Jumia Technologies AG Q2 FY2024 Earnings Call

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Jumia's Results Conference Call for the Second Quarter of 2024. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. With us today are Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia; and Antoine Maillet-Mezeray, Executive Vice President, Finance & Operations. We'll start by covering the safe harbor. We would like to remind you that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Moreover, these forward-looking statements may speak only to our expectations as of today. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements. For a discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements expressed today, please see the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 20-F as published on March 28, 2024, as well as our other submissions with the SEC. In addition, on this call, we will refer to certain financial measures not reported in accordance with IFRS. You can find reconciliations of these non-IFRS financial measures to the corresponding IFRS financial measures in our earnings press release, which is available on our Investor Relations website. With that, I'll hand it over to Francis.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with an overview of our performance during the second quarter and will offer an update on our business and strategic objectives. I will then turn the call over to Antoine for a more in-depth look at our financials followed by Q&A. Building off of the momentum we saw in the first three months of the year, we delivered improvement in our usage KPIs in Q2 '24 and continued taking a diligent approach to cost management while further strengthening cash efficiency. As part of this, we continue to prioritize executing against our strategic initiatives and building healthy fundamentals. Importantly, our efforts are delivering results and our progress is evident in our second quarter performance. In Q2 '24, orders grew a solid 6.9% year-over-year and increased 4.9% on a sequential basis. GMV in constant currency grew 35% year-over-year, driven by more efficient market expense and continued efforts to enhance our product assortment. GMV in USD did decline by 5% year-over-year due to the impact of last quarter's devaluations in our two largest markets, Nigeria and Egypt. Devaluations also impacted top line revenue which declined 17.2% year-over-year in the quarter. However, we have seen some signs of stabilization in Egypt along with a sharp reduction of the spread between the official and parallel market rates. More importantly, our ability to drive GMV growth in constant currency illustrates that our value proposition is working. This is even more evident at the country level. In Q2 '24, six of our countries delivered GMV growth, up from five in the first quarter. For example, in Ghana, GMV grew 116.4% year-over-year in constant currency and was up 72.1% year-over-year in USD. This further validates that our strategy and value proposition are well suited to navigate the unique African market dynamics. Orders per customer, excluding JumiaPay, increased by 5.1% in Q2 '24 while AOV for physical goods reached $39.2, down 7.1% year-over-year. The decline in AOV is attributable to a shift in category mix this quarter. In Q2 '24, a greater proportion of our sales volumes came from fashion, a lower AOV category, driven by improvements in sourcing from Chinese vendors. We also experienced lower corporate sales in Egypt. As a reminder, we do not aim for a specific AOV, as we rather strive to provide the best value proposition in each of our priority categories, which include phones, electronics, home and living, fashion, and beauty. Quarterly active customers improved a solid 6% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 '24 and were flat year-over-year, which is an important milestone for Jumia. We believe that the improvement in active customers positions us to focus on reintegrating Jumia's customer growth. As we noted last quarter, continued marketing efficiency is helping us acquire what we believe to be a stickier and higher quality customer base. Our 90-day repurchase rate for new customers improved 262 basis points in the first quarter of '24 to 36% from 33% in the same period last year, further validating our strategy. Based on our previous successes in key markets, we believe that we can significantly improve our Group average repurchase rate. For example, in Cote d'Ivoire, we have already implemented several tactics to strengthen the consumer value proposition, including providing an enhanced assortment of goods and services with a view to capturing and retaining more loyal customers. As a result, we achieved a 46% 90-day repurchase rate from Q1 '24 new customers. As we expand these efforts across all of our markets, we expect to see Group level repurchase rates improve. Building on this momentum, disciplined cost management combined with recent reductions in finance costs reduced our quarterly cash burn from $19.1 million in Q1 '24 to $8.7 million in Q2 '24. Loss before income tax also decreased $22.5 million versus a loss of $30.9 million a year ago and a loss of $39.6 million last quarter, driven by cost reductions and reductions in FX related finance costs, as well as our cash repatriation. Adjusted EBITDA loss, which excludes finance costs, decreased to $16.3 million, in line with the reduction in the operating loss and driven primarily by cost savings initiatives. Loss before income tax includes finance costs such as the impact of FX and cost of cash repatriation. Antoine will discuss this in more detail in a moment. Ultimately, we're seeing nice momentum in the business, supported by an acceleration in the improvement of several of our usage trends. Our success is attributable to continued execution against our strategic initiatives. As a reminder, our strategy is focused around three key pillars. First, refocusing and recommitting to the African e-commerce market. Second, improving cash efficiency. And third, building a stronger consumer value proposition tailored to the needs and purchasing power of the African consumers. Turning to our first objective. The team has done a good job simplifying Jumia's operations and strengthening our core business. This includes the work we've done to streamline our operations throughout the entire business. We are now focused on accelerating Jumia's growth through our remaining two pillars. The first of those two remaining pillars is a commitment to improve cash efficiency. In Q2 '24, we continue to make strides managing our cost structure, expanding our asset light logistics network, and taking a disciplined approach to marketing spend. As a reminder, our vast logistics network serves as a powerful enabler for e-commerce platform. During the quarter, we opened two new warehouses, one in Nigeria and another in Morocco, to further consolidate operations, expand storage capacity, improve productivity, and enhance our supply chain management capabilities. Additionally, we expect to open new warehouses in Egypt and Cote d'Ivoire in the coming weeks. We believe that these strategic moves position Jumia to capture greater efficiency in each respective market and lay the foundation for growth at scale as we accelerate our expansion. More importantly, as a key part of our asset light strategy, these warehouses are rented, not owned, which limits the impact on our balance sheet. Jumia's vast logistics network is made up of third-party logistics providers, local entrepreneurs, as well as a network of local pickup stations. This network is vital to Jumia's growth and our ability to efficiently scale and deliver packages safely and with expanding geographic reach. Our logistics partners are proprietors and operate their own businesses, including managing the trucks, vehicles, and pickup stations, and the human capital. The entire network is tracked and managed through Jumia's proprietary technology platform. Under this model, we can scale and grow the network with relatively low incremental investment, while ensuring low operating costs, thanks to healthy competition within our ecosystem. It also serves as a strong competitive advantage as Jumia provides its partners with large, reliable volumes in their local markets and the necessary management tools to empower their growth. Continued discipline around our logistics network delivered reductions in fulfillment expenses as a percentage of GMV from 5.9% in Q2 '23 to 5.5% this quarter. Fulfillment expense per order, excluding JumiaPay app orders, was $2.17 versus $2.58 in the same quarter last year. We have successfully reduced delivery costs per order while expanding our network in smaller cities due to strong gains in productivity as well as appropriately adjusting service levels to local demand. From a cash management standpoint, currency devaluations play a far less impactful role in the second quarter. This contributed to lower finance and FX costs and led to a lower net loss. We also maintained 67% of our cash balance in U.S. dollars in the quarter and continue to introduce further efficiencies in our repatriation strategy. Beyond logistics and cash management, efficient and optimized marketing spend remains key to managing our cost base. Year-over-year, spend was still down 19% relative to Q2 '23. We modestly increased marketing spend by 18.2% quarter-over-quarter to $4.4 million in Q2 '24 to support Jumia's Anniversary Sale, our second-largest commercial event of the year. We feel confident that we have a deeper appreciation of the most efficient channels such as SEO, CRM, as well as localized offline marketing channels, and we are leaning more heavily into these areas, given our early success. Finally, our last strategic objective is a commitment to building a strong value proposition. We've mentioned before that building the right value proposition is imperative to our growth. The African consumer is incredibly cost-conscious and will always look for the best possible price online or offline, so having the right supply at the right price is essential. No amount of marketing will make up for it if we do not, which is why we continue to focus on building what we believe to be the right supply through work with both local African and international vendors and brands. For example, to improve sourcing from Chinese vendors, we have expanded our team in China, growing our office headcount in Shenzhen by 21% year-over-year, and are looking to open new sourcing offices across the country. Beyond creating the right supply, our JumiaPay platform is key to building the right value proposition and enabling e-commerce by providing a variety of cashless payments and buy now pay later options through outside credit partners. This quarter, we also announced two new BNPL partnerships in Nigeria, bringing total BNPL services to six. While the offering is still in its infancy, we are seeing promising signs of adoption and look forward to sharing more details on our progress. In addition to creating our supply, expanding beyond capital cities is key to Jumia's value proposition. Smaller cities are a major opportunity for growth and acceleration because the supply is even more underserved than in capital cities. Jumia can provide the variety and choice that customers in more rural areas are looking for, and our logistics network enables us to deliver efficiently. The mix of orders in secondary cities versus capital cities is now 53% compared to 48% last year and 51% in the first quarter of '24. Of the orders placed in secondary cities, 73% were fulfilled through pickup stations, showing how important they are to our continued growth and acceleration. These pickup stations, owned by third-party partners, cut down on fulfillment and delivery costs while offering a central location to increase customer engagement. This includes placing and receiving orders while also providing a space for consumers to ask questions and to educate them on our product assortment, pricing, and delivery components. This helps to further embed Jumia into the fabric of local communities as economic value and build trust, thus increasing the value proposition and convenience for consumers while keeping Jumia's costs low. One of our top performing countries for secondary cities is Cote d'Ivoire, where 65% of our orders were achieved outside of the capital city in the quarter versus approximately 53% average at the Group level. As we roll out our proven best practices across other countries, we are seeing positive results. For example, in Nigeria, the share of orders from outside of major cities such as Lagos and Abuja increased 413 basis points to approximately 50% versus Q2 '23. Similarly, in Kenya, the share of orders outside of major cities such as Nairobi and Kiambu increased 564 basis points to approximately 54% versus Q2 '23. Looking forward, we are excited and optimistic about Jumia's future. We are confident in our strategy and we are committed to executing and accelerating growth in the future. We are proving with tangible results that we are well-positioned to scale and tap the massive demand in Africa while moving forward towards profitability. I will now turn things over to Antoine.

Thank you, Francis, and thank you, everyone for joining us today. I will now provide an in-depth look at our second quarter results. Starting with the top line. Revenue was $36.5 million, down 17.2% year-over-year and up 15% on a constant currency basis. Marketplace revenue was $20 million, down 10.1% year-over-year, or up 27.2% on a constant currency basis, primarily impacted by Nigeria's currency devaluation in the first quarter and partially offset by higher commissions. Diving a little deeper, while Nigeria's currency devaluation dampened revenue, we did see improvement across our revenue drivers in constant currency. Value added services was $3.6 million, up 3.7% in constant currency. Fulfillment revenues was $3.8 million, up 14.1% in constant currency. And commissions was $10.2 million, up 62.9% in constant currency, driven primarily by third-party corporate sales in Egypt. Revenue from first-party sales was $16.1 million, down 23.8% and up 4% on a constant currency basis, primarily driven by a decrease in corporate sales in Egypt. Gross profit for the quarter was $21.6 million, down 5.7% year-over-year or up 34.5% on a constant currency basis. Gross profit margin as a percentage of GMV remained relatively stable at 12.7% compared to 12.8% in Q2 '23. These results were driven primarily by the currency devaluation in Nigeria, offset by 17% year-over-year reduction in customer incentives and promotions in the quarter as part of our improved marketing spend efficiency. Looking at expenses, we continue to improve our cost base with fulfillment expenses of $9.3 million, down 12.2% year-over-year and up 17.7% on a constant currency basis. Fulfillment expense per order, excluding JumiaPay app orders, which do not incur logistics cost, decreased 15.9% year-over-year, but increased 12.6% on a constant currency basis. The increase in constant currency was primarily driven by fuel cost, which are priced in USD and are therefore impacted by local currency devaluations. Fulfillment expense as a percentage of GMV improved 44 basis points year-over-year to 5.5%, another important proof-point of our logistics transformation taking hold. This includes expanding our logistics footprint outside of major cities by increasing the number of pickup stations, thus helping us reach underserved communities and expand our market while driving down fulfillment costs. Additionally, we are improving our proprietary systems to drive scalability while enhancing warehouse efficiency and reducing packaging costs. Sales and advertising expenses were $4.4 million for the second quarter, down 19.2% year-over-year and up 19.7% on a constant currency basis, driven by continued focus on optimized marketing spend. We are concentrating on more efficient marketing channels, including an increased emphasis on localized offerings and further leveraging our Geforce. As a percentage of GMV, sales and advertising expense was 2.6%, a 45 basis points year-over-year decrease from Q2 '23, demonstrating that our strategy to enhance the customer value proposition by prioritizing supply improvement over costly marketing spend is taking hold. Turning to technology. Technology and content expense was $8.7 million, down 18.5% year-over-year and down 14.4% on a constant currency basis. This was driven by improved management of our hosting infrastructure, operational tools, and reductions in overhead. As we move forward, we will remain disciplined in our approach to cost in this area while balancing the need to develop new features to improve the customer experience at a localized level. G&A expense, excluding share-based compensation, was $17.6 million in Q2 '24, up 1.9% year-over-year and up 25.6% on a constant currency basis, driven by the release of a tax provision in the second quarter of '23, which did not recur in the second quarter of '24. Partially offsetting this increase was a decline in staff costs. Staff costs components of G&A expense, excluding share based compensation expense, decreased to 16.6% as a result of reductions in headcount. Now, turning to profitability. Adjusted EBITDA loss declined year-over-year to $16.3 million or declined $16.1 million on a constant currency basis, driven primarily by the cost reduction initiatives I previously discussed. Our loss before income tax from continuing operations was $22.5 million, a 27.1% decrease year-over-year or up 1.1% on a constant currency basis. The decrease was again, driven by our cost reduction initiatives. As Francis discussed, loss before income tax includes finance costs. To ensure that you understand the impact of finance costs on the business, let me take a moment to discuss this dynamic in more detail. In Q1 '24, all finance costs were primarily driven by the foreign exchange impact resulting from the devaluation of both the Nigerian Naira and the Egyptian Pound against the U.S. dollar, as well as costs associated with cash repatriation. In contrast, Q2 '24 finance costs were primarily impacted by non-cash losses recognized in the sale of financial assets. These assets consisting of investments in securities measured by fair value only impact the income statement upon this level. This shift in the contributor of finance costs between the two quarters highlights the varying expenses, both cash and non-cash, that impact our performance metrics. Touching on balance sheet and cash flow. CapEx in Q2 '24 was $0.7 million and our liquidity position was $92.8 million, comprising $45.1 million in cash and cash equivalents and $47.7 million in term deposits and other financial assets. This compares to liquidity position of $120.6 million in Q4 '23 and $101.5 million in Q1 '24. The net cash flow used in operational activities was $8.4 million and net change in working GAAP was $6.7 million in the second quarter of 2024. Finally, I want to highlight that the company initiated an at-the-market equity offering this morning. Detailed information about the offering is available in the prospectus supplement filed with SEC prior to this call. We expect to use the proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including to help support our continued efforts around customer acquisition, expand our supplier base, scale our logistics network, and improve our marketing and vendor technology. As you've heard from us today, we've been very disciplined and efficient with our cash utilization and plan to continue doing so. The additional equity will further strengthen our balance sheet and help accelerate our growth trajectory.

Thanks, Antoine. Based on our continued strong performance, we are reiterating our outlook for 2024. We remain committed to reducing our losses and accelerating our progress towards cash efficiency and profitable growth. Specifically, we aim to further reduce our cash utilization as compared to full year '23. And based on the positive impact of our growth strategy, Jumia projects an increase in both orders and GMV in 2024, excluding the potential impact of foreign exchange. As we move forward, we are confident in Jumia's future and our ability to accelerate our growth. We have the right plan and the right team to advance on the path towards profitability and look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. We can now open the call for Q&A.

Thank you. We will now start the question-and-answer session. Your first question for today is from Fawne Jiang with Benchmark.

Hi. Hey, Francis, Antoine. Thank you for taking my questions. A couple here. First, in terms of growth, GMV growth was very solid in the second quarter. I think Francis did point out a few factors. I just wonder, going forward, in terms of sustainability.

Thank you, Fawne. We are pleased with the GMV growth this quarter and overall usage growth, noting a continued acceleration in all key performance indicators related to usage. We've seen the active consumer base stabilize and a year-over-year increase in orders by 7%, marking an improvement over the last five quarters. GMV growth in local currency is up by 35%, similar to last quarter, and we believe this trend is sustainable. We are implementing similar strategies across all markets, and the results have been positive, particularly in smaller cities. For instance, our efforts in Kenya and Nigeria have led to comparable growth. As we continue executing our plan effectively, we anticipate compounded benefits from these actions. Having operated in Africa for over ten years, we have successfully navigated macro challenges faced in recent years, and our strategic plan is proving effective in an increasing number of countries. Looking ahead, we expect the Group to accelerate and countries to experience growth. While I cannot provide specific numbers or projections on growth rates or the number of countries, I am confident our ongoing actions will yield impactful results. Therefore, we do not foresee any obstacles to sustaining our growth in the future.

Thanks, Francis. For my second question, I want to discuss your monetization. If I’m calculating correctly, your marketplace commission rate has been growing year-on-year, but there seems to have been a significant decline quarter-on-quarter. Is there a reason for this? How should we view your commission rate and take rate moving forward?

I will share the answer with Antoine. Over the past year and a half, we have maintained stable commissions in our marketplace. Our goal is to provide our vendors with stability, encouraging them to increase their supply on our platform, which in turn improves our selection and value proposition. This is our clear business priority, ensuring we offer a better value proposition. I will let Antoine discuss the technical and financial aspects.

Yes. On the year-over-year variance, we are pretty stable because of what Francis just said. And if we compare to Q1 '24, the decrease is mainly due to the corporate sales in some countries like Egypt.

Got you. Any color going forward?

We plan to maintain our GP1 stability this quarter while continuing to pursue opportunities in corporate sales, which could provide a boost. However, as Francis mentioned, we prefer not to increase monetization as it might negatively impact vendor participation in the ecosystem.

My next question is regarding your sales and marketing. I noticed a moderate increase in your sales and marketing spending from one quarter to the next. I wonder how we should view sales and marketing spending in the future, particularly in light of your capital raising. Are we anticipating a reacceleration of growth in your sales and marketing activities? Also, what level of active customer growth can we expect?

We did increase our marketing spending this quarter compared to the previous one. This increase was aimed at supporting our second largest commercial event of the year, Jumia's Anniversary Sale, which yielded positive results in our usage KPIs. Looking ahead, especially in light of our recent share offering, we plan to focus on accelerating customer acquisition, which may involve higher marketing expenditures. We aim to expand our customer base, which has just stabilized this quarter, marking a significant achievement for Jumia after a period of decline. We believe we can attract many more consumers across Africa, given we operate in countries with a combined population of over 600 million. Customer acquisition will be a key focus for us in the upcoming quarters. We are confident that we have improved our service quality, supply chain, and product assortment, making it an opportune moment to enhance our customer value proposition and increase our marketing budgets.

Got you. That's it. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Fawne.

This concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.