QuintilesIMS Reports First-Quarter 2017 Results and Raises Full-Year 2017 Adjusted Diluted EPS Guida

• $1,911 million GAAP revenue; $1,917 million before merger-related deferred revenue adjustment
• $467 million Adjusted EBITDA
• GAAP Diluted Earnings per Share $0.31; Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share $1.01
• $1.3 billion in share repurchases completed during the first quarter
• Full-year guidance reaffirmed for Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA; raised for Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share

Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: Q), a leading global provider of information, technology services and contract research to the healthcare and life sciences industries, today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2017. On October 3, 2016, the merger of Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc. and IMS Health Holdings, Inc. was completed. To aid investors and analysts with year-over-year comparability for the merged business, we are including company financial information that combines the stand-alone Quintiles and IMS Health financial information for revenue and Adjusted EBITDA as if the merger had taken place on January 1, 2016, with conforming adjustments to the current year presentation.

First-Quarter 2017 Operating Results

Revenue for the first quarter of $1,911 million increased 74.4 percent on a constant currency basis and 72.5 percent on a reported basis, compared to the first quarter of 2016. Under purchase accounting rules, a portion of IMS Health’s deferred revenue, which would have otherwise been realized as revenue in future periods, must be eliminated. Excluding this $6 million of deferred revenue adjustment, and on a combined company basis, revenue for the first quarter of $1,917 increased 3.1 percent on a constant currency basis and 2.0 percent at actual FX rates.

Combined company Research & Development Solutions revenue of $866 million grew 4.3 percent on a constant currency basis and 3.0 percent at actual FX rates. Growth was offset by the closing of an early clinical development facility in Europe during 2016. Research & Development Solutions contracted net new business totaled $4.08 billion for the 12 months ended March 31, 2017. Contracted backlog was $9.66 billion at March 31, 2017. The company expects approximately $2.9 billion of this backlog to convert to revenue in the next twelve months.

Combined company Commercial Solutions revenue of $854 million grew 2.4 percent in the first quarter at constant currency and 1.3 percent at actual FX rates. Growth was offset by a more than 50 percent year-over-year decline in the Encore business, a legacy Quintiles provider business that was acquired in 2014.

Combined company Integrated Engagement Services revenue of $198 million was down 0.2 percent at constant currency and down 0.9 percent reported.

"We continue to deliver on our targets, with another quarter of steady financial performance," said Ari Bousbib, chairman and CEO, QuintilesIMS. "We are pleased with our progress in R&D Solutions as the Next-Gen clinical offering is gaining traction and driving significant client wins."

First-quarter 2017 Adjusted EBITDA was $467 million. GAAP net income was $74 million and GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.31. Adjusted Net Income was $238 million. Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share of $1.01 in the first quarter was above the company’s previous guidance, driven by operational performance. Share repurchases and financings completed during the quarter had no net impact on first-quarter Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share.

Recent Events

During the first quarter, QuintilesIMS issued €1.425 billion of senior notes due 2025 with an interest rate of 3.25 percent. In addition, the company also refinanced its term B loan in which the maturity was extended to 2024.

Financial Position

As of March 31, 2017, cash and cash equivalents were $862 million and the principal amount of debt was $8,383 million, resulting in net debt of $7,520 million. At the end of the first quarter, QuintilesIMS’s Gross Leverage Ratio was 4.3 times, and Net Leverage Ratio was 3.8 times trailing 12-month combined company Adjusted EBITDA.

Share Repurchase

On March 3, 2017, QuintilesIMS settled a transaction to repurchase $750 million of stock from two of the company’s private equity sponsors, and the founder of the legacy Quintiles organization. The company also repurchased $550 million of its stock in the open market toward the end of the quarter, for a total repurchase of $1.3 billion during the first quarter of 2017. QuintilesIMS has $231 million of share repurchase authorization remaining.

2017 Full-Year and Second-Quarter 2017 Guidance

Full-year 2017 guidance is reaffirmed for revenue of $8,000 million to $8,100 million and reaffirmed for Adjusted EBITDA of $2,000 million to $2,100 million. Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share is raised to $4.45 to $4.60, reflecting the benefit of incremental first-quarter share repurchases offset by the cost of incremental financings.

For the second quarter, QuintilesIMS expects revenue between $1,930 million and $1,970 million, Adjusted EBITDA between $470 million and $490 million and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share between $1.02 and $1.07.

This financial guidance assumes current foreign currency exchange rates remain in effect for the remainder of the year. Revenue guidance excludes reimbursed expenses.

Webcast & Conference Call Details

QuintilesIMS will host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time today to discuss its first-quarter 2017 financial results and 2017 guidance. To participate, please dial 1-800-408-6335 in the United States and Canada or +1-303-223-2686 outside the United States approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the call. The conference call and a presentation will be accessible live via webcast on the Investors section of the QuintilesIMS website.

About QuintilesIMS

QuintilesIMS (NYSE: Q) is a leading integrated information and technology-enabled healthcare service provider worldwide, dedicated to helping its clients improve their clinical, scientific and commercial results. Formed through the merger of Quintiles Transnational and IMS Health, QuintilesIMS’s approximately 50,000 employees conduct operations in more than 100 countries. Companies seeking to improve real-world patient outcomes through treatment innovations, care provision and access can leverage QuintilesIMS’s broad range of healthcare information, technology and service solutions to drive new insights and approaches. QuintilesIMS provides solutions that span clinical to commercial, bringing customers a unique opportunity to realize the full potential of innovations and advanced healthcare outcomes.

As a global leader in protecting individual patient privacy, QuintilesIMS uses healthcare data to deliver critical, real-world disease and treatment insights. Through a wide variety of privacy-enhancing technologies and safeguards, QuintilesIMS protects individual privacy while managing information to drive healthcare forward. These insights and execution capabilities help biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers, government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders in the development and approval of new therapies, and to identify unmet treatment needs and understand the safety, effectiveness and value of pharmaceutical products in improving overall health outcomes.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "see," "will," "would," "target," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Actual results may differ materially from our expectations due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, that our ability to integrate the legacy IMS Health and Quintiles businesses successfully and to achieve anticipated cost savings and other synergies; the possibility that other anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction will not be realized, including without limitation, anticipated revenues, expenses, earnings and other financial results, and growth and expansion of the combined company’s operations, and the anticipated tax treatment; possible disruptions from the combination of IMS Health and Quintiles through a "merger of equals" business combination that could harm our businesses, including current plans and operations; our ability to retain, attract and hire key personnel; potential adverse reactions or changes to relationships with clients, employees, suppliers or other parties resulting from the merger; that most of our contracts may be terminated on short notice, and we may be unable to maintain large client contracts or to enter into new contracts; our financial results may be adversely affected if we underprice our contracts, overrun our cost estimates or fail to receive approval for or experience delays in documenting change orders; imposition of restrictions on our use of data by data suppliers or their refusal to license data to us; failure to meet our productivity objectives; failure to successfully invest in growth opportunities; imposition of restrictions on our current and future activities under data protection and privacy laws; breaches or misuse of our or our outsourcing partners’ security or communication systems; hardware and software failures, delays in the operation of our computer and communications systems or the failure to implement system enhancements; consolidation in the industries in which our clients operate; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and our susceptibility to claims by others that we are infringing on their intellectual property rights; the risks associated with operating on a global basis, including fluctuations in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar, and the ability to successfully hedge such risks; general economic conditions in the markets in which we operate, including financial market conditions; and our ability to successfully integrate, and achieve expected benefits from, our acquired businesses. For a further discussion of the risks relating to the combined company’s business, see the "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2016, filed with the SEC, as such factors may be amended or updated from time to time in our subsequent periodic and other filings with the SEC. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in our filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement after the date of this release, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Note on Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Non-GAAP results, such as Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted EPS, are presented only as a supplement to the company’s financial statements based on GAAP. Non-GAAP financial information is provided to enhance understanding of the company’s financial performance, but none of these non-GAAP financial measures are recognized terms under GAAP, and non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute analysis for, the company’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. Definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are provided within the schedules attached to this release. The company uses non-GAAP measures in its operational and financial decision making, and believes that it is useful to exclude certain items in order to focus on what it regards to be a more reliable indicator of the underlying operating performance of the business. As a result, internal management reports feature non-GAAP measures which are also used to prepare strategic plans and annual budgets and review management compensation. The company also believes that investors may find non-GAAP financial measures useful for the same reasons, although investors are cautioned that non-GAAP financial measures are not a substitute for GAAP disclosures.

Certain forward-looking guidance measures are provided on a non-GAAP basis because the company is unable to reasonably predict certain items contained in the GAAP measures. Such items include, but are not limited to, merger and transaction related expenses, restructuring and related charges, share-based compensation and other items not reflective of the company's ongoing operations.

Non-GAAP measures are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in their evaluation of companies comparable to the company, many of which present non-GAAP measures when reporting their results. Non-GAAP measures have limitations as an analytical tool. They are not presentations made in accordance with GAAP, are not measures of financial condition or liquidity and should not be considered as an alternative to profit or loss for the period determined in accordance with GAAP or operating cash flows determined in accordance with GAAP. Non-GAAP measures are not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. As a result, you should not consider such performance measures in isolation from, or as a substitute analysis for, the company’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP.

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