James E. Perry
Analyst · Barrington. You may proceed with your question
Thank you, Joe. Good morning, everyone. During the fiscal fourth quarter, consolidated total revenue grew 35.4% or $34.9 million to $133.4 million, with $10.4 million of cumulative organic growth in our HVAC/R, plumbing, mining and energy end markets and $29.4 million contributed by the TRUaire acquisition offset by cumulative sales declines of $4.9 million across the general industrial, architecturally specified building products, and rail end markets, and ongoing delay in capital investing are some of our end-use customers impacted the general industrial end market, and the slow recovery in rail resulted in revenue declines as compared to the prior year period. However, sales into the general industrial and rail end markets during the fourth quarter were flat to our fiscal third quarter. In the fourth quarter, we achieved record sales into the HVAC/R and plumbing end markets, validation of our ongoing strategy to acquire and develop niche product subcategories which when paired with our powerful go to market distribution platform, creates the opportunity for outsized category growth. We continue to generate significant market and wallet share growth for products that serve the mini split HVAC and condensation management subcategories, most recently adding grills, registers, and diffusers to the product portfolio. The integration of TRUaire continues in line with and is in many ways exceeding our expectations. TRUaire continues to deliver the outstanding service to which customers are accustomed. Impressively, many of the back office functions are well into or have completed integration and product cross-selling is generating initial share of wallet gains. In the upcoming phases of integration, we will seek opportunities such as co-locating products and warehouses to serve customers through expedient shipping, maximizing the potential of our extensive distribution channels, and deploying our ERP system. The industrial products segment delivered fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $96.9 million, a 61% increase over the prior year period, of which 12% was organic. Adjusted for TRUaire transaction expenses of $800,000 and amortization on acquired TRUaire inventory driven by the effective purchase accounting, the segment adjusted operating income and operating income margin were $20.4 million and 21.1% respectively as compared to the prior year period of $13.6 million and 22.7% respectively. These results were driven by organic sales into the HVAC/R and ASBP end markets, as well as the inorganic revenue contribution from TRUaire. The specialty chemical segment realized fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $36.5 million, compared to $38.4 million in the prior year period. Adjusted segment operating income and adjusted segment operating income margin were $5.3 million and 14.7% respectively as compared to the prior year period of $6.5 million and 16.8% respectively. Our consolidated profitability metrics remain solid, with consolidated gross profit margin of 40.5% compared to 45.4% in the prior year period, with a decline primarily related to the effective purchase accounting as well as freight and transportation cost increases that accelerated more rapidly than we were able to pass on cost inflation to the market. Adjusted to exclude the aforementioned purchase accounting effect, gross margin was 42.7% in the fourth fiscal quarter. Gross margin is expected to improve in near-term quarters as the benefits of recent price increases are realized and as the remaining excess inventory valuation gets fully amortized, as the acquired TRUaire inventory converts to revenue. Through fiscal 2021 year-end, this amortization has been recognized at a run rate of approximately $1 million per month pre-tax, and we currently expect the balance of the amortization to roll off during our fiscal second quarter 2022. Our adjusted operating income increased about 36.8% to $22.3 million, equating to an adjusted operating income margin of 16.7% as compared to 16.5% in the prior year period. Fiscal fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA increased by over 50% to $30.9 million, $20.5 million in the prior year period. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.1% and 20.8% in the current and prior year period respectively. GAAP net income from continuing operations in the current quarter was $9.6 million or $0.61 per diluted share compared to $13.4 million or $0.88 per diluted share in the prior year period. After adjusting both quarters to exclude items already mentioned, adjusted net income from continuing operations for the current quarter was $13.8 million or $0.88 per diluted share compared to adjusted net income from continuing operations of $12.5 million or $0.83 per diluted share in the prior year period. Both the GAAP and adjusted net income include the expense from the incremental amortization of intangible assets resulting from the TRUaire acquisition. Turning now to our fiscal full year results, we achieved an 8.6% increase in revenue to $419.2 million compared to $385.9 million in the prior year. Organic sales were approximately flat to fiscal 2020 with inorganic contributions from TRUaire comprising over $33 million of sales in the first 14 weeks of our ownership. In the current year, we reported a 13.2% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $91.6 million equating to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.8% as compared to $80.9 million of adjusted EBITDA and 21% margin in the prior year period. These results translated into record adjusted EPS of $3.37 compared to $3.20 in the prior year period. The industrial products segment delivered fiscal year end revenue of $289.4 million, 23% higher than the prior year as excellent execution and product demand drove 18% organic growth in the HVAC/R end market. Ongoing project completion plus acceleration of projects in the ASBP backlog resulted in a 5.9% organic growth and TRUaire contributed $33.8 million of inorganic sales. This growth was partially offset by other end markets served. Segment adjusted operating income and adjusted operating income margin were $66.4 million and 22.9% respectively after excluding the TRUaire transaction expenses and the purchase accounting effect. This compared favorably to adjusted operating income and operating income margin of $55.7 million and 23.7% respectively in the prior year period. The specialty chemical segment realized revenue of $129.8 million in the fiscal year, compared to $151 million in the prior year period. Adjusted segment operating income was $20.9 million with adjustments related to the joint venture related transaction expenses resulting in adjusted operating income margin of 16.1% compared to adjusted segment operating income of $24.9 million and adjusted operating income margin of 16.5% in the prior year period. The effective tax rate on continuing operations was 11.7% for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 and was 21.2% for the fiscal year due to the release of a reserve for an uncertain tax position offset by increases related to non-deductible transaction cost, both of which were associated with the TRUaire acquisition. For the prior year’s fiscal fourth quarter and full year, the effective tax rates were 16.7% and 22.2% respectively. The supply chain and logistics challenges we have previously discussed have continued. While we have stayed ahead of the supply chain constraints, we have not been immune to the commodity price increases and in some cases are buying in advance to ensure we have a supply available to meet customer demands. We consider this a good investment of our capital. We continue to see delays at many ports, which has in turn driven up costs for transportation globally and has delayed delivery times. We've also seen supply shortages within the chemical industry due to the freeze a few months ago right here in Texas. While we have a history of success in passing along price increases, in recent months the trajectory of pricing has exceeded normal cost inflation and has contributed to margin degradation. To address the incremental rise in cost in all of our end markets, we have announced and implemented price increases and even multiple price increases in select end markets. We will continue to be proactive on pricing as the year progresses and will implement further price increases as necessary. Transitioning to the strength of our balance sheet as of quarter end, our pro forma leverage was approximately 1.9 times well within our stated range of 1 to 3 times. As Joe mentioned, today we announced the execution of a new five-year $400 million revolving credit facility, providing $178 million of effective liquidity based upon cash on hand, plus the borrowed amount as of fiscal year end, further strengthening our balance sheet and providing capital for future inorganic growth opportunities. We ended fiscal year 2021 with $10.1 million of cash and maintained our durable cash flow from operations of approximately $66.3 million for the year inclusive of the transaction expenses previously discussed. These metrics leave us well-positioned for the continued allocation of capital into strategic initiatives. With that, I'll now turn the call back to Joe.