LightPath Technologies Inc (LPTH) 2009 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the LightPath Technologies first-quarter fiscal year 2009 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mark McPartland, with Alliance Advisors. Thank you. Mr. McPartland, you may begin.

Thank you, Claudia. Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank you for joining us today for LightPath Technologies fiscal 2009 first-quarter financial results conference call. Mr. Jim Gaynor, CEO; Ms. Dorothy Cipolla, CFO; and Mr. Robert Rip, Chairman of LightPath Technologies will be your hosts on the call today. If anyone participating on the call does not have a copy of the earnings release that was put out earlier this week, please contact our offices at 914-669-0222.

Now, before we began the call, I'm going to review the Company's Safe Harbor statements. Statements in this conference call that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements relating to future events. And as such, all forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially.

When used in this call, the words anticipate, could, enable, estimate, intend, expect, belief, potential, will, should, projects, and similar expressions as they relate to LightPath Technologies are such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ from those anticipated by LightPath Technologies at this time. In addition, other risks are more fully described in LightPath Technologies public filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission which can be reviewed at www.sec.gov.

Now before I turn the call over to Jim Gaynor, CEO of LightPath Technologies, I would like to congratulate him and his team on another successful quarter of executing their business strategy which included significantly reducing costs, increasing gross margins, and EBITDA year-over-year.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Jim Gaynor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark, and thank you to all of you who are joining us today for our fiscal 2009 first-quarter results conference call. During the first quarter of fiscal 2009, we were able to reduce our direct costs, increase our gross margins and narrow our net loss not only on a year-over-year basis but sequentially compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 as well. These improvements were a direct result of the conversion to lower-cost glass, improved preproduction yields in both Shanghai and Orlando, and using in-house built holders which are used to hold molded glass lenses for some applications.

Our gross margin for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 improved from 10% to 27% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2008 and from 24% to 27% compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. We anticipate continuing to improve margins in fiscal 2009 as increased sales will allow us to leverage our overhead costs.

Additionally, our China facility is currently operating in only 25% capacity thus with increased utilization we should continue to realize improvements in our gross margins with minimum capital expenditure.

We were also pleased with our improved balance sheet as we were able to significantly reduce our current and total liabilities thus improving our current ratio. Our EBITDA for the past five quarters shows that the Company has made significant improvement at similar revenue levels. There has been a 50% improvement from the first quarter of fiscal 2008 compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2009. Going forward, we anticipate lower cash usage due to the effect of the cost reduction steps which have been implemented.

Continued improvement in LightPath profitability is anticipated as we continue to implement our cost reduction program and expand our Asia sales volumes. Going forward, the level and rate of improvement is dependent on how quickly we can increase our revenues and of course, is subject to market conditions.

I would like now to turn the call over to Ms. Dorothy Cipolla, CFO, to discuss our financial results for fiscal 2009 first quarter in detail. Dorothy?

Thank you, Jim. Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 ended September 30, 2008, totaled $2.34 million compared to $2.31 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2008, which ended September 30, 2007. This is an increase of 1%. The increase year-over-year was primarily attributable to higher sales volumes of molded optic products and isolators offset by lower sales volumes of GRADIUM and collimators.

Growth in sales going forward will come primarily from the precision molded optics driven by low-cost lenses in Asia. Cost of sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 totaled $1.7 million, a decrease of $363,000 or 18% compared to $2.1 million for the same period one year earlier. Direct costs, which include material, labor, and services, remained in control at 24% of sales in the first quarter of 2009.

Gross profit for the fiscal quarter of fiscal 2009 totaled $631,000, compared to $239,000 for the first quarter of fiscal 2008, an increase of $392,000, or 164%. As a result, the gross margin improved for the fiscal year first quarter of 2009 to 27% compared to 10% for the same period one year earlier.

During the first quarter of fiscal 2009, total operating costs and expenses decreased $247,000 to $1.5 million compared to $1.8 million for the same period in fiscal 2008. Included in total operating costs and expenses were selling, general and administrative expenses, which for the first quarter of fiscal 2009, decreased $207,000 or 14% to $1.2 million compared to $1.4 million for the same period one year earlier. As a result, total operating loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 improved to $0.9 million compared to $1.5 million for the same period in 2008.

Net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended September 30, 2008, totaled $1.0 million or $0.19 per basic and diluted share compared to a net loss of $1.5 million or $0.28 per basic and diluted share for the first quarter of fiscal 2008, which ended September 30, 2007. This represents a $479,000 decrease in net loss. The weighted average shares outstanding as of September 30, 2008 and 2007 were $5.4 million and $5.3 million respectively.

Moving to the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.2 million at September 30, 2008. Total current assets and total assets at September 30, 2008 were $4.1 million and $6.6 million compared to $3.3 million and $5.5 million at September 30, 2007 respectively. Total current liabilities and total liabilities at September 30, 2008 were $1.9 million and $3.8 million compared to $3.0 million and $3.3 million respectively. As a result, the current ratio as of September 30, 2008 improved to 2.13 to 1, compared to 1.1 to 2 for the same period one year earlier.

Total stockholders equity as of September 30, 2008 totaled $2.8 million. Cash used in operations for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 was $1.6 million compared to $1.3 million in the same period last year. This increase in the utilization of operating cash flow was primarily due to increasing payments to vendors to reduce the outstanding balances that accrued over the preceding six months.

Going forward, management does not anticipate a similar impact to cash flow as the payables were reduced from $1.83 million at June 30, 2008 to $1.12 million at September 30, 2008.

I would now like to turn the call back over to Jim for closing comments.

Thank you, Dorothy. We are very encouraged by our continued increase of our order backlog to $3.2 million. As we have stated on previous calls, our order backlog is a reflection of those orders that will be shipped within one year. We are beginning to see the results of our effort to enter into high-volume, lower-cost commercial markets. We have solidified orders for laser tools and increased quota activity for our Black Diamond and collimator product lines as well.

Going forward, we will continue to focus on the lower cost, higher volume market opportunities and broaden our exposure in the Asian precision optic lens market.

The majority of the hard work of our new business strategy has been completed. We have significantly reduced the majority of the costs associated with our business, which included moving the majority of our manufacturing to China. Our primary focus now is to continue the execution of the strategy. This means increasing sales and manufacturing volumes by addressing the lower cost, higher volume markets such as imaging, which will in turn drive our financial performance and increase shareholder value.

This concludes my formal comments and at this time, I would like to open the call for questions. Operator, please start the Q&A portion of the call.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) [Steven Donovan], private investor.

Good morning, everyone. Could you say something about the global economic crisis and how it is impacting LightPath?

Boy, I tell you, Steve, I wish I knew. You know, obviously, last quarter from a bookings point of view, we didn't see a lot of impact. We had a very strong bookings quarter. Going forward, I don't think it's as clear. And to date, we are still -- I don't think we've seen the impact yet, but I'm very cautious about it. I just -- I don't -- I don't think we've seen the end of this yet, obviously, and I can't sit here and say that I don't think we will be impacted. But so far, we haven't seen a dramatic impact.

What about the area of high-volume cell phone, lenses or something like that? Is that still as -- as low as it was before?

Well, we still think there is a market opportunity there but beyond just the cell phones, the laser tools, we are still seeing good activity on that front. We are seeing good activity in other product applications like rangefinders, digital still cameras, closed-circuit TV type applications. So I still think there is -- we haven't seen those things pull away. We haven't seen much activity from -- or negative activity, I guess I should say, in terms of the business that we have been able to quote and our quote activity has remained high.

The revenue growth in the last two quarters was very modest.

Yes.

Can you say something about when you anticipate a more dramatic increase?

I think -- what we have been able to do is -- we have booked some larger contracts. Those contracts have required some development time which we have been in the middle of, particularly in Asia because they are new applications. And I would expect we will start seeing shipments against those contracts in the next six months.

Okay, thanks you guys for all your good work.

Thank you, Steve.

[Bob Ainbinder], Garden State Securities.

Good morning, Dorothy. Good morning, Jim. Jim, if you could comment with regard to breakeven with the reductions that we've seen, the cost reductions in the business and where you see -- Dorothy, maybe you might went to comment, where you see the Mendoza line to be able to get to cash flow breakeven?

You know, Bob, I think historically, we have said that at $4 million a quarter, we would be profitable. Given the costs for improvements that we have implemented over the last 18 months or so, we have improved that significantly. And, if -- for example, if we -- in '07, we had about $13.4 million in revenue. If we apply today's cost to that, we would be cash flow positive on that at that level. You know, we certainly believe that we are going to be close to those run rates at the end of this fiscal year.

Fantastic, okay. Also, could you comment on the SBIR program and where that stands at this point?

Yes, that program is continuing. That was an 18-month to 24-month contract for the development of IR processing, or processing IR glass and to make larger lenses than we have typically made. We have completed the first two phases of that contract and we are entering into the third phase. The first phase was to prove that there was feasibility; the second phase was to prove that we could mold that glass material; and now the third phase is to produce the larger sized lenses in the range of 35 millimeters or 45 millimeters in diameter. And we are into that phase and we should complete that phase this fiscal year.

Great. Also, if you could comment -- I know you were just recently at the Rodman & Renshaw conference. Could you comment on how that conference went?

Well, from LightPath's perspective, I think it was a very excellent exposure for the Company. I went up there to introduce ourselves and to make some people aware of what we have been doing with the Company and the business strategy. And from that standpoint, I felt it was a very worthwhile and successful experience for the Company.

Excellent, well I congratulate you on the great work that you've done to get the Company in a position to finally hit the milestones that we have all been looking forward to and that is getting to cash flow breakeven. So I will look forward to the next call.

All right. Thanks, Bob.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions) [Bart Marcy], LightPath Technologies (sic).

Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a private investor, not with LightPath. I was just telling the operator I wanted to be on the LightPath call. Jim, could you comment on the Blu-ray? I noticed that Amazon has just announced that four Blu-ray products are in their top 25 sellers and they said that Sony is number four. So they are seeing nice orders for Christmas and are we playing -- is LightPath playing in that field at all?

Only minimally, Bart. We have a couple of lenses that address that wavelength. You know, but particularly with guys like Sony, they kind of keep that stuff internal, so we are not having -- we have a product that fits into that arena. It is not a huge seller for us at this point in time.

Okay, thanks and good luck.

[Michael Dyat], private investor.

Gentlemen, good report. I appreciate it. I just wondered if the presentation you made at the conference would be possible to put that on the website so we could all see the great work you were showing in New York?

I believe we can do that for sure.

Thank you very much.

(Operator Instructions) Bob Ainbinder, Garden State securities.

Yes, Jim, I had one other question with regard to blue lenses, green lenses, and red lenses with regard to Corning. Could you comment on potential business within that realm?

Sure. There is a new -- I guess I'll call it a new technology coming out we believe, in laser projectors, and where there is a miniaturization going on in that field where these PowerPoint type projectors you've historically seen in the conference call room will now be miniaturized and to the point where they can be an option in cell phones or PDAs. And that technology is driven by three lasers, red, green, and blue.

Corning has developed a true green laser, in other words, being able to do it without using filters and lenses to make the green color. And they have chosen to put our lens -- have chosen to go to market with that laser as a package as opposed to laser only. They have included our lens on their drawing and as far as I understand at this point in time, we are the only lens manufacturer on that particular drawing. We are also on the drawings for the blue and the red, but there are other people on that drawing as well.

That is certainly a good opportunity for us that we are actively pursuing. We hope that that technology device takes off big time.

Looking forward to it. Thank you very much.

Bart Marcy, private investor.

Jim, picking up on Bob's question just then, Microvision is supposedly coming out with their projector sometime soon. Is that one that your product would fit into? Or where does that fit with the Corning?

Yes, that is the same type of device and we are well aware of what they are doing, and have been working with them as well as others.

Many thanks.

We have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Thank you, operator. I would like to thank our shareholders and everyone who has participated on today's call. I would like to thank the team at LightPath Technologies for their hard work and dedication as well. I look forward to updating you again on our fiscal 2009 second quarter conference call in February. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact myself or Mark McPartland, or Valter Pinto from Alliance Advisors. Have a great day. Thank you again.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you for your participation.