Amerino Gatti
Analyst · KeyBanc. Your line is now open
Thank you Don and good morning everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. Before I begin, I would like to formally introduce our new Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Susan Ball, who joined us in December. Prior to joining Team, Susan served more than 12 years at CVR Energy in various roles of increasing responsibility including Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. She brings more than 30 years of experience in finance and accounting and in just a short time has become a valuable addition to our leadership team. I will now start with our consolidated results. Consolidated revenues for the fourth quarter were $310 million, compared to $316 million in the prior-year quarter, which was down primarily due to lower activity in our Mechanical Services segment and was partially offset by higher activity levels in the Quest Integrity and Inspection and Heat Treating segments. As mentioned during the previous call, year-over-year revenue growth was challenged due to nonrecurring surge activity from Hurricane Harvey in Q4 2017 coupled with higher refinery utilization rates in Q4 2018. Fourth quarter gross margin improved 180 basis points over the same period last year. The improvement was a result of the continued strength of our Quest Integrity segment and realized benefits from our ongoing cost reduction pillars of the OneTEAM program. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA of $24.5 million increased 5% from $23.4 million in the same period last year on lower revenues. We are pleased with the progress we made in 2018. We delivered on each of our key performance objectives to improve safety, grow EBITDA and increase free cash flow generation. Some of these full year highlights as compared to 2017 include revenues of $1.25 billion, an increase of 4%, adjusted EBITDA increased by 37%, free cash flow increased by $65 million, CapEx spend reduced by 26% and finally, our bank leverage ratio improved to 2.6 times at the end of 2018 compared to 3.5 times at the end of 2017. Full year 2018 revenue improvements were led by our two inspection and assessment segments, Inspection and Heat Treating and Quest Integrity, which were up 5% and 19%, respectively. Mechanical Services revenue was relatively flat when compared to the prior-year. Taking into account the impact of shutting down underperforming districts, Mechanical Services revenue was up 1%. Full year adjusted EBITDA improved 37% to $72 million, up form $53 million a year ago. All three segments delivered higher revenues and improved adjusted EBITDA for the full year with Quest Integrity leading the way. Team remains focused on capital discipline and cash flow management. We delivered strong cash flow in Q4 of 2018 with a record quarterly free cash flow of $29 million representing a year-over-year improvement of $43 million. For the full year of 2018, we generated $15 million of free cash flow, which is a $65 million improvement over the prior year. We are extremely pleased that we exceeded our previously disclosed target of generating positive free cash flow for the year. In the fourth quarter, we paid down an additional $26 million of debt. We remain committed to paying down debt with available free cash flow. Now I will review our full year performance by segment. The Inspection and Heat Treating segment delivered full year 2018 revenues of $617 million, a 5% increase over $588 million in 2017. Full year adjusted EBITDA was $60 million or 12% higher than the $54 million in 2017. This segment has now delivered four consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth. The Mechanical Services segment delivered full year 2018 revenues of $532 million, slightly higher than the $530 million in 2017. Full year 2018 adjusted EBITDA was $47 million, an increase of 5% when compared to $45 million in 2017. This segment experienced maintenance delays and project deferrals due to higher refinery utilization rates that persisted from the third quarter. U.S. refinery operators are running facilities at higher than historical utilization rates and deferring certain projects to actively manage the opportunity costs associated with bringing assets offline. The average U.S. refinery utilization for Q4 of 2018 was 93% compared to less than 90% for the previous 10 year average. Higher utilization rates and deferred maintenance lead to incremental asset wear and tear, which will ultimately drive demand for our business. For the second year in a row, the Quest Integrity segment achieved record revenues. 2018 revenues were $97 million, a 19% increase when compared to $82 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA in 2018 was $25 million or 45% higher than the $17 million in 2017. Quest Integrity continues to benefit from additional offshore pipeline inspection work and growing demand for the performance assurance enabled by our proprietary tools and advanced engineering services. I will now provide highlights on our safety performance. We are committed to achieving best-in-class safety performance. Through focused district safety audits and the deployment of our fleet monitoring systems, we decreased our recordable injuries by 21% and our TRIR by 18% when compared to the previous year. Also, I would like to recognize our central division for achieving nine years without a recordable incident working over 1.8 million man-hours with a key client in Wood River, Illinois. Delivering top quartile safety and quality performance begins with investing in our industry leading recruiting and training programs. We offer structured career development and apprentice programs through our world-class training facilities in Texas and the United Kingdom. Our technical school in Texas is state accredited offering technician and client base training and industry learning. In 2018, through instructor led sessions, we trained more than 2,400 employees in various programs, representing 25% of our technician workforce. The investments in safety, quality and training differentiate us, particularly in light of tightening labor market, pricing pressures and recruiting challenges. Moving on to technology. Team Digital is our proprietary platform that maximizes quality and efficiency through digitally enabled workflows. In Q4 2018, we successfully executed nondestructive inspection related projects with four clients at four new facilities and supported nine simultaneous projects. In 2018, Team Digital related revenues increased 400% from the prior year. The digital landscape within our end-markets remains dynamic. We are receiving positive customer recognition for the proven functionality and domain and technical driven applications of our platform. I will now turn it over to Susan for a more detailed financial review and then I will share more about our OneTEAM progress and outlook. Susan?