Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WTW) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 26, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Carl Hess - CEO & Director

Andrew Krasner - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Rob Cox - Goldman Sachs

Mark Hughes - Truist Securities

Michael Zaremski - BMO

Shlomo Rosenbaum - Stefil

David Motemaden - Evercore ISI

Yaron Kinar - Jeffries

Michael Ward - Citi

Mark Marcon - R.W. Baird

Mark Shields - KBW

Brian Meredith - UBS

Joshua Shanker - Bank of America

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to the WTW Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Please refer to the wtwco.com for the press release and supplemental information that was issued earlier today. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for the next three months on WTW's website.

Some of the comments in today's call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these statements unless required by law.

For a more detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, Investors should review the forward-looking statements section of the earnings press release issued this morning, as well as, other disclosures in the most recent Form 10-K and in other Willis Towers Watson SEC filings.

During the call, certain non-GAAP financial measures may be discussed. For reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures as well as other information regarding these measures, please refer to the most recent earnings release and other materials in the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

I'll now turn the call over to Carl Hess, WTW's Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Carl Hess

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for WTW’s third quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Joining me today is Andrew Krasner, our Chief Financial Officer. We had a strong third quarter, delivering 9% organic revenue growth and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.24, maintaining our top-line momentum as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities.

Excluding book of business activity, organic revenue growth at the enterprise level would have been 10%. This solid result was fueled by the great efforts of our colleagues, the strength of our global client model, the investments we've made in talent and technology, and the resiliency of our business.

Notably, our bottom-line performance this quarter was driven by 170 basis points of year-over-year adjusted operating margin expansion. The positive impacts of both our recent cost-saving measures and the growing productivity of our new hires led to a strong finish for the quarter.