Operator
Operator
Welcome to the Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. My name is Sylvia, and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call over to Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Dan Molinaro. Mr. Molinaro, you may begin. Daniel L. Molinaro - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Thank you Sylvia, and welcome, everyone, to the NOW, Inc. Second Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. We appreciate you joining us this morning and thanks for your interest in NOW, Inc. With me this morning is Robert Workman, President and CEO of NOW, Inc.; and Dave Cherechinsky, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. NOW, Inc. operates primarily under the DistributionNOW and Wilson Export brands, and you'll hear us refer to DistributionNOW and DNOW, which is our New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol, throughout our conversations this morning. Before we begin this discussion on NOW, Inc.'s financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015, please note that some of the statements we make during this call may contain forecasts, projections and estimates, including, but not limited to, comments about our outlook for the company's business. These are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities Laws based on limited information as of today, which is subject to change. They are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially. No one should assume that these forward-looking statements remain valid later in the quarter or later in the year. I refer you to our latest Forms 10-K and 10-Q that NOW, Inc. has on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of the major risk factors affecting our business. Further information regarding these, as well as supplemental, financial and operating information may be found within our press release on our website at www.distributionnow.com or in our filings with the SEC. A replay of today's call will be available on the site for the next 30 days. It also should be noted that we plan to file our second quarter 2015 Form 10-Q later today, and it will also be available on our website. Later on this call, I will discuss our financial performance, and we will then answer your questions. But first, let me turn the call over to Robert. Robert R. Workman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Dan. Welcome to DistributionNOW's Q2 2015 earnings call. Today we reported second quarter 2015 revenues of $750 million, and excluding other costs for acquisition related expenses and severance and EBITDA loss of $17 million, or a loss of $0.16 per fully diluted share. Included in our results is a charge of $7 million impact approximating $0.04 per share, resulting from high steel content inventory adjustments due to falling steel prices. If not for this deflation cost charge, EPS would have been a loss of $0.12. As I'm sure everyone on this call is keenly aware, it would be an understatement to describe the last two quarters in the upstream energy space as challenging. After experiencing Q1 2015 sequential rig count declines in the U.S., Canada and international segments of 28%, 24% and 4%, in Q2 2015 we realized additional sequential declines of 34%, 68%, and 7% respectively. In previous downturns of which none have been as severe as this cycle, revenues for our business have dropped from highs of around $1.3 million to as low as $950,000 per average global operating rig annually. This is a result of operators and drilling contractors destocking their rigs and warehouses and reducing their CapEx and operating expenses in the face of a severely declining market. We can only credit our employees for growing non-acquisition related annualized revenue for global operating rig from $1.1 million in both Q4 2014 and Q1 2015 to $1.2 million in Q2 2015 representing respectable organic market share growth in a business whose revenue is more than 80% levered towards the upstream market. Where some companies have assets, such as patents, highly engineered proprietary products or significant investments in PP&E and service equipment, our largest and most impactful assets are our employees. I'd like to thank them for the results they have continued to produce in the face of the most severe down cycle that I've experienced in my 24 years at DistributionNOW. In particular today, I'd like to say a special thank you to Marlyn Studer (5:00), who works in our Wilson Export group servicing global oil and gas operators. She joined us through the acquisition of Wilson Supply in 2012 and celebrated her 48th year with DistributionNOW at the end of June. Thanks Marilyn (5:14) for all you do for DNOW. Moving back to the top line and including acquisitions, annualized revenue per global operating rig grew sequentially by almost 18% to $1.38 million, almost tripled the 6% sequential M&A aided growth we delivered in Q1 2015. As expected, revenue added in Q2 2015 from acquisitions was about $30 million as compared to the $49 million from acquisitions that was added in the first quarter. The strengthening dollar affected sequential revenue in our Canadian and international segments by approximately $3 million with only a minimal impact on EBITDA. The price erosion impact of $11 million we experienced in the first quarter repeated in the second quarter, but did not degrade further sequentially. While towards the end of Q2 2015, we think that we likely experienced the full impact of price concessions made earlier in the year, we continue to feel margin pressures from increased project bidding in an oversupplied line pipe market with some analysts even predicting an elongated trough in this cycle. Decremental flow-through to operating profit was 16.8% sequentially. Looking more closely at the U.S. while we had sequential rig count declines of one-fourth and then one-third in the last two quarters, a handful of our core areas actually had much more severe declines. Leading the pack with rig count reductions were California, Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Eaglebine and Permian in the U.S. Areas that were affected less than average sequential rig count decline were the Utica, Marcellus, Mid-Continent and Rockies. The revenue decline in the U.S. of 17% was primarily driven by volume reductions of almost one-third with our top five oil and gas operator customers and rig counts that maintained their downward progression, destocking of warehouses by operators and drilling rigs by contractors that continued throughout the quarter, wells being drilled but not completed that continued to grow, further outsourcing by customers' defabricators for turnkey projects, continued increases in the number of orders that would normally be placed on the branches at contract pricing being taken out for bid, severe weather in Colorado that slowed activity in April and May and heavy rains in Texas and Oklahoma in June, the winding down of projects and turnaround activity with several of our downstream customers, much lower volumes with our supply chain energy manufacturing customers as they cut back on production and several facility closures in both our upstream and downstream operations that while improving profitability resulted in partial revenue losses. Offsetting these challenges and what allowed the U.S. to produce revenues that significantly outperformed the 34% sequential rig count decline were increased maintenance projects with two of our largest operator customers in the Eagle Ford, strong activity with midstream customers in the Rockies and Eagle Ford and actuation and valve shipments to one of the largest midstream companies in the Northeast, growth in sales of artificial lift systems across most areas of the U.S., increased activity in the Southern Utica and the opening of a few new facilities to support our two largest supply chain operator customers that resulted in nice share gains through reduced leakage in the Permian. In Canada, revenue declined 23% sequentially, mainly due to significant reductions in the rig count, well completions, fiberglass line pipe projects in the Saskatchewan, Bakken and oil sands related projects. Enabling Canada to handily outperform the 68% sequential rig count decline were customers increasing their discipline by enforcing contracts with DNOW, increases with artificial lift systems, the acquisition of several operators by our largest oil and gas customer in the Canadian Bakken and the implementation of new contract awards that occurred in Q1 2015 across several areas in Canada. Internationally new revenue from our recently completed acquisitions of MacLean, Oasis and North Sea Cables increased artificial lift in multiplex pump packages in Australia and a pickup of PVS and electrical sales in Kazakhstan were enough to offset considerable declines with the shutdown of the (9:28) field in the Middle East, reduced coated line pipe and spools shipments to Kuwait, 9% and 12% sequential rig count declines in Latin America and Europe respectively and deepwater drillers who have been idling or scrapping rigs and cannibalizing the considerable amount of inventory maintained on those large vessels. Looking at market activity moving forward, considering the number of variables currently influencing the price of oil, such as U.S. shale and OPEC production growth, global demand, the Chinese economy, instability in the Middle East, the strength of the U.S. dollar, the possible lifting of sanctions in Iran, the potential to repeal the U.S. oil export ban, progress on U.S. LNG export facilities and many others, no one can accurately forecast what will happen in the energy market in the coming quarters. Several reports cite industry experts that range from $70 oil by the end of 2015 all the way to $50 oil for the next few years. Currently rig count changes and comparison to trends from prior downturns suggest that a recovery if it has begun will be one that is slow-going. The recent pullback in oil prices calls for a weaker demand over the second half of the year and what appears to be an oversupplied oil market and peak demand season make it difficult to conclusively make any determinations. Regardless of how the market reacts to all of these variables, we'll maintain our strong focus on continuing to deliver organic market share growth, pursuing M&A opportunities that strengthen or expand our product geographic and/or solutions offering to our customers and positioning the organization to take advantage of the market recovery irrespective of when that happens. Outside of the uneasy state of the market and in addition to approximately $25 million of revenue that will be added to Q3 2015 from our most recent three acquisitions, our growing participation in an active and stable midstream market should help bolster our revenue stream. Other bright spots include that for the 15 rigs that were put back to work in July in the U.S. we experienced start-up orders to restock them after being idled and cannibalized for months. While there weren't enough rigs put back to work to move the needle considerably, it confirmed our expectations that when a recovery happens, drilling contractors will place significant demands on our branches in order to restock cannibalized rig that are currently stacked today. We have experienced an increase in artificial lift sales in the U.S. and abroad as customers have moved their focus to optimizing production and away from exploration. We have no reason to believe that this trend as well as increased revenue with well service companies won't continue while we're in this period of the cycle. While not always a perfect indicator of future activity, drilling permits have increased in several of the shale plays and some of our largest oil and gas customers have commented that they plan to add a modest number of rigs in the second half of 2015. Due in part to the impending completion of LNG export terminals being constructed along the Gulf Coast, several customers are acquiring properties in and having exploration discussions for the Haynesville, Fayetteville and Barnett Shale plays. Over the last few months, about a dozen operators have notified us that we're now their primary supplier in several geographic regions in the U.S. where we have previously only enjoyed a portion of their purchases due to service level issues they are having. As well, one of the largest U.S. drilling contractors has recently awarded us Preferred Supplier status nationally which will aid us in growing share with that contractor. As mentioned on our last call, a recent supply chain services award with an oil and gas company who is one of the most active operators in a major shale play has already resulted in over 1 million of project awards and we have yet to conclude contract negotiations. Several projects in our downstream group that were pushed out in Q2 2015 should bill in Q3 2015 and we expect to see a resumption in turnaround activities. DNOW has contracts with four of the top eight operators that represent 80% of the drilling activity in Canada. Even though the recovery from breakup pales in comparison to prior years, we should still enjoy a pickup in revenues due to increased activity. Also in Q2 2015 in Canada two new contract awards and the execution of a new agreement with a large international oil company for pipe valves and fittings will begin producing organic growth in Q3 2015. We've also had two of our most significant commercial agreements in Canada extended recently. Resumption of fiberglass line pipe projects in Saskatchewan as well as a recent award by a fiberglass pipe manufacturer to DNOW as the distributor of spoolable fiberglass pipe should also bolster revenues in Canada. Our fiberglass team in Saskatchewan has also expanded to the U.S. Bakken in recent months which should begin to yield organic growth soon. Export project shipments to oil and gas operators in Angola, Oman and Pakistan should help soften reduced export shipments to offshore drilling contractors. In-country sales of artificial lift systems and multiplex pump packages in Australia, drilling spares in Indonesia, valve projects in Singapore and pipe, valves and fittings in Azerbaijan should help offset declines we're experiencing in Europe, Latin America, and with deepwater drillers globally. Moving beyond the top-line, less acquisitions, we have reduced head count by about 850 out of 5,300. 150 of which were in our corporate office and including just over 60 in the month of July. On the other side of that through the non-acquisitions we have completed since spin, we have added over 800 new employees. In Q2 2015, we consolidated or closed 11 underperforming branches globally. We continue to evaluate additional underperforming locations. This brings the total consolidations or closures to 26 for the first half of 2015. In the quarter, we also added eight new onsite branches in several areas of the U.S. and two branches in the Permian. We have reduced operating expenses by $28 million from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015, or by $41 million which is 23% when excluding acquisitions. Warehouse selling and administrative expenses have dropped from $179 million and $163 million in Q4 2014 and Q1 2015 respectively to $151 million in Q2 2015 which includes $13 million added through acquired companies. We've continued actions to right-size our business to this very low activity level and will continue doing so while making sure not to sacrifice our future and to position DNOW to prosper during an eventual market recovery. And taking a look at the balance sheet, we're still working diligently to reduce our working capital as a percent of revenue, having reduced about $146 million and $192 million sequentially in Q1 2015 and Q2 2015 respectively of inventory and receivables, less acquisitions in the period. Unfortunately with sharp declines in revenue that progress doesn't show up in days of sales outstanding, inventory turns or working capital as a percent of revenue metrics. We still have a lot to do in these areas, but are optimistic based on the considerable progress that was made in July. As we stated on the last call, these balance sheet reductions will only last as long as we remain in a depressed market. We have experienced market recoveries in the past and understand well the amount of cash needed to fund growth. So we're being mindful of that fact as we make capital allocation decisions. Sequentially, we went from a net debt position of $13 million in Q1 2015 to a net cash position of $34 million in Q2 2015. Due to falling steel prices, we made a $7 million adjustment in reducing inventory costs for steel intensive products. At the beginning of 2015, we weren't anticipating this event as several U.S. mills were being idled and the process still at the time was only slightly higher than the lows of 2009. Recent data suggests that imported steel goods are continuing to deflate and could be reaching up to 20% lower than the bottom we experienced in 2009. We suspect that we have yet to reach the bottom of the steel process as input costs continue to fall. Tubular demand both for OCTG and line pipe is low due to an oversupply, too much global pipe capacity for this type of market and a strong dollar, which makes imports cheaper in the U.S. As for domestic seamless line pipe, it still remains somewhat steady in price as many of the mills are currently idled or will shut down soon. By the middle of August likely only two of the six primary domestic mills will be running. We began our U.S. pipe inventory reductions shortly after the acquisition of Wilson Supply and have reduced those levels by around $70 million since peak. However, many large privately held pipe distributors were building inventory in 2014 and some were even buying heavily in the first Q of 2015. This has led to an oversupply of pipe market sometimes being held by the mills themselves that will put pressure on pipe sales and costing for quarters to come. Regarding capital allocation, we have consistently communicated that our maintenance CapEx should be in the $10 million to $20 million range. At this point, it appears as though our maintenance and spin related CapEx combined may be on the low side of that range. As for M&A, we recently completed our seventh and eighth acquisition since spin, announced the completion of our ninth deal earlier this week and just yesterday filed for HSR approval of our 10th and most recent opportunity. Expanding on some of these recent deals in Q2 2015, we closed the acquisition of an electrical distributor in Norway. Combined with the electrical businesses DNOW has operated in the North Sea for years along with a strong UK electrical presence of MacLean, DistributionNOW has expanded our capabilities to service our customers cable, (19:23) and lighting needs across all areas of the North Sea. The smaller of the three deals we have completed since the end of Q2 was a bolt-on acquisition to our Canadian operations that expands our valve, electrical and instrumentation business. As a young company with solid technical knowledge and expertise and valued customers and suppliers, but still has a lot of room for growth. On Monday we announced the completion of the acquisition of Odessa Pumps and Equipment. Headquartered in the Permian, Odessa Pumps provides a full line of fluid transfer equipment to the oil and gas and municipal wastewater markets. They have successfully expanded their geographic breadth beyond their home base in the Permian to the Eagle Ford, Mid Continent and New Mexico markets. Through that effort and with limited access to capital, they've grown revenues by over 50% in a four-year period. We feel confident that by having access to DNOW's considerable infrastructure and balance sheet capabilities, Odessa Pumps will be able to continue their organic growth performance across the product lines they represent that allow for continued geographic and end-user expansion. Odessa Pumps is also a great win for our supply chain solutions group, where our customers are constantly looking for us to invest in and expand the product lines we can provide to support their operations. Yesterday we filed for regulatory approval to acquire the business of Challenger Industries Incorporated. Headquartered in the heart of the Bakken and with operations across several areas of the U.S., Challenger provides pipe, valves and fittings to the downstream, midstream and upstream markets. With the majority of their revenue related to the downstream and midstream markets nationwide, Challenger strengthens our downstream service capabilities while also expanding our growing participation in the midstream market. Additionally, when considering opportunities to combine the strengths of their upstream operations mainly located in the Rockies with that of our energy branches in the same area, it will enhance our ability to service our combined customers in those resource plays. We're just as optimistic as ever that we will be able to put capital to work, that will not only generate returns for our shareholders, but that will better position DistributionNOW for an ultimate market recovery. While our M&A pipeline is plentiful, our primary focus is on finding those deals that are the greatest strategic fit, such as product line and geographic expansion, scale and financial strength as well as managing our existing acquisitions to deliver on their expected performance and generating value for our shareholders. Even though we have a lot of deals under our belt from our previous parent company and on our own, we believe in continuously evaluating what has worked and what could be improved in our deal process and in our integration efforts to preserve what these companies have built independently and enhance their success as part of DistributionNOW. We'll continue to be prudent in determining how we allocate capital and thank our shareholders for their confidence and support. With that, I'd like to thank you for your interest in DistributionNOW. And we'll now turn the call over to Dan to review the financial highlights. Daniel L. Molinaro - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Thanks, Robert. It has been a little over a year since we spun off from NOV and I'm proud of the efforts throughout our company as we integrated three large distribution businesses in North America, converted most of our company to one worldwide ERP system and created an independent publicly traded company, a company which is a world-class provider of products and services to the energy industry. I am thankful for our dedicated hardworking employees who made this happen. They are the true assets here at DistributionNOW. We are facing headwinds from this uncertain market and this downturn is more severe than most others. But this is nothing new to our seasoned management team, who has proven resilient in similar past cycles. We'll continue to concentrate on the needs of our customers while focusing on producing results for our stakeholders. Robert discussed our business and I'll touch on our financials. NOW, Inc. reported a net loss of $19 million, or $0.18 per fully diluted share on a U.S. GAAP basis for the second quarter of 2015 on $750 million in revenues. This compares with a net loss of $10 million, or $0.09 per fully diluted share on $863 million revenue in the first quarter of 2015. And it compares with net income of $27 million, or $0.25 per fully diluted share on revenue of $952 million for the second quarter of 2014. It should be noted than an earnings comparison with the year ago quarter is not meaningful as Q2 2014 did not reflect the full costs of running an independent publicly traded company. Our second quarter results included $3 million of acquisition and severance related charges and when excluded, our net loss was $17 million or $0.16 per fully diluted share. Gross margin declined $31 million in Q2 to 16.5%, compared with 18.0% in the first quarter of 2015, reflecting reduced volume and continuing price pressure. Our Q2 margins are impacted primarily by a $7 million, $0.04 per share charge related to lower cost to market inventory adjustments for line pipe and other products due to falling steel prices. Operating profit was down $19 million sequentially as the gross margin decline was partially offset by operating expense reductions totaling $12 million. EBITDA for the second quarter of 2015 was a loss of $19 million, $17 million excluding the acquisition and severance-related charges. Looking at operating results for our three geographic segments, revenue in the United States was $496 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2015, down 17% sequentially and down 25% from the year ago quarter. The second quarter decrease was driven by the continued decline in the U.S. rig count, slightly offset by incremental revenue gain from acquisitions. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, U.S. revenues were down 17% sequentially, while the U.S. rig count declined 34% in the second quarter of 2015 as we continue to outperform the domestic rig counts. Operating profit in the U.S. for the second quarter 2015 was a loss of $23 million compared with a loss of $12 million for the first quarter and a profit of $28 million in Q2 2014, reflecting revenue declines coupled with the incremental costs of operating as an independent publicly-traded company. In Canada, second quarter revenue decreased 23% sequentially to $89 million and down 29% from Q2 2014, reflecting the sharp declines in the Canadian rig count and reduced spending in most regions during seasonal breakup, partially offset by an increase in large project and new contracts revenue. The Canadian dollar continued to decline relative to the U.S. dollar, falling another 2.3% in Q2, with the U.S. dollar strengthening continuing in July adversely impacting revenue. Canadian operating profit for the three months ended June 30, 2015, was a loss of $5 million, compared with a profit of $3 million in Q1 2015 and with a profit of $2 million in the year ago quarter. The decrease in OP was essentially due to revenue declines. International revenue was $165 million in the second quarter, up 13% sequentially and even with the second quarter of last year. Second quarter revenue includes $60 million from companies acquired in 2015, compared with $30 million in the first quarter of this year. Excluding acquisitions, international revenues were down slightly reflecting reduced market activity and customer spending. International operating profit for the second quarter of 2015 was $1 million, the same as Q1 2015, but down $12 million from the year ago quarter. We continue to be optimistic about our international opportunities. Revenue channels for the second quarter shows 76% through our Energy Branches, or stores as many of us know them, with declines across the board geographically as our upstream business suffers, and 24% through our supply chain locations, which shows the strength in the supply chain group, which also benefited by our acquisition activity. Looking at the income statement, I wanted to remind you of a reporting change made earlier this year. We combined operating and warehousing costs with selling, general and administrative expenses and now report as warehousing, selling and administrative expenses. We believe this change provides a more meaningful measure of our operating expenses and including operating and warehousing costs within SG&A is more meaningful to users of our financial information. Plus this will be more consistent with our peers. Looking at the pieces; operating and warehousing costs were $99 million for the three months ended June 30, 2015. This is down $4 million from Q1 2015 and down $6 million from the year ago quarter. These costs include branch and distribution center expenses. SG&A expense was $52 million in the recently completed quarter down $8 million from the previous quarter, but up $7 million over Q2 2014. The increase over the year ago quarter is related to the net incremental costs in connection with operating as an independent company, spin activities and ERP conversion and implementation, as well as SG&A that came with the acquisitions we completed since the spin. In total, we have reduced our quarterly warehousing, selling and administrative expenses by approximately $28 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, or almost 15%, and these costs were down by $41 million when the impact of acquisitions was excluded. The effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2015 was 34%, and we expect the effective tax rate to approximate 32% for the full year. Turning to the balance sheet, NOW, Inc. had working capital of $1.28 billion of June 30, 2015. Accounts receivable was $665 million at the end of Q2, a reduction of $132 million during the quarter. For the first half of this year, we reduced AR approximately $240 million, or some 29%, before the additions from acquisitions. Inventory was $892 million or $53 million lower than the end of the first quarter. We have slowed the inventory replenishment process and should show significant reductions in the second half. Cash totaled $114 million at June 30, 2015, which was down $8 million during the quarter. Almost 80% of our cash is located outside the U.S. as our U.S. cash is used to repay bank debt. Capital expenditures during Q2 were $3 million. Our maintenance CapEx normally runs $10 million to $20 million annually, but as Robert mentioned, should be on the low side of this range this year. Our current day sales outstanding are slightly improved to the low 80s, but impacted by the lower revenues and we continue to work on improving these results to closer to the 60-day range. Inventory turns were 2.8 times, but we believe we'll return to at least four turns. On a trailing 12-month basis, our working capital was 35% of sales, 32% when cash is excluded, but higher if you annualize the quarters with our objective of getting to a 25% rate. We ended the second quarter with $80 million of bank debt having paid off $55 million of debt during the quarter, and considering our cash position, we were net cash. Our borrowing costs approximated 1.7%, and we continue to have plenty of dry powder as we consider growth opportunities for DNOW. The third quarter 2015 will continue to be challenging as we deal with this downturn, but our focus remains on our customers. We will continue integrating our recent acquisitions, identifying synergies to reduce cost. We have confidence in our strategy and our employees and in our future, as we position NOW, Inc. to continue to serve the energy and industrial market with quality products and solutions. We are an organization with an experienced management team, a strong balance sheet. And we believe this current downturn creates new opportunities for us and our shareholders. With that, Sylvia, let's open it up to questions.