Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2018 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, my name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Verisk Analytics Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

早安，我叫雷吉娜，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。在此，我謹代表 Verisk Analytics 歡迎各位參加第三季財報電話會議。（操作說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Stacey Rodbar. Ma'am, you may begin.

現在我將把會議交給史黛西·羅德巴爾。女士，您可以開始了。

Thank you, Regina, and good day to everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our third quarter 2018 financial results. With me on the call this morning are Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer; and Lee Shavel, Chief Financial Officer. Following comments by Scott, Mark and Lee highlighting some key points about our financial performance, we will open up the call for your questions.

謝謝你，雷吉娜，祝大家今天愉快。感謝您今天蒞臨本次會議，與我們共同探討2018年第三季的財務表現。今天早上和我一起參加電話會議的有：董事長、總裁兼執行長 Scott Stephenson；營運長 Mark Anquillare；以及財務長 Lee Shavel。在 Scott、Mark 和 Lee 就我們的財務表現發表了一些關鍵評論之後，我們將開放提問環節。

The earnings release referenced on this call as well as the associated 10-Q 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-Q 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. 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。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 will turn the call over to Scott.

現在我將把通話交給史考特。

Good morning, everyone. It's good to be reporting another quarter where we can see strength in organic growth of our business across all our verticals. Excluding exceptional events in the third quarter of 2017 in the Insurance segment due to extreme weather and in the Financial Services segment due to a contract signing, the organic growth of our company was 7.5% in the quarter, consistent with our long-term model. And the profile of our growth is also reflecting our long-term model in that it is balanced across all the verticals.

各位早安。很高興看到我們又一個季度在所有業務領域都實現了強勁的內生成長。除 2017 年第三季保險業務因極端天氣和金融服務業務因合約簽署而產生的特殊事件外，本公司本季有機成長率為 7.5%，與我們的長期模式一致。而且，我們的成長模式也反映了我們的長期模式，即在所有垂直領域都實現了平衡。

I thought I would take a few minutes this morning to comment on the environment in which we do our work and the factors which interact with our results. Fundamentally, we are aligned with one of the most powerful movements in the economy, which is, companies harnessing data analytics with even greater focus and investment. There is a new level of digitization of business operations that has become a necessity for companies and all the verticals we serve. While the notion of data as an asset has been around for a while, companies now are compelled to change the way they interact with their customers by becoming faster, more automated, more visual and easier to use. These changes at the front end of the business model require companies to rewire most everything behind the front end as well.

今天早上我想花幾分鐘時間談談我們工作的環境以及影響我們工作成果的各種因素。從根本上講，我們與經濟中最強大的趨勢之一——企業更加重視數據分析並增加投資——保持一致。企業營運數位化已達到一個新的水平，這對於我們所服務的所有垂直行業和企業來說都已成為必然趨勢。雖然資料作為一種資產的概念已經存在一段時間了，但現在公司必須改變與客戶互動的方式，變得更快、更自動化、更直覺、更容易使用。商業模式前端的這些變化要求公司也對前端背後的幾乎所有方面進行重新設計。

As businesses become more digital, they accumulate more data in real time, and this causes them to become more analytic, given the decreased cost of ingesting and storing the data combined with improving data science. Against this backdrop, our ability to help our customers on the digitization journey, in combination with our unique data sets and deep domain knowledge, give us expanding opportunities to add value for our customers. The search for efficiency and insight from data analytics will only increase for our customers. As long as we remain close to our customers, hearing their emerging needs and responding with timely, useful solutions that leverage our scale across industry participants, our value to our customers will grow. It is a positive thing for us that our customers are becoming more data analytic and hiring more data scientists. This increases their propensity to value the things we do.

隨著企業數位化程度的提高，它們即時累積的資料越來越多，加上資料攝取和儲存成本的降低以及資料科學的進步，這使得它們變得更加善於分析。在此背景下，我們能夠幫助客戶實現數位轉型，再加上我們獨特的資料集和深厚的領域知識，為我們提供了更多為客戶創造價值的機會。客戶對數據分析帶來的效率提升和洞察力的需求只會不斷增長。只要我們與客戶保持密切聯繫，傾聽他們不斷變化的需求，並利用我們在行業參與者中的規模優勢，及時提供有用的解決方案，我們對客戶的價值就會不斷增長。對我們來說，客戶越來越重視數據分析並僱用更多數據科學家是一件好事。這會增加他們對我們所做事情的重視程度。

We are always alert to 3 risks: Is the regulatory environment changing? Is the structure of the verticals we serve changing? And is the environment causing changes in the cost of doing business?

我們始終警惕以下 3 個風險：監理環境是否有改變？我們所服務的垂直產業結構是否正在改變？環境是否導致了企業營運成本的變化？

On the one hand, the regulatory front has seen some change, but on the other hand, there have been few changes that have materially impacted our business. One noteworthy move with the last several years has been more scrutiny in the banking sector, but the only effect has been our need to make some of our products more ready for reporting requirements and that shift has already occurred. At the societal level, there has been movement toward more concern about data privacy with approaches, such as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in Europe. The primary effect of this is to reinforce the diligence we have always brought to keeping our data assets secure.

一方面，監管方面發生了一些變化，但另一方面，很少有變化對我們的業務產生實質影響。在過去幾年裡，銀行業受到的審查力度明顯加大，但這帶來的唯一影響是我們需要讓一些產品更好地滿足報告要求，而這種轉變已經發生。在社會層面，人們越來越關注資料隱私，例如歐洲的《一般資料保護規範》（GDPR）。這樣做的主要目的是加強我們一直以來在保護資料資產安全方面所展現出的嚴謹態度。

Although data analytics, innovation and technology continue to evolve and increase in importance, the structure of our industry verticals is not changing to any material degree. In Insurance, the global reinsurers and brokers have seen some consolidation as they work to adjust to a world in which risk can be borne directly by the capital markets. But the bulk of our work is with primary insurers, and the reinsurers are being affected in modifying their businesses. And more generally, the effect of digitization is to reduce distribution advantages and fixed costs, both of which will lessen the incentive to combine companies for cost advantage.

儘管數據分析、創新和技術不斷發展並變得越來越重要，但我們行業垂直領域的結構並沒有任何實質的變化。在保險業，全球再保險公司和經紀商為了適應風險可由資本市場直接承擔的世界，出現了一些整合。但我們的大部分工作都是與主要保險公司進行的，而再保險公司在調整業務時也受到了影響。更普遍地說，數位化帶來的影響是降低分銷優勢和固定成本，這兩者都會降低企業為了獲得成本優勢而合併的動力。

The environment carries 2 trends which push our costs in opposite directions. On the people front, we are increasing the mix of our team, which comes from the hardcore data science world. These folks are highly sought after and paid accordingly. On the technical infrastructure front, the move toward cloud computing and away from premise computing will reduce our computing and storage costs. We are in the early stage of seeing these benefits.

環境呈現兩種趨勢，這兩種趨勢正朝著相反的方向推動我們的成本。在人員方面，我們正在增加團隊成員的組成，他們大多來自核心數據科學領域。這些人非常搶手，薪水也很高。在技​​術基礎設施方面，向雲端運算轉型，遠離本地運算，將降低我們的運算和儲存成本。我們目前還處於看到這些益處的初期階段。

So our overall perspective is that the basic conditions of our environment remain constructive. What it's down to, therefore, is the depth of our relationship with our customers and the capability of our team to innovate solutions and make them work for our customers.

因此，我們的整體看法是，我們所處環境的基本條件仍然是建設性的。因此，關鍵在於我們與客戶關係的深度，以及我們團隊創新解決方案並使其為客戶所使用的能力。

In the past 30 days, I visited with 4 CEOs of our leading customers. In every case, I came away with an enhanced sense of opportunity. As they take their businesses forward in a digitizing environment, their expressed preference is for a relatively short list of partners who can make sense of all the technical innovations and relate them to existing workflows. In such an environment, a trusted and tested partner like Verisk stands taller. As long as we continue to invest to keep our customers at the leading edge of innovation and do so with efficiency, we will realize value.

在過去的30天裡，我拜訪了我們四家主要客戶的CEO。每一次經歷都讓我更意識到機會的存在。隨著他們在數位化環境中推進業務發展，他們更傾向於選擇數量相對較少的合作夥伴，這些合作夥伴能夠理解所有技術創新並將其與現有工作流程聯繫起來。在這種環境下，像 Verisk 這樣值得信賴且久經考驗的合作夥伴就顯得更加突出。只要我們持續投資，使我們的客戶始終處於創新前沿，並且有效率地做到這一點，我們就能實現價值。

On the talent front, I just received the results of our most recent employee engagement survey. We have, once again, qualified as a certified Great Place to Work. Additionally, Forbes has named Verisk to its World's Best Employer list and its America's Best Employers for Women's list in 2018. This is supportive of our business because our talent is what drives our customer depth and innovation agendas.

在人才方面，我剛剛收到了我們最新一次員工敬業度調查的結果。我們再次榮獲「最佳工作場所」認證。此外，福布斯在 2018 年將 Verisk 列入其「全球最佳雇主」榜單和「美國女性最佳雇主」榜單。這有利於我們的業務發展，因為人才是我們拓展客戶群和推動創新議程的動力。

We are expanding our business footprint globally, and in line with this, we are making moves to have centers of excellence in multiple geographies with special focus on India and Eastern Europe.

我們正在擴大全球業務版圖，為此，我們正在採取措施在多個地區建立卓越中心，尤其關注印度和東歐。

Lastly, our progress in the U.K. market remains encouraging with recent contract signings with market leaders. We are viewing our approach there as a template we will use as we target other specific markets in Europe and Asia.

最後，我們在英國市場的進展依然令人鼓舞，最近與市場領導者簽署了合約。我們將把在那裡採取的方法視為模板，並以此為模板，瞄準歐洲和亞洲的其他特定市場。

So with that, let me turn the call over to Mark

那麼，接下來我將把電話交給馬克。

Thanks, Scott. In our Insurance business, we had another strong quarter with all insurance-facing businesses, Underwriting & rating as well as Claims, contributing to growth. Let me highlight a few areas that drove top line growth and update you on several initiatives that better position us for the future.

謝謝你，斯科特。在我們的保險業務中，我們迎來了一個強勁的季度，所有面向保險的業務，包括承保和評級以及理賠，都為成長做出了貢獻。讓我重點介紹幾個推動營收成長的領域，並向您報告幾項旨在更好地為未來做好準備的舉措。

During the quarter, Underwriting & rating delivered another strong quarter of organic growth across personal lines underwriting, extreme event modeling and industry-standard insurance program through a combination of cross-sell of existing solutions to new customers and the sale of new innovative solutions.

本季度，承保與評級業務透過向新客戶交叉銷售現有解決方案和銷售新的創新解決方案，在個人保險承保、極端事件建模和行業標準保險計劃方面實現了又一個強勁的有機增長季度。

Our Risk and Analytics Summit recently took place in Jersey City. Focusing on our underwriting and pricing solutions, we covered a wide range of topics including industry disruption, talent training in the insurance industry and cutting-edge technology, in combination with demonstrations of some of our newer solutions. The conference attracted about 150 insurance companies from around the world and featured a list of more senior-level attendees this year. Feedback was very positive, with participants excited by the direction of our solutions and complimentary of the diverse and thought-provoking sessions.

我們的風險與分析高峰會最近在澤西市舉行。我們重點介紹了承保和定價解決方案，涵蓋了廣泛的主題，包括行業顛覆、保險業的人才培訓和尖端技術，並展示了我們的一些新解決方案。今年的會議吸引了來自世界各地的約 150 家保險公司參加，與會人員的級別也比往年更高。回饋非常積極，參與者對我們解決方案的方向感到興奮，並對豐富多彩、引人深思的會議給予了高度評價。

The engagement with customers was strong, further cementing the type of relationship that has led to our high customer retention rates, and Verisk demonstrating the thought leadership in the property and casualty insurance industry that clients expect.

與客戶的互動非常密切，進一步鞏固了這種關係，從而實現了較高的客戶留存率，也展現了 Verisk 在財產和意外傷害保險行業中應有的思想領導力，這正是客戶所期望的。

In our extreme event modeling business, growth in AIR solutions remains strong. During the quarter, AIR Worldwide released Touchstone Re, a new catastrophe modeling application designed for estimating the loss potential of reinsurance contracts and portfolios, industry loss warranties and insurance-linked securities.

在我們的極端事件建模業務中，AIR解決方案的成長依然強勁。本季度，AIR Worldwide 發布了 Touchstone Re，這是一款新的巨災建模應用程序，旨在估算再保險合約和投資組合、行業損失保證和保險關聯證券的損失潛力。

Touchstone Re is a major upgrade from CATRADER, that enables companies to model and price complex reinsurance structures, understand where their exposures are concentrated around the globe and summarize their portfolios and aggregate their overall risk.

Touchstone Re 是 CATRADER 的重大升級版，它使公司能夠對複雜的再保險結構進行建模和定價，了解其風險敞口在全球的集中位置，並匯總其投資組合和整體風險。

As you may recall, 2017 was marked by exceptional storms globally, including hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in the United States. In fact, 2017 was a record-setting year with the catastrophe losses of more than $130 billion across the industry, which compares to an average loss of about $55 billion over the 10 years prior to 2017.

您可能還記得，2017 年全球範圍內發生了一系列異常風暴，其中包括美國的颶風哈維、艾爾瑪和瑪麗亞。事實上，2017 年是創紀錄的一年，整個產業的災害損失超過 1,300 億美元，而 2017 年之前的 10 年平均損失約為 550 億美元。

Our Claims business benefited from the severe weather in third quarter 2017, which resulted in a revenue surge of approximately $8 million. After normalizing revenue from severe weather, our Claims business unit experienced another very strong quarter with organic growth across all business units.

2017 年第三季惡劣天氣使我們的理賠業務受益，收入激增約 800 萬美元。在惡劣天氣造成的收入恢復正常後，我們的理賠業務部門又迎來了一個非常強勁的季度，所有業務部門都實現了有機成長。

Let me provide some color on these successes. The foundation of our Claims business unit consists of 2 core solutions: ClaimSearch, our industry fraud prevention solution; and Xactware, our repair cost estimating and workflow tools. These solutions are well penetrated and deeply embedded in the workflows of U.S. insurers. From this strong position, we have been successful growing the business through a couple of avenues.

讓我來詳細介紹一下這些成功之處。我們的理賠業務部門的基礎由兩個核心解決方案組成：ClaimSearch，我們的行業詐欺防制解決方案；以及 Xactware，我們的維修成本估算和工作流程工具。這些解決方案已在美國保險公司的工作流程中廣泛應用並深入融入。憑藉著這一強大的市場地位，我們透過多種途徑成功發展了業務。

The first path for growth is the sale of these core solutions to new segments. We continue to extend the consortium data and the use cases for our claim solutions, including new lines of insurance such as health and disability. During the second half of 2017 and into 2018, we extended beyond insurance companies and have signed several contracts with service providers to help them manage their workflow and better serve their insurance customers. In addition, we continue to gain market share in the repair cost estimating market by signing new contracts during 2008 (sic) [2018] that have contributed to the growth.

實現成長的第一條途徑是將這些核心解決方案銷售給新的細分市場。我們不斷擴展聯盟數據和理賠解決方案的應用案例，包括健康和殘疾等新的保險類別。2017 年下半年到 2018 年，我們的業務範圍不再局限於保險公司，而是與多家服務提供者簽訂了合同，幫助他們管理工作流程，更好地服務於他們的保險客戶。此外，我們在 2008 年（原文如此）[2018 年] 期間簽訂的新合同，使我們在維修成本估算市場繼續獲得市場份額，這為成長做出了貢獻。

The second avenue of growth is the development of new analytic solutions, leveraging our underlying core solutions. A few examples of success include ClaimDirector, our expert claim scoring systems that helps customers distinguish between suspicious and meritorious claims. This proactive, fraud-fighting tool provides scores based on the analysis of each claims attribute and the broader industry data from ClaimSearch.

第二個成長途徑是利用我們現有的核心解決方案，開發新的分析解決方案。成功案例包括 ClaimDirector，這是我們的專家理賠評分系統，可幫助客戶區分可疑理賠和合理理賠。這款主動式反詐騙工具會根據對每項索賠屬性的分析以及來自 ClaimSearch 的更廣泛的行業數據提供評分。

In addition, Claim Experience, a digital engagement platform that provides insurance companies with important tools to help claims representatives work more effectively with policyholders. This workflow tool leverages the underlying Xactware solutions and helps insurers engage with their policyholders in their supply chain.

此外，Claim Experience 是一個數位互動平台，為保險公司提供重要工具，幫助理賠代表更有效地與投保人合作。此工作流程工具利用了底層 Xactware 解決方案，幫助保險公司與供應鏈中的投保人互動。

Finally, Geomni, our business unit that aggregates an image library of commercial and residential structures and leverages advanced analytics to extract measurements and data.

最後是 Geomni，我們的業務部門匯集了商業和住宅建築的圖像庫，並利用高級分析來提取測量數據。

Although applicable in many markets, Geomni's early success has been in the insurance claims adjusting market due to the tight integration with our Xactware repair cost estimating tools. This has resulted in noteworthy efficiencies for our insurers and strong growth at Geomni, where we have signed several new contracts and have gained market share.

儘管 Geomni 的產品適用於許多市場，但由於其與我們的 Xactware 維修成本估算工具的緊密整合，Geomni 早期的成功主要體現在保險理賠調整市場。這為我們的保險公司帶來了顯著的效率提升，也為 Geomni 帶來了強勁的增長，我們簽署了多項新合同，並獲得了市場份額。

Across all businesses, from both a customer and financial perspective, we are very pleased with the performance of the Insurance business.

從客戶和財務角度來看，我們對保險業務的表現非常滿意。

With that, let me turn the call over to Lee to cover our financial results.

接下來，我將把電話交給李，讓他來介紹我們的財務表現。

Thanks, Mark. First, I'd like everybody to know that we've posted a quarterly earnings presentation that's available on our website. The presentation provides some background data, trends and analysis to support our conversation today.

謝謝你，馬克。首先，我想告訴大家，我們已經在網站上發布了季度財報。本次簡報提供了一些背景數據、趨勢和分析，以支持我們今天的討論。

So moving to the financial results for the quarter. On a consolidated and a GAAP basis, revenue grew 9% to $599 million. Net income was up 37.5% to $166 million for the quarter. Diluted GAAP EPS was $0.99 for the third quarter of 2018, an increase of 37.5% compared with the same period in 2017.

接下來來看本季的財務表現。以合併報表和 GAAP 準則計算，營收成長 9% 至 5.99 億美元。本季淨利成長37.5%，達1.66億美元。2018 年第三季稀釋 GAAP 每股盈餘為 0.99 美元，較 2017 年同期成長 37.5%。

Before I begin discussing the financial results in more detail, I would like to call your attention to 3 exceptional items in the quarter that impact year-over-year comparisons.

在更詳細地討論財務表現之前，我想提請大家注意本季影響同比數據的 3 個特殊項目。

Number one, Insurance segment organic constant currency revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA growth were impacted by $8 million in exceptional storm-related revenue in each of the third and fourth quarters of 2017. This was the result, as Mark described, of exceptional client activity related to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017.

第一，2017 年第三季和第四季度，保險業務的有機固定匯率收入成長和調整後 EBITDA 成長受到 800 萬美元與風暴相關的特殊收入的影響。正如馬克所描述的那樣，這是由於 2017 年颶風哈維、艾爾瑪和瑪麗亞帶來的異常客戶活動所導致的。

Two, Financial Services segment organic constant currency revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA growth were impacted by $6 million in nonrecurring TSYS project revenues in the third quarter of 2017, as we described in our last earnings call. These revenues were the result of the initiation and implementation of our partnership with TSYS and do not reoccur. We do anticipate, over time, revenues from the joint marketing of our analytics products to TSYS customers.

第二，如我們在上次財報電話會議上所述，2017 年第三季 TSYS 專案 600 萬美元的非經常性收入影響了金融服務部門的有機固定匯率營收成長和調整後 EBITDA 成長。這些收入是我們與 TSYS 建立和實施合作關係的結果，並且不會再次出現。我們預計，隨著時間的推移，透過與 TSYS 客戶共同推廣我們的分析產品，我們將獲得收入。

And three, in August 2018, the subordinated promissory note associated with the sale of our healthcare business in 2016 was settled in full for cash proceeds of $121 million. As a result, we recorded a gain of $12 million in the third quarter of 2018. The interest income associated with this note was approximately $1 million per month or $3 million per quarter. Given the settlement timing, we recorded interest income of $2 million in the third quarter of 2018 compared to $3 million in the prior year's quarter. The related gain and interest income from the note settlement were excluded from all adjusted EBITDA calculations. Please note that historically, this interest income was included in adjusted EBITDA. Consequently, our ongoing adjusted EBITDA will be reduced by $3 million per quarter, mostly in the Insurance segment.

第三，2018 年 8 月，與我們 2016 年出售醫療保健業務相關的次級本票已全部結算，現金收入為 1.21 億美元。因此，我們在 2018 年第三季實現了 1,200 萬美元的收益。該票據的利息收入約為每月 100 萬美元或每季 300 萬美元。考慮到結算時間，我們在 2018 年第三季錄得利息收入 200 萬美元，而去年同期為 300 萬美元。票據結算產生的相關收益和利息收入已從所有調整後的 EBITDA 計算中剔除。請注意，歷史上，這部分利息收入已計入調整後的 EBITDA 中。因此，我們持續調整後的 EBITDA 將每季減少 300 萬美元，主要來自保險業務。

With those items covered, let's focus on our organic constant currency results for all year-over-year growth rates and to eliminate the impact of currency fluctuations, recent acquisitions for which we don't have a full year-over-year comparison and nonrecurring items.

在解決了這些問題之後，讓我們專注於所有同比成長率的有機成長（以固定匯率計算），並消除匯率波動、近期收購（我們沒有完整的年比數據）和非經常性項目的影響。

Acquired revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the quarter from all deals that haven't moved into organic results were $32 million and $9 million, respectively. On a reported organic constant currency basis, Verisk delivered revenue growth of 4.7% and adjusted EBITDA expense growth of 7.9% for adjusted EBITDA growth of 1.6% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 48.5%. The revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth rates reflect the impact of the exceptional storm activity and the nonrecurring TSYS revenue in the third quarter of the prior year. Normalizing for these events, revenue growth would have been 7.5% and adjusted EBITDA growth would have been 7.1%, reflecting organic growth across all our industry segments. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter of 48.5% was down slightly from 48.7% on a normalized basis in the prior period.

本季所有尚未轉化為內生性業績的交易帶來的收購收入和調整後 EBITDA 分別為 3,200 萬美元和 900 萬美元。以報告的有機固定匯率計算，Verisk 的收入增長了 4.7%，調整後的 EBITDA 支出增長了 7.9%，調整後的 EBITDA 增長了 1.6%，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 48.5%。收入和調整後 EBITDA 成長率反映了上年第三季異常風暴活動和非經常性 TSYS 收入的影響。剔除這些因素的影響，營收成長率將達到 7.5%，調整後的 EBITDA 成長率將達到 7.1%，反映了我們所有產業領域的有機成長。本季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 48.5%，較上一季的 48.7% 略有下降。

Now let's turn to our segment results on an organic constant currency basis. As you'll see in Table 2 in the press release, Insurance reported 5.5% revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA growth of 2.5% reflecting the inclusion of exceptional storm revenue in the prior period. Excluding these events in the prior year, Insurance revenue would have grown 7.7% and adjusted EBITDA would have grown 6.4%, reflecting an adjusted EBITDA margin of 54.3%, down from 55% in the prior year on a normalized basis due to continued investment in Geomni and other breakout opportunities as well as higher commissions related to the strong sales and higher salary and benefit expenses to support growth opportunities.

現在讓我們來看看以固定匯率計算的各業務板塊業績。正如您在新聞稿的表 2 中看到的那樣，保險業務的收入增長了 5.5%，調整後的 EBITDA 增長了 2.5%，這反映了前一時期特殊風暴收入的計入。如果排除上一年發生的這些事件，保險收入將成長 7.7%，調整後的 EBITDA 將成長 6.4%，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 54.3%，低於前一年的 55%。這是由於對 Geomni 和其他突破性機會的持續投資，以及與強勁銷售相關的更高佣金和為支持成長機會而增加的工資和福利支出。

Within our Underwriting & rating business, we saw solid performance with healthy growth in both personal and commercial lines. Within Claims, the strong growth was driven by solid performance across most of our Claims businesses, partially offset by a modest decline in our workers' compensation claim resolution services.

在我們的核保和評級業務方面，個人險和商業險均取得了穩健的成長。在理賠業務方面，強勁的成長得益於我們大多數理賠業務的穩健表現，但部分被工傷賠償理賠解決服務的輕微下滑所抵消。

Energy and Specialized Markets delivered revenue growth of 6.3% in the quarter, up from 5% in the prior quarter, as the energy industry continues to recover. Growth improved in both our consulting and research solutions, and we also had a positive contribution from environmental health and safety revenues.

能源和專業市場業務本季營收成長 6.3%，高於上一季的 5%，這得益於能源產業的持續復甦。我們的諮詢和研究解決方案業務均實現了成長，環境健康與安全方面的收入也做出了積極貢獻。

Adjusted EBITDA increased 9.1%, also an improvement from 0.9% growth in the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 31.8% was up from the prior year period of 31%, despite the ongoing investments in WoodMac 2.0 and our chemicals, subsurface and power and renewables breakouts that increased headcount and associated compensation expense. These areas represent opportunities to leverage Wood Mackenzie's data and industry expertise more broadly and to deliver and develop products more swiftly and efficiently.

調整後 EBITDA 成長 9.1%，也比上一季的 0.9% 增幅有所提高。儘管對 WoodMac 2.0 的持續投資以及我們在化工、地下、電力和再生能源領域的業務拓展增加了員工人數和相關的薪酬支出，但調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率仍從去年同期的 31% 上升至 31.8%。這些領域代表著更廣泛地利用伍德麥肯茲的數據和行業專業知識，以及更快、更有效率地交付和開發產品的機會。

Financial Services revenue declined 9.2% in the quarter and adjusted EBITDA decreased by 28.6%, reflecting the impact of the nonrecurring TSYS revenue of $6 million in the prior year period. On a normalized basis, revenue would have grown 9.1% in the quarter and adjusted EBITDA would have grown 15.2%, reflecting growth in portfolio management solutions, which includes our foundational benchmarking analytics and spend and marketing solutions, where we are leveraging our data and expertise in consumer spending to support both financial and nonbank clients.

本季金融服務收入下降了 9.2%，調整後的 EBITDA 下降了 28.6%，反映了去年同期非經常性 TSYS 收入 600 萬美元的影響。以正常水準計算，本季營收將成長 9.1%，調整後 EBITDA 將成長 15.2%，這反映了投資組合管理解決方案的成長，其中包括我們的基礎基準分析以及支出和行銷解決方案，我們正在利用我們在消費者支出方面的數據和專業知識來支援金融和非銀行客戶。

In addition, expense control contributed to the strong adjusted EBITDA growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 34.7% in the period compares to 32.8% in the prior year on a normalized basis.

此外，費用控制也促進了調整後 EBITDA 的強勁成長。本期調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 34.7%，而去年同期以正常水準計算為 32.8%。

We continue to be encouraged by the progress in our Financial Services segment and certainly are pleased by the strong normalized results in this quarter, demonstrating the core growth potential of the business. It's important to keep in mind that we are working to reduce the variability of revenue in the business, particularly around project-based items. As we continue to work through this process, the Financial Services segment will continue to have a higher level of quarterly fluctuations on revenues and growth in our other segments.

我們對金融服務業務的進展持續感到鼓舞，並對本季強勁的正常化業績感到非常滿意，這表明該業務具有核心成長潛力。需要注意的是，我們正在努力降低業務收入的波動性，特別是專案收入的波動性。在我們繼續推進這一進程的過程中，金融服務部門的收入和其他部門的成長將繼續出現較高的季度波動。

Reported interest expense was $32 million in the quarter, up 6.6% from the prior year quarter, due to the funding of acquisitions in 2017. Total reported debt was $2.6 billion at September 30, 2018, down from $3 billion at December 31, 2017. We used the proceeds of $121 million from the repayment of the subordinated promissory note to pay down debt, and our leverage at the end of the third quarter was 2.2x. Our consolidated cash and cash equivalents were $152 million at September 30, 2018.

本季度報告的利息支出為 3,200 萬美元，比上年同期增長 6.6%，原因是 2017 年的收購需要資金支持。截至 2018 年 9 月 30 日，公司報告的總債務為 26 億美元，低於 2017 年 12 月 31 日的 30 億美元。我們利用償還次級本票所得的 1.21 億美元來償還債務，第三季末我們的槓桿率為 2.2 倍。截至 2018 年 9 月 30 日，我們的合併現金及現金等價物為 1.52 億美元。

Our reported effective tax rate was 13.9% for the quarter compared to 33.2% in the prior year quarter as the result of recent tax reform. Our effective tax rate was lower than our targeted range due to significant exercises of soon-to-expire employee stock options related to our 2009 IPO that produced a favorable tax rate impact.

由於近期稅制改革，本季我們報告的實際稅率為 13.9%，而去年同期為 33.2%。由於與 2009 年 IPO 相關的即將到期的員工股票選擇權的大量行使，我們的實際稅率低於目標範圍，從而產生了有利的稅率影響。

We are maintaining our estimate of our effective tax rate in 2018 to be between 16% and 18%. However, the timing and impact of employee stock option exercises depends, in part, on the Verisk stock price and personal decisions. We expect the impact from employee stock option exercises will be less pronounced in 2019 and thus we will revert to a higher effective tax rate.

我們維持 2018 年實際稅率的估計，預計在 16% 到 18% 之間。然而，員工行使股票選擇權的時機和影響，部分取決於 Verisk 的股價和個人決定。我們預期員工股票選擇權行使的影響在 2019 年將不那麼明顯，因此我們將恢復到較高的實際稅率。

Adjusted net income was $182 million, and diluted adjusted EPS was $1.08 for the third quarter, up approximately 30% from the prior year. This increase reflects organic growth in the business, contributions from acquisitions and the impact of 2017 tax reform. Equalizing the third quarter 2017 effective tax rate to that of third quarter 2018, adjusted net income and diluted adjusted EPS would have increased 3.7% and 3.8%, respectively. Further normalizing for the elevated storm and TSYS project-related revenues in the quarter, net income and diluted adjusted EPS would have increased 9.2% and 9.1%, respectively.

第三季調整後淨收入為 1.82 億美元，稀釋後調整每股收益為 1.08 美元，比去年同期成長約 30%。這一成長反映了業務的自然成長、收購帶來的貢獻以及 2017 年稅收改革的影響。如果將 2017 年第三季的實際稅率與 2018 年第三季的實際稅率持平，則調整後的淨收入和稀釋後的調整後每股盈餘將分別成長 3.7% 和 3.8%。如果進一步將本季較高的風暴和 TSYS 專案相關收入納入正常化考量，淨利和稀釋調整後每股盈餘將分別成長 9.2% 和 9.1%。

Net cash provided by operating activities was $227 million for the quarter, up 39.7% from the prior year. Capital expenditures were $55 million for the quarter, up 33.7% from the prior year, reflecting primarily increased investment in Geomni and software development for recent acquisitions. As we've discussed previously, 2018 will be the peak year of capital expenditure for Geomni. Free cash flow was $172 million for the quarter, an increase of 41.8% for the prior year.

本季經營活動產生的淨現金流為 2.27 億美元，比上年同期成長 39.7%。本季資本支出為 5,500 萬美元，比上年同期增長 33.7%，主要反映了對 Geomni 的投資增加以及近期收購項目的軟體開發。正如我們之前討論過的，2018 年將是 Geomni 資本支出最高的一年。本季自由現金流為 1.72 億美元，較上年同期成長 41.8%。

We returned $102 million in capital to shareholders through the repurchase of approximately 1 million shares in the quarter at a weighted average price of $117.97. At September 30, we had $584 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization, and in addition, we initiated a new $50 million accelerated share repurchase to be executed in the fourth quarter.

本季我們透過回購約 100 萬股股票，以每股 117.97 美元的加權平均價格，向股東返還了 1.02 億美元的資本。截至 9 月 30 日，我們的股票回購授權額度還剩 5.84 億美元，此外，我們還啟動了一項新的 5000 萬美元加速股票回購計劃，將於第四季度執行。

In conclusion, I want to add an additional perspective. As you know, we are very focused in these calls on the results for the quarter. However, given the 3 items that impacted the quarter as we approach year-end, I think it's useful to step back and look at our year-to-date results for the Insurance segment and Verisk as a whole.

最後，我想補充一點。如您所知，我們在這些電話會議中非常關注本季的業績。然而，鑑於有 3 項因素影響了本季度業績，並且我們即將迎來年末，我認為有必要回顧一下我們保險業務部門和 Verisk 整體的年初至今業績。

For the year-to-date period, on an organic constant currency basis, and not, I repeat, not normalized for the exceptional storm activity, revenues were up 7.5% and adjusted EBITDA was up 7.6%, demonstrating margin improvement. On the same basis and not normalized, Verisk revenues were up 6.3% and adjusted EBITDA was up 5.8%, reflecting a slight overall margin decline from 49% to 48.8%, despite very high margins from the storm and nonrecurring project revenue in the third quarter of last year.

截至目前，以有機成長和固定匯率計算（我再次強調，並未針對異常風暴活動進行調整），收入增長了 7.5%，調整後的 EBITDA 增長了 7.6%，利潤率有所提高。以相同基礎計算，未經標準化處理，Verisk 的收入增長了 6.3%，調整後的 EBITDA 增長了 5.8%，反映出整體利潤率從 49% 略微下降至 48.8%，儘管去年第三季度風暴和非經常性項目收入帶來了非常高的利潤率。

These overall results, of course, reflected weaker performance of our non-Insurance segments earlier in the year and tough comparisons in the third quarter. However, in the third quarter, we demonstrated continued progress in operating revenues and margins for both segments.

當然，這些整體業績反映了我們非保險業務部門年初表現疲軟以及第三季同比基數較高。然而，在第三季度，我們兩個業務部門的營業收入和利潤率都取得了持續進步。

We are excited about the opportunities to invest in our business and remain focused on the long-term profitable growth and solid returns on capital. We remain confident that we have the financial strength and capital structure to support investment for the long term.

我們對投資業務的機會感到興奮，並將繼續專注於長期獲利成長和穩健的資本回報。我們仍然相信，我們擁有足夠的財務實力和資本結構來支持長期投資。

We continue to appreciate all the support and interest in Verisk, and we look forward to seeing many of you -- as many of you as possible, at our upcoming Investor Day on December 6 in New York City or welcome your participation through our webcast.

我們繼續感謝大家對 Verisk 的支持和關注，我們期待在 12 月 6 日於紐約市舉行的投資者日上見到你們中的許多人——盡可能多的人，或者歡迎你們透過我們的網路直播參與。

(Operator Instructions) With that, I'll ask the operator to open the line for questions.

（操作員指示）接下來，我將請操作員開通提問專線。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from the line of Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克。

Scott, my first question was just tied to your opening comments around digitization and the opportunity there, and I guess, more specifically, just in terms of the Decision Analytics side of insurance, like how do you think that will perform, if we do enter a period -- a tough period here in the next couple of years?

史考特，我的第一個問題與您之前關於數位化及其帶來的機會的開場白有關，更具體地說，是關於保險業的決策分析方面，您認為如果我們在未來幾年進入一個艱難時期，它的表現會如何？

I just want to clarify your question. So you say a tough period, meaning the performance of the insurance -- the state of the insurance industry?

我只是想確認一下你的問題。所以您說的艱困時期是指保險業的業績－保險業的現況？

Well, yes. I mean, just -- if you do hit a recession, broadly, in just the Insurance offers, like how do you think the analytics piece of your Insurance business...

是的。我的意思是，如果真的遭遇經濟衰退，尤其是保險業務整體下滑，你覺得保險業務的分析部分會受到怎樣的影響…

I got it. I understand. Yes, thank you. Well, the best answer to that, I think, is actually found in our own historical performance. There was a consecutive 5-year period where premiums were down year-over-year, and our business performed very well during that period. And the reason is that what the insurance companies need to do, whether they're in particularly strong moments of the cycle or weaker moments of the cycle, is to continue to upgrade their ability to ingest information, translate it into insight and then reflect that in a way they price their products, structure their products, adjust claims around their products, et cetera. That is the work of the insurance companies and that's what we're fundamentally a part of. So we're very comfortable with how our business -- our Insurance business will do almost regardless of the cycle. I mean, I'm saying that very strongly. Obviously, sort of extreme events in the moment can have an effect, but we've actually been through this and our business held up very well.

我得到了它。我明白。是的，謝謝。我認為，對此最好的回答其實可以在我們自身的歷史表現中找到。曾經有連續 5 年保費逐年下降的時期，而我們的業務在那段時間表現得非常好。原因在於，無論保險公司處於經濟週期的強勢時期還是疲軟時期，他們都需要不斷提升自身獲取資訊、將其轉化為洞察力的能力，然後以某種方式反映在產品定價、產品結構、理賠等方面。那是保險公司的工作，而我們從根本上來說也是其中的一部分。因此，我們對我們的業務——我們的保險業務——幾乎不受經濟週期影響的經營狀況非常有信心。我的意思是，我的說法非常肯定。顯然，突發的極端事件可能會產生影響，但我們實際上經歷過這種情況，我們的業務表現得非常好。

Okay. And Mark, maybe just in terms of some of the new products and so forth you were calling out. I guess, maybe the one area maybe you can just update us on is the telematics initiative. I mean, it sounds like all the insurance companies are obviously talking a lot more about it on their calls, but just curious how we should think about when your exchange starts driving some contributions.

好的。馬克，或許就你剛才提到的一些新產品等等方面而言。我想，或許您可以向我們報告遠端資訊處理計畫的最新進展。我的意思是，聽起來所有保險公司都在電話會議上談論更多這件事，但我只是好奇，當你們的交易所開始推動一些繳款時，我們應該如何看待這個問題。

Yes, thank you. Good question. I think we are very pleased with the position we're in. We have these really exclusive arrangements with some of the larger OEMs and that has cemented us. So now it's -- every day, we have more cars, more miles and better data on that exchange. The early returns are really focused on 2 things. One, there's approach on the claim side to be easier and helpful to those driving your automobile. So think of an accident occurring. First of all, is there some safety or public safety you need, ambulance? Can we get you a ride, tow truck? But also, let us quickly through a hot and warm transfer, notify the insurance carrier that there's a claim. So this is a first notice, all automated. That is very attractive to all parties involved and that seems to be probably the place we lead. Secondly, we have found that a lot of carriers are taking the data and the information that is coming off, we call it, model-ready data. But basically, they're using the data to model and they're finding great lift in pricing policies using that industry or data exchange. So early days. I think it will continue to grow. I would say that we all think that IoT is happening, but probably at a slower pace than what we've seen in Europe and elsewhere. We remain optimistic and we love the position we're in.

是的，謝謝。問得好。我認為我們對目前的處境非常滿意。我們與一些大型原始設備製造商 (OEM) 達成了非常獨特的合作協議，這鞏固了我們的地位。所以現在的情況是——每天，我們都會有更多的汽車、更多的里程以及更好的交易數據。初步結果主要集中在兩件事上。第一，理賠方面採取了更簡單、更便於駕駛您車輛的人處理的方式。想像一下發生意外的情景。首先，您需要的是安全還是公共安全的幫助，例如救護車？需要拖車嗎？但同時，讓我們盡快透過熱線通知保險公司有理賠事宜。這是首次通知，完全自動化。這對各方都很有吸引力，而且這似乎也是我們可能的成就。其次，我們發現很多運營商正在獲取數據和信息，我們稱之為「模型就緒數據」。但基本上，他們利用這些數據進行建模，並發現透過該行業或數據交換，定價策略得到了極大的提升。現在還處於早期階段。我認為它會繼續增長。我認為我們都認為物聯網正在發生，但其發展速度可能比我們在歐洲和其他地方看到的要慢。我們依然保持樂觀，並且對我們所處的地位感到滿意。

Your next question comes from the line of Toni Kaplan with Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的東尼卡普蘭。

First, I wanted to ask about the Insurance EBITDA. I think, Lee, you mentioned that there is going to be sort of $3 million lower in the future quarters in Insurance EBITDA because of the interest expense recorded from that promissory note. I wanted just make sure I had that right. And so basically, this quarter, you adjusted out that as well as the gain so it would really be as if this quarter didn't have it, but prior quarters did. I just want to make sure I understood that right.

首先，我想詢問一下保險業務的 EBITDA。李，我想你提到過，由於那張本票產生的利息支出，未來幾季的保險 EBITDA 將減少約 300 萬美元。我只是想確認一下我的理解是否正確。所以基本上，本季你已經調整掉了這部分以及收益，所以就好像本季沒有這部分，但之前的季度有這部分一樣。我只是想確認一下我理解得是否正確。

Yes, thank you, Toni. I appreciate the opportunity just to go into a little bit more detail on that. And so -- you referred to it as interest expense. Just to be clear on the note, it was an asset that we hold. We were receiving approximately $3 million of interest income on that note. And the reason that it's in EBITDA is that under the SEC definition of EBITDA, you take net income and you add back interest expense, not net interest expense, so it's included in that calculation. And so since this was an acquisition-related activity and we want to certainly separate out the gain and the impact of the interest income for comparability, that -- the gain has been excluded. And then to the extent that there is any interest income in the period, we have excluded from the third quarter of 2017, $3 million of that interest income from our EBITDA, and in the third quarter of 2018, $2 million of the interest income that we realized before its redemption. And so the thing that we want for all of the analysts to understand is that going forward, that $3 million, which is in all of the segments, but the bulk of it is in Insurance, I would think of it at a corporate level of $3 million of EBITDA that comes out of our future quarterly results. Does that clarify things?

是的，謝謝你，托尼。我很感激有機會能更詳細地談談這件事。所以——你稱它為利息支出。需要明確的是，這是我們持有的一項資產。我們從該票據中獲得了約 300 萬美元的利息收入。之所以將其計入 EBITDA，是因為根據美國證券交易委員會對 EBITDA 的定義，你需要將淨收入加上利息支出，而不是淨利息支出，因此它包含在 EBITDA 的計算中。因此，由於這是一項與收購相關的活動，為了便於比較，我們當然要將收益和利息收入的影響分開考慮，所以——收益已被排除在外。此外，如果該期間有任何利息收入，我們從 2017 年第三季的 EBITDA 中扣除了 300 萬美元的利息收入，從 2018 年第三季的 EBITDA 中扣除了 200 萬美元的利息收入（該利息收入是在贖回之前實現的）。因此，我們希望所有分析師都明白，展望未來，這 300 萬美元（涵蓋所有業務板塊，但大部分來自保險業務）在公司層面上指的是我們未來季度業績中 300 萬美元的 EBITDA。這樣解釋清楚了嗎？

It does. And as my follow-up, I wanted to ask about Energy, really good, strong organic growth quarter there. Just -- if you could give us a little bit more detail. I know you mentioned the market's recovering, but just what are you hearing from clients? What are sort of some of the -- is it sort of driven by the consulting, the strength? And basically, do you think that the positive trends should continue in the fourth quarter as well as into next year?

確實如此。作為後續問題，我想詢問能源行業的情況，該行業在本季度實現了非常強勁的自然成長。如果您能提供更多細節就太好了。我知道您提到市場正在復甦，但您從客戶那裡聽到了什麼回饋？其中一些因素是什麼——這在某種程度上是由諮詢業務還是實力驅動的？那麼，您認為這種積極的趨勢會在第四季度以及明年繼續下去嗎？

Yes. So maybe starting at the end of that, Toni. The performance of that segment is really pretty broadly based, and what I mean by that is that it spans the kinds of solutions that we have traditionally provided, so sort of the core, look at the supply chain of the oil and gas space, but also includes the upstream subsurface kinds of analytics, which are relatively newer for us, analytics related to the renewable forms of energy. And then kind of over the top, on all of that, the digitizing trend that I talked about probably is differentially being felt more strongly in the energy space than it is in the others because energy actually had started further behind. So we talked a lot about WoodMac 2.0 and essentially sort of changing our own technical infrastructure, which allows us to interact with our customers differently. That's a constructive movement in the business because our customers themselves are also changing their digital methods on the commercial side of their businesses. So it's really very broadly based. If you were to think of it in terms of sort of what it is that's getting delivered and looking at where we have been in 2018 and where we're going in the future, we're always encouraged when we see consulting do well because it tends to be a leading indicator of the propensity of our customers to be thinking into the future. And that has been strong, so that's an encouraging signal for us. But as those of you who are familiar with our story know, most of the revenue is related to subscriptions. And over the course of 2018, subscriptions have advanced nicely also across several of those thematic categories that I talked about. So it's not really any one thing. It's really broadly based.

是的。所以，或許可以從結尾開始吧，東尼。該領域的表現確實非常廣泛，我的意思是，它涵蓋了我們傳統上提供的各種解決方案，也就是核心的石油和天然氣供應鏈，但也包括上游地下分析（這對我們來說相對較新），以及與再生能源相關的分析。而且，就所有這些而言，我提到的數位化趨勢在能源領域可能比其他領域感受到的更為強烈，因為能源領域的數位化進程實際上起步較晚。所以我們深入探討了 WoodMac 2.0，以及從本質上改變我們自己的技術基礎設施，這使我們能夠以不同的方式與客戶互動。這是商業領域的建設性趨勢，因為我們的客戶本身也在改變其商業方面的數位化方法。所以它的基礎非常廣泛。如果從交付成果的角度來看，回顧 2018 年的發展歷程和未來的發展方向，我們總是會因諮詢業務的良好表現而受到鼓舞，因為它往往是客戶展望未來傾向的領先指標。而且這一趨勢一直很強勁，這對我們來說是一個令人鼓舞的訊號。但熟悉我們故事的人都知道，我們大部分的收入都來自訂閱。在 2018 年，我提到的幾個主題類別中的訂閱量也取得了不錯的成長。所以，這並非某個單一因素造成的。它的適用範圍非常廣泛。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Andrew Steinerman。

It's Andrew. I wanted to talk about 2 things around Argus. I know it's a smaller business for you. The first one, Scott, you said something about your prepared remarks about kind of changing products to, I think, just to regs. And I was wondering if that's Argus-related comment because I remember, in the second quarter, you talked about some regs about targeting within Argus that needed changes for the customers. And my question is, have those changes been made and have customers moved forward? And the second question is, the contracts that were announced at Analyst Day, have those ramped up?

是安德魯。我想談談關於阿格斯的兩件事。我知道這對你來說是一家規模較小的公司。史考特，你之前說過，你準備好的演講稿是關於改變產品，我想，就是為了符合法規。我想知道這是否與 Argus 有關，因為我記得在第二季度，您談到了 Argus 內部一些關於目標定位的規定，這些規定需要為客戶做出改變。我的問題是，這些改變是否已經做出，而客戶是否已經接受了這些改變？第二個問題是，分析師日上宣布的那些合同，是否已經逐步落實？

Thanks, Andrew. Yes. So to your question about the models, that comment in my remarks was related to Financial Services and Argus specifically. And what's going on there, just to sort of reprieve that real quick is that in the face of mounting regulations, the amount of documentation that is required on some of your models, if you're a bank or you're a credit card issuer, have really, really ramped up. And so we had created some offerings that were pretty popular with our customers and that's summarized a lot into what we call a wallet share model. And so if you're going to you sort of a wallet share model, what the regulators have said is, "You cannot sort of operate that as a black box. You're going to have to show us what's inside of your black box." And so the sort of the burden for our customers opening up the black box really got sort of pretty large. And so in the face of that, what we've done is we have essentially disaggregated some of those models and sort of essentially taken the attributes which build up into the overall view, and that's what we're now making available to our customers. So I just want everybody to understand that's the movement. So the inside is still useful, but the way it gets presented has had to change. And then to your question, so in the third quarter of 2018, the net effect of moving -- some of our customers moving away from the wallet share models and moving into the attributes was essentially a drag on the revenue line in the third quarter. So the transition is not yet complete. What that means is, actually, that there is upside for us going forward. We're feeling -- we have felt over the last couple of quarters the burden of that transition, and as we go forward, that's going to eventually even out or even move in the right direction.

謝謝你，安德魯。是的。所以，關於你提出的模型問題，我剛才的評論是專門針對金融服務和 Argus 公司的。簡單解釋一下，目前的情況是，面對日益嚴格的監管，如果你是一家銀行或信用卡發行機構，那麼某些型號所需的文件數量確實大幅增加。因此，我們開發了一些深受客戶歡迎的產品，這些產品很大程度上可以概括為我們所謂的錢包份額模型。因此，如果你要採用錢包共享模式，監管機構已經表示：「你不能把它當作黑盒子來操作。你必須讓我們看看你的黑盒子裡裝的是什麼。 」 因此，客戶打開黑盒子的負擔變得相當沉重。因此，面對這種情況，我們所做的就是對其中一些模型進行分解，並提取出構成整體視圖的屬性，而這正是我們現在提供給客戶的屬性。所以，我只是想讓大家明白，這就是這場運動。所以，其內在價值依然存在，但呈現方式必須改變。至於你的問題，2018 年第三季度，一些客戶從錢包份額模型轉向屬性模型，其淨影響基本上拖累了第三季度的收入。所以過渡尚未完成。實際上，這意味著我們未來會有好的方面。在過去的幾個季度裡，我們一直感受到這種轉型帶來的壓力，但隨著我們不斷前進，這種情況最終會趨於穩定，甚至朝著正確的方向發展。

And Scott, I asked about the 8 contracts from Analyst Day.

史考特，我問了問分析師日上的8份合約的情況。

Right, Michael, let me take that one. So the answer is from over this period, there has been a portion of those contracts that we have executed and have begun generating revenue, and then there have been a portion that has fallen out. We have -- and I appreciate your assiduousness in tracking that. It's not something that we are tracking on a regular basis. We're obviously looking at kind of current portfolio. But we have realized some of those contracts, and some of those, we did not get to execution on. And I can try to give you more detail on that once we've kind of researched and tracked those specific items as we have in the past, but I don't have those numbers in front of me.

好的，邁克爾，讓我來做這件事。所以答案是，在這段時間裡，我們已經執行了一部分合約並開始產生收入，但也有一部分合約失敗了。我們已經掌握了——我很感激你對此的認真追蹤。這不是我們定期追蹤的內容。我們顯然是在關注當前的投資組合。但我們已經履行了其中一些合同，而另一些合同則未能執行。一旦我們對這些具體項目進行研究和追蹤（就像我們過去所做的那樣），我可以嘗試提供更多細節，但我現在手頭上沒有這些數字。

Your next question comes from the line of Hamzah Mazari with Macquarie Capital.

你的下一個問題來自麥格理資本的 Hamzah Mazari。

My question is just around pricing. Just given inflation in the system, but more importantly, given your investment in new data sets, are you guys thinking about pricing differently than when you were owned by the insurance companies versus even just before you had Geomni? Just any sense on pricing philosophy and how that is changed and what we should think about going forward.

我的問題僅與定價有關。考慮到系統內的通貨膨脹，但更重要的是，考慮到你們對新資料集的投資，你們在定價方面是否考慮過與被保險公司收購時甚至收購 Geomni 之前不同的策略？想請教大家對定價理念的看法，以及定價方式的改變和我們未來應該考慮的方向。

Yes. Our pricing philosophy is the same as it's always been, which is that we price to value. So we're very focused on the utility of our solutions for our customers, and it's on that basis that we set the prices for the solutions that we provide. And as has always been the case, our preference and the heart of our model is recurring subscriptions. And we find that, that's good for our customers. They like knowing with some certainty what they're going to be paying for our solutions, and it's good for us because of the visibility and the recurrence. So we normally try to -- that's where we try to set our pricing model. There are some occasions where, with newer solutions, particularly, the customers would prefer that we start out transaction priced because

是的。我們的定價理念和以往一樣，那就是以價值定價。因此，我們非常注重我們解決方案對客戶的實用性，並以此為基礎來設定我們提供的解決方案的價格。一如既往，我們的首選和我們模式的核心是定期訂閱。我們發現，這對我們的客戶來說是件好事。他們喜歡確切地知道他們將為我們的解決方案支付多少費用，這對我們來說是好事，因為這可以提高透明度並帶來持續的收入。所以我們通常會嘗試——這就是我們嘗試設定定價模型的地方。有些情況下，尤其是在使用較新的解決方案時，客戶可能更希望我們一開始就採用交易定價模式，因為

(technical difficulty)

（技術難題）

exactly how much of it they're going to consume as they begin using it. And so we're perfectly happy to do that when that's what the customers want. But we generally find, with time, that they would like us to transition to subscriptions. And then the last thing I'll add is, as a part of our pricing philosophy, that we generally attempt to achieve multiyear subscriptions with price inflators on an annual basis, which reflects the fact that most of what we do is so basic to what our customers do, it's so embedded in their workflows, that it's just -- there's just sort of a mutual understanding that this is the way business is going to get done. And so our customers are comfortable with signing multiyear agreements. And of course, for us, that just represents an even higher level of recurrence. So everything I just said has been a part of our approach since October of 2009 when you first saw us as a public company, and I'm very certain it will remain our go-to-market approach.

他們開始使用後究竟會消耗多少。所以，當客戶有此需求時，我們非常樂意這樣做。但我們通常會發現，隨著時間的推移，他們希望我們過渡到訂閱模式。最後我想補充一點，作為我們定價理念的一部分，我們通常會嘗試達成多年訂閱協議，並每年進行價格調整，這反映了這樣一個事實：我們所做的大部分工作對於我們的客戶來說都是非常基礎的，它已經深深融入到他們的工作流程中，以至於——雙方都達成了一種共識，那就是這就是業務開展的方式。因此，我們的客戶樂於簽訂多年協議。當然，對我們來說，這僅僅意味著更高的復發率。因此，我剛才所說的一切，自 2009 年 10 月你們第一次看到我們作為一家上市公司以來，一直是我們的方法的一部分，而且我非常肯定，它將繼續成為我們的市場進入方式。

Great. And just a follow-up question, I know you touched on healthcare a bit around Insurance. Maybe just remind us, how much of your business today is not P&C insurance, specifically auto, home, you touched on healthcare? And then maybe do you see any changes in terms of autonomous cars, connected homes impacting that business just from a technology standpoint?

偉大的。還有一個後續問題，我知道您在談到保險時稍微提到了醫療保健方面的內容。或許您可以提醒我們一下，您目前有多少業務不是財產保險，特別是汽車保險和房屋保險？您剛才提到了醫療保健。那麼，從技術角度來看，您認為自動駕駛汽車、智慧家庭等領域會對該產業產生哪些影響？

So Lee, in a minute, I'll let you just talk about the split of our revenues. But yes, autonomous cars and Internet of Things, data coming from vehicles and from homes, very definitely a part of what we're doing. Those are constructive trends inside of our business and will only continue to be more important, especially for insurance companies. So that's just sort of established inside of what it is we're doing. Lee, do you want to just talk about the split of our business?

李，稍等片刻，我讓你談談我們收入的分配情況。是的，自動駕駛汽車和物聯網，來自車輛和家庭的數據，絕對是我們正在做的事情的一部分。這些都是我們業務內部的建設性趨勢，而且只會變得越來越重要，尤其對保險公司而言。所以這已經算是我們工作內容中既定的一部分了。李，你只想談談我們業務的拆分嗎？

Yes, let me -- and Hamza, I think -- well, first, just to kind start off at a high level. Just from the overall insurance perspective, the -- for year-to-date 2018, the Insurance segment represents 71% of our total revenue and 81% of our EBITDA. I think you were asking for color around what portion of our revenues or our business composition is not P&C. And so let me clarify, the vast majority of our Insurance revenues are P&C-related. Auto and home are -- what we do there is P&C, property and casualty-related. So you may want some context around what portion is home-related or auto-related, and perhaps Mark can give you some perspective around that. I don't know that we have that breakout because it's embedded in, for instance, our ISO and our Claims businesses together, but perhaps, we can talk around that. Is that the sort of information that you were looking for?

是的，讓我──還有哈姆札，我想──首先，就讓我們從高層次開始吧。僅從整體保險業務的角度來看，截至 2018 年，保險業務占我們總收入的 71% 和 EBITDA 的 81%。我想您是想了解我們的收入或業務組成中，財產和意外保險業務所佔的比例是多少。因此，讓我澄清一下，我們保險收入的絕大部分都與財產和意外保險有關。汽車和房屋保險——我們在那裡所做的事情是財產和意外保險。所以你可能想了解哪些部分與房屋相關，哪些部分與汽車相關，也許馬克可以給你一些這方面的看法。我不知道我們是否能單獨劃分出來，因為它已經融入我們的 ISO 和理賠業務中，但或許我們可以就此展開討論。這是您要找的資訊嗎？

Yes, exactly.

是的，正是如此。

So maybe that's something we can come back to you with to try to give you the breakout on some of those other components. But we don't have those -- a sense of that right now.

所以，或許我們可以稍後再向您報告，以便更好地分析其他一些組成部分。但我們現在還沒有那種感覺。

Yes, we can do it offline.

是的，我們可以線下完成。

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Jeffrey with SunTrust.

我們的下一個問題來自 SunTrust 的 Andrew Jeffrey。

Scott, your high-level industry comments are always much appreciated for perspective. And one of the things I think you said, it touched a little bit on the insurance industry consolidation, and obviously, you have seen that flow through your business for the last few years. And then I think you made some comments on perhaps reinsurance. I wonder if you can elaborate a little bit in terms of how the industry is changing via consolidation and what specifically you think that means to your business, maybe shorter term or intermediate term. I assume, longer term, it's not as big as an impact. But I just wondered if you could maybe be a little more granular.

Scott，您高屋建瓴的行業評論總是能提供許多有益的視角，我們非常感激。我認為你剛才提到的一點，也稍微觸及了保險業的整合，顯然，在過去的幾年裡，你已經在自己的​​業務中看到了這種趨勢。然後，我想你還就再保險發表了一些評論。我想請您詳細說明產業整合是如何改變的，以及您認為這對您的企業意味著什麼，無論是短期還是中期。我估計，從長遠來看，它的影響不會那麼大。但我只是想知道您能否說得更具體一些。

Yes, sure. So just all the way to the top, just talking about what the demography of the industry looks like. At the top end of the market, there are a certain number of consolidations each year. My emphasis here would be on the fact that it's really not a very large number. But also bear in mind that there are new entrants into the insurance space on a consistent basis, and several of these are what get referred to as the InsurTechs. Sometimes, they're innovating based upon the way that they segment the market. You have some innovation in terms of, say, peer-to-peer forms of insurance, which are kind of interesting, but they haven't really -- they haven't expressed themselves yet as particularly big trends. But think of it as an industry where, yes, there is some consolidation at one end of the market, but there's also entry at the other end of the market. We do -- we have done very well with the new entrants. They find it really helpful to be able to make use of our methods as they get started. They're efficient. It helps them get in the business quickly. It's actually a credibility point for them as they do their business, et cetera. So as we talk about sort of the evolution -- and these are -- this is very real time, what I'm describing here. As these new companies come into the market, we find that they're very inclined to work with us. When consolidations occur, and again, my emphasis here would be how relatively few of them happen, but when they do occur, it's very situation-specific in terms of what it does to our business. There may be some cases where the 2 companies coming together have -- they're very overlapping in their use of Verisk solutions, and in that case, they very reasonably expect that like-on-like, there might be some reduction in the total invoiced amount for the solution of the 2 companies who were using and now the one are using. But there are frequently offsets to that also because it's also the case that one company may be using our solutions and the other company is not. And in those cases, actually, there's a very nice cross-sell opportunity within that same account. And so we -- when we go through these transitions with our customers, where 2 become 1, we dig in very deeply and talk to them about everything that they're using that comes from us and the things that they're not. And there can be an effect maybe in year 1, although not particularly large. And then on an ongoing basis, generally, the profile of the account going forward, the growth profile is, I think -- Mark, check me on this, but I think it's generally about the same as it was before 2 companies became one. So we note consolidation. And as I say, it's very situation-specific, but not -- it's not a major effect on our business. Anything you want to add to that?

當然可以。所以，我們一路聊到最高層，討論一下這個產業的從業人員組成。在高端市場，每年都會出現一定數量的整合。我想強調的是，這其實並不是一個很大的數字。但也要記住，保險領域不斷有新的參與者，其中有些就是所謂的保險科技公司。有時，他們會根據市場區隔的方式來進行創新。比如說，點對點保險形式方面有一些創新，這很有趣，但它們還沒有真正成為特別大的趨勢。但你可以把它看作是一個產業，在這個產業裡，雖然市場一端有一些整合，但另一端也有新企業進入。是的——我們與新進入者合作得非常好。他們發現，在起步階段能夠運用我們的方法真的很有幫助。它們效率很高。這有助於他們快速進入這個行業。實際上，這對他們開展業務等而言，是一個信譽點。所以，當我們談論這種演變時——而這些——我在這裡描述的是非常即時的。隨著這些新公司進入市場，我們發現他們非常願意與我們合作。當企業合併發生時（再次強調，這種情況相對較少），它對我們業務的影響取決於具體情況。有些情況下，兩家公司合併後，在使用 Verisk 解決方案方面可能存在許多重疊，在這種情況下，他們非常有理由預期，合併後兩家公司各自使用的解決方案的總發票金額可能會有所減少。但這種情況也常常會受到抵消，因為也可能出現一家公司使用我們的解決方案，而另一家公司沒有使用的情況。在這種情況下，實際上，同一個客戶內部就存在著非常好的交叉銷售機會。因此，當我們的客戶經歷這種從 2 變成 1 的轉變時，我們會深入了解並與他們討論他們正在使用的所有來自我們的產品和服務，以及他們沒有使用的所有產品和服務。或許第一年就會產生一些影響，雖然不會特別大。然後，總的來說，就未來的發展趨勢而言，我認為——馬克，你幫我確認一下，但我認為它總體上與兩家公司合併之前的情況大致相同。因此，我們注意到整合現象。正如我所說，這取決於具體情況，但不會對我們的業務造成重大影響。你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

No. I think the only thing I'll -- I think you're trying to get a little feel for it -- I think we feel that 2017, on the primary side of things, it was kind of business as normal. I think there's some reinsurance mergers that may have a little bit of a headwind as it relates to more of our tech modeling business. That would be my high-level, short-term view of things, if that helps.

不。我覺得我唯一要說的是——我覺得你正在努力去體會一下——我覺得我們感覺 2017 年，就主要方面而言，一切都和往常一樣。我認為，一些再保險合併可能會對我們的技術建模業務造成一些阻礙。如果這能有所幫助的話，這就是我對事情的宏觀、短期看法。

Yes, I mean, there might be a few more situations like where AXA and XL Catlin came together. And that's an interesting one because I think that one actually represents a fair amount of opportunity for us. But I mentioned that one because that has sort of a global, geographic markets dimension and it's also reinsurance sort of being layered more directly on top of insurance inside of this one specific company. So I think you may see some of that, but that's actually the most constructive kind of consolidation I can imagine for us, constructive for us.

是的，我的意思是，可能還會出現一些類似 AXA 和 XL Catlin 合併的情況。這很有意思，因為我認為這實際上代表著我們相當大的機會。但我之所以提到這一點，是因為它具有全球性、地域性市場維度，而且在這家特定公司內部，再保險也更直接地疊加在保險之上。所以我覺得你可能會看到一些這樣的例子，但這實際上是我能想像的對我們來說最有建設性的整合方式，對我們來說是建設性的。

That's really helpful. And Scott, I think you also made a comment -- maybe Mark, it was in your comments, about Geomni share gains. I wonder if you could just talk about from whom Geomni is taking share?

這真的很有幫助。史考特，我想你也發表過評論——或許是馬克，是在你的評論裡，關於Geomni的股價上漲。我想知道您能否談談Geomni是從哪些公司搶佔市場份額的？

Well, there's only a few competitors in the market, and I think we've been fortunate to deliver value and provide a completely integrated solution that has been appealing to several insurers and service providers. So we continue to see some opportunities, a good pipeline as well as close sales. So that's contributing to the growth you're seeing in 2018 and should continue into the future.

市場上只有幾家競爭對手，我認為我們很幸運能夠提供有價值的產品和服務，並提供一個完全整合的解決方案，這對幾家保險公司和服務提供者都很有吸引力。因此，我們持續看到一些機會，良好的銷售管道以及成交的訂單。所以，這促成了2018年的成長，而這種成長動能應該會持續到未來。

Your next question comes from the line of Tim McHugh with William Blair.

你的下一個問題來自提姆·麥克休和威廉·布萊爾的對話。

Just wanted to follow up on -- there's an earlier question about Wood Mackenzie and Energy, I guess, more broadly -- and I understood they're kind of broad comments, I guess, but can you help us drill down into how we should think about the growth trend within the subscription piece, the high-level number in the earnings release about subscription revenue? The percentage of revenue from subscription would suggest it was very strongly driven the growth in that segment by the consulting piece. And so I understand there's a comparison with the loss in one contract so -- there's some noise there. Can you give more color to help us understand the progress or how much progress, I guess, is being made on growing subscription revenue for that business?

我想跟進一下——之前有人問過關於伍德麥肯錫和能源方面的問題，我想更廣泛地說——我知道他們的評論比較籠統，但您能否幫我們深入探討一下，我們應該如何看待訂閱業務的增長趨勢，以及財報中關於訂閱收入的總體數據？訂閱收入佔比表明，諮詢業務對該領域的成長起到了非常強勁的推動作用。因此，我了解到有人將這筆交易與一份合約中的損失進行了比較——這裡面存在一些幹擾因素。您能否提供更多細節，幫助我們了解該業務在增加訂閱收入方面的進展，或說進展程度？

Yes. Actually, quite a bit of progress is being made on subscriptions, and again, I think you do need to look beyond 1 quarter to say the year or even multiple years, but since we really called the turn on the business, which would have been -- just referencing my notes here, about, I guess, about 10 months ago or so. The progression of the subscriptions from then has looked very much like what we would expect and has -- and is very supportive of our view that this is a business which can be -- can perform above the rate of organic growth of all of Verisk, actually. So in the quarter, it happens that the transaction revenues were particularly strong. And yes, we are working our way through one substantial subscription agreement that went off the books in 2018. We've talked about that. But I think that over intermediate and long periods of time, subscription revenue growth will be equal to or probably even exceed the rate of consulting -- or just kind of -- they will both be very strong contributors, but what we're focused on is subscription revenue growth. That's the heart of our business.

是的。實際上，訂閱方面取得了相當大的進展，而且我認為，你需要把目光放得比一個季度更遠，比如一年甚至幾年，但自從我們真正預測到業務轉折點以來——我只是參考一下我的筆記，大概是在10個月前左右。從那時起，訂閱量的成長與我們的預期非常吻合，並且非常支持我們的觀點，即這項業務的業績實際上可以超過 Verisk 整體的有機成長率。因此，本季交易收入恰好表現特別強勁。是的，我們正在努力處理一份於 2018 年終止的重要訂閱協議。我們討論過這個問題。但我認為，從中長期來看，訂閱收入的成長速度將與諮詢收入的成長速度持平，甚至可能超過諮詢收入的成長速度——或者說差不多——它們都將是非常重要的貢獻者，但我們關注的是訂閱收入的成長。這是我們業務的核心。

Scott, maybe if I can add some perspective. I think, Tim, that when we think about the subscription growth and kind of the core subscriptions, kind of putting aside some of the breakouts -- and the breakouts are also largely subscription-oriented and research-oriented. And we have seen steady progress in the growth rate and new subscriptions in kind of the mid-single digits category before we factor in the breakouts. And then we look at the breakouts, and those have been very strong growths as we penetrated those new areas. And so that gives us confidence, that moves us more into kind of the higher single-digits range. And then on top of that, we have the consulting revenue, which as you point out, was strong. Now consulting revenue and the growth that we saw [us] experience was clearly a significant contributor to the overall growth, but we certainly see continued progress in that strengthened -- in that improvement in subscription growth, supplemented by the breakout subscription growths, which are at a high level. So that maybe gives you some context on relative growth rates, to complement Scott's perspective.

史考特，或許我可以補充一些觀點。提姆，我認為，當我們考慮訂閱成長和核心訂閱時，撇開一些突破性成長不談——而這些突破性成長也大多以訂閱和研究為導向。在考慮突破性成長之前，我們已經看到成長率和新訂閱量穩步提升，達到了中等個位數水準。然後我們來看突破性進展，隨著我們滲透到這些新領域，這些進展都非常強勁。因此，這給了我們信心，也讓我們更有可能達到個位數的較高水準。此外，正如您所指出的，我們還有諮詢收入，這部分收入表現強勁。現在，諮詢收入和我們所經歷的成長顯然對整體成長做出了重大貢獻，但我們當然看到，訂閱成長的改善，以及突破性訂閱成長（目前處於高水準），都持續取得了進步。這樣或許能讓你對相對成長率有一些了解，進而補充斯科特的觀點。

And I guess, a last point I would make is that a lot of the subscription renewals occur in the fourth quarter and the first quarter. So to a degree, it's not really quite surprising that the third quarter would be relatively a little quieter with respect to subscriptions.

最後我想補充一點，很多訂閱續訂都發生在第四季和第一季。因此，從某種程度上來說，第三季訂閱量相對較少也就不令人意外了。

Okay. And then, Lee, just a follow-up to that. Are those growths, when you say mid-single-digits in the core and high single including the breakouts, are you excluding the loss of -- the impact of this customer that you lost?

好的。然後，李，我再補充一點。您所說的核心業務成長為個位數中段，突破業務成長為個位數高段，是指您是否排除了失去這位客戶的影響？

Yes. So that -- what I'm referring to are kind of our -- what we're experiencing currently. And so that reflects the impact of that loss of that large global investment bank. And so I think, as we've talked about in the past, that's kind of roughly a percentage point drag from a growth standpoint.

是的。所以，我所指的，正是我們目前正在經歷的事情。因此，這反映了這家大型全球投資銀行倒閉所帶來的影響。所以我覺得，正如我們之前討論過的，從成長的角度來看，這大約會造成百分之一的下滑。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler with Baird.

你的下一個問題來自 Jeff Meuler 與 Baird 的合作系列。

Yes, a couple segment-level margin questions. So first, on Insurance, I know that there's other factors in here, like the comp from the year ago and the interest income effect. But just on the aerial imagery investments, I guess, can you just maybe talk about where you're at in that investment cycle, what you're investing in, in terms of product? Because I understand the planes and sensor investments, but I think that would flow through CapEx. So just on the margin impact, I guess, where you're at on the aerial imagery product and what you're investing in currently.

是的，有幾個關於細分市場利潤率的問題。首先，關於保險，我知道這裡面還有其他因素，像是去年同期的比較以及利息收入的影響。但就空拍影像投資而言，我想，您能否談談您目前處於投資週期的哪個階段，以及您在產品方面投資了哪些方面？因為我了解飛機和感測器的投資，但我認為這會反映在資本支出中。所以，就邊際影響而言，我想，這取決於您在空拍影像產品方面的進展以及您目前的投資方向。

Sure. So Jeff, let me approach it this way. So yes, there is -- certainly, the bulk of the investment from a capital standpoint is going into purchasing planes and sensors in operations. And so that's something that we've talked about before that will peak in 2018. We expect that, that will come down. Further, as we are ramping up our -- the pilots and the personnel in order to drive that, that is effectively an additional investment as we are gathering and expanding the scope and the breadth of data. And so that is factored in and you see that in the P&L. To kind of give you some context, when we look at that impact across Verisk as a whole, that contributes about 1%, roughly, of our expense growth. And that's -- so that gives you some context for the scale of that impact. It has a lesser impact currently on revenue, but we, obviously, are growing at a high rate and so that translates into a slightly also smaller impact on EBITDA. So that kind of gives you kind of a sense of the scale of that investment. Mark, did you have something you wanted to add to that?

當然。傑夫，我換個角度來說吧。所以，是的，確實如此——從資本角度來看，大部分投資都用於購買飛機和營運中的感測器。所以，這是我們之前討論過的事情，它將在 2018 年達到頂峰。我們預計價格會下降。此外，隨著我們增加對飛行員和人員的投入以推動這項工作，這實際上也是一項額外的投資，因為我們正在收集和擴大數據的範圍和廣度。因此，這些因素都被考慮在內，您可以在損益表中看到這一點。為了讓您更好地理解，當我們從 Verisk 整體上看這種影響時，它大約占我們支出成長的 1%。這樣一來，你就能對這種影響的規模有所了解了。目前對營收的影響較小，但顯然，我們的成長速度很快，因此對 EBITDA 的影響也略小。這樣就能讓你對這項投資的規模有個大致的了解了。馬克，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

All I was going to say is once you get those planes and those sensors, you now need to put them in the sky. So we're looking to drive coverage as far as both nationwide and frequency, so we can see changes in property. So that causes us to have to put pilots in the plane. There's cost to operate. There's maintenance on the planes. Clearly -- then we take all the imagery. We process it. We're trying to kind of use it for different use cases, and we're extending the analytic capabilities of the team to provide underwriting use cases, extending the claims and cat exposure. So I want to just emphasize, there's an OpEx piece as we continue to do a lot of advanced analytics along with build-out coverage and kind of capability, so...

我本來想說的是，一旦你有了那些飛機和感測器，現在就需要把它們送上天空。因此，我們希望在全國範圍內擴大覆蓋範圍並提高覆蓋頻率，以便我們能夠看到財產方面的變化。所以這就導致我們必須在飛機上配備飛行員。營運是有成本的。飛機需要進行維修。顯然——然後我們獲取所有圖像。我們進行處理。我們正在嘗試將其用於不同的用例，並且我們正在擴展團隊的分析能力，以提供承保用例，擴展索賠和巨災風險敞口。所以我想強調的是，隨著我們不斷進行大量高級分析以及擴展覆蓋範圍和提升能力，運營支出方面也需要投入，所以…

And I think one thing to bear in mind is, I think, as Mark was describing, that the benefits, the use of this data, spans across multiple of our businesses. And so it will have revenue impacts and EBITDA impacts positively as we try to leverage that data across the business.

我認為需要記住的一點是，正如馬克所描述的那樣，這些數據的益處和用途涵蓋了我們多個業務領域。因此，當我們嘗試在整個業務中利用這些數據時，它將對收入和 EBITDA 產生積極影響。

Okay, that's helpful. And then on the Energy and Specialized Markets margins. They've been quite good. I feel like a couple of quarters ago, you were calling out some investments there with WoodMac 2.0 and the breakout initiatives. And I don't know if you were more describing why -- when you started presenting segment margins, they were lower than investors might have expected. But I just -- I guess, I wanted to confirm that there wasn't some delay in those investments. They're progressing as planned, and the good margin we're seeing on the year-over-year basis in that segment is even with that investment.

好的，這很有幫助。然後是能源和專業市場利潤率。他們表現相當不錯。我覺得大概幾個季度前，你曾提到 WoodMac 2.0 和一些突破性計畫的投資。我不知道你是不是在解釋為什麼——當你開始展示各業務部門的利潤率時，它們低於投資者的預期。但我只是——我想，我只是想確認一下這些投資是否出現了延誤。他們的進展符合計劃，我們看到該業務板塊同比利潤率良好，與這項投資相比毫不遜色。

Yes. So the -- certainly, there has been a level of investment that we've been making in WoodMac 2.0 as well as in the breakout opportunities that we have been investing in that have an impact. Those are proceeding as we expect. WoodMac 2.0 will be an investment cycle that certainly existed in 2018 and will persist through 2019 as we expand that platform. And that -- we are already beginning to see some benefits of that within the business, but there will be continued CapEx investment, continued OpEx investment in that through 2019. And so that's embedded in those margin numbers. And I think the -- one of the benefits that we saw is that we had good cost control. Headcount growth was, I think, a little lower this quarter, having brought on some of the development folks that we needed on that front. And so that contributed to the clear improvement in margin that we saw in the third quarter.

是的。所以——當然，我們一直在對 WoodMac 2.0 進行一定程度的投資，同時也投資一些具有影響力的突破性機會。這些進展都符合預期。WoodMac 2.0 將是一個投資週期，這個週期在 2018 年肯定存在，隨著我們擴展該平台，它將持續到 2019 年。而且——我們已經開始在業務中看到一些好處，但到 2019 年，我們將繼續在這方面進行資本支出投資和營運支出投資。所以，這些因素都反映在這些利潤率數字中了。我認為我們看到的優勢之一是成本控制得很好。我認為，本季員工人數成長略有放緩，因為我們引進了一些我們在該領域需要的研發人員。因此，這促成了我們在第三季看到的利潤率的顯著提高。

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Warmington with Wells Fargo.

你的下一個問題來自富國銀行的比爾沃明頓。

So first question, just a clarification on the storm contribution adjustment. I know that last year was a major year for storms and outsized gains from that. But there also were some severe storms in third quarter of '18, and so when you make that adjustment, how much storm revenue -- was the storm revenue contribution from the third quarter of '18 also backed out? I just want to understand the mechanics of the adjustment.

首先，我想請教一下關於風暴貢獻調整的問題。我知道去年是風暴頻繁的一年，也因此獲得了巨大的收益。但 2018 年第三季也發生了一些嚴重的風暴，因此，在進行調整時，風暴收入——2018 年第三季的風暴收入貢獻是否也被扣除了？我只是想了解調整的機制。

So Bill, I guess, our view is that 2017 was truly an exceptional year. There's always going to be severe weather. '18 is going to be -- in our mind, unless something really strange happens here at the latter part of the year, it's just going to be a normal year of severe weather. So I don't think we see anything adjusted or any adjustments to or normalization in '18. We have been focused on '17 because of the exceptional aspect. Let me just remind everybody, the way many of our contracts, specifically, the Xactware repair cost estimating contracts work is that we provide access to the solution for a number of claims, and then when you eclipse a threshold, you then get charged per claim at an excess rate. It takes quite a substantial threshold or a number of volume -- amount of volume to get above that threshold. I don't think we're going to see much of that in '18. '17 was noteworthy.

所以比爾，我想，我們的看法是，2017年確實是個特別的一年。惡劣天氣總是會有的。在我們看來，除非今年下半年發生什麼非常奇怪的事情，否則 2018 年將會是個正常的極端天氣年份。所以我認為我們在 2018 年不會看到任何調整或標準化。我們一直關注“17”，因為它具有特殊性。我只想提醒大家，我們很多合同，特別是 Xactware 維修費用估算合同的運作方式是，我們為一定數量的索賠提供解決方案訪問權限，然後當您的索賠數量超過一定閾值時，您將按超額費率為每個索賠付費。要達到那個閾值，需要相當大的音量或數量——也就是音量的大小。我認為2018年我們不會看到太多這種情況。2017年值得一提。

And then for my follow-up, Nielsen has been talking about how the GDPR regulation has been negatively impacting their marketing effectiveness business. And I know that they're a big user of the Argus data. And the Argus organic revenue growth showed a nice rebound in the third quarter. So I wanted to ask, is that rebound taking place despite or even with that GDPR headwind? Is that something that you're seeing that you're able to overcome?

然後，我的後續問題是，尼爾森一直在談論 GDPR 法規如何對其行銷成效業務產生負面影響。我知道他們是 Argus 數據的重要用戶。Argus的有機收入成長在第三季出現了良好的反彈。所以我想問的是，這種反彈是在 GDPR 帶來的不利影響下發生的，還是相反？你認為自己能夠克服這個問題嗎？

Yes. So GDPR is a contextual factor for us, but not one that I would say is really interacting with our results near term. And as long as we protect our data assets the way that I -- we have, and I expect we will, I do not believe it will be a material impact going forward. So I can't comment on somebody else's construal of the effect of the regulation. But where our business is concerned, we -- the primary effect of it, at the interface with our customers, is we have an extended discussion about contracts because we need to now talk about the assignment of liability at a higher level. We always would have to talk about it, but we talk about it more than we used to. That's really the only effect that I see. And it's not material. It's not material.

是的。所以 GDPR 對我們來說是一個背景因素，但我認為它不會在短期內真正影響我們的表現。只要我們繼續像現在這樣保護我們的資料資產（而且我相信我們以後也會繼續這樣做），我認為它不會對未來產生實質影響。所以我無法評論其他人對該法規效果的解讀。但就我們的業務而言，其主要影響是，在與客戶的溝通中，我們需要就合約進行更深入的討論，因為我們現在需要在更高的層面上討論責任分配問題。我們總是要談論這件事，但我們現在談論這件事的次數比以前多了。這就是我看到的唯一影響。而且這不是物質問題。這不是物質問題。

Your next question comes from the line of Gary Bisbee with Bank of America.

你的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Gary Bisbee。

So I guess, the first question, when I look back to the beginning of 2017, pretty clearly, you've had a significant investment cycle here: 20-some acquisitions and the meaningful internal step-up, things like Geomni, the new WoodMac platform, et cetera. Can you just frame for us how you think about the returns to the business that this investment cycle will deliver going forward? And I guess, I'm wondering, things like -- should we think of this as incremental to revenue growth or really just bolstering the business so it can continue to deliver? How do we think about the step-down in margins and how that may trend over time, and anything about how you're thinking about the return on this?

所以我想，第一個問題是，當我回顧 2017 年初時，很明顯，你們經歷了一個重要的投資週期：20 多項收購以及意義重大的內部升級，例如 Geomni、新的 WoodMac 平台等等。您能否簡單介紹一下您對本輪投資週期未來將為企業帶來的回報有何看法？我想，我想知道的是——我們應該把這看作是收入成長的增量，還是僅僅為了加強業務以使其能夠繼續獲利？我們如何看待利潤率的逐步下降，以及這種下降趨勢會如何隨時間推移而改變？您對此有何看法？

Right, good. So I'll ask Lee to talk about margins in a moment, but with respect to the investments that we've made, very substantially, they go in the direction of putting us into new categories of solution sets that we, otherwise, either haven't provided or we provided in ways that haven't fully expressed what it is we can do for customers. So for example, the acquisition of PowerAdvocate puts us in a category of spend analytics for the energy vertical that we weren't doing before. The Sequel acquisition puts us in a position to serve the London market, particularly with respect to complex commercial risks, in a way that we weren't able to serve it before. And then all the investments that we've done in Geomni -- we were in the category of interpreting remote imagery into data sets, into analytics for our customers, but the issue that we had was we didn't have enough high-quality raw material. And so a lot of what -- a lot of the investment, as you heard Mark saying, on the Geomni side was basically to put ourselves in a position to have a lot of great raw material. So again, that is very much saying that -- putting us into a new and different position for enhanced revenue growth on the top line. So -- and then other internal investments, the same. WoodMac 2.0 will carry with it some efficiency gains, but it also makes us more capable in front of our customers. So very much, it is about contributing to incremental growth of our business. It's not about the maintenance of things that we already do. And that is also really part of our feeling about the likely returns of these investments that we're making, which as you would imagine, revenue ramps. Most everything we do is scalable, so as these investments mature and the revenues grow, I would expect to see it be constructive with respect to margin. And also, even if you look at more than just, say, a quarter -- and maybe, Lee, you want to pick up here a little bit, yes, we still see constructive progression in the organic EBITDAs inside of our business, relative to the organic revenue growth rates. So...

好的。稍後我會請 Lee 談談利潤率，但就我們所做的投資而言，這些投資非常大，它們旨在讓我們進入新的解決方案類別，而這些類別我們以前要么沒有提供過，要么提供的方式沒有充分錶達我們能為客戶做些什麼。例如，收購 PowerAdvocate 讓我們進入了能源垂直領域的支出分析領域，這是我們以前從未涉足的領域。收購 Sequel 使我們能夠以以前無法做到的方式服務倫敦市場，尤其是在複雜的商業風險方面。然後，我們在Geomni上進行的所有投資——我們當時從事的是將遙感影像解釋為資料集，並為客戶提供分析服務，但我們遇到的問題是，我們沒有足夠的高品質原料。因此，正如你聽到的馬克所說，Geomni 的許多投資基本上是為了讓我們能夠擁有許多優質的原料。所以，這再次表明——這將使我們處於一個全新的、不同的位置，從而提高營收成長。所以——其他內部投資也是如此。WoodMac 2.0 將帶來一些效率提升，同時也讓我們在客戶面前更具競爭力。所以，這在很大程度上是為了促進我們業務的逐步成長。這不是關於維護我們已經在做的事情。這也正是我們對這些投資可能帶來的回報的看法的一部分，正如你所想，這些投資會帶來收入成長。我們所做的大部分事情都是可擴展的，因此隨著這些投資的成熟和收入的增長，我預計這將對利潤率產生積極影響。而且，即使你觀察的不僅僅是一個季度——也許，李，你想在這裡稍微深入探討一下，是的，我們仍然看到，相對於有機收入增長率，我們業務內部的有機 EBITDA 取得了建設性的進展。所以...

Yes. I would just quickly add, in addition to what Mark described, to develop new sources of revenue growth or enhance the revenue growth that we're generating off of our data, we are also making investments, for instance, in cloud modernization that we think will yield overall improved returns on capital and improved margins for us. So we are making those types of investments as well, and we look at each of those investments on the basis of what type of return are we generating, whether it's through savings or through incremental profitability. So thanks, Gary.

是的。我只想補充一點，除了 Mark 所描述的之外，為了開發新的收入成長來源或增強我們利用數據產生的收入成長，我們還在進行投資，例如雲端現代化，我們認為這將為我們帶來整體上更高的資本回報率和更高的利潤率。所以我們也在進行這類投資，我們會根據每項投資產生的回報類型來評估其價值，無論是透過節省或增加獲利能力。謝謝你，加里。

Great. And then just the follow-up for me. So you've lapped 3 of the 4 chunkier, larger acquisitions from 2017 during this quarter. I know you don't like to talk about forward margin trends, but is there anything you called out that would lead us from believing the reasonable pathway here is having lapped a lot of that? That drag that there's been in your profitability goes away at this point or soon? I realize you got a tough comp in Q4 with the Insurance comparison, but anything else you'd call out? Or is it reasonable to think that having lapped a lot of that, things look better from here?

偉大的。然後，我只需要跟進一下。所以，在本季度，你已經完成了 2017 年 4 項規模較大、較重的收購中的 3 項。我知道你不喜歡談論未來的利潤率趨勢，但是你提到的哪些方面讓我們無法相信，目前合理的路徑已經涵蓋了大部分的利潤率？你獲利能力下降的這種拖累現象現在或不久就會消失嗎？我知道第四季保險業的比較數據比較苛刻，但您還有其他需要指出的地方嗎？或者說，考慮到之前已經經歷了很多困難，現在的情況看起來會好轉，這種想法是否合理？

Yes, so Gary, I think it's important to understand your frame of reference because what we do try to accomplish with our organic constant currency margins is to look at the business on an apples-to-apples basis so that we aren't -- so that the business isn't influenced by those trends. You will see in the difference between our reported and our organic margin that delta reflecting the impact of some of the acquisitions before we have our year-over-year comparison, and those also include some transition costs associated with those businesses. So I think -- perhaps what you're seeing is a narrowing of that -- of the difference between that reported and the organic margin numbers, which, I think, reflects what you're describing, as effectively, the business has now -- is now absorbing that. We still have -- I think in the fourth quarter, we still have PowerAdvocate that is outside of that. So there still will be some adjustments for that, but we are narrowing that gap.

是的，Gary，我認為了解你的參照框架很重要，因為我們試圖透過有機固定匯率利潤率來實現的目標是，在同等條件下看待業務，這樣我們就不會——這樣業務就不會受到這些趨勢的影響。您將從我們報告的利潤率和我們的有機利潤率之間的差異中看到，該差額反映了我們在進行同比比較之前的一些收購的影響，這些收購還包括與這些業務相關的一些過渡成本。所以我認為——也許你看到的是這種差距正在縮小——報告的利潤率和有機利潤率之間的差距正在縮小，我認為這反映了你所描述的情況，即企業現在實際上已經吸收了這些利潤。我認為在第四季度，我們也有 PowerAdvocate，它不屬於這個範疇。所以這方面仍然需要做一些調整，但我們正在縮小差距。

Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Foresi with Cantor Fitzgerald.

你的下一個問題來自約瑟夫·福雷西和康托·菲茨杰拉德的傳承。

I was wondering, to what extent do you think you could provide -- and I don't want to take anything away from the Analyst Day, but a medium or a longer-term outlook for the growth rates for the segments?

我想知道，您認為您能在多大程度上提供－我不想喧賓奪主，但能否提供各細分市場成長率的中期或長期展望？

Yes. So Joe, thanks for that. We do provide, as we've described before, our target revenue and EBITDA growth rates. And what we've said is that over the long term, we expect all of our businesses to deliver on those growth targets. So beyond that, we don't provide kind of separate for that. I kind of think implied by that, obviously, the Insurance business is going to be expected to deliver on those growth rates. And we certainly expect, over time, and -- or I should say, based on historical performance, have seen both the Financial Services, and we believe Wood Mackenzie have delivered on higher growth rates than that. And we certainly believe that, that's an opportunity ahead of us and something that we are working towards. But those -- we are focused on our overall Verisk growth rates, and each of the businesses are expected to meet those objectives.

是的。喬，謝謝你。正如我們之前所述，我們確實提供了目標收入和 EBITDA 成長率。我們已經說過，從長遠來看，我們期望我們所有的業務都能實現這些成長目標。所以除此之外，我們沒有提供單獨的服務。我認為，這顯然意味著，保險業將被期望實現這些成長率。我們當然期望，隨著時間的推移，或者應該說，根據歷史業績，金融服務業和伍德麥肯錫都實現了更高的成長率。我們當然相信，這是我們面前的一個機遇，也是我們正在努力的方向。但是，我們關注的是 Verisk 的整體成長率，每個業務部門都應達到這些目標。

Got it. So essentially, those are kind of unchanged as of right now? And then -- just to be clear. And then the second question is, without being sort of on the inside of the business, maybe you could give us the top 2 or 3 drivers of margins at this particular juncture? And any area where you think there might be some volatility on the margin targets going forward?

知道了。所以基本上，這些目前還沒有什麼改變？然後——為了說清楚。第二個問題是，您雖然不是公司內部人士，但能否告訴我們，在目前這個階段，影響利潤率的前兩三個因素是什麼？您認為未來保證金目標有哪些領域可能會出現波動？

Yes. So from an overall standpoint, the important driver of margin improvement is our ability to leverage our cost base in our businesses -- our data businesses across a broader customer set. And so that's the fundamental driver of that. An additional subscription of our existing data set, however, broadly we define that, is going to have a very high margin and one that is, in all likelihood, higher than our overall margin. And that's the fundamental dynamic that drives our confidence in our operating leverage and our ability to achieve that. I'd say beyond that, we are always looking for ways to become more efficient with the resources that we have. And so Mark has been driving an initiative on looking at how we can be more efficient by leveraging our scale internationally within the business. And so given that personnel costs represent about 70% of our cost base, we're always looking for how we can improve productivity from that base, which is something that Scott emphasizes highly in our discussions with the business. So I think that's another dimension to what we do. And then from a technological standpoint, as I talked about, investment in cloud technology is something that we think has the opportunity to improve our margins, not just by reducing our technology costs, but by facilitating our development of products and our clients' interactions with data that kind of further extend kind of the initial dynamic that I talked about. So those, I think, are -- would be 3 of the -- kind of the things that drive our margins.

是的。因此，從整體上看，利潤率提高的重要驅動因素是我們能夠在業務中利用我們的成本基礎——我們的數據業務覆蓋更廣泛的客戶群。這就是其根本驅動因素。然而，對我們現有資料集（廣義定義）的額外訂閱將帶來非常高的利潤，而且很可能高於我們的整體利潤。而這正是我們對自身營運槓桿和實現目標的能力充滿信心的根本動力。除此之外，我們一直在尋找提高現有資源利用效率的方法。因此，馬克一直在推動一項計劃，探討如何透過利用我們在國際上的規模優勢來提高業務效率。鑑於人員成本約占我們成本基礎的 70%，我們一直在尋找如何提高這部分成本的生產力，而史考特在與業務部門的討論中也高度強調了這一點。所以我認為這是我們所做工作的另一個層次。從技術角度來看，正如我剛才所說，我們認為投資雲端運算技術有機會提高我們的利潤率，這不僅體現在降低技術成本方面，還體現在促進我們產品開發以及客戶與資料的互動方面，從而進一步擴展我剛才提到的那種初始動態。所以，我認為，這三點是影響我們利潤率的關鍵因素。

Our final question will come from the line of George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

最後一個問題來自高盛的George Tong。

I have a question about organic EBITDA margin performance. You had cited elevated investments in Geomni, breakout opportunities and commissions performance as drivers of the contraction, even on a normalized basis, on a year-over-year basis. So looking forward, can you talk about how you expect these investments to evolve and your general philosophy around organic EBITDA margin performance, if you're targeting expansion over the near to intermediate term?

我有一個關於有機 EBITDA 利潤率表現的問題。您曾指出，對 Geomni 的投資增加、突破性機會和佣金績效是導致年比收縮的驅動因素，即使以正常水準計算也是如此。展望未來，如果您計劃在中短期內實現擴張，您能否談談您預期這些投資將如何發展，以及您對有機 EBITDA 利潤率表現的整體理念？

Sure. So George, let me take a crack at that. I think that there are a couple dynamics that we think about from organic margin performance. The first is, starting with -- at the highest scale level, are the growth of our business, where we expect revenue growth to exceed expense growth, and that drives an overall expansion of that organic margin. Offsetting that in the near term are investments that we make in new initiatives that are going to be -- at the outset, going to be lower margins, but we believe that those margins will ramp up quickly and be additive overall to the business. And so that has a near-term impact. And then as you've described, the impact of acquisitions that may have a lower margin initially -- and some of them may have a lower margin permanently, which may be dilutive to the impact, but each of them, we expect in the businesses that we look at, have a high degree of operating leverage. And we have an ability to improve their operating leverage over time, improving margins for the business as a whole. But recognizing that we have businesses with exceptional margins, what we focus on, in addition to overall driving margin growth for the business as a whole and in aggregate, and consistent with our long-term targets of growing EBITDA faster than revenue, we also look at our returns on capital for those investments in new businesses. So core growth in the business is the fundamental driver. We are making investments near term that will diminish near-term margin, that's function of the investment, but hopefully expand our growth and improve margins over time. And then the impact of acquisitions, some of which we think have higher margin, all of them we expect to have higher margin over time, but they may -- as a function of their impact in the business, may be lower margin but represent higher growth opportunities and higher return opportunities. So hopefully, that gives you kind of the perspective on the dynamics for that margin.

當然。喬治，讓我來試試吧。我認為，從有機利潤率表現來看，我們需要考慮以下幾個因素。首先，從最高規模層面來看，是我們業務的成長，我們預期營收成長將超過支出成長，這將推動有機利潤率的整體擴張。短期內，我們將透過投資新措施來抵消這種影響。這些新措施在初期利潤率會較低，但我們相信這些利潤率會迅速提高，並對整體業務產生正面影響。因此，這會產生短期影響。正如您所描述的那樣，收購的影響可能最初利潤率較低——其中一些收購的利潤率可能永久性地較低，這可能會稀釋其影響，但我們預計，在我們關注的業務中，每項收購都具有很高的經營槓桿作用。我們有能力隨著時間的推移提高他們的經營槓桿，從而提高整個企業的利潤率。但考慮到我們擁有利潤率極高的業務，除了推動整個業務整體的利潤率成長，並與我們長期目標（即 EBITDA 成長速度超過營收成長速度）保持一致之外，我們還會關注這些新業務投資的資本回報率。因此，業務核心成長是​​根本驅動力。我們正在進行一些短期投資，這些投資會降低短期利潤率，這是投資本身的特性，但希望隨著時間的推移，這些投資能夠擴大我們的成長並提高利潤率。然後是收購的影響，我們認為其中一些收購的利潤率更高，我們預計所有這些收購隨著時間的推移都會有更高的利潤率，但它們也可能——根據它們對業務的影響——利潤率較低，但代表著更高的成長機會和更高的回報機會。希望這能讓你對該利潤率的動態變化有一個大致的了解。

Got it. That's helpful. And then turning to your Insurance business. If you look at the organic constant currency growth rates, normalizing for weather from last year, it did still step down from second quarter growth rates. Can you talk any unusual drivers in the quarter that might have contributed to a normalized deceleration in Insurance constant currency organic growth and maybe the momentum of the business over the course of the quarter and exiting the quarter?

知道了。那很有幫助。然後，我們再來談談您的保險業務。如果查看以固定匯率計算的有機成長率，並根據去年的天氣狀況進行調整，它仍然比第二季的成長率下降。您能否談談本季有哪些不尋常的驅動因素可能導致保險業以固定匯率計算的有機成長出現正常放緩，以及本季及季末業務發展動能受到影響？

So maybe I'll try to take that. This is Mark. I think if you were to actually look back on 2017, I think the answer really lies there. We had probably a little bit of a slower start to the year 2017, and we had kind of a growing -- a stronger growth at the second half. So I think we've referenced that this may be a little tougher comp in the third and fourth quarter just because of the nice pickup we had, some of it catch-up with first half of '17. What I just like to emphasize, and I think Lee did a nice job of it, is year-to-date, we have had a very strong year from Insurance. We feel good about the direction of the business. We feel great about the relationship and the level of engagement we have with customers, and I do believe that the number of and breadth of new solutions we have provides an exciting year forward. So I hope that emphasizes and answers your question.

所以也許我會試著接受這個提議。這是馬克。我認為，如果你回顧2017年，答案就在那裡。2017 年開局可能有點慢，但下半年成長勢頭強勁。所以我覺得我們已經提到過，由於我們取得了不錯的進步，第三和第四季度的成績可能會比 2017 年上半年有所提升，因此比較起來可能會比較困難。我想強調的是，而且我認為 Lee 也很好地闡述了這一點，那就是今年到目前為止，我們的保險業務表現非常強勁。我們對公司的發展方向感到滿意。我們對與客戶的關係和互動程度感到非常滿意，我相信，我們擁有的新解決方案的數量和廣度將為未來一年帶來令人興奮的發展。希望這能解答你的疑問。

I will now turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

現在我將把會議交還給管理階層，請他們作總結發言。

Okay. Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us today. I appreciate your interest, and we look forward to seeing many -- hopefully, all of you, at Investor Day in just a few weeks. And between now and then, I'm sure we'll be in touch with a lot of you just for your follow-up questions. Thanks for your continuing interest. See you soon.

好的。謝謝大家今天收看我們的節目。感謝您的關注，我們期待在幾週後的投資者日上見到您們——希望是所有在場的朋友。從現在到那時，我們肯定會和你們中的許多人聯繫，解答你們的後續問題。感謝您一直以來的關注。再見。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與，現在可以斷開連結了。