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Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (ITRN)

Q4 2019 Earnings Call· Wed, Mar 4, 2020

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Ituran's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Results Conference Call. [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 Investors & 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 hand the call over to Mr. Ehud Helft, GK Investor -- of GK Investor Relations. Mr. Helft, would you like to begin?

Ehud Helft

Analyst

Yes. Thank you. Good day to all of you, and welcome to Ituran's conference call to discuss the fourth quarter 2019 results. I would like to thank Ituran management for hosting this conference call.With me today on the call are Mr. Eyal Sheratzky, the co-CEO; Mr. Udi Mizrahi, Deputy CEO and VP Finance.Eyal will begin with a summary of the quarter results, following by Udi, with a summary of the financials. We will then open the call for the question-and-answer session. I'd like to remind everyone that the safe harbor in the press release also cover the content of this conference call.And now, Eyal, would you like to begin, please?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Thank you, Ehud. I'd like to welcome all of you, and thank you for joining us today. 2019 ends a tough year for Ituran. So I'm pleased to say that we believe the fourth quarter finally represent the bottom and the turning point. Looking ahead, I expect to show sequential growth throughout 2020. I will spend the next few minutes diving into the details of both the aftermarket business as well as the OEM business, as our overall consolidated financial results with the actual details.In addition, in today's results, we provided you with a subscriber breakdown of the 2 main segments of our business to give you more tools to which to analyze our performance. And as you can see, the retail aftermarket business has recovered. And this is now the third quarter with net subscriber adds on the aftermarket side at about 20,000 subscriber.Now I'm going into more details. The aftermarket business in Israel remained stable in 2019, and we are pleased with our continued positive performance in this market. Our leading market share has remained stable now for many years. New car sales in the country were slightly below, about 5%, what they were in 2018. And while there are some shifting trends within, the market itself has been mostly stable. Our Ituran SVR product remained an attractive proposition and has been a key driver towards our net subscriber growth in the market for a number of years.We expect the aftermarket business in Israel to continue to grow, subject to the new car sales trend in the country, but as always, we continue to consider strategies for penetrating additional segments. One of our growth drivers in Israel is our UBI offering. The insurance policies are built around Ituran's solutions for taking into account a driver's accumulated mileage and…

Udi Mizrahi

Analyst

Thank you, Eyal. I note that the results I present will be on a non-GAAP basis, including adjusted EBITDA, which exclude revenue and cost related to the purchase price allocation. We believe this will provide a better understanding of our ongoing performance. For further details with regards to the reconciliation between the non-GAAP and the GAAP results, please see the tables published with the press release. Non-GAAP revenues for the fourth quarter of 2019 were $66.2 million, representing a decrease of 17% compared with revenues of $79.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Revenue breakdown was $50.3 million coming from subscription fees, a 9% year-on-year decrease. This decrease mainly relates to the Brazilian-Argentina OEM operation where the free trial has been reduced from 6 months to 3 months.Ituran added 22,000 net subscribers aftermarket during the quarter, and there was a similar 22,000 decline in the number of OEM subscribers. Product revenues were $15.8 million, which were a 34% decrease over the same quarter last year, primarily due to the lower contribution from the OEM business. The geographic breakdown of revenues in the fourth quarter was as follows: Israel, 43%; Brazil, 31%; rest of the world, 26%. Non-GAAP operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $11.8 million compared with an operating profit of $18.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Operating loss for the quarter was $16.4 million, which includes an impairment loss of $26.2 million related to the acquisition of Road Track Holdings, which was acquired in the third quarter of 2018. Excluding this impairment loss, the operating profit would have been $9.8 million, 15% of revenues.It is important to note that this impairment is a noncash charge. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $16.6 million compared to an EBITDA of $25.2 million in the fourth…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. First question is by Tavy Rosner of Barclays.

Tavy Rosner

Analyst

I got disconnected for two minutes. So apologies if you already touched on some of the -- the questions. First, about the OEMs. You mentioned that 2019 was a challenging year, especially Brazil, Argentina, but that seems to be the bottom with 2020 shaping up to be a better year. So I guess, can you run us through the dynamics through the different geographies? And I'm also interested in any additional color on the cost-cutting measures you touched on in Latin America.

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Tavy, first of all, we mentioned that we expect that the bottom of the declining in our results happened in Q4, after the situation that we had to manage during 2019, which I would divide it to two. First is the recovery that we had to do in our aftermarket in Brazil, that started in the end of 2018, and we changed the model. This is something that had some effect until the end of 2019. Although we -- almost third quarter after we succeed to recover going back the subscribers in terms of the results, it's taking some time, and I'm expecting that Q4 was, again, the bottom line for this situation.The second issue was, if you remember, the Mexican situation with the telcos that declared that they will shut down the 2G systems in 2 years from now and our customer asked us to change the modules to 3G. And it's took us also a major part of 2019, and we start to recover those sales only around September and October, which now is in a very good term.And this is in the -- and the third issue is the OEM. So I didn't -- we did -- I didn't say that the OEM, which I want to be more specific. The OEM customer in Brazil and Argentina change around during the last year. It changed the conditions of the free trial period from 6 months to 3 months, and recently, which will affect -- which affected the last quarter of 2019.And probably will continue to affect, but much, much lower numbers -- much, much lower effect in the coming few 1 or 2 quarters is changing to a 1-month free trial. When it's a 1-month free trial, it's mean that there is more churn. It's mean that…

Tavy Rosner

Analyst

Yes. That's very clear. And maybe something I might have missed, but the impairment at Road Track, what was the reason that triggered it?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Basically, it's a very accounting issue, and I will explain. When we acquired Road Track, and it's not related specifically to the value or the -- how the economic value of the acquisition. It's basically when you acquire a company, you have to write some assets, which is the difference between the equity and the value. And this is based on some scans that you have to use third party's accounting firm to evaluate these differences, and since it's based on some perpetual numbers. And as you know, it was affected by the Brazilian and Argentinian business forecast. We didn't expect that they will reduce the free trial from 6 months to 1 month. So it's mean that all the decline that the market sold during this year, it's actually affects the value of this number in our balance sheet. And in order to be conservative and to obey the accounting rules after this kind of acquisition, we had to do this accounting move and we put this number. As Udi mentioned, it's -- has no any influence, not from the operational point of view and not from a cash point of view.

Operator

Operator

Next question is by David Kelley from Jefferies.

David Kelley

Analyst

Could you update us on the OEM renewal rates? I know you've talked about that 35% range. Just curious how that's tracking with the shorter free trial length.

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

The renewal rate is actually on the same rhythm, as you mentioned, around the 35%. Of course, it diversified between the different markets. Some of them, we have more. Some of them, we have less. But the numbers, specifically in Brazil and Argentina, become lower. So the absolute numbers is lower. In terms of percentage, we succeed to keep at least the percentage of the 35%.

David Kelley

Analyst

Okay. And could you provide some color around the magnitude? You referenced the lower cost and some of the synergies you're looking to create in Brazil and Argentina between the two businesses. How should we think about the dollar magnitude of that impact in 2020?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

We can't give the number. But as I said, I believe that Q4 and some influences from Q1, including some severance costs and some downsizing, and integrate it to the Ituran aftermarket team, will allow us to stop, to stop and to enjoy this benefit -- or benefit from it in 2020, probably from somewhere around Q2, Q3, when I believe that from this moment, we will no longer declining our profits in this segment, specifically in Brazil and Argentina.

David Kelley

Analyst

Okay. And then last one for me. You referenced the shift in the OEM business away from hardware sales to more of a services model. I guess, how do you see that playing out as far as the margin impact of that shift over the next year to 2 years?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

First of all, I wish that we have more sales, also of hardware because the margins are lower, but the absolute number is higher. And in the end, we will have more profits. But talking about the current situation, I believe that, again, from the moment that we will finally put the team, the company in the final stage after the full downsizing around April or May, from that moment, we believe that these specific segments will have higher margins.This is one of our aim to do in the coming -- in the last month and in the coming months, but it will increase. But don't forget that this is only part of our OEM business, and we have in Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador, very material business, which is continue to sell hardware, even more than in the past. So the overall OEM business, I wouldn't say that it will have higher or material higher margins, but I expect that toward 2021, we at least will see more our growing numbers, subscribers and profits. During 2020, still the downsizing in Brazil and Argentina will affect the total OEM business.

Operator

Operator

Next question is by Sasha Karim of IPI.

Sasha Karim

Analyst

First question for me. You've made it very clear that Q4 was the trough. I just want to be a bit more specific. Would you say that Q4 was the trough for revenue and also for your non-GAAP EBIT?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Yes. Again, expectation is based on what we see and how we recovered the Brazilian aftermarket. It's how we recover the Mexican market. I just mentioned that in Q1, we're going to have some effects from the corona. I don't think it will change those expectations. But as long as the numbers is, as I mentioned, something like a few hundreds thousand of dollars in the EBIT. So if this is the case, we expect to start increasing quarter-over-quarter the EBIT, the EBITDA, the profits. Yes, this is the case. Of course, from a GAAP perspective, of course.

Sasha Karim

Analyst

Yes. My next question would be, can you give us an update on roughly what is the revenue per UBI sub in Israel?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

I can't give it specifically because it's part of our total ARPU, but it's a lower and it's something like a few dollars per month. It's not the same as the typical ARPU of the other services, but we expect that the numbers of subscribers in the future, more mid- and longer-terms, will be much higher, much larger growth than the SVR.And second, don't forget it. For the other services, we have cost integrated, too, which is, for example, the control centers, the customer support, it's a more B2C. This is a pure B2B, almost no cost integrated with those revenues. So it's a few dollars, but almost 100% of this few dollars goes to the EBIT.

Sasha Karim

Analyst

Understood. Just to be clear that you're saying that you think the addressable market in terms of number of subs is higher than in SVR?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Theoretically, for SVR, it's depend on, let's say, on the actuary needs of the insurance companies, which derived from how many of a specific model is popular amongst fix. And this is -- puts our penetration potential in something like 20%, 25%, 30% of the total car audience. Once the insurance market in Israel will be covered by all the insurance companies based on how a person has drive or how many mileage he's drive, if most of the people, it will be more -- it will be cheaper. It will be more efficient for them to buy this kind of policy.So then it doesn't -- it's doesn't matter whether you have an old car, a very old car and brand-new cars, if it will be efficient for the customer, so he will take the decision to buy. So if in Israel, there are millions of old cars that no longer subscribe for SVR, potentially, they can be our customers, potentially.

Sasha Karim

Analyst

Yes. Understood. And finally for me, just on India. You talked about some early progress there. And we saw that you launched your JV with Lumax a while ago. Can you just give a rough indication of when you might be able to do a full launch? And which regions, if so? And would it be mainly for the SVR business through insurance channel or through the retail channel or anything else?

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

The Indian market -- our offering to the Indian market, together with our partners, is almost -- only B2B, meaning going to whether it's car manufacturers, whether it's large fleets, whether it's leasing or rental companies. So this segment sales cycle is much longer. And specifically, when you go to a premature geography premature market. And also, there is a very large challenge, which is the pricing to this -- in this geography. So all those differences from the SVR and the B2C, which Ituran is doing in the other geographies, here, it's taking more time.When I said that it's going very well is because we see a traction from large customers like large commercial customers. But we are now in a pilot mode, we are in negotiation mode and I believe that it will take a little bit more time. I would say, and I said it that during 2020, it will not be significant to our results. I believe that in 2021, we can -- or I want to believe that in 2021, based on the steps that we do now and the relationship that we have now with potential customers and tenders, in 2021, we will be able to declare some more major deals.

Operator

Operator

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

Eyal Sheratzky

Analyst

Yes. Thank you. On behalf of the management of Ituran, I will like to thank you, 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 Ituran's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Results Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.