Kelly Services Inc (KELYB) 2017 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Kelly Services Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded at the request of Kelly Services. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host, Mr. George Corona, President and CEO. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, John. Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to Kelly Services 2017 Third Quarter Conference Call. With me on today's call is Olivier Thirot, our CFO.

Let me remind you that any comments made during this call, including the Q&A, include forward-looking statements about our expectations for future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those suggested by our comments, and we have no obligation to update the statements made on the call. Please refer to our SEC filings for a description of the risk factors that could influence the company's actual future performance.

Before we review Kelly's third quarter results, let me point out that our revenue growth was impacted by a weakening of the U.S. dollar against several European currencies in the quarter. I'll present our year-over-year comparisons in nominal currency with the exception of our international performance, which will be represented in constant currency.

Now turning to Kelly's results. The third quarter was eventful for us on several fronts. We acquired Teachers On Call, a leading educational staffing company, further strengthening our leadership position in the K-12 market. We announced our planned implementation of a digital talent platform, which will transform our front office. And I am pleased to report that even in the face of unprecedented weather events, we once again delivered good top line growth, healthy operating earnings and solid returns for our shareholders.

Kelly's third quarter revenue was $1.3 billion, up 6.5% compared to last year. We achieved earnings from operations of $18.2 million compared to $18.8 million last year, reflecting the addition of sales and recruiting resources and increase in performance-based compensation and other factors that Olivier will walk you through in a few minutes. And diluted earnings per share were $0.58 compared to the $2.06 per share last year, reflecting the impact of our APAC JV transaction. Excluding that impact, EPS increased more than 30% year-over-year in the third quarter.

It was a solid quarter that continued to build on the momentum we saw in the first half of the year. And we are pleased with our performance, particularly our ability to deliver top line growth and make key investments in our future.

Now before we look more closely at how specific elements of our business performed in the third quarter, let me remind you that effective January 2, we realigned our business into 3 operating segments. The Americas staffing segment includes our local branch-delivered staffing business in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. The international staffing segment includes the results of our EMEA staffing business. And the global talent solutions segment, which we call GTS, includes our global outsourcing and consulting business, OCG; and our centralized staffing operations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Now let's take a look at how these segments performed in the third quarter, starting with Americas staffing. Americas staffing is comprised of commercial staffing, Kelly Educational Staffing and professional and technical specialties. Americas staffing revenue increased 7% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Commercial staffing revenue increased 8% over prior year compared to the 6% year-over-year increase we reported in Q2 and the 1% increase in Q1. We continue to see demand for light industrial accelerate in the third quarter, building on the trend we saw in the first half of the year. And our office/clerical business returned to growth after several quarters of decline.

Kelly Educational Staffing delivered revenue growth of 6% in the third quarter. This growth rate was impacted by 2 primary factors: the addition of revenue for the month of September from the newly acquired Teachers on Call, offset by the loss of revenue caused by the hurricanes experienced in the United States. Revenue in our professional and technical specialties was flat in the third quarter compared to prior year, down from the 3% increase in Q2.

Total firm fees, which remain volatile in the Americas, were up 2% year-over-year. The third quarter gross profit rate in Americas staffing was 17.8%, down 50 basis points from a year ago due mainly to business mix.

Expenses for the quarter were up in Americas staffing by 6% year-over-year, primarily the result of adding sales and resources in line with demand in commercial staffing and PT specialties as well as performance-based compensation. We expect to leverage from these investments to start to improve in the fourth quarter. All told, the Americas staffing segment achieved an operating profit of $13.3 million in the quarter compared to $14.3 million last year.

Let's now turn to our international staffing operations outside of the Americas. Revenue in the international staffing increased 15% compared to prior year in nominal U.S. dollars or 10% on a constant currency basis. This growth was driven by increased demand across Europe.

For ease of reference, the remainder of my comments on international staffing will be in constant currency. Fee-based income for the quarter was up 8% year-over-year, largely due to Eastern Europe. The segment's reported GP rate for the third quarter was 14.3% compared to 14.7% for the same period a year earlier, down due to customer mix. An 8% increase in GP dollars is mainly attributable to higher revenue driven by hours volume and the temp staffing business.

Expenses in international staffing were 2% higher than the prior year as we continued to add recruiters in our branch network, partially funded by redeploying headquarter expenses into targeted growth areas.

Netting everything out, international staffing's operating profit in the third quarter was $7.2 million, up 57% over last year, and we are pleased with the solid performance in this segment.

Now let's turn to the results of our global talent solutions reporting segment. This segment is a combination of our previously reported OCG segment plus our centrally delivered staffing operations. The GTS reporting segment reflects the 2 primary ways that clients in this segment are buying from us: talent fulfillment and outcome-based services. I'll discuss each business' result separately, but first, let's take a look at how GTS performed as a whole in the third quarter.

GTS revenue was up 2% year-over-year while gross profit grew 8% for the quarter. Revenue was up year-over-year in our KellyConnect, Business Process Outsourcing and Contingent Workforce Outsourcing practices, offset by revenue declines in our centralized staffing and payroll practices.

Now let's look at gross profit results in each of the 2 GTS businesses. Our talent fulfillment business is made up of our Contingent Workforce Outsourcing, Payroll Process Outsourcing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing and centrally delivered staffing practices. Gross profit in the talent fulfillment business was up 2% year-over-year, an improvement from the 1% decline reported last quarter. We continue to see nice double-digit GP increases in our CWO practice from new programs in Q3 as well as year-over-year GP growth in our RPO practice. These results were partially offset by year-over-year GP declines in our centrally delivered staffing and PPO practices.

The outcome-based services business is comprised of our BPO, KellyConnect, Kelly legal managed services and advisory services practices. Gross profit for outcome-based services increased 33% year-over-year, driven primarily by continued momentum and strong results in both KellyConnect and BPO. The GP growth we've seen in KellyConnect during the last 3 quarters confirms the return on investment we made in this practice during the second half of last year.

We also saw double-digit year-over-year GP increases in BPO in the third quarter as we continue to expand existing programs and win new business in this practice.

Overall, the GTS segment gross profit rate was 18.5% for the quarter, up 110 basis points year-over-year, largely due to favorable practice and customer mix along with lower workers' comp and other employee benefit costs.

Expenses in GTS were up 3% year-over-year in the third quarter due to headcount and salary costs related to the addition of new programs, coupled with increased performance-based incentive costs. These increases were somewhat offset by cost reductions from the actions we took in the first quarter to optimize our centralized delivery staffing business in line with demand.

All told, GTS third quarter operating profit was $20.8 million, up 30% over a year ago, another solid quarter for this segment.

Now I'll turn the call over to Olivier who will cover our quarterly results for the entire company.

Thank you, George. Revenue is at $1.3 billion, up 6.5% compared to the third quarter last year. As George described, our revenue growth benefited from the weakening of the U.S. dollar against several of the European currencies in the quarter. On a constant currency basis, our total revenue increased 5.3% compared to the 3.5% in nominal currency growth, [so currency as reported] 220 basis points impact. In addition, our acquisition of Teachers On Call added about 30 basis points to our total revenue growth rate.

Overall, our Q3 revenue performance reflects another quarter of improving trends driven primarily by solid growth in our locally delivered staffing business in the Americas and international. Staffing placement fees were up nearly 7% year-over-year, driven by good firm fee performance in international staffing. Excluding the impact of currency, fees were up 4%.

Overall gross profit was up $16 million year-over-year or up 7.3%. Our gross profit rate was 17.4%, up 20 basis points when compared to the third quarter last year. Our overall GP rate reflects ongoing structural improvement as we shift to higher-margin solutions within our global talent solutions segment, partially offset by the impact of margin rate erosion in Americas and international staffing due to changes in business mix.

SG&A expenses were up 8.3% year-over-year. About half of that increase comes from our corporate expenses, which reflect a return to normalized levels of performance-based compensation expenses after the 2016's unusually low level of performance-based compensation and litigation-related expenses.

Within our operations, expense increases reflect good leverage on our third quarter GP growth even as we have made investments to capitalize on market opportunities within our locally delivered staffing business in the U.S. and related international markets. We continue to focus on expense control efforts and generating return for investments in our service delivery infrastructure.

Earnings from operations were $18.2 million in the third quarter compared with 2016 earned of $18.8 million. These results reflect the conversion rate on return on gross profits of 7.9% compared to 8.7% for Q3 2016. This relatively flat level of earnings reflect our solid GP growth, offset by additional expenses in the Americas staffing business to position us for future growth as well as higher performance-based compensation expenses.

As a reminder, our third quarter 2016 results included the $87.2 million pretax gain on closing of the APAC JV transaction in July 2016.

Income tax benefit for the third quarter was $4.1 million. Our Q3 2017 tax benefits include the impact of releasing additional tax valuation allowance, and our Q3 2016 tax expense includes the tax expense related to the gain on the APAC JV transaction. Adjusted for both items, our effective tax rate was 5.7% this quarter compared to our third quarter 2016 effective tax rate of 6.5%.

And finally, diluted earnings per share for the third quarter of 2017 totaled $0.68 per share compared to $2.06 in 2016. 2016 Q3 EPS included $1.62 per share related to the after-tax impact of the gain on the APAC JV transaction. Excluding the impact of the APAC JV transaction, EPS increased more than 30% year-over-year.

Now as we look ahead to the rest of the year. For the fourth quarter, we expect revenue to be up 8% to 9%, with about 200 basis points of the improvement coming from continued currency impact and about 120 basis points coming from our acquisition of Teachers On Call. We anticipate that there will be some continuing impact of reduced demand in hurricane-impacted Puerto Rico and believe it may put some modest downward pressure on our expected revenue growth. We expect the gross profit rate to be consistent with last year and SG&A expense to be up 4.5% to 5.5%. About half of the increase in SG&A is due to increased performance-based incentive compensation expense, as mentioned in my Q3 discussions, as well as the acquisition of Teachers On Call. Even with increase in performance-based compensation, we are on track to deliver good full year operating leverage.

Our 2017 annual income tax rate is expected to be in the mid-single digits due to favorable trends in the first half of this year and due to a release of additional tax valuation allowance.

Now moving to the balance sheet. Cash totaled $22.2 million compared to $29.6 million at year-end 2016. At quarter end, debt was $23.9 million compared to normal range at the end of 2016 and over $15.2 million from a year ago. These balances reflect that during the quarter, we paid $37.2 million net of cash received related to our acquisition of Teachers On Call.

Accounts receivable totaled $1.3 billion and increased 12% compared to year-end 2016. Global DSO was 58 days, up 2 days from the same quarter last year and up 5 days since year-end 2016. DSO in the third quarter is higher due to seasonality, including the impact of the seasonal increase in Educational Staffing business in connection with the start of the school year. The remainder of the increase is due primarily to customer mix.

In our cash flow year-to-date, we generated $18.2 million of free cash flow, down from the $20.4 million of free cash flow generated last year. The decline in free cash flow reflects higher capital spend in 2017 as a result of increased investment to begin our digital talent platform as well as the timing of spending on projects related to technology and infrastructure and compared to the prior year. For more information on our performance, please review the third quarter slide deck available on our website.

I will now turn it back over to George for his concluding thoughts.

Thank you, Olivier. It's been a good year so far for Kelly, and we're pleased with the progress we're making. After building strong momentum in the first 2 quarters, our third quarter performance confirmed that we are continuing to drive top line growth even as we invest in talent, technology and solutions that will accelerate our progress in the future.

Our Americas staffing segment continued its forward momentum, capturing strong revenue growth. Our local operating teams are more focused than ever. Our investments in targeted areas are yielding results. And the acquisition of Teachers On Call further strengthens Kelly's educational staffing leadership position in the K-12 market. We expect continued return on these investments as we move forward. Our international segment remains tightly focused on pursuing core specialties across Europe, closely managing expenses as they actively capture new opportunities. And our global talent solutions segment continues to deliver top and bottom line growth as we help companies navigate a more holistic approach to talent solutions.

It was clearly a successful quarter. Our performance demonstrated our continued ability to grow the top line, operate with increased efficiency and deliver a solid return to our shareholders, all while continuing to invest in the future.

Our acquisition of Teachers On Call and our decision to implement a digital talent platform confirm that we are not content to stop at short-term growth, and we are strategically positioning Kelly for the long term as the world of work evolves.

Looking beyond our reporting segments. Our APAC joint venture has reached its 1-year anniversary and has fully met our expectations in terms of expanding our market presence and strengthening the Kelly-PERSOL relationship.

Finally, we are pleased with our financial performance. Events in the third quarter also served as a reminder that Kelly has truly exceptional teams. I'm very proud of how our colleagues came together to support one another through the natural disasters we encountered, all while staying true to the character of Kelly in meeting the needs of our customers and candidates.

Olivier and I will now be happy to answer your questions.

(Operator Instructions) We'll go to the line of [Lewis Moser] with [Mafax Investors].

I was wondering, what is the sustainability of the first quarter going forward?

You mean the revenue growth that we saw in the third quarter?

Yes, the growth revenue, earnings per share and so forth.

Yes. So as we look forward, not going any further than what we said with the fourth quarter, we see a continuing pace of growth going into the fourth quarter. And certainly, the fact that we have demonstrated that we're investing in sales and recruiting resources in our Americas segment predominantly but also in international demonstrates that we think that there's continuing demand as we look out in the future.

And Mr. Corona, we have no further questions in queue.

Okay. Thank you, John, and thank you, everyone, for being on the call.

Ladies and gentlemen, this conference is available for replay and starts today, November 8 at 11:30 A.M. Eastern time, will go until December 8 at midnight. You may access the replay at any time by dialing (800) 475-6701 or (320) 365-3844. The access code is 393787.

That does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.