Mistras Group Inc (MG) 2014 Q4 法說會逐字稿

完整原文

使用警語:中文譯文來源為 Google 翻譯,僅供參考,實際內容請以英文原文為主

  • Operator

  • Good day, ladies and gentleman, and welcome to the fiscal 2014 fourth-quarter and year-end Mistras Group, Inc. earnings conference call. My name is Shantalay and I will be your facilitator for today's call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes.

  • At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Mr. Sotirios Vahaviolos. Please proceed, sir.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Shantalay, thank you very much, and good morning to all. Welcome to the Mistras Group earnings conference call. This is Sotirios Vahaviolos, founder, chairman, and CEO of Mistras Group.

  • Also joining me today is Jon Wolk, the Company's Executive Vice President and CFO. In today's call, we will review Mistras's financial results for the fourth quarter and entire fiscal year 2014 that ended on May 31 and discuss our prospects going forward.

  • I will start by saying I am very pleased with Mistras's return to strong organic growth. Both our total Company and especially our services segment had very strong 17% organic revenue growth in the fourth quarter. Services finished the entire fiscal year at the high end of our revenue guidance, with 20 -- with 12% organic growth.

  • We achieved these strong results in an environment where others in our space had very low or negative growth. During fiscal year 2014, we announced new multi-year contracts with major integrated energy companies in Alaska, France, and in the Canadian oil sands region.

  • The Alaskan contract helped us to propel organic revenue in the second half of the fiscal year 2014, while the French, Canadian, and other contract wins in 2014 will drive growth in fiscal year 2015 and beyond.

  • The results of the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year 2013 sounded an alarm for change in our organic revenue strategy. Contrary to industry forecasts, it was wise to expect less from turnarounds and Gulf projects in 2014.

  • Accordingly, in fiscal year 2014, we focused on a plan to renew this important aspect of our business while making the investments necessary to secure important new contracts in new markets and improve our processes and, in some cases, our people.

  • Specific investments made during fiscal year 2014 to achieve our growth and profitability plans included investing in the infrastructure, people, processes, and equipment to start up contracts with large customers in Alaska, France, and Canada; adding business development staff to new markets, strengthening our executive team with a new operationally focused CFO, who in turn hired new controllers with a similar mindset in three of our largest international subsidiaries; adding IP personnel to drive processes and system enhancements to improve operational efficiency and most importantly, electronic building.

  • All of these investments were made to enable Mistras to continue to grow its strong brand and maintain recurring revenue base that comprises approximately 70% of total revenues and to improve profit margins going forward.

  • We are pleased with our rebounded organic revenue growth, but we are not satisfied with our profitability results. Profits was adversely impacted by contract startups investments, by harsh winter weather during the third quarter, and by severance and office closure costs in the fourth quarter.

  • These items combined to reduce EBITDA by approximately $4.5 million, primarily in the gross margin line. Improving profitability is key for fiscal year 2015 and beyond. As a management team, we understand that and are committed to doing it.

  • I will talk more about that in a few moments, but first, I will turn it over to Jon, who will cover the common summary financial results. Jon?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • Thank you, Sotirios. I remind everyone that the remarks made during this conference call will include some forward-looking statements. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those projected. Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed in the Company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and in other reports filed with the SEC.

  • Also the discussions during this conference call will include certain financial measures that were not prepared in accordance with US GAAP. Reconciliations of those non-US GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable US GAAP financial measures can be found in the Company's current report on Form 8-K filed yesterday.

  • These reports are available on the Company's website in the investors section and on the SEC website. Now I will summarize the Company's financial results for the fourth quarter and entire fiscal year 2014.

  • Revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014 grew 24% above prior year, while revenues for the entire fiscal year grew by 18%. Our 24% revenue growth in the fourth quarter was driven by 26% growth in our services segment, of which 18% was organic growth.

  • These gains were noteworthy in an environment where competitors have grown at a much slower pace, if at all. Products and systems revenue grew 40%, while international revenues grew by 11%, mostly organic.

  • For the fiscal year, our 18% revenue growth was driven by our services and international segments. Services revenues grew 17%, 12% of which was organic. International revenues grew 32%, driven almost entirely by the prior year acquisition of our German subsidiary.

  • Our fourth-quarter gross profit percentage -- gross profit dollars grew 20% over prior year on a revenue gain of 24%. Gross margin percentage was 25.9% in the fourth quarter compared with 26.7% in the prior year.

  • The decline in gross profit percentage was due to a lower mix of work in the services segment and to the continued investment in Canada, which more than offset an improvement in the international segment.

  • For the entire fiscal year, the Company's gross profit grew by 17% compared with revenue growth of 18% and the gross margin rate declined modestly to 27.7%. The decline was driven by the third and fourth quarter items that Sotirios described earlier.

  • Operating expenses, excluding acquisition-related costs and the prior year's goodwill impairment, were 20.7% of revenues in Q4 compared with 21.2% in the prior year. The quarter's favorable leverage was achieved despite resilient severance costs and costs associated with closing a small number of US locations.

  • Operating income, excluding acquisition-related items in Q4, was $9.3 million, 16% higher than in the prior year, despite the inclusion of nearly $2 million for start up costs and rightsizing initiatives.

  • Net income in Q4 was $6.4 million or $0.22 per diluted share. This included the beneficial impact of acquisition-related items of $0.05 per diluted share plus the impact of the startup cost and rightsizing initiatives that reduced earnings by approximately $0.04 per diluted share.

  • The Company's adjusted EBITDA of $19.2 million during the fourth quarter was 16% higher than in prior year, despite being adversely impacted by nearly $2 million, or 12% of the prior year's EBITDA, due to these same items.

  • Finally, a few comments on the Company's balance sheet and cash flow. Mistras generated $37 million of operating cash flow during fiscal year 2014. The Company used $15.5 million of cash for capital expenditures net of equipment sales and also made non-cash outlays to lease $10.9 million of capital equipment. The Company's aggregate capital investment during fiscal year 2014 was $26.4 million or 4.2% of revenue.

  • The Company's free cash flow, defined as cash provided by operations less cash used for capital expenditures, was $21.4 million. The Company's debt and capital lease obligations net of cash was $87.6 million at May 31, 2014, compared with $70.2 million at May 31, 2013, a ratio of 1.2 times adjusted EBITDA. As of May 31, 2014, Mistras had an undrawn revolver balance of $59.6 million.

  • And with that, Sotirios, I'll turn it back over to you.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Thank you, Jon. And now let me take the opportunity to brief you on some key developments and activities within each of our business segments. First, our services segment.

  • Our downstream business remains robust, as several refiners have commissioned Mistras to conduct thorough inspection of their high temperature pipe and circuits that are susceptible to premature failures due to a unique corrosion damage mechanism. Mistras has developed a comprehensive pre-engineering systematic approach, specifically to address this critical inspection requirement.

  • We have inspection teams actively working at seven refineries and were recently awarded a new multimillion dollar contract at three additional refineries. We are actively pursuing additional downstream energy companies that are also susceptible to this issue and require this very specialized inspection capability.

  • Our midstream business continues to benefit from the shale oil and natural gas exploration activities, with key multimillion dollar contract awards in the quarter that will commence through the fall and new proposal activity is vigorous. Our new contract awards are with both existing and new Tier 1 energy customers and are the result of our reputation for delivering quality inspection services in this very demanding environment.

  • Also, we were awarded five new projects from both existing and new energy customers for our PCMS inspection data management software combined with our risk based inspection -- RBI -- data collection, analysis, and deployment services. We are providing prep build engineering services and advanced implementation software tools from our AIMS group for the Gulf Coast-based LNG capital project and it has begun construction and are optimistic regarding the timing of the commencement of the other side that has been approved.

  • Our in-house lab inspection service locations are growing to support the outsourcing of inspection of critical components for the commercial aerospace sector. Several of our labs are in close proximity to aerospace OEMs and sub suppliers and our advanced systems technology and acquired specifications enable us to meet their demands for cost-effective inspection, fast turnarounds, and high quality standards.

  • In our power generation sector, we are gaining markets here with our one source engineering, products and systems, and advance inspection offerings, supply to nuclear, fossil, and alternative energy producers. The shift by many energy companies to consolidate their other services providers has allowed us to capture new multi-year fleet-wide agreements with two of the nation's leading electric energy producers for their nuclear and fossil plans.

  • We are also engaged to provide inspection services for capital project in the mid-Atlantic region for a large natural gas combined cycle plant. We're excited about further opportunities in this sector.

  • In our projects and systems segment, we are encouraged by the improving industrial markets that had been suppressed due to the efforts of new government regulations or [value] constraints. We were recently awarded a multimillion dollar contract for our structural alert system to provide 24/7 asset integrity monitoring of a large span bridge located in the United States.

  • This project will also leverage our products and installation services. There are at least 30 other bridges with similar problems throughout the US. Products and systems also received orders for advanced inspection systems from companies in the automotive and industrial gas industries.

  • And now let's discuss the international segment. We had a strong year in the UK, led by growth in the wind energy sector. Mistras utilizes rope access services to provide inspection, maintenance, and monitoring of critical assets for our clients and OEMs.

  • Services employs advanced NDT-trained rope access personnel for inspection and multi-year 24/7 monitoring and maintenance services for our large wind farm located in the North Sea. During fiscal 2014, we opened a new location in Aberdeen to expand in the offshore market.

  • The ongoing recovery of the UK economy has enabled us to grow our NDT business by inspecting new oilfield equipment. We continue to actively work in the civil sector to inspect new builds and monitor aging bridges and viaducts.

  • We are extremely proud of the two awards we recently received from the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation for the cutting-edge solution that was deployed to monitor the Tame Valley viaducts' box girder structure. Our solution acts as a real-time safety system that provides critical alerts if strains exceed important thresholds, improving public safety, while also saving millions in reduced strengthening costs.

  • As a result of our prime relationship with EDF, Electricite de France, and its providers, Mistras Group is well positioned to provide engineering, monitoring, and NDT solutions to the nuclear projects being constructed in the UK throughout all stages of their construction.

  • Our French operations performed well during our largest customer's major turnaround of the key refinery during the fourth quarter, receiving an award for the best professional service provider during the turnaround. Our general operations have seen an increasing volume of quotations in their destructive testing laboratories, and we have received several important qualifications and certifications.

  • And we attempt to position Mistras to perform additional work for Airbus. We want new business to provide advanced NDT services in Germany, where we had previously been focused solely on destructive testing business.

  • We provided our customers with world-class skill sets by utilizing a combination of global resources and local personnel. And our wind turbine engineering teams continue to grow their business by supporting their clients in every phase, from planning through installation and ongoing operation.

  • In the Benelux region, we have extended our capabilities to address one of the largest European markets for refineries and petrochemical plants. By combining forces between our [Daslam] and our newly opened Belgium lab, we are now positioned perform additional and advanced NDT services to this important market and we are excited about opportunities in securing future evergreen contracts.

  • Lastly, for EMEA, we put in place a number of process improvement initiatives that are being led by our new controllers that will harmonize internal functions, analyze our business, and focus on execution to improved profitability. In Brazil, the difficult economic conditions caused us to reassess our staffing, levers, and make headcount reductions during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014.

  • Our now linear Brazilian team is concentrating on our core business, which includes advanced NDT, computed radiography, and rope access services, which are supplement complemented by our continuous automated UT inspection for railroads.

  • And with that, I would like Jon to introduce our outlook and guidance for fiscal year 2015. Jon?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • Thank you, Sotirios. To those of you who have listened to these calls before, you will not be surprised to learn that we were very excited about our fiscal year that commenced on June 1. There are many reasons for our optimism. Here is a brief listing of the top five.

  • First, our new focus on the Canadian oil sands region is very exciting and we will begin to earn a return on this investment during fiscal year 2015. Second, we have changed the Company's emphasis to growing profits at a faster rate than revenues.

  • We have revised our Company-wide compensation plans to be almost entirely focused on this top priority. Third, we will see improvements in our international operations from the ERP conversions that we are currently undertaking, from the controllers that we have added, from improvements in the business cycle, and from staffing reductions in Brazil.

  • Fourth, our pipeline of business opportunities in our products and systems segment is stronger now than at any time in the last two years, and we expect this segment to rebound in fiscal year 2015. And fifth, we have the team in place to updated -- to update our existing timekeeping and billing processes to make them electronic instead of manually driven.

  • Because we are essentially adding middleware to our existing ERP system, this conversion will not be very costly and will entail low conversion risk. Although this initiative will be more impactful in the following fiscal year, it is an important step for us and worthy of mentioning now.

  • Market growth was positive during our fiscal year 2014, even though turnaround seasons were not as robust as expected. Our planning assumption for fiscal year 2015 is that we will encounter a similar market environment.

  • Our revenue growth will continue to outpace the market and will be in a range of $680 million to $705 million, representing growth over fiscal year 2014 of approximately 9% to 13%. This revenue range excludes the impact of acquisitions that are made in the new fiscal year and of any large capital projects that are often mentioned for the Gulf region.

  • We expect that our adjusted EBITDA will be in a range of $78 million to $84 million, growing at a range of 11% to 19% over fiscal-year 2014 results. Taking the midpoint of our EBITDA and revenue guidance for fiscal year 2015, we expect that our margin of EBITDA to revenue will improve by roughly 40 basis points over fiscal year 2014.

  • We expect that this margin will be more consistent throughout the year and that the Canadian revenue upside will help margins to be accretive in the second half of our fiscal year.

  • We are focused on the initiatives that we have outlined in this call. We are very focused on driving margin improvements in fiscal year 2015 and beyond and we have taken and will continue to take actions to transform our Company. We expect that fiscal year 2015 will begin a multi-year upswing in Company margins of over 200 basis points and our team has powerful incentives to make this happen.

  • And now, Sotirios will make the closing remarks.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Thank you, Jon. In closing, we are excited about our market position and growth and confident that we are making the right investments that will enable us to maintain our leadership position and expand our portfolio of tangible value-added solutions.

  • Our confidence comes from the strong customer adoption of our one source model that strategically focuses on customer safety and economics. For example, our solutions focus on helping refinery operations, [REIT's] first quartile performance, and power companies to avoid unplanned outages.

  • This clearly set us apart in the NDT space and provides us with a very distinct competitive advantage, as proven by our results and our high customer retention record. Our unique attributes with global presence, combined with a growing market, will drive profitable revenue growth in all our business segments.

  • Our stable business model focuses on run and maintain evergreens of recurring revenues combined with our initiatives to capture strategic capital projects worldwide, such as those in the Gulf Coast. And increased focus to achieve higher profitability will be very impactful for the Company in fiscal year 2015 and beyond.

  • As I conclude this conference call, let me thank our 5300 loyal employees, our loyal customers, and our valued shareholders. That concludes our prepared remarks, Shantalay, and I would like to now open the floor for questions. Shantalay?

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Matt Duncan, Stephens Inc.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • So looking at the organic growth assumption in the guide, Jon, can you break out for us how much acquired revenue is assumed in your guidance? Trying to see what the organic growth assumption is there.

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • Yes, Matt, I would place the organic growth assumption at probably about 6% to 10% out of the 9% to 13% that we are talking about.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • Okay. And so, we look at the 17% organic growth you had this quarter. Is there any reason that that would slow meaningfully or are you guys just trying to be a little bit conservative to start out the year?

  • I see you ramping the Alaska wind quite nicely in the back half. You've got the big wins in Canada and France that you have alluded to that should ramp through this year' as well.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • We would prefer, Matt, to really be a little bit more conservative and see if that will continue.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • Okay, fair enough. In terms of these severance charges that you guys had in the quarter, sounds like it was Brazil and a couple of small US locations. Jon, what are the annual savings attached to those cuts?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • I think in Brazil, we expect, I think, on a net basis that we should be able to improve operating income in that subsidiary by something approaching $1 million.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • Okay.

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • And in the US, the savings from the facilities might be of a similar amount.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • Okay. And then last thing for me and I'll hop back in the queue is we look at the EBITDA margin in your guidance. Is there going to be a material difference in EBITDA margins in the second half of the year versus the first half after you start to ramp the business up in Canada?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • I think what will happen, Matt, is that last year's first half of EBITDA margin was relatively stronger. And certainly then in the second half, we had items that reduced it. But also this in seasonality in there, too.

  • I think that we will probably be more consistent in EBITDA margin through the year. First half might be a bit higher than second half, but I think certainly it will be accretive in the second half, not necessarily in the first half.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • So Jon, why would that not ramp in the back half? If you are ramping revenues up in Canada to better cover the cost of all the people you've added there, why would we not see a margin improvement in the back half?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • I think we will. That's what I just tried to say.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • Okay.

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • If I wasn't clear, I apologize. But our expectation is that we will have margins ramping in the back half, certainly relative to the 2014 back half.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • That's what you meant by accretive, right?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • That's right.

  • Matt Duncan - Analyst

  • Okay, that helps. Thanks, guys.

  • Operator

  • Andrew Wittmann, Baird.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • I wanted to get a little bit of, I guess, a better sense on the incentives that you are putting in place to drive cost out, to grow the bottom line faster than the topline. Can you talk about what some of those metrics are and how deep in the organization that they drive? And when they kind of became effective?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • Yes, Andy, it's Jon. Really, they are in effect for the new fiscal year that started June 1, and it goes across our business segments and to us in corporate as well. We are majority focused now on attaining profit levels and profit margin levels, where is in the past, it was more of a balanced spread across various metrics.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • And is that at the executive level? Does this go down to GMs? It sounds like it's at the at the (multiple speakers)

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • It goes down to GMs and below. It comes all the way down to the project managers.

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • That's right. So certainly the GMs, the people in the field, project managers, as Sotirios is saying -- everybody has got skin in the game here to make sure that the profit margins are at certain levels.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • Got it. Jon, can you talk about how much investments is going through the income statements that's driving some of these long-term cost initiatives? You said it's kind of middleware, so it's not that costly.

  • But are there other things that maybe are artificially depressing the margin outlook? That maybe we could strip out if we think about a normalized earnings?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • I think, Andy, the bulk of that was really the startup costs in Canada. Certainly the $4.5 million that we called out in the second half of fiscal year 2014. The majority of that was either startup costs in Canada or the weather impact in the third quarter.

  • The middleware initiative going forward into fiscal year 2015, that will be less than $1 million of impact, we believe. In terms of incremental cost rate that's included in the run rate might approach $1 million, but I don't think it will exceed that. And we expect that we should be getting some benefit from that initiative as fiscal year 2015 goes on. So it might be about a push.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Yes.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • Okay, that's helpful. Maybe just one final operational question. Sotirios, I think you talked about the midstream getting better. I guess I would be curious as to what kinds of services you are being asked to do there and specifically how the work levels that you are seeing today compare to what you saw year ago and where you think they might be a year from now, just to get a sense of where that progression is on pipeline-type work.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Okay. Andrew, it's really standard entity, but one thing that is exciting for us -- people start using more and more our PCMS software, which is really very important to us. So therefore, we are going back to the one source solution, okay?

  • And we basically -- the same thing happens also with engineering, because we also do some engineering type of work for them also, because they are small companies and they don't have the engineers that the large companies have.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • Got it. So this is run and maintain work, though. This isn't like pipeline instruction weld inspection type of work or what's the incremental driver for the growth?

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Yes. It would be both, actually. For the new pipelines, of course, it would be a one-time event, but some of the terminals, actually, it was run and maintain type of work.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • Got it. So last year -- or last year fiscal 2013 -- it was about 10% of total Company revenue. Is that growing as a slice of the pie? So is it growing faster than the whole Company or kind of in line with total Company?

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • I think it is growing. It is growing especially, as I said, because we are offering now one source solutions, but I do not recall, really, what the percentage is. But I know for sure it's growing.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • Yes. Okay, I'll leave it there. Thanks, guys.

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Tahira Afzal, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

  • Tahira Afzal - Analyst

  • Hi, there. Congratulations on a decent quarter.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Thank you very much, Tahira.

  • Tahira Afzal - Analyst

  • So you guys have been -- have delivered on really a lot of your market gain strategy so far. As we look into the next year, can you talk about other strategies that maybe perhaps not building into your numbers right now, but where you see some opportunities to continue to grow? Whether it be through market share gains or more regional and end market exposure.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Well, first of all, Tahira, as we discussed, because of what we show in the Gulf and other places, we're trying to do a little bit of diversification. So the first thing that we are very excited, of course, is the Power Generation business.

  • That also is very, very, very well -- this is an area that we were not really participating in in a big way, but I think we're doing it now. And then the other thing is that we have -- we continue to really work on the capital projects.

  • In some cases -- and I have mentioned -- the customer already has given us the pre-engineering, which is the software, which is really beginning. But at the same time, we hope that there will be other capital projects, not only here, but also around the world.

  • Tahira Afzal - Analyst

  • Got it, okay. And then I know you've made some pretty -- you know, you announced pretty good contract with Southern Company. If you look at the AP1000 for a technology that Westinghouse is using internationally, it's being used fairly rapidly, being deployed in China.

  • Can you talk about really looking at the nuclear side and for the AP1000, where they can follow them in other regions as well?

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Yes, the only thing we can basically say, Tahira, is that Westinghouse has been a customer of ours back from the old days and we provide them, typically, with instruments. We provide them with loose parts monitor and leak monitoring systems in their nuclear power plants, as we do other manufacturers of nuclear power plant at this point.

  • Tahira Afzal - Analyst

  • Got it. Thank you very much and I will hop back into queue.

  • Operator

  • At this time, there are no additional questions in the queue and I would like to turn the call back over for closing remarks.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Okay, I would like to thank everyone for listening and we wish all of you a great day. Thank you very much for listening.

  • Operator

  • Pardon the interruption, there are two other people in the queue.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Okay, that's what I was afraid.

  • Operator

  • Toby Reeks, Morgan Stanley.

  • Toby Reeks - Analyst

  • Could you just -- two questions. One is the building blocks around the 200 basis points of margin progression. I guess not just sort of getting scale in the business, but in the core business, how are you doing that?

  • And then the second is your comments about growth next year. The guidance is excluding large capital projects. Is there increasing visibility on any of these large capital projects or is it really just the same?

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Let me answer that would first and then Jon will answer the financial. As I mentioned on my text here is that there is a visibility, as a matter of fact. We already sold the software to one of -- the pre-engineering software to one of the capital projects.

  • There's actually a second capital project that might start that we are also in a very good position. And of course, there's a lot of small capital projects in Power Generation, okay, and we mentioned one that we already obtained where they built new plants. That's also very attractive to us.

  • And that's a result, as I said, about diversification last year. (technical difficulty) oil and gas business is very important to us. It has always been, but we like to expand to other areas.

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • Yes, and Toby, this is Jon. With regard to the 200 basis points of improvements, really, we think that this 200 basis points is very attainable. Not necessarily easy to obtain, but very attainable.

  • And it really comes down to the initiatives that I listed out as some of the reasons that we are very optimistic about fiscal year 2015. We're focused on profitability to a much greater extent, I think, than we really ever have been before.

  • As we entered the fiscal year, as Sotirios said in his remarks, as we started 2014, and we were quite concerned about making sure that we could resume our growth trajectory.

  • And we feel we've done that and we've position the Company to continue doing that. We are really focused now on driving the margin that should come with that growth. We've made lots of investments in 2014. We think that several of those will pay off beginning in 2015.

  • The other thing is that the mix of revenues and profits that we think will come by focusing on the Canadian oil sands will be certainly accretive to us. We think that is an opportunity to add high value to the customers in that region and that we'll earn better than Company-wide margins in that region.

  • And finally, this focus on processes is really -- it can't be underestimated. We have a great ERP system here, but we do an awful lot of manual work to get data in and out of that ERP system.

  • And by making those processes electronic, we will enable G&A leverage that the Company has not been enjoying as it's been growing. We haven't really been getting scale in our back office and by making these initiatives, we think that that's going to enable the scale to be achieved in the future.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • You know, Toby, the other thing also -- we're talking about new capital projects. As you know, we are monitoring a lot of bridges in United Kingdom. Now the new bridge monitoring contractor we received has a lot of potential, because there are similar problems to about 30 of them.

  • But of course, the government has to put money in the infrastructure. Because right now, basically, the work that we got, we didn't get from the government -- we got it really from the local DOTs, Department of Transportations.

  • So that can really, really increase. If they do the same thing that they did in United Kingdom, it would help us a lot in the infrastructure area. And I think, as you know, we are the leaders in our area and we command respect by all people in the bridge business around the world.

  • Toby Reeks - Analyst

  • Okay, thanks, guys. It always makes me feel safer when I drive over Hammersmith Flyover to know you are monitoring it.

  • Operator

  • Andrew Wittmann, Baird.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • Just a commentary on the ramp into the second half, the profitability. I think it's probably fair to get you on record as to what you are seeing and what is driving the confidence that the second half is going to be better than the first? Is that just the ramp in the large projects and how has that ramp been going?

  • Jon Wolk - EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

  • I think the ramp in the large projects has a lot to do with it, Andy. We've been making investments in Canada. And I think that as the year goes on, as we start to get the uplift from those investments, not only from the large customer that we previously spoke about, although not named, as well as other customers in the region, too, because we think that there is just an awful lot of potential there.

  • But it doesn't start immediately. It's an organic start up. It's not like we are buying an existing book of business, so it's going to take a little bit time to build. As the year goes on, I think we'll see more and more return from that.

  • The other thing is is that the process improvements should start to bear some fruit as we get to the back half. First half of the year, we will be making investments with no return. The back half, I think we might start to get some return from them.

  • Andrew Wittmann - Analyst

  • Okay, good. That's all I had.

  • Operator

  • At this time, there are no additional questions.

  • Sotirios Vahaviolos - Chairman, President, and CEO

  • Okay, I would like, I guess, to say the same thing again, right? I would like to thank everyone for listening and we wish you all a great day. Thank you very much for listening.

  • Operator

  • Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a wonderful day.