Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Quarter Three 2016 Lincoln Educational Services Earning Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce our host for today's call, Mr. Doug Sherk. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Darwin, and good morning, everyone. Before the opening of the market today, Lincoln Educational Services issued via News Release its third quarter 2016 financial results. The release is available on the Investor Relations portion of the Company's corporate Web site at www.lincolnedu.com. Today's call is being broadcast live on the Company's Web site and a replay of this call will also be archived on the Company's Web site. Statements during today's call made by management of Lincoln Educational Services Corporation regarding Lincoln's business that are not historical facts and they may be forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the federal securities law. The words may, will, expect, believe, anticipate, project, plan, intend, estimate, and continue, and their opposites and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved, if at all. Generally, these statements relate to business plans or strategies, projected or anticipated benefits from acquisitions or dispositions to be made by the Company or projections involving anticipated revenues, earnings or other aspects of the Company's operating results. The Company cautions you that these statements concern current expectations about the Company's future performance or events and are subject to a number of uncertainties, risks and other influences many of which are beyond the Company’s control, that may influence the accuracy of the statements and the projections upon which the statements are based. The events described in forward-looking statements may not occur at all. Factors which may affect the Company’s results include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on…

Thank you, Doug, and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining our third quarter 2016 conference call. With me today is Brian Meyers, Lincoln's Chief Financial Officer. I will begin the call by reviewing our recent operational highlights and progress in achieving our corporate objectives. Brian will then provide further details on the quarter's financials, as well as our outlook for the remainder of the year. Then we'll take questions from analysts and investors. I'm pleased to announce that we remain on track to deliver positive earnings for our continuing operations excluding the transitional segment and we have continued to rebuild our student population and transportation Skilled Trades with the goal of ending the year with the same population as last year. Our population goal will give us a strong foundation in 2017 from which to increase our population as we execute on various initiatives. Our organization is steadily making strides towards enhancing the value of our enterprise, while lowering our fixed costs were possible and enhancing the student experience. Besides stabilizing our population in the transportation Skilled Trades segment, we have made exciting progress with our corporate partnerships. We were able to build on our successful relationship with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US and going forward we will be able to offer select students a higher level of training which will result in additional opportunities with this automotive industry leader upon graduation. Previously we were offering an entry level [SCA] [ph] program but given the increasing demand for technicians and strong response from the dealers for our graduates, SCA decided to increase of level of training to [indiscernible]. Graduate will be prepared to work on Chrysler, Fiat, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram trucks, and will start to opt at higher than entry-level salaries. SCA has more than 2500 dealerships and needs…

Thanks Scott and thank you all for joining us this morning. I'll begin my comments with the highlights of our continuing operation and financial performance. Continuing operations are comprised of our Transportation and Skilled Trades segment, our Transitional segment and our Corporate and other segment. The Transitional segment refers to operations that are closed or are currently being toed out. For the third quarter the segment consists of our Fern Park Florida campus, the Hartford Connecticut campus and certain programs at our West Palm Beach Florida campus. In addition as Scott mentioned will begin to teach-out of our Center City Philadelphia and our Green Valley Nevada campuses. The decision to close these campuses did not come lightly which primarily the result of consistent losses. We believe the closure of these two campuses will enable us to rationalize our presence in these markets to create efficiencies and profitability at our neighboring campuses. For example, our Green Valley students will be able to transfer into our neighboring Summerlin Nevada campus to complete their specific areas of study. We are optimistic that the majority of students will opt to continue their studies with Lincoln due to the convenient close proximity of the two campuses. Similarly, we cease operations at our Center City Philadelphia campus. We expect to strengthen the population and operational results at our neighboring campus offering the same programs. We believe such strategic plans will strengthen the organization efficiencies and profitability. Revenue from continuing operations for the quarter was $49.8 million versus $54 million in the prior year comparable period. The decrease was a result of starting 2016 with approximately 800 fewer students than on January 1, 2015 which led to an 8.1% decline in average student enrollment population. Average population was 7,400 as of September 30, 2016 compared to 8,100…

[Operator Instructions] And our first question is from Alex Paris with Barrington Research. Your line is now open.

Hi guys good morning. Couple of questions not necessarily in any order. So first of all with regard to West Palm Beach you are taking out programs. Is that all the programs that are not automotive essentially?

That's correct automotive and Skilled Trades.

Okay. And then the automotive and Skilled Trades it's essentially a branch building of that campus there. Does that come back into - is that still part of discontinued operations or is that part of continuing operations because it's auto.

For the third quarter it was part of discontinued operations still.

Okay. At some point is that come onto continuing operations and represent the 13th campus.

Correct it definitely could.

Okay. And then just to be clear so Green Valley and Center City come into transition in the fourth quarter. Did you say I think you might have just said but I missed it, when those teach-outs will be completed?

Right, the Green Valley will actually be closed by year end, Center City will be closed by second quarter 2017.

Okay. And then Brian I'd to be nice to have the restated year ago numbers. I have them for Q3 obviously because that's why you reported but for each of the quarters would be nice so we could talk about that offline. And then, so then what's left in healthcare and other professions being sold is it 15 campuses then.

Yes, there are 15 campuses in there like Scott was saying that we have a majority, you know we have one prospective buyer for a majority of those campuses.

And obviously this has taken longer as you said in your press release than you'd initially anticipated. What are the issues that really govern that process, is it financing?

I don't want to get too much into it but it's kind of like, everything that’s hitting the industry, there is financing issues, there is regulatory issues a little bump with ACICS is a bump along the way but again overall we're moving forward and anticipate a successful outcome there.

Good. Then with regard to regulatory congratulations on all the good news that came out of that over the last few months like getting out from under the zone alternative, I guess monitoring things, the cohort default rates. I just wanted a little more color and GE just to make sure I heard that correctly gainful employment. You said less than 1.5% in continuing programs failed but no programs in Transportation and Skilled Trades. So would those be in the Transmission segment the ones that actually did fail?

They’d be in discontinued ops segment.

I got you. Okay, discontinued operations. But no programs failed in Auto and Skilled Trades.

That is correct.

Were any in the zone?

Yes. We had some in the zone but the zone is 8% to 12% and they are at the bottom end of the zone, so I'm not concerned about them so given where they were and some of the other initiatives we've taken over the last couple years with some of our pricing.

Okay, got you. Let me see, I guess that's all have for right now. I’ll get back in the queue but congratulations on hitting the numbers and looking forward to sequentially stronger fourth quarter.

Thank you. And also just to be clear it's 14 campuses that are in discontinued ops not the 15 Brian mentioned.

I guess I have one follow up on that then.

Sure.

14 campuses, okay. You started off with what 17 that were for sale initially?

Yes.

I got to assume that the ones that get toed out are the least well performing schools, the ones that are losing money, the ones that have the smallest enrollments which are related I guess but so that if I'm right there that improves the portfolio of the schools held for sale.

That is correct.

Okay. You're not putting your best schools into teach-out, you’re putting the underperformers.

You got it, you got it. That’s what we do here.

And it’s a substantial network. I mean, we think about it as very small when you collapse it into one line but I'm just looking at the press release for the nine months those schools generated $75 million in revenue and a small loss of about $2 million but $75 million in revenue for the 14 schools I guess right.

And it seems like every day it because more and more substantial given what's going on out there.

And there has been an improving trend which is important and then the ACICS schools. Were some of the schools they got shoved into transition ACICS?

Yes because the Center City school was an ACICS school.

Okay. And then but regardless the regulation - if the Department of Education shuts down ACICS the precedent is schools in good standing have up to 18 months to make that transition to the new accreditor and with your target of the new accreditor giving you some indication for the third quarter of '17 you should be able to make that transition with time to spare?

That is correct, I also - full disclosure, there are other subtleties with regard to the schools losing accreditation that depending on what the department does will provide some challenges in the near term but I'm assuming that the department is going to make the right decisions to ensure that students who are currently enrolled in any ACICS program are not harmed in any way.

Got you. Okay well thanks very much.

And our next question comes from Douglas Ruth of Lenox Financial Services. Your line is now open.

Hi, congratulations I also want to give you credit for hitting the guidance. Could you - what campus is creating the challenge for the company?

I think may have may have mentioned it before not but it's Indianapolis campus.

Okay. At one point you thought you might have it - you thought you might had it improved and then do we had to replace the management a second time is that's sort of what happen there?

Without getting into too much, we have made lots of changes there make sure we had the right team we organize things. But as we said when we look towards the fourth quarter things are definitely looking better. So I feel good about where we're headed there.

Okay. And could you talk some about the spending the additional $1 million on marketing what you're doing and what you think might happen with that.

Sure. Needless to say we’re always looking for opportunities for growth. The marketplace is changing. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again. So we do explore new channels and try to figure out ways to the Internet and social media to reach our students. So we'll continue to make some investments for the future and some will work and some won't and time will prove that out. But we think we continue to enhance what we're doing through these efforts.

Is a lot of that through the Web site are you --

Absolutely, yes.

And then can you talk some about the initiatives, I think it makes a lot of sense to me to try to bring back some of the previously enrolled students and then also expanding to some advanced programs?

Sure. I mean, it's something that we are doing constantly, but we're always trying to reach out to students who may have dropped out to get them to come back into the campuses, so we have very concerted efforts around those initiatives. As we continue to build our industry partnerships, we continue to have additional programs that we can offer students to enhance their skill sets, so we can go back out and reach prior students, as well as upsell existing students into some of these other programs like the Chrysler program and the Audi program and some of the others.

Okay. Is the potential buyer of the healthcare properties, are they also the people that are the potential buyer for the Florida property or are those different buyer?

They are different entities, but again we come under confidentiality, so really can't comment beyond that.

Is there still possible that the Florida property could be completed by the end of the year?

Anything is possible but I don’t want to get anyone's hopes up for that, I mean there's interest but given that's November I wouldn’t think that happened by year-end.

Okay. All right. Well, I think you're on track. And you've pretty much done what you said. And thank you for doing what you are doing and thank you for answering my questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our next question is from Justin Putnam with Talanta Investment. Your line is now open.

Thank you. I just want to follow-up first of all on the marketing spend question and especially as it relates to 2017. Are you going - first of all are you going to continue increase marketing spend in 2017 and then if you are presumably that means you do see opportunity for that to drive growth and enrolments in 2017?

I mean we're still working on our budgets for 2017, but we are anticipating that marketing spend will be up, not I hope dramatically. We're still refining that. But there are opportunities out there for us and so we will look at that very carefully over the next 45 days as we finalize our budgets.

Okay. And then related to that as you work through this transition and get the business stabilized particularly in core areas, how do you feel about the business at the call it $180 million annual revenue level, is that a level where you can be consistently profitable in a meaningful way going forward, or do you see these opportunities to perhaps economies of scale with the business?

I think that we - I see opportunities to grow the business and I see that we need to grow our business as well going forward. I think at $180 million level we are - we can create profits, but they are not going to be profits that we settle on or accept. There is more opportunity out there for us and therefore we will continue to look for opportunities to grow beyond $180 million.

Okay. Then last question for me is on your credit facility. Obviously in normal time you have normal business having credit facility in place and drawn on that the cash you have on the balance sheet doesn’t make a lot of sense normally, but obviously being for-profit sector these days, you have to do things like that. And I guess my question is, you are holding net debt because of the financial responsibility ratio and so forth. Can you give us a little bit of the visibility or plan to how you’re trying to work you did from under that going forward?

Sure. Well, I mean again we are a cash positive company. There are peers as the year when we use cash and peers the year where we actually generate more cash than we need. The challenge we have with our existing credit facility is that it’s all a term loan, not a revolver. So if we had a normal revolver, our debt balances would be dropping this time a year, and instead given the environment, we had to go out and get a term loan. So that’s why the kind of debt number stays fixed and high throughout the year. So long story is short, it is expensive debt and so we are constantly looking for ways to minimize that expense and the best way to do that needless to say is to grow the overall profitability and strengthening the Company, so that we can find additional sources for credit going forward. I don’t know Brian, is anything else?

Right, the only thing I'll add as we get stronger, we don't need all that loan - debt, so we would be looking to pay back some of that debt over the near future.

Right, because you’re holding most of that debt right now because of financial responsibility right, I think so forth, right?

Right – another - as well, but it does help our balance sheet, makes our balances stronger, correct.

Okay, that's it for me. Thank you.

And I'm showing no further question at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Scott Shaw for closing remarks.

Great, thank you all for joining us today. We continue to focus our efforts in this Lincoln's 70th year of operations and retrain the Company to sustain profitability while offering and enhanced educational experience to our students. We're continuing to move in the right direction and we look forward to updating you on our progress as develop its merit and talking with you again in March. Have a good day. Thank you.

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