Joseph P. Bellino
Analyst · Noble Financial
Thanks, Tony, and good day, everyone. After the market closed today, we reported results for the first quarter of 2013. Overall sales of nearly $176 million were down approximately 5% compared to the sales of the $184 million in last year's first quarter. We traditionally see a softer first quarter compared to the rest of the year, and 2013 was no exception. Even with favorable sales trends and the large commercial aerospace market and solid demand for our defense technologies, we could not have offset these positive given the softer revenues and our non-aerospace and defense, or non-A&D, end-use market segments. Net income grew to $3.7 million or $0.35 per diluted share compared with $2.4 million or $0.23 per diluted share last year. First quarter 2013 results were aided by a $0.19 per share federal R&D tax benefit, as we reported and discussed in our March 4th quarter and year end results. This income tax benefit was recorded retroactive for 2012. Importantly, the federal R&D tax credits have been extended through 2013 and we will record these benefits on a quarterly basis throughout the year. Ducommun's lower sales this quarter impacted our company-wide operating income in terms of both dollars and as a percentage of revenue. Operating income for the quarter was $10.3 million or 5.9% of revenues compared with $12 million or 6.4% of revenues in the comparable quarter last year. However, we are pleased to see operating segment margins improve 20 basis points year-over-year at both Ducommun AeroStructures, DAS, and Ducommun LaBarge Technologies, DLT. Higher corporate SG&A expenses is primarily debt pricing transaction costs, benefit costs and nonrecurring professional fees offset these gains. In the first quarter, we generated $17.3 million in adjusted EBITDA or 9.9% of revenues compared to $19 million in adjusted EBITDA or 10.3% of revenues in the first quarter of 2012. Our backlog remains solid at $638 million and we expect this to grow during the balance of the year. It appears our non-A&D markets have stabilized, and we also have a variety of opportunities in the works with our commercial aircraft and defense technologies businesses, as you heard from Tony. Results by business segment, DAS, or Ducommun AeroStructures, sales for the first quarter were slightly less than $73 million, down about 2% year-over-year, primarily due to slower shipments of military and commercial helicopter products, but this was partially offset by higher sales of large commercial aircraft products, underscoring the continued strength in build rates in the commercial sector. DAS' EBITDA for the first quarter 2013 was $9 million, slightly higher than last year, and the EBITDA margin expanded 70 basis points to 12.3%, reflecting continued reductions in development costs for new programs versus a year ago. We now have more normalized cost levels for new programs and it reflects actions we have taken in recent quarters to drive our productivity in this area. Ducommun LaBarge Technologies, DLT, posted sales for the quarter of $103 million, it was down 6% year-over-year. The non-A&D revenues fell 32% and overshadowed the 15% increase in military electronics, which includes strong shipments of airborne radar systems and other military defense system products. For the quarter, DLT EBITDA was $12.6 million, slightly below the $13 million from a year ago. However, we expanded our margins year-over-year by 40 basis points to 12.2%, as we continue to benefit from cost savings associated with our integration efforts. Corporate, general and administrative expenses that are not identifiable to the 2 business segments were 2.4% of revenue for the first quarter compared to 1.6% a year ago. They reflected about $0.8 million in expenses -- in nonrecurring expenses, which included $0.5 million for the recent debt repricing transaction and $0.3 million in nonrecurring professional fees. We remained vigilant on our cost-reduction efforts. In terms of liquidity and capital resources, as Tony mentioned earlier, during the quarter, we continue to delever our balance sheet. And in addition, we were proactive in reducing our bank interest expenses. We prepaid $7.5 million of our debt, reducing that to $358 million and our net debt to $328 million, given our trailing-12 months adjusted EBITDA of $85 million, this equates to the 3.85x funded debt to equity. We discussed in prior calls in 2013, we expect to pay down a total of $25 million to $30 million of debt this year with the goal of deleveraging our balance sheet to the 2.75x to 3x range by the end of 2015. We were also successful in reducing interest expenses on our credit facilities by 75 basis points through a repricing transaction. The Accommodative Monetary policy by the Fed presented us with an opportunity to reduce the interest on our term and revolving credit lines by 50 basis points and we were also able to lower our interest rates lower by 25 basis points. As a result, going forward here in the second quarter, our pricing on these debt instruments will be LIBOR plus 375 basis points with the 1% floor. In the year's first quarter, we used $6 million in cash from operations compared to approximately $5 million a year ago, a little bit more on investments in tooling as we support new program growth and some timing differences. We continue to focus our efforts on effective working capital management through higher inventory turns and better receivables management. We expect our $60 million revolving credit line to remain unused for the foreseeable future. We anticipate capital expenditures for fiscal 2013 to be approximately $15 million, about the same level as we did last year. Our capital plans will support the expansion of our manufacturing capabilities and new contract awards. So in closing, while we were challenged with softer revenues in our non-A&D end-use markets again this quarter, we offset large portion of this with solid gains of shipments in commercial aircraft products and defense technology applications. In addition, operating and EBITDA margin levels expanded at the segment level as a result of manufacturing cost efficiencies, including better performance on our new program costs and benefits realized through our integration efforts. I now would like to turn the program back over to Tony for his closing remarks. Tony?