Earnings Labs

ATN International, Inc. (ATNI)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Wed, Jul 30, 2014

$28.68

+1.56%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-1.48%

1 Week

-0.08%

1 Month

-1.26%

vs S&P

-3.16%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Atlantic Tele-Network second quarter earnings conference call and webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I'll now introduce your host for today's conference, Justin Benincasa, Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.

Justin D. Benincasa

Analyst

Great. Thank you, Ashley. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our call to review our second quarter and 6 months results. With me here is Michael Prior, ATN's President and Chief Executive Officer. During this call, I'll be covering the relevant financial information and certain operational data; and Michael, as usual, will be providing an update on the business. Before I turn the call over to Michael for his comments, I'd like to point out that this call and our press release contain forward-looking statements concerning our current expectations, objectives and underlying assumptions regarding our future operating results and are subject to the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described. Also, in an effort to provide useful information to investors, our comments today include non-GAAP financial measures. For details on these measures and reconciliation to comparable GAAP measures, and for information regarding the factors that may affect our future operating results, please refer to our earnings release on our website at atni.com or to the 8-K filing provided to the SEC. And so, I'll turn the call over to Michael.

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Thank you, Justin. You all can tell that Justin really enjoys reading that Safe Harbor language every time. Kind of gets the blood doing. I'll start with some highlights for the quarter, which I'm happy to say was another excellent one, resulting in strong year-on-year comparisons for both the second quarter and for the first half of 2014. And of course, as you saw in our release, this is really U.S. Wireless had a tremendous quarter, and it was significantly better than we thought it would be. The primary reason for the continued growth of this business was the same as in the first quarter. Ongoing expansion of our network coverage, capacity and technical capabilities helped produce impressive data volume growth. And as I stated in the release, we are also encouraged with the potential to further enhance the value and relevance of this business by working more closely with our major customers on their longer term need. Outside of this, our largest and most important business, the quarter was mixed, with some successes and some areas that require additional work. All right. With that, I'll turn to some specifics, starting with U.S. Wireless. U.S. Wireless generated 41% revenue growth in the quarter. And as I alluded to earlier, the driver of this increase was markedly higher data traffic volumes. And that's really, to break it down in slightly more detail, it's really 3 factors: It's upgrading our data capacities and 3G capabilities; it's expanding our coverage and number of sites and service; and it's also, of course, the general industry trend of higher data usage per customer. And to put some hard numbers to that, megabytes billed expanded by about 151% year-on-year, and we increased our 3G base stations and service from approximately 40 last year to 260 this…

Justin D. Benincasa

Analyst

Okay, thank you, Michael. So for both the quarter and the 6-month year-to-date, total company revenues were up 16% to $83.3 million and $158.4 million, respectively, which as Michael noted reflected the strong year-on-year growth of the U.S. wireless segment. Revenues in Guyana were down slightly this quarter as growth in data revenues were offset by continued decline in our local and long-distance revenues. Revenues also in Guyana were negatively impacted in the quarter by approximately $450,000 due to roughly 2.5% devaluation in the local currency, and that's over in comparison to a year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased 24% to $34.9 million, giving us an adjusted EBITDA margin of 42%. For the 6 months ended June, EBITDA growth and margins were consistent with those of the second quarter as adjusted EBITDA increased 23% to $63.1 million, and the EBITDA margin was 40%. Moving down the income statement. This quarter's operating income was $21.6 million, up 36% from the same quarter in 2013, outpacing revenue growth by more than twice. This strong performance was driven by a 75% increase in operating income from our domestic wholesale wireless business. Island Wireless posted 11% growth in operating income, benefiting from revenue growth and market share gains, particularly in our small island markets. Lower operating income in our International Telephony segment in the second quarter was due to increased expenses in Guyana and, as Michael mentioned, where our attention will be on a balancing cost reduction efforts with upgrading our competitive positioning. Operating expenses this quarter included $1.3 million of noncash stock-based compensation expense, and that compares to $1.2 million of last year's second quarter. Net income from continuing operations for the quarter was $11.5 million or $0.72 per share. That's up 80% compared to $0.40 per share reported in…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ric Prentiss of Raymond James. Richard H. Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Couple of questions, if I could. First, obviously, the increasing number of base stations on the U.S. wireless business really was one of the components that helped drive big year-over-year revenue growth. When you think about your CapEx guidance, I think it came down $5 million; but, Michael, you also said you like spending money on organic investment. Just trying to square what you're kind of saying to us there.

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Yes. I mean most of that down on the $5 million was outside of U.S. wireless, so that number is fairly consistent. In fact probably it's up a little in the total. Most of the stuff is just other small changes in some of our island properties and in Guyana. Richard H. Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Okay. And when you think about continuing to add then base stations, you got the 654 in the quarter. Any target that you would want to get in the year because you mentioned also some of those upgrading to 3G versus just adding base station? Just trying to think of what else that might help that modest year-over-year revenue growth given the CapEx spend.

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Yes, I mean, we've already -- when we talked about that expectation where you're taking into account, of course, our plan -- and sure, at least, we're already into the third quarter of builds, of course. So we have some pretty good visibility on the build side. As you go farther out in the second half, things could; move a little bit. But I think the bigger issue than the overall number of base stations is the increase of 3G base stations and the use of those, so I think that's probably what you're referring to. And that program, we'll continue to do that wherever and whenever we can. But when we say we -- there's kind of the separation of the short term and the longer term. And I mean, in the short term, we have a plan. We've talked about it in that guidance. I think in the longer term we still see opportunities to deliver a very good value proposition for the big carriers, and we're looking at those, but it's hard to handicap how exactly they'll come in over time. But if we can find opportunities like that to expand this business, we like that. Richard H. Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: One of the large carriers out there has got what they call the whitespace program to try and increase 4G LTE but probably also 3G in some more rural settings. Any thoughts about embracing some of those type programs? Are you on the list to talk to those guys?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Yes, and I don't want to talk about discussions with any individual carriers. But I think we are -- we talk to all the carriers. We have -- at times, one carrier may be looking more strategically than another, but I mean -- we really believe in the model of shared infrastructure in these really sparsely populated remote areas that -- we think it's a -- there's a really great value proposition for the big carriers, but they have to embrace it, and they have to fit it in with other plans. So that's not exactly a straight line. I don't know if that answers your question. Richard H. Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Yes. Yes, it does. And on the expense side, GT&T, addressing the cost side. Obviously, revenues were fairly consistent with what we were looking for, but the EBITDA came in lower on GT&T. When you say addressing them in the near term, do you think that's something you could get fixed within the third quarter? Or is that something you think may slide into 4Q?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Yes. Yes, I think that's going to slide in the 4Q. I mean there's some things that we can do quickly but other things that are going to take some time. An example of that will be postage is up dramatically in the country, and so we're trying to move towards e-billing, if you will, so it's just going to take some time to get adoptions -- adopt -- customers to adopt that practice. Richard H. Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Okay. Final question for you, and then I'll let others in line [ph]. The corporate, kind of the overhead or EBITDA drag was a little bit higher than we were looking for in 2Q. It was certainly up quarter-to-quarter, certainly after quarter-to-quarter quite a bit and up a little bit sequentially. Any thoughts about what the corporate costs might be doing, or whether there are any unusual items in there?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Yes. I mean, I think some of that is -- our engineering group in the U.S. wireless business used to a shared -- be more of a shared cost with the Alltel property, so we probably pulled in more of that than not in the past. You know what I mean? In other words, we've got more cost on books for that. But there's also a lot of shared service cost, so it's not -- I don't that's something that's going to change much moving forward. Richard H. Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Right, so use 2Q more as kind of the more normal rate?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

I believe so, yes.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Barry McCarver of Stephens Inc.

Barry McCarver - Stephens Inc., Research Division

Analyst

So I guess a couple of things. On GT&T, again, you mentioned some of the -- what's happening with the subscriber base here and a need for you to improve services. I guess, first off, what's the consumer spending look like in that market? I mean, economically, how is that country holding up? And then secondly, anything specific that you can point to that you guys are looking at to improve the service there?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Yes, the economics. Economically, to answer the first part of that question, I think Guyana has been growing. I think the consumer spend has not suffered recently. In fact I would say it's improving. It's not dramatic, and we're starting from smaller numbers, but that's not really hurting us, and it may be helping us. Ultimately, I think there's more to come because I think there's a greater -- there's a demand, there's a latent demand there for advanced services. And so for us, that's an important thing for the longer term is to rollout more advanced mobile services as well. But in terms of the near term, it's really the whole customer experience. We think it's not as competitive as it should be, and so that -- that's everything from the retail experience and are -- how effective those channels are to aspects of the -- broader aspect of the customer care envelope. So it's blocking and tackling and -- but I think there's room for improvement, and we will be working hard at it.

Barry McCarver - Stephens Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Okay. And then on the U.S. wireless business, you had a great first quarter, and you suggested then that you wouldn't be able to maintain this type of growth, and now we've done it again in the second quarter. In terms of the volume offset by price breaks, it sounds to me like you're either -- you've seen some contract renegotiations or maybe you're in the middle of those right now. Is that fair?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

I think most of what drives our expectations has already been agreed to and was -- it's a little tricky in terms of timing on how some of these things roll out, and we got that wrong in trying to figure it out for the second quarter, obviously, but -- and there's also always ongoing discussions about bigger things, way to expand the relationship, which can lead to lower prices, because it's a fairly simple equation for us. These are remote areas, and if we are going to invest more or do more, we have to -- there has to be some kind of revenue tie-in to high capital expense business. But if we can get volumes up, we can certainly lower rates, and we need to because I think that's what customers expect.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Hamed Khorsand of BWS Financial.

Hamed Khorsand - BWS Financial Inc.

Analyst

Just to build on this U.S. wireless questions you've been getting. How much of the data growth was coming from the 3G base stations? And can you decipher how much of it was coming from the base stations you added during the quarter?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

No, we can't break it out in more detail. But I think what I said earlier, Hamed, is it definitely -- I think that the expansion of 2G to 3G had a bigger impact than the overall increase in base station numbers.

Hamed Khorsand - BWS Financial Inc.

Analyst

And then given that we're still on warm climate right now, I would imagine you're trying to add as many base station as possible during this quarter. So is there a potential where you're going to see a lot more traffic on the network than you're really expecting right now?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Look, we've baked into what we've said, all the considerations like that. So could it be different than we're forecasting? It could be. But I think certain math, like applying rate decreases against the volume is fairly -- that leads to a big part of our forecast, right? So that shouldn't change. Volumes are harder to grasp, you're right.

Hamed Khorsand - BWS Financial Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And then the other question I had was, given what the climate for acquiring assets being already expensive as to your comments, what's going to happen now that -- with price expectations from sellers given that Windstream is looking at a REIT kind of situation, where valuations could actually increase even further. What does that do to what you guys are looking for investment-wise?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Well, we were in the market for Windstream, but -- joking aside, I think if you are looking at those asset sales some of them may have an opportunity to do that arbitrage and the tax improvement although I think there are many where that would be a lot harder to pull off and not as big of a benefit as it seems to have been at least in the stock price for Windstream. So I don't -- right now, I'm not sure that has a major impact on things we're looking at.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Colin King of Kirr, Marbach & Company. Colin King - Kirr, Marbach & Company, LLC: Just curious on the wrap-up of that fiber expansion. Would you guys expect that U.S. Wireline business to be a positive contributor to operating income sometime over the next few quarters?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

It might be tough over the next few quarters, but I think -- moving into '15, I think it's more likely. It's just that right now we really got all the infrastructure -- once we turned those network up -- I think I've said in the past -- we've got all the cost of supporting infrastructure on that network, and we're still ramping up revenue, but the ramp up in revenue is going to take quarters, not a quarter. So I think it's going to take a little bit of time where it has a benefit to operating income. Colin King - Kirr, Marbach & Company, LLC: Okay, great, that makes sense. And then one question on the M&A. I completely understand your comments on the being patient aspect. Love to hear that. I'm just curious, is there a point where, say, maybe 12 to 18 months out, where you think, hey, we're sitting on half our market cap in cash, and it's been too long, and acquisition prices aren't coming down. Would you start to evaluate other uses of that buyback dividend, what have you? Just curious on if there's a timing aspect to that.

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

Yes, I mean it is a consideration I think the board has to go through periodically is the best answer. And you can't ever just dismiss and say we'll never, ever do it. I think -- right now, we've indicated that's not something we're looking to do or expect to do. And for special dividend, for example, there's some significant tax inefficiencies there. And more broadly, I think we think that being patient is also beneficial to be able to move quickly when the right opportunity drags up. So it's hard to say exactly when that period is where you just conclude, this is not going to change for a long time; we're not going to find anything. We are definitely not at that place right now. I just can't say we could never be. I guess it's theoretically possible.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Shune Hudget [ph] of GSM Capital.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Most of my questions have been covered by now, specifically to the REIT that Windstream's setting up and the dividend possibility and the timeline of acquisitions, which was good. So I just got one then. You've been prepping the markets for the modest increase in year-over-year growth in U.S. wireless. Is modest between 10% and 20% or is it single-digits? Compared to 40% growth, there's a big range of modest growth in there. Could you comment on that?

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

I'm not going to quantify further, and it's partly because, look, we were off of our expectations this quarter. So we want to be careful about indicating a degree of science to it that we might not have. I would say, for me, though it's fair to say that I would think -- if you took that middle ground of 10% to 20% growth, 15% growth, I would not call modest in this business. I would say that's pretty good. It's not what we saw this quarter, which was almost torrid but -- so if that helps, I can tell you that, but part of what you should take from it too in terms of using a word rather than a number is that it's a little hard to get precisely right.

Operator

Operator

I'm not showing any further questions in queue. I'd like to turn the call back to management for any further remarks.

Michael T. Prior

Analyst

No further remarks, operator. Thank you, everyone, and we'll talk to you in another quarter. Take care.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.