CEO.CA Chairman's Briefing

MONTREAL, May 11, 2023 /CNW/ - Yellow Pages Limited (TSX: Y) (the "Company"), a leading Canadian digital media and marketing company, released its operating and financial results today for the quarter ended March 31, 2023.

"Our first quarter results reflect continued strong profitability and cash generation with solid progress on the revenue front and we are pleased to announce an increase in our quarterly cash dividend," said David A. Eckert, President and CEO of Yellow Pages Limited.

Eckert commented on the key developments:

• Strong quarterly earnings. "Despite our continued investments in revenue initiatives, including significant expansion of our sales force, our Adjusted EBITDA² for the quarter was 33.1% of revenue." 
• Pension plan funding on track. "Consistent with our deficit-reduction plan announced in May 2021, in the first quarter of 2023 we made $1.5 million of voluntary incremental payments toward our Defined Benefit Pension Plan's wind-up deficit."
• Healthy cash balance. "Even after certain regular, seasonal cash disbursements during the quarter, cash on hand stood at approximately $54 million at the end of April." 
• Stable change in revenue. "Despite some increase in headwinds in the general economy, our change in revenue in the first quarter compared to prior year was slightly better than the same measure a year ago.  And while we remain attentive to continued pressures in the global and Canadian economy, we are pleased with our company's progress on underlying metrics, including the size of our sales force, our rate of churn of customers, and our rate of gaining new accounts."   
• Increase in quarterly cash dividend. "Our board has modified the dividend policy of paying a quarterly cash dividend to common shareholders by increasing the dividend from $0.15 per share to $0.20 per share."
• Quarterly dividend declared. "Our Board has declared a dividend of $0.20 per common share, to be paid on June 15, 2023 to shareholders of record as of May 25, 2023."

Financial Highlights

First Quarter of 2023 Results

• Total revenues decreased 7.5% year-over-year and amounted to $62.7 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2023, an improvement from the decrease of 7.8% reported for the same period last year.
• Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX¹ totalled $19.8 million and the EBITDA less CAPEX margin¹ was 31.6%.
• Net income decreased to $12.4 million, or to $0.68 per diluted share.

Financial Results for the First Quarter of 2023

Total revenues for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 decreased by 7.5% to $62.7 million, as compared to $67.8 million for the same period last year. The decrease in revenues is mainly due to the decline of our higher margin digital media and print products and to a lesser extent to our lower margin digital services products, thereby creating pressure on our gross profit margins.

The decline rates for total revenues and digital revenues improved year-over-year. Total revenue decline of 7.5% this quarter compares to a decline of 7.8% reported for the same period last year. Digital revenue decline of 5.7% this quarter compares to a decline of 7.7% reported for the same period last year. The improvements in total and digital revenues were due to increased average spend per customer in digital, increased renewal rates as well as continued improvements in customer claim rates. Print revenue decline of 13.7% this quarter compares to a decline of 7.9% reported for the same period last year. The higher decline rate for print revenue is attributable to the decrease in average spend per customer, partially offset by improvements in customer claim rates.

For the three-month period ended March 31, 2023 Adjusted EBITDA¹ decreased by $4.7 million or 18.3% to $20.8 million, compared to $25.4 million for the same period last year. The adjusted EBITDA margin¹ decreased for the first quarter of 2023 to 33.1%, compared to 37.5% for the same period last year. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2023 is the result of revenue pressures as well as ongoing investments in our tele-sales force capacity, partially offset by reductions in other operating costs including reductions in our workforce and associated employee expenses, and lower variable compensation expense. Revenue pressures, coupled with increased headcount in our salesforce partially offset by continued optimization, will continue to cause some pressure on margins in upcoming quarters.

For the three-month period ended March 31, 2023 Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX decreased by $4.1 million or 17.1% to $19.8 million, compared to $23.9 million for the same period last year. The adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX margin decreased during the period ended March 31, 2023 to 31.6% compared to 35.3% for the same period last year. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX and Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX margin is driven by the decrease in Adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by the decrease in CAPEX spend, since 2022 CAPEX spend was impacted by the integration of new products.

Net income decreased to $12.4 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2023 compared to net income of $14.6 million for the same period last year due to lower Adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by lower depreciation and amortization, restructuring and other charges, financial charges and lower income taxes.

Cash flows from operating activities increased by $5.4 million to $9.8 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2023. The increase is mainly due to the decrease in stock-based compensation cash settlements of $3.0 million, lower income taxes paid of $5.9 million, and lower restructuring and other charges paid of $1.7 million, offset by lower Adjusted EBITDA of $4.7 million. The first quarter of 2022 benefited from the cancellation of the forward contracts resulting in a decrease in other receivables of $3.1 million.

As at March 31, 2023, the Company had $49.7 million of cash.

Conference Call & Webcast

Yellow Pages Limited will hold an analyst and media call and simultaneous webcast at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) on May 11, 2023 to discuss first quarter 2023 results. The call may be accessed by dialing 416-695-6725 within the Toronto area, or 1-866-696-5910 outside of Toronto, Passcode 2713953#. Please be prepared to join the conference at least 5 minutes prior to the conference start time.

The call will be simultaneously webcast on the Company's website at:
https://corporate.yp.ca/en/investors/financial-reports.

The conference call will be archived in the Investors section of the site at:
https://corporate.yp.ca/en/investors/financial-events-presentations.

About Yellow Pages Limited

Yellow Pages Limited (TSX: Y) is a Canadian digital media and marketing company that creates opportunities for buyers and sellers to interact and transact in the local economy. Yellow Pages holds some of Canada's leading local online properties including YP.ca, Canada411 and 411.ca. The Company also holds the YP, Canada411 and 411 mobile applications and Yellow Pages print directories. For more information visit www.corporate.yp.ca.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements about the objectives, strategies, financial conditions and results of operations and businesses of YP (including, without limitation, payment of a cash dividend per share per quarter to its common shareholders). These statements are forward-looking as they are based on our current expectations, as at May 10, 2023, about our business and the markets we operate in, and on various estimates and assumptions. Our actual results could materially differ from our expectations if known or unknown risks affect our business, or if our estimates or assumptions turn out to be inaccurate. As a result, there is no assurance that any forward-looking statements will materialize. Risks that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations are discussed in section 5 of our May 10, 2023 Management's Discussion and Analysis. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law, even if new information becomes available, as a result of future events or for any other reason.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin

In order to provide a better understanding of the results, the Company uses the terms Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin. Adjusted EBITDA is equal to Income from operations before depreciation and amortization and restructuring and other charges (defined herein as Adjusted EBITDA), as shown in Yellow Pages Limited's interim condensed consolidated statements of income. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as the percentage of Adjusted EBITDA to revenues. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are not performance measures defined under IFRS and are not considered an alternative to income from operations or net income in the context of measuring Yellow Pages performance. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin do not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and are therefore not likely to be comparable to similar measures used by other publicly traded companies. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should not be used as exclusive measures of cash flow since they do not account for the impact of working capital changes, income taxes, interest payments, pension funding, capital expenditures, debt principal reductions and other sources and uses of cash, which are disclosed on page 10 of our May 10, 2023 MD&A. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin to evaluate the performance of its business as it reflects its ongoing profitability. Management believes that certain investors and analysts use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin to measure a company's ability to service debt and to meet other payment obligations or as common measurement to value companies in the media and marketing solutions industry as well as to evaluate the performance of a business.

Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX and Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX margin

The Company also uses Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX, which is defined as Adjusted EBITDA, as defined above, less CAPEX which we define as additions to intangible assets and additions to property and equipment as reported in the Investing Activities section of the Company's interim condensed consolidated statements of cash flows. Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX margin is defined as the percentage of Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX to revenues. Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX and Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX margin are non-GAAP financial measures and do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS. Therefore, are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other publicly traded companies. We use Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX and Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX margin to evaluate the performance of our business as it reflects cash generated from business activities. We believe that certain investors and analysts use Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX and Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX margin to evaluate the performance of businesses in our industry.

The most comparable IFRS financial measure to Adjusted EBITDA less Capex is Income from operations before depreciation and amortization and restructuring and other charges (defined above as Adjusted EBITDA) as shown in Yellow Pages Limited's interim condensed consolidated statements of income. Refer to page 7 of the May 10, 2023 MD&A for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA less CAPEX. 

SOURCE Yellow Pages Limited

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