Following is the transcript of the announcement of West Corp (NASDAQ:WSTC) of the sale of several of its agent services businesses in a definitive agreement with Alorica, Inc., made on Thursday, January 8, 2015, 11:00 AM ET.The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
West Corporation (NASDAQ:WSTC) is a publicly traded telecommunications service provider. For over 25 years, it has been a global provider of reliable and high-quality communication and network infrastructure solutions. The company has an international client base, with employees throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.
Host:
Dave Pleiss, Vice President of Investor Relations, West Corporation
Company Representatives:
Tom Barker – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
Analysts:
Sara Gubins – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Gary Bisbee – RBC Capital Markets
William Warmington, Jr. – Wells Fargo Securities, LLC
Adam Dahms – Robert W. Baird& Co.
S.K. Prasad Borra – Goldman Sachs
Dmitry Netis – William Blair& Company.
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the West Corporation call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session with instructions following at that time. (Operator Instructions.) As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce you to the Vice President of Investor Relations of West Corporation, Dave Pleiss. Please go ahead.
Dave Pleiss, Vice President of Investor Relations, West Corporation
Good morning and thank you for joining us to discuss West Corporation’s divestiture of several of our agent services businesses. If you have not received a copy of yesterday’s press release, you can find one on our website at west.com. Before we begin, I would like to note that this call contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Federal Securities Laws. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected. Listeners to the call are advised to review the risk factors contained in our most recent form 10-K for additional information regarding such risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call.
In this call management, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the press release. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Tom Barker, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Tom Barker,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
Thanks, Dave. Good morning everybody. Thanks for joining us today in the call in such short notice. Also those of you on the webcast. We would like to take this opportunity to walk you through some of the details of yesterday’s announcement. As I hoped you saw in the press release, we entered into an agreement to sell several of our agent services businesses to Alorica, a large provider of customer management outsourcing solutions. The businesses we are selling include our consumer facing, customer sales, and life cycle management companies, account services and receivable management businesses for $275 million. This is an all cash offer. There are no financing contingencies, but it is subjected to the customary closing conditions.
We expect this transaction to close in the first quarter of 2015. West Corporation ran a very thorough robust process with many potential buyers, both strategic and financial. The bid process was highly competitive. We think the timing was right, with good valuations in the marketplace and we are happy with the results and confident that our clients-employees will be wellserved by the team at Alorica. These are great businesses that Alorica is buying. We are proud of the reputation we have built in this industry. Our team here has really delivered on building and running these businesses for over 25 years and I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them.
West Corporation’s strategy of diversifying from an agent centric model to a more technology enabled, less labor intensive business began over 10 years ago with our acquisition of InterCall in 2003. We have completed over 30 acquisitions in the past ten years, but this time is different. We are continuing the strategy by divesting and we think that divesting these businesses will accelerate the transformation of our company. These are really good companies. But when we compare the growth and profitability of the businesses we are selling, they are just not as attractive to us as other line businesses.
