Jeff Bird
Analyst · Marc Bianchi with Cowen
Thank you, Blake. Good morning, everyone. Our financial results for the fourth quarter showed some significant improvements. Revenue for the fourth quarter increased by $4 million quarter-over-quarter to $97.3 million. This exceeded the high end of our guidance range of $80 million to $90 million, primarily due to increased product sales in Asia Pacific. For full year 2018, our revenues were $384.6 million and while we had a decrease in activity versus 2017, of about 15%, we are encouraged by the growth we saw in the fourth quarter and we’re cautiously optimistic that it will carry into 2019. On a segment basis, our Western Hemisphere revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018 decreased from the prior quarter by $1 million or 2%, primarily driven by low activity levels in Brazil, offset by increased project activity in North America, driven primarily by higher Subsea Wellhead controls and pipe activity. Our Eastern Hemisphere revenue increased by $1.1 million, or 4% in the fourth quarter compared to the prior quarter due to increased Subsea Wellhead and pipe activity in Ghana and Norway. Asia Pacific revenue increased sequentially by $4 million or 47% due to increased Subsea Wellhead and connector sales in Malaysia, Indonesia and Qatar offset by lower aftermarket activity. Looking ahead to 2019, we are currently forecasting all quarters in 2019 to have steady revenue in the range of $90 million to $100 million, which is subject to change if we have any major project wins or start to see an uptick in activity. Cost of sales for the fourth quarter was $68.7 million, an increase of $3 million compared to the prior quarter and in line with the increase in revenue. For the full year of 2018, cost of sales was $271.5 million, a reduction of $33.9 million or 11% compared to full year 2017. Gross operating margin for the fourth quarter and full year 2018 was 29%. While this was down slightly from 2017 levels of 33%, we believe that several of our cost initiatives in 2019 should help us boost margins moving forward. These cost initiatives are focused on supplier optimization, realignment of footprint, including looking for strategic options for our forge operations, which cost anywhere from $6 million to $8 million to operate annually. In addition to this, the footprint realignment will result in reduction of approximately 30% of our overall facility square footage. An area where we were able to experience some quick-hit cost savings initiatives was in SG&A expenses. For the fourth quarter, SG&A was $25 million, a reduction of $6.5 million compared to third quarter, primarily due to execution of the first phase of Dril-Quip’s transformation project. For the full year 2018, SG&A expenses decreased by approximately $12.3 million or 11% to $104 million from $116.3 million in 2017. We had additional initiatives planned for 2019 to rationalize our expenses and bring our organization in line with anticipated future needs. I would like to note that since the downturn, in addition, to pay freezes, we also executed up to a 10% salary reduction in most regions. In 2019, considering the competitive nature of our business, we will return a portion of the salary reductions and will institute modest salary increases. As Blake discussed, all of the cost initiatives we are implementing will help us expand our ability to generate adjusted EBITDA. We began to see immediate impacts with our fourth quarter 2018 adjusted EBITDA increasing to $7 million from $800,000 in the third quarter. We’ve implemented over 70 quick win initiatives in the second half of 2018 that generated the $16 million in annualized savings, which include annualized reductions of $11 million in labor costs and $5 million in supplier renegotiations. In addition, as we move into 2019, we will likely see a further reduction in headcount of about 15%. We believe that in 2019, we will have realized multiple transformation cost savings initiatives, which should total approximately $30 million in adjusted EBITDA generation. If you look at the presentation we have posted to the website, you’ll see on Slide 16, we break out by workstream and by quarter, the expected impacts. When you look at Q4 2019, we expect to achieve quarterly savings of approximately $12 million, which if you annualize it makes our yearly goal of nearly $50 million. Our goal is to implement the lowest cost methodology that maximizes margins without hampering deliverability. As we look to 2020 and beyond, we believe there are additional potential savings, primarily by focusing on integrated supply chain and procurement projects. We’re looking at all aspects of our businesses, which include strategic alternatives to maximize the value of our assets. This includes our forge operations, where we are considering all strategic alternatives. Looking at net income for the fourth quarter of 2018, we reported a net loss of $74.9 million or $2.90 loss per diluted share. During the quarter, we recorded non-cash long-lived asset, inventory and goodwill impairment charges of $85.5 million as a result of our updated assessment of current market conditions. On Slide 27, we show a breakout of these charges by region. We also reported restructuring charges that were primarily cash costs totaling $8.7 million comprise of severance and implementation expenses associated with our cost savings initiatives. Adjusted net loss for the fourth quarter was $1.5 million or $0.04 loss per diluted share after adjusting for the charges and other items that totaled $94.2 million or $2.07 per share. As shown on Slide 25, in the fourth quarter of 2018, our CapEx totaled about $6.5 million and for the full year was $32.1 million. We estimated our normal annual maintenance CapEx to run between $15 million and $20 million. For 2019, we expect that to be towards the high end of the maintenance CapEx range. On the other hand, we are beginning to see cash freeing up from the sale of our facilities as part of our footprint rationalization plan. If we were to experience a surge in activity, we could see an increase in CapEx to meet that demand. Free cash flow for the fourth quarter of 2018 was $6500,000 which has more than doubled the $3.1 million generated in the third quarter of 2018. As Blake noted, free cash flow is a key priority of ours and we remain focused on generating positive cash, which we have done for the past six years in a row and expect to continue generating positive free cash again this year. At year-end, we had cash on hand of $418.1 million and $52.2 million available on our ABL facility resulting over $470 million on available liquidity. We remain committed to investing for the long-term, which are in cash to shareholders and pursuing complementary acquisitions. We’re excited about the future and believe we are positioning Dril-Quip to be successful well into the future. With that said, I will turn the call back to Blake.