Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:DFIN) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Dan Leib: Yes. Thanks, Pete. We did well in the market. It continues to play out. I think the big differentiator for us, a couple of things. One is coming off of a, this is a financial report and so having the premier financial reporting system in the market, clearly not the only one, but we believe it’s the largest one, makes it an easier sell to our clients in terms of seamless process. No need to reconcile back to a system because it’s coming from the source data for those that operate on our financial reporting tool. And so where we’ve seen more price pressure and more fragmentation is really in the back end, the distribution right now under current regulation. There is a print requirement and so we’ve seen more aggressive pricing just on the print side. But let me also ask, I don’t know, Eric, if you have anything else to add to that.

Eric Johnson: Yes. Hey, thanks Dan. And Pete, thanks for the question. Yes, I think Dan covered certainly the highlights. I would just say that DFIN’s offering, clearly it’s an end-to-end solution from our perspective. We can cover the full spectrum of services, so from software to services to distribution. We have that opportunity to provide an integrated compliance solution at the same time cover the entire spectrum. So based on that, we have software opportunities in competitive environment, as well as print and distribution and the tech-enabled services side of things. So given our spectrum of services and our total complete end-to-end offering, we’re positioned well to achieve the market results that we are targeting.

Pete Heckmann: Okay, that’s helpful. And then just, I appreciate all the additional longer-term guidance framework that’s helpful in thinking about the company. When you – it seems like software, I’m inferring something in the mid-teens in terms of total software revenue growth over the period 2024 to 2028. And number one, is that correct? And number two is, I guess, how much of that growth do you think comes from existing solutions versus new solutions? And would you say that based upon some of your development of new solutions, would there be some years that you would expect to be higher than that compound average rate in the mid-teens?

Dan Leib: Yes. Thanks. A couple of dynamics in the model we put the slides out this morning. So the first being that what’s included in the plan are known regulatory change. What’s not included are things yet to come. So we didn’t make an estimate of those. So we believe that based on trajectory of regulatory change as well as time to phase in, that anything that gets, there will be things passed during the planning period that will positively impact 2027 and 2028 that are not currently being projected. In terms of the question on the growth rates, the growth rate looks similar in the low to mid-teens on our compliance offerings. And then in Venue, we’ve actually – we’re a little bit lower than that. Always a little tougher to call.

We’ve seen a great amount of stability in Venue and upside in Venue, to Dave’s comment on its broader application within the deal ecosystem. But we also think that we’ll get benefit from the compliance platform that we’re building, from our ability to address new regulatory requirements more efficiently. And then our ability now that we have these things, now that we have the compliance platform established within the next 18 months or so that we can also start to target use cases outside of the SEC mandate. And so all of those things channel into what looks a lot like what we’ve achieved thus far and continuing that, but then also with the upside of being able to move into new use cases as well as additional regulatory change.

Pete Heckmann: Okay. I…

Dave Gardella: And Pete…

Pete Heckmann: Yes.

Dave Gardella: Sorry, Pete, this is Dave. I would just add, one of the comments that Dan made. The way we get to the mid-teen growth that we projected for software also includes an assumption that over time, a lot of the work that’s done traditionally migrates to a more what we call a hybrid model, right, where there’s an aspect of clients using some of the existing software products, but also still relying that full service. So that’s just a shift in the mix, and we go through that in some detail in the presentation.

Pete Heckmann: Okay. All right. I appreciate it.

Operator: We’ll move next to Raj Sharma at B. Riley Securities.

Raj Sharma: Hi. Thank you for taking my question. But my first question was just around the software disposition, the eBrevia and EdgarOnline. Is that – are those being disposed of because functionality – their functionality is already included in the new ActiveDisclosure, Arc Suite?

Craig Clay: Yes, go ahead, Dave.

Dave Gardella: No, go ahead, Craig.

Craig Clay: I’ll start and then turn it back to Dave. If we look back at the reason we purchased eBrevia, it was to drive Venue revenue to create product differentiation through using AI for document review. And with that drive to increase Venue revenue, those features from an eBrevia perspective have been incorporated and are complete. So eBrevia as a stand-alone offering had limited value to us. We weren’t going to create yet another episodic M&A business. So since our focus is on recurring financial regulatory software, we made a strategic and operational decision to dispose of it. EdgarOnline, similarly we have those services that are incorporated within our products. And Dave, will turn it to you to expand.

Dave Gardella: You covered it all, Craig. Thanks.

Craig Clay: Yes. Here we go.

Raj Sharma: Great. Great. And then just briefly on Venue again. Clearly, there’s a substantial pickup in Venue. Is that indicative of capital markets pick up forthcoming, but guidance for the transactional business is sort of along the similar vein as last year? And also, is Venue taking share? And can we – and what can you expect in near-term growth for Venue?