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Senstar Technologies Ltd. (SNT)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Sep 4, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Magal Second Quarter 2014 Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder this conference is being recorded. You should have all received by now the company’s press release. If you haven’t already received it, please contact Magal’s Investor Relations team at GK Investor and Public Relations, or view it in the news section of the company’s website, www.magal-s3.com. I’d now like to hand over the call to Mr. Kenny Green of GK Investor and Public Relations. Mr. Green, would you like to begin?

Kenny Green

Management

Thank you, operator. Welcome to everyone. And welcome to Magal’s second quarter 2014 conference call. I’d like to welcome all of you to this call and I would like to thank management for hosting this call. With us on the call today are Mr. Eitan Livneh, President and CEO, and Mr. Ilan Ovadia, CFO. As Eitan has lost his voice he will save his responses for the Q&A session, Ilan will summarize the key highlights followed by a review of Magal’s financial performance of the quarter. We will then open the call for the question and answer session where both Eitan and Ilan will be available to answer your questions. Before we start, I’d like to point out that this conference call may contain projections and other forward looking statements regarding future events or future performance of the company. These statements are only predictions and Magal cannot guarantee that they will in fact occur. Magal does not assume any obligation to update that information. Actual events and results may differ materially from those projected, including as a result of changing market trends, reduced demand, and the competitive nature of the security systems industry, as well as other risks identified in the documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And with that, I would now like to hand the call over to Ilan. Ilan, please go ahead.

Ilan Ovadia

Management

Thank you, Kenny. I’d like to welcome all of you and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased with the improvement in our revenues in the second quarter. We show strong growth, amounting to 33% over the last year and 30% over the prior quarter. I do note that this quarter is the first time that we are including the results of our newly acquired fiber optics US-based company which added approximately $1 million out of the $4 million in cash this quarter to the revenues. Another positive factor was our gross margin strength due to the product mix which favored higher margin product in the quarter. I note that our operating expenses were higher in the quarter, which was the main reason we were not able to attain true profitability in the second quarter. Excluding our continuous investment in CyberSeal, as well as the recent acquisition of an optical fiber sensor business, our ongoing core business would have shown operating profitability in the quarter. I do believe that based on our plans for the second half of the year, I expect revenues to continue to grow from these levels which should lead to an overall profitable second half of 2014. While we do expect to continue our organic growth in 2014 over 2013, we are also looking further leverage our strong cash position to grow our businesses through acquisitions. As I mentioned, at the beginning of the second quarter we purchased a small company in the US for about $4 million which is a leader in the field of fiber optic sensing and security. The acquisition added key advanced fiber optic sensing technology to our portfolio, opening for us a potential market growth about $40 million per year, relatively high growth rate. For Magal, the acquisition currently…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) The first question is from Fred Ehrman of Bmi Capital. Please go ahead.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Good afternoon, gentlemen. I have a couple of questions regarding RoboGuard. You are launching the product on September 29. When do you think it will be ready for commercial sale?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Hello everybody, Eitan speaking. I hope my voice will stay with me for the rest of the question-and-answer session. With regards to Fred’s question, we see already some interest from very important customers, both Israel, US and Canada. And the product will be ready for commercial installation and sales by the end of the year.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Are you able to demonstrate to your potential customers the kind of cost savings that this product will provide?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes, of course. When we speak with specific customers for a specific site, we analyze with the customer and we show them – as we actually mentioned yesterday in the PR that the return on investment is in the range of 12 to 18 months.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Okay. And it seems to me that the perimeter fence guard could revolutionize that whole segment of the industry. Would you agree with that?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes. Actually we invested into that looking towards change in the industry, but at the same time we still think that it has to do with the cost of manpower. As much as the manpower costs higher then this RoboGuard is attractive. But that works not all over the world.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

All right. Would you say that, I would say probably in the United States and Western Europe it would be more effective and let’s say Africa would be less effective. Is that correct?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes, at this stage, yes.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Okay. In the areas where it would be used, would it cannibalize any of your other sales of sensors that you now provide?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

No, basically the concept is that this has to work together with the sensors on the fence as a - they are there to replace the guards, not to replace our current sensors.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Okay. It replaces the manpower only, correct?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes. And gives some additional features and capabilities which are beyond the current sensors and beyond the guard’s capabilities because as we announced and as you can see in the short video attached in our site, we have in that also cameras, day and night, lasers, radar, and even the ability to talk and spray into the intruder some tear gas or any other thing.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Okay. Lastly, this is just a suggestion on your PR release today of your report for the second quarter. In the written part you show the second quarter results. And you do not give the six-month. But in your balance sheet and income statement you show the six months and not the – unless I’m missing something – and not the three-month results.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

That’s the way we do every quarter. We show the numbers and we refer to the quarters.

Ilan Ovadia

Management

No, no, the balance sheet is always to the date of the end of the quarter or the period.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Unless my page was cut off, I only show six months ended June 30. I don’t show the three-month comparison, unless my page was cut off.

Ilan Ovadia

Management

Regarding the balance sheet? Or regarding the P&L?

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

I’m talking about the P&L.

Ilan Ovadia

Management

P&L is supposed to be six months and three months. This is the way that we publish, maybe something went wrong, I don’t know, the way you printed it.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Okay. But in the written part you talk about the quarter and you don’t discuss the six month. Often companies show – give us three months and a six-month comparison.

Ilan Ovadia

Management

You’re right. This is the way that we are analyzing the quarter.

Fred Ehrman - Bmi Capital

Analyst

Okay. I’m just telling you that most companies give both. I think that would be helpful. Okay. Thank you very much. That’s all I have.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Okay. Thank you, Fred.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Sam Rebotsky of SER Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Sam Rebotsky - SER Asset Management

Analyst

Yes, good evening, good afternoon. Trusting things are going better in Israel now. And as far as the RoboGuard, is there a size of the market and is there any other product that’s competitive with RoboGuard?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

For the size of the market, it’s too early to say. As for competitors, there is no direct competitors. There is many robots running around for various applications, but such a robot that is directly dealing with the perimeter we don’t know about.

Sam Rebotsky - SER Asset Management

Analyst

Okay. And you speak of being profitable in the second half. Are you able to make a statement that you’re going to be profitable for the full year or is it premature to be able to do that?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

I’ll answer you in a different way. As I didn’t make the presentation during this call, I had a chance to listen to what Ilan says. In listening to what Ilan says, and I’m 100% of course behind every word, I feel that we are going in the right direction and we are going to improve our performance in the second half of this year and the years to come. But to answer directly to your question, it’s early to say.

Sam Rebotsky - SER Asset Management

Analyst

Okay. Okay. And is any particular area stronger for your future business? I know that what’s going on with Israel, are there additional security that you have to put in that will create additional business? Or are there any other areas that you’re backlogged? Is your backlog higher than it was the previous quarter that leads you to be profitable, expect to be profitable in the second half?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

For the Israeli business situation, as we are part of the vendors for the Ministry of Defense for borders, and if you follow there is a lot of activity in the Israeli boarders. We can expect some business to come. As for the backlog, our backlog at the end of the quarter is lower than the previous quarter and as we can say at this point we see some additional business coming before year-end, so we feel comfortable with that.

Sam Rebotsky - SER Asset Management

Analyst

Okay. Well, thank you. Good luck.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is from Mike Distler [ph]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes, good afternoon, gentlemen. As you know I always try to get to these conference calls. I raced home from oral surgery this morning, so I too may stumble over a word or two. One, congratulations on the increase in revenues. Two, these are just general questions, so they’re kind of soft balls for you guys. I assume from the press release yesterday that all of your current, well, certainly the future fencing you’d be putting in, but I assume all of these current sensors have the capability to be retrofitted with the new Monorail system above them to accommodate RoboGuard should an existing customer choose to add it. Is that a fair assumption?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes, of course. Our fences, our customer’s installations, but much more than that.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

No, I understand. I heard the previous call. Clearly the additional capabilities with the laser scanner and the two cameras with the infrared for a short and medium range is a terrific thing that a human being couldn’t sense, certainly not at night without vision goggles. And, of course, the communication to identify a potential intruder from an accidental passerby is terrific. I assume you’re either at the charge point between the two, I guess a charging station that exists between the two RoboGuards would have an embedded satellite modem within it or wireless embedded system, whether it’s in each unit or whether it’s at the charging station. I assume it’s something like that. I’m not asking for any details. So, you can just say yes or no to that general question.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

In general, we install this with communication systems.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Right. I saw that. Okay. I wasn’t looking for detail there, you know, industrial espionage information. Would it be fair to say that the new RoboGuard along with your existing perimeter system, along with your entire PSIM and the Fortis system together actually becomes the point of integration for presenting CyberSeal as a new total package for like the Kenyan, the Nairobi Airport, although that’s already a customer? Would it be fair to say that this actually almost – and pardon the pun – but seals the deal for CyberSeal because you’re presenting now a vision as well as security, as well as instant response over a short period of time, over a short length of field. I’m assuming that would be --

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Actually, you did the marketing pitch as good as we do. And we are approaching the same, or we are doing the same thing. Just to make it more coherent with the market situation, not many of our customers are at this point, even in the United States, are ready to pay in order to have this comprehensive solution.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Right. Which leads to my final area that I want to discuss and then I’ll let you go because I don’t want your voice to fail. Assuming we could get, we, Magal S3, could get the range of the RoboGuard unit up from the approximate one kilometer that we’re talking about in between charging stations, are there certain economies of scale that you could look at that you could foresee over a three to five year period whereby new advances in both battery technology, monorail technology, the use of magnets, I don’t know exactly what’s propelling the system now, so that we could through economies of scale and improved production capability handle large enough orders and capture enough business to someday foresee, for example, border patrol between say Israel and Egypt, which I know is always a contention? Or border patrol between US and Canada? In other words, I realize now it’s an unreachable, but is that something that in the three, to five, to ten-year period appears as it could be on the horizon if nothing better comes along?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Even today the robot can do more than one kilometer. The question is the response time to an alert and how fast can it reach a point? In order to be efficient and operationally useful, we built it – so we suggest it for one kilometer. But it can do more. As for the future, speaking about long lines, like borders and better technology and better production and reliability, it’s too early to say.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. I appreciate that. I thank you and I’m anxiously awaiting September 29 and the market response and an early Shanah Tovah to everyone in Israel and please be safe and I always appreciate your time. Thank you.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Thank you, too. Shanah Tovah.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) The next question is from Mark Miller [ph]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good afternoon, gentlemen. Could you explain the transaction agreement on July 30 of this year with Ki Corporation, or who is Ki Corporation? Thanks.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Ki Corporation is the major shareholder of our company for over 35 years. It’s an investor’s main office in London. The FIMI fund is an Israeli fund. The deal was signed in July. The closing is still in its way. It’s waiting for the approval by the antitrust commissioner in Israel. But other than that, that’s what I can tell.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

So these will be newly issued shares?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

No, no. They exchange shares and they buy KI shares and they will hold 40% of the company.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

All right. Good. And you said they’ve been with you for three decades or longer?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

That’s almost a rarity in US equity investing. Okay. And then one more, sir. Your [GlobalGuard] [ph] that is going to launch on September 29, is this a proprietary product that was developed by your own R&D? Or was this acquired through the acquisition channels?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

No, no. It’s our own R&D and it will be presented during the ASIS USA show by the end of this month, beginning of October in Atlanta.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Oh, what time, what date in Atlanta?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

I think the ASIS show is in the, starts on the 29th or 30th of this month, goes all the week.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

And what’s the name of the show?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

ASIS. A-S-I-S. It’s the 29th September to 2nd October.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

ASIS?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

ASIS.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

ASIS.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes, ASIS.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

A very big show in the US.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I could just go online and probably find that out. Okay. Well, thank you very much and I wish you all the best.

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Thank you, too. Bye.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Before I ask Mr. Livneh to go ahead with his closing statement, I would like to remind participants that the replay of this call will be available in three hours on Magal’s web site, www.magal-s3.com. Mr. Livneh, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Eitan Livneh

Analyst

Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you all for joining us. On behalf of the management of Magal I would like to thank you for continued interested and long-term support of our business. As you understand, I’m very excited with what we’re doing. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me or my IR team whose contact details are on the press release I do look forward to speaking with you and updating you again in the next quarter. And I will take this opportunity and wish you a Happy New Year, Happy Jewish New Year, as probably we will not talk before that. Thank you all and have a nice day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes the Magal Security Systems second quarter 2014 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.