Michael Pangia
Analyst · Mark Spiegel. Your line is open. Again, Mark Spiegel, your line is open
Thanks, Gus, and good afternoon. Overall, I’m very pleased with our results. As you saw from our release, we had a strong fourth quarter and finish to the fiscal year. Our revenue grew by over 10%, our margins were exceptionally strong, and we generated $3 million in non-GAAP operating income and $4.4 million in adjusted EBITDA, all significant year-over-year improvements. The investments we’ve made in new products and all the work we’ve done to improve our foundation has me excited about our future. We are gaining share in the markets we’re addressing and are well positioned to pursue new customers and new segments. We are poised to drive both growth and improved profitability in fiscal 2019, and the opportunities over the next several years should be even greater. I'll first start with a recap of fiscal 2018, highlighting our year-over-year progress and what drove performance. I will then turn the call over to Stan Gallagher, our new Chief Operating Officer, and will come back with some final remarks on our outlook and what we see in the market with respect to our growth prospects. Our book-to-bill in fiscal 2018 was above 1 and momentum continues to build. Revenues of $242.5 million were up modestly and mark the first year of growth since fiscal 2013. North America revenue was relatively flat, while our international business returned to growth. Throughout the year, I talked about stabilization and some bright spots that we were seeing. Well, international is now on a growth trajectory, and we expect some meaningful gains in fiscal 2019 and in the coming years, driven by opportunities in Africa, the APAC region, and Europe. North America growth was minimized by a major state contract award that was delayed. However, we expect this to be resolved by calendar year-end. Non-GAAP gross margins of 33.1% were up 170 basis points versus the prior fiscal year. For the past three years, through process enhancements and new product contributions, we’ve consistently generated gross margin improvements. To put this in perspective, since fiscal 2015, non-GAAP gross margins are up over 900 basis points. Also through process enhancements, we’ve successfully lowered our fixed costs and overhead. Year-over-year, non-GAAP operating expenses increased by only $900,000. While we faced some currency headwinds that added to our costs, we were able to divert more spending to R&D and our sales efforts while reducing G&A as compared to fiscal 2017. Overall, we have taken our quarterly run rate of approximately $25 million, down to the $20 million level or less. From a bottom-line perspective, we reported non-GAAP operating income of $5.4 million and adjusted EBITDA of $10.1 million, up $3.5 million and $2.5 million, respectively. Comparing our results over a 3-year period, non-GAAP operating income improved by close to $24 million and adjusted EBITDA improved by over $21 million and both are expected to increase again in fiscal 2019. That’s the financial story and we continue to make progress. Let me know shift to what's driving the numbers. Starting with North America, our private networks business has been growing for the past several years and while revenue was down slightly in fiscal 2018, demand has not lessened. We’ve grown our business with key accounts, won new competitive bids, and we are actively engaged in meaningful RFPs. Let me begin with a few highlights from our public safety vertical. In the cases of Nevada and Colorado, two of our most recent and notable statewide accounts, we’ve seen an uptick in business receiving additional orders above and beyond the initial contract awards. We were awarded a public safety project with Broward County, Florida, a new customer. Working in tandem with our partner Motorola, we're providing the backhaul network including microwave and routing solutions that will connect local first responders with agencies across the county for faster and more efficient mission-critical communications. We won new projects in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with our IRU 600 radio platform, which also included design and installation services. In this most recent quarter, we also added new customers with other counties in Pennsylvania and in Georgia. These are just a few examples of our progress. I also noted on last quarter's call that we were pursuing several new statewide networks, and I remain confident that over the next year we should capture two or three new state customers, which would positively contribute to fiscal 2020 and beyond. Demand for mission-critical networks for first responders continues to intensify, and we’re well-positioned given our leadership position to address each and every U.S state opportunity as they arise. A lot of our progress has also been driven by utility markets. Aviat sells to more than 50% of the largest U.S utilities, and we continue to see consistent activity within our installed customer base, while adding new customer accounts. For example, in the fourth quarter, we added new utility customers in Oklahoma, Texas, and in Colorado. In fact, our momentum in utilities is such that it represented more than half of our Q4 bookings in the private networks vertical. As an example of this momentum, last week Chugach Electric participated in a webinar where they explained to over 60 other utilities how they will use Aviat Technology to complete their migration to a next generation utility network. This session has already resulted in discussions with new prospects. Additionally, in Q3, we won a new award with one of America's largest transportation companies, which was a significant win for Aviat and positions us well with other customer pursuits within this vertical. Staying with North America, on the service provider side, we maintained our position. But more importantly, the solutions we brought to market in fiscal 2018 coupled with the recent launch of the Aviat Store are opening up new avenues for growth. The Aviat Store is our new self-service online marketplace where customers can buy our newly released WTM 4000 All-Outdoor platform. The Store initially targets the North American market and simplify coding and ordering, while significantly speeding up deliveries with next-day shipping. The Store is designed to capture new market share in the all-outdoor radio segment which represents as much as 20% of the current global microwave radio market and is virtually all incremental business for Aviat. This is a big development for us and we will improve our competitive position. As it relates to 5G, its coming soon and our customers and certain operators that are not yet customers are engaging with us now to set the stage for network build outs and evolving mass adoption. With the rise in data applications 4K video technologies and the Internet of Things, carriers will continue to need backhaul capacity and fiber and microwave will both be in play. Beyond capacity with 5G, there will be a greater need for automation that will generate new ways to simplify the microwave lifecycle and that is where we have focused our R&D and partnership efforts. I urge you all to review our Web site and look at some of the news items that have recently been published. One in particular is the white paper we co-authored with Ciena, the number one ranked global optical network hardware supplier per IHS. We're working closely with them to develop the right solution set that will support operators in meeting the varying demands of 4G and 5G transport, while at the same time simplifying the networks. Let me know shift to the international markets. As I noted earlier, international revenue was up 1.5% for the fiscal year, but take a closer look at our performance in the second half. Q3 revenue was up close to 3% and Q4 revenue was up over 45%. In Q4, all international regions were up led by strength in APAC and Europe. Throughout the fiscal year, we added several new accounts across Africa, Europe and the APAC region. We successfully expanded our business with current accounts, one over the past few years and a lot had to do with our enhanced product and service offering, which is enabling us to grow and beat the competition. Last quarter I talked about new business with a Tier 1 service provider for our trunking solutions, which has the potential to expand throughout several countries in Europe. And we are currently working on another large-scale opportunity which has the same potential and European reach. This past quarter in Europe we added several new accounts through which include a leading ISP company and the other an IP backhaul solutions provider. In APAC region, as noted in our press release issued on August 16, we were awarded over $12 million in new business in the fourth quarter, four accounts each with unique product and service offerings. With respect to Africa, our largest international region and with MTN, our largest customer. Our position remains strong. In years past, capital investments were limited, and we're now seeing some signs of increased spending as operators upgrade their networks. MTN, Airtel, Safaricom are all important customers in the region and with our WTM 4000 platform and expanded product portfolio, we have the right solutions at the right price points that address their network needs and deliver the most compelling TCO value. While the competitive landscape is evolving, we've seen competitors take share away from each other, while we have been able to maintain if not grow our position. Pricing pressure and currency exchange movements in Africa and for that matter across the international markets, is something that we will continue to monitor. But we feel confident that we can overcome these challenges and continue to grow our share in the coming years. I will now turn the call over to Stan, I will then come back with closing remarks. Stan?