Clarivate PLC (CLVT) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, all, and welcome to Clarivate's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Lydia, and I will be your operator today. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加科睿唯安 2023 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。我叫莉迪亞，今天我將成為你們的接線生。 （操作員說明）

I'll now hand you over to Mark Donohue, Head of Investor Relations, to begin.

現在我將把您交給投資者關係主管馬克·多諾霍 (Mark Donohue) 開始。

Thank you, Lydia. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the Clarivate Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and webcast and is copyrighted property of Clarivate. Any rebroadcast of this information in whole or in part without prior consent of Clarivate is prohibited, and accompanying earnings call presentation is available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website, clarivate.com.

謝謝你，莉迪亞。大家早安。感謝您參加我們的科睿唯安 2023 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。謹此提醒，本次電話會議正在進行錄音和網路直播，版權歸科睿唯安所有。未經 Clarivate 事先同意，禁止全部或部分轉播此訊息，並可在公司網站 clarivate.com 的投資者關係部分查看隨附的收益電話會議簡報。

During our call, we may make certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the business or developments in Clarivate's industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

在我們的電話會議中，我們可能會做出適用證券法意義內的某些前瞻性陳述。此類前瞻性陳述涉及已知和未知的風險、不確定性和其他因素，可能導致業務的實際結果、業績或成就或科睿唯安行業的發展與Clarivate 明示或暗示的預期結果、業績、成就或發展有重大差異。

Information about the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results or performance can be found in Clarivate's filings with the SEC and on the company's website.

有關可能導致實際結果與預期結果或業績產生重大差異的因素的信息，請參閱科睿唯安向 SEC 提交的文件以及該公司的網站。

Our discussion will include non-GAAP measures or adjusted numbers. Clarivate believes non-GAAP results are useful in order to enhance an understanding of our ongoing operating performance, but they are supplement to and should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to GAAP measures are available in our earnings release and supplemental presentation on our website.

我們的討論將包括非公認會計原則措施或調整後的數字。 Clarivate 認為，非 GAAP 績效有助於增強對我們持續經營績效的了解，但它們是對 GAAP 財務指標的補充，不應孤立考慮或取代 GAAP 財務指標。這些措施與 GAAP 措施的調節可在我們網站上的收益發布和補充演示中找到。

With me today are Jonathan Gear, Chief Executive Officer; and Jonathan Collins, Chief Financial Officer. Both will be available to take your questions at the conclusion of the prepared remarks. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the call.

今天與我在一起的有執行長 Jonathan Gear；和財務長喬納森·柯林斯。在準備好的發言結束後，兩人都可以回答您的問題。在我們準備好發言後，我們將開始通話。

With that, it's a pleasure to turn the call over to Jonathan Gear.

至此，我們很高興將電話轉給 Jonathan Gear。

Great. Thank you, Mark. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. As I begin my second full financial year as CEO of Clarivate, I would like to provide an update on our turnaround journey, including the timing and actions required in the years ahead. 2023 was a critical year for Clarivate as we executed significant changes. These changes allowed us to set the foundation for future growth. I will cover some of these changes on the next slide. It also was a year where we were impacted by macro pressures that, to varying levels, impacted each of our segments and contributed to lower organic growth than originally expected. Nonetheless, these changes were required to set us up for the next phase of Clarivate where we innovate for growth.

偉大的。謝謝你，馬克。大家早安，感謝您今天加入我們。在我作為科睿唯安首席執行官的第二個完整財政年度開始之際，我想提供有關我們扭虧為盈之旅的最新信息，包括未來幾年所需的時間安排和行動。 2023 年對 Clarivate 來說是關鍵的一年，我們實施了重大變革。這些變化使我們為未來的成長奠定了基礎。我將在下一張投影片中介紹其中一些變更。這也是我們受到宏觀壓力影響的一年，這些壓力在不同程度上影響了我們的每個部門，並導致有機成長低於最初的預期。儘管如此，這些改變是我們為科睿唯安下一階段做好準備所必需的，我們將透過創新實現成長。

Beginning on prior investments and changes, we expect to see continued progress in Academia & Government and new success in our focus areas in Intellectual Property and Life Sciences & Healthcare. This will accelerate in 2024 into 2025. We expect new product introduction to lead to increased renewal rates, new sales, better ability to capture pricing and drive revenue growth. I now fully expect us to exit 2025 positioned to drive value as we couple mid-single-digit organic growth with our scaled business model, to accelerate our ability to be a cash generation machine for investors.

從先前的投資和變革開始，我們預計學術界和政府將繼續取得進展，並在知識產權、生命科學和醫療保健等重點領域取得新的成功。這一趨勢將在 2024 年至 2025 年加速。我現在完全預計，我們將在 2025 年結束時定位於推動價值，因為我們將中等個位數的有機成長與我們規模化的業務模式結合起來，以加快我們成為投資者現金生成機器的能力。

I should acknowledge that this revised outlook is a year longer than the plan I set forth at Investor Day last year. The macro environment hampered us in 2023, and we pivoted our strategy in Life Sciences & Healthcare under a new leader. Nonetheless, with 1 year under my belt and the changes complete, I am more confident than ever in the potential for Clarivate's success and growth.

我應該承認，這項修訂後的展望比我去年在投資人日提出的計畫長了一年。 2023 年，宏觀環境阻礙了我們的發展，我們在新領導的領導下調整了生命科學與醫療保健領域的策略。儘管如此，在我任職一年且變革完成後，我對科睿唯安的成功和發展潛力比以往任何時候都更有信心。

2023 was a foundational year for Clarivate. It was a year where we drove significant changes in 3 areas to position us for growth. Prior to 2023, our operating model was primarily aligned by function, and this allowed us to rapidly realize cost synergies from the 3 large acquisitions completed over the prior few years. However, there were trade-offs, namely less accountability and a fragmented key account management strategy. I recognize that we needed to drive more accountability and build a more effective way of operating closer to our customers.

2023 年是科睿唯安的奠基之年。這一年，我們在 3 個領域推動了重大變革，為我們的成長奠定了基礎。 2023 年之前，我們的營運模式主要按功能調整，這使我們能夠從前幾年完成的 3 次大型收購中快速實現成本協同效應。然而，也存在一些權衡，即問責制的減少和大客戶管理策略的分散。我認識到，我們需要推動更多的問責制，並建立更有效的方式來更貼近客戶。

From this view, we created our segment operating model to tighten our customer focus, accelerate decision-making and bring innovations to market faster. The result was an organizational alignment into 3 segments: Academia & Government, Intellectual Property and Life Sciences & Healthcare. In May 2023, I appointed presidents to lead each segment. I hired 2 external industry leaders, Bar Veinstein, to run Academia & Government and Henry Levy to run Life Sciences & Healthcare. I reassigned Gordon Samson from his role as Chief Product Officer to run the IP segment, an industry in which he's had nearly a decade of experience.

從這個角度來看，我們創建了細分營運模式，以加強對客戶的關注，加快決策速度並更快地將創新推向市場。結果是組織結構調整為三個部分：學術界與政府、智慧財產權以及生命科學與醫療保健。 2023 年 5 月，我任命了總裁來領導各部門。我聘請了兩位外部產業領導者，Bar Veinstein 負責管理學術界和政府部門，Henry Levy 負責管理生命科學和醫療保健部門。我將戈登·薩姆森 (Gordon Samson) 重新任命為首席產品官，負責管理 IP 部門，他在該行業擁有近十年的經驗。

With new experienced leadership in place that has full accountability for their respective segment P&Ls, including sales, go-to-market, product leadership, technology and operations, we are in a better position to drive improved performance across the organization.

隨著新的經驗豐富的領導層就位，對各自部門的損益（包括銷售、進入市場、產品領導力、技術和營運）全面負責，我們能夠更好地推動整個組織的績效提升。

At our Investor Day, we highlighted the lack of investment in flagship products and innovation over several years, which we needed to reverse. We commenced a significant level of investment and executed against a roadmap to reinvigorate our portfolio. This includes creating new products, enhancing existing solutions and accelerating the use of artificial intelligence to move faster, be more agile and bring solutions to market more quickly.

在投資者日，我們強調了多年來對旗艦產品和創新投資的缺乏，我們需要扭轉這種局面。我們開始了大量投資，並按照路線圖執行，以重振我們的投資組合。這包括創造新產品、增強現有解決方案以及加速人工智慧的使用，以更快、更敏捷並將解決方案更快地推向市場。

Starting in 2023, we increased our annual capital investment by around $40 million, an increase of around 20%, to propel product innovation across all segments. We are seeing early evidence that these investments are paying off.

從 2023 年開始，我們每年增加資本投資約 4,000 萬美元，增幅約 20%，以推動各個細分市場的產品創新。我們看到早期證據顯示這些投資正在獲得回報。

The reinvigoration of Web of Science, where we made the earliest investments, is our first example as that platform has returned to growth with further growth acceleration expected. Patent Intelligence Services and IP is our second example. We hired a new product team in late 2022. They engaged deeply with our customers in the first half of 2023 and began executing against a roadmap to reinvigorate this platform. We plan to take it to market in the first half of 2024 and look forward to sharing KPIs with you in future calls.

我們最早投資的 Web of Science 的重振是我們的第一個例子，因為該平台已恢復成長，預計將進一步加速成長。專利情報服務和智慧財產權是我們的第二個例子。我們在 2022 年底聘請了一個新產品團隊。我們計劃在 2024 年上半年將其推向市場，並期待在未來的電話會議中與您分享 KPI。

In Life Sciences & Healthcare, we made a major pivot on our real-world data platform after the arrival of Henry Levy. We invested in a new focused strategy in the second half of 2023 and expect to share initial customer wins later in the year. Finally, and related to our new org structure, we renewed a focus on aligning with our customers and supporting their success.

在生命科學和醫療保健領域，亨利·利維 (Henry Levy) 上任後，我們對現實世界數據平台進行了重大調整。我們在 2023 年下半年投資了一項新的重點策略，並預計在今年稍後分享最初的客戶勝利。最後，與我們新的組織結構相關，我們重新專注於與客戶保持一致並支持他們的成功。

I, myself, hosted nearly 100 customer meetings in 2023 and learned what we're doing well and what we can do better. As a result, we realigned our customer-facing teams, including sales, marketing, customer care with the product teams, ensuring our differentiated industry expertise is front and center in every customer interaction.

我自己在 2023 年主持了近 100 場客戶會議，了解了我們做得好的方面以及我們可以做得更好的方面。因此，我們重新調整了面向客戶的團隊，包括銷售、行銷、客戶服務與產品團隊，確保我們差異化的行業專業知識在每次客戶互動中處於前沿和中心。

With the foundation now built, over the next 2 years we will focus on specific organizational and segment priorities to improve organic growth to a low single-digit range. First, with our organizational-wide priorities, with our segment model now in place for a year, we are better equipped to drive excellence across Clarivate to build a winning culture, focused on innovation, customer centricity and accountability.

隨著基礎的建立，在接下來的兩年裡，我們將專注於特定的組織和部門優先事項，以將有機成長提高到較低的個位數範圍。首先，憑藉我們整個組織範圍內的優先事項，以及我們的細分模型現已實施一年，我們有更好的能力推動整個科睿唯安的卓越發展，以建立專注於創新、以客戶為中心和問責制的勝利文化。

We will continue to pursue operational efficiencies, including utilizing AI and its many benefits to further enhance productivity. This will help us maintain and improve our operating margins while still investing in innovation. It will also help us generate even stronger cash flow to reduce our leverage to the low 3x range.

我們將繼續追求營運效率，包括利用人工智慧及其諸多優勢來進一步提高生產力。這將有助於我們維持和提高我們的營業利潤率，同時仍投資於創新。它還將幫助我們產生更強勁的現金流，將我們的槓桿率降低至 3 倍的低水平。

Finally, we are actively evaluating opportunities to prune the portfolio of smaller dilutive products. This will sharpen our focus on core growth markets and generate cash to reinvest in our business and reduce our debt.

最後，我們正在積極評估削減規模較小的稀釋性產品組合的機會。這將加強我們對核心成長市場的關注，並產生現金用於對我們的業務進行再投資並減少我們的債務。

Moving on to our segment priorities. Our prior year investments in the Web of Science have delivered improved usage and renewal rates. With additional product innovation, we are targeting enhanced performance across content aggregation within the A&G segment. In addition, we continue to pursue advancements in AI as well as in business development opportunities such as acquisitions -- sorry, our acquisition of Alethea, an AI student engagement solution.

繼續我們的細分市場優先事項。我們前一年對 Web of Science 的投資提高了使用率和續約率。透過額外的產品創新，我們的目標是增強 A&G 領域內容聚合的效能。此外，我們繼續追求人工智慧的進步以及收購等業務發展機會——抱歉，我們收購了 AI 學生參與解決方案 Alethea。

In 2023, our IP segment experienced some of the most challenging economic and budget pressures in years. This has now stabilized and we expect improvements in the second half of 2024 as we lap the prior year comps. Last year, we launched 2 new AI-powered workflow solutions, the Brand Landscape Analyzer and an IP forecast tool. We look forward to launching our new IP intelligence platform this year and extend our current IP management system win rates through service integration with AI-enabled workflows.

2023 年，我們的智慧財產權部門經歷了多年來最具挑戰性的經濟和預算壓力。現在這一情況已經穩定下來，我們預計 2024 年下半年會有所改善，因為我們會超越上一年的比較。去年，我們推出了 2 個新的人工智慧驅動的工作流程解決方案：品牌景觀分析器和 IP 預測工具。我們期待今年推出新的知識產權智慧平台，並透過與人工智慧工作流程的服務整合來提高我們目前的智慧財產權管理系統的勝率。

Our Life Sciences & Healthcare segment, which has the greatest upside potential, has been our most volatile business over the last 2 years. While this segment also experienced macro headwinds last year, we believe the growth potential far exceeds our other 2 segments.

我們的生命科學與醫療保健業務具有最大的上升潛力，也是過去兩年來我們波動最大的業務。儘管該細分市場去年也經歷了宏觀阻力，但我們相信其成長潛力遠遠超過其他兩個細分市場。

With a change in leadership and the change in our go-to-market strategy it has brought, we are now better positioned to optimize the long-term success of the analytics platform. In addition, on prior earnings calls, we discussed the investments we're making to drive innovation across our Real-World Data platform, supported by generative AI functionality. The increase in capital spending in 2024 is primarily targeted to accelerate innovation within this very important high-growth segment. Each of our presidents looks forward to sharing more details on these growth strategies over a series of upcoming investor webinars. We will be sharing more details on the timing of these events soon.

隨著領導層的變化以及由此帶來的進入市場策略的變化，我們現在能夠更好地優化分析平台的長期成功。此外，在先前的財報電話會議上，我們討論了在產生人工智慧功能的支援下，為推動真實世界數據平台的創新而進行的投資。 2024 年資本支出的增加主要旨在加速這個非常重要的高成長領域的創新。我們的每位總裁都期待在即將舉行的一系列投資者網路研討會上分享有關這些成長策略的更多細節。我們將很快分享有關這些活動時間表的更多詳細資訊。

As we exit this year, we will be well on our way in our transformational journey. Under our updated outlook, we believe we can achieve our mid-single-digit organic growth target in 2026. This is approximately 1 year longer compared to the target we provided last March. We, of course, will continue to look at every opportunity to accelerate this timeline. I'm confident that we have the people, customer relationships, products and solutions to succeed. By achieving a mid-single-digit growth rate, we will be well positioned to deliver margin accretion, stronger cash flows, capital allocation optionality and deliver significant value for our shareholders.

當我們今年退出時，我們將在轉型之旅中順利前進。根據我們更新後的展望，我們相信我們可以在 2026 年實現中個位數的有機成長目標。當然，我們將繼續尋找一切機會來加快這一進程。我相信我們擁有成功的人才、客戶關係、產品和解決方案。透過實現中個位數的成長率，我們將處於有利地位，能夠實現利潤成長、更強的現金流、資本配置的選擇性，並為我們的股東帶來巨大的價值。

I now want to briefly discuss our 2023 financial results. Even in a challenging growth year, we improved on our underlying financial position. Organic subscription revenue grew more than 2% in 2023, and we achieved record renewal rates of 92%. We generated our highest free cash flow ever at more than $500 million, of which $300 million was allocated towards accelerated debt repayment, dropping our leverage ratios below 4x. We also repurchased $100 million of our ordinary shares.

我現在想簡要討論一下我們 2023 年的財務表現。即使在充滿挑戰的增長年，我們的基本財務狀況也有所改善。 2023 年，有機訂閱收入成長超過 2%，續訂率達到創紀錄的 92%。我們創造了有史以來最高的自由現金流，超過 5 億美元，其中 3 億美元用於加速債務償還，使我們的槓桿率降至 4 倍以下。我們也回購了 1 億美元的普通股。

With an improving balance sheet and strong cash generation, we continue to invest in CapEx spending to drive additional product innovation. We will continue to be disciplined in capital allocation and currently expect to use approximately $400 million, primarily for deleveraging in 2024.

隨著資產負債表的改善和強勁的現金生成，我們繼續投資於資本支出，以推動更多的產品創新。我們將繼續嚴格資本配置，目前預計將使用約 4 億美元，主要用於 2024 年的去槓桿化。

I want to thank all of my colleagues for their ongoing dedication in helping Clarivate achieve its full potential. I'm confident that the significant structural and operational changes we made last year have created the path to accelerate and sustain organic revenue growth. I look forward to updating you on the progress in the quarters ahead.

我要感謝所有同事為幫助科睿唯安充分發揮潛能所做的持續奉獻。我相信，我們去年做出的重大結構和營運變革已經為加速和維持有機收入成長開闢了道路。我期待向您通報未來幾季的最新進展。

With that, let me now turn the call over to Jonathan Collins, to walk you through our financials.

現在，讓我將電話轉給喬納森·柯林斯，向您介紹我們的財務狀況。

Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, everyone. Slide 12 is an overview of last year's fourth quarter and full year financial results compared with the same periods from the prior year. Q4 revenue was $684 million, an increase of $9 million versus 2022, bringing the full year to $2.629 billion, a decrease of $31 million compared to the prior year. The decline was entirely due to the MarkMonitor divestiture and was partially offset by favorable foreign exchange.

謝謝你，喬納森。大家早安。投影片 12 概述了去年第四季和全年財務表現與去年同期的比較。第四季營收為 6.84 億美元，較 2022 年增加 900 萬美元，使全年營收達到 26.29 億美元，較前一年減少 3,100 萬美元。下降完全是由於 MarkMonitor 剝離造成的，並被有利的外匯匯率部分抵消。

The fourth quarter net loss was $863 million due to the noncash goodwill impairment charge related to the legacy businesses in the IP and LS&H segments. This was also the primary driver of the full year net loss of $987 million, which was an improvement of $3 billion over 2022 as this year's noncash goodwill impairment charge was lower than the one recorded in the prior year.

由於與 IP 和 LS&H 部門的遺留業務相關的非現金商譽減損費用，第四季淨虧損為 8.63 億美元。這也是全年淨虧損 9.87 億美元的主要原因，該淨虧損比 2022 年減少了 30 億美元，因為今年的非現金商譽減損費用低於上一年記錄的淨虧損。

Adjusted diluted EPS, which excludes the impact of onetime items like the impairment, was $0.23 in Q4, a $0.01 improvement over the same period last year. The full year result was $0.82, $0.03 lower than 2022, stemming from the MarkMonitor divestiture.

第四季調整後攤薄每股收益（不包括減損等一次性項目的影響）為 0.23 美元，比去年同期增加 0.01 美元。由於 MarkMonitor 剝離，全年業績為 0.82 美元，比 2022 年低 0.03 美元。

Operating cash flow was $191 million in the quarter, an increase of $54 million over the prior year's fourth quarter as the working capital timing issue from the third quarter unwound. Full year operating cash flow improved $235 million or 46% over 2022 to nearly $0.75 billion on lower onetime costs and working capital requirements.

本季營運現金流為 1.91 億美元，比去年第四季增加 5,400 萬美元，因為第三季的營運資金時間安排問題已解決。由於一次性成本和營運資金需求降低，全年營運現金流比 2022 年增加了 2.35 億美元，即 46%，達到近 7.5 億美元。

Please turn with me now to Page 13 for a closer look at the drivers of the full year top and bottom line changes from the prior year. On our Q3 earnings call, we indicated Q4 organic growth was expected to approach 1%. However, it came in slightly below those expectations, closer to flat. Q4 has historically been the largest transactional sales quarter of the year for our A&G segment and the outcome for this area was modestly lower than not only our expectations, but also the prior year's results. Adjusted EBITDA was right in line with our expectations despite the modestly lower revenue.

現在請跟我一起翻到第 13 頁，詳細了解全年營收和利潤較前一年變化的驅動因素。在第三季財報電話會議上，我們表示第四季有機成長預計將接近 1%。然而，它的表現略低於預期，接近持平。第四季歷來是我們 A&G 部門一年中最大的交易銷售季度，該領域的業績不僅略低於我們的預期，也略低於上一年的業績。儘管收入略有下降，但調整後的 EBITDA 完全符合我們的預期。

The full year changes to the top and bottom line were driven by the 4 key factors highlighted on this chart. First, revenue was up $7 million on organic growth of 0.3%. Despite the softer year-end transactional sales, A&G accelerated growth on the back of the Research & Analytics subsegment as we reap the benefits of the investments in the Web of Science product.

全年頂線和底線的變化是由該圖表中突出顯示的 4 個關鍵因素所驅動的。首先，營收成長 700 萬美元，有機成長 0.3%。儘管年終交易銷售疲軟，但隨著我們從 Web of Science 產品投資中獲益，A&G 在研究與分析細分市場的支持下加速了成長。

Our LS&H segment declined, led by a double-digit drop in transactional revenues due to the challenges with our legacy strategy of selling our real-world data that we discussed in prior calls and is in the process of being addressed.

我們的 LS&H 部門出現下滑，交易收入出現兩位數下降，因為我們在之前的電話會議中討論過的銷售真實數據的傳統策略面臨挑戰，目前正在解決這一問題。

Finally, our IP business was down slightly in our Patent Intelligence solutions, which is also being reinvigorated in 2024 as well as previously discussed macro-related softness in our patent renewals and trademark services offerings. The adjusted EBITDA impact was negligible as we were able to achieve efficiencies that offset most cost inflation.

最後，我們的專利智慧解決方案中的智慧財產權業務略有下降，該解決方案也將在 2024 年重振，以及先前討論的專利續展和商標服務產品中與宏觀相關的疲軟狀況。調整後的 EBITDA 影響可以忽略不計，因為我們能夠實現抵銷大部分成本通膨的效率。

Second, inorganic impacts, namely the divestiture of the MarkMonitor business in 2022, lowered revenue $63 million and profit $32 million last year. Third, cost synergies from the ProQuest acquisition contributed $40 million of incremental profit. And not only buoyed profit margins but were completely responsible for the expansion over the prior year.

其次，無機影響，即 2022 年 MarkMonitor 業務的剝離，導致去年收入減少 6,300 萬美元，利潤減少 3,200 萬美元。第三，收購 ProQuest 帶來的成本綜效貢獻了 4,000 萬美元的增量利潤。不僅提高了利潤率，而且對上一年的擴張負有全部責任。

And finally, the foreign exchange translation impact of non-U.S. dollar-denominated subsidiaries increased revenue by $25 million compared to 2022. The profit increase was negligible as transaction gains were lower than the prior year.

最後，與 2022 年相比，非美元計價子公司的外匯換算影響使收入增加了 2,500 萬美元。

Please turn with me now to Page 14 to step through the conversion from adjusted EBITDA to free cash flow at the highest rate we've seen since the IPO in 2019. Free cash flow was $127 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of $36 million over the same period the prior year, bringing the full year amount to more than $0.5 billion, growth of nearly $200 million over 2022, which represented an 18 percentage point improvement in the conversion on adjusted EBITDA. The majority of the improvement, $155 million, was caused by lower onetime costs as we completed the integration of the acquisitions.

現在請跟我一起翻到第14 頁，逐步完成從調整後EBITDA 到自由現金流的轉換，這是我們自2019 年IPO 以來看到的最高水準。了3,600 萬美元與去年同期相比，全年金額超過 5 億美元，比 2022 年增長近 2 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 轉換率提高了 18 個百分點。大部分改進（1.55 億美元）是由於我們完成收購整合後一次性成本降低。

Interest payments were up $22 million over the prior year as the impact of base rate increases was partially offset by the lower debt quantum due to the deleveraging in Q4 of 2022 and H1 of 2023. Cash taxes were $21 million lower than the prior year as we recognized the benefit of planning initiatives, jurisdictional mix and the timing of payments.

利息支付比上年增加了2,200 萬美元，因為基本利率上調的影響被2022 年第四季和2023 年上半年去槓桿化導致的債務金額降低部分抵銷。因為我們認識到規劃措施、管轄權組合和付款時間的好處。

Working capital was a $5 million source of cash compared to a $73 million use the prior year. The timing of payments within our patent renewal business in our IP segment was a meaningful contributor to the year-over-year improvement. Capital expenditures rose $40 million to nearly $0.25 billion or 9% of revenue as we ramped up our investment in product innovation. We used our free cash flow to service our preferred stock with a dividend, prepaid $300 million of term debt and repurchased 14 million shares of our common stock. This balanced capital allocation brought our net leverage ratio to our year-end target of less than 4 turns.

營運資本是 500 萬美元的現金來源，而前一年的使用量為 7,300 萬美元。我們的智慧財產權部門的專利續展業務的付款時間對同比改善做出了有意義的貢獻。隨著我們增加對產品創新的投資，資本支出增加了 4,000 萬美元，達到近 2.5 億美元，佔收入的 9%。我們利用自由現金流支付優先股和股息，預付了 3 億美元的定期債務，回購了 1,400 萬股普通股。這種平衡的資本配置使我們的淨槓桿率達到了低於4倍的年終目標。

Please move with me now to Slide 15 as we turn the page on 2023 and provide our guidance for 2024. Beginning at the top of the page, we expect organic growth to improve over last year to about 1% at the midpoint of our range. From a segment perspective, we anticipate A&G's growth will continue to improve modestly, LS&H to improve to about flat, and IP to return to low growth. In terms of revenue types, we expect the subscription file will grow between 2% and 3%, in line with last year, reoccurring to grow about 1% and transactional to decline about 2%. It's worth noting that we expect to be off to a slower start in Q1 with a decline of more than 2%.

現在請跟我一起轉到投影片15，我們將翻過2023 年的這一頁並提供2024 年的指導。中點。從細分市場來看，我們預計 A&G 的成長將繼續小幅改善，LS&H 的成長將基本持平，IP 將恢復低成長。就收入類型而言，我們預計訂閱文件將增長 2% 至 3% 之間，與去年一致，重複增長約 1%，交易下降約 2%。值得注意的是，我們預計第一季的開局會較慢，下降幅度將超過 2%。

While we anticipate the subscription file will continue to grow, we're likely to see high single-digit declines in both the reoccurring and transactional order types, driven by tougher comps in our IP segment, namely patent renewal and trademark servicing volumes. We expect organic growth to be modestly positive, excluding these product areas, and our full year guidance predicts positive organic growth for each of the remaining quarters of this year. 1% organic growth for the full year would yield revenue of about $2.62 billion at the midpoint of the range.

雖然我們預計訂閱文件將繼續成長，但在我們的智慧財產權領域（即專利續訂和商標服務量）更嚴格的競爭的推動下，我們可能會看到重複訂單和交易訂單類型均出現高個位數下降。我們預計，不包括這些產品領域，有機成長將適度為正，並且我們的全年指引預計今年剩餘每季都會出現積極的有機成長。全年 1% 的有機成長將產生約 26.2 億美元的收入（以該範圍的中點計算）。

Moving down the page, we expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $1.55 billion to $1.115 billion, resulting in a profit margin of about 41.5% at the midpoint of the range. We anticipate diluted adjusted EPS between $0.70 and $0.80, down $0.07 from last year at the midpoint. The adjusted EBITDA decline, which I'll detail on the next page, will account for about $0.04 and higher D&A from increased capital spending to drive growth will cause $0.03. And finally, at the bottom of the page, we anticipate free cash flow between $420 million and $0.5 billion.

向下看，我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 在 15.5 億美元至 11.15 億美元之間，利潤率約為該範圍中點的 41.5%。我們預計稀釋後調整後每股收益將在 0.70 美元至 0.80 美元之間，比去年中點下降 0.07 美元。調整後的 EBITDA 下降（我將在下一頁詳細介紹）將導致約 0.04 美元，而為推動成長而增加的資本支出導致的更高的 D&A 將導致 0.03 美元。最後，在頁面底部，我們預計自由現金流在 4.2 億美元到 5 億美元之間。

Please turn with me now to Page 16 for a closer look at the full year top and bottom line changes we're expecting compared to last year. Since the benefit of the cost synergies from the ProQuest acquisition are completely embedded in last year's results, the full year change to revenue and adjusted EBITDA this year is driven by 3 key factors. First, organic growth at the midpoint of our guidance range will add about $30 million to the top line but will have no impact on the bottom line, leading to a modestly lower profit margin as we remain committed to investing in product innovation that we believe will accelerate organic growth in coming years.

現在請跟我一起翻到第 16 頁，詳細了解我們預計與去年相比全年營收和利潤的變化。由於收購 ProQuest 帶來的成本協同效應完全體現在去年的業績中，因此今年全年收入和調整後 EBITDA 的變化是由 3 個關鍵因素驅動的。首先，我們指導範圍中點的有機成長將為營收增加約 3,000 萬美元，但不會對利潤產生影響，從而導致利潤率適度下降，因為我們仍然致力於投資於產品創新，我們相信這將未來幾年加速有機成長。

Second, the inorganic impact from selling a small business line in the IP segment will remove some revenue this year compared to last year. We expect the transaction will close this quarter and will deduct about $30 million of revenue and about $15 million of profit this year. As Jonathan highlighted earlier, pruning the portfolio of small growth dilutive products to improve execution is a priority to accelerating our organic growth, and this is another step in this direction.

其次，與去年相比，出售知識產權領域的小型業務線所產生的無機影響將導致今年的部分收入減少。我們預計交易將於本季完成，並將扣除今年約 3,000 萬美元的收入和約 1,500 萬美元的利潤。正如喬納森之前所強調的那樣，修剪小增長稀釋產品組合以提高執行力是加速我們有機增長的首要任務，這是朝這個方向邁出的又一步。

And finally, we anticipate a $10 million foreign exchange translation headwind on the top line and a slightly higher headwind of $15 million on the bottom line as last year's transaction gains are not expected to recur this year.

最後，我們預計營收將面臨 1,000 萬美元的外匯換算阻力，而淨利潤將面臨 1,500 萬美元的略高阻力，因為去年的交易收益預計今年不會重現。

These changes to adjusted EBITDA account for 3/4 of the change in free cash flow compared to last year, but let's turn to Page 17 to step through some of the other items. Onetime costs are expected to continue to decline this year to $40 million, an improvement of $20 million over last year as the ProQuest integration is completely behind us. We do expect cash interest to decrease by about $15 million, caused in part by the debt we prepaid in Q4, the rate benefit from refinancing our Term Loan B earlier this month and the expectation that base rates will fall later this year. Taxes will increase by approximately $15 million due to timing of payments and jurisdictional mix.

與去年相比，調整後 EBITDA 的這些變化佔自由現金流變化的 3/4，但讓我們翻到第 17 頁來逐步了解其他一些項目。今年一次性成本預計將繼續下降至 4,000 萬美元，比去年增加 2,000 萬美元，因為 ProQuest 整合已完全落後。我們確實預計現金利息將減少約 1500 萬美元，部分原因是我們在第四季度預付的債務、本月早些時候對定期貸款 B 再融資的利率收益以及今年晚些時候基本利率將下降的預期。由於付款時間和司法管轄區的組合，稅收將增加約 1500 萬美元。

We expect the change in working capital this year will be negligible, just as it was last year. And we remain committed to investing in product innovation and plan to raise capital spending by about $20 million, taking it to about 10% of revenue. The net impact of these changes is free cash flow of $460 million at the midpoint of the range.

我們預計今年營運資金的變化將與去年一樣可以忽略不計。我們仍致力於產品創新投資，並計劃將資本支出增加約 2,000 萬美元，使其佔收入的 10% 左右。這些變化的淨影響是自由現金流為該範圍中點的 4.6 億美元。

From a capital allocation perspective, the free cash flow reduction of $40 million will be largely offset by lower dividend payments on our preferred stock. We have 2 more coupon payments to make before they convert to common shares in the second quarter, freeing up an additional $35 million of cash in the second half of the year. As a result, we expect to have $400 million available to prepay debt or repurchase shares just as we did last year. We intend to use most of this to prepay debt and close in, in our long-term net leverage target of about 3 turns.

從資本配置的角度來看，我們優先股股利支付的減少將在很大程度上抵消 4,000 萬美元自由現金流的減少。在第二季轉換為普通股之前，我們還需要支付兩次息票，從而在下半年額外釋放 3,500 萬美元的現金。因此，我們預計將有 4 億美元可用於預付債務或回購股票，就像去年一樣。我們打算用其中大部分來預付債務並接近我們約 3 倍的長期淨槓桿目標。

Please turn with me now to Page 18 for a look at how last year's results and this year's guidance affect the trajectory of our organic growth acceleration in the form of our revised long-term targets. As Jonathan acknowledged at the onset of the call, it's going to take us longer to reach our mid-single-digit organic growth target with a lower starting point than originally anticipated. When we outlined our recovery path at the Investor Day last March, we expected to reach about 6% in 2025, and we now believe it will take us another year to touch this level of growth. We now anticipate making steady progress towards the range of 4% to 6% in 2026.

現在請跟我一起翻到第 18 頁，了解去年的業績和今年的指導如何以修訂後的長期目標的形式影響我們有機成長加速的軌跡。正如喬納森在電話會議一開始就承認的那樣，我們需要更長的時間才能達到中個位數的有機成長目標，而且起點低於最初的預期。當我們在去年 3 月的投資者日概述我們的復甦路徑時，我們預計 2025 年將達到 6% 左右，現在我們相信我們還需要一年的時間才能達到這一增長水平。我們現在預計 2026 年將朝著 4% 至 6% 的範圍穩步前進。

A key driver of this progression includes modestly pruning small, lower-growth assets that are distracting our team's focus on core product innovation. As a reminder, to reach our market potential in each segment, we must modernize platforms and enhance our solutions in 1 key subsegment in each.

這項進展的一個關鍵驅動因素包括適度修剪小型、低成長資產，這些資產分散了我們團隊對核心產品創新的注意力。提醒一下，為了發揮每個細分市場的市場潛力，我們必須實現平台現代化並增強每個細分市場的 1 個關鍵細分市場的解決方案。

First, we expect to build on last year's momentum in Research & Analytics within A&G, lifting growth to mid-single digits in this category through expanding platform capabilities and breadth of content.

首先，我們預計將在去年 A&G 領域研究與分析的動能基礎上，透過擴展平台功能和內容廣度，將這一類別的成長提升至中個位數。

Second, within LS&H, we plan to launch our new pharma-grade real-world data product in H1 and 2 specific therapy area aligned products in H2. Combined with AI-enhanced capabilities in our commercialization products, these investments will drive the growth acceleration in the highest potential business in our portfolio.

其次，在 LS&H 內部，我們計劃在上半年推出新的醫藥級真實世界數據產品，並在下半年推出 2 個特定治療領域的產品。結合我們商業化產品中的人工智慧增強功能，這些投資將推動我們投資組合中最具潛力的業務加速成長。

And third, we're targeting to deliver 4 enhanced solutions this year in our Patent Intelligence subsegment within IP, built on our unparalleled data that we expect will lead to double-digit monthly active usage growth by the end of this year, setting us up for a meaningful improvement in organic growth in this subsegment next year.

第三，我們的目標是今年在智慧財產權內的專利情報細分領域提供4 種增強型解決方案，這些解決方案建立在我們無與倫比的數據之上，我們預計到今年年底，這些數據將帶來兩位數的每月活躍使用量成長，為我們奠定基礎明年該細分市場的有機成長將取得有意義的改善。

As our organic growth accelerates, we expect profit margins will return to last year's levels over the next few years and will compound to accrete $0.15 of EPS from this year's expectation, lifting free cash flow conversion to 50% over the same time horizon.

隨著我們有機成長的加速，我們預計未來幾年利潤率將恢復到去年的水平，並將在今年的預期基礎上複合增加0.15 美元的每股收益，將自由現金流轉換率在同一時間範圍內提高到50%。

Please move with me now to Page 19 to put these long-term targets in the context of the financial objectives that we outlined last year. Our primary aim is to accelerate our organic growth, lifting us from last year's level of essentially flat to mid-single-digit growth in a few years. Our second goal is to maintain durable profit margins as we make the investment to achieve the primary goal. We are committed to providing the resources to drive product innovation in all our businesses and are finding operating efficiencies to fund some of these but are also willing to modestly lower our profit margins in the near term to benefit the long-term health of the enterprise.

現在請跟我一起翻到第 19 頁，將這些長期目標放在我們去年概述的財務目標的背景下。我們的主要目標是加速我們的有機成長，在幾年內將我們從去年基本持平的水平提升到中等個位數成長。我們的第二個目標是在為實現主要目標而進行投資的同時保持持久的利潤率。我們致力於提供資源來推動所有業務的產品創新，並正在尋找營運效率來為其中一些業務提供資金，但也願意在短期內適度降低利潤率，以有利於企業的長期健康發展。

The third objective we outlined was to significantly improve our free cash flow, which we've done by reaching $0.5 billion last year, but we see room to continue to expand our cash flow conversion to 50% as we improve our top line growth. And finally, we remain committed to allocate our capital in a disciplined manner. We've demonstrated balance in this area by using about 3/4 of last year's available free cash flow to prepay debt, bringing our net leverage below 4 turns and also used about 1/4 of it to repurchase stock. We see a clear path to bringing leverage below 3 turns in the next few years, maintaining a similar balance.

我們概述的第三個目標是顯著改善我們的自由現金流，去年我們已經達到了5 億美元，但隨著我們提高營收成長，我們認為還有繼續將現金流轉換率擴大到50% 的空間。最後，我們仍然致力於以嚴格的方式分配我們的資本。我們透過使用去年可用自由現金流的約 3/4 來預付債務，使我們的淨槓桿率低於 4 倍，並使用約 1/4 來回購股票，從而證明了在這一領域的平衡。我們看到了未來幾年將槓桿率降至 3 倍以下並保持類似平衡的明確路徑。

I'd like to use this opportunity to thank my more than 12,000 teammates here at Clarivate for your tireless work to get us to this point and your commitment to executing our plan to help us achieve these objectives.

我想利用這個機會感謝 Clarivate 的 12,000 多名團隊成員，感謝你們的不懈努力，讓我們走到了這一步，並感謝你們對執行計劃的承諾，幫助我們實現這些目標。

I want to thank all of you for listening in this morning. I'm now going to turn the call back over to Lydia to take your questions. (Operator Instructions) Lydia, please go ahead.

我要感謝大家今天早上的收聽。我現在將把電話轉回給莉迪亞來回答你的問題。 （操作員指示）莉迪亞，請繼續。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today comes from Owen Lau of Oppenheimer.

（操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自奧本海默的 Owen Lau。

So both Jonathan, you talked about some of the investments for future growth in 2025 and 2026. Could you please add more color on kind of like which -- what kind of product do you expect to invest into, when do we expect to launch this new product and the return on these investments?

喬納森（Jonathan），您談到了 2025 年和 2026 年未來成長的一些投資。

Sure, Owen, will do. This is Jonathan Gear. I'll go ahead and go first. And maybe I'll walk around just through each of the segments to give a complete picture. So as I mentioned in my remarks, Owen, in A&G, that's the segment where we made the earliest innovation investments around Web of Science, and that's where we see the initial returns from that.

當然，歐文，會的。這是喬納森·吉爾。我先走了。也許我會遍歷每個部分來給出一個完整的圖片。正如我在演講中提到的，Owen 在 A&G 領域，這是我們圍繞 Web of Science 進行最早的創新投資的領域，也是我們從中看到最初回報的領域。

As we discussed in Q1 of last year, we saw the uptake of renewal rates, and that really was on the back of a complete refresh of that platform. Now that is -- was the beginning of that journey. We continue to invest in Web of Science primarily by creating additional analytic tools to drive value and increase in the workflow of our researchers there. That will drive usage, allow us to capture price and that was priced differentially. We're also seeking ways to expand our pricing model to move into different segments of the market that we typically haven't been able to address with our existing pricing model. All that is to say within A&G, I think the path is the most advanced of the 3 segments in terms of the innovation and the results we're seeing from that.

正如我們在去年第一季所討論的那樣，我們看到了續訂率的上升，而這確實是在該平台徹底刷新的基礎上實現的。現在，這就是那段旅程的開始。我們繼續投資 Web of Science，主要是透過創建額外的分析工具來推動價值並增加我們研究人員的工作流程。這將推動使用，使我們能夠捕獲價格，並且價格是有差異的。我們也正在尋找方法來擴展我們的定價模型，以進入我們現有的定價模型通常無法解決的不同市場領域。也就是說，在 A&G 內部，我認為就創新和我們從中看到的結果而言，這條道路是 3 個細分市場中最先進的。

In IT, the biggest area of focus is around our Patent Intelligence and Search Analytics platforms. And that is the group that includes Derwent, Innography, IncoPat and related services around patent search. This is an area, Owen, I think as you know, that we've been underperforming in the past. We've -- the team has done a phenomenal job of getting close to the customers, having customer user groups drive this innovation, and we expect to launch the first 2 of a series of additional new modules in this area in the first half of this year. So we expect that to launch. And then as you know, that -- given our revenue model, these would be subscription products. If we launch it then sales happening more in the second half of the year, the revenue will appear more next year. But we feel very good about the path there.

在 IT 領域，最受關注的領域是我們的專利情報和搜尋分析平台。團隊包括 Derwent、Innography、IncoPat 以及圍繞專利檢索的相關服務。歐文，如你所知，這是一個我們過去表現不佳的領域。我們的團隊在貼近客戶、讓客戶用戶群推動這項創新方面做得非常出色，我們預計將在今年上半年推出該領域一系列附加新模組中的前 2 個模組。所以我們預計它會啟動。然後如您所知，考慮到我們的收入模式，這些將是訂閱產品。如果我們推出它，那麼下半年的銷售會更多，明年的收入也會更多。但我們對那裡的道路感覺非常好。

Then in Life Science & Healthcare, I would call out 2 areas. One is the Real-World Data analytics platform. And this is the area which, as you know, we've pivoted substantially middle of last year, where we pulled back on the previous strategy of selling our data to competitors. As I've shared ad nauseam in the past, it was a flawed strategy and we continued to accelerate, exited that as a channel. And at the same time, with Henry's arrival and his industry experience, we've really refocused the investments on that product to create pharma-ready data, which we have largely achieved at this point. So that's largely done. And then we're going to be rolling out some therapeutic areas in the first half of this year. So that's one big area.

然後在生命科學與醫療保健領域，我會指出兩個領域。一是真實世界數據分析平台。如您所知，這是我們去年年中大幅轉向的領域，我們取消了先前向競爭對手出售數據的策略。正如我過去所分享的那樣，這是一個有缺陷的策略，我們繼續加速，將其作為一個管道退出。同時，隨著亨利的到來和他的行業經驗，我們確實重新將投資重點放在該產品上，以創建可用於製藥的數據，目前我們基本上已經實現了這一點。這樣就基本完成了。然後我們將在今年上半年推出一些治療領域。所以這是一個很大的區域。

And then we also -- the other areas about R&D, which is kind of the second element or the second portion of our Life Sciences & Healthcare offerings. And there, we've had incredible content but very, very dated platforms. And we've been investing and refreshing those platforms and adding more analytics to really unlock the value of our underlying data.

然後我們還有關於研發的其他領域，這是我們生命科學和醫療保健產品的第二個要素或第二部分。在那裡，我們擁有令人難以置信的內容，但平台卻非常非常過時。我們一直在投資和更新這些平台，並添加更多分析，以真正釋放我們基礎數據的價值。

So all of those are -- again, Web of Science, I would say, is we kind of launched the first phase of it and we continue to improve against it. That will be ongoing improvement. The other 2 areas in both IP and Life Sciences & Healthcare, expect some major product launches this year.

因此，所有這些都是 - 再次，Web of Science，我想說，我們啟動了它的第一階段，並且我們繼續改進它。這將是持續的改進。智慧財產權和生命科學與醫療保健的其他兩個領域預計今年將推出一些主要產品。

Our next question comes from Manav Patnaik of Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫帕特奈克。

My question is the pruning of the portfolio that you talked about. Can you just help us size how much of the portfolio is up for pruning? And also, just what is the Board's aversion to doing something bigger? It sounds like you have 3 disconnected segments, Life Sciences is smaller and the most volatile. So why not do something bigger?

我的問題是你談到的投資組合的修剪。您能幫我們估算一下投資組合中有多少部分需要修剪嗎？另外，董事會到底為何不願意做更大的事？聽起來好像有 3 個互不相連的部門，生命科學部門規模較小且波動性最大。那為什麼不做一些更大的事情呢？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Manav. This is Jonathan Collins. I'll touch on the portfolio pruning and let Jonathan take the second part. So the small business that we are exiting in the IP segment that I mentioned in the prepared remarks that we will likely close on in Q1, and then will affect Qs 2 through 4, that's about the size that we're looking at.

是的。謝謝你的提問，馬納夫。這是喬納森·柯林斯。我將討論投資組合的修剪，並讓喬納森（Jonathan）進行第二部分。因此，我們在知識產權領域退出的小型企業，我在準備好的評論中提到，我們可能會在第一季度關閉，然後將影響第二季度到第四季度，這就是我們正在考慮的規模。

So the focus here is identifying areas that are growth dilutive and distractive to the teams, to help improve the probability of success in execution and product innovation by focusing the team. So that is about the size. It could be slightly larger, slightly smaller, but there are opportunities in all 3 of our segments to winnow down the areas that we are really focusing on and investing in to drive the organic growth acceleration.

因此，這裡的重點是確定那些會稀釋成長和分散團隊注意力的領域，透過集中團隊來幫助提高執行和產品創新的成功機率。這就是尺寸。它可能稍大，稍小，但我們的所有三個細分市場都有機會篩選出我們真正關注和投資的領域，以推動有機成長加速。

Great. And I'll just -- Manav, this is Jonathan Gear. I'll touch on your second question on kind of a larger move. I mean certainly, the Board and myself are completely aligned that we are here to drive value for shareholders. As I've described in the past with you and others, we certainly see value of these segments being together and the value is being driven by shared content, shared technologies, in particular, around IP and Life Sciences & Healthcare, some shared customers and certainly on the significant cost synergies we have been able to drive over the last few years, as we brought these 4 large platforms together.

偉大的。我只是 - 馬納夫，這是喬納森·吉爾。我將談談你關於更大舉措的第二個問題。我的意思當然是，董事會和我自己完全一致，我們來這裡是為了為股東創造價值。正如我過去與您和其他人所描述的那樣，我們當然看到了這些細分市場在一起的價值，並且該價值是由共享內容、共享技術驅動的，特別是圍繞知識產權和生命科學與醫療保健、一些共享客戶和當然，我們在過去幾年中將這 4 個大型平台整合在一起，從而實現了顯著的成本協同效應。

That being said, we will always optimize what's in the best situation for our shareholders and for our customers. And to do that right now with the Board has me focused and what I have the team focused is on operating and improving every single segment as we've described.

話雖這麼說，我們將始終為我們的股東和客戶優化最有利的情況。現在，我要與董事會一起做到這一點，而我讓團隊重點關注的是營運和改進我們所描述的每個部門。

Our next question comes from Heather Balsky of Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的希瑟‧巴爾斯基。

This is Heather Balsky. I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the increase in CapEx spend and the investment spend you're doing? And just help us understand how much of it is gen AI initiatives, how much of it is other investments in the business?

這是希瑟·巴爾斯基。我希望您能多談談資本支出的增加和您正在做的投資支出？幫助我們了解其中有多少是人工智慧計劃，有多少是業務中的其他投資？

And how -- you talked about investing to drive growth, just how we should think about spend over the next few years and how you're thinking about if there's incremental opportunities to invest, just balancing that with the margin growth and cash flow growth?

您談到如何透過投資來推動成長，我們應該如何考慮未來幾年的支出，以及您如何考慮是否有增量投資機會，如何在利潤成長和現金流成長之間取得平衡？

Yes. Thank you for the question, Heather. So with respect to our CapEx increase, most of that is adding development capacity, which we capitalized at a relatively high rate when we're enhancing and improving products.

是的。謝謝你的提問，希瑟。因此，就我們的資本支出增加而言，大部分是增加開發能力，當我們增強和改進產品時，我們以相對較高的比率資本化。

So maybe I'll just touch on a couple of the areas that Jonathan mentioned a bit ago in the A&G segment. We continue to ramp up the investment in the Web of Science to stay ahead of adding features to the platform and ingesting new mediums of content to make it a great experience. And there certainly is an AI overlay there.

因此，也許我只想談談 Jonathan 之前在 A&G 部分提到的幾個領域。我們繼續增加對 Web of Science 的投資，以保持領先地位，為平台添加功能並吸收新的內容媒介，使其成為一種出色的體驗。那裡肯定有人工智慧覆蓋。

All of our businesses are starting to move towards conversational discovery, which is an example of embedding AI in the products. And it certainly comes with a developed effort in all of those areas, Web of Science certainly doing that as well.

我們所有的業務都開始轉向對話式發現，這是將人工智慧嵌入產品中的一個例子。當然，它是在所有這些領域付出努力的結果，Web of Science 也確實做到了這一點。

As we move into Life Sciences, it's a combination of development capacity and some content or data for the real-world data offering. As Jonathan highlighted, we spent a lot of effort in the past couple of quarters building out pharma-grade data and the technology investment there. And then the next step for us is start to build these therapy area platforms or offerings that will take meaningful development efforts. So that's really how we're spending within the Life Sciences segment.

當我們進入生命科學領域時，它是開發能力和現實世界數據提供的一些內容或數據的結合。正如喬納森所強調的那樣，我們在過去幾個季度花費了大量精力來建立製藥級數據和技術投資。然後我們的下一步是開始建立這些治療領域平台或產品，這將需要有意義的開發工作。這就是我們在生命科學領域的支出方式。

And then on the IP side, the 4 new platforms or modules that will be put on top of the Derwent data set for search, for watch, for strategy and for R&D, those applications have pretty meaningful technology developments that will happen over the course of this year and into next year.

然後在 IP 方面，4 個新平台或模組將置於德溫特資料集之上，用於搜尋、觀察、策略和研發，這些應用程式將在今年和明年。

Just in terms of the time horizon, we indicated last year and the cash flow guidance that we highlighted today, getting to that greater than or about 50% conversion in a couple of years, does contemplate CapEx being at a reasonably steady dollar level over the next few years. As revenue grows, that margin on CapEx should drop a bit, but we do expect that we'll need to continue to make that investment over the next few years.

就時間範圍而言，我們去年指出的現金流量指引以及我們今天強調的現金流量指引，在幾年內實現大於或約50% 的轉換，確實考慮到資本支出在未來一段時間內處於相當穩定的美元水平。隨著收入的成長，資本支出的利潤率應該會有所下降，但我們確實預計我們需要在未來幾年內繼續進行這項投資。

Our next question comes from Toni Kaplan of Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的東尼卡普蘭。

This is Greg Parrish on for Toni. I just wanted to dig into the change since Investor Day in March, I mean, what really drove the difference in the turnaround trajectory that you were targeting? You're ramping up investment here. So is more investment required than you thought back then? Or they're really just macro? Or is the end market more challenged maybe than you thought? If you can kind of help bridge the gap there.

我是托尼的格雷格·帕里什。我只是想深入研究自三月投資者日以來的變化，我的意思是，是什麼真正導致了您所瞄準的扭虧為盈軌蹟的差異？你們正在加大這裡的投資。那麼，是否需要比您當時想像的更多的投資？還是它們真的只是宏觀的？或者終端市場面臨的挑戰比您想像的還要嚴峻？如果你能幫助彌合那裡的差距。

Sure, Greg. And the way I think about it, and I'm curious that you think about, is really 2 different things. First is macro certainly impacted us far more than we were anticipating in 2023, primarily in IP, and we talked about that in our Q2 call.

當然，格雷格。我的想法，我很好奇你的想法，實際上是兩件不同的事情。首先，宏觀因素對我們的影響肯定遠遠超過我們在 2023 年的預期，主要是在智慧財產權方面，我們在第二季的電話會議中談到了這一點。

Also in Life Sciences & Healthcare with commercial markets there. Those are the most impacted. And to a lesser degree, with some -- on the margin within A&G with some discretionary transactional items. But primarily, again, in Life Sciences & Healthcare and IP.

生命科學和醫療保健領域也有商業市場。這些是受影響最大的。在較小程度上，在 A&G 內部，有一些可自由支配的交易項目。但同樣主要是在生命科學與醫療保健和智慧財產權領域。

So macro is part of it. So it ends up impacting kind of our starting point, if you will, on the 3-year plan. And the other element of it really was around as we brought in more -- brought back in more industry expertise back into the business, as we reestablished some of the teams that we've had before, we began to slightly modify and change some of our go-to-market product strategies, particularly around Life Sciences & Healthcare.

所以宏觀是其中的一部分。因此，如果你願意的話，它最終會影響我們三年計畫的起點。當我們重新建立一些以前擁有的團隊時，我們開始稍微修改和改變一些我們的產品上市策略，特別是在生命科學和醫療保健方面。

And with Henry coming on board middle of last year, spending time with him, again, we really made a decision to change our Life Sciences & Healthcare, RWD platform strategy, absolutely the right thing to do and it makes me even more confident in the future. But that did pull us back a year in terms of the timing around that platform. So those are really the 2 kind of key areas I would call out.

隨著 Henry 去年年中加入，再次與他共度時光，我們確實決定改變我們的生命科學和醫療保健、RWD 平台策略，這絕對是正確的事情，這讓我對未來。但就該平台的時間安排而言，這確實讓我們倒退了一年。所以這些確實是我要指出的兩個關鍵領域。

Next question is from George Tong of Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐。

It looked like in your guide, you're expecting improved organic growth this year in subscription and reoccurring. It's really the transactional piece that's going to be the offset. So can you talk a little bit more about how much of the transactional revenue headwinds are cyclical versus structural and steps that you're taking internally to drive improved performance here?

在您的指南中，您預計今年訂閱和重複出現的自然成長會有所改善。這實際上是交易部分將被抵消。那麼，您能否多談談交易收入逆風有多少是週期性的，而不是結構性的，以及您在內部採取的旨在提高績效的步驟？

Sure, George. Yes, just to reiterate what this year's guidance range contemplates on organic growth. So we do believe that the subscription business will be relatively consistent with last year. We grew about 2.5% last year. I think we'll be in that 2% to 3% range.

當然，喬治。是的，只是重申今年的指導範圍對有機成長的考慮。所以我們確實認為訂閱業務將與去年相對一致。去年我們的成長率約為 2.5%。我認為我們會在 2% 到 3% 的範圍內。

As Jonathan highlighted, those investments that we are making this year in Life Sciences and in Patent Intelligence within IP should start to improve usage in the second half of this year and help to lift subscription growth next year, and we should continue to see some traction in A&G as the Web of Science product continues to improve.

正如喬納森所強調的那樣，我們今年在生命科學和智慧財產權內的專利情報方面進行的投資應該會在今年下半年開始改善使用情況，並有助於推動明年的訂閱成長，而且我們應該會繼續看到一些吸引力隨著 Web of Science 產品的不斷改進，在 A&G 中。

Most of the impact in reoccurring, which we think will grow modestly this year, is going to come from a modest improvement in the second half of the year on volumes within that market. We'll have tough comps early in the year, which is why I indicated growth will be lower, particularly in Q1.

我們認為今年的復發影響將小幅成長，其大部分影響將來自今年下半年該市場銷售的小幅改善。今年年初我們將面臨艱難的競爭，這就是為什麼我表示成長將會較低，特別是在第一季。

But to your point on transactional, we continue to expect and are conservative around commercialization budgets in 2024. We do think there is some opportunity in the second half for things to improve modestly, but we've been pretty conservative on the rate of improvement in that market.

但就您對交易的觀點而言，我們繼續預計2024 年的商業化預算，並且對此持保守態度。率相當保守那個市場。

On the IP side, from a transactional search and watch, we've been relatively consistent there. It's been lower than in the past couple of years. And then on the A&G side, which is the only place that we were a bit softer in the fourth quarter, we've been a bit conservative about the expectation there. So that's what's leading to the anticipation that transaction will be down a couple of percent.

在智慧財產權方面，從交易搜尋和觀察來看，我們在這方面一直相對一致。與過去幾年相比，這一數字有所下降。然後在 A&G 方面，這是我們第四季唯一有點疲軟的地方，我們對那裡的預期有點保守。因此，這就是導致交易量將下降幾個百分點的預期的原因。

In terms of what we are doing about it and the things that we can control, the primary area to focus on is within Life Sciences. So the investment that we are making in these therapy area-focused offerings for our real-world evidence and the pharma-grade data will lead to opportunities to sell this in a subscription model. So that's a place where the headwinds we've seen in transaction over the last couple of years, we expect to see come back to us in the form of subscription growth. So that's a little bit more color on how we're seeing 2024's growth expectations by order time.

就我們正在採取的措施和我們可以控制的事情而言，要關注的主要領域是生命科學領域。因此，我們對這些以治療領域為中心的產品進行的投資，包括我們的真實世界證據和製藥級數據，將帶來以訂閱模式銷售這些產品的機會。因此，這就是我們過去幾年在交易中看到的逆風，我們預計將以訂閱成長的形式回到我們身上。因此，這讓我們對 2024 年訂單成長預期有了更多的了解。

The next question comes from Seth Weber of Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的塞思‧韋伯。

I was wondering if you could just touch on the pricing environment, where it sits today and kind of what you're contemplating for pricing as you ramp into 2026. Like how much better do you think -- or how much of a bigger contributor do you think pricing will be as you get further down the road with more products and better -- more cross-selling, things like that? If you could just sort of talk through where pricing is today and how you see that trending over the next couple of years.

我想知道您是否可以談談定價環境、目前的情況以及您在進入 2026 年時考慮的定價方式。 例如您認為會好多少，或者更大的貢獻者會做多少您認為定價會隨著您的定價方式。產品越來越多、更好——更多交叉銷售之類的事情而進一步發展？您能否談談目前的定價狀況以及您如何看待未來幾年的趨勢。

Sure, Seth. Yes, I'm going to go ahead and comment on that and see if JC has any additions. I mean, in general, pricing has been a net contributor for us across all 3 product lines with our subscription products. Now certainly, if you unpack that and look at specific products, where we have innovated in the past, where we are creating new updates to the products, that's where we're able to capture more price. In the areas where we've done less so, and I would call out Derwent, for example, not able to capture price. There's a direct correlation between our ability to innovate, drive that innovation to impact customer workflows and our ability to capture price.

當然，賽斯。是的，我將繼續對此發表評論，看看 JC 是否有任何補充。我的意思是，總的來說，定價一直是我們訂閱產品的所有 3 個產品線的淨貢獻者。當然，如果你打開包裝並查看特定產品，我們過去在這些產品上進行了創新，我們正在對產品進行新的更新，那就是我們能夠獲得更多價格的地方。在我們做得較少的領域，例如，我會指出德溫特無法捕捉價格。我們的創新能力、推動創新影響客戶工作流程的能力與我們獲取價格的能力之間有直接關聯。

When I look forward to the plan this year, we've been fairly modest in terms of assuming any improvement on price capture for our plans for 2024. That being said, we are amping up our rate of innovation. Henry Levy has announced that he's going to be -- every product is going to have an update this year in terms of this portfolio, and that will be able to capture price. But I think we're going to take a wait and see in terms of when we actually see that coming through.

當我期待今年的計劃時，我們對於 2024 年計劃的價格捕獲情況的任何改善都相當謹慎。亨利·利維 (Henry Levy) 宣布，他將在今年對產品組合進行更新，從而能夠捕獲價格。但我認為我們將等待並看看何時真正看到這一點。

JC, anything you want to add to that?

JC，您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. I think the indication we would expect 2024 to be pretty consistent, as Jonathan highlighted. In 2025 and 2026, as we launch these new offerings, we certainly think that this will be an area that will help contribute towards the growth acceleration as we move up a bit in those key product areas that we haven't been able to price meaningfully in the last few years.

是的。正如喬納森所強調的那樣，我認為我們對 2024 年的預期將非常一致。到 2025 年和 2026 年，當我們推出這些新產品時，我們當然認為這將是一個有助於加速成長的領域，因為我們在那些我們無法有意義地定價的關鍵產品領域有所提升。的幾年裡。

The next question comes from Ashish Sabadra of RBC Capital Markets.

下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的 Ashish Sabadra。

Maybe just following up on an earlier question around the revenue growth trajectory in 2024. The visibility historically has been pretty low. So I was just wondering what gives the confidence in that back half acceleration in second half '24? And in order -- like what could drive upside or downside risk there? Is it mostly macro? Or are there certain client wins which are ramping up that can provide further confidence on that growth improvement?

也許只是跟進之前關於 2024 年收入成長軌蹟的問題。所以我只是想知道是什麼讓人們對 24 年下半場的後半場加速充滿信心？那麼，什麼可能會帶來上行或下行風險呢？主要是宏觀嗎？或者是否有某些客戶的勝利正在增加，可以為成長的改善提供進一步的信心？

Thanks for the question, Ashish. This is Jonathan. On the expectations and the cadence for this year, it's mostly driven by the comps from the prior year. So we have not built in, to your point, because of visibility challenges the last couple of years, a meaningful improvement in the markets in the second half of the year.

謝謝你的提問，阿什什。這是喬納森。就今年的預期和節奏而言，主要是由去年的比較所推動的。因此，就您的觀點而言，由於過去幾年的可見性挑戰，我們還沒有建立下半年市場的有意義的改善。

But you'll recall, for example, in our patent renewal business, we started to see the softening in the second quarter, late in the second quarter. So we have tougher comps in the first part of the year. That's also true with the trademark business within IP.

但你會記得，例如，在我們的專利續展業務中，我們在第二季末開始看到疲軟。因此，今年上半年我們的比賽更加艱難。智慧財產權領域的商標業務也是如此。

So that's the reason we expect that growth will be slightly negative in the first quarter, we'll return to growth in the second quarter and have better growth in the second half of the year. It's less to do with the run rate improving and more about the comps. And we have expected the transactional business to decline by a couple of percent as I indicated. So we think we've been a bit more conservative with our outlook on those sales that have been a bit more challenging to predict over the last couple of years.

因此，我們預計第一季成長將略有負值，第二季將恢復成長，下半年將有更好的成長。這與運作效率的提升關係不大，更多的是與比較有關。正如我所指出的，我們預計交易業務將下降幾個百分點。因此，我們認為我們對過去幾年更具挑戰性的銷售前景的預測更加保守。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum of Stifel.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Shlomo Rosenbaum。

Some of the players in life sciences like IQVIA and Veeva are talking about improved optimism amongst the client base and they're thinking that we should see a second half improvement. Is that square with what you guys are expecting in your numbers? Are you not seeing that? Are you not expecting that?

IQVIA 和 Veeva 等生命科學領域的一些參與者正在談論客戶群樂觀情緒的改善，他們認為我們應該看到下半年的改善。這與你們對數字的期望相符嗎？你沒看到嗎？你不期待嗎？

And then just, Jonathan, I want to touch on one thing that at the Analyst Day, the 2025 target was 6% growth, and you're now pointing to '26 at 4% to 6%. Can you just address is that lowering the growth expectation even in the next year?

然後，喬納森，我想談一件事，在分析師日，2025 年的目標是 6% 的成長，而你現在指出 26 年的成長率為 4% 到 6%。您能否解決即使是明年也降低成長預期的問題？

Sure, Shlomo. This is Jonathan Gear. I'll go and address the first question and have JC address the second. So on Life Sciences, I think what -- as others are seeing, we are seeing renewed optimism within our within our life science customers. The commercialization budgets appear to be higher. There's -- and we're seeing kind of across the board, both on large pharma, large biotech and even small biotech. So there is renewed optimism coming back into it.

當然，什洛莫。這是喬納森·吉爾。我將去解決第一個問題，並讓 JC 解決第二個問題。因此，在生命科學方面，我認為正如其他人所看到的那樣，我們在生命科學客戶中看到了新的樂觀情緒。商業化預算似乎更高。我們在大型製藥公司、大型生技公司甚至小型生技公司都看到了全面的變化。因此，人們又重新燃起樂觀情緒。

That being said, we're going to want to wait and see in terms of how quickly that converts into really increased demand for our products and services and consulting. So we've -- while we are seeing that certainly in the macro environment, we've been cautious about putting that optimism into our guidance in the second half.

話雖這麼說，我們將拭​​目以待，看看這將以多快的速度轉化為對我們的產品、服務和諮詢的需求的真正增長。因此，雖然我們在宏觀環境中確實看到了這一點，但我們一直對將這種樂觀情緒納入下半年的指導中持謹慎態度。

JC, do you want to address some of the other questions?

JC，您想解決其他一些問題嗎？

Yes. And that conservatism around the macro, Shlomo, is the other factor that's really driving the change in the last year of the guide we gave. So to your point, we had previously indicated in the 5.5% to 6.5% range or 6% at the midpoint. We're now in the 4% to 6% range. So we'd have to get to the higher end of that to touch the prior midpoint. That is primarily due to our conservatism around the rate of improvement in the end markets.

是的。什洛莫，圍繞宏觀的保守主義是真正推動我們去年給出的指南變化的另一個因素。因此，就您的觀點而言，我們之前曾表示在 5.5% 至 6.5% 範圍內，或中點為 6%。我們現在處於 4% 到 6% 的範圍內。因此，我們必須達到較高的一端才能觸及先前的中點。這主要是由於我們對終端市場改善率的保守態度。

What could cause us to be to the higher end is faster acceleration, for example, in the commercialization market that Jonathan just highlight, a better outlook on the patent renewal front would be another example. So that is the primary difference in the change between the 2 outlooks.

能夠讓我們走向更高端的是更快的加速，例如喬納森剛才強調的商業化市場，專利續展方面更好的前景也是一個例子。這是兩種觀點之間變化的主要區別。

Next question comes from Andrew Nicholas of William Blair.

下一個問題來自威廉布萊爾的安德魯尼古拉斯。

I just had a small question on A&G. Jonathan Collins, I think you mentioned it's the largest transactional quarter. I think that's mostly backfile sales within Web of Science. But just if you could confirm that's where the weakness was. And then just any color on the drivers of that. Is that also budget-related cyclical pressures? Or is there -- is it just a timing issue and you'd expect some of that to come back next year?

我只是有一個關於 A&G 的小問題。喬納森·柯林斯（Jonathan Collins），我想你提到這是交易量最大的季度。我認為這主要是 Web of Science 內的積壓銷售。但只要你能確認這就是弱點所在。然後就可以在驅動程式上使用任何顏色。這也是與預算相關的周期性壓力嗎？或者是否存在——這只是一個時間問題，你預計其中一些會在明年回歸？

Yes. Thank you for the question, Andrew. So as a reminder, we have multiple types of transactional sales within the A&G segment. You've touched on one of them where we're selling the backfile of Web of Science, which makes the analytics of the platform much more valuable to the users. Other examples are digital collections, historical collections that we've digitized and preserved and also our books business. So it's a combination of those.

是的。謝謝你的提問，安德魯。提醒一下，我們在 A&G 領域有多種類型的交易銷售。您已經提到了其中之一，我們正在出售 Web of Science 的後台文件，這使得該平台的分析對用戶來說更有價值。其他例子包括數位館藏、我們數位化和保存的歷史館藏以及我們的圖書業務。所以它是這些的組合。

Q4 usually is the largest quarter for us. What we saw a bit later in the quarter is our customers in that space pausing a bit. What we heard from them is that they want to wait and see on some other spending factors. Most of our customer base is in North America within that part of the business, and their budget years run similar to the school year. So their budget year will end in the second quarter. So we'll see how that plays out in the coming quarters. But that's most of the feedback that we heard from that market, and those were the sales that were affected.

第四季通常是我們最大的季度。在本季度晚些時候，我們看到該領域的客戶稍微停了下來。我們從他們那裡聽到的是，他們希望對其他一些支出因素拭目以待。我們的大多數客戶群都在北美的該業務領域，他們的預算年度與學年相似。因此他們的預算年度將在第二季結束。因此，我們將看看未來幾季的情況如何。但這是我們從該市場聽到的大部分回饋，這些反饋都是受到影響的。

Great. I think that was our last question. Just as I wrap, I just want to thank everyone for joining our call today and listening with our remarks, engaging with us. As we look forward to this year, again, as we said in the call, 2023 was a foundational year for us as we made the changes that we needed to make to really propel Clarivate. And I look forward to sharing with you over the ensuing quarters coming up, the results of the investments we're making, innovation as we drive this company to grow.

偉大的。我想這是我們最後一個問題。就在我結束演講時，我只想感謝大家今天加入我們的電話會議，聆聽我們的發言，與我們互動。當我們展望今年時，正如我們在電話會議中所說，2023 年對我們來說是基礎性的一年，因為我們做出了真正推動科睿唯安所需的改變。我期待在接下來的幾個季度與您分享我們正在進行的投資的結果以及我們推動公司發展的創新。

Thank you very much, everyone. Goodbye.

非常感謝大家。再見。

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。現在您可以斷開線路。