Avaya Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2018 Financial Results

Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA) today reported financial results for the second quarter and first six months of fiscal 2018 ended March 31, 2018. Due to the company’s emergence from Chapter 11 proceedings during the first quarter of fiscal 2018, and adoption of fresh start accounting effective on December 15, 2017, the results for the first quarter and first six-months of fiscal 2018 are required by GAAP to be presented separately as the predecessor period from October 1, 2017 through December 15, 2017 (inclusive of results prior to October 1, 2017, the “Predecessor” period) and the successor period from December 16, 2017 through December 31, 2017 or March 31, 2018, as applicable (each, a “Successor” period). The application of fresh start accounting results in a new basis of accounting making the results of the Predecessor period not comparable to the results of the Successor period. Where applicable we have, however, combined results of the Predecessor and Successor periods for discussion purposes as we believe it provides the most meaningful basis to analyze our results.(1)

“We are excited about our results for our first full quarter as a public company. They underscore the momentum generated by our increased investments in the business even during what is historically a weak seasonal quarter and represent a significant step forward in our progress against strategic goals for growth,” said Jim Chirico, President and CEO, Avaya. “We continue to deliver results by making significant progress in customer-driven innovations and advancing our technology plays, including our acquisition of Spoken Communications that has accelerated our multitenant cloud capabilities, our strategic alliance with Afiniti that uses behavioral pairing to match customers with contact center agents and our Avaya Mobile Experience announcement that changes the game by reducing contact center costs and offering omnichannel communications for mobile customers.”

Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was $672 million, including $1 million related to Avaya’s former Networking business, which was sold on July 14, 2017. Revenue for the combined period from October 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 (the “Combined First Quarter Fiscal 2018” (1)), was $752 million, including $3 million related to the Networking business. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2017 ending March 31, 2017 was $804 million, including $51 million related to the Networking business.

Non-GAAP revenue adjusted to further exclude the revenue of the Networking business was $756 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2018, $16 million lower than the prior quarter (on a combined basis), representing a decline of approximately 2%, primarily as a result of seasonality and $2 million higher than the second quarter of fiscal 2017.

Gross margin for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was 48.1%. Non-GAAP gross margin was 62.4%, a record percentage for a second quarter result, compared to 61.8% for the Combined First Quarter Fiscal 2018 and 60.9% for the second quarter of fiscal 2017.

Operating loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was $89 million, compared to operating income of $38 million in Combined First Quarter Fiscal 2018, and operating income of $75 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2017. Non-GAAP operating income for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was $157 million, representing a second quarter record 20.7% percentage of non-GAAP revenue, compared to $172 million for the prior quarter (on a combined basis) and $159 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2017. Net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was $130 million, compared to net income of $3,214 million for the Combined First Quarter Fiscal 2018, and a net loss of $8 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2017.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2018, adjusted EBITDA was $187 million or 24.7% of non-GAAP revenue, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $206 million, or 26.6% of non-GAAP revenue, for the Combined First Quarter Fiscal 2018 and $199 million, or 24.8% of revenue, for the second quarter of fiscal 2017.

Cash provided by operating activities for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was $54 million, compared to cash used for operating activities of $374 million during the Combined First Quarter Fiscal 2018, and cash provided by operating activities of $97 million during the second quarter of fiscal 2017. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $311 million as of March 31, 2018, compared to $417 million at December 31, 2017 and $764 million at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2017. The sequential change in cash and cash equivalents is primarily due to payments for the acquisition of Spoken Communications, term loan payments to lenders and pension payments.

1 The results for the period from October 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, or March 31, 2018, as applicable, represent the sum of the reported amounts for the Predecessor period from October 1, 2017 through December 15, 2017 and the Successor period from December 16, 2017 through December 31, 2017 or March 31, 2018, as applicable (each, a “Successor” period). Refer to Supplemental Financial Information accompanying this press release for more information, including a reconciliation of combined results to our Predecessor and Successor results.

2 Non-GAAP revenue, Non-GAAP gross margin, Non-GAAP operating income and Adjusted EBITDA are not measures calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. (“GAAP”). Refer to Supplemental Financial Information accompanying this press release for more information, including a reconciliation of these measures to the most closely comparable measure calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Second Quarter Fiscal 2018 Highlights

• Added over 1,200 new logos worldwide.
• Midmarket/SMB cloud revenue seats grew 53% quarter-over-quarter.
• Continued strength in our business model as a software & services company:
  • Software and services accounted for a record 83% of non-GAAP revenue, up year-over-year from 79%;
  • Recurring revenue represented a record 58% of non-GAAP revenue, up year-over-year from 56%; and
  • 108 deals over $1 million of Total Contract Value (TCV), up 44% year-over-year.
• Closed the acquisition of Spoken Communications, a leading innovator in Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions. The Spoken platform provides a secure and scalable, multitenant cloud platform for customers of all sizes, and its intellectual property will accelerate our move into Machine Learning and AI.
• Alorica, one of the world’s largest BPOs, will transition all of its global contact center operations to the Avaya cloud. A complete Avaya contact center cloud solution (CCaaS) will support 100,000 agents, hundreds of client companies, and millions of their end customers around the world.
• Launched Cloud Master Agent program focused on accelerating sales of Avaya Cloud to small and midmarket businesses. Jenne and leading cloud distributor Intelisys have signed as Master Agents, and we already have early customer sales.
• Unveiled Avaya Mobile Experience. This category-breaking technology detects 800 calls from mobile numbers, and then accesses contextual information about the caller for a more personalized customer service experience. Organizations can reply to a phone call with a text, for example, which can reduce costs while enhancing the customer experience.
• Signed a strategic alliance including joint development to incorporate Afiniti International Holding’s AI and analytics into the industry-leading Avaya contact center platform. Afiniti Behavioral Pairing efficiently matches customers with the most appropriate agent based on predicted interpersonal behavior, for a better customer experience.
• Eletropaulo, the largest electricity distribution company in Latin America, has signed a five-year contract as part of the company’s digital transformation plan, migrating its customer service platform to cloud-based Avaya Oceana as a service in more than 800 locations.
• Avaya Customer Happiness Index on Blockchain named a gold medal winner in the internationally-renowned Edison Awards™ for 2018.
• Avaya has received CRN’s prestigious 2018 5-Star Partner Program rating for ninth consecutive year.

Third Quarter Fiscal 2018 Outlook

• Revenue of $690-$705 million, non-GAAP revenue of $750-$770 million
• GAAP operating loss of 8-8.5% of revenue, non-GAAP operating profit of 20-21% of non-GAAP revenue
• GAAP operating loss of $55-60 million, non-GAAP operating income $150-$160 million
• Cash taxes of approximately $9 million
• GAAP net loss $0.89-$0.97 per diluted share
• Adjusted EBITDA of $170-$190 million or adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 23-25% of non-GAAP revenue, includes impact of Spoken acquisition
• Approximately 111 million shares outstanding

Avaya’s outlook does not include the potential impact of any business combinations, asset acquisitions, divestitures, strategic investments, or other significant transactions that may be completed after May 10, 2018. Actual results may differ materially from Avaya’s outlook as a result of, among other things, the factors described under “Forward-Looking Statements” below.

Conference Call and Webcast

Avaya will host a webcast and conference call to discuss its financial results and Q&A at 8:30 AM ET/5:30 AM PT on May 10, 2018. On the call will be Jim Chirico, President and CEO, and Pat O’Malley, Senior Vice President and CFO. The call will be moderated by Peter Schuman, Senior Director of Investor Relations.

To join the financial results live webcast and view supplementary materials including earnings presentation and CFO commentary, listeners should access the investor page of Avaya’s website https://investors.avaya.com. Following the live webcast, a replay will be available at the same web address in the event archives for a period of one year.

To access the financial results live by phone, dial +1-866-393-4306 in the U.S. or Canada and +1-734-385-2616 for international callers. Listeners should access the webcast or the call 10-15 minutes before the start time to ensure they are able to connect.

A replay of the financial results live conference call will be available for 2 business days soon after the call by phone by dialing +1-855-859-2056 in the U.S. or Canada and +1-404-537-3406 for international callers, using the conference access code: 4728797.

Links to this financial results press release and accompanying slides are available on the investor page of Avaya’s website https://investors.avaya.com.

About Avaya

Avaya is a global leader in digital communications software, services and devices for businesses of all sizes. Our open, intelligent and customizable solutions for contact centers and unified communications offer the flexibility of Cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployments. Avaya shapes intelligent connections and creates seamless communication experiences for our customers, and their customers. Our professional planning, support and management services teams help optimize solutions, for highly reliable and efficient deployments. Avaya Holdings Corp. is traded on the NYSE under the ticker AVYA. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains certain “forward-looking statements.” All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward-looking” statements for purposes of the U.S. federal and state securities laws. These statements may be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "our vision," "plan," "potential," "preliminary," "predict," "should," "will," or "would" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology and include, but are not limited to, the outlook for the third quarter of fiscal 2018. The company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond its control. These factors are discussed in Amendment No. 3 to the company’s Registration Statement on Form 10 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and may cause its actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company’s filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. The company cautions you that the list of important factors included in the company’s SEC filings may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. In addition, in light of these risks and uncertainties, the matters referred to in the forward-looking statements contained in this report may not in fact occur. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

Revision of Prior Period Amounts

During the second quarter of fiscal 2018 ended March 31, 2018, the company identified and corrected a cut-off error as of December 15, 2017, the date the company emerged from Chapter 11 proceedings, related to an understatement of cash and a corresponding overstatement of accounts receivable of $26 million. These accounts were correctly reported as of December 31, 2017. Because of the application of fresh start accounting as of December 15, 2017, Stockholder’s Equity and Goodwill were also each understated by the same amount but not corrected as of December 31, 2017. The company determined that these errors were not material and corrected the errors in the applicable period of the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this release and will correct them in the March 31, 2018 Form 10-Q.

Use of non-GAAP (Adjusted) Financial Measures

The information furnished in this release includes non-GAAP financial measures that differ from measures calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”), including the combined three month period ending December 31, 2017, combined six month period ending March 31, 2018 and financial measures labeled as “non-GAAP” or “adjusted.”

Although GAAP requires that we report on our results for the periods October 1, 2017 through December 15, 2017 and December 16, 2017 through December 31, 2017 or March 31, 2018 as applicable, separately, management reviews the company’s operating results for the three and six months ended December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018 by combining the results of these two periods because such presentation provides the most meaningful comparison of our results. The company cannot adequately benchmark the operating results of the 16-day period ended December 31, 2017 against any of the previous periods reported in its condensed consolidated financial statements and does not believe that reviewing the results of this period in isolation would be useful in identifying any trends regarding the company’s overall performance. Management believes that the key performance metrics such as revenue, gross margin and operating income when combined for the three and six months ended December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, respectively, provide meaningful comparisons to other periods and are useful in identifying current business trends.

We also present the measures non-GAAP revenue, non-GAAP gross margin and non-GAAP operating income, as a supplement to our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe these non-GAAP measures are the most meaningful for comparisons to prior periods because they exclude the impact of the earnings and charges noted in the applicable tables below that resulted from matters that we consider not to be indicative of our ongoing operations. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation from, as substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from the non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with the company’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP.

EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) before income taxes, interest expense, interest income and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is EBITDA further adjusted to exclude certain charges and other adjustments described in our SEC filings and the tables below.

We believe that including supplementary information concerning adjusted EBITDA is appropriate because it serves as a basis for determining management and employee compensation. In addition, we believe adjusted EBITDA provides more comparability between our historical results and results that reflect purchase accounting and our current capital structure. We also present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we believe analysts and investors utilize these measures in analyzing our results. Accordingly, adjusted EBITDA measures our financial performance based on operational factors that management can impact in the short-term, such as our pricing strategies, volume, costs and expenses of the organization and it presents our financial performance in a way that can be more easily compared to prior quarters or fiscal years.

EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA have limitations as analytical tools. EBITDA measures do not represent net income (loss) or cash flow from operations as those terms are defined by GAAP and do not necessarily indicate whether cash flows will be sufficient to fund cash needs. While EBITDA measures are frequently used as measures of operations and the ability to meet debt service requirements, these terms are not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to the potential inconsistencies in the method of calculation. Adjusted EBITDA excludes the impact of earnings or charges resulting from matters that we consider not to be indicative of our ongoing operations. In particular, our formulation of adjusted EBITDA allows adjustment for certain amounts that are included in calculating net income (loss), however, these are expenses that may recur, may vary and are difficult to predict.

We do not provide a forward-looking reconciliation of expected third quarter of fiscal 2018 Adjusted EBITDA, Non-GAAP operating income or Non-GAAP revenue guidance as the amount of significance of special items required to develop meaningful comparable GAAP financial measures cannot be estimated at this time without unreasonable efforts. These special items could be meaningful.

The following tables present Successor, Predecessor and combined results and reconcile historical GAAP measures to non-GAAP measures.

Source: Avaya Newsroom

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