Boku Inc (LON:BOKU), a leading global mobile payments company, has provided the following unaudited trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2022.
Summary
· The Group saw further growth in volume processed through its mobile-first payments network of Direct Carrier Billing (“DCB”), Bundling, eWallets and Real Time Payments in the first half of 2022, with total volumes up by 14% on a constant currency basis* compared to H1 2021.
· Monthly Active Users (“MAUs”)** increased to 46.3m in June 2022, up 22% on a year earlier.
· TPV generated from the newer Local Payment Methods (“LPMs”) – eWallets and Real Time Payments – increased eleven times compared to H1 2021, with new users of these LPMs up six times.
· Revenues for H1 2022 were $30.3m. At constant currency* they would have been $2.5m higher representing growth of 7%, compared to the same period in 2021, with year on year growth rates affected by comparison to the Covid peaks in the first quarter of 2021.
· Boku’s Identity division, as previously announced, was sold on 28 February 2022 to Twilio for a maximum consideration of $32.3m, leaving Boku as a pure play Payments business.
The Identity division results will be shown as discontinued in the 2022 interim and full year results and so we only provide here the continuing Payments division results. The prior period comparatives have also been adjusted and exclude the Identity division results.
Financial Highlights
· Payments revenues for H1 2022 are expected to be at least $30.3m (H1 2021: $30.7m). On a constant currency basis*, revenues would have been $2.5m higher, which represents growth of 7%.
· Payments adjusted EBITDA*** expected to be approximately $9.5m (2021 H1: $11.1m). Adjusting for the foreign exchange impact of c. $2.0m, EBITDA showed growth of 4% against the same period in 2021, reflecting increased investment in the mobile-first network.
· Group profit before tax of approximately $29.5m (H1 2021: $1.9m) which includes the profit on the disposal of Boku’s Identity division of $24.0m, net of disposal costs.
· Group cash of $67.8 million at 30 June 2022 (30 June 2021: $38.0m). The Group is now debt free following the disposal of the Identity division in February 2022 and operating cash generation in the period.
· The average daily cash balance, a measure which smooths out the effect of carrier and merchant payments, was $63.3m in June 2022 (June 2021: $38.0m).
Operational Highlights
· Underlying Payments metrics continuing to grow:
o 46.3m Monthly Active Users of the Boku platform in June 2022 (June 2021: 37.9 million), a 22% increase.
o 28.8m new users made their first payment or bundling transaction with Boku during the first half of the year.
o Total Payment Volume (“TPV”)**** of $4.4bn in H1 2022. On a constant currency basis* TPV would have been $0.5bn higher, representing growth of 14%.
· Strong growth in the new Local Payment methods (“LPMs”):
o Volumes processed from Local Payment Methods including eWallets and Real Time Payments increased eleven times compared with H1 2021.
o MAUs of eWallets and Real Time Payments increased eight times to over 2.1m in June 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
o New users of LPMs increased over six times to 3.1m in H1 2022 (up from 0.5m in the same period in 2021).
· Over 40 new launches in H1 2022 with existing and new merchants including Netflix, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Samsung, Sky and EA Games through Boku’s expanded mobile-first network.
· Boku has continued to expand its regulated payment capabilities to cover more than 50 markets. A recent highlight is the granting of a payments licence in the Philippines.
· Mobile-first payments network expanded to over 7bn end user accounts, 42% of which are non-DCB.
* Constant currency based on monthly average foreign exchange rates in H1 2021
** Monthly Active Users (MAU) data includes all users who successfully processed a payment or had an active bundle during the last month of the period
*** Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization): Adjusted for stock option expenses, foreign exchange gains/losses and eExceptional items
**** TPV is the US$ value of transactions processed by the Boku platform and includes transactions from DCB, Bundling, eWallets and Real Time Payments. Prior periods excluded bundling
Jon Prideaux, Boku’s CEO, commented: “Boku is now a pure play payments business. The significant depreciation of most major currencies against the dollar should not obscure the real progress that the business has made in the last year. Growth in our key metrics is strong. Underpinned by our leading position in Direct Carrier Billing, the number of Monthly Active Users increased by 22%. We saw explosive growth in the non-DCB Local Payment Methods usage, up elevenfold, driven by deployments with the world’s leading music and video streaming companies, the world’s leading social networks and leading games companies. It’s still early days for these payment methods and I look forward to the future with confidence.”
