Appen Limited (APX) Q4 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Thank you very much, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Appen's FY24 results presentation. Today, I'm joined by our CFO, Justin Miles. There are four sections to the presentation as per the agenda on page three. First, I'll share some highlights from our FY24 performance. Second, Justin will provide greater detail into the financial performance for the year. Third, I'll share an update on the market and our strategy. And finally, we'll provide a 2025 outlook statement. Moving to page five in the presentation where I will share highlights from FY24. There are six of these. First is that group revenue grew 16% year on year if we exclude the impact of Google. Second is that China grew a very impressive 71% year on year. Third is that we continue to win work in large language model related projects. Fourth is that our AI data annotation platform is becoming increasingly important for our large technology companies. particularly for LLM-related projects. Fifth is that we were able to deliver revenue growth while reducing OPEX by 26% compared to FY23. And finally is that we returned to profitability. We achieved $3.5 million in underlying EBITDA in FY24, up from a loss of $23.9 million in FY23. I'll now step through each of these in a little bit more detail. Turning to page six in the presentation, Excluding the impact of Google, we experienced a return to revenue growth in FY24, largely due to the rise of generative AI-related projects. Excluding Google, revenue for Q4 FY24 grew an impressive 37% compared to Q4 FY23, reaching $66.7 million. Growth continues to be driven by large technology companies, both in the US and China. Turning now to page seven. China had a breakout year in FY24, delivering 71% year-on-year growth. The growth is on the back of a very ...