Materion Corp (MTRN) 2012 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Materion Corporation first quarter 2012 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief 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, Mr. Michael Hasychak, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary for Materion. Thank you, Mr. Hasychak, you may begin.

Good morning. This is Mike Hasychak. With me today is Dick Hipple, President, Chairman, and CEO; John Grampa, Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer; and Jim Marrotte, Vice President and Corporate Controller.

Our format for today's conference call is as follows. John Grampa will comment on the first quarter 2012 results and the outlook, and Dick Hipple will give a market update. Thereafter, we will open up the teleconference call for questions.

A recorded playback of this call will be available until May 11 by dialing area code 877, the number is 660-6853, account number 286, and conference ID number 388589. The call will also be archived on the Company's website, materion.com. To access the replay, click on Events and Presentations on the Investor Relations page.

Any forward-looking statements made in this announcement, including those in the outlook section and during the question-and-answer portion, are based on current expectations. The Company's actual future performance may materially differ from that contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. Those factors are listed in the earnings press release issued this morning.

And now I'll turn it over to John Grampa for comments.

Thank you, Mike. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the call and thanks for taking the time to join us this morning.

Today's agenda is identical to that of our past calls. I will review the results for the quarter and then comment on the outlook for the second quarter and the balance of the year. Then following my comments, Dick Hipple will review the current state and the outlook of our key markets. He will also review the status of the start-up of the new beryllium plant and the announced decision to relocate the production capabilities of our Newburyport, Massachusetts facility to our facility in Singapore. And then following Dick, we will open the call for your questions.

For those of you who have not yet had a chance to review the press release in any detail, I will be giving a brief summary of the key points that are in that release. Then as I normally do, I'll cover the factors affecting the reported sales level, isolating real or organic changes from the effect of pass-through metal price changes, which as most of you are aware, can in our Company cloud organic business level changes, particularly in an environment where metal pass-through prices are moving up or down.

I will comment on sales and margins by markets, comparing sequentially to the fourth quarter of the prior year and highlighting the key changes, especially changes in trends. I will also disclose the cost associated with start-up of the new beryllium plant and the integration of the EIS Optics acquisition. I'll review the balance sheet, cash flow and cash flow projections, and I'll discuss the outlook for the balance of 2012, as we see it unfolding at this time.

With that as an introduction, let's begin with a brief summary of the release. Today, in the release, we reported stronger than expected results for the first quarter of the year, and revised our guidance for the full year. While, we are not pleased with market conditions and the level of business that the weak 2011 year end gave us as a launch point for 2012, we have seen progress in our markets in the first quarter.

When comparing to the prior year, sales for the first quarter were as expected, down by approximately $21 million or 6% to the $354 million level. Higher pass-through metal prices increased sales in the first quarter by approximately $16 million when comparing to the prior year. Considering this, the real business levels were down from first quarter 2011, by over 10%.

The reported EPS for the quarter were stronger than expected at $0.30 a share, well below the $0.57 a share reported in the prior year's first quarter. The primary factors in the lower EPS when comparing to the prior year are the 10% fall off in business levels and a related weaker mix, which is entirely driven by market conditions. The $0.26 per share sequential improvement in the quarter was slightly better than our internal expectations due to stronger demand levels and a slightly higher value added margin level than we had assumed coming into the quarter off of the weak year-end levels. The sequential improvement was driven primarily by the improving demand.

Let's review the overall business activity in a bit more detail. The reported 10% decline in sales, net of metal pass-through compared to the first quarter of the prior year is due primarily to significantly weaker demand for the Company's materials from the consumer electronics and telecom infrastructure markets. These two markets normally account for well over a third of the Company's value-added sales.

Value-added sales were down year-over-year by 13% in consumer electronics, and 16% in telecom infrastructure. Helping to offset those declines were year-over-year increases of 26% in industrial and commercial aerospace, 10% in medical, 8% in defense and science, and 5% in energy.

Comparing sequentially to the fourth quarter of 2011, first quarter 2012 sales were up $19 million or approximately 6%. The 6% sequential improvement is reflective of the improving demand patterns and order entry from the weak fourth quarter levels. The improvement is widespread, demand for materials for applications in consumer electronics, automotive electronics, medical, industrial and commercial aerospace, all improved nicely in the first quarter.

In the first quarter of this year, comparing sequentially to the fourth quarter of last year, our value-added sales increased in a number of our markets. Consumer electronics was up 20%, automotive electronics was up 24%, medical was up 13%, and commercial -- industrial and commercial aerospace were up 20%. Dick will comment more on these demand levels during his review of the current state of our markets.

As you might expect, given the significantly lower volumes and weaker mix when comparing to prior year, margins are down comparatively. Our value-added gross margins were at the 37% level in the first quarter. Historically, these margins are above 40%, and our value-added operating profit margin was in the high single-digits. Historically, the value-added operating profit margin is in the 14% to 15% range.

Margins did improve sequentially in the first quarter when comparing to the fourth quarter. And again, the margin movements are related to the volume and/or mix factors. We do expect margins to return to historic levels as our volume and mix return over the next couple of quarters.

You will recall that there are two ongoing specific initiatives this Company has been reporting on. These include the start-up of the Company's new beryllium plant and integration of EIS Optics, which was acquired in the fourth quarter of 2011. We had estimated these costs to be in the range of $0.07 to $0.10 a share. For the first half of the year, it was approximately 60% occurring in the first quarter. The actual impact on the reported first quarter results was approximately $0.07 a share, with $0.04 of the $0.07 being related to the start-up of the new beryllium plant.

Now, let's turn to cash flow and the balance sheet. Both of those statements are attached to the press release. The Company began and ended 2011 with a very strong balance sheet. In spite of investing over $200 million in strategic acquisitions over the past six years, the Company's draw on its $340 million revolver was less than $30 million at year-end, and debt to total cap was below 20%.

Consistent with our normal seasonal pattern, debt increased by approximately $37 million in the first quarter. This was driven primarily by an increase in receivables, and other working capital changes consistent with the sequential growth in the quarter as well as the acquisition of AMC. Debt to total capital at the end of the first quarter was 22%, and we do anticipate that the normal strong positive cash flows in each of the remaining quarters of the year will occur. And by year-end, we think that debt to total capital will fall to the mid-teens level.

The quality of our balance sheet is a source of pride in the Company and we're pleased to have the liquidity we do, and the flexibility to support our growth plus important strategic initiatives such as acquisitions. The quality of our balance sheet should provide significant flexibility throughout 2012 and beyond.

Prior to moving on to the outlook, I'd like to pre-answer a couple of the other financial model questions that we usually get. For the year 2011 in total -- 2012 in total, we expect EBITDA to be in the range of $102 million to $108 million. We expect depreciation to be in the range of $40 million to $45 million, capital spending to be in the range of $30 million to $35 million and free cash flows to be above $40 million. We also believe the tax rate will be in the 32% to 33% range.

I'll now review the outlook. After a record sales year in 2010, the Company began 2011 in a robust market environment and set another new high for the year. However, as the year progressed, the overall level of business activity fell dramatically as evidenced by the fourth quarter business level. As a result, 2012 began in weak market conditions. Order entry did begin to recover early in the first quarter, increasing by 12% from the fourth quarter levels.

While, order entry does continue to improve and we do expect continued growth through the remainder of the year, demand levels heading into second quarter are not as strong as initially anticipated and are not yet back to the record levels seen during the first half of 2011.

As noted in the press release, the Company has announced that it will be shutting down its Newburyport, Massachusetts, microelectronics packaging materials facility and relocating its productive capacity, in the existing facility adjacent to customers in Singapore. This will permit those customers to be more effectively served at a lower cost.

Also as noted in the press release, we've lowered our guidance for the year. The reduction is primarily due to the demand levels coming into the second quarter, not being as strong as initially anticipated. We now see the full year being in the range of $1.95 to $2.10 per share. The previously announced range was $2.05 to $2.25 per share. This range includes $0.15 to $0.20 per share of costs associated with start-up of the Company's new beryllium plant, the shut down and relocation of the Newburyport facility and the cost related to the integration of the acquisition.

We see the second quarter earnings level improving from the first quarter by at least $0.05 a share even after absorbing the higher costs I just referenced. And assuming that demand levels continue to improve, we expect third and fourth quarter earnings levels to return to the levels seen during the first three quarters of last year.

That concludes my remarks, I'll now turn the call over to Dick Hipple.

Thank you, John. As expected, we saw a nice lift in business sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2011 into the first quarter of 2012. However, overall business levels are still lower than the first quarter of 2011 except for a few markets like the oil and gas, commercial aerospace and medical sectors that continue to outperform last year.

Our consumer electronics business has followed the overall market, which has resulted in a softer start in 2012, as compared to 2011. For example, a recent industry report indicated overall semiconductor sales were down 8% year-to-year in the first quarter. In fact, many recent earnings calls in this space, including our customers indicate a similar year-to-year decline and a quarterly sequential decline from the fourth quarter.

I'm pleased that we saw a good sequential improvement from the fourth quarter and expect to see this improvement to continue. So looking forward, we see our consumer electronics business gaining strength from the first quarter into the second, but not as strong as we originally expected. There are many industry and customer forecasts that indicate we should see a strong second half, so exact timing for a strong push upward is difficult to predict.

So the point I'm trying to make is that we are seeing ongoing sequential strengths in the electronic sector, but at a slower ramp-up than originally expected. The telecom infrastructure side of the business has shown some ongoing weakness, most of this is driven by our all-the-time high record sales of 2011 and an industry adjustment -- inventory adjustment being made in our supply chain.

There are current customers that have announced cutbacks and adjustments to their workforce. Meanwhile, the longer order cycle business for undersea optics remains robust. So overall, the growth in the telecom infrastructure market may be weaker than originally expected for 2012.

Our defense and science markets are a mixed bag. We are seeing a slowdown in our microelectronics packaging business focused on the defense sector, while our optics applications in both the high [VE] business and precision optics business are gaining strength. So overall, it appears that the defense market will gain strength over the balance of the year.

The oil and gas market remains robust with normal seasonality that typically sees a softer second quarter, as drilling activity is slowed in Canada and other Northern regions as the weather warms. Schlumberger recently published a worldwide forecast for drilling activity to be up another 10% in 2012, which should provide solid growth for us going forward. We did enjoy record oil and gas sales in the first quarter of 2012 and our applications continue to grow in the sector.

Automotive sales were strong in the first quarter, but we did see some booking weakness in the quarter. We believe this only reflects in the inventory adjustments in the supply chain as the overall global automotive market remains strong.

Our key markets in the heavy industrial business and commercial aerospace and mining remains robust and we expect these markets to remain solid and continue to grow with our new application penetrations. In fact, we had record bookings in our commercial aerospace business in the first quarter. Medical continues to improve for us, driven by ongoing strength from regaining our historic market share and growth from new customers in the blood glucose test strip market.

Now for some updates outside the markets. Our new BE pebble plant start-up is progressing back on track after another brief setback in the first quarter. At this time, we are not fighting any major equipment issues, so our expectations are for the negative impacts from this start-up to significantly decline as we move forward through the year. My hats off to the Materion team members who have been dedicated to quickly overcome the obstacles that have been thrown our way.

Our recent shutdown announcement of our [Newbury], Massachusetts operations and move to our Singapore operations will help strengthen the long-term growth and success of our microelectronics packaging business. Essentially, all of the major customers are in Asia and they expect to be served accordingly. We have built up our technical staff in Asia to better serve the local markets. We are already seeing increased interest in several new products due to our in region capabilities. I want to thank the Newburyport workforce for working with us in the transition.

Our two new acquisitions, the commercial Precision Optics company in Shanghai and the metal matrix company in UK are quickly being integrated. Each one bringing unique opportunities for us to expand our business. The commercial DLP optics business was softer than expected in the first quarter, but new opportunities in gesture control, wafer level processing and next-generation DLP are expected to bring growth in the second half.

Our recently announced acquisition of AMC in the UK is off to a good start with a focus on prioritizing numerous growth opportunities that the new technology and products bring to our customer base in the BE and composites business. With the uncertainty in the changing currents in the marketplace, we remain focused on our pipeline of new products that are being introduced in 2012. The combination of being positioned in fundamentally strong growth markets with new differentiated products will be our keys -- ongoing keys to success.

And we're prepared to take any questions at this time.

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Martin Englert, Jefferies.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I [just had] few questions about the guidance and some of the underlying assumptions there. I guess, within the guidance that you have now, do you have any assumption of a re-stock occurring within consumer electronics or any other end-markets? And then I -- where would you expect demand levels to, I guess, reach relative to where they were in the peak, the prior year?

Well, again, part of that last year was re-build of inventories. We don't have assumptions in our forecast for re-building inventories. So, we're just looking at what we believe the organic growth to be going forward.

Where do you assume, I guess, value-added revenue growth will be in 2012?

I don't have that number in front of me. The overall year-over-year growth is I think, what you are asking versus sequential, which I did provide. It's really going to be highly dependent upon obviously the second half of the year. In that particular market, I think, our assumption at this point is rather than double-digit, single-digit growth.

Okay. That's helpful.

Overall.

Overall for the year.

And within performance allies, while margins were worse than the prior year, it were aided by a price increase, I guess, can you provide any more detail there on the average base price increase for those products for 2012 relative to last year? And then if any of your other segments were -- if you were increasing base prices, if you have already or planning to in the coming quarters?

The movement in price is not inconsequential and obviously, we have not disclosed other than announced price increases if you can see in schedules that are in the market. Mix has dramatic effect on average pricing in this business. I think it would be fair to say that if we were to look at 2011 and let's wait and see what happens in 2012, that we probably had close to $0.75 million to $1 million a quarter, a better pricing than in prior years. That is still intact and growing a bit as this year progresses, but not nearly dramatically.

Would you say that on average it was low single-digits, mid single-digits or --?

You mean, this year?

Yes, for 2012?

Low single-digits.

Low single-digits.

Yes.

Okay.

You got to remember that we're comparing to last year as these price increases were rolling in.

Oh, yes. (multiple speakers).

Net, net over last year. There isn't going to be as a higher percent.

Correct.

Are you able to provide any more detail, I guess, on the mix shift, which seem to have a pretty significant impact on many of your segments, and I guess, you noted in your guidance that you expect some of this to normalize and anticipate some improved mix as you progress through the year. I guess, what was driving the mix shift, is the shift away from less consumer electronics relative to the rest of the sales or --?

That's right. (multiple speakers) less consumer electronics.

Okay. So that's a pretty big impact as far as the value-added work that you're doing there. And as that ramps back up that should help improve the margin profile for a number of your segments. Correct?

That's correct.

Okay. Thanks. I'll turn it over. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Hendi Susanto, Gabelli.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

You indicated free cash flow guidance of [about] $40 million for 2012 and CapEx of $30 million to $35 million. I think, that would imply cash flow from operation of $70 million to $75 million, which is higher than the past [three] years. Considering that order of visibility is limited and Q2 may be still challenging, what are your assumptions in your free cash flow guidance and what gives you confidence?

Well, the confidence is -- obviously, free cash flow guidance is highly dependent on actually growth assumption that we have in there for the balance of the year. So assuming we hit those inventory levels, our CapEx appetite -- capital spending appetite has not increased and our depreciation will not change. So, earnings will flow in the cash as the growth continues.

So you're also expecting like strong second half of 2012?

That's what our guidance suggests. That's correct.

Okay. And then the reduction in CapEx, what does it corresponds to?

The reduction in CapEx, our CapEx range is similar to prior range. It's probably a little bit lower than what we had anticipated at the beginning of the year, but not much.

Okay, so it's just like revisions.

It's fine tuning, yes.

Okay. And then would you share the start-up cost of the beryllium plant in Q1 and what's your expectation of the start-up costs in Q2? Furthermore, could you also share what were the issues in Q1 and what will be in Q2?

Well, I'll let Dick talk about the issues, if we could call them issues at this point. But as I indicated, in Q1 the impact of the beryllium plant start-up was about $0.04 a share. The second quarter would be slightly less than that --

within that range.

Within the range of that number plus or minus. And then I'll let Dick comment on the --

So the question was on the first quarter, (inaudible) in the first quarter.

Yes.

Okay. In the first quarter, we had a problem with our -- a couple of our heat exchangers in the system with some corrosion. And we're handling a hydrogen fluoride solution in that plant, which is highly corrosive. And, so we had to solve that issue, which we have and so the plant is up and running, but that was the issue that had to -- that had affected us in the first quarter.

And, will there be any issue in Q2 that --?

Well, I think, let me explain something. I think, its -- yes, I think, if your question is fair, and I think it's important that everybody understand that when we talk about costs, we've got a facility with costs there and inventory isn't being built, material is not being produced. As we ramp up and as inventory begins to be built, to up to that facility delivering quality inventories, we're going to absorb cost on to the balance sheet into the inventory value. So what you have happening right now is largely unabsorbed overhead or unabsorbed costs, from an accounting perspective. So, as the volume ramps, we'll cross through and begin to absorb those into normal inventory levels. This is not to a large extent cash costs that are going to disappear.

Okay. So quarter-to-date, there is no longer like operational issue, it's just like a purely ramping up?

That's right.

That's why it's running right now, yes.

As I mentioned in my comments that we're fighting no major equipment issues at this time.

Okay. And then, could you share some idea of like factories utilizations Q2 and Q3?

Well, factory utilizations. Oh, man. We've got like 27 operations around, so it is a (multiple speakers).

I mean for the beryllium plant?

For the beryllium plant?

Yes.

That's -- well, we are -- right now, it's a -- that's an interesting question, because the pebbles plant is independent at this point in time from the rest of the operations. So that we're probably running the -- because we can, we're still running the beryllium operation off of the raw materials that we're getting from the strategic stockpile. So it's not affecting, yes, this pebble plant doesn't affect our product that we're shipping to customers right now. So there are kind of different subjects. But if you think about our defense business in the high beryllium, we're probably running at a 65% type level.

Okay. That’s very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Rob Young, William Smith.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning.

I was just curious on the -- could you go over some of the priorities that you have for your capital deployment with that $40 million, is there any priority that you have with that?

Well, yes, we have -- we're doing some expansion work in our alloy division, particularly focused on the -- our bulk business, which gets to the commercial aerospace and oil and gas in particular. So we've got a few bottlenecks there that we'll be relieving through some capital, so that's one major area.

We have a -- capital is being spent as we expand our operations in Singapore. We're -- that's focused on our precious alloys and microelectronics business. As I mentioned earlier in the call, we've got some spending there. Those are probably the two major areas in spending, then we have a lot of what I call just non-discretionary type spending to keep good maintenance across the plants.

Right. Is there anything with M&A or dividends or share buyback that might be an opportunity?

Well, we just consummated two acquisitions for past several months. So, my philosophy there is, we got to get those things well integrated, focused, up and running, getting the appropriate earnings out of these and accretion. So we'll focus on those and then we're -- as we always are constantly on the look out in the market for additional acquisitions. But again, we -- you [certainly] won't see us do multiple ones altogether, I mean, we're going to be a conservative approach as we move forward.

Okay. And switching gears, is there a possible -- can you I guess quantify a little bit of the inventory levels at some of your end markets. I know that there's a broad breadth of them. But is there any way to quantify what the inventory levels are now relative to what they were, say last year relative to sales?

It's always a very difficult thing, Rob, for us to qualify -- to quantify with any precision.

Right.

We can get indication from time to time from order patterns, how the orders -- what inventory levels might look like in specific channels or lead times sometimes get pushed in, they get pulled out. Sometimes order levels are high or low, sometimes the demand from week to week is higher or lower rather than smooth. I would say that it's our belief that the inventory levels, that the over-inventory that was sitting in the consumer electronics channel, in the second half of last year is probably not there today.

Okay. And then what about -- is there an over-inventory that's developing in a tough [married] aerospace, or is that --?

It's definitely not.

It should grow on with demand?

Yes.

Okay. Okay, and then lastly, I just wanted to make sure I caught this. John, did you say $0.15 to $0.20 in kind of unusual expenses that you're foreseeing for the full year of 2012?

That's right.

Okay. And that's included in your GAAP estimate, correct?

Yes.

Okay. All right, that's all I have. Thank you very much.

Thank you. [John Kerr], Private Investor.

Hey, as I was reading recently about Liquidmetal technology with the Apple iPhone, could you give us any update as to your relationship with Liquidmetal Technologies?

Yes. We -- there was a announcement out several months ago, and really what that was is through one of our wholly-owned subsidiaries, which is Materion Brush, which is our beryllium and composites group. We entered into a partnership with Liquidmetal Technologies to produce Liquidmetal alloy materials. And this was announced by Liquidmetal in November of last year.

Okay. Thank you.

Brad Evans, Heartland Funds.

Yes. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thanks for taking the questions. Sorry to be [able to slow here] this morning, but I'm just -- I'm a little confused, because I know in the first quarter call, you did call out $0.07 to $0.10 of unusual items in the early -- for the first half of the year associated with the beryllium plant ramp up. So we're now at $0.15 to $0.20 and you've outlined, I think, as you said $0.04 of additional in the second quarter. So, we're kind of looking at $0.03 to $0.04 of startup cost for every quarter of the year, is that what we should think about it?

Yes, Brad, I think we could be -- we could have been a little clear. I think, costs were a little higher in the first quarter for the beryllium plant and the integration, the acquisition and then what we had said they thought it would be. So there might be a penny or so in there, in that estimate change for that. And we do have cost beyond the second quarter, we're not assuming that we're going to get ramped through that point where we absorb that overhead all to the balance sheet in one given instance. So yes, there always was third and fourth quarter numbers there, declining as the year progress and now we also have the cost associated with the Newburyport facility in that number. So all in it's $0.15 to $0.20.

Okay. And you said $0.04 in the first quarter, correct?

$0.07 in the first quarter, $0.04 of which was beryllium.

Excuse me, okay. Thank you. That's what I was confused by.

Okay. Got you.

A lot of numbers came [for around], that's very helpful. So, if you look at -- I guess, when you look at the revised guidance, you have a slightly higher tax rate and the higher cost associated with the restructuring of beryllium plant, so it actually looks like absent those items, your guidance is actually still relatively close to what you originally thought?

I think, it's a combination of two factors, that's right.

Okay. Thanks for that. I just wanted to -- just on the prior question, are you working with Liquidmetals on the Apple iPhone 5?

Well, we really can't comment on any future development efforts involving Apple regardless of whether we are involved or not involved.

Diplomatic answer. And your EBITDA estimates for the $102 million to $108 million you did not include stock-based compensation in that number, so the additional $6 million of stock-based comp would -- could be added to that number, is that correct?

We do not add that compensation to that. That is -- that's correct. That is this traditional old-fashioned EBITDA calculation trend.

Okay. And then my last question. Thanks for the patience here. Did you give a book-to-bill ratio on the quarter?

No, we didn't. And we -- obviously the book is higher than bill in the quarter. And what really is difficult though, Brad, is in the fourth quarter of last year, the book was below the bill. In the first quarter of this year, it's slightly above and we did have -- we did ship the occasional, twice a year NGK shipment in the first quarter. Book-to-bill was, using the math, in the GAAP numbers about 1.01 to 1. If you adjust for the NGK shipment, which was booked earlier, then that is 1.03 to 1.

Okay. And would you mind us giving us -- how is April booking at this point. Have you seen a favorable trend, as you've come. Well, (inaudible) ask two questions. Did the bookings accelerate to the quarter and how does April feel to you at this point?

Well, that's fair comment. Let me walk you through that, because I think that's relevant for everyone to understand and I'm glad you asked. The ramp that we saw in the first quarter was rapid through about the middle of February and then kind of flattened and bounced around for the last four to five weeks in the first quarter. And that's when I referenced earlier, up weeks, down weeks and sort of erratic behavior in markets, which give us some concern. So it did not continue to grow through that -- through the March period into the second quarter, although, it did not decline. If anything, there's a slight lift now from what existed in the middle of March.

So it sounds like there was an inventory build in front of the Lunar New Year and then they probably worked down those inventories and now they're back at it?

It could be. And so still your markets are so unpredictable right now regards to what you read and we're seeing that, that level of unpredictability in that order pattern. We see some extraordinary weeks and we see some weak weeks. And it's really difficult for us to judge from that other than we don't think there's any inventory overhang. And based on what we're hearing, our customers say, and what we're seeing the market say, in their own quarterly releases, we think the second half of the year is going to be pretty robust.

Okay. Just I'm sorry, (inaudible), because if you hit your -- I mean, the free cash flow dynamics and the debt reduction are great. And I know that you all have this aspirations to grow organically, selectively to build out the portfolio, which has been successful. So, that's all good. But I -- yes, if you hit your numbers for the year, the Company is trading a little less than six times forward EBITDA and I'm just curious whether the Board or management might have an appetite to buyback stock in light of just -- the market seems to be fairly negative on your outlook and your -- you might be inclined to have a more favorable outlook?

Well, yes, that's correct. And obviously, besides the normal stuff that we're doing with regards to organic growth and acquisitions, certainly, both buyback and dividend type actions would certainly be under consideration.

Okay. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions). Phil Gibbs, KeyBanc.

Hi, Dick and John. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

John, did you say that the organic growth this year is still going to be in the 2% to 3% range, like low double-digits, low single-digits rather?

I implied that -- I was commenting specifically on consumer electronics.

Okay. But is that fair for the business in entirety. Okay. If we look at the EIS integration cost, the closure of the micro packaging business, the beryllium start-up, is it fair on an absolute dollar basis that those three items are around $3 million to $5 million for this year, is that the right way to look at it? I know, you gave on a per share basis, but as far as they hit the EBITDA about $3 million to $5 million?

Yes.

Okay. In your guidance reduction -- in your earnings guidance reduction, how much of that should we think about being related to some of these one-off items versus the demand?

Yes, let's clarify that all.

Yes, the majority of it is the dial down of demand. There are -- we had anticipated, while we -- although we had not announced it that we would be relocating the Newburyport production to Asia, so that's not a new one for us in our guidance. And the change in the estimate for the start-up is only a couple of pennies a share. So the majority of the change in guidance is demand, it's just the slower start --

Slower start to second quarter.

Still growing, but the slower start than we expected in the early part of the year, that's all.

Okay. And that I'm trying to parcel it out from the comments that you've already made, but by and large that's consumer electronics, automotive electronics and telecom infrastructure for the most part?

(multiple speakers). Partly consumer and telecom infrastructure, and a little bit automotive.

I'm sorry, the other one -- I heard auto, consumer.

Automotive would be third in the list of three. Consumer electronics, telecom infrastructure and a bit in automotive.

Okay. All right. All right, thanks a lot guys.

Avinash Kant, D.A. Davidson.

Good morning, Dick and John.

Good morning.

I may have missed one or two numbers actually, you talked about excluding the impact of metal pass-through the quarter, how much was it -- revenues were up sequentially and year-over-year?

Well, and you say in the quarter or the --?

The Q1 compared to the last year's Q1?

I think that -- let me -- I did cover that. I mean the reported decline was 10% net of metal pass-through.

10%. Okay. And I think, you also gave the gross margin, the value-added gross margins and operating margins and you said, they were kind of -- the operating margins were below double-digit this time, high single-digit?

Yes, what I had commented on was that the change due to volumes and mix had taken those numbers to the high-single digits from the 14% to 15% range that typically is operating profit percent of value-added sales.

Right. So as your volumes -- as you're expecting higher volumes most likely in Q2, how should we think of margins trending and maybe more important in the second half of the year?

Well, I commented that by the second half of the year, we -- with -- this is leveraging back to the levels that existed historically and margins should be back to those levels as well. Where we get to in the second quarter would be -- may be a spread between where we are and there, assuming that the growth is linear to that point. So, clearly an improvement, clearly coming closer to the historical rates, but I wouldn't commit to historical rates in the second quarter.

And trying to see the confidence level in the recovery in the second half, is it any business segments that you see more visibility versus the others?

Well, certainly -- you certainly know the finicky nature of the electronic side. But yes, I would say that we're quite confident on the oil and gas and commercial aerospace and in the medical side of business, that's quite solid.

Okay. But would you talk about, like, if you have new opportunities or if you have new customers ramping or new products, what kind of growth did you anticipate this year from those initiatives versus just overall growth in the market?

Well, again, Avinash, that's a key part of our equation. And I think that growth from those kind of new products are going to be adding in the range of probably 3% to 4% growth for us in the year from the new products, just exclusively from us.

Okay, perfect. Any particular trends in pricing of any metal or even beryllium?

Well, the pricing, as you know has been a big focus for the Company. And we've -- what we've done is we started in our -- on our performance alloy business, really setting up the kind of the whole structure of our approach. And now that's moved over to our AMTS business. So that's a big focus this year of getting pricing better into that business. So, that's going to be -- and that's ongoing as we speak, so I expect to get some nice results from that as the year unfolds.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

[Andrew Merkel], Private Investor.

Thank you. I'm very interested in new products. You mentioned, in general, that you have a new section within beryllium and composite division, which is amorphous metals. How much percentage of the division do you think that new amorphous metals technology might become of the total section or division beryllium and composite?

Well, we have -- that can -- that's a whole new platform. The Liquidmetals has been around for a long time and it really hasn't grown much. But, we do see that there is some unfolding opportunities and refocus in this whole area. So we're excited about the opportunities and forecasting exactly where they're going to go is difficult, because what's happening right now is, there's a lot of experimentation in the market for the use of these kinds of metals. So that when you're on the early edge of things, it all depends on what the experimentation brings to the end customer, and what is eventually things you can do with the product, and how it's going to compete.

But it's a very interesting metal, because what it -- it has a couple of interesting attributes. One is, it's a -- it gives you extremely good surface quality and the other attribute of it is, you can cast it in almost, well, in finished form, so that you can get a very stiff, flexible product and it can basically eliminate machine.

I see.

It's a very unique metal, obviously it's not cheap. So that's the balance, so what you might be looking for. I -- and the way I look at it is, saving a lot of machining cost against other expense of metals. I think, Liquidmetal has a nice play and we are certainly supporting the technology and developing that technology ourselves to being able support growth in this area.

Thank you. A follow-up, do you expect that your role is mainly in the supply of ingots or since your Company is very vertically integrated that you would take your own ingots that you produce of the alloy and perhaps utilize it for production of value-added products in your new acquisition in England, for example, in aerospace or other areas. How do you see your role as for amorphous metals?

Well, I think right now, our focus is in where our key expertise is, which is in the development of the feedstock that goes in. The guys that are catching the stuff.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Phil Gibbs, KeyBanc.

Hey, John, was there any revenue that you could point out from acquisition in the first quarter, parceled out from organic, and little bit from EIS?

Well, there was a little bit there, Phil, but we don't disclose the level of business in the subsidiary companies or subsets of pieces of our business. But you're right, there's a little bit -- there versus prior year, not a whole lot different in the fourth quarter though, because we own them in the middle of October.

Okay. Got you. Thanks.

Sure.

Brad Evans, Heartland Funds.

Yes. I'm sorry, I was remiss, I should have offered an opinion, I do think a small dividend would be a good move actually in terms of returning capital to shareholders versus the buyback because of the lower share count that you have. Although, both make sense in my opinion. I want to ask you -- John, I'm sorry, with respect to the beryllium plant, the headwind that you're facing this year, knowing what you know right now, what type of -- what's the magnitude of profitability swing we could see in 2013, based upon the loss this year to profit next year, what's the range of potential outcomes there?

$0.10 to $0.15 a share for that factor.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. We have no further questions in queue at the time. I would like to turn the floor back over to management for closing remarks.

This is Mike Hasychak. We like to thank all of you for participating on the call. I will be around for the remainder of the day to answer any questions. My direct dial-in number is 216-383-6823. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.