Good day and welcome to The GEO Group Fourth Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Pablo Paez, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's discussion of The GEO Group's fourth quarter and full-year 2017 earnings results. With us today are George Zoley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Brian Evans, Chief Financial Officer; Ann Schlarb, President of GEO Care; and David Donahue, President of GEO Corrections & Detention. This morning, we will discuss our fourth quarter results and current business development activities. We will conclude the call with a question-and-answer session. This conference call is also being webcast live on our investor website at investors.geogroup.com. Today, we will discuss non-GAAP basis information. A reconciliation from non-GAAP basis information to GAAP basis results is included in the press release and supplemental disclosure we issued this morning. Additionally, much of the information we will discuss today, including the answers we give in response to your questions, may include forward-looking statements regarding our beliefs and current expectations with respect to various matters. These forward-looking statements are intended to fall within the Safe Harbor provisions of the securities laws. Our actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, as a result of various factors contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including the Form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports. With that, please allow me to turn this call over to our Chairman and CEO, George Zoley. George?

Thank you, Pablo, and good morning to everyone. We are very pleased with our fourth quarter results by our diversified business units which achieved several important operational milestones during the past year. Our GEO transport division transported more than 747,000 passengers, while driving 19 million miles without any significant accidents or incidents. GEO Corrections and Detention processed over 500,000 combined admissions and released as well managing an average daily population of more than 60,000 individuals in the U.S. And GEO Care served approximately 620,000 individuals while managing an average daily census of 193,000 program participants. So on a daily basis, GEO serves more than 250,000 individuals through our diversified programs and facilities. This past year, we doubled our annual expenditure from $5 million to $10 million to expand our GEO Continuum of Care Department. It is headed by an Executive Vice President overseen more than a dozen subject matter experts in the offender rehabilitation as well as an entire division with dedicated case managers who provide post-release support services. We are pleased that our efforts in this important area of criminal justice reform have begun to attract national attention. This past month, I was honored to represent GEO at the American Correctional Association Winter Conference, where our GEO Continuum of Care received the Innovation in Corrections award. We are extremely proud of this important recognition which was based on the implementation of our GEO Continuum of Care at the Graceville Correctional Facility in Florida. Since 2015, the facility has completed 900,000 hours of programming, awarded more than 2,900 program completions and conducted approximately 8,400 individual cognitive behavioral sessions. The facility has also provided assistance to 617 post-release program participants with more than $400,000 in company funding being allocated for crucial community needs by those participants. These programs have also resulted…

Thank you, George. Good morning to everyone. Today we reported our fourth quarter GAAP earnings per share of $0.30 and AFFO per share $0.67 on quarterly revenues of $569 million. Our fourth quarter reflects better than expected results from our equity and earnings of affiliates, largely driven by a favorable tax settlement for South African joint venture. While we had anticipated this benefit in our previously issued guidance, the effective of this item was $2 million to $3 million more than we had anticipated during the quarter. Our fourth quarter results also reflect approximately $1 million in M&A related expenses, and $9.6 million net charge related to the re-measurement of our net deferred tax assets as a result of the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% at the federal level. Excluding these items, we have reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.38, compared to fourth quarter 2016, our fourth quarter 2017 results reflect several items including, the activation the new ICE contract that our Company owned 780 bed Folkston, Georgia facility in January 2017. The issuance of 10.4 million shares of common stocks on a post-split basis in March 2017, the refinancing of the term loan under our credit facility also in March 2017, and the acquisition of CEC, which closed in April 2017. Moving to our outlook for 2018, we have issued our initial guidance for the full-year and the first quarter of 2018. We expect our full-year net income attributable to GEO to be in a range of $1.27 to $1.37 on a full-year revenue of approximately $2.3 billion. We expect our full-year AFFO to be in a range of $2.40 to $2.50 per diluted share. Our full-year guidance for 2018 reflects several factors. First, our guidance…

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Our GEO Corrections & Detention business unit achieved several important operational milestones during 2017. Our combined GEO facilities achieved operational excellence with a successful completion of more than 50 audits by entities such as the American Correctional Association or ACA, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and several other entities. During the year, 25 of our facilities company-wide received accreditation from ACA, with an average accreditation score in excess of 99.8%. And 18 of these facilities received a perfect accreditation score of 100%. Looking at our State segment, our 8 State Correctional customers have stable budgets and our facilities have been able to provide high quality services without being impacted by budgetary constraints. Across these 8 state customers, we have been expanding the delivery of our GEO Continuum of Care programs which have now been launched at 14 GEO State Correctional facilities. We are excited about the opportunity to expand our relationships within those states and we also remain optimistic about the opportunity to partner with new states across the country. Several states continue to face capacity constraints and many of our state customers are facing challenges related to older prisons, which need to be replaced with new and more cost efficient facilities. In the states where we operate, the average age of state prisons range from approximately 30 to 60 years. The State of Kansas recently awarded a contract for the development of a new 2,400-bed facility to replace the state's oldest prison facility. Similarly, the State of Wisconsin has discussed the potential development of a new facility to replace one of the state's oldest prison facilities located in the Green Bay area, as well as other potential replacement facilities with some of the state's oldest prisons. And the State of Vermont…

Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone. GEO Care had a very active year and we are pleased with the operational milestone continued by our four divisions. Our GEO reentry division completed the integration of the facilities and programs acquired from Community Education Centers, CEC and we have overall been pleased with the integration of our new CEC facility. We remain optimistic about our expanded reentry and treatment services platform following the acquisition of the CEC. With this new expanded platform, we've already identified a number of new business opportunities and have submitted several proposals for residential and non-residential programs. These new potential projects represent more than $50 million in incremental avenue annual revenue opportunity. In terms of our Youth Services business, we continue to experience stable utilization rates across our facilities. Our Youth segment has been stable for the past couple of years after our team undertook a number of consolidation and marketing initiatives. Moving to our BI electronic monitoring division, the utilization of our ISAP contract with ICE remained stable throughout 2017 after increasing rapidly in the preceding year, we expect the utilization of the program to remain stable in 2018. At the state and local level, BI continues to pursue a number of new business opportunities. Finally, we remain very excited about our GEO Continuum of Care program. Our GEO Continuum of Care division oversees the integration of our industry-leading evidence-based rehabilitation programs with post-release support services. We have now implemented these enhanced programs in 14 state correctional facilities operated by GEO and also in our Rivers Correctional Institution, which houses Washington D.C. individuals on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. On a combined basis, these facilities have completed over 11.7 million hours of Continuum of Care programming over the last two years. Our academic programs…

Thank you, Ann. We are pleased with our financial performance during the year and the important operational milestones achieved across our diversified, despite some headwinds associated with a rising interest rate environment. We believe our core operational cash flows remain stable and predictable. Our management team is focused on capturing new growth and we remain optimistic about the demand for our services. We continue to carefully evaluate our capital allocation to create sustainable long-term value for our shareholders. We recognized that we can enhance shareholder value by opportunistically repurchasing our shares into that end our board has authorized a $200 million stock buyback program. We are proud of the continued success of our Company. I'd like to thank all of our employees worldwide. Their dedication and professionalism are unmatched and have allowed GEO to become the fifth largest corrections organization in the world and to be recognized by our customers as best in class. We look forward to furthering our commitment to better the lives of those who trusted to us through our GEO Continuum of Care. We believe strongly that we are at our best when helping those in our care return into society as productive and employable citizens. We are now happy to open the call to your questions.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Kevin McVeigh of Deutsche.

Great. Thanks. Hey, helpful as always. George or Brian, obviously, it seems like there's a lot of optimism at the federal level that still kind of getting caught up in the budget process, is there any way to think about those 7,000 beds, what the probability would be when some of those start to come on line? George, just anyway, as you think about kind of 2018, I know we don't have any of that in the guidance, but is there anyway the probability what some of those beds coming on line would look like as we think about the year?

A good portion of them could come online I believe in the second quarter. Given that two of the facilities, one BOP and one ICE are presently operational facilities and would merely involve the transition to new management and all of that could take place in the second quarter. And I think the comment on our ICE facility that could be completed and opened I think in our third quarter, not the fourth quarter.

Got it. And then just in terms of the buyback, obviously the stock is undervalued. Any thoughts on – is there a certain I mean, the stock even at current levels looks pretty compelling, any thoughts on I know we don't have any of that in our guidance, but just how we should think about that over the course of the year?

Well, I think other than what we said, we’ll look at the share pricing where we think it's undervalued, we will make some opportunistic repurchases. So there’s a reasonable chance that, that may occur in the near to mid-term.

That’s helpful, Brian. And then just real quick, the interest expense, it sounds like two-thirds was rates, one-third higher average balance. Is that – what are the higher kind of average balances coming on?

Well, I don't think during 2018 compared to 2017 you have obviously debt related to CEC acquisition that's now going to enter the full-year. We've got borrowing to fund the growth of the – or the completion of the Ravenhall, and not the Ravenhall, but the ICE facility in Texas and some other miscellaneous smaller projects, but that's the bulk of it. So I think it's just an extra quarter of having the CEC related acquisition debt outstanding and then the construction primarily related to that facility in Texas.

Awesome. Thank you all.

The next question comes from Tobey Sommer of SunTrust.

Thank you. Could you comments on what you're seeing in terms of ICE detainee populations? And then what’s your assumption is for the balance of the year in your guidance?

Well, I think we said that last year was a transitional year where there was actually a decline in the census population because of the reduction in border crossings. But in the first half of the year that steadily increased in the second half and today, we’re, I believe, higher than we normally are at this time of the year and we expect that to continue not increase for the balance of the year.

Okay. You mentioned that as early as 2Q perhaps, some of your idle and underutilized beds could become more productive?

Well, I think I said that some of the contracts we were referencing could be awarded in the second quarter and some of them are active, operations presently and merely require the assumption of new management, which could take place in the second quarter. As far as CAR 19, for example that wouldn't be awarded to a little later on in 2018.

With the ICE RFI that’s out there in the funding requests for increased beds and border patrol agents et cetera. Do you think that this RFI can bring to a formal RFP in that lengthy process is likely or intergovernmental service agreements, probably a more likely mechanism for that's proceed forward.

I think on those it would be RFP process, on those particular locations. But additionally I still interested in building up its capacity and could enter into such agreements on any of the intergovernmental basis.

So for locations apart from those?

Aside from those three.

Okay. With respect to what you mentioned about Idaho in kind of emergency contract in the Karnes facility. When would the intake of inmates begin and what's the bottom line impact in 2018 of that?

Tobey, this is Dave. So we already began the receipt of additional Idaho residents if you will at our Karnes facility. So that intake process is underway.

This week.

Yes.

Okay and what is the financial impact of that?

It’s 250 beds, so it's probably an average for per diem rate. I don't know if we disclose to the amount of revenue associated with that. And it’s only four-month contract, but it has the ability to be extended month-to-month and that's essentially gave them some time as they roll through this RFP process and a 1,000 bed procurement.

And the facility to be profitable at that level or is that a drag at least initially at the 250 bed…?

This is a facility that the Karnes Correctional Center already has some U.S. Marshals in there. So there is a little bit underutilized, so we're making use of incremental capacity at that facility.

Understood and let me see – do you have any plans to adjust the floating versus fixed proportion of your debt. How do you think about that at this point? Thanks.

We will continue to monitor it and monitor the interest rate environment and the forward curve and look at the swap rates, but at this time we're not looking to make any changes.

Last question for me and I’ll get back in the queue. What is the M&A pipeline look like that the Company was able to consummate something in the early part of last year and just curious if there's ongoing opportunity?

We're always looking at things, but we are acquired CEC last year and that was a fairly significant acquisition. I don't think we're looking at anything of that magnitude at this time, but certainly some smaller.

Thank you very much.

The next we have a question from Mark Strouse of JPMorgan.

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Most of our questions have been asked, but just one [indiscernible] ISAP contract. So I think you mentioned that, so you expect that to be stable during 2018, but can you share what you know about the ISAP 4 contract when that could potentially be awarded, and is that an opportunity for potentially to that program?

The ISAP 4 contract will be rebid late 2018, early 2019 and we have not yet heard from the government what that might look like and so we'll be watching that closely.

Okay. Thanks. And then how should we think about just kind of had a high levels the decision to announce this buybacks versus potentially paying down some of the floating rate debt?

Well on a cash flow basis, it actually improves the cash flows given that dividend is approximately 9% to 10% and our floating rate debt is at about 3.5% to 4% right now. So even with the projected increases in interest rates, I think it's still cash flow beneficial to the company at the current prices and that's obviously something that we will take into consideration as we look at when to opportunistically make repurchases.

Right, okay and then just lastly, are there any limitations upon buyback? Is there a window period that you have to get through here, should investors maybe assume that these can begin immediately?

Just our normal corporate windows is unless there is a plan put in place which we haven't done and we don't currently plan to do. It would be whenever our windows open, which are window reopens 48 hours or two days after our press release.

Got it. Okay. Thank you very much.

[Operator Instructions] And our next question will come from Kevin McClure of Wells Fargo.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. This is for Brian. You guys are – has a buyback program now, you're optimistic about some of the opportunities with the federal government. So I'm curious what’s your appetite for additional Greenfield development and how high would you be willing to take leverage in order to fund those projects?

We still have the ATM if we need to fund projects with that we have plenty of capacity on the revolver, so we can easily handle another Greenfield side of $100 million I think. And as we said, we will balance the stock repurchases with our other capital needs and capital outlays, obviously growth I think is the best use of that capital, so that's going to be the first choice.

Got it. Okay. And then following up on that, what would cause you to tap the accordion on your loan versus issuing bonds or putting the excess cash or the cash needs on your line? That’s it for me. Thanks.

I don't know that we have any plans to tap the accordion. I think it's just a feature that there that's maybe a little bit easier to access than – bonds or redoing the credit facility, so no specific intent to use it right now.

Got it. Thanks for the time.

And the next question comes from Andrew Berg of Post Advisory Group.

Yes. Just going back on stock repurchase, in the press release you got $120 million of availability under the revolver to make repurchases. I believe the bonds don't have any significant restricted payments issues. Is there anything under the term loan that would further restrict your ability to repurchase stock or what is the amount you're allowed to do under that term loan agreement, I just don’t recall?

Well, the term loan is part of the credit facility, so that covenants are the same, so there is no differences.

All right. So the term loan and revolver can’t be at the $120 million currently?

Those are consistent.

Great. Thank you. End of Q&A

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to George Zoley for any closing remarks.

Thanks everyone for joining us today. We look forward to addressing you in the next quarterly conference call.