JSC Kaspi.kz Announces 4Q & FY 2023 Financial Results

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN / ACCESSWIRE / February 26, 2024 / Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz ("Kaspi.kz", "we", or the "Company") (Nasdaq:KSPI). which operates the Kaspi.kz Super App for consumers and Kaspi Pay Super App for merchants, published its unaudited consolidated IFRS financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended 31 December 2023 ("4Q 2023" and "FY 2023," respectively).

4Q 2023 & FY 2023 Highlights

· Strong financial momentum in 4Q 2023 with revenue and net income up 45% and 32% year-over-year ("YoY"), respectively. FY 2023 consolidated revenue and net income up 51% and 44% YoY, respectively. FY 2023 consolidated diluted EPS up 45% YoY.

· Our faster growing and more profitable Payments and Marketplace Platforms continued to deliver strong bottom-line growth, accounting for 66% of FY 2023 consolidated net income. We expect Payments and Marketplace Platforms to continue growing at a faster rate than our Fintech Platform.

· With a large and engaged consumer and merchant base, our focus in FY 2023 was to continue driving transaction growth:

· Average monthly transactions per active consumer reached a record high of 71.

· TPV transactions & GMV purchases both up 38% YoY.

· Kaspi.kz Super App user engagement increased again in 4Q 2023, with daily engagement reaching 65%, amongst the highest of any major mobile app globally.

· All Platforms outperformed the guidance we provided in mid-2023, led by Marketplace with GMV and revenue in FY 2023 up 45% and 87% YoY respectively:

· Marketplace net income in FY 2023 up 63% YoY despite rapid growth of 1P e-Grocery.

· Within Marketplace, e-Commerce continued to deliver the stand-out performance in FY 2023:

· e-Commerce GMV up 53% YoY.

· Revenue from delivery and advertising valued added services up 2.7x YoY. In 2024 value-added services will remain a strategic priority.

· e-Commerce Take Rate up 160 bps YoY to 11%.

· Kaspi Delivery and Kaspi Advertising added 190 bps to e-Commerce Take-Rate.

· Kaspi Smart Logistics experienced a 130% YoY increase in orders delivered.

· 5,943 Kaspi Postomats rolled out, accounting for 39% of deliveries.

· Kaspi Postomats are a major competitive advantage and we're now planning for around 7,000 by the end of 2024.

· e-Grocery top- & bottom-line remained strong:

· e-Grocery GMV up 3.5x YoY in FY 2023.

· In Almaty, our launch city, 10% of the total population purchased groceries from us in 4Q 2023.

· Almaty net income profitability reached 6% in the 4Q 2023.

· We will continue to scale up in Almaty and Astana, as well as launch our first dark store in Shymkent, with the aim of being present in Kazakhstan's 3 largest cities in 2024.

· Kaspi Travel continued to grow rapidly:

· Travel GMV up 42% YoY with its Take Rate up to 4.6% in 4Q 2023.

· In 2023 we launched Kaspi Tours, vacation packages marketplace, and by 4Q 2023 they already accounted for 5% of Travel's GMV.

· Tours are not only GMV growth enhancing but Take Rate additive with an 8.7% Take Rate in 4Q 2023.

· Following the acquisition of Kolesa, we are scaling our car marketplace which enables transactions with online car loans. 1P Car Marketplace pilot is now underway. Buidling our car marketplace represents another important priority for 2024.

· In Payments, Kaspi B2B remains additive to TPV growth:

· B2B TPV in FY 2023 up 2.1x YoY.

· Payments Platform profitability in FY 2023 reached a record high, with 55% net income growth vs. 44% revenue growth YoY.

· Fintech Platform TFV growth up 47% YoY in FY 2023:

· Merchant & Micro Finance is our fastest growing lending product and at 15% of TFV is increasingly meaningful in size. Merchant Finance is a materially underpenetrated market opportunity in Kazakhstan and is expected to see ongoing strong structural growth.

· Fintech CoR stable YoY at 2%.

· Our focus on deposits resulted in average deposit balances up 43% YoY in FY 2023. Our enlarged deposit base is expected to lead to faster future growth in payments transactions and gives up flexibility to scale up lending origination.

· Based on strong 4Q 2023 Kaspi.kz consolidated financials:

· Board of Directors proposes a dividend of KZT850/ADS, subject to shareholder approval.

· $277 million ADSs repurchased since the program began in April 2022. We will take an opportunistic approach to ADS buybacks in the future.

· With ADS trading liquidity 12x higher on NASDAQ, we plan to delist from LSE to consolidate liquidity.

· The first quarter of 2024 has gotten off to a strong start and we observe a healthy and predictable consumer and merchant environment. Taking this into account we currently expect Kaspi.kz to deliver another year of fast earnings growth at scale in Kazakhstan, with net income up around 25% YoY.

To the shareholders of Kaspi.kz:

Once again, I'm pleased to report another set of excellent operating and financial results. Kaspi.kz finished 2023 firing on all cylinders, with the results well ahead of the guidance we provided at our interim results last summer.

Before discussing our performance and outlook, I would like to start by thanking all our shareholders, both old and new, that have supported us on our journey to our US listing on Nasdaq. This milestone event allowed us to showcase our unique Super App business model to a larger pool of investors than ever before. Some of the investors we met have become shareholders and others we hope will do so in the months and years ahead. What matters is that we now have 12x higher trading liquidity, and as our team keeps executing and the pool of investors with whom we engage expands, I'm confident our new listing will increasingly be seen as a game changer.

Turning back to our results, this time last year I told you that our top priority was to grow transactions between consumers and merchants. You can see that we're delivering, with monthly transactions per active consumer hitting a record high 71. We believe that this is our most important competitive advantage and what we anticipate will enable us to keep delivering fast and profitable growth well into the future.

With a large and engaged consumer and merchant base, higher transaction volumes are a function of increasing user penetration of individual products, as well as adding new top-quality, frequently used services. We continue to make good progress across our entire product range, but 2023 stands out as being a breakout year for our e-Commerce. The efforts we have made over several years in merchant expansion, free consumer delivery including the rollout of Kaspi Postomats and more recently e-Grocery, have always yielded strong results, but our scale is now on another level. We believe that the e-Commerce market in Kazakhstan has reached the tipping point at which it goes mass market with years of strong, structural growth still to come. Kaspi e-Commerce is the market leader and e-Commerce has the potential to be the single biggest opportunity for us over the next couple of years.

With scale in e-Commerce we're in a better position to design fast growing value-added services. Kaspi Advertising allows merchants to increase their visibility online and in FY 2023 revenue increased 278% year-over-year. Kaspi Delivery allows merchants to sell nationwide and consumers to benefit from fast, free delivery. Revenue from Kaspi Delivery increased 132%. Delivery and advertising were important drivers of e-Commerce revenue growth in excess of GMV growth last year and with a range of new product launches planned, we believe value-added services will be increasingly important to our growth outlook. In fact, as we have emerged as a major player in grocery retail, major Fast-Moving Consumer Goods ("FMCG") companies are approaching us to develop brand advertising solutions. Advertising tools for brands as part of the Kaspi Advertising platform are now another important opportunity.

e-Grocery continues to go from strength to strength. Transactions increased 3.3x year-over-year in FY 2023. In Almaty, where we launched first, around 10% of the population shopped for their groceries online with us in 4Q 2023. This is really good progress and the result of our efforts to design a truly differentiated and market leading grocery offering. More importantly, profitability continues to move-up. In 4Q 2023, our Almaty operations, delivered a 6% net income margin. 4Q is usually the best quarter for any food retailer, but nonetheless this is an extraordinary result delivered by our team in such a short period.

Some investors have expressed their skepticism when it comes to the economics of e-Grocery, but we think our numbers put this debate to bed. Consumer feedback is extremely positive and although we still have a lot to do, we're happy with the operating and financial model we have built. In 2024 we plan to expand further in Almaty and Astana, as well as launch in Shymkent, giving us a presence in Kazakhstan's 3 largest cities, which combined account for around half of retail trade.

Looking at some of our other earlier stage initiatives, following our acquisition of Kolesa, which includes Kazakshtan's leading car classifieds, we are aiming to build a car marketplace where our fintech products enable transactions. We have also started piloting used car sales. Here too we are leveraging our technology to design a best in class consumer experience. The initial results are encouraging and we are excited by the potential to scale our online car marketplace in 2024. This can be another growth driver and further diversify our Marketplace Platform. As always, our focus will remain on executing profitability.

B2B TPV growth of 2.1x year-over-year in FY 2023 is impressive but we've barely scratched the surface of the digital products we can offer to businesses. In 2024 we plan to remain focused on building the scale and increasing merchant engagement, thereby putting in place the foundation for future B2B related innovations.

Turning to other matters, our long-term approach to capital allocation remains unchanged. Investing in our growth, be it organic or via M&A, is always the first use for the cash we generate. However, if we have excess capital, we expect to return it to our shareholders. The numbers speak for themselves, as we pass a 3-year track record of returning substantial amounts of capital. For 4Q 2023, our Board of Directors has recommended dividend of KZT850/ADS, subject to shareholder approval. This is in addition to our ADS buyback program, which since April 2022 has totalled around $277 million.

The first quarter of the year has gotten off to a strong start. The consumer and merchant environment remains healthy and predictable and we're excited about the year ahead.

As always, I would like to thank every Kapsi.kz employee for their incredible execution and dedication to our consumers, merchants and partners. To our long-term shareholders, thank you for your ongoing trust and support.

Mikheil Lomtadze
Kaspi.kz CEO and co-founder

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SOURCE: JSC Kaspi.kz

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