* Hitit (HTTBT), one of the world's leading aviation technology companies, closed the second quarter of 2022 with a sales revenue of USD 7.9 million and an EBITDA margin of 43 percent.
* Increasing its turnover by 18 percent and its EBITDA-based profit by 25 percent, Hitit reached 60 airline partners in 44 countries on five continents as of the second quarter of 2022.
* With these growth figures, Hitit displayed the best second quarter performance of the last five years in terms of new partner acquisition.
Hitit (HTTBT), Turkey's largest service exporter in the field of aviation software solutions, continues its steady growth in the international arena. In the second quarter of 2022, Hitit displayed the best performance of the last five years in terms of new partner acquisition and surpassed its pre-pandemic figures. As of the end of the second quarter of 2022, the company increased its sales revenues by 18 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching USD 7.9 million. Passenger numbers, which are the basis of Hitit's recurring SaaS revenues, increased by 34 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. This increase was driven not only by newly acquired partners but also by the increase in business volumes of existing partners. In parallel, the company's EBITDA margin reached 43 percent, six percent above the pre-pandemic period of the second quarter of 2019.
Sezer Özmutlu: “We took advantage of earning foreign currency and spending TL”
Sezer Özmutlu, CFO at Hitit, stated that as a result of the successful international growth strategy, 86 percent of the revenues were realized in foreign currency and just 14 percent in TL, and said, "The ratio of our international revenues was 67 percent and the ratio of our domestic revenues was 33 percent. On the other hand, 72 percent of our costs were realized in TL. Thus, we also benefited from the advantages of earning in foreign currency and spending in TL. As of the end of the second quarter, cash and cash equivalents amounted to USD 24.8 million following the IPO, which was finalized in March 2022. For the same period, cash excluding bank loans and financial lease obligations amounted to USD 21 million."
Özmutlu also added, "As of the second quarter of the year, we invested USD 2.6 million in R&D and USD 1.3 million on licenses, hardware and fixtures."
Commenting about Hitit's developments in the second quarter of 2022, Nevra Onursal Karaağaç, CMO at Hitit, noted that partner acquisitions continued during the quarter with more customers signed from entrenched legacy competitors.
Karaağaç also provided insight into the investments made: "We have completed the Proof of Concept (PoC) process with the world's leading cloud infrastructure providers and brought it to its final stage. We signed an agreement with Tazi Information Technologies, which develops innovative artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions. By integrating their capabilities into our own Crane solutions, we aim to provide increased ease of use and reduced time-to-action throughout our platform, thus reducing the operational costs of Hitit's partner airlines while increasing their revenues."
Year-end target is 32-37 percent growth in dollars
Noting that they signed seven new partnership agreements in this period, Karaağaç said, "We signed the first partner airline agreement in Western Europe for Passenger Service Systems (PSS). Our first partner airline in Latin America started its flights. We also signed a new agreement with a strategic partner for the agency distribution system, one of our key growth focus areas. In the period ahead, we will continue our solution and service development, sales and marketing activities in line with our growth strategy, as well as our investments to realize our targets. In this context, by the end of 2022, we foresee a 32 to 37 percent growth in turnover in dollars, an EBITDA margin of 43 to 48 percent, and a 30 to 35 percent growth in the investment/turnover ratio. We also plan to continue our steady increase in the number of partners."
The secret of success is employee satisfaction and loyalty
Noting that Hitit's number of employees reached 321 as of the second quarter of 2022 thanks to constant hiring and growth, Karaağaç shared the secret ingredient in the recipe of success is above average retention of long-term and senior employees. Karaağaç said, " LinkedIn data for 2021 shows that the average seniority of IT employees is 2.7 years while this figure stands at 4.7 years for Hitit employees. Thanks to the loyalty of our satisfied employees coupled with experienced, long-term middle and senior management staff, we are able to retain and propagate our hard-won expertise in our field of activity. This in turn leads to our sustainable success."