Bruce Swain
Analyst · SunTrust
Thank you, Harsha. Companywide revenues before reimbursements in the 2015 third quarter were 293.3 million, flat as compared with 293.8 million in the prior year’s third quarter. The Company’s selling, general, and administrative expenses or SG&A totaled 61.7 million, up from 59.3 million in the prior year quarter. As a percentage of revenues, these costs increased to 21% of revenues in the 2015 third quarter from 20.2% of revenues in the prior year quarter. This increase is primarily due to SG&A cost from the acquired GAB Robins organization and increased self insurance cost in the U.S. During the 2015 third quarter, the Company recorded restructuring and special charges of 11.1 million or $0.15 per share. The restructuring charges of 6.1 million were associated with the ongoing implementation of the Global Business Services Center, GAB Robins’ integration and other restructuring activities in the Americas and EMEA/AP. The special charges of 5 million were incurred for certain legal and professional fees and employee separation costs. The Company’s effective tax rate is up sharply this year, due to our overall low level of earnings driven impart by our restructuring cost and special charges during 2015 and net operating losses in certain international operations with lower tax rates or where the losses are unable to be benefitted from a tax perspective. Our net loss attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company totaled 857,000 in the 2015 third quarter, compared to net income of 10.2 million in the 2014 period. Third quarter 2015 diluted loss per share was $0.01 for CRDA and a loss of $0.03 for CRDB, compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.19 for CRDA and $0.17 for CRDB in the 2014 period. On a non-GAAP basis before restructuring cost and special charges, third quarter 2015 diluted earnings per share were $0.14 for CRDA and $0.12 for CRDB. I will now review the third quarter performance of each of our business units starting with the Americas segment. Benign weather in the U.S. has persisted into the 2015 third quarter and a stronger U.S. dollar reduced revenues by 6% during the period. However, this was offset by higher special project revenues for a major U.S. insurance carrier, growth in Contractor Connection and the positive impact of the cost reduction activities commenced earlier in the year. Revenues from the Americas segment totaled 92 million, relatively flat with 92.2 million reported in last year’s quarter. Operating earnings in our Americas segment were 12.2 million in the 2015 third quarter or 13% of revenues, improving from operating earnings of 7 million or 8% of revenues in the prior year quarter and reflecting the benefits of our cost reduction measures in the segment. Case volumes in the Americas declined by 14% in the 2015 third quarter reflecting weather related declines in our U.S. field offices, lower volumes in Latin America from exiting certain business lines in Brazil, as well as the transfer of affinity claims to our Broadspire segment. Excluding this transfer of affinity claims, the segment’s claim volume would have decreased approximately 9% in the 2015 third quarter. Revenues generated by our catastrophe adjusters in the U.S. totaled 19.5 million in the 2015 third quarter, up from 12.3 million in the 2014 quarter. The revenue increase for the 2015 quarter was driven by the previously mentioned outsourcing contract that is expected to continue throughout 2016. During the 2015 third quarter, our EMEA/AP segment operating results continued to reflect a challenging operating environment due to weak claims environment in the UK. However, this was offset by improvement in our European operations. We are seeing our UK claim volumes begin to flatten out after adjusting for the impact from the December 2014 GAB Robins acquisition. EMEA/AP revenues increased to 98.3 million from 86.2 million in the 2014 period, primarily due to the positive impact from the acquired GAB Robins operations, which were partially offset by a stronger U.S. dollar, which reduced revenues by 14% during the 2015 third quarter. Absent these two factors, EMEA/AP revenues would have increased 6% in the 2015 third quarter. EMEA/AP operating earnings were 6.7 million during the current quarter as compared to last year's third quarter operating earnings of 4.2 million. The operating margin in this segment was 7% in the 2015 period compared with 5% in the 2014 quarter. During the quarter, claim volumes increased 15% across the three regions that make up EMEA/AP. Excluding the impact of the GAB Robins acquisition, cases would have increased 3% in the 2015 third quarter as weather-related declines in the UK have moderated and high frequency low severity claims in Europe increased from expanded client relationships. Broadspire revenues increased to 74.2 million in the 2015 third quarter, up from 68.2 million in the prior year quarter, primarily as a result of organic growth, new client wins and the shift of Accident & Health or A&H claims previously handled by our Americas segment. Operating earnings in Broadspire totaled 7.4 million, or 10% of revenues in the 2015 third quarter increasing from operating earnings of 4.4 million, or 6% of revenues in the 2014 third quarter. During the 2015 third quarter, cases increased 17% over 2014 levels, included in this increase is the transfer of 16,900 A&H claims, excluding this shift Broadspire cases would have been relatively flat in the current quarter. Legal Settlement Administration revenues totaled 28.8 million in the 2015 third quarter, decreasing from 47.2 million in the prior quarter. This revenue decrease was largely related to lower levels of work on certain large projects which were continuing to wind down during the 2015 period. Operating earnings totaled 1.1 million in the 2015 third quarter, or 4% of revenues declining from 7.7 million or 16% of revenues in the prior year period. Our backlog at the end of the 2015 third quarter was 76 million, compared to 89 million at the close of the third quarter last year. Activity related to Deepwater Horizon is expected to continue to decline as we close 2015. The Company's cash and cash equivalent position at September 30, 2015 totaled 58.3 million as compared to 52.5 million at the 2014 year-end. Our investment in unbilled and billed receivables has increased by 7.4 million during 2015 as a result of the GAB Robins acquisition. Goodwill and intangible assets arising from business acquisitions, increased by 43.4 million reflecting the impact of recording the preliminary balance sheet for the GAB Robins acquisition. Pension liabilities decreased by 27.2 million, reflecting cash contributions made in the U.S. and UK during the 2015 year-to-date period and a conversion of the Netherlands defined benefit pension plan from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. Our total debt increased in 2015 by 102.1 million as a result of borrowings to fund the GAB Robins acquisition and our ongoing restructuring activities. Cash provided by operations totaled 21.1 million for the 2015 period, compared to 44.2 million used in operations in the prior year period. This improvement was primarily due to the collections of 2014 year-end accounts receivable and lower payments for accrued liabilities, including incentive compensation which offset the decline in net income. As Harsha outlined, we have initiated a 25 million to 28 million cost takeout plan that is incremental to the restructuring plans we've previously disclosed. We expect the total cost takeout to provide at least $47 million of benefit to 2016 over the 2015 run rate. The majority of the cost benefit will be achieved by reducing administrative and back-office cost in our shared service support centers. Administrative cost in the Americas and EMEA/AP segments, along with duplicative layers of upper level management. We expect to incur a total of 27 million to 32 million of restructuring charges in 2015 and 11 million in 2016 as we execute these restructuring initiatives. In addition, we have incurred a total of 5 million in special charges in 2015 related to certain legal and professional fees and employee separation payments. Let me now review the guidance for the year, while we are reducing our full year guidance, we are optimistic that our cost takeout initiatives will drive margin expansion and earnings growth through 2016. 2015 guidance will include both the impact of restructuring cost and special charges discussed above. In the aggregate, these 2015 charges will total approximately $32 million to $37 million pre-tax or 0.41 to 0.47 in diluted earnings per share. As a result, our 2015 guidance is as follows; consolidated revenues before reimbursements between 1.15 billion and 1.17 billion consolidated operating earnings between 60 million and 65 million consolidated cash provided by operating activities between 20 million and 30 million. Before reflecting the restructuring cost and special charges discussed net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company on a non-GAAP basis between 20 million and 25 million, or $0.39 to $0.48 for CRDA share and $0.32 to $0.41 diluted earnings for CRDB share. After the restructuring cost and special charges, net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company of between a loss of 4 million and income of 1 million or a loss of $0.04 per share to income of $0.05 per share for the CRDA shares and losses of $0.11 to $0.02 per diluted CRDB share. With that I’d like to turn the call back to Harsha for concluding remarks.