Earnings Labs

Jumia Technologies AG (JMIA)

Q1 2024 Earnings Call· Tue, May 7, 2024

$6.92

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Jumia's results conference call for the first quarter of 2024. [Operator Instructions]. With us today are Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia and Antoine Maillet-Mezeray, Executive Vice President, Finance and Operations. We'll start by covering the safe harbor. We would like to remind you that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Moreover, these forward-looking statements may speak only to our expectations as of today. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements. For a discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements expressed today, please see the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 20-F as published on March 28, 2024, as well as our other submissions with the SEC. In addition, on this call, we will refer to certain financial measures not reported in accordance with IFRS. You can find reconciliations of these non-IFRS financial measures to the corresponding IFRS financial measures in our earnings press release, which is available on our Investor Relations website. With that, I'll hand the call over to Francis.

Francis Dufay

Analyst

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning. I want to begin today's call with a review of our performance and an update on progress against our strategic growth objectives. I will then turn the call over to Antoine for a more in-depth review of our financials, and we'll conclude with a Q&A session. Jumia is off to a strong start of the year. After a transformational 2023, we have continued to work diligently to reduce costs and improve cash efficiency while establishing a leaner and more agile organization primed for growth. In the first quarter, we saw tangible results that our strategy is working. In line with expectations, GMV improved to $181.5 million, up 5% year-over-year or 39% on a constant currency basis. This was driven by continued efforts to enhance our product assortment, implemented by more efficient marketing spend and the reduction in consumer discounts. AOV also expanded by 3% year-over-year to $39.6 in the quarter, while order growth climbed 1.9%. Combined, these results helped drive top line revenue of $48.9 million, up 19% year-over-year or 57% on a constant currency basis. At the same time, we are delivering greater efficiencies across our cost base. Here, we are targeting more efficient marketing channels, streamlining our logistics network while reducing G&A and tech expenses. These efforts reduced our quarterly cash burn from $22 million to $19.1 million in Q1, illustrating that we can still grow at scale without spending heavily. Our loss before income tax increased to $39.6 million from $29.2 million a year ago, due to large part to outside finance costs, driven by significant FX impact in the quarter, mostly without the cash impact. Adjusted EBITDA loss, which excludes these costs, declined to $4.3 million in the first quarter or 94% on a constant currency…

Antoine Maillet-Mezeray

Analyst

Thank you, Francis, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I will now give an in-depth look at our first quarter results. Starting with the top line, total revenue was $48.9 million, up 19% year-over-year or 57% on a constant currency basis. Marketplace revenue was $25.9 million, up 11% year-over-year or 48% on a constant currency basis, driven by higher commissions and corporate sales, partially offset by the impact of foreign exchange. Revenue from first-party sales was $22.4 million, up 29% year-over-year or 69% on a constant currency basis, driven by sales of larger ticket items such as electronics and home & living, partially offset by the impact of foreign exchange. Gross profit was $31.2 million, up 25% year-over-year or 67% on a constant currency basis. Gross profit margin as a percentage of GMV was 17.2% compared to 14.4% in Q1 '23. These improvements were driven by corporate sales, improved marketplace margins and a reduction in spending on customer incentives and promotions, $9.4 million, down 21% year-over-year or up 5% on a constant currency basis. Fulfillment expense per order, excluding JumiaPay app orders, which do not incur logistics costs, decreased 20% year-over-year, but increased 7% on a constant currency basis. Fulfillment expenses as a percentage of GMV improved from 6.8% in Q1 23 to 5.2% this quarter, illustrating the importance of our logistics transformation to Jumia's growth. Not only we are continuing to expand our logistics footprint outside of major cities, but we have also been successful in reducing packaging cost and enhancing the customer experience, all of which are helping to optimize our cost base. Sales and advertising expense was $3.7 million, down 30% year-over-year and up 3% on a constant currency basis, driven by more efficient marketing spend. Advertising efficiency has improved as evidenced by advertising expense…

Francis Dufay

Analyst

Based on our strong performance and operational improvements in recent quarters, we are reiterating our previously announced guidance for 2024, which aims to further reduce cash utilization compared to the full year 2023. We are also projecting an increase in both orders and GMV, excluding the impact of foreign exchange based on the positive impact of our growth strategy. As we move forward, we believe our strategy is strong and that we have the right team in place to drive towards profitability. Our results from the first quarter demonstrate that we are making progress on implementing our strategic plan and advancing on our path to profitability. We can now open the call for Q&A.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. There are no questions in queue. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.