Exela Technologies, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Excella Technologies second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Chamath, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon. Welcome to our earnings call to discuss our second quarter results for the period ended June 30th, 2024. Our presentation has been posted to the IR section of our website. On today's call will be Matt Brown, our Interim Chief Financial Officer. Some of the matters we will discuss on today's call are forward-looking and involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties are set forth in our presentation. So with that, I'll turn over the call to Matt.

Thanks, David. Good afternoon, everyone. Let's start on slide seven with the earnings highlights. We reported second quarter revenues at $245.7 million. down 10% year-over-year, or 9.3% pro forma for the sale of the high-speed scanner business. Year-over-year decline was primarily due to 2023 non-renewals, including the large contract we discussed last quarter. Sequentially, revenue declined by 5.1%, mostly driven by project fluctuations and volume seasonality. As we continue to focus on driving efficiencies and cost reductions, Our margin continues to increase with Q2 gross margins at 23.5%, up 120 basis points year-over-year, and 150 basis points sequentially. Q2 adjusted EBITDA was $13.7 million, but included a $10.1 million write-down, predominantly driven by a partner contract amendment, which provides for higher pricing and service expansion, but resulted in a non-cash write-down of the original contract assets. Our net loss improved by $4 million this quarter, and we continue to focus on driving incremental savings. We have over $25 million of annualized savings in process, and we are executing daily on optimization of our infrastructure, technology, and operational leverage. Moving on to page 8. At the segment level, information and transaction processing solutions declined by 15.2% year-over-year and 11% sequentially. Year-over-year decline was primarily driven by the sale of the scammer business, lower EMEA revenues, and the 2023 non-renewals discussed previously. Sequentially, the drop is mostly due to project fluctuations and seasonality. Healthcare solutions declined by 1.1% year-over-year and 2.9% sequentially, driven by the June amendment to the partner contract mentioned. Legal and loss prevention services grew by 6.3% year-over-year and 45% sequentially with a strong market and large settlement distributions. In terms of margins, we continue to see improvements in healthcare solutions with the 630 basis points gained year-over-year as we implemented additional technology features and achieved savings flow-through. ITPS margins declined by 170 basis points year-over-year in the lower revenue, and LLPS margins are up 140 basis points year-over-year with the operational leverage of the Settlement Administration projects. While SG&A was up 30.5% year-over-year, it includes $10.1 million in write-downs and Q2 FY23 included the $6.6 million gain on the sale of our high-speed scanner business. Excluding these items, our SG&A was down approximately 18% year-over-year, driven by reductions in legal and professional fees, as well as employee-related costs. Moving on to page 9. In terms of highlights and lowlights, we achieved gross margin improvement despite a number of headwinds. We had a few lost renewals, but we are expanding growth opportunities with over $40 million of new ACV1 in the quarter, an increase of 50% sequentially, and 119 new logos added, an increase of 40% sequentially. We ended the quarter with over $30 million in unrestricted cash and made our semi-annual interest payment. We continue to focus on expanding liquidity, and cash flow from operations continues to improve, with over $12 million of positive operating cash flow in the quarter. Our focus for the back half of the year remains in driving revenue stabilization, continued margin improvement, and strategic growth initiatives. Thank you. We will now open the lineup for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. Since there are no more questions, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good day and welcome to the Excella Technologies second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Chamath, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon. Welcome to our earnings call to discuss our second quarter results for the period ended June 30, 2024. Our presentation has been posted to the IR section of our website. On today's call will be Matt Brown, our Interim Chief Financial Officer. Some of the matters we will discuss on today's call are forward-looking and involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties are set forth in our presentation. So with that, I'll turn over the call to Matt.

Thanks, David. Good afternoon, everyone. Let's start on slide seven with the earnings highlights. We reported second quarter revenues at $245.7 million. down 10% year-over-year or 9.3% pro forma for the sale of the high-speed scanner business. Year-over-year decline was primarily due to 2023 non-renewals, including the large contract we discussed last quarter. Sequentially, revenue declined by 5.1%, mostly driven by project fluctuations and volume seasonality. As we continue to focus on driving efficiencies and cost reductions, Our margin continues to increase with Q2 gross margins at 23.5%, up 120 basis points year over year, and 150 basis points sequentially. Q2 adjusted EBITDA was $13.7 million, but included a $10.1 million write-down, predominantly driven by a partner contract amendment, which provides for higher pricing and service expansion, but resulted in a non-cash write-down of the original contract assets. Our net loss improved by $4 million this quarter, and we continue to focus on driving incremental savings. We have over $25 million of annualized savings in process, and we are executing daily on optimization of our infrastructure, technology, and operational leverage. Moving on to page 8. At the segment level, information and transaction processing solutions declined by 15.2% year-over-year and 11% sequentially. Year-over-year decline was primarily driven by the sale of the scammer business, lower EMEA revenues, and the 2023 non-renewals discussed previously. Sequentially, the drop is mostly due to project fluctuations and seasonality. Healthcare solutions declined by 1.1% year-over-year and 2.9% sequentially, driven by the June amendment to the partner contract mentioned. Legal and loss prevention services grew by 6.3% year-over-year and 45% sequentially with a strong market and large settlement distributions. In terms of margins, we continue to see improvements in healthcare solutions with the 630 basis points gained year-over-year as we implemented additional technology features and achieved savings flow-through. ITPS margins declined by 170 basis points year-over-year in the lower revenue, and LLPS margins are up 140 basis points year-over-year with the operational leverage of the settlement administration projects. While SG&A was up 30.5% year-over-year, it includes $10.1 million in write-downs, and Q2 FY23 included the $6.6 million gain on the sale of our high-speed scanner business. Excluding these items, our SG&A was down approximately 18% year-over-year, driven by reductions in legal and professional fees, as well as employee-related costs. Moving on to page 9. In terms of highlights and lowlights, we achieved gross margin improvement despite a number of headwinds. We had a few lost renewals, but we are expanding growth opportunities with over $40 million of new ACV1 in the quarter, an increase of 50% sequentially, and 119 new logos added, an increase of 40% sequentially. We ended the quarter with over $30 million in unrestricted cash and made our semi-annual interest payment. We continue to focus on expanding liquidity, and cash flow from operations continues to improve, with over $12 million of positive operating cash flow in the quarter. Our focus for the back half of the year remains in driving revenue stabilization, continued margin improvement, and strategic growth initiatives. Thank you. We will now open the lineup for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. Since there are no more questions, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.