Tricia Fulton
Analyst · Baird. Please state your question
Thank you, Wolfgang and good morning everyone. I'm starting on slide 6th with the review of our second quarter consolidated results. Second quarter sales were $89.3 million, up 76% compared to last year's quarter. This includes $27.8 million for Enovation Controls business indicating that the organic business grew approximately $10.7 million or 21%. We didn't have any price increases in 2016, so pricing did not affect the comparability. Foreign currency translation had an unfavourable 900,000 impact for the quarter compared with last year's quarter. I will now touch on sales by region, which are designated here in the sales bar chart. We inserted a chart in the back of the press release and the supplemental slides summarizing this information. As we noted on last quarter's call, we start experiencing progressive improvement in all of our geographic markets last September and that has continued to the present time. We realized year-over-year second quarter growth in each region. In the Americas sales more than doubled to $52.7 million, driven by the Enovation Controls business, as well as organic growth. The Enovation Controls business is heavily weighted to the US, driving our sales to the Americas market up to 59% of the consolidated total. EMEA realized 22% growth to $19.2 million and the Asian Pacific region was up 50% to $17.4 million. Our organic business grew 24%, 5% and 38% in the Americas EMEA and APAC respectively. We have made investments in sales and marketing, including the addition of sales application specialists in the field which we believe are generating sales to complement the market expansion. Regarding profitability, our consolidated adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled to $24.8 million, representing 27.8% of sales in this year's second quarter. That was up from 25% in last year second quarter. The improvement was driven by the increase in sales and the leverage realized on our fixed cost base in both cost of goods sold and SEA, as well as the result of cost saving activity. Turning to the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share were $0.52, double last year's second quarter of 2016. I'd like to point out that there are some acquisition related costs that impacted GAAAP net income that aren't shown here, but are highlighted with our earnings release and some are itemized on the non-GAAP reconciliations in the back of our earnings release and slide deck. These costs are reported in our corporate and other segment. So they don't impact our operating segment. They are as follows. First, $2 million pretax for amortization of intangibles with net of tax amount to approximately $0.05 per share. Next we recorded $8.2 million pretax of contingent consideration which net of tax amounts to approximately $0.19 per share. This represents additional purchase price for the Enovation Controls business in accordance with the earn-out in the purchase agreement. It is based on defined revenue and EBITDA target through early 2019. This is a win-win for both parties, resulting from the stronger than expected operating and financial performance of the business, as well as the outlook. Finally, we realized $1.4 million of incremental net interest expense, primarily due to the cash and debt used to fund the acquisition. This amounts to approximately $0.03 per share. Please turn to slide 7 for review of our hydraulics segment second quarter operating result. Sales grew 22% to $60.8 million with particular strength in the APAC and Americas region. Recall last quarter we mentioned that growth in the Americas market was lagging the rest of the world. This seemed to turn as we saw sequential growth resulting in 25% year-over-year growth for the quarter in the Americas region. Gross profit increased by 38% to $25.6 million on the higher sales driving gross margin up to 42.1%. This compares favourably to last year which realized 37.4% gross margin. The improvement resulted from leverage on the higher sales volume, as well as the benefit of our cost reduction initiative. SEA expenses increased by $1.1 million to $9.2 million to support our growth initiatives, including the addition of new talent. Operating income increased 55% to $16.4 million or 26.9% operating margin, compared with 21.3% operating margin in last year's second quarter. Similar to the improved gross margin on our higher sales volume, we realized further leverage on our SEA expenses. This along with the reduction of - along with the result of cost reduction initiatives drove the operating margin improvement. Please turn to slide 8 for a review of our electronics segment second quarter operating results. As a reminder, the 2016 electronics segment numbers include only a very small HCT business, and the 2017 numbers include both our Enovation Controls business, as well as HCT. Enovation Controls contributed $27.8 million of the segment $28.5 million second quarter 2017 sales. On a pro forma basis, Enovation Controls realized 44% growth over the pre-acquisitions 2016 second quarter. Similar to the strong pro forma growth realized in the first quarter, we attribute this to our proactive sales initiatives, as well as new products and overall increasing market demand in the power controls and recreational vehicle end market. The segment generated 45.6% gross margin and 22.5% operating margin in the quarter. Please turn to slide 9 for review of our year-to-date consolidated results. Sales of $170.7 million were up 68% over last year's first half. This includes $54.3 million for the Enovation Controls business, indicating that the organic business grew approximately $14.6 million or 14%. Foreign currency translation had an unfavourable $1.9 million impact for the first quarter compared with last year. Regarding profitability, our consolidated adjusted EBITDA grew 75% to $47.5 million, representing twenty 27.8% of sales in this year's first half, that was up from 26.6% last year. Turning to the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share were $1, up from $0.57 last year. As I noted for the quarter, I will summarize the acquisition related costs that impacted operating income and GAAP net income for the year-to-date period, as reported in our corporate and other segment, they are as follows. First, $1.8 million pretax for amortization of inventory step-up, which was fully recognized in the first quarter. It is included in the positive sales and amounted to $0.04 per share. Next $4.3 million pretax for amortization of intangibles which net of tax amount to approximately $0.11 per share. Third, as noted previously for second quarter $8.2 million pretax for contingent consideration was net of tax amounts to approximately $0.19 per share. Finally, we realized $2.3 million of incremental net interest expense primarily due to the cash and debt used to fund the acquisition, this amount to approximately $0.06 per share. Please turn to slide 10 for a year-to-date review of the hydraulic segment. Sales grew 15% to $114.9 million with particular strengthen in the APAC and Americas region, which grew 28% and 14% respectively. As Wolfgang mentioned, we are experiencing increased demand in expansion in all of our markets, driven by the results of our sales and marketing initiatives, as well as global economic growth. Gross profit increased by 26% to $47.6 million and the higher sales driving gross margin up to 41.4%, this compares favourably to last year which realized 37.9% gross margin. Operating income increased 33% to $30.1 million or 26.2% operating margin, comparing with 22.5% operating margin in last year's first half. Like the quarter, our or improved profitability is benefiting from the leverage realized on our fixed cost with higher sales volume, as well as the results of our cost reduction activities. Now please turn to slide 11 for our first half year review of the electronic segment. Enovation Controls contributed $57.3 million of the segments $55.7 million first half 2017 sales. On a pro-forma basis, Enovation Controls realized 40% growth over the pre-acquisition 2016 first half. The segment generated 45.8% gross margin and 22.7% operating margin in the first half of 2017. As Wolfgang indicated, this sales growth and profitability is exceeding our initial expectations. We are very pleased with the team's attention and focus to attaining or achieving - exceeding their goals. Please turn to slide 12 for a review of our cash flows and capital structure. During the first half of 2017 we generated $21.7 million of cash from operating activities comparable at $21.9 million in the first half of 2016. Our significant growth requires some working capital usage, particularly accounts receivables and inventories offsetting an increase in cash flow from our earning. Recall that in the first quarter we used $16 [ph] million and started repaying the debt we incurred for the Enovation Controls acquisition. We didn't repay any more in the second quarter as we intend to use some of our cash for the first earn-out payment in accordance with the Enovation Controls acquisition agreement. During the fourth quarter we will be paying $16.7 million of contingent consideration, plus interest based on the exceptional performance and favourable outlook of the business through August 2017. This payment represents approximately one third of the current estimated liability with the next instalment due in July of 2018 and the final instalment due in April of 2019. Other than that and our dividend, our primary use for cash is for capital expenditures and acquisitions to support our strategic growth plan. We finished the quarter with $82.5 million of cash and short term investments and $124 million of debt or $41.5 million of net debt. Our net debt to net capitalization was down to 14%. At the end of 2014, we had $81 million in cash and short term investments and $140 million of debt or $59 million of net debt. That had net debt to net capitalization at 20%. Wolfgang, I'd like to turn it back to you for your perspective on outlook before we open the lines for Q&A.