Earnings Labs

Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC)

Q4 2007 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 28, 2008

$3.77

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Entravision Communications Corporation fourth quarter earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder this conference is being recorded Thursday, February the 28, 2008. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Walter Ulloa, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead sir.

Walter Ulloa

Management

Thank You, Wayne. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2007 earnings conference call. Joining me today is Philip Wilkinson, our President and Chief Operating Officer and John DeLorenzo, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin I must inform you that this conference will contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Please refer to our SEC filings for the list of risks and uncertainties that could impact actual results. In addition, this call is a property of Entravision Communications Corporation. Any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of this call in any form, without the written consent of Entravision Communications Corporation is strictly prohibited. Also this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures have taken into account the pro forma treatment for the company's sale of its radio assets in Tucson and Dallas during the fourth quarters of 2006 respectively. Whereby the company has elected to eliminate its broadcasting results from those markets for the prior year periods so that year-over-year comparisons will be meaningful. The company has provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in today's press release. The press release is available on the company's website and was filed with the SEC in a Form 8-K. 2007 proved to be a challenging year for our television and radio businesses, while we had a strong first half, specifically in radio, which on a pro forma basis was up 11%, we faced tough comparable due to about $14 million of non-returning World Cup and political revenue in the prior year and a difficult advertising market in the second half of the year. As a result, our pro forma revenues finished flat…

John DeLorenzo

Management

Thank you, Walter, and good afternoon everyone. The company announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its outdoor advertising division to Lamar Advertising Company for $100 million. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing requirements, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2008. Upon closing of the transaction, the Company will no longer have outdoor operations. And in conjunction with the preparation of our financial statements for the three-month and twelve-month period ended December 31, 2007, we are currently in the process of finalizing discontinued operations as it relates to the outdoor unit and related-income taxes. Accordingly, certain numbers presented herein are subject to change upon the conclusion of such assessment. Any change would only affect income tax expense, discontinued operations and net loss, which does not affect operating income. We intend to complete the assessments described above in time to permit a timely filing of our Annual Report for the period ending December 31, 2007. As the outdoor unit has been included in discontinued operations, the following results do not include the outdoor segment. As Walter has discussed, pro forma net revenue for the quarter was $62.5 million, down 2%. Pro forma operating expenses increased 1% to $36.1 million and pro forma consolidated adjusted EBITDA decreased 10% to $23 million. Free cash flow, which we define as consolidated adjusted EBITDA minus capital expenditures, cash interest, cash taxes plus interest income was $0.14 per share, up 8%. Pro forma net revenue for the year was $250 million or flat for the year. Pro forma operating expenses increased to 2% to $143.9 million and pro forma consolidated adjusted EBITDA decreased 4% to $94.1 million. Free cash flow, which we define as consolidated adjusted EBITDA minus capital expenditures, cash interest, cash taxes, plus interest…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Marci Ryvicker of Wachovia Securities. Please go ahead.

Marci Ryvicker - Wachovia Securities

Analyst

Thank you. I have two questions related to your outlook. For guidance for the first quarter, do you know how much is being impacted by the advertising environment? How much is tough comps and then is one division performing substantially worst than the other. And then to the extent that you can comment when you look at for the remainder of the year, are you seeing acceleration or deceleration at this point?

Walter Ulloa

Management

A couple of comments, one, we are being impacted by soft economy, no question about it. And of off our television and radio divisions, neither one is I'll say being impacted more than the other. They are about the same across the board. What was the third part of the question, Marci?

Marci Ryvicker - Wachovia Securities

Analyst

Just when you look out for the rest of the year, do you see acceleration or deceleration from here?

John DeLorenzo

Management

Well, you did ask a question about last year's quarter. Last year's first quarter was our best quarter of the year. We grew the top line top single-digits. But we believe that we are going to see stronger quarters as we move through the year, particularly the third and fourth quarters as well as the second quarter traditionally is always one of our best quarters. But as I said earlier in our remarks, we expect to see strong growths in political based on what we've seen in the first quarter and also we've got five states where we have important media clusters, and we believe that we are going benefit from strong political growth in New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Colorado.

Marci Ryvicker - Wachovia Securities

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Lee Westerfield of BMO Capital. Please go ahead.

Lee Westerfield - BMO Capital

Analyst

Thanks gentlemen and good evening. First John, I want to say I'll miss you dearly, on to the better things, I am sure; I want to ask a couple of questions here. First; specifics on the outdoor transaction and then also on relationship with Univision. The outdoor transaction, closing dates and what are the capital gains, taxes if any, and if there should be modeling in for net cash flow from that transaction?

John DeLorenzo

Management

Well, thank you for your remarks, really appreciate it. As far as the closing, certainly we have to go through Hart-Scott-Rodino; assuming everything goes on target. We are probably looking at the very end of the first quarter, maybe the beginning of the second quarter as far as a closing. In terms of capital gains tax, we are completely sheltered within the basis of the company, so therefore there will be no taxes as well as the fact that we'll probably generate somewhat of a capital loss and certainly won't be using any NOLs.

Lee Westerfield - BMO Capital

Analyst

Perfect. And then Walter, if I can ask two things on Univision; first, in the past there has been some thought that you may be able to use the cash proceeds from an asset sale like outdoor to buy some of the, or all of this stock that Univision holds in you back; I don’t know where that may stand. Second, if you don't mind commenting on what the impact on Entravision might be vis-à-vis the upcoming court case date in the case Televisa versus Univision?

Walter Ulloa

Management

Well, as to the first point Lee, John reported that we bought 1.5 million shares from Univision in the first quarter.

Lee Westerfield - BMO Capital

Analyst

I'm sorry. I must have -- miss hearing. I apologize.

Walter Ulloa

Management

Right, actually this Walter and this transaction was a result of their Justice Department decree to stay below a certain percentage of ownership within our company. You know we’ve had discussion with Univision in the past about stock repurchases, and I'm sure we'll them again here in the future. So, we look forward to that and as you know we have done two or three transactions with them over the years -- back significant blocks of stocks and I'm sure we'll be talking again to them soon. As for the court case, I don't really know much about it, although I know that it's been going on for a while and we are not directly involved in that matter and we continue to believe that at some point the matter will be resolved amicably between both parties.

Lee Westerfield - BMO Capital

Analyst

Gentlemen, thank you so much. Have a good evening.

Walter Ulloa

Management

Thank you, Lee.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of David Miller of SMH Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

David Miller - SMH Capital Markets

Analyst

Hi good afternoon. Congratulations on the sale. You guys had sort of intimated to us, I think over the past couple of earnings call that if this deal had happened, your first priority in terms of what to do with the net proceeds would be to pare your debt. Should you do that, I have you guys improving net debt-to-EBITDA by a full turn year, but in your prepared remarks Walter, it sounds to me like you're going to return this capital to shareholders in some way. I think that to meet stock buybacks or some sort of onetime [DVO]. I was just wondering if you guys would be willing to be a little bit more specific on what are you going to do with the proceeds? Thank you.

John DeLorenzo

Management

David, this is John. Well, one thing that we have is a couple of months to make that decision. The closing will probably be at the end of March, early April, so brings change quickly at one point to another. So it probably doesn't make any sense to definitely pinpoint what we are going to do with the proceeds, but certainly paying down debt is an option as well as continuing our buyback. We have additional money left on our $100 million board approved buyback plan. There are a couple of acquisitions that could come up to help us and answer our existing clusters and we are always open to talking about the potential of returning cash to shareholders. So there is -- the answer to question is, all the options are open and we have sometime to see what unfolds over the next couple of months. David Miller – SMH Capital Markets: Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Victor Miller of Bear Stearns. Please go ahead.

Victor Miller - Bear Stearns

Analyst

Good afternoon. Thanks for all your help John through the years. Can you talk a little bit about what quarter will actually reflect a re-trends negotiation? Do you think we're actually going to see any of that money in 2008? Secondly, if I remember, the auto category I think was up in the plus 20% range for the first two quarters. Could you maybe comment on what you are seeing there? And then John, could you just walk us through the free cash flow, pieces like what you expect for CapEx in '08? What's your average interest cost right now and what we should expect in terms of tax rate as we look for cash taxes this year? Thanks.

Walter Ulloa

Management

Hey Victor, this is Walter. We don't expect to see any results from any re-trends negotiations or discussions in '08. We elected [inaudible] in '05 and those agreements are in place until the end of this year. But we do expect to begin some discussion with the cable companies at some point here in 2008 regarding 2009 and beyond. And the question about the auto filled.

John DeLorenzo

Management

Yeah, thank you Walter. Hi, Victor.

Victor Miller - Bear Stearns

Analyst

Hey John, how are you?

John DeLorenzo

Management

It held up for the year, actually fourth quarter our auto on TV side was plus 13. We did see a little bit slowdown Tier 1, Tier 2 have been hanging on and pushing hard on Tier 3 which is done well. But overall, it's the general -- the category has gotten softer here towards the turn at the end of the year and I think if you look -- if you broke it out, the entire 2007, Tier 1 was up about 12 points as was Tier 2 dealer group and then Tier 3 was actually off mid-single digits and that has turned around and that situation is reversed going here into the first quarter.

Walter Ulloa

Management

Victor, last question about free cash flow, we reported that we'll have about $4 million of CapEx in the first quarter. You can probably assume it will be annualized to about $16 million, total. Same way with the interest, we reported about $7.5 million for the first quarter, it will probably be $30 million for the year. As you know we have swaps and therefore our interest rate is fixed, and taxes run about $2 million a year, it's basically state and local taxes.

Victor Miller - Bear Stearns

Analyst

One last thought on, in terms of the real estate heavy markets where you have seen a lot of real estate compression in prices, how are those markets hanging in terms of the advertising side?

John DeLorenzo

Management

We've experienced obviously in the financial categories which includes the mortgage business, a significant slowdown since that subprime implosion in August, it's rippled through and we've seen a drop. But that said, let me just kind of bring things into perspective here. We've got a good business, we have to live with the industry, our TV finish as Walter said, a minus one but the industry was down 7 points. That was the fourth year in a row, our TV stations out delivered the market in the industry and we tend to do that on an annual basis, about 6 percentage points better. Last year, four out of our five largest ad categories saw growth, auto was up, telecom was up, fast food was up, retail was up, and yeah, financial and the mortgage business was soft. It was down significantly, double digits.

Walter Ulloa

Management

And, yeah, we had really tough comps in '07 as well.

John DeLorenzo

Management

Exactly. And to Walter's point, we had the non-returning political and the non-returning World Cup which is $8 million and six of incremental. So, our business held up very well. And in first quarter, we are seeing that political business basically replacing some of the softer categories.

Victor Miller - Bear Stearns

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And gentlemen, we have a follow-up question from the line of David Miller of SMH Capital Markets. Please go ahead. David Miller – SMH Capital Markets: Yeah, John, just one follow-up, on your SG&A as if the outdoor unit have remain, what's called run rate of around $17 million year, what portion of that was generally allocated towards the outdoor units? Thanks.

John DeLorenzo

Management

We had about -- at the Hispanic you're talking about the corporate expense of the SG&A? David Miller – SMH Capital Markets: That's correct.

John DeLorenzo

Management

On the corporate side it about $2 million. David Miller – SMH Capital Markets: Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Gentlemen, there are no further questions on the audio bridge. I'll turn the call back over to you for your final remarks.

Walter Ulloa

Management

Thank you, Wayne. This ends our fourth quarter and full year 2007 investor conference call. We thank all of you for participating and we look forward to reporting in our first quarter of 2008 results in early May. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have yourself a nice day.