Thomson Reuters Corporation (TRI) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2023

August 2, 2023 9:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Thomson Reuters Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded and all phone participants are in a listen-only mode, but later you will have the opportunity to ask questions.

To get us started with opening remarks and introductions, I am pleased to turn the floor to Head of Investor Relations, Mr. Gary Bisbee. Please go ahead, sir.

Gary Bisbee

Thank you, Jim. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our second quarter 2023 earnings call. I’m joined today by our CEO, Steve Hasker; and CFO, Mike Eastwood, each of whom will discuss our results and take your questions following their remarks. David Wong, our Chief Product Officer is also available for the Q&A. To enable us to get to as many questions as possible, we would appreciate it if you’d limit yourself to one question and one follow-up when we open the phone lines.

Throughout today’s presentation, when we compare performance period-on-period, we discuss revenue growth before currency as well as on an organic basis. We believe this provides the best basis to measure the underlying performance of the business. Today’s presentation contains forward-looking statements and non-IFRS financial measures. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties discussed in reports and filings that we provide to regulatory agencies. You may access these documents on our website or by contacting our Investor Relations department.

Let me now hand it over to Steve Hasker.

Steve Hasker

Thank you, Gary, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. I’ll start by reviewing our Q2 highlights. Solid momentum continued in the second quarter with revenue largely in line and margins ahead of our expectations, although the latter was driven primarily by expense timing.

Total company organic revenues grew 5%, driven by 6% recurring revenue growth. The Big 3 segments grew 7% organically. Amid an uncertain macro backdrop, we continue to see good momentum from many areas in our business. Westlaw Precision’s strong start continues with more than 2,000 sales to date. And it contributed to Legal Professionals’ organic revenue growth, returning to 6% in the quarter.

The SurePrep acquisition is going extremely well. Our international businesses again all grew by better than 10%. And many of our key products remain double-digit growers, including Practical Law, Confirmation and HighQ. These areas of strength are tempered somewhat by the impact of tighter customary – customer discretionary budgets in a few pockets of our business.