ICF International, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICFI) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2022 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

David Gold - Investor Relations

John Wasson - Chairman of the Board, President & Chief Executive Officer

Barry Broadus - Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jasper Bibb - Truist Securities

Joseph Vafi - Canaccord Genuity

Operator

Welcome to the First Quarter 2022 ICF Earnings Conference Call. My name is Vanessa and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 and cannot be reproduced or rebroadcast without permission from the company.

And now I would like to turn the program over to David Gold, Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

David Gold

Thank you, Vanessa. Good afternoon, everyone and thank you for joining us to review ICF's first quarter 2022 performance. With us today from ICF are John Wasson, Chairman and CEO; and Barry Broadus, CFO. Joining them is James Morgan, Chief of Business Operations.

During this conference call, we will be making forward-looking statements to assist you in understanding ICF management's expectations about our future performance. These statements are subject to a number of risks that could cause actual events and results to differ materially and I refer you to our May 4, 2022 press release and our SEC filings for the discussions of those risks. In addition, our statements during this call are based on our views as of today. We anticipate that future developments will cause our views to change. Please consider the information presented in that light. We may, at some point, elect to update the forward-looking statements made today but specifically disclaim any obligation to do so.

I will now turn the call over to ICF's CEO, John Wasson, to discuss first quarter 2022 performance. John?

John Wasson

Thank you, David and thank you all for participating in today's call to review first quarter business and financial trends and discuss our business outlook. ICF's first quarter results represented a very strong start to the year, supporting outlook for considerable growth in 2022.

In terms of the key takeaways from our first quarter performance. First, we continue to build our position in high-growth markets. These markets, namely, IT modernization and digital transformation, public health, disaster management, utility consulting, together with our climate, environmental and infrastructure services are expected to account for approximately 70% of service revenue in 2022, up from around 65% at the end of 2021. Second, we continue to drive margin improvement. Our adjusted EBITDA to service revenue expanded to 13.9%, while we continue to invest in people, technology and strategic initiatives to support our future growth. And third, our business development results continue to support our long-term growth outlook. At the end of the first quarter, our trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio was 1.27 and our business on the pipeline was a record $7.9 billion, putting to ICF substantial runway for future growth.