Karooooo (KARO) Q4 2026 Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 8 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Chief Executive Officer — Isaias Jose Calisto
  • Chief Financial Officer — Hoeshin Goy
  • Chief Operating Officer — Carmen Calisto

TAKEAWAYS

  • Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) -- Increased 18% to ZAR 5,179 million and 38% to USD 325 million, with South Africa ARR growth exiting the year at 23%.
  • Cartrack Subscription Revenue -- Grew 19% to ZAR 4,831 million, accelerating from 15% in the prior year; U.S. dollar basis growth was 39%.
  • Adjusted Free Cash Flow -- Rose 90% to ZAR 809 million, supported by improvements in collections, supplier terms, and working capital management.
  • Dividend Per Share -- Declared at USD 1.50, a 20% increase, payable in July 2026.
  • Total Subscribers -- Reached approximately 2.7 million, an increase of 16%, with record net additions of 94,000 in Q4.
  • Cartrack Adjusted EBITDA Margin -- Reached 44% in Q4; subscription gross margin for the quarter was 71%.
  • Cartrack Operating Profit Margin -- Recorded at 28% for the fiscal year.
  • Karooooo Logistics Revenue -- Achieved ZAR 540 million, up 29%, with U.S. dollar basis growth of 50%.
  • Regional Subscription Revenue Growth -- South Africa 20%, Asia and Middle East 17% (20% constant currency), Europe 22% (19% constant currency).
  • Commercial Customer ARR Retention Rate -- Maintained at 95%.
  • LTV to CAC Ratio -- Sustained above 9x, indicating efficient capital allocation and retention.
  • Sales and Marketing Expense -- Rose 37% in Q4, reflecting growth-oriented investments.
  • Net Cash and Cash Equivalents -- Reported at ZAR 746 million at period end.
  • Fiscal 2027 Guidance -- Cartrack subscription revenue guided between ZAR 5,700 million to ZAR 6,000 million (18%-24% growth); gross profit margin expected between 70%-72%; earnings per share outlook between 38.5 and 40, implying 21% EPS growth at the midpoint.
  • Asia Subscriber Growth -- Accelerated to 23% for the year, with fiscal net subscriber additions increasing by 41%.
  • Karooooo Logistics Q4 Revenue -- ZAR 145 million, up 32%, with operating profit margin at 9%.
  • ARPU Comment -- CEO Isaias Jose Calisto said, "Our ARPU is roughly USD 10 per month, which is exceptionally low relative to the all-in cost of operating a vehicle or assets... the ROI we deliver is high."

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RISKS

  • Cartrack gross profit margin contracted to 70% in Q4, down from 75% prior year, due to higher depreciation and provision related to accelerated IoT device growth and foreign exchange impact.
  • Higher effective tax rate in Q4 was driven by shift in timing of dividend declaration, impacting earnings per share.
  • Significant increases in memory input costs, with CEO Isaias Jose Calisto stating, "we're talking about 200% increases," partially mitigated by pricing adjustments.
  • Uncertainty in the Middle East was explicitly mentioned as creating some business impact, though the region represents a small portion of operations.

SUMMARY

Karooooo (NASDAQ:KARO) reported accelerated recurring and subscription revenue growth, continued strong free cash flow, and high customer retention, positioning the company for further expansion. Planned investment in sales capacity drove a record pace of new customer acquisitions and operating momentum, especially in South Africa and Southeast Asia. Operating profitability and gross margin declined due to higher upfront expenses, depreciation provisions, and adverse currency movements, but management emphasized anticipated EPS growth and persistent cash flow generation in fiscal 2027. Management committed to disciplined capital allocation and highlighted the durability of the business model as well as differentiated exposure to physical-asset-based SaaS. Operational integration and proprietary IoT data assets were presented as distinct competitive advantages, particularly in relation to potential AI disruption.

  • CEO Carmen Calisto stated, "AI will serve as a tailwind to our platform, enhancing automation, functionality and insights whilst accelerating innovation rather than being a threat to our business model."
  • Karooooo’s platform achieved record scale in installed IoT devices, growing device deployment by 45% over the year, affecting both depreciation expense and cost of sales structure.
  • Management said there are no immediate plans for share buybacks, preferring direct dividend returns for capital allocation.
  • Fiscal 2027 hiring is set to decelerate, with focus shifting to productivity improvements and salesforce efficiency, especially in South Africa; incremental investment will concentrate in Southeast Asia.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue): The value of contracted, subscription-based revenue expected to recur annually from active customers.
  • LTV to CAC Ratio: Lifetime value to customer acquisition cost, measuring financial efficiency in acquiring recurring-revenue customers.
  • IoT Device: Connected physical hardware deployed in the field to collect operational and location data, forming the backbone of Karooooo’s analytics platform.
  • ARPU: Average revenue per user, a key metric in subscription-based SaaS and telecom businesses.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Carmen Calisto: Thanks, Paul. Welcome to Karooooo's Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2026 financial results presentation. As planned, FY '26 marked another year of disciplined execution with Cartrack subscription revenue growth accelerating to 19%, up from 15% in the prior year despite foreign exchange headwinds resulting from the appreciation of the ZAR. Annual recurring revenue, or ARR, increased 18% to ZAR 5,179 million and 38% to USD 325 million. Notably, momentum in our most mature markets, South Africa, strengthened meaningfully with ARR growth exiting the year in February at 23%, reinforcing our market leadership. Our strong execution also translated to significant free cash flow generation.

FY '26 adjusted free cash flow increased 90% to ZAR 809 million and reflects our ability to scale efficiently while delivering meaningful free cash flow and value to our customers. We also continued our track record of returning excess cash to shareholders as we declared USD 1.50 dividend per share, an increase of 20% payable in July 2026. We achieved these results even as we made significant and planned upfront investments in sales and marketing to drive future recurring revenue, earnings and adjusted free cash flow. During the year, we invested in our distribution network to support accelerated growth, enhance our platform with AI video power capabilities and other additional features. And we commercially launched Cartrack.

These initiatives further strengthen our differentiated value proposition. Looking ahead to FY '27, we aim to accelerate subscription revenue growth once again while delivering strong earnings per share growth. Despite providing a contracting gross profit margin outlook for FY '27, the midpoint of our FY '27 EPS outlook implies growth of 21% when compared to our FY 2026 EPS, excluding the secondary offering costs. We envision a slowdown in hiring in FY '27 while we drive sales force efficiency and AI adoption. Before diving into the details, we'd like to provide a quick introduction to Karooooo. We operate a SaaS platform for connected vehicles and mobile assets that delivers mission-critical operational intelligence to businesses.

Our platform enhances operational efficiency, reduces costs, mitigates risk, improve safety and customer service, ensures compliance and empower service delivery. We help businesses simplify decision-making to optimize their physical operations. We serve a large underpenetrated 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 [indiscernible] business with a strong financial profile, a 2-decade proven track record of execution excellence and a cultural focus on disciplined capital allocation, operational efficiency and driving healthy returns on invested capital. Our platform supports approximately 2.7 million subscribers across more than 125,000 businesses, spanning a diverse set of industries and with no customer or industry concentration risk.

Importantly, our financial model is anchored by healthy ARR growth, high-margin subscription revenue and exceptional commercial ARR retention and powerful unit economics. Despite the strengthening of the ZAR, ARR increased 18% to ZAR 5,179 million, and on a U.S. dollar basis, increased 38% to USD 325 million. Our commercial customer ARR retention rate remained at 95%, and subscription revenue accounted for 98% of Cartrack revenue. We continue to scale our proprietary data asset now generating more than 300 billion data points monthly, which we leverage to deliver impactful innovation, insights and value to our customers.

Finally, our LTV to CAC remains above 9x, unpinned 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 operational intelligence SaaS 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. As per our FY '26 outlook, Cartrack delivered exceptional results highlighted by accelerating subscription revenue growth.

These results reflect the early returns from the strategic investments we've made in expanding our sales capacity and selling video and Cartrack tag to our existing customers in South Africa. In FY '26 Cartrack generated approximately ZAR 4.8 billion in subscription revenue, an increase of 19% or 39% on a U.S. dollar basis. A strengthening ZAR negatively impacted reported Cartrack subscription revenue in FY '26. The 19% growth rate reflects a meaningful acceleration compared to 15% subscription revenue growth in FY '25. Cartrack's operating profit margin was a healthy 28% in FY '26. 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 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 whilst driving high contract customer retention. In FY Karooooo Logistics delivery as a service revenue reached ZAR 540 million, an increase of 29% or 50% on a U.S. dollar basis. Given Karooooo Logistics' robust revenue growth, we are very excited about its long-term growth opportunity. Karooooo delivered strong consolidated financial results in FY '26.

Adjusted free cash flow increased 90% to ZAR 809 million, underscoring the durability and cash-generating power of our business. We continued our strong track record of returning excess cash to shareholders as we declared a record USD 1.50 dividend per share, an increase of 20% payable in July 2026. Total revenue increased 20% to ZAR 5,479 million. Subscription revenue increased 19% to ZAR 4,844 million, operating profit increased 8% to ZAR 1,415 million and adjusted earnings per share was ZAR 32.55. FY '26 operating profit was negatively impacted by growth-oriented investments to deliver accelerated growth, foreign exchange headwinds associated with the appreciation of the ZAR and a provision alignment in cost of sales.

FY '26 earnings per share was also negatively impacted by a higher tax rate due to the shift in timing of our dividend declaration. Hoe will provide additional context on these items during the financial discussion. As per our FY '26 outlook, we accelerated subscription revenue growth from 15% to 19%, whilst growing earnings. Q4 continued our track record of delivering profitable growth at scale. In Q4, we were a rule of 60 companies when adding our Cartrack subscription revenue of 18% and our Cartrack adjusted EBITDA margin of 44%. We note that our EBITDA margin does not include any stock-based compensation or SC add-back, a star contrast to SaaS peers.

Our financial profile translates to a healthy return on invested capital. It's important to underscore just how differentiated our financial model has become in the context of the broader SaaS universe. We believe we are among the select few SaaS companies operating at a rule of 50 plus based on calendar year 2026 GAAP Street estimates. Within a SaaS universe of approximately 140 companies, there are less than 10 companies operating at this combined level of growth and profitability, 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 SBC compensation, growth in free cash flow translates directly 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 material equity issuance and SBC. Now let's discuss our FY '26 financial and operational highlights. In FY '26, we accelerated our ARR growth. SaaS ARR accelerated to 18% and ARR growth in U.S. dollars accelerated to 38%, reaching $325 million. South Africa ARR growth accelerated to 23%. Cartrack subscription revenue growth accelerated to 19%, underpinned by accelerating growth of 20% in South Africa.

Cartrack subscription revenue growth in U.S. dollars accelerated to 39%. Cartrack total subscribers increased 16% to approximately 2.7 million driven by healthy growth across all regions. Notably, Cartrack delivered record Q4 subscriber net additions of 94,000. Also, Asia subscriber growth accelerated to 23% in Q4 and Asia net subscriber additions increased 41% in FY '26. Cartrack profitability was impacted by planned upfront sales and marketing operation expenses that delivered accelerated subscription revenue growth of 19% despite foreign exchange headwinds associated with the strengthening ZAR. For additional context, subscription revenue growth accelerated to 39% in U.S. dollars. We are a rule of 60 company and our adjusted free cash flow increased 90% to ZAR 809 million in FY '26.

Our balance sheet remains strong and unleveraged, and we ended the quarter with net cash and cash equivalents of ZAR 746 million. We also declared a dividend per share of USD 1.50, an increase of 20% payable in July 2026. Our healthy subscription gross margin, efficient customer acquisition and attractive commercial customer ARR retention rate continue to drive our healthy unit economics. In Q4, our subscription gross margin was 71%, our LTV to CAC ratio remained above 9x, and our commercial customer ARR retention rate was 95%. Our unit economics remain healthy despite the significant increase in sales and marketing expenses during Q4, and we remain committed to profitable growth as we pursue the expansive growth opportunity ahead of us.

In FY '26, we secured significant enterprise customer wins across diverse industries and geographies underscoring the flexibility of our platform, the richness of our feature set and our ability to service a universe of industries. This broad-based adoption strengthens our conviction in the magnitude of our long-term growth opportunity. FY '26 subscriber growth increased 16%, and we surpassed 2 million subscribers in South Africa during Q4. This achievement highlights South Africa's 2-decade track record of sustained growth and operational excellence in South Africa, driven by its focus on product innovation, customer centricity and disciplined execution.

In FY '26, South Africa subscription revenue accelerated to 20% to ZAR 3,468 million, a significant achievement when compared to the growth rate of 15% in the prior year. Importantly, South Africa exited the fiscal year in February with ARR growth of 23%. South African subscriber and subscription revenue growth are a clear signal that our strategy continues to drive results. The pace of growth reflects our deliberate strategy to cement our leadership position in South Africa through a balanced combination of subscriber additions and selling video and Cartrack tag to our existing customers.

We are committed to building our distribution capabilities to service the demand for our customers from both new customers 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 '27. We are optimistic about the market opportunity in South Africa and believe there is a long runway to drive strong subscriber growth. We ended FY '26 with approximately 336,000 subscribers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, an increase of 23% with most of the subscribers in Southeast Asia. Importantly, our results demonstrate that our recent investment in sales capacity are beginning to yield tangible returns.

In Q4, subscriber growth accelerated, driving record net additions of 17,447, an increase of 82%. For the full year, net subscriber additions increased 41% reflecting the strengthening momentum of our customer acquisition engine in the region. FY '26 subscription revenue growth was 17% and 20% on a constant currency basis. The pace of subscription revenue growth in the region was impacted by the faster growth of certain countries that generate lower ARPU. As the second largest contributor to group revenue, Southeast Asia continues to present the most compelling growth opportunity for the group in the medium to long term.

We plan to continue with a strong yet prudent drive to increase sales and marketing in Southeast Asia and we anticipate our investments to have a positive impact on subscriber growth in the region. 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 FY '26 with approximately 228,000 subscribers in Europe, an increase of 14%. FY '26 subscription revenue growth was 22% and 19% on a constant currency basis. 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 application programming interfaces. We expect these partnerships to contribute to our results in the medium 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 Q4, Karooooo Logistics continued to build scale and delivered revenue of ZAR 145 million, an increase of 32% and a 9% operating profit margin. Growth was driven by demand of e-commerce orders and the adoption of our service by our customers.

Karooooo Logistics 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. During Q4, Karooooo Logistics surpassed ZAR 1 billion in cumulative payments to drivers since Karooooo acquired it in 2021. This milestone highlights Karooooo Logistics' continued efforts to create sustainable economic opportunity for thousands of drivers in South Africa, while supporting the growing logistics ambitions of leading retailers fast food companies and e-commerce platforms in South Africa. In addition, the thousands of drivers we have on the road, daily successfully executed more than 8 million deliveries in FY '26.

We see a large opportunity for Karooooo Logistics going forward as large businesses seem to increase their e-commerce offerings and optimize their logistics capabilities through a capital-light model. As we reflect on our FY '26 priorities, we believe we successfully cemented our leadership position in South Africa, expanded our distribution capabilities across regions and drove broader engagement with our platform, including the adoption of video and AI-assisted video. As we aim to accelerate our growth and deliver strong earnings per share growth in FY '27, our strategic priorities for FY '27 are as follows: First, we plan to continue to cement our leadership position in our markets by balancing new customer acquisition with broader adoption of video and contract tag.

Second, we intend to drive sales force efficiency while accelerating subscription revenue growth. And finally, we aim to harness AI to enhance the capabilities of our platform, drive operating efficiencies throughout the business and accelerate the speed of execution and pace of innovation. We've seen a lot of discussion around whether AI could disrupt SaaS models over the last few months, and it's a valid question for the broader SaaS sector, but our model is structurally differentiated from most SaaS companies. We believe our platform and financial model poses unique resilience that will enable us to thrive in the AI era.

Our platform is built around a proprietary system of record that relies on IoT devices installed and maintained on customers' physical assets in the field. This is not data that can be sourced by an LLM. It's generated through physical hardware that our auto technicians install and actively service across more than 20 countries. Our proprietary data asset collected from these IoT devices is large, vast proprietary and central to our differentiation. We have been collecting this proprietary data for more than 20 years, and we believe it provides us with a compounding data advantage.

In addition, we tailor each IoT device installation to the individual requirements of our customers, enabling the collection of customer-specific data that helps solve their unique business and operational challenges. Our platform is also deeply embedded in customers' day-to-day operations from ERP and CRM systems to logistics, safety and compliance workflows. This level of operational integration makes us an indispensable part of how these businesses function daily. AI can assist decision-making, but it can't own fleet safety and physical logistics operations, install telemetry devices and physical assets and service telemetry devices in the physical world.

Our platform is mission-critical and keeps assets and people safe and productive, and that's not something that can currently be automated away by an AI agent. Furthermore, unlike most SaaS business models, our model is not seat-based. Growth is driven by penetration of physical assets, vehicles, equipment and machinery and by the continued expansion of those physical asset bases globally, that creates a durable long-term growth engine that is independent of head count or end-user licenses. This insulates us from the seed compression or user license risk that many software players face, particularly as AI automates knowledge worker tasks. From a financial perspective, our business is difficult to displace.

Our ARPU is roughly USD 10 per month, which is exceptionally low relative to the all-in cost of operating a vehicle or assets, inclusive of fuel, driver payroll, insurance and maintenance expenses and yet the ROI we deliver is high. That makes our offering both indispensable and uneconomic to disrupt, especially given that we are embedded in our customers' workflows and daily operations.

Add to this that our vertically integrated footprint across 20-plus countries, 95% commercial customer ARR retention, robust profitability, recent growth acceleration and strong free cash flow generation and you can see why we feel confident that AI will serve as a tailwind to our platform, enhancing automation, functionality and insights whilst accelerating innovation rather than being a threat to our business model. With that said, I will now pass the call over to Hoe Shin.

Hoeshin Goy: Thank you, Carmen. I will now discuss Karooooo's financial performance for quarter 4 and the full year FY 2026. Please note, my comments may refer to year-over-year comparisons unless we state otherwise. Quarter 4 extended Cartrack's record of durable growth at scale, driven by consistent execution, our resilient subscription revenue model and attractive historic retention rates. In quarter 4, subscriber increased 16% to approximately 2.7 million. Subscription revenue increased 18% to ZAR 1,278 million, and operating profit was ZAR 324 million. Cartrack experienced record quarter 4 customer acquisition with net subscriber additions of 93,755, an increase of 19%. The record quarter for net subscriber additions reflects our strategic investment in sales capacity while cross-selling video and contracted to existing customer.

Cartrack's strong financial performance continued to be fueled by SaaS revenue momentum. In quarter 4, Cartrack's revenue increased 17% to ZAR 1,304 million, and Cartrack subscription revenue increased 18% to ZAR 1,278 million. Subscription revenue comprised 98% of Cartrack's total revenue. For FY 2026, Cartrack revenue increased 19% to a record ZAR 4,939 million, and Cartrack's subscription revenue increased 19% to ZAR 4,831 million. ARR growth increased 18%, reaching ZAR 5,179 million despite currency headwinds associated with the strengthening of ZAR. In U.S. dollar, ARR growth accelerated to 38%, reaching $325 million. Our proven and profitable SaaS business model continued to deliver strong consolidated results in quarter 4 and FY 2026 with meaningful acceleration despite foreign currency headwinds.

In quarter 4, Karooooo's total subscription revenue increased 18% to ZAR 1,281 million. Operating profit was ZAR 338 million and adjusted earnings per share was ZAR 0.78. For FY 2026, Karooooo's total subscription revenue accelerated to 19% to ZAR 4,844 million, operating profit was ZAR 1,450 million, and adjusted earnings per share was ZAR 32.55. For additional context, our FY 2025 subscription revenue growth was 15%. FY 2026 adjusted earnings per share was ZAR 32.55. In U.S. dollar, the adjusted earnings per share increased 20% to $2.05. Quarter 4 adjusted earnings per share came in at ZAR 7.80 related to the following items we will discuss.

The strengthening of ZAR against currency in our key markets, create a headwind to our reported revenue, while majority of our cost of sales reflects depreciation of the in-vehicle IoT device at prior year exchange rates, when ZAR is lower. The depreciation of the in-vehicle IoT device was a key component of our cost of sales. On top of that, our accelerated growth this year expanded our in-vehicle IoT device to increase by 45%, and we align our provision in line with this accelerated growth. As a result, Cartrack gross profit margin was 70% compared to 75% in the same quarter in prior year, and subscription revenue gross profit margin was 71%.

Importantly, we did not experience a disproportionate churn rate in quarter 4 compared to other quarters. Finally, a higher effective tax rate in this quarter reflects withholding tax from dividend payment made by our subsidiary to the holding company. Taken all together, these 3 items represented approximately ZAR 1.60 of earnings per share in this quarter. Excluding them, our quarter 4 earnings per share would have been stood at approximately 8.78. Corus adjusted earnings per share was 7.18. Cartracks earnings per share contribution was 6.89, and Karu Logistics earnings per share contribution increased 45% to 0.29. Our adjusted earnings per share reflects our delivery investment in sales capacity to accelerate subscription revenue growth and support durable long-term growth.

In quarter 4, Karooooo consolidated sales and marketing expense rose 37%, reflecting this strategy. This upfront sales and marketing expense do not align with the lifetime value of the recurring revenue earnings and free cash flow that these customers will generate. Importantly, our powerful unit economics remain strong and intact. Looking back, FY 2026 was a year focused on accelerating subscription revenue growth while maintaining our strong subscriber growth. Our total subscriber growth increased 16% in financial year 2026. South Africa subscriber growth rose 16% and Asia subscriber growth accelerated to 23%. Asia is our fastest-growing region in terms of subscriber growth.

Even if the strongest ZAR our financial year 2026 SaaS ARR growth was 18% and in U.S. dollar, our ARR growth accelerated to 38%. South Africa stood out with SaaS ARR growth accelerated to 23% as compared to 17% in 2025. This marked the third consecutive year of ARR growth acceleration despite foreign currency headwinds associated with the appreciation of ZAR. We believe the acceleration in ARR growth reflect the underlying momentum in the business and signals that our strategic initiatives are gaining traction. Cartrack continued to grow its subscription revenue across geographies, highlighted by acceleration in South Africa. FY 2026 South Africa subscription revenue growth was 20%, an acceleration from 15% in FY 2025.

We view this acceleration as a clear indicator that our efforts to extend our leadership position are translating into real measurable performance. FY 2026 Asia and Middle East subscription revenue growth was 17% or 20% on a constant currency basis. The growth reflects an increase in subscriber from lower ARPU countries in the region, combined with the translation impact of a stronger ZAR. Europe subscription revenue growth was 22% or 19% on a constant currency basis. Healthy performance across region reflects our strong execution and provide a solid foundation for our continued durable growth. We have a 2-decade track record of strong free cash flow generation and FY 2026 free cash flow generation was exceptional.

FY 2026 adjusted free cash flow increased 90% to ZAR 809 million, underscoring the strength of our operating model. Several factors contributed to this performance. debtors adapters book improved primarily due to strong collection in February 2026, improved supplier terms, timing of tax payments, disciplined management of uninstalled IoT device following a deliver buildup in the bio year and payments related to the construction of the South African head office reduced as the building was completed in previous years. As we pursue accelerated growth, we expect free cash flow to reflect our investment to drive growth.

While quarterly fluctuations may occur due to the 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 powers our disciplined capital allocation strategy and healthy return on invested capital 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 and fixed deposit was ZAR 746 million that these collection days remain healthy at 27 days and are within our historical norm. We declared a record dividend of $1.50 per share, an increase of 20% and payable to our shareholders in July 2026.

We believe that our ability to generate healthy cash flow is sustainable, given our energy business model, coupled with our track record of consistent execution. As we reflect on our financial performance in FY 2026, we delivered on our outlook with Cartrack subscription revenue at the higher end of our initial outlook even with stronger ZAR and adjusted earnings per share at the lower end of our initial outlook primarily due to the planned growth-oriented investment and foreign currency headwinds. Moving on to our outlook for FY 2027. We intend to accelerate subscription revenue growth once again while delivering strong EPS growth.

We are confident that our investment in sales capacity in FY 2026 will have a positive impact on subscriber growth in 2027 and we plan to drive our growth by balancing subscriber growth with increased adoption of video and Cartrack tech. We believe the increased sales efficiencies, coupled with realizing other efficiency in the business, due to scale and AI adoption will support strong EPS growth. With that, our guidance for FY 2027 are as follows: Cartrack subscription revenue between ZAR 5,700 million to ZAR 6,000 million, which implies Cartrack's subscription revenue growth between 18% to 24%.

Cartrack's gross profit margin between 70% to 72%, Cartrack's operating profit margin between 27% to 30% and Karooooo earnings per share between 38.5 to 40. Despite providing a contracting gross profit margin outlook for FY 2027, assuming current exchange rates and accelerated growth, the midpoint of our earnings per share outlook implies earnings per share growth of 21% in FY 2027, when compared to our FY 2026 earnings per share, excluding secondary offering costs. We envisage a slowdown in hiring in FY 2027, while we drive sales force efficiencies. In closing, in quarter 4, we experienced strong momentum with SaaS ARR growth of 18%, even with foreign currency headwinds led by South Africa ARR growth of 23%.

We also delivered record quarter 4 net subscriber additions, highlighted by accelerating growth in Asia. While quarter 4 operating profit and adjusted earnings per share were impacted by several items which we discussed earlier. The underlying business is performing well. Our adjusted free cash flow generation was exceptional, increasing 90% to ZAR 809 million. We also continued our track record of returning excess cash to shareholders as we declare a $1.50 dividend per share, an increase of 20%. These results reflect the strength of our operating model, early returns on our investment in sales capacity and our ability to scale efficiently while generating durable cash flow.

As we look forward to FY 2027, we are well positioned to accelerate growth and deliver meaningful earnings per share expansion. We remain committed to disciplined capital allocation, strong unit economics and long-term value creation. And finally, we are confident in our ability to consistently generate meaningful free cash flow and healthy return on invested capital. With that, I will turn the presentation over to Zach Calisto for Q&A.

Isaias Jose Calisto: Sorry, I was having a bit of a problem, need to unmute myself. Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. I will now go into the questions. . And I will now go into the questions, and I will answer the questions. The first question from Josh from Needham. As you, how are you thinking about using AI to drive more internal efficiencies, particularly with customer support and voice AI applications. Josh, we've been busy with this, I would say, for the last 18 months. At this point in time, we are using AI, but not quite at the point where we'd like to be using it.

But quite frankly, it doesn't work as well as a lot of companies site working. And we've looked at -- we've got our own AI team that's working at it. We're continuously improving, and I certainly believe AI will get there. But at the moment, it still makes too many misinterpretations and it still makes -- it basically frustrates customers. So we are using it, but not as much as we want to use it, but I believe over time, we'll just get at it and the AI tools will get better. And over time, this will be a big win for us. The second question from Josh.

What are you seeing in pricing trends in different markets do you have more pricing down on any particular region currently? I think the pricing change, Josh, have been the same. They've been quite consistent, I would say, for the last 10 years. The markets we operate in, there isn't this a raising of ARPUs that you've seen in the North America market. It's very much about giving more to the customer as technology gets better and sort of retaining the same pricing. And then it really is about your unit economics and your pricing model working.

And we've got a track record that our pricing model is correct, and it gives us the desired operating profit margins that we look at getting. So I don't see any pressures at this point, but I also don't see an opportunity to just raise prices for the sake of raising prices. Another question from Josh. What are the key focus regions for investment in FY '27. I think fundamentally, FY '27 is going to be really about a lot of focus and improving our platform, our products, our productivity of our people. I'm not saying it's not good. I think it's actually -- it's a more cleaning, but there's always room for improvement.

And in FY '26, we hired a lot of people across lots of regions and we just need everybody to settle down a little bit more, and then we'll ramp up our human capital again. And is APAC is still a key priority for incremental investments? Definitely. We did a lot during the last financial year. And we continue not to slow down, specifically in Southeast Asia. The places where we'll do a lot of slowdown will be predominantly in South Africa. I'll move on to Dylan. Thanks Dylan. Dylan from William Blair. Can you dig into the draft of strength in South Africa?

Notable reacceleration in largest region and outlook supports sustained momentum ramping reps, new products, lots of positive factors, such as. Dylan South Africa just before COVID, we had a building and we had to run out of space, and we're going to start building and building, then COVID came in, we couldn't build it. Then just when COVID finished, we built the building, we moved into this building approximately now 18 months ago, and this building is obviously designed in a way that we can operate in a much more efficient way than we've ever done in the past.

It's also allowed us to add more head count and better systems and better processes, and we're starting to yield the results of that investment. I'll go to the next question from Alex from Raymond James. On gross profit margin, can you elaborate on the alignment of provision increase to cost of sales? Is this an accounting risk maintenance? And how long you amounted the devices cost. Or is there a fair market value adjustment that ask for. So the first thing the auditors did not ask for it. They also picked up that there was an increase in the audit what we had picked the table or the auditors already. So it wasn't a request from auditors.

It was more forward-looking because what happened during the acceleration of PPE went up substantially. And we just wanted to make sure we've made cautious provisions and probably in hindsight, we could have -- should have done this in Q2 but we didn't really know how acceleration was going to take shape. So we decided to do it in Q4. So maybe the best way to have answered that it would have been -- we could have done a bit in Q2, Q3. But we only had the visibility of the power of our acceleration by Q4. So we as management, decided to do it in Q4.

But there's been -- in actual fact, we've seen no extra churn than we've ever seen in the past. But our PPE substantially launched than it was. And we just done it on surprises. And that's why we've decided to do in Q4 just to make a bigger provision. So the next question from Alex. Can you speak to the sales productivity you observed exiting FY '26 and early FY '27 gives you confidence of strong growth outlook despite the lower hiring plans? So in our outlook, Alex, is we're basically saying we expect worst case to continue at this current rate or to increase it.

Despite us saying that we're going to slow down the hiring that doesn't mean we're going to stop hiring. We're still going to continue hiring people and we certainly believe we've got sufficient momentum in sufficient people with a bit of hiring that we can accelerate further than the current growth. So we feel very -- we've had 2 months in this current financial year, and we're feeling very comfortable that we will be able to deliver on this outlook. And historically, we've never found on our outlook. The next question from Rudi van Niekerk.

Please unpack Cartrack's Q4 cost of sales increase of 42% of to 392 and the related note, why the provision in vehicle IoT device increases 45%, while ARR increases 18%? So really, we've got the actuarial models to how we depreciate our PPE, and that aligns with the life cycle of revenue expected from that PPE. However, if you look at the amount because we've got a much stronger growth, the growth in our PPE and in our balance sheet, that's gone up substantially. And that's where you got to compare how much is the PPE on the balance sheet increased, and that's more comparable to how much depreciation has got.

And that's the relation that you've got to look at as opposed to the relationship to subscription revenue because now you've got many more devices, IoT devices in the depreciation cycle. And obviously, in our subscription revenue, there's a lot of devices they[indiscernible] and they don't contribute to cost of sales because it's been fully depreciated, yet they're still giving us revenue. But now with accelerated growth, you certainly have -- as a percentage of subscribers, there's a bigger percentage now that are still in the depreciation cycle. Hopefully, I articulated that in a way that's easily understood. I'll move on to another question by Dylan from William Blair.

Slight near-term margin headwinds make sense, especially as you see revenue acceleration paying out. But how should we think about leverage for some of the upfront investments in sales marketing they are likely to normalize a bit more in FY '27? So Dylan, you will see it coming through on our operating profit margin. and clearly on our earnings per share. So with that slowdown, what we are definitely going to do is, and we're giving guidance to that to very healthy earnings per share growth in FY '27. I'll now move to the next question from Dylan as well.

Momentum with a, how much of ARPU uplift versus wedge of drive new logos and maybe initial contribution from TAG in FY '27 outlook? I think I can't give you numbers to that, Dylan. I haven't got those in front of me at this stage. But I think fundamentally, there is a contribution from TAG to our growth and from vigor to our growth. And that's the level of contribution would probably be more significant in FY '27 than it was in FY '26 as we pick up momentum. And as our teams get better at selling these products and getting more familiar with the multiple applications that all these products do have.

I will now move over to Scott from ROTH. How is Cartrack progressing in South Africa, what's the current number of connected devices and what is the current thought process of commercial rollouts in other countries. Scott, I do not have these numbers in front of me. I can always drop you an e-mail with these numbers. So at this point in time, we're now going to start rolling it out into Africa during FY '27. And so we expected by the end of FY '27 to have it throughout South Africa and the Rest of Africa. Next question by Dylan from William Blair.

Any impact from rising input costs to [indiscernible] in memory storage, higher navigating supply chain dynamics here? Yes, Dylan, we've seen significant increases in memory. When I say significant, we're talking about 200% increases. We've adjusted our pricing using our long existing pricing model that we do to cater for these memories. So it has been adjustment in our pricing. We don't believe this new pricing will slow down our ability to sell and nor do I believe it will accelerate our subscription revenue because it won't have that much of a meaningful impact into the bigger picture given our large base that we currently already have.

And a lot of our costs that we see in our P&L is actually depreciation and this depreciation is actually of devices and memories that have been bought in the past at old pricing. I'll move over to Scott from ROTH. How is the macroeconomic overhang impacting demand and customer decisions, particularly related to rising gas prices? I think, Scott, it's early days. It's very clear and very evident that there is substantial increases in fuel prices at this point in time. But we can't say we've now all of a sudden seen because of that. So I can't attribute any of our growth to that.

But I'm sure if the prices do not come down, then that will start impacting demand for our products. But at this point in time, it's not that obvious. It probably does exist, but it's not obvious. Another question from Scott is the ongoing adoption of AI camera. What are the current attach rates. And is that the primary driver of the Q4 ARPU increased boost? So think it's a multiple and it's a complex answer to that. In actual fact, our ARPU in Q4 was very negatively impacted because of the strong ZAR, specifically in Q4, the ZAR really strengthened. ZAR is definitely a positive contributor to ARPU.

But like I've said many times before, higher ARPU for us because of our business model does not imply higher margins because it's all -- it's more equipment. It's more data costs, more ongoing costs, and that goes back to our pricing model, which still leaves us with very much the same operating profit margins. The next question from Gokul Raj. With the float better with our offering last year, would you consider share buybacks over dividends. If yes, what is the valuation multiple thumb rule below which you buy back shares? Gokul, we have been on NASDAQ, it's not always easy to buy shares back at this point in time.

And we haven't got that in our radar at this point in time to share buyback. And if our investors do want the can take dividends and buy more shares for the dividends. But at this point in time, we haven't got buyback in mind. The next question from [indiscernible]. What is the impact on the U.S. -- U.S.A. Iran war on the business. How much of your business is in the Middle East? And what is the impact of all these on fuel prices? I've answered part of your question in to previous questions. And the impact of the U.S. Iran war is, I think it impacts really the oil price.

We have got a good business in the UAE, but I think that business has been impacted slightly and we can't measure at this stage how much impact it really has, but there is impact there. but it's a small part of our bigger business. And in terms of fuel prices and demand for our products, I'm sure if this continues, we will see more demand. But at this point in time, it's not obvious. Then the last question from [indiscernible]. It seems like ARPU was an area of issue. Is this related to Southeast Asia? How can we think about ARPU growth potential for this year?

I'm not quite sure [indiscernible] for what you mean, but I will attempt to answer your question. So ARPU in Q4 was negatively impacted because of the translation of currencies. And our ARPU will increase based on increasing more product to our customers. However, having said that, it also depends what markets grow faster. And at the moment, in Southeast Asia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand are growing really very fast. However, the ARPUs are similar to South Africa.

And typically, our ARPU in Asia is substantially better than South Africa because of Singapore, which has got a very high ARPU but as Singapore becomes a smaller part of Asia, then the ARPU change would be for the in Asia to come down. But it really is just a geography dependent and it's not business dependent as such, your customer dependent, if I make sense of what I'm trying to say. Anyway, that's the last question. I want to thank everybody for taking time to listen to Hoe and to Carmen and to me. And thank you. Bye-bye.

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