Second Quarter 2021 Results
Consolidated Results
Total revenue increased 3.9% to $672 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021 from $647 million for the prior year period. The increase was driven by a 5.4% increase in Employer Solutions revenue and a 3.4% increase in Professional Services revenue, partially offset by a 38.9% decline in Hosted Business revenue.
In 2020, Alight began measuring revenue growth as it relates to the cloud-based products and solutions that are central to its Alight Worklife platform and next-generation product suite, BPaaS solutions. These products capitalize on the Company’s robust data combined with artificial intelligence (“AI”) and analytics to deliver greater employee engagement and employer outcomes. BPaaS products and services span across both the Employer Solutions and Professional Services segments of the business. For the three months ended June 30, 2021, BPaaS revenue increased 19.0% to $94 million from the prior year period and represented 14.0% of total revenue.
In addition, Alight also considers bookings, defined as total contract value for customer agreements executed in the period, to be a key indicator of future revenue growth and used as a metric of commercial activity by management and investors. For the three months ended June 30, 2021, total bookings increased 13.9% to $435 million and BPaaS bookings increased 287.1% to $240 million from the prior year period.
Gross profit, inclusive of depreciation and amortization, increased 16.0% to $217 million, or 32.3% of revenue, for the three months ended June 30, 2021 from $187 million, or 28.9% of revenue, in the prior year period. The increase in gross profit was primarily driven by revenue growth as discussed above and lower delivery expenses related to the Company’s cloud-based services and productivity initiatives, including the impact of lower restructuring and integration related costs, partially offset by increases in costs associated with the growth in current and future revenues.
Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased 6.3% to $105 million, or 15.6% of revenue, for the three months ended June 30, 2021 from $112 million, or 17.3% of revenue, in the prior year period. The decrease was primarily driven by lower expenses related to productivity initiatives, including the impact of lower restructuring and integration related costs, partially offset by non-recurring professional expenses related to costs incurred in relation to the Company’s Business Combination Agreement completed in the third quarter of 2021 and higher costs related to investments in commercial functions.
Interest expense increased 15.1% to $61 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021 as compared to the prior year period. The increase was primarily due to incremental interest associated with the additional unsecured and secured senior notes issued in the second half of 2020.
As a result of the above factors, loss before income tax benefit was $6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021 compared to $30 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020.
Income tax benefit was $2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to $5 million in the prior year period. The effective tax rate for the three months ended June 30, 2021 was approximately (34)% and was primarily driven by foreign and state income taxes in jurisdictions where the Company had operations that generated operating income or losses.