Stanton D. Sloane
Analyst · Noble Financial. Your line is open
Thanks Mike. Now, let me discuss some of the recent developments in each of the three business segments. Starting with the largest segment, Telecommunications Transmission. This segment is comprised of two product lines, satellite earth stations and over-the-horizon microwave systems. We remain the undisputed leader in the satellite earth station, SCPC modem area, driven primarily by our proven ability to deliver the most bandwidth-efficient modems in high efficiency amplifiers to our end customers. We continue to be excited about our Advanced VSAT product line. These products combine a variety of technologies within our IP portfolio to provide integrated solutions to our customers. By listening closely to our end customers, we’ve focused our technology developments on solutions targeted at markets that have traditionally been served by TDMA. Recently, we have seen TDMA users move away from that technology as customers demand more efficient use of bandwidth, lower latency and higher quality of service. Despite the recent slowdown in satellite earth station bookings, we’ve made and expect to continue to make significant investments in research and development that we believe will result in success. In fact, the next week Satellite 2015 show in Washington D.C. we’ll announce new satellite earth station network product offerings targeted at new growth end markets. I can’t be more specific at this time, but I will elaborate on this on our next conference call expected to occur in June. Some of the new products we’ve introduced in the past, such as our Advanced VSAT, the new network product offerings we are planning to announce next week. It will take little time to establish themselves in the market. At the same time, we are also offering technical services to our customers and expect this to contribute to growth over the next few years. On the U.S. government side of our satellite earth station product line, we are beginning to see some return to normalcy in U.S. government procurement. Recently for example, we’ve seen a substantial increase in proposal activity for government satellite terminal applications and upgrades. One example of an important U.S. government program that will position us in new market areas as the Advanced Time Division Multiple Access Interface Processor or ATIP, which will be developing and manufacturing for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. In February, we announced the receipt of $6.4 million contract extension for the ATIP contract which will be applied to development of an Adaptive Coding Capability significantly improved the Navy's communications system performance. During the second half of fiscal 2015, we expect to ship ATIP production units to the customer, at the same time we will be performing additional entry for this Adaptive Coding. The ATIP contract is our entry into the protected MILSATCOM market, strategically important market for us where there are several sizable opportunities with U.S. Military as well as with U.S. Allies Overseas. As Mike mentioned we believe many of our international satellite earth station customers will continue to face economic headwinds. Nevertheless, we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on market opportunities when economic conditions improve. On the over-the-horizon front, we started the year with a strong base anchored by backlog from programs with our North African end customer. We have a long relationship with this customer and believe that there are additional large opportunities that will materialize in the years ahead. Although, we lowered our revenue expectation for this product line for fiscal 2015, we do believe it’s just a matter of time before these opportunities materialize. Demand for over-the-horizon microwave systems both with U.S. government customers and with new international customers continues to be strong. However, anticipated timing of receipt of potential contract awards for these opportunities is difficult to predict. We also anticipate significant orders for our Modular Tactical Transmissions System or MTTS, the high capacity over-the-horizon microwave system design for easy and rapid deployment. In February, we demonstrated MTTS to the U.S. Army successfully establishing and maintaining 50 megabits per second communication link between two systems separated by over 100 miles. Although it’s difficult to predict timing for these orders, we believe the U.S. government has definitive need for this equipment, we are confident it will generate significant revenues for the product line in fiscal 2016. We are also bidding international opportunities in the Middle East, Australia, Asia, South America and Africa. We are increasingly confident that some of these opportunities will result in substantial contract awards. Timing of contract awards for the over-the-horizon microwave systems are always difficult to predict. However, we nonetheless anticipate we will generate revenue and related operating income from some of these contracts in fiscal 2016. All in all despite year-over-year revenue declines in our Telecommunications Transmission segment I believe our products are second to none that we are positioned to grow over the long-term. Turning now to RF Microwave Amplifiers segment, we’ve received some significantly awards and so far this fiscal year. Strong bookings at the end of fiscal 2014 as well as expected bookings in the second half of fiscal 2015 will provide another year of revenue growth for this segment this year. We recently received U.S. Military orders for traveling wave tube amplifiers for the FAB-T and WIN-T programs. Those plus opportunities we see in tactical communications enabled by our X-Band products should provide a strong base should provide a strong base of U.S. Government related revenues for the next several years. On the commercial side of the TWTA product line, we continue to see broadband high-throughput satellite and direct-to-home TV markets as very exciting growth opportunities for us. We’ve already sold products into most of the large North American and European Ka-band platforms, and are bidding on next-generation platforms with these customers, as well as new opportunities with new customers. The focus area for us is the direct-to-home market which is poised for dramatic growth in the next few years, as broadcasters not only build out new infrastructure to serve new markets and also start replace aged in efficient equipment in their current infrastructure with the high-power, high-efficiency broadband amplifiers necessary for high-definition and ultra high-definition broadcasting. We believe that your product offerings are uniquely positioned, in fact at next week satellite show in Washington we will be officially introducing our new product line, a very high-power TWTAs which will include 1.5 kilowatt and 2 kilowatt TXTA Ku-Band products targeted for this lucrative DBS market. These products will offer significantly performance and cost advantages for our customers by replacing inefficient and expensive Klystron tube amplifiers. On the solid state power amplifier side, business remains good. So far in fiscal 2015 we’ve booked $8.9 million in SSPA orders from international customers. Also in fiscal 2015, we signed a master purchasing agreement with a major domestic OEM for identification friend or foe or IFF solid-state power amplifiers for approximately $6 million. Although, a smaller part of the SSPA business, our commercial product lines serving the aviation and medical communities also continued to do well. During the past year or so, we’ve made significant inroads into the high growth in-flight entertainment and communications market; this market space should be a significant revenue contributor for Comtech over the next several years... As of today, a significant amount of our projected RF microwave amplifier sales for the balance of fiscal 2015 are already in backlog and we see this segment growing significantly. In our third segment Mobile Data Communications, the largest revenue contributor remains our BFT-1 Sustainment work for the U.S. Army, these activities continue to be funded despite ongoing government spending pressures, we believe this is continuing and tangible evidence of the important role our technology plays with the U.S Army. During fiscal 2014, we received two new three-year BFT-1 Sustainment contracts with the combined value of $68.2 million. The first contract, we chosen not to exceed value of $38.2 million, continues our engineering and satellite network operations services. The base period for the services contract is from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, the government has two additional 12-month option periods that can be exercised. The second contract is a continuation of our IP licensing agreement and the associated $10 million annual license fee for the period from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, with two additional 12-month option periods exercisable by the Army. We have been notified by the U.S. Army that they intend to exercise the first option year for both the services and IP licensing contracts before the current term expires at the end of this month. In addition to our Sustainment activities on BFT-1, there are other opportunities we are pursuing, both with the U.S. military as well as international military customers. Although, we are optimistic about some of these opportunities will develop into sizeable orders, but it is difficult to predict timing. Primary goal in the Mobile Data Communications segment continues to be providing the U.S. Army with outstanding support. Doing so, should position us well to participate in next-generation platforms. In fact, we’ve recently responded to two government RFIs seeking technology for future BFT capabilities. Although, we believe that we have uniquely qualified in cost effective solutions to meet customer needs, the current initiative is in its early stages. With that, I would like to proceed to the Q&A part of our conference call. So I will turn it back over to the operator?