Phil Falcone
Analyst · B. Riley FBR. Please go ahead
Thank you, Garrett, and good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us and we hope you and your families remain safe and healthy. And it's been a challenging couple of months for everyone since our last call in March as everyone has been touched in some fashion by this pandemic. We're especially proud of the tireless effort and dedication from our employees at HC2 and our subsidiaries as they seamlessly work remotely and on site when necessary to continue executing for our customers. On today's call, I'll walk through the impact of COVID on our businesses, as well as our recent progress on our top priorities of debt reduction and overhead costs. Our CFO, Mike Sena will then provide more details on our first quarter performance. And then we'll take some questions. COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the U.S. and the worldwide economy. We have evolved from when we last spoke in March from an environment that was clearly starting to implement targeted lockdown in select areas to one that saw the virtual shuttering of the U.S. economy and shelter in place fed-ex for the vast majority of Americans. What once looked like a temporary shutdown migrated into a nearly six weeks shutdown in most states. And while we are beginning to see states reopen mainly in the South and Midwest, there are still a number of major states including California, New York that remain on lockdown for the foreseeable future. Well, we are all hoping for a V-shaped recovery, the ultimate impact continues to be increasingly challenging to predict and as such, we and our subsidiaries are keenly focused on liquidity for the near-term future as well as our fundamental priorities of debt and overhead reduction. In terms of our COVID-19 response thus far, we want to provide an update on each of our segments to give you some more granularity as to our expectations as we navigate through these challenges. At the parent company, I'm pleased to say that we continue to operate uninterrupted and we've remained focused on working closely with the management teams of our subsidiaries to ensure we're aiding them in every way and to ensure they continue to operate as effectively as possible. Given our near-term priority of liquidity we have been taking action across the portfolio and at the holdco level to further rationalize costs and responsibly reduce spending. At construction DBM steel fabrication and erection group has seen minimal work stoppages to-date as most states considers construction and essential business. Demand is still there in the broader market as we are receiving a significant number of RFP requests, the new contracts are still not being awarded at this time as customers await a clear view of the pandemic impact. Fortunately, our substantial adjusted backlog of 781 million continues to remain near all time highs, which will provide a significant cushion. But like most project based businesses, that backlog needs to be replenished. Our Industrial Services Group has been somewhat impacted as non-essential maintenance repair services as well as various planned maintenance and CapEx projects included in the backlog have been pushed out and certain facilities have been temporarily closed. While we expect the COVID-19 impact will cause the steel and construction segment to see some reduction in adjusted EBITDA for 2020 compared to 2019. We remain confident in DBMs long-term potential once the pandemic impact dissipates. Importantly at this time, there have been minimal effects in accounts receivables, collections, which is a credit to DBMs high-quality customers. Turning to Energy, our compressed nat gas operation, ANG continues to operate without significant issue. While we've seen a drop-off in volume at certain stations and by certain customers, a significant number of ANGs larger customers are consumer staples, suppliers and grocers, which have seen increased demand in recent weeks. A number of our contracts are also under a taker pay structure, which requires a minimum fuelling requirement regardless of whether those customers fuel with ANG, which helps to insulate ANG against short-term volume fluctuations. But the recent downward trend in oil prices, it is conceivable that the adoption of natural gas vehicles could slow near-term but we continue to believe that clean energy from CNG will become the primary alternative to diesel for commercial fleets. At Broadcasting, we believe our broadcast distribution platform remains a significant growth opportunity for HC2, given the broad geographic reach of our station group and the ongoing acceleration of cable cord cutting across the country. At network group, however, Aztech America or Hispanic network will be impacted by the pandemic, a certain ad spend has been deferred and will affect the top-line in that unit. In addition, while our capacity lease deals, which are the bulk of our contracts remain unaffected. Some of the expected benefits from our revenue share agreements, such as with beIN SPORTS and Cheddar News will be delayed. Our Life Sciences Division we remain very optimistic for both MediBeacon and R2 Technologies. The recent additional 10 million equity investment from Huadong at post money valuation for 90 million further validates the viability of R2. That said the current environment may create a slight delay in R2s expected commercial launch. While the pandemic has not affected the regulatory process at MediBeacon, we could potentially see delays that could slow MediBeacon's progress towards regulatory approval. That being said, it has not changed our long-term belief and the value of those entities. And in fact, one could argue that the issues discussed around COVID-19 and its effect on the kidney could prove that MediBeacon is more valuable than previously thought. In addition, as a reminder, both R2 and MediBeacon have recently received new equity investments to fund ongoing activities and as a result we currently do not anticipate a need for further capital investment from HC2. Finally, at insurance continental continues to be well positioned with approximately 94% of its book comprised of investment grade securities. As with any asset book of this size, we expect certain rating agency downgrades, which undoubtedly will result in higher capital charges on these securities, but the impact will be greatly mitigated by CGICs strong RBC rating heading into the COVID pandemic. At this stage in the pandemic, we've not experienced any significant deviations from its standard liquidity needs. Given the challenges COVID-19 has presented to all of us, we expect there will be some near-term impact on our income statement. However, our overall strategic priorities have not changed. And to that end, we continue to make progress towards significantly improving our capital structure and reducing holdco costs. In doing so we continue to believe we will be able to fully pivot post-pandemic and be well positioned to execute on our growth and innovation strategy. At the end of February, we completed the sale of Global Marine Group and used the large portion of the net proceeds to redeem approximately 77 million of the 11.5% notes at the end of the quarter. In addition, we expect to close on the sale of our 30% ownership at HMN to Hengtong in short order. As a result, we will utilize the net proceeds HC2 receives from the sale to further reduce the amount of principal outstanding on our 11.5% notes by over 50 million. All-in, after the next partial redemption, our 11.5% notes will have a principal amount of approximately 340 million, a 28% reduction from where it stood at the beginning of 2020. The pay downs also allow us to realize approximately 15 million in annual interest savings while still retaining a 19% put option or $30 million toHC2 after taxes and customary transaction fees at today's valuation on HMN that is exercisable in two years. We're very pleased with the ongoing process for HC2 as we reach the finish line on HMN as the entire strategic process for global marine is a testament of our expertise and capabilities to effectively navigate through the complexities and roadblocks in order to realize stockholder value. Furthermore, beyond our marine services divestitures and the reduction of debt, we wanted to provide a brief update on our current strategic processes. With respect to Continental Insurance, we continue to progress in our discussions with our counterparty and have extended exclusivity to sell Continental, but are not able to comment any further at this point in light of the ongoing discussions. As we discussed in our previous calls closing on a sale of Continental will allow us to continue with our long-term goal of debt reduction while focusing on and simplifying our overall corporate structure. As it relates to DBM Global, we continue to explore all options, including both the sale and subsidiary refinancing to ensure that we deliver appropriate value to address our capital structure, liquidity and strategic plan as we move forward. And as we've noted consistently, we are always exploring other opportunities within the portfolio as we are sharply focused on continuing to improve our capital structure, particularly in these uncertain times. I will now briefly run through a few highlights of our first quarter performance. For adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter 2020 was $13.2 million versus $14.2 first quarter 2019. Our energy segment performed nicely in the quarter as it nearly doubled the amount of gasoline gallons equivalent from the prior year period, thanks to the 2019 acquisition of 20 additional CNG station. The segment was also partially buoyed by the alternative fuel tax credits, which will continue to be able to utilize through 2020. At DBM, construction was somewhat impacted in the first quarter by timing of commercial project work under execution, as well as seasonally lower contribution from maintenance repair work. But as a reminder, the first quarter is typically the lightest quarter from an adjusted EBITDA standpoint. And while there will be impact from COVID as I noted before, we would still expect adjusted EBITDA to be a good amount higher in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter. At our life sciences segment in April, R2 Technologies received an additional 10 million in equity investment from Huadong at a post money valuation of 90 million to further fund the company's efforts as it gets closer to commercialization. As a reminder under an exclusive distribution agreement, Huadong will distribute R2s skin lightning devices and products in Greater China and other Asia Pacific countries. And at broadcasting we increased the number of operating stations to 218 at quarter end, of which approximately 165 are currently connected to our central cast or cloud-based system. During the quarter as previously announced, we reached carriage agreements with both Dabl, a CBS Television Distribution lifestyle diginet and Cheddar News an Altice USA Company. Finally, in terms of our corporate overhead, we further reduced recurring SG&A by over $1 million on a year-over-year basis. Importantly, I believe our assets continue to have untapped value and we have the right long-term strategy in place to drive stockholder value. To reinforce my full and clear alignment with stockholders and desire to create value for HC2, I took the additional volunteer step a couple of weeks ago of committing to forego any potential bonus payments, I may be eligible to be rewarded in respect of 2020 or any future year performance until our stock reaches an average trading price of at least 750 per share over a 30 day period. This commitment is further proof of my complete alignment with our stockholders to successfully execute on HC2 growth and innovation strategy. As we look ahead, despite the pandemic and the effects, it will assuredly have in the near-term. We remain excited and energized about our longer term future and the prospects for a streamlined, sharply focused and financially flexible HC2. We continue to believe that by focusing on our unique higher growth and innovation strategy at HC2 of energy broadcasting and life sciences, while we continue to explore strategic options on DBM Global we will be best positioned for the long-term to strengthen our balance sheet and maximize the full potential value of our businesses. With that, I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Mike Sena, who will discuss some of our financial highlights. Mike?