Conduent Incorporated

Greetings and welcome to the Conduent Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. You may be placed in the question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to your host, Giles Goodburn, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Giles.

Thank you, Operator, and thanks everyone for joining us today to discuss Conduit's fourth quarter and full year 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 8K. 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 the US 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.

Thank you, Giles, and welcome everyone to our Q4 and 2024 end-of-year earnings. In line with our previous earnings, Steve will take you through the quarter in a backward view of the year as it relates to the detailed numbers. I'll then follow up with some forward-looking expectations. Look, as you know, our year was characterized by some intense focus on culling the herd, as they say, for several reasons. We believe this portfolio was and perhaps continues to be too wide, resulting in cost in the center that's too high, and a scenario where certain underperforming assets can drag the hole down. That's notwithstanding the fact that many growth companies typically have more scale and depth, and we're progressing towards both. The good news is that we're able to divest several assets at good multiples, allowing us to pay down the bulk of our debt and buy out the icon group, thus streamlining both our strategy and our game plan. We said 2024 would be a trough, and it was. That said, Q4 adjusted revenue improved sequentially again, and both Q4 and year-end adjusted EBITDA margins finished on the high end of expectations. In 2024, timing pushed revenue around a little, thus finishing a little under expectations at $800 million and $3.176 billion respectively, while again, adjusted EBITDA margins finished strong at $32 million and $124 million respectively at 4% and 3.9%. Net ARR was strong for the quarter and the year, characterized by improved retention, while new business ACV was up quarter over quarter. However, due to the weak start to the year, we finished a little lower than 2023 on a full year basis. As with others, we measure sales in new logo, new capability, and add-on sales. 2024 was strong on a year-over-year basis in new capability sales, representing further penetration of our portfolio. but somewhat weaker in the new logo category. There's much more to talk about, but why don't I turn it over to Steve for the details on the quarter and the year. Steve?