Good morning, and welcome to the GEO Group First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Pablo Paez, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations.
Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's discussion of The GEO Group's Q1 2020 earnings results. With us today are George Zoley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brian Evans, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ann Schlarb, Senior Vice President and President of GEO Care and David Donahue, Senior Vice President of GEO Secure Services. This morning, we will discuss our Q1 results and outlook for the balance of the year. We will conclude the call with a question and answer session.
This conference call is also being webcast live on our investor website at investors. Geogroup.com. Today, we will discuss non GAAP basis information. A reconciliation from non GAAP basis information to GAAP basis results is included in the press release and supplemental disclosure we issued this morning. Additionally, much of the information we will discuss today, including the answers we give in response to your questions, may include forward looking statements regarding our beliefs and current expectations with respect to various matters.
These forward looking statements are intended to fall within the Safe Harbor provisions of the securities laws. Our actual results may differ materially from those in the forward looking statements as a result of various factors contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including the Form 10 ks, 10 Q and 8 ks reports. With that, please allow me to turn this call over
to our Chairman and CEO, George Zoley. George? Thank you, Pablo, and good morning to everyone. This morning, we reported our Q1 results, updated our guidance for the full year and issued guidance for the Q2. As our country and the world face an unprecedented health and economic crisis, GEO employees and facilities throughout the United States and internationally have also been impacted by the spread of COVID-nineteen virus.
Some of our employees live in communities that have endured significant hardship, and a few of our facilities have experienced cases of COVID-nineteen in both our staff and individuals entrusted to our care. From the outset of this global pandemic, our corporate, regional and field staff have implemented comprehensive steps to address and mitigate the risks of COVID-nineteen to all of those in our care and our employees. Ensuring the health and safety of all of those in our facilities and our employees has always been our number one priority. As a long standing provider of essential government services, we have the experience with the implementation of best practices for the prevention, assessment and the management of infectious diseases. All of our facilities operate safely and without overcrowded conditions.
All of our facilities have access to regular hand washing with clean water and soap as well as ample hygiene and sanitation products. All of our GEO secured facilities provide 20 fourseven access to health care. In the case of our ICE processing centers, the number of health care staff is typically double the number of health care staff at state correctional facilities. Most of our facilities are equipped with airborne infection isolation rooms specifically designed to manage infectious diseases. During this call, David Donahue and Ann Schlarb will discuss the steps we've taken at our GEO Secure Services and GEO Care facilities to implement best practices consistent with the guidance issued by the Center For Disease Control and Prevention.
Even though we have continued our operations Even though
we have continued our operations as an essential
government service provider, the spread of COVID-nineteen has also negatively impacted our projected revenues and cash flows for the year. Our ICE and U. S. Marshals facilities have experienced lower overall occupancy as a result crossings and apprehensions along the Southwest border, as well as a decrease in court and sentencing activity at the federal level. Additionally, the federal government recently issued COVID-nineteen operational guidance recommending a reduction to 75% capacity at ICE processing centers where possible to promote social distancing practices.
It's important to note that most of our GEO secure facilities contracts contain fixed price or Currently, our ICE Processing Centers and U. S. Marshals facilities are Currently, our ICE processing centers and U. S. Marshals facilities are operating at around the capacity level tied to the fixed price or minimum guarantee payment provisions.
Although it is possible that we may experience an improvement in occupancy levels at ICE and U. S. Marshals facilities later this year, our updated financial guidance assumes a continuation of the currently lower levels for the entire year. With respect to off-site medical expenses at our ICE Processing centers and U. S.
Marshals facilities, the federal government typically bears the cost for off-site medical care. Our GEO Care segment has also experienced a decline in revenue, primarily related to lower occupancy across our GEO reentry centers and data reporting programs. While we hope the trends will improve later this year, our updated guidance assumes lower occupancy levels for the entire year. During the Q1, we began the intake process at the government owned 5 12 Bed El Cento Detention Facility in California under a new 9 year fixed monthly price contract with the U. S.
Marshals Service. We also completed the intake process and achieved normalized operations at our company owned 1800 Bed Northlake Correctional Facility in Michigan. And in Texas, we completed the intake process and achieved normalized operations at the county owned 1800 Bed REEDS County Detention Center 12 and 1 and the 1376 Bed Reeves County Detention Center 3. These facilities were activated under new 10 year contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons providing for fixed monthly payments. Before I turn the call over to Brian Evans to review the results, outlook and liquidity position, I would like to say a few words about our frontline employees.
Every day, more than 20,000 GEO employees report to work at over 200 GEO facilities and program locations. These frontline employees make daily sacrifices to care for all of those in our facilities and programs. They are security officers, social workers, case managers, teachers, maintenance staff, doctors, nurses, but more importantly, they are members of the diverse communities whose families have also been impacted like everyone else. I'd like to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to all of our frontline GEO employees for their daily dedication and sacrifice, which is truly an inspiration for us all. Despite this quarter's many challenges, our revenues and cash flows remain resilient and continue to support our dividend payments.
I'll now turn the call over to Brian Evans.
Thank you, George. Good morning, everyone. Today, we reported Q1 revenues of approximately $605,000,000 and net income attributable to GEO of $0.21 per diluted share. Our first quarter results reflect approximately $0.03 per share in higher employment tax expense, which are front loaded in the first quarter of each year. Additionally, our Q1 results reflect a $400,000 gain on real estate assets, a $1,600,000 gain on the extinguishment of debt, dollars 2,000,000 in start up expenses, dollars 1,900,000 in closeout expenses and $900,000 in COVID-nineteen related expenses, all pre tax associated with additional personal protective equipment, diagnostic with additional personal protective equipment, diagnostic tests and medical expenses.
Excluding these items, we reported 1st quarter adjusted net income of $0.24 per diluted share. We also $4 per diluted share. We also reported Q1 2020 AFFO of $0.55 per diluted share. As George discussed, the spread of COVID-nineteen has resulted in lower occupancy at a number of our facilities and programs beginning in late March and is therefore expected to result in lower full year revenues, primarily for our ICE and U. S.
Marshals facilities and our GEO Reentry Services business. Currently, our ICE and U. S. Marshals facilities are operating at or around the capacity level tied to the fixed price or minimum occupancy payment provisions in our contracts. While it is possible that we may experience an increase in occupancy levels at these facilities later this year, our updated full year guidance assumes a continuation of the currently lower levels through the end of the year, resulting in an estimated revenue decline of approximately 8% for full year.
Our GEO Reentry Services business has also seen an occupancy decline beginning in late March in both our residential centers and nonresidential day reporting centers due to lower levels of referrals by federal, state and local agencies. Segment through the end of the year, resulting in an estimated revenue decline of approximately 4% for the full year. We have also increased our spending on personal protective equipment, diagnostic testing and medical expenses as a result of COVID-nineteen and expect to incur several $1,000,000 in non recurring costs during 2020. Our updated guidance continues to assume no contribution from our Central Valley, Desert View and Golden State facilities in California, even though we are hopeful these facilities will be activated as ICE Processing Center Annexes during the second half of this year despite several AFFO to be in a range of $2.25 to 2 point $3.5 per diluted share. For the Q2, we expect net income attributable to GEO to be in a range of $0.20 to $0.24 per diluted share and adjusted net income to be in a range of $0.23 to $0.27 per diluted share.
We expect 2nd quarter AFFO to be between $0.54 $0.58 per diluted share. As a reminder, compared to our first quarter results, our subsequent quarters historically reflect lower employment tax expenses, which are front loaded in the Q1 of each year. Moving to our capital structure. At the end of the Q1, we had approximately $32,000,000 in cash on hand and approximately $350,000,000 in available capacity under our revolving credit facility, in addition to an accordion feature of $450,000,000 under our credit facility. With respect to our capital expenditures, we expect total CapEx in 2020 to be approximately $85,000,000 including $19,000,000 for maintenance CapEx below our previous estimate.
At this time, I will turn the call over to Dave Donahue for a review of GEO Secure Services segment.
Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to provide you with an update on our GEO Secure Services business unit and specifically on the steps we have taken at our secure service facilities to address and mitigate the risk associated with COVID-nineteen. From the onset of the pandemic, we issued guidance to all of our facilities consistent with the guidance issued for correctional and detention facilities by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. We immediately updated our policies and procedures to include best practices for the prevention, assessment and management of COVID-nineteen, again relying on the guidance issued by the CDC. These best practices include the implementation of quarantine and cohorting procedures to isolate confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-nineteen, including medical isolation and the use of airborne infection isolation rooms at our facilities.
We also provided educational guidance to our employees and individuals in our care on the best preventive measures to avoid the spread of COVID-nineteen, such as frequent and careful hand washing, avoiding touching areas of the face, including facial hair, avoiding individuals exhibiting flu like symptoms, proper cough and sneeze etiquette, social distancing requirements and adjustments to laundry and meal schedules. We have increased the distribution of personal hygiene products, including soap, shampoo and body wash and tissue paper to at least twice per week at all of our facilities and more frequently if needed. Additionally, bars of soap or soap dispensers are placed at each sink daily for handwashing. We have also deployed specialized sanitation teams to sterilize high contact areas of our facilities and have developed intensive schedules and procedures for the cleaning and disinfecting of facility spaces above and beyond normal cleaning activities. We have procured additional cleaning equipment and sanitation products that are proven healthcare grade disinfectants.
We advised our employees to remain home if they exhibit flu like symptoms, and we've exercised flexible paid leave and paid time off policies to allow for employees to remain home if they exhibit flu like symptoms or to care for a family member. We engaged with our government partners to promptly suspend non essential visitation at all of our facilities and we have employed additional measures during the intake process in all of our facilities to include screening specific to COVID-nineteen. These additional screening procedures include temperature checks for all staff and any legally required visits before entering our facilities as well. Verbal medical screening questionnaires are also available. We ordered and received swab kits for COVID-nineteen from a national supplier and we enacted quarantine and testing policies for any employees who may have come into contact with any individual who has tested positive for COVID-nineteen.
At every one of our facilities, we have worked closely with our government agency partners and local health officials to develop COVID-nineteen emergency plans and testing policies for the individuals in our care. In March of this year, we started procuring additional personal protective equipment and began issuing it clinically needed at facilities impacted by COVID-nineteen. And over the course of April, we coordinated with our government partners to distribute personal protective equipment, including face masks to all staff, inmates and detainees as a precautionary measure at all of our GEO Secure Services facilities. A few of our facilities, primarily in our eastern region of the country, have experienced multiple cases of COVID-nineteen in both our staff and individuals entrusted in our care. A small percentage of these cases have required hospitalization and a very small number tragically resulted in fatalities, which has left all of us with very heavy hearts.
However, our facilities have thankfully not experienced a disproportionate impact from the pandemic and most of our facilities have had very quickly managed the spread of COVID-nineteen and mitigate its risk. Before I turn the call over to Anne, I'd like to briefly discuss a few other operational highlights in the quarter. During the Q1, we began the intake process under a new managed only contract with the U. S. Marshals Service at the government owned 5 12 Bed El Centro Detention facility in California.
This new contract has a term of approximately 9 years and is expected to generate approximately $29,000,000 in annualized revenue. Additionally, we completed the intake process and achieved normalized operations at our company owned 1800 Bed Northlake Correctional Facility in Michigan under a new 10 year contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. This 10 year contract is expected to generate approximately $37,000,000 in annualized revenues. And in Texas, under 2 new tenure contracts with the Bureau of Prisons, we worked with Reeves County to complete the intake process and have achieved normalized operations at the county owned 1800 Bed Reeves County Detention Center 12, Annapolis County in relation to this facility. While the county holds the contract with the Bureau of Prisons for the operation of the facility.
Finally, we are continuing to undertake expansion projects at our Ravenhall, June E and Fulham facilities in Australia, which are expected to add close to 1,000 beds during 2020. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Ann for a review of GEO Care. Ann?
Thank you, Dave. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to provide you an update on the steps we have taken to address the risks and mitigate the spread of COVID-nineteen across our GEO Care business unit. Consistent with the efforts undertaken by our GEO Secure Services facilities, all of our residential facilities and GEO Reentry and GEO Youth Services had issued COVID-nineteen guidance consistent with the guidance issued by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. We have updated our policies and procedures to include best practices for the prevention, assessment and management of COVID-nineteen, including the implementation of quarantine and cohorting procedures to isolate confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-nineteen.
We have provided educational guidance to our employees and all individuals in our care on the best preventative measures to avoid the spread of COVID-nineteen and we have increased the distribution of personal hygiene products. Similar to our geo secure services facilities, we have deployed specialized sanitation teams to sterilize high contact areas of our facilities and have developed special schedules and procedures for the cleaning and disinfecting of facility spaces using sanitation products that are proven healthcare grade disinfectants. We have also advised our employees to remain home if they exhibit flu like symptoms and have exercised flexible paid leave and paid time off policies to allow for employees to remain home as needed. We have implemented additional screening measures for entry into our facilities
and
health officials to develop COVID-nineteen emergency plans and testing policies consistent with CDC guidance. We have also established rapid response teams to be deployed to assist facilities that have been impacted by COVID-nineteen. The COVID-nineteen pandemic has affected many communities where our employees live, especially in the Northeast. Before I turn the call back to George, I would also like to thank all our GEO Care employees whose dedication and daily sacrifice make us all very proud. Our frontline employees report to work every day to care for all our participants in both residential and non residential programs and have found innovative ways to deliver rehabilitation programming through virtual technologies in ways we have never seen before.
We are incredibly proud of all of our employees. At this time, I'll turn the call back to George for his closing remarks. George?
Thank you, Ann. At times of unprecedented uncertainty, we often see the best in our people and their abilities. We are incredibly proud of all of our employees whose daily commitment and dedication has allowed our company to meet this crisis head on. As you've heard today, we have taken comprehensive steps to address and mitigate the risk of COVID-nineteen across all of our facilities and programs. Ensuring the health and safety of all of those in our care and our employees has always been our number one priority.
We are committed to working closely with our government agency partners and local health officials across the country as well as continue to fight the spread of COVID-nineteen. Despite the significant challenges associated with this global pandemic, our business earnings and cash flows remain resilient. We've taken what we believe is a prudent approach to our guidance for the full year, and and on the continued enhancement of long term value for our shareholders, which included many of our employees. Finally, I want to thank David Donahue for his 11 years with GEO in bringing additional professionalism to our company. David will be retiring on July 11 and will be followed by Blake Davis, who is presently in the role of President of Geo Secure Services.
That completes our presentation. We would be glad to address any questions.
And our first question comes from Joe Gomes of NOBLE Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning and thanks for taking my questions. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can. Good morning.
Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to first kind of start in with if you give me a little review of how the quarter played out. We had January, February, were you close to or above your expected plan? And then when in March did you really start to see the COVID impact?
I think it was mid March. So it was late in the quarter and we made our quarter results. But our revised guidance is indication that the occupancies did recede in late March and have stayed there. And we've taken, I think, the prudent approach of forecasting the continuation until the situation changes. And Joe, if I could
just add to what George mentioned, our normal occupancy levels would have started to improve towards the end of the Q1. Cyclically, the Q1 is usually lower occupancy levels, but instead of that improvement starting, which is why you see the step up in our original guidance from Q1 to Q2 through the rest of the year. And instead, we've essentially held the numbers kind of where we are today, some improvement from payroll tax expense not being as high in the second, third and fourth quarter. So that's kind of the way things trended against what we would normally expect to occur.
Okay. And kind of a follow-up on that one. So if you look at ICE average daily populations, at the end of the year for the month of December, there were 42,000. Last, I think it was last week or 2 weeks ago, they were at 30,000 as an average daily population for the week or roughly 26% decline from the beginning of the year. And you guys are talking about an 8% decline in your revenue from ICE year over year.
And I'm just wondering if you could give a little color to that as to how you square the such a sharp
That was a combination of ICE and U. S. Marshals. But as we've mentioned, and I think we mentioned in the call, the majority of our contracts with ICE have a fixed price component, a significant fixed price component to cover the high level of fixed costs that it takes to operate facility. So even though the occupancy levels are lower, it's not a proportionate impact to our revenues from the lower occupancy level.
So that's why those minimum occupancies or fixed price components of our contracts are so important. And most, as George mentioned, most of our ICE contracts have that. Not quite as many of the U. S. Marshals, there's a little more variability.
And then most of our state and our BOP contracts also have those fixed price arrangements. So that's why you see the impact more on the ICE side just due to the volatility in those contracts and the U. S. Marshals.
Okay, great. Thanks for the color on that. And then lastly, if you could just talk a little bit your experience in previous economic downturns on overall prison populations. As we know, the prison overall prison populations have been declining over time here. What has you guys seen in the past when we've seen an economic downturn on the impact either positively or negatively on prison populations?
Well, usually the question is about economic situations. Our company seems to do just as well in difficult economic situations. As far as state populations, our state occupancy is fairly static. Our facilities are medium security and up. So we're not losing prisoners.
The ones that are being released at the federal level are not our prisoners. They're in other types of facilities in the state facilities as well. They're usually released from low security institutions.
Okay, great. I'll jump back in line. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from mitra ramgopal of Sidoti. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions.
I was just
I think you mentioned on the ICE processing centers, the operational guidance of 75% capacity to promote social distancing practices. I'm just curious if you see that becoming the norm or you probably go back to how things were pre COVID?
We would think that the guidance that was issued about the COVID at 75% occupancy or below is a temporary measure that will be lifted once the health situations in their respective communities improves. Our facilities are primarily in the Sunbelt states where there has been less activity of the virus. And we're hopeful that in the states that are reopening now as you hear them But as a publicly traded company, I think But as a publicly traded company, I think we have to be fairly prudent and conservative in our forecast to account for all kinds of scenarios that may occur. So the basis of our forecast is a continuation of the existing situation, which we will hope will end in the near future. But we've provided guidance as we feel appropriate.
Okay. And then just a follow-up on that. I guess, obviously, you've taken a number of steps to improve the safety, etcetera, and the sanitation. I think you mentioned things like daily soap being available, etcetera. Are those things also just temporary or is that going to be sort of the norm going
forward? I think they're temporary in the magnitude that they're being applied at this time. We're incurring costs for masks and gloves and disinfectants at a much higher level than we would expect in the future. But there probably will be a continuation to a lesser degree of some of these procedures. We have faced these situations on a lesser extent previously, whether you have outbreaks of mumps or measles and people have to be quarantined.
And so in ICE in particular, we face these situations. We have the organizational financial resources to deal with these kinds of situations.
Mitra, this is Dave. And to add to George's comment, the focus and support for personal hygiene has always been sustained and maintained at a very high level in our organization. So those protective equipment that are now specific to COVID-nineteen, we would anticipate those to be lessened in the future as the pandemic is obviously medically understood and scientifically controlled. But our focus on personal hygiene has always been at the highest levels.
Thanks. I appreciate the clarification. Just wanted to touch base on CapEx. I know you pulled that in a little and a number of companies are obviously scaling back their CapEx or investment spending given the low visibility and the uncertainty that's out there right now. But just curious, for some of them, it's more about cash constrained, etcetera.
It seems like in your case, it's probably more just reduced opportunities in the near term given the environment as opposed to more liquidity issues. Is that fair?
That's correct. I think we looked at we changed the gross CapEx a little bit, but most of the reduction was on the maintenance side, and I think that's just deferring and pushing some stuff out a little bit further. So no liquidity issues, just trying to find some offsets to the reductions that we had to take on the revenue side.
And then just finally again on the growth initiatives, obviously international is something you've always been looking at in terms of expanding. I'm just curious if you're seeing any major changes on that front in light of the global pandemic. And also just on the acquisition front, I'm assuming that some of your competitors or auto players in the space are having would likely be also experiencing some tough conditions and might present some opportunities for you near medium term and any thoughts on that?
Well, on the international front, we have expansions occurring in Australia, as I think Dave mentioned. So that still looks quite good for us. And as far as acquisitions, we really don't talk about that very much.
And our next question will come from Matthew Larson of National Securities. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thanks for taking my call. Appreciate it. I'm not really surprised that your guidance for the remainder of the year has been lessened. I mean, the virus issue has made business difficult across all industries.
And actually, your reduction is, to me, minimal. If I'm looking at the numbers, your revenues are down $100,000,000 and your AFFO is down about 10% or 12% or something like that. But the stock is down quite a bit more than that. And in a world where yield is at a premium and the yield that from your dividend is really enormous, which should be attractive to people. What do you think you all could do to get your stock price up?
I mean, the yield should be attracting people. And I understand that there's certain groups of people who want to invest in for profit prisons and things like that. But since there's really only 2 firms, yourself and CoreCivic, that are publicly traded in this area, And there's plenty of private equity money out there, trillions I understand, that would love the sort of return you're able to generate. Is there a game plan to hopefully get this price up since you don't have any coverage or sponsorship out there and other ways that normally you might be able to generate some interest in the stock once some of these concerns fade away, whether they're the political concerns or if the virus finally abates?
Well, I think as the Q2 unfolds, shareholders will see a stark comparison between our company and industry versus others. We're an essential government service providers. You correctly stated that our profitability is maybe compressing by 10%, 11%, but that's far better than the typical companies throughout the country. And I think shareholders and investors will see a stark comparison as time moves forward this year. And we plan to reach out to the investment community throughout the year in different roadshows and talk about the company and remind them of the kind of business we're in, the predictability of our cash flows and the generous nature of our dividend.
So we think the economic conditions are in our favor and in time more and more people will see this and the stock will increase.
All right. Okay. Thank you. That's kind of my thoughts as well. It's just a matter of time as long as you can execute.
In the meantime, if you can maintain some semblance of your current dividend, that's going to continue to attract some attention. So thanks for your time this morning.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from David Napster of Artia Capital Management. Please go ahead.
My question is kind of on the line of the last one and actually last 2. What portion of your industry is under attack by a certain group of people in the country. What portion of prisons beyond the 2 public companies are private prison facilities?
I mean between ourselves and CoreCivic, we're about 80% of the privately managed facilities in the U. S. Maybe more. Yes, maybe a little bit more now. So less than 20% or less.
And do you have any incentive other than just being good corporate citizens and citizens of the world for GEO Care? Do you get any reward in some way for helping your patients and reducing recidivism?
Well, I think our state clients in particular know the value of the continuum of care program that we've established, which we think is among the best offender rehabilitation programs in the world, because it's so comprehensive in nature with respect to its rehabilitation components on-site as well as the post release services, which we provide once they leave the facility in providing them assistance for financial purposes, transportation, employment, housing. We have, I think, 15 positions slotted just for that purpose, post release services. So in the state incarceration sector, we think we're bringing a lot to the table as far as rehabilitation more than any other organization I'm aware of. We have 50 people in our corporate offices. That's what they do.
They're part of the rehabilitation program. So I'm not aware of any other organization in the world, correctional, public or private that has assembled the number of people that we have and contributes what portion of our profit is? 10%. 10% of GEO's net profit is spent on supporting this offender rehabilitation program. I can't think of any other companies in the world that committed 10% of their profits to offender rehabilitation or criminal justice reform as we have.
Okay. Well, I'm glad to hear that because it's such a political issue of what you do. And as a believer in good capitalism, I think that happens all the time. But the way you get you're under attack is that you're not doing it. But my suspicion is you're doing better than the state run facilities and the federal facilities.
And I just like
the
previous question was, how
do you get the word out and get the people to buy it?
We will be releasing our next annual report that describes the activities of the Continuum of Care program for 2019. That will be out next month, and we'll send that to all of our shareholders and investors.
Okay. Look forward to it because I'd like to have more good feeling publicity rather than people just saying, private industry from prisoners as though you create prisoners. You don't create prisoners, you house them.
No. We take care of them and it was really in our own initiative that we developed this program. We weren't paid to do it. We spent our own money developing it for many, many years. And we're proud that we have what we believe is possibly the finest offender rehabilitation program in the world.
Our next question comes from Harvey Poppel of Pop Tech LP. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. You've been very clear about the impact. I appreciate the clarity. You made one comment though very briefly and I would want to just have you comment on. You said something to the effect that your results are adequate to cover the dividend.
Does that imply that the dividend is safer now?
It's safer I'm not sure what your question is. Are you asking whether it's temporarily safe?
Well, I think whatever comments you'll have, but how far out is it that you see that it's safe?
Well, it's certainly safe, consistent with our forecast, our guidance.
Okay, good. The second question, that's the clarification I was looking for. The second question is regarding the overhang on the stock, which comes from the threat of a democratic sweep at the end of November. And would like to get your comments on what the downside of that might look like and how you're preparing for it?
Well,
there might be less occupancy in our ice facilities, but I don't think it would be less than it is today. We operated very profitably under the 8 years of the
Obama administration. In fact, we expanded
considerably under the Obama administration. In fact, we expanded considerably under the Obama administration. And the reason why is because under that civilly detained. And there were physical plant upgrades that were necessary, staffing upgrades, healthcare upgrades. And a lot of the previous governmental service providers for ICE, in particular, said, no, we're not able to meet those requirements.
And the ICE turned to the private sector, which did meet those standards. So we built new facilities and that met those standards. And we grew under a Democratic administration. And that, I would think, if there is a Democratic precedent such as the former Vice President that he would have a continuation of those policies.
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to George Zoley for any closing remarks.
Well, thanks to everyone for joining us today. We look forward to addressing you on the Q2 earnings call. Thank you.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.