Sorry folk, I had an emergency earlier and had to rush a loved one to the hospital...just getting back. All is well.
Last night I transcribed the conference call (it helps me to retain the info). This morning I was going to go through it and pull out the highlights.
I will probably do it late tonight or tomorrow. But in the interim, here's my transcription of the conference call below. Note, the section titles are my additions.
TRANSCRIPTION OF APRIL 30TH WEYLAND TECH CONFERENCE CALL
Conference Call Introduction Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Weyland Tech investor conference call. Thanks for dialing-in. Uhm, again for the purposes of efficiency and logistics, the call is on listen-only mode. Uhm, this is Brent Suen, the CEO of Weyland Tech. Today we are going to have a call to review some highlights from the 2018 year-end numbers, provide an update on some of the company’s key initiatives and also provide some insight into the ..ah..recent share price movement.
Disclaimer Uhm, before we get started, I want to remind everyone that during the call ..ah.. our remarks may contain, in addition to historical information, Uhm, ... and forward-looking statements regarding Weyland Tech within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Uhm, forward-looking statements include statements about plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events ...of performance and underlying assumptions as well as other statements that are different than historical facts. Uhm, these forward-looking statements are based on current management’s expectations as of today, April 30th 2019, and are subject to risk and uncertainties that may result in expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties are contained in the statements followed by the company from time-to-time with the Security Exchange Commission and all such forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, made on behalf of the company are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and such forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties and we caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
Presentation Topics Overview So, the following, uhm, will review , uhm, highlights on the 2018 year-end’s numbers. Then we’ll review some key initiatives that we described on the last call and in subsequent press releases. Uhm, the first being the potential for an acquisition of our ATOS pay/Ewallet business by a large regional tech company. Uhm, second is the update on the outstanding litigation in Singapore in U.S. Federal court in Nevada. Ah, third is the potential for merger and expansion into new and emerging markets. And, then, fourth is the update on qualification for Nasdaq in the re-engagement of the application. And then, finally, I will go over our insight into the recent share price movement.
2018 Highlights Highlights from the 2018 year-end numbers as previously reported in our annual report on form 10-K for the year ended December 31st 2018: Uhm, we finished the year with $22.7 million in revenues. That represented a year-over-year increase of 45.5%. Over the previous year we had about $15.5 million in revenues. The revenue growth, Uhm, we have started cross-selling into the ATOS Pay e-market, Uhm, audience and agents, Uhm, with the PAS platform-- Platform As a Service or as some of you know it, uhm, under the brand name of CreateApp.The bundled platform appears attractive and consistent with our strategic partners’ interest. Uhm, investment is still paramount so our margins, at this time, remain compressed. Uhm, sales expense, Uhm, has and continues to support development of channel and services that have been developed as a result.
Profitability Compared to Similar Companies in Industry Uhm, profitability, Uhm, although important, Uhm, overall, Uhm, I would say that it is virtually absent among our peers as there’s currently a land grab for market share. You guys have heard us talk about this in the past, uhm, in trying to keep ahead of the curve in terms of technology and establishing points of presence that position the company well. Ugm, I’d like point out a case in point, Uhm, one of the few other publicly traded mobile app/eWallet/eCommerce companies is a company named, SEA Limited, and that’s on the New York Stock Exchange. The ticker symbol is SE or Sierra Echo. Uhm, they currently have a $10 billion market cap and they will loose around $950 million this year. Uhm, I’d point out that their share price is actually up 140% since January, 1st of this year, while the company has actually come out and reported larger than expected losses. The point that I am trying to make is that institutional investors typically base a company’s outlook on positioning over profitability when they’re in growth stage-- which we clearly are as well.Admittedly, we currently do not have any institutional shareholders although that should change as the company proceeds with the NASDAQ up-listing which I will describe in a moment.
Aggressive Marketing Campaign Uhm, further we’ve began a very aggressive marketing campaign just this past month for our core product-- the Platform As a Service. Uhm, we are actually going to market it under the brand name of CreateApp and we’re currently working with IndoSat-- the second largest telecom provider in Indonesia-- to roll out this platform. Uhm, very interestingly, we made the attempt two years ago and the environment was not ready for pricing that’s similar to what we charge in other more-developed markets. Uhm, however, it appears now that, not only is this pricing feasible, the sign-up ratio is considerably higher than what we expected. So, this actually creates a tremendous opportunity for the growth of our core product in the fourth most populous country in the world.
Key Initiatives: Acquisition of ATOS Pay/E-wallet Uhm, moving on to a review of the key initiatives, uhm, the first, uhm, which we’ve mentioned in the past and also press-released: the potential for acquisition of ATOS Pay/E-wallet business by a large regional tech company. Uhm, the overture that we received verbally in February from this partner, they currently dominate the landscape in the ride-sharing and delivery space in SouthEast Asia. And we announced on September 6th of 2018 that there are a large number of unicorn companies in Southeast Asia. This one in particular, uhm, has indicated that our ewallet business is a target of theirs. Uhm, I would like to add at this stage no definitive terms has been agreed to and neither party is currently bound to proceed with any transaction. However, comparable valuation metrics in this space makes this a major point of enthusiasm and, as we indicated before, the overarching goal at Weyland is to build, grow and sell the projects that we launch in these emerging markets. Uhm, the team in Indonesia have begun the build-out of the key modules in functionality that is specific to the potential inquirer’s parameters and believe that this can be completed and presented in the next three months. So we'll continue to update you guys, uhm, as things move ahead. Uhm, in addition, the team in Indonesia continues to build the overall platform also making it attractive to other potential inquirers and the landscape does continue to improve for sale of the business.
Key Initiatives: Potential Merger & Expansion into New and Emerging Markets The second highlight of the potential for merger and expansion into a new and emerging market: Uhm, we’ve signed a non-binding LOI on April 8th, uhm, and we held a meeting recently between management of both companies. The original terms in proposal have been expanded to a much larger scope and, dependent upon government regulations, we’ll probably need to have additional negotiation and as we define that, we’ll also update you guys. Uhm, there are other opportunities that have been presented and the company is in talks to explore those as well. Uhm, we will keep you updated on these additional opportunities as they progress.
Update: Litigation Uhm, and then an update on outstanding litigation in Singapore and the U.S. Federal court in Nevada: As we indicated in the 10-K and then the filings recently, all of the legal disputes have been settled as of March of this year. Uhm, and although confidentiality agreements prohibits us from providing all of the particulars, we can tell you that there is a two-year lookup of the reduced amount of litigation shares that the settlement parties retained and there should be no reason for concern about overhang in the market.
Key Initiatives: NASDAQ Re-Engagement Application Lastly, the qualification for NASDAQ in the re-engagement of the application: Uhm, as previously disclosed, our NASDAQ application has been submitted and since the company’s 10-K was filed, uhm, on April 15th, we’re currently waiting NASDAQ comments. We do believe that approval, contingent upon a share price of $3, is highly possible and we will continue you update you guys as well.
Update Re: Share Price Movement Uhm, finally I wanted to provide some insight into the share price movement. Uhm, unfortunately our share price continues to fall which is in direct contradiction to the overall business and underlying fundamentals. Both myself and our investor relations team have received numerous inquiries as to the health of the company and likelihood that growth will continue. Uhm, I’d like to point out that the 2018 10-K results, uhm, comparing them to 2017, uhm, it appears that the business does continues to grow on the revenue side and we have received a large number of indications of interest to partner with or explore strategic business combinations that far exceeded previous months. Uhm, in fact, we’ve received more indications of interest, uhm, for partnering and, uhm, strategic business combinations in the past month then we have in the entire previous year in aggregate. Uhm, that’s indicative of the overall environment in Indonesia and SouthEast Asia. So we firmly believe their will be some exciting corporate event this year.
Conclusion At this time i’d like to conclude our overview. Thank you for joining us today. If you'd like to replay the call, it’s available at the number in our press release, dated April 24th 2019. Uhm, thank you very much for for joining.
