Conduent Incorporated

Welcome to the Conduit second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Giles Goodburn, Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator, and thanks everyone for joining us today to discuss Conduent's second quarter 2024 earnings. I'm joined today by Cliff Skelton, our President and CEO, and Steve Wood, our CFO. We hope you had a chance to review our press release issued earlier this morning. This call is being webcast, and a copy of the slides used during this call, as well as the press release, were filed with the SEC this morning on Form 8-K. This information as well as the detailed financial metrics package are available on the investor relations section of the Conduent website. During this call, we may make statements that are forward-looking. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations, and are subject to a number of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. Information concerning these factors is included in Conduent's annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC. We do not intend to update these forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or developments, except as required by law. The information presented today includes non-GAAP financial measures. Because these measures are not calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP, they should be viewed in addition to and not as a substitute for the company's reported results. For more information regarding definitions of our non-GAAP measures and how we use them, as well as the limitations to their usefulness for comparative purposes, please see our press release. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Cliff.

Thanks, Giles, and welcome, everyone, to our Key to Earnings. This earnings today will be just a little bit different. We'll have Steve begin with the financials today, and I'll follow with a strategic discussion regarding progress on our strategy framed by the categories of people and organization, our processes and objectives and our products and our technology. But in summary, Q2 adjusted revenue and adjusted EBITDA were $811 million and $29 million respectively at a 3.6% margin, all exceeding expectations. New business signings were $142 million up sequentially in flat year-over-year net of the large state of Victoria deal last year in our transportation business. This was all characterized by some recent strength in commercial sales, Some weakness in government and a transportation business holding its own. Finally, the net ARR number was negative for the first time, representing the low point due to the timing and sequence that Steve will discuss in a moment. All of this points to a consistent theme. When we're at the low point in our journey, in the trough, as we say, we continue to be exactly where we said we'd be. In fact, a little better in terms of revenue and EBITDA. And we've said all along that this is part of a continued path to a 2025 exit rate parameter, lowered net debt leverage ratios, sequential margin improvement, and less capital intensity. Meanwhile, our divestiture activity is progressing as planned, allowing us to deleverage our balance sheet and buy back some of our own stock, including that formerly owned by Carl Icahn, which has also allowed us to simplify and streamline our board and, in fact, create some new strategic dialogue. Steve will explain the effect of those divestitures and discuss where we are in that revenue EBITDA cycle. So let me hand it over to Steve.