Earnings Labs

Thomson Reuters Corporation (TRI)

Q3 2023 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 1, 2023

$92.59

+3.05%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Thomson Reuters Third Quarter Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Gary Bisbee, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Gary Bisbee

Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Ali. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us today for our third quarter 2023 earnings call. I'm joined today by our CEO, Steve Hasker; and our CFO, Mike Eastwood, each of whom will discuss our results and take your questions following their remarks. [Operator Instructions] Throughout today's presentation, when we compare performance period-on-period, we discuss revenue growth rates before currency as well as on an organic basis. We believe this provides the best basis to measure the underlying performance of the business. I'd like to highlight this quarter a change -- slight change to our non-IFRS measures. Beginning with this quarter's results, we now add back to adjusted earnings the noncash intangible amortization expense related to acquired software. Mike will discuss this change in more detail in a few minutes. To help with your models, note that we've posted a historical restatement or revision of the non-IFRS calculation to the IR website. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and non-IFRS financial measures. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties discussed in reports and filings that we provide to regulatory agencies. You may access these documents on our website or by contacting our Investor Relations department. Let me now turn it over to Steve Hasker.

Steve Hasker

CEO

Thank you, Gary, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. Let me start by saying that we are deeply saddened to learn that on Friday, October 13, Reuters visual journalist, Issam Abdallah, was killed when a shell hit him while he was filming cross-border fire between Israel and Lebanon. Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, two other Reuters journalists, and colleagues from AFP and Al-Jazeera were also injured in the shelling. Issam was an experienced, talented, passionate journalist. And his loss is deeply felt in our newsrooms and across Thomson Reuters. Our thoughts are with Issam's friends and family as well as our Reuters colleagues who continue to report in escalating conditions from Gaza. Reporting on world events with accuracy, integrity, independence and freedom from bias is core to what we stand for and is critically important for our journalists to be able to do so safely. Now I'll move to reviewing our Q3 highlights. Solid momentum continued in the third quarter with revenue largely in line and margins ahead of our expectations. As was the case in the second quarter, a majority of the margin beat resulted from the timing of expenses, which we expect to largely normalize in the fourth quarter. Mike will provide further explanation and context. Total company organic revenues grew 6% driven by healthy recurring and transactional growth. The Big 3 segments grew 7% organically. We continue to see good momentum from many areas in our portfolio. Westlaw Precision's strong start continues with more than 3,000 sales to date. It is earning a large and rising premium that supports the upcoming launch of generative AI capabilities. Our international businesses continued their double-digit trajectory with 14% organic growth. And many of our key products remain double-digit growers, including Practical Law, Confirmation, SurePrep and HighQ.…

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Thanks, Steve. Thanks again for joining us today. As a reminder, I will talk to revenue growth before currency and on an organic basis. Let me start by discussing the third quarter revenue performance of our Big 3 segments. Organic revenue grew 7% for the third quarter, continuing the trend of 6% or better Big 3 growth that began in the second quarter of 2021. Total revenue rose 1%, including the impact of divestitures. Legal Professionals organic revenue grew 6% driven by continued Westlaw Precision momentum, the Elite divestiture and a partial quarter benefit from Casetext. Key drivers from a product perspective remain Westlaw, Practical Law, HighQ and our international businesses. We expect good momentum to continue in the fourth quarter. On Westlaw Precision, I am happy to report penetration trends continue to go well. After 13 months, Precision is at 15% penetration and is 25% ahead of Edge on a dollar basis. In our Corporates segment, organic revenue again grew 7%. We continue to feel the impacts of the sales cycle lengthening we have mentioned in recent quarters and expect fourth quarter growth to soften slightly, in part due to a difficult comparison. Tax & Accounting had another good quarter, growing 12% organically. Recurring and transactional revenue grew 9% and 20%, respectively. We expect growth to moderate somewhat in the fourth quarter driven by a lower seasonal mix from our fastest growth offerings. Moving to Reuters News. Organic revenues increased 3%, meeting our expectations. Lastly, Global Print organic revenues decreased 4%, also in line with our expectations. On a consolidated basis, organic revenues increased 6% for the third quarter. Turning to our profitability. Adjusted EBITDA for the Big 3 segments was $566 million, up 7% from the prior year period with a 44% margin rising 210 basis points. This…

Gary Bisbee

Head of Investor Relations

Thank you. Ali, we're ready to begin the Q&A.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we'll go ahead and take our first question from Drew McReynolds with RBC.

Drew McReynolds

Analyst · RBC

Yes. Just 2 ones for me. First on -- and maybe for you, Mike, just on organic revenue growth in Q3. Are you able to let us know what the contribution is from divestitures and acquisitions in the quarter? And then secondly, a little bit bigger picture maybe for you, Steve, on just on the gen AI road map. Thank you for all the granularity, which is nice to see. Can you just comment on as you continue to work through and evolve this road map how are you looking at monetization of everything you're putting in place? And what are you seeing on the competitive landscape as you move through the year here?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Yes. Drew, on the first question in regards to the impact of M&A for Q3, it was up 5 percentage points. Our organic revenue growth was 6%. And if you factor in the reported revenue, it was 1%, leaving that delta up 5%. I just want to ensure, Drew, that I was addressing your question.

Drew McReynolds

Analyst · RBC

Yes, that's fine, Mike.

Mike Eastwood

CFO

And I think the second question related to the gen AI, Steve?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Yes. Thanks, Drew. So we expect -- in terms of sort of revenue generation from the road map, we expect to deliver some revenue as a result of gen AI in 2024, especially in the second half of the year. However, I mean, based on that sort of road map timing with a bunch of releases this year and a bunch in the first quarter and the lag between bookings and revenue in our annual subscription business model, we'll see a larger ramp in '25 and beyond than we will in '24. In terms of the competitive landscape, we've certainly seen a couple of announcements in the last couple of weeks from our sort of traditional competitors in legal. We haven't seen as much in Tax & Accounting or risk, governments and so forth. But without sort of -- hopefully without a hint of arrogance, we're confident in where we sit. First and foremost, because of the customer reaction to that, which we've put in front of them. And I think secondly, that reaction in the road map we're putting forward reflects the fact that our starting point is, we believe, superior, unique and proprietary content with Casetext to have a pretty sizable lead in terms of access to ChatGPT-4 and the sort of science behind combining large language models with proprietary unique data sets. And we love what Jake Heller and the team are bringing to TR in the early going and then supplement that with some of the talent that we have, particularly David Wong, our Head of Products; Shawn Malhotra, Head of Engineering; and Joel Hron, who's our Head of TR Labs. So we're pretty confident, I hope, not arrogant, Drew, but we'll keep our eye on the competitors, but first and foremost, our eye on the customer.

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Steve, do you want to expand, we're starting with legal, but we see great options across tax and our full slate of offerings?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Yes, I saw -- I mean, I talked in my remarks about Westlaw and Practical Law and HighQ. We'll also bring gen AI in the short term into Checkpoint. And then next year, you'll see us expand into our other tax and ultimately our risk products. So we're going to move through that through the gears there in a very, very disciplined and rigorous way. We think that it not only helps us serve our existing customers, it will, particularly in '25 and beyond, open up some new TAMs for us in terms of workflow software in and around legal, tax, risk and some of the other customer segments we serve. So we're excited about exploring that over time as well.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Aravinda Galappatthige with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Aravinda Galappatthige

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead

My question was around sort of organic growth. I mean, you consistently delivered in that sort of 6 -- 5%, 6% organic growth and closer to 7% for the Big 3. I wanted to understand to what extent has the price component of that growth changed over the last several quarters? I mean, is it -- are you seeing more of that come from price, less of it? How should we think of that dynamic going forward? And my more general follow-up was on your incremental investments into AI. Maybe for Steve, like how are you thinking of sort of assessing that in the near term, call it, the next 12 months where you may not see a lot of revenue? Maybe just help us understand what sort of the main metrics are that you're looking for as you sort of ramp up this spend.

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Yes. In regards to your first question in regards to pricing impact in 2023, we would estimate approximately 30 basis points to 40 basis points in total across the firm for calendar year '23 versus '22. Just as a reminder, we do have the multiyear contracts to come into play in regards to pricing opportunities with legal having about 60% of their contracts for multiyear, normally 3 years in nature. But your direct question, 30 basis points to 40 basis points of price lift, incremental price lift in '23 versus '22. Maybe the second part of the question, Steve, really.

Steve Hasker

CEO

So the gen AI investments, yes. Thanks, Aravinda. So look, we view generative AI and its transformative impact on professionals as a once-in-a-generation disruptive change and one that plays to our strengths and one that we've moved, I think, very quickly in 2023 to position ourselves against. The principal way that we are assessing and will continue to assess our investments is in the customer reaction to the proofs of concepts, the pilots, the beta versions and ultimately, the GA releases of those products. And I'm more optimistic today than I was the last time we talked about gen AI investments based purely on that customer reaction. Two other comments. We're going to apply the same rigor to this set of investments over the next 3-or-so year period as we did to the Change Program. And I'll just assure you, we will be our toughest critics in terms of making sure that we have line of sight to a better customer impact, firstly; and secondly, expanding TAMs. And as I say, we're growing in confidence around those signals, but we will stay very, very close to our customers in the markets. And we'll keep you apprised of what we're hearing.

Operator

Operator

Next question comes from Vince Valentini with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Vince Valentini

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please go ahead

Yes. Mike, your commentary about margins in 2024, I want to make sure I understand that properly. I mean, very quick rough math. If we assume 6% revenue growth and 3% normalized increase in your fixed costs, that would drive in a normal year 150 basis points to 160 basis points of margin expansion. That's what I would think of as normal operating leverage. So when you say most of that is going to be reinvested, does that mean the entire 150 or maybe you can still grow margins by 50 basis points, but 2/3 of what the normal growth would have been would be reinvested?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Vince, from our perspective, when we talk about operating leverage at roughly 6% organic, we see about 75 basis points of operating leverage. That applies just, I'll call it, quick math, 4% increase to our fixed costs, which are about 65% in nature. And then you assume the remaining variable costs grow proportionately. If you apply those assumptions, it would yield approximately 75 basis points of operating leverage for total TR. What we're reflecting currently based on our preliminary planning, we see significant growth opportunities to reinvest that operating leverage of approximately 75 basis points in 2024. But really emphasizing from my prepared remarks, as we go into '25, '26, we have confidence we'll expand our margin in '25, '26, given that operating leverage. But we want to take full advantage. We see an obligation to make those investments organically, inorganically in '24 that should propel further growth acceleration in '25, '26, Vince.

Vince Valentini

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please go ahead

And a follow-up just on the sort of the nature of how you provide guidance. Last quarter, you told us Q3 was going to be weak because of OpEx timing, sort of talking down to maybe 36% margins, and you've delivered 39.6%. Now you're just saying that's going to roll into Q4. It seems like something else is happening. I don't know if you're deciding to pile a lot of discretionary expenses into Q4, some of the gen AI investments that you could have made next year, you can accelerate those into Q4. Is it more that? Or is there more you're just padding yourself to try to be more cautious because of macro or competitive headwinds of some kind?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Yes. I'll hit that head on. No padding involved, Vince. With the business our size, you're always going to have a number of puts and takes. One factor that comes into play, I'll mention 4 items into Q4 events. We have M&A dilution in Q4 from Casetext and from SurePrep. That's number one. Number two, the level of growth investments will increase in Q4, not only gen AI. We talk a lot about gen AI, but we have additional growth opportunities across the firm that we are pursuing. That's item two. Number three, which really is part of your question, we call it a normalization of expenses. There have certainly been some timing items in the last couple of quarters that we have transparency that will normalize in Q3 -- Q4, I'm sorry. And the fourth element is productivity initiatives that we have in play that will materialize in Q4. For those 4 reasons, Vince, we have strong visibility into the 37% EBITDA margin for Q4, which would yield approximately 39% for the full year.

Vince Valentini

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please go ahead

We'll wait an update on that on February.

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Look forward to providing the update.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Heather Balsky with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Heather Balsky

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead

I was hoping to hone in on the legal business and expectations for the fourth quarter, but also just how things shaped up versus your 3Q expectations. You exited Elite. You kind of had [hostile] Government business getting better in the back half. There's supposed to be some acceleration. I'm curious about the puts and takes in the quarter and then how you think about the fourth quarter from here.

Steve Hasker

CEO

Yes, Heather, I'll -- it's Steve. Thanks for the question. I'll start, and then I'm sure Michael will add. As a general point, we see growing strength in our legal business. Paul Fischer and his team, particularly Neil Sternthal and Liz Zimick, Mark Haddad supported by our product and engineering folks have done a very good job of strengthening our core products and talked quite a lot about Westlaw and Practical Law and HighQ. And certainly, those are increasing in their sort of health and their growth prospects. So as a general point in the fourth quarter, we expect to see that growing strength and having it carrying into the next year and beyond. And the integration of generative AI really builds upon that. We're injecting generative AI into very healthy products, healthy franchises, and we think that's a good starting point. Mike, what would you add?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

It is a good summary, Heather. I would just, as always, emphasize Practical Law, led by Emily Colbert, continues to perform really well for us, and HighQ that we acquired back in July of 2019 continues to be one of our strongest growth assets. We talked a lot about Westlaw Precision and gen AI as we should. But if you think about the full breadth and depth of assets that Paul Fischer has within Legal, Practical Law and HighQ continued very strong growth trajectories. You asked about Government there, continuing to monitor that pipeline very closely. And we have a strong pipeline in Q4, Q1, and it's a matter of timing, closing those deals, Heather.

Heather Balsky

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead

Follow up, was Government the reason that you didn't see the acceleration in the third quarter? Or was it something else?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Really just timing. Any time we deal with government agencies, the level of precision in regards to the timing of those closures is a little less precise than what we see with the nongovernment customers there. But based on our pipeline view, we're optimistic of a strong Q4 and Q1.

Operator

Operator

Next question will come from Scott Fletcher with CIBC. Please go ahead.

Scott Fletcher

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

I want to ask a question on the organic growth and maybe a little longer term. So when you look out to 2025, when you start to really feel the impact of the gen AI initiatives, do you have a sense of internally how much hoping that will impact the organic growth rate? I'm sort of trying to get an idea of, is this a significant step change? Or is it more of an incremental increase in growth rate when you look at 2025?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Scott, it's Steve. Thanks for the question. I'll start. Michael will add. Look, I think we'll say more about that in February, and we'll say more at an Investor Day in March. I think we're still in the process of sort of learning and quantifying. As I said a couple of times, the most important sort of yardstick for us is the customer reaction to the product investments that we're making. And that has been better than -- certainly better than I expected, more forceful, more trust, more confidence, more exciting from our customers than perhaps I'd even hoped for. As to sort of what that results, as I say, we'll come back in February in Investor Day and be more specific. But we see meaningful revenue acceleration particularly sort of through the '25, '26, '27 as a result of these investments. And as I said before, we're going to apply the same rigor as we did in the Change Program so that -- to every dollar of the investment that we make, both in terms of OpEx and CapEx. And we'll be very rigorous about ensuring that, that flows through. Mike, what would you add?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

I would say, Scott, during the March Investor Day, each of our segment presidents will dig deeper and to your specific question on the organic growth for Tax & Accounting professionals, it's legal, international, et cetera. So I think that will be quite helpful for you, Scott.

Scott Fletcher

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

And then maybe just a quick follow-up, like in terms of the -- do you see most of the future growth coming from the expanding functionality of the current product set or on the new opportunities you talked about sort of the TAM expansion?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Scott, we think it's probably too early to quantify to give you a percentage, but we think it will be pretty balanced. We see at least sort of 3 different cases. The first is pretty significant value from our core existing products. And that's going to result in, we think, a little bit more price and a meaningful uptick in retention, which is something we've been focused on for a period of time, but we're yet really to see the results of that. The second is in these new skills, particularly that which builds upon the Casetext, CoCounsel skill set and extending that into legal workflows and ultimately taking the same kind of capabilities into Tax & Accounting and risk workflows. And the third is we've got our eyes on some new addressable markets, some of those domestically in the United States and North America and some of those are in international markets. So I won't give you the sort of proportionality between the 3 of those. But again, when we come back at Investor Day, we'll be able to be much more specific about this.

Operator

Operator

Next question will come from Manav Patnaik with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Manav Patnaik

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Steve, I just wanted to get your latest thoughts on, I think, the additional inorganic opportunities you called out earlier in the call. I mean, you obviously have a super solid balance sheet, cash is piling up. Just is it going to be more larger deals, a bunch of midsized deals? How do you think about what we should be thinking about when you mentioned that?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Yes, Manav, thanks. We don't need or particularly want larger deals. I mean, if something came along that we thought was very much in the interest of our customers and our shareholders, then we wouldn't hold back. But we don't sit here and sort of say, it'd be great to do sort of some larger, more transformative deals. We don't want them, and we don't think we need them. So it's more in that sort of in the category of a SurePrep, which we're very excited about. We think Dave and his team have done a wonderful job of both continuing to accelerate that business and also integrating into TR, so different areas. I mean, building on Casetext, if there are other generative AI capabilities we can add that accelerate our progress into legal workflow software, Tax & Accounting automation is something building on SurePrep that we're always looking out for under Elizabeth Beastrom's leadership. And then the other areas that Dave Larson and the team have, I think, gotten in -- gotten us all very well educated and keen to sort of look for opportunities is Risk, Fraud & Compliance, building upon the CLEAR and TR’s starting point. And we really need to find the right one there. So no promises as to what we might do in the short term. And the other area that builds upon our core capabilities, our content and our relationships with general counsels and heads of tax is ESG. And so we'll continue to look at ESG. But as always, no promises. We're going to keep the bar really high for those deals and make sure that they're beneficial to our shareholders.

Manav Patnaik

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

And then, Mike, just to follow up on your margin commentary. I guess that 75 basis points you talked about, that is before the dilution from the deals you called out, is that correct?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

That's correct. Really kind of 2 components there, Manav, that we were addressing roughly, the 80 basis points cumulative dilution for the M&A activity as we head into 2024. And then I was mentioning our current intent to reinvest the operating leverage of 75 basis points. So 2 separate components there.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Andrew Steinerman

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

I think I heard a comment earlier in the call that net realized price for all Thomson was about 30 basis points to 40 basis points better in '23 than '22. So just tell me, did I hear that right? And then if you can just tell us what net realized price is trending in '23 overall and some of the color in the segments.

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Yes, Andrew, you heard that correctly. It's approximately 30 basis points to 40 basis points incremental in '23 versus '22. If you look at total TR firm-wide, we're in the 3% to 3.5% range, Andrew, for total TR, which varies by segment. I've shared in prior calls that the higher price realization normally happens in our Tax & Accounting Professionals business followed by Corporates and then Legal. That's going to sequentially how from high to low in regards to the annual price increases. And to my comment earlier, those annual price increases, the realized price increase is influenced by the multiyear nature and when those contracts come up for renewal. So quick answer, 30 to 40 basis points higher in '23 versus '22 then on average, roughly 3% to 3.5% for total TR.

Andrew Steinerman

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Right. Anything interesting in news or print in terms of pricing?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

It certainly varies. If you think about the new -- the Reuters business, you have to break it into 2 components, the LSEG contract and then all other components. We have a contractual calculation that's driven by CPI and FX movements for the LSEG contract, which varies year-to-year. And then others within Print business, depending on the print titles, there's quite a wide distribution for price increases for print.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Toni Kaplan with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Toni Kaplan

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead

Just regarding Casetext, have you been able to retain the people that you want to keep so far? And are you keeping Casetext separately like so that they can continue innovating there? Or is the plan to integrate them into the larger organization?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Toni, both with Casetext and SurePrep, we're close to batting 1,000 so far in terms of keeping the talent. So we're thrilled with that. And we'll just keep focusing on it, making sure that those folks see the opportunity here and both in terms of our purpose and their own career opportunities. But so far, I would say it's been really exciting from that point of view. I mentioned in my remarks, we are -- the go-to-market with Casetext, where we have integrated that. We're in the process of integrating that, completing that integration into Paul Fischer's teams. That's going well. And that obviously provides more career development opportunities for the go-to-market executives within Casetext. David Wong is working closely with Jake Heller on the product side in conjunction with engineering and labs to make sure that we at TR move our Casetext speed and continue to do so. And in the first few months, we are very much on track with that and made in my comments -- I made the comment that our teams have moved with the speed and decisiveness never seen before at TR. So we're off to a good start, and it's up to us, Toni, just to continue that trajectory.

Toni Kaplan

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead

And then just for my follow-up, just looking at your clients, maybe corporates or law firms, anything to discuss with regard to sort of budgets going into the end of the year and how you're thinking about just pressure on the given macro uncertainty or like into the end of the year and then into next year?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Yes. So with regard to the law firms, our Legal business has held up well in 2023, notwithstanding a reduction in billable hours for many of our customers' capital markets and corporate dividends. So they've seen fewer equity and debt raisings, less M&A transactions flowing through their billable hours. However, their litigation practices, their restructuring practices and 1 or 2 other areas have to varying degrees picked up the slack. And so that part of our business has remained robust as has Tax & Accounting. When you go across to Corporates, that's where the elongated sales cycles have hurt us. And we mentioned that probably 4 or 5 quarters ago, and it's continued. It's not getting worse, but we don't see it getting better either. So we're monitoring it carefully. And the other comment I'd make is Laura Clayton McDonnell is now 6 months into her role as President. So I think as we enter into next year, no matter what the macro environment brings, some of the moves that Laura is making and her leadership, I think, will start to reflect in our -- in the impact we're making with our corporate customers.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Maher Yaghi with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Maher Yaghi

Analyst · Scotiabank. Please go ahead

Steve, I wanted to ask you how is the current economic environment educating your view on how 2024 is going to look like? I know it's -- we're not in guidance mode here, but if you can just help us understand your views on qualitatively on '24 compared to '23. And maybe just to close the loop on '24 margins, Mike. So if I start at 39% in 2023 on EBITDA margin, that 75 basis points improvement in operating leverage, as you said, it's going to be invested. So the -- incrementally basically the 50 basis point incremental dilution in '24 from the acquisition of Casetext, that's basically your landing zone is 38.5% for 2024. Am I understanding this properly?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Yes, this is Steve. Let me start off. Thanks for the question. Mike and [Rena Evans], our Head of FP&A, have just been driving us through the planning process for 2024. So we've got a lot of that thinking done. But the -- not all of it, but a lot of it done. The underlying assumption for '24 from a sort of a macro perspective is more of the same. I think where we look at a year where we're likely to have 2 wars going on, we're likely to have higher-for-longer interest rate environment and the presidential election. It's sort of hard, I think, to expect -- I think it would be foolhardy for us or anyone else that bank on a quick rebound. And that's the assumption that Mike's sort of putting through our budgeting and forecasting process for '24. Mike?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Yes. And the second part of the question on regards to 2024 margin, once again, not providing guidance today, but your math sounds directionally reasonable based on the components that you laid out, but directionally reasonable.

Operator

Operator

Next question will come from George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

George Tong

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead

You had previously guided to legal organic growth accelerating in the second half of the year. Can you elaborate on any factors that may have pushed this acceleration now, particularly given the organic benefits from Casetext coming in and Elite coming out?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

Sure. We still continue, George, to anticipate a higher tick up as we go into Q4 and then into 2024. Our FindLaw business tempered the growth some in Q3 for us, and it's a factor for us to consider into Q4 there. And the other component is the timing of government. So the 2 items that really flexes when you get into rounding of legal professionals is FindLaw and the Government business, George. But we're very pleased with the trajectory of legal overall as we go into Q4 and to the full year 2024, George.

George Tong

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead

Got it. That's helpful. And then on the tax business, very strong growth there driven by Latin America. But can you talk a little bit about some of the sustainability of that growth? Is that being driven by regional inflation? Is it persistent? Is it more onetime? How would you think about tax growth going forward?

Steve Hasker

CEO

Yes. Sorry, Mike. Mike will give you a more thoughtful answer, George, than I will. But I think it's driven by superb execution from Adrian Fognini and Macron Desbulbert [ph] and their teams down in Brazil. I mean, their ability to understand and anticipate customer needs before or as customers are having those needs, to incorporate it into the Dominio product is the best I've ever seen. And as long as we continue to do that, we'll continue to see great performance from that part of the business. And the next, I suppose, obvious thought you may have as well, can we take that DNA and spread it throughout Thomson Reuters. And that's certainly something that [Beck Teen] our Head of International is focused on.

Mike Eastwood

CFO

George, I would just emphasize that the 12% organic growth were tapping Q4, 10% for the full year, roughly is not solely driven by Latin America. We've got strong assets across in SurePrep, and Steve mentioned earlier, Dave, the Founder, CEO, SurePrep; and then Confirmation that we acquired back in July of 2019 continue to do incredibly well. So I think Elizabeth Beastrom, the President, is really managing the full breadth and depth of assets there. So LatAm is performing well. But likewise, SurePrep, Confirmation and other assets within Tax & Accounting.

Operator

Operator

And the last caller will come from Doug Arthur with Huber Research. Please go ahead.

Doug Arthur

Analyst · Huber Research. Please go ahead

Everything has been covered. Just I guess a question on your ownership position in LSEG. Any updated thoughts on the remaining piece?

Mike Eastwood

CFO

No, Doug, we'll continue to monetize at the pace that we have discussed previously. Currently, we're looking at Q1 2024 and Q1 2025 contractually when the next tranches are eligible to be monetized. It doesn't mean we have to monetize in Q1 '24 and Q1 '25. I just emphasize we continue to hold LSEG as a financial investment. We're pleased with the level of accelerated monetization in calendar year '23. And we hope to continue to pace in '24, '25, but we're pleased with the overall monetization there.

Steve Hasker

CEO

Thank you, Doug.

Gary Bisbee

Head of Investor Relations

All right. I think we'll end the call there. Thank you very much, everyone. And feel free to reach out to the IR team if we can help with follow-ups.

Operator

Operator

And with that, that does conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.