Operator: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to DTC's nine-month and Q3 2026 results call. This is Ali Afifi from Arqaam Capital, and I would like to welcome on the call with us today Mr. Mansoor Alfalasi, Group CEO, Mr. Amit Khandelwal, Group CFO, Mr. Ammar Albreiki, Group COO, and Mr. Nader Muqbel, Head of Investor Relations. Without any delay, I would like to hand over to Mr. Nader. Please go ahead.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Dubai Taxi Company's Q3 2026 earnings call. My name is Nader Muqbel, Head of Investor Relations at DTC. First, I would like to thank Ali and the team at Arqaam for hosting today's call. We truly appreciate your support. Presenting on today's call are DTC's Group CEO, Mr. Mansoor Al Falasi, our Group COO, Mr. Ammar Al Braiki, and our Group CFO, Mr. Amit Khandelwal. The team will be answering any relevant questions you may have during the Q&A session at the end of today's presentation. Before we start, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide 2, including the section on forward-looking statements, which we encourage you to read. A copy of today's presentation is also available on our website.
Nader Muqbel: Please note that the call is being recorded and transcribed, and by attending, you consent to the transcription. We will begin with key highlights, followed by the operational review and financial performance before opening the call for Q&A. I will now hand over to our Group CEO, Mr. Mansoor Alfalasi.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Thank you, Nader, and good afternoon, everyone. Q3 marked a further recovery in underlying mobility demand and the first quarter of National Taxi consolidation following completion of the acquisition in July. National Taxi has been consolidated from 8 July 2026. Accordingly, our reported Q3 results include its contribution from 8 July to 30 September, while like-for-like performance compares DTC standalone in both periods, excluding National Taxi. This distinction is important when assessing the underlying performance of the existing DTC business alongside the increased scale of the combined group. Strategically, execution remained strong. National Taxi integration is approximately 30% complete and progressing ahead of plan, with AED 3.9 million of synergies released in Q3, ahead of our initial expectations. For nine months 2026, reported revenue was AED 1.77 billion, EBITDA was AED 364 million, and net profit was AED 118 million.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Operationally, our fleet increased 17% year-on-year to 15,388 vehicles. Our driver base grew 15% to more than 26,000. During the first nine months, DTC and National Taxi completed 51.5 million taxi and limousine trips on a combined basis, or approximately 40 million on a reported basis, which includes National Taxi from 8 July. Underlying demand also improved steadily through the quarter. DTC's standalone taxi and limousine trips trends improved for a sixth consecutive month, with September approaching better year levels. This recovery, together with progress on National Taxi integration, fleet expansion, e-hailing, and technology, gives us a more constructive backdrop as we enter the Q4. The long-term structural drivers of mobility demand across Dubai and the wider UAE remain firmly intact. This slide summarizes the progress made across our core strategic priorities during Q3. First, we strengthened scale and regional leadership.
Mansoor Alfalasi: National Taxi integration is approximately 30% complete and ahead of plan, with key controls and operational alignment established. Our focus remains on capturing further synergies and enhancing the sustainable earnings potential of the combined business. We also continued the phased rollout of the 600 additional Dubai Taxi plates. By quarter end, 450 were operational, expanding capacity in a controlled manner while maintaining focus on utilization and service quality. Second, we expanded our digital and technology platform. We added 1,607 Arabia Taxi vehicles to Bolt and migrated our core systems to UAE sovereign cloud, strengthening resilience, scalability, and data sovereignty. Third, we advanced our efficiency and sustainability agenda by commissioning a 24-point ultra-fast EV charging hub, the first phase of planned network of more than 200 points. Together, these initiatives are expanding our addressable market, broadening digital distribution, strengthening the operating platform for DTC's next phase of growth.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Turning to our operating environment, the external demand backdrop continued to improve during the quarter across key indicators. Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport recovered from 2.5 million guests in March to 6.3 million in July, an increase of 152%. Over the same period, the year-on-year decline narrowed from 66% to 22%, demonstrating a steady recovery in aviation demand. Tourism and hospitality indicators are also strong. August overnight visitors reached 869,000, the strongest monthly volume since February. International visitors totaled almost 7 million for the first eight months of the year. August hotel occupancy reached 66%, equivalent to 89% of the pre-war level, compared with 36% in March 2026. Airline capacity also turned to 84% of previous levels, with further recovery expected through the winter season. These trends provide a more constructive demand backdrop for taxi and limousine activity.
Mansoor Alfalasi: While we remain measured on the near-term macro environment, the direction of travel is encouraging. DTC continues to be supported by strong structural fundamentals supporting demand for mobility solutions across Dubai and the wider UAE. Dubai resident population reached approximately 4.8 million in September, an increase of 220,000 or 4.8% year to date. This follows growth of 332,000 year on year in 2025 and remains consistent with the long-term expansion under the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan. The broader economic and infrastructure outlook is also supportive. The Central Bank of the UAE forecasts GDP growth of 10.4% in 2027, following 1.6% in 2026. Given the current regional and global context, there is naturally a wide range of views on the outlook. For DTC, the more important point is that the structural drivers of mobility demand remain intact.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Together, population growth, tourism, global connectivity, and infrastructure investment reinforce our confidence in the long-term mobility outlook. With that, I will now hand over to our Group COO, Ammar, to take you through the operational review.
Ammar Albreiki: Thank you, Mr. Mansour, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me take you through the operational review. During Q3, we continued to expand our platform in a disciplined manner while maintaining strong service delivery and operational efficiency across all segments. Total operational fleet increased to almost 15,400 vehicles at that quarter end, reflecting expansion across the business and the consolidation of National Taxi. Across taxi and limousine, DTC and National Taxi completed 18.5 million combined trips. In Q3, DTC standalone completed approximately 12.4 million trips, while National Taxi completed 6.1 million. The recovery strengthened through the quarter. The year-on-year decline in DTC standalone taxi and limousine trips narrowed from 7.8% in July to 6.2% in August and 1.9% in September, marking a sixth consecutive month of improvement. e-hailing activity also improved, with DTC standalone e-hailing trips increased from 1.3 million in July to 1.7 million in September.
Ammar Albreiki: The combination of greater fleet scale and broader multi-channel model positions us well to capture future demand normalization. Turning to the airport activity, we saw further recovery in airport-related trips alongside improving passenger traffic. DTC recorded 1.1 million trips in Q3, up approximately 40% from Q2. Monthly airport trips increased 82% from April to September and peaked at around 385,000 in August. This improvement is encouraging, given the importance of tourism and aviation demands to our taxi and limousine businesses. Turning to National Taxi, Q3 represents the first period of consolidation following completion of the acquisition on 8 July. From 8 July to 30 September, National Taxi generated AED 168 million of standalone revenue, AED 35.3 million of EBITDA, and 21% margin, and AED 16.9 million of net profit at 10% margin.
Ammar Albreiki: Its fleet stood at 2,685 vehicles at quarter end, while nine-month trips totaled 17.8 million, split between 11.1 million in Dubai and 6.7 million in Abu Dhabi. Integration is approximately 30% complete and progressing ahead of plan, with key controls and operational alignment established while retaining the National Taxi brand and maintaining service continuity. We realized AED 3.9 million of synergies in Q3 ahead of initial expectation. Benefits were generated across finance, procurement, CapEx, and asset optimization, with monthly saving increasing from around AED 0.1 million in July to AED 2.4 million in September. Work continues across finance, procurement, HR, governance, and operation, establishing the foundation for further efficiencies and earning benefits. Our focus is to complete the integration in a disciplined manner, capture further synergies, and strengthen the sustainable earning potential of the combined platform.
Ammar Albreiki: Looking at Bolt, the platform continued to deliver strong growth in customer adoption, network scale, and geographical reach. During the first nine months of the year, Bolt completed 6.6 million trips, an increase of 44% year-on-year. Momentum accelerated further in Q3, with 2.3 million trips, up 52%. Strong growth was supported by expanded ecosystem of 405 fleet partners, 2.1 million app downloads, and 35,000 registered cars. Average monthly active drivers increased 55% to around 41,000, while active riders grew 73% to approximately 164,000. Customer satisfaction remained strong at around 82%, ranking number 1 across Bolt worldwide. Average trips per active driver were around 18, reflecting the significant number of new drivers onboarded as we continue to invest ahead of a full recovery in demand.
Ammar Albreiki: Abu Dhabi is also scaling as a new attractive growth market, reaching approximately 3,500 completed trips per week by the end of September, with taxi service currently progressing through production, testing, and fleet onboarding. Overall, Bolt is broadening our customer reach, strengthening our multi-channel model, and expanding our scalable digital platforms for long-term growth across the UAE. Alongside Bolt, we continue to expand and diversify DTC's broader e-hailing ecosystem during the period. This slide provides an overview of our platform mix and the strategic partnership we hold with leading operators in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Across the first nine months of the year, our e-hailing channels generated 19.2 million trips. This includes 13.8 million through Hala, 3.6 million through Bolt, almost a million through ZED, and another million through Yango. E-hailing trips totaled 6.3 million through Q3.
Ammar Albreiki: Hala remained a core channel with 100% of DTC's eligible fleet available through the RTA Careem joint venture. Post-period end, we renewed our strategic partnership with Hala for a further five years, building on more than 120 million DTC and National Taxi rides booked through the platform since 2019. Bolt, ZED, and Yango complement Hala by broadening digital distribution and demand capture across our fleet. This multi-platform approach expands customer access, reduces our reliance on a single channel, and complements street hailing to support higher fleet utilization. The strategy enables more productive and efficient demand capture across the network, supported by scalable data and analytics. I will now hand over to our Group CFO, Mr. Amit Khandelwal, to take you through the financial review.
Amit Khandelwal: Thank you, Ammar Al Braiki, and good afternoon, everyone. I will start with the key financial highlights. Q3 reported revenue increased 25.7% to AED 735.5 million, reflecting the consolidation of National Taxi. On a like-for-like basis, revenue declined 2.8% as underlying demand remained below last year, although trends improved throughout the quarter. Reported EBITDA increased 10% to AED 166.5 million, with a margin of 22.6%. Like-for-like EBITDA declined 14.4% to AED 129.6 million, reflecting lower trips volume and high fuel and insurance costs, which were partially offset by cost efficiencies and the AED 33.5 million RTA fee reduction recognized in Q3.
Amit Khandelwal: Reported net profit was AED 57.1 million, down 25.3%, as higher EBITDA was more than offset by increased depreciation in financing costs following the National Taxi acquisition. For the first nine months, reported revenue was AED 1.77 billion, EBITDA was AED 364.4 million, and net profit was AED 118.3 million.
Amit Khandelwal: Finally, Q3 net CapEx was AED 380.4 million, primarily reflecting the AED 335.7 million investment in additional taxi plates. Excluding plate fees, net CapEx was AED 44.7 million. Overall, the quarter reflects the increased scale from National Taxi alongside a progressive recovery in underlying mobility demand. Looking at revenue by segment, Taxi remained our largest contributor, accounting for 87% of Q3 reported revenue. Reported Taxi revenue increased by 27.2% to AED 643.4 million, reflecting National Taxi consolidation. On a like-for-like basis, Taxi revenue declined 6%, although activity improved progressively throughout the quarter. Limousine revenue was AED 27 million in Q3, down 2.8%, as softer demand continued to weigh on trip activity, with progressive improvement in taxi volumes through the quarter. Turning to Buses, revenue was AED 29.6 million, broadly stable year on year, supported by the resilience of the existing contract base and continued contribution from recurring services.
Amit Khandelwal: Finally, the Delivery Bike segment maintained its strong growth trajectory, with Q3 revenue increasing 75.2% to AED 32.1 million, supported by continued fleet expansion and sustained demand across the UAE's growing on-demand delivery market. Overall, these segment trends reflect improving mobility demand alongside continued growth in our more diversified business. On gross profit, reported Taxi gross profit increased 9.3% to AED 120.1 million in Q3, with a margin of 18.7%. On a like-for-like basis, Taxi gross profit was AED 96.6 million, down 12% at a margin of 20.3%. This reflected lower trip volumes and high fuel and insurance costs, which were partially offset by the reduction in RTA taxi vehicle fees recognized during the quarter. Limousine gross profit was AED 1.6 million in Q3, down 10.9%, with a margin of 5.9%.
Amit Khandelwal: The performance was impacted by lower trip volume, reduced airport activity, and higher fuel and insurance costs, with the rate of decline moderating as demand and volume improved as the period progressed. Bus gross profit was AED 6 million in Q3, down 15.2%, with a margin of 20.4%, as higher operating costs, primarily driven by fuel prices, more than offset a stable revenue performance. Delivery Bike gross profit increased 30.1% to AED 3.2 million, although margin moderated to 10% as insurance and maintenance costs increased with the larger fleet. Overall, improving demand trends were offset by continued cost pressure across selected sectors. Let me now turn to cost management, where we maintained a disciplined approach during the quarter. Total operating expenses increased to AED 46 million compared with AED 488 million in Q3 last year, primarily reflecting National Taxi's consolidation and the larger operating base.
Amit Khandelwal: Staff costs remain the largest category at approximately 33% of operating costs. Fuel increased to around 16% of costs from 12%, reflecting higher fuel prices and the larger fleet. Plate and license fees, by contrast, declined to around 14% of operating expenses from 19%, with the RTA fee reduction offsetting the impact of National Taxi plate fees. We remain focused on disciplined cost management, operational efficiencies, and further synergy capture as integration progresses. DTC's healthy balance sheet continues to provide financial flexibility as we progress. The integration of National Taxi continues to invest in our strategic priorities. As of 30 September 2026, total assets were AED 4 billion and 564 million. Cash and cash equivalent stood at AED 425 million, including AED 50.4 million held in short-term national bonds.
Amit Khandelwal: Net debt increased to AED 2 billion and 4 million, equivalent to 3.8x net debt to LTM EBITDA, primarily reflecting financing for the National Taxi acquisition. Our funding position remains well-supported with the existing AED 1 billion term loan and the AED 1.44 billion acquisition facility, and a further AED 560 million of undrawn facilities. We remain focused on maintaining a prudent capital structure and progressively reducing leverage through cash generation while preserving the flexibility to support DTC's operations and long-term growth. Our capital allocation frameworks remain centered on four priorities. First, disciplined investment in long-term organic growth, including fleet optimization, technology, and digital distribution. Second, completing National Taxi's integration and capturing further operational and procurement synergies. On M&A, more broadly, we will continue to assess further consolidation opportunities selectively and against clear return criteria. Third, strengthening financial resilience through progressive deleveraging while maintaining strong liquidity.
Amit Khandelwal: Finally, we remain focused on delivering attractive and sustainable cash return to shareholders, with our dividend policy targeting a payout of at least 85% of annual net profit. Finally, on shareholder return, as we announced at our Q2 results, the board will assess financial year 2026 distribution at year-end in light of the current operating environment. This reflects our disciplined capital allocation framework and provides greater flexibility to balance financial resilience, long-term investment, and shareholders' return following the National Taxi acquisition. Our dividend policy continues to target a payout of at least 85% of annual net profit, and we will provide a further update at the end of the year. With that, I will hand back to Mr. Mansoor for his closing remarks.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Thank you, Mr. Ahmed. To conclude, Q3 demonstrated the continued resilience of DTC's business model and the strength of our market position as the leading UAE mobility platform. Our scale has increased materially following the acquisition of National Taxi, extending our presence across Dubai and Abu Dhabi and strengthening our position as the UAE's largest taxi platform. Integration is progressing ahead of plan, prioritizing operational alignment, synergy capture, and enhancing the sustainable earnings potential of the combined business. We are also encouraged by the continued recovery in demand through the quarter. This provides increasing confidence that mobility demand is normalizing as we move into the final quarter of the year. At the same time, we continue to execute our five-year strategy through disciplined fleet expansion, broader digital distribution, technology investment, electrification, and autonomous mobility.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Looking ahead, population growth, tourism and aviation activity, urban development, and continuous transport infrastructure investment provide a strong long-term foundation for mobility demand across the UAE. With greater scale, multiple growth levers, and a stronger operating platform, DTC is well-positioned to capture these opportunities and deliver sustainable long-term shareholder value. Thank you. We are now happy to take your questions.
Operator: Thank you, management, for the presentation. We now move to the Q&A session. As a reminder, please use the raise hand function for me to unmute you or send your question in the Q&A box. For the audio questions, please remember to introduce yourself and the company name and unmute locally. Our first question comes from Jameel Bakhsh. Please go ahead.
Jameel Bakhsh: Hi, everyone. Assalamualaikum. This is Jameel Bakhsh from Bank of America. A few questions for me. Hope it is okay if we do one at a time. Could I just get a bit of a strategic update on your limo franchise. We have seen the fleet reduce by 119 cars, and I know that the franchise has had some competitive challenges, gross margins around low single digit recently. Should we expect a similar reduction in fleet size as we go through the quarters from here on end. Thank you.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you, Jameel. Yes, this regarding the reduction in the number of fleet for the limousines, the efficiencies.
Ammar Albreiki: Yeah. If I get your question right, you are talking only about the limousine, right? You are not talking about taxis. Taxis, no. Limousine is a service that is directly linked to tourism. It is a very flexible service that we can either increase or decrease based on the demand. So, we reduced the number to 486 vehicles. This is to cater to the existing demand that we have in our strategic and exclusive locations. This is a sufficient number now. We will review the number, but so far, it is sufficient. Hopefully, when there is a pickup in the tourism, probably we will increase. At the moment, this number is sufficient to cater for our exclusive location at a profitable rate.
Jameel Bakhsh: Great. Thank you very much. That is very clear. Maybe just a couple on the financial side of things, please. On your deleveraging outlook, would you be looking to start paying down debt maybe when National Taxi is 100% integrated, or could it be sooner than that? That is the first part. Secondly, would be on the dividend. Just clarification if the 85% of net profit will include the profit contribution from National Taxi.
Amit Khandelwal: Yeah, thanks, Emil. Debt deleveraging, let me attack. We have only two loans. The first loan is a AED 1 billion bullet loan, which will be due in 2028. The second one we have already taken, which is a long-term story. Both your questions go hand in hand. Both dividend and loan depend upon your cash flow outlook. If you increase dividend, then how do you repay loan? Because we are a very dividend-friendly company with 85% of dividend. As you recollect, we have been talking to investors and saying that we are working on both scenarios, how to ensure that in a long term, we keep on paying the dividend and we can reduce the debt. It is a very balancing number which we will do.
Amit Khandelwal: As told previously, we will ensure that DTC standalone dividend, that absolute number should be intact. Whatever delta comes from National Taxi, obviously that will be used for a liability management excess also and payment of dividend. So, we are working on both the scenarios. As you will know, we are not a highly levered company. The debt-to-EBITDA is still less than 4x, debt-to-EBITDA, that too also in this market. Next year when things become normalized, obviously EBITDA will improve, so the ratio will become more better for the shareholders.
Jameel Bakhsh: Got you. Thank you very much. It sounds like maybe for this year, we shouldn't be holding the company to the 85% of net profit payouts. Just thinking about the various ways you have to manage your cash, I think that's probably the most fair way of looking at it for 2026. Would you agree with that?
Nader Muqbel: Yeah, subject to board approval, of course.
Jameel Bakhsh: Yep. Okay. Thank you so much.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Shahrukh Nawaz. Please go ahead.
Shahrukh Nawaz: Hi, this is Shahrukh Nawaz from First Abu Dhabi Bank. Thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. First is looking to the spike in the delivery bike segment in Q3 2026, along with the huge fleet expansion. Do you see this growth momentum to sustain in the coming periods? Second is, at which levels are you seeing the trip volumes during Q4 2026? How was the October month DTC's trip growth? How was the segmentation between the taxi and limousine trips performance, especially in the October month? The third question is, can you shed some light on the surge in other income, which was driven by positive fair value gains on equity securities, and how can we think of this element in the upcoming periods?
Nader Muqbel: Sorry, can you repeat your last question again?
Shahrukh Nawaz: Can you shed some light on the surge in other income, which was driven by positive fair value gains on equity securities, and how can we think of this element in the upcoming periods?
Nader Muqbel: All right, thank you.
Ammar Albreiki: Yeah. To answer your first question related to the delivery segment, yes, we have grown significantly, and there is still in our pipeline a lot of materialized contracts to grow, and even throughout next year as well. This segment is growing at a rapid level. So yeah, we have a sufficient pipeline to grow this segment. Related to the-
Nader Muqbel: October.
Ammar Albreiki: Yeah, October numbers, it is promising. I mean, we see numbers now pre-conflict level, and this is as much as I can tell you. So the number of trips, the demand that we see in the market is pre-conflict levels, which is promising, actually.
Mansoor Alfalasi: If you look into year-on-year trip gap, it is actually narrowing to around 2% by September. So the focus is to sustain that momentum.
Amit Khandelwal: Regarding your third question on other income, this is mainly fair value gain on equity securities. So we held around 2.5 million shares of Parkin. So it is related to mark-to-market. If Parkin share grows, yes, we have to book profits. If there is comparatively the price of Parkin here comes down, we have to book a loss. So it is tied related to Parkin shares.
Shahrukh Nawaz: Okay. The limousine trips, how has its performance been in October? Are you seeing any pressure through the tourism? I feel like now we can see spike in tourism also, everything is fine, especially in Dubai.
Ammar Albreiki: The limousine, like I said before, it is linked to our exclusive location. So we downsized the number of the limousines, so it will be at a pre-conflict level with the number of vehicles. So it is capturing the demand from our exclusive location, we are not relying much on tourism or e-hailing app for our limousine services at the moment.
Shahrukh Nawaz: Okay. Thank you.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you, Shahrukh Nawaz.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Ricardo Rezende. Please go ahead.
Ricardo Rezende: Hello. Good afternoon. It's Ricardo from Morgan Stanley. If I may, a couple questions. First one, when you look at the National Taxi figures since you incorporated the company, would you be able to provide us a little bit more color on the Dubai versus Abu Dhabi traffic trends or volume trends that you've seen for them? Can we assume that the Dubai trends are very much similar to what we see for DTC ex-National Taxi? Is there any difference on what has happened in Abu Dhabi? Then second question, if you look on that chart on slide 13, when you look at the Bolt and Hala exposure, and you just had the extension with the contract with Hala. How much higher should Bolt represent within your mix in the coming years? Thank you.
Nader Muqbel: DXB versus Abu Dhabi trips.
Ammar Albreiki: Yeah. National DXB trips is comparable in terms of the number of trips to Dubai. Abu Dhabi, there is a higher number of trips, but the tariff in Abu Dhabi is not as flexible as in Dubai, so it's on a lesser side. As a number of trips, it's more in Abu Dhabi. In terms of Bolt, yes, we have a strategy of growth, and we'll continue to grow year on year. Like I mentioned before, we grew 44% this year. So we're following our strategy, and the gap will be reduced between the two services.
Amit Khandelwal: To add to your first question to Ammar Al Braiki, almost 70% and 30% ratio is there in National Taxi trips from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. So almost 70% trips come from Dubai and 30% from Abu Dhabi. But quality of 70% trips in Dubai cannot be compared with DTC like for like, because DTC also includes airport trips. So if you remove airport trips and look at only compare city trips between National Taxi and DTC, there are some pockets wherein National Taxi will improve, somewhere DTC will improve. This is a part of our synergies.
Nader Muqbel: On the Bolt, Ricardo Nasser, Bolt last year only made up 10% of our total e-hailing trips. This year, it is making more than 20% of our total e-hailing trips. As you can see, we are growing it. This is now excluding the impact of Abu Dhabi's fleet. So we are slowly growing that fleet and capturing market share as we move forward.
Ricardo Rezende: Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Nitin Garg. Please go ahead.
Nader Muqbel: We can't hear you. Please unmute yourself.
Operator: Nitin, we can't hear you.
Nitin Garg: Can you hear me now?
Nader Muqbel: Yes, Nitin. How are you?
Nitin Garg: I am good. Thank you. Just a question. I mean, RTA was supposed to revise the fare from 1 November, in line with higher fuel prices. Just wanted to check, I mean, how much is the new fare versus the previous one? Per kilometer fare.
Ammar Albreiki: They revised it this month. They added 6 fils to the kilometer. Now we are standing at 2.51 versus 2.45.
Nader Muqbel: Might as well worth mentioning next year's.
Ammar Albreiki: Yes. From now, they revise the tariff every 2 months, but starting from January 2027, the revision will be on monthly basis, so we do not feel the gap for the fuel prices.
Nitin Garg: Okay. Is this in line with your expectation or lower? I mean, the spike in fuel prices was much higher in October, especially in terms of percentage. But this increase in fare by 6 fils, I mean, is it in line with your expectations? I know RTA has a formula. I mean, they have their own formula. We are not sure about it, but is it lower than your expectation?
Amit Khandelwal: See, you will have to look at lower. They have increased 6 fils fare price for 2 months, where the fuel prices have dropped by 20%. RTA ensures in a long term, you are not out of pocket. This month, you will see we will have profit on both sides. Obviously, our expectation is keep on fare upside, but obviously fuel price is also down by 20 fils. It is in line with our expectation because it has to be a balance for the regulator also and for us also. 6 fils increase, less 20 fils of fuel price. One of the things which Ammar just spoke about, which we were liaising with the RTA regulator from quite some time, that the fare should not be revised on monthly basis. Finally, the regulator agreed.
Amit Khandelwal: From January onwards, instead of 2 months, 1 month will be there. It will more streamline our fuel expenses in line with the demand.
Nitin Garg: Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you, Nitin.
Operator: Thank you. We will take a couple of questions from the Q&A box. Our first question from Avinash Singh. What is the plate and license fee before adjusting for the benefits received in Q3 2026?
Amit Khandelwal: Plate fees are taken monthly. On a city taxi, it is AED 5,000 per month. For an airport fleet, it is AED 3,600, and for limousine, it is AED 1,200. This is a club. March, April, May. RTA did their own study on the base of trip, and they came out with a number that DTC will get. DTC with National Taxi will have a benefit of 33.5. They have not divided as a number of each plate I will give you this much. There is no data like that, but they have their own study of number of trips done by each taxi, how much cost was there. That is how the benefit came for the taxi sector.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Ahmed Kamal. Given the trip normalization and trip numbers, what EBITDA margin should we expect for Q4 2026? Has the tariff fully reacted to reflect higher fuel? I think you answered the second part.
Amit Khandelwal: See, if you look at our EBITDA, if you look at percentage EBITDA, you can have a look at that it is still more than 20% as of now. It has been improving in Q3. Q1, Q2 were exceptional quarters, so it is on a growth trajectory. As Ahmad said previously, trips are growing, so obviously this EBITDA should grow. It will not be correct to look at the entire year EBITDA, but Q4 EBITDA, as things progress, should be better than Q1, Q2, Q3. It is difficult to give an absolute number, even because a lot of things happening in the market. But it has to be a number which is better than Q1, Q2, Q3, which should be more than 20% on a multiple number.
Amit Khandelwal: Again, coming back, you will see Q4 EBITDA will include National Taxi contribution coming from Abu Dhabi and Dubai Taxi, city taxi market also. But still, it should improve, and it will always be for sure more than 20%.
Operator: Thank you very much. We have another question from Aravind. For Q3, the profit contribution from National Taxi seems to be largely offset by the higher finance costs. When do you expect the acquisition to be rather earnings accretive?
Amit Khandelwal: See, if you look at finance cost, it is still AED 17 million. Profit has came from AED 168 million revenue. We are talking about 9% to 10% profit margin, which is very, very strong margin, knowing that Q3 was not such a promising quarter. Things will stabilize over a period. Finance cost was not taken in National Taxi. Finance cost, interest cost, finance costs are part of DTC because DTC was the borrower. The borrowing has happened on DTC level, and when we run the number, obviously it is consolidated number. But if you look at DTC standalone number, which we do internal exercise, entire finance cost on DTC. National Taxi, there is no finance cost.
Operator: Thank you. We have another question from Mehdi Mahmoud regarding the reduction in monthly vehicle fees, whether this would continue as per your expectation and whether it would have the same magnitude, especially as you are deploying the 600 new taxi plates.
Mansoor Alfalasi: No, no. This support is from the regulator only when it is needed. Now the market and the situation is almost at pre-war level, so I do not expect further support from the regulator at the moment.
Operator: Thank you very much. We move back to audio questions. We have a question from Mayank Shah. Please go ahead.
Mayank Shah: Hi, team. Thank you for taking my question. Can you hear me okay?
Mansoor Alfalasi: Yes, Mayank. Yes. Thank you.
Mayank Shah: Hi, this is Mayank from Emirates NBD. Just a quick check on the e-hailing trips. There was a steep decline in Q3 2026 for DTC standalone. What drove this for the e-hailing side?
Amit Khandelwal: It is again related to the softener of the demand in the market.
Mayank Shah: Okay, but I think sorry. I will just contextualize this a little more. Overall, I think on the city trips, we did pretty well. There was a, I think, year-on-year growth or at least flat overall, excluding airport, for DTC. But e-hailing as the share has dropped, and I think this is the first time we are seeing this sort of a reverse trend. Just wanted to understand, is there anything that you are seeing on the ground, something slightly different?
Mansoor Alfalasi: Yeah. If you look into the market as a whole, there is a drop when it comes to the e-hailing because it is again linked to the tourism and the movement of them within the city. Ammar Al Braiki, perhaps you want to elaborate more?
Ammar Albreiki: Yeah. So, like our CEO said, it is linked mainly to the tourism and the events. Q2, there were no events, almost there were no events. Q3, the events started to move, so we saw a steady growth in the number of e-hailing. Looking at the numbers of e-hailing from October, and I think during this month, it is almost at pre-conflict level as well. So, things are promising, but it is all due to the geopolitical situation only.
Mayank Shah: Got it. Thank you so much.
Mansoor Alfalasi: If you look into both standalone.
Mayank Shah: Yeah.
Mansoor Alfalasi: You notice the surge in number of trips year-on-year.
Mayank Shah: Yes. No, no, of course. I mean, the number that matters is overall. What I was trying to just understand is, has there been any sort of a, say, shift, right, in terms of consumer pattern or anything? Because we have seen this for the first time that e-hailing is contributing less. Just wanted to check on that. But I think you have covered it saying that there were some events and et cetera, which did not happen. So, yeah, fairly well understood. Thank you so much and good luck.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Yeah, they stood at home, so they moved towards Talabat and the food platform order food during that period. So you will notice that the number on the other side went up.
Mayank Shah: Yep. Yep. Yep. Clear. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Wayne Brown. Please go ahead.
[Analyst 1]: Thank you very much. Hopefully you can hear me okay. Just two questions from me. If they have been asked before, apologies. Can you just run me through what the annual savings are from the acquisition and the timing and the delivery of those? I also wanted to ask about what the October trading support implies for Q4 and your outlook for 2027, and what kind of a run rate you expect. Thank you very much.
Amit Khandelwal: When we acquired National Taxi, we did a special session for all our investors, and in that session, we highlighted that we are looking at over medium to long term, a synergy of at least 5% of National Taxi top line. National Taxi top line was around AED 70, 80 million, so we are looking AED 35 to 40 million over a medium to long term. Having said that, some of the synergies has already been achieved, like AED 3.9 million synergies are already achieved, which is in a form of we ended up repaying their loans. It is a zero-debt company now. That is a very strong statement that National Taxi is a zero-debt company and becomes a cash cow for DTC. Those are the synergies. On top of that, there are, for example, driver's commission.
Amit Khandelwal: We are looking at driver's commission revising in line with DTC. But that is a very, very sensitive matter because it is for human behavior. So we have already started coaching and doing all the backup work to ensure that commissions are aligned. Then obviously, synergies will come from procurement, like for fuel saving. We get a discount from ENOC. Even National Taxi gets a discount, but not to the extent what DTC gets. So obviously, that has already been agreed with ENOC. So some savings will kick in this year, but the annualized effect of those savings will be seen only next year. So you will see a partial, a decent amount of effect coming next year, and by 2028, for sure, you will have the entire year effect will be coming from 2028.
Nader Muqbel: The next question was the
[Analyst 1]: Thank you.
Nader Muqbel: outlook for Thank you, Wayne. The next question was the outlook for Q4. How do you see
Mansoor Alfalasi: We are building on the scale that we have right now and leveraging on it. As we mentioned, we are going to complete very soon the 600 new plates acquired through the RTA auction. Also continuing with the synergy part, also tapping into Abu Dhabi when it comes to both the taxi services. All of this, we are thinking that would be helping us to close the year with the maximum net profit that we are targeting, with taking consideration all the geopolitics, the things that is happening surrounding us.
Mansoor Alfalasi: From our side, we make sure that we are committed in the supply side, also helping National Taxi not just with the integration and the synergy, but also injecting more drivers because the ratio for drivers per car is a little bit lower. We are injecting on a monthly basis more and more drivers in order to capture all the demand in the market with full capacity through not just DTC, but also through National Taxi.
[Analyst 1]: Thank you very much, gentlemen, and well done.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you, Wayne.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Mehwish Zafar. Please go ahead.
Nader Muqbel: Please unmute yourself. We cannot hear you.
Operator: Mehwish, if you can hear us, please unmute yourself locally.
[Analyst 2]: Hello?
Nader Muqbel: Hello, Wayne. Yes, Mehwish.
[Analyst 2]: Yeah. Thank you. Perfect. As-salamu alaykum. Thank you very much for the opportunity to ask a question. I would rather want to focus on your delivery bikes segment, although it is still a relatively smaller part of your business, but since this is something that you are planning to expand on into the future, I just wanted to understand the cost structure of this segment. How does this account for the changes in the fuel prices? Is it a fixed contract with aggregators or a flexible contract, or a pretty much fixed contract? How do you account for the changes in the fuel prices? Secondly, since it is primarily used by the aggregators, which is used for the last mile delivery, the vehicle is heavily used, and hence it is followed by huge insurance costs. How are you managing your insurance costs on that front?
[Analyst 2]: In a nutshell, these two questions, and how do you see the delivery bike segment going forward? How much do you want to scale it? What contribution can it make in the future? Is it a very marginally created segment? I suppose if it is a scalable segment, this can bring in some operational efficiencies as well. Your comments on that would be really helpful. Thank you.
Mansoor Alfalasi: Before I let Awais answer the question, I would just like to clarify that the delivery bike segment is not anymore small in DTC. Now it is shoulder to shoulder with other segments like the buses, the limousine, and very soon you might see it even passing them. The rationale behind that or what is the underlying supporting the business is actually the e-commerce business, how it is really booming here in Dubai, the aggregators and the competition between them. Every day we see new services coming also through their super apps. This has given us the encouragement to inject more and more, and we have good relationship with them. But what is helping them through DTC, this question I leave it to Ammar.
Ammar Albreiki: Okay. The delivery segment now is almost 5% of our total revenue, and the net profit is a double-digit profit. This is due to the structure of the business, so that we have signed up with almost all the aggregators on a per-trip model, and this per-trip model is very lucrative and competitive. In terms of the fuel, there is no. The rider, he is the one responsible for the fuel, so there is no. He can control his travel and his earning, and we always negotiate our rates with the aggregators to make sure that we get double digits in terms of margin. This service, there is a high demand, like I said, in the pipeline, and it has been always growing.
Ammar Albreiki: We always double the service every year since we inaugurated the service, and we see growth in it. I think in the future, it will pass the 5% mark. Maybe it will double that in the future. We are very good at sourcing the riders and maintaining the vehicles. In terms of the insurance for the bikes, we have a very good insurance coverage that not only covers the bikes, it covers all of our assets. We get the benefit of the lower insurance rate on all of our assets, including delivery bikes. We are very comfortable with this service so far.
[Analyst 2]: Okay. That is clear. Thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you. As a final reminder, if you have any questions, please use the raise hand function or the Q&A box. Our next question comes from Abdulrauf. Please go ahead.
[Analyst 3]: Hello, guys. I have a question on Bolt. We see that the trips have increased significantly over the last 9 months. I believe that came in market share gains. I just wanted to understand how much of that is margin accretive. I believe that these increase in trips come from higher marketing spend and discount for riders. I just wanted to understand that it is both margin accretive right now, and do you expect it to be margin accretive in the longer run? If yes, how much do you see the margins coming in compared to the overall business?
Amit Khandelwal: When we started this business in Q4 2024, we have already updated the market. This is e-hailing business, this is an app-based business, and you are going to go head-on with a monopoly player, which was Hala. You will have to burn out cash, and it is normal in any e-hailing business or app-based businesses. It was not an unlimited budget we had, so we communicated to market that we can burn out the cash to get market share for first few years, which should not be more than 2% our top line. For example, our top line was AED 2 billion, we were not allowed to burn cash more than AED 40 million. Burn cash means you have to give incentive to the rider to book a trip, and you have to give some commission back to the limousine operator.
Amit Khandelwal: That is what has been working for 2 years. But now, this year, it is going to be much, much less than 2%. By the next year, you will see a profitability coming in this business because we are renegotiating our contract with Bolt. Everything is promising what we thought we will achieve in 5 years, where the number of trips, we already achieved number of trips within 2 years. That one big number is done. It is second-largest app in Dubai. Great. It is penetrating in Abu Dhabi immediately. In Abu Dhabi, we have a very limited competition. We have other revenues also, like rent-a-car you can also get on here. Overall, this is very, very promising business. The only thing is we have to ensure now cash burn-out has to reduce, and it should actually become green in nature.
Amit Khandelwal: Hopefully by next year, it will be in green.
[Analyst 3]: Thanks. It is very clear. Thank you.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. This was our last question. With that, I would like to hand over the call to management for closing remarks.
Nader Muqbel: Thank you. Thank you all for joining our call today and for your questions. A special thanks once again to Ali and the Arqaam Capital team for hosting us. You can access our financial results, presentations, regulatory disclosures, and analyst coverage through DTC Investor Relations app, available on the App Store and Google Play. Really appreciate your continued interest in DTC and look forward to updating you again soon. In the meantime, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly. Thank you and have a great day.
Operator: Thank you very much. This concludes our call. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Goodbye.
