Globant Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 20, 2025

There are 17 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to Globant's fourth quarter and full year twenty twenty four earnings conference call. I'm Arturo Langa, investor relations officer at GloWand. All participants on this call will be on listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Kindly refrain from raising hands as we'll aim to address a select number of questions to ensure efficiency.

Operator

Please note this event is being recorded and streamed live on YouTube. By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release. If you have not, a copy is available on our website, investors.globant.com. Our speakers today are Martin Migoya, cofounder and chief executive officer, Juan Urtayague, chief financial officer, Patricia Pomeas, chief operating officer, and Diego Tartara, global chief technology officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of our comments on our call today may be deemed forward looking statements.

Operator

This includes our business and financial outlook and the answers to some of your questions. Such statements are subject to the risk and uncertainties as described in the company's earnings release and other filings with the SEC. Please note that we follow IFRS accounting rules in our financial statements. During our call today, we will report non IFRS or adjusted measures, which is how we track performance internally and the easiest way to compare Globant to our peers in the industry. You will find a reconciliation of IFRS and non IFRS measures at the end of the press release we published on our investor relations website announcing this quarter's results.

Operator

I'd like to turn the call over to Martin Migoya, our CEO.

Speaker 1

Welcome. Good afternoon and hello everyone. We're facing a major transformation. It is a revolution that Globant has not only anticipated, but has been shaping for many years. With advanced in AI, the lines between technology and business are fading.

Speaker 1

Today, it's not just a tool, but the core of enterprise reinvention. While many technology players are jumping on the AI revolution, branding themselves as experts without having made any real investments in the field, Globant has been investing in AI for the past ten years. This long term commitment means we are not merely riding the wave of the latest trends. We have developed deep proven expertise in the field. Creating technology that dares to delight is not just about writing code.

Speaker 1

It is about creating meaningful value in a world powered by AI agents, industry specific intelligence and a human touch. We were building software with purpose, shaping experiences, driving impact and pushing the boundaries of what technology can achieve. Many doubted, but this was not our guide. Vision was. Along the journey, we have worked on projects that redefine the user experience from game face ID technology at the new LA Clippers into dome to the digital ecosystem of Qiddiya in Saudi Arabia, to the next generation passenger experience at one of the top airlines in The UK.

Speaker 1

Our momentum is undeniable. We're no longer just scaling. We are orchestrating an ecosystem of AI agents that automate complex processes, not only in operations, but across digital front end, back end, digital branding creativity and enterprise functions. At the heart of this transformation are our AI studios. These studios are not just another business unit.

Speaker 1

They are the epicenter of our reinvention strategy. They are designed to embed AI deeply within industries, leveraging company specific data, insights from ERPs, CRMs and other transactional systems and generating synthetic data to train models to learn, adapt and evolve. They represent the boldest expression of what we believe the future holds. A future where AI doesn't just support business, it drives them. Powering this entire ecosystem is our global enterprise AI platform.

Speaker 1

The orchestration software that seamlessly integrates and manage all these AI agents. Enterprise AI provides LLM model independence and stability, ensuring that our clients are not locked into a single technology provider. More importantly, it delivers complete traceability of AI driven processes offering transparency, accountability, and the ability to monitor and pivot strategies in real time. Enterprise AI is the backbone that supports our AI studios, enabling us to offer robust, adaptable and scalable AI solutions to enterprise around the world. The platform is being implemented to accelerate the software development life cycle in most of our current projects.

Speaker 1

We have seen an outstanding growth of AI related projects at Globant. In 2024, they contributed over $350,000,000 to our revenue, up 110% from 2023. But technology alone isn't enough. Combining branding with technology creates products that are not just functional, but emotionally resonant and culturally relevant. In a world where widespread access to technology lets to commoditize look alike products, we advocate for merging creative storytelling with tech development to build products that stand out.

Speaker 1

At Globant, we believe that brand is text prompt. A strong brand should be the foundation for technology ensuring it reflects the company's core values and creates meaningful connections. This approach ensures that technology doesn't just solve problems. It tells stories, evokes emotions, and build lasting loyalty. This has been the mission driving the growth of Global Guts, our creative marketing network of studios.

Speaker 1

Through many smart marketing campaigns with brand ranging from Coca Cola to Mercado Libre to Verizon, today our Global Guts network represents close to 10% of our total revenue and is showing a strong and sustained growth year over year. All these efforts are combined with global entrepreneurial culture. We want to inspire every global to feel like they own the place. I'm sure that this is what was behind our performance in 2024. While our peers reported stagnant growth, we broke new records.

Speaker 1

Annual revenue reached $2,400,000,000 up 15.3% over previous year. Marching also improved. Adjusted operating profit was up by 20 basis points and adjusted diluted EPS grew 11.5% year over year to $6.40. As we close 2024 and looking back at our first ten years as a listed company, Globant delivered a 28.3 compound annual growth rate from 2014. In Q4, total revenue reached $642,500,000 This represents an increase of 10.6% year over year and 4.5% quarter over quarter.

Speaker 1

This growth is not just a testament to our resilience, but a reflection of a vision and transformation that goes beyond our competitors. It is the embodiment of our strategy, our relentless pursuit of reinvention and our ability to see opportunities where others see obstacles. Even if we build this AI powered future, we know that AI requires continuous leadership, technical talent, and a mindset that embrace reinvention as a constant state, not an occasional need. Our people define the goals, guide the agents, and pivot strategies in an environment of constant change. For over two decades, we have challenged the status quo often seen as outliers in an industry obsessed with the next quick win.

Speaker 1

We were not building for the next quarter. We were building for the next paradigm. Today, we are creating a company that is both an established force and an agile change maker. We have proven that we are capable of reshaping industries and redefining business models. We are not here to follow the curve.

Speaker 1

We're here to bend it. Now I'll hand it over to Diego for our technology focus. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Martin, and hello, everyone. As Martin mentioned, coupling generative AI with Agentec solutions will benefit Globant both as a solutions developer and as a business consultancy. In November, CodeFixer, the AI agent developed through Globant Enterprise AI to fix bugs and already in use by Globers globally, ranked first in the renowned SWE Benchlight evaluation confirming its exceptional performance. AI agents are being leveraged big time by our industry specific studios to enhance our value offering and are integral to our partnerships. Over the past six months, Globant has successfully implemented Salesforce Agent Force across multiple industries, driving AI powered automation and efficiency.

Speaker 2

For example, we partnered with Spain's top flight sports organization to enhance fan engagement with a real estate developer to optimize transportation bookings and with an employee benefits management company to improve real time order tracking. With Google, days ago, we presented a new Gen AI solution for retail. AI retail search and recommendations allows customers to interact with their beloved brands using semantic searches and images as references for what they are looking for. Using Vertex retail API and Gemini, AI retail search and recommendations is designed to enhance personalization, drive conversions, and improve customer services. Also with Google, we recently signed a three year strategic partner agreement that has positioned us among top 10 Google regional system integration partners.

Speaker 2

Through this collaboration, we are co developing solutions and go to market strategies for key industries, including media, retail, HLS, airlines and finance. Now let me share some of the work we are doing for amazing companies around the world. In Mexico, Globe And Gut began a strategic partnership with DIAGEO aimed at revolutionizing its e commerce business. We are integrating technology, data analytics and creative content to enhance the online shopping experience and boost brand visibility. The three sixty scope includes a dedicated data team to ensure campaign relevance, a content team to optimize product visibility on digital platforms, and a retail media strategy aimed at maximizing advertising ROI.

Speaker 2

This partnership is not just about maintaining leadership, but about innovating the retail experience through technology and creativity. In our vibrant new markets division, Globant has partnered with Red Sea Global, one of Saudi Arabia's most ambitious tourism destinations that will be home to 50 resorts, 8,000 hotel rooms, and 1,000 residential properties by 02/1930. We will create an advanced digital program designed to transform the connected visitor experience. It will be based on an ecosystem that integrates artificial intelligence, IoT, and data analytics. This connected visitor experience will provide intuitive, real time interactions tailored to individual preferences, ensuring a truly memorable stay.

Speaker 2

This partnership will pioneer new benchmarks in digital engagement, revolutionizing how travelers interact with destinations. In the health and life sciences sector, we are proud of our growing and transformative partnership with Hollister, a global medtech company. Globant enabled a successful go live for Hollister's Canada business and looks forward to a continued partnership to implement a global business transformation, including a migration to SAP S4HANA. Ultimately, this means faster database interaction, real time insight into business operations and advanced process automation and efficiency. In Japan, we are working with Risona Bank Group, one of the country's largest retail banks with 16,000,000 individual customers.

Speaker 2

They chose GeneXus to support the migration of most of the business operations currently performed through ATMs and financial terminals at brick and mortar branches to computers and other electronic devices offering a better and easier experience to their customers. Rizona Bank Group was able to reduce half of its financial terminals through a lean and quick project. As shown by our work around the globe, Globant is leveraging all significant technologies while exploring new ones on the horizon. I suggest you take a look at Globant's latest tech trends report to learn about synthetic humans, quantum computing, invisible experiences, and robotics and more on our vision over AI agentic solutions. Adding to what Martin mentioned, Globant is in a unique position to craft a new reinvention of the industry with amazingly talented people, an evolving technological offering, and an agile and disruptive culture.

Speaker 2

I leave you all with Patricia Pomies, our COO. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Diego. Globant continues to envision its growth through the strong relationships we cultivate with each client, establishing a proven track record of quality delivery and consistently surpassing their expectations over time. Currently, we have 20 clients generating over $20,000,000 in annual revenue, up from 16 clients one year ago. We have 346 clients contributing more than $1,000,000 annually, 35 more than one year ago. Revenue from our largest client, the Walt Disney Company, increased by a sharp 23.7% year over year and 5.1% quarter over quarter.

Speaker 3

Regionally, our most significant growth this quarter came from our new markets region, encompassing our efforts in The Middle East and Asia Pacific, where revenue increased by 43.8% quarter over quarter and 89% year over year. Year over year, Europe showed growth of 23.3% and North America at 6.5%, but 3.7% sequentially, pointing to some acceleration. Latin America showed a 1.3% decline, but 6.3% growth in constant currency terms. We are reinforcing our go to market strategy worldwide in order to maximize the potential of our AI studios, which have been critical in capturing our largest projects throughout this year. Across each region, we are hiring industry leading talent in key growth sectors that include airlines, BFSI, travel and hospitality, among others.

Speaker 3

Our objective will be to provide more tailored solutions to our clients that meld the best from both a technology focus and industry specific knowledge. Our global revenue sources continue to diversify. North America accounts for 55.2% of our top line, followed by Latin America at 20.4%, Europe at 17.7%, and our new markets at 6.7%. Additionally, in q four, '5 out of eight industry verticals experienced sequential growth with BFSI up by 18.4%, travel and hospitality by 17.1%, healthcare by 14.6%, consumer retail and manufacturing by 4.7%, and technology and telecommunications by 2.2%. The essence of Globant lies in our role as transformation partners, collaborating with our clients to drive meaningful change together over time.

Speaker 3

02/2024 saw steps forward in that vision. Our pipeline is strong and continues to grow. Estimated at $2,600,000,000 in early twenty twenty four, it reached a record 3,300,000,000.0 by the end of the year. This was mainly driven by our North America division, with the pipeline reaching a record high and bookings growing 8.2% quarter over quarter as of q four. Similarly, in Europe, we are now seeing a strong evolution of both pipeline and bookings activity, with bookings in this region growing by 35.7% sequentially.

Speaker 3

The strong backlog of work will drive strong momentum for this region throughout the year. We see the later factors combined as indicators that long term demand is increasing and should eventually turn into higher bookings and revenue acceleration. In Q4, we surpassed a special milestone of 30,000 Globers throughout the world. Our total headcount now stands at 31,280, a 7.3% increase over last year, with 29,198 being IT professionals. Our utilization rate is currently at 79.3%, showing a slight decrease against last quarter.

Speaker 3

Our attrition rate stands at 9.5%. On our path to becoming the world's number one AI partner, we recognize the importance of equipping our teams with the latest proficiency in AI. In December, we launched a new AI learning hub, an internal platform that provides essential resources for Globers to access Globant Enterprise AI, our AI accelerator platform, and each AI agent and maximize its use in their daily tasks and projects, optimizing operational efficiency and creating value for our clients. We firmly believe technology is a powerful force for inclusion and transformation. In 2020, we committed to providing 15,000 coding scholarships by 2025 through the program Code Your Future.

Speaker 3

Today, we are very proud to announce that we have reached this goal one year ahead of schedule. Empowering people worldwide with digital skills, this milestone reflects our commitment to bridging technology gaps and fostering a more inclusive future. With that, I'll turn it over to Juan to discuss our financials. Thank you, everyone.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Pato, and good afternoon, everyone. This has been another quarter of strong revenue growth and margin improvement. This strong quarter marks another year of Globant's outstanding performance. Let me go through some of the highlights. Our revenues reached a record level of $642,500,000 up 10.6% year over year and 4.5% sequentially within the guidance range In constant currency, revenue growth stood at 12.6% year over year and 5.8% sequentially.

Speaker 4

We estimate an 8.5% year on year revenue growth in organic constant currency terms for Q4. Revenue for the full year was $2,415,700,000 within the guidance range or 15.3% over the prior year. In constant currency, revenues for the year grew 16.2% while the organic constant currency growth for 2024 was 9.8%. This strong growth was driven by the expansion of our service offerings and global footprint, with important growth contributions from our AI industry reinvention studio network and our gut studio network, which both posted growth above the company average We delivered a quarter of improving margins We closed Q4 with an adjusted gross profit margin of 38.3%, up 30 basis points year over year Our adjusted operating margin at 15.7%, the highest recorded in the past eight quarters, reflected an increase of 40 basis points year over year Adjusted SG and A stood at 18.5%, and our effective tax rate stood at 15.1% for the quarter, resulting in an adjusted net income of $78,700,000 with a 12.2% adjusted net profit margin, up 40 basis points sequentially. Adjusted diluted EPS was $1.75 up 8% year over year ending at the higher end of our previous guidance.

Speaker 4

Regarding our 2024 full year performance, the adjusted gross profit margin was 38.2%, up 10 basis points relative to 2023. Adjusted operating margin closed at 15.4%, up 20 basis points versus the previous year. Adjusted SG and A for the year stood at 18.4% and our effective tax rate stood at 19.7%, resulting in an adjusted net income of $285,400,000 Our balance sheet remains healthy ending the quarter with 1.5% year over year. Our balance sheet remains healthy, ending the quarter with $156,100,000 in cash and short term investments or $136,500,000 in net debt. As of the end of the year, we had $290,700,000 drawn from our $725,000,000 revolving credit facility.

Speaker 4

We have ample liquidity to support our growth initiatives. During the fourth quarter, we generated $101,200,000 of free cash flow, achieving a free cash flow to adjusted net income ratio of 128.6% for the fourth quarter. On a full year basis, free cash flow was $138,100,000 resulting in a ratio to adjusted net income of 48.4% Now, let's discuss guidance We will start guiding constant currency, both for the next immediate quarter and the full year, aiming to provide more color into our underlying growth given the current volatility in FX. Regarding Q1, we had already been expecting a more muted start to the year due to lower billable days, negative seasonality and holidays in the Southern Cone, alongside important project roll offs in our sports vertical. Additionally, we are now embedding two factors that were previously not expecting.

Speaker 4

First, the recent volatility in political and macroeconomic conditions is impacting the demand in Latin America, specifically in Mexico and Brazil. Second, we expect revenues at our top client to be slightly down in Q1, following a very strong investment phase in H2 twenty twenty four. We are forecasting this account to grow in the mid to high single digit range for the year. For Q1, we expect revenues in the range of $618,000,000 to $628,000,000 which represents an 8.2% to 10% year over year increase or a 10.2% to 12% increase in constant currency, accounting for approximately 200 basis points of FX headwind. For Q1 twenty twenty five, we expect our adjusted operating margins between 15.516.5%.

Speaker 4

The IFRS effective income tax rate is expected to be in the 20% to 22% range, and adjusted EPS for the first quarter is now expected to be between $1.55 to $1.63 assuming an average of 45,300,000.0 diluted shares. Moving to the full year guidance, and despite the incremental headwinds in Q1, we continue to forecast double digit growth in constant currency terms for 2025. We see a strong backlog of work ramping up in new markets and Europe, and we are seeing an encouraging expansion of our pipeline in The U. S. This should lead to a recovery of Q2 and revenues to similar levels to Q4.

Speaker 4

Then we expect a stronger second half, as usual in our business. On a reported basis, we are estimating $2,635,000,000 to $2,705,000,000 in revenue, which represents a 9.1% to 12% year over year increase or a 10.6% to 13.5% increase in constant currency, including approximately 150 basis points of FX headwind. We anticipate adjusted operating margins in the range of 15.5% to 16.5%. The 2025 IFRS effective income tax rate is expected to be in the 20% to 22% range. Finally, our adjusted EPS is expected to be between $6 and $0.8 to $7 and $0.2 assuming an average of 45,500,000 diluted shares outstanding for the year.

Speaker 4

To conclude, we are very pleased with our 2024 financial performance, which reflects another year of our unique position in the industry. We are excited about 2025, which will be another year of strong growth with improving margins. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to sharing more updates on our growth and achievements in the coming months.

Operator

Thank you, Juan, and hi, everyone. As we go through the q and a section of this call, I will first announce your name. At that point, please unmute your line and then ask your question. Please mute your line after you're done with your question. Also, I will ask you to please limit yourself to one question.

Operator

So thank you very much. And with that in mind, I will take the first question from the line of Jim Schneider from Goldman Sachs. Jim, please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you can maybe comment on the overall demand environment you're seeing, on a on on a regional basis. Sounds like things are a little bit stronger in The US and in The Middle East and maybe a little bit weaker, more cautious in Latin America. Maybe talk about the outlook in Europe and maybe with respect to Latin America, can you maybe talk about some of the factors that would actually cause customer demand to start to get a little bit stronger and for them to release some of the discretionary spending?

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Speaker 6

From our guidance, the picture looks quite good. And the demand in The U. S. Is strong. The pipeline is strong.

Speaker 6

In Europe, the business is structuring quite well with massive customers, like a big airline in The U. K. Plus a big bank in Ireland and the things are moving quite fast. Of course, in new markets, everything is to be discovered. We just closed very large contracts there for some amusement parks and for some very large companies.

Speaker 6

So, I am very positive with the picture in three of the four main markets that we have. In Latin America, the situation is a little bit more stable now. It used to be during 2024 a little bit rocky there because of the political turmoil and different things that happened in Brazil and in Colombia mainly. But I think now that it looks like a little bit more healthy in terms of the pipeline, the conversion. Overall, if you need to ask, you know, if I need to say the big picture is, the pipeline is very strong.

Speaker 6

Our AI related work is growing extremely fast, 110%. AI is impacting pretty much 100% of what we do with our developers in front of our customers. That's a massive disruption going from creating, you know, this transformative experience that requires, of course, the strategic thinking, a lot of creative thinking, and of course, deep technical knowledge. But how we create that technology is evolving into AI agents orchestration. Globally is growing extremely fast in those areas.

Speaker 6

Overall, I would say that the conversion of that massive pipeline that we have across the company became a little bit slower during the last quarter, but we are seeing some acceleration as we speak right now. So, I hope that provides a little bit more color to your question.

Operator

Thank you for the question, Jim. Our next question comes from the line of Puneet Jain from JPMorgan. Puneet, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Hey. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask about your new clients, specifically in The Middle East. Like, how should we think about ramp timing on some of those accounts?

Speaker 6

We we are ramping up, Puneet, as we speak. So the idea now is that those parks and resorts, some of them are being built, some of them are ready. So, technology will start to roll out as we produce it. And the it will be like a stronger growth during this year and I think much stronger in 2026. These two years will be very strong coming from Middle East.

Speaker 4

East. What is interesting about the Middle East, Puneet, is that, you know, initially, we were working on parks, you know, amusement parks, then we got into hospitality, you know, some hotel chains and other things like that. We're also working on some financial companies and in conversations with some airlines. So, little by little, you know, we are being able to to tap into different industries in the region, which has a lot of potential.

Speaker 7

No. Got it. And can you also, talk about pricing trends you are seeing? I'm assuming, like, the videos, perhaps, like, are continuing to increase. Are you able to get price increase from your customers to be able

Speaker 4

to The pricing market, it's still challenging. You know, we are being able to get, some price increases in those projects, which are extremely focused on, you know, selling more or creating incremental income or incremental revenues from our customers in the type of kind of cost saving type of project. That's a little bit more complicated and there are more more competition there. So on average, I would say that's gonna be, another year of, you know, neutral to low single digit type of price increases right now.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you so much. And congrats for Disney hitting 200,000,000 in the calendar year.

Speaker 8

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you very much, Puneet. Just as a reminder, if, you could limit yourself to one question, please. The next question comes from the line of Maggie Nolan from William Blair. Maggie, please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Hi. Thank you.

Speaker 10

I'm curious what you see as the organic growth drivers over the course of 2025? And can you share expectation for, what's embedded in the guidance from an organic perspective as well?

Speaker 4

Yeah. I'll start with the numbers and maybe the team can provide some color. You know, the overall growth for the year at the midpoint is 10.5% in dollars or 12% in constant currencies. So we're assuming about 150 basis points of FX impact. Of, the organic constant currency growth that we're estimating is 9.5%, so very much in line with 2024.

Speaker 4

That growth will mainly be driven by new markets, which continues to be very strong. Europe will also be providing good levels of growth. We have already ramping and expanding some clients. I think that we will start to see an improvement in the conversion in The US. LatAm is gonna be probably the slowest growing region.

Speaker 4

There is in terms of areas, all the creative work, you know, coming from our gut creative network combined with our AI studios, I think that's where the growth will, you know, come from. We are excited about what we are seeing in our AI studios, how they're building solutions impacted by AI that might transform many of the processes of our customers. And I think that's where a lot of the opportunities in the pipeline are coming. So that's in a nutshell where we're seeing the opportunities.

Speaker 10

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, Maggie, for your question. The next question comes from the line of Jamie Freeman from Susquehanna. Jamie, please go ahead.

Speaker 11

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I was just wondering how you're thinking about the benefits of automation, how it might be related to the linearity that you're expecting, like headcount versus revenue? Any inputs on that would be helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 6

Yes. Thank you for your question, Jamie. I think that as we evolve in the AI productivity and tools, as we evolve in our software development lifecycle agents. We are having like a much better understanding of how this is helping our people to become more productive, right? As I said before, it's kind of it is present pretty much all over the place.

Speaker 6

We are doing a lot of things with our AI studios and mainly with our AI enterprise our enterprise AI platform, which is like the orchestrating orchestration software in which you get independence from LLMs. You get traceability of what is going on. You can take a much larger process and cut it in small pieces. And we are starting to figure out ways to charge, you know, those agents and even the work we do on those agents in a way that is more tied to performance than just effort. So, that will generate moving forward, like we have been doing with the platform.

Speaker 6

That will generate moving forward like decoupling from just the people that we have and it will be much more leveraged in the AI tools. So, we expect that as, you know, the LLMs become every day more and more commoditized, these customizations that are ready to be done sorry, ready to use and connected with the backend systems of the company, so on and so forth, those AI agents implementations and orchestrations will keep on having a lot of value for our customers and this is how we look the future, how we see the future. So, for many, many years, you know, starting and trying to decouple these two factors has been really complicated based on licensees or things that were very difficult to measure. Today, we have tools and we have technology that is expanding our horizon into an unlimited set of opportunities that we haven't seen before. So, the kind of projects we can do now are much different than the projects you used to do in the past.

Speaker 6

The type of tasks that our engineers are doing are absolutely different, are evolving and growing. So, it's an amazing moment to have the customers we have and be able to serve them in a totally different way. You know, helping them more connected to what we how we perform rather than just the effort that is being used for that specific client. So, I hope that provides more color, but maybe Diego can turn it

Speaker 2

over to you. I think that pretty much covers it all. But I just want to add a small comment with regards to that. I think there's kind of a disconnect because the raw technology in this specific case is amazing. Super eye super eye candy, you know, catchy and and super powerful as well.

Speaker 2

But getting enterprise ready software means a lot of things, means security, means traceability, means improvements over time, operation, means connecting to the right system, means building the right experience on top. So even though you may see, you know, LLLM performing amazing stuff, building a solution for companies, you know, for that are enterprise ready, that work on a regulated environment, that's a totally different story and that's our value, that's where we play.

Speaker 6

Thank you both.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Jonathan Lee from Guggenheim. Jonathan, please go ahead.

Speaker 12

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Can you talk us through the level of visibility you have in your full year outlook at this point in the year versus that of prior years? And how much of your growth is predicated on hunting for new clients versus farming of existing clients?

Speaker 4

Sure. Thank you, Jonathan. Receivability is similar to last year. You know, I think that the size of the pipeline has improved and has grown quite a lot. Now we need the conversion to accelerate and eventually whenever that happens, facility will get a little bit better.

Speaker 4

As always, the guidance that we provide has something in the middle, which is the most expected outcome. And then there are some scenarios, I would say that on the low end, that typically at this point, the main concern is whatever happens in the Latin American business. And if there is any kind of deterioration in any other market that we are not seeing right now, the upper part of the guidance implies, you know, clearly an acceleration in The US market, which is the main market for us, implies an acceleration in the deals related to AI, which, you know, the pipeline is very, very big. There is a lot of small deals, but we still need to see the conversion and and and not to to see like more or larger deals converting, and that's what we have in at at the at the upper part of the of the of the guidance. But in general, I would say that this really dissimilar to what we had last year at the beginning of the year.

Operator

Thank you, Jonathan. The next question comes from the line of Sakari Azerman from TD Cohen. Sak, please go ahead.

Speaker 13

Hey, thanks. This is Zach on for Ryan Bergun. Just wanted to dig into the headwinds that recently emerged that were called out, Disney and Latin America. On the magnitude or are these of equal size? And do you think at this point, they're relatively derisked?

Speaker 13

And on Disney specifically on pipeline bookings, it sounds like one too slow. So what's giving you the confidence there?

Speaker 4

Yes. I mean, you would cut, but I think I got your question. So basically, the two things that we were not expecting back in November was Disney ending up much stronger than what we initially anticipated. You know, we were expecting kind of a sequentially flat quarter, but Disney grew once again in Q4 relative to Q3 and also on a year over year basis. You know, it is ended up at 23% in Q4.

Speaker 4

So there was some acceleration in Q4, part of it is impacting the Q1 deals that we had. So we are assuming, you know, five, call it around 5 to 10,000,000, more like in the five ish kind of impact coming from there and then the rest is mainly coming from our business in LatAm. That's in general the two things that we saw we're not expecting, but in the in the case of Disney, we're already comfortable outlook for the year. So we believe that Disney, will, as we mentioned in the call, you know, should end up mid to high single digit at this point in 2025. And in the case of LatAm, there was a lot of political noise in Q4.

Speaker 4

Some of those things are starting to calm, but it's still an open question that we need to see how that evolves for the rest of the

Speaker 6

year. Thanks. Thanks.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Sean Kennedy from Mizuho. Sean, please go ahead.

Speaker 14

Good evening. Thank you for taking my question. So I was wondering about the the top five customer co cohort ex Disney and what was driving some of the underperformance there. And there also seems like there's been a bifurcation between some of the larger customers and smaller customer growth over the past few quarters. So are there any underlying trends like sensitivity to the macro or are they more company specific?

Speaker 4

No. Look, I think there is a very clear connection between what is happening in the two to five and what is happening in our professional services business. When you look at those two, we have two accounts in the top five, which are professional services companies, that sector you know, has not been posting a growth throughout this year and there is a kind of a linearity between those two. So it's very much oriented to specific industry. The second and then you mentioned, but regarding the second part of the question, you know, when I mean, when you look at CAS, I mean, I'm not sure we're putting this table, but if you know, when we look at a top 20 accounts, the level of growth is, you know, is very similar to 11 to the end.

Speaker 4

So in the end, what I'm saying is that it's not just the top 10, it's just it's not just Disney, eleven to 20, which are also large customer for us, having expanding very nicely in in in the last few years, and also in 2024. And when you look at, for example, the number of accounts over $20,000,000 that number went up from 16 last year to 20 this year. You know, number of accounts over $10,000,000 went up from 34 to 44 in one year, you know, number of accounts over 1,000,000 went up from three eleven to three forty six. So in general, you see that in all those groups, we are being able to have larger customers in general and that's basically part of the hundred square strategy, that's part of the focus on hypothetical accounts that can become multimillion dollar in revenues for us and also because those are the companies that require and need the type of service that we provide.

Speaker 9

Just to add something to that is this year we we we are reinforcing the 100 square in strategy. This is, we're going to put, and we are putting, of course, in the past that right now we are defining and redefining with the teams, putting the best talent ever that we have in the most, biggest account, account that are really, really strategical for us. So this is a work that we we have been doing with all our regions. So we have been working in defining which are those 100 account where we are going to put a lot of effort in order to, of course, continue to grow and and and try to grow even more than what we are growing right now in the twenty first account.

Speaker 4

Just say, I was just looking at I just found the numbers that I wanted to share with you, Sean. You know, when you look at top one, you know, very strong growth in the quarter 23%, as you pointed out, the top 10 is impacted by two to five. When you go, for example, to 11 to 20, the growth was 17%. So, there is, you know, a lot of big accounts that are also performing very, very well. The issue that we're having in the two to five is very much concentrated in a few names.

Speaker 14

Great. Appreciate all the detail you just shared. Best of luck in 2025.

Speaker 8

Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you, sir.

Operator

Thank you, Sean. The next question comes from the line of Surinder Sindh from Jefferies. Surinder, please go ahead.

Speaker 15

Thank you. Just following up on the prior question, you guys have had a lot of success over the last couple of years in terms of the outperformance where you've won some important clients and those clients really scaled. When I think about the growth rate as we look at '25 versus '24 versus '23, is there some sort of an impact that we should be thinking about as some of these larger project wins from the years past start to scale down that creates headwinds that we should be aware of? It just seems there's a bit more volatility in the P and L the last couple of years towards year end or you're starting to, I feel like, call out more clients where a client maybe starts to wind down or something like that. How should we think about that relative to how it's been in the past?

Speaker 4

Maybe if I can start, Martin.

Speaker 6

Yeah. I

Speaker 4

think that the last three years have been different from the prior fifteen years. Right? In the prior fifteen years, pretty much every industry in every region was expanding and pretty much every company was showing expansion. Then after COVID, you know, it was like there are some companies that are or some industries that have been outperforming other industries, right? For for a while, you had travel and hospitality performing very, very strongly after COVID.

Speaker 4

You had the other side of technology companies and professional like the sectors, right, technology and telecommunications together with professional services underperforming for the last three years. Now you are seeing a nice recovery in BFSI. Healthcare has been doing well in the last three years. So my point is we now have kind of different behaviors in different industries and also regions, right? For example, new markets, everything grows, okay?

Speaker 4

You go to Europe, you know, you have some areas that are expanding, other areas that are not, same happens in The US. So I think that we're leaving a more volatile market if you want and sometimes that may have an impact on some of our customers, which are large. I mean, I think that on the if we look at it from another perspective, our company is very diversified. You look at the top accounts and you have companies from media, you have banks, you have professional services, you have travel, you have manufacturing, you have retail. So yes, it now happens what you're mentioning, maybe one is doing better one year that it is a little bit below.

Speaker 4

But in general, most of those top accounts have been working with us for a long time, are multimillion dollar accounts. They may go up and down a little bit in about one quarter, but eventually those are the type of customers that we want.

Speaker 6

Yes. And as their needs change and evolve, I would say that it's not about thinking of a single project that never ends. I mean, projects are constantly turning over. And those projects are constantly changing, also adapt to the incredible way in which new technologies are being adopted. And global offering is following that.

Speaker 6

And in many cases, much we're way ahead of what's going on. So, that relationship is constantly being fitted by our capacity of expanding our offering into new areas in which we thought we were not doing anything. So, you must think about us as a company that is leveraging in full the relationships we have with our key customers and trying to shape our offer to what's coming and to what those customers are needing. So this is the fuel that maintain our capacity of keep on growing those accounts and those relationships. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much.

Speaker 8

Thank you so much.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Divya Goyal from Scotiabank. Divya, please go ahead.

Speaker 16

Good afternoon, everyone. So I wanted to actually build on to this theme of client discussion that we are having. Could you help us understand on the AI implementation stage, what exactly are you seeing or hearing from the clients when you speak to them? What is going on, in their minds, and how are they trying to balance this macroeconomic uncertainty, tariffs with the digital advancements that they are seeing? So some challenges, some opportunities that they are facing, and how is that benefiting or impacting broadband for that matter?

Speaker 16

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Hi, Divya. If I may take this. I think that's actually a very good question because it's a major change, that has been happening for the past couple of years. One of the things we're noticing is that the type of demand we're having tends to be a little bit more inclined into the enterprise type of services. This has to do a lot with the operation, fulfillment, etcetera, and tied a little bit more into the efficiency side of things as opposed to the product and top line side of things.

Speaker 2

That gets also represented when we speak about AI. AI has been heavily or more heavily adopted on that side, which means enterprise workflows, efficiencies on many different enterprise functions, but not that much on the product side of things, which will eventually have a massive impact. So that type of consumption, I think that is one of the key aspects that is preventing us from realizing Globant's full potential. As you may know, Globant is well known as a company that is top notch in experiences and helping clients connect with their consumers. So I think and that still needs to materialize.

Speaker 2

In fact, this is not only our perception of what's going on. I think Salesforce communicated exactly the same about AginForce and it's kind of the pace of the market the way it is today. And just to complement that, another thing that changed with regards to predictability, budgeting exercises, forecasting, etcetera, is that in the past the market thought in the way Martin was describing about products, right? Products need to be evolved constantly. New technologies appear, opportunities, your competitor has a new feature, etcetera, etcetera.

Speaker 2

And companies tend to do sort of a run rate type of exercise. I need to invest this, and this is a team I will be dedicated to I will have dedicated to this product, to this line of business, etcetera. One of the things we have been seeing as well is a tendency to go on a per mandate basis, which, again, it's a little bit shorter contracts in view that get, you know, renewed with newer mandates, etcetera. And that sometimes brings a little bit of gaps in uncertainty and this is why there's a little bit more volatility.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 6

Thank you so much.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Arvind Ramani from Piper Sandler. Arvind, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Hi. Thanks. Thanks for taking my, thanks for taking my question.

Speaker 6

Yeah. I guess, kind of, you

Speaker 8

know, what I was trying to figure out is, like, you know, when when you when you think about your, comment commentary, it sounds a lot better than what it was twelve months back, but the growth rates, are not necessarily a whole lot better than what it was like twelve months ago. So it just feels like, you know, the your kind of targets don't reflect, like, how positive you seem to be about the overall business.

Speaker 4

I think a couple of things. First, when you look at the guidance for the year, in organic constant currency terms, we're talking about pretty much the same number that we did in 2024. The total growth of 12% in constant currency, we believe it's a good number because of what I just mentioned about the organic number. I think that the excitement is about what is happening in our industry right now, right, within our customers, all the different things, all the new technologies that are coming, how those how we see the opportunity for LEO1 to engage in many of those contracts to help them transition to these new technologies and also the fact that The U. S.

Speaker 4

Has been expanding its pipeline. Yes, of course, conversion needs to accelerate, but when you have the deals, when you see the opportunities, that makes you feel a little bit more optimistic. Of course, then that needs to close and eventually that will translate into rearing and more growth. But I think that overall, that is excitement. What's happening in new market is very exciting as well, of course, out of a small base, but the size of the opportunity, the type of projects that we are winning, that we are delivering.

Speaker 4

For example, the massive project that we finished in with the Clippers, it's a very unique experience that everybody is talking about that. A lot of companies are visiting that, a lot of similar or potentially similar customers are engaged in conversation. So there are good things happening, all the revolution in technology is usually good for for companies like us, and and that's what the excitement is. Now the numbers are where where they are, and and they are basically very similar in organic terms to to 24. I don't know, Martin, if you want to add any.

Speaker 6

No. I think thank you, Juan. I believe that it's a top notch performance for the industry. And there's a lot of shifts that are happening. And with a when already large company and different types of engagements, I think we're delivering the organic growth in the same level of last year, which was a record, taking us to record EPS growth and record revenue growth.

Speaker 6

I think it's very it speaks by itself our readiness of to reiterate for what's coming in the industry. So, that's the color I wanted to add.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Karvin.

Speaker 6

Thank you, Garvin.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, Garvin. So that will be all for the Q and A section of today. Thank you all. And now I will ask Martin to provide some closing remarks. Martin, please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Thank you so much. Really looking forward to see you next quarter and thank you very much for your coverage. Bye bye.

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Earnings Conference Call
Globant Q4 2024
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