Climb Global Solutions Inc (CLMB) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Climb Global Solutions' financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025. Joining us today are Climb's CEO, Mr. Dale Foster; the company's CFO, Mr. Matthew Sullivan; and the company's Investor Relations adviser, Mr. Sean Mansouri with Elevate IR.

大家早安，感謝您參加今天的電話會議，討論 Climb Global Solutions 截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日的第一季財務業績。今天與我們一起出席的有 Climb 的首席執行官 Dale Foster 先生、公司的首席財務官 Matthew Sullivan 先生以及公司的投資者關係顧問、Elevate IR 的 Sean Mansouri 先生。

By now, everyone should have access to the first-quarter 2025 earnings press release, which was issued yesterday afternoon at approximately 4:05 PM Eastern Time. The release is available in the Investor Relations section of Climb Global Solutions' website at www.climbglobalsolutions.com. This call will also be available for webcast replay on the company's website. Following management's remarks, we'll open the call for your questions.

現在，每個人都應該可以看到 2025 年第一季收益新聞稿，該新聞稿於昨天下午東部時間大約 4:05 發布。新聞稿可在 Climb Global Solutions 網站 www.climbglobalsolutions.com 的「投資者關係」版塊查閱。本次電話會議也可在公司網站上進行網路直播重播。在管理層發言之後，我們將開始回答您的問題。

I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Mansouri for introductory comments.

現在我想將電話轉給曼蘇裡先生進行介紹性評論。

Thank you, operator. Before I introduce Dale, I'd like to remind listeners that certain comments made on this conference call and webcast are considered forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties as well as assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are also subject to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the company's filings with the SEC. Do not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are being made only as of the date of this call.

謝謝您，接線生。在介紹戴爾之前，我想提醒聽眾，根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》，本次電話會議和網路廣播中發表的某些評論被視為前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受某些已知和未知的風險和不確定性以及假設的影響，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述所反映的結果有重大差異。這些前瞻性陳述也受到公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中不時描述的其他風險和不確定性的影響。請勿過度依賴任何前瞻性陳述，這些陳述僅截至本次電話會議之日作出。

Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to any forward-looking statements. Our presentation also includes certain key operational metrics and non-GAAP financial measures, including gross billings, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and EPS, and effective margin as supplemental measures of performance of our business. All non-GAAP measures have been reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with SEC rules. You'll find reconciliation charts and other important information in the earnings press release and Form 8-K we furnished to the SEC yesterday.

除法律規定外，本公司不承擔修改任何前瞻性陳述或公開發布修改結果的義務。我們的介紹還包括某些關鍵營運指標和非公認會計準則財務指標，包括總營業額、調整後的 EBITDA、調整後的淨收入和每股盈餘以及有效利潤率，作為我們業務績效的補充指標。所有非公認會計準則 (non-GAAP) 指標已根據美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 規則與最直接可比較的公認會計準則 (GAAP) 指標進行協調。您可以在我們昨天向美國證券交易委員會提供的收益新聞稿和 8-K 表中找到對帳圖表和其他重要資訊。

I'll now turn the call over to Climb's CEO, Dale Foster.

現在我將電話轉給 Climb 的執行長 Dale Foster。

Thank you, Sean, and good morning, everyone. The momentum from our record 2024 was carried into the first quarter, leading us to exceptional growth across all key financial metrics. Our performance was driven by the execution of our core initiatives. Additionally, we generated solid organic growth in both the US and Europe, demonstrating our ability to deepen relationships with our existing partners while signing new cutting-edge technologies to our line card.

謝謝你，肖恩，大家早安。我們創紀錄的 2024 年的勢頭延續到了第一季度，使我們所有關鍵財務指標都實現了顯著增長。我們的業績是由核心措施的執行所驅動的。此外，我們在美國和歐洲都實現了穩健的有機成長，證明了我們有能力深化與現有合作夥伴的關係，同時在我們的產品線中簽署新的尖端技術。

Throughout the first quarter, we evaluated 50 potential vendor partners and signed agreements with only four of them, underscoring our commitment to partnering exclusively with the most innovative, strategically aligned technologies in the market. This selective process ensures we continue to deliver differentiated solutions to our customers while maintaining the high standards that drive long-term value across our platform.

在整個第一季度，我們評估了 50 家潛在的供應商合作夥伴，並僅與其中 4 家簽署了協議，這突顯了我們致力於與市場上最具創新性、戰略一致的技術進行獨家合作的承諾。這個選擇過程確保我們繼續向客戶提供差異化的解決方案，同時保持推動我們平台長期價值的高標準。

I'd like to quickly highlight one of these wins. Climb signed a contract with Darktrace mid-quarter. Darktrace is a cybersecurity company that utilizes artificial intelligence to detect and respond to cyber threats. Their AI-powered technology allows them to identify threats that traditional systems may miss, such as insider attacks, latent vulnerabilities, and cloud-based threats. While their technology is excellent, I'm even more encouraged by the initial interaction between our sales teams and a quickly growing pipeline that has already topped $30 million in potential gross billings.

我想快速強調一下其中的一場勝利。Climb 在季度中期與 Darktrace 簽訂了合約。Darktrace 是一家利用人工智慧來偵測和應對網路威脅的網路安全公司。他們的人工智慧技術使他們能夠識別傳統系統可能錯過的威脅，例如內部攻擊、潛在漏洞和基於雲端的威脅。雖然他們的技術非常出色，但更讓我感到鼓舞的是我們的銷售團隊與快速成長的管道之間的初步互動，該管道的潛在總收入已經超過 3000 萬美元。

As part of our ongoing effort to evaluate and optimize our business, we're making steady progress in the implementation of our new ERP system, which is increasingly contributing to improved efficiency across our global operations. We are seeing meaningful gains in transactional speed and process accuracy. We believe with further optimization, the system will enable us to operate more seamlessly at scale, unlock deeper data insights and enhance agility and visibility across the organization.

作為我們持續評估和優化業務的努力的一部分，我們在實施新的 ERP 系統方面取得了穩步進展，該系統正在日益促進我們全球營運效率的提高。我們看到交易速度和流程準確性有了顯著提高。我們相信，透過進一步優化，該系統將使我們能夠更無縫地大規模運營，釋放更深入的數據洞察力，並提高整個組織的敏捷性和可見性。

In early April, we hosted our annual Climb Partner Conference in Miami where we gather top vendor partners and channel partners to align on our strategic priorities for 2025 and spotlight the latest in emerging technologies. As part of the event, we were proud to recognize Freshworks as our strategic partner of the year. Freshworks continues its focus on being a channel-first organization, agile, collaborative and deeply committed to our partner success. Our partnership is built on trust and shared momentum, and we look forward to continuing to drive meaningful growth together.

4 月初，我們在邁阿密舉辦了年度 Climb 合作夥伴大會，聚集了頂級供應商合作夥伴和通路合作夥伴，共同商定 2025 年的策略重點，並重點介紹最新的新興技術。作為活動的一部分，我們很榮幸地承認 Freshworks 是我們年度策略合作夥伴。Freshworks 持續致力於成為一個通路優先的組織，敏捷、協作並致力於合作夥伴的成功。我們的夥伴關係建立在信任和共同動力的基礎上，我們期待繼續共同推動有意義的成長。

Last week, we announced the appointment of Paul Giovacchini to our Board of Directors. Paul brings over 30 years of experience in private equity, corporate governance and Board leadership across public and private companies. He currently serves as a lead independent director for TPI Composites, where he previously served as Chairman and helped lead the company's transformation into the global public enterprise. Paul also serves as an independent consulting adviser to Advantage Capital Management, supporting private equity and debt investment strategies. I'm pleased to welcome Paul to the Climb family and look forward to his contributions as we continue to scale our footprint, both domestically and abroad.

上週，我們宣布任命 Paul Giovacchini 為董事會成員。Paul 在上市公司和私人公司的私募股權、公司治理和董事會領導方面擁有 30 多年的經驗。他目前擔任 TPI Composites 的首席獨立董事，此前他曾擔任該公司的董事長並幫助領導該公司轉型為全球上市公司。Paul 也擔任 Advantage Capital Management 的獨立諮詢顧問，支持私募股權和債務投資策略。我很高興歡迎保羅加入 Climb 大家庭，並期待他在我們繼續擴大國內外業務的過程中做出貢獻。

Looking ahead, we believe we are well positioned to sustain our momentum, continue driving organic growth, and further enhance our operating leverage. On the M&A front, we will continue to remain active and disciplined, evaluating accretive opportunities that can strengthen our offerings and expand our reach in North America and overseas. These initiatives, coupled with our healthy balance sheet, will enable us to continue executing on our goals ahead.

展望未來，我們相信我們有能力保持發展勢頭，繼續推動有機成長，並進一步提高我們的經營槓桿。在併購方面，我們將繼續保持積極和自律，評估可以增強我們的產品並擴大我們在北美和海外​​影響力的增值機會。這些措施加上我們健康的資產負債表將使我們能夠繼續實現未來的目標。

With that, I will turn the call over to our CFO, Matt Sullivan, and he will take you through the financial results. Matt?

說完這些，我將把電話轉給我們的財務長馬特·沙利文 (Matt Sullivan)，他將向您介紹財務結果。馬特？

Thank you, Dale, and good morning, everyone. A quick reminder as we review the financial results for our first quarter, all comparisons and variance commentary refer to the prior year quarter unless otherwise specified.

謝謝你，戴爾，大家早安。當我們回顧第一季的財務結果時，需要快速提醒的是，除非另有說明，所有比較和差異評論均指去年同期。

As reported in our earnings press release, gross billings in Q1 2025 increased 34% to $474.6 million compared to $355.3 million in the year-ago quarter. Distribution segment gross billings increased 36% to $453.6 million, and Solutions segment gross billings increased 2% to $21 million. Net sales in the first quarter of 2025 increased 49% to $138 million compared to $92.4 million, which primarily reflects organic growth from new and existing vendors as well as contribution from our acquisition of DSS in July of last year.

正如我們的收益新聞稿中所報導的，2025 年第一季的總營業額與去年同期的 3.553 億美元相比增長了 34%，達到 4.746 億美元。分銷部門總營業額成長 36% 至 4.536 億美元，解決方案部門總營業額成長 2% 至 2,100 萬美元。2025 年第一季的淨銷售額較 9,240 萬美元成長 49% 至 1.38 億美元，這主要反映了新舊供應商的有機成長以及我們去年 7 月收購 DSS 的貢獻。

Gross profit in the first quarter increased 37% to $23.4 million compared to $17 million in the prior year quarter. Again, the increase was driven by organic growth from new and existing vendors in both North America and Europe as well as contribution from DSS. Gross profit as a percentage of gross billings increased to 4.9% compared to 4.8% in the year-ago quarter.

第一季毛利為 2,340 萬美元，較去年同期的 1,700 萬美元成長 37%。再次，這一成長是由北美和歐洲新舊供應商的有機成長以及 DSS 的貢獻所推動的。毛利佔總營業額的百分比從去年同期的 4.8% 上升至 4.9%。

SG&A expenses in the first quarter were $16.8 million compared to $12.5 million for the same period in 2024. SG&A from DSS accounted for $1.1 million of the increase. SG&A as a percentage of gross billings remained flat at 3.5% compared to the year-ago period.

第一季的銷售、一般及行政費用為 1,680 萬美元，而 2024 年同期為 1,250 萬美元。DSS 的銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 佔增加額的 110 萬美元。與去年同期相比，銷售、一般及行政費用佔總營業收入的百分比維持不變，為 3.5%。

Net income in the first quarter of 2025 increased 35% to $3.7 million or $0.81 per diluted share compared to $2.7 million or $0.60 per diluted share for the comparable period in 2024. Income tax expense in the first quarter of 2025 decreased 37% to $600,000 or an effective tax rate of 13.3% compared to $900,000 or an effective tax rate of 24.6% for the comparable period in 2024. This big decrease in tax expense was driven by a deep discrete item recognized for the permanent book-to-tax difference associated with the rise in stock price when equity awards vest as compared to the book stock compensation expense recognized, which is based on the grant date fair value. Adjusted net income increased 39% to $3.9 million or $0.86 per diluted share compared to $2.8 million or $0.62 per diluted share for the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter increased 38% to $7.6 million compared to $5.5 million in the prior year quarter.

2025 年第一季淨收入成長 35% 至 370 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.81 美元，而 2024 年同期淨收入為 270 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.60 美元。2025 年第一季的所得稅費用下降 37% 至 60 萬美元或有效稅率 13.3%，而 2024 年同期的所得稅費用為 90 萬美元或有效稅率 24.6%。稅費大幅下降是由於一項深度獨立項目造成的，該項目確認為永久性賬面稅額差額，與股權獎勵歸屬時股價上漲有關，而確認的賬面股票薪酬費用則基於授予日公允價值。調整後淨收入成長 39% 至 390 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.86 美元，去年同期為 280 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.62 美元。第一季調整後 EBITDA 為 760 萬美元，較去年同期的 550 萬美元成長 38%。

The increase was driven by the aforementioned organic growth from both new and existing vendors as well as contribution from DSS. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of gross profit or effective margin increased 20 basis points to 32.7% compared to 32.5% in the year-ago period.

這一成長是由上述新供應商和現有供應商的有機成長以及 DSS 的貢獻所推動的。調整後 EBITDA 佔毛利或有效利潤率的百分比從去年同期的 32.5% 增加 20 個基點至 32.7%。

Turning to our balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents were $32.5 million as of March 31, 2025, compared to $29.8 million on December 31, 2024, while working capital increased by $4.4 million during the period. The increase in cash was primarily attributed to the timing of receivable collections and vendor payments.

轉向我們的資產負債表。截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，現金及現金等價物為 3,250 萬美元，而 2024 年 12 月 31 日為 2,980 萬美元，同期營運資金增加了 440 萬美元。現金增加主要歸因於應收帳款收款和供應商付款的時間。

As of March 31, 2025, we had $600,000 of outstanding debt with no borrowings outstanding under our $50 million revolving credit facility with JPMorgan Chase. On April 28, 2025, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share of our common stock payable on May 16, 2025, to shareholders of record on May 12, 2025.

截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們有 60 萬美元的未償還債務，根據與摩根大通的 5,000 萬美元循環信貸安排，沒有未償還借款。2025 年 4 月 28 日，我們的董事會宣布向 2025 年 5 月 12 日登記在冊的股東派發每股 0.17 美元的季度股息，該股息將於 2025 年 5 月 16 日支付。

As Dale mentioned earlier, we will continue to leverage our robust liquidity position to evaluate accretive M&A opportunities to enhance our service and solutions offerings across existing and future markets. We're incredibly proud of our global team for delivering another quarter of strong performance, and we look forward to building on this momentum as we execute against our organic and inorganic growth initiatives throughout 2025.

正如戴爾之前提到的，我們將繼續利用我們強大的流動性狀況來評估增值的併購機會，以增強我們在現有和未來市場提供的服務和解決方案。我們為我們的全球團隊又一個季度的強勁表現感到無比自豪，我們期待在 2025 年全年執行有機和無機增長計劃的過程中繼續保持這一勢頭。

This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open it up for questions from those participating in the call. Operator, back to you.

我們的準備好的演講到此結束。我們現在將開始回答電話會議參與者的提問。接線員，回到你身邊。

(Operator Instructions) Vincent Colicchio, Barrington Research.

（操作員指示）Vincent Colicchio，Barrington Research。

The organic growth, were there any large deals in the quarter that you may want to call out? Or was it broad-based demand?

就有機成長而言，本季是否有任何您想提及的大型交易？還是有廣泛需求？

It was pretty much broad-based. We called the one out in Q4 of last year when we had our vest. We still have, like we said, probably for 2.5 years now, they'll be lumpy, but nothing that stood out for Q1. We had the additional advantage of DSS just like we did in Q4. But Q1 is not the strongest as we start moving into DSS's -- I'm sorry, DSS, not DS, into their strongest quarters coming into the education space in the end of the state budgets that end in June.So we'll see those pick up.

它的影響範圍相當廣泛。當我們拿到背心時，我們在去年第四季就發出了這樣的呼籲。正如我們所說的那樣，我們可能還會有 2.5 年的時間，它們會很不穩定，但第一季沒有什麼特別突出的。就像我們在第四季度所做的那樣，我們擁有 DSS 的額外優勢。但第一季並不是最強勁的，因為我們開始進入 DSS——抱歉，是 DSS，而不是 DS，進入最強勁的季度，即在 6 月結束的州預算結束時進入教育領域。所以我們會看到這些方面有所回升。

But no, it's just a good overall quarter. A lot of our bigger brands are growing at a little higher rate than they have before. And then some of our emerging brands are doubling down, and we're just getting more out of those guys.

但事實並非如此，這只是一個整體表現良好的季度。我們的許多大品牌的成長速度都比以前略高一些。然後，我們的一些新興品牌正在加倍投入，我們從這些品牌中獲得了更多利益。

Has there been any change in sentiment given the uncertain economic environment? And also, can you talk about how tariffs may impact your business?

鑑於不確定的經濟環境，情緒有任何變化嗎？另外，您能談談關稅可能對您的業務產生什麼影響嗎？

Yes. So we kind of feel it adjacent to us. And I'll talk about the tariffs first, and that is we're over 80% in the US. We buy in US dollars. There are vendors in US. So you take a look at 80% of it doesn't affect us. And then we look at overseas, we're still selling a lot of software. Most of our business overseas is in the UK and Ireland, but not a real impact. We don't see that right now just because of the lion's share is in the US.

是的。所以我們感覺它就在我們身邊。我先談關稅，美國的關稅超過 80%。我們用美元購買。美國有供應商。所以你看一下，其中 80% 對我們沒有影響。然後我們看看海外，我們仍然在銷售大量軟體。我們的海外業務大部分在英國和愛爾蘭，但並沒有產生真正的影響。我們目前沒有看到這種情況，因為大部分份額在美國。

We deal with the Canadian side of things. We deal with our quoting. We put our new language on there as far as tariffs. So we don't quote at any distance like we do in the US and where we have a quote that's good for 30 days and Canada is good for five days, so we try to get pretty close.

我們處理加拿大方面的事。我們處理我們的報價。我們在那裡加入了有關關稅的新措詞。因此，我們不會像在美國那樣遠距離報價，我們的報價有效期為 30 天，而加拿大的報價有效期為 5 天，因此我們試圖使其非常接近。

And are you starting to see some of the synergies you were hoping for in Europe?

您是否開始看到您所希望在歐洲實現的一些協同效應？

We are. We announced at the last call that we knew Citrix, we were losing Citrix. We still took advantage of it in Q1 because we had legacy. We still have a little bit that's going to drag on for a couple of years. So the big hole for Citrix is it's starting to fill in Q2. We already have some mitigations that we're doing on new vendors.

是的。我們在最後一次電話會議上宣布，我們了解 Citrix，我們正在失去 Citrix。由於我們擁有遺產，因此我們在第一季仍然利用了它。我們還有一些事情要拖上幾年。因此，Citrix 面臨的巨大漏洞將在第二季開始填補。我們已經針對新供應商採取了一些緩解措施。

We've re-orged our team over there. They're all in our systems like we talked about. We didn't mention because it wasn't a Q1 event, but just as of this past Monday, DSS, Douglas Stewart went on our ERP system live. So that's a good thing. So now every division, every company we've acquired is all on one ERP, all looking at the same numbers, and we'll just keep enhancing that. But yes, overall, everything is positive.

我們已經重新組織了那裡的團隊。正如我們所說的，它們都在我們的系統中。我們沒有提及，因為這不是 Q1 事件，但就在上週一，DSS，Douglas Stewart 開始在我們的 ERP 系統上線。這是一件好事。所以現在我們收購的每個部門、每家公司都使用同一個 ERP，看看相同的數字，而且我們會不斷增強這一點。但總體來說，一切都是正面的。

So in the month of April, did you see organic growth trend as you did in the Q1?

那麼，在四月份，您是否看到了與第一季一樣的有機成長趨勢？

Yes. I mean as far as -- we just don't talk about the future stuff as far as April goes. We're just finishing up. But still we're -- I mentioned Darktrace and we kicked off April 1 with them. And it's a relationship, and I'll kind of share with the entire group, and that is some of these relationships take a long time to develop to get to the place where you do a contract. And then once you get to a contract, to actually start executing.

是的。我的意思是——我們只是不談論四月份的未來的事情。我們剛剛結束。但我們仍然——我提到了 Darktrace，我們在 4 月 1 日與他們一起開始了合作。這是一種關係，我會與整個團隊分享，其中一些關係需要很長時間才能發展到簽約的程度。一旦簽訂了合同，就可以開始執行。

I was talking to Charles, our Alliance Chief. And we looked at -- our first time we talked to them was over two years ago. We got serious with them in June of last year. And here, we're just launching April 1 of this year. So the bigger vendor, the more opportunities, the longer it takes. We want to make sure we get it right. During that time, Darktrace got bought by Thoma Bravo. So delays some things, but we're super excited about our pipeline. It's growing very quickly with them.

我正在和我們的聯盟首領查爾斯交談。我們回顧了一下——我們第一次與他們交談是在兩年多前。我們從去年六月開始認真對待他們。我們剛於今年 4 月 1 日推出。因此，供應商越大，機會越多，所需時間也越長。我們希望確保一切正確。在此期間，Darktrace 被 Thoma Bravo 收購。因此有些事情被推遲了，但我們對我們的管道感到非常興奮。它和他們一起成長得非常快。

And I mentioned, I think, in one of the questions we had, and maybe it was your question last time, Vince, as far as, hey, what really gets you guys to the next, next level, and it's really adding. We have three large vendors. We want to get 10 large vendors that really will help us in our effective margin as that drop through and get more efficient with them. And Darktrace, we believe, is going to be one of the -- they'll probably be a strong number three or four by this time next year.

我想，在我們提出的一個問題中，我提到過，也許這是你上次的問題，文斯，至於，嘿，什麼真正讓你們達到下一個、下一個水平，它真的增加了。我們有三家大型供應商。我們希望找到 10 家能夠真正幫助我們提高有效利潤的大型供應商，並提高我們的效率。我們相信，到明年這個時候，Darktrace 將會成為其中之一，他們可能會名列第三或第四。

It appears we have no further questions at this time. I will now turn the program back over to our presenters for any additional remarks.

目前看來我們沒有其他問題。現在我將把節目交還給主持人，以便他們發表進一步的評論。

Yes. Thank you, operator. Just in closing, real quick, a big shout out to the Climb team. We've gone through a lot with our ERP over the last nine months. We're on the other side of it.So there's a lot more smiles in the building. But I appreciate everybody's time and commitment to get that done.

是的。謝謝您，接線生。最後，我要向 Climb 團隊大聲呼喊。在過去的九個月裡，我們在 ERP 方面經歷了很多。我們在它的另一邊。因此，大樓裡有更多的笑容。但我感謝大家為完成這項工作所付出的時間和承諾。

Now it's really fine-tuning all the things that we've been working on, and you'll see that over the next couple of quarters. So again, I appreciate the whole Climb team, and that includes even our shareholders and our Board. Everything is going in the right direction. So I appreciate that.

現在我們正在對一直在努力的所有事情進行微調，您將在接下來的幾個季度中看到這一點。因此，我再次感謝整個 Climb 團隊，包括我們的股東和董事會。一切都在朝著正確的方向發展。我很感激。

And with that, I'll just say thank you and end the call.

最後，我只想說謝謝，然後結束通話。

This concludes today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

今天的節目到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以隨時斷開連線。