Jeremy W. Smeltser
Analyst · Nigel Coe
Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone. I'll begin with earnings per share. For the fourth quarter, we reported a diluted loss per share from continuing operations of $0.78. As Ryan mentioned, this included some notable items not in our Q4 guidance, which I'll discuss in more detail. We recorded a charge to pension expense of $1.45, the largest component being the annual noncash mark-to-market adjustment. The mark-to-market charge was largely due to a reduction in discount rates and changes to our mortality rate assumptions, partially offset by better-than-expected returns on our plan's assets. We also recorded noncash impairment charges totaling $0.74 per share related to certain businesses within our Flow and Thermal segments. The 2 most notable write-downs were for our joint venture with Shanghai Electric and our ClydeUnion tradename, both driven by the recent macro developments affecting those businesses. During the quarter, we repatriated $92 million of cash from China and paid $19 million of U.S. and foreign withholding taxes, a fairly attractive rate. This resulted in $0.46 of income tax provision, which was partially offset by $0.36 of unrelated discrete tax benefits also recorded in the period. The charge related to the South Africa projects was a $0.46 impact to EPS. And we recorded $0.39 of cost associated with the spin-off of our Flow business. Excluding all these items, adjusted EPS for Q4 2014 was $2.36 per share. Revenue in the quarter was $1.28 billion, down 4% year-over-year due to currency and the South Africa projects. Currency was a 3% or $45 million headwind to revenue. Lower revenue related to the South Africa projects was also a 3% headwind. A portion of this decline was anticipated in our targets due to the natural ramp-down of the projects. We recognize revenue in these projects based on percentage of completion accounting. As such, the $25 million charge recorded in the quarter also reduced revenue. Excluding the South Africa projects, organic revenue grew 2.6%, driven by strong core growth of the other businesses in our Thermal segment, and segment income increased 3% to $177 million, with margins improving 60 points to 13.6%. Looking at Flow's Q4 results. Revenue declined 6% to $680 million. Currency was a 4% or $32 million year-over-year headwind. Organic revenue was down 1% due primarily to lower sales of Food & Beverage and Industrial components in Asia-Pacific. Throughout the rest of the world, Food & Beverage and Industrial sales increased by mid-single digits. In Power & Energy, organic revenue was essentially flat, as increased sales of OE pumps and nuclear valves were offset by declines in aftermarket sales and oil-related capital projects in Europe. Segment income increased $7 million or 7% to $110 million and margins expanded 190 points to 16.2%. This income and margin improvement was driven by improved operational performance across all 3 end market platforms. For the year, Flow's margins improved 220 points to 13.9%, firmly within our long-term target margin range of 13% to 15%. We are very pleased with the improved performance across all 3 end markets. Tony Renzi, Marc Michael and David Wilson have all had a positive impact on their businesses since we moved to the new alignment a year ago. And we are particularly pleased with the significant turnaround at ClydeUnion, where the full year operating margin improved to 15%, up from 5% in 2013. Flow's backlog declined 4% sequentially due to currency. Book-to-bill for the segment was just over 1 in the fourth quarter, driven by strong orders in our Food & Beverage and Power & Energy businesses, as Chris mentioned earlier. On a year-over-year basis, Flow's backlog declined $238 million. About 1/3 of the decline was due to currency. From an organic perspective, the backlog for Power & Energy and Industrial declined versus the prior year, partially offset by double-digit growth in our Food & Beverage backlog. As a reminder, we took a more selective approach on large orders last year in both Power & Energy and Food & Beverage. While this contributed to the overall backlog decline, we believe it also improved the quality of the backlog. Improved project selectivity and project management have improved our on-time delivery and ability to meet customer commitments. These factors have also contributed to Flow's margin improvement over the past 2 years. Given the uncertainty in oil markets and the strengthening of the dollar, we expect 2015 to be a challenging year for Flow's top line. In total, we expect Flow's revenue to decline between 3% and 8%, including a 6% headwind from currency. Organic revenues are expected to be down 2% to up 3%. We're targeting mid-single-digit organic growth in Food & Beverage and Industrial. And due to the impact of oil prices, we expect Flow's Power & Energy revenue to decline between 5% and 10% organically. We are targeting 40 points of margin expansion at Flow, driven primarily by the healthier backlogs and improved execution in our Food & Beverage business. Over the next 2 to 3 years, we believe there are additional opportunities to expand Flow's margins, as we execute our global footprint initiatives and drive continuous improvement efforts through Lean and supply chain management. We also have restructuring actions planned for the first half of this year. Given these initiatives and the strong 2014 margin performance, we are increasing our 2- to 3-year margin target for Flow by 100 points to 14% to 16%. Moving on to Thermal's Q4 results, beginning with the reported results on the left side of this slide. Revenue increased 5% to $384 million. Currency was a 3% headwind. Revenue recognized on the South Africa projects declined $44 million, and this includes the $25 million charge. Segment income was $11 million or 2.7% of revenues. This includes a total loss of $28 million on the South Africa projects. These projects are challenging, and Gene and the team in South Africa are doing the right things to manage through a difficult business environment. That said, the financial impact from these projects is overshadowing the underlying improvement in Thermal's core business. To provide transparency into the core business, we have presented Thermal's results excluding the impact of the South Africa projects on the right side of the slide. In Thermal's core business, organic revenue increased 22% and margins expanded 30 points year-over-year to 9.9%. Organic revenue increased across each product line, led by our cooling tower business, which reported over 30% organic growth. Our heat exchanger businesses also reported double-digit growth, and sales of personal comfort heating products were up high single digits over the prior year. For the full year, we've provided the same analysis. Reported revenue declined 1% to $1.3 billion. Currency was a 2% headwind, and the South Africa project revenue declined $119 million. Segment income was $52 million or 3.9% of revenues. This includes a total loss of $34 million on the South Africa projects. Excluding the results of the South Africa projects, Thermal's core business experienced 9% organic revenue growth. Global sales of cooling towers were up 13%, partially driven by commercial initiatives and new product offerings in the packaged cooling product line, which primarily serves the HVAC market. Sales of Weil-McLain boilers and Marley Engineered heating products increased 9% over the prior year. The cold winter season was a benefit, however, these businesses clearly outgrew the market in 2014. Segment income in the core business increased $24 million or 39% to $86 million and margins expanded 150 points year-over-year to 6.9%. The improved profitability was driven in part by cost savings from restructuring actions at our Balcke-Dürr business, which improved sharply from a challenging year in 2013. Thermal's profit also improved due to leverage on the organic growth in the HVAC businesses. We continue to see steady, positive development in Thermal's backlog. Thermal's core backlog increased to $615 million, up 17% or $88 million over the prior year. It is important to point out that the large orders we won late last year are 18- to 24-month projects. So in terms of aging of the backlog, we expect about 2/3 to be recognized as revenue this year, with about 1/3 or $200 million expected as revenue in 2016. The core backlog development underscores the success of our commercial initiatives across the segment. In South Africa, the ending 2014 backlog was $100 million, and our contracts include provisions for price adjustments. Additionally, given the extended project timeline, we are working with our customers to negotiate the amount of future revenue associated with contract extensions not currently reflected in backlog. At this time, we expect, at least, an additional $100 million of contract adjustments, which would put the future total revenue estimate at over $200 million. So looking at our 2015 expectations for Thermal including the South Africa projects, we are targeting revenue to be flat to down 3%. Currency is expected to be about a 4% headwind, and we are targeting 1% to 4% organic revenue growth, driven by Thermal's core businesses. As reported, margins are expected to improve about 270 points. Excluding the South Africa projects, core margins are expected to expand about 50 points to 7.4%. Gene and his team have done a really nice job improving the core business over the past 2 years in a challenging end market environment. And they are committed to continued improvement going forward. Over the next 2 to 3 years, we believe Thermal can grow organic revenue 3% to 5% annually, with a margin target of 8% to 10%. Moving on to Industrial. Revenue in the period was $214 million, down 12% over the prior year. Currency was a modest headwind. The organic revenue decline was due to lower shipments of fare collection systems and power transformers. The decline in fare collection sales in Q4 related to order delays, as our customers continue to evaluate the availability and processing of government funding. At our transformer business, the revenue decline was due to timing, as we had a very high level of shipments in Q4 2013. Despite the revenue decline, the profit in our transformer business increased modestly. For the segment, income was down $5 million over the prior year to $32 million and margins were 14.9%. The decline in fare collection sales was the main driver of the reduced profitability. The ending backlog for Industrial was up 17% or $50 million over the prior year, driven by strong order volume for power transformers and, to a lesser extent, communication technologies. Our transformer business continues to see a high level of replacement demand as utilities continue to increase their focus on addressing the aged installed base. Pricing remains challenging but stable, and average lead times in the industry continue to expand slowly, an encouraging trend. Looking specifically at our transformer business. Revenue grew 7% in 2014, and backlog was up 22% over the prior year. We have now seen 3 consecutive years of strong organic growth, and given the backlog development last year, we expect growth in 2015, driven by increased volume and production. However, given the lack of price improvement, profitability is expected to be stable. Overall, we are booked through the third quarter this year. We are now quoting 8- to 10-month lead times for medium power units as we selectively fill out our remaining production slots for the fourth quarter. Internally, our focus is on reducing design cost and improving operating performance. Looking at our 2015 expectations for Industrial. We're targeting revenue growth between 2% and 5%. Currency is expected to be about a 2% headwind. We're targeting 4% to 7% organic revenue growth and 40 points of margin expansion. The organic revenue growth is expected to be driven primarily by recovery in fare collection system sales and, to a lesser extent, growth in the transformer business. We also expect sales in our radio detection and hydraulic businesses to grow in the low single digits. We've updated our 2- to 3-year targets for Industrial. In our revised targets, we are assuming a more moderate pricing environment in the U.S. power transformer market. In that environment, we believe Industrial can grow organic revenue 3% to 5% annually and expand margins to between 15% and 17%. Moving on to our 2015 targets for SPX as currently reported. We are modeling revenue to decline 1% to 5%, and this includes a 5% headwind from currency translation. Our modeling targets are based on currency rates as of February 1. Using these rates, currency translation is expected to be a $230 million headwind to revenue and a $23 million headwind to segment income. This results in an EPS headwind of approximately $0.42 per share due to currency translation. On an organic basis, we are targeting revenue to be flat to up 4%. We expect segment margins to improve across all 3 segments, with consolidated margins increasing 90 points in total to approximately 12%. Excluding the year-over-year benefit from South Africa, consolidated margins are expected to increase 30 to 40 points. For free cash flow, we are targeting 100% conversion of operating income, excluding costs related to the spin of Flow. As Ryan mentioned, we don't believe it's useful to provide earnings per share guidance for 2015 given the uncertain timing of the financial impacts related to the spin. We only expect to report Q1 and Q2 results as a combined entity. With the spin expected to be completed in Q3, we expect to report third quarter results as separate companies. Also, during the first half of the year, we expect volatility to continue in corporate expense, interest expense and the tax provision, as we work through the process of organizing 2 separate corporate structures. We have provided targets for certain items that we can reasonably estimate. We are targeting $20 million of restructuring expense in 2015 expected to be concentrated in the first half of the year. Stock compensation expense is expected to be approximately $42 million with about 60% recorded in the first quarter. And pension service costs are expected to decline to just $5 million for the year. We estimate the full year effective tax rate to be in the high 20s and diluted shares outstanding to be approximately 41 million shares. We are also providing 2015 EBITDA targets for SPX as currently constructed and for both future companies. We are calculating EBITDA consistent with the definition in our credit facilities. As currently reported, we are targeting 2015 EBITDA in the range of $550 million to $600 million. As for the future companies, for SPX Flow, we are targeting 2015 EBITDA to be between $375 million and $405 million. And for the SPX infrastructure company, we are targeting $175 million to $195 million of EBITDA this year. Looking at our first quarter modeling targets. We expect revenue to be down 8% to 10% versus the prior year due primarily to the currency and oil-related headwinds. Currency is expected to be a 6% or $65 million headwind to revenue and about a $5 million headwind to segment income. This results in about a $0.09 headwind to EPS due to currency. Organic revenue is expected to decline 2% to 4% due primarily to low -- lower Power & Energy sales in our Flow segment. We are targeting organic revenue to be flat year-over-year in our Thermal and Industrial segments. Segment income is expected to be between $73 million and $83 million with margins at about 8%. We expect lower profitability versus the prior year as a result of the organic revenue decline in Flow's Power & Energy business as well as an unfavorable revenue mix at both Thermal and Industrial. We have planned about $10 million of restructuring actions in the quarter concentrated in our Flow segment as we continue to focus on our global cost structure. Looking briefly at cash flow and our financial position. In the fourth quarter, we paid the remaining $58 million of taxes related to gains on asset sales. As I mentioned earlier, we also repatriated $92 million of cash from China and paid $19 million in associated taxes. We repurchased $75 million of SPX common stock in Q4, completing the $500 million share repurchase plan that began trading in December 2013. In total, under that plan, we repurchased 5 million shares or approximately 12% of the outstanding share base. For the full year, we generated $281 million of adjusted free cash flow, including $204 million in the fourth quarter, consistent with our historical seasonality. We ended the year with $428 million of cash on hand. Total debt was $1.37 billion, down 18% from the prior year. Our gross leverage ratio declined to 2.4x, and our net leverage was 1.7x. In summary, the work we've done over the past 2 years to reduce our debt and pension obligations has put us in a very good financial position to execute the spin transaction. On that note, I'll turn the call back over to Chris to provide an update on the spin.