Full Year 2020 NCC Group PLC Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Maria Christina Stormont - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : One question on Escrow and one question on the Assurance side of the business. On the Escrow side, could you just talk a little bit more about the pipeline and what you're seeing there, maybe differentiating between the EaaS offering and the sort of kind of the more standard one, what you're seeing in terms of that? And in terms of kind of going forward, sort of how nervous are you in terms of volumes there if volumes of kind of new REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 03, 2020 / 8:00AM, NCCG.L - Full Year 2020 NCC Group PLC Earnings Call license sales towards the back end of the year start to come down, if there are pressures on CapEx budget? Just trying to get a sense of kind of the buildup of the pipeline there. And secondly, on the Assurance side, if it's possible to perhaps describe some of the kind of the trends, to some extent, month-on-month, as you went through the period. You rightly pointed out that Q1 last year was obviously a weak period, followed by a really good bounce in Q2. In terms of kind of the orders and the pipeline that you're seeing there, does it feel like a better environment going into that Q2 versus, say, kind of the last few months? Just trying to get a sense of if you're seeing that. I take it that, obviously, we don't have the visibility in terms of corporate budget as sort of kind of the year goes on. But in terms of what you could see at the moment, is that sort of kind of improvement kind of happening?

Question: Damindu Jayaweera - Peel Hunt LLP, Research Division - Analyst : Just had a couple of questions. Well done on a great year. The first one is more around on the marketing side. So you've kind of rebranded. You've changed some names. You -- for example, Fox-IT, you are now calling, I think, NCC Europe. It's great to see like the Zoom CEO mentioned NCC on a blog post. It's also great to see you guys being mentioned on articles around open source security alongside the names like Microsoft and Google. And I was also impressed by the Fortune 500 customer gains. Do you feel NCC is now -- as a brand and as a company, is now more visible than, let's say, just a year ago? Or has nothing really changed in terms of visibility?

Question: Damindu Jayaweera - Peel Hunt LLP, Research Division - Analyst : And Adam, given where your attrition was in FY '20 and a better outlook for demand, can you make some comments around where you see wage inflation and kind of the attrition trending? Because I've heard, obviously, you are starting to hear your competitors are ramping up their own hiring as well as they kind of start to see 2021 being a good year in general. You kind of -- you are happy with your kind of wage inflation and attrition outlook for the time being?

Question: Damindu Jayaweera - Peel Hunt LLP, Research Division - Analyst : And just kind of going on the comment that you made about competitors who are underutilized. So during times like these, you obviously get crazy day rates here and there. What's the strategy you are employing? You are basically holding tight on your pricing because of the quality of the offer rather than -- is there kind of a -- I'm trying to figure out if the pricing is under pressure in the market in general. Or is there just pockets of crazy pricing and the kind of the ones who are doing well like yourself are just not trying to outbid those crazy prices?

Question: Damindu Jayaweera - Peel Hunt LLP, Research Division - Analyst : And on -- just lastly, I may have missed this because you did comment on MDR. I know that MDR is being rolled out into the U.S. I guess it's fairly early days. I mean, what kind of -- what should we expect? I mean, would that actually grow fairly rapidly? Or is that going to take some time to ramp up in the U.S. in the way that it has a very strong hold in Europe? I mean the U.S. is not going to be the kind of the biggest market overnight for you, I assume. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 03, 2020 / 8:00AM, NCCG.L - Full Year 2020 NCC Group PLC Earnings Call

Question: Damindu Jayaweera - Peel Hunt LLP, Research Division - Analyst : Sure. And lastly, what I wanted to -- to the extent you can, what I wanted to understand was the Q1. Obviously, you mentioned it has grown year-over-year, and we know that it had an easy comp. But also there was that M&A activity, which is at a heightened level. And I assume that the M&A activity actually continues for some time given by the news flow out there and the cash piles that most of these tech companies have. But if we -- is it possible for you to make -- give some comments around what it looks like -- to what Q1 looks like if you didn't have that M&A activity, heightened M&A activity? Is it kind of down year-over-year, flat year-over-year? Only if you could, if you have the data.

Question: Damindu Jayaweera - Peel Hunt LLP, Research Division - Analyst : And just lastly, I know that you've kind of talked about visibility being still lower versus last Q1 into Q2, for example. But your tone in the release in what you are seeing, in what I can see on LinkedIn from your employees and so on, there is a certain level of, let's say, a return of confidence. Obviously, I remember talking to you back in March, April time, and it felt like the world was ending. And then there is this surprise in kind of June, July -- or May, June and July level when things are kind of starting to pick up. And now there is a sense of confidence returning. Am I reading too much into it? Or are you actually genuinely surprised by how quickly things are kind of picking up, although they haven't gone back to normal, but are you generally surprised by how quickly things have turned around?