Earnings Labs

Graham Corporation (GHM)

Q4 2010 Earnings Call· Fri, May 21, 2010

$92.80

-1.96%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+5.40%

1 Week

+8.52%

1 Month

-0.13%

vs S&P

-0.24%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Graham Corporation fourth quarter 2010 quarterly results conference call. (Operator instructions) As a reminder this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Deborah Pawlowski, Investor Relations for Graham Corporation. Thank you, Ms. Pawlowski. You may begin.

Deborah Pawlowski

Management

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your joining us today on Graham’s fiscal 2010 fourth quarter financial results call. On the call with me today are Jim Lines, President and CEO of Graham and Jeff Glajch, Chief Financial Officer. Jim will briefly review the fourth quarter’s performance and will discuss the Company’s strategy and the outlook as well as his perspective on the state of the industry’s we serve, while Jeff will be reviewing the Company’s performance in the recent quarter and full fiscal year. You should have a copy of the earnings release that was put out this morning, and if not, you can access at its Company’s website which is www.graham-mfg.com. In addition, we have posted supplemental slides on the website to provide a visual overview of our results. As you are aware, we may make some forward-looking statements during the formal discussion as well as during the Q&A. These statements apply to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ from what was stated here today. These risks and uncertainties and other factors are provided in the earnings release as well as other documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents can be found both at the Company’s Web site and at www.sec.gov. So with that let me turn it over to Jim to begin the discussion.

Jim Lines

Management

Thank you, Debbie, and good morning everyone. The fourth quarter closed a challenging and remarkable year. Challenging and dealing with the effect of the global financial crisis that led to a rapid collapse in our markets that we saw in our order book in fiscal 2009 that played itself out through our record decline in fiscal 2010. On the other hand, the year was remarkable in many positive ways. We demonstrated the company could not only outperform during periods of strong demand, but also deliver solid financial results in a steep downturn. The attention we provide to our customers is a critical component for our success as we set a new record for orders in the year. Our company-wide commitment to improving Graham each day drove tangible gains in operational excellence, safety and error reduction that ultimately was reflected in our ability to protect margin despite significantly lower revenue. This market downturn has been particularly sharp and I am pleased with how our managers and employees have navigated the company through this period. We aren’t completely through the downturn and still have a couple of quarters to contend with. We believe the concluded fourth quarter and the next two quarters should represent the bottom of the cycle for us. During the fourth quarter we had a good level of bookings considering market conditions. Bookings were $18.3 million. Notable orders in the quarter were a large order for South American crude oil refining project, two orders for geothermal power generation; one for Africa and the other for a U.S. installation, a $5 million for an ethylene producing facility in Asia. While market conditions appear to be improving we expect quarterly order levels to remain erratic and unpredictable. Although as you can see from these orders the drivers of demand for our…

Jeff Glajch

Management

Thank you Jim and good morning everyone. I will start with a review of sales and operations activity before moving on to orders, backlog and our outlook for fiscal 2011. As you saw in our press release, net sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 were $13.8 million, an $11 million decline compared with last year’s fourth quarter but a $1.6 million increase from the trailing third quarter of this fiscal year. As expected, Graham sales have continued to shift towards international and away from the U.S. market. Fourth quarter fiscal 2010 sales were 67% international and 33% domestic, practically the inverse of the 36% international and 64% domestic in last year’s fourth quarter and expanding this year’s year-to-date trend of 52% international and 48% domestic in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010. Compared with last year’s fourth quarter international sales increased to $9.3 million up $300,000 while U.S. sales declined to $4.5 million, down $11.3 million. For fiscal 2010 net sales were $62.2 million, down 38.5% from fiscal 2009. International sales made up 55% of the total while U.S. sales made up the remaining 45%. International sales in fiscal 2010 decreased by 8% to $34.3 million. Within the international markets Asia sales were $20.3 million, up 53% from $13.3 million last year while sales to all other international markets were $14 million, down 42% from $24.1 million last year. We have made great strides continuing to penetrate the Asian market especially since we opened an office in China in 2006. We believe our brand in Asia is strong and there remains significant growth potential for Graham in this important growing market. U.S. sales declined to $27.9 million, off 56% from last year’s total of $63.7 million more reflecting the shift where capital is being invested in the…

Jim Lines

Management

Thank you, Jeff. Operator, please open the line for questions at this time.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from the line of George Walsh – Gilford Securities. George Walsh – Gilford Securities : I wonder if you could give just a little more detail about the deposits you are getting from customers. It seems a little different from what I have seen over the years. Is there something special going on there that you are getting more of this money up front? Is it a matter of you are negotiating that you are getting that or conditions in the commodities markets? Or something or any other factor that you may see there?

Jim Lines

Management

In general we don’t see a change going forward in how we historically have been able to negotiate progress payments. What we did have was a handful of contracts where we were able to negotiate more forward progress payments as we negotiated with our customers to try and lock in our material costs and they helped participate in that locking in of our costs by advancing us money through negotiations. They were supportive of that. They understood the situation and we negotiated that with a handful of customers. However, I don’t see a pattern change going forward in general. George Walsh – Gilford Securities : Were those most of the international customers you got that from?

Jim Lines

Management

Some were international and one in particular was U.S. based. George Walsh – Gilford Securities : Maybe a broader question, very broad, but anything in the accident with BP in the Gulf that you see has any potential impact on you in terms of your refining business?

Jim Lines

Management

That is a pretty significant even that is happening right now. If I think about it and apply it in a broad sense I think it will support perhaps further investment in the oil sands which is beneficial to us as there could be fear in deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t think in general it is going to change the long-term demand pattern we project for oil based products and then demand for our equipment. However, I do think there will be a short-term reaction to what has occurred and hopefully foster investment in the oil sands. George Walsh – Gilford Securities : Any new trends there in the oil sands that you are seeing in terms of momentum of investment there in projects?

Jim Lines

Management

One of the things we like about the oil sands activity now is we are seeing investment occur now in the extraction side, developing the sites for the production of oil sand that ultimately then must be upgraded. Where Graham’s equipment is required is in the upgrading section. The investment going on now in the production side has to translate at some point to investments being made in upgrading capacity which is where our large ejector systems and steam surface condensers are required. We are encouraged by what is happening now. George Walsh – Gilford Securities : On a quantitative basis between getting these deposits up front, you have a record backlog, the cash position is strong so that seems very good but you do say qualitatively you feel the recovery is somewhat tentative. Is that just a standard caution or are there other elements in there you may want to expand on versus some of the quantitative elements that are setting up pretty well for fiscal year 2011?

Jim Lines

Management

It is a good question. We are somewhat hesitant in that we don’t believe our markets are in full recovery and clearly we would expect some fragility in the recovery based on what is happening with currency changes and the European situation. They all could have a short-term effect. Looking beyond 2011 which is what we are doing, we are very positive in the outlook and the requirement for capital investment in new petrochemical facilities, new refining facilities, new power generating facilities, we have to get through this period of time which is unpredictable and a time to be cautious. While we had a very strong level of bookings last year even removing the Navy project I was very pleased with the level of our bookings for fiscal 2010 but our sales team was focused on where the opportunities were and I have to admit there were small pockets of opportunities and our team did a great job capitalizing on those small pockets. In general, there are a limited number of projects. That makes the competitive environment hypersensitive to pricing and protracted negotiations all of which don’t favor necessarily the early part of 2011. But looking beyond these tough couple of quarters and looking beyond 2011 itself I am very encouraged by what we see in the pipeline and the opportunities for Graham.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Chris McCampbell – Stifel Nicolaus. Chris McCampbell – Stifel Nicolaus: Where would you say we are in the cycle of building the backlog? Do we still have some quarters where we may continue to be able to grow that or are we going to be quickly reaching a point where we start shipping and the backlog will kind of rollover a little bit?

Jim Lines

Management

As we mentioned, the first two quarters of fiscal 2011 will be comparable to the last few quarters of fiscal 2010. We have a nice backlog, a high quality backlog that gives us visibility out beyond 2011. I do feel what our view is into the pipeline we will have backlog expand by the end of the year but within the year quarter by quarter there could be quarters where the backlog drops somewhat and there could be quarters where the backlog has an appreciable gain. Nothing that is different from the past. Chris McCampbell – Stifel Nicolaus: In terms of candidates you are looking at with acquisition possibilities would they share the same cycle or are you looking at companies that may be able to benefit from a later cycle or even earlier cycle where you are kind of diversifying the cycle?

Jeff Glajch

Management

I think the candidates we have been looking at fall into both categories. There are some that would be in a similar cycle to us but there are others that would be somewhat off-cycle and could potentially improve our cyclicality a little bit. So they really fall into both categories. Chris McCampbell – Stifel Nicolaus: You are looking strictly at situations where you would just use cash and not stock?

Jeff Glajch

Management

Most likely but certainly there are scenarios where a seller might be interested in some stock. We would be very conservative there. We don’t want to dilute our existing shareholders by any meaningful amount.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Dick Ryan – Dougherty. Dick Ryan – Dougherty: When you look at the pipeline of opportunities there can you give us a feel quantitatively that the size of opportunities you are considering?

Jim Lines

Management

The pipeline, I will first speak to it geographically. Much of the pipeline or activity that is emanating from Asia, the Middle East and South America as we have said in the past. On the U.S. market side we are seeing our pipeline increase for opportunities in power generation applications. So going to the size of the projects for power generation applications in the U.S. market these tend to be good size orders but smaller in size compared to a refining project. As I mentioned earlier in the call the margin potential can be dramatically different for those opportunities due to the buying criteria of the customer as well as the competitive landscape we are facing in that marketplace. When we move to our more traditional markets of refining and petrochemical into the Middle East, South America and Asia the size there for projects can vary between $1 million to $5-7 million. We have a good population of those opportunities in the pipeline over the next 12-18 months. Dick Ryan – Dougherty: When you look at the announcement from [inaudible] had a pretty good batting average of oil refining jobs in China and the ethylene award in the most recent quarter, does that give kind of a little bit of a forward feel for what could be developing in the chemical processing environment? Is that kind of a precursor of other jobs in the pipeline?

Jim Lines

Management

We have won during the last two quarters two nice ethylene projects for Asia; one was for India. One was for Northern Asia. We are bidding a number of ethylene projects. My belief is those won’t materialize for 6-18 months for new orders. Remember our sales cycle is such that we wish to be involved very early. So that gives us good visibility into the pipeline and I would say petrochem lags a little bit behind what we are seeing for investment by the refining market.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Jim Lines

Management

Thank you everyone for your time this morning. As we communicated on the call we were very pleased with our performance in fiscal 2010. We are very encouraged by how the company is positioned to get through 2011 and we are very excited about looking beyond 2011 based on what we see in the pipeline and improvements we have put into the business and our acquisition program to move Graham to a higher level of performance. We look forward to updating you during the July call. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.