Richard Hanks
Analyst · William Blair
Thank you, Jerre. As mentioned, it was a good quarter. Reported revenues for the third quarter of 2019 were flat on prior year at $243 million compared to the same prior-year quarter and up 0.4% at constant currency. Recall that the prior-year period revenue included the results of IPM of $7.8 million. IPM was sold in the fourth quarter of 2018. Adjusted revenues accounting for the divestiture of IPM increased by $7.5 million or 3.2% to $243.1 million in the third quarter of 2019, up from $235.6 million in last year's third quarter. Again, as a reminder, this excludes revenue from IPM from the prior-year quarter, as well as the modest impact of the deferred revenue purchase price accounting adjustments. Foreign exchange was approximately $1 million of headwind in this year's quarter, mainly arising from euro and sterling weakness relative to the U.S. dollar. On a constant currency basis, adjusted revenues increased by 3.6% in the third quarter compared to the third quarter of 2018. In terms of currency profile, please note that approximately 83% of our revenues in the third quarter of 2019 were U.S. dollar denominated. Turning to our revenue profile when looking at revenue by geography. We've a consistent balance of revenue across the regions, with 45% of our revenues from North America, 24% from Europe, 23% from Asia Pacific and 8% from emerging markets. Please note that going forward, we will be reporting revenues by geography as follows: firstly, the Americas; secondly, Europe, Middle East and Africa; and thirdly, Asia Pacific. Moving on to revenue by type. Adjusted subscription revenues increased by $3.3 million or approximately 2% at constant currency for the quarter. Our comparative against last year's quarter was slightly more challenging, with prior-year third quarter benefiting from renewal timing that we benefited from in earlier quarters in 2019. Importantly, adjusted subscription revenues increased by 3.7% at constant currency for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2019, which tracks closely with the growth of annual contract value or ACV. The increase in subscription revenues was driven in part by price increases as well as new business with the largest dollar increases in the quarter coming from the Web of Science, Techstreet and CompuMark product lines. Adjusted subscription revenue accounted for 83% of total adjusted revenues in the quarter compared to 82% in the prior-year period. We continue to drive our ongoing strategy of growing our recurring subscription revenue base. At the end of the third quarter, the annual contract value or ACV of subscription-based contracts increased by 3.9% at constant currency compared to the same period last year. This should lead to further improvements in subscription revenue growth in subsequent quarters. As Jerre mentioned, retention rates were approximately 91% for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2019, consistent with the same prior-year period. Adjusted transactional revenues, which represent approximately 17% of total revenues in this year's third quarter increased by $4.2 million or 11% to $42.3 million. This represents an increase of 11.6% on a constant currency basis. The performance was driven by backfile sales in both product groups, along with the release of the biannually published BPVC standards in the quarter. As a reminder, backfile sales are slices of archived data, which are sold either to complement clients use an existing subscription or in certain cases as separate data sets. Looking now at performance across our two product groups. Science Group revenues increased to $136 million, growth of 3.2% as reported and by 3.3% on a constant currency basis. The increase in Science Group revenues was driven by a subscription revenue growth due to new subscription business and price increases, as well as higher transactional revenues. The increase in transactional revenues reflects timing and increases in the sales of content backfiles. The Science Group accounted for 56% of revenue in the quarter compared to 54% in the prior-year period. Intellectual Property Group revenues increased to $107.1 million, growth of 3.2% and by 3.9% on a constant currency basis. IP group revenues were driven by subscription and transactional revenue, with transactional revenues reflecting higher backfile data sales coupled with new standards released during the quarter. Turning now to adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA increased by $10.7 million or 16.1% to $77 million in the third quarter of 2019 compared with $66.3 million in the prior year period. The increase reflects higher revenues combined with lower year-over-year expenses in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margins were 31.7% in the third quarter compared to 28.1% in the third quarter of 2018, an increase of more than 350 basis points. We are required to report stand-alone adjusted EBITDA on a trailing 12-month basis pursuant to the reporting covenants contained in our credit agreement and indenture. Stand-alone adjusted EBITDA takes adjusted EBITDA and includes two committed add backs. Firstly, an adjustment for extra stand-alone expenses; and secondly, it includes the impact of pro forma cost savings we have implemented. Stand-alone adjusted EBITDA was $324.2 million for the 12-month period ended September 30, 2019, compared to $309.5 million for the 12-month period ended September 30, 2018. Note that we were in a positive net income position in this year's third quarter, which requires us to use the fully diluted share count of 330 million shares in our adjusted diluted EPS calculation. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding were 330 million shares in this year's third quarter compared to 217.5 million in last year's third quarter. As Jerre mentioned, remember that the prior period share count excludes the impact of the shares issued in connection with the merger transaction completed in May 2019. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.14 in the third quarter compared with $0.12 in last year's same period. If normalized these shares, the results would reflect $0.07 per diluted share for the prior period. As we did last quarter, we will continue to provide you with a slide in the earnings supplement, explaining the diluted share count to assist you with your analysis. Please see the Investor Relations section of our website to find a copy of that supplemental presentation. Cash flow from operations for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2019, increased to $112.5 million, which compares to $25 million in the prior year nine-month period. The improvement in operating cash flow was driven principally by a lower operating loss, which included the impact of a $45.3 million onetime cash settlement and a decrease in TSA expenses of $41.5 million for the nine-month period. In addition, we saw improvements in working capital, including better collection of receivables, partially offset by higher deferred revenue liabilities as well as timing associated with accounts payable and accrued expenses. Capital expenditures for the nine months ended September 30 were $43.7 million, up from $36.2 million in last year's same period. The increase in capital expenditures compared to prior year occurred as the focus of our technology teams is now on new product development, whereas in prior year, it was significantly focused on carve-out and separation activities. Free cash flow improved to $68.7 million for the nine-month period ended September 30, up from negative $11.2 million in the prior-year period. It is important to remember that in addition to the onetime cash settlement of $45.3 million, the current period includes partial offsets of approximately $31 million of merger-related cash expenses recognized in the second quarter and a further $1.2 million in cash costs for the secondary offering completed in the third quarter. Turning to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents were $88.8 million at September 30, 2019, compared to $25.6 million at December 31, 2018. Total debt outstanding net of cash was approximately $1.254 billion at September 30, 2019, compared to $2 billion at December 31, 2018. The reduction in total debt through the first nine months of 2019 is approximately $750 million. Consequently, our net leverage ratio at September 30, 2019, was 3.9 times compared with 6.4 times at December 31, 2018. Pro forma for our debt refinancing, which was completed on October 31, 2019, total debt outstanding net of cash is $1.5 billion, which includes $200 million to fund the settlement of the TRA obligation. Accordingly, our net leverage is 4.6 times on a pro forma basis. The refinancing lowers our weighted average cost of debt to 4.7% from 6.2% and extends our maturity profile for seven years. In addition, we anticipate interest expense savings of approximately $18 million per year. With respect to our reorganization and operational efficiency program, we expect to achieve the following: approximately $70 million to $75 million of annualized run rate cash cost savings exiting 2020, of which we expect to realize close to 60% of those savings or $40 million to $45 million of cash savings in calendar year 2020. From an OpEx viewpoint, we expect the impact from the program on adjusted EBITDA to be approximately $60 million to $65 million of annualized cost savings exiting 2020, of which we expect to realize approximately $35 million to $40 million in calendar year 2020. The difference between cash and OpEx savings is primarily due to converting and transferring outside contractor work, which we capitalized to full-time internal colleagues. The net effect is that cash savings will be greater than the OpEx savings. Expected associated onetime costs to implement the program are estimated at $60 million, the majority of which will be incurred in 2019 and 2020, the remainder will be realized in 2021. Jerre covered our outlook for 2019, which remains unchanged. Adjusted revenues in the range of $962 million to $995 million; adjusted EBITDA in a range of $290 million to $310 million and adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 30%. And I'll remind you that earlier this year, the company provided lenders a required outlook for stand-alone adjusted EBITDA, and that outlook is similarly unchanged as well at between $325 million and $345 million. We'll provide our outlook for 2020 at the Investor Day next week. With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Jerre.