Fortrea Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 14, 2023

There are 10 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fortree Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Hema Enguva, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you for joining Fortree's 2nd quarter 2023 earnings conference call. I am Hima Nguva, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Fortrea. On the call with me today are our CEO, Tom Pike and our CFO, Jill McConnell. The call is being webcasted and the slides accompanying today's presentation have been posted to the Investor Relations page of our website fortier.com. During this call, we will make certain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Speaker 1

These statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Statement concerning forward looking statements and risk factors in our Form 10 this morning, press release and presentation that we posted on the website. Please note that any forward looking statements represent our views as of today, August 14, 2023, and that we assume no obligation to update the forward looking statements even if During this call, we'll also be referring to certain non GAAP financial measures. These non GAAP measures are not superior to or replacement for the comparable GAAP measures, but we believe these measures help investors gain a more complete understanding of results. A reconciliation of such non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the earnings press release and earnings call presentation slides provided in connection with today's call.

Speaker 1

With that, I'd like to turn it over to our CEO, Tom Pike. Tom?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Hema. Good morning, everyone. Let's get right down to business. In July of 2022, LabCorp announced it would spin off its clinical services and patient access services business unit from its global laboratory businesses. Now named Fortrea, This business represented about half of the revenues of LabCorp's previous drug development segment and spans primarily clinical development phases 1 through 4.

Speaker 2

Fortree's capabilities have an impressive heritage that goes back more than 30 years through the CRO Pioneer Covance and acquisitions like Chiltern. This business grew at about 15% compound annual growth rate from 2010 through 2022. At the same time, the business was nested in a much larger organization with a central lab and diagnostic labs and has not operated as a standalone unit before. Therefore, there was a tremendous effort required to prepare for a successful spin, which was completed quickly in under a year. This fast paced approach to a spin is often referred to as a lift and shift approach, Really no substantive business improvements.

Speaker 2

Over the past 12 months, the people here have been navigating what I've come to call the spin year. During this 12 month period, some customers took a wait and see approach with us before awarding new business. I think some wanted to see who was staying, Who was going or if there would be some other disruption. I'm not aware of the spin costing Fortree at any existing customers. The major issue in the spin year was a slowdown in new RFP opportunities, probably compounded by a softer biotech environment and lack of larger new customers.

Speaker 2

We have been referring to the situation as our mix issue publicly. Headline book to bill numbers We're okay and consistent with industry and prior company practices, but the mix of sales, including new business versus renewals, was not sufficient to meet even average industry growth rates for some quarters. Jill, our CFO, Literally. So this is detailed reporting about a discontinued segment of the prior parent company, including corporate allocations, one time and new recurring spin costs and more. Jill, over to you.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. Fortrea's 2nd quarter results continue to include softness related to this spin year, but we are pleased to have completed the spin and become an independent organization. I want to give my personal thanks to everyone who is involved in making it happen. The speed and commitment that they demonstrated to ensure a smooth transition of our services gives me confidence as we head into this new chapter for Fortrea. It is great to see signs of improvement in both RFP flow and award volume as we move through the Q3.

Speaker 3

This will be key to returning the company to industry growth or above and driving margin expansion over time. Now let's turn to results. Revenues were $793,000,000 in the 2nd quarter, essentially flat versus the same period last year. Clinical Services revenues of $726,100,000 grew 0.4% year on year, driven by higher pass through revenues, partially offset by lower service fee revenues. The lower service fee revenues were in part due to a previously disclosed prior year FSP contract loss and a one time client adjustment as well as the mix and quantity of new business wins during this past spin year.

Speaker 3

Enabling services revenues decreased 4.2% year on year as patient access revenues were impacted by lower call center activity, partially offset by growth in our endpoint business. Revenues for the 6 months ended June 30, 2023 were $1,560,000,000 a decrease of 0.9% year on year. Note that currency was not a material impact to our results in the Q2. Before I move to our cost base, Please remember that this quarter is unusual as these expenses are based on our results when we were a division of our former parent company and include a combination of both actual costs as well as former parent company allocations under the carve accounting methodology. Direct costs increased 5.7% year on year, primarily due to higher pass through expenses, partially offset by lower temporary labor and bonus related expenses along with other cost efficiencies.

Speaker 3

SG and A was higher by 13.5 percent due to an increase in indirect labor, credit loss provisions and an unanticipated adjustment to our year to date We expect full year interest expense to total approximately $70,000,000 in 2023, incorporating the change in market The effective tax rate was 26.9 percent for the quarter. We expect the full year 2023 adjusted effective tax rate to be between 27% to 30%, which is higher than our full year 2022 effective tax rate of 18.6 percent. The expected increase in the tax rate is due to anticipated reductions in domestic earnings, which in turn lead to increased domestic taxation of our foreign earnings as well as the loss of certain deductions we received as part of our former parent company. Now that we are a standalone company, we expect to revisit our tax structure to ensure it is optimized for the future. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of $72,500,000 decreased 37.1 percent year over year compared to adjusted EBITDA of 100 and $3,000,000 in the prior year period.

Speaker 3

Year to date adjusted EBITDA was $129,600,000 which decreased 31.8% year over year compared to adjusted EBITDA of $190,100,000 in the prior year to date period. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the 2nd quarter was 9.1% compared to 14.5% in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter was negatively impacted by the lower service fee revenues as well as higher pass through revenues. Year to date adjusted EBITDA margin was 8.3% compared to 12.1% in the prior year period. In the Q2 of 2023, adjusted net income of $46,300,000 decreased 46.2% compared to adjusted net income of $86,100,000 in the prior year period.

Speaker 3

Adjusted net income for both basic and diluted share for the quarter was 0.52 $0.97 compared to $0.97 in the prior year period. In the first half of twenty twenty three, adjusted net income of $86,600,000 decreased 38.3% compared to adjusted net income of $140,300,000 in the prior year to date period. Adjusted net income for both basic and diluted share for the first half of twenty twenty three was $0.98 compared to 1.58 In terms of our margin efforts, we recognize that our current margins are not consistent with industry norms. It is important to remember that our priority over the last year was to successfully spin at pace and to ensure business continuity. Now that the spin is complete, we are actively assessing our cost base, both for direct costs as well as SG and A and have begun to form our margin optimization plan.

Speaker 3

With 1 month of actual expenses available, we are continuing our SG and A benchmarking and exploring technology productivity initiatives. We are identifying improvements through sourcing and procurement and are finalizing our TSA exit strategies to replace them with more fit for purpose infrastructure. We are prioritizing margin improvement efforts and continue to expect to move towards peer margin levels over time. Turning to customer concentration, our top represented nearly half of our year to date revenue. Next, I'll provide an update on cash and liquidity.

Speaker 3

In the first half of the year, we generated $154,200,000 in cash flow from operating activities. Net accounts receivable was $1,010,000,000 at June 30, 2023, 0.7% lower than at December 31, 2022. During the quarter, we entered into an accounts receivable purchase program with the ability to sell up to $80,000,000 of our receivables to accelerate cash collection. Prior to the spin, the company sold $17,500,000 of accounts receivable, which drove the decrease in accounts receivable between December 31, 2022 June 30, 2023. Days sales outstanding was 86 days at June 30, 2023.

Speaker 3

We have initiated projects to improve our DSO profile. Due to the nature of our contracts, which provide services over extended periods of time, there is a lag to seeing changes reflected in our performance. In addition to these actions, we are focused on other opportunities to reduce this measure over time. For the 6 months ended June 30, 2023 free cash flow was $128,400,000 The improvement versus the prior year was primarily due to a lower incentive payout this year. Turning now to our debt.

Speaker 3

During the quarter, we issued $570,000,000 of senior notes due in 2,030, and we entered into a $450,000,000 revolving credit facility, a 5 year $500,000,000 Term Loan A Facility and a 7 year $570,000,000 Term Loan B Facility. Our blended interest rate for debt at June 30, 2023 was 8%. We ended the quarter with a net leverage ratio of 4 times. As noted previously, our near term capital allocation priorities are: 1st, Infrastructure investments for timely exit of the transition service agreement. 2nd, targeted therapeutic and technology investments to drive organic growth and then debt repayment.

Speaker 3

Longer term, as our net leverage improves, we will consider selective tuck in acquisitions. Next, I will review our go forward approach to backlog recognition. As part of becoming a standalone company, The company reviewed and modified its backlog composition and recognition policies to facilitate period to period reporting going forward. As a result of this review, we have decided to make modifications in the following areas: restating the backlog to remove projects where we no longer have current revenue as well as incorporating all known changes in scope from customers or other uncertainties. This was partially offset by adding in backlog where revenue is still being earned, but no backlog was represented.

Speaker 3

We have decided to remove the Enabling Services backlog from our calculation given the different operating profile of these businesses. Going forward, our backlog and book to bill reporting will be for our clinical services business only. And finally, we revised our FSP net new business Award recognition policy. For new awards, we will recognize the 1st 2 years of the award and for renewals, we will recognize only the 1st year of the award at the time of contract This more appropriately reflects the nature of FSP awards, in particular, the phased revenue ramp that comes with the new award. It is important to note that outside of the first adjustment I referenced to remove uncertain positions, the revenue opportunity of the Enabling Services backlog and our remaining FSP backlog With these adjustments, we are effectively aligning the scope of our backlog to provide a view of our pipeline that is more tailored for our standalone business.

Speaker 3

Backlog at the end of the quarter under our new methodology was approximately $7,000,000,000 The total reduction of $1,270,000,000 year over year was driven by the changes I described. Starting with this quarter, we will use this new methodology for reporting backlog. Because of these changes, we cannot actively restate the backlog history to incorporate all of the changes noted above. Therefore, we are not disclosing net new business awards or book to bill for We will rebuild our trailing book to bill metrics from the Q3 onwards. In this final pre spin quarter, We continue to see some softness in net new awards.

Speaker 3

So with the spin behind us, we are pleased to see positive momentum in RFP flow and new awards in the Q3. Moving now to our updated guidance for 2023. We expect full year 2023 total revenue in the range of $3,030,000,000 to $3,100,000,000 compared to 2022 total revenue of $3,100,000,000 We expect 2023 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $255,000,000 to $285,000,000 compared to adjusted EBITDA of 40 $5,100,000 in 2022. Our target for net leverage ratio continues to be 2.5 to 3 times over the medium term. Our guidance assumes foreign exchange rates in effect as of June 30, 2023.

Speaker 3

This guidance assumes a full year 2023 effective tax rate of 27% to 30% and weighted average shares outstanding for 2023 on both a basic and diluted basis at the current level of shares and does not reflect the potential impact of currency fluctuations. In terms of the second half phasing, we expect 4th quarter performance to be slightly better than the 3rd quarter as we begin to see the impact of some of our initial actions on aligning our cost structure to our revenue profile. We will share more details on our near term and longer term margin improvement initiatives with our Q3 earnings announcement in November. In closing, this was Fortrea's last quarter reporting as a division of its former parent company. We are navigating the impact from the spin related uncertainty and are focused on winning new business to drive future top line growth.

Speaker 3

We are excited about being an independent company. The strong momentum we are seeing in RFP flow and the margin expansion opportunities ahead of us give us confidence in our future. With a proven management team, innovative clinical development solutions and an unwavering commitment to deliver value to our customers, we are well positioned to unleash our full potential and establish Fortrea as the top choice clinical resource organization for pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies. And with that, I will turn it back to Tom for some additional remarks prior to moving to Q and A.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Jill. I joined LabCorp in January of 2023 to become Fortree's CEO and Chairman of the Board when it was spun out. For those of you who don't know me, Earlier in my career, I was at McKinsey, then Accenture, then more recently at Quintiles Transnational, where I served as the CEO, and we took the company public through the merger with IMS Health in late 2016 to create IQVIA. Since then, I've been working with private equity and venture capital companies, working with innovators And from time to time looking at other major CROs private equity. I know many CRO investors and analysts and I feel like I have a personal commitment to both your success and Fortria's.

Speaker 2

My job was to hire a management team and a Board for the spin With a target of having that team and Board in place by May, we achieved that. Carefully selecting people internally and externally, We have assembled a great management team and Board, both with appropriate qualifications and experience to guide us. We appreciate the positive response to this team since our Investor Day. Our management team was revealed in early May And the new members started taking over business and functional areas in the last few weeks of the quarter, some actually at the end of the quarter. For instance, Jill's role became official at the end of Q2, having spent the prior 10 months leading the internal spin out team of the parent And doing double duty during the road show.

Speaker 2

Now, she's 100% focused on Fortrea. 2 of our The operating executives have been running similar organizations to what they run today, which kept delivery of services for customers on track. The others many of the others are new. Let me be plain spoken here. I and the management team are not satisfied with the second quarter and first half results.

Speaker 2

I'm going to pause here. I don't believe the first half results represent the potential performance of this organization as an independent We are clear eyed about both opportunities and issues. We have already started on changes and Improvements. We will discuss some, but not all of those changes today. As leaders, we must place the spin year firmly in the rearview mirror.

Speaker 2

The new management team and I will transform Fortrea from an operating unit of a larger enterprise into a Successful independent clinical services organization accountable for its own future. I've assessed our strengths and weaknesses and worked with the Fortrea leaders to craft a strategy that positions us to compete and win. This strong team too have assessed their respective units and are putting new programs in place. We have begun transforming the business. Now here's my assessment.

Speaker 2

Fortrea today is a capable CRO that has the scale and management to bring innovation And consistent global delivery to an R and D industry that needs and relies on both. Clinical research is complex and this team is good at it. Fortree is a Goldilocks size organization, not too big, not too small, where customers will find management knowledgeable And readily accessible. We have the scale and skills to grow attractively and importantly organically from here. There are a lot of positives to this business.

Speaker 2

Let's remember the roots of this business are in Covance, one of the longest tenured successful CROs. We have global reach in 19,000 professionals. There is medical and scientific breadth and depth on par with the best of our industry. We punch above our weight in oncology, the largest therapeutic area for trials. We have a great diversified customer base With long term relationships, in some cases, more than a decade, we service both large and small biopharma effectively.

Speaker 2

There are years of experience along with technology tools for working with the LabCorp data and we can bring that To the explosion of clinical data sources now available. We have many great executives and a talented workforce throughout the world. Our first order of business has been to reignite our new business engine. We now have weekly sales calls that involve me and our other business presidents to review and target opportunities. We have increased our executive involvement in the sales process, improving the process, targeting a mix and making sure we apply the advantages of our size, experience, relationships and our differentiated offerings.

Speaker 2

Another positive, RFP flow is improving at a level for attractive growth, importantly with the right mix. Our win rates are improving and our customers large to small are engaging us conversations as to how we can help them transform and streamline how they do clinical development. We are at the table. As a result, July 2023 has been the best 1st month of a quarter for new business wins since 2021. To shape our vision and strategy for the future, I've been meeting with research and development leaders throughout the spring and early summer, listening to what they need and exchanging ideas.

Speaker 2

We are wrapping our Fortrea strategies around what the industry needs. Customers are excited to work with a company that wants to innovate and improve things. And we have some nice wins as new management has taken over. Let me give you a few examples of the many successes we've seen. We're able to break in with a large important Asia Pacific headquartered sponsor to support them in the global development of one of their key oncology assets.

Speaker 2

We had a nice Phase 3 win in psoriatic arthritis with 1 of our small biotech partners because We had completed enrollment ahead of schedule on their Phase 2 study. We also put together a new preferred partnership that resulted in a nice first award with a mid tier company in metastatic breast cancer. We're also focusing more on CNS, An area where we've been under penetrated. We won a very interesting and complex early Alzheimer's study with a large pharma company where deep scientific expertise is a Our new team is pushing harder on early engagement too and it's bearing fruit. We've been awarded multiple clinical studies recently that started with initial regulatory strategies or consulting work.

Speaker 2

We're also seeing pull through in later phases. We were awarded several contracts and post approval patient access this year based on our clinical development work. These contracts span several therapeutic areas, including oncology and anti infectives. Our Medical Device and Diagnostic business, which is a leader, As a pipeline of RFPs that continues to grow, in Q2, we saw our highest proposal volume in the last 12 months for this unit, and it grew about 40% compared to the Q1 of the year. We're also focused on leveraging technology data analytics, machine learning and AI and will bring that lens to us.

Speaker 2

Internally, We appointed a new leader and created a dedicated data sciences team to update our data strategy and keep in tune with that explosion of EMR, genomic and other focused clinical data providers. We have a great leader for our industry leading site augmentation strategies making rapid progress and the team is delivering quantifiable acceleration in start ups for new projects. We're pursuing investments in enabling services. We're also in the process of hiring more magnet talent in therapeutic areas we're underpenetrated in. These anecdotes illustrate progress we're making to deliver value for customers, which will strengthen our growth and financial performance.

Speaker 2

I'm proud of the progress we've made in Few short weeks since we've been an independent entity. It's a testament to our people around the world and their drive to create a better experience for customers. However, we know you would not think of us as good managers if I didn't address the financial specifically. We will get our financial house in order. I have seen other CROs and there's nothing in pricing or operations wise That's unusual or concerning here.

Speaker 2

This is a disciplined operations organization that can deliver programs with quality. However, we do need to invest more in supporting technology and this spin and the exit from the parent will allow us to completely revise our software suite. There's also an opportunity for greater productivity while reducing technology costs. We also see procurement facility savings and will align operations costs with revenues more effectively. Regarding SG and A, while our numbers as part of the parent Have historically looked good on the surface.

Speaker 2

Frankly, it all depends on how indirect costs are allocated, which is different for different companies. As Jill discussed, we see addressing SG and A as well as programmatically exiting the TSAs with the parent on time as key activities that will improve our cost structure and aim to make our margins on par with the industry leaders over coming years. I want to emphasize the most important thing right now is that this company does great work for customers, and it does, And it will continue to as the highest priority. We have the right team to do this. The new management team is now in charge.

Speaker 2

We're disciplined about both servicing customers and running a business. We're willing to change. We're hungry. This is a 7 day a week, 24 hour day job. We will be transparent, keep you informed of our programs and progress.

Speaker 2

Expect further discussion in detail through the remainder of the year. We have the solutions to create value both for customers and shareholders. In closing, let me say that the R and D landscape is a tremendous place to be. Customers large and small Are innovating, bringing forward advances that will transform millions of lives and save many more. Let me say to the people at Fortrea, I've been impressed by you and I'm proud to be working with you.

Speaker 2

We're excited to play our part and driven by our mission of bringing life changing treatments Thank you. Emma, back to you for question and answer.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Tom. With that, we'll now open the call for your questions. Michelle?

Operator

So everyone has an opportunity to ask a question. Please standby while we compile the Q and A roster. The first question comes from David Windley with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning. Tom, thanks for the transparency in your comments. I wanted to focus on Cost structure with kind of 2 part question, then I'll drop out. So first, just to better understand The costs that are weighing on the business now versus the comparable period, And maybe part of the answer might be, it's not totally comparable. But I would like to understand the cost that the business is bearing Year over year that are depressing margin.

Speaker 4

And then, in terms of addressing your forward costs, You've commented both at the Investor Day and also this morning, about bonus structure and kind of labor compensation. And I'd like to hear your thoughts on how you navigate that and maintain retention at levels that you need to maintain. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. I will say, Dave, good morning, by the way. I've learned a lot about carb accounting in the last few weeks and The difference is here. And Jill, do you want to that's a huge question that Dave asked. Do you want to try to give a sense of some of that and then we'll come back to the retention issue?

Speaker 3

Yes, Dave, it's a great question. The 1st 6 months well, obviously, looking back over the prior year period, that carve methodology is different From the actual allocations, we have 1 month of actuals now. And as you can imagine, we're still trying to work through and understand What are the ongoing costs versus what are still some of the lingering things related to the spin? So we wanted to be very thoughtful as we provided guidance until we've had The opportunity to fully understand and determine with benchmarking and some of the other things we're doing what the needs are. So those spin periods under that card methodology are not Going to be the same as the actuals, obviously, as they come through.

Speaker 3

But as we go forward with now our own quarters, we'll try to be very clear about calling out the differences between those

Speaker 2

I think what I'd add to that is, We do understand now seeing July what our cost structure is. And to some degree, Until you see those costs, you don't understand them. Those of you who've been with us on this journey know that we've we wanted to wait and give you guidance till after we saw them. That turns out to have been the right move so that we understand the cost, we understand them now. And as Jill says, we're trying to give you Our best sense of where this organization will land in this unusual year after the spin.

Speaker 2

That being said, as we go forward here, I think you asked the second question, Dave, about retention. And we are building into a management plan, the ability for employees to earn a bonus. So now that management plan is going to be aggressive, and we're going to strive hard to outperform, But we are building some of those things into the go forward plan. So right now, our attrition is at normal rates. People are excited to be here.

Speaker 2

I think we're going to make this a great place for them to work and we're going to compensate them appropriately. Maybe from there operator. Great, Dave, you're still on.

Speaker 4

No, I am. Yes, but I asked enough, so I'll yield. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Sure. Okay. Thanks, Dave.

Operator

Please standby for the next question. The next question comes from Elizabeth Anderson with Evercore. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hi, guys. Thanks so much for the question. I guess it's sort of just related to what David was just asking. So do you feel like you're fully Staffed at sort of 100% capacity, particularly in the customer facing roles and even sort of the back office roles would also be helpful. And then I guess I heard what you said and thank you for all the detail around sort of the IT investment and the procurement changes.

Speaker 5

Can you sort of talk to us about how you think of that Margin journey, is this kind of like a 3 year margin journey? I assume it's not like a 1 year margin journey. So if you could just kind of lay out how you kind of broadly think about the

Speaker 2

Jill, can I try that let me go ahead and Jill, like all CFOs, has 100 numbers in her head here, so she can help We generally are operationally staffed to deliver the business that we have? And we've talked in this call that we're going to make sure that we're aligning our cost structure with the revenues that we have. And there'll be more information on that in the coming quarter. In general, what our goal is here, 2024 is a year that we would like to return to the kind of performance you saw in 2022 by the time we exit the year. And then, on top of that, as we exit the TSAs, we'd like to start moving toward Those industry benchmarks of our competitors.

Speaker 2

I think we publicly said there are a couple of competitors who have a business mix to a little bit more like ours, And we would go ahead and target those over time. We have a very intense effort coming up over the next 6 weeks To detail out the programs that we've already started associated with both how we're more successful in the marketplace, but also how we get the cost structure in line over the longer term. That help Elizabeth?

Speaker 5

Yes, that's very helpful. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Operator

Please stand by for the next question. The next question comes from Casey Woodring with JPMorgan. Your line is Spin.

Speaker 6

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. And yes, I'll give you a 2 parter as well. So I think going back to the Analyst Day, I think you noted that there are some customers that have been waiting until the spin closed, until they would kind of book business with you. So curious if that's something you're expecting, if that's upside to the guide or not?

Speaker 6

And then also at the Analyst Day, you kind of spoke about how your smaller scale compared to the other larger CROs was actually a competitive advantage. You spoke to it again today on The Goldilocks size, just curious on what your value proposition is against some of those bigger players. You talked Less layers that a customer needs to go through. Can you just elaborate on that? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you very much. In all candor, it's not as if we have a queue of opportunities waiting. I think The way this industry works in general, we saw some opportunities during the course of the year and people deferred or Went to others because they were a little concerned. They didn't know who leadership was.

Speaker 2

They didn't know exactly what would happen. And in this industry, if there's uncertainty, everybody sells against you. So we don't have a queue. I think the interesting thing is this quarter, Over the last few months, the organization has worked hard to try to really make sure we're getting exposure to opportunities And really work on how we collaborate as a team and how we bring our differentiation forward in terms of winning business. And we're seeing some success out of that.

Speaker 2

So As I mentioned, July was the best 1st month of a quarter since 2021 and one of the better ones of last several years for sure even with COVID considered. So we think that that pipeline is now shaping up with some work on it is shaping up for us to achieve attractive growth. With respect to our Goldilocks size, yes, I mean, the other guys have gotten some have gotten pretty big. So our management is accessible. I'd say if customers are listening, when I Mark Marias, who's our COO of Clinical Services, when we get involved with They get our mobile phone numbers.

Speaker 2

We get involved in their product. So we're happy to engage as management team from top to bottom, make Sure, we own the product with them. I think we have a great proposition in data sciences. We've actually moved, there's been this explosion of third party providers. We're going to leverage our experience with the LabCorp data to really be able to do stacks of data providers to bring clinical Clinical information to clinical research.

Speaker 2

We're going to invest in some very strategic Technology choices that overlay, we've already got one very interesting tool that's used by our customers to try to understand their projects And we're going to invest behind that further. We continue to look at process automation and other tools. We have some great talent here. We have over 700 medical doctors in this organization and very much on par with the largest. And so we're going to make sure that that is fully leveraged In coming months, we're changing how we interact and deal with medical docs.

Speaker 2

So just without going into the whole sales pitch, I think it's pretty our customers are responding really well to the essentially the dusty jewels and new jewels that are here to bring to these opportunities.

Speaker 6

Great. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Please standby for the next question. The next question will come from Max Smock with William Blair. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Just a 2 part here for me as well. Just at a higher level, one of the things you talked about at the Analyst Day was Your expectation for the CRO market to grow by roughly 3% to 5% in 2024. Just wondering if there's been any change there over the last couple of months And what your thoughts are in terms of the timeline for that market growth stepping back up to 6% to 9%.

Speaker 7

And then More near term, also just wanted to confirm the FSP contract loss that was a headwind here in the first half of the year. Is there any lingering impact from that contract loss in the second half of 2023 or is that out of the story here at this point? Thank you.

Speaker 2

I'll give Jill a little airtime on the FSP in a minute. We see the market the same way. We haven't had any data that contradicts or changes our view that It's basically very much as you described Max that the CRO market's a little bit slower this year coming probably off the frothiness of COVID. And then we see out somewhere 2024, 2025 that we're expecting a return to normalcy of that Higher single digit growth rate by that combination of outsourcing and R and D growth. Again, we use third parties for this though.

Speaker 2

So The only thing that we do here really with it is we say is that what it feels like. Luckily for us because We are medium sized, 19,000 people being medium sized CRO. We market growth like that It's a big opportunity for us because we don't have to put down the same absolute numbers as our competitors. So we view that kind of market growth as an exceptional opportunity for us. Jill, do you want to talk a little bit about the FSP?

Speaker 3

Yes. So thanks, Max. As we had shared, yes, the predominance of the impact is in the first half and you can see that in continuing in the second quarter. There is a little bit that lingers into To the second half, but it's pretty minor immaterial at this point. The majority of it was in the first half of this year.

Speaker 2

Got it. And maybe just a quick thing, Max, about that customers, they are now come have come back to us to potentially propose on other stuff. So it's funny how this world works.

Speaker 7

Understood. Thank you. Maybe just a quick follow-up, in terms of what's embedded in the guidance for clinical 1 of the things that maybe stood out in 2022, I think enabling services was down 8%. It's stepped down pretty meaningfully here in the first half of the year. Just wondering how we should think about the long term growth rate for this segment and what you need to do in order to improve your performance there moving forward?

Speaker 7

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. I'm glad you asked about Enabling Services because we didn't treat it too much in the prepared remarks. It's interesting, there are Two major things in there. 1 is patient access services and the other one is a IRT or randomization tool That we call Endpoint, it's actually branded as Endpoint. And what we as we've been looking at it strategically, The patient access business is actually very attractive business.

Speaker 2

It's a $3,000,000,000 to $4,000,000,000 business. The competitors are, I would call them vulnerable in that business. Covance was a leader in this business if you went back a decade. And to be perfectly honest with you, it seems to us there's been a little bit of underinvestment associated with our offering there. So we have a new leader who is taking a fresh look at that business and we have won some pretty big projects there, But they're in an investment period.

Speaker 2

So you've got a double effect going on the patient access side. One side is The call center related work is a little bit lumpy and has had some fall off, as Jill said in her remarks. But another aspect of that business, other aspects of patient access services that we're building are actually growing and could be significant contributors to revenue next But they're in a fairly capital intensive process right now. So that one, We think it's got very good prospects. It's a little bit of a people don't understand the opportunity in that marketplace To the degree there is an opportunity.

Speaker 2

And so we are looking at how we can invest in that area and return to Covance's leadership. Endpoint is actually one of the leaders in this randomization tool. And I'm really pleased that our leader of enabling services Actually created the leader of these services, which is another CRO a few years ago. He turned it around and created it. And so I have I'm very optimistic about the future for Endpoint too because we literally have the best guy in the industry running that.

Speaker 2

So just a little bit on it. I think you'll see it be a bit of a drag through the rest of the year to be honest with you. And then as we bring more customer products into Patient Access next year, We'll start seeing that revenue situation turnaround. Got it. Thank you again for taking our questions.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Please standby for the next question. The next question comes from Sandy Draper with Guggenheim. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Thanks so much. I think the question is probably directed at Jill for the just trying to understand the backlog. I I think I understood you correctly, Jill, when you said you're now booking FSP work with a 2 year. And I'm just curious what it was before. Is it I'm assuming the full contract or was it shorter?

Speaker 8

And then I wasn't clear on the Other metrics, there were some changes you said about where you would include backlog if it was not recognized. I'm just trying to understand an example of maybe some How a contract would work where it wouldn't be in backlog, be recognizing revenue or would be the contract? I just got a little bit confused, so I apologize for maybe a really basic Just trying to understand the mechanics of the backlog change. Thanks so much.

Speaker 3

Sure, Sandy. I'm happy to address that. So in terms of SSP, historically, we took largely the full award at the time of contract signature. And we've decided that going forward, we would take 1 year on renewals since they're already in the run rate And then 2 years on a new award, and that reflects a bit of the revenue ramp that you would get out of the new award. So that is the change compared to the previous Period.

Speaker 3

In terms of the restating of the backlog, I think there's always there are literally 100 and 100, maybe 1,000 of projects Ongoing at any point in time. And so when we went back and as we were doing this opportunity to look, we realized that there were some places where We had projects that were giving us current revenue and have revenue to burn where there was no backlog in there. And then we had the opposite where some over 6 So months we hadn't seen any revenue and so we felt like it was appropriate to pull that out. We also took into account any changes in scope that we had from So it was really just an opportunity to ensure the robustness of everything that was in there. It wasn't a material adjustment, but it was part of the overall adjustment.

Speaker 3

The other two adjustments that I mentioned, pulling out enabling services and this adjustment to the FSP actually pulled out a much bigger percentage of that 1.27 And that all still remains as a valid backlog for the future. It's just we felt like it was better to be More consistent going forward and it will also allow us as we go forward to kind of better improve backlog burn and have that be more reflective of the nature of the backlog.

Speaker 8

Okay, great. That's really helpful. So essentially, the changes were just a way to clean up the backlog now that you're going to be an independent public company to help People analyze the business where when you're part of larger organization, it can be looked at a little bit differently. So it's really just a, hey, we have this opportunity To set the stage and make sure it's as clean as possible.

Speaker 3

Exactly, yes.

Speaker 2

You nailed it.

Speaker 8

Hey, Tom, thanks so much. One quick follow-up.

Speaker 2

I don't

Speaker 8

know, have you guys said your bookings policy, whether you book on written contract, verbal award, once the truck project starts, How your methodology on taking a bookings event for a clinical?

Speaker 3

Yes. No, I'm happy to cover that. So we do require a written contract For us to be able to take the award and we only start to recognize it into backlog that if the revenue is going to start to burn within 12 months, otherwise we'd hold it until we get within 12 month window. So that's essentially the approach for how we will recognize. Yes.

Speaker 2

And that's consistent conservative Policy we adopted from LabCorp, so. Yes. That particular question.

Speaker 8

Yes. I appreciate that. Appreciate the conservatism. And Tom, nice to talk to you again.

Speaker 2

Nice to see you, Sandy.

Operator

Please stand by for the next question. The next question comes from Derik De Bruin with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Speaker 9

Hi, good morning everyone. Thank you for taking my question. I have a couple. I think the first one is just I know, Jill, it's a little bit too early to maybe give full color on Any full color on 2024, but given where the EBITDA numbers are this year and just any color at all we can talk about how you sort of see progression And doing like this just as I think that your number for this year came in below a lot of expectations, obviously, given the cost and things like that. But just any incremental color On 24?

Speaker 3

Yes. I mean, Derek, we're not in a position yet to be able to provide that. We understand that it's challenging. As Tom had said in his remarks, we are attempting to ensure that by the end of next year, we're on a run rate, Which is consistent with the where we kind of where we exited 2022 on an overall basis, we won't get there for the full year, I don't think. But in terms of trying to come back and be consistent with those margins to Back to where we were really prior around the period of time the spin was announced before the impact of all these Challenges in terms of the awards and everything have come through.

Speaker 3

So we are working on that to the extent that we have more ability with the margin plans to give you detail on that We will. We're just not able at this time to be able to give you that stepwise progression.

Speaker 2

And Derek, you know our business pretty well And you know that essentially we when we book a sale, so we have new bookings And then that starts burning sometime usually within 6 months, sometimes a little longer, certainly shorter sometimes. And so there's no question that second half new business is important. And we said We feel good about the pipeline. The team has been working hard to fill it. They've been working on how we close, looking at other opportunities.

Speaker 2

But there is no question that our 2024 will be impacted by what we're able to show you. Now Rome isn't built in a day, But the but we're optimistic about the remainder of the year and that will help 2024.

Speaker 9

Got it. Thank you. Just it's a good Tom, just a follow-up on that one. Have you Just going back to the market, any pickup in cancellations that you've seen, any changes in farmer behavior, just given some of the Pipeline reprioritizations and just going on with this. And just are you getting any sense that once we get a little bit more clarity on the IRAs and the other things that that's going to Their interest is going to pick up.

Speaker 9

Just wondering what you should sort of think about the market progression. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. Let me start with the market and then Joe can talk Specifically about cancellations, we feel like we're essentially past those any of the portfolio reprioritization that was Taking place, some of it seemed to be related to just normal activities, some of it might have been IRA. So we feel like based on what we're seeing, we're past that. It's not really much of a discussion item anymore. And Jill, what Yes.

Speaker 3

On cancellations, our first half average is just really consistent with our historical norms. In fact, the second quarter was slightly lower than the So we're not seeing any major issues around cancellations at all. It's very in line with our normal low single digits

Speaker 2

Thank you, Derek. Do we have the next person?

Operator

I show no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Tom Pike for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Well, I just want to thank everyone for joining us today. Let's put this spin year behind us and you'll see what this management team can do. And you'll see it as we meet with you, talk to you, but I'm really optimistic about the positioning of this company, The industry we're in and the talent base we have that will make a real contribution to our customers, to patients and that will produce great financial returns. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Fortrea Q2 2023
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