Volt Information Sciences Inc (VISI)’s 4th Quarter 2014 Earnings Call Transcript

Net income in 4th Quarter of 2013 of $1.6 million or $0.08 share per share. Pro-forma loss of $0.7 million included restatement investigations and remediation expenses of $2.4 million, restructuring cost of $0.2 million, losses from discontinued operations of $8.3 million and approximately $1.1 million of operating income from the 53rd week in 2013. Without these items net income in the 4th Quarter of 2013 would have been $11.4 million and pro-forma net income $9.1 million.

Turning to the details, total staffing services segment: net revenue was $403.1 million, pro-forma $403 million, in the 4th Quarter fiscal 2014, down 18.2% compared with the same quarter of last year. This resulted from lower demand primarily at large enterprise customers but also to a lesser extent at retail customers, and our continuing initiative to reduce exposure to customer with unfavorable business terms and with respect to GAAP results $1.8 million higher net staffing unrecognized revenue. However, as Ron mentioned, our average daily revenue increased approximately 0.3% sequentially from the 3rd Quarter. North America traditional staffing revenue was composed of 82% from our enterprise customers and 18% from our retail customers. For the 4th Quarter North America traditional staffing revenue was down approximately 19%. Revenue from Europe, Asia and South America staffing services was down approximately 2%, while our call center, games, testing and other project based revenue, and our managed service program revenue were down approximately 20% compare to the same quarter last year. The direct cost to staffing services revenue decreased by 19.1% to $337 million in the 4th Quarter. This decline primarily resulted from fewer contingent staff on assignment consistent with the related decrease in revenues.

The direct margin and staffing services revenues of percentage of pro forma staffing revenue in the 4th Quarter was 16.4%, an improvement from 15.1% in the year ago period. This improvement was primarily due to the actions we have taken including the reorganization of the traditional staffing services, the divestiture of the VMS software business, our continued initiative to reduce exposure to customers with unfavorable business terms and higher margins on our call center, games, testing and other project based revenue.

In the 4th Quarter staffing services segment operating income of $14.5 million decreased from $15.5 million in the year ago period while pro-forma operating income of $14.5 million increased 5.8% from the $13.7 million in the year ago period. This change is driven by decrease in administrative and other operating costs, the reorganizational attritional staffing business; the divestiture of the VMS software business, our continuing initiative to reduce exposure to customers with unfavorable business terms and improved results in our call center, games, testing and other project based staffing services.

In the 4th Quarter the other reportable segment revenue of $26.6 million decreased 24% due to lower volume in the information technology infrastructure services, telecommunication infrastructure and securities services and in the printing business. Other reportable segment operating loss of $0.8 million in the 4th Quarter compared to operating income of $2.1 million in the year ago period, and pro-forma operating loss of $0.9 million declined from pro-forma operating income of $1.6 million in the year ago period. The decrease in operating income reflected lower volumes and lower margins.

Moving on to the balance sheet: we ended the quarter with $9.1 million in cash and cash equivalents and additional $10.4 million of cash restricted as collateral for foreign currency credit lines and banking facilities. We also had approximately $27.4 million available under the short-term financing program. Excluding the $8.1 million of long-term debt, both the consolidated borrowings were $128.5 million. As announced earlier this week, the Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $1.5 million shares. This repurchase program reflects the board’s and management team’s strong confidence and our growth prospects and our ability to generate profits and cash-flow. It also demonstrates our commitment to delivering increased value in returning capital to stock holders. We have the ability right now to repurchase up to $5 million of our stock annually – under the covenants of the only credit agreement, we have a restriction on such repurchases. As of today, we do not have any balances outstanding under that agreement and it expires in March of 2015. While we remain focused on investing capital where needed to fund growth of our core businesses, we’ll also make share repurchases as options arise – as we believe the stock buyback program is in the best interest of our stockholders.