Jayme Brooks
Analyst · Chip Moore with EF Hutton. Please proceed with your question
Thanks, Charlie. Our earnings press release and our Form 10-Q contain a detailed review of our financials. So I'll focus my discussion on some key areas. Total revenue for the quarter was $116.1 million, down $4.9 million over the prior year quarter. GCR revenue for the second quarter was $66.3 million, down from $87.6 million in the year ago period. The main driver of the change is our continued intentional rationalization of the GCR business to reduce risk and maximize profits. ODR revenue continues to accelerate and was up 48.7% to $49.8 million compared to the prior year. Growth in this segment was driven primarily by the increase in large owner-direct project work. Large project works, which we define as projects in excess of $50,000 grew the fastest in the quarter, up 85% from a year ago and 20% from the first quarter. We also experienced solid growth in maintenance revenues as well as T&M work. T&M work grew 17% sequentially and 35% on a year-over-year basis. For the second quarter, GCR gross margin was 13.1% and ODR gross margin was 25.4% for consolidated gross margin of 18.4%. This compared to 15.4% in Q2 of last year and 16% in Q1 of 2022. The GCR margin in the second quarter increased to 13.1% and from 10.1% in the second quarter of last year. This reflects our continued focus on project selection in addition to winding down of our operations in Southern California branch and our Eastern Pennsylvania GCR segment. The gross margin increased in the second quarter of 2022 also included a gross profit write-up of $1.3 million related to the settlement of a prior claim. The ODR gross margin for the quarter of 25.4% sequentially ticked back up to our expected range of 25% to 28% due to the business mix in the quarter and project pricing. As we said previously, over time, a substantial portion of the growth in ODR revenue will be driven by larger project work as opposed to smaller dollar, higher margin maintenance and T&M work. Although, we're experiencing solid growth in all lines of our OTR business, the dollars are weighted heavily towards large project work. We believe that over time, our profitability in this segment will increase as we mature our relationships with owners and achieve the optimal mix between our different business lines. Our SG&A expense for the quarter was $18.7 million, which is relatively flat compared to the first quarter and an increase from $17.2 million in the prior year quarter. Second quarter SG&A included SG&A costs for the newly acquired Jake Marshall entities, which was not in last year's SG&A numbers and non-recurring expenses related to branch closures and our ongoing efforts to reduce SG&A. Concerning the progress of winding down our business operations in Southern California and the GCR segment in Eastern Pennsylvania, we expect both to be substantially complete by the end of this year. The expense associated with winding down these operations and other non-recurring expenses associated with cost reduction initiatives have unfavorably impacted our Q2 2022 quarter-to-date and year-to-date income before income taxes by $1.5 million and $2.9 million, respectively. This compared to 2021, the Southern California operations in the Eastern Pennsylvania GCR segment unfavorably impacted the Q2 results quarter-to-date and year-to-date income before the income taxes by $1.9 million and $3.2 million, respectively. Regarding our expense reduction initiatives, we continue to make good progress. Like many employers, we have responded to the pandemic by implementing a more flexible work structure for our office-based employees. And that is allowing us to reduce our need for office space. Based on the square footage reductions we have been able to complete so far this year, we expect annualized savings going into 2023 of approximately $900,000 from this reduction of wealth. Turning to cash and the balance sheet. During the second quarter, we saw a sharp improvement in our cash from operating activities as reported on the statement of cash flows. Cash from operating activities year-to-date was $12.6 million, which included the improvement of cash provided by operating activities of $15.6 million during the second quarter. The second quarter improvement was due to a combination of factors as we continued our focus on working capital management. The operations of the business generated cash, and we experienced continued improvement in our cash collections and net underbilling positions. For the quarter, free cash flow generated from operating the business before working capital changes was $5.1 million. This is comprised of net income of $866,000 plus non-cash operating activities of $4.5 million, which consists primarily of depreciation and amortization, non-cash operating lease expense and stock-based compensation less $304,000 of CapEx. As we have suggested a reasonable way to view cash generated from operating the business is to start with net income, add back non-cash operating activities to subtract capital expenditures. Also keep in mind, we have the opportunity for cash coming from the claims recovery, which would be additive. Cash flow during the quarter included receipt of $2.1 million of proceeds from a previously recorded resolve claims. That was included in AR and the change in our net billing position generated $6 million of cash in the quarter. There were no specific or notable reasons for the underbilling improvement other than project life cycles and timing considerations. This strong performance enabled us to continue to reduce the principal amount of our term debt. We repaid $1.9 million through scheduled monthly amortization payments, $3.3 million as a result of the required 2021 excess cash flow sweep and $2.1 million upon the receipt of cash proceeds from a previously reported claim resolution. In total, we reduced the term loan balance by $7.3 million during the quarter. We ended the second quarter with cash of $19.6 million, which included $3.5 million borrowed on the revolver and a total debt position of $34.9 million, inclusive of the short-term portion. As a result, our net leverage ratio is below one times based on our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA of $27.7 million. Subsequent to the quarter, in July, we paid back $3.5 million on the revolver and we are required to make monthly amortization payments of $619,000 in the term debt, which would bring down term loan balance to $22 million by the end of the year before any other required claim resolution payment. By the end of the year, this would represent a $14 million reduction in our outstanding term loan balance in less than two years. As mentioned earlier, during the quarter, we settled one of our smaller claims, resulting in $1.3 million gross profit write-up. With this claim settlement, we expect to receive a cash inflow of approximately $6 million before year-end. We've noted for some time that outstanding claims represent potential significant cash coming into the business. So we're certainly happy to report some success on this front. We have resolved two claims during 2022. Beyond this claims, we still have over $40 million of gross claims value outstanding on several projects, which represents potentially additional cash coming into the company. Each of these claims are very active right now and in terms of going back and forth in negotiation. But we cannot provide a time frame on when they will resolve or when the cash will actually be received. To conclude, with the pay down of our debt, the claims settlement this quarter and our continued improvement in performance, we feel good about our balance sheet and our ability to fund potential acquisitions this year using the cash and additional debt. I'll now pass the call to Mike to discuss key operational highlights.