Crawford & Company

Good morning. My name is Mel, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Crawford & Company First Quarter 2022 Earnings Release Conference Call. In conjunction with this call, a supplementary financial presentation is available on our website at www.crowco.com under the Investor Relations section. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer period. Instructions will follow at that time. Should anyone need assistance at any time during this conference, please press pardon zero and an operator will assist you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Now, I would like to introduce Tammy Stevenson, Crawford & Company's General Counsel. Sir?

Email. Some of the matters to be discussed in this conference call and the supplementary financial presentation may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may relate to, among other things, the impact of COVID-19, our expected future operating results and financial condition, our ability to grow our revenues and reduce our operating expenses, expectations regarding our anticipated contributions to our underfunded defined benefit pension plans, collectability of our billed and unbilled accounts receivable, financial results from our recently completed acquisitions, our continued compliance with the financial and other covenants contained in our financing agreements, our long-term capital resource liquidity requirements, and our ability to pay dividends in the future. The company's actual results achieved in future quarters could differ materially from the results that may be implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release revisions to any forward-looking statements made in this conference call to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the day of the call or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. In addition, you are reminded that the operating results for any historical period are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any future period. For a complete discussion regarding factors which could affect the company's financial performance, please refer to the company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly the information under the headings risk factors and management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations, as well as subsequent company filings with the SEC. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined under SEC rules. As required, a reconciliation is provided for those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. I would like to now introduce Mr. Rohit Verma, Chief Executive Officer of Crawford & Company. Rohit, you may begin the conference.

Thank you, Tammy. Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2022 earnings call. Joining me today is Bruce Swain, our Chief Financial Officer, Joseph Blanco, our President, and Tammy Stevenson, our General Counsel. As is our custom, after our remarks, we will open the call for your questions. Before I review our results, I would like to extend my thoughts to our colleagues, clients and partners who have family and friends in and around Ukraine. We remain hopeful for the safety of the Ukrainian people, especially all those who are directly in harm's way, and for a swift and peaceful resolution to the conflict. We continue to actively monitor this evolving situation to understand how this might affect our colleagues in Ukraine and around the world. Crawford delivered strong top-line results during the first quarter, with revenues increasing over 10% to $279 million compared to the prior year period, despite a benign weather environment. This marks our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth, and we are extremely proud of this continued momentum. These strong results underscore the hard work of our colleagues, as well as the progress we're making on our long-term growth strategy and the envisioned future. Positive momentum continues in our U.S. operations, where we're gaining market share across all segments of our business. Within North America loss adjusting, we're seeing strong contributions from major and complex specialist loss adjusters. Platform Solutions also remains a growth driver for Crawford, with 35% revenue growth year-over-year. This is aided by increased traction with large U.S. carriers, as well as the better-than-expected performance of the practice acquisition. Looking globally, we're making progress in our international operations despite continued margin pressures due to the same factors we reviewed with you on the last few earnings calls. Mainly benign weather activity and weakness in certain pockets of our international business. While economic activity in our international market is gradually coming back, it is not rebounding as quickly as anticipated. Nevertheless, we remain confident in our ability to alleviate these margin challenges and are keenly focused on exploring ways to improve the profit contribution from the underperforming segments and more holistically realizing the gains from our growth. We continue to execute on our M&A strategy during the first quarter, further building our extensive presence in the Dutch market. Complementing our recent acquisition of Boss Boone, we acquired the assets of RP Van Dyke, a personal injury loss adjusting company based in the Netherlands. The acquisition expands Crawford's body injury service by adding a highly qualified team of specialist adjusters. These experts are skilled in managing complex loss events resulting in injury or death, as well as handling medical liability claims. In addition, it will provide the opportunity to cross that expertise, improve workload allocation, and gain operational synergies. We believe this acquisition reinforces our strategy of increasing scale and driving margin improvement in Europe while transforming Crawford into a leading bodily injury player in the Netherlands. Building on our momentum, we're making strides in our long-term growth strategy, which is built around our three pillars of differentiation. Quality, that sets the industry benchmark. expertise that is deep and eminent, and digital capabilities that simplify our processes. Organic growth remains the foundation of this strategy and is amplified by our selective M&A. Moreover, our updated geographic reporting structure reflects the evolution of our business by better revealing opportunities for future growth and providing additional transparency for our stakeholders. Not only will this create synergies, but it will also lead to cultural changes which foster a growth mindset and empowerment. Let's turn to our capital allocation strategy. Capital allocation is all about discipline. Our priorities remain to invest in the long-term growth and the health of our company, particularly to organic growth and M&A, followed by share buybacks and a consistent dividend. As you have seen in the recent quarters, we have made several bolt-on acquisitions to add to our differentiated capabilities. In addition to M&A, we believe share buybacks have also been a prudent use of our capital. The board recently authorized an increase to the share repurchase program of up to an additional 5 million shares. Given our growth trajectory and our belief that our shares trade well below their intrinsic value, we bought back 2.2 million shares in the first quarter and believe this to be an attractive investment opportunity. Overall, we are in a strong financial position and feel confident in our ability to continue executing on our growth strategy while navigating an evolving macroeconomic environment. With that, I'd like to hand over the call to Joseph, who will discuss our business line results for the first quarter.