Welcome to the IBEX Third Quarter Full Year 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. To note, there is also an accompanying earnings deck presentation available on the IBEX Investor Relations website at investors.ibex.co. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Brinlea Johnson with the Blueshirt Group.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I want to remind you that the matters discussed today on today's call may include forward-looking statements related to our operating performance, financial goals, and business outlook, which are based on management's current beliefs and assumptions. Please note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinions as of the date of this call and we undertake no obligation to revise this information as a result of new developments, which may occur. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expected and described today. For a more detailed description of our risk factors, please review our annual report on Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 14th, 2021. With that, I'll turn it over to Bob Dechant, CEO.

Thank you, Brinlea. Good afternoon everyone and thank you all for joining us today as Karl and I share our third quarter results. I'm excited to announce that Q3 was the highest growth quarter in our company's history. We delivered organic revenue growth of 19%, which accelerated from an impressive 13% growth in Q2. This continues to be driven by our omnichannel solutions integrated with Wave X Technologies and business analytics across both our new and existing clients. Our revenue generated from new clients won since FY 2016. Those we call BPO 2.0 clients grew by its highest rate ever this quarter, at 60% year-over-year and from 57% in Q2. This strong growth is a testament not only to our ability to attract and partner with new clients, but also our strategy to expand our solutions and differentiate in the marketplace. Most excited that these new customers now make up 70% of our total company revenues, up from 52% a year ago. And I believe we are well-positioned to continue growth above our historical 10% rate. Our revenue growth is driven primarily by our continued success in our profitable new logo engine, which sells differentiated BPO 2.0 solutions to many of the world's best brands. This quarter, we won seven new clients for a total of 19 year-to-date and these wins span across our key verticals and geographies. We have had an amazing success in the FinTech and HealthTech space. This quarter, we had two significant wins in these verticals. Our success has enabled these two key verticals to grow by 100% over the prior year and now represent 25% of our total revenues. Expanding into these verticals insulates the business from the impact of seasonality seen with some of our other verticals and leads to increase stability of the…

Thank you, Bob and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining the call today. We continue to be excited about our overall results. We delivered a strong third quarter with record year-over-year organic revenue growth of 18.6%, driven primarily by our integrated omnichannel solutions across both our new and existing clients. Our strategic HealthTech and FinTech vertical markets continue to expand as we capitalize on those large and growing addressable markets. In addition, our sustainable performance consistently underscores the ongoing response to our differentiated services and technology platform solutions, and serves as the foundation in helping our clients transform their customer experience. In my discussions of financial results, references to revenue and income or on an IFRS basis, while adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted earnings per share are on a non-GAAP basis. Reconciliations of our IFRS to non-GAAP measures are included in the tables attached to our earnings press release. Third quarter revenue increased 18.6% to $129.1 million compared to $108.8 million in the prior year quarter. We continue to experience high growth in our clients won since fiscal year 2016. This cohort grew by 60% over the prior year quarter and now represents 70% of our total revenue. The revenue growth this quarter was offset by continued decreases related to our legacy three clients, which now represent only 90% of our total revenue. Net income in the third quarter was $6.6 million compared to negative $0.2 million for the same period last year. The increase in net income was primarily driven by stronger operating results, which included a decrease in non-recurring costs and a deferred tax benefit recognized in the current quarter. We expect our annual effective tax rate to be in the high single-digits on a normalized basis excluding the effects of the warrant fair value…

Certainly. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of David Koning from Baird. Your question please.

Yes. Hey, guys, congrats. Good job across the board.

Thanks David. We got -- we were pleased with our results, yes. Thanks.

Yes, that's great. And maybe first of all, just this quarter diverged a little from the normal trend, usually Q3 is down a little more sequentially. It was hardly down sequentially in our seasonally weaker periods. So, clearly, the momentum is strong. Should the pace be normal in Q4? Or was there anything kind of non-normal in Q3 that kind of helped lift up revenue a little bit? Or is it just kind of, steady as she goes from here?

Sure. So, thanks for calling that out. Yes, we've had a lot of seasonality historically, in Q2, as you go to Q3 and Q4, that goes down and ramps down. Now, David, the success we've had in the HealthTech and FinTech space, is structurally changing our business from heavy seasonality Q2 to where we have now, I think, a much more stable business as we look through the -- really through the fiscal quarters. And so I feel like we've structured the business to operate like this, kind of, on a on a go-forward basis. Now, I do want to call out that as we kind of did the swap of our low-margin client for our HealthTech client, it's kind of pieced that in our Q4. And so there's a -- there will be a little guess what I'll say just a little revenue loss in the quarter as we, you know, as we just kind of peace, you know, peace from what was low-margin to this new client, what we feel good structurally about how the business looks, kind of, going out over the next four quarters.

Yes, got you. Thanks. And then that was a nice color, you've got about $150 million of revenue capacity in your current footprint, meaning, CapEx can kind of go down., as we think about margins going forward, it sounds like A, you're switching into higher margin work on average. B you've got, you've got this capacity. So, as you grow, your D&A can be levered, operating expense can be levered. Is that the way to think about it? Or is there some offset right now? I mean, obviously, wage inflation in some of those things that could offset, but I mean, should margins keep going up? Maybe I'll kind of all those topics, I guess.

Sure. So, David, and I think you've followed this from pre-COVID. But really pre-COVID, we -- as a business had had a slope of our margin that, you know, we were at a higher slope of that than our revenue growth. So, think of us as a 10% revenue growth and we were driving margin improvements at a much higher rate than that. COVID has got us a little bit off of that what had been a several year trajectory. I think we're getting back on to that. And that's what I'm really excited about. And so as you as you identified, all of those elements are now starting to stack up for us. Certainly, the backdrop, though, as you also highlighted is just a lot of volatility around and inflation and wages and all of that stuff. So, we're thinking cautiously around those impacts, but I do love our overall trends and the overall trajectory is out over the next several years.

Got you. That's great. Thanks guys.

Thanks, David.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tobey Sommer from Truist Securities. Your question please.

Hey, good afternoon. This is Jasper Bibb on for Tobey. As we've seen growth decelerated some of the larger consumer-facing tech companies. Are you seeing any impact on your new economy clients and their willingness to invest in customer support?

Great question, Jasper and thanks for that. And so -- look, I think we're all aware of how the e-commerce world is -- volumes are starting to -- their businesses are starting to see some headwinds on that as well as some of the other the other areas in the new economy world. And so we are seeing some of that in our overall business and in the overall -- their overall enterprise volumes. Now, what we've been very successful in is delivering and then taking market share. So, inside of that dynamic, we're taking market share, which I think is allowing us to be less subject to those headwinds that they're having. And one thing I will say is quite the opposite of they're not willing to invest into the customer experience and their customer relationships. They -- we are joined at the hip with them. And so that is the one fundamental part of their business that they are vigilant on, I will say it like that. And as a result, in spite of -- they work with us in things like price increases if we need to adjust wages to keep our agents in IBEX and that that is a classic example of investing into those relationships and into their partners like IBEX. So, I feel very good about our overall ability to win with that headwind that's out there. And I will say the other element is many are looking at further areas of their internal operation to outsource more. So, there's a whole another what I'll say a vector of growth inside that as they look at all areas to try to take cost out of their businesses.

Thanks for that. And then any changes to how clients are thinking about allocating [indiscernible] between offshore, nearshore, and the U..S given some of the inflationary pressures they might be dealing with?

Sure. So, the example that I gave around our hotel clients is we're seeing this across the swath of clients that starts with them evaluating their own captive operations and realizing it is very, very difficult for them to operate their internal centers. And so they look at a couple of dimensions. They look at dimension one, should we move this to a partner like IBEX in the U.S. market? But they are also looking and saying, what areas of that business can we and should we be moving into a low-cost labor market? And so our discussions with clients are really on two dimensions that allow us to solve those almost simultaneously, which allows us to take some of their internal captives, their internal operations, move some of that into the U.S., while at the same time moving some of it into a market like Jamaica. So, they get gains, they get the ability to take cost out of the equation. We are able to run the U.S. centers more efficiently, more effectively. We're also able to leverage the low-cost markets to really take -- make some big impacts into their overall cost. So, overall, I see it as a great tailwind for us as a business.

No, that makes sense. Last question for me, I just wanted to ask about the recent elections in the Philippines and if you're seeing any expected impacts on your business or in the industry as a result?

No impact at all. I'll just say when you go back to the prior elections, there was a lot of concern with the buyers at that point in time when the [indiscernible] came into office. And shortly, they all realized there was no issues. As it relates to the elections and with Bongbong Marcos winning, big supporter of BPO. So, I don't see any change from a client standpoint. Any concerns no tapping of the brakes. I'd say at the prior election, there was a little bit of tapping of the brakes, I don't see any of that. I think everybody realizes that there will be a peaceful transition of power and that that power absolutely supports the BPO world.

Thanks for taking the questions, guys. I'll--

Yes, thanks for your questions Jasper.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Roswell from RBC. Your question please.

Yes, good evening. Congratulations on a nice quarter. Couple of questions.

Thanks Matthew.

I guess first on the legacy business, are you willing to talk about sort of how much it declined in the quarter? And then as we think about the decline in fourth quarter and going into next year, how much of that is sort of you're transitioning away? And how much of that would you describe as sort of the client going back?

Sure. So, on -- let me say, last quarter, I highlighted that sequentially that cohort of clients had started to flatten out. And it was down a little bit in Q3, that they as a cohort were down a little bit, but let's say mostly sequentially low single-digits down. That is now -- I would say is -- but if you step back, we've been in that 30% -- the last four or five quarters have been more on the 30% to 40% per annum decline. I expect that for 2023, we're going to continue on that percentage of the decline. If I look at that cohort, the lion's share of that decline is as we swapped out our lowest-margin client for a really exciting relationship with a HealthTech company that goes across multiple geographies. And so we have a little bit of what I would say is organic demand decline in what's left, but that is, kind of, off of its, kind of, aggressive decline and mostly kind of hitting that -- that flatten out everything. Look, I -- here's the way and I'll just say here's the way I think about that business. I think at some point in time, either it's -- it levels off and -- because of just the absolute size of that that it basically will level off, that's what we're -- we think we can operate to as we look down the road, kind of, past 2023. However, the worst case scenario is if it kind of sunsets off, it'll be so. It is now such a small part of the business that it's not going to impact our business. And that said, that part of our business is really the kind of voice-centric, lower-margin commoditized part of our business. And so given the opportunity, we thought it was a great opportunity to, kind of, engage a go-forward client that fits our BPO 2.0.

Okay. It might be a little early for this question. But you sign a lot of great new logos in the last three years, is there a point or are we approaching the point where you stop, kind of, -- you concentrate less on signing the new logos as opposed to just getting more share at those logos?

Look, we are -- I think we do a really good job of taking market share inside those new logos. And so I look at it is it really is an and. And let me -- when I -- when we shared this, I think, last quarter might have been the quarter before, but one of our big wins from FY 2019, so now that's fast-forward, that's, kind of, three plus years into that, we've won massive market share in there where we've doubled the size of our business, and now they've moved themselves into our top three client bases. There are opportunities inside that base to continue to do that and we're pushing those. That being said, I think it's an and -- I think, with the trajectory that we have and that these lines -- the lion's share of the business that we're winning goes into our very high margins, geographies. That growth allows us to stack up and get margin gains on their growth vectors, or our margin drivers. And so we're committed to staying a growth leader in this space because it really works well for us. And I think we're going to get ourselves back into as we start building this capacity, where you're going to see margin expansion accelerating and that's pretty exciting for us.

Excellent. And one more if I can sneak it in for Karl. I think you said that the tax benefit was $4 million off in the second half of 2022, what's the split between this quarter and next quarter?

Yes, I would look at that, I think, just overall good quarters, obviously, have some differences. But when we look at $4 million by the end of the fiscal year and you can look at the comments we made, it was high single-digits on a normalized basis, excluding the fair value of the work and the one-time for the $4 million. So, not to give me an answer on the split, but I think if you use that comments for the full year, it'll help you with the calculations.

Okay, excellent. Thank you very much.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Ashwin Shirvaikar from Citi. Your question please.

Thank you and good job on the on the topline, especially. I guess that's sort of where my first question is. Is the unchanged outlook does imply a very wide growth range for full 4Q? And would you say that you currently -- just based on all the positive commentary you had and traction you're getting into 4Q, would you say you're leaning more towards the upper part of the range? Or are there factors that could cause that to not be true? And then there's a corresponding question, of course, on the margin side because we -- I think we probably need margins to kind of step somewhere close to 17% in Q4, would that be accurate?

Sure Ashwin and thanks for that question. And as always, your mathematics are very spot on. So, let me just touch on first the topline side. If we had decided not to really disengage with the low margin -- let's say that we did not do that, I'm pretty confident that this business would be sitting on the upper end range from a revenue standpoint. But the opportunities came for us to do this and it was the right thing to do, especially as we would move into our Q1, which is a very difficult high ramp, no training paid, and then move to really low margins. So, the decision to move past that, I think, is a great move that as we look to Q4 now, or our full year, there's a range. But because we're basically doing a transition, there is a little revenue loss along that, kind of, say -- I would just sit and say -- I would not say that we're steering this to the high end. If we had not done anything, we'd certainly be towards the high end of that range. And so that's how we're looking at that on -- from a revenue standpoint. Now, from a margin standpoint, you're right, it implies as a very strong margin quarter. And that's why, kind of, highlighted on a normalized basis, our Q3 would have been in the 16% plus range, with, kind of, continued strengthening and Q4 for us is a less of a significant ramping and significant training quarter. So, that's how we're thinking about that is really the overall operating performance in the quarter was very strong. And as we kind of moved to their -- we're hoping that margins continue to move.

Understood. No, thank you for that detail. The other question, more for operating question, I guess, is, as you shrink or walk away from the legacy part, can you perhaps use the same talent, maybe with a little bit of training on the new stuff or does that require sort of a bigger reset-restart? Could you talk about some of the dynamics of that, because I'm thinking that could be ongoing potential margin benefits as we head into next year? Would that be accurate?

So, great question. And the answer to the can you reuse the talent is I have to say it depends. And it depends on, first what markets you're going from and to, so -- and how that fits into a client strategy. This opportunity was very unique and tailor-made, because we've been able to deploy. And in my remarks, I highlighted this and let me just clarify to make sure that that's understood. In this opportunity, we're able to take the lion's share of those agents and rapidly retrain them and deploy them on our HealthTech client. And that was a very unique -- that was a really great opportunity for us to do that, which made that decision and the ability to redeploy those with what we think is a more strategic client -- a BPO 2.0 client that made it a solid reason to go ahead and do that. That won't happen every single time, if -- but that's where we look and say, we can be opportunistic about our business. And we're not worried about what that does to our growth engine because I think we have this really inherent growth engine that we built that is really, really on solid footing, which gives us the ability to move swiftly when the opportunities come. And so if I step back, we will have this new client, which will be a top five client, we'll have them across the U.S. and in the Philippines and then our provincial Philippines in particular, which is one of our most profitable regions. And we'll have that put together by mid-Q1 and we'll be in a really ideal environment at going forward. And so I feel very good about, kind of, the upsides of moves like this.

Right now appreciate the detail on the timing and the nuances there. All the best. Thank you.

Great. Thanks Ashwin.

Thank you. This does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Bob Dechant, CEO, for any further remarks.

Jonathan, thank you. And appreciate all you listen to the call. In closing, this team is doing an amazing job dealing with all the challenges and turbulence in this marketplace and I feel like we have built a very, very strong and resilient business that navigates us well through some challenging times and we look forward to bigger and better things as we as we move forward. So, thank you all. And I'd like to thank my team for just the amazing job that they do on a day-in and day-out basis. So, thank you all. Have a good night.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.