Boku Inc (LON:BOKU), a leading provider of mobile payment solutions, has announced its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2022.
Financial Highlights
| · | Revenues up 3% to $63.8 million (2021: $62.1 million) despite significant currency headwinds. | |
| o | On a constant currency basis*, revenues were 14% higher than 2021. | |
| o | H2 2022 revenues were 21% higher than H2 2021 on a constant currency basis | |
| · | Adjusted EBITDA** of $20.5 million (2021: $22.9 million) at 32% Adjusted EBITDA margin despite currency headwinds and continued investment in Boku’s mobile-first payment network. | |
| · | Net Profit after tax of $28.9 million (2021: $6.3 million). The increase was largely due to the profit from discontinued operations after tax of $24.6m | |
| · | Net profit from continuing operations before interest and tax for 2022 was $4.5 million (2021: $10.6 million) as we incurred a fair value adjustment charge of $3.47 million in relation to Amazon warrants granted in September 2022 and impaired the carrying value of the Fortumo brand by $1.26 million | |
| · | Group cash was $116.5 million at year-end, up from $67.8 million at 30 June 2022. | |
| o | The Group is debt free. | |
| · | The average daily cash balance, a measure that smooths out the effect of carrier and merchant payments, was $98.8 million in December 2022, up from $63.3 million in June 2022. | |
| · | Cash generated from operations before working capital movements during the year was $22.0 million (2021: $19.5 million). | |
Following the disposal of Boku’s Identity division on 28 February 2022, the results shown are for the continuing Payments division. The prior year comparatives in the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income have been restated accordingly and exclude the Identity division results.
Non-Financial KPIs
| · | 28% increase to 52.3 million Monthly Active Users (“MAUs”)*** in December 2022 (December 2021: 41.0 million). | |
| · | 56.7 million new users made their first payment or bundling transaction with Boku during 2022. | |
| · | TPV**** of $8.9 billion in 2022, up from $8.2 billion in 2021 despite currency headwinds. On a constant currency basis*, TPV was 20% higher than 2021. | |
| · | Particularly strong growth in the new Local Payment Methods (“LPMs”): | |
| o | 700% increase in volumes processed from LPMs including eWallets and account to account/real time payments, compared to 2021. | |
| o | 230% increase in MAUs of LPMs, to 3.8 million in December 2022 compared to 1.1 million in December 2021. | |
| o | 200% increase in new users of LPMs to 8.4 million in 2022 (2021: 2.8 million). | |
Operational Highlights
| · | New multi-year global Local Payment Method contract signed with Amazon in H2 2022. |
| · | Launched in China on Alipay and WeChat Pay wallets for global games merchant. |
| · | Approximately 150 new launches in 2022 with existing and new merchants including Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Disney, Netflix, Spotify, Samsung, Sky and EA Games, through Boku’s expanded mobile-first network. Of these launches, around 50 were for LPMs and more than 30 for bundling programmes. |
| · | Continued investment in Boku’s regulated payment capabilities which now cover more than 50 markets. |
| · | Mobile-first payments network expanded to reach over 7.7 billion end user accounts, 45% of which are non-Direct Carrier Billing (“DCB”). |
| · | Identity business sold to Twilio on 28 February 2022 for a maximum consideration of $32.5 million. |
| * | Constant currency calculated by applying the monthly average foreign exchange rates in 2021 to the actual 2022 monthly results. |
| ** | Adjusted EBITDA is defined as: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, non-recurring other income, share based payment expense, foreign exchange gains/(losses) and exceptional items (see Note 8). Management has assessed this performance measure as relevant for the user of these financial statements. |
| *** | Monthly Active Users (MAU) data includes all users who successfully processed a payment or had an active bundle during the last month of the period. |
| **** | TPV (Total Payment Volume) is the US$ value of transactions processed by the Boku platform and includes transactions from DCB, Bundling, eWallets and account to account/real-time payments. More bundling programmes are included in 2022 vs. prior years as these contracts switched to an ad valorem pricing model. |
Jon Prideaux, Chief Executive of Boku Inc, commented, “2022 has been a breakout year. Boku’s growth became primarily driven not by DCB, but by mobile wallets and account-to-account/real time payments. By the end of the year, nearly 7% of our Monthly Active Users and more than double that percentage of our revenue came from these newer payment methods. Trading in January and February 2023 was strong and with new customer wins and launches, such as the new multi-year Amazon LPM contract, Boku is well set for further progress into the Big Pond.”
Investor Presentation
The Company will provide a live investor presentation relating to the results via Zoom at 5.30 p.m. GMT today. The presentation is open to all existing and potential shareholders. Those wishing to attend should register via the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_B8UGHOOvTQKvT4WQwOKKiQ
There will be the opportunity for participants to ask questions at the end of the presentation. Questions can also be emailed to boku@investor-focus.co.uk ahead of the presentation.
