鐵山公司 (IRM) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Iron Mountain Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call.

早上好，歡迎參加 Iron Mountain 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Please note, today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Gillian Tiltman, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

請注意，今天的活動正在錄製中。現在我想將會議交給資深副總裁兼投資人關係主管 Gillian Tiltman。請繼續。

Thanks, Rocco. Good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. On today's call, we will refer to materials available on our Investor Relations website. We are joined here today by Bill Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Barry Hytinen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After prepared remarks, we'll open up the lines for Q&A.

謝謝，羅科。早上好，歡迎參加我們的 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。在今天的電話會議上，我們將參考投資者關係網站上提供的資料。今天，總裁兼執行長比爾李 (Bill Lee) 也加入了我們的行列。執行副總裁兼財務長 Barry Hytinen。準備好發言後，我們將開放問答環節。

Today's earnings materials contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to today's earnings materials, the safe harbor language on Slide 2 and our annual report on Form 10-K for a discussion of the major risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those in our forward-looking statements. In addition, we use several non-GAAP measures when presenting our financial results. We have included the reconciliations to these measures in our supplemental financial information.

今天的收益資料包含前瞻性陳述，包括有關我們預期的陳述。所有前瞻性陳述均面臨風險和不確定性。請參閱今天的收益資料、投影片 2 上的安全港語言以及我們的 10-K 表格年度報告，以討論可能導致我們的實際結果與前瞻性聲明中的結果不同的主要風險因素。此外，我們在展示財務績效時使用了多項非公認會計原則衡量標準。我們已將這些措施的調節表納入我們的補充財務資訊中。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bill.

然後，我會將電話轉給比爾。

Thank you, Gillian, and thank you all for joining us today. We are pleased to report another outstanding year for Iron Mountain. We achieved record revenue and adjusted EBITDA in both the fourth quarter and the full year. Our record results are a testament to the devotion and hard work of our team and our resilient and growing business model.

謝謝你，吉莉安，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。我們很高興地報告鐵山公司又度過了出色的一年。我們在第四季和全年都實現了創紀錄的收入和調整後的 EBITDA。我們創紀錄的業績證明了我們團隊的奉獻和辛勤工作以及我們富有彈性和不斷發展的業務模式。

In the fourth quarter, we achieved revenue of $1.42 billion, yielding 8.7% total organic revenue growth and record adjusted EBITDA of $525 million, up 11%. For the full year, we delivered record results across the board, revenue of $5.5 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $2 billion and AFFO of $1.2 billion.

第四季度，我們營收 14.2 億美元，總有機收入成長 8.7%，調整後 EBITDA 達到創紀錄的 5.25 億美元，成長 11%。全年，我們全面實現了創紀錄的業績，營收為 55 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 20 億美元，AFFO 為 12 億美元。

I'll now discuss some ways in which we have been working with our customers, which has led to this growth. Let's begin with our records management business. A win of note was with one of the largest health systems in the U.S., awarding Iron Mountain a contract to significantly enhance its management of records across 140 hospitals and 2,600 care sites. Building on a strong long-term relationship with the customer, we are now implementing a rigorous compliance program that will reduce the cost and meet records retention requirements, leading to a more efficient service. This win is particularly representative of our focus on cross-selling through Matterhorn as this customer is utilizing a variety of our products and services across our business lines, including digital services, along with traditional records management in shredding.

現在我將討論我們與客戶合作的一些方式，這些方式導致了這種成長。讓我們從我們的記錄管理業務開始。值得注意的是，美國最大的醫療系統之一向 Iron Mountain 授予了一份合同，以顯著加強其對 140 家醫院和 2,600 個護理站點的記錄管理。在與客戶建立牢固的長期關係的基礎上，我們現在正在實施嚴格的合規計劃，該計劃將降低成本並滿足記錄保留要求，從而提供更有效率的服務。這場勝利特別代表了我們對透過 Matterhorn 進行交叉銷售的關注，因為該客戶正在我們整個業務線中使用我們的各種產品和服務，包括數位服務以及碎紙中的傳統記錄管理。

Another win showing Iron Mountain's cross-selling power occurred with a Hungarian industrial gas supplier. We are helping this customer to create space at its facilities by storing and then digitizing its records. We are also exploring opportunities to deploy our digital mailroom solution as our partnerships develop thereby expanding this relationship across our product suite. The last win to highlight in our records management business is a new contract with the Swiss division of a British multinational asset management company to relocate its physical records to one site and digitize them over time. In addition to freeing up physical space, our solution will ensure our customers' records are stored safely and compliantly and enables more efficient access to the digitized information.

另一項顯示 Iron Mountain 交叉銷售能力的勝利是與一家匈牙利工業氣體供應商的合作。我們正在透過儲存並數位化其記錄來幫助該客戶在其設施中創造空間。隨著我們合作夥伴關係的發展，我們也正在探索部署我們的數位郵件收發室解決方案的機會，從而在我們的產品套件中擴展這種關係。我們的記錄管理業務中最後一個值得強調的勝利是與一家英國跨國資產管理公司的瑞士分部簽訂的一份新合同，將其物理記錄轉移到一個地點並隨著時間的推移將其數字化。除了釋放實體空間之外，我們的解決方案還將確保客戶的記錄安全、合規地存儲，並能夠更有效地存取數位化資訊。

Moving now to some wins in our Digital Solutions business, we won a contract from a large aerospace customer to deploy our Insight platform to manage and translate invoices from 22 languages into English. The customer chose our solution ahead of competing proposals, thanks to Insight's embedded AI engine, which gives it the ability to not only store but to automatically classify a range of documents in a highly secure manner.

現在我們的數位解決方案業務取得了一些勝利，我們贏得了一家大型航空航天客戶的合同，部署我們的 Insight 平台來管理發票並將其從 22 種語言翻譯成英語。由於 Insight 的嵌入式人工智慧引擎，客戶在競爭方案中選擇了我們的解決方案，該引擎不僅能夠以高度安全的方式儲存一系列文檔，而且能夠自動對一系列文檔進行分類。

Another win this quarter was with a Canadian government agency. This agency which manages workplace compensation claims has been a customer of our records management services for more than 15 years. Our successful delivery of digital mailroom and imaging on-demand solutions during the COVID pandemic has led to a new master service agreement for digitizing services worth more than $10 million over the contract length.

本季的另一場勝利是與加拿大政府機構合作。該管理工作場所賠償索賠的機構已成為我們記錄管理服務的客戶超過 15 年。我們在新冠疫情期間成功交付了數位郵件收發室和影像點播解決方案，從而達成了一份新的數位化服務主服務協議，合約期限內價值超過 1000 萬美元。

We will preserve scan around 47,000 roles of microfilm to produce 240 million images on our Insight platform, helping the agency to process compensation claims faster than ever in delivering a solid recurring revenue stream to drive our growth. In Brazil, a major television network that has been a records management customer for almost 25 years, has asked us to manage the indexing and digitization of 50,000 boxes of records stored at its locations in Iron Mountain's facilities in the country. Our Insight platform is at the heart of our solution, enabling the customer to manage requests to digitize from all parts of the business in one place effectively and efficiently.

我們將在 Insight 平台上保留掃描約 47,000 個縮微膠卷，以產生 2.4 億張影像，幫助該機構比以往更快地處理賠償索賠，從而提供穩定的經常性收入流，以推動我們的成長。在巴西，一家主要電視網絡已成為記錄管理客戶近 25 年，要求我們管理儲存在該國 Iron Mountain 設施中的 50,000 盒記錄的索引和數位化。我們的 Insight 平台是我們解決方案的核心，使客戶能夠在一個地方有效且有效率地管理業務所有部分的數位化請求。

Finally, the Hong Kong division of a major multinational bank has chosen Iron Mountain to be its partner in a major transformation of its finance operations. This customer manages a large volume of finance documents and has outsourced this work to Iron Mountain with a goal of streamlining the process of checking and scanning these files. We see the potential to scale the solution for the bank in other locations, including Singapore, India, the U.S., the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

最後，一家大型跨國銀行的香港分部選擇鐵山公司作為金融業務重大轉型的合作夥伴。該客戶管理大量財務文件，並將這項工作外包給 Iron Mountain，目的是簡化檢查和掃描這些文件的流程。我們看到了將該銀行的解決方案擴展到其他地點的潛力，包括新加坡、印度、美國、英國和阿拉伯聯合大公國。

Now let's turn to our data center business. We continue to be pleased with the growth trajectory of our data center business, which is only accelerated with the rapid adoption of AI-enabled services. We are pleased to have signed 124 megawatts well ahead of our initial plan for the year. We continue to see tremendous opportunity in serving both hyperscale and colocation customers and significant growth potential for our footprint.

現在讓我們轉向我們的資料中心業務。我們仍然對資料中心業務的成長軌跡感到滿意，隨著人工智慧服務的快速採用，這一成長軌跡只會加速。我們很高興比我們今年最初的計劃提前簽署了 124 兆瓦的合約。我們繼續看到為超大規模和託管客戶提供服務的巨大機會以及我們足跡的巨大成長潛力。

An example in the quarter, we signed a 7-year agreement to provide capacity at our New Jersey data center for an automated trading technology company that is expanding in the U.S. Our reputation for compliance and sustainability were key to winning this business, and it was important for our customer to receive 100% traceable and verifiable energy and carbon records in support of its sustainability goals. Also in the U.S., we were pleased to win a data center deal with a secure cloud storage company that is growing rapidly across North America.

以本季為例，我們簽署了一項為期7 年的協議，為一家正在美國擴張的自動交易技術公司提供新澤西資料中心的容量。我們在合規性和永續發展方面的聲譽是贏得這項業務的關鍵，對於我們的客戶來說，獲得 100% 可追溯和可驗證的能源和碳記錄以支持其永續發展目標非常重要。同樣在美國，我們很高興贏得了一家在北美快速發展的安全雲端儲存公司的資料中心協議。

Our reliability and close relationship since first doing business with this customer a year ago helped to seal this new deal as did the strategic location of our facility in Northern Virginia. Moving to India. We continue to see strong demand for capacity. We closed a data center contract with a major bank in the country in the fourth quarter. This customer chose our Mumbai facility specifically in Iron Mountain more broadly for our ability to provide a secure data center for its large domestic branch platform close to its headquarters.

自從一年前首次與該客戶開展業務以來，我們的可靠性和密切關係幫助達成了這項新交易，我們工廠位於維吉尼亞州北部的戰略位置也是如此。搬到印度。我們持續看到對產能的強勁需求。我們在第四季度與該國一家主要銀行簽訂了資料中心合約。該客戶選擇了我們在孟買的鐵山工廠，因為我們有能力為其靠近其總部的大型國內分公司平台提供安全的資料中心。

Turning to our asset life cycle management business, or ALM, we secured a significant contract with a global financial services company. Our ability to integrate our secure ALM services with the customer's existing business management platform was critical and has enabled them to streamline how they order, complete and report on their IT asset disposition activities. Our solution was an excellent demonstration of how deeply we understand the needs of our customers, especially in the highly regulated world of financial services.

談到我們的資產生命週期管理業務（ALM），我們與一家全球金融服務公司簽訂了一份重要合約。我們將安全的 ALM 服務與客戶現有的業務管理平台整合的能力至關重要，並使他們能夠簡化 IT 資產處置活動的訂購、完成和報告方式。我們的解決方案很好地展示了我們對客戶需求的理解程度，尤其是在高度監管的金融服務領域。

Staying with ALM business. In the quarter, we won a contract with a U.S. vehicle insurance company that has been an existing customer of ours for many years. Having shifted its employees to a remote working model, our customer needed to partner with the capacity to retrieve over 37,000 devices from more than 240 locations nationwide then process, refurbish and return them for distribution. Our solution provides our customer with better visibility of its IT assets and enables them to manage this activity more efficiently. I should also highlight the synergy between our ALM and data center business when it comes to data center renewal and decommissioning.

繼續從事 ALM 業務。本季度，我們贏得了與一家美國車輛保險公司的合同，該公司多年來一直是我們的現有客戶。在將員工轉向遠距工作模式後，我們的客戶需要與合作夥伴合作，從全國 240 多個地點檢索超過 37,000 台設備，然後對其進行處理、翻新和退回以進行分發。我們的解決方案使客戶能夠更好地了解其 IT 資產，並使他們能夠更有效地管理此活動。我還應該強調我們的 ALM 和資料中心業務在資料中心更新和退役方面的協同作用。

We are now in a position to not only provide colocation and cloud migration services, but we can also securely and responsibly dispose of obsolete IT equipment. An example of such an opportunity in this quarter was a major win with one of the world's leading producers of business process management software. We managed the secure decommissioning of over 40 data centers globally, sanitized the IT assets and remarketed them to deliver a significant return and value.

我們現在不僅可以提供託管和雲端遷移服務，還可以安全、負責任地處置過時的 IT 設備。本季度此類機會的一個例子是與世界領先的業務流程管理軟體生產商之一的重大勝利。我們管理了全球 40 多個資料中心的安全退役，清理了 IT 資產並對其進行了重新行銷，以帶來可觀的回報和價值。

Also in the quarter, we were awarded a contract by one of the oldest financial institutions in the U.S. for a similar data center decommissioning project. Both wins demonstrate that Iron Mountain is uniquely positioned to minimize risk and maximize savings as a single-source partner for these activities.

同樣在本季度，我們獲得了美國最古老的金融機構之一授予的類似資料中心退役專案的合約。這兩場勝利都表明，作為這些活動的單一來源合作夥伴，Iron Mountain 具有獨特的優勢，能夠最大限度地降低風險並最大限度地節省成本。

Finally, let me take a moment to highlight our acquisition of Regency Technologies. Regency's team makes a great addition to the leadership of our rapidly growing ALM business and gives us additional capabilities to serve this fast-growing sector at the heart of the circular economy.

最後，讓我花點時間強調我們對 Regency Technologies 的收購。 Regency 的團隊大大增強了我們快速成長的 ALM 業務的領導地位，並為我們提供了額外的能力來為循環經濟核心的快速成長產業提供服務。

Furthermore, this acquisition, together with the momentum we have been building in ALM through the strengthening of component pricing and cross-selling sets us up well for continued success.

此外，此次收購，加上我們透過加強組件定價和交叉銷售在 ALM 中建立的勢頭，為我們持續取得成功奠定了良好的基礎。

To conclude, I would like to thank our team for their resilience, hard work and dedication as we continue our Matterhorn climb and continue to serve over 225,000 customers. We are thrilled to progress ahead of expectations, and it is due to the commitment of our mountaineers. As we look to 2024 and beyond, the momentum we have built will continue to drive the opportunities ahead with another year of double-digit top line growth expected.

最後，我要感謝我們的團隊在我們繼續攀登馬特宏峰並繼續為超過 225,000 名客戶提供服務的過程中所表現出的韌性、辛勤工作和奉獻精神。我們很高興能夠超越預期取得進展，這要歸功於我們登山者的承諾。展望 2024 年及以後，我們已經建立的勢頭將繼續推動未來的機遇，預計又一年將實現兩位數的收入成長。

Barry will speak in detail about our financial guidance for the year ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Barry.

巴里將詳細談論我們未來一年的財務指導。這樣，我就把電話轉給巴里。

Thanks, Bill, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2023 results and our outlook for 2024. Turning to our financials. In the fourth quarter, our team continued the trend of delivering record performance on all of our key financial metrics. On a reported basis, revenue of $1.42 billion grew 11% year-on-year or 10% on a constant currency basis, reflecting a new quarterly record. On an organic basis, total organic revenue grew 8.7%.

謝謝比爾，感謝大家今天加入我們討論我們的 2023 年第四季和全年業績以及我們對 2024 年的展望。轉向我們的財務狀況。在第四季度，我們的團隊繼續保持所有關鍵財務指標創紀錄績效的趨勢。根據報告，營收為 14.2 億美元，年增 11%，以固定匯率計算成長 10%，創下新的季度記錄。在有機基礎上，總有機收入成長了 8.7%。

A key highlight in the quarter is our organic storage revenue, which grew 10.4% as a result of strong performance in both our records management and our data center businesses. Total service revenue increased 8% to $549 million. This was driven by global RIM at 10% on a reported basis and 9% on an organic basis. Project Matterhorn's focus on selling our entire range of products and services has driven these strong results and are a testament to our commercial team's efforts. Adjusted EBITDA was $525 million, a new record, up 11% on a reported basis and 10% year-on-year on a constant currency basis. Adjusted EBITDA margin was better than we projected at 37% and improved 100 basis points sequentially driven by strong mix and cost productivity across all of our businesses.

本季度的一個關鍵亮點是我們的有機儲存收入，由於我們的記錄管理和資料中心業務的強勁表現，該收入增長了 10.4%。總服務收入成長 8%，達到 5.49 億美元。這是由全球 RIM 推動的，按報告計算為 10%，以有機基礎計算為 9%。馬特宏峰專案專注於銷售我們的全系列產品和服務，推動了這些強勁的業績，並證明了我們商業團隊的努力。調整後 EBITDA 為 5.25 億美元，創下新紀錄，以報告計算成長 11%，以固定匯率計算年增 10%。調整後 EBITDA 利潤率優於我們預期的 37%，並在我們所有業務的強勁組合和成本生產力的推動下連續提高了 100 個基點。

As we've stated in our earnings press release, effective in the fourth quarter of 2023, our AFFO definition has been updated to exclude amortization of capitalized commissions. In light of the growth of our data center business, we conducted a benchmarking analysis of other companies in the industry, and as such, have aligned our AFFO reporting accordingly, which provides investors better insight into the funds available to support the growth of our business.

正如我們在收益新聞稿中所述，自 2023 年第四季起生效，我們的 AFFO 定義已更新，以排除資本化佣金的攤銷。鑑於我們資料中心業務的成長，我們對業內其他公司進行了基準分析，因此相應地調整了我們的 AFFO 報告，使投資者能夠更好地了解可用於支持我們業務成長的資金。

AFFO was $328 million or $1.11 on a per share basis, up $29 million and $0.09, respectively, from the fourth quarter of last year. To allow for comparison to our guidance and consensus, we are reporting our prior methodology as well. On our previous calculation, AFFO was $317 million or $1.07 on a per share basis. This was $7 million better than our AFFO guidance and $0.02 better than our guidance on a per share basis.

AFFO 營收為 3.28 億美元，每股收益 1.11 美元，比去年第四季分別增加 2,900 萬美元和 0.09 美元。為了與我們的指導和共識進行比較，我們也報告了我們先前的方法。根據我們先前的計算，AFFO 為 3.17 億美元，即每股 1.07 美元。這比我們的 AFFO 指引高 700 萬美元，比我們的每股指引高 0.02 美元。

Now let me briefly summarize the full year. Revenue of $5.5 billion increased 7% on a reported basis and 8% on a constant currency basis. Adjusted EBITDA increased 7% year-on-year to $1.96 billion, an increase of $135 million. AFFO increased over 5% to $1.2 billion or $4.12 on a per share basis. On our previous calculation, AFFO was $1.168 billion or $3.97 on a per share basis.

現在讓我簡單總結一下全年的情況。營收為 55 億美元，以報告基礎計算成長 7%，以固定匯率計算成長 8%。調整後 EBITDA 年成長 7%，達到 19.6 億美元，增加 1.35 億美元。 AFFO 成長超過 5%，達到 12 億美元，即每股 4.12 美元。根據我們先前的計算，AFFO 為 11.68 億美元，即每股 3.97 美元。

And now turning to segment performance for the quarter. Our global RIM business delivered revenue of $1.19 billion, an increase of $108 million from last year or 10% on a reported basis. On an organic constant currency basis, revenue increased 8.5%. Global RIM adjusted EBITDA was $534 million, an increase of $48 million year-on-year. Global RIM adjusted EBITDA margin was 44.7%, up 100 basis points sequentially, driven by strong services mix and productivity. Our data center business continues to grow and deliver strong performance. From a total revenue perspective, we delivered 32% year-on-year growth on a reported basis and 30% year-on-year growth on a constant currency basis. Our data center storage revenue grew 34% year-on-year or 32% on a constant currency basis, driven by new development coming online. Data center EBITDA was up approximately $10 million year-on-year, and EBITDA margin was up 80 basis points sequentially. Moreover, pricing trends have continued to be strong, and we have seen returns expanding 100 to 150 basis points in advance of higher interest rates.

現在轉向本季的細分業績。我們的全球 RIM 業務實現營收 11.9 億美元，比去年增加 1.08 億美元，按報告數據成長 10%。在有機固定貨幣基礎上，營收成長了 8.5%。全球RIM調整後EBITDA為5.34億美元，年增4800萬美元。在強勁的服務組合和生產力的推動下，全球 RIM 調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 44.7%，季增 100 個基點。我們的資料中心業務持續成長並提供強勁的業績。從總收入的角度來看，我們在報告基礎上實現了 32% 的同比增長，在固定匯率基礎上實現了 30% 的同比增長。在新開發上線的推動下，我們的資料中心儲存收入年增 34%，以固定匯率計算成長 32%。資料中心 EBITDA 較去年同期成長約 1,000 萬美元，EBITDA 利潤率較上季成長 80 個基點。此外，定價趨勢持續強勁，我們看到回報率在利率上升之前擴大了 100 至 150 個基點。

Turning to new and expansion leasing. We completed 4 megawatts in the fourth quarter. For the full year, we leased 124 megawatts, exceeding the projection we provided on our last call. Nearly 100% of those leases resulted from cross-selling, which you know is a key initiative in our Project Matterhorn plan. Our pipeline is at record levels. We are expanding our relationships with key hyperscale clients and our team is executing well. So we are pleased to project new and expansion leasing of 100 megawatts for 2024. Incidentally that represents a 25% increase from our initial 2023 projection at this time last year.

轉向新建和擴建租賃。我們在第四季完成了 4 兆瓦。全年，我們租賃了 124 兆瓦，超出了我們上次電話會議中提供的預測。這些租賃中近 100% 來自交叉銷售，您知道這是我們馬特宏峰計劃中的關鍵舉措。我們的管道處於創紀錄的水平。我們正在擴大與主要超大規模客戶的關係，並且我們的團隊執行得很好。因此，我們很高興預計 2024 年新增和擴建租賃容量將達到 100 兆瓦。順便說一句，這比我們去年此時最初的 2023 年預測增加了 25%。

Turning to our asset life cycle management business. In the fourth quarter, we delivered improved performance for both revenue and EBITDA, achieving the expectations we set on our last call. Our team drove strong operating productivity, and we saw component pricing beginning to trend up modestly on a sequential basis. Similar to data center, cross-selling activity has been particularly strong in our ALM business with nearly all deals coming in as a result of it.

轉向我們的資產生命週期管理業務。第四季度，我們的營收和 EBITDA 業績均有所改善，實現了我們在上次電話會議中設定的預期。我們的團隊推動了強勁的營運生產力，我們看到組件價格開始連續小幅上漲。與資料中心類似，交叉銷售活動在我們的 ALM 業務中尤其活躍，幾乎所有交易都是由此產生的。

We completed our acquisition of Regency Technologies early in January. This acquisition strengthens our ability to serve an expanding ALM customer base and broadens our capability in their category, especially in the enterprise segment. Regency brings robust remarketing and recycling capabilities to better serve our customers and help them achieve their environmental and data security goals.

我們在一月初完成了對 Regency Technologies 的收購。此次收購增強了我們為不斷擴大的 ALM 客戶群提供服務的能力，並擴大了我們在此類客戶領域（尤其是企業領域）的能力。 Regency 帶來強大的再行銷和回收能力，以更好地服務我們的客戶並幫助他們實現環境和資料安全目標。

We have long admired the leadership at Regency and are thrilled to welcome their entire organization to our team. Turning to capital. For the full year 2023, we invested $1.2 billion of growth and $140 million of recurring, consistent with the expectations we shared on our last call. For 2024, we are planning for capital expenditure to be approximately $1.35 billion of growth and approaching $150 million of recurring. Given our strong pre-lease activity, the vast majority of our growth capital will be dedicated to data center development.

我們長期以來一直欽佩 Regency 的領導力，並很高興歡迎他們整個組織加入我們的團隊。轉向資本。 2023 年全年，我們投資了 12 億美元的成長投資和 1.4 億美元的經常性投資，這與我們在上次電話會議中分享的預期一致。到 2024 年，我們計劃資本支出成長約 13.5 億美元，經常性支出接近 1.5 億美元。鑑於我們強勁的預租活動，我們的絕大多數成長資本將專門用於資料中心的開發。

Turning to the balance sheet. With strong adjusted EBITDA performance, we ended the quarter with net lease adjusted leverage of 5.1x and our leverage remains at its lowest level in a decade. For 2024, we expect to exit the year at similar levels to year-end 2023. Our Board of Directors declared our quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share to be paid in early April. And on a trailing 4-quarter basis, our payout ratio is now 62%, in line with our long-term target range of low to mid-60s percent.

轉向資產負債表。憑藉強勁的調整後 EBITDA 表現，本季末我們的淨租賃調整槓桿率為 5.1 倍，槓桿率仍處於十年來的最低水平。對於 2024 年，我們預計將以與 2023 年年底相似的水平結束這一年。我們的董事會宣布將於 4 月初支付每股 0.65 美元的季度股息。根據過去 4 個季度的數據，我們的派息率為 62%，符合我們 60% 左右的長期目標範圍。

Now let me provide an update on our progress as to the project Matterhorn growth objectives we shared at our Investor Day in September of 2022. You will recall that we introduced [tighter] targets for growth between the period 2021 through 2026 of approximately 10% for revenue, approximately 10% for adjusted EBITDA and approximately 8% for AFFO.

現在，讓我介紹一下我們在2022 年9 月投資者日分享的馬特宏峰專案成長目標的最新進展。您可能還記得，我們​​為2021 年至2026 年期間的成長制定了[更嚴格的]目標，約為10%調整後的 EBITDA 約為營收的 10%，AFFO 約為 8%。

Two years into our Matterhorn journey, we are well on track, even ahead of those commitments, having achieved 13% annual revenue growth from 2021 to the end of 2023 on a constant currency basis. we have achieved 11% annual adjusted EBITDA growth and in excess of 10% annual AFFO growth. The dollar has been particularly strong over this period and despite this, we have been delivering on our commitments on a reported basis as well.

馬特洪峰之旅已經過去兩年了，我們一切進展順利，甚至提前完成了這些承諾，從 2021 年到 2023 年底，按固定匯率計算，我們實現了 13% 的年收入增長。我們實現了 11% 的調整後 EBITDA 年度成長和超過 10% 的 AFFO 年度成長。在此期間，美元特別堅挺，儘管如此，我們也一直在報告的基礎上履行我們的承諾。

Now let me share our projections for the full year 2024. We expect total revenue to be within the range of $6 billion to $6.15 billion, which represents year-on-year growth of 11% at the midpoint. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be within the range of $2.175 billion to $2.225 billion, which represents year-on-year growth of 12% at the midpoint. We expect AFFO to be within the range of $1.3 billion to $1.335 billion, which represents year-on-year growth of 9% at the midpoint. And we expect AFFO per share for the full year to be $4.39 to $4.51 and this represents year-on-year growth of 8% at the midpoint.

現在讓我分享我們對 2024 年全年的預測。我們預計總收入將在 60 億美元至 61.5 億美元之間，中間值年增 11%。我們預計調整後 EBITDA 將在 21.75 億美元至 22.25 億美元之間，中間值年增 12%。我們預計 AFFO 將在 13 億美元至 13.35 億美元之間，中間值將年增 9%。我們預計全年 AFFO 每股收益為 4.39 至 4.51 美元，年比中位數成長 8%。

In terms of foreign exchange, we are using a forecast based on those of several major financial institutions compared to 2023, this results in a full year FX headwind of $25 million of revenue and approximately $10 million to EBITDA and AFFO.

在外匯方面，我們使用的是基於幾家主要金融機構與 2023 年相比的預測，這導致全年的外匯逆風收入為 2500 萬美元，EBITDA 和 AFFO 約為 1000 萬美元。

Turning to the first quarter. We expect revenue of approximately $1.45 billion, adjusted EBITDA in excess of $510 million and AFFO of approximately $310 million and AFFO per share of approximately $1.05.

轉向第一季。我們預計營收約 14.5 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 超過 5.1 億美元，AFFO 約 3.1 億美元，每股 AFFO 約 1.05 美元。

To conclude, we are pleased to have delivered a strong year in 2023. I am confident that we will build on our momentum and continue to drive strong growth in 2024. We are well on track to achieve our Project Matterhorn goals. I'd like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to our entire team for delivering a successful year and their continued dedication to serving our clients.

最後，我們很高興在 2023 年實現了強勁的一年。我相信我們將在 2024 年繼續保持強勁增長勢頭並繼續推動強勁增長。我們正在順利實現馬特洪峰項目的目標。我想藉此機會向我們整個團隊表示感謝，感謝他們在這一年中取得了成功，並持續致力於為我們的客戶提供服務。

And with that, operator, will you please open the line for Q&A?

那麼，接線員，請開通問答線好嗎？

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) And today's first question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

我們現在開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自高盛的George Tong。

In the ALM business, you mentioned component prices trended up quarter-over-quarter. Can you elaborate on how ALM volumes and component prices performed on a year-over-year basis in the quarter? And what assumptions for component prices you're factoring into your 2024 guidance?

在 ALM 業務中，您提到組件價格逐季度呈上升趨勢。您能否詳細說明本季 ALM 銷售量和零件價格的年比表現如何？您在 2024 年指導中考慮了哪些零件價格假設？

Thanks for the question. The -- so let me kind of answer the kind of the higher level on the strategic where we see the trends going. And then Barry can go to the next level and give you a little bit more specifics in terms of the numbers. But on the -- to your macro point in terms of the trends on the component prices, it's very much in line with what you see in terms of the analyst reports right now, and you can see that coming through in the fourth quarter and building into Q1.

謝謝你的提問。那麼讓我回答一下我們所看到的趨勢的更高層次的策略問題。然後巴里可以進入下一個級別，並為您提供更多關於數字的細節。但從宏觀角度來看，就零件價格趨勢而言，這與您現在在分析師報告中看到的情況非常一致，您可以看到第四季度的情況以及正在建設中的情況。進入 Q1。

So we expect the component prices to continue to strengthen during the course of the year. And you can see that broadly in the semiconductor in memory business for the original manufacturers as well. So we're very much benefiting from the same trends you're seeing in the industry for the OEMs as well as for the reused or the recycled market.

因此，我們預計零件價格年內將繼續走強。您可以在原始製造商的內存半導體業務中看到這一點。因此，我們從您在行業中看到的原始設備製造商以及再利用或回收市場的相同趨勢中受益匪淺。

In terms of volume, actually, throughout the year, as we -- we've been reporting in the last few quarters, is we continue to see increase in volume. Although when that turned into revenue, it was muted because of the low component prices that we started off the year and kind of worked through the rest of the year. But the trends that we saw in -- that showed up in Q4 continue. We continue to see building in Q1, and we are very much tracking what you're seeing in the broader OEM market for memory disks and CPUs, GPUs. Barry?

就交易量而言，實際上，正如我們在過去幾個季度所報告的那樣，全年交易量繼續增長。儘管當這轉化為收入時，由於我們年初和今年剩餘時間的零件價格較低，它的表現卻很平淡。但我們在第四季看到的趨勢仍在繼續。我們繼續看到第一季的建設，我們非常密切地追蹤您在更廣泛的記憶體磁碟、CPU、GPU OEM 市場中看到的情況。巴里？

Yes. Thank you for that question. I'll give you a little bit more detail on how we're thinking about ALM in total. So in 2023, in light of those trends that Bill was mentioning, we delivered $177 million revenue from ALM. Now for our guidance at the midpoint, we're assuming about $355 million of total revenue for ALM, I'll note that Regency brings in $115 million right there. So it's sort of $240 million against the 177 million.

是的。謝謝你提出這個問題。我將向您詳細介紹我們對 ALM 的整體看法。因此，根據 Bill 提到的這些趨勢，到 2023 年，我們從 ALM 中獲得了 1.77 億美元的收入。現在，對於我們的中點指導，我們假設 ALM 的總收入約為 3.55 億美元，我會注意到 Regency 帶來了 1.15 億美元的收入。所以這相當於 2.4 億美元，而 1.77 億美元。

I think if you look at what we did in the fourth quarter, what you'll find is just at the fourth quarter run rate, we'd be in excess of $200 million, $205 million to $206 million, and that's assuming no improvement from all the enterprise bookings we've been doing over the last half, as Bill was referring to as well as and what will likely be a continued improving environment on component pricing. So whereas last year, we were faced with really significant challenges of component pricing continuing to decline earlier in the year and then staying at those trough levels. We have assumed a modest amount of pricing benefit on component pricing as we move through the year. Really, we didn't assume much of any change from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, that may prove conservative. And then we assumed a fairly slow ramp, slower than what all the industry prognostications are for component pricing.

我認為，如果你看看我們在第四季度所做的事情，你會發現，按照第四季度的運行速度，我們的收入將超過2 億美元、2.05 億美元至2.06 億美元，而且這是假設沒有任何改善的情況。正如比爾所指的那樣，我們在過去的一半中一直在進行所有企業預訂，以及組件定價環境可能會持續改善。因此，去年我們面臨著組件價格在今年早些時候持續下降，然後保持在低谷水平的真正重大挑戰。我們假設隨著這一年的推移，零件定價將出現一定程度的定價優勢。事實上，我們並沒有假設第四季到第一季會發生太多變化，這可能被證明是保守的。然後我們假設成長速度相當緩慢，比所有產業對組件定價的預測要慢。

So when I look at the incremental increase we have in the guidance for our organic ALM business, George, it's about $35 million, which we'll see how the year goes, but I feel very good about where we're positioned.

因此，喬治，當我看到我們有機 ALM 業務指南中的增量增長約為 3500 萬美元時，我們將看看這一年的進展情況，但我對我們的定位感到非常滿意。

And our next question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自什洛莫·羅森鮑姆 (Shlomo Rosenbaum) 和 Stifel。

Thank you very much. Can you talk a little bit about the pricing environment and how that contributed to revenue growth in the quarter? And how much you're expecting that to be a contribution to guidance in 2024. We're seeing kind of an uptake in some of the RIM organic revenue growth. And I was wondering how much of that might be directly pricing versus anything else?

非常感謝。您能談談定價環境以及它對本季營收成長的貢獻嗎？您期望這對 2024 年的指導做出多少貢獻。我們看到 RIM 的一些有機收入成長有所增加。我想知道與其他任何東西相比，其中有多少可能是直接定價的？

This is Barry. Thank you for that question. So what you would see in our results, and as you're pointing to, and thank you for that, is that our global RIM storage rental revenue was up 8% -- over 8% in the quarter on an organic basis. And for the full year, it was about 8.5%. So we had a very strong storage rental revenue growth in 2023. And that's with positive volume trends and good mix and revenue management. And the way we think about revenue management, of course is, as we've talked about before, it's about value. our ability to provide our customers with value-added services such as our ability to provide digitization on demand rapidly whenever they need it, Smart Sort and a host of other value-added services.

這是巴里.謝謝你提出這個問題。因此，您將在我們的業績中看到，正如您所指出的，並為此表示感謝，我們的全球 RIM 儲存租賃收入增長了 8%，本季度有機增長超過 8%。全年約為8.5%。因此，我們在 2023 年實現了非常強勁的儲存租賃收入成長。這得益於正面的銷售趨勢以及良好的組合和收入管理。當然，正如我們之前談到的，我們思考收入管理的方式是關於價值的。我們為客戶提供增值服務的能力，例如我們能夠在客戶需要時快速提供數位化、智慧排序和許多其他增值服務。

So -- and then incidentally, our service revenue also stepped up nicely in the fourth quarter on global RIM as well. And so our expectation for the new year embedded in the guidance is about round numbers, call it, 6-ish percent growth for global RIM at the midpoint which, in light of the revenue management actions we have as an anniversary from last year as well as additional revenue management actions. This year, very good trajectory, we think, on services, inclusive of digital services continue to ramp through the year. We feel very good about that projection. And I think it does imply an opportunity for us to certainly achieve the midpoint on the global RIM number at 6.

因此，順便說一句，第四季度我們在全球 RIM 的服務收入也大幅成長。因此，我們對指引中所包含的新的一年的預期是關於整數的，即全球 RIM 的中點增長 6% 左右，考慮到我們去年的周年紀念日的收入管理行動作為額外的收入管理行動。我們認為，今年服務（包括數位服務）的發展軌跡非常好，這一年繼續保持成長。我們對這個預測感覺非常好。我認為這確實意味著我們有機會實現全球 RIM 數字的中點 6。

And our next question comes from Nate Crossett with BNP.

我們的下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的內特·克羅塞特 (Nate Crossett)。

Maybe one related to that previous question is, I know you don't give a formal guide, but what are you expecting in terms of overall RIM volumes for Q1 and the remainder of this year? And then if I could just ask one on data center pricing and leasing, how much of that 100-megawatt guide is kind of already in the pipeline -- and I think cash mark-to-market was 5% for 2023. How do you see that playing out this year?

也許與上一個問題相關的是，我知道您沒有提供正式的指南，但是您對第一季和今年剩餘時間的 RIM 整體銷售有何期望？然後，如果我可以詢問有關數據中心定價和租賃的問題，那麼 100 兆瓦的指南中有多少已經在醞釀之中——我認為 2023 年的現金市值為 5%。您覺得如何？看到今年上演嗎？

So Nate, I'll take the pipeline question on the data center. And then Barry -- I will let Barry take the question on the pricing. So on the pipeline, as you would expect, especially with the hyperscales as you know the market extremely well is that we have a very strong pipeline going into the year. So when we set our targets, yes, I mean, you can assume that we have a pretty big pipeline that stands behind that.

Nate，我將回答有關資料中心的管道問題。然後巴里——我會讓巴里回答有關定價的問題。因此，正如您所期望的那樣，在管道方面，特別是在超大規模方面，因為您非常了解市場，我們今年擁有非常強大的管道。因此，當我們設定目標時，是的，我的意思是，你可以假設我們有一個相當大的管道來支持它。

And if you look at the way we set our targets is it's very consistent with what we laid out on Investor Day -- is where you think about couple of years ago, we were in the 60s. So you see that our targets are continuing to show that we are growing the business north of 20% a year. And obviously, some of these big contracts can need to put you well ahead or at the targets that we set. But we're very comfortable that we're continuing to build momentum in the business, and we're maintaining these 20%-plus growth rates on a very quickly or very rapidly growing base. So I think you can assume that, like anything else, is that we have a pretty good pipeline. In fact, across most of our businesses, we maintain a pretty strong pipeline behind our targets.

如果你看看我們設定目標的方式，你會發現它與我們在投資者日設定的目標非常一致——你會想到幾年前，我們正處於 60 年代。所以您會看到，我們的目標繼續表明我們的業務每年成長 20% 以上。顯然，其中一些大型合約可能需要讓您遠遠領先或達到我們設定的目標。但我們感到非常滿意的是，我們正在繼續增強業務勢頭，並且我們在非常快速或非常快速的成長基礎上保持著 20% 以上的成長率。所以我認為你可以假設，就像其他事情一樣，我們有一個非常好的管道。事實上，在我們的大多數業務中，我們在實現目標後都保持著相當強大的管道。

Nate, thanks for the question. It's Barry. A couple of responses on the physical volume, much as we have forecasted the last few years, we're planning this year the same way, which is for our physical volume to be slightly up for the year and also for the first quarter, so you asked about that. So the vast majority of the growth that I mentioned for Global RIM will be driven off of services as well as revenue management, of course.

內特，謝謝你的提問。是巴里。關於實物量的一些回應，正如我們過去幾年的預測一樣，我們今年也以同樣的方式進行計劃，即我們的實物量在今年和第一季度都會略有上升，所以你問過這個問題。因此，我提到的 Global RIM 的絕大多數成長當然將來自服務和收入管理。

As it relates to your question about mark to market on data center, clearly, trends have been good with respect to mark to market over the last really 5, 6 quarters. And from what we're seeing, we continue to expect that to be trending upward, and we have high cognizability on that. And frankly, in the colo space, it's trending up even higher.

由於這與您關於資料中心按市價計價的問題有關，顯然，在過去的 5、6 個季度中，以市價計價的趨勢一直很好。從我們所看到的情況來看，我們繼續預期這一趨勢將呈上升趨勢，並且我們對此有很高的認知度。坦白說，在託管領域，它的趨勢甚至更高。

And our next question comes from Brendan Lynch with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的布倫丹·林奇。

Maybe on Matterhorn. You highlighted some recent wins there, but I'd imagine it's a very long sales cycle for a lot of the engagements that you have. Maybe you could talk a little bit about where you see yourselves in the overall process with individual customers and how much additional benefit you expect to see stemming from the Matterhorn initiatives over the next 4 to 5 years?

也許在馬特洪峰。您強調了最近的一些勝利，但我認為對於您的許多業務來說，這是一個非常長的銷售週期。也許您可以談談您對個人客戶在整個流程中的看法，以及您期望在未來 4 到 5 年內從馬特宏峰計劃中看到多少額外收益？

Thanks, Brendan. You're right. I mean, they're typically longer than our traditional sales cycles. If you think about the services that we were selling 5, 6 years ago when our service revenue was down in the 40s, right, and to obviously 10x that today just on digital, and we're not talking about digital services now that portion of the service business. Now it's more than 10x that size. It is definitely because it's much more of a solution orientation.

謝謝，布倫丹。你說得對。我的意思是，它們通常比我們傳統的銷售週期更長。如果你想想我們 5、6 年前銷售的服務，當時我們的服務收入下降了 40 多歲，對吧，而今天在數字方面顯然已經下降了 10 倍，而且我們現在不是在談論數字服務。服務業。現在它的大小超過了原來的 10 倍。這肯定是因為它更多的是一種解決方案導向。

That being said, so we maintain much bigger pipelines to back up that growth. But as you say -- as you can see, we're continuing to grow that business in double-digit territory. So the -- but on the other side, the flip side is more and more of these services are recurring or multiyear projects. So has that build, even though the sales cycle is longer, is the also the revenue that comes in is around longer, if you will. So it's -- if we look at it right now, it's approaching 30%, 40% of the revenue that we're coming in is truly recurring and/or very long multiyear projects. So at 1 level, yes, it's a longer sales cycle. Another level, it allows us to continue to build momentum and drive growth in that business because each year, we're replacing less than we were before.

話雖這麼說，所以我們維持著更大的管道來支持這種成長。但正如你所說 - 正如你所看到的，我們正在繼續以兩位數的速度成長該業務。但另一方面，越來越多的服務是重複性或多年期專案。因此，即使銷售週期更長，收入也會更長（如果你願意的話）。所以，如果我們現在看的話，我們的收入中接近 30%、40% 是真正的經常性和/或非常長期​​的多年項目。所以在第一個層面上，是的，這是一個更長的銷售週期。在另一個層面上，它使我們能夠繼續建立動力並推動該業務的成長，因為每年我們的更換量都比以前少。

The only thing I'd add, Brendan, it's Barry, is that our cross-selling opportunity is very large at this business, right? We have well over 200,000 clients, most of them are measured in decades of duration. And we are seeing our cross-selling efforts continue to expand. We increased significantly year-on-year, but there's a lot more opportunity. And when I think about the services that Bill just mentioned as well as things like asset life cycle management, really, those are services that we can be offering and nearly all of our customers need.

我唯一要補充的是，布倫丹，我是巴里，我們在這項業務中的交叉銷售機會非常大，對吧？我們擁有超過 20 萬名客戶，其中大多數客戶的服務期限都長達數十年。我們看到我們的交叉銷售努力不斷擴大。我們同比成長顯著，但還有更多機會。當我想到比爾剛才提到的服務以及資產生命週期管理等服務時，實際上，這些是我們可以提供的服務，幾乎所有客戶都需要。

And so we think at Matterhorn, -- we are -- as you heard me say, we reiterated our targets today, and we're, in fact, running ahead. So we feel very good about where we're at.

因此，我們在馬特宏峰認為，正如你聽到我所說的，我們今天重申了我們的目標，事實上，我們正​​在向前邁進。所以我們對自己所處的位置感覺非常好。

Thank you. And our next question today comes from Kevin McVeigh with UBS.

謝謝。今天我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的凱文麥克維。

It looks like the total volumes increased in time to the storage, but the retention slipped a little bit. What drove the kind of acceleration there? Because it looks like a nice outcome.

看起來總體積隨著儲存時間的增加而增加，但保留率略有下降。是什麼推動了那裡的加速發展？因為這看起來是一個不錯的結果。

Yes. So Kevin, I would say if you look at our retention rates, over the last 15 or so years you would see because that data is available, that it's very much in line and it can wobble a few basis points here or there quarter-to-quarter, but we are very pleased with our retention and our customer satisfaction scores and thank you for the point.

是的。所以凱文，我想說，如果你看看我們的保留率，在過去15 年左右的時間裡，你會發現，因為這些數據是可用的，它非常一致，並且可能會在每個季度之間波動一些基點。- 季度，但我們對我們的保留率和客戶滿意度分數感到非常滿意，並感謝您的觀點。

Volume has been quite good, and that speaks to our commercial team's ability to continue to win new business. And frankly, if you look at the storage revenue growth that the team is putting up, it's, I think, quite impressive including the acceleration. So thank you for the question.

銷售量相當不錯，這說明我們的商業團隊有能力繼續贏得新業務。坦白說，如果你看看團隊正在實現的儲存收入成長，我認為，包括加速在內，這是相當令人印象深刻的。謝謝你的提問。

And our next question comes from Eric Luebchow with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Eric Luebchow。

Great I just wanted to touch on data centers and capital allocation. So you talked about pricing continuing to ramp in the data center ecosystem, and we've seen demand outstripping supply. So maybe you could touch on where your targeted development yields are for the point $1.3 billion of CapEx, the majority of which is data centers. And if you do opportunities to accelerate that 100 megawatts of leasing even further, maybe touch on some other funding sources like joint ventures that could maybe give you additional capital to attack the hyperscale opportunity.

太棒了，我只想談談資料中心和資本配置。您談到了資料中心生態系統中的定價持續上漲，我們已經看到需求超過了供應。因此，也許您可以談談 13 億美元資本支出的目標開發收益，其中大部分是資料中心。如果您確實有機會進一步加速 100 兆瓦的租賃，也許可以接觸到一些其他資金來源，例如合資企業，這可能會給您帶來額外的資本來抓住超大規模的機會。

Thanks, Eric, for the question. So in terms of the returns that we're getting, and Barry touched upon in his script, is you should think about interest rates or the cost of capital have moved up but our pricing has moved up about 100, 150 basis points ahead of that. So we're actually getting higher returns even in a higher interest rate environment than we were before. So the pricing has moved up quite nicely, even more if you look at the non-hyperscale portion, but I'm talking more about the hyperscale customers in and of themselves.

謝謝埃里克提出的問題。因此，就我們獲得的回報而言，巴里在他的劇本中提到，你應該考慮利率或資本成本已經上升，但我們的定價已經提前了約 100、150 個基點。因此，即使在利率更高的環境下，我們實際上也獲得了比以前更高的回報。因此，定價已經上漲得相當不錯，如果你看看非超大規模部分，價格上漲得更多，但我更多地談論的是超大規模客戶本身。

And that's partly driven by the traction we're getting in the market. And then the other part of it is the scarcity. I mean, especially with the growth in AI. As you know, AI actually absorbs a lot of power, and that's what we're selling effectively is capacity or access to power. So I think we're really happy with the way that the pricing is evolving in the business.

這在一定程度上是由我們在市場上獲得的吸引力所推動的。另一部分是稀缺性。我的意思是，尤其是隨著人工智慧的發展。如你所知，人工智慧實際上吸收了大量的能量，這就是我們有效銷售的能力或獲得能量的機會。所以我認為我們對業務中定價的發展方式非常滿意。

In terms of your other question, in other words, and it kind of goes to the pipeline, we feel very comfortable about the target for this year, which is more than 20% ahead, close to 25% ahead of what we targeted last year. So the continued momentum and growth in the business.

就你的另一個問題而言，換句話說，我們對今年的目標感到非常滿意，比去年的目標提前了 20% 以上，接近 25% 。因此，業務的持續動力和成長。

And the -- could we do more than that? Yes, we have a fully funded plan so we don't see any shortage of capital. And remember, one of the advantages that we have, not just because of the cross-selling of Matterhorn that having the full information services suite. But the other part of it is that our records management business is a 70%-plus gross margin business that generates a lot of cash. And that gives us deeper pockets than some of the pure-play data center places -- players in terms of being able to both deliver our dividend and growth in dividend to our shareholders as well as putting capital to work in data center, as I said, and it just so happens that 225,000-plus customer base is a cross-selling opportunity for us.

我們還能做更多的事情嗎？是的，我們有一個資金充足的計劃，所以我們不存在任何資金短缺的情況。請記住，我們擁有的優勢之一不僅僅是因為馬特洪峰的交叉銷售，而是擁有完整的資訊服務套件。但另一方面，我們的記錄管理業務是一項毛利率超過 70% 的業務，能產生大量現金。正如我所說，這使我們比一些純粹的數據中心場所擁有更雄厚的財力——既能夠向股東提供股息和股息增長，又能夠將資本投入到數據中心。 ，恰巧225,000 多個客戶群對我們來說是一個交叉銷售的機會。

Eric, the only thing I guess I would add there is that just building on Bill's point there is in terms of the growth in the EBITDA that we're generating, and so over $230 million at the midpoint, nearly $240 million, with our leverage target range, we have a lot of capacity. And that, together with the cash flow of the business puts us in a position where we can issue the strong guidance that we did, invest heavily in our data center development.

艾瑞克，我想我唯一要補充的是，在比爾的觀點的基礎上，我們產生的 EBITDA 增長了，因此，在我們的槓桿作用下，中點超過 2.3 億美元，近 2.4 億美元目標範圍大，我們有很大的能力。再加上業務的現金流，使我們能夠發布強而有力的指導，大力投資資料中心的開發。

And of course, that's the nature of having pre-leased so much of our business. If you look at the amount of construction we have underway versus the pre-lease. It's very high. I think high 95% or so. And so we'll continue to ramp our development in data center to keep up with the contracts that we've signed and all the while maintaining our leverage year-on-year at the same level. So we feel very good about where we're at.

當然，這就是我們預租如此多業務的本質。如果你看看我們正在進行的施工量與預租的量。這是非常高的。我認為高95%左右。因此，我們將繼續加大數據中心的開發力度，以跟上我們已簽署的合同，同時將我們的槓桿率同比保持在同一水平。所以我們對自己所處的位置感覺非常好。

And our next question comes from Jon Atkin with RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的喬恩·阿特金。

Just interested in Regency, any kind of early learnings now that you're a little bit into having acquired it talks about how to achieve top line synergies and other growth paths that you could see in that segment more generally?

只是對攝政感興趣，現在您已經有點想要獲得它，任何類型的早期學習都會談論如何實現頂線協同效應以及您可以在該細分市場中更廣泛地看到的其他成長路徑？

Thanks, John, for the question. As I said in my script and also Barry is that we're really excited about the Regency acquisition, not just because of the footprint that it gives us, it gets a stronger even scale within the United States but also the leadership team. So very strong leaders that we're really happy to kind of continue to build out the organizational structure under marked. So first of all, the leaders that we got with that business, we're very excited about it.

謝謝約翰提出這個問題。正如我和巴里在劇本中所說，我們對Regency 的收購感到非常興奮，不僅因為它給我們留下了足跡，還因為它在美國境內獲得了更強大的均勻規模，而且還因為它的領導團隊。如此強大的領導者，我們真的很高興能夠繼續建立標記下的組織結構。首先，我們對這項業務的領導者感到非常興奮。

The second thing is they have a lot of customers that both overlap, but they also have a lot of customers that don't. So for instance, they have a very good both federal and local government portfolio of businesses. And that's a business that we're already in deep collaboration in terms of how we can expand that using Iron Mountain's muscle with our 26,000 mountaineers around the globe and how they can actually tap into that. And then they also have some expertise especially around the end-user devices, which already were doing a lot in end-user devices as I highlighted some of the wins on -- in my opening remarks. But they have even further capabilities, which I think is going to give us a lot more to do on the back end in terms of the way we serve customers and the efficiency that we can process their equipment.

第二件事是他們有很多重疊的客戶，但也有很多不重疊的客戶。例如，他們擁有非常好的聯邦和地方政府業務組合。我們已經在這項業務上進行了深入合作，探討如何利用 Iron Mountain 的力量與全球 26,000 名登山者擴大業務，以及他們如何真正利用這項業務。然後他們也擁有一些專業知識，特別是在最終用戶設備方面，正如我在開場白中強調的一些勝利一樣，他們已經在最終用戶設備方面做了很多工作。但他們擁有更進一步的能力，我認為這將使我們在後端有更多的工作要做，包括我們為客戶提供服務的方式以及我們處理他們設備的效率。

Yes. John, the only thing I guess I would add is that -- when we knew this as part of the deal, but just to underscore it, there's considerable capacity for processing at Regency. And as Bill mentioned, they add to our capabilities. They've got 8 facilities around the U.S., which really broadens our reach and ability to serve clients quickly. And this is a team there that has been building a business very profitably, I might add, for decades. And so they -- to underscore Bill's point, they really know what they're doing. And I think the combination is an excellent one. So thanks for that question.

是的。約翰，我想我唯一要補充的是——當我們知道這是交易的一部分時，但只是為了強調這一點，攝政有相當大的處理能力。正如比爾所提到的，它們增強了我們的能力。他們在美國各地設有 8 個設施，這確實擴大了我們快速服務客戶的範圍和能力。我要補充的是，這支團隊幾十年來一直在創造非常有利可圖的業務。因此，為了強調比爾的觀點，他們真的知道自己在做什麼。我認為這種組合非常出色。謝謝你提出這個問題。

And our next question is a follow-up from Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題是是什洛莫·羅森鮑姆 (Shlomo Rosenbaum) 和 Stifel 的後續問題。

If you don't mind, I'm going to get a little more into the weeds. Barry, just on -- we saw some interesting gross margin changes like just on a sequential basis. So the services margin go up from 260 basis points. It seems like the costs were contained while the revenue increased but on the storage side, you have all other storage costs going up by $11.5 million, pushed the gross margin down by about 80 basis points sequentially. I know these things move around quarter-to-quarter, but maybe you can give us a little bit of insight as to what's in that other storage costs that moved up $11.5 million this quarter?

如果你不介意的話，我會再深入探討一下雜草。巴里，剛才——我們看到了一些有趣的毛利率變化，例如連續的變化。因此，服務利潤率從 260 個基點上升。看起來成本得到了控制，而收入卻增加了，但在存儲方面，所有其他存儲成本都增加了 1150 萬美元，導致毛利率連續下降了約 80 個基點。我知道這些事情每個季度都會發生變化，但也許您可以給我們一些關於本季增加 1150 萬美元的其他儲存成本的見解？

Yes. Sure thing, Shlomo, I'll take the services point first. As I alluded to in the prepared remarks, we had very good mix within our services. And as you know, when we're doing services, especially as we're continuing to see larger and larger deals, the mix of those can move around and the timing of them. And so we had anticipated a lower margin mix in the services portfolio.

是的。當然，什洛莫，我會先去服務點。正如我在準備好的演講中提到的，我們的服務非常好。如您所知，當我們提供服務時，特別是當我們繼續看到越來越大的交易時，這些交易的組合和時間可能會發生變化。因此，我們預期服務組合的利潤率會較低。

Some of those deals pushed into the first quarter here in terms of when we win them and into the new year. But we then won some deals and we're able to provide service on some higher margins. So that's part of it. And together with the fact that candidly, our team here does a great job driving productivity across our services organization.

其中一些交易在我們贏得這些交易時被推遲到了第一季度，並進入了新的一年。但隨後我們贏得了一些交易，並且能夠以更高的利潤提供服務。這就是其中的一部分。坦白說，我們的團隊在提高整個服務組織的生產力方面做得非常出色。

As it relates to the storage gross margin, I'm glad you asked that question because there's a item that I want to make sure we all understand that storage gross margin, of course, is the combination of all of our storage businesses. So when you think about the records management, physical storage business. That's a very high gross margin business and continue to perform very well.

由於它與儲存毛利率有關，我很高興你問這個問題，因為我想確保我們都明白儲存毛利率當然是我們所有儲存業務的組合。因此，當您考慮記錄管理、實體儲存業務時。這是一項毛利率非常高的業務，並且將繼續表現良好。

We're very pleased with the margins in that business in light of revenue management, et cetera, and the volume trends over the last several years, it's been trending really well. The factor that can affect the actual rate, though, and also affects your all of the storage costs, which I'll come to -- is data center.

考慮到收入管理等方面以及過去幾年的銷售趨勢，我們對該業務的利潤率非常滿意，趨勢非常好。然而，可能影響實際速率並且也會影響您的所有儲存成本的因素是資料中心。

As you know, as you see from our peer companies that are public as well as some of the other companies in the data center space, the gross margins on data center, generally as an industry, are lower than our records management business. And so while our data center gross margin actually expanded both sequentially and year-on-year, the mix, in fact, because data center grew. I think the storage revenue was up 35% or so year-on-year in the quarter. That has a mix element. And so you can have a situation where our gross margins are improving on both businesses, yet the contribution creates the rate going down slightly.

如您所知，正如您從我們的上市同行公司以及資料中心領域的其他一些公司看到的那樣，資料中心的毛利率，通常作為一個行業，低於我們的記錄管理業務。因此，雖然我們的資料中心毛利率實際上是連續成長和同比成長，但事實上，這是因為資料中心的成長。我認為本季儲存收入年增了 35% 左右。那有一個混合元素。因此，您可能會遇到這樣的情況：我們兩項業務的毛利率都在提高，但貢獻卻導致利率略有下降。

As it relates to all other storage costs, that's 1 of the big drivers there, of course, is and it goes to data center is the power. And so as we're having more and more client commencements, they start drawing more power and that also has an effect on gross margin. But doesn't change our EBITDA dollars. So good questions, and I hope that clears that up. We feel very, very good about the gross margins in the company.

由於它與所有其他儲存成本相關，因此這是最大的驅動因素之一，當然，它進入資料中心的是電力。因此，隨著我們有越來越多的客戶啟動，他們開始消耗更多的電力，這也會對毛利率產生影響。但不會改變我們的 EBITDA 美元。這是很好的問題，我希望能澄清這一點。我們對公司的毛利率感覺非常非常好。

And our next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐。

A quick follow-up. It looks like your dividend payout ratio has dipped below the 65% LTM target, which is where you raised the dividend earlier. Can you talk about your thoughts on raising the dividend again now that the payout ratio is below the threshold.

快速跟進。您的股息支付率似乎已降至 65% LTM 目標以下，這是您先前提高股息的目標。既然派息率低於門檻，您能談談您對再次提高股息的想法嗎？

Yes. No, thanks, George. And you're right. We're maintaining as a Board and as a company that our target payout ratio is kind of in the low 60s, so 60 to 65%, and we're kind of trending that well we are in that range now. So it's -- this is obviously a decision for the Board. But I think you could expect the way we're trending in the guidance we've given you for the year. It's a natural forcing function that the Board will be considering and I think you can just kind of see the mathematics of it, it looks like we're running into another increase in the near future and not too distant future, I should say.

是的。不，謝謝，喬治。你是對的。作為董事會和公司，我們的目標派息率維持在 60 多歲左右，即 60% 到 65%，而且我們的趨勢很好，我們現在就在這個範圍內。所以這顯然是董事會的決定。但我認為您可以期待我們今年為您提供的指導中的趨勢。這是董事會將考慮的自然強制功能，我認為您可以看到它的數學原理，我應該說，看起來我們將在不久的將來而不是太遙遠的將來遇到另一次增長。

Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session and the Iron Mountain Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

謝謝。我們的問答環節和 Iron Mountain 2023 年第四季財報電話會議到此結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。