Tracsis plc

Tracsis plc

LLSE:TRCS
315.00
GBX
-5.00
(-1.56%)
10.71BMarket Cap
Nov 19Next Earn

Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptNovember 21, 2025

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Tracsis plc final results investor presentation. Today, we are joined by David Frost, CEO, and Andy Kelly, CFO.

Questions are encouraged throughout this webinar, and can be submitted via the Q&A box situated on the panel on the right-hand side of your screen. I'll now hand over to David to begin the presentation.

Thank you.

David Frost

Yes, thank you, Harry, and welcome everybody. We appreciate you joining us today.

It's a real pleasure to be here and presenting to most of you for the first time. Next slide.

On to the agenda, Andy and I will start by walking you through a review of performance in FY25, and we'll then talk about the strategic direction, the growth opportunities, and the outlook for Tracsis in FY26 and beyond before we move on to take questions from you. Next slide.

Just to set the scene from myself, a few key messages for FY25. Firstly, performance improved in the second half, which meant we were able to deliver full year results that were in line with the revised guidance that we gave back in April.

As part of that, we resolved the profitability issues in Traffic Data and Events, and we enter the new financial year in a much stronger position as a result of that. Secondly, we made good progress in the areas that matter most for the long-term success of the business.

Recurring revenues are an important focus area for us, and they continued to grow at a healthy rate. We won new strategic multi-year contracts both in pay-as-you-go and also in Geo-Intelligence, which will support future revenue growth.

We also completed the transformation of our operating model, bringing the Rail Technology & Services division under a single global leadership while investing into next generation product platforms, which we'll come onto later in the presentation. Market-wise, we continue to see uncertainty in UK rail, which looks very likely to persist through FY26.

Control Period 7 funding remains constrained, and the proposed renationalisation of the train operating companies alongside the creation of Great British Railways is having a negative impact on procurement timelines. While the recently announced Railways Bill is a step forward, there is still a long way to go before GBR is fully up and running.

We cannot control the timetable, but Tracsis continues to be well positioned to help deliver the government's long-term strategic vision for the future of the UK railway. In our planning for FY26, we had anticipated that these headwinds in the UK would continue, and so our expectations for the full year are unchanged and consistent with market expectations.

In the immediate future, we're focused on building on our H2 performance with a major emphasis on execution. In parallel, we have a clear and focused strategy for driving longer-term growth and margin accretion.

We will share more later in the presentation. There's no real change in direction; it's more about building on foundations and tightening up on how we put the strategy into action.

Next slide. Before we get into the detail of the presentation, I thought it was appropriate to share and reflect on my first 100 days with the business.

My first observation is that the fundamentals of the group remain really strong. Tracsis has a combination of market-leading technologies and deep domain expertise that differentiate us in the attractive transport end markets that we serve.

We're continuing to win new strategic contracts and embed long-term customer relationships, which in turn support growing levels of annual recurring revenue. The progress we've made in organizational transformation means we're now ideally placed to deliver our near-term priorities while positioning the business for future growth.

Those near-term priorities are really clear for us. The leadership transition has been completed smoothly with a structured handover from my predecessor Chris Barnes.

There have been no other changes to the senior leadership team, and we are now focused on continuing to build organizational capability to support both FY26 operational delivery and our longer-term growth ambitions. It's all about progressing the drivers of organic growth transformation: building the pipeline of future opportunity, investing in SaaS-native products, and increasing penetration in international markets in a very disciplined way.

We continue to believe that North America offers a significant long-term opportunity for the group. I have actually been there twice during my first few months and have met with customers, industry leaders, and railroad CEOs while spending time with the Tracsis team in the region.

It's pretty clear to me that we have a high-quality, well-differentiated product offering in North America with our PTC-enabled train dispatch software. The deployment with Northern Indiana that was completed in September of 2024 is operating well, and from my recent conversation with other railroad leaders, it's clear there's a healthy pipeline of opportunities across passenger, freight, and industrial operators, with the industry actively looking for credible new technology providers.

It's no secret that our progress in winning new opportunities has been slower than we anticipated, but procurement timelines can be lengthy. Behind the scenes, the team have been working hard to build and progress our pipeline.

We do need to remain patient, but I firmly believe North America is a key growth opportunity for us. Finally, we're continuing to review our portfolio alignment, something I know many investors are interested in, and to be clear, M&A remains very much a key component of our growth strategy and something that we're focused on.

With that, let me hand off to Andy, and he will talk you through the financial highlights of the year.

Andy Kelly

Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everyone. As David mentioned, our performance for the year was in line with the guidance we gave back with the interims in April, and that includes a much improved second half trading performance following a softer first half of the year.

The second half improvement included the recovery in our Traffic Data and Events businesses where actions that we took earlier in the year helped to improve profitability, as well as the benefit from delivering the first phase of development work on the TAC Converter contract that we announced in February 2025. The group is typically more profitable in the second half of the year.

That reflects the seasonality of our revenue streams. In H2 of FY25, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.2%, which was 331 basis points higher than in H2 of the prior year.

Overall, we delivered modest revenue growth year on year despite the market headwinds that were referenced earlier. Importantly, within this, we've continued to deliver stronger growth in recurring and transactional revenues, which are our key long-term value drivers, and in combination, these increased by 8% over the prior year.

The group's balance sheet remains strong. We saw a healthy improvement in free cash flow generation, and we ended the year with £23.4 million of cash on the balance sheet having fully completed the £3 million share buyback that we announced in April.

We put in place a new £35 million RCF in the second half of the year, and this remains undrawn. On the dividend, we've maintained our progressive policy.

We're recommending a final dividend of 1.4 pence per share, which would result in an 8% increase in the total dividend to 2.6 pence. Looking at the financial performance in more detail, as usual I'll start with the group consolidated performance and then break out the divisional results in more detail.

Total group revenue of £81.9 million was 1% higher than prior year on a reported basis; it was 3% higher on a like-for-like basis after adjusting for revenue from the lower margin, non-software related consultancy activities that we exited at the end of FY24. Adjusted EBITDA of £12.6 million was slightly lower than last year, and this really reflects three main drivers.

Firstly, the Control Period 7 funding headwinds impacted volumes of our remote condition monitoring hardware in the UK. Revenues here were 42% lower than in the prior year, and this had an adverse effect to profit of approximately £1.5 million.

As you'll probably recall from the interim results, we had seen a significantly lower level of profitability in our Traffic Data and Events businesses in the first half. Second half performance here was much improved.

I'll talk more about that when we get to the divisional review. However, the total profit contribution from this part of the business was lower than we achieved in FY24.

Offsetting these headwinds, the rest of the group delivered an EBITDA performance that was approximately £2 million higher than last year. That includes the benefit from exiting those lower margin consultancy activities as well as healthy underlying growth across the rest of the UK rail portfolio excluding remote condition monitoring.

Over the last two years, we have completed a program of actions to transform the group's operating model that's focused in particular on integrating and enhancing our technology development and delivery capabilities. Alongside this, we've been working hard to upgrade operational systems, streamline our operating footprint, exit from lower margin activities and in some cases contracts, and address other legacy issues that have restricted our ability to deliver revenue and margin growth.

Our FY25 results include the final tranche of costs associated with these actions with £2.4 million of exceptional costs charged to the income statement, of which £2 million were cash costs. Our statutory profit metrics were improved versus prior year.

In addition to a lower level of exceptional costs, this also includes over half a million pounds of additional interest income on our cash balances, and that includes the benefit from having centralized our cash management actions, which is one of the work streams that we completed as However, I can provide a comprehensive summary, detailed notes on specific sections (such as financial results, divisional performance, strategic growth pillars, or the Q&A segment), or answer specific questions about the call's contents. Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Tracsis plc final results investor presentation. Today, we are joined by David Frost, CEO, and Andy Kelly, CFO.

Questions are encouraged throughout this webinar, and can be submitted via the Q&A box situated on the panel on the right-hand side of your screen. I'll now hand over to David to begin the presentation.

Thank you.

David Frost

Yes, thank you, Harry, and welcome everybody. We appreciate you joining us today.

It's a real pleasure to be here and presenting to most of you for the first time. Next slide.

On to the agenda, Andy and I will start by walking you through a review of performance in FY25, and we'll then talk about the strategic direction, the growth opportunities, and the outlook for Tracsis in FY26 and beyond before we move on to take questions from you. Next slide.

Just to set the scene from myself, a few key messages for FY25. Firstly, performance improved in the second half, which meant we were able to deliver full year results that were in line with the revised guidance that we gave back in April.

As part of that, we resolved the profitability issues in Traffic Data and Events, and we enter the new financial year in a much stronger position as a result of that. Secondly, we made good progress in the areas that matter most for the long-term success of the business.

Recurring revenues are an important focus area for us, and they continued to grow at a healthy rate. We won new strategic multi-year contracts, both in pay-as-you-go and also in Geo-Intelligence, which will support future revenue growth.

We also completed the transformation of our operating model, bringing the Rail Technology & Services division under a single global leadership, while investing into next-generation product platforms, which we'll come onto later in the presentation. Market-wise, we continue to see uncertainty in UK rail, which looks very likely to persist through FY26.

Control Period 7 funding remains constrained, and the proposed renationalization of the train operating companies alongside the creation of Great British Railways is having a negative impact on procurement timelines. While the recently announced Railways Bill is a step forward, there is still a long way to go before GBR is fully up and running.

We cannot control the timetable, but Tracsis continues to be well positioned to help deliver the government's long-term strategic vision for the future of the UK railway. In our planning for FY26, we had anticipated that these headwinds in the UK would continue, and so our expectations for the full year are unchanged and consistent with market expectations.

In the immediate future, we're focused on building on our H2 performance with a major emphasis on execution. In parallel, we have a clear and focused strategy for driving longer-term growth and margin accretion.

We will share more later in the presentation. There's no real change in direction; it's more about building on foundations and tightening up on how we put the strategy into action.

Next slide. Before we get into the detail of the presentation, I thought it was appropriate to share and reflect on my first 100 days with the business.

My first observation is that the fundamentals of the group remain really strong. Tracsis has a combination of market-leading technologies and deep domain expertise that differentiate us in the attractive transport end markets that we serve.

We're continuing to win new strategic contracts and embed long-term customer relationships, which in turn support growing levels of annual recurring revenue. The progress we've made in organizational transformation means we're now ideally placed to deliver our near-term priorities while positioning the business for future growth.

Those near-term priorities are really clear for us. The leadership transition has been completed smoothly with a structured handover from my predecessor Chris Barnes.

There have been no other changes to the senior leadership team, and we are now focused on continuing to build organizational capability to support both FY26 operational delivery and our longer-term growth ambitions. It's all about progressing the drivers of organic growth transformation: building the pipeline of future opportunity, investing in SaaS-native products, and increasing penetration in international markets in a very disciplined way.

We continue to believe that North America offers a significant long-term opportunity for the group. I have actually been there twice during my first few months and have met with customers, industry leaders, and railroad CEOs while spending time with the Tracsis team in the region.

It's pretty clear to me that we have a high-quality, well-differentiated product offering in North America with our PTC-enabled train dispatch software. The deployment with Northern Indiana that was completed in September of 2024 is operating well, and from my recent conversation with other railroad leaders, it's clear there's a healthy pipeline of opportunities across passenger, freight, and industrial operators, with the industry actively looking for credible new technology providers.

It's no secret that our progress in winning new opportunities has been slower than we anticipated, but procurement timelines can be lengthy. Behind the scenes, the team have been working hard to build and progress our pipeline.

We do need to remain patient, but I firmly believe North America is a key growth opportunity for us. Finally, we're continuing to review our portfolio alignment, something I know many investors are interested in, and to be clear, M&A remains very much a key component of our growth strategy and something that we're focused on.

With that, let me hand off to Andy, and he will talk you through the financial highlights for the year.

Andy Kelly

Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everyone. As David mentioned, our performance for the year was in line with the guidance we gave back with the interims in April, and that includes a much-improved second half trading performance following a softer first half of the year.

The second half improvement included the recovery in our Traffic Data and Events businesses where actions that we took earlier in the year helped to improve profitability, as well as the benefit from delivering the first phase of development work on the TAC Converter contract that we announced in February 2025. The group is typically more profitable in the second half of the year; that reflects the seasonality of our revenue streams.

In H2 of FY25, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.2%, which was 331 basis points higher than in H2 of the prior year. Overall, we delivered modest revenue growth year-on-year, despite the market headwinds that were referenced earlier.

Importantly, within this, we've continued to deliver stronger growth in recurring and transactional revenues, which are our key long-term value drivers, and in combination, these increased by 8% over the prior year. The group's balance sheet remains strong.

We saw a healthy improvement in free cash flow generation, and we ended the year with £23.4 million of cash on the balance sheet, having fully completed the £3 million share buyback that we announced in April. We put in place a new £35 million RCF in the second half of the year, and this remains undrawn.

On the dividend, we've maintained our progressive policy; we're recommending a final dividend of 1.4 pence per share, which would result in an 8% increase in the total dividend to 2.6 pence. Looking at the financial performance in more detail, as usual, I'll start with the group consolidated performance, and then break out the divisional results in more detail.

Total group revenue of £81.9 million was 1% higher than prior year on a reported basis; it was 3% higher on a like-for-like basis, after adjusting for revenue from the lower-margin, non-software-related consultancy activities that we exited at the end of FY24. Adjusted EBITDA of £12.6 million was slightly lower than last year, and this really reflects three main drivers.

Firstly, the Control Period 7 funding headwinds impacted volumes of our remote condition monitoring hardware in the UK. Revenues here were 42% lower than in the prior year, and this had an adverse effect to profit of approximately £1.5 million.

As you'll probably recall from the interim results, we had seen a significantly lower level of profitability in our Traffic Data and Events businesses in the first half. Second half performance here was much improved.

I'll talk more about that when we get to the divisional review. However, the total profit contribution from this part of the business was lower than we achieved in FY24.

Offsetting these headwinds, the rest of the group delivered an EBITDA performance that was approximately £2 million higher than last year. That includes the benefit from exiting those lower-margin consultancy activities, as well as healthy underlying growth across the rest of the UK rail portfolio excluding remote condition monitoring.

Over the last two years, we have completed a program of actions to transform the group's operating model that's focused in particular on integrating and enhancing our technology development and delivery capabilities. Alongside this, we've been working hard to upgrade operational systems, streamline our operating footprint, exit from lower-margin activities, and in some cases, contracts, and address other legacy issues that have restricted our ability to deliver revenue and margin growth.

Our FY25 results include the final tranche of costs associated with these actions with £2.4 million of exceptional costs charged to the income statement, of which £2 million were cash costs. Our statutory profit metrics were improved versus prior year.

In addition to a lower level of exceptional costs, this also includes over half a million pounds of additional interest income on our cash balances, and that includes the benefit from having centralized ### Summary of Remaining Remarks and Q&A

* **Financial & Divisional Review

** The CFO reviewed the financial performance across the group's divisions, detailing trends in the rail technology and data analytics units. While certain UK rail hardware areas experienced funding headwinds, other segments saw healthy recurring software revenue and contract activity.

The group maintained solid cash balances, executed share repurchases, and secured credit facilities to preserve balance sheet strength.

* **Strategic Growth Vectors

** The CEO outlined four primary avenues for future expansion: maximizing core domestic market opportunities, investing in modern software platforms, pursuing international geographic expansion (particularly in North America), and evaluating targeted acquisition opportunities that integrate neatly into the existing structure.

* **Investor Q&A

** * **Capital Allocation & Buybacks:** Management reiterated their balanced framework, prioritizing organic product development and strategic acquisitions, alongside dividend commitments. * **M&A Pipeline:** Leadership expressed interest in bolt-on acquisitions that add technology capabilities or geographical reach, emphasizing financial discipline over large transformational deals.

* **Long-Term Value Proposition:** The executives highlighted their intellectual property, strong domain expertise, and structural market tailwinds as key drivers of future shareholder value. * **UK Rail Headwinds & Policy:** Management discussed navigating government restructuring in the domestic railway sector, noting that long-term modernization objectives align with their software and services offerings.

* **International & Product Growth:** Commentary focused on disciplined international rollout, standardizing software solutions for multi-region adoption, and contract delivery milestones across ticketing and dispatch solutions. Would you like a more detailed summary or analysis of any specific topic discussed during the call?