Climb Global Solutions Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 3, 2023

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Climb Global Solutions Financial Results for the 2nd Quarter Ended June 30, 2023. Joining us today are Klim's CEO, Mr. Dale Foster the company's CFO, Mr. Drew Clark and the company's Investor Relations Advisor, Mr. Sean Mansouri with Elevate IR.

Operator

By now, everyone should have access to the Q2 2023 earnings press release, which was issued yesterday afternoon at approximately 4:0:5 p. M. Eastern Time. The release is available in the Investor Relations section of Climb Global Solutions website at www climglobalsolutions.com. This call will also be available for webcast replay on the company's website.

Operator

Following management's remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Mansouri for introductory comments.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Carmen. Before I introduce Dale, I'd like to remind listeners that certain comments made on this conference call and webcast are considered forward looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements are subject to with certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties as well as assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward looking statements. These forward looking statements are also subject to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the company's filings with the SEC. Do not place undue reliance on any forward looking statements, which are being made only as of the date of this call.

Speaker 1

Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to any forward looking statements. Our presentation also includes certain non GAAP financial measures, including adjusted gross billings, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and EPS and effective margin as supplemental measures of performance of our business. All non GAAP measures have been reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with SEC rules. Quarter. You'll find reconciliation charts and other important information in the earnings press release and Form 8 ks we furnished to the SEC yesterday.

Speaker 1

I'll now turn the call over to Klim's CEO, Dale Foster.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Sean, and good morning, everyone. During the quarter, we continued to execute on our core initiatives to generate growth within our existing vendor base, while adding new innovative vendors to our line card. This led to another period of double digit growth to the top line in our 9th consecutive quarter of profitability improvement. In addition, throughout the quarter, we made strategic investments in our operating systems, new personnel, sales territory expansion and training and development programs to reinforce our foundation. With a clean and efficient infrastructure and continuous focus on strengthening our line card, we are well positioned to continue our plans to grow for growth and profitability as we scale our global footprint.

Speaker 2

We are committed to a focused line card, which enabled us to partner with the most strategic and cutting edge technology vendors in the market. Out of the 38 brands we evaluated through the 2nd quarter, We signed agreements with only 4 of them. Quickly touching on a few of our latest wins. First, we partnered with Jamf, a publicly traded company that provides end to end systems management and security solutions for an Apple first environment that is enterprise secure, ConsumerSimple and Protects Personal Privacy. Next, we finalized our agreement with offensive security, a leading provider of Professional and Workforce Development Training and Support Cybersecurity.

Speaker 2

Offensive Security will be a viable cross sell within our security offerings, which is one of our growing segments of our business. And finally, we signed GitLab to our line card, the most comprehensive AI powered DevSecOps platform in the world. We look forward to building a prosperous relationship with each of these vendors as we take their products to market. In addition to our vendor wins, in April, we entered into a strategic partnership with another distributor called Radius. This unique partnership enabled us to leverage the Radius line card for direct sales in other markets, while providing them with an infrastructure trend to transact.

Speaker 2

In particular, Radius has a strong vendor relationship with Tanium, a cybersecurity and systems management company, which has been a consistent winner in the market with a commitment to selling through the distribution channel. Drew will expand on the mechanics of this partnership later in the call. In late May, we announced our inclusion into the Russell 3,000 Index, which we became which became effective on June 26. This achievement is a testament to the dedication and consistent execution of our entire global employee network, as well as our outstanding customers and vendors. We celebrate this milestone by ringing in the new NASDAQ closing bell in Manhattan a few weeks ago.

Speaker 2

I couldn't be prouder of the team we've built and look forward to achieving even greater success in the years ahead. As we enter the back half of the year, we have a solid foundation in place to continue driving organic growth with existing vendors while adding new innovative vendors to our line card. We will also continue to evaluate M and A opportunities that can enhance our service and solutions as well as our geographic footprint. These initiatives coupled with a robust balance sheet will enable us to execute organic and inorganic growth and profitability objectives in 2023. With that, I will turn the call over to our CFO, Drew Clark, to take you through the financial results.

Speaker 2

Drew?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Dale, and good morning, everyone. As we review our Q2 financial results, I would like to remind everyone that all comparisons and variance commentary referred to the prior year quarter unless otherwise specified. While we had another strong quarter, it was not quite as boring as the previous 8. So let's jump in. As reported in our earnings press release, adjusted gross billings or AGB, which is a non GAAP measure, increased 14% to $274,700,000 compared to $241,800,000 in the year ago quarter.

Speaker 3

In addition, net sales in the Q2 of 2023 increased 20% to $81,700,000 compared to 67,900,000 which primarily reflects organic growth from new and existing vendors. As we have communicated before, we focus on AGB as the through metric of our growth as the calculation of net sales is influenced by product mix and the respective adjustments to convert AGV to net sales for financial reporting purposes under GAAP. In the second quarter, we had an increase in sales of products such as Tintry that included hardware and therefore a lower adjustment from the AGB to net sales. Gross profit in the 2nd quarter increased 10% $13,700,000 compared to $12,500,000 Again, the increase was primarily driven by organic growth from new vendors as well as our existing top 20 vendors in North America and Europe. This growth was partially offset by customers taking advantage of early pay discounts at a greater level than in the prior year.

Speaker 3

Gross profit as a percentage of adjusted gross billings was 5% compared to 5.2% as a percentage of net sales was 16.8% compared to 18.4% in the prior year quarter, both of those impacted by the early pay discounts taken by the customers in 2023 compared to 2022. SG and A expenses in the 2nd quarter were $11,600,000 compared to $7,900,000 for the same period in 2022. SG and A as a percentage of adjusted gross billings was 4.2% compared to 3.3% in the year ago period. The increase was primarily attributed to the previously announced and well deserved one time $1,800,000 grant of common stock to Dale in April 2023. As most investors are aware, the grant is a non cash charge and has no impact on our adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker 3

In addition, SG and A increased as a result of investments made to improve our infrastructure as Dale referenced earlier including new personnel, ERP and training and development costs. Commissions which are variable expense increased over the prior year's quarter due to the growth in AGV. Altogether, our SG and A included approximately 400,000 of expenses that are non recurring in nature. For the second half of the year, we expect SG and A as a percentage of AGB will be more consistent with the most recent trends and decline in 2024 after we've implemented our new ERP and continue to scale our operations. It's important to note that our newly formed distribution partnership with Radius has a different economic profile than our typical vendor partnerships.

Speaker 3

The Economics and Mechanics are such that we recognize the total AGB generated by Radius. However, we pay Radius 70% of their GP through SG and A, as they are effectively running their own sales operations while utilizing our infrastructure to transact business. Despite the different economic profile, this partnership is accretive to net income and adjusted EBITDA. And as Dale mentioned earlier, offers direct cross sell opportunities with their vendors in other geographies. Net income in the Q2 of 2023 was 1,400,000 or $0.31 per diluted share compared to $2,800,000 or $0.63 per diluted share for the comparable period in 2022.

Speaker 3

The decrease was primarily attributed to higher SG and A as well as increased early pay discounts. Adjusted net income, a non GAAP measure, which excludes the one time stock grant increased 12 percent to $3,100,000 or $0.72 per diluted share compared to $2,800,000 or $0.63 per diluted share the year ago period. Adjusted EBITDA in the 2nd quarter increased 4 percent to $4,700,000 compared to 4,500,000 The increase was driven by organic growth from both new and existing vendors, partially offset by investments made in our infrastructure and costs associated with our acquisition of Spinnaker in August of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of gross profit or effective margin was 34.1% compared to 35.8% the year ago period. Our effective margin and drop through were impacted by Radius and aforementioned increase in customer early paid discounts.

Speaker 3

Before diving into our liquidity position, I'd like to touch on our new credit with JPMorgan Chase in May. The 5 year secured revolving credit facility has a borrowing capacity of up to $50,000,000 and an accordion feature to increase the size of the facility up to $70,000,000 This facility replaced our previous $20,000,000 secured line of credit with Citibank, which was set to expire in June of this year. Under the new agreement, the interest rate is based on adjusted term SOFR plus 1.5% to 1.75% spread. We look forward to working with the JPMC team as we now have additional capital and flexibility to fund our growth and execute on our strategic initiatives in the years ahead. Turning to our balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents were $43,900,000 on June 30, 2023 compared to $20,200,000 on December 31, 2022, while working capital increased by $3,400,000 during this period.

Speaker 3

The increase in cash was primarily attributed to the timing of receivable collections and vendor payments. As of June 30, 2023, We had $1,600,000 of outstanding debt from the term loan that we closed in April of 'twenty two, which the proceeds were used to fund certain capital expenditures. We had no borrowings outstanding under our new $50,000,000 revolving credit facility with JPMC. Subsequent to quarter end and consistent with prior quarters, our Board of Directors declared on August 1, 2023, a quarterly dividend of $0.017 per share of our common stock, payable on August 18, 2023 to shareholders of record as of August 14, 2023. To echo Dale's point earlier, We will continue to utilize our robust liquidity position to evaluate M and A opportunities both domestically and abroad to enhance our service and solutions offerings across existing and future geographies.

Speaker 3

We look forward to executing our organic and inorganic objectives and delivering another period of strong results in the back half of twenty twenty three and beyond. In summary, we are proud of the effort of our global team to generate another quarter of double digit growth in AGB and operating EPS, which excludes the one time stock rent. This now concludes our prepared remarks. We'll open it up for questions from those participating in the call. Thank you.

Speaker 3

And now back to you, operator.

Operator

Thank you. You will hear a message advising your hand is One moment while we compile the Q and A roster. Our first question is from Vincent Colicchio with Barrington Research. Please proceed.

Speaker 4

Yes. Good morning, guys. Dale, curious, are you seeing any changes in the demand backdrop from last quarter to the current period. In particular, are you seeing any pushback on pricing or any changes in sales cycles?

Speaker 3

You're talking from Q1 to Q2, Vince, Michael?

Speaker 2

I'm sorry? Yes, from Q1 to Q2. So We haven't really seen that. We've seen some of our competitors that are more hardware centric or centered that they've seen a little slowdown as People have stopped buying as much hardware, but we haven't really seen that. We haven't seen it from our vendors.

Speaker 2

We have seen some consolidation of vendors not going with as many distributors. So they're trimming that and we've been fortunate enough to make it through those Because they're looking at a broad line and then somebody that's much more strategic and that we typically fit that and there's not a lot of competition on the strategic side. So, I haven't seen really a pullback.

Speaker 4

And are you seeing strength in the same technology segments as the prior quarter? Any changes there?

Speaker 2

We are. I mean, we're seeing a little slowdown in the data center side, but we are heavy security. If you look at our we put it out in a lot of our marketing. We have excuse me, 6 segments we focus on, security being one of the biggest ones. A lot of our vendors are all claiming security and now we're starting to see the of course the AI terms propagate into much of their marketing, slicks and what they're promoting, but haven't.

Speaker 2

And we're continually looking for adjacent markets that are outside of our normal 6 categories to say, hey, this is something we should really start diving into and we've got some that we'll probably announce in Q3, Q4.

Speaker 4

And did the growth of the top 20 vendors grow in line with the business, any exceptions there?

Speaker 3

Very consistent in terms of the vendor mix in our top 20. We've got some new emerging vendors that are starting to chip away at the top 20. We expect that that will mix of top 20 will shift slightly as we get to the end of the year and move into 2024.

Speaker 2

Vince, if you look at some of the vendors, if you look at some of the sizes, we a lot of times you'll see a vendor that's in that they've raised $20,000,000 $30,000,000 they have that much in revenue, but now we have a couple of vendors we've signed there in the $300,000,000 $400,000,000 range and they're really accepting distribution as their go to market. Have you seen a lot of the technology companies, you've just been a little cautious with the economy. So they're trimming and they're just putting more leverage We're expecting more from the channel, which is a good thing for us.

Speaker 4

And lastly, On the acquisition side, have valuations continued to improve? And if so, does that make you more feel better about getting something done here in the near term?

Speaker 2

Yes, if you look at some of the targets, it varies because if it's overseas, the margins are typically higher. So the Multiples are typically they're looking for a higher multiple. I think some of those have softened a little bit, not drastic. I haven't seen a big change in that.

Speaker 4

Okay. I'll go back in the queue. Thanks guys.

Speaker 2

Thanks Vince.

Operator

Thank you. And one moment for our next question please. Next question comes from the line of Howard Root. Please proceed.

Speaker 5

Good morning, Dale and Drew. Can you hear me okay?

Speaker 2

Yes, sure can.

Speaker 5

Sure. So nice job on the quarter, continued nice progress. I got 3 questions, if you won't mind this morning. One more for Drew on the SG and A. So the jump up year over year was about 3 point $7,000,000 and I understand that the $1,800,000 was at one time stock grant, which hopefully the Board doesn't do that again.

Speaker 5

They level load that going forward, so we don't have that issue. But that but then there was $400,000 I think you said Drew, which was these one time professional service fees that you mentioned in the press release. So that's $2,200,000 But then there's about another $1,500,000 year over year. But then If I'm looking sequentially, it just went up from $10,300,000 to $11,600,000 which is a $1,300,000 increase, which isn't even the amount of the stock grant and certainly not that included. So can you give me a little hint level loaded that, What do you expect?

Speaker 5

I mean Q3 or level loaded in Q2, what's the appropriate number of SG and A as we're looking forward on a dollar amount?

Speaker 3

Yes, on a dollar amount, so part of that delta between the prior year Q and this Q was a variable component commissions. So if you looked at AGB compared to quarter over quarter, commissions were Commensurately increased. So we had again a variable comp expense, but probably about $500,000 plus in incremental commission expense associated with Q3 excuse me, Q2 of 2023. And then We had some payroll related expense associated with sales grant that obviously is not will not reoccur in the prior The subsequent quarter that was about 150 ks give or take. So I think on a level set basis, you'll see us pull back to a level that's going to be probably closer to $10,000,000 $10,200,000

Speaker 5

Okay, great. Yes. So if you take the $2,200,000 off of the $11,600,000 that's what the SG and A would have been for that level of adjusted gross billings.

Speaker 2

Howard, I want to add to that though. So we're going to be opportunistic and sometimes we I think of the whole field of dreams if you build it, they will come. Sometimes we have to build into what the vendors are asking if they want us to take over the renewals platform. We have to Start investing in our team members to do that and we've done a separate renewal team and we've had to add to that. So we'll be opportunistic as they're starting to push more things off of their plate and into the channel.

Speaker 2

Of course, we get paid for that, but usually it's a little lagging. So we are going to be and do that. So I don't want to say that that's going to be perfect, But the 3rd quarters, we have 2 vendors come in and say, hey, we want you to do this, this and this. We want you to run our incumbency program that we don't want to run and we don't want to have it another one of your So it's going to be some ebbs inflows, but not at the level of 1 quarter.

Speaker 3

Yes. And Howard, even though we don't provide granular guidance, detailed guidance on a quarterly basis. I can tell you that from an internal perspective, Our operating expense was spot on with our internal expectations and part of that is increased headcount, right. We acquired Spinnaker last year. We brought on some additional headcount that was not reflected in Q2 of 2022.

Speaker 3

So of I think 10 plus Spinnaker employees, I think 7 or 8 of those folks remain with us, including obviously Gerard is the Chief Revenue Officer over to EMEA now and still running some significant vendor opportunities there. So we do have some built in headcount increases that we expected and planned for. So that's part of the year over year change in SG and A as well.

Speaker 5

Okay, fair enough. Second question on adjusted gross billings, I mean, a nice increase year over year, up $33,000,000 or 14%. But if I look from quarter 1 to quarter 2, it's down $32,000,000 sequentially, that wasn't the quarter. I would expect Q4 down Q1 maybe, but Is there a sequential aspect to that or what sequentially on that drop in adjusted gross billings? What were you seeing there?

Speaker 5

And what do you expect kind of going forward?

Speaker 3

Yes, Howard. So again, we were on target with our own internal expectations. What happened in Q1 was a significant vast transaction that landed in Q1 that we didn't expect. Q2 Spinnaker didn't quite perform at the same level. VAST opportunities got pushed out because of some data center of delays over in Western Europe, data center builds in both new construction and expansion slowed down due to the economic headwinds over in Western Europe.

Speaker 3

Interest rates obviously grows, so a lot of the data center owner operators slowed down some of their process, which therefore slowdown some of the vast opportunities that we have with Spinnaker. Nothing's gone off the pipeline. They've just moved out into future quarters. And as we indicated previously when we acquired Spinnaker and have made comments each quarter, there is going to be some cyclicality or lumpiness to the Spinnaker acquisition. We're going to have some really strong quarters.

Speaker 3

We're going to have some ebbs and flows and some dips just because longer sales cycles for some of the vendor products like Deep Instinct and VAST, but they're much larger in size and much higher margins. So we believe that once we get into probably a normalized run rate into 2024 and beyond with some of those vendors like VAST and data center related vendors that will get more consistency quarter after quarter, but there's going to be a little bit of lumpinessrollercoaster over the next several quarters.

Speaker 5

Okay. And then my last question kind of related there is on forward guidance. I know you don't give it, but At what point will you start at least giving next quarter guidance or some long term targets? It's kind of the same question every call is like What do you see? Where are you in this market?

Speaker 5

Where are you in the revenue ramp? Is this linear? Is this just starting? Is this starting to need acquisitions to keep the growth going. It'd be just helpful to kind of get your take on it in this call and then going forward to get more guidance or at least long term targets for you, so we can kind of judge where this company is headed.

Speaker 5

So what can you say kind of where you are right now? Yes. I think

Speaker 2

the best thing we just won't give detailed guidance. We're not at that stage right now that we feel comfortable with that. But I can tell you, We can just talk about the industry in general and what we actually see. And I think that anybody that's called us for a while has noticed The consolidation in the North American market has happened in distribution as far as acquisitions. In the European market, that is our target and that is really our Greenfield that we're going to be going after.

Speaker 2

So that we see a lot of targets over there. So that's on the acquisition front. There's plenty of targets. It's almost as many Targets that I talk about as our CMO Charles Bass talks about with emerging vendors. But I still think you need to look at us from the vendors we signed.

Speaker 2

And if you look at some of the names, of course, unless you're super deep into the technology field, you don't you never heard some of these names. If you go to Crunchbase, you'll actually look them into what they're actually doing and how they're growing. We believe we should grow and continue to grow organically in that and 15% range because that's what emerging vendors grow at. They don't grow at GDP where an established vendor grows at unless they're acquiring companies. So that's our broad line competitors are growing in that 3% to 4% GDP range, we're not growing at all.

Speaker 2

So That's what we focus as an internal team. That's what we see and that's what we're going to continually trying to drive to is that emerging vendor. As we get more established vendors, yes, we'll see some slowdown because they become a larger piece of it. The margins can bend a little bit and they don't grow fast, but we still consider some of Top vendors as emerging because there's still sub-one $1,000,000,000 companies.

Speaker 5

Okay, Fair enough. Every quarter just the more you give guidance and perspective and whatever you can do, especially into next year, The more helpful it is for us to see what's going on and where we're headed. But nice quarter again, great job, continue good work and hope things continue.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Howard.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. All right. We have Vincent Colicchio with a follow-up from Barrington Research. Please proceed.

Speaker 4

Yes, Dale, you just cited that 10% to 15% growth number for the type of client you work Would you say that's sort of the level they're on target for this year?

Speaker 3

Yes. I mean, as you

Speaker 2

can tell That's what we look at individual vendors that we do. I'm not I don't want to be held to the overall global piece of it. But if you look at our vendor mix, That is where we're trying to grow at. And there's some things that come at us. Like I said, we're opportunistic on some of our expenses when we have Build into a quarter and saying, hey, we have to have this team.

Speaker 2

But yes, that's our goal. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 3

And Vincent, I would have stated this earlier as well. And I understand the markets need and investors need for perhaps a little more guidance along the way, but we're in this for the long game. We're not focused on quarter to quarter. As Dale said, we're going to be opportunistic both in our organic Growth in organic investments as well as our acquisition opportunities, which that pipeline is fairly robust. But I would say that We're comfortable that our adjusted gross billings will continue to have a low double digit growth quarter to quarter maybe different, but overall over the next several years, we're very confident that it will grow this business at the same rate as our vendor population grows.

Speaker 4

Okay. And then Dale, one last one. Should we continue to expect you to add approximately 3 vendors each quarter? Is that sort of the game plan?

Speaker 2

It's not really. It's what we actually see and when they're ready to go, Some of them, of course, we want a lot are more excited about signing them than they are signing us as far as they're going and setting up their further channel structure. Yes, I mean sometimes it's going to be a couple, sometimes it might be 5. We're trying to trim, but we still continue to trim. We talk about who we add.

Speaker 2

We really don't talk about who we trend. So we push a lot of vendors over to Climb Elevate, which is now over 500 vendors that they actually transact, but it takes it out of the core, client business. So it doesn't get marketing dollars spent on it. It doesn't get any really focused. So there's nothing there other than that via transactional and Systems connection to our customers.

Speaker 2

So we'll continue to do that. We've also launched Climb Elevate over in the UK. So they're doing the same thing over there. We'll get more efficient and then with our ERP coming online, we'll all be talking the exact same language and make it a little easier for us across the pond.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 5

Thanks Ed.

Operator

Thank you all for your questions. I will pass it back to Del Foster for final remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator. Thank you to the shareholders and thank you to the client team globally. We're going to continue to Deliver on our core initiatives as a company and I look forward to talking to you next quarter.

Operator

Thank you. And this does conclude the conference. You may all disconnect. Thank

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Climb Global Solutions Q2 2023
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