Transcontinental Inc.

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

12/13/2023

spk00: Because when we began the year, we were 5% behind margin 2022. You may recall that we were at 19.2 and our first quarter, we're at 14.2. And now we're flat with last year. So that shows the great work done by the team. But you need to think two things for printing. What's growing right now is the ISM business, which we're very satisfied with the margin growth we have with this business. But obviously, it's not the same margin we have on the renew side of the business. So We're getting better on the ISM, renew with compensating with cost saving, but maintaining the same margin will be more as a challenge for printing group. Having said that, we will need to see the full effect of radar, but too early to call on that side.
spk02: Okay. And then I guess longer term, would it be possible to get back into that 19, 20% margin range in printing in light of what you just mentioned?
spk00: Well, that depends on two things. The percentage of decrease over the longer term of the review, which is something that we don't control, but certainly what we control is the ISM part of the business, and that we will push, and we think we have great opportunity to increase the margin. We did it in the last five years, and we still have room to grow it. So I'm not going to make a call on the 19%, but for sure we will defend those IT margins for a printing group.
spk02: Mm-hmm. Okay. One last question from me, just on the other segment, are you able to break out how much of the year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth in Q4 came from the higher media volumes versus the lower stock-based comp? And then as we start to think about adjusted EBITDA and other for 2024, would we expect that to go back to prior year levels, sort of in the $13 million range? Just trying to get a sense of directionally where you think that's going.
spk00: Well, to give you more color regarding media, and as I said in my opening remarks, there was a transfer of business between Q3 and Q4. So if you look at the other, for the media side of the business, I think the base for 2023 represents a good base because we have the full impact of both acquisitions we did in the group, the first six months. We had the positive impact coming from acquisition, but now 2023 represents a good benchmark, and obviously we want to grow this business. But you can take the full year number as a good number for media business. As far as the corporate costs, I mentioned also that they will go probably up to $40 million because of the positive we have from the stock base. And obviously, if the stock base moves, you know, like – move up, there will be a negative impact. But that's something with this current price today. As far as median Q4, I would say that in terms of dollars, the impact is around $5 million positive.
spk02: Okay, great. Thanks for answering my questions.
spk01: Il ne semble plus d'avoir de questions. Mr. Lapointe, there are no further questions at this time.
spk02: Thank you, Joël, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today.
spk01: We look forward to speaking to you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for participating. Please disconnect your lines.
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