use for our inventory and buying and sales lead management. These developments and software improvements will give us more control over the client's loan origination process and establish a better platform for us to engage with clients through the various steps required by the banks. The ultimate aim is to improve these lead conversion rates and improve customer satisfaction through the process. Our partnership with Capitec continues to evolve, and we are seeing encouraging growth in loan volumes through this channel, as Chris alluded to. While the majority of these are unsecured loans, they serve an important segment of our customer base, particularly for vehicles that fall outside the qualifying criteria for the traditional asset-backed finance, often due to age or mileage. This collaboration is proving valuable for both businesses. Customers can apply for financing directly via our website or mobile app with seamless integration into the Capitec credit decision models. In addition, many Capitec branches have been established at 9 of our supermarkets, offering convenient on-site access to finance. Customers also retain the option of visiting any traditional Capitec branch nationwide to apply for a loan specifically for the acquisition of a vehicle. We are continuing to invest in automation and digitalization across key parts of our business. Initiatives currently underway include the rollout of electronic contracts, real-time inventory tracking and simplified vehicle registration processes, all aimed at reducing friction, increasing operational speed and enhancing overall service delivery. We're also making strong leaps in our ability to price vehicles automatically, where our machine learning algorithms are demonstrating better judgment after considering all the various evaluation variables of a vehicle. This capability will allow us to process greater volumes more efficiently, allowing us to handle higher volumes without the proportional increase in headcount. While growth in earnings remains a key performance driver for our business, our senior leadership is equally focused on preserving the culture that has made this growth possible. As we expand into larger and more complex operations, it is critical that we hire not just for capability, but for culture fit, ensuring that the team members uphold the values ethos and care that define the WeBuyCars experience. To support this goal, we've enhanced our HR and recruitment capabilities by adding individuals who not only bring analytical rigor, but also a deep understanding of what makes someone thrive within our culture and can contribute meaningfully over the long term. Through this approach, we hope that our growth does not come at the expense of quality, but instead creates an opportunity to strengthen our culture and elevate the customer experience as we expand. As previously communicated, we are also increasing our focus on third-party sales, where we facilitate vehicle sales on behalf of external entities such as corporates or financial institutions. The supporting software development is largely complete, and we're currently conducting proof-of-concept trials with multiple entities to learn and understand the nuances of this business. We're also advancing our efforts to grow the commercial vehicle segment. This includes expanding the commercial vehicle team and allocating additional capital to inventory in this space. While volumes remain modest, the ability to sell these units at a healthy margin is encouraging. Although these initiatives are still in their formative phases, we remain confident in their potential to become more meaningful contributors to the overall success of the business. Our ongoing efforts to optimize buying processes, leverage analytics and expand operational capacity place us in a strong position in our journey of incrementally gaining additional market share over the medium term. Moving ahead, our commitment to enhancing the client experience through innovation and operational efficiency remains steadfast. We acknowledge that our success depends on our dedicated workforce, and we're therefore actively investing in attracting the right people to lead us through this process. We will now open the floor for additional questions.

Moving to the Q&A section of this webcast, and thank you for those listening and investors that have sent questions through. Please continue to do so. We've got quite a few to cover. So I'm going to jump straight in. And the first question is to you, Faan. It's around the buying pods. The question is we've rolled out quite a few over the last year. Can you please give us an update on the strategy and how we see the pods and the role in WeBuyCars going forward?

Yes. The buying pods is an interesting one. We started with buying pods around 7 years ago. It was -- we wanted to put up a billboard in the town called Lephalale. And instead of putting a billboard, we decided to put this little building at the one and only shopping center in town, which then, at the same time, served as an office for our regional buyer covering that area. And it worked really well because people just arrived, we didn't realize beforehand that there was such a need for people to just be able to go and visit WeBuyCars because our supermarkets are in the big metros and not in rural areas. So from there, we started rolling out these pods and fast forward 7 years, we now have very close to 100 of these buying pods countrywide in all the major metros and in all the big towns. Currently, we buy around 15% of all our vehicles at these buying pods. So that equates to around 2,000 vehicles per month, and it continuously grows. So the plan is for us to, over the next, let's call it, 2, 3, 4 years, have 200 pods. In other words, double the number of buying pods because as the consumers become aware of these, the behavior change, and they see this as the new norm where they can drive to the buying pod and have the vehicle evaluated at their convenience whenever it suits them. There is no charge involved. And some of these pods are nowadays so busy that we actually man them with more than one buyer permanently, and some of them would -- we could easily buy 100 cars per month, with the least busiest pods buying around 20 to 25 units per month. So it's a great strategy. It's something that I think will only grow within WeBuyCars. And the idea is to eventually be in each and every town so that the service is readily available for all consumers and within the big metros to be never further than 10 kilometers away from a buying pod.

Thank you, Faan. Chris, the next question is basically for me and you. I'm going to give you the first part of it. It's around the 3 branches that we're opening this year. The question is how do we decide where to open next and what do we consider in that decision. And the next one, I'll add to it is what do we see beyond 2025, and I'll answer that part of the question.

Thank you, Willem. Yes, we have robust processes to consider in advance the demand and supply trends. We have information that we get from our banking partners, which we consider. But probably the most relevant stat for us is we have a very good track across the whole of South Africa as to what we're buying and the volumes that we're buying. And for us, the buying and the volumes that we buy is a leading indicator in terms of where we expect there to be supply and demand. And these factors, along with the other information we received from partners, is an integral sort of ingredient or ingredients in just determining where to go to next.

Thanks, Chris. I think the question about where is next. I think to add to your comments about the data that we assess, we obviously look at the number of used vehicle registrations in a specific area or a catchment area. Often, we also see quite a lot of activity on the WeBuyCars website and the amount of buy-leads that are generated in an area, which confirms that those customers or that area is comfortable with the WeBuyCars brand. And we also ask our banking partners where they see the most activity. So in saying all of that and sort of considering all that data, for us, the gaps that we're seeing and we're looking to probably expand to next beyond these 3 that we've communicated is a solution in the free state, most likely in Bloemfontein. The Witbank-Middleburg area is also a spot that we're seeing a lot and increasing activity. So having a retail outlet or a supermarket in that node would make sense. And the one challenge or opportunity for us is to have a better solution in KwaZulu-Natal. We currently have the 3 supermarkets there. The 2 in Durban are very close to each other. So having a larger, more prominent solution there will make a lot of sense. The opening of the Pietermaritzburg facility at the nicer location has already alleviated some pressure, and a solution in Richards Bay, I think, will go a long way in solving that for us even more so. Okay. Faan, the next question is to you. The question is -- or it's a comment and a question. There's a lot of comments in your presentation about the improvements on the buying side. What are the key innovations that you're considering on the sales side? And what changes can we expect to see moving forward?

Yes. We're certainly a business that strive to continuously improve and not be stagnant in any way. So as far as sales are concerned, there's certainly a lot of innovation underway. We feel that we can educate our clients better and determine their needs far better in order to serve them and help them make a better choice when buying a vehicle. So this will include enhanced condition reports on vehicles, communicating more information on vehicles at the onset and managing leads a lot better so that the clients will arrive at an answer far sooner and have a far more pleasant experience when using our services, whether it's online or physical in the branches. We're also currently working on a project called Wefin. We've developed our own finance application platform that's integrated with all the banks. And our F&Is have started using this very recently with great results, helping us to process finance applications far quicker and arriving at an answer much sooner. So this will now become very seamless. A client will have one port of call to determine the capabilities as far as finance is concerned and help them choose the right vehicle. So lots of innovation on the way also with the photos we take of vehicles, the evaluations we do on vehicles. And for us, the key is to be transparent so that the client knows what they can get for whatever is within their budget.

Thank you, Faan. Chris, the next question is for you. Can you speak around the anticipated costs associated with the development of the new supermarkets and developments, and how these will likely be funded? And I guess there's a second question that sort of touches on that and just your views on the amount of CapEx that will be needed to fund this, obviously, this year and in the next financial year.

Yes. Thank you, Willem. So the 3 new sites that's already been spoken to will add 550 and 2 lots of 1,300 parking bays. That will get us to 15,052 parking bays, which is 34% up on where we were at the end of September. If we have a look at the investments required, so we'll require very close to ZAR 600 million for the property developments, and that includes the land and the buildings. And in this regard, we have secured the required funding from our banking partners. And then if we looked at the working capital required for these 3, when we're running at full tilt, we'll need also roughly very close to ZAR 600 million, and we expect that we'll fund about half of this via cash generated from operations and the other half we will fund from available facilities on the working capital side. And as I said, those facilities are already in place.

Thank you, Chris. And Faan, I'm going to read this. It's a comment and a question again. Congratulations on some solid results. I recently went to one of your competitors' results and the challenges cited was a relative lack of availability of used vehicles between the age of 2 and 4 years, predominantly because people are holding their vehicles longer. Is this a challenge for you? And are you experiencing the same? And what do you believe WeBuyCars is doing right in that regard?

Yes, it's a great question, Willem. I think being agile in terms of stock mix is part of our success. We serve the whole car parc, meaning that we do not only play in certain price brackets and certain vehicle ages, which helps us a lot. What we've seen over the recent years is that new vehicle sales was under pressure, which does mean that the availability of 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds in the market is under pressure. So it's good in the one sense that consumers owning these vehicles will get a decent price. But at the same time, we've seen several price hikes in new vehicle prices, which then again creates a gap. As I explained earlier in my presentation that the vehicle car pool is growing, but the same can be seen in the U.S. where the average age of the vehicle pool is getting older because the amount of vehicles exiting the pool is less than the amount of vehicles entering the pool. And therefore, the average age of a vehicle is slightly older, which means higher mileages, probably a poorer condition on average. So it's always a challenge for us to find the right stock. So what we've done within our buying department is to prioritize leads because we know what stock mix we want within WeBuyCars. Obviously, we want cars that sell quick, that are profitable and less risky to buy, less breakdowns, less comebacks, you want to sell reliable vehicles. So we have the ability with our data sets to determine which vehicles we want to buy and prioritize those leads. And we've been doing this for the last 6 months, and it's been working really well for us. So we can see definite changes in the price mix. And I guess the good results we're happy to present today is also a result of that.

Thank you, Faan. And the next question I'll take. It's around Capitec and the relationship and the comment here of 2 very strong brands working together, how we see that going forward and the developments in that space. So yes, Capitec has been a very, very strong partner of ours, especially on our older vehicles, but also on our new vehicles, they are definitely taking market share from some of the other banks. They are one of our biggest banking partners in the unsecured or purpose loan space. We're regularly doing over 600 vehicles a month, but we can also see that there's more than 2,000 vehicles in a monthly basis when we sell vehicles where Capitec clients are engaging with us and making transfers from that account. So a very, very important strategic partner for us, and that's why we've had further integrations between the 2 ecosystems. The strategy is to improve that, remove even more friction, provide additional products and solutions to those Capitec clients so that they drive safe and secure vehicles. And then also to have that physical presence in our warehouses or supermarkets. So it's an easier process for the Capitec client to get access to credit and then shop happily and freely within the WeBuyCars setup. Chris, the next one is regarding the dividend. Can you please explain your thinking around the declared dividend and how you arrive at this number?

Yes. Thank you, Willem. So as set out in our pre-listing statement, our sort of normal dividend policy is to pay between a 25% and a 33% -- on sort of dividend cover of between 25% and 33%, that's of headline earnings. The dividend that we paid at the end of September was calculated at 25% of headline earnings, and we've kept that consistent. And when I say we, I mean the Board of WeBuyCars has kept that consistent at 25% for the half year to the end of March. And perhaps some of the logic behind that is that we are a growth company. In my previous question, I explained some of the sort of funding required to open new branches. And I think we've decided to be conservative with respect to the dividend policy, knowing that we've got some big CapEx investments on the very near-term horizon.

Thank you, Chris. Faan, a question to you. I think you've touched on it in previous presentations, but it's around the Chinese brands and they expected growth over the next 5 years. You mentioned previously that you think it could make up to 50 -- 40% of our purchases. Do you still hold these views? Or how do you see that playing out over the next 3 to 4 years?

Yes, I believe that even more so today. I was actually surprised by the number of new Chinese brands entering the South African vehicle market. And it's all been very positively received and these vehicles are priced really, really competitively. So it definitely does hurt the existing brands. As we can see, especially on the higher end, as I mentioned, the German brands have lost close to 70% market share over the last decade. And the new Chinese incumbents have gained market share rapidly. What will probably happen is the consumer now needs to understand these new brands because it can be really confusing who's who in the zoo when it comes to Chinese brands because they're not all equal. And at the same time, some of the traditional vehicle manufacturers are now using the Chinese to produce cars for them. So you might buy a brand that you think traditionally was American or European, but now it's being manufactured in China. So they are here to stay, but the market needs to sort itself out over the next few years because not all of these, let's call it, 20 different makes and models that's now available in South Africa will make it in the end. Some will come and go. I've already seen news of one of these Chinese manufacturing exiting South Africa again because they now compete with each other, which is really good for the consumer. But you don't really want a brand or buy a brand that will not exist in a year or 2 years' time. So consumers also have to be careful at the same time. But with these uncertainties, we've experienced great successes with Chinese brands where we're happy to buy and sell them. And we've had very little complaints. We -- customers are generally happy with the value they get in buying these Chinese brands. So definitely here to stay. For us, we are in the fortunate position that we are able to price these vehicles and to buy and sell them just like any other make and model, it's a question of supply and demand. And there is a huge demand for these Chinese vehicles simply because of price and nowadays, quality. They used to have a reputation as being poor quality. That's certainly not the case anymore.

Thank you, Faan. The next question, I think, is just a point of clarity. I think, Faan, you've got some of the numbers, so you can just correct me, is what is the percentage split of vehicles bought at pods on the roads and at your supermarkets. I think it is about 15% at the pods and about 20% to 25% at our supermarkets and the remainder on the -- from our road buyers. But I think that dynamic is also changing. We can see when we open new supermarkets in an area, usually the amount of vehicles we buy in that area also goes up as you've got a physical presence and consumers and motorists become more aware of the supermarket in a specific community. So it usually picks up. But yes, I think those are roughly the ratios. Faan, a question to you is, how is management thinking about the adverse selection as market share grows? Meaning as the parc ages, the quality of vehicles and the comebacks or bad press will probably increase as well. Would you consider refurbishing vehicles as a strategic way to counteract adverse selection?

Yes, that's a great question. And one of the big differences between WeBuyCars and all other major players in the motor industry is that we serve the whole car parc. Meaning that a motorist wanting to sell a vehicle today, we have the ability to determine a fair value on that vehicle and deliver the service, which means we end up buying from the whole car pool, and we then sell from the whole car pool. So the average age of what we sell currently, Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, is between 9 and 10 years old or in recent months, just over 10 years. As I said, the vehicle pool average age is aging a bit. So our reputation is really, really important for us. As I mentioned earlier, there's lots of effort being put into evaluation quality, condition reporting on vehicles, et cetera, and making sure the consumer knows what they are buying. So as to the question whether we want to or have started refurbishing vehicles, we have done so to a certain extent, mainly focusing on roadworthy-related issues, for instance, tires, windscreens, shock absorbers, oil leaks that all the vehicles might have so that the consumer who buys this vehicle can buy it knowing that I am buying a roadworthy vehicle that should not be troublesome in the near future. That being said, there's also a big role to be played in educating consumers that we feel we can play a bigger part or role in educating, especially first-time buyers and making the right choice when purchasing a vehicle because it's always a balance between what the price you pay and the quality you get. But within that, there are certain nuances as to -- if you go for a newer vehicle, but a lower-end vehicle, you'll probably step up the reliability as compared to an older luxurious vehicle that can be very, very expensive to maintain. So our role in that is very important, and we really want to take that on.

Okay. Thank you, Faan. I think we'll leave another minute or so for people to submit questions. I think I've got 2 left. Chris, the question is to you. Congratulations on the great results. Can you give us a high-level update of current trade? And just your feeling around your existing footprint and the ability we've got -- we mentioned that there's 23,000 vehicles that we want to sell in 2028. Our existing footprint, what kind of volumes do you think we can manage from that?

Sure. There's a few questions hiding in there. Let me start at the end. So I did say a little bit earlier that sort of by the end of December, we should be sitting on just north of 15,000 parking bays. Faan, I like what you've said to us in leadership meetings before. This is a long race that we have to get to our stated objectives. My view, and I think yours, too, Faan, would be when we get to December, we're probably slightly ahead of where we would want to be in terms of being on track to getting to this end goalpost. Willem, you have to go through the first part of the question for me again.

Was just -- are you seeing difficult trading in the last couple of months?

It's -- I mean, I guess the comments we can make is April was disruptive with the Easter sort of period being midway through April. Remember that in the prior year, the Easter weekend was the last weekend in March. So April was a little disruptive with respect to the timing of Easter, and there were a lot of public holidays in April. Sort of we're more comfortable about May. May, the sort of school holidays are over. It's a longer month, less disruptive. So I think it's probably fair to say we're feeling more confident about May.

Thank you, Chris. I think this is the last question there is to Faan. Faan, you've now been listed for over a year as an entrepreneur and founder. How has this impacted your role? And what impact has it had on our company?

Yes. It's an interesting question that I get quite a lot. I think it's also a complement to our management team that we -- as a management team, we were able to go through a listing, which comes with lots of distractions and lots of work that you need to cover. And despite that, everyone did what they had to do, and we have a great result. As to the life being in the listed environment, we were lucky in the sense that we were prepared for that because previously, we were a subsidiary of a listed entity. So we were used to the normal reporting cycles and meetings that goes along with that. What we like about where we are now is our autonomy and a fantastic Board. We've been blessed with wonderful people, not only in our management team, but also on the Board who supports us greatly. And we're now becoming a well-oiled machine. So yes, I look forward to the next few years with our current Board. Yes, it's all been good.

Thank you. And let me give one more refresh. I think we've covered everything that was submitted this morning. So Chris, to you and Faan, thank you for your time, and thank you for those who've submitted questions, and thank you for listening in. That will conclude the webcast this morning.