Laureate Education Inc. (NASDAQ:LAUR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 22, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Adam Morse - Senior VP of Corporate Finance & Global Treasurer

Eilif Serck-Hanssen - President, CEO & Director

Richard Buskirk - Senior VP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Jeff Silber - BMO Capital Markets

Lucas Nagano - Morgan Stanley

Operator

Good day, and welcome to Laureate Education's Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2023 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Adam Morse, Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance. Please go ahead.

Adam Morse

Good morning, and thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss Laureate Education's fourth quarter and year-end 2023 results. Joining me on the call today are Eilif Serck-Hanssen, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Rick Buskirk, Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings press release is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at laureate.net. We have also posted a supplementary presentation to the website, which we'll be referring to during today's call. The call is being webcast, and a complete recording will be available after the call.

I would like to remind you that some of the information we are providing today, including, but not limited to, our financial and operational guidance constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may change at any time, and therefore, our actual results may differ materially from those we expected. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations are disclosed in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this morning as well as other filings made with the SEC.

In addition, all forward-looking statements are based on current expectations as of the date of this conference call, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Additionally, non-GAAP measures that we discuss, including and among others, adjusted EBITDA and its related margin, total debt, net of cash and free cash flow are also detailed and reconciled to their GAAP counterparts in our press release or supplementary presentation. Let me now turn the call over to, Eilif.

Eilif Serck-Hanssen

Thank you, Adam, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report another strong year for Laureate in 2023. We delivered on our commitments to all stakeholders. Our financial performance for the year was robust with double-digit growth in revenue, and the margin profile, which is at an historic high for our company. In addition to favorable financial results, our cash-accretive business model and strong balance sheet enabled us to return $110 million of capital to shareholders through a special cash dividend in the fourth quarter of last year. And today, I am pleased to announce a new $100 million stock buyback authorization, underscoring our ongoing commitment to shareholder value creation.