Yahoo Finance Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ:STGW) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ:STGW) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 27, 2024
Stagwell Inc. misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.12 EPS, expectations were $0.28. STGW isn't one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Ben Allanson: Good morning from Stagwell's Global Headquarters at One World Trade Center in New York City. And welcome to Stagwell Inc's Earnings Webcast for Q4 and Full Year 2023. My name is Ben Allanson, and I lead the Investor Relations function here at Stagwell. With me today are Mark Penn, Stagwell's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Frank Lanuto, the Chief Financial Officer. Mark will provide a business update and Frank will share a financial review. After the prepared remarks, we will open the floor for Q&A. You're welcome to submit questions through the chat function. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that the following remarks include forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial data. Forward-looking statements about the company, including those related to earnings guidance, are subject to uncertainties and risk factors addressed in our earnings release, slide presentation, and the company's SEC filings.
Please refer to our website stagwellglobal.com/investors for an investor presentation and additional resources. This morning's press release and slide deck provide definitions, explanations, and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial data. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mark Penn.
Mark Penn: Thank you, Ben, and thank you to everyone joining us for our fourth quarter and full-year earnings call. With 2023 behind us, we're ready to return in 2024, a political year to the organic growth that Stagwell showed year after year since its inception, while we strongly execute our strategy to transform marketing through the right combination of technology and talent. 2023 saw a combination of unique factors weigh on the marketing services industry. Persistent worries about a potential recession, rising interest rates, and geopolitical risk resulted in significant restructuring actions, particularly at tech companies as well as meaningful cuts across marketing budgets, add to that a banking crisis and strikes within autos and entertainment industries.
Despite all this, Stagwell grew market share with some of our largest customers, continued to win significant new business, and delivered another year of strong adjusted EBITDA generation by taking prudent cost management steps. We also made significant moves with a lasting positive impact on our business. In the first quarter, we successfully completed a secondary offering, which helped to boost our liquidity. The equity research analyst community has taken note of increased interest in Stagwell after this offering, and we now have eight covering analysts. In the second quarter, we moved to simplify our capital structure and removed an overhang by buying out AlpInvest. This transaction and other buybacks completed throughout the year successfully reduced our share count by 12%.
In the fourth quarter, we completed the sale of ConcentricLife to Accenture for $245 million, representing a sale at 18 times EBITDA and approximately 4 to 5 times our initial investment. This sale of a company that I had never been asked about by investors or analysts is representative of the Company's underlying value and produced a taxable gain of about $175 million this year. We've already replaced the revenue and EBITDA given up by the transaction, while only using a fraction of the proceeds. We believe that modest portfolio turnover at multiples higher than those we pay for acquisitions is a vital part of our operations moving forward. As I previously mentioned, we expect to close another profitable disposition later this year. We also moved to strengthen our services, grow our geographic footprint, and invest in innovation to keep us at the forefront of digital marketing.
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