Operator
Operator
Good day and welcome to KBR's Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Lynn Nazareth, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
KBR, Inc. (KBR)
Q2 2016 Earnings Call· Fri, Jul 29, 2016
$35.92
+1.79%
Same-Day
+0.43%
1 Week
+9.49%
1 Month
+5.78%
vs S&P
+5.37%
Operator
Operator
Good day and welcome to KBR's Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Lynn Nazareth, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Lynn Nazareth
Analyst
Thank you, David. Good morning and thank you for joining us for KBR's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. This morning you’ll hear from Stuart Bradie, President and Chief Executive Officer and Brian Ferraioli, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Stuart and Brian will discuss KBR's financial and operational results, provide an update on our progress against our strategic objectives and discuss our market outlook. Please refer to the accompanying presentation that is posted on our website in the investor section at kbr.com. After our prepared remarks, we will open the floor for questions. Today's call is also being webcast and the replay will be available on KBR's website for seven days at kbr.com. The press release announcing KBR's second quarter results and our second quarter Form 10-Q are available on KBR's website as well. Before turning the call over to Stuart, I would like to remind our audience that today's discussion may include forward-looking statements reflecting KBR's views about future events and their potential impact on performance. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could impact operations and financial results and cause our actual results to differ significantly from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in KBR's second quarter earnings press release; KBR's Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2016; and KBR's current reports on the Form 8-K. You can find all these documents on our website. Now, I'll turn the call over to Stuart. Stuart?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Thank you, Lynn and good morning. So starting at slide 3, looking after ourselves and the people who’re under us, as I’ve said before is the core value at KBR. The fundamental belief is that Zero Harm is achievable and I’m pleased to report that we continue our progress towards that goal. You can now see we’re performing very much at the top quartile performance and we’ll continue to endeavor to improve on that, so a great performance from the team in the safety area. So moving on to slide 4, so just in summary a solid earnings quarter for KBR, still in the levels for the same period in 2005, we expect that 2005 one time gain associated with the sale of the Building Group, so earnings holding up which is pleasing. We then had four or five risks and opportunities identified at the beginning of the year that outcomes have caused, essentially net each other off and I’ll talk about each in turn. But what it means overall, is the underlying operating earnings is thus at the $0.32 sort of area. So firstly, we signed an agreement with the U.S. Government on reimbursement of legal cost and I guess future potential legal cost or potential awards to plaintiffs if they appeal the recent judgment. And I think that’s associated with sodium dichromate, I think as importantly is directionally we’ve started stayed for some time and we believe that we will win these cases on the merits and that we have certain indemnities in place regardless. And I think directly that has borne out to be true in this particular case and we could probably go fees associated with defending those cases which have been going on for a number of years, so very, very good de-risking of the…
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
Thank you, Stuart and good morning. Turning to slide 5, you see the awards during the quarter of 331 million and you see the backlog about $11 million. The backlog reflects the work off of two of the large LNG projects in Australia, but it also includes a reduction of about $500 million for the quarter related to the devaluation of the UK British Pound against the U.S. dollar. This relates primarily to our Government Services business in UK, which has a 20 plus year contract with the Ministry of Defense. That contract is all denominated in Pound Sterling both the revenues and the cost. So the devaluation of the pound has no real economic impact to that business, but it does translate into lower U.S. dollars equivalent, in terms of the financial reporting, so 500 million reduction for the quarter and 600 million year-to-date just due to the currency fluctuation. Revenues are down from the prior year, but it reflects $187 million reduction due to the deconsolidation of our Industrial Services business, which is 119 of it and 68 million which relates to non-strategic businesses which we have sold over the past year. It also reflects the reduced activity on the non-strategic power plant as we had two power plants going last year and only one this year, as we are exiting that business, and also reflects the reduced activity on those LNG projects in Australia. There is a 20 million decline in gross profit and equity and earnings, and that reflects the reduced volume. But there are number of large discrete items this quarter that Stuart touched on initially. $39 million in cost related to complete the E&C project, the ammonia project which had the equipment failure, and $21 million increase in cost on the power project in…
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Good, thank you, Brian. So, as this position [ph] last time be a little bit upfront will probably be the key question in some people’s lips today and that’s really around the issue of backlog, the backlog question particularly as it relates to 2017. I guess, looking back at the wheel, the circle that Brian mentioned, the pro forma revenue percentage shows that we are moving close to sort of half the business sitting – is sitting between Technology and Consulting and Government Services, and that’s on a pro forma basis. We haven’t got the – when you start to think about the growth in those sectors and you start to look at the Wyle backlog, which again we will only show that the funded elements of the Wyle backlog and as we presented last time around there is a substantial multiples of that number in unfunded committed backlog. But again we’ll give more color on that next quarter. And then in the Army 2020 opportunities that Brian talked about earlier that will come to fruition later this year, and that should give pretty good visibility in recurring revenue streams, annuity type contracts going into 2017. So really I guess, the outlook, thinking about that as it’s a higher proportion of earnings driven by Government Services and Technology in 2017 and that really gives a good balance for us between hydrocarbons and Government Services and we start to see quite a bit of synergy particularly personnel movement between E&C and Government Services, which is good. 2020, we’ve talked about and the focus in hydrocarbons, we really talked there about Industrial Services and I guess driving field [ph] opportunities, expansion opportunities, debottlenecking opportunities. So we are seeing continued activity in the ethylene area and we are still seeing what I would…
Operator
Operator
Thank you. The question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. [Operator Instructions] And we’ll take our first question from John Rogers with D.A. Davidson.
John Rogers
Analyst
Hi, good morning.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
Good morning, John.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Good morning.
John Rogers
Analyst
Stuart, I appreciate the comments on 2017 particularly, but could you talk a little bit more about the – specifically the E&C project opportunities, not so much that they’d have an impact necessarily on earnings even in ’17, but – so what are the booking opportunities out there for KBR, I mean in the past you’ve talked around the global, what’s out there. Obviously, the market is in disarray and what’s your sense of what’s out there in the –
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Yeah, I think the way to answer that question John is to look at I guess the market in its totality. So if you look at say, the LNG market, it’s a good example. LNG market at the moment – people are struggling with off takes from a lot of distortion in that market. But what is clear and what is consistent from the analysis I’ve read in the market – outlooks I’ve read, is that there will be a – the supply demand curves cross again in ’21 – 2021 to 2022 and if you think of the gestation period to sort of design and build LNG projects, you know the four to five years in tenure is the minimum. So, when you start to walk that backwards, you can see that that market will start to – will need to start to pickup in 2017 to actually meet the demand cycles into the future. So I guess that’s as good an indication in that market as probably anyone can give it at this juncture. I think there will be selected opportunities in LNG more than you’ll see nudging forward and as we’ve talked before, we have crossed probably five or six of those today. And the reason we’re not being specific on either of those is it’s not absolutely certain that which ones will go and which ones will not go.
John Rogers
Analyst
Sure.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
And so I don’t really want to set ourselves up by saying something that we can’t stand behind. In terms of the – I guess the offshore oil and gas market there’s – again the supply demand curves would show that reservoirs deplete overtime and the level of investment going into, I guess offshore campaigns and the drilling and exploration side of the business has got to such a low level to start to be supply demand issues happening in certain areas of the world. And certainly for companies that – oil companies that have valued on their – basically what they’ve got and sort of I guess oil and gas backlog for want of a better description in their reserve base. And so you start to see certain projects move to almost competitive for them in their avenue portfolio. And all this happened is that over the last little while they’ve taken stock and they’ve prioritized what those are that reassess the market in terms of going out for retender because the market has reset itself on sort of vendor pricing et cetera and the aggressiveness of the competition. So you’ll start to see selected opportunities in the Gulf, you’ll start to see selected opportunities in the UK in particular. And so when you think of that necessarily the ones that are probably the most give the greatest return on investment because of the cost of development or cost of barrel, if you like it at the lowest levels in their project portfolio.
John Rogers
Analyst
Okay. And just one follow-up, the Army 2020 opportunities, did you say what the booking value or the prospects of that is?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
No, we’ve not disclosed that because it’s still of a highly confidential nature given to the customers, but it’s a sizable award.
John Rogers
Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
And those two elements of course is the construction element itself and then of course is the, I guess the long-term annuity, additional sort of facilities management peace of it that would be added as to what we do today.
John Rogers
Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Operator
And we’ll take our next question from Tahira Afzal with KeyBanc.
Tahira Afzal
Analyst · KeyBanc.
Hi, folks.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst · KeyBanc.
Hey, Tahira.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · KeyBanc.
Good morning.
Tahira Afzal
Analyst · KeyBanc.
Good morning. So Stuart, thank you for talking a bit about 2017, but I think you did a nifty job of not really talking about color – sort of clarifying some degree the big question out there. We do have maybe a gap as one of your LNG projects somewhat complete into next year. From what we have been reading, some OPEC project activity has been pushed out into 2017. So all the moving parts you mentioned and given what’s happening at this particular LNG project, is Wyle going to be enough to really offset the moving parts as you may execute well or is the fall off you talked about in the last quarter – it closes the gap a bit but not fully.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst · KeyBanc.
So I think that – let me address the LNG piece first. I mean, I think when I first joined KBR, everyone was worried we are going to fall off on earnings equipment on LNG because Gorgon was going to a conclusion, everyone’s aware of that and really what has happened through the pieces that our LNG earnings have caught up very well over the last couple of years. I mean, that was the stage for one of those projects in Australia as you rightly pointed out, is essentially complete for us. So – but the other one will continue well through 2017. So, the sort of levels of fall offs that you’re thinking about are not going to happen and at this time we got close to – right now, we’re going into our – we’ll start our planning cycle in the next month or so for next year. But when you start to put that in context, I think that the sort of cliff and the sort of concerns around that are understandable, but that’s not what’s going to happen in practice.
Tahira Afzal
Analyst · KeyBanc.
Got it, that’s very helpful Stuart. And Stuart, the ammonia project startup issue. Obviously, you had some legacy gains that helps the EBITDA for the guidance for this year, but kind of reentering [ph] these project are more representative of the execution terms et cetera going forward in this macro environment, should we be concerned that we could see such hiccups again or you have been through your portfolio and your execution teams and you feel very comfortable.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst · KeyBanc.
I think the latter. I mean, certainly the terms and conditions that are associated with this particular ammonia project were signed up to well before the troubles in the hydrocarbons sector. But I think to give you maybe a little bit more comfort, we sat down a year ago and looked at what our performance and guidance [ph] should be in 2016, and we knew the risk associated with the projects because we’ve been through that, there was products in some detail and we knew the potential sort of risk, but also the opportunities associated across the other projects et cetera. And we ran a – we ran a balance across that such that we got the guidance we can stand behind. So, you are always going to get puts and takes, it’s incumbent on us to make sure that whatever guidance we give isn’t the best outcome in every possible scenario because that’s just unrealistic.
Tahira Afzal
Analyst · KeyBanc.
Got it, thank you folks.
Operator
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Next we’ll go to Jamie Cook with Credit Suisse.
Jamie Cook
Analyst
Hi, good morning. A clarification, I guess two clarifications and then my real question. Brian, when you talk about with Wyle, obviously it’s nice contribution and start to your portfolio, the $2 billion in revenues on a combined basis is the low-teens margins the right way to think about it still, as we look just combining the two?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
Probably, yes, is the question, we got to go through the planning cycle to math that out, but as the –
Jamie Cook
Analyst
But it shouldn’t be too far, if it’s 9%, 12%, I mean high single digit to low-teens, there’s no way of freezing, I think it’s not somewhere in that range.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
Correct, correct. And the only hesitation is really when – depending upon where entities or business or future projects get accounted for, whether they are in the revenue line or they come through in the equity and earnings line. As you know we have quite a mix there [indiscernible].
Jamie Cook
Analyst
Okay.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
So they should not change dramatically.
Jamie Cook
Analyst
And then I think the most interesting thing – when you’re in your – your slide 12, when you talk about outlook for 2017 you say, there should be a greater balance between hydrocarbons and Government Service. When you’re talking hydrocarbons, you are just talking E&C not Technology and Consulting as well or they both?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
I think, I mean of course as you increase the earnings in Government Services it will be approximately across 4 [ph]. But I guess that the point we were trying to making in the slide, Jamie the one that I actually said. Our technology business continues to grow, we see continued pipeline opportunities, pipeline of opportunities there, it’s a good business margin wise and – but the way that the backlog works for that is it’s more of a creditive type of work. So, you don’t see the big bump in backlog, but it’s a recurring business, so not truly the thinking there in the way that we’ve shown it so there, the pro forma shows we are at 43% across those two.
Jamie Cook
Analyst
But I guess the point that’s interesting that I’m trying to make and I think the positive for KBR as we think to 2017, if you have a $2 billion business that let’s say, it’s even 9% margin that’s 180 million in profit. And if – like you are applying to hydrocarbons, should theoretically be that big, is that the wrong way to look at it based on what you’re saying the balance between – do you mean the balance between the two should be more equal. I mean, I’m just trying to figure out what you’re trying to say because that would imply, when I think about your profit for 2017 back to the point that Tahira was sort of asking, like it doesn’t imply – I mean, it implies at least sort of be flat assuming more on including government services, I’m just trying to think about if I’m way off base.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
No, I guess, go on Brian.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
As I said Jamie, I think what we’re trying to say here is, we’re trying to move to more of a balance between the two rather than guide you to a specific number. And I would also point out on the E&C that number will move around obviously in terms of percentage if we would book any of these negative projects like another LNG or ethylene cracker or something like that. So the intent is really to say it should be much more balanced and not huge to the E&C like it has been more recently.
Jamie Cook
Analyst
I know I was just trying to say government is that big in terms of profit and hydrocarbon and T&C can hold, I mean again I think that would be better than what the market is expecting. I guess my last question Brian, you talk about greater focus sort of an M&A, can you install – because I think people were constructive on the Wyle acquisition and how you are thinking about balancing the portfolio. Can you sort of talk about your comfort level with leverage as you move to a more O&F type business model and just sort of the opportunities out there for 2017 and I’ll get back in queue.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
I mean…
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
I was going to say, I’ll start out Jamie on the leverage side. Clearly, these businesses are lower risks that were focused on Technology, reimbursable Government Services and reimbursable maintenance turnaround, Industrial Services type businesses. So, they lend themselves to being able to support debt maybe a little bit better than some of the traditional E&C type activities. It really depends on the specifics, it really depends on the cash flow, it really depends on the risk profile and Wyle for example, with 97% reimbursable contract was owned by a private equity before us. So they are accustomed to operating in a levered environment. So I would think that we are – we do have a bit more appetite for a leverage with those type targets than maybe I would traditional EPC type projects or activities.
Jamie Cook
Analyst
Okay. Thank you. I’ll get back in queue.
Operator
Operator
And we’ll take our next question from Robert Norfleet with Olympic Global Advisors.
Robert Norfleet
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
Good morning and congrats on a nice quarter.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
Thanks, Rob.
Robert Norfleet
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
A quick question, I just wanted to kind of – I guess my first question revolves a little around the backlog. Brian, I understand obviously the devaluation clearly hit backlog this quarter, but if we look at where we ended backlog around $11 billion and I assume devaluation is not going to the current second half of the year. Based on the opportunities of E&C in front of you in Q3 and Q4, do you think this is kind of a trough for backlog or maybe let me put it this way, do you think that we should end the backlog at a higher level than where it is today?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
I’m not sure. We haven’t given backlog guidance, so I really can’t answer that question specifically. But I just pointed to the Army 2020 that’s a pretty substantial booking. Although we haven’t given a dollar amount, we have said in the past that it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. So that clearly would be an important aspect to book that, and then anything else on the hydrocarbon side would be great. So I am not going to be too specific on the guidance, but we have some good opportunities in the second half of the year to at least match the revenues going forward.
Robert Norfleet
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
Okay, and just trying to get back to the question people have been asking on LNG, again I know you guys don’t breakdown the contribution of LNG related work in the hydrocarbons and the E&C business, but obviously a number of us have tried to kind of model out what the contribution is from the various contracts. So I guess my question is, with the one remaining Australian LNG contract that will be contributing to operating income in 2017, would the level of contribution in 2017 from that one contract be similar to what we are seeing in ’16 or is there going to be a significant decline?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
Well, I guess one of the things that we think we hear routinely is that people seem to expect earnings to fall off a cliff and the way any project operates – it doesn’t work that way. You think about kind of a balance sheet curve, you hit the peak and then you are gradually declining. So there is no immediate drop-off, as Stuart mentioned earlier, Gorgon is more than complete, they already shipped some LNG from the first train. That’s been trending down for a couple of years. This will be a similar model. So there is no dramatic falloff, it’s more of a glide rather than a significant step-down.
Robert Norfleet
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
Okay great. And lastly, can you just give us an update on the BCP partnership? I know you guys have talked about leveraging that into adjacent markets as well as being able to expand the relationship. Can you kind of just give us an update on where you are with that?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
Yeah, I mean it’s focused in the Americas, which includes Canada and certain companies in Latin America. I mean, it’s a 50-50 joint venture. It’s grown its base business in terms of building out more contracts and hiring more people across what it does particularly in Gulf Coast and around Louisiana. We have added engineering capabilities to that through inquisitive process with a company called WINK Engineering, again based in Baton Rouge, and we’ve also added I guess, additional capabilities in the scaffolding area, so that we are becoming a sort of I guess a one – sort of a one stop shop to be able to provide that sort of construction, sort of small construction maintenance turnaround services across the growing number of facilities in –particularly around the Gulf Coast. And so we see that business growing, we see the customer base growing, which is that [indiscernible] those customer’s response outside of the Gulf Coast across the U.S. we have a solid deployment facilities for example across all of the U.S. and the Americas for that matter. So we see that as an attractive business, it’s a recurring revenue base typically long-term contracts and now we continue to look for opportunities to expand that with BCP.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
And I’ll add that that’s likely to help us in 2017 as well as that business continues to ramp up.
Robert Norfleet
Analyst · Olympic Global Advisors.
Great, thank you so much guys.
Operator
Operator
And next we will go to Steven Fisher with UBS.
Steven Fisher
Analyst
Thanks good morning.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Good morning.
Steven Fisher
Analyst
Good morning. In terms of the technology segment, it sounds like the mixed headwinds that you have there on the margins will last for a few quarters. What kind of visibility do you have as to what happens after those few quarters. When could that technology shift back to a more profitable mix and do you have any visibility as to what might cause that shift back?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
I think Steven; we have been quite consistent in our sort of guidance around technology in the sort of low 20s, we still stand by that. And it just becomes phasing in terms of whether it’s proprietary equipment or licensing fees that are coming through beyond and so it’s a cycle we still think we are tying those with 20 margins are consistent. I don’t think it’s an up or down type question.
Steven Fisher
Analyst
But you have the visibility like you have the list of projects that you know or assignments that are going to come in after those next few quarters that will shift it back or should we get to that point and it just kind of lingers on to the mix [ph]?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
No, no, I mean again it depends on the cycle of that, so the way that our business works in terms of technologies to sign up the license fee and the basic engineering which is I guess higher returns and as the project comes into execution you provide the proprietary equipment. So again it’s a timing across the fees in terms of visibility across that pipeline, yes of course we do, we got that product quite a ways into the future.
Steven Fisher
Analyst
Okay and then I think Stuart you mentioned you are shifting people from E&C to Government Services, just curious on your cost management in this environment. How aggressively are you actually taking it out as people come off E&C projects that are getting finished? How are you making the decisions as to whether you keep them on in hopes of projects moving forward versus making more quick decisions to manage cost? And I guess related to that, is there upside to the 200 million of cost savings here?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
No, I mean going backwards, I think yes. I mean we continue to look for more opportunity beyond the 200 million, in terms of the people we are highly considered about capability drain, but at the same time I think the cost that we have taken out of the business, we have been very clear, it’s a net cost, it’s not a gross cost. So it actually stands [ph] for people that are not chargeable to project, we want to hold them in the business. So we have taken out more than 200 million in cost. We are trying very hard to move people across because the key skills we want to retain in KBR, I guess as again perhaps others of our peer groups, who don’t have that opportunity to retain staff to other businesses that are growing, it’s a good opportunity for KBR.
Steven Fisher
Analyst
Can you give a more sense of how much of that 200 plus will fall from the bottom-line?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
I mean I don’t think we have given any guidance at all as to how much will drop to the bottom line because this continuing margin pressure that comes along with taking the cost of is – as you are well aware.
Steven Fisher
Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Operator
Next we will go to Andrew Kaplowitz with Citi.
Andrew Kaplowitz
Analyst
Good morning guys.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Hi, Andy.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
Good morning.
Andrew Kaplowitz
Analyst
Stuart and Brian, you added $0.05 to $0.08 from Wyle this year, you beat our EPS estimate by about $0.06, you didn’t change your ’16 EPS guidance, is it just relatively weak oil and gas markets and you have a pretty wide range of it and so you want to stay pretty conservative. Isn’t it really more likely that you do the high end of your range at this point, given you have done almost $0.70 in the first half of the year, and now you are adding on Wyle on top of that?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
We gave the range and we are going to stick to that without trying to hone in on one end or the other. There is still a fair way to go and $0.05 to $0.08 just to me doesn’t change significantly the guidance we had given from the beginning of the year with the range that we have, so we are still well within that range and we will see where we come out. I don’t want to be too optimistic in terms of the earnings, but we are pretty confident we will come in within that $1.20 to $1.45.
Andrew Kaplowitz
Analyst
Okay, that’s fair guys. Maybe I could ask you more specifically about Wyle now that it’s disclosed, can you talk a little bit more about the organic growth potential of the company. I mean you guys have been talking a lot about the 250 million of revenue synergies, but what’s the underlying growth of Wyle coming in and how quickly can you get some of the synergies that you talked about.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
I think we have identified a number of sort of quick win synergies, where Wyle can be – it’s usually added us to our sort of competitive position on ongoing tenders that are firmly in the pipeline and happening today and vice versa. So I think there are some low hanging fruit there is quickly added from a revenue perspective across the piece. We are also – the level of enthusiasm from our government businesses and in UK and particularly Australia, which does a lot of similar work to Wyle, where we can actually start to – start capability into businesses outside the U.S. is – it’s quite an exciting proposition and one that we are working hard because in many government areas outside the U.S. we operate in a different way and we think the model with the U.S. employees were taking sort of from cradle to grave approach in some of our platform makes perfect sense. So it give us – it give us the model is proven we can take to each other areas across the world.
Andrew Kaplowitz
Analyst
Stuart, is it right to think of it, low single digit grower, mid-single digit grower like how should we just inherently think about it?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Yeah, I mean I think when you model like you shouldn’t look at Wyle – KBR, Wyle in isolation, I think you should look at the global services market and its entirety, I mean you are seeing the growth come through our government – our existing government business and you can see how that has come from last year to this year and it continues to grow quarter-on-quarter, when you lay Wyle on top of that and think about synergy opportunities you can quickly I guess think about that revolving out sort of give specific numbers on it. I think you guys can put that out, but it’s an excitement feature for the combination of those businesses in the markets they are in today.
Andrew Kaplowitz
Analyst
Okay. And you haven’t seen any interruption from the Brexit type announcement; you haven’t seen anything going on with the model right?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
No, not at all, in fact a lot of the sort of the civil service people are [indiscernible] I guess Defense Secretary is still the same et cetera. So we are not see any change from Brexit I think in that area and I guess the only effective part is that was the backlog question we had earlier in terms of the volume in the backlog and it translates into U.S. dollars, that’s it.
Andrew Kaplowitz
Analyst
Great, guys. Thanks.
Operator
Operator
And next we’ll go to Chad Dillard with Deutsche Bank.
Chad Dillard
Analyst
Hi, good morning.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Hi, Chad.
Chad Dillard
Analyst
So just a follow up on Andy’s question, so the Wyle earnings contribution 2017 over $0.15 to $0.22, can you talk about what it would take to get to that high end of that range. Do you currently have the prospects in pipeline and maybe you can just talk a little bit about whether you are seeing it more from the domestic side or more from the international side.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Yeah. I think actually more from the domestic side just because that it’s brand and its sort of customer basis there. I think we get a range is that there is a number of thing around [indiscernible] contract mechanism to another, and so it really relates to the timing and I think the opportunity that affords Wyle at the moment is to press on and not get distracted and make sure it develops these in a timing fashion and that will push numbers up to the higher end of that range.
Chad Dillard
Analyst
Okay. And so you won several re-completes on the government sides in the quarter, can you just comment on whether you’re seeing in any change the contract terms. People focus more or so on pricing versus your initial debt. And then secondly, can you just give a little more color on the cost of crystal ammonia plant one of the project end and what percentage if it’s a complete and is the project still possible?
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
Yeah, I mean the project is – I will answer the second one first, if you don’t mind, the ammonia project is at the final close of commissioning and performance testing. Their expectation is that that will be – the project will be finished early in Q3. So that’s very near the end I guess that’s the answer to the question. And then I guess in terms of the other piece of the question Brian is probably better placed to answer that.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
It is not a profitable job now.
Operator
Operator
Okay. And we’ll go to our next question from Jerry Revich with Goldman Sachs.
Jerry Revich
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
Hi, good morning, everyone.
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
Good morning.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
Good morning.
Jerry Revich
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
Brian, I know you’re looking at wider different M&A possibilities, just can you touch on in terms of the opportunities that are at the top of your pipeline, if you will, how we should be thinking about evaluations compared to what we just saw in the Wyle acquisition and in terms of the synergies that you folks are targeting as your value and these opportunities that would imagine it’s different by transaction, but can you just talk about from high level standpoint, revenue synergies, cost opportunities just frame that out for us, if you could base on what’s at the top of your focus last year?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
Well, we really can’t comment more than we have about opportunities on M&A and so we actually have a transaction, what we can say is you need to have multiple opportunities, multiple targets for you to get one over the goal line into the ends on. So we are looking at opportunities across a number of those target areas that we would say very focus in the technology and technology does it have to be an acquisition, it can be partnership, an alliance agreement and licensing of technologies, so the multiple angles to attack technology on the high end Government Services and the turnaround maintenance et cetera. We have a number of opportunities that we’re considering, but as you know Jerry, until you get one closed you can’t predict what it’s going to be and then obviously each one of the mask its own characteristics. We really like much more of the revenue, the strategic opportunities rather than doing an acquisition focused primarily on cost reduction.
Jerry Revich
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
Okay, thank you. And then can you comment – so now that you are month end on Wyle. So can you talk about the systems integration is going and how do you overall integration plan is playing out versus what you initially planned out and talk about any variances versus expectations?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
I think pretty much to plan. As we said, there is not a lot of overlap and that as one of the big attractions for us in this acquisition. So it makes the integration that much easier and so far, so good and very much according to plan, no surprises.
Jerry Revich
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
And so just the clarification on the ERP systems, can you talk about transitioning on over to your ERP systems there, what your plan is there?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
We are still looking at that, that’s more of a longer term project. As a matter of fact one of the things we’re looking about, does it make sense for us to transition our Government Services activity into their platform. So as we said, they were a standalone company with their own system, so that’s not an immediate decision that needs to be taken, but it is something we are looking at going frankly the other way, since they have more customized systems for government activity. So that is an opportunity for us maybe to move our historic government activities to their platform.
Operator
Operator
And next we’ll go to Anna Kaminskaya with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Anna Kaminskaya
Analyst
Good morning guys. I think my first question will be around the free cash flow. I think can you update us if you still think you would be more or less free cash flow breakeven for 2016 and what would it take for you to retain that maybe to more normalize 100% conversion?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
Well Anna, we said at the end of the first quarter that we would be relatively flat for the balance of the year. So down a bit for the year versus the first quarter with a negative and that holds pretty much true as of today. Obviously, excluding the acquisition, the use of $200 million for Wyle and then also will exclude if we were able to close on any additional acquisition between now and yearend.
Anna Kaminskaya
Analyst
But more looking to 2017, 2018, what should be thinking about your free cash flow conversion profile?
Brian Ferraioli
Analyst
It should be better, it should be better. We get these – the power project behind us and the ammonia project will be behind us. So clearly cash flow should improve.
Operator
Operator
That concludes today’s question and answer session. I’ll now turn the call back over to Stuart for any additional comments or closing remarks.
Stuart Bradie
Analyst
No. Thank you very much for taking the time to listening, we appreciate. And yeah, I’m sure there will be lots of follow up calls, as I say a solid quarter from an earnings perspective and hopefully we have given you more color into 2017 earnings. So thank you again and I look forward to talking to some of you individually during the course of the next day or weeks ahead. Thank you very much.
Operator
Operator
And that does conclude today’s conference. And we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.