Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss the proposed business combination between Powerfleet and MiX Telematics, announced this morning, October 10, 2023. Joining us today are Powerfleet CEO Steve Towe and CFO David Wilson, along with MiX Telematics President and CEO Stefan Joselowitz. Following their remarks, we will open up the call for any questions you may have. Statements or comments made on this conference call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Powerfleet, MiX's, and the combined business's actual results may differ from their expectations, estimates, and projections, and consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.
Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause their actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks are discussed in detail in filings made by Powerfleet and MiX with the SEC from time to time. Please refer to the investor presentation, which is available on Powerfleet's website, for additional disclaimers regarding forward-looking statements. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Powerfleet's CEO, Steve Towe. Sir, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. What an exciting time for our two companies! We really appreciate you all joining us this morning to discuss the proposed combination of Powerfleet and MiX Telematics. It's no secret that the core telematics industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. The industry is shifting towards AI-led software solutions and the monetization of data insights through multiple different mediums. Companies unable to shift their sales strategy and keep up with the demands of the evolving industry will be left behind. On the other hand, innovative and agile organizations will thrive significantly in this evolved industry, defined by the effectiveness of their advanced AI platforms and next-generation data capabilities. The winning platforms go beyond traditional telematics. They capitalize on this advanced analytics transformation, delivering the highest quality and usable data insights for business improvement, and do it in a flexible and profitable way.
Powerfleet's strategy will continue to be at the forefront of this evolution. We've been seeking a partner to help us achieve transformative scale and improved profitability at pace. After an extensive search, we found an ideal partner that shares so many of our core values and strategic goals and is ready to take the combined company to the next level. We expect the combination of Powerfleet and MiX Telematics to create a scaled, top-tier provider in this redefined mobile asset, IoT, SaaS industry. By leveraging our proven SaaS strategy across the combined business, spearheaded by our data-agnostic Unity Platform and Data Highway, we firmly believe that this transaction isn't simply just a step, but a leap towards market consolidation, the ability to deliver rapid innovation, deeper and richer in-data insights, and increased value for our customers and shareholders.
Resulting in transformative breadth of capability and size, this transaction with MiX will provide the go-forward company with 1.7 million subscribers, the ability to cross-sell and upsell additive and accelerated AI and data-powered software solutions to a truly global set of customers, and add even more talented software engineers in low cost geographies, accelerating our AI advancements and data integration capabilities. MiX Telematics is an extremely well-run and profitable organization. Together, we intend to realize significant EBITDA expansion, powered by increased efficiency through proven integration methods and leveraging top talent across the combined organization. The powerful combination between Powerfleet and MiX will establish the new entity as a world-class IoT SaaS leader, giving us the speed and capability to drive improved growth in high-quality recurring revenues and expanded profitability much sooner. Overall, we're incredibly excited about this combination.
We are highly confident this transaction will unlock strong incremental value creation opportunities for both our existing and prospective investors. Now, I'll hand over the call to MiX Telematics President and CEO, Stefan Joselowitz, to provide his perspective on the combination.
Thanks, Steve, and thank you all for joining us this morning. These are exciting times indeed. As many of you are probably aware, MiX has had a dedicated team searching for accretive M&A opportunities over the past year as we looked to further scale our business and strengthen our footprint. Shortly after Steve and I met six months ago, we started discussing the synergies we could unlock and the scale we could achieve together. It quickly became apparent that this was the right move forward for our organization. Joining forces with Powerfleet dramatically accelerates our timeline towards stronger growth in the U.S. and other key geographies, as well as providing our combined and loyal customer base with increased value. Organizationally, we see a symbiotic culture. Each organization has high net employee retention rates and energized, deeply experienced teams, all key ingredients for ensuring customer satisfaction.
We both pride ourselves on placing best-in-class customer experience at the heart of our approach, and our unification will be founded on not only maintaining, but also continuing to enhance the customer experience. We're also very focused on optimizing systems and processes. We will leverage the best of both worlds to combine and accelerate our respective operational efficiencies. After an extensive due diligence period, we firmly believe this will be a smooth and efficient integration process. As we look at what the combined management structure will be going forward, I intend to retire at the conclusion of this transaction, but plan to continue as a shareholder of the combined entity. Steve and David will remain CEO and CFO, respectively.
While it is an appropriate time for me to hand over the reins to Steve, I'm delighted that all of my talented MiX management team will play key roles in the combined business. What Steve has accomplished at Powerfleet since he took the helm in January 2022 is very impressive. He has a proven track record delivering exceptional results for customers, employees, and shareholders. His core skill sets are focused around building world-class organizations, driving innovative go-to-market product strategies, and successfully integrating strategic acquisitions. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Steve well over the past six months, and he undoubtedly shares the values and culture that the MiX family holds so dear. My team are going to love working with him. David has also successfully led companies through business transformations, high-multiple merger and acquisition transactions, as well as capital raises.
He brings a strong background in the B2B SaaS arena and significant international experience, along with a superb track record of delivering results. With the impressive history of these two leaders and a compelling strategy to combine the two organizations, we are looking forward to seeing the value they can unlock from the combination. Furthermore, Powerfleet's Unity platform and data ingestion capabilities will not only ensure the integration of our customers is seamless, but will create incremental value for our customers and unlock new revenue streams for both our direct and indirect channels. I'm very confident that this is the best option for both organizations to succeed and thrive in today's marketplace. Scale is everything, and we believe doing something this transformative gets us to the necessary scale very quickly and puts us in an excellent position to continue taking market share.
I founded MiX nearly three decades ago, being there for subscriber number 1 all the way to subscriber number 1 million and beyond. I'm particularly proud to cap off this chapter of my career, having positioned our business to be able to compete more effectively, while at the same time transferring our asset to a directly listed NASDAQ counter. I have the utmost confidence that this proposed transaction will take us to new heights. I am very eager to see what Steve and his team will accomplish with this fantastic combination. With that, I'll pass the call over to David Wilson, the CFO of Powerfleet, to walk through the details of the transaction. David?
Thanks, Jos. Having been involved in several similar transactions over the course of my career, I can't think of one that is as synergistic and obvious as bringing together the Powerfleet and MiX organizations. Our entire team is excited to hit the ground running and capitalize on the growth opportunities and operational efficiencies at hand. Let's dive into the details of the transaction. Making this as seamless as possible for all parties, the combined entity will continue to operate under the Powerfleet brand umbrella, utilizing our current ticker symbol on NASDAQ. In addition, we plan to have a secondary listing on the JSE in South Africa to ensure there will be no complications with South African-based MiX shareholders. Having the combined entity on NASDAQ will provide with enhanced market exposure and an expanded shareholder portfolio. This is going to be an all-stock transaction.
MiX shareholders will exchange 100% of their outstanding MiX ordinary shares, including MiX ordinary shares represented by MiX American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, each of which represents 25 MiX ordinary shares. The consideration consisting of Powerfleet's common shares payable at closing. The number of Powerfleet common shares to be issued as consideration will be based on the post-transaction ownership structure, whereby current MiX shareholders will own approximately 65%, and current Powerfleet shareholders will own approximately 35% of the combined entity immediately following the closing of the transaction. This exchange ratio assumes all MiX-issued ordinary shares, including those represented by MiX ADSs, are exchanged for common shares in Powerfleet.
In connection with the transaction, Powerfleet and MiX are positioned to secure approximately $75 million in incremental debt, inclusive of $60 million in senior secured debt, which the companies anticipate will be fully executed at or before closing. The proceeds from the refinancing of the combined company's balance sheet will be used to redeem, in full, the outstanding convertible preferred stock held by affiliates of Abry Partners. Transaction-related expenses will be paid from cash on the balance sheet. Given the current sources of positive cash generation, we have also structured our balance sheet refinancing to include new Israeli shekel and South African rand-denominated debt, providing a natural FX hedge for USD-denominated investors. With all these factors considered, we believe the combined entity provides a clean, innovative capital structure that delivers significant upside value.
As a condition to the consummation of the transaction, both parties will be holding separate shareholder votes. Powerfleet will be seeking stockholder approval, including for the issuance of shares of Powerfleet's common stock to MiX shareholders as consideration for the transaction, and an amendment to Powerfleet's certificate of incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Powerfleet's common stock thereafter. MiX will be seeking shareholder approval for the scheme of arrangement, which is the statutory procedure for the transaction under South African law. Subject to these and other customary closing conditions, including the receipt of required registry approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of calendar year 2024. We're all very excited about the prospects of these two businesses coming together to create an industry-leading mobile asset IoT SaaS company with a significant pipeline for growth.
We expect a smooth process to combine the businesses, and we look forward to taking the next steps together to becoming one Powerfleet. This concludes my prepared remarks, and I will now turn the call back over to the operator for Q&A.
Certainly. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Your first question for today is coming from Jaeson Schmidt at Lake Street.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on the announcement this morning. Just want to start with how we should be thinking about a long-term growth rate for this combined company?
Yeah, Jaeson, I'll pick that one up. So in terms of the growth, there's significant revenue synergy opportunities, just given the natural fit of both where MiX is strong, in terms of particularly in sort of the high-end in-cab video devices, AI, which is a great complement in terms of where Powerfleet as a whole has been relatively weak. In addition to that, we're very strong on the industrial side of things. That's an area where Powerfleet, sorry, where MiX has not been active to date. We'll also benefit from MiX having 120 global partners in terms of more reach, more distribution, so that's a huge positive as well. So in terms of top line growth, we expect to be double digit top line growth as we bring this business together, with a boost in terms of additional revenue synergies on top of that.
From an EBITDA standpoint, we expect EBITDA to grow at a much more rapid rate. We see significant operating leverage in the model. In addition to that, there's a lot of efficiencies we'll be able to drive from a combined business standpoint. You can look at the success that Steve and team have had, even before I arrived, in terms of being able to take costs out and reinvest in the business to accelerate growth. So we do expect that to continue, but, we definitely see very strong growth from an EBITDA standpoint. On a trailing 12-month basis, EBITDA was $39 million. We believe we have the capability to double that within the next two years.
Okay, that's really helpful. Just as a follow-up, it seems pretty complimentary from a geographical perspective. Just curious, when you look at the worldwide customer base, are there any geographies that you want to de-emphasize going forward? I guess, relatedly, are there any geographies that you think provide significant opportunities now that the two companies are combined?
Yeah, so great question. I think, you know, I mean, we've publicly discussed the fact that we had some smaller territories that, you know, we were struggling to make strategic for us. One of the great things is the fit of those territories to combine with the MiX organization. So, we feel that the, the continents that we're working on, the geographies that we have, we know we can drive significant opportunity in those current geographies. What we would say is we both have a very direct ambition to grow significantly in the U.S. and Europe, and both companies already had plans for future investment to continue to drive improvement in those regions and, and gain more market share. That's going to be 100% of our focus moving forward. So we're gonna have more solutions to sell.
We're gonna have more cross-sell, upsell opportunity in our customer base. You know, there's very little crossover between our customer base. There's a lot of international accounts, so, you know, as we all know, companies are looking for less suppliers. They're looking for more consistency in terms of the solutions that they deploy in multi geographies. So all of this is upside to the business. But if I have to kind of say where we're gonna put most of our focus, right now in incremental investment and growth in the short term, is very much the U.S., North America and Europe.
Got it. Really appreciate the caller. Thanks, guys.
Your next question is coming from Scott Searle at Roth MKM.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Guys, congratulations on the transaction, really transformative, and Jos, congratulations on your pending retirement.
Thank you for that.
Hey, guys, just real quick, in terms of the transaction itself, I'm wondering if there are any callers or breakup fees. It sounds like the MiX is basically gonna be 35/65, but just if there's any other color on that front. Dave, maybe quickly, in terms of interest rate that you would expect to be paying, you know, with new debt to solve the Abry issue?
Yeah. So in terms of breakup fees, nothing of any significance. So no, no breakup fees of any sort of size in terms of the deal. The expectation is this gets through regulatory approval successfully. We think it's great for both sets of shareholders, so we don't see or foresee any issues on that front. From a debt standpoint, as I said in my prepared remarks, a significant portion of the debt will be senior bank debt, so senior secured debt. A significant portion will be in South African rand, a significant portion in shekel. On a blended basis, we see the debt being about 9.7%. But obviously, that is inclusive of wonderful currency hedging in terms of the source of the cash that we generate today. So we think it is a very elegant solution. We think it's a solution that works really well for our shareholders.
Great. And if I could just to follow up, Steve, you've got the Unity platform now. How quickly can you integrate the MiX Telematics platform customers and begin to offer the Unity platform into that customer base? And what are some of the key features that you get in terms of blending the two entities together?
Yeah. I mean, if you look at how quickly we brought Unity to market, and how we did that was obviously all of our heritage platforms, all the functionality the customers were enjoying yesterday, they enjoy today and tomorrow. It's very much for the MiX family to start, you know, start on that same concept with us, and we're already talking through how we go do that. Within a matter of months, you know, the extra capabilities and flexibility that the Unity platform provide will be very much an opportunity for MiX customers to enjoy. That overall harmonization of their data, their ability to minimize the amount of suppliers they have, and for us to become that mission-critical partner, is going to be there in fairly short order. Obviously, there's, you know, some work to be done behind that.
Again, it's a similar model to what we deployed for the Powerfleet customers and the Powerfleet platforms. The great thing about MiX is they have one platform. You know, Jos and team have done a superb job in making sure that that's highly scalable and highly flexible and complementary to the add-on benefits, that kind of the Data Highway piece that Unity brings alongside it, will bring to the party. As David said, you know, I mean, we have, you know, a lot of vertical expertise across the two businesses from a product perspective. You know, I think MiX have, you know, some really super high-end logistics solutions. At Powerfleet, we have a lot of logistics customers who we were unable to provide that high-end logistics solutions to, comprehensively.
I think the AI camera solutions that MiX have, again, will be complementary and, you know, they're driving great growth in their business through, you know, the advancement of those solutions. And as David alluded to, you know, the whole industrial piece is something that, you know, MiX don't have the ability to sell to their customers today. So where we're talking about that one-stop shop across all asset types, again, super upside there. Moving dots as well. So the South African team, as we kind of build out the insurance market, you know, they very much see Moving dots as something that that is really key. And MiX have some great innovation with the mesh network capability called Beame, that, again, we have concentrations of customer bases that we can. And territories that we can bring that to.
So, you know, we are gonna have, by far, the most comprehensive set of solutions. I would love to be a sales guy in this combined organization with the kickback that I've got to go sell, having spent, you know, a long time in this industry trying to convince customers of taking solutions. So, you know, we're super excited by what that's gonna bring. And then secondly, I think if you put Unity on top of that, that gives the uniqueness that doesn't exist in those other now top-tier providers. You know, we've leveled up the playing field in terms of our ability to go and sell and compete at scale. And then we think we're gonna have a winning and unique strategy to help drive growth very comprehensively for the combined business.
Great. Perfect. And lastly, if I could, you talked a little bit about growth being targeted at double digits. I think MiX in constant currency has been growing at that rate on the SaaS front. You know, just looking out then, it's probably a little bit early to talk about sales synergies, but I'm wondering, if there's any chance you'd take a stab at what that could be and the timeline of when you think you'd get to a Rule of 40 company. Thanks, and congratulations again.
Yeah. So, so thanks, Scott. It- we'll give you some of that, but not all of it today. So in terms of Rule of 40, we, we have line of sight to get there within a couple of year period from now. So that is something that is super exciting. Obviously, MiX, we're well on the way. You know, we bring some transformative abilities to help accelerate that. In terms of kind of, you know, depth and next layer, layer down in some of the questions, you're asking around sales synergies, we're having a joint Investor Day on the 16th of November in New York, and that will give investors and, and analysts the ability to come and, you know, see under the hood in terms of how we get to where we're gonna get to.
So we'll hold some of that for now and point everybody towards coming to join us at that Investor Day.
Great. Thanks, and congrats again.
Your next question for today is coming from Gary Prestopino at Barrington Research.
Hey, good morning, all. Steve, I know you kind of talked a little bit about this, but in the prior question, but legacy Powerfleet is very strong in the industrial side and had some, I think, gaps on logistics, while MiX definitely has, at least from what you're saying, a better portfolio of products on logistics. So could you maybe go into some of the things that MiX brings on the logistics side in terms of product capabilities that legacy Powerfleet does not have?
Yeah, certainly. I can, I can take that one. You know, we've been, we've been in terms of the logistics space, it's, it's kind of back to our roots, where back in South Africa, where we originally started this business, some of our very first customers were fairly complex logistics operations. So we, we certainly honed our skills in that particular area. Big focus, of course, on in-cab solutions, which steadily evolved into cab and trailer. But the piece that a lot of our customers have a need for is on the material handling side, which was never really a big focus of ours. And it's certainly one of the many synergies that we see in terms of this combination, is that we have high-end logistics solutions that we think will be very applicable to Powerfleet's some of their existing customer base, and vice versa.
We have significant customer relationships that we believe that Powerfleet industrial IoT will be a fantastic upsell solution for. The combination certainly has a significant opportunity for revenue enhancement through an existing customer base.
So, Stefan, I mean, were a lot of these, some of this logistics products, this is camera-enabled too?
Yes, it is. So of course, you know, it's evolved over a period of time, but the big growth area now is around in-cab camera, which, you know, can be as simple as just a dual camera, you know, one forward facing, one facing into the cab. And we've got clients now that are using multiple camera solutions around the vehicle to give them a 360-degree safety environment. So we have, you know, we have, within our range, the ability to satisfy the entire gamut, so to speak, of both telematics data and video data solutions. And we are combined with a fantastic product range that we see at Powerfleet. We, you know, we think that the combined product offering is second to none, frankly.
Okay. And then the second question would be, and I, and I've just got your, your financials for Q2, and it looks like you did about $36 million of revenues, of which probably more than, of which more than half are in Africa. And I would assume that's South Africa, correct, mostly?
That's correct, yeah.
Okay, so with the logistics solutions that you have right now, particularly in the areas where Steve said you wanted to grow this business, Europe and the Americas, what were some of the biggest impediments for you to secure new customer contracts, on, on the logistics side, that you faced and have faced prior to the announcement of this acquisition or this combination, I'm sorry?
You're talking specifically in North America, as an example?
Well, both North America and Europe, but let's just talk about North America, because, you know, the revenue is obviously more centric in your legacy company in South Africa. So what were some. If you've got these great logistics products, what were some of the impediments that you had to penetrating the U.S. market that, you know, maybe the combination is going to now enhance your ability to do so?
Yeah. So there's no, there's no question that our, our North American business started with a very big focus on the energy sector, so that was just the low-hanging fruit from our perspective. And it was kind of a natural transition, because we, we moved into the U.S. with many multinational customers that, that were using our services within, within Africa and the Middle East. So that was an initial big focus for us. The logistics space in the U.S., we're pretty early adopters, I guess, of, of this kind of technology. And, you know, the name of the game in our space is with these large fleets is, is, is really patience, because typically these fleets are locking into multi-year, long-term contracts.
So, you know, we've steadily been making progress in that regard, but it's a matter of also building up, I guess, you know, breaking down the barriers in terms of you know, having customers that, frankly, get to know you. The credibility barrier are probably the best way of phrasing it. What excites me particularly is that Powerfleet have already significant logistics customers in the territory. And we've looked at the offerings that they have there. We believe that we can certainly provide additional services on top of what they're already adding to those customers. And as I said, the combination, I think, will have a far more credible offering in terms of scaling up the business.
You know, our U.S. business is pretty small compared to combined, I beg your pardon, with Powerfleet's business. We're starting to look like a serious player in this geography, and I think the combination is gonna take significant advantage of that.
Okay. And then, I'm sorry, I'm just looking through the press release. When is the shareholder vote? When do you anticipate that?
Q1 next year. So,
Okay.
Expectation is this could close sort of mid-quarter next year, in terms of calendar quarter.
Okay.
Q1.
Prior to the shareholder vote, is there any integration activities that you guys can start?
We can start very much the better together planning. So, you know, the teams have been engaged for a while. This obviously doesn't spontaneously combust. We've had a number of people on both sides working very hard to get to this point, and we will now, you know, over the next 3-month to 4-month period, really get ready for, you know, starting the battle in the market from, you know, pretty much the end of January. So by the time that this closes, we expect to be on the front foot and, you know, very much moving forward as one aligned business from day one.
Okay, thank you very much.
Your next question is coming from Matt Pfau with William Blair.
Hey, great. Thanks for taking my questions. Wanted to first ask on, on the product front, just a little bit more detail on how you combine the, the two separate platforms, and specifically with MiX customers, do they need to refresh their hardware to move over? And, and does this creating any disruption with back-end, integrations that, that they've made with the platform?
Yeah. So, so no, it's all additive for the customer. So the beauty of the extra functionality and capabilities of Unity is we've very much built it as a device agnostic capability. So ultimately, we'll be integrating the MiX hardware devices so that they'll not only be able to, you know, retrieve data from the MiX platform, but also from added capabilities within the Unity platform from day one. And in terms of integrations, then that will just build out in terms of our library of integration capabilities for customers. So the strategy here is that MiX's customers will still be able to use all their functionality in their existing format today from day one.
But, you know, from day one, they'll be able to also, purchase more enhanced data, AI-led, enterprise, software applications, which will be additive to their current functionality that they have today. They will also be able to bring in other third-party sensor data to be able to create more richer datasets, but including the Telematics data that they have today. And there will be a broader range of integration capabilities that I'll have into third-party operating systems. So when we put this strategy together, it was very much around consolidation. That was to be able to find a partner to do this at scale, but also as well, with millions of devices, with third-party providers already installed, customers don't necessarily want to have to buy or can buy new hardware.
So ultimately, you know, we give people the ability to port that hardware into the Unity platform and get a new experience. That's something that we've proven out in the market. And, you know, we have a number of customers now who are not only using our own devices or mixed devices, it will be in the future, but actually integrating the data that comes in from a lot of third-party sensors and creating one harmonized dataset.
Got it. And then just wanted to ask on, in terms of the go-to-market strategy and where the focus will be of the combined company. So MiX had a lot of success with large enterprises as well as, you know, was on the consumer level and was also gaining some traction with medium-sized fleets. Sounds like Powerfleet, I'm less familiar with, but has a slightly different customer base in terms of geography and industry. Where do you think about how you focus your efforts, given that's a pretty wide range of customer, both sizes, geographies and industries that the combined business will target?
Yeah. So, so I don't think we're that dissimilar. So we both have consumer channels within our businesses. We both have B2B2C, and we have medium to large enterprises. So I think in terms of size and scale, it is very similar. Obviously, we do trade in different geographies, and we also MiX up an extensive range of indirect channels where Powerfleet is predominantly a direct business today. So that is all opportunity for us. We like to go deep into what we do. We, we don't want to have to spread ourselves more thin. We've now got, you know, people on the ground in six continents, and we feel very good that we can make money where we are now with the scale of businesses that we'll have as a combined basis.
Ultimately, there'll be a broader solution set because how we see market consolidation is there's been an awful lot of vertical suppliers and vertical competition. You know, we've even found that between our two companies. What we have now is the ability to play across all asset types, whether it's in the warehouse, logistics, like commercial vehicle, connected car. Ultimately, we have a range of capabilities and ability to drive performance in vehicles, by the vehicles, and ultimately by the businesses. That is gonna be as good as it gets in the marketplace. We're gonna be very much focused on selling high-end SaaS recurring revenue software to our customers, becoming more of a mission-critical provider, reducing the number of other telematics providers that they have in their portfolio.
Ultimately, you know, if you look at where this strategy will go over time, we'll go well beyond telematics in terms of the IoT sensor data that we'll be able to bring into this, into the Unity platform and provide business improvement for our customers. You know, I think what the beauty of it is, is we don't need to change course. We're just gonna get more intense about what we do. We're gonna be stronger in what we do, and we're gonna make sure that ultimately we become the partner of choice for a lot of enterprise customers around the globe.
Sounds good. Appreciate you taking my questions.
Your next question is coming from Alex Sklar with Raymond James.
Thank you all. I think I'm just gonna start following up on some of these earlier questions on kind of product synergies and packaging. And just to level deeper, is there any way you can help frame kind of the potential pricing or ARPU uplifts from bringing together one another's platforms? So how, you s aid another way, how much does MiX's Vision AI bring to the Powerfleet 700,000 kind of customer base? And what could Unity bring from a pricing perspective to MiX Telematics light and premium fleet customer base?
Yeah, we'll ask you to hold that question till the Investor Day. So we've done some work on it. We want to harmonize that where we want to breathe and spend some time there. You know, we've been in a very intense period. What I would say is that, you know, in our own business, Unity is bringing a 15%-20% increase on the average ARPU, so you can kind of start to look at, look at that. And we can give you some reference points in terms of, you know, a customer in Mexico, which we have around about 7,500 units deployed, which this is as good as it gets. But we, we've taken an ARPU in the last 18 months with the units deployed from $17 a month up to $42 a month.
So this, you know, this gives us a real opportunity to improve wallet share. And, you know, as we go through this and we mature through, you know, our communication out to the market in the next few months, you'll start to see how the growth story comes together. As I say, I would, I would look forward to that Investor Day where we can share some more information.
Okay, great. No, that's, that's a good dollar though. And then maybe just switching gears over to the cost synergy side, this kind of 10% seems like a fairly standard percentage, but is there any way you can kind of dive in a level deeper? Where are you seeing those opportunities? Is it all- is it on the product side, kind of, DNA? Just a little bit more color on, on, on where, where those synergies are coming from, and if there's any gating factors to why synergies couldn't be above that kind of 10% level, given the similar business model. Thanks.
Yeah, and maybe the audio wasn't so clear. We didn't talk about a sort of a 10% synergy level. What I would say, and what I did say is, there is significant opportunity to drive efficiencies throughout the business. For example, a very large source of that will be supply chain. So there's significant opportunities there in terms of driving benefits there. If you think about consolidating just the number of devices, there is overlap between what MiX does and what we do. So again, that is an additional source. But the real key focus here is to take the spend that we have today and really find ways to accelerate growth. So that's gonna be a key part of it.
But there's obviously a lot of overlap in terms of costs, in terms of, public company costs, those types of things. So as we look to the future, there's definitely sort of room for sort of $25 million or so plus, of sort of cost synergies that we could drive out of the business. Again, focused on external, focused on supply chain, those types of things. So we'll be very active, and, I walked in halfway through the move with Powerfleet, but, there's been a lot of those types of activities that have happened within Powerfleet too.
Obviously there's a lot of duplicated costs today. So, you know, there's some very low-hanging fruit that ultimately a combined business of nearly $300 million, we can create a lot of efficiency through it. You know, we have been, Powerfleet, run a playbook over the last 18 months in terms of being able to take cost out and plus future longer term plans. And, you know, in our published remarks, you'll see, you know, EBITDA expansion for the following years. And none of this is rocket science, but it's ultimately about, you know, creating the efficiencies that you would expect as you were able to scale and have the economies of scale of an organization of the size and strength that we're going to be moving forward.
Okay, great. I just was taking the $25 million versus your respective $250 million, and that's where I get the 10% from. So it makes sense.
Got it.
But maybe I'll just squeeze one more in. You, you referenced supply chain, and obviously, a little bit less familiar with Powerfleet here, but capital intensity has run significantly lower at Powerfleet relative to MiX Telematics. It sounds like part of it is Unity is kind of, hardware agnostic, maybe behind that, but can you just talk about, on the CapEx side, what's driving some differences there, if there's any opportunity, on that standpoint from the combined company?
Yeah, I would say from the Powerfleet standpoint, a significant portion of CapEx that you see is really internally developed software, so that's building out the Unity platform. So that's been a major area of focus. To your point, our CapEx, as a percentage of revenue, has been lower. In terms of looking at the MiX side of things, they've been very successful in terms of driving recurring revenue from some of the bundled sales that they do. The benefit of the MiX model is, quite often, that recurring revenue stream sort of continues even after the initial contract period. So they've been very successful in terms of doing that. But probably the single largest delta between the two is, in terms of the bundled sales, MiX treats that as in-cab CapEx, so that is depreciated over time.
So that's the single largest difference between the two. Powerfleet traditionally has sold the hardware up front and then has benefited from high-margin, sticky service revenue on the back of those hardware sales.
Okay, great color. Thank you all.
Thanks.
We have reached the end of the question and answer session, and I will now turn the call over to Steve for closing remarks.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone today for listening to today's call on the business combination between Powerfleet and MiX Telematics. It's a very exciting and transformative time for us all. We look forward to connecting with all of our shareholders in the coming days and weeks ahead, and we'd like to remind you of our joint Investor Day schedule for Thursday, the 15th of November 2023, in New York City. We'll communicate further details about this event very soon. Have a great day, and thank you for your time.
This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
Well done.
Goodbye.