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Text: During the call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures such as total segment operating income, adjusted EBITDA, total adjusted segment EBITDA, adjusted earnings per diluted share, adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA margin and free cash flow.
To ensure our disclosures are consistent, these slides will provide the same details as they have historically, and as I've said, are available on the Investor Relations section of our website.
With these formalities out of the way, I'm joined today by Steven Gunby, our president and chief executive officer; and Ajay Sabherwal, our chief financial officer.
Always have to remember to take off from you, Mollie.
My guess is many of you, like me, are extraordinarily happy to see 2020 behind us.
I think also many of us realized that some elements of 2020 are not yet fully behind us.
The COVID cases are coming down from the extraordinary levels that we saw over the holidays.
But of course, they're not down to zero chance, and there's still a lot of it around.
We have vaccines, but they're not yet in each of our arms.
And I guess most important, the disruption that COVID-19 has caused to our businesses, our personal lives and society more broadly, obviously, remain.
Having said that, I think we all see some light at the end of this tunnel and I, for one, am so, so grateful to see that.
Today, I have two messages about our company.
The first is that I am, and I hope you are, incredibly impressed by how our company has weathered this unprecedented set of challenges of 2020 and continue to do so thus far in 2021.
And the second is to suggest that the resilience shown in 2020 further underscores my condition in the tremendous power of this company and just how bright our future is coming out of COVID.
Our teams did an incredible job.
Keeping our people safe, keeping their family safe, supporting each other and our families through that challenging year, all while delivering for clients in unprecedented ways, in critical ways from home.
As a result of those efforts, even in the face of those challenges, we won and delivered on some of the most important assignments in our company's history.
We built our brand.
While maintaining incredible morale around the firm, we promoted terrific people.
We attracted more great people to FTI.
And through all that, we delivered solid financial results, even while parts of our business faced unprecedented challenges.
With respect to the financial results, I'm going to leave most of the discussion to Ajay, but let me talk about why I use the word solid.
Some folks could look at the $5.99 of adjusted EBITDA -- sorry, the adjusted earnings per share for 2020 and point out, it's another record year, another record year of adjusted earnings per share for the company.
In truth, when you unpack it, and Ajay will unpack it a bit further, I think it's more appropriately viewed as a solid performance.
As you know, there are a bunch of things in any quarter that can play out one way or another like taxes or success fees.
In the fourth quarter, those items played out positively in a much bigger way than we typically have -- when we typically see.
If you adjust for that, you don't see it as a record year but rather a solid year.
And I think that's a better way to look at it.
Because if you look at some of the underlying factors, it's also, I think, a solid year.
We grew, but we grew less fast than we had hoped to at the beginning of the year, but we grew less than the headcount we added.
Adjusted EBITDA, which you know we've been growing over time, this year, it was really flat.
So I think a solid year is a more appropriate description of 2020.
But another way to look at it, and I think this is an important part, but we had a solid year.
For example, we grew in the face of COVID.
A solid year in a year when some parts of our business had unprecedented challenges.
Some parts of our business were close to shutdown for parts of the year.
And importantly, we drove those solid results without short changing our future, in fact, while supporting and investing for the future of this company.
We didn't risk teams that were facing slow periods.
We continue to attract great people, develop our people, retain terrific talent.
We made both organic and inorganic investments.
We didn't cut headcount in the face of COVID.
We increased our billable headcount by 14.5%.
We seized the opportunity created by disruptions in the market to attract 36 terrific SMDs laterally.
We didn't make those investments to bolster our profitability this year on the short term.
As we talked about in the past, most investments like that in professional services cost you in the short term.
We made them because we believe they, like the prior investments we made, build our business and will build their business for the next many years.
And we made those investments because we could.
Because the investments we had made in prior periods had given us a strength that allowed us to have the wherewithal to invest at a time when others we're not so fortunate.
Those moves, those investments, that support for the great core team of FTI in my position, in my opinion, position us extremely well for the period coming out of COVID.
You could ask other challenges ahead -- of course, they're a challenge ahead.
I think we all know them.
I've never seen a world with more uncertainty, with more disruption, whether it's economic uncertainty, credit uncertainty or political uncertainty.
You can point to lose money out there and government interactions that are dampening restructuring activity, you can look at the fact that there are new variants of the coronavirus that could accelerate cases conceivably, and we can all point to stress and uncertainty in the global political world.
But to me, if this year proves anything about our company, it is the incredible resilience of our business and our people, our ability to thrive through a myriad of challenges over any medium term.
A few quarters ago, we had some businesses that had record low utilization and were, for the first time ever, not profitable.
In those circumstances, you always have some people question, oh, should we do layoffs?
Will these businesses ever come back?
We thought those were great businesses with great people, and we continue to support them.
And now just two to three quarters later, that confidence in this business is being rewarded.
The efforts of the people in those businesses that they made to stay relevant to clients, connected to critical issues, connected to their people, not only resulted in those businesses coming back, but as a result of us being involved in critical matters and our backlogs up dramatically from where they were just a few quarters ago.
This past year confirms for me lessons I've learned over many years in professional services, which in times of difficulty, if you avoid focusing on the quarter, avoid overreacting, but rather concentrate on aggressively building positions around the most important market needs, attracting and supporting the best professionals, you can use that period to help build an institution that's a powerful growth engine.
Perhaps not in that quarter or the next one, but for years to come.
An institution that great professionals want to be part of, that they want to help grow and an institution that creates economic value for those committed employees and for shareholders.
That is what we have been doing in these last years.
It has led to some quarters, some quarters with down results, and some years with only solid results.
But it's also led to years where we can deliver the highest employee engagement scores and the lowest turnover ever.
We can invest in important initiatives for the future of this company, like diversity, inclusion and belonging and corporate citizenship.
It allows us to continue to attract great talent.
I think it's not generally known that two-thirds of our SMDs in this firm today either joined the firm or were promoted in during my six years.
And it allows you to win more big impactful cross-segment jobs in more places than ever before.
Ultimately, those sorts of investments allow you to build a better, stronger, more attractive vibrant institution, which ultimately then also allows you to deliver a lot of shareholder value.
For example, as many of you know, we've more than doubled the market cap of this company over the last few years.
I so look forward to continuing that journey, hopefully, with each of you in the years ahead.
I'll begin with some highlights for the year.
Revenues of $2.461 billion increased $108.6 million or 4.6%.
GAAP earnings per share of $5.67 compared to GAAP earnings per share of $5.69 in 2019.
Adjusted earnings per share of $5.99 compared to adjusted earnings per share of $5.80 in 2019.
As Steve mentioned, our GAAP and adjusted earnings per share included a significant tax benefit that boosted full-year 2020 earnings per share by $0.30.
And adjusted EBITDA of $332.3 million was down from $343.9 million in 2019.
Our performance this year is the result of the breadth of our service offerings and the continued investments we have made for future growth.
The global pandemic boosted demand for our restructuring services.
Though such demand peaked in the second quarter as governments increased liquidity and placed moratoriums on insolvency proceedings.
Conversely, in the second half of the year, increase in liquidity spurred M&A activity, creating more demand for our Economic Consulting and Technology segments as well as our transactions practice within our Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment.
Undeterred by the impact of the pandemic on co-closures and travel, which especially hurt our Forensic and Litigation Consulting or FLC segment, we continue to invest in growth.
In 2020, our total billable headcount for the company grew 14.5%, on top of the 17.8% growth in 2019.
Lower SG&A expenses from the constraints on travel and entertainment and lower weighted average shares outstanding or WASO from share buybacks also boosted 2020 EPS.
Overall, given the challenging year, we are very pleased with these results.
Now I will turn to fourth-quarter results, which exceeded our expectations.
For the quarter, revenues of $626.6 million increased $24.4 million or 4%.
GAAP earnings per share of $1.57 compared to $0.76 in the prior-year quarter.
Noteworthy during the quarter, we recorded an $11.2 million tax benefit from the use of foreign tax credits in the United States and a deferred tax benefit arising from an intellectual property license agreement between our U.S. and U.K. subsidiaries, which boosted both GAAP earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share by $0.32 for the quarter.
Additionally, the impact of lower WASO from share repurchases increased earnings per share by $0.11.
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.61, which excludes $0.04 of noncash interest expense related to our 2023 convertible notes compared to adjusted earnings per share of $0.80 in the prior-year quarter.
Net income of $55.6 million compared to $29.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Adjusted EBITDA of $82.3 million or 13.1% of revenues compared to $58.3 million or 9.7% of revenues in the prior-year quarter.
The increase in EBITDA was primarily due to higher revenues in our Corporate Finance & Restructuring, Economic Consulting and Technology segments, which was partially offset by a decline in FLC and lower SG&A expenses due to a true-up of bonuses and lower travel and entertainment expenses.
These increases were only partially offset by higher compensation related to a 14.5% increase in billable headcount.
Now turning to our performance at the segment level for the quarter.
In Corporate Finance & Restructuring, revenues of $219.8 million increased 21.4% compared to Q4 of 2019.
Acquisition-related revenues contributed $19 million in the quarter.
Excluding acquisition-related revenues, the increase was primarily due to higher demand for restructuring services, largely in North America and EMEA as well as higher success fees.
This increase was partially offset by a $7.6 million decline in pass-through revenues due to a decline in billable travel and entertainment expenses.
Adjusted segment EBITDA of $35.4 million or 16.1% of segment revenues compared to $24.8 million or 13.7% of segment revenues in the prior-year quarter.
This increase was due to higher revenues, which was partially offset by an increase in compensation, primarily related to 38.6% growth in billable headcount and higher variable compensation.
Of note, the net year-over-year increase of 461 billable professionals includes continued organic hiring, 147 professionals from the acquisition of Delta Partners and the transfer of 66 professionals from our FLC segment into Corporate Finance, which occurred in the second quarter of 2020.
On a sequential basis, Corporate Finance & Restructuring revenues decreased 7.1% due to the decline in restructuring activity.
This decline was partially offset by a sequential increase in revenues from our transactions-related services.
Moving on to FLC.
Revenues of $127.2 million decreased 15.4% compared to the prior-year quarter.
The decrease was primarily due to lower demand for disputes and investigation services.
Adjusted segment EBITDA of $7.6 million or 6% of segment revenues compared to $17.4 million or 11.6% of segment revenues in the prior-year quarter.
This decrease was primarily due to lower revenues with lower staff utilization, which was partially offset by a decline in SG&A expenses.
Sequentially, FLC revenues increased 6.8% due to higher revenues in North America particularly driven by higher demand for our dispute services.
As with last quarter, we continue to see momentum steadily building with an increase in new matters being opened, the gradual reopening of courts and trial dates getting scheduled, though utilization is still below pre-COVID levels.
Economic Consulting's record revenues of $160.5 million increased 4.9% compared to Q4 of 2019.
The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher demand and realized bill rates for M&A-related and non-M&A-related antitrust services.
Adjusted segment EBITDA of $31.3 million or 19.5% of segment revenues was a record and compared to $17.3 million or 11.3% of segment revenues in the prior-year quarter.
This increase was due to higher revenues, a reduction in our use of external affiliates and lower SG&A expenses.
Sequentially, revenues in Economic Consulting increased 3.5% as we continue to see higher demand for our non M&A-related antitrust services.
In Technology, revenues of $58.6 million increased 13.8% compared to Q4 of 2019.
The increase in revenues was largely due to higher demand for M&A-related second request services and litigation services.
Adjusted segment EBITDA of $10.2 million or 17.3% of segment revenues compared to $7.8 million or 15.1% of segment revenues in the prior-year quarter.
This increase was due to higher revenues, which was partially offset by an increase in compensation.
Lastly, in strategic communications, revenues of $60.5 million decreased 8.8% compared to Q4 of 2019.
The decrease in revenues was primarily due to a $4.8 million decline in pass-through revenues.
Adjusted segment EBITDA of $11.7 million or 19.4% of segment revenues compared to $9.9 million or 14.9% of segment revenues in the prior-year quarter.
This increase was primarily due to a decline in SG&A expenses compared to the prior-year quarter.
Sequentially, revenues in Strategic Communications increased 14.2%, primarily due to higher demand for corporate reputation and public affairs services in the EMEA region.
Now I will discuss certain cash flow and balance sheet items.
Net cash provided by operating activities; of $327.1 million compared to $217.9 million in the prior year.
Free cash flow of $292.2 million in 2020 compared to $175.8 million in 2019.
In 2020, we repurchased 3.3 million of our shares for a total cost of $353.4 million.
In Q4 alone, we repurchased 1.6 million shares at an average price per share of $105.84 for a total cost of $169.2 million.
And throughout 2020, we continue to invest in the business through both organic and inorganic investments, including attracting and developing senior managing directors through lateral hires and promotions and our acquisition of Delta Partners.
Despite using $353.4 million for share repurchases, a 14.5% increase in billable headcount and the acquisition of Delta Partners, we ended the year with our total debt, net of cash, up only $74.4 million compared to December 31, 2019.
Turning to our 2021 guidance.
As usual, we are providing revenues, GAAP earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share guidance for the year.
We estimate that revenues for 2021 will be between $2.575 billion and $2.7 billion.
We expect our GAAP earnings per share which includes estimated noncash interest expense related to our 2023 convertible notes of approximately $0.20 per share to range between $5.60 and $6.30.
We expect full-year 2021 adjusted EPS, which excludes the impact of the noncash interest expense, to range between $5.80 and $6.50.
You may notice that our guidance ranges are slightly wider than previous years.
And the low end of our guidance for adjusted earnings per share is up only slightly compared to our full-year 2020 performance after adjusting for the benefits of our tax strategy.
Our 2021 guidance range is shaped by several assumptions.
Globally, increased liquidity and moratoriums and insolvency have benefited even the most distressed companies.
Such that speculative debt default levels are at a record low.
We expect restructuring activity to be subdued in terms of new defaults, at least through the first half of 2021.
However, we believe that, eventually, moratoriums will be lifted and there may be limits to liquidity, resulting in an increase in restructuring activity but when such demand surfaces or to what extent is uncertain.
Conversely, we see the current backdrop of strong M&A activity continuing to favorably impact our Economic Consulting, Technology and Strategic Communications segments as well as our transactions business within our Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment.
We have also invested significantly in capacity in our business transformation and transactions businesses where we believe we have enormous growth potential.
The segment which was most impacted by COVID-19 in 2020 was FLC.
We're already seeing a recovery, albeit slow, and our current expectations are that we will continue to gain momentum.
We expect a higher effective tax rate in 2021.
We currently expect our full-year 2021 tax rate to range between 23% and 26%, which compares to 19.7% in 2020.
And we expect SG&A to gradually increase through the year as the pandemic eases.
Before I open the call to questions I, like Steve, would like to express my gratitude to our employees for their performance in 2020 in the face of COVID-19 and to our shareholders and clients for their continued support.
And now I'll close my remarks today by emphasizing a few key themes.
First, our business is resilient.
Because of our diverse mix of services, which uniquely positions us to help our clients as they navigate their most complex business challenges, regardless of business cycle.
Second, our business is strong, not only in North America, but also globally, our capacity to serve our clients in multiple jurisdictions is one of our distinct competitive advantages.
Both our EMEA and Asia Pacific regions had record revenues in 2020.
Our CAGR for revenues in EMEA since 2017 is a 23.9%.
As Steve said, we succeed by building positions around the most important market needs and attracting and supporting the best professionals.
Third, our leadership team remains focused on growth with strong staff utilization.
And finally, our business generates excellent free cash flow, and our balance sheet is exceptionally strong.
We have the capability to continue to boost shareholder value through share buybacks, organic growth and acquisitions when we see the right ones.

user
q4 earnings per share $1.57.
q4 revenue $626.6 million versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $617.6 million.
sees fy 2021 adjusted earnings per share $5.80 to $6.50.
sees fy 2021 earnings per share $5.60 to $6.30.
q4 adjusted earnings per share $1.61 excluding items.

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