Forian Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Forian Inc's fourth quarter and full year 2022 financial results conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal comments and webcast. Participating today from Forian are Max Weigott, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Vesey, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management's remarks today may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by those forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, including those discussed in the risk factors section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 27, 2023. In particular, management will discuss an estimate of its full year 2023 revenue outlook as of today. Estimating financial performance accurately for future performance is difficult as it involves assumptions, and internal estimates that may prove to be incorrect and is based on plans and circumstances that may change. There is, therefore, a significant risk that actual results could differ materially from the outlook provided today. Any forward-looking statements made on the call today represent the company's views as of this date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update them except as required by law. Words such as estimate, projected, expect, anticipate, forecast, planned, intend, believe, seek, may, will, should, future, propose, and variations of these words or similar expressions or versions of such words or expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future growth, anticipated performance, and prospects. Today's presenters will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures on our call, such as adjusted EBITDA, which the company believes may be important to investors to assess its operating performance and should be considered a supplement to and not a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of the comparable GAAP metric can be found in today's press release and webcast, both of which are available on the company's website. Those numbers are unaudited, and any statements regarding the company's anticipated performance may be subject to change, including as a result of risks discussed in the risk factors section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 27, 2023. Today's call and webcast is being recorded. A copy of the recording, webcast, as well as the full transcript and copies of today's press release and SEC filings will be available at forian.com forward slash investors. I am now pleased to introduce the company's Executive Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer, Max Weigott. Sir, you may begin.

Good afternoon and welcome. Thank all of you for joining us today to review 4N's 2022 fourth quarter and fiscal year financial and business performance. I am pleased to share that we had another strong fiscal quarter with improvements in all key metrics. On today's call, I will review our fourth quarter and full year results, offer some perspective on 4N's business as we look forward as a healthcare information-focused company following the recent divestiture of our cannabis industry software assets, and then Mike will discuss our financial performance. In 2022, FOREIGN provided innovative software solutions and predictive analytics to optimize the operational, clinical, and financial performance of our healthcare, cannabis, and government customers. We are pleased to have delivered strong fourth quarter results on both the top and bottom lines. Our total fourth quarter revenue was $7.9 million, which represents 37% year-over-year growth. Our net loss for the quarter was $3.6 million, and our adjusted EBITDA loss was $0.9 million, which translates into a 56% and 94% improvements year-over-year, respectively. For the full year 2022, our revenue of $28 million exceeded the high end of our guidance range of $27 million, representing 66% year-over-year growth driven by our healthcare information offerings. Our net loss for the year was $26 million, and our adjusted EBITDA loss was $9.7 million, which translates into 2% and 36% improvements year-over-year, respectively. Before diving into the fourth quarter in more detail, I want to first acknowledge, despite facing challenging macroeconomic conditions, the notable accomplishments we worked on throughout 2022. First, as previously announced in February of this year, we completed the strategic divestiture of our cannabis software operating subsidiary, BioTrack. on February 10th for $30 million in cash proceeds, which has enabled us to streamline our operations and dedicate more resources to our core healthcare business. Additionally, we executed expense reductions in anticipation of challenging macroeconomic conditions. We take great pride in our ability to adapt in changing market conditions, and our success in these endeavors is a testament to our team's resilience and commitment to excellence. I want to spend a couple minutes going through the divestiture. As we discussed on previous calls, the US cannabis landscape faces regulatory challenges, increasing capital constraints, budget-limiting taxation from the states, and unique hurdles that have slowed the growth rate from the purchase of new and innovative technologies. The lack of more rapid expansion of the legal cannabis market further exacerbated the challenge by reducing the growth in customers for our software tools. 4N continues to believe that cannabinoids are part of the patient journey across a wide array of disease states and should be evaluated clinically and studied as valuable emerging therapeutics. When the opportunity for a strategic divestiture that enabled us to maintain data use rates for cannabinoids as part of the patient journey and to focus our business purely in healthcare while at the same time strengthening our balance sheet, we acted decisively. This is a significant change for us as Forian today is a highly focused company with under 40 employees and a much improved financial profile. We have retained the business lines that are growing faster and have a much greater margin profile at scale. I want to thank all of the BioTrack and Forian team members who made it possible for a smooth transition. Furthermore, simultaneous with the transaction, Dan Barnes stepped down as CEO and president of Forian. and we thank Dan for his contributions. I assume the role of Interim Chief Executive Officer in present effective February 10th. Forian's sole focus now is on our healthcare information business, which has been a key driver of our growth and success to date. Excluding our divested BioTrac business, our total healthcare information revenue increased from 7.1 million to 16.4 million in 2022. Throughout 2022, we partnered with a number of new clients, expanded our business with existing clients, and launched additional information offerings. Our talented team with deep domain expertise remains committed to partnering with our clients from the initial sale to ongoing support, delivering exceptional value and driving growth for Forian. We believe our differentiated information products data management services, and analytics are a competitive advantage in the market. Our unique data factory technology applied against comprehensive data assets coupled with industry experience employees and flexible delivery capabilities provide high quality, accurate, insightful, and timely offerings that set us apart from the competition. Our innovative information products relating to commercial and clinical solutions are built on our Blue Chip integrated database which we refer to as Kronos. Our experience in healthcare data, data science, and data management enable us to conduct real-world evidence studies and develop comprehensive patient registries. Our subscription-based offerings are mission critical for our clients, providing commercial, clinical, operational, and market access solutions that drive sales and marketing initiatives, track product and service outcomes, inform research and development, and optimize operations. As a result, we are well positioned to continue expanding our healthcare business across the life sciences, payer, and provider landscape. We experience typical seasonality within life sciences in our results with the fourth quarter typically being our strongest quarter. We expect growth to continue but do acknowledge current macroeconomic challenges with the customers being more cautious of capital expenditures, profitability, and market uncertainty. We are well positioned coming into 2023 as evidenced by our $38.8 million of committed contracted backlog, which is defined as remaining performance obligations as contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized, which includes unearned revenue and unbilled amounts that will be recognized as revenue in future periods. The majority of the company's non-current remaining performance obligations will be recognized over the next 36 months. In summary, we are a small, focused, emerging growth company serving a fragmented, ever-growing, multi-billion healthcare information market with a nimble team, scalable technology, and highly competitive information product offerings. We have improved our balance sheet with the BioTrak sale proceeds to take advantage of external opportunities, drive innovation, and further differentiate ourselves from our competitors. We are dedicated to improving our net loss and achieving positive adjusted EBITDA as soon as possible, driven primarily by revenue growth. To ensure maximum returns on investment, we will prioritize our spending in achieving our long-term priorities. I will now turn it over to Mike to run through the financials in detail.

Thanks, Max. Today, I will provide an overview of 4EN's financial results for the quarter ended December 31st, 2022. As previously disclosed in our SEC filings, 4EN completed the business combination of Helix Technologies and Moore Analytics on March 2, 2021. As a result, the operations of Helix are included in our financial results beginning March 2, 2021. The press release issued today presents 4EN's fourth quarter 2021 and 2022 financial results on a gap basis. As in prior quarters, we have also reported adjusted EBITDA, which management uses as a measure to track the performance of the business. As noted, the press release and these presentation materials include a detailed reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net loss. Our consolidated revenues of $7.9 million for the quarter were up $2.2 million compared to the prior year. As in prior quarters, our year-over-year growth was driven by healthcare information products. which increased 1.9 million, or 64% over the same quarter last year, to 5 million. In many cases, our information contracts provide for continuing information deliverables to our customers over a multi-year period, providing a predictable recurring revenue stream. As a result, we have seen sequential increases in our healthcare revenue in each quarter since we began reporting as a public company, resulting from both new customers and sales of new products to our existing customer base. Net loss for the fourth quarter decreased $5.4 million from the same quarter last year to $3.6 million. The decrease in net loss was primarily driven by a decrease in loss from operations of $4.5 million, partially offset by changes in other income items such as interest, foreign currency-related impacts, and mark-to-market adjustments for warring. The improvement in loss from operations resulted from the $2.2 million of revenue growth discussed above and a $2.4 million reduction in operating expenses, primarily resulting from lower G&A expenses when compared to the same quarter last year. As you'll note in our earnings release, operating expenses for the fourth quarter included $1.7 million of total stock-based compensation expense, and $800,000 of depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the stock-based compensation, depreciation, amortization, and certain other non-recurring costs for the fourth quarter, was negative $900,000 compared to negative $4.5 million in the same quarter last year and negative $2.1 million in the previous quarter this year. We expect the streamlining of our business with the divestiture of BioTrac to allow us to continue to leverage the investments we made in our infrastructure with a lower level of incremental expense growth relative to revenue going forward. As noted earlier, a reconciliation of our net loss to adjusted EBITDA, along with an explanation of the reconciling items, is included in today's earnings release. The primary adjustments reconciling net loss to adjusted EBITDA are stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, non-recurring transaction expenses, mark-to-market adjustments related to outstanding warrants, foreign currency-related impacts, and certain other non-recurring transactions. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the year with $20.7 million of cash and marketable securities and $25.1 million in convertible notes with no maturities prior to September 2025. It should be noted that these amounts exclude proceeds from the sale of BioTrac in February 2023 for $30 million, consisting of $20 million payable at closing and $10 million in unconditional monthly payments thereafter prior to any income tax impact. THESE PROCEEDS WILL PROVIDE FURTHER LIQUIDITY TO GROW OUR BUSINESS ON A GOING FORWARD BASIS. REGARDING OUR FINANCIAL OUTLOOK FOR 2023, WE FINISHED 2022 WITH $28 MILLION OF REVENUES EXCEEDING OUR PREVIOUSLY ISSUED GUIDANCE BY $1 MILLION. WITH THE BIO TRACK IN FEBRUARY 2023, Our business will be solely focused on our healthcare information business in 2023, and we expect BioTrac will be treated as a discontinued operation, effective with our first quarter 2023 results. Our healthcare information revenues were $16.4 million in 2022. We expect 2023 revenues to be in the range of $20.5 to $22.5 million, reflecting an increase of 25 to 37% over the prior year healthcare information revenues. We expect continued improvements in our net loss and adjusted EBITDA as we continue to leverage our infrastructure, achieving a positive adjusted EBITDA contribution in the second half of 2023. And with that, I will turn the call over to the operator who will open the line for questions.