Exhibit 99.1
ACCESS WORLDWIDE REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER AND YEAR-END FINANCIAL RESULTS
BOCA RATON, Fla., March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Access Worldwide
Communications, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AWWC), a leading marketing services
company, today reported financial results for the three and twelve months ended
December 31, 2004.
For the Three Months Ended December 31, 2004
Our revenues decreased by $3.4 million, or 24.1%, to $10.7 million for the
quarter ended December 31, 2004, compared to $14.1 million for the quarter ended
December 31, 2003. Revenues for the Pharmaceutical Services Segment, which
includes our medical education and pharmaceutical marketing businesses,
increased $0.2 million, or 3.0%, to $6.7 million for the quarter ended December
31, 2004, compared to $6.5 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2003. The
increase was attributed to an increase in inbound services, most notably our
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) services, providing more value-added
billable services offset by a decrease in revenues at our medical education
division. Revenues for the Business Services Segment, which includes our
multilingual communications business, decreased $3.6 million, or 47.4%, to $4.0
million for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, compared to $7.6 million for
the quarter ended December 31, 2003. The decrease in revenues is primarily
attributed to a client prematurely halting its marketing programs due to court
rulings and regulation changes that made it difficult to sell bundled services
to consumers. In the past, our client had been able to sell local and long
distance services to consumers, often at lower prices than if sold separately.
To address the loss of this client and the decrease in revenues, we have added
two new business development personnel to sell our Business Services and have
plans to expand our communication center into the Philippines.
We reported a net loss and diluted loss per share of ($0.6) million and ($0.06),
respectively, for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, compared to net loss and
diluted loss per share of ($0.8) million and ($0.08), respectively, for the
fourth quarter of 2003. The reduction in loss is the result of an increase in
pharmaceutical business offset by the loss in our business services segment,
coupled with cost effective use of our resources. Total weighted average diluted
shares outstanding for the quarters ended December 31, 2004 and December 31,
2003 were 10,546,386 and 9,740,501, respectively.
For the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2004
Our revenues decreased $3.6 million, or 7.0%, to $47.5 million for 2004,
compared to $51.1 million for 2003. Revenues for the Pharmaceutical Segment
increased $2.3 million, or 10.1%, to $25.1 million for 2004, compared to $22.8
million for 2003. The increase was primarily due to our entry into the Direct to
Consumer ("DTC") and Customer Relationship Management ("CRM") marketplace where
we executed several programs for some well known pharmaceutical companies. The
increased business was offset by a continuing decrease in our medical education
revenues. Revenues for the Business Segment decreased $5.9 million, or 20.8%, to
$22.4 million for 2004, compared to $28.3 million for 2003. The decrease in
revenues is primarily attributed to prematurely halting its marketing programs
due to court rulings and regulatory changes that made it difficult to sell
bundled services to consumers. In the past, our client had been able to sell
local and long distance services to consumers, often at lower prices than if
sold separately. To address the loss of this client and the decrease in
revenues, we added two new business development personnel to our Business
Services Segment and have plans to expand our communication center into the
Philippines.
We reported a net loss and diluted loss per share of ($1.4) million and ($0.14),
respectively, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2004, compared to a net
loss and diluted loss per share of ($11.6) million and ($1.20), respectively,
for the twelve months ended December 31, 2003. The decrease in net loss and
diluted loss per share was primarily attributed to an intangible asset
impairment charge of $9.0 million related to our medical education business and
a bad debt expense charge of $0.6 million relating to a pharmaceutical client
during 2003. Total weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the twelve
months ended December 31, 2004 and 2003 respectively were 10,008,271 and
9,740,418, respectively.
"Access Worldwide completed it's restructuring in 2004 and made progress in
several areas," remarked Shawkat Raslan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Access Worldwide. "We reduced our debt to its lowest level in years through
better operating performance and cash management, while simultaneously expanding
our teleservices capabilities. We opened a new office in Maine in 2004 and will
execute a lease to establish an overseas operation in Manila, Philippines in
2005."
Mr. Lyew, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer commented, "Our
most significant accomplishment during 2004 was the revenue growth achieved by
our pharmaceutical marketing division, ("TMS"). We capitalized on earlier
momentum and expanded our DTC and CRM programs. Due to the decline in
teleservices and medical education programs, our total company revenues
decreased in 2004, compared to 2003, but our aggressive cost control, better
cash management and improved operational efficiency allowed us to improve our
overall financial results. We will continue to work at improving our balance
sheet and our financial performance in 2005."
Founded in 1983, Access Worldwide provides a variety of sales, marketing and
medical education services. Among other things, we reach physicians, pharmacists
and patients on behalf of pharmaceutical clients, educating them on new drugs,
prescribing indications, medical procedures and disease management programs.
Services include product stocking, medical education, database management,
clinical trial recruitment and teleservices. For clients in the
telecommunications, financial services, insurance and consumer products
industries, we reach the established mainstream and growing multicultural
markets with multilingual teleservices. Access Worldwide is headquartered in
Boca Raton, Florida and has about 1,000 employees in offices throughout the
United States and Asia. More information is available at
http://www.accessww.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements including statements
regarding financial results and the debt agreement. Such statements involve
known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the
actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by such forward- looking statements,
include, but are not limited to, the following: our ability to continue as a
going concern if we are unable to generate cash flow and income from continuing
operations; our ability to continue to comply with the financial covenants
contained under our debt agreement; competition from other third-party providers
and those clients and prospects who may decide to do work in-house that we do
for them in-house; our ability to successfully open and operate at capacity our
new communication center in the Philippines; consolidation in the
pharmaceutical, medical, telecommunications and consumer products industries
which reduces the number of clients and prospects that are able to be served;
potential consumer saturation reducing the need for services; our ability and
clients' ability to comply with state, federal and industry regulations; our
reliance on a limited number of major clients and the possible loss of one or
more clients; our ability to develop or fund the operations of new products or
service offerings; our reliance on technology; our reliance on key personnel and
labor force; the possible prolonged impact of the general downturn in the U.S.
economy; the volatility of our stock price; and the unpredictability of the
outcome of the litigation in which we are involved. For a more detailed
discussion of these risks and others that could affect results, see our filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors section
of Access Worldwide's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2004 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no
duty to update any forward-looking statements.
Access Worldwide Communications, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
December 31,
--------------------------------
2004 2003
-------------- --------------
ASSETS
Current Assets
Cash and cash equivalents $ 2,570,546 $ 472,722
Restricted cash 122,000 123,000
Accounts receivable,net 7,567,448 11,069,284
Unbilled receivables 398,547 1,176,797
Taxes receivable - 658,666
Other assets, net 1,001,671 950,761
Total current assets 11,660,212 14,451,230
Property and equipment, net 3,614,322 3,881,954
Restricted cash 589,000 711,000
Other assets, net 146,177 434,769
Total assets $ 16,009,711 $ 19,478,953
LIABILITIES, MANDATORILY REDEEMABLE
PREFERRED STOCK AND COMMON
STOCKHOLDERS' DEFICIT
Current Liabilities
Current portion of indebtedness $ 2,955,450 $ 5,098,999
Current portion of indebtedness
- related parties 352,334 383,334
Accounts payable 739,438 824,213
Accrued expense 3,022,695 4,837,301
Grants payable 2,257,000 2,011,250
Accrued salaries, wages and
related benefits 1,204,301 1,347,385
Deferred Revenues 2,981,859 2,852,628
Accrued interest and other
related party expenses 12,673 13,304
Total current liabilities 13,525,750 17,368,414
Long-term portion of indebtedness 135,008 97,768
Other long-term liabilities 786,386 775,109
Convertible notes, net 1,427,685 987,336
Mandatorily redeemable preferred
stock, $0.01 par value:
2,000,000 shares authorized,
40,000 shares issued and
outstanding 4,000,000 4,000,000
Total liabilities 19,874,829 23,228,627
Commitments and contingencies
Common stockholders' deficit Common
stock, $0.01 par value:
voting 20,000,000 shares
authorized;
10,841,719 and 9,740,501
shares issued and outstanding,
respectively 108,417 97,405
Additional paid-in capital 66,228,271 64,950,294
Accumulated deficit (70,182,006) (68,770,973)
Deferred compensation (19,800) (26,400)
Total common stockholders' deficit (3,865,118) (3,749,674)
Total liabilities, mandatorily
redeemable preferred stock
and common stockholders'
deficit $ 16,009,711 $ 19,478,953
Access Worldwide Communications, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
Unaudited
For the Three Months For the Twelve Months
Ending Ending
December 31, December 31,
------------------------------ ------------------------------
2004 2003 2004 2003
------------- ------------- ------------- -------------
Revenues $ 10,653,922 $ 14,114,704 $ 47,466,996 $ 51,084,021
Cost of revenues 5,851,317 8,660,191 27,011,413 33,083,567
Gross profit 4,802,605 5,454,513 20,455,583 18,000,454
Selling, general &
administrative expenses 5,120,724 5,674,735 20,552,995 20,182,590
Impairment of intangible
assets - - - 8,951,856
Gain on extinguishment of
indebtedness - related party - - - (299,555)
Loss from operations (318,119) (220,222) (97,412) (10,834,437)
Interest expense, net (307,046) (569,703) (1,313,621) (1,352,307)
Loss before income tax benefit (625,165) (789,925) (1,411,033) (12,186,744)
Income tax benefit - - - 546,204
Net loss $ (625,165) $ (789,925) $ (1,411,033) $ (11,640,540)
Basic loss per share:
- Net loss $ (0.06) $ (0.08) $ (0.14) $ (1.20)
Weighted average common shares
outstanding 10,546,386 9,740,501 10,008,271 9,740,418
Diluted loss per share:
- Net loss $ (0.06) $ (0.08) $ (0.14) $ (1.20)
Weighted average common shares
outstanding 10,546,386 9,740,501 10,008,271 9,740,418
SOURCE Access Worldwide Communications, Inc.
-0- 03/31/2005
/CONTACT: Mark Wright, Investor Relations, +1-571-438-6140,
mwright@accessww.com, or Richard Lyew, EVP and Chief Financial Officer,
+1-571-438-6140, rlyew@accessww.com, both of Access Worldwide Communications,
Inc./
/Web site: www.accessww.com/