Roper Technologies, Inc. (ROP) 2020 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. The Roper Technologies Second Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call will now begin. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

早安。Roper Technologies 2020 年第二季財務結果電話會議現在開始。(接線員指示) 請注意，本次會議將被錄音。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Zack Moxcey, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給投資人關係副總裁 Zack Moxcey。請開始。

Good morning, and thank you all for joining us as we discuss the second quarter financial results for Roper Technologies. We hope everyone is doing well. Joining me on the call this morning are Neil Hunn, President and Chief Executive Officer; Rob Crisci, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Jason Conley, Vice President and Controller; and Shannon O'Callaghan, Vice President of Finance.

早安，感謝各位加入我們，一同討論 Roper Technologies 第二季財務結果。希望大家都一切安好。今天早上與我一同參與電話會議的有：總裁暨執行長 Neil Hunn；執行副總裁暨財務長 Rob Crisci；副總裁暨主計長 Jason Conley；以及財務副總裁 Shannon O'Callaghan。

Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our financial results. The press release also includes replay information for today's call. We have prepared slides to accompany today's call, which are available through the webcast and are also available on our website.

今天稍早，我們發布新聞稿公告財務結果。新聞稿亦包含今日電話會議的重播資訊。我們已準備投影片搭配今日電話會議，可透過網路直播取得，亦可在我們的網站上取得。

Now if you'll please turn to Slide 2. We begin with our safe harbor statement. During the course of today's call, we will make forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties as described on this page, in our press release and in our SEC filings. You should listen to today's call in the context of that information.

現在請翻到投影片第 2 頁。我們先從安全港聲明開始。在今日電話會議過程中，我們將做出前瞻性陳述，該等陳述受本頁、我們的新聞稿以及我們向 SEC 提交文件中所述之風險與不確定性影響。您應在上述資訊的脈絡下收聽今日電話會議。

And now please turn to Slide 3. Today, we will discuss our results for the quarter primarily on an adjusted non-GAAP basis. Reconciliations between GAAP and adjusted measures can be found in our press release and in the appendix of this presentation on our website. For the second quarter, the difference between our GAAP results and adjusted results consist of the following items: amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets; purchase accounting adjustments to acquired deferred revenue; a restructuring charge associated with certain businesses in our Process Technologies segment, these were additional structural actions not contemplated in our prior guidance; transaction-related expenses for completed acquisitions; and lastly, we have adjusted our cash flow results to exclude income tax payments deferred from Q2 to Q3 due to COVID-19.

接著請翻到投影片第 3 頁。今天我們將主要以調整後的非 GAAP 基礎來討論本季結果。GAAP 與調整後衡量指標之間的調節表可在我們的新聞稿以及本簡報網站版本的附錄中找到。就第二季而言，我們的 GAAP 結果與調整後結果之差異包含以下項目：併購相關無形資產攤銷；對收購遞延收入的購買會計調整；與我們流程技術（Process Technologies）部門某些業務相關的重整費用（這些是先前指引未涵蓋的額外結構性行動）；已完成收購的交易相關費用；最後，我們調整了現金流結果，以排除因 COVID-19 而自第二季遞延至第三季支付的所得稅款。

And now if you please turn to Slide 4, I will hand the call over to Neil. After our prepared remarks, we will take questions from our telephone participants. Neil?

現在請翻到投影片第 4 頁，我將把電話會議交給 Neil。在我們的準備發言之後，我們將接受電話與會者提問。Neil？

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We hope that everybody listening or reading are doing well and enjoying the summer.

各位早安，感謝加入我們。希望所有正在收聽或閱讀的各位都一切安好，並享受夏日時光。

With that, let's go ahead and start with our agenda. As usual, we'll start with the enterprise highlights from the quarter, which are quite good given the health and economic challenges associated with the current pandemic. I'll then walk through our key financial and operational levers on a segment basis and compare how we did versus what we thought heading into the quarter.

那麼，我們就從議程開始。如同往常，我們會先談本季的企業重點；考量目前疫情帶來的健康與經濟挑戰，這些表現相當不錯。接著我會按部門說明我們關鍵的財務與營運槓桿，並比較本季實際表現與我們在季初的預期。

Rob will then discuss our P&L, our balance sheet, our cash position. We find ourselves in a very fortunate position to have well over $1.5 billion of cash on the balance sheet and a completely undrawn $2.5 billion revolver.

接著 Rob 將討論我們的損益表、資產負債表與現金部位。我們目前處於非常有利的位置：資產負債表上現金超過 15 億美元，且 25 億美元的循環信貸額度（revolver）完全未動用。

Following Rob's remarks, I'll walk through our detailed segment review and outlook, followed by our Q3 and full year guidance. And finally, I'll conclude with the highlights for the quarter and discuss our outlook for continued capital deployment. We'll then look forward to your questions.

在 Rob 發言之後，我將進一步說明各部門的詳細回顧與展望，並提供第三季與全年指引。最後，我會總結本季重點，並談談我們持續進行資本部署的展望。之後我們期待各位的提問。

Now let's turn to a brief run-through of our Q2 results. Next slide, please. To start, I'm very proud of how Roper performed in the quarter both on an operating basis and a balance sheet basis.

現在讓我們簡要回顧第二季結果。請到下一張投影片。首先，我對 Roper 本季在營運面與資產負債表面的表現感到非常自豪。

On an operational basis, our revenues declined 2% in the quarter and 3% on an organic basis. We saw organic growth in each of our 2 software segments. In addition and as we foreshowed last quarter, we saw very strong demand for our medical product businesses and laboratory software mostly used in the global fight against COVID-19. Worth noting and broadly, our businesses did not experience much, if any, supply chain disruption in the quarter, which contributed to our revenue performance.

在營運面，本季營收下滑 2%，以有機基礎計算下滑 3%。我們的兩個軟體部門皆實現有機成長。此外，正如我們上季所預告，我們的醫療產品業務與實驗室軟體（多用於全球對抗 COVID-19）需求非常強勁。值得一提的是，整體而言，我們的業務在本季幾乎沒有、或完全沒有供應鏈中斷，這也有助於我們的營收表現。

We also saw gross margins increase 70 basis points to 64.7%. EBITDA margins were impressively flat versus a year ago at 35.3%. And DEPS was strong and came in at $2.94. Most importantly, free cash flow increased 10% to $315 million.

我們也看到毛利率提升 70 個基點至 64.7%。EBITDA 利潤率相較去年同期令人印象深刻地持平，為 35.3%。DEPS 表現強勁，達到 2.94 美元。最重要的是，自由現金流增加 10% 至 3.15 億美元。

Specific to our balance sheet, 2 items of importance. First, we successfully completed a $600 million 10-year 2% bond offering in the quarter. Also, we were able to deploy $150 million for 2 bolt-ons, indicating the window for capital deployment is reopening. More on these deals as we turn to the segment pages.

就資產負債表而言，有兩項重要事項。第一，我們在本季成功完成 6 億美元、10 年期、2% 的公司債發行。此外，我們也能夠投入 1.5 億美元進行兩項補強型收購（bolt-on），顯示資本部署的窗口正在重新開啟。在我們進入各部門頁面時，將進一步說明這些交易。

So while 3% organic revenue declines are certainly below normal, given the macroeconomic backdrop heading into the quarter, I'm very pleased with this performance, especially as it relates to our margin performance and cash flow. To this end, this quarter's performance serves as a great example that illustrates the intimate knowledge each of our teams have with their business, their customers, their supply chains and their employees. As we said for many years, nimble execution yields great results, and that is certainly the case for this quarter and so far this year.

因此，雖然 3% 的有機營收下滑確實低於常態，但考量本季開始前的總體經濟背景，我對這項表現非常滿意，尤其是在利潤率表現與現金流方面。就此而言，本季表現是一個很好的例子，展現我們各團隊對其業務、客戶、供應鏈與員工的深入了解。我們多年來一直強調，靈活的執行能帶來卓越成果，而本季以及今年迄今的表現確實如此。

As we'll discuss later in the call, we are maintaining our full year organic revenue outlook to be plus or minus flat, which we believe is a testament to our decade-long business model transformation. In addition, our greater than $1.5 billion cash position and our undrawn $2.5 billion revolver allows us to be offensive relative to capital deployment. Our M&A pipeline remains full of high-quality opportunities. And prior to turning to the next slide, I want to thank our entire leadership team and our 16,000 employees for your tremendous work this quarter. Thank you.

如同我們稍後在電話會議中將討論的，我們維持全年有機營收展望為正負持平；我們認為這證明了我們長達十年的商業模式轉型。此外，超過 15 億美元的現金部位與未動用的 25 億美元循環信貸額度，使我們能在資本部署上採取更積極的策略。我們的併購（M&A）案源仍充滿高品質機會。在進入下一張投影片之前，我要感謝我們整個領導團隊以及 16,000 名員工在本季的卓越付出。謝謝。

Next slide, please. Turning to the second quarter segment results summary. This page summarizes our key business model levers and how they performed in the quarter. Starting with Application Software.

請到下一張投影片。接著看第二季各部門結果摘要。本頁彙總我們關鍵的商業模式槓桿，以及它們在本季的表現。先從應用軟體（Application Software）開始。

We expected revenues to be down mid-single digits in the quarter but actually grew 1%. As we did expect, renewal rates remained high and recurring revenues remained strong. Also, we did see strong demand across our laboratory software businesses as they worked aggressively to enable scores of COVID-19-related testing capability on a global basis.

我們原先預期本季營收將下滑中個位數百分比，但實際上成長 1%。如我們所預期，續約率維持在高檔，經常性收入也維持強勁。此外，我們確實看到實驗室軟體業務需求強勁，因其積極協助在全球範圍內啟用大量 COVID-19 相關檢測能力。

A good guide for the quarter was our software license sales. We saw across the segment better-than-expected conversion of perpetual ILF sales pipelines. A further positive variance was the success our teams had in implementing our software remotely, which led to higher service utilization rates and revenues. So this segment performed better than expected based on these 2 factors, better license sales and higher service utilization rates.

本季一個很好的觀察指標是我們的軟體授權銷售。我們看到整個部門的永久性 ILF 授權銷售管線轉換率優於預期。另一項正向差異是，我們團隊成功以遠端方式導入軟體，帶動服務使用率與收入提高。因此，基於這兩項因素——更佳的授權銷售與更高的服務使用率——本部門表現優於預期。

For our network segment, we expect it to grow low single digits and did, coming in at 2%. For the software businesses in this segment, just about what we expected, high levels of recurring revenues and renewal rates and decent network expansions at ConstructConnect and DAT. More on this later. But the TransCore New York City congestion pricing infrastructure project continues to push to the right, impacting more the second half versus this quarter.

就我們的網路事業部門而言，我們預期其將以低個位數成長，實際也如此，達到 2%。至於該部門中的軟體業務，表現大致符合我們預期，具備高水準的經常性收入與續約率，且 ConstructConnect 與 DAT 的網路擴張表現不錯。稍後會再詳述。但 TransCore 紐約市擁堵收費基礎設施專案持續往後遞延，對下半年影響較大，而非本季。

As for the MAS segment, we expect it to decline mid-single digits but did modestly better, only declining 1% in the quarter. Verathon and IPA outperformed our expectations and were driven by exceptional demand for their products and solutions throughout the quarter. As expected, our other medical product businesses were negatively impacted and continue to be negatively impacted by reduced elective hospital procedures.

至於 MAS 事業部門，我們預期將下滑中個位數，但實際表現略優於預期，本季僅下滑 1%。Verathon 與 IPA 的表現超出我們預期，主要受惠於本季其產品與解決方案的需求異常強勁。如預期，我們其他醫療產品業務受到選擇性（非緊急）醫院手術量下降的負面影響，且此影響仍在持續。

Neptune performed in line with expectations and was down given they had limited access to meters, especially in Canada and the Northeast United States where meters are installed inside residences. Finally in this segment, we saw sharp declines, as expected, in our industrial businesses.

Neptune 的表現符合預期，且因可取得的水表有限而下滑，尤其是在加拿大與美國東北部，這些地區的水表安裝於住宅室內。最後，在此部門中，我們的工業業務如預期出現大幅下滑。

Turning to our Process Tech segment. We are down 26% in the quarter versus an expectation of being down 30-plus percent. The businesses in this segment performed generally as expected, slightly better than we thought at PAC and AMOT. Finally, the better-than-expected revenues levered very well the EPS, with DEPS coming in at $2.94 versus our guidance range of $2.50 to $2.70.

接著看我們的製程科技（Process Tech）事業部門。本季下滑 26%，相較於我們原先預期下滑 30% 以上。該部門各業務整體表現大致符合預期，其中 PAC 與 AMOT 略優於我們原先的判斷。最後，優於預期的營收對每股盈餘（EPS）帶來很好的槓桿效果，調整後稀釋每股盈餘（DEPS）為 2.94 美元，高於我們 2.50 至 2.70 美元的指引區間。

After Rob's comments, I'll come back and discuss in more detail our segment-by-segment performance. Rob, I'll turn it over to you.

在 Rob 發言之後，我會再回來更詳細地逐一說明各事業部門的表現。Rob，交給你。

Thanks, Neil. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate your interest in Roper Technologies as always.

謝謝，Neil。各位早安。一如既往，我們感謝各位對 Roper Technologies 的關注。

So turning to Page 7. Looking at our Q2 income statement performance. Q2 organic revenue declined 3% versus prior year, with total revenue coming in at $1.306 billion. We had positive organic revenue growth in both Application Software and Network Software & Systems while sharp declines in our smallest segment, Process Technologies, pulled our overall organic growth into low single-digit negative territory for the quarter.

接著看第 7 頁，檢視我們第二季（Q2）損益表表現。Q2 有機營收較去年同期下滑 3%，總營收為 13.06 億美元。我們在應用軟體（Application Software）以及網路軟體與系統（Network Software & Systems）兩個部門皆呈現有機營收正成長，但我們最小的部門—製程科技（Process Technologies）—出現大幅下滑，使本季整體有機成長落在低個位數的負成長區間。

Margin performance, as Neil mentioned, was a standout in the quarter as our businesses expanded gross margin by 70 basis points to 64.7% and held EBITDA margins flat at 35.3%. As a result, EBITDA declined only 2% to $461 million. Our tax rate came in at 22.3%, a little higher than last year, resulting in adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.94, which was well above our guidance range of $2.50 to $2.70. So in summary, really good execution by our business leaders in a very challenging environment.

如 Neil 所提到，毛利率表現是本季的一大亮點；我們的各項業務將毛利率提升 70 個基點至 64.7%，並將 EBITDA 利潤率維持在 35.3% 不變。因此，EBITDA 僅下滑 2% 至 4.61 億美元。我們的稅率為 22.3%，較去年略高，使調整後稀釋每股盈餘為 2.94 美元，明顯高於我們 2.50 至 2.70 美元的指引區間。總結而言，在極具挑戰的環境下，我們的事業領導團隊展現了非常出色的執行力。

Next slide. Turning to Page 8 and looking at cash flow. Cash flow performance for the quarter was very strong. On a GAAP basis, our operating cash flow was $449 million, which represented a 49% increase over last year. However, for better comparability and clarity, we are adjusting our results for the $124 million of income tax payments that were deferred from Q2 to Q3 due to COVID-19, and those taxes were subsequently paid in July. So after adjusting for the timing of the $124 million of tax payments that pushed to July, our Q2 operating cash flow grew 8% to $325 million, which represented 25% of revenue.

下一張投影片。看第 8 頁，檢視現金流。本季現金流表現非常強勁。按 GAAP 基礎計算，我們的營業活動現金流為 4.49 億美元，較去年增加 49%。不過，為了更具可比性與清晰度，我們將結果調整，剔除因 COVID-19 使第二季遞延至第三季支付的 1.24 億美元所得稅款；該筆稅款已於 7 月支付。因此，在調整這 1.24 億美元稅款支付時點（延至 7 月）後，我們 Q2 營業活動現金流成長 8% 至 3.25 億美元，約占營收的 25%。

Q2 free cash flow grew 10% to $315 million, which was 24% of revenue. Looking back at the past 2 years, our Q2 free cash flow has compounded a strong 12%. Congrats and a special thank you to the finance teams at each of our businesses for continuing to make cash flow and cash collections a high priority. It truly was outstanding cash flow performance in a challenging environment.

Q2 自由現金流成長 10% 至 3.15 億美元，約占營收的 24%。回顧過去兩年，我們 Q2 自由現金流的複合成長率達到強勁的 12%。恭喜並特別感謝各事業的財務團隊，持續將現金流與現金回收列為高度優先事項。在充滿挑戰的環境下，這確實是非常出色的現金流表現。

Next slide. Turning to Page 9 and our asset-light business model and negative working capital slide. We exited the first quarter with working capital of minus 4.4%. And in Q2, we further improved this metric with working capital as a percent of revenue moving to minus 5.4%. While we're certainly happy as always to see our income statement hold up well in Q2, we believe it's just as important, if not more important, that our cash flow and working capital metrics also remain strong. In fact, as we continue to improve on these important working capital metrics despite the challenging macro environment, this bodes very well for our ability to compound cash flow at higher levels as the economy does eventually rebound from the pandemic.

下一張投影片。看第 9 頁，關於我們的輕資產商業模式與負營運資金。我們在第一季結束時的營運資金為負 4.4%。而在 Q2，我們進一步改善此指標，營運資金占營收比重提升至負 5.4%。雖然我們一如既往很高興看到 Q2 損益表表現穩健，但我們認為同樣重要、甚至更重要的是，我們的現金流與營運資金指標也能維持強勁。事實上，儘管總體環境充滿挑戰，我們仍持續改善這些關鍵營運資金指標，這對於在經濟最終自疫情中復甦後，我們以更高水準複利成長現金流的能力，是非常正面的訊號。

Next slide. Turning to Page 10, our strong financial position. So it's really a continuation here of the same story we discussed last quarter. Roper's liquidity position and balance sheet remained very strong. We ended June with over $1.8 billion of cash on the balance sheet.

下一張投影片。看第 10 頁，我們強勁的財務狀況。這基本上延續了我們上季討論的同一個主題。Roper 的流動性部位與資產負債表依然非常強健。我們在 6 月底時，資產負債表上的現金超過 18 億美元。

To date in July, as mentioned, we have made some tax payments. About $316 million of tax payments have been paid to date in July. That's the previously mentioned $124 million of deferred payments as well as $192 million of taxes due on the gain from last year's Gatan sale. So after making these payments, our cash balance today is approximately $1.6 billion, and our $2.5 billion revolving credit facility remains fully undrawn.

截至 7 月目前為止，如前所述，我們已支付部分稅款。7 月迄今已支付約 3.16 億美元的稅款。其中包括前述遞延支付的 1.24 億美元，以及因去年出售 Gatan 所得收益而應繳的 1.92 億美元稅款。因此，在完成這些支付後，我們目前的現金餘額約為 16 億美元，而我們 25 億美元的循環信用額度仍完全未動用。

In June, we took advantage of historically favorable conditions in the bond market to issue $600 million of 10-year notes at a coupon of 2.0%. At the time, we tied the record for the lowest coupon ever issued by a BBB issuer. Really great execution by our team and nice to once again see very strong demand for Roper bonds, driven by our consistent ability to generate cash flow, high levels of recurring revenue and our diversified portfolio of asset-light businesses.

6 月，我們把握債券市場歷史性有利的條件，以 2.0% 票面利率發行 6 億美元的 10 年期票據。當時，我們追平 BBB 級發行人史上最低票息的紀錄。我們團隊的執行非常出色，也很高興再次看到市場對 Roper 債券需求強勁，這主要來自我們一貫的現金流創造能力、高比例的經常性收入，以及由多元化輕資產業務所構成的投資組合。

At the end of the quarter, our net debt-to-EBITDA stood at 2.1x. And with our large cash balance and fully undrawn revolver, we remain very well positioned with significant financial capacity to take advantage of our large pipeline of acquisition opportunities.

在本季末，我們的淨負債對 EBITDA 比率為 2.1 倍。憑藉我們龐大的現金餘額與完全未動用的循環信貸額度，我們仍處於非常有利的位置，具備可觀的財務能力，可把握大量併購機會管線。

So with that, I'll turn it back over to Neil.

那麼，我把時間交還給 Neil。

Thanks, Rob. Let's go ahead and turn to our Application Software segment. Revenues here were $398 million, up 1% on an organic basis, and EBITDA was $172 million or 43.1% of revenue.

謝謝，Rob。接著我們來看應用軟體（Application Software）事業部門。此處營收為 3.98 億美元，有機成長 1%，EBITDA 為 1.72 億美元，約占營收的 43.1%。

To start, our retention rates and other recurring revenues remained strong in the quarter. In addition, we saw better-than-expected software license sales in the quarter, broadly across Deltek, Aderant and PowerPlan. Of note, sales pipeline build that occurred prior to the quarter converted at a higher-than-anticipated rate. In addition and as discussed earlier, we saw better service utilization rates and revenues than expected.

首先，我們的留存率與其他經常性收入在本季仍維持強勁。此外，我們看到本季軟體授權銷售優於預期，廣泛出現在 Deltek、Aderant 與 PowerPlan。值得注意的是，季前建立的銷售管線以高於預期的轉換率實現成交。另外，如先前所討論，我們也看到服務使用率與服務收入優於預期。

Our laboratory software businesses, Sunquest, Data Innovations and CliniSys, all grew and performed nicely, aided by the global demand to deploy diagnostic testing software interfaces and laboratory software associated with combating COVID-19. Specific to Sunquest, we received the termination fee payment for the Queensland project in the quarter. As a reminder, last quarter, we noted that the customer opted to terminate this implementation in the face of COVID-19-related challenges. CBORD, which is our software business that sells nutrition and food management software as well as campus access solutions to hospitals and universities, did decline given their very limited access to both hospital and university clients.

我們的實驗室軟體業務（Sunquest、Data Innovations 與 CliniSys）皆成長且表現良好，受惠於全球對部署診斷檢測軟體介面以及與對抗 COVID-19 相關之實驗室軟體的需求。就 Sunquest 而言，我們在本季收到昆士蘭專案的終止費用款項。提醒一下，上季我們提到客戶因 COVID-19 相關挑戰而選擇終止此項導入。CBORD 是我們的軟體業務，向醫院與大學銷售營養與餐飲管理軟體以及校園門禁解決方案；由於其對醫院與大學客戶的接觸極為有限，業績確實下滑。

Broadly across the segment and of note, we are absolutely seeing an increased desire from our customers to migrate to our cloud or SaaS offerings, one of several trends that COVID appears to be accelerating. This should be a long-term growth driver for our business as we have a large installed base of customers who will, over time, migrate to the cloud.

就整個事業部而言，值得注意的是，我們確實看到客戶對遷移至我們的雲端或 SaaS 產品的意願提高；這是 COVID 似乎正在加速的多項趨勢之一。這應會成為我們業務的長期成長動能，因為我們擁有龐大的既有客戶基礎，這些客戶將隨時間逐步遷移至雲端。

And turning to the outlook for the segment. We expect to be roughly flat on an organic basis for the second half of the year, with the third quarter facing a challenging prior year comp specific to perpetual license revenues. We continue to expect high levels of recurring revenue retention. As a reminder, the vast majority of our customers in this segment are enterprise or larger companies. Furthermore, we serve a diversified and durable set of end markets; most notably, government contractors, marketing services firms, law firms, utilities and hospitals. That said, we do anticipate some continued pressure on our new logo software license sales.

接著談本事業部的展望。我們預期下半年以有機基礎來看大致持平，其中第三季將面臨去年同期比較基期的挑戰，主要與永久授權收入相關。我們仍預期經常性收入留存率將維持在高水準。提醒一下，本事業部絕大多數客戶為企業或較大型公司。此外，我們服務的終端市場多元且具韌性；尤其包括政府承包商、行銷服務公司、律師事務所、公用事業與醫院。儘管如此，我們確實預期新客戶（new logo）軟體授權銷售仍將承受一些持續壓力。

This quarter's license revenues were aided by sales pipelines that were built pre COVID and converted better than expected in the quarter. The second half funnel is increasingly comprised of post-COVID shutdown activity. As a result, we expect our prospects' decision time frames may extend longer than our historical experience. That said, we are encouraged by the fact that the top-of-the-funnel activity looks good, and we like the MQL to SQL conversion rates, but again, expect decision timing could be more elongated than normal.

本季的授權收入受惠於在 COVID 之前建立的銷售管線，且在本季的轉換表現優於預期。下半年的漏斗愈來愈多由 COVID 封鎖後的活動所構成。因此，我們預期潛在客戶的決策時程可能會比我們過往經驗更長。儘管如此，我們仍受到鼓舞，因為漏斗頂端的活動看起來不錯，而且我們也滿意 MQL 到 SQL 的轉換率；但同樣地，我們預期決策時間可能會比正常情況更為拉長。

With that, next slide please. Turning to our network segment. Revenues grew 2% organically to $423 million and EBITDA was $176 million or 41.5% of revenue.

接下來請看下一張投影片。轉到我們的網路事業部。營收以有機基礎成長 2% 至 4.23 億美元，EBITDA 為 1.76 億美元，約占營收的 41.5%。

As a reminder, most of our software businesses in this segment share highly recurring SaaS revenue models, which are further aided by strong network effects that drive high retention rates and network adds, which were certainly the case in this quarter. To this end, our ConstructConnect network expanded in the quarter and was driven by strong customer adds and network utilization. As a reminder, our ConstructConnect business' primary product provides building contractors with all available commercial building projects that are in the planning phase and enables them to bid and win work. In an economic environment like this one, the value of this product further increases.

提醒一下，本事業部多數軟體業務採高度經常性的 SaaS 營收模式，並進一步受惠於強勁的網路效應，帶動高留存率與網路新增量，本季確實如此。因此，我們的 ConstructConnect 網路在本季擴張，主要由強勁的客戶新增與網路使用量所帶動。提醒一下，ConstructConnect 業務的主要產品為建築承包商提供所有處於規劃階段的商用建築專案資訊，並使其能夠投標並贏得工程。在像目前這樣的經濟環境下，該產品的價值會進一步提升。

Our DAT business grew high single digits in the quarter, led by large number of carrier additions to the network and strong growth in our rate data offering. To add to our rate data product capabilities, we acquired FMIC in the quarter. FMIC is the leading benchmarking and rate analysis firm focused on the contract freight market. When combined with DAT, the FMIC data sets will be a unique product offering that benchmarks both the contract and spot truck freight markets in the U.S..

我們的 DAT 業務本季成長達高個位數，主要由大量承運商加入網路所帶動，且我們的運價資料產品亦強勁成長。為強化我們的運價資料產品能力，我們於本季收購 FMIC。FMIC 是專注於合約貨運市場的領先基準比較與運價分析公司。與 DAT 結合後，FMIC 的資料集將形成獨特的產品組合，可同時對美國的合約與即期（spot）卡車貨運市場進行基準比較。

In addition to FMIC, we also acquired Team TSI. We are integrating Team TSI with our SHP business. When complete, the combined business will have comprehensive operating, financial and quality benchmarks that span the continuum of post-acute care, namely skilled nursing and home health. In addition to helping the post-acute providers operate their businesses more efficiently, SHP will help improve patient outcomes through innovative real-time data and evidence-based collaboration among acute care providers and their post-acute partners. We're excited to see this strategy unfold. As mentioned earlier, these bolt-on acquisitions have a combined purchase price of $150 million.

除 FMIC 外，我們也收購了 Team TSI。我們正將 Team TSI 與我們的 SHP 業務整合。完成後，合併後的業務將具備全面的營運、財務與品質基準，涵蓋後急性照護（post-acute care）的完整連續體，亦即專業護理與居家健康照護。除了協助後急性照護提供者更有效率地營運其業務外，SHP 也將透過創新的即時資料與以實證為基礎的協作，促進急性照護提供者與其後急性合作夥伴之間的合作，以改善病患結果。我們很期待看到此策略逐步展開。如先前所述，這些補強型收購（bolt-on acquisitions）的合計收購價格為 1.5 億美元。

Turning to last year's acquisitions. And it's worth noting that Foundry and iPipeline continue to perform well and are proving to have quite resilient business models as we expect. As we look to our RF IDeas and Inovonics businesses, they were challenged in the quarter, directly resulting from having limited access to customers. And finally, the TransCore New York City congestion pricing infrastructure project continues and is deemed essential. However, the project, at the election of our customer, has slowed and continues to push into 2021. Execution of the project remains strong, but the time is elongating.

接著談去年的收購案。值得注意的是，Foundry 與 iPipeline 持續表現良好，並如我們所預期，證明其商業模式相當具韌性。至於我們的 RF IDeas 與 Inovonics 業務，本季受到挑戰，直接原因是對客戶的接觸受限。最後，TransCore 的紐約市擁堵收費（congestion pricing）基礎建設專案仍在進行中，且被認定為必要（essential）專案。然而，該專案在客戶選擇下進度放緩，並持續延後至 2021 年。專案執行仍然強勁，但時程正在拉長。

Turning to the outlook for this segment. We see mid-single-digit organic growth in the second half. Relative to TransCore New York project, as mentioned, we see this project pushing to the right. Notably about $0.20 of DEPS is being pushed into next year as compared to what we thought a quarter ago. That said, we continue to see growth and resiliency in our network software businesses, driven by higher recurring revenues, strong retention rates, expanding networks and solid network participation.

接著談本事業部的展望。我們預期下半年有機成長為中個位數。就 TransCore 紐約專案而言，如前所述，我們看到該專案時程持續往後推。值得注意的是，約 0.20 美元的 DEPS（稀釋後每股盈餘）將被推遲至明年，相較於我們一季前的預期。儘管如此，我們仍看到網路軟體業務的成長與韌性，主要由更高的經常性收入、強勁的留存率、擴張中的網路以及穩健的網路參與度所驅動。

Next slide, please. Turning to our measurement and analytical segment. Revenues declined 1% organically to $364 million and EBITDA was $132 million or 36.2% of revenue. In the current environment, this segment's activities are best broken into 4 boxes: one, Verathon and IPA; two, other medical product businesses; three, Neptune; and four, our industrial businesses.

下一張投影片，謝謝。接著談我們的量測與分析事業部。營收以有機基礎下滑 1% 至 3.64 億美元，EBITDA 為 1.32 億美元，約占營收的 36.2%。在目前環境下，本事業部的活動最適合分成四個區塊：第一，Verathon 與 IPA；第二，其他醫療產品業務；第三，Neptune；第四，我們的工業業務。

First, Verathon and IPA, both experiencing tremendous demand for their products directly attributable to hospital demand resulting from COVID-19. Verathon experienced strong demand for their GlideScope video intubation products. As a result of COVID-19, the percentage of all intubations, not just COVID-related, that are being done using video assistance has meaningfully increased. Verathon's demand is both for capital systems, which means an expanding customer base; and the pull-through consumables.

首先是 Verathon 與 IPA，兩者的產品需求都非常強勁，直接歸因於 COVID-19 造成的醫院需求。Verathon 的 GlideScope 影像插管產品需求強勁。受 COVID-19 影響，所有插管（不僅是 COVID 相關）的比例中，使用影像輔助進行的比重已明顯提高。Verathon 的需求同時來自資本設備系統（意味著客戶基礎擴大）以及隨之帶動的耗材（pull-through consumables）。

We have to give hearty congratulations to Earl, Tracy, Tim, Jeff and the entire team at Verathon. It's one thing to have unprecedented demand, it's a completely different thing to be able to flex the supply chain to fulfill the demand within a single quarter. Congrats and thanks to the Verathon team.

我們必須向 Earl、Tracy、Tim、Jeff 以及 Verathon 的全體團隊致上由衷的祝賀。擁有前所未有的需求是一回事，能在單一季度內彈性調整供應鏈以滿足需求則完全是另一回事。恭喜並感謝 Verathon 團隊。

A similar story with IPA. Hospitals rapidly adapted their automated scrub distribution systems to help deploy scrubs more broadly to staff within the hospital setting.

IPA 也有類似的情況。醫院迅速調整其自動化刷手服（scrub）發放系統，以協助在院內環境中更廣泛地向員工配發刷手服。

Second and relative to our other medical product businesses, we did see revenue headwinds tied directly to government-mandated lower patient volumes within acute care hospitals on a global basis. We also want to note that this group of companies consistently grows mid-single digits. This growth is conditioned on regular hospital admissions patterns.

第二，關於我們其他醫療產品業務，我們確實看到營收逆風，直接與政府強制要求在全球急性照護醫院降低病患量相關。我們也想指出，這一組公司一向維持中個位數的成長。此成長取決於醫院住院收治模式的常態化。

Third, Neptune was negatively impacted by restricted access to indoor meters, in particular in Canada and the Northeast United States. And finally and as expected, we did experience a sharp decline in our short-cycle industrial businesses. However, in the second half of the quarter, we did see modest improvements in consumable demand.

第三，Neptune 受到室內水表存取受限的負面影響，尤其是在加拿大與美國東北部。最後且如預期，我們的短週期工業業務確實出現了大幅下滑。不過，在本季後半段，我們確實看到耗材需求出現小幅改善。

As we turn to the second half outlook, we expect to see mid-single-digit growth in this segment, led by continued strong demand at Verathon for the reasons just discussed. In addition, we expect to see reduced levels of non-emergent capital procedures providing continued headwinds for our non-Verathon and non-IPA medical product businesses. We do expect to see improvements in Neptune on easing lockdowns, especially in the Northeast United States, which will provide better access to indoor meters. Also, we are cautiously optimistic given that July municipal budgets appear to be largely intact. And finally, we expect to see gradual improvements in our short-cycle industrial end markets.

展望下半年，我們預期該事業部將呈現中個位數成長，主要由 Verathon 持續強勁的需求所帶動，原因如前所述。此外，我們預期非緊急資本性醫療處置的水準仍偏低，將持續對我們非 Verathon 與非 IPA 的醫療產品業務形成逆風。隨著封鎖措施放寬，我們確實預期 Neptune 將有所改善，尤其是在美國東北部，這將帶來更好的室內水表存取。同時，鑑於 7 月的市政預算看起來大致維持完整，我們也抱持審慎樂觀。最後，我們預期短週期工業終端市場將逐步改善。

Next slide, please. Turning to our Process Technologies segment. Revenues were $121 million in the quarter, down 26% on an organic basis, and EBITDA was $33 million or 27.4% of revenue. This was certainly a difficult quarter for these businesses, and we expect the outlook to remain poor for the balance of 2020. Despite a uniquely challenging environment for these businesses, they still had high 20% EBITDA margins in the quarter, and our leadership teams have done a great job of navigating these end markets and continuing to make no-regrets investments.

請看下一張投影片。接著談我們的製程技術（Process Technologies）事業部。本季營收為 1.21 億美元，有機基礎下年減 26%，EBITDA 為 3,300 萬美元，約占營收的 27.4%。這一季對這些業務而言確實相當艱難，我們預期 2020 年剩餘期間的展望仍將疲弱。儘管環境對這些業務而言格外具挑戰性，它們本季仍維持在 20% 高段的 EBITDA 利潤率，而我們的領導團隊在因應這些終端市場、並持續進行「不後悔」投資方面做得非常出色。

We saw our upstream businesses decline approximately 40% in the quarter. Our PAC business also declined, and it was related to weak fuel demand in the quarter. As a reminder, PAC is our laboratory fuel analysis business. Also, CCC was weak based on the inability to perform field service work, all related to COVID-19. One bright spot in the quarter was Zetec, which experienced growth based on the strength of their new nondestructive testing products.

我們的上游業務本季下滑約 40%。我們的 PAC 業務也下滑，原因與本季燃料需求疲弱有關。提醒一下，PAC 是我們的實驗室燃料分析業務。此外，由於無法執行現場服務工作（皆與 COVID-19 相關），CCC 表現疲弱。本季的一個亮點是 Zetec，受惠於其新型非破壞檢測產品的強勁表現而實現成長。

Also in the quarter, we initiated targeted restructuring actions across a few of our businesses in this segment, which resulted in a $13.6 million charge. None of these structural changes were considered in our guidance from a quarter ago. These actions will position these businesses to better serve its customers and realize longer-term savings. While the oil and gas markets and customer commitments remain more muted, we believe this is the right time to execute these restructuring activities.

同樣在本季，我們在該事業部旗下部分業務啟動了具針對性的重整措施，產生 1,360 萬美元費用。這些結構性調整皆未納入我們一季前所提供的財測指引。這些行動將使這些業務能更好地服務客戶，並實現較長期的成本節省。在油氣市場與客戶承諾仍較為低迷之際，我們相信現在是執行這些重整活動的適當時機。

The outlook for the balance of the year continues to be an extremely challenging one as we expect to see approximately 25% organic decline for the second half. Specifically, we do not anticipate any recovery in upstream oil and gas markets and expect upstream to account for less than $40 million of revenues in the second half. In addition, we expect to continue to have limited customer access, which hampers our ability to perform field service work.

今年剩餘期間的展望仍極具挑戰，我們預期下半年有機營收將下滑約 25%。具體而言，我們不預期上游油氣市場會出現任何復甦，並預期上游業務在下半年營收將低於 4,000 萬美元。此外，我們預期客戶可接觸性仍將受限，進而妨礙我們執行現場服務工作的能力。

Next slide, please. As we turn to our guidance, we are narrowing and modestly raising the midpoint of our full year adjusted DEPS guidance to be in the range of $11.90 and $12.40 per share. We continue to guide full year organic revenues to be plus or minus flat. In addition, we're initiating DEPS guidance for 3Q in the range of $2.90 to $3.

請看下一張投影片。談到我們的財測指引，我們正在收斂並小幅上調全年調整後 DEPS 指引的中位數，區間為每股 11.90 至 12.40 美元。我們仍維持全年有機營收為正負持平的指引。此外，我們也啟動第三季 DEPS 指引，區間為 2.90 至 3.00 美元。

Now let's turn to our summary and get to your questions. Next slide, please. Given the global pandemic and associated shutdowns in the quarter, we are pleased with our performance with revenue only being down 3% organically, EBITDA margins holding flat versus the prior year at 35.3% and cash flow growing 10% to $315 million.

現在我們做個總結，並進入各位的提問。請看下一張投影片。鑑於本季全球疫情及相關停工，我們對自身表現感到滿意：有機營收僅下滑 3%，EBITDA 利潤率較去年持平於 35.3%，現金流量成長 10% 至 3.15 億美元。

From an operating point of view, our businesses remain focused on employee health and safety, continue to improve the efficiency of remote work, remain super intimate with our customers and continue to focus on long-term durable growth. To this end, our businesses continued to invest in growth-oriented operating initiatives. Our leaders, all of whom are long-term builders, are masterful at maintaining product investments during down cycles, which oftentimes lead to market share gains upon recovery. As a leadership team, we remain steadfastly committed to this concept.

從營運角度來看，我們的各項業務仍聚焦於員工健康與安全，持續提升遠端工作的效率，與客戶保持高度緊密的互動，並持續專注於長期且可持續的成長。為此，我們的業務持續投入以成長為導向的營運計畫。我們的領導者皆為長期建設者，擅長在景氣下行週期仍維持產品投資，而這往往會在復甦時帶來市占率提升。作為領導團隊，我們仍堅定承諾此一理念。

For the full year, we expect to have plus or minus flat organic revenue growth. We believe our portfolio of businesses and our governance processes continue to be well suited to navigate these difficult times. Our balance sheet is stronger than at any point in history with over $1.5 billion of cash and $2.5 billion of revolver capacity. And specific to capital deployment, we do have a high-quality and active pipeline of opportunities as private equity sellers have recently reentered the market. That said and as always, our CRI-based strategy focuses on long-term cash flow compounding, and we will continue to patiently evaluate and pursue capital deployment opportunities that are consistent with this strategy.

就全年而言，我們預期有機營收成長為正負持平。我們相信，我們的業務組合與治理流程仍非常適合在這些艱難時期中前行。我們的資產負債表比歷史上任何時點都更強健，現金超過 15 億美元，循環信貸額度（revolver）可用額度為 25 億美元。在資本配置方面，隨著私募股權賣方近期重新回到市場，我們確實擁有高品質且活躍的機會管線。不過，如同一貫，我們以 CRI 為基礎的策略聚焦於長期現金流複利成長，我們將持續耐心評估並追求與此策略一致的資本配置機會。

And as we turn to your questions, I'll remind everybody that what we do is very simple. We compound cash flow by operating a portfolio of businesses that have leading positions in niche markets that have the proven ability to generate increasing cash flow as our businesses expand. We provide our business leaders with Socratic coaching about what great looks like relative to driving long-term CRI-accretive organic growth, with particular emphasis focused on strategy, operations, innovation and talent development. Our business leaders understand that success in our culture is based on their ability to compete and win for talent and to compete win for customers that, in turn, allow us to compete and win for shareholders.

在進入提問之前，我想提醒大家，我們所做的事情其實非常簡單。我們透過經營一組在利基市場具領先地位、且在業務擴張時已被證實能產生持續增加現金流的企業組合，來讓現金流複利成長。我們以蘇格拉底式教練法引導各事業領導者，讓他們理解在推動長期、具 CRI 增益的有機成長方面，「卓越」應該是什麼樣子，並特別強調策略、營運、創新與人才發展。我們的事業領導者明白，在我們的文化中，成功取決於他們能否在人才競爭中勝出、並在客戶競爭中勝出，而這反過來使我們能為股東競爭並勝出。

To this end, we incent our management teams based on growth. And based on these factors and perhaps most importantly, we have a culture that is rooted in the principles of mutual respect, trust and transparency. And finally, we take the excess free cash flow that is generated by our businesses and deploy it to buy businesses that have better cash returns than our existing company that, in turn, helps accelerate our cash flow compounding. It is these simple ideas that deliver powerful results.

為此，我們以成長為基礎來激勵管理團隊。基於上述因素，且或許最重要的是，我們擁有一種根植於相互尊重、信任與透明原則的文化。最後，我們將各業務所產生的超額自由現金流，用於收購現金報酬率優於我們既有公司的企業，進而加速我們的現金流複利成長。正是這些簡單的理念帶來了強大的成果。

And with that, now let's turn to your questions.

接下來，我們進入各位的提問。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Deane Dray of RBC Capital Markets.

(接線員指示) 第一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Deane Dray。

Can we start with the congestion tolling project? Just give us some context of this latest pushout. It would be fair to assume that just logistically, COVID is presenting issues in terms of being able to work on the project, but has there been any change in scope that's being considered?

我們可以先從擁堵收費（congestion tolling）專案開始嗎？請就這次最新的延期提供一些背景。合理推測在物流與執行層面，COVID 造成了專案施工/推進上的問題；但是否有任何正在考量的範疇（scope）變更？

Deane, no change whatsoever in the scope of contract value that we talked about a few quarters ago. It remains the exact same. And so the only thing that is happening here is the project is pushing a bit to the right into 2021 for the reasons you said, a little bit access to personnel related to COVID and a little bit just at the election of the customer wanting to pace the project a little bit.

Deane，合約價值的範疇與我們在幾季前談到的完全沒有任何變更。仍然一模一樣。因此，這裡唯一發生的事情是，基於你提到的原因，專案時程稍微往右移到 2021 年：一部分是與 COVID 相關的人員可接觸性問題，另一部分則是客戶自行選擇希望把專案節奏放慢一些。

And I think also, we highlighted last quarter -- I mean, the motivation of the client has never been higher. I think it was just around this time last quarter the proceeds from the project for 2021 and '22 could be used in MTA's operating budget, where the initial project, Deane, was going to be used for capital only. So there is a clear motivation to get -- by the customer to get the project up and running. It's just slipping to the right a little bit.

而且我也認為，我們在上季已經強調過——我是說，客戶的動機從未如此強烈。我想就在上季這個時點左右，2021 年與 2022 年該專案的收益可用於 MTA 的營運預算；而最初的專案（Deane）原本只會用於資本支出。因此，客戶端很明確有動機要讓專案——把它啟動並運轉起來。只是時程稍微往後延了一點。

Just to clarify, there was a discussion of pushouts in the first quarter. So this $0.20 of EPS push out, this is new and incremental, correct?

我只是想釐清一下，第一季曾討論過遞延（pushouts）。所以這每股盈餘（EPS）0.20 美元的遞延，是新的、額外增加的，對嗎？

That's correct.

沒錯。

Yes. Yes, that's correct, Deane. So the project was originally around $200 million for this year. Now we've got about $110-or-so million in for 2020. And as Neil mentioned, the rest just pushes to the right and we expect to be complete in '21.

是的。是的，沒錯，Deane。所以這個專案原本今年大約是 2 億美元左右。現在我們在 2020 年大概納入了約 1.10 億美元左右。如 Neil 提到的，其餘部分只是往後遞延，我們預期會在 2021 年完成。

Got it. And then second topic would be the net COVID impact across your businesses. And I'm not sure if this is a fair question to ask, but you listed a number of ways that Roper is positioned to help between the lab support system, CliniSys, Data Innovations, the Verathon intubation systems. Those would be the positives, but the negative, is it all related to just the deferrals of nonemergency procedures. So how do those 2 net out?

了解。第二個主題是 COVID 對你們各項業務的淨影響。我不確定這樣問是否公平，但你列出了 Roper 能提供協助的多種方式，包括實驗室支援系統、CliniSys、Data Innovations、Verathon 的插管系統。這些是正面因素；但負面因素是否全部都與非緊急手術的延後有關？那這兩者相抵之後結果如何？

If your question is relegated to the medical product businesses versus a broad -- is it related to that or is it broader to Roper? I want to make sure I understand your question.

你的問題是限定在醫療產品業務，還是更廣泛——是只跟那部分有關，還是更廣泛地涵蓋 Roper？我想先確認我理解你的問題。

No, no, no. Just the medical related, sorry.

不不不。抱歉，只針對醫療相關。

Okay. Yes. So the -- it's a net -- a meaningful net grower, right, when you look at the benefit of those. Verathon and IPA, good guy against the bad guys of the other 4 or 5 medical product businesses aggregated together, it's a very meaningful positive good guy.

好的。是的。所以——淨效果是——顯著的淨成長推動者，對吧？當你看這些帶來的效益時。把 Verathon 和 IPA 視為「好的一方」，對比其他 4、5 個醫療產品業務合併起來的「壞的一方」，整體而言是非常顯著的正面「好的一方」。

It's worth noting though, the Verathon demand, while it certainly surged in the quarter, the team worked really well to work down the backlog and got a little bit more to go in the second half of the year. The team at Verathon believes that the demand is -- will endure a bit, right? It's about the number -- the percentage or the market share of global intubations that are being done with video assistance versus not.

不過值得注意的是，Verathon 的需求雖然在本季確實激增，但團隊執行得非常好，消化了積壓訂單，且下半年還有一些要完成。Verathon 團隊認為需求——會在一段時間內持續，對吧？這關乎一個數字——也就是全球插管中，使用影像輔助（video assistance）相對於未使用的比例或市占。

Going into the pandemic, it was somewhere in the 15% of all intubations were done with video assistance and 85% direct. And that market share of video is going -- it's meaningfully higher now, and it will stay -- it will be meaningfully above 15% on the back side of this. So the market just grew, we believe, for these products that Verathon has.

在疫情爆發前，大約所有插管中有 15% 是使用影像輔助、85% 是直接插管。而影像輔助的市占現在已經明顯提高，並且在這波疫情過後仍會維持——會顯著高於 15%。因此我們相信，Verathon 這些產品所面對的市場已經擴大了。

The next question comes from Scott Davis of Melius Research.

下一個問題來自 Melius Research 的 Scott Davis。

I was trying to get a sense -- and a little bit of follow-up on Deane's question, but trying to get a sense of ConstructConnect. You commented how the pandemic perhaps helped -- is helping catalyze some growth there. I mean very few of us are experts in many of these businesses. I'm certainly not an expert in ConstructConnect by any stretch of the imagination. But can you give us a sense of how that business grows in this type of environment?

我想了解一下——也算是延伸追問 Deane 的問題——想了解 ConstructConnect 的情況。你提到疫情或許有助於——正在幫助催化那邊的一些成長。我的意思是，我們當中很少有人是這些業務的專家。我當然也完全稱不上是 ConstructConnect 的專家。但你能否讓我們了解，在這種環境下那項業務是如何成長的？

Is it -- well, I'll just leave it at that, just open-ended. How does it grow? And how much is the impact? Is there any way to -- the magnitude of the pandemic really helping get word-of-mouth or otherwise out there on the product?

它是——好，我就先停在這裡，開放式地問。它怎麼成長？影響有多大？有沒有任何方式——去衡量疫情在多大程度上真的有助於口碑或其他方式把產品推廣出去？

Yes, happy to talk through that. So just to remind you and everyone, ConstructConnect, the primary part of the business, all for nonresidential or commercial construction in the United States and Canada that's in the planning phase. So once a shovel goes in the ground, other constituents in the value chain pick up that. This is about planning. It allows general contractors, subcontractors, building product manufacturers to be aware of the projects that are being planned so they can bid for and win those projects, and we have software that organizes all of that activity.

好的，很樂意說明。先提醒你以及大家，ConstructConnect 的主要業務，是針對美國與加拿大的非住宅或商用建築，在規劃階段的資訊。一旦開始動工（鏟子下地），價值鏈中的其他參與者就會接手。這裡談的是規劃。它讓總承包商、分包商、建材產品製造商能掌握正在規劃中的專案，從而投標並贏得這些專案，而我們有軟體來整理並管理所有這些活動。

So when the market is raging hot, right, all the subcontractors have more work than they can possibly do. The value of leads or what new projects is lower, right? And so we've always sort of said if there's 5 market conditions, 5 is white hot and 1 is there's basically 0 construction, the ConstructConnect value proposition is best in positions 2, 3 and 4, right, where there's work and activity going on but not so much work that contractors have so much to do, right?

所以當市場非常火熱時，對吧，所有分包商的工作量多到做不完。此時線索（leads）或新專案的價值就比較低，對吧？因此我們一直以來的說法是，如果把市場狀況分成 5 個等級，5 是極度火熱、1 是幾乎沒有任何建築活動，那 ConstructConnect 的價值主張在 2、3、4 這些位置最好，對吧？也就是有工作與活動，但又不至於多到承包商忙到不可開交的狀態。

And so what's essentially happened here, and ConstructConnect reports on this and Zack can get it to you, is nonres construction activity is down 20-ish percent versus prior year. It was up a little bit in June versus May, but that's the exact environment where the value proposition of leads and project awareness sort of thrives. And that's why you saw more contractors come into the ConstructConnect market and grow in the quarter.

因此這裡本質上發生的情況——ConstructConnect 也有相關報告，Zack 可以提供給你——是非住宅建築活動相較去年下滑約 20%。6 月相較 5 月略有回升，但這正是線索與專案能見度這種價值主張最能發揮的環境。這也是為什麼你會看到更多承包商進入 ConstructConnect 的市場，並在本季帶動成長。

I would just add to that. It's a SaaS business, Scott. So there's not huge swings in the revenue like you get with the perpetual license business. We're seeing increased activity in the network, and that leads to a little bit of more subscriptions, more customers. And then over time, that drives additional growth with the business.

我再補充一下。Scott，這是一個 SaaS 業務。所以營收不會像永久授權（perpetual license）那種模式一樣出現巨大波動。我們看到網路中的活動增加，這會帶來一些訂閱增加、客戶增加。然後隨著時間推進，這會推動該業務的額外成長。

Right. And those customers, I mean, do they come in and then they generally stick around or they come out when economic conditions get weaker?

了解。那這些客戶，我是說，他們進來之後通常會留下來，還是當經濟狀況轉弱時就會退出？

Really appreciate the question. So history, if you go way back in the arc of ConstructConnect, some of them will stay and some of them will leave. But since our ownership in '16, the ConstructConnect team has worked really hard to build habituation into the product, if you will. So now there's integrated takeoff, which is the estimation process and directly linked.

非常感謝這個問題。從歷史來看，如果回溯 ConstructConnect 的長期發展軌跡，有些會留下、有些會離開。但自從我們在 2016 年持有以來，ConstructConnect 團隊非常努力地讓產品形成使用習慣（habituation）。所以現在有整合式 takeoff（工程量計算/估算流程），並且直接串接。

And so we believe the customers, when we look at their utilization of the product, they're in the product on a multi-time a day basis now, where 5, 6, 7 years ago, they'd be in the product only when they needed to look for a new project. And so we believe, based on that, the sort of the long-term retention rates of the business go up.

因此我們認為，當我們觀察客戶對產品的使用情況時，他們現在每天會多次使用產品；而在 5、6、7 年前，他們只有在需要找新專案時才會進到產品裡。因此基於這點，我們相信該業務的長期留存率會提高。

Okay. Okay. Super helpful. Okay. Congrats, guys. Good luck this quarter.

好的。好的。非常有幫助。好的。恭喜各位。祝本季好運。

Yes. Congrats on the book as well.

是的。也恭喜你們那本書。

(technical difficulty)

(技術問題)

Steve, are you still there?

Steve，你還在線上嗎？

Can you hear me okay?

你聽得到我嗎？

We can, Steve. Hey, I think it's Steve, right? Yes. Okay.

聽得到，Steve。嘿，我想是Steve，對吧？是的。好的。

Yes, sorry. Sorry, guys. Just managing some things here, like 8 different calls. Just on the acquisitions you recently did, could you just give us some color on the revenues and what you paid for those, just general multiples for some of the ones you've done?

是的，不好意思。抱歉，各位。我這邊在處理一些事情，大概同時有8通不同的電話。關於你們最近做的收購案，能否請你們提供一些營收與支付對價的概況，例如你們做過的幾個案子大致的倍數？

Yes. Sure, Steve. So there's the 2 acquisitions in the quarter. Combined purchase price is about $150 million, and we've got about $25 million or so revenue in the model for '21 and EBITDA margins there in the mid- to high 40s. So pretty good cash.

是的。當然可以，Steve。本季有兩筆收購。合計收購價格約1.5億美元，我們在2021年的模型中估計營收約2,500萬美元左右，EBITDA利潤率約在40%中段到高段。所以現金流相當不錯。

But each business is being integrated into a business. So there was not a lot added for the second half because there's some integration going on, but both are real good strategic adds to the Roper businesses.

不過每個業務都會整合進既有的業務中。因此下半年新增貢獻不多，因為正在進行整合，但兩者都是對Roper業務非常好的策略性補強。

Got it. And then just a last one on the -- on some of the -- I think you guys had expected a bit weaker performance in some of the software businesses. I know you went through some of this in the prepared remarks. But is there anything that kind of gives back a little bit in the second half that's notable and is material in any of those software businesses? Just perhaps some deferred downside relative to what you would have expected in the second quarter, some timing items.

了解。最後一個問題，關於——關於一些——我想你們原本預期部分軟體業務表現會弱一些。我知道你們在事先準備的講稿中有提到一些。但下半年是否有任何值得注意、且在任何軟體業務中具實質影響的回吐因素？例如相較你們原本預期第二季會出現的遞延下行風險，有些只是時點因素而延後發生。

So in the second quarter, I mean -- yes, I think the second quarter software, for the reasons we said on Application Software, I mean, it was the better utilization rates on the service side. And we expected more deferral or push-outs of the license activity, and that proved to be a little conservative. And so that -- but that was broad -- that license activity was broad across Deltek, Aderant, PowerPlan. We saw good performance across the diagnostic businesses that we just talked about. Some of that -- a lot of that was COVID-related.

第二季的話，我是說——是的，我認為第二季軟體業務，基於我們在應用軟體所說的原因，主要是服務端的使用率更好。我們原本預期授權活動會有更多遞延或延後，結果那個假設稍微保守了一點。而且——那個授權活動是廣泛的，涵蓋Deltek、Aderant、PowerPlan。我們也看到剛才提到的診斷相關業務表現良好。其中有些——很多其實與COVID相關。

Right. There's a lot of good things that happened in acute care software in the quarter which were driven by the demand around COVID, right? So some of that stuff happened in the second quarter that we didn't expect. And we'll see what continues into the second half, but that's difficult to predict.

對。本季急性照護軟體有很多正面因素，主要是由COVID相關需求所帶動，對吧？所以第二季發生了一些我們原本沒預期的事情。至於下半年會延續多少，我們會觀察，但這很難預測。

The next question comes from Julian Mitchell of Barclays.

下一個問題來自Barclays的Julian Mitchell。

This is Joao Carvalho on for Julian. Maybe just to start, Application Software margins came in pretty strong for the quarter. Can you just give some color on what contributed there? And maybe as part of that, just your thoughts on how margins look there and at other segments for the second half.

我是代Julian提問的Joao Carvalho。先從應用軟體開始，本季利潤率表現相當強勁。能否說明一下主要貢獻因素？另外也請談談下半年該業務以及其他部門的利潤率走勢看法。

I'll take the first part of that and let Rob take the second. It's directly -- the Application Software margin performance in the quarter is directly tied to better license activity. As you know, perpetual licenses in quarter are super high margin, 90-plus percent, 85%, 90%. So when you outperform an expectation on license, then you tend to have better margin performance.

我先回答第一部分，第二部分讓Rob來回答。本季應用軟體利潤率表現，直接與授權活動優於預期有關。如你所知，當季的永久授權毛利率非常高，90%以上，約85%、90%。所以當授權表現優於預期時，利潤率通常也會更好。

And then we also received the Queensland payment for Sunquest, which put revenue and large -- high margin on that revenue in the second quarter as well which helped. And then as we look at the second half, the margins don't move around a lot in the software segments, which is a great thing, right? It's high recurring revenue, very stable business models. You don't get this sort of swing. So we certainly expect EBITDA margins to be sort of flat or a little bit better year-over-year in the software segments.

另外，我們也收到了Sunquest的昆士蘭付款，使第二季的營收增加，且該營收的利潤率很高，這也有幫助。至於下半年，軟體部門的利潤率通常不會大幅波動，這其實是好事，對吧？因為它是高經常性收入、非常穩定的商業模式。不太會出現這種大幅擺動。因此我們預期軟體部門的EBITDA利潤率將大致持平，或年對年略有改善。

Perfect. And then some interesting comments you guys mentioned, municipal budgets seem to be intact so far. Any thoughts on how much this holds in the second half and then maybe thoughts on what level of potential cuts you guys are dialing in for kind of your outlook next year? I know that's a bit early. And then maybe just as part of that, can you just remind us kind of what percentage of sales within M&AS is kind of tied to municipal budgets?

很好。另外你們提到一些有趣的觀察：目前看來市政預算似乎仍維持完整。你們怎麼看下半年能維持到什麼程度？以及對明年展望中，你們大概納入了多少潛在的預算削減？我知道這可能有點早。另外也請提醒我們，在M&AS中，大概有多少比例的銷售與市政預算相關？

Very little as a percent of revenue. I mean it's going to be the part of Neptune that swings around with budget, and Neptune is a pretty stable, high recurring revenue business. So it's a real small percentage of the segment. I mean single digits that's going to really be driven by swing in budgets.

以營收占比來看非常少。主要會受預算影響而波動的是Neptune那一部分，而Neptune本身是相當穩定、經常性收入占比高的業務。所以在該部門中占比非常小。我意思是，真正會由預算波動所驅動的，大概是個位數百分比。

Yes. And more broadly, coming -- this time last quarter, in the height of the shutdown, a risk item that we flagged was are Neptune's customers' budgets going to be intact as they roll into their New Year's because a large percentage of these customers have a July 1 fiscal year, just given the broader economic challenges that municipalities and cities are experiencing. The good news is the budgets appear to be largely intact. So that -- the first risk item appears to be mostly retired.

是的。更廣泛來看，上季這個時候正值封鎖高峰，我們當時標示的一個風險項目是：Neptune客戶的預算在進入他們的新年度時是否仍能維持完整，因為在更廣泛的經濟挑戰下，地方政府與城市正承受壓力；而且這些客戶中有很大一部分的會計年度是7月1日開始。好消息是，預算看起來大致仍維持完整。因此第一個風險項目看來大多已可排除。

The remaining risk item is now the spend against the budget, right? And that's a to be determined. But the first step is a checkmark, and we'll see how things unfold the rest of the year.

剩下的風險項目是：實際支出是否會依照預算執行，對吧？這還有待觀察。但第一步已經打勾了，接下來就看今年剩餘時間的發展。

The next question comes from Joe Ritchie of Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自Goldman Sachs的Joe Ritchie。

Neil, maybe just some commentary on the elective procedure impact in the quarter. Obviously, like things are still incredibly fluid with the virus, but I'm just trying to understand maybe how much of this pushes out into 2021 and whether there's like a revenue boost in 2021 once, hopefully, elective procedures come back.

Neil，能否談談本季選擇性手術的影響？顯然病毒情勢仍非常多變，但我想了解其中有多少會延後到2021年，以及一旦（希望如此）選擇性手術回來，2021年是否會出現營收的回補或提升。

Yes. So the products -- the companies that we have that are somewhat indexed to procedure volume, it's one derivative behind it, right? So very little of our businesses are a consumable in a procedure, but our capital and products are used by other companies who are used in a procedure. And so we're buffered a little bit by what our customers are seeing.

是的。我們旗下有些產品——有些公司與手術量有一定連動，但其實是隔了一層的衍生關係，對吧？我們的業務中，直接在手術中被消耗的耗材占比很小；但我們的資本設備與產品會被其他公司使用，而那些公司才是用在手術中的。因此我們會被客戶端的情況稍微緩衝一些。

We did see a little bit in the second -- maybe the June time period, some of the true consumables sort of pick back up, and that's just going to be volatile for the balance of the year. We would expect, as I mentioned in the opening comments -- in the prepared remarks, I mean, this group of businesses, going back for many, many years, grows like clockwork at mid-single digits, and that assumes a patient volume that are normalized. And so to the extent volumes are normal in 2021, then we would see a pickup in that group of businesses.

我們確實在第二季——可能是6月那段期間——看到一些真正的耗材需求回升一點，而今年剩餘時間這會很波動。如我在開場——在事先準備的講稿中提到，我是說，這一組業務多年來一直像時鐘一樣穩定，以中個位數成長，而那是建立在病患量正常化的假設之上。因此若2021年的量能恢復正常，我們就會看到這一組業務回升。

Just a sense, Joe. So the sort of other medical products businesses which exclude Verathon and IPA, which have huge COVID benefits of everything else, those businesses were down double digits in the quarter. And they would normally be mid-single growers. And so I think we will catch up some of that at some point, but it's very difficult to predict when.

只是想了解一下，Joe。所以其他醫療產品業務（不含 Verathon 與 IPA；這兩項因 COVID 而受益很大）在本季呈現兩位數下滑。而這些業務在正常情況下通常是中個位數成長。因此我認為我們在某個時間點會追回其中一部分，但很難預測會在何時。

Got it. That's helpful, Rob. And just maybe my quick follow-up. I thought your commentary around like the acceleration into cloud-based solutions was interesting. I guess, Neil, if you could maybe just provide some context for what that opportunity could be for you guys, either qualitative or quantitative, that would be helpful.

了解。這很有幫助，Rob。再快速追問一下。我覺得你提到加速轉向雲端解決方案的評論很有意思。我想，Neil，如果你能就這個機會對你們而言可能代表什麼提供一些背景（定性或定量）會很有幫助。

Yes. I'll leave it at sort of on the qualitative basis, right? So as we've said for a long time, we -- as a guiding principle, we allow our customers to pace the transition to the cloud. We don't force it or have a forced product migration. We're just there waiting for that to occur.

是的。我先以定性的角度來說，對吧？如同我們長期以來所說，作為一項指導原則，我們讓客戶自行掌握轉移到雲端的節奏。我們不強迫，也不會強制產品遷移。我們只是等待那件事發生。

We have some businesses like Strata that are born in the cloud. We have other businesses like Aderant and PowerPlan that are still vast, vast majority on-premise. And then we have companies like Deltek that are somewhere in between, right, sort of in the middle in their journey of the migration.

我們有一些像 Strata 這樣原生雲端的業務。也有像 Aderant 和 PowerPlan 這樣仍然絕大多數是地端部署（on-premise）的業務。然後我們也有像 Deltek 這樣介於兩者之間的公司，對吧，在遷移旅程中處於中段。

What we've seen at Deltek is that, that migration is a net growth driver. And we can talk about that in more detail later to the extent you're interested. But you basically are taking a large installed base of customers who pay you annual maintenance and you're uplifting them to the cloud. So you're providing all the backbone and IT sort of management services.

我們在 Deltek 看到的是，這種遷移是淨成長的驅動因素。如果你有興趣，我們之後可以更詳細地談。但基本上，你是把一個龐大的既有客戶基礎（他們支付年度維護費）提升到雲端。因此你提供所有底層架構與 IT 管理等服務。

But also, you're doing all the release management, getting them on the most recent release that are more micro releases, and so the customers get to take advantage of what you're actually developing. And that has real value associated with it in the mind's eye of the customers. And so for that reason, as they migrate from on-premise to cloud, there's an uplift in recurring, a pretty meaningful one. And that's a multiyear growth driver for our enterprise on Application Software -- or in Application Software.

此外，你也負責所有版本發佈管理，讓他們使用最新版本，且更新更偏向小幅、頻繁的微型發佈，因此客戶能夠受益於你實際正在開發的功能。在客戶的觀感中，這具有實質價值。因此，當他們從地端遷移到雲端時，經常性收入會有提升，而且幅度相當可觀。這會成為我們企業端應用軟體（Application Software）業務的多年期成長驅動因素。

The next question comes from Joe Giordano of Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Cowen 的 Joe Giordano。

Can you talk about maybe some of the implications of a potential infrastructure bill, what that might have maybe on -- I'm guessing Deltek would be the most, maybe PowerPlan, I'm not sure, but how that might impact overall the portfolio?

你能談談潛在的基礎建設法案可能帶來的一些影響嗎？我猜 Deltek 可能最相關，也許還有 PowerPlan，我不確定；但它可能如何影響整體投資組合？

It's not -- I think it would have a slight impact. And the reason I say that -- I'm looking at Rob and Shannon. It's not something we talk about, right? And so about an infrastructure bill, we're not rooting for one. So I...

我認為影響不大——可能只有些微影響。我之所以這麼說——我在看 Rob 和 Shannon。這不是我們會拿來討論的事情，對吧？所以對於基礎建設法案，我們並不是在期待它通過。所以我……

Yes. The government contractors are always spending money on whatever there is to spend money on.

是的。政府承包商總是會把錢花在任何有預算可花的地方。

Rob's point there is very good, right? So the contractors go where fast flow is of government spend. And so maybe you get a few more government contractors that could be Deltek customers, but that's probably it.

Rob 的觀點非常好，對吧？承包商會追隨政府支出快速流向的地方。因此也許會多一些政府承包商成為 Deltek 的客戶，但大概也就這樣。

Okay. Fair enough. Can you kind of just set a range, kind of floor? I'd assume like within -- your software businesses did better than expected obviously, but I'm guessing there's huge, huge differences between like a -- businesses like CBORD where you couldn't go -- like people weren't on site. Like can you kind of scale what was the -- even if you don't want to get into the specific business name, so like how big were some of the biggest declines and how big were some of the biggest gainers in the quarter?

好的。合理。你能不能大概給個區間、或說下限？我想你們的軟體業務顯然比預期好，但我猜不同業務之間差異很大，例如像 CBORD 這種因為人員不在現場、你也無法去現場的業務。你能不能大概量化一下——即使你不想提具體業務名稱——本季最大的一些下滑有多大、最大的一些成長又有多大？

Well, I'll set it up. I'll give you some context and let Rob sort of give you his view. So as we mentioned last quarter in this segment, about 70% of revenues are recurring. 20% are tied to services, and that's generally coming -- working off some sort of 6- to 18-month backlog, and then 10% of the revenue is that perpetual license. So the most short term impacted is that 10%. So that tends to mute the magnitude of the swing in any given period of time. Assuming that the in-flight implementation projects don't stall, we do not see a lot of that blot, if any, of that activity in the quarter.

我先鋪陳一下。我提供一些背景，然後讓 Rob 說說他的看法。如同我們上季在這個部門提到的，約 70% 的營收是經常性收入。20% 與服務相關，通常是基於某種 6 到 18 個月的在手訂單（backlog）來執行；另外 10% 的營收是永久授權（perpetual license）。因此短期受影響最大的是那 10%。所以這往往會降低任何單一期間波動幅度的大小。只要正在進行中的導入專案不會停滯，我們在本季沒有看到太多（如果有的話）那類活動的中斷。

So with that, Rob?

那麼，Rob？

Yes. They are just very stable businesses. So I'm just looking through all the software businesses, and sort of they're all kind of between a low single-digit gain or low single-digit decline, with the exception of CBORD, which is a little bit worse than that. So again, that's a little bit better than expected.

是的。這些都是非常穩定的業務。我看了一下所有軟體業務，大致都介於低個位數成長或低個位數下滑之間，只有 CBORD 例外，表現稍微更差一些。所以再說一次，這其實比預期好一點。

Because you know a huge part of the businesses are stable, the question is, are you going to get any of these license wins in the quarter? Are you able to deliver services? And we were. And so to the extent that continues, that certainly helps us. There just aren't big swings in these businesses, which, of course, we had huge swings in the product businesses, where there's more issues with not being able to access customers, et cetera.

因為你知道，業務中很大一部分是穩定的，問題在於你本季能不能拿到一些授權案？你能不能交付服務？而我們做到了。因此只要這種情況持續，當然會對我們有幫助。這些業務不會出現很大的波動；當然，我們在產品業務上曾出現很大的波動，因為更容易受到無法接觸客戶等問題影響。

The next question comes from Alex Blanton of Clear Harbor Asset Management.

下一個問題來自 Clear Harbor Asset Management 的 Alex Blanton。

I wanted to ask about the pushout in the TransCore business in New York City. You mentioned $0.20 going into 2021 from '20, a new $0.20. And then I think you said, I wanted to confirm this, $110 million now in this year versus $200 million before. So that's a $90 million pushout. Is that -- are those the right numbers?

我想問一下 TransCore 在紐約市業務的延後（pushout）。你提到有 0.20 美元從 2020 年延到 2021 年，新增一個 0.20 美元。然後我想你說的是——我想確認一下——今年現在是 1.10 億美元，而之前是 2.00 億美元。所以這是 9,000 萬美元的延後。這些數字對嗎？

They are, Alex. There was an interim step in there that last quarter, the $200 million became $175 million and now it's $110 million. So the move from $175 million to $110 million is your $0.20.

對的，Alex。中間其實有一個過渡步驟：上季 2.00 億美元變成 1.75 億美元，而現在是 1.10 億美元。所以從 1.75 億美元到 1.10 億美元的變動，就是你說的 0.20 美元。

Okay. That's what I wanted to know. So that $65 million pushout generated $0.20 per share pushout. So we can calculate the incremental margin there. That's what I'm getting at.

好的。這就是我想知道的。所以那 6,500 萬美元的延後，帶來每股 0.20 美元的延後。因此我們可以計算出其中的增量利潤率。我想問的就是這個。

These are all rough numbers, but yes.

這些都是大概的數字，但沒錯。

Yes, I knew that. Yes. We don't need the precision.

是的，我知道。是的。我們不需要那麼精確。

The second thing is we haven't really -- I don't think anyone asked about the acquisition pipeline. You've got max $4.1 billion of spending power for acquisitions. What does that look like? What are you working on, big, small? What's the timing? Is some of it getting pushed out because of COVID? What's the situation there?

第二件事是，我們其實還沒有真正——我想沒有人問到併購管線。你們最多有 41 億美元的併購支出能力。那看起來會是什麼樣子？你們在做哪些案子，規模大或小？時程如何？是否有部分因為 COVID 而往後延？那邊的情況如何？

Alex, appreciate the question. So I'll give you a little bit of context and color. So we had a pretty -- the activity coming into COVID, I mean, it was as busy as we have been that I can recall since being here in 2011 in terms of what the funnel activity looked like. Obviously, everything shut down. I mean when the credit markets shut down, everything shut down in April, and May, it was -- there was really no activity anywhere. No sellers were selling anything for obvious reasons.

Alex，謝謝你的提問。我先提供一些背景與補充說明。我們在 COVID 之前的活動其實非常——就我自 2011 年來到這裡以來所記得的，從漏斗活動來看，那段時間幾乎是我們最忙的狀態。顯然，之後一切都停擺了。我的意思是，當信貸市場關閉時，一切都在 4 月與 5 月停了下來——幾乎哪裡都沒有活動。出於顯而易見的原因，沒有賣方願意出售任何東西。

At the end of May, first part of June, we saw some green shoots. We obviously got these 2 bolt-ons complete, which were sort of in the pipeline pre COVID. And really here, since the middle of June until now, it's almost as if we're back to January, February in terms of private equity seller interest and activity. The private credit markets aren't fully back, but they're back enough to give sponsors confidence that they can run a process or processes. And so we're encouraged by all of that because we're sitting here with what you just said, a large amount of cash and borrowing capacity to sort of continue this -- our long-term CRI-driven sort of compounding strategy.

到了 5 月底、6 月初，我們看到一些復甦的跡象。我們也完成了這兩筆補強型併購（bolt-on），這些在 COVID 之前就已在管線中。而且實際上，從 6 月中旬到現在，私募股權賣方的興趣與活動幾乎就像回到 1、2 月一樣。私募信貸市場尚未完全恢復，但已恢復到足以讓贊助方有信心可以啟動一個或多個出售流程。因此，我們對這些都感到鼓舞，因為如你所說，我們手上有大量現金與借款能力，可以持續推進這個——我們長期以 CRI 驅動的複利式策略。

I will note, the things that we see -- obviously, the things that come out of the shoot first after a slowdown are the very best assets, right, the ones that have the best niches, the best competitive position, the best -- highest level of recurring revenue, durability, things like that, and those tend to be fairly valued, right? There's not a lot of bargains that we would say we see in the software space, but values -- valuations consistent with what we saw coming into the pandemic.

我也要指出，我們看到的情況是——顯然，在一段放緩之後最先出現的，往往是最優質的資產，對吧？也就是那些擁有最佳利基市場、最佳競爭地位、最高程度經常性收入、韌性等特質的資產；而這些通常也會以合理價格成交，對吧？我們不會說在軟體領域看到很多「撿便宜」的機會，但估值——與疫情爆發前我們看到的水準一致。

What accounts for the pickup? The COVID situation is actually worse than it was in April. There's spikes all over the place, and the government that doesn't have control over it all. They're not even trying. So what accounts for the opening up of acquisition activity?

那麼，這波回升是由什麼造成的？COVID 的情況其實比 4 月更糟。各地都有激增，而政府也沒有把它控制住。他們甚至沒有在嘗試。那麼，是什麼促成併購活動重新開放？

We can only speculate what's in the mind's eye of the sellers, right? But a couple of things. First is the types of -- everything I just said I should have qualified by saying our M&A pipeline is 100% software focused, right? And so these are businesses even in the public markets that are privy to be resilient sort of than comparables, if you will. And so that colors my comments on what our funnel activity looks like.

我們只能推測賣方心裡在想什麼，對吧？但有幾點。第一是——我剛才說的那些都應該先限定一下：我們的併購管線 100% 聚焦在軟體，對吧？因此，這些企業即使在公開市場中，相較於可比公司也更具韌性（resilient），如果你這麼說的話。所以這也影響了我對我們漏斗活動狀況的評論。

The other thing is private equity sellers, which is where we buy 100% of our assets from, have to return capital. They have limited sort of pressures. That's a constant drumbeat. And then finally, and this is me certainly speculating about private equity's view of what might happen in election and taxes, but that certainly may be a motivating factor to get some things done by the end of this year.

另一點是，私募股權賣方——我們 100% 的資產都是向他們收購——必須把資金返還給投資人。他們有一定程度的壓力。那是一種持續不斷的節奏。最後，這部分我當然是在推測私募股權對選舉與稅制可能發生變化的看法，但這確實也可能是促使他們在今年年底前把一些交易做完的動機因素。

Taxes. Okay. Yes. I had another question but it now slipped my mind.

稅。好。是的。我還有另一個問題，但現在突然想不起來了。

Happens to me all the time.

我也常常這樣。

Yes. You said 100% software focused -- oh, I know what it was. Your sister company, Dover Corp, used to say that -- one of the favorite things they said was that during recessions, they always gained market share because they had the dominant positions in their companies, in their markets and so weaker competitors would lose out some business and even go out of business during recessions. So Dover actually benefited from a market share standpoint during economic downturns.

是的。你說 100% 聚焦軟體——喔，我想起來了。你們的姊妹公司 Dover Corp 以前常說——他們最喜歡講的一句話之一是，在景氣衰退期間，他們總是能提高市占，因為他們在各自的公司、各自的市場中都處於主導地位，因此較弱的競爭對手在衰退時會流失一些業務，甚至倒閉。所以從市占角度來看，Dover 在經濟下行時反而受益。

How would you characterize Roper in that regard? And what is happening now? Are you gaining share overall from people having a lot worse time than you are?

你會如何在這方面描述 Roper？而現在正在發生什麼？你們是否整體上正在因為其他人比你們更艱難而提升市占？

So we would echo those comments that companies like Roper, in our history, is we continue to invest in product through cycle, especially in the down cycle because your competitors oftentimes are not able to. And we also stay super close to our customers. The vast majority of what we -- our companies have direct channel access versus have to work through distributors so you stay super close to the customers. And almost certainly on the back end, you gain share either because of customer intimacy or because you develop or launch some new product or product capabilities. So 100%, that is the case for Roper in this current environment.

我們會呼應那些評論：像 Roper 這樣的公司，從我們的歷史來看，我們會在景氣循環中持續投資產品，尤其是在下行週期，因為你的競爭對手往往做不到。我們也會與客戶保持非常緊密的連結。我們旗下公司的絕大多數是直接通路接觸客戶，而不是必須透過經銷商，因此能與客戶保持非常緊密的關係。而在後端幾乎可以確定，你會提升市占——要麼因為客戶黏著度／親密度，要麼因為你開發或推出了新產品或新的產品能力。所以，百分之百，Roper 在目前環境下就是如此。

Okay. And this is a tough one, but what percentage of this $4.1 billion you think you might deploy this year?

好的。這題很難，但你認為今年可能會動用這 41 億美元中的多少比例？

That's real hard -- yes, that's really impossible to predict. We're going to do the work we always do. And yes, we certainly have the capacity, but we only do the best deals and we never feel pressured. But certainly, the balance sheet has never been stronger. So we feel good about our ability to deploy capital this year.

這真的很難——是的，這幾乎不可能預測。我們會做我們一貫會做的工作。而且是的，我們確實有這個能力，但我們只做最好的交易，而且我們從不覺得有壓力。不過，資產負債表從未如此強勁。所以我們對今年部署資本的能力感到有信心。

As my predecessor said many years ago, our discipline is only outmatched by our patience.

正如我多年前的前任所說，我們的紀律只有我們的耐心能與之匹敵。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. We will now return back to Zack Moxcey for any closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。接下來我們將把時間交還給 Zack Moxcey，請他做任何結語。

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you during our next earnings call.

感謝各位今天加入我們。我們期待在下一次財報電話會議中與各位交流。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

本次電話會議現在結束。感謝各位出席今天的簡報。您現在可以斷線。