Diebold Nixdorf Inc (DBD) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Q4 2023 Diebold Nixdorf earnings Call. My name is Alex and I'll be coordinating the call today. (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎參加 Diebold Nixdorf 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。我叫亞歷克斯，今天我將協調通話。（操作員說明）

I'll now hand it over to your host, Christopher Sikora, to begin. Please go ahead.

現在我將把它交給主持人克里斯托弗·西科拉（Christopher Sikora）開始。請繼續。

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 earnings call. To accompany our prepared remarks, we have posted our slide presentation to the Investor Relations section of our corporate website.

大家好，歡迎參加我們的 2023 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。為了配合我們準備好的發言，我們已將幻燈片簡報發佈到公司網站的投資者關係部分。

Before we begin, I will remind all participants that during this call, you will hear forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the expectations and beliefs of our management team at the time of this call, but they are subject to risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. Additional information on these factors can be found in the company's periodic and annual filings with the SEC. Participants should be mindful that subsequent events may render this information to be out of date.

在我們開始之前，我將提醒所有參與者，在這次電話會議中，您將聽到前瞻性陳述。這些陳述反映了我們管理團隊在此次電話會議時的期望和信念，但它們存在可能導致實際結果與這些陳述有重大差異的風險。有關這些因素的更多資​​訊可以在該公司向 SEC 提交的定期和年度文件中找到。參與者應注意，後續事件可能會使此資訊過時。

We will also be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures on today's call. As noted on slide 3, a reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures can be found in the supplemental schedules of the presentation.

我們還將在今天的電話會議上討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。如投影片 3 所示，GAAP 和非 GAAP 指標之間的調節可以在簡報的補充時間表中找到。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Octavio.

這樣，我會將電話轉給奧克塔維奧。

Thank you, Chris, and thank you all for joining us. To get things started today, I wanted to give our Chair, Pat Byrne, another opportunity to share some opening remarks. Pat and the broader Board have been in place for about four months now. We have spent that time working closely together to establish our governance framework and align around longer term objectives for the company.

謝謝你，克里斯，也謝謝大家加入我們。為了開始今天的活動，我想再給我們的主席帕特伯恩 (Pat Byrne) 一次分享開場白的機會。帕特和更廣泛的董事會已經就職大約四個月了。我們花了這段時間密切合作，建立了我們的治理框架，並圍繞公司的長期目標進行調整。

So today, I thought it would again be appropriate for Pat to kick us off with some of his early takeaways working with Diebold Nixdorf. Afterwards, Jim and I will walk you through our quarterly results.

因此，今天，我認為帕特再次以他與迪堡·尼克斯多夫 (Diebold Nixdorf) 合作的一些早期收穫來為我們開場。隨後，吉姆和我將向您介紹我們的季度業績。

Pat, over to you.

派特，交給你了。

Thanks, Octavio. I'll just make a few comments to provide an update on the Board's progress and give you a sense of our excitement for the future of Diebold. We've been working together as a new Board of Directors for several months now and are making very good progress as we completed fiscal year 2023 and set priorities and objectives for fiscal 2024. We're also building strong governance and board oversight. And the Board and management team are working well together, focused on running the company towards consistent and improving operating results while also building the flywheel that leads to accelerating profitable growth, margin expansion, and free cash flow conversion.

謝謝，奧克塔維奧。我只想發表一些評論，以提供董事會進展的最新情況，並讓您感受到我們對迪堡未來的興奮。作為新董事會，我們已經共同工作了幾個月，並在完成 2023 財年並製定 2024 財年的優先事項和目標方面取得了良好進展。我們也正在建立強而有力的治理和董事會監督。董事會和管理團隊合作良好，專注於營運公司以實現一致和改善的經營業績，同時建立飛輪，從而加速利潤成長、利潤率擴張和自由現金流轉換。

Octavio and his team are entering 2024 with real momentum and with clear priorities of both operations and multi-year transformation agenda. As I mentioned last quarter, we believe that the Diebold market position in both banking and retail, built on strong customer relationships and innovative technology, puts us in a strong position to win in the marketplace going forward. We're confident in our 2024 guidance and the long-term outlook for the company. We intend to share our views of the market, the Diebold opportunities, and our long-term plans and targets in the 2024 Investor Day. We're currently planning on doing this Investor Day in the middle of the year, and we'll keep you updated on our plans. We're excited about the future of Diebold and working closely with Octavio and his team to drive long-term shareholder value.

Octavio 和他的團隊正以真正的勢頭進入 2024 年，並明確營運和多年轉型議程的優先事項。正如我上季度提到的，我們相信迪堡在銀行和零售領域的市場地位建立在強大的客戶關係和創新技術的基礎上，使我們在未來的市場中處於有利地位。我們對 2024 年的指導和公司的長期前景充滿信心。我們打算在 2024 年投資者日分享我們對市場的看法、迪堡機會以及我們的長期計劃和目標。我們目前計劃在年中舉辦投資者日活動，我們將隨時向您通報我們的計劃最新情況。我們對迪堡的未來感到興奮，並與奧克塔維奧及其團隊密切合作，推動長期股東價值。

Now, I will turn it over to Octavio and to Jim.

現在，我將把它交給奧克塔維奧和吉姆。

Thank you, Pat. We appreciate you being with us and sharing your thoughts today. We are looking forward to continue working with you and the Board on the journey ahead.

謝謝你，帕特。我們感謝您今天與我們在一起並分享您的想法。我們期待在未來的道路上繼續與您和董事會合作。

So now starting on slide 4, we have highlighted four areas that summarize our positive results in the fourth quarter. First, we continue winning in the market with our leading self-service and automation technology. Our customers are continually striving to improve customer experience and lower operational costs. We are seeing consistent installed base refresh activity as customers are increasingly replacing legacy solutions with our new technology. Demand remains high for our ATM cash recycling and retail self-checkout solutions, which are also establishing recurring service revenue and additional software business with a high attach rate.

現在從第四張投影片開始，我們重點介紹了四個領域，總結了我們在第四季度取得的正面成果。首先，我們憑藉領先的自助服務和自動化技術繼續贏得市場。我們的客戶不斷努力改善客戶體驗並降低營運成本。隨著客戶越來越多地用我們的新技術取代舊解決方案，我們看到了持續的安裝基礎更新活動。我們的 ATM 現金回收和零售自助結帳解決方案的需求仍然很高，這些解決方案也建立了經常性服務收入和附加率較高的附加軟體業務。

We remain focused on driving innovation that our customers need. The team introduced our AI-powered Vynamic Smart Vision Shrink Reduction solution as we build on our retail self-checkout technology deployed in the market. This solution addresses shrink-related challenges in retail using AI and computer vision technology to reduce loss during checkout.

我們仍然專注於推動客戶所需的創新。該團隊以市場上部署的零售自助結帳技術為基礎，推出了人工智慧驅動的 Vynamic 智慧視覺防縮解決方案。該解決方案利用人工智慧和電腦視覺技術來解決零售業與損耗相關的挑戰，以減少結帳過程中的損失。

On the banking side, our teller cash recycler has started shipping in North America. DN's in-branch cash recycling solution supports end-to-end automation across the entire cash ecosystem at the branch, from ATMs to the teller line. We continue to view branch automation as a meaningful growth opportunity. With over 70,000 bank branches in the US alone and the consistent drive by banks to reduce operating expenses, we know this offering meets the needs of our customers.

在銀行方面，我們的櫃員現金循環機已開始在北美出貨。DN 的分行內現金回收解決方案支援分行整個現金生態系統（從 ATM 到櫃員機）的端到端自動化。我們繼續將分支機構自動化視為一個有意義的成長機會。光是在美國就有超過 70,000 家銀行分行，而且銀行不斷努力降低營運費用，我們知道該產品可以滿足客戶的需求。

Once again, we had another quarter of strong performance as our team remained focused on customers and continued to improve our operational execution. The team can be proud that, in each quarter of 2023, we grew revenue and profitability on a year-over-year basis. Our improved operational execution helped us meet expectations for the year and positioned us well moving into 2024.

由於我們的團隊仍然以客戶為中心並繼續改進我們的營運執行力，我們再次取得了強勁的季度業績。該團隊可以感到自豪的是，在 2023 年每個季度，我們的收入和盈利能力均同比增長。我們改進的營運執行幫助我們滿足了今年的預期，並為我們進入 2024 年奠定了良好的基礎。

Lastly, we achieved another milestone by paying down $200 million of our higher cost term loan and securing a new revolving credit facility. This will provide us with the flexibility we need to manage the seasonality of our business at a lower cost. In addition, we were able to do this because we generated fourth-quarter free cash flow of $150 million and ended the year with more than $600 million in cash and short-term investments on our balance sheet.

最後，我們還清了 2 億美元成本較高的定期貸款，並獲得了新的循環信貸額度，從而實現了另一個里程碑。這將為我們提供以較低成本管理業務季節性所需的靈活性。此外，我們之所以能夠做到這一點，是因為我們在第四季度產生了 1.5 億美元的自由現金流，並在年底時資產負債表上擁有超過 6 億美元的現金和短期投資。

Turning to slide 5, I want to highlight regional trends. We operate a balanced global business, and each of our regions contributed to revenue growth in 2023. In North America, we continued to see strong adoption of cash recycling technology, driving our banking business, as well as more retail wins with our self-checkout solution in the quick-service restaurant space. We see additional runway for both these offerings in North America and expect it to be a significant part of our growth story going forward. Additionally, we continue to focus on customer service and quality with higher investments in our service business.

轉向投影片 5，我想強調區域趨勢。我們經營均衡的全球業務，每個地區都為 2023 年的收入成長做出了貢獻。在北美，我們繼續看到現金循環技術的廣泛採用，推動了我們的銀行業務，並透過我們在快速服務餐廳領域的自助結帳解決方案贏得了更多的零售勝利。我們看到這兩種產品在北美有更多的發展空間，並預計它將成為我們未來成長故事的重要組成部分。此外，我們持續專注於客戶服務和品質，並加大對服務業務的投資。

In Latin America, cash usage remained strong, supporting demand for both our DN Series cash dispensers and cash recyclers. Growth in Latin America's service revenue was a bright spot in 2023 as we continue benefiting from a growing installed base in the region. In Europe, we continue to see an overall stable market for banking. In retail, most of our self-checkout shipments represent new placements in the market. This has helped grow our installed base and supports our recurring service business.

在拉丁美洲，現金使用量依然強勁，支撐了對 DN 系列自動提款機和現金循環機的需求。拉丁美洲的服務收入成長是 2023 年的一個亮點，因為我們繼續受益於該地區不斷增長的裝置基礎。在歐洲，我們持續看到銀行業市場整體穩定。在零售業，我們的大部分自助結帳出貨代表了市場上的新佈局。這有助於擴大我們的安裝基礎並支援我們的經常性服務業務。

In Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, we are seeing broad growth with our products across the entire region with strength in the Middle East and Africa. We also ended the year on a strong note in India as we delivered about 5,000 units in country after re-entering that market with local manufacturing presence in 2023.

在亞太地區、中東和非洲，我們的產品在整個地區實現了廣泛的成長，尤其是在中東和非洲。我們在印度也取得了強勁的業績，2023 年憑藉當地製造業務重新進入該市場，在該國交付了約 5,000 輛汽車。

Now to our full-year financial performance on slide 6. Throughout the year, we delivered significantly improved performance by profitably growing revenue, expanding gross margins, and driving cost discipline. This focus is clearly evident in our performance, with total revenue up 9%, gross margin expansion of 160 basis points, and operating expenses down 2% compared to prior year, resulting in operating profit growing approximately 75%.

現在是幻燈片 6 上的全年財務表現。在這一年裡，我們透過獲利性成長的收入、擴大的毛利率和嚴格的成本控制，顯著提高了業績。這一重點在我們的業績中顯而易見，與前一年相比，總收入成長了 9%，毛利率成長了 160 個基點，營運費用下降了 2%，營運利潤成長了約 75%。

Full-year adjusted EBITDA of $401 million is up 43% compared to prior year, and adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 300 basis points to 10.7%. We finished the year in line with our expectations and at the high end of our previously communicated outlook range. While I am pleased with our 2023 performance, which demonstrates that we are taking the right steps, we know that we can build upon this and further improve in 2024.

全年調整後 EBITDA 為 4.01 億美元，較上年成長 43%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率擴大 300 個基點，達到 10.7%。我們今年的業績符合我們的預期，並且處於我們之前傳達的展望範圍的高端。雖然我對 2023 年的業績感到滿意，這表明我們正在採取正確的步驟，但我們知道我們可以在此基礎上在 2024 年進一步改進。

With that, I will hand the call over to Jim.

這樣，我就把電話轉給吉姆。

Thank you, Octavio. Starting on slide 7, the fourth quarter was another period of continued improvement that was in line with our expectations. Revenue and profitability were up significantly, both sequentially and compared to the prior year. The higher revenue with gross margin expansion is flowing through to the bottom line, resulting in strong year-over-year growth in operating profit and adjusted EBITDA. Revenue of $1.04 billion increased 7.6%, and gross margin expanded 340 basis points year over year. Strong product performance was the primary driver behind the gross margin expansion as we continue to drive benefit from our improved supply chain and pricing discipline.

謝謝你，奧克塔維奧。從投影片 7 開始，第四季是另一個持續改進的時期，這符合我們的預期。與上年相比，收入和獲利能力均大幅成長。毛利率擴張帶來的更高收入正在流入利潤，導致營業利潤和調整後 EBITDA 年比強勁增長。營收為 10.4 億美元，成長 7.6%，毛利率年增 340 個基點。強勁的產品性能是毛利率擴張的主要驅動力，因為我們繼續從改進的供應鏈和定價規則中獲益。

Q4 '23 operating expense was up compared to the prior year period. However, note that the prior year period included a nonrecurring adjustment that reduced variable compensation. If not for that adjustment, operating expenses would have been flat year over year.

23 年第 4 季的營運費用與去年同期相比有所增加。但請注意，上一年期間包括減少可變薪酬的非經常性調整。如果沒有這次調整，營運費用將比去年同期持平。

Looking at free cash flow, please note, in the prior year period, product deferred revenue was elevated relative to historical levels and is now the normalized. Q4 '23 free cash flow of $150 million was up $66 million year over year, driven by favorable EBITDA performance, better working capital efficiency, and meaningfully lower interest.

就自由現金流而言，請注意，在上一年期間，產品遞延收入相對於歷史水準有所上升，目前已標準化。由於良好的 EBITDA 業績、更好的營運資金效率以及顯著降低的利息，23 年第 4 季的自由現金流為 1.5 億美元，同比增長 6,600 萬美元。

Turning to slide 8. Banking revenue of $750 million was up approximately 9% versus the prior year period, driven by product revenue growth of 19%. Approximately half of the growth came from higher volume, with the other half driven primarily by pricing and mix with a small currency benefit. We continue to have consistent demand for our DN Series offering, and improved supply chain and logistics conditions have enabled us to deliver on this demand.

轉到投影片 8。在產品收入成長 19% 的推動下，銀行業務收入達到 7.5 億美元，較上年同期成長約 9%。大約一半的成長來自銷售增加，另一半主要由定價和混合以及少量貨幣收益推動。我們對 DN 系列產品的需求持續穩定，供應鏈和物流條件的改善使我們能夠滿足這項需求。

Service revenue was up approximately 1% versus the prior year, driven by higher product installation revenue. As a reminder, ATM deliveries across the industry mostly represent replacement units in the market. So the high product installation activity we saw in the quarter should lead to a stable installed base going forward.

由於產品安裝收入增加，服務收入較前一年成長約 1%。需要提醒的是，整個產業的 ATM 交付大多代表市場上的替換設備。因此，我們在本季看到的高產品安裝活動應該會帶來穩定的安裝基礎。

Banking gross profit in the fourth quarter increased by $46 million year over year to $202 million. This resulted in banking gross margin of 27% in the quarter, which is up 430 basis points year over year. Significant gross margin expansion was due to the continuation of price increase realization, greater input cost control, and higher production volume in the quarter.

第四季銀行業毛利年增4,600萬美元，達2.02億美元。這使得本季銀行業毛利率達到 27%，年增 430 個基點。毛利率大幅成長是由於本季持續實現價格上漲、加大投入成本控制以及提高產量。

Moving to slide 9. Retail revenue of $288 million was up 4.5% versus the prior year as we continue to see strong service activity, with new placements of self-service units driving higher contract revenue. Solid growth in SCO product revenue was offset by lower ePOS revenue as retailers continue to transition towards higher value self-checkout solutions. Retail gross profit in the fourth quarter increased year over year to $74 million. This resulted in retail gross margin of 25.6% in the quarter, which is up 100 basis points compared to the prior year, driven mostly by product gross margin expansion from a favorable mix of higher SCO units.

轉到投影片 9。零售收入為 2.88 億美元，比上年增長 4.5%，因為我們繼續看到強勁的服務活動，新的自助服務單元的放置推動了更高的合約收入。隨著零售商繼續轉向更高價值的自助結帳解決方案，SCO 產品收入的穩健成長被 ePOS 收入的下降所抵消。第四季零售毛利年增至 7,400 萬美元。這導致本季零售毛利率達到 25.6%，比上年同期增加 100 個基點，這主要是由於 SCO 單位的有利組合帶來的產品毛利率擴張。

On slide 10, this is a more complete view of the changes in our cash position over the last five quarters that we wanted to share today, which is aligned to how we manage the business. In the past, we have had significant quarterly volatility in our free cash flow. Aside from the impacts related to the financial restructuring in 2023, these swings have historically been driven by a number of factors, including seasonality in our earnings, a working capital cycle that historically resulted in significant cash use through the first three quarters of the year, and payments related to restructuring and transformation efforts.

在投影片 10 上，這是我們今天想要分享的過去五個季度現金狀況變化的更完整視圖，這與我們管理業務的方式一致。過去，我們的自由現金流出現了顯著的季度波動。除了與 2023 年財務重組相關的影響外，這些波動歷來是由許多因素驅動的，包括我們收益的季節性、歷史上導致今年前三個季度大量現金使用的營運資金周期，與重組和轉型工作相關的付款。

We believe that exiting 2023, we are now in a better position to more efficiently manage free cash flow and purge some of the historical volatility that has been present in our performance through improved commercial and operating rigor. Going forward, we will deliver meaningfully better free cash flow conversion as we manage working capital more efficiently, lower cash interest payments, and manage cash spent on restructuring and transformation initiatives with a strong focus on returns.

我們相信，到 2023 年，我們現在處於更有利的位置，可以更有效地管理自由現金流，並透過提高商業和營運嚴謹性來消除我們業績中存在的一些歷史波動。展望未來，我們將更有效地管理營運資金，降低現金利息支付，並管理用於重組和轉型計劃的現金，並專注於回報，從而實現更好的自由現金流轉換。

As Octavio mentioned in his opening, we paid down $200 million on our term loan and secured a revolving credit facility, which should result in approximately $15 million of savings in annual net interest. This is just the beginning of the improvements we expect to realize as we believe we have many opportunities ahead of us to show continuous improvement. Again, free cash flow was a source of $150 million in the quarter, which is up $66 million compared to the prior year period. And it is our expectation in each quarter of 2024 to show year-over-year improvement in free cash flow.

正如奧克塔維奧在開場白中提到的那樣，我們償還了 2 億美元的定期貸款並獲得了循環信貸額度，這應該會節省約 1500 萬美元的年度淨利息。這只是我們期望實現的改進的開始，因為我們相信我們前面有很多機會來展示持續改進。同樣，自由現金流是本季 1.5 億美元的來源，與去年同期相比增加了 6,600 萬美元。我們預計 2024 年每季的自由現金流都會比去年同期有所改善。

On slide 11, turning to our outlook for 2024. We expect to profitably grow revenue in the low single-digit range. We consider this to be a more normalized revenue growth rate for the company going forward, and we feel good about hitting this target due to our backlog visibility and recurring nature of service and software revenue.

第 11 張投影片轉向我們對 2024 年的展望。我們預計收入將在低個位數範圍內實現獲利成長。我們認為這對公司未來來說是一個更正常化的收入成長率，並且由於我們的積壓可見度以及服務和軟體收入的經常性性質，我們對實現這一目標感到很高興。

We expect adjusted EBITDA to be in a range of $410 million to $435 million, which is benefiting from continued gross margin expansion and disciplined operating expense control. Looking at the quarterly cadence for the year, we expect the split between the first half of the year and second half of the year to be approximately 40% versus 60%, which reflects an initial improvement in our efforts to more linearize the year compared to 2023.

我們預計調整後 EBITDA 將在 4.1 億美元至 4.35 億美元之間，這得益於持續的毛利率擴張和嚴格的營運費用控制。從今年的季度節奏來看，我們預計上半年和下半年之間的差距約為 40% 和 60%，這反映出與去年相比，我們在今年更加線性化方面的努力取得了初步進展。2023年。

Lastly, the outlook contemplates free cash flow conversion of greater than 25%. As I mentioned, we plan to execute on working capital improvements and we'll continue to opportunistically lower debt costs, all while growing EBITDA and expanding margin to generate higher free cash flow conversion. To close my remarks, we are entering 2024 with improved operating momentum and are well positioned as we work to deliver on our outlook.

最後，展望預計自由現金流轉換率將超過 25%。正如我所提到的，我們計劃改善營運資本，並將繼續伺機降低債務成本，同時增加 EBITDA 並擴大利潤率，以產生更高的自由現金流轉換。最後，我想說，進入 2024 年，我們的營運勢頭有所改善，並且在努力實現我們的前景的過程中處於有利位置。

Now, I will turn the call back to Octavio.

現在，我將把電話轉回給奧克塔維奧。

Thanks, Jim. Wrapping things up on slide 12, let me walk you through an early view of our continuous improvement journey. It all starts with our people who make Diebold Nixdorf a great company. We are taking a fresh perspective with several initiatives planned to reinforce that we are a people-first organization. We will empower our teams to drive continuous improvement through trust, transparency, and a shared commitment to excellence. The company strives to attract, develop, and retain exceptional people. As a result, our strong team will deliver profitable revenue growth, winning new customers and increasing wallet share through crisp commercial execution.

謝謝，吉姆。總結投影片 12 上的內容，讓我帶您初步了解我們的持續改進之旅。這一切都始於我們的員工，他們讓 Diebold Nixdorf 成為一家偉大的公司。我們正在採取新的視角，計劃採取多項措施來強化我們是一個以人為本的組織。我們將授權我們的團隊透過信任、透明度和對卓越的共同承諾來推動持續改進。公司致力於吸引、培養和留住優秀人才。因此，我們強大的團隊將透過清晰的商業執行力實現獲利性收入成長，贏得新客戶並增加錢包份額。

In addition, we will accelerate growth through focused innovation for our customers by executing on our R&D pipeline to maintain our technology leadership. We will continue expanding margin while exceeding customer expectations. Accelerating the adoption of remote diagnostic and resolution, simplifying our product set to reduce component cost and complexity, and implementing an industry-leading operating expense profile will drive improved profitability.

此外，我們將透過執行我們的研發管道來維持我們的技術領先地位，透過為客戶提供集中創新來加速成長。我們將繼續擴大利潤率，同時超越客戶的期望。加速採用遠端診斷和解決方案、簡化我們的產品集以降低組件成本和複雜性，以及實施業界領先的營運費用概況將提高獲利能力。

Finally, we will execute on the levers that Jim outlined earlier to improve free cash flow conversion. Improving quarterly linearity will continue to be an area of focus. These four components help us build the flywheel for our growth and continuous improvement and will help us better visualize and achieve our longer-term objectives. As we conclude our prepared remarks, I am excited about the future of Diebold Nixdorf as we start our continuous improvement journey. I look forward to sharing more with you throughout the year as we achieve these objectives.

最後，我們將執行吉姆之前概述的槓桿，以改善自由現金流轉換。改善季度線性將繼續成為重點領域。這四個組成部分幫助我們建造實現成長和持續改進的飛輪，並將幫助我們更好地設想和實現我們的長期目標。在我們結束準備好的演講時，我對 Diebold Nixdorf 的未來感到興奮，因為我們開始了持續改進之旅。當我們實現這些目標時，我期待在這一年中與您分享更多資訊。

Lastly, I wish to thank our customers for their ongoing support. We are committed to providing best-in-class solutions to help them achieve positive business outcomes, and I remain incredibly proud of our Diebold Nixdorf employees around the world. Our team continues to focus on what is the most important, our customers, all while improving operational execution.

最後，我要感謝我們的客戶一直以來的支持。我們致力於提供一流的解決方案，幫助他們實現積極的業務成果，我仍然為我們世界各地的迪堡利多富員工感到無比自豪。我們的團隊持續專注於最重要的事情—我們的客戶，同時提高營運執行力。

And with that, operator, please open the call for Jim and me to take questions.

那麼，接線員，請打開電話，讓吉姆和我回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) Matt Summerville, D.A. Davidson.

（操作員說明）Matt Summerville，D.A.戴維森。

A couple of questions. You talked a little bit about product gross margins in the prepared remarks. I'm curious -- a couple of things. That absolute level, that 25.5, realizing there's seasonality to the business, how sustainable is that relative trend in improvement? Is there still incremental price capture to be had as you're driving down, I would expect, driving down backlog over the course of the year? And then you didn't address services gross margins, those headed in the wrong direction. So talk a bit about that and then I have a follow-up. Thank you.

有幾個問題。您在準備好的演講中談到了產品毛利率。我很好奇——有幾件事。那個絕對水平，即 25.5，意識到業務存在季節性，這種相對改善趨勢的可持續性如何？我預計，隨著全年積壓訂單的減少，是否還會有增量價格捕獲？然後你沒有解決服務毛利率問題，這些毛利率朝著錯誤的方向發展。所以談談這個，然後我有一個後續行動。謝謝。

So let me start with product. So we continue to see very, very strong demand for both our DN Series recyclers, our DN Series self-checkout solutions. So I think that that's the good news. Technology is being adopted by customers, customers like the product set, and they continue investing in it.

那麼就讓我從產品開始吧。因此，我們繼續看到對 DN 系列回收機和 DN 系列自助結帳解決方案的需求非常非常強勁。所以我認為這是個好消息。技術正在被客戶採用，客戶喜歡該產品集，並且他們會繼續對其進行投資。

You're right, there's a certain level of seasonality in our business. So you might see slight variations in our gross margin quarter over quarter. But I would tell you that our intention is to keep the trend that we've been on, which is continue improving our overall gross margins. Even though we made significant progress in our supply chain and our efficiency, we're just at the beginning of our journey.

你是對的，我們的業務存在一定程度的季節性。因此，您可能會發現我們的毛利率逐季度略有變化。但我想告訴你，我們的目的是保持我們一直以來的趨勢，即繼續提高我們的整體毛利率。儘管我們在供應鏈和效率方面取得了重大進展，但我們才剛剛開始。

I'm super excited, as we announced a few weeks ago, we've hired a new operating excellence leader for the company, Frank Baur, who will help us in this journey and continue accelerating the improvement in all our operations, and that leads me to service.

我非常興奮，正如我們幾週前宣布的那樣，我們為公司聘請了一位新的卓越營運領導者弗蘭克·鮑爾（Frank Baur），他將在這一過程中為我們提供幫助，並繼續加速我們所有營運的改進，這將導致我去服務。

Our service business, and this is very important to me, is a people-driven business. So we need to make sure that we're delivering the highest quality for our customers and that we're creating an environment where all our people can thrive and be successful. So in Q4, and as we managed the portfolio of hardware, software services, creating the solutions that we have, we've invested heavily in our service infrastructure, particularly in North America.

我們的服務業務是一項以人為本的業務，這對我來說非常重要。因此，我們需要確保為客戶提供最高品質的服務，並創造一個讓所有員工都能蓬勃發展並取得成功的環境。因此，在第四季度，當我們管理硬體、軟體服務組合、創建我們擁有的解決方案時，我們對服務基礎設施進行了大量投資，特別是在北美。

So we're battling some of those secular trends around the difficulty of hiring people, the difficulty of retaining people. But in this balance, we want to make sure that as we're battling those things, we're keeping the customer at the center of our actions and making sure we delivered excellent service to them.

因此，我們正在與一些長期趨勢作鬥爭，這些趨勢圍繞著招募人員的困難和留住人員的困難。但在這種平衡中，我們希望確保在應對這些問題時，我們將客戶置於我們行動的中心，並確保我們為他們提供優質的服務。

So our goal is we will continue working on improving our service margins. It's clearly an area of opportunity for the company; we're all aware of it. And we want to do that while we continue to improve our service. So our commitment for the year is to getting back to our historical service margin levels as the year progresses, but doing that in a way that we continue serving our customers with excellence.

因此，我們的目標是繼續努力提高服務利潤。這顯然對公司來說是一個機會領域；我們都知道這一點。我們希望在不斷改進服務的同時做到這一點。因此，我們今年的承諾是隨著時間的推移恢復到我們的歷史服務利潤水平，但這樣做的方式是我們繼續為客戶提供卓越的服務。

Thank you for that. And then what's your view just for the market overall? I know Diebold's not going to disclose units anymore, but if we think about just the global ATM market, the global self-checkout market, what do you expect in terms of unit growth roughly in '24 relative to '23? And how do you think about Diebold going forward in terms of your ability to reduce Diebold's reliance on hardware cycles? Thank you.

謝謝你。那麼您對整個市場有何看法？我知道迪堡不會再揭露單位，但如果我們只考慮全球 ATM 市場、全球自助結帳市場，你對 24 年相對於 23 年的單位成長有何預期？您如何看待 Diebold 在減少 Diebold 對硬體週期依賴的能力方面的發展？謝謝。

So let me start with self-checkout this time as retail is a very important business for us. So Matt, I think there is no doubt that consumer preferences keep shifting, and the ability to offer options at self-checkout, whether it's assisted self-checkout, self-checkout continues to be important. And there's, as I mentioned, new technologies that we keep adding to the self-checkout process to make that a frictionless thing, both for our retailers and for the consumers of our retailers. So really changing the way people shop and the experience at the self-checkout.

這次我要從自助結帳開始，因為零售對我們來說是一項非常重要的業務。所以馬特，我認為毫無疑問消費者的偏好正在不斷變化，並且在自助結帳時提供選項的能力，無論是輔助自助結帳，還是自助結帳仍然很重要。正如我所提到的，我們不斷在自助結帳流程中添加新技術，使自助結帳過程變得毫無摩擦，無論是對我們的零售商還是對我們零售商的消費者來說都是如此。這確實改變了人們的購物方式和自助結帳體驗。

So we see this market to be one of continuous growth. There is no -- whether it's labor, whether it's customer experience, self-checkout helps improve that. So we continue to see that market as growing at a very healthy clip.

因此，我們認為這個市場是持續成長的市場之一。沒有—無論是勞動力，還是客戶體驗，自助結帳都有助於改善這一點。因此，我們繼續認為該市場正在以非常健康的速度成長。

Remember, we've been traditionally a small provider, even though now we've gained significant share, or at least that's what we believe will happen when the analyst report these things. Remember, as I mentioned in our remarks, every self-checkout that we deploy is basically a new placement for us or has been for the past year. So we're growing and gaining that market, and we see that market as continuing to expand.

請記住，我們傳統上一直是一家小型供應商，儘管現在我們已經獲得了很大的份額，或者至少我們相信當分析師報告這些事情時將會發生這種情況。請記住，正如我在演講中提到的，我們部署的每一次自助結帳基本上都是我們的新安排，或者是過去一年的新安排。因此，我們正在發展並贏得這個市場，我們認為該市場正在繼續擴大。

On the banking side, and again, that's why I tried -- I know you like this question around the markets that's why I tried to add both the regional color now. It's a varied business. There's clearly mature markets that are growing at a slower rate, there's some markets that are growing at a faster rate. Overall, I would characterize the market as one that is stable and growing a couple of percentage points one year, probably shrinking a couple of percentage points the other year. So what's important about this market is the shift that is happening towards higher value products, like recyclers that provide significant value for customers.

在銀行業方面，這就是我嘗試的原因 - 我知道您喜歡圍繞市場的這個問題，這就是為什麼我現在嘗試添加區域色彩。這是一項多元化的業務。顯然，有些成熟市場的成長速度較慢，有些市場的成長速度較快。整體而言，我將市場描述為一個穩定的市場，一年會成長幾個百分點，另一年可能會收縮幾個百分點。因此，這個市場的重要之處在於正在向更高價值的產品轉變，例如為客戶提供重要價值的回收商。

And what's also important is that we view that -- when you think of the cash ecosystem at the branch level, you can't only just think about the ATM; you need to think about the teller line. As banks think of a different way to serve customers, it's all about this cash ecosystem in the branch, and we've now entered with our teller cash recycler into this market. So that should help us accelerate a little bit of the growth that probably a flattish ATM market won't provide in the coming years. So that's kind of the view on the market.

同樣重要的是，我們認為，當您想到分公司等級的現金生態系統時，您不能只考慮 ATM；還需要考慮 ATM 機。您需要考慮出納員線路。隨著銀行考慮以不同的方式服務客戶，這一切都與分行的現金生態系統有關，我們現在已經透過櫃員現金回收機進入了這個市場。因此，這應該有助於我們加快一點成長，而平淡的 ATM 市場在未來幾年可能無法提供這種成長。這就是市場的看法。

What are we doing to -- again, I don't think we have undue reliance on hardware services or our software. We have a solution set that basically gets bought in conjunction by customers. So no customer wants an ATM because -- or they want an ATM, they want the service associated with that, they want the software associated with that. So clearly, as we package these components together, we will allow customers to either buy the components individually, buy them in a [solute] predefined solution for them, or buy them as a service. We keep growing as well in our managed services business, allowing customers to outsource important parts of their operation to us.

我們正在做什麼——再次強調，我認為我們沒有過度依賴硬體服務或我們的軟體。我們有一套解決方案，基本上是由客戶共同購買的。因此，沒有客戶想要 ATM，因為——或者他們想要 ATM，他們想要與之相關的服務，他們想要與之相關的軟體。很明顯，當我們將這些組件打包在一起時，我們將允許客戶單獨購買組件，在[solute]預定義解決方案中購買它們，或將它們作為服務購買。我們的託管服務業務也在不斷增長，允許客戶將其營運的重要部分外包給我們。

So as we provide customers this flexibility of choice, we see that some of them might opt to move to more of an outsourced model, while others might remain committed to them running their own operations, at least drive significant value from our technology. So I would say that we're optimistic, that we will have -- that by providing customer choice, we can continue driving growth in our business

因此，當我們為客戶提供這種選擇的靈活性時，我們發現他們中的一些人可能會選擇轉向更多的外包模式，而其他人可能仍然致力於讓他們自己運營，至少從我們的技術中獲得巨大的價值。所以我想說，我們很樂觀，透過為客戶提供選擇，我們可以繼續推動我們業務的成長

Thanks, Octavio.

謝謝，奧克塔維奧。

(Operator Instructions) Matt Bryson, Wedbush Securities.

（操作員指令）Matt Bryson，Wedbush 證券公司。

Thanks for letting me ask a question. The 40%, 60% split in terms of free cash flow, any chance you can give us kind of a similar split or a way to think about how revenues might progress through 2024?

謝謝你讓我問一個問題。自由現金流的 40%、60% 分配，您是否有機會給我們類似的分配或一種思考 2024 年收入可能如何進展的方法？

What I would say is that the relative split on revenue is going to roughly align. I think that as we think about that cadence, that they're roughly going to fall in line with each other, so I wouldn't expect for there to be a material deviation in terms of how we think about revenue. And then kind of it's flow through to EBITDA and then to free cash flow. So again, not precise numbers, given the fact that we're not giving quarterly guidance, but I would think about those as being fairly well correlated.

我想說的是，收入的相對分配將大致一致。我認為，當我們考慮這種節奏時，它們大致會彼此一致，所以我不認為我們對收入的看法會出現重大偏差。然後它會流向 EBITDA，然後流向自由現金流。再說一次，考慮到我們沒有提供季度指導，這不是精確的數字，但我認為這些數字具有相當好的相關性。

Got it. And if revenues don't dip so much, [the margins] don't dip so much, can we expect that the benefit on the gross margin line from having higher volumes continues throughout the course of 2024? Or is there something of a dip in the first half as revenues are a little bit higher -- or a little bit lower and then it picks back up in the back half?

知道了。如果收入沒有下降那麼多，[利潤率]也沒有下降那麼多，我們是否可以期望在整個 2024 年，銷量增加所帶來的毛利率收益會持續下去？或者，上半年是否會出現一些下滑，因為收入會稍微高一點，或者會低一點，然後在下半年會回升？

Are you talking about product gross margins? Just to make sure that I understand the question.

你說的是產品毛利率嗎？只是為了確保我理解這個問題。

Product gross margins, on the ATM side in particular.

產品毛利率，尤其是 ATM 方面。

Yeah, I wouldn't expect for there to be a dip in the first half, as you laid out. I think that, as Octavio just said, there's certainly seasonality when we think about what the fourth quarter yielded on the product gross margin side. But as we move into '24, when we think about the quarters in '23, we would expect for there to be improvement on a quarterly basis and for us to be in, call it, the low 20s on a fairly consistent basis. To note, we did not (multiple speakers).

是的，正如你所說，我沒想到上半場會出現下滑。我認為，正如奧克塔維奧剛才所說，當我們考慮第四季度產品毛利率方面的收益時，肯定存在季節性。但當我們進入 24 年時，當我們考慮 23 年的季度時，我們預計每個季度都會有所改善，並且我們會在相當一致的基礎上進入 20 年代的低水平。需要注意的是，我們沒有（多個發言者）。

Okay. And I guess just staying on that theme, I mean, when I think about those product gross margins, I think at one point there had been the hope that with the [DN Now Series], there'd be a bit of an expansion from here. Is there a longer-term goal that you can talk about there or that you've talked about there?

好的。我想只是停留在這個主題上，我的意思是，當我考慮這些產品的毛利率時，我認為曾經希望通過 [DN Now 系列]，會有一些擴展這裡。是否有您可以在那裡談論或已經談論過的長期目標？

So I'll take that one, Matt. So what you'll see us talking about is this continuous improvement mindset that we're implementing in our company. So where we are today is not the end goal that we have. Our goal is to continuously improve revenues, margin, and free cash flow. So we're trying to create this flywheel effect in our company where you constantly see us do -- taking small incremental steps, but accelerating our progression.

所以我就選那個，馬特。因此，您會看到我們談論的是我們在公司中實施的這種持續改進的心態。因此，我們今天所處的位置並不是我們的最終目標。我們的目標是不斷提高收入、利潤和自由現金流。因此，我們正在努力在我們的公司中創造這種飛輪效應，你經常會看到我們這樣做——採取小的漸進步驟，但加速我們的進步。

So as Pat mentioned in his opening comments, we will have an Investor Day later in this first half of the year where we will highlight those longer term goals. But again, the idea is we're at the beginning of the journey, not at the end of the journey. So from here on, you should expect us to continuously improve.

因此，正如帕特在開場白中提到的那樣，我們將在今年上半年晚些時候舉辦投資者日，屆時我們將強調這些長期目標。但同樣，我們的想法是我們正處於旅程的開始，而不是旅程的終點。因此，從現在開始，您應該期待我們不斷改進。

And I guess the last one for me, Octavio, is -- and obviously, an impressive Q4 and a relatively robust guide for 2024. I think when we entered 2023, backlog covered the entire year for 2024. You're talking about backlog covering about three quarters of the year. So you guys having very good visibility, but at the same time, do you have confidence that as backlog works down, you're able to maintain revenues at current levels and there's not a dip once you work through backlog and it would be like 2025, 2026? But can you just talk to where backlog is today (multiple speakers) moving forward.

我想對我來說最後一個，奧克塔維奧，顯然是令人印象深刻的第四季度，也是 2024 年相對穩健的指南。我認為當我們進入 2023 年時，積壓訂單涵蓋了 2024 年全年。您所說的積壓工作涵蓋了一年中大約四分之三的時間。所以你們有很好的可見性，但與此同時，你們有信心隨著積壓工作的減少，你們能夠將收入維持在當前水平，並且很快解決了積壓工作，收入就不會下降，就像2025 年一樣，2026？但您能否談談今天積壓的情況（多名發言者）以及進展。

Sure, Matt. So probably, the easiest answer is yes, I am confident that revenues will not dip as we accelerate backlog conversion. We still see a strong demand environment for all our products. So revenue for the -- as you said, three quarters of the product revenue is covered by backlog. Again, different regions have different rates of acceleration in orders, but we feel confident in the plan that we put forward.

當然，馬特。因此，最簡單的答案可能是肯定的，我相信隨著我們加速積壓訂單轉換，收入不會下降。我們仍然看到我們所有產品的強勁需求環境。因此，正如您所說，產品收入的四分之三由積壓訂單覆蓋。同樣，不同地區的訂單加速率不同，但我們對我們提出的計劃充滿信心。

And remember, one of our goals is also to normalize our backlog, which also creates benefits in some of our working capital, inventory planning, collections. So the goal that I've stated for quite some time now, and we're starting to get closer to that, is to have 2 to 2.5 quarters of revenues in backlog at any given time. So when you think that we ended the year with $1.15 billion, $1.2 billion of backlog, we still could probably normalize or reduce backlog as we accelerate revenue a little bit, but then keep it consistent at that level. So we're confident on how that's going to play out through the year.

請記住，我們的目標之一也是使我們的積壓工作正常化，這也為我們的一些營運資金、庫存規劃和收款創造了好處。因此，我長期以來提出的目標是在任何特定時間都有 2 至 2.5 個季度的收入處於積壓狀態，而我們正開始接近這一目標。因此，當你認為我們年底有 11.5 億美元、12 億美元的積壓訂單時，我們仍然可能會隨著收入的增加而正常化或減少積壓訂單，但隨後將其保持在該水平上。因此，我們對今年的情況充滿信心。

At this time, we currently have no further questions. So I'll hand back to Chris Sikora for any further remarks.

目前，我們沒有進一步的問題。因此，如果有任何進一步的評論，我將轉交克里斯·西科拉 (Chris Sikora)。

Thank you again for participating in today's call. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me and Investor Relations, and have a good rest of your day. Thanks.

再次感謝您參加今天的電話會議。如果您有任何疑問，請隨時聯繫我和投資者關係部，並祝您有個愉快的一天。謝謝。

Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。現在您可以斷開線路。