Darren G. Myers
Analyst · Amit Daryanani from RBC Capital Markets
Thank you, Manny. And good afternoon, everybody. Celestica delivered a solid third quarter, with revenue and adjusted earnings per share above the midpoint of our guidance range, driven by strong demand in our communications and storage end markets. Third quarter revenue of approximately $1.5 billion was essentially flat relative to the second quarter of this year and was down 5% compared with the third quarter of 2012, primarily as a result of the BlackBerry disengagement. After excluding revenue from BlackBerry, third quarter revenue grew 5% compared with the third quarter of 2012. Some additional highlights for the third quarter include: Non-IFRS adjusted earnings per share of $0.22 came in above the midpoint of our guidance range of $0.17 to $0.23 per share; non-IFRS operating margin of 3.2% was sequentially up 30 basis points. We delivered strong IFRS net earnings of $57.4 million or $0.31 per share and we generated approximately $10 million of free cash flow and return on invested capital of 19.8%. From an end market perspective, our diversified end market comprised 26 of our -- 26% of our total revenue, up from 21% in the third quarter of 2012. Third quarter revenue from our diversified end market was up 6% compared with the second quarter. Compared with the third quarter of 2012, diversified revenue grew 16%, with double-digit percentage growth in our industrial and aerospace and defense end markets, driven primarily by new programs. Revenue from our communications end market, contributing 45% of total revenue for the third quarter, increased 7% compared with the second quarter. On a year-over-year basis, communications grew 16%, primarily from new programs and higher demand across some customers. Storage end market revenue, representing 14% of total revenue in the third quarter, increased 10% compared with the second quarter, driven by higher demand across a number of customers. Storage revenue grew 6% for the third quarter of 2012, primarily due to demand improvements and new programs. Our servers end market, comprising 9% of total revenue for the quarter, declined 33% sequentially due to overall weaker demand, as well as the insourcing of a lower margin assembly program, as previously disclosed during our first quarter conference call. Servers revenue declined 38% compared with the third quarter of 2012. The majority of the revenue decline in servers, both on a sequential and a year-over-year basis was due to lower demand and the insourcing of the lower margin assembly program. And finally, our consumer end market, comprising 6% of total revenue for the quarter, decreased 16% compared with the second quarter as expected due to program transitions as we de-emphasized parts of our consumer business. Third quarter consumer revenue declined 64% compared with the same period last year, primarily as a result of the BlackBerry disengagement. Our top 10 customers represented 65% of revenue for the quarter, down from 67% for the third quarter of 2012. We had 2 customers in the third quarter contributing greater than 10% of total revenue. Moving on to some of the other financial highlights for the quarter. Non-IFRS gross margin of 7.1% in the third quarter increased 50 basis points compared with the second quarter, primarily due to mix and our continued focus on driving cost productivity. Non-IFRS adjusted SG&A expense for the quarter was $53.4 million, slightly higher than our expectations, as a result of a net foreign exchange loss recorded in the quarter. Excluding the net foreign exchange loss, non-IFRS SG&A expense was within our anticipated range of $50 million to $52 million. Non-IFRS adjusted operating profit or adjusted EBIAT of $47.7 million or 3.2% of revenue was up $4.1 million and 30 basis points compared with the second quarter. Compared with the third quarter of 2012, adjusted EBIAT was lower by $4 million and 10 basis points, primarily as a result of lower revenue, partially offset by lower spend in the third quarter of 2013. Our adjusted tax rate was 11.9% in the third quarter and 11.1% for the first 9 months of 2013, which is consistent with our forecasted adjusted tax rate range of 10% to 12% for 2013. Non-IFRS adjusted net earnings for the third quarter were $41.5 million or $0.22 per share compared to non-IFRS adjusted net earnings of $54.8 million or $0.26 per share for the same period last year. Third quarter IFRS net earnings of $57.4 million or $0.31 per share compared with IFRS net earnings of $43.7 million or $0.21 per share for the third quarter of 2012. Third quarter IFRS net earnings included $24 million or $0.13 per share of recoveries from legal settlements. Compared to the third quarter of 2012, IFRS net earnings were higher by $13.7 million or $0.10 per share, primarily due to the recoveries just mentioned and lower restructuring charges, offset in part by lower income tax recoveries in the third quarter of 2013. Finally, pretax return on invested capital of 19.8% for the third quarter improved sequentially by 150 basis points. As an update to the restructuring program we previously announced in 2012, we expect to come in at the higher end of our $55 million to $65 million range. For the third quarter, we did not record any restructuring charges. Our restructuring charges to date under this program totaled $55 million. We expect to complete substantially all of our planned restructuring actions by the end of 2013. Turning to working capital. While we had a solid quarter overall, our inventory performance was impacted by customer program transitions and increased forecast variability that we are experiencing with certain customers. As a result, our inventory increased by $41 million from the end of the second quarter to $882 million at the end of the third quarter. Inventory turns for the third quarter were 6.4 turns compared with 6.9 turns for the second quarter. Capital expenditures for the third quarter were $17 million or 1.1% of revenue, consistent with our expectation of 1% to 1.5% of revenue. Cash cycle was 40 days, 3 days higher than the second quarter, due primarily to the increase in inventory days. We continue to generate positive free cash flow as we delivered approximately $10 million in the quarter. Year-to-date, we have generated $74 million of free cash flow. This was the 10th consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow for Celestica. Moving on to the remainder of the balance sheet. The company's financial position remained strong. Our cash balance at September 30 was $547 million, $7 million lower than the end of the second quarter. At quarter end, we did not have any outstanding debt and our credit facility remained undrawn. As an update to our share repurchase program previously announced in August 2013, during the third quarter, we repurchased, for cancellation, 1.7 million subordinate voting shares for approximately $19 million. As a reminder, our current share repurchase program allows us to repurchase until August 2014 up to approximately 5% of our outstanding shares. At the end of the third quarter, we had 182.9 million shares outstanding. Moving on to our guidance for the fourth quarter. The overall demand environment in our end markets, while stable, remains challenging. Consequently, we are exercising caution with our fourth quarter guidance. For the fourth quarter, we are projecting revenue be in the range of $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion. At the midpoint of this range, fourth quarter revenue would represent a sequential decline of approximately 3%. At the midpoint of our guidance, we expect to deliver adjusted operating margin of 3.3%. Fourth quarter adjusted net earnings per share are expected to range from $0.20 to $0.26. Our non-IFRS adjusted SG&A expense for the fourth quarter is projected to be in the $50 million to $52 million range. To summarize, while the overall business environment continues to be challenging, for the fourth quarter we're projecting double-digit year-over-year growth within our diversified, communications and storage end markets, offset by declines in the lower margin servers and consumer end markets where we continue to de-emphasize certain programs. Despite the sequential revenue decrease, we are forecasting further margin improvement into the fourth quarter. I would now like to turn the call over to Craig for some comments on the business and our expectations in the near term.