Santiago Giraldo
Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Christian, and good morning to everyone on the line. Beginning with our financial highlights on slide number 8. Our 2018 results were very strong. During the year, we continue to expand our business into new geographies, capture an increasing amount of the value chain through our vertically-integrated model, invest in our facilities and implemented cost-savings initiatives. 2018 reflects these collective efforts with double-digit growth in sales, gross profit and adjusted EBITDA allowing us to reach record levels in each of those metrics for the quarter and full year 2018. We are pleased with this performance, which also highlights our ground-up project-by-project outlook methodology initiated in 2018 that has allowed us to better plan our business for success. Our operating cash flow performance reflects working capital investments. This includes a buildup of inventories to support a strong pipeline of projects being invoiced during the first quarter of this year and beyond. While account receivables increased on a nominal basis with strong sales growth, days sales outstanding improved by approximately five days in 2018 versus 2017. We spent $13.1 million on CapEx in 2018 including $5.9 million in Q4 with the added spend into year-end reflecting opportunistic high return investments and efficiency initiatives, primarily to address robust demand within our aluminum frame manufacturing operations. We ended the quarter with a strong cash position of $33 million and a conservative leverage profile of 2.6 times net debt-to-adjusted-EBITDA representing a solid improvement from 3 times at the end of 2017. This balance sheet strength supports our growth initiatives and operational enhancements moving forward. Looking at the drivers of revenue on slide number 9. We reported our seventh straight quarter of record revenues, which were up 16.1% to $97.9 million for the fourth quarter. Strong demand in the U.S. drove fourth quarter sales. U.S. increasing by 27.8% to $81.5 million, primarily reflecting continued strength in overall construction activity, market share gains, deeper penetration in single-family residential and favorable pricing. For the year, total revenues increased 18% to $371 million attributable to continued healthy construction activity, slight price improvement and increased penetration in the residential market. Nearly all of our business lines grew in the U.S. market more than compensating for slightly softer performance in Colombia during the year. Looking at the drivers of adjusted EBITDA on slide number 10. Adjusted EBITDA increased 25% to $21.5 million from the prior-year quarter, which produced an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22%, up 160 basis points from the prior-year quarter, largely as a result of higher sales and enhanced gross margin. Fourth quarter gross margin of 34.9% improved compared to 32.3% in the prior-year quarter. This 260 basis point improvement was attributable to lower installation cost from service revenues, lower direct labor cost per unit and lower energy cost. Notably, raw material cost increases and labor constraints affecting our U.S.-based peers have not had a material impact on our manufacturing cost. However, we do continue to experience higher ground transportation cost along with the rest of the industry. Increased expenses to support higher sales and higher ground transportation cost were the main drivers of the 70 basis point increase in reported SG&A to 20.3% of sales in the fourth quarter. Marine shipping costs have so far remained relatively stable for us given the favorable trade dynamics between Colombia and the U.S. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year increased 30% to $80.8 million, representing a margin of 21.8% and up 210 basis points compared to 2017 with the improvement consistent with the Q4 drivers. This represented an incremental EBITDA margin of approximately 33% for the quarter. Notably, all of our 2018 gross margin improvement came in the second half of 2018, as we were able to obtain efficiencies related to our installation cost and operating leverage on labor cost. Our financial progress during 2018 validates our vertically integrated model, our highly efficient manufacturing capacity and our sustainable access to talented employees. We remain confident in our ability to generate strong incremental margins on higher sales and we'll continue to source additional avenues to improve efficiencies and reduce our cost base. Moving to the Saint-Gobain joint venture on slide number 12. In 2019, we have already taken steps to further fortify our vertically integrated strategy. As José Manuel mentioned, in January, we purchased a minority position in Saint-Gobain existing Colombia-based Vidrio Andino, which has annualized sales of approximately $100 million. The transaction rationale is meaningful for the Tecnoglass entity on multiple levels. The JV with Saint-Gobain significantly elevates our global profile with customers, suppliers, architects and other industry participants. From an operational perspective, secure float glass supply, improve purchasing economics and an enhanced ability to serve customers through more control over production process, should drive better margins over time. The purchase transaction was efficiency structured with the initial $45 million investment into Vidrio Andino, keeping pro forma net leverage roughly in line with recent quarters. We will begin consolidating results upon anticipated closing of the transaction in the second quarter of 2019. We look forward to working with Saint-Gobain and growing together in complementary markets, while investing in a new state-of-the-art facility which we believe will drive many benefits to our business model. Looking at the U.S. market on slide number 13. U.S. commercial construction activity continues to dominate our business while residential is slated to become an increasingly important end market for us. The glazing industry, which represents a good market proxy for our business is expected to continue expanding at a mid-single-digit pace over the next five years, according to third-party sources. The Architectural Billing Index is above 50 for the 13th consecutive month and with the most recent reading at a two-year high, suggesting expansion on the commercial side. Combined with our generally stable to positive outlook on new residential construction, we see macro support for the mid-single-digit long-term growth outlook for the glazing industry. We believe that our markets will continue to grow faster than the national average. We also expect to take share in our market, largely driven by enhanced relationships with new customers, proven execution in a broad range of high value-added projects and structural differences that allow us to be very competitive, while maintaining a quality-first approach. With our exposure to both commercial and single-family residential, we see significant upside in our business to capture a rising share of U.S. demand. We have successfully implemented strategies to grow in the low-rise residential market, which has allowed us to further diversify our product base, while also being able to offer higher-end products and design through our Schüco alliance. We are educating contractors on the benefits of our impact-resistant windows and are partnering with builders and distributors to efficiently penetrate residential markets. Single-family residential remains an area of significant upside for Tecnoglass and we look forward to gaining share rapidly in this end market. Turning to our Colombian market update on slide number 14. In Colombia, all economic indicators are positive and have accelerated since mid-year. Interest rates and inflation remain low, providing some runway for construction to outpace GDP growth. Based on 2018 bidding activity and conversations with customers, we also see macro conditions improving around the country. That being said, we expect construction activity and sales in Colombia to remain muted in 2019 as backlog remains pent-up. While Colombia remains an important market for us, given our deep customer base, we continue to believe that the significant majority of our future growth will be in the U.S. Compared to just three years ago, we have more than doubled our U.S.-based revenues, added more than 100 end customers and our average project size continues to increase. Given the diversity of the many U.S. regions end markets and project types, our U.S. sales are poised to expand beyond Florida at a more rapid pace in coming years. Moving to our 2019 outlook on slide number 16. We anticipate stronger top and bottom-line growth in full year 2019. For the full year, we expect revenues to grow to a range of $395 million $415 million. Our mix of revenue growth is expected to be almost entirely from the U.S., partly fueled by innovative new products, project types, geographic expansion and single-family residential. We expect year-to-year percentage growth to be higher in the first half compared to growth in the back half, based on the anticipated timing of invoicing in 2019 compared to 2018. Based on this sales outlook and anticipated mix of revenues, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $86 million to $94 million. This outlook assumes favorable operating leverage on higher revenues and improved mix of sales from manufacturing operations. Additionally, the outlook incorporates our share of adjusted EBITDA from the Vidrio Andino joint venture beginning in the second quarter in 2019. With the strength of our balance sheet and financial flexibility, we are well situated to achieve our growth objectives while further improving our industry-leading margins. We look forward to continue advancing rapidly as a leading manufacturer of high-quality glass products and to continue gaining market share as we build on our competitive advantages. We thank you for the continued support of Tecnoglass. We will be happy to answer your questions. Operator, please open the lines to questions.