Gregory Rustowicz
Analyst · Seaport
Thank you, Tim. Good morning everyone. On Slide 7, our second quarter adjusted gross profit margin increased 50 basis points to 32.6% from 32.1% in the prior year. Adjusted gross profit increased $500,000 or 1%. We’re adjusting gross profit for two items: the inventory step up expense related to the Magnetek and STB acquisitions in the amount of $600,000 and the European facility consolidation and reduction in force costs of $100,000. The reconciliation for adjusted gross profit is included on Page 18 of this presentation. This quarter represented the 20th consecutive quarter of year-over-year gross margin improvement on an adjusted basis. On a GAAP basis, gross margin was 32.1%, which matched our all-time record as a public company. GAAP gross profit decreased by $200,000 this quarter compared to the prior year. Foreign currency translation was the largest contributor to this decrease, negatively impacting gross profit by $2.5 million. Excluding foreign currency translation, gross margin was up $2.3 million. Our recent acquisitions contributed $4.5 million to gross margin. Pricing and material cost deflation added $1.8 million. Partially offsetting these items were additional product liability costs of $100,000 and additional costs related to our European facility consolidation and reduction in force of $100,000. The impact of purchase accounting acquisition inventory step up expense was $600,000 this quarter, reflecting the impact of the remaining step up expense for STB and one month’s impact for Magnetek. We expect the impact of inventory step up expense to be largely completed by the end of our fiscal third quarter ending in December. Sales volume and mix negatively impacted gross profit by $1.5 million. Finally, reduced fixed cost absorption and productivity net of other manufacturing costs were negative this quarter by $1.7 million. The Magnetek acquisition was accretive to adjusted gross margin. However, even without this impact, Columbus McKinnon’s standalone adjusted gross margin would have been 32.2%. As shown on Slide 8, selling expense was higher than the prior year by $300,000 and represented 11.9% of sales this quarter compared to 11.7% in the prior year. Favorable foreign currency translation lowered selling cost by $1.5 million. The Magnetek and STB acquisitions added $1.2 million to selling expense in the quarter. G&A expense increased $8.7 million from the prior year and represented 15.1% of sales this quarter compared to 9% in the prior year. There were one-time costs related to the Magnetek acquisition which drove the increase in G&A expense this quarter. We incurred $5.3 million of acquisition deal costs and $2.3 million of acquisition-related severance cost. Excluding these two items, G&A expense was $14.4 million. This includes $900,000 related to the ongoing G&A expense of STB and Magnetek. Favorable foreign currency translation reduced G&A expense by $900,000. We expect our SG&A run rate to be approximately $38 million to $39 million per quarter in the second half of fiscal 2016, including the impact of the Magnetek acquisition. Turning to Slide 9, adjusted operating income was $15 million compared to $16.1 million and adjusted operating margin was 10.3% compared to 11% in the prior year period. This represents a decrease of $1.2 million or 7.1%. While down from the prior year period, adjusted operating income and margin have improved over last quarter's results where we reported $12 million in adjusted operating income and a resulting margin of 8.8%. We have adjusted operating income this quarter for the impact of the acquisition deal costs and severance costs of $7.6 million, purchase accounting acquisition inventory step up expense related to STB and Magnetek in the amount of $600,000 and the European facility consolidation and reduction in force of $300,000. This reconciliation can be found on Page 19 of this presentation. As you can see on Slide 10, adjusted earnings per diluted share for the second quarter of fiscal 2016 were $0.40 per share compared to $0.44 per share in the previous year, a decrease of $0.04 per share or 9%. Adjusted earnings per share reflect the exclusion of the acquisition deal costs and severance costs and purchase accounting inventory step up expense as well as charges related to the European facility consolidation cost and reduction in force. GAAP earnings per diluted share were a loss of $0.02 per diluted share versus earnings of $0.53 per diluted share in the prior year period. The GAAP earnings per share include the impact of the items I just mentioned as well as the actual tax rate in the quarter of 111.5% compared with 21.1% in the prior year period. The increase in the tax rate this quarter was due to two factors. First, we recorded a valuation allowance on deferred tax assets of certain foreign subsidiaries which impacted the tax rate by 51 percentage points. Second, certain of the acquisition deal costs are not deductible but are rather capitalized for tax purposes. Our effective tax rate for fiscal 2016 is expected to fall between 38% and 42%, which is higher than last quarter's guidance of 32% to 36% because of these two items. Without these two items, our effective tax rate for the year would have fallen within the range previously given. On Slide 7, you can see our return on invested capital was 9.4% on a trailing 12 month basis and exceeds our weighted average cost of capital. We continue to invest in good capital projects that exceed our cost of capital and we expect the value creation opportunities from a full year of the Magnetek acquisition to further increase our return on invested capital. Turning to Slide 12, excluding the impact of acquisitions, our working capital as a percent of sales was 22.9% compared to 22.1% at September 30, 2014 and 20.8% as of March 31, 2015. Working capital as a percent of sales increased 80 basis points from one year ago. This is due to higher inventory levels largely related to certain large rail and road projects in backlog that was shipped by the end of the fiscal year. Inventory turns were 3.4 turns compared to 4.0 turns one year ago and were slightly improved from last quarter's level of 3.3 turns. On Slide 13, net cash provided by operating activities for the six months ended September 30 was $4.1 million compared to $12.7 million one year ago. Capital expenditures year-to-date were $8.7 million versus $7.6 million in the previous year. As a result, operating free cash flow was a use of cash in the amount of $4.6 million compared to operating free cash flow of $5.2 million one year ago. Impacting operating free cash flow in the second quarter was the $5.3 million of acquisition deal costs. We expect fiscal 2016 capital expenditures to be in a range of approximately $18 million to $22 million, including Magnetek CapEx, the majority of which is dedicated to productivity and growth projects. Our focus with the cash flow we expect to generate in the second half of the year will be to pay down debt incurred for the Magnetek acquisition. Turning to Slide 14, you can see that our total debt as of September 30, 2015 increased by $172.6 million from March 31, 2015 level as a result of the Magnetek acquisition. We borrowed $195 million in the quarter for the acquisition and deal costs and repaid $15 million in September. Our net debt to net total capitalization was 47.5% as of September 30. The debt refinancing that we completed in February 2015 has provided us the opportunity to reduce our interest expense despite having substantially more debt outstanding. For the remainder of fiscal 2016, our focus will be on deleveraging the balance sheet, funding our strategic growth initiatives and continuing our dividend payments to reward our shareholders. We expect to repay approximately $50 million of debt over the next 12 months. With that, I will turn it back over to Tim to cover the fiscal 2016 outlook.