TSE:DND Dye & Durham Q1 2024 Earnings Report C$9.49 +0.28 (+3.04%) As of 04:00 PM Eastern ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Dye & Durham EPS ResultsActual EPS-C$0.25Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/ADye & Durham Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$120.08 millionExpected Revenue$118.10 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$1.98 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/ADye & Durham Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date10/30/2023TimeN/AConference Call DateMonday, October 30, 2023Conference Call Time5:00PM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckInterim ReportEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Dye & Durham Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrOctober 30, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Jenny, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the DioneDurham First Quarter Fiscal 20 24 Earnings Call. I would now like to turn the call over to Ross Marshall, Investor Relations on behalf of Dyeandurm. Mr. Operator00:00:22Marshall, you may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:25Thank you, Jenny, and good afternoon. Welcome to the DyneDerm earnings call. Before we start, we'd like to remind you that all amounts discussed on this call are denominated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated, please note that statements made during this call may include forward looking statements and information and future orientated financial information regarding Dine Durham and its business and disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results that are based on information currently available to management, which indicate management's expectations to future growth, results of operations, business performance, business prospects and opportunities. Such statements are made as of this date hereof and Dioneerm assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect events, disclosures or circumstances, except as required by applicable securities law. Such statements involve significant risks and uncertainties and are not a guarantee of future performance or results. Speaker 100:01:13A number of these risks or uncertainties could cause results to differ materially from the results discussed today. Given these risks and uncertainties, one please refer to the forward looking statements and information and future orientated financial information section I'm Frank Elizio, Dione Durham, Chief Financial Officer. A question and answer session will follow the formal remarks for research analysts. I now turn the call over to Matt for his opening remarks. Matt? Speaker 200:01:49Thanks, Ross, and good afternoon, everybody. The business performed extremely well in quarter, which was our 2nd best in terms of adjusted EBITDA and 3rd best on a revenue basis. Adjusted EBITDA also outperformed on a sequential basis. In addition to that, in the quarter, we paid back $45,000,000 in net debt. Our core business is doing very well And its performance underscores the strength and consistent ability to generate cash flow to fuel our growth and finance our operations. Speaker 200:02:21We heard investors and reducing our leverage ratio is a priority for us. Our aim is to bring the business down to below 4 times total net debt to adjusted EBITDA as soon as possible. And we're looking at all available options to help us achieve this goal. As I mentioned, in the Q1, we reduced our debt by $45,000,000 and we're focused on growing earnings and increasing our cash flow conversion to continuously pay down debt. Making significant improvement to our free cash flow performance is also a top priority. Speaker 200:02:53To that end, we've launched a business performance improvement plan targeting improvements of greater than $70,000,000 in free cash flow performance to be realized by the end of Q3 fiscal 2024 on an annualized basis compared to Q1 fiscal 2024 I. E. The current quarter. In October, we've already actioned $40,000,000 of annualized improvements towards this target With the full benefit of this action being realized in Q3 of fiscal 2024, we're implementing a series of measures to achieve this goal, including a reduction in capital expenditures, product price optimization And further reducing one time charges as we are lowering and lowering our operating costs. As you'll recall, over the past 2 years, we've made a dedicated effort to diversify our business and focus it on the legal practice management software market. Speaker 200:03:47We've had we've made meaningful progress in this regard, which has put us in a much stronger position today and made the business stronger off. The impact of real estate on our business, to be honest, is quite misunderstood. To be clear, we sell SaaS software to law firms to help them grow and efficiently manage their practice. This software is mission critical to legal professionals regardless of not, if they're conducting real estate transactions or not. To quantify this, the downside risk to Dioderne for the entire Canadian real estate market Was only 27% of total revenue in the Q1. Speaker 200:04:24We view this as comfortably manageable, especially when you consider that some businesses Have revenue concentration of more than 20% in the hand of a single customer, not an entire end market. Shifting our focus to selling Practice Business Software has served to improve and diversify our business, including increasing our annual recurring revenue. ARR was 117,000,000 as of September 30, 2023, that's more than double what it was at the same time last year and represents highly quality revenue growth across our full portfolio software solutions. ARR is 27% of our total revenue compared to Basically nothing. We started 2 years ago and we're making meaningful progress towards our target of 50%. Speaker 200:05:13Our ARR today is made up of 2 broad categories. The first being the gold standard per seat per user revenue and the second being minimum spend contracts. We continue to be very disciplined and thoughtful about our pricing strategy. During the quarter, we announced a variety of price changes across our global portfolio, in some cases to offset higher input costs due to inflation and in other cases to bring our prices in line with other market providers. Case in point, today we're arguably the largest provider of legal practice management software in the United Kingdom and Ireland, thanks to our recent acquisitions. Speaker 200:05:55However, the per seat per user price for our practice management software solutions being offered is still significantly lower than market. We're in the process of addressing this over the remainder of fiscal 2024 across more than 20,000 users in that market. And at a high level, we believe that price can consistently contribute roughly 10% annual growth to revenue. At the same time, we've also improved our cash conversion. You started to see this in Q4 fiscal 2023 results and we continue to make progress in Q1 fiscal 2024 with approximately $6,000,000 in acquisition restructuring add backs that were cash based, we believe we can continue to show improvement in this area. Speaker 200:06:40We believe for a business of our scale with $250,000,000 or more in adjusted EBITDA, that's a reasonable goal and reducing charges to $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 on an annualized basis over time, which will free up more cash flow for our capital allocation priorities. It's really a healthy business. Our Payments Infrastructure and Banking Technology business also performed well in the quarter. It's a business that has a lot of upside in it we're seeing significant growth. It offers best in class digital infrastructure to most major Canadian and Australian lenders, providing critical technology and products which support essential functions like payments, information services, property settlement And core banking infrastructure. Speaker 200:07:26This business has trusted long term relationships with more than 95 lenders and financial institutions. It represents an opportunity for us to generate more cash in the near term. To build the cementum, we're working to further professionalize the management team of that business and hire a new CEO for that business. We're also looking at ways to highlight the value of this business Better to investors in the coming quarters. Before turning it over to Frank to highlight the financials, I'll briefly address the recent convertible debenture transaction. Speaker 200:08:00The terming out of approximately 1 third of our grid ventures by 2.5 years or 5 years of runway in total in a highly undiluted piece of paper that only increased the yield to maturity by 2.4% and a nominal amount of increased cash interest of $2,000,000 when looked at in the aggregate was the right move for the company. I talked to some people who look at only one side of the trade and say it's expensive. We believe both sides of the trade should be considered to draw a fair and accurate conclusion. We believe it was the right grade for the business. It reduces the convertible debt and reduces risk on our overall capital structure. Speaker 200:08:41Without a doubt, it's been a challenging few weeks for us. I understand that shareholders are frustrated. We are frustrated too. Our interests are aligned with yours. Today's results demonstrate the improved performance of the business delivered in the past quarter, ensure our strategy is working. Speaker 200:08:58We believe we have all the ingredients to build on from here. We operate a differentiated global business with a large diversified customer base of small and medium sized law firms with a sticky best in class practice management offering it is mission critical to customers. I'll now turn it over to Frank to review the financials. Speaker 100:09:20Thank you, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. This afternoon, we reported our 1st quarter fiscal 2024 results. Our results continue to demonstrate the resiliency and consistency the business independent of market size, cycles and stability to generate cash flows. Our diversification strategy and build out of our practice management solutions are working. We continue to increase our annual recurring revenue contracted and reduce our exposure to real estate transactions. Speaker 100:09:48Annual recurring revenue contracted was 27% as of September 30, 2023 compared to just 13% in the same period last year. Revenue exposed to real estate transactions globally in Q1 was 49% compared to 62% in the same period of fiscal 2023, while revenue exposed to real estate transactions in Canada was only 27% compared to 37% in the same period of last year. We we reported revenue of $120,100,000 during the Q1, which is in line with the same period in fiscal 2023. In that prior period, there was an additional $9,300,000 of revenue from TM Group, which was divested on August 3, 2023. Excluding the impact of TM Group, revenue has grown by more than 8% in the Q1 of fiscal 2024. Speaker 100:10:42We generated adjusted EBITDA of $68,700,000 in the Q1 of fiscal 2024, an increase of $4,300,000 or 7 percent compared to the same period of fiscal 2023, our highest quarterly amount since Q4 of 2022. This is primarily a result of lower adjusted operating expenses and growth in revenue after taking into consideration of the TM Group divestiture. We continue to maintain our strong EBITDA margins coming at 57% this quarter, our highest level since Q4 of 2022 it is in line with our target range of 50% to 60%. Total adjusted operating expenses, which includes direct costs, technology costs, G and A, sales and marketing were $51,400,000 for the quarter or 43 percent of revenues, an improvement of $4,300,000 or 8% compared to the prior year period, when total operating costs represented 46% of revenues. Net of the impact of expenses from fiscal 2023 acquisitions or operating costs for the quarter were $43,600,000 which demonstrates improvements from our cost reduction initiatives implemented early in the Q2 of fiscal 2023. Speaker 100:11:55As we acquire assets and manage the broader business, we continuously look for ways to drive cost synergies and eliminate redundancies. This is one of the methods to continually improve cash flow performance, which Matt addressed earlier, we expect our ongoing operating costs to be within the 40% to 50% range of Speaker 200:12:15revenues. Net finance costs for Speaker 100:12:19the quarter were $35,100,000 compared to $16,200,000 in the same period of fiscal 2023. The increase is due to an increase in interest rates and higher net debt levels as well as lower favorable non cash impacts from the change in fair value of our convertible debentures as compared to the prior periods. Acquisition, restructuring and other costs for the quarter were 6 $400,000 This was a decrease from $18,500,000 in the Q1 of fiscal 2023. As Matt mentioned earlier, improving cash flow conversion is one of the paths towards driving down our leverage ratio below 4 times. We believe we can deliver additional improvements in this cost item over time. Speaker 100:13:03We are targeting $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 acquisition restructuring and other costs on an annualized basis. You should expect continued improvements in the Q2 and beyond as this is one component of our $70,000,000 annualized business improvement plan mentioned earlier. Now turning to our balance sheet, we reduced our overall debt by $45,000,000 during the quarter, mainly with the proceeds of the sale of TM. And at the same time, this quarter we closed small deals in legal practice management space that we locked into in late fiscal 2023. Our leverage ratio based on fiscal 2024 consensus, including the impact of the convertible debenture is currently 5.1 times as of September 30. Speaker 100:13:45We have sufficient resources to manage our debt levels. The business generates strong sustainable cash flows. We understand that it's necessity to drive down our leverage ratio and we have set a clear target to reduce it below 4 times total net debt to adjusted EBITDA. We're taking actions to increase our cash flow performance and placing a greater emphasis on this measure. Our Q1 cash flow operations increased by 4% versus the prior year. Speaker 100:14:13We've built a business of scale that is mission critical to small and medium sized law firms and financial institutions. Despite the challenging macro market conditions, today's results and plans demonstrate the resiliency of the business and the opportunity in front of us. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q and A. Operator00:14:35Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Questions will be taken in the order received. Your first question is from Thanos Moskopoulos from BMO Capital Markets. Please ask your question. Speaker 300:15:15Hi, good afternoon. Matt, maybe just to clarify regarding the focus on deleveraging. Should we be thinking that you'll be taking A pause on M and A for the next few months in order to deleverage or will you still consider opportunities albeit more selectively? Speaker 200:15:33Look, our main focus is we heard investors, deleveraging is a priority. And look, as we deleverage, that will free up more cash flow that in the future will let us to get back to business. But we kind of heard the message loud and clear. So for us in the near term, it's getting that debt to adjusted EBITDA as a metric to look at below 4 times ASAP. And look, as you would have seen last quarter, there was a aside from the Craftsman acquisition that was announced In the Q4 results, there was a couple of $1,000,000 of very small acquisitions we did, that were accretive given what we paid for them, But they were very, very small. Speaker 300:16:20Okay. Now as far as your end markets, you have better real time visibility Then we do the data, we get a bit lagged. Is it still the case that we're kind of bouncing around the bottom? Or are you seeing any trends across few geographies? Speaker 200:16:36So I mean, look, our business is performing really well. If you consider that compared to Q4, We sold TM yet still came in sequentially with the same amount of revenue as we have Q4, which is generally always seasonally Slow, and that implies that our core business is doing really well. Look, I assume your question relates to kind of real estate transactions, Which are now a minority of our revenue. Look, we're still kind of if you look at kind of the numbers we see and kind of correlate with businesses we have That do track purchase and sales, yes, I mean, it's still a really depressed market out there. But at some point pent up demand comes back. Speaker 200:17:20That will be great upside in the future. But today even though that you're seeing great performance in the business as demonstrated by the results, we were able to kind of sell, what was about 16% of our revenue, and still in a quarter is generally sequentially down, kind of be Flat through last quarter, which again speaks to Speaker 400:17:44the strength of the business. Speaker 200:17:48So yes, I hope that answers your question. Speaker 300:17:51Yes, it does. And then just as we think about the December quarter, just given seasonality in some of your markets And given a bit of TM going away, I guess, would it be reasonable to expect that revenue EBITDA will be down a little bit sequentially versus September quarter? Speaker 200:18:08Yes. So generally, we have our Q3 our Q2 is a bit softer than Q4 and Q1. Yes, Speaker 100:18:21just remember that in Q1, we still had just a month left of TM revenue. So naturally that will fall off in Q2. Speaker 300:18:30Maybe just to confirm that amount, from the disclosure, it seems maybe $16,500,000 of TAM revenue. Is that in the general ballpark? Speaker 200:18:38Yes, in general. Yes, that's Speaker 100:18:39a good number. But as I mentioned before, the year over year impact on revenue was $9,300,000 so that's 3 months compared to 1 month. Operator00:19:02Thank you. Your next question is from Kevin Krishnanovna from Scotiabank. Please ask your question. Speaker 500:19:09Hey there, good evening. Just a question on the $70,000,000 free cash flow. There is a number of categories That the benefits are coming from, can you give us a sense of where the greater impacts are to come from with CapEx? Is product price changes, OpEx, any color there? Speaker 100:19:29Yes, I could take that, Kevin. So they are we had purposely put them in order of significance, so as you mentioned the first couple being the reduction in CapEx would be something that we've already actioned, and then followed by reduction in one time charges And then the price optimization initiatives that we have. Speaker 500:19:52Okay, got you. And then thought it was interesting the comments you made on the opportunity in practice management, I think, was in U. K. And Ireland. I might have misheard it. Speaker 500:20:02Did you say 20,000 users there and there's an opportunity for an uplift there? Just curious to know How do we think about the level of that uptick? And then did you say going forward, you would think that that's business that you could do 10% increases year over year. I'm just curious about the commentary that you made there. Speaker 200:20:20Yes. It's Matt, Kevin. Look, It was kind of a case in point example of some of the upside we have in our business when you're just you're looking at business that we have And your price point is quite deeply below market. So that's a case in point. We have 20,000 users That are paying in many cases as much as $100 a month below market, which we kind of convert to Canadian dollars. Speaker 200:20:46That's just one example of Some opportunities we have in the business, when you kind of back up and look at it kind of from 50,000 feet, This is a business when you kind of look at all the opportunities that we have, every year you can grow Speaker 100:21:01it, kind of Speaker 200:21:0110% -ish. We've consistently said that for many years and in most cases been delivering that. Speaker 500:21:09Okay, got you. Thanks for that. The 19% ARR to 27% ARR in the quarter, it was a nice jump. Was that mainly driven by M and A? And if and also how is progress being made on the minimum volume contracts? Speaker 200:21:28It was driven by both. There was a practice management application acquisition in there that we talked about in our Q4 financials That would also be in these financials. But there was also a lot of that was driven from kind of minimum spend contracts, particularly out of Canada. Speaker 100:21:47Kevin, the increase is actually 13% to 27% year over year. But Given that Q4 was obviously in high period, as management mentioned, there were a lot of contracts that were signed in Q4 that had partial benefit in Q4. So you're getting The full 3 month benefit in Q1. Speaker 500:22:04Sorry, did you not do you did 19% in Q4, right? So I'm it was from 'nineteen in Q4 to 'twenty seven. Yes, okay. Speaker 100:22:12Correct. Yes, I'm sorry, I thought you meant year over year. Speaker 500:22:14Yes. All good. Last one for me, just on some cash items there. Number 1, how do we think about cash taxes for the year? They were a little bit elevated, I think, in 2023. Speaker 500:22:23Just wondering where they land in 2024. It looked like it was pretty modest In Q1. And then the second one on cash is, can you remind us of any a rough estimate for holdbacks and potential earn outs that you're going to be paying out in 2024. Speaker 100:22:40Yes. So for cash taxes, we have implemented a series of plans in Canada to get better handle of our uses of cash and we do expect reductions in cash relative to the fiscal 2024 amount. You should look at an effective rate of about 25%. But given that we have such large loss carry forwards Of approximately $200,000,000,000 we do intend to put the good use in the fiscal period in Canada. And your question on pullbacks, we do have a disclosure in our notes about the total amount of pullbacks. Speaker 100:23:16So you can refer to that Kevin, but off the top of my head, I think it's Roughly around $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 over the next 12 months. Speaker 500:23:25Perfect. Thanks a lot. I'll pass the line. Operator00:23:31Thank you. Your next question is from Gavin Creweather from Cormark Securities. Please ask your question. Speaker 400:23:38Hey, good afternoon. Congrats on the results. Just a clarification. First on the $70,000,000 free cash flow annualized increase, It sounds like you're asking about $40,000,000 in the current quarter. Should we think about a lag to some of the benefits both on the Cost side and pricing side? Speaker 200:23:57Yes, that's right. So in the month of October, we actually bought $40,000,000 of it. And there's some more going to come on At the rest of the quarter, so you'll see that impact happen in the results we released in February For this quarter, I think you'll see the full $70,000,000 annualized impact on a quarterly basis next quarter. Speaker 400:24:21Okay. Makes sense. And then in your prepared remarks, you talked about some of the pricing actions that you've been undertaking recently. I'm sure you're watching kind of revenue per customer and churn trends pretty closely. Are those kind of generally falling in line with your expectations? Speaker 400:24:35How would you describe that? Speaker 200:24:37I'd say everything is in line with expectations. I mean we have a churn is generally very low across the business. We have multiple Multiple products in many cases sold across the same customer, which generally leads to a sticky customer. And so there's a real focus On getting more customers under contract, which even helps reduce that more. Speaker 400:25:02Next for me, you referenced the 4 turns I've leveraged target a few times. Would you be willing to put a kind of timeline around that or any kind of thoughts on when that might be achieved? Speaker 200:25:15No, we're not going to commit to a timeline today. Let's do it ASAP. I would say though like in the kind of longer term, We're going to get it below that. We kind of know you got to be between 2 and 3.5 times given what our the ability of Our business to perform from a cash generation perspective. But in the near term, we have to get an ASAP below 4 times. Speaker 200:25:39We think that's an important kind of number to demonstrate that we can quickly bring it down to. Speaker 400:25:45Okay. And then lastly, maybe for Frank, just On the working capital, it looks like a little bit of net flow this quarter. Is that just timing? Should we think about a reversal in the quarters ahead? Speaker 100:25:58I don't think there's a reversal we're expecting, Gavin. So we actually get, as you know, paid a lot of front for some of the services that we offer. So that will continue. And there's nothing extraordinary that I can remember that's in the working capital Operator00:26:24thank you. Your next question is from Scott Pletcher from CIBC. Please ask your question. Speaker 600:26:31Hi, good evening. Most of my questions have been answered. So I will just ask one. On the you sort of Spoke to the potential for 10% revenue growth as a result of price increases. Last quarter, you talked about targeting between think it's 20% to 25% total growth of half of that organic. Speaker 600:26:48So that would sort of imply sort of limited growth New customers or customer expansion, if you're doing 10% from pricing. Is that the case? Or is there sort of do you think there's additional upside from winning new customers to that 10% Speaker 500:27:01to 12.5% organic growth number? Look, we have like Speaker 600:27:01large market share across Speaker 200:27:03Look, we have like large market share across a lot of the markets we're in, where the name of the game isn't adding new logos, it's adding more Services existing customers, that's what we focus on the cross sell and the cross sell under contract has been a big focus of ours. So kind of that's the way I would look at it, Scott. Speaker 600:27:24Okay. Thanks. And then I guess, yes, one question I'll ask, Jim. It's just, the gross margins were materially improved in the quarter. Is that enough level we can look at going forward? Speaker 100:27:37Yes. I think one of the bigger implications that we might have mentioned before, Scott was the divestiture of TM. So they would have carried a lot lower margins. So yes, that's the level you should expect. And given that there was a 1 month contribution of TM in Q1 expected to rise slightly higher. Speaker 600:28:00Okay, great. Thanks. Operator00:28:05Thank you. Your next question is from Robert Young from Canaccord Genuity. Please ask your question. Speaker 700:28:12Hi. The progress on ARR expansion, is that all driven by Canada at this point? Or has that expanded into other Geographies. Speaker 200:28:23So we started both in the UK and Australia, but most of what you would have seen Was the pipeline we built over last year in Canada coming online, particularly as Frank mentioned towards the end of Q4? Speaker 700:28:38And the plan to reduce CapEx that you're highlighting within that $70,000,000 A better free cash. Would that have an impact on any of the initiatives to consolidate under Unity and then Expand that strategy, even if it started in the U. K. And Australia? Speaker 200:29:01No, a lot of that work is coming towards an end. So that's why we're having reduction in expense, that's part of the reduction in CapEx is due to that being concluded or towards conclusion. Speaker 700:29:13Okay. And then, you added a new Head of Product and new CRO Head of Sales. And so maybe if you could just give us a sense of the changes and how that's going relative to your expectations. Speaker 300:29:28Then I'll pass the line. Speaker 200:29:30Yes. So we brought in a new CRO. And really with the build upon the success we'd had In Canada, in selling contracts and taking that and building that infrastructure to be able to do that globally. We're in the process of kind of rebuilding part of our global teams. A lot of that's already happened. Speaker 200:29:50And so you're seeing us continue To grow ARR even through the Q1, as Aaron came on board. So really excited on board, A veteran when it comes to technology sales, so real strong add to the team. David Nash, our our Chief Product Officer also joined in the quarter. These are 2 kind of hires we were looking for better part of last fiscal year as there were 2 areas we knew we wanted to do better in. So also happy to have David on board as he kind of looks and helps us kind of prioritize a bit better our product strategy really relates to having more focus on our global legal practice and software business. Speaker 700:30:34Okay. And if I could ask one last question. You talked about some of the businesses in payments, information service, property set on the core banking, all of that piece. Could you just expand on what you were I might have missed the very beginning of that. What's the point of putting special emphasis around that Piece of the business, what are you doing with that going forward? Speaker 700:30:55Any other color there Speaker 100:30:56would be helpful. Speaker 200:30:58Well, points to give the market just enhanced disclosure around a business that we see a lot of opportunity in. This is a business that is somewhat different To our core Legal Tech Business, sales cycles are different with banks than they are with law firms. You're talking a handful of customers just under 100 versus tens and tens of thousands of them, really focused on small and medium loss. So Just reflecting that and having that disclosure, we think it's helpful people understand our business more, Rob. Speaker 700:31:33So does that mean you're going to Breakout segmented revenue EBITDA, what exactly you're going to expand there? Speaker 100:31:39Yes. Those are defined First criteria, Rob, so we didn't meet that threshold in Q1, but as Matt mentioned, putting more emphasis On that and showing the business, then that will be a decision that we make for Q2. Speaker 400:31:54Okay. Thank you. Operator00:31:59Thank you. And the next question is from Steven Bowen from Raymond James. Please ask your question. Speaker 200:32:06Thanks guys. Just one question. Obviously, a lot of talk about delevering. Maybe you could just focus a little bit on the convert that seems to be getting a lot of attention. With these action plans in place, cost reductions, higher revenue, I mean are you confident that This additional free cash flow will get you in a position to either pay off all of that 2026 convert before it becomes due Or a majority of it, or do you need another terming out transaction like the one you just did? Speaker 200:32:37I think that would be helpful for a lot of people looking at your cash flow over the next couple of years. Yes. So there's 2 years left, for the remaining convert until it comes due. So we feel very confident in our ability to manage that, before it comes due, look, Steve, when we took the opportunity, as I said, in a way that for the company offered provided very little additional yield to maturity to term that out. So we'll continue to look at ways To reduce our indebtedness including the convert, really as soon as possible. Speaker 200:33:16Okay. So basically, you feel Pretty confident that organically, if it doesn't happen, you can still you still have some other options. Is that fair way to Operator00:33:40thank you. No more questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Marshall for the closing remarks. Speaker 100:33:48Thanks everyone for joining us this afternoon. We look forward to Operator00:33:59thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining. You may all disconnect.Read morePowered by Key Takeaways Strong Q1 performance: Delivered the second‐highest adjusted EBITDA and third‐highest quarterly revenue, while reducing net debt by $45 M and targeting a net debt/EBITDA ratio below 4×. $70 M free cash flow improvement plan: Launched measures to cut capital expenditures, optimize pricing, and lower one‐time charges, with $40 M of annualized savings already actioned in October. ARR growth and diversification: Shifted focus to legal practice management software, reducing real estate exposure to 27% in Canada and doubling annual recurring revenue to $117 M (27% of total revenue) year‐over‐year. Price optimization upside: Announced global price increases—especially in the UK and Ireland across 20,000 users—expected to contribute roughly 10% annual revenue growth from existing customers. Payments infrastructure momentum: The banking technology unit, serving 95+ lenders in Canada and Australia, is delivering strong growth and will see enhanced disclosure and a dedicated leadership team. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallDye & Durham Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckInterim report Dye & Durham Earnings HeadlinesDown by 62%: Is Dye & Durham Stock a Value Buy or Bust?May 20 at 8:02 PM | msn.comBoard Letter to ShareholdersMay 13, 2025 | finance.yahoo.comNow I look stupid. Real stupid... I thought what happened 25 years ago was a once- in-a-lifetime event… but how wrong I was. Because here we are, a quarter of a century later, almost to the exact day, and it’s happening again. May 22, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)TSX Tails off to End Week, But Gains over 5 DaysApril 26, 2025 | theglobeandmail.com1 Magnificent Canadian Stock Down 65% to Buy as AI Takes OffApril 23, 2025 | msn.comEx-Dye and Durham CEO Matt Proud under fire for ‘abusive and coercive’ bid for ISC stockApril 8, 2025 | theglobeandmail.comSee More Dye & Durham Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Dye & Durham? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Dye & Durham and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Dye & DurhamDye & Durham (TSE:DND) Ltd is engaged in providing cloud-based software and technology solutions designed to improve efficiency and increase productivity for legal and business professionals. The company has business operations in Canada and the United Kingdom. The customers include law firms, financial service institutions, and government organizations.View Dye & Durham ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Alibaba's Earnings Just Changed Everything for the StockCisco Stock Eyes New Highs in 2025 on AI, Earnings, UpgradesSymbotic Gets Big Earnings Lift: Is the Stock Investable Again?D-Wave Pushes Back on Short Seller Case With Strong EarningsAppLovin Surges on Earnings: What's Next for This Tech Standout?Can Shopify Stock Make a Comeback After an Earnings Sell-Off?Rocket Lab: Earnings Miss But Neutron Momentum Holds Upcoming Earnings PDD (5/27/2025)AutoZone (5/27/2025)Bank of Nova Scotia (5/27/2025)NVIDIA (5/28/2025)Synopsys (5/28/2025)Bank of Montreal (5/28/2025)Salesforce (5/28/2025)Costco Wholesale (5/29/2025)Marvell Technology (5/29/2025)Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (5/29/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. Start Your 30-Day Trial MarketBeat All Access Features Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring Get personalized stock ideas. Compare portfolio to indices. Check stock news, ratings, SEC filings, and more. Stock Ideas and Recommendations See daily stock ideas from top analysts. Receive short-term trading ideas from MarketBeat. Identify trending stocks on social media. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Use our seven stock screeners to find suitable stocks. Stay informed with MarketBeat's real-time news. Export data to Excel for personal analysis. Sign in to your free account to enjoy these benefits In-depth profiles and analysis for 20,000 public companies. Real-time analyst ratings, insider transactions, earnings data, and more. Our daily ratings and market update email newsletter. Sign in to your free account to enjoy all that MarketBeat has to offer. Sign In Create Account Your Email Address: Email Address Required Your Password: Password Required Log In or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google Forgot your password? Your Email Address: Please enter your email address. Please enter a valid email address Choose a Password: Please enter your password. Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character. Create My Account (Free) or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google By creating a free account, you agree to our terms of service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Jenny, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the DioneDurham First Quarter Fiscal 20 24 Earnings Call. I would now like to turn the call over to Ross Marshall, Investor Relations on behalf of Dyeandurm. Mr. Operator00:00:22Marshall, you may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:25Thank you, Jenny, and good afternoon. Welcome to the DyneDerm earnings call. Before we start, we'd like to remind you that all amounts discussed on this call are denominated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated, please note that statements made during this call may include forward looking statements and information and future orientated financial information regarding Dine Durham and its business and disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results that are based on information currently available to management, which indicate management's expectations to future growth, results of operations, business performance, business prospects and opportunities. Such statements are made as of this date hereof and Dioneerm assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect events, disclosures or circumstances, except as required by applicable securities law. Such statements involve significant risks and uncertainties and are not a guarantee of future performance or results. Speaker 100:01:13A number of these risks or uncertainties could cause results to differ materially from the results discussed today. Given these risks and uncertainties, one please refer to the forward looking statements and information and future orientated financial information section I'm Frank Elizio, Dione Durham, Chief Financial Officer. A question and answer session will follow the formal remarks for research analysts. I now turn the call over to Matt for his opening remarks. Matt? Speaker 200:01:49Thanks, Ross, and good afternoon, everybody. The business performed extremely well in quarter, which was our 2nd best in terms of adjusted EBITDA and 3rd best on a revenue basis. Adjusted EBITDA also outperformed on a sequential basis. In addition to that, in the quarter, we paid back $45,000,000 in net debt. Our core business is doing very well And its performance underscores the strength and consistent ability to generate cash flow to fuel our growth and finance our operations. Speaker 200:02:21We heard investors and reducing our leverage ratio is a priority for us. Our aim is to bring the business down to below 4 times total net debt to adjusted EBITDA as soon as possible. And we're looking at all available options to help us achieve this goal. As I mentioned, in the Q1, we reduced our debt by $45,000,000 and we're focused on growing earnings and increasing our cash flow conversion to continuously pay down debt. Making significant improvement to our free cash flow performance is also a top priority. Speaker 200:02:53To that end, we've launched a business performance improvement plan targeting improvements of greater than $70,000,000 in free cash flow performance to be realized by the end of Q3 fiscal 2024 on an annualized basis compared to Q1 fiscal 2024 I. E. The current quarter. In October, we've already actioned $40,000,000 of annualized improvements towards this target With the full benefit of this action being realized in Q3 of fiscal 2024, we're implementing a series of measures to achieve this goal, including a reduction in capital expenditures, product price optimization And further reducing one time charges as we are lowering and lowering our operating costs. As you'll recall, over the past 2 years, we've made a dedicated effort to diversify our business and focus it on the legal practice management software market. Speaker 200:03:47We've had we've made meaningful progress in this regard, which has put us in a much stronger position today and made the business stronger off. The impact of real estate on our business, to be honest, is quite misunderstood. To be clear, we sell SaaS software to law firms to help them grow and efficiently manage their practice. This software is mission critical to legal professionals regardless of not, if they're conducting real estate transactions or not. To quantify this, the downside risk to Dioderne for the entire Canadian real estate market Was only 27% of total revenue in the Q1. Speaker 200:04:24We view this as comfortably manageable, especially when you consider that some businesses Have revenue concentration of more than 20% in the hand of a single customer, not an entire end market. Shifting our focus to selling Practice Business Software has served to improve and diversify our business, including increasing our annual recurring revenue. ARR was 117,000,000 as of September 30, 2023, that's more than double what it was at the same time last year and represents highly quality revenue growth across our full portfolio software solutions. ARR is 27% of our total revenue compared to Basically nothing. We started 2 years ago and we're making meaningful progress towards our target of 50%. Speaker 200:05:13Our ARR today is made up of 2 broad categories. The first being the gold standard per seat per user revenue and the second being minimum spend contracts. We continue to be very disciplined and thoughtful about our pricing strategy. During the quarter, we announced a variety of price changes across our global portfolio, in some cases to offset higher input costs due to inflation and in other cases to bring our prices in line with other market providers. Case in point, today we're arguably the largest provider of legal practice management software in the United Kingdom and Ireland, thanks to our recent acquisitions. Speaker 200:05:55However, the per seat per user price for our practice management software solutions being offered is still significantly lower than market. We're in the process of addressing this over the remainder of fiscal 2024 across more than 20,000 users in that market. And at a high level, we believe that price can consistently contribute roughly 10% annual growth to revenue. At the same time, we've also improved our cash conversion. You started to see this in Q4 fiscal 2023 results and we continue to make progress in Q1 fiscal 2024 with approximately $6,000,000 in acquisition restructuring add backs that were cash based, we believe we can continue to show improvement in this area. Speaker 200:06:40We believe for a business of our scale with $250,000,000 or more in adjusted EBITDA, that's a reasonable goal and reducing charges to $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 on an annualized basis over time, which will free up more cash flow for our capital allocation priorities. It's really a healthy business. Our Payments Infrastructure and Banking Technology business also performed well in the quarter. It's a business that has a lot of upside in it we're seeing significant growth. It offers best in class digital infrastructure to most major Canadian and Australian lenders, providing critical technology and products which support essential functions like payments, information services, property settlement And core banking infrastructure. Speaker 200:07:26This business has trusted long term relationships with more than 95 lenders and financial institutions. It represents an opportunity for us to generate more cash in the near term. To build the cementum, we're working to further professionalize the management team of that business and hire a new CEO for that business. We're also looking at ways to highlight the value of this business Better to investors in the coming quarters. Before turning it over to Frank to highlight the financials, I'll briefly address the recent convertible debenture transaction. Speaker 200:08:00The terming out of approximately 1 third of our grid ventures by 2.5 years or 5 years of runway in total in a highly undiluted piece of paper that only increased the yield to maturity by 2.4% and a nominal amount of increased cash interest of $2,000,000 when looked at in the aggregate was the right move for the company. I talked to some people who look at only one side of the trade and say it's expensive. We believe both sides of the trade should be considered to draw a fair and accurate conclusion. We believe it was the right grade for the business. It reduces the convertible debt and reduces risk on our overall capital structure. Speaker 200:08:41Without a doubt, it's been a challenging few weeks for us. I understand that shareholders are frustrated. We are frustrated too. Our interests are aligned with yours. Today's results demonstrate the improved performance of the business delivered in the past quarter, ensure our strategy is working. Speaker 200:08:58We believe we have all the ingredients to build on from here. We operate a differentiated global business with a large diversified customer base of small and medium sized law firms with a sticky best in class practice management offering it is mission critical to customers. I'll now turn it over to Frank to review the financials. Speaker 100:09:20Thank you, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. This afternoon, we reported our 1st quarter fiscal 2024 results. Our results continue to demonstrate the resiliency and consistency the business independent of market size, cycles and stability to generate cash flows. Our diversification strategy and build out of our practice management solutions are working. We continue to increase our annual recurring revenue contracted and reduce our exposure to real estate transactions. Speaker 100:09:48Annual recurring revenue contracted was 27% as of September 30, 2023 compared to just 13% in the same period last year. Revenue exposed to real estate transactions globally in Q1 was 49% compared to 62% in the same period of fiscal 2023, while revenue exposed to real estate transactions in Canada was only 27% compared to 37% in the same period of last year. We we reported revenue of $120,100,000 during the Q1, which is in line with the same period in fiscal 2023. In that prior period, there was an additional $9,300,000 of revenue from TM Group, which was divested on August 3, 2023. Excluding the impact of TM Group, revenue has grown by more than 8% in the Q1 of fiscal 2024. Speaker 100:10:42We generated adjusted EBITDA of $68,700,000 in the Q1 of fiscal 2024, an increase of $4,300,000 or 7 percent compared to the same period of fiscal 2023, our highest quarterly amount since Q4 of 2022. This is primarily a result of lower adjusted operating expenses and growth in revenue after taking into consideration of the TM Group divestiture. We continue to maintain our strong EBITDA margins coming at 57% this quarter, our highest level since Q4 of 2022 it is in line with our target range of 50% to 60%. Total adjusted operating expenses, which includes direct costs, technology costs, G and A, sales and marketing were $51,400,000 for the quarter or 43 percent of revenues, an improvement of $4,300,000 or 8% compared to the prior year period, when total operating costs represented 46% of revenues. Net of the impact of expenses from fiscal 2023 acquisitions or operating costs for the quarter were $43,600,000 which demonstrates improvements from our cost reduction initiatives implemented early in the Q2 of fiscal 2023. Speaker 100:11:55As we acquire assets and manage the broader business, we continuously look for ways to drive cost synergies and eliminate redundancies. This is one of the methods to continually improve cash flow performance, which Matt addressed earlier, we expect our ongoing operating costs to be within the 40% to 50% range of Speaker 200:12:15revenues. Net finance costs for Speaker 100:12:19the quarter were $35,100,000 compared to $16,200,000 in the same period of fiscal 2023. The increase is due to an increase in interest rates and higher net debt levels as well as lower favorable non cash impacts from the change in fair value of our convertible debentures as compared to the prior periods. Acquisition, restructuring and other costs for the quarter were 6 $400,000 This was a decrease from $18,500,000 in the Q1 of fiscal 2023. As Matt mentioned earlier, improving cash flow conversion is one of the paths towards driving down our leverage ratio below 4 times. We believe we can deliver additional improvements in this cost item over time. Speaker 100:13:03We are targeting $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 acquisition restructuring and other costs on an annualized basis. You should expect continued improvements in the Q2 and beyond as this is one component of our $70,000,000 annualized business improvement plan mentioned earlier. Now turning to our balance sheet, we reduced our overall debt by $45,000,000 during the quarter, mainly with the proceeds of the sale of TM. And at the same time, this quarter we closed small deals in legal practice management space that we locked into in late fiscal 2023. Our leverage ratio based on fiscal 2024 consensus, including the impact of the convertible debenture is currently 5.1 times as of September 30. Speaker 100:13:45We have sufficient resources to manage our debt levels. The business generates strong sustainable cash flows. We understand that it's necessity to drive down our leverage ratio and we have set a clear target to reduce it below 4 times total net debt to adjusted EBITDA. We're taking actions to increase our cash flow performance and placing a greater emphasis on this measure. Our Q1 cash flow operations increased by 4% versus the prior year. Speaker 100:14:13We've built a business of scale that is mission critical to small and medium sized law firms and financial institutions. Despite the challenging macro market conditions, today's results and plans demonstrate the resiliency of the business and the opportunity in front of us. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q and A. Operator00:14:35Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Questions will be taken in the order received. Your first question is from Thanos Moskopoulos from BMO Capital Markets. Please ask your question. Speaker 300:15:15Hi, good afternoon. Matt, maybe just to clarify regarding the focus on deleveraging. Should we be thinking that you'll be taking A pause on M and A for the next few months in order to deleverage or will you still consider opportunities albeit more selectively? Speaker 200:15:33Look, our main focus is we heard investors, deleveraging is a priority. And look, as we deleverage, that will free up more cash flow that in the future will let us to get back to business. But we kind of heard the message loud and clear. So for us in the near term, it's getting that debt to adjusted EBITDA as a metric to look at below 4 times ASAP. And look, as you would have seen last quarter, there was a aside from the Craftsman acquisition that was announced In the Q4 results, there was a couple of $1,000,000 of very small acquisitions we did, that were accretive given what we paid for them, But they were very, very small. Speaker 300:16:20Okay. Now as far as your end markets, you have better real time visibility Then we do the data, we get a bit lagged. Is it still the case that we're kind of bouncing around the bottom? Or are you seeing any trends across few geographies? Speaker 200:16:36So I mean, look, our business is performing really well. If you consider that compared to Q4, We sold TM yet still came in sequentially with the same amount of revenue as we have Q4, which is generally always seasonally Slow, and that implies that our core business is doing really well. Look, I assume your question relates to kind of real estate transactions, Which are now a minority of our revenue. Look, we're still kind of if you look at kind of the numbers we see and kind of correlate with businesses we have That do track purchase and sales, yes, I mean, it's still a really depressed market out there. But at some point pent up demand comes back. Speaker 200:17:20That will be great upside in the future. But today even though that you're seeing great performance in the business as demonstrated by the results, we were able to kind of sell, what was about 16% of our revenue, and still in a quarter is generally sequentially down, kind of be Flat through last quarter, which again speaks to Speaker 400:17:44the strength of the business. Speaker 200:17:48So yes, I hope that answers your question. Speaker 300:17:51Yes, it does. And then just as we think about the December quarter, just given seasonality in some of your markets And given a bit of TM going away, I guess, would it be reasonable to expect that revenue EBITDA will be down a little bit sequentially versus September quarter? Speaker 200:18:08Yes. So generally, we have our Q3 our Q2 is a bit softer than Q4 and Q1. Yes, Speaker 100:18:21just remember that in Q1, we still had just a month left of TM revenue. So naturally that will fall off in Q2. Speaker 300:18:30Maybe just to confirm that amount, from the disclosure, it seems maybe $16,500,000 of TAM revenue. Is that in the general ballpark? Speaker 200:18:38Yes, in general. Yes, that's Speaker 100:18:39a good number. But as I mentioned before, the year over year impact on revenue was $9,300,000 so that's 3 months compared to 1 month. Operator00:19:02Thank you. Your next question is from Kevin Krishnanovna from Scotiabank. Please ask your question. Speaker 500:19:09Hey there, good evening. Just a question on the $70,000,000 free cash flow. There is a number of categories That the benefits are coming from, can you give us a sense of where the greater impacts are to come from with CapEx? Is product price changes, OpEx, any color there? Speaker 100:19:29Yes, I could take that, Kevin. So they are we had purposely put them in order of significance, so as you mentioned the first couple being the reduction in CapEx would be something that we've already actioned, and then followed by reduction in one time charges And then the price optimization initiatives that we have. Speaker 500:19:52Okay, got you. And then thought it was interesting the comments you made on the opportunity in practice management, I think, was in U. K. And Ireland. I might have misheard it. Speaker 500:20:02Did you say 20,000 users there and there's an opportunity for an uplift there? Just curious to know How do we think about the level of that uptick? And then did you say going forward, you would think that that's business that you could do 10% increases year over year. I'm just curious about the commentary that you made there. Speaker 200:20:20Yes. It's Matt, Kevin. Look, It was kind of a case in point example of some of the upside we have in our business when you're just you're looking at business that we have And your price point is quite deeply below market. So that's a case in point. We have 20,000 users That are paying in many cases as much as $100 a month below market, which we kind of convert to Canadian dollars. Speaker 200:20:46That's just one example of Some opportunities we have in the business, when you kind of back up and look at it kind of from 50,000 feet, This is a business when you kind of look at all the opportunities that we have, every year you can grow Speaker 100:21:01it, kind of Speaker 200:21:0110% -ish. We've consistently said that for many years and in most cases been delivering that. Speaker 500:21:09Okay, got you. Thanks for that. The 19% ARR to 27% ARR in the quarter, it was a nice jump. Was that mainly driven by M and A? And if and also how is progress being made on the minimum volume contracts? Speaker 200:21:28It was driven by both. There was a practice management application acquisition in there that we talked about in our Q4 financials That would also be in these financials. But there was also a lot of that was driven from kind of minimum spend contracts, particularly out of Canada. Speaker 100:21:47Kevin, the increase is actually 13% to 27% year over year. But Given that Q4 was obviously in high period, as management mentioned, there were a lot of contracts that were signed in Q4 that had partial benefit in Q4. So you're getting The full 3 month benefit in Q1. Speaker 500:22:04Sorry, did you not do you did 19% in Q4, right? So I'm it was from 'nineteen in Q4 to 'twenty seven. Yes, okay. Speaker 100:22:12Correct. Yes, I'm sorry, I thought you meant year over year. Speaker 500:22:14Yes. All good. Last one for me, just on some cash items there. Number 1, how do we think about cash taxes for the year? They were a little bit elevated, I think, in 2023. Speaker 500:22:23Just wondering where they land in 2024. It looked like it was pretty modest In Q1. And then the second one on cash is, can you remind us of any a rough estimate for holdbacks and potential earn outs that you're going to be paying out in 2024. Speaker 100:22:40Yes. So for cash taxes, we have implemented a series of plans in Canada to get better handle of our uses of cash and we do expect reductions in cash relative to the fiscal 2024 amount. You should look at an effective rate of about 25%. But given that we have such large loss carry forwards Of approximately $200,000,000,000 we do intend to put the good use in the fiscal period in Canada. And your question on pullbacks, we do have a disclosure in our notes about the total amount of pullbacks. Speaker 100:23:16So you can refer to that Kevin, but off the top of my head, I think it's Roughly around $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 over the next 12 months. Speaker 500:23:25Perfect. Thanks a lot. I'll pass the line. Operator00:23:31Thank you. Your next question is from Gavin Creweather from Cormark Securities. Please ask your question. Speaker 400:23:38Hey, good afternoon. Congrats on the results. Just a clarification. First on the $70,000,000 free cash flow annualized increase, It sounds like you're asking about $40,000,000 in the current quarter. Should we think about a lag to some of the benefits both on the Cost side and pricing side? Speaker 200:23:57Yes, that's right. So in the month of October, we actually bought $40,000,000 of it. And there's some more going to come on At the rest of the quarter, so you'll see that impact happen in the results we released in February For this quarter, I think you'll see the full $70,000,000 annualized impact on a quarterly basis next quarter. Speaker 400:24:21Okay. Makes sense. And then in your prepared remarks, you talked about some of the pricing actions that you've been undertaking recently. I'm sure you're watching kind of revenue per customer and churn trends pretty closely. Are those kind of generally falling in line with your expectations? Speaker 400:24:35How would you describe that? Speaker 200:24:37I'd say everything is in line with expectations. I mean we have a churn is generally very low across the business. We have multiple Multiple products in many cases sold across the same customer, which generally leads to a sticky customer. And so there's a real focus On getting more customers under contract, which even helps reduce that more. Speaker 400:25:02Next for me, you referenced the 4 turns I've leveraged target a few times. Would you be willing to put a kind of timeline around that or any kind of thoughts on when that might be achieved? Speaker 200:25:15No, we're not going to commit to a timeline today. Let's do it ASAP. I would say though like in the kind of longer term, We're going to get it below that. We kind of know you got to be between 2 and 3.5 times given what our the ability of Our business to perform from a cash generation perspective. But in the near term, we have to get an ASAP below 4 times. Speaker 200:25:39We think that's an important kind of number to demonstrate that we can quickly bring it down to. Speaker 400:25:45Okay. And then lastly, maybe for Frank, just On the working capital, it looks like a little bit of net flow this quarter. Is that just timing? Should we think about a reversal in the quarters ahead? Speaker 100:25:58I don't think there's a reversal we're expecting, Gavin. So we actually get, as you know, paid a lot of front for some of the services that we offer. So that will continue. And there's nothing extraordinary that I can remember that's in the working capital Operator00:26:24thank you. Your next question is from Scott Pletcher from CIBC. Please ask your question. Speaker 600:26:31Hi, good evening. Most of my questions have been answered. So I will just ask one. On the you sort of Spoke to the potential for 10% revenue growth as a result of price increases. Last quarter, you talked about targeting between think it's 20% to 25% total growth of half of that organic. Speaker 600:26:48So that would sort of imply sort of limited growth New customers or customer expansion, if you're doing 10% from pricing. Is that the case? Or is there sort of do you think there's additional upside from winning new customers to that 10% Speaker 500:27:01to 12.5% organic growth number? Look, we have like Speaker 600:27:01large market share across Speaker 200:27:03Look, we have like large market share across a lot of the markets we're in, where the name of the game isn't adding new logos, it's adding more Services existing customers, that's what we focus on the cross sell and the cross sell under contract has been a big focus of ours. So kind of that's the way I would look at it, Scott. Speaker 600:27:24Okay. Thanks. And then I guess, yes, one question I'll ask, Jim. It's just, the gross margins were materially improved in the quarter. Is that enough level we can look at going forward? Speaker 100:27:37Yes. I think one of the bigger implications that we might have mentioned before, Scott was the divestiture of TM. So they would have carried a lot lower margins. So yes, that's the level you should expect. And given that there was a 1 month contribution of TM in Q1 expected to rise slightly higher. Speaker 600:28:00Okay, great. Thanks. Operator00:28:05Thank you. Your next question is from Robert Young from Canaccord Genuity. Please ask your question. Speaker 700:28:12Hi. The progress on ARR expansion, is that all driven by Canada at this point? Or has that expanded into other Geographies. Speaker 200:28:23So we started both in the UK and Australia, but most of what you would have seen Was the pipeline we built over last year in Canada coming online, particularly as Frank mentioned towards the end of Q4? Speaker 700:28:38And the plan to reduce CapEx that you're highlighting within that $70,000,000 A better free cash. Would that have an impact on any of the initiatives to consolidate under Unity and then Expand that strategy, even if it started in the U. K. And Australia? Speaker 200:29:01No, a lot of that work is coming towards an end. So that's why we're having reduction in expense, that's part of the reduction in CapEx is due to that being concluded or towards conclusion. Speaker 700:29:13Okay. And then, you added a new Head of Product and new CRO Head of Sales. And so maybe if you could just give us a sense of the changes and how that's going relative to your expectations. Speaker 300:29:28Then I'll pass the line. Speaker 200:29:30Yes. So we brought in a new CRO. And really with the build upon the success we'd had In Canada, in selling contracts and taking that and building that infrastructure to be able to do that globally. We're in the process of kind of rebuilding part of our global teams. A lot of that's already happened. Speaker 200:29:50And so you're seeing us continue To grow ARR even through the Q1, as Aaron came on board. So really excited on board, A veteran when it comes to technology sales, so real strong add to the team. David Nash, our our Chief Product Officer also joined in the quarter. These are 2 kind of hires we were looking for better part of last fiscal year as there were 2 areas we knew we wanted to do better in. So also happy to have David on board as he kind of looks and helps us kind of prioritize a bit better our product strategy really relates to having more focus on our global legal practice and software business. Speaker 700:30:34Okay. And if I could ask one last question. You talked about some of the businesses in payments, information service, property set on the core banking, all of that piece. Could you just expand on what you were I might have missed the very beginning of that. What's the point of putting special emphasis around that Piece of the business, what are you doing with that going forward? Speaker 700:30:55Any other color there Speaker 100:30:56would be helpful. Speaker 200:30:58Well, points to give the market just enhanced disclosure around a business that we see a lot of opportunity in. This is a business that is somewhat different To our core Legal Tech Business, sales cycles are different with banks than they are with law firms. You're talking a handful of customers just under 100 versus tens and tens of thousands of them, really focused on small and medium loss. So Just reflecting that and having that disclosure, we think it's helpful people understand our business more, Rob. Speaker 700:31:33So does that mean you're going to Breakout segmented revenue EBITDA, what exactly you're going to expand there? Speaker 100:31:39Yes. Those are defined First criteria, Rob, so we didn't meet that threshold in Q1, but as Matt mentioned, putting more emphasis On that and showing the business, then that will be a decision that we make for Q2. Speaker 400:31:54Okay. Thank you. Operator00:31:59Thank you. And the next question is from Steven Bowen from Raymond James. Please ask your question. Speaker 200:32:06Thanks guys. Just one question. Obviously, a lot of talk about delevering. Maybe you could just focus a little bit on the convert that seems to be getting a lot of attention. With these action plans in place, cost reductions, higher revenue, I mean are you confident that This additional free cash flow will get you in a position to either pay off all of that 2026 convert before it becomes due Or a majority of it, or do you need another terming out transaction like the one you just did? Speaker 200:32:37I think that would be helpful for a lot of people looking at your cash flow over the next couple of years. Yes. So there's 2 years left, for the remaining convert until it comes due. So we feel very confident in our ability to manage that, before it comes due, look, Steve, when we took the opportunity, as I said, in a way that for the company offered provided very little additional yield to maturity to term that out. So we'll continue to look at ways To reduce our indebtedness including the convert, really as soon as possible. Speaker 200:33:16Okay. So basically, you feel Pretty confident that organically, if it doesn't happen, you can still you still have some other options. Is that fair way to Operator00:33:40thank you. No more questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Marshall for the closing remarks. Speaker 100:33:48Thanks everyone for joining us this afternoon. We look forward to Operator00:33:59thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining. You may all disconnect.Read morePowered by