UL Solutions Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 20, 2024

There are 13 speakers on the call.

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the UL Solutions First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr.

Operator

Mitchell Gee, Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance at UL Solutions. Thank you. You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Welcome everyone to our Q1 2024 earnings call, our first earnings call as a public company. Joining me today are Jenny Scanlon, our Chief Executive Officer and Ryan Robinson, our Chief Financial Officer. During our discussion today, we will be referring to our earnings presentation, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website atuldot com. Our earnings release is also available on the website.

Speaker 1

I would like to remind everyone that on today's call, we may discuss forward looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements may include, among other things, statements about UL Solutions' results of operations and estimates and prospects that involve substantial risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ in a material way from those expressed or implied in the forward looking statements. Please see the disclosure statement on Slide 2 of the earnings presentation as well as the disclaimers in our earnings release concerning forward looking statements and the risk factors that are described in our quarterly report on Form 10 Q. We assume no obligation to update any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the dates hereof, except as required by law. Today's presentation also includes references to non GAAP financial measures.

Speaker 1

A reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP financial measure can be found in the appendix to the earnings presentation. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Jenny.

Speaker 2

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We have a strong start to 2024 driven by outstanding execution from our team, who are leading our ability to anticipate important tailwinds from the megatrends that define our industry today. Our results fuel our mission of working for a safer world, while achieving attractive shareholder returns expected by a newly public company. During our IPO process, we presented UL Solutions as a global business services company with a well established profile positioned for long term growth, expanded profitability and durable free cash generation. We expect these themes to be consistent and our first quarter results bode well for our future performance.

Speaker 2

I have 4 topics for today's call. 1st, given that this is our first earnings call as a public company, I'll provide a brief overview of UL Solutions. 2nd, I'll highlight key elements contributing to our strong Q1 performance. 3rd, I'll highlight some key customer and growth achievements from the quarter. Finally, I'll emphasize our strong financial position and reiterate our capital allocation plans as a public company.

Speaker 2

While many of you know our story, some don't. So let's start on Slide 5 with an overview of UL Solutions. We are a leading global business services company focused on independent product testing, inspection and certification, employing more than 15,000 talented individuals around the world. On Slide 6, you can see we have 3 segments organized across 2 businesses, which have grown at a 6.9% CAGR since 2011. Our testing, inspection and certification business, affectionately called TIC by the industry, is comprised of our 2 largest segments, industrial and consumer.

Speaker 2

Our tick business provides extensive solutions to a wide array of customers, helping them quickly take new products and systems to market with fewer safety, security and sustainability risks. We focus on product tick, on our customers' innovation and new product development processes and the ecosystems required and distribute those products safely. Our second business and third segment is software and advisory, which complements and extends the value proposition of the TIC business by unleashing the power of our data. Our integrated service portfolio spans 4 service categories: certification testing, ongoing certification services, non certification testing and other services and finally, software services. We at UL Solutions would like you to focus on 5 key themes, which you can see on Slide 7.

Speaker 2

1st, we are a mission driven growth company in a large growing consolidating yet still highly fragmented industry. We believe that as of 2022, we had the largest global market share and product tick, 7% by revenue. 2nd, we are dedicated to safety science and ESG. Customers know that UL solutions will apply science to help solve their most pressing safety, security and sustainability challenges. 3rd, our customer relationships run deep.

Speaker 2

Our 80,000 plus customers span over 35 industries and even more important is how loyal our customers are. Amongst our top 500 customers in 2023, we had a retention rate of 99%. Our business model in these customer relationships result in 45% of our revenue being generated from ongoing certification services and software, both of which are recurring revenue streams. 4th, we are a global leader in an industry that has significant entry requirements. We have built a wide and deep competitive moat and that moat starts with the vast number of accreditations that allow us to attract customers who want to sell their products in over 110 countries.

Speaker 2

Finally, we are fiscally strong. Backed by our healthy balance sheet and strong free cash flow, we are well positioned to fund our ambitions. We employ a disciplined capital allocation strategy that provides flexibility in how we deploy capital and aim to generate returns for our shareholders. As the global safety science leader, we help our customers manufacture safer products, strengthen product security and enhance their products and their company's sustainability. We are relentless in that pursuit, investing in our people and processes to enhance our capabilities for the continuously evolving risks in global markets.

Speaker 2

Now let me present my thoughts on the quarter. Our Q1 performance demonstrated the strength of our business, bolstered by organic robust organic revenue growth achieved in all segments and all regions. We could not have achieved these results without focused execution led by our experienced team for whom I am truly grateful. Our employees' relentless emphasis on safety, science and customer centricity shapes our culture and enhances our business. Our team delivered organic growth of 7.5%, resulting in revenue for the Q1 of US670 1,000,000 dollars We experienced particular strength in our Industrial segment and improving trends in our Consumer segment.

Speaker 2

Importantly, we experienced growth in all three segments across all geographic regions, which was partially offset by the reality that as a global company, we experienced FX impacts. Adjusted EBITDA grew 18% and adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 200 basis points. Our hard work resulted in a 13% increase in adjusted net income and generated $84,000,000 of free cash flow. Next, on Slide 8, let me highlight a few achievements this quarter. The megatrends of energy transition propelled growth.

Speaker 2

Our Korean advanced battery laboratory came fully online this quarter. This new facility provides Korean automotive customers with improved access to the latest large battery safety technology and Joy's other UL solutions laboratories in the United States, Europe and China in unifying our customer centric industrial and EV battery technology solutions. 1 of our largest global accounts Siemens worked with us to achieve and license our first certification that relies on product simulation and a digital model. This remarkable accomplishment has potentially wide ranging implications for future product innovation processes that could dramatically improve customers' speed to market. In our Consumer segment, our North American Retail Center of Excellence opened in Arkansas.

Speaker 2

This lab is our largest lab investment in the retail and consumer product sector in our history. The 100,000 square foot space is one of the most advanced retail testing laboratories in the United States and serves the most important retailers in North America. This new lab also provides our team with greater capacity and extended capabilities to serve our retail customers. As part of our ongoing efforts to better align our software offerings with what our customers need and want, we launched Ultras, a new brand that unifies our flagship software to help customers meet regulatory, supply chain and sustainability challenges. Ultra serves over 10,000 customers around the world and across industries.

Speaker 2

Since January, we've integrated 70% of our revenue generating software portfolio under this bold new brand. Bringing clarity and awareness to our software offerings and strategy has helped our customers understand how they can eliminate cumbersome individual point solutions. Ultras has already broadened our lead generation and new opportunity funnel. Finally, let me comment on our capital allocation philosophy. We boast a history of having a strong balance sheet, robust cash flow generation and disciplined approach to capital allocation.

Speaker 2

Our history and foundation position us to deploy capital in a variety of ways that we expect to generate shareholder returns. As we report in today's segment highlights, we constantly analyze options to invest in the business. We've no shortage of ideas for organic CapEx that supports our customers' innovation, extends our productivity and augments our revenue growth. We continue to evaluate a focused set of M and A opportunities in a disciplined manner, ensuring our investments will enhance our global capabilities or extend our market leading footprint. We are committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet with conservative leverage and investment grade ratings and we expect to return excess capital to shareholders.

Speaker 2

Now let me turn the call over to Ryan, who will provide greater detail on our results and our plans.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Jenny, and hello, everyone. I want to thank all of our team members for delivering another strong quarter. I will first provide more detail on our financial results, then discuss our segment performance. We're proud to report in our first release as a public company, a continuation of strong growth, adjusted EBITDA expansion and solid cash generation. It's encouraging to see that the growth occurred across all of our segments and all of our geographies.

Speaker 3

Now let me dive into the details of the quarter. Consolidated revenues of $670,000,000 were up 6.5% over the prior year quarter, including organic growth of 7.5%. The increase reflected particular strength in the Industrial segment, which delivered 10.0 percent organic growth. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $131,000,000 an improvement of 18% year over year on strength in industrial and consumer. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 19.6 percent, up 200 basis points from the same period a year ago on particular strength from the consumer segment expansion and a reduction in long term incentive expenses.

Speaker 3

Adjusted net income for the Q1 was $61,000,000 or $0.28 per adjusted diluted share, up 13.0 percent from $54,000,000 or 0.26 dollars per adjusted diluted share in the Q1 of 2023. For the Q1, we had 2 compensation items that affected our expense comparisons. In the Q1 of 2024, expenses from cash settled appreciation rights under a private company structure were $11,000,000 lower than Q1 2023. Offsetting this comparative benefit in Q1 2024 was a $9,000,000 increase of higher employee benefit expenses driven by higher healthcare costs. Now let me turn to our performance by segment starting with industrial.

Speaker 3

As we mentioned previously, the Industrial segment was the strongest driver of growth for the quarter. Revenues in the segment rose 9.3% to $295,000,000 or 10.0 percent on an organic basis as compared to the Q1 of 2023. Those impressive gains were driven by robust demand for electrical product and component certification testing as well as strength in renewable energy and building products and markets. We also saw growth in ongoing certification services across most industries due in part to price increases and we experienced growth in non certification testing and other services. Adjusted EBITDA for the industrial segment increased 7.5% to $86,000,000 in the quarter, while adjusted EBITDA margin declined 40 basis points to 29.2 percent as increased compensation costs and professional fees rose faster than the increase in revenue.

Speaker 3

Now turning to the Consumer segment. Revenues in Consumer were $286,000,000 up 4.0% from the 2023 quarter or 5.8% on an organic basis. The improvement was driven by strong demand for non certification testing and other services for consumer technology, particularly for higher electromagnetic compatibility or EMC testing for automotive and connected devices as well as improved retail demand. In addition, strength in medical devices led to improvement in certification testing. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter in consumer was $35,000,000 an increase of 66.7% versus the Q1 of last year.

Speaker 3

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 12.2%, an increase of 4 60 basis points year over year driven by higher revenues, expense management actions taken in 2023 to improve our cost structure and a reduction in long term incentives, which was offset by an increase in bad debt expense. Consumer completed several cost structure improvements in the past year, including relocating 2 laboratories into larger, more cost efficient locations, which contributed to margin improvement. Our 3rd segment is software and advisory. Revenues for that segment were $89,000,000 an increase year over year of 6.0% including 4.8% on an organic basis. The improvement was driven by advisory services, particularly for customers in the renewable energy generation industry.

Speaker 3

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter in software and advisory was $10,000,000 flat as compared to the Q1 of last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 11.2%, a decline of 70 basis points year over year as higher revenues were more than offset by increases in compensation expenses. Turning to our cash generation in the quarter, we entered 2024 building on our record of strong cash flow generation. We delivered $141,000,000 of cash generated from operating activities compared to $161,000,000 in the Q1 of 2023. The decline reflects higher working capital outflow due in part to the timing of incentive payments.

Speaker 3

In 2024, we paid out a long term incentive plan in the Q1. Last year, we paid out the same instrument in the Q2. Capital expenditures were $57,000,000 in the quarter, down from $63,000,000 in the year ago period. We continue to make important investments in energy transition opportunities, a focused growth area for UL Solutions. Free cash flow for the quarter was $84,000,000 compared to $98,000,000 for the Q1 of 2023.

Speaker 3

We finished the quarter with $344,000,000 of cash and equivalents on the balance sheet and a net leverage of 0.9 times net debt to trailing 12 month adjusted EBITDA. The strength of our balance sheet is reflected in our investment grade credit ratings. Our robust balance sheet and cash flow generation give us great flexibility to invest in organic initiatives, accretive acquisitions and to pursue a number of value enhancing ways to produce best in class shareholder returns. Now turning to our full year outlook. On a constant currency basis, we continue to expect organic growth to be in the mid single digits range, driven by continuing strong tailwinds from the electrification of everything and the digitization and sustainability megatrends.

Speaker 3

We expect to drive adjusted EBITDA margin improvement in 2024 and beyond through a combination of key focus areas for the company. First is delivering top line organic growth, where we look for product tick market to grow in mid single digits and for our market share in that area to expand as our investments to scale our business take hold. 2nd, we are driving increased productivity through the automation and digitalization of work through higher utilization of our people and our facilities and by streamlining and standardizing our processes and our metrics. Finally, as we look at M and A, we will concentrate on strategic areas of focus with an eye on a rapid path to margin and earnings accretion. We will continue to evaluate our pipeline of tuck in acquisition opportunities.

Speaker 3

We continue to expect capital expenditures to be approximately 7% to 8% of revenue in 2024. We also thought it would be helpful to share a couple of mechanical items to assist in modeling our outlook. On May 1, we completed the divestiture of our payments testing business in the industrial segment for a base sale price of $30,000,000 That business had annualized revenue of approximately $40,000,000 The divestiture allows our industrial segment to focus on its core product safety services. Additionally, our IPO in the 2nd quarter will affect 2 income statement items in particular. 1st, virtually all cash settled appreciation rights have either matured or were converted to stock settled appreciation rights.

Speaker 3

As a result of the value at the IPO closing, a $9,000,000 pretax expense will be recorded in Q2 2024, which will reduce adjusted EBITDA by $9,000,000 These awards have historically created mark to market expense volatility. As the value of the converted awards was established upon the IPO, they will no longer have mark to market volatility. 2nd, since public companies have a limitation on the tax deductibility of executive compensation, we have reduced the value of some deferred tax assets post IPO, which will result in an increase in the Q2 provision for income taxes of $5,000,000 Now back to the big picture. At UL Solutions, we are focused on creating long term value for our stakeholders. As our results demonstrate, we're continuing to build on our world class product testing, inspection and certification business and our software and advisory businesses to achieve our ambition of being our customers' most trusted science based safety, security and sustainability partner.

Speaker 3

Let me turn the call back to Jenny for her closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Ryan. In summary, we are proud of how our team performed in the Q1 and we look forward to continuing to post solid results for the full year and beyond. While we are newly public, we are not newly for profit and our results reflect our ongoing trend of profitability over the long term. We are a leader in a highly fragmented industry positioned to gain share at an inflection point that's being driven by ever more complex demands from customers and regulators to ensure safety, compliance and sustainability. Our capabilities today are second to none and are easily identified by our iconic brand and differentiated offerings.

Speaker 2

Our customer relationships built over years, even decades, drive high retention rates and revenue predictability. For our strong balance sheet and robust cash flows, we look to deliver outsized long term returns for all stakeholders. We are thrilled to have made the leap to the public markets and I'm excited for what the future holds for UL Solutions. Operator, let's please open the call for questions.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Stephanie Yih with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Hi. This is Stephanie from JPMorgan. Good morning, Jenny and Ryan. Congrats on the Q1. Hi, Stephanie.

Speaker 4

Thank you so much. Thanks, Stephanie

Speaker 3

from JPMorgan.

Speaker 4

I was wondering if you can give us an update on how the Michigan battery lab is tracking.

Speaker 2

Yes. We're thrilled about our long term investment and plans to address industrial battery safety and the EV industry. And we continue to make progress on the build out of that lab and expect it to come online by the end of this year.

Speaker 4

Okay. Sounds great. And I appreciate the guidance you gave for the full year. I was wondering if you can be a little bit more specific in terms of how much you expect margins to improve in 2024?

Speaker 2

Yes. Our margin expansion progression is over a long term and there's some key areas that we intend to really log progress. We've got a great footprint strategy as we're continuing to ensure that we've got the right types of center of excellence in the right locations. So we're making some progress in adding to our lab capacities both in the United States, Mexico and around the world and rightsizing. We're expecting this year our continuation of the work that we've done on our configuration price quote, our single global instance of Salesforce to help extend the efficacy of our go to market strategy and help our sales teams really balance the right margins for every type of service that we offer.

Speaker 2

And then we're continuing to extend our productivity across all our labs by finding ways to better utilize and transmit all of the data that we have on all of the tests and inspections and certifications that we conduct and find better ways to extend our productivity. So over the long term, we are targeting over 24% EBITDA margins, but we haven't listed each step of each way in each year.

Speaker 4

Okay, sounds good. I appreciate the color.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Stephanie.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 5

Hi, thanks. Good morning and congrats on your first quarterly print as a public company.

Speaker 2

Thanks, George.

Speaker 1

You mentioned that of

Speaker 5

course, you mentioned that pricing represented a tailwind to growth in the industrial business. Can you discuss how much pricing contributed to growth in the quarter in industrial as well as in consumer and software and advisory?

Speaker 3

Thank you very much, George. We appreciate the question. And as you know, UL Solutions provides many services and we report them in 4 primary service categories. 2 of them ongoing certification services and software, they comprise about 45% of our revenue and they're largely recurring revenue streams that are updated annually. So they're less suited to price volume metrics.

Speaker 3

The other 55% of our revenue from certification testing and non certification testing are mostly testing services with specific deliverables that were paid for. Those services grew about 8% in the Q1 and we had similar contributions from both price and volume. And then and we'll keep our focus on price and volume at a consolidated level rather than comment at a particular segment level.

Speaker 5

Got it. That's helpful. And then within the industrial segment, can you elaborate on trends that you're seeing in electrification in renewables that could help sustain the positive revenue growth momentum you're seeing?

Speaker 2

Yes, I'm happy to comment on that, George. As I mentioned earlier, we're excited about our global battery strategy and we're focused on both building and acquiring labs that test and certify both industrial batteries and EV solutions. And we really believe that our leadership distinguishes itself because of our science based integrated set of solutions across this global network of laboratories. So as we look at these energy transition challenges and the ways in which both our customers' needs, the way in which they generate, they store, they transmit and they use energy in a more sustainable fashion. And then that ties into the ways in which products are both designed and manufactured.

Speaker 2

We think that staying close to our customers' R and D centers and their manufacturing sites all over the world with our capabilities is a great opportunity for us to extend our value.

Speaker 5

Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Heather Balsky with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 6

Hi, thank you so much for taking my questions. To start, I was hoping you could talk about your organic sales growth this quarter. It was fairly strong. Where did you see outperformance, especially versus maybe what you were planning internally and thoughts on those trends persisting for the rest of the year?

Speaker 2

Yes. We are really encouraged, as we say, by the electrification of everything. And you look in our industrial businesses and in all regions, in all markets, we're seeing continued strength. We're really pleased with the way that energy and industrial automation markets are growing all over the world. And when you look at the fact that our battery strategy, it's not just reflective of EVs, it's reflective of all sorts of products that need electrification, tractors, trucks, buses, lawnmowers, jet skis, and then you look at the charging networks or charging speed or range or battery life, we just continue to see strength and excitement in our set of capabilities that we have to help all of our customers all over the world in these areas.

Speaker 6

That's really helpful. Thank you. And my follow-up is actually just a housekeeping question. For the and Ryan, this touches on probably your favorite topic, CSAR. You talked about unscripted remarks.

Speaker 6

Can you just remind us the impact from CSAR last year, what it was this quarter? And then also, are you adding back IPO costs in your adjusted number? And how much were those in 1Q 2024?

Speaker 3

Yes. So the CSAR difference between Q1 last year and Q1 this year was $11,000,000 It was a $10,000,000 expense in the Q1 of last year and a $1,000,000 benefit this year. And that's just a slight mark to market difference from a year end valuation to a Q1 difference. We're not adding back IPO related expenses and adjusted EBITDA in the Q1, specifically costs related to transaction execution were about $2,000,000 There are other costs as part of being a public company that we that will continue to have, but specifically the transaction costs were $2,000,000

Speaker 6

Thank you very much. And we'll look forward to when we don't need those updates. So thank you very much.

Speaker 5

Yes. So will we. Thank you.

Speaker 4

We all will. Yes.

Speaker 7

Thank

Operator

you. Our next question comes from the line of Andy Wittmann with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 8

Great. Thank you. Let's see where do I want to go. Let's talk about the healthcare costs. I guess, I think, Ryan, you mentioned this in your script, you said it was up $9,000,000 year over year.

Speaker 8

I was just wondering how expected those were or if there were some just individual large claims that drove that? Is there something that's changing in your plan or your modeling of that that we should know about? Any comments there would be helpful. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Yes. Thank you very much, Andy. Yes, as a people based business, compensation employee benefit costs are material part of our cost structure, particularly in the United States. We did see an increase in employee benefit costs in the Q1. The largest contributor to that was healthcare, not the only contributor.

Speaker 3

And we think our trends are generally consistent with what others are reporting overall across the industry, both in medical care as well as pharmaceutical. There's an increase. We felt it more sharply in the Q1 and that was higher than we had anticipated. It's difficult to forecast what healthcare utilization and cost will be, but it's something we continue to monitor and as we reach out to our advisors in the space, we're not alone in the situation.

Speaker 8

Got it. That's helpful context. Appreciate that. Maybe you could just talk a little bit, Jenny, about the divestiture here. Obviously, you saw it as non core.

Speaker 8

Just as you look at that one, can you talk about why it was non core? Other options that you might be considering? Is there potential for other divestitures here, do you think? And then just I'm going sneak a quick third one in. And Ryan, for you, just if you could talk about the share count.

Speaker 8

I just wanted to make sure that with all the CSRs that vested in the 2nd quarter, the switch from cash settled to stock, if that changes the share count, I would just want to make sure that we have that for the rest of the year. I know you had some comments in your press release on that. I just want to make sure that we had the pro form a, I guess, you would for the IPO share count. Sorry for the third one, but that would be helpful.

Speaker 2

Yes, absolutely. Let me give you some context on the recent divestiture and then our broader focus on growth. But we've emphasized a lot that we are in Product TIC and we like Product TIC. It's just it's great growth, it's less cyclical, it plays to our strengths in our science based leadership and it's something that really matters to consumers and industrial customers. So as we execute our long term long range planning and look at our investment choices, in this particular area, which was of a payments testing business.

Speaker 2

So if you picture chips on credit cards and testing the security of that technology, it's an area that we didn't warrant as being as important for future investment to our broader strategy as it would be to a different owner. So it made sense for us to divest that business to a group that is interested in focusing on that growth area. But truly for us, our business development teams, I'd much prefer to have them focus on growth and we are not expecting right now any additional divestitures into the future.

Speaker 3

And then on the final question about share count, we will soon file our 10 Q and in that we'll have a subsequent event note that details many things related to the initial public offering, including the math related to those CSAR conversions. I would say even between the March 31st date and the IPO, coincidentally, there was a expiration and maturity. So we will assist everyone with kind of walking down the share count differences, the impact of the incentive instruments in that subsequent note. I'd say that's the easiest way to give you the exact detail.

Speaker 8

Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Andy.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 9

Hi, good morning. This is Daniel Maxwell on for Andrew today. To start off, maybe what you're seeing in the consumer business? It seems like maybe there's some continued momentum there from mid-twenty 23 experiences. So if you can frame what you're seeing there maybe in terms of number of SKUs or general customer sentiment and relatedly what you're seeing in terms of product life cycles and any change to the upside or downside there over the

Speaker 7

last couple of months?

Speaker 2

Yes, I'll start. I would say what we're really seeing is, I think, a return to a level of innovation and new product development, particularly in the areas of wireless devices and medical devices as Ryan indicated. And we're seeing that from customers in every market. Also in our more retail focused business, our non certification testing services in those areas. We're seeing continued growth in number of SKUs and growth in the amount of testing again in every market around the world.

Speaker 2

And then finally, I think something to know, we've added capacity in consumer in a number of different places. We've got a new HVAC lab down in Texas. We talked about our RCP Retail Center of Excellence in Bentonville, Arkansas. We added some EMC capacity last year here in the United States. And all of those, like all of our CapEx, we're seeing good returns on that invested capital.

Speaker 2

So there's some real strength and some tailwinds in consumer right now.

Speaker 9

Great. That's helpful. And then from a follow-up, maybe a little bit more on the M and A pipeline and the opportunities that you're seeing there. Any changes to valuations you're seeing across different markets? And then maybe if any one specific area is sticking out that's attractive for tuck ins either segment wise or geographically?

Speaker 3

Thank you very much, Daniel. Yes, we continue to pursue a pipeline of acquisitions, including tuck in acquisitions to extend our leadership position in several areas. I would say in particular, we're focused on the key investment themes that we've spoken to, including energy transition, transmitted, how it's stored and how it's used. So we continue to be active. We have not seen material changes on the valuation front.

Speaker 3

It is an attractive sector with both financial and strategic participants. So there has not been a material change, I would say, to point out on valuations.

Speaker 2

And one other piece I would like to add, as our focus on Product Tech is our most important emphasis, there are some interesting elements in what I would call product ticks adjacent areas that could extend the value of our advisory services or the strength of our software businesses that support our product tech customers. So we've got a wide lens of opportunities that we always continue to evaluate.

Speaker 1

Great. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Good morning.

Speaker 4

Good morning. I wanted to touch on the North American Retail Center of Excellence that you highlighted that you opened in Arkansas. If you think about the opportunity of this new center, can you maybe outline not only the top line opportunities just given the massive expansion and scale that you have there, but also what this can mean from a margin standpoint, how this differs from maybe strategies in the past or maybe a bit more decentralized, anything there would be great. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Absolutely. It's really a fun facility to visit because we do such a wide range of product testing from the metals and jewelry to how long candles burn to having a 2 story rain room to see what happens to tents or other really supposedly waterproof structures. What's great about this lab is that we were able to take our capabilities from a number of different locations and consolidate them under one roof, which really helps our customers both insofar as any types of visits or witness testing or anything else that's appropriate for them to do across the board on products. But it also provides this great customer experience opportunity where our customers can witness how their products are actually being used and make decisions about their suppliers or their design or other elements that are important to their merchandising strategy. So it's really an exciting lab.

Speaker 2

And as I said, we were able to take equipment and consolidate from a few other locations and we'll continue to do so as the timing and the opportunity is correct. So it's an exciting space that's definitely improved our utilization and our capacity.

Speaker 4

Got it. And just maybe a follow-up question. On the Software and Advisory business margin performance for quarter, I think you called out just some higher increases in compensation. Just trying to kind of rationalize the margin performance that we saw in 4Q, the step down 4Q to 1Q. If you could just give us a bit more color, whether it's around seasonality as the year progresses, some other one time costs, trying to get a sense of what is probably a more consistent margin profile for that segment?

Speaker 4

Thanks.

Speaker 3

Thank you very much for the question. I would say one of the changes that we call compensation broadly included those employee benefit expenses in medical. You can see the change in margin on a dollar basis is $1,000,000 or $2,000,000 can make a big difference in that segment. So I would say that was the primary factor. We do anticipate margin expansion in that segment, particularly as software grows and contributes high incremental margins.

Speaker 3

We're seeing growth in our advisory segment, particularly related to renewable energy. So in the theme of energy transition, we're seeing support in software and advisory for wind and renewable projects as well as products on the industrial side in wind and solar. So to answer your question, we anticipate margin expansion as we continue to grow the software and advisory segment.

Speaker 2

Yes. And just one more line to add. We are not satisfied with our margins in software and advisory today. And it is the business that has the greatest drop through. So our emphasis on revenue and growth and in particular, with the Altris launch, we expect to relentlessly pursue expansion of our EBITDA margin in software and advisory.

Operator

Great. Thank you so much.

Speaker 10

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Arthur Truslove with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 11

Thank you very much everyone and well done on the Q1. A few from me, if I may. So the first one, your Consumer division margin is 4.60 basis points at the EBITDA level. Obviously, productivity has played a part of that and obviously revenue as well. Are you expecting that kind of level of progression, so 4.60 odd basis points to persist through the year or not?

Speaker 11

And how should we think about that as we work through the year? And second question, a bit of a boring one, but your guidance for the year is mid single digit organic growth. Obviously, you just started as a public company and obviously you did 7.5% in Q1. What exactly do you mean by mid single digit? Is 7.5 mid single digit?

Speaker 11

If you could just sort of say what the ranges are for mid single digit, high single digit? And indeed, what low single digit would that would be really helpful? And then final one from me. Clearly, industrial, very strong, 10% organic growth in the Q1. Are you can you see reasons why that number comes down?

Speaker 11

Or as you see things today, is it reasonable to think that that sort of level might persist for the rest of the year? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Great. Thank you very much, Arthur. Really good questions. And we are pleased with consumers 5.8 percent organic growth and the 4 60 basis point adjusted margin expansion that was up $14,000,000 And as Jenny said, the consumer team took steps to improve the efficiency of the operations, including 2 major lab relocations, the North American Retail Center of Excellence as well as move to a large lab in Shenzhen in South China. Now that said, roughly half of that increase was the difference in CSAAR expense that I mentioned.

Speaker 3

Also in Q1 last year, consumer had some severance costs, which benefited the comparison to this year. So in all, the operating improvements drove material margin expansion, but the majority of the changes were related to those significant Q1 2023 items. So we do anticipate some ongoing margin improvement, but we did want to clarify kind of the extraordinary items in the Q1 of last year. And then in regard to what does mid single digit mean and exactly what are the brackets of those, I would say 7.5% is like right on the edge of mid single digits. So I would say that that falls within that language.

Speaker 3

Honestly, we haven't written out the exact edges of those. What that means for the remainder of the year and also this connects to your third question about industrial revenue performance. As we progress in the year, we do anticipate some steeper compares. We had really strong Q4 for instance of last year. But our vitality of our business is strong.

Speaker 3

We're looking forward to executing through the rest of the year and serving our customers. So that led us to the comment about mid single digit revenue growth.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jason Haas with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 12

Hey, good morning and thanks for taking my questions. I'm curious to follow-up on your answer to that last question. In terms of what you've seen so far in the quarter to date period, have you seen organic growth rates continue to trend at the levels that you saw in 1Q or have they begun to moderate on the top of compares?

Speaker 2

I think the best way to think about it is particularly when you look at our industrial business, our projects are long and our revenue recognition is over the duration of those projects. And so as we continue throughput and our capacity, we feel really good about the results that we saw in the Q1. Yes.

Speaker 3

And just in general, we refrain from commenting on activity in this quarter.

Speaker 12

Got it. Okay. That's fair. And then I also wanted to follow-up on the software business. It looks like from what we get to from the disclosures, it was revenue was flat year over year in 1Q.

Speaker 12

I imagine that you are expecting some growth in that business going forward. So, Chris, if you could talk about when you expect to see some inflection in growth from Ultris or some of your other initiatives there? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. And I want to clarify the distinction between our software and advisory segment and our software service line. So that software services revenue comprises all of our software. About 90% of that is managed by and reported under the Software and Advisory segment. But there is 10% of that that's managed by our other segments.

Speaker 2

So emphasizing the software that's managed by the software and advisory segments, it did grow slightly. Ultris was launched at the end of January, and we're really encouraged by the opportunities that our sales teams have out there to discuss a broader set of capabilities and software solutions with our customers versus those individual point solutions. We look at new software revenue, churn rates, renewals, other pieces. And we're encouraged by the growth prospects that Altris is allowing us to pursue.

Speaker 10

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 7

Hi, thank you. I have one question just about trends and then a couple of housekeeping ones. Jenny, could you talk a little bit about any changes that you expect to be in the revenue drivers for the rest of the year versus what you've seen in the Q1? It's a pretty strong quarter. I know that the comps are getting a little bit harder.

Speaker 7

But are you expecting any areas to kind of step up or step down in terms of kind of their contribution to growth? And you don't have to break it up by units, but maybe by just general areas of what you're seeing.

Speaker 2

I think what we're seeing across the board in every one of our operating units in every one of our regions is this general strength associated with what I'm going to call electrification of everything, the need for more sustainable energy sources and products, that connection and that transformation from the physical to the digital as well as, this general demand for transparency across supply chains that ultimately ties to sustainability reporting. So as we look across the board, we're seeing just again general strength in heating and cooling and residential and commercial space, broader industrial environments, energy storage, the way in which the grid has to change to handle wind and solar and renewable energy sources and storage systems, and all of these pieces that are just fueling the megatrends that are driving our areas of emphasis. So I'm excited about these trends and don't see any reason to believe that they're slowing down.

Speaker 7

Okay, great. And then Ryan, just a couple of like housekeeping stuff for modeling. First of all, what was the EBITDA that might be going away with the divestiture? Or if you prefer to say, what was the annualized EBITDA last year? And then I didn't see any breakout of intangible amortization of the quarter.

Speaker 7

Is that going to be something that you're going to be adding back to net income? Or is that somewhere that it's going to be separated out or that's going to show up in the queue? How are we going to get a view on that with the acquisition strategy?

Speaker 3

Yes. So I would say the divestiture, which is $40,000,000 on a trailing revenue basis, had a modestly positive contribution margin, but it's small in the big picture of UL. So we didn't think it worthy of adjusting down. We will manage expenses to offset that. And then in regard to amortization, we will detail that in the Q and there'll be a lot more information on that.

Speaker 3

And the divestitures I mentioned was in the industrial segment. It could have some impact on expense allocation among overhead allocation among the 3 segments. So if that's material, we'll help people understand that as well.

Speaker 7

Thanks. Is Q coming out today?

Speaker 3

It will be out soon. It will be out soon.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Josh Chan with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 10

Hi, good morning, Jane and Ryan. So you mentioned your ability to raise price with the testing services earlier. Could you just talk to your ability to raise price in the recurring pieces of your business? Kind of how should we think about that going forward? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. With regard to the way our recurring revenue works, when you look at ongoing certification services, those are the visits that our field engineers typically make 4 times a year to accordance to the standards that we certified. Those are annual contracts with our customers and those contracts are required for the life of a product in the market that bears AUL mark on it. So we work with our customers in the Q4 of each year and reset those contracts and that's the timing of when any price increases go through. With regard to the 10% of our recurring revenue that software services, as we are extending the length of those software contracts, that gives us the opportunity to add in appropriate pricing moves.

Speaker 2

And so while that doesn't happen all in the same quarter typically, it happens at the timing of those renewals and then as part of the new software as a service sales. Is that helpful? Yes,

Speaker 10

that is really helpful. Yes, thanks for the color. I really appreciate it. And then for my follow-up, could I ask about the Industrial segment margin? You mentioned that it was a little bit lower this quarter versus last year because of compensation.

Speaker 10

But I assume that for the full year, you probably expect expansion in margins. So could you just talk through what changes to drive that margin expansion in industrial for the full year? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. We do expect full year expansion for the industrial margin. Our Q1 overall is slightly lower revenue than the other quarters. So for instance, last year, it was about 23% of our full year revenue, but our expenses are continuing. So smaller changes in things like employee benefit costs, healthcare costs or in the case of industrial professional services related to some of the investments in growth initiatives we have had an impact on the margin in the Q1.

Speaker 3

But you're correct, we anticipate on a full year basis for that to increase.

Speaker 10

Okay, great. Thank you for the color and thanks for your time.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we've come to the end of our time allowed for questions. I'll turn it back to Ms. Gamlett for any final comments.

Speaker 2

Thank you everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your support and we look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter.

Speaker 3

Thank you very much everyone.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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Earnings Conference Call
UL Solutions Q1 2024
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