Alight, Inc. (NYSE:ALIT) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Katie Rooney: Yes. Thanks, Kyle. Great question. Our capital allocation priorities have not necessarily changed. I think if anything they’ve kind of been elevated in this environment. First priority is the stability of the balance sheet, feeling good where we are from a hedge position maturity position. So we’ll continue to naturally delever, which I think is important. So then really the priority has been investing in the business organically and inorganically. But we’ve said, listen, there is still a lot of frothiness in the market from a valuation standpoint. And if we don’t see the right opportunities, then we’ll absolutely consider stock buyback. So again I’d say both are on the table and we’re continuing to evaluate them as we go forward.

Operator: Next question Kevin McVeigh with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Kevin McVeigh: Great. Thanks so much, and let me add my congratulations as well to Katie and Jeremy, well deserve for sure.

Katie Rooney: Thank you.

Kevin McVeigh: Hey Stephan, I just want to — you’re very welcome. Hey Stephan, I just wanted to clarify one thing you said, I just want to make sure I heard it right. You’d mentioned the Fortune 10 client. Are they still in that bookings number or did that relate to the adjustment in the bookings at all? I just — I think you were clear. I just want to make sure that I picked it up right. I know you’d mentioned that big Fortune 10 client you won earlier in the year. Was there any context you just could clarify for us around that?

Stephan Scholl: Yes, yes. Obviously, it gets so fresh still and as you can imagine with NDAs and all that stuff, it’s kind of complicated to be able to announce the actual name. These deals are different. This is a different transaction, a different booking than the one that we announced previously. So hopefully that helps it.

Katie Rooney: And it’s not included. Yes. Kevin —

Stephan Scholl: Oh, sorry, Katie.

Katie Rooney: It’s not in our Q2 number. Yes.

Stephan Scholl: Oh, yes, thank you. Yes, it’s not in Q2. That’s correct. That’s why I mentioned the July statement. That’s right. Yes.

Kevin McVeigh: Understood, but that’s Katie, it is in the full-year, or Stephan, it’s in the full-year guides, right?

Katie Rooney: Correct.

Kevin McVeigh: Great. And then Katie, it sounds like you’re added responsibilities are international payroll and then Professional Services. Is that coincidental that one of the things we really encourage about is a Workday’s partnership. Does that add additional focus on that or maybe just help us understand what that brings to bear because it’s obviously a real nice part of the story as well.

Katie Rooney: Thanks, Kevin. Yes. I absolutely think that is a part of it. I mean, as you know, we’ve — we’re also a large client, right? As I’ve deployed Workday financials across the organization, so think very highly of the company and the partnership that the team has built. So I do think that is a good opportunity for us. I think also, I mean, as we’ve talked a lot about international in general, when you think about just the position we come at Global Payroll from a significant position of strength, there’s a huge opportunity across OneAlight as we continue to bring our solutions, the platform strategy to bear for our clients. So that is kind of the focus today and continuing to really work across the leadership team to bring those solutions to our clients and with our platform approach.

Stephan Scholl: Yes. The only thing I would add to that is listen, we all know Workday is one of the best software companies in the business and a Neil and Carl and Dave just built something that’s absolutely incredible to be a part of as a partner, to have a software partnership, speaks to kind of Kyle’s earlier question around what we’re seeing in the market, which is HR buying centers were left behind in this massive digital transformation to consolidation and simplification. And so what you see with Workday and this partnership is a view that I share and that they share, which is clients are looking for more consolidated solutions and on a platform kind of an approach. So that gives kind of credence to our kind of whole BPaaS playbook, which is how do you drive OneAlight in a lot of these accounts, because a lot of these clients have 30, 40, 50 up to 80 different point solutions.