ESCO Technologies Inc (ESE) 2014 Q1 法說會逐字稿

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  • Operator

  • Good day, and welcome to the ESCO First Quarter 2014 Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded.

  • With us today are Vic Richey, Chairman and CEO; Gary Muenster, Vice President and CFO; and now to present the forward-looking statement, I'd like to turn the call over to Kate Lowrey, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

  • Kate Lowrey - Director of IR

  • Thank you.

  • Statements made during this call regarding the Aclara divestiture process, 2014 EPS and continuing operations as adjusted, orders, sales and EBIT growth, margin, EBIT, the schedule and cost of the Crissair move, the benefits from previous consolidations, and other statements which are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws.

  • These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, and actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in the Company's operations and business environment, including but not limited to the risk factors referenced in the Company's press release issued today, which will be included as an exhibit to the Company's Form 8-K to be filed.

  • We undertake no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

  • In addition, during this call, the Company may discuss some non-GAAP financial measures in describing the Company's operating results. A reconciliation of these measures to their most comparable GAAP measures can be found in the press release issued today and found on the Company's website at www.ESCOtechnologies.com under the link Investor Relations.

  • Now, I'll turn the call over to Vic.

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Thanks, Kate, and good afternoon.

  • We have two major subjects to discuss this afternoon, one which we can talk about a good bit, the first quarter performance and our 2014 outlook. The other is the Aclara sale, where we can only provide limited insight given where we are in the process.

  • Let's talk about the Aclara process first. We continue working very diligently to get a deal signed, announced, and closed. Obviously, we hoped to have this completed by now, but given the complexity of the business and its resulting impact on the transaction, the process is taking longer than anticipated.

  • As I've said before, I remain committed to getting the best deal for our shareholders, not the quickest deal. Even though we can't say any more at this time, I can assure you that we're continuing to make progress and that getting this done is a high priority for me and our management team.

  • Moving on to our Q1 performance, I'm obviously very pleased with how the quarter played out as we exceeded our projections across the board with every company contributing.

  • There was a lot of good activity in the Filtration segment since we last spoke, including several nice program wins throughout our aerospace and space business, coupled with having some sizable programs and moving toward production. Both of these bode well for our future growth.

  • Consolidation of Crissair and Canyon Engineering is progressing on schedule and on budget. Also through its first six months, Canyon has beaten the initial acquisition forecast.

  • The Test business, while a little soft in orders in the first quarter, exceeded its projections on all other financial metrics.

  • The facility consolidation completed last year is paying real dividends. We anticipate a strong second quarter in orders resulting from the slip of several projects from Q1.

  • Doble had an exceptionally solid quarter, and more importantly, we're seeing a significant uptick in market interest related to Doble's newly developed products, as well as a nice momentum in our international markets.

  • The remainder of the year continues to look solid, although it's never without challenges. We did have a lot of reorganization and cost reductions last year to enhance our future growth and to protect our profitability, and we are seeing the improved results we expected.

  • Our priorities are simple -- execute and deliver our commitments in a core business, and once the Aclara divestiture is completed, re-up our focus on growth.

  • I'll now turn it over to Gary to discuss the financials, and then we'll be glad to answer any questions you have.

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Thanks, Vic.

  • Consistent with our fiscal year-end earnings release, Aclara's financials for Q1 are presented as discontinued operations in the P&L and assets held for sale on the balance sheet.

  • The 2014 guidance provided in November was based on EPS from continuing operations as adjusted, and therefore, the Q1 results are presented in a consistent format, and my commentary will follow as such.

  • As a reminder, the 2014 EPS from continuing operations as adjusted excludes the nonrecurring charges to complete the exit and relocation of Crissair's Palmdale operation into the Canyon Engineering facility in Valencia. The move is expected to be completed by fiscal year end at a cost of approximately $2 million, or $0.05 a share.

  • The 2013 items were identified throughout the prior year on a quarterly basis and are noted in the footnotes to the tables of the attached release.

  • Our November expectations for Q1 EPS from continuing operations as adjusted were in the range of $0.24 to $0.29 a share. We beat the top end of our range by $0.05 as we delivered $0.34 a share on a comparable basis.

  • As Vic said, the increase in earnings was the result of solid performance across all three operating segments. I'll call out a few highlights from the release to allow you to better understand the underlying results.

  • Q1 sales increased $14 million, or 13%, over prior year with all three segments contributing -- Filtration increased 20%; Test increased 9%; and Doble, 6%. We're also pleased to see gross margin percentages increased to 40.3% in the current quarter compared to 39.6% in Q1 of last year.

  • When calling out our Q1 highlights, the $4.5 million increase in our adjusted EBIT and our increase in EBIT margins to 11.8% from 9.1% in the prior year is noteworthy.

  • Doble's EBIT margin of 26% was higher than expected and was favorably impacted by a strong sales mix between hardware and services.

  • Test's EBIT margin nearly doubled from prior year, reflecting the impact of last year's facility consolidation.

  • And Filtration came in slightly below prior year due to changes in sales mix within the respective quarters at PTI, coupled with the additional cost of currently operating in the two facilities at Crissair and Canyon, which, as we said, are being consolidated into one.

  • So at the bottom line, in Q1 of this year, we reported $0.34 of EPS from continuing operations as adjusted, which compares to $0.24 in Q1 of the prior year. This reflects a 42% increase in EPS on a 13% increase in sales.

  • On the cash flow and balance sheet front, we continue to be supported by a strong balance sheet as our net debt balance was approximately $143 million.

  • Our leverage ratio remains low, with continued favorable pricing on our debt.

  • On a continuing operations basis, we recorded $114 million in orders for a 0.91 book-to-bill ratio and a resulting backlog of $261 million.

  • Our order profile on a quarterly basis throughout the remainder of 2014 remains strong and continues to support our growth expectations.

  • Management continues to see strong growth across the Company in 2014, and as noted in the release, our expectations for 2014 are consistent with the guidance presented in November.

  • EPS from continuing operations as adjusted is expected to remain in the range of $1.50 to $1.60 a share.

  • I'll be happy to address any specific financial questions during the Q&A, and now I'll turn it back over to Vic.

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Thanks, Gary.

  • We'd be glad to open up to answer questions you have now.

  • Operator

  • Thank you. (Operator Instructions)

  • Kevin, BB&T Capital Markets.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Thank you. A couple questions, but can we start with margins, maybe for Gary.

  • If you look at utility in Filtration margins and the incrementals we had, in utility, we've had sales up less than 2 million but EBIT up more than 2. Was there something going on with the mix there that was more favorable? Because obviously the dropdown there is a lot more impressive than we would've thought.

  • And the same but opposite question on Filtration, where sales were up $9 million but we had less than $1 million dropdown.

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Yes, on the Doble side, Kevin, obviously, when we talk about mix, we have a spread of hardware units that we sell, and some of our legacy products carry significant margins because there's not a whole lot of additional engineering or costs involved that they're incremental.

  • So when you can move a disproportionate share of some of our protection suite of products that are not the new things, which obviously have some engineering attached to them, you get a significant margin contribution.

  • To put numbers around it, that we have certain hardware products that we sell that are 65% and 67% gross margins. So depending on which individual units you sell out of our suite of products, you can get two or three points of margin differential on some of those things. So it really is a mix of some of the higher-margin products that we'd sold where we sold more of those what I'll call legacy products in this quarter versus last year, and so that, obviously, impacts the mix.

  • When you look at Filtration, there's a differential between OEM and aftermarket, and there's a differential between some of the new products that are coming on to market. For instance, on the -- as Vic said in his prepared remarks, there's some large programs that are coming into initial stages of production, so the primary one is the Airbus A350. As you come out of the development stage and you're in pre-production and what they call low-rate initial production, you're selling hardware in some cases at a loss because there's a nonrecurring incremental engineering component at these low rates.

  • So if you're selling, for instance, $1 million or $750,000 worth of A350, you're going to be selling that at negative margins. As you get that up into production run rates, you're going to see a significant increase there.

  • So we had some A350 sales in the quarter, which obviously hit a negative margin, so therefore, it brings down the total. We had a little bit of a change between aftermarket and OEM in the two comparable quarters. And, also, last year, we had some foreign sales to a Japanese customer, which had significantly higher margins through that distribution channel.

  • So it truly is a mix situation, and I would say it's primarily embedded at PTI. VACCO, the space business, came in at a higher margin. Crissair standalone came in at a higher margin. And then when you put the extra facility on the small scale of Canyon prior to consolidation, its margin is not at the average, obviously, of the Company. So we did in the single digits at Canyon, but when you put that against the whole, it obviously dilutes the total.

  • So it really is a mix situation, both at Doble as a contribution margin on these older products, and it's a mix situation of PTI that we're confident throughout the rest of the year will rationalize themselves closer to the annual guidance we provided.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • All right. Very helpful, Gary. And so, again, just to kind of summarize that, in both cases, Doble and Filtration, you expect that to kind of normalize, and that's why we have a flattish guide for the year and that's unchanged?

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Yes, we don't expect -- as much as we would like to see Doble banging out 25% and 26% margins, that product mix will not be sustainable in the same relationship throughout the year because the service business tends to be more back-end-weighted at the end of the year, and so as you look through the succeeding quarters, two, three, and four, you'll see a more normalized low 20s-type EBIT margin contribution to bring us to where we see.

  • And then at PTI -- I'll call them out separate -- their margin was in the mid-teens, and normally they're in the 20s. Once the A350 gets a little more volume through there and some of these other new programs that Vic talked about, on the business jets and the regionals and that sort of thing, they carry better margins than start-up programs do. You'll see PTI reverting back to 18 to 20 versus the 15 or 16, so those really are timing/mix-related deliverables.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Got it. And on that front, Gary, on some of the new program wins and the A350, can you give a little bit more color around that? Can you call out any others by name and maybe talk about timing and magnitude?

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • I think on a broad scale, I think A350 we obviously announced several years ago because that's a gigantic program, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, it ranges over the next 15 or 20 years.

  • The other ones I can't specifically say who the customer is other than to characterize two of them as business jet providers, so pretty sure you can figure out who the business jet providers are.

  • And the other is centered around the regional jet providers, of which, again, there's only a few of them.

  • And those, to put them in scaled size, on the regionals, those are between 75 and $100 million programs over the next 10 or 12 years, and on the business jet sized, two different projects, they range between 20 and $45 million over their expected fleet production.

  • So very, very good wins that will start ramping up here over the next several years, as Vic said, to support our growth outlook.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • And in each case, Gary, or at least in aggregate, there's some ramp happening this year? These are not -- I know they're multi-year things, but these are not ramping in the out years; they're ramping this year?

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • No, I would say one of the business jet opportunities ramps in the back half, but it will be a nominal contribution in Q4. A350 is the most eminent ramp. And then I'd put the regional jet players probably in the back half of 2015 to early 2016, and then the second business jet contribution will be same thing, second half of 2015 into early 2016. So it's a nice opportunity to see a step change in revenue as you go beyond 2015 to support our growth.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Okay, got it. And then just finally for me, can you piggyback on that? And anything you can say on the space side, any trends of note in the SLS program or others?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • This is Vic. I'd say it's been very solid. We've not seen any specific significant uptick or softness, so that's been a nice steady business for us over the past two years, and we've got pretty good insight going out for at least the next two years on what this will be. So that's turned into a real nice solid-state business for us.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Okay, got it. Thank you.

  • Sean Hannan, Needham and Company.

  • Sean Hannan - Analyst

  • Wanted to see if we could get some clarification around the movement that you had that you pulled forward from fiscal second quarter into the first. How much moved, and what segment was that specific to?

  • And then have a little bit more in terms of follow-up questions specifically around Doble. Thanks.

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Well, we had a little bit, Sean, across each of the businesses, just to kind of -- to put some relative scale on that, and obviously, to support the bottom line, you have to pull through at the top line.

  • So I would say across the Filtration segment, if you pegged it as somewhere between 500,000 and 750,000, you'd be okay.

  • On Test, it would be between 250,000 and 500,000.

  • And on Doble, it would be between 500,000 and 1 million.

  • Sean Hannan - Analyst

  • Okay. And then specifically on Doble, trying to get an understanding of that 6% growth, positive, not a huge number. I think that your general aspirations would be for something a little bit higher. I know that there are some aspects of that business where there's a little bit of a transitional period as we have some new products kind of on the horizon, as well as getting acceptance, etcetera.

  • So just trying to get a sense from you, can you share your assessment of how the business performed and what contributed to that performance result and how you expect that as we move through the year in the aggregate to really grow from these levels?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Yes, this is Vic. I would say that what you'll see -- and we talked a good bit about the new products we've built, starting to roll those out -- that's a slow process. You start with small numbers and you grow over time.

  • But I think the two things that you'll see as we go throughout the year, and the exact timing's always a little suspect, but what you'll see over the course of the year is, number one, we'll get more traction, continue to get more traction on those new products. And then the other thing, which (inaudible) second half of the year, some of the opportunities we have in international market will really start driving through.

  • So those are the really two pieces. So the guidance we put out going into the year on the type of growth anticipated from Doble, we've not seen anything that this changed their outlook on that.

  • Sean Hannan - Analyst

  • Okay. And specific to the arms product, I think that that's one of the new products you folks are looking for some traction with, and it feels like you're a bit beyond beta testing there, and that's more or less in the rearview mirror and you're now moving more so into pilots.

  • Is there a way if you can elaborate on the activity with arms? How many utilities are now in or about to enter pilot, and how do you expect this to contribute to that 2014 guidance you previously provided? And is there any, perhaps, acceleration that could occur in that uptake? Thanks.

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • I think we've got about eight clients that are currently either already in the piloting stage or moving to the piloting stage. I'd say the best opportunity for acceleration for that or some of the international opportunities we're looking at it, I think we can do a lot more domestically, as well, but I'd say that we're trying to make sure that we have deployments really in all of our major markets.

  • So, as I say, we've got those moving into pilots in the US, and I think we'll have some established internationally before the end of the year, as well.

  • But that project, overall, has gone very well. We've had great responses from utilities that have seen it and seen it demonstrated, so we still hold high hopes for that project.

  • Sean Hannan - Analyst

  • Great. Thanks so much for the color.

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • You bet.

  • Operator

  • John, CJS Securities.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Test segment margins were down a bit from, I guess, Q3 and Q4 of last year despite the facility consolidation. Just wondering what (inaudible) that?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • I mean it's really all driven by the volume. If you look at, I think, at the fourth quarter last we did $59 million of sales.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • (Inaudible).

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • And we did in the 30s this time. So the reality is we did much better than -- well, we did better than we thought we were going to do in the first quarter. The first quarter's always a little soft in the Test business, but it's totally driven by volume.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Okay, and then how do you see the timing of revenues in Test this year? I mean if you're going to divest Aclara, it sounds like that would be the lumpiest business left over.

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • As far as the trends on the growth for the rest of the year, it's going to be back-end loaded, as it typically is sort of. We'll see a strong fourth quarter like we had last year, and the first half of the year will be softer than the second half of the year.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant: Okay.

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Yeah, just to put numbers around that, John, we always -- as Vic said, the first quarter is from a revenue perspective just because of where it falls on the calendar for most of our customers. Being in that mid to upper 30s tends to be the first quarter profile, our first quarter profile, fourth quarter calendar profile, and then we expect it to step up into the mid-40s. And so the nice part is as you step up from that 39 into the mid-40s, obviously, you don't have a variable G&A that comes along with that. So the direct margin pretty well falls to the bottom line there, so you see a nice step change in Q2. And then when you advance that into Q3 and you move yourself above 50, so let's call that the low 50s in Q3, that's where you'll see the margin above the mean because of that volume throughput that comes through.

  • So comparable to last year, we did about 49 or $50 million in Q3 of 2013, and we pulled through about 14.5%, and that was still in the midst of the restructuring. So as you pull that kind of revenue through, which is consistent in Q3, that's where you'll see the leverage off the facility consolidation. And then as you go into Q4, you start to see it in the mid to upper 50s, and again, consistent with our Q4 of last year, where we had a monstrous sales quarter.

  • So the profile of the revenue is higher in each of the quarters, as you see here, and then with the lower cost, you'll see margin leverage or expansion coming off of the lower cost structure in that same revenue profile.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Okay, great. That's helpful.

  • And then maybe if you can, just a little bit more color on the Aclara process. What needs to be finished? What's the biggest hold-up? When can we kind of look forward to moving past that and then moving on to what you're going to do with cash from the proceeds?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Yes, obviously, we can't give a lot of detail on where we're at. Obviously, we've been at this for quite a while, so I think we've made a lot of progress and we'd hoped to be in a position to announce that this call, and obviously, we aren't able to do that.

  • But I can't give you any more guidance than that other than we're working hard. Everybody's committed to get it done as quickly as we can.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Okay. Then I guess barring that, can you talk a bit about the acquisition pipeline? How soon after maybe the close of a divestiture do you think you could close an acquisition?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Well, we've had -- I won't say the full time, but we've had most of the [quarter] staff working on this process. The operating guys have still continued to look for opportunities, have identified some things that we've kind of been holding at bay until we get through this process, but I can assure you that the day after we sign this, we'll be turning to that and hopefully get some things done pretty quickly.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Okay, great. Thank you very much.

  • Operator

  • Chip Moore, Canaccord Genuity.

  • Chip Moore - Analyst

  • You gave some good color there in the A350 program as that gets set to ramp here and then some other platforms to follow. Can you talk maybe a little more probably about the longer-term pipeline there? What's out there that hasn't been decided yet? How's the competitive environment? Thanks.

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Yes, as you know with aerospace business, it's not like you get five new platforms a year or anything like that, but we have identified a number of things at, say, more on the business jet and the regional jet front that will continue to be some significant upgrades.

  • The large players, you know, Boeing and Airbus, don't have anything in the near-term pipeline, but some of these others will.

  • Also, we've identified some international opportunities, kind of non-traditional international opportunities, that we're pursuing, as well.

  • So I think there'll be some good opportunities there, and that's kind of the way this aerospace business is, as Gary mentioned earlier. (Inaudible) projects this year that will start delivering a couple years from now. The A350, we've been working on for a number of years. So it's just a matter of making sure that we've got, I would say, our sales pipeline filled for the next number of years just as a result of the programs that we're on from years ago when (inaudible) more recently. And so it's just a matter of staying on top of the new ones as they come out.

  • From a competitive standpoint, I think that the companies have all done a good job of making sure they've identified with the right partners to work with, have kept the right engineering staff in place to ensure that we can perform to the level expected of companies like this.

  • And then the other thing, if you go in and look at the specific growth and profitability of Crissair, for instance, or (inaudible) with Canyon, both of those companies have benefited greatly as being part of a larger company. They've got opportunities and won opportunities as a result of being able to say, "Hey, we're part of this large [flip-flow] business, which is part of ESCO, which is a larger business."

  • So I would say we'll -- from a competitive standpoint, it's been improved as a result for both of those companies, and particularly, being part of a larger organization. And, in fact, we've even kind of pulled PTI back over the bed, as well.

  • So when we go to Paris Air Show, for instance, you go to Farnborough later in the summer, we're able to show a presence to these aerospace vendors because that's important to them because they're talking about working with a company for 20 years on some of these projects, and they want to make sure that the company's going to be around, be an outlet for that period -- for that length of time.

  • Unidentified Audience Participant

  • Perfect, perfect, thanks. Appreciate it.

  • Operator

  • Jim Giannakouros, Oppenheimer.

  • Jim Giannakouros - Analyst

  • I'm sorry if I missed it, but Doble, I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks, soft quarter. I'm sorry, what did you attribute that to?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • No, Doble did not have a soft quarter. The only thing that I said was a soft quarter was the Test business; orders were soft this quarter.

  • Jim Giannakouros - Analyst

  • Got it. Sorry about that. Okay.

  • The real question that I had was Filtration. When thinking just longer-term, are you thinking that you're going to take this Filtration business to areas outside of commercial aerospace and NASA? And if you do have an eye on those end markets, I mean what -- how should we be thinking about how that would impact your growth profile and especially that 20% EBIT margin that we've come to appreciate out of that segment?

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Jim, I would say that what we've done over the past five years is really refocus our Filtration, our [flip-flow] business on aerospace and space. We think there's a lot of opportunities there for us. It's a nice niche market. We are able to achieve good margins.

  • Historically, if you'd followed ESCO years ago, we had some other markets that we were participating in, such as automotive and medical, the more industrial flavor, and quite honestly, the margins aren't as good there, the competition's a lot worse, the engineering requirements aren't as strong. So we really like this Filtration [flip flow] business, but I think where we're really going to be successful is sticking in the niche, where we've got competitive advantage, where we've got the engineering expertise, and we're able to bring those margins to bear.

  • Jim Giannakouros - Analyst

  • Understood, and I agree. Thank you, guys.

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Yes, I would say, Jim -- just one thing I would add. While we're sticking to the aerospace business, we have made some [expanse] in particularly PTI. Where PTI used to be strictly hydraulic fluid, and VACCO was more just fuel, we have expanded some in the [cabin air] and the fuel filters, and so -- but that's more doing it in the same market where it has the same characteristics and the same margins, as well.

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions)

  • Craig Irwin, Wedbush Securities.

  • Craig Irwin - Analyst

  • I know everyone wants to talk about where you're going to redeploy the capital from Aclara and what sort of organic opportunities there are for you, but really, Aclara's still a very important asset until it's off the balance sheet.

  • So not to ask about the process, as others have, can you maybe update us on the major issue that Aclara was facing as a headwind? Our checks showed that the deployment of the collectors was a serious issue for SoCal in the initiation of this project. They thought they were going to get access to rights of way from [Caltrans] and other utilities but just didn't materialize.

  • Can you update us on where things stand operationally in that process since you still do own these assets and this is not related to the actual sale and SoCal also discusses some of these things in public? Can you maybe give us an update on where that is, what the solutions are, and how this impacts timing?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Yes, let me give you a general answer, and then I want to kind of drill in to make sure I understood some of your question as it related to where there were some problems with deployment.

  • I think I know what you're saying, but I'll try to answer it, and if it's not correct, then we'll talk about it more.

  • Let me say, first, I was just at SoCal two weeks ago and met with the CEO of SoCal. I can tell you they could not be happier with what's going on with the Aclara deployment. I mean we're on schedule, on budget, we've got a great relationship at all levels of the organization. The read rates that we're getting at Aclara on this project are well above what the contractual requirements are. So it's been thus far -- knock on wood -- a great success.

  • Having said that, I mean you don't have a project deployment like this without having some hiccups. We've had some, which every company would on a project like this. Great thing is we've got a great customer. We've worked well with them. We've worked through all those issues. And I can just tell you, I made a lot of customer visits over my career, and this one's a really good one.

  • So maybe what you were talking about -- so that's kind of general. I'd be glad to give you more color that you want. But maybe what you were talking about is when SoCal first started deploying the data collectors, I think there was a thought that they were going to be able to access some points that they had trouble accessing.

  • So I would say early on in project, and I'm talking early last year, there was a little slower deployment of those endpoints than what had been anticipated.

  • Fortunately, SoCal went ahead and made the decision to deploy the endpoints because they knew it wasn't an issue with those; it was just a matter that they had to find the right place to deploy those and gain access to that.

  • So we've had no problems with the performance of the product at all. There was some delay in getting some of those -- getting access to some of the places where they wanted them out. But that's really what the issue was and has been. But as far as I know, that's not been an issue now because we're actually ahead of deployment schedule from what was in the contract.

  • Jim Giannakouros - Analyst

  • Great. That's really good to hear.

  • Next thing I wanted to ask, if we take a look at Aclara and specifically the SoCal contract, based on where you would be tracking if you were on the original deployment schedule -- and I know you said you're slightly ahead of it but I'm going to guess it's generally accurate -- sort of indicate there's something like $100 million in gross margin left to be earned on this contract by a buyer.

  • Now, having known ESCO for a number of years, I know that there's also a large number of other customers out there with specific interest in this technology. Can you maybe walk us through how you would present this for your potential buyers in a due diligence process, and whether or not you believe the trough that we're seeing in smart grid activity is maybe impacting the process, or if this is just really -- well, actually, I want to stay away from the process, sorry, but if this is maybe something that you look at and say, "Man, I wish we could maybe own a business like this five years from now"?

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Let me maybe back up just a minute and remind people why we made the decision that we made, and it's not because Aclara's not a good business. It is a solid business. We've got great technology. We've got great people. We've got good market position. The real problem we have is for a public company our size, the volatility that you have on a quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year basis is very hard for us to deal with because while it's a business of long-term contracts, the issue is it's pretty hard to predict quarter to quarter.

  • And so what we were experiencing over the past year -- and, in particular, a little longer than that -- was that we were having a hard time predicting exactly when that was going to happen. And so as a result, we had, as everybody knows, a hard time predicting our earnings effectively, and I think that was having an impact on our stock price, on our ability to predict our earnings. So that's really the reason we made this decision.

  • What do I think about the smart grid market overall? I think it's a good market. I mean it's something that -- you know, I do think it's a little slow right now. I mean I don't think there's any secret there. I mean you look at what's going on with everybody's plan here and there is some softness.

  • But I would say long-term, this is a great market because the business cases that people have conducted, whether it be on the electric side, whether it be on the gas side or the water side, they make a lot of sense. I can assure you if they didn't make a lot of sense, the PACs wouldn't be approved.

  • So it is something that over time I think there's going to be a very solid market here. The problem is for a company our size, it's just a difficult market to be in. I think if you look at our underlying performance of the remaining business, you can see that now we have a business that it is a bit more predictable, profitable, and will take those funds and we'll redeploy them in more businesses like that.

  • Jim Giannakouros - Analyst

  • Excellent. And congratulations on the broad progress in your three businesses that you've committed to for the longer term.

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Thanks.

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions)

  • Vic Richey - Chairman, CEO, and President

  • Okay, doesn't appear we have any other questions, so I appreciate everybody's interest this afternoon.

  • Gary Muenster - EVP and CFO

  • Thank you.

  • Operator

  • Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.