Lisa Wardell
Analyst · First Analysis. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Beth. Good afternoon, everyone and thank you for joining us on today’s call. Before I begin, I want to say a special and heartfelt thank you to Joan Walter as she leaves Adtalem for her dedication to our mission and her many years of service leading our Investor Relations efforts. Beth Coronelli recently joined in a new role as Vice President of Investor Relations and Finance Operations. Welcome Beth. I took on the CEO role 18 months ago. During that time, our focus has been to transform Adtalem, taking steps to stabilize and grow, streamline the organization, diversify our revenue sources and expand our presence within our core verticals, medical and healthcare, professional education and technology and business with the top priority being to create a culture focused on our students’ superior outcomes and academic excellence at all of our institutions. During the last 1.5 year across our portfolio of institutions and companies, we have launched student commitments, including 85/15 federal funding limit, introduce new programs aligned to the needs of employers, re-branded and elevated how we differentiate our programs. In short, we have the right leadership team in place, diligently managed our costs, realigned the organization to build a differentiated portfolio of quality institutions and companies in growth-oriented sectors that increased our long-term revenue potential, and signed an agreement to transfer ownership of DeVry University. We have accomplished these priorities while demonstrating the resiliency of our team and their complete dedication to serving our students in tough circumstances as we saw this past fall in response to the hurricanes which hit our Caribbean medical schools. At Adtalem, we transition to a portfolio management approach in which we align strategic and investment objectives, establish targets, focus on improving return on invested capital and balance risk against performance. We have elevated our culture into one that’s driven by transparency accountability and performing to meet our financial and operating goals, while never losing sight of serving our students and demanding excellent academic quality. For me, financial performance and academic excellence are completely aligned. If we put student success first, superior financial performance will follow. Our agreement to transfer ownership of DeVry University and Keller Graduate School of Management announced in December represents another major step in our transformation. We are pleased to partner with Cogswell Education, which brings significant experience in higher education and a very strong commitment to DeVry students’ admission to deliver high-quality programs. We will continue to actively manage our portfolio and seek avenues to expand within our core verticals, with an emphasis on diversifying, growing strategically and further enhancing our margins and returns. Before I turn the call over to Pat, I will provide an update on our portfolio. We have good news to share this quarter and in areas with our challenges, we continue to position the organization for return to organic growth and improved operating results. We now drive 60% of our revenue from our medical and healthcare segment, while 21% is generated from technology and business and 11% comes from professional education. In our medical and healthcare segment, the performance of our medical schools in the Caribbean has been solid given the adversity faced as a result of the hurricanes last fall. The American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and Ross University School of Medicine Communities represent a determined, talented and hardworking group of students, faculty and colleagues. By early January, both universities were able to complete the September semester serving students in alternative locations. In January, we resumed teaching first, second and third semester students at AUC back in St. Martin. Fourth and fifth semester AUC students remain in the UK on the campus of University of Central Lancashire. As Ross continues to rebuild from the damage caused by Hurricane Maria, our students now have been temporarily relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee at a campus owned by Lincoln Memorial University. Ross is using its own medical sciences curriculum and faculty, while making use of dedicated classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices at LMU. We are continuing to work to assess the damage to our campus in Dominica and the facilities and services of the island, but it’s going to take some time given the extent of the damage. Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine continues to perform well with growth in total student enrollment year-over-year. The team is executing on its plan to differentiate the veterinary in both medical schools with the core goal of increasing international students. Chamberlain University continues to perform well as it leverages its strong reputation, program offerings and network of alumni. Chamberlain has numerous partnerships to address the increasing demand for highly qualified healthcare professionals. The new campus in New Orleans is planned to open in May pending regulatory approval and we will continue to explore opportunities to open campuses in other states with demonstrated demand. From a program perspective, Chamberlain’s family nurse practitioner track of the Master of Science in Nursing program continues to receive a high volume of inquiries, along with strong ongoing retention from existing students. Other tracks within the Master of Science in Nursing program are also in demand and growing. With regard to new programs, the University’s Master of Public Health program was launched in July 2017 and has received approval to begin the programmatic accreditation process. Chamberlain is working to introduce additional degree of certificate program to meet the growing need for healthcare professionals. In professional education, the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, ACAMS, is showing strong performance as we continue to make inroads into the large global market for accounting fraud prevention. We recently announced reaching the significant milestone of 60,000 members worldwide, up from 37,000 members when it became a part of Adtalem in July of 2016. ACAMS has experienced particularly strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region as well as solid gains generated through expanding business-to-business partnership in Europe. As we drive the top line through increased scale across our membership certification and conference revenue stream and further localize our product offerings in key regions, ACAMS is positioned for increased operating leverage and margin expansion, especially given its asset-light model. At Becker, we have a new President in place and are focused on leveraging the institution’s strong brand, deep industry contacts and solid competitive position to develop new revenue streams and further strengthen our core products. Our team is putting particular emphasis on enhancing Becker’s digital presence and corresponding learning tools. In our technology and business segment, Adtalem Brazil is executing on its plan to strategically launch new programs aimed at addressing supply and demand imbalances across the country. In the distance learning phase, Adtalem Brazil began enrolling students in classes in February for an additional 12 bachelor and associate degree programs, including business, paralegal services and accounting. These programs are being delivered to nearly 200 of Damásio’s 220 learning centers, which have the infrastructure and staff required to support distance learning degrees. Unifavip is being used as the base of the distance learning program because of its recognition as the university center in Brazil. This distinction provides the institution with the flexibility to launch non-restricted undergraduate programs and expedite our rollout of programs to additional locations. During the quarter, our Brazil team also secured university center approval at our Fanor and FBV institutions. These designations will further strengthen our strategic position and ability to leverage our resources and brand. Overall, our outlook in Brazil is strengthening as we see positive indications in new student enrollment and profitability. We are also seeing signs of improving macroeconomic environment. In our U.S. Traditional Postsecondary segment, we saw solid increase in inquiries at Carrington and new student enrollment was up over 7%. This highlights progress in revising the institution’s program offering and marketing effort. The team is also focused on streamlining administrative functions effectively managing the footprint and driving consistency in the curriculum. We have made meaningful strides in building a portfolio focusing growth sectors, pushing for further differentiations, organizing for operational efficiency to drive consistency, diversifying our payer base and transforming to a performance-oriented culture across our portfolio. Looking ahead, our opportunity for value creation comes from continuing to deliver in these areas with clear emphasis on academic excellence and successful student outcomes. I will now turn the call over to Patrick for the financial overview.