Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2019 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Verisk Third Quarter 2019 Earnings Results Conference Call. My name is Jay, and I will be your conference operator for today. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 Verisk 2019 年第三季財報電話會議。我叫傑伊，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。（操作說明）

I would now like to turn the call over to Verisk's Head of Investor Relations, Ms. Stacey Brodbar, for opening remarks and introduction. Ms. Brodbar, you may begin your conference.

現在，我謹將電話轉交給 Verisk 的投資人關係主管 Stacey Brodbar 女士，請她致開幕詞並作介紹。布羅德巴女士，您可以開始您的會議了。

Thank you, Jay, and good day to everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our third quarter 2019 financial results. Today's call will be led by Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, who will provide a brief overview of the strategic direction of our business. Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer, will then provide an update on our Insurance segment. Lastly, Lee Shavel, Chief Financial Officer, will highlight some key points about our financial performance.

謝謝你，傑伊，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2019年第三季的財務表現。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，他將簡要概述我們業務的策略方向。首席營運長馬克·安奎拉雷隨後將介紹我們保險業務的最新情況。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。

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'll turn the call over to Scott.

現在我把電話交給史考特。

Thanks, Stacey. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to share that Verisk had another strong quarter of growth fueled by our market-leading innovation and continued focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience.

謝謝你，史黛西。各位早安。我很高興地宣布，Verisk 又迎來了一個強勁的成長季度，這得益於我們市場領先的創新以及對提供卓越客戶體驗的持續關注。

Verisk reported organic constant currency revenue growth of 7.6% and organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth of 7.7%. This growth was driven by strength in our Insurance segment and solid improvements in Energy and Specialized Markets.

Verisk 公佈的有機固定匯率營收成長為 7.6%，有機固定匯率調整後 EBITDA 成長為 7.7%。這一成長主要得益於保險業務的強勁表現以及能源和專業市場的穩定改善。

On the innovation front, I'm especially pleased to see strong revenue growth tied to the investments we have made in platformed analytic environments. Such environments include our visualized ClaimSearch for fraud fighting and claims adjudication, our Touchstone platform for catastrophe modeling, X1 for global property estimating, Lens for energy analytics, and our PowerAdvocate platform for adjusting and understanding supply chain costs in the energy space. These platforms take the level of intimacy with our customers and their workflows to a whole new level and deliver enhanced growth and operating leverage.

在創新方面，我特別高興地看到，我們在平台化分析環境方面的投資帶來了強勁的收入成長。這些環境包括我們用於打擊詐欺和理賠裁決的可視化 ClaimSearch、用於災害建模的 Touchstone 平台、用於全球財產估算的 X1、用於能源分析的 Lens，以及用於調整和了解能源領域供應鏈成本的 PowerAdvocate 平台。這些平台將我們與客戶及其工作流程的親密程度提升到一個全新的水平，並帶來更強的成長和營運槓桿作用。

Specifically at Wood Mackenzie, this month, we released the second module to Lens called Global Upstream Valuations, which expands screening and

具體來說，伍德麥肯茲本月發布了Lens的第二個模組，名為“全球上游估值”，該模組擴展了篩選和

valuation capabilities across the whole world.

全球估值能力。

This solution enables our customers to analyze and interact with our comprehensive global upstream data set to make faster, data-driven commercial decisions.

此解決方案使我們的客戶能夠分析和使用我們全面的全球上游資料集，從而更快地做出數據驅動的商業決策。

We continue to be encouraged by the early results of Lens, but equally important is the fact that having a new and unique product in the marketplace has really energized our sales teams. This has translated into improving sales of our core research as well as strong growth in our breakout solutions including subsurface, chemicals and the energy transition practice. Our energy transition practice was previously known as power and renewables, and this shift reflects our commitment to helping our clients cope with changes in the energy markets.

Lens 的早期成果繼續激勵著我們，但同樣重要的是，市場上出現一款全新獨特的產品確實激發了我們銷售團隊的活力。這轉化為我們核心研究的銷售成長，以及我們在地下、化學品和能源轉型實踐等突破性解決方案的強勁成長。我們的能源轉型業務以前被稱為電力和再生能源業務，這一轉變體現了我們致力於幫助客戶應對能源市場變化的承諾。

In our PowerAdvocate business, we are experiencing strong growth as we are helping our energy customers use data to more effectively spend their capital and save costs. We see opportunities to leverage the C-suite relationships from Wood Mackenzie to introduce PowerAdvocate at an enterprise-wide level and also to help bring our spend and cost solution

在我們的 PowerAdvocate 業務中，我們正經歷強勁成長，因為我們幫助能源客戶利用數據更有效地使用資金並節省成本。我們看到了利用伍德麥肯茲公司高階主管人脈關係，在企業層級推廣 PowerAdvocate 的機會，同時也看到了推廣我們支出和成本解決方案的機會。

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（技術難題）

One of my leading indicators of the health of our business is how we are doing with the new disruptive players in our verticals as well as the largest and most established players. We are doing well on both fronts. We continue to win new business with InsurTechs as they find value in our full suite of solutions, and we continue to see progress in the cross-selling of even more valuable solutions to the established leaders in all 3 of our verticals.

衡量公司業務健康狀況的主要指標之一是我們如何應對垂直領域中新興的顛覆性企業以及規模最大、最成熟的企業。我們在這兩方面都做得很好。我們不斷贏得保險科技公司的新業務，因為他們發現我們全套解決方案的價值；同時，我們也看到在向所有三個垂直領域的成熟領導者交叉銷售更有價值的解決方案方面取得進展。

I spent several weeks in Asia recently, visiting with client leaders across our verticals, from Saudi Arabia to India to Japan. What struck me was how alert the CEOs of the leading companies around the globe are to data analytic innovation and their extreme interest in Verisk solutions. We see this driving an increasing level of inquiry and a growing pipeline of opportunities for our products.

我最近在亞洲待了幾個星期，拜訪了我們各個垂直領域的客戶領導，從沙烏地阿拉伯到印度再到日本。令我印象深刻的是，全球領先企業的執行長們對數據分析創新非常敏感，並且對 Verisk 解決方案表現出極大的興趣。我們看到這將推動越來越多的諮詢量，並為我們的產品帶來越來越多的商機。

I'm also pleased with the progress we have made with respect to our infrastructure and analytic methods over the past 90 days. We continue to make steady progress in moving our computing infrastructure to the cloud. In the past, you've heard me talk about how cloud capacity grows in a linear fashion, whereas on-premise computing gets retired episodically at what I call shelves. Because of the great work of our team, we have now reached the first of those shelves and are seeing the expected efficiencies. We will continue to pursue these infrastructure improvements and savings persistently, business by business, product by product, over the next few years.

我也對我們在過去 90 天在基礎設施和分析方法方面取得的進展感到滿意。我們在將運算基礎設施遷移到雲端方面持續穩步推進。過去，你們可能聽我說過，雲端容量是線性成長的，而本地運算則是像我所說的「架子」一樣，逐步淘汰的。由於我們團隊的出色工作，我們現在已經完成了第一個貨架的搭建，並且看到了預期的效率提升。在接下來的幾年裡，我們將繼續堅持不懈地推動這些基礎設施改善和成本節約，逐一業務、逐個產品地推進。

The global expansion of our data science team is coming along nicely, and we are delighted with the quality and capacity of our emerging data science team in Kraków. We are now out in the market with industry-standard insurance solutions that incorporate machine-learned methodologies, which take the world of regulatory-ready methods to a whole new level.

我們數據科學團隊的全球擴張進展順利，我們對克拉科夫新興數據科學團隊的素質和能力感到非常滿意。我們現在已經推出了符合業界標準的保險解決方案，這些解決方案融合了機器學習方法，將符合監管要求的方法提升到了一個全新的水平。

On the strategic acquisition front, our focus continues to be on adding valuable data sets within our existing verticals that can be leveraged across our enterprise to drive high returns on capital. Genscape and BuildFax represent opportunities to both extend their businesses and enhance our existing products and relationships.

在策略性收購方面，我們的重點仍然是在我們現有的垂直領域內增加有價值的數據集，這些數據集可以在整個企業範圍內加以利用，從而推動高資本回報率。Genscape 和 BuildFax 為我們提供了拓展業務、增強現有產品和建立合作關係的機會。

Genscape is a market leader in sensed data for the power, oil and gas and maritime end markets. Genscape uses a network of sensors to gather proprietary data that is real- or near-real-time. We believe we can create value by combining Genscape's real-time short-term data set with WoodMac's longer-term asset valuation data sets. We plan to develop new analytics solutions based on these combined data sets and ultimately see the data set incorporated into the Lens platform so that it can be seamlessly integrated into customers' workflows. We also see opportunities to cross-sell and expand into new client segments as there is limited customer overlap. Ultimately, we believe that Genscape, as a part of WoodMac, will bolster our journey as the energy mix shifts toward more of a balance between molecule-based and electron-based.

Genscape 是電力、石油天然氣和海事終端市場感知資料領域的市場領導者。Genscape 使用感測器網路收集即時或近乎即時的專有數據。我們相信，將 Genscape 的即時短期數據集與 WoodMac 的長期資產估值數據集相結合，可以創造價值。我們計劃基於這些組合資料集開發新的分析解決方案，並最終將該資料集整合到 Lens 平台中，以便無縫整合到客戶的工作流程中。由於客戶重疊度有限，我們也看到了交叉銷售和擴展新客戶群的機會。最終，我們相信，作為 WoodMac 的一部分，Genscape 將協助我們實現能源結構朝向分子能源和電子能源更加平衡的方向發展。

BuildFax is a leading provider of proprietary condition and history data with a blue-chip customer base that is now part of our ISO underwriting business. We are excited to incorporate BuildFax's data to enhance our existing property data and analytics solutions and see opportunities to develop new solutions as we partner with our Insurance customers to help them drive their underwriting process to become quicker and more precise. We also see real opportunity to expand distribution and cross-sell BuildFax's core products across our customer base.

BuildFax 是一家領先的專有狀況和歷史數據提供商，擁有藍籌客戶群，現在已成為我們 ISO 承保業務的一部分。我們很高興能夠整合 BuildFax 的數據，以增強我們現有的房地產數據和分析解決方案，並看到與保險客戶合作開發新解決方案的機會，幫助他們加快承保流程，使其更加精準。我們也看到了擴大分銷管道、向我們的客戶群交叉銷售 BuildFax 核心產品的真正機會。

Finally, I'd like to take a minute to clarify developments in the imaging space. In connection with the jury verdict and associated injunction related to the Geomni roof report business, we have recorded a $125 million legal reserve. We were disappointed in the verdict and plan to appeal once we receive final judgment.

最後，我想花一點時間來闡明成像​​領域的發展。針對與 Geomni 屋頂報告業務相關的陪審團裁決和相關禁令，我們已提列 1.25 億美元的法律準備金。我們對判決結果感到失望，並計劃在收到最終判決書後提起上訴。

With respect to the current operations, the ruling pertains to only some of what we do in our Geomni unit, and our roof report business represents about 1% of our annual revenues. We are energetically working to develop a non-infringing alternative method to the current technology. We are also working toward adjusting the cost structure over the next few quarters in light of the injunction. To that end, we are taking aggressive steps to minimize the negative impact on profitability and cash flow of the roughly $7 million in lost quarterly revenue and should see sequential progress over the next several quarters.

就目前的營運而言，該裁決僅涉及我們 Geomni 部門的部分業務，而我們的屋頂報告業務約占我們年收入的 1%。我們正在積極努力開發一種不侵犯現有技術的替代方法。鑑於禁令的影響，我們也正在努力調整未來幾季的成本結構。為此，我們正在採取積極措施，盡量減少季度收入損失約 700 萬美元對獲利能力和現金流的負面影響，並應在接下來的幾個季度中看到逐步改善。

Perhaps the most important thing to note about our imagery business is the asset we have built in our image library and our image capture program. We now have a distinctive data asset on a national scale. We continue to believe strongly that the combination of automated measurement through remote imagery and automated estimation can create great value for our Insurance customers, for Verisk and for our shareholders, and remain committed to and as excited about these technologies as ever.

關於我們的影像業務，最值得注意的是我們在影像庫和影像擷取程式中建立的資產。我們現在擁有了一項全國範圍內的獨特數據資產。我們仍然堅信，透過遠端影像進行自動測量和自動估算相結合，可以為我們的保險客戶、Verisk 和我們的股東創造巨大價值，我們將繼續致力於這些技術，並像以往一樣對這些技術充滿熱情。

Having gone through a number of specifics, let me give you my overall assessment of where we stand. Our verticals are in great shape with the notable achievement of Energy and Specialized Markets exceeding Insurance's organic growth rate for the first time, thus expanding our sticky recurrent subscription revenues.

在討論了一些具體細節之後，讓我來對我們所處的現狀做一個總體評估。我們的垂直業務發展勢頭良好，其中能源和專業市場業務首次超過了保險業務的自然增長率，從而擴大了我們穩定的經常性訂閱收入。

Our technical infrastructure is becoming more efficient in real-time, and the technical talent of our team has grown through tapping new talent sources. We've supplemented our data sets with 2 acquisitions that we can leverage across our enterprise. While we have lost the contribution to revenue growth provided by 1% of our revenue, we exit the quarter stronger than we entered it.

我們的技術基礎設施正在即時變得更加高效，透過挖掘新的人才來源，我們團隊的技術人才也得到了提升。我們透過兩項收購補充了我們的資料集，這些資料集可以在整個企業範圍內加以利用。雖然我們失去了佔營收 1% 的營收成長貢獻，但我們本季末的業績比季度初更加強勁。

And now I'll turn the call over to Mark to provide some insights on our Insurance segment.

現在我將把電話交給馬克，讓他為我們介紹我們的保險業務部門。

Thank you, Scott. I'm pleased to share with you that we had another strong quarter in Insurance, with all businesses contributing to growth. Organic constant currency revenue growth of 7.7% was fueled by market-leading innovation and enhanced customer engagement. Our retention rates remain very high as we continue to focus on getting close to our customers and delivering a best-in-class customer service experience.

謝謝你，斯科特。我很高興地告訴大家，我們的保險業務又迎來了一個強勁的季度，所有業務都為成長做出了貢獻。以市場領先的創新和增強的客戶互動為動力，有機收入按固定匯率計算增長了 7.7%。我們始終致力於拉近與客戶的距離，並提供一流的客戶服務體驗，因此我們的客戶留存率一直非常高。

During the quarter, underwriting and rating delivered strong organic constant currency revenue growth across both personal and commercial lines underwriting, extreme event modeling and industry-standard insurance programs. We continue to see great success in market share gains in personal lines due to the strong sales of our LightSpeed Auto suite of products. We're excited about the new sales and growing pipeline for our data-forward LightSpeed platform extended into small commercial and personal property.

本季度，承保和評級業務在個人和商業險承保、極端事件建模和行業標準保險計劃方面均實現了強勁的有機固定匯率收入增長。由於我們的 LightSpeed Auto 系列產品銷售強勁，我們在個人保險市場份額方面繼續取得巨大成功。我們很高興看到我們以數據為導向的 LightSpeed 平台擴展到小型商業和個人財產領域，並取得了新的銷售業績和不斷增長的銷售管道。

In the industry standard insurance programs, we're experiencing growth in customer accounts. We've had success winning engagements with new start-ups and InsurTechs. In extreme event modeling, we're experiencing solid demand for our detailed models driven by signings with new clients as well as expanding relationships with existing clients. We're also seeing increased interest in some of our newer solutions, including our global resilience practice, which works with governments and NGOs.

在行業標準保險項目中，我們的客戶帳戶數量正在成長。我們已成功贏得與新興創業公司和保險科技公司的合作。在極端事件建模領域，由於與新客戶簽約以及與現有客戶關係的擴大，我們對詳細模型的需求十分強勁。我們也看到人們對我們的一些新解決方案越來越感興趣，包括我們的全球韌性實踐，該實踐與各國政府和非政府組織合作。

During the quarter, we hosted several successful seminars for our catastrophe modeling business in Auckland, Sydney, London and Zurich that touched more than 350 clients and prospects. And in October, we hosted Verisk Velocity, our signature event for underwriting and rating. The event focused on the future of the insurance industry with an eye towards digitization and automation of the insurance process. The conference attendance increased 46% versus last year as we attracted attendees from 130 insurance companies from around the world. Feedback was positive from participants, [who were] excited about the direction of our new solutions and our thought leadership in the property and casualty insurance industry. The agenda featured presentations and panel discussions by industry-thought leaders and allowed Verisk to showcase our latest pipeline InsurTech solution.

本季度，我們在奧克蘭、雪梨、倫敦和蘇黎世為我們的災害建模業務舉辦了多場成功的研討會，吸引了超過 350 位客戶和潛在客戶。10 月份，我們舉辦了 Verisk Velocity，這是我們針對承保和評級的標誌性活動。本次活動聚焦於保險業的未來，著眼於保險流程的數位化和自動化。與去年相比，本次會議出席人數增加了 46%，我們吸引了來自世界各地 130 家保險公司的與會者。參與者的回饋是積極的，他們對我們的新解決方案的方向以及我們在財產和意外保險行業的思想領導感到興奮。議程包括行業思想領袖的演講和小組討論，並讓 Verisk 展示了我們最新的管道保險科技解決方案。

In fact, our customers are telling us that they look to Verisk to drive forward the innovation agenda because we not only develop leading solutions, but we can back them up with financial strength and a long and stable operating history.

事實上，我們的客戶告訴我們，他們希望 Verisk 能夠推動創新議程，因為我們不僅開發領先的解決方案，而且還能以雄厚的財力和長期穩定的營運歷史為這些解決方案提供支援。

The claims business also delivered solid growth with contributions from claims analytics, repair cost estimating, remote imagery and our international businesses. As Scott mentioned, we're seeing nice success with our visualized ClaimSearch platform, which is delivering significant growth in usage and positive sentiment from customers. The platform offers customers improvements like real-time analytics, improved security and privacy protection, fast delivery and is seamlessly integrated into workflows and claim systems.

理賠業務也實現了穩健成長，這得益於理賠分析、維修成本估算、遠端影像處理以及我們的國際業務的貢獻。正如 Scott 所提到的，我們的視覺化 ClaimSearch 平台取得了不錯的成功，使用量顯著成長，客戶也給予了正面的評價。該平台為客戶提供即時分析、增強的安全性和隱私保護、快速交付等改進，並可無縫整合到工作流程和索賠系統中。

On the international side, we're seeing solid growth from recent acquisitions like Validus in claims subrogation solution, and ENI in claims automation and fraud detection solution. They're now part of our organic

在國際方面，我們看到近期收購帶來了穩健的成長，例如在索賠代位求償解決方案領域收購 Validus，以及在索賠自動化和詐欺檢測解決方案領域收購 ENI。它們現在是我們有機產品的一部分。

(technical difficulty)

（技術難題）

A steady stream of first-to-market innovations is 1 of the 4 distinctives [at Verisk] and also a key driver of our growth. In the quarter, we announced several exciting new initiatives, including the launch of our Sequel product suite in the U.S. The early feedback from the market is positive, and the pipeline of interest from among our specialty commercial customers is robust.

不斷推出率先上市的創新產品是 Verisk 的四大特色之一，也是我們成長的關鍵驅動力。本季度，我們宣布了幾項令人興奮的新舉措，包括在美國推出我們的 Sequel 產品套件。來自市場的早期回饋是正面的，我們專業商業客戶的購買意願也很強勁。

We also announced solutions and new partnerships within the life insurance market. These solutions utilize the most advanced data analytic methods, including advanced voice analytics, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and will enable Verisk to develop new benchmarking, risk-scoring solutions that can help life insurers on direct policies and manage portfolio risk with increased speed and precision.

我們也宣布了人壽保險市場的解決方案和新的合作夥伴關係。這些解決方案利用了最先進的數據分析方法，包括高級語音分析、人工智慧、自然語言處理，並將使 Verisk 能夠開發新的基準測試、風險評分解決方案，從而幫助人壽保險公司處理直接保單，並以更高的速度和精度管理投資組合風險。

With that, let me now turn it over to Lee to cover the financial results.

接下來，我將把發言權交給李，讓他來介紹財務表現。

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

謝謝你，馬克。首先，我想提醒大家，我們已經在網站上發布了季度財報。本次簡報提供了背景資訊、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 GAAP basis, revenue grew 9% to $653 million. In the current quarter, we incurred some significant nonoperating expenses including, firstly, the $125 million litigation reserve related to our remote imagery business; secondly, $29 million in acquisition-related earn-out expenses, as many of our acquisitions are on target to achieve payments for exceptional performance; and thirdly, a $6 million loss generated from the sale of our retail analytics solutions business, which was previously part of our Financial Services segment. In light of these expenses, net income and diluted GAAP EPS decreased approximately 80% to $33 million and $0.20 per share, respectively.

接下來來看看本季的財務業績。以合併及GAAP準則計算，營收成長9%至6.53億美元。本季度，我們產生了一些重大的非經營性支出，包括：首先，與我們的遠端影像業務相關的 1.25 億美元訴訟準備金；其次，2,900 萬美元的收購相關或有收益支出，因為我們的許多收購項目都有望實現業績優異的付款；第三，出售我們零售分析解決方案業務（該損業務之前是我們金融服務部門的一部分虧損。鑑於這些支出，淨收入和稀釋後的 GAAP 每股收益分別下降了約 80%，至 3,300 萬美元和每股 0.20 美元。

Moving to our organic constant currency results, adjusted for nonoperating items, including currency fluctuations; acquisitions for which we don't have full year-over-year comparisons; acquisition-related costs, including earn-outs, dispositions and nonrecurring items, including the litigation reserve, we believe our operating performance remains solid. On an organic constant currency basis, Verisk delivered revenue growth of 7.6% in the third quarter of 2019, reflecting organic growth across all 3 segments and delivering on our long-term target of 7% growth. Of our 3 segments, Energy and Specialized Markets recorded the fastest growth, while Insurance also delivered solid results. This was offset in part by softer growth within Financial Services.

考慮到非經營性項目（包括匯率波動）、收購（我們沒有完整的同比數據）、收購相關成本（包括或有收益、處置和非經常性項目，包括訴訟準備金）等因素，我們認為，我們按固定匯率計算的有機增長業績仍然穩健。以有機固定匯率計算，Verisk 在 2019 年第三季實現了 7.6% 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。在我們三大業務部門中，能源和專業市場板塊成長最快，保險板塊也取得了穩健的表現。金融服務業成長放緩，部分抵銷了上述成長。

Organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth was 7.7%, demonstrating organic constant currency margin expansion while also continuing to invest in future growth opportunities within our business.

以固定匯率調整後的有機 EBITDA 成長率為 7.7%，顯示有機固定匯率利潤率有所擴張，同時我們也繼續投資於業務的未來成長機會。

Total adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 47.4%, flat with the prior year period. This total adjusted EBITDA margin includes both organic and inorganic revenue and EBITDA. Acquisitions decreased total adjusted EBITDA margin by approximately 30 basis points in the period. On an organic basis, and particularly on the pre-investment organic basis that we've discussed before, we saw a margin expansion, demonstrating the exceptional operating leverage at the core of our businesses.

本季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 47.4%，與去年同期持平。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 30 個基點。從有機成長的角度來看，特別是從我們之前討論過的投資前有機成長的角度來看，我們看到了利潤率的擴張，這表明我們業務的核心具有卓越的營運槓桿作用。

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 7.7% revenue growth, while adjusted EBITDA increased 7.9%. Within our underwriting and rating business, growth was very broad across our solution sets in personal lines and commercial lines. We saw healthy growth in our industry standard insurance programs, LightSpeed Auto suite of products, property-specific underwriting and catastrophe modeling solutions revenue. We also had positive contributions from our international business.

接下來，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7.7%，調整後EBITDA成長7.9%。在我們的承保和評級業務中，個人保險和商業保險的各個解決方案組合都實現了非常廣泛的成長。我們的行業標準保險計劃、LightSpeed Auto 系列產品、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。我們的國際業務也做出了積極貢獻。

Within claims, the strong growth was driven by solid performance in claims analytics, repair cost estimating solutions, remote imagery solutions and in our international markets. Total adjusted EBITDA margin declined 25 basis points to 53.1% from 53.3% in the prior year period, reflecting leverage in our core business more than offset by investment in future growth opportunities and acquisitions.

在理賠業務方面，強勁的成長得益於理賠分析、維修成本估算解決方案、遠端影像解決方案以及國際市場的穩健表現。經調整的 EBITDA 利潤率從去年同期的 53.3% 下降 25 個基點至 53.1%，反映出我們核心業務的槓桿作用被對未來成長機會和收購的投資所抵消。

Our fastest-growing segment was Energy and Specialized Markets, which delivered revenue growth of 8.7% for the quarter, representing record growth for that segment. Strong growth in market and cost intelligence solutions as well as noted improvement in our core research and consulting revenues drove the growth. Despite volatility in the oil price and recent geopolitical events in the quarter, we continue to see a stable macro environment and are capitalizing on that with new and innovative platforms that help our customers more efficiently drive revenue growth and deliver cost savings. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10.9%, reflecting leverage on solid sales balanced with ongoing investments in breakout opportunities like Lens and our chemicals, subsurface and energy transition practice.

我們成長最快的業務部門是能源和專業市場板塊，本季營收成長了 8.7%，創下該板塊的歷史新高。市場和成本情報解決方案的強勁成長，以及核心研究和諮詢收入的顯著改善，推動了成長。儘管本季油價波動，且近期地緣政治事件頻繁，但我們仍然看到宏觀環境穩定，並正利用這一優勢，透過創新平台幫助客戶更有效地推動收入成長並節省成本。調整後 EBITDA 成長 10.9%，這反映了穩健銷售帶來的槓桿效應，以及對 Lens 等突破性機會和我們的化學、地下及能源轉型業務的持續投資。

Total adjusted EBITDA margin grew to 33.3% from 31.7%. Financial Services revenue increased 2.7% in the quarter, led by solid growth in enterprise data management and fraud and credit risk management solutions. This was offset in part by decreases in portfolio management from nonrecurring consulting revenues as well as some pushouts of certain projects. Adjusted EBITDA decreased 3.5%, and total adjusted EBITDA margin decreased to 32.8% from 35.5%.

調整後 EBITDA 利潤率從 31.7% 成長至 33.3%。本季金融服務收入成長 2.7%，主要得益於企業資料管理以及詐欺和信用風險管理解決方案的穩健成長。部分損失被非經常性諮詢收入的投資組合管理減少以及某些項目的延期所抵消。調整後 EBITDA 下降 3.5%，調整後 EBITDA 總利潤率從 35.5% 下降至 32.8%。

We have discussed previously the journey we are on to transition this business from a top-down orientation to a bottoms-up approach with an emphasis on steady growth. Change at scale is never linear, and as we work through this process, we will continue to see quarterly fluctuations on revenue and growth which are higher than in our other business segments. That said, we are confident in the long-term potential of Financial Services as we set the business up on a stronger foundation.

我們之前討論過，我們正在努力將這項業務從自上而下的模式轉變為自下而上的方法，重點是穩步成長。大規模的變革從來都不是線性的，在我們推進這個過程的過程中，我們將繼續看到季度收入和成長的波動，這些波動幅度將高於我們其他業務部門。儘管如此，我們對金融服務的長期潛力充滿信心，因為我們正在為這項業務奠定更堅實的基礎。

In the third quarter of 2019, the company completed an additional $200 million issuance of our 4 1/8 percentage senior notes due 2029 at an issuance price of 110.9% for an effective yield of 2.78%. The company also entered into a fourth amendment to our revolving credit facility, which reduced the borrowing capacity to $1 billion from $1.5 billion, extended the maturity date to August 15, 2024, and amended the pricing grid with lower rates and improved economics.

2019 年第三季度，公司以 110.9% 的發行價完成了 2 億美元的 4 1/8% 優先票據的額外發行，該票據將於 2029 年到期，實際收益率為 2.78%。該公司還對我們的循環信貸安排進行了第四次修訂，將借款額度從 15 億美元減少到 10 億美元，將到期日延長至 2024 年 8 月 15 日，並修改了定價表，降低了利率，提高了經濟效益。

Reported interest expense was $31 million in the quarter, down 3.2% from the prior year quarter due to the net repayments of our revolving credit facility. Total reported debt was $2.7 billion at September 30, unchanged from the year-end of 2018. Our leverage at the end of the quarter -- of the third quarter 2019 was 2.4x. Our consolidated cash and cash equivalents were $312 million at September 30, 2019. Our reported effective tax rate was 15.5% for the quarter compared to 13.9% in the prior year quarter primarily due to the impact of a lower level of option exercises and nondeductible earn-out expenses in the current period. We maintain our estimate of our effective tax rate in the full year 2019 to be between 19% and 21%.

本季度報告的利息支出為 3,100 萬美元，比上年同期下降 3.2%，原因是循環信貸額度的淨償還。截至9月30日，報告債務總額為27億美元，與2018年底持平。截至 2019 年第三季末，我們的槓桿率為 2.4 倍。截至 2019 年 9 月 30 日，我們的合併現金及現金等價物為 3.12 億美元。本季度報告的實際稅率為 15.5%，而上年同期為 13.9%，主要是由於本期選擇權行使和不可抵扣的盈利支付支出水準較低所致。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 $186 million and diluted adjusted EPS was $1.12 for the third quarter, up 2.6% and 3.7%, respectively. This increase reflects organic growth in the business, contributions from acquisitions and 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.

第三季調整後淨收入為 1.86 億美元，稀釋後調整每股收益為 1.12 美元，分別成長 2.6% 和 3.7%。這一增長反映了業務的內生增長、收購帶來的貢獻以及利息支出和流通股數量的減少。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 $214 million for the quarter, down 5.7% from the prior year. Net cash provided by operating activities was $780 million year-to-date, up 2.5% from the prior year. Capital expenditures were $61 million for the quarter, up 10.1% from the prior year, and CapEx represented 9.3% of total revenue in the quarter. We now expect capital expenditures to come in at the low end of the $220 million to $240 million range we provided for 2019.

本季經營活動產生的淨現金流為 2.14 億美元，較上年同期下降 5.7%。今年迄今為止，經營活動產生的淨現金流為 7.8 億美元，比去年同期成長 2.5%。本季資本支出為 6,100 萬美元，比上年同期成長 10.1%，資本支出佔本季總收入的 9.3%。我們現在預計資本支出將處於我們先前預測的 2019 年 2.2 億美元至 2.4 億美元區間的低端。

Free cash flow was $153 million for the quarter, a decrease of 10.8% from the prior year primarily due to higher income tax payments associated with a lower level of option exercises and timing differences related to the payment of certain expenses. Free cash flow was $627 million year-to-date, an increase of 3.4% from the prior year.

本季自由現金流為 1.53 億美元，比上年同期下降 10.8%，主要原因是選擇權行使量減少導致所得稅支出增加，以及與支付某些費用相關的時差。今年迄今的自由現金流為 6.27 億美元，比上年增長 3.4%。

During the third quarter, we returned $116 million in capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. We repurchased approximately 491,000 shares at a weighted average price of $152.84 for a total cost of $75 million. At September 30, we had $228 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. In addition, we initiated a new $50 million accelerated share repurchase to be executed in the fourth quarter.

第三季度，我們透過股票回購和分紅向股東返還了 1.16 億美元的資本。我們以每股 152.84 美元的加權平均價格回購了約 491,000 股股票，總成本為 7,500 萬美元。截至9月30日，我們的股票回購授權額度還剩2.28億美元。此外，我們啟動了一項新的 5,000 萬美元加速股票回購計劃，將於第四季度執行。

And on September 30, we paid a cash dividend of $0.25 per share of common stock. And on October 23 of this year, our Board of Directors approved a cash dividend of $0.25 per share of common stock payable on December 31, 2019, for shareholders of record on December 13, 2019. 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.

9月30日，我們向每股普通股支付了0.25美元的現金股利。今年 10 月 23 日，我們的董事會批准向 2019 年 12 月 13 日登記在冊的股東派發現金股息，每股普通股派發 0.25 美元，將於 2019 年 12 月 31 日支付。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。

We continue to appreciate all the support and interest in Verisk.

我們衷心感謝大家對 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 Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik.

（操作說明）我們的第一個問題來自馬納夫·帕特奈克。

My first question is just broadly around innovation and, I guess, the existing contribution from those products. You mentioned a lot on the call today. And I think recently, you launched the [cyber] data exchange, [court side], et cetera, et cetera. Is there any way to parse out like how much of the last several years of innovation is contributing to the revenue growth today?

我的第一個問題主要圍繞著創新展開，我想也想了解這些產品目前所做的貢獻。你今天在電話會議上提到了很多內容。而且我認為最近，你們啟動了[網路]資料交換，[法庭方面]等等。有沒有辦法分析過去幾年的創新對如今的營收成長究竟貢獻了多少？

It's kind of hard to separate the effects, Manav, and the reason is that some of the innovation shows up as an entirely unique product with a very discrete revenue stream, but it also shows up as increased penetration of an existing product or price realization related to an existing product. So it actually shows up in several places, and an example of that would be the Lens platform, which is supportive of the whole suite of WoodMac solutions, but also represents a discrete revenue stream in and of itself.

馬納夫，很難將這些影響分開來看，原因是有些創新表現為具有非常獨立的收入來源的完全獨特的產品，但有些創新則表現為現有產品的滲透率提高或與現有產品相關的價格實現。因此，它實際上出現在多個地方，例如 Lens 平台，它不僅支援 WoodMac 的整套解決方案，而且本身也代表著一個獨立的收入來源。

Next question comes from the line of Toni Kaplan.

下一個問題來自東尼卡普蘭。

Scott, you discussed the impact of the litigation with regard to Geomni. But could you just give us a sense of if you feel the future opportunity is reduced? Or -- I know you mentioned you're trying to find non-infringing ways to address the roofing opportunity. But are you shifting some focus to the non-roofing opportunities? Or just, I guess, how should we think about the future here?

Scott，你討論了訴訟對Geomni的影響。但您能否簡單談談您是否認為未來的機會減少了？或者——我知道你提到你正在嘗試尋找不侵權的方式來解決屋頂改造方面的問題。但您是否正在將部分精力轉移到非屋頂工程領域？或者說，我們該如何看待未來呢？

So we've always been interested in remote imagery for a whole variety of reasons, and actually, those reasons relate to use cases which are even beyond the insurance vertical, and we're energetically pursuing those as well. So first of all, by way of context, what we do is a lot more than just roof reporting, and we remain very interested in the category. We think that imaging remotely and then being able to, in a very automated way, translate what you've seen with the sensor is just -- that's an important technology for the world going forward, and we're intending to participate in it. We have participated in it, and there are a number of ways to monetize the imagery itself. And so no, I don't think that our opportunity is -- we don't see it any differently than we did.

因此，出於各種原因，我們一直對遙感影像很感興趣，實際上，這些原因甚至與保險業以外的用例有關，我們也正在積極地追求這些用例。首先，從背景上來說，我們所做的遠不止是屋頂報告，但我們仍然對這個領域非常感興趣。我們認為，遠端成像，然後以高度自動化的方式將感測器所看到的內容進行轉換，這對於未來的世界來說是一項重要的技術，我們打算參與其中。我們已經參與其中，並且有很多方法可以將圖像本身貨幣化。所以，不，我不認為我們的機會是——我們看待它的方式和以前沒有任何不同。

Next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra.

下一個問題來自 Ashish Sabadra 的提問。

Can you just help size the annualized revenues for the 2 acquisitions, Genscape and BuildFax? And then also just talk about the historic growth and margin profile for these 2 acquisitions.

能否幫忙估算一下 Genscape 和 BuildFax 這兩家收購公司的年化收入？然後還可以談談這兩項收購的歷史成長和利潤率情況。

Yes. Ashish, thanks for the question. We haven't broken out the revenues for those acquisitions separately. It will become organic. We're still closing Genscape and expect that within the next couple of weeks. But I would expect for the organic components to become incorporated in the fourth quarter results, where you begin to get some sense of the scale of that.

是的。阿什什，謝謝你的提問。我們尚未單獨列出這些收購的收入。它會變成有機物。我們仍在關閉 Genscape 項目，預計在未來幾週內完成。但我預期有機成長的成分會反映在第四季的業績中，屆時你就能開始感受到其規模了。

Next question comes from the line of Andrew Nicholas.

下一個問題來自安德魯·尼古拉斯。

Just wanted to stick with the Genscape acquisition. I was -- I know you guys gave some good color in your remarks, and I appreciate that. But I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the product set, how it's complementary to your existing business, potentially with an example. And then any synergies we can think about in pairing that with the Verisk business as it stands today?

我只是想堅持收購 Genscape 的結論。我知道你們的發言很有見地，我很感激。但我很想知道您能否再詳細談談產品組合，以及它如何與您現有的業務互補，最好能舉個例子。那麼，我們可以考慮將它與 Verisk 目前的業務結合起來，產生哪些協同效應呢？

Sure. So first of all, just -- I want to make sure everybody understands the breadth of what we do in the energy space. So we work with oil and gas companies on a global basis. We work with those who are producing the alternatives in terms of the renewables, and we also work with electric utilities. So I wanted to say all of that to say that the way that the Genscape business got built was by creating sensors which actually talk about real-time flows in those ecosystems. So for example, there are sensors that are literally measuring the amount of current running through the transmission line. There are sensors which are literally metering the flow of liquefied natural gas, for example. And these real-time data sets, we think, are very complementary to the data sets we've already got.

當然。首先，我想確保每個人都了解我們在能源領域所做工作的廣度。因此，我們與全球各地的石油和天然氣公司合作。我們與那些生產再生能源替代方案的企業合作，也與電力公司合作。所以我想說的是，Genscape 的業務發展方式是透過創建感測器來即時反映這些生態系統中的流量。例如，有些感測器可以實際測量流經傳輸線的電流大小。例如，有些感測器可以精確計量液化天然氣的流量。我們認為，這些即時資料集與我們已有的資料集非常互補。

So in what we do with Wood Mackenzie, we have really good granular operating data, for example, from the wellhead. But it's not as real-time as these other data sets that we're talking about. So now what we'll be able to do is to pull those 2 data sets together and provide even more of a perspective about what's happening, commodity by commodity, location by location. And we just know that that's going to be valuable for our customers.

因此，在與 Wood Mackenzie 的合作中，我們擁有非常好的細粒度操作數據，例如來自井口的數據。但它不像我們正在討論的其他數據集那樣是即時的。現在我們可以將這兩個資料集整合在一起，從而更全面地了解正在發生的事情，逐個商品、逐個地點地進行分析。我們知道這對我們的客戶來說很有價值。

Next question comes from the line of Gary Bisbee.

下一個問題來自 Gary Bisbee 的提問。

So Scott, you've been talking for a while now, probably a couple of years, about just the work you're doing with your technology infrastructure, moving where appropriate to the cloud. You've also alluded to some efficiencies there and, obviously, a lot of discussion of innovation. So can you just take a step back for us and talk about how you see the cloud and where you are in the process, number one; number two, what you see as the long-term opportunity? As I'm sure you're aware, a number of your information services competitors have planned for or have actually proven out meaningful cost saves, but also have seen the ability to accelerate their innovation efforts by getting more of their data into the cloud and hooking customers into that. So are you on that same path? Do you see those same opportunities? And where exactly are you today?

史考特，你已經談論了一段時間了，可能好幾年了，關於你在技術基礎設施方面所做的工作，以及在適當的時候遷移到雲端。您也提到了一些提高效率的措施，顯然，還有很多關於創新的討論。那麼，您能否先退一步，談談您對雲端運算的看法以及您目前所處的階段；其次，您認為雲端運算的長期機會是什麼？我相信您也知道，您的許多資訊服務競爭對手已經計劃或已經實際證明了可以顯著節省成本，同時也看到了透過將更多資料遷移到雲端並吸引客戶來加速創新進程的能力。所以你也在走這條路嗎？你也看到這些機會了嗎？你今天具體在哪裡？

Yes. So we -- yes, I mean, so you really had there, Gary, the 2 categories of benefit that arise from rotating our infrastructure into the cloud. So one of them has to do with agility, and that has to do with, we can compute anywhere around the world, literally, by going to our, say, AWS dashboard and turning on new servers. It's that easy and it's that fast.

是的。所以——是的，我的意思是，Gary，你確實提到了將我們的基礎設施遷移到雲端所帶來的兩類好處。其中之一與敏捷性有關，這意味著我們可以在世界任何地方進行運算，只需存取我們的 AWS 控制面板並啟動新伺服器即可。就是這麼簡單快速。

So the ability to spin up new products. I would also say that our customers are increasingly interested in being able to interact with what we provide in a whole variety of ways. To the extent that what they're interested in is the sort of API-on-demand kind of approach, then being already platformed in the cloud just makes it even that easier for them to attach to it. So you've got all those benefits and then you've got cost benefits. And so we're very much in pursuit of both of those.

因此，具備快速推出新產品的能力。我還想說，我們的客戶越來越有興趣以各種各樣的方式與我們提供的產品或服務互動。如果他們感興趣的是按需 API 之類的方案，那麼已經建立在雲端的平台就讓他們更容易存取。所以，你不僅能獲得所有這些好處，還能獲得成本效益。因此，我們正在全力以赴地追求這兩個目標。

With respect to where we are in the journey, so you're right. We've been talking about it for a couple of years. It's a lot of heavy lifting, and it does play out over time. So what I said in my remarks earlier is we've reached the first shelf. So we've seen the first return of efficiency on the investments we've been making in moving to the cloud. There will be several more shelves over the course of the next couple of years. And so we feel very good about where we are.

就我們目前所處的階段而言，你是對的。我們已經討論這個問題好幾年了。這需要付出很多努力，而且需要時間才能見效。正如我之前所說，我們已經到達了第一層架子。因此，我們已經看到了在遷移到雲端方面所做投資的初步效率回報。未來幾年內還會增加幾個貨架。因此，我們對目前的狀況感到非常滿意。

I'll just say that we have a very close relationship with one of the cloud providers. We've just found it logical and convenient to sort of dig in, especially with one of them. And they give us a lot of feedback that says that we're actually in advanced implementation of cloud computing at the scale that we're doing it. So we -- there's a -- we still have a good distance to go. Actually, I look forward to the next shelves. But in the meantime, I'm very pleased with the work that our team is doing.

我只想說，我們與其中一家雲端服務供應商關係非常密切。我們發現深入研究一下，尤其是和其中一人深入研究，既合乎邏輯又很方便。他們給了我們很多回饋，表明我們目前所採用的雲端運算規模實際上已經達到了高級水準。所以，我們──還有很長的路要走。其實，我很期待下一批貨架。但同時，我對我們團隊的工作非常滿意。

And Gary, this is Lee. Just to supplement that a bit. And one thing that I want to make certain that everyone understands is that this is a discipline and a process. It's not a monolithic project where you do everything at once. You literally have hundreds of individual products that need to be -- the data sets, the applications need to be moved to the cloud. The code needs to be optimized for the cloud. And so it is an ongoing process.

加里，這位是李。補充一點。我想確保每個人都明白，這是一門學科，也是一個過程。這不是一個需要一次性完成所有事情的單一項目。您實際上有數百個單獨的產品需要遷移——資料集、應用程式都需要遷移到雲端。程式碼需要針對雲端進行最佳化。所以這是一個持續的過程。

What I can assure you is that the economics are very good, both from an OpEx standpoint and from a CapEx standpoint. We are taking this with some kind of key projects that we've demonstrated what we can accomplish, and that's guiding us in the future projects ahead. So we think this will be a very clear uplift for us from a capital efficiency and from a margin perspective that will factor into our ability to further enhance our operating leverage across the business. But I want to make sure that everyone has an appreciation. This is something that you literally have to go product by product in order to make sure that you're fully realizing the potential.

我可以向你保證的是，無論從營運支出或資本支出的角度來看，經濟效益都非常好。我們正在推進一些關鍵項目，這些項目已經證明了我們能夠取得的成就，並將指導我們未來的項目。因此，我們認為這將從資本效率和利潤率的角度為我們帶來非常明顯的提升，這將有助於我們進一步提高整個業務的營運槓桿。但我希望確保每個人都能心存感激。這需要你逐一產品進行評估，才能確保你充分發揮其潛力。

Next question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler.

下一個問題來自 Jeff Meuler。

I wanted to ask about Energy and Specialized Markets and just make sure I'm not missing anything, but it feels like the phrase solid improvement is underselling how good the numbers look to me. And when you describe it, I hear a lot of positive factors that sound recurring with, I guess, PowerAdvocate, cross-selling, the improvement in research and consulting and the Lens benefits. So is there any significant onetime revenue from consulting? Or I don't know if there's PowerAdvocate success fees or anything like that in the quarter. Or -- just curious on kind of the way you're characterizing the performance of that business.

我想問一下能源和專業市場的情況，也想確認一下我是否遺漏了什麼，但我覺得「穩定改善」這個詞不足以形容這些數字在我看來有多好。當你描述它時，我聽到了很多積極的因素，這些因素似乎與 PowerAdvocate、交叉銷售、研究和諮詢的改進以及 Lens 的優勢反覆出現。那麼諮詢服務是否有任何可觀的一次性收入？或者我不知道這個季度是否有 PowerAdvocate 的成功費或其他類似費用。或者——我只是好奇你是如何評價這家企業的表現的。

Yes. Thank you, Jeff. We're obviously pleased with the results. I think I would try to break it down a bit by saying we saw solid improvement in those WoodMac -- in both the subscription and the consulting revenues at WoodMac. So there was progress there. And PowerAdvocate is clearly contributing, and I would say, had -- is having an exceptional 2019 as a result from some very good pipeline build at the end of 2018 and into 2019.

是的。謝謝你，傑夫。我們顯然對結果很滿意。我想我可以試著把它分解一下，說我們在 WoodMac 的訂閱收入和諮詢收入方面都看到了穩定的改善。所以這方面還是有了一些進展。PowerAdvocate 顯然做出了貢獻，而且我認為，由於 2018 年底和 2019 年初建立的非常好的業務管道，該公司在 2019 年取得了非凡的成績。

And so part of that exceptional performance is driving through. We are seeing that reflected both in some of the implementation revenue as well as the subscription revenue, but over time, we will expect to see a higher percentage of that kind of core subscription and recurring revenue within it. Again, it's still primarily recurring revenue, but we are at the front end of some of their success early in the year in bringing new clients onto their solutions platform.

因此，這種卓越表現的一部分就是堅持不懈。我們看到，這體現在一些實施收入和訂閱收入中，但隨著時間的推移，我們預期核心訂閱和經常性收入的比例會更高。雖然目前仍以經常性收入為主，但我們正處於他們年初成功吸引新客戶加入其解決方案平台的初期階段。

Next question comes from the line of Andrew Jeffrey.

下一個問題來自安德魯·傑弗裡。

I wonder, Mark or Lee, if you could just remind us about the macro exposure in Insurance. And I'm thinking about 2 factors: one, generally a hardening P&C market, to the extent we go into that kind of environment, how that might affect the insurance business; and then two, if you could just give us an update on cat modeling. We heard from one of your competitors, perhaps, that the reinsurance market continues to soften. Doesn't seem apparent in your results, but I'm just wondering if you could weigh in sort of at a high level on those items.

馬克或李，我想請你們提醒我們保險業的宏觀風險敞口。我正在考慮兩個因素：一是財產和意外傷害保險市場整體趨於收緊，如果我們進入這種環境，可能會對保險業務產生怎樣的影響；二是能否請您給我們介紹一下巨災建模的最新情況。我們或許是從你們的某個競爭對手那裡了解到，再保險市場持續疲軟。從你的結果來看似乎並不明顯，但我只是想問你是否能就這些問題給出一些高屋建瓴的看法。

Sure. So let me try to take those in the order you asked them. So first of all, I think the general macroenvironment has been and continues to be positive. There is a hardening in the market, especially around some of the commercial lines. Over the years, we have distanced our pricing from the actual premium. So if you have this history, I will tell you we are much more thoughtful about long-term contracts and -- but there is a little bit of a pull associated with more premium, and there's more utility of the solutions. So there's a little more value on pricing that we would gain.

當然。那我就盡量按照你要求的順序來回答這些問題。首先，我認為宏觀環境總體上一直並將繼續保持積極態勢。市場趨於緊縮，尤其是一些商業產品線。多年來，我們的定價已經與實際溢價拉開了距離。所以，如果你了解這段歷史，我會告訴你，我們對長期合約的考慮要周全得多——但是，更高的保費確實會帶來一些吸引力，而且解決方案也更有實用性。因此，我們在定價方面還能獲得更多價值。

But I think the bigger macro trend is as the markets harden, everyone is kind of focused on the top line and growing it profitably. So the use of our solutions, I think, continues to expand. People look to go into different lines and grow. And purchase is more easily -- it's easier to get through procurement in an environment where growth is happening. So those are kind of the general trends that affect us inside the market.

但我認為更大的宏觀趨勢是，隨著市場趨緊，每個人都更加關注營收成長和獲利能力提升。因此，我認為我們的解決方案的應用範圍將會繼續擴大。人們希望進入不同的行業並發展。而且採購也更容易—在經濟成長的環境下，採購流程更容易完成。以上就是影響我們市場內部的一些整體趨勢。

I would also tell you, from a macro perspective, the industry is very much focused on big data analytics. So we're right in the wheelhouse there. They're focused on automation. They're trying to become more efficient. There's a lot of technology projects in search of automation. That works to our advantage as well. And finally, where we're trying to play more is inside the world of digitization. They're trying to make sure that their digital engagement with their policyholders continues to grow, and we have some solutions that help them.

從宏觀角度來看，我還想說，整個產業都非常注重大數據分析。所以，我們在這方面完全得心應手。他們專注於自動化。他們正努力提高效率。有很多技術項目都在尋求自動化。這對我們來說也是有利的。最後，我們正在嘗試更多地涉足數位化領域。他們正努力確保與保單持有人的數位化互動持續成長，而我們有一些解決方案可以幫助他們。

I don't want to make this too long. On the sort of reinsurance side, we do see an opportunity, or at least more consolidation among reinsurers. When that happens, it does cause a little bit of a challenge as we kind of renegotiate with the combined entity. But generally, we have seen increased engagement with insurers and reinsurers on the extreme event modeling side of things. There has been kind of a little bit of a turn where people are coming and moving towards our AR models, and that is a broad kind of industry trend that we are very happy with, and I think they recognize the power of the Touchstone platform that Scott was referring to earlier. I hope that responds to your question.

我不想讓這件事太長。在再保險方面，我們確實看到了機遇，或至少看到了再保險公司之間更多的整合。當這種情況發生時，確實會造成一些挑戰，因為我們需要與合併後的實體重新協商。但總的來說，我們看到保險公司和再保險公司在極端事件建模方面的參與度有所提高。目前出現了一種轉變，人們開始轉向我們的 AR 模型，這是一個我們非常高興的行業大趨勢，我認為他們認識到了 Scott 之前提到的 Touchstone 平台的強大功能。希望這能解答你的疑問。

Next question comes from the line of George Tong.

下一個問題來自George Tong。

Scott, with respect to the EagleView ruling, you've indicated that you're working to adjust the cost structure of Geomni. My understanding is that Geomni is running at a loss. Just to confirm, are you planning to taper your breakout investment spend in Geomni? Or are you planning to stay the course, but redirect your investments elsewhere in aerial imagery?

Scott，關於 EagleView 的裁決，你曾表示正在努力調整 Geomni 的成本結構。據我了解，Geomni 目前處於虧損狀態。我再確認一下，您是否計劃逐步減少在Geomni的突破性投資支出？或者您打算維持現狀，但將投資轉移到其他空拍影像領域？

Yes. So George, thanks for the question. So the -- as we described, recognizing that we have this impact on the roof report revenue, our objective is to look for efficiencies that we can achieve in reducing the costs related to that dimension of the business -- and again, that's just a part of the business -- in order to minimize the impact of that revenue -- the revenue loss. At the same time, as Scott described, our commitment to the technology, our investment in the broader application of that business will continue. So we're trying to accomplish both of those, maintaining that commitment, exploring the other applications and developing those dimensions while, at the same time, offsetting as much as possible that loss of revenue.

是的。喬治，謝謝你的提問。因此，正如我們所描述的，認識到我們對屋頂報告收入的影響，我們的目標是尋找能夠提高效率的方法，以降低與業務這一方面相關的成本——再說一遍，這只是業務的一部分——以便最大限度地減少收入損失的影響。同時，正如斯科特所描述的那樣，我們對這項技術的投入，以及對該業務更廣泛應用的投資，將繼續下去。因此，我們正在努力實現這兩個目標：保持這項承諾，探索其他應用領域並發展這些方面，同時盡可能彌補收入損失。

Next question comes from the line of Christopher Campbell.

下一個問題來自克里斯多福·坎貝爾。

Just kind of a follow-up question on the Geomni question before. Is there -- I'm assuming that the margins are lower in the Geomni roof than your legacy P&C business. So would like kind of the rightsizing of this business, would that be accretive for Insurance segment margins?

這只是之前關於Geomni問題的後續問題。確實如此——我假設Geomni屋頂的利潤率低於您傳統的財產和意外保險業務。那麼，對這項業務進行某種程度的規模調整，是否會提高保險業務的利潤率？

Well, we're not making a forward statement about where the margins are going. But what I will say is, it has been a category of heavy investment on our part. And one of the things I was trying to emphasize in my comments upfront, because we climbed well up that mountain, because we made a lot of investments in image capture, we now have a national image capture capability.

我們目前不會對利潤率的走向發表任何聲明。但我可以肯定的是，我們在這個領域投入了大量資金。我在前面的評論中試圖強調的一點是，因為我們在那座山上攀登得很順利，因為我們在影像擷取方面進行了大量投資，我們現在擁有了國家級的影像擷取能力。

And I would confirm your assumption that on some of the non-roof report legacy businesses, that those were positive-margin businesses and that the -- in development on the roof report, given the scaling up of those expenses, we're -- as we've indicated before, had a negative impact overall to our margins as we were in the investment phase. So I think that observation is accurate.

我確認您的假設，即在一些非屋頂報告的傳統業務中，這些業務是正利潤業務，而正在開發的屋頂報告，鑑於這些費用的規模擴大，正如我們之前指出的那樣，由於我們處於投資階段，這對我們的整體利潤產生了負面影響。所以我認為這個觀察結果是準確的。

(Operator Instructions) Next question comes from the line of Joseph Foresi.

（操作說明）下一個問題來自 Joseph Foresi 的系列。

I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more color on what the second shelf that you're referring to looks like, either from a margin or cash flow perspective. And what are the puts and takes on the margin side as we head into 2020?

我想請您更詳細地介紹一下您提到的第二個貨架的情況，無論是從利潤率還是現金流的角度來看。那麼，在進入 2020 年之際，保證金方面有哪些看漲和看跌的行情呢？

Yes. So maybe, Lee, you'd like to conclude in responding to that. But I'll just open by saying that there are really sort of 2 discrete things that go on as we hit these shelves. So one of them is, and I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before, there's been a mainframe intensity to the way that we compute at Verisk. That's because of our long legacy as an extremely data-rich company. And when this company first got going, the mainframe configuration was very definitely the logical way to try to manage large data sets. But that's not true anymore. There has been change there. So one of the shelf-creating developments is when we retire mainframe capacity, and that is an ongoing activity. So that's one.

是的。所以，李，或許你想就此結束。但我首先要說的是，當我們把這些產品上架時，實際上會發生兩件截然不同的事情。其中之一是，而且我很確定我們以前討論過這個問題，Verisk 的計算方式非常依賴大型主機。這是因為我們公司擁有悠久的資料累積歷史。這家公司剛起步時，採用大型主機配置無疑是管理大型資料集的合乎邏輯的方法。但現在情況已經不同了。那裡已經發生了變化。因此，創造貨架空間的發展趨勢之一是淘汰大型主機容量，而這是一項持續進行的活動。這是其中之一。

And then the second is when we close data centers, and that also will contribute shelves at moments in time as we go forward. There are really no trade-offs, actually. I mean, and as I've said before, obviously, we build in a linear way the cost associated with cloud computing. But when I say there are no trade-offs, I'm really saying 2 things. One is the unit economics of computing in the cloud are just superior, period. But the second thing is actually, and Lee mentioned this when he took on the topic before, we actually are taking this opportunity to think about the very nature of our platforms. Literally, how does the calculation work? And as we move things up into the cloud, we're actually sort of peeling open the applications and reconsidering, you do this, you do this, then you do that, are there ways to be more efficient with respect to using compute capacity.

其次，當我們關閉資料中心時，也會在某些時候為我們提供貨架空間。實際上，並沒有權衡取捨。我的意思是，正如我之前所說，很顯然，我們以線性方式建立與雲端運算相關的成本。但當我說沒有取捨時，我其實想表達兩件事。首先，雲端運算的單位經濟效益就是優於其他運算方式，毋庸置疑。但第二點其實是，李在之前談到這個話題時也提到過，我們其實是在藉此機會思考我們平台的本質。具體來說，這個計算是如何進行的？隨著我們將業務遷移到雲端，我們實際上是在逐步拆解應用程序，重新思考，比如，你做這個，你做那個，然後你做那個，有沒有辦法在利用計算能力方面更加高效。

And so it's actually a very constructive exercise. We just have to -- we have to continue to be very in touch with the way that the algorithms spool and the way that the -- the very nature of our data and how we put together our data sets. So there are no trade-offs, actually. It's constructive microeconomically. It's constructive in terms of responsiveness to customers. And actually, we're just treating it as a journey to tighten up a lot of things about the way that we operate.

所以這其實是一次非常有建設性的練習。我們必須——我們必須繼續密切關注演算法的運作方式，以及我們資料的本質，以及我們如何建立資料集。所以實際上並沒有權衡取捨。從微觀經濟角度來看，這是建設性的。從對客戶的反應速度來看，這是建設性的。實際上，我們只是把它當作一個改進我們運作方式的旅程。

And the only thing that maybe I'll add is that as you think about those tiers or shelves, there's a lot of investment that's required to do it right, right? You need to make sure you tune the application so you use the cloud properly, so you don't overuse the processing time and effort. And as you transition, besides kind of this code rewrite, you're also taking advantage of cheaper database management systems and things like that. So there's a ramp-up of cost before you see the benefit, and some of those are kind of trading off inside of our P&L and CapEx. And I just want to share that perspective with you about the timing of the shelves.

我唯一要補充的是，當你考慮那些貨架或層架時，要做好它們需要大量的投資，對吧？你需要確保調整應用程序，以便正確使用雲端服務，避免過度佔用處理時間和資源。隨著過渡的進行，除了程式碼重寫之外，您還可以利用更便宜的資料庫管理系統等等。因此，在看到收益之前，成本會逐漸增加，而其中一些成本需要在我們的損益表和資本支出中進行權衡。我只是想和你們分享我對貨架上架時間的看法。

Anything numerical from a quantitative perspective on what the margins -- what this means for margins going forward? I would assume with Geomni kind of continuing to be more and more profitable and the data centers shifts going on and we're moving towards the second shelf, that the margins would naturally start to improve, but I just don't want to get ahead of myself from a modeling perspective.

從量化角度來看，利潤率的具體數值是多少？這對未來的利潤率意味著什麼？我估計，隨著 Geomni 的獲利能力不斷提高，資料中心也在不斷轉移，我們正邁向第二層儲存架，利潤率自然會開始提高，但從建模的角度來看，我不想操之過急。

Yes. So let me try to kind of give some context around that. So I think what you heard in Scott and Mark's comments are that yes, there certainly is a cost savings in terms of achieving the shelves and taking that out, but there also is kind of the net effect of taking on the cloud costs and then also optimizing the business. And so there is a complicated dimension to this.

是的。那麼，讓我試著解釋一下背景。所以我覺得你從 Scott 和 Mark 的評論中聽到的是，是的，從購置貨架到將其移除，確實可以節省成本，但同時也會產生承擔雲端成本並優化業務的淨效應。所以這件事的複雜性不容忽視。

I want to underscore one thing. There clearly is a margin opportunity for us, but it consists both of greater OpEx efficiency but also overall improvement in the operating leverage of the business itself in terms of what the applications can do, their ability to integrate other data and expand that. And again, adding another layer of complexity, we have a large number of products and businesses that we are moving to the cloud, each with different dimensions of how applicable cloud is to what they do and with different time lines. And so it is impossible to extract what the quantum of that margin improvement is. We're learning as we go with each individual project, tackling the biggest ones first. But we will see that positive margin improvement that we manage as part of our overall core objective of increasing margin over time, and then also investing that margin expansion to some level where we are investing in future growth.

我想強調一點。顯然，我們有提升利潤的機會，這不僅體現在提高營運效率上，還體現在提升企業營運槓桿的整體水平上，包括應用程式的功能、整合其他數據和擴展數據的能力。此外，我們還增加了一層複雜性，我們正在將大量產品和業務遷移到雲端，而每個產品和業務對雲端的適用程度和時間表都各不相同。因此，無法確定利潤率提升的具體幅度。我們邊做邊學，每個專案都是如此，先解決最大的專案。但我們將看到利潤率的積極改善，這是我們實現利潤率逐步提高這一整體核心目標的一部分，然後我們將把利潤率的擴張投資到一定程度，以促進未來的成長。

So there are a lot of contributing influences to that, but it is clearly a very strong component of what will allow us to grow our core operating leverage further. And I know it would be great if we could provide some quantification, but it's just too large a project and too complex for us to pin that to a specific number.

因此，有許多因素促成了這一點，但這顯然是能夠讓我們進一步提高核心營運槓桿的一個非常重要的組成部分。我知道如果我們能提供一些量化數據就太好了，但這專案規模太大，也太複雜，我們無法將其確定為一個具體的數字。

(Operator Instructions) Next question comes from the line of Bill Warmington.

（操作說明）下一個問題來自比爾·沃明頓。

So a question for you on Financial Services. The -- just wanted to ask about the product pushouts, whether those go into Q4 or whether they're going into 2020 or is it indefinite. And then sort of along those lines, on the EDM transition to more of a subscription model, what inning are we in there?

那麼，關於金融服務方面，我有個問題想請教您。我只是想問一下產品推出的情況，是會推遲到第四季度，還是會推遲到 2020 年，還是沒有確切時間。然後，沿著這個思路，在 EDM 轉換成訂閱模式的過程中，我們現在處於哪個階段？

Bill, on the pushouts, I think we had some of the third quarter revenues. Some of them are longer development products that got pushed out into the fourth quarter. There were some that I think they pushed out into 2020, so I think a combination there. And with regard to EDM, I think it is still a development project for us. We continue to see a very strong response from customers. And we're dealing with really substantiating this as a broader opportunity within the business on a client-by-client basis. So very early stage, but everything that we have seen continues to keep us enthusiastic about this as a core service that is additive to our most important and largest clients.

比爾，關於外推，我認為我們獲得了一些第三季的收入。其中一些是開發週期較長的產品，被推遲到第四季上市。我認為有些項目被推遲到了 2020 年，所以我覺得是多種因素共同作用的結果。至於 EDM，我認為它對我們來說仍然是一個發展中的項目。我們持續收到來自客戶的非常強烈的回饋。我們正在逐一客戶地證實這在業務中是一個更廣泛的機會。雖然目前還處於非常早期的階段，但我們所看到的一切都讓我們對這項核心服務充滿熱情，認為它能為我們最重要、最大的客戶提供增值服務。

(Operator Instructions) There are no further questions at this time. Presenters, you may proceed.

（操作說明）目前沒有其他問題。各位演講者，請開始。

Yes. Thank you. So thanks, everybody, for joining us. Appreciate the questions and the dialogue. We'll be following up with several of you, and talk to you soon. Have a great day.

是的。謝謝。謝謝大家的參與。感謝大家的提問與交流。我們會跟進幾位朋友的情況，並儘快與你們聯繫。祝你有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。祝你有美好的一天。