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Enerflex Ltd. (EFXT)

Q1 2018 Earnings Call· Sun, May 6, 2018

$25.45

-0.47%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Exterran’s First Quarter 2018 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Dave Barta, CFO of Exterran. Thank you, you may begin.

Dave Barta

Analyst

Good morning, and welcome to Exterran Corporation’s first quarter 2018 conference call. With me today is Exterran’s President and CEO, Andrew Way. Before we begin, I wanted to share with you that after two years, Greg Rosenstein, our VP of IR, has left us to take a position as a CFO of a company in New Orleans. I want to recognize Greg and thank you for his contributions. During this conference call, we may make statements regarding future expectations about the company’s business, management’s plan for future operations or similar matters. These statements are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. securities laws and speak only as of the date of this call. The company’s actual results could differ materially due to several important factors, including the risk factors and other trends and uncertainties described in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Management may refer to non-GAAP financial measures during this call. In accordance with Regulation G, the company provides a reconciliation of these measures in its earnings press release issued yesterday and available on the company’s website. With that, I will now turn the call over to Andrew.

Andrew Way

Analyst

Thanks, Dave. Good morning, everyone. Exterran had another solid quarter on many fronts, with EBITDA as adjusted of $51 million on revenue of $350 million, higher product bookings and ECO wins and continued margin rate expansion in our product sales segment. We noted on our last call that we felt the fourth quarter bookings number was trendatory, as customer orders paused following a strong order flow during the first nine months of 2017. Our Q1 bookings were $193 million, a 71% increase from the fourth quarter, in line with our expectations for the start of the year. We continued to experience robust demand for midstream infrastructure in North America, which benefits our product sales business, and ultimately, our service business as we expand into the region. During the quarter, we received our first process and treating AMS part sales in North America as we focus on developing our capabilities to enter this market. The Permian basin, Marcellus and Utica, and SCOOP/STACK continues to remain very strong markets for both compression and processing and treating demand. The DJ basin also remains active with continued discussions of new projects, both Greenfield and expansions of existing assets. In recent weeks, we’ve also seen inquiries increase in the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Nebraska. The dynamics and drivers in each of these basins are different and we’re tailoring our solutions to our customers in each location on a specific basis. In the Marcellus, growth is clearly driven by incremental gas and NGLs. Customers are adding capacity and need new cryo trains to process these incremental flow. With our product philosophy of modular and scalable plants, we’re well positioned to satisfy the demand of our customers by delivering additional trains as they see this incremental growth unfold. In addition, we see the petrochemical capacity being added,…

Dave Barta

Analyst

Thanks, Andrew. As I discussed our segment results, I will again make comparisons to sequential quarterly performance. So starting with the contract operations segment, revenue increased 1% to $96 million, while gross margin was flat at $61 million, resulting in gross margin percentage of 63%. In the aftermarket services segment, revenue was 14% lower at $26 million, while gross margin of $7 million decreased 7% from the prior quarter. This resulted in a gross margin percentage of 28%, up 200 basis points. As Andrew mentioned, we traditionally see a slight reduction in Q1 in South America due to summer holidays, resulting in decline in repair, maintenance and overhaul projects as well as in transactional part sales. Compared to the same period in 2017, however, AMS revenue was up 17% and gross margin was up 26%. Revenue in the product sales segment was $228 million or 7% higher, while gross margin improved 11% to $27 million, resulting in a gross margin percentage of 12%, up 40 basis points from Q4 and up 330 basis points from a year ago. It was a strong quarter for compression. In fact, net revenue from compression orders was at its highest in terms of dollars since the second quarter of 2015. Revenue for processing and treating orders were also higher sequentially, once again reflecting solid conversion and execution of our backlog. The product revenue split was 93% from North America and 7% from international markets. Andrew noted the improvement in product sales bookings to $193 million. Our product sales backlog was $427 million at the end of Q1 as compared to $461 million at the end of 2017. SG&A expenses were flat at $44 million, as we continued to manage costs while investing in revenue-producing initiatives such as new product development. We also implemented a…

Andrew Way

Analyst

Thanks, Dave. So as we noted on our last call, 2018 will be a year of investment for Exterran as we execute our growth plan. Investment will come in the form of capital expenditures and new product development initiatives. We will continue to be good stewards of capital as we maintain our focus on working capital and invest it in high-return projects and product lines. The sale of the production equipment assets is a great example of this focus. The global markets continue to feel cooperative and receptive of our approach and maintain an appetite for midstream equipment and new ideas to efficiently process the increasing amounts of gas production. During our last earnings call, I talked about Exterran’s strategic growth plan and positioning our company more towards a systems and process company. As part of these efforts to provide differentiated value propositions to our customers, we have created a team dedicated to product development and R&D, looking at both organic and inorganic ways to grow the company. We believe this will be additive to our regional growth strategy as well as deliver optimized and efficient plants to our contract operations. The concept of integrating various products to offer a comprehensive and optimized solution is being seen favorable with our customers. We are currently working on a few pilots that is demonstrating this value. Additionally, we have invested R&D resources to enhance our water processing business. We are seeing a lot of interest from customers, both in the Middle East and in North America, where produced water disposal is becoming a major problem. We have seeded several of our patented de-oiling technology with various companies in both continents, and have had very positive results. We will update you on progress in the next earnings call. Over the last few months, I’ve traveled extensively to all four of our regions and have come away excited and optimistic with the feedback from our customers. As we look at their investment plans, worked early with them on pre-feed and feed studies, we believe we are well-positioned to support them in meeting their objectives. Our global footprint is a strong enabler in driving those relationships. With that, I’ll now turn the call back over to the operator for questions. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Joe Gibney of Capital One. Please go ahead.

Joe Gibney

Analyst

Thanks, good morning. Just a question on contract ops outlook, Andrew. The – curious if the project pipeline is unchanged relative to your expectations from last year. You talked about a $2 million project pipeline out there. You’re securing some work, it look like. Just curious how that’s shaping up. And then also on the contract side, with some of these recent inbounds, just curious on the startup of revenue from them. I think the $40 million or so that you referenced last quarter was more of a late 2018 kind of benefit to revenue. Would it be sort of early 2019 that we should be thinking about that for this incremental booking that you referenced today?

Andrew Way

Analyst

Yes. So first of all, we continue to see very strong demand in contract operations. The pipeline is – continues to be robust. I did highlight in the script and also in the earnings release that we have already seen in the second quarter a very strong demand that’s resulted in some orders for us, both on product and on ECO. And so we feel very good how that’s starting to convert into real orders that we can work on. The countries that was continuing to see strength, we’ve talked about them before, we’re seeing, in the Middle East, continued strength in Oman, in Kuwait and recently in Iraq. We’ve seen in Latin America, the countries that we’re already operating in along with Bolivia and some real green shoots in Brazil, again. And so the pipeline is strong. Some of these projects, by definition, take a little longer to close. I think we’re well-positioned. We’ve read publicly, recently, a number of projects that have been talked about in the press from our customers. And so we hope to see continued wins here in the second and third and fourth quarter. The projects that we referred to, yet – second half of 2018, we’ll see startup of those projects more towards the fourth quarter. The ones that we booked prior to, they’re on-track. And as I mentioned, we’re successfully building out those facilities, as we speak, at our customer location. And then, the recent wins that we’ve just announced this quarter are towards the back-end of 2019, and probably fourth quarter, early first quarter of 2020. So depending on the application and product specs, some of these facilities get up and running earlier, others take a little longer. But that’s the current framework of what we see right now.

Joe Gibney

Analyst

Okay, helpful. And then, on product sales, just curious. Your perspective on – I know processing and treating certainly has been the main driver. But could you speak a little bit to what you’re seeing in compression demand, particularly here in the U.S. Maybe some trends or some particular growth in certain markets. I’d be curious on your perspective there. And then, maybe on a produced water disposal side, it just sounds like this is in nascent stages. But what you’re trying to bring to the table there, product-wise, I’d be interested in hearing a little bit more about that, appreciate it.

Andrew Way

Analyst

Yes, sure. So on the compression side, things have really started off the year very strong. Our demand, right now, that we’re seeing on inbound inquiries reflected what we saw in the first quarter and the fourth quarter with regards to inbounds across most of the basins. I mentioned in my pre-remarks that we have continued to see strength in the Permian and the Marcellus. We’re starting to see a few new regions coming through. And I think one of the correlations that we’re seeing clearly is, a lot of the installed processing capacity that we’ve put in or we’re putting in today, each one of those facilities have quite a large demand of horsepower and compression that’s required to feed the gas. And so we’ve seen – we’re just kind of working on this, this morning. I think about 650,000-horsepower inquiries inbound in the first quarter between North America and the rest of the world, which is quite high compared to some of the run rates we’ve seen previously. So there’s still a very strong demand in the heavier horsepower. We’re clearly positioned to benefit from that activity, with the work that we’ve done, really focusing on manufacturing facilities, ready to take that volume. And so now it’s just a question of, clearly the customers making that choice between rental and owning that asset. And hopefully, that will play into Exterran’s hands. And so very confident about the market and, certainly for the foreseeable future, we continue to see a significant demand on compression. On the water treatment side, it’s a business that Exterran’s owned for a while and had relative success in large-scale order projects. We took a little bit of a different approach a little while ago and started to produce some technology through some patented de-oiling…

Joe Gibney

Analyst

Okay. Thanks, that’s helpful. I appreciate it, Andrew.

Dave Barta

Analyst

Okay. This is Dave, I’ll step up for the operator, as they have a fire alarm going off in their building. [Operator Instructions] All right, I think James Spicer from Wells. We will take your question.

James Spicer

Analyst

Yes, hi, good morning. Just on the sale of the North American production equipment assets, I know you mentioned the financial impact was negligible. Just trying to understand what you gained from that sale and whether it’s reflective at all of your view of the opportunity in North America versus the international market.

Andrew Way

Analyst

So James, a couple things. First of all, it really wasn’t a material value. We issue our Q this evening. You’ll see a little bit of a disclosure in there in terms of the value. It really was one of our smallest product lines in terms of revenue. We’ve seen a continued demand in a product that really doesn’t fit what we intend to do with Exterran, which is really to build a processing system. It really generates service revenue from the product development that we’re building. And so we saw that it as an opportunity to take a great business and allow someone else to run with it that can fit their needs. And so it allows us to focus the organization in a better way. We sold a facility that’s more than capable of meeting the aspirations of what the buyer wants to do. But it really didn’t fit the place in which we want – where we want to take the company. And so, there was no surprises, generally. We’ve been looking on a deck for while in terms of the portfolio, and as Dave mentioned, we sold the CPE business. We took care of the PEQ service business last year. We’ve ran down EPC. And so really what we’re left is a portfolio that can generate revenue, not just the time you ship the product, but also through the life cycle. And so that’s ultimately where we’re heading. And so it was really nothing more than that.

Dave Barta

Analyst

And maybe, I’ll add, James, just to frame the financial side of it. As Andrew mentioned in our Q, because of the enhanced disclosures around – from 606, you’ll see the sales in the first quarter run under $9 million for the business. And again, it doesn’t mean, because we sold the business we lose those sales. Again, we sold Titan, the manufacturing facility, some equipment and inventory. They’re still going to be a partner to us and serving our customers in North America that need PEQ products. We’re still able to manufacture and sell those products internationally. So it may have very little impact on the P&L. Again, the assets in their hand, we felt was something they wanted to focus on, some better use of those assets. And it also doesn’t change anything regarding compression and processing and treating. I know some of the merger-type magazine articles seem to carry a little bit further, but it’s really only a PEQ discussion, selling them the facility and inventory.

Andrew Way

Analyst

Purely strategic, and a great team from Exterran moved in to Titan, so they’ll do great.

James Spicer

Analyst

Okay, great. I just – that makes sense. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything there. And then, just a quick housekeeping one if I could. Do you have your revolver balance at the end of the quarter?

Dave Barta

Analyst

Revolver balance was – it’s around $660 million, $670 million, off hand.

James Spicer

Analyst

In terms of outstandings?

Dave Barta

Analyst

Outstandings? Yes, total long-term debt was $387 million in total, so minus the $375 million of note, so $13 million.

James Spicer

Analyst

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Dave Barta

Analyst

[Operator Instructions] I’ll hand it back over to Andrew.