Kelly Services Inc

NASDAQ:KELYA

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to Kelly Services Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All parties will be in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer portion of the presentation. Today's call is being recorded at the request of Kelly Services. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. A second quarter webcast presentation is also available on Kelly's website for this morning's call.

I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host, Mr. Peter Quigley, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Thank you, Greg. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Kelly's second quarter conference call. Before we begin, I'll walk you through our safe harbor language. As a reminder, any comments made during this call including the Q&A, may include forward-looking statements about our expectations for future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those suggested by our comments, and we have no obligation to update the statements made on this call. Please refer to our SEC filings for a description of the risk factors that could influence the company's actual future performance. In addition, during the call, certain data will be discussed on a reported and on an adjusted basis. Discussion of items on an adjusted basis are non-GAAP financial measures designed to give insight into certain trends in our operations.

Finally, a presentation with information about Kelly's financial results in the quarter is available on our website. With that, I'll begin with remarks on Kelly's financial results.

In the second quarter, we remained focused on what we can control as we continue to navigate uncertain market conditions. Large enterprises maintained a cautious approach to hiring, though demand began to stabilize with positive signs emerging in particular, among our technology and life sciences customers.

In our P&I business, revenues leveled off on a sequential basis. This trend reflects stabilizing demand and the benefits of our enhanced localized delivery model. The combined strength of our network of physical branch locations and the Kelly Now mobile app continue to generate positive momentum in the quarter with both clients and talent helping grow our pipeline of new industrial and commercial staffing business and drive a meaningful improvement to our fill rate and time to GP.

At the enterprise level, our strategy to deliver the full suite of Kelly offerings to our largest customers also gained traction. Within the initial focus accounts, where we have operationalized this approach, we've improved both the efficiency and effectiveness with which we serve our largest customers. This progress is beginning to drive gains in share of wallet with our large enterprise customers. Our growth initiatives are helping capture market share and build upon Kelly's position as one of the largest staffing firms in the U.S. According to staffing industry analyst latest rankings, Kelly increased its position by the widest margin among the top 20 firms from 2022 to 2023. This is a testament to our team's resilience and definitely navigating through uncertain market conditions. Amid encouraging developments with growth, we remain laser-focused on improving our ability to convert a greater share of top line growth to bottom line growth.

This month marks 1 year since we shared with you the anticipated impact of the transformation initiatives we undertook to drive structural efficiencies across Kelly and significantly improve the company's profitability. Our message at that time was clear. Kelly would achieve a normalized adjusted EBITDA margin in the range of 3.3% to 3.5% as soon as the first half of 2024. Notwithstanding the challenging market conditions, we delivered a steady cadence of net margin expansion driven by sustained reductions to SG&A. One year later, I'm pleased to share that we have achieved our initial expectations. In the first half of this year, Kelly attained an adjusted EBITDA margin of 3.4%, excluding the benefit of our acquisition of MRP.

For more details on this and our results in the second quarter, I'll turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Olivier Thirot.

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everybody. As a reminder, Kelly's 2023 results include the European staffing business that was sold on January 2, 2024. And we are now including the results of Motion Recruitment Partners since the date of the acquisition. So just for the month of June 2024 this quarter. To provide greater visibility into trends in our operating results, I will also discuss year-over-year changes on the reported and also on an organic basis.

References to organic information excludes the results of our European Staffing business in 2023 and the impact of the acquisition of MRP in 2024. Revenue for the second quarter of 2024 totaled $1.06 billion compared to $1.22 billion 2023, down 13.1%, resulting primarily from the sale of our European staffing business, partially offset by the acquisition of MRP. On an organic basis, year-over-year revenue improved 0.6% in the quarter, reflecting strong growth in education, a sequential stabilization of demand from Q1 to Q2 across much of our other businesses despite of market uncertainty in several specialties. Reviewing results by segment, Education continued to grow revenue by double digits, up 22% year-over-year in the quarter. This strong and sustained growth reflects net new customer wins increased demand from existing customers and an improving fill rate.

In the SET segment, revenue was up 10% on a reported basis, which includes the impact of the MRP acquisition. Revenue was down 3% on an organic basis and organic revenue trends were stable sequentially. Year-over-year organic revenue growth reflects lower staffing market demand with revenue down 4% in our staffing specialties and down 1% in our outcome-based business. Permanent placement fees also declined by 20%.

In our OCG segment, revenue improved 3%. The increase in revenues was driven by our PPO specialty, where demand growth has continued. Year-over-year declines in RPO are due to slower hiring in certain market sectors, and MSP revenues declined in line with customers' contingent labor demand. But revenue in both MSP and RPO products were stable sequentially and with our MSP product positioned to benefit from positive momentum going forward.

Revenue in our Professional & Industrial segment declined 9% year-over-year in the quarter, but also stabilized sequentially, including in the P&I staffing specialty. Revenue from our staffing product declined 9%. The segment's contact center outcome-based specialty revenue also declined year-over-year as did balance sheet in this segment, partially offsetting these declines other higher margin outcome-based specialty revenue continued to grow.

Overall gross profit was 11.2% as reported or 4.3% on an organic basis. Our gross profit rate was 20.2% compared to 19.8% in the second quarter of the prior year. Our GP rate reflects a 100 basis point improvement from the sale of our European staffing operations and an additional 40 basis points from the inclusion of the June results of MRP. On an organic basis, the GP rate declined 100 basis points in Q2, 110 basis points due to unfavorable business mix and 20 basis points due to lower burn fees partially offset by 30 basis points of favorable employee-related costs. The business mix impact reflects continued growth in specialties with lower deeply rate, including education and [indiscernible]. SG&A expenses were down 17% year-over-year on a reported basis. Expenses for the second quarter of 2024 include $4.3 million of restructuring charges related to our ongoing transformation efforts as well as $1.6 million of expenses primarily related to the sale of our European staffing operations, including transaction and also transition expenses.

SG&A expenses in 2023 include $5.6 million of restructuring charges. So expenses declined by 18% on an adjusted basis or 10% on an adjusted organic basis. So like-for-like expenses were lower in Q2 of 2024 due to the positive impact of our structural transformation efforts as well as lower performance incentive compensation expenses, reflecting current top line trends.

As a reminder, beginning in the first quarter of 2024, we are reporting the operating results of our reportable segments, utilizing revised business unit profit measures. We also are allocating a greater share of the costs we have previously reported as corporate costs to our business units. In addition, we are no longer including deposition and amortization in our business unit project measure. We believe this provides greater visibility into the financial performance of each business unit and how they contribute to Kelly's overall performance.

On a consolidated basis, our reported earnings from operations in the second quarter were $12.2 million compared to $6.2 million in Q2 of 2023. On an adjusted basis, Q2 2024 earnings from operations were $28.1 million, nearly doubled from a year ago. The $15.9 million increase from the reported earnings includes a loss on the sale of our European staffing operations, charges related transformation actions and the sale of our European staffing operations, an impairment charge related to excess lease property and a gain on the sale of assets related to the [ higher ] group. The acquisition of MRP added $1.5 million of earnings formulations in the second quarter of 2024.

Adjusted earnings in the second quarter of 2023 were $14.2 million. The $8 million increase from reported earnings, including transformation-related charges and an asset impairment charge. The European staffing operations produced $1 million of earnings from operations on an adjusted basis in the second quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA margin also improved 180 basis points to 3.8%, reflecting 40 basis points of improvement from the sale of our European staffing operations, 10 basis points from the inclusion of the month of June result of MRP and 130 basis points of improvement from our ongoing transformation efforts.

In the income tax expense for the second quarter was $1.1 million compared to a benefit of $1.9 million in 2023. Our effective income tax rate was 19.4% in Q2 2024. And finally, reported earnings per share for the second quarter was $0.12 per share compared to $0.20 in 2023. Earnings per share in 2024 include a loss related to the sale of our European staffing operations and a gain on the sale of the [indiscernible] Group transaction as well as transaction costs related to the acquisition of MRP, restructuring charges related to our transformation and an asset impairment charge.

Earnings per share in 2023 included restructuring and an asset impairment charge. So on an adjusted basis, Q2 2024 EPS was $0.71 compared to $0.36 per share in Q2 of 2023, nearly doubling year-over-year.

Now reflecting on the balance sheet. Following the acquisition of MRP at quarter end, cash totaled $38 million, and we had $210 million of debt outstanding. Our debt-to-capital ratio is 14.1%. As of quarter end as we leverage our balance sheet to acquire MRP. And as we disclosed at the time of the acquisition, we have amended our credit facilities to maintain the financial flexibility for additional organic and inorganic investment and to navigate an ongoing uncertain market environment. At quarter end, accounts receivable totaled $1.2 billion, including the receivables of MRP. Global DSO was 57 days, down 2 days from year-end 2023 and down 4 days from the second quarter of 2023.

In the quarter, we generated $55 million of free cash flow compared to $32 million in the comparable prior year period. Looking ahead to operating results for the second half of the year, our results will be impacted by several factors. First, we believe that staffing market conditions will remain relatively consistent with what we have experienced in the first half of the year and modest sequential revenue improvement in our P&I set and OCG segments will continue in the second half of 2024.

Our Education segment revenue will be impacted by some [indiscernible] holiday period in Q3 but will continue to produce double-digit revenue growth. And finally, the acquisition of MRP will deliver further improvement in both our growth and also value metrics. For the second half of 2024, on an organic basis, we expect revenue to be up 2.5% to 3.5% with no significant FX impact resulting in a midpoint revenue expectation of about $2 billion. In addition, we expect MRP to add an additional $260 million to $270 million of revenue in the second half of the year. We expect our organic GP rate to be between 20% to 20.2% in the second half. On a like-for-like basis, this is a 90 basis point decline at the midpoint of our range, reflecting the change in our business mix primarily because of Education -- our Education business is expected to continue to deliver significant revenue growth. MRP with higher-margin specialty profile, is expected to add an additional 100 basis points to our gross margin rate in the second half of the year.

So our all-in GP rate in the second half of 2024 is expected to be between 21% to 21.2%. Reflecting on SG&A, we expect to sustain the efficiency improvements that we gained from our transformation-related actions over the past year. The impact on year-over-year trends will moderate as we anniversary the execution of most of those actions. We expect that adjusted SG&A, excluding D&A will be 3.5% to 4.5% lower than a year ago on an organic basis, and MRP will add about [ $50 ] million of expenses in the second half. All in, we expect approximately $28 million of deposition and amortization in H2 of 2024. We expect an adjusted organic EBITDA margin of 3.2% to 3.3% up 30 to 40 basis points year-over-year. And we believe that MRP will add an additional 30 basis points of net margin in the second half of 2024.

And back to my earlier point regarding Education seasonality, we expect that our adjusted EBITDA margin will be closer to 3% or 2.6% organic in the third quarter during the school summer holiday period and then improve as in Q4 as Education's working days increase. And finally, we expect our effective tax rate to be in the low teens.

And now back to you, Peter.

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Thanks for those insights, Olivier. In May, I shared with you that 2024 would mark an inflection point on our strategic journey. The actions and results we deliver this year will propel Kelly into a new era of growth. Reflecting on the significant progress we achieved in the second quarter, I'm confident that we're on track to realize those ambitions.

Our transformational acquisition of Motion Recruitment Partners has strengthened the scale and capabilities of Kelly staffing, consulting and RPO solutions in attractive customer end markets, including technology, financial services and health care. The highly complementary nature of MRP and Kelly SET and OCG businesses. MRP's attractive financial profile and its leadership team of recruiting industry veterans will contribute in a significant way to enhancing Kelly's revenue growth potential and driving continued EBITDA margin expansion.

The sale of Arris Group further sharpened Telio CG's focus on global RPO and MSP solutions while unlocking incremental capital to redeploy towards Kelly's specialty strategy. And we achieved our initial expectation for EBITDA margin expansion, which we established 1 year ago, demonstrating the capacity of our growth and efficiency initiatives to significantly improve Kelly's profitability over the long term. Of course, it's difficult to know the precise time line of a recovery for our industry. And as Olivier noted, we expect our results in the second half of the year will continue to reflect uncertain market conditions. Notwithstanding these dynamics, I'm optimistic about the sequential stabilization we saw across our business and I'm confident that our achievements in the second quarter, together with the progress we've delivered since we embarked on our specialty growth journey, position Kelly to capitalize when sequential stabilization gives way to a sustained increase in demand.

I'm immensely proud of the work of each and every member of Team Kelly, including our newest colleagues at MRP that has brought us to this point in our journey. Their urgency, agility and unwavering commitment to our clients and talent are the driving forces that continue to propel us to new heights. With our team moving forward together united by our noble purpose, I'm confident that the opportunities before us are limitless.

Greg, you can now open the call to questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Kartik Mehta from Northcoast Research.

[Kartik Mehta, analyst]

Yes. First of all, Olivier, first of all, it's been a pleasure working with you, and I wish you the best [indiscernible] some big shoes to build. So thank you for everything.

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Thank you, Kartik.

[Kartik Mehta, analyst]

I was wondering if we could focus on the MRP business for a second. And just as you look at the fundamentals for that business, maybe so far in the second quarter and as you look at your outlook in the second half, and you compare it to a year ago or maybe a quarter ago, what's been the trend for that business?

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Yes. I will comment on a few numbers and Peter can add more color on business trends and so on. You might have seen Kartik that we have issued a so-called [indiscernible] and of course, the outlook of today, and you are going to see further information in our 10-Q on what we call pro forma. If you use this information you will see that H1 of 2024, the revenue was about $260 million. And if you take the midrange of our guidance today, you're going to be at $265 million. So we expect similar to what we have said for Kelly organic, basically a slight improvement basically in the second half of the year. When you look at how does it compare versus a year ago, H1 at $260 million is about minus 8% versus the prior year, which is consistent with the trends we have shared in June when we are talking specifically about MRP. And we expect, based on the change in comparables and a little bit of sequential improvement to turn into flat to minus 1%, minus 1.5% versus a year ago.

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

And Kartik, longer term, I mean, we continue to be very bullish on the -- on MRP in particular, but also the space that they're in, both the on the staffing and solutions side as well as on the RPO side. We've been very pleased with the partnership we've had with the MRP leadership to date and the significant complementary nature of our businesses, the lack of significant customer overlap, complementary delivery models. So longer term, we're still very optimistic about the investment thesis in making the acquisition of MRP.

[Kartik Mehta, analyst]

And then as you just look at the overall business, maybe in each of the segments. I'm wondering what you're witnessing in terms of pricing, have pricing trends or competition increase in any of the segments? Or are they kind of where they were last quarter?

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Well, I think on -- in this kind of uncertain environment, market conditions, you're always going to find outlier suppliers that are going to try to buy share. But it's not across the board. It's not an industry dynamic that we're seeing. In fact, we've been relatively pleased with the -- our ability to maintain pricing discipline during these market conditions.

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Yes. Just when you look at the so-called spread in P&I, it's completely stable. In SET flat to up slightly. In Education, a little bit down, but it's more the customer mix than meal pricing concession. So, so far, and it's not an isolated quarter, Q2 of this year. We have not seen any change or any pressure on spreads. We continue to see that we are capable of keeping our spread -- us keeping our overall margin.

[Kartik Mehta, analyst]

And then just one last question. As you go down this information early and obviously, MRP will help. As you look for the next acquisition, is your thought that you'd like to integrate MRP, so you'd wait or if an opportunity turned up, you're at a point where you could do another acquisition.

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Well, I think our -- as we've said, MRP is going to continue to deliver its services and solutions through its operating companies and under its current brand. We'll, of course, be working with the MRP leadership on where it makes sense, integration. I think our focus right now is on that as a priority. But we're not -- we're not going to stand on the sidelines in terms of developing a pipeline for future acquisitions. The cycle time is, as you know, Kartik quite long.

So we're preparing for the time when it would make sense for us to deploy additional capital in pursuit of high-margin, high-growth businesses, as I've said before, primarily in the science engineering technology and telecom space or in our education practice.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Steinke from Barrington Research.

[Kevin Steinke, analyst]

I want to start off by asking about generating some modest organic growth in the second quarter. It sounded like you were pleased with the progress of the organic growth initiatives that are part of the transformation effort. I mean would you attribute the return to organic growth is really being driven by those transformation-related organic growth initiatives?

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Yes, I think so, Kevin, it's hard to pin it down precisely. But relative to what we're seeing from our competitors, we believe we're taking share in across our businesses. And we spent a good portion of 2023 focused on efficiency. But as I said, at the beginning of the year, we were pivoting and turning our attention to growth. I think the progress we've made in omnichannel strategy and professional industrial is beginning to show results, and our focus on taking share within our large enterprise customers is also showing traction.

And I think the combination of those two plus obviously, the continued growth in Education and focus on high-margin and areas that are a little bit more stable. We're pleased with the organic growth in the quarter.

[Kevin Steinke, analyst]

Okay, good. And I guess related to that question, when we think about your forecast for organic revenue growth of 2.5% to 3.5% in the second half of 2024. You talked about assuming kind of a similar demand environment in the second half relative to what you've been seeing recently, but also you mentioned some stabilization in demand. It sounds like some improvement in Technology and Life Sciences. I'm just trying to unpack how you get to that higher rate of organic growth in the second half, if it's driven by the organic growth initiatives? Or are you assuming some sort of continued improvement or stabilization in just the overall demand environment to get to that growth and also the sequential improvements you mentioned you expect in P&I, SET and OCG.

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Yes. I mean I'm going to start and then Peter will add some color on the business side. And on so if you think about it, first of all, we did confirm today that we see Education continuing to grow at double-digit rate. Of course, Q3 is low seasonality, but we see the dynamic we have seen for a long, long time continuing. So that's one point.

Second point is, when you put on the side Education sequentially from Q1 to Q2, excluding Education, the rest of the business sequentially went up by about 1.5%. We expect similar modest improvement sequentially over the second half of the year. That is basically based on what we have seen sequentially from Q1 to Q2. Some areas is more stabilization like, for instance, P&I staffing. Others, it's really sequential growth. And I'm thinking about OCG and to some extent SET. We start to see some positive dynamics, as Peter was saying, in our legacy IT business and also science that are moving up. And on top of that, of course, the growth initiatives that Peter was mentioning that are part of this sequential improvement of 1.5% I was mentioning from Q1 to Q2 when you exclude Education.

And there is also the base impact, right? I mean, the 2.5 to 3.5 is also basically reflecting on the fact that our comparables are basically lower in H2 of 2023 than they were in the first half of this year.

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

And Kevin, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we don't know when there will be a return to a more normalized demand. But we are much better positioned to take advantage of that. And we're prepared to take advantage of it when it happens than we were a couple of years ago. Just because of all the steps we've taken to structurally improve the cost base and to be able to leverage when demand returns in a meaningful way. But we're not waiting for that, which is why I focused on the growth initiatives that I mentioned. We turned to in earnest at the beginning of the year, and we will continue to lean into those growth initiatives, notwithstanding the external market conditions.

[Kevin Steinke, analyst]

Okay, great. I also want to ask about the trend in adjusted SG&A expenses. You mentioned you expect them to be down organically 3.5% to 4.5% year-over-year. Just trying to think about on a sequential basis as we move into the second half of the year, how those will trend organically. If we should think about those kind of being flattish sequentially, excluding MRP or if they come down a little bit more?

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Yes, I would really continue to look at organic, meaning excluding our European staffing business and MRP. I think we gave today some specifics around MRP expectations for SG&A, excluding D&A by the way for the second half of the year. So if you think about a Q2 trend, if you go really on adjusted organic, we're at about minus 10% like-for-like in Q2 versus a year ago. In Q1, we're at minus 11%. So very similar trend in the second quarter than in the first quarter. When we moved to our guidance that you are mentioning for the second half, of course, the comparables are becoming more challenging, right? Because a good portion of our efficiency initiatives were already visible in the second half of the year. So this is why we adjusted guidance. But if you think about it more sequentially you will see that it's basically flat sequentially from first half to second half or if you look at Q2 to Q3 and Q4. Yes. that's our expectation. And this is where we are trending now.

[Kevin Steinke, analyst]

Okay. Thank you Olivier that was very helpful. And I also wanted to add my congratulations and best wishes for your upcoming retirement and certainly a pleasure working with you over the years.

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

I'm going to be still around for a while now, right? So you're going to hear from me for the next 2 quarters with pleasure.

[Kevin Steinke, analyst]

Okay. Well, we look forward to talking to that.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Joe Gomes from NOBLE Capital Markets.

[Joseph Gomes, analyst]

[indiscernible] for Joe.

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

[indiscernible]

[Joseph Gomes, analyst]

So now for kind of a couple of months just into the completion of MRP. Can you guys describe me how the integration of [indiscernible] coming along? And some key takeaways so far into it. Has the company really picked up any new business wins from it so far?

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Well, as we explained, Josh, for the foreseeable future, we're going to continue to operate the businesses as they've been operating under their current delivery models and brands. That doesn't mean we're not spending a lot of time with Motion Recruitment Partners leadership team working on ideas and plans for integration when it makes sense. We have been encouraged by the collaboration between the teams on both the staffing and solutions side of the Motion Recruitment Partners business as well as within the Sevenstep business.

And there have been opportunities that we've taken advantage of that the combined forces of Kelly and MRP has proven to be an advantage. It's still early, but we're encouraged by what we think is the market and customer reaction to the combination and partnership. And more to come on that as we further refine what the ideal or optimized operating model will be going forward.

[Joseph Gomes, analyst]

Okay. That's helpful. And yes, you kind of touched on the M&A side a little bit. But you guys talked about in the previous quarter, how there's kind of more discussions happening. Is that really still true now? Is there kind of more properties in the market that you're seeing? Or is it still roughly about the same?

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

I'd say it's roughly about the same, Josh [indiscernible]. It's still not what it was 2 or 3 years ago. I think companies are still a little bit cautious about coming off the sidelines. So the flow is not what it was at its height. But as you know, in our business, in particular, not everything comes to market. And so we continue to explore high-quality high-growth, high-margin businesses and develop relationships that we think could potentially at some point in the future result in an acquisition similar to how we accomplished MRP.

[Joseph Gomes, analyst]

Okay. And then last one for me. It's been probably a couple of quarters you guys commented on the Kelly Arc. Can you guys kind of provide us with an update on that? And kind of what's been the interest been like in that program?

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Well, the interest is high. The fact is that it's a platform solution that's as both the talent and customer side in an area of great demand in terms of AI and automation talent. As with any platform-driven solution adoption on both the talent side and the customer side takes time. But we have dozen-plus customers on the platform and hundreds of AI automation professionals that are also partaking in the solution. And it's one of those solutions.

Again, a platform solution as individuals and customers begin to join and register, it has a network effect as people hear about it and learn about it and refer other people to the platform. So we're still optimistic about the solution and the value it brings for both talent and customers. And we'll continue to invest our time and technology into it.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Marc Riddick from Sidoti.

[Marc Riddick, analyst]

Olivier glad you're with us today. So we do certainly appreciate that. I wanted to touch a little bit on sort of maybe piggybacking on the acquisition pipeline and opportunities that you see there. I was wondering if you talk maybe shifting a little bit towards sort of use of [indiscernible] sort of comfort levels with that and leverage and sort of how that plays into the thought process of future acquisition pipeline?

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Yes. I mean if you remember, at the time of the MRP acquisition, our debt level was $263 million, to be very precise. We are already now at 210. If you use what I like to use amongst many other metrics, multiple of EBITDA. And I'm using the last 12 months EBITDA that is the calculation we use in our bank covenants. We are now at about 1.7 debt to EBITDA. So we are making progress. You have seen on our free cash flow for the quarter was over $50 million. So I feel comfortable that our time -- not this year, but I think we are going to continue to basically deleverage as much as we can and as quickly as possible, is going to take, of course, more than the next 12 months. But I feel that we are on the right track.

When you see our working capital, glad to confirm that our DSO now is at 57 days, which is I would say, a big progress versus where we are before. And we are in a business where the best way to manage our working capital is basically to manage the DSO. So I feel comfortable that what we see in terms of metrics, balance sheet leverage, we are comfortable that we can continue to deleverage and comfortable to basically go for an acquisition whenever we are ready to do it and whenever we have attractive properties.

[Marc Riddick, analyst]

Okay, great. And then I guess one quick love follow-up. Is there sort of a general ballpark range we're looking at for any potential technology investments, maybe CapEx for this year? Are there any sort of investments that you see coming whether it was in conjunction with MRP, but just maybe enterprise-wide would be great?

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

I mean, of course, you can assess our CapEx at least on the cash flow by looking at our cash flow statement. Most of our CapEx over time has been on technology and it will continue to be the case. You need to think about something in the region of $20 million, $25 million on a recurring basis. Of course, that does not take into account technology integration of MRP. That as Peter was mentioning, is going to happen as soon as we have the earnout behind us. So after Q1 of next year, we are planning for it now and it will possibly move the $20 million to $25 million [indiscernible] for a temporary period. But that's something that knowing our free cash flow generation I feel comfortable that we can absorb higher capital expenses than the $20 million, $25 million, at least for a limited period of time, which may happen through this integration of technology for MRP.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And at this time, there are no further questions.

[Peter W. Quigley, executive]

Okay, Greg, I think we can end the call. Thank you very much.

[Olivier Thirot, executive]

Thank you, Greg.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T teleconference. You may now disconnect.