false 0001577916 0001577916 2024-02-05 2024-02-05

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

 

 

FORM 8-K

 

 

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of Earliest Event Reported): February 5, 2024

 

 

Premier, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Delaware   001-36092   35-2477140

(State or other jurisdiction

of incorporation)

 

(Commission

File Number)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

13034 Ballantyne Corporate Place

Charlotte, NC 28277

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

(704) 357-0022

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Not Applicable

(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)

 

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

 

Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 

Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class

 

Trading

Symbol

 

Name of each exchange

on which registered

Class A Common Stock, $0.01 Par Value   PINC   NASDAQ Global Select Market

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2).

Emerging growth company 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

 

 

 


Item 1.01

Entry Into a Material Definitive Agreement

Accelerated Share Repurchase

On February 5, 2024 Premier, Inc. (the “Company”) entered into an Issuer Forward Repurchase Transaction agreement (the “ASR Agreement”) with Bank of America, N.A. (“BofA”) to repurchase an aggregate of $400 million of shares of the Company’s Class A common stock (the “common stock”). The accelerated share repurchase transaction under the ASR Agreement (the “ASR Transaction”) is being consummated as part of the Company’s new $1.0 billion Share Repurchase Authorization described in Item 7.01 of this report.

Under the terms of the ASR Agreement, the Company will make a payment of $400 million to BofA, and by February 9, 2024 will receive from BofA initial deliveries of (and will then retire) $320 million worth of common stock based on the closing price of the common stock on February 7, 2024. The final number of shares of common stock to be repurchased and retired under the ASR Transaction will be determined on completion of the transaction and will generally be based on the volume-weighted average share price of the common stock during the term of the ASR Transaction, less a discount and subject to adjustments pursuant to the terms and conditions of the ASR Agreement. The final settlement of the ASR Transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the Company’s 2025 fiscal year. At settlement, under certain circumstances, BofA may be required to deliver additional shares of common stock to the Company, or, under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to make a cash payment or to deliver shares of its common stock to BofA.

The ASR Agreement contains the terms and provisions governing the ASR Transaction, which are customary for these types of transactions, and which include, but are not limited to, the mechanism used to determine the number of shares of common stock or the amount of cash that will be delivered at settlement, the required timing of delivery of the shares, the circumstances under which BofA is permitted to make adjustments to valuation and calculation periods, various acknowledgements, representations and warranties made by the parties to one another, and the circumstances under which the ASR Agreement may be terminated early.

The foregoing description of the ASR Agreement and ASR Transaction is a summary and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the ASR Agreement, a copy of which is filed hereto as Exhibit 10.1 and incorporated herein by reference.

 

Item 2.02.

Results of Operations and Financial Condition

On February 5, 2024, the Company issued a press release reporting the financial results of the Company for the three and six months ended December 31, 2023. A copy of the press release is attached to this report as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.

As discussed in the financial results press release, the Company held a conference call and webcast on February 6, 2024. Supplemental slides referenced during the conference call and webcast were available on the Company’s website for viewing by call participants. A transcript of the call together with supplemental slides referenced during the conference call are attached as Exhibit 99.3 and Exhibit 99.4, respectively, to this report and are incorporated herein by reference.

 

Item 7.01.

Regulation FD Disclosure

As noted in Item 2.02 of this report, the Company held a conference call and webcast on February 6, 2024, to discuss the Company’s operating results for the three and six months ended December 31, 2023, as reported in the Company’s February 5, 2024 financial results press release. A copy of the press release, which contains additional information regarding how to access the conference call and webcast and how to listen to a recorded playback of the call, is attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this report. A transcript of the call together with supplemental slides referenced during the conference call are attached as Exhibit 99.3 and Exhibit 99.4, respectively, to this report and are incorporated herein by reference.

On February 5, 2024, the Company issued a press release announcing that the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) has concluded its exploration of strategic alternatives. On February 5, 2024, in the same press release, the Company also announced that the Board has approved a new share repurchase authorization for up to $1 billion of the Company’s common stock (the “Share Repurchase Authorization”) and that the Company has entered into the ASR Transaction described in Item 1.01 of this report pursuant to the Share Repurchase Authorization.


A copy of the press release announcing the conclusion of the strategic review, the Share Repurchase Authorization, and the ASR Transaction is attached to this report as Exhibit 99.2 and is incorporated herein by reference.

* * * *

The information discussed under Item 2.02 and Item 7.01 of this report, including Exhibits 99.1, 99.2, 99.3, and 99.4, shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or incorporated by reference in any filing by the Company under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such a filing.

Statements made in this report that are not statements of historical or current facts are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements in this report include, but are not limited to those related to: The Company’s ability to advance its long-term strategies and develop innovations for and transform healthcare; the Company’s ability to identify partners for its S2S Global and Contigo Health businesses and the potential benefits thereof to the Company, its business, financial condition, or financial results; the potential for share repurchases pursuant to the Share Repurchase Authorization, the ability to fund those share repurchases, and the potential benefits thereof; and the ability to complete the ASR Transaction, the number of shares of common stock purchased pursuant to that transaction, the expected completion date, and the potential benefits thereof, all of which could be affected by volatility or disruption in the capital markets or other factors. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “anticipates” or “plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to the Company’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside the Company’s control. More information on risks and uncertainties that could affect the Company’s business, achievements, performance, financial condition, and financial results is included from time to time in the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s periodic and current filings with the SEC, including those discussed under the “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” section of the Company’s Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2023 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, all of which are made available on the Company’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events that occur after that date, or otherwise.

 

Item 9.01.

Financial Statements and Exhibits

 

(d)

Exhibits

 

Exhibit
No.

  

Description

10.1    Issuer Forward Repurchase Transaction agreement dated February 5, 2024, between Premier, Inc. and Bank of America, N.A.
99.1    Press release of Premier, Inc. dated February 5, 2024
99.2    Press release of Premier, Inc. dated February 5, 2024
99.3    Transcript of fiscal 2024 second quarter earnings call of Premier, Inc.
99.4    Supplemental slides referenced during the fiscal 2024 second quarter earnings call of Premier, Inc.
104    Cover Page Interactive Data File (the cover page XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document).


SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

 

    Premier, Inc.
    By:  

/s/ Michael J. Alkire

    Name:   Michael J. Alkire
    Title:   President and Chief Executive Officer
Date: February 7, 2024      

Exhibit 10.1

Execution Version

 

LOGO

 

   February 5, 2024
To:        

Premier, Inc.

13034 Ballantyne Corporate Place

Charlotte, NC 28277

Attn: Craig McKasson, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer

Email: craig_mckasson@premierinc.com

From:   

Bank of America, N.A.

Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park

New York, New York 10036

Attention: Strategic Equity Solutions Group

Telephone: 646-855-8900

Email: dg.issuer_derivatives_notices@bofa.com

Re:    Issuer Forward Repurchase Transaction

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The purpose of this communication (this “Confirmation”) is to confirm the terms and conditions of the Transaction entered into between Bank of America, N.A. (“BofA”) and Premier, Inc. (“Counterparty”) on the Trade Date specified below (the “Transaction”). The terms of the Transaction shall be set forth in this Confirmation. This Confirmation shall constitute a “Confirmation” as referred to in the ISDA Master Agreement specified below.

1.   This Confirmation is subject to, and incorporates, the definitions and provisions of the 2006 ISDA Definitions (including the Annex thereto) (the “2006 Definitions”) and the definitions and provisions of the 2002 ISDA Equity Derivatives Definitions (the “Equity Definitions”, and together with the 2006 Definitions, the “Definitions”), in each case as published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (“ISDA”). In the event of any inconsistency between the 2006 Definitions and the Equity Definitions, the Equity Definitions will govern.

This Confirmation evidences a complete and binding agreement between BofA and Counterparty as to the terms of the Transaction to which this Confirmation relates. This Confirmation shall be subject to an agreement (the “Agreement”) in the form of the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement as if BofA and Counterparty had executed an agreement in such form (without any Schedule but with (i) the election that the Cross Default provisions of Section 5(a)(vi) shall apply to BofA as if (x) the Threshold Amount with respect to BofA were equal to 3% of Bank of America Corporation’s shareholders equity as of the Trade Date (provided that (a) the phrase “or becoming capable at such time of being declared”, shall be deleted from clause (1) of such Section 5(a)(vi) of the Agreement, and (b) the following sentence shall be added to the end thereof: “Notwithstanding the foregoing, an Event of Default shall not occur under either (1) or (2) above if (a) the event or condition referred to in (1) or the failure to pay referred to in (2) is caused by an error or omission of an administrative or operational nature, (b) funds were available to BofA to enable it to make the relevant payment when due, and (c) such payment is made within three Local Business Days after notice of such failure is given by Counterparty.” and (y) Specified Indebtedness had the meaning specified in Section 14 of the Agreement, except that such term shall not include obligations in respect of deposits received in the ordinary course of BofA banking business; and (ii) the other elections set forth in this Confirmation). The Transaction shall be the only Transaction under the Agreement.

All provisions contained in, or incorporated by reference to, the Agreement will govern this Confirmation except as expressly modified herein. In the event of any inconsistency between this Confirmation and either the Definitions or the Agreement, this Confirmation shall govern. The Transaction is a Share Forward Transaction within the meaning set forth in the Equity Definitions.


2.   The terms of the particular Transaction to which this Confirmation relates are as follows:

General Terms:

 

      Trade Date:    February 5, 2024
  Effective Date:    February 8, 2024
  Seller:    BofA
  Buyer:    Counterparty
  Shares:    The common stock of Counterparty, par value USD 0.01 per share (Ticker Symbol: “PINC”)
  Prepayment:    Applicable
  Prepayment Amount:    As provided in Annex B to this Confirmation.
  Prepayment Date:    The Effective Date
  Exchange:    Nasdaq Global Select
  Related Exchange(s):    All Exchanges
  Calculation Agent:    BofA, provided that, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, all determinations, adjustments and calculations performed by BofA in its capacity as Calculation Agent, as well as any determinations, adjustments or calculations by BofA in any other capacity, pursuant to this Confirmation, the Agreement and the Equity Definitions shall be made in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner, including, without limitation, with respect to calculations, adjustments and determinations that are made in its sole discretion or otherwise. In the event the Calculation Agent or BofA makes any calculation, adjustment or determination pursuant to this Confirmation, the Agreement or the Equity Definitions, the Calculation Agent or BofA shall, within a commercially reasonable period of time, and in any event within five Local Business Days, notify Counterparty of such determination, adjustment or calculation and provide an explanation in reasonable detail of the basis for any such determination, adjustment or calculation (including any quotations, market data or information from external sources used in making such calculation, adjustment or determination, as the case may be, but without disclosing Calculation Agent’s or BofA’s proprietary models or other information that is subject to contractual, legal or regulatory obligations to not disclose such information); provided that following the occurrence of an Event of Default pursuant to Section 5(a)(vii) of the Agreement with respect to which BofA is the Defaulting Party, Counterparty shall have the right to designate a nationally recognized dealer in over-the-counter corporate equity derivatives to act, during the period commencing on the date such Event of Default occurred and ending on the Early Termination Date with respect to such Event of Default, as the Calculation Agent.

 

2


     The Calculation Agent shall use commercially reasonable efforts to make any adjustment required or, to the extent it makes any such adjustment, permitted to be made to the terms of the Transaction as promptly as reasonably practicable following the occurrence of the event giving rise to any such adjustment, and the Calculation Agent shall use commercially reasonable efforts to notify Counterparty of the event giving rise to such adjustment, the terms being adjusted and, for each term so adjusted, such term as so adjusted, in each case, as promptly as reasonably practicable after giving effect to such adjustment.
Valuation Terms:   
      Averaging Dates:    Each of the consecutive Exchange Business Days commencing on, and including, the Effective Date and ending on, and including, the Final Averaging Date.
  Final Averaging Date:    The Scheduled Final Averaging Date; provided that BofA shall have the right, in its absolute discretion, at any time to accelerate the Final Averaging Date, in whole or in part, to any date that is on or after the Scheduled Earliest Acceleration Date by written notice to Counterparty no later than 6:00 P.M., New York City time, on the Exchange Business Day immediately following the accelerated Final Averaging Date.
     In the case of any acceleration of the Final Averaging Date in part (a “Partial Acceleration”), BofA shall specify in its written notice to Counterparty accelerating the Final Averaging Date the corresponding percentage of the Prepayment Amount that is subject to valuation on the related Valuation Date, and Calculation Agent shall adjust the terms of the Transaction as it deems appropriate, in a commercially reasonable manner, in order to take into account the occurrence of such Partial Acceleration (including cumulative adjustments to take into account all Partial Accelerations that occur during the term of the Transaction).
  Scheduled Final Averaging Date:    As provided in Annex B to this Confirmation.
  Scheduled Earliest Acceleration Date:    As provided in Annex B to this Confirmation.
  Valuation Date:    The Final Averaging Date.
  Averaging Date Disruption:    Modified Postponement, provided that notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Equity Definitions, if a Market Disruption Event occurs on any Averaging Date, the Calculation Agent shall, acting in good faith and commercially reasonable manner, take any or all of the following actions: (i) determine that such Averaging Date is a Disrupted Day in full, in which case, the VWAP Price for such Disrupted Day shall not be included for purposes of determining the Settlement Price and the Scheduled Final Averaging Date shall be postponed in accordance with Modified Postponement (as modified herein) and/or (ii) determine that such Averaging Date is a Disrupted Day only in part, in which case the Calculation Agent shall (x) determine the VWAP Price for such Disrupted Day based on Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act (“Rule 10b-18”) eligible transactions in the Shares on such Disrupted Day taking into account the nature and duration of such Market Disruption Event and (y) determine the

 

3


         Settlement Price based on an appropriately weighted average instead of the arithmetic average described under “Settlement Price” below. Any Exchange Business Day on which, as of the date hereof, the Exchange is scheduled to close prior to its normal close of trading shall be deemed not to be an Exchange Business Day; if a closure of the Exchange prior to its normal close of trading on any Exchange Business Day is scheduled following the date hereof, then such Exchange Business Day shall be deemed to be a Disrupted Day in full.
  Market Disruption Events:    Section 6.3(a) of the Equity Definitions is hereby amended (A) by deleting the words “during the one hour period that ends at the relevant Valuation Time, Latest Exercise Time, Knock-in Valuation Time or Knock-out Valuation Time, as the case may be” in clause (ii) thereof, and (B) by replacing the words “or (iii) an Early Closure.” therein with “(iii) an Early Closure or (iv) a Regulatory Disruption.”
     Section 6.3(d) of the Equity Definitions is hereby amended by deleting the remainder of the provision following the term “Scheduled Closing Time” in the fourth line thereof.
     Notwithstanding the foregoing, any Market Disruption Event that does not have a material impact on the ability of BofA to maintain, establish or unwind a commercially reasonable hedge position shall be deemed not to constitute a Market Disruption Event.
  Regulatory Disruption:    In the event that BofA concludes based on commercially reasonable means and upon the advice of counsel that it is appropriate with respect to any legal, regulatory or self-regulatory requirements or related policies and procedures for BofA (whether or not such requirements, policies or procedures are imposed by law or have been voluntarily adopted by BofA and provided that such policies and procedures are related to legal and regulatory issues and are generally applicable hereunder and in similar situations and applied to the Transaction in a nondiscriminatory manner), to refrain from or decrease any market activity in connection with the Transaction in order to maintain, establish or unwind a commercially reasonable hedge position, BofA shall, no later than the close of business on any affected day, notify Counterparty as soon as reasonably practicable that a Regulatory Disruption has occurred and the Averaging Dates affected by it.
  Liquidity Event:    A Liquidity Event shall occur if, on any Scheduled Trading Day during the Relevant Period, the “ADTV” (as defined in Rule 10b-18) applicable to Shares on such Scheduled Trading Day is less than 75% of the “ADTV” (as defined in Rule 10b-18) applicable to the Shares on the Trade Date, in each case as determined by the Calculation Agent. Where Liquidity Event occurs, the Calculation Agent shall immediately notify the parties and the parties shall promptly determine in good faith whether the Scheduled Final Averaging Date shall be postponed to the next Valuation Date as a result of such Liquidity Event occurring.
Settlement Terms:   
  Initial Share Delivery:    On each Initial Share Delivery Date, BofA shall deliver to Counterparty the Initial Shares.

 

4


      Initial Share Delivery Date:    The Effective Date and the immediately following Exchange Business Day.
  Initial Shares:    As provided in Annex B to this Confirmation. The Initial Shares shall be delivered in equal installments on each Initial Share Delivery Date, subject to rounding up or down to the nearest Share but provided that the aggregate delivery across both Initial Share Delivery Dates equals the Initial Shares.
  Settlement Date:    The date that falls one Settlement Cycle following the Valuation Date.
  Settlement:    On the Settlement Date, BofA shall deliver to Counterparty the Number of Shares to be Delivered, if a positive number. If the Number of Shares to be Delivered is a negative number, the Counterparty Settlement Provisions in Annex A shall apply.
  Number of Shares to be Delivered:    A number of Shares equal to (a) the Prepayment Amount divided by (b) (i) the Settlement Price minus (ii) the Price Adjustment Amount; provided that the Number of Shares to be Delivered as so determined shall be reduced by the number of Shares delivered on the Initial Share Delivery Date.
  Settlement Price:    The arithmetic average of the VWAP Prices for all Averaging Dates.
  VWAP Price:    For any Averaging Date, the Rule 10b-18 dollar volume weighted average price per Share for such day based on transactions executed during such day, as reported on Bloomberg Page “PINC <Equity> AQR SEC” (or any successor thereto) or, in the event such price is not so reported on such day for any reason or is manifestly incorrect, as reasonably determined by the Calculation Agent using a volume weighted method.
  Price Adjustment Amount:    As provided in Annex B to this Confirmation.
  Excess Dividend Amount:    For the avoidance of doubt, all references to the Excess Dividend Amount in Section 9.2(a)(iii) of the Equity Definitions shall be deleted.
  Other Applicable Provisions:    To the extent either party is obligated to deliver Shares hereunder, the provisions of the last sentence of Section 9.2 and Sections 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11 (except that the Representation and Agreement contained in Section 9.11 of the Equity Definitions shall be modified by excluding any representations therein relating to restrictions, obligations, limitations or requirements under applicable securities laws arising as a result of the fact that Counterparty is the Issuer of the Shares) and 9.12 of the Equity Definitions will be applicable as if “Physical Settlement” applied to the Transaction.
Dividends:   
  Dividend:    Any dividend or distribution on the Shares other than any dividend or distribution of the type described in Sections 11.2(e)(i), 11.2(e)(ii)(A) or 11.2(e)(ii)(B) of the Equity Definitions.
Share Adjustments:   
  Method of Adjustment:    Calculation Agent Adjustment; provided that the declaration or payment of Dividends shall not be a Potential Adjustment Event.

 

5


         It shall constitute an additional Potential Adjustment Event if the Scheduled Final Averaging Date is postponed pursuant to “Averaging Date Disruption” above, in which case the Calculation Agent may, in its commercially reasonable discretion, adjust any relevant terms of the Transaction as the Calculation Agent determines appropriate to account for the economic effect on the Transaction of such postponement.
Extraordinary Events:   
  Consequences of Merger Events:   
  (a) Share-for-Share:    Modified Calculation Agent Adjustment
  (b) Share-for-Other:    Cancellation and Payment
  (c) Share-for-Combined:    Cancellation and Payment
  Tender Offer:    Applicable; provided that the definition of Tender Offer in Section 12.1(d) of the Equity Definitions will be amended by replacing 10% with 25% in the third and fourth line thereof.
  Consequences of Tender Offers:   
  (a) Share-for-Share:    Modified Calculation Agent Adjustment
  (b) Share-for-Other:    Modified Calculation Agent Adjustment
  (c) Share-for-Combined:    Modified Calculation Agent Adjustment
  Composition of Combined Consideration:    Not Applicable
  Consequences of Announcement Events:    Modified Calculation Agent Adjustment as set forth in Section 12.3(d) of the Equity Definitions; provided that references to “Tender Offer” shall be replaced by references to “Announcement Event” and references to “Tender Offer Date” shall be replaced by references to “Announcement Date.” An Announcement Event shall be an “Extraordinary Event” for purposes of the Equity Definitions, to which Article 12 of the Equity Definitions is applicable.
  Announcement Event:    The occurrence of an Announcement Date in respect of a potential Acquisition Transaction (as defined in Section 9 below).
  Announcement Date:    The date of the first public announcement in relation to an Acquisition Transaction, or any publicly announced change or amendment to the announcement giving rise to an Announcement Date.
  Provisions applicable to Merger Events and Tender Offers:    The consequences set forth opposite “Consequences of Merger Events” and “Consequences of Tender Offers” above shall apply regardless of whether a particular Merger Event or Tender Offer relates to an Announcement Date for which an adjustment has been made pursuant to Consequences of Announcement Events, without duplication of any such adjustment.
  New Shares:    In the definition of New Shares in Section 12.1(i) of the Equity Definitions, the text in clause (i) thereof shall be deleted in its entirety (including the word “and” following such clause (i)) and replaced with “publicly quoted, traded or listed on any of the New York Stock Exchange, The NASDAQ Global Select Market or The NASDAQ Global Market (or their respective successors)”.

 

6


      Nationalization, Insolvency or Delisting:    Cancellation and Payment (Calculation Agent Determination); provided that in addition to the provisions of Section 12.6(a)(iii) of the Equity Definitions, it shall also constitute a Delisting if the Exchange is located in the United States and the Shares are not immediately re-listed, re-traded or re-quoted on any of the New York Stock Exchange, The NASDAQ Global Market or The NASDAQ Global Select Market (or their respective successors); if the Shares are immediately re-listed, re-traded or re-quoted on any such exchange or quotation system, such exchange or quotation system shall thereafter be deemed to be the Exchange.
  Additional Disruption Events:   
   Change in Law:    Applicable
   Failure to Deliver:    Applicable
   Insolvency Filing:    Applicable
   Hedging Disruption:    Applicable
   Increased Cost of Hedging:    Applicable
   Loss of Stock Borrow:    Applicable
   Maximum Stock Loan Rate:    As provided in Annex B to this Confirmation.
   Increased Cost of Stock Borrow:    Applicable
   Initial Stock Loan Rate:    As provided in Annex B to this Confirmation.
  Hedging Party:    For all applicable Potential Adjustment Events and Extraordinary Events, BofA
  Determining Party:    For all Extraordinary Events, BofA
  Non-Reliance:    Applicable
  Agreements and Acknowledgments Regarding Hedging Activities:    Applicable
  Additional Acknowledgments:    Applicable
3.   Account Details:   
  (a) Account for payments to Counterparty:    To be provided upon request
  (b) Account for payments to BofA:   
 

Bank of America

  
 

New York, NY

  
 

SWIFT: BOFAUS3N

  
 

Bank Routing: 026-009-593

  
 

Account Name: Bank of America

 

Account No.: 0012334-61892

  
4.   Offices:
  (a) The Office of Counterparty for the Transaction is: Counterparty is not a Multibranch Party
  (b) The Office of BofA for the Transaction is: New York

 

7


5.   Notices: For purposes of this Confirmation:
      (a) Address for notices or communications to Counterparty:
 

Premier, Inc.

  
 

13034 Ballantyne Corporate Place

 

Charlotte, NC 28277

  
 

Attn:  Craig McKasson, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer

 

Email:  craig_mckasson@premierinc.com

  (b) Address for notices or communications to BofA:
 

Bank of America, N.A.

  
 

One Bryant Park, 8th Floor

 

New York, New York 10036

 

Attention: Strategic Equity Solutions Group

 

Telephone: 646-855-8900

 

Email: dg.issuer_derivatives_notices@bofa.com

 

6.

Additional Provisions Relating to Transactions in the Shares.

(a) Counterparty acknowledges and agrees that the Initial Shares delivered on the Initial Share Delivery Date may be sold short to Counterparty. Counterparty further acknowledges and agrees that BofA may, during (i) the period from the date hereof to the Valuation Date or, if later, the Scheduled Earliest Acceleration Date without regard to any adjustment thereof pursuant to “Special Provisions regarding Transaction Announcements” below, and (ii) the period from and including the first Settlement Valuation Date to and including the last Settlement Valuation Date, if any (together, the “Relevant Period”), purchase Shares in connection with the Transaction, which Shares may be used to cover all or a portion of such short sale or may be delivered to Counterparty. Such purchases will be conducted independently of Counterparty. The timing of such purchases by BofA, the number of Shares purchased by BofA on any day, the price paid per Share pursuant to such purchases and the manner in which such purchases are made, including without limitation whether such purchases are made on any securities exchange or privately, shall be within the absolute discretion of BofA. It is the intent of the parties that the Transaction comply with the requirements of Rule 10b5-1(c)(1)(i)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and the parties agree that this Confirmation shall be interpreted to comply with the requirements of Rule 10b5-1(c), and Counterparty shall not take any action that results in the Transaction not so complying with such requirements. Without limiting the generality of the preceding sentence, Counterparty acknowledges and agrees that (A) Counterparty does not have, and shall not attempt to exercise, any influence over how, when or whether BofA effects any purchases of Shares in connection with the Transaction, (B) during the period beginning on (but excluding) the date of this Confirmation and ending on (and including) the last day of the Relevant Period, neither Counterparty nor its officers or employees shall, directly or indirectly, communicate any information regarding Counterparty or the Shares to any employee of BofA or its Affiliates responsible for trading the Shares in connection with the transactions contemplated hereby, (C) Counterparty is entering into the Transaction in good faith and not as part of a plan or scheme to evade compliance with federal securities laws including, without limitation, Rule 10b-5 promulgated under the Exchange Act and (D) Counterparty will not alter or deviate from this Confirmation or enter into or alter a corresponding hedging transaction with respect to the Shares. Counterparty also acknowledges and agrees that any amendment, modification, waiver or termination of this Confirmation must be effected in accordance with the requirements for the amendment or termination of a “plan” as defined in Rule 10b5-1(c) under the Exchange Act. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, any such amendment, modification, waiver or termination shall be made in good faith and not as part of a plan or scheme to evade the prohibitions of Rule 10b-5 under the Exchange Act, and no such amendment, modification or waiver shall be made at any time at which Counterparty or any officer or director of Counterparty is aware of any material nonpublic information regarding Counterparty or the Shares.

(b) Counterparty agrees that neither Counterparty nor any of its Affiliates or agents shall take any action that would cause Regulation M to be applicable to any purchases of Shares, or any security for which the Shares are a reference security (as defined in Regulation M), by Counterparty or any of its affiliated purchasers (as defined in Regulation M) during the Relevant Period.

 

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(c) Counterparty shall, at least one day prior to the first day of the Relevant Period, notify BofA of the total number of Shares purchased in Rule 10b-18 purchases of blocks pursuant to the once-a-week block exception contained in Rule 10b-18(b)(4) by or for Counterparty or any of its affiliated purchasers during each of the four calendar weeks preceding the first day of the Relevant Period and during the calendar week in which the first day of the Relevant Period occurs (“Rule 10b-18 purchase”, “blocks” and “affiliated purchaser” each being used as defined in Rule 10b-18).

(d) During the Relevant Period, Counterparty shall (i) notify BofA prior to the opening of trading in the Shares on any day on which Counterparty makes, or expects to be made, any public announcement (as defined in Rule 165(f) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) of any merger, acquisition, or similar transaction involving a recapitalization relating to Counterparty (other than any such transaction in which the consideration consists solely of cash and there is no valuation period), (ii) promptly notify BofA following any such announcement that such announcement has been made, and (iii) promptly deliver to BofA following the making of any such announcement a certificate indicating (A) Counterparty’s average daily Rule 10b-18 purchases (as defined in Rule 10b-18) during the three full calendar months preceding the date of the announcement of such transaction and (B) Counterparty’s block purchases (as defined in Rule 10b-18) effected pursuant to paragraph (b)(4) of Rule 10b-18 during the three full calendar months preceding the date of the announcement of such transaction. In addition, Counterparty shall promptly notify BofA of the earlier to occur of the completion of such transaction and the completion of the vote by target shareholders. Counterparty acknowledges that any such public announcement may result in a Regulatory Disruption and may cause the Relevant Period to be suspended. Accordingly, Counterparty acknowledges that its actions in relation to any such announcement or transaction must comply with the standards set forth in Section 6(a) above.

(e) Without the prior written consent of BofA, Counterparty shall not, and shall cause its Affiliates and affiliated purchasers (each as defined in Rule 10b-18) not to, directly or indirectly (including, without limitation, by means of a cash-settled or other derivative instrument) purchase, offer to purchase, place any bid or limit order that would effect a purchase of, or commence any tender offer relating to, any Shares (or an equivalent interest, including a unit of beneficial interest in a trust or limited partnership or a depository share) or any security convertible into or exchangeable for Shares during the Relevant Period, provided that the foregoing restriction shall not apply to (A) privately negotiated, off-market purchases that are not solicited by or on behalf of Counterparty, its Affiliates or affiliated purchasers and that would not be reasonably expected to result in transactions on the Exchange, (B) purchases of Shares pursuant to exercises of stock options granted to former or current employees, officers, directors, or other affiliates of Counterparty, including the withholding and/or purchase of Shares from holders of such options to satisfy payment of the option exercise price and/or satisfy tax withholding requirements in connection with the exercise of such options; (C) purchases of Shares from holders of performance shares or units or restricted shares or units to satisfy tax withholding requirements in connection with vesting; (D) the conversion or exchange by holders of any convertible or exchangeable securities of the Counterparty previously issued; (E) purchases of Shares effected by or for a plan by an agent independent of Counterparty that satisfy the requirements of Rule10b-18(a)(13)(ii); and (F) purchases executed by or through BofA or an Affiliate of BofA;

 

7.

Representations, Warranties and Agreements.

(a) In addition to the representations, warranties and agreements in the Agreement and those contained elsewhere herein, Counterparty represents and warrants to and for the benefit of, and agrees with, BofA as follows:

(i) As of the Effective Date, and as of the date of any election by Counterparty of the Share Termination Alternative under (and as defined in) Section 10(a) below, (A) none of Counterparty and its officers and directors is aware of any material nonpublic information regarding Counterparty or the Shares and (B) all reports and other documents filed by Counterparty with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Exchange Act when considered as a whole (with the more recent such reports and documents deemed to amend inconsistent statements contained in any earlier such reports and documents), do not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or any omission of a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein, in the light of the circumstances in which they were made, not misleading.

(ii) Without limiting the generality of Section 13.1 of the Equity Definitions, Counterparty acknowledges that BofA is not making any representations or warranties or taking any position or expressing any view with respect to the treatment of the Transaction under any accounting standards including ASC Topic 260, Earnings Per Share, ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, or ASC Topic 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity and ASC 815-40, Derivatives and Hedging – Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (or any successor issue statements) or under FASB’s Liabilities & Equity Project.

 

9


(iii) Without limiting the generality of Section 3(a)(iii) of the Agreement, the Transaction will not violate Rule 13e-1 or Rule 13e-4 under the Exchange Act.

(iv) Prior to the Trade Date, Counterparty shall deliver to BofA a resolution of Counterparty’s board of directors authorizing the Transaction and such other certificate or certificates as BofA shall reasonably request. Counterparty has publicly disclosed its intention to institute a program for the acquisition of Shares.

(v) Counterparty is not entering into this Confirmation to create actual or apparent trading activity in the Shares (or any security convertible into or exchangeable for Shares) or to raise or depress or otherwise manipulate the price of the Shares (or any security convertible into or exchangeable for Shares) or otherwise in violation of the Exchange Act, and will not engage in any other securities or derivative transaction to such ends.

(vi) Counterparty is not, and after giving effect to the transactions contemplated hereby will not be, required to register as an “investment company” as such term is defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended.

(vii) On the Effective Date, the Prepayment Date, the Initial Share Delivery Date and the Settlement Date, Counterparty is not, or will not be, “insolvent” (as such term is defined under Section 101(32) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) (the “Bankruptcy Code”)) and Counterparty would be able to purchase the Shares hereunder in compliance with the corporate laws of the jurisdiction of its incorporation.

(viii) No state or local (including non-U.S. jurisdictions) law, rule, regulation or regulatory order applicable to the Shares would give rise to any reporting, consent, registration or other requirement (including without limitation a requirement to obtain prior approval from any person or entity) as a result of BofA or its affiliates owning or holding (however defined) Shares.

(ix) Counterparty shall not declare or pay any Dividend (as defined above) to holders of record as of any date occurring prior to the Settlement Date or, if the provisions of Annex A apply, the Cash Settlement Payment Date, other than an ordinary cash dividend of USD 0.21 per Share to holders of record on each of March 1, 2024, and June 1, 2024 (or, in each case, any later date within the same quarterly fiscal period of Counterparty). Any declaration or payment of a Dividend in contravention of the prior sentence shall be an immediate Additional Termination Event, with respect to which Counterparty shall be the sole Affected Party and BofA shall be the party entitled to designate an Early Termination Date pursuant to Section 6(b) of the Agreement.

(x) Counterparty understands no obligations of BofA to it hereunder will be entitled to the benefit of deposit insurance and that such obligations will not be guaranteed by any affiliate of BofA or any governmental agency.

(xi) Counterparty is (i) a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes and is organized under the laws of Delaware and (ii) a “U.S. person” (as that term is used in section 1.1441-4(a)(3)(ii) of United States Treasury Regulations) for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

(b) Each of BofA and Counterparty agrees and represents that it is an “eligible contract participant” as defined in Section 1a(18) of the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act, as amended.

(c) Counterparty acknowledges that the offer and sale of the Transaction to it is intended to be exempt from registration under the Securities Act, by virtue of Section 4(a)(2) thereof. Accordingly, Counterparty represents and warrants to BofA that (i) it has the financial ability to bear the economic risk of its investment in the Transaction and is able to bear a total loss of its investment, (ii) it is an “accredited investor” as that term is defined in Regulation D as promulgated under the Securities Act, (iii) it is entering into the Transaction for its own account and without a view to the distribution or resale thereof, and (iv) the assignment, transfer or other disposition of the Transaction has not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act and is restricted under this Confirmation, the Securities Act and state securities laws.

 

10


(d) Counterparty agrees and acknowledges that BofA is a “financial institution,” “swap participant” and “financial participant” within the meaning of Sections 101(22), 101(53C) and 101(22A) of the Bankruptcy Code. The parties hereto further agree and acknowledge that it is the intent of the parties that (A) this Confirmation is (i) a “securities contract,” as such term is defined in Section 741(7) of the Bankruptcy Code, with respect to which each payment and delivery hereunder or in connection herewith is a “termination value,” “payment amount” or “other transfer obligation” within the meaning of Section 362 of the Bankruptcy Code and a “settlement payment,” within the meaning of Section 546 of the Bankruptcy Code and (ii) a “swap agreement,” as such term is defined in Section 101(53B) of the Bankruptcy Code, with respect to which each payment and delivery hereunder or in connection herewith is a “termination value,” “payment amount” or “other transfer obligation” within the meaning of Section 362 of the Bankruptcy Code and a “transfer,” as such term is defined in Section 101(54) of the Bankruptcy Code and a “payment or other transfer of property” within the meaning of Sections 362 and 546 of the Bankruptcy Code, and (B) BofA is entitled to the protections afforded by, among other sections, Sections 362(b)(6), 362(b)(17), 362(o), 546(e), 546(g), 548(d)(2), 555, 560 and 561 of the Bankruptcy Code.

 

8.

Agreements and Acknowledgements Regarding Hedging.

(a) Counterparty acknowledges and agrees that:

(i) During the Relevant Period, BofA and its Affiliates may buy or sell Shares or other securities or buy or sell options or futures contracts or enter into swaps or other derivative securities in order to adjust its hedge position with respect to the Transaction;

(ii) BofA and its Affiliates also may be active in the market for Shares other than in connection with hedging activities in relation to the Transaction;

(iii) BofA shall make its own determination as to whether, when or in what manner any hedging or market activities in Counterparty’s securities shall be conducted and shall do so in a manner that it deems appropriate to hedge its price and market risk with respect to the Settlement Price and/or the VWAP Price; and

(iv) Any market activities of BofA and its Affiliates with respect to Shares may affect the market price and volatility of Shares, as well as the Settlement Price and/or the VWAP Price, each in a manner that may be adverse to Counterparty.

(b) During the Relevant Period, BofA agrees to use commercially reasonable efforts to make all purchases of Shares in connection with the Transaction in a manner that would comply with the limitations set forth in clauses (b)(1), (b)(2), (b)(3), (b)(4) and (c) of Rule 10b-18, in each case as if such rule was applicable to such purchases (in each case, other than purchases made by BofA as part of its dynamic adjustment of its hedge of the options embedded in the Transaction or that BofA reasonably determines are attributable solely to BofA during such period). Without limiting the foregoing, BofA shall effect all purchases of Shares in connection with the Transaction in a manner that BofA reasonably believes is in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

 

9.

Special Provisions regarding Transaction Announcements.

(a) If a Transaction Announcement occurs on or prior to the Settlement Date, then the Calculation Agent shall make such adjustment to the exercise, settlement, payment or any of the other terms of the Transaction (including without limitation, the Number of Shares to be Delivered and the Price Adjustment Amount) as the Calculation Agent determines appropriate to account for the economic effect of the Transaction Announcement (and, for the avoidance of doubt, in such event the Number of Shares to be Delivered may be reduced below zero pursuant to the proviso to such definition). If a Transaction Announcement occurs after the Effective Date but prior to the Scheduled Earliest Acceleration Date, the Scheduled Earliest Acceleration Date shall be adjusted to be the date of such Transaction Announcement.

 

11


(b) “Transaction Announcement” means (i) the announcement of an Acquisition Transaction, (ii) an announcement that Counterparty or any of its subsidiaries has entered into an agreement, a letter of intent or an understanding to enter into an Acquisition Transaction, (iii) the announcement of an intention to solicit or enter into, or to explore strategic alternatives or other similar undertaking that may include, an Acquisition Transaction, or (iv) any other announcement that in the reasonable judgment of the Calculation Agent may result in an Acquisition Transaction. For the avoidance of doubt, announcements as used in this definition of Transaction Announcement refer to any public announcement whether made by the Issuer or a third party.

Acquisition Transaction” means (i) any Merger Event (and for purposes of this definition the definition of Merger Event shall be read with the references therein to “100%” being replaced by “25%” and to “50%” by “80%” and as if the clause beginning immediately following the definition of Reverse Merger therein to the end of such definition were deleted) or Tender Offer, or any other transaction involving the merger of Counterparty with or into any third party, (ii) the sale or transfer of all or substantially all of the assets of Counterparty, (iii) a recapitalization, reclassification, binding share exchange or other similar transaction, (iv) any acquisition, lease, exchange, transfer, disposition (including by way of spin-off or distribution) of assets (including any capital stock or other ownership interests in subsidiaries) or other similar event by Counterparty or any of its subsidiaries where the aggregate consideration transferable or receivable by or to Counterparty or its subsidiaries exceeds 20% of the market capitalization of Counterparty and (v) any transaction in which Counterparty or its board of directors has a legal obligation to make a recommendation to its shareholders in respect of such transaction (whether pursuant to Rule 14e-2 under the Exchange Act or otherwise).

 

10.

Other Provisions.

(a) Alternative Calculations and Payment on Early Termination and on Certain Extraordinary Events. If either party would owe the other party any amount pursuant to Sections 12.2, 12.3, 12.6, 12.7 or 12.9 of the Equity Definitions or pursuant to Section 6(d)(ii) of the Agreement (a “Payment Obligation”), Counterparty shall have the right, in its sole discretion, to satisfy or to require BofA to satisfy, as the case may be, any such Payment Obligation, in whole or in part, by the Share Termination Alternative (as defined below) by giving irrevocable telephonic notice to BofA, confirmed in writing within one Scheduled Trading Day, no later than 9:30 A.M. New York City time on the Merger Date, Tender Offer Date, Announcement Date, Early Termination Date or date of cancellation or termination in respect of an Extraordinary Event, as applicable (“Notice of Share Termination”); provided that if BofA would owe Counterparty the Payment Obligation and Counterparty does not elect to require BofA to satisfy such Payment Obligation by the Share Termination Alternative in whole, BofA shall have the right, in its sole discretion, to elect to satisfy any portion of such Payment Obligation that Counterparty has not so elected by the Share Termination Alternative, notwithstanding Counterparty’s failure to elect or election to the contrary; and provided further that Counterparty shall not have the right to so elect (but, for the avoidance of doubt, BofA shall have the right to so elect) in the event of (i) an Insolvency, a Nationalization, a Merger Event or a Tender Offer, in each case, in which the consideration or proceeds to be paid to holders of Shares consists solely of cash or (ii) an Event of Default in which Counterparty is the Defaulting Party or a Termination Event in which Counterparty is the Affected Party, which Event of Default or Termination Event resulted from an event or events within Counterparty’s control. Upon such Notice of Share Termination, the following provisions shall apply on the Scheduled Trading Day immediately following the Merger Date, Tender Offer Date, Announcement Date, Early Termination Date or date of cancellation or termination in respect of an Extraordinary Event, as applicable, with respect to the Payment Obligation or such portion of the Payment Obligation for which the Share Termination Alternative has been elected (the “Applicable Portion”):

 

Share Termination Alternative:    Applicable and means, if delivery pursuant to the Share Termination Alternative is owed by BofA, that BofA shall deliver to Counterparty the Share Termination Delivery Property on the date on which the Payment Obligation would otherwise be due pursuant to Section 12.7 or 12.9 of the Equity Definitions or Section 6(d)(ii) of the Agreement, as applicable, or such later date as the Calculation Agent may reasonably determine (the “Share Termination Payment Date”), in satisfaction of the Payment Obligation or the Applicable Portion, as the case may be. If delivery pursuant to the Share Termination Alternative is owed by Counterparty, paragraphs 2 through 5 of Annex A shall apply as if such delivery were a settlement of the Transaction to which Net Share Settlement (as defined in Annex A) applied, the Cash Settlement Payment Date were the Early Termination Date, the Forward Cash Settlement Amount were zero (0) minus the Payment Obligation (or the Applicable Portion, as the case may be) owed by Counterparty, and “Shares” as used in Annex A were replaced by “Share Termination Delivery Units.”

 

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Share Termination Delivery Property:    A number of Share Termination Delivery Units, as calculated by the Calculation Agent, equal to the Payment Obligation (or the Applicable Portion, as the case may be) divided by the Share Termination Unit Price. The Calculation Agent shall adjust the Share Termination Delivery Property by replacing any fractional portion of a security therein with an amount of cash equal to the value of such fractional security based on the values used to calculate the Share Termination Unit Price.
Share Termination Unit Price:    The value of property contained in one Share Termination Delivery Unit on the date such Share Termination Delivery Units are to be delivered as Share Termination Delivery Property, as determined by the Calculation Agent in its discretion by commercially reasonable means and notified by the Calculation Agent to the parties at the time of notification of the Payment Obligation.
Share Termination Delivery Unit:    In the case of a Termination Event, Event of Default, Delisting or Additional Disruption Event, one Share or, in the case of an Insolvency, Nationalization, Merger Event or Tender Offer, one Share or a unit consisting of the number or amount of each type of property received by a holder of one Share (without consideration of any requirement to pay cash or other consideration in lieu of fractional amounts of any securities) in such Insolvency, Nationalization, Merger Event or Tender Offer. If such Insolvency, Nationalization, Merger Event or Tender Offer involves a choice of consideration to be received by holders, such holder shall be deemed to have elected to receive the maximum possible amount of cash.
Failure to Deliver:    Applicable
Other applicable provisions:    If Share Termination Alternative is applicable, the provisions of Sections 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11 (except that the Representation and Agreement contained in Section 9.11 of the Equity Definitions shall be modified by excluding any representations therein relating to restrictions, obligations, limitations or requirements under applicable securities laws arising as a result of the fact that Counterparty is the issuer of the Shares or any portion of the Share Termination Delivery Units) and 9.12 of the Equity Definitions will be applicable as if “Physical Settlement” applied to the Transaction, except that all references to “Shares” shall be read as references to “Share Termination Delivery Units”.

(b) Equity Rights. BofA acknowledges and agrees that this Confirmation is not intended to convey to it rights with respect to the Transaction that are senior to the claims of common stockholders in the event of Counterparty’s bankruptcy. For the avoidance of doubt, the parties agree that the preceding sentence shall not apply at any time other than during Counterparty’s bankruptcy to any claim arising as a result of a breach by Counterparty of any of its obligations under this Confirmation or the Agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, the parties acknowledge that this Confirmation is not secured by any collateral that would otherwise secure the obligations of Counterparty herein under or pursuant to any other agreement.

(c) [reserved]

(d) Staggered Settlement. If BofA would owe Counterparty any Shares pursuant to the “Settlement Terms” above, BofA may, by notice to Counterparty on or prior to the Settlement Date (a “Nominal Settlement Date”), elect to deliver the Shares deliverable on such Nominal Settlement Date on two or more dates (each, a “Staggered Settlement Date”) or at two or more times on the Nominal Settlement Date as follows: (i) in such notice, BofA will specify to Counterparty the related Staggered Settlement Dates (each of which will be on or prior to such Nominal Settlement Date)

 

13


or delivery times and how it will allocate the Shares it is required to deliver under “Settlement Terms” above among the Staggered Settlement Dates or delivery times; and (ii) the aggregate number of Shares that BofA will deliver to Counterparty hereunder on all such Staggered Settlement Dates and delivery times will equal the number of Shares that BofA would otherwise be required to deliver on such Nominal Settlement Date.

(e) Adjustments. For the avoidance of doubt, whenever the Calculation Agent is called upon to make an adjustment pursuant to the terms of this Confirmation or the Definitions to take into account the effect of an event, the Calculation Agent shall make such adjustment in a commercially reasonable manner based on commercially reasonable inputs by reference to the effect of such event on the Hedging Party, assuming that the Hedging Party maintains a commercially reasonable hedge position.

(f) Transfer and Assignment. BofA may transfer or assign its rights and obligations hereunder and under the Agreement, in whole or in part, to any of its Affiliates (i) whose senior unsecured credit rating at the time of any such transfer or assignment is greater than or equal to BofA’s rating, or (ii) whose obligations under this Transaction are subject to a guaranty by Bank of America Corporation provided that such guaranty is reasonably acceptable to Counterparty, and provided further that Counterparty will not be required to pay or deliver more or receive less hereunder as a result of such transfer or assignment by BofA then in the absence of such transfer or assignment.

(g) [reserved]

(h) Amendments to Equity Definitions. The following amendments shall be made to the Equity Definitions:

(i) Section 11.2(a) of the Equity Definitions is hereby amended by deleting the words “a diluting or concentrative effect on the theoretical value of the relevant Shares” and replacing them with the words “an economic effect on the relevant Transaction”;

(ii) The first sentence of Section 11.2(c) of the Equity Definitions, prior to clause (A) thereof, is hereby amended to read as follows: ‘(c) If “Calculation Agent Adjustment” is specified as the Method of Adjustment in the related Confirmation of a Share Option Transaction or Share Forward Transaction, then following the announcement or occurrence of any Potential Adjustment Event, the Calculation Agent will determine whether such Potential Adjustment Event has a material economic effect on the Transaction and, if so, will (i) make appropriate adjustment(s), if any, to any one or more of:’ and the portion of such sentence immediately preceding clause (ii) thereof is hereby amended by deleting the words “diluting or concentrative” and replacing such words with the word “material” and deleting the words “(provided that no adjustments will be made to account solely for changes in volatility, expected dividends, stock loan rate or liquidity relative to the relevant Shares)” and replacing such latter phrase with the words “(and, for the avoidance of doubt, adjustments may be made to account solely for changes in volatility, stock loan rate or liquidity relative to the relevant Shares)”;

(iii) Section 11.2(e)(vii) of the Equity Definitions is hereby amended by deleting the words “diluting or concentrative effect on the theoretical value of the relevant Shares” and replacing them with the words “material economic effect on the relevant Transaction”;

(iv) Section 12.9(b)(iv) of the Equity Definitions is hereby amended by (A) deleting (1) subsection (A) in its entirety, (2) the phrase “or (B)” following subsection (A) and (3) the phrase “in each case” in subsection (B); and (B) deleting the phrase “neither the Non-Hedging Party nor the Lending Party lends Shares in the amount of the Hedging Shares or” in the penultimate sentence; and

(v) Section 12.9(b)(v) of the Equity Definitions is hereby amended by (A) adding the word “or” immediately before subsection “(B)” and deleting the comma at the end of subsection (A); and (B)(1) deleting subsection (C) in its entirety, (2) deleting the word “or” immediately preceding subsection (C) and (3) replacing in the penultimate sentence the words “either party” with “the Hedging Party” and (4) deleting clause (X) in the final sentence.

 

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(i) No Netting and Set-off. Each party waives any and all rights it may have to set off obligations arising under the Agreement and the Transaction against other obligations between the parties, whether arising under any other agreement, applicable law or otherwise.

(j) Disclosure. Effective from the date of commencement of discussions concerning the Transaction, Counterparty and each of its employees, representatives, or other agents may disclose to any and all persons, without limitation of any kind, the tax treatment and tax structure of the Transaction and all materials of any kind (including opinions or other tax analyses) that are provided to Counterparty relating to such tax treatment and tax structure.

(k) Designation by BofA. Notwithstanding any other provision in this Confirmation to the contrary requiring or allowing BofA to purchase, sell, receive or deliver any Shares or other securities to or from Counterparty, BofA (the “Designator”) may designate any of its Affiliates (the “Designee”) to deliver or take delivery, as the case may be, and otherwise perform its obligations to deliver, if any, or take delivery of, as the case may be, any such Shares or other securities in respect of the Transaction, and the Designee may assume such obligations, if any. Such designation shall not relieve the Designator of any of its obligations, if any, hereunder. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, if the Designee shall have performed the obligations, if any, of the Designator hereunder, then the Designator shall be discharged of its obligations, if any, to Counterparty to the extent of such performance.

(l) Termination Currency. The Termination Currency shall be USD.

(m) Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010. The parties hereby agree that none of (i) Section 739 of the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010 (the “WSTAA”), (ii) any similar legal certainty provision included in any legislation enacted, or rule or regulation promulgated, on or after the Trade Date, (iii) the enactment of the WSTAA or any regulation under the WSTAA, (iv) any requirement under the WSTAA or (v) any amendment made by the WSTAA shall limit or otherwise impair either party’s right to terminate, renegotiate, modify, amend or supplement this Confirmation or the Agreement, as applicable, arising from a termination event, force majeure, illegality, increased cost, regulatory change or similar event under this Confirmation, the Equity Definitions or the Agreement (including, but not limited to, any right arising from any Change in Law, Hedging Disruption, Increased Cost of Hedging or Illegality).

(n) Tax Matters

 

  (i)

Withholding Tax imposed on payments to non-US counterparties under the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. “Tax” and “Indemnifiable Tax”, each as defined in Section 14 of the Agreement, shall not include any U.S. federal withholding tax imposed or collected pursuant to Sections 1471 through 1474 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), any current or future regulations or official interpretations thereof, any agreement entered into pursuant to Section 1471(b) of the Code, or any fiscal or regulatory legislation, rules or practices adopted pursuant to any intergovernmental agreement entered into in connection with the implementation of such Sections of the Code (a “FATCA Withholding Tax”). For the avoidance of doubt, a FATCA Withholding Tax is a Tax the deduction or withholding of which is required by applicable law for the purposes of Section 2(d) of the Agreement.

 

  (ii)

HIRE Act. To the extent that either party to the Agreement with respect to this Transaction is not an adhering party to the ISDA 2015 Section 871(m) Protocol published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. on November 2, 2015 and available at www.isda.org, as may be amended, supplemented, replaced or superseded from time to time (the “871(m) Protocol”), the parties agree that the provisions and amendments contained in the Attachment to the 871(m) Protocol are incorporated into and apply to the Agreement with respect to this Transaction as if set forth in full herein. The parties further agree that, solely for purposes of applying such provisions and amendments to the Agreement with respect to this Transaction, references to “each Covered Master Agreement” in the 871(m) Protocol will be deemed to be references to the Agreement with respect to this Transaction, and references to the “Implementation Date” in the 871(m) Protocol will be deemed to be references to the Trade Date of this Transaction.

 

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  (iii)

Tax documentation. Counterparty shall provide to BofA a valid U.S. Internal Revenue Service Form W-9, or any successor thereto, (i) on or before the date of execution of this Confirmation and (ii) promptly upon learning that any such tax form previously provided by Counterparty has become obsolete or incorrect. Additionally, Counterparty shall, promptly upon request by BofA, provide such other tax forms and documents requested by BofA.

(o) [reserved]

(p) U.S. Stay Regulations. The parties agree that (i) to the extent that prior to the date hereof both parties have adhered to the 2018 ISDA U.S. Resolution Stay Protocol (the “Protocol”), the terms of the Protocol are incorporated into and form a part of this Confirmation, and for such purposes this Confirmation shall be deemed a Protocol Covered Agreement and each party shall be deemed to have the same status as “Regulated Entity” and/or “Adhering Party” as applicable to it under the Protocol; (ii) to the extent that prior to the date hereof the parties have executed a separate agreement the effect of which is to amend the qualified financial contracts between them to conform with the requirements of the QFC Stay Rules (the “Bilateral Agreement”), the terms of the Bilateral Agreement are incorporated into and form a part of this Confirmation and each party shall be deemed to have the status of “Covered Entity” or “Counterparty Entity” (or other similar term) as applicable to it under the Bilateral Agreement; or (iii) if clause (i) and clause (ii) do not apply, the terms of Section 1 and Section 2 and the related defined terms (together, the “Bilateral Terms”) of the form of bilateral template entitled “Full-Length Omnibus (for use between U.S. G-SIBs and Corporate Groups)” published by ISDA on November 2, 2018 (currently available on the 2018 ISDA U.S. Resolution Stay Protocol page at www.isda.org and, a copy of which is available upon request), the effect of which is to amend the qualified financial contracts between the parties thereto to conform with the requirements of the QFC Stay Rules, are hereby incorporated into and form a part of this Confirmation, and for such purposes this Confirmation shall be deemed a “Covered Agreement,” BofA shall be deemed a “Covered Entity” and Counterparty shall be deemed a “Counterparty Entity.” In the event that, after the date of this Confirmation, both parties hereto become adhering parties to the Protocol, the terms of the Protocol will replace the terms of this paragraph. In the event of any inconsistencies between this Confirmation and the terms of the Protocol, the Bilateral Agreement or the Bilateral Terms (each, the “QFC Stay Terms”), as applicable, the QFC Stay Terms will govern. Terms used in this paragraph without definition shall have the meanings assigned to them under the QFC Stay Rules. For purposes of this paragraph, references to “this Confirmation” include any related credit enhancements entered into between the parties or provided by one to the other. In addition, the parties agree that the terms of this paragraph shall be incorporated into any related covered affiliate credit enhancements, with all references to BofA replaced by references to the covered affiliate support provider. “QFC Stay Rules” means the regulations codified at 12 C.F.R. 252.2, 252.81-8, 12 C.F.R. 382.1-7 and 12 C.F.R. 47.1-8, which, subject to limited exceptions, require an express recognition of the stay-and-transfer powers of the FDIC under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act and the Orderly Liquidation Authority under Title II of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the override of default rights related directly or indirectly to the entry of an affiliate into certain insolvency proceedings and any restrictions on the transfer of any covered affiliate credit enhancements.

(q) Waiver of Trial by Jury. EACH OF COUNTERPARTY AND BOFA HEREBY IRREVOCABLY WAIVES (ON ITS OWN BEHALF AND, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ON BEHALF OF ITS STOCKHOLDERS) ALL RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION, PROCEEDING OR COUNTERCLAIM (WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE TRANSACTION OR THE ACTIONS OF BOFA OR ITS AFFILIATES IN THE NEGOTIATION, PERFORMANCE OR ENFORCEMENT HEREOF.

(r) Governing Law; Jurisdiction. THIS CONFIRMATION AND ANY CLAIM, CONTROVERSY OR DISPUTE ARISING UNDER OR RELATED TO THIS CONFIRMATION SHALL BE GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. THE PARTIES HERETO IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION OF THE COURTS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK AND THE UNITED STATES COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK IN CONNECTION WITH ALL MATTERS RELATING HERETO AND WAIVE ANY OBJECTION TO THE LAYING OF VENUE IN, AND ANY CLAIM OF INCONVENIENT FORUM WITH RESPECT TO, THESE COURTS.

 

16


(s) CARES Act. Counterparty acknowledges that the Transaction constitutes a purchase of its equity securities. Counterparty further acknowledges that, pursuant to the provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), Counterparty would be required to agree to certain time-bound restrictions on its ability to purchase its equity securities if it receives loans, loan guarantees or direct loans (as that term is defined in the CARES Act) under section 4003(b) of the CARES Act. Counterparty further acknowledges that it may be required to agree to certain time-bound restrictions on its ability to purchase its equity securities if it receives loans, loan guarantees or direct loans (as that term is defined in the CARES Act) under programs or facilities established by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the purpose of providing liquidity to the financial system (together with loans, loan guarantees or direct loans under section 4003(b) of the CARES Act, “Governmental Financial Assistance”). Accordingly, Counterparty represents and warrants that it has not applied for, and prior to the termination or settlement of the Transaction, will not apply for Governmental Financial Assistance under any governmental program or facility that (a) is established under the CARES Act or the Federal Reserve Act, as amended, and (b) requires, as a condition of such Governmental Financial Assistance, that Counterparty agree, attest, certify or warrant that it has not, as of the date specified in such condition, repurchased, or will not repurchase, any equity security of Counterparty.

[Signature Page Follows]

 

17


LOGO

Please confirm your agreement to be bound by the terms stated herein by executing the copy of this Confirmation enclosed for that purpose and returning it to us by email transmission to the address for Notices indicated above.

 

Yours sincerely,
BANK OF AMERICA, N.A.
By:   /s/ Jake Mendelsohn
Name:   Jake Mendelsohn
Title:   Managing Director

 

Confirmed as of the date first above written:
PREMIER, INC.
By:   /s/ Craig McKasson
Name:   Craig McKasson
Title:   Chief Administrative and Financial Officer


ANNEX A

COUNTERPARTY SETTLEMENT PROVISIONS

1. The following Counterparty Settlement Provisions shall apply to the extent indicated under the Confirmation:

 

Settlement Currency:    USD
Settlement Method Election:    Applicable; provided that (i) Section 7.1 of the Equity Definitions is hereby amended by deleting the word “Physical” in the sixth line thereof and replacing it with the words “Net Share” and (ii) the Electing Party may make a settlement method election only if the Electing Party represents and warrants to BofA in writing on the date it notifies BofA of its election that, as of such date, (A) none of Counterparty and its officers and directors is aware of any material nonpublic information regarding Counterparty or the Shares and (B) all reports and other documents filed by Counterparty with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Exchange Act when considered as a whole (with the more recent such reports and documents deemed to amend inconsistent statements contained in any earlier such reports and documents), do not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or any omission of a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein, in the light of the circumstances in which they were made, not misleading.
Electing Party:    Counterparty
Settlement Method Election Date:    The date that is the earlier of (i) 3 Exchange Business Days prior to the Scheduled Final Averaging Date and (ii) the second Exchange Business Day immediately following the Valuation Date.
Default Settlement Method:    Net Share Settlement
Special Settlement:    Either (i) a settlement to which this Annex A applies that follows the occurrence of a Transaction Announcement to which Section 9 of this Confirmation applies or (ii) any settlement to which paragraphs 2 through 5 of this Annex A apply that follows a termination or cancellation of the Transaction pursuant to Section 6 of the Agreement or Article 12 of the Equity Definitions to which Section 10(a) of this Confirmation applies.
Forward Cash Settlement Amount:    The Number of Shares to be Delivered multiplied by the Settlement Valuation Price.
Settlement Valuation Price:    The arithmetic average of the VWAP Prices for all Settlement Valuation Dates, subject to Averaging Date Disruption, determined as if each Settlement Valuation Date were an Averaging Date (with Averaging Date Disruption applying as if the last Settlement Valuation Date were the Final Averaging Date and the Settlement Valuation Price were the Settlement Price).
Settlement Valuation Dates:    A number of Scheduled Trading Days selected by BofA in its reasonable discretion, beginning on the Scheduled Trading Day immediately following the later of the Settlement Method Election Date and the Final Averaging Date.
Cash Settlement:    If Cash Settlement is applicable, then Counterparty shall pay to BofA the absolute value of the Forward Cash Settlement Amount on the Cash Settlement Payment Date.
Cash Settlement Payment Date:    The date one Settlement Cycle following the last Settlement Valuation Date.
Net Share Settlement Procedures:    If Net Share Settlement is applicable, Net Share Settlement shall be made in accordance with paragraphs 2 through 5 below.

 

A-1


2. Net Share Settlement shall be made by delivery on the Settlement Date of a number of Shares equal to the product of (i) the absolute value of the Number of Shares to be Delivered and (ii) 100%, plus a commercially reasonable amount determined by BofA to account for the fact that such Shares will not be registered for resale; provided that in the case of a Special Settlement, Net Share Settlement shall be made (i) by delivery on the Cash Settlement Payment Date (such date, the “Net Share Settlement Date”) of a number of Shares (the “Restricted Payment Shares”) with a value equal to the absolute value of the Forward Cash Settlement Amount, with such Shares’ value based on the realizable and commercially reasonable market value thereof to BofA (which value shall take into account an illiquidity discount resulting from the fact that the Restricted Payment Shares will not be registered for resale), as determined by the Calculation Agent in good faith (the “Restricted Share Value”), and paragraph 3 of this Annex A shall apply to such Restricted Payment Shares, and (ii) by delivery of the Make-Whole Payment Shares as described in paragraph 4 below.

3. (a) All Restricted Payment Shares and Make-Whole Payment Shares shall be delivered to BofA (or any affiliate of BofA designated by BofA) pursuant to the exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act provided by Section 4(a)(2) thereof.

(b) As of or prior to the date of delivery, BofA and any potential purchaser of any such Shares from BofA (or any affiliate of BofA designated by BofA) identified by BofA shall be afforded a commercially reasonable opportunity to conduct a due diligence investigation with respect to Counterparty customary in scope for private placements of equity securities of similar size for an issuance of its size (including, without limitation, the right to have made available to them for inspection all financial and other records, pertinent corporate documents and other information reasonably requested by them).

(c) As of the date of delivery, Counterparty shall enter into an agreement (a “Private Placement Agreement”) with BofA (or any affiliate of BofA designated by BofA) in connection with the private placement of such Shares by Counterparty to BofA (or any such affiliate) and the private resale of such Shares by BofA (or any such affiliate), substantially similar to private placement purchase agreements customary for private placements of equity securities, in form and substance commercially reasonably satisfactory to BofA, which Private Placement Agreement shall include, without limitation, provisions substantially similar to those contained in such private placement purchase agreements relating to the indemnification of, and contribution in connection with the liability of, BofA and its affiliates, and shall provide for the payment by Counterparty of all fees and expenses in connection with such resale, including all fees and expenses of counsel for BofA, and shall contain representations, warranties and agreements of Counterparty reasonably necessary or advisable to establish and maintain the availability of an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act for such resales.

(d) Counterparty shall not take or cause to be taken any action that would make unavailable either (i) the exemption set forth in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act for the sale of any Restricted Payment Shares or Make-Whole Payment Shares by Counterparty to BofA or (ii) an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act reasonably acceptable to BofA for resales of Restricted Payment Shares and Make-Whole Payment Shares by the BofA (or an affiliate of BofA).

(e) Counterparty expressly agrees and acknowledges that the public disclosure of all material information relating to Counterparty is within Counterparty’s control.

4. If Restricted Payment Shares are delivered in accordance with paragraph 3 above, on the last Settlement Valuation Date, a balance (the “Settlement Balance”) shall be established with an initial balance equal to the absolute value of the Forward Cash Settlement Amount. Following the delivery of Restricted Payment Shares or any Make-Whole Payment Shares, BofA shall sell all such Restricted Payment Shares or Make-Whole Payment Shares in a commercially reasonable manner over a commercially reasonable period of time to unwind a commercially reasonable hedge position. At the end of

 

A-2


each Exchange Business Day upon which sales have been made, the Settlement Balance shall be reduced by an amount equal to the aggregate proceeds received by BofA or its affiliate upon the sale of such Restricted Payment Shares or Make-Whole Payment Shares, less a customary and commercially reasonable private placement fee for private placements of common stock by similar issuers. If, on any Exchange Business Day, all Restricted Payment Shares and Make-Whole Payment Shares have been sold and the Settlement Balance has not been reduced to zero, Counterparty shall (i) deliver to BofA or as directed by BofA one Settlement Cycle following such Exchange Business Day an additional number of Shares (the “Make-Whole Payment Shares” and, together with the Restricted Payment Shares, the “Payment Shares”) equal to (x) the Settlement Balance as of such Exchange Business Day divided by (y) the Restricted Share Value of the Make-Whole Payment Shares as of such Exchange Business Day or (ii) promptly deliver to BofA cash in an amount equal to the then remaining Settlement Balance. This provision shall be applied successively until either the Settlement Balance is reduced to zero or the aggregate number of Restricted Payment Shares and Make-Whole Payment Shares equals the Maximum Deliverable Number. If on any Exchange Business Day, Restricted Payment Shares and Make-Whole Payment Shares remain unsold and the Settlement Balance has been reduced to zero, BofA shall promptly return such unsold Restricted Payment Shares or Make-Whole Payment Shares.

5. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in no event shall Counterparty be required to deliver more than the Maximum Deliverable Number of Shares hereunder. “Maximum Deliverable Number” means the number of Shares set forth as such in Annex B to this Confirmation. Counterparty represents and warrants to BofA (which representation and warranty shall be deemed to be repeated on each day from the date hereof to the Settlement Date or, if Counterparty has elected to deliver any Payment Shares hereunder in connection with a Special Settlement, to the date on which resale of such Payment Shares is completed (the “Final Resale Date”)) that the Maximum Deliverable Number is equal to or less than the number of authorized but unissued Shares of Counterparty that are not reserved for future issuance in connection with transactions in such Shares (other than the transactions under this Confirmation) on the date of the determination of the Maximum Deliverable Number (such Shares, the “Available Shares”). In the event Counterparty shall not have delivered the full number of Shares otherwise deliverable as a result of this paragraph 5 (the resulting deficit, the “Deficit Shares”), Counterparty shall be continually obligated to deliver, from time to time until the full number of Deficit Shares have been delivered pursuant to this paragraph, Shares when, and to the extent that, (i) Shares are repurchased, acquired or otherwise received by Counterparty or any of its subsidiaries after the date hereof (whether or not in exchange for cash, fair value or any other consideration), (ii) authorized and unissued Shares reserved for issuance in respect of other transactions prior to such date which prior to the relevant date become no longer so reserved or (iii) Counterparty additionally authorizes any unissued Shares that are not reserved for other transactions. Counterparty shall promptly notify BofA of the occurrence of any of the foregoing events (including the number of Shares subject to clause (i), (ii) or (iii) and the corresponding number of Shares to be delivered) and promptly deliver such Shares thereafter.

 

A-3

Exhibit 99.1

 

LOGO

Premier, Inc. Reports Fiscal-Year 2024 Second-Quarter Results

CHARLOTTE, N.C., February 5, 2024 - Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a leading technology-driven healthcare improvement company, today reported financial results for the fiscal-year 2024 second quarter ended December 31, 2023.

“Our second quarter results reflect ongoing discipline in actively managing our business to meet our expectations for profitability,” said Michael J. Alkire, Premier’s President and CEO. “Consolidated net revenue declined from the prior-year period primarily due a challenging revenue comparison for enterprise license agreements in our Performance Services segment and the impact of higher aggregate member fee share in our group purchasing business and continued market conditions in our direct sourcing business.”

“I am pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has concluded its previously announced exploration of strategic alternatives,” Alkire continued. “After a thorough review of options, the Board has decided to move forward with a more focused strategy predicated on automating and streamlining all aspects of the supply chain and leveraging our unique data, technologies and AI capabilities to support provider performance improvement and growth in certain adjacent markets. As a result, and to unlock value for stockholders, we previously sold our non-healthcare GPO operations and our Board has authorized the company to seek partners to potentially take ownership of some or all of Premier’s holdings in our direct sourcing business, S2S Global, and our direct-to-employer business, Contigo Health. We intend to find the right partners for these businesses that can make the necessary investments to enhance their future success. Additionally, the Board considered opportunities for deploying capital resources, including accelerating returns to stockholders. Based on this review, the Board has approved a new $1.0 billion share repurchase authorization, including implementation of a $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction.”

Consolidated Financial Highlights

 

     Three Months Ended December 31,     Six Months Ended December 31,  
(in thousands, except per share data)    2023     2022     % Change     2023     2022     % Change  

Net revenue:

            

Supply Chain Services:

            

Net administrative fees

   $ 149,563     $ 154,423       (3 %)    $ 298,590     $ 304,429       (2 %) 

Software licenses, other services and support

     12,511       14,104       (11 %)      23,697       24,931       (5 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Services and software licenses

     162,074       168,527       (4 %)      322,287       329,360       (2 %) 

Products

     55,781       66,993       (17 %)      106,366       125,854       (15 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total Supply Chain Services

     217,855       235,520       (8 %)      428,653       455,214       (6 %) 

Performance Services

     116,963       124,115       (6 %)      224,969       218,304       3
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total segment net revenue

     334,818       359,635       (7 %)      653,622       673,518       (3 %) 

Eliminations

     (73     (9     711     (125     (19     558
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net revenue

   $ 334,745     $ 359,626       (7 %)    $ 653,497     $ 673,499       (3 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income

   $ 52,866     $ 64,374       (18 %)    $ 95,276     $ 107,333       (11 %) 

Net income attributable to stockholders

   $ 54,302     $ 64,046       (15 %)    $ 99,063     $ 106,762       (7 %) 

Diluted earnings per share attributable to stockholders

   $ 0.45     $ 0.54       (17 %)    $ 0.82     $ 0.89       (8 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 


Consolidated Financial Highlights

 

     Three Months Ended December 31,     Six Months Ended December 31,  
(in thousands, except per share data)    2023     2022     % Change     2023     2022     % Change  

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES*:

            

Adjusted EBITDA:

            

Supply Chain Services

   $ 114,491     $ 126,315       (9 %)    $ 229,465     $ 239,504       (4 %) 

Performance Services

     30,955       43,205       (28 %)      52,729       62,336       (15 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total segment adjusted EBITDA

     145,446       169,520       (14 %)      282,194       301,840       (7 %) 

Corporate

     (31,318     (30,658     (2 %)      (62,327     (61,841     (1 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

   $ 114,128     $ 138,862       (18 %)    $ 219,867     $ 239,999       (8 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted net income

   $ 71,940     $ 84,168       (15 %)    $ 136,827     $ 140,400       (3 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted earnings per share (EPS)

   $ 0.60     $ 0.70       (14 %)    $ 1.14     $ 1.17       (3 %) 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

*

Refer to “Premier’s Use and Definition of Non-GAAP Measures” below and the supplemental financial information at the end of this release for information on the company’s use of non-GAAP measures and a reconciliation of reported GAAP results to non-GAAP results.

Fiscal 2024 Guidance

Certain statements in this release, including without limitation, those in this section, are forward-looking statements. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of such statements, refer to “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” below.

Based on its financial results for the six months ended December 31, 2023, current visibility into the macro environment, and expectations for the remainder of this fiscal year, the company expects the following guidance ranges:

 

2


Guidance Metric

   Fiscal 2024 Guidance Range**
(as of February 5, 2024)
 

Segment Net Revenue:

  

Supply Chain Services

   $ 840 million to $880 million  

Performance Services

   $ 425 million to $445 million  

Total Net Revenue

   $ 1.265 billion to $1.325 billion  

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 405 million to $425 million  

Adjusted EPS

   $ 2.06 to $2.18  

Fiscal 2024 guidance is based on the realization of the following key assumptions:

 

   

Net administrative fees revenue of $588 million to $603 million

 

   

Direct sourcing products revenue of $207 million to $222 million

 

   

Supply Chain Services segment software licenses, other services and support revenue of $45 million to $55 million

 

   

Capital expenditures of $93 million to $103 million

 

   

Effective income tax rate in the range of 26-28%

 

   

Free cash flow of 45% to 55% of adjusted EBITDA, excluding the impact of tax payments related to the sale of non-healthcare GPO operations

 

   

Includes the estimated fiscal 2024 impact of the initial $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction under the $1 billion share repurchase authorization

 

   

Does not include the impact of any significant acquisitions or divestitures

 

**

Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow presented in this financial guidance are forward-looking non-GAAP measures. Refer to “Premier’s Use and Definition of Non-GAAP Measures” below for information on the company’s use of non-GAAP measures. Premier, Inc. does not provide forward-looking guidance on a GAAP basis as certain financial information, the probable significance of which cannot be determined, is not available and cannot be reasonably estimated. Refer to “Premier’s Use of Forward-Looking Non-GAAP Measures” below for additional explanation.

Completion of Strategic Review Process

Premier separately announced today that the company’s Board of Directors has concluded its exploration of strategic alternatives. For additional details, see the company’s announcement Premier, Inc. Completes Strategic Review Process issued on February 5, 2024.

Results of Operations for the Three Months Ended December 31, 2023

(As compared with the three months ended December 31, 2022)

GAAP net revenue of $334.7 million decreased 7% from $359.6 million in the prior-year period. Refer to “Supply Chain Services” and “Performance Services” sections below for further discussion on the factors that impacted each segment during the quarter.

GAAP net income of $52.9 million decreased 18% from $64.4 million in the prior-year period primarily due to lower net revenue and lower equity earnings in the current-year period partially offset by an increase in interest income and a decrease in income tax expense in the current-year period.

GAAP diluted EPS of $0.45 decreased 17% from $0.54 in the prior-year period due to the aforementioned drivers affecting GAAP net income as well as a decrease in the portion of net income attributable to non-controlling interests in the current-year period.

 

3


Adjusted EBITDA of $114.1 million decreased 18% from $138.9 million in the prior-year period primarily due to decreases in each segment’s adjusted EBITDA. Refer to “Supply Chain Services” and “Performance Services” sections below for further discussion on the factors that impacted each segment during the quarter.

Adjusted net income of $71.9 million decreased 15% from $84.2 million in the prior-year period and adjusted EPS of $0.60 decreased 14% from $0.70 in the prior-year period primarily as a result of the same factors that impacted adjusted EBITDA as well as an increase in interest income.

Segment Results

(For the fiscal second quarter of 2024 as compared with the fiscal second quarter of 2023)

Supply Chain Services

Supply Chain Services segment net revenue of $217.9 million decreased 8% from $235.5 million in the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower products revenue and lower net administrative fees revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2024, as described below.

Net administrative fees revenue of $149.6 million decreased 3% from $154.4 million in the prior-year period driven by an expected increase in the aggregate blended member fee share partially offset by continued growth in member purchasing.

Products revenue of $55.8 million decreased 17% from $67.0 million in the prior-year period primarily due to continued excess market supply and members’ and other customers’ inventory levels which contributed to lower demand and pricing in the current-year period.

Segment adjusted EBITDA of $114.5 million decreased 9% from $126.3 million in the prior-year period primarily due to a decrease in net revenue compared to the prior-year period and an increase in expenses in support of the GPO program and

supply chain co-management business partially offset by higher profit margin in the company’s direct sourcing business driven by lower logistics and product costs compared to the prior-year period.

Performance Services

Performance Services segment net revenue of $117.0 million decreased 6% from $124.1 million in the prior-year period, primarily due to a decrease in revenue from enterprise license agreements in the current-year period compared with the prior-year period partially offset by growth in certain of the company’s adjacent markets businesses and growth in its consulting services business.

Segment adjusted EBITDA of $31.0 million decreased 28% from $43.2 million in the prior year period mainly due to the aforementioned decrease in net revenue and incremental headcount to support growth in the company’s consulting services and adjacent markets businesses.

Result of Operations for the Six Months Ended December 31, 2023

(As compared with the six months ended December 31, 2022)

GAAP net revenue of $653.5 million decreased 3% from $673.5 million in the prior-year period primarily due to decreases in products revenue and net administrative fees revenue partially offset by an increase in Performance Services segment net revenue.

GAAP net income of $95.3 million decreased 11% from $107.3 million in the prior-year period primarily due to lower net revenue, lower equity earnings and an increase in certain operating expenses, including costs associated with the sale of the company’s non-healthcare GPO operations and higher performance-related compensation expenses, in the current-year period partially offset by an increase in interest income and a decrease in income tax expense in the current-year period.

 

4


GAAP diluted EPS of $0.82 decreased 8% from $0.89 in the prior-year period due to the aforementioned drivers affecting GAAP net income as well as a decrease in the portion of net income attributable to non-controlling interests in the current-year period.

Adjusted EBITDA of $219.9 million decreased 8% from $240.0 million in the prior-year period primarily due to decreases in each segment’s adjusted EBITDA.

Adjusted net income of $136.8 million decreased 3% from $140.4 million in the prior-year period and adjusted EPS of $1.14 decreased 3% from $1.17 in the prior-year period primarily as a result of the same factors that impacted adjusted EBITDA as well as an increase in interest income, a decrease in the portion of net income attributable to non-controlling interests and a decrease in depreciation and amortization expense in the current-year period.

Supply Chain Services segment net revenue of $428.7 million decreased 6% from $455.2 million for the same period a year ago. Segment adjusted EBITDA of $229.5 million decreased 4% from $239.5 million for the same period a year ago.

Performance Services segment net revenue of $225.0 million increased 3% from $218.3 million for the same period a year ago. Segment adjusted EBITDA of $52.7 million decreased 15% from $62.3 million for the same period a year ago.

Cash Flows and Liquidity

Net cash provided by operating activities (“operating cash flow”) for the six months ended December 31, 2023 of $35.4 million decreased from $196.7 million in the prior-year period primarily due to $138.5 million in tax payments in the current-year period related to the sale of non-healthcare GPO operations. To a lesser extent, cash was impacted by lower net revenue and was partially offset by decreases in inventory purchases and lower fiscal 2023 performance-related compensation payments during the fiscal first quarter compared to the fiscal 2022 payments in the prior-year period.

Net cash used in investing activities and net cash provided by financing activities for the six months ended December 31, 2023, were $49.1 million and $295.0 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2023, cash and cash equivalents were $371.1 million compared with $89.8 million as of June 30, 2023, and the company’s five-year, $1.0 billion revolving credit facility had no outstanding balance. The increase in cash and cash equivalents was primarily due to net proceeds from the sale of the company’s non-healthcare GPO operations.

Free cash flow for the six months ended December 31, 2023, an outflow of $63.3 million, decreased from an inflow of $109.6 million in the prior-year period. The decrease was primarily due to the same factors that impacted operating cash flow, including the aforementioned $138.5 million in tax payments, and an increase in purchases of property and equipment. Refer to “Premier’s Use and Definition of Non-GAAP Measures” below and the supplemental financial information at the end of this release for information on the company’s use of non-GAAP measures and a reconciliation of reported GAAP results to non-GAAP results.

During the first six months of fiscal 2024, the company paid aggregate dividends of $51.1 million to holders of its Class A common stock.

Conference Call and Webcast

Premier will host a conference call to provide additional detail around the company’s performance and outlook today at 8:00 a.m. ET. The call will be webcast live from the company’s website and, along with the accompanying presentation, will be available at the following link: Premier Events. The webcast should be accessed 10 minutes prior to the conference call start time. A replay of the webcast will be available for one year following the conclusion of the live broadcast and will be accessible on the company’s website at https://investors.premierinc.com.

 

5


For those parties who do not have internet access, the conference call may be accessed by calling one of the below telephone numbers and asking to join the Premier, Inc. call:

 

          Domestic participant dial-in number (toll-free):    (833) 953-2438
   International participant dial-in number:    (412) 317-5767

About Premier, Inc.

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 4,350 U.S. hospitals and health systems and approximately 300,000 other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and consulting and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com, as well as X, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Premier’s blog for more information about the company.

Premier’s Use and Definition of Non-GAAP Measures

Premier uses EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, segment adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, and free cash flow. These are non-GAAP financial measures that are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, GAAP, and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. We include these non-GAAP financial measures to facilitate a comparison of the company’s operating performance on a consistent basis from period to period and to provide measures that, when viewed in combination with its results prepared in accordance with GAAP, we believe allow for a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting the company’s business than GAAP measures alone. Management believes EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and segment adjusted EBITDA assist the company’s board of directors, management and investors in comparing the company’s operating performance on a consistent basis from period to period by removing the impact of the company’s asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization) and items outside the control of management (taxes), as well as other non-cash (impairment of intangible assets and purchase accounting adjustments) and non-recurring items, from operating results. Adjusted EBITDA and segment adjusted EBITDA are supplemental financial measures used by the company and by external users of the company’s financial statements.

Management considers adjusted EBITDA an indicator of the operational strength and performance of the company’s business. Adjusted EBITDA allows management to assess performance without regard to financing methods and capital structure and without the impact of other matters that management does not consider indicative of the operating performance of the business. Segment adjusted EBITDA is the primary earnings measure used by management to evaluate the performance of the company’s business segments.

Management believes free cash flow is an important measure because it represents the cash that the company generates after payment of tax distributions to limited partners, payments to certain former limited partners that elected to execute a Unit Exchange and Tax Receivable Agreement (“Unit Exchange Agreement”) in connection with our August 2020 restructuring and purchases of property and equipment to maintain existing products and services and ongoing business operations, as well as development of new and upgraded products and services to support future growth. Free cash flow is important because it enables the company to seek enhancement of stockholder value through acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, investments in related or complimentary businesses and/or debt reduction.

Non-recurring items are items to be income or expenses and other items that have not been earned or incurred within the prior two years and are not expected to recur within the next two years. Such items include stock-based compensation, acquisition- and disposition-related expenses, strategic initiative- and financial restructuring-related expenses, remeasurement of TRA liabilities, loss on disposal of long-live assets, gain or loss on FFF put and call rights, income and expense that has been classified as discontinued operations and other expense.

 

6


Non-operating items include gains or losses on the disposal of assets and interest and investment income or expense.

EBITDA is defined as net income before income or loss from discontinued operations, net of tax, interest and investment income or expense, net, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization and amortization of purchased intangible assets.

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before merger and acquisition-related expenses and non-recurring, non-cash or non-operating items.

Segment adjusted EBITDA is defined as the segment’s net revenue less cost of revenue and operating expenses directly attributable to the segment excluding depreciation and amortization, amortization of purchased intangible assets, merger and acquisition-related expenses and non-recurring or non-cash items. Operating expenses directly attributable to the segment include expenses associated with sales and marketing, general and administrative, and product development activities specific to the operation of each segment. General and administrative corporate expenses that are not specific to a particular segment are not included in the calculation of Segment Adjusted EBITDA. Segment Adjusted EBITDA also excludes any income and expense that has been classified as discontinued operations.

Adjusted net income is defined as net income attributable to Premier (i) excluding income or loss from discontinued operations, net, (ii) excluding income tax expense, (iii) excluding the effect of non-recurring or non-cash items, including certain strategic initiative- and financial restructuring-related expenses, (iv) reflecting an adjustment for income tax expense on Non-GAAP net income before income taxes at our estimated annual effective income tax rate, adjusted for unusual or infrequent items and (v) excluding the equity in net income of unconsolidated affiliates.

Adjusted earnings per share is Adjusted Net Income divided by diluted weighted average shares.

Free cash flow is defined as net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations less distributions and Tax Receivable Agreement payments to limited partners, early termination payments to certain former limited partners that elected to execute a Unit Exchange Agreement in connection with our August 2020 restructuring and purchases of property and equipment. Free Cash Flow does not represent discretionary cash available for spending as it excludes certain contractual obligations such as debt repayments.

To properly and prudently evaluate our business, readers are urged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures, as well as the other financial tables, included at the end of this release. Readers should not rely on any single financial measure to evaluate the company’s business. In addition, the non-GAAP financial measures used in this release are susceptible to varying calculations and may differ from, and may therefore not be comparable to, similarly titled measures used by other companies.

The Company has revised the definitions for Adjusted EBITDA, Segment Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income from the definitions reported in the 2023 Annual Report. Adjusted EBITDA and segment Adjusted EBITDA definitions were revised to exclude the impact of equity earnings in unconsolidated affiliates. The Adjusted Net Income definition was revised (1) remove the exclusion of the impact of adjustment of redeemable limited partners’ capital to redemption amount, (2) remove the impact of the exchange of all Class B common units for shares of Class A common stock for periods prior to our August 2020 Restructuring and the resulting elimination of non-controlling interest in Premier LP, and (3) add the exclusion of equity earnings in unconsolidated affiliates. For comparability purposes, prior year non-GAAP financial measures are presented based on the current definitions in the above section.

Further information on Premier’s use of non-GAAP financial measures is available in the “Our Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section of Premier’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, expected to be filed with the SEC shortly after this release, and which will also be made available on Premier’s website at investors.premierinc.com.

 

7


Premier’s Use of Forward-Looking Non-GAAP Measures

The company does not meaningfully reconcile guidance for non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share to net income attributable to stockholders or earnings per share attributable to stockholders because the company cannot provide guidance for the more significant reconciling items between net income attributable to stockholders and adjusted EBITDA and between earnings per share attributable to stockholders and non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share without unreasonable effort. This is due to the fact that future period non-GAAP guidance includes adjustments for items not indicative of our core operations, which may include, without limitation, items included in the supplemental financial information for reconciliation of reported GAAP results to non-GAAP results. Such items include, but are not limited to, strategic and acquisition related expenses for professional fees; mark to market adjustments for put options and contingent liabilities; gains and losses on stock-based performance shares; adjustments to its income tax provision (such as valuation allowance adjustments and settlements of income tax claims); items related to corporate and facility restructurings; and certain other items the company believes to be non-indicative of its ongoing operations. Such adjustments may be affected by changes in ongoing assumptions, judgements, as well as nonrecurring, unusual or unanticipated charges, expenses or gains/losses or other items that may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations. The exact amount of these adjustments is not currently determinable but may be significant.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts, including, but not limited to those related to our ability to advance our long-term strategies and develop innovations for and transform healthcare, our ability to find partners for our S2S Global and Contigo Health businesses and the potential benefits thereof, our ability to fund and conduct share repurchases pursuant to the share repurchase authorization and the potential benefits thereof (including the accelerated share repurchase transaction, which could be affected by volatility or disruptions in the capital markets or other factors), the payment of dividends at current levels or at all, guidance on expected future financial performance and assumptions underlying that guidance, and our expected effective income tax rate, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “anticipates” or “plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier’s control. More information on risks and uncertainties that could affect Premier’s business, achievements, performance, financial condition, and financial results is included from time to time in the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Premier’s periodic filings with the SEC, including those discussed under the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” sections of Premier’s Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2023 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, expected to be filed with the SEC shortly after the date of this release, all of which are made available on Premier’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events that occur after that date, or otherwise.

 

Investor contact:    Media contact:
Ben Krasinski    Amanda Forster
Senior Director, Investor Relations    Vice President, Public Relations
704.816.5644    202.879.8004
ben_krasinski@premierinc.com    amanda_forster@premierinc.com

 

8


Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except per share data)

 

     Three Months Ended
December 31,
    Six Months Ended
December 31,
 
     2023     2022     2023     2022  

Net revenue:

        

Net administrative fees

   $ 149,563     $ 154,423     $ 298,590     $ 304,429  

Software licenses, other services and support

     129,401       138,210       248,541       243,216  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Services and software licenses

     278,964       292,633       547,131       547,645  

Products

     55,781       66,993       106,366       125,854  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net revenue

     334,745       359,626       653,497       673,499  

Cost of revenue:

        

Services and software licenses

     65,990       55,265       130,122       109,279  

Products

     47,472       61,620       91,510       119,494  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cost of revenue

     113,462       116,885       221,632       228,773  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Gross profit

     221,283       242,741       431,865       444,726  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating expenses:

        

Selling, general and administrative

     142,150       140,528       280,210       272,578  

Research and development

     928       1,000       1,791       1,975  

Amortization of purchased intangible assets

     12,512       13,047       25,200       23,499  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating expenses

     155,590       154,575       307,201       298,052  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating income

     65,693       88,166       124,664       146,674  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Equity in net (loss) income of unconsolidated affiliates

     (666     1,674       (2,392     9,917  

Interest income (expense), net

     2,438       (4,631     2,633       (7,490

Other income, net

     4,679       2,930       3,587       766  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Other income (expense), net

     6,451       (27     3,828       3,193  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income before income taxes

     72,144       88,139       128,492       149,867  

Income tax expense

     19,278       23,765       33,216       42,534  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income

     52,866       64,374       95,276       107,333  

Net loss (income) attributable to non-controlling interest

     1,436       (328     3,787       (571
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income attributable to stockholders

   $ 54,302     $ 64,046     $ 99,063     $ 106,762  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Calculation of GAAP Earnings per Share

        

Numerator for basic and diluted earnings per share:

        

Net income attributable to stockholders

   $ 54,302     $ 64,046     $ 99,063     $ 106,762  

Denominator for earnings per share:

        

Basic weighted average shares outstanding

     119,702       118,787       119,523       118,569  

Effect of dilutive securities:

        

Stock options

     —        86       —        116  

Restricted stock units

     355       466       444       514  

Performance share awards

     —        313       128       643  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Diluted weighted average shares

     120,057       119,652       120,095       119,842  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Earnings per share attributable to stockholders:

        

Basic

   $ 0.45     $ 0.54     $ 0.83     $ 0.90  

Diluted

   $ 0.45     $ 0.54     $ 0.82     $ 0.89  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

9


Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except share data)

 

     December 31, 2023     June 30, 2023  

Assets

    

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 371,110     $ 89,793  

Accounts receivable (net of $2,394 and $2,878 allowance for credit losses, respectively)

     122,300       115,295  

Contract assets (net of $1,137 and $885 allowance for credit losses, respectively)

     331,727       299,219  

Inventory

     72,766       76,932  

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

     92,354       60,387  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current assets

     990,257       641,626  

Property and equipment (net of $703,148 and $662,554 accumulated depreciation, respectively)

     218,050       212,308  

Intangible assets (net of $290,884 and $265,684 accumulated amortization, respectively)

     404,830       430,030  

Goodwill

     1,012,355       1,012,355  

Deferred income tax assets

     808,562       653,629  

Deferred compensation plan assets

     48,792       50,346  

Investments in unconsolidated affiliates

     229,434       231,826  

Operating lease right-of-use assets

     24,439       29,252  

Other assets

     95,809       110,115  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total assets

   $ 3,832,528     $ 3,371,487  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Liabilities and stockholders’ equity

 

 

Accounts payable

   $ 54,252     $ 54,375  

Accrued expenses

     50,946       47,113  

Revenue share obligations

     279,855       262,288  

Accrued compensation and benefits

     53,798       60,591  

Deferred revenue

     20,692       24,311  

Current portion of notes payable to former limited partners

     100,594       99,665  

Line of credit and current portion of long-term debt

     1,008       216,546  

Current portion of liability related to the sale of future revenues

     35,800       —   

Other current liabilities

     96,750       50,574  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current liabilities

     693,695       815,463  

Long-term debt, less current portion

     —        734  

Liability related to the sale of future revenues, less current portion

     579,409       —   

Notes payable to former limited partners, less current portion

     50,994       101,523  

Deferred compensation plan obligations

     48,792       50,346  

Operating lease liabilities, less current portion

     16,016       21,864  

Other liabilities

     53,413       47,202  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total liabilities

     1,442,319       1,037,132  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Commitments and contingencies

    

Stockholders’ equity:

    

Class A common stock, $0.01 par value, 500,000,000 shares authorized; 126,245,859 shares issued and 119,816,484 shares outstanding at December 31, 2023 and 125,587,858 shares issued and 119,158,483 shares outstanding at June 30, 2023

     1,262       1,256  

Treasury stock, at cost; 6,429,375 shares at both December 31, 2023 and June 30, 2023

     (250,129     (250,129

Additional paid-in capital

     2,186,115       2,178,134  

Retained earnings

     452,946       405,102  

Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)

     15       (8
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total stockholders’ equity

     2,390,209       2,334,355  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

   $ 3,832,528     $ 3,371,487  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

10


Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(Unaudited)

(In thousands)

 

     Six Months Ended December 31,  
     2023     2022  

Operating activities

    

Net income

   $ 95,276     $ 107,333  

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:

    

Depreciation and amortization

     65,795       68,377  

Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates

     2,392       (9,917

Deferred income taxes

     (154,933     1,959  

Stock-based compensation

     15,070       9,815  

Other, net

     2,966       10,167  

Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of the effects of acquisitions:

    

Accounts receivable

     (7,005     (5,145

Contract assets

     (33,178     (26,458

Inventory

     4,166       3,231  

Prepaid expenses and other assets

     (10,624     17,685  

Accounts payable

     2,608       16,707  

Revenue share obligations

     17,567       9,974  

Accrued expenses, deferred revenue and other liabilities

     35,280       (7,003
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash provided by operating activities

   $ 35,380     $ 196,725  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Investing activities

    

Purchases of property and equipment

   $ (49,068   $ (38,416

Acquisition of businesses and equity method investments, net of cash acquired

     —        (187,750

Other

     —        (1,300
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash used in investing activities

   $ (49,068   $ (227,466
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Financing activities

    

Payments on notes payable

   $ (50,872   $ (51,049

Proceeds from credit facility

     —        285,000  

Payments on credit facility

     (215,000     (135,000

Proceeds from sale of future revenues

     629,820       —   

Payments on liability related to the sale of future revenues

     (14,611     —   

Cash dividends paid

     (51,059     (50,205

Other, net

     (3,296     (9,516
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash provided by financing activities

   $ 294,982     $ 39,230  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash flows

     23       (9

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents

     281,317       8,480  

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year

     89,793       86,143  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

   $ 371,110     $ 94,623  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

11


Supplemental Financial Information

Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow

(Unaudited)

(In thousands)

 

     Six Months Ended December 31,  
       2023         2022    

Net cash provided by operating activities

   $ 35,380     $ 196,725  

Early termination payments to certain former limited partners that elected to execute a Unit
Exchange Agreement (a)

     (49,600     (48,670

Purchases of property and equipment

     (49,068     (38,416
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Free Cash Flow

   $ (63,288   $ 109,639  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(a)

Early termination payments to certain former limited partners that elected to execute a Unit Exchange Agreement in connection with Premier’s August 2020 restructuring are presented in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows under “Payments made on notes payable.” During the six months ended December 31, 2023, the company paid $51.3 million to members including imputed interest of $1.7 million which is included in net cash provided by operating activities. During the six months ended December 31, 2022, the company paid $51.3 million to members, including imputed interest of $2.7 million which is included in net cash provided by operating activities.

 

12


Supplemental Financial Information

Reconciliation of Net Income from Continuing Operations to Adjusted EBITDA

Reconciliation of Operating Income to Segment Adjusted EBITDA

Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to Stockholders to Adjusted Net Income

(Unaudited)

(In thousands)

 

     Three Months Ended
December 31,
    Six Months Ended
December 31,
 
     2023     2022     2023     2022  

Net income

   $ 52,866     $ 64,374     $ 95,276     $ 107,333  

Interest (income) expense, net

     (2,438     4,631       (2,633     7,490  

Income tax expense

     19,278       23,765       33,216       42,534  

Depreciation and amortization

     20,267       21,439       40,595       44,878  

Amortization of purchased intangible assets

     12,512       13,047       25,200       23,499  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

EBITDA

     102,485       127,256       191,654       225,734  

Stock-based compensation

     8,495       2,801       15,388       10,150  

Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses

     1,198       3,138       7,403       5,298  

Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses

     1,284       7,527       3,030       9,046  

Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates

     666       (1,674     2,392       (9,917

Other reconciling items, net

     —        (186     —        (312
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 114,128     $ 138,862     $ 219,867     $ 239,999  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income before income taxes

   $ 72,144     $ 88,139     $ 128,492     $ 149,867  

Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates

     666       (1,674     2,392       (9,917

Interest (income) expense, net

     (2,438     4,631       (2,633     7,490  

Other income, net

     (4,679     (2,930     (3,587     (766
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating income

     65,693       88,166       124,664       146,674  

Depreciation and amortization

     20,267       21,439       40,595       44,878  

Amortization of purchased intangible assets

     12,512       13,047       25,200       23,499  

Stock-based compensation

     8,495       2,801       15,388       10,150  

Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses

     1,198       3,138       7,403       5,298  

Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses

     1,284       7,527       3,030       9,046  

Deferred compensation plan expense

     4,605       2,659       3,480       289  

Other reconciling items, net

     74       85       107       165  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 114,128     $ 138,862     $ 219,867     $ 239,999  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

SEGMENT ADJUSTED EBITDA

        

Supply Chain Services

   $ 114,491     $ 126,315     $ 229,465     $ 239,504  

Performance Services

     30,955       43,205       52,729       62,336  

Corporate

     (31,318     (30,658     (62,327     (61,841
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 114,128     $ 138,862     $ 219,867     $ 239,999  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income attributable to stockholders

   $ 54,302     $ 64,046     $ 99,063     $ 106,762  

Income tax expense

     19,278       23,765       33,216       42,534  

Amortization of purchased intangible assets

     12,512       13,047       25,200       23,499  

Stock-based compensation

     8,495       2,801       15,388       10,150  

Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses

     1,198       3,138       7,403       5,298  

Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses

     1,284       7,527       3,030       9,046  

Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates

     666       (1,674     2,392       (9,917

Other reconciling items, net

     813       1,091       1,742       2,359  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted income before income taxes

     98,548       113,741       187,434       189,731  

Income tax expense on adjusted income before income taxes

     26,608       29,573       50,607       49,331  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted Net Income

   $ 71,940     $ 84,168     $ 136,827     $ 140,400  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

13


Supplemental Financial Information

Reconciliation of GAAP EPS to Adjusted EPS

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except per share data)

 

     Three Months Ended
December 31,
    Six Months Ended
December 31,
 
     2023     2022     2023     2022  

Net income attributable to stockholders

   $ 54,302     $ 64,046     $ 99,063     $ 106,762  

Income tax expense

     19,278       23,765       33,216       42,534  

Amortization of purchased intangible assets

     12,512       13,047       25,200       23,499  

Stock-based compensation

     8,495       2,801       15,388       10,150  

Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses

     1,198       3,138       7,403       5,298  

Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses

     1,284       7,527       3,030       9,046  

Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates

     666       (1,674     2,392       (9,917

Other reconciling items, net

     813       1,091       1,742       2,359  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted income before income taxes

     98,548       113,741       187,434       189,731  

Income tax expense on adjusted income before income taxes

     26,608       29,573       50,607       49,331  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted Net Income

   $ 71,940     $ 84,168     $ 136,827     $ 140,400  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Weighted average:

        

Basic weighted average shares outstanding

     119,702       118,787       119,523       118,569  

Dilutive shares

     355       865       572       1,273  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Weighted average shares outstanding - diluted

     120,057       119,652       120,095       119,842  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Basic earnings per share attributable to stockholders

   $ 0.45     $ 0.54     $ 0.83     $ 0.90  

Income tax expense

     0.16       0.20       0.28       0.36  

Amortization of purchased intangible assets

     0.10       0.11       0.21       0.20  

Stock-based compensation

     0.07       0.02       0.13       0.09  

Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses

     0.01       0.03       0.06       0.04  

Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses

     0.01       0.06       0.03       0.08  

Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates

     0.01       (0.01     0.02       (0.08

Other reconciling items, net

     0.01       0.01       0.01       0.02  

Impact of corporation taxes

     (0.22     (0.25     (0.42     (0.42

Impact of dilutive shares

     —        (0.01     (0.01     (0.02
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted EPS

   $ 0.60     $ 0.70     $ 1.14     $ 1.17  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

14

Exhibit 99.2

Premier, Inc. Completes Strategic Review Process

 

   

Board Authorizes $1.0 Billion Share Repurchase Authorization, Including $400 Million Accelerated Share Repurchase (ASR) Transaction

 

   

Company Will Seek Partners to Take Ownership of Some or All of Premiers Holdings in Contigo Health and S2S Global

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – February 5, 2024 Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) (“Premier” or the “Company”), a leading technology-driven healthcare improvement company, today announced that the Company’s Board of Directors has concluded its exploration of strategic alternatives.

As previously announced in May 2023, the Board established an Independent Special Committee (the “Special Committee”) to identify, review and explore strategic alternatives to enhance value for stockholders. In consultation with its financial and legal advisors, the Special Committee conducted a comprehensive review of a broad range of potential options, providing its recommendations to the full Board for approval.

In July 2023, the Board approved Premier’s divestiture of its non-healthcare group purchasing organization (GPO) operations to unlock substantial value for Premier’s stockholders and enhance the Company’s focus on its healthcare businesses.

Share Repurchase Authorization and ASR Transaction

The Board and management team considered opportunities for deploying the Company’s capital resources, including accelerating returns to stockholders. Based on this review, the Board has approved a new $1.0 billion share repurchase authorization.

Repurchases of Premier’s Class A common stock (“common stock”) under the share repurchase authorization may occur from time to time through June 30, 2025, in open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, accelerated or other structured repurchase programs or other means, subject to compliance with applicable securities laws and other legal requirements.

Under the share repurchase authorization, the Company has entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement with Bank of America to repurchase an aggregate of $400 million of common stock (the “ASR transaction”). Under the terms of the ASR transaction, the Company will make a payment totaling $400 million to Bank of America, and by February 9, 2024, will receive from Bank of America initial deliveries of approximately $320 million in common stock based on the closing price on February 7, 2024. The final settlement of the ASR transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the Company’s 2025 fiscal year.

The timing, volume and manner of other repurchases, if any, will be determined based on market conditions, the market price of the common stock, applicable legal requirements, potential alternative opportunities for investment of capital and other factors. The authorization as approved by the Board does not require Premier to repurchase any specific number of shares of common stock and may be modified, suspended or discontinued at any time without notice. Premier expects to fund repurchases under the program using cash on hand and available borrowings under the Company’s existing credit facility.

“Premier is a true industry leader, built on a strong core business rooted in supply chain expertise and a world-class, AI-enabled technology platform that provides members with actionable intelligence for continuous improvement in cost, quality and operational efficiencies,” said Richard J. Statuto, Chair of the Board. “We remain confident in our business, operating strategy and the value-creation opportunities ahead. The Board and management team are committed to maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation, and Premier’s balance sheet provides ample flexibility to return capital to stockholders while also investing in the Company’s growth. The ASR transaction and ability to pursue additional opportunistic share repurchases demonstrate the Board’s conviction in Premier’s prospects and underscore our commitment to delivering superior returns for stockholders.”


Potential Partners to Take Ownership of Some or All of Premier’s Holdings in Contigo Health and S2S Global

As part of its review process, the Board, in consultation with management, also authorized the Company to seek partners for some or all of Premier’s holdings in Contigo Health, a subsidiary focused on providing comprehensive services that optimize employee health benefits; and S2S Global, a direct sourcing subsidiary.

“After a thorough review of alternatives, we are excited to move forward with a more focused strategy predicated on automating and streamlining all aspects of the supply chain and leveraging our unique data, technologies and AI capabilities to support provider performance improvement and growth in certain adjacent markets,” said Michael J. Alkire, Premier’s President and CEO. “Against the backdrop of shifting industry dynamics – including a growing healthcare labor shortage, aging population and ongoing supply chain challenges – Premier’s solutions are more relevant and in demand than ever before. While we are sharpening our focus on our capabilities to best serve our members and other customers, we intend to find the right partners for our Contigo and S2S businesses to help take them to new heights. We are confident this is the right path forward to drive profitable growth and sustainable value creation for Premier, our stockholders, members and other stakeholders.”

About Premier, Inc.

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 4,350 U.S. hospitals and health systems and approximately 300,000 other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and consulting and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com, as well as X, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Premier’s blog for more information about the company.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to those related to: Premier’s ability to advance its long-term strategies and develop innovations for and transform healthcare; Premier’s ability to identify partners for its S2S Global and Contigo Health businesses, and the potential benefits thereof to Premier, its business, financial condition, or financial results; the potential for share repurchases pursuant to the share repurchase authorization, the ability to fund those share repurchases, and the potential benefits thereof; and the ability to complete the ASR transaction, the number of shares of common stock purchased pursuant to that transaction, the expected completion date, and the potential benefits thereof, all of which could be affected by volatility or disruptions in the capital markets or other factors. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “anticipates” or “plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier’s control. More


information on risks and uncertainties that could affect Premier’s business, achievements, performance, financial condition, and financial results is included from time to time in the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Premier’s periodic and current filings with the SEC, including those discussed under the “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” section of Premier’s Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2023 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, expected to be filed with the SEC shortly after the date of this release, all of which are made available on Premier’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events that occur after that date, or otherwise.

Investor Contact:

Ben Krasinski

Senior Director, Investor Relations

704.816.5644

ben_krasinski@premierinc.com

Media Contact:

Amanda Forster

Vice President, Public Relations

202.879.8004

amanda_forster@premierinc.com

Exhibit 99.3

February 6, 2024 / 8:00AM - PINC Q2 2024 Premier, Inc. Earnings Call

CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS

Ben Krasinski Premier, Inc. – Senior Director of IR

Craig S. McKasson Premier, Inc. – Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Michael J. Alkire Premier, Inc. – President, CEO & Director

PRESENTATION

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Premier’s Fiscal 2024 Second Quarter Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to the conference over to Ben Krasinski, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Ben Krasinski - Premier, Inc. - Director of IR

Thank you, and welcome to Premier’s Fiscal 2024 Second Quarter Conference Call. Our speakers this morning are Mike Alkire, Premier’s President and CEO; and Craig McKasson, our Chief Administrative and Financial Officer.

Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that our earnings release and the supplemental presentation accompanying this call are available in the Investors section of our website at investors.premierinc.com. Please be advised that management’s remarks today contain certain forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding our strategies, plans, prospects, expectations and future performance, and actual results could differ materially from those discussed today.

These forward-looking statements speak as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. Factors that might affect future results are discussed in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K and our Form 10-Q for the quarter, which we expect to file soon. We encourage you to review these detailed safe harbor and risk factor disclosures.

Also, during this presentation, we will refer to adjusted and other non-GAAP financial measures, including free cash flow, to evaluate our business. Information on why we use these measures in addition to GAAP financial measures and reconciliations of these measures to our GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and in the appendix of the supplemental presentation accompanying this call.

Information on our non-GAAP financial measures will also be included in our Form 10-Q for the quarter and our earnings Form 8-K, both of which we expect to furnish to the SEC soon.

I will now turn the call over to Mike Alkire.

Michael J. Alkire - Premier, Inc. - President, CEO & Director

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are excited to share several updates with you, including that our Board of Directors has concluded its review of strategic alternatives and approved a new $1 billion share repurchase authorization.

Over the past several months, together with our Board, we have thoroughly identified, reviewed and explored options to maximize value for Premier’s stockholders. You may recall that as part of this process, we divested our non-healthcare GPO operations in July 2023. This transaction unlocks substantial value for stockholders and enhanced the company’s focus on our differentiated healthcare businesses.


The Board subsequently considered opportunities for deploying capital resources, including the proceeds from this divestiture to accelerate returns to stockholders. With this in mind, we will implement a $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction as part of the new share repurchase authorization. We are exiting the strategic alternatives review process with a clear picture of our future strategic vision. That includes a disciplined focus on our key strategies that differentiate us in the market.

When we think about our capabilities that are key to our mission and vision, what we know is this, Premier is an essential enabler of high-quality, cost-effective health care. Our provider-led technology-enabled strategies deliver unique enterprise solutions for better provider performance and a smarter health care supply chain. We continue to see technology and artificial intelligence as key enablers to our vision and capabilities that set us apart from the competition.

This includes the expansion of the use cases beyond providers and into life sciences, medical device and payer-adjacent markets. Moreover, as the healthcare industry continues to grapple with challenges, including labor shortages, supply chain disruption and an aging population, Premier is an essential partner now more than ever.

We remain committed to a disciplined approach to execution that we expect to deliver value for our stockholders, members and other customers. Consistent with this, management and the Board looked at ways to enhance our focus on our differentiated data, technology and wide-scale network to best serve our members and other customers. As a result, in consultation with management, the Board authorized Premier to seek partners for certain other assets. We believe these are meaningful businesses that will thrive with the right partners creating more value for the customers they serve, while also affording Premier the opportunity to narrow our operational focus.

Assets under consideration include first, Contigo Health, our direct to employer business. While we expect the provider-sponsored health plan and employer markets to continue to progress, we believe an outside partner will allow for continued advancement of the business through a broader capability set and increased scale. Second, S2S Global, our direct sourcing business, which was a strategic investment to augment our GPO offering and provide additional optionality for commodity purchases for our member healthcare providers.

We believe a committed partner with alignment to our membership could provide the resources necessary to further broaden and scale this business and continue to support our commitment to supply chain resiliency initiatives while removing the operational and working capital requirements for Premier. We are excited about the future as we execute on the strategies that set us apart in the market, including streamlining all aspects of the supply chain and leveraging our unique data, technologies and AI capabilities to support provider performance improvement and growth in adjacent markets.

Before I turn it over to Craig, I want to express our appreciation for our stockholders, customers and employees patiene as we diligently explore strategic alternatives. I’m excited about our recently announced 10-year GPO agreement with Top Medicine that expands our relationship to include co-management of their people, processes and technologies to drive efficiencies and contain costs.

I’m also incredibly proud that Premier was recently recognized by Newsweek as one of America’s greatest workplaces for diversity. True to our mission, to improve the health of communities, we are dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce and are so thrilled to be recognized nationally for our efforts.

I will now turn the call over to our Chief Administrative and Financial Officer, Craig McKasson, for a detailed review of our results and our financial guidance for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Thanks, Mike. I first want to echo your sentiment about our excitement to exit the strategic alternatives review process in a position of strength with an eye towards executing with discipline on our core healthcare businesses.

Let me first share our fiscal year 2024 second quarter results. While total net revenue declined from the prior year period, we did meet our expectations for profitability as a result of ongoing discipline in actively managing our business. In our Supply Chain Services segment, and as expected, net administrative fees revenue was impacted by an increase in the aggregate blended member fee share to the mid-50% level.

This impact was partially offset by continued growth in member purchasing. In our direct sourcing business, we continue to experience the impact of excess market supply and members’ and other customers’ inventory levels, which has contributed to lower demand and pricing in the current year period, resulting in a decline in products revenue.

 

2


Before moving on, I wanted to provide some operational updates on our strategies to create more resiliency in the healthcare supply chain. As part of our initiatives to bring more manufacturing on and near shore, our domestic gown manufacturing partner began producing products in Tennessee earlier this year. In addition, we expect to launch our domestic glove program in the second half of fiscal 2024. Lastly, we added 5 additional vital medications to our drug shortage resiliency program, which now offers members access to over 150 drugs in short supply.

In our Performance Services segment, revenue was impacted by a decrease in contributions from enterprise license agreements compared to the prior year period. However, we remain enthusiastic about market opportunities that validate the need for our solutions. For example, we continue to drive growth in our consulting services business as healthcare providers are leveraging Premier to drive clinical and margin improvement. We also continue to make progress in our adjacent markets businesses, which grew over 29% in aggregate. Notably, in our Applied Sciences business, we recently announced our partnership with TFS Health Science, where Premier’s AI will help accelerate research through innovative ways to integrate real world evidence into clinical trials. In addition, we are seeing market validation that our technology-enabled margin improvement solutions continue to save providers considerable time and money. Recently, Henry Ford Health reported that Premier’s digital invoicing and payables platform has eliminated the need for manual handling of nearly 100,000 paper invoices over a 6-month period.

Turning to profitability, GAAP net income was $52.9 million for the quarter. Total adjusted EBITDA was impacted by the following factors. First, Performance Services adjusted EBITDA decreased mainly due to lower revenue and incremental headcount to support growth in our consulting services and adjacent markets businesses. And second, Supply Chain Services adjusted EBITDA declined mainly due to a decrease in revenue and an increase in expenses in support of our GPO and supply chain co-management businesses. This decrease was partially offset by a higher profit margin in our direct sourcing business due to lower logistics and products costs compared to the prior year period. Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share each declined primarily driven by the same factors that impacted adjusted EBITDA. The decreases were partially offset by higher interest income.

From a liquidity and balance sheet perspective, cash flow from operations for the first 6 months of fiscal 2024 of $35.4 million decreased from $196.7 million in the prior year period. The change was primarily due to $138.5 million in tax payments in the current year period from the sale of our non-health care GPO operations. Cash was impacted to a lesser extent by lower net revenue and was partially offset by a reduction in inventory purchases and lower fiscal 2023 performance-related compensation payments during the fiscal first quarter compared to the fiscal 2022 payments in the prior year period.

Free cash flow for the first 6 months of fiscal 2024, an outflow of $63.3 million, decreased from an inflow of $109.6 million in the prior year period, primarily due to the same factors that impacted cash flow from operations, including the aforementioned $138.5 million in tax payments as well as an increase in capitalized software purchases related to the advancement of our supply chain technology automation. Looking forward and excluding the impact of tax payments related to the sale of our non-health care GPO operations, we expect fiscal 2024 free cash flow to approximate 45% to 55% of adjusted EBITDA for the full year.

Cash and cash equivalents totaled $371.1 million as of December 31, 2023, compared with $89.8 million as of June 30, 2023. The increase was driven by the sale of our non-healthcare GPO operations, net of the previously mentioned tax payments. As of December 31st, we have received a total of $629.8 million in proceeds, and we now expect the final purchase price to be up to $740 million as we continue to work through member consents and the true-up period that ends in February. As we stated last quarter, we used a portion of these net proceeds to pay down our 5-year $1 billion revolving credit facility and continue to have no outstanding balance as of the end of the second quarter.

With respect to capital deployment, we will remain disciplined and focused on taking a balanced approach. As Mike mentioned, to accelerate returns to stockholders, our Board has approved a new $1 billion share repurchase authorization through June 30, 2025, including the implementation of a $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction. This will augment our quarterly cash dividend, which totaled $51.1 million during the first 6 months of fiscal 2024. In addition, our Board recently declared a dividend of $0.21 per share payable on March 15, 2024, to stockholders of record as of March 1. We will also continue to evaluate opportunities to invest in organic growth and potential acquisitions to strengthen, enhance or complement our existing capabilities and differentiate our offerings in the marketplace.

Turning to our outlook for the remainder of the year, as a result of the conclusion of our strategic alternatives review process, we are now providing formal fiscal 2024 guidance. Our guidance incorporates certain key assumptions related to the market and our business and it does not incorporate the impact of any future share repurchases following the $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction or any significant acquisitions or divestitures that we may undertake.

 

3


With these key assumptions in mind, our specific fiscal 2024 full year guidance ranges are as follows: Supply Chain Services segment revenue of $840 million to $880 million, comprised of net administrative fees revenue of $588 million to $603 million, Direct Sourcing Products revenue of $207 million to $222 million, and software, license, other services and support revenue up $45 million to $55 million, Performance Services segment net revenue of $425 million to $445 million. Together, these produce total net revenue of $1.265 billion to $1.325 billion. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $405 million to $425 million, and adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.06 to $2.18, which includes an estimated $0.09 to $0.10 impact from the $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction.

Our guidance is also based on the following assumptions and expectations. In our GPO business, we continue to anticipate aggregate blended member fee share will be in the mid-50% range for fiscal 2024 on a full year basis. And we expect continued growth in member purchasing driven by further penetration of existing members spend. In addition, we are assuming that patient utilization remains generally stable with flat to low single-digit growth — but to the extent that utilization or member participation in our GPO are higher or lower than we expect, these could represent potential headwinds or tailwinds to our expectations.

In our direct sourcing products business, we believe we have finally reached the lower end of our more normalized quarterly run rate for this business. As a result, we expect flat to nominal sequential improvement in products revenue on a quarterly basis as pricing and demand continue to normalize, and we realized incremental contributions from the ongoing ramp of our domestic gown and glove initiatives in the second half of fiscal 2024.

In our Performance Services business, we anticipate revenue growth of approximately 20% in our adjacent markets comprised of our life sciences, clinical decision support, Remitra and Contigo Health businesses. With respect to Contigo Health, revenue contributions represented around 40% of our aggregate adjacent markets revenue in fiscal 2023.

Due to a combination of slower growth this year, and higher growth in certain of our other adjacent markets businesses, we expect Contigo Health revenue will represent approximately 1/3 of our aggregate adjacent markets in fiscal 2024. Consistent with prior years, due to the timing and magnitude of enterprise license agreements and certain consulting arrangements, there may be periodic variability in the recognition of the revenue and profitability associated with these engagements between quarters.

In closing, we remain committed to and confident in the disciplined execution of our strategy and the value creation opportunities ahead. We are encouraged by recent projects and customer engagements and are excited to continue to share our strategy and value proposition with new and existing customers. We continue to operate with a strong financial foundation, supported by significant cash flow and a flexible balance sheet, which provides us the ability to continue to return capital to stockholders while also investing future growth.

We appreciate your time today, and we’ll now open the call for questions.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Stephanie Davis of Barclays.

Stephanie July Davis - Barclays

Congrats on finally ending the strategic review. So I have one on the review process and one on the core business. Starting the review, Mike, what made the direct sourcing business in Contigo really stand out to the two assets that made the most sense to monetize. And I’m going to assume you’ve explored some of these sales venues during your strategic review process. Do you have any broad strokes thoughts on timeline for these processes or kind of how this will play out?

 

4


Michael J. Alkire - Premier, Inc. - President, CEO & Director

Yes. So thanks for the question, Stephanie. The Board considered obviously a broad range of potential options and strategic alternatives. And while we can’t get really into any specifics of the processes of the Board’s deliberations, just rest assured that we conducted a very thorough review to determine the best path forward for the company for Premier’s stockholders and in our other stakeholders. So starting with that, I think that as the process went on, it just became apparent, there was a bit of interest in the S2S and the -- and our Contigo Health assets. And it made a lot of sense for us to be public that with the right partners, we really believe that those assets can grow in partnership with Premier and its membership. And that’s — that was really the driver was to make sure that as we were thinking about the future of this organization that we had a couple of those areas that were not necessarily core to our capabilities that we really wanted to find strong partnerships to continue the growth of those assets.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Yes. This is Craig, Stephanie. The only thing I would add is that as we look at those two businesses and we think about the scale, the resources and the expertise that other partners can bring to actually take those to the next level, we have a strong belief both of those businesses have a bright future. But with a partner to help take them to the next level, they stood out versus our differentiated core businesses that already have scale within our institution.

Stephanie July Davis - Barclays

Understood. Craig, while have you, let me ask you more about the core business. You cut your assumptions pretty heavily for Performance Services. But if I scrub out last year’s tough comp, it actually doesn’t look like Performance Services had a bad first half at all. So why change the outlook so much? And how much of that is reflective of the current environment or maybe the ongoing strategic review process making it tough to sell, versus broader market fit more conservatively?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Yes. It’s a good question, Stephanie. Thank you. And first of all, I would agree that when you take out last year’s tough comp, we do feel good about the first half that we had in Performance Services particularly with certain aspects of our business.

As we look forward and the full year guidance that we put out, as I indicated in my prepared remarks, we are not seeing the growth in Contigo Health that we had anticipated when we started the year, and I had provided some preliminary directional perspective. And so that’s certainly been a haircut. And I talked about sort of it’s shrinking relative to the rest of our adjacent markets businesses in my prepared remarks.

Secondarily, I would say with what’s happening in the market, I do think it has been somewhat influenced but not totally by our strategic alternative review process. I think the prospects for enterprise licenses in our Performance Services segment, we’ve tapered some of those expectations from what we were thinking we would see earlier in the year. We still feel good about the pipeline, but we are seeing those continuing to take a long time to get over the finish line in certain cases. And so we have factored that into the full year guidance that we established. And as you know, given the profitability of those license agreements, that does flow through to the adjusted EBITDA line as well.

Operator

The next question comes from Richard Close of Canaccord Genuity.

Richard Collamer Close - Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division

Craig, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about just the quarterly cadence, how we should think about the third and fourth quarters, maybe from the Supply Chain and Performance Services if there’s any nuances we should be aware of?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Sure. Thank you for the question. I think if you think about our Supply Chain Services business, I would expect a slight -- we would anticipate a slight step-up from a sequential standpoint in the third quarter at this point and then kind of relatively flat across the third and the fourth quarters.

 

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As I mentioned, we do expect some not tremendous, but slight step-up in the direct sourcing business given that we had sort of hit the bottom rung. And I know that I’ve said that in the past, but we truly do believe we’ve hit sort of the low end of the watermark for direct sourcing. So I would expect a slight step up sequentially and then sort of flat across the third and fourth quarters as we move forward. Relative to our Performance Services business, I think broadly thinking about where we came in, in the second quarter sort of repeating itself as we continue through the back half of the year is the best way to think about that. We do have some gap closure plans that we’re hoping will help Q4 to step up slightly. But overall, I would think sort of the Q2 level is sort of where we would anticipate the rest of the year playing out.

Richard Collamer Close - Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division

Okay. And as a follow-up, just on Contigo. Are the -- was it the TRPN assets that you bought, I guess, 1.5 years ago or I’m not sure of the timing. That’s going as well potentially with the divestiture?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Yes. It would be the entire Contigo Health business, which would be the TPA business, the COE business that we provide and the wrap network components tied to TRPN. That’s correct.

Richard Collamer Close - Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division

And then with the revenue information that you gave for Contigo, was the revenue associated with the TRPN assets fully in — I don’t remember, was that fully in the 2023 fiscal number.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

No, the asset was acquired in the October time frame of fiscal 2023. So it would have been about eight-plus months in ‘23 and then a full year in fiscal 2024.

Operator

The next question comes from Kevin Caliendo of UBS.

Kevin Caliendo - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

When we think about Contigo and S2S and how this actually works on a functional level, is there any sort of revenue dis-synergies from not fully owning these businesses? Meaning, is there any other any other parts of your business that could be affected by not having these companies as part of your offering? I don’t know if there’s bundling or any other kind of revenue synergies? That’s the first question.

And then the second question is more on the ASR and the repo and how do you expect to finance — I mean, you have $371 million of cash now, you are expecting free cash flow, but I can’t imagine that you want to drain all of your cash for an ASR. So just if you can just take us through sort of how to think about financing the ASR and the repo going forward.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Sure. This is Craig. Thanks for the questions, Kevin. First of all, with respect to revenue dis-synergies, I would not expect material dis-synergies as a result of these businesses and looking for potential partnerships. I think the only thing and wouldn’t expect this, but I would highlight is that with our S2S business, it is a contracted GPO supplier. So we do receive GPO administrative fees on S2S purchases. We would certainly anticipate that to continue even if there were another provider that had a controlling or full ownership of that business. However, I’d be remiss not to say if they chose not to do a GPO contract, then yes, that would be a place, but I can’t envision that actually occurring. Relative to Contigo Health, there really aren’t any direct dis-synergies that would apply at all for that business. So that’s the first question.

The second question relative to the ASR, our expectations in anticipation is that we will use cash to finance the $400 million accelerated share repurchase -- there is some potential given the timing of the funding that we may have a very short-term bridge of utilizing our credit facility just to do the initial funding when that launches here in a couple of days, but we would expect to pay that down pretty promptly.

 

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And then as we look forward, moving forward into the remainder of the authorization, obviously, subject to market conditions and other criteria when we make the assessment whether to do that, and we would factor in free cash flow that we have at that point, to the extent that we had done any transactions that generated cash flow relative to Contigo Health, S2S, and then to the extent that it made sense from a capital allocation standpoint, we could utilize our credit facility for additional repurchases in fiscal 2025 as well.

Operator

The next question comes from Allen Lutz of Bank of America.

Allen Charles Lutz - BofA Securities, Research Division

Craig, you mentioned that maybe some of the softness in Contigo was driven by the strategic review. Do you think that the strategic review impacted any other parts of the business? And -- do you think the closing of the review could drive any improvement outside of Contigo?

And then separately, you mentioned free cash conversion, 45% to 55%, but also said that S2S was pretty working capital intensive. How should we think about what the conversion rate would look like on free cash flow, excluding S2S and Contigo?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Yes. So first of all, relative to market dynamics, just to clarify, I wasn’t being specific to Contigo, I was talking about the Performance Services segment overall. I will say broadly that I think that the strategic alternative view has certainly had customers at certain points across all of our businesses kind of have questions about what the future holds.

And so as we did indicate in our remarks, we are excited now having that behind us and being able to go out and have conversations with customers about the business moving forward. Relative to Contigo and S2S, we’re also excited about the opportunity to talk about what the future potential is with a very strong partner alongside us to actually take those businesses with more expertise and resources to the next level. So we do feel good about what the future may be relative to that.

As far as free cash flow conversion, at this point, given that those are still included in our guidance, that is the perspective that we’re providing in terms of free cash flow conversion. To the extent that we get to a place that we would actually put those as held for sale and need to update our guidance further into fiscal 2024, we would certainly provide a revised perspective on the conversion of the EBITDA we would have at that point in time. But overall, we would expect slight improvement given some of the working capital requirements in the S2S business.

Operator

The next question comes from Eric Coldwell of Baird.

Eric White Coldwell - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division

I have three questions. First one on the remaining $600 million of repo post ASR. What determines if and when or how likely you’d be in the market? And would you anticipate any open market activity before the ASR completes? Or typically, we think of companies getting through that process before getting back to the market. I’m just curious on determinations of if and when and then potential timing for the next round?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Sure. Thanks, Eric. This is Craig. So first of all, we do not expect to be in the market while the accelerated share repurchase, the first $400 million, is taking place. So your perspective is correct on that. We’ll let the $400 million take place. We do anticipate that likely could take us through and complete in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. So I think that when — the thinking is that when we come out and provide our fourth quarter earnings release in August would be the time that we would provide an update relative to expectations at that time for the remaining $600 million and a determination at that point, again, based on capital needs, market conditions, all the things that we’ll have to see ongoing trading volume once we’ve taken the $400 million out, etc. — how we might and if we would implement a further share repurchase at that point. And I think that, that would likely either be through open market or potentially another accelerated share repurchase, but that is to be determined at that time.

 

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Eric White Coldwell - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division

Next question is on the direct sourcing product business. Would the partnerships on gowns and gloves be included in this consideration of finding a partner? Or would those be held independently? Or is that a TBD.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Generally, I would say, obviously, it does depend based on the nature of the negotiations we will likely have with certain partners. But by definition, today, Eric, those are independent — and so there is not a requirement that the domestic manufacturing partnerships that we have for gowns and certainly for generic drugs and for masks would go into the transaction.

Eric White Coldwell - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division

Okay. And then sourcing profitability. I know that business is very determined by the gross margin performance, and you did mention gross margin perked up. Revenue, obviously, has been a bit more challenged — typically think of that business is hovering in the low to mid-single-digit EBITDA range. Was it in that ZIP code during 2Q?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Low single digit -- that’s correct.

Eric White Coldwell - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division

Yes. Okay. And then last one, maybe I have four actually. This is the most complex so bear with me. If I’ve done the math correctly on Contigo, it looks like it did $40 million, $41 million of revenue last year. You’re targeting about $40 million, maybe a tad over $40 million this year. So Contigo is flat. Yet adjacent markets, given the near 30% first half growth to get to 20% for the full year has to be around 10% in the second half on average per quarter. So that’s about a $10 million quarterly decrease on average if -- again, if I’ve done this right. My question is, is the second half reduction in adjacent market revenue because Contigo was higher in the first half and now lower in the second half? Is it because ELAs, your enterprise license agreements, are much lower in the second half than they were in the first half, even though Q2 was down quarter-over-quarter. Is it those things in some, a combination of other items? I’m just trying to get a sense on why adjacent markets growth and absolute dollars are here lower here in the second half?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Yes. There’s a lot to unpack there, Eric. So I need to process that a little bit, but...

Eric White Coldwell - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division

Yes, I probably do too, to be fair, that’s a long question.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

But generally, at a broad level, what I would say is we don’t expect a significant step back in adjacent markets. First of all, your commentary around Contigo is accurate in terms of sort of the levels of performance based on my commentary. We don’t expect a significant step back in adjacent markets in the back half of the year. I will say we had a strong first half, particularly with our applied sciences business in the second quarter. So it’s not growing at the clip that it might have on a normal basis, but it’s not stepping back at that level. We are seeing, as I mentioned in my commentary around Performance Services, we’re not being as aggressive quite candidly on enterprise licenses and the level of conversion that we’re going to see on those in the second half of the year from an overall cadence standpoint for this segment.

Operator

The next question comes from Jessica Tassan of Piper Sandler.

 

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Jessica Elizabeth Tassan - Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division

Congratulations on the end of the review. I was hoping you could just remind us what is the share back rate expected to be in the healthcare GPO exiting FY ‘24? And then in FY ‘25, would you guys expect to be kind of in line with the market for the full year such that competitive takeaways or new customer adds could potentially accelerate?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Sure, Jessica. This is Craig. So as we indicated in my remarks, we expect the fee share rate across the GPO to be in the mid-50% range for fiscal 2024. We aren’t providing perspectives yet on fiscal 2025 or moving forward. But as we have said publicly to the extent that the market dynamics that we’ve been experiencing continue, if we do see further consolidation in the marketplace, which has affected it at times, we could see pressure and increase in administrative fee share above that mid-50% level. But until we have better visibility to that as we get into our planning for fiscal 2025, at this point, we’re not providing specific guidance about where we expect that to be.

Jessica Elizabeth Tassan - Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division

Got it. That’s helpful and that’s fair, I think, so my next question is just I don’t mean to harp on this one, but just hoping to understand what led you guys to conclude that Contigo is non-core. And just interested kind of in timing, did that decision occur towards the end of the strategic review? Wondering just why it was impossible to execute on a partnership or potentially a sale earlier in the review process.

Michael J. Alkire - Premier, Inc. - President, CEO & Director

Jessica, this is Mike. So obviously, there were a lot of conversations that were happening in the strategic review process. I will tell you there’s a number of reasons why we decided to announce the Contigo potential looking for potential partners. I think the number one was that I think as the process continues to evolve, it just became more apparent to us that there was a lot of interest in that asset. And obviously, we believe that we would like to find a partner that collectively with us can take that capability to a much different higher level to help our health care systems as they’re moving more towards that sort of payvider space. So I would just tell you that it was a little bit of timing, but there was a lot going on in that process. And it I think the team and the board just felt it was really time to move out of the strategic evaluation process.

Jessica Elizabeth Tassan - Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division

Okay. Got it. That’s helpful. And then my last question is just, obviously, hospital operating margins ended 2023 strong and seems like momentum is accelerating. Just hoping for kind of an updated perspective on where Premier expects to participate in that strength? And over what time frame is there a lag that we should be anticipating.

Michael J. Alkire - Premier, Inc. - President, CEO & Director

So a couple of things. First of all, at the end of the calendar year, we saw inpatient volumes going up 1.4% and outpatient volumes going up 1.6%. So that was the last quarter of the calendar year. So as you’d expect, that obviously is a bit of a tailwind, obviously, for our supply chain capabilities. Having said that, there are three significant issues that are affecting health care right now.

One is the continual labor issue. And we think we’re incredibly well positioned to deal with the labor issues. So if you think about our technologies to help our healthcare systems use labor efficiently. If you think about our AI and machine learning capabilities that can help our healthcare systems move processes that have been manual to more technology enabled. We believe we’re at a great spot to really support healthcare systems as they’re struggling through with the labor issue.

The second overall trend is this proliferation of advanced technology, AI and machine learning. And we do think our strategy of focusing on prior authorization on HCC scores, two very, very unique offerings in the market using AI, machine learning leveraging the electronic medical record. We do think those are differentiated capabilities that can show demonstratable value to healthcare systems as they’re moving from manual to technology-enabled processes.

 

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And then finally, in that realm, we do believe this idea of technology-led work with our pharmaceutical companies to identify patients for trials, we do think that’s very unique for us. So that’s number two. And then the final is really just helping our healthcare systems create more scale. And as they’re thinking about ways to continue to bend their cost curves, we’re creating shared services capabilities and other offerings that really can sort of help them bend that cost curve. And of course, those are all aligned along our supply chain and our clinical decision support capabilities.

Operator

The next question comes from Bill Sutherland of the Benchmark Company.

William Sutherland - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

I have, Craig, a little trouble with the math here. As you talked about the rest of the year for Performance Services being sequentially kind of in line with where you came in for the first half. I think that’s what you’ve meant. Maybe if you could just clarify that because it just didn’t seem to add up based on the full year, at least in terms of revenue and wanted your thoughts on adjusted EBITDA as well, if you can provide that.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Sure, Bill. So yes, I did say that generally, we would expect Q3 and Q4 to march along with kind of broadly where Q2 came out, although as I indicated, there is some gap closure expectations for Contigo that we need to achieve in order to be on that expectation level. So from a top line standpoint, that is how we are expecting the year to play out. Obviously, we have lots of things to do between now and the end of the year to make sure that happens. But broadly, that’s sort of how we’re thinking about it from a revenue standpoint.

From an adjusted EBITDA perspective, overall expectations would be, for the most part, I’ll say, relatively consistent with how the revenue cadence for the fiscal year is playing out when we think about performance services overall.

William Sutherland - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

Okay. Yes. Okay. And then the as you guys think about the partnering for Contigo and S2S, can you give us a little more color on kind of what that shape might be? Would it be one where there’s majority interest on their part? Or I’m just kind of curious about the control aspect of this and then the investment side of it.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Sure. This is Craig. So obviously, we’ll go through the process, but certainly, our expectation would be that majority control and leadership of these two businesses would move to somebody else. The question is, whether and to what extent we maintain an ownership interest to further the partnership, but the expectation is that a majority to all of the ownership of those two businesses would go to organizations that have more scale, resources and expertise to take those businesses forward.

William Sutherland - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

And did you -- Craig -- I’m sorry, you finish it up.

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

I wanted to clarify your question about investment. I wasn’t — I’m not sure what you meant by investment.

William Sutherland - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

Well, you kind of explained it. I mean it’s taking all or a majority stake, and that’s obviously going to require a direct investment. So -- okay, that clarifies that.

Operator

The next question comes from Eric Percher of Nephron Research.

 

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Eric R. Percher - Nephron Research LLC

I want to just get a little bit more specific on the contribution from sourcing and Contigo. And what I’ll ask precisely is if tomorrow, you saw they’ve moved to a partner and there was no further investment contribution at sourcing, Contigo, would this be immaterial to EBITDA? Or could it be potentially positive, negative material?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

I would say it would be slightly accretive to EBITDA, but not at a tremendously material level. But it would net-net the two of those, it would be accretive to EBITDA.

Eric R. Percher - Nephron Research LLC

Okay. That’s helpful. And then, Craig, I wanted to ask you, if we look at the businesses and try to look through some of the pressures or challenges or dislocation from the process, could you speak to what you think the natural growth rate is in the businesses that you expect to own and not partner in -- and specifically, I’m not asking relative to ‘25, but if you just think about ‘23 and ‘24 and what these could or should have run, where do you fall out?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Yes. I mean relative to GPO, I think we’ve talked about, if you look at it independent of the fee share changes that we’ve talked about, that business generally grows at a low to mid-single-digit level on an overall gross growth basis. But with the fee share pressure and dynamics that we’ve been transparently talking about for quite a while now, we expect that business into ‘24 being a mid-single-digit decline in terms of the top line because of the change in fee share that we’ve seen on that side of the business. From a Performance Services standpoint, I think the underlying growth assumption that we’ve really talked about has been in our core provider technology that is more of a low stretching to mid-single-digit growth business in that part of the market.

The adjacent markets businesses that we’ve talked about, again, excluding Contigo, would be more of the 30% to 40% type growth business year-over-year that we’ve talked about. Contigo has negatively impacted that with some of the growth that we’ve seen there, which is why we’re at the 20%.

Eric R. Percher - Nephron Research LLC

That’s helpful. And last question would be what will determine if you move these potential partnerships to discontinued ops?

Craig Steven McKasson - Premier, Inc. - Chief Administrative & Financial Officer & SVP

Yes, we’ll be evaluating, obviously, internally and with our independent auditors, all of the criteria that are required for held-for-sale classification. And as soon as we have a more formalized plan around the expectations for those we would anticipate and likely expect that that’s where we’ll wind up.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session in Premier’s fiscal 2024 Second Quarter Conference Call. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

 

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Slide 1

Fiscal 2024 Second-Quarter Earnings Conference Call /////// February 6, 2024 Exhibit 99.4


Slide 2

Forward-looking Statements and Non-GAAP Financial Measures Forward-looking statements – Statements made in this presentation and the accompanying webcast that are not statements of historical or current facts, such as those related to our ability to advance our long-term strategies and develop innovations for an transform healthcare, our ability to find partners for our S2S Global and Contigo Health businesses and the potential benefits thereof, our ability to fund and conduct share repurchases pursuant to the share repurchase authorization and the potential benefits thereof (including the accelerated share repurchase transaction, which could be affected by volatility or disruptions in the capital markets or other factors), the payment of dividends at current levels or at all, guidance on the expected future performance and assumptions underlying that guidance, and our expected effective income tax rate, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “remains committed to,” “anticipates” or “plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier’s control. More information on potential factors that could affect Premier’s business, achievements, performance, financial condition, and financial results is included from time to time in the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Premier’s periodic filings with the SEC, including those discussed under the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” sections of Premier’s Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2023, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, expected to be filed with the SEC shortly after this presentation. Premier’s periodic and current filings with the SEC are made available on the company’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events that occur after that date, or otherwise. Non-GAAP financial measures – This presentation and accompanying webcast include certain “adjusted” and other “non-GAAP” financial measures as defined in Regulation G under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, GAAP. The Appendix to this presentation includes schedules that reconcile the historical non-GAAP financial measures included in this presentation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. You should carefully read Premier’s earnings release and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, expected to be filed shortly after this presentation, for definitions of Premier’s non-GAAP financial measures and further explanation and disclosure regarding Premier’s use of non-GAAP financial measures, and such information should be read in conjunction with this presentation. These materials are made available on the company’s website at investors.premierinc.com.


Slide 3

Overview Michael J. Alkire President and Chief Executive Officer Financial and Operational Review Craig McKasson Chief Administrative and Chief Financial Officer


Slide 4

Clear Picture of Future Strategic Vision Board of Directors has concluded its review of strategic alternatives Divested non-healthcare GPO operations unlocking substantial value for stockholders Board approved $1 billion share repurchase authorization, including implementing a $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction Board authorized Premier to seek partners for certain other assets, narrowing focus on key differentiated strategies Expanded 10-year agreement with Tufts Medicine Broadens GPO relationship to include co-management of their people, processes, and technologies to drive efficiency and contain costs Named “One of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity” by Newsweek


Slide 5

Fiscal 2024 second quarter financial highlights Adjusted EBITDA* decreased 18% to $114.1 million Performance Services segment net revenue decreased 6% to $117.0 million GAAP net income of $52.9 million; $0.45 per fully diluted share Adjusted net income* decreased 15% to $71.9 million and adjusted EPS* decreased 14% to $0.60 Supply Chain Services segment net revenue decreased 8% to $217.9 million GPO net administrative fees revenue decreased 3% Direct sourcing products revenue decreased 17% *These are a non-GAAP financial measures. Refer to the Appendix for adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share reconciliations to the corresponding GAAP measures. (Compared with fiscal 2023 second quarter) Total net revenue decreased 7% to $334.7 million


Slide 6

Strong financial position with flexible balance sheet Cash flow from operations of $35.4 million Free cash flow* outflow of $63.3 million Cash and cash equivalents of $371.1 million No outstanding balance on $1.0 billion, five-year unsecured, revolving credit facility *This is a non-GAAP financial measure. Refer to the Appendix for a reconciliation of free cash flow to the corresponding GAAP measure. (As of and for the quarter ended December 31, 2023) Board approved a new $1.0 billion share repurchase authorization, including implementing a $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction Paid dividends of $51.1 million to stockholders in first six months of 2024 Board declared a dividend of $0.21 per share, payable on March 15, 2024, to stockholders of record as of March 1, 2024 Impacted by $138.5 million in tax payments related to the sale of non-healthcare GPO operations


Slide 7

Fiscal 2024 guidance * Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow presented in this financial guidance are forward-looking non-GAAP measures. Premier does not provide a reconciliation of non-GAAP forward-looking guidance as certain financial information, the probable significance of which cannot be determined, is not available and cannot be reasonably estimated. Refer to "Use of Forward-Looking Non-GAAP Measures" on slide 9 for additional explanation. Guidance Metric Fiscal 2024 Guidance Range* (as of February 5, 2024) Segment Net Revenue: Supply Chain Services Performance Services   $840 million to $880 million $425 million to $445 million Total Net Revenue $1.265 billion to $1.325 billion Adjusted EBITDA $405 million to $425 million Adjusted EPS $2.06 to $2.18 Fiscal 2024 guidance is based on the realization of the following key assumptions: Net administrative fees revenue of $588 million to $603 million Direct sourcing products revenue of $207 million to $222 million Supply Chain Services segment software licenses, other services and support revenue of $45 million to $55 million Capital expenditures of $93 million to $103 million Effective income tax rate in the range of 26% to 28% Free cash flow of 45% to 55% of adjusted EBITDA, excluding the impact of tax payments related to the sale of non-healthcare GPO operations Includes the estimated fiscal 2024 impact of the initial $400 million accelerated share repurchase transaction under the $1 billion share repurchase authorization Does not include the impact of any significant acquisitions or divestitures


Slide 8

Appendix


Slide 9

Use of Forward-looking Non-GAAP Financial Measures The company does not meaningfully reconcile guidance for non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share to net income attributable to stockholders or earnings per share attributable to stockholders because the company cannot provide guidance for the more significant reconciling items between net income attributable to stockholders and adjusted EBITDA and between earnings per share attributable to stockholders and non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share without unreasonable effort. This is due to the fact that future period non-GAAP guidance includes adjustments for items not indicative of our core operations, which may include, without limitation, items included in the supplemental financial information for reconciliation of reported GAAP results to non-GAAP results. Such items include, but are not limited to, strategic- and acquisition-related expenses for professional fees; mark to market adjustments for put options and contingent liabilities; gains and losses on stock-based performance shares; adjustments to its income tax provision (such as valuation allowance adjustments and settlements of income tax claims); items related to corporate and facility restructurings; and certain other items the company believes to be non-indicative of its ongoing operations. Such adjustments may be affected by changes in ongoing assumptions, judgements, as well as nonrecurring, unusual or unanticipated charges, expenses or gains/losses or other items that may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations. The exact amount of these adjustments is not currently determinable but may be significant.


Slide 10

Fiscal 2024 and 2023 Reconciliations Supplemental Financial Information Reconciliation of Net Income from Continuing Operations to Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation of Operating Income to Segment Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to Stockholders to Adjusted Net Income (Unaudited) (In thousands) Three Months Ended December 31, Six Months Ended December 31, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net income $52,866 $64,374 $95,276 $107,333 Interest (income) expense, net (2,438) 4,631 (2,633) 7,490 Income tax expense 19,278 23,765 33,216 42,534 Depreciation and amortization 20,267 21,439 40,595 44,878 Amortization of purchased intangible assets 12,512 13,047 25,200 23,499 EBITDA 102,485 127,256 191,654 225,734 Stock-based compensation 8,495 2,801 15,388 10,150 Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses 1,198 3,138 7,403 5,298 Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses 1,284 7,527 3,030 9,046 Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates 666 (1,674) 2,392 (9,917) Other reconciling items, net — (186) — (312) Adjusted EBITDA $114,128 $138,862 $219,867 $239,999


Slide 11

Fiscal 2024 and 2023 Reconciliations Supplemental Financial Information Reconciliation of Net Income from Continuing Operations to Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation of Operating Income to Segment Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to Stockholders to Adjusted Net Income (Unaudited) (In thousands) Three Months Ended December 31, Six Months Ended December 31, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Income before income taxes $72,144 $88,139 $128,492 $149,867 Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates 666 (1,674) 2,392 (9,917) Interest (income) expense, net (2,438) 4,631 (2,633) 7,490 Other income, net (4,679) (2,930) (3,587) (766) Operating income 65,693 88,166 124,664 146,674 Depreciation and amortization 20,267 21,439 40,595 44,878 Amortization of purchased intangible assets 12,512 13,047 25,200 23,499 Stock-based compensation 8,495 2,801 15,388 10,150 Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses 1,198 3,138 7,403 5,298 Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses 1,284 7,527 3,030 9,046 Deferred compensation plan expense 4,605 2,659 3,480 289 Other reconciling items, net 74 85 107 165 Adjusted EBITDA $114,128 $138,862 $219,867 $239,999 Segment Adjusted EBITDA Supply Chain Services $114,491 $126,315 $229,465 $239,504 Performance Services 30,955 43,205 52,729 62,336 Corporate (31,318) (30,658) (62,327) (61,841) Adjusted EBITDA $114,128 $138,862 $219,867 $239,999


Slide 12

Fiscal 2024 and 2023 Reconciliations Supplemental Financial Information Reconciliation of Net Income from Continuing Operations to Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation of Operating Income to Segment Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to Stockholders to Adjusted Net Income (Unaudited) (In thousands) Three Months Ended December 31, Six Months Ended December 31, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net income attributable to stockholders $54,302 $64,046 $99,063 $106,762 Income tax expense 19,278 23,765 33,216 42,534 Amortization of purchased intangible assets 12,512 13,047 25,200 23,499 Stock-based compensation 8,495 2,801 15,388 10,150 Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses 1,198 3,138 7,403 5,298 Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses 1,284 7,527 3,030 9,046 Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates 666 (1,674) 2,392 (9,917) Other reconciling items, net 813 1,091 1,742 2,359 Adjusted income before income taxes 98,548 113,741 187,434 189,731 Income tax expense on adjusted income before income taxes 26,608 29,573 50,607 49,331 Adjusted Net Income $71,940 $84,168 $136,827 $140,400


Slide 13

Fiscal 2024 and 2023 Reconciliations Supplemental Financial Information Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow (Unaudited) (In thousands) Six Months Ended December 31, 2023 2022 Net cash provided by operating activities $35,380 $196,725 Early termination payments to certain former limited partners that elected to execute a Unit Exchange Agreement (49,600) (48,670) Purchases of property and equipment (49,068) (38,416) Non-GAAP Free Cash Flow $(63,288) $109,639


Slide 14

Fiscal 2024 and 2023 Reconciliations Supplemental Financial Information Reconciliation of GAAP EPS to Adjusted EPS (Unaudited) (In thousands, except per share data) Three Months Ended December 31, Six Months Ended December 31, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net income attributable to stockholders $54,302 $64,046 $99,063 $106,762 Income tax expense 19,278 23,765 33,216 42,534 Amortization of purchased intangible assets 12,512 13,047 25,200 23,499 Stock-based compensation 8,495 2,801 15,388 10,150 Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses 1,198 3,138 7,403 5,298 Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses 1,284 7,527 3,030 9,046 Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates 666 (1,674) 2,392 (9,917) Other reconciling items, net 813 1,091 1,742 2,359 Non-GAAP adjusted income before income taxes 98,548 113,741 187,434 189,731 Income tax expense on adjusted income before income taxes 26,608 29,573 50,607 49,331 Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income $71,940 $84,168 $136,827 $140,400


Slide 15

Fiscal 2024 and 2023 Reconciliations Supplemental Financial Information Reconciliation of GAAP EPS to Adjusted EPS (Unaudited) (In thousands, except per share data) Three Months Ended December 31, Six Months Ended December 31, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Weighted average: Common shares used for basic and diluted earnings per share 119,702 118,787 119,523 118,569 Potentially dilutive shares 355 865 572 1,273 Weighted average shares outstanding - diluted 120,057 119,652 120,095 119,842 Basic earnings per share attributable to stockholders $0.45 $0.54 $0.83 $0.90 Income tax expense 0.16 0.20 0.28 0.36 Amortization of purchased intangible assets 0.10 0.11 0.21 0.20 Stock-based compensation 0.07 0.02 0.13 0.09 Acquisition- and disposition-related expenses 0.01 0.03 0.06 0.04 Strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses 0.01 0.06 0.03 0.08 Equity in net loss (income) of unconsolidated affiliates 0.01 (0.01) 0.02 (0.08) Other reconciling items, net 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 Impact of corporation taxes (0.22) (0.25) (0.42) (0.42) Impact of dilutive shares — (0.01) (0.01) (0.02) Non-GAAP Adjusted EPS $0.60 $0.70 $1.14 $1.17

v3.24.0.1
Document and Entity Information
Feb. 05, 2024
Cover [Abstract]  
Amendment Flag false
Entity Central Index Key 0001577916
Document Type 8-K
Document Period End Date Feb. 05, 2024
Entity Registrant Name Premier, Inc.
Entity Incorporation State Country Code DE
Entity File Number 001-36092
Entity Tax Identification Number 35-2477140
Entity Address, Address Line One 13034 Ballantyne Corporate Place
Entity Address, City or Town Charlotte
Entity Address, State or Province NC
Entity Address, Postal Zip Code 28277
City Area Code (704)
Local Phone Number 357-0022
Written Communications false
Soliciting Material false
Pre Commencement Tender Offer false
Pre Commencement Issuer Tender Offer false
Security 12b Title Class A Common Stock, $0.01 Par Value
Trading Symbol PINC
Security Exchange Name NASDAQ
Entity Emerging Growth Company false

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