Jim Heindlmeyer
Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Your line is open
Thank you, Rell. As Golnar and Rell stated, we had a very strong first few years of public company. We delivered on and actually surpassed our expectations, significantly enhanced and diversified the business, and continued to position the company for long-term stability and growth. Now, let's talk in greater detail about financial results for the fourth quarter, full-year, and our expectations for the next fiscal year. Revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter was 35.1 million, which represented a 46% increase from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. We were able to successfully execute on our value enhancing initiatives for our roster of creators, while our portfolio of assets continued to grow through our acquisition strategy. Our top line growth in Q4 was driven by solid growth across nearly every revenue type, but was particularly attributable to digital revenue expansion in our recorded music business, which delivered a 178% increase versus the prior year quarter. Looking at our operating expenses for the quarter, our overall cost of revenue saw a 44% increase from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, which provides a slight margin improvement against the 46% revenue growth in the quarter. As noted, the last two quarters, our depreciation and amortization costs increased year-over-year due to our continued catalog acquisitions. Company administration expenses saw an increase of 79% from the prior year due to non-cash stock based compensation related to our public listing and the ongoing cost of being a public company that we did not have in Q4 last year. Overtime, we expect operating margins to improve based on the operating leverage inherent in the business. As I've stated on the last two calls, we evaluate our operating performance based on two metrics: OIBDA and adjusted EBITDA. We believe these give the cleanest view of our progress as a business. Both of these metrics remove the impact of amortization from our operating results. So, as a reminder, these metrics do not reflect periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues. Adjusted EBITDA removes the impact of other non-cash or non-recurring expenses such as stock based comp. For Q4, OIBDA increased 34% year-over-year to 13.9 million, while adjusted EBITDA grew 47% to 15.4 million, both as compared to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2021. These increases were primarily driven by the improvement in revenues across both publishing and recorded music and were partially offset by transactional and administration costs related to being a public company. Our interest expense was 2.9 million for the quarter, compared to 2.3 million in the same period last year. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 came in at 8.9 million, up 75% from the same period last year. This resulted in diluted earnings per share for the quarter of $0.14, compared to $0.11 per share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. Lastly, our weighted average diluted outstanding share count is 64.7 million. Moving to a breakdown of our full-year fiscal 2022 results, revenue came in at 107.8 million, a 34% increase year-over-year and well above the top of our previously raised guidance range. Top line growth for the year was largely attributed to synchronization and digital revenue streams, which reported a 62% and 32% cumulative increase across both segments respectively. Looking at our operating expense for fiscal 2022, our overall cost of revenue saw a 34% increase from fiscal 2021, which is in-line with our increase in revenue. With fiscal 2022 being our first year as a public company, we saw our company's administration expenses [increased] [ph] 69% from the prior year, due to non-cash stock-based compensation related to our public listing and the ongoing cost of being a public company that we did not have last year. OIBDA in fiscal 2022 increased 18% year-over-year to 38.4 million, while adjusted EBITDA grew 29% to 41.3 million from fiscal 2021. These increases were primarily driven by the improvement in revenues across both publishing and recorded music and were partially offset by transactional and administration costs related to being a public company. Our interest expense was 10.9 million for the full-year, which was an increase of 21%, compared to 9 million last year. Net income for fiscal 2022 came in at 13.1 million, up over 41% from last year. This resulted in diluted earnings per share for the year of $0.22, compared to $0.21 per share for fiscal 2021. Lastly, our weighted average diluted outstanding share count is 58.5 million. These full-year results show our ability to execute on our acquisition strategy, capitalize on our value enhancement opportunities, and ultimately succeed in the growing music industry. Turning to our segment breakdown for the quarter, let's look at Music Publishing first. Music Publishing generated revenue of 25.1 million in the fourth quarter, which was a 29% improvement from this time last year. The primary drivers for the increase within the Publishing segment was our sync and other revenue streams. Synchronization revenue in the Publishing segment totaled 4.7 million, representing a 31% increase from the fourth quarter last year, largely due to the recovery in the film and television industry from the impacts of COVID-19. Other revenue within the Publishing segment showed a 230% increase year-over-year to 3.3 million. This was primarily due to our growing presence in the Middle East. Our recorded music segment continued to deliver strong results in the quarter, generating 9.8 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, which is up 123% from the prior year quarter. All revenue types within our recorded music segment delivered solid results, led by digital revenue, which saw a 178% increase and that was driven by the continued growth and consumption at music streaming services. Synchronization experienced rapid growth on the recorded side as it posted a $1 million top line increase in the fourth quarter. The overall increase within the recorded music segment was also driven by the Tommy Boy acquisition earlier in the year. Our full-year segment results tell a similar story as we recorded 17% top line growth within our Music Publishing segment. Our other revenue had the largest growth within the Music Publishing segment as that revenue type increased by 198% year-over-year to 7.7 million. Recorded Music also saw significant growth on the top line as revenues increased 126% when compared to fiscal 2021. Driven by the acquisition of Tommy Boy, all revenue streams within our Recorded segment saw year-over-year revenue growth greater than 40%, showing the diversification of our business over the long-term. Let's move on to our balance sheet. At quarter-end, our credit facility was at roughly 275.6 million. We closed the quarter with total liquidity of 92.2 million, comprised of 17.8 million of cash on hand and 74.4 million available under our revolver, which gives us the capital to fund our strategic objectives. In terms of total debt, we ended the quarter at $269.9 million, which was net of $5.8 million of deferred financing cost and thus we maintain 252 million of net debt. That compares to net debt of 203.3 million as of last fiscal year-end. Our leverage ratio as of March 31, 2022 was 5.7 using the trailing 12-month pro forma adjusted EBITDA of 48.2 million, which reflects the measurement for our credit agreement. Lastly, I'll note that over half of our outstanding debt is hedged at a very attractive interest rate, which will limit our exposure to rising interest rates in the coming year. Before I jump into our guidance for next year, I want to highlight an immaterial adjustment to prior period results that you'll see in our 10-K. This is related to our accounting for certain asset acquisitions and the royalties that are earned between the time and acquisition is agreed upon and when it is closed. Upon review of the accounting treatment, we determine that it's more appropriate to treat those royalties and the related cash receipts as a reduction to the purchase price of the acquisition rather than as revenue. Had we not made this change, our fourth quarter results would have been slightly higher. The prior period amounts included in this earnings release have been revised to give effect to these adjustments and this has no impact on total cash flow or business momentum. Again, this is an immaterial adjustment. Let's shift gears to our outlook for fiscal 2023. Building upon the strong financial performance we achieved in our first year as a public company, we expect fiscal 2023 revenue to be in the range of $116 million to $121 million and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $44 million to $47 million. At the midpoint, that's 10% growth across both metrics in an economic climate that's likely going to be challenging for many other businesses. As we move into fiscal 2023, we’ll continue to evaluate potential acquisitions to expand our portfolio of assets, which is considered in our full-year guidance. As I mentioned, we're being diligent about controlling our costs both on revenue and overall operating costs and believe we have a solid balance sheet supported by highly predictable and consistent cash flows that provides us with the flexibility to invest in our business and our growing roster of talent. We are again setting higher expectations, feel very confident about our path forward, and look forward to providing updates on our progress throughout the year. With that, I'll now pass the call back to Golnar.