Earnings Labs

Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (WPRT)

Q1 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, May 11, 2017

$1.97

-0.25%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Thank you and good afternoon. Welcome to the Westport Fuel Systems First Quarter Conference Call, which is being held to coincide with the press release containing Westport Fuel Systems' financial results that went out earlier this afternoon. On today's call, speaking on behalf of Westport Fuel Systems is Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Gougarty; Chief Operating Officer of the Automotive and Industrial Segment, Andrea Alghisi as well as our Chief Financial Officer, Ashoka Achuthan. Attendance at this call is open to the public and to media, but questions will be restricted to the investment community. You're reminded that certain statements made in this conference call and our responses to various questions may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. and applicable Canadian securities law and such forward-looking statements are made based on our current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, so you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. Information contained in this conference call is subject to and qualified in its entirety by information contained in the company’s public filings. I would now turn the call over to Nancy Gougarty. Please go-ahead ma'am.

Nancy Gougarty

Management

Thank you very much. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us to discuss Westport Fuel Systems' first quarter results. Today we're speaking for our third full quarter as a combined company. The past 12 months have not been without their challenges, but today, I am more confident than ever that the company is on the right path to becoming a sustainable, profitable company that can deliver value to customers, employees and shareholders. When I first spoke to you last August, we laid our several clear goals. Firstly, focus on our product portfolio and sell non-core assets. Secondly, align our cost and revenue and capture the benefits and synergies of the merger. Thirdly, improve our balance sheet and fourthly, the advancement in bringing HPDI 2.0 to market. I am pleased to be able to report that we have made substantial progress on the path to meet these goals and while we continue to focus on achieving these goals, we remain agile and ready to ensure that we are able to adapt to ever-changing business environment. We have made the decision to exit our industrial business, the first step of which was the sale of our APU assets. The decision was a result of a comprehensive review of our entire portfolio that began last summer. The industrial segment is a good business that is it adjusted EBITDA positive. However, when we looked at our core skills, the competitive dynamics of the end markets, the size of competitors, this knowledge, plus our thorough assessment made our decision clear for Westport Fuel Systems to exit this segment. Though it is taking time, we are purposeful and deliberate to ensure that Westport Fuel Systems gets the maximum shareholder value for these industrial assets. The cash received through the APU asset sale is meaningful and…

Andrea Alghisi

Management

Thank you, Nancy. Now starting on Slide 10, as you've seen in our financial statements, all of our industrial segment is now recorded in discontinued operations. So, my comments will be about our global automotive segment. Please note that our global automotive segment now includes the electronic business as well as the high-pressure components, which had previously been included in industrial. All numbers shown have been adjusted to reflect their addition. My comments will compare the first quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2016. Because the merger did not occur until June 2016, the results of the first quarter of 2016 are less meaningful for comparative purposes. As Nancy stated, since the close of the merger we have undertaken a number of initiatives to improve our operating performance and reduce our costs. This is included for our stats like consolidating our operating footprint and eliminating redundancies, but also exploiting technical levers like product redesign and make versus buy and commercial levers like strategic sourcing and supplier negotiation to improve product competitiveness. We have additional efforts underway and we have implemented a program of operational excellence. My colleagues and I have learned over years in the industry, you cannot control market cycles, government policies or commodity prices. You can only control how you operate and deliver to your clients. Now turning to the performance in the first quarter, revenues were down from the fourth quarter due to weaker sales in the compressor business and in the high-pressure business as well. However, leaseback performance to recover in the second quarter. Gross margin of 25% were arrived from prior quarters as a result of the efforts to better control our product cost. I am pleased to report that our adjusted EBITDA for the automotive segment was $3.6 million or 6.4%, a…

Ashoka Achuthan

Management

Thank you, Andrea. My comments begin on Slide 12, as of March 31, we had cash and cash equivalents of $47.7 million down from $60.9 million at the year-end. This does not include the cash we received as a part of the sale of our APU assets, which as you know closed on the 20 April. While the gross proceeds of that transactions were $70 million, our net proceeds were approximately $60 million after transaction fees, deal costs and a holdback of $7 million with the release milestones over the next 24 months. After the deal closed, we made an $8 million prepayment of royalties payable to address our collateral obligation to [Caucasian] Capital. With respect to the sale of the second non-core asset, I can say that we are in active negotiations with the potential buyer. Please note that the industrial businesses are now reflected as discontinued operations in our financials. The first fourth quarter revenues for these businesses were $17.5 million and had they not been reported as discontinued operations, our first quarter revenue would have been $77.5 million. We are also ahead of our initial scheduled for capturing synergies from the merger and now expect to exceed the original $30 million run rate savings target by the end of 2017. At the bottom of the slide, you'll see our consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the current and the past four quarters, which shows a loss of $4.1 million in the first quarter of 2017. We're seeing a positive trend; however, I do want to point out that the first quarter was helped by an HPDI program, progress payment and also the timing of certain expenses. We do not expect the second quarter to be strong -- as strong as the first, as we do not have a similar…

Operator

Operator

We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator instructions] The first question comes from Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Rob Brown

Analyst

Good afternoon.

Andrea Alghisi

Management

Good afternoon.

Rob Brown

Analyst

Just wondering if you -- on HPDI program, you're talking about shipping later this year, could you maybe just give us some parameters about how that kind of ramps into 2018? Is it initial product this year and then production product next year? Can you give us some idea of how that HPDI program ramps?

Andrea Alghisi

Management

Nancy, would you like to take that?

Nancy Gougarty

Management

Yes, I will -- I've got some -- Rob, first of all thanks for your question and as you know we're really quite excited about what's going on with HPDI, but the way it rolls out in calendar year '17 we are building some early protection units and then rolling into what we call regular production. But our OEM partner will be I think shortly here making some announcements related to the actual marketing plans. So, we're preparing our suppliers and preparing and getting the supply system ready in part 10-Q in order for us to meet these initial builds that will happen in the latter part of calendar year '17.

Rob Brown

Analyst

Okay. Good. Thank you. That's helpful and then on the other HPDI programs you're working on, could you give us a sense of how many are active at the moment and maybe give us a some sense on when they on the timeline is for product much is there?

Nancy Gougarty

Management

Well a couple things to be said. I think that as we're working in terms of HPDI, what we're finding is that the transportation and the tracking piece is one of it, but we're also finding some very interesting dynamic from off vehicle application as well as in rail. So, I would be -- I think a bit remiss to give you the total numbers that we're working with several people in these various areas. I would tell you that the good news is that because we've done all the heavy lifting relative to the validation and reliability testing for all the HPDI components the good news is it's now getting the products to market because its application work in these circumstances. We're able to get the product to market in a much quicker fashion than what we did with our original launch, which meant that we had to do all the component validation and then do the vehicle validation activity in addition to that. So, I think that what you will see is over the next years several opportunities that can rollout. Now it really again as you know, we're the Tier 1, so this is really up to the OEMs relative to how they want to put this product in their portfolio, but I would say in general we're highly encouraged relative to HPDI being a technology that is key for their alternate fuel technology, primarily because it has such good performance relative to the diesel product.

Rob Brown

Analyst

Okay. And then just one more quick question on the R&D spending, I think you mentioned that corporate spending will come down by about half once that HPI program rolls down, what's kind of the baseline there of spending that you're running at.

Ashoka Achuthan

Management

Yeah let me take that Rob. we've obviously not released figures or guided to figures for R&D spend, but you can expect our ongoing spend to be somewhere you can tracking to about half the levels that you're seeing in the corporate and technology segment today.

Rob Brown

Analyst

Okay. Good. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Eric Stine with Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Eric Stine

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Hi everyone. Listen Nancy you just answered a part of this question, but related to that new OEM agreement that you just disclosed today, and given that it's at 2.0 in that platform and it speeds the timeframe, are you able to kind of give some thought about when you think that could move from development to supply agreement may be too early, but just wondering if you could provide any color there?

Nancy Gougarty

Management

First of all, Eric, thanks for the question, let me try to answer this and I think there are some other folks in the room that probably can chime in, but part of the development agreement we have to find in there that actually moves us into a supply agreement arrangement. And I would anticipate that that's going to happen within calendar year '17 that the supply agreement activity will get going. Again, what we wanted -- I think it's important that we are a full system and full solution provider meaning that we really what in addition to being able to do the development work, we want to supply agreements to go along with it. So, as I stated, so the new Westport, both getting customer funding, but also making sure that we're able to bring meaningful revenues through is really been key to us. So, we have now structured our agreements in phases in order for us to be allowed and to ensure that the supply agreement is going to come along with the development activity.

Ashoka Achuthan

Management

The only thing I would add to that is, this is Ashoka, the only thing I would add to that is this is not an HPDI program that we were reporting to.

Eric Stine

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Okay. Understood. Okay. Good. That is helpful and then maybe just turning to HPDI given that you are approaching volumes, initial volumes with your lead customer, just curious is that -- have you noticed any other OEMs that are moving faster as a result is a C Volvo about to come to market?

Nancy Gougarty

Management

I would tell you that each OEM has their own view relative to this and we had lots of discussion with them about it fits into their portfolio. I would say more highly encouraged in the European market that because of some greenhouse gas and CO2 initiatives that we're going to see it more in the near-term but, again as we always continue to say Eric and will continue, this is the OEM that meets their launch timing relative to this. I would say as I mentioned in my comment to Rob that we are really very pleased because of the fact that we get such comparable performance in terms of range as well as for vehicle performance to diesel that this provides -- this alternate technology has lots of advantages over other things that OEMs can initiate. So that is one of the things at least on the trucking side that we're finding to be one of the calling card that's making it really interesting.

Eric Stine

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Right. Okay. So maybe last one for me and I did jump on late, so I apologize, if you touched on this but the industrial piece and discontinuing that, should we take this as a that there are certainly more to come or at least that would be your objective.

Nancy Gougarty

Management

So, Eric in the showcase portion, he did mention that we're in the last, we're in negotiations with party to sell another portion of our industrial asset.

Eric Stine

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Right. Okay. So, you had previously talked about to you solely PUC you have the other one, I was just curious, do you see within industrial others beyond that or is the one non-core asset sales that you're in final stages, does that incorporate the rest of the industrial the discontinued operations?

Nancy Gougarty

Management

Right now, the only thing that's in discontinued operation is those that are part of the industrial group, but I would tell you that we continue to look at our portfolio and there are some other opportunities and again in certain cases we're looking for some market opportunity for them and as they become ready for us to move out into the market, we will certainly let you know that.

Eric Stine

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator instructions] The next question comes from Jeff Osborne with Cowen and Company, please go ahead.

Jeff Osborne

Analyst · Cowen and Company, please go ahead.

Hey good afternoon, couple questions on my end, I was wondering if you could talk about the CWI near zero engine any sense of preliminary interest or backlog is open that part a of the question and then for Ashoka, how should we be thinking about in 2018 gross margins for CWI as that engine ramps up, is there a larger warranty reserve and then we should be factoring that into our assumptions.

Ashoka Achuthan

Management

Thanks for your question Jeff. Let me take the first one first, which is interest in the zero equivalent engines that CWS just launched. As you know, the 8.9-liter product is available today and the 12-liter version of the zero-equivalent engine with the launch later this year or very early next year. Very positive reaction, I don't know if you were there at the ACT in Long Beach last week, but we were extremely impressed with customer reaction people see it as a game changer and most importantly it offers them a real alternative to zero equivalent -- as a zero-equivalent option with no commercial constraints to supply all technological readiness compared to the other zero option -- zero emission options that may be available. So very positive and we expect that to contribute very favorably to both the topline on the bottom line going forward. Your second question on the gross margins year we expect to see continuing strength on gross margins as these engines come on stream, but more significantly, we expect our operating margins to improve because of that used to ongoing R&D spend. As you know, the past year and this year have been significantly impacted by the spend related to the development of these engines both the new 6.7-liter engine as well as the zero equivalent versions of the 8.9 and the 12 liters and plus a fair amount of engineering spend related to ongoing -- onboard diagnostics, which are required for engines in 2018. Once that will be behind us, which we expect will happen in the middle of this year, you can see a significant drop off for both R&D and SG&A spend going forward as well.

Jeff Osborne

Analyst · Cowen and Company, please go ahead.

Got it. That's helpful, maybe one for Andrea or anyone can jump but is there a sense on the automotive side that you could give the rough mix that you expect or you saw in 2016 on a combined basis for the two companies, what the mix is of delayed OEM and retrofit kits for the vehicles?

Andrea Alghisi

Management

Thank you, Jeff for your questions and I heard correctly the Ike asking for 2016 or 2017?

Jeff Osborne

Analyst · Cowen and Company, please go ahead.

Maybe just I am just curious what the rough mix is maybe in the quarter for 2017 would be helpful. I don't need exact numbers, but just a perspective of what you anticipate between those three segments.

Andrea Alghisi

Management

Well I would say that the 50% of our business is after market and let's say the other 50% is share among let's say 3D businesses, so one is OEM, the second is delayed OEM and the third one is what we call diversified businesses. So, the OEM is another together with the delayed OM is another let's say 25%, 30% and the last 20% is diversified businesses. Some of them are complementary because they are for example we have what we call a service business which allows us to give more revenue stream to our dealers in Italy.

Jeff Osborne

Analyst · Cowen and Company, please go ahead.

Got it and Ashoka any sense of perspective of the remaining assets that you had sell in terms of size, is that half the size or similar to what you've already done with the ATE segment, my assumption is it's much smaller but I just wanted to if you had any comments on that.

Ashoka Achuthan

Management

Not unreasonable as I mentioned Jeff, bear in mind we have reclassified almost the entire piece of the industrial segment as discontinued operations. So, you can draw your own conclusions from that in terms of what is left after the APU sales. There is a very small piece of the form industrial business the rolls into automotive and that has to do with electronics. But as Nancy mentioned besides these, we have a couple of businesses that are potentially non-core as well.

Jeff Osborne

Analyst · Cowen and Company, please go ahead.

Makes sense, the last one quick I saw the automotive service revenue as the highest it's been I think in three years, what was going on there? The MD&A is at $3.7 million.

Ashoka Achuthan

Management

So that was a milestone payment from our customer, related to the HPDI program.

Jeff Osborne

Analyst · Cowen and Company, please go ahead.

Got it. Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to the management for any closing remarks.

Andrea Alghisi

Management

Thanks for joining the call today everyone. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to the Investor Relations team. Thanks again for your interest in Westport Fuel Systems. That ends our Q1 call today.

Operator

Operator

Thank you to everyone for joining us today. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to the Westport Fuel Systems Investor Relations team. Thanks again for your interest in Westport Fuel Systems.