Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Verisk's Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 Verisk 2020 年第四季財報電話會議。本次通話正在錄音。（操作說明）

For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to, first, Head of Investor Relations, Ms. Stacey Brodbar. Ms. Brodbar, please go ahead.

首先，我謹將電話交給投資人關係主管史泰西‧布羅德巴女士，請她致開幕詞並作介紹。布羅德巴女士，請繼續。

Thank you, Mary, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results.

謝謝你，瑪麗，大家早安。感謝您今天蒞臨本次會議，與我們共同探討2020年第四季及全年財務表現。

Today's call will be led by Scott Stephenson, Verisk's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, who will provide an overview of our business. Lee Shavel, Chief Financial Officer and Group President, will follow the financial -- with a financial review. Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer and Group President; and Ken Thompson, General Counsel, will join the team for the Q&A session.

今天的電話會議將由 Verisk 董事長、總裁兼執行長 Scott Stephenson 主持，他將概述我們的業務。財務長兼集團總裁李·沙維爾將隨後進行財務審查。營運長兼集團總裁馬克·安奎拉雷和總法律顧問肯·湯普森將加入團隊，參加問答環節。

The earnings release referenced on this call as well as the associated 10-K can be found in the Investors section of our website, verisk.com. The earnings release has also been attached to an 8-K that we have furnished to the SEC. A replay of this call will be available for 30 days on our website and by dial in.

本次電話會議中提到的收益報告以及相關的 10-K 表格可以在我們網站 verisk.com 的投資者關係部分找到。獲利報告也已附在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的 8-K 表格中。本次通話的錄音將在我們的網站上保留 30 天，也可透過電話撥入收聽。

Finally, as set forth in more detail in today's earnings release, I will remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements about Verisk's future performance, including, but not limited to, the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Actual performance could differ materially from what is suggested by our comments today. Information about the factors that could affect future performance is contained in our recent SEC filings.

最後，正如今天發布的收益報告中更詳細闡述的那樣，我要提醒大家，今天的電話會議可能包含有關 Verisk 未來業績的前瞻性陳述，包括但不限於 COVID-19 疫情的潛在影響。實際表現可能與我們今天所作的評論有重大差異。有關可能影響未來業績的因素的資訊已包含在我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中。

Now I'll turn the call over to Scott.

現在我把電話交給史考特。

Thanks, Stacey. Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us for our Q4 2020 earnings conference call.

謝謝你，史黛西。大家好。感謝您參加我們2020年第四季財報電話會議。

While 2020 was a year like no other, for everyone. At Verisk, it was a year that demonstrated the resilience and stability of our business model, the relevance and mission-critical nature of our solutions and our relentless focus on our customers. And this was all powered by the strength and creativity of our over 9,000 Verisk teammates around the globe, who I want to thank for their dedication and commitment to deliver on our core mission: to serve, add value and innovate during these challenging times.

2020年對每個人來說都是不同尋常的一年。對 Verisk 而言，這一年充分展現了我們商業模式的韌性和穩定性，我們解決方案的相關性和關鍵性，以及我們對客戶的不懈關注。這一切都歸功於我們遍布全球的 9000 多名 Verisk 團隊成員的力量和創造力，我要感謝他們為實現我們的核心使命所做的奉獻和努力：在這些充滿挑戰的時期，服務、創造價值和創新。

The net results in 2020 was another strong year of financial performance, marked by organic constant currency revenue growth of 4.1% and organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth of 11.6% after normalizing for the impact of the injunction related to roof measurement solutions.

2020 年的淨業績是另一個強勁的財務業績年，有機固定匯率收入增長 4.1%，有機固定匯率調整 EBITDA 增長 11.6%（已剔除與屋頂測量解決方案相關的禁令的影響）。

More importantly, in 2020, we delivered 6.9% (sic) [6.5%] organic constant currency revenue growth in the 85% of our revenues that we identified as non-COVID sensitive, essentially in line with our long-term growth target. Conversely, our COVID-sensitive revenues declined 11% on an OCC basis, yet, those revenue streams continue to show resilience as the underlying causal factors improve, and we have confidence in its relationship.

更重要的是，2020 年，在我們確定為不受 COVID 影響的 85% 的收入中，我們實現了 6.9%（原文如此）[6.5%] 的有機固定匯率收入增長，這基本上符合我們的長期增長目標。相反，我們受新冠疫情影響的收入按 OCC 計算下降了 11%，但隨著潛在致因因素的改善，這些收入來源繼續表現出韌性，我們對其關係充滿信心。

Throughout the year, we've been very deliberate in our cost actions and have protected profitability by matching headcount growth with the trend in our revenue growth. As such, the pace of our hiring and our overall headcount growth has increased sequentially, following the moves that we took at the onset of the pandemic in early spring 2020. As a result, Verisk delivered strong organic-adjusted EBITDA growth and solid margin expansion throughout the year. Lee will provide more details on our performance in his financial review.

在過去一年中，我們在成本控制方面一直非常謹慎，並透過將員工人數成長與收入成長趨勢相符來保障獲利能力。因此，自 2020 年初春疫情爆發以來，我們採取的措施促使我們的招募速度和整體員工人數成長逐年加快。因此，Verisk 全年實現了強勁的有機調整 EBITDA 成長和穩健的利潤率擴張。李將在財務報告中提供更多關於我們業績的細節。

2020 also exhibited the importance of our strong cash flow, the disciplined capital allocation mindset and our emphasis on creating long-term durable shareholder value. Despite the challenges of the operating environment during 2020, we were deliberate about our continued investment in our innovation agenda by inventing new solutions and enhancing existing ones. We also partnered with our customers to bring them solutions to help them be more automated and digitally connected during the pandemic. We funded the continued transformation of our technical infrastructure through cloud migration, tokenization and key data assets and the development of cutting-edge data fabric to underlie our analytics solutions.

2020 年也體現了我們強勁的現金流、嚴謹的資本配置理念以及我們對創造長期持久股東價值的重視。儘管 2020 年的經營環境充滿挑戰，但我們仍然堅定地繼續投資於創新議程，發明新的解決方案並改進現有的解決方案。我們也與客戶合作，為他們提供解決方案，幫助他們在疫情期間實現更高的自動化程度和數位化連接。我們透過雲端遷移、令牌化和關鍵資料資產，以及開發尖端資料架構來持續改造我們的技術基礎設施，從而為我們的分析解決方案奠定基礎。

This is a journey we embarked on in earnest 2 years ago, and we have made significant progress moving our data sets and solutions to the cloud. Yet, we still returned over $500 million in cash to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. And I'm pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved a 7% increase in our cash dividend and a $300 million increase in our share repurchase authorization to support ongoing capital return.

兩年前，我們正式踏上了這段旅程，並且在將我們的資料集和解決方案遷移到雲端方面取得了重大進展。然而，我們仍然透過股票回購和分紅向股東返還了超過 5 億美元的現金。我很高興地宣布，我們的董事會已批准將現金股利提高 7%，並將股票回購授權增加 3 億美元，以支持持續的資本回報。

On the innovation front, our Insurance business continued to advance our existing solutions and introduced new innovations. In our commercial property business, we substantially enhanced and updated our database of commercial properties by building an advanced analytic model for over 8 million commercial properties that give insurers information for 5 key building attributes, including building use, construction class, building age, number of stories and area. This brings the database to a total of 12.2 million commercial properties, and this data can be delivered to our Insurance customers' workflows in an automated and easy-to-use format.

在創新方面，我們的保險業務不斷改進現有解決方案，並推出了新的創新方案。在我們的商業房地產業務中，我們透過建立一個包含超過 800 萬處商業地產的先進分析模型，大幅增強和更新了我們的商業地產資料庫，該模型為保險公司提供了 5 個關鍵建築屬性的信息，包括建築用途、建築等級、建築年代、樓層數和麵積。這使得資料庫總共包含 1,220 萬個商業房地產，這些資料可以以自動化和易於使用的格式交付給我們的保險客戶的工作流程。

Additionally, during the quarter, we continued to advance our analytics and offerings in the fast-growing area of cyber risk with the addition of Nationwide to the Verisk Cyber Data Exchange. The Cyber Data Exchange is a contributory database of aggregated and anonymized insurance data from participating cyber insurers globally. The insights and analytics that Verisk derives from this data help our insurance customers make intelligent strategic decisions about their portfolios and select risk and benchmark their performance against peers. The Cyber Exchange is an important part of Verisk's Cyber Solutions suite, which is an end-to-end ecosystem that helps insurers and reinsurers to more quickly deliver new cyber programs or enhance existing ones.

此外，在本季度，我們繼續推動在快速成長的網路風險領域的分析和產品，將 Nationwide 納入 Verisk 網路資料交換平台。網路資料交換平台是一個匯集了全球參與網路保險公司的匿名化保險資料的資料庫。Verisk 從這些數據中獲得的洞察和分析可以幫助我們的保險客戶對其投資組合做出明智的策略決策，選擇風險，並與同業進行績效基準比較。網路交換平台是 Verisk 網路解決方案套件的重要組成部分，該套件是一個端到端的生態系統，可幫助保險公司和再保險公司更快地交付新的網路安全計畫或增強現有計畫。

I'd like to take a minute to observe on recent developments related to our ongoing patent dispute with EagleView Technologies. We continue to disagree with the current outcome of the case and are aggressively pursuing all our legal and operational options. In September 2019, we recorded a $125 million legal reserve related to this matter. We filed our appeal of the original ruling at the end of the fourth quarter 2020. On February 16, the trial court granted EVT's motion for trouble damages as well as some interest and fees. We intend to appeal this ruling as well. As discussed in more detail in our 10-K, because our appeal is pending, we're unable to predict the ultimate outcome of this matter. Still, we remain committed to providing our customers with superior aerial imagery solutions and remain very excited about our partnership with Vexcel, which has not been impacted by this ruling.

我想花一點時間談談我們與 EagleView Technologies 之間正在進行的專利糾紛的最新進展。我們仍然不同意目前的案件結果，並將積極尋求所有法律和行動上的解決方案。2019 年 9 月，我們為此提列了 1.25 億美元的法律準備金。我們在 2020 年第四季末對原判決提出了上訴。2月16日，初審法院批准了EVT提出的賠償動議，要求賠償損失以及部分利息和費用。我們也打算對這項裁決提出上訴。正如我們在 10-K 文件中更詳細討論的那樣，由於我們的上訴仍在進行中，我們無法預測此事的最終結果。儘管如此，我們仍然致力於為客戶提供卓越的空拍影像解決方案，並且對與 Vexcel 的合作關係感到非常興奮，該合作關係並未受到此裁決的影響。

At Wood Mackenzie, we continued to expand our Lens energy analytic platform. In the fourth quarter, we released Lens subsurface discovery on time and on budget, rounding out our 5 upstream solutions within the Lens platform. This module enables faster, more accurate decision-making for exploration and resource development teams as they have access to a comprehensive global data set and can run custom analyses and perform benchmarking studies right into the workflows. Despite the softness in the energy end market driving industry consolidation, we continue to see demand for Lens across our different customer segments, which is reflected in increased adoption, constructive pricing and longer contract terms. Looking ahead, we are on track to launch a suite of modules related to the energy transition into the Lens platform, namely Lens Power, which will include global discovery and valuation as well as carbon emissions benchmarking solutions.

在伍德麥肯茲，我們繼續擴展了我們的 Lens 能源分析平台。第四季度，我們按時按預算發布了 Lens 地下勘探解決方案，完善了 Lens 平台內的 5 個上游解決方案。該模組使勘探和資源開發團隊能夠更快、更準確地做出決策，因為他們可以存取全面的全球資料集，並可以直接在工作流程中執行自訂分析和執行基準研究。儘管能源終端市場疲軟，推動了行業整合，但我們仍然看到不同客戶群對 Lens 的需求不斷增長，這體現在更高的採用率、合理的定價和更長的合約期限上。展望未來，我們正按計劃在 Lens 平台上推出一套與能源轉型相關的模組，即 Lens Power，其中將包括全球發現和估值以及碳排放基準解決方案。

In Financial Services, we launched small business attributes, a new solution in partnership with Enigma Technologies that provides greater insights into the financial health of small businesses, which have been the hardest hit part of the economy during the pandemic. This solution offers our bank customers near real-time information about sales trends that can be used by a bank's risk underwriting and marketing teams so they can better serve small business customers. This partnership is a great example of how VFS is leveraging our unique data assets to extend and serve new segments of the financial services end market.

在金融服務領域，我們推出了小型企業屬性，這是與 Enigma Technologies 合作推出的新解決方案，旨在更深入地了解小型企業的財務狀況。小型企業在疫情期間遭受的經濟打擊最為嚴重。該解決方案為我們的銀行客戶提供近乎實時的銷售趨勢信息，銀行的風險承保和營銷團隊可以利用這些信息更好地服務於小企業客戶。此次合作充分體現了 VFS 如何利用我們獨特的數據資產來拓展和為金融服務終端市場的新領域提供服務。

On the acquisition front, in the fourth quarter, Verisk closed on the acquisition of Jornaya, a leading provider of consumer behavioral data and intelligence. The acquisition will add Jornaya's proprietary view of consumer buying journeys to Verisk's growing set of marketing solutions for the insurance and financial service markets, delivering better experiences and improving customer acquisition and retention for our customers.

在收購方面，第四季度，Verisk 完成了對 Jornaya 的收購，Jornaya 是一家領先的消費者行為數據和情報提供者。此次收購將 Jornaya 對消費者購買歷程的專有見解添加到 Verisk 不斷增長的面向保險和金融服務市場的營銷解決方案中，從而為我們的客戶提供更好的體驗，並提高客戶獲取和留存率。

In addition, we've made great strides throughout 2020 with recently acquired companies. We have now owned FAST and Genscape for a full year. And I'm happy to share that we are having great success extending and accelerating the adoption of their solutions across our customer set as well as improving profitability through cost synergies. We're very pleased with these results as they are tracking ahead of our plans at the time of acquisition and are a great example of management's focus on delivering strong returns on the capital invested in the acquisitions.

此外，我們在 2020 年與近期收購的公司也取得了長足進步。我們擁有 FAST 和 Genscape 已經整整一年了。我很高興地告訴大家，我們在擴大和加速客戶群中採用他們的解決方案方面取得了巨大成功，同時透過成本協同效應提高了獲利能力。我們對這些結果非常滿意，因為它們比我們收購時的計劃進展得更快，也很好地體現了管理層致力於為收購投資帶來強勁回報的決心。

2020 also marked another high point for our company's culture and our commitment to investing in our people and their skills. Despite the remote work environment, the Verisk team increased productivity, boosted connection and collaboration through internal communication tools and engaged in training and development courses through our many different platforms and across all levels of the organization. This year alone, we trained more than 700 teammates in our leadership and management development programs and in our Lean Six Sigma programs. Verisk teammates earned 900 Yellow Belt certifications and 70 Green Belt certifications. Lean Six Sigma is an embedded mindset across Verisk, and we continue to leverage this established methodology and set of tools to serve our customers better every day.

2020 年也標誌著我們公司文化和我們對員工及其技能投資的承諾又達到了一個新的高峰。儘管是遠距辦公，Verisk 團隊仍然提高了生產力，透過內部溝通工具加強了聯繫和協作，並透過我們眾多不同的平台在組織的各個層面參與了培訓和發展課程。光是今年，我們就透過領導力和管理發展計畫以及精益六西格瑪計畫培訓了 700 多名團隊成員。Verisk團隊成員獲得了900份黃帶認證和70份綠帶認證。精實六西格瑪已成為 Verisk 內部根深蒂固的思維模式，我們將繼續利用這一成熟的方法論和工具集，每天更好地為客戶服務。

Some examples of important accomplishments this year include: First, model developers worked to reduce the time spent collecting data and creating models, improving time to market for new models. Second, field representatives developed new time-saving procedures for completing and updating property surveys, increasing their productivity. And third, sales and support teams developed new processes to execute new contracts or amend current ones quicker with our customers.

今年取得的一些重要成就包括：首先，模型開發人員努力減少收集資料和建立模型所花費的時間，從而縮短了新模型的上市時間。其次，現場代表制定了新的省時程序來完成和更新房產調查，提高了工作效率。第三，銷售和支援團隊制定了新的流程，以便更快地與客戶簽訂新合約或修改現有合約。

The benefits are reflected in increased productivity, high customer satisfaction and improved employee engagement. In fact, this year, our employee engagement score increased 8 points to 78%. And for the fifth consecutive year, Verisk received U.S. certification from the Great Place to Work Institute for outstanding workplace culture. We also received first-time certification in the United Kingdom, India and Spain.

這些益處體現在生產力提升、顧客滿意度提升和員工敬業度增強等。事實上，今年我們的員工敬業度得分提高了 8 個百分點，達到 78%。Verisk 連續第五年獲得美國卓越職場研究所頒發的「傑出職場文化」認證。我們也首次獲得了英國、印度和西班牙的認證。

Finally, I'd like to share my enthusiasm and my views on the recently announced leadership changes and expanded responsibilities for our executive management team. These changes reflect the thoughtful and strategic approach to our long-term growth and planning with the global organization and are a testament to the deep bench of talented leaders we have at Verisk. I'm pleased to share that both Mark Anquillare and Lee Shavel are taking on new leadership responsibilities within Verisk, and both have been elevated to the position of Group President.

最後，我想分享我對最近宣布的領導層變動以及高階主管團隊職責擴大的看法和熱情。這些變化體現了我們對全球組織長期發展和規劃的深思熟慮和策略性方法，也證明了 Verisk 擁有許多才華橫溢的領導者。我很高興地宣布，Mark Anquillare 和 Lee Shavel 都將在 Verisk 承擔新的領導職責，兩人都已晉升為集團總裁。

Mark Anquillare, who currently serves as Verisk's Chief Operating Officer, is adding oversight of the company's enterprise risk management function to his current responsibilities of leading the company's Insurance business and government-facing businesses. Our risk management operations will continue to be led by our very talented and seasoned team that work diligently every day to make sure that our technical infrastructure remains secure and that we are always using the most advanced data protection techniques. This move also more closely ties to our enterprise risk assessment and management with the core operations of our business.

現任 Verisk 營運長 Mark Anquillare 除了繼續負責公司的保險業務和麵向政府的業務外，還將負責公司的企業風險管理職能。我們的風險管理營運將繼續由我們才華橫溢、經驗豐富的團隊領導，他們每天都兢兢業業地工作，以確保我們的技術基礎設施保持安全，並且我們始終使用最先進的資料保護技術。此舉也使我們的企業風險評估和管理與我們業務的核心營運更加緊密地連結起來。

Lee Shavel, who currently serves as Verisk's Chief Financial Officer, will add oversight responsibility for the operations of our Energy and Specialized Markets segment and our Financial Services segment, bringing in an even more direct link between our capital allocation discipline and our business unit operations. Lee will continue to be supported by our deep and tenured finance organization, including our Chief Accounting Officer and Controller, David Grover; and our Treasurer, Brian Aird.

現任 Verisk 財務長 Lee Shavel 將負責監督我們能源和專業市場部門以及金融服務部門的運營，從而在我們資本配置紀律和業務部門運營之間建立更直接的聯繫。Lee將繼續得到我們經驗豐富、實力雄厚的財務團隊的支持，其中包括我們的首席會計官兼財務總監David Grover和財務主管Brian Aird。

Finally, I'm pleased to publicly welcome Kathy Card Beckles to Verisk that's our new General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Kathy joins us from Chase Consumer Bank, where she most recently served as General Counsel. Kathy brings with her extensive experience in intellectual property and technology and significant expertise partnering with and advising Boards of Directors and management teams. I look forward to having Kathy formally join the team on April 5 and working with her to advance our long-term strategy.

最後，我很高興地公開歡迎 Kathy Card Beckles 加入 Verisk，她將擔任我們的新總法律顧問兼公司秘書。Kathy先前在摩根大通消費銀行擔任總法律顧問。Kathy 在智慧財產權和技術領域擁有豐富的經驗，並且在與董事會和管理團隊合作及提供諮詢方面擁有豐富的專業知識。我期待凱西於 4 月 5 日正式加入團隊，並與她一起推進我們的長期策略。

Kathy will replace Ken Thompson, who announced his retirement late last year. To ensure a smooth transition, Ken will continue with the company as Executive Counsel. Over the last 14 years, Ken has been an integral part of Verisk's success and a valued partner and a friend to many across the organization. On behalf of the entire organization, I want to personally thank Ken for his dedication to Verisk and his counsel through this transition. We wish him much health and happiness in his retirement.

凱西將接替肯湯普森，後者於去年底宣布退休。為確保平穩過渡，Ken將繼續留在公司擔任執行法律顧問。在過去的 14 年裡，Ken 一直是 Verisk 成功不可或缺的一部分，也是公司內許多人的寶貴合作夥伴和朋友。我謹代表整個組織，親自感謝 Ken 對 Verisk 的奉獻以及在此過渡期間提供的指導。我們祝福他退休生活健康幸福。

And now I will turn the call over to Lee to cover our financial results.

現在我將把電話交給李，讓他來介紹我們的財務表現。

Thanks, Scott. First, I would like to bring to everyone's attention that we have posted a quarterly earnings presentation that is available on our website.

謝謝你，斯科特。首先，我想提醒大家，我們已經在網站上發布了季度財報。

Moving to the financial results for the fourth quarter. On a consolidated and GAAP basis, revenue grew 5.4% to $713 million. Net income increased 33% to $176 million, while diluted GAAP earnings per share grew 33.8% to $1.07, reflecting a $28 million acquisition-related earn-out expense in the prior year that did not reoccur.

接下來來看第四季的財務表現。以合併及GAAP準則計算，營收成長5.4%，達7.13億美元。淨利潤增長 33% 至 1.76 億美元，稀釋後 GAAP 每股收益增長 33.8% 至 1.07 美元，這反映了上一年與收購相關的 2800 萬美元或有收益支出沒有再次發生。

Moving to our organic constant currency results adjusted for nonoperating items, as defined in the non-GAAP Financial Measures section of our press release, we are very pleased with our operating results considering the impact from COVID-19. In the fourth quarter, organic constant currency revenue grew 3.5%, led by continued strength in our Insurance segment. Our non-COVID-sensitive revenues, as we defined at the start of the pandemic, grew approximately 6.5% on an organic constant currency basis.

根據我們在新聞稿「非GAAP財務指標」部分定義的非經營性項目調整後的有機固定匯率業績，考慮到COVID-19的影響，我們對我們的經營業績非常滿意。第四季度，有機固定匯率營收成長3.5%，主要得益於保險業務的持續強勁成長。根據我們在疫情初期定義的非新冠疫情敏感收入，以固定匯率計算，有機成長約 6.5%。

This sustained growth in our non-COVID-sensitive revenue revenues, representing approximately 85% of our total revenues, reflects the durability and resilience of our primarily subscription-based business model. We did continue to experience, as we have since the onset of the pandemic, a negative impact from COVID-19 on certain of our products and services, largely transactional in nature, which represents the balance or approximately 15% of our consolidated revenues. These COVID-sensitive revenues declined approximately 12.5% on an OCC basis during the fourth quarter though the performance across our 3 segments differed.

我們非新冠疫情相關收入的持續成長（約佔總收入的 85%）反映了我們以訂閱為主的商業模式的持久性和韌性。自疫情爆發以來，我們一直受到 COVID-19 疫情對我們某些產品和服務（主要是交易性質的產品和服務）的負面影響，這些產品和服務約占我們合併收入的 15%。受新冠疫情影響，第四季度收入按 OCC 計算下降了約 12.5%，儘管我們三個業務部門的業績有所不同。

In our Insurance segment, we continued to experience sequential improvement in these revenues as the underlying causal factors continued to abate, though the pace of recovery varies across the different solutions.

在我們的保險業務板塊，隨著潛在致因的持續減弱，這些收入繼續環比改善，儘管不同解決方案的復甦速度有所不同。

On the Energy side, our consulting business remained under pressure from lower CapEx budgets at our customers, but trends appear to have stabilized.

在能源方面，由於客戶資本支出預算減少，我們的顧問業務仍面臨壓力，但趨勢似乎穩定下來。

And finally, within Financial Services, our COVID-sensitive revenues took a further step down as our bank customers reduced their spending levels in response to weakness across their lending portfolios.

最後，在金融服務領域，由於銀行客戶因貸款組合疲軟而減少了支出，我們對新冠疫情敏感的收入進一步下降。

Despite the impact on revenue in the fourth quarter, we are pleased to report that we delivered solid EBITDA growth and expanded margins as the result of effective expense management. OCC-adjusted EBITDA growth was 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Total adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter, which includes both organic and inorganic revenue and adjusted EBITDA, was 48.2% in the quarter, representing leverage across the business. This margin level includes roughly 220 basis points of benefit from lower travel expenses, but also reflects a return to more normal pace of headcount growth and an increase in the pace of investment in our technological transformation, including our cloud transition costs.

儘管第四季度收入受到影響，但我們很高興地報告，由於有效的費用管理，我們實現了穩健的 EBITDA 成長和利潤率擴大。第四季經OCC調整後的EBITDA成長率為4.9%。本季調整後 EBITDA 總利潤率（包括有機和非有機收入以及調整後 EBITDA）為 48.2%，體現了整個業務的槓桿作用。這個利潤率水準包含了差旅費降低帶來的約 220 個基點的收益，但也反映了員工人數成長速度恢復正常，以及我們在技術轉型（包括雲端轉型成本）方面的投資速度加快。

On that note, let's turn to our segment results on an organic constant currency basis. In the fourth quarter, Insurance segment revenues increased 7.4%, reflecting healthy growth in our industry standard insurance programs, catastrophe modeling solutions, repair cost estimating solutions and insurance software solutions. Similar to the third quarter, we experienced a modest benefit from storm-related revenues as a result of a more normal storm season in 2020 as compared to the very slow season in 2019. This was offset in part by a decline in certain transactional revenues that were negatively impacted by COVID-19.

接下來，讓我們來看看以固定匯率計算的各業務板塊業績。第四季度，保險業務收入成長了 7.4%，反映出我們行業標準保險計劃、災害建模解決方案、維修成本估算解決方案和保險軟體解決方案的穩健成長。與第三季類似，由於 2020 年的風暴季比 2019 年的風暴季要正常得多，我們從與風暴相關的收入中獲得了適度的收益。部分成長被受 COVID-19 負面影響的某些交易收入的下降所抵消。

Adjusted EBITDA grew 12.2% in the fourth quarter, demonstrating strong margin expansion despite certain revenue declines, investment in our breakout areas and our cloud transition.

第四季調整後 EBITDA 成長 12.2%，顯示儘管部分營收下降、在突破性領域進行投資以及雲端轉型，利潤率仍實現了強勁成長。

Energy and Specialized Markets revenue decreased 3.9% in the fourth quarter due to declines in consulting and implementation projects and some modest headwinds related to consolidation in the end market. We were very pleased to see continued growth in our subscription-based core research and data analytic platforms and environmental health and safety service solutions, resulting in outperformance relative to the end market. We believe our strong performance is a function of the criticality of our solutions, the diversification of our revenue streams into breakout areas like the energy transition and the strength of our relationships in the industry.

由於諮詢和實施項目減少以及終端市場整合帶來的一些輕微不利因素，能源和專業市場收入在第四季度下降了 3.9%。我們非常高興地看到，我們基於訂閱的核心研究和數據分析平台以及環境健康與安全服務解決方案持續成長，從而在終端市場中取得了優異的成績。我們認為，我們取得優異的業績取決於我們解決方案的關鍵性、收入來源向能源轉型等突破性領域的多元化以及我們在行業內強大的關係。

Adjusted EBITDA declined 19.5% in the fourth quarter, reflecting a catch-up of certain compensation expenses associated with furloughed employees that are onetime in nature.

第四季調整後 EBITDA 下降 19.5%，反映出與休假員工相關的某些一次性補償費用需要補繳。

As a key partner to our energy customers, we continue to closely monitor the operating environment with a focus on consolidation in the upstream space and the potential impact of a broader, more climate-focused political agenda in the United States. We have a track record of managing through volatile times effectively and believe we are well positioned with our energy transition practice to capitalize on the global growth in spending across zero carbon technologies like solar, wind and energy storage.

作為能源客戶的重要合作夥伴，我們將繼續密切關注營運環境，重點關注上游領域的整合以及美國更廣泛、更注重氣候的政治議程可能產生的影響。我們擁有有效應對動盪時期的良好記錄，並且相信憑藉我們的能源轉型實踐，我們能夠充分利用全球在太陽能、風能和儲能等零碳技術方面的支出成長。

Financial Services revenue declined 13% in the quarter, reflecting the impact of certain contract transitions as well as lower levels of project spending from our bank customers stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and fewer bankruptcies versus 2019 as a result of government support and forbearance programs. Adjusted EBITDA declined 28.1%, reflecting the negative impact of lower sales, while margins were impacted by certain portfolio transactions we took earlier in the year.

本季金融服務收入下降了 13%，這反映了某些合約過渡的影響，以及由於 COVID-19 疫情導致銀行客戶專案支出減少，以及由於政府支持和寬限計劃導致破產數量較 2019 年減少。經過調整的 EBITDA 下降了 28.1%，反映了銷售額下降的負面影響，而利潤率則受到我們今年稍早進行的某些投資組合交易的影響。

We continue on the journey to transition VFS to a more sustainable subscription-based business and have taken actions that we believe benefit the business in the long run, but are likely to negatively impact our growth over the next few quarters.

我們正繼續推動 VFS 向更永續的訂閱制業務轉型，並已採取我們認為從長遠來看有利於業務發展的措施，但這些措施可能會在未來幾季對我們的成長產生負面影響。

Our reported effective tax rate was 18.4% for the quarter compared to 23.2% in the prior year quarter. The quarterly rate came in lower than our expectations, owing to increased levels of stock option exercise, which depend on personal employee decisions and the Verisk's stock price. Looking forward to 2021, we expect that our full year tax rate will be between 20% and 22%, though there will likely be some quarterly variability related to the pace of employee stock option exercise.

本季我們報告的實際稅率為 18.4%，而去年同期為 23.2%。由於股票選擇權行使水準的提高，季度收益率低於我們的預期，而股票選擇權行使取決於員工的個人決定和 Verisk 的股價。展望 2021 年，我們預計全年稅率將在 20% 至 22% 之間，但可能會因員工股票選擇權行使速度而出現一些季度波動。

Adjusted net income was $209 million and adjusted diluted -- I'm sorry, and diluted adjusted EPS was $1.27 for the fourth quarter 2020, up 10.8% and 12.4% from the prior year, respectively. These increases reflect solid top line growth, cost discipline in the business, a reduction in travel expenses as a result of COVID-19 and a lower average share count.

2020 年第四季調整後淨收入為 2.09 億美元，調整後稀釋每股收益為 1.27 美元，分別比去年同期成長 10.8% 和 12.4%。這些成長反映了穩健的營收成長、業務成本控制、因新冠疫情導致的差旅費用減少以及平均流通股數量下降。

Net cash provided by operating activities was $249 million for the quarter, up 41% from the prior year period, primarily due to increased customer collections, a reduction in income tax payments owing to higher levels of stock option exercise, the deferral of certain employer payroll taxes resulting from the CARES Act and a reduction in travel payments as a result of COVID-19.

本季經營活動產生的淨現金為 2.49 億美元，比上年同期成長 41%，主要原因是客戶收款增加、股票選擇權行使水準提高導致所得稅支出減少、根據《新冠病毒援助、救濟和經濟安全法案》(CARES Act) 推遲繳納某些雇主工資稅以及因新冠疫情導致差旅費減少。

Capital expenditures were $72 million for the quarter and $247 million for 2020, including some onetime expenses associated with our office consolidations in Boston and London. CapEx came in at the lower end of our initial range as certain expenditures were delayed, owing to the pandemic. For the full year 2020, CapEx represented 8.9% of our total revenues. As we look to 2021, we expect CapEx to be in the range of $250 million to $280 million, reflecting our continued investment in our innovation agenda, our technological transformation and our people as well as the carryover certain expenditures that were delayed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

本季資本支出為 7,200 萬美元，2020 年資本支出為 2.47 億美元，其中包括與我們在波士頓和倫敦的辦公室整合相關的一些一次性支出。由於疫情影響，某些支出被推遲，因此資本支出處於我們最初預期範圍的下限。2020 年全年，資本支出占我們總收入的 8.9%。展望 2021 年，我們預計資本支出將在 2.5 億美元至 2.8 億美元之間，這反映了我們對創新議程、技術轉型和人才的持續投資，以及因疫情而在 2020 年推遲的某些支出結轉至 2021 年。

Related to CapEx, we expect fixed asset depreciation and amortization to be within the range of $200 million to $215 million and intangible amortization to be approximately $165 million in 2021. Both depreciation and amortization elements are subject to FX variability, the timing of purchases and the completion of projects and future M&A activity.

關於資本支出，我們預計 2021 年固定資產折舊和攤銷將在 2 億美元至 2.15 億美元之間，無形資產攤銷約為 1.65 億美元。折舊和攤銷要素均受外匯波動、購買時間、專案完成情況以及未來併購活動的影響。

During the fourth quarter, we returned $94 million in capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. As Scott mentioned, I'm pleased to report that our Board of Directors has approved a 7% increase in our cash dividend to $0.29 per share this quarter and has authorized an additional $300 million for share repurchases, bringing our total available authorization to more than $500 million.

第四季度，我們透過股票回購和分紅向股東返還了 9,400 萬美元的資本。正如史考特所提到的，我很高興地報告，我們的董事會已批准本季將現金股利提高 7%，至每股 0.29 美元，並授權額外 3 億美元用於股票回購，使我們的總可用授權額超過 5 億美元。

For the full year 2020, we generated $1.1 billion in cash flow from operating activities, an increase of 11.7% over 2019, a strong result considering the challenging operating environment. We invested this cash flow back into our business through $247 million in capital expenditures and funded $285 million in acquisitions. We also returned $176 million in capital to shareholders in dividends and an additional $349 million through share repurchases.

2020 年全年，我們從經營活動中產生了 11 億美元的現金流，比 2019 年增長了 11.7%，考慮到充滿挑戰的經營環境，這是一個強勁的成績。我們將這筆現金流重新投入到我們的業務中，透過 2.47 億美元的資本支出和 2.85 億美元的收購資金進行投資。我們也以股息的形式向股東返還了 1.76 億美元的資本，並透過股票回購額外返還了 3.49 億美元。

As we look to 2021, our strategy to deliver long-term sustainable growth remains unchanged, and we believe the stability and predictability of our subscription revenues will persist. However, we do expect certain COVID-19-related pressures on top line growth to continue, though we expect the impact to be less than it was in 2020. We remain confident these COVID impacts do not represent a structural change in our fundamental growth drivers and believe that as the underlying causal factors abate, we will show strong resilience and recovery.

展望 2021 年，我們實現長期可持續成長的策略保持不變，我們相信訂閱收入的穩定性和可預測性將得以延續。不過，我們預期與 COVID-19 相關的某些壓力仍將持續影響營收成長，儘管我們預期其影響將小於 2020 年的影響。我們仍然相信，這些新冠疫情的影響不會對我們的基本成長動力造成結構性改變，並且相信隨著潛在致因的減弱，我們將展現出強大的韌性和復甦能力。

We also have confidence in our ability to manage the cost structure effectively to protect profitability, though we would remind you that cost comparisons will be more challenging as we begin to anniversary the onset of the pandemic in the second quarter. Taking this all together, we believe that as the COVID impacts abate, we can return to our long-term growth model of 7% organic constant currency revenue growth with core operating leverage, allowing EBITDA to grow faster than revenue, although it's difficult to predict that timing.

我們也對有效管理成本結構以保障獲利能力的能力充滿信心，但我們想提醒您，隨著第二季疫情爆發週年紀念日的臨近，成本比較將更具挑戰性。綜上所述，我們相信隨著 COVID 疫情的影響逐漸減弱，我們可以恢復到我們長期的成長模式，即透過核心營運槓桿實現 7% 的有機固定匯率收入增長，從而使 EBITDA 的增長速度超過收入增長速度，儘管很難預測具體時間。

We hope this provides some useful context for you, and we look forward to addressing your questions. We continue to appreciate all the support and interest in Verisk.

希望以上資訊對您有所幫助，我們期待解答您的疑問。我們衷心感謝大家對 Verisk 的支持與關注。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

With that, I'll ask the operator to open the line for questions.

這樣，我就可以請接線生開通提問專線了。

Thank you (Operator Instructions) We have our first question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik from Barclays.

謝謝（操作員指示）我們收到的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克。

I just had a broader question on how you guys are looking at the company portfolio today. Because Argus has, over the last 5 years, I think, declined. And even the energy business has been flat to slight growth. And I'm just curious like how long before major changes need to be made to transfer that growth -- to match what's obviously a phenomenal insurance asset?

我只是想問一個更廣泛的問題，關於你們目前如何看待公司的投資組合。因為我認為，Argus 在過去 5 年裡有所衰落。就連能源產業也保持平穩或略有成長。我只是好奇，需要多久才能進行重大變革，才能將這種增長轉移出去——以匹配這顯然是一項非凡的保險資產？

Yes. So we spend a lot of time thinking about the way that we're deploying capital around the company. And that thought process really occurs at a couple of levels. So we do think about the shape of our business overall, and it's very evident to everybody that we have a very strong insurance franchise. We believe that we know what are the elements of a great data analytic business. And our primary focus has been trying to bring those qualities to bear across everything that we do. And we have definitely given a lot of attention and energy to trying to make those investments and make them productive across all parts of the portfolio.

是的。因此，我們花了很多時間思考如何在公司內部部署資金。這種思考過程其實是在幾個層面上發生的。所以我們確實會考慮我們業務的整體格局，而且很明顯，我們擁有非常強大的保險特許經營權。我們相信我們知道一個優秀的數據分析企業應該具備哪些要素。我們的主要目標就是努力將這些特質運用到我們所做的每一件事中。我們確實投入了大量的關注和精力，力求使這些投資在投資組合的各個部分都能產生效益。

And so we're constantly reviewing what we're doing kind of at the segment level and at the individual solution level, and we won't stop doing that. And if -- and those who are familiar with the history of the company know that if we ever get to the point where we conclude that something that we are doing is unlikely to be productive into the future, then we are not reluctant to respond to that kind of a conclusion. So this is an ongoing thought process. It's consistently a part of what we think about at the company.

因此，我們會不斷地從細分市場層面和具體解決方案層面審查我們正在做的事情，我們不會停止這樣做。而且，熟悉公司歷史的人都知道，如果我們最終得出結論，認為我們正在做的事情在未來不太可能產生成效，那麼我們絕不會猶豫對這樣的結論做出回應。所以這是一個持續的思考過程。這始終是我們公司思考的一部分。

We have our next question comes from the line of Greg Peters from Raymond James.

下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Greg Peters。

I was interested -- there's been a lot of activity in the insurance industry around insurance tech IPOs and rhetoric around cyber. Let's just focus my question on your telematics business. Can you give us some detail how big that business is for you and what your key differentiation in terms of the products and services you're offering relative to some of these recent IPOs that think that they have solved the matrix for telematics in auto insurance?

我對此很感興趣——保險業圍繞保險科技公司IPO和網路安全的言論非常活躍。咱們就把問題集中在你們的遠端資訊處理業務上吧。您能否詳細介紹一下貴公司這項業務的規模，以及與最近一些自認為已經解決汽車保險遠端資訊處理難題的IPO公司相比，貴公司提供的產品和服務有哪些關鍵差異化優勢？

Mark, would you take that, please?

馬克，請你拿著好嗎？

Sure. Thanks for the question. So first of all, let me kind of describe what we've done and what we think is rather unique. We have moved primarily to the OEM side of the equation. So think of GM, Honda, Hyundai and Ford, and we have aggregate information from those vehicles. And remember, access to those vehicles, those data, is being harvested off of newer cars, right, because the history doesn't go back to allow harvesting. So every day, we have more cars, more miles, and we are now tapped in to the largest insurers, many of the largest personal auto writers, to which they are using that data to do their own modeling, which is opt-in service, by the way, or more likely, they're using our score to assess the driving behavior to offer discounts, market or actually price insurance.

當然。謝謝你的提問。首先，讓我來描述一下我們所做的工作以及我們認為比較獨特的地方。我們已主要轉向OEM廠商一方。所以想想通用汽車、本田、現代和福特，我們就有了這些車輛的總結資訊。請記住，對這些車輛和數據的訪問，都是從較新的車輛上收集的，對吧？因為歷史記錄無法追溯到允許收集資料的時候。所以，每天我們都有更多的汽車，更多的里程，而且我們現在與最大的保險公司、許多最大的個人汽車保險承銷商建立了聯繫，他們正在使用這些數據進行他們自己的建模（順便說一句，這是一項自願加入的服務），或者更可能的是，他們正在使用我們的評分來評估駕駛行為，以便提供折扣、推廣或實際定價。

So if you think about kind of the future of insurance, which I think is where you're going, the historic rating over them is driven by sex, driving behavior from the standpoint of moving violations and car accidents, age, those types of things. Clearly, understanding the driving behavior from what's happening behind the wheel is probably more accurate and more relevant.

所以，如果你想想保險的未來（我認為這就是你們的發展方向），那麼歷史評級是由性別、駕駛行為（從交通違規和交通事故的角度來看）、年齡等因素決定的。顯然，從駕駛過程中實際發生的情況來理解駕駛行為可能更準確、更相關。

So we think we're very well positioned. We think it will nicely integrate and does integrate with all the underwriting work we do when we talk about moving the data forward in underwriting an insurance policy, picking, selecting a risk and pricing it.

所以我們認為我們處於非常有利的地位。我們認為，當我們談到在保單核保過程中推進數據、選擇風險並進行定價時，它能夠很好地融入我們所做的所有核保工作，並且實際上也融入其中。

To kind of answer your question generally, it is still a small part of our business, especially around the personal auto line of business, but we do believe it will grow. It will become the approach for rating going forward.

總的來說，就您的問題而言，這仍然是我們業務的一小部分，尤其是在個人汽車業務方面，但我們相信它會成長。這將成為未來評級的標準方法。

Now I think your second question was a little bit about competitive advantage. We have some very unique and exclusive (inaudible) arrangements with, a, the OEMs. But more importantly, we feel that our data hub, being at the center of those OEMs and all the insurers that we know so well and we are integrated with, creates a unique relationship where they come to us once as opposed to integrate many times. We are trying to extend that out -- that information out beyond what I'll refer to as just the car manufacturers. But I think that hopefully describes to you a little bit about what we do and how we do it, really more focused on insurance than some of these other telematic solutions that are extending beyond insurance and trying to provide to marketing and other [technical].

我認為你的第二個問題有點涉及競爭優勢。我們與原始設備製造商 (OEM) 有一些非常獨特且獨家的（聽不清楚）安排。但更重要的是，我們認為，我們的資料中心位於我們非常熟悉並與之整合的那些原始設備製造商和所有保險公司的中心，從而創造了一種獨特的關係，他們只需與我們合作一次，而無需多次整合。我們正在努力擴大範圍——將這些資訊擴展到我所說的汽車製造商之外。但我認為這應該能讓您對我們所做的工作以及我們做事的方式有所了解，我們實際上更專注於保險，而不是其他一些超出保險範圍並試圖為營銷和其他[技術]提供服務的遠程信息處理解決方案。

Your next question is from Andrew Jeffrey from Truist Securities.

下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Andrew Jeffrey。

Scott or Mark, I wonder if I could ask for an update on a couple of newer lines of business that I didn't hear called out specifically. One would be life, and the other is LightSpeed. I know you touched on auto. Both seem like big TAMs with potential pricing leverage. So I wonder if you could just comment on sort of contribution to growth and any changes in that contribution prospectively?

Scott 或 Mark，我想請教一下關於幾個我沒聽到具體提及的新業務領域的最新進展。一個是生命，一個是光速。我知道你提到了汽車。兩者似乎都是具有巨大潛在定價權的潛在大型市場。所以我想知道您能否談談對成長的貢獻以及這種貢獻未來可能會發生的任何變化？

Yes. So 2 topics about which we're very excited. Mark, those are both in your column. Do you want to speak to those from...

是的。所以，我們非常興奮地談以下兩個主題。馬克，這兩件事都寫在你的專欄裡。你想和那些來自…的人談談嗎？

Yes. You can't see me but I have a smile on my face. Let me share a little bit about that.

是的。你看不見我，但我臉上帶著微笑。讓我簡單介紹一下這方面的情況。

First of all, what we're doing in Life is led by that acquisition of FAST, which is this, I'll call it, low-code, no-code solution for life insurers. What we've added is a bit of relationship and some analytics to the underwriting approach. So things like understanding from your voice whether you're a smoker. Those are the type of things that we've added, and the life business in whole has done exceptionally well. We probably are not talking about it quite as much is because we'd typically focus a little bit on organic revenue growth. So I look forward to having some conversations probably the first quarter next year when we become -- or going to become an organic part of our math.

首先，我們在人壽保險領域的工作是由對 FAST 的收購所引領的，FAST 是我稱為人壽保險公司的低代碼、無代碼解決方案。我們在核保方法中加入了一些關係分析和一些資料分析。例如，透過你的聲音來判斷你是否吸煙。這些都是我們新增的業務類型，而整個壽險業務也取得了非常好的成績。我們可能不太常談論這個話題，是因為我們通常會把更多精力放在有機收入成長上。所以我期待明年第一季能和大家進行一些對話，屆時我們將成為——或者說即將成為我們數學體系的有機組成部分。

Separately and distinctly, again, when we talk about the resurgent and the great growth that what I'll refer to as ISO or underwriting business, we've had a very stable and strong business as it relates to our historic lost cost rolls and forms. But the growth that you're seeing, in large part, is driven by just LightSpeed [conscious set]. It is taking a lot of data, not just our own proprietary data, but that, in combination with other third parties, scoring it so that we have a confidence level. So that as opposed to doing, first, a quote, providing that rate to a potential policyholder, they like it.

再單獨地、明確地說，當我們談到我稱之為 ISO 或承保業務的復甦和巨大增長時，就我們歷史上損失成本捲和表格而言，我們的業務一直非常穩定和強勁。但你所看到的成長，很大程度上是由 LightSpeed [意識設定] 所驅動的。它需要大量的數據，不僅是我們自己的專有數據，而且還要結合其他第三方的數據進行評分，以便我們可以確定置信度。因此，與先報價再向潛在投保人提供費率的做法相比，他們更喜歡這種方式。

And then you do all their underwriting to understand if there's any other accidents, moving violations, traffic. Typically, 33% of the time, that rate changes. That's very, very much -- I mean, it's [not very attractive] to the policyholder, not the digital engagement people are looking for. So a bindable quote is really at the heart of what has driven a lot of our underwriting and rating growth over the last year. And we are doing more, and we are extending kind of -- I'll call it from an investment perspective, doubling down as we speak.

然後，你要進行所有的核保調查，以了解是否有其他事故、交通違規、交通記錄等。通常情況下，有 33% 的時間，這個比率會改變。這對投保人來說非常非常——我的意思是，它[不太有吸引力]，不是人們所尋求的數位互動。因此，可約束的報價實際上是過去一年來推動我們承保和評級業務成長的核心因素。而且我們正在加大投入，並且正在擴大規模——從投資的角度來看，我們正在加倍投入。

Your next question is from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的安德魯·斯坦納曼。

Lee, I remembered you talked about the normalization of T&E on the third quarter call. So I just thought I'd revisit the subject. Kind of given that '21 does appear to be a year of rebounding organic revenue growth, that's just the assumption around the COVID drags abating. Do you still think that the normalization of G&A will be more of a drag to margin than core operating leverage? And could you just mention what T&E expense level was in the fourth quarter and how you envision kind of normalization of T&E post COVID?

李，我記得你在第三季財報電話會議上談到了差旅費正常化的問題。所以我決定再談談這個話題。鑑於 2021 年似乎是有機收入成長反彈的一年，這只是人們對 COVID 疫情拖累逐漸消退的假設。您是否仍認為，一般及行政費用正常化對利潤率的拖累會大於核心營運槓桿作用？能否簡單介紹一下第四季的差旅費用水平，以及您設想的疫情後差旅費用正常化進程？

Yes. Thank you, Andrew. And it's certainly something that we're watching very carefully and expect to manage very actively in 2021. I think you characterized it accurately in terms of the -- we are expecting that as and if the pandemic impacts continue to abate over time, the revenue impact relative to our targeted growth rate should be more modest. So we're certainly hoping for an improvement in that regard.

是的。謝謝你，安德魯。我們當然會密切關注此事，並計劃在 2021 年積極應對。我認為你對此的描述很準確——我們預計，隨著疫情影響逐漸減弱，相對於我們目標成長率而言，收入影響應該會更加溫和。所以，我們當然希望這方面能有所改善。

However, as you saw in our expense management in 2020 -- and not just including the T&E expense, which, as we mentioned, represent -- represented about a 220 basis point benefit to our margin but also our management of headcount levels, incentive compensation levels in the fourth quarter and over the course of 2020 reflected an ability to manage that expense impact.

然而，正如您在我們 2020 年的費用管理中所看到的——不僅包括差旅費（正如我們所提到的，這給我們的利潤率帶來了約 220 個基點的收益），而且我們在 2020 年第四季度和全年對人員規模和激勵性薪酬水平的管理也反映了我們有能力控制這種費用影響。

Now naturally, as we move into a what is hopefully a more constructive environment, we will want to normalize the earnings level -- normalize the headcount level for the business to pursue the very attractive opportunities that we have with our clients. We have control, both over the level of, certainly, headcount that we are taking on and T&E. And our objective will be to manage that in a way where we hold on to as much of the benefit that we experienced in 2020 as we can, but we are expecting that on year-over-year, particularly as we anniversary the onset of the pandemic, that we will see an uptick.

當然，隨著我們進入一個有望更具建設性的環境，我們希望使盈利水平正常化——使業務人員數量正常化，以便追求我們與客戶之間極具吸引力的機會。我們能夠控制招募人數和差旅費用。我們的目標是盡可能保留 2020 年的成果，但我們預計，與去年相比，尤其是在疫情爆發週年之際，我們將看到成長。

But we -- overall, we'll try to manage that in a way where we preserve our operating leverage, and that becomes clearer as we talk about it through the course of the year.

但總的來說，我們會努力以一種能夠保持我們經營槓桿的方式來管理它，隨著我們在今年的討論中不斷深入，這一點會變得更加清晰。

Your next question is from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair.

下一個問題來自安德魯·尼古拉斯和威廉·布萊爾。

Lee, you added Group President of the Energy and Financial Services businesses to your list of responsibilities. Obviously, as CFO, you had plenty of involvement previously. But is there anything specific you'd call out for us that you're particularly focused on in that role? Any changes you'd like to make or strategic priorities you've identified that you're willing to share?

李先生，您又將能源和金融服務業務集團總裁這一職位添加到您的職責清單中。顯然，作為首席財務官，你之前已經參與了很多工作。但是，在這個職位上，您有沒有特別關注的方面需要特別指出呢？您希望做出哪些改變，或是您已經確定了哪些策略重點，願意與我們分享嗎？

Well, thank you very much. I would say, look, at this stage, it's very early. I do know and respect those teams and what they've accomplished. I'm looking forward to working with them more closely. Our overall objective, as it has been at a corporate level, has been focusing on how we can invest in those businesses, generate good returns and support the strong position that they operate in and really extend the growth that they represent. So at this stage, no clear determinations. I'm really just looking forward to spending more time with them on the operating side and determining how we can make them more effective, enhance the growth story and continue to find good opportunities to invest.

非常感謝。我想說，你看，現在這個階段還為時過早。我了解並尊重這些球隊以及他們所取得的成就。我期待與他們更緊密地合作。就像公司層級一樣，我們的整體目標一直是專注於如何投資這些企業，產生良好的回報，支持它們所處的強大地位，並真正擴大它們所代表的成長。所以現階段，尚無明確結論。我非常期待能花更多時間與他們一起進行營運方面的交流，並確定如何才能提高他們的效率，增強成長勢頭，並繼續尋找好的投資機會。

Your next question is from David Togut with Evercore ISI.

下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Togut。

Bridging to an earlier question on the Financial Services business. Do you think you have the right mix of services for bank card issuers in that business? We've seen a big change in demand trends, at least what Visa and Mastercard have called out in their similar businesses during COVID a big shift towards cyber. Could you maybe comment on the services that you're offering in that business currently? And whether you're intending any, let's say, shift in services mix and offerings as a result of COVID?

引出之前關於金融服務業務的問題。您認為您為該行業的銀行卡發行機構提供的服務組合是否適當？我們已經看到需求趨勢發生了巨大變化，至少 Visa 和 Mastercard 在 COVID 期間在其類似業務中指出，需求已大幅轉向網路化。您能否介紹一下您目前在該行業提供的服務？您是否打算因新冠疫情而對服務組合和產品進行任何調整？

Yes. We feel good about the range of solutions that we're able to issue -- or we're able to offer to a credit card issuer. In fact, that has been explicitly a part of the way that we have built the portfolio of solutions that we offer. And to the point you just made, David, that we do believe that working on issues of risk and fraud are really important issues, and we feel that we have some unique intellectual property to help our customers work on that. So -- and there are a variety of other things that any one customer can also look to us for.

是的。我們對能夠推出（或能夠向信用卡發行機構提供）的各種解決方案感到滿意。事實上，這正是我們建立所提供的解決方案組合的方式之一。正如你剛才提到的，David，我們確實認為，處理風險和詐欺問題是非常重要的問題，而且我們覺得我們擁有一些獨特的智慧財產權，可以幫助我們的客戶解決這些問題。所以——任何一位客戶還可以從我們這裡獲得各種各樣的其他服務。

In fact, we have a fairly broad portfolio of solutions. And so we feel as if we are positioned well in terms of being able to be a partner that a customer could look to for health and support across a variety of dimensions. We're not -- even though it would be very easy for folks to kind of look at us and say, "Okay, well, that phenomenal data set, which is transactional in nature and so kind of building around that." Well, we have built around that, but we've expanded around that as well.

事實上，我們擁有相當廣泛的解決方案組合。因此，我們感覺自己處於有利地位，能夠成為客戶在各個方面尋求健康和支持的合作夥伴。我們並非如此——儘管人們很容易看著我們說：「好吧，我們擁有一個非常棒的數據集，它本質上是交易性的，所以我們圍繞著它來構建業務。」沒錯，我們的確是圍繞著它構建的，但我們也圍繞著它進行了擴展。

Lee, I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that.

李，我不知道你還有什麼要補充的。

The only thing I would add is that the -- as with all of the businesses within Financial Services, we are leveraging an exceptional data set in that core business that allows us to triangulate in on issues like fraud in ways that other players in the industry can. So we're looking for angles where we can utilize that insight to create a differentiated product.

我唯一要補充的是，與金融服務業的所有企業一樣，我們在核心業務中利用了卓越的數據集，這使我們能夠以業內其他參與者無法做到的方式，對欺詐等問題進行三角測量。因此，我們正在尋找可以利用這種洞察力來創造差異化產品的角度。

Your next question is from Jeff Meuler with Baird.

下一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 Jeff Meuler。

So my question is on Energy and Specialized. And I understand what's up and what's down, but it's less clear to me, I guess, what's stable, what's better, what's worse from a trending perspective from 1 quarter into the next. I think you said consulting, fairly stable. But if I look at the overall worsening year-over-year trend, is it that the core subs revenue is still growing but decelerating? Was the issue the tougher power advocate implementation comp or the consolidation that you called out? Just any help on the Q4 year-over-year trend relative to what it was the last quarter or 2.

所以我的問題是關於能源和專業領域的。我明白哪些方面在上漲，哪些方面在下跌，但我不太清楚，從趨勢的角度來看，哪些方面保持穩定，哪些方面有所改善，哪些方面有所惡化。我想你之前說的是顧問業，而且相當穩定。但如果我觀察整體年比惡化的趨勢，是不是代表核心用戶收入仍在成長，但成長放緩了？問題在於更嚴格的權力倡議者實施競爭，還是你提到的合併問題？能否幫忙分析一下第四季同比趨勢與上一季或上兩季相比的情況？

Yes. Thank you, Jeff. This is Lee. So I would break it down into a couple of influences.

是的。謝謝你，傑夫。這是李。所以我會把它歸結為幾個影響因素。

Within Wood Mackenzie, the things that we would point out is that we saw modest but positive growth in the subscription side of the business. And so that, I think, is a reflection of the durability and the value of those products even in this more challenging environment. And so it also, I think, is reflective of the value of the investment that we've made in Lens because that subscription component, and particularly the pricing on renewals, has benefited from our clients' receptivity to what Lens provides them. So I think that's the core positive and of particular note in a challenging environment for the industry, where the end market, I think, has had a different experience.

在伍德麥肯茲公司內部，我們想指出的是，我們看到訂閱業務方面實現了適度但積極的成長。因此，我認為這反映了這些產品即使在更具挑戰性的環境下也具有耐用性和價值。因此，我認為這也反映了我們對 Lens 的投資價值，因為訂閱部分，特別是續訂定價，受益於我們的客戶對 Lens 所提供內容的接受度。所以我認為這是核心的正面因素，尤其值得關注的是，在產業面臨挑戰的環境下，終端市場的情況有所不同。

On the consulting side, that's where, on a year-over-year basis in reported revenues, we are still seeing that 30% year-over-year decline within that business. However, our sense is that our clients are engaging more actively on the consulting dialogue, and we feel better about where the pipeline is headed in that area. So that is -- has not been demonstrated the financial impact yet, but we feel a little bit better about the level of engagement with clients.

在諮詢業務方面，以報告的收入計算，該業務的年收入仍下降了 30%。不過，我們感覺我們的客戶正在更積極地參與諮詢對話，我們對該領域的業務發展方向感到更加樂觀。所以，雖然財務影響尚未顯現，但我們對與客戶的互動程度感到稍微好了一些。

And then within PowerAdvocate, we are experiencing some pressure, particularly on the implementation side of the equation for our clients. We've had some of our clients that, experiencing the pressure of this environment, have pulled back or reduced. But we still see strong demand over the near term for the cost management, supply chain dimensions of that product set as a whole. And I don't want to overlook also our health and safety business, which continues to contribute strong revenue growth within this segment as a whole as well as strong EBITDA growth and operating leverage within that business. So that gives you, I think, the 3 primary areas within that segment and some of the elements of the growth for that.

此外，PowerAdvocate 內部也面臨一些壓力，尤其是在為客戶實施解決方案方面。我們的一些客戶，由於感受到這種環境的壓力，已經撤回或減少了投資。但我們仍然看到，在短期內，該產品組合的成本管理和供應鏈方面仍存在強勁的需求。我也不希望忽視我們的健康與安全業務，該業務在整個行業中持續貢獻強勁的收入成長，以及強勁的 EBITDA 成長和營運槓桿。我認為，這便引出了該細分市場中的 3 個主要領域以及一些成長要素。

Your next question is from Gary Bisbee with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的加里·比斯比。

This is David Chu for Gary. So on margins, costs rose $33 million sequentially or about 10% versus the revenue up $11 million or 1.5%. This is despite like lower T&E. So how much is cost that were deferred earlier end of the year building back versus like other investments or other factors?

這是David Chu為Gary報社因此，在利潤率方面，成本環比增長 3,300 萬美元，增幅約為 10%，而營收則是環比增長 1,100 萬美元，增幅為 1.5%。儘管差旅費用較低，但情況依然如此。那麼，年初延期支付的成本在年底重建時需要多少費用，與其他投資或其他因素相比又有多少費用需要負擔？

So -- and I guess the way I will address it, and happy to spend time later in talking through your build-back analysis. But when we think about the expenses, we want to kind of remove the inorganic component so that we understand the trends. And I think simplistically, while our overall revenue growth rate was in kind of the 3.5% level, we were able to reduce overall expenses on a year-over-year basis as a function of headcount control and T&E. And so our frame of mind is as we're looking at the organic growth of the business, that we were able to make that adjustment in expenses downward, which allowed us to deliver the strong EBITDA growth performance, even despite that decline in the revenue growth.

所以——我想我會這樣處理，並且很樂意稍後花時間與你討論你的重建分析。但當我們考慮支出時，我們希望剔除非有機因素，以便了解趨勢。簡單來說，雖然我們的整體收入成長率在 3.5% 左右，但我們透過控制人員編制和差旅費用，實現了同比整體支出的下降。因此，我們看待業務有機成長的心態是，我們能夠向下調整支出，即使營收成長有所下降，我們仍然實現了強勁的 EBITDA 成長表現。

As we look ahead to 2020, we are expecting a higher level of growth if these trends continue with regard to the pandemic. And as a consequence, from an expense standpoint, we are expecting a higher growth rate. We're not expecting expenses to decline. And so the year-over-year comparisons are higher. But we're going to try to manage those in a way where we preserve that operating leverage and hold on to as much of that benefit as we practically can while still pursuing our client events.

展望 2020 年，如果疫情相關的這些趨勢持續下去，我們預期成長水準會更高。因此，從支出角度來看，我們預期成長率會更高。我們預計支出不會下降。因此，比去年同期增幅更高。但我們將努力以一種能夠保持營運槓桿並盡可能保留這些收益的方式來管理這些事項，同時繼續進行我們的客戶活動。

I know that doesn't put that in the context that you're asking, but it's kind of, I think, the best way to think about the overall performance of trends absent the naturally, the impact from an M&A standpoint. But we'll be happy to spend more time with you later on the way you're thinking about it.

我知道這並沒有把這個問題放在你所問的背景下，但我認為這是思考趨勢整體表現的最佳方式，當然，前提是忽略併購角度的影響。不過，以後我們很樂意花更多時間跟你探討你的想法。

Your next question is from Hamzah Mazari with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自傑富瑞集團的哈姆札·馬扎里。

My question is just on the non -- on the transactional side of the business. I guess, it was down 12.5%. Q3, it was down 10%. Could you maybe talk about what has to happen for that business to come back? Is it a vaccine? Is there anything structural going on in that side of the business that it may just take a lot longer to recover? Maybe just if you could parse the transactional side out of the business.

我的問題僅涉及業務的非交易方面。我猜，下降了12.5%。第三季下降了10%。您能否談談這家企業要恢復營運需要做些什麼？它是疫苗嗎？公司這部分業務是否有結構性問題，導致其恢復可能需要更長時間？或許只要把業務中的交易部分剝離出來就行了。

Yes. Hamzah, this is Lee. So it is a -- and while you were referring to it kind of in aggregate as a transactional business, we're really talking about probably a dozen to 20 individual products that have various transactional elements, everything from the consulting business at Wood Mackenzie, some of the consulting and the analytics projects in Financial Services, the claims business with auto claims that are driven by it. So you have a lot of different factors. And so if you can think about it over time, and if I describe it in 2020, we had some businesses that demonstrated, as the year progressed, a pickup in driving activity.

是的。哈姆扎，這位是李。所以，雖然你把它整體上稱為交易業務，但我們實際上談論的是十幾個到二十個具有各種交易要素的獨立產品，包括伍德麥肯錫的諮詢業務、金融服務領域的一些諮詢和分析項目，以及由此驅動的汽車索賠業務。所以有很多不同的因素。因此，如果你能從長遠角度來思考這個問題，如果我描述一下 2020 年的情況，我們會發現，隨著時間的推移，一些企業的駕車出行活動有所增加。

And so when we talked about the improved performance within Insurance on our COVID-sensitive revenues, it was reflecting an earlier impact in benefit from the uptick in driving and driving activity and those -- that portion of that transactional business. While the consulting revenue on the energy side, which is not going to be tied as directly to a causal impact, is going to improve over a longer period.

因此，當我們談到保險業務在受新冠疫情影響的收入方面表現改善時，這反映了駕駛活動增加帶來的早期收益，以及這部分交易業務的收益。雖然能源方面的諮詢收入不會像其他收入那樣直接與因果影響掛鉤，但從長遠來看，諮詢收入將會改善。

And in Financial Services, we were seeing a dynamic where the weakness in the fourth quarter reflected an increasing -- what we interpreted as increasing concern over potential credit losses, which caused them to pull back on some of their project analytics in the fourth quarter, where we typically see stronger elements.

在金融服務領域，我們看到第四季度的疲軟反映出人們對潛在信貸損失的擔憂日益加劇，我們將其解讀為擔憂加劇，這導致他們在第四季度減少了一些項目分析，而我們通常會在這些項目分析中看到更強勁的因素。

So to try to get to your -- to give you an answer is that as we look across all of these products, as we proceed through 2021, as things improve, we'll see -- we should see gradual improvements, but at different rates within each of those businesses. So there's no simple answer because it involves multiple products with differing levels of impact across that. So hopefully, that gives you some context, but I can't kind of define it more precisely for you.

所以，為了回答你的問題，我想說的是，當我們縱觀所有這些產品，展望 2021 年，隨著情況的改善，我們會看到——我們應該會看到逐步的改善，但每個業務的改善速度都不同。所以沒有簡單的答案，因為它涉及多種產品，而這些產品對不同群體的影響程度也各不相同。希望這能給你一些背景訊息，但我無法更精確地為你解釋。

Right. No, that's very clear.

正確的。不，這一點很清楚。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question is from George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐。

Your Financial Services segment had revenue declines of about 13% organic constant currency in the quarter. That reflected some contract transitions, as you noted, as well as some COVID impact from lower project spend. Is it possible to perhaps break out the 2 impacts to determine how much of the decline is structural in nature? And how much of the decline you expect to recover as COVID becomes more in the rearview mirror?

貴公司金融服務部門本季營收以固定匯率計算下降了約 13%。正如您所指出的，這反映了一些合約變更，以及新冠疫情對專案支出減少的影響。是否有可能將這兩個影響因素分開來看，以確定衰退中有多少是結構性因素造成的？隨著新冠疫情逐漸成為過去，您預計有多少下滑的趨勢能夠恢復？

Yes. George, thanks for the question. It's Lee. So it's a great question. And when we look at that in the fourth quarter and recognizing that it is fourth quarter, I would say that there was more of an impact on that -- on the transactional -- the contract transitions, and some of that involved kind of restructuring our contracts to better reflect the annuity nature of our business.

是的。喬治，謝謝你的提問。是李。這是一個很好的問題。當我們回顧第四季度的情況，並考慮到這是第四季度，我認為第四季度受到的影響更大——交易方面——合同過渡，其中一些涉及重組我們的合同，以更好地反映我們業務的年金性質。

We also had some contract transitions that were a result of some strategic exits from a portion of our businesses, but that probably had a more significant impact in the fourth quarter relative to some of the environmental impacts. And -- which were, as I described in the recent -- another question recently, was that we saw some weakness in the banks pulling back on some of their project -- their project analytics, which had an overall impact, negative impact.

由於我們從部分業務中策略性退出，我們也經歷了一些合約變更，但與一些環境影響相比，這些變更對第四季的影響可能更為顯著。而且——正如我在最近的文章中所描述的那樣——另一個問題是，我們看到銀行在一些專案分析方面出現了一些疲軟，這產生了整體的負面影響。

So those -- that gives you kind of a rough proportion, probably a little bit more on that contract transition, but there was also a meaningful impact from the -- from what we were seeing in the project analytics front.

所以這些——這大致能讓你了解其中的比例，合約過渡方面可能還要多一些，但從我們在專案分析方面看到的情況來看，也產生了顯著的影響。

There are no further questions at this time. I turn the call back over to Ms. Brodbar.

目前沒有其他問題了。我把電話轉回給布羅德巴女士。

Okay. Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us. Appreciate your interest, as always. And as always, we will be following up with you on some of these more specific points. And so we'll be in touch with many of you in the near future. Until then, thanks.

好的。謝謝大家的收看。感謝您一如既往的關注。像往常一樣，我們會就其中一些更具體的問題與您聯繫。因此，在不久的將來，我們將與你們中的許多人取得聯繫。在此之前，謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call. Thank you, everyone, for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。