NYSE:CNNE Cannae Q3 2024 Earnings Report $13.87 +0.33 (+2.46%) Closing price 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$13.85 -0.02 (-0.17%) As of 05:36 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Cannae EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.22Consensus EPS -$0.22Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPS-$2.18Cannae Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$113.90 millionExpected Revenue$105.67 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$8.23 millionYoY Revenue Growth-20.70%Cannae Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2024Date11/12/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateTuesday, November 12, 2024Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsCannae's Q2 2026 earnings is estimated for Monday, August 10, 2026, based on past reporting schedules, with a conference call scheduled at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)SEC FilingEarnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Cannae Q3 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 12, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways In October, Cannae acquired a 53% stake in Watkins Company, a leading spices and seasoning firm expected to drive NAV growth and provide cash flow through preferred dividends. Cannae completed the sale of its remaining Dayforce shares, realizing $2.8 billion from share sales and distributions after a 17-year partnership, marking a successful exit. The Black Knight Football platform saw value creation with the record £65 million (≈$84 million) sale of Dominic Solanke to Tottenham and continued on-field success, positioning it as a growing global football investment. Through Q3, Cannae returned $243 million to shareholders via share buybacks and dividends and will pay a $0.12 quarterly dividend in December to support its capital return strategy. Q3 total revenues dropped to $114 million from $144 million year-over-year, reflecting 35 fewer restaurant locations and margin pressure from promotional bundling in the casual dining segment. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallCannae Q3 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cannae Holdings' third quarter 2024 financial results conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the company's prepared remarks, the conference will be open for questions with instructions to follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, and a replay is available through 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time on November 26, 2024. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jamie Lillis of Solebury Strategic Communications. Please go ahead. Jamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic Communications00:00:37Thank you, Operator, and all of you for joining us. On the call today, we have Ryan Caswell, Cannae's president, and Bryan Coy, our chief financial officer. But before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that this conference call and the Q&A following our remarks may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Cannae's expectations, hopes, intentions, or strategies regarding the future, are forward-looking statements. Jamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic Communications00:01:08Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future financial and operating results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Jamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic Communications00:01:40The risks and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to, the risks and other factors detailed in our quarterly shareholder letter, which was released this afternoon, and in our other filings with the SEC. Today's remarks will also include references to non-GAAP financial measures. Additional information, including a reconciliation between the non-GAAP financial information to the GAAP financial information, is provided in our shareholder letter. I would now like to turn the call over to Ryan. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:02:15Thank you, Jamie, and good afternoon, everyone. On our first call this year, Bill outlined a strategic plan designed to increase the net asset value, or NAV, of our portfolio and close our share price discount to NAV. Our strategy has three main levers, including improving the performance and valuation of our portfolio companies, making new investments primarily in private companies that will grow NAV, and returning capital to shareholders. I believe that we are making progress on all fronts, and I will highlight a few items relating to each. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:02:54As I did last quarter, I will then discuss the results of several of our portfolio companies in more detail. We are working to rebalance our portfolio away from some of our public company investments and into new private company investments. As part of this strategy, in October, we announced the acquisition of a 53% stake in The Watkins Company. Watkins was founded over 150 years ago and has a strong market position and brand recognition within the fragmented spices, seasoning, and extracts category, one of the highest growth categories within the overall U.S. food industry. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:03:36We are excited about the deal structure. The existing owner, one of only two owners in the history of the company, is partnering with us and will own approximately 40% of the business. Additionally, we are partnering with KDSA, an investment firm focused on founder-led and family-owned businesses in the food and beverage sectors. We believe the company has a substantial opportunity to grow distribution across existing and new retailers, expand into other ancillary products, and could be an attractive platform for future acquisitions, all of which will accelerate the company's growth and profitability. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:04:21Furthermore, we believe this business will provide cash flow to Cannae through preferred dividends and equity distributions. As part of our portfolio rebalancing, we sold the final shares held in Dayforce this quarter. This concludes an incredibly successful investment for Cannae from first investing in Dayforce, then known as Ceridian, 17 years ago when it was a large service bureau-based business. Over the years, we applied our playbook to improve the company's management and operations, conduct accretive M&A, and drive synergies and efficiencies across the business. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:05:03We sold Comdata in 2014 and subsequently IPO'd the remaining business in 2018. Since that time, Cannae has sold 37 million shares of Dayforce, realizing $2.8 billion from the sale of those shares and distributions. I would like to thank Dave Ossip and his entire management team for all the success and partnership over the years. I now want to spend a few minutes discussing how we are improving the value of our portfolio companies as it relates to Black Knight Football. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:05:39We continue to invest time and capital into building out Black Knight Football, and although still early in the investment cycle, we believe we are starting to see the impact of these actions on value creation. As we discussed previously, last season, AFC Bournemouth achieved their highest Premier League point total in the 125-year history of the club. We also noted on previous calls that we believed our capital investment in players was starting to create valuable player assets, and this came to fruition with the sale of Dominic Solanke to Tottenham for up to GBP 65 million, or $84 million. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:06:20First off, I want to thank Dom for all of his achievements in Bournemouth and wish him continued success as he moves on in his career. Dom's transfer is the largest in the Cherries' history and the second largest in the Premier League during the summer transfer window. More importantly, despite the sale of one of our best players, we continue to have success on the field. The team currently sits in 12th place in the Premier League, but only three points or one win from seventh, and recently beat Manchester City, the previous Premier League champion, for the first time in Bournemouth's history, and it was Man City's first defeat in their last 32 Premier League matches. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:07:02We believe this, in conjunction with our activity across the other Black Knight clubs, is evidence that our actions are building a valuable platform, teams, and brands within global football, which should create value for our shareholders. Lastly, we have returned significant capital to our shareholders this year. Through the third quarter, we have returned $243 million of capital to our shareholders through a combination of share buybacks and dividends. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:07:31In December, we will pay a third quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, which provides a consistent capital return to our shareholders as we continue to execute our strategic plan with the goal of increasing our share price. I will now spend a few minutes on updates on some of our portfolio companies. First, to D&B. The company posted revenue of $609 million, representing constant currency organic growth of 3.4% over the prior year's third quarter and 3.9% constant currency growth year to date. Adjusted EBITDA was $247 million for the third quarter, representing growth of 5.1% over the prior year's third quarter. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:08:20The adjusted EBITDA margin also expanded 60 basis points to 40.6%, and free cash flow conversion continued to improve. Net leverage was maintained at 3.7 times, and the team expects that to be down to 3.5 times by year-end. Anthony Jabbour also noted on D&B's third quarter call that the board continues to work with their advisors to evaluate inquiries received from both strategic and financial buyers. Beyond that, we will not provide further comment today on D&B's potential strategic alternatives. Moving to Alight. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:09:01My financial discussion will focus on the continuing business, given Alight closed on its $1.2 billion sale of its professional services segment and payroll and HCM outsourcing in July of 2024. The continuing business total revenue was $555 million for the third quarter 2024, down 0.4% from 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was $118 million for the third quarter, a 3.5% increase from 2023. Adjusted operating cash flow for the nine months was $199 million, or 53% of adjusted EBITDA. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:09:43Furthermore, Alight's net leverage was 2.9 times, which reflects a $740 million paydown in conjunction with the sale of the business noted above. Alight also announced it would begin paying a $0.04 per share quarterly dividend. We believe Alight's remaining business will be more attractive to public shareholders, given the higher percentage of recurring revenue, higher EBITDA margins, better cash flow conversion with lower leverage, and now a quarterly dividend. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:10:16Computer Services, or CSI, continues to perform well. After posting a record number of core banking deals in 2024, the company has now generated record growth in the first half of fiscal year 2025. The company has also been an effective acquirer. In the prior fiscal year, CSI acquired loan origination software provider Hawthorne River and has already increased Hawthorne River's customer base, expanded its software seat, and secured new core deals. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:10:47This year, CSI announced the acquisition of Velocity Solutions, which currently services more than 30 million consumers and business owners, and CSI is optimistic about the prospects of that business. We continue to work with JANA Partners on situations involving undervalued public companies where there is a specific catalyst to unlock value, and Cannae can participate in that catalyst as either an acquirer or capital solution. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:11:16While nothing concrete to report yet, we are extremely pleased with the partnership to date and optimistic about its prospects. JANA has also seen strong underlying business performance since our investments. Lastly, I'll spend a little more time on Watkins' financial profile and deal structure. During the last 12 months, the company generated about $75 million of net sales and has historical revenue growth in the mid- to high-single digits and strong EBITDA margins and free cash flow. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:11:52Cannae invested $80 million to acquire approximately 53% of Watkins on a fully diluted basis, including $20 million structured as a convertible preferred investment with an 8% annual dividend. The deal was also financed with $56 million of debt. We believe that our stake was acquired at an attractive valuation given the growth margin and cash flow profile of the business when compared to public comparables and precedent M&A transactions. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:12:27Going forward, we believe this business will provide cash to the holding company. In conclusion, we are optimistic about our portfolio companies and will continue to look for new investments that will grow NAV. I'll now turn the call over to Bryan to touch on our financial position. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:12:45Thanks, Ryan. Cannae's third quarter 2024 total revenues were $114 million compared to $144 million in the prior year, primarily comprising our restaurant revenues. Change in revenues is largely in line with the reduction of store locations, as the 2024 third quarter results reflect 35 fewer locations than the comparable period in 2023. Our restaurant brands continue to work hard on improving guest traffic and growing revenue, including a focus on value-oriented bundling and price reductions, particularly at our O'Charley's locations. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:13:18While the third quarter was tough across the casual dining industry from a guest count perspective, we are starting to see guest counts improve through the first few weeks of the fourth quarter with the strategy of targeted offerings. Third quarter 2024 operating expenses were $132 million, down 33% from the prior year quarter, driven by restaurant items and lower external manager fees. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:13:41The cost of restaurant revenue in the current year quarter was $93 million, which is a 20% decrease from the 2023 quarter attributable to the lower locations. The cost of restaurant revenue was higher as a percentage of restaurant revenue, a few percentage points due to the bundling and pricing activities. The guest count strategies discussed above are having the intended effect of increasing traffic, but have also increased interim margin performance, as the cost of restaurant revenue contains certain fixed components such as rent and management labor. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:14:12We believe this can be offset when the other cost rationalization measures that we've put into place are realized in the first half of 2025, and the team has also identified other cost efficiencies in the supply chain, our menu offerings, and brand support. While we are not where we want to be from a growth and profitability perspective at Restaurant Group, we're encouraged by what we're seeing in the dedication from the team members. Separately, the 2023 third quarter also included $31 million of non-cash charges that were related to locations and lease agreements closed. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:14:48And finally, the fees to the external manager were $3.7 million in this year's third quarter, approximately $6 million lower than the nearly $10 million in the prior year, as a result of the amended management agreement and wind-down schedule. Lastly, Cannae recorded $23 million in recognized gains for the third quarter 2024, compared to $130 million of losses in the prior year. The 2024 net gains were primarily non-cash fair value pickups relating to Dayforce and Paysafe shares, while the prior year losses were non-cash impairments of System1 and Sightline. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:15:25One post-quarter item that we wanted to flag was with regard to Sightline Payments. While senior management has been rationalizing their cost and employee base, while concurrently advancing development of its embedded banking product and looking for additional capital, the company faces a challenging liquidity situation post-quarter end. As a result, in the fourth quarter, we wrote off the remaining book value recorded for Sightline, and this is reflected in the sum of the parts table published today and going forward. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:15:52Cannae's balance sheet and liquidity position remained solid following the Watkins transaction and additional investments in Black Knight Football. Cannae has $40 million in corporate cash today, $49 million of capacity in our margin loan, and holds listed securities with a gross fair value in excess of $1.4 billion. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:16:11With regard to leverage, Cannae has $101 million outstanding on our margin loan and $60 million under our F&F note that matures near the end of next year. At our close today, Cannae's aggregate net asset value was $2.1 billion, or $34.29 per Cannae shares. That means today's closing price of $21.63 represents a 37% discount to its intrinsic value. With that, I'll now turn the call back to the operator to begin our question and answer session. Operator00:16:43We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. The first question comes from Kenneth Lee from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:17:06Hey, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. Just the first one on BKFC. What's sort of the outlook for additional capital or investments for BKFC? And could you perhaps just give us a little bit more detail in terms of any near-term outlook in terms of investments such as physical plant CapEx or player acquisitions? Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:17:35Hey, Ken. Thank you for the question. There will probably be, I mean, as you know, the transfer windows are really kind of where player acquisitions or sales occur. The next one occurs in January. We don't believe there will be any capital required ahead of that. But I think at that time, we will figure out what the rest of the year budget looks like. There will probably be some capital investment for the second half of the year, but we will not know until the transfer window concludes. In terms of CapEx in the business, we are very close to finishing. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:18:22The real CapEx is at Bournemouth in the training facility, which we've discussed before. We are actually very close to being through that, and that should be open. I believe it's in the first quarter, I think February timeframe. And so that is really the only CapEx. We continue to look at a stadium in the future, but that is further out, and it will be we will either finance that on the balance sheet or we may look to raise third-party capital, but that's much further, and we'll give you more visibility as we have more visibility in how that plays out. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:19:00Gotcha. Very helpful there. And just one on the JANA partnership. Looks like there was nothing to report there, but just wanted to get a little bit more color around the outlook for potential private investments. What are you seeing in your pipeline there, and do you see a potential acceleration in terms of potential transactions, especially given the current macro backdrop? Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:19:26Yeah, thanks, Ken. So we continue to have very constructive discussions with the JANA team around potential opportunities where we can partner together. Once we identify an opportunity, it will take time to play out. So I wouldn't expect in the next couple of months there will be anything, but we are very excited and optimistic about the relationship. We think that both parties, them through their expertise and us through our capital, can uncover some very attractive situations for Cannae shareholders. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:20:12Gotcha. And if I could just squeeze one more in, just relatedly, if there were to be any kind of new private investments with that partnership, what kind of financing sources or capital sources could you look? Would you consider ever raising equity capital as part of the options there? Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:20:34Okay. Yeah, no problem. I think the most obvious places that we would look to create capital for new investments are through the sale of our public securities. We've talked about transitioning out of those public securities into private investments, so that would be option number one. We could potentially look for some other debt financing. I do not believe, especially at the current prices, that we would be looking to do any form of equity offering if that's what you were referring to as capital. Initially, we'd be looking to redeploy capital from our public investments into whatever new investments we find. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:21:21Gotcha. Thank you very much there. Operator00:21:25The next question comes from John Campbell from Stephens. Please go ahead. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:21:30Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Ryan, just going back to the strategic focus on shifting away from the private portfolio, you guys have made steady progress over the last probably year or so. I'm curious about your sense of urgency there. Obviously, you've got the D&B development. You're not going to comment on that. But on the other public investments, I'm thinking mainly where you've got sizable ownership, you've got fundamentals that seem to be kind of on better footing. I think Alight is probably the shining example there. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:21:56But if you can't get the public markets to recognize the value, at what point do you feel compelled to push for a strategic sale? And it doesn't have to be just Alight, but of any of the entities. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:22:09Look, I think a strategic sale of any of those is obviously up to the board of that entity. So I believe that we're going to think about it just more in terms of what is the near-term investment opportunities that we have, and how do we get liquidity through the securities that we own, right? And so we may start selling down certain public positions to create liquidity for Cannae. But in terms of full company sales or things like that, we obviously believe they're attractive businesses, but that question is much better directed at the boards and the management teams of those businesses. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:22:57Okay. Fair enough. I guess you'll still get a Christmas card from them this year. On the Black Knight Football investment, obviously, you guys have the momentum going. I think that's really clear to see at Bournemouth. But within the Cannae stock, I just don't think you're getting any credit for that value you've created. It's probably too small to do a whole lot with right now. It doesn't seem like Bill's going to really look to monetize that anytime soon. So, I mean, a couple of these international clubs do have publicly traded stocks. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:23:26So I'm just curious if there's a way or if you've explored a way to create a tracking stock or maybe spin out a portion of that value so we can get a public market value and tie it back to Cannae. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:23:37I think it's a really good idea, John. We are, I mean, I think we will think about all different ways to create value or to get value recognized for our securities, and so I don't know if there's a tracking stock or what the specific would be, but we agree with you and we want to be able to find a mark for the company, and whether that's through third-party investment, whether that's through a tracking stock, whatever it may be, but trying to find ways to demonstrate the value that we're creating will be very helpful for the business and for Cannae stock. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:24:21Yeah. Agreed there. And then last one for me, just want to circle back on the $0.12 quarterly dividend, just how you're feeling about the sustainability of that level of commitment, and then how much of that you're able to actually source through Free Cash Flow versus kind of dipping into the capital pool? Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:24:36Yeah. So right now, we are dipping into the capital pool. We do believe it's sustainable. I think one of the interesting things around Watkins, we've also talked about some of the stuff we're doing around the Restaurant Group. We are starting to get some businesses that are producing cash flow for the holding company of Cannae. And the goal is to get enough of those that it fully covers the dividend, and so that we're not dipping into our capital pool. But that will be a progression. And so today, again, we're dipping into the capital pool, but hopefully, 6 months, 12 months from today, we'll be dipping much less, so. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:25:18Okay. That makes sense. Thanks, guys. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:25:21Thank you. Operator00:25:23As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star one. The next question comes from Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:25:34Hi, great. Thank you very much, guys. Wanted to ask you on kind of philosophy on the portfolio construction, right? When you're going to the market and you're looking for deals or deals come to you, what deal size are you kind of looking at? If you had your wish, how many positions would you have? How large would they be? And I just think I kind of look at some of the parts. Thanks, Bryan, for updating this. It's just kind of all over the place. You have things that are worth less than $1 per share, and I just don't see the focus here. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:26:12And so maybe you can kind of help me understand what are you trying to achieve as far as position size, number of positions, etc. Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:26:24Hey, and thanks for the question. I do think that we have, there's probably some outsized positions in our portfolio. Some of those are the amount of capital we invested. Some of those have grown. I would think going forward, investment size would be in the, call it $100 million plus type of range. I think we invested $80 million in Watkins. That seems like a pretty good starting point. I do think we'll look at some bigger stuff, but I don't believe that you'll have some of the larger deals that we did historically. I think we'll continue to be a bit smaller in scale than that, given the capital base that we have today is how I think about the portfolio construction. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:27:23Okay. I guess kind of to define what you said, maybe 20, 25 positions, something along those lines. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:27:31Yeah, it's probably less than that. But I think, yeah, you just did kind of the at $100 million-$300 million type positions. So I think it'll be less securities than that. And obviously, all of that's dependent on our ability to sell down some of the bigger positions that we have and reinvest that capital. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:27:55Okay. Thanks, and then also on the football side, soccer side, can you talk about maybe some of the synergies you're seeing there between the teams, desire to get bigger there? Maybe talk about some of the improved performance, I guess maybe both on and off the field. Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:28:16Yeah. Thanks, Ian. Yeah, we've actually been spending a lot of time at what I'm going to call the holding company and trying to create more synergies across the business, both on the kind of the football side or the soccer side as well as on the commercial side. We announced on our last call, we hired Tim Bezbatchenko, who's now the president of Black Knight Football. Under him, we've started to hire additional people and really are building out kind of the specific recruiting processes, commercial processes, and sporting performance processes so that we are leveraging the expertise and the best practices across the business. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:29:08And so we believe this is an area of a lot of opportunity that we're just kind of scratching the surface. We think that probably the biggest and most important point will be on the player acquisition and just creating different teams with different purchase prices of players that we can ideally send through the system, so again, I think we are early in where we're trying to get to, but we're spending a lot of time in trying to build this out such that it becomes a real competitive advantage across each of the different clubs. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:29:47All right. Thank you very much. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:29:49Thanks. Operator00:29:51This concludes our answer and this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ryan Caswell for closing remarks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:30:00Thank you, operator. We'll continue to work hard to drive value for our shareholders and look forward to speaking with you again on our fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. Thank you again for your time today. Operator00:30:14The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBryan CoyCFORyan CaswellPresidentAnalystsJamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic CommunicationsIan ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at OppenheimerKenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital MarketsJohn CampbellEquity Research Analyst at StephensPowered by Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Cannae Earnings HeadlinesCannae Holdings, Inc. Announces Participation in Gabelli Funds 18th Annual Sports & Media SymposiumMay 19 at 4:10 PM | businesswire.comCritical Contrast: Cannae (NYSE:CNNE) vs. Barings Participation Investors (NYSE:MPV)May 13, 2026 | americanbankingnews.comJune 12: Elon Musk’s “Day-One Retirement Plan.”SpaceX is expected to go public on June 12 - and for the first time, everyday investors may have a way in before the IPO. Jeff Brown, who identified Bitcoin, Tesla, and Nvidia before gains as high as 52,400%, 2,150%, and 32,000% respectively, is sharing the details on how to claim a stake in Elon Musk's company before it hits public markets.May 22 at 1:00 AM | Brownstone Research (Ad)Cannae (CNNE) Q1 2026 Earnings TranscriptMay 12, 2026 | fool.comCannae Holdings Inc (CNNE) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Strategic Shifts and Shareholder ...May 12, 2026 | finance.yahoo.comCannae Holdings, Inc. (CNNE) Q1 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptMay 11, 2026 | seekingalpha.comSee More Cannae Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Cannae? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Cannae and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About CannaeCannae (NYSE:CNNE) (NYSE: CNNE) is a publicly traded diversified holding company that focuses on partnering with and investing in businesses across a range of industry sectors. The company seeks to identify attractive opportunities in both private and public markets, leveraging its capital resources and management expertise to support operational growth and value creation. Cannae’s investment strategy emphasizes companies in data and analytics, marketing services, healthcare technology, and payment processing. Through its portfolio, Cannae holds controlling or significant minority stakes in companies that provide critical software, data and services to corporate clients. Notable among these is a majority interest in Data Axle, a data and marketing services firm that offers comprehensive business and consumer information to support customer acquisition and retention programs. Cannae’s investments also extend to healthcare IT platforms that automate administrative and clinical workflows, as well as payment-processing businesses that enable secure transaction throughput for merchants and financial institutions. Founded in early 2017 by Executive Chairman William P. Foley II, Cannae was established to consolidate investment opportunities uncovered by Foley’s family of businesses. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, the company maintains a hands-on approach, working closely with portfolio management teams to drive strategic and operational improvements. Cannae serves a primarily North American client base, while supporting the international growth of select holdings. Its management team combines private equity veterans and operating executives who bring specialized industry experience to each investment partnership.View Cannae 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 Latest Articles Overextended, e.l.f. Beauty Is Primed to Rebound in Back HalfDeere Beats Q2 Estimates, But Ag Weakness Weighs on OutlookNVIDIA Price Pullback? 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cannae Holdings' third quarter 2024 financial results conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the company's prepared remarks, the conference will be open for questions with instructions to follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, and a replay is available through 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time on November 26, 2024. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jamie Lillis of Solebury Strategic Communications. Please go ahead. Jamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic Communications00:00:37Thank you, Operator, and all of you for joining us. On the call today, we have Ryan Caswell, Cannae's president, and Bryan Coy, our chief financial officer. But before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that this conference call and the Q&A following our remarks may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Cannae's expectations, hopes, intentions, or strategies regarding the future, are forward-looking statements. Jamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic Communications00:01:08Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future financial and operating results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Jamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic Communications00:01:40The risks and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to, the risks and other factors detailed in our quarterly shareholder letter, which was released this afternoon, and in our other filings with the SEC. Today's remarks will also include references to non-GAAP financial measures. Additional information, including a reconciliation between the non-GAAP financial information to the GAAP financial information, is provided in our shareholder letter. I would now like to turn the call over to Ryan. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:02:15Thank you, Jamie, and good afternoon, everyone. On our first call this year, Bill outlined a strategic plan designed to increase the net asset value, or NAV, of our portfolio and close our share price discount to NAV. Our strategy has three main levers, including improving the performance and valuation of our portfolio companies, making new investments primarily in private companies that will grow NAV, and returning capital to shareholders. I believe that we are making progress on all fronts, and I will highlight a few items relating to each. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:02:54As I did last quarter, I will then discuss the results of several of our portfolio companies in more detail. We are working to rebalance our portfolio away from some of our public company investments and into new private company investments. As part of this strategy, in October, we announced the acquisition of a 53% stake in The Watkins Company. Watkins was founded over 150 years ago and has a strong market position and brand recognition within the fragmented spices, seasoning, and extracts category, one of the highest growth categories within the overall U.S. food industry. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:03:36We are excited about the deal structure. The existing owner, one of only two owners in the history of the company, is partnering with us and will own approximately 40% of the business. Additionally, we are partnering with KDSA, an investment firm focused on founder-led and family-owned businesses in the food and beverage sectors. We believe the company has a substantial opportunity to grow distribution across existing and new retailers, expand into other ancillary products, and could be an attractive platform for future acquisitions, all of which will accelerate the company's growth and profitability. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:04:21Furthermore, we believe this business will provide cash flow to Cannae through preferred dividends and equity distributions. As part of our portfolio rebalancing, we sold the final shares held in Dayforce this quarter. This concludes an incredibly successful investment for Cannae from first investing in Dayforce, then known as Ceridian, 17 years ago when it was a large service bureau-based business. Over the years, we applied our playbook to improve the company's management and operations, conduct accretive M&A, and drive synergies and efficiencies across the business. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:05:03We sold Comdata in 2014 and subsequently IPO'd the remaining business in 2018. Since that time, Cannae has sold 37 million shares of Dayforce, realizing $2.8 billion from the sale of those shares and distributions. I would like to thank Dave Ossip and his entire management team for all the success and partnership over the years. I now want to spend a few minutes discussing how we are improving the value of our portfolio companies as it relates to Black Knight Football. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:05:39We continue to invest time and capital into building out Black Knight Football, and although still early in the investment cycle, we believe we are starting to see the impact of these actions on value creation. As we discussed previously, last season, AFC Bournemouth achieved their highest Premier League point total in the 125-year history of the club. We also noted on previous calls that we believed our capital investment in players was starting to create valuable player assets, and this came to fruition with the sale of Dominic Solanke to Tottenham for up to GBP 65 million, or $84 million. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:06:20First off, I want to thank Dom for all of his achievements in Bournemouth and wish him continued success as he moves on in his career. Dom's transfer is the largest in the Cherries' history and the second largest in the Premier League during the summer transfer window. More importantly, despite the sale of one of our best players, we continue to have success on the field. The team currently sits in 12th place in the Premier League, but only three points or one win from seventh, and recently beat Manchester City, the previous Premier League champion, for the first time in Bournemouth's history, and it was Man City's first defeat in their last 32 Premier League matches. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:07:02We believe this, in conjunction with our activity across the other Black Knight clubs, is evidence that our actions are building a valuable platform, teams, and brands within global football, which should create value for our shareholders. Lastly, we have returned significant capital to our shareholders this year. Through the third quarter, we have returned $243 million of capital to our shareholders through a combination of share buybacks and dividends. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:07:31In December, we will pay a third quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, which provides a consistent capital return to our shareholders as we continue to execute our strategic plan with the goal of increasing our share price. I will now spend a few minutes on updates on some of our portfolio companies. First, to D&B. The company posted revenue of $609 million, representing constant currency organic growth of 3.4% over the prior year's third quarter and 3.9% constant currency growth year to date. Adjusted EBITDA was $247 million for the third quarter, representing growth of 5.1% over the prior year's third quarter. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:08:20The adjusted EBITDA margin also expanded 60 basis points to 40.6%, and free cash flow conversion continued to improve. Net leverage was maintained at 3.7 times, and the team expects that to be down to 3.5 times by year-end. Anthony Jabbour also noted on D&B's third quarter call that the board continues to work with their advisors to evaluate inquiries received from both strategic and financial buyers. Beyond that, we will not provide further comment today on D&B's potential strategic alternatives. Moving to Alight. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:09:01My financial discussion will focus on the continuing business, given Alight closed on its $1.2 billion sale of its professional services segment and payroll and HCM outsourcing in July of 2024. The continuing business total revenue was $555 million for the third quarter 2024, down 0.4% from 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was $118 million for the third quarter, a 3.5% increase from 2023. Adjusted operating cash flow for the nine months was $199 million, or 53% of adjusted EBITDA. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:09:43Furthermore, Alight's net leverage was 2.9 times, which reflects a $740 million paydown in conjunction with the sale of the business noted above. Alight also announced it would begin paying a $0.04 per share quarterly dividend. We believe Alight's remaining business will be more attractive to public shareholders, given the higher percentage of recurring revenue, higher EBITDA margins, better cash flow conversion with lower leverage, and now a quarterly dividend. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:10:16Computer Services, or CSI, continues to perform well. After posting a record number of core banking deals in 2024, the company has now generated record growth in the first half of fiscal year 2025. The company has also been an effective acquirer. In the prior fiscal year, CSI acquired loan origination software provider Hawthorne River and has already increased Hawthorne River's customer base, expanded its software seat, and secured new core deals. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:10:47This year, CSI announced the acquisition of Velocity Solutions, which currently services more than 30 million consumers and business owners, and CSI is optimistic about the prospects of that business. We continue to work with JANA Partners on situations involving undervalued public companies where there is a specific catalyst to unlock value, and Cannae can participate in that catalyst as either an acquirer or capital solution. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:11:16While nothing concrete to report yet, we are extremely pleased with the partnership to date and optimistic about its prospects. JANA has also seen strong underlying business performance since our investments. Lastly, I'll spend a little more time on Watkins' financial profile and deal structure. During the last 12 months, the company generated about $75 million of net sales and has historical revenue growth in the mid- to high-single digits and strong EBITDA margins and free cash flow. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:11:52Cannae invested $80 million to acquire approximately 53% of Watkins on a fully diluted basis, including $20 million structured as a convertible preferred investment with an 8% annual dividend. The deal was also financed with $56 million of debt. We believe that our stake was acquired at an attractive valuation given the growth margin and cash flow profile of the business when compared to public comparables and precedent M&A transactions. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:12:27Going forward, we believe this business will provide cash to the holding company. In conclusion, we are optimistic about our portfolio companies and will continue to look for new investments that will grow NAV. I'll now turn the call over to Bryan to touch on our financial position. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:12:45Thanks, Ryan. Cannae's third quarter 2024 total revenues were $114 million compared to $144 million in the prior year, primarily comprising our restaurant revenues. Change in revenues is largely in line with the reduction of store locations, as the 2024 third quarter results reflect 35 fewer locations than the comparable period in 2023. Our restaurant brands continue to work hard on improving guest traffic and growing revenue, including a focus on value-oriented bundling and price reductions, particularly at our O'Charley's locations. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:13:18While the third quarter was tough across the casual dining industry from a guest count perspective, we are starting to see guest counts improve through the first few weeks of the fourth quarter with the strategy of targeted offerings. Third quarter 2024 operating expenses were $132 million, down 33% from the prior year quarter, driven by restaurant items and lower external manager fees. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:13:41The cost of restaurant revenue in the current year quarter was $93 million, which is a 20% decrease from the 2023 quarter attributable to the lower locations. The cost of restaurant revenue was higher as a percentage of restaurant revenue, a few percentage points due to the bundling and pricing activities. The guest count strategies discussed above are having the intended effect of increasing traffic, but have also increased interim margin performance, as the cost of restaurant revenue contains certain fixed components such as rent and management labor. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:14:12We believe this can be offset when the other cost rationalization measures that we've put into place are realized in the first half of 2025, and the team has also identified other cost efficiencies in the supply chain, our menu offerings, and brand support. While we are not where we want to be from a growth and profitability perspective at Restaurant Group, we're encouraged by what we're seeing in the dedication from the team members. Separately, the 2023 third quarter also included $31 million of non-cash charges that were related to locations and lease agreements closed. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:14:48And finally, the fees to the external manager were $3.7 million in this year's third quarter, approximately $6 million lower than the nearly $10 million in the prior year, as a result of the amended management agreement and wind-down schedule. Lastly, Cannae recorded $23 million in recognized gains for the third quarter 2024, compared to $130 million of losses in the prior year. The 2024 net gains were primarily non-cash fair value pickups relating to Dayforce and Paysafe shares, while the prior year losses were non-cash impairments of System1 and Sightline. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:15:25One post-quarter item that we wanted to flag was with regard to Sightline Payments. While senior management has been rationalizing their cost and employee base, while concurrently advancing development of its embedded banking product and looking for additional capital, the company faces a challenging liquidity situation post-quarter end. As a result, in the fourth quarter, we wrote off the remaining book value recorded for Sightline, and this is reflected in the sum of the parts table published today and going forward. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:15:52Cannae's balance sheet and liquidity position remained solid following the Watkins transaction and additional investments in Black Knight Football. Cannae has $40 million in corporate cash today, $49 million of capacity in our margin loan, and holds listed securities with a gross fair value in excess of $1.4 billion. Bryan CoyCFO at Cannae Holdings00:16:11With regard to leverage, Cannae has $101 million outstanding on our margin loan and $60 million under our F&F note that matures near the end of next year. At our close today, Cannae's aggregate net asset value was $2.1 billion, or $34.29 per Cannae shares. That means today's closing price of $21.63 represents a 37% discount to its intrinsic value. With that, I'll now turn the call back to the operator to begin our question and answer session. Operator00:16:43We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. The first question comes from Kenneth Lee from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:17:06Hey, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. Just the first one on BKFC. What's sort of the outlook for additional capital or investments for BKFC? And could you perhaps just give us a little bit more detail in terms of any near-term outlook in terms of investments such as physical plant CapEx or player acquisitions? Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:17:35Hey, Ken. Thank you for the question. There will probably be, I mean, as you know, the transfer windows are really kind of where player acquisitions or sales occur. The next one occurs in January. We don't believe there will be any capital required ahead of that. But I think at that time, we will figure out what the rest of the year budget looks like. There will probably be some capital investment for the second half of the year, but we will not know until the transfer window concludes. In terms of CapEx in the business, we are very close to finishing. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:18:22The real CapEx is at Bournemouth in the training facility, which we've discussed before. We are actually very close to being through that, and that should be open. I believe it's in the first quarter, I think February timeframe. And so that is really the only CapEx. We continue to look at a stadium in the future, but that is further out, and it will be we will either finance that on the balance sheet or we may look to raise third-party capital, but that's much further, and we'll give you more visibility as we have more visibility in how that plays out. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:19:00Gotcha. Very helpful there. And just one on the JANA partnership. Looks like there was nothing to report there, but just wanted to get a little bit more color around the outlook for potential private investments. What are you seeing in your pipeline there, and do you see a potential acceleration in terms of potential transactions, especially given the current macro backdrop? Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:19:26Yeah, thanks, Ken. So we continue to have very constructive discussions with the JANA team around potential opportunities where we can partner together. Once we identify an opportunity, it will take time to play out. So I wouldn't expect in the next couple of months there will be anything, but we are very excited and optimistic about the relationship. We think that both parties, them through their expertise and us through our capital, can uncover some very attractive situations for Cannae shareholders. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:20:12Gotcha. And if I could just squeeze one more in, just relatedly, if there were to be any kind of new private investments with that partnership, what kind of financing sources or capital sources could you look? Would you consider ever raising equity capital as part of the options there? Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:20:34Okay. Yeah, no problem. I think the most obvious places that we would look to create capital for new investments are through the sale of our public securities. We've talked about transitioning out of those public securities into private investments, so that would be option number one. We could potentially look for some other debt financing. I do not believe, especially at the current prices, that we would be looking to do any form of equity offering if that's what you were referring to as capital. Initially, we'd be looking to redeploy capital from our public investments into whatever new investments we find. Kenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets00:21:21Gotcha. Thank you very much there. Operator00:21:25The next question comes from John Campbell from Stephens. Please go ahead. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:21:30Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Ryan, just going back to the strategic focus on shifting away from the private portfolio, you guys have made steady progress over the last probably year or so. I'm curious about your sense of urgency there. Obviously, you've got the D&B development. You're not going to comment on that. But on the other public investments, I'm thinking mainly where you've got sizable ownership, you've got fundamentals that seem to be kind of on better footing. I think Alight is probably the shining example there. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:21:56But if you can't get the public markets to recognize the value, at what point do you feel compelled to push for a strategic sale? And it doesn't have to be just Alight, but of any of the entities. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:22:09Look, I think a strategic sale of any of those is obviously up to the board of that entity. So I believe that we're going to think about it just more in terms of what is the near-term investment opportunities that we have, and how do we get liquidity through the securities that we own, right? And so we may start selling down certain public positions to create liquidity for Cannae. But in terms of full company sales or things like that, we obviously believe they're attractive businesses, but that question is much better directed at the boards and the management teams of those businesses. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:22:57Okay. Fair enough. I guess you'll still get a Christmas card from them this year. On the Black Knight Football investment, obviously, you guys have the momentum going. I think that's really clear to see at Bournemouth. But within the Cannae stock, I just don't think you're getting any credit for that value you've created. It's probably too small to do a whole lot with right now. It doesn't seem like Bill's going to really look to monetize that anytime soon. So, I mean, a couple of these international clubs do have publicly traded stocks. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:23:26So I'm just curious if there's a way or if you've explored a way to create a tracking stock or maybe spin out a portion of that value so we can get a public market value and tie it back to Cannae. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:23:37I think it's a really good idea, John. We are, I mean, I think we will think about all different ways to create value or to get value recognized for our securities, and so I don't know if there's a tracking stock or what the specific would be, but we agree with you and we want to be able to find a mark for the company, and whether that's through third-party investment, whether that's through a tracking stock, whatever it may be, but trying to find ways to demonstrate the value that we're creating will be very helpful for the business and for Cannae stock. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:24:21Yeah. Agreed there. And then last one for me, just want to circle back on the $0.12 quarterly dividend, just how you're feeling about the sustainability of that level of commitment, and then how much of that you're able to actually source through Free Cash Flow versus kind of dipping into the capital pool? Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:24:36Yeah. So right now, we are dipping into the capital pool. We do believe it's sustainable. I think one of the interesting things around Watkins, we've also talked about some of the stuff we're doing around the Restaurant Group. We are starting to get some businesses that are producing cash flow for the holding company of Cannae. And the goal is to get enough of those that it fully covers the dividend, and so that we're not dipping into our capital pool. But that will be a progression. And so today, again, we're dipping into the capital pool, but hopefully, 6 months, 12 months from today, we'll be dipping much less, so. John CampbellEquity Research Analyst at Stephens00:25:18Okay. That makes sense. Thanks, guys. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:25:21Thank you. Operator00:25:23As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star one. The next question comes from Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:25:34Hi, great. Thank you very much, guys. Wanted to ask you on kind of philosophy on the portfolio construction, right? When you're going to the market and you're looking for deals or deals come to you, what deal size are you kind of looking at? If you had your wish, how many positions would you have? How large would they be? And I just think I kind of look at some of the parts. Thanks, Bryan, for updating this. It's just kind of all over the place. You have things that are worth less than $1 per share, and I just don't see the focus here. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:26:12And so maybe you can kind of help me understand what are you trying to achieve as far as position size, number of positions, etc. Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:26:24Hey, and thanks for the question. I do think that we have, there's probably some outsized positions in our portfolio. Some of those are the amount of capital we invested. Some of those have grown. I would think going forward, investment size would be in the, call it $100 million plus type of range. I think we invested $80 million in Watkins. That seems like a pretty good starting point. I do think we'll look at some bigger stuff, but I don't believe that you'll have some of the larger deals that we did historically. I think we'll continue to be a bit smaller in scale than that, given the capital base that we have today is how I think about the portfolio construction. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:27:23Okay. I guess kind of to define what you said, maybe 20, 25 positions, something along those lines. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:27:31Yeah, it's probably less than that. But I think, yeah, you just did kind of the at $100 million-$300 million type positions. So I think it'll be less securities than that. And obviously, all of that's dependent on our ability to sell down some of the bigger positions that we have and reinvest that capital. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:27:55Okay. Thanks, and then also on the football side, soccer side, can you talk about maybe some of the synergies you're seeing there between the teams, desire to get bigger there? Maybe talk about some of the improved performance, I guess maybe both on and off the field. Thanks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:28:16Yeah. Thanks, Ian. Yeah, we've actually been spending a lot of time at what I'm going to call the holding company and trying to create more synergies across the business, both on the kind of the football side or the soccer side as well as on the commercial side. We announced on our last call, we hired Tim Bezbatchenko, who's now the president of Black Knight Football. Under him, we've started to hire additional people and really are building out kind of the specific recruiting processes, commercial processes, and sporting performance processes so that we are leveraging the expertise and the best practices across the business. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:29:08And so we believe this is an area of a lot of opportunity that we're just kind of scratching the surface. We think that probably the biggest and most important point will be on the player acquisition and just creating different teams with different purchase prices of players that we can ideally send through the system, so again, I think we are early in where we're trying to get to, but we're spending a lot of time in trying to build this out such that it becomes a real competitive advantage across each of the different clubs. Ian ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer00:29:47All right. Thank you very much. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:29:49Thanks. Operator00:29:51This concludes our answer and this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ryan Caswell for closing remarks. Ryan CaswellPresident at Cannae Holdings00:30:00Thank you, operator. We'll continue to work hard to drive value for our shareholders and look forward to speaking with you again on our fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. Thank you again for your time today. Operator00:30:14The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBryan CoyCFORyan CaswellPresidentAnalystsJamie LillisSenior Communications and Investor Relations Professional at Solebury Strategic CommunicationsIan ZaffinoManaging Director and Senior Analyst at OppenheimerKenneth LeeVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at RBC Capital MarketsJohn CampbellEquity Research Analyst at StephensPowered by