Colliers International Group Inc (CIGI) 2011 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to FirstService Corporation's quarterly earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded. Legal counsel requires us to advise that the discussion scheduled to take place today may contain forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements contemplated in the forward-looking statements.

Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the Company's Annual Information Form, as filed with the Canadian securities administrators, and in the Company's annual report on Form 40-F, as filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Today is Wednesday, April 27, 2011. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jay Hennick. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. As the operator said, I am Jay Hennick, Founder of the Company. And with me today is Scott Patterson, President and Chief Operating Officer, and John Friedrichsen, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

This morning, FirstService reported solid results once again for the seasonally slow first quarter. Overall, revenues were up 19%, EBITDA was up 13%, while EPS was down by $0.01 versus the prior-year quarter. Revenues at Colliers International, our commercial real estate services segment, were up significantly compared to the first quarter of 2010. Colliers continues to invest heavily in its platform and infrastructure in all markets and has been accelerating its recruiting efforts, particularly in the US. We expect both will translate into additional revenue and profits for the balance of the year and beyond.

FirstService Residential continued to perform well despite continued weak economic conditions in some regions. Revenue from core management services was up nicely, while revenue from newer service lines, like rental management and other national accounts, also grew. Recent acquisitions completed since the prior-year quarter are all performing as expected, as we continue to integrate them into our national platform.

Finally, revenue in Property Services also grew solidly during the quarter, both in property preservation and foreclosure management and in service franchising. Scott and John will have more to say about the operational and financial results in a few minutes.

Let me also touch on some of the other highlights from the quarter. In late December, as you know, we expanded the scale and market presence of FirstService Residential with the acquisition of Vancouver-based Crosby Management Services, the market leader in British Columbia. And then earlier this month, we announced another acquisition in Vancouver, adding Vancouver Condo, the second-largest player in the market.

With both Crosby and Vancouver Condo, we are now the largest player in the province by a significant margin with multiple ways to grow. Not only can we add additional management clients, but we can also help them expand by offering additional products and services in the same way as we do in other markets across North America.

We also completed another smaller acquisition during the quarter, Abbott Enterprises, which is one of the most respected residential property management firms in North and South Carolina. First, we intend to integrate Abbott into our business in the Carolinas, which already includes several large-scale active adult communities, and then we will begin to add new services and programs, as I just mentioned.

Finally during the quarter, we also announced the official launch of FS Energy, our energy management company. FS Energy is a leading significant environmental change company that operates in all markets, and it improves energy efficiency by lowering operating costs across the entire FirstService property management portfolio. FS Energy's unique database tracks historical energy consumption and costs by building, enabling easy benchmarking and the implementation of customized energy reduction plans, which adds huge value to our clients, while making a major positive impact on the environment.

FirstService has become a world leader in property management. Through Colliers International, we manage more than 1 billion square feet of commercial property on a global basis.

Through FirstService Residential, we manage more than 1.2 billion square feet of low, medium and high-rise residential properties. And through Field Assets, our property preservation and foreclosure management business, we manage about 80,000 properties at any one time. Taken together, FirstService manages more than 2.2 billion square feet of commercial and residential properties on a global basis.

Having more than 60% of our revenue coming from recurring property management contracts gives FirstService a very stable business model. But it also allows us to take advantage of the more than $7 billion in annual combined buying power across our portfolio, which we can use to benefit our clients.

FirstService leverages its scale and expertise in energy, in property insurance, in cash management and in a variety of other areas to add value to our clients every day. This philosophy of business is not new to us. We have been focusing on aggregate buying power for many years, and it is something we believe creates a tremendous competitive advantage for FirstService companies and something that will pay huge dividends to our shareholders in the years to come.

Looking forward to the balance of the year, we remain optimistic about our prospects in all areas of our business. And now, let me ask John to take you through the financial details for the quarter. Then Scott will provide his operational report, and following that, we will open things up to questions. John?

Thank you, Jay. As announced earlier this morning and highlighted by Jay in his opening remarks, FirstService reported solid financial results from our operations in our first quarter ended March 31, 2011. Consistent with our first quarter last year, Colliers International was the main driver of growth in our consolidated revenues, benefiting from the continuing recovery in commercial real estate activity across our various markets.

Meanwhile, both our Residential Property Management and Property Services divisions generated solid results in the quarter, while operating conditions remain challenging in the US. Scott will have more to say on each of our segments in a few minutes, after I address our overall consolidated financial results for the quarter and then provide comments on our capital usage and balance sheet.

So for the first quarter of fiscal 2011, consolidated revenues increased to $478.4 million, up 19% from $402.4 million in the first quarter of 2010. Of this growth, 11% was internal in local currencies, 2% was due to the favorable impact of foreign exchange, while 6% of our revenue growth came from acquisitions.

EBITDA came in at $22.6 million, up 13% compared to the $20.1 million reported in Q1 of last year. And adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.14, a penny shy of the $0.15 reported for the first quarter last year.

Our adjustments to GAAP EPS in arriving at adjusted EPS are fully disclosed in our press release issued this morning and include adjustments that have been outlined in the past. Of note, we continue to be required to record a tax valuation allowance with regard to the value of tax loss carryforwards relating to our commercial real estate operations, and this equated to $0.13 per share, slightly higher than the $0.12 per share recorded in Q1 of last year.

Though our tax rate was 15% in the first quarter, after adjusting for the valuation allowance, we estimate that our tax rate for the year will be approximately 30%.

Now turning to cash flow and investing activities during the first quarter, cash flow from operations, before working capital changes, increased to $13 million, up 25% from the $10.4 million in Q1 last year. However, we saw a significant increase in working capital usage relating primarily to a reversal of the contribution from working capital to cash flow we had in our seasonally strong Q4. So that inclusive of working capital changes, cash flow from operations was negative $49.2 million compared to negative $25.2 million in Q1 2010, and really symptomatic of the strong finish we had to 2010 in our fourth quarter.

We invested $1.2 million in acquisitions during our first quarter compared to $2.4 million in Q1 last year, while our capital expenditures decreased to $5.3 million from $6.3 million last year.

In the context of our expectations over the next five years and our modest leverage levels, we also spent about $15 million in the quarter to repurchase about 468,000 common shares under our normal course issuer bid, paying an average price of about $32 per share.

Turning to our balance sheet, our net debt position stood at about $290 million at the end of the quarter compared to $217 million at our December 31 year-end. Our leverage ratio, expressed as net debt to EBITDA, stood at 1.8 times and was about the same level as at the end of Q1 last year.

Assuming the conversion of our substantially in-the-money $77 million of convertible debentures into common shares, our pro forma leverage was 1.4 at the end of the first quarter.

In terms of our financial capacity, with cash on hand and availability under our revolver, we have about $150 million of liquidity, a level ample to fund our operations and make investments that will deliver shareholder value over the long term.

Now over to Scott for the operational highlights. Scott?

Thank you, John. We'll start my divisional review with Commercial Real Estate, where revenues for the quarter were $195.6 million, up 27% from the first quarter of 2010, 13% organically, 10% from acquisitions and 4% from the favorable impact of foreign exchange.

We experienced solid growth in each of our major regions, the Americas, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific, driven primarily by strong increases in investment sales activity around the world. Let me spend a minute focusing on each region.

In the Americas, revenues were up 31%, 18% organically, with the balance from acquisitions made in the US over the last 12 months. Across the region, growth was driven by significant increases in investment sales commissions, up over the prior year by 30%, and supported by more modest, high-single-digit increases in leasing, property management and appraisal revenues.

We generated a low-single-digit margin in the Americas, up slightly over the prior year, but tempered by continuing investment in the US. As I have mentioned in the last two quarterly calls, and as you heard from Jay today, we are aggressively recruiting talent in the US and continuing to invest in our property management and corporate solutions platforms. These investments in our US platform are critical to our long-term strategy and positioning for global outsource service contracts.

We have won several significant regional and global outsource contracts over the last six months. We are gaining traction in our ability to compete for these contracts, and we are confident that we will begin to realize a return on our US platform investments beginning in 2011.

Looking forward in the Americas, we expect to see continued solid year-over-year comparisons for the balance of the year.

In our Asia-Pac region, year-over-year revenues were up 19% in US dollars and 11% in local currency, driven primarily by strong growth in investment sales commissions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and India. Revenues from Australia/New Zealand were approximately flat year-over-year in local currency against a tough comparison, but also negatively impacted by several natural disasters in the region during the quarter, including a cyclone and flooding in Queensland, Australia and an earthquake in New Zealand. Several offices were temporarily closed as a result and business in general was disrupted in affected areas.

Business activity levels have resumed in Australia, but our activities in Christchurch, New Zealand, will be impacted for the balance of the year. We do not expect the impact to our results to be material.

For the quarter, we generated a high single-digit EBITDA margin in Asia-Pac, which is generally in line with the prior year. Looking forward in Asia-Pac, we expect a solid second quarter, as pipelines and activity levels are quite strong in most markets. I mentioned in our year-end call -- and I will reiterate today -- that we are somewhat cautious about the second half of 2011 on the expectation that Asian markets may cool and as we encounter tough year-over-year comparisons.

In our Europe region, including Russia, revenues were up 30% in local currency, half organically and half attributable to the acquisition of BHH in the Netherlands, which occurred in the fourth quarter of 2010. We operate in 14 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and year-over-year revenue was flat to slightly up for most of the countries. The exceptions were Poland and the Ukraine, which showed revenue growth of approximately 10%, and Russia, which grew significantly against a weak comparative quarter in Q1 of 2010.

Growth in our Europe region came equally from all significant business lines, including brokerage, appraisal and property management. We achieved a breakeven result in Central and Eastern Europe for the seasonally weak quarter compared to a negative EBITDA of $1.5 million in the prior year.

Looking forward in this region, we expect to show solid year-over-year comparisons for the balance of the year. On balance across the region, the recovery has been slow, but it is showing signs of strengthening and we are comfortable that it will continue throughout 2011.

In summary, we continue to be optimistic about 2011 for our Colliers International commercial real estate division. Pipelines are solid in most regions. Markets continue to improve. And we are positioned to deliver further increases in revenues and improvement in margins.

Let me turn my attention now to Residential Property Management, where we generated revenues of $168.2 million for the quarter, up 15% over the prior year, 7% organically, with the balance from several acquisitions completed since the prior-year quarter and referenced by Jay in his comments.

Organic growth was driven by increases in management fee revenue and supported by a modest increase in ancillary fee revenue during the quarter. The increase in management fees related primarily to contract wins in Florida and the Northeast, but also from continued growth in our national accounts business.

I reported last year that we had won certain contracts to provide rental management services to mortgage lenders interested in earning a cash return on foreclosed property as an alternative to resale. In addition, we are providing services to lenders and investors who own large portfolios of vacant lots, homes or condominiums units. As the only true national management company, we were able to provide consistent services across the country, managing and maintaining lots or units until the owner decides to sell. While this is still a small business for us in relative terms, it is growing rapidly and positively impacted our growth metrics during the quarter.

Our EBITDA margin in a seasonally weak quarter was 6.8%, down from 7.9% in the prior year. The year-over-year margin variance was impacted in part by greater off-season losses at our pool business for the quarter, which should reverse itself later in the year, and in part due to general pricing pressure in both our core management business and across many of our ancillary services.

The general pricing pressure is not new. We have been discussing this for 18 months, and it reflects the difficulty in securing price increases on contract renewals in the current economic environment.

Looking forward in Residential Property Management, we expect to see solid revenue growth for the balance of 2011 from continued organic growth and of course from acquisitions made in 2010 and early this year. In addition, we expect our year-over-year margin comparisons to gradually improve over the next three quarters.

In our Property Services division, total revenues were up 13% over the prior year to $114.5 million for the quarter, comprised of 14% year-over-year growth at Field Asset Services and 11% growth for our Franchise Group. FAS reported revenues that were up only slightly from the last two quarters sequentially, December and September of 2010.

Foreclosure volumes appear to have stabilized at current levels for the time being. A shadow inventory of foreclosures still exists and it is still an enormous number, estimated currently at approximately 7 million mortgages. But regulation continues to moderate the foreclosure process. Short sales are increasing, and loan modifications are having some impact in containing the large shadow inventory, but neither is expected to significantly reduce the backlog.

At some point, the delinquent loans will make their way through the foreclosure process, but today there is no clarity as to when the pace of foreclosure filing will accelerate. Our team at FAS is operating on the basis that volumes will continue at current levels to slightly up for the balance of the year.

In the meantime, FAS continues to have success in expanding its suite of services to its clients, driving ancillary revenues, including renovations, remodeling, repairs, code compliance and inspections, service revenues that are outside of and in addition to our standard contract. Ancillary revenues enhanced organic growth for the first quarter over and above foreclosure volume growth, and the impact is expected to increase in coming quarters.

Looking at our Franchise Systems, as I mentioned, revenues for the quarter were up a solid 11% over the prior year, a higher growth rate than we have experienced for several quarters. The growth was balanced and spread across each of the Franchise Systems and the [branchise] operations.

Looking forward for the Franchise Group, we believe the soft home-improvement market will continue to slowly strengthen throughout the year. As I mentioned in the year-end call, we are seeing signs of pent-up demand and more committed customer buying behavior, and expect this to translate into reasonable single-digit year-over-year growth for 2011. The first-quarter growth was higher than expectation.

EBITDA margins for this division were 9.8%, down from 10.7% in the prior year, due to our lower margin at FAS, which we expected, and slightly higher off-season losses within the Franchise Group. The FAS margin was lower than prior year, but at approximately the same level as the past three quarters sequentially, and is reflective of the cost structure necessary to provide the scope of services required under our existing contracts.

The higher year-over-year losses within the Franchise Group were due to increased franchisee recruiting costs, primarily at CertaPro Painters, and also due to start up costs for a new California Closets franchise operation. Both investments will yield returns later in 2011 and beyond.

That concludes our prepared comments. I would now like to ask the operator to open the call to Q&A.

(Operator Instructions) Frederic Bastien, Raymond James.

Good morning, guys. Scott, you mentioned that the Residential Property Management business was impacted by greater off-seasonal losses in the pool business. Can you elaborate on exactly what happened here or what caused these losses to be more?

Well, that business is a seasonal business, and it is growing. We expect our pool account to be up at least 10% this year, and the seasonal business that grows, it has the effect of amplifying the seasonal fluctuations. So we have increased marketing costs relating to the -- securing those contracts; we have increased lifeguard recruiting and training costs. We also have a slight increase in our losses associated with the construction business -- or I should say the construction -- on a year-over-year basis, our construction revenues are down slightly in the quarter, which has reduced the profitability there.

Okay, but it's nothing that you did not expect, right?

We are growing more than we would have expected in that business. This is a good thing. We will see that come back in the next two quarters.

Okay, fair enough. Any way you can quantify the investments you made in your Colliers' platform? Just wanted to get a sense of what the margins would have looked like without those extra costs.

That is very, very hard to pin a number on. There is really two big components. One is investment in the infrastructure, and in particular, our property management platform. We've added overhead in the form of management and an administrative staff. As we build out that capability across the US, it is something that we need to do to compete for national outsourcing contracts. We are winning business and our revenues in the US in property management were up 25% year-over-year. But currently, our cost structure is out in front of our revenue streams in that business.

And then secondly, the recruiting cost does have a short-term impact. There are some costs associated with --directly associated with recruiting producers. And then there is a pipeline transition, where it takes them a while to get up to speed with Colliers.

All right. Thanks. Last question. You were -- I guess you have been quite active, and we've seen you make acquisitions on the Residential Property Management side in Western Canada. What kind of opportunities exist in Eastern Canada?

One of the things that is playing to our advantage with a weaker market in property management in the US is acquisition opportunity. So you are seeing, over the past year, acquisitions not just in Canada but also in the US, and they continue, and we hopefully will expect them to continue for a while yet.

Eastern Canada is something that is definitely on our radar screen and something that we would like to do. But we want to make sure we have the right opportunity, a significant platform that we can -- that is driven by great people that we can drive our incremental products and services through. That is sort of the key to providing a full-service management solution, which is now synonymous with what we do in FirstService Residential, and we have some interesting prospects. So we will see how the rest of the year unfolds.

So one step at a time, eh?

One step at a time.

All right. Thank you.

Stephanie Price, CIBC.

Hi, gentlemen. Just following on the last question there, in terms of the ancillary services, are you going to be porting your US services into Canada, or do you need to set up a separate network in Canada as you roll out the services in that market?

We -- interestingly, the border is fading for many of these larger programs, like insurance, like cash management, like energy. And the expertise and the contacts and relationships really go across the border. So we have enjoyed already some very interesting value-add opportunities for our clients in Alberta and in British Columbia in both insurance and in cash management. And our people on the energy side of the business are looking at that piece of it, as well.

So anything that we do in terms of leveraging our combined buying power is all driven around the building and ways in which we can enhance the value proposition for our clients and create a competitive advantage for us. And so we are quite excited about what that might mean for us in the years to come.

Okay. Just on that topic, you guys have been talking a lot about the different services that you are rolling out, the energy and the insurance. Can you talk a bit more about how you expect them to contribute to 2011 results, like what we should be thinking in terms of the rollout of these services? And also, in terms of the margin profile versus other services in the commercial real estate business.

So I didn't hear your second question, Stephanie. Can you ask me that one again?

Sure. I was just talking about in terms of the margin profile for these businesses versus your traditional commercial real estate business.

Okay. So I will let John address the margin question in commercial real estate in a minute. But in terms of the ancillary services in property management, that is the reason why we see this business long-term at being a plus or minus 10% EBITDA margin business, because we look to leverage these various ancillary service opportunities.

And so it is very hard for us to predict what the impact is going to be on near-term margins in that business. It is all about absorption. It is all about clients taking on these additional programs. And it is all driven ultimately towards retention.

So if we can retain these clients by differentiating, it goes a long way. And then when we introduce these programs that are so materially different than they can get from other clients in the marketplace, not only will we retain them, but we will also help them reduce their overall costs, reduce their energy usage and a variety of other things. So John, in terms of --

I think I understood the question. In terms of margin profile, much of the value created goes to the client. So the margin profile is not significantly different from our other services. First and foremost, this is to differentiate ourselves, keep our clients and win share. And that is the impact it is having, but you won't see our margin profile change.

Okay, great. Thanks, guys.

Stephen MacLeod, BMO Capital Markets.

Thanks. Good morning, guys. Just circling back on the commercial real estate business with respect to the infrastructure investments that you've put into the outsourcing business and also recruiting, I'm sure it is hard to give a timeline, but when do you sort of expect to see returns being generated on these investments?

It will begin this year, Stephen. The brokers that we are recruiting will start to generate a return for us in 2011. Certainly '12. And corporate solutions and property management, which are two of the areas that we've referenced consistently over the last few quarters, we expect to see a return beginning this year in the latter half.

Okay, great. And then looking at the RPM business, you mentioned the national accounts that's growing rapidly, but it's a small part of the business currently. What sort of percentage of Residential Property Management revenues come from these national accounts?

It is a couple of percent right now.

Okay. And then continuing on the Residential Property Management business, you mentioned that you expect that year-over-year margin comps to improve as you move through the year. Just curious -- what gives you confidence that will drive those margins -- or less of a margin decline or margin growth through the remainder of the year?

Well, part of it is based on our comparative quarters last year, where we were suffering some margin deterioration in 2010 and the environment is starting to improve. So just based on our outlook for this year, it is not going to be significant. But we believe that -- I mean, for the year, 2010, we had our lowest margin in that business at 8.9% than we've ever had. We've been between 9% and 10% for the last 10 years or longer, and we expect to be back up over 9% this year.

That's great. Thank you very much.

David Gold, Sidoti.

Good morning. Just a couple follow-ups. On the investment plans versus, say, returns, particularly on the Colliers side of the world, where are we in that cycle? Are we still adding pretty aggressively, or are we sort of at the point where we should really benefit from the upside in the second half of the year? I know it is a delicate balance. I just wanted to get a sense for what the opportunity is in front of us.

Are you talking about recruiting, or are you talking about the actual real estate flow?

Talking about recruiting.

Recruiting. I think that we are actually at an early stage, particularly in the US. Because there is some movement in the industry, as you know, and there is a lot of strong professionals at firms that would like to have -- that don't have a global platform, would like to be part of a firm with a global platform, among many other things. And there is a real opportunity in the marketplace to strengthen branches, operations, key management talent, and we are trying to take advantage of that in an aggressive way.

Got it. So as we think about, say, the rest of the year, I know one of the comments more broadly was we should see some benefit from the investments you've already made. Do you expect that the costs in front of us will offset that, or do you expect that -- from here, that the big sort of spend has been done and now the benefits should really offset it?

I think we are going to see stronger results in the -- sequentially over the next number of quarters, as more of these new recruits get up and operate.

There is an onboarding cost, as I'm sure you know, David, with every new recruit. And so there is a period of time where they join you and they are not as productive for the current firm as they would otherwise be. So there has been a lot of activity on a global basis at Colliers this year. I think it is going to accelerate over the next month or two, even more. And that is all going to start to kick in over the course of the balance of the year, I think, and beyond.

Got you. Perfect. Just one other. At Fields, just curious -- when you think about sort of managing cost there versus the opportunity that is in front of us, what do we do differently, if anything, knowing that I guess the opportunity is very significant, but at the same time, to your point, it could take another six or nine months before we really see it?

There has been stability the last nine months, and so that business, we are just holding the cost structure as is and operating on the basis that the current volumes are the level that we are going to see for the balance of the year.

Got you. Perfect.

[Ken O'Connor], William Blair.

Hi, guys. A couple quick ones. First, on the global outsourcing contracts that you mentioned. This is kind of a new development, and I just wanted to see -- is there any spend necessary to bring these clients on, or is your existing footprint still [down] enough that you can easily just jump right into these deals?

There is no -- we have the global platform, which is one of the real competitive advantages that we and very few other global firms have. So in terms of additional investment spend, there is nothing in terms of adding new offices or operations in any different geographic regions.

What there is in terms of cost, upfront cost, is when you gain a significant corporate services accounts -- and we've been very successful, as Scott mentioned, in the past six months with some very large corporate services accounts -- there is a set-up time lag in terms of understanding the client fully. Many of them have hundreds and hundreds of locations on a global basis. We have to put them into our technology. We have to understand them on a property by property basis and start to prioritize, at least initially, until we are up to speed on those clients.

So there is a delay, but there is not really -- other than the manpower associated with getting the client up to speed, there is no infrastructure additions that we'd have to make.

Okay. In the FAS business, you said you feel like you've got that business right-sized and the pipeline is there. How flexible are the contracts you've signed for the people you've recently brought in, and do you feel like you have quarter-to-quarter flexibility or is it more year-to-year?

I think we are at the right level today in terms of our cost structure. We have not added significant headcount in that business in the last year, because we've been running at basically the consistent levels. So I'm not sure I understand your question. Maybe you can take another whack at it.

So I think you mentioned there has been a little bit of incremental spend recently in the FAS business. Is that right, or did I misunderstand that?

Oh, the FAS business. No, I didn't mention that. Our margins sequentially have been the same for the last three years. What I did mention -- we've been talking about the margins were higher off-season losses in our Franchise Group, which is in the same division.

Okay, understood. And then recently, there has been a little bit of weakness in some decent-sized commercial real estate competitors of yours. Are you getting inbound calls from brokers looking to move, and do you feel like there is still talent left at some of these sort of midsize shops that have struggled a little bit?

Yes, I think the -- if you are talking about commercial real estate, as I answered the question to a previous caller, I think there is -- it is a very interesting time in the marketplace right now, given what is going on. And we are very, very aggressive about taking advantage of that opportunity. And we are fortunate, because we are really only one of three that have a global footprint and are able to service the high quality -- or provide high quality service professionals a global platform to operate their practice.

So yes, we've been very aggressive. We will continue to be very aggressive until the market stabilizes. It has not stabilized yet, so we are out there.

Okay. Just a quick follow-up on that. I know it is difficult to judge, but do you feel like you are taking market share, either locally or regionally, as well as nationally?

Yes, for sure.

Okay. Thank you very much.

(Operator Instructions) Valerie Blume, RBC Capital Markets.

Just wondering with the share buybacks, are you done or is that also in the cards going ahead?

Well, I think we took a good pretty good whack at it in the first quarter, and I think we are going to continuously assess where our stock price is and what our other opportunities are to deploy capital.

So I wouldn't say we are categorically done, but, like all of these decisions around investing generally, we're just going to kind of evaluate it carefully as things go and try and be a bit opportunistic.

Okay. And then just on the Field Assets, like certain articles are saying it is taking longer for banks to sell foreclosed homes and they have to invest more heavily to get them off the market. Are you seeing that or --?

The whole foreclosure process has been extended. So it is much more difficult to foreclose on homes, but once they are owned by the bank, it is taking longer to sell them. Although I wouldn't say that it is taking longer this quarter than the last two or three quarters.

Okay. Do you expect that though maybe in the coming quarters?

No.

No, okay.

(multiple speakers) the properties are beginning to move.

Sort of at a same speed?

Right.

Okay. Thanks. Those are all my questions.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks again for joining us at first-quarter conference call. We look forward to hearing from you again at the second. So thanks for joining us.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the conference call for today. You may now disconnect your line and have a great day.