Quorum Information Technologies Inc. (QIS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Quorum Information Technologies Inc. Fourth Quarter 2022 and Year-end 2022 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Maury Marks, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Regina. Hello, everybody. Thank you for attending Quorum Information Technologies Q4 and Full Year 2022 Results Conference Call and Concurrent Webcast. Joining me on the call today is our Chief Financial Officer, Marilyn Bown. Quorum is a North American software and services company, providing essential enterprise solutions that automotive dealerships and original equipment manufacturers rely on for their operations. Through a combination of purposeful product investment and 4 strategic acquisitions in the last 5 years, Quorum has a uniquely integrated product suite of 12 essential software solutions that are used in whole or in part by 1,440 dealership customers across North America. Quorum's product suite currently covers 12 of the 25 most common categories of software that dealerships utilize. And Quorum has the opportunity to develop, partner or acquire products for the remaining categories. Dealerships typically start with a single product from Quorum's product suite and experience increased synergy and value as a additional Quorum solutions are deployed to their dealerships. Currently, at least one of Quorum solutions -- software solutions is installed in 42% of the franchise automotive dealerships in Canada compared to 13% 5 years ago. In the last 5 years, Quorum has added 1,043 of the 1,440 unique rooftops we have today, primarily through acquisition, combined with some organic growth. Many of Quorum's customers only leverage one solution out of the 12 available Quorum solutions. The result is that Quorum has a $55 million annual SaaS revenue cross-selling opportunity across the existing customer base. That growth opportunity is 2x our $28 million 2022 SaaS revenue, and that is just within our current customer base. Over the last 2 years, we started on -- or over 2 years ago, we started on our One Quorum journey to integrate our acquired companies into a one Quorum team. The expectation at the time was that this journey would allow us to scale and grow more profitably. In the second half of 2022, we moved to a more balanced profitable growth strategy, which includes a more efficient sales strategy by prioritizing cross-selling and a $2 million annual cost-reduction plan to drive free cash flow. In the second half of 2022, we started to see the financial results as we were able to leverage our One Quorum team to deliver on our more profitable growth strategy. Marilyn will now review our financial results in more detail, and I will follow with some additional comments on our 2022 results. After our prepared remarks, we will open the floor to your questions. Marilyn, please go ahead.

Thank you, Maury, and hello, everybody. Thank you for being here with us today. I would like to remind everyone that certain statements in this presentation and on our call are forward-looking in nature. These include statements involving known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors outside of management's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Quorum does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements and does not undertake any obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. For additional information on possible risks, please refer to our annual MD&A dated December 31, 2022, on the SEDAR website. As Maury mentioned, the second half of 2022 [indiscernible] Quorum transitioned to a more balanced profitable growth strategy, which included a $2 million annual cost-reduction plan to drive free cash flow. We are happy to report that we have delivered on our plans to significantly reduce costs and increase our free cash flow. As stated by Maury in our press release, our adjusted EBITDA for the second half of 2022 was $3.3 million, an increase of $1 million or 43% from $2.3 million in the first half of 2022. Adjusted cash income, or ACI, was also up 150% from $0.9 million in the first half of 2022 to $2.2 million in the second half of 2022. Our free cash flow, which is measured as ACI less interest on long-term debt, less bank charges and less IFRS 16 lease cash expense, amounted to $1.4 million in the second half of 2022 compared to $0.1 million in the first half of 2022. Looking now to our Q4 2022 results. The following are the highlights when comparing our improvements in Q4 2022 compared to Q4 2021. Total revenue increased by 7% to $9.9 million. Recurring SaaS revenue increased by 6% to $7 million. Recurring BDC services revenue increased by 8% to $2.6 million. Total gross margin percentage increased by 1% to 48% of total revenue. SaaS gross margin percentage increased by 2% to 68% of SaaS revenue. BDC's gross margin percentage decreased by 5% to 8% of BDC revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 40% to [ $ 1.6 million ] or 16% of total revenue, and adjusted cash income increased by 80% to $1 million or 11% of total revenue. In Q4 2022, BDC gross margin percentage did decrease as compared to the prior year due to an increase in BDC labor expense. We have since worked on multiple initiatives to reduce the BDC cost structure to improve our BDC gross margins in 2023. As a reminder, roughly every $3 of BDC revenue generates $1 of SaaS revenue. The gross margin, adjusted EBITDA and ACI margin expansion that we had in the quarter were all due to our profitable growth strategy. And now looking to our 2022 full year results, the following are the highlights when comparing our improvements in 2022 compared to 2021. Total revenue increased by 8% to $38.8 million. Recurring SaaS revenue increased by 8% to $27.7 million. Recurring BDC services revenue increased by 10% to $10.4 million. Total gross margin percentage increased by 2% to 48% of total revenue. SaaS gross margin percentage increased by 3% to 68% of SaaS revenue. BDC gross margin percentage remained consistent at 12% of BDC revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 12% to $5.6 million or 14% of total revenue, and adjusted cash income increased by 30% to $3.1 million or 8% of total revenue. In February 2022, Quorum restructured its credit facility with BDC Capital Inc. The new facilities moved interest rates from a fixed interest rate to a variable rate and extends the maturity date from January 15, 2025 to August 15, 2027. In April 2022, Quorum completed the acquisition of Accessible Accessories Ltd. Accessible develops, implements and supports its web-based platform that allows franchise dealerships to sell accessories more effectively. Accessible is Quorum's fourth acquisition since 2017 and marks another step forward in Quorum's strategy to be a full service provider to automotive dealerships. Including cash of $4.9 million, total net working capital at December 31, 2022, decreased to $6.2 million from $7.6 million as of December 31, 2021. This decrease of $1.4 million is due to the $1.1 million repayment on our BDC Capital loan facility in February 2022 and $0.4 million of contingent consideration related to the acquisition of Accessible in April 2022. With that, I'd like to pass it back to Maury.

Thank you, Marilyn. It is great to see the progress we made in the second half of 2022 and the momentum associated with our more profitable growth strategy. As mentioned, adjusted EBITDA in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half increased by $1 million or 43%. Adjusted cash income increased by 150%, and free cash flow increased from $0.1 million in the first half of 2022 to $1.4 million in the second half of 2022. Cash conversion is something we are very focused on. And we believe the increases we experienced in the second half of 2022 are more indicative of the performance we can achieve in 2023. Quorum will also focus on our $55 million cross-selling opportunity within our existing customer base and with continued new rooftop expansion where we have high [ dip ] product demand. In 2022, the most product demand from dealerships was for service and parts-related solutions, which included our DealerMine service CRM, PowerLane, new Accessible Accessories product and BDC services. Demand for our sales-related solutions was weaker in 2022 as dealership struggled with low vehicle inventories due to microchip shortages. We believe that product demand for our sales-related solutions will increase during 2023. Our sales, service and part solutions focus on driving leads into the dealership or on maximizing the profitability from a customer once they are in the dealership, both of which drive significant ROI for a dealership. As mentioned on our last results call with the pending risk of recession, we continue to monitor dealership sentiment to determine if they will reduce their technology spending. Two key things to keep in mind are that 97% of Quorum's revenue is reoccurring revenue, and the high-margin service and parts business of a dealership is resilient to recessions because vehicle owners continue to spend on their vehicles, maintenance and repairs. In 2022, dealership managed through vehicle inventory shortages that improved during the year and are now managing through higher interest rates and some difficult economic conditions. We will, however, remain focused on executing our profitable growth strategy in 2023 despite the macroeconomic environment. As a leading automotive SaaS platform, Quorum's successful history of organic growth and accretive M&A has led it to a position of having a sustainable growth runway across North America. We continue to work hard to provide a product and services strategy that resonates with automotive dealerships. I would also especially like to acknowledge our employees and customers who are the driving force behind our continued growth and our drive to innovate to ensure that Quorum has a product suite prepared for the future of automotive. Operator, I'd now like to open the conference to any questions from our audience.

[Operator Instructions] We have no questions at this time.

All right. Well, we'll thank everybody for attending the conference call. And we appreciate your continued support and look forward to talking to you again in about a month when we release our Q1 results. Thanks, everybody.

Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's meeting. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.