Earnings Call Excerpt
Qwest Q4 2005 Earnings Conference Call Transcript (Q)
February 14, 2006
Executives:
Dick Notebaert, Chairman and CEO
Oren Shaffer, Vice Chairman and CFO
Analysts:
David Varden, Bank of America
Jeff Halpern, Sanford C. Bernstein
John Hojeleck, UBS
Jonathan Chaplain, JP Morgan
Frank Loethan, Raymond James
Blake Bath, Lehman Brothers
Stephanie Comfort
Thank you. Good morning everybody. Welcome to our call. We’re here to discuss our fourth quarter and full year results and with us on the call this morning are Dick Notebaert, Chairman and CEO, and Oren Shaffer, Vice Chairman and CFO. Before I turn the call over to Dick, I would like to remind everyone that we will be making forward looking statements. These statements contain risks and uncertainties this could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed (inaudible) in the call, these risks and uncertainties are on file with the SEC. In addition, we do not adopt analysts estimates nor do we necessarily commit to updating the forward looking statements that we make here. Also, let me mention that in order to supplement the reporting of Qwest’s consolidated financial information the company will discuss certain non GAAP financial measures including EBIDA, free cash flow and MET Dep. Full reconciliation of these non-GAAP measurements can be found in the quarterly earnings section of our website. With that, I’d like to turn the call over to Dick.
Dick Notebaert, Chairman and CEO
Thank you Stephanie. Good morning everybody. Welcome. I am especially pleased to report our results for the full year 2005. Because we delivered our performance goals for revenue EBITDA and EBDA margin and free cash flow. We also achieved new highs in customer service levels across the board. And I am most proud of this accomplishment. As I have said many times, we must differentiate Qwest based on service to customers to win in our industry. Our progress and our performance continue to demonstrate that our strategies are working and our intentions are to carry that momentum into 2006.
In the fourth quarter, in addition to our operating performance, we significantly improved our financial flexibility with the successful completion of a tender offer that eliminated all of Qwest’s high coupon legacy debt. It reduced interest expense and reached break even EPS excluding special items.
That’s an important milestone for our company. Most important, as we look to the future, we continue to invest in growth and value to our constituents. I know we frequently remind everyone that we have made significant progress over the last three years, but our team has truly accomplished so much in that time. We have removed many obstacles, financial re-statement, legal settlements, significant cost reduction that included elimination of impossible contracts and equally significant, debt reduction. That’s just to name a few. We’ve done this while at the same time investing in a growth strategy that could prove successful in a highly competitive industry environment. At the end of the day, we have made steady and demonstrable progress over the last three years. And our goal is to continue to do so over the next three years.
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