PowerFleet Inc
NASDAQ:PWFL
Earnings Call Analysis
Q4-2023 Analysis
PowerFleet Inc
2023 marked a stellar transformation for PowerFleet, with aggressive moves to reposition the company as a market leader. Management focused on reshaping revenue profiles, resolving balance sheet issues, and committing to AI-driven technology solutions to create scale and drive EBITDA and cash flow growth. This series of significant changes aims to elevate PowerFleet's capability to compete with industry leaders.
The company made decisive moves to exit lower-quality revenue segments, underperforming territories, and non-strategic business lines. This led to an intentional reduction of $8 million in annual revenue, primarily from hardware sales, which simplified operations but positioned the company for higher quality, more sustainable income streams.
Mid-2023 saw PowerFleet's revenue rise by 6% in the second half of the year compared to the first half, with gross profit improving by a similar margin. Closing the year with $34.5 million in fourth-quarter revenue, representing a 4.2% increase on an absolute basis and 9% on a constant currency basis year over year, reinforced the success of the transformation efforts.
SaaS revenue surged by 16% year over year and service revenue by 14% on a constant currency basis, reflecting a strategic shift towards more sustainable and profitable revenue models. North America particularly stood out, with a 16% annual growth, largely due to the adoption of PowerFleet's Unity data ecosystem solution.
Adjusted EBITDA in the latter half of 2023 showed an impressive increase of 141%, a testament to the company's financial prudence and transformative initiatives. This EBITDA expansion persisted despite economic challenges in key markets and one-time costs, indicating robust underlying performance.
The acquisition of Movingdots provided valuable engineering and data science expertise, IP, and liquidity benefits. This strategic move not only fortified PowerFleet's next-generation Unity platform but also countered potential cash flow challenges effectively.
The signing of a business combination with MiX Telematics is set to significantly bolster PowerFleet's balance sheet by eliminating particular capital structure preferences and is forecasted to increase annual revenue to over $280 million, with EBITDA soaring to $40 million. The anticipated realization of over $25 million in cost synergies within two years of closing underlines the potential financial efficiencies of the merger.
PowerFleet is deploying an effective business integration methodology with clear 100-day plans, aiming to swiftly enhance shareholder value and customer experience. This points to an expedited integration period and a robust EBITDA expansion program.
PowerFleet saw its service revenue margins increase to 67%, a notable rise from the previous year's 64%, and product margins adjusted for nonrecurring inventory charges improved from 27% to 30%. Operating expenses remained flat year-over-year, even after absorbing costs from Movingdots, signaling effective cost management and a move towards more high-margin business.
Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $2.9 million, driven by a $1 million increase at the gross margin level and a reduction in cash operating expenses year-over-year, showcasing the company's commitment to both growth and fiscal responsibility.
The net loss attributable to common stockholders came in at $4.6 million, which includes a $1.5 million gain from the Movingdots transaction. Adjusted for transaction costs and gains, the net loss was $2.4 million, indicating underlying cost pressures but also a strategic benefit from recent transactions.
PowerFleet ended the quarter with $19.3 million in cash, following strong cash generation from operations of $4.5 million and after covering $1.2 million in transaction costs, reinforcing the company's substantial cash position as it moves forward.
PowerFleet secured a $100 million credit agreement and renewed a $50 million credit facility to fund the MiX transaction. The company was unable to borrow in South African Rand due to exchange control limitations but seeks to mitigate this through an FX swap arrangement.
The cost of debt is set at a blended annual rate of $11 million, and net debt at close is forecasted to be $125 million. With a focus on synergy realization, PowerFleet is poised to optimize its cost base in anticipation of the merger, with $40 million in forecasted liquidity surplus, including undrawn credit lines.
While Israel faces macroeconomic pressures, especially in its typically strong first quarter, PowerFleet remains committed to its ambitious growth trajectory and delivering value for shareholders. The company achieved significant progress in 2023 across operational vectors, establishing a foundation to generate substantial rewards starting in 2024 and advancing towards Rule of 40 performance two years post-transaction.
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Good morning. Welcome to PowerFleet's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Conference Call. Joining us for today's presentation are the company's CEO, Steve Towe and CFO, David Wilson. [Operator Instructions]Before we begin the call, I would like to provide PowerFleet's safe harbor statement, which includes cautions regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. During the call, there will be forward-looking statements made regarding future events, including PowerFleet's future financial performance. All statements other than present and historical facts, which include any statements regarding the company's plans for future operations, anticipated future financial position, anticipated results of operation, business strategy, competitive position, company's expectations regarding opportunities for growth, demand for the company's product offering and other industry trends are considered forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, the company's financial expectations for 2024 and beyond. All such forward-looking statements imply the presence of risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the company's control. The company's actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those projected or assumed in any forward-looking statement.Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, amongst others, SEC filings, overall economic and business conditions, demand for the company's products and services, competitive factors, emergence of new technologies and the company's cash position. The company does not intend to undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.Finally, I would like to remind everyone that this call will be made available for replay in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.powerfleet.com.Now I would like to turn the call over to PowerFleet's CEO, Mr. Steve Towe. Sir, please proceed.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call.Today, we'll provide you with a business update that focuses on a review of the key milestones that mark 2023 as a year of stellar transformation for the business, an overview of our strong financial performance in the final quarter and second half of 2023, highlighting increased financial strength and growth trajectory and demonstrating highly effective results from the strategic operating plan for the year and a deep dive into the progress and momentum we're making in bringing together the PowerFleet and MiX businesses, highlighting the value the combination brings to our shareholders.In 2023, we have embarked upon a bold and aggressive transformation plan designed to inherently change and accelerate the company's ability to elevate itself to a market leadership position at the very top table of the industry it serves. This plan required us to reshape the revenue profile of the business, fix balance sheet issues that were a major overhang on the company, accelerate a technology pivot to AI and data science-led solutions, create scale to truly give the company the ability to compete with the global leaders in the industry, reignite EBITDA expansion and positive cash flow generation, and drive a unique product and platform strategy to bring differentiated value propositions to the industry.The outcomes achieved in the last 6 months in particular, notably fact checked by our strong Q4 performance, categorically underlying true world-class execution the team has delivered with the undeniable achievement of the major business objectives we have communicated to our shareholders over the last 12- to 18-month period. Starting with revenue, where we embarked on a brave transformation early in the year based on improving the quality of our revenue streams, a strategy typically seen in the private equity space, but in our case, executed in the full view of the public markets.We are grateful to our shareholders for the trust shown in the leadership team's capabilities to execute this bold plan. This pivot included making tough decisions to exit poor quality revenue segments on profitable contracts, low-performing territories and nonstrategic lines of business. This deliberate pruning of approximately $8 million of annual revenue concentrated in hardware sales has not only simplified our operations, but also redirected resources towards more SaaS-based revenue and business profitability.As we predicted publicly, we've reached a fast inflection point and a return to top line growth in mid-2023, with second half performance painting a clear picture of success where total revenue increased by 6% compared to half 1 and gross profit follows suit with a 6% improvement. Top line success is built on our SaaS Unity platform strategy, as evidenced by Q4 '23's high-quality SaaS revenue growing by 16% year-over-year on a constant currency basis.The total revenue performance in Q4 was our best performance in 6 quarters, growing 9% on a constant currency basis year-over-year and was particularly pleasing as we absorbed the predicted $2 million revenue shortfall in the quarter to our Israeli business due to the current macroeconomic issues for the territory. The reshaping of top line performance in the full year to focus on high-quality SaaS revenue resulted in a 14% increase in service revenue year-over-year on a constant currency basis and a $3 million improvement in annual gross profit from a lower total revenue base. Notably, North America, the leader in adoption of our Unity data ecosystem solution, delivered an excellent performance with annual growth of 16%.Adjusted EBITDA in the second half of '23 saw a terrific 141% increase, a gain of $2.9 million versus the first half. It's important to highlight that this EBITDA expansion was achieved despite a full period of Movingdots operating expenses, macroeconomic challenges in Israel, and a $1 million one-off charge for inventory-related items in the fourth quarter of 2023. The 48% sequential adjusted EBITDA increased from Q3 to Q4 2023 and 110% year-over-year increase in Q4 is a satisfying reflection on the output of the aggressive transformation efforts we have completed throughout the year.Moving on to technology. In 2023, we successfully tackled the dual challenge of aggressively ramping up investment in our next-generation Unity platform within the challenging landscape of managing near-term liquidity needs and addressing the financial overhang of the ABRY preferred note. The challenge was successfully addressed in very short order with the close of our rapid and strategic acquisition of Movingdots at the end of March. As a reminder, this deal secured a cohesive and high-performing team of over 30 engineers and data scientists with deep domain knowledge, cutting-edge IP in the automotive and safety insurance space, along with robust ESG reporting capabilities to enrich Unity and was the source of an $8 million influx of liquidity versus a drain on cash.A key commitment we made to our shareholders at the close of the Movingdots acquisition was to ensure it became EBITDA neutral within 2 quarters of close. As David will share, we clearly met this commitment posting a flat year-on-year spend in adjusted OpEx in Q4 '23, which included a $1.3 million of absorbed Movingdots spend. Our greatest accomplishment in 2023 is unquestionably the successful signing of our business combination with MiX Telematics. This milestone not only empowers us to fully realize our vision and strategy, but also significantly transforms our balance sheet, including clearing the ABRY preferred instrument from our capital structure. The combined value creation opportunity this presents, makes us incredibly excited about the future of our business.The MiX deal is also a game changer in terms of scale with 12 months trailing revenue increasing from $134 million to over $280 million, combined EBITDA increasing from $7 million to $40 million. The combination also provides a clear pathway to realize more than $25 million in cost synergies within 2 years of close. With resounding shareholder approval for the transaction secured for both PowerFleet and MiX, our integration teams led by Chief Corporate Development Officer, Melissa Ingram, will now begin to move from the planning phase to active execution. In deploying a tried and tested business integration methodology with a track record for delivering tangible results, the program aims to expedite the integration phase, enabling us to swiftly shift our attention towards driving increased shareholder value and enhancing our customers' experience, underpinned by a highly robust EBITDA expansion program.With 100-day plans in place and the nonnegotiable deliverables defined, our teams are ready to embark on implementing key elements of the integration plan. The entire organization is firmly behind this effort, and we can already feel the collective strength of the combined team driving our integration success. We are committed to swiftly and effectively putting the integration stage behind us, emerging as a unified, stronger and more effective company.Before I dive deeper into our future business opportunities and outlook, I'll turn the call over to David to walk you through our numbers in more detail. David?
Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone.We are delighted that our progress in transforming the makeup of our revenue base with growth in our differentiated sticky recurring service revenue pulling through product sales where we have increased levels of pricing power. As Steve noted, we have actively shed approximately $2 million in quarterly revenue from the first quarter of 2023, and it is great to see that market success from our next-generation offerings now outpacing these surgical cuts with fourth quarter revenue of $34.5 million, up 4.2% on an absolute basis and 9% on a constant currency basis versus the prior year period.As noted earlier, service revenue was the driver here, up 8.2% on an absolute basis and 16% on a constant currency basis. While our gross profit margin for the quarter reached 50%, reflecting a modest improvement of 1 percentage point over the prior year, these figures only partially reflect the underlying progress we have achieved in expanding margins. It's important to note that within the quarter, we absorbed $1.1 million in nonrecurring inventory adjustments. Without these onetime costs, our gross margin would have been 53% or 4 percentage points higher than the prior year.Improved margins were driven by the continued evolution of revenue with high-margin service revenue now comprising 63% of total revenue, up from 60% in the prior year, and absolute service margins expanding to an historic high of 67% versus 64% in the prior year period. Product margins were 22% on an absolute basis and 30% when adjusted for nonrecurring inventory charges, up from 27% in the prior year period.Now on to OpEx, which was $21.3 million on an absolute basis and $17.6 million after adjusting for $3.7 million in transaction expenses and in line with the $17.6 million incurred in the prior year. Flat year-over-year OpEx provides a compelling proof point of meeting our commitment that Movingdots would be EBITDA neutral within 2 quarters of closing the transaction. We cut to cover activities absorbing $1.3 million of OpEx incurred by Movingdots in the quarter.Moving on to adjusted EBITDA, which more than doubled from $1.4 million to $2.9 million, with a $1 million increase at the gross margin level, a lower cash OpEx spend year-over-year key drivers. Net loss attributable to common stockholders totaled $4.6 million or $0.13 per basic and diluted share, inclusive of an additional $1.5 million gain on bargain purchase arising from the Movingdots transaction. Adjusting for transaction costs and the gain on bargain purchase, net loss attributable to stockholders was $2.4 million or $0.07 per basic and diluted share. Closing with cash, we exited the quarter with cash of $19.3 million on the back of strong generation with cash from operations totaling $4.5 million in the quarter, inclusive of $1.2 million in cash settled transaction costs.I'll now provide an update on closing the MiX transaction with a focus on funding and the underlying capital structure. We have finalized the $100 million credit agreement with Rand Merchant Bank in South Africa and renewing a $50 million credit agreement with Bank Hapoalim in Israel. In terms of timing, and as a condition for the merger to be declared effective in South Africa on April 2, we will draw down $85 million of debt from RMB on March 13 in order to demonstrate we have unfettered access to the necessary capital to pay down the $90 million owed to ABRY at close. We also plan to draw down the full $30 million of term loan from Hapoalim and paid down $23 million of existing Hapoalim debt on March 18.In terms of the makeup and the cost of debt, $30 million in term loans from Hapoalim will be denominated in new Israeli shekel, providing a natural hedge for USD denominated investors for cash flows generated in Israel. $19 million will be denominated in USD, which differs from our earlier intention to have $50 million denominated in ZAR. While we were ultimately unable to obtain exchange control relief in South Africa to borrow in ZAR and remit to PowerFleet, Inc. in USD, we are exploring entering into an FX swap to essentially obtain the same hedging benefit for USD denominated investors by alternate means.The blended annual cost of debt is expected to be $11 million, an effective cash coupon of 8.8% with interest rate fixed on $85 million of USD denominated debt. While this cash coupon is approximately 1.7 percentage points lower than the effective rate included in the January 2024 S-4 filing, we expect this saving to be effectively consumed by the contemplated FX swap. Total net debt at close is forecast to be $125 million and approximately $110 million, respectively. Total liquidity at close is forecast to be approximately $40 million, inclusive of $25 million in undrawn revolver capacity.In terms of the underlying business, it is performing in line with the numbers shared at our November Investor Day. With expected trailing 12 months revenue and EBITDA of the combined business at close to be approximately $285 million, north of $40 million, respectively. Some additional context here, when overriding focus in the first quarter has been on aligning both organizations, so we have a running start on aggressively realizing revenue and cost and use at close. While this is undoubtedly the right call from a shareholder value creation standpoint, it necessarily requires taking some focus away from maximizing top line performance in the first couple of quarters as well as investing back into OpEx to ensure we have the right team and skill set in place to meet and beat our prior guidance on the timing of synergies.Building on this, in order to provide investors with a comprehensive understanding of our joint operations, our first quarter 2024 earnings call and release will concentrate on the financial outcomes of the merged entity rather than just stand-alone figures for legacy PowerFleet, which will appear in the 10-Q filing. A final note in the first quarter of 2024. Israel continues to be impacted by the challenging macroeconomic backdrop, which is more pronounced in the first quarter, which has historically been the strongest quarter for new business car sales and associated revenue.That concludes my remarks. Steve?
Thanks, David.2023 has been a landmark year for the company, wholeheartedly meeting the objectives I pledged to achieve to the Board and our shareholders within the first 2 years of my tenure as CEO. I'm profoundly proud of the substantial progress we've achieved across vital areas on our operating vectors of the business, all completed during aggressive and extensive M&A activity and execution. The transformation of our business from where it stood just a year ago is remarkable. We created an exciting foundation in 2023 that is poised to generate substantial value and rewards for our stockholders starting in 2024 and beyond.The signal from the market and our customers is crystal clear that our Unity platform effectively addresses acute pain points and needs across a broad swathe of the mobile asset market, highlighted by our improved revenue performance from our North American market, which has been the #1 priority for the go-to-market activities of Unity. The acquisition of Movingdots in Q1 and the pending completion of the game changing MiX transaction, massively expand our capacity to accelerate the further development and hardening of this comprehensive software platform and data ecosystem.The Unity play is not only increasing our share of wallet with current customers but also attracting new top-tier enterprise accounts, which is highly encouraging. Unity will evolve over time into a platform and ecosystem that extends well beyond telematics. In the immediate term, we are scaling up our device-agnostic data ingestion and processing and leveraging AI to empower customers to flexibly consume insights, be it via our own advanced applications or through integrations with other third-party business operating systems they utilize.The need for these capabilities is opening substantial market opportunities by positioning Unity as a central hub for a broad range of IoT applications and an all-encompassing data highway for our customers' enterprise. Feedback on our one-stop shop strategy for providing rich data solutions that cover operations in both the warehouse and over the road is very positive as larger enterprises look for true mission-critical partners who can help drive their digital transformation and business improvement.In addition to accelerating our technology and go-to-market build, we have achieved, in a single step, the necessary scale and punching power to give us a much stronger ability to execute our long-term vision and strategy for the company. The deal more than doubles the size and the scale of our operations, increasing trailing 12-month revenue to north of $280 million and EBITDA to over $40 million with active subscribers going from $700,000 to $1.8 million, resulting in an exceptional medium-term cross-sell and upsell opportunity.Early dialogue with customers focused on the broader value proposition the combination presents has been extremely encouraging and provides us with strong confidence that we will accelerate the growth trajectory of the company in the medium term. As the deal is set to conclude at the start of April, we will spotlight key indicators in our future earnings calls to demonstrate the trajectory towards significantly enhancing EBITDA and propelling revenue growth. In the forthcoming update, we will focus on the cumulative annual run rate cost synergies achieved by the end of each quarter, advancements in transitioning MiX's customer base to the Unity platform, specific instances of how we are expanding our share of wallet with existing customers through cross-selling the comprehensive product lineup resulting from the combination and also progress in utilizing MiX's extensive global network of 130 retailers to broaden the sales reach of our in-warehouse solutions and advanced safety solutions.To conclude, we have a team that has undoubtedly proven that it is highly effective at executing brave and highly complex business improvement at pace, and one which will now be bolstered even further by the addition of the talented individuals joining us through the MiX transaction. We have the clarity of vision and mission for the combined team, a disruptive and compelling data-led software strategy and much improved global market opportunity to build a business centered on highly differentiated sticky recurring SaaS revenue that gives us the ability to expect to meet and then beat Rule of 40 performance 2 years into the closing of the transaction.As we begin to put a sharp focus on executing the next phase of our strategic plan to the highest level in the next 2-year period, we anticipate rewarding our shareholders over time through a significant re-rate in our trading value from today's pro forma valuation of approximately 1.5x revenue towards the 5x to 8x revenue valuation, more typically enjoyed by a Rule of 40 public SaaS company. The commencement of the new combined business is set to formally go live on April 2. We naturally need some time to fully take control and fly the plane for ourselves in the coming months with the mission to successfully land the combined organization with a highly effective operating rhythm within 6 months. It is crystal clear we now have all the ingredients we need to drive a very compelling value proposition for the near and long term for our shareholders, our customers and our colleagues.I'll now turn it back over to the operator for Q&A. Operator?
[Operator Instructions] Your first question for today is from Scott Searle with ROTH MKM.
Nice job on the fourth quarter. It's nice to see the continued integration efforts seem to be tracking and everything as we go to, I guess, an April 2 launch. Maybe for starters, Dave, I wanted to get a little bit of color in terms of what you're seeing sequentially into the March quarter. It sounds like Israel continues to be some headwinds, but just kind of directionally how you're thinking about things. And then from a broader picture, Steve, what are you seeing in terms of the total contract value, the opportunity pipeline, kind of ARR growth? What should we be thinking about going forward over the next couple of quarters here? And how are sales cycles looking? It sounds like things are filling up in the industry, broadly speaking, looks to be very healthy right now. But how are you seeing that reflect itself in the current pipeline?
Great. Thanks, Scott, and happy to start in terms of just some insight in terms of Q1. Clearly, there's a huge opportunity set that we have. We're focused in terms of making sure we're building up a great head of steam in the first half of calendar year next year. A lot of our energy is really going in just to make sure things click into place. So we have a running start for April. So I would definitely view Q1 as a bit of a stub period in terms of where we're focused.There were also some benefits in the fourth quarter in terms of just lower expenses as we reacted to the events in Israel. So we're very much focused in terms of making sure we're in control there. So there will be some sort of reinvestment back into the business from an OpEx standpoint. Some of it just things that we just delayed doing. Others, there were certain savings in terms of people being called, for example, to the front line. So there were certain costs in Israel that we avoided, and that certainly contributed to a pretty healthy EBITDA in the fourth quarter.But again, the goal is to really sort of get things in place in Q1. Obviously, we're focused on managing multiple things, including financial performance, but the overriding focus is really on getting off to a running start from April.
Yes. And to answer your question, Scott, about pipeline and market. So both the quantity and quality of pipeline is increasing. I think if you look at the trajectory where we took out the product revenue and pivoted very quickly back to growth with a much-improved output in recurring SaaS revenue, then that's a testament to the quality of the pipeline is coming through and also as well the improved gross margins in terms of better deal discipline and just overall higher quality deals that we are working through. So that trajectory will continue.Obviously, on top of that now, we are starting to have very early conversations with MiX clients and PowerFleet clients about the combined portfolio, which is opening further doors. So in general terms, I think the market is strong. I think we have an ability to take advantage of that one-stop shop capability I discussed earlier in terms of in-warehouse and over the road. And I think underpinning that, the kind of Unity strategy where we're able to take multiple data sources and provide holistic inputs and outputs for customers is only driving that further attractive pipeline for us in the future.What we have to do is invest as much as we can to develop sales and marketing, which is a part of our key strategies to unlock the ability to put more investment and more feet on the street. But the vectors are good, and we feel really positive about the future trajectory of the company. What we have stated in terms of revenue growth, short and medium term, the first couple of quarters is very much around the synergy unlock on the cost side, integrating the business and giving us that oxygen into the P&L. And then as we start to kind of come through that, we get into the operating rhythm, then we'll see the revenue growth tick up over time.
Good. Very helpful. And 2 questions if I could to follow up and I'll get back in the queue. But Steve, David, is there any change in terms of how you're thinking about the long-term targets at this point in time? I know it's not that far beyond the November Analyst Day, but you guys are hitting the ground with a running start here as we get close to, I guess, the launch in early April. Is there any change of thought on that front? And then, Steve, just to follow up on the Unity platform. I just wanted to get my hands around a little bit the integration time lines of when you can really start getting out there and hitting the installed MiX customer base. And you also referenced more IoT applications being incorporated into the Unity platform. I'm wondering if you could expand a little bit on that.
So in terms of your first question, I think we remain confident, and we've had another 2 or 3 months to get under the skin of the combined business. We feel confident in the numbers and projections we put forward at Investor Day. We don't see any change to that. Obviously, when we fly the plane for ourselves, then we'll fully see the landscape that's in front of us. But overall, the indications remain strong. And we think we put together a credible plan and an overview for our shareholders of the journey that we're going to go on.In terms of MiX, customers being able to enjoy Unity within 3 to 6 months maximum, the customers will have the ability to utilize the Unity services. We are obviously working hard as well to ensure that hardware and device is already installed, can communicate bidirectionally. So we can also, from a PowerFleet perspective, utilize the MiX capabilities that don't exist and which we're obviously building into the overall Unity proposition.Then in terms of kind of broader IoT, we're looking at all asset types. So that can be temperature and humidity. It can be things from, as we've talked about previously, defibrillator solutions and just different monitoring systems that exist to in order to provide a customer with a holistic view of data that is relevant to their organization. So we'll expand those as we go. We have our core offerings right now. But I think what we are seeing is customers saying to us, look, can you take data from this type of asset, from this type of sensor? And can you make sense of it for us? And that's all part of the strategy that we undertake.
Scott, just a quick add, sorry, on the Analyst Day numbers, just to confirm, I know we said it on the day. You need to think about those numbers as being the first 4 quarters after close. So it's not a calendar year projection. It's really for the 12 months after close. So those numbers should be thought of in terms of the year ending March 31, not December 31.
Great. Great job on the quarter, and looking forward to the combined entity [indiscernible].
Your next question is from Mike Walkley with Canaccord Genuity.
Great. Congratulations on all you achieved in 2023. I guess first question just for David, on the gross margin in services, quite strong this quarter. Is this a good way to think about where it should go going forward? Or is there a mix shift in the quarter? And then also on hardware, should we expect to sustain around that 30% level given the new mix of hardware?
Yes. So you're right. Obviously, services gross margin was strong at 67%. It was unusually low in Q3. It ran about 60% and normalized it was sort of closer to 64%. So what I think is most important is that we're seeing gross margin at the service level expand over time. But just a comment on the Q4 performance, as I mentioned earlier in the earlier questions, there was a benefit in Israel in terms of being able to pull costs out. There were fewer shifts, for example, working at a call center level. So there's probably sort of over 1 percentage point of benefit there. So I would say, on a go-forward basis, 65% is probably the right way to think about it from a services standpoint, again, with headroom to expand over time.And then in terms of your question on hardware margins, yes, 30% is a good sort of baseline to look at. The thought and the goal is to expand that over time. But as of now, I think 30% is the right sort of base to build from.
Great. And just with the $8 million in annual revenue pulled out, how should we think about just in terms of comparables when you're lapping that? Is it setting up for easier growth trends on the stand-alone PowerFleet business as the year plays out? Or was it mostly pulled out at the beginning of the year or end of 2022?
Yes. So basically, the lapping becomes easier from Q1 '24 onwards. It was really initiatives that took hold and impacted the P&L from Q1 '23 onwards.
Great. And just last question for me before I pass it on. Excited about the combined entities and those targets. But as you look at your stand-alone PowerFleet business and how much the margins have expanded. What do you think this business's stand-alone area could reach in terms of adjusted EBITDA margins as the trends play out over the course of the year?
Yes. So in terms of the stand-alone business, the expectation has always been on a stand-alone basis, we can be a Rule of 40 company. Again, that would be EBITDA margins in the sort of the 30% range over time. There's a lot of efficiencies we think we can continue to drive from an OpEx standpoint. And to the earlier comments, we do see gross margins expanding over time. Two key drivers there. Firstly, from a services standpoint, the scale benefits as that grows. And also from a revenue mix standpoint, the expectation is that services as a percentage of revenue will continue to grow as it has been growing. So that's always been the expectation on a stand-alone basis.The joy of the MiX transaction is we get there a lot more quickly. And also, we have certain elements of the P&L totally within our control and obviously, the cost base being the key one and an expectation there's efficiencies we can harvest there.
And I think, Mike, just to add. So obviously, we've managed to make a huge technological transformation within the envelope that we had in terms of balance sheet and the restrictions. So we -- but what we committed to was getting through that, getting those investments in place, but ripping out a bunch of costs and improving margins to move PowerFleet stand-alone to a path of profitability. And I think we can now -- we can all see those numbers start to flow and that will continue to grow as we go.
Great. That's very helpful. I guess one last question and I'll pass it on. Just in terms of the deal closing, you've got the debt in place, you have shareholder approval. Is there any other milestones that need to happen between now and then? Or you think it's just smooth sailing from here until the closing date?
So I mean, all conditions have been met in terms of all the regulatory approvals required. Obviously, the funding is fully in place, and the shareholder vote was resounding. So now it is just a matter of time, and that is just time that has to passing under legislative terms out of South Africa. So we, at this point, are highly confident that, that April 2 date will be the launch for the new combined company.
Your next question for today is from Jaeson Schmidt with Lake Street.
I know you called out Israel, but just curious from a geographical perspective, if there are any other areas that jump out either positive or negative?
I think if you look at the positive growth of North America in the last 12 months, that's where we focused our enterprise sales efforts. It's where we've launched Unity. And the response that we're seeing is super positive with proof points in terms of new logos, customer commitments. We are shortly embarking on heart beats in May, which is our second Annual Customer Conference, where there'll be a bunch of customers talking about Unity and its effect on their business. So I think overall, we're seeing strong vectors. And that's also considering, in the U.S., we've seen some headwinds in terms of the supply chain industry with some of the traditional PowerFleet revenues. So the overriding, I think, growth in our safety solutions, the combined solution of in-warehouse and over the road is really kind of coming to bear. But that's where we see kind of real strength.We're starting to plant some seeds, as we've talked previously, in the European region. That's a midterm burn, but we're seeing some good pipeline starting to build out of Europe. And I think we have a new lease of life coming for our Brazil, Argentina and South African businesses, which, obviously, we put into almost maintenance mode, and we kind of killed any growth pipeline with the decisions that we made when we look for strategic alternatives for it. So that region has got new life. And if you look at the fact that we've been able to grow this quarter, considering the challenges faced in Israel from October 7 onwards, gives us a real strong indication in terms of the overall growth potential for the business. And I would say a big thank you as well to our Israeli team who have done a tremendous job to protect revenues and find alternative revenue streams to continue that support moving forward during obviously what is challenging times.
Got it. That's helpful. And Steve, I know you just mentioned new logos in North America. When you look at that pipeline expansion in aggregate across your business, is that expansion really being driven by these new logos? Or are you still expanding pretty significantly at existing customers?
It's a mixture of both. So I think we are even in PowerFleet stand-alone doing a much better job of cross-selling and up-selling, where we had customers in the warehouse that we're now starting to get into their assets that are on the road and vice versa. But what I think is particularly intriguing and exciting is the view that we have at this kind of data highway play where customers, large enterprises in the U.S., have multiple providers and they're struggling to make sense of the data and get it in a meaningful format and are looking for a more of a mission-critical partner. I think that's the role that we're starting to play and that's what is bringing new logo growth, where maybe there's some frustration in key verticals with some of the more tactical competitors out in the market.
Okay. And then just the last one, and I'll jump back in the queue. I don't know if you disclose ARPU, but at least directionally, is it trending in how you expected it to?
Yes. Again, ARPU is not a metric that we're overly focused on. We're increasingly focused on sort of the book of business, the end recurring book of business. But the benefit of Unity is it really is adding an extra layer of value from a customer standpoint. And clearly, we get to earn our share of economic rent for that value delivered.
And just to add to that kind of the stickiness of taking in different data sources, adds ARPU to your standard [indiscernible] expanding the enterprise applications and the AI capabilities and delivering premium applications adds more to your ARPU. And then finally integrating to third-party business systems and sending our data into other solutions allows us to do the same. So I think if you look at kind of more of the commoditized revenue that PowerFleet had and some of the nonprofitable stuff and all the stuff we've kind of taken out of the business, that's now being replaced with stronger ARPUs and higher margin and better quality revenue.
Your next question is from Gary Prestopino with Barrington Research.
Steve, David. A couple of questions here. And I guess that you just answered the first one I was going to ask is in terms of are you giving a subscriber count or that just is not a metric that you're going to be focusing on?
So I think we talked generically about the subscribers. We will provide subscriber numbers. For us, it's about quality of revenue and ARPU in terms of just the scale of revenue we're getting per subscriber rather than just attracting subscribers. So I think that's -- it is something that is important to us, but I would say it's not the #1 vector. The #1 vector is the profitability of the revenue and the growth that we can pull forward per customer and improving that wallet share, I think, is another key vector.
Okay. So just on the legacy business alone, PowerFleet, can you give us some metrics of where you are with the Unity platform in terms of your legacy customer base or legacy revenues on the services side? I mean, what percentage of these revenues are now being derived through being a part of the Unity platform?
Yes. So I mean, Unity is an ecosystem and a platform. So all of the previous heritage functionality from the previous platforms reside in Unity. So it's not like we're migrating from platform A to platform B and therefore, there is Unity revenue shift from one platform to the other. It's all part of Unity. So it's difficult to break it out. What I would say is if you look at the growth that we are achieving, then a strong proportion of that growth is coming from the fact of the capabilities of what Unity does today and what it's going to do in the future. So I think that's where -- if you see the fact we've taken out $8 million of annualized revenue and now we're out tracking that in terms of growth, then I would say the majority of that is coming from the Unity play. And in line with that, I would say, the safety solutions that we sell within Unity.
Okay. And then what -- as I recall, you said you were going to have 5 or 6 modules. Is that correct? Are they all out in the market now?
No, we've not put out any of the module since the sustainability module. We've pivoted right now to ensuring that we can integrate MiX. So there are capabilities that will enhance the overall modularity that we have that MiX has today. So that has been something that we've pivoted to obviously off the back of the transaction. And then secondly, the kind of, I think, excitement and desire for the device agnostic piece of the platform has meant that we've accelerated our capabilities there to be able to do that at scale. So once those 2 things are done, then we'll start to release more and more AI capabilities and more modularity into the platform. But we think our near-term bang for the buck is very much on focusing on the integration with MiX and this kind of device agnostic piece and being able to take multiple data sources into the platform.
Your next question is from Matt Pfau with William Blair.
Great. Nice results. I wanted to follow up on the comments around the MiX customer base and discussions with moving them over to the Unity platform. Maybe can you just remind us the strategy around that? How long is that going to take? And how potentially disruptive is that to the existing MiX customer base?
So it's only additive to the MiX customer base. So we are implementing a strategy at the moment, like we did with PowerFleet platforms, to bring all of the current MiX platform capabilities into the Unity ecosystem and infrastructure. What it means, within 3 to 6 months, is that the customers will have the ability to utilize the value-added services that Unity brings. So whether that is more data ingestion points, whether that is the advanced AI applications that we've delivered already or the more scalable business system integration. So there is 0 disruption to the customer base. And what we have seen already in the dialogue is a lot of, I would say, excitement and put -- customers putting us under pressure to get that stuff delivered, which is great.And then I think secondly, the other thing that, from a MiX perspective, the customers have the ability to absorb is the in-warehouse solution. So where we're focusing on safety and sustainability, the folks that are usually responsible for that in an organization are both responsible for it in the warehouse and over the road. So this gives the ability to go and sell to new people in the organization and do broader propositions. And I think it's something that the MiX team are excited about as they didn't have that strong capability and therefore, that was a bit of a gap.On the flip side, we also have some key MiX technologies that the PowerFleet customer base have been wanting and desiring. So there's a bidirectional move. So obviously, the PowerFleet customers can benefit from that MiX technology again within the same period of time.
Great. And then -- and David, I just wanted to follow up on the comments around the impact to top line growth from the integration efforts. How long should we expect that to continue? Is that something beyond Q1? And then in any way to sort of quantify how you're thinking about that impact?
Yes. So again, the businesses are growing nicely both on their side and our side. So we're not expecting there to be sort of a pullback in terms of how we're performing there. Obviously, Israel is a headwind. We have to work our way around that. So we do have those types of things. And as Steve said in his earlier comments, the logistics here in the U.S. there's certainly some sort of headwinds in terms of that piece of the market. But I think the essence of what we're calling out here is if we really focused on top line, we would do better just because where we put our attention, we generally get to move the dial. And we look to put our attention to the dials that are going to create the most amount of value. And I'd say, over the next 2 quarters, it really is about getting this thing up and running.We have a massive focus in terms of expanding EBITDA through the benefits in terms of efficiencies from a cost standpoint. So we're going to put our minds and our efforts to work there. But obviously, we can keep more than one plate spinning at a single point in time. So we'll be looking to be effective across all fronts, but we're going to prioritize those things that matter the most.
Yes. And I'll just add to that. This is a big undertaking that -- and a brave undertaking that the 2 companies are doing. And the industry and broader industries are littered with integrations and combinations that fail. What we are highly confident about is we have a team with a track record of doing this really, really well. I think the -- even from Investor Day times, people saw the similar cultures of the teams and the teams are actively working together. What we want to do is make sure we land into a very, very strong operating rhythm fast. We've come out and made some bold statements in terms of projections over a 2-year period. And the key parts of moving that forward is, A, getting everybody aligned internally so that we can then focus externally as soon as possible, and we don't get that distraction.The ability for us to realize those EBITDA expansion programs, I think gives us everything we're going to need to propel top line growth. But we're going to make sure we don't dilute efforts on both of those by trying to do too much in one go. So that first 6-month period is very much something that is key to us winning the hearts and minds internally and externally. I think we have a great plan to do that. And then once we're through that initial period, then we can start to put out foot on the accelerator.
We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and I will now turn the call over to Steve for closing remarks.
Thank you. I would like to say a sincere thank you once again for the trust and confidence shown by our shareholders and the outstanding contribution from so many of our colleagues in both the PowerFleet and MiX organizations that have allowed us to be able to complete a highly strategic and complex transaction so effectively and seamlessly. We look forward very much to new beginnings for the evolved and highly energized PowerFleet family, and we look to continue to update our shareholders along the way. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day. We'll speak again soon.
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