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Tucows Reports Financial Results for Fourth Quarter 2019

TCX

TORONTO, Feb. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ:TCX, TSX:TC), a provider of network access, domain names and other Internet services, today reported its financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019. All figures are in U.S. dollars.

Summary Financial Results
(In Thousands of US Dollars, Except Per Share Data)

3 Months Ended December 31 12 Months Ended December 31
2019
(Unaudited)
2018
(Unaudited)
%
Change
2019
(Unaudited)
2018
(Unaudited)
%
Change
Net revenue 85,946 85,612 0.4% 337,145 346,013 -3%
Net income 5,778 4,436 30% 15,398 17,135 -10%
Basic Net earnings per common share 0.55 0.42 31% 1.45 1.62 -10%
Adjusted EBITDA1,2 16,155 16,623 -3% 51,905 50,054 4%
Net cash provided by operating activities 13,196 10,668 24% 40,381 37,209 9%
  1. This Non-GAAP financial measure is described below and reconciled to GAAP net income in the accompanying table.
  2. Adjusted EBITDA for the three-month and 12-month periods ended December 31, 2019 reflect the impact of the purchase price accounting adjustment related to the fair value write down of deferred revenue from the Ascio acquisition on March 18, 2019, which lowered Adjusted EBITDA by $0.5 million and $2.5 million, respectively.

Summary of Revenues and Gross profit
(In Thousands of US Dollars)

Revenue Gross Profit
3 Months ended
December 31
3 Months ended
December 31
2019
(Unaudited)
2018
(Unaudited)
2019
(Unaudited)
2018
(Unaudited)
Network Access Services:
Mobile Services 21,140 22,511 9,445 11,093
Other Services 3,029 2,320 2,062 1,429
Total Network Access Services 24,169 24,831 11,507 12,522
Domain Services:
Wholesale
Domain Services 46,622 43,396 9,085 7,752
Value Added Services 4,809 4,180 4,128 3,438
Total Wholesale 51,431 47,576 13,213 11,190
Retail 8,648 8,880 4,682 4,475
Portfolio 1,698 4,325 1,526 3,900
Total Domain Services 61,777 60,781 19,421 19,565
Network Expenses:
Network, other costs - - (2,156) (2,256)
Network, depreciation and amortization costs - - (2,727) (2,100)
Total Network expenses - - (4,883) (4,356)
Total 85,946 85,612 26,045 27,731

“Our fourth quarter results were once again demonstrative of the consistency in the Tucows business. Continuing strong cash generation from our Domains and Ting Mobile businesses contributed to record cash from operations for the year of $40 million to support investment in our outsized Ting Internet growth opportunity,” said Elliot Noss, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tucows Inc.

Mr. Noss added, “2019 was a year in which we took meaningful steps to position each of our businesses for long-term success. In our Domains business, we focused on strengthening the quality of the wholesale customer base to maximize gross profit of that channel, which expanded 15% over the prior year, as we made steady progress on our platform work to support future growth. In our Ting Mobile business, we announced positive changes to our service provider agreements that further enhance our already very compelling offering and provide much improved economics, setting the stage for better long-term prospects for our mobile business. And at Ting Internet, we invested more than $32 million in our network build, growing the number of passed homes by more than 60% and expanding our customer base by 46%, while adding four new towns that expanded our potential serviceable addresses by 74%. Tucows remains very well positioned to capitalize the greatest opportunity in telecom in a couple of generations.”

Financial Results

Net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2019 increased 0.4% to $85.9 million from $85.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2018.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2019 increased 30% to $5.8 million, or $0.55 per share from $4.4 million, or $0.42 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2018.

Adjusted EBITDA1 for the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased 3% to $16.2 million from $16.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2018. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2019 reflects the impact of the purchase price accounting adjustment related to the fair value write down of deferred revenue from the Ascio acquisition, which lowered Adjusted EBITDA by $0.5 million.

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019 was $20.4 million compared with $12.0 million at the end of the third quarter of 2019 and $12.6 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018.

Notes:

1. Adjusted EBITDA

Tucows reports all financial information required in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Along with this information, to assist financial statement users in an assessment of our historical performance, the Company typically discloses and discusses a non-GAAP financial measure, adjusted EBITDA, in press releases and on investor conference calls and related events that exclude certain non-cash and other charges as the Company believes that the non-GAAP information enhances investors' overall understanding of our financial performance.

The Company believes that the provision of this supplemental non-GAAP measure allows investors to evaluate the operational and financial performance of the Company’s core business using similar evaluation measures to those used by management. The Company uses adjusted EBITDA to measure its performance and prepare its budgets. Since adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial performance measure, the Company’s calculation of adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies; and should not be considered in isolation, as a substitute for, or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Because adjusted EBITDA is calculated before recurring cash charges, including interest expense and taxes, and is not adjusted for capital expenditures or other recurring cash requirements of the business, it should not be considered as a liquidity measure. Non-GAAP financial measures do not reflect a comprehensive system of accounting and may differ from non-GAAP financial measures with the same or similar captions that are used by other companies and/or analysts and may differ from period to period. The Company endeavors to compensate for these limitations by providing the relevant disclosure of the items excluded in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA to net income based on U.S. GAAP, which should be considered when evaluating the Company's results. Tucows strongly encourages investors to review its financial information in its entirety and not to rely on a single financial measure.

The Company’s adjusted EBITDA definition excludes depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, income tax provision, interest expense, interest income, stock-based compensation, asset impairment, gains and losses from unrealized foreign currency transactions and infrequently occurring items, including acquisition and transition costs. Gains and losses from unrealized foreign currency transactions removes the unrealized effect of the change in the mark-to-market values on outstanding unhedged foreign currency contracts, as well as the unrealized effect from the translation of monetary accounts denominated in non-U.S. dollars to U.S. dollars.

The following table reconciles net income to adjusted EBITDA (dollars in thousands):

3 months ended
December 31
12 months ended
December 31
2019
(unaudited)
2018
(unaudited)
2019
(unaudited)
2018
(unaudited)
Net income for the period 5,778 4,436 15,398 17,135
Depreciation of property and equipment 2,516 1,716 8,961 5,722
Loss on disposition of property and equipment - - 73 -
Amortization of intangible assets 2,870 2,290 10,333 9,243
Interest expense, net 1,220 926 4,769 3,687
Provision for income taxes 2,964 5,239 9,173 9,020
Stock-based compensation 836 670 2,876 2,574
Unrealized loss (gain) on change in fair value of forward contracts (109) 194 (313) 207
Unrealized loss (gain) on foreign exchange revaluation of foreign denominated monetary assets and liabilities (180) 749 (581) 940
Acquisition and transition costs* 260 403 1,216 1,526
Adjusted EBITDA 16,155 16,623 51,905 50,054
*Acquisition and other costs represent transaction-related expenses, transitional expenses, such as duplicative post-acquisition expenses, primarily related to the Company’s acquisition of Enom in January 2017 and Ascio in March 2019. Expenses include severance or transitional costs associated with department, operational or overall company restructuring efforts, including geographic alignments.

Conference Call
Concurrent with the dissemination of this news release, management’s pre-recorded commentary discussing the quarter and outlook for the Company have been posted to the Tucows web site at http://www.tucows.com/investors/financials. In lieu of a live question and answer period, for the next six days (until Tuesday, February 18), shareholders, analysts and prospective investors can submit questions to Tucows’ management at ir@tucows.com. Management will post responses to questions of general interest to the Company’s web site at http://www.tucows.com/investors/financials/ on Tuesday, February 25 at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET. All questions will receive a response, however, questions of a more specific nature may be responded to directly.

About Tucows
Tucows is a provider of network access, domain names and other Internet services. Ting (https://ting.com) delivers mobile phone service and fixed Internet access with outstanding customer support. OpenSRS (http://opensrs.com), Enom (http://www.enom.com) and Ascio (http://ascio.com) combined manage approximately 24 million domain names and millions of value-added services through a global reseller network of over 36,000 web hosts and ISPs. Hover (http://hover.com) makes it easy for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. More information can be found on Tucows’ corporate website (http://tucows.com).

Tucows Inc.
Consolidated Balance Sheets
(Dollar amounts in thousands of U.S. dollars)
December 31, December 31,
2019 2018 *
(unaudited) (unaudited)
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents $ 20,393 $ 12,637
Accounts receivable 14,564 10,837
Inventory 3,457 3,775
Prepaid expenses and deposits 13,478 15,472
Derivative instrument asset, current portion 731 -
Prepaid domain name registry and ancillary services fees, current portion 91,252 87,782
Income taxes recoverable 1,800 1,423
Total current assets 145,675 131,926
Prepaid domain name registry and ancillary services fees, long-term portion 17,915 18,745
Property and equipment 82,121 48,065
Right of use operating lease asset 11,335 -
Contract costs 1,400 1,390
Intangible assets 57,654 49,395
Goodwill 109,818 90,054
Total assets $ 425,918 $ 339,575
Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable $ 6,671 $ 8,445
Accrued liabilities 9,373 5,899
Customer deposits 14,074 11,919
Derivative instrument liability - 1,276
Deferred rent, current portion - 21
Operating lease liability, current portion 1,413 -
Loan payable, current portion - 18,400
Deferred revenue, current portion 123,101 116,734
Accreditation fees payable, current portion 952 985
Income taxes payable 1,324 1,668
Total current liabilities 156,908 165,347
Deferred revenue, long-term portion 26,202 26,960
Accreditation fees payable, long-term portion 216 250
Deferred rent, long-term portion - 116
Operating lease liability, long-term portion 9,424 -
Loan payable, long-term portion 113,503 46,201
Deferred tax liability 25,471 20,925
Stockholders' equity:
Preferred stock - no par value, 1,250,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding - -
Common stock - no par value, 250,000,000 shares authorized; 10,585,159 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2019 and 10,627,988 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2018 16,633 15,823
Additional paid-in capital 880 3,953
Retained earnings 76,208 60,810
Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 473 (810 )
Total stockholders' equity 94,194 79,776
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 425,918 $ 339,575
*The Company has initially applied ASC 2016-02 (Topic 842) using the modified retrospective method. Under this method, the comparative information is not restated.


Tucows Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income
(Dollar amounts in thousands of U.S. dollars)
Three months ended December 31, Year ended December 31,
2019
2018 * 2019
2018 *
(unaudited)
(unaudited)
Net revenues $ 85,946 $ 85,612 $ 337,145 $ 346,013
Cost of revenues:
Cost of revenues 55,018 53,525 217,579 232,103
Network expenses (*) 2,156 2,256 9,190 9,846
Depreciation of property and equipment 2,405 1,601 8,475 5,298
Amortization of intangible assets 322 499 1,124 1,996
Total cost of revenues 59,901 57,881 236,368 249,243
Gross profit 26,045 27,731 100,777 96,770
Expenses:
Sales and marketing (*) 7,904 8,434 34,270 33,063
Technical operations and development (*) 1,566 2,091 9,717 8,748
General and administrative (*) 4,062 4,804 17,880 17,710
Depreciation of property and equipment 111 115 486 424
Loss on disposition of property and equipment - - 73 -
Amortization of intangible assets 2,548 1,791 9,209 7,247
Loss (gain) on currency forward contracts (108 ) 232 (198 ) 254
Total expenses 16,083 17,467 71,437 67,446
Income from operations 9,962 10,264 29,340 29,324
Other income (expenses):
Interest expense, net (1,220 ) (926 ) (4,769 ) (3,687 )
Other income, net - 337 - 518
Total other income (expenses) (1,220 ) (589 ) (4,769 ) (3,169 )
Income before provision for income taxes 8,742 9,675 24,571 26,155
Provision for income taxes 2,964 5,239 9,173 9,020
Net income before redeemable non-controlling interest 5,778 4,436 15,398 17,135
Redeemable non-controlling interest - - - (26 )
Net income attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest - - - 26
Net income for the period 5,778 4,436 15,398 17,135
Other comprehensive income, net of tax
Unrealized income (loss) on hedging activities 487 (910 ) 1,101 (1,022 )
Net amount reclassified to earnings 15 136 182 212
Other comprehensive income (loss) net of tax (expense) recovery of ($161) and $241 for the three months ended December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, ($412) and $259 for the years ended December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018 502 (774 ) 1,283 (810 )
Comprehensive income, net of tax for the period $ 6,280 $ 3,662 $ 16,681 $ 16,325
Basic earnings per common share $ 0.55 $ 0.42 $ 1.45 $ 1.62
Shares used in computing basic earnings per common share 10,577,080 10,621,181 10,623,799 10,604,722
Diluted earnings per common share $ 0.54 $ 0.41 $ 1.43 $ 1.59
Shares used in computing diluted earnings per common share 10,693,430 10,791,940 10,772,812 10,794,170
(*) Stock-based compensation has been included in expenses as follows:
Network expenses $ 82 $ 70 $ 307 $ 223
Sales and marketing $ 395 $ 287 $ 1,251 $ 1,025
Technical operations and development $ 168 $ 135 $ 596 $ 636
General and administrative $ 191 $ 179 $ 722 $ 690
*The Company has initially applied ASC 2016-02 (Topic 842) using the modified retrospective method. Under this method, the comparative information is not restated.


Tucows Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(Dollar amounts in thousands of U.S. dollars)
Three months ended December 31, Year ended December 31,
2019 2018 * 2019 2018 *
Cash provided by: (unaudited)
(unaudited)
Operating activities:
Net income for the period $ 5,778 $ 4,436 $ 15,398 $ 17,135
Items not involving cash:
Depreciation of property and equipment 2,516 1,716 8,961 5,722
Loss on write off of property and equipment - - 142 -
Amortization of debt discount and issuance costs 65 70 297 281
Amortization of intangible assets 2,870 2,290 10,333 9,243
Net amortization contract costs (2 ) (7 ) (10 ) 14
Deferred income taxes (recovery) (456 ) 1,899 1,285 1,038
Excess tax benefits on share-based compensation expense 156 (165 ) (634 ) (697 )
Amortization of deferred rent - (5 ) - (14 )
Net Right of use operating assets/Operating lease liability (27 ) - (32 ) -
Loss on disposal of domain names 43 271 115 341
Other income - (258 ) - (429 )
Loss (gain) on change in the fair value of forward contracts (109 ) 194 (313 ) 207
Stock-based compensation 836 670 2,876 2,574
Change in non-cash operating working capital:
Accounts receivable (1,095 ) 692 (3,015 ) 1,539
Inventory 446 (635 ) 318 (831 )
Prepaid expenses and deposits 6,147 (918 ) 2,904 (1,286 )
Prepaid domain name registry and ancillary services fees 3,924 4,699 7,678 20,476
Income taxes recoverable 1,210 2,398 (89 ) 2,691
Accounts payable 1,556 (877 ) (1,222 ) 171
Accrued liabilities (4,945 ) (978 ) 2,329 (513 )
Customer deposits (846 ) 34 27 (3,336 )
Deferred revenue (4,838 ) (4,798 ) (6,900 ) (16,888 )
Accreditation fees payable (33 ) (60 ) (67 ) (229 )
Net cash provided by operating activities 13,196 10,668 40,381 37,209
Financing activities:
Proceeds received on exercise of stock options 83 50 395 112
Payment of tax obligations resulting from net exercise of stock options (4 ) (41 ) (548 ) (445 )
Repurchase of common stock - - (4,986 ) -
Proceeds received on loan payable 12,000 4,500 57,371 7,000
Repayment of loan payable (3,530 ) (4,384 ) (8,130 ) (19,596 )
Payment of loan payable costs (2 ) - (641 ) (8 )
Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities 8,547 125 43,461 (12,937 )
Investing activities:
Additions to property and equipment (12,913 ) (8,480 ) (44,070 ) (27,919 )
Acquisition of a portion of the minority interest in Ting Virginia, LLC - - - (1,200 )
Acquisition of Ascio Technologies Inc. (net of cash of $1,437) (426 ) - (28,450 ) -
Acquisition of intangible assets - (451 ) (3,566 ) (565 )
Net cash used in investing activities (13,339 ) (8,931 ) (76,086 ) (29,684 )
(Decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents 8,404 1,862 7,756 (5,412 )
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 11,989 10,775 12,637 18,049
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 20,393 $ 12,637 $ 20,393 $ 12,637
Supplemental cash flow information:
Interest paid $ 1,224 $ 931 $ 4,785 $ 3,712
Income taxes paid, net $ 1,818 $ 1,742 $ 7,941 $ 7,112
Supplementary disclosure of non-cash investing and financing activities:
Property and equipment acquired during the period not yet paid for $ 548 $ 1,462 $ 548 $ 1,462
*The Company has initially applied ASC 2016-02 (Topic 842) using the modified retrospective method. Under this method, the comparative information is not restated.


Reconciliation of Net income to Adjusted EBITDA
(In Thousands of U.S. Dollars) Three months ended December 31, Year ended December 31,
(unaudited) 2019 (unaudited) 2018 (unaudited)
2019 (unaudited) 2018 (unaudited)
Net income for the period $ 5,778 $ 4,436 $ 15,398 $ 17,135
Depreciation of property and equipment 2,516 1,716 8,961 5,722
Loss on disposition of property and equipment - - 73 -
Amortization of intangible assets 2,870 2,290 10,333 9,243
Interest expense, net 1,220 926 4,769 3,687
Provision for income taxes 2,964 5,239 9,173 9,020
Stock-based compensation 836 670 2,876 2,574
Unrealized loss (gain) on change in fair value of forward contracts (109 ) 194 (313 ) 207
Unrealized loss (gain) on foreign exchange revaluation of foreign denominated monetary assets and liabilities (180 ) 749 (581 ) 940
Acquisition and other costs1 260 403 1,216 1,526
Adjusted EBITDA $ 16,155 $ 16,623 $ 51,905 $ 50,054
1Acquisition and other costs represents transaction-related expenses, transitional expenses, such as duplicative post-acquisition expenses, primarily related to our acquisition of Enom in January 2017 and Ascio in March 2019. Expenses include severance or transitional costs associated with department, operational or overall company restructuring efforts, including geographic alignments.

This release includes forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our expectations regarding our future financial results and, including, without limitation, our expectations regarding our ability to realize synergies from the Enom acquisition and our expectation for growth of Ting Internet. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Information about other potential factors that could affect Tucows’ business, results of operations and financial condition is included in the Risk Factors sections of Tucows’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements should be evaluated with the understanding of their inherent uncertainty. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Tucows as of the date they are made. Tucows assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law.

Tucows, Ting, OpenSRS, Enom, Ascio and Hover are registered trademarks of Tucows Inc. or its subsidiaries.

Contact:
Lawrence Chamberlain
(416) 519-4196 | lawrence.chamberlain@loderockadvisors.com

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