MiX Telematics said yesterday that attributable income for the quarter to June 30 increased to $1.61 billion (R30.5bn) from $678m in the same quarter a year before as subscriber numbers increased and a lower tax bill was paid.
Its board declared a 4.5 South African cents dividend for the quarter, and 1.12500 South African rand per ADS (American Depositary Share). Adjusted net income, which includes foreign exchange gains or losses, and restructuring costs, increased to $2.76 million from $1,87m at the same time last year.
The fleet and asset management company has offices in South Africa, UK, US, Uganda, Brazil, Australia, Romania, United Arab Emirates, Mexico and India as well as a network of more than 130 fleet value-added resellers worldwide.
In the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, the subscriber base increased by 40 500 subscribers, compared to net growth of 23 200 subscribers in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.
The growth was mainly due to asset tracking and light fleet subscribers in the Africa segment. The subscriber balance at June 30, 2023 includes 31 484 subscribers added by MiX Telematics North America, from the FSM business acquired during the 2023 year.
The company had 1 042 405 subscribers at June 30 versus 838 341 at the same time last year.
The group said yesterday the Competition Tribunal had set June 24 to July 2, 2024 as hearing dates following the referral of the company to the Tribunal in 2019, by the Competition Commission, which had alleged that MiX and a number of its channel partners had engaged in market division.
Should the Tribunal rule against MiX Telematics, it may be liable for an administrative penalty, but the company’s management said they and the legal advisers believe all applicable laws and regulations had been followed and that the Commission’s referral was without merit - no provisions for a possible economic loss had been made as it was impossible to estimate the amount involved.
The main reasons for the increase in attributable income for the company that is listed on the JSE and holds ADS’s on the New York Stock Exchange, was an 80.6% increase in income from operations, while tax paid fell after the effective tax rate for the quarter was 53.4% versus 82.2% in the same period in 2022.
Subscription revenue increased 4% to $32.2m. The FSM business acquired on September 2, contributed $2.1m to subscription revenue for the first three months of fiscal 2024.
Subscription revenue represented 88.6% of total revenue during the first quarter.
During the three months to June 30, 2023, shares with a value of $0.5m were repurchased under the share repurchase programme.
BUSINESS REPORT