American Shared Hospital Services

Good day and welcome to the American Shared Hospital Services first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Stephanie Prince of PCG Advisory. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Andrew, and thank you to everyone joining us today. Before turning the call over to management, I would like to make the following remarks concerning forward-looking statements. Please note that various remarks that may be made on this conference call about future expectations, plans, and prospects for the company constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may vary materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including those discussed in the company's filings with the SEC. This includes the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the definitive proxy statement for the annual meeting of shareholders to be held on June 25, 2021. The company assumes no obligation to update the information contained in this conference call. I would now like to turn the call over to Ray Stachowiak, CEO of AMS. Ray? Ray?

Thank you, Stephanie, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for our first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. I'll begin with some opening remarks, and then Craig Tagawa, our president, COO, and CFO, will go through the business and operational results. Alexis Wallace, our chief accounting officer, will then provide a financial review. Following that, myself, Craig, Alexis, and Ernie Bates, our Senior VP, Sales and Business Development and International Assistance, will open the call for your questions. Since our year-end conference call just five weeks ago, we announced an important action that's resulted in a stronger balance sheet and is expected to enhance long-term shareholder value. That action that we announced on April 13th was the establishment of a banking relationship with Fifth Third Bank N.A., the principal subsidiary of Fifth Third Bank Corp., a diversified bank holding company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, with over $200 billion in assets. The $22 million credit agreement that we signed with Fifth Third is a milestone in our company's history. It consists of three facilities, a term loan, $9.5 million, that refinanced $6.8 million of domestic Gamma Knife debt, an additional $1.6 million was used for two Gamma Knife reloads, with two customers that had recently extended their agreements. The remaining $1.1 million is available for future projects. The second facility is a $5.5 million term loan that refinanced the company's PBRT equipment debt and also provide additional working capital. This debt was due to mature in the fourth quarter of 2021. The third facility in the credit agreement is a $7 million revolving line of credit, which will be used to increase our flexibility in negotiating future projects and for general corporate purposes. The term loans will deliver significant principal payment reductions. which we estimate at $5.9 million over the next 12 months. Savings on our interest expense will be over $350,000 over the same period. And we'll also free up $300,000 in cash that had been previously restricted. Overall, the transaction immediately lowers our cost of capital and resulted in a swing to a positive working capital position of $4.2 million at the end of the first quarter compared to a negative 1.5 million at December 31, 2020. Our new relationship with Fifth Third is a key part of our strategy to increase growth. Perhaps most importantly, With the $5 million in cash in our balance sheet at March 31, 2021, the positive cash flow that we expect for the balance of the year, and now supplemented by the $7 million line of credit, we have greater resources and are in a much firmer position to negotiate with potential customers on new projects. Combined with our expanded product and financial offerings and the recent asset write-downs, I believe that these decisive actions put us on the right path to reach our goal of increased growth and sustained profitability. Already in the first quarter, without the benefit of the full impact of these actions, we reported break-even results on muted volumes. Assuming that the pandemic continues to recede, we expect patient volumes to normalize. I'll now turn the call over to Craig for the first quarter operational review.