Startek Inc (SRT) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss the Startek financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022.

大家好，感謝大家參加今天的電話會議，討論 Startek 截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的第四季度和全年財務業績。

Joining us today are Startek Global CEO, Bharat Rao; and the company's Global CFO, Nishit Shah. Following their remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. Before we continue, we would like to remind all participants that the discussion today may contain certain statements, which are forward-looking in nature pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on information currently available to us and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Startek advises all those listening to this call to review the latest 10-K posted on its website for a summary of these risks and uncertainties. Startek does not undertake the responsibility to update any forward-looking statements.

今天加入我們的是 Startek 全球首席執行官 Bharat Rao；以及該公司的全球首席財務官 Nishit Shah。在他們發表講話後，我們將開始電話詢問您的問題。在繼續之前，我們想提醒所有參與者，今天的討論可能包含某些陳述，根據聯邦證券法的安全港條款，這些陳述本質上是前瞻性的。這些陳述基於我們目前掌握的信息，並受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果出現重大差異。 Startek 建議所有收聽本次電話會議的人員查看其網站上發布的最新 10-K，以了解這些風險和不確定性的摘要。 Startek 不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的責任。

Further, the discussion today may include some non-GAAP measures in accordance with Regulation G, the company has reconciled these amounts back to the closest GAAP-based measurement. The reconciliations can be found in the earnings release on the Investors section of their website. I would like to remind everyone that a webcast replay of today's call will be available via the Investors section of the company's website at www.startek.com. Additionally, the company has included a presentation, which can be found via the webcast link and on the Investors section of the company's website to coincide with the call.

此外，今天的討論可能包括根據 G 條例的一些非 GAAP 衡量標準，該公司已將這些金額調整回最接近的基於 GAAP 的衡量標準。調節表可以在其網站投資者部分的收益發布中找到。我想提醒大家，今天電話會議的網絡廣播重播將通過公司網站 www.startek.com 的投資者部分提供。此外，該公司還提供了一個演示文稿，可以通過網絡廣播鏈接和該公司網站的投資者部分找到該演示文稿，以配合電話會議。

Now I would like to turn the call over to Startek Global's CEO, Bharat Rao. Bharat, please proceed.

現在我想將電話轉給 Startek Global 的首席執行官 Bharat Rao。巴拉特，請繼續。

Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining. I'd like to take you to Slide 3 and recap the highlights for the quarter, I trust all of you have the presentation. As we wrap up for the year, we made significant progress during the fourth quarter, expanding our presence in key geographies, strengthening our existing service offering, building a robust sales pipeline and improving the health of our balance sheet. Another highlight of this quarter was the stabilization of our gross margin driven by lower pressure from wage inflation, and our ability to recover expenses associated with onboarding new agents earlier in the year.

謝謝你，喬。大家下午好，感謝大家的加入。我想帶您觀看幻燈片 3 並回顧一下本季度的亮點，我相信大家都已經了解了演示內容。當我們結束這一年時，我們在第四季度取得了重大進展，擴大了我們在關鍵地區的業務，加強了我們現有的服務，建立了強大的銷售渠道並改善了我們資產負債表的健康狀況。本季度的另一個亮點是，在工資通脹壓力降低的推動下，我們的毛利率趨於穩定，並且我們有能力收回今年早些時候與新代理入職相關的費用。

Throughout 2022, we focused heavily on making strategic investments to optimize our platform to meet our clients' needs while positioning Startek for topline growth and margin improvement. We also made significant progress in our offshoring initiatives as the softening macroeconomic climate has allowed many of our clients to reevaluate their operations and consider nearshore and offshore delivery options to drive cost savings within thei business. As a result of this trend, we have received an increased amount of interest in our near and offshore delivery locations, leading to engaging and productive site visits from potential clients.

2022 年，我們重點關注戰略投資，以優化我們的平台以滿足客戶的需求，同時定位 Startek 以實現營收增長和利潤率提高。我們在離岸外包計劃方面也取得了重大進展，因為宏觀經濟環境的疲軟使我們的許多客戶能夠重新評估其運營，並考慮近岸和離岸交付選項，以節省業務成本。由於這一趨勢，我們對近海和離岸交貨地點的興趣越來越大，從而導致潛在客戶進行了有吸引力且富有成效的實地考察。

I'd like to provide you a brief summary of our client wins and performance across different geographies and industry verticals during the quarter. We were pleased to secure 2 new high-value clients during the quarter that we believe will contribute significantly to our overall revenue mix in the future. The clients won are primarily in the utilities and cable verticals. Services will be delivered both onshore and offshore. And the majority of onshore delivery being delivered under the work-at-home model, utilizing the proprietary-started cloud platform, which presents a higher margin than our traditional onshore model.

我想向您簡要介紹本季度我們在不同地區和垂直行業的客戶贏得情況和業績。我們很高興在本季度獲得了 2 個新的高價值客戶，我們相信這將為我們未來的整體收入組合做出重大貢獻。贏得的客戶主要來自公用事業和電纜行業。服務將在陸上和海上提供。大多數陸上交付都是在在家工作模式下交付的，利用專有的雲平台，這比我們傳統的陸上模式提供了更高的利潤。

These strong new wins are a testament to the hard work and persistence of our sales team, which we believe will begin to bear fruit in terms of top line growth beginning next year. We continue to see growth in our core telecom and travel and hospitality and renewed activity in business services. Operations in our travel plans are quickly returning to the pre-pandemic levels, and we have expanded our wallet share with some of our key strategic clients in these verticals.

這些強勁的新勝利證明了我們銷售團隊的辛勤工作和堅持不懈，我們相信從明年開始，他們將在收入增長方面開始結出碩果。我們繼續看到我們的核心電信、旅遊和酒店業務的增長以及商業服務領域的新活動。我們的旅行計劃的運營正在迅速恢復到大流行前的水平，並且我們擴大了與這些垂直領域的一些主要戰略客戶的錢包份額。

I'd like to turn to Slide 4 and walk you through some strategic decisions that we made to strengthen our balance sheet and align our efforts to focus on our core business. The first step that we took was monetizing uptake in Movate, formerly known as CSS Corp. In December 2022, our Board began weighing option, and given the tightening environment in the financing world concluded that it was best for Startek to monetize its stake and not pursue exercising the call option. The monetization resulted in a 1.5 turns -- return on our investment in less than 2 years.

我想轉向幻燈片 4，向您介紹我們為加強資產負債表並協調我們的努力以專注於核心業務而做出的一些戰略決策。我們採取的第一步是將 Movate（前身為 CSS Corp）的吸收貨幣化。2022 年 12 月，我們的董事會開始權衡期權，考慮到融資領域的緊縮環境，得出的結論是，Startek 最好將其股份貨幣化，而不是尋求行使看漲期權。貨幣化使我們的投資在不到 2 年內實現了 1.5 倍的回報。

We continue to collaborate with the excellent team at Movate on an arm's-length basis as part of our efforts to continually bolster our service offering. The proceeds were used to prepay debt by USD 41.3 million. We entered into an agreement to exit our stake in the Saudi joint venture entity, CCC. We have obtained the necessary regulatory approvals, and the transaction is expected to close soon. We expect to generate approximately $55 million in net proceeds and this will be used to further prepay debt.

我們將繼續與 Movate 的優秀團隊保持一定距離的合作，以不斷增強我們的服務水平。所得款項用於預付債務 4130 萬美元。我們簽訂了一項協議，退出我們在沙特合資企業 CCC 中的股份。我們已獲得必要的監管批准，預計交易將很快完成。我們預計將產生約 5500 萬美元的淨收益，這將用於進一步提前償還債務。

Continuing our focus on prioritizing our core business, we made the decision to explore options to exit our operations in South America, which are limited to only Argentina. For context, Argentina has been facing economic difficulty and elevated inflation, which combined with the stringent exchange controls, makes it a very challenging operating environment. On revaluation of our capital allocation strategy and geographic priority, we have decided to initiate the strategic process to identify the right partner to take over our operations in the country. We will provide further update on this in the next quarter.

我們繼續專注於優先發展我們的核心業務，並決定探索退出南美洲業務的選擇，這些業務僅限於阿根廷。就背景而言，阿根廷一直面臨經濟困難和通脹上升，再加上嚴格的外匯管制，使其經營環境極具挑戰性。在重新評估我們的資本配置戰略和地域優先權後，我們決定啟動戰略流程，以確定合適的合作夥伴來接管我們在該國的業務。我們將在下個季度提供進一步的更新。

In the main guide, our Argentina operations are being accounted for under held for sale accounting policies in accordance with the U.S. GAAP standard. As you will see on Slide 5, these divestitures have contributed to reducing our pro forma net leverage to 1.3x following the close of the CCC deal, which we expect to result in the strongest balance sheet we've had in 5 years. This is a significant improvement from where our debt level has decided during the past several years, and given the current interest rate scenario, these couldn't have come at a better time. Improving our net leverage ratio will give us more flexibility to invest in our strategic pillars and pursue inorganic opportunities. Overall, these strategic moves demonstrate our commitment to deleveraging our balance sheet and sharpening our focus on our core operations to position us for sustained success in the future.

在主要指南中，我們的阿根廷業務根據美國公認會計準則標準按照待售會計政策進行核算。正如您將在幻燈片 5 中看到的那樣，這些資產剝離有助於在 CCC 交易結束後將我們的預計淨槓桿率降低至 1.3 倍，我們預計這將帶來 5 年來最強勁的資產負債表。與過去幾年我們的債務水平相比，這是一個顯著的改善，並且考慮到當前的利率情況，這些出現的時機再好不過了。提高我們的淨槓桿率將使我們能夠更加靈活地投資於我們的戰略支柱並尋求無機機會。總體而言，這些戰略舉措表明我們致力於去槓桿化資產負債表並加強對核心業務的關注，以使我們在未來取得持續成功。

In addition to adding 2 significant global and spearheading several critical strategic moves for the quarter, we continue to receive positive recognition for our outstanding leadership and the value we deliver to our clients, which you can see from the summary of the awards and recognition we recently received on Slide 6. We are especially honored by the recognition we received from Comparably throughout the year, including the Best Company for Diversity and the Best CEOs for Diversity Awards as these ratings directly reflect the pulse of our associates.

除了在本季度增加 2 項重大全球性舉措和率先實施多項關鍵戰略舉措外，我們的傑出領導力和為客戶提供的價值繼續獲得積極認可，您可以從幻燈片 6 上我們最近獲得的獎項和認可摘要中看到這一點。我們對全年從 Comparby 獲得的認可感到特別榮幸，包括“最佳多元化公司”和“最佳多元化首席執行官獎”，因為這些評級直接反映了我們員工的脈搏。

Comparably is a leading workplace culture site and corporate brand reputation platform with widely respected views. And over the span of the last 3 quarters, we improved our Culture Score on Comparably from 2.5 to 4.6 on a scale of 5 and have been designated as a Choice Employer. We continue to be encouraged by the many great recognitions that we receive quarter after quarter, and we believe these are a testament to our commitment to delivering world-class CX services to our clients and outpacing our competitors.

Comparby是一家領先的職場文化網站和企業品牌聲譽平台，其觀點受到廣泛尊重。在過去 3 個季度中，我們的文化得分從 2.5 分提高到 4.6 分（滿分 5 分），並被指定為首選雇主。我們每個季度都獲得許多巨大的認可，這讓我們繼續受到鼓舞，我們相信這些認可證明了我們致力於為客戶提供世界一流的 CX 服務並超越競爭對手的承諾。

Whilst we always enjoy being recognized for our achievements, we are also committed to working behind the scenes to promote diversity, equity and inclusion at Startek. Because of this, we chose to partner with Curio Digital Therapeutics to provide postpartum mental health support for our U.S.-based associates. We are committed to creating a vibrant workplace for all our 43,000 people around the globe, implementing region-specific benefits program and one way in which we do this, and Curio is a great example. CDC data revealed that postpartum depression affects as many as 1 in 8 mothers in the U.S. and can lead to women leaving the workplace.

雖然我們總是喜歡因成就而受到認可，但我們也致力於在幕後努力促進 Startek 的多樣性、公平性和包容性。因此，我們選擇與 Curio Digital Therapeutics 合作，為我們在美國的員工提供產後心理健康支持。我們致力於為全球 43,000 名員工創造一個充滿活力的工作場所，實施針對特定地區的福利計劃以及我們實現這一目標的一種方式，Curio 就是一個很好的例子。疾病預防控制中心的數據顯示，美國多達八分之一的母親患有產後抑鬱症，並可能導致女性離開工作場所。

By introducing the Curio platform, we are able to ensure that new mothers at Startek has easy access to personalized and flexible postpartum mental health programs they need to thrive both at home and in their professional lives. In this way, we are supporting our team members and the retention of women in our business during this important time in their lives.

通過推出 Curio 平台，我們能夠確保 Startek 的新媽媽能夠輕鬆獲得個性化且靈活的產後心理健康計劃，讓她們在家庭和職業生涯中都能茁壯成長。通過這種方式，我們可以為我們的團隊成員提供支持，並讓女性在人生的這個重要時刻留在我們的企業中。

In summary, this quarter was marked by meaningful progress attracting 2 sizable new logo win, making significant progress towards deleveraging our balance sheet, stabilizing our margins and undergoing several strategic operational changes made to better align our operations and our process. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the shift to remote work, which presents an opportunity for us to transition more of our customer base to a nearshore and or offshore delivery, further optimizing our operations and increasing efficiency. We are especially encouraged by the numerous near and offshore opportunities within our expanding sales pipeline, which underscores the strength of our business model and our ability to capitalize on emerging trends in the industry.

總之，本季度取得了有意義的進展，吸引了兩個相當大的新標誌，在去槓桿化我們的資產負債表、穩定我們的利潤率方面取得了重大進展，並進行了幾項戰略運營變革，以更好地協調我們的運營和流程。展望未來，我們對向遠程工作的轉變保持樂觀，這為我們提供了將更多客戶群轉變為近岸和/或離岸交付的機會，進一步優化我們的運營並提高效率。我們不斷擴大的銷售渠道中存在的眾多近岸和離岸機會尤其令我們感到鼓舞，這突顯了我們業務模式的優勢以及我們利用行業新興趨勢的能力。

Looking ahead to the new year, we remain committed to executing on our strategic pillars that has served as our guiding principles throughout the past several quarters.

展望新的一年，我們仍然致力於執行過去幾個季度作為我們指導原則的戰略支柱。

As detailed on Slide 7, these pillars and some several key areas, including providing industry's possible solution, enhancing our technology platform through unique digital partnerships, investing in our workforce to incentivize engagement and ensuring that our IT infrastructure and security measures are unmatched by competitors and provide a safe experience for us and our clients. During the past quarter, we continued to invest heavily in our people, making improvements in quality, training, reporting and automation. As a result of these efforts, our associate engagement score reached a record high of 82%.

正如幻燈片 7 所詳述的，這些支柱和一些關鍵領域，包括提供行業可能的解決方案、通過獨特的數字合作夥伴關係增強我們的技術平台、投資於我們的員工隊伍以激勵參與，並確保我們的 IT 基礎設施和安全措施是競爭對手無法比擬的，並為我們和我們的客戶提供安全的體驗。在過去的季度中，我們繼續大力投資於我們的員工，在質量、培訓、報告和自動化方面進行了改進。由於這些努力，我們的員工敬業度得分達到了 82% 的歷史新高。

Additionally, we have increased our investment in IT facility to protect against data breaches and cyber attacks, especially as we adapt to a sustained hybrid work model. One of our products that serve a good demonstration of the high importance that we place on security is our award-winning Startek Cloud, which utilizes patient recognition systems, voice biometric, end-to-end data encryption and AI to aid remote and home-based specialists and improve the business agility real-time.

此外，我們還增加了對 IT 設施的投資，以防止數據洩露和網絡攻擊，特別是在我們適應持續的混合工作模式時。我們屢獲殊榮的 Startek Cloud 是我們對安全性高度重視的產品之一，它利用患者識別系統、語音生物識別、端到端數據加密和人工智能來幫助遠程和家庭專家，並實時提高業務敏捷性。

Looking at Slide 8. We remain committed to aligning our digital solutions with our clients' strategic growth. When we think about how we expand our digital solution, we first make sure that we are aligning our service solutions with our clients' strategic goals. To do this, we utilize a combined agent, customer and channel-centric approach to offer a wide range of value-added capabilities that can apply to almost any customer setting. By focusing on engaging and incentivizing agents by leveraging AI to streamlined replicated process across different channels and ensuring the diversified service solutions are highly adaptive to our client needs.

請看幻燈片 8。我們仍然致力於使我們的數字解決方案與客戶的戰略增長保持一致。當我們考慮如何擴展數字解決方案時，我們首先確保我們的服務解決方案與客戶的戰略目標保持一致。為此，我們採用以代理、客戶和渠道為中心的綜合方法，提供廣泛的增值功能，幾乎適用於任何客戶環境。通過利用人工智能簡化不同渠道的重複流程，專注於吸引和激勵代理商，並確保多元化的服務解決方案高度適應客戶的需求。

In one of our partner case studies, for instance, we were able to reduce customer contact by approximately 50%, improve customer satisfaction by 25% and lower attrition by 30%, all while generating a better average handle time and higher sales conversion. One of the key elements to aligning our digital solutions with the needs of our customers and their customers is our partner-driven strategy. We have now proven case studies around some key digital interventions, including Startek AI Coach and Startek Gamification that have delivered significant benefits in lowering the overall cost of delivery to our clients while improving service delivery metric. We recently received a Bronze Stevie Award in the Best Use of Technology in Customer Service category at the Annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service for our work in Gamification.

例如，在我們的一個合作夥伴案例研究中，我們能夠將客戶接觸減少約 50%，將客戶滿意度提高 25%，將客戶流失率降低 30%，同時實現更短的平均處理時間和更高的銷售轉化率。讓我們的數字解決方案與客戶及其客戶的需求保持一致的關鍵要素之一是我們的合作夥伴驅動戰略。我們現在已經圍繞一些關鍵的數字干預措施進行了經過驗證的案例研究，包括 Startek AI Coach 和 Startek Gamification，它們在降低客戶的總體交付成本、同時提高服務交付指標方面帶來了顯著的效益。最近，由於我們在遊戲化方面的工作，我們在年度史蒂夫銷售和客戶服務獎中獲得了客戶服務最佳技術使用類別的史蒂夫銅獎。

During 2023, we will be dedicating more efforts in transitioning these pilots to become central elements of our ongoing operations while simultaneously looking for new value-added base to enhance our existing digital partnerships.

2023 年，我們將投入更多努力，將這些試點轉變為我們持續運營的核心要素，同時尋找新的增值基礎，以增強我們現有的數字合作夥伴關係。

Turning to Slide 10, which describes the structure and success of our sales approach, we have seen significant traction from our revised sales efforts, which has led to addition of 12 new logos to our year. Our approach leverages 7 experienced sales professionals in the U.S. and 4 regional sales team members. To aid our sales leadership in becoming more effective, we are investing in utilizing data-driven marketing to proactively generate new deals across our core verticals, including cable, media and telecom, retail and e-commerce, travel and hospitality, financial services and healthcare. So far, we are encouraged with the results we are seeing from our reinvigorated approach. And we will continue to prioritize our current sales approach to drive top line growth, expand our global footprint and strengthen our presence within our core verticals.

轉向幻燈片 10，它描述了我們銷售方法的結構和成功，我們看到了修訂後的銷售工作的巨大吸引力，這導致我們今年增加了 12 個新徽標。我們的方法利用了美國 7 名經驗豐富的銷售專業人員和 4 名區域銷售團隊成員。為了幫助我們的銷售領導力變得更加有效，我們正在投資利用數據驅動的營銷，在我們的核心垂直領域主動產生新交易，包括有線電視、媒體和電信、零售和電子商務、旅遊和酒店、金融服務和醫療保健。到目前為止，我們對重振方法所取得的成果感到鼓舞。我們將繼續優先考慮當前的銷售方式，以推動收入增長、擴大我們的全球足跡並加強我們在核心垂直領域的影響力。

Going forward, as we begin to see the return on investment from our sales and offshoring initiatives, we expect these benefits, along with the strategic operational moves we made during the quarter, to flow through to our results in the coming quarters and position us for incremental margin expansion and top line growth in 2023 and beyond. As a whole, we remain committed to pursuing sustainable growth while maximizing value to our shareholders, and we are eager to continue executing our strategic growth road map for many years to come.

展望未來，隨著我們開始看到銷售和離岸外包計劃的投資回報，我們預計這些收益以及我們在本季度採取的戰略運營舉措將轉化為我們未來幾個季度的業績，並使我們能夠在 2023 年及以後實現利潤率的增量擴張和營收增長。總的來說，我們仍然致力於追求可持續增長，同時為股東創造最大價值，並且我們渴望在未來許多年繼續執行我們的戰略增長路線圖。

I'd now like to turn over the call to Nishit Shah to provide further details on our fourth quarter and the full year financial results, of which you can see a brief snapshot on Slides 11 and 12. Thank you all for joining us, and I'll be available to answer any questions you may have during the Q&A session at the end of this call. Nishit, I'll pass over the call to you.

現在我想將電話轉給 Nishit Shah，以提供有關我們第四季度和全年財務業績的更多詳細信息，您可以在幻燈片 11 和 12 上看到其中的簡要快照。感謝大家加入我們，我將在本次電話會議結束時的問答環節回答您可能提出的任何問題。 Nishit，我會把電話轉給你。

Thank you, Bharat. Before I get started, I would like to note that as a result of our current unplanned divestitures, we have adjusted our financial statements to exclude the revenue from discontinued operations in the current and the prior year periods. For a full reconciliation of our fourth quarter and full year results, please see the financial table listed in our quarterly earnings release, or 10-K, that will be posted on our Investor Relations section of our website.

謝謝你，巴拉特。在開始之前，我想指出，由於我們目前計劃外的資產剝離，我們已經調整了我們的財務報表，以排除本期和上一年期間已終止業務的收入。有關我們第四季度和全年業績的完整核對錶，請參閱我們的季度收益報告或 10-K 中列出的財務表格，該表格將發佈在我們網站的投資者關係部分。

Starting on the top line. Net revenue in Q4 was $93 million compared to $113.7 million in the year ago quarter. As you are aware, from our earlier calls, we had terminated operations with 2 large clients, 1 each in e-commerce and cable vertical in 2021. Adjusting for the high base in the year ago quarter, the revenue in the current quarter declined by 7.3% year-over-year. The decline was partly due to ForEx movement as U.S. dollar strengthened related to emerging market currencies where we operate. Adjusting for ForEx movement, the decrease was 3.6% year-over-year.

從頂行開始。第四季度淨收入為 9300 萬美元，而去年同期淨收入為 1.137 億美元。如您所知，根據我們之前的電話會議，我們已於 2021 年終止了與 2 個大客戶的業務，其中電子商務和有線電視垂直領域各有 1 個。根據上年同期的高基數進行調整後，本季度的收入同比下降 7.3%。下降的部分原因是外匯波動，因為美元相對於我們經營的新興市場貨幣走強。調整外匯變動後，同比下降 3.6%。

The decline was partially offset from a strong performance in our telecom, financial and business services and travel and hospitality vertical. Gross profit in the fourth quarter was $16.8 million compared to $17.4 million in the year ago quarter. Gross profit margin increased 280 basis points to 18.1% compared to 15.3% in the year-ago quarter. The increase was primarily due to relatively larger contribution of revenue from high-margin nearshore and offshore deliveries. This is also a reflection of various cost optimization effort undertaken during the past few quarters, especially on the rationalization of our brick-and-mortar capacities.

這一下降被電信、金融和商業服務以及旅遊和酒店垂直領域的強勁表現所部分抵消。第四季度毛利潤為 1,680 萬美元，而去年同期毛利潤為 1,740 萬美元。毛利率較去年同期的 15.3% 增長 280 個基點至 18.1%。增長的主要原因是高利潤的近岸和離岸交付收入貢獻相對較大。這也反映了過去幾個季度進行的各種成本優化工作，特別是在實體產能的合理化方面。

Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter from continuing operation was $12.1 million compared to $12.8 million in the year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 170 basis points to 13% compared to 11.3% in the year-ago quarter. At consolidated level, including the discontinuing operations, adjusted EBITDA increased to $21.3 million compared to $18.9 million in the year-ago quarter.

第四季度持續經營業務調整後 EBITDA 為 1,210 萬美元，而去年同期為 1,280 萬美元。調整後 EBITDA 利潤率增長 170 個基點，達到 13%，而去年同期為 11.3%。在合併層面（包括終止經營業務），調整後 EBITDA 增至 2130 萬美元，而去年同期為 1890 萬美元。

Adjusted net income attributable to Startek shareholders from continuing operations increased to $12.6 million compared to $11.1 million in the year-ago quarter. At a consolidated level, including discontinued operations, adjusted net income increased to $14.1 million or $0.35 per diluted share compared to $12.9 million or $0.32 per diluted share in the year-ago quarter. Please note that net income included capital gain for the monetization of stake in Movate. From a balance sheet perspective, as of December 31, 2022, our cash and restricted cash balances stood at $72.4 million on December 31, 2022.

持續經營業務中歸屬於 Startek 股東的調整後淨利潤增至 1260 萬美元，而去年同期為 1110 萬美元。在合併層面（包括終止經營業務），調整後淨利潤增至 1,410 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.35 美元，而去年同期為 1,290 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.32 美元。請注意，淨利潤包括將 Movate 股份貨幣化的資本收益。從資產負債表的角度來看，截至2022年12月31日，我們的現金和限制性現金餘額在2022年12月31日為7240萬美元。

This included the proceeds from the redemption of our interest in Movate, which were used to prepay $41.3 million term loan in January 2023. Net debt on December 31, 2022 was $103.5 million compared to $141 million at September 30, 2022. As Bharat discussed earlier, we expect our net debt to significantly decline as we make another prepayment from the CCC transaction proceeds.

其中包括贖​​回我們在 Movate 權益的收益，這些收益用於預付 2023 年 1 月的 4130 萬美元定期貸款。2022 年 12 月 31 日的淨債務為 1.035 億美元，而 2022 年 9 月 30 日為 1.41 億美元。正如 Bharat 之前討論的那樣，隨著我們從 CCC 交易收益中再次預付款，我們預計我們的淨債務將大幅下降。

Now let's review the full year 2022 performance. From continuing operations, net revenue in 2022 was $385.1 million compared to $470.3 million in 2021. Adjusting for the high base of 2021, which included revenues from the COVID-19 support program and e-commerce and cable client that terminated operations in 2021, our like-for-like revenue grew by 0.8% in 2022. On a constant currency basis, the growth was 4.8% year-over-year. This was driven by our growth in our core verticals of telecom, travel and hospitality and business services.

現在讓我們回顧一下2022年全年的表現。從持續運營業務來看，2022 年的淨收入為 3.851 億美元，而 2021 年為 4.703 億美元。根據 2021 年的高基數進行調整，其中包括來自 2021 年終止運營的 COVID-19 支持計劃以及電子商務和有線電視客戶的收入，我們 2022 年的同比收入增長了 0.8%。按固定匯率計算，同比增長 4.8%。這是由我們在電信、旅遊、酒店和商業服務等核心垂直行業的增長推動的。

Gross margin increased 120 basis points to 15% compared to 13.8% in 2021. The margin expansion was driven by exit of low-margin accounts and change in business mix towards nearshore and offshore delivery. This also reflects the cost optimization effect undertaken through the last fiscal. Adjusted EBITDA in 2022 from continuing operation was $38.4 million compared to $47.3 million in 2021. Adjusting for the high base in 2021, as outlined earlier, adjusted EBITDA grew year-over-year while we delivered consistent margin at 10%. At a consolidated level, including the discontinued operation, adjusted EBITDA was $63.1 million compared to $72.4 million in 2021. Adjusted net income attributable to Startek shareholders from continuing operations was $25.9 million compared to $24.8 million in 2021.

毛利率增長了 120 個基點，達到 15%，而 2021 年為 13.8%。利潤率擴張是由於低利潤賬戶的退出以及近岸和離岸交付業務組合的變化推動的。這也反映了上一財年所採取的成本優化效果。 2022 年持續經營帶來的調整後 EBITDA 為 3840 萬美元，而 2021 年為 4730 萬美元。如前所述，根據 2021 年的高基數進行調整後，調整後 EBITDA 同比增長，同時我們的利潤率保持在 10% 的穩定水平。在合併層面上，包括終止經營業務，調整後的 EBITDA 為 6310 萬美元，而 2021 年為 7240 萬美元。持續經營業務歸屬於 Startek 股東的調整後淨利潤為 2590 萬美元，而 2021 年為 2480 萬美元。

At consolidated level, including discontinuing operations, net income was $26.7 million or $0.66 per diluted share compared to $27.3 million or $0.67 per diluted share in 2021. We repurchased an aggregate of 426,445 shares of our common stock under a repurchase plan during the full year at an average cost of $4.29 per share. This was a testament of our continued confidence in our long-term growth prospects.

在合併層面（包括終止經營業務），淨利潤為 2670 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.66 美元，而 2021 年為 2730 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.67 美元。全年，我們根據回購計劃回購了總計 426,445 股普通股，平均成本為每股 4.29 美元。這證明了我們對長期增長前景的持續信心。

With that, we will now open the call for questions.

現在，我們將開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) At this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Rao. Please proceed.

（操作員說明） 至此，我們的問答環節就結束了。我現在想把電話轉回給饒先生。請繼續。

Sorry, there was a bit of background noise in the background. Joe, thank you. So thank you, Joe, and thank you all for joining us this afternoon and for your continued support of Startek. I look forward to speaking with you next when we report our first quarter 2023 results.

抱歉，背景中有一點背景噪音。喬，謝謝你。謝謝你，喬，感謝大家今天下午加入我們並感謝你們對 Startek 的持續支持。我期待下次在我們報告 2023 年第一季度業績時與您交談。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a great day.

謝謝。女士們，先生們。您現在可以斷開線路，祝您有美好的一天。