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Article Excerpt
Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE
OPERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Amica Mature Lifestyles third-quarter results conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will be provided at that time for you to register for a question. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS).
I would now like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Alyssa Williams. Please go ahead.
ALYSSA WILLIAMS, IR, AMICA MATURE LIFESTYLES: Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today to review the financial results for Amica's third quarter of fiscal 2008. If you would like a copy of the related news release or financial statements, you may find them on the Investor Relations section of our web site at www.Amica.ca. You may also access a replay on this conference call until April 18, 2008, details of which are also available on the web site.
Participating in today's call are Mr. Sam Manji, Chairman, President and CEO of Amica, who will be providing an overview on the Company's progress over the quarter, and Mr. Doug Allen, Chief Financial Officer, who will focus on the financial results for the three and nine-month period ending February 29, 2008. Mr. Colin Halliwell, Amica's Chief Operating Officer, is also on the line, and all three will be able to answer questions following the call. We recommend that you hold your questions until Doug and Samir have completed their presentation.
Since by now you have had an opportunity to review the news release, we will not reiterate the numbers here other than those that merit special attention.
Before we begin, I would like to point out that certain statements during the course of the call may be forward-looking. Please refer to the Safe Harbor statements in today's press release. Please also refer to the Risks and Uncertainties section of our fiscal 2007 annual report which outlines certain factors that may cause actual results to differ.
I will now turn the call over to Doug who will provide some highlights of our financial performance.
DOUG ALLEN, CFO, AMICA MATURE LIFESTYLES: Thank you, Alyssa. Good afternoon, everyone. The major highlights of our third-quarter results are for the three months ended February 29, 2008 compared with the three months ended February 28, 2007, cash flow from operations remains the same at $1.8 million; EBITDA remains the same at $3.3 million; MARPAS increased 3.9% on a same community basis; net earnings increased $0.7 million to $1.5 million; basic and diluted per share net earnings increased $0.04 to $0.09 per share; and basic cash flow per share decreased $0.02 per share to $0.10 per share; and diluted cash flow per share decreased $0.01 to $0.10 per share.
For the nine months ended February 29, 2008 compared with the nine months ended February 28, 2007, cash flow from operations increased $1.4 million to $6.7 million; EBITDA increased $1.1 million to $10.3 million; MARPAS increased 4.2% on a same community basis; net earnings increased $2.5 million to $4.4 million; basic per share net earnings increased $0.12 to $0.25 per share and diluted per share net earnings increased $0.12 to $0.24 per share; and basic cash flow per share increased $0.02 to $0.38; and diluted cash flow per share increased $0.02 per share to $0.37 per share.
At this point I will pass over to Samir for his comments.
SAMIR MANJI, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, AMICA MATURE LIFESTYLES: Thank you, Doug. Good morning to everyone in the West, and good afternoon to those of you in the East. I'm going to keep my comments relatively brief and leave most of my commentary for the Q&A session.
As discussed in our press release, we are pleased with the overall progress we've made in the third quarter and year-to-date. Year-to-date total cash flow from operations continues to exceed fiscal 2007, despite the high resident turnover we experienced in several of our communities during the third quarter. This turnover resulted in overall occupancy levels decreasing to 94% at February 29, 2008. We expect that occupancy will return to levels above 96% by the end of the fiscal year.
Comprehensive marketing and advertising campaigns are in place to help address the occupancy challenges in some of our communities.
Despite the slip in occupancy, we've continued to achieve positive MARPAS growth for the quarter and year-to-date. Overall, MARPAS for the quarter grew 3.9% on a same community basis compared with the same period last year. We're currently on track to meet our objective of increasing MARPAS by at least 4% in fiscal 2008.
Having said that, we will fall short of some of our other fiscal 2008 objectives as outlined in the Looking Ahead section of the MD&A. Partly as a result of our change in business development strategy, which was discussed in detail in the second quarter, the Company will not generate five new long-term management contracts this fiscal year. We have secured one new long-term management contract for the fiscal year and believe that the balance of our efforts will result in establishing additional long-term management contracts in the next fiscal year.
The markets we continue to explore are in Canada and to a lesser degree the Pacific Northwest in the US. One key milestone for 2008's fiscal year was the opening of Amica Dundas just subsequent to the end of the quarter. On March 1 we proudly opened our doors to this first new wellness and vitality residence for the fiscal year.
The opening of Amica Dundas marked one of the strongest openings in terms of lease up in Amica's history.
In addition, our sneak preview event on February 28 generated a very strong turnout. 65% of our independent living suites have been reserved to date at this community.
Looking ahead, Amica at Westboro Park in Ottawa, Ontario is scheduled to open this coming summer. The 138 suite $35 million luxury residence has already achieved very strong preleasing results with 50% of the independent living suites reserved to date.
Behind Westboro, we anticipate that Amica at London and Amica at Thornhill will open toward the end of calendar 2008. Anyone interested in receiving an invitation to the opening of any of these communities that I have mentioned should contact Alyssa, and she will be happy to provide you with the details.
On January 11, 2008, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.06 per share on all of the companies issued and outstanding common shares to shareholders of record on February 29, 2008 made payable on March 15, 2008. Earlier today our Board announced declaration of Amica's fourth-quarter dividend payment of $0.06 per share on all of the companies issued and outstanding common shares to shareholders of record on May 31, 2008 made payable on...
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