A attendee walks previous a banner with a Seize brand earlier than a bell-ringing ceremony as Seize begins buying and selling on the Nasdaq, in Singapore, on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021.
Ore Huiying | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
SINGAPORE — Seize posted its first-ever worthwhile quarter, raking in $11 million in revenue, the Southeast Asian ride-hailing large stated in its fourth-quarter earnings report Thursday.
This compares with a $391 million loss recorded in the identical interval a yr in the past. The increase was “primarily because of the enchancment in Group adjusted EBITDA, honest worth modifications in investments, and lowered share-based compensation bills,” the corporate stated.
Income for the quarter hit $653 million, exceeding LSEG analysts’ estimates of $634.86 million.
Losses for full yr 2023 got here to $485 million, down 72% from $1.74 billion a yr in the past.
Along with ride-hailing, the corporate additionally gives monetary companies like funds and insurance coverage, in addition to deliveries for meals, groceries and packages.
“We exited [2023 with] mobility exceeding pre-Covid ranges. We’re seeing a really sturdy demand within the mobility area,” Seize CFO Peter Oey advised CNBC in an unique interview on Friday, including that tourism is “rising very a lot.”
“When you take a look at the deliveries enterprise, now we have one other document 13% year-over-year development. We’ve now extra customers on our platform additionally on the identical time. So now we have actually sturdy momentum,” he stated on CNBC’s “Squawk Field Asia.”
Seize introduced Thursday it might be repurchasing as much as $500 million value of sophistication A abnormal shares for the primary time.
Seize was largely unprofitable throughout its years of operation, having amassed billions of {dollars} in losses since its inception in 2012.
Within the preliminary years of enterprise, tech startups are inclined to prioritize development over profitability, which normally means burning lots of money. However with world macro uncertainties slowing development, they’ve been pressured to resume their give attention to profitability and be extra prudent with prices.
Through the fourth quarter, complete incentives — which embody accomplice and shopper incentives — had been additional diminished to 7.3% of complete worth of products offered, Seize stated in its report. That is in comparison with 8.2% in the identical interval a yr in the past “as we continued to enhance the well being of our market.”
Seize had been doling out incentives to draw drivers and passengers to its platform however that is tapering now as the corporate strikes to drive up profitability.
On whether or not Seize would attain a time the place it would not have to incentivize individuals to remain on the platform, Oey stated incentives will “at all times be a lever” for the enterprise.
“I do not suppose we will see a world the place there isn’t any incentive by any means,” he advised CNBC, including that incentives assist “to ensure now we have sufficient provide” of drivers and entice price-sensitive prospects.
For 2024, Seize expects income to come back in between $2.70 billion and $2.75 billion, decrease than LSEG analysts’ consensus of $2.8 billion.
Seize’s shares closed 8.41% decrease on Thursday. Its share worth has plummeted 75.8% from its $13.06 opening worth in December 2021, when the agency first listed on the Nasdaq.
