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Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (WTS)

Q1 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 30, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Watts Water Technologies Incorporated First Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Please be aware that remarks made during today's call about the company's future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed under the heading Risk Factors in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, and other reports the company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements represent the company's views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any future date. While the company may elect to update these forward-looking statements, it disclaims any obligation to do so. During this call, the speakers may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A reconsolidation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the press release dated Wednesday, April 29, 2015, relating to the company's first quarter 2015 financial results, a copy of which may be found in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.wattswater.com under the heading Press Releases. I would now like to turn the conference over to Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Tim MacPhee. Sir, you may begin. Timothy M. MacPhee - Treasurer & Vice President-Investor Relations: Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Bob Pagano, President and CEO, and Todd Trapp, our CFO. Bob will begin by providing a summary of the quarter. He will offer some color on the current market conditions and will update you on our various transformation and restructuring programs. Todd will discuss the financial results of the first quarter in more detail and update our full year outlook. Bob will summarize, and then we will open the call up to your questions. Now, I will turn the call over to Bob Pagano.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Management

Thanks, Tim, and good morning, everyone. Before I speak to the quarter, I'd like to mention two recent additions to our team. Munish Nanda joined us on April 6 as our Americas President and on April 9, Todd Trapp came on board as our CFO. Munish brings a strong operating and growth skill set from his time at ITT and other large Fortune companies. And Todd brings a strong financial skill set from his long tenure at Honeywell. I believe both gentlemen will be instrumental in driving our near-term transformation efforts and our long-term strategy. We welcome both to the Watts Water team. Now, turning to slide three in the earnings call presentation, let me briefly provide an overview of our first quarter performance. The quarter really played out as we had expected. Overall sales were down both on a reported basis and organically. Reported sales were significantly affected by negative currency movements as the U.S. dollar continued to strengthen against the euro and Canadian dollar. As we discussed during our call back in February, organic sales in EMEA were down due to a tough macro environment, especially in some of our larger countries like France and Germany. Americas' organic sales were affected by the product rationalization effort and weather. Harsh weather in the U.S. drove a weak January and much of February. We saw our sales days increase in late February and into March but we could not recover from the slow start. Our core product lines did grow quarter-on-quarter, excluding the effect of the transformation. On the bright side, Asia-Pacific performed very well during the first quarter and EMEA drains business had strong growth and sales into the EMEA emerging markets were up year-over-year. Operating profits were hindered by volume reductions which caused plant under-absorption, FX and increased…

Todd A. Trapp - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thanks, Bob, and good morning, everyone. Before I jump into the material, I just wanted to take a second and just say that I'm really excited to be a part of the Watts Water team. It's only been a few weeks since I joined but I'm very pleased with my experience so far and look forward to working with you and all of our investors in the weeks, the months, and the years ahead. So with that said, let's turn to slide six, and let me walk you through the financial results. In the first quarter, we reported sales of $356 million down 2.5% on a reported basis and down 1.9% on an organic basis. As you recall, back in February, we had discussed many of the top – known top-line variances including foreign exchange, a softer European macro environment, the Americas product line rationalization, the harsh winter in the U.S., plus the addition of AERCO. And as Bob mentioned, it played out pretty much in line with our expectations. Foreign exchange mainly related to the weaker euro, negative impacted sales quarter-over-quarter by 6.6% or approximately $24 million, which more than offset the upside from the AERCO acquisition, which contributed approximately 6% growth. The Americas product line rationalization also added impact on our top line and if you adjust for this initiative, our organic sales would have been flat. Regionally organic sales were down 0.9% in Americas and 5.7% in EMEA, which more than offset a 40% increase in APAC. Again, adjusting for product line rationalization, Americas would have reported a 2.5% growth rate in the quarter. I'll provide a little more color on the regional performance in a few minutes. Adjusted operating profit was down 12.5% to $29.3 million which translated into adjusted operating margins of 8.2%, down 100…

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Thanks, Todd. So, to summarize, the year started out as we expected. Our top line and EPS were challenged by foreign exchange, continued macro issues in Europe, cold weather in the Americas and by the Americas product rationalization program. We did see underlying core growth in the Americas despite the weather issues and Asia Pacific delivered a solid quarter, as did AERCO. The markets in the U.S. we believe are positive, Europe is still shaky, and Asia, we expect to continue to grow. We will continue to drive our various rationalization and transformation programs as 2015 progresses. This heavy lifting is geared toward expanding our future margins. So while this year maybe a transition year, we are very excited about our future results. So, with that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our first question comes from the line of Jeff Hammond from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open

Hi, guys. This is James (26:15), filling in for Jeff.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Hi, James (26:17).

Unknown Speaker

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open

Hi. Can you just speak to the current process and exploring the option of a sale for DIY in terms of how would those products get pulled out from the comingled businesses and also just to the timeframe as to what needs to be accomplished before the early 3Q timeframe that you laid out?

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Yeah. So, James for the most part, most of these businesses are carved out in distinct locations. There's some intermingling in distribution centers, but that's limited. So we are able to isolate and pull those out. So the process is ongoing and, as I said earlier, we are looking at all options in product line sales, in plant sales, et cetera. So, we are right in the middle of the process so I really don't want to comment on more details on that.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open

Sure. And then, pricing you said you passed an April 1 increase. Can you just cover what products – the percentage of revenue maybe that covered was it very broad based and also regionally?

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Yeah. So, overall we did a broad based price increase from 3% to 4%. We always expected about half of that to stick and we've been able to do that. We feel more confident about that in the Americas versus Europe, as you know, is under a lot of pricing pressure right now. So we are doing our best to pass along price in Europe but we're getting a lot of pressure in that market.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open

Got it. And if I could just fit in a final question, can you just provide an update on the decremental margins that are running through the DIY revenue?

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Well, when you take decremental margins, we gave guidance of 15% to 20% that stuff was going to drop at. The first quarter that was about the same $7 million. As we expecting, we announced it about February 22. So we had a lot of orders in backlog so we didn't see a large impact of that but as we moved from the quarter it's going to start ramping up. So about double that probably in second quarter and then it's really going to ramp up even further in Q3 and Q4. So all of that depends on the timing and if there is opportunity to settle, it may be a little faster. Again, it's hard to speculate on that at this point in time.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst · that depends on the timing and if there is opportunity to settle, it may be a little faster. Again, it's hard to speculate on that at this point in time

Got it. Thank you.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Maczka from BB&T Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Thanks. Good morning.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Good morning, Kevin. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Can we just follow-up on that last point. The product rationalization, you still see about $80 million to $100 million this year. It was more like $9 million in Q4. It ramps as we go forward. Can you give any more color on the cadence there that we should expect or is it just too early and you just know it will be more in the back half?

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

So, I think, like I said in the second quarter, I think it will be double the first quarter approximately. And, again, in Q3 and Q4, it all depends at this point in time on the timing of some of the stuff. It is too early to tell. We're getting final orders from our customers and they are supposed to be finalized in mid-May, so that's all part of the plan. So unfortunately we cannot coordinate with our customers and when I say coordinate it, what I am talking about is – they are looking at their various options and certainly if we sell to another party, our customers are aware we're trying to do that. So they are looking at alternatives and as well as a potential buyer may fill that void in the gap. So, again, it's difficult but I would say it's definitely second half skewed. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Got it. And so the sales impact is about double in Q2 and then more in the back half, but those decremental margins those ought to hold throughout the year? Did those get better or worse in the second half as well?

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

I think, for now, those are the best estimates we have. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Those same margin rate. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Got it. And then can I shift over to the EMEA margin, that 7.4% was lower than we've seen in quite some time and it's – at current it is an impact here but it doesn't look like that was the biggest culprit. It looks like – unless I'm not understanding it, it looks like the other volume decline was a bigger – and decrementals on that was a bigger issue. Can you just address that and talk about how we ought to think about EMEA margins, going forward, when we have the decrementals but we also have the transformation and restructuring savings?

Todd A. Trapp - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Sure, Kevin. This is Todd. I would say from a year-over-year perspective, the biggest driver without a doubt is the volume absorption in EMEA. And there is a couple of things due worth mentioning, we had higher stainless steel cost hit us in the quarter as well as incremental G&A costs associated with the Principal Company establishment, and while we're seeing the benefit on the tax line, we're seeing that up the additional cost up in our margins. Unfortunately, this more than offset the higher productivity and restructuring benefits that we saw in the quarter. So, for me, it really comes down to the volume of absorption that we saw in Europe. And we expect that to improve, I think, as we progress through the year given the fact that we think volume is going to somewhat moderate. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Yeah. So the volume declines have to moderate to get into that that down 1% to 3% guide. Q2 though you mentioned in North America and EMEA you have a more difficult comp. So just based on that, we'll see even more volume declines, I guess, unless there is some rebound in demand.

Todd A. Trapp - Chief Financial Officer

Management

So I think the way I would categorize is if you look at the year-over-year decline in Europe, in Q1, it was down 5.7% organically. We think we're going to – from a year-to-year perspective that's going to improve in Q2. And so we're not going to see as much volume headwind from a year-over-year perspective in Q2 that we saw in Q1. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay. So then...

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

And then just to add we – in Q3 and Q4 we have a lot easier comps because if you remember that's when we saw destocking in Q3 and Q4 because the OEMs were building inventory and in the first and second quarter. So our first and second quarter in EMEA is our toughest comp. It gets much easier in Q3 and Q4 because we don't expect that destocking that we saw in Q3 and Q4 last year. So in the EMEA market what we're seeing is lead times from our customers. They're buying only as needed and are asking for faster deliveries to minimize their inventory adjustment. So I think, as Todd, said Q1 and Q2 tough comps, Q3 and Q4 much better comps. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay. And so again, even though the comp is more difficult in Q2, just thinking about the near term, do you think the organic decline will be better and in turn the margin maybe would be better as well in Q2?

Todd A. Trapp - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yes.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Yeah. Better than Q1 for sure. Kevin Richard Maczka - BB&T Capital Markets: Yes. Okay. Thanks. I'll get back in the queue.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Joseph Giordano from Cowen & Company. Your line is now open. Tristan Margot - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hey, guys. This is Tristan for Joe today. Could you maybe parse out the 2.5% organic growth that you saw in the Americas? Can you parse out the growth between the non-res and the residential?

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

When you say non-residential, so a lot of our products – we don't clearly understand where our wholesalers sell products but when we look at it overall in the quarter, in March, when we see the growth overall, we saw our ResCom business was up about 5.5% in total from a sales point of view. So that goes to both markets. When I look at some – we have a gauge where we look at our larger product portfolio and that year-over-year change was about 6% and that tends to be more of the commercial market on those larger sizes. So that's a kind of our proxy of what we're seeing. So that would imply a softer residential side of our overall market. So hopefully that answers your questions. And the only other color I'll give you is our drains business. That business, as we told you in the past, is usually a leading indicator because they put drains in first. Was up, on a shipment basis, about 9% in the first quarter. So that was solid growth in that early indicator. Tristan Margot - Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. And maybe regarding AERCO, do you still see synergies to be put in place. I mean, aside from the $1 million to $2 million in savings that you anticipate, do you still see any cross-selling opportunities maybe?

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Yeah. I mean, we just came back from AERCO. The first two days of this week we had our board of directors there and had a great visit. But $1 million to $2 million is I think what we see this year only because some of the large synergies take longer to build. But already we're seeing opportunities where we're quoting together on some large projects and we think there is opportunity. So we feel great about this acquisition. It's delivering, as we expected, and we're excited about AERCO. Tristan Margot - Cowen & Co. LLC: Perfect. Thank you, guys. That does it for me.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Garik Shmois. Your line is now open.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst · Garik Shmois. Your line is now open

Hey, guys. This is actually Mark (36:38) on for Garik today. I guess back on AERCO a little bit. If you could comment on operating margins in the business and you are seeing how they progressed over the course of the year here and where you think they can peak at. Also, if you could – just a housekeeping question. In your new guidance, didn't see the share repurchase assumption of I think $27 million as well as interest expense about $6 million. I am wondering if those are both right numbers you think about this year? Thanks.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Okay. So I think we've talked about AERCO margin. Usually the first quarter and the fourth quarter are their weakest margins given it's just the timing of growth. So there strongest margins in the second and third quarter which ties to the volume. So we don't get into specifics about every quarter margin, but I would tell you we've said that in the 15% range, from an operating income point of view, overall is a good proxy for where we'll be and the team is doing real well in achieving that and year-over-year, we continue to invest in growth in that business because we believe that business will grow double digit. So we're not constraining them, we want them to grow. It is one of our best growth opportunities for the company.

Todd A. Trapp - Chief Financial Officer

Management

And then your second question on stock compensation, I would say that we've continued down the path of repurchasing approximately $10 million per quarter to offset any dilution from our stock compensation program and I think our interest expense is in line with our forecast.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst · view, overall is a good proxy for where we'll be and the team is doing real well in achieving that and year-over-year, we continue to invest in growth in that business because we believe that business will grow double digit. So we're not constraining them, we want them to grow. It is one of our best growth opportunities for the company

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back to CEO and President, Mr. Robert Pagano for the remarks.

Robert J. Pagano - President and Chief Executive Officer

Operator

Thank you very much. And, in closing, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to join us today for our Q1 earnings call, and we appreciate your continued interest in Watts Water. We look forward to speaking with you again during our Q2 earnings call late in July. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participating in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. Speakers please standby.