Marc Rossiter
Analyst · Jon Morrison with CIBC Capital Markets
Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us. Here with me today is James Harbilas, Enerflex' Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Blair Goertzen, our outgoing President and Chief Executive Officer effective today. During this call, James and I will be providing our financial results for the three months ended March 31st 2019. A brief commentary on the performance of our three business segments and a summary of our financial position. Approximately one hour following the completion of this call, a recording will be available on our website under the Investors section. During this call, unless otherwise stated, we will be referring to the three months ended March 31st, 2019 compared to the same period of 2018. I'll proceed on the basis that you have all taken the opportunity to read yesterday's press release. Enerflex' first quarter financial results benefited from a record backlog at December 31st, 2018. We saw strong engineered systems revenue and gross margin realized from projects secured in the second half of last year. Although bookings activity this quarter slowed compared to previous quarters, the company's backlog remained strong at well over $1 billion. We continue to see a healthy bid pipeline for engineered systems globally as well as interest for rental and build own operate maintain solutions. Enerflex continues to focus on opportunities to increase recurring revenue from our rental and aftermarket service product offerings, which was reflected in the positive results for these product lines in the quarter. In the United States, the company continued the expansion of the contract compression business, while internationally we made progress on our long-term build own operate maintain projects. Now, to our -- now looking to our regions. In the United States, results were higher when compared to the same period of 2018, driven by increased revenue across all product lines. Higher engineered systems revenue was due to the realization of strong bookings seen in prior quarters and continued progress of certain projects. However, during the quarter the company experienced delays in the timing of customer project approvals and the corresponding reduction in the conversion of opportunities into bookings. The acquisition of Rental Assets in 2017 added an established and growing platform that contributed to increasing recurring revenues from the segment. During this first part of the year, Enerflex continued the expansion of the USA rental fleet which now totals approximately 240,000 horsepower. We remain focused on investing in these assets and as production continues to expand the company sees additional potential in this high-growth market. As we look forward, Enerflex remains focused on building on its successes for engineered systems products in various prolific liquid-rich plays. The company has seen significant demand in the USA over the past two years and there continues to be a strong bid pipeline for future work. Continued development in key resource plays should translate into further demand for Enerflex' engineered systems products as well as contract compression solutions to improve performance in maturing fields. The Houston manufacturing expansion will be coming online shortly which will materially increase our throughput capacity for engineered systems sales destined for the USA and rest of world markets. We continue to monitor egress issues in the Permian Basin for any potential slowdown in product inquiries related to this basin. Our optimism for this segment is reinforced by the anticipated resolution of these egress issues in the latter half of 2019, as well as increased activity in other U.S. basins where we are positioned to capitalize on these opportunities. Rest of World results were down slightly when compared to the same quarter last year driven by lower Engineered Systems revenue and higher SG&A costs. Despite a slight reduction in total revenue, Enerflex saw an increase in recurring revenue and opportunities for Rental and Service offerings remained strong in many of the regions covered by this segment. Looking specifically at the Middle East, this region continues to provide stable earnings from our rental fleet, which consists approximately of 100,000 horsepower in contract. We are seeing opportunities across this diverse region including Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. In addition, the company is exploring new markets and opportunities in order to enhance recurring revenues with the continued focus on Build-Own-Operate-Maintain projects. In Latin America, Enerflex remains cautiously optimistic about the outlook as customers recover from soft commodity prices. The company believes there are near-term prospects within Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia and mid to longer-term prospects in Mexico. Enerflex made progress on the company's two 10-year BOOM projects awarded in Argentina and Brazil in the second half of last year. As capital investments increase to develop the Vaca Muerta shale in Argentina and to build out natural gas infrastructure in Columbia, there will be further opportunities for Enerflex' products and services in those countries. In the Canadian region, the oil and natural gas industry remained somewhat constrained by negative sentiment and the lack of consistent access to market. However, the company benefited from major project awards relating to the midstream sector from the second half of 2018, which was reflected in our financial results of this quarter. Despite progress in transportation issues and optimism for further LNG projects, there remains some uncertainty in the Canadian market as 2019 unfolds. In addition, the aggressive delivery window for new prospects during the quarter and our record level of opening backlog, met the company's ability to respond to some projects with delivery times that met the clients' needs, was limited due to company's fabrication and supply chain capacity. We believe that this delivery issue is isolated to the first quarter of 2019. In the near-term Enerflex has a positive outlook globally, supported by continued strength in our backlog and high inquiry levels across all regions. The company is committed to diversifying revenue streams across multiple markets and product lines to grow our backlog and ensure profitable margins. I will now turn it over to James Harbilas, Enerflex' Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer to review our financial results.