Reliance Global Group, Inc.

Good day, and welcome to the Reliance Global Group third quarter business update conference call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions and comments following the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Ted Avis, Investor Relations at Reliance Global. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thanks, Tom. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Reliance Global Group's 2024 third quarter financial results and business update conference call. On the call with us today are Ezra Bayman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Reliance Global Group, and Joel Markovits, Chief Financial Officer of Reliance. Earlier today, the company announced its operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. The press release is posted on the company's website, www.relianceglobalgroup.com. In addition, the company filed its quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today, which can also be accessed on the company's website as well as the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. If you have any questions after the call or would like any additional information about the company, please contact Crescendo Communications at 212-671-1020. Before Mr. Baiman reviews the company's operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, we would like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in the conference call, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, strategy and plans, and our expectations for future operations are forward-looking statements. The words anticipate, estimate, expect, project, plan, seek, intend, believe, may, might, will, should, could, likely, continue, design, and the negative of such terms, in other words, in terms of similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the company's current expectations and projections about future events and trends that it believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to several risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, as described in the company's Form 10-K file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 4, 2024. Because of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this conference call may not occur, and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statement. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. In addition, neither the company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. The company disclaims any duty to update any of these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to the company are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements as well as others made on this conference call. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made by the company in the context of these risks and uncertainties. Having said that, I would now like to turn the call over to Ezra Bayman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Reliance Global Group. Ezra?

Thanks, Ted. Good afternoon, and thank you to everyone for joining us this afternoon. We are pleased to report a highly successful third quarter marked by robust revenue growth and effective cost management. This reflects our commitment to driving sustained revenue while reducing expenses, leading to significantly improved net financial results. For the quarter ended September 30, 2024, revenue grew by 5% to $3.4 million, while total operating expenses declined by 16% to $3.9 million. This positive shift significantly improved our loss from operations by refreshing 64%, despite a 13% rise in commission expense due to higher first-year commissions. Net loss for the quarter was approximately $837,000, When compared to the prior year's third quarter, a net loss of around $139,000 or $1.8 million when adjusted to exclude the $1.7 million gain from the fair value of warrant liability as this instrument was largely liquidated in 2024. This quarter's net loss reflects an improvement of approximately $1 million or 54% over the previous year's comparable quarter. Furthermore, We are very pleased to report that this quarter brings positive adjusted EBITDA coming in at approximately 42,000, gain representing a 121% increase from the same period in the prior year. These highly positive financial results underscore the success of one firm's strategy. which unifies our own and geographically dispersed insurance agencies into a cohesive, collaborative operation. This approach enables efficient cross-selling, collaboration, and optimized use of human capital. The benefits of the one firm strategy are evident in this quarter's revenue growth, reduced operating costs, and positive shifts in net results. We feel strongly that our disciplined approach strengthens our financial foundation, and paves the way for sustained growth and long-term value creation for our shareholders. We also remain focused and highly energized in anticipation of a close in the coming months of the previously announced acquisition of Spentner Associates, Inc., a leading voluntary benefits insurance agency provider to over 85,000 employees nationally. We are confident that the integration of Spentner will close to double our consolidated and serve as a catalyst for additional accelerated revenue growth by having an expanded combined range of service offerings, enhancing our market position, and paving the way for sustained profitability and longer-term success. Since we originally announced our plans, we have become even more excited about the future prospects for the acquisitions. As Ben has managed, the voluntary benefit insurance segment has experienced significant growth. more than doubling the number of covered employees they serve from 45,000 when we initially announced the planned transaction to more than 85,000 today. By aligning Spentner's innovative benefit solutions with our strategic goals, we are not just driving growth, we are setting a new industry standard and bringing enhanced services to a broader audience. We are committed to establishing Reliance as a powerful technology-driven enterprise that prioritizes sustainable profitability. Our mission continues to focus on building a multi-billion dollar highly profitable business and to thrive at substantial and sustainable returns to our shareholders. This game-changing acquisition marks the beginning of a transformative period for Reliance, and we believe the acquisition of Spentner Associates With its unique voluntary benefits program and extensive market reach, we'll create substantial synergies and significantly accelerate Reliance's growth trajectory as we expand our personal insurance offerings through the Reliance Exchange platform. Additionally, in the third quarter of 2024, we launched an AI-powered commercial quote and buy solution on the Reliance Exchange platform ahead of schedule. This cutting-edge solution encompasses a broad spectrum of commercial insurance policies. By leveraging AI, our commercial quote and bind platform transforms the traditionally time-sensitive quoting process, enabling agents to offer clients faster, more competitive quotes, and seamless policy binding. This accelerated workflow not only enhances client satisfaction, but also empowers agents to unlock new revenue streams and increase commission potential. directly benefiting Reliance Exchange through its commission-sharing model. As I mentioned earlier, and I've stated in the past, our goal is to transform Reliance into a highly profitable, multi-billion-dollar enterprise that consistently delivers exceptional returns for our shareholders. We are committed to driving sustained growth and strengthening our market position through strategic initiatives, innovation, and disciplined fiscal management. We are excited to advance on this path, and we are confident in our ability to achieve financial success. As we discussed in our second quarter of conference call, we significantly simplified our capital structure pursuant to exercise of all outstanding Series Bs and Series G warrants, which we believe has eliminated the potentially perceived significant warrant overhang that may have adversely impacted our publicly traded share price. Executing on our growth strategy, including the planned acquisitions, we believe our enhanced capital structure will enable us to unlock significant value for shareholders. I would like now to turn the call over to Joel Markowitz, Chief Financial Officer of Reliance Global, who will review the financial results for the quarter ended September 30th, 2024. Joel?

Thank you very much, Ezra, and good afternoon. It's great to be here with you all today. It's going to be a pleasure to share with you some key financial highlights for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024. All figures presented are approximates. As Ezra mentioned, it's been a great quarter with increases to top line revenues, decreases to operating costs, and vastly improved net results. So let's get in the details. Revenues for the quarter ended 9-30-24, increased by 5%, from the same period in 2023, or from $3.3 million to $3.4 million rounded, which represents a $175,000 increase. For the year-to-date period ending 9-30-2024, revenues increased by 3% or $350,000. These strong growth trends are attributed primarily to organic growth, which is telling, and a good indicator about the future positive prospects for the company. Total operating expenses for the quarter decreased by around 16%, or $760,000, compared to the prior year's quarter. This resulted in a very invigorating change to our losses from operations, which improved by 64%, or close to $1 million. Our one-firm approach and strategy to doing business is proving to provide significant returns as we cross-utilize talent and consolidate vendor contracts and results shine through the quarter's financial results, as illustrated by the 5% efficiency rate in salaries and wages, 23% decrease in general and administrative costs, and 15% decrease in marketing and advertising costs. The nine-month period ended 9-30-2024. Total operating costs increased by 19% due primarily to a $3.2 million intangible asset impairment charge, however, When removing the impact of this impairment, which had no bearing on operations of the company, net total operating expense actually comes in lower by around $1.2 million, or 8%, versus the same period in the prior year. Staying with this analysis, loss from operations also improves by 35%, or $1.5 million. Turning to EBITDA, our adjusted EBITDA metric, a non-GAAP measure, but key company performance indicator, which came in at a $43,000 gain for Q3 of 24, effectively a $243,000 or 121% improvement from 2023. And for year-to-date, this year versus last year, APDR results also improved by around 55%. So hopefully these financial highlights are helpful. And to close out our prepared remarks, let's conclude with we're absolutely thrilled to be at the tail end of the acquisition process for the Spelman M&A deal, which is expected to further increase our revenues and EBITDA. Honestly, this really drives home the execution of our mission to build a highly profitable business enterprise through expansion and innovation, both organically and with M&A, strengthen our market share, and provide meaningful returns and long-lasting value to our shareholders. With that, we'll hand back the reins to the operator kindly open the line for any questions, comments, or other feedback participants may have. Operator?

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions or comments. If you wish to join the queue at this time to ask a question or make a comment, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. We do ask if listening on speakerphone today that you pick up your handset while asking your question to provide optimal sound quality. Once again, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad at this time if you wish to join the queue to ask a question. Please hold a moment while we poll for questions. And we have a question from Nick Pincus from Morris Capital. Nick, your line is live. Please go ahead.

Congrats, everyone, on achieving positive adjusted EBITDA, a very big milestone. Spentner also appears to be generating very strong cash flow. I was wondering if you could just provide some more color on the synergies and additional cost savings that could come with the acquisitions.

Thank you very much. I'm going to actually share this with Joe as well. But first of all, it's phenomenal the potential for the cross-selling. Remember, we're dealing with, as we mentioned, over 85,000 employees. They all need, aside from the benefits they're getting through this program through Spentner, they all need auto insurance, home insurance, other types of insurance that we sell. And the really exciting part is when we did our testing of Five Minute Insure a little while ago, the savings are so substantial, in some cases 30% to 60%, we think we could have a pretty decent ratio of interested customers in making those changes. So that could be really exciting when you're dealing with the amount of people here. And of course, the back office, which we've already been trimming, as we mentioned, But, you know, utilizing Spetner's phenomenal technology is really way above average. We think that could also help us in streamlining expenses and back office support. So I think all around it's a win-win. The company has been growing. We mentioned before this is a very strong business that's already in its fourth generation. So I think we're all excited. It really is.

Joel, anything? Yeah, sure. Just to build on what Ezra was saying, thank you for that. There's very strong revenue at Spetna, close to $14 or $15 million a year, and EBITDA margin is very healthy, around 40% or even north of that. So that should provide significant benefits as we march together. as one company. We definitely increase our revenues, almost doubling essentially, and the costs are limited that we're going to have to assume. So, you know, we're excited about that.

That's all really amazing, especially when you put that in perspective of the current market cap of the company. I'm just wondering, following the acquisition, it'll be a good problem to have, but what would be your plans for the excess cash flow? Would you consider buying back stock or other things?

That's certainly a possibility. The stock we fill, most people in the industry feel it's a bargain of the century. I think we would want to take advantage of that. In the past, I've already bought significant blocks of stock. That may be the company we buy. That's definitely on the horizon. Of course, growing the company and also using the extra cash to grow the company, whether it's you know, getting new lines and advancing technology and or acquisition. So, you know, we want to be, you know, deploy the capital smartly.

Well, congratulations. Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. And again, if anyone has a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad to join the queue. and there are no further questions in queue at this time, I would now like to turn the call back to management for closing remarks.

Thank you very much. On behalf of Ezra and the entire Reliance team, we appreciate your participation in this business update. We're truly excited and energized by Reliance's prospects and very happy to be sharing this onward journey with you, our valued shareholders, and other interested parties. Until next time, We wish you a very good rest of the day and all the very best.

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.