Good afternoon. My name is [Veneda], and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Crawford & Company First Quarter 2016 Earnings Release Conference Call. In conjunction with this call, a supplementary financial presentation is available on our website at www.crawfordandcompany.com under the Investor Relations section. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, Monday, May 9, 2016. I would now like to introduce Allen W. Nelson, Crawford & Company’s General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer.

Thank you, Veneda. Some of the matters to be discussed in this conference call and in the supplementary financial presentation may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may include, but are not limited to statements regarding the funded status of our defined benefit pension plans, our expectations related to future revenues and expenses, expectations regarding the timing, costs and synergies related to our Global Business Services Center, our acquisition of GAB Robins in the UK, as well as other restructuring activities, our long-term liquidity requirements and our ability to pay dividends in the future. The Company’s actual results achieved in future quarters could differ materially from results that maybe implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release revisions to any forward-looking statements made in this conference call to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of the call or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. In addition, you are reminded that operating results for any historical period are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any future period. For a complete discussion regarding factors which could affect the Company’s financial performance, please refer to the Company’s Form 10-Q for the year-ended December 31, 2016 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly the information under the headings, Business, Risk Factors, Legal Proceedings and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, as well as subsequent Company filings with the SEC. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined under SEC rules. As required, a reconciliation is provided for those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. And now I would like to introduce Mr. Harsha Agadi, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Crawford & Company. Harsha, you may begin our conference.

Good afternoon, and welcome to our first quarter 2016 earnings call. Joining me today are Bruce Swain, our CFO; and Allen Nelson, our General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. Before I begin our review of the first quarter I would like to acknowledge that Crawford & Company will be celebrating its 75th anniversary on May 27, 2016. May 27, 1941 is the day are Founder Mr. Jim Crawford opened our doors for business. From humble beginnings in Columbus Georgia Crawford has grown to be the global leader in claims administration. We are extremely proud of our history and will be celebrating our anniversary all over the globe throughout 2016. For the first quarter of 2016, we’ve delivered revenues before reimbursements of $277.2 million, which was below the $287.8 million that we achieved in the year ago period. After adjusting for effects the foreign exchange our revenues were flat as growth in our U.S. services and Broadspire segments offset declines in our Garden City Group segment which continues to be impacted by the expected run off of several large projects. More importantly and it is exciting to state that consolidated operating earnings for the quarter more than doubled year-over-year to $21.7 million as operating margins expanded significantly rising by 400 basis points to 8%. This strong margin expansion was largely driven by our restructuring initiatives executed last year. As we have said our focus to transform Crawford into a business with more predictable financial results and growth regardless of market backdrop. The strong margin expansion that we achieved is a clear indication that our restructuring initiatives are positioning Crawford to achieve our goals. That said we still have a significant opportunity to drive continued improvement in both cost efficiency…

Thank you, Harsha. Companywide revenues before reimbursements in the 2016 first quarter were $277.2 million, down 4% as compared with $287.8 million in the prior year’s first quarter. The Company’s selling, general, and administrative expenses or SG&A totaled $56.8 million, down from $60.4 million in the prior year quarter. As a percentage of revenues, these costs decreased to 20.5% of revenues in the 2016 first quarter from 21% of revenues in the prior year quarter. This decrease is primarily due to lower professional fees and reduced administrative compensation as a result of prior year cost reduction efforts. During the 2016 first quarter, the Company recorded restructuring and special charges of $2.4 million, or $0.03 per share after tax. These charges were associated with the ongoing implementation of the Global Business and Technology Services Centers, GAB Robins integration, and other restructuring activities and operating and administrative areas around the world. Our net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company totaled $8.6 million in the 2016 first quarter, compared to net income of $3 million in the 2015 period. First quarter 2016 diluted earnings per share were $0.16 for CRD.A and $0.14 for CRD.B, compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.06 for CRD.A and $0.04 for CRD.B in the 2015 period. On a non-GAAP basis before restructuring costs and special charges, first quarter 2016 diluted earnings per share was $0.19 for CRD.A and $0.17 for CRD.B, compared to non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.07 for CRD.A and $0.05 for CRD.B in the 2015 period. I will now review the first quarter performance of each of our business units, starting with the U.S. Services segment. Revenues from the U.S. Services segment totaled $58.5 million, up 3% over the $56.7 million reported in the last year’s quarter. Operating earnings in our…

Thank you, Bruce. And thank you all for joining our call this afternoon. I remain excited about the progress that we have made over a very short period of time. Our expense reduction plan directly contributed to the strong margin expansion experience this quarter and has provided clear visibility for the balance of the year. Our International segment is showing real signs of improvement and can cut shut done and nice job bringing leadership and stability to the Garden City Group business. The foundation is clearly in place for Crawford's continued margin improvement through continued innovation and we expect more predictable financial results looking forward. Our focus has now turned towards organic growth opportunities and strategic M&A to return Crawford to the topline growth in 2017. Ladies and gentleman, I look at this as the beginning of the 75 years of Crawford & Company. Operator, please open the call to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Mark Hughes with SunTrust.

Thank you, good afternoon. Congratulations on the quarter.

Thank you, Mark.

You would suggest that you think the Contractor Connection business model would be translatable into other markets, other international markets. Could you talk a little bit more about that, why you say if they’re suitable for that business?

Absolutely. I think some of our developed, very developed economies like Canada, like the United Kingdom, like Australia are sterling examples, where a similar product need exists for insurance carriers to have an immediate solution. And so we provide that we've already launched it in these markets and they're starting to ramp, and we should start seeing growth in these areas and obviously we're taking the outsource first then we shall go after the insource market and eventually we'll go even beyond that if you will into the consumer space step-by-step. So I think these large markets are very similar to the United States.

There are other competitors similar to Contractor Connection that already exist or is this a new service offering?

The good news is there are tiny competitors in these markets. So as we roll with our muscle, we will go to number one position rather quickly. And I haven't looked at exactly what our position in Australia is but I think we're already number one in Australia but more to ramp up. The other is in my conversations with our clients primarily insurance carrier, they are asking us to provide these services in multiple geographies. So this is a very positive where the CEO of an insurance company or a head of claim, is like can we have this product also in these market that you provide us in the U.S. So there is a natural alignment between us and the clients to go into this space.

Can you talk about the sales funnel or sales pipeline at the Broadspire, you had mentioned you just signed your largest disability account since the product was introduced. How are you feeling about growth prospects going forward at Broadspire?

Very excited about it. They have a very strong sales funnel. And they're driving it on two fronts simultaneously, when you look at it on a product basis. So they have new customers who have actually signed up in the worker's comp space. And these are some large customers and I'd say in the Fortune 50 and simultaneously we have new customers added on, if you will into disability claim. The other piece I should state is our CEO at Broadspire is super aggressive. Danielle Lisenbey who is not holding back and if you will maximizing on the cross selling opportunities that benefits both Broadspire as well as Crawford. So we're moving on all fronts. So you should see more and more lift coming out of Broadspire.

Let's talk about the Garden City, the margin relatively - kind of flat, slightly positive margin. Where can that go at this kind of revenue run rate or as these new - the older big projects are running off, how much opportunity is there to boost the bottom line us just through internal action or do you need more top line growth?

Yes. So here is what I would say, if the business is steady, the Garden City's margin performance should be really no different than some of the other segments and should run into the double digits zone. Having said that and they're battling if you will with two large contracts that are winding down, but Ken, who heads Garden City has started to wind up new business. And in addition, he has actually started to bring in if you will government agency business. He is cost fixated, he has found opportunities and I think there is significant opportunity in Garden City to either hold or even inflect the margins upward. We might see a temporary slowdown in the margins, but it will quickly turn around and start going up because it's not necessarily revenue dependent, but it will be over a long periods of time. As revenues increases margins increase in any business.

And then the International segment, substantial improvement year-over-year. How good a line of sight do you have for sustained improvement in that business?

Very clear line of sight. As I stated earlier their margins have tripled and if you remember I also said there's still room to improve, which means we are having enough confidence that in the next year we should try to move into the double-digit margin space. Two things are happening, one is their obviously starting to tighten their cost and increase their efficiency and frankly they're pushing technology heavier than in other places to innovate certain tasks, but the second is client acquisition is on in the traditional spaces, so their sales funnel is also very active at the moment and so they're moving simultaneously. You should see clearly in 2016 a significant turnaround of international and quarter one is, if you will, the tip of the iceberg as we move forward and over time the margins also will start moving up.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Peters with Raymond James.

Good afternoon and thank you for hosting the call and also thank you for the additional disclosure around EBITDA. I think that's very helpful.

Thank you.

Just as we think about EBITDA and then GAAP earnings, obviously restructuring has been a major component of the story in the last several quarters. But you seem to infer from your comments that we've turned the corner on that. What can we think about in terms of restructuring costs and expenses over the next several quarters?

Well. Hey Greg, this is Bruce. Within our guidance, we are talking about restructuring costs this year of $15.6 million and that's related to the continued migration of functions into the Global Business Service Center in Manila and then also the establishment of the Global Technology Service Center in India. Those are going to be the two big drivers of that cost.

Right.

The other element that we have is the finalization of the GAB Robins integration in the UK. So for the first three months, we've incurred $2.4 million and we'll have a bit to go over the next three quarters to get to the 15.

Bruce, do you anticipate that there's going to be any sort of one quarter's going to be heavier than another or should we look at the balance of the 15.6 and say it's going to be spread out evenly over the next couple quarters?

You might see it a little bit more bunched up in Q2 and Q3.

Okay. And then when you get through this year and you think about additional leftover restructuring, what should we think about in 2017 for restructuring? Is it going to – are you still going to have some lingering charges or are you going to be through the vast majority by then?

We will be through the vast majority, but we are going to have some cost that drags into 2017 for the offshoring there we are…

The Global Technical Service Center.

Right. At this point we're not ready to put a number on that.

Okay. That's fair. Harsha, I just wanted to go back, I know Mark asked a lot of questions, on the Garden City Group I think you said you have a backlog of about $103 million…

Correct.

…in revenue. And yet you also almost in the sentence before or same sentence talk about a couple of big contracts that are rolling off. What should we think about that $103 million of backlog? Is that – what's the business mix look like on that and is there a risk that there could be – that's one time project work that could fall off in the following year?

Hey, so here is what I’d say the nature of Garden City's business is if you look at certain pieces like a class action, it is many a time one-time, but it goes into several years and it's not like a one month hit or you can have sometimes four to five years and it goes for a while. So backlog is a clear indication that the current management team under the leadership of Ken Cutshaw show is truly been very good at selling their products and services and actually gaining ground clearly over the previous management teams, leadership the $103 million at the end of Q1 is higher than the fourth quarter as you remember we made a change, the leadership were the four each individuals left giving us no choice, it was on their own accord that we had to bring in if you will Ken Cutshaw as interim. So having said that what I would say is the backlog will continue to grow that will give any indication that revenue over time will stabilize and actually will start growing. As that these large cases Peter down, the backlog is going to start kicking in and it more than offset over time. Now we're obviously looking at quarter-by-quarter, month-by-month as we're forecasting. So Ken is very focused on where the number will come down and eventually go up. But I think this is not something we should be concerned about. I would be concerned if the backlog is not growing. So to me that is a big, big deal.

Yes, indeed. Thank you for the color. One final area. On free cash flow, I like the slide presentation that you have there for the - in the investor call slide deck here. I'm wondering if you can talk about the seasonality of free cash flow as it occurs over the course of a year.

Right before we get into the seasonality And I'm going to have Bruce talk about it as well a little bit but I just wanted to make clear going back to GCG that the senior team that is there is pretty much intact and it is the senior team that hasn't been there for years and now lead by can Ken together, they have built this pipeline in Q1 quite successfully. So the collaboration, the melding together et cetera, et cetera is making a big difference and frankly I think some of you guys were concerned when the four individuals who were running GCG left us with no choice and we had to go bring in leadership, it looks like the situation is stabilized.

Yes, Harsha, real quick on that point. How long had Ken been with GCG before his promotion?

He was there from the beginning of the year. But he started transitioning with the four individuals who are leaving I'm going to say about six weeks before the year ended. And this is before 2015 and it continued, then he became Interim CEO in the beginning of the year and recently became the permanent CEO. So we've gone through careful steps as we got this done. The other thing you know I think going back to seasonality here is a very interesting thing Q1 historically has been a much lower number seasonally especially from an earnings perspective. And 2016 has started out so strong that Q1 has actually been I mean nothing sort of a blockbuster quarter. So we're starting out very strong and maybe unlikes maybe some management games which tend to do the hockey stick, we’re actually avoiding hockey stick by starting at a fairly high level. So that we're in good shape do not meet guidance we really want to exceed guidance. But having said that I think I'm going to have Bruce talk about One is the cash flow as well as the seasonal impact that the business itself.

So getting to your question Greg on seasonality of cash flow, in the first quarter that’s typically our weakest quarter in terms of cash generation, we are normally negative in terms of operating cash flow in the first quarter due to a number of large expenses that will come in at the beginning of the year, payment of bonuses, payment of 401(k) matches, pension contributions and the like and then that builds into the second, third, and fourth quarter. So as we look forward throughout the rest of this year, we would expect our operating cash flow to build to healthy wells.

Perfect. Thank you for all that color. I appreciate it.

And this question is from the line of Joel Salomon with SaLaurMor Capital.

Hi, thanks guys for taking my call and great quarter. Just had a couple of questions about what's been going on in the current quarter, if you could talk about there's been a number of events the Fort McMurray, the fires which I guess intact today said they are going to have a pretty substantial event. One analyst said that implies a 3 billion plus insured loss and then there was obviously the Japan earthquake and there's been a lot of Texas storms. Anything that you can talk about any of those events or you involved in any of those events?

So here is what I will say if you're obviously watching the market. Clearly, we are involved in every one of the events you’ve mentioned. The Canada one is the most recent I mean the bush fire is so large; it is the size of Manhattan. And what I have understood is actually the losses are higher, probably US$6 billion to US$7 billion so a substantial loss. I'm pleased to say that the insurance carriers, their first outsource call has been to Crawford & Company and we are fully supporting our clients and not only that we have the U.S. as well as our international segment supporting that Canadian team very, very actively in providing the necessary people so that ramp up time is minimal. The area is cordoned off. It is Canadian military controlling the area right now, but as soon as they open the gates we will be some of the first ones to go there and actually help solve the claims. I should take a moment and say that Crawford & Company had stepped up to contribute money to the Canadian Red Cross. In addition, as of last night, every Crawford employee about 9,000 employees across the globe have been offered to contribute towards the Canadian Red Cross for this and the company will match dollar for dollar for every employee contribution. This is the time when Crawford shines the best. This is what we do for a living and we have full intentions of participating heavily to solve this crisis if you will for the people in Fort McMurray as well as the insurance carriers. I will also say this Bruce can acknowledge if he agrees is that this is not part of our guidance.

Anything else on the other events Japan or the Texas hail storms and thanks for the color there?

Yes. Texas hail storms, we obviously is if you will is in our spot here and we are participating. The Japan earthquake is a little different, we are participating to some extent, but they also have a slightly different way in terms of how the carriers work and in terms of how they insource in Japan as opposed to outsource. So that’s a little different than say the Canada or the Texas. And I’m familiar enough with Japan to tell you what I am telling you.

Great. Well, thanks for the color there. On Contractor Connection, that's great hear that the expansion into the international, anything you can talk about in terms of the U.S., the growth in terms of the number of contractors that you have on contract now compared to last year I think you are under 4,800 or so like that. Could you talk about where you are today?

Right. We have clearly crossed I think about 5,500 contractors, our system revenues if you will which is the amount of work or billing that the contractors are doing is growing literally leaps and bounds. So it is moving fast and the growth rate is so real that the numbers are changing by the week in all cases upward. So we are – clearly our numbers would show that the growth is there, carriers love Contractor Connection. Larry, Thomas and team do a very fine job and making sure these guys are credential, there’re high quality and the job gets done in time and international is doing the same if you will with Contractor Connection across the globe.

Great to hear and thanks Harsha. And then just finally Greg’s asked this in the past and I would like to ask the question again I mean you've done a great job here in such a short time. As they've been any change or when do you think the interim title be removed and you can be a permanent CEO.

Well, so here’s how I would answer it. I think the credit really for the performance goes to the Executive Team of Crawford more than the Interim CEO. This is relatively the same team and they're done a stupendous job in guiding the Company if you will in the results that are spectacular. It is the Board's job as I said in the last quarter call. That’s will make the call finally on a permanent CEO. The search is extremely active it is being run by a internationally recognized search firm and we will draw close to the search. We think between six and nine weeks and we will be in a position to announce the permanent CEO. My role as Interim CEO I live it every day committed to it every day and I would say the team has said he's an acquired taste we'll get along with him. So I think said that I think you know whether it is me or whether it is somebody else will know that in six to nine weeks. But the results clearly look quite positive.

Great. Thanks for the color and comments. Harsha, appreciate it.

Thank you. End of Q&A

And there are no further questions Mr. Agadi are there any closing remarks.

Yes, I think my closing state is we remain superbly excited about Crawford & Company. The team at Crawford has done a solid job in Q1 and as you can see the direction were pointed is straight North in terms of performance and we continue to look very optimistically and positively to the growth and revenue as well as earnings. Thank you. Good bye and god bless.

Thank you for participating in today’s Crawford & Company conference call. This call will be available for replay beginning at 6 PM today through 11.59 PM on June 9, 2016. The conference ID number for the replay is 90680887. The number to dial for the replay is 1-855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406. Thank you, you may now disconnect.