Lincoln Educational Services Corporation (NASDAQ:LINC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Eric Martinuzzi: Okay. And then back to CapEx, what was CapEx for 2022? I know you said $35 million to $40 million for ’23, but what was the total for ’22?

Brian Meyers: Right. For 2022, it was $9 million.

Eric Martinuzzi: Okay. And that step up to $35 million to $40 million, can you help parse that…

Brian Meyers: Correct.

Eric Martinuzzi: What — is that all Atlanta?

Scott Shaw: No, no. Go ahead, Brian.

Brian Meyers: No. So, it’s about, as I mentioned, $29 million for growth initiatives, that’s new programs as well as some program expansions. Atlanta is included in there. I think it’s approximately $13 million of that is for Atlanta. The rest is really just for new programs and program expansions of the $30 million. So, about half is Atlanta half is new programs and expansions, right? And that number does not include the natural relocation expense — well, not expense, build out once it closes in June — not in June, in the second quarter.

Eric Martinuzzi: All right. And then, given your guidance for 2023 coming up with the midpoint, it’s about a 1.2% growth for the total revenue. You had roughly equivalent growth rates between the two segments, transportation and skilled at 3.9% and health care and other at 4.0%. What are you assuming as far as the segment’s growth rate for ’23?

Brian Meyers: That’s a good question. I don’t have — give me one second. Let me see — I have it in total. Let me see if I have it by segment. If not, I can definitely call you after this if it’s anything significant by segment.

Scott Shaw: I would think it wouldn’t be too different this year. It will be more different next year simply because a lot of the program expansions are all in what would be considered today the transportation segment. Yes. We’ll have to get back to you on that, Eric.

Eric Martinuzzi: Okay. That’s fine. And last question for me. You talked about the regulatory approval timeline having changed on the Atlanta campus pushing you into Q1 of ’24. Can you enlighten me there what specifically with the timeline issue?

Scott Shaw: Sure. Well, I guess we’re kind of seeing across the board no matter what state we’re in, whether it’s trying to get building permits or whether it’s trying to get approvals at the state level or even sometimes through our accreditor, everyone seems to be “understaffed” and so everything takes a little bit longer. So, we’re factoring in basically another quarter into all of our decision-making processes because of that. So, it’s nothing. It seems to be nothing more than that. People just don’t seem to have enough people to do all the work that needs to get done.

Eric Martinuzzi: Okay.

Brian Meyers: And Eric, I’ll add back to your other question about the two different segments. A lot of reports that we’re looking at now takes my last remarks about the segments that we are considering moving to one because we’re co-mingling a lot of them. So that’s why it’s one reason why I don’t have the segments in front of me, I’ll get you that information. But going forward, it might move to that one segment. We might disclose some of the information for the different automotive and others, but it won’t be — it might not be as what we do today, that’s for sure.

Eric Martinuzzi: Got it. Thanks for taking my questions.

Scott Shaw: No problem. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Alex Paris of Barrington Research. Your line is open.

Alex Paris: Hi, guys. I just have a couple of cats and dogs here. In the guidance, Brian, you said that the tax rate would be 28.5%. That was higher than I was modeling. What is to account for the higher tax rate than it has been recently and versus expectations?