Aspen Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASPU) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brett Reiss: Mike, in the four locations other than Phoenix, are you paying at or below market rents right now, do you know?

Michael Mathews: Yes. I mean our €“ the leases in each of our locations were all in kind of the low-20s per square foot. So, it was a fair commercial deal at the time for each of those, and that’s kind of the market rate.

Brett Reiss: Okay. You have touched on this, but I just want to make sure I think I heard it. The release of the $1.5 million of the $5 million restricted cash, the balance of that release is imminent. Did I hear you say that in response to one of the analyst questions?

Michael Mathews: No. The question was, the $1.5 million that has been agreed to be released by the surety bond provider, when is that going to happen, and I said that was imminent. So, that question was regarding the $1.5 million.

Brett Reiss: Alright. What has to happen for the balance to be released?

Michael Mathews: That is a very good question. We €“ once earnings is over with today, we are looking to have some subsequent conversations with the bond provider, now that they have seen our results for the quarter. And we are hopeful that we can convince them to release some more. But I would prefer not to, at this point, indicate either way of how much or when that might happen.

Brett Reiss: Okay. And last one for me. The two qualified investors that invested $5 million apiece in these convertible type notes, what is the status of that investment? And are these people working with you? Are you in compliance with your obligation to them? Could you talk to us a little bit about that?

Michael Mathews: Sure. I don’t €“ this is a convertible note that doesn’t have any covenants as it relates to that. So, there is no compliance issue whatsoever.

Brett Reiss: Okay.

Michael Mathews: And we are making the requisite interest payments each month as required. And the convertible instrument is currently priced at $1 a share. So, they are unlikely, obviously, at this point to convert. So, that’s really it.

Brett Reiss: Great. Thank you for taking my questions.

Michael Mathews: Thank you, Brett. Have a good afternoon.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Mike Grondahl with Northland Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Mike Grondahl: Hey guys. Thanks. And Michael, you said that you got a couple of term sheets on an AR facility earlier, but you didn’t like the terms. Any sense of kind of the range of terms you might be looking at now?

Michael Mathews: No. I mean Mike, just to be clear, the terms that we received from a commercial perspective, there is a pricing and a cost perspective. They were probably okay. They are probably acceptable to the company. But because of the pre-licensure at the time, the pre-licensure probation cause them to add some regulatory covenants that the company was uncomfortable with. We are not €“ we don’t have to worry about that now because of course, we just announced the teach-out and it’s a smooth 1-year to 1.5-year teach-out process. And so that regulatory concern now has been mitigated. So, it was more about covenants as opposed to pricing.

Mike Grondahl: Got it. Okay. And assuming you get this new AR line and assuming you resume this marketing spend and that grows enrollment and revenue growth, what is the rough level of revenue you need to achieve to be EBITDA positive and to kind of begin to throw off cash, if you will?