Earnings Labs

Flowserve Corporation (FLS)

Q2 2010 Earnings Call· Fri, Jul 30, 2010

$83.44

-1.83%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Michael, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q2 2010 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paul Fehlman. Sir, you may begin your conference.

Paul Fehlman

Analyst

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Flowserve's Second Quarter 2010 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being webcast with our earnings presentation via our website at flowserve.com. Simply click on the Investor Relations tab to access the webcast and the accompanying presentation. For those of you that are listening to today's call through our dial-in phone number, and also wish to follow along with the earnings presentation slides via our website, please click on the Click Here to Listen Via Phone icon at the bottom of the event details page. The webcast will be posted at flowserve.com for replay approximately two hours following the end of this call. The replay will stay on the site for an on-demand review over the next few months. Joining us today are Mark Blinn, President and CEO of Flowserve; Tom Ferguson, President of the Flow Solutions Group; and Tom. Pajonas, President of the Flow Control division; as well as Kyle Ahlfinger, VP and Chief Marketing Officer; Dean Freeman, VP Finance and Treasurer; and Dick Guiltinan, VP Finance and Chief Accounting Officer. Following our commentary, we will begin the Q&A session. Regarding any forward-looking statements, I'll refer you to yesterday's earnings release and 10-Q filing and today's earnings presentation slide deck for Flowserve's Safe Harbor Statement on this topic. All of this information can be found on Flowserve's website under the Investor Relations section. I encourage you to read these statements carefully with respect to our conference call this morning. The information in this conference call, including all statements by management plus their answers to questions related in any way to projections or other forward-looking statements, are subject to Flowserve's Safe Harbor. Now I'd like to turn it over to Mark to begin the formal presentation. Mark?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. First, I will take a moment to review our second quarter results and highlight a few important trends. We had another solid quarter, with earnings per share of $1.62. This included the impact of $0.10 per share of net realignment charges and $0.19 of net after-tax currency effects below the operating lines. Bookings for the quarter were $1.13 billion. This represented an increase both year-over-year and sequentially, and it was our seventh consecutive quarter of bookings around $1 billion. Looking at our order book, two things I think are important to point out. First, our book-to-bill ratio for the quarter was 1.18 and 1.15 year-to-date, as we saw some projects released into the market. Second, our aftermarket bookings grew to around 40% of overall bookings during the second quarter to $449 million. That's up almost 10% versus last year and about 13% sequentially, reflecting that our end-user focus and investment continues to create aftermarket growth opportunities. Looking at margins year-over-year, operating margins were stable despite lower revenues. The benefits of realignment, supply-chain management, cost-saving initiatives and the steady aftermarket business have offset some of the margin headwinds from price and volume. It is also important to point out that we've continued to position the company to drive disciplined, profitable growth. In mid-July, we bought Italian valve manufacturer, Valbart. This fills a product gap in our Flow Control division and provides good growth opportunities. We continue to reposition the business through our realignment program, our capital investment plans and our strategic localization initiatives, and we also began to execute on our plans to position the Industrial Products division to grow their top line and improve margins. Now let's look at a few aspects related to our business outlook. Many of our markets are still…

Kyle Ahlfinger

Analyst

Thanks, Mark and good morning. I'm Kyle Ahlfinger, Flowserve's Chief Marketing Officer. For the next few minutes, I'd like to provide an overview of the long-term outlook for our markets, from both an industry and a geographical point of view. Looking at bookings year-to-date from an industry perspective, as we have noted in previous discussions, we have seen improvement in project activity in oil and gas. Bookings in this industry have improved measurably compared to the first half of 2009. Industry forecasts for oil and gas reflect a positive outlook for capital spending due to demand growth projections over the next decade. These growth projections have improved since early 2009. It is important to note that future demand growth is predominantly in the developing regions. Mature markets are staying relatively stable or even dropping slightly due to overall energy efficiency improvements and environmental protection planning. Long-term capital spending plans indicate increased spending for both international and national oil companies. International oil companies are focusing a majority of their spending on upstream investments to increase their levels of future proven reserves. The majority of downstream and midstream spending is with national oil companies in the developing regions. Looking downstream, industry data shows leading refinery investment areas over the next five years to be the Middle East, China, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Moving to power generation, the long-term outlook for this industry has remained relatively unchanged from previous reviews, variations of the timing of expansion projects and the type of fuel sources being considered. These modifications are being driven predominantly by environmental programs and legislation. Both the European Union and the United States are working on plans to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide within the next few years through the Industrial Emissions Directive in Europe and the Clean Air Transport…

Thomas Ferguson

Analyst

Good morning. I'm Tom Ferguson, President of the Flow Solutions Group, which encompasses the Engineered and Industrial Product divisions. Generally, I am pleased with the overall performance of the Flow Solutions Group. Our focus on end-user customers, operational excellence and strategic growth initiatives continued to provide a platform to drive bookings growth, while generating solid sales and income performance. By using our global opportunity management and sales information tools, we continue to drive our project performance discipline, but have also continued to see pricing pressure in most OE sectors. Our customer-focused end-user strategy allowed us to sustain strong customer satisfaction survey metrics, and also helped us maintain 91% on-time delivery to customers' requests to date. For the Engineered Product Division, or EPD, Q2 bookings growth of 7.2% was driven primarily by oil and gas project activity. In spite of mixed levels of project activity in our core markets, we had strong performance in refining, power, oil pipeline and LNG projects. We also are pleased with our aftermarket business, which strengthened in the face of relatively low customer maintenance spending levels. Our end-user focus and Integrated Solutions initiative offset the natural tendency of refineries to pull pump repairs back into their own shops. Sales were down 9.6%, primarily due to the lower backlog entering the year. Gross margin was up to 36.9% due to favorable aftermarket-to-OE mix, continued focus on operational excellence and some realignment savings. We are pleased with our operating income margin of 20.3%, driven by executing on our realignment actions and continued emphasis on SG&A controls. Moving to the Industrial Product Division, let me say that I remain excited about the opportunity this new structure provides us to focus on these products and markets. For Q2, the Industrial Product Division saw increased bookings of 6.1% versus Q2 2009,…

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. My name is Tom Pajonas, President of the Flow Control division. In summary, I'm pleased report another quarter of solid performance. Bookings in the quarter versus prior year increased across all industries, including the aftermarket. Gross margin were up versus prior year, as we continued to execute our core initiatives, while maintaining an on-time delivery of almost 93%. We continue to plan for the future as evidenced by our acquisition of Valbart, which will enhance our valve product line offering, predominately in the oil and gas industry. While we will discuss this acquisition in greater depth, this acquisition, along with our capital expenditure plan, our new product developments and our continuing drive to increase service capability worldwide, should produce additional leverage in our business. Now let's review the financials. Second quarter bookings increased $51 million, 18.6% compared with the same period in 2009. Book-to-bill during this period was 1.21 versus 0.91. The overall net increase in bookings was the result of strength in the oil and gas, chemical, power and general industries. This growth was largely driven by North America and the chemical industry in Asia, as distributors continued to restock to meet end-user demands. Bookings for the first half of 2010 increased $67.9 million, 11.8% compared with the same period in 2009. The increase in bookings is primarily a result of strength in the oil and gas industry in EMEA and North America, and increased bookings in power generation and general industries. Increased bookings were partially offset by decreases in the chemical industry, largely driven by EMEA. Distributors continued to restock during this period. Sales for the second quarter decreased $33.7 million, or 11.1% compared with the same period in 2009. Sales of original equipment decreased across all industries, primarily in EMEA, and…

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Thank you Tom. Good morning. I'm Dick Guiltinan, Chief Accounting Officer. I'd first like to recap a few financial highlights that were mentioned previously. We are pleased with an EPS of $1.62 per share, considering the charges for realignment and foreign currency. Bookings for the quarter around $1.1 billion included a very large order of over $80 million, and a negative currency effect of $12 million. Bookings grew 9.5% over the second quarter of 2009. On a sequential basis, bookings grew 6%, reflecting that large order and significant currency headwind. The solid bookings number for the first half leaves us with a backlog of $2.5 billion going into the second half of the year, an increase of 5.5% compared to December 31 of 2009. Our margins for the quarter, both gross and operating, have remained at solid levels, even with the sales decline of 12% for the quarter. In previous quarterly calls we have discussed uneven order flow, reduced backlog at the beginning of the year and pricing headwinds as sales challenges, but we also discussed our continuing efforts to properly scale the business, reduce costs and drive operational excellence. Margins for the quarter indicate our supply chain, low-cost sourcing, realignment and other cost controls are realizing benefits. SG&A expense reduction remains a key focus area. Turning to the year-to-date results, the themes remained consistent for the second quarter: increased bookings and solid margins. Realignment and currency are highlighted in several bullet points, so let me focus on those areas later. My colleagues' earlier presentations covered key operational results for the quarter, so I'll discuss the financial ones. You'll note the large increases in the other expense, net line, where the effects of currency volatility in our transactions are reported. The recent movement of the euro exchange rate has several…

Paul Fehlman

Analyst

Michael, we're ready to open things up for Q&A.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Charlie Brady [BMO Capital Markets].

Charles Brady - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst

I just wanted to go back to the last comment, on the guidance and that $0.47, just so I make sure I understand it. Year-to-date, first half, there's been a $0.47 headwind to earnings, correct?

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Hi Charlie, it's Dick Guiltinan. That's correct.

Charles Brady - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst

In your, in the guidance, the original guidance, when you were using a $1.43 euro, I guess I'm trying to, it's $0.47 relative to where the guidance used to be?

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Right. Let me start. When we did the guidance, we used a 1.43. At that point, we would've translated the above-the-line effects at that rate. As we've gone through the first half, obviously we've averaged it down to about 1.33 for the first six months. And in addition to that, we actually closed June at about 1.22. So there's clearly been a degradation to just our translation effect. In addition to that, below the line, with that level of currency degradation, obviously our mark-to-market hedge was a lot larger than we would've anticipated with a flat currency.

Charles Brady - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst

I guess what I'm trying to get at is, the original GAAP guidance with the Venezuelan currency and the realignment cost, had you been using the 1.25 exchange rate when you first made that guidance, would your overall guidance have been then $0.47 less?

Thomas Ferguson

Analyst

I mean if we could have seen the impact of the currency, the 1.33 average that Dick talked about, and then the mark at 1.22. Remember those marks come on one day a quarter. So the below-the-line is, depends on where the currency is on one day of the quarter. Had we known that, certainly we would've, that would have impacted our guidance negatively at the beginning of the year.

Charles Brady - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst

I guess what I'm trying to get to then is, all things being equal, the guidance has gone up fairly meaningfully, relative to when you first originally put guidance out.

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Well, interpret it how you want. The fact is that we've been able to overcome the impact of this currency and maintain our guidance.

Charles Brady - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst

Let me switch gears then. The aftermarket bookings, 40% of bookings aftermarket in the quarter, it sounds as though there's some pretty still good momentum in aftermarket bookings. If we look to the second half, do think we'll get a similar type of mix?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Well Charlie, we do want to comment on mix going forward. I mean I think what we were pleased with in the aftermarket is, as Tom commented, in the face of, certainly in our mature markets, spend being pulled down, we were able to grow the aftermarket business. And that's on the heels of a lot of strategic initiatives these two folks have. Keep in mind, as you walk forward, last year when we talked about bookings in the first half of the year, and I think even in the third quarter, we talked about the challenge around these projects getting let loose, right? Intuitively what that would say is that that's going to put pressure on your OE mix component of your overall revenue going forward in future periods. Well as we've commented now, and we referenced one in this period, we've started to see some of those projects come loose. So if all of the things being equal, that would tell you that mix should shift towards more OE. Having said that, our intent is to continue to grow the aftermarket as much as possible. So if we maintain the mix, it's because we're growing our aftermarket business.

Charles Brady - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst

That 70% of your business that is international, how much of that would you consider developing markets?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Now that's a good question. I wonder if we can reference that on the slide because we don't break out the Middle East. But clearly, if you look at the sales outlook on Slide 8 I think it is, you can see Asia Pacific and Latin America. Middle East and Africa, actually. I'm sorry. We did change that. It's right there. It's Middle East and Africa, Asia, Asia-Pac and Latin America. Those are all emerging, or what we'd call kind of emerged regions.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Scott Graham [Boenning & Scattergood, Inc.].

R. Scott Graham - Boenning and Scattergood, Inc.

Analyst

Could you talk a little bit about the bookings as the quarter progressed? Was this just more of a continuation from what we saw in the first quarter with these releases? Or was there may be a strengthening? And just directionally, how did you feel as the quarter progressed?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

I think there's an overall phenomenon that's in our industry, is that you tend to see most of your bookings in the last month because people push hard and there's the aspect of that. I think overall, what we saw in the bookings and in the book-to-bill and the sequential growth were certainly encouraging, keeping in mind in the second quarter we had that large project that came in as well, and that tipped it up quite a bit. But for the most part, I think our general overall comments around the market is there's still some choppiness out there. And it was just five weeks ago, six weeks ago, that the market was very concerned about Europe, China. There was volatile fluctuations in currencies. There was a lot of uncertainty. And that'll manifest itself in bookings over short term, especially even on some of the short-cycle things, people will stop and hold.

R. Scott Graham - Boenning and Scattergood, Inc.

Analyst

Very good. On the larger booking, even more specifically this quarter that you were able to finally book, was this a situation that -- and maybe I shouldn't have said finally, but is this a situation that was in the hopper for a while, and you were able to finally write that ticket? And then are there similar, and I don't know talking sizes, but kind of larger, you don't have to quantify, but larger types of bookings that you are hopeful to be released in the second half?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Yes, I don't want to comment on large projects going forward. I mean we always work on them, but they're very competitively bid, Scott. I want to make sure that's clear. In our opportunity management, we'll see these projects well in advance, and they come out when they do. So it wasn't a matter of we were struggling to get this one through the hopper or anything like that. We did see some projects like the Lukoil one we referred to, I believe on our first quarter call, that that was something that we were trying to pull in and it'd gotten deferred. But we're starting to see some of these projects get released, as we commented, but it's very competitive. And just over the near term, with what I talked about, the world was a different place six weeks ago. It's still kind of choppy over the near term.

R. Scott Graham - Boenning and Scattergood, Inc.

Analyst

Is that larger booking of this quarter one that was kind of what you were waiting on, or was that something that kind of all new in the quarter? I'm just trying to gauge the sizes.

Mark Blinn

Analyst

That was pretty much ordinary course of business.

R. Scott Graham - Boenning and Scattergood, Inc.

Analyst

Does the pricing environment feel a little heavier 2Q versus 1Q, in the sales number, that is? Because the bookings in the first quarter, second quarter of last year were kind of hard to tell from an outsider what the pricing looked like. Did the sales roll out with a little bit more pricing pressure in 2Q than 1Q?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

I mean, that's been a general trend we've been calling for a while is, as we've seen the backlog roll off, some of the higher priced backlog even going back to 2008, has been rolling out. And as Tom commented, I mean, we still saw some of the good pricing in Q2, but that's been rolling off. That's the margin headwinds on us going forward that we've been calling out around pricing.

R. Scott Graham - Boenning and Scattergood, Inc.

Analyst

Fair. Last one is this: Middle East and Africa sales were -- looked like in the second quarter they were down about 20% plus. And I'm wondering on that if, is that a situation where it's more OE business in that market and that's why maybe that decline was a little heavier than some of the other regions.

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Scott, this is Dick Guiltinan. I think if you're looking year-over-year around Middle East and Africa, there were several large orders in 2009 destined into Africa that didn't recur. It's not part of an overall trend.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Halloran [Robert W. Baird]. Michael Halloran - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated: Just back on the clarifying a couple FX comments on the guidance side. To be clear, the $0.47 does not include the Venezuela, so it's just the incremental $0.35 from the currency hedges and then the translation impact?

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Yes, that's correct, Mike. Michael Halloran - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated: And then on going-forward basis, I know you've commented that you're still expecting some currency-related headwinds in the back half of the year. Anyway you could quantify that? What you're currently thinking?

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Well, I wouldn't want to talk about kind of forward currency effects, but I think there are couple of things we can think about. If you consider that we started the year at 1.43, we closed June at 1.22, and if you look at the average for the first half of about 1.33, that gave us that above-the-line impact on operating income of about $0.12. If the rate stayed constant down at kind of a 1.25 for the balance of the year, I'd expect that $0.12 to be somewhat higher. Michael Halloran - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated: And then maybe thinking about the second half guidance a little bit differently, if you take out the currency headwinds, or you exclude those, did you guys operationally increase your guidance for the back half of the year relative to your previous expectations?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

You know what, I don't want to say anything other than what we said about our guidance. I mean clearly, my point was earlier was we've maintained our guidance, and clearly we've seen some headwinds relative to our original guidance around currency that we didn't anticipate. So all other things being equal, having said that, just want to be clear on this. While the dollar strengthened against the euro, it has weakened against some other currencies, so you got to think about the entire basket. But all in all, we've certainly seen a headwind. And it's things that we've been talking about in our comments, is anticipated benefits around the realignment, great execution on the supply chain side, good execution within the factories. I mean anything that isn't delivered on time costs you more. And we've been focused on cost controls as you can kind of see in our corporate line. That's one area where we've been very focused on our costs as well. So I think that'll paint the picture for you, but I don't want to give any kind of pro forma guidance. Michael Halloran - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated: And then switching gears to the pricing side, I know you've commented on some pricing pressure that continues through the organization. Could you maybe break that up a little bit? And maybe talk about the end markets or divisions where you're seeing the most pressure?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

No, we really, Mike, we don't go too much into pricing, other than telling you there's headwinds. I mean those are things that we kind of keep to ourselves in these discussions. But clearly, one thing, the general theme we can comment on is, most of the pricing activity is on the OE side. Aftermarket remains relatively stable. Michael Halloran - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated: And I'm assuming then, the EPD versus IPD, not wanting to comment on the pricing differences in those two divisions?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

No, we don't break them out certainly by those at all. I think the commentary Tom made is IPD has some parts, less service. And the EPD has a lot of the highly-engineered equipment, also has a big portion of the aftermarket. And as he mentioned last time, that's where vast majority of the Seal assets went into.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Hamzah Mazari [Credit Suisse]. Hamzah Mazari - Crédit Suisse AG: First one, your bookings were way up, sales we're slightly off, SG&A came down and margins were very strong. Could you maybe comment on the operating leverage within your business model, some of the work that you're doing there, the work that's been done and how that holds up or improves as we look to next year, given where your bookings are tracking and what that implies for a stronger top line?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Well, I mean, the point around that is our realignment has been focused primarily on structural changes in our business. There have been some that have been volume-related. So the point to that is, we're designing these initiatives -- and by the way, when we talk about realignment, I just don't want that to be around cost-cutting. When we realigned, we have invested also quite a bit in some other regions around the world. That's all part of our general realignment concept. We just want you to understand the money that we're spending on taking specific capacity out or resources out. On the flip side, we're spending money elsewhere to drive strategic localization and market opportunities. But the point is, is we're designing this around, even our cost initiatives, around these being structural. When you look at SG&A, the S component will vary with, the sales component around commissions and everything will vary with sales. But a lot of the G&A side, we're designing to try to make that as much structural as possible to get that operating leverage. I'd say the same thing in our cost to sales line. Some of that will, of course, vary with sales, but as you can imagine, as we refine our processes, move capacity strategically or product opportunities, the goal there is around creating centers of excellence that drive very high-margin business. So I think the general theme that we want to leave you with is, what we're doing with this business, starting from the realignment initiatives, the cost controls, integrating the two divisions, breaking them out so that you could have separate focus, is around creating structural improvement in our overall platform. And the goal is, and our intent we mentioned, is we want to grow this business, both organically and inorganically if appropriate, the idea is, we want to create a scalable platform and be able to leverage to get the operating leverage. Hamzah Mazari - Crédit Suisse AG: And the second question on cash deployment. Are there any other deals out there that are like Valbart and that fit your book of business? And then just confirming, does that have to be in all in Q3? And is the priority still reinvestment in the business and accretive acquisitions like the one you just did, versus going out and doing buybacks or increasing dividends, et cetera?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

We've always been careful not to prioritize one over the other. The priority is to get a cash-on-cash return, internal rate of returns, and typically, we target in excess of 15%. That's the way we look at all of our opportunity, be it realignment, capital investment, cost savings or an acquisition. Don't comment specifically on M&A opportunities out there other than to say, and now we've indicated it, we've been considering things and we're very careful about how we do it. So we evaluate all of those options, including how we return value back to the shareholders over a period of time, because even a buyback has an internal rate of return to a shareholder. So that's the discipline we're going to use. And I think the point is cash-on-cash, we certainly take a long-term view of the returns on those investments, and that's how we'll distribute our capital. And we don't want to tilt or absolutely prioritize one versus the other. We evaluate all those opportunities. Hamzah Mazari - Crédit Suisse AG: How should we think about share gains you expect with the QRC network bared out in the Flow Solutions Group? I'm just trying to understand, are we in very early stages of that, where share gains could materialize as that ramps up? How should investors think about that?

Thomas Ferguson

Analyst

This is Tom Ferguson. I think that the way I like to look at is we have been building out QRCs and we've been doing that for several years now for both Pump and Seal QRCs, and I call it planting flags in a lot of countries. In many ways, that's to ensure that we get the aftermarket stream off of the installed base we've been putting out there on project activity for the last several years, and ensure that we defend it from the very beginning. As far as share gain, the other benefit of a QRC in an area is it keeps the business from going to third-party repair shops from the very beginning. Customers are still mixed in terms of what they keep inside to repair themselves and what they send out. So as these continue to be put in developing areas, I think we'll defend our own aftermarket, and it gives us the opportunity through the Integrated Solutions activities to take some share. But I don't want to put a forecast on that to say how much that's going to be. It's just it will continue to increase.

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

There's one point I would make, this is Tom Pajonas, that Tom Ferguson and I have talked about is, the QRCs are also becoming more important in the new equipment end of the business as many of these countries around the world look for localization of the products. So the QRCs are becoming more important in that aspect.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Maczka [BB&T Capital]. Kevin Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: I guess I have two questions. The first is on IPD. Last quarter, you had a nice slide kind of outlining your expectations for a couple hundred basis points of margin improvement there. And of course, we're not seeing that in the first half because of the competitive pricing pressures and other reasons. But I'm just wondering, should we expect that to kind of continue to get worse in some sense before it gets better because some of your initiatives there are not immediate things? Or do you think we can kind of stabilize here before ultimately going higher?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

I'll let Tom comment. I think more important is what he's going to do. We certainly don't want to start guiding margin trends here over the next couple of quarters. I think what you heard from him is we're focused on this. We certainly have some work to do. And get this, I have the utmost confidence we'll get it done. But it's probably more important to hear, as he commented specifically, what the opportunities are over the medium to long-term.

Thomas Ferguson

Analyst

Yes, I think that we also, I noted in my discussion that we made some management changes at the end of the quarter, because we need to accelerate the impact of the realignment efforts. While we've made good progress, we've still got work to do. So we're going to accelerate that. And then the second thing that I also talked about in the first quarter, we're teeing up some pretty significant growth initiatives. Those will take some time to gestate and get underway. We've get some product development efforts that are critical. But we're stabilizing and definitely have a lot more focus on it. So as Mark alluded to, I don't want to predict we're going to get worse before we get better. I think we're likely to be tracking the rest of the year and continuing to drive on those growth initiatives as much as we can, while getting the realignment behind us. Kevin Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: And my other question is on the aftermarket, just to kind of revisit that. Nice growth in the quarter. There is a comment in here on one of the slides about still seeing stagnant maintenance spending. And of course, it sounds like you've seen some new projects let, so there's been a trigger point that's allowed that to happen. Have you seen any trigger point that has indicated that, that stagnant maintenance spending may improve?

Thomas Ferguson

Analyst

Yes. This is Tom Ferguson again. I think the one positive sign that's occurred just somewhat recently is this refinery crack spread that's started to get better. And that's usually a good sign for the refinery maintenance spending. So that's good news. The other, and it's kind of the first bright spot we've seen in a while, the power electric utility maintenance spend has been fairly stable over the years. The one positive there is in the U.S., or actually around the world, with the really hot summer, that tends to be good for maintenance activity as well. So a couple of positive signs that we've seen just recently.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jamie Sullivan [RBC Capital Markets].

Jamie Sullivan - RBC Capital Markets Corporation

Analyst

A question on Valbart, are you expecting that to be accretive or dilutive this year? I know you mentioned that it'll be accretive next year. Just wondering what your expectations are for 2010?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

Hi Jamie. This is Tom Pajonas. For the remainder of the year, we expect it to be slightly dilutive, and as we indicated, accretive for the following year.

Mark Blinn

Analyst

And as you can imagine Jamie, we're still doing the accounting work around that. So we'll give some clarity later.

Jamie Sullivan - RBC Capital Markets Corporation

Analyst

And then on realignment and some of the numbers there, you mentioned $92 million this year, and $110 million from the whole program. Does that suggest $18 million incremental next year that we should think about? Or am I missing something?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

No. That's full of prime rate savings and most of our activity will be completed by the end of the year. So we would expect to see about $110 million as the run rate savings for '11.

Jamie Sullivan - RBC Capital Markets Corporation

Analyst

And then, with the discussion around some of the maintenance holding off but increasing aftermarket, just wondering if you can talk about whether the increases in aftermarket there are some recovery in the market and spend loosening or whether you think that's share gain?

Thomas Ferguson

Analyst

This is Tom Ferguson. I believe it's share gain, and because we are getting traction with the Integrated Solutions approach and especially with Pump & Seal, Seal's coming together and the end-user focus. So I'd say we, in the first quarter, we were integrating our customer-facing organizations, especially on the end-user side between pumps and seals, and second quarter, we were pretty much finished with that and started to see traction. So I think we picked up the pace and would believe we took some share.

Mark Blinn

Analyst

And Jamie, keep in mind also when you look at share gain, that's share gain also from customers and local machine shops as well. So they're certainly the mix.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of William Bremer [Maxim Group].

William Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

For example, QRCs, what's the total amount worldwide at this time? I know I've seen you reference the 150 that are servicing the aftermarket, but what's the total number?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

The total numbers is just under 160. I want to say 158, but we are in the process of driving through new ones and looking at the network. So I think just under 160 is a good number.

William Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

And then Tom you mentioned that the mining and pulp and paper are starting to improve. Can you give us an idea of, geographically, where you're seeing that improvement?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

Yes, I mean if you look at the pulp and paper, I mean, largely it's in Latin America, Brazil, and again that's probably one of the more cyclical industries, but that looks like it's beginning to awaken. And then the mining industry is a little bit more dispersed. You have Africa, you have Australia, you have Latin America on the mining side, and you've probably see some recent announcements from some of the EPCs and some big awards in the mining business also in their second quarter results.

William Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

And the last topic I want to approach is nuclear. I mean we're seeing a tremendous ramp, and not just in China, but Vietnam as you mentioned, a lot of different areas, even Russia, for example. Can you give us an idea, this life extensions, of what this -- give us a little more color there? What are some of the things that they are replacing in that? And what is the timetable of a project like that?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

I mean, if you look at the life extension, generally the units are out there for 40 years in the original application for the permits. A life extension is generally a 20-year extension of the existing reactor. They vary depending on the condition of the base reactors but they tend to be long-lead projects. You could almost call them mini new equipment project orders. They're not classified as an aftermarket. The first thing that they do is an overall assessment on the plant, and they'll do a number of engineering studies, much like feedwork on oil and gas work. And then based on those studies, they would then successively put out bids for varied pieces of equipment and then let the overall order. So you're talking several months, if not a couple years, for some of those big life extensions.

William Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

And what aspect of this does Flowserve handle?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

Well, we would handle, I mean, obviously anything related to the products that we have, which is the pumps, obviously seals, the valve components in that. And we would do a lot of analysis work on those components as well supply new pieces of equipment.

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Our equipment's kind of core to the steam cycle process and some of the things around it so...

William Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

But Flowserve is involved in terms of the original analysis of a reactor?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

Not in the, what's called the hot core of the reactor. But our components are used in various processes, so certainly we have to be part of that overall engineering analysis work.

Jamie Sullivan - RBC Capital Markets Corporation

Analyst

And what type of -- can you give me a ballpark, I mean, I know that nuclear reactors are quite expensive in terms of size, but what type of project in terms of revenue would one of these projects represent?

Tom. Pajonas

Analyst

Well I mean, if you take a look at -- I mean typically on a nuclear power plant, and this is very typical because they're all different type of applications, I mean, you could have somewhere around, for pumps, valves and seals, USD$60 million to USD$80 million. And then don't forget you have the overall reactor life over the next 40 years. And again, just as an overall wrap, that could be 2x the original equipment over the next 40 years.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Mammola [Sidoti & Company]. Paul Mammola - Sidoti & Company, LLC: If I could take you back to IPD, obviously the year-over-year deleverage makes sense, but it looks like the same sort of revenue sequentially. So I was curious, what's impacting, or can you give us a general sense of what's impacting margin there?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Are you looking at the adjusted? I mean they took some realignment charges in the second quarter. Paul Mammola - Sidoti & Company, LLC: So adjusted is 10.9 versus, all right, 11.3. That makes sense. Okay. The other thing is, in the Q, there was a tax note that there's $9.5 million to $25 million that could come back in terms of settled tax items. Any sense of where that falls, and is any of that incorporated in the guidance this year?

Richard Guiltinan

Analyst

Well, when we think about our tax rate for the guidance, we normally start off a kind of a view of a structural rate of about 28%, recognizing the extent of our foreign operations, and then we look at what the possibility for resolution of audits, expiring statutes of limitations, and we normally try to think about how that might flow through the full-year rate. The tricky bit about that is, when and how much is obviously dependent on the resolution of the matter at the time. And I think that's probably all I want to say about the rate right now.

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Yes, I mean just generally high-level, because oftentimes people try to look at these things as one-off. When we have a higher source of foreign revenues and income, that'll drive our tax rate down. That's linked directly to our operations. And then also, we get benefits from planning activities as well. You used to be able to, years past, move those into your tax rate. Now the requirements are is that they're fairly lumpy as we've talked about. And then the third aspect, as Dick talked about, is there's things that we resolve that are probably more discreet. So that's why, when we look at our structural rate, we talked about at the beginning of the year, it has come down mainly because we're seeing the benefits of some planning, and also because we're getting benefits from more foreign-source income. Paul Mammola - Sidoti & Company, LLC: And then, I know you mentioned you're not trying to provide mixed guidance, but can you remind us where in this last cycle, where aftermarket sales peaked as a total percentage? And do you think there's upside here in the near term where you are at 38%?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Well, I think I looked at those years and years ago, and I think aftermarket got as high as 47% or 48%. But I'd just caution you, that's probably eight years ago. The company's different. It's certainly different from then, so that would be difficult. We want them both to grow.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Wendy Caplan [SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets].

Wendy Caplan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets

Analyst

Dick, you talked about $100 to $115 million in CapEx this year. Can you split that up for us in terms of the kind of capital project, brick-and-mortar equipment, some sense of that please?

Dean Freeman

Analyst

Hi Wendy, it's Dean. We've historically not called out the breakup of our capital expenditures, but I would say broadly, as we think about it, we continue to invest in our aftermarket business, our geographic footprint, significant investment in continuing to grow our business in Brazil, Latin America specifically, as we've called out before. We continue to work on our IT platform and optimization. And last but not the least, as we've talked about, the realignment efforts have generated need for capital, as well. So that's all I think about it in terms of the spend heretofore in the second half of the year.

Wendy Caplan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets

Analyst

And one other cash flow question, if I might. Working capital was about, if my calculations are right, about $0.29 per sales dollar in the quarter. Is there something inherent about Flowserve that characteristically that makes this the right number? Or do we think that it can go down from here? And what are the sort of trigger points that we're focused on?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

Wendy, I can't do that $0.29 calculation, but I can tell you directionally, we do want to improve on our working capital. You've heard us from time to time, we do tend to burden it sometimes, particularly around motors to make sure that they're available when we want to deliver the pump because it's late, but would be to avoid it being late. But we do have to improve our working capital. And I want to certainly come right out and say, we have definitely room for improvement.

Wendy Caplan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets

Analyst

. Is there a magic number?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

We were looking at primary working capital as a percent of overall revenue and it's trailing revenue. So what happens is, when you have a declining sales environment and things start to ramp back up, it'll look like a burden. But generally, we'd like to get this thing to 20% to 21%, on a normal, on an average run rate is primarily working capital.

Wendy Caplan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets

Analyst

. And again, to go to my original question, so there's no kind of something inherent about Flowserve that makes that impossible?

Mark Blinn

Analyst

No. And keep in mind, that's advance cash as well, the 20% to 21%, but there isn't. There's not anything inherently.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And there are no further questions in queue. I would like to turn the conference back to Paul Fehlman.

Paul Fehlman

Analyst

Thank you, Michael. I'd like to remind everyone that this webcast will be available on our website for replay in approximately two hours, and thanks for joining us on the call today.

Operator

Operator

Thank you ladies and gentlemen, for participating in the Q2 2010 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.