RE: Good business bad environment31 Jan 2024 09:40
Tylo
I think you have not quite understood the Rental Piece. here are my thoughts:
- It's proved highly compelling as a proposition for customers and has sold well
- In theory, it's a higher margin proposition vs selling a phone outright (Howvere, this will only ver be really tested over time when baking in things like; bad debt, non return of device, cost of finance, re-sign rate
- I expect the number of customer at any given time on a renatl props to remain broadly stable until such time the company has a better funding solution; the company are not growing the rental base because in doing so will increase net debt and put themselves under pressure with the banks. (They are selling an alternative prop to consumer using Klarna or Paypal - who in turn allow customers to spread the payments)
- ALL rental devices come back after 12 months - the compnay will already have factored in a level of depreciation to the asset as it will be 1 year older and have greater wear and tear
- The 70% retention rate will refer to how many customers choose to extend for another 12 months with a new rental device. Note - this % is very similar to the long term trend on retention rates for standard 24mth contracts sold by carriers
Most of the debt is actually a good thing. E.g using indicative numbers. If the compnay had £10 Debt - that would be covered by the contracted recuring revenue stream (e.g. 40k customers paying £20 a month with avg 6mth contract remaining = £4.8m) AND it is funding the working capital which is the handset on loan to the customer (Assume 90% customers return their device at resaleable value of £150 = £5.4m)
ALL the big carriers all take on debt exactly the same way; they sell a handset receivable to the bank to accelarte their cashflow