Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Verisk Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Verisk's Head of Investor Relations, Ms. Stacey Brodbar. Ms. Brodbar, please go ahead.

大家好，歡迎參加Verisk 2022年第三季財報電話會議。本次電話會議正在錄音。 （操作說明）現在，我將把電話交給Verisk投資者關係主管Stacey Brodbar女士，請她致開幕詞並進行介紹。 Brodbar女士，請開始吧。

Thank you, Savannah, and good day, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our third quarter 2022 financial results. On the call today are Lee Shavel, Verisk's Chief Executive Officer; Mark Anquillare, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Elizabeth Mann, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝薩凡納，大家好。感謝各位今天參加我們2022年第三季財務業績的討論會。今天出席電話會議的有：Verisk執行長Lee Shavel、總裁兼營運長Mark Anquillare以及財務長Elizabeth Mann。

The earnings release referenced on this call as well as our traditional quarterly earnings presentation and 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.

本次電話會議中提及的獲利報告以及我們傳統的季度獲利簡報和相關的10-Q表格，均可在公司網站verisk.com的「投資者關係」欄位中找到。該盈利報告也已附在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的8-K表格中。本次電話會議的錄音回放將在公司網站和電話接入平台上保留30天。

As set forth in more detail in today's earnings release, I will remind everyone, 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.

正如今天發布的財報中更詳細的闡述，我在此提醒各位，今天的電話會議可能包含關於Verisk未來業績的前瞻性陳述。實際業績可能與我們今天所作的陳述有重大差異。有關可能影響未來業績的因素的信息，請參閱我們近期提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的文件。

Finally, I'd like to also remind everyone that the financial results for recent dispositions are included in our consolidated and GAAP results, but are excluded from all organic constant currency growth figures. A reconciliation is provided in our 8-K.

最後，我還想提醒大家，近期資產處置的財務結果已計入我們的合併財務報表和GAAP財務報表，但未計入所有以固定匯率計算的內生增長數據。相關調節表已在我們的8-K文件中提供。

And now I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Lee Shavel.

現在我想把電話交給我們的執行長李·沙維爾。

Thanks, Stacey, and good day, everyone. Before I jump into the earnings results, I want to officially welcome Elizabeth Mann to Verisk. Elizabeth brings operational and corporate finance experience from her 3 years at S&P Global Capital Markets and strategic sophistication from her 12 years of investment banking experience at Goldman Sachs, and finally, an impressive academic foundation and enthusiasm for mathematics that fits perfectly into our analytical culture. She is coming up the curve quickly and has already established herself as a valued part of the team.

謝謝Stacey，大家好。在正式公佈財報結果之前，我想正式歡迎Elizabeth Mann加入Verisk。 Elizabeth在標普全球資本市場擁有三年營運和企業財務經驗，在高盛擁有十二年投資銀行經驗，具備卓越的策略眼光。此外，她還擁有紮實的學術基礎和對數學的熱情，這與我們公司的分析文化完美契合。她進步神速，已成為團隊中不可或缺的一員。

I am pleased to share that we delivered on our stated intention to become a global insurance-focused data analytics and technology company. As we announced on Monday, we have signed a definitive agreement to sell Wood Mackenzie to Veritas Capital for $3.1 billion in cash consideration, payable at closing, plus future additional contingent consideration of up to $200 million. Our ability to achieve this result in the midst of a deteriorating deal environment speaks to the quality of the asset and the momentum of the business.

我很高興地宣布，我們已實現既定目標，成為一家專注於保險領域的全球數據分析和技術公司。正如我們週一宣布的那樣，我們已簽署最終協議，將伍德麥肯錫出售給維瑞塔斯資本，交易對價為31億美元現金，將在交易完成時支付，此外還有最高可達2億美元的未來或有對價。在交易環境日益惡化的情況下，我們仍能達成這一目標，這充分體現了伍德麥肯錫資產的卓越品質和公司強勁的發展勢頭。

Wood Mackenzie is the globally recognized leader in natural resources intelligence, with in-depth proprietary data sets and subject matter experts that cover the full energy and natural resource value chain. Since we acquired Wood Mackenzie in 2015, the business has increased revenue and EBITDA; integrated acquisitions; developed new areas of growth in the energy transition, chemicals and metals and mining; and most recently, upgraded their client platform, Lens. This has transformed Wood Mackenzie from an advisory services business focused on transactional research and consulting to a data analytics business bolstered by long-term subscription contracts, a leading brand and market position.

伍德麥肯茲是全球公認的自然資源情報領導者，擁有深入的專有數據集和涵蓋整個能源和自然資源價值鏈的專家團隊。自2015年我們收購伍德麥肯茲以來，該公司實現了營收和EBITDA的成長；整合了收購項目；在能源轉型、化工、金屬和採礦等領域開拓了新的成長點；並且最近升級了客戶平台Lens。這些舉措使伍德麥肯茲從一家專注於交易研究和諮詢的諮詢服務公司轉型為一家以長期訂閱合約、領先品牌和市場地位為支撐的數據分析公司。

We have been honored to work with and support our friends and colleagues at Wood Mackenzie, and we wish them well and look forward to their continued growth and success under the proven leadership of Mark Brinin and Joe Leveque, and their respected future owners, Veritas Capital. The future for Wood Mackenzie is very bright, and we look forward to having an ongoing productive relationship with them.

我們很榮幸能與伍德麥肯茲的各位朋友和同事合作並給予支持，我們衷心祝愿他們一切順利，並期待在馬克·布里寧和喬·勒維克兩位經驗豐富的領導者以及他們尊敬的未來所有者維里塔斯資本的帶領下，他們能夠繼續發展壯大，取得更大的成功。伍德麥肯茲的未來一片光明，我們期待與他們保持長期富有成效的合作關係。

This transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023, will best position Wood Mackenzie to fully capitalize on secular industry tailwinds, including the energy transition, and deliver on the growth opportunity that lies ahead. The closing of this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Going forward, the Wood Mackenzie business will be reported as discontinued operations beginning with Verisk's fourth quarter earnings report and 10-K filing.

預計於2023年第一季完成的這項交易，將使伍德麥肯錫公司能夠更好地掌握包括能源轉型在內的產業長期利好因素，並實現未來的成長機會。此交易的完成須滿足慣例成交條件，包括獲得監管部門的批准。此後，自Verisk公司第四季財報和10-K文件起，伍德麥肯錫的業務將作為終止經營業務進行報告。

We plan to use the approximate $3.1 billion in proceeds, primarily for share repurchases and debt paydown. After accounting for share repurchase and debt paydown, we expect this transaction to be modestly dilutive to Verisk's earnings in the range of 4% to 6%. That said, over the longer term, we believe the deal will bring Verisk the added benefit of increased focus on our core insurance business, more consistent growth in line with our long-term targets and improved return on capital, which should drive shareholder value.

我們計劃將約31億美元的收益主要用於股票回購和償還債務。在計入股票回購和債務償還後，我們預計此次交易將對Verisk的收益產生4%至6%的輕微稀釋。儘管如此，我們相信從長遠來看，此次交易將為Verisk帶來更多益處，例如更加專注於核心保險業務、實現更符合長期目標的持續增長以及提高資本回報率，從而提升股東價值。

Now let me turn my attention to our third quarter earnings results. Verisk delivered solid third quarter results as we partner with our customers to help them navigate through environmental challenges in the marketplace, including inflation and elevated losses in certain lines of insurance.

現在，我想談談我們第三季的獲利情況。 Verisk 第三季業績穩健，這得益於我們與客戶攜手合作，幫助他們應對市場環境挑戰，包括通貨膨脹和某些保險業務領域損失加劇等問題。

Adjusted for the impact of the suspension of commercial operations in Russia, Verisk delivered mid-single-digit organic constant currency revenue growth and margin expansion, resulting in organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth of 7%. This performance reflects our focus on cost discipline, operational efficiency and the early benefits of initial steps taken in previously announced margin improvement initiative. Elizabeth will provide more detail in her financial review.

在剔除俄羅斯商業營運暫停的影響後，Verisk實現了中等個位數的有機固定匯率收入成長和利潤率提升，最終有機固定匯率調整後EBITDA成長7%。這項業績反映了我們對成本控制、營運效率的重視，以及先前宣布的利潤率提升計畫初步成效的顯現。 Elizabeth將在她的財務報告中提供更多細節。

On our EBITDA margin expansion objective, we continue to be confident in our ability to achieve our stated target to deliver 300 to 500 basis points of margin expansion by 2024, an insurance-only baseline of 50% to 51% normalized adjusted EBITDA margins. We have taken actions to enhance operating efficiency, improve productivity and streamline processes.

關於我們的 EBITDA 利潤率提升目標，我們仍然有信心實現既定目標，即到 2024 年實現 300 至 500 個基點的利潤率提升，保險業務基準線為 50% 至 51% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。我們已採取措施提高營運效率、提升生產力並簡化流程。

During the quarter, we eliminated certain roles across the organization, sunset legacy products and reduced office square footage. Additionally, we entered into an agreement to sublease our data center to a third party as we move more of our computing infrastructure to the cloud, delivering long-term savings for Verisk. We have also advanced on our future of data collection project, where we are improving the efficiency and productivity of our field force, which not only saves money, but enhances our solutions.

本季度，我們精簡了公司內部部分職位，停用了舊產品，並縮減了辦公面積。此外，我們與第三方簽訂了資料中心轉租協議，將更多運算基礎設施遷移到雲端，為 Verisk 帶來長期的成本節約。同時，我們也推動了未來數據採集項目，旨在提升現場服務團隊的效率和生產力，不僅節省了成本，也增強了我們的解決方案。

We expect that over the next 2 years, about half of our identified cost savings will come from headcount actions; about 25% from reductions in spending from IT infrastructure; and about 25% from third-party spending, including real estate. To date, we have made decisions and taken actions to address more than half of the cost savings we are targeting.

我們預計，未來兩年內，已確定的成本節約目標中，約一半將來自人員精簡；約25%來自IT基礎設施支出削減；約25%來自第三方支出，包括房地產支出。迄今為止，我們已做出決策並採取相應措施，以實現超過一半的成本節約目標。

Turning to our customers. Our Insurance customers continue to be generally healthy while they're dealing with the cross-currents of inflation and increasing loss ratios, which are negatively impacting profitability across the industry. This is having a disproportionate impact in personal lines, insurtech companies and certain geographic markets.

再來說說我們的客戶。儘管面臨通貨膨脹和賠付率上升的雙重挑戰，我們的保險客戶整體狀況依然良好，而這正對整個行業的獲利能力產生負面影響。這種情況對個人保險、保險科技公司和某些特定地區市場的影響尤其顯著。

While insurers are increasing rates to help cover inflation in repair costs, it takes time to get rates approved by the regulators and then implement it across the entire book of business. To date, premium growth has not yet caught up to loss costs. Specifically, in personal auto, we continue to see pressure on underwriting activity across the industry as insurance providers are holding back on writing new business.

儘管保險公司正在提高保費以彌補維修成本的通膨，但保費上漲需要時間才能獲得監管機構的批准，並最終在整個業務範圍內實施。迄今為止，保費成長尚未趕上損失成本的成長。具體而言，在個人汽車保險領域，由於保險公司都在謹慎地承保新業務，我們持續看到整個行業的承保活動面臨壓力。

In fact, combined ratios across the industry continue to trend lower, and as a result, insurers are cutting back on marketing spend as a way to protect profitability. The net result is lower transactional revenues for Verisk across both our personal lines and auto underwriting solutions as well as certain of our marketing solutions. We believe this is a cyclical issue and will abate over time.

事實上，整個產業的綜合比率持續下降，因此，保險公司為了保障獲利能力，正在削減行銷支出。最終導致Verisk在個人險、車險承保以及部分行銷解決方案方面的交易收入下降。我們認為這是一個週期性問題，隨著時間的推移將會緩解。

As we noted last quarter, Florida is a trouble spot for the insurance industry, and the losses from Hurricane Ian add complication. We are experiencing an increasing level of insolvencies across the market, with 4 companies liquidating just this quarter, while other carriers are electing to exit the market entirely. This has had a negative impact on both our subscription and transactional revenues.

正如我們上季所指出的，佛羅裡達州是保險業的重災區，而颶風伊恩造成的損失更是雪上加霜。我們正經歷市場破產潮的加劇，光是本季就有4家公司清算，而其他一些保險公司則選擇徹底退出市場。這都對我們的訂閱收入和交易收入產生了負面影響。

To address these issues and drive future growth, our sales teams are engaged with the new entrants into the market as well as expanding our relationship with a state-backed insurer to help price and select risk. We are also working with our existing customers to help them understand the impact of inflation across their book of business and to help them price the risks accordingly as policies come up for renewal.

為了應對這些問題並推動未來成長，我們的銷售團隊正積極與市場新進業者接洽，並拓展與國營保險公司的合作關係，以幫助他們進行風險定價和選擇。同時，我們也與現有客戶合作，幫助他們了解通貨膨脹對其業務的影響，並在保單續保時協助他們進行相應的風險定價。

Apart from the near-term challenges, we continue to believe that the opportunity for Verisk to address the long-term strategic and operating needs of the insurance industry remains substantial. In my many conversations with insurance CEOs, they have consistently encouraged us to develop a more strategic dialogue and how we can help the industry address technology, regulatory and operating issues, leveraging our unique and legacy position as an effective utility for the industry.

除了近期的挑戰之外，我們仍然相信，Verisk 在滿足保險業長期策略和營運需求方面擁有巨大的潛力。在我與眾多保險公司執行長的交流中，他們始終鼓勵我們與保險業展開更具策略性的對話，探討如何利用我們作為行業高效服務商的獨特優勢和悠久歷史，幫助行業解決技術、監管和運營方面的問題。

To that objective, we have been coordinating a series of CEO and CIO roundtables to develop solutions that can improve industry operating efficiency and capital efficiency as well as productivity. While these initiatives will take time to develop and implement, they represent a substantial incremental opportunity for Verisk. We are very excited about the opportunity to engage with the industry at the strategic level and broaden our technology partnership with them.

為此，我們一直在協調組織一系列執行長和資訊長圓桌會議，旨在開發能夠提升產業營運效率、資本效率和生產力的解決方案。雖然這些措施的開發和實施需要時間，但它們為Verisk帶來了巨大的成長機會。我們非常高興有機會在策略層面與業界合作，並拓展我們與業界的技術合作夥伴關係。

In recognition of our commitment to innovate on behalf of clients, Verisk was recognized by Celent as a Luminary for developing innovative solutions that help property, casualty and life insurers detect claims fraud. Our solutions were recognized by highly advanced functionality and ability to integrate with third-party data, driving faster outcomes and a more accurate claims experience.

為表彰我們致力於為客戶創新，Verisk 榮獲 Celent 頒發的「行業領導者」稱號，以表彰我們為財產、意外傷害和人壽保險公司開發創新解決方案，幫助其檢測理賠欺詐。我們的解決方案憑藉其高度先進的功能和與第三方數據的整合能力而備受認可，從而能夠加快理賠速度，並提供更準確的理賠體驗。

Similarly, we are committed to creating value for our employees, which includes providing an exceptional workplace. And we were awarded the Great Place to Work designation this year in the U.S., U.K., India, Spain and New York. We were also recognized as a Great Place To Work for Women in the U.K. In today's rapidly evolving workplace, we are focused on talent attraction, development and retention by supporting our teammates' passion and having a purpose-driven culture that allows unlimited success.

同樣，我們致力於為員工創造價值，這包括提供卓越的工作環境。今年，我們榮獲美國、英國、印度、西班牙和紐約「最佳工作場所」稱號。此外，我們也被評為英國「女性最佳工作場所」。在當今瞬息萬變的職場環境中，我們專注於人才的吸引、發展和保留，支持團隊成員的熱情，並創造以目標為導向的企業文化，從而實現無限的成功。

Finally, as a demonstration of our commitment to ESG priorities, Verisk has been ranked third out of 100 Best ESG Companies in 2022 by Investor's Business Daily. The list recognize companies with superior environmental, social and governance ratings, in addition to fundamental and technical stock performance. We are honored to receive this recognition for our commitment to sustainability and the ability of our strong and growing business to meet customer and investor expectations.

最後，為了彰顯我們對ESG（環境、社會和治理）優先事項的承諾，Verisk在《投資者商業日報》評選的2022年百強最佳ESG公司中位列第三。該榜單旨在表彰那些在環境、社會和治理方面表現卓越，且股票基本面和技術面表現優異的公司。我們很榮幸獲得此項認可，這肯定了我們對永續發展的承諾，以及我們強大且不斷增長的業務滿足客戶和投資者期望的能力。

As we move forward, I am more confident than ever that with our proprietary data sets, talented and dedicated people, deep industry knowledge and technical expertise, Verisk is best positioned to create value for our customers by helping them evolve in a new digital environment, integrate rapidly growing data sets and achieve new levels of efficiency. This, in turn, will create value for our employees and shareholders.

展望未來，我比以往任何時候都更加確信，憑藉我們專有的數據集、才華橫溢且敬業的員工、深厚的行業知識和技術專長，Verisk 能夠更好地幫助客戶在新數位環境中發展，整合快速增長的數據集，並實現更高的效率，從而為客戶創造價值。反過來，這也將為我們的員工和股東創造價值。

I will now turn the call over to Mark for some more color on the Insurance business performance.

現在我將把電話交給馬克，讓他更詳細地介紹保險業務的表現。

Thanks, Lee. I'm pleased to share that the Insurance segment delivered another solid quarter. In Insurance, we are experiencing strong growth in subscription revenues across both underwriting and claims, resulting in OCC subscription growth of 6.1% for the segment overall.

謝謝李。我很高興地告訴大家，保險業務部門又迎來了一個穩健的季度。在保險業務方面，核保和理賠的訂閱收入均實現了強勁增長，帶動整個板塊的OCC訂閱收入增長了6.1%。

Within Underwriting, we had strong results from core underwriting, extreme event solutions and our international businesses. We also had healthy contribution with double-digit growth achieved in certain of our newer acquired businesses, including life insurance and specialty business software solutions. Extreme event solutions had a strong quarter, driven by the addition of new customers to our core Touchstone platform as well as the expansion of multiyear deals with existing customers.

在核保業務方面，我們的核心核保業務、極端事件解決方案和國際業務均取得了強勁的業績。此外，我們近期收購的部分業務也實現了兩位數的成長，貢獻可觀，其中包括人壽保險和專業商業軟體解決方案。極端事件解決方案業務在本季度表現突出，這主要得益於我們核心平台Touchstone新增客戶以及與現有客戶續簽多年期合約。

With new environment of rising inflation, insurers and reinsurers are challenged to keep up with the growth in their exposures. To help our customers understand the risk of the inflation and assess their exposures, we recently released our 2022 Global Model Catastrophe Losses Report, detailing key global financial loss metrics based on our latest suite of catastrophe models.

在通膨加劇的新環境下，保險公司和再保險公司面臨著應對風險敞口成長的挑戰。為了幫助客戶了解通膨風險並評估其風險敞口，我們近期發布了《2022年全球模型巨災損失報告》，詳細闡述了基於我們最新巨災模型套件的關鍵全球財務損失指標。

Additionally, we are supporting insurers with a broad array of property data solutions so that they can ensure they're keeping up with the impacts of inflation and have a more informed view of risk and ongoing exposures. Our sustainability and country risk business also had a very strong quarter as demand for our risk indices in both the corporate and investor segments continue to drive strong double-digit growth. We're also beginning to get traction with the expansion of our sustainability offerings into the Insurance segment.

此外，我們為保險公司提供廣泛的財產數據解決方案，幫助他們應對通膨影響，並更全面地了解風險和持續敞口。我們的永續發展和國家風險業務在本季也表現強勁，企業和投資者對我們風險指數的需求持續推動兩位數的強勁成長。同時，我們在保險領域拓展永續發展產品和服務也開始取得成效。

Within Life Insurance, we're delivering strong double-digit growth through the addition of new customers as well as the expansion of our relationships with existing customers. Our low-code, no-code technology is leading the industry's modernization by helping carriers gain efficiencies and improve profitability at scale with a simpler technology ecosystem and a faster time for implementation.

在人壽保險領域，我們透過新增客戶以及拓展與現有客戶的關係，實現了強勁的兩位數成長。我們的低程式碼/無程式碼技術引領著業界的現代化進程，透過更簡化的技術生態系統和更快的部署速度，幫助保險公司大規模提高效率和獲利能力。

We continue to be excited about the growth potential for our Life business. And our success here serves as a great blueprint for our ability to drive growth and value creation through the extension into large, addressable and adjacent insurance markets.

我們對壽險業務的成長潛力依然充滿信心。我們在該領域的成功經驗，為我們拓展至規模龐大、目標明確且相鄰的保險市場，從而推動成長和價值創造，提供了絕佳的藍圖。

Insurance transactional revenues grew a more modest 1.8%. This quarter's transactional revenues were negatively impacted by a lower level of storm activity versus the prior year when Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, as well as the environmental impact of software results in our personal auto underwriting and marketing businesses. We do expect to see some benefit in the fourth quarter from Hurricane Ian claims, but we caution that some of this can be offset by more liquidations or insolvencies within the core insurance market. Additionally, we expect the environmental headwinds in personal auto and marketing to persist.

保險交易收入成長較為溫和，僅1.8%。本季交易收入受到風暴活動較去年同期有所減少（去年同期颶風艾達在路易斯安那州登陸時風暴活動較少）以及個人汽車保險承保和營銷業務中軟體結果的環境影響等因素的負面影響。我們預計第四季度颶風伊恩的理賠將帶來一些收益，但我們也提醒，核心保險市場中更多的清算或破產可能會抵消部分收益。此外，我們預期個人汽車保險和行銷業務面臨的環境不利因素將持續存在。

In our effort to advance the dialogue and our work on ethical AI and algorithm preparedness, we recently coordinated and sponsored the Insurance Fairness Forum, where we presented on social fairness, pricing and underwriting for insurance, with a preliminary study focused on personal auto rate-making.

為了推進關於倫理人工智慧和演算法準備的對話和工作，我們最近協調並贊助了保險公平論壇，我們在論壇上介紹了社會公平、保險定價和承保，並進行了以個人汽車保險費率制定為重點的初步研究。

During the conference, we engaged with consumer advocates, insurance regulators, as we want to ensure that we're at the forefront of the conversation on this very important topic. The insurance industry is inherently trying to differentiate, selecting and pricing risks, but our goal is to ensure that there is no unfair discrimination.

會議期間，我們與消費者權益倡導者和保險監管機構進行了交流，因為我們希望確保在這個至關重要的議題上始終處於討論的前沿。保險業本質上是在試圖區分、選擇和定價風險，但我們的目標是確保不存在任何不公平的歧視。

In our customer conversations, we hear that they need help to become more automated, more digitally engaged and more connected. The insurance industry is directing their spending towards these projects and, in turn, to Verisk, as a key ecosystem partner to drive these initiatives forward, which has been a key driver of growth for us. The industry continues to look to us to innovate and respond to recent industry events with leading-edge solutions.

在與客戶的交流中，我們了解到他們需要幫助，以實現更高的自動化程度、更強的數位化參與度和更緊密的互聯互通。保險業正將資金投入這些項目中，並將資金轉向 Verisk，因為 Verisk 是推動這些措施的關鍵生態系統合作夥伴，而這正是我們成長的主要動力。保險業持續期待我們能夠創新，並以領先的解決方案應對近期行業動態。

For example, our Verisk teams responded to Hurricane Ian by helping clients track damage, dispatch adjusters and staff, estimate the cost to repair the damage and speed the claims process to get properties repaired and safely return families to their homes. Our catastrophe loss estimate of $42 billion to $57 billion was an early and accurate estimate of insured losses related to Hurricane Ian, allowing insurers and reinsurers to understand the impact on their portfolios.

例如，在颶風伊恩肆虐期間，我們的Verisk團隊迅速回應，幫助客戶追蹤損失、調度理賠員和工作人​​員、估算維修成本，並加快理賠流程，以便盡快修復房屋，讓受災家庭安全返回家園。我們對颶風伊恩造成的災害損失估計在420億美元至570億美元之間，這一早期且準確的估計使保險公司和再保險公司能夠了解其投資組合受到的影響。

In California, insurers face new regulatory measures to address rating, property coverage, wildfire from areas. Verisk is helping our customers comply with these new regulations. We continue to help our customers select and price risk and root out fraud with our advanced data and analytics, and believe that we are well positioned to continue to grow as we advance our mission to become the trusted technology partner for the industry.

在加州，保險公司面臨新的監管措施，以應對評級、財產保險範圍以及特定地區的野火風險。 Verisk 正在幫助我們的客戶遵守這些新規。我們將繼續利用先進的數據和分析技術，幫助客戶選擇風險並進行定價，同時打擊詐欺行為。我們相信，隨著我們不斷推進成為業界值得信賴的技術合作夥伴的使命，我們已做好充分準備，將繼續發展壯大。

Now let me turn the call over to our new CFO, Elizabeth Mann, for financial review.

現在，我將把電話交給我們的新任財務長伊麗莎白·曼恩，請她進行財務回顧。

Thanks, Mark, and good morning to all of you here on the call. I'm so happy to be here at Verisk and speaking to you today. I have admired the company and its phenomenal Insurance business for over a decade as I worked in the information services sector. And now is a particularly exciting time to join as we have an opportunity to redefine our strategy as a global insurance-focused data analytics and technology company. We can now focus our capital and all of our industry knowledge to support the needs of our customers, as Lee and Mark have already highlighted.

謝謝馬克，也祝各位早安。我很高興今天能來到Verisk，與大家交流。過去十多年來，我一直很欣賞Verisk及其卓越的保險業務，因為我之前一直在資訊服務行業工作。現在加入Verisk正值良機，我們有機會重新定義公司策略，成為一家專注於保險領域的全球數據分析和技術公司。正如李和馬克剛才提到的，我們現在可以集中資金和所有行業知識，更好地滿足客戶的需求。

As I've joined Verisk over the last 6 weeks, and I've been getting to know the people and digging into the business, I've been focused on a few priorities. The first is a focus on cost discipline and execution against the margin targets we've committed.

在加入 Verisk 的這六週裡，我一直在熟悉同事，深入了解業務，並專注於幾個優先事項。首先是嚴格控製成本，確保實現我們承諾的利潤目標。

Second, Lee has established a framework for capital allocation and ROIC metrics, which I intend to continue. The resulting transparency and accountability on our deployment of capital will support our ability to invest with confidence to drive top line growth and strong returns.

其次，Lee建立了一套資本配置和投資報酬率（ROIC）指標框架，我打算繼續沿用。由此帶來的資本部署透明度和問責制，將有助於我們更有信心地進行投資，從而推動營收成長並實現強勁回報。

Third, I will prioritize investor engagement, gathering feedback and providing transparency into the business. So I look forward to getting out on the road and meeting all of you.

第三，我將優先考慮與投資人的溝通，收集回饋意見，並提高業務透明度。因此，我期待著走訪各地，與大家見面。

Let me now turn to our third quarter results. Before I begin, I want to remind everyone that all consolidated and GAAP numbers are negatively impacted by the recent dispositions of 3E and Verisk Financial Services. This effect will continue through the first quarter of 2023 when we will anniversary those transactions. As noted, due to its materiality, Wood Mackenzie will be accounted for as discontinued operations beginning in the fourth quarter of 2022.

現在讓我來談談我們第三季的業績。在開始之前，我想提醒大家，所有合併報表和GAAP財務數據均受到近期3E和Verisk Financial Services資產處置的負面影響。這種影響將持續到2023年第一季度，屆時我們將迎來這些交易的周年紀念。如前所述，由於其重要性，Wood Mackenzie將從2022年第四季起作為終止經營業務進行會計處理。

For the third quarter of 2022, on a consolidated and GAAP basis, revenue was $745 million, a modest decline from the prior year, reflecting the impact of recent dispositions and foreign currency exchange rate headwinds, which are most pronounced in our Energy segment, offset in part by acquisitions.

2022 年第三季度，以合併及 GAAP 準則計算，收入為 7.45 億美元，較上年略有下降，反映了近期資產處置和外匯匯率不利因素的影響，這些不利因素在我們的能源部門最為明顯，但部分被收購所抵消。

Net income attributable to Verisk decreased 6% to $189 million while diluted GAAP earnings per share attributable to Verisk decreased 3% to $1.20. The decline was primarily due to the dispositions within the former Energy and Specialized Markets and Verisk Financial Services segments, including the loss incurred as part of the true-up of the closing adjustments.

歸屬於 Verisk 的淨利潤下降 6% 至 1.89 億美元，歸屬於 Verisk 的稀釋後 GAAP 每股收益下降 3% 至 1.20 美元。下降的主要原因是原能源和專業市場以及 Verisk 金融服務部門的資產處置，包括作為期末調整的一部分而產生的損失。

Moving to our organic constant currency results, adjusted for nonoperating items, as defined in the non-GAAP financial measures section of our press release, we are pleased with our operating results, led by continued growth in our subscription revenues. In the third quarter, OCC revenues grew 4.8%, driven by continued strength in our Insurance segment and continued sequential improvement in our Energy segment.

根據新聞稿中「非GAAP財務指標」部分的定義，經調整非經營性項目後，我們以固定匯率計算的有機增長業績令人滿意，這主要得益於訂閱收入的持續增長。第三季度，OCC營收成長4.8%，主要得益於保險業務的持續強勁成長以及能源業務的環比持續改善。

Our subscription revenues increased 5.6% while our transactional revenues increased a more modest 1.2%. Adjusting for $3.3 million in prior year revenue associated with our Energy business in Russia, OCC revenue would have grown 5.3% and subscription revenues would have grown 6.2%.

我們的訂閱收入成長了5.6%，而交易收入僅成長了1.2%。若剔除上年同期與俄羅斯能源業務相關的330萬美元收入，OCC收入將成長5.3%，訂閱收入將成長6.2%。

Consolidated OCC adjusted EBITDA growth was 6% in the third quarter. Normalizing for the prior year revenue associated with our Energy in Russia and the incremental expenses associated with exiting that business, OCC adjusted EBITDA growth was 7%.

第三季度，OCC綜合調整後EBITDA成長率為6%。若剔除去年同期俄羅斯能源業務相關收入及退出該業務產生的額外費用，OCC調整後EBITDA成長率為7%。

Total adjusted EBITDA margin, which includes both organic and inorganic results, was 51.5%, up 160 basis points from the year prior, reflecting strong cost and operational discipline as well as the benefit from recent dispositions. This level of margin includes approximately 60 basis points of headwind from recent acquisitions; 50 basis points of headwind from our ongoing technological transformation, including cloud expenses, which we absorbed into our cost structure; and 40 basis points from higher year-over-year T&E expenses.

經調整後的EBITDA利潤率（包括內生成長和外延成長）為51.5%，較上年同期成長160個基點，這反映了公司在成本控制和營運方面的嚴格把控，以及近期資產處置帶來的收益。此利潤率水準包含了近期收購帶來的約60個基點的不利影響；持續的技術轉型（包括雲端支出，我們已將其計入成本結構）帶來的約50個基點的不利影響；以及差旅費用同比增加帶來的約40個基點的不利影響。

Despite the environment and cyclical headwinds to margin, this quarter's margin expansion is further demonstration of our commitment to efficiency. On that note, let's turn to our segment results on an OCC basis.

儘管面臨環境和週期性不利因素對利潤率造成影響，但本季利潤率的提升進一步反映了我們對效率提升的承諾。接下來，讓我們來看看以營運成本計算的各業務板塊業績。

For Insurance. In the third quarter, Insurance segment revenues increased 5.3%. We saw healthy growth in our industry standard insurance programs, claims analytics, extreme events, life insurance and specialty business solutions. Subscription revenues increased 6.1%, reflecting tougher comparisons versus last year's 7.9% growth as well as the impact of some of the environmental factors Lee and Mark spoke about earlier.

保險業務方面，第三季保險業務收入成長5.3%。我們的行業標準保險項目、理賠分析、極端事件保險、人壽保險和專業業務解決方案均實現了穩健成長。訂閱營收成長6.1%，反映出與去年同期7.9%的成長率相比，今年的基數較高，同時也受到Lee和Mark先前提到的一些環境因素的影響。

Transactional revenues increased 1.8% in the quarter, reflecting a lower level of storm activity in the quarter as well as continued softness from personal auto, underwriting and marketing. This was offset in part by strong recovery growth in international travel insurance solutions. Within workers' compensation, we have seen a return to modest growth, though the business is not yet back to pre-pandemic levels.

本季交易營收成長1.8%，反映本季風暴活動減少，以及個人汽車保險、核保和行銷業務持續疲軟。國際旅遊保險解決方案的強勁復甦成長部分抵消了這一影響。在工傷賠償方面，我們看到業務已恢復溫和成長，但尚未恢復到疫情前的水平。

Adjusted EBITDA grew 6.9% in the third quarter while margins declined 70 basis points to 55.2%. These margins reflect a heavier burden from the corporate costs that were previously allocated to businesses that have been disposed as well as the impact of recently acquired businesses, higher cloud expenses and the partial normalization of travel expenses back into the business. This level of margin also includes continued investment in our high-growth areas like life insurance and specialty business solutions and the impact of recently acquired businesses.

第三季調整後 EBITDA 成長 6.9%，但利潤率下降 70 個基點至 55.2%。利潤率下降主要受以下因素影響：先前分配給已剝離業務的公司成本負擔加重；近期收購業務的影響；雲端支出增加；以及差旅費用部分恢復正常化。此外，此利潤率水準還包括對人壽保險和專業業務解決方案等高成長領域的持續投資，以及近期收購業務的影響。

Energy and Specialized Markets. Revenue increased 2.5% in the third quarter. Normalizing for the impact of our exit from Russia, Energy revenue growth was 5.2%. Our subscription revenues increased 3.5% or 6.8%, normalizing for the Russian exit, led by double-digit growth in energy transition, chemicals and metals and mining research, coupled with modest growth in our core research subscriptions.

能源及專業市場業務。第三季營收成長2.5%。剔除退出俄羅斯市場的影響後，能源業務營收成長5.2%。訂閱收入成長3.5%，剔除退出俄羅斯市場的影響後為6.8%，主要得益於能源轉型、化學、金屬及礦業研究領域的兩位數成長，以及核心研究訂閱業務的溫和成長。

Additionally, we continue to experience strong adoption and contract expansion from our Lens renewals. Transactional revenues decreased 1.8% as growth was constrained by consulting resources.

此外，我們的Lens續約業務持續保持強勁成長勢頭，合約規模也隨之擴大。由於諮詢資源限制了成長，交易收入下降了1.8%。

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 0.2% in the third quarter, and margins contracted 210 basis points to 34.4%. These adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin figures include $0.2 million in incremental expense related to the suspension of operations in Russia. Normalizing for that impact, adjusted EBITDA growth would have been 7.8%.

第三季調整後 EBITDA 下降 0.2%，利潤率下降 210 個基點至 34.4%。這些調整後 EBITDA 和調整後 EBITDA 利潤率數據包含了因暫停俄羅斯業務而產生的 20 萬美元增量支出。剔除此影響後，調整後 EBITDA 成長率將達到 7.8%。

On taxes. Our reported effective tax rate was 22.7% compared to 20.9% in the prior year quarter. This higher year-over-year tax rate was the result of lower level of stock option activity versus the prior year. Looking ahead to the remainder of 2022, we expect the tax rate in the fourth quarter to be approximately 24% to 26%, reflecting the impact of discontinued operations as well as a lower than originally expected level of stock option activity.

關於稅項。我們報告的實際稅率為22.7%，而去年同期為20.9%。年比稅率上升是由於股票選擇權交易量低於上年同期水準所致。展望2022年剩餘時間，我們預期第四季稅率約為24%至26%，這反映了終止經營業務的影響以及低於預期水準的股票選擇權交易量。

On adjusted net income and diluted adjusted EPS. Adjusted net income decreased 1.9% to $230 million, and diluted adjusted EPS increased 1.4% to $1.46 for the third quarter of 2022. These changes reflect organic growth in the business, contributions from acquisitions and a lower average share count, offset in part by the impact of divestitures and the higher interest expense and tax rate.

經調整淨利和攤薄後經調整每股收益。 2022年第三季度，經調整淨利下降1.9%至2.3億美元，攤薄後經調整每股收益成長1.4%至1.46美元。這些變化反映了業務的內生成長、收購帶來的貢獻以及平均流通股數量的減少，但部分被資產剝離的影響以及更高的利息支出和稅率所抵消。

For free cash flow, net cash provided by operating activities was $280 million for the quarter, down 1.8% from the prior year period due to the loss of operating cash flows related to the dispositions. Normalizing for the impact of the 3E and Verisk Financial Services dispositions, free cash flow would have been up 7.5%.

自由現金流方面，本季經營活動產生的淨現金流為2.8億美元，較上年同期下降1.8%，主要原因是處置相關業務導致經營現金流減少。若剔除3E和Verisk Financial Services處置的影響，自由現金流將成長7.5%。

Capital expenditures were $66 million for the quarter, up 7% versus last year, reflecting increases in capitalized software development, offset in part by savings on third-party hardware and software as we move to the cloud. We now expect capital expenditures for the full year to be within the range of $270 million to $280 million. This range supports our plans to increase our software investment into core underwriting, where we believe there is a significant opportunity for platform enhancement.

本季資本支出為6,600萬美元，較去年同期成長7%，主要反映了軟體開發資本支出的增加，但部分被我們向雲端遷移過程中節省的第三方硬體和軟體成本所抵銷。我們目前預計全年資本支出將在2.7億美元至2.8億美元之間。這一預期範圍符合我們增加對核心核保業務軟體投資的計劃，我們認為該領域存在巨大的平台增強空間。

In addition, we now expect fixed asset depreciation and amortization to be within the range of $195 million to $205 million, and intangible amortization should be approximately $145 million for the full year 2022. Both depreciation and amortization elements are subject to foreign currency variability, the timing of purchases, the completion of projects and future M&A activity.

此外，我們現在預計2022年全年固定資產折舊和攤提將在1.95億美元至2.05億美元之間，無形資產攤提約為1.45億美元。折舊和攤銷均受外匯波動、採購時間、專案完成情況和未來併購活動的影響。

On capital returns. During the third quarter, we returned $349 million in capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends, as our strong cash flow allows us to consistently return capital to shareholders while also investing in the business. Additionally, in October of '22, we entered into a new $100 million accelerated share repurchase agreement to be completed in the fourth quarter, as is our normal practice.

關於資本回報。第三季度，我們透過股票回購和分紅向股東返還了3.49億美元的資本。我們強勁的現金流使我們能夠在持續投資業務的同時，也持續向股東返還資本。此外，按照慣例，我們在2022年10月簽署了一項新的1億美元加速股票回購協議，該協議將於第四季度完成。

Looking ahead, we plan to optimize the use of proceeds from the sale of Wood Mackenzie while also maintaining our leverage range. We will achieve this through a combination of debt paydown and share repurchases and may act opportunistically from a timing standpoint.

展望未來，我們計劃優化利用出售伍德麥肯茲所得款項，同時維持槓桿。我們將透過償還債務和回購股票相結合的方式來實現這一目標，並可能根據時機擇機採取行動。

Before I turn the call back over to Lee, I just want to remind everyone that we will be hosting an Investor Day in March, where we will provide more transparency and clarity on our strategic and financial profile and growth drivers as a global insurance-focused data analytics and technology company.

在將電話轉回給李之前，我只想提醒大家，我們將在三月份舉辦投資者日活動，屆時我們將作為一家專注於保險的全球數據分析和技術公司，更清晰地介紹我們的戰略和財務狀況以及增長動力。

And now I will turn the call back over to Lee for some closing comments.

現在我將把電話轉回給李，請他做一些總結發言。

Thanks, Elizabeth. In summary, our business is strong, as evidenced by our organic constant currency, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA growth of 7% and strong margin performance in the quarter. We are confident that we have the team in place to execute on our operational efficiency plans over the next 2 years and deliver on our margin expansion targets.

謝謝伊麗莎白。總而言之，我們的業務表現強勁，這體現在我們以固定匯率計算的有機成長、EBITDA成長以及調整後EBITDA成長均達到7%，且本季利潤率表現優異。我們有信心，我們擁有一支能夠在未來兩年內有效執行營運效率提升計畫並實現利潤率擴張目標的團隊。

Longer term, we continue to believe as well that the opportunity to create value for our customers and employees will drive value for our shareholders. We continue to appreciate the support and interest in Verisk. Given the large number of analysts we have covering us, we ask that you limit yourself to 1 question.

從長遠來看，我們仍然相信，為客戶和員工創造價值的機會將為股東帶來價值。我們衷心感謝大家對Verisk的支持與關注。鑑於眾多分析師都在關注我們，請您將問題限制在一個問題內。

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

接下來，我會請接線生開通提問專線。

(Operator Instructions) We will take our first question from Ashish Sabadra from RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員指示）我們首先回答來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的 Ashish Sabadra 提出的問題。

Congrats, Elizabeth, and look forward to working with you. Lee, thanks for providing the details on the impact of the divestiture. I was just wondering if you could provide some underlying assumptions. Any color on that? If there is any tax leakage, how does the tax increase for the remaining companies, stranded cost? Any color on those fronts will be helpful.

恭喜伊麗莎白，期待與您合作。李，感謝您提供關於資產剝離影響的詳細資訊。我想請您提供一些基本假設。您對此有何看法？如果有任何稅收流失，剩餘公司的稅收增加情況如何？擱淺成本是多少？您在這方面的任何資訊都將有所幫助。

Thank you, Ashish. First, let me say on the question on tax leakage. The $3.1 billion in proceeds, I think, if your question is directed towards that, we are not expecting any significant tax leakage. There may be some upside for us on that modestly. But we think that we will be able to deploy the full amount of that in share repurchases and debt paydowns.

謝謝Ashish。首先，關於稅收漏洞的問題，我想說的是，如果您的問題是關於31億美元的收益，我們預計不會有任何重大的稅收漏洞。這筆收益可能會為我們帶來一些小的收益。但我們認為，我們可以將全部資金用於股票回購和償還債務。

As it relates to the future tax rate, we have provided some guidance for the fourth quarter. But we -- it's obviously a complex issue that we are working through in terms of the longer-term impact. It depends upon the composition of the business overall, and we would intend to provide more clarity for that as we look ahead.

關於未來的稅率，我們已針對第四季提供了一些指引。但顯然，這是一個複雜的問題，我們正在努力探討其長期影響。這取決於公司整體的業務組成，我們將在未來提供更清晰的說明。

I think it's fair to assume, of course, kind of as implicated in the fourth quarter, that our effective tax rate will be higher. But we'll try to provide more specific guidance as we sort that out and in the time frame that we typically do with our fourth quarter earnings results.

我認為，鑑於第四季度業績已有所體現，我們可以合理地推斷，我們的實際稅率將會更高。但我們會盡快理清這個問題，並在通常發布第四季財報的時間範圍內，提供更具體的指引。

Your next question will come from Jeff Meuler with Baird.

下一個問題將來自 Baird 公司的 Jeff Meuler。

Lee and Mark, maybe if you could just give us a more holistic perspective on what the adjacent market opportunity is for you as you focus your efforts in capital on Insurance. You talked about Life being a blueprint for extension into adjacent markets, and you talked about developing solutions. That's an incremental opportunity for you coming out of the CEO and CIO roundtables. But maybe if you could just more holistically address just how you see addressable market or adjacent opportunities.

Lee 和 Mark，你們能否更全面地談談你們在將資本投入保險業的同時，如何看待鄰近市場的機會？你們提到人壽保險是拓展到鄰近市場的藍圖，也談到了開發解決方案。這確實是 CEO 和 CIO 圓桌會議後為你們帶來的一個新增機會。但能否請你們更全面地闡述你們如何看待潛在市場或鄰近市場的機會？

Sure. Thank you, Jeff. I'm going to take a first crack at it and then hand it over to Mark for his perspective. But the one way that we're looking at this is we're looking at the totality of the insurance industry spend in aggregate. And that's a very substantial number in kind of the [100] (inaudible). And Jeff, I think you may be rattling a paper there.

當然。謝謝你，傑夫。我先自己嘗試一下，然後再交給馬克，聽聽他的看法。但我們看待這個問題的一個角度是，我們關注的是整個保險業的支出總額。這是一個非常龐大的數字，大概在[100]（聽不清楚）…傑夫，我覺得你剛才可能在翻閱文件。

But we're looking at that aggregate amount. And I think as we've talked to investors previously, when we look at the amount of revenue that Verisk generates from the insurance industry relative to their operating costs, it is a 40 to 45 basis point amount. And we think that there's a broader opportunity for us to address their marketing spend in finding efficiencies, in finding solutions to drive productivity gains, to find efficiencies on technology spend, which are substantially larger opportunities for us relative to the scale of what we're doing.

但我們關注的是總金額。正如我們之前與投資者溝通的那樣，Verisk 從保險業獲得的收入與其營運成本相比，差距在 40 到 45 個基點之間。我們認為，我們有機會在提高其行銷支出效率、尋找提昇生產力的解決方案以及降低技術支出效率等方面，為他們提供更廣泛的幫助。相對於我們目前的業務規模而言，這些機會要大得多。

So that will give you a sense of why we think that's a substantial opportunity. And we've been engaged in addressing a lot of those with current initiatives that we look to expand on. And I know Mark can certainly speak to some of the things that we've been doing on that front.

這樣您就能明白我們為什麼認為這是一個巨大的機會。我們一直在透過一些現有措施來解決其中的許多問題，並計劃進一步拓展這些措施。我知道馬克肯定能詳細介紹我們在這方面所做的一些工作。

Super. So maybe I'll try to give you 3 examples. We talked about Life. But even within Life, we have the ability to continue to extend into group life. We are focused today from a life insurance perspective primarily in the United States. We can go international.

好的。那我舉三個例子吧。我們剛才聊到了人壽保險。但即使在人壽保險領域，我們也有能力繼續擴展到團體人壽保險。目前，我們主要從人壽保險的角度專注於美國市場。但我們也可以拓展到國際市場。

To you -- to the extent you think about other lines of Insurance, other lines of business related to Life, you have disability. That's an opportunity for us. We see opportunities to extend into pet insurance, travel insurance. Those are some examples of like customer sets that we don't operate in.

對您而言—如果您考慮其他保險產品，或其他與人壽保險相關的業務，例如殘障保險，那麼這對我們來說就是一個機會。我們看到了拓展寵物保險和旅遊保險業務的機會。這些都是我們目前尚未涉足的客戶群。

I'll make the obvious example, but I just do want to remind everybody that from a marketing perspective, that is a huge customer set, the marketing departments inside of insurers that we just never really dealt with before, and now we have access to through some recent acquisitions. And it really is forming the foundation of how we kind of go to market with some of our customers, really helping them understand the best target markets and where and how to price.

我舉個顯而易見的例子，但我想提醒大家，從行銷的角度來看，這是一個龐大的客戶群——保險公司內部的行銷部門，我們以前從未真正接觸過，而現在透過最近的一些收購，我們得以接觸到他們。這確實正在構成我們與部分客戶合作的市場策略的基礎，幫助他們了解最佳目標市場以及定價策略。

Last but not least, you have heard it throughout the themes here. We think we can do more from a software and technology platform perspective with our customers. We don't deal with the CIO as being the chief information officers inside of our major customers. And we see ourselves as a technology player and has been a strong partner to them. So hopefully, that helps.

最後，也是非常重要的一點，您已經從前面提到的幾個主題中了解到，我們認為我們可以從軟體和技術平台的角度為客戶提供更多服務。我們對待客戶時，不會把資訊長（CIO）當作客戶內部的資訊長。我們把自己定位為一家科技公司，並且一直是他們強大的合作夥伴。希望這些資訊對您有所幫助。

Yes, it does.

是的，確實如此。

Yes. And Jeff, I think you see there are 3 dimensions there that we're talking about. One is a functional orientation. And so that's Mark speaking to the marketing opportunity. We see similar opportunities on the technology side. And then operationally, there is the business line opportunity or dimension that we're looking at with travel at -- and other areas. And then, of course, there is the international, where we feel as though the opportunity to bring some of that expertise. All of those are -- create, I think, a broad envelope for us to look to expand on what we're doing.

是的。傑夫，我想你也看到了，我們這裡討論的是三個維度。首先是功能性方面。馬克剛才談到的是行銷方面的機會。我們在技術方面也看到了類似的機會。其次是營運方面，我們正在關注業務線方面的機會，例如旅遊業務以及其他領域。當然，還有國際業務，我們認為有機會將一些專業知識運用到國際市場。我認為，所有這些因素共同為我們拓展業務範圍創造了廣闊的空間。

Our next question will come from Alex Kramm with UBS Financial.

下一個問題將來自瑞銀金融的 Alex Kramm。

Maybe just a quick follow-up to Ashish's question. But since you didn't report this quarter as discontinued operation but will next, maybe you can give us the apples-to-apples EBITDA margin, how it would have been if it would have been a discontinued operation already? And if you can't add into that specifically, maybe outline what the stranded or servicing costs related to Wood Mac will be and how they will fade away over time.

或許可以簡單補充一下Ashish的問題。既然你們本季沒有將終止經營業務列為終止經營業務，但下個季度會，能否提供一下如果該業務已經終止經營，其EBITDA利潤率會是多少？如果無法具體說明，能否概述一下與Wood Mac相關的擱淺成本或維護成本，以及這些成本將如何隨時間推移而減少。

Yes. Alex, thanks for the question. We're not at the point where we have broken through both the combination of the adjustments that we're making in the overhead costs or the overhead allocation. So I think that is something that we'll look to provide more input on as we move ahead, probably with the fourth quarter earnings, where we'll have that discontinued operations.

是的，Alex，謝謝你的提問。我們目前還沒有完全解決在管理費用或管理費用分配方面所做的調整問題。所以，我認為我們會在接下來的工作中，尤其是在第四季度財報中，就此提供更多信息，屆時我們將公佈已終止經營業務的相關數據。

Our focus has been on getting the transaction done. As you can imagine, that has been, I think, a pretty solid accomplishment in a difficult market. It will take time for us to sort through the accounting consequences now that we understand that, and there are a lot of transitional elements that we need to take into account. So it's not a simple metrics to us.

我們一直專注於完成交易。正如您所想，在如此艱難的市場環境下，我認為這已經是一項相當了不起的成就。現在我們已經了解了這些會計方面的影響，但還需要時間來梳理，此外還有許多過渡性因素需要考慮。因此，對我們來說，這並非一個簡單的指標。

And our next question will come from Toni Kaplan with Morgan Stanley.

接下來，我們將向摩根士丹利的東尼卡普蘭提問。

Wanted to ask about your pricing, how that's looking for '23. I know you mentioned the insurers currently trying to put through sizable rate increases to cover inflation. I guess, will you be able to benefit from that by being able to increase your subscription prices? How should we think about the magnitude of price increases next year versus '22 or versus a normal year, however you want to break that out?

我想問一下你們的定價策略，2023年的計畫如何？我知道您曾提到保險公司目前正在大幅提高保費以應對通貨膨脹。我想，你們能否從中受益，提高訂閱價格呢？我們該如何看待明年價格上漲的幅度，與2022年或往年相比，無論您如何看待？

Yes. Thank you, Toni. I appreciate it. This is Mark. Let me first remind everybody, we do have some connectivity of pricing to premium volumes. The utility of our products are seen and demonstrated through the premiums they write. So to the extent that it's a harder market or meaning price is going up and there's more premium, we will see that on a little bit of a lag effect.

是的，謝謝你，托尼。非常感謝。我是馬克。首先我想提醒大家，我們的定價與保費收入確實有一定的關聯性。我們產品的效用體現在其保費收入上。因此，如果市場行情趨緊，價格上漲，保費收入增加，我們會在一段時間內感受到這種滯後效應。

To your more direct and short term, I think what we're trying to do is really balance the opportunity to hopefully maybe take a little bit more price, only because, like everybody, we're incurring some more costs around labor and other inflationary type of spend.

就更直接和短期而言，我認為我們正在努力平衡各種可能性，希望能稍微提高一些價格，因為和所有人一樣，我們在勞動力和其他通膨性支出方面也承擔了一些額外的成本。

But at the same time, we're in it for the long term. And what we're trying to do is make sure that we are able to sell new products, new solutions to customers and not cause any short-term angst degree with regard to pricing today.

但同時，我們著眼於長遠發展。我們努力的目標是確保能夠向客戶銷售新產品、新解決方案，並且不會因為當前的定價問題而引起任何短期焦慮。

Our next question will come from Manav Patnaik from Barclays.

下一個問題將來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克。

You just called out kind of broader insurance inflation pressures, I guess, and then more specifically, the Florida issues as well. Is there any way to quantify how much each of that impacted the growth? And how long should this headwind continue?

您剛才提到了更廣泛的保險通膨壓力，以及更具體地說，佛羅裡達州的問題。有沒有辦法量化這些因素分別對經濟成長的影響程度？這種不利因素還會持續多久？

Thank you, Manav. So these are -- there are a variety of factors, some of which are difficult to kind of fully separate. I'm going to ask Mark to kind of give his perspective on both impact and sustainability of these effects that you're asking about.

謝謝你，馬納夫。這些因素有很多，其中一些很難完全區分開來。我打算請馬克就你提到的這些影響及其可持續性談談他的看法。

So quantifying is difficult. So I'm going to maybe qualify -- kind of quantify, I apologize. So inside the auto market, what we're seeing is just a general theme of people trying to write less business or quote less new business. They are waiting for their rate filings to be implemented and, in turn, wait for higher prices or higher premium before they write.

所以量化很難。因此，我只能說，或許應該說，我只能進行一些限定性的量化，抱歉。在汽車市場內部，我們看到的是一個普遍的趨勢：人們都在減少業務量或減少新業務的報價。他們都在等待費率調整生效，然後等待更高的價格或更高的保費後再開展業務。

So that seems like a depression that will occur and be soft, I would guess, probably for another 6 months or so into 2023. That's our take. But at the same time, it is something that cyclically will come and will go, so we expect it to rebound.

所以，這看起來像是一場將會持續的、程度較輕的經濟衰退，我估計可能會持續到2023年，大概還有6個月左右。這是我們的看法。但同時，經濟衰退也是週期性的，它會來也會走，所以我們預期它會反彈。

Two, Florida is clearly a challenge. There has been an insurer last resort. Basically, rates there have been subsidized when people try to get into the market. They've been hurt by large cat and inside of those new customers and those existing customers that are going out of business. That does affect us and will be -- let me say it this way, that will be a little bit longer term.

第二，佛羅裡達州的情況顯然很棘手。保險公司一直以來都把佛羅裡達州視為最後的選擇。基本上，當人們試圖進入市場時，那裡的保費會得到補貼。大型災害以及新客戶和倒閉的現有客戶都對他們造成了衝擊。這確實會影響到我們，而且──這麼說吧──這種影響會持續一段時間。

Ultimately, new emerging insurers will rise. We will hopefully serve them. We are working with them now, but that will take time. So that rebound would probably be over the course of a year or more, I would say, in that regard.

最終，新興保險公司將會崛起。我們希望能夠為他們提供服務。我們目前正在與他們合作，但這需要時間。因此，我認為，從這個角度來看，市場反彈可能需要一年或更長時間。

I think the last comment that you were referring to or at least we're referring to is the workers' comp space. We did see some growth this quarter. At the same time, the market is still depressed. Some of that is regulation, I think I've highlighted in the past. Some of it, I do believe it's just the fact that the work-from-home environment leads to fewer claims in the future.

我認為您最後提到的，或至少我們指的是工傷賠償領域。本季我們確實看到了一些成長。但同時，市場仍低迷。部分原因是監管，我想我之前也強調過。部分原因，我認為只是因為居家辦公環境會導致未來索賠數量減少。

So I think we've started to anniversary the challenge. I think it will start to rebound a bit. I don't want to be optimistic, but I would assume that should occur in '23 at some point. I hope those are the 3 trends or themes that you were talking about.

所以我覺得我們已經開始應付這個挑戰了。我認為它會開始有所回升。我不想過於樂觀，但我估計這種情況會在2023年的某個時候出現。我希望這三點就是你提到的趨勢或主題。

The other thing that affected us a little timing was storms. Obviously, Ida last year, Ian this year, both pretty big storms affecting different quarters.

另一個稍微影響我們時間安排的因素是風暴。顯然，去年的艾達颶風和今年的伊恩颶風都是相當大的風暴，分別影響了不同的區域。

Yes. And I would add one other dimension, Manav, which is I think that what we've seen is kind of fairly solid subscription growth. I think that what you saw in 2022 was some weakness on the transactional revenue growth. And I think it will probably manifest itself, some of these trends in -- some sustaining of that weaker growth into 2023 if these dynamics have the impact that we described. But again, also subject to variability on storm levels, but hopefully, that's helpful.

是的。 Manav，我還想補充一點，那就是我們目前看到的訂閱成長相當穩健。我認為2022年交易收入成長疲軟的現像比較明顯。如果這些動態因素確實如我們之前所描述的那樣產生影響，那麼這種成長疲軟的趨勢可能會延續到2023年。當然，這也要受到風暴強度變化的影響，但希望這些資訊對您有所幫助。

Our next question will come from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan.

下一個問題將來自摩根大通的安德魯·施泰納曼。

It's Andrew. I'm going to ask you about Verisk's ongoing organic revenue growth goal of 7%. And my question is, how long will it take Verisk Insurance to get there? And what needs to happen? And where your comments about Florida workers' comp going to hold us back from getting there?

我是安德魯。我想問您關於Verisk持續7%的有機營收成長目標。我的問題是，Verisk保險公司需要多久才能實現這個目標？需要採取哪些措施？您之前關於佛羅裡達州工傷賠償的評論會不會阻礙我們實現這個目標？

Thank you, Andrew. So we certainly understand that. What I will first say and reiterate that our confidence in that long-term target remains in place given what we see as the opportunities in front of us. I think when you look at what we've even achieved in 2021 at a more challenging environment, where we had 2 quarters of organic revenue growth above 7% clearly demonstrates the ability of the Insurance -- of our Insurance business to achieve that.

謝謝安德魯。我們當然理解這一點。首先，我要重申的是，鑑於眼前的機遇，我們對長期目標的信心依然堅定。我認為，即使在更具挑戰性的2021年，我們依然取得了顯著成就，連續兩個季度實現了超過7%的有機收入成長，這充分證明了我們保險業務實現這一目標的能力。

We've had some weakness related to pandemic effects, such as lower driving activity, impact on workers' comp. And I think, to Mark's comments, we are seeing some weakness as a result of the economic environment, but we're also seeing recovery in some of the pandemic-related effects. And I think that biases us towards stronger performance ahead from a growth perspective as we come out of some of these stronger elements.

疫情確實帶來了一些疲軟，例如駕車出行減少、工傷賠償受到影響等等。正如馬克所說，經濟環境確實帶來了一些疲軟，但疫情帶來的部分影響也逐漸消退。我認為，隨著我們逐漸擺脫這些不利因素，從成長的角度來看，這將使我們未來的業績表現更加強勁。

Some of the macroeconomics may persist, but I think we're seeing kind of more momentum towards that target ahead. That would be the way, I think, about it, both from a longer-term perspective, which we are still confident that we can deliver on that. We have to work our way through, I think, the conflicting impacts of some recovery from pandemic impacts and then some of the more sustained macroeconomic, which, I think, are of a lower magnitude than what we experienced through the pandemic.

一些宏觀經濟因素可能會持續存在，但我認為我們正朝著既定目標穩步邁進。我認為，無論從長遠角度來看，情況都是如此，我們仍然有信心實現這一目標。我們需要應對疫情後復甦帶來的相互矛盾的影響，以及一些更持續的宏觀經濟因素的影響，我認為這些持續性宏觀經濟因素的影響程度低於疫情期間的影響。

Our next question will come from Greg Peters with Raymond James.

下一個問題將來自 Raymond James 的 Greg Peters。

I guess I'll step back and ask a bigger-picture question. I heard in your comments, Lee, about talking with all your customers and trying to partner with them to help innovate, et cetera, and that's going to require investment in your business. And so I guess, what I'm getting at here is, just to go back and sort of reset or recast a die in how you're going to balance the desire to improve margins. And you're sending out some margin targets versus the need, really, to invest in your business in order to help your customers get the innovation they're looking for.

我想我應該退後一步，問一個更宏觀的問題。李，我從你的評論中聽到，你要和所有客戶溝通，嘗試與他們合作，幫助他們創新等等，而這需要對公司進行投資。所以我想說的是，你需要重新審視一下，如何在提高利潤率的願望和真正需要投資公司以幫助客戶獲得他們想要的創新之間找到平衡。你設定了一些利潤率目標。

Greg, thanks for the question. And particularly -- I would particularly value your perspective and knowledge around the insurance industry. And so you probably better understand better than most the challenges that the insurance industry is facing. And so let me kind of break that apart.

格雷格，謝謝你的提問。我尤其希望你能分享你對保險業的見解和知識。你可能比大多數人都更了解保險業面臨的挑戰。那麼，讓我來詳細分析一下。

I think the opportunity to invest in these new opportunities have generated both growth and very strong returns for the internal investments that we have made in a variety of areas. And I would probably cite our LightSpeed product, where we've been able to accelerate delivery of quote to -- a bindable quote to the point of sale, has generated a very strong economic growth for us and a very good return on capital. So we're looking for similar elements to that.

我認為，投資這些新機會為我們在各個領域的內部投資帶來了成長和非常可觀的回報。我特別想提一下我們的LightSpeed產品，它能夠加快從報價到銷售點的交付速度——提供可約束的報價——這為我們帶來了強勁的經濟成長和非常可觀的資本回報。因此，我們正在尋找類似的機會。

We've been talking about our investment in the core lines, reimagined initiative to migrate a lot of our data and services into that new technology platform, which delivers substantially greater value for our clients on that front, opening up, I think, new opportunities for growth and certainly a high return that we can generate on that.

我們一直在談論對核心業務的投資，以及將大量數據和服務遷移到新技術平台的重新構想計劃，這將為我們的客戶帶來更大的價值，我認為這將開闢新的成長機會，並且肯定會帶來很高的回報。

So those -- and the third point that I would make is that on the margin efficiency target, that has been focused on looking at -- not at cutting investment within the business, but looking for areas of opportunity from an operational efficiency perspective within the business that, I think, it's been a very healthy exercise for us that we've demonstrated progress against, but it hasn't come at the cost of us pursuing these overall opportunities.

所以，我要說的第三點是，關於利潤率效率目標，我們一直關注的重點不是削減業務內部的投資，而是從業務營運效率的角度尋找機會。我認為這對我們來說是一項非常健康的舉措，我們已經取得了進展，但這並沒有以犧牲我們追求這些整體機會為代價。

So I think if you -- the fundamental concern is, look, we're hearing that there are a lot of opportunities to invest. How does that -- does that conflict with the margin objective? I don't believe so. I think that we can continue to make these investments. We can deliver on the operational efficiencies within the business to drive that margin improvement and continue to generate very solid growth and strong returns on capital.

所以我認為，最根本的問題是，我們聽說有很多投資機會。這和利潤率目標有衝突嗎？我不這麼認為。我認為我們可以繼續進行這些投資。我們可以透過提高業務營運效率來推動利潤率的提升，並持續實現穩健成長和強勁的資本回報率。

I appreciate the additional color.

我喜歡這些額外的色彩。

Thanks, Greg.

謝謝你，格雷格。

Our next question will come from George Tong of Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題將來自高盛的喬治唐。

With respect to the Wood Mackenzie sale proceeds, how are you thinking about splitting the $3.1 billion between debt paydown and share repurchases? Do you have a target leverage multiple in mind for the stand-alone insurance company?

關於伍德麥肯錫出售所得款項，您打算如何分配這31億美元用於償還債務和回購股票？您是否對這家獨立保險公司設定了目標槓桿倍數？

Thank you, George. I'm going to hand that over to Elizabeth to address.

謝謝你，喬治。我會把這件事交給伊莉莎白來處理。

George, thanks for asking. Like we said, we're going to balance it between debt paydown and share repurchases. We don't -- we haven't established a precise number for debt paydown, other than to state there's no change to our target leverage range of 2 to 3x in order to maintain our investment-grade rating.

喬治，謝謝你的提問。正如我們所說，我們會平衡償還債務和股票回購之間的關係。我們沒有——或者說，我們沒有確定具體的債務償還目標金額，只是聲明為了維持投資級評級，我們的目標槓桿率區間仍維持在2到3倍。

Within that, we'll look to optimize, over time, kind of the best balance of interest savings versus share repurchases. And either way, the majority of it, the significant majority will be on share repurchase. But either way, sort of farther to where we end up within that fairly small range, we'll still be within the accretion dilution range that we quoted.

在此基礎上，我們將逐步優化利息節省與股票回購之間的最佳平衡點。無論如何，絕大部分資金將用於股票回購。但無論如何，即使最終我們仍處於先前設定的較小範圍內，我們仍將保持在預期的增值稀釋範圍內。

Our next question will come from Andrew Jeffrey with Truist Securities.

下一個問題將來自 Truist Securities 的 Andrew Jeffrey。

Mark, I'm intrigued when I hear you talk about some of these new markets, which really would be true extensions for Verisk, pet being one, I think, that you mentioned. I'm wondering if you have -- do you think you have the data and the kind of digital customer-facing solutions that you might need to expand into those markets? Or if you think you're going to need to add capabilities to be able to penetrate those new markets and drive new revenue streams.

馬克，我聽你談到一些新市場時很感興趣，這些市場確實是Verisk業務的真正延伸，例如你提到的寵物市場。我想知道你是否擁有拓展這些市場所需的數據和數位化客戶解決方案？或者你認為需要增加一些功能才能打入這些新市場並開闢新的收入來源？

So Andrew, great question. I appreciate that. I think when we attack new markets, we typically go at it with a theory that we could build some great models. And then as data information starts to flow, we can improve those models.

安德魯，問得好。我很感激。我認為，當我們進軍新市場時，通常會先設想可以建構一些優秀的模型。然後，隨著數據資訊的積累，我們可以不斷改進這些模型。

So pet as an example. What we do with travel is not that travel, you would think like, "Boy, I missed my flight. It's going to being short." This is the type of travel that focuses on somebody who has a pre-existing medical condition. And to the extent that they're traveling, how do they get the right medical. So that is a modeled outcome and that has kind of the data we have around it. We can apply those type of models to pets, dogs, cats, more traditional pets, in a way that we can understand how health of the pet and existing conditions cause and will affect payouts.

以寵物為例。我們處理旅行問題並非您通常理解的那種旅行，例如「哎呀，我錯過了航班，時間很短。」我們關注的是患有既往疾病的人士的旅行。在他們旅行期間，如何確保他們獲得合適的醫療服務？這是一個基於我們現有數據的模型結果。我們可以將這些模型應用於寵物，例如狗、貓等常見寵物，從而了解寵物的健康狀況和先前疾病如何影響賠償金額。

So I hope that's just an example of ways we can kind of adjust our models. I think the digital engagement and the way we've gone at those things are very best-in-class and very digitally engaged. So I think we're well positioned there. We do not hold the same data advantage that we do in some of the United States' admitted lines. but that doesn't cause us to shy away from and actually provides us with an opportunity to find a way to gather some information. I hope that's responsive.

所以，我希望這只是我們調整模式的一個例子。我認為我們在數位參與方面以及我們處理這些事情的方式都非常出色，而且數位化程度很高。因此，我認為我們在這方面處於有利地位。我們不像在美國某些已確認的邊境地區那樣擁有數據優勢，但這並不會讓我們退縮，反而為我們提供了一個機會，讓我們找到收集資訊的方法。我希望這能有所幫助。

Yes. I look forward to seeing your progress there.

是的，我很期待看到你在那裡的進展。

And our next question will come from Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets.

接下來，我們將向 BMO 資本市場的 Jeff Silber 提問。

That's close enough. I want to go back to Manav's question where you parsed out some of the environmental impacts affecting the business. I understand the impacts on the nonsubscription revenue. But I was just curious on the subscription side in terms of the slowdown. I know if you've got customers that go bankrupt, obviously, that's an impact. But why are we seeing the slowdown in subscription revenue? And is that something we should expect to continue?

差不多了。我想回到馬納夫的問題，你分析了一些對業務造成影響的環境因素。我理解這些影響對非訂閱收入的影響。但我更好奇的是訂閱收入放緩的情況。我知道如果客戶破產，那一定會造成影響。但為什麼我們看到訂閱收入放緩？這種情況會持續下去嗎？

Yes. So one of the things I think we tried to do is to share that, even though you would think of subscriptions as being this wonderfully flat ride from quarter-to-quarter, even inside of our subscription businesses, when we bring on new customers, where we have some anniversary of dates, there is a little bit of an up and down inside that.

是的。所以我覺得我們努力做到的一點是，儘管你可能認為訂閱業務的季度業績會非常平穩，但即使在我們自己的訂閱業務內部，當我們有新客戶加入，或者遇到一些週年紀念日時，業績也會有一些波動。

So to the extent that you look at this year's subscription to last year's, I think that's a good rule of thumb. If you look at it quarter-by-quarter, there's some up and downs. I would not read anything into subscription level growth in the quarter. Everything is very solid, and everything is running as we would expect. So I will kind of reinforce Lee's earlier comments about the subscription growth being strong and more optimistic.

所以，如果以今年的訂閱量與去年的訂閱量進行比較，我認為這是一個很好的參考指標。如果按季度來看，就會出現一些波動。我不認為應該對本季的訂閱量成長過度解讀。一切都非常穩健，運作情況也符合預期。因此，我同意Lee之前關於訂閱量成長強勁且更為樂觀的觀點。

And our next question will come from Faiza Alwy with Deutsche Bank.

接下來，我們將向德意志銀行的 Faiza Alwy 提問。

I wanted to focus a little bit more on the insurance-specific margins. And I think those came in a lot better than what we had talked about. Because I think, previously, you had talked about those margins declining in line with year-to-date that you had seen in the second quarter. So I'm curious what drove the upside?

我想更詳細地談談保險業務的利潤率。我認為實際結果比我們之前討論的要好得多。因為我記得之前您提到過，這些利潤率會像第二季一樣，與年初至今的趨勢一致而下降。所以我很好奇是什麼因素推動了利潤率的上升？

I think it sounds like you've made some progress around your cost savings initiatives that you had talked about. So maybe just address how much that contributed to margins and how we should think about it in the fourth quarter. And maybe, Lee, if you can talk about if your confidence in those targets has improved as you've done some work around them.

聽起來你們在之前提到的成本節約計劃方面取得了一些進展。那麼，能否談談這些措施對利潤率的貢獻程度，以及我們該如何看待第四季的情況？另外，Lee，能否談談隨著你們進行相關工作，你對這些目標的信心是否有所增強？

Yes. Thanks, Faiza. Thanks for the question. Let me comment a bit on the Insurance-only margin for Q3. While it was a slight year-over-year decline, I think we reminded you that, that was offsetting some of the headwinds in the baseline that included the reallocation of corporate expenses from the divestitures. It included the impact of recent acquisitions, which are themselves lower-margin businesses, and it offsets our investment in cloud and the return of T&E expenses.

是的，謝謝，Faiza。感謝您的提問。關於第三季僅保險業務的利潤率，我想簡單說明一下。雖然同比略有下降，但正如我們之前提醒您的，這抵消了基準線中的一些不利因素，例如剝離業務後重新分配的企業費用。此外，利潤率下降也包含了近期收購的影響（這些收購本身利潤率較低），並抵消了我們在雲端領域的投資以及差旅費用的回歸。

Offsetting those, there is the natural kind of operating leverage in the business and business growth. So those things kind of offset each other. The one other thing I might call out in the quarter there is it's also offsetting a slight decrease in the pension credit, which happened at the corporate level.

除此之外，業務本身的經營槓桿效應和業務成長也能發揮一定作用。所以這些因素在某種程度上相互抵消。另外，本季我還想指出一點，那就是它也抵銷了公司層級退休金抵免額的輕微下降。

And so the Insurance business had its allocation of that component. And that is expected to continue in the fourth quarter. More generally, as we look ahead to the fourth quarter for Insurance, these headwinds will continue. The impact may not be exactly linear quarter-to-quarter, so that could move around.

因此，保險業務也包含了這部分成本。預計這種情況將在第四季度持續。更廣泛地說，展望第四季保險業，這些不利因素仍將持續。其影響可能不會是逐季度線性變化，因此可能會有所波動。

And what Elizabeth is describing, Faiza, is that underneath the overall margin performance, when you kind of strip away the reallocations, there is still a very strong operating leverage that is expressing itself in terms of looking at it before we look at kind of the nonoperational elements. And so that's the core of the business, and that's how we will drive EBITDA growth ahead of revenue growth.

伊莉莎白所描述的，法伊扎，就是在整體利潤率表現之下，當你剔除重新分配因素後，仍然可以看到非常強勁的經營槓桿效應，這在我們考慮非經營性因素之前就顯而易見。這就是業務的核心，也是我們如何在營收成長之前推動 EBITDA 成長的關鍵所在。

On the second part of your question, the confidence that we have on achieving our targets is driven by a very methodical process that we've gone through to identify all areas of potential savings that -- as we indicated on the call, that we have identified and taken actions that address over half of that target at this point. And we have line of sight on additional opportunities that we'll be pursuing over time.

關於您問題的第二部分，我們對實現目標充滿信心，這源於我們採取的一套非常嚴謹的流程，該流程旨在識別所有潛在的節約領域——正如我們在電話會議中提到的，我們已經識別並採取了行動，目前已實現了超過一半的目標。此外，我們也看到了未來將要追求的其他機會。

Part of these will be influenced by the transitional demands of the separation of our businesses. And so we have transition service obligations for those until those businesses are separated. That's a factor. And we wanted to see how those sorted out before we worked towards the further or the additional decisions that we need to make to achieve that. But we feel very confident in our ability to meet those expectations.

部分工作將受到業務分拆過渡期需求的影響。因此，在業務分拆完成之前，我們負有過渡服務義務。這是一個需要考慮的因素。我們希望先觀察這些問題的解決情況，然後再著手製定實現分拆目標所需的其他決策。但我們對滿足這些預期非常有信心。

Our next question will come from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自傑富瑞集團的史蒂芬妮·摩爾。

I was hoping to get a bit more color on just the international business, maybe some update on how it performed during the quarter and kind of your expectations going forward.

我原本希望能夠更詳細地了解國際業務的情況，例如本季業績如何，以及您對未來的預期。

Sure. Thank you, Stephanie. So I would start off by saying that our international businesses and, obviously, I'm going to presume that the question is directed to our Insurance international businesses. Wood Mackenzie, of course, is an international business, but we kind of covered that in the call.

好的。謝謝你，斯蒂芬妮。首先我想說的是，我們的國際業務，顯然，我假設這個問題是針對我們的保險國際業務的。伍德麥肯茲當然也是一家國際公司，但我們在電話會議中已經談到了這一點。

But on the Insurance side, we have a variety of businesses, on the Claims and on the Underwriting side, probably, most significantly, our Specialty business services or what was formerly known as Sequel, that addresses the Lloyds nonstandard market with a workflow platform and management system for that market.

但在保險方面，我們有各種各樣的業務，包括理賠和承保方面，其中最重要的可能是我們的專業業務服務，或者以前稱為 Sequel 的業務，它通過一個工作流程平台和管理系統來滿足勞合社非標準市場的需求。

That continues to have great success in delivering a very compelling solution, both on the front end of business origination, pricing and rating and then, ultimately, kind of the policy management side. That has continued to drive double-digit growth. And we've seen similar performance from a lot of the other international businesses that we've had.

該方案在業務拓展、定價和評級等前端環節，以及最終的保單管理環節，都持續取得了巨大成功，並提供了極具吸引力的解決方案。這持續推動了兩位數的成長。我們在許多其他國際業務中也看到了類似的業績表現。

I'll turn it over to Mark for some additional color perhaps on the businesses other than Specialty business.

我將把話題交給馬克，讓他補充一些關於專業業務以外其他業務的細節。

Well, I think you had it right. I think we are seeing growth there, which is in excess of our U.S. business. What I also like to highlight, although not organic at this point, the acquisition of Opta, which is a business intelligence solution up in Canada, is a wonderful business, very much aligned with what we do. And the synergies that we anticipated are greater than we anticipated. So I think we're making great progress there, and it's a really nice addition to the Verisk family.

嗯，我覺得你說得對。我們在那裡的業務確實在成長，而且成長速度超過了我們在美國的業務。我還想強調一點，雖然目前還不是自然成長，但我們收購了Opta——一家位於加拿大的商業智慧解決方案提供商——這是一家非常棒的公司，與我們的業務高度契合。而且，我們預期的綜效比預期的還要大。所以我認為我們在那裡取得了巨大的進展，Opta的加入對Verisk大家庭來說是一個非常好的補充。

Our next question will come from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair.

下一個問題將由安德魯·尼古拉斯和威廉·布萊爾提出。

I wanted to follow up on kind of the end-market health and the insurers profitability pressures. I understand that there are some environmental factors here that seem a bit more temporary: auto market, Florida, workers' comp and the like. But are you seeing that lead into kind of the more kind of core traditional conversations? Has there been any impact on the sales cycle in your P&C business or the pipeline? Just trying to understand if some of these issues are truly concentrated in the items that you called out, or if there is the risk of this being a bit more pervasive.

我想進一步了解終端市場健康狀況以及保險公司的獲利壓力。我知道這裡存在一些看似比較暫時的環境因素，例如汽車市場、佛羅裡達州的情況、工傷賠償等等。但是，您是否認為這些因素會影響到更核心的傳統討論？這些因素是否對您的財產保險業務的銷售週期或銷售管道產生了任何影響？我只是想了解這些問題是否真的集中在您提到的那些方面，或者是否有更廣泛的風險。

Yes, good question. I mean, I think you've read it. You've seen it. I mean the insurance industry is, like many, under a little bit of pressure. Inflationary costs and inflation in general is causing pain to their bottom line. The cat, along with some other cats, I mean, another big year, probably $100 billion of losses. So that creates stress and pressure on them to look at costs, look at ways. They can be more focused on underwriting and underwriting discipline.

是的，問得好。我的意思是，我想您也讀過，也看過。保險業和許多其他行業一樣，都面臨著一定的壓力。通貨膨脹和整體通膨正在損害他們的利潤。例如，今年又是損失慘重的年份，損失可能高達1000億美元。這給他們帶來了壓力，迫使他們審視成本，尋找方法，讓他們更專注於承保和承保紀律。

So I would tell you that we have this wonderful business that continues to have a wonderful spot inside of their key decisions. And we have not seen anybody trying to move away, but there is definitely pressure there. There is definitely people scrutinizing every purchase and scrutinizing when and how they buy. So we are seeing some of that. And we've highlighted some of the areas where it's been most -- fall more on the transactional side.

所以我想說，我們這項業務非常出色，它在他們的關鍵決策中一直佔據著非常重要的地位。我們還沒有看到任何人試圖放棄這項業務，但壓力確實存在。人們確實在仔細檢視每一筆交易，以及何時、如何購買。我們已經看到了一些這樣的趨勢。我們也重點關注了其中一些影響最大的領域——這些領域更集中在交易方面。

And Andrew, I want to extend on Mark's comment because that near-term pressure that you're asking too specifically is part of what we're experiencing, but it also creates that broader opportunity because that focus on how do we address the impact of those inflationary costs, not just on our loss and loss adjustment expenses, but also on our operational efficiency and the inflation that we're experiencing that, is driving a more robust dialogue around automation, how we can utilize data to better select risk, how we can improve the processes by creating more connections through the ecosystem to handle a lot of the steps that are probably not as efficient as we could be.

安德魯，我想補充馬克的評論，因為你提到的短期壓力正是我們正在經歷的一部分，但它也創造了一個更廣泛的機會，因為我們關注的重點是如何應對這些通膨成本的影響，不僅是對我們的損失和損失調整費用，還有對我們的營運效率。我們正在經歷的通膨正在推動圍繞自動化展開更深入的對話，探討我們如何利用數據來更好地選擇風險，如何透過生態系統建立更多聯繫來改進流程，從而處理許多可能效率不夠高的步驟。

So I think that while it is creating that -- some of that near-term pressure, it is also bringing a greater urgency and focus, as I described, in the strategic orientation of our client CEOs around how do we solve industry problems that can create a lot of value and savings for them.

所以我認為，雖然這造成了一些短期壓力，但正如我所描述的，這也讓我們的客戶CEO們在戰略方向上更加緊迫和專注，即我們如何解決行業問題，從而為他們創造大量價值和節省成本。

And our final question will come from Heather Balsky with Bank of America.

最後一個問題來自美國銀行的希瑟‧巴爾斯基。

I'd love to get an update from you guys on your cloud transformation and how it's progressing. And then just any color you can give on the implementation costs and then when you kind of expect to see some savings, and what type of savings? And then just with regards to your margin expansion goals, does that incorporate the cost of implementation rolling off and those savings flowing through? Or is that incremental to that target?

我想了解你們雲端轉型的最新進展。另外，能否透露實施成本，以及預計何時能看到一些節省，具體能節省多少？還有，關於你們的獲利成長目標，這個目標是否包含了實施成本的逐步降低和由此帶來的節省？還是說這部分成本是額外計入目標的？

Yes. Thanks, Heather. And I would -- so with regard to cloud transformation, in prior calls, we identified the fact that we're in kind of the final year of that implementation. And we have achieved -- this is a very important distinction. We have achieved operating cash savings when you look at our incremental cloud expenses netted against what would have previously been CapEx expenditure in the business. And so that's -- we believe that it has delivered real cash savings to us.

是的，謝謝，希瑟。關於雲端轉型，在先前的電話會議中，我們提到我們正處於實施的最後一年。我們已經實現了——這是一個非常重要的區別——我們實現了營運現金流的節省，這體現在我們新增的雲端支出與先前業務中的資本支出之間的差額上。因此，我們相信它確實為我們帶來了實質的現金節省。

However, it's important to understand that, that, from an accounting standpoint, from an EBITDA perspective, means that we have added EBITDA expense to our P&L. And so that has come on. We've been able to adjust that, but we're effectively converting depreciation and amortization to EBITDA expense. That's why you'll hear us talk about the headwinds from the cloud and the cloud implementation.

然而，重要的是要理解，從會計角度，從 EBITDA 的角度來看，這意味著我們在損益表中增加了 EBITDA 費用。因此，這種情況確實發生了。我們已經能夠進行調整，但實際上我們是將折舊和攤提轉換為了 EBITDA 費用。這就是為什麼您會聽到我們談論雲端運算和雲端運算實施帶來的挑戰。

We do think that, that incremental cost is one that we are substantially through. And in addition, we have been able to take out the OpEx expense through some of the outsourcing to that third party that we described earlier in the call. All of that is included in the -- in our overall margin improvement targets. So as we have realized those savings, that is factored into the margin element, particularly the outsourcing of our legacy data centers. I think that addresses the 2 parts of your question.

我們認為，這部分增量成本已基本消除。此外，正如我們在電話會議中所提到的，透過外包給第三方，我們也降低了營運支出。所有這些都已納入我們整體利潤率提升目標。因此，隨著這些節省的實現，利潤率的提升也已計入其中，特別是傳統資料中心的外包。我認為這已經回答了您問題的兩個部分。

And that will conclude today's earnings conference call. Thank you very much for participating, and you may now disconnect.

今天的財報電話會議到此結束。非常感謝您的參與，您可以斷開連接了。