Public Policy Holding Company, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:PPHC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Public Policy Holding Company, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:PPHC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript May 12, 2026

Public Policy Holding Company, Inc. Common Stock beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.25, expectations were $0.24.

Operator: Day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the PPHC first quarter 26 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press *1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press *1 again. Please be advised that today’s call is being recorded. I would now like to hand it over to our first speaker, Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead.

Matthew Mazzanti: Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. I am here today with Stuart Hall, CEO of PPHC. Roeland Smits, our CFO and Thomas Edward Gensemer, our chief strategy officer. A press release detailing our first quarter 26 results was issued a short while ago and is available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during this call, management will make forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 2000. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, during this call, we may refer to certain non GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in our earnings press release which can be found on the Investors section of our website. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Stuart Hall.

George Stewart Hall: Thanks, Matthew. Good afternoon, everyone who is joining us today. I will keep this setup brief. We covered a great deal of background on the company and its marketplace on the last call. And for anyone looking for a deeper dive on PPHC, I would encourage you to go ahead and listen back to that call or feel free to reach out to our investor relations team. They are always available for you. So turning quickly to the first quarter, we had a strong start in 2026. Revenue grew 27.5% to $50.1 million. With organic growth of 5.1%. That was a step up from the 4.7% we saw in the first quarter of last year. Our adjusted EBITDA was a record first quarter result at $11.2 million up nearly 29.7% with a margin of 22.3%.

While we reported a GAAP loss of $11.5 million. And with the IPO proceeds on the balance sheet, ended the quarter with net debt of just $1.8 million down from $44.6 million a year ago. And that is a very different balance sheet picture than where we were. A few other notes from the quarter that I would like to call out quickly. M&A, we continue to execute in the same fashion we always have using the same discipline playbook. That you have heard about before. On April 1, we closed the acquisition of WPI Strategy. WPI is a UK based public affairs and economics consultancy that deepens our London presence through Pagefield Communications. But also has applications and cross sell potential with a number of our companies across the worldwide platform.

Alongside platform level acquisitions that we are consistently evaluating and progressing to at various stages, We also pursue what I like to call common sense talent additions or sometimes called acqui hires. More deals that bring experienced professionals with established client relationships into existing firms. They are not transformative in size by themselves. But they are immediately accretive and they compound over time. Last week’s edition of Lee Cowan & Nicholas Evans to multistate associates is a good example of this. Expanded the firm’s stake stakeholder engagement practice across federal, state, and local government relations. Lastly, in March, we were added to the Russell 2K and 3K indices, a welcome milestone just a couple of months after the Nasdaq listing and 1 that will expand our shareholder base.

On the operating environment, it remains favorable for our business. Federal lobbying spending continues at record level. State level activity is intense. Legislatures have filed over 100 thousand bills in the last year on issues that our clients care about most. Things like data centers, AI, health care, energy, financial services. The policy agenda remains active at every level, and our clients are turning to PPHC companies to help them navigate it. that is exactly the operating backdrop that we constructed the company for, and we continue to take advantage of. I am gonna have Thomas at the end of the call cover some of the relevant ways we are capitalizing on these tailwinds. And with that, I will hand it over to Roel for a closer look at the numbers.

Roeland?

Roeland Jozef Bernard Smits: Yes. Thank you, Stuart. I will take you through the key financial highlights for the quarter. But before I do so, I would like to point out that the comparables for 2025, we have never released those before due to the semiannual reporting schedule that we used to work under when we were only at the London AIM business. However, needless to say that these Q1 numbers for 2025 were produce in a way that is consistent with all our subsequent quarters, and undergoing the same level of rigor and review by our auditors. So let’s do first a quick helicopter picture of what we believe is a really, really nicely strong quarter. Our revenues continue to trend upward year after every year with positive organic growth.

Stuart already alluded to, we reached revenue of $50 million in Q1, which represented year over year growth of 28%. Now in this chart, the light blue part in the red blue bars represent MNA growth. And in Q1, this M&A driven growth stemmed primarily from Trail Runner, which we completed in Q2 of last year, and which is now in for a full year with our portfolio. As well as by Pine Cove Strategies, which joined us in Q3 of last year. Then the red segment in each bar represents organic growth. And in 2026 Q1, this organic growth was equal to $2 million of 5%. Which is really actually in line with the organic growth that we ended Q4 of last year. In terms of profit at the bottom, we realized adjusted EBITDA of $11 million which is a record for Q1 by itself, and it is up $2 million versus the prior year.

In margin terms, it was approximately level with last year’s margin. Now I would like to point out that margins in Q1 typically tend to be slightly lower than the margins for the full year, because of a slight seasonality in our top line that favors Q2 and Q3. Overall, it is worth reemphasizing that in 2026, we anticipate a margin somewhat below our 25% target, On the 1 hand, due to the ongoing shift in business mix, but primarily because of the increase in our public company costs, for experiencing as a consequence of our new nest NASDAQ listing. We already anticipated those increased costs in and are indeed seeing them coming through. So let’s look at the financial highlights on a consolidated basis. Thereafter, I will zoom in for a second.

So the first 2 boxes, revenue and adjusted EBITDA, I already talked about. So let’s go to the third box, the adjusted net income. This measure nearly doubled from $3.7 million to $7.4 million. That was, of course, partially driven by the underlying increase in adjusted EBITDA, but a meaningful part of the step up also stems from a change in effective tax rate from 53% last year in Q1 to 27% this year. Now in either year, this effective tax rate is much higher than where our full year tax rate eventually ends up. Which is typically in this 15%-16% range. However, the phasing of our tax provision across the quarters is heavily impacted by the extra GAAP results, which, as you know, in our case, are getting impacted by various noncash items in our P&L.

The most notable noncash charge in our P&L is the share based accounting charge, which relates to our 2021 London IPO, which, by the way, will roll off at the end of 2026. And also the MNA related payments we expense through our P&L because of the continued employment conditions that we attach to our due terms. So now let’s move on to cash flow. Our free cash flow for the quarter was negative $10.3 million compared to a positive $3.2 million in Q1 last year. That negative cash flow in Q1 is not atypical as the company always pays its bonuses during the first quarter resulting in a reduction of our accrued expense balances. This year, our cash flow generation was further suppressed by a $13 million increase in accounts receivable resulting from the inclusion of the 25 acquisitions but also from slower collections.

Now a significant part of this account receivable investment is temporary and we anticipate that this will get unwound in the upcoming quarters to a very large extent. So moving to our EPS results. Our GAAP EPS is still negative due to the aforementioned non GAAP noncash GAAP charges that we take through our P&L. However, the adjusted fully diluted EPS was positive at $0.25 per share, which is up 75% from the prior year. In turn, that result is an outcome of having a very strong improvement in the adjusted net income that we just saw, offset by the dilutive impact of the 15% increase in the number of shares, you know, which was impacted by our Nasdaq IPO. So then on the balance sheet, and I am now at the right bottom of this chart, We ended the quarter with $43 million in cash, and total debt of $45 million and therefore, a net debt position just about $2 million.

Debt was a major improvement from the $27 million net debt that we had at year end and even more so from the $45 million net debt that we had at the same point last year. And this improvement was driven by the IPO proceeds, coming onto the balance sheet in January, in tandem with the customary debt repayments that we made. Throughout the year. So where does that leave us from a balance sheet perspective? Well, knowing that we have engaged significant M&A activity over the past 5 years, that even after those 5 years, we find ourselves in a situation with such a strong balance sheet with hardly any net debt. Then I cannot conclude otherwise than that we are very ready for the next phase of growth with ample balance sheet flexibility for continued earnings accretive M&A.

1 final point on this chart we would like to mention that our cash position in Q2 will be impacted by our customary final dividend. Over the prior book year. Which in this case was $0.24 per share, and that amounts to approximately $7 million in dividend payments upcoming in May. Now as promised, let’s look at the operating performance of each of our segments. First, here you will find a quick visual view of the organic growth by segment. Which I really would like to describe as very robust. At the top of the page, you see a consolidated 5% organic growth. And you can also see that this was better than 23, better than 2024, and slightly below 2025. Within the bottom half by segment, you see that in the government relations segment, we saw stability and a healthy growth of 5%.

In the corporate communications and public affairs segment, we saw a moderate growth of 3%, But I should say that this was against a very strong 2025 post election comparable. And finally, in compliance and insights on the right, we saw organic growth of 11% excellent result But especially compliance continues to drive really good growth. Now let’s double click on these segments and look at their profitability. In the following slide, which is very informative but at the same time, admittedly, also somewhat dense. Now our government relations segment, which remains our anchor and 57% of our total revenue, increased 8% with margins moving up to 45% from 44%83% on a reported basis, Now that reflects the full benefit of the incorporation of Torren-Manna.

Segment margin in CCFDA moved up nicely from 22% to 26%, as we see the operating leverage that we had expected from the acquisitions we made in this area. And finally, compliance and insight services had another strong quarter, We already saw that there was an 11% growth. Of reported inorganic. And with the margin, remains around 50%. Then, you know, in the subtotal, you can see that total for these 3 segments has a blended margin that remained very stable around 39%. So what follows after that 39% are 2 final items bridging us to the published adjusted EBITDA. So those 2 bridging items are, on the 1 hand, the bonus pool, which was up 24% versus prior year. In line with profit growth. And secondly, the corporate costs or the holding costs, which are up 19% as mentioned before, that is a consequence of our incremental public company cost and investments.

I am going to skip the next 3 charts that portray the management p and l, the management cash flow statements, and the net debt position because we already covered most of the key points in the highlights I just reviewed. But I really want everybody to know that our deck contains these charts, as well as a set of other charts and tables in the financial appendix. This gets me to the guidance statement. Consistent with practice at NASDAQ, we have made our guidance slightly more specific than what we were used to doing. what is not changed is that in general, PPHC expects to continue growing its revenues at an average organic rate of approximately 5%. And this will be supplemented by acquisitions. Now if there is no further acquisitions for 2026, we would anticipate reported revenue to come in the range between $205 million and $209 million.

Then go to profit. In general, we continue to aim for an adjusted EBITDA margin around 25%. However, as communicated before and taking into account the dynamics of our changing business mix, in 2026, we will come out below that target number. Also as we experience the impact from assuming US public company cost and certain technology investments. And therefore, we anticipate our adjusted EBITDA to come in at a range between $46 million and $48 million reflecting an adjusted margin between 22%-23%. And not written here, I would like to end by saying that we also expect strong free cash flow conversion in the balance of the year which is typically weighted towards the second half of the year.

Thomas Edward Gensemer: With that, I will hand it over to Thomas. Thanks, Roel. I will keep my comments focused on a handful of things that are significantly new or notable this quarter rather than retrace the platform story we covered in great detail last time. As we have said before with this same slide setup, our growth strategy is fundamentally talent focused. recruiting top-level talent. And we have had a strong start to the year by all measures. Just a quick recap of some of the news from the reporting quarter. 7 letter, our leading public affairs brand expanded in Los Angeles. Bringing in a specialty media practice. We are also expanding their fast growing space in defense practice with some high impact talent there too.

Also out in the– out west in Sacramento are firms KP and LP have just celebrated their 30th and 20th anniversaries, respectively. As standout leaders in that, the largest state market. Both have built strength and long term succession plans into their leadership teams since joining us. TSG recently named Alden Mitchell, previously of Stanford and Uber, as its new president. That practice continues to thrive amid rapid change across college, professional, and international sports. We also just announced new leadership at Forbes Tate Partners. 1 of our founding firms, now officially FTP. With fresh leadership across both the lobbying and public affairs practices there. This is a planned generational succession at 1 of Washington’s largest lobbying firms.

And it is exactly the kind of institutional continuity our model is designed to produce. Our growth strategy involves 3 more drivers. Expanding service lines, capturing additional client wallet, and executing on an accretive M&A agenda. A great example of collaboration from the quarter the launch of investor services offerings from Concordant. Which brings together TPHC’s full depth of experience to deal teams, private equity, family offices, and corporates. Facing growing policy and regulatory risk to their investments. it is a focused, repeatable product that aims to capture a different budget and is backed by the unique collection of expertise across our platform. You can learn more about it at the Concordant Advisory website. Additionally, the growth of our issue based practice groups and the simple but effective client referral incentives we offer are all tools to drive this collaboration.

And still, we benefit from the multi brand strategy that we have had from the start. As an aside, uniquely and even with the measurably increasing growth via the collaboration, our key client concentration measures drifted further down. Our top 10 clients are now just 8% of total revenue. versus 9% a year ago, and no single client is more than 2% of the overall. There is no significant client concentration risk in the business at all. A further update on our post M&A integrations Trail Runner is now a full year in, and you are seeing its big contribution in the communications segment. That 82.7% reported growth, and most importantly, the nearly 4 point margin expansion as operating leverage shows up as a result in that segment. On the same front, Pine Cove Strategies is delivering similarly on the Texas based growth thesis we laid out when we announced it last fall with George P.

Bush. Lastly, on our future M&A pipeline, it is still very active. Dozens of firms at various stages with the same mix. Selective US specializations, key states, and international opportunities in Europe, The Middle East, Asia, guided by where our clients tell us they need us most. Our sweet spot remains businesses in the $10 million to $30 million revenue range, profitably contributing to our premium margin profile. And with a clear cross-sell in the existing portfolio based on geography, and capability. As in our most recently announced deals, we work closely with our existing firms to identify opportunities to acquire specialization and scale into the portfolio. Both deals, while small in scale, will have outsized impacts on the firm’s they are being brought into.

Pagefield and multistate, respectively, by way of the specialization and reputation. Big wins for both. We continue to see a good level of deal flow, with private equity platforms still dominating the competitive set along with a few traditional players. Our uniqueness remains based on the market leading scale of our government relations segment, state and federal, that policy expertise and the public market status and how it shapes our M&A formula. And with that, I will hand it back to Stuart.

George Stewart Hall: Thanks, Thomas. Let me pull it together for you in the same framing that we used last quarter. Because 1 quarter later, it holds up very well. First, stability. About 90%-92.8% of our revenue is still retainer based. Client retention remains in the mid eighties. Across the entire network. And no single client, as Thomas noted, is more than 2% of our book. That delivered our steady 5.1% organic growth against a busy macro back backdrop. Secondly, profitability. It was a record first quarter on our adjusted EBITDA of 11.2 million with margins moving in the right direction in both CC&PA And government relations. And as Roeland noted, the largest noncash charge on our P&L will be approximately $30 million a year in share based comp charge from our London listing fully amortizes after this fiscal year putting us on a clear path to GAAP profitability in 2027.

Third, on growth. Disciplined M&A continues, 1 acquisition closed in the quarter, another just recently and a robust pipeline that remains under active consideration and process. Thomas walked through the talent acquisitions and new practices across the portfolio. And each is an example of what we mean by compounding growth by investing in people and capabilities we already have not simply buying revenue. Fourth, our people and most importantly, our people. The reason why any of this works at PPHC. Approximately 200 of our 450 employees have some form of equity instrument, and that includes more than 140 with outright stock ownerships. Model is built around keeping our best talent and bringing in the next generation into ownership. As Thomas mentioned, 2 of our firms celebrated milestone anniversaries in this quarter.

The lead new leadership teams in place are on the rise. that is what long term retention and succession planning looks like in practice. And it is what we work the hardest at every day. A short version, the quarter played out the way we told you we thought it would. With steady organic, disciplined M&A, meaningful margin progress in the segments where we have been investing, and a balance sheet that gives us room to keep executing on the agenda that Thomas laid out for you. We appreciate your time today, your continued interest in PPHC. Now, operator, I will hand it over, and we will open the floor for questions. Thanks.

Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press *1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press *1 again. Please stand by. We can follow the Q&A roster. 1 moment for our first question. And our first question will come from the line of Raj Sharma from Texas Capital. Your line is open.

Analyst (Raj Sharma): Thank you. So congratulations on stellar results. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to just ask about your organic growth this quarter especially in the CCPA segment, there is 3% growth relative to much greater growth last year I am wondering if you have any color on that, what contributed to the CCPA growth you know, last year that 1 should not expect to continue going forward? And I have a follow on question.

George Stewart Hall: Thanks, Raj. Good to hear from you today. Appreciate the question. I think, you know, as we noted that, you know, frankly, you know, we had a really strong first half of the year in CC PA last year. And, as a result, you just you had a tougher print that you are working against. We came out of election season last year like we traditionally did with a whole new agenda. Based on those results, and there was momentum that carried into the first half, especially in project execution, against, you know, those agenda items. Coupled with lobbying, but especially in the comms segment where the project work naturally picks up. So, really, I think you know, the carryover into this year has been, you know, from quarter to quarter really positive in my opinion. And I have been really pleased with it. Roel, you got anything you would like to add? Roel says I covered it. So thanks. Go ahead, Raj. what is your other question?

Analyst (Raj Sharma): So the other question is any sort of commentary or, you know, any sort of color on contribution from acquisitions that you just did, any contribution to revenues this year? And also, can you comment on the size of the acquisition that you likely plan to do or intend to do every year I know it is tough to call. I know I know your pipeline is pretty robust. But any sort of sense on what do you plan to do each year?

Roeland Jozef Bernard Smits: Well, you will have noticed Raj, this is Roel that indeed the acquisitions that we have done so far this year are on the smaller side. The largest of them was WPI, and that was closed by April 1. So that is not reflected in any of these numbers yet. And then we also announced the Cohen as a small acquisition for May 1 but that was really more a hire of 2 people who have a bringing a book of business. So I will say our acquisition volume up till now has been relatively small. You know, we have been on record in the past that we expect to acquire on average. Know, somewhere between $30 million and $40 million of revenues each year. But, obviously, that always depends on the availability of the right targets and then the exact timing of those transactions, let alone, of course, then the profit contribution that they have and the price that we pay for it.

These are all variables that are different during this acquisition. Therefore, it makes it somewhat hard to predict.

Analyst (Raj Sharma): Got it. Thank you for taking my questions. I will take it offline again.

George Stewart Hall: Thank you. And great quarter. Thank you. Thanks, Raj.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question will come from the line of Jason Tilchen from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Analyst (Jason Tilchen): Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Want to start, last month, you announced a new practice that really seems to leverage your complete portfolio of assets. I believe Thomas mentioned in the prepared remarks that this should go after a different part of client budget. So maybe if you could talk a little bit about how meaningful the opportunity is, what sort of investments you may have to make to get this sort of launched and rolled out, and then of more broadly, how many other similar opportunities do you see in the pipeline to organically sort of expand into new services and areas?

Thomas Edward Gensemer: Sure. I mean, this is 1 we have eyed for some time and is so adjacent depending on where, you know, clients are and who clients are calling. So we do work in the financial services sector, obviously, and direct with private equity funds. But this there is a category of 2 or 3 leading providers of this regulatory you know, multi issue diligence. And we have eyed it for some time made some inquiries from an acquisitive standpoint. Standpoint, and then realized we were just losing too much. And so it is a light investment from hedge headquarters, really, into the concordant framework that was already set up a couple of years ago to really facilitate a 1-stop or best of practice. And, you know, some select hiring from the right people, and we can, you know, talk about the people there.

We are being quite entrepreneurial about it, but still flexing our scale and showing up in a competitive space. And not only is it new client budget, in many cases, it is just new clients. it is getting into a different part of either a private equity fund and from a deal-by-deal basis or a whole new type of buyer across the world. So it is an interesting frugal thing, but we will continue to look for opportunities, including WPI, to bolster that service, some of the economic consultancy they do is, again, another adjacency. And call it a product or a sort of service-enhanced product. It is a different kind of thing for the arsenal.

Analyst (Jason Tilchen): Great. that is very helpful. And just curious maybe if you could talk to the conflict in the Middle East, either positively impacted in terms of benefiting defense practice or maybe negative in creating some sort of distraction in Washington. Just curious how that is sort of netting out so far and any observations you have had.

George Stewart Hall: Well, I think just Jason, this is Stuart. I think, you know, we viewed the area and the region for quite a while as, you know, a really, really potential good place for us, you know, especially in terms of, again, our corporate comms practices. You know, there is a lot of investment money that is in the region in general that is looking for connectivity in the US, know, for direct investment here, which is, you know, in kind of the US onshoring move, that, you know, we think, is going to pay a lot of dividends for us in the future. Certainly, we are leveraging heavily off of a really, really good practice that an office that Trail Runner has in the UAE. And we think as this sorts out, frankly, if anything the acceleration of alignment of interest over there to, you know, US markets is going to only accelerate.

You know, obviously, things are gonna have to continue to sort themselves out and will at some point, I think, in the coming months. But when that happens, you know, we really, really feel like, you know, we have got some great opportunities there. And we have really positioned our assets here in The United States, you know, and frankly, in London, you know, to really leverage off of those opportunities. And, you know, we are going to actively work that access.

Analyst (Jason Tilchen): Great. that is really helpful. And if I could just toss in 1 quick 1 for Roel. EBITDA margin is up 40 basis points year over year despite the increased public company costs and tech investments. Just maybe you could talk to some of the sources of efficiency you are seeing beyond just operating leverage at the portfolio companies?

Roeland Jozef Bernard Smits: Well, yes. I think, you know, there is some operating leverage, but in years of good revenue growth, there is always well, we see our margins expand. And, you know, I would say that did, that helped us actually almost offset the higher holding costs that we have experienced in Q1. To a good extent. And, you know, we hope to continue this. Thank you very much.

George Stewart Hall: Thank you.

Operator: And our next question will come from the line of Scott Schneeberger from Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

Analyst (Scott Schneeberger): Thanks very much. Good afternoon, and congratulations. I guess I would like to start off Stuart, you highlighted at the beginning, the certainly, we have seen an acceleration in the growth versus the past 2 years. In the past few quarters, here in the first quarter, in the organic growth of government relations, Can you just speak to what that is? Is it just a very dynamic environment right now where there is a lot of activity, or are you winning a few big contracts that are lifting that?

George Stewart Hall: Just curious on the position. Oh, it is a combination of factors, Scott. I think, you know, number 1 is you know, we put a lot of effort in really over the past 18 months to trying to build even greater intercompany synergies. Between, you know, our complementary, brands. And I think that is really it is really starting to bubble up to the surface and the macro numbers that you are starting to see. And, you know, I think, you know, you know, I think the interplay with corp comms and investor and Crisis with Trail Runner along with our kind of traditionally more public affairs oriented assets has been really, really strong. So I think what you are really seeing is a lot of production off of that. Obviously, macro environments especially given our moat remains again in kind of lobbying and public affairs.

You know, certainly, macro dynamics of change, upheaval, all those things, you know, have, you know, lead our clients to have to obviously address, you know, again, that interface of government on an ongoing basis. So there is a kind of a strong macro back– and it is not it is not simply, you know, in DC. it is it is worldwide. So I think that helps as well, and I think all of these factors, you know, are coming to, you know, a confluence that, again, is, you know, uplifting and helping us with organic growth so far.

Analyst (Scott Schneeberger): Great. Thanks. 2 more. 1 is just it is kind of a 2 parter, and it is what is it that you are looking for? What is topping your priority list? In your M&A pipeline? Is it is it is it state government relations? Is it is it moving internationally? Just kind of curious. And the Part B of this question is, is there is there really nice margin profiles in your pipeline? I know that with this guidance of 25% in a normalized year would no public company costs. What is there a lot in the pipeline that has very robust margins? Or is that something where it is really have to pick and choose of what the profiles are in the pipeline? Thanks.

Thomas Edward Gensemer: We have tooled up in the comms corporate comms via m and a, you know, over the past 18 months, Trail Runner, Pagefield. And we have continued to say that we invest against capabilities in geography. I can say within the dozens of things that we have discussed in the pipeline, there are some really prime margin geographies that we want to still play in for that prime margin and the reason that they are, you know, they are core to business activities. And some quite specialized things that may be smaller in scale but chunkier in margin. At the same time, when we look at the geographic play, we know that as we expand the base in Europe, it is not gonna be the most prime margin for us across the, you know, across the wallet.

But it is still where our clients need us and where sort of expertise is needed in global policy considerations. So we do have to play in both as we do have a, you know, a premium margin, and that sort of ballast by the lobbying practices in DC. And then we have Sacramento, and then we have Austin, and sort of the things that have different profiles, but towards the premium across. Mhmm.

George Stewart Hall: Yeah. Just let me add, Scott, to that. 1 of the you know, we have mentioned before, you know, that we look at several gating factors on M&A. 1 is what Thomas just said. Does it add geography? Does it add capability? Is it complementary to the rest of the portfolio? We obviously look at the people profile, in all of those firms, which is maybe as critical as any issue. But, you know, margin is right there as well. And, you know, I have said before, and I think you know, I will repeat it again. While we have desires to build our network out further, again, based on those 3 prime issues. We are not interested in putting dots on the map to simply say we have an office somewhere. If the margin profile is not right or the people are not right, you know, we are we are not going to do So and I think, you know, I think that is what everyone should always be assured of that, you know, we are not looking to, just to have loss leaders or really things that fall well below our margin profile for the sake of being somewhere.

Thanks, Stuart, and thanks, Thomas. that is a it is good color and insight.

Analyst (Scott Schneeberger): Last question. And probably is going to get Roel involved as well, is just with establishing annual guidance here. Specifically, your revenue, but also EBITDA, what are some of the things to keep in mind that could put you to the top or above the high end of the range or things that may have any concern that could put you more down toward the lower end of the range? Thanks.

Roeland Jozef Bernard Smits: Yes. Well, Scott, 2 things that pop in my head primarily. First is our volume of project work. You know, that is always somewhat unpredictable. And, of course, we have got lots of statistics to go off from prior years. But at the end of the day, it also depends on certain issues bubbling up Last year, for instance,, the whole issue around the expiration of the Obama subsidies in health care. That created a huge, flow of projects that you never know to what extent such a flow will reoccur this year. So that is factor number 1. And the other factor is very simply acquisitions. So any new acquisition will put us outside that range that I have mentioned in the call.

Analyst (Scott Schneeberger): Excellent. Thanks. Appreciate all the color, guys.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Samuel Dindol from Stifel. Your line is open.

Analyst (Samuel Dindol): Hi, guys. How are you? Well, congratulations on the results. Just 1 question for me, please. Just on the acqui-hire front, I appreciate the hiring of Lee Cowan and Nicholas Evans a few weeks ago. Has that accelerated post US listing? Are you finding more people you have had conversations with the last few years sort of now more willing to join? Or any sort of color on that would be great.

George Stewart Hall: Thank you. What I would say to that Samuel and thanks for the comment there. I really appreciate it. But I think what I would say is that it is really been interesting just like our pipeline feels more robust now post US listing than it is been at any prior time. I think the other thing is we are seeing more inbound, you know, talent coming to us some that are much more willing to listen to us now, etcetera, post US listing. So, you know, I would continue to anticipate, you know, we will continue to make some really good talent acquisitions, you know, in the foreseeable future because, again, I think we are really frankly, getting noticed out there. And I think we are a differentiated platform because we are public, and, you know, this is a space that you know, has typically been dominated by private investment and private companies.

And I think, you know, there are people that are starting to look at our public company status our levels of employee ownership, etcetera, and it is really, I think, in their prime years of their career, you know, seeming like an attractive possible option for them, you know, if they fit with us. So we are really excited about that. it is been 1 of the kind of downstream benefits, again, of being able to evaluate a lot of individual or small collectives of talent as opposed to simply looking at, you know, platform acquisitions.

Analyst (Samuel Dindol): Brilliant. Thanks for the color.

Operator: Thank you. I am not showing any further questions in the queue at this time.

George Stewart Hall: Great. Well, thank you a lot, operator. Thanks for all of you participating today. Again, as always, as I noted in my closing, investor relations is always open here. We are always happy to interface, take your questions. So please, please reach out after this call. If you would like to follow up with us on anything either related financially or, strategically, and, we will be glad to work with you and get you the answers that we can. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.