MiX Telematics increased the number of its subscribers by 10% to over a million for the first time in its year to March 31, pushing the annual recurring revenue up 15% to R2.36 billion.
Total revenue for the global software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of connected fleet management solutions increased 10% to R2.46bn.
Subscription revenue increased 12% to R2.15bn. The group, which has a New York Stock Exchange secondary listing, trades in more than 120 countries, but about 50% of its revenue is derived from South Africa, and it has a research and development facility in Stellenbosch.
“Closing out the fiscal year, we are proud to have surpassed the one million subscriber milestone," said CEO Stefan Joselowitz.
He said in an online interview that although the macroeconomic global outlook was “murky”, much had been done in the past year to prepare for any challenges, and the group had the levers to maintain a balanced approach to growth, while delivering strong free cash flow and profitability.
He said they had guided for mid- to high- single digit growth in revenue for the new financial year, although they would aim to do better.
“In the second half, we expanded the adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin to 25% from 19% and generated strong, positive free cash flow,” chief financial officer Paul Dell said.
He said they hoped to continue to raise this margin. The quarterly dividend was lifted 12.5% to 4.5 cents a share.
The acquisition of Trimble’s Field Service Management business was concluded during the year.
Joselowitz said they incurred significant restructuring costs in the fourth quarter. He said acquisition integration was hastened during the year to prepare for what may be a new financial year with big macroeconomic challenges.
He said mergers and acquisitions still remained a key component of their long-term objectives, and a team was evaluating potential prospects.
There might also be additional share buybacks – share buybacks had been relatively limited in the past financial year on the JSE, said Joselowitz.
Hardware and other revenue increased 6.3% to R311.5 million and by 0.3% on a constant currency basis.
Operating expenses represented 53.6% of revenue compared to 52.6% of revenue for fiscal year 2022. The increase was mainly due to an increase in restructuring costs of R15m and acquisition-related costs of R13.3m.
“The company expects the related cost savings and resultant operating margin improvement as a result of restructuring plans implemented to take effect in fiscal year 2024,” the directors said in a statement.
Profit for fiscal year 2023 fell to R74.5m from R134.2m. Profit included a R18.9m net foreign exchange gain before tax, as well as a R62.4m charge from the income tax effect of net foreign exchange gains, and a R2.6m deferred tax charge on other foreign exchange gains.
During 2022, a foreign exchange loss of R9.6m was recognised as was a R11.2m credit from the income tax effect of net foreign exchange losses.
At March 31 the company had R262.9m net cash compared to R407.8m at March 31 last year.
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