William P. Angrick
Analyst · Robert Baird
Thank you, Julie. Good morning, and welcome to our Q2 earnings call. I'll begin this session by reviewing our Q2 financial performance, and then provide an update on our strategy and future vision for Liquidity Services. Next, I'll turn it over to Kathy Domino for more details on the quarter. And finally, Jim Rallo will provide our outlook for fiscal '14. Liquidity Services reported Q2 results of $227 million of GMV, $16.7 million of adjusted EBITDA and $0.26 of adjusted EPS. While GMV was within our expected results, our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS were lower than expected due to mix changes in our DoD Surplus and retail supply chain businesses and delayed projects in both the U.S. and Europe that did not bring in revenues to match project expenditures made during the quarter. We experienced unusual softness in our energy vertical due to an industry-wide decline in the line pipe market and related equipment. In addition, we continued to invest aggressively to enhance and integrate our marketplaces and global operations and develop new capabilities to achieve our long-term goal of a diversified multibillion-dollar commercial business. Q2 results did not reflect our standards or the efforts currently being made to position the business for long-term success. I want to underscore that our vision and strategy remains focused on building a diversified, multibillion-dollar GMV business that enables sellers and buyers of all sizes to easily manage, evaluate and monetize assets in the $150 billion reverse supply chain based on their industry, location and channel preferences. At scale, Liquidity Services will provide shareholders with multiple high margin revenue streams that leverage our investments in game-changing technology and global operations. To achieve our future vision, we are undergoing a multiyear transformation of our business from independent marketplaces to an integrated global business and marketplace platform with a singular and superior user experience. We call this our Liquidity One [ph] transformation plan. Through organic growth and acquisitions, we have doubled the GMV of our commercial and municipal government business from approximately $359 million in fiscal '11 to approximately $725 million for the year ending Q2 fiscal '14. GAAP revenues have more than doubled over the same timeframe. This part of the business will continue to be the focus of our time, investment and growth strategy. As we execute our Liquidity One [ph] transformation plan and manage the multiyear transition of our DoD Surplus contract, consolidated results will be less reflective of our progress. Therefore, investors should evaluate our progress based on our ability to grow the GMV and revenues of our commercial and municipal government business going forward. Our Liquidity One [ph] strategy and key investment initiatives are focused on 3 key areas, which will accelerate the growth of our commercial business: One, the integration and transformation of our marketplaces and operations; two, the development of new services and capabilities to grow supply and demand on our platform and expand our ecosystem of channel partners; and three, the launch of an aligned global brand. In support of our future vision, we are aggressively investing in the integration of our business to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our internal operations and the buyer and seller experience on our platform. In this regard, a key focus during fiscal '14 is continuing to develop a trained, qualified and aligned global sales and account management organization that is well equipped to strategically sell within and across our clients. To support this effort, we have centralized our sales organization under a single leader and are in the process of moving the entire sales organization to a common sales force automation system and sales playbook. We have been very successful signing new global Fortune 1000 accounts as our global footprint, buyer base, industry expertise and service offering are highly valued by clients. Investment in a common sales force management platform and selling methodology will enable us to do a better job of further penetrating these accounts with our full range of services to grow our business. As employees adapt to this new organizational structure and learn to use new systems, this may have a negative impact on the overall productivity of our team and our results in the near term. Post-integration, we believe these investments will accelerate our sales cycle and penetration of client accounts to grow our business. Another key focus of our transformation plan is developing a superior seller and buyer experience to make it easier for customers to do more business with us. To support this effort, during fiscal '14, we are investing in the development of unified seller-and-buyer portals that will provide users convenient access to all of their transaction activity across our marketplace channels in one place through any device, as well as access to on-demand services such as asset management, redeployment, valuation and data analytics. To support this effort, we are investing in the deployment of an integrated ERP, order management and invoicing system capable of supporting multinational transactions and subscription services. On the buyer's side, we are investing in the deployment of a unified account management and transaction system to enable buyers to find, purchase and settle all of their transactions in a single invoice from a master account. This new functionality is under development, and we expect it to improve our buyer satisfaction and participation rate as we move into fiscal year 2015. The second major area of investment is the development of new services and new capabilities to grow supply and demand on our platform. Given that we are at the intersection of serving leading global manufacturers and their retail partners, we have a unique opportunity to deliver value to customers by providing an integrated returns management and return-to-vendor service offering. By year end, we plan to launch an innovative cloud-based returns management solution that will enable manufacturers and retailers to leverage Liquidity Services' facilities, marketplace data and multi-channel sales solutions to unlock more value from the returned and unsold goods. These capabilities will enable Liquidity Services to expand its volume with both manufacturers and their retail partners, while reducing transportation costs and redundant handling of items throughout the retail supply chain. The second new service we're investing in is a self-service capability to grow our commercial business with clients who desire a low-touch self-serve solution to load their own assets into our marketplaces. This initiative expands the number and type of sellers who can transact on our platform in the commercial marketplace: from small dealers and depot repair firms, to plant managers at large corporations. This offering will enable third-party self-service clients to leverage the supply and demand we currently attract in key industry verticals such as transportation. The development and growth of our GovDeals marketplace validates the attractiveness of the self-service offering, which currently enables over 6,500 municipal clients to benefit from our scale and investment in technology and buyer marketing. The third new service area we are investing in is a data warehouse and data-as-a-service applications that enhance the experience of buyers and sellers in our ecosystem. Our marketplaces generate significant volumes of data on the value, condition and availability of high-value equipment and inventory in the global reverse supply chain. We intend to package and provide access to this data and associated analytics to support our internal operations and the sale of additional services such as warranties and analytics related to asset management and valuations. All of these new services will be modular and extensible to other players in the reverse supply chain, who will benefit from leveraging our marketplace, services and data analytics. Providing other players access to these capabilities will strengthen our ecosystem of sellers, buyers and channel partners and the volume of activity and revenue on our platform. Investments in these new services and capabilities during fiscal year '14 will enable Liquidity Services to serve and monetize previously untapped markets and unlock new opportunities for growth in fiscal year '15 and beyond. Finally, we are continuing to invest in the development of an aligned global brand to increase awareness of our service offering. To support this effort, we have centralized our brand marketing organization under a single leader and are in the process of developing a new brand message focused on our reliable performance, scalable solutions and the strategic impact we make with our clients. In a recent survey of over 150 investment recovery professionals across a wide range of industry verticals, Liquidity Services was rated superior to the competition on key evaluation factors, including net recovery value, service quality, expertise, risk mitigation and coverage. We are the proven market leader in the reverse supply chain with the world's largest marketplace for business surplus, and consolidation of our marketing spend behind a single global brand message will enhance our sales efforts. We expect to see the benefits of this as we move into fiscal year '15. Next, let me comment on our DoD Surplus contract. As previously announced, we are pleased that we will continue to drive innovation for the DoD for up to 6 years under the terms of a new surplus contract for all usable surplus items other than rolling stock. Under the terms of the new surplus contract, which have yet to be finalized, we expect to handle an estimated $9 billion of original acquisition value of property over the contract performance period. This continued relationship delivers a steady source of anchor supply in the key verticals we serve in our commercial business. Moreover, as we continue to drive innovation with our merchandising and sales strategies, we are positioned to capture attractive incremental returns for Liquidity Services' shareholders. In summary, investment in our Liquidity One [ph] transformation plan, which includes the enhancement of our marketplaces and operations, the development of new services and capabilities and the launch of an aligned global brand enables us to build a diversified multibillion-dollar GMV business serving buyers and sellers of all sizes in the $150 billion reverse supply chain with high returns on invested capital. In addition, we will continue to leverage the long-term supply under our DoD Surplus contract to support our commercial growth strategy. Our current business has strong free cash flow, a proven track record of customer satisfaction and the talent and financial strength to deliver on our vision. Now let me turn it over to Kathy for more details on Q2 results.