Jeff Potrzebowski
Analyst · LegendCap Funds. Your line is now open. Please go ahead
Thanks Jackie and good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call as we address our 2015 full-year and fourth-quarter financial results. Consistent with other calls before we begin the discussion, we'd like to remind you that the statements we make during today's conference call about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may vary materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including those discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The statements made on this call are made only as of the date of this call and the Company assumes no obligation to update those statements. In addition, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call which should be considered a supplement to and not a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. A reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures is included in the press release and conference call presentation. Now to the results. For fiscal year 2015, annual revenues amounted to $22.7 million and for the fourth-quarter revenue amounted to $5 million. These 2015 results represent decreases of 7.7% and 22.5% respectively compared to the comparable periods one-year ago. Overall, our service revenue was negatively impacted by fewer bioequivalence studies in fiscal ‘15 and by the increase in method development and validation projects, which tend to generate more lower revenue, but actually involve more dedicated resources. The decline in service revenue was partially offset by an increase in our preclinical services revenue in fiscal ‘15. The improvement in pre-clinical services was due in part to an increase in the number of studies compared to the prior year, as well as the benefit from the early termination of two projects that accelerated revenue into 2015. These terminations were addressed during our third-quarter conference call. Our performance on the product side was negatively impacted by lower sales of analytical instruments and consumables associated with our Culex and ECLC product lines. Gross profit in fiscal 2015 amounted to $7,489,000 or 33% of revenue and for the fourth quarter of fiscal ’15 gross profit amounted to $1,293,000 or 26% of revenue. These results compared to $7,962,000 or 32.4% of revenue and $1,821,000 or 28.4% of revenue respectively for the comparable periods in fiscal year 2014. The lower revenue performance was the primary driver of the decline in gross profit in 2015 versus a year ago. Despite the negative impact of the overall lower revenue on our gross profit performance in ‘15, gross margin in fiscal 2015 actually increased 60 basis points or approximately 0.6%. Operating expenses for fiscal 2015 decreased to $6.6 million compared to $7.6 million in fiscal 2014, which did include a goodwill impairment charge of $374,000, which did not repeat in fiscal ‘15. The decline in operating expenses resulted primarily from the favorable mediation settlement amounted to $605,000 net with one of BASi’s former service providers and this was recorded in the third quarter. In addition, roughly $350,000 in proceeds from the lease of a portion of our headquarters building to Cook Biotech also helped to lower operating expenses in fiscal 2015 compared to one-year ago. These benefits however were offset in part by the recognition of a reserve for a potential bad debt amounting to $505,000. Operating expenses for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 decreased to $2.1 million compared to $2.3 million in fourth quarter, which included a goodwill impairment mentioned earlier. In fiscal 2015 fourth quarter, proceeds from the building lease amounted to $159,000, but these proceeds and other cost reductions were more than offset by the recognition of the potential bad debt I mentioned earlier. And we did book that in the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2015, operating income amounted to $909,000 compared to $334,000 for fiscal year 2014 and again '14 included the impairment charge mentioned above. And the increase in operating income reflects the favorable mediation settlement in the lease proceeds mentioned earlier and these items more than offset for the full year the impact of lower revenue and the provision for the bad debt we booked in the fourth quarter. The operating loss from the fourth quarter of fiscal '15 amounted to $795,000 compared to an operating loss of $489,000 for the fourth quarter of fiscal '14. Lower revenue and the reserve for the potential bad debt were the primary drivers for the increase in the operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year after adjusting for the impairment charge a year ago. For fiscal 2015, BASi reported net income of $1.1 million or $0.07 per diluted share compared to a reported net loss of $1.1 million or $0.13 per diluted share for the same period one year ago, an improvement of $0.20 per diluted share. These results were impacted by the fair value adjustment of warrant liability which did increase net income by $487,000 in fiscal 2015 and decreased net income by $918,000 in fiscal 2014. For the quarter ended September 30, our net loss was $721,000 or $0.09 per diluted share. This compares to a net loss for the fourth quarter last year of $404,000 or $0.05 per diluted share. The decrease year-over-year was primarily due to lower revenue in the reserve for the potential bad debt highlighted earlier. Let’s turn to a brief segment breakdown. In fiscal '15, service revenue amounted $17.8 million for the year and $3.8 million for the fiscal '15 fourth quarter. These results represent decreases of 7% and 21.7%, respectively, compared to the comparable periods one year ago. And as I mentioned earlier, these revenues reflected the fewer bioequivalent studies in fiscal '15 versus the prior year as well as the increase in the method development and validation projects. And these two declines were offset in part by increases in the preclinical services revenue for the year. Product revenue amounted to $4.9 million in fiscal '15 and $1.1 million for the fiscal '15 fourth quarter. These amounts represent a 10.2% decrease and 36.3% decrease, respectively, compared to the comparable periods one year ago. Lower sales of the analytical instruments and consumables associated with Culex and EC product lines were the primary drivers. Let me give some balance sheet and cash flow highlights before we turn the call over for questions. As a reminder, we entered into a credit agreement with Huntington National Bank in May of fiscal 2014. The agreement include both the term loan and a revolving loan secured by mortgages on our facilities and personal property in West Lafayette and Evansville. The term loan matures in May of 2019 and the revolving loan of $2 million matures in May of ‘16. The balance on the revolving loan as of the end of the year September 30, 2015 was $86,000. Our improved liquidity position that Jackie mentioned not only helps to lower our borrowing cost, it enhances the company's ability to implement our reinvestment in growth initiatives. Net cash provided by operating activities was $2.031 million for fiscal 2015, up 20.6% from fiscal 2014. Cash provided by operating activities in ’15 did include the $605, 000 from the mediation and $350, 000 from the lease proceeds I've referenced earlier. During 2015, cash-on-hand and cash provided by operations funded capital expenditures for plant, machinery and equipment of approximately $1.5 million in addition to paying down our debt service. As of September 30, 2015, we had $438,000 in cash and cash equivalents in the balance sheet. In closing, I’d like to provide a brief comment relating to the reserve for a potential bad debt recorded this quarter. Our customers, particularly smaller biotech companies as in this particular case are especially reliant on the credit and capital markets. It became clear after the discussions with our client, they may not be able to obtain adequate access to additional credit or equity funding in a timely manner, which is affecting our ability to make payments to us and also impacting our ability to launch the Phase 2 clinical trials for the compound they are studying. We remain in close contact with our client to determine if additional funding will be forthcoming. Given the delays we have encountered thus far, it was prudent to reserve for the potential bad debt in the fourth quarter. The client is in discussions with investors to finalize a term sheet. There is no guarantee of success and we will be remaining in close contact with the client. That completes my summary on the financial highlights. I would like to turn the call back to the operator and we can open up the call for questions.