Mike Willis
Analyst · Oppenheimer and Company
Thank you, Nancy. As you know, this is my first quarterly quality since starting with Westport Fuel Systems in early June. I'm really pleased to be joining the company as it hits this milestone of turning adjusted EBITDA positive I've been immediately impressed by the talent of the Westport Fuel Systems' team and the passion they have for what the company is trying to accomplish. I am very optimistic about our prospects and believe that we are well positioned to become a profitable company, providing market-ready products to support alternative fuel usage across all segments of the transportation sector. I've had the chance to speak with all of our analysts and with many of our shareholders and look forward to meeting with more of you in the near future. I'll start with slide 5 that provides a summary of our second quarter results. Note that the current and comparative periods have been adjusted to exclude the compressor business, for which we completed the sale in July. Cash on hand at the end of the quarter was $51.2 million and excluded the proceeds from this sale. As a side note, as a newcomer to the Westport Fuel Systems, I've been really impressed by the company's ability to drive significant value from its assets since the 2016 merger with Fuel Systems, generating meaningful cash proceeds from the sale of the industrial, APU and compressor businesses, while also developing a streamlined and profitable portfolio transportation-focused businesses. Now on to our financials. We closed the quarter with sales of $80.5 million, a net loss of $5.7 million and adjusted EBITDA of $8.6 million. Operating expenses increased due to unrealized foreign exchange losses of $5.2 million and legal expenses related to the previously disclosed SEC investigation, but these were partially offset by significant reduction in R&D expenses. As already noted, we achieved positive adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2018, delivering on our prior guidance for the quarter. This is a credit to Nancy and the entire Westport Fuel Systems team for focusing the company and its product portfolio on the transportation sector and by rightsizing the company's cost structure to increase cash margins. Turning to Slide 6, we look at our transportation business segment. Revenues for the second quarter improved by 37% to $80.5 million as compared to the same quarter in 2017. Sales also improved by 26% from the first quarter. This was result of stronger sales in almost all our businesses, including the aftermarket, DOEM, light- and medium-duty OEM businesses as well as from HPDI 2.0. Gross margins improved to $21.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 from $15.3 million in Q2 2017 and $14.2 million in Q1 2018. We're seeing improvement in gross margin as our sales increase and we leverage the fixed cost basis of several of our businesses. The company is also seeing efficiencies through the consolidation of its manufacturing facilities globally. R&D expenses decreased 47% in Q2 2018 compared to the prior year from $13.6 million to $7.2 million, in line with what we have previously mentioned publicly. We expect this decrease in R&D spend as we transitioned HPDI 2.0 from a product development activity to a commercial sales and marketing support activity. Going forward, our R&D efforts will now be more focused on supporting sales of our products in the marketplace, and we'll look to have customers support new R&D initiatives in partnership with us. As a result of our higher sales and tightening R&D spend, adjusted EBITDA improved significantly to a positive $7.4 million in Q2 2018 within the transportation segment, from a loss of $5.8 million in Q2 2017, and a loss of $0.7 million in Q1 2018. Now turning to Slide 7, we'll review the results of the Cummins Westport joint venture. CWI recorded revenues of $86.9 million in Q2 2018, an increase of $34.7 million over Q1 2018, and an increase of $7.4 million over Q2 2017. As we noted in the Q1 earnings call, CWI revenues were negatively impacted by prebuy activities that occurred in Q4 2017 in advance of the 2018 requirement for onboard diagnostic compliant engines. It's great to see revenues bounce back so well in Q2. As anticipated, R&D expenses are trending lower and we expect these expenses to remain at historic lows going forward as the JV isn't anticipating any new major R&D projects going forward. Also, the reduction in corporate tax rates that was recently enacted in the U.S. should increase after-tax income for CWI. These should translate into higher cash dividends to both partners in the future. In Q2, CWI recorded net income of $15.5 million or 18% of sales and during the quarter Westport Fuel Systems received cash dividends of $7.1 million. Turning to Slide 8, we look at our Corporate segment. As mentioned previously, R&D costs in the corporate segment are now only associated with protecting our intellectual property, including maintaining our patent and trademark portfolios. SG&A costs remained relatively consistent with prior periods with the exception of legal expenses relating to the SEC investigation, which were net $2.5 million in the quarter. Turning to Slide 9, we show our cash block. We started the quarter at $55.2 million and ended with $51.2 million. It's important to note that our ending cash balance does not include the proceeds from the compressor business as it was completed after quarter end. The reason for the cash decrease is primarily due to legal expenses relating to the SEC investigation and the buildup of working capital as revenue and production increased during the quarter. Other significant sources and uses of cash were: dividends from CWI were $7.1 million; capital expenditures were $1.7 million this quarter, a significant increase compared to prior quarters; and principal and interest payments were $2 million. For the full-year 2018, we are maintaining our revenue guidance from continuing operations to be between $235 million and $255 million. For the balance of 2018, we anticipate our financial performance to continue to be positive as compared to what we achieved in 2017. However, it's important to note that we did benefit from some positive market dynamics and some seasonal trends in Q2 that may not be as strong throughout the balance of the year. As the year progresses, we expect to provide additional color to our shareholders on how we see the year turning out from our financial perspective. With that, I'd like to turn it over to the operator for questions.