Albert J. Neupaver
Analyst · Raymond James
Thanks, Tim. Good morning. We had a strong operating performance in the first quarter, with record sales of $583 million and record earnings per diluted share of $1.22. The company really hit on all cylinders during the quarter, which led us to preannounce the results and increase our guidance for the year. As we'll discuss, our performance was driven by strong growth in our Freight Group. Our overall business is performing very well, thanks to our diversified business model, our strategic growth initiatives and the power of our Wabtec Performance System, which I'll talk a little bit about today. We are in compelling growth markets around the world, and we remain excited about our future opportunities. As I mentioned, a couple of weeks ago we increased our guidance for the year, and today we affirm that. Based on our first quarter results and current outlook, we expect our full year earnings per diluted share to be about $4.80, with sales growth now expected to be about 15% for the year. This EPS guidance is about 35% higher than our GAAP EPS last year, and 12% higher than the guidance we announced earlier in the year. Our guidance has some assumptions. Our assumptions are: The global economy grows modestly, that freight rail traffic improves with the economy, our transit markets remain stable and no major changes in foreign exchange rates. As always, we will be disciplined when it comes to controlling costs, focused on generating cash to invest in growth opportunities and ready to respond decisively to any changes in market conditions. Let me talk a little bit about the freight rail market. In North America, rail traffic is mixed so far this year. Through mid-April, car loadings were down 1.8%. But if you exclude coal, car loadings were actually up 2.9%. Intermodal, meanwhile, was up 3.6%. Of the 20 traffic categories that are tracked, 13 are up so far this year, with particular strength in autos, metals and petroleum products. The OEM market drivers are positive in 2012. Forecasters are now expecting that about 55,000 new freight cars will be delivered in 2012. That compares to about 48,000 in 2011. Nearly 17,000 cars were delivered in the first quarter. The backlog remains at about 60,000 cars, and it appears that new car orders have stabilized. As for new locomotives, including kits, the industry should surpass 1,200 units this year, compared to almost 1,100 in 2011. Globally, freight markets remain fairly healthy as well. In China, for example, railway cargo hit a record high in March, with tonnage increasing by 4% in the first quarter. In the U.K., freight traffic was up about 13% in the most recent quarter. And Brazil and Australia also continued to be strong, although future growth depends heavily on China's economy. Let's switch now to the transit market. We continue to see stable markets in the U.S. and abroad. In the U.S., ridership was up 3.7% in the fourth quarter and 2.3% for all of 2011. In 2012, transit car deliveries will be about 1,000, slightly up from last year, and bus deliveries will be about 4,500, slightly down from last year. Looking at U.S. federal funding, Congress passed another extension for the existing Transportation Bill. This one will last until July 1. You must remember that the Transportation Bill expired back in September 2009, and what we have seen is just extension after extension. It's really very uncertain when a new Transportation Bill might be passed, but it seems very unlikely to happen this year. However, you must remember that the funding has remained at about the same during these temporary extensions. But a multiyear bill would give transit agencies the planning horizon they need to dust off long-term projects. It would also be a positive indication when a long-term bill is passed for transit. Many agencies are faced with a dilemma: As ridership is increasing, state and local funding remains tight, so some have been forced to make service cuts. Outside of the U.S., transit is more a part of the culture and the economy, and we're seeing growth in some of the key markets. China's passenger traffic increased almost 3% in the most recent month. Traffic was up 8% in the U.K. Even during these difficult economic times in Europe, funding for transit projects has remained steady. We will continue to focus on growth and cash generation. Cash remains a priority for us. We are focused on increasing free cash flow by managing costs, driving down working capital, controlling capital expenditures. Cash provides the opportunity to invest in organic growth and acquisitions and return money directly to the shareholders in a variety of ways. At the end of the first quarter, our balance sheet remains very healthy, with net debt of only $117 million. Going forward, we will continue to invest in our 4 strategic growth opportunities: Global and market expansion, aftermarket expansion, new products and technology, acquisitions. Let's talk about a little bit of progress on those growth strategies. For global and market expansion area, sales outside of the U.S. were $291 million, $46 million higher than first quarter of 2011, now running at about half of our total sales versus about 1/3 just 5 years ago. Growth in the quarter was driven by sales of new locomotives in Australia, our train control project in Brazil, aftermarket sales in the U.K. and an acquisition of Bearward in the U.K., which closed in the fourth quarter last year. If we look at aftermarket expansion, our second growth strategy, overall aftermarket sales were $321 million. That was 55% of our total revenues. This grew by 29% compared to the prior year quarter. In the aftermarket expansion area, we also benefited from service growth from the U.S., as well as train control project in Brazil and overall projects in the United Kingdom. As far as new products, sales in new products last year were about 35% of our total sales, which demonstrates our focus on this strategy. Our new product programs are both evolutionary, such as our next-generation end of train device, and more revolutionary, such as positive train control. Positive train control continues to be a growth driver for us, with sales expected to exceed $200 million during this year. That compares to about $125 million in 2011. Our fourth growth strategy of acquisitions. We completed several transactions last year: Bearward, Fulmer Traction (sic) [Fulmer Company], Brush Traction and an aftermarket transit business. We continue to review an active pipeline of candidates. Acquisitions not only help us to drive top line growth, but they also offer the opportunity for margin improvement as we fully integrate them and apply the principles of the Wabtec Performance System. Before I turn it over to Alvaro to talk about some of the financial numbers, I'd like to talk a bit more about our Wabtec Performance System because we think it's part of the reason we've been able to generate cash and show improved margins over the years. The Wabtec Performance System consists of 3 pillars. Those pillars are Lean principles, product development, quality/customer service, and we strive to improve in each of these areas. In the Lean area, our Lean focus is on continuous margin improvement and eliminating waste in everything we do, from manufacturing to administrative processes. As part of this effort, we look for lower-cost sources of raw materials around the world, and over time, we expect to migrate our production to lower-cost Wabtec platforms and locations. We also strive to offset any commodity inflation with escalators and surcharges, and we selectively increase prices based on market conditions. Lean has been a hallmark of our culture for the past 20 years. It still provides a never-ending stream of improvement opportunities, as you can see from our margin and cash generation in the recent years. We track our progress monthly using a variety of internal metrics such as quality, on-time delivery, safety. Last year, we held more than 600 Kaizen activities throughout the corporation. That's about 20% more than the prior year. We plan to hold even more this year. In 2010, we started an internal Lean certification program for all of our employees, and we expect that more than half of our workforce will be certified at Level 1 by the end of this year. And keep in mind, our employment numbers keep growing as we add acquisitions. Our focus on Lean is ongoing and continues to generate meaningful results and benefits. With that, I'll turn it over to Alvaro.