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Operator
Good morning and welcome to the Matrix Service Company conference call for the earnings results for the third quarter ended February 29, 2008. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce to you your host for the conference, Ms. Truc Nguyen, Investor Relations for Matrix Service Company.
Truc Nguyen - IR
Thank you. I would now like to take a moment to read the following. Various remarks that the Company may make about future expectations, plans and prospects for Matrix Service Company constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K for our last fiscal year and subsequent filings made by the Company with the SEC.
In addition, some of our comments today include non-GAAP financial measures. I encourage you to refer to the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results that is posted on our website and included in our earnings release.
I will now turn the call over to Michael Bradley, President and CEO of Matrix Service Company. Mike?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Thanks, Truc and good morning, everyone. We appreciate all of you joining us on the call this morning. Also on the call, we have Kevin Cavanah, Matrix Service's Principal Accounting Officer.
Before I get started with this conference call, I would like to discuss Les' departure as Matrix Service's CFO effective March 31. Les has been a part of a very exciting chapter in the history of Matrix Service Company and with his help, our Company has grown in size, earnings per share have increased and our performance has improved. Above all, he built a strong financial team that is extremely capable and motivated. Our CFO search is going well and we hope to complete this process as soon as possible.
Let me start by saying that this is an exciting and promising time at Matrix Service. The markets we serve are strong and our business is moving forward and continues to gain momentum.
Before turning the call over to Kevin to discuss the financial results in more detail, I have six key points that I will cover on the call today. First is our overall business performance. Second, an update on the LNG project. Third, details on our current backlog. Fourth, cash flow and stock buyback. Fifth, SG&A expenses and finally, the outlook and how fiscal 2009 is shaping up.
First, we are very pleased to report that our overall business continued to perform extremely well during the third quarter of fiscal year 2008. On a consolidated basis, margins widened to 11.6% from 11.2% reported in the same period a year ago. Consolidated gross margins, excluding the LNG charge, were 14.6% in the quarter. Repair and Maintenance margins increased to 15.7% versus 12.5% and Construction Service gross margins were 9.5% as compared to 10.4% reported in the same period last year. However, Construction Services' gross margins, excluding the LNG charge, were 14% in the quarter.
We are pleased with the overall growth in our revenues and our ability to continue to improve profitability. As discussed on the last conference call, we experienced a decline in revenues associated with both our electrical and instrumentation and turnaround services as was expected for fiscal 2008. Based on the activity we are seeing today, we anticipate revenues for both of these services to pick up in fiscal 2009. So in summary, we are very pleased with the overall performance of our core business and the outlook going forward.
Next, I would like to provide an update on the LNG project. We are also very pleased to report that Matrix Service has successfully delivered tanks one and two on the originally contracted scheduled dates to our customer. The Matrix staff on site is to be commended for turning this project around through a difficult environment and meeting our contractual commitments for tanks one and two.
At this point in time, we are more than 92% completed on this project. We were able to accomplish this despite extremely challenging weather conditions, which continue to plague the region. We believe that we will also deliver the third and final tank on schedule.
As stated in the earnings release, we recorded an additional charge of $2.5 million due to an increase in the forecasted costs to complete the project. These increased costs are primarily the result of delays caused by excessive rainfall and high winds, which have continued to compress the schedule. Completing this project on time, safely and in a quality manner is critical to our customer and for us, as a company, to deliver on our promises. We have done this for tanks one and two and we expect the same for the final tank in the fourth quarter.
Now turning to our backlog. Our focus in fiscal 2008 has been on replacing the LNG backlog with lower risk, higher-margin opportunities centered around our core business. We have worked off approximately $45 million of LNG from our backlog since May 31, 2007 and we have more than replaced that with new business in AST, downstream petroleum and electrical and instrumentation, reflecting a net $24.6 million increase to our backlog. Our backlog as of February 29, 2008 was $484.6 million as compared to $460 million at May 31, 2007 and we continue to add to this.
As we work towards completing the LNG project, we have started to shift our talent pool from this project into new businesses and future opportunities that we are currently negotiating on right now. We expect to see an increase in our backlog in the coming quarters and will continue to update you on the progress. I do want to emphasize that we are focusing on building more profitable backlog to improve our earnings performance.
During the third quarter, Matrix Service also executed its preapproved share buyback program and spent $12.8 million purchasing approximately 730,000 shares on the open market. The stock buyback executed during the third quarter demonstrates our confidence in the Company and its future prospects and represents our commitment to enhance value for our shareholders. These buybacks also reflect our strong belief that Matrix Service's current share price does not reflect its fundamental value and the long-term earnings prospect of the Company's business. As approved by our Board, we will continue to assess purchasing back shares on the open market when it is accretive to earnings. We also continue to look at accretive acquisitions to grow our earnings as well.
The Company's liquidity position remains strong and continues to improve as we increase our cash flow from operations, reduce our need for letters of credit and expand our senior credit facility. As of February 29, 2008, the Company's total liquidity was $74.9 million, consisting of $8.3 million in cash and $66.6 million in availability under our revolving credit facility. Subsequent to the end of the third quarter, we reduced our outstanding letters of credit by $3.5 million and we expect to amend our revolving credit facility to increase availability by $25 million in the very near future, which will result in an additional liquidity of $28.5 million in the fourth quarter.
Now I want to talk about SG&A. We communicated at the beginning of the year that our SG&A expenses would increase in fiscal year 2008. Our company has grown significantly over the past couple of years and we are adding key talent and staff along with support systems to continue to grow this business and expand our capabilities. We established an operating presence in western Canada, which added to our SG&A and we expect that business to expand and contribute to earnings growth in fiscal year 2009. The demand for our AST and steel placed structures business is strong and we have been expanding our engineering and fabrication capabilities to facilitate our growth and expand service offerings.
We are adding to our leadership talent again to bring additional capabilities to expand and grow our business. We watch our SG&A like a hawk, but need to position our talent base and systems to support long-term sustainable growth. Excluding non-recurring expenses of $1.3 million, primarily associated with a bad debt write-off which was recorded in the second quarter, our SG&A forecast for the year is in line with our original forecast.
Finally, I would like to discuss the outlook for our business and in general, we continue to see increasing demand for our services. Our AST businesses, both new construction and Repair and Maintenance, remain extremely strong and we see continued strength in these areas beyond 2009 based on discussions with our clients.
We have added internal capacity to our engineering, fabrication and operational teams in order to meet our clients' demand of faster delivery and increased our service capability. We are currently pursuing opportunities, which include AST, construction and Repair and Maintenance in excess of $800 million over the next 12 to 24 months and we just added a new alliance agreement associated with our work in above ground storage tank construction.
In addition, we have seen a significant uptick in activity related to the industrial gas facilities, much more than we have seen in recent times. Opportunities related to refinery expansion and upgrades have also been very strong and recently, we renewed a refinery maintenance contract, which is expected to generate revenues in excess of $150 million over the next three years.
As I mentioned, we have established an operating presence in western Canada during fiscal year 2009. We believe there are significant AST opportunities with key clients in this region for Matrix Service and we expect to capitalize on these opportunities in fiscal year 2009. Our capital Construction Services outside of AST continues to have a steady backlog of work for key clients throughout the United States. We see emerging opportunities in power and are working to expand our capabilities and markets to continue to grow this element of our business.
As previously communicated, we expected lower revenues in downstream petroleum, Repair and Maintenance in fiscal year 2008 due to lower turnaround in maintenance demand in our core markets. We anticipate fiscal year 2009 to be a strong turnaround year as we are starting to see key clients commit to substantial turnaround work. Also expected, our electrical and instrumentation revenues were down. However, we are seeing increased activity in this segment and expect to see revenue growth and earnings growth related to this service in fiscal year 2009.
In summary, we are pleased with our overall performance this quarter and are very excited about our future opportunities. Our operations and financial results continue to demonstrate the Company's robust growth and potential and we expect to keep this momentum going.
We are also pleased to be completing the LNG project in accordance with our original contractual commitments and put this challenge behind us. We will continue to build upon the quality of our backlog and see a strong outlook based on key discussions with our long-term and new customers we are building relationships with. Very importantly, we remain focused on our operating excellence initiatives with a strong commitment toward improving profitability. I will now turn it over to Kevin who will go through the financial details.
Kevin Cavanah - PAO
Thanks, Mike. The specific details of the third quarter and the nine-month year-to-date performance have been disclosed in our press release this morning. I would like to highlight certain items for the Company and each of our operating segments.
Total revenues for the third quarter were $181.1 million, up 7.4% compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2007. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 was $6 million or $0.22 per fully diluted share compared with $6.2 million or $0.24 per fully diluted share for the prior fiscal year. As Mike already stated, included in the current quarter results was a pretax charge of $2.5 million for additional cost overruns on our Gulf Coast LNG project. The impact on earnings per fully diluted share for this charge was approximately $0.06.
Construction Services' revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 were $119.5 million, up 15.7% compared to the same period last year. Repair and Maintenance Services' revenues were $61.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 versus $65.4 million during the same quarter of fiscal 2007.
SG&A expenses increased to $10.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 versus $8.3 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily due to employee-related expenses and facility costs as we added staff to meet the demands of current and expected future growth both domestically and in western Canada.
For the nine months ended February 29, 2008, Matrix Service reported consolidated revenues of $537.2 million, up 16.3% compared to the same period last year. Net income for the nine-month period was $12.5 million or $0.46 per fully diluted share compared to $17.2 million or $0.76 per fully diluted share in the prior year. Included in the current year results were pretax charges of $20 million or $0.44 per fully diluted share related to the LNG construction project, as well as additional pretax charges of $1.8 million related to a bad debt write-off and non-recurring employee benefit costs.
Revenues for the Construction Services segment for the nine-month period were $334.6 million, up 27% compared to the same period last year. Repair and Maintenance revenues increased $4.1 million in the nine-month period ended February 29, 2008 to $202.6 million.
SG&A expenses increased by $6.1 million in the nine-month period ended February 29, 2008 to $30.8 million compared to $24.7 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily due to employee and facility-related expenses incurred to meet the demands of current and expected future growth, as well as the SG&A component of the non-recurring charges described earlier.
Matrix Service has provided the necessary reconciliation in our press release to disclose a non-GAAP financial measure in this conference call. EBITDA is provided as we believe the financial and investment communities utilize this measure to assess our performance and evaluate the market value of the companies considered to be in a business similar to ours.
For the third quarter of fiscal 2008, EBITDA increased to $12.4 million compared to $12.3 million for the same period last year. EBITDA for the nine months ended February 29, 2008 was $26.5 million compared to $34.4 million for the year earlier period.
Gross margins, excluding the LNG project and other special items, have also been included on this call and in today's earnings release. Management believes that operating results, excluding these items, are useful in evaluating operational trends for Matrix Service and its performance relative to our competitors.
For the three and nine months ended February 29, 2008, consolidated gross margins were 14.6% and 14.8% respectively, excluding the LNG project and other special items. The Company had no bank debt at February 29, 2008 and its cash balance stood at $8.3 million. Matrix Service has utilized $8.4 million of the five-year $75 million revolving credit facility for outstanding letters of credit.
Cash capital expenditures during the first nine months of fiscal 2008 totaled approximately $13.1 million. We now expect our capital spending for the full year to be between $19 million and $21 million versus our fiscal 2008 capital budget of $31 million. This reduction in capital spending is primarily due to the deferral of certain projects into fiscal 2009, as well as fiscal 2008 capital requirements being less than anticipated. We do not expect the decreased capital spend to impact operating results in the remainder of fiscal 2008 or limit our future growth opportunities. I will now turn the call back over to Mike.
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Thank you, Kevin. We expect to see a strong finish to our fiscal year and expect revenues to be between $720 million and $740 million with annual gross margins in the range of 10% to 11% and annual SG&A in the range of 5.5% to 6% of revenue. We are focused on carrying through on our existing contracts and strengthening our underlying businesses and we look forward to bringing you up to date on the Company's activities and performance on our next conference call and thank you for your continued support. With that, we are ready to open it up for questions.
Operator
(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). Matt Duncan, Stephens.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Good morning, guys. The first question I have got here, just a couple of things on this LNG project. Mike, if I remember correctly, you had a $3 million contingency in the $16 million charge you guys took in the second quarter. Should we take this $2.5 million charge as meaning you've used up all of that contingency or is some of that left?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
That is correct. In the charge that we took in the third quarter is on top of the $16 million and it also contains contingency in that number as well, approximately $1.6 million.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
So you have $1.6 million in contingencies remaining for finishing off the project and getting tank three done on time?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
That is correct.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Another question on this job, if I have heard correctly, I guess Bechtel has been awarded force majeure on this job and I'm curious if you can comment whether or not you guys have -- and my recollection as that tank three's due date was April 27. Is that still the same date or has there been some pushback for that that would allow you a little more time?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Well, regarding tanks, I can't comment on Bechtel's force majeure. Regarding tanks one and two, we delivered those tanks both on the original contractual dates, so we did not need any extension. We have been discussing weather delays on this project, but at this point in time, we are going to continue to focus on meeting our contractual dates.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Okay. So you are still shooting for the April 27 date then?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
We are still shooting to complete the project in April, as well as discuss some of the weather delays that we have experienced in the first quarter. I am sorry, the first quarter of this year.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Sure. So should we be looking at this as though you still expect to have this job completely finished by the end of your fiscal 2008?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Yes. There may be some [demobe] and clean-up that goes on beyond that, but in terms of the tanks, all the work will be completed.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Okay, great. I appreciate that commentary. On the gross margins, you guys have done a really -- excluding the LNG project, your gross margins have really been expanding nicely. I am curious if you can talk a little about what is behind all of that strength and how sustainable do you think these margin increases are as we look out to '09 and beyond?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
We've continued to see strong margins going forward. Again, as I mentioned earlier, we are focusing on building quality backlog within our core businesses that we can execute extremely well and focusing on continuing to build those margins going forward.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Okay.
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
We don't see, right now, any changes to that going forward.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Okay. Mike, you talked a little bit about fiscal 2009, but as we getting closer to the year here, it sounds like your business is shaping up to have a pretty good year. What type of top-line growth should we be thinking about? I guess you're top-line growth, your revenue growth has been slowing a little bit the last three quarters and I am curious -- is there any timing in there or some projects being pushed back a little bit? What type of growth should we be thinking about for your business in 2009 at this point?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Let me talk about -- first of all, we will present our fiscal year '09 outlook in June as we have normally done in the past. What I will say is this, two things. One is obviously we are focusing on top-line growth in our business, but very importantly, and again I want to emphasize that we are heavily focused on improving bottom-line growth, including the execution of our projects and the profitability of our projects. So we are focusing on both. Our stated growth has been in the 8% to 12% range.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Right.
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
What we stated to the Street in terms of over a period of time and obviously we want to be in a position to do better than that.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
So do you feel like the demand is there then to do better than that and it is just a matter of finding the employees? And on that note, are you still able to find the people you need to put up the kind of revenue growth that you guys, I believe, are capable of?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Resources, as we have talked and as the industry talks, has been a challenge. We continue to add and build crews and as I mentioned, also a key part of this is leadership talent. We are expanding it. We have been successful in doing that, so our focus is on continuing to expand that capability. (technical difficulty) heavy recruiting effort. In fact, one of the reasons for our increase in G&A has been -- we have really stepped up recruiting to add more --.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
Right. Okay. And then last question, and I will hop back in queue here, Mike. If I look at your buyback program, you guys bought about 730,000 shares in the quarter. Refresh my memory how big that program is and with the stock still below the average price that you bought at during the second quarter, should we expect to see you guys buying more stock here in the third quarter -- or sorry -- rather than the third quarter -- should we expect to see you guys buying more stock in the fourth quarter here?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Yes, the remaining -- we had 1.3 million authorized or left authorized to purchase. So we've purchased, like I said, around 730,000 shares. I will say that we are continuing to look at our stock purchase program going forward as we continue to say and we will continue to emphasize our price is extremely undervalued.
Matt Duncan - Analyst
I appreciate the commentary, Mike. Thanks a lot.
Operator
John Flanagin, First Analysis Securities Corp.
John Flanagin - Analyst
Good morning, guys. A question on the Repair and Maintenance side. I know you guys were advising the Street that you expected a slowing in downstream petroleum and in electrical and instrumentation this fiscal year, but I'm trying to understand the context for that and I can think of only I guess two or three options. One would be is this a function of customer concentration or second, does it reflect demand on capacity and the difficulty for operators taking capacity out of service for a period?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Regarding our turnaround business, we service -- we have core markets that we service. 2007 was a heavy turnaround -- fiscal year 2007 was a heavy turnaround year and as we explained upfront going into '08, we expected that to be down. We are seeing again more strengthening in that market for '09 and I think we expect also to see a strengthening in construction opportunities associated with that as well. So it is really our core markets that have really driven the change in the revenue forecast year-over-year. Additionally, what I want to say is that we have continued to look at expanding our core markets in the maintenance and turnaround area as well.
John Flanagin - Analyst
In different verticals? Mike, a follow-up. Would you expand it into different industries or verticals?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Primarily right now, our focus is in different geographies.
John Flanagin - Analyst
Okay. If I may follow up then, it is interesting perhaps that your customer base on the Repair and Maintenance side for downstream and E&I seems to have been moving somewhat in unison and that makes me wonder if there is a cyclical phenomenon at work there, if you guys perhaps gave up a little marketshare or how you interpret that?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
No, in fact, we haven't given up marketshare and a point that I will make is, if you look at the nine months, our Repair and Maintenance revenues are up for the nine months compared to last year. Okay? So looking at that, even though we expected a downtrend, we have continued to build our Repair and Maintenance business year-over-year.
John Flanagin - Analyst
Okay, thank you. That is helpful. I will get back in queue.
Operator
Martin Malloy, Johnson Rice & Co.
Martin Malloy - Analyst
Good morning. First question, on the $800 million of projects that you are pursuing that you mentioned on the call, would the margins associated with those, would those be above what were realizing in the second half of the year, excluding the LNG projects, on the construction side?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
The opportunities that I mentioned are opportunities that are related to our core business. These are new tanks, these are Repair and Maintenance opportunities, turnaround opportunities, so they are the types of projects that fit right in line with our core capabilities. So in a go-forward basis, we would expect to experience the kind of margins that we have experienced in the past year. The market is very strong. These are not projects that are outside of our core capabilities at all.
Martin Malloy - Analyst
Okay. In the press release, you mentioned $150 million over three years for this refinery maintenance contract renewal. How does that get treated as far as backlog purposes? Do you book all of that or part of that?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Our practice is to include only 12 months of time and material contracts in backlog, which we believe is consistent. Of this amount, we currently have around $40 million in our backlog.
Martin Malloy - Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). Tahira Afzal, KeyBanc.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Good morning, gentlemen. Just to start with, can you give me an idea of why you have brought the top-line guidance down from 750 to 740?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
We gave a range in Q2 of 700 to 750 and we've just narrowed that range.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Is there a particular reason that led to the narrowing of --? I guess what has changed that has brought it down from 750 to 740?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
I don't think anything has changed. That was just a range that we gave early in the year and we are expecting to be in that 720 to 740 range for the remainder of the year. Nothing has really changed our outlook.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
I guess another way I can ask this perhaps is if you look at that range, what would be the drivers driving it from the bottom end of the range to the upper end?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Well, I think that what is out there in terms of opportunities, number one. We have projects that we have experienced some slippage in in Q3 as a result of permits. So weather can impact when projects start. Additionally, there is emergency work that could be undertaken during the quarter and additional turnaround work that can come up. So there is a lot of factors that could impact that range. We feel pretty confident that we will be in that range.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Okay. Then if I look at your breakdown of your segments, it seems that sequentially you saw a bit of a slowdown in your storage tank construction revenues and I looked back to last year and that wasn't the case. Should I assume that something is going on other than the fact it is just lumpy?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
We haven't seen any slowdown in our storage tank business.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Right. But if I look at your revenues right and the breakdown of your revenues as you have given them, your construction revenue for storage tanks was around $51 million or so, is that correct? In the previous quarter, it was $58 million and I was just trying to understand if there was anything specific in the difference or whether that is just seasonality and lumpiness?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Oh, you're talking about quarter-over-quarter?
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Yes.
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Yes, a lot of that is driven by seasonality and weather.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
So I shouldn't read anything into that and you think the $58 million number that you saw in the second quarter is not an exceptional number, i.e. it is something that could be done again?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Well, we don't give quarter-to-quarter revenue guidance, but what I will say is that third quarter is typically our lower quarter.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Right, okay. That is fair enough. Then if I look at your downstream business on the construction side, it seems to be still holding up exceptionally strong and I was wondering is there -- on the construction side, is there anything big that you are still working on or is that just a broad-based trend?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
We are just seeing a broad-based trend as many people are in terms of opportunities.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Okay. The other thing I heard was a couple of new customers who have moved in and purchased old tanks in the Cushing area, I was wondering if you were hearing anything. What I have heard is some of them might be tearing down old tanks and building new tanks and I just wanted to see -- I don't think I have heard you be this bullish ever before on your opportunities, so I just wanted to see what you are seeing out there seems pretty visible to you right now?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Well, we see -- Cushing is one area that continues to be very active, but we are seeing a lot of activity in terminals really across the country. Again, Cushing remains very strong and we are pursuing opportunities really in several regions across the country right now. So the activity remains very strong and we are very bullish on it.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Okay. Fair enough. Then if I look at your fiscal year '08 revenues, in essence, let's approximate something that you end up having close to let's say $75 million to $80 million coming from your specialty tank specialty business. As we look into fiscal year '09 and you look to replace that business as the LNG business goes away, do you feel you have enough opportunities in your core businesses and is there anything outside of the core businesses that you're looking at as well?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Well, in terms of replacing the LNG revenues as I stated early on, our focus has been replacing that with opportunities in our core market, lower risk and higher margin and we have more than offset that year to date. We continue to focus on building that backlog.
As I also mentioned, we are bringing people off the LNG project, a very talented group of people and we are currently bidding work and negotiating work in the Gulf Coast and other locations for those individuals to take over once we get the job done and get these people moved into other business lines. All of this is really within our core. We are really focusing on staying in our core. We have got some expansion opportunities in other areas and we are building capabilities, for example, power as well.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Okay, great. One last question and that is in terms of the competitive landscape. You said you have renewed an alliance, you are looking at sort of increasing and growing. Is that just pure demand picking up or are there some marketshare gains involved as well? Then in connection with that, I know that (inaudible) Group recently bought Enserve and I was wondering is that a competitor that you're seeing on the tank side or do you guys not compete in the same areas at all?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Well, let me comment on the competitive landscape and our alliance. We have actually, in the past quarter or quarter and a half, added two significant alliance agreements -- one on Repair and Maintenance and one for new tank construction. Really these are driven around -- there is a strong demand for tanks, but also very importantly is our customers want space and availability of our crews and our fabrication in order to meet their schedules and plans. So that is I think a very important element of our alliance agreements. In terms of competition, there are several competitors in the tank business throughout the country and there is plenty of work to go around.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Okay, fair enough.
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
We are not seeing any change there.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Okay, great. I just actually had one last question and I will step back in the queue. The charges you have taken, from what I understand, typically -- what was the cutoff date for you in terms of assessing what the charges were on the LNG tank? I assume they stretch beyond February?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Yes.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Right, so would they go to mid-March would you say?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
Really through today.
Tahira Afzal - Analyst
Really? Excellent. Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator
John Flanagin, First Analysis Securities.
John Flanagin - Analyst
Just two follow-ups from me. First, I am sorry, could you repeat the February quarter CapEx number and your expectation for the full fiscal year '08 on CapEx?
Kevin Cavanah - PAO
Sure, just give me a second. We are at $13.1 million through the first nine months on CapEx and we have analyzed it and believe that our CapEx will be in the range of $19 million to $21 million for the full year.
John Flanagin - Analyst
Thanks, Kevin. Looking again at today's release and Mike's comments on outlook, the 10% to 11% consolidated gross margin expectation, when you talk about that, you are not saying anything about fiscal '09, am I correct?
Michael Bradley - President & CEO
That is correct. No, this is just fiscal '08.
John Flanagin - Analyst
Yes, because your margin performance, as others have noted, has really been impressive and I just wanted to make sure I was understanding that correctly. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Matt Schwarz, JLF Asset Management.
Matt Schwarz - Analyst
My questions have been answered. Thank you.
Operator
Seeing as there are no further questions, I would like to turn the call back to management for any concluding remarks.
Kevin Cavanah - PAO
Again, we want to thank everybody for your participation on the call today. I want to reiterate that we are very excited about our future opportunities. We have done, I think, a tremendous job of getting this LNG project completed on time according to our contractual commitments, which is allowing us, I think, to add resources and focus on the future. Very pleased with the quarter and the progress we are making. We have a very strong team here at Matrix and we continue to build on that. We look forward to fiscal 2009 and a lot of exciting things we see coming down the pipe. Thank you again, everybody, and have a good day.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation.