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Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (WLTW 1.44%)
Q2Â 2019 Earnings Call
Jul 31, 2019, 9:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning. Welcome to the Willis Towers Watson Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. Please refer to our website for press release and supplemental information that was issued earlier today. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for the next 3 months on our website.
Some of the comments in today's call, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those discussed today and the company's undertakes no obligation to update these statements unless required by law. For a more detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, investors should review the forward-looking statements sections of the earnings press release issued this morning, as well as other disclosures in our most recent Form 10-K and other Willis Towers Watson's SEC filings.
During the call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. For reconciliation of non-GAAP measures as well as other information regarding these measures, please refer to the most recent earnings release and other materials in the Investor Relations section of the company's website.
I'll now turn the call over to Mr. John Haley, Willis Towers Watson's, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Okay, thanks very much and good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on our second quarter earnings call. Joining me here today is Mike Burwell, our Chief Financial Officer; and Rich Keefe, Head of Investor Relations. Today , we'll review our results for the second quarter and the first half of 2019, as well as update the outlook for the remainder of the year.
I'm pleased with our second quarter financial results and the continued momentum in our business. We generated strong organic top line growth of 6% for the second quarter of 2019 and 160 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter, in which we generated organic revenue growth of 5% or greater and improved margins. Likewise, we had revenue and operating margin growth in each of our business segments this quarter, reflecting solid demand for our solutions and services, throughout our portfolio of businesses.
This has been an exciting and productive quarter for Willis Towers Watson and as I reflect on our second quarter in the year-to-date results, I'm extremely pleased with the significant steps we've made to improve the company's growth profile and position the company for continued long-term growth. In our core businesses, we've had great success, driven by new business generation, strong retention rates and increased operating leverage across our core businesses.
On the acquisition front, I'm delighted to announce that we completed the TRANZACT acquisition yesterday. And today we welcome over 1,300 talented colleagues from TRANZACT to the Willis Towers Watson community. There is tremendous energy and optimism around the benefits of this powerful combination. The TRANZACT acquisition rapidly accelerates Willis Towers Watson's direct to consumer US healthcare strategy and significantly strengthens Willis Towers Watson's growth profile in the healthcare space. TRANZACT provides Willis Towers Watson with a true end-to-end consumer acquisition and engagement platform for healthcare by adding scale, retail capabilities to our portfolio of expertise and it significantly enhances our reach and agility in penetrating the expanse to the Medicare market.
Also, this strategic acquisition positions us for success in the un-subsidized individual consumer portion of the Medicare market space that we currently do not widely serve, and it opens up new service offering opportunities. Similarly, it allows us to efficiently and effectively capitalize on the secular trends that are currently driving growth in the Medicare space. Together, we'll have tremendous capacity with the licensed agent workforce of over 2,000. Moreover TRANZACT's leading edge digital technology capabilities and sales and marketing expertise combined with Willis Towers Watson's scale and operational excellence, further strengthens our position as the leader in the growing private Medicare marketplace.
Most important, we believe that this acquisition creates value for all stakeholders. For our clients and consumers, it broadens our client base, so that we can help individuals and underserved markets navigate their healthcare options. For our business partners, it will allow us to develop deeper collaborative relationships, especially with our carrier partners, as well as deliver greater volume. And for our shareholders, it creates both immediate accretion, as well as significant long-term revenue and profitable growth opportunities.
In addition to TRANZACT, we'll continue to execute our broader growth strategies around innovation. We believe our investments in innovation have helped further enhance our business portfolio and improve the integrated value proposition we deliver to clients, as well as help us continue our leading position in the areas in which we operate. Innovation at Willis Towers Watson is an important element of what it is that we bring to life. To that end, we are continuing to invest in new innovative solutions, as in recent years, we've introduced several specialty solutions. Such as Life Site, AMX, Innovisk and Connected Risk Intelligence.
Building on this progress, we recently announced two initiatives that we've implemented that are targeted to create further organic and inorganic growth. The first is our launch of WTW strategic ventures, an initiative aimed at creating strategic growth opportunities by investing in emerging digital and technology enabled businesses across insurance, risk and human capital. The second initiative includes the formation of the new growth board which will increase the company's organic innovation efforts by supporting early stage ideas that have the potential to create new markets, new customer channels, and new business models. Working together with our existing new venture investment committee, the great board will help to expand Willis Towers Watson's innovation pipeline.
WTW strategic ventures has quartered the company's growth strategy by enhancing our capabilities to identify and develop strategic opportunities and alliances aimed at delivering tangible value to our clients. These new initiatives will source investments and utilized relationships within the venture capital community, clients and industry connections to support innovation or inorganically and organically with the growth board, to create new offerings in areas of strategic interest of the company.
Now let's move on to our second quarter 2019 results. Reported revenue for the second quarter was 2.0 billion, up 3% as compared to the prior year second quarter and up 6% on a constant currency and organic basis. Reported revenue included 51 million of negative currency movement. Once again in this quarter, we experienced growth on both an organic basis across all of our segments. Net income was $149 million, up 129% for the second quarter, as compared to the $65 million of net income in the prior year second quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA was $425 million or 21% of revenue, as compared to the prior year adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 392 million or 20% of revenue, representing an 8% increase on an adjusted EBITDA dollar basis. For the quarter, diluted earnings per share were $1.6, an increase of 141% compared to the prior year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.78, reflecting an increase of 5% compared to prior year.
Overall, it was a solid quarter. We grew revenue and earnings per share and had enhanced adjusted EBITDA margin performance. For the first half of the year, we're very pleased with our financial results. Reported revenue growth for the first half of 2019 was up 2% as compared to the same period in the prior year, and up 5% on both the constant currency and organic basis. Adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2019 was $1.0 billion or 23.5% of revenue, an increase from adjusted EBITDA of $949 million or 22.2% of revenue for the same period in the prior year, representing an increase of 130 basis points in adjusted EBITDA margin over the same period in the prior year.
Now, let's look at each of the segments in some more detail. To provide clear comparability with prior periods, all commentary regarding the results of our segments will be an on organic basis, unless specifically stated otherwise. Segment margins are calculated using segment revenues and they exclude unallocated corporate cost, such as amortization of intangibles, certain transaction and integration expenses resulting from M&A, as well as other items, which we consider non-core to our operating results. The segment results do include discretionary compensation.
Revenue for our largest segment, Human Capital and Benefits, HCB was up 5% on an organic and constant currency basis compared to the second quarter of the prior year. For the first half of the year, HCB revenues grew 4% organically. The Health and Benefits business delivered another strong performance this quarter, with revenue growth of 12%. New business and product revenue continue to drive revenue expansion in North America, while our accelerating market share in global benefit management appointments contributed to the growth in other geographies. Health and benefits revenue growth was also aided by the lower revenue comparable in the prior year's second quarter. The prior year results reflect the impact of adopting the new revenue standard ASC 606, which resulted in certain revenue not being recognized.
Talent and Rewards revenue increased 5%, as a result of increased advisory and survey work in North America and Great Britain. Technology and Administration Solutions revenue increased 6% this quarter. The growth was built on new business activity, primarily in Western Europe in Great Britain. While most of HCB's businesses grow, we did experience a decline in retirement revenue of 1%. This is mainly as a result of the impact of a tough comparable from the prior year which benefited from non-recurring project work. HCB's operating margin improved by 200 basis points to 21% compared to the prior year second quarter.
HCB has the services products and intellectual capital that match the many issues our clients are facing. HCB is anchored by a strength in core service offerings and we remain confident in this segment's ability to deliver growth well into the future.
Now let's look at Corporate Risk and Broking or CRB, which had a revenue increase of 5% on a constant currency and organic basis, as compared to the prior year second quarter. For the first half of the year, CRB revenues grew 5% organically. The North America's revenue grew by 6% in the second quarter, primarily as a result in new business, the International regions revenue 0.8% compared to prior year. This growth was largely driven by new business wins and higher renewals in Central America and the Caribbean, as well as new business wins in Asia and Austral-asia.
Western Europe contributed 5% revenue growth with the growth led by strong renewals in Sweden in addition to new business wins in large and mid-market accounts in Iberia and France. Great Britain had 4% revenue growth, predominantly from Aerospace business, driven by satellite launches and trends of activity. CRB revenue was $690 million with an operating margin of 15% as compared to a 14% operating margin in the prior year second quarter. The margin expanded due to the top line performance coupled with continued cost management efforts.
As a side note, I'd like to say how pleased I am with the progress, the management team and all of our colleagues in CRB have made over the last year. To see this steady top line growth and continued margin expansion is excellent, and our outlook on our CRB business remains positive going forward.
Operator -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
. Turning to Investment Risk and Reinsurance or IRR. Revenue for the second quarter increased 9% to $409 million on a constant currency basis and increased 8% on an organic basis as compared to the prior year second quarter with clear acceleration in all lines of business for the first half of the year. IRR revenues grew 6% organically reinsurance with growth of 10% continue to lead the segment's growth through a combination of net new business and favorable renewals insurance Consulting and Technology grew by 7% mainly from technology product sales investment revenue increased 4% with continued expansion of the delegated investment services portfolio assets under delegated management reached $135 billion at quarter-end. On an organic basis. Wholesale revenues increased by 11% driven by growth in specialty and overall wholesale business was up 2%, including results Miller's acquisition of Alston Gayler our maximum business grew 6% primarily from increased commission income IRR had revenue of $9 million and an operating margin of 27% compared to 20% for the prior year second quarter. This improvement reflects top line growth alongside scaling of successful businesses. Overall, we continue to feel positive about the momentum of our IRR business for 2019. Revenues for the BDA segment increased by 6% from the prior year second quarter primarily due to increasing membership counts and client base project work. And out of scope services further enhanced the segment's revenue growth individual Marketplace revenue returned to growth this quarter as seasonality for this business continues to shift benefit outsourcing revenues grew 13% as a result of new client wins and special projects for the first half of the year. BDA revenue grew 8% organically. The BDA segment had revenue of $126 million with a negative 2% operating margin up approximately 100 basis points from a negative 26% in the prior year second quarter. Top line growth and greater operating leverage both contributed to the segment's margin improvement. Our BDA offerings remained fundamental to our business growth engines of our enterprise strategy, the addition of Tranzact will further boost their growth. We're excited about the long-term growth potential of this business. So in summary, I'm very pleased with our continued progress in the second quarter, we produced strong revenue growth meaningful margin expansion and adjusted EPS growth, all while continuing to invest in our future and return capital to shareholders through dividends, I'd like to thank our thousand plus colleagues for their contributions our talented colleagues and the way they serve clients are quarter our long-term success and they delivered another quarter of strong results. I continue to be inspired by their energy and passion for serving our clients and their unwavering dedication to creating a truly winning client experience. As we look forward to the remainder of 2019 and beyond our future remains bright. Now, I will turn the call over to Mike. Thanks, John and I'd like to add my congratulations to our colleagues for another good quarter as well as thank our clients for their continued support and trust in us. As John mentioned, we are very excited about the completion of the Tranzact acquisition as this transaction shows Willis Towers Watson renewed focus on strategic M&A opportunities. Our second quarter represented another positive result with strong organic revenue growth robust margin expansion and underlying adjusted EPS growth now turn to the overall detailed financial results. Let me first discuss. Income from operations. Income from operations for the second quarter was 176 million or 0.6% of revenue up 140 basis points from the prior year second quarter. Adjusted operating income for the second quarter was 99 million or 6% of revenue up 160 basis points from the prior year second quarter. Let me turn to earnings per share or EPS for the second quarter of 2019 and 18, our diluted EPS was $1, $0.06 and $0.44 respectively. The prior year quarter was impacted by $0.55 of transaction, integration expenses for the second quarter of 2019. Our adjusted EPS was up 5% to $1.78 per share as compared to $1.70 per share in the prior year second quarter foreign currency caused the decrease in our consolidated revenue of 51 million for the quarter compared to the prior year second quarter and had no impact to adjusted diluted earnings per share this quarter as previously guided, we were adversely impacted by a decrease in noncash pension income compared to the prior year, which resulted in a year-over-year decline of $0.14 this quarter. Excluding the combined headwinds for reduced pension returns of $0.14 and higher taxes of $0.04 versus the prior year. Versus the prior year second quarter adjusted EPS growth was approximately 15% talking about our effective tax rate. Our US GAAP tax rate for the second quarter was 19.7% versus 12.7% in the prior year second quarter, our adjusted income tax rate for the second quarter was 20% up from the 19.7% rate and the prior year second quarter. The increase in effective tax rate for the quarter compared to the prior year was primarily due to additional taxes on global intangible low taxed income or GILTI. We continue to evaluate the impact of global tax reform on our effective tax rate, including the effect of new taxes associated with compensations for changes resulting from updated interpretations that assumptions issued by the various taxing authorities as a result of the effective tax rate is subject to movements and will continue to be update is more analysis and information becomes available. Moving to the balance sheet, we continue to have a strong financial position. As a reminder, in the first quarter, we implemented the new lease accounting standard. This result. Had no material impact to our operating income, but did result in increase in liabilities on our balance sheet, which are largely offset by a corresponding increase in assets. The gross of totaled approximately 5 billion during the quarter, we generated 287 million of free cash flow bringing our year-to-date free cash flow $283 million, a decrease from free cash flow of 254 million for the first half of the prior year. The year-over-year decline in free cash flow is due to higher compensation payments as well as some timing related to the cash tax payments. We're expecting free cash flow to build over the remainder of 2019 and May, our Board of Directors approved our quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share. In terms of capital allocation, we paid approximately $84 million in dividends and repurchased 1 million of Willis Towers Watson stock in the second quarter of 2019. Related to the Tranzact acquisition we have principally financed the purchase through debt as part of the acquisition of Tranzact we have secured financing up to $1.1 billion in form of a one-year unsecured term loan. We are committed to deleveraging in the near term returning. Our leverage ratio to historic levels. As we move ahead into the 3rd quarter. I'd like to review our revised outlook Willis Towers Watson is raising its 2018 guidance primarily to reflect the acquisition of Tranzact for the company. We now expect constant currency revenue growth for 2019 in order to be in the range of 7.8% and organic revenue growth in the range from 4% to 5% full year adjusted operating income margin is expected to be around 20%. The adjusted effective tax rate is still expected to be around 20%. It's going to any potential discrete items and we expect free cash flow growth of 50% or better. Now, moving onto transaction integration expenses. We expect to incur between 20 to 25 million of cost as a result of the Tranzact acquisition primarily related to transaction costs associated with the deal. Foreign exchange was immaterial to adjusted EPS in the second quarter of 2019 but was $0.12 headwind to adjusted EPS in the first quarter of 2019. We expect FX to be around $0.03 headwind adjusted to adjusted EPS for the remainder of the year, resulting in an overall headwind of about $0.15 for the full year 2019 We are raising our adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance to a range of $10.75 to $11.10 for the full year for 2019 versus our previous guidance of $10.60, to $10.85 overall we delivered solid financial performance in the second quarter, while I'm pleased with the results and the continued momentum of our businesses. There is still a lot of opportunity ahead and we remain focused on driving and making sure we execute and now I'll turn the call back few John. Thanks, Mike. And with that, I'd like to open the call to questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, at this time.[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum of Stifel. Your line is open.
Hi, thank you very much for taking the questions. Hey, John. It seems like you've had a pretty good run here for the last 4 quarters with really a good organic growth that is accelerated and I don't usually ask this kind of question. But 4% to 5% organic growth does imply like you're expecting something else to decelerate from the first half of the year in the second half of the year, but
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
it seems like the momentum is pretty good. Is there just tougher comps, is it just want to make sure you're 100% of ability to deliver? Can you just give us a little bit more of your outlook for the second half of the year in that context.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Yeah, sure. Thanks Shlomo. I think-- we're not suggesting really that we think anything is going to decelerate here. I guess, when we came out with the-- we initially had the 4% growth that we said we'd be at for the year. So, the first-half came in at 5% and so we said what we think we'll be 4% to 5%. When we first came out with the 4% growth, I know there were some of our competitors had some higher growth projections, and we said, well, the fact that we're at 4% shouldn't be interpreted as we think we're going to grow slower than the market. And I would say the same thing here. We've just sort of taken the 4%, raised it up to reflect what happened in the first half. You shouldn't think, we think we're going to grow slower than the market.
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
Okay, great. And then could you mind just discussing a little bit about the operating environment in the UK given the political situation in the Brexit items. It seems like there was some slowdown, just in general in the UK in the first quarter, but it seems like things seem a lot better right now, if you could just comment on that.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Yeah, I mean our growth-- we've had some good growth in the UK. It was 4% this quarter and we feel pretty good about that and in fact, actually, particularly in CRB we were seeing some declines last year, so we feel much better about that. I think Brexit is still a bit of an uncertain date. We have done a lot of planning around Brexit ourselves though and we feel like we're prepared for that. And so we'll have to see what happens but we feel we're about as prepared as we could be.
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
Okay, great, thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Mark Marcon with R.W. Baird. Your line is open.
Mark Marcon -- R.W. Baird -- Senior Research Analyst
Good morning and congrats on the strong progress that we continue to see. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about-- three different questions, one free cash flow growth of 15% health, how confident are you still in the ability to generate that for this year and then for the next few years? That's the first question.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Okay. I think, Mike will take care of that.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
So, thank you for the question Mark. Like prior years, we expect the second half of the year to be seasonally stronger from a free cash flow standpoint. During the first half of the year, we had higher compensation payments as well as timing related to cash payments for income taxes, which had an adverse effect on our free cash flow, but some of the last year, we knew coming into in 2019 that we had a continued challenge around improving working capital and we're taking actions to improve free cash flow during the remainder of the year and specifically focused on working capital.
Mark Marcon -- R.W. Baird -- Senior Research Analyst
Great. And then can you talk a little bit about TRANZACT and how we should think about that, particularly as it relates to the fourth quarter? Obviously, that's the time when we get the enrollments and the benefit from that.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah... Go ahead John.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
I'd just say, look, we did raise our guidance as Mike said, and that was mostly the result the TRANZACT not 100% but-- and most of the impact of TRANZACT but the overwhelming impact will be in the fourth quarter.
Mark Marcon -- R.W. Baird -- Senior Research Analyst
Can you just talk a little bit about the margins? I mean, obviously it's seasonally high so just from a modeling perspective, how we should think about it.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I mean, TRANZACT from a margin standpoint, we see it consistent with what we've targeted for the overall company from a margin standpoint, Mark, so we don't see it different.
Mark Marcon -- R.W. Baird -- Senior Research Analyst
Okay, great. And then the last thing, Mercer with JLT yesterday, there was some discussion about how their book was looking. I was wondering what you're seeing in terms of opportunities in terms of share gains as a result of that transaction, both in terms of people and business.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I think, we've seen our reinsurance business being very strong. John commented in his comments or prepared comments at 10% overall and so part of that is coming from continued wins and strong market conditions that we've seen out there. So I think it's encapsulated in those numbers, Mark.
Mark Marcon -- R.W. Baird -- Senior Research Analyst
Terrific, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Elyse Greenspan of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Hi, good morning. My first question goes back to the TRANZACT acquisition as well. When you guys announced this deal earlier this year, I know you had said that it would be accretive relative to earnings, but that was assuming no buyback. And so, you guys returned to the market and did buy back some stock in the Q2, which seemed sooner, I think, than you guys and the Street had expected. Can you just give us a thought around buybacks and because you are now buying back shares sooner, it does seem like the deal might be more accretive relative to your initial expectations.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
I mean, we've always said-- and maybe just to make sure that was understood previously that we would buy back shares to make sure we manage dilution in regards to our benefit programs to be in place, and that's what we've continued to do. There is no different assumptions, that's been there. Obviously, we're very excited about TRANZACT and what we see there is going to do for us in the future and that's we reflected in taking the earnings guidance up. So we're very excited about what TRANZACT brings to the company and as John said, we welcome those colleagues to the company and we're very excited about it.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
But just to be clear going forward here, while we're basically paying down the debt for TRANZACT, the only stock buybacks we'll do will be anti-dilution ones.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. And then, also on TRANZACT, could you give us a sense of what the year-- their organic revenue growth has been through the first half of the year? I know when you guys announced the deal, you said you were expecting 25% to 30% revenue growth, how does that compare to those expectations?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, it's, right in that range. We're very excited about it. Obviously it's right spot into that range and maybe pushing the top end of it a bit to be fair. I mean, the market is very strong. We've seen that reflected overall in demand , obviously it the big piece comes in the fourth quarter, but that's what we're seeing overall in terms of individuals. So, we've put that 25% to 30% that we touched on over the next 5 years was what we're thinking about.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
And, yeah, we see no reason to change that. That's still our expectation going forward.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Okay and then lastly on TRANZACT, the margins within your BDA segment our seasonally highest in the fourth quarter, obviously negative earnings for the first 3 quarters. So I just want to get a sense if we're all setting our models correctly. I'm assuming your updated guidance is assuming TRANZACT follows that same seasonality so would report on a loss, if the margin diluted for two months of the third quarter since it just closed, and then be accretive to your margins in the fourth quarter. Am I thinking about that correctly or am I missing anything there and thinking about the guide and how to update for the next couple of quarters?
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Nope, you got it. That's right.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Okay, thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Greg Peters with Raymond James, your line is open.
Marcos Holanda Jr -- Raymond James -- Equity Research Associate
Good morning John, good morning Mike , this is Marcos calling in for Greg, had a couple of questions. First on HCB, you guys singled out the revenue that wasn't there last year, but I'm just curious if we were to back that revenue and last quarter, what would operating margin expansion look like this quarter?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
We probably about 2 -- 2%...
Unidentified Speaker
It's Rich, are you referring to just HCB, what would be the margin? I think that's your question?
Marcos Holanda Jr -- Raymond James -- Equity Research Associate
yeah, you guys picked up 200 basis points or so this quarter so I'm just curious, if that revenue were to be there last year, what would the pick up be this year?
Unidentified Speaker
Yeah, it's roughly flat.
Marcos Holanda Jr -- Raymond James -- Equity Research Associate
Okay. My second question is on free cash flow and it's related to TRANZACT. If we understand it correctly, the EMA and MS businesses free cash flow negative the first 2 or 3 years and you guys reiterated your free cash flow guidance. So, if we were to back TRANZACT would that imply that free cash flow could be growing in the high teens over the next couple of years?
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
The overall TRANZACT business is about, it's not-- it's pretty much neutral, it's pretty close to zero.
Marcos Holanda Jr -- Raymond James -- Equity Research Associate
Okay.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
It's not a negative.
Marcos Holanda Jr -- Raymond James -- Equity Research Associate
Okay. And then Mike, can you just revisit your comments around pension? And that's all I had. Thanks guys.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, so on pension, if you remember, we talked about -- with the pension got valued at December 31 2018, which obviously the market was weighed down at that point in time. This is still that that portion of it, that obviously you gave a headwind offsetting our pension income that we would have in the current year. And that's what we reflected in the -- in our results. Had we not had that amount included in there it'd have been roughly 23 million that would have impacted those numbers, as you've taken that out. So when you adjust for that pension amount of-- that $0.14 and equally you added back the headwind that we had on taxes. That said, our growth rate for the quarter would have been greater than approximately 15%. So that's what I was trying to comment on.
Marcos Holanda Jr -- Raymond James -- Equity Research Associate
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Hughes of SunTrust. Your line is open.
Mark Hughes -- SunTrust -- Director
Yeah. Thank you very much. The quarterly revenue spread for TRANZACT, is it similar to the underlying BDA business?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Yeah.
Mark Hughes -- SunTrust -- Director
And then would -- did you consider maybe stepping up your investment in TRANZACT and the call centers to accelerate growth seems like the market opportunity is quite strong. Do you, maybe try to grab some share here earlier on?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Well, when we think about it today, we have over 2,000 agents that are in place and obviously, the individuals may come through online, they may come through call centers, they're coming through various aspects of it. Clearly, we're seeing the market is strong and preparing for the annual enrollment period in the fourth quarter. And so our combined team under Gene Wickes leadership is really looking at and making sure we're well prepared, given the market dynamics that are in place and working with all the leaders associated with it. So we definitely see opportunity and we think we're well prepared for it. And we feel good about the size of our organization to support that growth.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Yeah, I mean I think that's the key, we think we're prepared to handle the growth that's out there and so we feel good.
Mark Hughes -- SunTrust -- Director
Understood. Final question, is there any concentration among the carrier partners you work with TRANZACT. Do you -- is there any goal of increasing the breadth of the carrier partners?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
You don't look at it -- we will continue to evaluate it. I mean, we'll do that with that leadership team. I mean you want to be smart about doing anything we're coming up to the annual enrollment period. I know, obviously we just closed the transaction yesterday so we'll continue-- I know Gene and the team will evaluate that and all opportunities that are out there and will consider what makes sense.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Having said that, we like the way things are set now, so I wouldn't expect in this to see any changes. Well, I mean we'll always continue to evaluate it.
Mark Hughes -- SunTrust -- Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Meyer Shields of KBW. Your line is open.
Meyer Shields -- Keefe, Bruyette & Woods -- Managing Director
Great, thanks, good morning. John I was hoping you could talk about the thought process underlying the changing exposure to incentive payments for the TRANZACT deal?
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Yes. So look, I think from our standpoint, we had a -- we've got some certainty in the payments that we were making there and we feel pretty good about getting that because, frankly we're pretty bullish on TRANZACT. And so we felt that this serves us better doing that. I think, as it in all different cases, it has to be something that works for both sides, but I think the other side, like the idea of getting some certainty and what they had too and so we were able to come to an agreement on that and we're delighted.
Meyer Shields -- Keefe, Bruyette & Woods -- Managing Director
Okay, understood that. Also, maybe this is a question for Mike. Can we get an update on the margin expansion initiatives specific to CRB?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I think if we went back to the last quarter con call, we had touched on the area that we would consistently see improvement in CRB margins and that's what we continue to see. So we're up one point in the current quarter. Todd and the team are working that and as I said, it going to see some giant ramp ups just slow and steady, and continue to see that progress. And I think that's what you're seeing in the 1% growth this quarter.
Meyer Shields -- Keefe, Bruyette & Woods -- Managing Director
Okay, thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Uran Kinar [Phonetic] of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Good morning. First question, just going back to the ASC 606 catch-up, can you quantify what the dollar impact was?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
It was roughly $23 million.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And then going back...
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
But we roughly offsets the pension.
Unidentified Participant
All right. Okay and in-line with prior guidance, I guess for the quarter, then on free cash flow, I guess on-- previous question around 15% growth this year. I think, I've heard you kind of moving elements in the second half of the year and I fully recognize that second half tends to be much larger. But can you confirm that you're still expecting 15% or greater growth this year?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Look -- we -- that's what we are working toward. We know it's a challenge, just like it was for us last year in terms of moving in that direction. We have the entire team, very focused on it, like we did similar to last year. But yes, it is a challenge for us and we recognize that. And that's we're going to work our tails off as a collective team does do everything we can to achieve that.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And then finally, the TRANZACT revenues. They will not be going through organic this coming year, right? There is -- they're going to come in through the quired?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
That's correct.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you very much. Best of luck.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Brian Meredith of UBS. Your line is open.
Brian Meredith -- UBS -- Managing Director
Yeah, thanks. One quick numbers question and one more broader question. First just quickly, numbers. Mike, does the Stanford litigation payments, that still factored in free cash flow guidance for this year?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes, as of right now, it is. We're continuing to work on that, if that changes, we will update you.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Yeah, by the way, the Stanford payment may occur this year, but it may not also.
Brian Meredith -- UBS -- Managing Director
Well, I guess the question would be if free cash flow growth be greater than the 15% without Stanford?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. I mean right now, we have always looked at-- you had the integration costs rolling in, you had Stanford coming in there, you got a mix of things in there. We've always said, 15% was kind of where we were and if we were lucky and we'd be better.
Brian Meredith -- UBS -- Managing Director
Got you, terrific. And then, just quickly, I'm just curious. You briefly talked a little bit about pricing, what you're seeing in pricing and commercial insurance, great growth obviously in the Wholesale at Miller's. What impact are you seeing from a revenue perspective from pricing. And perhaps maybe, do we see that potentially having a better impact going forward, particularly from Millers, as you start to see maybe capital freed up at Lloyd's.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Well, I think -- look we're, this is a better environment than we've had for a while. We've had these years of the rates going down and now we're seeing those lines. Workers' comp is probably one of the key examples, workers' comp and international liability are the ones that-- where we're seeing rates going down, continuing but the rest of them, we're seeing some pricing uplift and that's probably good news for the insurance industry. For a long time insurers where really competing for market share by driving down prices, and they probably got something that wasn't really that sustainable so, that's why we're seeing some of these rate increases.
For us, it's one of the things we have to do in the face of rate increases, see what we can do to get as good a bargain for our clients as possible and sometimes that suggests moving some business or looking for other alternatives or maybe buying a little less insurance. So it's not clear. We always get the effect of all the rates. And then sometimes we-- a portion of our business is commission based, a lot of it's in fees also. So it doesn't automatically flow through, but when there is rate increases generally, it does tend to improve our results.
Brian Meredith -- UBS -- Managing Director
Great, thanks for the answer.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Michael Zaremski of Credit Suisse. Your line is open.
Unidentified Participant
Hey, this is actually Charlie in for Mike. Just one quick question, can you guys talk about the mix of cyber business as far as the proportion of consulting versus broking and how this performance or trends in those businesses have been deferring, or what trends you're seeing if there similar. Thanks.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I mean obviously cyber is-- been very strong. It's not huge in terms of the aggregate size. Most of it is been brokering incident and brokering business. It's not to say we aren't doing some consulting but the majority of it is in the brokering business and it continues to grow at double-digit type of numbers but off a small base, but we continue to see that opportunity as the marketplace is looking for that solution and we continue to see that growing in the foreseeable future.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
I guess the only thing I'd add to that is that, and as Mike said, this is-- we're at the beginning stages of this market really growing. But in addition to North America and Great Britain, we're now seeing some good growth in the emerging cyber insurance markets like Western Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And I have a follow-up of Shlomo Rosenbaum of Stifel. Your line is open.
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
Hi, thank you for letting me back in. Hey, first one, I just want to ask Mike, if you could just help us out a little bit more on the TRANZACT acquisition just in terms of modeling, just because-- it seems like there is an outsized contribution in 2019, because you're going to have a really big fourth quarter and not really get the losses that you would get for most of the rest of the year. Would you be able to just kind of help us in terms of contribution that you're expecting in earnings specifically from the acquisition. If we were to have it for the whole year, what it would be, so that we can kind of model this appropriately for 2020.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Shlomo, I think your premise is right, obviously we're not having 12 months of expenses for it since we closed on at the end of July here and would have only that portion of expenses and obviously, most of the revenue as we touched on is coming through the [Indecipherable] period. We had set total growth at 7% to 8%. We said we're at 4% to 5% in terms of organic growth. Obviously that's not 100% the numbers but it gives you good direction to it and most of that is coming in the fourth quarter in terms of what's to be in place and maybe you could-- Rich will follow back up with you any further questions you may have.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
I mean the only other thing, Shlomo, and we're really not in a position to go through with a lot of detail as Mike is saying right now, but I would say this and I think I've mentioned this in response to an earlier question. Most of the earnings guidance-- the earnings increase that we put for guidance, that's almost all due to TRANZACT.
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
Okay, all right I'm going to follow up afterwards also just to see if I can pull that little bit out there and then just...
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
I mean, we recognize that it's a little difficult because, as Mike said, your premise is right, the money is made in the fourth quarter and you have some losses in the beginning, but we just don't really feel we're in a position to do that right now. That's something we'll do in the 2020 guidance.
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
Okay. And then, just wanted to ask one, John, just following up on Meyer's question on the renegotiation of the terms. Do you feel like you can hold to seller's feet to the fire with earn out being all the way down to like 17 million [Phonetic] or so. I mean it seems like the kind of -- I understand. They're taking a lower purchase price, but that why would, if there is the same kind of confidence on your side as there is on their side to execute the way that they would, it's only a 2020 target. You are only talking about 18 months later, it just seems interesting that they're reducing their-- almost their entire risk to that.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Yeah, I mean I would say two things though. One is, I think they did very, very well already on the TRANZACT acquisition and getting rid of that and if they have the money right away in some certainty around it, then they can invest that and so that gives them some other opportunities. I think you will have to ask them exactly why they wanted to do what they wanted to do. But for us, TRANZACT is ahead of where we thought they would be and we feel good about where they are and so it was something that-- we were happy to do that. The management team at TRANZACT is still on the original deal that we had and the original incentives. So we feel that with them, with no change to their earn out at all, we feel very good about that.
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Elyse Greenspan with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Hi, thanks for taking my question again. Just a few number related questions. First off, in terms of the Rev Rec in HCB coming back, you got 23 million this quarter. So is the assumption is still that the remaining 25 would come in the third quarter?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Most of it, yes.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Almost all of it, yeah, the vast majority of it.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. And then in terms of the minority interest ticked up to 11 million in the quarter. Is there anything that cause that to just tick up from where it had been trending? And then, what-- within that line item, how should we think about modeling forward?
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
I mean, what drove that was Miller specifically, and yeah, I think that's the right model going forward. Again, if you want, Rich, can give you some more thoughts on that, but that's-- Miller was the main driver there.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. And then in terms of-- a couple of questions on the BDA segment margin. So first off, on the legacy BDA before TRANZACT you guys have shown-- I know obviously you-- the margins are negative in that segment for the first three quarters, but they've actually been trending better year-over-year, less negative. Would you expect that to continue in the third quarter on the legacy BDA business? And then, do you still expect TRANZACT to run at about a 25% margin, which is what you said when the deal was announced.
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I mean, Elyse, just as it relates to the overall margins and BDA, we've really gotten away from giving any segment guidance. We've said overall that we'll get our operating income around 20% but we continue to focus on improvements in that business and the leadership team. We will continue to do that. So there is still opportunity there but I'd put it in that particular context.
And your second question, as it relates to TRANZACT, we see that as consistent with what we see for the overall company is in that type of range.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
And the only other thing may be Elyse, I would add to that is that we were looking to get margin improvement everywhere and BDA is no different than that, 600 basis points is a lot so I wouldn't necessarily assume that we'll continue to get 600 basis points.
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Okay, that's very helpful. I appreciate the color, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And this concludes the Q&A portion of today's conference. I'd like to turn the call back to Mr Haley for closing comments.
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Okay, great. Thanks everyone for joining us this morning and we look forward to updating you on our third quarter call. In the fall. Have a good day.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks].
Duration: 52 minutes
Call participants:
John J. Haley -- Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Michael J. Burwell -- Chief Financial Officer
Unidentified Speaker
Shlomo Rosenbaum -- Stifel Nicolaus -- Managing Director
Mark Marcon -- R.W. Baird -- Senior Research Analyst
Elyse Greenspan -- Wells Fargo -- Equity Research Analyst
Marcos Holanda Jr -- Raymond James -- Equity Research Associate
Mark Hughes -- SunTrust -- Director
Meyer Shields -- Keefe, Bruyette & Woods -- Managing Director
Unidentified Participant
Brian Meredith -- UBS -- Managing Director
