Sotirios J. Vahaviolos
Analyst · Matt Duncan from Stephens Inc
Okay. Thank you, Phil. And now let me take the opportunity to brief you on some key developments and activities within each of our business segments. First, our Services segment. The Services segment captured a number of strategic projects in Oil & Gas, Chemical, Power Generation and even in the construction equipment vehicle market. These projects were sourced from both new and existing customers, as well as from our longstanding refinery evergreen customers. The scope of work includes advanced NDT inspection services, as well as engineering services, provided by our Asset Integrity Management Services, AIMS, organization. Our programmatic approach, which leverages all of our asset protection solutions offerings, and not just not -- not just NDT inspection, is proving to be very successful for improving Services gross profit margins. This focuses on using the right tools upfront to address the customers' issues and challenges and in return, solving the issues in a timely, cost-effective way. This approach has allowed us to penetrate energy companies at the corporate level and implement programs on a fleet-wide basis, benefiting both the customer and Mistras. Our midstream business continues to remain strong throughout North America, with the award of multiple new pipeline projects and the continuation of inspection services on existing large projects that had been previously awarded. In our Power Generation, we secured 5-year preferred supplier contract with a major contractor to provide traditional and advanced NDT services for its fossil and nuclear fleets that has the potential to yield in excess of $7 million per year in revenues. We also received a multimillion-dollar nuclear contract for a steam generator replacement project with a major electric Midwest utility company. For our Services segment, we see the fall turnaround season shaping up to be about average. Then, after that, we think the winter, early spring turnaround beginning in January would be very healthy and well above average and then, the spring turnarounds to be above average. According to a statement released last week by the research group Industrial Information Resources, IIR, maintenance spending in North America is expected to continue to increase for the next several years as refineries fulfill the terms of various consent decrees negotiated with environmental regulators, conduct inspections, detect and repair leaks and make new environmental requirements. Next, our Products & Systems segment. Although still impacted by guarded capital spending, there were some significant project awards in the recent win column. In the industrial automotive market, we were awarded an order for 5 advanced ultrasonic immersion systems for testing critical integrated safety components found in automotive vehicles worldwide. Another large ultrasonic immersion system was purchased by a major Aerospace sub-supplier for the testing of its manufactured advanced composite components to ensure quality and integrity. In Power Generation, the group received an order for a major south -- from a major Southeast-based utility for 3 of our very successful ACTMS systems to monitor for stator blade cracking on its combined-cycle gas turbines. And our Triple 5 boiler leak monitoring group received its first order from Australia that will help penetrate all the utilities in the country and the region. In Oil & Gas, the sale of our product portable leak detection systems increased due to the reinstatement of the government-issued emissions monitoring mandate, where it carries with a significant proposed activity for system requests in the Aerospace and military segment, as well as in the infrastructure for bridge monitoring, hoping that this is an early indication that funding may become available in the near future. And now let's discuss the International sector. The integration efforts of the entities we have acquired in Europe and Brazil in the past 16 months coupled with the additional focus on the organizational structural changes, have started to pay dividends. Gross profit has improved to 26.8% from 21.2% in the fourth quarter of fiscal year '13. EBITDA remained constant at 10% of revenues level, and due to acquisitions, it was 42% higher than the first quarter of fiscal '13. While 10% is below our goal for International, it is worth noting that the sales mix of services is improving in the acquisitions we have made. Our U.K. operations are now fully integrated into 1 legal entity, having 3 operational labs. As in the past, the United Kingdom continues to grow in both revenues and profitability, with an optimum mix of Services and Products & Systems. A key component to our organizational structure was the recent appointment of a group vice president for EMEA and Australasia business development. The strategy of fully integrating in Europe starts with common marketing and sales, as well as in the sharing of technicians throughout the region. Applying the successful North American services operations model to the multiple acquisitions made in France is helping to staff and execute on the new evergreens announced in our August earnings call. In addition, France and Germany are collaborating in the Aerospace industry, where they are improving overall profit margins and minimize un-billable labor. Our German operations also continued to align the destructive and nondestructive business to better address the market. With the growing aerospace industry driven by the new fleets of Airbus 350s and Boeing 787s and the extensive content of advanced composites in these crafts, using both technologies, the Mistras GMA subsidiary is well positioned for profitable growth. Our wind energy group has been increasing revenues with the collaboration of our advanced maintenance inspection, R&D and engineering teams from Germany, Holland and France, where the highest concentration of both existing and new wind turbine installations are based, as well as the wind turbine manufacturing companies and related OEMs. Our Brazil operation continuously improve and has expanded its cooperation with the United States Services organization. At the start of fiscal year, the U.S. Services division began sharing business operational processes in an effort to replicate its model of success. While the Oil & Gas industry remains important to Brazilian business, the mining and railroad metro inspection business are playing an increased role and have developed into key growth markets that are expected to continue to add attractive revenue and profit contribution to our Brazilian operations. Our subsidiaries in Russia and Japan also continue to improve with additional new business. Russia recently secured more orders for online asset condition monitoring and our PCMS inspection data management software and implementation services. We're also actively pursuing advanced NDT sales in Russia due to customers' requests that will assist in balancing out the ups and downs that are typical in capital equipment sales. In Japan, we were encouraged by the recent new government funding for materials R&D and infrastructure projects. In the first quarter, we received orders for materials research and online bridge-health monitoring systems. With this positive activity, we're optimistic that the international sector is on the road to improvement for fiscal year 2014. And now, for the outlook and guidance. The company is confirming its previously issued guidance for fiscal 2014 revenues to be in the range of $570 million to $600 million and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $74 million to $80 million. The company does not provide quarterly guidance but expects to update its annual guidance at least quarterly. In closing, we're encouraged by the level of new activity, both domestically and internationally, and our ability to attract and capture significant projects in multiple industries. We're very pleased with the positive results steaming -- stemming from the reengineering of our field operational management and the sales organization structural changes that we have implemented last year on a worldwide basis. In addition, the recent evergreen wins have set the foundation of our run-and-maintain work in Europe. As for acquisitions, we continue to pursue a number of strategic North American opportunities both for the short and the long run. Going forward, I remain very positive on the future of Mistras and our ability to execute and deliver our value-based asset protection solutions worldwide. That concludes my remarks, and I would like to open up the floor for questions, Sally.