Sapiens International Corporation NV (SPNS) 2018 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sapiens International Corporation First Quarter 2018 Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded May 7, 2018.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mrs. Yaffa Cohen-Ifrah, Sapiens' CMO and Head of Corporate Communications. Thank you. Ms. Cohen, you may begin.

Thank you, and good day, everyone. Our quarterly earnings release was issued before the market opened this morning, and it has been posted on the company's website at www.sapiens.com. Representing the company today are Roni Al-Dor, President and CEO; and Roni Giladi, our CFO.

Before we start, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain projections or other forward-looking statements, and the safe harbor provision in the press release issued today also apply to the content of the call. Sapiens expressly disclaim any obligation to update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether because of future events, new information, a change in its view or expectations or otherwise.

Also, during the call today, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation schedule showing GAAP versus non-GAAP results have been provided in our press release issued before the market opened this morning. A replay of this call will be available after the call on our Investor Relations section of the company's website or via the website link, which appears in the earning release that we published today.

I will turn now the call over to Roni Al-Dor, President and CEO of Sapiens. Roni?

Thank you, Yaffa, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2018 financial results. Our first quarter results were driven by our strategy to become a leading global provider of insurance software solutions and services. We continue to improve our competitive advantage through our product and solution enhancement and through the acquisition of new solution and clients, focus on growth markets, particularly in Europe and North America. We are now fully integrated and have aligned our resource to become a market leader in the areas of greater supply and demand in the insurance market, digitalization, data analytic and legacy transformation.

In this quarter, we have made progress on the following key objectives: one, expand our EMEA in Asia Pacific P&C businesses. In the first quarter, we continue with our P&C European expansion, executing our long-term expand strategy, which is reflecting both geographically expansion in Nordic and Turkey and existing customer product expansion. The market continue to be very active. We have a strong pipeline, and we have what it take to continue the momentum in the region.

Second, enhancing and expanding our U.S. P&C business, by replicated -- replicating our success in European P&C markets. In the first quarter, we integrated the Stream and Adaptik products in the organization. We launched a new digital U.S. P&C insurance platform, combining the 3 powerful core component: Adaptik policy and billing and Stream claims and Sapiens' existing insurance, data analytic solution, digital engagement and distribution and cloud operation. This launch improve our competitive position, accelerate our go-to-market timing and, ultimately, increase our market share in the market.

Third, enhancing our digital offering by leveraging our recently established Digital Division and acquisition of KnowledgePrice, which brought additional insurance technology expert. In Q1, we advanced and integrated KnowledgePrice into our Digital Division, which successfully delivered the comprehensive platform solution, including full core BI and analytic and digital portal this quarter to a U.K. customer.

The digital unit plays a critical role in supporting our sales and marketing teams, while already responsive to an increasing demand for digital solution worldwide.

As I stated on our last earning calls, our plan for 2018 is built on 4 pillars, and in the first quarter, we made progress on each of them.

The first one, continue to deliver double-digit growth in our P&C line in Asia Pacific and EMEA. We remain on track to achieve this goal as evidenced by new customer wins in the region.

Second, enhancing our North America P&C business. We already see positive indications and started to build the pipeline in the region. We are on track to meet this goal with the integration of Adaptik and Stream.

The third, maintain our Life and Annuity business. In Q1, we focus on continue to support our customer base, providing the highest level of support that these customers are important to all our future goals in the market. We see growth in our complementary life solution for underwriting and illustration as demonstrated by new customer wins in the region.

And the fourth one, cross-selling. Cross-selling to our existing customer, in Q1, we continue with (inaudible) that increased our cross-selling opportunity. I would like to note that while a -- this process has just begun, we already seeing our clients' interest in this expand offering and capabilities.

On the deal flow -- front, this quarter, we announced that Equitable Life of Canada selected our LifeSuite underwriting solution. LifeSuite provide a modern platform with a process automation and faster quality decision for this insurance underwriting transformation. This is a great win for us and future.

During the quarter, we also announced that the Turkish insurance provider, HDI Sigorta, is a member of German insurance giant Talanx Group, selected Sapiens P&C Insurance Suite IDIT platform to accommodate and accelerate its growth, including faster time to market for the new product initiative. Sapiens is proud of our established footprint in the region. Sapiens IDIT has once again been selected in Turkey to help the provider to comply with the national regulation and stay ahead of their competitors. Sapiens IDIT continue to be extremely popular in the strategically important EMEA region, and it's flagship product of our businesses.

On the partnership front, this quarter we announced a new partnership with EasySend. EasySend's Digital Transaction Management platform will integrate it with the Sapiens Digital Engagement Suite and will enable to insurance to rapidly transform forms and document into a customer-driven digital experience on a PC, tablet or mobile devices. This partnership reflects the importance of working with the insurtech ecosystem and leveraging innovation technology into Sapiens' digital offering.

For the remainder of 2018, we'll be focused on maximizing our assets, namely our living solution, customers and employee, to benefit our existing customer and attract new ones. We are dedicated to support and serve our global customer base of over 400 insurance carriers, who work with us as their trusted adviser and partners. We are fully committed to all of our customers for maintenance of their existing project, to advising them on new product and to service and support their business goals.

I would now like to turn the call over Sapiens' CFO, Roni Giladi, to discuss our financial results and outlook for 2018.

Thank you, Roni, and good morning, everyone. Strong execution in the first quarter allowed us to come in above our revenue and profit guidance we provided on the last earning call. Q1 revenue of $71.1 million as compared to guidance range of $67 million to $69 million and operating margin of 12.5% in Q1 came in above our guidance of 10%.

As of January 1, 2018, we required to implement the new accounting standard, [ACS] 606, regarding revenue from contract with customers. Sapiens adopt this accounting standard and expected full year 2018 impact of this standard change will be positive but not material, mainly in our DECISION division.

Non-GAAP revenue in the first quarter totaled $71.1 million, up 25.7% from the first quarter of 2017 or $56.5 million.

Our revenue growth was impacted mainly by the full quarter consolidation of StoneRiver and Adaptik and KnowledgePrice acquisitions. Our revenue in North America totaled $31 million and represent 43.7% of our total revenue. Europe revenue that include U.K., rest of Europe and Israel, was 48.5%. As anticipated, APAC revenue declined following the strategic reduction in activity in Japan.

Moving to gross profit. Gross profit this quarter totaled $30.3 million compared to $20.5 million in Q1 of last year and $29.5 million in Q1 -- Q4 of 2017. Our gross margin this quarter was 42.6%, up from 36.2% in the first quarter of last year. Q1 gross profit also improved compared to the fourth quarter of last year, mainly due to the impact of our cost-cutting program that was implemented last year and continued this year across all our divisions.

Moving to operational cost. R&D expenses in the first quarter of 2018 totaled $10.3 million compared to $7.3 million in the first quarter of 2017 and $9.7 million in the prior quarter. The increase in R&D expenses compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 is mainly due to the consolidation of our recent acquisition, with a full quarter of KnowledgePrice and 1 month of Adaptik.

SG&A expenses totaled $11.1 million compared to $11.5 million last year and $10.8 million in Q4 of 2017. The increase in SG&A expenses compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 is mainly due to the consolidation of our recent acquisition that was offset by our cost saving.

Operational income this quarter totaled $8.9 million compared to an operating income of $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2017 and $9 million in Q4 of 2017. Operating margin improved in Q1 to 12.5% compared to 3% in the same quarter of last year and at the same level of Q4 of 2017.

Our adjusted EBITDA this quarter totaled $9.9 million, reflecting 14% of our total revenue for the quarter.

Financial expenses this quarter totaled $0.8 million. The financial expenses this quarter included interest expenses on our $80 million debenture and will continue throughout the year.

Net income attributable to Sapiens' shareholders for the quarter was $6.3 million or $0.13 per diluted share compared to $1.2 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the first quarter of last year. As of March 31, 2018, we had a cash and cash equivalents of $61.7 million and total debt of about $80 million.

The GAAP operating cash flow this quarter totaled $8.8 million compared to negative $7.3 million in Q1 of last year. There are no other material change in the balance sheet. I would like to turn now to our guidance for 2018.

For 2018, we are maintaining our guidance of revenue of $280 million up to $285 million and non-GAAP operating margin in the range of 12% to 13%. As we said in our previous call, in 2018, we are focused on improving our profitability, together with building the growth for 2019 and beyond. We are pleased to see the progress we made in the first quarter, mainly in profitability. We see positive indicators in the coming quarter, and we are on track to our annual guidance as shown by Q1 result.

I would like now to turn the call back to Roni Al-Dor for closing comments. Roni?

Thank you, Roni. We are working towards our 2018 priorities, improving our organic growth, improving our non-GAAP operating margin by year-end and cross-selling to our customer base. We have invested, we have built and we have the foundation for long-term growth, increase profitability and improve shareholders' value.

I would now like to close our prepared remarks and open the call for questions. Operator?

(Operator Instructions) The first question is from Mayank Tandon of Needham and Co.

I wanted to just start off with getting your comments around the insurance market, in general. I know you gave us some color about your focal point for this year. But if you could just comment on how the market is looking on the P&C and the Life side and then just maybe in terms of deal sizes and what kind of opportunities you are seeing in the market?

Mayank, it's Roni Al-Dor. In general, as I mentioned, last time, we see a good demand for the P&C business, now in Europe and in North America, in -- mainly in Tier 2, 3, 4, 5. In terms of the size of the deal, as Sapiens, we expand our offering from core product policy billing, now together with all the services, the digital, including engagement, BI, PORTAL. People are looking for managed services, all type of services, so the deal size is become bigger and bigger. The issue with the big size is as it becomes bigger and bigger, it's a -- the long -- the sale cycle is also in the same. But in general, we see more and more demand. Right now, in P&C, for many years, we build our good brand for IDIT. And now, as I mentioned in my comments, we feel very comfortable with associating with Stingray, with Adaptik and Stream and also with our workers' comp, so a generally positive demand on the P&C.

In the Life side, as I mentioned, we have 4 components on the Life or mainly 3. We have the runoff business; we have our core business; and we have the component business, mainly in U.S. So the component is solid, grow few clients new every year. We just completed a very successful user group in Chicago last week, so the business in Life underwriting illustration is a positive. We see demand. We have 2, 3 competitors, but it's fine. And the core system, we are focusing mainly in Europe. We decide to put more of the effort in Europe, in Asia Pacific versus U.S. So right now, in U.S., we are more working with our client base.

And the third one is our runoff business, what we call closed book. We see a lot of opportunity, and we hope to, in the near future, to see -- to start to see results. So that's the overall.

That's helpful color. And then if I can just ask some questions around the numbers too? I know you don't give quarterly guidance, but maybe give us some sense of how the trajectory of revenue and margin should be, especially given the outperformance in 1Q, you aren't flowing that through into your guidance, you're holding guidance intact, but maybe just give us some perspective on what your expectations are for the upcoming quarters?

Mayank, this is Roni G. As we said earlier, although we passed the Q1 results on the revenue and the profitability, we maintain the full year guidance, the same revenue and profitability. I would like to say that we are seeing positive indicators, mainly on the profitability, but we'd like to continue our progress and then show the results. So we will see improvement in the profitability, as we said earlier, quarter-over-quarter, but currently the guidance is the same.

Right. And then as you look a little bit ahead, I know there's going to be a lot of noise in '18, a lot of moving parts to the model, but on a steady-state basis, what is your expectation for Sapiens' organic growth rate and margin profile?

Okay. So we like to touch base on both. We will provide the guidance for, let's say, mid-term, long-term revenue growth beyond 2018, later in the year or end of this year. As we said, this year, we're focusing on profitability and while we are building the growth there to come, so we'd like to give numbers only later this year. In terms of profitability, we are going to see improvement quarter-over-quarter on our profit margin. We said it in the past that we'd like to return to it. We would like to reach the mid-term level around 15%, 16% operation profit, and this is what we are shooting.

Got it. And one final question on the tax rate. What is your expectation for taxes going forward, Roni?

I would say that the current level of around 22% should reflect the tax rate of Sapiens. This is, of course, after implementing the reforms in the U.S.A.

The next question is from Tavy Rosner of Barclays.

Mostly technical ones, on the guidance. I mean, you guys came up with 1Q revenues and margins that were above your initial guidance and expectations. And as a result, given the beats on both sides, isn't you -- the fact that you're reiterating guidance for year-end a conservative move or are there other things we should be aware of?

I would say, the first one. We mentioned in the beginning of the year that we would like to be conservative. We do not see anything that will reduce the current level. As I mentioned earlier, we see improvement in profitability as we continue during the year. So let's take the conservative approach, and we'll update when we see additional progress.

Okay. That's helpful. And maybe just a quick one. In your prepared remarks, you mentioned a deal with Canada, I'm sorry, I didn't get the details and I don't recall you guys publishing a press release. I might have missed it. So can you just give me the -- just the broad detail about what this was?

It's Yaffa. We issued a press release about Equitable of Canada, and I can send you the press release. It's an underwriting deal that we signed earlier this quarter.

The next question is from Justin Furby of William Blair.

I guess, maybe just a start on the long-term growth. I know, I can appreciate you're going to give that later this year. And I guess, maybe big picture in the U.S. market, there's a lot of moving parts in P&C for you guys this year. It sounds like you're now fully integrated across the product lines. Do you think when you look out over the next few years, there is any reason why your offerings and the demand can't support a double-digit-type growth in the U.S. P&C market?

Yes. The reason that we feel comfortable to keep this double-digit growth is several reason: one, as you know, in the North America, it's a smallest, it's 100 deals a year for the P&C, and out of them, I think, close to 40 is Guidewire today. And based on where we believe that's Stream and Adaptik, and the new Celent report -- analyst report that show that our offering tend to be very, very close to Guidewire and Duck Creek, so we can be one of the 3 big player in the U.S., after all these investments that we did. So we have -- we don't need to close more than few to continue to grow double digit. That's on the Adaptik. We have few advantages. I don't think this is the time to talk about it, technology versus Guidewire. So we believe that we can find enough client to close with us.

On the Tier 4, Tier 5, we think we are the market leader in this space. So we -- definitely, we close deals. We feel comfortable. We continue the momentum again. And the next one is Reinsurance. We are global, one of the top player in the -- together with SAP. We're the biggest one. And the next one is workers' comp, a Sapiens [software], we acquired StoneRiver. We put a lot of investment to establish our product. Right now, we're answering for few RFP, so we have 4 areas to grow, and this is why we have a good confidence that we can keep this growth momentum.

Okay, got it. And I guess, Roni G., last quarter, you gave a lot of detail around moving parts, I think one of them was a big project that was being -- taking a longer approach and longer scope to it. Is that still the case? As we move throughout the year, does that become any bigger or smaller of a year-on-year headwind for your numbers?

We mentioned the South African deal. This is the deal that you're referring to. And this was also the case why we gave the guidance on revenue at this level. I would like to -- we would like to play management conservative all on this and play very safe. Currently, we do not see -- we have some revenue, but we do not anticipate right now increasing this level of revenue.

Okay. Got it. And then maybe one last one. I think Roni, you mentioned that U.S. Life market in the core space, you're kind of focusing on Europe. Is that a competitive thing? A demand thing? Or what drives that decision?

No, we -- when we acquired StoneRiver, they had 3 products for what we call, component-based. We have a lot of customers in this area. We are also investing in our product. We just announced a new release for this product. So we -- there is an area that we can see growth. Again, this is not like core system, it's not transmission of dollar deals, but each of the deals and we have a lot of -- and -- so we can see a nice growth in this area as well.

The next question is from Avishai Kantor of Cowen.

My first question is, if you can talk a little bit specific, what really drove the overperformance in profitability and margin during the quarter?

Avishai, this is Roni G. So on the revenue side, we have a few factors that helped us. I would say, the first one is better integration with the Adaptik Stream solution that helped us to preserve some of the revenue that we anticipated to be in risk that we mentioned in the closing when we signed the deal. The second one is, slightly better decision deals that came in early in the year that together with the new standard -- the accounting standard helped us. And the third one is, up to $1 million came from the currency exchange rate that was in our favor. So this is on the revenue side.

On profitability, the currency didn't help us. I would say, the main reason is the integration plan that we started last year in Q4 across all division and we continue the -- throughout this quarter. This is one. And the second one is slightly improvement from the DECISION, the revenue and profit.

So were those integration -- new integration actions that started in Q4 -- were those kind of integration 2.0 stage, following the first stage of integration, those were new actions that were taken that you didn't think at the beginning or how do you think about that?

The integration, I would say, some of them took faster than what we planned, some of them slightly pushed into Q2, but overall -- if I see the overall picture, better process in execution from our side.

Okay. And then Roni A., you talked about cross-selling opportunities in the U.S., that you're now really starting the process. Do you need to take any corporate actions to materialize on those opportunities, meaning do you need to change or augment your sales and marketing strategies in U.S.?

The cross-selling is not just, by the way, in U.S.; maybe a share was it, but we see the same is in Europe. And the main thing that what we are doing with sales and marketing organization, separate to the division. But in the division, we are putting more effort on the account managers. And those type of things, we already did at last year. And this year, we are putting more emphasis in this area, and this is why -- this is the way that we are taking care about the cross-sell, up-sell opportunity.

Just one comment on that, the cross-sell that we are seeing is mainly coming from the complementary product, not the core solution, meaning, for example, when we sell P&C to existing customers or new customers, we are selling all the other complement like BI, PORTAL, Digital, Reinsurance, to either existing or new one that will increase our revenue per customer.

Okay. And my last question on India. Can you talk about your hiring as much as you can, your hiring trends or hiring plans for the India delivery center?

Yes. We are -- first of all, we are very happy with, say, India operation. We just came back from a trip from there. We are right now -- after 2, 3 years that we acquired this organization, we -- it's 4x bigger than what we acquired then. And we almost do everything there. We -- at the beginning, we used them more as a supplementation. Right now, they're able in all of our product, and as you know, Sapiens, we've almost 8, 9 products, each of them they have the little organization and in some of the cases, R&D organization. In few of the products, they're able to do end to end, meaning they're managing the client from a project manager point. So again, we are moving more and more things to India in order to improve the -- our overall profitability. And we are very happy.

The last thing that we are doing also there is all of our analytic, BI analytic, we have mainly developed there. So overall very positive. Right now, we continue to hire there, train there and build the right management for them.

Just one comment also from my side. We mentioned earlier that we started the cost-saving plan across all division globally. The one area that we remain intact is India and, as Roni mentioned, we will continue hiring there.

So basically, it's fair to say that India was a major driver for the overperformance in operating margin in Q1?

Partly. It's not all, it's partly, and we expect this also to do additional improvement throughout the year. Again, in moderate phase, slowly quarter-over-quarter.

(Operator Instructions) There are no further questions at this time. Before I ask Mr. Al-Dor to go ahead with his closing statement, I would like to remind participants that a replay of this call is scheduled to begin in 2 hours. In the U.S., please call 1 (888) 782-4291. In Israel, please call 03-925-5918. And internationally, please call 972-3-925-5918. Mr. Al-Dor, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Yes. Thank you, operator, and thank you for all participation for joining us today calls. Have a good day. Thanks.

Thank you. This concludes the Sapiens International Corporation First Quarter 2018 Results Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.