Liquidity Services, Inc.

Welcome to Liquidity Services, Inc. Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. My name is James and I'll be your operator for today's call. Please note that this conference call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. On the call today are Bill Angrich, Liquidity Services Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jorge Zelaya, its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. They will be available for questions after their prepared remarks. The following discussion and responses to your questions reflect the Quiddity Services Management's view as of today, May 5, 2022, and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact the financial results is included in today's press release and in filings of the SEC, including the most recent annual report on Form 10-K. As you listen to today's call, please have the press release in front of you, which includes Liquidity Services financial results, as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. During this call, Liquidity Services Management will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures In its press release and filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on its website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures. Liquidity Services Management also used certain supplemental operating data as a measure of certain components of operating performance, which they also believe is useful for management and investors. The supplemental operating data includes gross merchandise volume and should not be considered a substitute for or superior to GAAP results. At this time, I now turn the presentation over to Liquidity Services CEO, Bill Angrich.

Good morning and welcome to our Q2 earnings call. I'll review our Q2 performance and provide an update on key strategic initiatives. Next, Jorge Celaya will provide more details on the quarter. Our long-term investments in our people, products, and innovation have been rewarded as we set another quarterly GMB record. More business and government organizations are interested in the digital transformation of their supply chains, and we are leading this generational transformation with our trusted marketplace platforms, flexible service models, and worldwide reach. Our business is very resilient. in both periods of economic contraction and expansion. This attribute was on display during Q2 as we continued to provide sellers and buyers with key tools to help them respond to challenges in global supply chain operations, inflation, and uneven economic growth. We grew our GMB by 34% year over year in Q2 to approximately $277 million, an all-time record in our seventh consecutive quarter of 20% plus annual GMB growth. The continued relevance and leadership of our circular economy marketplace platform in every sector of the economy is driving us closer to our objective of $1.5 billion in annualized GMB. During this journey, our business continues to become a more asset-light, capital-efficient model, as 87% of total GMB in Q2 utilized the consignment pricing model, up from 82% last year. GovDeal's GMB increased 62% during Q2, driven by record new account acquisitions as more agencies choose our digital marketplace solutions over traditional sales methods for a broader array of assets, including vehicles, heavy equipment, and real estate. The increase also reflects the inclusion of our acquired bid for assets online real estate marketplace and higher recovery rates in selected categories due to macroeconomic factors and strong buyer performance. Together, personal property and real estate represents an over $3 billion addressable GMB marketplace for our GovDeal segment, and we're making terrific progress as the leader in this sector. Our retail supply chain group segment was flat year over year during Q2, principally due to a mixed shift in selected programs which resulted in lower value goods being returned and sold in our marketplace versus the prior year period as the end consumer shifted from its stay-at-home consumption a year ago to out-of-home consumption with the reopening of the economy. More broadly, we are pleased with our new account acquisition activity as our retail supply chain group segment continues to sign new business with Omnichannel and e-commerce retailers throughout North America. This is reflected in the activity within our two new distribution centers in Phoenix, Arizona and Pittston, Pennsylvania, which are trending above expectation as we expand our market share and deliver more convenience and value for our customers. Our capital asset group segment was flat year-over-year principally due to postponement of selected industrial sales due to COVID-related restrictions in China. Performance in our heavy equipment, biopharma, and energy verticals was strong in Q2, and we expect to recover delayed sales in the second half of the year and grow our CAG segment GMB by 20% or more for the full year in 2022. CAG business development activity was strong in Q2, with many new mandates signed with global 1,000 clients, including TC Energy, U.S. Steel, International Paper, Waters Corporation, and OnSemi. Finally, our machinio segment revenue increased 29% in Q2 over the prior year period, as equipment owners and dealers continued to demonstrate strong engagement with our digital classifieds marketplace and inventory management solutions for used capital assets. Our mission of building a better future for sellers, buyers, and the planet is highlighted in our recently issued Liquidity Services 2022 ESG report available on our corporate websites. This new report highlights how we are helping organizations intelligently integrate sustainability initiatives into their core business, unlocking value through increased efficiency, and creating loyal customers who value and appreciate improved stewardship of the environment. Our surplus management solutions don't just help our clients meet sustainability goals, they generate profits and cost savings for our clients. As an example, during Q2, Liquidity Services received the Value and Excellence Award from ADM, a global leader in human and animal nutrition with over 800 facilities worldwide. Our Surplus Asset Management Program streamlined ADM's surplus inventory process, supporting our clients' sustainability goals, and created over $11 million and incremental value through asset sales, cost avoidance, and capital expenditure savings. This important client program was also able to positively impact the environment by enabling the reuse and redeployment of underutilized assets, leveraging key circular economy enablers in the process. Indeed, our mission and value proposition is resonating not only with customers, but also our team, and it benefits our efforts to attract top talent to execute our business plan. As we take aim at our next leg of growth, we grew our headcount in Q2 by approximately 23% year-over-year, principally in the areas of technology, business development, marketing, and operations. These incremental investments are directly tied to capturing market share and delivering long-term shareholder value. Our mission and value proposition is also resonating with buyers. During Q2, the number of registered buyers on our platform grew 23% year-over-year to nearly 4.8 million, which provides our sellers superior execution for the sale of their assets. During Q2, the number of completed transactions and auction participants on our platform were up 41% and 48%, respectively, reflecting the growing liquidity in our marketplace. As inflation becomes a more pervasive issue affecting consumers and enterprises alike in the global economy, our marketplace has proven to be a very attractive channel to source valuable equipment and inventories. Our continued market share expansion and planned growth to a multi-billion dollar GMB company is the result of long-term secular trends in the associated investments we've made in our marketplace platform to drive digital transformation in the supply chain to benefit customers. Our marketplace plays a vital role in solving the needs of both large enterprises and small businesses in navigating several macro trends, including the growth of online commerce, which drives more product returns, increasing product obsolescence as organizations adopt next-generation technologies, and the shared goal of reducing waste through smart asset redeployment and remarketing. strategies in every sector of the global economy. With a profitable growing business, Liquidity Services continues to evaluate intelligent uses of cash, including organic growth initiatives to further penetrate opportunities in our existing markets, share repurchases, and tuck-in acquisitions. In closing, we thank our team members across liquidity services for their dedication to our mission to power the circular economy and provide our customers a high level of service. I'll now turn it over to Jorge for more details on the quarter. Good morning.

Our second quarter results reflect continued strong performance from our GovDeal segment, including growing contributions from Bid for Assets and its real estate vertical as integration progresses. Consistent with the first quarter, our results also include incremental resources in our sales, marketing, and technology groups, investments in our new All Surplus Deals growth initiative, and expanding the operating capacity of our RSCG or retail segment in efforts to diversify our geographic reach, client base, and sales channels. As global supply chains continue to experience turbulence in the near term, we expect consignment transactions to be a driver of our GMV growth throughout the remainder of the fiscal year. We completed the second quarter of fiscal year 2022 with $276.9 million in GMV, a new quarterly record, and we have exceeded $1 billion in GMB on a trailing 12-month basis. GMB was up 34% from $207.3 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue for this first fiscal quarter was $68.3 million, an 11% increase compared to the same quarter last year. As previously highlighted, our long-term strategy involves seeking higher growth in consignment GMB sales while continuing to offer purchase options and other value-added services to our seller clients. The higher growth and proportion of consignment, including real estate sales, has the effect of lowering our ratio of revenue as a percent of GMV and causing revenue to grow at a lower percentage than GMV, despite market and market share increases. Gross profit as a percent of revenue remains steady within the most recent range. Net income for this second quarter was $12 million, resulting in diluted earnings per share of 35 cents. This includes an $8.5 million or 25 cents per share non-cash gain from a reduction in fair value from a reduction in fair value of the bid for assets earn-out liability, as certain flows of originally expected auction activity are now expected to fall outside of the earn-out period. We also anticipate paying $3.5 million in the third quarter for bid for assets achievements of the initial earn-out performance targets. The remaining expected earn-out payments are not anticipated until the first half of fiscal year 2023. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA was $9.2 million, slightly down by $200,000 from the same quarter last year, reflecting our planned investments across our segments for long-term growth in the market, in market share, GMB, and gross profits, while continuing to position ourselves to meet the demand from expected macro trends. Our investments are also tailored to continue to transform our market capability driven by our technology platform and our sales efforts. We hold $84.3 million in cash, performed $17 million in share repurchases during the quarter, resulting in lower outstanding shares versus last year. and our trailing 12-month operating cash flow was $48.6 million. We have zero financial debt. During the quarter, we entered into a credit facility agreement that provides us with the flexibility of a $25 million line of credit. Specifically, comparing segment results for this second quarter to the same quarter last year, our GovDeal segment was up 62% on GMV and 33% on revenue, including bid for assets. Our retail or RSCG segment was up 1% on GMB and up 7% on revenue, and our CAG segment was down 1% on GMB and down 5% on revenue, reflecting delayed partner and project-based sales for the second half of this year. Maschino was up 29% on revenue and continues to scale and expand its services to customers. In the third quarter, GovDeals will again benefit from its seasonally high period and will also be further boosted by the Bid for Assets acquisition, and as Bid for Assets continues executing on its pipeline of real estate sales. CAG's pipeline remains strong, even as some deal-specific timing shifts into the fourth quarter may occur, given heightened recent global supply chain challenges in Europe and China. Retail continues to successfully focus on diversifying the seller base and product supply, including with investments in operational resources and also executing on transforming our investments into additional diversified buyer demand opportunities. Our third quarter of fiscal year 22 guidance range for GMB is above the same period last year despite last year's strong market prices for used vehicles at gov deals and a more favorable mix of supply and related take rates at rcg last year as consignment gmv sales grow faster than under the purchase sales model and as we integrate the sales from our growing real estate business revenue as a percentage of gmv is expected to decline resulting in a slower revenue growth percentage from this strategic business model shift. Our profit guidance for the third quarter of fiscal year 22 is below the same period last year, despite consolidated gross profit margins expected to remain similar to our recent range. Our outlook for the quarter reflects the retail or RSCG product supply flows and related mixed changes compared to last year. and increased operations costs from the growth initiatives, along with higher overall company-wide sales, marketing, and technology costs to drive longer-term growth across our segments towards our $1.5 billion annual GMP goal. As a reminder, as a result of reversing our tax valuation allowance in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 21 due to our strong level of profitability trends, Our effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 16% to 22% in the third quarter of fiscal year 22, depending on mix of profits and other factors. This higher effective tax rate compared to last year will have no significant corresponding increase in cash paid for income taxes for the fiscal year 22, yet will have a negative year-over-year comparable impact to our fiscal year 22 net income and earnings per share. Management guidance for the third quarter of fiscal year 22 is as follows. We expect GMV to range from $330 million to $360 million. GAAP net income is expected to range from $3 million to $6 million with a corresponding GAAP diluted earnings per share ranging from 9 to 18 cents per share. We estimate non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA to range from $9 million to $12 million. Non-GAAP adjusted diluted earnings per share is estimated in the range of 16 to 25 cents per share. The GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per share guidance assumes that we have between 34 and 34.5 million fully diluted weighted average shares outstanding for the third quarter of fiscal year 22. We will now take your questions.