DST Systems' CEO Discusses Q3 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Enhancing the outlook and performance of certain business units through additional investments and strategic partnerships, returning capital to the shareowners through additional share repurchases, those will be undertaken where excess cash from operations and monetization proceeds are not needed to pay down debt or to service other obligations, or where we believe that we can generate a greater return by growing the business organically through acquisitions or forming strategic partnerships.

And also we intend to improve the transparency and frequency of communications with our shareowners and analysts, including providing additional information regarding our unconsolidated affiliates and passive investments, such as our real estate assets.

As you probably have seen from our third quarter earnings release, this effort to provide that transparency is already underway. Separately, DST has had a long and, we believe, successful history of returning capital to shareowners through significant share repurchases and the recent initiation of a semiannual cash dividend that was instituted in 2010. Since January 1, 2005, we repurchased approximately 46.2 million shares, and that represents approximately 51% of the shares at the beginning of that period that were outstanding, and that was for a total consideration of approximately $2.7 billion.

During the third quarter of 2011 and through the end of October, we repurchased 2.5 million shares and that was for an aggregate consideration of $112.9 million. In order to continue this strategy, our board has authorized an additional share repurchase program of 2 million shares of common stock. The new share repurchase program will become effective on January 1, 2012, and run through December 31, 2013. We are pleased with the progress made so far on our comprehensive review, and we hope to achieve additional value for our shareowners through these ongoing and focused efforts.

Growth will continue to be related and driven by a disciplined acquisition strategy to expand our presence in the markets we currently serve as well as markets that are adjacent to the current ones. And to that end, I'd like to spend a little time discussing the strategic acquisitions we have completed recently.

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