Earnings Labs

Lesaka Technologies, Inc. (LSAK)

Q1 2018 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 10, 2017

$4.79

-0.21%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Net 1 UEPS First Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. All participants are currently in listen-only mode. And there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions later during the conference. [Operator Instructions] Please also note that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dhruv Chopra. Please go ahead, sir.

Dhruv Chopra

Analyst

Thank you, Chris. Welcome to our first quarter fiscal 2018 earnings call. With me on the call today is our CEO, Herman Kotze. Our press release, Form 10-Q and a supplementary financial presentation are available on our Investor Relations website, ir.net1.com. As a reminder, during this call, we will be making forward-looking statements and I ask you to look at the cautionary language contained in our press release and Form 10-Q regarding the risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements. In addition, during this call, we will be using certain non-GAAP financial measures and we have provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. We will discuss our results in South African rand, which is a non-GAAP measure. We analyze our results of operations in our 10-Q and our press release in rand to assist investors in understanding the underlying trends of our business. As you know, the company's results can be significantly affected by currency fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and the South African rand. Before I hand the call over to Herman, I just want to reiterate that we will have a question-and-answer session after our prepared remarks. However, given the current sensitivities, we are not going to be taking any questions about SASSA or CPS. With that, let me turn the call over to Herman.

Herman Kotze

Analyst

Thank you, Dhruv. Good morning to all of our shareholders. The short period of 77 days, since our Q4 earnings call, have been very eventful and transformational in many respects. We have spent a lot of efforts on analyzing our current businesses and group structure, consolidating some, expanding others, and embarking on exciting new endeavors. Under the ever-present backdrop of all the publicity in South Africa around SASSA, the future role of the Post Office, and by association the role of CPS, it is sometimes easy to forget that Net 1 is much more than any single contract or business. And that the some of our parts is far greater than our current market value. We are as always committed to the South African government and the country's most vulnerable citizens and are able and willing to assist whenever requested or required, as our unblemished track record in delivering grants on time and without failure to 10.7 million people over the last 68 months testifies. In parallel, we are focusing on the basics as far as our existing and new businesses are concerned, and creating new revenue streams in South Africa and internationally. For Q1 2018, we reported revenue of $153 million, which was down 2% in dollars and 8% in rands. While we had positive contributions from our South African transaction processing businesses including EasyPay and ATMs as well as financial services and non-Korean international businesses, these gains were more than offset by lower ad hoc hardware sales, fewer prepaid airtime sales and regulatory changes in Korea. We also reported $0.43 in fundamental earnings per share, which was adversely impacted by a higher share count, inflationary increases in costs and a higher tax rate. In my view, our financial performance over the last few quarters has been average as…

Dhruv Chopra

Analyst

Thank you, Herman. I will discuss the key results and trends within our operating segments for the first quarter of 2018 compared to a year-ago. For Q1 2018, our average rand/dollar exchange rate was ZAR 13.17 compared to ZAR 14.1 a year-ago, which positively impacted a U.S. dollar based results by approximately 6%. The rand/dollar exchange rates continue to be volatile and has weakened once again over the past few weeks. Revenue of $153 million in Q1 2018 was down 2% year-over-year in dollars and 8% in constant currency. Our fundamental earnings per share decreased 10% relative to Q1 2017. Our fully diluted share - weighted share count for Q1 2018 was 57.2 million shares, 7% higher than last year. Largely as a result of the sale of 5 million shares in Q3 2017 and partially offset by the repurchase of approximately 1.2 million shares late in Q4 2017. By segment, South African transaction processing reported revenue of $66 million in Q1 2018, up 15% year-over-year in U.S. dollars and 8% on a constant currency basis. In rand, the increase in segment revenue was primarily due to higher EPE transaction revenue, as a result of increased usage of our ATMs, increased inter-segment transaction processing activities, and a modest increase in the number of social welfare grants distributed. Operating income decreased primarily due to an increase in inter-segment charges, the impact of annual salary increases granted to our South African employees in October 2016, and increases in goods and services purchased from third parties, partially offset by higher EPE transaction revenue as a result of increased usage of our ATMs, increased inter-segment transaction processing activities and a modest increase in the number of social welfare grants distributed. Our operating income margin for Q1 2018 and 2017 was 19% and 24%, respectively.…

Herman Kotze

Analyst

Thanks, Dhruv. To conclude on guidance, reiterating what we said last quarter. We expect the funding of our Cell C and DNI investments to be dilutive to our fiscal 2018 fundamental earnings, partially offset by DNI's equity accounted earnings, but to be accretive on a combined basis from fiscal 2019. We therefore anticipate our fundamental earnings per share for fiscal 2018 to remain at, at least $1.61. Our guidance assumes no significant disruption in any of our key business units, a constant currency base of ZAR 13.62 to the dollar, a share count of 56.6 million shares and a tax rate of between 34% to 36%. We look forward to meeting many of our shareholders in New York next month and also introduce you to the expanded Net 1 management team. With that, we will gladly take your questions. But as Dhruv mentioned at the onset, are unable to take any questions related to SASSA or CPS at this time.

Operator

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that we have no questions. We will then conclude this conference call. And you may now disconnect your lines. :