West Corp (WSTC) Divestiture of Agent Services Call Transcript

Tom Barker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
There will be some other… our CAPEX gets impacted maybe a little bit because some of the systems and support networks that are going over to Alorica, we are still going to need. We are just going to need on a much smaller scales,so we are going to have to still stand up some support services and systems. Overall, a business with less than 10,000 employees should make us a lot leaner, a lot more nimble, a lot easier to manage especially given the profit dynamics of this business going forward.I would expect overtime this business to have an improving cash flow and profitability dynamics.

Adam Dahms,Robert W. Baird & Co.
Sounds good. It makes sense. Thanks for answering my questions, guys.

Tom Barker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
You bet.

Operator
Your next question comes from the line of S.K. Prasad Borra with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

S.K. Prasad Borra, Goldman Sachs
Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, I just wanted some clarification. Did you say that you are not planning any more divestments?

Tom Barker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
Correct. We said we are happy with the businesses we have and there are no additional divestitures planned at all.

S.K. Prasad Borra, Goldman Sachs
Okay. Probably just to follow on that point, you have ideas of levels of improving your financing, now you reduced the scale of your business, quartered off the lower margin part of the business. Just in terms of the strategy forward, are there any other initiatives left for you guys to think about beyond more[unintelligible – 00:19:58]?

Tom Barker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
There is a lot of them. This is a complicated portfolio of assets. We are in a lot of different markets than we would like to expand our position in public safety, notification and alerts, healthcare, Cloud-based IP communication solutions. We have got a number of fast growing businesses and we are trying to figure out how to accelerate the organic growth rate of this company and improve its profitability.

S.K. Prasad Borra, Goldman Sachs
Okay.

Tom Barker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
No body in here is resting on their laurels. There are plenty for us to do and we are excited about our ability to keep this company growing.

S.K. Prasad Borra, Goldman Sachs
Okay, very clear. Just probably last one. When you think about the margin profile of the agent-related business which has left, you eluded that the margins are more comparable to the group level. What gives you the confidence that you can keep the margins or probably even improve the margins from current levels in these businesses?

Tom Barker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
Well, I did not say we are going to improve the margins in those businesses, although we will certainly strive to. What gives us confidence? We have been running these businesses for a while except for Health Advocate, we have not owned for that long. There is a wonderful diversification of revenue. It is very, very easy to measure the value contribution that these guys have for their clients and this represent unique offers, a very hard-to-find combination of skills and training with the agents, use of analytics, and coupled with the technology and decision-making platform that helped us provide a very valuable service to our clients. It is that kind of value and the efficiencies that West Corporation can help bring to this portfolio of assets that gives us confidence in our ability to throw off good cash, good margins from these three businesses. For two of the three, we’ve managed for quite some time.

S.K. Prasad Borra, Goldman Sachs
Yes. That is very clear. Thanks, Tom.

Tom Barker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, West Corporation
Okay.