Post by
Soyousay on Dec 04, 2018 7:37pm
Spoke with IR...
I left a message for Marty (IR) and he called me back within a couple of hours. We had a very cordial conversation and he was guite fine to answer my questions within reason. In a nutshell, he confirmed that HLTH is going through a "re-evaluation" of their receivables in period (i.e . last 365 days). Management is in daily touch with the auditors to ensure they are getting what they need and also to help move things along to wrap this up as quickly as possible. There are also bankers in the house (quite literally). You may recall that their primary lender has granted a 45 day waiver as they are in breach of their loan covenants. The primary reason being is due to the reduction in revenues (largely due to impaired receivables) this has an impact on EBITDA and of course cash flow. There needs to be so much trailing EBITDA to maintain those bank convenants, and HLTH is outside of them. So the primary lender is working with Nobilis to help them manage through this period which happens to be Nobilis' busiest, which means a need for cash to support increases throughput in their operations. HLTH is also working on winding down those centers that are under performing and a cash drain. Hence the closure of a vein clinic in AZ recently. Marty was very upfront and said that the receivable issue was self-imposed...meaning they did not do a good job in developing a model that maximized collections, which has contributed to this situation.
Net-net, my take on this is Nobilis will get through this tough time and come out a stronger (and wiser) company. They have already made good moves hiring someone to lead the collections arm of Nobilis and apparently making good progress with a revised model. And the willingness to close some underperforming clinics makes sense. And for the banks to be working with Nobilis vs. against them is also a positive as they have no better front row seat to the goings on than anyone. Sure HLTH is in the tank, but I believe over the next 6 months, we'll see things back on track and moving in the direction that will bring confidence back.