The iCar Asia Ltd (ASX: ICQ) share price has been fluctuating today on the release of its unaudited preliminary report for the year ended 31 December 2019. While shares initially fell at market open, the iCar Asia share price has now steadied to $0.40, which is flat on yesterday's close.
iCar Asia owns and operates a network of automotive shopping portals operating in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
What did iCar Asia announce?
iCar Asia achieved a 28% increase in revenue year-on-year to reach $14.8 million. The company's full year pro forma earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) loss was significantly reduced by 45% to $5.5 million due to a lower cost base. The result was EBITDA adjusted for non-cash share-based payments.
iCar Asia's Malaysia and Thailand businesses recorded their first full year EBITDA profit in 2019, and the Indonesia business continued its strong growth trajectory following the monetisation initiatives that it undertook in 2018.
The company reported that the integration of its recently acquired Carmudi Indonesia business within its existing Indonesia operation is currently underway. iCar Asia expected this integration to be completed in the first half of 2020. The company commented that cost and revenue benefits arising from this acquisition are expected to begin to be realised from the second half of 2020.
As at 31 December 2019, iCar Asia had $6.8 million in cash and liquid investments on its books. While the group has access to additional funds of up to $5 million from a debt facility, it is not factoring these additional funds into its current capital plans.
Results by country
In Malaysia, paid accounts increased by 24% on average in the final quarter, compared to the prior corresponding period. The company's Malaysian strategy is to focus on listing quality, where low quality or sold listings are removed from the marketplace. FY19 EBITDA profit was $1.6 million, achieved on the back of strong revenue growth of 40%, year-on-year.
In Thailand, the company recorded FY19 EBITDA of $0.2 million, while revenue grew by 7% despite the slowdown in business activities. iCar Asia's Indonesian business achieved 69% revenue growth to $1.9 million.
Commenting on the results, Hamish Stone, Managing Director and CEO of iCar Asia, said:
2019 was a year full of great achievements where the Group became run rate EBITDA break even, Malaysia and Thailand recorded their first full year EBITDA positive and Indonesia substantially cut its EBITDA losses. We have also completed the acquisition of Carmudi and this places us in an even stronger position to grow both our revenue and profit going in 2020.
