Randall J. Weisenburger - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Analyst · William Blair & Company
Thank you. As John noted, we're very pleased with the strong performance of our agencies and while it's only the first quarter of year, we believe we are up to a solid start. Revenue in the first quarter increased $354.8 million to almost $3.2 billion. That was an increase of 12.5%. Operating profit increased 11.2% to $350.8 million, that's an operating margin of 11%. Operating costs and incentives were in line with our expectations in prior, with the exception of severance costs which was somewhat higher due primarily to our desire to make sure staffing levels are tight going into the year. Net interest expense for the quarter was $11 million. That was down $7.3 million from the first quarter 2007. It was also down about $3.3 million from the fourth quarter of last year. The year-over-year improvement is primarily the result of not needing to make a supplemental interest payment on our 2032 bond in the last July, offset by higher interest rates on our euro and yen denominated short-term debt. The quarter-to-quarter improvement was primarily the result of our cash management initiatives and higher interest income on our foreign cash balances. On the tax front, our reported tax rate for the quarter was about 33.9% which was in line with last year's full year rate. Affiliate income increased almost $3 million year-over-year, the most significant increases coming from BBDO's affiliates in Australia and the Middle East. Both are well managed agency groups that perform consistently. Minority interest increased just over $5 million. The primary drivers were BBDO and DDB in Germany and Brazil and OMG in Eastern Europe. In addition, since almost all of our minority interests are in international markets, FX had a meaningful impact as well. Net income for the quarter increased 14% to $208.7 million and most important, fully diluted earnings per share increased 18.2% to $0.65 per share. Analyzed in our revenue performance, FX in the quarter was positive 5.1%, adding a $145.6 million to our revenue. Growth from acquisitions net of divestitures added about $28 million to revenue in the quarter were about 1%. And organic growth continue to be very strong in the quarter coming in at 6.4% and adding $181.2 million to our revenue. And as John mentioned on the new business front, again it was a very solid start to year with net wins totaling $1.2 billion. As far as mix of business, traditional media advertising accounted for 43.5% of our revenue and marketing services 56.5%. As for their respective growth rates, advertising grew 13.5% in the quarter and marketing and services 11.7%. Within marketing services, COM continue to be very strong growing 14.8%, public relations was up 7.1% and specialty communications 5.8%. It's worth noting, in the PR and specialty communications disciplines, our geographic mix leans heavily to the United States. As a result in times like these, where the FX impact is more significant, the total growth rate in these disciplines at least on a relative basis is skewed a bit low. Our geographic mix of business in the quarter was 52% U.S and 48% international. In the United States, revenue increased by $117.3 million, or 7.6%. Acquisitions accounted for 1% of that growth, or $14 million and organic growth remained very strong at 6.7%, adding just over a $103 million to our revenue. The international side revenue increased $237.5 million, or 18.3%. FX was very strong adding a $145.6 million, or about 11.2% of that growth. Acquisitions added almost $14 million, or just over 1% and organic growth again came in very strong at 6%, adding $78 million to our growth. As the growth rates indicate, in the United States, the business remains very solid despite the overall market turmoil. Internationally, the business performed in line with the fourth quarter, with strong performances in the emerging markets of Asia, the Middle-East and Eastern Europe, as well as in the established markets of Asia, like Australia and New Zealand and Hong Kong. We also continue to have good results across most of the euro markets and the U.K and France which had been weak in the fourth quarter of the last year, showed strong improvement. Cash flow for the year was strong and consistent with our historical trends and our cash management programs have continued to perform very well. Our primary source of cash was net income, adjusted for stock-based compensation and related cash tax benefits, as well as depreciation and amortization. Those amounts totaled $285.2 million. Our primary uses of cash were dividends which were $49.1 million in the quarter, CapEx totaled $42.2 million, acquisitions including earn-out payments on prior acquisitions totaled $89 million and share repurchases in the quarter totaled $316 million, but we also received $33.2 million of proceeds from autumn option exercises and stock sold under our employee stock purchase plan. That resulted in net repurchases of about $282.8 million. As a result of our repurchase activity over the last 12 months, our average diluted share count for the quarter declined about 4.3% to just under $321 million shares. We finished the quarter in a very strong credit position. As you can see at the top of the current credit picture slide with a decline in our net interest expense over the last the 12 months, combined with about a 12% increase in EBIT, our operating leverage improved sharply. From a liquidity standpoint, our current liquidity position is very strong. We finished the quarter with cash and undrawn committed facilities totaling over $3.3 billion and we had uncommitted facilities of an additional $0.5 billion. And with that, now I'll ask the operator to open up the call for questions. Question And Answer