Ituran Location and Control - Q3 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ituran This Q3 of 2024 Results Conference Call. All participants are present in listen-only mode. Following management's formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question-and-answer session. For operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero. 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 Global Investor Relations at 1-212-378-8040 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. Kenny Green of GK Global Investor Relations. Mr. Green, would you like to begin?

Kenny Green (Managing Partner)

Thank you, operator. Good day to all of you and welcome to Ituran's conference call to discuss the Q3 2024 results. I would like to thank Ituran's management for hosting this call. With me today are Mr. Eyal Sheratzky, CEO, Mr. Udi Mizrahi, Deputy CEO and VP Finance, and Mr. Eli Kamar, CFO of Ituran. Eyal will begin with a summary of the quarter's 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 Statement in today's press release also covers the contents of this conference call. And now, Eyal, would you like to begin, please?

Eyal Cohen (Manager)

Thank you, Kenny. I'd like to welcome all of you to our Q3 2024 call, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased with our Q3 results, presenting steady growth in revenue and profit across the geographies in which we operate. We are also happy to report a high level of 40,000 net subscribers added in the quarter, which came in at the top end of our expectations. The results were achieved despite the negative impact of the U.S. dollar strength in the quarter, which lowered our local currency-denominated results when presented in U.S. dollars. In fact, in local currency terms, our growth in most of the geographies in which we operate was even higher. We increased our subscriber base by a net of 40,000 in the quarter, at the high end of our expectation, which is between 35,000 and 40,000.

Our ongoing success reflects continued demand for a location-based product and telematics services, as well as traction from the new initiatives and services we continue to launch in the various geographies in which we operate. Last week, we announced a five-year contract with Nissan Chile. We have a long-term partnership with Nissan, one of the world's leading automakers and OEMs, and have partnered with them for many years in Mexico. Under our new contract with them, Ituran will provide Nissan Chilean customers with vehicle location units pre-installed in three new vehicle models, which potentially is tens of thousands of vehicles over the years. We will also provide telematics and stolen vehicle recovery services.

Following a Nissan Chile customer's car purchase, they will enjoy a year's free trial of Ituran's services, paid by Nissan, after which they will have the option to continue with their service, which they will pay to Nissan and Ituran. Customers will have access to comprehensive Nissan-branded on-vehicle applications. Additionally, the customer will also have access to Ituran Chile's 24-hour contact center, assistance in the event of vehicle theft, and emergency services such as breakdown assistance and towing. This new agreement in Chile is the culmination of well-over a year's discussions on how we can replicate our strong service for Nissan in Mexico and bring this service to the customers in Chile. This new agreement shows the very strong satisfaction that Nissan has from our cooperation in Mexico, and I believe that this will enable us to expand to additional regions with Nissan in the future.

We are also aiming to build a strong aftermarket business in Chile, leveraging the strong experience we have in this market in many of the other regions in which we operate. We are also in active discussions with a number of major OEM car manufacturers, in addition to those that we already work with. We are looking to bring new OEM partners, as well as broaden the services we provide to existing OEMs to additional countries in South America. We see strong long-term growth potential via this initiative. From a financial perspective, even with the currency headwinds throughout the past year, we remain on track to meet our targets. We reiterated for 2024. Our guidance is full-year EBITDA of between $90 million and $95 million. We continue to expect that for the quarter, subscriber growth will be between 35,000 and 40,000 net new subscribers.

Given the strong net cash position of over $67 million, our ongoing cash generation, which came to $17.2 million in the quarter, will continue to share a strong quarterly dividend of $8 million with our shareholders. This dividend is at the same level that we issued last quarter and 60% increased over that of the year-ago quarter. Our dividend yields on an annualized basis represent a return of over 6%, which is a very solid return from a strong and stable company. We see our ongoing dividend as a reward to our shareholders for their loyalty and long-term support of Ituran. In summary, we remain pleased with Ituran's performance. Our consistently growing subscriber growth will continue to translate into increased revenue, improved margins, and better profitability growth over the long term due to the operating leverage inherent to our business.

We aim to enhance our subscriber growth, and we are currently engaged in active discussions with a number of major OEM car manufacturers, both current and new potential customers, to bring our services to additional countries in South America, as well as new OEM customers across all our regions. I look forward to updating you on our progress again in the coming quarter, and with that, I hand over to Eli. Eli, please go ahead.

Eli Kamar (CFO)

Thanks, Eyal. I will provide a short summary of the financial results. You can find the more detailed results that we issued in the press release earlier today. Q3 revenues were $83.5 million, a 3% increase compared with revenues of $81.1 million last year. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar in the Q3 versus the various local currencies in which Ituran operates in impacted the revenues when translated into U.S. dollars. In local currencies, revenues grew by 7% year-over-year. Revenues from subscription fees in the quarter were $59.6 million, a decrease of 1% year-over-year, and in local currencies, an increase of 4%. Product revenues in the quarter were $23.9 million, an increase of 14% year-over-year, and in local currencies, an increase of 15%.

The subscriber base expanded to 2,369,000 by the end of the Q3, an increase of 40,000 from the end of the previous quarter. The geographic breakdown of revenues in the Q3 was as follows: Israel 53%, Brazil 23%, rest of the world 24%. EBITDA for the quarter was $23.3 million, or 27.9% of revenues, an increase of 4% compared with EBITDA of $22.5 million, or 27.8% of revenues in the Q3 of last year. In local currencies, EBITDA grew 9% year-over-year. Net income for the Q3 was $13.7 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.69, an increase of 9% compared to $12.5 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.63 in the Q3 of last year. In local currency, net income grew 14% year-over-year. Cash flow from operations for the Q3 of 2024 was $17.2 million.

As of September 30, 2024, the company had cash including multiple securities of $67.5 million and a debt of $0.2 million, amounting to a net cash position of $67.3 million. This is compared with cash including multiple securities of $53.6 million and a debt of $0.6 million, amounting to a net cash position of $53 million as of year-end 2023. The board of directors declared dividends for the quarter of $8 million. The current dividend takes into account the company's continuing strong profitability, ongoing positive cash flow, and strong balance sheet. And with that, I'd like to open the call for the question-and-answer session. Operator.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press star one. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are using speaker equipment, kindly lift the handset before pressing the numbers. Your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Please stand by while we pull for your questions. The first question is from Sergey Glinyanov from Freedom Capital. Please go ahead.

Sergey Glinyanov (Equity Research Senior Analyst)

Hello, everyone. So it's obviously a resounding result, but we see Ituran's decline in service segments might be caused not only by currency fluctuation, but something else. Thank you.

Service revenues, as you mentioned, you are talking comparing to last year or comparing to the previous quarter?

Eli Kamar (CFO)

Comparing previous year.

To the previous year, yes. So service revenues did went down by almost $600,000, but the main reason is the currency exchange effect. So if you exclude it, you are getting only the currency on that was about an effect of $3 million. So basically, their service revenues went up as expected.

Eyal Cohen (Manager)

Okay, thank you. Still to see operating margin better, operating margin, due to G&A decrease. What are the main components which impacted on it?

Eli Kamar (CFO)

The margin for the Q3 operating margins were 22%, comparing to last year was 20.8%. So basically, the margin went up. And the main reason is the operating leverage in the business model.

Okay, got it. And yeah, you mentioned that recently you've seen an agreement with Nissan Chile. May any further agreements boost product revenue sales?

Eyal Cohen (Manager)

The contract is a typical contract that we have for many years with Nissan in Mexico. Of course, Chile is a smaller market than Mexico, but still, since it's a longer-term contract, we are talking about tens of thousands of new customers/subscribers because the contract includes hardware and services that Nissan is paying directly to us. Add to that our experience with renewals that allow us to extend the contract also with the renewals to higher profits and profitability along the years.

Okay, thank you a lot. That's all my questions.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Alan Klee from Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Alan Klee (Senior Research Analyst)

Yes, hello. Could you talk a little about your partnerships with potential ones or whatever with automakers, financing companies, and auto insurance companies? What would you say are the major hurdles to get through to get someone to sign up? And what are the most compelling arguments that you can make to them for someone to decide to sign up? Thank you.

Eli Kamar (CFO)

There are several reasons that, let's call it the sales cycle in this B2B segment is long. First of all, and this is the basic, is a marketing or strategy of each one of these brand or industry leaders that you mentioned. If we consider a car brand manufacturer, which is very international, or if it's a bank such as Santander or its insurance companies that can be, again, a Mapfre Generali HDI, etc. So first of all, it's their decision to go and offer and invest because they have to pay in the end of the day for those solutions in their strategy. So this is their own decision. Of course, we have a strong will here to convince them that it will be something with benefits. Second, once they decide, they have to choose the right partner.

Then we get into the technology aspect, installations, facilities, and how it spreads around large regions such as Brazil, Mexico, and other countries. This takes a lot of time. It includes validation. It includes pilots. Third is how the contract looks like. There is a negotiation that takes time. Usually, customers want to pay less. Suppliers want to get more. There are the KPIs, etc. When you take these three aspects, it's taking a long time. The last one, which is another thing that we should create confidence, when a company such as Nissan has to attach their brand and their large marketing expenses with a brand of a supplier like Ituran, because everybody knows in Mexico, for example, that we are the supplier and every driver that drives a Nissan car and has a problem, it's a Nissan problem.

So they have to know that they attach their brand to a brand which they can trust that it will not downgrade their own brand, as this is one of the most important things that we are very, very, I think, happy with and respected. I hope I answered.

Alan Klee (Senior Research Analyst)

Thank you. That was great. Could you talk about some of the bigger countries that you're in? What is it about the environment there that makes it attractive for your product? And are there other countries that you see as big opportunities that you also see the setup positive?

Eli Kamar (CFO)

There is the basic for us is that we have a lot of experience and we have a lot of, let's say, a large operation, and our brand is strong in almost most of the countries in Latin America. This is something very important. Then the needs in those countries are stronger. The security people have more security problems. They need more, I would say, someone or a solution that will provide them more confidence. And this is the main reason. This is, I would say, the main driver. Then each country has a different mentality. In Brazil, for example, most of the people cannot afford themselves full insurance, as an example. So we found a solution like the ICS, which is kind of an Ituran with insurance. And in that case, we are selling something very unique, which is only car theft insurance, monthly payment.

This is something that allowed a large segment that do not insure its car. On the other hand, it attracts other insurance companies to do it with us and not create cannibalism for their main business. Also, when you talk about if we go to other segments, again, which is the car manufacturers or car dealers, they want to offer and to show their customers that they take care of their security. They care for their car even after they took it out from the dealer. This is the reason why Latin America, or I would say more globally, emerging markets are a fertile ground for Ituran businesses.

Alan Klee (Senior Research Analyst)

Thank you. My last question is, you look at you're involved in usage-based insurance, and can you talk about what you do and where you see the opportunity there?

Eli Kamar (CFO)

It comes from a basic idea that, as much as a driver drives more mileage or his driving skills are better and more secure, so insurance companies will have less expenses because they will have less accidents and they will have less payment of claims. So on the other end, insurance companies can get something which they can customize the premium. So when you attach these two, I think, two components, it's something that we thought was going to be very interesting for insurance companies. It takes also time. It's a longer sales cycle because we know that insurance companies are something very traditional, very large corporates. So it takes time to change from the traditional methods to something which is more customized, dependent on technology.

I am happy that in Israel, we succeeded to do it about two, two and a half years ago by convincing the first insurance company that adopted our solution. Since then, I would say that a major portion of the insurance industry and the insurance companies in Israel decided to join this train and adopt our technology. And in terms of technology, we have two types of offers. One offer includes using our hardware and service that our hardware for this solution has a module that provides the data that allows us to evaluate the risk of the driver online and then create the right billing methods for his risk. And the second is without the hardware, using the phone, the iPhone, or the Android application that we attach to our software and also with some partners that we integrated in order to do it without hardware in the car.

In terms of our own, I would say, profitability, it's very equal. The prices are different. Different depend on what is the contract and the program that each insurance company did with us. We started in Israel, and it's something that very grows, and we started putting some seeds also in insurance industries in Argentina and now in Mexico. It's not yet, I would say, mature enough. The needs in those markets or how insurance companies still look at that, it's something that will take more time because we have to convince them, and it's also in Israel took us a few years. Our experience and track record in Israel will, I think, or I see, will support a faster penetration also to other geographies that we operate.

Alan Klee (Senior Research Analyst)

That's great. I actually did have one other question I just thought of. For your announcement with Santander, could you just explain what you think the size of that opportunity could be?

Eyal Cohen (Manager)

The announcement with Santander was, I think, almost two years ago. This is when we started the contract. By the way, also after almost a year of pilots, and we are talking about hundreds of thousands of subscribers that derive from their needs to secure their collateral when they provide loans to car buyers. This is something that we aim to expand and to extend to more years, and it means that on an annual basis, it provides us tens of thousands of subscribers, but we have to be aware that those subscribers are for 18 or 24 months, and when they finish their loan or their risk to pay the loan going or decreasing, then, of course, Santander releases them from the service with Ituran, so it's kind of a cycle, so in the end, it will be hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

The net should be around 100 or 150 thousand in the end of the year, on average every year. Only in Brazil, by the way. Only in Brazil, I hope. We are doing our efforts to extend it to other Santander regions in Latin America.

Alan Klee (Senior Research Analyst)

Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Chris Reimer from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Chris Reimer (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my questions. A couple of quick ones for me. Can you just remind us if there's any seasonality with either of your revenue lines?

Eli Kamar (CFO)

No. Most of our first of all, we have a diversified business, diversified between segments, very diversified between geographies. So even if there is something which is not material in one area, which I cannot point specifically, but I'm saying it in general, still it will be hedged by others. There is no seasonality as a group.

Chris Reimer (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Yeah, and just touching on the motorcycle insurance products, can you give any color as to how that's trending? What's the initial reaction been like?

Eli Kamar (CFO)

It started. Then motorcycle insurance is a very risky segment for insurance because there is a lot of car theft. It's easy to steal a motorcycle more than steal a car. But we succeeded to develop a solution which provides more security to those motorcycles, and even here, we have two different, I would say, drivers. In Israel, for example, people that buy motorcycles, they do not insure their motorcycle, so they use our solution to reduce their risk as motorcycle owners because we have a high rate of recovery in motorcycles based on the technology and using AI with Ituran back office software, and in Brazil, since the motorcycle market is very, very large compared to the total vehicle market, and insurance companies need and want to insure motorcycles, but the risk was very high, so we succeeded to reduce it.

We came out with this proposal about a year ago. We see more and more attraction. We're ramping up our customer base that get also motorcycle drivers and motorcycle insurers.

Chris Reimer (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Thanks. That's it for me.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Josh Strauss from Pekin Hardy Strauss. Please go ahead.

Josh Strauss (Investment Banking Associate)

Yeah. I had a couple of questions. First, I'd like to talk about the core market of Israel. It's rather impressive that you guys have had the consistency of business in the face of the biggest wars since the Yom Kippur War and in the face of a pretty rough economy in Israel right now, with GDP down double digits, and so I guess I can't imagine there's a lot of importing of new cars coming in right now. And I'm just trying to get my arms around how you're able to keep the business as stable as it is, so let's just start there.

Eli Kamar (CFO)

Okay. So first of all, you're right. The car imports went down. It's because of the situation, because of the dollar and the cost for cars here, etc., but the thing that supports our growth in Israel, even at these tough times, is that the car theft rate went dramatically high, and this is not something unique. We have to understand in countries where there is no or there are security problems or economic problems, usually the violence is growing, and when the violence is growing, it means that also car theft rate is growing, and this situation in Ituran, I would say, getting more attraction, and the needs of solutions such as we provide become stronger.

So just to explain, this is the first year after almost a decade that we get tens of thousands of cars that when they were bought a year or two years ago, the insurance companies didn't ask for a security system. Now, when they want to renew their insurance policy, they send us to install a security system when 90% of them install Ituran, so on one hand, we are losing brand new cars, but on the other hand, we get a more, let's call it kind of a secondhand or old car. Regarding the rest of the business, I'm not sure. As long as I remember, I'm not sure that the GDP in Israel went down when we talk about here, but of course, there were at the beginning of 2024, and of course, October, November, December 2023, everything here was shut down, but we recovered.

Despite living in a not very quiet area, the things are moving. The commercial life almost has become normal.

Josh Strauss (Investment Banking Associate)

Right. Right. That's helpful. Certainly, most of the population in the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem area, that's not particularly surprising. But it's just for us on the other side of the pond, it's hard to imagine such a stable business in the middle of this war. But thanks for the call. Can we talk about Bringg? Is there any updates here on what's going on with Bringg?

I, of course, cannot provide specific numbers and everything. It's a private entity, and we have only 17%. Talking general information, Bringg has a business plan, and this year, they succeeded to achieve the business plan. It's a growing SaaS company. We understand that the last round that was done on valuation of $1 billion and the investment that was led by Insight Partners of more than $100 million, there were different times in terms of financial market for startups. Of course, it's not a thing that we can do now, for example, to liquidate our holdings, whether it's by IPO or by M&A or by selling it in the market, so we prefer to be wise and await. Of course, we are part of the board members. We know what's going on.

And we're really optimistic regarding being in a good position in the future to do it. I just remind.

That's helpful.

Just want to remind you that Bringg's value in our balance sheet is zero. So I believe that in the future, it will contribute or will be a bonus of profits.

Right. Right. Right. No, no. I remember all too well. And the market values are at zero too. And they shouldn't. I agree. One more question. So I was looking at your cash flow statement. And you've got almost a $4 billion gap in terms of increasing in other current and non-current assets. And I just year over year, and I wanted to know what's going on there. What does that mean?

Eli Kamar (CFO)

Which item you're talking about? For which period?

In your cash flow statement, year over year, it doesn't show much of a difference from a nine-month standpoint. But in a three-month standpoint, there's a $4 billion difference in terms of increase in other current and non-current assets. This year, you had an increase of 957,000. Last year was a decrease of 2.9 million.

I'm trying to find it so I can help you.

Josh Strauss (Investment Banking Associate)

It's on the cash flow statement.

Hold on. Let me check, and we can get back to you on that because there is nothing specific. Probably, it's working capital that there is a volatility between quarters or between periods. There is nothing specific that on this item that can change. But again, we can check it and get back to you.

Eli Kamar (CFO)

I mean, yeah, I'm very curious on whether or not it's revenues on the balance sheet that have not yet hit the income statement or something like that. So yeah, please just shoot me a note or give me a call and let me know what the story is there. But that's it for now. Great quarter, guys. Keep going. I'm looking forward to seeing this doc going north of 40.

Operator (participant)

If there are any additional questions, please press star one. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. Please stand by while we pull for more questions. 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?

Yaron Sheratzky (Sales Manager)

On behalf of the management of Ituran, I would like to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued interest and long-term support of our business. In the coming months, we will be meeting with investors and presenting at LD Micro and EDAM, and we hope to see you there. If you are interested in meeting or speaking with us, feel free to reach out to our investor relations team. And with that, we end our call. Have a good day.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. This concludes the Ituran Q3 of 2024 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.