Altisource Portfolio Solutions (ASPS) Q4 2025 earnings call transcript

I'd now like to hand the conference over to Michelle Esterman, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Thank you, Operator. We first want to remind you that the earnings release and quarterly slides are available on our website at www. altisource. com. These provide additional information investors may find useful. Our remarks today include forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ.

Please review the forward-looking statements section in the company's earnings release and quarterly slides, as well as the risk factors contained in our 2025 Form 10-K. These describe some factors that may lead to different results. We undertake no obligation to update statements, financial scenarios, and projections previously provided or provided herein as a result of a change in circumstances, new information, or future events. During this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. In our earnings release and quarterly slides, you will find additional disclosures regarding the non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in the appendix to the quarterly slides.

Joining me for today's call is Bill Shepro, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Bill.

Thanks, Michelle, and good morning. I'll begin on slide four with our 2025 highlights. We are pleased with our full year 2025 results. We grew service revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and GAAP earnings compared to 2024. These improvements reflect discipline execution, lower interest expense, and strong sales wins across both business segments. The strong sales wins, including fourth quarter wins estimated to generate $13.2 million in stabilized annual revenue, should put us in a strong position to mitigate the impact of anticipated legacy revenue losses, materially diversify ALTISOURCE's revenue base, and support our growth. We are particularly excited by the growth of our HUBZU inventory from recent sales wins.

HUBZU's foreclosure auction and REO inventory grew by 137% since the end of the third quarter to 13,500 assets as of mid-February.

Turning to slide five, service revenue for 2025 increased by 7% to $161.3 million, with sales wins in both segments contributing to the growth. The business segments adjusted EBITDA improved by $3 million, or 7%, to $47.6 million, and total company adjusted EBITDA improved by $900,000, or 5%, to $18.3 million, driven by higher revenue, partially offset by revenue mix, and modestly higher corporate costs.

Moving to slide six, we improved total company 2025 gap loss before income taxes to $14.1 million from $32.9 million in 2024. This was primarily driven by lower interest expense from the new capital structure, partially offset by $3.6 million of debt exchange transaction expenses and a $7.5 million loss from a legacy litigation settlement. 2025 net cash used and operating activities would have been close to zero if you exclude the debt exchange transaction expenses and million of higher first quarter cash interest expense related to the prior debt agreement Adjusting for these items, net cash used in operating activities improved by approximately $60 million over the last five years.

We ended the year with $26.6 million in unrestricted cash. Turning to slide 7, fourth quarter 2025 service revenue was $39.9 million, up 4% from the fourth quarter of last year, driven by growth in the origination segment. The fourth quarter 2025 business segment adjusted EBITDA of $11.4 million was flat to the fourth quarter 2024, while higher fourth quarter 2025 corporate segment costs resulted in total company adjusted EBITDA of $4 million for the quarter. The corporate segment's costs were $700,000 higher than the prior year, primarily from foreign currency fluctuations. Our fourth quarter gap loss before income taxes and non-controlling interests improved to $8.1 million from $8.4 million in the fourth quarter 2024, primarily from lower interest expense, partially offset by a $7.5 million loss from a legacy litigation settlement.

Before turning to the segment updates, I want to address developments related to RYTHM and ONDI. As we discussed last quarter, the cooperative brokerage agreement between ALTISOURCE and RHYTHM, which I'll refer to as the CBA, expired on August 31, 2025. Despite the expiration of the CBA, at RHYTHM's discretion, we continue to manage CBA REO assets and receive new referrals with limited exceptions. From a 2026 guidance perspective, which I'll review shortly, we assume that this business will roll off during the first half of this year.

With respect to Ownity, Rhythm provided notice in the fourth quarter that it is terminating its servicing agreements with Ownity. As the service transfers occur, we expect a reduction in our foreclosure trustee, title, and field service referrals from Ownity tied to these portfolios. Our 2026 guidance assumes that the ownity-serviced, rhythm-owned MSRs transferred to Rhythm during the first half of this year.

Although we would prefer to retain this business, we believe that our sales wins, once stabilized, should more than offset the anticipated reduction in service revenue and EBITDA from the Rhythm and Ownity-related changes. As a result, the midpoint of our 2026 guidance reflects service revenue growth and close to flat adjusted EBITDA, with Rhythm and Ownity representing a significantly smaller share of our revenue base by the fourth quarter of 2026.

Turning to slide eight in our counter-cyclical servicer and real estate segment, 2025 service revenue of $126 million increased 5% from last year, reflecting a full year of the newer renovation business and growth across foreclosure trustee, granite, and field services, partially offset by fewer home sales in the marketplace business. 2025 servicer and real estate segment adjusted EBITDA increased by 6% to $44.6 million, with adjusted EBITDA margins higher due to revenue mix.

Slide 9 summarizes our servicer and real estate segment wins and pipeline. In 2025, we won an estimated $20.6 million in annualized stabilized service revenue wins, including $11.5 million in fourth quarter wins. Two of the larger fourth quarter wins were in our higher margin marketplace business unit which we also refer to as HUBZU The first was an REO asset management and foreclosure auction agreement with a residential loan servicer and the second a CWCOT first chance foreclosure auction agreement with an existing customer We ended the year with a service-earned real estate segment total weighted average sales pipeline of $19.3 million on a stabilized basis. The pipeline includes a couple of larger opportunities for our trustee and title businesses that we are optimistic should close in the second quarter, if not sooner.

Turning to slide 10 in our growing HUBZU inventory, we onboarded the two new HUBZU wins I just discussed and are off to a strong start. As of February 15th, total HUBZU inventory stands at 13,500 assets compared to 5,700 assets as of September 30th of last year. These two wins were significant contributors to this growth. We anticipate revenue from these customers to grow during the year as REO and foreclosure referrals proceed to sale.

Moving to slide 11 and our origination segment, 2025 service revenue grew 16% to $35.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 19% to $2.9 million, with margins improving modestly. Service revenue growth was driven by continued expansion in the LendersOne business, including onboarding the forecasted $11.2 million in third quarter wins. Due to these wins, the origination segment service revenue growth accelerated in the fourth quarter, increasing 40% year-over-year.

For 2026, we anticipate strong year-over-year service revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth for the origination segment, as recently won business continues to grow and scale, and we convert our sales pipeline to wins.

Slide 12 outlines our origination segment sales wins and pipeline. We secured an estimated $1.8 million in wins, primarily in LendersOne, and ended the year with an estimated $14.9 million weighted average sales pipeline. We are actively engaging with several large prospects and anticipate additional wins in the first half of 2026.

Turning to slide 13 in our corporate segment, 2025 corporate-adjusted EBITDA loss was $29.3 million. $1,000, reflecting a year-over-year increase in costs primarily related to non-recurring benefits in the first quarter of 2024 and higher foreign currency expenses in 2025. We believe corporate costs should remain relatively stable as revenue grows.

Moving to slide 14 and the business environment. We've been operating in a challenging environment with both low delinquency rates and origination volume, though recent indicators are improving. 90-plus-day mortgage delinquency rates modestly increased to 1.45% in December 2025. As of December 31, 2025, there were 560,000 late-stage delinquent mortgages, the highest level since February 2023. In 2025, foreclosure starts grew by 25%, and foreclosure sales grew by 17% compared to 2024, although still significantly below pre-pandemic levels.

We believe the increase over 2024 reflects the end of the voluntary VA foreclosure moratoriums, rising FHA delinquency rates, and a softening real estate market. We anticipate that borrowers may face additional pressure in 2026 given the fourth quarter implementation of the April 2025 FHA mortgagee letter that extends the time between loan modifications from every 18 months to every 24 months For the origination market total 2025 mortgage origination unit volume increased 19 driven by a 92 increase in refinance volume partially offset by a 2 decline in purchase volume For 2026, the MBA projects 5.8 million loans originated or 7% year-over-year growth, with a forecasted 8% increase in refinance volume and a 6% increase in purchase volume.

Turning to slide 15 and our 2026 outlook, we are forecasting service revenue of $165 million to $185 million and adjusted EBITDA of $15 to $20 million. At the midpoint, this represents 8.5% service revenue growth and close to flat adjusted EBITDA. Revenue growth assumptions include roughly flat industry-wide delinquency rates, the MBA's forecasted origination volume growth, and our estimated timing for the onboarding and ramp of sales wins, conversion of pipeline opportunities, and price increases for certain services, Partially offset by the assumed loss of business related to the CBA and RHYTHM's termination of its servicing agreements with Onity.

The projected adjusted EBITDA reflects forecasted service revenue growth and scale efficiencies partially offset by product mix and modest growth in corporate segment costs. The forecast range for service revenue and adjusted EBITDA primarily reflects timing differences in the potential loss of business related to the CBA and owner-e-service transfer and the ramp in business from sales winds and pipeline conversion.

At the midpoint of the guidance, we are forecasting to generate positive operating cash flow for the year. Moving to slides 16 and 17, our 2026 outlook is supported by momentum in the businesses we believe offer the greatest long-term growth potential. Lenders 1, HUBZU Marketplace, foreclosure trustee, title, granite, renovation, and field services. The anticipated growth of these businesses forms the foundation for ALTISOURCE's Project 45 strategic initiatives. Our company-wide objective to achieve a run rate of $45 million in adjusted EBITDA by the fourth quarter of 2028.

While individual businesses and support group contributions to this initiative may vary, we believe the businesses we identified best position ALTISOURCE for meaningful, diversified growth. Turning to slide 18, we believe we are positioned to diversify our revenue base, ramp newly won business, maintain cost discipline, and lower corporate interest expense in 2026. The Project 45 initiatives, supported by our 2025 sales wins, should help mitigate the impact from anticipated rhythm-related revenue losses and support a stronger, more resilient ALTISOURCE. I am proud of what the team has accomplished in 2025 and am excited about our prospects for 2026 and beyond. I will now open up the call for questions. Operator?

I'd like to turn the call back to Bill Sheprow for closing remarks. Thank you, Operator. We're pleased with our 2025 performance and believe we're set up well for continued growth. Thanks for joining our call today. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.