WiseTech doubles first half year revenue

Global logistics software company WiseTech has delivered strong results with first half financial year total revenue up 35 per cent at $378.2 million.

The company’s core cloud-based logistics platform, CargoWise, boosted revenue by 50 per cent for the half, at $289.2 million driven by new customer growth and platform rollouts.

Growth from new customers equated to $14.2 million with EBITDA growing 36 per cent to $187.3 million, including tuck-in mergers and acquisitions dilution and $10.1 million M&A costs.

WiseTech founder and chief executive Richard White said the results affirmed the company’s 3P (Product, Penetration, Profitability) strategy in the face of a softening global financial environment.

“Our ability to deliver strong growth in revenue, earnings and free cash flow, in a softening global macroeconomic climate, is the result of a tremendous effort by our teams around the world and we’re immensely proud of the progress we are making towards our vision of being the operating system for global logistics,” White said.

The results come in hot as the company basks in the afterglow of its two biggest historical acquisitions, the North American Envase Technologies for US$230 million and Blume Global for US$414 million.

Other acquisition activity in the first half included Bolero and Shipamax.

White said targeted acquisitions are being used to supplement organic growth and accelerate the development of WiseTech's CargoWise product.

“CargoWise is rapidly becoming the industry standard. Importantly, in January this year, we also secured our first global customs rollout with Kuehne+Nagel, the world’s largest global freight forwarder," White said.

"This is a testament to the success of our foothold acquisition strategy and our customs product development, as we build out a global customs engine” he added.

The company now has 47 large global rollouts in place, including 11 of the Top 25 Global Freight Forwarders.

Providing full year 2023 guidance, the company confirmed and updated for recent M&A activity to revenue of $790 million–$822 million, reflecting growth of 26 to 30 per cent.

Earnings before tax excluding M&A costs was estimated as $380 million to $412 million in the guidance.

The company stated that it anticipates liquidity of $400 million from existing cash reserves and undrawn debt facilities following the completion of the Blume Global acquisition, as well as ongoing strong free cash flow generation.

WiseTech also accelerated its innovation and product development efforts in the first half investing $115.1 million in R&D which represents 30 per cent of revenue.

The company reported that this investment delivered 577 new product enhancements in the half, taking total product enhancements in the last five years to more than 5,200.

The group has accelerated hiring in line with its commitment to increase the pace of R&D investment, and reports attracting top talent globally.

“Our strong balance sheet and cash generation provide us with significant financial firepower to fund our future growth,” White said.