ARCE - Arco Reports First Quarter 2023 Results

Arco delivers strong cash performance in 1Q23 with R$ 208M free cash flow to firm and debuts new financial & management segment in the p&l following isaac acquisition

Arco Platform Limited, or Arco or the Company (Nasdaq: ARCE), today reported financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023.

Consolidated 1Q23 figures includes 1Q23 full results of isaac, our most recent acquisition, that is reported within financial & management segment. Therefore, for an accurate comparison year over year we recommend investors to reach pedagogical business figures (core & supplemental solutions).

Note: Please see adjusted EBITDA reconciliation and adjusted Net Income reconciliation on page 15.

1Q23 Highlights

• Net revenue for the first quarter was R$534.9 million, a 24.4% YoY increase, with Core solutions totaling R$392.0 million (+13.2% YoY), Supplemental solutions totaling R$80.4 million (-4.2% YoY due to more concentrated deliveries in fourth quarter versus previous cycle) and financial & management (F&M) solutions debuting with R$ 62.5 million.
  • Excluding newly created F&M segment, net revenue for pedagogical business (core and supplemental) increased 9.8% YoY. Cycle to date figures reaffirms the strong ACV expected for the 2023 cycle, with Core totaling R$839.0 million (+25.7% YoY) and Supplemental totaling R$307.9 million (+37.8% YoY).

In the 1Q23, Arco recognized 24.5% of its 2023 ACV vs 27.6% in the 1Q22, thus we recommend investors to analyze our P&L performance on a cycle-to-date basis, for a more accurate assessment on the business underlying profitability trends.

• Cash gross margin (gross margin excluding depreciation and amortization) on a consolidated basis was 69.2% in 1Q23 (versus 78.9% in 1Q22).
  • Pedagogical business cash gross margin was 72.0% (versus 78.9% in 1Q22). Since 4Q22 Arco’s COGS has been impacted by the already discussed price increase in the paper supply chain (consequence of pulp and paper hike around the globe), resulting in increased costs for printing our initial patches for the 2023 educational content. We continue to roll-out cost reduction initiatives to offset and outpace such recent and punctual cost pressures and expect positive outcomes on quarters to come, especially in the 2H23.

• On the opposite direction, Arco delivered a strong performance on SG&A, especially when analyzing the figures cycle-to-date, which we consider a more adequate comparison given the difference in revenue recognition.

• In the quarter, consolidated selling expenses excluding depreciation and amortization totaled R$161.3 million in 1Q23 (+17.2% YoY).
  • Pedagogical business posted R$157.4 million in selling expenses in 1Q23 (+14.4% YoY). Cycle-to-date, selling expenses for the pedagogical business reached R$305.9 million, up 20.2% YoY and representing 26.9% of revenues in the cycle, vs 28.7% in the same period 2022.

• General and administrative expenses (G&A) figures excluding depreciation and amortization increased on consolidated basis due to the consolidation of isaac structure, totaling R$151.5 million in 1Q23.
  • Pedagogical business G&A expenses excluding depreciation and amortization reached R$85.0 million (+16.9% YoY versus 1Q22). Cycle-to-date G&A for the pedagogical business increased 7.6% YoY, for almost 300bps dilution YoY to 13.5% of revenues in the 2023 cycle.

• Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was R$110.7 million in 1Q23 (-24.5% YoY), with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.7%.
  • Pedagogical business delivered an adjusted EBITDA of R$125.5 million (-14.5% YoY) with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.6% versus 34.1% in 1Q22. The lower revenue recognition in the quarter combined with the aforementioned cost pressures explain the margin performance. In the 2023 cycle to date, adjusted EBITDA margin remained stable YoY at 41.5% for the pedagogical business and we reiterate our 2023 guidance for EBITDA margin between 36.5% and 38.5%.

• Consolidated adjusted net income (loss) in 1Q23 was R$(42.0) million, with an adjusted net margin of (7.9) % (versus 7.3% in 1Q22), impacted by higher finance expenses, the consolidation of isaac structure and higher depreciation and amortization.

• Moving to cash flow, consolidated cash from operations in the 1Q23 reached R$275.8 million (from R$102.8 million in 1Q22). For the quarter, free cash flow to firm was R$207.6 million, or R$194.5 million above the R$13.1 million free cash flow to firm of 1Q22. After interest payment, Arco generated R$ 94.4 million of free cash flow (representing 17.7% of net revenues) in the first quarter of 2023 (vs. -R$4.1 million in 1Q22, representing -1.0% of net revenues). The significant improvement in cash flow generation reflects an ongoing normalization in working capital behavior combined with a more disciplined capital allocation strategy.

• Pedagogical business generated its highest free cash flow to firm in Arco’s history at 39.7% vs 3.1% of revenues in the 1Q22, showing important improvements across all the most relevant cash flow drivers, including working capital (both DSO and DIO), capex and taxes.

• Consolidated days of sales outstanding already brought important improvements with DSO in 1Q23 at 187 days versus 212 days in 1Q22.
  • Pedagogical business DSO in 1Q23 was 188 days vs 212 days in the 1Q22. Delinquency figures for pedagogical business remained at healthy levels and ended 1Q23 at 5.3% from 4.2% in 4Q22 and 7.2% in 1Q22.

• CAPEX in 1Q23 was R$37.0 million, or 6.9% of net revenue (versus 10.9% of net revenue in 1Q22).
  • Pedagogical business CAPEX was R$ 28.4 million, or 6.0% of net revenue (versus 10.9% of net revenue in 1Q22). In the 2023 cycle to date, CAPEX reached 6.4% of revenues vs 16.3% in the 2022 cycle so far and has contributed to significant expansion on the Adj. EBITDA minus CAPEX metric that reached 35.0% cycle to date in March, 2023, versus 25.2% cycle to date 2022.

• Arco’s corporate restructuring is ongoing and progressing as planned. On May 1, 2023, the Company completed a corporate reorganization through the incorporation of INCO Limited (“isaac”) by Arco Platform Limited. INCO Limited was domiciled in Cayman Island and was incorporated by Arco Platform Ltd. (another Cayman Island company). Cayman Island tax legislation diverge from Brazil legislation: in Brazil it is possible to take tax benefits from incorporated acquired companies. Once the incorporation did not occur among Brazilian entities, there is no additional tax benefit regarding INCO acquisition. Future incorporation processes include Escola da Inteligência (2023), Pleno (2023) and SAE Digital (2024). As we keep incorporating other businesses into CBE, we expect to capture additional tax benefits and therefore further reduce our effective tax rate, currently at 18.9% in 1Q23 (versus 19.6% in 1Q22).

• Arco’s cash and cash equivalents plus financial investments position as of March 31 ^st , 2023 was R$837.7 million, while financial debt¹ and accounts payable to selling shareholders were R$2,675.6 million, resulting in a net debt of R$1,837.9 million.

1) Excludes Convertible notes: considers the conversion into equity of the convertible senior notes with no future disbursement of principal (US$150 M) issued on Nov 30, 2021. These notes mature in 7 years, on Nov 15, 2028, and bear interest at 8% per year fixed in Brazilian reais (R$66 M per year). 2) Amount subject to an arbitration process. Please reference the Financial Statements as of March 31 st, 2023, for additional details.

Conference Call Information

Arco will discuss its first quarter 2023 results today, May 25, 2023, via a conference call at 5 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. Brasilia Time). To access the call, please dial: +1 (412) 717-9627, +1 (844) 204-8942 or +55 (11) 4090-1621. For enhanced audio connection investors may connect through Web Phone (access code: 7636515).

An audio replay of the call will be available through June 1, 2023, by dialing +55 (11) 4118-5151 and entering access code 219191#. A live and archived Webcast of the call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at https://investor.arcoplatform.com/ .

About Arco Platform Limited (Nasdaq: ARCE)

Arco has empowered millions of students to rewrite their futures through education. Our data-driven learning methodology, proprietary adaptable curriculum, interactive hybrid content, and high-quality pedagogical services allow students to personalize their learning experience while enabling schools to thrive.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as pertains to Arco Platform Limited (the “Company”) within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, the Company’s expectations or predictions of future financial or business performance conditions. The achievement or success of the matters covered by statements herein involves substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the Company’s results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements we make. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Forward looking statements are made based on the Company’s current expectations and projections relating to its financial conditions, result of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business, and these statements are not guarantees of future performance.

Statements which herein address activities, events, conditions or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. You can generally identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “evaluate,” “expect,” “explore,” “forecast,” “guidance,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “might,” “outlook,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “probable,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “view,” or “will,” or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward looking, including risks and uncertainties related to statements about our competition; our ability to attract, upsell and retain customers; our ability to increase the price of our solutions; our ability to expand our sales and marketing capabilities; general market, political, economic, and business conditions in Brazil or abroad; and our financial targets which include revenue, share count and other IFRS measures, as well as non-GAAP financial measures including Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Margin, Taxable Income Reconciliation and Managerial Free Cash Flow.

Forward-looking statements represent the Company management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date such statements are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Further information on these and other factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included in filings the Company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the section titled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recent Forms 20-F and 6-K. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at: https://investor.arcoplatform.com/ .

Key Business Metrics - Pedagogical

ACV Bookings: we define ACV Bookings as the revenue we would contractually expect to recognize from a partner school in each school year pursuant to the terms of our contract with such partner school, assuming no further additions or reductions in the number of enrolled students that will access our content at such partner school in such school year (we define “school year” for purposes of calculation of ACV Bookings as the twelve-month period starting in October of the previous year to September of the mentioned current year). We calculate ACV Bookings by multiplying the number of enrolled students at each partner school with the average ticket per student per year; the related number of enrolled students and average ticket per student per year are each calculated in accordance with the terms of each contract with the related partner school.

Key Business Metrics – Financial & Management ( “revenue guarantee” solution )

Contracted schools are the primary operating metric and represents the total number of schools with active contracts with isaac. Schools sign contracts for 1 year (or longer) with isaac to guarantee tuition from all of the enrolled students. After signing and onboarding a partner school, services can be initiated at any month of the year.

Total payment value (TPV) indicates the full amount to be transacted by isaac to contracted schools. It is calculated by the total tuition fee owed by parents to their schools.

Take rate is the primary revenue driver and is a percentage of TPV agreed upon contract signing. It is priced upon school sign-up based on school historical delinquency rate, risk profile and operating costs. It may be renegotiated or adjusted based on the contract’s performance.

Annual recurring revenue (ARR) is the contracted annualized revenue for a given month. Annual contracts and recurring nature make ARR a good proxy for growth, given isaac’s high growth profile, mitigating seasonal and onboarding effects.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement the Company's condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board—IASB, we use Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Net Income Margin and Managerial Free Cash Flow and which are non-GAAP financial measures.

We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as profit (loss) for the year (or period) plus/minus income taxes, plus/minus finance result, plus depreciation and amortization, plus/minus share of (profit) loss of equity-accounted investees, plus share-based compensation plan and restricted stock units, plus provision for payroll taxes (restricted stock units), plus/minus M&A expenses (expenses related to acquisitions, and legal services mainly due to International School arbitration), minus other changes to equity accounted on investees (which refers to gains related to capital contribution from others on investees leading to an increase in equity of the investee) and plus non-recurring expenses (expenses related to our organizational restructuring in such as consulting services expenses and workforce reduction expenses). We calculate Adjusted EBITDA Margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Net Revenue.

We calculate Adjusted Net Income (Loss) as profit (loss) for the year (or period), plus share-based compensation plan, restricted stock units and related payroll taxes (restricted stock units), plus M&A expenses (expenses related to acquisitions, and legal services mainly due to International School arbitration), minus other changes to equity accounted on investees (which refers to gains related to capital contribution from others on investees leading to an increase in equity of the investee), plus non-recurring expenses (expenses related to our organizational restructuring in such as consulting services expenses and workforce reduction expenses), plus amortization of intangible assets from business combinations (which refers to the amortization of the following intangible assets from business combinations: (i) trademarks, (ii) customer relationships, (iii) educational system, (iv) software resulting from acquisitions, (v) educational platform, (vi) non-compete agreement and (vii) rights on contracts), plus/minus changes in accounts payable to selling shareholders (which refers to changes in fair value of contingent consideration and accounts payable to selling shareholders—finance costs), plus interest expenses, net (which refers to interest expenses related to accounts payable to selling shareholders from business combinations adjusted by fair value), plus/minus non-cash adjustments related to derivatives and convertible notes (which Refers to changes in fair value of derivative instruments from put option to convert senior notes) and plus/minus changes in current and deferred tax recognized in statements of income applied to all adjustments to net income (loss), which refers to tax effects of changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities recognized in profit or loss corresponding to financial instruments from acquisition of interests, tax benefit from tax deductible goodwill, share-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets).

We calculate Managerial Free Cash Flow as Net Cash Flows from Operating activities, less acquisition of property and equipment, less acquisition of intangible assets, adjusted by M&A-related payments that may be classified as CAPEX or as payment of contingent consideration. We consider Free Cash Flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by operating activities and cash used for investments in property and equipment required to maintain and grow our business.

We calculate Taxable Income Reconciliation as profit (loss) for the year (or period) adjusted for permanent and temporary additions and exclusions (for example, adjustments to provisions and amortizations in the period) and for all tax benefits that Arco is entitled to (for example, goodwill). The effective tax rate will be the current taxes for the period divided by the taxable income. In Brazil, taxes are charged based on the taxable income, not the accounting income, which means companies can have an accounting loss and a taxable profit. Additionally, Arco owns several companies and taxes are calculated individually.

We understand that, although Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Margin and Managerial Free Cash Flow and Taxable Income Reconciliation are used by investors and securities analysts in their evaluation of companies, these measures have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of our results of operations as reported under IFRS. Additionally, our calculations of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Margin, Managerial Free Cash Flow and Taxable Income Reconciliation may be different from the calculation used by other companies, including our competitors in the education services industry, and therefore, our measures may not be comparable to those of other companies.