Group financial summary

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Financial and operating highlights

  • Strong revenue growth of 12.4% (12.7% on a constant currency basis) across the business:
  • Middle East delivered growth of 9.3%, driven by increased TPV, transaction growth and the diversification provided by new products and services
  • Africa continued its strong growth trajectory with a 21.6% increase in revenues on the back of significant volume growth in the number of cards hosted and TPV, complemented by increased cross-sell across the customer base
  • Underlying EBITDA increased by 13.9% due to strong revenue growth, while underlying EBITDA margin excluding share of an associate was 47.2% after absorbing incremental public company costs, in-line with guidance
  • Profit from continuing operations decreased by 55.4% due to higher specially disclosed items primarily relating to costs associated with listing including share-based compensation charge
  • Customer momentum remained strong, with several customers including Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic renewing contracts, and the signing of new direct acquiring customers and new financial institutions, including in Saudi Arabia
  • N-Genius Online, the new payments gateway, has been well-received by both stand-alone and integrated customers in the Middle East, with plans to gradually roll-out in Africa later this year
  • Technology transformation is on track for completion this year with customers representing more than 96% of revenues now migrated to the new platforms
  • Signed commercial agreement with Mastercard, which will help drive accelerated adoption of digital payments in our markets and provide incremental upside to our guidance in medium term

* Select Financial includes Alternative Performance Measures (APMs) that are arrived at by adjusting specially disclosed items (SDIs) from the reported numbers, the rationale for which is detailed on Page 10. See details in the Appendix for APMs and definition of KPIs and refer Note 3 in the condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the reconciliation of reported figures to the APMs.

Simon Haslam, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“Following our successful listing on the London Stock Exchange in April 2019, I am pleased to report that Network International has delivered a strong first half performance, with revenue and underlying EBITDA growth of 12.4% and 13.9%, respectively.

Our markets are exposed to a number of strong secular trends that we aim to capture through the execution of our strategic agenda. Over the last six months, we have successfully extended contracts with some of our largest customers, deployed exciting new products at scale and strengthened our sales and innovation pipeline. I am also pleased to report that our technology transformation remains on track for completion in 2019, with customers representing more than 96% of revenues migrated to the new platforms already. These platforms will underpin the growth of the organisation for many years to come.

I also have the pleasure of announcing that following the cornerstone investment by Mastercard at the time of listing, we have now signed a commercial agreement that will form the basis of our strategic partnership and identifies the areas where we can collaborate to drive growth in the development of digital payments in the markets we operate in.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we are well positioned to deliver on the guidance shared at the time of listing and anticipate delivering low double-digit constant currency organic revenue growth while maintaining stable underlying EBITDA margin. We expect our performance to accelerate to low-to-mid-teen organic constant currency revenue growth along with further moderate operating leverage over the medium-to-long term, with a number of growth accelerators being pursued that are expected to provide incremental upside in due course.”

Enquiries
Network International                                                                                           
Tel: +971 (0) 4 303 2435
Rohit Malhotra, Chief Financial Officer                                                                   

ASDA’A BCW
Tricia Kaul                                                                                                                   
Tel: +971 (0) 4 450 7642                                                                 

Finsbury                                                                                                                    
Tel: +44 (0) 207 251 3801

Analysts & Investors
Andy Parnis, Robert Allen                                                                                       

Results Presentation      

A conference call for analysts and investors will be held today at 9.00am UK / 12.00pm GST. To participate, interested parties are asked to dial +44 (0)330 336 9127 (UK) / 8000 3570 2653 (UAE) / +1 323 994 2093 (US) / +44 (0)330 336 9127 (ROW) 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call using the reference 6905071. Alternatively, details of the audio webcast of the call can be found at https://investors.networkinternational.ae/investors/earnings-call/. A replay of the call will be available from 12pm UK / 3pm GST on 14 August.

Forward Looking Statements

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results or operation and businesses of Network International Holdings Plc. Such statements and forecasts by their nature involve risks and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances. There are a number of other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include general economic and business conditions; changes in technology; timing or delay in signing, commencement, implementation and performance of programmes, or the delivery of products or services under them; industry; relationships with customers; competition; and ability to attract personnel. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this announcement. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances.

© Press Release 2019

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