Brookfield Business Partners LP (BBU) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Brookfield Business Partners second quarter 2024 results conference call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions).

歡迎參加 Brookfield Business Partners 2024 年第二季業績電話會議和網路廣播。（操作員說明）。

Now I'd like to turn the conference over to Alan Fleming, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Fleming.

現在我想將會議交給投資者關係主管艾倫‧弗萊明 (Alan Fleming)。請繼續，弗萊明先生。

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that in responding to questions and talking about our growth initiatives and our financial and operating performance, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and future results may differ materially. For further information on known risk factors. I encourage you to review our filings with the securities regulators in Canada and the US, which will be available on our website.

謝謝您，接線員，早安。在開始之前，我想提醒您，在回答問題並談論我們的成長計劃以及我們的財務和營運表現時，我們可能會做出前瞻性陳述。這些陳述面臨已知和未知的風險，未來的結果可能會產生重大差異。有關已知風險因素的詳細資訊。我鼓勵您查看我們向加拿大和美國證券監管機構提交的文件，這些文件將在我們的網站上提供。

We'll begin the call today with a business update from Anuj Ranjan, our Chief Executive Officer. Anuj will then turn the call over to Paul Lepage, our Managing Director on our business operations team who will discuss our approach to managing cybersecurity risk and the incident response at CDK Global, our dealer software and technology services operation.

今天的電話會議首先由我們的執行長 Anuj Ranjan 介紹業務最新情況。然後，Anuj 將把電話轉給我們業務營運團隊的董事總經理 Paul Lepage，他將討論我們管理網路安全風險的方法以及我們的經銷商軟體和技術服務營運商 CDK Global 的事件回應方法。

We'll end the call with Jaspreet Dehl, our Chief Financial Officer discussing our financial results for the quarter. Adrian Letts, a Managing Partner and Senior Leader on our business operations team is also joining us on the call this morning. And after we finish our prepared remarks, the team will be available to take your questions.

我們將結束與財務長 Jaspreet Dehl 的通話，討論我們本季的財務表現。我們業務營運團隊的管理合夥人兼高級領導 Adrian Letts 今天早上也加入了我們的電話會議。在我們完成準備好的演講後，團隊將可以回答您的問題。

I'd now like to pass the call over to Anuj.

我現在想將電話轉接給 Anuj。

Thanks, Alan, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us on the call today. Through the first half of the year, we've made great progress on a number of fronts to build value in our business. Our financial results were strong, but were impacted by a couple of one-time events in our operations. This includes the cybersecurity incident at CDK Global, our dealer software and technology services operation and increased costs on a project nearing completion of our construction operations.

謝謝艾倫，大家早安。感謝大家今天加入我們的電話會議。今年上半年，我們在創造業務價值的多個方面取得了巨大進展。我們的財務業績強勁，但受到營運中幾起一次性事件的影響。這包括 CDK Global 的網路安全事件、我們的經銷商軟體和技術服務營運以及即將完工的項目的成本增加。

That being said, we continue to progress our value-creation initiatives across the business. We should be captured in earnings as these one-time events pass. Paul is going to speak a bit more about the instant response of CDK later in the call. But I would like to take this moment to comment the CDK team for their quick and successful heavily with the situation and their ongoing commitment to supporting their customers.

話雖如此，我們將繼續在整個業務範圍內推進價值創造計劃。當這些一次性事件過去時，我們應該在收益中得到體現。Paul 將在稍後的電話會議中更多地談論 CDK 的即時回應。但我想藉此機會對 CDK 團隊進行評論，他們在應對當前情況方面表現迅速且取得了成功，並持續致力於支持客戶。

Stepping back, our business fundamentals are sound. While the global operating environment continues to be fluid, activity levels across our operations remain stable and the progress we're making on our value-creation plans contributing to our underlying margin performance. Simply put, we think owning high quality businesses that are mission critical providers of essential products and services and having the deep operational capabilities for the better is a real advantage in any environment.

退一步來說，我們的業務基礎是健全的。儘管全球營運環境持續不穩定，但我們業務的活動水準保持穩定，我們在價值創造計畫方面取得的進展有助於我們的基本利潤率表現。簡而言之，我們認為擁有高品質的企業，這些企業是關鍵產品和服務的關鍵任務提供商，並擁有深入的營運能力，以實現更好的發展，這在任何環境下都是真正的優勢。

Another key differentiator for our franchise is our strong access to capital, which has enabled us to opportunistically manage our maturities. Over the past few months, we've refinanced more than $11 billion of debt in our operations and reduced the spread of these borrowings by an average of 50 basis points.

我們特許經營權的另一個關鍵區別在於我們擁有強大的資本管道，這使我們能夠機會主義地管理我們的到期日。在過去的幾個月裡，我們已經為業務中超過 110 億美元的債務進行了再融資，並將這些借款的利差平均降低了 50 個基點。

Going forward, this will reduce our annual interest expense by approximately $15 million and we'll stand to benefit even further as rates decline. In addition, we've been focused on monetizing our more mature operations. While overall private market transaction activity has slowed down, we see the market increasingly as a tale of two cities.

展望未來，這將使我們的年度利息支出減少約 1500 萬美元，隨著利率下降，我們將進一步受益。此外，我們一直致力於將我們更成熟的業務貨幣化。雖然整體私人市場交易活動有所放緩，但我們認為市場越來越像是兩個城市的故事。

On one hand, it's much harder in today's environment to sell lower quality businesses, which have historically relied on low cost capital to grow. On the other hand, great businesses with strong underlying fundamentals are generally sought after by investors in any environment.

一方面，在當今的環境下，出售品質較低的企業變得更加困難，這些企業歷來依賴低成本資本來發展。另一方面，具有強大基本面的優秀企業在任何環境下通常都會受到投資者的追捧。

To that point over the past year and a half we have sold or reached agreements to sell 10 businesses or block approximately $3 billion of total proceeds at our share. Most of the returns we've achieved have come from buying good businesses on a value basis, improving their operations and recycling capital to support our growth.

截至目前，在過去一年半的時間裡，我們已出售或達成協議出售 10 家企業，或凍結我們所佔股份的約 30 億美元總收益。我們所獲得的大部分回報來自於以價值為基礎購買優質企業、改善其營運以及回收資本以支持我們的成長。

In some cases we can do this in a relatively short period of time. And in other cases holding a business for longer maybe the best means to continue to compound value. Many of our businesses generate stable cash flows and in some cases we may also be able to prudently increase leverage as a viable option to fund distributions.

在某些情況下，我們可以在相對較短的時間內做到這一點。在其他情況下，長期持有一家企業可能是繼續實現價值複合的最佳方式。我們的許多業務都會產生穩定的現金流，在某些情況下，我們還可以謹慎地提高槓桿率，作為為分配提供資金的可行選擇。

No matter what we choose to monetize a business our objective is to maximize value. We've built a great track record as a public company, realizing a 3 times MoC and a 30% IRR on the sale of 20 businesses. Today, we own great companies and we are continuing to build value as we advance our improvement plans, which should create opportunities for us to generate meaningful proceeds from our next phase of monetizations.

無論我們選擇什麼方式來實現業務貨幣化，我們的目標都是實現價值最大化。作為一家上市公司，我們取得了良好的業績記錄，在出售 20 家企業時實現了 3 倍的 MoC 和 30% 的 IRR。今天，我們擁有偉大的公司，我們在推進改進計劃的同時繼續創造價值，這應該為我們創造機會，從下一階段的貨幣化中產生有意義的收益。

I now want to pass the call over to Paul Lepage. Paul is the Senior Leader on our business operations team and spent a lot of his time working with our operations to help them build out their digital and technology capabilities. Paul over to you.

我現在想把電話轉給 Paul Lepage。Paul 是我們業務營運團隊的高階領導者，他花了很多時間與我們的營運部門合作，幫助他們建立數位和技術能力。保羅給你。

Thanks Anuj and good morning, everyone. I'd like to take some time today to talk about our approach in managing cybersecurity risk, provide you with an update on the incident response at our dealer management software and technology services operation, CDK Global and share some thoughts on how we're strengthening our protocols across all our operating companies.

謝謝阿努吉，大家早安。今天我想花一些時間談談我們管理網路安全風險的方法，為您提供我們經銷商管理軟體和技術服務營運中心 CDK Global 事件響應的最新信息，並分享一些關於我們如何加強網路安全風險的想法我們所有營運公司的協議。

Managing cybersecurity is and always will be part of our sound business practices and good governance framework for all our operations. This starts with the right culture. We've always had a safety-first mindset across all of our operations. This mindset increasingly encompasses an equal emphasis based on physical safety and information security. Cybersecurity reviews are a key part of diligence prior to acquiring a business and this extends to the management of our portfolio of companies.

管理網路安全始終是我們所有營運的良好業務實踐和良好治理框架的一部分。這始於正確的文化。我們在所有營運中始終秉持安全第一的理念。這種心態越來越強調人身安全和資訊安全並重。網路安全審查是收購業務之前盡職調查的關鍵部分，這也延伸到了我們公司投資組合的管理。

Post acquisition, we established an oversight committee to ensure adherence to cybersecurity programs and standards, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST framework to guide how our operations manage, respond and reduce cybersecurity risk.

收購後，我們成立了一個監督委員會，以確保遵守網路安全計畫和標準，包括美國國家標準與技術研究所或 NIST 框架，以指導我們的營運如何管理、回應和降低網路安全風險。

We also engage leading third-party industry experts to assess the effectiveness of foundational cybersecurity controls, which includes scan for potential vulnerabilities, ongoing network monitoring and the review of overall threat detection capabilities. Where it's needed we support our operating companies with technical tools, processes, and resources to address the potential gaps and to assist in remediation activity.

我們還聘請領先的第三方行業專家來評估基礎網路安全控制的有效性，其中包括掃描潛在漏洞、持續網路監控以及整體威脅偵測能力的審查。在需要的地方，我們為營運公司提供技術工具、流程和資源支持，以解決潛在的差距並協助進行補救活動。

However, the frequency and sophistication of cyber incidents globally has intensified. To put this in perspective, more than 2,000 cybersecurity incidents are reported daily. And last year alone, cyber incidents affected over 20% of the S&P 500 companies.

然而，全球網路事件的頻率和複雜性不斷加劇。從這個角度來看，每天報告的網路安全事件超過 2,000 起。光是去年，網路事件就影響了超過 20% 的標準普爾 500 強公司。

As we disclosed, CDK Global was impacted by a cyber incident during the quarter. CDK as a reminder is a leading provider of cloud-based software to automotive dealerships. It's a trusted partner to its customers, providing mission critical services that enable automotive dealers to run their business more efficiently.

正如我們所揭露的，CDK Global 在本季受到網路事件的影響。需要提醒的是，CDK 是一家為汽車經銷商提供基於雲端的軟體的領先供應商。它是客戶值得信賴的合作夥伴，提供關鍵任務服務，使汽車經銷商更有效地開展業務。

We privatized the business two years ago and have been focused on the execution of our value creation plan rather, which includes investing approximately $500 million in product and technology R&D, infrastructure and modernization of the software stack.

兩年前，我們將業務私有化，並一直專注於執行我們的價值創造計劃，其中包括投資約 5 億美元用於產品和技術研發、基礎設施和軟體堆疊的現代化。

Immediately after detecting unauthorized activity on its network CDK mobilized its incident response team and shut down its systems to contain the threat. The cyber attack was orchestrated by a highly sophisticated threat actor that infiltrated CDK's IT infrastructure.

在偵測到網路上未經授權的活動後，CDK 立即動員其事件回應團隊並關閉其係統以遏制威脅。這次網路攻擊是由滲透到 CDK IT 基礎架構的高度複雜的威脅參與者精心策劃的。

With the assistance of leading third-party experts CDK moved to quickly begin restoring its systems with a focus on putting its customers first limiting the disruption to customer operations and remediating the impact as quickly as possible.

在領先的第三方專家的幫助下，CDK 迅速開始恢復其係統，重點是將客戶放在第一位，限制對客戶營運的干擾並儘快修復影響。

Within two weeks, CDK was able to bring substantially all its dealer customers back on to its core dealer management system. And within three weeks the business has restored substantially all its major applications and third-party system integrations.

兩週之內，CDK 就能夠讓幾乎所有經銷商客戶重新使用其核心經銷商管理系統。在三週內，該公司基本上恢復了所有主要應用程式和第三方系統整合。

CDK continues to be focused on being a best-in-class partner to its customers. This includes supporting them as their businesses get back to normal operations, providing one-time billing credits and rebuilding trust.

CDK 持續致力於成為客戶的一流合作夥伴。這包括在他們的業務恢復正常運作時為他們提供支援、提供一次性計費信用和重建信任。

As a market leader, the business is continuing to invest in its systems and technology to protect against evolving cyber threats. It's also working to support the industry including making free tools and resources available for any dealer to help them assess their security frameworks, evaluate risk, and enhance employee cybersecurity training. On behalf of Brookfield, we want to thank all CDK customers and partners for their support and patience during the outage.

作為市場領導者，該企業正在繼續投資其係統和技術，以防範不斷變化的網路威脅。它還致力於支持該行業，包括為任何經銷商提供免費工具和資源，幫助他們評估安全框架、評估風險並加強員工網路安全培訓。我們謹代表 Brookfield，感謝所有 CDK 客戶和合作夥伴在停電期間的支持和耐心。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Jaspreet to review our financial results.

說到這裡，我想將電話轉給賈斯普雷特，以審查我們的財務表現。

Thanks, Paul and good morning everyone. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $524 million compared to $606 million in the prior period. Excluding contributions from nuclear technology services and other small operations sold last year. Prior year adjusted EBITDA was about $515 million. Adjusted EFO of $289 million in the quarter included $103 million of net gains on the sale of our Canadian aggregates production operations, as well as public securities in our industrial segment.

謝謝保羅，大家早安。第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 5.24 億美元，而上一季為 6.06 億美元。不包括去年出售的核子技術服務和其他小型業務的貢獻。上一年改善後的 EBITDA 約為 5.15 億美元。本季調整後的 EFO 為 2.89 億美元，其中包括出售加拿大骨材生產業務以及工業部門的公共證券帶來的 1.03 億美元淨收益。

Turning to our segment performance. Our industrial segment generated second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $213 million, which increased from $196 million in 2023. Our advanced energy storage operation continues to generate strong performance, benefiting from favorable pricing, improved mix driven by the shift to higher-margin advanced batteries and ongoing operational efficiency initiative. This was partially offset by reduced contribution from our engineered components manufacturer due to the impact of lower volumes given overall reduced market demand.

轉向我們的細分市場表現。我們的工業部門第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 2.13 億美元，高於 2023 年的 1.96 億美元。我們的先進儲能業務持續產生強勁的業績，受益於優惠的定價、轉向利潤率更高的先進電池推動的結構改善以及持續的營運效率舉措。由於整體市場需求減少，產量減少，我們的工程零件製造商的貢獻減少，部分抵消了這種影響。

Moving to our business services segment, which generated $182 million of second quarter adjusted EBITDA. Performance benefited from the increased contribution of our residential mortgage insurer. This was offset by the one-time impact related to the cybersecurity incident at CDK. The total impact to adjusted EBITDA of the costs incurred at CDK was $38 million at BBU's share and included one-time billing credits provided to customers as well as remediation out of pocket costs. A portion of these costs were offset by insurance recoveries.

轉向我們的商業服務部門，第二季調整後 EBITDA 產生了 1.82 億美元。業績受益於我們的住宅抵押貸款保險公司的貢獻增加。這一影響被 CDK 網路安全事件的一次性影響所抵消。CDK 發生的成本對調整後 EBITDA 的總影響為 3,800 萬美元（以 BBU 的份額計算），其中包括向客戶提供的一次性計費信用以及自付費用的補救措施。這些成本的一部分被保險賠償所抵消。

Results this quarter also reflected the underperformance at our construction operation where we recognized costs due to weather and construction delays at one project nearing completion in Australia. The project is expected to be completed later this year.

本季度的業績也反映了我們建築業務的表現不佳，我們承認由於澳洲一個即將完工的項目的天氣和施工延誤而產生的成本。該項目預計將於今年稍後完成。

Finally, our infrastructure services segment generated $157 million of adjusted EBITDA compared to $216 million during the same quarter last year, which included $60 million of contributions from nuclear technology services, which we sold late last year. Results also benefited from improved contributions from offshore oil services.

最後，我們的基礎設施服務部門產生了 1.57 億美元的調整後 EBITDA，而去年同期為 2.16 億美元，其中包括我們去年年底出售的核子技術服務貢獻的 6,000 萬美元。業績也得益於海上石油服務貢獻的增加。

Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with approximately $1.6 billion of liquidity at the corporate level and no significant upcoming near term maturities on our debt. This provides us good flexibility to continue to support our growth and optimize our balance sheet.

談到我們的資產負債表，本季結束時，我們的公司層級流動性約為 16 億美元，而且我們的債務近期沒有到期。這為我們提供了良好的靈活性，可以繼續支持我們的成長並優化我們的資產負債表。

With that, I would like to turn the call back to the operator for questions.

這樣，我想將電話轉回給接線員詢問問題。

(Operator Instructions).

（操作員說明）。

Geoffrey Kwan, RBC Capital Markets.

傑弗瑞‧關 (Geoffrey Kwan)，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場部。

Hi, good morning. First question just on the CDK situation. Just wondering what the likelihood of any sort of future negative financial impacts from the incident whether or not in Q3 or future quarters. And then similarly. How would you describe the risk of the potential for market share losses? Like how remind me how long the contract terms are the likelihood, clients may look to get some pricing concessions -- competitive environment whether or not competitors may try to get a little overaggressive on pricing in [RFPs]?

嗨，早安。第一個問題是關於 CDK 的情況。只是想知道該事件未來產生任何負面財務影響的可能性有多大，無論是在第三季還是未來幾季。然後類似地。您如何描述潛在市場份額損失的風險？就像如何提醒我合約條款的可能性有多長一樣，客戶可能希望獲得一些定價讓步——競爭環境，無論競爭對手是否可能試圖在定價上有點過於激進。[徵求建議書]？

Hi Geoff, it's Jaspreet. Maybe I'll start off on the financial impact and then pass it over to Paul to address kind of the balance of your questions. So we incurred remediation out-of-pocket costs, as well as cost related to providing credits to our customers.

嗨，傑夫，我是賈斯普雷特。也許我會從財務影響開始，然後將其交給保羅來解決您的問題。因此，我們產生了自付費用以及與向客戶提供信用相關的成本。

All of those have been accrued in the quarter offset by some insurance recovery. So we think we've captured the bulk of the cost associated with the incidents in the quarter. And we're not expecting that there's going to be any additional material impact going forward just from the incident.

所有這些都已在本季度累積，並被一些保險賠償所抵消。因此，我們認為我們已經捕獲了與本季事件相關的大部分成本。我們預計該事件不會對未來產生任何額外的實質影響。

Hi. Geoff, it's Paul. Just to answer a portion of your question. So most of these contracts are multiyear agreements with an average of three to five years. The business has benefited from high customer retention rates that are reflective of the value of the service provides to its customers. And obviously, our focus from a CDK perspective with the systems back up and running is to focus on continuing to be that best-in-class partner and manage relationships with its customers. And we're going to do this by building the best and most secure platform for the industry.

你好。傑夫，是保羅。只是回答你問題的一部分。因此，這些合約大多都是多年期協議，平均期限為三到五年。該業務受益於高客戶保留率，這反映了為客戶提供的服務的價值。顯然，從 CDK 的角度來看，系統備份和運作的重點是繼續成為一流的合作夥伴並管理與客戶的關係。我們將透過為業界建立最好、最安全的平台來實現這一目標。

Okay. And just my second question is on a similar topic but just more broadly speaking the comments around using third parties on the cybersecurity front for investee companies and also supporting them with other resources to help to minimize a threat actually coming to fruition.

好的。我的第二個問題是關於類似的主題，但更廣泛地說，是關於在被投資公司的網路安全方面使用第三方的評論，並為他們提供其他資源支持，以幫助最大限度地減少實際發生的威脅。

But in light of what happened at CDK, I'm just wondering is there anything that you've learned from it in terms of whether or not it's having the proper protections, at each of your investee companies whether that's the right third-party providers or other factors and also two is having the right proper training and culture in IT personnel around cybersecurity risk for again the various businesses that you?

但鑑於 CDK 發生的事情，我只是想知道您是否從中學到了什麼，無論您的每家投資公司是否擁有適當的保護，這是否是正確的第三方提供者或其他因素，還有兩個因素是，針對您所從事的各種業務，圍繞網路安全風險對IT 人員進行適當的培訓和文化。

Hi. Geoff, what I'd say is that the emphasis we've always had the emphasis on this. To be clear the area of that focus and it's a focus frankly for the whole industry is a focus around this information security-first and driving stronger on those practices. We've had a long history in doing this on security physical security. We now have to continue to increase our focus on information security within all of our portfolio of companies.

你好。傑夫，我想說的是，我們一直在強調這一點。需要明確的是，該重點領域是整個行業的重點，坦白說，重點是圍繞資訊安全第一並加強這些實踐。我們在安全物理安全方面有著悠久的歷史。我們現在必須繼續加強對所有公司投資組合中資訊安全的關注。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Devin Dodge, BMO Capital Markets.

Devin Dodge，BMO 資本市場。

Thanks. Good morning. I want to start with a question on BRK Ambiental. I believe the recent restructuring is pretty far advanced. But there appears to be also a fair bit of investor activity in this sector lately. Just wondering if you think an IPO was still the most likely exit? Or are there other options that look more probable at this point?

謝謝。早安.我想先問一個關於 BRK Ambiental 的問題。我相信最近的重組已經相當先進了。但最近該領域似乎也有相當多的投資人活動。只是想知道您是否認為 IPO 仍然是最有可能的退出方式？或者目前看來還有其他更有可能的選擇嗎？

Hi, Devin. It's Jaspreet. I'll start and then Anuj can add if he wants. So, as you're well aware we've kind of executed on our operational improvement plan at BRK. And we think that business is well set up for a monetization. The IPO was kind of a natural track to monetization for that business.

嗨，德文。這是賈斯普雷特。我先開始，然後如果 Anuj 願意的話可以補充。因此，如您所知，我們已經在 BRK 執行了營運改善計劃。我們認為該業務已經為貨幣化做好了準備。首次公開募股是該業務貨幣化的自然軌道。

But like we do, with every investment that we make, we always look at all options. And we're doing the same thing at BRK Ambiental. The IPO market in Brazil is still very difficult. The rates were going down. I think that's kind of stalled a little bit. We haven't seen much, or I'd say even any new IPOs, or real equity capital market activity in Brazil. So that is still an option. But we are looking at other options as well to monetize and get at least some proceeds back up to BBU.

但就像我們所做的那樣，對於我們所做的每項投資，我們總是會考慮所有選擇。我們在 BRK Ambiental 也在做同樣的事情。巴西的IPO市場仍然非常困難。利率正在下降。我認為這有點停滯了。我們還沒有看到太多，或者我想說，甚至沒有看到任何新的首次公開募股，或巴西的實際股權資本市場活動。所以這仍然是一個選擇。但我們也在尋找其他選擇來貨幣化，並且至少將一些收益回饋給 BBU。

Okay. Good color. I appreciate that. And then switching gears Nielsen, this isn't an investment we talk about much. But just wondering, if you could provide an update on the business and how much progress has been made toward that profit improvement plan.

好的。顏色好。我很欣賞這一點。然後換個角度，尼爾森，這不是我們談論太多的投資。但只是想知道，您是否可以提供有關業務的最新資訊以及該利潤改善計劃取得了多少進展。

Hi, Dodge. Nielsen is a $400 million BBU investment in press security. As you know, Nielsen is a sort of data-as-a-service offering. It's the leading provider of audience measurement services for TV and audio. And it's got a growing presence in streaming and digital services.

嗨，道奇。尼爾森 BBU 在新聞安全領域投資了 4 億美元。如您所知，尼爾森是一種數據即服務產品。它是電視和音訊觀眾測量服務的領先提供者。它在串流媒體和數位服務領域的影響力越來越大。

So our value creation plan and execution is focused around driving top line growth but also driving at all elements of the value creation plan that we've put in place. So far the impact of that is, being sort of 400 basis points in margin improvement. And the company has got a lot of early wins within the digital and streaming environment. But there's still lots of work to do to deliver the best offering for this buy-side and sell-side advertising ecosystem in an evolving market.

因此，我們的價值創造計畫和執行的重點是推動營收成長，同時也推動我們已實施的價值創造計畫的所有要素。到目前為止，其影響是利潤率提高了 400 個基點。該公司在數位和串流媒體環境中取得了許多早期勝利。但要在不斷發展的市場中為買方和賣方廣告生態系統提供最佳產品，仍有大量工作要做。

Okay. Thanks a lot. Good color. And then just maybe one last one. I was wondering, we saw Brookfield announced a carve-out of a thermal management business. Just wondering if BBU was involved there?

好的。多謝。顏色好。然後也許只是最後一件事。我想知道，我們看到布魯克菲爾德宣布剝離熱管理業務。只是想知道 BBU 是否參與其中？

Hi. It's Anuj here. Thanks Devin. I'll take that. Yes we did, I think yesterday signed or the night before signed binding agreements to acquire nVent, which is a great industrial business that we're quite excited about. It is a carve-out of a larger corporation. So it's going to take four to five months until close so we have some time.

你好。這裡是阿努吉。謝謝德文。我會接受的。是的，我們做到了，我想昨天或前一天晚上簽署了收購 nVent 的具有約束力的協議，這是一家偉大的工業企業，我們對此感到非常興奮。它是從一家更大的公司中剝離出來的。因此，需要四到五個月的時間才能完成，因此我們有一些時間。

As we've been advancing many of our capital recycling initiatives at BBU, including many monetizations that are hopefully on the way, and I would just say that in four to five months when it's time to close depending on our liquidity and our priorities for capital allocation at that time, we'll be able to make that decision.

由於我們一直在 BBU 推進許多資本回收計劃，包括許多預計正在進行的貨幣化計劃，我只想說，在四到五個月內關閉，具體取決於我們的流動性和資本優先事項到時候分配，我們就能做出決定。

Understood. Thank you. I’ll turn the floor.

明白了。謝謝。我要請大家發言。

Gary Ho, Desjardins Capital Markets.

Gary Ho，加鼎資本市場。

Thanks. Maybe just the first one, I want to go to DexKo here. So we saw lower results this quarter just driven by lower volumes. Maybe can you give us some color on how you're managing through this environment and outlook for the back half and into 2025?

謝謝。也許只是第一個，我想去這裡的DexKo。因此，我們看到本季業績下降只是由於銷量下降所致。或許可以為我們介紹一下您如何應對當前環境以及下半年和 2025 年的前景嗎？

Yes. It's Adrian Letts here. The market does continue to be affected by some softness in North America and in particular, parts of our international market. The team is continuing to do a fantastic job in managing cost to offset some of the volume decline. We're seeing some green shoots but we expect the market to recover through the course to the back end of this year and into 2025.

是的。我是阿德里安·萊茨。市場確實繼續受到北美市場特別是部分國際市場疲軟的影響。該團隊在管理成本方面繼續出色地工作，以抵消部分銷售下降的影響。我們看到了一些萌芽，但我們預計市場將在今年年底和 2025 年恢復。

To a certain extent when we underwrote and bought the business we expected this to happen. We feel well set up. And the team is doing a great job, as I said -- as we see the market recover through towards the end of this year and then into next year.

在某種程度上，當我們承保並購買該業務時，我們預計會發生這種情況。我們感覺設置得很好。正如我所說，該團隊做得很好，因為我們看到市場在今年年底和明年開始復甦。

Okay perfect. And then my second question is around Clarios. So another solid quarter generated healthy free cash flow and was mentioned you used that to pay down debt. Also given your focus on progressing options for the business to generate proceeds. How's the IPO process progressing or other initiatives that you plan to service value on this asset?

好的完美。我的第二個問題是關於 Clarios 的。因此，另一個穩定的季度產生了健康的自由現金流，並提到您用它來償還債務。另外，考慮到您關注的是企業產生收益的進度選項。IPO 流程進展如何，或者您計劃為該資產提供價值的其他舉措進展如何？

Yeah. Hi Gary, it's Anuj here. I'll take that. So Clarios, as you said, the business has been performing exceptionally well. We're very, very pleased with how things are going at the business. We're evaluating -- we continue to evaluate all strategic alternatives, which included IPO.

是的。嗨，加里，我是阿努吉。我會接受的。所以 Clarios，正如您所說，該業務的表現一直非常好。我們對業務的進展非常非常滿意。我們正在評估—我們將繼續評估所有策略替代方案，其中包括首次公開募股。

And I'll just say that we're quite encouraged by the progress we're making so far on all of those alternatives. So, we're feeling pretty good about not only an IPO but many of the different alternatives we're looking at for the business to recycle some capital for BBU.

我只想說，我們對迄今為止在所有這些替代方案上取得的進展感到非常鼓舞。因此，我們不僅對 IPO 感到非常滿意，而且對我們正在為 BBU 回收一些資本的業務尋找的許多不同替代方案也感到非常滿意。

Okay. Great. And then just my last question, want to go back to the CDK front. Given some of the one-time billing credits to clients and whatnot. And when we look at the peak of the incident, there were a lot of questions on what is the CDK's exposure is to BBU. And we saw the stock down 10% over several days during the outage.

好的。偉大的。然後就是我的最後一個問題，想回到 CDK 前面。給予客戶一些一次性計費信用等等。而當我們看到事件的高峰時，有很多關於CDK暴露給BBU的疑問。在停電期間，我們發現該股在幾天內下跌了 10%。

I'm wondering if management has given some thoughts, whether if you provided us some valuation marker on at least some of your significant investments that might have reduced the volatility on the trading of BBU stock should another event happen in the future?

我想知道管理層是否有過一些想法，您是否向我們提供了至少一些重大投資的估值標記，如果將來發生其他事件，這些標記可能會減少 BBU 股票交易的波動性？

Gary just if I could frame your question to make sure I understood, are you asking kind of how we assess, how material the CDK incident was for BBU because of the volatility that you saw in the stock? Is that the summary of your question?

加里，如果我可以提出你的問題以確保我理解，你是否想問我們如何評估，由於你在股票中看到的波動，CDK 事件對 BBU 的影響有多大？這是你問題的摘要嗎？

No it's more the stock was down 10%, so which would be a significant part of I believe the valuation of CDK assets. So had you provided some valuation marker of what that CDK would have been worth as a percentage of your NAV maybe your stock wouldn't have been so volatile through that period?

不，更重要的是該股下跌了 10%，所以我相信這將是 CDK 資產估值的重要組成部分。那麼，如果您提供了 CDK 的價值佔您資產淨值的百分比的一些估值標記，也許您的股票在那段時期就不會那麼波動了？

Yeah. Look it's hard to comment on the volatility of the stock. As you're aware we're not disclosing NAV but we do give you all of the components for the NAV. And we share that with our investors. And like if I just step back at our share, CDK generates about $250 million of EBITDA for BBU today. We provide you with proportionate debt that, is on that business. And there you could put the right multiple on it and get a good sense of what the value of that business is to BBU.

是的。看起來很難對股票的波動性發表評論。如您所知，我們不會揭露資產淨值，但我們確實為您提供了資產淨值的所有組成部分。我們與投資者分享這一點。如果我退一步討論我們的份額，CDK 今天為 BBU 帶來了約 2.5 億美元的 EBITDA。我們為您提供與該業務相關的相應債務。在那裡，您可以對其進行正確的倍數計算，並充分了解該業務對 BBU 的價值。

So I'm not sure that giving investors an exact number versus giving them the components where it's easy enough to calculate that number would have made any directional difference one way or the other. But that has been our approach is we provide -- we've been guiding people to think of BBU as a high-quality industrial services business. We've been giving you all of the inputs into calculating values for our larger business including CDK. And we think kind of that information is available to investors to assess kind of the impact of any type of incident on value.

因此，我不確定向投資者提供一個確切的數字，還是向他們提供足夠容易計算該數字的組成部分，是否會以某種方式產生任何方向性差異。但這一直是我們提供的方法——我們一直引導人們將 BBU 視為高品質的工業服務企業。我們一直在為您提供計算我們包括 CDK 在內的大型業務價值的所有資訊。我們認為投資者可以利用這些資訊來評估任何類型的事件對價值的影響。

Okay. Understood. Thank you very much. Those were my questions.

好的。明白了。非常感謝。這些都是我的問題。

Jaeme Gloyn, NBF.

傑姆‧格洛恩 (Jaeme Gloyn)，NBF。

Thanks. Good morning. Just wanted to clarify on the interest cost savings. I think you mentioned it was $55.0 million in savings on this recent round of refinancings. Is that a $50 million benefit to BBU? Or is that to the opcos? And then if it's the opcos what would be the benefit to BBU?

謝謝。早安.只是想澄清一下利息成本的節省。我想您提到最近一輪再融資節省了 5500 萬美元。這對 BBU 來說是 5000 萬美元的好處嗎？還是針對opcos 的？那如果是 opcos，對 BBU 有何好處呢？

So, our proportionate share of that will be about one-third. So kind of a full year basis it will be about $15 million.

因此，我們所佔的比例約為三分之一。以全年計算，約 1500 萬美元。

Okay. And go ahead. Sorry Jaspreet.

好的。繼續吧。對不起賈斯普雷特。

Sorry I was going to say that's from the spread reduction that we were able to achieve from the refinancing. Like as rates go down like that should have an additional positive impact.

抱歉，我想說這是我們透過再融資實現的利差減少。就像利率下降一樣，應該會產生額外的正面影響。

Yes. So that was give me my follow-up is that was this recent round of refinancing it's all floating rate debt. Is it unhedged I guess? Are you making a call on that to unhedge it? And I guess I also noticed that like 70% of the debt is fixed or hedged. And I think that's an increase from more like the 50% range in previous quarters. So maybe just talk through how you're thinking about rate environment and your financing strategies?

是的。因此，我的後續行動是，最近一輪的再融資都是浮動利率債務。我猜它是未對沖的嗎？您是否正在打電話取消對沖？我想我還注意到大約 70% 的債務是固定的或對沖的。我認為這比前幾個季度的 50% 範圍有所增加。那麼也許只是談談您對利率環境和融資策略的看法？

Sure. So this 70% is actually down from 75%. And what the 70% represents is all of our debt that's fixed that it has hedges on in so like derivative hedges, as well as debt that's naturally hedged. So the biggest part of that is our financing business in Australia, where there's the floating debt on both the asset and liability side. So there's a natural hedge there. So if you take all of those pieces together, we're about 70% hedged. Last quarter that number was 75%. The 50% I think that you're thinking of excludes the natural hedges in the business.

當然。所以這個 70% 其實是低於 75% 的。70% 代表的是我們所有的固定債務，它們透過衍生性商品對沖等方式進行對沖，以及自然對沖的債務。因此，其中最大的部分是我們在澳洲的融資業務，那裡的資產和負債方面都有浮動債務。所以那裡有一個天然的樹籬。因此，如果你把所有這些部分放在一起，我們大約有 70% 是對沖的。上季這一數字為 75%。我認為您所考慮的 50% 不包括業務中的自然對沖。

And how we're thinking about rates, we do think there is -- we're at the end of the rate hiking cycle and we should see rate cuts coming soon. The most of our hedges are on about 18-months to three years is the typical timing of the hedges. We usually hedge based on the maturity of the debt or the whole period, on our investments. And some of these hedges have been in place for a while.

我們確實認為，我們對利率的看法是——我們正處於升息週期的末尾，我們應該很快就會看到降息。我們的對沖期限大部分約為 18 個月至三年，這是對沖的典型時間安排。我們通常根據債務到期日或整個時期對我們的投資進行對沖。其中一些對沖已經存在了一段時間。

So as we're kind of looking forward now as our hedges start to roll-off, we'll make a decision on whether we want to continue to hedge or let them roll off and keep the debt floating. But I think we've got some hedges in place that will keep rates pretty consistent for us in the business, the base rate for a little while. But hopefully, as the rates start to come down we're able to take some advantage of that as hedges roll off.

因此，當我們現在期待我們的對沖開始滾動時，我們將決定是繼續對沖還是讓它們滾動並保持債務浮動。但我認為我們已經採取了一些對沖措施，這將使我們的業務利率在一段時間內保持基本利率的相當一致。但希望隨著利率開始下降，我們能夠在對沖結束時利用這一點。

Okay. And sorry was this recent round hedged or unhedged?

好的。抱歉，最近的這一輪是對沖還是未對沖？

So, I'd say, it's probably fair to think of that 70%-ish. So all of the spreads that were reduced were all floating rate debt. And we look at kind of the entire company and based on the business, we'll hedge anywhere from 50% to 75%, 80% of the floating rate exposure. So you can think of 70% of the base rate on the stuff that, we refinanced is hedged.

所以，我想說，認為 70% 左右可能是公平的。因此，所有減少的利差都是浮動利率債務。我們會檢視整個公司的情況，並根據業務狀況，對沖 50% 到 75%、80% 的浮動利率風險。因此，您可以認為我們再融資的產品的基本利率的 70% 是對沖的。

Okay great. And last one just on the Sagen, another $50 million dividend this quarter. Can you just refresh, what's the cumulative dividends that have been up streamed from Sagen and relative to the total investment in Sagen?.

好的，太好了。最後一項是關於 Sagen，本季再發放 5,000 萬美元股利。您能否刷新一下，從 Sagen 上游獲得的累積股息相對於 Sagen 的總投資是多少？

Yeah. So in total so far, we've gotten back about including kind of the dividend that we got this quarter, we've gotten back 85% of the capital that BBU invested. And we invested $855 million. So we've got circa [$100 million] and change kind of equity at risk still in the business.

是的。到目前為止，我們已經收回了本季獲得的股息，我們已經收回了 BBU 投資資本的 85%。我們投資了 8.55 億美元。因此，我們擁有大約[1億美元]並改變了業務中仍然存在風險的股權。

Okay. That’s incredible. Thank you.

好的。這太不可思議了。謝謝。

Dimitry Khmelnitsky, Veritas.

迪米特里·赫梅利尼茨基，維里塔斯。

Hi, [thanks for taking my question]. So that the first question is, I wonder if you can provide some disclosure, big are the switching costs per (technical difficulty).

你好，[感謝您提出我的問題]。所以第一個問題是，我想知道你是否可以提供一些披露，每個人的轉換成本都很大。（技術難度）。

Sorry, Dimitry you're going in and out. It's a bit hard to hear you.

抱歉，迪米特里，你要進出。聽你說話有點困難。

I apologize. Can you hear me now?

我道歉。現在你能聽到我說話嗎？

That’s better.

這樣更好。

Yes, sorry.

是的，抱歉。

Yeah, we can hear you now.

是的，我們現在可以聽到你的聲音了。

Again, I'm sorry. So first question on CDK. How big are the switching costs per dealership to move to another platform if they were to choose those actions?

再次抱歉。所以第一個問題是關於CDK的。如果每個經銷商選擇這些行動，轉向另一個平台的轉換成本有多大？

So, obviously, it depends on the dealer size, Dimitry. So a large dealer that would have multiple rooftops would have to look at a pretty long process to move from one platform to the next on the dealer management software. There is other peripheral applications that may be easier in terms of shorter time to migrate. But for the most part it's a long process. It's a process would entitle months to move from one platform to the next.

所以，顯然，這取決於經銷商的規模，迪米特里。因此，擁有多個屋頂的大型經銷商必須考慮一個相當長的過程，才能在經銷商管理軟體上從一個平台轉移到下一個平台。還有其他外圍應用程式在遷移時間更短方面可能更容易。但在大多數情況下，這是一個漫長的過程。這個過程需要幾個月的時間才能從一個平台轉移到下一個平台。

Yeah. I think Dimitry if you think about kind of a core accounting system or SAP type of system in any kind of operating business and you're trying to rip that out and implement a brand-new system, what that process would look like that's probably a good proxy.

是的。我認為 Dimitry，如果你考慮任何類型的營運業務中的核心會計系統或 SAP 類型的系統，並且你試圖將其剝離並實施一個全新的系統，那麼該流程可能會是什麼樣子好的代理。

Thanks for that. And then switching to BrandSafway, I wonder if you can disclose the EBITDA and DSO for that business over the past 12-months?

謝謝你。然後轉向BrandSafway，我想知道您是否可以透露該業務在過去12個月的EBITDA和DSO？

Sure. So BrandSafway is in our Infrastructure Services segment and we actually account for BrandSafway so you can, if you look at our segment disclosure, you can pick up the EBITDA performance there. But the business generated about $30 million in EBITDA in our share, approximately $30 million. I don't have the number exactly in front of me. But that's the contribution to EBITDA.

當然。因此，BrandSafway 屬於我們的基礎設施服務部門，我們實際上對 BrandSafway 進行會計核算，因此，如果您查看我們的部門披露信息，您可以了解該部門的 EBITDA 業績。但該業務產生了約 3000 萬美元的 EBITDA，我們所佔的份額約為 3000 萬美元。我前面沒有確切的號碼。但這就是對 EBITDA 的貢獻。

Understood. I think it was moved into two segments. It was re-classified, I think into two separate segments. Is that still correct?

明白了。我認為它被分成了兩個部分。它被重新分類，我認為分為兩個單獨的部分。這仍然是正確的嗎？

No, no it's always been in the infrastructure segment.

不，不，它一直在基礎設施領域。

Yeah? Okay, I'm sorry. All right. And then what other options do you consider to monetize BRK besides a potential IPO?

是的？好吧，對不起。好的。那麼除了潛在的 IPO 之外，您認為還有哪些其他選擇可以透過 BRK 貨幣化？

So there's a number of options. It's a great business and it's a great platform for water and sewage treatment in Brazil. And there's a number of strategic that might be interested in partnering with us and buying a stake in the business either the business as a whole or in our more mature concessions.

所以有很多選擇。這是一項偉大的業務，也是巴西水和污水處理的一個偉大平台。有許多策略可能有興趣與我們合作併購買該業務的股份，無論是整個業務還是我們更成熟的特許權。

So when you think about the business, it's got concession agreements with a number of different regions and municipalities. And those concessions are at different stages of development. Some of them are more mature than others and there may be and there has been kind of interest on some of the more mature concessions.

因此，當你考慮這項業務時，你會發現它與許多不同的地區和城市簽訂了特許經營協議。這些讓步正處於不同的發展階段。其中一些比其他更成熟，並且可能對一些更成熟的讓步感興趣。

So it could be a partner in the whole business, it could be a partner in parts of the business and then per concession, or if the market is better an IPO is always an option as well. And we think this would be a really good positive.

因此，它可以是整個業務的合作夥伴，也可以是部分業務的合作夥伴，然後根據特許權，或者如果市場更好，IPO 也始終是一種選擇。我們認為這將是一個非常好的正面因素。

Yes, understood. Okay. Thank you very much.

是的，明白了。好的。非常感謝。

Thank you Dimitry.

謝謝迪米特里。

Nik Priebe, CIBC Capital Markets.

Nik Priebe，CIBC 資本市場。

Okay. Thanks. I just want to go back to CDK for a moment. My understanding is that the internal view is that this incident won't necessitate the down streaming of any capital to prop up the balance sheet or liquidity position there. Is that still the expectation?

好的。謝謝。我只想暫時回到 CDK。我的理解是，內部觀點是，這事件不需要任何資本的下行來支撐那裡的資產負債表或流動性部位。這仍然是期望嗎？

Yes. Yeah that's right. This business generates a lot of free cash flow. It's got significant liquidity. And we're not anticipating providing down streaming any capital.

是的。是的，沒錯。這項業務產生大量的自由現金流。它有大量的流動性。我們預計不會提供任何資本。

Okay. That's good. And then, there have been some press reports about auto dealerships bringing forward legal action in response to the outage. Is there any sort of cyber insurance coverage that would protect CDK from lawsuits stemming from an incident like that?

好的。那挺好的。然後，有一些媒體報告說汽車經銷商針對停電採取了法律行動。是否有任何類型的網路保險可以保護 CDK 免受此類事件引起的訴訟？

So the business does have cyber insurance which we have drawn on to address the cyber incident. To the extent that there's litigation which at this point we're still assessing, we're not sure there's too much merit to do a lot of these, I don't think they'd be covered by insurance.

因此，該企業確實擁有網路保險，我們已利用該保險來解決網路事件。就目前我們仍在評估的訴訟而言，我們不確定這樣做是否有太多好處，我認為它們不會受到保險的承保。

Okay. Got it. And then just last question for me just on Clarios, if I take the last 12-month adjusted EBITDA number and then gross it up to 100% basis, it implies about $2.2 billion. Now I'm cognizant that US GAAP EBITDA is a little bit lower than EBITDA presented under IFRS.

好的。知道了。關於 Clarios，我要問的最後一個問題是，如果我採用最近 12 個月調整後的 EBITDA 數字，然後將其總計達到 100%，則意味著大約 22 億美元。現在我承認美國公認會計準則 EBITDA 略低於 IFRS 下的 EBITDA。

But as we approach the end of the company's fiscal year here in September, is it safe to say that EBITDA will exceed $2 billion on a US GAAP basis for the full year? I'm just thinking about this in the context of a pricing scenario for a potential IPO.

但隨著公司 9 月財年即將結束，以美國公認會計準則計算，全年 EBITDA 將超過 20 億美元，是否可以肯定地說？我只是在潛在首次公開募股的定價場景的背景下考慮這個問題。

Yeah. Look, it will be at and about $2 billion. The US GAAP to IFRS adjustments, if I just think about kind of the scale of those adjustments, it should be a little bit over $2 billion. But there's still a quarter of performance to go. So we'll see how things kind of pan new.

是的。看，它將達到約 20 億美元。美國 GAAP 到 IFRS 的調整，如果我只考慮這些調整的規模，應該會略高於 20 億美元。但還有四分之一的業績要實現。所以我們會看看事情是如何變得新的。

Understood. Okay. Fair enough. All right. Thanks very much for taking my questions.

明白了。好的。很公平。好的。非常感謝您回答我的問題。

Thank you. This does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Anuj Ranjan, for any further remarks.

謝謝。今天節目的問答環節到此結束。我想將程式交還給 Anuj Ranjan，以供進一步評論。

Thanks everyone for joining this quarter. And we look forward to seeing you all at the Investor Day in September.

感謝大家加入本季。我們期待在九月的投資者日見到大家。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們參加今天的會議。這確實結束了該程式。您現在可以斷開連線。再會。