Earnings Labs

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (ITRN)

Q1 2017 Earnings Call· Wed, May 17, 2017

$54.83

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ituran’s First Quarter 2017 Results Conference Call. All participants are at present in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. You should have all received by now the company's press release. If you have not received it, please contact Ituran’s Investor Relations team at GK Investor and Public Relations at 1-646-688-3559, or view it in the News section of the company’s website, www.ituran.co.il. I will now like to hand the call over to Mr. Ehud Helft of GK Investor Relations. Mr. Helft, would you like to begin, please.

Ehud Helft

Analyst

Thank you, operator. Good day to all of you and welcome to Ituran’s conference call to discuss the first quarter 2017 results. I would like to thank Ituran management for hosting this conference call. With me on the call today are Mr. Eyal Sheratzky, the Co-CEO; Mr. Eli Kamer, the CFO; and Mr. Udi Mizrahi, VP, Finance. Eyal will begin with a summary of the quarter results, followed by Eli with a summary of the financials. We will then open the call for the question-and-answer session. I would like to remind everyone that the Safe Harbor in the press release also cover the contents of this conference call. And now, Eyal, would you like to begin please?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Thank you, Ehud. I would like to welcome all of you and thank you for joining us today. We are very pleased with our results of the first quarter. We present our results which are at record levels, especially in terms of our profit with strong growth across the board. Reported first quarter revenues of $57 million, up 21% versus last year. This ongoing revenue increase is built on the back of our subscriber growth which added 97,000 net subs over the last 12 months, predominantly in Brazil and Israel. But our U.S. business is also showing nice growth. Focusing on revenue from subscription fees, this was at around $39.7 million, up 24% versus last year. Looking at the gross margin on subscription revenues is worth 66.1%, a full percentage point higher than last year at 65.1%. This is due to the inherent operating leverage built into our business model which translates our top line growth into much stronger growth in profit as the incremental cost to our business of adding one new subscriber on the existing Ituran infrastructure is minimum. We believe that as our subscriber base continues to grow over the coming years, our margins should be able to continue to trend upwards. I do note that the product gross margins tend to fluctuate based on the mix of products sold in the various geographies each quarter and it was lower this quarter at 10.6%. The expected range is typically 10% to 15%. The quarter subscriber growth was 25,000, we are pleased that this has returned toward the high end of our expected range which we have talked about in the past between 20,000 and 25,000. I would like to now cover the trends we are seeing in our main geographies. In Israel, our business continues to perform…

Eli Kamer

Analyst

Thanks, Eyal. Revenues for the first quarter of 2017 were $57.1 million, up 21% when compared to revenues of $47.2 million in the first quarter of 2016. Revenue breakdown for the quarter was $39.7 million coming from subscription fees, a 24% year-on-year increase. Product revenues were $17.4 million which were a 15% increase over the same quarter last year. The geographic breakdown of revenues in the first quarter was as follows; Israel 53%, Brazil 36%, Argentina 7% and United States 4%. Gross margin in the quarter was 49.2% compared with a gross margin of 60.4% in the first quarter of last year. As Eyal noted earlier, while our gross margin on subscriber revenues increased, the gross margin on product revenues was lower this quarter due to the mix of product cost. Operating profit for the first quarter of 2017 was $13.8 million, an increase of 20% compared with an operating profit of $11.5 million in the first quarter of 2016. EBITDA for the quarter was $17 million, an increase of 21% compared to an EBITDA of $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2016. During the quarter, share in affiliates net was an income of $4 million versus a loss of $0.7 million in the same quarter of last year. The majority was due to a capital gain from an investment round at Bringg, one of Ituran's early stage mobility technology companies, and Ituran's joint venture in Brazil, Ituran Road Track, made a positive contribution. Net profit was $13 million in the quarter or fully diluted EPS of $0.62. This is compared with a net profit of $7.1 million or fully diluted EPS of $0.34 per share in the first quarter of 2016. Cash flow from operation during the quarter was $3.1 million. As of March 31, 2017, the company had net cash of $26.9 million or $1.28 per share. This is compared with $31.5 million or $1.50 per share as at December 31, 2016. For the first quarter, a dividend of $5 million was declared. The dividend's record date is June 27, 2017 and the dividends will be paid on July 11, 2017, net of taxes and levies at the rate of 25%. And with that I would like to open the call for the question-and-answer session.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is from [indiscernible]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

First of all, congratulations for a very impressive quarter. I just wanted to make sure the $4 million in affiliate income, is it only [in] [ph] capital gain and the rest is due to the joint venture in Brazil.

Eli Kamer

Analyst

The major portion of this $4 million are these two items, yes. The rest are from small items that has no real meanings, yes.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great. And is the joint venture in Brazil has reached sort of its full profitability and target that you aimed to or it's scaling up?

Eli Kamer

Analyst

First of all, it's still scaling up. It's happened earlier than we expected but we have to understand there is always some volatility because there are two different types of contribution. One is selling hardware and second is the services portion of our revenues from this joint venture. But actually it's -- we are really expecting that it will ramp up in the future, yes.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Lena Rogovin of Chardan Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Lena Rogovin

Analyst

Good afternoon. Congratulations on the great results*. My question is mostly on Brazil. If you look at quarter on quarter comparison, Q1 2017 compared to Q4 2016. We see that the bulk of growth came from Israel. 5 million out of 7 million increase. If you look at the numbers from your 20-F, subscriber numbers were also achieved at, for the full year 2016 they were almost twice more* in usage subscribers in Israel than in Brazil. So the question is, what is the trend in terms of net additions in Brazil? What should we expect this year and what is the cannibalization rate from IRT? Thank you. And I have one follow up question on the U.S.

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Okay. So I first I will answer this question. During 2016, as you could see on the 20-F and I think that you described it quite well, Israel's contribution were higher than Brazil on the net new subscribers. We had few reasons that I mentioned it on Q4 conference call. Some of it is the economy, some of it is different way of accepting new subscriber based of high [ph] situations in Brazil and premium of the insurance companies that reinsure our program. We faced it during 2016. We changed, we fixed, we overcome some of the situation and without giving any details because we are not public, I really believe that trend in Brazil in 2017 based on the last few months has changed towards having more contribution to the net subscriber growth of our results current and in the future. I hope that it will continue.

Lena Rogovin

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. And out of 36% year-on-year growth for Brazil in terms of revenue, what is the organic growth and what's the currency impact?

Eli Kamer

Analyst

We do not give the specific location or* region, the currencies affect, but basically if you take the currency of year-over-year, from the average point of view you can see that the Brazilian real contributed but not something significantly.

Lena Rogovin

Analyst

Okay. Got it. Thank you. And the last question is on the U.S. Again from 20-F, we see that the number of subscribers almost doubled and that is something I think you never mentioned separately. So what happened there? You introduced some new product or there was change in marketing or what's the reason for such a growth. And again, what should we expect in 2017?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

You are right. In the States during 2016 we grew ourselves very very material. We hope, believe and see that this trend will continue. The way that we are actually have to show it on our P&L is as subscribers since we have some portion of recurring revenues but we have to understand that those subscribers ARPU is a very very limited amount compared of course to Israel, Brazil and Argentina. But what it shows, and this is absolutely right, that we are growing our sales and our business in the States much more materially than in the past, right.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Ethan Etzioni of ‎Etzioni Portfolio Management. Please go ahead.

Ethan Etzioni

Analyst

I just want to makes sure I have it clear on the profit from affiliates. So it's $4 million less $2.3 million, so that’s $1.7 million. So what the $1.7 million is representative and there is no non-recurring items there?

Eli Kamer

Analyst

You have to remember that the $1.7 million that we mentioned relates to other affiliates such as Bringg, such as IRT. But some of it of course relates to some shifting but basically a majority of this amount relates to the joint venture. Yes.

Ethan Etzioni

Analyst

But this is all recurring profit. This should repeat itself...

Eli Kamer

Analyst

No, no. Not exactly. Because you have to remember -- no, not talking about...

Ethan Etzioni

Analyst

The 2.3 -- you are talking about the...

Eli Kamer

Analyst

As Eyal explained before, you have to remember that the joint venture is basically splitted or the breakdown of the operation for the hardware, which is a onetime sale, and for the recurring revenue. So a big part of it is coming also from the sales. The sales can be -- it doesn’t mean that it will be the same every quarter. So doesn’t mean that it will run past from the sales point of view. Okay. Two different things. It's a combination.

Ethan Etzioni

Analyst

So what should we look at as a representative figure for the profit from affiliates?

Eli Kamer

Analyst

We are not providing a representative number or any forecast for our results but as Eyal mentioned, we do believe and we do see that until the end of the year or going forward in the future, the results from the joint venture will be better.

Ethan Etzioni

Analyst

Better than the 1.7?

Eli Kamer

Analyst

Better than what we have in Q1. Not all the 1.7 relates to the joint venture.

Ethan Etzioni

Analyst

Okay. So can you tell how much relates to the joint venture?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

No, we can't. We are not providing a...

Eli Kamer

Analyst

A specific breakdown.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. Before I ask Mr. Sheratzky to go ahead with his concluding statement, I would like to remind participants that a replay of this call will be available tomorrow on Ituran’s Web site, www.itrn.co.il. Mr. Sheratzky, would you like to make your concluding statement.

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Yes. I would like to thank all our employees and my team for their strong performance on quarter one 2017 and we look forward to another successful year. On behalf of the management of Ituran I would like to thank you all, our shareholders, for your continued interest and long-term support of our business. I look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Have a good day. Bye.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes the Ituran’s first quarter 2017 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.