Bentley Systems, Incorporated (BSY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
March 12, 2021
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Carey Mann
executiveGood morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for this call about Bentley Systems' intention to acquire Seequent. I'm Carey Mann, Bentley's VP of Investor Relations. On the webcast today, we have Bentley Systems' Chief Executive Officer, Greg Bentley; and Chief Financial Officer, David Hollister. Before we begin, allow me to provide a disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements. This webcast, including the question-and-answer portion of this webcast, contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the planned acquisitions of Seequent and the timing thereof, the impact of the acquisition on Bentley's financial conditions and results of operations and the products, services and business relationships of each of Bentley and Seequent. Any statements made in this presentation that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about our beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements and should be evaluated as such. This webcast will be made available for replay on Bentley Systems' Investor Relations website at investors.bentley.com. Greg and David will begin with an overview of the presentation, and then we'll take your questions. With that, I will turn it over to Greg.
Gregory Bentley
executiveWell, thank you for your interest. And I think this is a most, and I might say, the most propitious acquisition notwithstanding the number of digits in the purchase price. And I'd like to literally illustrate the significance for our company and for Seequent and for infrastructure engineering that this provides. I think this combination enables leapfrogging ahead not only immediately, but through new advancement for many years to come in what I call deepening the potential of infrastructure digital twins. Now first, a reminder that we've announced only our agreement to combine, and since this is subject to a regulatory approval process, we are admonished that the companies remain separate in the meantime. So my presentation today will rely primarily on existing materials of the companies. I do look forward to when we can present jointly our new ideas for further synergies. It also means that I should excuse myself in advance to the geoscience community that might be listening for my probable lay misuse of terminology that's new to me. The Seequent colleagues will straighten me out when we can actually work together. And so I'd like to start with Seequent's new sales presentation. [Presentation]
Gregory Bentley
executiveSo here's a reminder from our roadshow materials that we view our competitive advantage at Bentley Systems consisting of our unique comprehensiveness as the infrastructure engineering software company. And we've just worked longer and harder at a platform, which brings together all sectors and disciplines for infrastructure success. Our comprehensiveness improves our scale economies and our diversification within infrastructure, but it most significantly can increase the quality of the work of our users and accounts, especially by minimizing and mitigating the risks of incomplete project or asset data and engineering considerations related to that by covering everything comprehensively to the extent of infrastructure digital twins. And we've previously presented our portfolio development activity of programmatic acquisitions has substantially enabled this comprehensiveness. Importantly, most of our acquisitions are of software that's already in our ubiquitous ecosystem and already working with our platform's APIs. That's the case also with Seequent, where we've already been technical partners. Of course, we usually do these acquisitions to improve the depth of our substantive integrations to add more value, as will also be the case here. Our infrastructure engineering software portfolio may have looked comprehensive from our advantage here aboveground, but infrastructure depends on its subsurface. And we have so far, considerably integrated the near-surface already, and that started with -- for roads and rail, the subsurface utility design and analysis. And by the way, coping being with buried utilities is always an expensive risk that I have participated in regional, let alone national conferences in the U.K., just about that subject and how those costs are addressed and coped with. Then our OpenFlows leading water modeling software, of course, involves, on one hand, what's in pipes and what drains and how -- our offshore structural software, SACS and MOSES, is about the subsea foundations. Our STAAD and RAM leading structural products are all about the interface between structures and their foundations and their seismic resilience and stability. And then a few years ago, we began borehole data management ground investigation data through our gINT and now OpenGround cloud solution, which keeps track of ground investigations. And then a couple of years ago, our PLAXIS acquisition of geotechnical analysis software, that has grown very well as we have taken the advantage of the opportunity to have geotechnical analysis also be 3D rather than where it started, 2D. But when you are analyzing foundations and their strength and success belowground, the 3D PLAXIS requires knowledge of the earth's strata, the -- a 3D model, if you like, that has to come from somewhere in the subsurface, and that has been a hold-up so far. And you could say, I guess, that underlying all infrastructure sectors and disciplines, there has been this missing but critical aspect, the deeper subsurface. So you could say that subsurface, earth modeling, geo data can complete this picture of our comprehensiveness and all the advantages I've already mentioned. So let's start now to learn more about Seequent. I haven't asked them about any connection between their subject matter of geology and where they are in their New Zealand headquarters. But in Christchurch, we just observed the 10th anniversary of the consequential earthquake that was there. In fact, we were working on our deal together last weekend when there were more concerning earthquakes just offshore in New Zealand. But we see in our history at Bentley Systems, recalling that acquisitions led to our own comprehensiveness. We see in Seequent a similar affinity where they've programmatically done portfolio development to extend the reach of their own platform to better support the full geoscience software ecosystem and in that, they and we see even greater potential mapped out ahead. And in particular, these are -- there are these many directions of growth that already are underway in Seequent's ecosystem, which we believe we can and will now accelerate. So to go over the history and progression. Seequent started with Leapfrog. And very interestingly, it was spun out of a company formed to do 3D medical imaging and then sought a vertical to apply that very usefully. Being in Australasia, mining was significant. And the Leapfrog name refers to jumping ahead with doing 3D earth modeling rather than the 2D that was the norm. You might say that everything aboveground we started with 3D because we can see in 3D, but we can't see underground. And I suppose that's why even the geosciences started with 2D representations before leapfrogging ahead. So mining was a very natural place to exploit this first. If you think of mines, they are never-ending infrastructure and construction projects. But where being able to make quick decisions, the 2D workflows took months after surveying to understand. If you can comprehend and understand immediately, that's priceless in terms of improved production and minimized risk in mining. And that grew across the mining world. The next progression was their Geosoft acquisition. And Geosoft is for various geophysical advancements, which includes ways of measuring and understanding with magnetometers and ground-penetrating radar and other modalities to better understand the strata in the subsurface and resource estimation and so forth. There's a broad portfolio for that in turn. And then most recently, GeoStudio was acquired for geotechnical analysis. It focuses, in particular, on slope stability and special methodologies for that. Slope stability is essential for mining and for dams, but it's ever more broadly applicable. And then bringing it all together, and again, this is an affinity with Bentley Systems, the Central cloud platform, now transitioning to what they call the Evo SaaS service, brings together for collaboration across the geo data and integrated geoscience digital workflows. And I would say that this is about creating and curating subsurface digital twins. And another affinity with Bentley Systems is that Seequent annually convenes this Lyceum thought leadership event for going digital in the geosciences. Our comparable event at Bentley Systems is our Year in Infrastructure, and we published this yearbook, which I hope you have taken advantage of, either online or you can ask for a physical yearbook. Remember, it brings together our users' projects that they nominate for going digital awards. And what I've done here is to excerpt a few of those that demonstrate the potential of deepening infrastructure digital twins. And the first example is this one in mining. It's on Page 124 for those of you who have the yearbook. And we could say that mining has new tailwinds now with battery minerals and rare earths, which are critical to electrification sustainability. Maybe that's the new gold. But this is an actual gold mine in Kazakhstan. And digital twin technology and the integration were of the essence here. But in future, they would be able to include the drilling and geologic studies for even better results and competitive advantage in a deeper infrastructure digital twin. Recently, even in the U.S., we've had palpable concerns about the risk of failure of our dams and other earthen structures. And this project on Page 89 is what turned out perhaps to be the most at risk, Oroville Dam, and it shows what's at stake in terms of environmental risks on this dimension. The U.K.'s National Infrastructure Commission identified ground risk as the most significant source of costs and delays to its priorities, and commissioned this Project Iceberg to arrive at all the benefits here. And I think our strategy with Seequent responds to this opportunity. An obvious application of deeper infrastructure digital twins is for tunneling. And that's so much more important than infrastructure all the time, whatever is the destiny of the Hyperloop. China has sponge cities, new cities that are built around tunnel networks that they're not even sure what will be used for, but clearly will be important assets for the future. Metros are so important sources of new business for us, especially in Asia. And to improve energy sustainability, they often involve tunnel boring machines where the essence of how well or if they work has to do with the seepage of water in the subsurface. And anyway, here, this example on Page 93 is a subway extension in Moscow, where determination, identification of geological issues saved the day here in advance. So here is a bridge that collapsed in an earthquake in 2018 and was replaced here in Indonesia. And you can see the consideration of seismic risks and subsurface digital twin being essential for that project's success. And again, here, in 2011, we just yesterday observed the anniversary of the earthquake disaster in Japan. This project on Page 257 is kind of interesting. It has in mind resilience to earthquakes, in particular, for its very purpose, which is to allow oil shipments, but needing to be resistant to the earthquake in order to be able to accomplish that. And then turning also just this month or this year to awareness of the broad risks of slope stability, if you like, in our near surface. And this project, again, in Japan, on Page 98 is about risks to their embankments, which have to do with the subsurface geo data. And then bringing it home here in the U.S., this model-based contracting project in New York State happens to show how the whole playbook is used together and how important in roadways and bridges are the geo surface considerations -- the subsurface considerations. And then we all worry about water security and water quality that has to do -- our water comes from what seeps through our subsurface and can be modeled and studied in the ways that changes. And this project on Page 25, a Special Recognition award winner in China is all about the deeper subsurface solutions to water security and water conservancy. And then something that had all of our attention were foundation problems in San Francisco. This project on Page 97 is about avoiding those and the creative solutions it takes to consider what's below the foundation in our digital twins. So putting that all together, where we -- what we now can do is deepen our infrastructure digital twins with the Seequent platform and portfolio comparable to our own aboveground and in the near surface that's in the deeper surface. And particular opportunities that introduces an energy transition are the terrific opportunity for geothermal energy, where Seequent is a leader in mining, of course, and water resources and environmental resilience for that and in tunneling, as I've mentioned. I'll just say we'll cover everything except when it comes to the environment. We're not yet working on atmospheric modeling. And it happens that there's a particular specialized industry for oil and gas reservoirs, and Seequent doesn't tend to participate much in that. So when we put it all together, you could say Seequent will underlie the potential of infrastructure digital twins. And in terms of our offerings together, to our modeling applications, we'll add Leapfrog and Geosoft; and to our simulation applications, adding GeoStudio and Central, for a combination of project delivery and asset performance and thus, overall, deepening the potential of subsurface digital twins. And I'd like to emphasize that summarizing this opportunity and this advancement, it's not a matter of a new start-up requiring incremental investment on our part. But here with Seequent, we leverage their investments already made and proven. They are the established subsurface market leader. They have dynamic momentum and already the levels of profitability and growth in ARR and profitability that characterizes the best technical, mission-critical software franchises, which I consider to be the best investments in the world that we're entering into today. So for more on the financial aspects, over to David Hollister.
David Hollister
executiveThanks, Greg. So you will have all seen that the headline consideration for the transaction is $1.05 billion approximately. That includes 3.1 million shares of Bentley Systems' common stock in exchange for [ 50% ] of the outstanding shares of Seequent. We say approximately because the share consideration, the number of shares is fixed, and that will obviously be subject to the market value of Bentley Systems. The share consideration is subject to a lockup, half of which releases after 6 months and the remainder after a year. We like the valuation. We, of course, benchmark value to appropriate technical software peers where Seequent's high-quality recurring revenue, its high-growth rate, its margin profile, and its large, healthy and growing end markets are unique. Of course, we also benchmark to the most relevant recent M&A transactions. And it's clear to us that there is just no comparison in terms of acquisition quality, business quality and valuation. The impact on our balance sheet and how we're financing this, the cash element of the consideration will be paid with a combination of cash on hand, which is significantly the result of our $690 million convertible notes offering earlier this year plus availability on our $850 million undrawn revolver. Our pro forma total net leverage post closing is estimated to be well under 4x, of course, subject to when we close and the extent of our ongoing and, more normal for us, programmatic acquisition activity. We're targeting to get below 2.5x total net leverage by the end of our fiscal year '22. As I've previously shared, I presently see our optimal capital structure to carry total net debt at 2x to 3x EBITDA. Of course, and while we don't have anything specifically planned, any subsequent follow-on equity offering would further accelerate deleveraging. We're expecting to close by the end of June. Of course, that isn't really in our control, but we'll be doing all we can to get this smoothly through the necessary regulatory approval processes. We expect Seequent to contribute more than $80 million to our ARR for our fiscal year-end 2021. Again, ARR is a point in time measure, annualized recurring revenue. I choose to highlight ARR here because it's a measure of scale, and it isn't subject to when we close and it isn't subject to skews created by accounting revenue recognition results. Also, to help people understand scale. And trying to provide sufficient transparency without disclosing specifics that are otherwise unhelpful to us competitively and commercially, we really describe Seequent as a 10% version of Bentley Systems in terms of its scale, its number of colleagues, its revenues, its quality of recurring revenues and its margin profile. A distinction I do make, however, is that Seequent revenues are growing significantly faster than Bentley Systems revenues, which is impressive, and a testament to the quality of the business is that it also does this while maintaining those impressive EBITDA margins. We expect Seequent to be accretive to adjusted EBITDA, to adjusted net income, to earnings per share. This won't have any impact on our dividend policy. We remain committed to a quarterly dividend. And once we close the transaction, we'll then update our fiscal year 2021 outlook, as it obviously would meaningfully impact our results. So those are the highlights of the transaction. Greg's described our excitement about the company. And I guess, Carey, we're going to turn it over to questions.
Carey Mann
executiveYes. We'll start with Mizuho, with Matt Broome.
Matthew Broome
analystYes. Congrats on the deal. So just to begin. Could you maybe talk a bit about your plans for integrating Seequent's technology across your software portfolio? You've discussed where the different products fit in. But to what extent do you intend to integrate this technology with your existing design offerings, such as OpenRoads, as; well as cloud services, such as ProjectWise and AssetWise, and if you had some sort of time frame for that?
Gregory Bentley
executiveWell, Matt, the integration is through geotechnical analysis. And already, we have gINT and OpenGround for boreholes, PLAXIS for foundation analysis, and PLAXIS can work already with Leapfrog. So there isn't a huge agenda to be done. When we talk about the cloud surfaces -- cloud services and digital twins and bringing Evo together with iTwin, that will be something we start working on but shouldn't be -- shouldn't take very long to take care of that. I want to emphasize that Seequent has tremendous management. It's -- I describe it as a dynamo. And not everyone is in New Zealand. They're global in this respect. And so we've determined that it will operate as Seequent, a Bentley Company, reporting to our Chief Product Officer, Nicholas Cumins, and in fact as a fifth business unit, but we wish to continue its -- and accelerate its existing momentum. And that won't require distracting anyone by virtue that the product integration is already possible and underway.
Matthew Broome
analystRight. That makes sense. And I mean it's good to hear that Seequent's revenues were already growing faster than Bentley. Do you anticipate rolling out Bentley's licensing, your SELECT matrix E365 plans to Seequent? And if so, what do you anticipate the time line to be on that?
Gregory Bentley
executiveWell, we don't yet have a plan for that. It's one of the things we'll reserve until after closing. And at -- upon closing, Seequent will operate as Seequent, a Bentley Company, under its existing contracts and with its existing intact structure. And then we'll be able to figure that out in the long run.
Carey Mann
executiveWe'll go to RBC now, Matt Hedberg.
Matthew Hedberg
analystCongrats on the deal to all of you. Greg, I'm wondering, could you give us a sense for the competitive landscape here? You guys are typically the dominant player in a number of these categories. But where does Seequent sit in terms of understanding the 3D characteristics of the earth? Any sort of market share data you can share with us?
Gregory Bentley
executiveNo, I don't have that. I know that each of the Seequent products have lots of competitors. I don't think there is anyone as comprehensive nearly in terms of what we call subsurface digital twins. There are lots of competitors in mining, in particular, but Seequent's scope has turned more broadly than that over the last several years. And I just think they're like Bentley Systems in being ahead in comprehensiveness and openness, platform ecosystem and so forth. A lot of the individual competitors are also ecosystem participants. And just this opportunity for 3D modeling and, we say, digital twins is just happening so quickly. The underground is going from 2D to 3D, and everyone is benefiting, lots of opportunity for all. But we think Seequent is our counterpart below the ground.
Matthew Hedberg
analystThat's great. And then maybe just a quick follow-up for David. Thanks on the $80 million ARR. I think that's helpful, obviously, from a timing perspective. But trying to get a sense for what their revenue was in 2020. You noted they're growing significantly faster than Bentley. Just wondering if you can share the rough revenue run rate and growth rate in 2020 just to kind of get a sense for the magnitude on that side.
David Hollister
executiveYes. Matt, I can appreciate the interest in details. How about if I share this without getting in too much detail because it just doesn't serve us a purpose beyond giving you guys a good sense of scale so you can assess valuation. That ARR, they're 90%-plus recurring revenue. So that ARR is a good representation of 90% of the business. And in terms of growth rate, yes, we're going to leave it at significant. And think about that as at least twice the Bentley Systems growth rate.
Matthew Hedberg
analystNo -- okay. Well, that - even that's helpful.
Gregory Bentley
executiveFor all these reasons, I'll just comment that Seequent would have been a great IPO. And just the measure of the quality and potential of the business, you all would know in your universe the most profitable companies have the same characteristics that Seequent has in terms of the technical characteristics. I sort of didn't go into it, but when you were going from boreholes and drill holes to 3D models in the subsurface, it's a very mathematical process. You don't just interpolate. And you have these technologies with professors' names who best understand how that comports with the organic nature of the earth's composition. And it is very technical, very vertically intensive, both literally and figuratively. And as you know, businesses like that have lasting and profitable advantages that this company deserves because of the investment they've made with terrific people and the forethought to start with mining and then expand to everything else. What works in mining proves it, and then it's applicable to these environmental risks everything else faces.
Carey Mann
executiveWe'll next go to KeyBanc, Jason Celino.
Jason Celino
analystGreat. I think you talked about the competitive landscape a little bit. But I'm curious, in terms of customer processes, I guess, is there -- is it mostly internal solutions that customers are using? I guess, what exactly is this replacing, maybe not competitively?
Gregory Bentley
executiveSo Jason, it's my understanding -- and here, again, I have to apologize to the geoscience professionals -- that it's largely replacing 2D processes. And I've seen historically, there even were 3D physical models put together for the subsurface. But in general, it's advancing to 3D to new instruments and modality for measuring geophysical characteristics and just generally advancing and it has become indispensable in that respect.
Jason Celino
analystOkay. And then what -- I guess I'd categorize this as maybe deep surface modeling. For the projects where this is addressable in, maybe civil, how much of project spend is deep surface modeling today? And maybe how much should it become given kind of all the articles and challenges that show up later?
Gregory Bentley
executiveWell, I don't have figures to hand yet. Perhaps we'll get smarter about that as we get closer to closing. And we expect another presentation where we'll put it all together with the help of the Seequent folks when we can be shoulder to shoulder to share what they've learned about that, especially in civil. But it's just a case that on any significant infrastructure project, you'll hear an asterisk risk is, "But we don't know what's belowground." And we don't even know what utilities are buried, let alone the geological conditions that may be threats to the schedule and budget for the project. So -- and weirdly, prior to our PLAXIS 3D, a lot of the integration between structures and the geotechnical foundations was boiled down to like one figure for structural strength rather -- when everything was otherwise available in a 3D model for the BIM model and could be for the geotechnical model. It's pound-foolish to not focus on that risk and eliminate it. But I don't have the quantification of that at this point.
Carey Mann
executiveWe'll next go to Berenberg, Gal Munda.
Gal Munda
analystYes. So yes, congrats on the deal, and nice poker face yesterday, I guess. I will ask you just a little follow-up question because I've covered Dassault for a number of years and also Hexagon. And Dassault paid almost $400 million back in 2012 for Gemcom. I've seen quite a bit of overlap of the management team as well between the Seequent and Gemcom. Is it -- is that potentially kind of the best comparator in terms of the peer to really look into those 2 companies kind of spearheading the mining industry? Or am I missing something?
Gregory Bentley
executiveWell, Gal, I'll say from our own experience in mining, in particular, that I had the concerns of it being quite cyclical, economically volatile. But then I've learned the aspects of it that have to do with the subsurf. So we're familiar with CapEx projects for mining that often involve new roads and bulk materials handling systems and so forth, things that would involve the remainder of our portfolio. And those do come and go with resource cycles. But the belowground operations, the environmental responsibilities and projects of that sort, tailings dams and so forth, those never waver and are consistent. So I think I wouldn't compare it to mining software at large. I think more of it to do with environmental software, and there are not enough good examples of that yet. We need more focus on environmental quality and environmental risk, and this will help bring that to Bentley Systems.
Gal Munda
analystThat's very helpful. Maybe as a follow-up, kind of to develop on that point. You did mention that there's a lot of kind of interest in civil. And you've obviously shown us the examples of where the collaboration will be so important. Do you have any idea on how many of their customers are already your customers today? And what's the opportunity to kind of create that cross-sell opportunity? Is that -- is it a big overlap today or it probably will be in the future?
Gregory Bentley
executiveI think it will be in the future. It's significant already. The civil has been a focus area for Seequent for several years, and they've put in the effort and investment to prove the value there. And the largest civil firms are already on board with everything 3D for this. It's not yet for all their project. It's not yet for all firms. And we have a lot of headroom and opportunity. I think, over time, that will be the majority of the business .
Carey Mann
executiveWe'll go next to Baird, Joe Vruwink.
Joseph Vruwink
analystI wanted to go back to the last question on just the cross-sell opportunity. And you've kind of been alluding to it. Is it the type of thing where every PLAXIS sale is potentially a Seequent sale or vice versa? I guess the question is, what is the nexus of the buying decision? Is Seequent technology typically where decisions will begin and so that creates a natural benefit that could accrue to the Bentley complementary products? And I'm trying to get at kind of that cross-sell dynamic.
Gregory Bentley
executiveSo what a great question. So PLAXIS and geotechnical, in general, can be done either in 2D or 3D. And the proportion is increasing every year of that which is done in 3D. When it is done in 3D, it needs the geo data and the earth model in 3D. In some cases, you may have trivial soils or whatever in it, and it can be -- faked is not the right word, but you can do without the rigor of a Leapfrog model. But more often, you do need the Leapfrog model to do your geotechnical analysis. To do the Leapfrog model, of course, you need the ground investigation in gINT and OpenGround. It all comes together. So this has been a gap for us. But in general, if -- for infrastructure owners of roadways and railways and corridors and water resources and so forth, wouldn't it make sense to have a subsurface digital twin to start with and be prepared for your capital projects, for your disaster response and so forth? So I don't know where it will start. But with PLAXIS 3D, you tend to need a 3D earth modeling point of departure. So there's lots of -- that's why we're already partnered with Seequent to address that digital workflow, but there are all these entry points for the future. And I think we're nowhere near understanding the full potential scope of it, actually.
Joseph Vruwink
analystOkay. Okay. That's really helpful. And then I wanted to go back to the growth profile of Seequent. There was a mention on their website where I think they actually were recognized in 2020 for just the magnitude of the 5-year growth they have been seeing. And it's a big number, which I'm sure includes M&A. And that's really my question, is when you look at the M&A opportunity, specifically in geosciences, do you think it's actually more conducive in terms of current valuations or pipeline, where that becomes a bigger relative opportunity now as opposed to what Bentley was seeing in their kind of M&A pipeline?
Gregory Bentley
executiveSo I'll say first that the growth of Seequent that we're talking about is organic growth, and yet on top of that, you're right, is acquisition growth. And you saw that there is the notion of potential acquisitions in the environmental space at large. I think this is an excellent platform for the environmental space at large and does increase our own target scope for white space. So both will help and become significant, I believe -- or already significant. But I think we'll start to figure out where to go to better have environmental risks at large be the subjects of infrastructure digital twins. We know resilience, mitigation, adaptation to climate and so forth are such priorities. Having an environmental digital twin and it'll be including the subsurface, is just such a sensible way to start and measure improvement there. And what the past year has shown is we don't know what types of perils there are. I'd say the case for digital twins is better than ever and will get better than ever.
Carey Mann
executiveAnd for our last question today, we'll go to Goldman Sachs, Brian Essex.
Brian Essex
analystCongrats guys on what seems to be a nicely complementary marriage here. I guess maybe if I could expand on some previous commentary just so I can make sure that I understand the breadth of the Seequent business model. I mean, obviously, design and engineering focused, but if you think about the continuum of an infrastructure life cycle, do they currently have the business model that extends into maintenance and operations of those infrastructure assets?
Gregory Bentley
executiveThe business model extends into infrastructure. If you ask whether it extends into operations because I couldn't quite hear you, but for mining, it is all about the full life cycle of the dam, of -- excuse me, of the mine, of the tailings dams, for instance, of the continued resource estimation. What literally sped up the adoption was the fact that when you use 2D techniques to do subsurface surveying, it literally takes months of interpretation to guess at what the conditions are in the deep subsurface. But when you do it through what's called implicit modeling, the mathematical approach that enables it to be comprehensively in 3D, it's done by a computer in a day. And improving that cycle is part of better dam -- excuse me, better mine operations and more productivity and a price less and immediate feedback loop throughout operations. So of course, with infrastructure, it's a matter of if you're tunneling or if you are modeling and measuring water reservoirs and quality and so forth, the changes there and responding and deciding -- making decisions about those changes should likewise be important over the whole life cycle.
Brian Essex
analystGot it. Maybe just to follow up real quick on their pricing. How is price per seat relative to where Bentley is? And back to the previous question, I think, on E365. Is there a gap to close there? Where do you think the synergies from a pricing revenue per seat perspective might come from?
Gregory Bentley
executiveWell, I just can say that we couldn't answer that for our own product portfolio and -- because it's so comprehensive and there's so many levels of product and license. The same is true for Seequent. Leapfrog has morphed into variants that pertain to civil and environmental and geothermal energy and so forth, which are, to my knowledge, priced appropriately in each case. What is the real credit to Seequent and anyone who imagines having a business worth $1 billion at a point in time, from the very beginning, they focused on a subscription model, and that very beginning is like 15 years ago, before this was understood. And it's just -- I don't know if it's a characteristic of New Zealand or whatever. They're just terrific business people at the same time as there's zealous about the vertical in geosciences and thought leadership in that. But they just have innately made all their own decisions to improve the future. They and their investors deserve this terrific return on that foresight and far-sight. And it's going to be benefiting us and our investors going forward. So thank you very much for your interest and attention this morning, all. Carey, are you going to wrap us up?
Carey Mann
executiveYes. With that, we'll conclude the forecast. Thank you, everybody.
Gregory Bentley
executiveCheers.
For developers and AI pipelines
Programmatic access to Bentley Systems, Incorporated earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the
EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments,
full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.