AON Q2 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 29, 2022

There are 11 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning and thank you for holding. Welcome to Aon Plc's Second Quarter 2022 Conference Call. At this time, all parties will be in a listen only mode until the question and answer portion of today's call. I would also like to remind all parties that this call is being recorded. If anyone has an objection, you may disconnect your line at this time.

Operator

It is important to note that some of the comments in today's call may constitute certain statements that are forward looking in nature as defined by the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated. Information concerning risk factors that could cause such differences are described in the press release covering our Q2 2022 results as well as having been posted on our website. Now, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Greg Case, CEO of AAON Plc. Thank you, sir.

Operator

You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Q2 conference call. I'm joined by Christa Davies, our CFO and Eric Anderson, our President. As in previous quarters, we posted a detailed financial presentation on our website. We began by expressing our deepest appreciation for our colleagues.

Speaker 1

Their extraordinary dedication delivering results for clients, bringing the best of Aon from across geographies and solution lines is inspiring. And their passion and commitment are reflected in the highest ever colleague engagement recorded in our latest full survey. In the Q2, our colleagues delivered excellent results, demonstrating continued momentum and progress against our key financial metrics. Organic revenue growth was 8% in Q2 year to date, on top of 11% in prior year quarter, consistent with our ongoing financial guidance of mid single digit or greater organic revenue growth. This top line strength translated into an adjusted operating margin of 26.2% in the quarter, up 40 basis points from last year and adjusted EPS growth of 15%, demonstrating the strength of our Anne United strategy and Anne Business Services platform.

Speaker 1

Turning to revenue. Commercial Risk delivered 7% organic revenue growth, driven by ongoing strong retention and renewals, highlighting the strength of our core business and strength from areas of investment CoverWallet within Digital Client Solutions. In addition, external trends, select inflation continue to be an opportunity for us to help ensure clients are covered for increased exposure. Reinsurance delivered 9% organic revenue growth in a dynamic renewal market. Our team brought the full capability of our firm's data, analytics and expertise resulting in strong retention and net new business generation.

Speaker 1

Health Solutions delivered 11% organic revenue growth with strong growth in core health and benefits driven by client demand, Increasing healthcare costs and continued growth in advisory work related to regulatory changes, well-being and resilience. Within Human Capital Solutions, demand remains very high to support clients with advice and solutions, especially as they manage ongoing return to work plans, a highly competitive talent market, wage inflation and employee well-being. Funding Wealth Solutions delivered 3% organic growth as our team continued to deliver results in Core Retirement and Investment Solutions with ongoing additional work to help clients address regulatory changes and impact from recent market conditions like the opportunity for pension risk transfer. Across Wealth and Health, external factors are increasing client costs, making it more important than ever for them to efficiently provide optimal benefits for their employees. Overall, our strong performance in Q2 and year to date reflects the strength of our core business across regions and solution lines.

Speaker 1

While there is uncertainty around external economic factors, some of the trends that challenge the broader economy are positive for our business and create opportunities to help clients. For the full year, we remain confident in our ability to deliver results in each of our 3 financial commitments: mid single digit or greater organic revenue growth, Margin Improvement and Double Digit Free Cash Flow Growth. On the topic of innovation, among many categories of investment, we'd like to highlight 2 areas On IP, our intellectual property solutions team is delivering a first of its kind solution that enables entrepreneurs to fund IP rich startup growth businesses without giving up ownership using debt that is backed by insured IP assets. Q2 marked an exciting milestone As the team crossed the $1,000,000,000 threshold and IP backed insurance and adds debt financing. Let me highlight one recent where our team supported a high growth technology hardware company.

Speaker 1

Given the company's business model and growth stage, it had multiple funding avenues available. The company chose this solution to meet its growth capital needs, minimizing equity dilution. The $100,000,000 transaction allowed the company to secure its financing for growth, While insurance markets were able to doershow your schools with an innovative application to an intangible asset class. Going forward, we're making progress to increase the number of lenders and insurance carriers participating in that solution as we build client awareness, Accelerate distribution and continue to scale this business. One additional note, as current and evolving economic conditions may compress equity driven valuations, IP backed debt provides a potential new option for startup growth clients to protect equity ownership and forego potential down around funding.

Speaker 1

On climate, our term team is working on many initiatives. Today, we will highlight 2, Aon's work on Aon and our work supporting renewable energy investment. We'll start with our progress on Aon's journey to 0 carbon. In March of 2021, we made an industry leading commitment So far and reduced our 2021 carbon emissions 12% from our 2019 baseline as we decarbonized our supply chain, Reduced our real estate footprint in a smaller, greener space and reduced travel, in part due to the impact of COVID-nineteen. Our recent ESG impact report details our commitment and actions on climate as well as other ESG topics, which are embedded in our overall strategy.

Speaker 1

For our clients, this comes down to helping them understand and quantify their climate risk, be prepared to communicate and report on this risk and do something about it by building resiliency, positioning to lower carbon and investing in transition. Given our track record of underwriting new risks and developing proprietary evaluation models, paired with our climate analytics data and partnerships, We're very well positioned to help clients quantify current and potential future risks, which we can then help them mitigate and transfer. For example, In renewable energy alone, onshore and offshore wind investment exceeds $70,000,000,000 today and could grow to nearly $400,000,000,000 by 2,030, Another rapidly growing addressable market that we serve with meaningful solutions today to ensure the construction and ongoing operation of these facilities. Similarly in solar, there is $45,000,000,000 of investment today in construction, manufacturing and technology development and we expect this investment to grow to over 100,000,000,000 to obtain coverage despite challenging market conditions. As these renewable energy products projects continue to grow in size, scale and complexity, The need for expertise and innovation in existing technologies will only increase.

Speaker 1

Further innovation in areas like carbon capture and storage, Hydrogen and other new technologies will require even more innovation to enable the risk financing necessary to make these projects More economically attractive, our ability to reduce risks of new solutions helps bring in new investment and ultimately helps enable continued moves toward de carbonization. In summary, we delivered a strong quarter demonstrating continued operating momentum and progress in our key financial metrics. Our Aon United strategy and operating model supported by Aon Business Services places us in a very strong position to support our clients as they face changing economic conditions. In addition, our colleague engagement is very high as our team delivers on a strategy that enables us to achieve results today both in the core and in priority growth areas, while also investing in innovative new client solutions like intellectual property and climate. Finally, our strong performance in Q2 year to date reinforces our commitment to achieving our financial objectives for the year.

Speaker 1

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Christa for her thoughts on our performance and long term outlook for continued shareholder value creation. Christa?

Speaker 2

Thanks so much, Greg, and good morning, everyone. As Greg highlighted, we delivered continued progress in both the quarter year to date. Through the first half of the year, we translated 8% organic revenue growth into 50 basis points of adjusted margin expansion and double digit adjusted earnings per share growth. We look forward to building on this momentum through the rest of 2022. As I reflect on our performance through the first half of the year, As Greg noted, organic revenue growth was 8% in both Q2 and year to date.

Speaker 2

We continue to expect mid single digit or greater I would also note that reported revenue growth was 3% in Q2 and 4% year to date includes an unfavorable impact and changes in effects, primarily driven by a stronger U. S. Dollar versus most currencies and fiduciary investment income of $7,000,000 in Q2 $9,000,000 year to date. Further, I note we are uniquely well positioned with respect to Inflation increases insured values, which has a positive impact on our business, and we continue to see modest tailwinds from insurance Pricing, which remains strong. Interest rate increases benefit us through fiduciary investment income and reduced pension liabilities.

Speaker 2

Broadly, as Greg mentioned, volatility makes the solutions and advice we offer around risk and people even more valuable to our clients. For instance, in areas like workforce resilience and pension derisking. Moving to operating performance. We delivered strong operational improvement through the first half of the year with adjusted operating margins of 32.7%, an increase of 50 basis points, driven by organic revenue growth and efficiencies from our Aon Business Services platform overcoming expense growth, which includes investment in colleagues technology to drive long term growth and some ongoing resumption of T and E. Looking forward, we expect to deliver margin expansion in 2022 and over the long term as we continue our track record of cost discipline and managing investments in long term growth on an ROIC basis.

Speaker 2

As we've previously communicated, we think about margins over the course of the full year, and we expect continued investment in colleagues and ongoing reduction of T and E throughout the year. Our Aon Business Services platform continues to be a key contributor to margin expansion and represents a competitive advantage, especially in a high inflationary market. While our AM Business Services platform continues to enhance our ability Scale innovation and unlock growth opportunities, it also supports continuous improvement as we automate day to day processes around the firm. For instance, Our Aon Business Services and commercial risk teams saw an automation opportunity for certificates of insurance. We're now using automation to locate, Extract and validate the data rather than manually pulling it from e mails and attachments.

Speaker 2

Over the year, this will save our North American team 83,000 workouts, representing a 30% reduction in total time spent processing service requests with the benefits of insurance before further enhancements. We're delivering high quality client service and enabling our colleagues to spend more time on higher value added activities and improving colleague engagement. Our Air and Business Services platform enables us to find and capture efficiency opportunities like this around the firm and remains a key driver of ongoing efficiency improvements and margin expansion. We translated Strong adjusted operating income growth into double digit adjusted EPS growth of 15% in Q2 and 14% year to date. As noted in our earnings materials, FX translation was an unfavorable impact of approximately $0.10 per share in Q2 and $0.29 per share year to date.

Speaker 2

If currency remains stable at today's rates, we would expect an Unfavorable impact of approximately $0.11 per share in the second half or approximately $0.04 in Q3 and $0.07 in Q4 of 2022. Turning to free cash flow and capital allocation. Free cash flow decreased 17% year to date to $1063,000,000 primarily driven by higher receivables as well as higher incentive compensation payments given our strong Q1 financial results, as we described in Q1, offset by strong operating income growth. As we've communicated before, Free cash flow can be lumpy quarter to quarter and free cash flow generation in the second half of the year is seasonally stronger than the first half. We continue to expect to deliver double digit free cash flow growth for the full year 2022.

Speaker 2

Looking forward, We continue to expect to drive free cash flow growth over the long term, driven by operating income growth and working capital improvements. Given our strong outlook for free cash flow growth in 2022 and beyond, we expect share repurchase to continue to remain our highest return on capital opportunity per capital allocation. We believe we are significantly undervalued in the market today, highlighted by approximately $500,000,000 of share repurchased in the quarter and $1,300,000,000 year to date. We can also expect to continue to invest organically and inorganically in content and capabilities to address unmet client needs. Our M and A pipeline continues to be focused on our priority areas that will bring scalable solutions to our clients' growing and evolving challenges.

Speaker 2

We will continue to actively manage the portfolio and assess all capital allocation decisions on an ROIC basis. Now turning to our balance sheet and debt capacity. We remain confident the strength of our balance sheet and manage liquidity risk through a well laddered debt maturity profile. As we've said before, we'll continue to add debt as EBITDA grows while maintaining our current investment grade credit ratings. Thinking about interest rates, I'd note that our term debt is all fixed rate with an average interest rate of approximately 3.8% and a weighted average maturity of approximately 12 years.

Speaker 2

I'd also note that our pension liability improves as interest rate increase and historically we've taken steps to deal with this liability and reduce volatility. In summary, our strong financial results in the quarter year to date demonstrate continued momentum and progress against our key financial metrics. While we're seeing signs of economic uncertainty, we remain confident in the strength of our firm and our financial guidance for 2022. Overall, our business is resilient and our Aon United strategy gives us confidence in our ability to deliver results in any economic scenario. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator and we'd be delighted to take your questions.

Speaker 2

At this time, we

Operator

will be conducting a question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Elyse Greensand with Wells Fargo, you may proceed with your question.

Speaker 3

Hi, thanks. Good morning. Last quarter on your conference call, you guys had alluded to if you go into a recession, there could be an impact on the discretionary pieces of your business, which I believe is around 20% of your revenue. I was just hoping for you guys to expand just upon if we do go into recession later this year or 2023, how that could impact revenue in AAON? And I'm assuming like right now, given the growth you saw in the quarter, you're not seeing any signs of a slowdown just yet.

Speaker 1

Elyse, maybe I'll start with that and go to Eric and Christa as well. We tried to convey last quarter, we'll just reinforce this quarter. As we look at the world as it stands and is evolving, we're in a very unique place, incredibly well positioned and it really shows through In the Q1, it's going through the Q2 and we expect through the year and into 2023.

Speaker 4

If you

Speaker 1

look at growing risks across the board, clients are looking at Their current business is of course, the growing risk around supply chain and climate, cyber resilience, people aspects, all these things Our areas where we have a great opportunity to support clients and that's coming through and really come through across the board on our core book of business and also our investment part of our business. And then the underlying pieces that are talked about inflation and interest rates as Christa described have a positive impact on our business. And finally Aon Business Services enables us to react and implement Solutions globally, while continuing to operate and invest efficiently. So you're seeing us do what we do. We improve and drive Mid single digit or greater organic growth, margin improvement and free cash flow growth at a double digit level.

Speaker 1

So that's what we want to convey and make sure you understand Where we look as we think about the global economy. But Eric, anything else you'd add from a client standpoint?

Speaker 5

Sure, Greg. I would say, Elyse, it's a great question. And areas of growing risk like climate change, geopolitical uncertainty, all have a major impact. Changing regulation on areas like wealth, the focus on workforce resilience, well-being, challenging talent market, you go on and on, health care costs, All issues that our clients are facing irrespective of broader economic conditions. I would also say the Aon United model that we've built It's actually built for moments like this, where our teams are integrating together, trying to come up with innovative solutions for clients in a way that pulls all the different capabilities of the firm and can deliver it in one unified fashion.

Speaker 5

So we think the world isn't getting any Less risky, and so the opportunity is there for us to continue to grow our business.

Speaker 2

And Elyse, I'd just add that many of the underlying drivers GDP, as Greg highlighted, probably impacts our business. We've talked about market impact, which is really made up of 2 components, insurance pricing, which provides modest tailwinds to growth and remains strong and inflation, which increases insured values, exposures, wages, medical costs, some asset values, All things that positively correlate with our revenue and offset potential pressure or slowing GDP. We've also mentioned that interest rates have a positive impact on our business through fiduciary investment income. Each 100 basis point increase in interest rates is $60,000,000 top line and bottom line for us. It also decreases our pension unfunded liability, which decreases cash contributions to pensions.

Speaker 2

And finally, our investment A on business services continues to drive efficiency and support growth while helping mitigate inflationary impact On our own cost base. So we're very confident of these trends and the fact that volatility actually creates challenges for other industries, but really creates opportunity for us The clients is Greg and Eric of highlight it.

Speaker 3

That's helpful. And then my second question, Christa, in your prepared remarks, you talked about the Slow down in free cash flow to start the year and mention like receivables is part of the reason. So as you think about the back half of the year, do you think cash flow is going to be strong enough that you'll hit the double digit target this year? Well, I think right this guidance is still double digit growth for 2022.

Speaker 2

We are certainly confident about achieving double digit growth for 2022, Elyse. We absolutely, as you described, second half cash flow is always stronger than first half cash flow. And first half was really impacted by 2 things, Higher receivables, which is really due to stronger organic revenue growth. I would note, by the way, DSO is actually So we're keeping up, but we're not accelerating that, and we have a plan to accelerate and collect receivables much faster. And it was also impacted by And so we're very confident about double digit free cash flow growth for the full year 2020 beyond 2023 beyond.

Speaker 2

So we've got a very strong free cash flow outlook and we're really excited about deploying that Organically, in M and A and in share repurchase, which is our highest return on capital opportunity across Aon.

Speaker 3

Great. And one last quick filing thing. The other income line, you did see gains couple of quarters in a row and some business sales. Should we model that going forward? I know in the past you told us

Speaker 2

that to assume kind of 0 for that line on an ongoing basis. We would assume 0 to that line on ongoing basis. What you saw in this quarter was us continuing to manage the portfolio as we do. We continue to invest in higher revenue growth, higher margin, higher return on capital opportunities, and we continue to divest, and this is a small divestment, in lower revenue growth, lower margin, lower return on capital opportunities. And so I would continue to model it at 0 going forward.

Speaker 3

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jimmy Bhullar with JPMorgan. You may proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning. I had a couple of questions. First on margins, you mentioned you expect to improve margins in 2022 and thereafter, I think seasonally second half should be weaker than the first half, but with you expect to improve margins in the second half as well with A potential increase in T and E versus last year and maybe some inflationary pressures if you're seeing them.

Speaker 2

Thank you so much for the question. We absolutely agree that we are focused and committed to expanding margin for the full year 2022. We don't take margin guidance by quarter. We've certainly seen very strong 50 basis points of margin expansion in the first half of the year, and we expect to see full year margin expansion, driven by organic revenue growth, our portfolio mix shift to higher revenue growth, higher margin areas and our continued productivity benefit through Aon Business Services, which I mentioned specifically in our prepared remarks. So again, completely committed to full year 2022 margin expansion.

Speaker 6

Okay.

Speaker 4

And on fiduciary investment income, I think theoretically, obviously, it's Understandable how it should pick up, but rates have been high for a while now and we haven't seen too much of a pickup. So I'm just wondering if you could comment on The expected lag and what the outlook is for fiduciary investment income if interest rates stay around current levels maybe a year or 2 years from now?

Speaker 2

Yes. So as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, every 100 basis point increase in interest rates, and this is the short end of the curve, It's $60,000,000 top line and bottom line for us. I'd note that our assets in terms of investments On behalf of clients, we are about 55% in the U. S. And 45% outside the U.

Speaker 2

S. Our fiduciary investment income for Q2 was 9,000,000 And so it is increasing as interest rates rise.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Newsome with Piper Sandler. You may proceed with your question.

Speaker 7

Good morning. I want to follow-up on Elyse's question about the economic sensitivity. Maybe you could just kind of remind us In contrast with sort of the Aon of today versus the Aon of past recessions, if we look back and Why would the business mix be why is the business mix materially different and how should we think about sort of the relative Sensitivity today versus not, it's sort of any sort of magnitude that would be very helpful. And then kind of as a follow-up, as we think further in the M and A, Does the M and A strategy change in any way because of the recession or desire to change economic sensitivity?

Speaker 1

Excellent, Paul. Let's take both of those 2 big categories, both important. On the first piece, when we talk about mix, Eric's point around how we approach Our clients around Aon United is fundamentally different and evolving and getting stronger and stronger. We're bringing the Full capability of our firm to clients every day and that really does enhance our ability to grow in the core, but also Bring new solutions and ideas to them and also solutions ideas which connect across areas. I mean we're connecting things in D and O with our people business in ways we haven't done before It fundamentally changes the risk costs for clients sort of in the D and O world with that piece.

Speaker 1

That's really cuts across solution lines. And what we're trying to convey and why we're Confident in mid single digit or greater growth across all the environments Christa described is this capability fundamentally different than it's Ever existed before and we've been working it for quite some time and it's really, it really is reinforcing client and how we are able to serve clients are exceptionally positive, Which is why, as I said before, we're confident mid single digit for the year and over time. But it really does show up at a client level and there are aspects that are discretionary, But those change over time and evolve over time. Overall, the client service leadership capability just continues to strengthen. But additional thoughts and views?

Speaker 2

Thanks so much, Greg. And Paul, what I would add is if you go back to 2,008 to 2010, that was really the worst economic environment you could design for a company Like Aon. It was a global economic recession without inflation and without interest rates, which is pretty unusual. And during 2008 to 2010, Aon grew organically over those 2 years. Our reported revenue grew 6% CAGR over those 2 years.

Speaker 2

We expanded margins by 250 basis points and we grew free cash flow very strongly. And we would say, in this environment, There are three things that make us stronger than that performance. The first is inflation, which has a positive impact on our revenue as I described, increasing asset values, employment levels, revenue, etcetera. The second is interest rates, which has a positive impact on fiduciary investment income, as I mentioned, $60,000,000 top line and bottom line per 100 basis point increase in interest rates. And the third, as Greg highlighted, is our investments and Eric highlighted, is our investments in Aon United, which allows us to bring together capability to serve clients who in times of volatility need us more, whether that's workforce resilience, Pension de risking, supply chain, climate, a number of different areas.

Speaker 2

So we feel very good about our ability to navigate through, which is why we're reiterating the guidance we have for full year 2022 and beyond, mid single digit organic revenue growth, margin expansion for the full year and double digit free cash flow growth.

Speaker 1

And so maybe if we could take a minute and then Paul come back to your other question, also legally important Around M and A, what we're up to and how we're thinking about it. We are seeing a revolving market. It's terrific. But maybe it's helpful to start, Christa, with you on just overall Capital allocation, how we're thinking about it, because there's really opportunity on the M and A front, but elsewhere. And then Eric, some examples that we're seeing and some things we've done recently.

Speaker 1

Christy, you would have to

Speaker 2

take that. Absolutely. And look, I would just say firstly, Greg, our M and A pipeline is really strong. And we are continuing to invest Organically and inorganically in areas of great growth and great margin expansion, data analytics with Tykey, Digital with CoverWallet, a number of other areas across our business, where we're seeing a number of client needs, supply chain, workforce resilience, climate, etcetera. And then I would say we continue to operate in a very disciplined way of return on capital.

Speaker 2

So as we generate very strong free Cash flow for full year 2022, we expect our highest and best use of cash will remain share repurchase because we remain undervalued today. We remain undervalued at our peak pricing of $3.50 And so we continue to invest in share repurchase because it remains Highest return on capital opportunity across Aon. And for us to invest in M and A or organically in any of these very, very attractive opportunities, it has to beat share repurchase because that's the bar. But Eric, you are in the middle of a lot of the great investments in our business and including in M and A, maybe you can talk a little bit more about us.

Speaker 5

Sure, Christa. And maybe I'll just touch on the Tyche platform that we acquired, just as a way to tie some of these pieces together. And for those that remember, Tyche was really about enhancing the capability around capital modeling that we do around reserving and pricing, Predominantly for the life and non life business on the reinsurance side, but ultimately where we see it going over time is how we extend the platform Beyond insurers to corporate clients as many of these large corporates with big balance sheets are looking to optimize their own risk strategies Across insurance, captive, self insurance, etcetera, that need better information to be able to do it. So the ability to add that team and that talent To be able to provide that existing impact to our insurance clients from a reinsurance angle, but then use that capability across the broader firm It's one of the areas of why we were so interested in Tyche. And it's also just worth saying that once you acquire an asset like that, getting them involved In the Aon United mindset, how we actually integrate them and leverage their capabilities across the broader firm has been what we've been working on over the last couple of months.

Speaker 5

And I think it just builds confidence in our ability to use that kind of capability across the broader firm.

Speaker 7

Great. Thank you for your help as always. Appreciate it. Congratulations on the quarter.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Paul.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of David Motomaden with Evercore ISI. You may proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Hi, good

Speaker 8

morning. Christa, last quarter you made some commentary around the discretionary parts of your business. I was just wondering if you can talk about what you're seeing in terms of leading indicators of demand on those discretionary businesses, specifically in the second quarter?

Speaker 2

Sure. So what you're seeing, David, is very strong growth across our business, 8% growth in the quarter, 8% growth year to date and reiterating guidance of mid single digit or greater organic revenue growth for the full year exactly the outlook we started The year with. So we're continuing to see strong areas of demand from clients in the core and in the discretionary areas, Really, David, because in times of volatility, a lot of the services we're offering clients are in greater demand. And so whether that's supply chain volatility, whether that's market volatility, which is creating opportunities, the pension de risking, the pension buyouts, buy ins, Whether that's workforce resilience, whether that's supply chain, there are so many areas of increased demand from clients in times of disruption.

Speaker 8

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And Greg, last question I had asked a question or last quarter I'd asked Question around just new headcount and you spoke more about focusing on productivity and I think on this call, Christa, you made some interesting comments on Just how Aon Business Services is helping enhance productivity. So I'm wondering if you could just help me think about are there any metrics you look at internally Just on producer productivity and maybe you can just share how much those have increased over the last several years and sort of the outlook going forward just on producer productivity?

Speaker 1

Well, David, thanks. We love the question around talent. It is, it's the heart of our firm. Everything we do comes back to our colleagues as they support clients and we continue to invest very substantially in attracting and retaining talent And it's been the strategy forever at Aon and continues to be. But as Christa described and Eric described, we are investing in capability to do that more effectively.

Speaker 1

So yes, last time we talked about productivity. Productivity for us is helping our colleagues do more with clients. They love it when they consider across the table and wow a client on new ideas. It's a tremendous outcome and we are developing content capability that makes it easier and easier for us to do that. So yes, not just bringing talent in, but making talent better, not just Bigger but better.

Speaker 1

And it really is at an individual level working to do that. It's why as I described in Q2, we recorded the highest ever engagement we've ever had From our full survey, you see that from the standpoint of sort of how colleagues are reacting to that. And our voluntary attrition, example, way back in line with where it was pre pandemic. So all things are coming together very, very positively and continue to reinforce each other from an overall talent perspective. And we'll take energy and efforts to sort of make investments wherever we need to Support our business and to support our client leadership.

Speaker 1

Eric, you're leading us every day at a talent level. It's so fundamental. What do you see?

Speaker 5

Thanks, Greg. It's a great question and one that's really important to us and we spend a lot of time on. And we have been making investments, Which are really exciting. I would say they come in like 3 buckets. The first is we're investing in client leadership, especially people who have industry focus Deep understanding of client specific challenges.

Speaker 5

We're also investing organically in some of the areas we've been talking about like climate, cyber, IP, analytics, all the areas where we think we can add real value to clients and need expertise to be able to provide that value. And then the 3rd, and we talked a little bit about it with Tyche, but CoverWallet the same. Through M and A, we're bringing in expertise not only from a people But a technology perspective as well. And then critical to I think, Greg, just picking up on your last point, making sure that we Embed that talent in the firm so that the broader firm can use it and leverage it with their clients using that Aon United model to get that talent across All types of clients around the world is critical, but really focused on making sure we've got the best talent in the industry and think we're making great progress.

Speaker 1

I mean, Eric, 2 great examples as you sort of go back in time, we're talking now CoverWallet and Tycho, but if you go back in time, the investments we made in cyber have been phenomenal, On the acquisition front, M and A front, it's put us in an unbelievable position to serve clients today in a category. Also go back to 601 West, we haven't talked about on these calls Quite some time a few years ago. Now we've evolved with what was a truly world class capability and the 200 colleagues working on Intellectual property and we put the example out today on sort of after a number of years, sort of what we're seeing, dollars 1,000,000,000 now across the threshold on IP debt. So these are all the things that we think are fundamental, David, that come into this. And we track it carefully as you might expect and we're seeing results in progression.

Speaker 1

I do want to just touch on the services and get Krista to highlight that again too, because that also is an area that helps us scale capability that reinforces So Christy, do you want to talk about A and B and S for a minute?

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, a really important part of our talent strategy is Aon Business Services. As you've heard us say before, it's not just driving efficiency, but it's enabling us to increase growth and scale innovation much faster. And so the power of Aon Business Services enables to drive efficiency in our core operations, which helps offset the trends we see around wage inflation, enabling us to continue to invest in talent and people, which drives long term margin expansion. So we're really excited about how Aon Business Services helps us Accelerate Aon United.

Speaker 8

Okay, great. That's I really appreciate the comprehensive answer. Thanks so much.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Meyer Shields with KBW, you may proceed with your question.

Speaker 6

Thanks. Setting aside, I guess, the semantic game right now, I don't mean you, I mean politically, We've gone through 2 quarters of contracting real GDP growth. Can you talk about how that impacted your first half results relative to expectations?

Speaker 2

Mark, go

Speaker 1

ahead, Kristen.

Speaker 2

Yes. So look, Maja, I would start with, we've seen really strong revenue growth, 8% in Q1, 8% in Q2, 8% year to date, and we continue to reiterate guidance for the full year exactly as we did at the beginning of the year. Midsimiddigitalgreaterorganicrevenuegrowthmarginexpansion for the full year and double digit free cash flow growth. So we're seeing opportunities, Maja, whether it's Inflation, which positively impacts our revenue in driving up asset values, driving up employment levels, driving up corporate revenues, Whether it's interest rates, which obviously positively impactful from the revenue side in terms of fiduciary investment income, or whether it's volatility and clients needing us more on the supply chain, workforce resilience, tension derisking in times of increased volatility. But Greg, what would you say?

Speaker 1

No, I think you captured it well. Myra, we're just trying to reinforce in every way we can mid to mid single digit or greater in terms of some of the performance for the year and ongoing For lots of different ways and perspectives that we've been able to accomplish that. And you've just seen it, you've seen the performance. Yaskin, by the way, when we think about growth, it's not just Top line growth, it's also operating income growth and free cash flow growth as Christa described before.

Speaker 6

Okay. No, that's helpful. Second, maybe more detailed question because we've been talking a little bit about CoverWallet. I was hoping you could just update us on how Consumer or I should say customer willingness to use technologies like CoverWallet, how is that evolving over time?

Speaker 1

Eric, why don't you take that one?

Speaker 5

Sure, Greg. I will. It's a great question and something we're really excited about as a platform. And there's 2 ways you use it. You use it direct to consumer, which continues to be sort of the base of what CoverWallet was when we acquired it and that continues to grow.

Speaker 5

But where we're actually seeing great opportunity is how we bring CoverWallet to our existing clients that have large distribution issues on their own, Whether it's rideshare companies or dealerships or what have you, where they need to provide product to a broad number of people, Think of it from a B2B2C perspective versus a direct to consumer. And so when you look at our enterprise client strategy and our ability to get to those large clients With this capability as they're trying to provide value either to their own colleagues or to their business partners, it does give us a platform that we think drives great growth for us And rounds out the relationships that we have with these clients in a way we're providing real value. So, we bought it as a B2C and we've been able to expand it into the B2B2C

Speaker 1

And when you think about it, Meyer, this is really about not really introducing technology. You're sitting across the table Again, as they've got, as Eric described, gig workers around the world and essentially saying, hey, we think we can actually help you provide service to them with a really clean, tight interface It does things that help them manage their business on your behalf. We could do it globally. That's just not something that anyone can say. The behind the scenes technology is massive.

Speaker 1

Yes. Behind the scenes technology and IP, intellectual property is also massive, but you're not having that conversation. The conversation is our colleagues Essentially asking someone who's got a growth business, hey, would you like to actually raise growth capital in a way that doesn't dilute your equity ownership? And so the technology, the content is all behind that and reinforces that. And so the introduction of technology to clients is really through helping them win in their business.

Speaker 1

And that's where we found great receptivity.

Speaker 6

Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you so much.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Rob Cox with Goldman Sachs, you may proceed with your question.

Speaker 9

Hey, thanks for taking my question. I was hoping To get a little more color on what's driving the strong growth in Health Solutions broadly and if you could quantify How meaningful the benefit from the timing of revenues was in the core health and benefits brokerage business in the quarter?

Speaker 1

Excellent. Love this question, Robin. We love this category as we talked about before. So much going on around the global world with health and it really does cut across regions beyond just Specific area, but Eric, thoughts on the progression in health?

Speaker 5

Sure. I mean, I think when you look at the long term Outlook certainly helping the clients mitigate health care costs and improving employee health and well-being is a great business at the moment and I think we're really confident in it. The growth has come from all geographies, and it's driven by retention, renewals, project work across the broad segment of that area, But also great growth related to the well-being and employee resilience part of health. The human capital piece with the data solutions growth, the advisory work, Really broad based in terms of its impact we're having with clients across all of our geographies.

Speaker 9

Got it. And then on the timing benefit on revenues in the quarters, is there any way to quantify that?

Speaker 2

Yes. So Rob, what I would say is, we haven't disclosed it, but what we have said is, it's come from Q3 into Q2. So it's not material, Rob, but you should see some small amount in Q3 than you would otherwise expect.

Speaker 9

Okay, got it. And then just lastly, I was just hoping to ask a question on AAON's ability to negotiate Higher pricing and some of the fee based businesses in light of inflation and if you've seen any greater success in doing so in certain fee based businesses Versus others.

Speaker 1

Well, the conversation we have with our clients always is about value. The value we provide How we build teams to support them and create and then having established that they have to understand the value, appreciate the value. And then we talk about what's fair in the context of sort of how we are compensated for that. So that's been something we always do. Ours is about higher value.

Speaker 1

We want to bring more incremental value to clients than anyone else and more over time. And in doing so, We have been rewarded for that as it relates to value for clients. And so we continue to do that and we're having the progression this year just like we have last year and the years before.

Speaker 8

Thank you.

Operator

Our last question comes from the line of Weston Blumer with UBS. You may proceed with your question.

Speaker 10

Hi, good morning. One follow-up question on organic growth within Reinsurance. You highlighted strong growth in both treaty and facultative in the quarter. Just with the facultative piece, understanding it's more transactional in nature and second half way, just curious on your outlook For facultative placements in the second half of the year, any tailwinds worth pointing out or is facultative growing faster or slower than treaty currently?

Speaker 5

Facultative has been a great business for us over many years. And if you put it in the context of the overall market, where Many of the insurers continue to remediate their portfolios and they often do that through the use of facultative placements in order to maintain their direct client relationship. So fact for us around the world continues to be a great business and we add great value with it and expect that that would continue as we go forward.

Speaker 7

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of today's question and answer session. I would like to turn this call back over to Mr. Greg Case for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thanks very much and just wanted to say that everybody appreciate being part of the call and look forward

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Earnings Conference Call
AON Q2 2022
00:00 / 00:00