Open Lending Corporation (NASDAQ:LPRO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Keith Jezek: Yeah. Sure. And as we mentioned in the comments, and this is Keith, Joe. I was mentioned in the comments, December was a really, really strong sales month for us, so that’s very encouraging, especially kind of given the end of the year and as we step off into 2023, just encouraged with the pipeline. A lot of the efforts of the new and expanded go-to-market strategies have been around segmentation and prioritization of the pipeline, and we really want to go after lending partners in a number of various segments. But first and foremost, just to kind of categorize them by, first and foremost, their potential for volume, second, whether or not they open all three channels, so that you have indirect, direct or refinance, their current loan to share or their liquidity balance, for most of them the type of LOS that they have, the loan origination system to make sure that we are already integrated with it, and then finally, most importantly, do they have the appetite to lend to this segment.

And what I will tell you is that the pipeline is robust for 2023 as we start the year and the value proposition is still the same as it’s ever been. There’s the need to serve the folks that perhaps they haven’t historically served.

Joseph Vafi: Fair enough and then on those integrations.

Chuck Jehl: Yeah. Joe, this is Chuck. From a tech partners perspective, integrating with additional LOS’ that make our time to first revenue quicker. So integrated, for example, with XLOS project with defi SOLUTIONS, as well as added a new refi partner with GetJerry. So a lot things that we are working on there to be ready and also grow search as we can and control what we can.

Joseph Vafi: Great. Thanks a lot guys.

Chuck Jehl: Yeah. Thank you, Joe.

Keith Jezek: Thank you, Joe.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Peter Heckmann with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.

Peter Heckmann: Hey. Good afternoon. So the cash flows for the company were very strong and I assume that is a reflection of the slowing of the business and just cash collections on the existing loan book of business. I guess when you think about that, I mean, the volatility that we have seen in acknowledging this has been a very, very unique and dynamic environment for auto sales, auto pricing, interest rates, but the dynamic around these really significant changes in profit sharing under ASC 606 or really just make it very, very difficult for a public company and expectations for a public company. Given the underlying cash flow, I guess, do you feel that Open Lending needs to remain a public company and/or would this business be more appropriately held within either a larger business or held as a private company where the quarter-to-quarter volatility in earnings wasn’t really going to be this big of an issue?

Keith Jezek: Well, maybe I will bet on that last question. I definitely don’t want to speculate on that. We are a public company today and working very hard for our shareholders to maximize value. Your question around ASC 606 and the volatility, I mean, yes, we had a lot of positive performance in 2021 and good ways into 2022. And the changes in the industry and the macro obviously impact us, but we provide transparency there and good disclosure, we feel. But I will tell you that from a cash perspective, obviously, the cash flow statement, we generated about $90 million in cash in 2022 and we have got a healthy cash balance at year end at $200 million, and obviously, we started the share buyback program and invested there. So, which is — and the volatility that’s out there, which is why we thought it was prudent to go to quarterly guidance this time just because of the precision and visibility into our customer’s liquidity, as well as auto loan originations.