Dror Sharon
Analyst · Todd Schefflin, Private Investor. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Brett. I would like to welcome you all to our call, and thank you for joining us today. I hope that everyone’s families and friends are safe and healthy. For the first quarter of 2020, we reported revenue of $17.4 million by reducing operating expenses by 9% to deliver operating income of $237,000. Year-over-year, we improved net income by almost $1 million to $439,000, primarily due to currency valuation changes in the quarter, and reduced EBITDA of $723,000 for an EBITDA margin of 4.1%. We delivered another quarter of positive cash flow with $4.7 million in cash from operations. I am pleased with my team’s efforts to support our customers’ closing business and manage our cost structure. The first quarter is typically seasonally weaker quarter due to limited outdoor access in Europe and North America and Asia. This year’s first quarter compare also – it was also with – impacted by several million dollars of revenue from the Latin America project completed in the first quarter of 2019. During the quarter, we implemented several key initiatives focusing on the safety of our stakeholders while also providing our businesses continuity and opportunity. These measures, allows us to remain profitable for the quarter. In recent years, we have improved the operational performance of the business, increased cash generation and increased EBITDA margin key indicators of our business performance that drive shareholders value. We have made several organization changes, including creating two business divisions to improve the business structure and facilitate growth from new verticals and geographies. Our strategy has improved margin and profitability. Higher gross margin is primarily related to the increase in Senstar’s gross profit, driven among other factors by Symphony, our video management solutions software and our enhancement to this robust flexible platform that has increased its appeal to customers. Lastly, we made new additions to the sales team and other investments for our future goals. One of our midterm goals is maintaining operating expenses growth below revenue growth, which will improve profitability as we grow. Our goal for the remainder of 2020 is to manage our cost and to maintain annual profitability while positioning the company for recovering goal. Magal is in a solid financial standing and our leadership team has great confidence in our ability to deliver on our long-term strategy to grow revenue and improve profitability. As I mentioned earlier, the COVID-19 crisis began impacting our operations in late January in APAC and early March in other regions. As a result, the impact on our first quarter was limited. Nevertheless, the company’s leadership put considerable focus on rapidly responding to navigate the crisis effectiveness. We anticipated the large impact in the second quarter and potentially in the second half of 2020. The actions taken given us flexibility to manage operation, operating expenses and the preserve profitability for the remainder of the year. Our strategy of revenue stream diversification on vertical and territories has been effective in reducing the rates related to COVID-19 and its impact on our global business. Due to the impact of the pandemic, we are experiencing some delays in closing new large deals and in the execution of some projects due to restrictions related to health and safety measures. While diversification has reduced overall risk associated with the crisis, its geography that we are present in has had a different crisis response from their government. The variation from country to country has a wide-ranging impact on the economy in general and on our relevant verticals. While verticals in some countries have suffered a significant slowdown or work stoppage, in other geographies where their business environment is less impacted, we have been able to continue operating. That said, we are watching these areas carefully as we have relatively low visibility for the next few quarters. Previously, we announced that we would focus on four verticals, the oil and gas, corrections, logistics and critical infrastructure. During the first quarter, the oil and gas sector, a focused vertical that we have successfully developed, was affected by the dramatic decline in oil prices and reduced demand related to COVID-19, causing delays in large projects. We remain engaged with those customers and continue to see some purchase orders. Promotional and other market segments where we have experienced substantial growth recently, was impacted mainly in Canada by facility closure. Logistics, particularly in EMEA, in Europe, has grown nicely. But currently, our project is on hold. The customer is focused on meeting the demand on their business with a significant increase in package delivery. Critical Infrastructure continues to operate in many territories and our activities in this sector vary from region to region. Looking at our territories, starting in North America, we saw a nice growth in our product operation in this region during the quarter. Product deliveries in the U.S. have mostly continued security or critical therapies considered as an essential service. The vertical is also impacted in the Canadian territory is our correctional facilities and oil and gas. We have backlog of orders, which we will fulfill if the restrictions in the country are lifted. EMEA has seen diverse impact. With many areas establishing strict public health restrictions in March, in Israel, the impact of the crisis is minimal since the Ministry of Defense is a major customer and has continued their essential operation. Africa is pretty much in lockdown with many places unable to receive and process project equipment. That said, we had some recent wins in this region. The Magal Integrated Solutions division rendered a new seaport security system design and installation in Djibouti, a new territory that we are excited to open since seaport are essential service. Spain is among the countries where we have not seen impact yet. APAC went into lockdown in late January. However, a nice level of backlog that we generated in the previous quarter helped us to support these sales in the region during Q1. Latin America is another region where COVID-19 restrictions impact our project business. One example is our project with a Mexican bank, which is on hold since we are not allowed access to the site. This project is expected to come back online once access restrictions are lifted. On the product front, we are continuously improving the Symphony platform with new access control features. Our R&D spend is delivering competitive advantages to help us win new businesses. Using electronic access control software code that we acquired in late 2019, our R&D team is integrating access control capabilities as a module for our existing video management solution platform and planning to release the consolidated version in Q4 this year. Okay, sorry about it, a great example of our continuous innovation in technology, development in Safe Spaces, our newest product. This new video analytics solution can utilize our Symphony VMS platform or any other VMS platform with minor adjustments to enable businesses to reopen while maintaining public safety requirements. This solution features mass detection and monitoring of social distancing, occupancy and hand sanitation scan. This platform will allow businesses to – and people to resume work, consumer and social activities with increased confidence and the reduced risk of exposure to COVID-19. The M&A target in our line of sight would bring technology that can leverage our existing platform’s capabilities and bring new technology innovation and expertise. We hope to close at least two in 2020 to support our key verticals and capabilities expansion goal. Earlier this year, we were in advanced stages with several acquisition targets. However, due to the ongoing crisis, we have experienced delay in the process. Targets are now on hold due to the flight ban. The fallout from the Oil and Gas prices and overall uncertainty related to COVID-19. I highlighted now how the crisis is affecting our business. To maintain cash and preserve profitability, we have established cost-cutting measures and expenses management guidelines. That said, we feel employee retention essential for the company’s recovery post crisis. Another essential expense is the continuous investment in R&D and holding it. We believe that keeping our experienced team on board to provide support for our customers and continue to improve our products, solutions and software is a competitive advantage that enables us to preserve the midterm and long-term strategic direction of Magal. These resources are also crucial to the company ability to exit the crisis in a position of strength, recovering revenue that has shifted to the future and closing deals that have stalled in the pipeline. Magal is well positioned with our net cash and related cash balance of $54 million and no debt to respond to the challenges and opportunities ahead. We are fortunate to have active revenue stream and a strong balance sheet with no pressure to service of our debt. I want to thank the entire Magal team for their performance in the quarter and the resiliency in the face of the unique circumstances they had to work under while still supporting customers and growing our pipelines of business. I’m confident that with our strong balance sheet, our backlog of business and skilled team, we will emerge strong and positioned for growth. And now, I would like to hand the call over to Kobi to summarize the financial results. Kobi, please go ahead.