Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2019 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Charelle, and I would be your conference operator today.

早安.我叫夏蕾爾，今天由我來擔任你們的會議接線生。

At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Verisk Analytics' Q2 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

在此，我謹代表 Verisk Analytics 向大家歡迎參加 2019 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作說明）

Ms. Brodbar, you may begin your conference.

布羅德巴女士，您可以開始您的會議了。

Thank you, Charelle, and good morning to everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our second quarter 2019 financial results.

謝謝你，查瑞爾，大家早安。感謝您今天蒞臨本次會議，與我們共同探討2019年第二季的財務表現。

Today's call will be led by Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, who will provide a brief overview of our business. Lisa Bonalle Hannan, President of Verisk Financial Services, will then provide an update on our Financial Services segment. Lastly, Lee Shavel, Chief Financial Officer, will highlight some key points about our financial performance. Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer, will join the team for Q&A.

今天的電話會議將由董事長、總裁兼執行長史考特史蒂芬森主持，他將簡要概述我們的業務。Verisk Financial Services 總裁 Lisa Bonalle Hannan 將介紹我們金融服務部門的最新情況。最後，財務長李沙維爾將重點介紹我們財務表現的一些關鍵點。營運長馬克·安奎拉雷將加入團隊進行問答環節。

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 been attached to an 8-K that has been 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。獲利報告已附在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'll turn the call over to Scott.

現在我把電話交給史考特。

Thanks, Stacey. Good morning, everyone.

謝謝你，史黛西。各位早安。

I'm pleased to report that Verisk delivered another strong quarter marked by solid 7.2% organic constant currency revenue growth, which remains the most important measure of the health of our organization. Moreover, our growth was driven by continued broad-based strength in our Insurance segment as well as marked improvement in our Financial Services segment.

我很高興地報告，Verisk 又迎來了一個強勁的季度，有機固定匯率收入增長了 7.2%，這仍然是衡量我們組織健康狀況的最重要指標。此外，我們的成長得益於保險業務的持續強勁發展以及金融服務業務的顯著改善。

At Verisk, it is our people that drive innovation, provide a great customer experience and are critical to delivering our consistent and solid financial results. As such, we are keenly focused on maintaining an environment that attracts and retains the best talent through strong recruitment, leading talent development programs and management training efforts, which ultimately results in highly engaged employees. I'm pleased to share that employee engagement at Verisk is on an upward trend, improving 2 percentage points from 2018. At the same time, we have maintained retention of our top performers at over 92% in each of the last 3 years in what is a very competitive labor market for our kind of talent. From a recruiting perspective, this summer, we are hosting our largest class of interns ever with 119 interns across all our business units who can serve as a pipeline for permanent hires.

在 Verisk，正是我們的員工推動創新，提供卓越的客戶體驗，並且對於我們持續穩健的財務表現至關重要。因此，我們非常注重營造一個能夠吸引和留住最優秀人才的環境，透過強而有力的招募、領先的人才發展計畫和管理培訓工作，最終打造高度敬業的員工隊伍。我很高興地告訴大家，Verisk 的員工敬業度呈現上升趨勢，比 2018 年提高了 2 個百分點。同時，在過去三年裡，儘管我們這類人才的勞動市場競爭非常激烈，但我們仍然維持了頂尖員工92%以上的留任率。從招募的角度來看，今年夏天，我們迎來了有史以來規模最大的實習生班，共有 119 名實習生，他們來自我們所有的業務部門，可以作為我們正式員工的儲備人才。

On a training and development front, we are investing in our future by hiring talent earlier in the talent pipeline and training them ourselves instead of competing for experienced talent. As such, we have expanded our global data science excellence program, which is an internal 4-plus year rotational training program for data scientists with a Masters in Data Science or Data Analytics. We have also extended training programs for talent in key areas, including cloud architecture and artificial intelligence. We have enhanced our management training programs to include offerings for first-line managers as well as experienced leaders and have expanded our online education offerings in data science and analytics in connection with leading universities such as Johns Hopkins and University of Michigan.

在培訓和發展方面，我們正在投資未來，更早在人才儲備庫中招募人才並自行培訓，而不是與其他公司競爭經驗豐富的人才。因此，我們擴大了全球數據科學卓越計劃，這是一個為期 4 年以上的內部輪調培訓計劃，面向擁有數據科學或數據分析碩士學位的數據科學家。我們也擴大了重點領域人才的培訓計劃，包括雲端運算架構和人工智慧。我們加強了管理培訓計劃，為一線經理和經驗豐富的領導者提供培訓，並與約翰霍普金斯大學和密西根大學等一流大學合作，擴大了數據科學和分析方面的線上教育課程。

Lastly, as part of our global talent optimization strategy, during the second quarter, we opened a new office in Kraków, Poland. This office focuses on data science and analytics talents, and we are seeing early success building out this team and have a strong pipeline of talent interested in joining Verisk.

最後，作為我們全球人才優化策略的一部分，在第二季度，我們在波蘭克拉科夫開設了一個新辦事處。該辦公室專注於數據科學和分析人才，我們在組建這支團隊方面已經取得了初步成功，並且有大量對加入 Verisk 感興趣的人才儲備。

On the client engagement front, in June, we hosted Verisk Vision in London, our client conference tailored to the London and European markets. We hosted approximately 300 attendees for a daylong event that focused on the ongoing transformation in the insurance landscape and covered areas, including risk, claims and InsurTech such as cyber risk, artificial intelligence, antifraud analytics and digital transformation. The event also featured the Verisk innovation lab, which showcased product demos featuring new technologies and industry applications, which incorporate cutting-edge deals such as social media, image forensics, security and surveillance, aerial imagery and entity resolution. The event not only solidifies our position as an InsurTech thought leader, but it also strengthens our position as a key technology and data partner to the London and European insurance companies.

在客戶互動方面，6 月我們在倫敦舉辦了 Verisk Vision 大會，這是我們專為倫敦和歐洲市場量身定制的客戶會議。我們舉辦了一場為期一天的活動，約有 300 名與會者參加，活動重點關注保險業的持續變革以及涵蓋的領域，包括風險、理賠和保險科技，例如網路風險、人工智慧、反詐欺分析和數位轉型。活動還設有 Verisk 創新實驗室，展示了以新技術和行業應用為特色的產品演示，其中包括社交媒體、圖像取證、安全和監控、航空圖像和實體解析等尖端技術。這項活動不僅鞏固了我們作為保險科技思想領袖的地位，也加強了我們作為倫敦和歐洲保險公司關鍵技術和數據合作夥伴的地位。

On the innovation front, we're seeing great success in gaining market share in personal lines due to strong sales of our LightSpeed suite of products. LightSpeed helps our insurance customers compete in the digital age as it utilizes innovative data-forward advanced analytics that enable insurers to provide a fully bindable quote on just 3 simple pieces of information. This addresses our customers' dual needs to both increase the velocity and efficiency of their operations by increasing the precision of their underwriting analytic. The result is more profitable conversion rates for our customers. Personal auto automation has led the way in this growth, quickly followed by personal property and small commercial.

在創新方面，由於我們的 LightSpeed 系列產品銷售強勁，我們在個人保險市場份額方面取得了巨大成功。LightSpeed 幫助我們的保險客戶在數位時代保持競爭力，因為它利用創新的數據驅動型高級分析，使保險公司只需 3 個簡單的資訊即可提供完全可承保的報價。這滿足了我們客戶的雙重需求，即透過提高核保分析的精確度來提高營運速度和效率。最終為我們的客戶帶來更高的獲利轉換率。個人汽車自動化引領了這一增長，隨後個人財產和小型商業領域也迅速發展起來。

At Wood Mackenzie, we continue to be encouraged by the early results of our data analytic platform called Lens. We have a strong pipeline of interest and continue to sign up new subscriptions with major oil companies, independents and global investment banks. Additionally, we are seeing solid double-digit growth in both visits and unique users to the platform. We continue to work in partnership with our customers to deliver an offering that is unique in the marketplace, one that is scalable, dynamic and integrated into their workflows. We plan to have the next module, global upstream valuations, for the Lens platform by year-end 2019, which we think will be very well received by the market.

伍德麥肯茲公司對我們名為 Lens 的資料分析平台的早期成果感到持續鼓舞。我們擁有大量潛在客戶，並持續與各大石油公司、獨立石油公司和全球投資銀行簽署新的認購協議。此外，我們看到平台訪問量和獨立用戶數均實現了兩位數的穩健成長。我們將繼續與客戶合作，提供市場上獨一無二的產品，該產品具有可擴展性、動態性，並能融入客戶的工作流程。我們計劃在 2019 年底前推出 Lens 平台的下一個模組——全球上游估值，我們認為這將受到市場的熱烈歡迎。

And in Financial Services, we're seeing great success with our merchant analytics platform, which Lisa will talk to you about in more detail.

在金融服務領域，我們的商家分析平台取得了巨大的成功，Lisa 將會更詳細地向大家介紹這個平台。

Finally, we continue to be engaged on the strategic acquisition front with a focus on finding high return on invested capital transactions that leverage our scale, existing resource and deep domain expertise. We recently announced the acquisition of Keystone Aerial Surveys. Keystone is a leading aerial survey company with operations that cover the entire United States. Keystone will become part of Geomni, and it demonstrates our commitment to becoming a leader in aerial imagery, property analytics and geospatial data solutions. The addition of Keystone will accelerate our nationwide inventory coverage network and improve our refresh rate as we strive to bring our customers the most innovative and technologically superior geospatial solutions.

最後，我們將繼續在策略性收購方面開展工作，重點是尋找能夠利用我們的規模、現有資源和深厚的領域專業知識，實現高投資報酬率的交易。我們最近宣布收購 Keystone Aerial Surveys 公司。Keystone是一家領先的航空測量公司，業務遍及美國各地。Keystone 將成為 Geomni 的一部分，這表明我們致力於成為航空影像、房地產分析和地理空間資料解決方案的領導者。Keystone 的加入將加快我們全國庫存覆蓋網路的建設，並提高我們的更新速度，因為我們致力於為客戶提供最具創新性和技術領先的地理空間解決方案。

And now I'll turn the call over to Lisa to provide some insights on our Financial Services segment.

現在我將把電話交給 Lisa，請她為我們介紹金融服務板塊的情況。

Thank you, Scott.

謝謝你，斯科特。

I'm excited to have the opportunity to provide you with an update on Verisk Financial Services, our business unit built through the combination of the legacy Argus platform with acquisitions that added capabilities and expanded our solution sets. Now that I've been in the role of President, Verisk Financial, for just over a year, it's a great time to discuss the progress we've made over the past 12 months, provide an update on our key strategic initiatives and share our vision for the future.

我很高興有機會向大家介紹 Verisk Financial Services 的最新情況，這是我們透過將原有的 Argus 平台與收購相結合而建立的業務部門，這些收購增加了功能並擴展了我們的解決方案集。現在我擔任 Verisk Financial 總裁一職已經一年多了，正是討論我們在過去 12 個月中取得的進展、介紹我們的關鍵戰略舉措以及分享我們對未來的願景的好時機。

To start, I think it's important to take a step back to better understand where Verisk Financial Services is in our evolution and where we're headed. At the start of 2017, the Financial Services segment of Verisk consisted of the Argus business, which is a data contributory consortia business working with the leading banks and payment companies around the globe, including the top 30 credit card issuers in North America, the U.K. and Australia. Argus offers our customers unique solutions such as tracking and measurement of over $2 trillion worth of consumer spending annually as well as industry benchmarking and portfolio profitability analytics.

首先，我認為有必要回顧一下，以便更好地了解 Verisk Financial Services 在發展歷程中的位置以及我們未來的發展方向。2017 年初，Verisk 的金融服務部門由 Argus 業務組成，Argus 是一家數據貢獻聯盟企業，與全球領先的銀行和支付公司合作，包括北美、英國和澳洲排名前 30 的信用卡發行商。Argus 為我們的客戶提供獨特的解決方案，例如追蹤和衡量每年超過 2 兆美元的消費者支出，以及產業基準分析和投資組合獲利能力分析。

Throughout 2017, we made several business acquisitions that aligned from a strategic and financial perspective and added capabilities to our existing services. In early 2018, we dedicated significant attention to integrating the acquired companies from an operating perspective, and we began creating a unified go-to-market presence under the Verisk Financial brand. In May of 2018, the management team went through a comprehensive strategic analysis of each of our solutions within Verisk Financial. We examined critically and dispassionately what Verisk financial was doing very well and where we could improve. Based on this analysis, we developed an integrated strategic plan for the business. The first change, which many of you may recall from our December Investor Day, was to align our go-to-market strategy around 4 solution sets.

2017 年全年，我們進行了多項業務收購，這些收購在策略和財務方面與我們的目標相符，並為我們現有的服務增加了能力。2018 年初，我們投入了大量精力從營運角度整合收購的公司，並開始在 Verisk Financial 品牌下打造統一的市場形象。2018 年 5 月，管理團隊對 Verisk Financial 內的每項解決方案進行了全面的策略分析。我們以批判和冷靜的態度審視了 Verisk Financial 的優點和缺點，以及我們可以改進的地方。基於此分析，我們為公司製定了一項綜合策略計劃。第一個變化，許多人可能還記得我們在 12 月的投資者日上所做的，就是將我們的市場推廣策略圍繞 4 個解決方案集進行調整。

The first of these is portfolio management solutions, our legacy consortia-based products, which provide industry benchmarking and portfolio profitability analysis for credit cards, payments and retail banking customers around the globe. Second is credit risk and fraud management solutions, our portfolio of bankruptcy and merchant acquirer risk solutions and our new suite of fraud solutions for our banking clients. The third is spend analytics and marketing solutions, which encompasses our cards' marketing models, consumer and merchants' insights and media measurement solutions. And finally, enterprise data management solutions, comprised of our global regulatory reporting platform and client-specific data management, MIS, and data advisory solutions.

首先是投資組合管理解決方案，這是我們基於聯盟的傳統產品，為全球信用卡、支付和零售銀行客戶提供行業基準和投資組合獲利能力分析。其次是信用風險和詐欺管理解決方案、我們的破產和商家收單風險解決方案組合以及我們為銀行客戶提供的全新詐欺解決方案套件。第三部分是消費分析和行銷解決方案，其中包括我們的信用卡行銷模式、消費者和商家洞察以及媒體衡量解決方案。最後，我們提供企業資料管理解決方案，包括我們的全球監管報告平台以及針對特定客戶的資料管理、MIS 和資料諮詢解決方案。

I'm happy to report that 1 year in, we're seeing the benefits of this solution-based orientation beginning to pay off. There is momentum in each of our solution sets with particularly strong performance from our media measurement, merchant analytics and portfolio management solutions during the first half of the year. And while enterprise data management is a newer and developing business for Verisk, which tends to have more quarter-to-quarter variability, we are experiencing sequentially improving trends with the introduction of some of our key strategic initiatives in that area.

我很高興地報告，一年過去了，我們開始看到這種以解決方案為導向的做法所帶來的好處。我們的每一套解決方案都發展勢頭強勁，尤其是在今年上半年，我們的媒體測量、商家分析和投資組合管理解決方案表現尤為出色。雖然企業資料管理對 Verisk 來說是一個較新的、正在發展中的業務，其季度波動性較大，但隨著我們在該領域推出一些關鍵策略舉措，我們正在經歷一個循序漸進的改善趨勢。

And in addition to reorienting our business, we've also implemented a number of operational improvements, including strengthening and reorganizing our sales team around the 4 solution sets for more comprehensive and holistic go-to-market sales strategy and implementing Lean Six Sigma and process automation. These changes have already created significant benefits to our business. For example, our process improvements for portfolio benchmark reporting have led to a 35% reduction in processing time each month. And the automation of report summarization module alone for benchmarking led to a laborsaving of 200 hours from us, allowing us to free up resources for new product development efforts. We believe that the investment in time to improve our operations ultimately creates a better environment for our innovation and growth.

除了調整業務方向外，我們還實施了多項營運改善措施，包括圍繞 4 個解決方案集加強和重組銷售團隊，以製定更全面、更整體的市場銷售策略，並實施精益六西格瑪和流程自動化。這些變化已經為我們的業務帶來了顯著的好處。例如，我們對投資組合基準報告流程的改進，使得每月處理時間減少了 35%。僅基準測試報告匯總模組的自動化就為我們節省了 200 個小時的人工，使我們能夠騰出資源用於新產品開發工作。我們相信，投入時間來改善我們的運營，最終將為我們的創新和發展創造更好的環境。

As we brought several smaller businesses together with our Argus platform, we've also made some key strategic decisions. We have rationalized headcount and updated our client pricing structure for our enterprise data management offerings based in India. We have reduced our reliance on business opportunities that led to onetime, short-term revenues in favor of longer-term subscription-based growth. And most recently, we sold our Verisk retail loss prevention business as it was no longer fit within our new Verisk financial strategic road map. Collectively, these decisions have led to a stronger, more aligned Verisk Financial Services unit that is better positioned for future growth.

隨著我們利用 Argus 平台將幾家小型企業整合在一起，我們也做出了一些關鍵的策略決策。我們對位於印度的企業資料管理產品進行了人員精簡，並更新了客戶定價結構。我們減少了對能夠帶來一次性、短期收入的商業機會的依賴，轉而追求基於長期訂閱的成長。最近，我們出售了 Verisk 零售防損業務，因為它不再符合我們新的 Verisk 財務策略路線圖。總而言之，這些決策促成了 Verisk Financial Services 部門的壯大和更加協調一致，使其為未來的成長奠定了更堅實的基礎。

As we look forward, we're ready to embark on the next phase of our business transformation. In addition to our relentless commitment to continuously improving our customer experience and our existing solutions, we are focused on long-term strategic growth, which is underpinned by the key strategic initiatives that we share during our Investor Day. These include introducing our next-generation benchmarking platform, expanding our spend analytics solutions globally, building our fraud solutions beginning with the fraud consortia in Mexico, advancing our cloud migration and developing a global regulatory analytic platform as part of our enterprise data management solutions. All of these initiatives are underway, meeting key milestones and beginning to deliver.

展望未來，我們已準備好開啟業務轉型的下一階段。除了我們持續致力於改善客戶體驗和現有解決方案之外，我們還專注於長期策略成長，而這正是我們在投資者日上分享的關鍵策略舉措所支撐的。這些舉措包括推出我們的下一代基準平台，在全球範圍內擴展我們的支出分析解決方案，從墨西哥的反詐騙聯盟開始建立我們的反詐騙解決方案，推進我們的雲端遷移，以及開發全球監管分析平台作為我們企業資料管理解決方案的一部分。所有這些舉措都在進行中，均已達到關鍵里程碑並開始取得成效。

Of particular note, we are getting extremely strong market interest in the Mexico cards fraud consortia, which will deliver our first new consortia data set since 2016 when we launched the Australian card study, and the global regulatory platform as regulators around the globe embrace a data-driven approach to oversight. Our experience working with the OCC, the Fed and the CFPB in the U.S. as well as our work through the Lloyd's syndicates in the U.K. uniquely position us to meet the needs of both regulators and their regulated entities.

尤其值得注意的是，墨西哥信用卡詐欺聯盟獲得了極其強烈的市場興趣，這將為我們帶來自 2016 年推出澳洲信用卡研究以來的第一個新的聯盟資料集，以及全球監管平台，因為全球各地的監管機構都在採用數據驅動的監管方法。我們在與美國貨幣監理署 (OCC)、聯準會和消費者金融保護局 (CFPB) 的合作經驗，以及我們在英國透過勞合社辛迪加所進行的工作，使我們能夠獨特地滿足監管機構及其被監管實體的需求。

In addition to these Verisk financial strategic initiatives, we are also accelerating a cross-Verisk collaboration, working with our colleagues in the Insurance segment. We are currently working with our partners in underwriting and rating on enhancing lead generation and market prospecting as well as working with our colleagues in claims to elaborate on enhanced fraud solution.

除了這些 Verisk 財務策略舉措之外，我們還在加速 Verisk 內部的合作，與保險領域的同事們攜手共進。我們目前正與承保和評級部門的合作夥伴共同努力，加強潛在客戶開發和市場拓展，同時也與理賠部門的同事合作，完善反詐欺解決方案。

In summary, I'm proud of our team and the progress we've made over the past year as we have synthesized a series of acquisitions to create Verisk Financial Services, a single cohesive operating unit. We have made tangible progress choosing long-term vision with near-term operating execution. Our bias is to action with the understanding that a world-class business isn't created overnight but is instead the sum total of numerous incremental changes and consistent execution over time. We are confident in our long-term growth potential and look forward to sharing additional progress with -- updates with you in the future.

總而言之，我為我們的團隊以及過去一年來我們的進步感到自豪，我們整合了一系列收購，創建了 Verisk Financial Services，一個統一的營運部門。我們透過選擇長遠願景並輔以近期營運執行，取得了實際進展。我們傾向於採取行動，因為我們明白，世界一流的企業不是一朝一夕就能打造出來的，而是隨著時間的推移，無數次漸進式改變和持續執行的總和。我們對公司的長期發展潛力充滿信心，並期待在未來與您分享更多進展和最新動態。

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, Lisa.

謝謝你，麗莎。

First, I would like to bring to everyone's attention that we have posted a quarterly earnings presentation that is available on our website. Presentation provides background, data trends and analysis to support our conversation today.

首先，我想提醒大家，我們已經在網站上發布了季度財報。本次簡報將提供背景資訊、數據趨勢和分析，以支持我們今天的討論。

Moving to the financial results for the quarter. On a consolidated and a GAAP basis, revenue grew 8.5% to $653 million. Net income decreased 2% to $150 million while diluted GAAP EPS declined 1.1% to $0.90 per share for the second quarter 2019. As we previewed on last quarter's earnings call, both GAAP net income and diluted GAAP EPS were negatively impacted by the acceleration of $6 million in stock-based compensation in the quarter.

接下來來看看本季的財務業績。以合併報表和 GAAP 準則計算，營收成長 8.5%，達到 6.53 億美元。2019 年第二季度，淨利潤下降 2% 至 1.5 億美元，稀釋後 GAAP 每股收益下降 1.1% 至 0.90 美元。正如我們在上個季度財報電話會議上預告的那樣，由於本季提前支付了 600 萬美元的股票選擇權費用，GAAP 淨收入和稀釋後的 GAAP 每股收益都受到了負面影響。

Let's now focus our quarterly discussion 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 full year-over-year comparisons, nonoperating acquisition-related costs, including earnouts, dispositions and nonrecurring items. We believe these are the best measures to evaluate the health of our overall business and are the metrics we use in our own compensation plans.

現在，讓我們將季度討論的重點放在所有同比增長率的有機固定匯率結果上，並消除匯率波動的影響、近期收購（我們沒有完整的同比比較數據）、非經營性收購相關成本（包括盈利能力支付、處置和非經常性項目）。我們認為這些是評估公司整體健康狀況的最佳指標，也是我們自身薪酬計畫中所使用的指標。

On an organic constant currency basis, Verisk delivered revenue growth of 7.2% in the second quarter of 2019, reflecting organic growth across all 3 segments and delivering on our long-term target of 7% growth. Growth was led by our Insurance segment, and we also delivered improving trends in Financial Services. Organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth was 5.2% and was 7.3% after normalizing for the accelerated expensing of stock-based compensation.

以有機固定匯率計算，Verisk 在 2019 年第二季度實現了 7.2% 的收入成長，反映了所有 3 個業務部門的有機成長，並實現了我們 7% 的長期成長目標。保險業務引領了成長，金融服務業務也呈現改善趨勢。以固定匯率調整後的有機 EBITDA 成長率為 5.2%，扣除加速計提的股票選擇權費用後，成長率為 7.3%。

Total adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 46.6%, down from the 47.9% in the prior year primarily the result of the acceleration of stock-based compensation which decreased margins by approximately 1%. This total adjusted EBITDA margin includes both organic and inorganic revenue and EBITDA. Acquisitions decreased total adjusted EBITDA margin by approximately 20 basis points in the period. The headwind from the acceleration of stock-based compensation is also reflected in the individual segment results as these costs have been allocated based on revenue contribution to Verisk.

本季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 46.6%，低於去年同期的 47.9%，主要原因是股票選擇權激勵措施加速實施，導致利潤率下降了約 1%。調整後的 EBITDA 總利潤率包括有機和非有機收入及 EBITDA。收購導致該期間調整後 EBITDA 利潤率下降約 20 個基點。股票選擇權激勵加速帶來的不利影響也反映在各個業務部門的績效中，因為這些成本是根據對 Verisk 的收入貢獻進行分配的。

On that note, let's turn to our segment results on an organic constant currency basis. As you see in the press release, Insurance reported 7.8% revenue growth while adjusted EBITDA increased 5.1%. Within our underwriting and rating business, growth was balanced across personal lines and commercial lines. We saw healthy growth in our industry-standard insurance programs, property-specific underwriting and catastrophe modeling solutions revenue. We're seeing strong uptake of our new innovative solutions, including LightSpeed auto, as our new data-forward products are designed to meet the needs of our Insurance customers for quicker, more efficient and easier to use solutions. Within claims, the strong growth was driven by solid performance in claims analytics, repair cost estimating and remote imagery solutions. This was offset in part by modest weakness in workers' compensation claim resolution services.

說到這裡，讓我們來看看以固定匯率計算的各業務板塊業績。如新聞稿所述，保險業務收入成長7.8%，調整後EBITDA成長5.1%。在我們的承保和評級業務中，個人險和商業險的成長保持平衡。我們的行業標準保險項目、特定財產承保和災害建模解決方案收入均實現了健康成長。我們看到，包括 LightSpeed auto 在內的新創新解決方案得到了廣泛認可，因為我們新的數據驅動型產品旨在滿足保險客戶對更快、更有效率、更易於使用的解決方案的需求。在理賠方面，強勁的成長得益於理賠分析、維修成本估算和遠端影像解決方案的出色表現。部分原因是工傷賠償申請處理服務略顯疲軟。

Total adjusted EBITDA margin declined 140 basis points to 53% from 54.4% in the prior year period.

經調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率從去年同期的 54.4% 下降 140 個基點至 53%。

Energy and Specialized Markets delivered revenue growth of 5.5% for the quarter. Strong sales of market and cost intelligence solutions drove the growth. We also had positive contributions from core research and our environmental health and safety business. This was offset in part by softness in our consulting services related to strong performance from last year.

能源和專業市場業務本季營收成長5.5%。市場和成本情報解決方案的強勁銷售推動了成長。核心研發以及環境健康與安全業務也做出了積極貢獻。去年強勁的業績帶動了諮詢服務的疲軟，但這在一定程度上抵消了上述影響。

Adjusted EBITDA increased 3.7%, reflecting, ongoing investments in breakout opportunities like Lens and our chemicals, subsurface and power and renewables breakouts. Total adjusted EBITDA margin declined to 29.9% from 31.8%. The largest factor in that margin decline was a nonoperational foreign currency translation loss. Excluding this item, margin in the segment would have been flat.

調整後 EBITDA 成長 3.7%，反映了對 Lens 等突破性機會以及我們在化學、地下、電力和再生能源領域的持續投資。調整後 EBITDA 總利潤率從 31.8% 下降至 29.9%。導致利潤率下降的最大因素是非經營性外匯折算損失。排除這項產品，該部分的利潤率將保持不變。

Financial Services revenue increased 6.1% in the quarter led by solid growth in portfolio management and spend-informed marketing solutions revenues. As Lisa mentioned earlier, these improving results reflect the impact of the strategy that we implemented in 2018 to transition Verisk Financial Services from a top-down orientation to a bottoms-up approach with an emphasis on steady growth. We expect that investors will continue to see more clearly the long-term growth potential of this segment over time as we continue to make progress with the transition.

本季金融服務收入成長 6.1%，主要得益於投資組合管理和支出導向行銷解決方案收入的穩健成長。正如 Lisa 之前提到的，這些不斷改善的結果反映了我們在 2018 年實施的策略的影響，該策略旨在將 Verisk Financial Services 從自上而下的導向轉變為自下而上的方法，並強調穩步增長。我們預計，隨著轉型工作的不斷推進，投資人將逐漸更清楚地看到該領域的長期成長潛力。

Adjusted EBITDA increased 11.9%, and total adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 31.9% from 30.3%. Strong focus on expense management as well as leverage from the revenue growth drove the margin expansion. Reported interest expense was $31 million in the quarter, down 4.7% from the prior year quarter due to the net repayments of our revolving credit facility. Total reported debt was $2.5 billion at June 30, 2019, down from $2.7 billion at year-end 2018. And our leverage at the end of the second quarter was 2.1x.

調整後 EBITDA 成長 11.9%，調整後 EBITDA 總利潤率從 30.3% 增至 31.9%。高度重視費用控制以及利用收入成長推動了利潤率的提升。本季度報告的利息支出為 3,100 萬美元，比上年同期下降 4.7%，原因是循環信貸額度的淨償還。截至 2019 年 6 月 30 日，公司報告的總債務為 25 億美元，低於 2018 年底的 27 億美元。第二季末，我們的槓桿率為 2.1 倍。

Our consolidated cash and cash equivalents were $153 million at June 30, 2019. Our reported effective tax rate was 19.7% for the quarter compared to 17% in the prior year quarter primarily due to a lower level of option exercises. We maintain our estimate of our effective tax rate in the full year 2019 to be between 19% and 21%.

截至 2019 年 6 月 30 日，我們的合併現金及現金等價物為 1.53 億美元。本季度報告的實際稅率為 19.7%，而去年同期為 17%，主要是由於選擇權行使量較低。我們維持 2019 年全年實際稅率的估計，即在 19% 至 21% 之間。

Adjusted net income was $184 million and diluted adjusted EPS was $1.10 for the second quarter, up 4.1% and 4.8%, respectively. After normalizing for the impact of the incremental stock-based compensation, diluted adjusted EPS would have grown 8.6%. This increase reflects organic growth in the business, contributions from acquisitions, a decrease in interest expense and lower share count. The benefits were partially offset by an increase in depreciation and amortization expense and a higher effective tax rate.

第二季調整後淨收入為 1.84 億美元，稀釋後調整每股收益為 1.10 美元，分別成長 4.1% 和 4.8%。剔除新增股票選擇權激勵的影響後，稀釋調整後的每股盈餘將成長 8.6%。這一增長反映了業務的內生增長、收購帶來的貢獻、利息支出的減少以及流通股數量的減少。收益部分被折舊和攤提費用的增加以及較高的實際稅率所抵銷。

Net cash provided by operating activities was $200 million for the quarter, down 3.4% from the prior year. Net cash provided by operating activities was $566 million year-to-date, up 6% from the prior year.

本季經營活動產生的淨現金流為 2 億美元，較上年同期下降 3.4%。今年迄今為止，經營活動產生的淨現金流為 5.66 億美元，比去年同期成長 6%。

Capital expenditures were $47 million for the quarter, down 16.4% from the prior year. CapEx represented 7.2% of total revenue, reflecting the expected decline in capital intensity as the result of reduced capital spending on the Geomni initiative following its initial ramp-up. We continue to expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $220 million to $240 million for 2019.

本季資本支出為 4,700 萬美元，較上年同期下降 16.4%。資本支出佔總收入的 7.2%，反映出由於 Geomni 計畫在初期啟動後資本支出減少，資本密集度預期下降。我們仍預期 2019 年的資本支出將在 2.2 億至 2.4 億美元之間。

The free cash flow was $153 million for the quarter, an increase of 1.5% from the prior year. Free cash flow was $474 million year-to-date, an increase of 9.1% from the prior year.

本季自由現金流為 1.53 億美元，較上年同期成長 1.5%。今年迄今的自由現金流為 4.74 億美元，比上年增長 9.1%。

During the second quarter, we returned $91 million in capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. We repurchased approximately 361,000 shares at a weighted average price of $138.32 for a total cost of $50 million. At June 30, 2019, we had $303 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. In addition, we initiated a new $75 million accelerated share repurchase to be executed in the third quarter. On June 28, 2019, we paid a cash dividend of $0.25 per common share. And on July 24, 2019, our Board of Directors approved a cash dividend of $0.25 per share of common stock payable on September 30, 2019, for shareholders of record on September 13, 2019.

第二季度，我們透過股票回購和分紅向股東返還了 9,100 萬美元的資本。我們以每股 138.32 美元的加權平均價格回購了約 361,000 股股票，總成本為 5,000 萬美元。截至 2019 年 6 月 30 日，我們的股票回購授權額度還剩 3.03 億美元。此外，我們啟動了一項新的 7,500 萬美元加速股票回購計劃，將於第三季執行。2019年6月28日，我們發放了每股普通股0.25美元的現金股利。2019 年 7 月 24 日，我們的董事會批准向 2019 年 9 月 30 日登記在冊的普通股股東派發現金股息，每股 0.25 美元。

We are excited about the opportunities to invest in our business and continue to manage capital prudently through internal investment, strategic acquisitions and the return of capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We remain confident that we have the financial strength and capital structure to support investment for the long term. We appreciate all the support and interest in Verisk.

我們對投資業務的機會感到興奮，並將繼續透過內部投資、策略性收購以及透過股利和股票回購向股東返還資本來審慎管理資本。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。我們感謝大家對 Verisk 的支持與關注。

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

（操作員指示）我將請操作員開通提問專線。

Operator, we're ready for questions.

接線員，我們已準備好回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) And you do have a question from Toni Kaplan.

（操作員說明）您有一個來自 Toni Kaplan 的問題。

Just taking a step back, you've had margin contraction in Insurance for the past 10 quarters, and you've been investing and experiencing an impact from dilutive acquisitions. But at some point, perhaps we could see that reverse. And so just given operating leverage of the business overall, I guess at what point do you think that we could start to see some margin leverage in Insurance specifically?

簡單回顧一下，過去 10 個季度保險業的利潤率一直在收縮，而且你們一直在進行投資，並承受著稀釋性收購帶來的影響。但或許在某個時候，我們會看到相反的情況。因此，考慮到整個業務的經營槓桿，您認為我們什麼時候才能在保險業中看到一些利潤率槓桿？

So Toni, thanks for the question. I think we've been focused on those -- on the year-over-year results. And so I -- when we look at this quarter's year-over-year performance from a margin standpoint, I think it's important to understand that if you take the timing -- compensation timing impact of about 1%, the margin in the second quarter of 53% would have been 54% versus 54.4% in the prior year period. And so that certainly is I would -- we would describe as flattish. And at the same time, recognizing that we have been making some significant investments in Geomni and telematics that have been accelerated as we've ramped up in particular, Geomni. And so we are making those investments with the expectation that those will be contributing to our margin improvement over time as we reach scale in those businesses. So I think it's the financial dimension, and I'll turn it over to Mark to provide some additional color here.

東尼，謝謝你的提問。我認為我們一直關注的是這些——也就是同比業績。因此，當我們從利潤率的角度來審視本季同比業績時，我認為重要的是要明白，如果考慮到時間因素——薪酬時間影響約為 1%，那麼第二季度的利潤率將從 53% 提高到 54%，而去年同期為 54.4%。所以，我肯定會把它描述為平坦的。同時，我們也意識到，我們一直在對 Geomni 和遠端資訊處理進行一些重大投資，尤其是在我們擴大規模之後，Geomni 的投資更是加速成長。因此，我們進行這些投資，並期望隨著這些業務規模的擴大，這些投資能夠逐步提高我們的利潤率。所以我認為這是財務上的問題，接下來請馬克補充一些細節。

Sure. I'll echo the investment we're making. I think the thing that I always like to emphasize is that inside the investment, what we have seen is our top line organically growing quicker, which means our bottom line EBITDA cash flow is growing quicker. So I think that's been successful. We have been disciplined in the way we spend and invest. And I think there is scale clearly in the business as we take on pretty big investment in something like aerial imagery and IoT. So I just want to provide a little bit of color that I think we've had quite a bit of success in the growth side of things.

當然。我贊同我們正在進行的投資。我認為我一直想強調的是，在投資方面，我們看到的是營收有機成長更快，這意味著我們的淨利潤 EBITDA 現金流成長更快。所以我認為這很成功。我們在消費和投資方面一直非常自律。而且我認為，隨著我們在空中成像和物聯網等領域進行相當大的投資，這個行業顯然具有規模優勢。所以我想補充一點，我認為我們在成長方面取得了相當大的成功。

Your next question comes from Manav Patnaik.

你的下一個問題來自馬納夫·帕特奈克。

I guess since you have Lisa on the call, maybe I can just ask on the Argus comments. I think there was a comment about updating the pricing structure to more subscription-based revenue, and that might have been specific to the EDM business based in India. So I was wondering if you can just elaborate on that with some context on how much of Argus today is subscription. And are there any other areas there that you could see similar pricing structure updates?

既然 Lisa 也參加了通話，那我或許可以直接在 Argus 留言區問問看。我認為有人提到要更新定價結構，更多地採用訂閱式收入模式，而這可能專門針對位於印度的 EDM 業務。所以我想知道您能否詳細說明一下，並提供一些背景信息，說明目前 Argus 的訂閱模式佔比是多少。有其他領域也會出現類似的定價結構調整嗎？

Sure. It is -- there were 2 things. The first is that as we've begun integrating the companies that we acquired, the business that we acquired in India, we did go through a rigorous review of all of their solutions and the pricing for those solutions relative to our investment in those solutions. Based on that, we have updated our pricing structure for solutions-based set of India. Those are primarily subscription-based solutions. In addition, across all of the Argus business, we have also been changing and shifting our mix towards more subscription-based and product-driven solutions as opposed to onetime implementations or initial development revenue up-front and more heavily weighted in the current year. As we implement some of our data analytic solutions, the enterprise data management solutions, we're now orienting those to more of a longer-term subscription base as well. So in all the things that we're doing, we're looking for longer-term subscription-based revenue. Today, the percentage of revenue that's subscription-based is over 65%, close to 70%. We continue to move that up.

當然。確實有兩件事。首先，在我們開始整合我們收購的公司以及我們在印度收購的業務時，我們對他們的所有解決方案以及這些解決方案的定價與我們在這些解決方案上的投資進行了嚴格的審查。基於此，我們更新了印度市場的解決方案定價結構。這些主要都是基於訂閱的解決方案。此外，在 Argus 的所有業務中，我們也一直在改變和調整我們的業務組合，轉向更多基於訂閱和產品驅動的解決方案，而不是一次性實施或預先收取初始開發收入，並且更側重於本年度的收入。隨著我們一些數據分析解決方案和企業數據管理解決方案的實施，我們現在也將這些解決方案轉向更長期的訂閱模式。因此，在我們所做的一切事情中，我們都在尋求基於長期訂閱的收入模式。如今，訂閱收入佔超過 65%，接近 70%。我們繼續推進這項工作。

Your next question comes from Tim McHugh.

下一個問題來自提姆·麥克休。

Just wondered on LightSpeed, you highlighted that this quarter. So can you talk about how customers are adopting that? Is that displacing prior methods of kind of underwriting and acquiring customers? Or is it used -- being used as an incremental? And then I think recently, you talked about taking Sequel to the U.S., which I believe is a new initiative. So I guess talk about the plans and how aggressively you're pursuing that.

我只是想問一下關於 LightSpeed 的問題，你在本季度重點介紹了它。那麼，您能談談客戶是如何接受這種做法的嗎？這是否會取代以往的核保和客戶取得方式？或者它是否被用作增量式方法？然後，我想你最近談到了將《續集》帶到美國，我相信這是一個新的舉措。所以我想談談你們的計劃，以及你們在推動這些計劃方面所採取的積極措施。

Great. Thanks, and this is Mark. So let me first talk a little bit about LightSpeed. Inside of the insurance process, there has typically been a 2-step process. First, you provide a quote, and then people run what is typically all the reports and gather the information. There's a cost there before they bind the policy. So what we have attempted to do inside of our kind of ecosystem is create a very automated approach so they can flow this business, that's a term of ours, they can be completely automated, more accurate, more efficient. And we're bringing all the data needs up-front. We call it our data-forward strategy. So that represents kind of a different way of going to -- go to market. You can actually provide a quote, bind it all in one. Just an example, you talked about digital engagement. On the personal auto front, on a car insurance, about 33% of all quotes you get online change after people do that work. So very poor experience. And what we've done is we've taken things like motor vehicle reports, loss histories, prior losses, prior coverage, all the things about the driver and brought that up-front. And that has been adopted, well accepted, and we have a nice success on the insurance front. That kind of moves across auto, the homeowners and even into small commercial. That is our theme, and that's where we're headed.

偉大的。謝謝，我是馬克。那麼，首先讓我簡單談談 LightSpeed。在保險流程中，通常分為兩個步驟。首先，您提供報價，然後人們會運行通常所有的報告並收集資訊。在保單生效前，需要支付一定的費用。因此，我們在自己的生態系統中嘗試做的是創建一個高度自動化的方法，以便他們可以開展這項業務（這是我們的術語），使其完全自動化、更準確、更有效率。我們將所有數據需求都提前提出。我們稱之為數據驅動戰略。所以這代表了一種不同的進入市場的方式。您可以提供報價，並將所有內容打包在一起。舉個例子，你剛才談到了數位互動。在個人汽車保險方面，大約有 33% 的線上報價會在人們進行相關工作後發生變化。體驗非常糟糕。我們所做的就是把機動車報告、損失記錄、之前的損失、之前的保險情況，以及所有關於駕駛員的資訊都擺在前面。而這項措施已被採納，並被廣泛接受，我們在保險領域取得了不錯的成功。這種趨勢蔓延到汽車、房主，甚至小型商業領域。這就是我們的主題，也是我們前進的方向。

I'm going to now flip over to the question on Sequel. Just to remind everybody, Sequel solution set which is, for the most part, all of the software to a service policy, starting from the up-front, within underwriting on to claims, all of that very much a industry standard inside the London insurance market, primarily around things that what I'll refer to as ISO. And most of Verisk hasn't been as focused on the non-admitted market, meaning the specialty lines, the really complex risks. What we have attempted to do is use some of that technology in some of our products here. But more importantly, what you saw in the press release is for specialty or complex insurance risk, we are going to bring Sequel to the United States. We seem to have quite a bit of interest. We are leveraging the teams in place, both on the claims side and on the ISO side of the underwriting side. And I think we're very optimistic that inside that niche specialty market, we have a solution that can win today. And we're optimistic.

接下來，我要回答關於續集的問題。提醒大家一下，Sequel 解決方案集，基本上涵蓋了從前期承保到理賠的所有軟體到服務政策，所有這些都是倫敦保險市場的行業標準，主要圍繞我所說的 ISO 內容。Verisk 的大部分精力並沒有集中在非進入市場，也就是特殊險種和真正複雜的風險領域。我們嘗試將其中一些技術應用到我們的一些產品中。但更重要的是，正如你在新聞稿中看到的，針對特殊或複雜的保險風險，我們將把 Sequel 引入美國。我們似乎獲得了相當多的關注。我們正在充分利用現有團隊，包括理賠團隊和核保的 ISO 團隊。而且我認為我們非常樂觀地認為，在這個細分專業市場中，我們擁有一個今天就能贏得市場的解決方案。我們持樂觀態度。

Your next question comes from Andrew Steinerman.

下一個問題來自安德魯·斯坦納曼。

It's Andrew. Could you give us a sense how your Energy clients are doing as they're increasing spend with Wood Mac, which areas of interest is increasing with those Energy clients? And also, you mentioned cost intelligence with energy. I assume that's around PowerAdvocate. And could you give us a sense of how PowerAdvocate is do -- again evolving within Verisk?

是安德魯。能否介紹一下您的能源客戶在增加與伍德麥肯錫的合作支出方面的情況？這些能源客戶在哪些領域更感興趣？另外，您也提到了能源成本智慧。我猜應該是 PowerAdvocate 之類的。您能否簡要介紹一下 PowerAdvocate 的工作原理——它在 Verisk 內部是如何演變的？

Yes. So Scott here. And in reverse order, the PowerAdvocate suite is doing well. The traditional customer set for PowerAdvocate has been utilities. A lot of the motion in the business has been taking the same kind of solution into the oil and gas space, which is one of those places where PowerAdvocate is advantaged by being tied to the business with very substantial footprint we've already got in the oil and gas space. And then over on the traditional Wood Mac side in the oil and gas space, basically, there is a lot of interest in what the Lens platform provides, which is essentially more real time and more integrated into the customer workflows. And so it's essentially doing what we thought it would do, which is positioning our content even more deeply in the customer workflows. And that's the direction of travel. Basically, as the United States has sort of been differentially adding to the global supply curve, the U.S. environment is one where you're making operating decisions all the time as opposed to the traditional offshore decadal kind of investment cycle.

是的。我是史考特。反過來，PowerAdvocate 套件的表現也很好。PowerAdvocate 的傳統客戶群一直是公用事業公司。許多產業趨勢都是將同樣的解決方案引入石油和天然氣領域，而 PowerAdvocate 的優勢就在於它與石油和天然氣領域已有的龐大業務連結在一起。而在傳統的伍德麥肯錫石油天然氣領域，人們對 Lens 平台提供的功能非常感興趣，該平臺本質上更加即時，並且與客戶的工作流程更加整合。因此，它實際上實現了我們預期的目標，那就是將我們的內容更深入地融入客戶的工作流程中。這就是前進的方向。基本上，由於美國一直在以不同的方式增加全球供應曲線，因此美國的環境是需要不斷做出營運決策的環境，而不是傳統的海外十年投資週期。

And so the need for real time, the need for more benchmark kinds of data just goes up, and that's exactly what we've been positioning for. So it's -- one of the leading metrics there is the rate of adoption of Lens among the oil and gas companies, both the integrated globals as well as the more pure-play E&P companies. And we're very happy with what's happening there.

因此，對即時數據、對更多基準數據的需求不斷增長，而這正是我們一直在努力的方向。因此，其中一個主要指標是 Lens 在石油和天然氣公司（包括綜合性全球公司和更純粹的勘探與生產公司）中的採用率。我們對那裡發生的一切非常滿意。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from Gary Bisbee.

（操作說明）下一個問題來自 Gary Bisbee。

Thanks for the detailed rundown on Financial Services business. It sounds like you're making a lot of progress there. I guess the key question is, how do those changes impact how we should think about the medium- or longer-term growth potential of the business and maybe also profitability? Historically, before the recent couple years of challenges, I think there was clear discussion of this being the fastest growth or growing above the corporate average. Is that a reasonable and sustainable target at some point in the future based on the progress you're doing?

感謝您對金融服務業的詳細介紹。聽起來你在那方面取得了很大進展。我認為關鍵問題是，這些變化會如何影響我們對企業中長期成長潛力以及獲利能力的思考？從歷史角度來看，在最近幾年面臨挑戰之前，我認為人們曾明確討論過，這是成長最快的領域，或者說成長速度高於企業平均。根據你們目前的進展，這在未來某個時候是否是一個合理且可持續的目標？

Gary, this is Lee. So we -- for all 3 of our segments, our expectation that all of them have the ability to meet or exceed our long-term targeted 7% organic constant currency growth rate as well as to realize the operating leverage and achieve EBITDA faster than that. And so I think one of the challenges for investors, which we certainly empathize with, is that given some of the large contracts in contract transitions in the business made it difficult to see the underlying growth within the business. And so we wanted to focus on really developing the bottoms-up approach to the business that Lisa described in each of the 4 solutions areas. And I think in those more traditional -- in the kind of the foundational benchmarking areas, those are probably mid-single digits growth elements. And the fraud, bankruptcy, enterprise data management, marketing spend analytics are newer, higher-growth businesses that we think contribute to achieving that 7% growth.

加里，我是李。因此，我們—對於我們的所有 3 個業務部門，我們期望它們都能達到或超過我們長期目標的 7% 有機固定匯率成長率，並實現營運槓桿，更快地實現 EBITDA。因此，我認為投資者面臨的挑戰之一（我們對此深表同情）是，由於公司內部一些大型合約正在進行過渡，因此很難看到公司內部的潛在成長。因此，我們希望專注於真正發展 Lisa 在 4 個解決方案領域中所描述的自下而上的業務方法。我認為在那些比較傳統的——也就是基礎性的基準領域，這些成長要素的成長率可能只有個位數。詐欺、破產、企業資料管理、行銷支出分析等新興的高成長業務，我們認為有助於實現 7% 的成長。

So no change in terms of our expectations of what the Financial Services business can achieve and can contribute to our overall growth rate, but there has been a shift in making sure that we're delivering that on a more sustainable and granular basis and that investors have greater clarity on that growth, which certainly I think within this quarter is a clear step in that direction.

因此，我們對金融服務業務能夠取得的成就以及對整體成長率的貢獻的預期沒有改變，但我們已做出調整，確保以更可持續、更細緻的方式實現這些目標，並讓投資者更清楚地了解增長情況，我認為這無疑是本季度朝著這個方向邁出的明顯一步。

Your next question comes from Joseph Foresi.

下一個問題來自 Joseph Foresi。

I was wondering if you could talk about Geomni and some of the potential contribution to revenues and the CapEx that you've put in there and what stage that's in.

我想請您談談Geomni，以及它對收入的潛在貢獻、您投入的資本支出以及它目前處於什麼階段。

This is Mark. Let me try to address that. So the opportunity with Geomni is very much focused on, first, ensuring that we have coverage, frequent refresh of those images. And with that, that library of information, our first step was really to address the claims-focused solutions in the insurance space. So literally, by using those advanced pictures and some advanced analytics, we can get measurements and do repair cost estimates for the claims departments from the sky. They then use maybe some desktop adjusting but, for the most part, a majority of that is done in a very automated fashion, saving a very significant cost to the insurers as well it's safer and more accurate. We have opportunities to bring that into underwriting as well as to the world of cat modeling.

這是馬克。讓我來試著解釋一下。因此，與 Geomni 的合作機會主要集中在以下幾個方面：首先，確保我們擁有覆蓋範圍，並頻繁更新這些影像。有了這些資訊庫，我們的第一步實際上是著手解決保險領域以理賠為中心的解決方案。所以，實際上，透過使用這些先進的圖像和一些先進的分析技術，我們可以從空中獲取測量數據，並為理賠部門進行維修成本估算。然後他們可能會進行一些桌面調整，但大部分調整都是以高度自動化的方式完成的，這不僅為保險公司節省了大量成本，而且更安全、更準確。我們有機會將這種理念運用到承保領域以及貓咪模特兒領域。

But I want to highlight though that as much as our first use case was insurance, there's probably and there is bigger opportunities outside of the insurance space. So we have partnered up with some folks that are doing construction. We're doing work in the solar space. We're doing work across various verticals where that imagery and those exact measurements are very helpful. And Geomni is contributing nicely to that claims category inside of our growth rates for insurance.

但我想強調的是，儘管我們的第一個應用案例是保險，但在保險領域之外，可能存在更大的機會。所以我們和一些從事建築施工的人建立了合作關係。我們正在從事太陽能領域的工作。我們在各個垂直領域開展工作，這些影像和精確測量數據都非常有用。而Geomni在我們保險業務成長率中，對理賠類別做出了很好的貢獻。

So it continues to be investment-oriented. Keystone accelerates that investment for us because it replaces what we have to buy in the form of sensors, meaning big cameras as well as the planes. Keystone has it. They have operations. They have pilots. So this will accelerate our path to strength there.

因此，它仍然是一家以投資為導向的公司。Keystone 加速了我們的投資，因為它取代了我們必須購買的感測器（即大型攝影機）以及飛機。Keystone有貨。他們有手術。他們有飛行員。這將加速我們在那裡的發展壯大。

Your next question comes from Andrew Jeffrey.

下一個問題來自安德魯·傑弗裡。

Yes. I wonder and I'm thinking about LightSpeed. But broadly across your business, can you talk about the extent to which InsurTech maybe is driving some of your growth and how structural that is? And whether as you look out to the market today, that's a potential growth acceleration driver over the next year or 2?

是的。我在思考光速。但就貴公司整體業務而言，您能否談談保險科技在多大程度上推動了貴公司的成長，以及這種成長在多大程度上是結構性的？那麼，放眼當今市場，這是否會成為未來一兩年內推動成長加速的潛在因素呢？

Yes. Scott here. It has 2 effects on our business. So one is, if you think of InsurTech as a category of digitally enabled innovations, this is one of the things that actually our customers and all of our segments are looking for. They themselves are trying to transform their businesses making use of digital methods. And so here we are with our particular solution sets. They are rotating their budgets in the direction of making use of modern methods. So that's just a fundamentally constructive factor across everything we do basically. But in addition to that, when people refer to InsurTech, partly what they're talking about are new companies that are basically using digital methods fundamentally to change the distribution of insurance, the sourcing of insurance, customers presenting the insurance product to the end user.

是的。我是史考特。它對我們的業務有兩方面的影響。所以，如果你把保險科技看作是數位創新的一個類別，那麼這正是我們的客戶和所有細分市場都在尋找的東西之一。他們自己也在嘗試利用數位化方法轉型業務。所以，這就是我們具體的解決方案集。他們正在調整預算，轉向採用現代方法。所以，這基本上是我們所有工作中一個具有根本建設性的因素。但除此之外，當人們提到保險科技時，他們所指的部分內容是，一些新興公司基本上利用數位化方法從根本上改變保險的分銷、保險的來源以及客戶向最終用戶展示保險產品的方式。

And so these are some of the companies that get celebrated as startups that are -- sort of kind of present a new face to the insurance-consuming world. We've done very well with those companies as customers. So here they are. They're inventing a new insurance company. And we find that they just -- that they have voted with their feet and basically want to use our industry-standard solutions so that they have the benefit of efficiency, fighting fraud in effective way. One of the big issues you have when you emerge as an insurance company is you don't have a lot of experience. And so how are you going to anticipate where your losses are going to be and at what level? That's one of the things that our solutions just give you right out of the box. So it's really gratifying to see how many of them come our way when they form and then all of a sudden -- and I've had a chance to visit with the CEO -- even recently with the CEOs of some of these highly celebrated, emergent insurance companies. And they just -- they really, really like being a partner with Verisk.

因此，這些公司被譽為新創公司，它們為保險消費界帶來了一種新面貌。我們與這些公司作為客戶合作得非常愉快。這就是它們。他們正在創建一家新型保險公司。我們發現，他們已經用腳投票，基本上是想使用我們行業標準的解決方案，以便獲得效率優勢，並以有效的方式打擊詐欺行為。保險公司成立之初面臨的一大問題是缺乏經驗。那麼，你打算如何預測你的損失會在哪裡發生，損失程度如何？這是我們的解決方案開箱即用的優勢之一。所以，看到這麼多公司在成立之初就向我們湧來，然後突然之間——而且我有機會與一些備受讚譽的新興保險公司的首席執行官們交流——甚至最近還與其中一些公司的首席執行官們交流過，這真的令人欣慰。他們真的非常喜歡與 Verisk 合作。

And your next question comes from Jeff Meuler.

下一個問題來自傑夫·穆勒。

Scott, I was just hoping you could extend your earlier comments around kind of human capital and the opening of the Kraków office. You relatively, I guess, acquired Wood Mac. And one of the points from the acquisition was expanding your global office footprint, but I know data nationalism always top of mind. So just roughly, what percentage of your data and analytics and tech headcount or innovation headcount is in the United States or more expensive labor markets today? Like how big is this long-term opportunity as a margin enhancement for you?

史考特，我只是希望你能進一步闡述你之前關於人力資本和克拉科夫辦事處開設的評論。我想，你算是相對而言收購了伍德麥克公司。這次收購的其中一個目的是擴大你們的全球辦公規模，但我知道數據民族主義始終是你們關注的焦點。那麼，粗略估計一下，目前貴公司有多少百分比的數據、分析和技術人員或創新人員在美國或其他勞動力成本較高的市場工作？從長遠來看，這個機會能為你帶來多大的利潤提升？

Yes. So the first thing that motivates us on this is access to talent. That's the thing that this is really about. So the reason we like Kraków so much is, as we expand our business in Europe, especially Continental Europe, having high-quality, technically deep people who also will get steeped in the verticals that we serve, having them right there to interact more easily with our customers is a really, really nice feature here. And then I'm glad you picked up on the point I was making about talent because that really is the wellspring for our company. And there's no question that everybody -- we have about 9,000 associates at Verisk now. Everybody really counts. There are some of the technical disciplines that are the ones that are particularly in demand. I ticked off a few of those, so being able to make cloud architectures that are secure and really work, sort of data science as in the transformation of the data. There's also a big data engineering dimension always to what it is we do. And so there's no question that over the last couple of years as we have built those communities of people around Verisk differentially, the additions have been overseas between what we do on -- in Continental Europe, both in Spain and in -- now in Poland, we have added quite a few people in India. And so as a percentage of the additions to the team that we've made, they're coming more not in the United States than in the United States of late. Of course, we're building both sides but relatively, it's even more overseas. And I don't see that changing. But it's -- and it is constructive from a cost point of view as well. But to me, that's just a marker actually of supply and demand. And we're just trying to make sure that we are in as many places as a, we intend to serve; and b, can provide great talent.

是的。因此，促使我們進行這項工作的首要因素是獲得人才。這才是問題的關鍵。我們如此喜歡克拉科夫的原因是，隨著我們在歐洲，特別是歐洲大陸拓展業務，擁有高素質、技術深厚的人才，並且他們還會深入了解我們所服務的垂直領域，讓他們能夠更輕鬆地與我們的客戶互動，這真是一個非常棒的優勢。我很高興你了解我之前提到的關於人才的觀點，因為人才確實是我們公司的來源。毫無疑問，我們 Verisk 目前擁有約 9,000 名員工。每個人都很重要。有些技術領域的人才需求特別大。我已經完成了其中的一些，所以能夠建立安全且真正有效的雲端架構，有點像資料科學，也就是資料的轉換。我們所做的一切始終包含大數據工程的層面。因此毫無疑問，在過去的幾年裡，隨著我們圍繞 Verisk 建立這些社區，新增成員主要來自海外，除了我們在歐洲大陸（包括西班牙和波蘭）所做的工作之外，我們還在印度增加了相當多的人。因此，就我們最近引進的球員而言，來自美國以外的球員比例比來自美國本土的球員比例要高。當然，我們在兩方面都在建設，但相對而言，海外建設的規模更大。而且我認為這種情況不會改變。但從成本角度來看，這也是一種建設性的做法。但在我看來，這其實只是供需關係的一個標誌。我們只是想確保我們能夠覆蓋盡可能多的地方，a) 我們打算服務的地方；b) 能夠提供優秀人才的地方。

And the last thing I'll just emphasize again is the develop ourselves mentality that we have here. We feel very rewarded for having gone in a direction that I think by degree is at least is a little bit different than what some other companies do. Because several years ago, we recognized if we're just going to count on our ability to go into the market and hire already experienced people, we're essentially saying, "We're going to let somebody else solve our challenge, the talent challenge." And we said, "Well, no. We can do better than that." And so we've just gone very early into the talent pipeline. And we have felt very rewarded doing that.

最後，我要再次強調的是我們這裡所秉持的自我提升的心態。我們感到非常欣慰，因為我們選擇了一條我認為至少在某種程度上與其他一些公司有所不同的道路。因為幾年前，我們意識到，如果我們只是依靠自身能力進入市場並招聘經驗豐富的人才，我們實際上是在說：“我們要讓別人來解決我們的挑戰，人才挑戰。”所以我們說：“不，不行。”我們可以做得更好。 」 因此，我們很早就開始挖掘人才儲備了。我們覺得這樣做很有回報。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from the Bill Warmington.

（操作說明）您的下一個問題來自比爾沃明頓。

So the acquisition of Keystone last week brought to the front the question of how much coverage of the U.S. do you have now? And is that enough? Because you've been -- I know you've been talking about going into Japan and Asia. So in that context, I want to see how much is left to go in the U.S. And then as you look out internationally, is this going to be the beginning of a new investment cycle in geospatial for Asia? And how much you think it'll be? And how long do you think it'll take?

因此，上週對 Keystone 的收購引發了一個問題：你們現在在美國的覆蓋範圍有多廣？這樣就夠了嗎？因為我知道你一直在談論進軍日本和亞洲市場。所以，在這種背景下，我想看看美國還有多少空間可以開發。然後，放眼國際，這是否會是亞洲地理空間領域新一輪投資週期的開始？你覺得會是多少？你覺得需要多長時間？

So Mark, you may want to add to this, but I'll just kick off. So in the United States, we are approaching what we would consider full coverage now. You have to understand coverage as both the square miles that you are imaging, but also the frequency with which you are imaging them. And so with respect to will we be able to reach all the important corners of the United States, we're very, very close to being there. With respect to the frequency of the refresh, that may always be something of a moving target. These data sets are not commodities. And one of the ways that you make them to have the quality of not being a commodity is the freshness of the data. So we will always be taking account of customer needs and competition in order to determine how frequently are we refreshing the images. So when you think about coverage, you have to think about both of those.

馬克，你可能想補充一些內容，但我先拋磚引玉。因此，在美國，我們正接近我們認為的全面覆蓋。你必須理解覆蓋範圍不僅指你成像的平方英里數，還指你成像的頻率。因此，就我們能否涵蓋美國所有重要角落而言，我們已經非常非常接近目標了。至於刷新頻率，這可能始終是個不斷變化的目標。這些資料集並非商品。而讓數據不淪為普通商品的其中一個方法就是保證數據的新鮮度。因此，我們將始終考慮客戶需求和競爭情況，以確定我們更新圖片的頻率。所以，在考慮保險覆蓋範圍時，你必須同時考慮這兩方面。

With respect to overseas markets, we actually already do, do some of this work in other places. And basically, the methods that we develop, the ability of the team to automatically interpret the image sets, that works everywhere. So as we build out our franchise generally -- and insurance is one of the killer apps for the -- for remote imagery. As we build out the Insurance franchise globally, I think it's very clear we will want to come in behind with these methods. But it'll -- it's -- we still got plenty of room to run in the United States, and then we will sort of build it I think organically and consistently with the rate that our Insurance franchise grows outside of the United States.

至於海外市場，我們其實已經在其他地方進行了一些這方面的工作。基本上，我們開發的方法，以及團隊自動解釋圖像集的能力，在任何地方都適用。因此，隨著我們整體業務的拓展——而保險是遠端影像的殺手級應用之一。隨著我們在全球擴展保險業務，我認為很明顯，我們希望在這些方法上採取後續行動。但是——它——我們在美國仍然有很大的發展空間，然後我們將以有機和持續的方式，隨著我們在美國以外保險業務的增長速度而發展壯大。

Your next question comes from George Tong.

下一個問題來自喬治唐。

Historically, enterprise data management and fraud solutions were the 2 underperforming areas within Financial Services. This quarter, all solution sets within Financial Services saw sequential improvement. Can you elaborate on the relative performance here and specific initiatives you'd call out that should drive continued acceleration in revenue growth in this segment?

從歷史上看，企業資料管理和反詐騙解決方案是金融服務領域表現不佳的兩個領域。本季度，金融服務領域的所有解決方案均實現了環比提升。您能否詳細說明該領域的相對錶現，並提出一些具體的舉措，以推動該領域收入成長的持續加速？

So it's true. All the segments saw sequential improvement. The enterprise data management sector is the sector that will continue to be lumpy and have variability on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Those contracts are very long-term contract often delivered through RFPs. And so the sales cycle is very long, and they also -- some of them end. Some of the work that we've done on more of a client-by-client bespoke enterprise data management solutions basis end. So it's really about building a book of business there and getting to a level of sustainability that allows us to meet that level of consistent performance as we see contracts end and new contracts begin within a quarter and quarter-to-quarter.

沒錯，是真的。各環節均呈現逐年改善的趨勢。企業資料管理產業是一個波動性較大、季度環比波動較大的產業。這些合約都是長期合同，通常透過招標方式簽訂。因此，銷售週期很長，而且有些銷售週期最終會結束。我們之前為客戶量身定制的一些企業資料管理解決方案已經完成。所以，關鍵在於建立業務基礎，並達到可持續發展的水平，使我們能夠在一個季度內以及每個季度之間，隨著合約的到期和新合約的開始，保持穩定的業績水平。

Continued improvement in that sector, that is a sector that we're looking to grow over the long term. And we'll continue to see lumpiness on a quarterly basis over the short term, but we do hear and continue to feel that the market is receptive to the solutions we're offering. Most particularly, we are hearing good reception to the global regulatory reporting platform. Regulators around the globe are changing the way they do their oversight. They are creating. They are leveraging deep and rich granular data to do that work, and we believe we're uniquely positioned to serve in the financial sector there.

該領域的持續改進，是我們希望長期發展的領域。短期內，我們仍會看到季度業績出現波動，但我們確實聽到並持續感受到，市場對我們提供的解決方案持開放態度。尤其值得一提的是，我們聽到了對全球監管報告平台的良好迴響。全球各地的監管機構正在改變其監管方式。他們正在創造。他們利用深入、豐富的細粒度數據來完成這項工作，我們相信我們在服務該領域的金融業方面具有獨特的優勢。

Your next question comes from Ashish Sabadra.

下一個問題來自 Ashish Sabadra。

Just a quick 2-part question on the Energy side. Any color on the softness in the consulting services? Is that mostly difficult comps? And then just where are we in terms of investments for the breakout opportunity within Energy? And when can we start to see margin expansion in the segment?

關於能源方面，我有一個分成兩個部分的問題。諮詢服務中是否有任何關於「軟性」的評價？那主要是難度較高的比賽嗎？那麼，就能源領域的突破性投資機會而言，我們目前的情況如何呢？我們何時才能看到該領域的利潤率開始擴張？

Yes. So go ahead, Lee.

是的。那就開始吧，李。

Again, I just - I may -- Ashish, I may just want to get clarity around the second part of the question. I had a little difficult time hearing you. So on the -- in the first element in terms of the consulting revenue, some of it was a function of a very strong second quarter in 2018. We also saw among some of the large national oil companies some political transitions that delayed some of the revenue that we had anticipated in the quarter. We do not think that, that was a revenue at risk but simply a delay of some of that revenue.

再說一遍，我只是——我可能——阿什什，我可能只是想弄清楚問題的第二部分。我剛才有點聽不清楚你說話。因此，就諮詢收入而言，第一個要素的部分原因是 2018 年第二季業績非常強勁。我們也發現，一些大型國家石油公司由於政治變動，導致我們預期的部分季度收入延遲。我們認為，那並非面臨收入風險，而只是部分收入的延遲到帳。

And then with regard to margin, if that was the question and the impact of the breakouts on the margin for Energy and Specialized Markets, Ashish, was that the thrust of your question?

那麼關於保證金，如果這就是問題所在，以及突破對能源和專業市場保證金的影響，Ashish，這是否是你的重點問題？

Yes. Yes. Yes. That's it.

是的。是的。是的。就是這樣。

Yes. So thanks for raising that. Within Energy and Specialized Markets, I think it's important to note that in this second quarter that a large part of the decline in the revenue, in fact, the largest single element was an FX gain adjustment, which reduced margin by approximately 2%. That's a function of the dollar-pound exchange rate and valuation of our net current assets that influenced that. And so that would -- absent that impact, which fluctuates from quarter-to-quarter, we would have had a higher margin. In addition, that margin also bears approximately the 1% impact of the timing from a compensation standpoint. So absent those 2 nonoperational elements, it reflects the operating leverage and the margin expansion that we are experiencing in the core business while at the same time investing in new initiatives like Lens and the breakout areas like subsurface, power and renewables and those elements. And so I think we feel very good. This -- the quarter, the numbers are distorted by that compensation timing issue in the FX. But overall, from a pure operating standpoint, we actually saw margin expansion.

是的。謝謝你提出這個問題。在能源和專業市場領域，我認為值得注意的是，第二季收入下降的主要原因是外匯收益調整，這導致利潤率下降了約 2%。這取決於美元兌英鎊匯率以及我們淨流動資產的估值。因此，如果沒有這種每季都會波動的影響，我們的利潤率會更高。此外，從薪酬角度來看，時間因素也會對該利潤率產生約 1% 的影響。因此，撇開這兩個非營運因素不談，它反映了我們在核心業務中正在經歷的營運槓桿和利潤率擴張，同時我們也在投資於像 Lens 這樣的新舉措以及像地下、電力和可再生能源等突破性領域。所以我覺得我們感覺非常好。本季，由於外匯市場補償時間問題，相關數據有所失真。但總體而言，從純粹的營運角度來看，我們實際上看到了利潤率的成長。

And if I may, I want to emphasize this dynamic to go back to Toni's question around the Insurance side. In each of our businesses, putting aside the FX impact as well as the timing issue, all of our Insurance businesses saw an expansion in their operating margin. And so that's the underlying operating leverage that drives our margin up. And then we are deliberately making decisions from an investment standpoint with the breakouts in terms of how much of that do we want to spend down with an overall objective of increasing that margin over time. And that's -- we think that's a very healthy dynamic. It's important for continuing investment. But it's also important to understand that absent that investment, we are seeing net operating leverage and that margin expansion improve as we grow. It's just that when you look at the net number, there are various nonoperational impacts and investment impacts that are affecting that. Does that -- hopefully, that addresses your question.

如果可以的話，我想強調一下這種動態，以便回到托尼關於保險方面的問題。在我們各項業務中，撇開匯率影響和時間因素不談，我們所有的保險業務的營業利潤率均有所成長。這就是推動我們利潤率上升的根本營運槓桿。然後，我們從投資的角度出發，有意識地做出決策，決定在突破性進展中投入多少資金，以期隨著時間的推移提高利潤率。我們認為這是一種非常健康的動態。這對持續投資至關重要。但同樣重要的是要明白，如果沒有這筆投資，隨著我們的成長，我們將看到淨經營槓桿和利潤率擴張得到改善。只是當你查看淨值時，會發現有各種非經營性影響和投資性影響在起作用。希望這樣能解答你的疑問。

There are no further questions at this time.

目前沒有其他問題了。

Okay. Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us. We've scheduled a number of follow-ups with you. We look forward to that. Thanks for your interest and talk to you soon. Have a great day.

好的。謝謝大家的參與。我們已安排與您進行多次後續跟進。我們期待著這一點。感謝您的關注，期待盡快與您聯繫。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you all. This does conclude today's conference call. You may all disconnect.

謝謝大家。今天的電話會議到此結束。你們可以斷開連結了。