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CECO Environmental Corp. (CECO)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call· Sun, Aug 9, 2020

$75.07

+15.62%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the CECO Environmental Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Eckl, Chief Financial Officer of CECO Environmental. Please go ahead.

Matthew Eckl

Analyst

Thank you for joining us on the CECO Environmental Second Quarter 2020 Conference Call. On the call today is Todd Gleason, Chief Executive Officer; and myself, Matt Eckl, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to note that we have provided a slide presentation to help guide our discussion. The call will be webcast along with our earnings presentation on our website at cecoenviro.com. The presentation materials can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of the website. I'd also like to caution investors regarding forward-looking statements. Any statements made in today's presentation that are not based on historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on certain estimates and expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual future results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We encourage you to read the risks described in our SEC filings on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update or publicly revise any of the forward-looking statements that we make here today, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Today's presentation will also include references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. We've reconciled the comparable GAAP and non-GAAP numbers in today's press release, as well as a supplemental table in the back of the slide deck. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Todd.

Todd Gleason

Analyst

Thanks, Matt, and I am excited to be here today. So, it has been approximately one month since I joined as the company's CEO. It is a privilege to lead CECO. We have a talented team, and as I get to better understand our opportunities, my enthusiasm definitely builds. Before we jump into the prepared remarks, and on behalf of CECO, we hope everyone is healthy and navigating the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. No doubt, the impact to our personal lives has been profound and of course, the global business environment has been jolted in ways not often felt. In many ways, we're all in this together. So please stay safe. Now let's review the material. Please turn to Slide number 3. Given my recent appointment as CEO, we felt it was appropriate that I share a little about my background, as well as what drew me to CECO. It is hard for me to believe sometimes that it has been over 25 years since I began my professional career. Time flies, and here we are, and I am grateful for the many people that have provided support for my development and the positions that added to my preparedness. I think if there are really three main takeaways I'd like to share about my background, I would highlight the following: First, I've been fortunate to have a diverse background with respect to various business functions and P&L management roles. This diversity has provided both breadth and depth with respect to growth strategies, execution and how financials speak to the truth of a company's performance. I continue to learn, and I look forward to continuing to expand my skill set here at CECO. Second, a significant portion of my career has been spent in multi-industry organizations, such as Honeywell,…

Matthew Eckl

Analyst

Thanks, Todd. We'll start with Slide 8. Orders of $60 million were depressed as markets paused significantly in the wake of COVID-19. As the spread has increased, customers remain judicious in their CapEx spend decisions impacting our order book. As the left bar chart shows, overall orders decreased 21% sequentially and 42% year-over-year. Starting with Energy, all end-market verticals were down. Refinery saw several awards delayed for several quarters. What we are seeing is that, while utilization is low, a good indicator for retrofit typically, demand is equally low, coupled with craft spreads that are well below the five year average. Refineries are being pinched and must conserve cash. Frac spreads have inched back from severe April lows, but we think this market will be challenged for six to nine months. Midstream oil and gas was down 67% as compared to the prior year's quarter. However, as we have previously mentioned, last year, in Q2, we booked a double-digit Middle Eastern oil storage project, making for an even tougher comp in this COVID period. The midstream market has not been hit as hard as the upstream market. Recovery in this market is likely early 2021 as MLPs and midstream companies look to conserve CapEx. Power gen nat gas markets were down 5% as news from the big three turbine OEMs remains down. Comments from leadership suggests overcapacity in the large turbine market remains and COVID has prolonged the downturn as electricity demand wanes. Our Peerless and Aarding brands continue to be well positioned to serve our global customers, and we are proud to advance the customer feedbacks that we provide superior product and service offerings. In total, we see energy markets being muted for a few quarters as CapEx spend is delayed into 2021 and new budgets are set based…

Todd Gleason

Analyst

Thanks, Matt. As we look forward, I will just highlight a few more topics and then we look forward to your questions. Turning to Slide 15, CECO has a very unique portfolio addressing some of the world's most important challenges and opportunities; clean air, clean water, serving our customers so they can more efficiently produce their end products while operationally protecting their equipment. The workplace environment and the natural environment, that's what we serve, and we will continue to focus on expanding those solutions. We will steadily advance our investments in key prioritized markets. We have a very good and diverse product portfolio and we will continue to explore how we can add more recurring revenue and sustainable solutions. This is a real opportunity for CECO. All the while, we will be focused on innovation where customers need it most and providing flexible business models in areas where we can drive more growth. I am excited for our future. Speaking of how we think about the future, let's move to Slide 16. Over the past number of quarters, the company has highlighted some mid to long-term financial goals. We are evaluating how those goals might transform as we navigate the current environment and, of course, with my leadership. However, let's be clear, we remain committed to driving elevated levels of sales growth, margin expansion and stronger free cash flows. These are highlighted on this slide. We will expand on how we are driving these in the coming quarters and of course, as we articulate our strategic vision. The opportunities within CECO's current portfolio are very attractive, both in terms of growth and operations and we look forward to delivering strong returns and increased shareholder value. Please turn to Slide 17, and thank you for following along on this material. We are anxious to get to your questions. But once again, we would like to thank Team CECO. We will continue to focus on health and safety and we will continue to deliver for our customers. In the quarter, we had solid execution and we are in better position with our portfolio moves that we discussed. The EIS acquisition is already integrated and collaboration is delivering new opportunities. And the joint venture provides synergies and strategic optionality. The actions we have taken and will continue to take bolster our financial results and position the company for more efficiencies. Our leadership team is aligned and we understand the demands required to deliver shareholder value. Lastly, and once again, I'm excited to be at CECO. We have a tremendous team, a range of opportunities to continue to win, and I look forward to our next chapter. With that, let's open the line for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Amit Dayal with H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, Todd. Good morning, Matt. First of all, congratulations on your new role. Already, a lot of news flow alongside your appointment, so, good to see that. Just focusing on the recent deals, how should we think about contributions coming from these transactions for the rest of 2020 and then going into 2021?

Todd Gleason

Analyst

Yes. I'll let Matt sort of talk about the financial side, and then I'll make a couple of comments on top of that. But it's a pleasure to be here and thank you Amit, for the comments.

Matthew Eckl

Analyst

Yes. So for EIS, we talked about that in the press release and which you should consider as far as the size of EIS for the second half of this year. We expect roughly around it to contribute another $10 million of revenue in the second half of the year at margins that we mentioned in the press release that our EBITDA margins in line to better than what CECO has. And so as far as the joint venture, it's quite small. The Mader Dampers piece is bringing in roughly $10 million of revenue and $1 million of EBITDA on an annualized basis and the Effox business that we contributed was roughly around $15 million of revenue and $2 million of EBITDA. So these are two smaller businesses that play in a mature market. And the point is around cost synergies, and we plan to start to execute those here in the near-term. But they won't contribute, EIS won’t or sorry, Mader will not contribute a significant amount to the second half of this year as far as modeling goes of EBITDA and revenue.

Todd Gleason

Analyst

And just to build on that a little bit, in respect to both of these transactions, I'll talk just quickly about the integration of EIS has gone extremely well, already working and collaborating. So, we expect, maybe as we exit this year and go into next year, there is going to be even more growth opportunities as a result of their position in the market and how we are working together already. And then on the joint venture side, also the integration is, as Matt mentioned, it's relatively small, but these are businesses that are very complementary in terms of being integrated together quickly and smoothly. So we think those cost efficiencies are also going to translate in the joint venture.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Have you potentially considered acquisitive growth? Are there maybe business lines that already exist in the company that you may want to exit? Is that a possibility?

Todd Gleason

Analyst

Yes. I think for us, in terms of commenting on M&A on a call, where we certainly understand our portfolio strengths and those are areas that we want to invest in organically and internally. How we think about building off of that from an M&A perspective, both in terms of acquisitions and divestitures, I think we are taking the appropriate process steps to evaluate where we have opportunity. And I think that's really where we are going to sort of stop on the call here. But absolutely, a strong balance sheet and – but tons of growth opportunities just within our portfolio.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Just one last one for me, if I may. With respect to sort of the remainder of the year, just given the commentary and sort of outperformance relative to our expectations for the second quarter, should we be looking for sequential growth for 3Q and maybe even 4Q?

Matthew Eckl

Analyst

Yes. So I'll take that one. We entered Q3 with $205 million of backlog. All of our operations are active. We've set a course for actions that moved $10 million or greater of annualized cost savings. That's pretty much in line to offset lower volumes that we expect. We do think second half that you are going to see a sequential pickup in revenue as that backlog turns out. And so, you can expect that operating income should improve just like Q1 to Q2 did. As for orders, we have seen a three months increase through July, which is positive, but we are not counting on a V-shaped recovery. So, what Todd and I are talking about is controlling our own destiny here. We are focused on cost in the near term and what we're interested in right now is focus on how to deliver sequential improvement in the second half. And 2021, we'll give – market will give us what – it gives us, but we are focused on cost at the current period.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Thank you, Matt. That’s all I have.

Matthew Eckl

Analyst

Thank you, Amit.

Todd Gleason

Analyst

Thank you, Amit.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Gerry Sweeney with ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Gerard Sweeney

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning, Todd and Matt. Thanks for taking my call and Todd, welcome aboard.

Todd Gleason

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks Gerry. Good morning.

Matthew Eckl

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Hey, Gerry. Good morning.

Gerard Sweeney

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

I am going to start high-level, Todd, this is broad brush, I am not sure if you want to answer it, but you spent time trained in Pentair, some other places, a lot of companies that not afraid to pivot towards growth probably have some strong feelings of where maybe some of the industrial landscape is headed. Or any – again, it’s a broad brush, any areas that you think have better growth opportunities or areas they want to explore from a strategic standpoint? Or is it still too early really to get into that type of question?

Todd Gleason

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Yes. I think – look, it's a fair question, Gerry and I understand the interest. Here is what I'd say. First of all, I really think that CECO is well-positioned for growth. Matt, Dennis and the organization have done a tremendous job over the last few years of really streamlining internal operations and processes. And I think some of that showed through in Q2 results, certainly, in terms of cost actions that the organization took in reflection not only of the challenging environment, but also because the organization is really capable of strong productivity. And that – and I think the execution of that showed. In terms of how and where we grow, we very much are interested in continuing to build off of businesses that we have or opportunities that we have for - I think, I would call it a more sustainable growth profile, recurring revenue, areas where we can grow aftermarket opportunities, as well as equipment sales. We have a very good and growing business in application design, system solutions. And so, those are really areas that we can just really focus internally. We have a big opportunity geographically still for us, as well in our current portfolio to go after. So, look, I think for me, the main focus right now is, really getting to know how and where we can continue to win. And as Matt said, control our own destiny, not only in terms of cost and cash, but really in terms of bringing new growth processes and new growth muscles to businesses that still have ample opportunity. And as far as beyond that, yes, look, I mean, absolutely have some good experiences in different industries, big and small and some of those organizations were somewhat acquisitive. And others like Trane Air Conditioning and American Standard Trane at the time, we didn't do a single deal in the time that I was there and yet grew revenues, margins, free cash flow, and shareholder return tremendously. So there is just an opportunity here for us to just get better every day and that's our focus.

Gerard Sweeney

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Got it. That's fair. And I know it's only been a month, so I appreciate that. Shifting gears, this may be a little bit more towards Matt. But summarizing some of the end-markets to a little bit out there. But if energy remains muted, electricity demand is down, also sounded like midstream was a little less impacted than you anticipated. So that’s a positive. But maybe looking at fluid handling and industrial, again, not expecting a V-shaped recovery, but if you're looking at orders and activity, as we stand today, you think we are sitting at maybe 80%, 85% of where you were maybe going into Q1 or your original vision of this year? Or are you still a little behind that or for maybe a little bit about that? Just trying to put a little bracket around it.

Todd Gleason

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Yes. I think Matt will give you more financial detail or percentage answer. This is Todd. Let me just make a comment that came through, I think, in some of our prepared remarks. But if they did or didn't, especially in Industrial and Fluid, the depth of the market was so far, at least, and it may - sort of the earlier part of the quarter. And then, as we cruised through June, those strengthened for sure and we saw that in other markets as well around energy. But I would say that we feel that Industrial and Fluid have started to hit their stride again. There is way more opportunity in each of those businesses. I'll make that comment and then hand it over to Matt to kind of talk about some of the finer points.

Matthew Eckl

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Yes, albeit the elections are coming, Industrial Solutions looks pretty good through July and the pipeline is definitely filling up when April, May were extremely solid. As far as the run rate business, that is our Fluid Handling solutions, we've seen a pickup there in inquiries. They haven't rebounded pre-COVID just yet, but out of the doldrums of April and May, certainly. Yes, I did use the word muted on energy. I am still optimistic that our team finds other avenues, other applications to win here. I think the refinery is probably one of the more challenging markets, as I mentioned on the call, due to crack spreads and utilization. But we have a fantastic market position there. And when that rebounds, we are going to be a part of that. So it's really about the nat gas turbine market and midstream oil and gas. We have a great water business where we separate water and reproduce it, put it back into the system and that business is growing in the Middle East and in North America. So, I am pretty pleased with what the team is able to do and hopefully, we can beat the trend of what's happening in energy over the next few quarters.

Gerard Sweeney

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Got you. And then one final question, EIS. I know we talked a little bit about some of the numbers around that. But the other way I was looking at is maybe a foothold in Europe, due to cross-selling opportunities. I think even Todd mentioned geographic expansion was an opportunity. Any thoughts on using that vehicle as an opportunity to get bigger in Europe? And is that coming to fruition or again, get COVID, there's a lot of moving parts? But very high-level broad brush would be fine.

Todd Gleason

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Yes. I think on a high level, it's a good – it's the right observation in the sense that – look, first of all, the acquisition made a lot of financial sense for both sides, number one. And these are no order, but I am just going to click through them. Number two, it does provide us with a nice geographic expansion foothold, as you say. I think number three, EIS has some fantastic position in a couple of markets that CECO didn't necessarily have. And I think also, it's an integration that moves very quickly for us and for them. And we are already mostly done with the actual integration. There is a few areas that are just very much on schedule. But the collaboration between the teams is very strong right now. And so, as we think about utilizing EIS and expanding into the markets where they have strength, that's absolutely our focus. And we're pleased with the early returns and results already and excited about what Q3 orders already look like between our two combined entities. And if you think about some of the segments like the aluminum areas, that they are strong. They really do open up some new doors for us in terms of beverage, et cetera. So, again, our view is it was a smart acquisition from a market perspective, financial perspective, and it's an integration that we were prepared for and have already executed.

Gerard Sweeney

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Great. Guys, I appreciate it. I know there is a lot of moving parts. So, this is very helpful. And thanks again.

Todd Gleason

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Gerry.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] At this time, there are no additional questions. I would like to turn the conference back over to Todd Gleason for any closing remarks.

Todd Gleason

Analyst

Yes. Thank you. It’s - again, it's a privilege to be here with everyone today and of course, with CECO, once again, we'd like to thank our team for a strong execution in an uncertain time. We focus on health and safety of our employees, our customers and everyone that we encounter in our markets. And our COVID programs and policies are in place and keeping us safe and healthy. We hope the same is true for everyone out there. We look forward to the second half of the year. For me, personally, I am already hitting the ground running with our organization. A lot to do. A lot to learn. But I am pleased and happy to be here and we look forward to upcoming conversations with each of you. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.