Standard Parking Corporation Announces $20 Million Stock Repurchase Program
Standard Parking Corporation (Nasdaq:STAN), one of the nation's leading providers of parking management, ground transportation and other ancillary services, today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the Company to spend up to $20 million in total to return value to its shareholders through open market stock repurchases.
In light of the Company's strong free cash flow expectation of $15 - $20 million for 2011 and a current share price that the Company believes is significantly undervalued, the authorization reflects the Board's belief that the repurchase of Company shares is one of the best current uses of free cash flow.
Commenting on the stock purchase authorization, James A. Wilhelm, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Given our relatively low cost of capital, ongoing confidence in our business model and our expectation for solid growth, we believe our current stock price presents the Company with an excellent investment opportunity. With our low leverage and strong balance sheet, and buoyed by the Company's double-digit earnings per share growth for each of the past four quarters, we wholeheartedly support the Board's decision to both support our investors and at the same time pursue a solid investment return through this stock purchase program."
Wilhelm continued, "Over the past several years, the Company has augmented its core business model to reap the diversification benefits achieved through its new SP Plus Transportation, SP Plus Maintenance and SP Plus Security Services product offerings. The Company also is focused on deploying technology such as our proprietary Click and Park engine, which lets customers reserve and pay for parking online in advance, and our recently-introduced AboutParking.com website to create additional revenue sources. We expect these efforts will become an important driver of our continued organic growth."
Wilhelm concluded by noting that, "The share repurchase program won't inhibit our ongoing efforts to complete tuck-in or larger acquisitions that should enable us to leverage our investments in both new services and technology. We will continue to actively pursue acquisitions and hope to announce one or more by year end."
Commenting on the stock purchase authorization, James A. Wilhelm, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Given our relatively low cost of capital, ongoing confidence in our business model and our expectation for solid growth, we believe our current stock price presents the Company with an excellent investment opportunity. With our low leverage and strong balance sheet, and buoyed by the Company's double-digit earnings per share growth for each of the past four quarters, we wholeheartedly support the Board's decision to both support our investors and at the same time pursue a solid investment return through this stock purchase program."
Wilhelm continued, "Over the past several years, the Company has augmented its core business model to reap the diversification benefits achieved through its new SP Plus Transportation, SP Plus Maintenance and SP Plus Security Services product offerings. The Company also is focused on deploying technology such as our proprietary Click and Park engine, which lets customers reserve and pay for parking online in advance, and our recently-introduced AboutParking.com website to create additional revenue sources. We expect these efforts will become an important driver of our continued organic growth."
Wilhelm concluded by noting that, "The share repurchase program won't inhibit our ongoing efforts to complete tuck-in or larger acquisitions that should enable us to leverage our investments in both new services and technology. We will continue to actively pursue acquisitions and hope to announce one or more by year end."
About Standard Parking
Standard Parking is a leading provider of parking management, ground transportation and other ancillary services to commercial, institutional and municipal clients in the United States and Canada. The Company, with approximately 12,000 employees, manages approximately 2,100 facilities, containing over one million parking spaces in approximately 341 cities across North America, including parking-related and shuttle bus operations serving more than 60 airports.
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