Karooooo - Q3 2026

Transcript

Paul Bieber (VP of Investor Relations and Strategic Finance)

Hello and welcome to Karooooo's Q3 FY 2026 earnings call. On behalf of Karooooo, we would like to thank you for joining us today. I'm Paul Bieber, VP of Investor Relations and Strategic Finance. We are joined today by Zak Calisto, Founder and Group CEO; Hoeshin Goy, Chief Financial Officer; and Carmen Calisto, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer. I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements that we make today regarding our business, operations, and financial performance may be considered forward-looking. Such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions. They are subject to several risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially. Please refer to the Safe Harbor statement in our Form 20-F, including the risk factors and the 6-K that we filed yesterday. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. During this call, we will present both IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures.

A reconciliation of non-IFRS to IFRS measures is included in the 6-K that we filed with the SEC yesterday. Our comments will refer to year-over-year comparison unless we state otherwise. I will now pass the call over to Carmen.

Carmen Calisto (Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer)

Thanks, Paul. Welcome to Karooooo's Q3 FY 2026 financial results presentation. Karooooo delivered outstanding results this quarter, highlighted by accelerating ARR growth, strong subscriber momentum with record net additions, and continued robust profitability. We also made progress towards an important milestone and ended the quarter on the verge of $300 million in ARR. We achieved these results even as we made significant and planned upfront investments in sales and marketing to drive future recurring revenue and earnings. These achievements underscore our ability to scale efficiently while delivering meaningful value to our customers and shareholders. Before diving into the details, we would like to provide a quick introduction to Karooooo. We operate a SaaS platform for connected vehicles and mobile assets that enables businesses to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve safety and customer service, and ensure compliance. We help businesses simplify decision-making to optimize their physical operations.

We serve a large, under-penetrated market with strong, sustained demand driven by digital transformation, a constant need to improve operational efficiency, and an increasing focus on safety and compliance. We are a founder-led business with a strong financial profile, a two-decade proven track record of execution excellence, and a cultural focus on disciplined capital allocation and operational efficiency. Our platform supports approximately 2.6 million subscribers across more than 125,000 businesses spanning a diverse set of industries. Importantly, our financial model is anchored by accelerating ARR growth, high-margin subscription revenue, exceptional commercial ARR retention, and powerful unit economics. In Q3, our ARR increased 22% to 5,106 million ZAR and, on a U.S. dollar basis, increased 28% to $298 million. Our commercial customer ARR retention rate remained at 95%, and subscription revenue accounted for 97% of contract revenue.

We continue to scale our proprietary data assets, now generating more than 275 billion data points monthly, which we leverage to deliver impactful insights and value to our customers. Finally, our LTV to CAC remains above nine times, underpinned by strong retention, disciplined capital allocation, and efficient distribution, which are embedded in our vertically integrated business model and company culture. During today's presentation, we will review both of Karooooo's operating segments, Cartrack and Karooooo Logistics. Cartrack is our SaaS operations management platform. Cartrack operates at scale and has a very attractive financial profile. Cartrack's operating momentum is the primary driver of Karooooo's growth and strong financial performance. In Q3, Cartrack delivered exceptional results highlighted by accelerating subscription revenue growth in South Africa.

These results reflect the early returns from the strategic investments we have made in expanding our sales capacity in recent quarters and selling video and Cartrack Tag to our existing customers in South Africa. The results also underscore the continued growth potential in South Africa. In Q3, Cartrack generated approximately ZAR 1.2 billion in subscription revenue, an increase of 20% or 27% on a U.S. dollar basis. A strengthening ZAR negatively impacted reported Q3 Cartrack subscription revenue growth. Year-to-date, Cartrack subscription revenue has increased 20% to 15% in FY 2025, a material acceleration. Cartrack's operating profit margin was a healthy 28% in Q3. Karooooo Logistics is our rapidly growing delivery-as-a-service offering that empowers large enterprise customers to scale their e-commerce and logistics operations. Karooooo Logistics continues to demonstrate strong growth and operating momentum while delivering real value to our enterprise customers.

We report Karooooo Logistics separately as its Delivery-as-a-Service financial profile differs from Cartrack's SaaS financial profile. Karooooo Logistics is strategically important to us as it empowers our customers to scale their e-commerce and logistics operations through a capital-light model while driving high Cartrack customer retention. We continue to profitably scale the Karooooo Logistics business. In Q3, Karooooo Logistics' Delivery-as-a-Service revenue reached ZAR 135 million, an increase of 24% or 31% on a U.S. dollar basis. Given Karooooo Logistics' robust revenue growth, we are very excited about the long-term growth opportunity. In Q3, Karooooo delivered strong consolidated financial results. Total revenue increased 22% to ZAR 1,410 million. Subscription revenue increased 20% to ZAR 1,239 million. Operating profit increased 14% to ZAR 369 million, and total subscribers increased 16% to approximately 2.6 million.

Cartrack's 20% subscription revenue growth and 28% operating profit margin were the primary drivers of our strong financial performance in Q3. Q3 continued our track record of delivering profitable growth at scale. In Q3, we were a Rule of 60 company when adding our Cartrack subscription revenue growth of 20% and our Cartrack adjusted EBITDA margin of 45%. We note that our EBITDA margin does not include any stock-based compensation add-back. Before detailing our Q3 performance, it is important to underscore just how differentiated our financial model has become in the context of the broader SaaS universe. We believe we are among a select few SaaS companies operating at a Rule of 50+ based on calendar year 2026 Street estimates. Within a SaaS universe of approximately 140 companies, there are less than 10 companies operating at this level, and Karooooo is the only small-cap company.

Our financial profile is incredibly rare in public markets, especially among small-cap companies. Being part of this elite group reflects our unwavering commitment to disciplined and profitable growth. In addition, with an essentially unchanged share count over the last several years and no stock-based compensation, growth in free cash flow directly translates into higher per-share value, given the absence of dilution. This is a key point of differentiation relative to many SaaS peers that fund growth with significant equity issuance and SBC. Now, let's discuss our Q3 financial and operational highlights. In Q3, SaaS ARR accelerated to 22% compared to Q2 FY 2026 growth of 20%. ARR growth in U.S. dollars accelerated to 28%, reaching $298 million. Cartrack subscription revenue growth increased 20%, underpinned by 21% growth in South Africa.

The 21% growth rate in South Africa represents a significant acceleration compared to FY 2026 Q2 growth of 18% and 14% in Q3 of the prior fiscal year. Cartrack's total subscribers increased 16% to approximately 2.6 million, driven by healthy growth across all regions. Notably, Cartrack delivered record subscriber net additions of 111,000 in Q3. Also, year-to-date net subscriber additions increased 30% in Asia. Cartrack's operating profit margin remained healthy at 28% despite a 47% increase in sales and marketing expenses in Q3. We were a Rule of 60 company in Q3, and our balance sheet remained strong and unleveraged. We ended the quarter with net cash and cash equivalents of ZAR 531 million. Our healthy subscription growth margin, efficient customer acquisition, and attractive commercial customer ARR retention rate continue to drive our healthy unit economics.

In Q3, our subscription gross margin was 73%, our LTV to CAC ratio remained above nine times, and our commercial customer ARR retention rate was 95%. Our unit economics remain healthy despite the significant increase in sales and marketing expenses during Q3. It is also noteworthy that we accelerated our subscription revenue growth from 14% in Q3 last year to 20% this quarter while maintaining our strong unit economics. We remain committed to profitable growth and strong unit economics as we pursue the expansive growth opportunity ahead of us. We ended Q3 with approximately 1.9 million subscribers in South Africa, an increase of 16%. Q3 subscription revenue growth was 21%, a significant acceleration compared to Q2 FY 2026 growth of 18% and 14% in Q3 of the prior fiscal year. South Africa represented 72% of total Cartrack subscription revenue.

The pace of growth reflects our strategy to drive Cartrack subscription revenue growth through a balanced combination of subscriber additions and selling video and Cartrack Tag to our existing customers. South African subscriber and subscription revenue growth is a clear signal that our strategy is driving results. This accelerated growth reflects our deliberate strategy to cement our leadership position in South Africa by simultaneously growing our customer base and selling video and Cartrack Tag to customers in South Africa. Average revenue per user, or ARPU, in South Africa increased 7% to 162 ZAR in November 2025 compared to November 2024. We are committed to continue building our distribution capabilities to service the demand for our products from both new and existing customers, and we are confident that our investment in sales capacity this year will have a positive impact on Cartrack subscriber growth in FY 2027.

We are optimistic about the market opportunity in South Africa and believe there is a long runway to drive strong subscription growth. We ended Q3 with approximately 318,000 subscribers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, an increase of 20% with most of the subscribers in Southeast Asia. Year-to-date, net subscriber additions in the region increased 30%. Southeast Asia and the Middle East comprise 15% of total subscription revenue, and Southeast Asia and the Middle East subscription revenue growth increased 14%. The pace of subscription revenue growth in the region reflects an increase in subscribers from lower ARPU countries, combined with the translation impact of a strengthening ZAR. As the second-largest contributor to group revenue, Southeast Asia continues to present the most compelling growth opportunity for our group in the medium to long term.

Southeast Asia is a vast, under-penetrated market for sophisticated fleet management and video-based solutions, and we are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunity. We ended Q3 with approximately 223,000 subscribers in Europe, an increase of 16%. European subscription revenue increased 24%, and Europe comprised 10% of our total subscription revenue. We continue to expand our customer base and drive our distribution capabilities in the region. We have partnered with leading OEMs to provide easy access to our platform, seamlessly integrating their connected vehicle data to our platform through APIs. We expect these partnerships to contribute to our results in the medium to long term. In addition, we are experiencing encouraging demand for our proprietary compliance technology in the region as customers seek to simplify compliance with evolving legislation and enforcement.

In Q3, Karooooo Logistics continued to build scale and delivered revenue of ZAR 135 million, an increase of 24%, and a 7% operating profit margin. Growth in e-commerce orders drove Karooooo Logistics' revenue growth. Karooooo supports our strong financial performance by immersing our platform into large customers' operations, contributing to strong customer retention. Karooooo Logistics also enables us to learn about the operational and logistics challenges confronting our large customers. We see a large opportunity for Karooooo Logistics going forward as large businesses seek to increase their e-commerce offerings and optimize their logistics capabilities through a capital-light model. In Q3, we continue to make progress with our FY 2026 priorities. First, we continue to strengthen our leadership position in South Africa by driving the adoption of video solutions and Cartrack Tag within our existing customer base.

The early results are promising, with South African ARPU increasing 7% as of November 2025 compared to November 2024, highlighting growing customer engagement and product uptake. In addition, we expect our ongoing investment in distribution capacity to create durable growth benefits that extend beyond the current financial year. Second, we continue to expand our distribution footprint in Asia and Europe, and we are seeing success in expanding our teams in the regions. Finally, we continue to work with our customers globally to drive broader engagement with our platform and to capture the growing demand for video capabilities, including AI video. We are very excited about the momentum we are experiencing with our video solutions in the market, including AI video. Capital allocation is a fundamental part of our discipline culture, rooted in a 20-year culture of profitable growth at scale and prudent financial management, key drivers of long-term shareholder value.

Our capital allocation framework is unchanged and prioritizes organic growth and innovation. Our paramount priority is investing in organic growth and product innovation, given our strong unit economics, sustained profitability, and large market opportunity. Returning capital to shareholders. At current growth rates, our business generates significant excess cash. With our strong balance sheet and net cash position, we aim to return surplus capital to shareholders when we cannot efficiently invest it for growth, primarily through an annual dividend. As to avoid doubt, management prioritizes growth over dividends. Strategic M&A. We take a prudent and strategic approach to M&A. We view M&A as a tool to accelerate time to market in key geographies, expand our product portfolio, or strengthen our competitive position. However, given our compelling organic growth, customer-centric culture, and attractive unit economics, we set a high bar for any potential acquisitions.

Ultimately, we see it as our responsibility to allocate capital thoughtfully, always with the goal of maximizing long-term shareholder returns. I will now hand it over to Hoeshin, who will discuss our Q3 financial performance.

Hoeshin Goy (CFO)

Thank you, Carmen. I will now discuss Karooooo's financial performance for Q3 FY 2026. Please note my comments will refer to year-over-year comparisons unless we state otherwise. Our proven and profitable SaaS business model continues to deliver strong results in Q3. Karooooo's total subscription revenue increased 20% to ZAR 1,239 million, operating profit increased 14% to ZAR 369 million, and earnings per share increased 11% to ZAR 8.55. Earnings growth remained robust despite significant and planned upfront investment in sales and marketing to drive future revenue and earnings. In other words, these investments are fully expensed as they incur, while the associated recurring revenue benefits are expected to realize over time.

We will now focus on Cartrack's financial performance, which is fueled by SaaS revenue momentum. In Q3, Cartrack's revenue increased 21% to ZAR 1,275 million, and Cartrack's subscription revenue increased 20% to ZAR 1,236 million. Subscription revenue comprised 97% of Cartrack's total revenue. Q3 ARR growth accelerated to 22%, reaching ZAR 5,106 million. In U.S. dollars, ARR growth accelerated to 28%, reaching $298 million. As you can see from the trend of the charts, Cartrack has a proven track record of scaling in varying macroeconomic conditions, given our consistent executions, resilient subscription revenue model, and attractive historic retention rates. In Q3, subscribers increased 16% to approximately 2.6 million. Subscription revenue increased by 20% to ZAR 1,236 million, and operating profit increased 14% to ZAR 359 million. Cartrack experienced record customer acquisition in Q3, with net subscriber additions of 111,478 subscribers.

The record net subscriber additions reflect our strategic investment in sales capacity and success selling video and Cartrack Tag. Total subscriber growth increased 16% in Q3, underpinned by record subscriber net additions. Importantly, South Africa's subscriber growth also increased 16%, underscoring the growth potential in the region. Q3 SaaS ARR accelerated to 22% compared to Q2 growth of 20% and Q3 FY 2025 growth of 14%. In U.S. dollar, Q3 SaaS ARR increased 28%, reaching $298 million. This marked the fourth consecutive quarter of ARR growth accelerations. We believe the accelerations in ARR growth reflect the underlying momentum in the business and signal that our strategic initiatives are gaining momentum. Cartrack's continued to grow its subscription revenue across geographies, highlighted by an acceleration in South Africa. South Africa's subscription revenue growth accelerated to 21% compared to Q2 growth of 18% and Q3 FY 2025 growth of 14%.

The accelerations indicate that our efforts to cement our leadership position are driving measurable results. Europe's subscription revenue growth increased 24% and 19% on a constant currency basis. Asia and the Middle East's subscription revenue growth increased 14% and 18% on a constant currency basis. Asia and the Middle East's reported subscription revenue growth reflects an increase in subscribers from lower ARPU countries in the region, combined with the translation impact of a strengthening South African rand. Healthy growth across regions reflects our strong executions and provides a solid foundation for continued growth. Karooooo's adjusted earnings per share increased 11% to ZAR 8.54. Cartrack's earnings per share contribution increased 11% to ZAR 8.35. Karooooo Logistics' earnings per share contribution increased 25% to ZAR 0.20. Adjusted earnings per share growth reflects significant planned investment in sales capacity and customer acquisition, evidenced by the 47% increase in sales and marketing expense by Karooooo in Q3.

Our upfront sales and marketing costs are not aligned with the lifetime value of customer recurring revenue and related earnings in our financial statements. Importantly, our powerful unit economics remain intact, and our balance sheet remains strong as we invest in sales capacity. On a year-to-date basis, our adjusted free cash flow increased 37% to ZAR 597 million, underscoring the strength of our operating model. Q3 adjusted free cash flow increased 28% to ZAR 239 million. As we pursue accelerated growth, we expect free cash flow to reflect our investment to drive growth. While quarterly fluctuations may occur due to working capital dynamics and growth-oriented investment, we remain confident in our ability to consistently generate meaningful free cash flow. Karooooo's consistent free cash flow generations power our disciplined capital allocation strategy and position us well for future growth.

Our balance sheet reflects our track record of durable growth at scale, profitability, and cash generation. Our net cash on hand plus cash in bank fixed deposit was R 531 million. Debtors' collection days remain healthy at 31 days and are within our historical norm. In August, we paid a total cash dividend of approximately $38.6 million to our shareholders, which equates to a dividend of $1.25 per share. We believe that our ability to generate healthy cash flow is sustainable given our energy business model, coupled with our track record of consistent executions. We believe Karooooo remains strongly positioned for growth as we operate in an expanding and largely underpenetrated market fueled by robust and sustained customer demand. This demand is driven by a heightened focus on digitalization, the need to improve operational efficiencies and reduce costs, and an increasing attention to safety in physical operations.

Year-to-date in FY 2026, we have accelerated Cartrack's subscription revenue growth by expanding our distribution footprint in existing markets, driving broader platform adoptions, and capitalizing on growing demand for video solutions, including AI videos. We are encouraged by our positive performance, evidenced by Cartrack's Q3 subscription revenue growth of 20% and ARR growth of 22%. Cartrack delivered a 29% operating profit margin, reflecting strong executions while investing in sales and marketing capacity to support future growth. While we have delivered strong year-to-date results, the appreciation of the South African rand has created a currency translation headwind on our reported revenue, constraining the flow-through of our strong performance to our FY 2026 outlook. We do not hedge our foreign currency exposure, so fluctuations in exchange rates may create some variability in our reported result despite our underlying operating momentum.

Given our momentum year-to-date, we are increasing our FY 2026 Cartrack subscription revenue outlook to between ZAR 4,785 million and ZAR 4,900 million, implying growth between 18% and 21%, as compared to our previous outlook of ZAR 4,700 million and ZAR 4,900 million, implying growth between 16% and 21%. We are also revising our FY 2026 Cartrack operating profit margin outlook to between 27% and 30%, as compared with our previous outlook of 26% and 31%. Our FY 2026 Karooooo adjusted earnings per share outlook remains unchanged at ZAR 32.50 to ZAR 35.50. As we work towards closing the financial year, we are executing on two fronts: expanding our sales capacity to drive new customer acquisition and strengthening our relationship with current customers through increased adoption of video and Cartrack Tag. While the business is accelerating, we remain people-constrained and will continue to build the sales capability to meet these goals.

At this stage, we believe the right strategy for the long-term health of the business is to lean into driving adoption of video and Cartrack Tag with our existing customer base to further cement our leadership position in South Africa. With that said, we are also confident that our investment in sales capacity this year will have a positive impact on subscriber growth in FY 2027. In closing, Karooooo's delivered outstanding results this quarter, highlighted by accelerating ARR growth, strong subscriber momentum with record net additions, and continued robust profitability. We also made progress towards an important milestone and ended the quarter approaching $300 million in ARR. We achieved this result even as we made significant and planned upfront investment in sales and marketing to drive future recurring revenues and earnings. These achievements underscore our ability to scale efficiently while delivering meaningful value to our customers and shareholders.

The underlying acceleration in the business reflects the strength of our operating model and early traction from strategic investment in sales capacity and customer acquisition. As we continue to enhance our distribution footprint, we expect our ongoing investment in distribution capacity to create durable advantage that extends beyond the current financial year. With continued execution, disciplined investment, and growing regional momentum, we believe that we are well-positioned to deliver profitable and durable long-term growth. Finally, we remain firmly committed to thoughtful capital allocation, strong unit economics, and our vertically integrated and open operating culture. With that, I will turn the presentation over to Zak Calisto for Q&A.

Zak Calisto (Founder and CEO)

Hey, good evening or good morning to everybody. Thank you very much, Hoeshin. I'll start off by reading the questions. I've got a first question is from, it's just simply labeled as investor, not quite sure who that is.

How are we doing with the 70% increase in headcount in Asia? Currently, at the end of Q3, we were at around 40%, but a lot of those hires are coming in January and February. I do believe we will end up with a 70% that we initially targeted for the year. A lot of it really is happening this Q4 simply because a lot of, in these countries, a lot of the people are willing only to change in January. It's all going according to plan. When will our investment in sales and marketing stabilize? I think to answer that, it's really about how efficient is our sales and marketing. As we keep our strong unit economics and our sales and marketing strategies working and we're stable, we will continue to increase that given the large addressable market.

Hopefully I've answered you in a different way. Who owns 34%? Who is the 34% owner of New Zealand? When I initially started the business in 2004, our first employee was actually Iwan de Wet, and Iwan de Wet owns 34% of the business in New Zealand and immigrated from South Africa to New Zealand approximately nine years ago. I might be wrong with the number of years, but approximately there. We now go over to Joshua Riley from New Zealand. R2 was up nicely again in the quarter and even more so for the business in South Africa, up 7% year on year. How far along in the cross-selling Tag and video cycle would you say we are in South Africa? Joshua, I would say that we're in the early stages, and we're hoping that in the next financial year we'll get even stronger momentum.

Then the next question, net new subscribers were record in the quarter with strength across all geographies. How do you see half of the market in demand today relative to your sales execution in key markets? We've increased our sales and marketing substantially this year, as we had set out in the beginning of the year. And are we getting huge productivity? Our unit economics remain very strong, and we believe that we're really performing in the key markets. In some markets, we outperform in budgets. Others we're a bit lagging, but overall it's going according to plan. Then the next question from Dylan Becker at William Blair. Drivers of acceleration, how do you think about the uplift from pure capacity versus scaling productivity from recent higher drips? And how does this support your view of a durable 20% growth prospects given momentum in both subscribing and cross-selling?

Dylan, you know, in the outlook that we gave in the beginning of the year, we expected ARR, you know, we basically have the outlook that our subscription revenue would be around these ranges. We're actually on the upper end of the range we gave, and I personally believe that we got good momentum and we'll continue with the momentum. And our hiring, recruitment, retention of key staff, I think we're doing pretty well this year, and I believe we'll only get better at it. The next question from Scott Searle at Roth. Can you address adoption trends for AI camera penetration rates per region, competitive landscape, impact of 7% R2 increase in the current quarter? We've really focused a lot of this in our South African operation. We moved into new offices approximately 18 months ago. We've got the space to hire to build out the infrastructure.

We're busy building out the infrastructure in most other countries to be able to build out the call centers required to really execute on this. The adoption of cameras is strong at this point in time, but we certainly believe it's early days in adoption and will only get stronger with time. The competitive landscape, we feel very comfortable to compete with our peers, and I believe we'll just continue to get stronger in this space. A question from Cornelis from Macquarie. Is there any way to roll out Karooooo Logistics just next to Europe or Southeast Asia, or are those markets saturated? I think it's very early days when we're talking long term of the e-commerce space and what our large enterprises' customers require. I don't believe the market is saturated. I believe the market's only going to grow bigger.

We are developing our technology in order to be able to go into Europe and Southeast Asia and to compete efficiently. It must be said that we don't necessarily need to roll out the driver network in every geography. We've done that in South Africa, but it's more for us to learn. What our platform allows us to do is we can integrate with various and multiple e-commerce service providers that have rolled out fleets. All we do is we become the aggregator to be able to, to our customers to be able to use any of the service providers that can service them. So the model when we go outside South Africa, it might be slightly different. As we develop the South African market, we also might change our current model despite it working very well, but we are learning every day.

The market is changing every day. A question from Alex Sklar from Raymond James. What drove the strong pickup in South Africa subscriber growth versus plan? I think the subscriber growth is going in accordance with plan, and the cross-selling is going in accordance with plan. I think it's really just about increasing our footprint and our ability to execute. Where do you stand on sales hiring versus your specific geo plan, Southeast Asia and Europe? I think we are on track with all the hiring across all regions. Given the magnitude of sales hiring plans in Southeast Asia, do you expect subscriber growth to pick up from 20-21% level, or is this a good durable rate? We certainly, our ambition is certainly to pick that 20-21% and to compound on that. But it's like everything, it's all about the execution.

But we feel positive that we're going to have a very strong FY 27 in the region. A question from F.C. de Beer. It seems there has been an increase in subscriptions in South Africa quarter on quarter. How has the shift from used vehicle sales to new vehicle sales in South Africa impacted subscriptions? That does not impact our business. We get our customer acquisition is based on customers that have got vehicles. Now, the only time when a new vehicle comes into play, it might be when our customers, they basically trade in or sell their vehicles and buy new vehicles. So the impact of new vehicle sales has got an impact on our business, but it's an insignificant impact at this point in time. Is the used vehicle market in South Africa still under pressure given the affordable new vehicles entering the market?

You know, we don't really specialize in that. So in that, whether the market's under pressure or not, we don't really look at that. We are focused on the services we provide, and does a stronger new vehicle market have a more positive impact on the subscriptions? Not necessarily. Another question from Scott from Roth. Can you provide an update on asset tracking, sales connections in South Africa, the ongoing rollout in Poland, and plans for additional markets? At the moment, we don't plan any additional markets. The rollout is going according to plan, but we are looking at expanding into Europe cautiously, so we are having our annual discussions now in February where we're going to approve the rollout plan or not approve the rollout plan. But fundamentally, there's a huge opportunity to go outside our key markets in Europe that we're currently in.

But at the same time, there's also a huge opportunity to grow within the markets and to cement our leadership in the markets we're already operating. Another question from Dylan Becker from William Blair. How are you thinking about growth versus margin trade-off? I think, Dylan, the bottom line, you know, in the way we look at it, there's actually the IFRS where you see a bit of a compression in operating profit margins because of the increase in sales and marketing. But I think that's really a temporary thing. And the minute you stop allocating money to the sales and marketing, then you just get this huge margin expansion. And the reality is all these upfront costs of getting customers, these customers stay with us for a very long time. So there's a huge understatement of these expenses against future revenue.

So we're more focused on the long term of the business as opposed to one quarter or one financial year. We're looking at it rather from the perspective of what value are we bringing to our shareholders over a period of five years. So we look at it a little bit different. Impressive ability to accelerate growth to extend your within minimum margin impact. That has got to do a lot with the way we run the business and our economies of scale. How does this validate both conviction and overall opportunity for LT leverage as the impact from upfront investments continue to scale? I think I've probably answered that latter part of your question. Another question from Dylan Becker. Areas to double down on. Strategy clearly working. Any areas you feel confident you could step up investment further?

I think fundamentally it's our unit economics continues to be very, very strong. So while we're only right now busy approving our budgets for the FY 2027, we probably are going to push to continue with the current trend we've got and to continue investing in our footprint in the markets we're in and to continue to grow and accelerate the top line. But we've got to conclude our budgets and we've just got to get board approval before that happens. A question from Ablay. How does the Volkswagen OEM integration tangibly accelerate your European growth compared to your traditional sales-led expansion? It's in a simple way. It allows us to get vehicles onto the platform rather quickly. The real challenge we have is that the OEM telemetry devices on most occasions do not talk to what our customers do.

You get a lot of data, but it doesn't help our customers because the data that they require and the data points that are needed to be collected. You typically cannot get it off the OEM devices. We're getting closer and closer to the OEMs in making sure this relationship works and ironing out the practicalities of using these devices. I believe over time this will be sorted out. The good thing is we've integrated with most of the providers in Europe, including Tesla. That's all been integrated. We've got a great platform. We're in the game, but there's a lot of operational issues and data points that we aren't able to collect through the OEM telemetry devices. Then more questions. Question coming from Keelan Smith from One Africa Capital. In November, you announced a partnership with Volkswagen in our case.

I think we've answered that question, Colin. Sorry. Is the rand materially strong? Then another question from Keelan Smith from One Africa Capital. Does the materially strongest South African rand over the last year have any positive or negative impact on the underlying operations? And the positive impact is probably in the production of our telemetry equipment, but fundamentally that becomes a very small part of the business. The biggest, the positive impact is if you report in dollars, then obviously that's a very strong impact. However, if you report in rands, then it's a negative impact in terms of subscriptions. So our operations outside South Africa are a negative, you know, they're negatively impacted towards our revenue. So our revenue in rands that we reported in U.S. dollars would have been up because we report in rands. They'd be negatively impacted. Next question also from Keelan Smith.

If an existing subscriber chooses to add a video Cartrack Tag, does the standard 36-month contract reset? The answer to that is complex, but I think the best way to look at that is that the 36-month contract we sign is nearly not material to us. What's more material to us is how long will that customer stay with us as opposed to the 36-month contract? And what we find with customers, they don't really, you know, the contract we sign it, but it sort of goes into the bottom drawer. It's more, can we keep the customer and can we keep the vehicle on the platform while the customer still owns it? And that's what we measure. And we're more reliant on customer service and customer retention than actually trying to enforce a 36-month contract. And that's been our policy since day one of starting the business.

We take a much more pragmatic way of looking at the business as opposed to trying to get our customers to stick to the agreement when we know the customer is going to stay with us for very long. Next question from Colin. Is the current share price at level that management may consider share buyback? Colin, the reality of doing a share buyback in the marketplace as a listed entity, it's very complex, and I think at this point in time, we are just not trying to second guess the market. We'll just continue being focused on growth of the business and the quality of the asset. You know, we're not going to. We tried to do that about two years ago, and it's really, really difficult with all the SEC rules around that. You know, unless we got a very complex route to do that.

And if we do that, we might as well just delist. Another question from Alex Sklar. Was the ARPU in South Africa only driven by camera and Tag or also general price hikes? It was driven by the camera and Tag. And what's the ARPU in Southeast Asia this quarter? How much dilution are you expecting? We've always said over time, the Southeast Asian market will mirror the ARPU of South Africa. And that is as countries like Philippines and Indonesia and Thailand start to become a bigger portion of the business, these are typically lower ARPU countries compared to New Zealand or the UAE or Singapore. So that over time, we believe that the Southeast Asian ARPUs will mirror South Africa. So we do believe ARPUs will decrease as the business gets bigger, but that we knew from the outset. And we've consistently told the market that.

A question from Matthew at Confluence. What portion of sales are coming from existing customers, new to Cartrack customers? Can you describe examples of use cases for Cartrack Tag? I'm not going to go through the presentation now, but you know, our use for Tag is, it's basically really, it allows us to track equipment or vehicles outside the GSM network. And for that, there's lots of use cases. There's no shorTage of use cases where that requirement is needed. What proportion of sales are coming from existing customers? The best way to look at that is that our net adds, which we present, that's typically new customers. You know, when you're selling to existing customers, typically what happens is when you do a fleet, very few fleet owners, if they've got 70 vehicles, they only do 10 vehicles.

Or if they've got 12 vehicles, they only do three vehicles. Typically, fleet owners do the full fleet. So typically when you are selling in the future to these fleet owners, it's really because they've sold vehicles and they've got new vehicles. And that would be basically not shown in your net additions. So your net additions is typically most of that business or is new customers. And then your churned business, a lot of that is really, you know, customers selling vehicles and buying new vehicles. I hope that explains and answers your question. Are there any regulatory or other technical issues with rolling out Tag to other markets beyond South Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe? I'm not familiar with all the markets, but all the markets we're busy rolling out, no. But once again, I'll say that I'm not familiar with all the markets and all the regulation.

And typically every country has got its own regulation. Let me just see if there's any more questions. William Searle, how much are you expecting the improved South African macro conditions to accelerate fundamental performance going forward? William, we've always done well in South Africa in really tough times and in good times. And I think us doing well now is really on our ability to scale, our ability to add more people, our new building, the infrastructure we're developing. And I think the fact that the economic environment is looking good gives us a tailwind. But I think a lot of it is not because of the economic situation right now. I think it's really just because of our ability to execute in the way we've been building teams.

Matthew from Confluence, looking at the South African subscribers over the next five years, what proportion do you think could be interested in Cartrack Tag or video analytics? Matthew, to be honest with you, I cannot answer that because whatever I say, I might be wrong. So I prefer not to answer that. Next question from Alex Skoler. Is the subscriber growth in South Africa diluting ARPU growth? On a group level, it remains rather 4% compared to the target 6%. The target of 6% would be at February 2026. So it would be at year end. I think we might be lagging slightly what we expected, but we're largely on track. A question from GB. What would you do differently if you were a private company and not a public company? What would be the difference in your strategies? There would be absolutely no difference in our strategy.

We are focused on building a business. We're not building a business so that we can put lipstick on it and we can sell it. We're building the business one in terms of my succession planning. My family is a majority shareholder. We intend to stay that way and we fundamentally are looking long term and at the business on a long term perspective, so we're running the business as if whether it's private or whether it's a public company, our modus operandi remains the same. A question from Prashant Premkumar. Can you share a little more color on your bullishness for subscription ARPU growth in South Africa? What are the drivers you have for subscription growth? Are there any checks such as online used vehicle retailers?

Okay, the question, the answer to that, Prashant, we're not doing anything different to what we've been doing over the last 10 years. And that is continuous improvements, whether it's our technology, whether it's our software platform, whether it's the training of the people. So frankly, there's no changes. It's just doing the same thing, but consistently improving with what we've done in the past. And we've got a 20-year track record of continuously improving on the past year. Another question from GB. You say you've got another question, but I don't see it. So I'm not quite sure. GB. Okay. Typically, what is the cost of your subscription as a percenTage of the annual revenue for your customer? Typically, what is the cost of your subscription as a percenTage of the annual revenue for your customer? GB, I don't really understand the question. I apologize for that.

And with that, I've answered all the questions. I want to thank everybody for attending. And I look forward to speaking to everyone in three months' time again. Thank you. Bye-bye.