Boku Inc (LON:BOKU), the world’s leading independent carrier commerce company, has announced its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2020.
Group Financial Highlights
· Adjusted EBITDA* increased 107% to $15.3 million (2019: $7.4 million)
· Group revenues increased 20% to $56.4 million (2019: $46.8 million**)
· Net loss before tax of $17.3 million (2019: $1.3 million loss) primarily due to the goodwill impairment for Identity division of $20.8 million. This total includes a net Profit before tax from the Payments Division of $9.2 million
· Cash generated from Operations before working capital changes during the year was $11.5 million (2019: $6.1 million)
· Closing cash balances increased to $62.7 million at 31 December 2020 up from $35.6 million at 31 December 2019
Boku Payments Division
· Acquisition of carrier billing company Fortumo Holdings Inc. for a maximum enterprise value of $41.0 million completed on 1 July 2020
· Payments division revenue of $51.2 million, an increase of 27% on 2019’s underlying figure of $40.2 million**
· Payments division Adjusted EBITDA of $19.2 million (2019: $12.7 million) including $1.5 million from Fortumo
· Monthly Active Users (MAU) up 48% to 28.8m (2019: 17.8m) includes 4.6m MAUs from Fortumo
· Total Payment Volume (TPV) of $6.9 billion in 2020 compared to $5.0 billion in 2019
· eWallet transactions processed from 13 accounts across 11 wallets in 7 countries in 2020. Further investment in 2021 to capture the significant eWallet opportunity
Boku Identity Division
· Identity revenue of $5.2 million (2019: $6.7 million) – impacted by COVID-19 and local US supply headwinds resulting in carrying value of asset reappraised
· Identity reduced Adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.9 million (2019: $5.3 million EBITDA loss)
· Identity carrier network expanded and now reaching more than 200 carriers in 60 countries
· Contract wins include GDC, LexisNexis and FIS (owners of Worldpay)
*Adjusted EBITDA: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, impairment of goodwill, non-recurring payment revenue, stock option expenses, forex gains/losses and exceptional items
** 2019 comparative revenue excludes $3.3m of non-recurring payments revenue to better reflect underlying performance
*** TPV is the $ value of transactions processed by the Boku and Fortumo platforms
Jon Prideaux, Chief Executive of Boku Inc, commented, “Boku performed strongly in 2020 with revenues up and Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled compared to 2019, driven by the performance of Boku Payments but the central fact of 2020 was COVID-19.
“It has changed the way that we work and live and had an adverse impact on our Identity business, requiring its value to be re-assessed. Restrictions have affected the way that we travel, communicate and get entertained. Coronavirus has depressed spending, but that spikey ball of RNA has also changed the things we buy and the way we pay.
“Industries dependent on face-to-face contact have been decimated. Some – hospitality, for example – will bounce back when restrictions are released, but for others, the pandemic has accelerated pre-existing trends. It turns out that many people didn’t really like driving into town to go shopping and for many types of goods the switch to online will be permanent.
“The way we entertain ourselves has been changing for a while. CDs have been cleared from the shelves and DVDs sent to the car boot sale, as we switch to digital consumption. Games, especially mobile games, were already growing rapidly pre-COVID-19.
“The COVID-19 related lockdowns have accelerated these trends and Boku’s customers have benefited, but since the transition was already well developed, what we’ve seen is a boost, not a transformation of our business. Boku has long benefited from the tailwinds of mobile adoption and digital disruption and 2020 was no different.
“Boku can look to 2021 and beyond with a great deal of confidence. Boku Identity looks poised to grow as new customers are connected with unrivalled levels of supply. For our Payments division, we expect to cross sell wallets into more of our existing customers. With each launch, revenue will start to build, more materially in 2022. We will invest in our platform so as to be in a position to capture non digital revenues. All this is underpinned by a DCB business which is poised to continue its multi-year record of strong growth with exceptional operational gearing.
“We have made a flying start to 2021, with trading in line with our aggressive plans and I am confident in our ability to meet expectations.”
