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1) First of all, an overview of your company and what you do?
Aegis Communications has been in the business of providing teleservices to Fortune 500 companies since 1984.Stated simply, we are in the business of making and taking calls for our clients. This makes Aegis a very important part of serving and supporting the brand value of our clients. We partner with our clients to acquire new customers and provide ongoing customer service. Typically, a client will approach Aegis if they are looking to sell new services to their existing customers, sell current services to new customers, or both; and they need a flexible, scalable and cost effective solution.
Every day, our 3500 associates located across 7 centers in the US make this happen.
2) At the moment, how does your profitability stand, it looks like you are turning profitable, and what is your strategy to maintain profitability?
We had our work cut out for us through 2004 and 2005. The team at Aegis has done solid` head- down’ work over the past 18 months in getting back to the basics, and building a strong economic model around its well-regarded quality of customer service. We are now profitable and are constantly benchmarking ourselves against the “best in class” companies in our space on a continuous basis to realize ongoing performance improvement.
Our strategy to stay profitable is based upon growth, productivity and operational excellence. We have invested in top-notch sales and account management teams and a new branding effort. Both these efforts, working in tandem, are gaining strong traction. On the productivity side of the equation, the company has implemented leading edge VoIP technology and communications infrastructure. The piece that brings it all together for our clients, is Operational Excellence. The Aegis Operations Leaders and our Center Directors have worked hard to build an operating team and management rhythm that ensures we run a tight operation that meets service and financial goals on a consistent basis.
3) Your company currently trades on the OTC Bulletin Board, does that make it hard to attract investor’s attention?
The OTC Bulletin Board does constrain the stock from getting broader market attention. This matter is being considered and reviewed by the Board.
4) Why are there so many shares outstanding for such a small company, will that make it hard to drive the stock higher?
This is a legacy matter. When the company needed capital in 2003, there were already about 128 MM shares issued and outstanding. The additional capital that had to be brought in, had to be in the form of equity to build up the balance sheet and drive increased client confidence in Aegis. The equity infusion including conversion of long-term debt to equity required issuing a substantially large amount of additional shares done with the approval of the Board and the Shareholders.
The number of shares outstanding is large relative to the size of the company. This matter is being given due consideration and review by the Board.
5) What factors caused your revenue to fall over the last few years?
The big hit was driven by the negative turn of events led by the overall market downturn beginning in 2001. The impact was severe as the company had a high concentration of business in the Telecom market. In addition our clients from other markets trimmed down their spends to mirror the adverse market conditions.
I guess you could also say, that during the same period, the company was underinvested in its sales efforts and did not add new labels to make up the gap. The financial challenges faced as a consequence did not help matters either, as clients look at outsourcing their teleservices work as a long-term strategic decision, and to that end they look for stability.
We have addressed these business risks and well positioned in all the markets we serve.
6) You have had insider selling, why is that?
I am not sure you could really classify the transactions that have occurred in the past year as insider selling. When you get beneath the hood, you will find that the 5 transactions reported have been more in the nature of restructuring and consolidation of the holdings of the majority shareholder into a new affiliate entity.
7) It looks like you have some big players as customers, what are you doing to grow your base?
Our customers are really our biggest assets. We have been fortunate to have the long-standing support and trust of marquee brands. We are growing our base by getting into new markets. A great example is the way Aegis worked with our new clients from the Healthcare market to ramp up and be ready for the highly visible Medicare part D program launched by the Federal government. We are also developing some large new opportunities around our traditionally strong markets of telecom and financial services and are working on exciting new prospects from the retail and insurance markets. In addition to new markets, we are also adding to our delivery capability with near shore and offshore options. We have also made arrangements to have sufficient liquidity to support this growth.
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